Mamayev Kurgan, Volgograd

Above you'll see the entrance to the Mamayev Kurgan, the giant statue in Volgograd commemorating the sacrifices made during the Battle of Stalingrad. On the steps you'll see the words, "For our Soviet Homeland, USSR." The paint is a fresh coat, and the look on my face decidedly disturbed.

Once you get to the top of the steps, you see the statue in the distance.



The next thing you reach is this massive soldier, who rises up to block the view of the statue, which represents Mother Russia. Hence, he's rising up in her defense, keeping you from her. In the second photo, you can see he's just a tiny figure at the end of the column of red flags.



Pass the above and you enter a corridor that depicts the defense of Stalingrad and then the move to drive the Nazis out. The walls -- one static, one active -- are covered with Russian sayings made famous during the war. Here, some rather ghostly music begins to play.



After that, you move out onto a reflecting pool like at the Washington Mall.



Then, inside a cavern of sorts and up some stairs, an eternal flame, with the names of fallen soldiers on the walls around it (only one percent of those who died at Stalingrad; many weren't known, owing to a lack of the equivalent of a "dog tag"). In the below photo, you'll see the hourly changing of the honor guard.



And then you reemerge onto a hill that leads up to the statue, passing, along the way, a memorial to Vasily Zaitsev, the sniper made famous by the movie Enemy at the Gates.