It is known in Russia as the "Great Patriotic War" and there are a number of imposing monuments across the country to mark the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II. The Soviet Union suffered an estimated 25 million war deaths, half of whom were civilians. As Russia and other former Soviet states prepare to mark the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II on May 9, here is a look at some of Russia's monumental memorials.
Russia's Monumental Tributes To The 'Great Patriotic War'
- By RFE/RL
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The Rear-Front Memorial in the Russian city of Magnitogorsk. The monument depicts a soldier and a steelworker holding a sword, with the worker facing the vast steel mills that supplied Soviet forces during World War II.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin walks past the eternal flame that burns inside The Motherland Calls memorial on February 2, 2018, to mark the 75th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad. The southern Russian city, known today as Volgograd, saw bitter fighting between August 1942 and February 1943. The battle between Soviet and German forces is regarded as one of the bloodiest in history. The death toll for soldiers and civilians was about 2 million. Most of the city was reduced to rubble before Nazi forces surrendered on February 2, 1943.
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Fireworks explode over the Motherland Calls statue, on top of the Mamayev Kurgan hill in Volgograd, Russia, on May 8, 2018. At 85 meters, it is the tallest statue in Europe.
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Statue of soldiers marching to war at the Monument to the Heroic Defenders of Leningrad in St. Petersburg.
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The Malaya Zemlya Memorial Museum in Novorossiysk, Russia, on November 29, 2019. Overlooking the Black Sea, the memorial pays tribute to Soviet troops who recaptured the position from German forces in February 1943.
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A triangular Malaya Zemlya memorial at Novorossiysk.
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Workers clean the names of World War II soldiers at the Glory Monument in Novosibirsk on April 13, 2020.
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People with portraits of their relatives who fought in World War II gather at the monument, called Motherland Hands A Weapon To Her Son, in the city of Tomsk on May 9, 2019, to mark the 74th anniversary of Soviet victory in the Great Patriotic War.
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A memorial complex called Line of Defense in Russia's Novorossiysk in the Krasnodar region. The monument consists of four strong arms, tightly clutching machine guns dedicated to the soldiers who defended Novorossiysk.
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The Monument To Defenders Of The Soviet Arctic in Murmansk, Russia. The 35-meter-high statue of a soldier is commonly called Alyosha by locals.
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A military helicopter flies over a statue of the Mother Motherland at the Piskaryovskoye Memorial Cemetery in St. Petersburg during a rehearsal for the 2020 Victory Day parade. The monument pays tribute to the more than half a million Leningrad siege victims who were killed during World War II. The military parade to mark the 75th anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany on May 9 is postponed due to the coronavirus outbreak, leaving only a flyby.
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The Panfilov warriors memorial near the village of Nelidovo outside Moscow. Built in 1975, the memorial honors 28 Red Army soldiers known as Panfilov's 28, who heroically destroyed over a dozen German tanks during the Battle of Moscow in November 1941. Historians have doubted this account and some denounce the story as a myth.
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The ceiling and a statue in the Hall of Glory in the Victory Museum at the Poklonnaya Hill War Memorial in Moscow.
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Fireworks go off over Poklonnaya Hill to mark Defender of the Fatherland Day in Moscow on February 23. Located at the Poklonnaya Hill is the museum of the Great Patriotic War, which features 14,143 square meters of exhibition space on the territory of a 2,424-hectare park. Located in the center of the square is an obelisk and a statue of Nike, the Greek goddess of victory.
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A view of the Fallen Soldier Monument near Kazan's Gorky Park.
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The Monument To The Heroes-Schoolchildren in Moscow. Placed well above pedestrians' heads, this monument is dedicated to the schoolboys who quit their studies and lost their lives after joining the Soviet military.
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The Glory monument in the Russian city of Samara. The monument is dedicated to aircraft workers who worked in the city, which was formally known as Kuybyshev. During World War II, Kuybyshev was a major aircraft industrial center in the Soviet Union producing Ilyushin Il-2 and Ilyushin Il-10 ground-attack aircraft.
