Mamayev Kurgan

The hill of Mamayev Kurgan is situated about 4kms north east of downtown Volgograd . In 2007 we reached it by the then rather rickety metro-tram system through stations named “Ploschad Lenina” and “Komsomolskaya” – but didn’t go as far as “Tridtsat' Devyataya Gvardeyskaya” (39th Guards Rifle Division Street) and “Zavod Krasnyy Oktyabr’" (Red October Steel Factory)! Volgograd is a city of around 1 million people and, no doubt, provides a normal and varied city existence to those inhabitants, but to an outsider it seems impossible to avoid that Battle. Along the river front, bullet and shell-pocked buildings have been left in situ, one passes tanks and other military hardware and there are memorials commemorating the heroic actions of this or that individual or small group of people. There is also an enormous museum with a fine cyclorama of the battle. But capping them all, situated on a small hill and visible across the city is the towering statue of Mother Russia ( actually - “The Motherland Calls”) brandishing a sword and standing 82m high from feet to sword tip.

The tram drops visitors at the foot of the hill and the climb (200 steps to represent the 200 days of the Battle we were told!!) is made along a ceremonial avenue with flags, fountains and “social realist” memorials ("Standing to the Death" and "Grieving Mother"). Just below the top is the main memorial – …

I have visited Brest on a sunny August day in 2007, after a trather disappointing "guided tour" to the Belovezhsjkaya Pushcha National park. (See the review there.)

The city of Brest is not a real eye candy - it was destroyed at least twice in the 20th century and reconstructed during the Soviet era. Grey concrete blocks stand on both sides of the unreasonably built four lane streets, were there is almost no traffic. The importance of the city is in its strategic location, during the Soviet times the bridge near Brest was the only border crossing between the Soviet Union and Poland - most of the commerce (legal and illegal) to and from the West went this corridor. Nice not, but it is a bustling commercial town with smugglers and whores. The only place of historical or touristic interest is the fort, now a patriotic historical monument nicely placed in a charming park.

The importance of the fortress comes from its role in the first ansd the second world war. Originally it was the largest 19th century fortress of Russian Empire, one of the western Russian fortresses. The final works were carried out in 1914, the first year of World War I resulting in a fortified area 30 km in circumference. The huge it was, it could not withstand the Blitz. During World War I the fortress was captured by the German army in August, 1915, after the Russian army abandoned it during its general withdrawal from Poland that …