Advertisement
Published: August 20th 2009
Edit Blog Post
When we studied the history of WWII in school we learned of the triumphs of the allies over the Nazi regime. We watched films and read accounts of the fierce fighting that raged for four years in the fields of central Europe and watched shaky black and white films of soldiers grovelling up the beaches of Normandy while warships launched barage after barage of cover fire and many of us came to regard "D-Day", rather by default, as the most critical event in the war. The role of the Russians was either largely left out or we missed it somehow as we passed notes beneath our desks, but to people on this side of Europe, the Second World War was one of the most devastating and unifying events in modern history. After all, they suffered more casualties throughout the course of the conflict than all of the other "Allies" combined. In even the smallest villages there are sizable and well kept monuments honoring those who served and died in the "Great Patriotic War" and here in Volgograd stands the mother of them all. Literally.
When the 1941 blitzkrieg failed to take Moscow, Hitler concocted a new plan to sever the critical
supply line of the Volga River and sent a quarter of a million troops to take Stalingrad. Despite Stalin's numerous follies in the situation, the Red Army managed to defend the city in a battle that lasted for nearly four months. The Nazis knew how to attack, but the Russians, in an almost iconic way, knew how to suffer. When it was all said and done, over a million Russian soldiers had died along with another 750,000 Germans. Stalingrad was completely levelled, but the Nazi push to the east had been halted. It is an ironic but appropriate truth that the bloodiest battle of the biggest war of the 20th century turned out to be the single greatest triumph of the Soviet era and arguably the largest tragedy in the history of Russia. After the war the city was rebuilt and on the top of the largest hill they constructed a massive monument in the form of a pantheon and a massive statue of Mother Russia wielding a sword and screaming madly to the north. Her face has been impressed with a look that can only be described as insane. Her scantily dressed body is volumptous and brings to mind
a giant representation of Helen of Troy. She is imbued with all the traits one might expect from a soviet era icon: She is hot, crazy, and made entirely of cement. In our travels through the country we have not encountered the enigmatic attitude that many associate with Russia and her inhabitants, but here in Volgograd we have seen the magnum edifice of an attitude that, at least at one time, prevailed over most of two continents. Churchhill called this place "a mystery in a riddle, wrapped in an enigma," or something like that, but in our experience that idea holds about as much sway in modern reality as, say, the idea of Africa being a "dark" continent. In short, things do change. The Volga region has been one of surprises. Busy, paved roads mysteriously turn to dirt while long stretches of good pavement run for days through uninhabited and virtually carless steppe. Maps are all wrong and ferries operate (sporatically) where bridges proportedly span. Locals, mostly of a Central Asian ethnicity give us too much produce to carry, and watermelons grow in the middle of arid sage brush country- a throwback to Krushchev's "Virgin Lands" aspirations in the sixties.
We will leave the banks of the Volga tomorrow and strike a direct course for the shores of the Black Sea. This will be our final leg in Russia though the next 3000 km will still find us within the sphere of influence of the CCCP. The thought of riding along a tidal body (taking stops, of course, to work coastal limestone boulders) is an appealing one at this point, as is the idea of stretching out our legs to climb some big hills. For now, may Mama Russia continue to look over us with her majestic bosom and passionate stare, and may the miles be filled with all the crazy beauty that she can bestow.
Advertisement
Tot: 0.129s; Tpl: 0.011s; cc: 22; qc: 81; dbt: 0.0742s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.3mb
Mark Fogg
non-member comment
Nice kids
Great to see kids w bikes and not throwing rocks! Too much produce is a problem worth tackling! Wet and green here in the Rockies...lil graupel the other day!