In this photo taken on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, the Rear-Front Memorial sculpted by Lev Golovnitsky and drawn by Yakov Belopolsky, the first part of a triptych also consisting of The Motherland Calls in Volgograd and Warrior Liberator in Treptower Park, Berlin, is seen in Magnitogorsk, Russia. A Magnitogorsk memorial honors both those who fought and those who supplied them. The Rear-Front Memorial shows a soldier and a steelworker holding a sword together, with the worker facing the vast steel mills that were key suppliers to the Soviet defense effort. (AP Photo/Maxim Shmakov)
The Associated Press
MOSCOW (AP) - Russians this year won't be able to mark Victory Day, the end of World War II in Europe, with the usual elaborate parades because of coronavirus restrictions . But they can turn their eyes to a remarkable array of war monuments.
The Soviet Union's suffering and valor in the war has become a fundamental piece of Russia's national identity, so much so that it's common for couples to to have their photos taken at a war memorial on their wedding day. Few Russians live far from a memorial, whether it's huge and demands attention or so modest that one can easily pass it without noticing.
The most striking is 'œThe Motherland Calls,'ť Europe's tallest statue, an 85-meter (278-foot) figure of a sword-wielding woman soaring from a rise above the city of Volgograd - formerly named Stalingrad. It is the centerpiece of a memorial complex for the Battle of Stalingrad in which some 2 million people died before Soviet forces repulsed the Nazis.
Unlike the figurative display of Volgograd, some of St. Petersburg's memorials are words written large or small. Outside the main railway station, a huge sign on a building reads: 'œHero City Leningrad,'ť referring to the city's endurance in the 1941-44 siege, when it was named Leningrad.
Far down Nevsky Prospekt, the city's main avenue, a far smaller sign reminds passersby of some of the suffering that earned the title. A stenciled notice on a building reads: 'œCitizens! During artillery fire, this side of the street is more perilous.'ť Such signs were common during the siege and this one is regularly repainted.
Like the stencil, one of Moscow's memorials is easy to miss. On a building on a sidestreet, a plinth well above eye level holds figures of boys killed after they quit school to fight.
Murmansk has a 35-meter (116-foot) soldier gazing from a hilltop over the frigid bay that received so many vital Allied supply convoys. A Magnitogorsk memorial shows a soldier and a steelworker holding a sword together, to honor those who fought and those who supplied them.
Perhaps the must puzzling memorial is in Moscow: the steel beams resembling giant children's jacks in the middle of the highway leading from Sheremetyevo Airport. They represent tank traps and mark the approximate point of the closest advance of Nazi forces on the capital.
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In this photo taken on Friday, Sept. 19, 2014, the Monument to Defenders of the Soviet Arctic during the Great Patriotic War, commonly called Alyosha, is seen in Murmansk, Russia. The 35-meter (116-foot) soldier who gazes from a hilltop across the city and out to the frigid bay is hard to miss. He's such a familiar figure that locals have taken treating him as neighbor, calling him Alyosha, a friendly diminutive of Alexei. (AP Photo/Lev Fedoseyev)
The Associated Press
In this photo taken on Tuesday, May 5, 2020, The Monument to the Heroes ' Schoolchildren dedicated to schoolchildren who died during World War II, is seen in Moscow, Russia. One of Moscow's memorials can easily be passed by if someone isn't looking for it. On a building on a sidestreet, a plinth placed well above pedestrians' heads holds figures of schoolboys who quit their studies to join the fight and then lost their lives. The monument consisted of five bronze figures of dead volunteers-tenth-graders standing on a pedestal from left; Yury Divilkovsky, Igor Kuptsov, Igor Bogushevsky, Grigory Rodin and Gabor Raab. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The Associated Press
In this photo taken on Thursday, April 30, 2020, a World War II monument featuring giant anti-tank traps is seen on the outskirts of Moscow, Russia. One Moscow memorial often perplexes first-time visitors to the capital: the steel beams resembling giant children's jacks set in the middle of the highway leading from Sheremetyevo Airport. They represent tank traps and mark the approximate point of the closest advance of Nazi forces on the capital. (AP Photo/Alexander Zemlianichenko)
The Associated Press
In this Friday, May 1, 2020 photo, a sign reads "Hero City Leningrad" installed atop the Oktyabrskaya Hotel across from the Moskovsky railway station in St.Petersburg, Russia. When passengers exit the city's main railway station, they face a huge sign sprawled across a building on the other side of the square: "Hero City Leningrad," a title bestowed on the city for its endurance of the 1941-44 siege. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
The Associated Press
In this photo taken on Wednesday, April 29, 2020, the Motherland Calls monument that commemorates the victims of the Battle of Stalingrad, in which the Red Army turned back Nazi Germany's army, designed by sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich and structural engineer Nikolai Nikitin, is seen in Volgograd, Russia. The most striking is "The Motherland Calls," Europe's tallest statue, an 85-meter (278-foot) figure of a sword-wielding woman soaring from a rise above the city of Volgograd. (AP Photo/Dmitrii Rogulin)
The Associated Press
In this photo taken on Friday, May 1, 2020, the stencil plate reading "Citizens! During artillery fire, this side of the street is more perilous", which has been on this site since the World War II, is seen in far down Nevsky Prospekt, the city's main avenue, in St. Petersburg, Russia. A far smaller sign reminds passersby of some of the suffering that earned the title. Such signs were common during the siege and this one is renewed with fresh paint every few years. (AP Photo/Dmitri Lovetsky)
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