Volgograd

The battle for Stalingrad from August 1942 to February 1943 destroyed ninety per cent of the city and cost, by most estimates, close to two million casualties on both sides; the grain elevator and the Pavlov house are preserved as they were fought over. The Motherland Calls on Mamayev Kurgan stands eighty-five metres and was, when finished in 1967, the tallest statue in the world.