Volgograd is a millionaire city and a large industrial center that has changed three names (Tsaritsyn, Stalingrad, Volgograd), but has never changed the principles of honest work, courage and patriotism.
The fate of Stalingrad was sad and tragic, which did not spare the architectural monuments, the ancient buildings of the city. They don’t go to Volgograd in order to walk along the ancient streets, wander around medieval castles, or to visit ancient monasteries and temples, they come here to feel the atmosphere of the tragic events of World War II, they go for Memory.
Volgograd Square
Stalingrad during the war years was almost completely destroyed as a result of enemy bombing and street fighting. Many buildings, including historical ones, turned into ruins. The main attractions of the city are connected with the defense of Stalingrad, which turned the tide of the war. The memory of these heroic events is captured in numerous memorial complexes and monuments of the city: Mamaev Kurgan, Mill Gerhardt, Replica of the Barmalei fountain, Pavlov’s House.
Catastrophic in scale destruction during street battles destroyed almost the entire residential development of the city, more than 90% of the houses of Stalingrad were turned into ruins.
In the post-war period, large-scale construction work began. The city is gradually being restored. In its buildings, the layout of parks, squares, alleys, squares, the style of "Stalinist architecture" prevails. In the city, three new squares were restored and built, the largest and currently Volgograd squares: the Square of the Fallen Fighters, Lenin Square and the Chekist Square.
The area of the fallen fighters
The central city square, one of the largest in the territory, the place where all the significant holiday events of the city, parades, rallies are held, is the Square of the Fallen Volgograd Fighters. Part of it goes into the square, and then into the Alley of Heroes.
Its original name is Alexandrovskaya (in honor of the deceased emperor Alexander ΙΙ). In its place was a spontaneous peasant market, which was later replaced by shops, taverns and taverns. In 1916, the Alexander Nevsky Cathedral was built on the territory of the square in honor of the salvation of the imperial family in a catastrophe on the railway (the cathedral was blown up in 1930).
During the years of the Revolution, the city was captured by the troops of Wrangel. There were fierce battles, in 1920, 55 people were buried on the square in a mass grave, the citizens who died during the Civil War. In the same year, in memory of them, the square in Volgograd was renamed the Square of the Fallen Fighters and a monument was erected at the place of their burial.
During the Stalingrad defense, the central square of the city became the site of bloody and fierce battles. In the basement of the TSUM building, Field Marshal of the German Army Paulus was captured. On February 4, 1943, a Victory rally in the Battle of Stalingrad took place on the square . Near the grave of fallen fighters, those who died in the Battle of Stalingrad were buried. In their honor, in 1963, the Eternal Flame was lit on the square.
In 2003, in honor of the 60th anniversary of the Great Victory, the Memory Museum was opened in the historical basement of the Central Department Store of Volgograd. In the basement room where Frederick Paulus was captured , the interior of those historical times was restored.
In the square there is another attraction, a living witness of the Stalingrad hell - poplar, on the trunk of which there are numerous scars from the hostilities taking place in this territory.
Lenin Square
The square is the only one in the city that has been renamed very often (Balkan, Nikolskaya, Internationalnaya, Ploshchad 9 January, Ploshchad Lenina).
Until the end of the XIX century, it was called the Balkan (by the name of the district). It was an undeveloped place where convoys with fish stopped, which were taken from Astrakhan to the capital and other cities.
In 1899, the Church of St. Nicholas the Wonderworker was consecrated on the square, and it was renamed Nikolskaya. In 1917, it was again renamed the International, and after 3 years, it receives the name Square on January 9, in memory of Bloody Sunday.
In the 1930s, the temple was blown up and residential buildings were built in its place, the area is completely transformed.
During the Battle of Stalingrad, the most bloody battles took place here, the building was completely destroyed. The defense of one of the houses in which a group of Soviet soldiers was located was tragic and bloody, Lieutenant Afanasyev commanded them (Sergeant Pavlov was one of the group, he heroically and courageously defended the fortification and after the war the house was named after him - Pavlov's House). The group held the defense of the house for 58 days. After the war, in memory of the heroic events in this territory, the square was renamed Defense Square.
In the post-war years, the territory was built up again, only Pavlov’s House remained from the old buildings. In 1960, a monument to V.I. Lenin, in honor of the 90th anniversary of his birth, and she was again renamed the Lenin Square of Volgograd.
Chekist Square and the monument to the Chekists
The name of the square is also intertwined with the tragic events of the Battle of Stalingrad.
In 1942, in Stalingrad, the 10th rifle division of the NKVD troops, together with militias and police officers, were the first to take on the blows of the enemy, who sought to break through to the Volga. For the courage and heroic performance of combat missions, the entire division was awarded the Order of Lenin, 20 security officers were awarded the title of Hero of the USSR.
After the war ended in 1947, a monument to the Chekists was erected on a square in Volgograd, whose height is 22 meters. And exactly 20 years later, the square will be called - the Square of the Chekists in Volgograd, in honor of the courage, stamina and courage of the soldiers who defended the city.