Volgograd, Stalingrad, Tsaritsyn… The second longest European city stretching along the Volga River for almost 100 km. Tsaritsyn was located on the high road, serving as a way from Asia to Europe for strange guests – all those nomadic hordes innumerable as steppe feather-grass or sand of Asian deserts… For centuries the steppe closed between the Don and the Volga rivers had been the place of hard-fought fields and battles. Tsaritsyn, founded in 1589 was predesignated the role of an outpost fortress protecting Russia and the great Volga waterway from nomads’ inroads. In 1942 the city again shielded Russia from mortal danger. The city turned into the boiling sea of fire. Metal and stone were melting but soldiers of all nations living in the Soviet Union blocked the way to Nazis. The battle lasted for two hundred days and nights, more than a million of people from each side took part in it. That was the heaviest battle in the history of our country. Pablo Neruda said: “Here the Earth is decorated with the Order of Courage.” You will remember forever the stern and impelling music played in museums of Mamaev Kurgan, the sight of a shell left in perpetuity in the wall of the famous House of Pavlov. People from vessels passing by Mamaev Kurgan lay flowers on water to honour the memory of soldiers that found their death in the waters of the Volga during that great battle.