The Battle of Stalingrad claimed almost two million casualties, making it the largest battle in human history, and also one of the longest. It raged for 199 days.
Numbers of casualties are difficult to compile due to the vast scope of the battle and the fact that the Soviet government did not allow estimates to be made, for fear the cost would be shown to be too high.
In its initial phases, the Germans inflicted heavy casualties on Soviet formations; but the Soviet encirclement by punching through the German flank, effectively besieged the remainder of the German Sixth Army, which had taken heavy casualties in street fighting prior to this.
At different times the Germans had held up to 90% of the city, yet the Soviet soldiers and officers fought on fiercely. Some elements of the German Fourth Panzer Army also suffered casualties in operations around Stalingrad during the Soviet counter offensive.
For the heroism of the Soviet defenders of Stalingrad, the city was awarded the title Hero City in 1945.
Twenty-four years after this battle, in October 1967, a colossal monument, Mother Motherland was erected on Mamayev Kurgan, the hill overlooking the city.
The statue forms part of a War memorial complex which includes ruined walls deliberately left the way they were after the battle. The Grain Silo, as well as Pavlov's House, the apartment building whose defenders eventually held out for two months until they were relieved, can still be visited. Even today, one may find bones and rusty metal splinters on Mamayev Kurgan, symbols of both the human suffering during the battle and the successful yet costly resistance against the German invasion.