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Fascinating and enjoyable trip

An truly memorable and exceptional experience in visiting a city I have read about for over thirty years and am lucky enough to be writing a book about the epic battle of 1942-43 that defines it. Volgograd Tours organised a bespoke 4-day trip for me which involved two days researching the archives of the Volgograd Panoramic Museum , followed by a tour of the main sites of the battle.

Mikhail from the company was ever present by my side assisting and translating dozens of documents in the archive, and then guiding me through the various sites of the battlefield that he thought relevant (which they were). He was also great company, which when you are travelling alone, a long way from home, during a global pandemic - certainly helps! It made the whole trip stress-free and thoroughly enjoyable.

Would completely recommend Volgograd Tours if you want the full experience of understanding the battle of Stalingrad as well as enjoying stay in a remarkable city.

Date of experience: August 2020

*Iain MacGregor is an author of The Lighthouse of Stalingrad: The Hidden Truth at the Heart of the Greatest Battle of World War II, MHM Winner - Gold Award 2023 - Military History Book of The Year for the UK's biggest history magazine.

Fun and highly informative - English

If you are looking for a unique learning experience full of interesting facts and stories then this tour is the right one for you. We spent a lovely three days with Mikhail and Sergei. Mikhail is very detailed with his explanations and descriptions. We particularly enjoyed our personal tour of the former department store where negotiations for the surrender of Paulus and the sixth army took place. The journey to the the Don river and the battle of Kalach was both interesting and fun. You can tell this is Mikhail's passion as well as his profession. All of our three days were fun and interesting. If you are interested in military history or just feel like experiencing something different then we would definitely recommend Sputnik travel. 

Poučno, zabavno, informativno - Slovenian

Z možem sva v Volgogradu preživela tri dni. Z najinim vodičem Mihailom sva si prvi dan ogledala Volgograd z vsemi vojaškimi spomeniki in obema muzejema. Tisti v kleti veleblagovnice je še posebej zanimiv in informativen, saj tamkajšnji muzejski vodič v živo naslika prizore zajetja poveljnika Paulusa. Drugi dan smo se najprej odpravili na ogled treh volgogradskih tovarn, ki so pomembno vplivale na potek bitke za Stalingrad, potem pa smo obiskali še impresiven spomenik Rossoshka, ki se spominja več kot osemsto tisoč padlih vojakov. Tretji dan smo se odpeljali vse do (v tem času zamrznjene) reke Don in mesta Kalač, kjer v tamkajšnih stepah vsako poletje še vedno najdejo na desetine trupel nesrečnih ruskih in nemških vojakov. Vsi trije dnevi z Mihailom in njegovim tastom Sergejem so bili zabavni in izredno informativni. Če bi se tja odpravila sama brez vodiča, ne bi nikoli izvedela toliko zanimivih podrobnosti o dogajanjih v drugi svetovni vojni, pa tudi ne o Volgogradu samem in o Kozakih, ki so v preteklosti imeli zelo pomembno vlogo na tem področju. Toplo priporočam vsem, ki jih zanima zgodovina in ki imajo to srečo, da lahko obiščejo bivši Stalingrad.

Date of experience: December 2020

Sehr profesionelle, geniale Führung...Wolgograd-Stalingrad

Eine sensationelle Tour und vorallem sehr professionelle private Führung von Mikhail und Anna, die ein unglaublich großes Wissen haben. Die Führung war auf deutsch (perfekt). Leider hatten wir nur einen Tag Zeit, haben in knapp 9 Stunden so viel Wissen, Informationen, die wichtigsten Sehenswürdigkeiten der Stadt vermittelt bekommen. Die Zeit verflog einfach zu schnell. Wenn man mehr Zeit hat unbedingt mind. 2 Tage einplanen. Wir haben selten solch eine geniale Führung gehabt, die jeden einzelnen Rubel, Cent wert ist. Vielen Dank Mikhail & Anna

Krigshistorisk dag i Volgograd - Stalingrad

Mikhail ga oss innledningsvis en guidet fottur i Volgograd der han viste oss minnesmerker (bl.a. De falne stridsmenns plass, Seiersparken med Sentraltrappene), historiske steder (bl.a. Pavlovs hus, den gamle mølla, frontlinjen symbolisert med T-34 tårn) og fortalte litt om byens eldre historie før han satte fokuset på kampene om Stalingrad under 2. verdenskrig. Deretter tok vi turen til Mamaev Kurgan (høyde 102) hvor han fortalte mer detaljert om de harde kampene om denne delen av byen. I kombinasjon med minnesmerkene satte dette et uutslettelig inntrykk på oss. Vi avsluttet dagen med et besøk i Panorama-museet - som etter min mening bør være obligatorisk for alle besøkende til byen. Alt i alt en meget lærerik og gripende dag om vendepunktet i Den andre verdenskrig.

Visited June 2021

Pengalaman yang bermakna

Pengembaraan saya selama 2 hari menjejaki kesan peperangan dunia ke 2 "Battle of Stalingrad". Sesuatu pengalaman yang amat meninggalkan kesan dan menakjubkan. Sejarah menunjukkan kemusnahan akibat peperangan yang terlalu besar.

Jadual perjalanan diatur dengan rapi dan kami menjejaki tempat utama di mana pertempuran terjadi. Melawat Mamayev Kurgan amat bermakna kerana selain melihat The Motherland Calls Statue yang amat menakjubkan, bukit itu juga merupakan perkuburan untuk 34,000 yang terkorban semasa pertempuran.

Anda perlu merasakan sendiri pengalaman yang menakjubkan ini.

Visited July 2021

Great day in Volgograd

I had only about 5 hours in Volgograd and Mikhail organized a day tour that allowed me to see quite a lot. He is a knowledgeable and enthusiastic guide and provided comfortable transportation for the tour. I learned a lot about the Battle of Stalingrad and saw many places of significance in one of the bloodiest battles of WW2.

The city tour and trip to Mamayev Kurgan to see The Motherland Calls (Rodina Mat zovyot) were amazing and, once again, Mikhail insured I saw the changing of the guards and explained the many graves located throughout the complex.

When I am back in Volgograd, I'll definitely call upon Volgograd Sputnik Travel for another tour.

Visited August 2021

Es war ein hervorragender Ausflug, der sehr lehrreich war.

Wir buchten die Tour zur Erinnerungsstätte Rossoshka. Auf dem Weg dorthin zeigte uns Mikhail verschiedene Punkte wie eine Kirche, die als Lazarett genutzt wurde, russische Denkmäler und nicht zuletzt die Umgebung und die Landschaft. Mikhail liess durch seine Erzählungen die Geschichte lebendig werden. Dabei schilderte er die Situation der sowjetischen Seite ebenso wie die Entwicklungen der Schlacht aus deutscher Seite. Die vorurteilsfreie Schilderung gefiel mir sehr gut. Wir hatten genügend Zeit die Gedenkstätte auf uns wirken zu lassen. Gleichzeitig erfuhren wir von den Bemühungen, gefallene Menschen zu identifizieren. Die Tour war genau das, was ich gesucht hatte und kann es unbedingt weiter empfehlen.

Visited August 2021

A Worthwhile Overview

Went on the big tour of Stalingrad this morning was out for about 5 hours with my man Mikhail. A bit pricey but a good engaging overview chauffeured and one on one. Got an overview of mass death, body counts and strategy and then some discussion of current imperialist mass murder and how it related to the last 100 years.

More than 800,000 men lay on the battlefield, In addition to 800,000 imperialist collaborators. I'm still not sure how many have been more or less properly buried in mass graves and how many are still to be discovered. Apparently they have to revise the memorial plaques every 2 years as more bodies are found every year or should I say, more remains.

It seems that the people who fought and died here had an idea of what they were fighting and dying for even despite the imperialist mass murder of the working class a generation earlier and the domestic political counter-revolution carried out by the bureaucracy.

We visited the newer German mass grave erected in 1997 over the protestations of surviving Red Army veterans.

That was also impressive in the tens of thousands of names listed along with the obligatory wishes for the western liberal peace of the graveyard and implied imperialist conquest.

Mikhail mentioned his Great Aunt and her 25-year-old premonitions from Donbas of returning Nazis and western imperialist mass murderers. His uncle laughed at such prognostications but he thinks more and more about her words as his cousins there endure the shelling and as we're now at war for 7 months.

Nevertheless it's a satisfying even great feeling that the west is finally paying for its crimes as America declines and the Morgenthau plan will soon be implemented against Germany and Western Europe and whole generations of willfully ignorant westerners led by their Nazi sympathetic betters will experience death and despair like their betters in the Soviet Union had to endure 30 years ago when freedom and democracy triumphed.

After the killing Fields of the ex-BSSR and observing the extermination of my people I had to come to the battlefield of Stalingrad and grimly celebrate the death and punishment of the western traitors. All in all it's been a satisfying trip.

Visited October 2022