Khoroshev Kurgan (Golubinskaya)

Khoroshev Kurgan, also called Khoroshy Kurgan, is a memorial and mass grave of Soviet soldiers near the stanitsa of Golubinskaya in the Kalachyovsky District of Volgograd Oblast, about 106 kilometres from Volgograd. It commemorates the soldiers of the 1st Tank Army who fought in the great bend of the Don in the summer of 1942, and Lieutenant Colonel P. I. Khoroshev, after whom the mound is named.

History

In July 1942 the Wehrmacht was advancing on Stalingrad. The distant approaches to the city were held by the 62nd Army under Major General V. Ya. Kolpakchi. A counterattack by the 1st Tank Army under Major General of Artillery K. S. Moskalenko helped prevent the encirclement of Soviet troops about 100 kilometres from Stalingrad. Fighting in the Don bend went on until early August.

Golubinskaya is one of the old Cossack stanitsas on the Don, officially founded in 1608. In the summer of 1942 it fell behind the advancing German lines, and for a time it housed the headquarters of Friedrich Paulus's 6th Army.

The mass grave on the mound was laid out after the war. Its monument was erected in 1950, and the remains of soldiers found by search teams in the area were later reburied here. On 22 December 1992 a memorial was opened on the mound to the soldiers of the 1st Tank Army who stopped the enemy in July 1942. It is also dedicated to Lieutenant Colonel P. I. Khoroshev, a brigade commander of that army.

The memorial and the mass grave

The grave holds Red Army soldiers, both known and unknown, who died in the fighting nearby. The 1950 monument is a tall four-sided prism about 3.5 metres high on a 1.3 by 1.3 metre base. The burial plot, about 5 by 4 metres, is fenced with metal railings.

A tank stands on a pedestal on the mound; visitors describe it as a heavy IS-2. Its hatches used to be open and people could climb inside, but now it can only be viewed from outside. The memorial is well kept, and the top of the mound looks out over the Don and the surrounding fields.

Getting there

From Volgograd, take the Rostov highway through Kalach-na-Donu. After the bridge over the Don, turn right onto the road to Golubinskaya. The drive takes a little over an hour, and regular buses also run to Golubinskaya.

Khoroshev Kurgan is often visited on the way to the chalk outliers of Witch's Fang and Witch's Ribs on the bank of the Don, near the stanitsa.