Panzers East: PanzerCDR on the Eastern Front Part II

The Russian Museum of the Great Patriotic War is another must see for the affected WW2 buff sojourning in Moscow.  The old Style Soviets really knew how to make an impressive statement on the state's triumph over the Fascist Nazis and they went all out here.  There are many affecting monuments to the Russian people's sacrifices here, as well as the standard edifices and displays of Soviet might and power.  It is rather affecting and filled with lots of must see tanks, guns and pictures.  I again wished I had had more time to just wander around and look at things, but it was still worth the time I had. 

Walking up to the entrance. 

Any museum store that sells miniatures has to be a good place to go!  No Battlefront ones, but understandable. 

Russian soldiers move up to attack during the Moscow counteroffensive of 1941.  I liked this mural the best as the scale of the picture looked the best.  All of these murals were on immense curved walls reminiscent of the cyclorama at Gettsburg. 

Mural from the Battle of Stalingrad.  The murals in the museum are very impressive.  This one denotes the linking up of the encircling Soviet Armies during the counteroffensive. 

 

 

A dejected German soldier from the above mural.  The tour guide said that children visitors always ask why is he so dejected.  I thought he was appalled that he had just failed a morale check as a Fearless Veteran.  I didn't share this with the guide.

The Battle of Kursk.  Note the density of tanks, a charge that FOW players are often accused of abusing.  Admittedly the murals are supposed to be inspiring vice accurate, but I still was silently amused. 

A copy (I think) of the flag that flew over the Reichstag in Berlin in 1945.  The tour guide said it was the actual flag while the Museum book said it was a copy.  It was still neat. 

Display room with the listed names of ALL of the ~12,000 Heroes of the Soviet Union from the war. 



A young German tries to stop the Soviet attack in Berlin armed only with a panzerfaust.  We know this won't end well. 

 

Noble Soviet Sniper Vasily Zaytsev from Siberia.