I was emailing cartoonist Dan Rosandich about another matter and he mentioned that he was, at that moment, drawing cartoons in a hotel in London. Typical cartoonist: always working, even when on vacation. And then he told me that, soon, with luck, he would figure out how to visit Russia.
"Figure out?" Yes. Really. I thought that this would devolve into a "moose and squirrel" joke, but it was no joke. Dan was serious about Russia. He was going to go.
Dan "spontaneously" figured out how to get to Moscow. He literally walked over to the Russian Visa Application Center in central London, parted with time (about an hour to fill out forms) and $250 for a month-long Russian Federation tourist visa. So Dan flew to Moscow and then, another 600 miles away, to Volgograd (formerly Stalingrad). And there's a site he always wanted to see:
The Motherland Colossus or “Mamayev Kurgan” is a phenomenal monument, a statue the size of a skyscraper which stands atop a mountaintop overlooking Volgograd.
The way it is built makes it even more impressive as it’s mounted atop a massive pedestal at the very center of the hilltop overlooking the city.
This excellent video about the history of Mamayev Kurgan (please make time to read some of the comments section) will provide you with further insights on this war monument.
Go read his entire Russia story here.
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