Romanian armies in the Battle of Stalingrad and 635 tanks, the German 57th Panzer Corps and the Romanian Fourth Army and on 29 December, the 57th Panzer had to abandon Kotelnikovo, which sealed the fate of the Axis troops in Stalingrad. On 15 January 1943, came another devastating blow: The Hungarian 2nd Army was encircled and eventually destroyed, with 147,971 casualties. On 2 February 1943, the resistance of Axis troops in Stalingrad ceased. Out of the 91,000 prisoners taken by the Soviets, 3,000 were Romanian. These were the survivors of the 20th Infantry Division, 1st Cavalry Division and "Colonel Voicu" Detachment. The Romanian Army lost 158,854 men
The Motherland Calls posed for the sculpture. It is also believed that the statue has parallels with the figure of the "Marseillaise" on the Triumphal arch in Paris, and that the statue's pose was inspired by the statue of Nike of Samothrace. At night, the sculpture is illuminated by floodlights. It was specially illuminated as part of a light show titled "The Light of the Great Victory", marking the 72nd anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany. When the memorial was dedicated in 1967 it was the tallest statue in the world, measuring from the tip of its sword to the top of