For a long time the bloody battles of the Great Patriotic War that killed millions of lives of Soviet soldiers and civilians were noisy. But even today a new generation who knows about them only from books, films and stories of participants of those events, which every year becomes less, can see monuments reminiscent of that terrible tragedy.

One of them, undoubtedly, is the mill of Gergardt (Volgograd). This is a building destroyed during the Battle of Stalingrad, which was decided to be left in ruins, as a memory to the descendants of bloody battles. This is one of the symbols of Volgograd, only one of the thousands of buildings that were destroyed during the war with fascist Germany.

The Gergardt Mill: History
The newspaper "Tsaritsynsky Vestnik" in May 1899 wrote that in the "Balkans" began to build a huge milling steam mill by the brothers Gerhardt. Under the mill was liberated area, and in 1899 the foundation was erected. The mill began working in late July 1900. In August 1900 the same newspaper reported that the main office of the Gerhardt brothers was on the Balkan Square (now Lenin Square), at the mill. There they ask all interested persons to ask questions.

Who are the Gerhards?
This is a merchant's family, natives of the Samara province. On all facades of the building their name was laid out of bricks. Of the four inscriptions today preserved three.

Fire
The mill building was built traditional - with wooden ceilings inside and brick walls. In early August 1907, a fire broke out at the mill, virtually destroying all the interior of the building and leaving only the outer walls.

Reconstruction
Brothers Gergardta immediately began a large-scale reconstruction of the building. The new construction for Tsaritsyn of that period became outlandish. The interior of the Gergardt was made of reinforced concrete - and walls, and floors, and stairs. A completely revolutionary innovation for the Volga city was the reinforced brick walls: metal bands of fifty millimeters thick were built inside.

This was required to protect the structure from vibrations arising from the work of flour milling machines. This measure, much later, predetermined the incredible stability of the building in those terrible trials that fell on its share.

Description of the structure
The mill had its own power generator, which made the building independent of the city electric grid. In addition, it had its own boiler room and mechanical conveyors. Inside there was a grain storage, and also a warehouse of finished goods.

Almost the entire territory from the mill to the Volga berth was occupied by wooden outbuildings, a narrow-gauge railway was laid to the Volga Railway. In the neighborhood there were flour milling and smoky industries also owned by Gerhardt. Later, a trading house was opened here.

The years of Soviet power
With the advent of the Bolsheviks in the Gergardt family, a black streak began. Alexander in 1933 was taken as a hostage in response to the detention in Germany of Karl Radek - a well-known Social Democrat. On April 21 of the same year he died, unable to withstand torture. After his death, the mill was renamed in honor of K. Grudinin, secretary of the communist cell. In the early twenties, he worked at the mill as a turner. In May 1922, he was killed.

Despite the renaming, the inhabitants of the city still called the mill the name of its founder.

The Battle of Stalingrad
It should be noted that the mill of Gergard did not stop the work until September 14, 1942. High-explosive bombs that day fell into the building and provoked a fire. During the hardest fighting, the 42nd Infantry Brigade, commanded by General Batrakov, defending the center of Stalingrad, was forced to retreat to the River Station, and the 13th Infantry Division of General Rodimtsev, crossing the Volga, rushed to the rescue.

The building of the mill was occupied by soldiers under the leadership of Lieutenant V. Chervyakov. By September 20, Zabolotnogo and Pavlov's houses, the Gergard mill, have become key centers of the city's defense. Nearby, where the House of Officers is today, were the positions of the enemy. From the defensive point, which was located on a gentle slope, the Soviet commanders controlled the place of the alleged ferry to the eastern shore.

Our troops launched an offensive in the Mamayev Kurgan area in January 1943. The Gergard mill, which was in partial encirclement for 58 days, withstood the direct hits of aerial bombs, as well as countless enemy attacks. The mortar and artillery fire was so intense that there was not a meter left on the southern, northern, western walls of the structure, not visited by bullets.

The mill of Gergard became not only an impregnable fortress for the enemy, but also allowed the Soviet soldiers to recapture Pavlov's house, which is across the street from the mill. From the eastern (Volga) side, the building was damaged minimally. The mill survived the days of massive attacks only due to sufficient vibration resistance and increased strength of the reinforced concrete frame.

Postwar years
During the war years and immediately after its completion, some of the premises of the building, in which it was still possible to spend the night, were quickly repaired and inhabited by the townspeople who were left homeless. The archives preserved a unique photo, which shows that several windows of the mill were glazed.

In the seventies of the last century the construction of the famous panorama museum "The Battle of Stalingrad" began. This unique museum covered the ruins of the mill of Gergardt from all sides with overpasses, leaving the building inside the courtyard, to which there is no access today.

Prior to the beginning of the eighties, excursions were held in the mill building, but today this building is recognized as a historical reserve. Today you can only see the ruins outside.