The Mound of Glory is a memorial complex, located 21 km from Minsk, Belarus on the Moscow Highway that is intended to honor Soviet soldiers who fought during World War II.
It was established in 1969 on the 25th anniversary of the “liberation” of Belarus from the Nazis during Operation Bagration (1944) by bringing in scorched soil from the nine “Hero Cities” of the former Soviet Union and from the battlegrounds of World War II.
Fortunately, there are plenty of tanks and artillery around to check out as well:
On the day Andy, Nigel and I were there, preparations were being made for a military ceremony later in the day:
Part of the ceremony utilized this sound system which had just finished being set up:
Which led to this somewhat surreal scene of the tough Belorussian soldiers using the sound system to blast Cher across the Mound of Glory landscape:
The dramatic Mound of Glory… The four titanium-covered bayonets pointing directly at the sky are said to represent the four fronts on which divisions of the Red Army, partisans and members of other underground organizations successfully completed the liberation of Belarus:
Ego shot:
The Velvet Rocket 
Not sure if this blog is still active or not but I’m hoping to go to the Mound of Glory in a couple of weeks when I’m in Minsk. How did you get out there, just a taxi? Also how did you get back? Roughly how long was the journey? My scheduled is quite tight as I only have a few hours between changing trains in Minsk. Thanks!
Hello James –
We had a driver because we were visiting other areas as well, but the Mound of Glory is just outside Minsk and it is entirely feasible to take a taxi there. I don’t recall the journey being more than ten to fifteen minutes from the center of Minsk. So, if you have a few hours between train journeys, you have plenty of time to visit and make it back with time to spare.
Enjoy.
Nothing wrong with Ego Shots, done a few myself with statues of Lenin in Ukraine.
In case readers are wondering what that says around the hammer and sickle it’s Otechestvyennaya Voina = Patriotic War