Moscow: Alexander Gardens.

Left: Sevastopol (a city on the Black Sea, located in the southwestern region of the Crimean Peninsula).

“During World War II, Sevastopol withstood intensive bombardment by the Germans in 1941–42, supported by their Italian and Romanian allies during the Battle of Sevastopol. German forces were forced to use railway artillery and specialised heavy mortars to destroy Sevastopol’s extremely heavy fortifications, such as the Maxim Gorky naval battery. After fierce fighting, which lasted for 250 days, the supposedly impregnable fortress city finally fell to Axis forces in July 1942. It was intended to be renamed to ‘Theodorichshafen’ (in reference to Theodoric the Great and the fact that the Crimea had been home to Germanic Goths until the 18th or 19th century) in the event of a German victory against the Soviet Union, and like the rest of the Crimea was designated for future colonisation by the Third Reich. It was liberated by the Red Army on 9 May 1944 and was awarded with the Hero City title a year later.”