On 11 December, Dolph Lundgren — actor, film director, screenwriter and producer — visited the Stalin Line Historical and Cultural Complex. Our Executive Director, Alexander Metla, acted as guide for the distinguished guest, who has a keen interest in military history.
After kitting Dolph Lundgren out with an ushanka hat and Red Army mittens, Alexander took him to a map of the defensive fortifications built in the USSR by 1939 and known in the West as the Stalin Line. Here, he learnt that this ‘line’ had been built along the borders with Romania, Poland and the Baltic states, rather than against the Germans, as many mistakenly believe. The tour then continued to an artillery pillbox, where Alexander told Dolph about the actual fighting in the Minsk Fortified Region, which delayed the German advance by two days. Lundgren himself observed that, during those terrible days, delaying the enemy for two whole days was extremely important for the Red Army, allowing it to regroup its forces. Indeed, the subsequent fighting in the Polotsk Fortified Region delayed the Germans for two weeks, and in the Kiev Fortified Region for two months! Together with other battles, this contributed to the Germans’ subsequent defeat near Moscow in December 1941.
After visiting the pillbox, Dolph Lundgren was invited to a firing position. There, he eagerly aimed a 57 mm ZiS-2 gun at a German tank and fired. A bright fireball erupted on the tank. He then fired a Hiram Maxim machine gun and a Mosin rifle.
After firing the deactivated weapons, a Kliment Voroshilov heavy tank arrived to collect Dolph. Once again, the guest demonstrated his knowledge of history, observing that the KV tank was not as well known around the world because far fewer had been produced than the T-34. Dolph Lundgren was then equipped with a Simonov self-loading carbine, and the KV-1 carried him to a reenactment of a battle from the Great Patriotic War.
After the battle reenactment, Dolph was invited to ride across the complex’s hills in the Caiman, a mobile armoured vehicle developed at the Borisov Repair Plant under its chief designer, Olga Petrova. This Belarusian armoured vehicle brought our guest to Father Frost and the Snow Maiden, who presented Dolph with New Year gifts. Lundgren was then awarded the Zinovy Kolobanov Medal, followed by refreshments, autographs and souvenir photographs. As he departed, the guest said that he had discovered the Belarusian people to be sincere and open. Having completed his own compulsory military service in the Swedish Army, he thanked our management for preserving a respectful attitude towards military history and creating such a remarkable open-air museum.
Dolph Lundgren shared his impressions of his visit to our complex with the ONT television channel.
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