Hero City Hero City ( , , ) is a Soviet honorary title awarded for outstanding heroism during World War II ( Eastern Front is known in the Soviet Union as The Great Patriotic War ) . It was awarded to twelve cities of the Soviet Union . In addition the Brest Fortress was awarded an equivalent title of Hero Fortress . This symbolic distinction for a city corresponds to the individual distinction Hero of the Soviet Union . According to the statute , the hero city is issued the Order of Lenin , the Gold Star medal , and the certificate of the heroic deed ( " gramota " ) from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR . Also , the corresponding obelisk is installed in the city . History . The usage of the term " hero city " is dated to articles in " Pravda " as early as in 1942 . The first official usage of the title is dated by May 1 , 1945 , when Joseph Stalin issued his Supreme Commander Order # 20 commanding to fire salute s in " hero cities Leningrad , Stalingrad , Sevastopol , and Odessa . " On June 22 , 1961 ( 20th anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War ) the term " Hero City " was applied to Kiev in the " ukases " that awarded Kiev the Order of Lenin and introduced the Medal " For the Defence of Kiev " . The statute of the title was officially introduced on May 8 , 1965 by the " ukase " of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of USSR , on the occasion of the 20th anniversary of the victory in the Great Patriotic War . The same day ukases were issued about awarding the cities mentioned above : Leningrad ( Saint Petersburg ) , Volgograd ( former Stalingrad ) , Kiev , Sevastopol , and Odessa . ( However traditionally for these cities the anniversaries of being Hero City correspond to the dates mentioned earlier . ) Additionally , Moscow was declared Hero City and Brest declared " Hero Fortress " . Subsequent awards were issued as follows : In 1988 the issuance of the award was officially discontinued . On April 5 , 2005 the State Duma of Russian Federation passed the law in the first reading about the introduction of the honorary title " City of Military Glory " ( Город воинской славы ) . Potential candidates are places of fierce battles : Oryol , Rzhev , Yelnya , Voronezh , Vyazma , and others . Brest Fortress . The fortress in Brest , Belarus was awarded the title Hero Fortress in 1965 . It was located right on the recently established border between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany drawn in the secret appendix to the Molotov - Ribbentrop Pact . As such , the fortress had little warning when the Axis invaded on 22 June 1941 , and became the site of the first major fighting between Soviet frontier guards and the invading German forces of Army Group Centre . German artillery heavily shelled the fortress ; the subsequent attempt to quickly take it with infantry failed , however , and the Germans started a lengthy siege . The Brest garrison , although cut off from the outside world and having run out of food , water and ammunition , fought and counter - attacked until the very last minute . The Germans deployed tanks , tear gas and flame throwers . After the Germans had taken most of the ruined fortifications , taking heavy casualties , bloody fighting continued underground . The fighting ended only in late July . The actual front had by then already moved hundreds of kilometres further east . Even after the fortress was officially taken , the few surviving defenders continued to hide in the basements and to harass the Germans for several months . Leningrad ( Saint Petersburg ) . The city of Leningrad , now known as Saint Petersburg , saw what is regarded as one of the greatest human tragedies of the entire war . Leningrad , one of the cities with a large amount of classical and baroque architecture on the Baltic Sea , was a city with a pre - war population of three million inhabitants . By August 1941 , the Germans had reached the city ' s southern outskirts . Finnish forces had meanwhile recaptured the Karelian Isthmus northwest of the city , which they had lost after the Winter War in 1940 . The city was completely cut off from all land access on 8 September 1941 . As the Gulf of Finland was blocked as well , Leningrad ' s only contact with the outer world was a vulnerable waterway across Lake Ladoga , as Finnish command didn ' t agree to German requests to advance beyond the River Svir and to conquer the rest of the Lake ' s coastline . Since taking the city seemed too costly to the Germans , in the light of bitter Soviet resistance , they instead began the Siege of Leningrad in order to starve the city to death . Soon , electricity , water and heating for civilian housing had to be shut down . All public transportation stopped in 1941 - 42 winter , but in 1942 city tramcars were relaunched ( trolleys and buses were inoperable until end of the war ) . Thousands of Leningrad citizens froze or starved to death in the first winter of the siege alone , dying at home in their beds or collapsing from exhaustion in the streets . Meanwhile , German artillery continued to bombard the city . Although the siege lasted for 900 days , the city did not surrender . When Lake Ladoga froze in the winter , the Road of Life was opened to the Soviet - held southern shore , with a long trail of trucks bringing food and supplies to the besieged city and evacuating citizens on their way back . Both the food and the civilian transports were constantly attacked by the Germans with artillery shelling and air raids . When Soviet forces eventually lifted the siege in January 1944 , over one million inhabitants of Leningrad had died from starvation , exposure and German shelling . 300 , 000 soldiers had perished in the defence and relief of Leningrad . Leningrad was awarded the title Hero City in 1945 , being the first city to receive that distinction . Stalingrad ( Volgograd ) . Volgograd is the present - day name of the city of Stalingrad . The defence of Stalingrad from July to November 1942 , the counter - offensive of 19 November 1942 that trapped the Axis forces in and around the ruined city , and the German surrender on 2 February 1943 marked the turning - point of the European Theatre of World War II . The intensity and sheer scale of the battle of Stalingrad illustrate the ferocity of the German - Soviet War . Heavy German bombardment , killing thousands of civilians , had turned the city into a landscape of ruins . Workers of the city ' s weapons factories started personally handing over arms and ammunition to the defending soldiers as the Germans closed in , and eventually continued the fight themselves . Ever more Soviet troops were shipped into the city across the Volga River under enemy fire . German superiority in tanks became useless in the rubble of urban warfare . Fierce man - to - man fighting in streets , buildings and staircases continued for months . The Red Army moved its strategic reserve from Moscow to the lower Volga , and transferred all available aircraft from the entire country to the Stalingrad area . The Germans eventually lost a quarter of their total forces deployed on the Eastern Front , and never fully recovered from the defeat . The total casualties on both sides are estimated at nearly 2 million , within a period of 200 days . Stalingrad was awarded the title Hero City in 1945 . Оdessa . In early August 1941 , the Black Sea port of Odessa , located in present - day Ukraine , was attacked and besieged by Romanian forces fighting alongside their German allies . The fierce battle in defense of the city lasted until 16 October , when the remaining Soviet troops , as well as 15 , 000 civilians were evacuated by sea . Partisan fighting continued , however , in the city ' s catacombs . Odessa was awarded the title Hero City in 1945 . Sevastopol . The Black Sea port of Sevastopol was a heavily defended fortress on the Crimean peninsula . German and Romanian troops had advanced to the outskirts of the city from the north and launched their attack on 30 October 1941 . Having failed to take the city , Axis forces began a siege and heavy bombardment , with such unusual pieces of ordnance as the Mörser Karl self - propelled mortar , and the gigantic Schwerer Gustav railroad cannon . A second Axis offensive against the city , launched in December 1941 , failed as well , as the Soviet army and navy forces continued to fight fiercely . Eventually the city was taken in June 1942 . It was liberated in bloody fighting in May 1944 . Sevastopol was awarded the title Hero City in 1945 . Moscow . At the gates of the Soviet capital , the German invaders suffered their first defeat in 1941 . The advance of the German Army Group Centre came to a halt in late November 1941 , at the outskirts of Moscow itself . The Soviet Government had by then been evacuated , yet Joseph Stalin remained in the city . Struggling between determination and despair , the city ' s population helped build defensive positions in the streets . The underground metro stations provided shelter during German air raids . General Georgy Zhukov , who assumed command of the city ' s defence , largely left close combat tactics to the local commanders on the city ' s approaches , and focused on concentrating fresh troops from Siberia for an eventual counter - attack . The Soviet counter - offensive was launched on 5 and 6 December 1941 . In the freezing cold of an unusually harsh winter , Soviet forces , including well - equipped ski battalions , drove the exhausted Germans back out of reach of Moscow and consolidated their positions on 7 January 1942 . The victory in the battle provided an important boost in morale for the Soviet population . Moscow was awarded the title Hero City in 1965 . Kiev . The capital of present - day Ukraine became the site of the largest encirclement battle in the summer of 1941 . When the Germans commenced their offensive on 7 July , Soviet forces concentrated in the Kiev area were ordered to stand fast , and a breakout was prohibited . Defence of the pocket was fierce . Thousands of civilians volunteered to help defend the city . Eventually Kiev was taken on 19 September . Over 600 , 000 Soviet troops were taken captive when the pocket was cleared . The prolonged resistance effectively disrupted the German plans of " blitzkrieg " . However , in military terms , the battle was a great victory for the German Army and a disaster for the Soviets . It had a huge effect on morale , and Adolf Hitler praised the victory as the greatest battle in history . During the German occupation of Kiev , hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed or deported for slave labour . Kiev again became a battlefield when advancing Soviet forces pushed the Germans back West , liberating the city on 6 November 1943 . Kiev was awarded the title Hero City in 1965 . Novorossiysk . The city of Novorossiysk on the eastern coast of the Black Sea provided a stronghold against the German summer offensive of 1942 . Intense fighting in and around the city lasted from August until it was captured by the Germans in mid - September 1942 . The Soviets however retained possession of the eastern part of the bay , which prevented the Germans from using the port for supply shipments . Novorossiysk was awarded the title Hero City in 1973 . Kerch . Kerch , a port in the East of the Crimean peninsula , formed a bridgehead at the strait dividing Crimea from the Southern Russian mainland . After fierce fighting , it was taken by the Germans in November 1941 . On 30 December 1941 the Soviets recaptured the city in a naval landing operation . In May 1942 the Germans occupied the city again , yet Soviet partisan forces held out in the cliffs near the city until October 1942 . On 31 October 1943 another Soviet naval landing was launched . The largely ruined city was finally liberated on 11 April 1944 . Kerch was awarded the title Hero City in 1973 . Minsk . The city of Minsk , capital of present - day Belarus , was encircled by advancing German forces in late June 1941 . Trapped in a vast pocket , the Soviets defended their positions desperately . Their resistance was broken on 9 July , with over 300 , 000 Soviet troops taken captive . During the following three - year occupation , the Germans killed about 400 , 000 civilians in and around the city . The Minsk area became a centre for the Soviet partisan activity behind enemy lines . Minsk was awarded the title Hero City in 1974 . Tula . Tula , a historical Russian city with important military industry South of Moscow , became the target of a German offensive to break Soviet resistance in the Moscow area between 24 October and 5 December 1941 . The heavily fortified city held out , however , and secured the Southern flank during the Soviet defence of Moscow and the subsequent counter - offensive . Tula was awarded the title Hero City in 1976 . Murmansk . The city of Murmansk , located on the Kola Peninsula close to the Norwegian and Finnish borders , was a strategically important sea port and industrial city . It was the only Soviet port on the northern coast that did not freeze in the winter , and was vital for the transport of supplies to the South . German forces , including 800 Finns under German command , launched an offensive against Murmansk on 29 June 1941 . More than 180 , 000 grenades and inflammable shells were fired on the city itself . Fierce Soviet resistance in the tundra and several Soviet counter - attacks made an Axis breakthrough impossible , however . Axis forces discontinued their attacks in late October 1941 , having failed to take Murmansk or to cut off the Karelian railway line . Murmansk was awarded the title Hero City in 1985 . Smolensk . Located on the approaches to Moscow , the city of Smolensk saw fierce fighting in the summer of 1941 . German armoured divisions of Army Group Centre began an offensive on July 10 , 1941 to encircle Soviet forces in the Smolensk area . Soviet resistance was strong , and several counter - attacks were conducted . The Soviets even managed to temporarily break the German encirclement and to evacuate troops out of the pocket . The battle ended in early September . The bitter fighting had considerably delayed the overall German advance toward Moscow , so that defence lines further east could be strengthened . Smolensk was awarded the title Hero City in 1985 . Similar awards in other countries . A number of other countries also awarded their highest military decorations to cities or other territorial units in commemoration of events of World War II . The Communist Yugoslavian government awarded the Order of the National Hero to eight separate Hero Cities of Yugoslavia ( " grad heroj " in Serbian / Croatian ) : Belgrade , Zagreb , Ljubljana , Novi Sad , Prilep , Pristina , Titov Drvar , Cetinje . The Republic of Cuba awards the title of Hero City to those cities with recognized military history , either in the 19th or 20th centuries . The most prominent example of these is the Hero City of Santiago de Cuba , awarded as such for its part in both Independence Wars against the Spanish , the Spanish – American War and the Cuban Revolution . In Italy , a number of cities have been awarded the Gold Medal of Military Valor . In the British Empire , the George Cross was awarded to the island of Malta in 1942 .