Russia commemorates pivotal Battle of Stalingrad
VOLGOGRAD, Russia |
VOLGOGRAD, Russia (Reuters) – The city of Volgograd re-adopted its old name of Stalingrad for a few hours on Saturday as Russia commemorated the 70th anniversary of the epic battle that turned the tide of World War Two.
The victory in the six-month Battle of Stalingrad, which killed about 2 million people, is a symbol of national pride that has produced an outburst of patriotic fervor and, for some, nostalgia for the Soviet era and dictator Josef Stalin.
President Vladimir Putin flew to Volgograd, which was known as Stalingrad from 1925 until 1961. He laid a wreath and met veterans after a military parade led by soldiers in World War Two uniforms and featuring a wartime T-34 tank.
“I saw cities in Europe that were practically untouched by the war, countries that capitulated to the more powerful enemies even before war was declared,” First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin said in a speech at the parade.
“But we are not like that. Our grandfathers, our fathers, our older generation, our great leaders, fought here for each building, for each street.”
Hundreds of war veterans turned up for the parade on Volgograd’s central Square of the Fallen Fighters, their coats weighed down by medals, the youngest of them now 89.
After Stalingrad, Soviet troops fought their way westward to Berlin, sweeping into the German capital 27 months later.
For many of the veterans, the ceremony was bittersweet as they had lost so many comrades-in-arms and loved ones.
“It’s very important to remember this battle,” said Valentina Olekhina, who was celebrating her 70th birthday.
She was born in Stalingrad on February 2, 1943, the day German Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus told his forces to cease fire after he was captured in a cellar by Soviet troops.
“I think my mother went into labor out of relief or excitement. I was born outside but I don’t know exactly where,” she told Reuters.
SURGE OF PATRIOTISM
Putin did not attend the parade but flew to the city, 900 km (600 miles) south of Moscow, after holding a reception for veterans in the Kremlin on Friday.
He hopes to tap a vein of sentiment that harks back not only to before the 1991 collapse of Moscow’s Soviet empire but to a dictator disowned as a genocidal tyrant even by his Communist heirs. For all Stalin’s crimes, defeating Adolf Hitler is a source of immense pride in a country seeking a new identity.
“Using this example we have to consolidate our society and our country. And we will do it,”
Article source: PRNewswire
Did you enjoy this post? Why not leave a comment below and continue the conversation, or subscribe to my feed and get articles like this delivered automatically to your feed reader.
