THE CITY OF Volgograd was renamed Stalingrad for a day Saturday as Russia marked the 70th anniversary of a brutal battle in which the Red Army defeated Nazi forces and changed the course of World War II.
Commuter buses emblazoned with pictures of the feared Soviet dictator ran across the southern city as patriotic Russians remembered what many view as the Soviet people’s greatest achievement.
“I remember the sadness of the war and the victory of the Soviet soldiers,” said World War II veteran Alexander Kudlyayev as he joined 10,000 others at a wreath-laying ceremony at Volgograd’s Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
“I came to honour my friends who died here,” added 89-year-old Stalingrad survivor Pyotr Chabarov.
The deaths of two million people
The half-year battle in 1943 in the city on the Volga River – much of it fought in hand-to-hand combat across the ruined streets – claimed the lives of two million people on both sides and eventually led to the German troops’ surrender.
The battle marked Hitler’s first big defeat and led to a Nazi retreat from Soviet territory after a lightning June 1941 invasion that had caught Stalin completely unaware.
The pulverised city was renamed Volgograd in 1961 after Soviet leaders admitted the extent of Stalin’s tyranny during his decades in power.
But the old city name has remained synonymous with the battle and Volgograd lawmakers have decided to revive it for the anniversary and five other days of the year.
“We will defend our country by commemorating the great Battle of Stalingrad — our great victory,” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin told veterans who gathered to watch a commemorative march in which a few hundred young soldiers paraded in replica 1943 uniforms.
“Any enemy and potential aggressor should see this, understand this and feel this,” the close ally of President Vladimir Putin said.
Putin – due to attend a fireworks display and concert in Volgograd later Saturday – has never denied Stalin’s murderous purges of innocent citizens and deadly forced collectivisation.
But he and other modern leaders have preferred to overlook the disastrous errors in military strategy Stalin made during the war.
And Putin in particular has preached a patriotic message since returning to a third term in the Kremlin last year.
Analysts believe this has helped him maintain support among many of the older middle class voters in the face of the first street protests of his rule among the young.
State media focused their attention on Volgograd throughout the week as they detailed the lavish preparations and Kremlin’s attention to veterans.
The Volgograd commemorations were broadcast live on the national news channels while state television broadcast a new dramatised documentary about the “battle that changed world history”.
ISS broadcast
Afternoon broadcasts also relayed a special message from the Russian crew members of the International Space Station – a tradition usually reserved only for the highest national holidays.
“We extend our wholehearted congratulations,” said ISS member Roman Romanenko.
“We will always be grateful for your feat. Its memory will live on for centuries.”
But not everyone was pleased that this memory now appeared to be once again firmly associated with Stalin’s name.
“This was a mistake,” said a woman who agreed to only give her first name Larisa.
“We are overestimating Stalin’s role in the war,” she said. “He was bloodthirsty.”
Three days ago, Germany marked the 80 year anniversary of Hitler’s rise to power, with Chancellor Angela Merkel urging the Germany public never to allow the apathy that permitted Hitler’s rule to return: “Human rights do not assert themselves on their own; freedom does not emerge on its own; and democracy does not succeed on its own.”
“A dynamic society… needs people who have regard and respect for one another, who take responsibility for themselves and others, where people take courageous and open decisions and who are prepared to accept criticism and opposition,” she said.
Merkel was speaking at the inauguration of an exhibition in Berlin to commemorate eight decades since Hitler became chancellor on January 30, 1933 – an anniversary which has aroused much interest in Germany.
Ninety-year-old Jewish-German author Inge Deutschkron also spoke to the Bundestag on Wednesday, recalling the day 80 year previously when everything changed, the Guardian reports.
Deutschkron recounted a conversation with her mother, when she was told: ”My child, you are a Jew. You belong to a minority and you must defend yourself.”
Additional reporting by Jennifer Wade
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