Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich

Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich

Language: English

Pages: 512

ISBN: 1610397185

Format: PDF / Kindle (mobi) / ePub


The turning point of World War II came at Stalingrad. Hitler’s soldiers stormed the city in September 1942 in a bid to complete the conquest of Europe. Yet Stalingrad never fell. After months of bitter fighting, 100,000 surviving Germans, huddled in the ruined city, surrendered to Soviet troops.

During the battle and shortly after its conclusion, scores of Red Army commanders and soldiers, party officials and workers spoke with a team of historians who visited from Moscow to record their conversations. The tapestry of their voices provides groundbreaking insights into the thoughts and feelings of Soviet citizens during wartime.

Legendary sniper Vasily Zaytsev recounted the horrors he witnessed at Stalingrad: “You see young girls, children hanging from trees in the park.[...] That has a tremendous impact.” Nurse Vera Gurova attended hundreds of wounded soldiers in a makeshift hospital every day, but she couldn’t forget one young amputee who begged her to avenge his suffering. “Every soldier and officer in Stalingrad was itching to kill as many Germans as possible,” said Major Nikolai Aksyonov.

These testimonials were so harrowing and candid that the Kremlin forbade their publication, and they were forgotten by modern history—until now. Revealed here in English for the first time, they humanize the Soviet defenders and allow Jochen Hellbeck, in Stalingrad, to present a definitive new portrait of the most fateful battle of World War II.

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They said there might come a time when I would have to do that, but I said that so long as I have any self-respect I would not get down on my knees for anyone, nor would I change out of uniform. It’s disgraceful for a military man. I wrote an article about Russian honor—it’s going to be in Red Star—about the honor of war, about how a warrior should behave, regardless of the situation.67 I got back from Spain in 1937 and took some time to relax. I’d been traveling for twenty-five days. I went to

at, 341 devil’s domes on, 336 Grossman and, 425–436 prisoners at, 348–349 Rodimtsev and, 293, 301, 305 snipers at, 337–339, 365–366 Stalin and, 332, 341 284th Rifle Division and, 332–356 Zaytsev and, 359 Mamekov, Mikhail, 65 Manstein, Erich von, 10–11, 15 Markelov (commander), 165, 195, 197 Marshall, Samuel, 79–80 Marxism, 23–24, 47, 224 Mass-Observation, 468 (n. 271) Matevosyan, Pavel Petrovich, 90, 91, 121, 122, 126 (photo) Matyukha (soldier), 321 Medal for Battle Merit, 312,

a good master vulcanizer, childless, had a wife who worked in Factory no. 221. What else did he need? He couldn’t be trusted. He couldn’t be sent to the front. [ . . . ] Some looting occurred, beginning on the second or third day of the bombing. Flour was being taken, basements were being broken into. This necessitated extraordinary measures. In some districts people were shot on sight. Several people were shot. Afterward, the problem more or less stopped, though incidents of illegal looting

the beleaguered 62nd Army. Zhukov began preparations but objected to the time frame, which he regarded as too narrow, since several of the divisions planned for the offensive had yet to arrive. He believed that a coordinated attack could take place no sooner than September 6. On September 3 the front commander, Yeryomenko, reported to Stalin of heavy bombing in the city, signaling that the German armies were about to strike. In response Stalin cabled an urgent telegraph to Zhukov: “Stalingrad may

hit from a two-ton bomb. He was buried together with his staff workers.” “Don’t use a building for a command post. Better to have it on open ground—but with plenty of camouflage. Buildings are dangerous. Use them as strong points and dig communication lines between them. Make forward exits that point toward the enemy, deep slit trenches, and use them. You’ve got to be cunning and change your firing positions often.” And with those parting words I went to see my new commanding officer at the

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