70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Nearby is the inevitable bust of Marshal Zhukov. Since Stalin has been officially dethroned as the genius who won the war against the fascist aggressors, a cult has grown up around Zhukov, similar to the cults which Stalin himself fostered around Russian military heroes like Alexander Nevski, Suvorov and Kutuzov. There is a huge new equestrian statue of him just off Red Square in Moscow.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
This is the front page of Izvestiya announcing the Hitler-Stalin pact in August 1939. Official Russian history now blames Stalin’s “mistakes” for the disasters of the first year of the war, although it doesn’t go into much detail about them.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
The function of all Russian war memorials is not to teach history, or even commemorate the dead, but to glorify the heroism of the Red Army and the triumph of the Soviet state, of which the Russian state is understood to be the heir. The central dome of the Volgograd museum records the names of the Heroes of the Soviet Union of Stalingrad, flanked by the emblems of the Soviet Union.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Among the portraits of he the heroes of Stalingrad is found, curiously, one of Vasily Iosifovich Stalin, the handsome but drunken and dissolute son of the dictator, who served in the Stalingrad theatre as a Red Air Force officer. He was cashiered after his father’s death and died of alcoholism in 1962.
Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
The museum also has quite a lot of captured German booty, including a whole shelf of Iron Crosses and other medals, uniforms, standards and equipment.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Here is a selection of German ceremonial knives. Experts here might be able to identify them.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
At Teheran in 1943, Churchill presented Stalin with the Sword of Stalingrad, a gift from King George VI on behalf of the British people. The sword was hidden away during the Cold War, but is now on display in the museum.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Although official Russian history still largely insists that the Soviet Union won the war by itself, some recognition is given to the role of the western allies. Here we see Stalin, Churchill and “Garry Truman” (Russian has no “h”) on the front page of Krasnaya Zvezda, the Red Army newspaper, on 10 May 1945. At the top of the page appears the slogan Смерть немецким оккупантам (Smert Nemetskim Okkupantam! Death to the German occupiers!)
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Here is the Big Three at Yalta in bronze. Note that Stalin is speaking while Roosevelt and Churchill listen.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Inside the upper level of the museum is a 360-degree diorama of the Battle of Stalingrad. It’s rather dimly lit so it doesn’t photograph very well. Here we see the surrender of Paulus.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Outside, young tankisti of the future clamber over the T-34s.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
All over the city there are small memorials like this, some of them marking the sites of particular actions during the battle.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Further to the north-east is the hill called Mamaev Kurgan, which the Soviets and Germans fought over for weeks. It has now been turned into a huge memorial complex, featuring one of the world’s largest statues, the 85-meter high figure of Mother Russia wielding a sword.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
On the way to the main site are avenues of very ugly “heroic” statuary like this. There must be a factory in Russia somewhere making these statues, because you see them everywhere and they all look the same.
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Re: 70th anniversary of Stalingrad: my Volgograd photos
Next to Mother Russia’s feet there is a huge domed memorial inside which a giant hand holds an eternal flame. Around the top of the cone from which the flame emits is written SLAVA SLAVA SLAVA (“glory glory glory”). The walls are all golden and sparkly. All this kitsch rather undermines the solemn intent.
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