Remembering Stalingrad

Remembering Stalingrad

 

by Mark Perryman

At 6.45am on September 13, 1942 – 70 years ago on Thursday – the nazi assault on Stalingrad began with a vengeance.

The sky turned brown from the dust of fragmented buildings. The ground vibrated with the power of the explosions.

The German army advanced but faced the most ferocious resistance imaginable. The horror of fighting Soviet troops on their home turf with the Russian winter approaching fast became a reality for Hitler’s generals.

As German tanks entered the outskirts of the city the Soviets dug in, preparing to fight for every district, every street, every house.

Almost six months later – by February 1943 – the defeat of the nazi forces which had sought to encircle and destroy Stalingrad was complete.

Of each Red Army division sent to defend the city no more than a few hundred soldiers survived. The Soviets had suffered 1.1 million casualties, including 485,751 deaths.

For Hitler, defeat at Stalingrad was the beginning of the end. The Red Army’s terrible sacrifice had a powerful effect around the world, especially on resistance movements in occupied Europe.

The Russians who had borne the brunt of the German onslaught were now turning the tide. A year later they would be joined by the western allies, who opened a second front with the D-Day landings in Normandy.

Despite the rampant anti-communism that dominated the media during the cold war the legacy of Stalingrad was never entirely extinguished from history.

The battle was the focus of military historian Anthony Beevor’s 1998 tome of the same name.

More recently a BBC documentary fronted by father-and-son team Peter and Dan Snow investigated what Stalingrad represented.

From 1941 the Communist Party of Great Britain had been at the forefront of campaigns for the allies to launch an assault on nazi-occupied western Europe to relieve the inhuman pressure on the Soviet Union.

It was without doubt the most popular of all the popular fronts the party ever participated in.

But even the most dedicated communist could barely have imagined the breadth of celebration when victory at Stalingrad was secured. It extended even to King George VI, who commissioned the Sword of Stalingrad – engraved with the words: “To the steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad, a gift as a token of the homage of the British people.” The sword was presented personally to Stalin by Churchill.

Much of World War II anniversary-marking divorces the history of the period from its politics.

It’s important for us to contest that, rooting the anniversary in anti-fascism, then and now.

This was the inspiration behind Philosophy Football’s new Stalingrad T-shirts – not to commodify the heroism of the Red Army but to provide a platform for that history.

Designer Hugh Tisdale explains the images on the T-shirts as “covering the civilian as well as the military contribution to the Stalingrad victory, the role of morale-boosting posters and slogans.

“This was a visual culture that mixed the photographic and the typographic to create images that have become icons.”

Slogans such as “Nobody is forgotten. Nothing is forgotten” are taken from Russian poet Olga Bergholz, whose radio broadcasts throughout the siege of Leningrad came to represent the voice of Russia’s resistance to the nazis.

Throughout Russia and ex-Soviet states such as Ukraine, Belarus and Kazakhstan the monuments to the sacrifices of 1941-5 remain.

The Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Kiev proved one of the most popular attractions on the Euro 2012 tourist trail for visiting football fans this summer.

The generation that was awarded the Order of the Great Patriotic War is passing away. Yet the number of Soviet citizens who qualified for that medal – over 11 million – gives an idea of the scale of the battles fought – and won – for our liberty today.