Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third ReichJochen Hellbeck 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. |
Contents
the fateful battle | 1 |
Revolutionary Army | 23 |
Commanders and Commissars | 38 |
Forms of Combat | 59 |
The Commission in Stalingrad | 77 |
Agrafena Pozdnyakova | 132 |
Vasily Grossmans In the Line of the Main Drive | 192 |
The Capture of Field Marshal Paulus | 222 |
Guards Division General Alexander Rodimtsev | 291 |
Nurse Vera Gurova | 311 |
Regimental Commander Alexander Gerasimov | 324 |
Sniper Vasily Zaytsev | 356 |
Alexander Parkhomenko | 374 |
The Germans Speak | 399 |
A German Diary from the Kessel | 422 |
Nine Accounts of the War | 263 |
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
16th Panzer Division 308th Rifle Division 38th Motor Rifle 62nd Army 64th Army antitank artillery asked attack basement battle of Stalingrad bombs building bunker Captain chief of staff Chuikov Colonel combat command post commissar Committee Communist comrade defense divisional commander enemy everything fighting fire forces front line German soldiers grenades Grossman Guards historians infantry interview IRI RAN Ivan January killed Komsomol Latoshinka machine guns Major Mamayev Kurgan meters military Mints mortar Moscow Motor Rifle Brigade night NKVD November October Panzer party Patriotic War Paulus platoon prisoners razd Red Army Red Army soldiers Red October factory regimental commander Rodimtsev Roske Russian sent September shells shooting shot Shumilov sniper Soviet Union Stalin Stalingrad Front Stalingradskaia started submachine gunners surrender tanks told took Tractor factory trenches troops Tsaritsyn units Vasily Vasily Grossman Vasily Zaytsev voiny Volga Volga Military Flotilla Wehrmacht workers wounded Zayonchkovsky Zaytsev