Volgograd (Stalingrad)

 Having heard I had recently been to Volgograd, I was asked if I would write a post about the city. I guess tennis players can temporarily come out of retirement, so I will do the same.

My doing so does not represent any change in my view about Russia annexing part of a neighbouring country.

By the way, anyone stirring up separatism in Russia can face up to 5 years in jail. Bit of a double standard there, wouldn’t you say?.

Volgograd is better known to the world as Stalingrad. In the winter of 1942/43 the Sixth Army, pride of the Wehrmacht, was surrounded by the Russians, besieged and crushed. A quarter of a million Axis soldiers were killed or captured. Vast numbers of Russian soldiers died. One of the turning points of the war.

I watched the BBC series ‘The World at War’ some years ago and had more recently read Antony Beevor’s book ‘Stalingrad’, so could not pass up the opportunity to see this historic city while I was in the neighbourhood.

During the course of the battle Stalingrad was completely trashed and subsequently rebuilt. If I had been placed blindfolded in today’s city and then asked where I was, I might have guessed some suburb of Moscow. There’s not much left of the pre-battle city.

Volgograd sprawls for many kilometres along the western bank of the wide and lovely Volga River. Beside the river the bank rises fairly steeply a little way, then a few kilometres of low rolling country before the endless, flat steppe. The most hilly area is called Mamaev Kurgan – a site of ferocious fighting. On the highest point a monumental statue ‘The Motherland Calls, has been erected. Constructed in 1967 (by the same engineer who designed the Ostankino Tower) I had been keen to see this statue since I saw pictures of it some years ago. It did not disappoint. Still the largest statue of a woman in the world – it is gigantic.  Apparently it stands purely under its own weight - it is not fixed to its foundations, and there is some concern about shifting. 

The Motherland Calls

The grain elevator was also another high vantage point fiercely fought over. It is still standing. I had seen pictures and film of the grain elevator, battered and under attack by the Germans. It was an interesting feeling, standing there, actually looking at this same building over 70 years later. 

The Grain Elevator under attack

The Grain Elevator today

More poignant, though, was finding the final headquarters of Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus, commander of the 6^th Army. The Univermag Department store still stands and in its gloomy basement Paulus finally decided to surrender. Even more surprising, an unassuming metal door leads to some steps and down into that same basement, now a museum. And there is Paulus’s room….small, cold and dingy. He must have wondered how it had all come to this.

Soviet troops outside the Univermag building

The Univermag building in 2014

Last Headquarter's of the 6th Army in the Univermag basement

Field Marshall Friedrich Paulus's room (the red dots are to stop people walking into the glass)

Paulus on his way to surrender

One building, the old Flour Mill, was left intact to show the state of the city after the conflict. Unfortunately, it had a high fence around it while I was there and work was going on inside. It does not seem to have occurred to whoever is managing this work that a viewing platform to allow the public see this very significant site would have been helpful. A number of other people were also wandering around trying to get photos over the fence.

The Flour Mill - built by Germans in the late 19th century, trashed by Germans in the mid 20th century. All makes a lot of sense.

I don’t normally write this much in my posts, so I’ll finish at the Barmaley Fountain. There is a famous photograph from the battle, this fountain of children dancing around a crocodile against a dramatic contrast of ruined buildings. The fountain survived the battle, but some dimwit in the 1950s had it removed. Last year a near identical statue was installed in the same place, in front of the Volgograd railway station. This station was bombed by a terrorist last December – repair works still go on.  

Iconic photo of the Barmaley Fountain

Reconstructed Barmaley Fountain. If you look closely you'll see that while they are quite similar, there are many differences of detail.