On February 2nd, 2025 we are proud to remember, but also obliged to remind mankind of a very important event for all of human history. This is the victory of the Soviet Red Army in Stalingrad. The battle took place 82 years ago in 1943 and played a critical role in the outcome of the Second World War and in defeating Fascism and Nazism, which dominated most of Europe at that time.
Today we have the obligation to remind our elders, but also to teach our youth about the real events that took place back then, because the falsification of history, pursued by the West for many years to conflate Nazism/Fascism with Russian Communism, cannot be ignored.
Certain individuals want to identify the extremely terror-filled unprovoked conquests of Nazi Germany with the Soviet Union’s heroic campaign to liberate Europe from the “brown plague” with its wicked anti-human ideology. This mission to mislead the public into thinking the Red Army and Wehrmacht were two side of the same coin has one and only one goal: To diminish the contribution that the then Soviet Union had in eradicating Nazism and Fascism, thus tarnishing the image of today’s Russia as the successor country to the USSR in the eyes of the world. Furthermore, they want to diminish the pride felt by the Russian people and especially the youth to make them question the heroic past of their ancestors and thus facilitate the weakening of Russian national identity and unity.
Sadly, the falsification of history continues especially today. Toleration of lies has led to the revival of the vilest ideas of the early 20th century. Modern neo-Nazi and neo-Fascist movements have been revived, spread and strengthened, mainly in today’s Europe, which in some cases reaches the point of controlling power and imposing forms of terrorism on a part of the population that does not tolerate the revival of this type of ideology. The most blatant example of which, is the Kiev regime that came to power after the Maidan coup.
So let us now take a closer look at this great event, this truly epic and horrific Battle of Stalingrad.
The scale of the fight was:
● It was the largest battle in the entire military history of mankind, extremely bloody and heroic, it began on the 17th of July, 1942, ended on the 2nd of February, 1943 and lasted for 200 days.
● The length of the front line ranged from 400 to 850 km.
● At different stages, more than 2,100,000 men took part in the fighting on both sides.
● In terms of objectives, scale and intensity of fighting, the Battle of Stalingrad surpassed all previous battles in world history.
● It was one of the bloodiest fights of all time.
● The Soviet Union’s casualties amounted to: 1,130,000 men, including 480,000 dead.
● The combined losses of the Axis countries were: 1,500,000 men, including 500,000 dead.
The military significance of the victory at Stalingrad was:
● It prevented the Nazis from moving further to secure the oil resources of the Caucasus.
● Stalingrad had ideological significance bearing the name of the nation’s leader. This city also had many valuable enterprises many of which were quickly moved elsewhere just in time.
● This victory sparked the Red Army’s counter-offensive.
● This caused a radical and sudden change not only in the outcome of the Great Patriotic War, but of the entire Second World War. The Germans spent the rest of the war in retreat fighting on their back foot.
● The Axis powers lost 25% of their forces fighting on this Soviet-German front.
The political significance of the victory at Stalingrad was:
● Japan finally abandoned plans to open a second front designed to put pressure on the Soviets.
● Turkey decided not to invade the USSR.
● Relations between Italy, Romania and Hungary with Germany deteriorated because of the heavy losses suffered by their troops.
Stalingrad proved, above all, the resilience of the Soviet soldiers. No German city fought like Stalingrad. And the then heroic slogan of the defenders of Stalingrad, which showed their determination to make sacrifices, while not retreating an inch, “There is no land beyond the Volga for us!”, is engraved on the walls in front of the memorial complex erected in today’s Volgograd. The words of the then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill: “Stalingrad itself became a symbol of courage and steadfastness of the Russian people, but at the same time a symbol of the greatest human martyrdom”, reflect the unparalleled patriotism and heroism of the Soviet Army to achieve victory over the Nazis at any cost.