The war broke into Stalingrad suddenly. August 23, 1942. Just the day before, residents heard on the radio that fighting was taking place on the Don, almost 100 kilometers from the city. All businesses, shops, cinemas, kindergartens were open, schools were preparing for the new school year.

But that afternoon, everything collapsed overnight. The German 4th Air Force launched its bombing attack on the streets of Stalingrad. Hundreds of planes, making one approach after another, systematically destroyed residential areas. The history of wars has never known such a massive destructive attack. There was no concentration of our troops in the city at that time, so all the enemy’s efforts were aimed at destroying the civilian population.

Nobody knows how many thousands of Stalingrad residents died in those days in the basements of collapsed buildings, suffocated in earthen shelters, and burned alive in their houses. The authors of the collection, members of the Regional Public Organization “Children of Wartime Stalingrad in the City of Moscow,” write about how those terrible events remained in their memory.

“We ran out of our underground shelter,” recalls Gury Khvatkov, he was 13 years old. – Our house burned down. Many houses on both sides of the street were also on fire. Father and mother grabbed my sister and me by the hands. There are no words to describe the horror we felt. Everything around was burning, crackling, exploding, we ran along the fiery corridor towards the Volga, which was not visible because of the smoke, although it was very close. The screams of people distraught with horror could be heard all around. A lot of people gathered on the narrow edge of the shore. The wounded lay on the ground along with the dead. Above, on the railway tracks, wagons filled with ammunition were exploding. Train wheels and burning debris were flying over our heads. Burning streams of oil moved along the Volga. It seemed that the river was burning... We ran down the Volga. Suddenly we saw a small tugboat. We had barely climbed the ladder when the ship departed. Looking back, I saw a solid wall of a burning city.”

Hundreds of German planes, descending low over the Volga, shot at residents trying to cross to the left bank. Rivermen transported people on ordinary pleasure steamers, boats, and barges. The Nazis set them on fire from the air. The Volga became the grave for thousands of Stalingrad residents.
In his book “The Secret Tragedy of the Civilian Population in the Battle of Stalingrad” T.A. Pavlova quotes a statement from an Abwehr officer who was captured at Stalingrad:

“We knew that Russian people had to be destroyed as many as possible in order to prevent the possibility of any resistance after the establishment of a new order in Russia.”

Soon, the destroyed streets of Stalingrad became a battlefield, and many residents who miraculously survived the bombing of the city faced a difficult fate. They were captured by the German occupiers. The Nazis drove people out of their homes and drove them in endless columns across the steppe into the unknown. Along the way, they picked burnt ears of corn and drank water from puddles. For the rest of their lives, even among small children, fear remained - just to keep up with the column - those who lagged behind were shot.

In these cruel circumstances, events occurred that could be studied by psychologists. What perseverance a child can show in the struggle for life! Boris Usachev was only five and a half years old at that time when he and his mother left the destroyed house. The mother was about to give birth. And the boy began to realize that he was the only one who could help her on this difficult road. They spent the night in the open air, and Boris dragged up straw to make it easier for his mother to lie on the frozen ground, and collected ears of corn and ears of corn. They walked 200 kilometers before they managed to find a roof - to stay in a cold barn in a village. The kid walked down the icy slope to the ice hole to fetch water and collected firewood to heat the barn. In these inhuman conditions, a girl was born...

It turns out that even a young child can instantly realize what a danger that threatens death is... Galina Kryzhanovskaya, who was not even five years old at the time, recalls how she, sick, with a high fever, lay in a house where the Nazis ruled: “I remember how one the young German began to swagger at me, bringing a knife to my ears and nose, threatening to cut them off if I moaned and coughed.” In these terrible moments, not knowing a foreign language, the girl realized by one instinct what danger she was in, and that she should not even squeak, let alone shout: “Mom!”

Galina talks about how they survived while under occupation. “Because of hunger, my sister and I’s skin was rotting alive, our legs were swollen. At night, my mother crawled out of our underground shelter and made her way to the garbage pit, where the Germans dumped scraps, scraps, and intestines...”
When the girl was bathed for the first time after suffering, they saw gray hair in her hair. So from the age of five she walked with a gray lock.

German troops pushed our divisions towards the Volga, capturing the streets of Stalingrad one after another. And new columns of refugees, guarded by the occupiers, stretched to the west. Strong men and women were herded into carriages to be driven like slaves to Germany, children were driven aside with rifle butts...

But in Stalingrad there were also families who remained with our fighting divisions and brigades. The front line passed through streets and ruins of houses. Caught in disaster, residents took refuge in basements, earthen shelters, sewer pipes, and ravines.

This is also an unknown page of the war, which the authors of the collection reveal. In the very first days of the barbaric raids, shops, warehouses, transport, roads, and water supply systems were destroyed. The food supply to the population was cut off and there was no water. I, as an eyewitness to those events and one of the authors of the collection, can testify that during the five and a half months of defense of the city, the civil authorities were not given any food or a single piece of bread. However, there was no one to extradite - the leaders of the city and districts immediately evacuated beyond the Volga. No one knew whether there were inhabitants in the fighting city and where they were.

How did we survive? Only by the mercy of the Soviet soldier. His compassion for hungry and exhausted people saved us from hunger. Everyone who survived the shelling, explosions, and whistling bullets remembers the taste of frozen soldier’s bread and brew made from millet briquettes.

Residents knew what mortal danger the soldiers were exposed to, who, on their own initiative, set off across the Volga with a load of food for us. Having occupied Mamayev Kurgan and other heights of the city, the Germans sank boats and boats with targeted fire, and only a few of them sailed to our right bank at night.

Many regiments, fighting in the ruins of the city, found themselves on meager rations, but, seeing the hungry eyes of children and women, the fighters shared the last with them.

Three women and eight children were hiding in our basement under a wooden house. Only the older children, who were 10-12 years old, came out of the basement to get porridge or water: women could be mistaken for scouts. One day, I crawled into the ravine where the soldiers’ kitchens stood.

I waited out the shelling in the craters until I got to the place. Soldiers were walking towards me with light machine guns, boxes of ammunition, and rolling guns. I determined by the smell that behind the dugout door there was a kitchen. I stomped around, not daring to open the door and ask for porridge. An officer stopped in front of me: “Where are you from, girl?” Hearing about our basement, he took me to his dugout on the slope of a ravine. He placed a pot of pea soup in front of me. “My name is Pavel Mikhailovich Korzhenko,” said the captain. “I have a son, Boris, who is your age.”

The spoon shook in my hand as I ate the soup. Pavel Mikhailovich looked at me with such kindness and compassion that my soul, constrained by fear, became limp and trembled with gratitude. I will come to his dugout many more times. He not only fed me, but also talked about his family, read letters from his son. It happened that he talked about the exploits of the division’s soldiers. He seemed like a native person to me. When I left, he always gave me briquettes of porridge with him for our basement... His compassion will become my moral support for the rest of my life.

Then, as a child, it seemed to me that war could not destroy such a kind person. But after the war, I learned that Pavel Mikhailovich Korzhenko died in Ukraine during the liberation of the city of Kotovsk...

Galina Kryzhanovskaya describes such a case. A young fighter jumped into the underground where the Shaposhnikov family—a mother and three children—was hiding. “How did you live here?” – he was surprised and immediately took off his duffel bag. He put a piece of bread and a briquette of porridge on the trestle bed. And he immediately jumped out. The mother of the family rushed after him to say thank you. And then, before her eyes, the soldier was killed by a bullet. “If he hadn’t been delayed, he wouldn’t have shared bread with us, maybe he would have managed to slip through a dangerous place,” she later lamented.

The generation of wartime children was characterized by an early awareness of their civic duty, a desire to do what was in their power to “help the fighting Motherland,” no matter how pompous it sounds today. But such were the young Stalingrad residents.

After the occupation, finding herself in a remote village, eleven-year-old Larisa Polyakova and her mother went to work in a hospital. Taking a medical bag, every day in the cold and blizzard Larisa set out on a long journey to bring medicines and dressings to the hospital. Having survived the fear of bombing and hunger, the girl found the strength to care for two seriously wounded soldiers.

Anatoly Stolpovsky was only 10 years old. He often left his underground shelter to get food for his mother and younger children. But the mother did not know that Tolik was constantly crawling under fire into the neighboring basement, where the artillery command post was located. The officers, having noticed enemy firing points, transmitted commands by telephone to the left bank of the Volga, where the artillery batteries were located. One day, when the Nazis launched another attack, the telephone wires were torn apart by an explosion. Before Tolik’s eyes, two signalmen died, who, one after another, tried to restore communication. The Nazis were already tens of meters from the checkpoint when Tolik, putting on a camouflage suit, crawled to look for the place of the cliff. Soon the officer was already transmitting commands to the artillerymen. The enemy attack was repulsed. More than once, at decisive moments of battle, the boy under fire reconnected the broken connection. Tolik and his family were in our basement, and I witnessed how the captain, giving his mother loaves of bread and canned food, thanked her for raising such a brave son.

Anatoly Stolpovsky was awarded the medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad.” With a medal on his chest, he came to study in his 4th grade.

In basements, earthen holes, underground pipes - everywhere where the inhabitants of Stalingrad were hiding, despite the bombing and shelling, hope glimmered - to live to see victory. This was also the dream of those who were kidnapped by the Germans from their hometown hundreds of kilometers away, despite the cruel circumstances. Iraida Modina, who was 11 years old, talks about how they met the Red Army soldiers. During the days of the Battle of Stalingrad, their family - a mother and three children - was driven into a concentration camp barracks by the Nazis. Miraculously, they got out of it and the next day they saw that the Germans had burned the barracks along with the people. The mother died from disease and hunger. “We were completely exhausted and resembled walking skeletons,” wrote Iraida Modina. – There are purulent abscesses on the heads. We could hardly move... One day, our older sister Maria saw a horseman outside the window with a five-pointed red star on his hat. She opened the door and fell at the feet of the entering soldiers. I remember how she, in a shirt, hugging the knees of one of the fighters, shaking with sobs, repeated: “Our saviors have come. My dear ones!” The soldiers fed us and stroked our shorn heads. They seemed to us the closest people in the world.”

The victory in Stalingrad became an event on a planetary scale. Thousands of welcoming telegrams and letters arrived in the city, and wagons loaded with food and building materials arrived. Squares and streets were named after Stalingrad. But no one in the world rejoiced at the victory as much as the Stalingrad soldiers and the residents of the city that survived the battles. However, the press of those years did not report how difficult life remained in the destroyed Stalingrad. Having got out of their wretched shelters, the residents walked for a long time along narrow paths among endless minefields, burnt chimneys stood in the place of their houses, they carried water from the Volga, where the smell of corpses still remained, and they cooked food over fires.

The entire city was a battlefield. And when the snow began to melt, the corpses of our and German soldiers were discovered in the streets, in craters, factory buildings, everywhere where there were battles. It was necessary to interred them.

“We returned to Stalingrad, and my mother went to work at an enterprise that was located at the foot of Mamayev Kurgan,” recalls Lyudmila Butenko, who was 6 years old. “From the first days, all the workers, mostly women, had to collect and bury the corpses of our soldiers who died during the assault on Mamayev Kurgan. You just have to imagine what the women experienced, some who became widows, and others who waited every day for news from the front, worrying and praying for their loved ones. In front of them were the bodies of someone’s husbands, brothers, sons. Mom came home tired and depressed.”

It’s hard to imagine this in our pragmatic times, but just two months after the end of the fighting in Stalingrad, volunteer construction teams appeared.

It started like this. Kindergarten worker Alexandra Cherkasova offered to restore the small building on her own in order to quickly accommodate the children. The women took up saws and hammers, plastered and painted themselves. Voluntary brigades that raised the destroyed city for free began to be called after Cherkasova. Cherkasov brigades were created in broken workshops, among the ruins of residential buildings, clubs, and schools. After their main shift, residents worked for another two to three hours, clearing roads and removing debris by hand. Even children collected bricks for their future schools.

“My mother also joined one of these brigades,” recalls Lyudmila Butenko. “The residents, who had not yet recovered from the suffering they had endured, wanted to help restore the city. They went to work in rags, almost all barefoot. And amazingly, you could hear them singing. Is it possible to forget something like this?

There is a building in the city called Pavlov's House. Being almost surrounded, the soldiers under the command of Sergeant Pavlov defended this line for 58 days. There was an inscription on the house: “We will defend you, dear Stalingrad!” The Cherkasovites who came to restore this building added one letter, and it was inscribed on the wall: “We will rebuild you, dear Stalingrad!”

With the passage of time, this selfless work of the Cherkasy brigades, which included thousands of volunteers, seems to be a truly spiritual feat. And the first buildings that were built in Stalingrad were kindergartens and schools. The city cared about its future.

The exploits of the children of wartime Stalingrad.

Like adults, children had to endure hunger, cold, and the death of relatives, and all this at such a young age. And they not only held on, but also did everything in their power for the sake of survival, for the sake of victory. This is how they themselves remember it.

“...The front was still relatively far from Stalingrad, and the city was already surrounded by fortifications. In the hot, stuffy summer, thousands of women and teenagers dug trenches, anti-tank ditches, built barges. I also took part in this. Or, as they said then, “he went behind the trenches.”

It was not easy to overcome the ground, hard as stone, without a pick or crowbar. The sun and wind were especially tormenting. The heat was drying and exhausting, and it wasn’t always hot. Sand and dust clogged my nose, mouth, and ears. We lived in tents, sleeping side by side on straw. We were so tired that we fell asleep instantly, barely touching the ground with our knees. And it’s not surprising: after all, they worked 12-14 hours a day. At first, we covered barely a kilometer during the shift, and then, after getting used to it and gaining experience, it was as much as three kilometers. Bloody calluses formed on the palms, which kept bursting and sore. Eventually they hardened.

Sometimes German planes swooped in and fired at us at low level with machine guns. It was very scary, women usually cried, crossed themselves, and others said goodbye to each other. Even though we boys tried to show ourselves as almost men, we were still afraid too. After each such flight, we were sure to miss someone..."

Work in hospitals.

“Many of us, children of Stalingrad, count down our “stay” in the war from August 23. I felt it here, in the city, a little earlier, when the girls of our eighth grade were sent to help convert the school into a hospital. Everything was allotted, as we were told, 10-12 days.

We started by emptying the classrooms of desks, putting cots in their place and filling them with bedding. But the real work began when one night a train with wounded arrived, and we helped carry them from the cars to the station building. It was not at all easy to do this. After all, our strengths were not so great. That’s why there were four of us serving each stretcher. Two of them grabbed the handles, and two more crawled under the stretcher and, raising themselves slightly, moved along with the main ones. The wounded were moaning, others were delirious, and even cursed violently. Most of them were black with smoke and soot, torn, dirty, and wearing bloody bandages. Looking at them, we often roared, but we did our job. But even after we, together with the adults, took the wounded to the hospital, they did not let us go home.

There was enough work for everyone: they looked after the wounded, rewrapped bandages, and carried out vessels. But the day came when they told us: “Girls, you must go home today.” And then it happened on August 23..."

Putting out lighters

“...One day our group, among which I was, heard the growing rumble of an enemy plane, and soon the whistle of falling bombs. Several lighters fell onto the roof, one of them ended up near me, sparkling dazzlingly. Out of surprise and excitement, I forgot for a while how to act. He hit her with a shovel. It flared up again, showering with a fountain of sparks, and, jumping, flew over the edge of the roof. Without causing any harm to anyone, she burned out on the ground in the middle of the yard.

There were other tamed lighters later on my account, but I especially remembered that first one. I proudly showed the pants burned by her sparks to the yard boys..."

Labor in production.

“... The war found me in a vocational school. Our educational process has changed dramatically. Instead of the required two years of training, after ten months I found myself at a tractor factory. We did not regret the shortened training. On the contrary, they tried to get to the workshop as quickly as possible so that the slogan “Everything is for the front!” Everything is for victory!” could be carried out not only by others, but also by us, teenagers.

Times were harsh, and there were practically no discounts for our age. We worked 12 hours a day. Out of habit, we quickly got tired. It was especially difficult if you were on the night shift. I then worked as a milling machine operator and was very proud of it. But there were also those among us (especially among the boy turners) who, in order to stand at the machine, placed boxes under their feet.

Rescue people on a boat.

“...Our family was “afloat” at that time. The fact is that dad worked as a mechanic on a small boat “Levanevsky”. On the eve of the start of the bombing of the city, the authorities sent the ship to Saratov for military uniforms and at the same time allowed the captain and my dad to take their families and leave them there. But as soon as we set sail, such bombing began that we had to turn back. Then the mission was cancelled, but we remained living on the boat.

But it was a completely different life than before - military life. We loaded ammunition and food and delivered it to the center. After this, wounded soldiers, women, old people, and children were taken on board and transported to the left bank. On the way back, it was the turn of the “civilian” half of the boat’s crew, that is, the captain’s wife and son, and my mother and me. Moving along the swaying deck from wounded to wounded, we adjusted their bandages, gave them something to drink, and calmed the seriously wounded soldiers, asking them to be patient a little until we reached the opposite shore.

All this had to be done under fire. German planes knocked down our mast and pierced us with machine-gun fire many times. Often the people taken on board died from these deadly stitches. During one such walk, the captain and dad were wounded, but they received urgent assistance on shore, and we again continued our dangerous voyages.

So unexpectedly, out of the blue, I found myself among the defenders of Stalingrad. True, I personally managed to do little, but if subsequently at least one fighter survived, whom I helped in some way, then I am happy.”

Participation in hostilities.

When the bombing began, Zhenya Motorin, a native Stalingrad resident, lost his mother and sister. So the fourteen-year-old teenager was forced to spend some time with the soldiers on the front line. They tried to evacuate him across the Volga, but due to constant bombing and shelling this was not possible. Zhenya experienced a real nightmare when, during another bombing, a soldier walking next to him covered the boy with his body. As a result, the soldier was literally torn to pieces by shrapnel, but Motorin remained alive. The amazed teenager ran from that place for a long time. And stopping in some dilapidated house, I realized that I was standing on the site of a recent battle, surrounded by the corpses of the Stalingrad defenders. A machine gun lay nearby, and Zhenya grabbed it and heard rifle shots and long bursts of machine gun fire.

There was a battle going on in the house opposite. A minute later, a long burst of machine gun fire hit the backs of the Germans who were coming to the rear of our soldiers. Zhenya, who saved the soldiers, has since become the son of the regiment.

Soldiers and officers later called the guy “Stalingrad Gavroche”. And medals appeared on the young defender’s tunic: “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”.

Intelligence, Beschasnova (Radyno) Lyudmila Vladimirovna.

“...I was sent to an orphanage on Klinskaya Street. Many kids were taken into families, and we were waiting to be sent to orphanages.

The situation at the front was difficult. The enemy approached the Don, and tens of kilometers remained to Stalingrad. It was difficult for adults to cross the line from the Don to the villages, since the scorched fields were very clearly visible, and all adults were detained. The command tried to send the guys on reconnaissance. Six children were taken from the orphanage.

We were prepared for reconnaissance for six days. From the albums we learned about enemy equipment, uniforms, insignia, symbols on vehicles, how to quickly count the number of soldiers in a column (4 people in a row - rows - platoon, 4 platoons - company, etc.). It would be even more valuable if you could accidentally look at the numbers on pages 1 and 2 in a soldier’s or officer’s book, and keep it all in your memory without writing anything down anywhere. Even the kitchen could tell a lot, since the number of field kitchens serving a certain area spoke about the approximate number of soldiers located in that area. All this was very useful to me, as the information was more complete and accurate.

Of course, the Germans were in no hurry to show their documents. But sometimes it was possible to win over the Germans and ask them to show photographs of Frau and Kinder, and this is the weakness of all front-line soldiers. The photographs were kept in the pockets of their jackets, with books nearby. Of course, not everyone allowed me to even open the book, but sometimes it was still possible. When crossing the front line it was not always very smooth. And they caught us and interrogated us.

My first assignment was for the Don in the Kumovka area. Front-line reconnaissance found a landing site, and E.K. Alekseeva and I (according to legend, my mother) were transported by boat to a shore occupied by the enemy. We had never seen living Germans, and we felt uneasy. It was an early morning. The sun was just rising. We turned a little so that it would not be noticeable that we were coming from the bank of the Don. And suddenly, unexpectedly, we found ourselves next to the road on which there was a column of motorcyclists. We squeezed each other's hands tightly and, pretending to be careless, walked through the rows, or rather between the motorcyclists. The Germans did not pay any attention to us, and we, out of fear, could not utter a single word. And only after walking a considerable distance did they breathe a sigh of relief and laugh. The baptism was completed and it became almost no longer scary. Patrols appeared ahead, they searched us and, after taking away the lard, we were strictly forbidden to walk here. We were treated rudely and we realized that we must always be on our guard and return back by a different route. We had to return in a day or two to the landing site and quietly say “black raven.” Anyone who has been on a quiet river at night knows how far even a slight splash can travel...

...There were no soldiers in the villages, but patrols created from Cossacks, and the headman lived in one of the houses. We were not allowed to drink from our wells. Bread was baked in the yard on cabbage leaves, but not shared with strangers. The houses were solid and not destroyed. The information that we were able to collect made it possible to return on time and report the situation in this area. A small hitch occurred along the route, which changed my future fate: we were returning home, and suddenly shelling began. We ran into the dugout, where there were old people and children. Everyone was praying. Look at Elena Konstantinovna, I also began to pray, but I did it for the first time and, apparently, incorrectly. Then the old man leaned over to me and quietly told me not to pray, and that this was not my mother. We returned and told everything about what we had seen and heard. They didn’t send me with anyone else and they changed the legend. She was almost believable. I supposedly lost my mother, I’m looking for her and moving away from the bombing. I came from Leningrad. This often helped to get food and pass through protected areas. I went on missions six more times.”

Rusanova Galina Mikhailovna.

“... Soon after arriving in Stalingrad, my mother died of typhus, and I ended up in an orphanage. Those who lived through the war as children remember how we unmistakably learned to distinguish systems of artillery guns, tanks, aircraft, and military insignia of the Nazi army by sound and silhouette. All this helped me when I became a scout.

I didn’t go on reconnaissance alone, I had a partner, twelve-year-old Leningrader Lyusya Radyno.

More than once we were detained by the Nazis. They interrogated. Both fascists and traitors who were in the service of enemies. The questions were asked “with an approach”, without pressure, so as not to frighten, however, we confidently tried to stick to our “legend”: “We are from Leningrad, we have lost relatives.”

It was easy to adhere to the “legend” because there was no fiction in it. And we pronounced the word “Leningrad” with special pride.

I will forever remember the July night of 1942. My partner Vanya and I were sent from the left wooded bank of the Don and left alone in territory occupied by the enemy.

And we met. On the road we were overtaken by two German soldiers on bicycles. Stopped. Searched. Finding nothing but bread, they were released.

This is how my first baptism of fire took place. Then, the first task of the reconnaissance department of the 62nd Army, which took part in the battles for Stalingrad, did not bring visible success: during a 25-kilometer raid behind enemy lines, neither German equipment nor troops - and all the same, it was the most difficult, because what's first.

My last assignment was in October 1942, when there were fierce battles for Stalingrad.

North of the tractor factory I had to pass a strip of land occupied by the Germans. Two days of endless attempts did not bring the desired success: every centimeter of that land was precisely targeted. Only on the third day did we manage to get onto the path that led to the German trenches.

As I was approaching, they called out to me; it turned out that I had walked into a minefield. The German took me across the field and handed me over to the authorities. They kept me as a servant for a week, barely fed me and interrogated me. Then a prisoner of war camp. Then - transfer to another camp, from which (what a happy fate) they were released.”

Verzhichinsky Yuri Nikolaevich.

“...On the descent from Raboche-Krestyanskaya there was a destroyed tank. I prepared to crawl over to it, and right next to the tank I found myself in front of our scouts. They asked what I saw on my way. I told them that German reconnaissance had just passed through and went under the Astrakhan Bridge. They took me with them. So I ended up in the 130th anti-aircraft mortar division.

... we decided to send him across the Volga at the first opportunity. But I “got accustomed” first to the mortar men, and then to the scouts, since I knew this area well.

... In the division, as a local, I had to cross the front line alone several times. I receive a task: under the guise of a refugee, go from the Kazan Church through Dar Gora, Sadovaya station. If possible, walk to the Lapshin Garden. Do not write down, do not sketch, just remember. Many local residents left the city through Dar Gora, Voroponovo station and beyond.

In the Dar Mountain area, not far from school 14, I was detained by German tank crews on suspicion that I was a Jew. It should be said that on my father’s side my relatives are Poles. I differed from the blond local boys in that I had jet black hair. The tankers handed me over to the Ukrainian SS men, either from Galicia or from Verkhovyna. And they, without further ado, decided to just hang him. But then I lost it. The fact is that German tanks have very short cannons, and the rope slipped.

They had just begun to hang them for the second time, and ... then the mortar shelling from our division began. This is a terrible sight. God forbid we ever come under such fire again. My executioners seemed to be blown away by the wind, and I, with a rope around my neck, rushed to run, not looking at the breaks.

Having run away a fair distance, I threw myself under the flooring of the destroyed house and threw my coat over my head. It was late October or early November, and I was wearing a winter coat. When I got up after the shelling, the coat looked like a “royal robe” - cotton wool was sticking out everywhere from the blue coat.”

A lesson in courage “Let’s never forget this, people...”

Board design: posters with quotes about Stalingrad; Battle of Stalingrad; children's drawings dedicated to the anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad.

Count them alive

How long ago

Was at the front for the first time

Suddenly Stalingrad was named.

Alexander Tvardovsky

Progress of the lesson

1st student.

The war has passed, the suffering has passed,

But pain calls to people.

Come on people, never

Let's not forget about this.

The song "Holy War" is playing.

Teacher. On June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began, which brought a lot of grief to our people. This war lasted exactly 1418 days. It claimed more than 40 million lives. And on July 17, 1942, ... years ago, the Battle of Stalingrad began - one of the largest in the Second World War.

The battle included two periods. The first - defensive - began with the Stalingrad strategic defensive operation on July 17 and lasted until November 18, 1942. Heavy, bloody battles began in the great bend of the Don, on the distant approaches to Stalingrad.

The staff of the Battle of Stalingrad Panorama Museum describe the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad as follows: scorched steppe, scorching sun, exhausted Soviet soldiers, satisfied Germans. Ours on foot, the Germans on motorcycles and tanks.

Fighting selflessly, Soviet soldiers, under pressure from superior enemy forces, were forced to retreat to the left bank of the Don. For a whole month there were battles on the external defensive withdrawal. The Germans' attempt to take Stalingrad on the move failed. They were able to advance only 60-80 km, but continued to rush towards the Volga, burning everything in their path.

“Order number 277 “Not a step back!”, dated July 27, 1942, despite its cruelty, was correct, many veterans believe, if not for it, our affairs would have been bad.”

Hitler's tanks, supported by motorized infantry, reached the northern outskirts of Stalingrad on August 23. It was on this day that the massive bombing of the city began. Enemy aircraft made up to 2 thousand sorties per day. Thousands of bombs fell on the city. The city was burning, the air was burning, the earth was burning...

The second period of the battle - the Stalingrad strategic offensive operation - began on November 19, 1942 and ended on February 2, 1943. The operation was carried out by troops of the Southwestern, Don and Stalingrad fronts with the assistance of the forces of the Volga military flotilla. During the fighting, the Soviet troops were additionally joined by the 1st and 2nd Guards, 5th Shock and 6th Armies, five tank and three mechanized corps, and six brigades.

In total, during the Battle of Stalingrad, the enemy lost about 1.5 million people killed, wounded, captured and missing - a quarter of their forces operating on the Soviet-German front.

The Battle of Stalingrad continued for a long time, 200 days and nights. She brought a radical change in the course of the war. We not only won the battle, we actually believed that we could win the war and defeat the Nazis.

Children read poetry.

1st student.

In due time - not too late and not too early -

Winter will come, the earth will freeze.

And you to Mamayev Kurgan

You will come on the second of February.

2nd student.

And there, at that frosty one,

At that sacred height,

You're on the wing of a white blizzard

Put red flowers.

3rd student.

And as if for the first time you notice,

What was it like, their military path!

February-February, soldier's month-

Blizzard in the face, snow up to the chest.

4th student.

A hundred years will pass. And a hundred snowstorms.

And we are all in their debt.

February-February. Soldier's month.

Carnations are burning in the snow.

5th student.

On the mound, which thundered with battles,

Who did not give up his height,

The dugouts are overgrown with feather grass,

Flowers grew along the trenches.

6th student.

A woman wanders along the banks of the Volga

And on that dear shore

He doesn’t collect flowers - he collects fragments,

Freezing at every step.

7th student.

He will stop, bow his head,

And he will sigh over every fragment,

And hold it in the palm of your hand,

And the sand will slowly shake off.

8th student.

Does youth remember the past?

Does he see the one who went into battle again...

Picks up the fragments. Kisses.

And takes it with you forever.

Teacher. Guys, you have read the poems of the wonderful poetess Margarita Agashina, who lived in our city and dedicated many of her works to her beloved city and the courageous defenders of the hero city. And she dedicated the song “A Birch Tree Grows in Volgograd” to the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad, Mamayev Kurgan.

The song “A birch tree grows in Volgograd” plays.

Teacher. Many word artists dedicated their works to our city. For example, the writer S. Alekseev, who wrote many stories about the Battle of Stalingrad. Listen to his story “Mamaev Kurgan”.

The teacher reads the story.

How do you understand the sentence “Like a harrier, Chernyshev’s head is gray.” Why did it happen?

II. A quiz dedicated to the defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad.

3. Name the worst day for the city. (August 23, 1943, when Nazi bombers carried out more than 2 thousand sorties.)

4. How many days did the Battle of Stalingrad last? (200 days.)

5. How long did Hitler want to take control of the city? (In 2 weeks.)

6. Where was the place that the defenders of Stalingrad called the main height of Russia? (Mamaev kurgan.)

7. What is the height of Mamayev Kurgan. (102 meters.)

8. Name the most famous monuments to the defenders of Stalingrad in our city. (Mamaev Kurgan, Panorama Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad.)

9. Which building has remained unrestored since the Battle of Stalingrad. Why is this done? (Mill. So that people do not forget the horrors of war.)

10. What was awarded to the city of Stalingrad for this great battle? (Order of Lenin and Gold Star of Hero.)

One of the largest battles of the Great Patriotic War was the Battle of Stalingrad. It lasted more than 200 days from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943. In terms of the number of people and equipment involved on both sides, world military history has never known examples of such battles. The total area of ​​the territory where intense fighting took place was more than 90 thousand square kilometers. The main result of the Battle of Stalingrad was the first crushing defeat of the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front.

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Previous events

By the beginning of the second year of the war, the situation at the fronts had changed. The successful defense of the capital, followed by a counterattack, made it possible to stop the rapid advance of the Wehrmacht. By April 20, 1942, the Germans were pushed back 150-300 km from Moscow. For the first time they encountered organized defense on a large section of the front and repelled the counter-offensive of our army. At the same time, the Red Army made an unsuccessful attempt to change the course of the war. The attack on Kharkov turned out to be poorly planned and brought huge losses, destabilizing the situation. More than 300 thousand Russian soldiers died or were captured.

With the arrival of spring, there was a lull on the fronts. The spring thaw gave both armies a respite, which the Germans took advantage of to develop a plan for the summer campaign. The Nazis needed oil like air. The oil fields of Baku and Grozny, the capture of the Caucasus, the subsequent offensive into Persia - these were plans of the German General Staff. The operation was called Fall Blau - “Blue Option”.

At the last moment, the Fuhrer personally made adjustments to the plan for the summer campaign - he divided Army Group South in half, formulating individual tasks for each part:

Correlation of forces, periods

For the summer campaign, the 6th Army under the command of General Paulus was transferred to Army Group B. It was she who was assigned key role in the offensive, the main goal fell on her shoulders - the capture of Stalingrad. To complete the task, the Nazis gathered enormous forces. 270 thousand soldiers and officers, about two thousand guns and mortars, and five hundred tanks were placed under the general’s command. We provided cover with the 4th Air Fleet.

On August 23, the pilots of this formation were almost wiped the city off the face of the earth. In the center of Stalingrad, after the air raid, a firestorm raged, tens of thousands of women, children, and old people died, and ¾ of the buildings were destroyed. They turned the thriving city into a desert covered with broken bricks.

By the end of July, Army Group B was supplemented by Hermann Hoth's 4th Tank Army, which included 4 army motorized corps and the SS Panzer Division Das Reich. These huge forces were directly subordinate to Paulus.

The Stalingrad Front of the Red Army, which was renamed the South-Western Front, had twice as many soldiers, was inferior in quantity and quality of tanks and aircraft. The formations needed to effectively defend an area 500 km long. The main burden of the fight for Stalingrad fell on the shoulders of the militia. Again, as in the battle for Moscow, workers, students, yesterday's schoolchildren, took up arms. The sky of the city was defended by the 1077th Anti-Aircraft Regiment, 80% of which consisted of girls 18-19 years old.

Military historians, analyzing the features of military operations, conditionally divided the course of the Battle of Stalingrad into two periods:

• defensive, from July 17 to November 18, 1942;
• offensive, from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943.

The moment the next Wehrmacht offensive began came as a surprise to the Soviet command. Although this possibility was considered by the General Staff, the number of divisions transferred to the Stalingrad Front existed only on paper. In fact, their number ranged from 300 to 4 thousand people, although each should have more than 14 thousand soldiers and officers. There was nothing to repel tank attacks with, since the 8th Air Fleet was not fully equipped and there were not enough trained reserves.

Fighting at distant approaches

Briefly, the events of the Battle of Stalingrad, its initial period, look like this:

Behind the meager lines that are in any history textbook, thousands of lives of Soviet soldiers are hidden, forever remaining in the Stalingrad land, the bitterness of retreat.

City residents worked tirelessly in factories converted into military ones. The famous tractor plant repaired and assembled tanks, which went from the workshops under their own power to the front line. People worked around the clock, staying overnight at their workplace and sleeping for 3-4 hours. All this is under continuous bombing. They defended themselves with the whole world, but there was clearly not enough strength.

When the advanced units of the Wehrmacht advanced 70 km, the Wehrmacht command decided to encircle the Soviet units in the area of ​​the villages of Kletskaya and Suvorovskaya, occupy the crossings across the Don, and immediately take the city.

For this purpose, the attackers were divided into two groups:

1. Northern: from parts of Paulus's army.
2. South: from units of the Gotha army.

As part of our army restructuring took place. On July 26, repelling the advance of the Northern Group, the 1st and 4th Tank Armies launched a counterattack for the first time. There was no such combat unit in the Red Army's staffing table until 1942. Encirclement was prevented, but on July 28 the Red Army left for the Don. The threat of disaster loomed over the Stalingrad front.

No step back!

During this difficult time, Order No. 227 of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR of July 28, 1942, or better known as “Not a step back!” appeared. The full text can be read in the article dedicated to the Battle of Stalingrad by Wikipedia. Now they call him almost cannibalistic, but at that moment the leaders of the Soviet Union had no time for moral torment. It was about the integrity of the country, the possibility of further existence. These are not just dry lines, prescriptive or regulating. He was an emotional appeal, call to defend the Motherland to the last drop of blood. A historical document that conveys the spirit of the era, dictated by the course of the war and the situation at the fronts.

On the basis of this order, penal units for soldiers and commanders appeared in the Red Army, and barrage detachments from soldiers of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs received special powers. They had the right to use the highest measure of social protection against looters and deserters, without waiting for a court verdict. Despite apparent cruelty, the troops accepted the order well. First of all, he helped restore order and improve discipline in the units. Senior commanders now have full leverage over negligent subordinates. Anyone guilty of violating the Charter or failure to comply with orders could end up in the penalty box: from privates to generals.

Fighting in the city

In the chronology of the Battle of Stalingrad, this period is allocated from September 13 to November 19. When the Germans entered the city, its defenders fortified themselves on a narrow strip along the Volga, holding the crossing. With the help of troops under the command of General Chuikov, Nazi units found themselves in Stalingrad, in real hell. There were barricades and fortifications on every street, every house became a center of defense. To avoid constant German bombing, our command took a risky step: to narrow the combat zone to 30 meters. With such a distance between the opponents, the Luftwaffe risked being bombed by its own.

One of the moments in the history of defense: during the battles on September 17, the Germans occupied the city station, then our troops drove them out of there. And so 4 times in one day. In total, the station's defenders changed 17 times. The eastern part of the city, which the Germans continuously attacked, defended from September 27 to October 4. There were battles for every house, floor, and room. Much later, the surviving Nazis would write memoirs in which they would call the city battles the “Rat War,” when a desperate battle was going on in the apartment in the kitchen, and the room had already been captured.

Artillery worked on both sides with direct fire, and there were continuous hand-to-hand fights. Defenders of the Barrikada, Silikat, and tractor factories desperately resisted. In a week, the German army advanced 400 meters. For comparison: at the beginning of the war, the Wehrmacht marched up to 180 km per day inland.

During the street fighting, the Nazis made 4 attempts to finally storm the city. Every two weeks, the Fuhrer demanded that Paulus put an end to the defenders of Stalingrad, who held a 25-kilometer-wide bridgehead on the banks of the Volga. With incredible efforts, spending a month, the Germans took the dominant height of the city - Mamayev Kurgan.

The defense of the mound went down in military history as example of boundless courage, the resilience of Russian soldiers. Now a memorial complex has been opened there, the world-famous sculpture “The Motherland Calls” stands, the defenders of the city and its residents are buried in mass graves. And then it was a bloody mill, grinding battalion after battalion on both sides. The Nazis lost 700 thousand people at this time, the Red Army - 644 thousand soldiers.

On November 11, 1942, Paulus's army launched the final, decisive assault on the city. The Germans did not reach the Volga 100 meters, when it became clear that their strength was running out. The offensive stopped and the enemy was forced to defend.

Operation Uranus

Back in September, the General Staff began developing a counteroffensive at Stalingrad. Operation Uranus began on November 19 with a massive artillery barrage. Many years later, this day became a professional holiday for artillerymen. For the first time in the history of the Second World War, artillery units were used in such a volume, with such a density of fire. By November 23, an encirclement ring had closed around the army of Paulus and the tank army of Hoth.

The Germans turned out to be locked in a rectangle 40 by 80 km. Paulus, who understood the danger of encirclement, insisted on a breakthrough and withdrawal of troops from the ring. Hitler personally, categorically, ordered to fight on the defensive, promising full support. He did not give up hope of taking Stalingrad.

Manstein's units were sent to save the group, and Operation Winter Storm began. With incredible efforts, the Germans moved forward, when 25 km remained to the encircled units, they encountered Malinovsky’s 2nd Army. On December 25, the Wehrmacht suffered a final defeat and rolled back to its original positions. The fate of Paulus's army was decided. But this does not mean that our units moved forward without encountering resistance. On the contrary, the Germans fought desperately.

On January 9, 1943, the Soviet command presented Paulus with an ultumatum demanding unconditional surrender. The Fuhrer's soldiers were given a chance to surrender and stay alive. At the same time, Paulus received another personal order from Hitler, demanding that he fight to the end. The general remained faithful to the oath, rejected the ultimatum, and carried out the order.

On January 10, Operation Ring began to completely eliminate the encircled units. The battles were terrible, the German troops, split into two parts, held firm, if such an expression is applicable to the enemy. On January 30, Paulus received the rank of field marshal from Hitler with a hint that Prussian field marshals would not surrender.

Everything has the ability to end, on the 31st at noon it ended the Nazis' stay in the cauldron: The field marshal surrendered with his entire headquarters. It took another 2 days to finally clear the city of Germans. The history of the Battle of Stalingrad has ended.

The Battle of Stalingrad and its historical significance

For the first time in world history, a battle of such duration took place, in which enormous forces were involved. The result of the defeat for the Wehrmacht was the capture of 90 thousand and the killing of 800 thousand soldiers. The victorious German army suffered for the first time a crushing defeat, which was discussed by the whole world. The Soviet Union, despite the seizure of part of the territory, remained an integral state. In the event of defeat at Stalingrad, in addition to occupied Ukraine, Belarus, Crimea, and part of central Russia, the country would be deprived of the Caucasus and Central Asia.

From a geopolitical point of view, significance of the Battle of Stalingrad It can be briefly described as follows: the Soviet Union is able to fight Germany and defeat it. The Allies stepped up assistance and signed agreements with the USSR at the Tehran Conference in December 1943. Finally, the issue of opening a second front was resolved.

Many historians call the Battle of Stalingrad the turning point of the Great Patriotic War. This is true not so much , from a military point of view, how much with moral. For a year and a half, the Red Army was retreating on all fronts, and for the first time it was possible not only to push the enemy back, as in the battle for Moscow, but to defeat him. Capture the field marshal, capture a large number of soldiers and equipment. People believed that victory would be ours!

The Battle of Stalingrad in brief is the most important thing - this is what interests many historians of this grandiose battle. Books and numerous articles in magazines tell about the battle. In feature films and documentaries, directors tried to convey the essence of that time and show the heroism of the Soviet people who managed to defend their land from the fascist horde. This article also briefly summarizes information about the heroes of the Stalingrad confrontation and describes the main chronology of military operations.

Prerequisites

By the summer of 1942, Hitler had developed a new plan to seize the territories of the Soviet Union located near the Volga. During the first year of the war, Germany won victory after victory and had already occupied the territories of modern Poland, Belarus, and Ukraine. The German command needed to secure access to the Caucasus, where oil fields were located, which would provide the German front with fuel for further battles. In addition, having received Stalingrad at his disposal, Hitler hoped to cut off important communications, thereby creating supply problems for Soviet soldiers.
To implement the plan, Hitler recruits General Paulus. The operation to occupy Stalingrad, according to Hitler, should have taken no more than a week, but thanks to the incredible courage and indomitable fortitude of the Soviet army, the battle dragged on for six months and ended in victory for the Soviet soldiers. This victory was a turning point in the entire Second World War, and for the first time the Germans not only stopped the offensive, but also began to defend.

Defensive stage

On July 17, 1942, the first battle of the Battle of Stalingrad began. The German forces were superior not only in numbers of soldiers, but also in military equipment. After a month of fierce fighting, the Germans managed to enter Stalingrad.

Hitler believed that as soon as he could occupy the city bearing the name of Stalin himself, primacy in the war would belong to him. If previously the Nazis had captured small European countries in a few days, now they had to fight for every street and every house. They fought especially fiercely for factories, since Stalingrad was primarily a large industrial center.
The Germans bombarded Stalingrad with high-explosive and incendiary bombs. Most of the buildings were wooden, so the entire central part of the city, along with its inhabitants, was burned to the ground. However, the city, destroyed to the ground, continued to fight.

Detachments from the people's militia were created. The Stalingrad Tractor Plant launched the production of tanks that went straight from the assembly line into battle.

The crews of the tanks were factory workers. Other factories also did not stop operating, despite the fact that they operated in close proximity to the battlefield, and sometimes found themselves right on the front line.

An example of incredible valor and courage is the defense of Pavlov’s house, which lasted almost two months, 58 days. During the capture of this one house, the Nazis lost more soldiers than during the capture of Paris.

On July 28, 1942, Stalin issues order No. 227, an order whose number every front-line soldier remembers. It went down in the history of the war as the order “Not a step back.” Stalin realized that if the Soviet troops failed to hold Stalingrad, they would allow Hitler to take possession of the Caucasus.

The battles continued for more than two months. History does not remember such fierce urban battles. Huge losses of personnel and military equipment were suffered. Increasingly, battles turned into hand-to-hand combat. Each time, enemy troops found a new place to reach the Volga.

In September 1942, Stalin developed the top-secret offensive operation Uranus, the leadership of which he entrusted to Marshal Zhukov. To capture Stalingrad, Hitler deployed troops from Group B, which included the German, Italian and Hungarian armies.

It was planned to strike the flanks of the German army, which were defended by the Allies. The Allied armies were poorly armed and lacked sufficient fortitude.

By November 1942, Hitler managed to almost completely take control of the city, which he did not fail to report to the whole world.

Offensive stage

On November 19, 1942, the Soviet army launched an offensive. Hitler was very surprised that Stalin managed to gather so many fighters for encirclement, but the troops of Germany's allies were defeated. Despite everything, Hitler abandoned the idea of ​​retreat.

The timing of the Soviet offensive was chosen with particular care, taking into account weather conditions when the mud had already dried and the snow had not yet fallen. So the soldiers of the Red Army could move unnoticed. Soviet troops were able to encircle the enemy, but failed to completely destroy them the first time.

Mistakes were made when calculating the forces of the Nazis. Instead of the expected ninety thousand, more than a hundred thousand German soldiers were surrounded. The Soviet command developed various plans and operations to capture enemy armies.

In January, the destruction of the surrounded enemy troops began. During the fighting, which lasted about a month, the two Soviet armies united. During the offensive operation, a large number of enemy equipment were destroyed. Aviation suffered especially; after the Battle of Stalingrad, Germany ceased to lead in the number of aircraft.

Hitler was not going to give up and urged his soldiers not to lay down their arms, fighting to the last.

On February 1, 1942, the Russian command concentrated about 1 thousand fire guns and mortars in order to deal a crushing blow to the northern group of forces of Hitler's 6th Army, which was ordered to fight to the death, but not to surrender.

When the Soviet army unleashed all its prepared firepower on the enemy, the Nazis, not expecting such a wave of attack, immediately laid down their arms and surrendered.

On February 2, 1942, fighting in Stalingrad ceased and the German army surrendered. National mourning was declared in Germany.

The Battle of Stalingrad ended Hitler's hopes of breaking further into the East, following his Barbarossa plan. The German command was no longer able to win a single significant victory in further battles. The situation tilted in favor of the Soviet front, and Hitler was forced to take a defensive position.

After the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, other countries that had previously sided with Germany realized that given the given set of circumstances, a victory for German troops was extremely unlikely, and began to pursue a more restrained foreign policy. Japan decided not to attempt to attack the USSR, and Turkey remained neutral and refused to enter the war on the side of Germany.

The victory was made possible thanks to the outstanding military skill of the Red Army soldiers. During the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet command brilliantly carried out defensive and offensive operations and, despite the lack of forces, was able to encircle and defeat the enemy. The whole world saw the incredible capabilities of the Red Army and the military art of Soviet soldiers. The whole world, enslaved by the Nazis, finally believed in victory and imminent liberation.

The Battle of Stalingrad is characterized as the bloodiest battle in human history. It is impossible to find out exact data on irrecoverable losses. The Soviet army lost about a million soldiers, and approximately eight hundred thousand Germans were killed or went missing.

All participants in the defense of Stalingrad were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Stalingrad.” The medal was awarded not only to military personnel, but also to civilians who participated in hostilities.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, Soviet soldiers so bravely and valiantly repulsed the enemy’s attempts to occupy the city that this was clearly manifested in massive heroic actions.

In fact, people did not want their own lives and could safely give it up just to stop the fascist offensive. Every day the Nazis lost a large amount of equipment and manpower in this direction, gradually depleting their own resources.

It is very difficult to single out the most courageous feat, since each of them had a certain significance for the overall defeat of the enemy. But the most famous heroes of that terrible massacre can be briefly listed and described about their heroism:

Mikhail Panikakha

The feat of Mikhail Averyanovich Panikakha was that at the cost of his life he was able to stop a German tank that was heading to suppress the infantry of one of the Soviet battalions. Realizing that letting this steel colossus through his trench would mean exposing his comrades to mortal danger, Mikhail made a desperate attempt to settle scores with the enemy equipment.

To this end, he raised a Molotov cocktail over his own head. And at the same moment, by coincidence, a stray fascist bullet hit the flammable materials. As a result, all the fighter’s clothes instantly caught fire. But Mikhail, being virtually completely engulfed in flames, managed to take a second bottle containing a similar component and successfully smashed it against the engine hatch grille of an enemy tracked combat tank. The German combat vehicle immediately caught fire and was disabled.

As eyewitnesses of this terrible situation recall, they noticed that a man completely engulfed in fire ran out of the trench. And his actions, despite such a desperate situation, were meaningful and aimed at causing considerable damage to the enemy.

Marshal Chuikov, who was the commander of this section of the front, recalled Panikakh in his book in some detail. Literally 2 months after his death, Mikhail Panikakha was posthumously awarded the Order of the 1st degree. But he was only awarded the honorary title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1990.

Pavlov Yakov Fedotovich

Sergeant Pavlov has long become a real hero of the Battle of Stalingrad. At the end of September 1942, his group was able to successfully penetrate the building, which was located on Penzenskaya Street, 61. Previously, the regional consumer union was based there.

The important strategic location of this extension made it easy to track the movement of fascist troops, which is why the order was given to equip a stronghold here for the Red Army soldiers.

Pavlov's House, as this historical building was later called, was initially defended by insignificant forces that were able to hold out on the previously captured object for 3 days. Then the reserve pulled up to them - 7 Red Army soldiers, who also delivered a heavy machine gun here. In order to monitor enemy actions and report the operational situation to the command, the building was equipped with telephone communications.
Thanks to coordinated actions, the fighters held this stronghold for almost two months, 58 days. Fortunately, food supplies and ammunition made it possible to do this. The Nazis repeatedly tried to storm the rear, bombed it with planes and fired at it with large-caliber guns, but the defenders held out and did not allow the enemy to capture a strategically important strong point.

Pavlov Yakov Fedotovich played an important role in organizing the defense of the house, which was subsequently named in his honor. Everything here was arranged in such a way that it would be convenient to repel the next attempts of the Nazis to penetrate into the premises. Each time, the Nazis lost a large number of their comrades on the approaches to the house and retreated to their initial positions.

Matvey Mefodievich Putilov

Signalman Matvey Putilov accomplished his famous feat on October 25, 1942. It was on this day that communication with the surrounded group of Soviet soldiers was broken. In order to restore it, groups of signalmen were repeatedly sent on combat missions, but they all died without completing the task assigned to them.

Therefore, this difficult task was entrusted to the commander of the communications department, Matvey Putilov. He managed to crawl to the damaged wire and at that moment received a bullet wound in the shoulder. But, not paying attention to the pain, Matvey Methodievich continued to carry out his task and restore telephone communication.

He was re-injured by a mine that exploded not far from Putilov’s place of residence. A fragment of it shattered the hand of the brave signalman. Realizing that he might lose consciousness and not feeling his hand, Putilov clamped the damaged ends of the wire with his own teeth. And at the same moment, an electric current passed through his body, as a result of which the connection was restored.

Putilov's body was discovered by his comrades. He lay with the wire tightly clamped in his teeth, dead. However, Matvey, who was only 19 years old, was not given a single award for his feat. In the USSR, they believed that the children of “Enemies of the People” were not worthy of rewards. The fact is that Putilov’s parents were dispossessed peasants from Siberia.

Only thanks to the efforts of Putilov’s colleague, Mikhail Lazarevich, who put together all the facts of this extraordinary act, in 1968 Matvey Methodievich was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, II degree.

The famous intelligence officer Sasha Filippov greatly contributed to the defeat of the Nazis at Stalingrad by obtaining very valuable information for the Soviet command regarding the enemy and the deployment of his forces. Such tasks could only be carried out by experienced professional intelligence officers, and Filippov, even despite his young age (he was only 17 years old), skillfully coped with them.

In total, brave Sasha went on reconnaissance 12 times. And each time he managed to obtain important information, which greatly helped the professional military.

However, a local policeman did track down the hero and handed him over to the Germans. Therefore, the scout did not return from his next assignment and was captured by the Nazis.

On December 23, 1942, Filippov and two other Komsomol members next to him were hanged. This happened on Dar Mountain. However, in the last minutes of his life, Sasha shouted out a fiery speech that the fascists were not able to bring all the Soviet patriots together, since there were so many of them. He also predicted the rapid liberation of his native land from fascist occupation!

This famous sniper of the 62nd Army of the Stalingrad Front greatly annoyed the Germans, destroying more than one fascist soldier. According to general statistics, 225 German soldiers and officers died from Vasily Zaitsev’s weapons. This list also includes 11 enemy snipers.

The famous duel with the German sniper ace Torvald lasted quite a long time. According to Zaitsev’s own memoirs, one day he discovered a German helmet in the distance, but realized that it was a bait. However, the German did not give himself away all day. The next day, the fascist also acted very competently, choosing a wait-and-see tactic. From these actions, Vasily Grigorievich realized that he was dealing with a professional sniper and decided to start hunting for him.

One day, Zaitsev and his comrade Kulikov discovered Torvald’s position. Kulikov, in an imprudent act, fired at random, and this gave Torvald the opportunity to eliminate the Soviet sniper with one accurate shot. But only the fascist completely miscalculated that there was another enemy next to him. Therefore, leaning out from under his cover, Torvald was instantly struck by a direct hit from Zaitsev.

The entire history of the Battle of Stalingrad is very diverse and imbued with continuous heroism. The exploits of those people who gave their lives in the fight against German aggression will be remembered forever! Now, on the site of past bloody battles, a memory museum has been erected, as well as a Walk of Fame. The tallest statue in Europe, “Motherland,” which towers over Mamayev Kurgan, speaks of the true greatness of these epoch-making events and their great historical significance!

Topic of the section: Famous heroes, chronology, content of the Battle of Stalingrad, briefly the most important thing.

Of course, 1 German soldier can kill 10 Soviet ones. But when the 11th comes, what will he do?

Franz Halder

The main goal of Germany's summer offensive campaign was Stalingrad. However, on the way to the city it was necessary to overcome the Crimean defense. And here the Soviet command unwittingly, of course, made life easier for the enemy. In May 1942, a massive Soviet offensive began in the Kharkov area. The problem is that this attack was unprepared and turned into a terrible disaster. More than 200 thousand people were killed, 775 tanks and 5,000 guns were lost. As a result, complete strategic advantage in the southern sector of hostilities was in the hands of Germany. The 6th and 4th German tank armies crossed the Don and began to advance deeper into the country. The Soviet army retreated, not having time to cling to advantageous defense lines. Surprisingly, for the second year in a row, the German offensive was completely unexpected by the Soviet command. The only advantage of 1942 was that now the Soviet units did not allow themselves to be easily surrounded.

Beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad

On July 17, 1942, troops of the 62nd and 64th Soviet armies entered battle on the Chir River. In the future, historians will call this battle the beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad. For a correct understanding of further events, it is necessary to note that the successes of the German army in the offensive campaign of 1942 were so amazing that Hitler decided, simultaneously with the offensive in the South, to intensify the offensive in the North, capturing Leningrad. This is not just a historical retreat, because as a result of this decision, the 11th German Army under the command of Manstein was transferred from Sevastopol to Leningrad. Manstein himself, as well as Halder, opposed this decision, arguing that the German army might not have enough reserves on the southern front. But this was very important, since Germany was simultaneously solving several problems in the south:

• The capture of Stalingrad as a symbol of the fall of the leaders of the Soviet people.
• Capture of the southern regions with oil. This was a more important and more mundane task.

July 23, Hitler signs directive number 45, in which he indicates the main goal of the German offensive: Leningrad, Stalingrad, the Caucasus.

On July 24, Wehrmacht troops captured Rostov-on-Don and Novocherkassk. Now the gates to the Caucasus were completely open, and for the first time there was a threat of losing the entire Soviet South. The German 6th Army continued its movement towards Stalingrad. Panic was noticeable among the Soviet troops. In some sectors of the front, troops of the 51st, 62nd, 64th armies withdrew and retreated even when enemy reconnaissance groups approached. And these are only those cases that are documented. This forced Stalin to begin shuffling the generals in this sector of the front and to undertake a general change in the structure. Instead of the Bryansk Front, the Voronezh and Bryansk Fronts were formed. Vatutin and Rokossovsky were appointed commanders, respectively. But even these decisions could not stop the panic and retreat of the Red Army. The Germans were advancing towards the Volga. As a result, on July 28, 1942, Stalin issued order No. 227, which was called “not a step back.”

At the end of July, General Jodl announced that the key to the Caucasus was in Stalingrad. This was enough for Hitler to make the most important decision of the entire offensive summer campaign on July 31, 1942. According to this decision, the 4th Tank Army was transferred to Stalingrad.

Map of the Battle of Stalingrad

The order “Not a step back!”

The peculiarity of the order was to combat alarmism. Anyone who retreated without orders was to be shot on the spot. In fact, it was an element of regression, but this repression justified itself in terms of being able to instill fear and force Soviet soldiers to fight even more courageously. The only problem was that Order 227 did not analyze the reasons for the defeat of the Red Army during the summer of 1942, but simply carried out repressions against ordinary soldiers. This order emphasizes the hopelessness of the situation that developed at that point in time. The order itself emphasizes:

• Despair. The Soviet command now realized that the failure of the summer of 1942 threatened the existence of the entire USSR. Just a few jerks and Germany will win.
• Contradiction. This order simply shifted all responsibility from Soviet generals to ordinary officers and soldiers. However, the reasons for the failures of the summer of 1942 lie precisely in the miscalculations of the command, which was unable to foresee the direction of the enemy’s main attack and made significant mistakes.
• Cruelty. According to this order, everyone was shot, indiscriminately. Now any retreat of the army was punishable by execution. And no one understood why the soldier fell asleep - they shot everyone.

Today, many historians say that Stalin’s order No. 227 became the basis for victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. In fact, it is impossible to answer this question unequivocally. History, as we know, does not tolerate the subjunctive mood, but it is important to understand that Germany by that time was at war with almost the entire world, and its advance towards Stalingrad was extremely difficult, during which the Wehrmacht troops lost about half of their regular strength. To this we must also add that the Soviet soldier knew how to die, which is repeatedly emphasized in the memoirs of Wehrmacht generals.

Progress of the battle

In August 1942, it became absolutely clear that the main target of the German attack was Stalingrad. The city began to prepare for defense.

In the second half of August, reinforced troops of the 6th German Army under the command of Friedrich Paulus (then just a general) and troops of the 4th Panzer Army under the command of Hermann Gott moved to Stalingrad. On the part of the Soviet Union, armies took part in the defense of Stalingrad: the 62nd Army under the command of Anton Lopatin and the 64th Army under the command of Mikhail Shumilov. In the south of Stalingrad there was the 51st Army of General Kolomiets and the 57th Army of General Tolbukhin.

August 23, 1942 became the most terrible day of the first part of the defense of Stalingrad. On this day, the German Luftwaffe launched a powerful airstrike on the city. Historical documents indicate that more than 2,000 sorties were flown on that day alone. The next day, the evacuation of civilians across the Volga began. It should be noted that on August 23, German troops managed to reach the Volga in a number of sectors of the front. It was a narrow strip of land north of Stalingrad, but Hitler was delighted with the success. These successes were achieved by the 14th Tank Corps of the Wehrmacht.

Despite this, the commander of the 14th Panzer Corps, von Wittersghen, addressed General Paulus with a report in which he said that it was better for German troops to leave this city, since it was impossible to achieve success with such enemy resistance. Von Wittersghen was so impressed by the courage of the defenders of Stalingrad. For this, the general was immediately removed from command and brought to trial.

On August 25, 1942, fighting began in the vicinity of Stalingrad. In fact, the Battle of Stalingrad, which we are briefly reviewing today, began on this very day. The battles were fought not only for every house, but literally for every floor. Situations were often observed where “layer pies” were formed: there were German troops on one floor of the house, and Soviet troops on the other floor. Thus began the urban battle, where German tanks no longer had their decisive advantage.

On September 14, the troops of the 71st German Infantry Division, commanded by General Hartmann, managed to reach the Volga along a narrow corridor. If we remember what Hitler said about the reasons for the offensive campaign of 1942, then the main goal was achieved - shipping on the Volga was stopped. However, the Fuhrer, influenced by the successes during the offensive campaign, demanded that the Battle of Stalingrad be completed with the complete defeat of the Soviet troops. As a result, a situation arose where Soviet troops could not retreat due to Stalin’s order 227, and German troops were forced to attack because Hitler maniacally wanted it.

It became obvious that the Battle of Stalingrad would become the place where one of the army completely died. The general balance of forces was clearly not in favor of the German side, since General Paulus’s army had 7 divisions, the number of which was decreasing every day. At the same time, the Soviet command transferred 6 fresh divisions here, fully equipped. By the end of September 1942, in the Stalingrad area, 7 divisions of General Paulus were opposed by about 15 Soviet divisions. And these are only official army units, which do not take into account the militias, of which there were a lot in the city.

On September 13, 1942, the battle for the center of Stalingrad began. Fights were fought for every street, for every house, for every floor. There were no more buildings left in the city that were not destroyed. To demonstrate the events of those days, it is necessary to mention the reports for September 14:

• 7 hours 30 minutes. German troops reached Akademicheskaya Street.
• 7 hours 40 minutes. The first battalion of mechanized forces is completely cut off from the main forces.
• 7 hours 50 minutes. Fierce fighting is taking place in the area of ​​Mamayev Kurgan and the station.
• 8 ocloc'k. The station was taken by German troops.
• 8 hours 40 minutes. We managed to recapture the station.
• 9 hours 40 minutes. The station was recaptured by the Germans.
• 10 hours 40 minutes. The enemy is half a kilometer from the command post.
• 13 hours 20 minutes. The station is ours again.

And this is only half of one typical day in the battles for Stalingrad. It was an urban war, for which Paulus’ troops were not prepared for all the horrors. In total, between September and November, more than 700 attacks by German troops were repelled!

On the night of September 15, the 13th Guards Rifle Division, commanded by General Rodimtsev, was transported to Stalingrad. On the first day of fighting of this division alone, it lost more than 500 people. At this time, the Germans managed to make significant progress towards the city center, and also captured height “102” or, more simply, Mamayev Kurgan. The 62nd Army, which conducted the main defensive battles, these days had a command post, which was located only 120 meters away from the enemy.

During the second half of September 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad continued with the same ferocity. At this time, many German generals were already perplexed why they were fighting for this city and for every street of it. At the same time, Halder had repeatedly emphasized by this time that the German army was in an extreme state of overwork. In particular, the general spoke about an inevitable crisis, including due to the weakness of the flanks, where the Italians were very reluctant to fight. Halder openly appealed to Hitler, saying that the German army did not have the reserves and resources for a simultaneous offensive campaign in Stalingrad and the northern Caucasus. By a decision of September 24, Franz Halder was removed from his post as Chief of the General Staff of the German Army. Kurt Zeisler took his place.

During September and October, there was no significant change in the situation at the front. Likewise, the Battle of Stalingrad was one huge cauldron in which Soviet and German troops destroyed each other. The confrontation reached its climax, when the troops were only a few meters away from each other, and the battles were literally point-blank. Many historians note the irrationality of the conduct of military operations during the Battle of Stalingrad. In fact, this was the moment when it was no longer the art of war that came to the fore, but human qualities, the desire to survive and the desire to win.

During the entire defensive phase of the Battle of Stalingrad, the troops of the 62nd and 64th armies almost completely changed their composition. The only things that did not change were the name of the army, as well as the composition of the headquarters. As for ordinary soldiers, it was later calculated that the life of one soldier during the Battle of Stalingrad was 7.5 hours.

Start of offensive actions

At the beginning of November 1942, the Soviet command already understood that the German offensive on Stalingrad had exhausted itself. The Wehrmacht troops no longer had the same power, and were pretty battered in battle. Therefore, more and more reserves began to flock to the city in order to conduct a counter-offensive operation. These reserves began to secretly accumulate in the northern and southern outskirts of the city.

On November 11, 1942, Wehrmacht troops consisting of 5 divisions, led by General Paulus, made the last attempt at a decisive assault on Stalingrad. It is important to note that this offensive was very close to victory. In almost all sectors of the front, the Germans managed to advance to such a stage that no more than 100 meters remained to the Volga. But the Soviet troops managed to hold back the offensive, and in the middle of November 12 it became clear that the offensive had exhausted itself.

Preparations for the counter-offensive of the Red Army were carried out in the strictest secrecy. This is quite understandable, and it can be clearly demonstrated using one very simple example. It is still absolutely unknown who is the author of the outline of the offensive operation at Stalingrad, but it is known for certain that the map of the transition of Soviet troops to the offensive existed in a single copy. Also noteworthy is the fact that literally 2 weeks before the start of the Soviet offensive, postal communications between families and fighters were completely suspended.

On November 19, 1942, at 6:30 a.m. in the morning, artillery preparation began. After this, Soviet troops went on the offensive. Thus began the famous Operation Uranus. And here it is important to note that this development of events was completely unexpected for the Germans. At this point the disposition was as follows:

• 90% of the territory of Stalingrad was under the control of Paulus' troops.
• Soviet troops controlled only 10% of the cities located near the Volga.

General Paulus stated later that on the morning of November 19, the German headquarters was confident that the Russian offensive was purely tactical in nature. And only in the evening of that day the general realized that his entire army was under threat of encirclement. The response was lightning fast. An order was given to the 48th Tank Corps, which was in the German reserve, to immediately move into battle. And here, Soviet historians say that the late entry of the 48th Army into battle was due to the fact that field mice chewed through the electronics in the tanks, and precious time was lost while repairing them.

On November 20, a massive offensive began in the south of the Stalingrad Front. The front line of the German defense was almost completely destroyed thanks to a powerful artillery strike, but in the depths of the defense General Eremenko’s troops encountered terrible resistance.

On November 23, near the city of Kalach, a German group of troops totaling about 320 people was surrounded. Subsequently, within a few days, it was possible to completely encircle the entire German group located in the Stalingrad area. It was initially assumed that about 90,000 Germans were surrounded, but it soon became obvious that this number was disproportionately larger. The total encirclement was about 300 thousand people, 2000 guns, 100 tanks, 9000 trucks.

Hitler had an important task ahead of him. It was necessary to determine what to do with the army: leave it surrounded or make attempts to get out of it. At this time, Albert Speer assured Hitler that he could easily provide the troops surrounded by Stalingrad with everything they needed through aviation. Hitler was just waiting for such a message, because he still believed that the Battle of Stalingrad could be won. As a result, the 6th Army of General Paulus was forced to take up a perimeter defense. In fact, this strangled the outcome of the battle. After all, the main trump cards of the German army were on the offensive, and not on defense. However, the German group that went on the defensive was very strong. But at this time it became clear that Albert Speer’s promise to equip the 6th Army with everything necessary was impossible to fulfill.

It turned out to be impossible to immediately capture the positions of the 6th German Army, which was on the defensive. The Soviet command realized that a long and difficult assault lay ahead. At the beginning of December, it became obvious that a huge number of troops were surrounded and had enormous strength. It was possible to win in such a situation only by attracting no less force. Moreover, very good planning was necessary to achieve success against an organized German army.

At this point, in early December 1942, the German command created the Don Army Group. Erich von Manstein took command of this army. The army's task was simple - to break through to the troops who were surrounded in order to help them get out of it. 13 tank divisions moved to help Paulus' troops. Operation Winter Storm began on December 12, 1942. Additional tasks of the troops that moved in the direction of the 6th Army were: defense of Rostov-on-Don. After all, the fall of this city would indicate a complete and decisive failure on the entire southern front. The first 4 days of this offensive by German troops was successful.

Stalin, after the successful implementation of Operation Uranus, demanded that his generals develop a new plan for encircling the entire German group located in the Rostov-on-Don area. As a result, on December 16, a new offensive of the Soviet army began, during which the 8th Italian Army was defeated in the first days. However, the troops failed to reach Rostov, since the movement of German tanks towards Stalingrad forced the Soviet command to change their plans. At this time, the 2nd Infantry Army of General Malinovsky was removed from its positions and was concentrated in the area of ​​the Meshkova River, where one of the decisive events of December 1942 took place. It was here that Malinovsky's troops managed to stop German tank units. By December 23, the thinned tank corps could no longer move forward, and it became obvious that it would not reach Paulus’s troops.

Surrender of German troops

On January 10, 1943, a decisive operation began to destroy German troops who were surrounded. One of the most important events of these days dates back to January 14, when the only German airfield that was still operational at that time was captured. After this, it became obvious that General Paulus’s army did not even have a theoretical chance of escaping the encirclement. After this, it became absolutely obvious to everyone that the Soviet Union won the Battle of Stalingrad. These days, Hitler, speaking on German radio, declared that Germany needed general mobilization.

On January 24, Paulus sent a telegram to German headquarters, saying that the catastrophe at Stalingrad was inevitable. He literally demanded permission to surrender in order to save those German soldiers who were still alive. Hitler forbade surrender.

On February 2, 1943, the Battle of Stalingrad was completed. More than 91,000 German soldiers surrendered. 147,000 dead Germans lay on the battlefield. Stalingrad was completely destroyed. As a result, in early February, the Soviet command was forced to create a special Stalingrad group of troops, which was engaged in clearing the city of corpses, as well as demining.

We briefly reviewed the Battle of Stalingrad, which brought a radical turning point in the course of the Second World War. The Germans had not only suffered a crushing defeat, but they were now required to make incredible efforts in order to maintain the strategic initiative on their side. But this no longer happened.