Russia marks 69 years after the end of Stalingrad Battle

Today, Russia celebrates the 69th anniversary of the defeat of fascist troops in Stalingrad. The main events will take place in the City Hero of Volgograd.

By tradition, the official events in Volgograd will start with honouring of war veterans in the administration of the city and the region, laying wreaths and flowers at the Eternal Flame in the Alley of Heroes and the tomb of Marshal Vasily Chuikov on Mamayev Kurgan.

At 2:00 p.m. Moscow time, Volgograd will stop for a minute of silence in memory of the fallen defenders of Stalingrad. At that moment, and exposition "Memory of Stalingrad" will be opened in the building of the museum-panorama "Stalingrad Battle", which will be a documentary complement to the already existing exhibition "The Soldier Was Coming". Visitors will see numerous documents and photos of various stages of the battle on the Volga River - for the first time copies of encrypted reports, specifying details of the "Operation Uranus", from the documents of the Soviet General Staff will be presented. These unique documents were handed over to the museum in 1996 by the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

Residents and guests of the City Hero will take part in free bus tours over the places of military glory, organized by the State Institution "Agency for Tourism Development" together with tourist companies "Breeze", "TAVS Volga" and "InturAvto" and with support of the Committee for Youth Affairs of the Volgograd Regional Administration.

The battle for the city lasted for 200 days and claimed more than 2 million lives. The capture of Stalingrad had huge strategic and ideological significance for Hitler. By conquering Stalingrad, the fascist leader hoped to break the moral spirit of the Soviet Army and cut its vital water and land routes. On February 2, 1943, the last fascists' pockets of resistance in Stalingrad were suppressed.

On the celebration day of the victory in the Stalingrad Battle, the basement of the Central Department Store of Volgograd will see a war-historic reconstruction of the capture of the commander of the 6th Fascist Army Generalfeldmarschall Paulus, staged by the "Centre of Patriotic and Search Work" of the Committee for Youth Affairs of the Administration of the Volgograd Region and the War-Historic Club "Infantryman", reports the website of the Administration of the Volgograd Region.

The Central Concert Hall of Volgograd will host a celebratory concert for veterans-participants of the Stalingrad Battle and the then children of Stalingrad. The celebrations will be crowed with an artillery salute on the central embankment of Volgograd at 9:00 p.m.

On the eve of the 69th anniversary of the defeat of fascists in Stalingrad, the legendary "Lyudnikov Island" in the Krasnooktyabrsky District of Volgograd region hosted a festive rally with participation of city and regional officials, war veterans, Cossacks, athletes, residents of nearby houses and schoolchildren, the "Regional News" reports.

Anniversary of Stalingrad Battle to be marked in Russian regions

According to the press centre of the government of Moscow, the Russian capital will mark the 69th anniversary of the Stalingrad Battle by honouring veterans at the Mayoralty and laying wreaths and flowers at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in the Alexander Garden, the "Rosbalt" reports.

In Pyatigorsk, the Centre of Military-Patriotic Upbringing of Youth every year gathers pupils and veterans of every memorable date. On the eve of the 69th anniversary of defeat of fascist troops in Stalingrad, such meeting was held of pupils with the former soldiers-participants in the Stalingrad Battle, the 87-year-old Vasily Petrovich Plis and Pyotr Filippovich Voronin among them, the "Komsomolskaya Pravda" writes.

On January 31, the city of Maikop hosted a youth action "Memory of Generations Will Never Extinguish", dedicated to the 69th anniversary of liberation of Maikop, Adygea and Stalingrad from fascist invaders. It was attended by over 500 people: veterans, city officials, activists of public organizations, pupils and students, the "Yuga.ru" writes.

The victory in the Stalingrad Battle was also a topic of a number of events, currently held within the month of mass defence and military-patriotic work in 36 municipal libraries of Krasnodar. The organizers of the month had planned more than one hundred such events: lessons of historical memory, hours of military glory, excursions into history, "knights' tournaments", game programmes and meeting with officers from military enlistment offices, the "RuFox" reports.