SEVENTY YEARS SINCE THE BATTLE OF KURSK

A TURNING POINT 

IN WORLD WAR II 

A VETERAN OF THE BATTLE  
OF THE KURSK SALIENT 
at the 50th Anniversary 
ORËL, RUSSIA 
August 1993 

The largest tank battle 

VICTORY DAY IN MOSCOW. VLADIMIR PUTIN IS NOT COMING TO CAMP DAVID.

VICTORY DAY

IS CELEBRATED

IN MOSCOW

VOLGOGRAD, RUSSIA, USSR, 1984

STATUES OF A SOVIET SOLDIER &

MOTHER RUSSIA, COMMEMORATING

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR (WORLD WAR II)

May 9 is celebrated in Russia as Victory Day -- for May 9, 1945, and the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II. As the newly re-inaugurated Russian President Vladimir Putin put it today, "it was our country that bore the brunt of the Nazi attack, met it with historic resistance [as in Stalingrad, see above], traversed immense hardships, determined the war's outcome, routed the enemy and liberated the world's peoples."

Putin also made it official today, in a phone conversation with U.S. President Barrack Obama, that he would not be coming to the G-8 summit at Camp David next week. Newly ex-President Dmitry Medvedev would be coming instead, officially in his brand-new (as of yesterday) capacity of Prime Minister.

Putin is still scheduled to attend the G-20 meeting in Mexico in June.

THE NAZIS ATTACK LENINGRAD, SEVENTY YEARS AGO

THE GERMANS 

REACH THE NEVA RIVER 

August 30, 1941 

THE NEVA RIVER 

LENINGRAD, USSR 

Now St. Petersburg, Russia, again 

Nine hundred dark days were to follow, with catastrophic casualties.  The Wehrmacht cut off the last rail connection to Leningrad on August 30, 1941, and the last land connection on September 8, 1941, which seems to be taken generally as the start of the Siege of Leningrad.  There is a new book by Anna Reid on the seventieth anniversary called LENINGRAD: The Epic Siege of World War II, 1941-44 (see here). 

MAY 9: VICTORY DAY IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR; MOSCOW CELEBRATES

VICTORY DAY 

in the 

GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR 

May 9, 1945 

USSR VICTORY STAR 

Photographed in 1984 

May 9, 2011:  In Red Square today, the USSR's successor state, Russia, celebrated the sixty-sixth anniversary of the victory over Nazi Germany.  There either was, or was not, a particularly impressive display of military might, depending on who was looking, and who was telling the story.   The Telegraph called it "a display reminiscent of Russia's Soviet-era might."  It did provide a video.  The BBC had its own correspondent in its video.  The Washington Post got the main facts in print:  Twenty-six million Soviet citizens were killed in the war -- the Great Patriotic War, aka World War II.  "Nearly" twenty thousand members of the military forces marched by the Tandem of President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin.   Military musicians and be-medaled veterans were part of the spectacle, and then, in, the final image, "a 4-year-old boy, the latest generation, so far removed from the Soviet Union ... touched his hand to his hat, a baseball cap from the Gap." 

A handy hat with which to crown the story, or at least, to end it.  But to what end, or ends?  What symbolism for the cap from the Gap? 

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD ENDS, February 2, 1943

THE BATTLE OF 

STALINGRAD ENDS 

February 2, 1943 

STALINGRAD BATTLE PANORAMIC MUSEUM 

VOLGOGRAD (STALINGRAD), RUSSIA 

RUSSIA CELEBRATES VICTORY IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR SIXTY-FIVE YEARS ON: PART OF THE PRICE PAID

RUSSIA CELEBRATES VICTORY

IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

(WORLD WAR II)

SIXTY-FIVE YEARS ON

THE ETERNAL FLAME

AND SOME OF THE NAMES

OF THE DEAD

IN THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

VOLGOGRAD (RUSSIA)

BACK IN THE USSR

1984

SOME OF THE PRICE PAID

VOLGOGRAD: STALINGRAD AFTER THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD & AFTER STALIN

VOLGOGRAD:

STALINGRAD AFTER

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

& AFTER STALIN

A city so reduced to rubble in the Great Patriotic War

(World War II) that some thought it not worth

re-building, came to life with typical Soviet

construction (and typical Russian touches?).

Here is a scene from downtown Volgograd in 1984.

"HERE BE GIANTS"

VICTORY IN THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

VICTORY IN

THE BATTLE OF STALINGRAD

FEBRUARY 2, 1943

In Volgograd (the former Stalingrad), in 1984, in the

then Soviet Union, a boy checks out an airplane from

the Great Patriotic War (World War II) Battle of

Stalingrad.

Other monuments from that turning part in the war

against Nazi Germany are to be found here and here.

"HERE BE GIANTS"

BARBAROSSA: Nazi Germany Attacks the USSR

OPERATION BARBAROSSA


© Gwendolyn Stewart 2011; All Rights Reserved

THE BREST FORTRESS MEMORIAL

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the Soviet Union at Brest, in what is now Belarus. The Nazis were surprised by the resistance, memorialized by the Brest Fortress monument pictured above. 

"MOTHER RUSSIA" IS IN DANGER

"MOTHER RUSSIA"

Is

In Danger

"Mother Russia," the hugely tall monument to the Battle of Stalingrad officially known as The Motherland Calls!, is in danger. The statue sits on top of the hill called Mamayev Kurgan in the Russian city now known as Volgograd. When it was built, four decades ago, it was the tallest in the world; now it is sinking, and, possibly, in danger of toppling.

The size of the monument is breathtaking. This representation of what after all is meant to be human leaves actual human beings creatures of a totally different scale.

The scale of the killing in the killing fields of the hill "Mamayev Kurgan," and in Stalingrad as a whole, is likewise hard to grasp. It is estimated that two million people perished in the battle.