MOSCOW // The city of Volgograd, hit by two deadly suicide attacks in as many days, is known in Russia as a symbol of heroism during World War Two when it was the scene of a critical battle with German forces.
The city of over one million which stretches for kilometres across the bank of the Volga River was known as Stalingrad in Soviet times until the early 1960s, when it was renamed Volgograd in a de-Stalinisation drive.
It was under the name of Stalingrad that the city endured its greatest suffering and ultimately its finest hour when it was besieged and occupied by invading Nazi forces who were then driven out by the Red Army.
The 1942-1943 Battle of Stalingrad, seen as a turning point of World War Two, is commemorated by the 87-metre high statue, “The Motherland Calls”, of a sword-wielding woman that overlooks the city. Unveiled in 1967 as a symbol of recovery from the ruins of war, it is one of the highest monuments in the world.
After six months of bloody combat – including hand-to-hand fighting in the ruined streets – the USSR’s growing superiority in armaments production on the home front made itself felt and the Red Army encircled the Nazi troops.
The battle of Stalingrad is estimated to have cost up to 2 million lives on both sides including civilians.
The surrender at Stalingrad was the first major defeat sustained by the Nazis and marked the beginning of their retreat from Soviet territory after the lightning invasion of 1941 that had taken Soviet leader Joseph Stalin completely unaware.
* Agence France-Presse
