The battle that saved the world

Abdul Khan and Olga Igumnova (on the left)

By Theo Russell

 Russians and British friends of Russia gathered at Rossotrudnichestvo, the Russian cultural centre in Kensington, London, last week to mark the 76th anniversary of the end of the Battle of Stalingrad on 2^nd February 1943.

This event, on 1^st February, also marked 75 years since ties were formed between the peoples of Stalingrad and the English city of Coventry. Whilst the battle for Stalingrad was still raging, the people of Coventry began sending medicine and other supplies to the city on the Volga River.

Those ties still remain strong today, despite recent problems between the two countries. They were the world’s first twinned cities and started an international twinning movement.

Coventry was devastated by the German bombing of the city on 14–15 November 1941.

The following year 900 Coventry women paid sixpence each to have their names embroidered on a tablecloth that was sent to the women of Stalingrad. Today the tablecloth has an honoured place in the Panorama Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad in the city that was renamed Volgograd in 1961.

In response, 36,000 women in Stalingrad signed an album that was sent to Coventry and in 1944 an official “bond of friendship” was created between the two cities.

After the war the people of Coventry continued to organise assistance for rebuilding the shattered city and the Queen Mother was made an honorary citizen of Volgograd.

Stalingrad was the bloodiest battle in world history, and could be said to have decided the destinies not only of Russia but of the whole world.

Councillor Abdul Khan, deputy leader of Coventry City Council, said: “Today, at a time of difficulties in relations between Russia and Britain, such links are paramount in maintaining trust and friendly relations.”

He announced that a series of friendship murals at Volgograd Place in Coventry, opened in 1972, is now being moved from under the city’s ring road to pride of place in the main central square.

Olga Igumnova Lawson, speaking for the ‘House of Europe in Volgograd’, a Russian quango, recalled the order issued by General Friedrich Paulus, commander of the German 6th Army, for every inhabitant of Stalingrad to be exterminated.

She said that recent historical research has revealed that three million people took part in the battle, not two million as previously believed.

The bombing of Stalingrad on 23^rd August 1942, before the assault, was the worst of the whole war, killing 40,000 of the 400,000 inhabitants. By February 1942 the number of inhabitants was reduced to 10,000. Most of Olga’s family members died in the battle but her grandmother survived.

Olga stressed the enduring importance of “people’s diplomacy” in preserving the close and sacred ties that were formed during those tragic days of immense suffering and war.

The evening ended with an emotional piano rendition by Olga of Kalinka, a famous Russian song popularised in the West by the Red Army Choir after the war.