Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich
Just days after the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad, legendary Red Army sniper Vasily Zaytsev described the horrors he witnessed during the five-month long conflict: “one sees the young girls, the children who hang from trees in the park... I have unsteady nerves and I'm constantly shaking.”

He was being interviewed, along with 214 other men and women—soldiers, officers, civilians, administrative staffers and others—amidst the rubble that remained of Stalingrad by members of Moscow's Historical Commission. Sent by the Kremlin, their aim was to record a comprehensive, historical documentary of the tremendous hardships overcome and heroic triumphs achieved during the battle.

20 soldiers of the 38th Rifle Division vividly recount how they stumbled upon the commander of the German troops, Field Marshal Friederich Paulus, defeated and hiding in a bed that reeked like a latrine. A lieutenant colonel remembers the brave 20 year-old adjutant who wrapped his arms around his commander's body to protect him from a flying grenade. Working around the clock, Nurse Vera Gurova describes a 24 hour period during which her hospital received over than 600 wounded men – equivalent to one every two and an half minutes. Countless soldiers endured shrapnel wounds and received blood transfusions in the trenches, but she can't forget the young amputee who begged her to avenge his suffering at Stalingrad.

This harrowing montage of distinct voices was so candid that the Kremlin forbade its publication and consigned the bulk of these documents to a Moscow archive where they remained forgotten for decades, until now. Jochen Hellbeck's Stalingrad is a definitive portrait of perhaps the greatest urban battle of the Second World War—a pivotal moment in the course of the war re-created with absolute candor and chilling veracity by the voices of the men and women who fought there.
1120177224
Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich
Just days after the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad, legendary Red Army sniper Vasily Zaytsev described the horrors he witnessed during the five-month long conflict: “one sees the young girls, the children who hang from trees in the park... I have unsteady nerves and I'm constantly shaking.”

He was being interviewed, along with 214 other men and women—soldiers, officers, civilians, administrative staffers and others—amidst the rubble that remained of Stalingrad by members of Moscow's Historical Commission. Sent by the Kremlin, their aim was to record a comprehensive, historical documentary of the tremendous hardships overcome and heroic triumphs achieved during the battle.

20 soldiers of the 38th Rifle Division vividly recount how they stumbled upon the commander of the German troops, Field Marshal Friederich Paulus, defeated and hiding in a bed that reeked like a latrine. A lieutenant colonel remembers the brave 20 year-old adjutant who wrapped his arms around his commander's body to protect him from a flying grenade. Working around the clock, Nurse Vera Gurova describes a 24 hour period during which her hospital received over than 600 wounded men – equivalent to one every two and an half minutes. Countless soldiers endured shrapnel wounds and received blood transfusions in the trenches, but she can't forget the young amputee who begged her to avenge his suffering at Stalingrad.

This harrowing montage of distinct voices was so candid that the Kremlin forbade its publication and consigned the bulk of these documents to a Moscow archive where they remained forgotten for decades, until now. Jochen Hellbeck's Stalingrad is a definitive portrait of perhaps the greatest urban battle of the Second World War—a pivotal moment in the course of the war re-created with absolute candor and chilling veracity by the voices of the men and women who fought there.
12.99 In Stock
Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich

Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich

Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich

Stalingrad: The City that Defeated the Third Reich

eBook

$12.99 

Available on Compatible NOOK devices, the free NOOK App and in My Digital Library.
WANT A NOOK?  Explore Now

Related collections and offers


Overview

Just days after the Germans surrendered at Stalingrad, legendary Red Army sniper Vasily Zaytsev described the horrors he witnessed during the five-month long conflict: “one sees the young girls, the children who hang from trees in the park... I have unsteady nerves and I'm constantly shaking.”

He was being interviewed, along with 214 other men and women—soldiers, officers, civilians, administrative staffers and others—amidst the rubble that remained of Stalingrad by members of Moscow's Historical Commission. Sent by the Kremlin, their aim was to record a comprehensive, historical documentary of the tremendous hardships overcome and heroic triumphs achieved during the battle.

20 soldiers of the 38th Rifle Division vividly recount how they stumbled upon the commander of the German troops, Field Marshal Friederich Paulus, defeated and hiding in a bed that reeked like a latrine. A lieutenant colonel remembers the brave 20 year-old adjutant who wrapped his arms around his commander's body to protect him from a flying grenade. Working around the clock, Nurse Vera Gurova describes a 24 hour period during which her hospital received over than 600 wounded men – equivalent to one every two and an half minutes. Countless soldiers endured shrapnel wounds and received blood transfusions in the trenches, but she can't forget the young amputee who begged her to avenge his suffering at Stalingrad.

This harrowing montage of distinct voices was so candid that the Kremlin forbade its publication and consigned the bulk of these documents to a Moscow archive where they remained forgotten for decades, until now. Jochen Hellbeck's Stalingrad is a definitive portrait of perhaps the greatest urban battle of the Second World War—a pivotal moment in the course of the war re-created with absolute candor and chilling veracity by the voices of the men and women who fought there.

Customer Reviews

Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781610394970
Publisher: PublicAffairs
Publication date: 04/28/2015
Sold by: Hachette Digital, Inc.
Format: eBook
Pages: 512
Sales rank: 360,490
File size: 35 MB
Note: This product may take a few minutes to download.

About the Author

Jochen Hellbeck is a professor of history at Rutgers University and a specialist in twentieth-century Russia. His previous book, Revolution on My Mind, explored personal diaries written in the Soviet Union under Stalin. The German edition of Stalingrad won a DAMALS prize for best historical study of the year. Hellbeck runs a website, facingstalingrad.com, that features portraits and interviews taken with German and Russian veterans of the battle of Stalingrad. He lives in Brooklyn, NY.

Table of Contents

Chapter 1 The Fateful Battle 1

A City Under Siege 7

Interpretations of the Battle 13

Revolutionary Army 23

Stalin's City 26

Prewar Era 29

Army and Party in War 32

Commanders and Commissars 38

Politics, Up Close 42

The Hero Strategy 47

Good and Bad Soldiers 50

Forms of Combat 59

People in War 65

Historians of the Avant-Garde 68

The Commission in Stalingrad 77

The Transcripts 80

Editorial Principles 82

Chapter 2 A Chorus of Soldiers 85

The Fate of the City and Its Residents 86

Agrafena Pozdnyakova 132

Gurtyev's Rifle Division in Battle 141

Vasily Grossman's "In the Line of the Main Drive" 192

The Landing at Latoshinka 203

The Capture of Field Marshal Paums 222

Chapter 3 Hike Accounts of the War 263

General Vasily Chuikov 264

Guards Division General Alexander Rodimtsev 291

Nurse Vera Gurova 311

A Lieutenant from Odessa: Alexander Averbukh 316

Regimental Commander Alexander Gerasimov 324

The History Instructor: Captain Nikolai Aksyonov 331

Sniper Vasily Zaytsev 356

A Simple Soldier: Alexander Parkhomenko 374

Captain Pyotr Zayonchkovsky 378

Chapter 4 The Germans Speak 399

German Prisoners in February 1943 400

A German Diary from the Kessel 422

Chapter 5 War and Peace 431

Illustration Credits 445

Maps 445

Acknowledgments 451

Notes 455

Index 487

From the B&N Reads Blog

Customer Reviews