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By Tatyana Moskovchenko
The city of Stalingrad was founded in 1589 as a fortress outpost in the
south of Russia to guard the Volga trade route from nomad attacks. But
centuries later, it became a major economic and industrial center, a river
port and also a very beautiful city on the right bank of the Volga.
The situation changed drastically when the Nazis besieged Stalingrad in
1942. Though no special fortifications appeared there, the city itself
became a fortress again – in terms of the courage and heroism of its defenders,
who dealt the Nazi enemy a deathblow.
Soon after the Battle of Stalingrad began, volunteer corps were formed
in the city to fight the invaders. One of the largest corps was at the
Stalingrad tractor factory. Olga Kovalyova, one of the factory engineers,
refused to leave Stalingrad along with the women, who were being evacuated
from the city. She joined the volunteer corps at the tractor factory and
fought side by side with the men, her former colleagues. Olga was 40, when
she was killed in one of the attacks, but the Nazis never captured the
Stalingrad tractor factory. Olga Kovalyova was one of the thousands of
the civilians, who displayed heroism on a mass scale along with regular
soldiers and officers.
Among them was Lieutenant Makshantsev of the tank corps. On one occasion
he had to fight off 12 German tanks. He put out of action three of them,
when the turret of his tank was shattered. The situation was desperate,
but Lieutenant Makshantsev did not surrender. Instead, he rammed one of
the remaining German tanks. To his great surprise, the other eight enemy
machines turned back and made off.
60 years ago both Olga Kovalyova and Lieutenant Makshantsev contributed
to the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingard, which lasted non-stop
for 200 days and nights. Ilya Erenburg, a famous Soviet author, was
at the Stalingrad front as a war correspondent. Of course, he wrote not
only about the two heroes we have just told you about. He became a chronicler
of the Battle of Stalingard, whose works were and remain firsthand evidence
of the Soviet people’s heroism.
President Franklin Delano Roosevelt of the United States presented the
defendants of Stalingrad with a scroll, which said: “In the name of the
people of the United States of America, I present this scroll to the City
of Stalingrad to commemorate our admiration for its gallant defenders whose
courage, fortitude and devotion during the siege of September 13, 1942
to January 31, 1943 will inspire forever the hearts of all free people.
Their glorious victory stemmed the tide of invasion and marked the turning
point in the war of the Allied Nations against the forces of aggression.”
At the end of 1942, German newspapers tried to explain to their readers
why the Battle of Stalingrad had not become a blitzkrieg as it was intended
to be. Of course, none of them told the truth about the situation on the
battlefront. At the same time they could not conceal the fact that the
Soviet people were not only fighting to the last man and bullet, but were
also displaying heroism in situations that were – from their point of view
– extraordinary. Without giving any concrete names or facts, Nazi newspapers
indulged in generalities and tried, though with little success, to bolster
their confidence in a favorable outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad. But
the situation had become absolutely hopeless and now the Nazis were not
fighting for just one more victory, but for their lives only, while the
Soviet soldiers and officers were fighting to win!
One of them was Ivan Bobrik, an infantry sergeant. In one of the attacks,
which lasted from morning till night, neither side was able to gain the
upper hand. Ivan Bobrik took advantage of the night hours and occupied
one of the German tanks, which had been put out of action. He spent 13
days and nights in the tank, observing the enemy’s regrouping and directing
the Soviet artillery by his field telephone. When his observation post
was detected by the Germans, they launched an attack on Ivan Bobrik’s position,
but the Soviet troops repelled the attack and rescued him.
Oleg Burkovsky also took part in the Battle of Stalingrad, though he did
not fight at the frontline. He was only 14 years old at that time. His
parents had been killed and his home ruined. Oleg was lucky enough to find
refuge in one of the Soviet field hospitals. At first, the boy just helped
to look after the patients, but soon he became an experienced surgeon male
nurse and the youngest one at the Stalingrad front. He did not fight at
the front, but he contributed – in his own way – to the victory in the
Battle of Stalingrad.
Now Oleg Burkovsky is 74 and retired. He lives in the former Stalingrad,
now Volgograd.
Of course, none of the German newspapers wrote about these two men who
were and continue to be not only concrete, but also impressive example
of the heroism of the defendants of Stalingrad, irrespective of their age
or occupation.
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