Busts of Stalin, Zhukov, Vasilevsky are unveiled in Volgograd. Photo report

We live in this modern and beautiful city, this major industrial, scientific, cultural center of our country also because for 36 years this city was called Stalingrad

The ceremony of unveiling the busts of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of the USSR Joseph Stalin, his first deputy during the Battle of Stalingrad Georgy Zhukov, and the Chief of Staff of the Red Army during this period Aleksandr Vasilevsky began February 1 at 2:00 p.m. on the square in front of the museum The Battle of Stalingrad.

Cadets and members of military orchestra lined the square in front of the museum.

Commencement of the ceremony. The host began his opening remarks:

“Today, on the eve of the great Stalingrad Victory, we pay tribute to those whose military leadership talent and brilliant strategic thinking made this victory possible. Today, on the eve of the great commemorative date, we unveil the busts of our renowned Soviet military leaders: Joseph Stalin, Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky. It was their high operational and strategic level of military art, their creative military thought and its organic connection with combat practice that ensured the successful completion of Operation Uranus, which became the starting point on the way to victory over Nazi Germany.”

The right to open the monuments was granted to honorary citizens of Volgograd: Yuri Starovatov, Aleksandr Strukov, Boris Usik and representatives of child and youth military-patriotic movement Yunarmiya.

“Today in unfriendly countries they break our monuments dedicated to the Soviet soldier. Our country has taken a different course – to preserve the memory of the Great Patriotic War”, the Chairman of the Volgograd Regional Duma, Chairman of the regional organization of veterans Aleksandr Bloshkin stressed.

Supreme Commander in Chief Joseph Stalin. Today, during a special military operation, it becomes clearer how difficult it is to lead the state and the army during the war. Stalin managed his task, and the enemy was defeated.

But Volgograd and Stalin are connected not only by military action. For 36 years and seven months, Volgograd bore the name of Stalin – Stalingrad. And all these years the city was actively developing. During the war years, the city remained unconquered (like Leningrad). And today we understand that we live in this modern and beautiful city, this major industrial, scientific and cultural center of our country, in part because for 36 years this city was called Stalingrad. And today’s events are a tribute to historical justice and historical truth.

From the tank closest to the place where the ceremony was taking place, young people were watching the event.

A solemn laying of flowers at the busts began.

After paying their respects, those who laid flowers left the site.

After the ceremonial laying of flowers, veterans received the right to be the first to approach the monuments.

Some of them were carefully led by their escorts, while others, stamping their steps, marched to the bust of the Generalissimo on their own, to lay the flowers and then salute.

To the solemn music, the citizens laid flowers.

Some lingered at the bust of Stalin to bow their heads and pay their respects to the leader of the USSR.

Among those laying flowers were people of different generations.

The men in civilian clothes bowed their heads, and the men in uniform saluted.

Someone was kneeling while laying flowers.

The widow of war correspondent Yuliy Petrovich Chepurin attended the unveiling of the monuments. During the Battle of Stalingrad he worked as a special correspondent for the front-line newspaper Stalin Banner of V. I. Chuikov’s 62nd Army. It was from his essay “Pavlov’s House”, written in October 1942, and began the legendary fame of Sergeant Pavlov and his comrades from the 13th Guards Division of General Aleksandr Rodimtsev.

Songs of the war years sounded through the loudspeakers.