Russia remembers Stalingrad

Russia has been commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad.

For a few hours the city of Volgograd readopted its old name of Stalingrad to mark the 70th anniversary of the six-month campaign that turned the tide of World War Two.

President Vladimir Putin flew to the city, known as Stalingrad from 1925 until 1961, to lay a wreath and meet veterans after a military parade and featuring a wartime T-34 tank.

Hundreds of war veterans turned up for the parade on central Square of the Fallen Fighters, their coats weighed down by medals, the youngest of them now 89.

Some two million people died during the battle but Russia’s victory is a symbol of national pride, and has produced an outburst of patriotic fervour.
For others it has heightened nostalgia for the Soviet era and dictator Josef Stalin.

After Stalingrad, Soviet troops fought their way westward to Berlin, taking the German capital 27 months later.

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