News and Events   65th ANNIVERSARY OF THE END OF STALINGRAD BATTLE

New Delhi, February 18, 2008: A Seminar-cum-Presentation "Unbowed Stalingrad", dedicated to the 65th Anniversary of the end of the Stalingrad Battle during World War II, jointly organized by the Russian Centre of Science & Culture and the Institute of Russian Language, RCSC, was held at 24,Ferozeshah Road, New Delhi, on February 18, 2008.

Making the presentation, Mrs. Maria B. Pavlova, Senior Executive and Programme Coordinator, RCSC, said that the Battle for Stalingrad included the German siege of the southern Russian City of Stalingrad, presently Volgograd, the battle inside the City, and the Soviet counter-offensive, which eventually trapped and destroyed the German and other Axis forces in and around the City. The victory of Stalingrad marked the beginning of the liberation of the Soviet Union, leading to the eventual victory over Nazi Germany in 1945.

The Battle of Stalingrad occupies an important niche in world history. It symbolized the staunchness, bravery and unsurpassed heroism of the Soviet people and its Armed Forces in the fight for freedom of the USSR for liberating mankind from fascist enslavement. It fundamentally changed the course of war in favour of the USSR and the entire anti-Axis coalition. In the battle on the Volga, the Soviet Army not only withstood the pressure of crack Nazi troops, but also smashed the backbone of the Wehrmacht in the Volga steppes. One of the decisive factors in the successes achieved by the American and British troops in other World War II theatres, particularly in Northern Africa, the Mediterranean and Italy, were the large-scale, intensive military operation on the Soviet-German Front in the second half of 1942 and in the beginning of 1943, during which the main Nazi forces had been tied down and all its strategic reserves exhausted.