Vasily Chuikov - Hero of Stalingrad

You may search a current map of Russia with a magnifying glass, but you will never find Stalingrad. During World War II, it was one of the world’s most famous cities. You might conclude that it no longer exists. Where has it gone?

The city is there, all right, but it is now called Volgograd. After the death of Joseph Stalin (Number 4), the Russian people wanted to wipe out the memory of the Communist dictator.

It will remain Stalingrad in the history books, however, even if not in the geography books. There in Volgograd today stands the statue of Mother Russia with an upraised sword in her hand. The statue is taller than the Statue of Liberty and memorializes one of the most savage battles of the war. It was the furthest point that Adolf Hitler (Number l) reached in his plan of conquest.

Leader of the Red Army

Vasily Chuikov is the man whom most historians credit as the hero of Stalingrad. He was born in 1900 in Serebryanye Prudy, Russia. Following the Russian Revolution during World War I, he first joined the Red Army and then the Communist Party. After serving several years as an officer, he entered a Russian military academy. He was assigned to China first in 1927 and then in 1929. These assignments led to his service for four years in the Far Eastern Army.

Following the Nazi-Soviet pact of 1939, he led a Red Army force in the invasion of Poland from the east, after the Nazis invaded from the west. He also led a force in the invasion of Finland in 1939. Though the Finns were badly outnumbered, they bloodied the Russians, exposing the Soviet Union’s unreadiness for war. Soviet military capabilities were strengthened.

In 1940, he was sent to China as chief military advisor to Chiang Kai-shek (Number 87).

The Battle for Stalingrad

Hitler invaded the Soviet Union in June 1941, but Chuikov did not return to Russia from China until early 1942. In July 1942, Chuikov became temporary commander of the 64th Army at Stalingrad. As the Nazis advanced on Stalingrad and the battle heated up, Chuikov’s general command was expanded. At one point, he declared that “we will either hold the city or die there.” It was the kind of attitude that appealed to Stalin, who issued his Order of the Day: “Not one step backward!”

The battle for Stalingrad began on August 23, 1942, when German forces reached the Volga river, north of the city. It would end on January 31, 1943, when German Field Marshal Friedrich von Paulus (Number 57) surrendered to a Red Army lieutenant. During those five months, the battle raged around and inside that strategic city on the Volga river.

Military historians have written many volumes about the German and Russian armies locked in deadly combat in that beleaguered battleground. In many other cities throughout the world where hand-to-hand fighting was involved, one finds a familiar reference to fighting block by block. In Stalingrad, the fighting was not just building by building, but literally room by room. Factory workers, men and women, had taken up weapons. It was a prime example of what the Russians would refer to as the Great Patriotic War.

Stalin had deliberately blown up the ferries and other boats that might have been used to get across to the other side of the Volga from Stalingrad. The defenders of the city fought with their backs to the river. There would be no Dunkirk, and surrender was out of the question.

Fighting for Mother Russia

Chuikov had the personal daring and the military skill to take advantage of German military mistakes and Hitler’s stubborn refusal to accept statistics that might interfere with his plans. Chuikov encouraged the fighting spirit of soldiers and civilians alike. The people were fighting not for Stalin or for Communism, but for Mother Russia. Stalin, himself, had emphasized that early in the war. 

When the end came in Stalingrad, an estimated l00,000 Germans and their allies surrendered and were marched into captivity. Only 10,000 of the 100,000 prisoners would be repatriated after the war.

Chuikov led Red Army units across eastern Europe into Germany, and into Berlin itself. The German capital surrendered on May 2, 1945. It was two days after Hitler committed suicide. Chuikov would become commander in chief of Soviet forces in Germany. After the death of Stalin in 1953, Chuikov would be given many more honors and hold high defense posts, including deputy minister of defense and commander in chief of Soviet ground forces. His war memoirs were highly praised by both Soviet and Western scholars.

Vasily Chuikov, hero of the city once known as Stalingrad, died in 1982.