http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3922121.stm
Putin orders Stalingrad tribute


Stalingrad marked the beginning of the end for Nazi Germany
Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the name of the city of
Stalingrad to be reinstated on a Moscow plaque commemorating the
1943 battle.
Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd in 1961, after the posthumous
disgrace of Soviet leader Joseph Stalin.
Mr Putin said his aim was to celebrate the turning point of World
War II.
He said the change was also designed to pay tribute to "the heroism
of Stalingrad's defenders and to preserve the history of the Russian
state".
Mr Putin asked the Moscow authorities to replace the "Volgograd"
with "Stalingrad" on a plaque near the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
It features in an alley of granite blocks containing capsules of
soil from "Hero Cities" - Leningrad, Kiev, Volgograd, Odessa,
Sevastopol, Minsk, Kerch, Novorissiisk, Tula and the Fortress of
Brest.
The battle of Stalingrad raged from August 1942 to February 1943 and
is thought to have claimed more lives than any other episode of
World War II.
It was the first major Soviet victory of the war.
More than a million Soviet soldiers died defending the city.
Post-Soviet leaders have resisted pressure from nationalists and war
veterans to restore the name of the city itself to Stalingrad -
fearing it would signal a return to Stalinist dictatorship.

"Post-Soviet leaders have resisted pressure from nationalists and war
veterans to restore the name of the city itself to Stalingrad -
fearing it would signal a return to Stalinist dictatorship."




I dont think it will happen, because of how paranoid the Russian people are of the return of Communism. It took a while for Putin to convince everybody to change the national anthum back to the old soviet one. He even wanted to change the flag back to the hammer and sickle but that didn't happen, but who knows, maybe they will change the name of the city back to Stalingrad because thats the name that the millions of soldiers died for in WW2, they died for STALINgrad, not Volgograd.

One million is a great number!Realy a hard batle!Can someone tell the number of unhabitants of the city in the batlle times and the today number?!And if was the futur USSR President Nikita Kruchov the General-Commandant of the Soviet Soldier of the batlle.

I think Stalingrad had a population of 400,000 and now Volgograds population is 2.7 million

http://www.network54.com/Forum/269944

I guess "commie fear" is the same reasoning that St-Petersburg will not go back to Leningrad...

The reason they changed it to St. Petersberg and Volgograd was to prove a point to the people that Communism is over in Russia. Petergrad and Volgograd were the names of the cities before communism. During the Monarchy.

test

They didn't have clothing for it and their weapons froze up in the cold. Russian weapons are built with greater tolerances to accomodate the range in temperatures, so they can work in burning summer and freezing winters. German weapons, with their tight tolerances, locked up. Even their machine guns.This is a situation where precision designs ended up being a handicap and cruder designs were beneficial.

German vehicles had to keep their engines running all the time or they'd freeze up-wasting a great deal of fuel. With overextended supply lines, this made things even more difficult.

E Tan, E Epi Tas!

American supplies to Soviet Union via lend lease helped.