Volgograd provides the proper perspective at World Cup
VOLGOGRAD, Russia — Nearly 60 years since it changed its name to Volgograd, the Russian city once called Stalingrad and its bloody history loom large even in the midst of the fun and football of the World Cup.
Stalingrad, the name of the city on the Volga river between 1925 and 1961, is now often shorthand for one of the most violent battles in history. The exact death toll can never be known, but historians believe about a million people from both sides died that savage winter of 1942-3 when the Nazi war machine was stopped from crossing the Volga, then surrounded and defeated.
The city was basically reduced to rubble and its modern-day residents will forever remember the sacrifices of their ancestors.
“It’s sacred for us because in every family in the Volgograd region, there are people who died in the battle and we mustn’t forget about it and every year we do patriotic action and do some lessons for children so they know all about it,” said 21-year-old Daria Kolomyichenko.