The Russian Academy of Sciences showed a recording of the interrogation of Field Marshal Paulus: new facts about the Battle of Stalingrad

According to documents obtained by Soviet intelligence, in the summer of 1942, Hitler planned an offensive in the south, the purpose of which was to capture the oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus, the industrial Donets Basin, the granary-Kuban and the city on the Volga – Stalingrad. The Germans hoped that by capturing the rich southern territories of our country, they would be able to replenish the reserves of their army, which had been depleted by that time.

“If I don’t get oil from Maykop and Grozny,” the Fuhrer said before the start of the summer offensive, “then I will have to end the war.”

Miroslav Morozov, Candidate of Historical Sciences from the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences, reminded everyone of historical facts. The operation according to the plan “Blau” (“Blue”) developed by the Nazis began on June 28, 1942. The initial success achieved by the Wehrmacht inspired confidence that the resistance was over, after which the army “South” was divided into the Caucasian and Stalingrad groups, which weakened the German positions. Morozov recalled how the 6th Army under the command of General Friedrich Paulus tried to capture Stalingrad and how, as a result of coordinated actions, it was surrounded in a ring, according to Operation Uranus. By November 19, Soviet troops closed 20 divisions and 160 units of the Germans and their allies, the Romanians and Italians, inside this ring.

Hitler ignored the ultimatum to surrender that followed from the Soviet side. Encircled 250 thousand Germans and their satellites continued to resist against 212 thousand Soviet soldiers. On January 31, General Paulus surrendered, and by February 2, his army was finished.

Unknown pages of the photo and film chronicle of the defense of Stalingrad, stored in the funds of the Russian State Archive of Film and Photo Documents, were demonstrated by Academician of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor of Historical Sciences Yevgeny Pivovar.

First of all, he recalled the names of journalists, some of whom wrote a chronicle of the Battle of Stalingrad from its first to its last days. This is Emmanuil Evzerikhin, a TASS documentary filmmaker who developed the film in one of the Stalingrad basements, and by the next morning they were going to the Soviet Information Bureau with other news from the front. This is Yakov Ryumkin, a photographer for the Pravda newspaper, then seconded to the 62nd Army, who took a lot of photos of the army commander Chuikov, the great heroes of the famous division – Alexander Rodimtsev, sniper Zaitsev. This is Valentin Orlyankin – a cameraman from the Ukrainian SSR, who filmed an attack on a German bunker, sitting on a tank, in a real battle, and was wounded at that moment, Georgy Zelma from Izvestia, who captured Mamaev Kurgan before installing a sculpture of the Motherland on it . The shots taken by photographers show women scooping water from a pool near a fountain, a nurse bandaging a wounded man, an attack by Soviet tanks, etc. According to Pivovar, 49 military photographs from the Stalingrad front were revealed on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the battle.

The film chronicle, according to Pivovar, is divided into two parts. The first is a film magazine, which was filmed to regularly inform the Soviet people. It consisted of 175 issues. The second is films that were shot, as they say, “for the future”, for the subsequent preparation of large documentary projects. However, all of them are recognized as particularly significant film and photo documents subject to special storage.

We all remember the photographs of the captured Field Marshal Paulus. But there is also a record of this event, captured by the military film director Roman Karmen. On January 31, 1943, Paulus was taken for interrogation to the village of Beketovka in the Kirov district of Stalingrad, where the headquarters of the commander of the 64th Army, Lieutenant General Mikhail Shumilov, was located in a wooden residential building.

The footage shown at the RAS Council on History shows that during the interrogation the house was packed to capacity with servicemen. Paulus, who was promoted by Hitler to the position of field marshal when he was already surrounded, constantly turns away from the camera, blinks frequently.

“It looks like a nervous reaction,” the scientist comments on the movie clip. – According to the correspondent, Paulus really did not want to be filmed.

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Director of the Russian State Archive of Contemporary History (RGANI) Igor Permyakov spoke about the fantastic pace of restoration of the destroyed Stalingrad.

First, he presented a picture of the destruction of the city, in which, from the very first air raids of the Nazis, all factories, power plants, and water supply were put out of action.

By the end of the battle, on February 2, Konstantin Stolyarov, a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, wrote: “In those days it seemed that the city had survived a severe earthquake. But still he continued to live and fight. According to RGANI, not a single one of the 126 enterprises survived in the unconquered Stalingrad, while 48 factories were wiped off the face of the earth. The housing stock lost 1210 high-rise and 3866 low-rise buildings. 46 hospitals, 88 schools were destroyed, not to mention cultural facilities and other infrastructure facilities.

“In the city, 85% of what it was before the war was burned and blown up,” said Permyakov. – Only 7 thousand small one-story houses on the outskirts survived.

Foreign observers who visited the city after its liberation recommended that a new one be built, since, in their opinion, it was cheaper than rebuilding the old one.

But the Soviet government decided to rebuild Stalingrad. Already in 1943, it was possible to rebuild 11,093 residential buildings for the resettlement of 116 thousand people, build 33 administrative buildings, 40 schools, 21 hospitals, 48 ​​baths, 60 disinfectors, 187 shops and stalls, 125 canteens. The rivermen raised and put into operation 50 river ships, which were flooded for the duration of the battles.

“When I read archival materials, it’s hard to believe, of course, but it turned out that in Stalingrad a competition was organized between builders in the construction and repair of buildings,” the scientist says. – The crowning achievement was the restoration of the destroyed house of one of the brigades in one day! That intensity of the tension of the forces and will of people, the thoughtfulness of all actions on the part of the leadership, the real labor feat cause respect and admiration by our compatriots.

According to Permyakov, in autumn the archive will organize an exhibition that will be dedicated to the creative feat of Stalingrad. “It can be carried out under the motto “They did it, and we can do it,” said the director of the RGANI.

Academician Valery Tishkov said that our people managed to win an incredible victory over the enemy, who was stronger in discipline, tactics and quality of weapons thanks to the strength of mind. He also noted that the current geopolitical situation “becomes painfully similar to what it was 80 years ago,” and we must, more than ever, take into account the socio-political significance of the events of the Second World War, and in particular the Battle of Stalingrad: “Stalingrad has become a kind of metaphor Victory”.