What happened on August 23, 1942. Notices

Vasily Grossman. "For a just cause"

“Stalingrad has become a symbol of courage, resilience of the Russian people and at the same time a symbol of the greatest human suffering. This symbol will remain for centuries." (British Prime Minister Winston Churchill)

On August 23, 1942, 75 years ago, Stalingrad was subjected to a barbaric bombardment. For Hitler, the capture of Stalingrad meant not only the achievement of important strategic results, the disruption of communications between north and south, and the disruption of communications between the central regions of Russia and the Caucasus.
The capture of Stalingrad not only determined the possibility of a wide invasion to the northeast, bypassing Moscow deeply, and to the south, to achieve the final goals of the geo-expansion of the Third Empire. The capture of Stalingrad was a foreign policy task - its solution could determine important changes and the position of Japan and Turkey.
The capture of Stalingrad was an internal political task - its fall would strengthen Hitler’s position within Germany and would be a real sign of the final victory promised to the German people in June 1941.
The fall of Stalingrad would be the atonement for the failed blitzkrieg, which was supposed to end, according to the Fuhrer's promise, eight weeks after the start of the invasion of Russia. The fall of Stalingrad would justify the defeats at Moscow, Rostov, Tikhvin and the terrible winter casualties that shocked the German people.
The fall of Stalingrad would strengthen Germany's power over its satellites and would paralyze the voices of disbelief and criticism.
Hitler's demand: “Stalingrad muss fallen!” (“Stalingrad must be destroyed!”) was born from other reasons, more compelling than the reality of the battlefields. That's what he wanted!

Hitler raised his bloody ax over Stalingrad. The first planes appeared at about four o'clock in the afternoon. From the east, from the Volga region, six bombers were approaching the city at a high altitude. As soon as the German vehicles, having passed over the Burkovsky farm, began to approach the Volga, a whistle was heard and explosions immediately rumbled - smoke and chalk dust rose above the bomb-damaged buildings. The planes were clearly visible in the transparent air. The sun was shining, thousands of window panes sparkled in its rays, and people, raising their heads, watched how quickly the German planes went west.
Someone's young voice shouted loudly:
- These are crazy people who broke through, you see, they don’t even announce the alarm.
And immediately sirens, steamship and factory whistles began to wail with dull force. This cry, broadcasting misfortune and death, hung over the city, as if it conveyed the melancholy that gripped the population. It was the voice of the entire city - not only people, but all buildings, cars, stone, poles, grass and trees in parks, wires, tram rails - the cry of the living and inanimate, gripped by a premonition of destruction. An iron, rusty throat alone could give rise to this sound, equally expressing the horror of a bird and the anguish of a human heart. And then silence came - the last silence of Stalingrad.
The planes came from the east, from the Volga region, from the south, from Sarepta and Beketovka, from the west, from Kalach and Karpovka, from the north, from Erzovka and Rynok - their black bodies moved easily. Among the feathery clouds in the blue sky, and like hundreds of poisonous insects escaping from secret nests, they rushed towards the desired victim. The sun, in its divine ignorance, touched its rays to the wings of the creatures, and they sparkled with milky whiteness - and in this resemblance of the wings of the Junkers to white moths there was something languishing, blasphemous.
The hum of the engines became stronger, viscous, thicker. All the sounds of the city faded, shrank, and only the humming sound thickened, filled, darkened, conveying in its slow monotony the frantic power of the engines. The sky was covered with sparks of anti-aircraft explosions, gray heads of smoky dandelions, and angry flying insects quickly glided among them.... The Germans walked several floors high, occupying the entire blue volume of the summer sky...
Having met over Stalingrad, the planes, coming from the east and the west, from the north and south, began to descend, and it seemed that they were descending because the summer sky sagged, subsided from the weight of metal and explosives reaching to the ground. This is how the skies sag under heavy clouds full of dark rain.
And a new, third sound appeared over the city - the drilling whistle of dozens and hundreds of high-explosive bombs coming off the planes, the screech of thousands and tens of thousands of incendiary bombs rushing from open cassettes. This sound, which lasted three or four seconds, permeated all living things, and the hearts sank in melancholy, the hearts of those who were destined to die in a moment with this melancholy, and the hearts of those who survived. The whistling grew and became more intense.
Everyone heard him! And women running down the street from the melting lines to their homes, where their children were waiting for them. And those who managed to take refuge in deep basements, separated from the sky by thick stone ceilings. And those who fell on the asphalt among the squares and streets. And those who jumped into the cracks in the gardens and pressed their heads to the dry earth. And the wounded, who were lying on the operating tables at that moment, and the babies, demanding their mother's milk. The bombs reached the ground and crashed into the city.
Houses died just like people die. Some, thin, tall, fell to the side, killed on the spot, others, squat, stood trembling and staggering, with their chests torn, suddenly revealing what was always hidden: portraits on the walls, sideboards, night tables, double beds, jars of millet, half-peeled potatoes on the table covered with ink-smeared oilcloth. Bent water pipes, iron beams in the interfloor ceilings, and strands of wires were exposed. Red bricks, smoking with dust, piled up on the pavements. Thousands of houses were blinded, and window glass paved the sidewalks with small, shiny scales of fragments.
Under the blows of the blast waves, massive tram wires fell to the ground with a ringing and grinding sound, and the mirrored glass of shop windows flowed out of the frames, as if turned into liquid. Tram rails, hunched over, crawled out of the asphalt. And at the whim of the blast wave, a blue plywood kiosk stood indestructibly, where they sold sparkling water, a tin arrow-sign “go here” hung, and a fragile telephone booth glistened with glass.
Everything that had been motionless for centuries - stones and iron - was moving rapidly, and everything into which man had invested the idea and forces of movement - trams, cars, buses, steam locomotives - all of this stopped. Lime and brick dust rose thickly in the air, fog rose over the city and spread down the Volga.
The flames of fires caused by tens of thousands of incendiary bombs began to flare up... In the smoke, dust, fire, amid the roar that shook the sky, water and earth, a huge city perished. This picture was terrible, and yet more terrible was the look of a six-year-old man, crushed by an iron beam, fading into death. There is a force that can raise huge cities from the dust, but there is no force in the world that could lift light eyelashes over the eyes of a dead child.
Only those who were on the left bank of the Volga, ten to fifteen kilometers from Stalingrad, in the area of the Burkovsky farm, Verkhnyaya Akhtuba, Yam, Tumak and Gypsy Zarya, could see the whole picture of the fire as a whole and measure the enormity of the misfortune that befell the city.
Hundreds of bomb explosions merged into a monotonous roar, and the cast-iron weight of this roar made the earth in the Volga region tremble, the windows of wooden houses tinkled, and the foliage on the oak trees moved. The lime fog that rose over the city covered tall buildings and the Volga like a white sheet, stretched for tens of kilometers, crawled towards Stalgres, the ship repair plant, Beketovka and Krasnoarmeysk. Gradually the whiteness of the fog disappeared, mixing with the yellow-gray smoky haze of the fires.
From a distance it was clearly visible how the fire burning over one building connected with the neighboring fire, how entire streets were burning, and how in the end the fire of the burning streets merged into one wall, living and moving. In some places, tall pillars like towers rose above this wall, which rose above the right bank of the Volga, domes and fiery bell towers swelled. They sparkled with red, pure gold, smoky copper, as if a new city of flame had grown over Stalingrad.
The Volga was smoking along the banks. Black soot smoke and flames slid across the water - it was the fuel leaking onto the water from the broken tanks that was burning. And the smoke rose many miles in clouds. This cloud grew and, washed away by the steppe winds, began to creep across the sky, and many weeks later smoke hung over dozens of steppe miles around Stalingrad, and the swollen, bloodless sun walked its way among the white haze.
At dusk, the flames of the burning city were seen by women walking from the south to Raigorod with sacks of grain, and by ferrymen at the crossing in Svetly Yar. The reflections of the fire were noticed by old Kazakhs traveling to Elton on carts; their camels, sticking out their slobbering lips and stretching out their dirty swan necks, looked back to the east. From the north, fishermen saw the light in Dubovka and Gornaya Proleika. From the west, the fire was observed by officers from the headquarters of Colonel General Paulus who had gone to the banks of the Don. They smoked and silently looked at the light spot flickering roundly in the dark sky.
Many people saw a glow in the night. What did it say, whose death, whose triumph?

The power of the disaster was enormous, and all living things, as happens during forest and steppe fires, earthquakes, mountain collapses and floods, sought to leave the dying city. Birds were the first to leave Stalingrad - jackdaws flew scatteredly, hugging low to the water, to the left bank of the Volga; overtaking them, gray sparrows flew in flocks of gray, sometimes elastically stretching, sometimes shrinking.
Large rats, who must have not come out of their secret deep holes for years, felt the heat of the fire and the vibrations of the soil, crawled out of the basements of food warehouses and grain barns, rushed around in confusion for several moments, blinded and deafened, and, driven by instinct, dragging their tails and fat gray hairs. butts, crawled towards the water, climbed along planks and ropes onto barges and half-submerged steamers standing off the shore.
Dogs with crazy, dull eyes jumped out of the smoke and dust, rolled down the slope and threw themselves into the water, swam towards Krasnaya Sloboda and Tumak.
But white and gray pigeons, with a force even more powerful than the instinct of self-preservation, chained to their homes, circled over the burning houses and, caught in the current of hot air, died in smoke and flame.
The woman, raising her hands to the cruel, growling sky, shouted:
-What are you doing, villains, what are you doing?
Human suffering! Will future centuries remember him? It will not remain, just as the stones of huge houses and the glory of warriors will remain; it - tears and whispers, the last breaths and wheezes of the dying, the cry of despair and pain - everything will disappear along with the smoke and dust that the wind carried over the steppe.

At eight o'clock in the evening, the commander of the Fourth Air Fleet, Manfred von Richthofen, took off in a twin-engine military aircraft to assess what had been done.
From a height of four and a half thousand meters, a picture of a huge catastrophe, illuminated by the setting sun, was visible. The hot air raised white smoke, cleared of soot, into the air; This smoke, bleached by the height, lay in the heights like a wavy veil, it was difficult to distinguish it from light clouds; below it breathed, rose, boiled, a heavy, swirling, sometimes black, sometimes ashen, sometimes red smoke ball.
It seemed that the largest Himalayan mountain, Gaurizankar, was slowly and heavily rising from the womb of the earth, protruding millions of pounds of hot, dense piebald and red ores. Every now and then a hot, copper flame burst from the depths of the colossal cauldron, shooting sparks thousands of meters away, and it seemed that a cosmic catastrophe was being presented to the eyes.
Occasionally the ground became visible, small black mosquitoes darting about, but dense smoke instantly swallowed up this view. The Volga and the steppe were shrouded in a hazy fog, and the river and the land in the fog seemed gray and wintry. Far to the east lay the flat steppes of Kazakhstan. A gigantic fire burned almost at the very border of these steppes.
The commander said abruptly:
– ....They will see on Mars... Beelzebub’s work...
The fascist general, with his stony, slavish heart, at those moments felt the power of the man who led him to this terrible height, put in his hands the torch with which German aviation lit a fire on the last frontier between East and West, showed the way to tanks and infantry to the Volga and the huge Stalingrad factories.
These minutes and hours seemed to be the highest triumph of the inexorable “total” idea, the idea of violence of motors and trinitrotoluene against the women and children of Stalingrad. To the fascist pilots, hovering over the Stalingrad cauldron of smoke and flame, it seemed that these minutes and these hours marked the triumph of German violence over the world, promised by Hitler.
Forever defeated seemed to them those who, suffocating in smoke, in basements, pits, shelters, among the red-hot ruins, houses turned to dust, listened in horror to the triumphant and ominous hum of the bombers reigning over Stalingrad.
But no! In the fateful hours of the death of the huge city, something truly great happened - in the blood and in the hot stone fog, not the slavery of Russia, not its death, was born; Among the hot ashes and smoke, the strength of Soviet man, his love, loyalty to freedom lived indestructibly and stubbornly made its way, and it was this indestructible force that triumphed over the terrible but futile violence of the enslavers.

Municipal budgetary educational institution "Nekhaevskaya secondary school".

Development of a Memory Lesson “Events of August 23, 1942: the tragedy of the civilian population of Stalingrad.”

Nekhaevskaya village, 2015.

Form of delivery: thematic combined class hour with elements of dramatic, literary and musical performance.

Objectives of extracurricular activities:

Together with students, remember the events of the Great Patriotic War.

Develop the need to study the history of your region, your Motherland, to be its true citizen, to preserve the historical memory of your people.

To form patriotism, citizenship, pride for one’s country, for one’s people.

Preparatory work:

Selection of literary material for the event.

Selection of poems, articles, factual journalistic material on the topic of the event.

Selection of photographs and music for the event.

Preparing a presentation on the topic of the event.

Classroom decoration for the event.

Preparing a script for the event.

Progress of extracurricular activities.

The presenter reads a poem:

Countless plants, factories, new buildings,

Gardens and parks of wondrous beauty.

In days of peace you are majestic and steadfast.

You are the youth of a sparkling dream.

Your avenues, streets, fountains

Cities live in a bustling rhythm.

You're having fun after midnight and early

Simple everyday work awaits.

(T. Lavrova)

On the screen there is text:

Stalingrad!.. Before the war, an ordinary city, with streets and squares, old and new quarters. A beautiful city, a hard-working city, a city above the Russian Volga River... By 1940, the city's population was about 480 thousand people, the housing stock totaled 2 million square meters. m. The city had 125 schools, 15 hospitals, 39 clubs, 3 universities, 19 technical schools and special secondary educational institutions, 4 theaters. There were 227 industrial and transport organizations. The city became a major industrial center of the country.

Many plans were not destined to come true - the Great Patriotic War began. From its very first days, the city became one of the largest arsenals in the southeast of the country. Stalingrad factories produced and repaired tanks, artillery pieces, ships, mortars, machine guns and other weapons. A militia division and eight fighter battalions were formed. On October 23, 1941, a city defense committee was created, which played a major role in coordinating the actions of military and civilian authorities. The construction of defensive fortifications was carried out on a huge scale by units of the 5th Engineer Army and the working people of the city and region.

A patriotic song from the period of the Great Patriotic War sounds, which became a kind of anthem for the defense of the Fatherland “Holy War”, known by the first line “Get up, huge country!” Lyricist: V.I. Lebedev-Kumach, composer: A.V. Alexandrov (1941). Performed by a group of students.

Get up, huge country,

Stand up for mortal combat

With fascist dark power,

With the damned horde.

Chorus:

May the rage be noble

Boils like a wave -

There is a people's war going on,

Holy war!

Like two different poles

We are hostile in everything.

We fight for light and peace,

They are for the kingdom of darkness.

Chorus.

Let's fight back the stranglers

All fiery ideas,

Rapists, robbers,

Tormentors of people!

Chorus.

Black wings dare not

Fly over the Motherland,

Its fields are spacious

The enemy does not dare to trample!

Chorus.

Rotten fascist evil spirits

Let's drive a bullet into the forehead,

The scum of humanity

Let's put together a strong coffin!

Chorus.

Let's go break with all our might,

With all my heart, with all my soul

For our dear land,

For our great Union!

Chorus.

A huge country is rising,

Stands up for mortal combat

With fascist dark power,

With the damned horde!

Chorus.

The presenters come out in formal suits.

1 presenter:

In accordance with the plan for the summer offensive campaign of 1942, the Wehrmacht command, concentrating large forces in the southwestern direction, hoped to defeat the Soviet troops, enter the big bend of the Don, immediately capture Stalingrad, capture the Caucasus, and then Moscow.

The 6th field and 4th tank armies of the Germans were redirected to Stalingrad. Later, the Italian and two Romanian armies were drawn into the battle. If in July 30 enemy divisions attacked Stalingrad, then in August there were already 69, and in September - 81. From that moment on, the Stalingrad direction became the main one.

2 presenter:

On July 12, 1942, on the basis of the field command of the troops of the Southwestern Front, the Stalingrad Front was created under the command of S.K. Timoshenko.

In an exceptionally difficult combat situation in the great bend of the Don and on the approaches to the Volga, one of the greatest battles of the Second World War began. On July 17, the advanced units of the Nazi troops reached the Chir River and entered into battle with units of the 62nd and 64th armies. The enemy outnumbered the Soviet troops by 1.7 times, in artillery and tanks by 1.3 times, and in aviation by more than 2 times. Under the pressure of superior enemy forces, our troops were forced to retreat to the left bank of the Don.

For a whole month there were bloody battles on the outer defensive perimeter. The Nazis' plan to capture Stalingrad was immediately thwarted.

3rd presenter:

Residents of the front-line areas of the region also made their contribution to the defense of Stalingrad. The front from the city of Frolovo was 30 km away, the city was in danger. Teenagers, women, old people created defensive lines. In the materials of the museum of the locomotive depot of Art. Archeda has preserved the following description of the events of those days: “The enemy bombed St. Archeda continuously. The fascists destroyed all the buildings at the station, not a single room remained. And yet the trains went to the front. During the day, the fascists would bomb the tracks, and at dusk the railway workers would restore them.” Since 1942, the depot workers were in barracks condition. Dozens of front-line trips were made by the drivers of the station depot. Archeda: N.A. and P.A. Evstigneevs, I.G. Litvinov. The memorial plaque installed at the station building tells about the labor feat of railway workers in those years. On August 5, driver A.S. Vasiliev drove the train, which contained ammunition, from Kachalino to Archeda. Enemy planes appeared over Log station and began throwing bombs. One hit an arriving train and it caught fire. It was necessary to unhook the surviving cars and take them out of the station. Showing courage and resourcefulness, the driver brought these cars out of the station for the haul. The catastrophe of a large explosion of ammunition and gasoline tanks was averted.

1 presenter:

A shrapnel from an aerial bomb near the station. Rakovka driver M.N. was wounded. Kotelnikov. Blood streamed from the wound. But the driver did not leave his post; he knew that there was no one to replace him, and the defenders of Stalingrad were waiting for the cargo. Having quickly bandaged the wound, Kotelnikov drove the train longer, leaving it safely at its destination. It was a battle on the rails, which our railway workers won at the cost of their own lives.

In August, the grain harvest was underway. It was not easy for the collective farmers. The newspaper "Stalingradskaya Pravda" then published the editorial "Bread is also a weapon." The enemy bombed the villages of Vetyutnevo, Ternovka, Rubezhki, Archedino-Chernushensky, and the fields of the Zelenovsky state farm. The famous combine operator of this state farm, P.I. Belyansky told how enemy planes dived at his harvesting unit, pierced the combine with bullets, and threw bombs twice, and it exploded next to the tractor. Tractor driver Sekachev was severely shell-shocked, but refused to go to the farm; two combine harvesters burned under the bombing; combine operators M.P. were killed. Mikhin, A.T. Polyakov, S. T" Rogachev. On the Zelenovsky state farm, eleven people were killed by the enemy during harvesting, but the entire harvest from an area of over ten thousand hectares was harvested in a timely manner. In August, all collective farms brought a new crop to the elevator. 12,403 tons were shipped grain The grain procurement plan was exceeded.

2 presenter:

On August 23, 1942, Stalingrad was subjected to a barbaric bombardment. From that day on, massive aerial bombing of the city began. In just two hours in the afternoon, enemy aircraft carried out approximately 2,000 sorties. Many enterprises were destroyed and cultural values were destroyed. Burning oil flowed from the bombed tanks of an oil storage facility located on the banks of the Volga and spilled down the river. Piers and ships were burning. It seemed as if the Volga itself was on fire. The huge fire of the burning city was visible for tens of kilometers around. “I had to go through and see a lot on military roads, but what I saw on August 23 in Stalingrad amazed me. The city was burning, it was monstrously destroyed...”, the commander of the South-Eastern Front wrote in his memoirs (from September 28 - Stalingrad) Marshal of the Soviet Union Andrei Ivanovich Eremenko.

3rd presenter:

Only after midnight the fascist air attacks stopped. More than 40 thousand civilians died that day. It was necessary to organize the evacuation of city property, factory equipment, and people. In all this, the army was helped by the surviving residents of the city. In conditions when the right bank of the Volga actually became the front, and the left bank the rear, the Volga crossings became a vital factor. They delivered ammunition, medicine, food, and reserves from the left bank, and from the right bank they transported the wounded to hospitals located in the shallow rear.

1 presenter:

Stalingrad that day still lived the rear life of a front-line city. Shops and institutions were open, the children were taken to kindergartens the day before. No one even thought about evacuation.

According to the recollections of many “children of wartime Stalingrad,” Sunday, August 23, 1942, was warm and sunny. There was great activity in the city center - shops and markets were open, citizens were relaxing in the parks; Military and police officers worked on the central streets, preparing a place for the passage of military equipment... A few minutes after the chief of staff for the air defense of Stalingrad spoke about the expected massive raid of German aviation, a reconnaissance plane "Rama" appeared over the city center. He threw away a huge number of leaflets and turned back.

The bombing of Stalingrad began at 18:00. The city's air defense was complicated by the fact that anti-aircraft guns were used to repel a tank attack - by the time the raid began, the Stalingrad anti-aircraft gunners had already been holding back the onslaught of the enemy's 169th tank division on the northern outskirts of the city for two hours. They were forbidden to shoot at planes so that more shells would go to the tanks. At 16:18, according to eyewitnesses, an increasing rumble was heard. German planes flew in large groups in strict order. From the memoirs of Yu. Anikin (at that time a 13-year-old schoolboy): “Standing on the tram ring, I saw with my own eyes how fascist vultures brazenly flew along the city towards the factories, in groups, at intervals of several minutes. High-explosive and incendiary bombs (25 pieces each in self-expanding boxes), pieces of rails, empty iron barrels with holes rained down on the city, creating a terrifying screech, howl, and roar. Powerful explosions of heavy bombs constantly shook the earth and air.”

Enemy aircraft destroyed the city, killed more than 40 thousand people, destroyed more than half of the housing stock of pre-war Stalingrad, thereby turning the city into a huge territory covered with burning ruins. In one day, the enemy flew more than 2,000 sorties. The planes were flying in groups of 30-40 aircraft. The city stretched along the Volga for many kilometers, and the bombers managed to make several sorties a day.

On the screen there is a photo “Bombing of Stalingrad”.

Richthofen's air squadrons

attacked Stalingrad.

2 presenter:

Despite the opposition of Soviet aviation and anti-aircraft artillery, which managed to shoot down 120 fascist planes, the city was turned into ruins, and over 40 thousand civilians died. Not only buildings were burning, the ground and the Volga were burning, as oil tanks were destroyed. It was so hot in the streets due to the fires that the clothes of people running for shelter caught fire.

It was impossible to extinguish the fires because the water supply was out of order. The Germans cut off the main lift at Mechetka, it was disabled, and therefore there was no water.

Horror-stricken people, according to their stories, tried to hide in the first shelters they came across. They took refuge in hastily dug small dugouts, trenches, crevices, and basements. Everything around began to burn: houses, streets, the city. The oil refineries located on the shore were also burning, and because of the burning oil spills, it seemed that the Volga was also burning.

In the hope of salvation, people tried to get to the crossing across the Volga, but once there, many turned back, realizing that it was simply impossible to evacuate. A small section of the crossing was used by the military; the wounded and children were rarely transported. It was possible to get on the barge only after going through a hellish crush. “The crowd of people, crushing each other, began to climb onto the barge along the gangplank. And when the pier collapsed under us, I mechanically grabbed the trouser legs of the man in front of me, who was holding a small child in his arms, but he himself managed to hold on to the gangplank with one hand. Then somehow he contrived to take a penknife out of his pocket and cut out those parts of the trousers that I was holding on to. With these scraps in my hands, having lost consciousness from fear, I went to the bottom... I woke up on the shore among the same “drowned people” as me... having already climbed the steep bank, we heard the rumble of an airplane... And when we looked towards the Volga, the barge itself was burning with a bright flame, like the people on it, floundering in a spilled oil puddle,” recalled Nina Prokofyevna Mazurova.

Presenter:

Dozens of fascist aircraft roared hysterically in the Stalingrad sky

planes, an air raid alert was announced. The city trembled from the howl of sirens,

factory and locomotive whistles. As one of the eyewitnesses later recalled: “Howl

the sirens were the dying groan of a large beautiful city on the Volga.” Air

quickly fills with an ominous roar and roar. They are heard from all sides

powerful explosions accompanied by the howl and whistle of flying bombs and barrels of

drilled holes in the sides. The sky fills up to the horizon

low-flying planes with black crosses, grapes are separated from them

bombs.

The first bomb strikes disrupted the city's water supply, depriving it

water. There was nothing to extinguish the fires that arose. Everything that could burn was burning:

houses, fences, trams, ships, packed with evacuated wounded,

railway cars loaded with equipment. Oil was burning and spilling over

Volga. The fire is raging everywhere, the asphalt is melting, and many streets are

a fiery pipe through which it is impossible to pass alive. The city is not

to know. Piles of bricks, craters in the asphalt, the smell of burning, smoke, groans of the wounded,

cries of people for help and hundreds of corpses of children and adults on the mangled

explosion on the ground... Miraculously, the residents who remained alive fled to the Volga in the hope

cross to the other side. Many people gathered on the shore, trying to

To escape from the fiery captivity, they rushed into the water, but died from bullets. On

low level flight, the Germans mercilessly shot fleeing people from

machine guns. Every 30 minutes they methodically flew over the banks of the Volga,

dropping high explosive bombs on the embankment and coming for the wounded and

sorties. Enemy crews operated in a "shuttle" manner. Having been bombed,

the planes left for refueling and gave way to others. And so wave after wave,

burning street after street, house after house...

But even in this city, which has become a complete hell, the people of Stalingrad

came to each other's aid, saving children and bandaging the wounded.

Orphaned children were collected throughout the city and sent to orphanages and

shelters. For a long time, many of them will cry from the shock they suffered.

at night, don’t talk, and hide under the bed from the first spring thunder.

Often the children were so young that they could not say their first and last names. So

after the war, Stalingrad, Besfamilnye and Nepomnyashchie will appear in the city.

Later, remembering their wartime childhood, they will talk about the elephant -

the favorite of Stalingrad children, who lived in the zoo before the war. Wounded,

he wandered through the streets of the burning city and screamed terribly from his wounds and

burns. As the soldiers who defended the city said, he died along with

many residents, becoming another victim of this terrible day...

The city was not ready for massive bombing. There weren't enough shelters.

The cracks were unreliable. They crumbled not only from a direct hit, but even

from soil vibration. Many Stalingrad residents did not immediately hide and died from

bombs, shrapnel. People crowded into shelters while standing. When they collapse

they suffocated within minutes if they were not dug out. Judging by the stories

VMUK "TSSGB" survivors, according to how many remains the builders later found, adults and

There were enough childish, unaccounted losses.

No one will ever name the true number of deaths on the first day

the next day, 43 thousand civilians died under bombing in the city

population, mainly women, children, elderly and sick people. But that's all

relatively. In England, which the Germans bombed intensively for a year,

Fewer people died than in Stalingrad.

For many years it was customary to talk about the Battle of Stalingrad as a tragedy

the destruction of a beautiful city as a manifestation of the mass heroism of its inhabitants.

It didn’t take long to realize that this was also a grandiose human

tragedy. Only half a century later a monument to the innocents appeared in Volgograd

victims of fascism.

3rd presenter:

“The topic of evacuation of civilians is perhaps the most controversial in the entire post-war period of historical coverage of the Battle of Stalingrad. According to one source, by the summer of 1942, 490 thousand people lived in Stalingrad (1939 census). From February to May 1942, 10.5 thousand evacuated Leningraders, at least 400 thousand evacuees from Ukraine, Orel, Kursk, Smolensk region and about 300 thousand spontaneous refugees were added to them. According to research by V.A. Beregovoy, by the summer of 1942 there were about 612 thousand people in Stalingrad. And in August 1942, there were approximately 450-500 thousand more evacuees, including 45 thousand from Leningrad.

There is still no exact data on the number of people who managed to evacuate. According to newspaper publications, before the tragic events of August 23, less than 100 thousand people were able to leave the city - the wounded, Leningrad children, families of high-ranking Soviet employees, several thousand qualified defense workers. According to research by Beregovoy V.A., 300 thousand people tried to evacuate, but 40% of them died. B.S. Abalikhin wrote that in total from August 23 to October 14, 1942, about 400 thousand people were evacuated from the city.

Presenter:

On that terrible day everything went dark.

The roar of a bomb, the groan, the semblance of hell.

"Adolfs" are like crows,

Hovered in the sky of Stalingrad.

People no longer have homes.

All you can hear is a long, bestial cry.

With my silent mother

We wanted to make our way to the Volga.

We couldn’t get to the river -

There walls and roofs were collapsing.

Wherever your eyes go,

We wandered higher and higher from the canvas.

And later in the morning,

Foreign soldiers came

And the light faded...behind Dar Mountain

We were taken captive by the Nazis.

VMUK "TSSGB"People-slaves to the scream and howl

They hastily loaded him into the calf shed.

There was a point near Belaya Kalitva -

We were all taken there then...

/Evgeny Prudnikov/

Our fellow countrymen, residents of the northern outskirts of Stalingrad, from

the villages of Rynok and Spartanovka, Dachnoye, Lineiny, Verkhniy, Gorny villages of TZR.

Making the experiences and thoughts of these people accessible to the general public

became the goal of the project “...and the Volga burned.” Documentation provided here

contains 50 personal stories, memories of Stalingrad, written

people who survived the battle of 1942 as children and teenagers. Some were

deported to forced labor in Germany, others survived the very

Stalingrad, in rare cases beyond the Volga.

1 presenter:

The team of beacon men K.S. Emelyanov provided enormous assistance to the rivermen in the fight against bombing. By lighting false buoys, they managed to nullify many enemy air attacks. At the suggestion of Emelyanov K.S. On the main deep-water branch of the Volga, log dummies were installed, equipped with false ship lights, which were bombed while real ships sailed along another shallow river branch.

2 presenter:

On August 24, as a result of continuous bombing, the port of Stalingrad virtually ceased to exist, but the evacuation of the population continued. From August 23 to October 1942, Volga crossing ships transported over 250 thousand people to the left bank. For three days without sleep or rest, the fire steamer "Gasitel" fought the sea of fire while participating at the same time in transporting the evacuated population of the city and valuable cargo to the left bank. The ship's logbook, which is kept in the Battle of Stalingrad Panorama Museum, indicates that the Gasitel's pumps did not stop working for a minute on August 23, 1942. On August 25, enemy planes attacked the "Gasitel" when he and a group of evacuated population were walking to the left bank of the Volga. Bombs exploded in the stern of the ship. The hull received up to 80 underwater and surface holes. Many fragments fell into the engine room. The right wheel was disabled and the sound alarm was disrupted. Mechanic Erokhin fell, struck in the heart, fireman Sokolov was killed, five people from the team were wounded. His assistant Agapov took the place of the dead mechanic and worked alone, for the killed mechanic and the wounded members of the engine team. All holes in the hull were repaired on the move, without going into the backwater.

On the screen is a photograph “Bombing of the Volga crossing.”

German aircraft strike

along the crossing

3rd presenter:

The crew of the longboat "Lena" showed no less courage and perseverance in the last days of August. Having 5 people on the ship, instead of 16 people according to the staff, the Lena crew kept a constant watch for five days, making 60 flights during this time, delivering thousands of tons of necessary cargo to the front under incessant bombing.

The names of passenger ships - "Mikhail Kalinin", "Joseph Stalin", "Paris Commune" - entered a heroic page in the glorious chronicle of the river fleet. Loaded with wounded and evacuated citizens, they broke through along the coast occupied by the enemy. The ships were fired upon and were hit. On the steamship "Paris Commune" 90 fires were extinguished. Joseph Stalin received the most serious damage. Under the leadership of Captain Rachkov, the crew of the Volga flagship fought to save the ship to the end. Most of the team members were wounded. The fire, despite all efforts, quickly spread throughout the ship and it began to sink. The “observer” longboat of Captain I.I. came to the rescue. Isakov. 82 passengers and crew were rescued.

1 presenter:

The huge fire of the burning city was visible for tens of kilometers around.

It was blown away from the air,

Mutilated by shelling from the ground,

Destroyed... And yet he

Unshakable, beautiful and eternal.

We love our city like this -

Severe, fearless and firm,

Broken, burned, night

And yet bright and proud.

We will not change our words,

Let the battle be merciless and terrible.

Our town! You will be like this -

Spacious, transparent, alive,

Beautiful, as in our memory.

(E. Dolmatovsky)

Stalingrad and Volga are on fire. Image on screen.

2 presenter:

From the memories of eyewitnesses of those harsh days and difficult trials.

M. I. Malyutina

“Many of us, children of Stalingrad, count down our “stay” in the war from August 23. I felt it here, in the city, a little earlier, when the girls of our eighth grade were sent to help convert the school into a hospital. Everything was allotted, as we were told, 10-12 days.

We started by emptying the classrooms of desks, putting cots in their place and filling them with bedding. But the real work began when one night a train with wounded arrived, and we helped carry them from the cars to the station building. It was not at all easy to do this. After all, our strengths were not so great. That’s why there were four of us serving each stretcher. Two of them grabbed the handles, and two more crawled under the stretcher and, raising themselves slightly, moved along with the main ones. The wounded were moaning, others were delirious, and even cursed violently. Most of them were black with smoke and soot, torn, dirty, and wearing bloody bandages. Looking at them, we often roared, but we did our job. But even after we, together with the adults, took the wounded to the hospital, they did not let us go home.

There was enough work for everyone: they looked after the wounded, rewrapped bandages, and carried out vessels. But the day came when they told us: “Girls, you must go home today.” And then it happened on August 23..."

3rd presenter:

Putting out lighters

V. Ya. Khodyrev

“...One day our group, among which I was, heard the growing rumble of an enemy plane, and soon the whistle of falling bombs. Several lighters fell onto the roof, one of them ended up near me, sparkling dazzlingly. Out of surprise and excitement, I forgot for a while how to act. He hit her with a shovel. It flared up again, showering with a fountain of sparks, and, jumping, flew over the edge of the roof. Without causing any harm to anyone, she burned out on the ground in the middle of the yard.

There were other tamed lighters later on my account, but I especially remembered that first one. I proudly showed the pants burned by her sparks to the yard boys..."

1 presenter:

Capturing infiltrators

V. L. Kravtsov

“... At the end of July, somewhere around twelve o’clock at night, after the air raid warning, when dazzling white beams of searchlights were rushing across the sky, we stood at the crossroads of the streets, near the Smirnovsky store. Suddenly, from behind the house opposite, a rocket hissed into the sky. Having described an arc, it fell somewhere in the area of the crossing. Without saying a word, we rushed into the dark courtyard. We immediately saw a man running towards the water pump. Yura, the lightest on his feet, overtook the rocket man first and knocked him down. This moment was enough for Kolya and I to be right there.

We mounted the enemy spy with the entire patrol. Having searched him, they found nothing: in all likelihood, he managed to get rid of unnecessary evidence. They tied the detainee's hands with a trouser belt and took him to the police station. They were silent the whole way, everyone thought about their own things. Only Yurka still couldn’t calm down and endlessly repeated: “What a bastard!... What a damn fascist!”

We were thanked for our vigilance. And K.S. Bogdanova added: “I’m proud of you guys. You will definitely be rewarded."

But August 23 crossed everything out. Everyone had no time for awards. And yet they appeared. But later, two years later, when we went to the front at seventeen years old. Only Kolya was not among us; he died on the fifth day after the bombing.”

2 presenter:

When the bombing began, Zhenya Motorin, a native Stalingrad resident, lost his mother and sister. So the fourteen-year-old teenager was forced to spend some time with the soldiers on the front line. They tried to evacuate him across the Volga, but due to constant bombing and shelling this was not possible. Zhenya experienced a real nightmare when, during another bombing, a soldier walking next to him covered the boy with his body. As a result, the soldier was literally torn to pieces by shrapnel, but Motorin remained alive. The amazed teenager ran from that place for a long time. And stopping in some dilapidated house, I realized that I was standing on the site of a recent battle, surrounded by the corpses of the Stalingrad defenders. A machine gun lay nearby, and Zhenya grabbed it and heard rifle shots and long bursts of machine gun fire.

There was a battle going on in the house opposite. A minute later, a long burst of machine gun fire hit the backs of the Germans who were coming to the rear of our soldiers. Zhenya, who saved the soldiers, has since become the son of the regiment.

Soldiers and officers later called the guy “Stalingrad Gavroche”. And medals appeared on the young defender’s tunic: “For Courage”, “For Military Merit”.

3rd presenter:

We bow to the defenders of Odessa, Sevastopol, Kerch and Minsk, and recognize the enormous historical significance of the Battle of Moscow, the Kursk-Oryol operation and other main battles of the Great Patriotic War. But the Battle of Stalingrad still occupies a special place among these and other events in Russian and world history.

The feat of the Defenders of Stalingrad is known throughout the world. It was here that the future fate of the planet was decided in 1942-43. For the Nazis, this city had special significance not only as an important military-political, economic and transport center. They understood perfectly well that the city where Stalin’s star rose, the symbolic city bearing his name, plays a key role in the patriotic consciousness of the Soviet people.

That is why they bombed it with such fury on August 23, 1942, and then attacked again and again. The Wehrmacht war machine choked on the banks of the Volga. The unprecedented feat of Soviet soldiers and officers, who stood to death for 200 fiery days and nights, who said to themselves and others “There is no land for us beyond the Volga,” who broke the back of the fascist beast, received a huge resonance in the world saved from the “brown plague” and became the beginning of the end Hitler's Germany. Stalingrad survived because it was in it that the whole meaning of the Motherland was embodied. That is why nowhere else in the world has there been such mass heroism. All the spiritual and moral strength of our people was concentrated here.

1 presenter:

Open to the steppe wind,

The houses are broken.

Sixty-two kilometers

Stalingrad stretches out in length.

It's like he's on the blue Volga

He turned around in line and accepted the fight.

He stood front across Russia -

And he covered it all with himself.

(S. Orlov)

2 presenter:

The events of the Battle of Stalingrad were of enormous importance for the further course of the Second World War; it was a great turning point in its course. And recognition of this contribution is not only the letter of the American President Franklin Roosevelt and the sword of the English King George VI, now carefully preserved in the Volgograd State Panorama Museum "Battle of Stalingrad", but also the squares and streets named after Stalingrad in Paris and London, other countries of Europe and America , as well as the indisputable fact that all over the world, of all the dramatic moments of the Second World War on the Eastern Front, the only one now known is the Battle of Stalingrad.

3rd presenter:

Stronghold

towering over the Volga,

In a ring of impregnable fences

Announces a glorious victory

Stalingrad is in thunder and smoke.

Treacherous hordes of enemies

Destroyed and scattered the people,

And the remains of broken tanks

They lie at the iron gates.

Descendant!

Looking proudly

On the free steppes of the country,

Remember

how they defended their honor

Sons who knew no fear!

Persistent in struggle, majestic,

In a ring of impenetrable fences.

The Volga is on fire and fires

Stalingrad forged victory.

(Irakli Abashidze)

On the screen is a photograph depicting war veterans.

There is a song with lyrics by Margarita Agashina, music by Vladimir Miguli “To the Soldier of Stalingrad” (Song about a Soldier).

A quarter of a century ago, the fighting died down.

Your wounds have healed and healed.

But, remaining faithful to distant courage,

you stand and remain silent by the holy fire.

You survived, soldier! At least he died a hundred times.

At least he buried his friends and even stood to death.

Why did you freeze - palm on your heart

and fire was reflected in your eyes, like in streams?

They say that a soldier does not cry: he is a soldier.

And that old wounds hurt in bad weather.

But yesterday there was sun! And the sun in the morning...

Why are you crying, soldier, at the holy fire?

Because the river sparkles in the sun.

Because clouds are flying over the Volga.

It’s just painful to watch - the fields are turning golden!

The forelocks of the feather grass just turn bitterly white.

Look, soldier, this is your youth -

Sons stand at the soldier's grave!

So what are you thinking about, old soldier?

Or is your heart on fire? Or do the wounds hurt?

On the screen is a photograph of “Veteran at the Eternal Flame.”

A minute of silence in memory of the fallen participants in the war.

Candles of memory. (All event participants pass burning candles from hand to hand).

The song “The birch tree grows in Volgograd” is played. Poems by Margarita Agashina, music by Grigory Ponomarenko.

\"Beryozka grows in Volgograd\"

(Originally in Stalingrad)

You were also born in Russia

In the land of field and forest

We have a birch tree in every song

Birch tree under every window

In every spring meadow

Their white, live round dance

But there is a birch tree in Volgograd

You will see and your heart will freeze.

She was brought from afar

To the lands where feather grass rustles

How hard it was for her to get used to it

To the fire of Volgograd land

How long has she been sad

About light forests in Rus'

The guys are lying under the birch tree

Ask them about it!

The grass under the birch tree is not crushed

No one rose from the ground

But how does a soldier need it?

So that someone would grieve over him -

And cried brightly, like a bride

And remembered forever, like a mother

You were also born a soldier

Don't you understand that?!

You were also born in Russia

In the birch, sweet land

Now, where can you not find a birch tree?

You will remember my birch tree.

Its silent branches

Her patient sadness.

Birch tree grows in Volgograd

Try to forget her...

A birch tree grows in Volgograd...

Try to forget her!

On the screen is a photograph of a birch tree.

76 years have passed since fascist tanks, like a jack-in-the-box, found themselves on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad. Meanwhile, hundreds of German planes dropped tons of deadly cargo on the city and its inhabitants. The furious roar of engines and the ominous whistle of bombs, explosions, groans and thousands of deaths, and the Volga engulfed in flames. August 23 was one of the most terrible moments in the city's history. For only 200 fiery days from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, the great confrontation on the Volga continued. We remember the main milestones of the Battle of Stalingrad from the beginning to victory. A victory that changed the course of the war. A victory that was very costly.

In the spring of 1942, Hitler divides Army Group South into two parts. The first should capture the North Caucasus. The second is to move to the Volga, to Stalingrad. The Wehrmacht's summer offensive was called Fall Blau.

Stalingrad seemed to attract German troops to itself like a magnet. The city that bore the name of Stalin. The city that opened the way for the Nazis to the oil reserves of the Caucasus. A city located in the center of the country's transport arteries.

To resist the onslaught of Hitler's army, the Stalingrad Front was formed on July 12, 1942. The first commander was Marshal Timoshenko. It included the 21st Army and the 8th Air Army from the former Southwestern Front. More than 220 thousand soldiers of three reserve armies were also brought into the battle: the 62nd, 63rd and 64th. Plus artillery, 8 armored trains and air regiments, mortar, tank, armored, engineering and other formations. The 63rd and 21st armies were supposed to prevent the Germans from crossing the Don. The remaining forces were sent to defend the borders of Stalingrad.

The residents of Stalingrad are also preparing for defense; units of the people's militia are being formed in the city.

The beginning of the Battle of Stalingrad was quite unusual for that time. There was silence; tens of kilometers lay between the opponents. Nazi columns quickly moved east. At this time, the Red Army was gathering forces to the Stalingrad line and building fortifications.

The start date of the great battle is considered to be July 17, 1942. But, according to the statements of military historian Alexei Isaev, soldiers of the 147th Infantry Division entered the first battle on the evening of July 16 near the villages of Morozov and Zolotoy not far from the Morozovskaya station.

From this moment on, bloody battles begin in the big bend of the Don. Meanwhile, the Stalingrad Front is replenished with the forces of the 28th, 38th and 57th armies.

The day of August 23, 1942 became one of the most tragic in the history of the Battle of Stalingrad. Early in the morning, General von Wittersheim's 14th Panzer Corps reached the Volga in the north of Stalingrad.

The enemy tanks ended up where the city residents did not expect to see them at all - just a few kilometers from the Stalingrad Tractor Plant.

And in the evening of the same day, at 16:18 Moscow time, Stalingrad turned into hell. Never again has any city in the world withstood such an onslaught. For four days, from August 23 to 26, six hundred enemy bombers made up to 2 thousand sorties daily. Each time they brought death and destruction with them. Hundreds of thousands of incendiary, high-explosive and fragmentation bombs continually rained down on Stalingrad.

The city was in flames, choking with smoke, choking with blood. Generously sprinkled with oil, the Volga also burned, cutting off people’s path to salvation.

What appeared before us on August 23 in Stalingrad struck us like a terrible nightmare. Fire-smoke plumes of bean explosions soared upward continuously, here and there. Huge columns of flame rose to the sky in the area of oil storage facilities. Streams of burning oil and gasoline rushed towards the Volga. The river was burning, the steamships on the Stalingrad roadstead were burning. The asphalt of the streets and squares smelled stinking. Telegraph poles flared up like matches. There was an unimaginable noise, straining the ears with its hellish music. The screech of bombs flying from a height mixed with the roar of explosions, the grinding and clanging of collapsing buildings, and the crackle of raging fire. The dying people moaned, the women and children cried angrily and cried out for help, he later recalled Commander of the Stalingrad Front Andrei Ivanovich Eremenko.

In a matter of hours, the city was practically wiped off the face of the Earth. Houses, theaters, schools - everything turned into ruins. 309 enterprises in Stalingrad were also destroyed. The factories "Red October", STZ, "Barricades" lost most of their workshops and equipment. Transport, communications, and water supply were destroyed. About 40 thousand residents of Stalingrad died.

Red Army soldiers and militias hold the defense in the north of Stalingrad. Troops of the 62nd Army are fighting heavy battles on the western and northwestern borders. Hitler's aircraft continue their barbaric bombing. From midnight on August 25, a state of siege and special order were introduced in the city. Violation of it is punishable strictly, including execution:

Persons involved in looting and robberies should be shot at the scene of the crime without trial or investigation. All malicious violators of public order and security in the city should be tried by a military tribunal.

A few hours before this, the Stalingrad City Defense Committee adopted another resolution - on the evacuation of women and children to the left bank of the Volga. At that time, no more than 100 thousand were evacuated from a city with a population of more than half a million people, not counting those evacuated from other regions of the country.

The remaining residents are called to the defense of Stalingrad:

We will not hand over our hometown to the Germans for desecration. Let us all stand as one in defense of our beloved city, our home, our family. We will cover all the streets of the city with impenetrable barricades. Let's make every house, every block, every street an impregnable fortress. All for the construction of barricades! Everyone who is capable of carrying weapons, go to the barricades, to defend their hometown, their home!

And they respond. Every day, about 170 thousand people go out to build fortifications and barricades.

By the evening of Monday, September 14, the enemy had penetrated into the very heart of Stalingrad. The railway station and Mamayev Kurgan were captured. Over the next 135 days, height 102.0 will be recaptured more than once and lost again. The defenses at the junction of the 62nd and 64th armies in the area of Vitriol Balka were also broken through. Hitler's troops were able to shoot through the banks of the Volga and the crossing along which reinforcements and food were coming to the city.

Under heavy enemy fire, fighters of the Volga military flotilla and pontoon battalions begin transferring from Krasnoslobodsk to Stalingrad of units of the 13th Guards Rifle Division of Major General Rodimtsev.

In the city there are battles for every street, every house, every piece of land. Strategic objects change hands several times a day. The Red Army soldiers try to stay as close to the enemy as possible in order to avoid attacks from enemy artillery and aircraft. Fierce fighting continues on the approaches to the city.

Soldiers of the 62nd Army are fighting in the area of the tractor plant, Barricades, and Red October. At this time, workers continue to work almost on the battlefield. The 64th Army continues to hold the defense south of the Kuporosnoye village.

And at this time, the fascist Germans gathered forces in the center of Stalingrad. By the evening of September 22, Nazi troops reach the Volga in the area of 9 January Square and the central pier. These days begin the legendary history of the defense of the “House of Pavlov” and “House of Zabolotny”. Bloody battles for the city continue; the Wehrmacht troops still fail to achieve their main goal and take possession of the entire bank of the Volga. However, both sides suffer heavy losses.

Preparations for a counteroffensive near Stalingrad began in September 1942. The plan for the defeat of the Nazi troops was called “Uranus”. Units of the Stalingrad, Southwestern and Don Fronts were involved in the operation: more than a million Red Army soldiers, 15.5 thousand guns, almost 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, about 1350 aircraft. In all positions, Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy forces.

The operation began on November 19 with a massive shelling. The armies of the Southwestern Front strike from Kletskaya and Serafimovich, during the day they advance 25-30 kilometers. The forces of the Don Front are thrown in the direction of the Vertyachiy village. On November 20, south of the city, the Stalingrad Front also went on the offensive. On this day the first snow fell.

On November 23, 1942, the ring closes in the area of Kalach-on-Don. The 3rd Romanian Army was defeated. About 330 thousand soldiers and officers of 22 divisions and 160 separate units of the 6th German Army and part of the 4th Tank Army were surrounded. From this day on, our troops begin their offensive and every day they squeeze the Stalingrad cauldron more and more tightly.

In December 1942, troops of the Don and Stalingrad fronts continued to crush the encircled Nazi troops. On December 12, Field Marshal von Manstein's Army Group attempted to reach the encircled 6th Army. The Germans advanced 60 kilometers in the direction of Stalingrad, but by the end of the month the remnants of the enemy forces were driven back hundreds of kilometers. It's time to destroy Paulus's army in the Stalingrad cauldron. The operation, which was entrusted to the soldiers of the Don Front, received the code name “Ring”. The troops were reinforced with artillery, and on January 1, 1943, the 62nd, 64th and 57th armies of the Stalingrad Front became part of the Don Front.

On January 8, 1943, an ultimatum with a proposal to surrender was transmitted by radio to Paulus's headquarters. By this time, Hitler’s troops were very hungry and freezing, and their reserves of ammunition and fuel had come to an end. Soldiers are dying from malnutrition and cold. But the offer of surrender was rejected. An order comes from Hitler's headquarters to continue the resistance. And on January 10, our troops launched a decisive offensive. And already on the 26th, on Mamayev Kurgan, units of the 21st Army linked up with the 62nd Army. The Germans surrender by the thousands.

On the last day of January 1943, the southern group stopped resisting. In the morning, Paulus was brought the last radiogram from Hitler; in anticipation of suicide, he was awarded the next rank of field marshal general. So he became the first Wehrmacht field marshal to surrender.

In the basement of the Central Department Store of Stalingrad they also took the entire headquarters of the 6th German Field Army. In total, 24 generals and more than 90 thousand soldiers and officers were captured. The history of world wars has never known anything like this, either before or since.

It was a disaster from which Hitler and the Wehrmacht were never able to recover - they dreamed of the “Stalingrad cauldron” until the end of the war. The collapse of the fascist army on the Volga convincingly showed that the Red Army and its leadership were able to completely outplay the vaunted German strategists - this is how he assessed that moment of the war General of the Army, Hero of the Soviet Union, participant in the Battle of Stalingrad Valentin Varennikov. - I remember well with what merciless jubilation our commanders and ordinary soldiers greeted the news of the victory on the Volga. We were incredibly proud that we had broken the back of the most powerful German group.

Despite the surrender, the northern group 6th Army The Wehrmacht under the command of Colonel General Strecker continued resistance, but it did not last long. It's already February 2 commander of the 11th Army Corps Karl Strecker compiled and transmitted his last radiogram to the headquarters of Army Group Don:

The 11th Army Corps, consisting of six divisions, fulfilled its duty. The soldiers fought until the last bullet. Long live Germany!

On August 19, Nazi troops resumed their offensive, striking in the general direction of Stalingrad. The enemy managed to cross the Don and by the end of August 23 reached the Volga north of Stalingrad.

Download:

Preview:

tragedy of the civilian population of Stalingrad."

Goals: to cultivate a sense of patriotism, pride for one’s country and compatriots; expand students’ understanding of the Battle of Stalingrad and the heroism of the Soviet people; cultivate respect for the older generation and war monuments.

Writing epigraphs for class on the board:

On the old, dear to us Earth

There is a lot of courage. It

Not in the comfort, freedom and warmth,

Not born in a cradle...

K. Simonov

There are no heroes from birth,

They are born in battles.

A. Tvardovsky

PROGRESS OF THE CLASS HOUR.

Org moment.

Goals

introduction

From birth I have not seen the earth

No siege, no such battle,

The earth shook

And the fields turned red,

Everything was burning over the Volga River.

In the heat, factories, houses, train stations,

Dust on the steep bank.

Don't hand over the city to the enemy.

Russian soldier faithful to the oath,

He defended Stalingrad.

The time will come - the smoke will clear,

The thunder of war will fall silent,

Taking off my hat when meeting him,

The people will say about him:

This is an iron Russian soldier,

He defended Stalingrad.

Chronology of events on August 23, 1942

Teacher:

August 23, 1942 is one of the most terrible and tragic dates of the Battle of Stalingrad.

Student 1: Many Stalingrad residents remember the warm morning of that Sunday. The day before, residents heard on the radio that fighting was taking place in the Don bend. Such messages have been transmitted for more than a month. We got used to them. To residents who did not know the combat situation on the Don, it seemed that the front had stopped. In the morning, the workers, as always, stood watch at the open-hearth furnaces, assembly lines, and machine tools. The doors of the shops opened. New movie posters have appeared.

Student 2: But the situation changed rapidly that day.
In the afternoon, the 14th German Tank Corps broke through our defenses and reached the Volga on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad. Mortal danger loomed over Stalingrad. In those days, our divisions were still tens of kilometers from the city, occupying lines along the entire bend of the Don. There was a threat of encirclement.

Student 3: In those hours, events took place that became the prologue to the great battle, when fighting would begin for every meter of Stalingrad land.
The German armada reached the Volga 3 kilometers from the tractor plant that produced the famous T-34 tanks. Now only tanks prepared for sending to the front and work detachments could delay the advance of the Germans along the streets of Stalingrad.

Student 4: In a short time, militia detachments were formed from among the workers of the tractor plant to defend Stalingrad. All tanks were brought to the battle line, tank crews were formed from workers, mostly women. Militia detachments left each workshop.

Student 5: Next to the militia, cadets of a military school, a regiment of the NKVD division, and a detachment of marines took up defensive positions. After the war, the report of General von Witersheim, which he sent to Commander Paulus, about the first battles on the Volga will be published:“The Red Army units are counterattacking, relying on the support of the population of Stalingrad, who are showing exceptional courage. The population has taken up arms; dead workers lie on the battlefield in their overalls, clutching a rifle or pistol. Dead men in work clothes froze in the turrets of broken tanks. We've never seen anything like this before."

Student 6: At the same time that German tanks reached the outskirts of Stalingrad, hundreds of German planes took off from the airfields. An entire city was sentenced to destruction.

This barbaric order was carried out by the powerful 4th Air Fleet of the Wehrmacht. In even rows, as if at a parade in the sky, German planes were approaching residential areas. An air raid warning was declared in Stalingrad, and there would be no all-clear. Since our troops were not yet stationed in the city, the air action was directed against the population. Explosions destroyed roofs and ceilings of houses and destroyed walls. People died under boulders, fell struck by shrapnel, and suffocated in littered earthen shelters. The carpet bombings used a system that could only have been born from the logic and imagination of the true killers. Descending over the streets, where there were many wooden houses, the pilots poured out incendiary bombs in sheaves. High-explosive bombs were thrown into the flaring fires. The explosions from them scattered burning fragments of logs and roofs, and the fire spread to neighboring streets. During low-level flight, the “blond beasts” of the Luftwaffe shot people running along them from machine guns.Marshal A.I. Eremenko subsequently wrote:“We had to go through a lot during the war, but what we saw on August 23, 1942 in Stalingrad struck us like a terrible nightmare. Explosions were constantly going up among the city buildings, and streams of burning oil were rushing from the oil storage area to the river. It seemed as if the Volga was burning.”

Student 7:

Here in the streets and squares

The battle rumbles;

Hot blood mixed

With Volga water;

Blackened in the smoke of fires

The city is young.

Never before has there been danger

Wasn't more formidable.

And decides the fate of the world

The battle of these days.

Discussion of the video “August 23, 1942”

Not since the beginning of World War II, with its many destructions, has the world seen such a disaster.On this day, enemy aircraft launched a massive attack on Stalingrad, carrying out about 2 thousand sorties. The city was turned into ruins, over 40 thousand civilians died. On August 25, 1942, by order of the Military Council of the front, Stalingrad was declared under a state of siege. To provide practical assistance to the fronts in the Stalingrad area, Headquarters sends General G.K. Zhukov, appointed on August 27 to the post of Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

Memoirs of Stalingrad residents.

Student 8:

What’s his name, I forgot to ask him.

About ten or twelve years old. Bedovy,

Of those who are the leaders of children,

From those in the front-line towns

They greet us like dear guests.

The car is surrounded in parking lots,

Carrying water to them in buckets is not difficult,

Bring soap and towel to the tank

And unripe plums are shoved...

There was a battle going on outside. The enemy fire was terrible,

We made our way forward to the square.

And he nails - you can’t look out of the towers, -

And the devil will understand where he’s hitting from.

Here, guess which house is behind

He settled down - there were so many holes,

And suddenly a boy ran up to the car:

Comrade commander, comrade commander!

I know where their gun is. I scouted...

I crawled up, they were over there in the garden...

But where, where?.. - Let me go

On the tank with you. I'll give it straight away.

Well, no fight awaits. - Get in here, buddy! -

And so the four of us roll to the place.

The boy is standing - mines, bullets are whistling,

And only the shirt has a bubble.

We've arrived. - Here. - And from a turn

We go to the rear and give full throttle.

And this gun, along with the crew,

We sank into loose, greasy black soil.

I wiped off the sweat. Smothered by fumes and soot:

There was a big fire going from house to house.

And I remember I said: “Thank you, lad!” -

And he shook hands like a comrade...

It was a difficult fight. Everything now is as if from sleep,

And I just can’t forgive myself:

From thousands of faces I would recognize the boy,

But what’s his name, I forgot to ask him.

Student 9: According to the recollections of many “children of wartime Stalingrad,” Sunday, August 23, 1942, was warm and sunny. There was great activity in the city center - shops and markets were open, citizens were relaxing in the parks; Military and police officers worked on the central streets, preparing a place for the passage of military equipment... A few minutes after the chief of staff for the air defense of Stalingrad spoke about the expected massive raid of German aviation, a reconnaissance plane "Rama" appeared over the city center. He threw away a huge number of leaflets and turned back.

Student 10: At 16:18, according to eyewitnesses, an increasing rumble was heard. German planes flew in large groups in strict order.From the memoirs of Yu. Anikin (at that time a 13-year-old schoolboy): “Standing on the tram ring, I saw with my own eyes how fascist vultures brazenly flew along the city towards the factories, in groups, at intervals of several minutes. High-explosive and incendiary bombs (25 pieces each in self-expanding boxes), pieces of rails, empty iron barrels with holes rained down on the city, creating a terrifying screech, howl, and roar. Powerful explosions of heavy bombs constantly shook the earth and air.”

Student 11: Horror-stricken people, according to their stories, tried to hide in the first shelters they came across. They took refuge in hastily dug small dugouts, trenches, crevices, and basements. Everything around began to burn: houses, streets, the city. The oil refineries located on the shore were also burning, and because of the burning oil spills, it seemed that the Volga was also burning.

Student 12: “The crowd of people, crushing each other, began to climb onto the barge along the gangplank. And when the pier collapsed under us, I mechanically grabbed the trouser legs of the man in front of me, who was holding a small child in his arms, but he himself managed to hold on to the gangplank with one hand. Then somehow he contrived to take a penknife out of his pocket and cut out those parts of the trousers that I was holding on to. With these scraps in my hands, having lost consciousness from fear, I went to the bottom... I woke up on the shore among the same “drowned people” as me... having already climbed the steep bank, we heard the rumble of an airplane... And when we looked towards the Volga, the barge itself was burning with a bright flame, as were the people on it, floundering in a spilled oil puddle.”, - recalled Nina Prokofievna Mazurova.

Student 13: Some tried to cross on their own, but under constant shelling and bombing, almost everyone died. Thus, the main escape route was cut off. Children and adults returned back to the nightmare of August 23rd.

Student 14: From Memories Bylushkin Boris Aleksandrovich.

Bylushkin Alexander Vasilievich

I, Boris Aleksandrovich Bylushkin, was born in the city of Stalingrad on February 24, 1933.

From my memories...

Village of the Barrikada plant. In 1942, in the second half of August, there was the most brutal and massive bombing of the plant in the daytime, and the village from morning until evening. All night - shelling from artillery guns and mortars. At that time I was 9 years old, but I remember all the events of the war years very well. On August 24, 1942, the Barrikada plant was burning heavily; on that day, for the first time in a long time of separation, I saw my father (Alexander Vasilyevich Bylushkin, born 1902) near the house, he was with a group of workers. Before that, my father spent time at the factory, repairing tanks and small arms for them. His mother and two sisters died in the ruins of two-story houses in the village. On August 25-26, my father and a group of workers went to the city center to the railway station, and I stayed with the neighbors who survived, Uncle Grisha and Aunt Dusya Tregubov. They had two daughters - Zina and Valya, and I was the third. They didn't let me go. Near our houses there were 4 large cannons, from which the military fired all day long.

North-eastern outskirts of Stalingrad. It was interesting for us to watch and listen to everything happening around us. Once a day a car arrived - a lorry, into which we boys happily threw spent shell casings into the back. For this, the Red Army soldiers treated us to porridge and gave us a piece of bread. It turns out that we are also defenders of Stalingrad.

On August 26, Aunt Dusya and I went to the city center to meet my father and find out what we should do next? The city at that time was a real hell - continuous fires and smoke all around. We walked along the tram route past Mamayev Kurgan. We tried to get through as quickly as possible. It was unsafe to walk, since all sorts of objects flew to us in a straight line at a distance of 1 km and from Mamayev Kurgan. But everything worked out. In the green park we met Red Army soldiers who told us that there was such a group of workers, but it was yesterday, i.e. On August 25, 1942, she was sent to Mokraya Mechetka. Since then I have not seen my father again. We returned back and safely crossed this dangerous section past Mamayev Kurgan, which was crossed every day either by the Germans or by ours. It was a "meat grinder".

Student 15: There was a constant stream of planes overhead, hell all around: fires, soot, dust, the stench from burnt human bodies... The huge bonfire of the burning city was visible for tens of kilometers around.

Only after midnight the fascist air attacks stopped. On this day, more than 40 thousand civilians died (according to the calculations of the Soviet command), on this day the childhood of thousands of Stalingrad children ended...

Student 16:

Open to the steppe wind,

The houses are broken.

Sixty-two kilometers

Stalingrad stretches out in length.

It's like he's on the blue Volga

He turned around in a chain and took the fight,

He stood front across Russia -

And he covered it all with himself!

Results.

Guys, many years have passed since the Battle of Stalingrad, but we honor the memory of the fallen and bow to the living.

Let us bow to those great years,

To all our commanders and soldiers,

To all the country's marshals and privates,

Let us bow to both the dead and the living.

To all those whom we must not forget,

Let's bow, bow, friends.

The whole world, all the people, the whole earth

Let us bow down for that Great Battle.

This concludes our class hour.

Famous photo of Emmanuel Evzerikhin.

Fountain "Children's round dance" on the square near the Stalingrad station, destroyed during the raid on August 23.

76 years have passed since fascist tanks found themselves on the northern outskirts of Stalingrad. Meanwhile, hundreds of German planes dropped tons of deadly cargo on the city and its inhabitants.

The furious roar of engines and the ominous whistle of bombs, explosions, groans and thousands of deaths, and the Volga engulfed in flames.

August 23 was one of the most terrible moments in the city's history. For only 200 fiery days from July 17, 1942 to February 2, 1943, the great confrontation on the Volga continued.

The center of Stalingrad a few days before the start of the battle

German troops in the big bend of the Don. July 1942.

The residents of Stalingrad are also preparing for defense; units of the people's militia are being formed in the city.

Red Army soldiers in battle on the outskirts of Stalingrad

The start date of the great battle is considered to be July 17, 1942. But, according to the statements of military historian Alexei Isaev, the soldiers of the 147th Infantry Division entered the first battle on the evening of July 16 near the villages of Morozov and Zolotoy not far from the Morozovskaya station.

Units of the 6th German Army are moving towards Stalingrad.

From this moment on, bloody battles begin in the big bend of the Don. Meanwhile, the Stalingrad Front is replenished with the forces of the 28th, 38th and 57th armies

Children of Stalingrad are hiding from bombs.

The first bombing of Stalingrad

The enemy tanks ended up where the city residents did not expect to see them at all - just a few kilometers from the Stalingrad Tractor Plant.

24th Panzer Division of the Wehrmacht in the suburbs of Stalingrad.

A dive bomber in the sky over Stalingrad.

The city was in flames, choking with smoke, choking with blood. Generously sprinkled with oil, the Volga also burned, cutting off people’s path to salvation.

Stalingrad on fire, August 23, 1942.

“What appeared before us on August 23 in Stalingrad struck us as a terrible nightmare. Fire-smoke plumes of bean explosions soared up continuously here and there. Huge columns of flame rose to the sky in the area of oil storage facilities. Streams of burning oil and gasoline rushed towards the Volga. It was burning river, steamships were burning on the Stalingrad roadstead. The asphalt of the streets and squares stank with stench. Telegraph poles flared up like matches. There was an unimaginable noise that strained the ears with its hellish music. The screech of bombs flying from a height mixed with the roar of explosions, the grinding and clanging of collapsing buildings, the crash of raging fire. The dying people moaned, the women and children cried angrily and cried out for help," he later recalled Commander of the Stalingrad Front Andrei Ivanovich Eremenko.

The city was on fire, choking with smoke.

Low bow to all residents of military Stalingrad and its defenders! To everyone who died. To everyone who survived. To everyone who restored the city from ruins. We remember…