The Battle of Stalingrad was a major battle on the Eastern Front of World War II where Nazi Germany and its allies unsuccessfully fought the Soviet Union for control of the city of Stalingrad in Southern Russia. The battle was characterized by fierce close-quarters combat and direct assaults on civilians in air raids, as the battle epitomized urban warfare, with it also being the single largest and costliest urban battle in the history of warfare. It was the bloodiest and fiercest battle of the entire Second World War, and arguably in all of history, as both sides suffered tremendous casualties and endured ferocious fighting. Today, the Battle of Stalingrad is commonly regarded as the turning point in the European theatre of war, as the Oberkommando der Wehrmacht was forced to withdraw considerable military forces from other areas to replace losses on the Eastern Front. The battle ended with the destruction of Germany's 6th Army and its 4th Panzer Army, and the rout of Army Group B. The Soviet victory energized the Red Army and shifted the balance of power in the favour of the Soviets.
Snipers of the Soviet Union played an important role mainly on the Eastern Front of World War II, apart from other preceding and subsequent conflicts. In World War II, Soviet snipers used the 7.62×54mmR rifle cartridge with light, heavy, armour-piercing (B-30), armour-piercing-incendiary (B-32), zeroing-and-incendiary (P3), and tracer bullets. Most Soviet World War II snipers carried a combat load of 120 rifle cartridges in the field.
Vasily Grigoryevich Zaitsev was a Soviet sniper during World War II.
Enemy at the Gates is a 2001 war film directed, co-written, and produced by Jean-Jacques Annaud, based on William Craig's 1973 nonfiction book Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad, which describes the events surrounding the Battle of Stalingrad in the winter of 1942–1943. The screenplay was written by Annaud and Alain Godard. The film's main character is a fictionalized version of Vasily Zaitsev, a sniper and Hero of the Soviet Union during World War II. It includes a snipers' duel between Zaitsev and a Wehrmacht sniper school director, Major Erwin König.
The Order of the Red Banner was the first Soviet military decoration. The Order was established on 16 September 1918, during the Russian Civil War by decree of the All-Russian Central Executive Committee. It was the highest award of Soviet Russia, subsequently the Soviet Union, until the Order of Lenin was established in 1930. Recipients were recognised for extraordinary heroism, dedication, and courage demonstrated on the battlefield. The Order was awarded to individuals as well as to military units, cities, ships, political and social organizations, and state enterprises. In later years, it was also awarded on the twentieth and again on the thirtieth anniversary of military, police, or state security service without requiring participation in combat.
The 8th Guards Order of Lenin Combined Arms Army is an army of the Russian Ground Forces, headquartered in Novocherkassk, Rostov Oblast, within Russia′s Southern Military District, that was reinstated in 2017 as a successor to the 8th Guards Army of the Soviet Union's Red Army, which was formed during World War II and was disbanded in 1998 after being downsized into a corps. Military Unit в/ч 61877.
The 3rd Guards Army was a field army of the Soviet Red Army that fought on the Eastern Front in World War II.
Erwin König was reported to have been a German Wehrmacht sniper killed by the Soviet sniper Vasily Zaitsev during the Battle of Stalingrad. Due to the lack of any Nazi records proving the existence of König and his achievements there is some doubt as to whether he existed at all or was an invention of Soviet propaganda.
The PTRS-41 is a World War II-era semi-automatic anti-tank rifle firing the 14.5×114mm cartridge.
The telnyashka is a horizontally striped undershirt worn as uniform by Russian military personnel. It has stripes in white and in a color that varies according to the unit's affiliation. The most common second color is blue, but a number of other colors are also in use. The garment comes in varying thicknesses and may be sleeved or sleeveless.
The Raid on Tatsinskaya was a Soviet armoured raid deep into the German rear conducted by 24th Tank Corps under the command of Major General Vasily Mikhaylovich Badanov in late December 1942. It took place during Operation Little Saturn, on the heels of the successful encirclement of the Wehrmacht's 6th Army in the Battle of Stalingrad. The raid was designed to force the Germans to divert forces attempting to relieve the 6th Army. The Soviet force captured its objective, the Luftwaffe's airlift hub at the Tatsinskaya Airfield. The Soviet forces destroyed over 72 aircraft on the ground, but was left cut off and without supplies. Despite the loss of most of the tank corps during the ensuing breakout, the raid was a great operational victory.
The 63rd Army was a field army established by the Soviet Union's Red Army during World War II.
The Soviet 21st Army was a field army of the Red Army during World War II.
They Fought for Their Country is a 1975 Soviet war film in two parts based on the eponymous novel written by Mikhail Sholokhov and directed by Sergei Bondarchuk. It was entered into the 1975 Cannes Film Festival. The film is the story of a Soviet platoon fighting a rearguard action during the German drive on Stalingrad. The film was selected as the Soviet entry for the Best Foreign Language Film at the 49th Academy Awards, but was not accepted as a nominee.
Stalingrad is a 1990 two-part war film written and directed by Yuri Ozerov, and produced by Quincy Jones and Clarence Avant. Revolving around the eponymous Battle of Stalingrad, the film was a co-production between the Soviet Union and East Germany. It stars an ensemble cast featuring Powers Boothe, Mikhail Ulyanov, Bruno Freindlich, Fernando Allende, Sergei Garmash, Nikolai Kryuchkov, and Ronald Lacey.
Vasily Shalvovich Kvachantiradze was a top Soviet sniper during World War II. He is credited with confirmed kills numbering at least 215 officers and soldiers of the German Wehrmacht during the Vitebsk-Orsha Offensive and 542 confirmed kills total during the war.
The 284th Rifle Division began service as a standard Red Army rifle division shortly after the German invasion. Moved to the front soon after, it helped defend the Soviet lines west of the Ukrainian capital for more than a month, but was then destroyed in the encirclement of Kiev. A new division was formed in early 1942. It served in the early fighting against the German summer offensive of 1942 until its losses forced it to be withdrawn for rebuilding. In September it was redeployed, and played a leading role in defending the northern part of the central city and Mamayev Kurgan hill in the Battle of Stalingrad, and later in the reduction of the trapped German 6th Army during Operation Ring, for which it was raised to Guards status as the 79th Guards Rifle Division shortly after the battle ended. A third 284th was raised a few months later. It served on the quiet fronts of the Far East for most of the rest of the war before fighting briefly against the Japanese in Manchuria in August, 1945. The unit continued to serve well into the postwar period under other designations.
Vasily Nikolaevich Gordov was a Soviet Army colonel general and Hero of the Soviet Union. Gordov commanded the Stalingrad Front between July and September 1942.
Tania Chernova was a Russian-American woman known for serving in the Red Army as a sniper during World War II. She traveled to Belarus to get her grandparents out of Russia, but upon arriving learned that German invaders had already killed them. After that, she joined the Soviet resistance on the Eastern Front, becoming an effective sniper.
The 260th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army during World War II, formed twice.
