Named Родина-мать зовёт! Rodina-Mat’ zovyot!, translates as “The Motherland Calls” is the statue in Mamayev Kurgan in Volgograd, Russia, commemorating the Battle of Stalingrad, with Nazi Germany. Ironically, Mamayaev Kurgan translates as “The Mound of Mamai”, where Mamai is the commander of the Blue Horde in 1380, a rocky period of the Golden Horde.
Today we commemorate the great victory of the Soviet Union over Nazi Germany and its allies in the Battle of Stalingrad.
On February 2, 1943, German Fieldmarshal Wilhelm von Paulus surrendered to the Red Army Command with the remnants of the once so mighty 6th Army.
The Soviet ‘Operation Hurricane’ was thereby completed.
Small Commemorative Exhibition
At Beorn’s Beehive we keep a small exhibition, dedicated to this pivotal point not only in the course of the Great Patriotic War but in WWII as a whole.
The exhibition takes the perspective of ‘humans at war’. It includes several translations of Russian materials, military documents, eyewitness accounts of participants and reporting of war correspondent.
In addition, the exhibition presents a rare glimpse into the nazi-controlled media coverage of the Battle for Stalingrad, exemplified by authenticated newspaper clippings from then occupied Denmark.
It is interesting to see how the media back then turn to coping and then suddenly pivot as reality finally penetrate and puncture the arrogant nazi proclamations of ‘victory at Stalingrad’, of which the newspaper readers during the preceding six months had been fed a true abundance.
The historic material appeared in 1943 in an underground communist publication of 70 pages called “2 Years” (https://t.me/BeornAndTheShieldmaiden/5452). The book is made up of collected newspaper clippings and illegal caricatures. It covers the legal press in the period June 22, 1941 – June 22, 1943.
Full translation of “2 years” are available in Russian, English and modern Danish.
Radio Announcement on the Day of the Defeat of the Nazi Invaders at Stalingrad
Backup at Rumble
On February 2nd 1943, the voice of radio announcer Yuri Levitan was heard throughout the country, throughout the world:
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