The Presidential Library paid tribute to the selfless courage of the defenders of cities of military glory

Today, October 26, 2017, an interregional scientific and practical videoconference "Cities of Military Glory: from Kalach-on-Don to Full Victory", dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the defeat of the fascist troops at Stalingrad, was held. The event was organized by the Presidential Library in cooperation with the M. Gorky Volgograd Regional Universal Scientific Library. In the video-conferencing mode, Kursk, Tver, Barnaul, Omsk and other cities took part in the conference. The topic of the discussion was the feat of the Soviet people during the hostilities.

The Presidential Library carefully preserves the memory of the Great Patriotic War and the victory of the Soviet people over fascism. Materials reflect the special role of cities of military glory. Stalingrad is among them. The portal presents rare footage of video chronicles, memoirs, issues of the newspaper "Stalingradskaya Pravda" for 1942-1943 and other archival materials devoted to an unprecedented battle on the Volga.

The exploits of the defenders of Stalingrad have gone down in history forever. One of them was Yakov Pavlov, whose contribution to the defense of a residential building in the center of the city was invaluable. A detachment of soldiers was holding the building, which everyone knew as the "Pavlov's house", for 58 days. This small group, defending one house, destroyed more enemy soldiers than the army of Hitler lost at the capture of Paris. More than just famous leaders, but also about unknown heroes of the Great Patriotic War, a series of documentaries of the "Russian Historical Channel "365 days of TV" "Heroes of Victory" tells about.

Victory in the Battle of Stalingrad gave hope to thousands of Soviet citizens. Its meaning can be read in digitized studies. For example, the author of the 1948 book "On the Protection of Stalingrad", Mikhail Vodolagin quotes the words of Joseph Stalin: "Stalingrad was the decline of the German fascist army. After the Stalingrad massacre, as is known, the Germans could not recover". Then the author notes that "the offensive of the Soviet troops, which began at Stalingrad and then does not stop, forced England and the United States to hurry with the opening of a second front in Europe, in order not to be late by the time of the imminent collapse of Hitler's Germany".

On February 2, 1943, the Soviet Army defeated the German fascist troops in the Battle of Stalingrad. Taking into account the special importance of the defeat by the Soviet troops of the German fascist troops in the Battle of Stalingrad for the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and in connection with the 75th anniversary of this historic event, which was celebrated on February 2, 2018, the President of the Russian Federation signed a decree "On the celebration in 2018 of the 75th anniversary of the defeat by Soviet troops of German fascist troops in the Battle of Stalingrad".

Unique materials about the war are collected in the digital collection "Memory of the Great Victory". The collection is regularly updated with electronic copies of official documents, photo and newsreels, wartime newspapers, books, propaganda publications, collections of articles, biographies, testimonies of participants in combat battles and workers in the rear, their personal documents, combat and labor awards, monuments and memorial complexes, reflections on the war of grandsons and great-grandsons of veterans.