A Russian photographer has created a gallery of unique images,
combining photos from the battle of Stalingrad and photos of the same
locations 74 years later, as a reminder of the bloodiest confrontation
of World War II.
Aleksandr Skvorin has been
searching Volgograd (former Stalingrad) and the surrounding steppe for
the exact spots where photographs were taken in 1942 and 1943, and
combined them with images of modern life in times of peace, taken from
the same spots.
The Volgograd photographer told V1 website that he has been fascinated by the historic battle since his years in high school.
He began by poring over
Russian books on the topic, and then switched to the works of authors
from Germany and other countries, coming across many historical photos
taken in Stalingrad.
“I always had an
understanding that massive events, which changed the course of the human
history, happened right outside my front door,” Skvorin said.
“It’s amazing. You can
read a book then jump into your car and drive the same streets, with the
same buildings, which were witnesses to those events,” he added.
The photographer said that sometimes he had to drive hundreds of kilometers to find the place where a certain picture was taken.
But there were “many hints”
that helped him in his work, as “the steppe is still riddled with lines
of trenches and dugouts” left after half a year of intense fighting.
Stalingrad
saw the bloodiest confrontation of World War II, claiming over two
million lives between August 1942 and February 1943.
By September, the fighting in
the steppe was over, as the Nazis forced the Soviets to retreat into
the city of Stalingrad itself.
Street fighting was fierce. Every
building became a bloody battleground, and the average life expectancy
of a soldier was about 24 hours.
Despite mounting casualties,
neither side was willing to back down, with both Hitler and Stalin
sending more reinforcements to the front-line.
By mid-November, the Nazis had most of Stalingrad under their control, but left their flanks exposed.
The Red Army seized the
opportunity to start a counter-offensive, which eventually allowed it to
surround the Nazis and cut off their supply routes.
The battle,
in which the city of Stalingrad was reduced to rubble, ended the Nazi
offensive on the Eastern Front and signaled a turning point in the
conflict.
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