How many germans died stalingrad

As no German field marshal had ever surrendered, Hitler hoped Paulus would kill himself rather than be captured. Instead, on January 31, , Paulus surrendered the 91, skeletal German soldiers still left under his command; some would fight on until February 2. Only 6 percent would survive Soviet captivity. The Germans would launch one more major offensive on the Eastern Front — Kursk — in July , but it failed. Stalingrad marked the shift of initiative to the Red Army on the Eastern Front.

There were no more decisive victories for the Wehrmacht in the east. Despite the importance of the battles of Moscow, Kursk, and Operation Bagration, it was Stalingrad that would be immortalized around the world as the turning of the tide for the Allies in World War II. Three quarters of a century later, Stalingrad — and the war more generally — are still shaping Russian foreign and domestic policy.

But that sacrifice has made discussion of the war dangerous ground for historians, journalists, and the public: A televised discussion on January 26, on the Dozhd network about Soviet mismanagement of the siege of Leningrad caused that network to be effectively shut down, lose all its syndication rights, and be forced to move its studio. For President Vladimir Putin, the war remains personal.

His father was maimed in the war. Much of his extended family died in the conflict. In , he also said he favored a referendum to consider renaming the city Stalingrad. He has also used the historical memory of the war to shore up his own base of power and to justify his foreign policy worldview.

Sarmite Elerte, the former Latvian minister of culture, described the role of the war in Russian policymaking thus:. It is a means of disseminating and preserving Soviet identity across borders, as well as an instrument of dividing societies in countries neighbouring Russia. The former justifies Russian involvement in neighboring states. The latter is used to buttress a new, neo-Stalinist worldview of unfettered great power competition, competing over zones of influence, with small states having little real sovereignty.

As Russia finds itself internationally isolated, the story of World War II has become ever more central in Russian foreign policy. It may come as a surprise, for instance, that 75 years later, that parts of the story of Stalingrad remain cloaked in myth. That is hardly his fault: The Soviet, and now Russian, archives often remain inaccessible.

That is a double tragedy, as there is no reason for that to be the case. The tremendous wealth of interviews, journals, diaries, and official documents that could paint the story from the Soviet side in all its rich colors have been hidden. Its job was to interview thousands of soldiers as the war went on, with the hopes of publishing them upon final victory. But their stories did not suit the Soviet state after Their work was suppressed or destroyed.

It was a monumental accomplishment that some of the portions from the Battle of Stalingrad finally appeared in print in , thanks to a partnership between the Russian Academy of Sciences and the German Historical Institute in Moscow, led by Rutgers historian Jochen Hellbeck. The story those interviews tell is one of heroism, dedication, and staggering self-sacrifice, but they also recount hunger, devastation, and mismanagement by the political and military authorities.

There is no one else who can do that besides Russian and Western historians. Stalin was not the savior of the Russian people. Rather, he was nearly the author of their demise, responsible for untold millions of deaths during the war itself.

Stalin enabled Hitler by secretly assisting in the rearmament of the German state between and He provided Hitler with two million tons of oil and staggering quantities of natural resources which fed the German war machine as it overran Denmark, Norway, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Yugoslavia, and Greece. He even provided a naval base on Soviet soil for the German Kriegsmarine to raid Allied shipping.

His personal arrogance and poor decision-making led to the staggering disaster of the first year of the campaign, with its five million Soviet military casualties. After months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, German forces numbering now only about 91, surviving soldiers surrender at Stalingrad on the Volga.

Soviet forces launched a counteroffensive against the Germans arrayed at Stalingrad in mid-November They quickly encircled an entire German army, more than , soldiers. In February , after months of fierce fighting and heavy casualties, the surviving German forces—only about 91, soldiers—surrendered.

After the victory at Stalingrad, the Soviet army remained on the offensive, liberating most of the Ukraine, and virtually all of Russia and eastern Belorussia during The loss at Stalingrad was the first failure of the war to be publicly acknowledged by Hitler. In the end, many historians believe the Battle at Stalingrad marked a major turning point in the conflict. It was the beginning of the march toward victory for the Allied forces of Russia, Britain, France and the United States.

In February , Russians gathered in what is now known as Volgograd to celebrate the 75th anniversary of the conclusion of the battle that had ravaged their city. Barnes, T. But if you see something that doesn't look right, click here to contact us! Subscribe for fascinating stories connecting the past to the present.

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