This engaging history picks apart the heroic myth of Stalingrad’s defence — which the Kremlin still obsessively cultivates today
In the centre of the city of Volgograd, at 39 Sovetskaya Street, stands a yellow-painted four-storey apartment building. At first glance it seems a typical Russian residential block, built before the Second World War. Yet when you turn the corner towards the River Volga you see the tall red-brick memorial clinging to the building’s eastern side. Carved into the brickwork is a message in Russian: “In this building fused together heroic feats of warfare and of labour. We will defend/rebuild you, dear Stalingrad!”
