February 2 marked the 70th anniversary of the Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad, the real “Mother of All Battles.” It was the turning point of World War II, the beginning of the end of the Nazi regime.
On August 23, 1942, Luftwaffe planes, commanded by Baron Wolfram von Richtofen (who led the fascist onslaught on Guernica during the Spanish Civil War) launched the mass bombing that eventually destroyed Stalingrad. In the first week, 40,000 of the 600,000 inhabitants were killed. The “devastating attack moved Stalin to declare ‘Ni shag nasad’ (not one step backwards).” (El Mundo, Spain, 2/2/03).
In September, Field Marshall Paulus’ VI Wehrmacht army launched a series of successful attacks against the industrial center. But the Soviet 62nd Army, commanded by V. Chuikov, resisted. It was the beginning of what the Nazis called rattenkrieg (war of rats), or house-to-house combat. This prolonged the fighting until winter arrived. The commitment and courage of the Red Army and Stalingrad’s working class held off the Nazi juggernaut. Right in the middle of the fighting, the workers built tanks and other weapons for battles outside their plants.
After 170 days, the remaining 91,000 Nazi troops and 24 generals surrendered. Hundreds of thousands of Nazis died, along with over one million Soviet soldiers and civilians.
“Our Red Army was so powerful that…we would have not only reached Berlin but the Gulf of Vizcaya (Spain),” one veteran told El Mundo.
Red Army Rolling West Forced D-Day
By mid-1944, Soviet tanks and infantry were rolling westward at 40 miles a day. Only when the U.S. and Britain realized the Red Army would defeat the bulk of the Nazi army by itself did they open the second front in France on D-Day. Over 70% of the active Nazi war machine in Europe was tied up fighting the Soviets.
The capitalist implosion of the former Soviet Union achieved what the Nazis couldn’t. This was caused by the opportunism of the Soviet rulers and the weaknesses of socialism, retaining many capitalist practices like the wage system.
The lessons of the heroic Soviet workers and soldiers live on. As the world’s imperialists prepare for endless wars, the international working class will continue what the Red Army and Soviet workers achieved in Stalingrad. That’s the goal of the communist PLP.
For more information on the role played by the Red Army and the communist movement in defeating the Nazis see the CHALLENGE supplement: “50 Years Ago: Communist Red Army Defeated the Nazis, May 17, 1995” in the PL website: plp.org.