[Opinion] Stalingrad

When we are asked to pick one battle in the Second World War that stands out, the Normandy invasion comes to mind. However, historians often pick the Battle of Stalingrad as the biggest battle in the Second World War. In August 1942, the German Nazi army mounted an aggressive operation to occupy Stalingrad, a key point of strategic importance on the lower Volga River of Russia. The Nazi army was defeated with a death toll of 220,000 after six months of desperate fighting. That was the moment when the war turned in favor of the Allied forces and the victor of the war was determined.

The worst street fighting in the ruins during this battle became material for great movies such as “Stalingrad” and “Enemy at the Gates.” Stalingrad means “Stalin’s city.” This battle was also a confrontation of pride from the leaders of both sides, Adolf Hitler and Stalin. The name Stalingrad, however, disappeared from maps afterwards because the name was changed to Volgograd due to the political turmoil after the death of Stalin. Next to the Kremlin, there are 10 tombstones engraved with the names of the places of the biggest battles fought during the Second World War. There is only the new name, Volgograd, that catches our sight.

Russian President Vladimir Putin recently ordered officials to change the name carved in the tombstones back to Stalingrad. President Putin, although having a great interest in history and indulges himself in history books, seldom talks about “old stories.” Nonetheless, he showed his interest in such a “trivial” matter as restoring a geographical site’s name. Would this be his intention to display his view of history as “the name Stalingrad is not history to be liquidated but to be embraced?”

Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin, although belonging to the privileged class in the former Soviet regime, tried to erase all the traces from the past under the name of reform after he came into power. Russians applauded this “destructive” liquidation of the past in the beginning. However, Yeltsin had to step down without finishing his term due to economic failure and extreme disorder in the society. Today the “Yeltsin period” receives a cold estimation as “the time when living was so hard that even the old Soviet regime was missed.” I hope that the ruling power in our country, which announced its intention to reexamine our passing history, does not have the same kind of concept as “erasing Stalingrad because Stalin is hated.”

Kim Ki-hyun, special correspondent in Moscow, kimkihy@donga.com