People about Stalingrad

Charles de Gaulle was a well-known French army officer and statesman. While he was in exile, de Gaulle became a leader of the Free France movement, which joined the Allies of the World War II. In June 1944 he became head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic. In December 1944 Charles de Gaulle paid an official visit to the USSR and signed the bilateral Treaty of Alliance and Mutual Assistance with the USSR.

In June 1966 he paid another visit to our country and established bilateral space relations with the Soviet Union by signing the Agreement on the Space Exploration and Development as well as the Agreement on the economic and scientific cooperation between France and the USSR.

During his visits to the USSR in 1944 and 1966 Charles de Gaulle also visited Stalingrad-Volgograd. During his visit in 1944 he presented the citizens with a gift from the city of Dijon and one of the main symbols of France – the helmeted Marianne depicted on a bronze plate with an inscription: “To Stalingrad with grateful thanks from France”. In his speech Charles de Gaulle said: “I would like to pay tribute to Stalingrad and point at the lesson it taught us. The fighting French nation sends the warmest greetings to the hero city of Stalingrad, the symbol of our victories over the enemy”. In 1966 de Gaulle could already admire the city resurrected from ruins.

Dolores Ibárruri was one of the leaders of the Spanish and international Labour movement. During the World War II she was a prominent member of the international antifascism movement. Her son, Rubén, a 22-years old hero of the Soviet Union, died in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942. Since she was one of the founders of the Women’s International Democratic Federation (1945) she was also a part of the international women’s movement. Dolores Ibárruri was a laureate of the International Lenin Prize for Strengthening Peace Among Peoples and awarded an Order of Lenin medal as well as a number of other medals of the USSR.

While she was living in the USSR (a total of 36 years), Dolores Ibárruri would come every year, on September 2, the day her son died, to Stalingrad-Volgograd to visit her son’s grave in the Alley of Heroes as well as to go to such memorable places as Mamayev Kurgan. During her February visit in the year of 1963 she addressed the People of Stalingrad-Volgograd: “If there is a place in this world, where one finds it difficult to find the right words, it is here, in our beloved Volgograd. Everything about this city touches one’s heart very deeply, its houses resurrected from ruins, plants rebuilt by a sheer willpower of people, its beautiful parks that cover the sites of death and devastation, the Great Volga River that still remembers the tears of mothers, widows and orphans, its sky that lit up the heroic days, when the Soviet Arms defeated the Nazi, but most of all it’s you, the creators and builders of today”.

J. Nehru was a famous Indian politician. He became the first Prime Minister of the Independent India (1947) and the Minister of Foreign Affairs. Under his guidance the government elaborated and implemented the measures aimed at improving the economic, social and cultural development of the country.

J. Nehru was actively maintaining and developing the partnership and friendship between the USSR and India. In 1955 and 1961 he paid two visits to the Soviet Union. During his visit in 1955 the Prime Minister of India also went to Stalingrad among other cities, visited the Museum of the Defence of Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad and left a little note in a guest book, “I came here to pay tribute to the undefeated and victorious Stalingrad”.

Haile Selassie was the Emperor of Ethiopia from 1930 to 1974 and led the effort to defend Ethiopia during the Second Italo-Ethiopian War of 1935-1936. He presided over the formation of the Organisation of African Unity in 1963. During his rule he established and strengthened economic, scientific and cultural links between Ethiopia and the USSR.

The Emperor Haile Selassie I visited Stalingrad in 1959 and went to the Museum of the Defence of Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad and even presented the museum with his photo portrait, which he signed in Amharic language.

The shield of honour is exhibited in the 8th hall of the ‘Battle of Stalingrad’ Museum.

Hewlett Johnson was a well-known British public figure, Dean of Canterbury and Doctor of Theology. During the World War II he was advocating for opening the second front in Europe. He also became one of the first people, who started raising money to help the Soviet Union. In 1948 he became the leader of the Great Britain-USSR Friendship Organisation and had been a member of the World Peace Council ever since the year of 1950.

In 1950s he was visiting the USSR. In July 1951 he came to Stalingrad and made sure to visit the Museum of the Defence of Tsaritsyn-Stalingrad. He also left a little message in the guest book: “The main trunk of Nazi tree was cut down in Stalingrad by the people of Stalingrad. Now it is left for us to destroy all the remains of this old root of evil, one by one, wherever they might appear”.