ISSUE 166 - STALINGRAD Ever since the start of After the Battle over 40 years ago, we have wanted to do a feature on the battle of Stalingrad — the most-famous and most-crucial battle fought on the Eastern Front, decisive for the outcome of the entire war. However, in all these years, the problems of presenting the story in our customary ‘then and now’ format seemed insurmountable. Not only was it difficult to find enough photographs that stood a chance of being matched up but, more importantly, we were acutely aware that the city of Stalingrad had been largely destroyed in the months-long struggle and one would need expert knowledge of the rebuilt metropolis (which in 1961 had its name changed to Volgograd) in order to pinpoint the comparisons. So we are therefore immensely fortunate to have established contact with Alexander Trofimov. Alexander, who is married with two daughters and works for a metal-trading company, was born in Volgograd in 1970 and has lived there all his life. Ever since he was a youngster, he has been fascinated by the momentous struggle that occurred in his home city and he has spent years studying the details of the ferocious combat that took place there and exploring the battleground — not only in the city proper but also on the wide steppe outside. He knows virtually every corner of the former battlefield and we could not wish to have a better expert to match up the photos of the battle. His photographic contribution to this story is such that our American author, Mark Holoboski, another long-time student of the battle, agreed to share authorship of this special issue with him.
Posted on: Fri, 24 Oct 2014 09:05:21 +0000
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