The De-Stalinization of Stalingrad

...10TH ANNIVERSARY OF The De-Stalinization of Stalingrad BY ELLEN MICKIEWICZ WHEN OUR small group of American exhibition guides arrived in Stalingrad 10 years ago, the city still bore the name of the Vozhd, or leader, whose remains then lay beside Lenin's in the mausoleum m Red Square But the powerful dictator was, we found, quite remote from the mem-ories and values that gave meaning to the inhabitants' hves It was the War that had indelibly stamped them as Stalingraders The chill wind from the steppe whipping over this flat city on the Volga made us realize that here the end of October was the beginning of winter Summer, we were told, was the season for tourists, mdeed, the presence of 15-20 Americans at this time of year was something of a curiosity One of the few "hero cities," Stalingrad was virtually a mandatory stop for visitors from East Europe and for Soviets on vacation All day long during the warm months, one group after another would be escorted to the grave of the unknown soldier, there to place the official state wreaths The other "monument" to the War was the rum of a bullet-ridden wall—the only remnant of the old city, reduced to rubble and completely rebuilt We were put up at the Hotel Stalingrad on the main square, dominated by a large statue of Stalin pitched forward on its 10-foot pedestal The hotel was just a short walk from the gymnasium where our United States Information Agency exhibit, "Transport USA," was to be housed No sooner had we unpacked our bags than a city dignitary rushed us off to the planetarium to see a lengthy newsreel documentary of the Battle of Stalingrad There was no evading it, the official insisted that we learn the meaning of Stalingrad before seeing the sights From the screening we were taken to the museum, which was devoted largely to models of battle formations during the civil war and, of course, the Second World War In the hall we were stopped before a mosaic full-figure portrait of Stalm, some 11-12 feet high, it was composed, our guide informed us, of millions of pieces of colored stones from different sections of the USSR It had taken years to arrange them...

...The exploits of the dead and maimed, it seemed, would somehow be snuffed out Several of the visitors to our exhibition sneered at the new name, all of them wondered how the history books would refer to the great battle and if "Stalingrad" would ever signify anything to the outside world Two months later in Moscow, preparing for a flight to Vienna, I received a letter from a Volgograd fnend He told of mutual acquaintances and local news of a general nature His last line, however, said that they had not "given in" and instructed me to look closely at the envelope In the black circle with three black lines that canceled the stamp, I could read "January 1962 Stalingrad...

...an impressive achievement" When oui small exhibition opened a few days later, we found that the Battle of Stalingrad was not simply frozen into plaster-of-Pans models, but remained very much alive for the hundreds of citizens we spoke with Everywhere we saw the living imprint of that terrible conflict About to shake hands, we would clasp instead a yellow-green plastic stump, the most rudimentary artificial hand ELLEN MICKIEWICZ, a new contrib-utor, is a professor of political science at Michigan State Umveisity Crutches were seen as a matter of course, scars were all around, ltvid and blue in the cold Unbelieving surprise greeted a guide's comment that his parents were alive The Stalingraders had rarely saved the nuclear family and almost never had relatives of more distant ties Still, they were unmistakably proud to say "But you knew of us before you came to Stalingrad " On November 5 snow fell that was not to melt until spring Preparations were under way for the celebration of the Great October Revolution and for the parade on November 7 The occasion brought two days off from work, and the city's spurts should have been high Yet there was an uneasy apprehension about events in remote Moscow The 22nd Congress of the Communist Parry of the Soviet Union had been convened, and it seemed that the denunciations of Stalm that Khrushchev initiated at the 20th Congress had been renewed Stalingraders had seldom bothered to listen to the dozens of loudspeakers placed all around the city, exhorting them to work harder But these days groups of people would stop before a loudspeaker and listen to the Congress speeches, then walk away silently The next morning, we went out to the mam square to find that where the statue of Stalm had stood the night before, there was now an empty pedestal The Honor Roll beside it, where pictures of good workers were posted, no longer showed the profiles of both Lenin and Stalin, Stalin's had disappeared, along with the quotation attributed to him We rushed back to the hotel for a copy of the local paper, Stanlingrad Pravda, we were told it had been withdrawn from circulation temporarily Nothing further happened during the day, not a word was said about the events of the previous night The fallowing morning, however, we discovered that while we were sleeping the city had lost its identity The sign on our hotel now read "Hotel grad " A billboard called for new production advances with "Let's make our grad a city of Communist work and culture " We walked down to the rad-road station and saw a shingle reading " grad " The mosaic of Stalin in the museum had vanished, leaving only a wooden frame There was no one to ask, no one to talk tc Virtually everybody was lining up miles away for the parade, a celebration with no spectators, only participants Our exhibition reopened the next day to an unusual silence In the past the crowds had come excitedly out of the entry hall after a brief film presentation, chattering up to the various exhibits, fanning out and seeking the American guides But now the visitors seemed listless, they asked few questions, they observed silently and waited patiently for each guide to finish his memorized transportation lecture When asked about the fate of the city's identity, oui guests simply lefused to comment ONLY FROM Stalingraders we knew well did we learn about the black humor and fatalism that had descended over the city Pools on the new name were being conducted surreptitiously, there were about four candidates, the favored one being "Pyati-morsk," an allusion to the "five seas" connected by the Volga Although "Volgograd" was in the running, it was often rejected as unlikely and unattractive Moreover, many Stalingraders, especially those who had only recently migrated from the Ukraine, substituted a guttural kh tor g, and "Volkhokhrad" was difficult to pronounce The guarded waiting came to an end two days later With a revised logotype designed for the occasion, the first edition of the Volgograd Pravda announced the city's new name The railroad station's "grad" became Volgograd, the billboards were adjusted, and by nightfall the conversion of the city's identity was complete We were extremely curious to know exactly how this sweeping change had come about, who had participated and how The newspaper gave an entire page (of the total four) to letters to the editor praising the authorities' action Some people, at least, had been privy to the decision in advance Their letters all made the same three points the evils of Stalinism must not live on symbolically in the name of the city, no citizen could feel pride in bearing the name of the villain of the "cult of personality", and, finally, the majesty of the Volga suitably fitted the achievements and importance of the city Our friends told us of the meetings at factories, institutes and offices that had been called the evening before At one university where an official proposed the name "Volgograd" the students had refused to vote, so the motion carried unanimously on his single vote The uncertainty about what to call the city was over, replaced by despondency For Stalingraders felt that their identity had lain not in the name of the Soviet leader but in that heroic stand against the Nazis in 1942-43 Who would ever mention the Battle of Volgograd...