1947 Stalingrad; American Journalists’ Viewpoint


The early spring lasted. Little by little city was getting better after one of the stiffest battles that the land of the USSR has ever seen. City, which at the present time is called Volgograd (yeah, that’s exactly the place where the Mother Russia monument is located), but back then at times of the USSR it was called Stalingrad and was totally leveled by the German army during Battle for Stalingrad in 1942-1943. In 1947 the Cold War didn’t started yet, so the relations between 2 military allies, the USSR and the USA, allowed such “exchange” trips. In this article you will see lots of different things, most of them are really horrifying, but still, they belong to the history of the USSR and no one can blot them out.


Stalingrad-1 train station and people standing in the line and wanting to buy some tickets, either for them to get from this hell of a city out or for their relatives to come here and support them. In 1952 the train station was rebuilt and new station of incredible beauty was erected there. The new station was considered as one of the nicest stations in the whole Soviet Union.


Legendary monument of a fountain depicting children in a reeler. Some time after the waterworks was destroyed. On the photo it stands on the background of ruins of high-risers.


To the right you can see the stela erected in commemoration of heroes that were undertaking the defense of the city. It was risen up right away after the battle was over. To the left convoying lieutenant colonel guiding a group of American journalists where this very man from LIFE journal was.


A camel-drawn wagon. Of course, such a hot sight could not be overpassed by nosy correspondents.


On this shot you can easily see how bad the city was destroyed. No unhurt buildings at all.


Construction site. Only women working as there were too little men left alive after the battle.


German prisoners of the war.






And some other swell shots that were made by the hands of skilful American journalists:
























Photo credits – 1

37 thoughts on “1947 Stalingrad; American Journalists’ Viewpoint”

  1. One of the german POWs might be my grandfather.
    He was in Stalingrad doing reconstruction work at the time (he wasn’t there as a soldier, he only served from late 1943 on)

  2. Amazing photos, the Russian people went thru so much in WW2…

    Perristalsis, photos were taken in 1947- 4 years AFTER the siege. I would imagine they had some food aid by then!

    • It looks like our beloved site had a system crash and was restored from earlier backup, too bad a lot of good discussion was lost. Already answered your post back then Martisco, so I won’t repeat it here.

  3. Interesting photographs! It’s incredible to see the scale of the destruction and just how long it took to rebuild the city. Also nice rare photographs of German POWs, you don’t usually see them.

    • Many of them were not just prisoners of war, but war criminals. Some were sentenced to the maximum term. Prison term ends only in the late ’70s. But Khrushchev in 1955 pardoned them, and all they returned to Germany.

      • From military history I have taken (now this can be biased)from the Panzer divison and 6th German divison, only about 6,000 of them ever made it home. On the original note; I had the chance to visit the museum tributed to Stalingrad. I thought the city was destroyed but not leveled. Stalin used re-inforced concrete to build most building’s, hence supported the aerial bombing,mortar’s and shelling. My two cent’s.

  4. The story of US journalists in the USSR during/after WWII is rather interesting. IIRC, US journalists in Moscow spent whole war in a hotel assigned to them and were not allowed to do anything but rewriting official statements in English…
    Stalin´s paranoia prevented them e.g. from taking pictures/writing about the Kursk Battle. This is supposedly one of the reasons why the epic clash remains generally unknown in the USA.

  5. I have always hated Communism but have always highly respected the Russian people. They have gone through trials that we Americans should thank God never happened to us. The Russians are tough and good people.

  6. there are people smiling there, i admire them.

    I think I would have never survived in a hard time as that. I would have never survived any time before 1960 probably either…

  7. you all forget the only reason the russians won was the lend lease of america and england, especially the radio and communication equipment for the t-34. and the fighter and b-25 and 33s for the air forc. but what saved them was the spam and food aid, by the millions of tons. I know a tank gunner for the russian that said they had a boxes of spam and put the cans on the manifold of the engine and actually got fat from it. and the geremans starved to death.!!!

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