February 28th, 2018 , 12:00 pm
If you find yourself in Volgograd, then you definitely need to visit three places: Mamayev Kurgan, Paulus Bunker in the Central Department Store And Panorama Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad. I read a lot about the Battle of Stalingrad and watched films. A variety of books and films. “Stalingrad” by Yuri Ozerov is impossible to watch, the movie is about nothing, solid Soviet propaganda. The book by German war correspondent Heinz Schröter about the Battle of Stalingrad, written by him in 1943, seemed very interesting. By the way, the book, conceived as a propaganda tool capable of raising the spirit of the German army, was banned in Germany “for its defeatist mood” and was published only in 1948. It was completely unusual to look towards Stalingrad through the eyes of German soldiers. And oddly enough, it was precisely the meticulous analytical German assessment of military operations that showed the incredible feat that the Russian people - the military and the city residents - accomplished.
STALINGRAD- the same stone on which the invincible, powerful German war machine literally broke its teeth.
STALINGRAD- that sacred point that turned the tide of the war.
STALINGRAD- the city of Heroes in the most literal sense.
From the book "Stalingrad" by Heinz Schroter
“In Stalingrad there were battles for every house, for metallurgical plants, factories, hangars, shipping canals, streets, squares, gardens, walls.”
“Resistance arose almost out of nowhere. At the surviving factories, the last tanks were being assembled, the armories were empty, everyone who was able to hold a weapon in their hands was armed: Volga steamships, the fleet, workers of military factories, teenagers.”“The dive bombers delivered their iron blows to the ruins of staunchly defended bridgeheads.”
“The basements of houses and the vaults of workshops were equipped by the enemies as dugouts and strongholds. Danger lurked at every step, snipers were hiding behind every ruin, but sewerage structures for wastewater posed a special danger - they approached the Volga and were used by the Soviet command to supply reserves to them. Often, Russians suddenly appeared behind the advanced German detachments, and no one could understand how they got there. Later everything became clear, so the channels in the places where the drain covers were located were barricaded with steel beams.”
*It is interesting that the Germans describe houses for which mortal battles were fought not by numbers, but by color, because the German love of numbers has become meaningless.
“The sapper battalion lay down in front of the pharmacy and the red house. These strongholds were equipped for defense in such a way that it was impossible to take them.”
“The advance of the engineer battalions moved forward, but stopped in front of the so-called white house. The houses in question were piles of rubbish, but there were battles for them too.”
*Just imagine how many such “red and white houses” there were in Stalingrad...
I found myself in Volgograd at the very beginning of February, when they celebrated the next anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad. On this day I went to Panorama Museum, which is located on the high bank of the Volga embankment (Chuikova St., 47). I chose the day very well, because on the site in front of the museum I found a concert, performances by our guys, and a gala event dedicated to the memorable date. 
I didn’t take any photos inside the museum, it was dark and I doubt I would have gotten good photos without a flash. But the museum is very interesting. First of all, a circular panorama “The defeat of the Nazi troops at Stalingrad.” As Wiki describes it: “Panorama “Battle of Stalingrad” is a canvas measuring 16x120 m, with an area of about 2000 m² and 1000 m² of subject matter. The plot is the final stage of the Battle of Stalingrad - Operation Ring. The canvas shows the connection on January 26, 1943 of the 21st and 62nd armies of the Don Front on the western slope of Mamayev Kurgan, which led to the dissection of the encircled German group into two parts.” In addition to the panorama (located on the highest floor of the museum, in the Rotunda) there are 4 dioramas (small panoramas on the ground floor).
Weapons, Soviet and German, awards, personal items and clothing, models, photographs, portraits. You definitely need to take a tour guide. In my case, this could not be done, due to the fact that a solemn ceremony was taking place in the Triumphal Hall, which was attended by veterans, military personnel, young army guys, and the museum was flooded with a large number of guests. 
(c) photo yarowind
(c) photo kerrangjke
(With) muph
Behind the Panorama Museum there is a dilapidated red brick building - Gergard's Mill (Grudinin's Mill).
The building became one of the important defense centers of the city. Again, turning to Wiki we find out that “The mill was semi-surrounded for 58 days, and during these days it withstood numerous hits from aerial bombs and shells. These damages are visible even now - literally every square meter of the outer walls is cut by shells, bullets and shrapnel, reinforced concrete beams on the roof are broken by direct hits from aerial bombs. The sides of the building indicate varying intensities of mortar and artillery fire.”
A copy of the sculpture is now installed nearby "Dancing Children". For Soviet Russia, this was a fairly typical sculpture - pioneers with red ties (3 girls and three boys) lead a friendly round dance around the fountain. But the children’s figures, damaged by bullets and shell fragments, look especially piercing and defenseless. 
Opposite the Panorama Museum across the road is Pavlov's house.
I’ll turn to Wikipedia again so as not to repeat it: “Pavlov’s House is a 4-story residential building in which a group of Soviet soldiers heroically held the defense for 58 days during the Battle of Stalingrad. Some historians believe that the defense was led by senior sergeant Ya. F. Pavlov, who took command of the squad from senior lieutenant I. F. Afanasyev, who was wounded at the beginning of the battles. The Germans organized attacks several times a day. Every time soldiers or tanks tried to get close to the house, I.F. Afanasyev and his comrades met them with heavy fire from the basement, windows and roof. During the entire defense of Pavlov’s house (from September 23 to November 25, 1942), there were civilians in the basement until the Soviet troops launched a counterattack.”
I would like to return to the demonstration performances of our guys again. And I will quote the text of Vitaly Rogozin dervishv
about hand-to-hand combat, which I liked incredibly.
...
Hand-to-hand combat - window dressing or a deadly weapon?
Experts continue to debate whether soldiers need hand-to-hand combat in modern warfare. And if necessary, then in what volume and with what technical arsenal? And what martial arts are best suited for this? No matter how much analysts argue, hand-to-hand combat still has its place in training programs. The other day I looked at the hand-to-hand combat skills of the cadets of the Moscow Higher Combined Arms Command School. 
There is a joke among the troops: “To engage in hand-to-hand combat, a soldier needs to remain in his shorts, find a flat area and a second idiot like him.” And this joke contains considerable wisdom, tested in hundreds of wars. After all, even in the era before the advent of firearms, hand-to-hand combat was not a “major discipline.” The main focus in a soldier's combat training was his ability to wield a weapon and not bring the battle to hand-to-hand combat.
For example, in China, where the traditions of martial arts go back thousands of years, the training of soldiers for hand-to-hand combat was systematized only during the Ming Dynasty, when General Qi Jiguang selected and published his “32 fist methods” for training troops.
Only 32 techniques from the huge variety of Chinese Wushu! But the most effective and easiest to learn.
According to Western press reports, the entire hand-to-hand combat course of the American Delta consists of 30 techniques. 
1
. The soldier’s task, since he cannot, for some reason, use a weapon, is to destroy the enemy or disarm and immobilize him as soon as possible. And you don’t need to know many techniques to do this. It is important to master them; they must be firmly embedded in the subconscious and muscle memory.
2.
The most important thing for a fighter is the ability to use personal weapons and equipment in hand-to-hand combat.
3.
Let's start with the machine gun. The blows are delivered with a bayonet, barrel, butt, and magazine.
Thus, even without ammunition, the machine gun remains a formidable weapon in close combat.
In Kadochnikov’s system, which is still taught in some places in domestic law enforcement agencies, the machine gun is even used to immobilize and escort a prisoner.
4.
Hand-to-hand combat techniques with a knife are characterized by fast, economical and generally short and low-amplitude movements.
5.
The targets for striking are mainly the limbs and neck of the enemy, since, firstly, they contain large blood vessels located close to the surface of the body. Secondly, hitting the opponent’s hands sharply reduces his ability to continue the fight (a hit to the neck, for obvious reasons, practically eliminates this). Thirdly, the torso can be protected by body armor.
6.
A soldier must still be able to throw a knife without missing from any position. But he only does this when he has no other choice, because the knife is designed to cut and stab and should lie firmly in the hand, and not move in space, leaving the owner without the last weapon.
7.
A terrible weapon in the hands of a soldier is a small sapper blade. The radius of destruction and the length of the cutting edge are much greater than that of any knife. But in these exhibition battles it was not used, and in vain.
8.
Confronting an armed enemy while unarmed is also a necessary skill.
9.
But taking away a weapon from an enemy is not so easy.
10.
Real knives and pistols bring the training situation closer to a combat situation, strengthening psychological resistance to weapons in the hands of the opponent.
11.
The fighter still needs the skills to silently destroy sentries and capture enemy troops.
12.
It is important for any intelligence officer to be able to search, bind and escort captured or detained persons.
13.
A soldier of army units in hand-to-hand combat must kill the enemy in the shortest possible period of time and continue completing the assigned task.
14.
The targets for his blows are the temples, eyes, throat, base of the skull, heart (a competent, accurate blow to the heart area leads to its stop). Hit to the groin and knee joints are good as “relaxers”.
15
. The stick, in turn, is the most ancient human weapon.
16
. The methods of its use have been refined over thousands of years and can be adopted for service without any modification or adaptation.
17
. Even if you never have to use hand-to-hand combat skills, it is better to know them and be able to use them.
18.
Crunch and cut in half.
Posts tagged “Volgograd”:
Pavlov's house became one of the historical sites of the Battle of Stalingrad, which still causes controversy among modern historians.
During fierce fighting, the house withstood a considerable number of counterattacks from the Germans. For 58 days, a group of Soviet soldiers bravely held the defense, destroying more than a thousand enemy soldiers during this period. In the post-war years, historians carefully tried to restore all the details, and the composition of the commanders who carried out the operation led to the first disagreements.
Who held the line
According to the official version, the operation was led by Ya.F. Pavlov, in principle, is associated with this fact and the name of the house, which he subsequently received. But there is another version, according to which Pavlov directly led the assault, and I. F. Afanasyev was then responsible for the defense. And this fact is confirmed by military reports, which became the source for reconstructing all the events of that period. According to his soldiers, Ivan Afanasyevich was a rather modest person, perhaps this pushed him into the background a little. After the war, Pavlov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Unlike him, Afanasiev was not awarded such an award.
Strategic importance of the house
An interesting fact for historians was that the Germans designated this house on the map as a fortress. And indeed the strategic importance of the house was very important - from here there was a wide overview of the territory from where the Germans could break through to the Volga. Despite daily attacks from the enemy, our soldiers defended their positions, reliably closing the approaches from enemies. The Germans who took part in the assault could not understand how the people in Pavlov’s house could withstand their attacks without food or ammunition reinforcements. Subsequently, it turned out that all provisions and weapons were delivered through a special trench dug underground.
Is Tolik Kuryshov a fictional character or a hero?
Also, a little-known fact that was discovered during the research was the heroism of an 11-year-old boy who fought alongside Pavlovians. Tolik Kuryshov helped the soldiers in every possible way, who, in turn, tried to protect him from danger. Despite the commander's ban, Tolik still managed to accomplish a real feat. Having penetrated one of the neighboring houses, he was able to obtain important documents for the army - the capture plan. After the war, Kuryshov did not advertise his feat in any way. We learned about this event from surviving documents. After a series of investigations, Anatoly Kuryshov was awarded the Order of the Red Star.
Where were the civilians?
Whether there was an evacuation or not - this issue also caused a lot of controversy. According to one version, there were civilians in the basement of the Pavlovsk house for all 58 days. Although there is theory that people were evacuated through dug trenches. Yet modern historians adhere to the official version. Many documents indicate that people really were in the basement all this time. Thanks to the heroism of our soldiers, no civilians were harmed during these 58 days.
Today Pavlov's house has been completely restored and immortalized with a memorial wall. Based on the events related to the heroic defense of the legendary house, books have been written and even a film has been made, which has won many world awards.
The legendary house of Sergeant Pavlov (House of Soldier's Glory) in the hero city of Volgograd, which in the Battle of Stalingrad became a real impregnable citadel for the Nazis thanks to the courage and fortitude of its defenders. A historical monument of national significance and an object of cultural heritage of Russia.
An ordinary four-story residential building in the center is associated with a heroic page in the history of the city - the legendary battle for Stalingrad, which became a turning point in the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War.
In pre-war peacetime in Stalingrad (present-day Volgograd) on January 9 Square (now Lenin Square) there were residential buildings for the so-called elite - railway workers, signalmen, and NKVD workers. Near the square, in a four-story house No. 61 with 4 entrances on Penzenskaya Street, lived specialists from the city’s tractor, metallurgical and machine-building plants, as well as employees of the city committee of the CPSU. This house and its twin - the house, which later received the name of Lieutenant N. Zabolotny who defended it, due to the fact that a railway line passed right by them to the Volga, were destined to play an important role during the Battle of Stalingrad.
The story of one feat
Fierce fighting in July-November 1942 took place not only in the suburbs of Stalingrad, but also in the city itself. For the possession of residential areas and factory areas, the Nazis threw more and more human reserves and armored vehicles into mortal combat.
At the beginning of September 1942, during the period of the heaviest street fighting, the area of January 9 Square was defended by the 42nd Regiment as part of the 13th Guards Rifle Division of the 62nd Army, commanded by Colonel I.P. Elin. Fights took place for every piece of land, for every building, for every entrance, basement, apartment. The troops of Field Marshal Paulus, supported by fire from the air, paved their way to the Volga, sweeping away all obstacles along the way. The buildings in the square square were already destroyed, only two residential buildings and one survived. These buildings turned out to be strategically important objects not only for defense, but also for monitoring the surrounding territory - one kilometer in the western, and two kilometers in the northern and southern directions. By order of Colonel I.P. Elin, who correctly assessed the strategic importance of the buildings, the commander of the 3rd Infantry Battalion, Captain V.A. Zhukov, organized two mobile groups under the command of Sergeant Ya. Pavlov and Lieutenant N. Zabolotny to seize residential buildings. The first group - Sergeant Yakov Pavlov and three soldiers on September 22, 1942, managed to knock out the enemy and gain a foothold in one of the houses. A platoon under the command of Nikolai Zabolotny occupied the house opposite, and the regimental command post was located in the mill building. The guardsmen of N. Zabolotny's platoon courageously held the defense of the captured house, but soon the Nazis managed to blow up the building, under the rubble of which all its defenders, along with the commander, died.
And in the basement of the first house liberated from the Nazis, fighters from Sergeant Yakov Pavlov’s group found civilians - about thirty women, children and old people. These people were in the basement of the house with the soldiers until the liberation of the city, helping the soldiers in defending the house.
Having sent a report to the command post about the successful operation to capture the house and requesting reinforcements, over the next two days four brave soldiers fought off the fierce attacks of the Wehrmacht units rushing to the Volga. On the third day of defense, the defenders received reinforcements - a machine-gun platoon from the third machine-gun company under the command of Guard Lieutenant I.F. Afanasyev (seven people with a heavy machine gun), six armor-piercing men with three anti-tank rifles led by senior sergeant A.A. Sobgaida, three machine gunners and four mortar men with two 50 mm mortars under the command of Lieutenant A. N. Chernyshenko. The number of defenders of the house increased to 24 people of different nationalities, among whom, along with the Russians, Ukrainians, Armenians, Georgians, Tatars, Jews, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Tajiks held the defense. Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, wounded in the first days of defense, handed over command of the guard garrison to Lieutenant I. Afanasyev.
For a more effective defense, sappers mined all approaches to the building, along a dug trench from the Pavlov House, which appears under that name in operational reports and reports of the regiment headquarters, to the Gerhardt mill, signalmen extended radio communications, and the call sign of the heroic detachment of defenders of the house “Mayak” for as long as 58 days and nights (from September 23 to November 25, 1942) connected the defenders of the building with the headquarters of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment.
Shelling and attacks by Wehrmacht units on Pavlov's House were repeated every hour, regardless of the time of day, but this did not break the spirit of the soldiers. During each offensive, the Nazis littered the approaches to the house with the bodies of their soldiers, struck down by heavy mortar, machine gun and machine gun fire, which the defenders fired from the basement, windows and roof of the impregnable building. The ferocity with which the enemy troops tried to take possession of Pavlov's House was shattered by the courage and heroism of the soldiers who defended it. Therefore, on maps of Wehrmacht military operations, Pavlov's House was marked as a fortress. Surprisingly, during the entire defense of the strategically and tactically important section of the approach to the Volga, which became an ordinary residential building on Penzenskaya Street on the way of the Nazis, only three of its defenders died - Lieutenant A. N. Chernyshenko, Guard Sergeant I. Ya. Khait and Private I. T. Svirin. Their names, like the names of all the fighters of the House of Pavlov, are inscribed in the history of the heroic feat of the unconquered city on the Volga.
As a result of one of the shellings, a shell explosion destroyed one of the walls of the building, but even in this seemingly unpleasant fact, the fighters were able to find a positive side, joking that now the ventilation in the house had become much better. And in rare moments of silence, the guards wondered whether they would restore the building after the war, because no one doubted that the war would end in victory.
Restoration of Pavlov's House
Perhaps there is something mystical in the fact that the first building, the restoration of which was undertaken almost immediately after the liberation of Stalingrad, was the House of Sergeant Pavlov, also called the House of Soldiers' Glory. Thanks to the initiative of Stalingrad resident A.M. Cherkasova, who in June 1943 organized a brigade of female volunteers to clear the rubble, repair and restore city buildings, this movement, soon called Cherkasovsky, swept the entire country: in all cities liberated from the Nazis there were numerous volunteer brigades in In their free time from work, they restored destroyed buildings, put streets, squares and parks in order. And after the war, A. M. Cherkasova’s team continued to restore their hometown in their free time, devoting a total of more than 20 million hours to this noble cause.
After the war, the square near which Pavlov’s House was located was renamed Defense Square, new houses appeared on it, with which, according to the design of the architect I. E. Fialko, the heroic house was combined with a semicircular colonnade. And the end wall facing Defense Square (renamed Lenin Square in 1960) was decorated with a memorial by sculptors A.V. Golovanov and P.L. Malkov. Its opening took place in February 1965 and was timed to coincide with the 20th anniversary of the liberation of Volgograd from the fascist invaders.
The newly rebuilt Pavlov's House became a symbol not only of the heroic feat of its defenders, but also of the feat of ordinary people who, on their own, restored Stalingrad from the ruins. The memory of this was immortalized by the architect V. E. Maslyaev and the sculptor V. G. Fetisov, who created at the end of the building from the street. Soviet memorial wall-monument with the inscription: “In this house, military feat and labor feat merged together.” The grand opening of the memorial took place on the eve of the 40th anniversary of the Great Victory - May 4, 1985.
The relief memorial wall made of red brick depicts a collective image of a warrior-defender, one of the moments of the defense of the building and a tablet with text that immortalizes the names of courageous and fearless warriors who did the impossible - at the cost of incredible efforts, stopping enemy troops on the very outskirts of the Volga.
The text on the sign reads: “This house at the end of September 1942 was occupied by Sergeant Ya. F. Pavlov and his comrades A. P. Aleksandrov, V. S. Glushchenko, N. Ya. Chernogolov. During September-November 1942, the house heroically defended by the soldiers of the 3rd battalion of the 42nd Guards Rifle Regiment of the 13th Guards Order of Lenin Division: Aleksandrov A.P., Afanasyev I.F., Bondarenko M.S., Voronov I.V., Glushchenko V.S. , Gridin T. I., Dovzhenko P. I., Ivashchenko A. I., Kiselev V. M., Mosiashvili N. G., Murzaev T., Pavlov Ya. F., Ramazanov F. Z., Saraev V. K., Svirin I. T., Sobgaida A. A., Torgunov K., Turdyev M., Khait I. Ya., Chernogolov N. Ya., Chernyshenko A. N., Shapovalov A. E., Yakimenko G. AND."
The Battle of Stalingrad, which radically changed the course of the Great Patriotic War and marked the beginning of the collapse of the Third Reich, became the millstone of the giant mill for the selected forces of the Wehrmacht. The legendary garrison of Pavlov's House also made its contribution to the liberation of the city from enemy invaders, the memory of whose feat is forever inscribed in the Book of Memory of the Hero City of Volgograd.
The battle for Pavlov's house is one of the brightest pages not only in the history of the defense of Stalingrad, but also of the entire Great Patriotic War. A handful of fighters repelled the fierce attacks of the German army, preventing the Nazis from reaching the Volga. There are still questions in this episode that researchers cannot yet give definitive answers to.
Who led the defense?
At the end of September 1942, a group of soldiers of the 13th Guards Division, led by Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, captured a four-story house on January 9th Square. A few days later, reinforcements arrived there - a machine-gun platoon under the command of Senior Lieutenant Ivan Afanasyev. The defenders of the house repelled the enemy's onslaught for 58 days and nights and left there only with the beginning of the counter-offensive of the Red Army.
There is an opinion that almost all these days the defense of the house was led not by Pavlov, but by Afanasyev. The first led the defense for the first few days until Afanasyev’s unit arrived at the house as reinforcements. After this, the officer, as a senior in rank, took command.
This is confirmed by military reports, letters and memoirs of participants in the events. For example, Kamalzhan Tursunov - until recently the last surviving defender of the house. In one of his interviews, he stated that it was not Pavlov who led the defense. Afanasyev, due to his modesty, after the war deliberately relegated himself to the background.
With a fight or not?
It is also not completely clear whether Pavlov’s group knocked the Germans out of the house in battle or whether the scouts entered an empty building. In his memoirs, Yakov Pavlov recalled that his soldiers were combing the entrances and noticed the enemy in one of the apartments. As a result of the fleeting battle, the enemy detachment was destroyed.
However, in his post-war memoirs, battalion commander Alexei Zhukov, who followed the operation to seize the house, refuted Pavlov’s words. According to him, the scouts entered an empty building. The head of the public organization “Children of Wartime Stalingrad” Zinaida Selezneva adheres to the same version.
There is an opinion that Ivan Afanasyev also mentioned the empty building in the original version of his memoirs. However, at the request of the censors, who forbade the destruction of an already established legend, the senior lieutenant was forced to confirm Pavlov’s words that there were Germans in the building.
How many defenders?
Also, there is still no exact answer to the question of how many people defended the fortress house. Various sources mention a figure from 24 to 31. Volgograd journalist, poet and publicist Yuri Besedin in his book “A Shard in the Heart” said that the garrison totaled 29 people.
Other figures were given by Ivan Afanasyev. In his memoirs, he claimed that in just almost two months, 24 Red Army soldiers took part in the battle for the house.
However, the lieutenant himself in his memoirs mentions two cowards who wanted to desert, but were caught and shot by the defenders of the house. Afanasiev did not include the faint-hearted fighters among the defenders of the house on January 9 Square.
In addition, among the defenders, Afanasyev did not mention those who were not constantly in the house, but were periodically there during the battle. There were two of them: sniper Anatoly Chekhov and sanitary instructor Maria Ulyanova, who, if necessary, also took up arms.
"Lost" nationalities?
The defense of the house was held by people of many nationalities - Russians, Ukrainians, Georgians, Kazakhs and others. In Soviet historiography, the figure of nine nationalities was fixed. However, it is now being questioned.
Modern researchers claim that Pavlov's house was defended by representatives of 11 nations. Among others, Kalmyk Garya Khokholov and Abkhazian Alexey Sugba were in the house. It is believed that Soviet censorship removed the names of these fighters from the list of defenders of the house. Khokholov fell out of favor as a representative of the deported Kalmyk people. And Sukba, according to some information, was captured after Stalingrad and went over to the side of the Vlasovites.
Why did Pavlov become a hero?
Yakov Pavlov was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union for the defense of the house named after him. Why Pavlov, and not Yakov Afanasyev, who, as many claim, was the real leader of the defense?
In his book “A Shard of the Heart,” Volgograd journalist and publicist Yuri Besedin noted that Pavlov was chosen for the role of the hero because propaganda preferred the image of a soldier rather than an officer. The political situation allegedly also intervened: the sergeant was a party member, while the senior lieutenant was non-partisan.
It is unlikely to attract the attention of those who do not know its history. Only the memorial wall located at the end of the building indicates that Pavlov’s house is a symbol of the perseverance and courage of Soviet soldiers.
In pre-war times, when Lenin Square was called January 9th Square, and Volgograd was Stalingrad, Pavlov’s house was considered one of the most prestigious residential buildings in the city. Surrounded by the houses of Signalmen and NKVD workers, Pavlov’s house was located almost next to the Volga - there was even an asphalt road laid from the building to the river. The inhabitants of Pavlov's house were representatives of prestigious professions at that time - specialists from industrial enterprises and party leaders.
During the Battle of Stalingrad, Pavlov's house became the subject of fierce fighting. In mid-September 1942, it was decided to turn Pavlov’s house into a stronghold: the favorable location of the building made it possible to observe and shell the enemy-occupied city territory 1 km to the west and more than 2 km to the north and south. Sergeant Pavlov, together with a group of soldiers, established himself in the house - since then, Pavlov’s house in Volgograd has taken his name. On the third day, reinforcements arrived at Pavlov’s house, delivering weapons, ammunition and machine guns to the soldiers. The defense of the house was improved by mining the approaches to the building: that is why the German assault groups could not capture the building for a long time. A trench was dug between Pavlov’s house in Stalingrad and the Mill building: from the basement of the house the garrison kept in touch with the command located in Melnitsa.
For 58 days, 25 people repelled the fierce attacks of the Nazis, holding enemy resistance to the last. What the German losses were is still unknown. But Chuikov once noted that the German army suffered several times more losses during the capture of Pavlov’s house in Stalingrad than during the capture of Paris. It is also noteworthy that a group of soldiers of various nationalities participated in the defense of the house, who managed to become a stronghold of friendship and unity of peoples during the Great Patriotic War. With the exception of the Russians, Georgians, Ukrainians, and even Jews took part in the battles for Pavlov’s house in Stalingrad - about 11 nationalities in total. All participants in the defense of Pavlov's house, including Pavlov himself, who did not take part in the defense of the house due to injury, were awarded government awards.
After the end of the war, a long restoration of the house began - the building was literally assembled piece by piece by a team of women builders. Pavlov's house in Volgograd was one of the first to be restored. A colonnade and a memorial plaque appeared on the end of the building, depicting a soldier who became the collective image of the participants in the defense. The words “58 days on fire” are also inscribed on the board.
On the reverse side of the house in May 1985, a fragment of a red brick wall appeared with the lines “We will rebuild your native Stalingrad!”, dedicated to the labor valor of the construction team of A.M. Cherkesova.
And now Pavlov’s house in Volgograd is not just a symbol of perseverance and courage, but also a silent reminder that the unity of the people can defeat evil.
