Volgograd marks anniversary of Battle of Stalingrad with Mayors for Peace Vision for the future

February 3, 2009

Yesterday in Volgograd (Russia), a Vice President City of Mayors for Peace, the 65th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad was marked with events for veterans and citizens.  Previously known as Stalingrad, events in the city were attended by its Mayor, Mr. Roman Grebennikov, and various local politicans, Deputies to the State Duma, veterans, dignitaries and citizens. During one ceremony, the First Vice Mayor, Mr. Sokolov, read out a message composed specially for the occasion from the Mayor of Hiroshima and President of Mayors for Peace, Dr. Tadatoshi Akiba.  Mr. Sokolov went on to express appreciation for the support of Mayor Akiba and in a few words introduced Mayors for Peace to the audience.

In his message, Mayor Akiba recognised the great contribution that the City of Volgograd had made, past and present, to the cause of peace and international cooperation. He singled out the Stalingrad Tablecloth initiative in particular as a symbol of the soldarity between the Sister Cities, Coventry and Volgograd, but also on an international scale. He mentioned the pride that the Mayors for Peace Executive Officials had taken in adding their signatures, including the Mayors of Halabja (Iraq), North Olmsted (USA), Ypres (Belgium), Florence (Italy), Biograd na Moru (Croatia) and Granollers (Spain).

To the audience in Volgograd, First Vice Mayor Sokolov spelled out the 2020 Vision for the future through Mayor Akiba's words:

"On an anniversary like today's, it is natural to cast our minds back and pay tribute to the deeds of those in the past. But we must also remember to look to the concrete steps we must take now to ensure such tragedies never occur again.  Together we are pushing for the adoption of the Hiroshima-Nagasaki Protocol, a protocol that embeds our 2020 Vision for a world without nuclear weapons within a realistic framework and challenges leaders to follow through on their promises. 

It is the tragic and brutal histories of Coventry, Volgograd, and Hiroshima that make the need for action so clear in the present.  Together our two cities will continue the struggle for a more humane world and decisive steps towards our goal of the complete elimination of nuclear weapons by the year 2020."

Furthermore, at the special commemoration, Ms. Elena Vasilevskaya, International Relations Officer for Volgograd City Hall, was officially presented in her new role as Mayors for Peace Russian Campaign Coordinator. Ms. Vasilevskaya has been working intensively with the 2020 Vision Campaign since our General Meetings of November 2008 and has taken on the role to focus on capacity-building in Russia and Volgograd's role in the 'Cities Are Not Targets!' initiative, the War-Scourged Cities Group.

The date also marked the anniversary of the twinning of the cities of Coventry and Volgograd, a special relationship which was cemented as a result of both cities experiencing the devastation of the Second World War. In this spirit, the Lord Mayor and Lady Mayoress of Coventry, Councillor Andy Matchet and Mrs Caron Matchet, also attended a special ceremony where the Stalingrad Tablecloth was officially presented to Mayor Grebennikov. The Mayor will keep it until June when it will be taken to Coventry by an official delegation from Volgograd to be presented to the Lord Mayor Matchet.

During World War II the city was a strategically located industrial centre, and a vital German objective. A large German force mounted an assault on the city on August 20, 1942, after a period of heavy air raids. A successful Soviet counter-offensive began on November 19, and on February 2, 1943 the Sixth German Army surrendered, so ending the German advance into the USSR. German casualties alone totaled more than 300,000, and the Soviet city was almost completely destroyed. Rebuilding began immediately after the war. The city was renamed Volgograd in 1961.  More information can be found on Volgograd's official website.

Please find the full 'Background Story' of the Stalingrad Tablecloth and the Volgograd-Coventry friendship here.