Ciao everyone! Welcome back. I was inspired by a comment from Colin about continuing the meme trend, and although I cannot guarantee that, I do have one for today:

I would rate this meme a 10/10 because history memes are on another level. I hope you guys enjoyed it because this blog was due for another history post.

For the whopping 3½ readers I have, I’m sure you know that this is a reference to World War II, which was heavily driven by the tension between the fascists and communists, or rather, the Axis and Ally powers. The Hitler-Stalin rivalry is one of the most toxic relationships, at least in my opinion, throughout history.

The Battle of Stalingrad, according to History.com, “was a brutal military campaign between Russian forces and those of Nazi Germany and the Axis powers during World War II.” In my own words, I’d call it one big smackdown.

With the ever-advancing German forces, fueled by the ambition of Adolf Hitler, the Nazi forces pushed towards Russia, taking over Eastern European countries in the process, including Belarus and Ukraine, and originally, Poland. From August 1942 through February 1943, Hitler’s Wehrmacht troops and Stalin’s Red Army faced innumerable losses on both sides. 

By the fall of 1942, Stalingrad was in ruins after facing hundreds of thousands of losses, including those of soldiers and civilians. One of the biggest turn-arounds, however, was the Russian winter of 1942, where the German soldiers couldn’t stand the awful weather and sub-zero temperatures. Effectively, German soldiers began to run out of rations and other supplies, driving them out of Russia. This sort of parallels Napoleon’s expansion into Russia and his perpetual failure, which is cool to think about. Let me know if you guys come up with any other similarities from the past as well.

Anyways, by February 1943, Russian troops had retaken Stalingrad. There, Hitler’s influence and hold over his empire was running thin, almost as thin as the starving prisoners of war in Russian camps. It was at this point that Stalin was going for the Stal-win.

History.com describes the loss at Stalingrad as “the first failure of the war to be publicly acknowledged by Hitler. It put Hitler and the Axis powers on the defensive, and boosted Russian confidence as it continued to do battle on the Eastern Front in World War I.” Sick.

Modern-day Stalingrad was renamed in 1961 as Volgograd (after the Volga River) to denounce Stalin’s name. It is perhaps very wise to not have this dictator-esque name lingering after Stalin’s terrible reign. I believe he actually is responsible for more casualties throughout the 20th Century than Hitler. The city, from there, was rebuilt, and citizens still commemorate this game-changing battle.

I find it ironic how we now make memes out of these events, but it’s fascinating that this form of media helps educate others. I’ve learned a fair share of information from memes and I’m sure you guys have too.

Now, it’s my turn to make like a tree and get out of here. Until next time my jokers!

Reference: History.com Editors. “Battle of Stalingrad.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 9 

                              Nov. 2009, https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/battle-of-stalingrad.