VOLGOGRAD. Feb 2 (Interfax) - Russian President Vladimir Putin visited the Mamayev Kurgan Memorial Complex in Volgograd on Thursday as parts of events marking the 80th anniversary of the victory in the Battle of Stalingrad.
The president laid down a wreath to the Eternal Flame in the Hall of Glory and held a minute of silence in honor of the Soviet troops who fell in the Battle of Stalingrad.
Putin then came up to the grave of Marshal and twice Hero of the Soviet Union Vasily Chuikov, who was buried at Mamayev Kurgan, and laid flowers there as well. In the years of the Great Patriotic War, Chuikov commanded the 62nd army, which was known for its heroic six-month defense of Stalingrad.
On February 2, 1943, the USSR defeated Nazi Germany and its allies in the Battle of Stalingrad, which by its scale and duration (200 days) and the number of its participants became one of the largest in the war. It radically changed the course of the war and became a forerunner of the victory of the Soviet army over the Nazi troops.