City of Fate (22 page)

EPILOGUE

I
n Russia there is a word, ‘
Rodina
’ which means ‘
Homeland
’. Where once her citizens were urged to put their country before everything else, including their homes, Stalin realised that the country would be defended better against invaders if the people were allowed to fight for their homes before anything else.

During those months of strife Stalingrad was also home to the German soldiers who dug out clumsy rooms in her earth, decorating them with whatever they could find. One man, Kurt Reuber, a doctor, who was also an artist, decided to draw a picture on the back of a large map of Russia. He wanted to make something that would comfort him as well as his fellow soldiers. It was approaching 25
December
, 1942, and the German Army had hoped to be at home with their loved ones for Christmas. All those hopes were soundly dashed when it became clear that Hitler had
quietly
forsaken them. After thinking long and hard about his
subject matter, Doctor Reuber went to work, with little in the way of art materials aside from a chunk of charcoal and the map.

He called his work ‘Stalingrad Madonna’. The picture he drew was of Mary wrapped in a long, thick shawl cradling the baby Jesus to her cheek. On the right of the picture, Doctor Reuber wrote the words: ‘
Licht
’ (Light); ‘
Leben
’ (Life); ‘
Liebe
’ (Love). For the men who came to see the
picture
, it meant shelter, security and a mother’s love. In other words it meant home.

The Germans brought so much pain and terror with them. And, yet, they were people too. Humans killing other humans, because of what: land, power or immortality? What did those Germans struggle for? In the end it all seemed so utterly pointless; even Hitler seemed at a loss over what to do.

Of course he should never have been elected leader of a country. Did it all boil down to that – a mad man, with
fantastic
ambition, who infected the lives of millions of people with misery and darkness? Mr Belov once asked why the Greek Alexander was called ‘Alexander the Great’. Was it simply because he had killed lots of people? Does that make someone ‘great’? He used the question to show his students how to question everything they heard.

Stalingrad, or ‘Schicksalsstadt’ (‘City of Fate’), was Russia’s finest hour, but at what cost? Sergeant Pavlov believed in
the importance of concentrating on how many were saved. The immense bloodshed, the violence, the constant
killing
– it was necessary, wasn’t it? That’s how wars are won after all.

In any case, this particular battle for Stalingrad finally ended on 2 February 1943, while the Great War would continue on for another two years, finishing up miles away from Russian soil on 29 April 1945.

Over the next few years the people rebuilt the city, wiping it clean of the blood and dirt and transforming it into a place of beauty once more. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if the story ended here, with the happy ending that
everyone
hopes for? Unfortunately this is not possible. Once he had dealt with the German invaders, Stalin turned on his own people, plunging his great country into a terrifying darkness for many years to come.

Remember what Tanya spoke of, to Yuri, about Stalin’s suspicious mind? Well, multiply that by a hundred per cent and stand well back. It is fortunate that those listening so intently to Mr Goldstein’s violin could not see into the future; their hearts may not have stood it.

Yet throughout what followed, those years of terror, there was one thing that could not be stopped, not by the blood of a thousand men nor the wrath of a Josef Stalin. The Volga river kept flowing, cleansing the bloodied footsteps of the past in its constant urge to press forward, like the march of
time itself. And maybe, just maybe, that’s why they called it the mirror of Russia’s soul: for, in the face of pain and fear, it can be comforting to know that there will always be something that can never die.

As with my first novel,
Spirit of the Titanic,
I wanted to use as much ‘real' material as I could, to lay the foundation for – and hopefully enhance – the fictional part of the story in my head. This meant a lot of research: reading lots of other books and watching both documentaries and films about the Battle of Stalingrad.

Almost two million soldiers and civilians died in the battle which is generally described as the most important battle of the Second World War. The Germans lost, on a shocking scale, with 90,000 of them being taken prisoner. The rest of their army, along with their allies, a total of 150,000 men, were dead. Of those 90,000 prisoners, only 6,000 ever made it back home to Germany.

In short, losing the battle for Stalingrad was the beginning of the end for Hitler and the Nazis.

I will come clean and admit that my main characters,
Yuri
and
Peter
, (and
Tanya
and
Mrs Karmanova
) are my own creation. However, by the time the battle was finished, it was reported that up to 9,976 citizens had managed to survive the bombing and the fighting; 994 of these were children. Nobody quite knows how they managed it; things like food, water and shelter were extremely scarce, not to mention the constant threat of violence. One American doctor wrote of the children she met, that they were so traumatised by their experience they wouldn't even look at her, never mind answer her questions. Only nine children (out of the 994) were eventually re-united with their parents.

Citizens, including women and children, were killed by Russians if they were caught (that is, forced into) helping the Germans, and killed by Germans if they were seen helping the Russian army.

Vlad
,
Leo
,
Misha
and
Anton,
along with their teacher
Mr Belov
, did exist although I couldn't find their real names. A male teacher was ordered by the NKVD to bring his entire class of sixteen/seventeen-year-olds to the next town and sign them up to fight in Stalingrad. By the time they arrived at the army's office only half the class were standing behind him. It is believed the teacher was accused of treason, because of the missing students, and dealt with
accordingly
.

A copy of the
Barmaley Fountain
, with its statue of six children dancing around a crocodile, was erected in 2013 in memory of the soldiers and civilians who died in Stalingrad. The original statue was removed in the 1950s, just before Stalingrad was renamed Volgograd.

The massacre of the Jewish village, involving the shooting dead of ninety children, under the age of seven years, is not fictional.

Sergeant Jakob Pavlov
was made a Hero of the Soviet Union. The fight for the house, forever thereafter known as Pavlov's House, lasted fifty-eight days. Rumour has it that more German soldiers lost their lives in trying to take
Dom Pavlov
than in the capture of Paris. In recognition of his incredible achievement, the sergeant was duly nicknamed the ‘Houseowner'. Later on, he found religion and became a monk, choosing to live in peace as a man of God. Whenever he was asked if he was ‘the' famous Pavlov from the battle of Stalingrad, he would refuse to say one way or another.

I wish to thank the following for reading the book at different stages and providing me with much-needed tips and encouragement: Joe Butler, Niall Carney, Anna
Keating
, Damian Keenan, Chloe Redmond, Jack Freeney, Patricia Emms and Kate Kurevleva.

Writing a book can be a lonely and terrifying
experience
but that is nothing to handing over the first draft to be edited and made good enough to publish. My editor Susan Houlden deserves something better than this mention of thanks. She was a constant champion of the story and kept me sane when the nerves would hit over the months that I/we worked on the book.

I want to thank designer and artist Emma Byrne for a truly beautiful cover. I pray that the story lives up to the promise of her work.

My thanks to Michael O’Brien and the rest of the staff of the O’Brien Press. It is an honour to be part of their stable of writers.