Bitef

Seena 7: Za zasluge Seena 8: Tamna noć Seena 9: Masa atoma Kaća, devojčica Saša, njen drug iz razreda Seena 10: Crno more Jaša, mitraljezac Rosa, njegova voljena Rosin verenik Rabin Seena 11: Krug Aljoša & Nataša Seena 12: Moja sudbina je uvek rat General Paulus Aljoša Seena 13: Feldmaršal Gorenko Seena 14: Lament jednog mrava A NOTE FROM DIRECTOR The epic battle of Stalingrad transformed the banks of the Volga into a terrifying slaughterhouse. There, on the ground of Mother Russia, perished peoples of different nationalities and beliefs. Afterward Europe remained at peace for fifty years. So as not to forget those powerful moments of history, streets, bearing the name of this city now exist in all of the cities of Europe - small and large. It was by chance several years ago that I stumbled across an old account in the notes of a war correspondent. There I read, after the battle, the closer I got to Stalingrad, the landscape took on an unbelievable appearance. Everywhere the carcasses of horses, still alive, stood on three legs dragging the forth, shot-off or mutilated. This was a heartbreaking spectacle. During the Soviet offensive, 10000 horses per- . ished. The entire landscape was covered with the corpses of horses, killed by tanks, guns, random fire. The image of this horse on three legs haunted me for a long time.

And thus gradually, there in my mind, The theme of Stalingrad started to take form. The distant images of a forgotten childhood, widows in black, the crippled people and invalids that I saw throughout my native Koutaissi, the tears and suffering of my grandmother. All of these images tormented me until i created this play, a requiem, for Stalingrad, REZO GABRIADZE The Battle of Stalingrad (August 23,1942 - February2,l943), one of the most atrocious battles in the history of mankind - fought in a city named after Stalin (now renamed Volgograd) - is recognized by historians not only as the turning point of World War 11, but also as a battle whose consequences and decisive impact would define Russia's future role as a superpower in the Cold War era. The colossal scale of the battle, the sheer magnitude of the carnage, the megalomania of Stalin and the generals, all contributed to the unimaginable slaughter in which more than a million human lives were lost. The surreal, macabre aspect of the siege of Stalingrad cannot be fully documented through historic analysis and drawings and maps. Its horrors are best encapsulated in the personal tales of survivors and participants, which collectively form the lore of the battle. One historian described the first day of the battle - Sunday, August 23,1942 - as the day when "Stalin's model Soviet city became an Inferno". "Incendiary bombs show erred down on the wooden houses on the southwestern edge of the city. They burned to the ground, but in the smoking ash, their spindly brick chimneys remained standing in rows like a surrealist graveyard. Balls of flame rose about 200 miles away... blazing oil spread across the Volga River." "One mother, caught in the open with a daughter whose legs froze in shell-shock literally had to 'drag her home' through the bombing. With virtually all the men away at the front, women were left to cope with the appalling aftermath. Victor Goncharov's wife, helped by here elevenyear old son Nicolai, buried her father's corpse in the courtyard of their apartment. Before filling in the grave, the son remembered. We searched for his head, but could not find it.' A full 10% of the population perished in that bombardment. Stalin; deciding that no panic must be allowed, refused to permit the inhabitants of Stalingrad to be evacuated across the Volga. Observed one boy trapped behind with his mother, 'We too were just meat for the guns.'“ At the battle's end, five months later on February 2, 1943, a war correspondent reported, 'Very little that was recognized remained from the city... before the German bombers appeared on that Sunday afternoon. Stalingrad was now little more than a battered and burned skeleton. About the only landmark left standing was the fountain with stat-