The Red Flag Rises Over Fallen Soldiers' Square, Stalingrad, 31 January 1943

June 9, 2025 - Reading time: 3 minutes

A Soviet soldier raises the Red Flag over Fallen Soldiers’ Square in Stalingrad, shortly after the surrender of the German 6th Army. The department store building in the background was where Field Marshal Paulus was captured.

Stalingrad, 31 January 1943. The frozen ruins of the city still echo with the last volleys of gunfire, but the outcome is decided. The German 6th Army is surrounded and broken, its commander, Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus, taken prisoner inside the basement of the department store seen in the background.

From a rooftop overlooking Ploshchad Pavshikh Bortsov — the Square of the Fallen Fighters, a Soviet soldier raises the tattered Red Banner. It's not ceremonial. The cloth is scorched and torn, waving against a grey winter sky as a sign of total victory and survival against impossible odds.

Below, abandoned German vehicles litter the square, now silent witnesses to one of the most brutal and decisive battles in history. The city, once nearly wiped from the map, now becomes a symbol of unbreakable Soviet resistance. The cost was catastrophic. But the Red Army held.

This moment, captured by legendary war photographer Georgy Zelma, became an icon — not just of triumph, but of vengeance, endurance, and the turning tide of the war on the Eastern Front.

📷 Technical photo data:
📸 Photographer: Georgy Zelma
🌐 Source: Soviet military archive
📅 Date: January 31, 1943
📍 Location: Stalingrad, USSR (now Volgograd)