2. Volgograd and the Volga

Established as Tsaritsyn to defend the unstable southern regions of Russia, the city was shaped by the River Volga, by immigrants, commerce – and by war. In the 17th and 18th century, Cossack rebels conquer it twice. Sparsely populated, the area is easy prey. Empress Catherine the Great launches a campaign to solve this problem once and for all. She issues a decree that promises privileges and land to foreign settles – and chiefly promotes it in her native Germany. Immigrant farmers and craftspeople form over 100 settlements in the region. Tsaritsyn flourishes and now becomes one of the major Russian commercial cities – which also attracts the Nobel family from Sweden. Having set out to find wood for their rifle production – they find a new and even more profitable commodity: oil. In Russia’s Civil war 1917-1920, bitter fights are waged over its control. Hitler, too, has an appetite for the oil that can be accessed from here. The Battle of Stalingrad becomes the ultimate turning point of the war – at the cost of nearly one million lives. The city that has born the name of Stalin since the 1920s is completely destroyed, and rebuilt in Stalinist style. When the Communist leadership acknowledges Stalin’s atrocities - albeit secretly -, it is given a new name: Volgograd.