Germany's Wehrmacht forces, during World War II, planned to launch an attack against southern Russia in the summer of 1942 after capturing a large portion of what is now Ukraine and Belarus in the spring. In the winter of 1941–42, Soviet forces, led by their ruthless leader Joseph Stalin, successfully repelled a German offensive on the western portion of the country. This attack had as its ultimate goal the capture of Moscow. Stalin's Red Army, on the other hand, had lost a lot of men and equipment in the conflict. Stalin and his generals, among them the future leader of the Soviet Union, Nikita Khrushchev, were prepared for another Nazi attack on Moscow. The Nazi Party and the Wehrmacht, however, had other plans. They targeted Stalingrad because it was a major manufacturing hub for Russia, producing artillery and other vital supplies for the country's armed forces. The city was strategically located on the Volga River, a major trade route from the country's western to eastern parts. Since Stalingrad bore Stalin's name, Adolf Hitler saw its propaganda value and wanted the Wehrmacht to occupy it. The Russians had similar sentiments and saw a need to safeguard them. The stage was set for a deadly, hard-fought conflict when Hitler declared that upon seizing Stalingrad, all of the city's male citizens would be slaughtered and its women would be deported. Stalin demanded that all Russian males physically capable of handling a rifle arm themselves and defend the city. On August 23, 1942, the Wehrmacht's 6th Army launched its attack.

During a series of bloody clashes immediately north of Stalingrad, the Russians were able to temporarily impede the advances of the German Wehrmacht. Stalin's forces suffered a loss of over 200 thousand men but were able to withstand German attacks. The Russians knew exactly what Hitler had in mind, so they had previously evacuated most of the city's grain and cattle. The city's population of around 400,000 was not evacuated, however, since the Russian government thought that having civilians there would boost morale. A few days after the strike began, the German Luftwaffe had sunk several Russian merchant ships and rendered the Volga River impassable to shipping. The Luftwaffe launched many air attacks on the city, starting in late August and continuing all the way through the end of the assault. There is no way to determine how many innocent people were killed. Tens of thousands are thought to have been slaughtered, while another tens of thousands were probably abducted and forced to work as slaves in German concentration camps. The Russians' situation had worsened by September, when the Luftwaffe had effectively taken control of the skies over Stalingrad. Many city workers who weren't making weapons were quickly enlisted in the military, even if they didn't have any weapons. Trenches were dug at the front lines with the help of enlisted women. However, the Russians' casualties remained high. Stalingrad was a ruined city by the end of 1942.

Stalin famously ordered his soldiers in the city not to evacuate, decreeing in Order No. 227: "Not a step back!" despite suffering heavy fatalities and the pounding inflicted by the Luftwaffe. Those who surrendered would be tried in a military tribunal and might be executed if found guilty. Stalin's generals started sending in reinforcements when they realized they only had about 20,000 troops and 100 tanks inside the city. Stalingrad's streets were the scene of fierce fighting, with snipers from both sides perched atop the city's skyscrapers. The Russian soldiers were organized in the highlands to the north and west of the city by generals Georgy Zhukov and Aleksandr Vasilevsky. They began their counterattack there, which became known as "Operation Uranus." Again suffering heavy casualties, Russian forces, by late November 1942, had formed a defensive ring around the city, effectively surrounding and isolating it from the almost 300,000 German and Axis troops of the 6th Army. The Battle of Stalingrad, a postwar propaganda film, chronicles this operation. Due to the Russian blockade, the German forces besieged in Stalingrad gradually perished from lack of food and water. During the subsequent severe winter months, the Russians would exploit the consequent weakness.

The Soviet generals anticipated the Germans' disadvantage in the icy Russian winter and prepared accordingly. They began to hunker down around Stalingrad, effectively encircling the German forces and cutting off their supply lines. The German and Italian Axis forces were thinned out as a result of Russian successes in adjacent battles, especially in Rostov-on-Don, about 250 miles from Stalingrad. The Russians made headway in their offensive against largely Italian defenses to the west of the city during Operation Little Saturn. Generals in Germany gave up trying to free their pinned-down troops in Stalingrad. Even as his troops began to hunger and run out of ammunition, Hitler still refused to surrender.

By the end of February 1943, Russian forces had retaken Stalingrad, and they had also captured almost 100,000 German soldiers. However, fighting raged in the city until the beginning of March. Most of the captive soldiers succumbed to disease or hunger in Russian detention camps. Hitler's admission of defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad was his first of the war. It made Hitler and the Axis powers retreat, and it gave the Russians renewed courage on the Eastern Front. Finally, many historians agree that the Battle of Stalingrad was a decisive turning point in the war. For the Allied nations of Russia, Britain, France, and the United States, this was the first step on the road to triumph. Russians gathered in the city now called Volgograd in February 2018 to mark 75 years since the end of the combat that had devastated it.