Sword of Stalingrad

The Sword of Stalingrad () is a bejewelled ceremonial longsword specially forged and inscribed by command of King George VI of the United Kingdom as a token of homage from the British people to the Soviet defenders of the city during the Battle of Stalingrad.Antony Beevor (1998), Stalingrad, Viking Press, p. 405 . On 29 November 1943, it was presented to Marshal Joseph Stalin by British Prime Minister Winston Churchill at a ceremony during the Tehran Conference, in the presence of President Franklin D. Roosevelt and an honour guard.
== Description ==
The sword is a double-edged, two-handed longsword, approximately four feet long, with a solid-silver crossguard. The acid-etched inscription in Russian and English reads:
ГРАЖДАНАМ СТАЛИНГРАДА • КРЕПКИМ КАК СТАЛЬ • ОТ КОРОЛЯ ГЕОРГА VI • В ЗНАК ГЛУБОКОГО ВОСХИЩЕНИЯ БРИТАНСКОГО НАРОДА
TO THE STEEL-HEARTED CITIZENS OF STALINGRAD • THE GIFT OF KING GEORGE VI • IN TOKEN OF THE HOMAGE OF THE BRITISH PEOPLE
The hand grip is bound in 18 carat gold wire and has a pommel of rock crystal with a gold rose of England. Each end of the crossguard is fashioned in the likeness of the head of a leopard and finished with parcel gilt.Olof Janson, The Sword of Stalingrad Page, with original pictures & information courtesy of Robert Wilkinson Latham, son of John Wilkinson Latham of the Wilkinson Sword Co.
The double-edged blade is lenticular in cross section and hand-forged out of the finest Sheffield steel. The scabbard was made from Persian lamb skin dyed crimson, although some sources suggest it was of Morocco leather.Ed Levin, The Sword of Stalingrad Description , Russianswords.com. It is decorated with the Royal arms, the Crown and Cypher in silver gilt with five silver mounts and three rubies mounted on golden stars.
In its time it was celebrated as one of the last masterpieces in swordmaking craftsmanship from the modern age."Sword of Stalingrad...Perfection in its Field", Sklar advertisement, July 1944, in The Journal of Bone and Joint Surgery, Vol. XXVI, No. 3, Boston MA. p. 11.
== Manufacture ==
The original design was by R. M. Y. Gleadowe, a University of Oxford fine arts don, and approved by the King. A commission of nine expert craftsmen from Goldsmiths' Hall supervised the execution of the works. The Russian wording was cleared by Sir Ellis Hovell Minns, a Slavonic iconographer and the President of Pembroke College, Cambridge.Elizabeth Hill, "Obituary: Sir Ellis Hovell Minns (1874-1953)," The Slavonic and East European Review, 1953, pp. 236–238.
The Wilkinson Sword Company was the fabricator, with the principal craftsmen being swordsmiths Tom Beasley and Sid Rouse, the calligrapher M. C. Oliver and silversmith Corp. Leslie G. Durbin from the Royal Air Force. The steel for the blade came from Sanderson Brothers and Newbould of Sheffield. The project took about three months to complete.
== Presentation ==
The official presentation was made while the Big Three wartime leaders were meeting in the Soviet embassy at the November 1943 Tehran Conference, where the final plans for Operation Overlord were being settled.Paul D. Mayle (1987), Eureka Summit: agreement in principle and the Big Three at Tehran, 1943, University of Delaware Press, pp. 89–90 .
After a three-hour delay, the principals and their delegations gathered in the large conference room of the embassy with a British and Soviet honour guard lining either side of the hall. Winston Churchill entered wearing his blue Royal Air Force air commodore's uniform, and a Soviet military band played "God Save the King" and "The Internationale". Churchill took the sword from a British lieutenant and turning to Joseph Stalin declared, "I am commanded to present this sword of honour as a token of homage of the British people". Stalin kissed the scabbard and quietly thanked the British. He then offered the sword for inspection to the seated Franklin Roosevelt, who drew the blade and held it aloft, saying, "Truly they had hearts of steel". (In Russian, Stalin's name approximates to "man of steel").
The sword was replaced in its scabbard by either Churchill or Stalin. At the end of the ceremony, Stalin unexpectedly handed it off to one of his oldest and most loyal comrades, Marshal Kliment Voroshilov. He seemed to have been taken by surprise and took it the wrong way up so that the sword slipped out and fell.Gladwyn Jebb's eyewitness account recorded in 16 December 1943 diary entry of Harold Nicolson (1967), The War Years, 1939-1945, Vol. II of Diaries and Letters, Atheneum, New York, p. 334. Observers differ on whether it struck his foot, clattered onto the floor, or was caught in time to be returned to its scabbard with a deft move.Mayle, p. 90.
==In literature==
The sword figures eponymously in Evelyn Waugh's Sword of Honour trilogy, in which Waugh contrasts the sword, symbol for him of the betrayal of eastern Europe to the atheist Stalin, with the sword of honour of the crusading ancestor of the central character of the trilogy, Guy Crouchback.
== Disposition ==
Before its presentation, the sword was exhibited around the United Kingdom as a religious icon, including at Westminster Abbey, which formed a pivotal scene in Evelyn Waugh's wartime trilogy Sword of Honour.Alan Sinfield (1983), Society and Literature, 1945-1970, Taylor & Francis, London, p. 23 .
The original is displayed at the in Volgograd."The Battle of Stalingrad" & "Queen Elizabeth - Honorary Citizenship", The Voice of Russia, Tid-bits of the Week, 1999-2000. During the Cold War it returned to Britain for temporary exhibitions on at least three occasions.Andrew Higgins, "Stalingrad blade blunted by time: The sword Churchill gave Stalin is gathering museum dust," 7 November 1993, The Independent, U.K.
== References ==
== External links ==
*
*The Sword of Stalingrad Description by Ed Levin
*The Sword of Stalingrad Page by Olof Janson, courtesy of Robert Wilkinson Latham (son of Wilkinson executive involved with the commission).
*Hans Wild photograph of Tom Beasley forging the sword in 1943, U.K. (972 x 1280px), available at LIFE Images
Category:European weapons
Category:Modern European swords
Category:Individual weapons
Category:World War II conferences
Category:Winston Churchill
Category:Joseph Stalin
Category:British royalty
Category:1943 in Iran
Category:Soviet Union–United Kingdom relations
Category:Battle of Stalingrad
Category:Diplomatic gifts
Category:Weapons and ammunition introduced in 1943