WHO DROPPED THE SWORD OF STALINGRAD?
Vol.11, Issue 1, 2025, pp. 69-82 Full text: PDF . HTML
DOI: https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.23.2.10
Web of Science: 001528232700005
Author:
Boris Naimushin https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9264-2961
Affiliation: New Bulgarian University, Sofia, Bulgaria 002qhr126
Abstract
On November 29, 1943, at a ceremony at the Soviet Embassy in Tehran in the presence of President Roosevelt, Prime Minister Churchill presented Marshal Stalin with a Sword of Honour as a gift from King George VI to the 'steel-hearted citizens of Stalingrad'. According to an 'enduring legend' (Higgins, 1993), Stalin was surprised by the sword's weight and dropped it on the floor after he took it from Churchill. This article investigates this 'legend' to see whether the sword was dropped and, if yes, who dropped it. In doing so, available memoirs, visuals, and newspaper sources are used. Autobiographical subjectivity is discussed in view of the conflicting accounts from the people who were at the center of the ceremony and close to it, i.e. Winston Churchill, the British diplomat Gladwyn Jebb, Field-Marshal Lord Alanbrooke, Chief of the Imperial General Staff, and the interpreters Arthur Birse (UK), Hugh Lunghi (UK), Charles Bohlen (USA), and Valentin Berezhkov (USSR). An unambiguous answer to the research question is given by two items of video footage taken during the ceremony, despite the obvious efforts to edit out the embarrassing moment.
Keywords: interpreting studies, Sword of Stalingrad, Tehran conference, autobiographical subjectivity
Article history:
Submitted: 21 March 2025
Reviewed: 31 March 2025
Accepted: 10 May 2025
Published: 30 June 2025
Citation (APA):
Naimushin, B. (2025). Who dropped the Sword of Stalingrad?. English Studies at NBU, 11(1), 69-82. https://doi.org/10.33919/esnbu.23.2.10
Copyright © 2025 Boris Naimushin
This is an Open Access article published and distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Notes:
1 The photos in this article are used under the provision of fair use of properly credited, publicly available copyrighted material for non-profit academic research, with screenshots from videos falling under the 'transformative use' category. The author and publisher may have not properly traced the copyright holders for the photographs before publication and apologize for this apparent negligence. If notified, the publisher will be pleased to rectify any errors or omissions at the earliest opportunity.
[[refs=]]
Review:
1. Reviewer's name: Name undisclosed, Independent Researcher, UK
Review Content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons
2. Reviewer's name: Name undisclosed
Review Content: Undisclosed
Review Verified on Publons
Handling Editor: Stan Bogdanov, New Bulgarian University
Verified Editor Record on Publons