USSR Centenary

FILE - An abandoned horse grazes among the ruins of the Russian city of Stalingrad, now Volgograd, on Dec. 18, 1942, about four months into the battle for the city on the Volga River between Axis forces and the Soviet army. In the background, at right, Russian women leaving their battered homesteads make their way through the ruins. World War II inflicted colossal suffering on the Soviet Union, but cemented its status as a superpower and swelled citizens' hearts with the conviction that it was a virtuous and indomitable nation. An estimated 27 million Soviets died in the conflict. The Battle of Stalingrad was one of the bloodiest in the history of warfare. (AP Photo/Alvin Steinkopf, File)