24 years ago, Ed Harris portrayed an ice character in the Great War movie by Jean-Jacques Enud. But did it really exist?

Seven years of his film, in Tibet, which was released in 1997, and many of the Beijing authorities, to ban his director Jean-Jacques Anuda from the entrance to China, and his head, Brad Pete, for 17 years, he has been filmmaker four years later in the film. Reconstruction of Stalingrad’s terrible struggle during World War II.

“What I was particularly interested in was the reconstruction of this battle through the microcosm of two men, two snipers who compete with this struggle by the eyes of propaganda.” Explained the anude Interview with DVDVision magazine2001.

“I found the story of Vasily Zayatsev thanks to my friend Alin Godard | Editor’s Note: Film Executive producer], Who one day brought me this book, which William Craig, at the enemy, at the gate: the battle of Stalingrad, which tells the story of this duel. A very famous duel in Russia, much more than I could imagine. When I went to the museum in Moscow and Stalingrad, I saw photos of this man on the walls everywhere. He is a character that is both historical and legendary. “

“Stalingrad is an urgent psychological necessity”

In the battle of this death, it was orchestrated around these two snipers: Actress Judas Law, which gives her qualities to Zayitz. In an amazing word, he noticed the commissioner of the people, Ivan Danilov (Joseph Phine), who made him a hero of his propaganda. In the enemy camp, German employees are planning to shoot down with his best sniper, Major Konig, who has become a symbol of unwavering Russian resistance.

For Nazi Germany, Stalingrad is not just a battle. It is a city that names the Supreme Leader of the USSR. She is the mother of all battle, as Hitler has announced: “Adoption of Stalingrad is an urgent psychological necessity, it is necessary to deprive him of communism in his holy place.” He said.

Under the König Major will fall into the sensational Ed Harry. The face of the piercing blue eagle, the chisel, the defined and the ruthless innate, it depicts a strong adversary against Vasily Zeitsev.

According to Angated, if Vasily Zaytsev’s character really existed, Russian propaganda was largely responsible for the mythization of his service states. Of course, it was not shameless, but it is still far from its exploitation, which was praised … Similarly, the alleged Major Conig and his likely sniper school, never existed …

Involuntary Major Conig

The new lighting of this accurate story is followed by a recent edition of a new translation Carnets Vasily Grossman’s War Correspondent, which was published by Kalman Levi in ​​2023. The publication, which was founded with precision and decreased, was a great historian and specialist of World War II who analyzes the correspondent of Vasily Grossman, a very famous Red Army war and direct witness Stalingrad.

“Several chief elite Stalingrad elite shooters, including Tchkhovov and Zaytsev, talked about short duels with German shooters. It is not surprising that the number one priority was to fight these shooters” Writes Beevor in the introduction of Grossman’s writing. Who then fixes this fact from the mouth of Zytsev:

“Zaytsev Duel with a great German sniper.” He was killed by three people. He waited for a quarter of an hour, our small field was empty and he began to straighten. And I saw that his rifle was on the ground. I got up with all my height. He saw me and understood. And I used it. ”

The end is obviously less cinematic than in Annaud’s film we have to consider below …

Historian Beevor gets a pen and writes: “This short but terrible meeting was probably what Soviet propaganda received. We ended in the epic sort of an expanded duel of Major Kunig, the head of the” Berlin School Sniper School “, as impossible, to identify Zaïtsev and kill him.

There is nothing in German sources. We can also doubt that two men have jumped. The elite shooters of the two camps were trying to work in the duo, and the winning shooter, who was distinguished by such actions, would die immediately.

In his memoirs, of course, written with the help of propaganda specialists, Zauzev also tells the story of a duel, but very convincing story for a few days. Today we can see a telescopic sight in the Moscow Museum of Armed Forces, whose etiquette determines that it was found on the corpse of the German Major.

It further shows that the political department of the Stalingrad Front sent to Moscow during the battle, this epic duel was never mentioned. However, the smallest detail useful for propaganda was known. “

Despite this exploitation, or the school of the Major Conig and its elite shooters, under the propaganda apparatus, designed to measure the sacrifice of men thrown into one of the most terrible war battles. On the screen, thanks to the talent of Jean-Jacques’ talents, this story is still such a breath.