VOLGOGRAD, October 3 (Itar-Tass) -“ Stalingrad Which Saved the World” opens in the Italian city Ortona on October 13.

On display will be documents and photographs featuring the heroes of the Battle of Stalingrad who demonstrated their valor and patriotism on battle fields. The copies of the documents contributed by the Russian Museum of the Stalingrad Battle will be displayed in 15 museum expositions and later be turned over to our Italian partners, Director of the Russian museum Sergei Mordvinov told Itar-Tass.

The exhibition has been arranged thanks to joint efforts made by workers of the Russian Museum of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Volgograd (former Stalingrad) administration and the Russian Culture Ministry which gave its support to the project. The main goal of the exhibition is to bring home to citizens of Europe and the younger generation the historic truth about the exploits of the defenders of Stalingrad. The Battle of Stalingrad heralded a crucial defeat of Nazi troops on WWII war fronts and the liberation of European cities from Nazism and fascism.

Representatives of the Italian Foreign Ministry and the Russian Center of Science and Culture based in Rome will attend an opening ceremony of the exhibition. A delegation from Volgograd, which will visit the exhibition, incorporates school students of senior grades who will meet their fellow school friends from Ortona. “The Russian teenagers, who have learned the heroic history of Volgograd from the veterans of the Stalingrad battle, will tell it to their Italian fellow friends," Mordvinov said.

A delegation from Ortona is to pay a return visit to Volgograd in December when the two cities are to sign an agreement on friendship and cooperation. All these symbolic events were timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Stalingrad and the 70th anniversary of the Battle of Ortona celebrated in 2013, the Volgograd city administration said.

The fates of the Russian Stalingrad and the Italian Ortona are very much alike. Both were the venues of crucial WWII battles fought by the troops of the Anti- Hitler coalition and the Soviet defenders of Stalingrad against Nazi occupants. Prominent figure of the WWII epoch Winston Churchill even called Ortona "little Stalingrad."