Battle of Stalingrad away from the oil-rich Caucasus, which had been Hitler's original grand-strategic objective. The Royal Romanian Air Force was also involved in the Axis air operations at Stalingrad. Starting 23 October 1942, Romanian pilots flew a total of 4,000 sorties, during which they destroyed 61 Soviet aircraft. The Romanian Air Force lost 79 aircraft, most of them captured on the ground along with their airfields. After three months of slow advance, the Germans finally reached the river banks, capturing 90% of the ruined city and splitting the remaining Soviet forces into two narrow pockets. Ice floes on the Volga now prevented
Russian given name (calendar or Christian names, usually modified) and non-canonical. The 14th century was marked by the elimination of non-canonical names, that ended by the 18th century. In the 20th century after the October Revolution the whole idea of a name changed. It was a completely new era in the history of Russian names, marked by significant changes in common names. The names of popular saints are known as "calendar names" from their occurrence in the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar. A common custom is to name the baby for the saint who is the patron over their birthday. Such names include Ivan