"Stalingrad will forever remain the symbol of the unity and invincibility of our people,"Mr Putin said."It is a symbol of true patriotism – a symbol of the great victory of the Soviet soldier-liberator."
Commuter buses emblazoned with pictures of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ran across the southern city as patriotic Russians honoured what many view as the Soviet people's greatest achievement.
"I remember the sadness of the war and the victory of the Soviet soldiers,"said a World War II veteran,Alexander Kudlyayev,as he joined 10,000 others at a wreath-laying ceremony at Volgograd's Tomb of the Unknown Soldier.
"I came to honour my friends who died here,"said an 89-year-old Stalingrad survivor,Pyotr Chabarov.
The half-year battle in 1943 in the city on the Volga River – much of it fought in close-quarters combat across the ruined streets – claimed the lives of 2 million people and eventually led to the surrender of the German troops.
The battle marked Hitler's first big defeat and led to a Nazi retreat from Soviet territory after the lightning invasion in June 1941 that had caught Stalin completely unaware.