Are the "bone fields" of the Stalingrad encircled battlefields real?

No, There aren't. But its a nice tourist idea for the former Soviet Union to think that there is. 70yrs of rain and weather and there wouldn't be a bone in sight. The WW1 battlefields of Europe have been around longer and the only bones found are those plowed up. Nothing was visible. And any relics left would have been picked clean and sold on Ebay by now.

Two main questions here:

• Why weren't remains buried? They weren't buried because there simply was no opportunity. The Soviets could possibly evacuate part of their corpses during the battle, the Germans had nowhere to go. And during the winter months, the only thing to do was pile them up in heaps and cover them with rubble as best you can (if you had the time).
• Are they still visible now? Highly unlikely. Anything left behind will have long since weathered away, been chewed up by animals, or picked up by souvenir hunters and post-battle grave details. And remember the area is now once again a large city, most of the original battle area has been plowed up, built over, cultivated for decades.

There's clips on YouTube of the Pitomnik taken by tourists over the past few years. In them you'll see small remnants of mines, but no human remains.

This isn't to say that there aren't any remains, but I was envisioning vast fields of bones from the way Dan described them in the podcast.

I went on a Stalingrad tour in 2000 and one day we were taken out to see old dugouts and foxholes. At one point near the northwest boundary of the pocket we were allowed to look around and some of us wandered to a field where farmers were working.

In the drainage ditch next to the farm we saw remnants of bones. I wasn't sure they were human until someone pointed out part of a jawbone with teeth still in it. All the bone fragments were small, none bigger than 3 inches except the 4 inch jawbone with teeth.

I can believe the story about large bones by the hundreds seen 30 years before. While we were there several Russian soldiers were found and buried in a huge ceremony.

I was there in November of 1998 in Pitomnik and Peschanka. Pitomnik still has remains in large areas where it is hard to walk without stepping on human bones. I tried not to wherever possible but I tried to show as much respect for the bones of all these young men. It was shocking. Not only that; German boots in pretty amazing condition, bullets, shells, mines, helmet fragments, debris of war everywhere.

Yes, the bone fields are still there. Especially around the Pitomnik Airfield, where balkas - eroded river banks - aren't plowed like the fields around them, and are littered with bones. I can show photos. I was there. There are still bones everywhere. You just have to slow down and look.

Still, as of 1996, the Germans were allowed in to begin the business of identifying and burying the Wehrmacht dead with the help of Russians who know the landscape. It continues.

Before that time, the USSR would not allow the bones to be moved, except by farmers plowing their fields and the uniforms the skeletal remains still wore clogged the tines of their plows. Still, since that time, many people have visited there after reading "Aftermath: The Remnants of War," and have tried to take home grisly souvenirs of the war. They are often found out at Russian customs during departure, and are often taken into Russian custody, to await trial and justice. This stuff is still taken very seriously.

As for Walter Seledec, he was in the film "Aftermath: The Remnants of War," but was not interviewed in the book.

How do I know? I wrote the book, was credited as a writer in the film, and have been back to see the changes, which are moving along, but are far from completed.