The Great Patriotic War in brief. When did the Great Patriotic War begin? When did World War 3 begin? 1941 1945
- Causes and preconditions of the war
- Nazism in Germany
- Beginning of the war
- Stages of the war
- In the rear
- Soldiers of the invisible front
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- The Great Patriotic War, in short, was the last major military conflict in which the USSR participated. The war was waged against Germany, which treacherously attacked the territory of the Soviet Union and violated the peace treaty.
- Speaking briefly about the Great Patriotic War, it is worth noting that at the same time it is one of the main stages of World War II.
Causes and preconditions of the war
- The fact is that the countries that lost the war found themselves in an extremely humiliated state and did not agree with the conditions Treaty of Versailles. Germany, the instigator of the war, found itself in a particularly difficult position, having to pay indemnities beyond its means and not having the right to have its own armed forces. In addition, she was excluded from participation in international affairs.
Nazism in Germany
- Not surprisingly, the population became increasingly sympathetic to the National Socialist Party and its leader Adolf Hitler. He refused to accept the results of the First World War and called on Germany for revenge and world domination. The humiliated country accepted these calls. With Hitler coming to power in 1933, Germany began to increase its military-industrial turnover at a gigantic pace.
Beginning of the war
- In 1939, Germany occupied Czechoslovakia and began making claims against Poland. The USSR proposes to create an alliance between England and France, but they do not dare to take this step. Churchill later admitted that he should have agreed to this proposal.
- September 1, 1939, after the attack of Nazi Germany on Poland, the Second World War. Allies Polish state, England and France also enter the war.
- By 1941, all of Europe was in German hands, with the exception of Great Britain. After this, Hitler, in violation of all treaties, starts a war with the Soviet Union.
Stages of the war
- The Great Patriotic War, in short, lasted 4 long years. As is known, the Soviet Union was practically not ready for war, because Stalin refused to believe counterintelligence reports about the exact date of the attack by Nazi troops. He was offered a plan for a pre-emptive strike on Germany, but he rejected it. Germany itself was completely ready to strike the USSR (Blitzkrieg plan, Barbarossa plan), and preparations for war had been in full swing since 1940. Many plans were created regarding the USSR.
- The enemy was stuck near Leningrad, unable to capture the city. Started Leningrad blockade.
- By December 1941, German troops captured the territory of the Baltic republics, Belarus, part of Ukraine and advanced approximately 1200 km deep into the USSR.
- The largest and most significant battle of the Great Patriotic War, briefly speaking, of this period, was battle for Moscow.
- For Hitler, this was the main event of his operation to capture the USSR. The battle for Moscow is divided into two stages - defense and offensive. Until December 1941 Soviet troops held the enemy on the approaches to the capital. On December 5, a counteroffensive began, which grew into a general offensive of all troops. German troops lost the Battle of Moscow. It showed that the German army is not invincible.
- Stage 2 is associated with a radical turning point in the war in favor of the USSR. During this period from 1942 to 1943, two difficult battles took place, won by Soviet troops at a very high cost - Stalingrad and Kursk.
- On the night of May 8-9, 1945, Germany signed an act of surrender.
- The history of the Great Patriotic War, briefly outlined, can describe the severity of this time extremely sparingly. In numbers, it looks like this: the total casualties among the military and civilian population of the USSR amounted to almost 27 million people.
Major battles and military operations
- Defense of the Brest Fortress
According to the plan developed by Hitler, to capture the first Soviet strategic object of the Brest 
The fortress was given only a few hours. The defenders of the fortress held out, despite the numerical superiority of the fascist invaders, for several days. Only after a week of incessant attacks and bombings did the Nazis manage to capture part of the fortification. But even after German units entered the territory of the fortress, they had to fight for almost a month with separate groups of soldiers of the Soviet army in order to gain a foothold in it.
- Battle of Smolensk
Twice more people and 4 times - tanks. The Nazis had such superiority when they launched an offensive on the Western Front, hoping to quickly divide it and gain unhindered access to the capital of the country.
But even here they cruelly miscalculated. Battle of Smolensk, which was supposed to open the way to Moscow for enemy occupiers, lasted two months.
Having suffered huge losses, the Soviet defenders, however, knocked down the enemy’s arrogance and significantly exhausted him.
- Fights for Ukraine
The seizure of the largest industrial and agricultural Ukrainian region was one of the 
priority tasks of Hitler's army.
But here, too, the Fuhrer’s plans were disrupted. Fierce battles claimed hundreds of lives of the defenders of Ukraine.
But when they died, they took with them many fascists.
As a result, the allied forces were forced to retreat, pushed back by superior enemy troops.
But the forces of the occupiers were also significantly undermined.
- Leningrad blockade
On the approaches to Leningrad, the fascist army also encountered a completely unexpected obstacle. For about a month, despite all their efforts, they could not capture the city. Realizing the futility of their attempts, they decided to change tactics.
A long siege began, accompanied by almost continuous artillery strikes.
But the Nazis never had to march victoriously through the streets of Leningrad.
Steadfastly enduring all the hardships, the besieged continued to fight and did not surrender the city.
The powerful ring of the blockade was broken only after almost a year and a half, and was finally lifted another year later.
- Battle for the capital
After a long, grueling and bloody 4 months (instead of the planned few days), the German 
The invaders found themselves on the outskirts of Moscow. Fierce battles began to pave the way to this desired goal.
At the end of October, the capital goes into a state of siege. A number of institutions were evacuated, and many valuables were removed. The defenders prepared to defend the heart of the Motherland until their last breath, until the last drop of blood.
Having launched the second stage of the offensive in November, the Nazis realized within a few weeks that they did not have enough strength to carry out their plan, and began to retreat. The myth of the invincibility of Hitler's army was finally debunked.
- Crimean direction. Sevastopol
At the end of October of the first year of the war, battles for Sevastopol began. Unable to enter the city immediately, the invaders decided to lay siege to it. The siege lasted 9 months.
In May 1942, several units of the Wehrmacht army concentrated on the approaches to the Crimean Peninsula. Using aviation, they broke through the defenses of the Soviet troops, capturing Kerch, and then the entire peninsula.
After this, the defense of Sevastopol became even more difficult, and Soviet troops were forced to retreat.
- Stalingrad
Having decided to take revenge for the failure at the approaches to the capital, the German occupiers decided to isolate the south of the country, and 
cut it off from the central region and capture the largest water transport route - the Volga.
In order to prevent these plans from coming true, Soviet troops begin preparations for defense in the Stalingrad direction.
Two major operations, lasting a total of 125 days, resulted in the invading forces being encircled by Soviet troops.
As a result, almost one hundred thousand Germans were captured.
There were not much fewer people killed.
This was the most crushing defeat of the army of the Third Reich.
- Caucasian direction
For more than a year there were battles in the North Caucasus direction.
Those who retreated at first and left everything more cities enemy, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive at the beginning of 1943.
The time has come for the Nazis to retreat.
Despite losses and difficulties, units of the allied army pushed back the enemy until 10 months later they completed the liberation of the region.
- Fight for Kursk
Hitler's next aggressive plan to take over Kursk also ended in failure.
Within 
During the defensive-offensive operations, one of the largest tank battles in the history of this war took place on the outskirts of the city (the Battle of Prokhorovka).
Here the Germans used their new Tiger and Panther tanks, but thanks to the numerical superiority of both people and equipment, the Soviet troops were able to win.
As a result, having begun in July 1943 with a large-scale offensive by the invaders, the operation ended 10 months later with an equally large retreat.
This defeat accelerated the collapse of the Hitler coalition.
- Operation to liberate Smolensk
After a radical change, the army Soviet Union moved from defensive actions to active offensive.
One of the first offensive operations was the Smolensk campaign.
Carefully thought out, it consisted of three stages, the consistent and systematic implementation of which led to the liberation of the city and the advance of the Red Army several hundred kilometers to the west.
- Left Bank of Ukraine
The Nazis attached great importance to Donbass, and after Soviet troops went on the offensive, they all 
They tried to keep this city for themselves.
But, when the risk of a new encirclement and a repeat of the events at Stalingrad arose, German troops began to retreat.
At the same time, they tried to devastate the abandoned territories as much as possible. Destroying industrial enterprises and the entire infrastructure, they exterminated the population or drove it to Germany.
Only the too rapid advance of the Soviet army prevented them from completely destroying the region.
Donbas, Bransk, Sumy - cities one after another were liberated from the fascist yoke.
Having completely liberated left-bank Ukraine, formations of the USSR army reached the Dnieper.
- Crossing the Dnieper
Hitler was confident to the last that Soviet troops would not be able to cross the Dnieper.
However, here too he miscalculated.
Without allowing the German units to gain a thorough foothold on the opposite bank, the allied army began crossing the water barrier.
On September 21, under heavy Nazi fire, the forward troops crossed the river and entered into fierce battles, thereby allowing the remaining troops and equipment to pass the river barrier without hindrance.
The crossing continued for several days, and as a result, more than 2 thousand of its participants were awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
- Crimean liberation
From the beginning of April 1944, a number of Soviet military formations began the systematic implementation of a plan to 
liberation of Sevastopol and the entire Crimean peninsula.
Conquering one settlement after another, they moved towards their goal.
As a result of the assault, Sevastopol was liberated (May 9, 1944).
The Nazis tried to hide from the victors at Cape Chersonesus, but were completely defeated.
More than 20 thousand people, as well as hundreds of pieces of military equipment and weapons ended up in the hands of Soviet soldiers.
- Liberation of Europe
After the lifting of the Leningrad blockade and the widespread liberation of Russian territories from Nazi occupiers, the Soviet army continued its march through the territory of neighboring and then other foreign countries occupied by the Nazis.
Among the largest liberation offensive operations of military units of the Soviet Union are Minsk and Polotsk (carried out simultaneously), Vilnius, Narva, Yassy-Kishinev, East Carpathian, Baltic and others.
The East Prussian operation was of particular importance, since the territory of this country not only served as a springboard for an attack on the USSR, but also reliably blocked access to the center of Germany.
One of the main points that the Nazis held on to was Koenigsberg. It was considered the best German fortress and impregnable bastion.
But as a result of the three-day assault, both this stronghold and Hitler’s hope threw out the white flag.
- Final (Berlin) operation
The apogee of the entire offensive campaign of the Soviet army was the battle for Berlin, on which, in fact, it depended 
the final outcome of the war.
Fights were fought for every house, for every street, shots did not stop day or night, until the Nazis completely surrendered.
In the rear
The victory of the Soviet army in the Great Patriotic War would have been impossible without a reliable rear. “Everything for the front!” Millions lived with this idea Soviet people in regions not directly affected fighting.
One of the priority tasks from the first days of the war was the restructuring of everything National economy and industry to a new direction.
Many enterprises were hastily evacuated from hot combat spots to calmer areas of the country: Central Asia, Kazakhstan, the Urals and Western Siberia.
At the new location, the enterprises were quickly installed and began producing products for the front. Sometimes 
machines and machines began to work long before factory walls and roofs were erected around them. At the same time, new specialists from the local population were trained to operate the equipment.
Their husbands, fathers and brothers, going to the front, were replaced at the machines by their wives, sisters, and children.
12-13-year-old teenagers, who could not reach the working part of the equipment, made footrests for themselves and worked equally with adults. After intense shifts, many of them remained in the workshop and went to bed here, only to begin their next work shift again a few hours later.
During the war, most mechanical engineering enterprises produced different kinds weapons.
By the middle of the second year of the war, it was possible to completely adapt the economy to the realities of wartime. By this time, more than 1,000 evacuated enterprises had resumed their work in a new location. In addition, another 850 new facilities were created (factories, power plants, mines, etc.)
At the end of the second half of the year, the country produced 1.1 times more weapons than in the first half of the same year. The production of mortars increased 1.3 times, the production of mines and shells almost doubled, and the production of aircraft increased 1.6 times. Significant progress has also been made in tank assembly.
An equally important area of rear work was the preparation of reserves for the front. Therefore, from the first days in 
military training involved not only professional educational establishments, but also volunteer organizations that trained shooters, machine gunners and other specialists. At the same time, medical and sanitary personnel were trained.
The agricultural complex also faced a difficult task. Despite the reduction in the number of collective farms and the deterioration of their material and technical base, it was necessary to supply the population and the front with products, and industry with raw materials. At the cost of incredible efforts, agricultural areas were increased in areas remote from the front line. And here the women who replaced the men who had gone to war mastered new professions: combine operators, tractor drivers, drivers, etc. And together with their children, they worked without sleep or rest in the fields and farms to provide the front and industry with everything they needed.
Soldiers of the invisible front
Partisans made a great contribution to the common victory in the Great Patriotic War. These invisible fighters did not give the Nazis any sleep or rest, constantly carrying out sabotage activities in their rear.
At times, the population of entire villages joined the partisan detachments. Hiding in hard-to-reach forests and swamps, they constantly dealt significant blows to the invaders.
The partisans' weapons consisted, most often, of light rifles, grenades, and carbines. However, large groups sometimes even had mortars and artillery pieces. In general, the equipment depended on the region where the detachment was stationed and on its purpose.
Men, women, old people and children - all in the territory of the Union captured by the Nazi occupiers 
More than 6 thousand units operated. A total number partisans numbered 1 million people. As a result of the war, many of them were awarded various orders and medals, and 248 received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the Second World War, partisan detachments were not disparate, spontaneously created groups of dissatisfied people. On the contrary, they were part of one large, well-organized and well-functioning structure. It had its own command, it existed completely legally and was subordinate to the leadership of the country.
All activities of the movement were controlled by special bodies and were regulated by a number of legislative acts.
The main goals of the guerrilla war included causing the greatest damage to the military infrastructure of the Nazis, disrupting the frequency of food supplies, etc. - everything that could destabilize the work of the Nazi well-functioning system.
In addition to sabotage activities, the partisans also participated in reconnaissance operations. They made every effort and invented hundreds of ways to obtain papers and documents with the plans of the Wehrmacht leadership for the deployment of military operations.
At the same time, partisan formations carried out their subversive activities not only in the occupied territory of the Union, but also in Germany. All obtained documents were forwarded to headquarters so that the Soviet command was aware of when and where to expect an attack, and the troops could redeploy and prepare in a timely manner.
At the beginning of the war, the average size of a partisan detachment could be 10-15 people. Later this quantity 
increased to 100 or more. Sometimes several units were united into brigades. Therefore, if necessary, the partisans could take on open battle. Although very few such cases are known.
In addition, participants in the partisan movement carried out active propaganda and agitation activities among the population, especially those living under occupation. The country's leadership understood perfectly well that to win the war it was necessary for the population to unconditionally believe and trust the state. Members of the partisan detachments even tried to organize uprisings of the population against the hated fascist occupiers.
To be fair, it is worth noting that not all partisan formations supported Soviet power. There were also those who fought for the independence of their region from both the Nazis and the USSR.
The Great Patriotic War- the war of the USSR with Germany and its allies in – years and with Japan in 1945; component Second World War .
From the point of view of the leadership of Nazi Germany, war with the USSR was inevitable. The communist regime was seen by them as alien, and at the same time capable of striking at any moment. Only the rapid defeat of the USSR gave the Germans the opportunity to ensure dominance on the European continent. In addition, it gave them access to the rich industrial and agricultural regions of Eastern Europe.
At the same time, according to some historians, Stalin himself, at the end of 1939, decided on a preemptive attack on Germany in the summer of 1941. On June 15, Soviet troops began their strategic deployment and advance to the western border. According to one version, this was done with the aim of striking Romania and German-occupied Poland, according to another, to frighten Hitler and force him to abandon plans to attack the USSR.
First period of the war (June 22, 1941 – November 18, 1942)
The first stage of the German offensive (June 22 – July 10, 1941)
On June 22, the USSR carried out the mobilization of those liable for military service born in 1905–1918; from the first days of the war, a massive registration of volunteers began. On June 23, in the USSR, an emergency body of the highest military command, the Headquarters of the Main Command, was created to direct military operations, and maximum centralization of the military and political power in the hands of Stalin.
On June 22, British Prime Minister William Churchill made a radio statement about support for the USSR in its fight against Hitlerism. On June 23, the US State Department welcomed the efforts of the Soviet people to repel the German invasion, and on June 24, US President F. Roosevelt promised to provide the USSR with all possible assistance.
On July 18, the Soviet leadership decided to organize the partisan movement in the occupied and front-line areas, which became widespread in the second half of the year.
In the summer and autumn of 1941, about 10 million people were evacuated to the east. and more than 1350 large enterprises. The militarization of the economy began to be carried out with harsh and energetic measures; All the country's material resources were mobilized for military needs.
The main reason for the defeats of the Red Army, despite its quantitative and often qualitative (T-34 and KV tanks) technical superiority, was the poor training of privates and officers, the low level of operation of military equipment and the troops’ lack of experience in conducting large military operations in modern warfare. . Repressions against the high command in 1937–1940 also played a significant role.
Second stage of the German offensive (July 10 – September 30, 1941)
On July 10, Finnish troops launched an offensive and on September 1, the 23rd Soviet Army on the Karelian Isthmus retreated to the line of the old state border, occupied before the Finnish War of 1939–1940. By October 10, the front had stabilized along the line Kestenga - Ukhta - Rugozero - Medvezhyegorsk - Lake Onega. - R. Svir. The enemy was unable to cut off the communication routes between European Russia and the northern ports.
On July 10, Army Group North launched an offensive in the Leningrad and Tallinn directions. Novgorod fell on August 15, Gatchina on August 21. On August 30, the Germans reached the Neva, cutting off railway connection with the city, and on September 8 they took Shlisselburg and closed the blockade ring around Leningrad. Only the tough measures of the new commander of the Leningrad Front, G.K. Zhukov, made it possible to stop the enemy by September 26.
On July 16, the Romanian 4th Army took Chisinau; The defense of Odessa lasted about two months. Soviet troops left the city only in the first half of October. At the beginning of September, Guderian crossed the Desna and on September 7 captured Konotop (“Konotop breakthrough”). Five Soviet armies were surrounded; the number of prisoners was 665 thousand. Left Bank Ukraine was in the hands of the Germans; the path to Donbass was open; Soviet troops in Crimea found themselves cut off from the main forces.
Defeats on the fronts prompted Headquarters to issue order No. 270 on August 16, which qualified all soldiers and officers who surrendered as traitors and deserters; their families were deprived of state support and subject to exile.
Third stage of the German offensive (September 30 – December 5, 1941)
On September 30, Army Group Center launched an operation to capture Moscow (“Typhoon”). On October 3, Guderian's tanks broke into Oryol and reached the road to Moscow. On October 6–8, all three armies of the Bryansk Front were surrounded south of Bryansk, and the main forces of the Reserve (19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd armies) were surrounded west of Vyazma; the Germans captured 664 thousand prisoners and more than 1,200 tanks. But the advance of the 2nd Wehrmacht tank group to Tula was thwarted by the stubborn resistance of M.E. Katukov's brigade near Mtsensk; The 4th Tank Group occupied Yukhnov and rushed to Maloyaroslavets, but was delayed at Medyn by Podolsk cadets (6–10 October); The autumn thaw also slowed down the pace of the German advance.
On October 10, the Germans attacked the right wing of the Reserve Front (renamed the Western Front); On October 12, the 9th Army captured Staritsa, and on October 14, Rzhev. On October 19, a state of siege was declared in Moscow. On October 29, Guderian tried to take Tula, but was repulsed with heavy losses. In early November, the new commander of the Western Front, Zhukov, with an incredible effort of all his forces and constant counterattacks, managed, despite huge losses in manpower and equipment, to stop the Germans in other directions.
On September 27, the Germans broke through the defense line of the Southern Front. Most of Donbass fell into German hands. During the successful counter-offensive of the troops of the Southern Front on November 29, Rostov was liberated, and the Germans were driven back to the Mius River.
In the second half of October, the 11th German Army broke through into Crimea and by mid-November captured almost the entire peninsula. Soviet troops managed to hold only Sevastopol.
Counter-offensive of the Red Army near Moscow (December 5, 1941 – January 7, 1942)
On December 5–6, the Kalinin, Western and Southwestern fronts switched to offensive operations in the northwestern and southwestern directions. The successful advance of the Soviet troops forced Hitler on December 8 to issue a directive to go on the defensive along the entire front line. On December 18, the troops of the Western Front began an offensive in the central direction. As a result, by the beginning of the year the Germans were thrown back 100–250 km to the west. There was a threat of envelopment of Army Group Center from the north and south. The strategic initiative passed to the Red Army.
The success of the operation near Moscow prompted Headquarters to decide to launch a general offensive along the entire front from Lake Ladoga to the Crimea. The offensive operations of the Soviet troops in December 1941 - April 1942 led to a significant change in the military-strategic situation on the Soviet-German front: the Germans were driven back from Moscow, the Moscow, part of the Kalinin, Oryol and Smolensk regions were liberated. There was also a psychological turning point among soldiers and civilians: faith in victory strengthened, the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht was destroyed. The collapse of the plan for a lightning war raised doubts about the successful outcome of the war among both the German military-political leadership and ordinary Germans.
Lyuban operation (January 13 – June 25)
The Lyuban operation was aimed at breaking the blockade of Leningrad. On January 13, the forces of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts began an offensive in several directions, planning to unite at Lyuban and encircle the enemy’s Chudov group. On March 19, the Germans launched a counterattack, cutting off the 2nd Shock Army from the rest of the forces of the Volkhov Front. Soviet troops repeatedly tried to unblock it and resume the offensive. On May 21, Headquarters decided to withdraw it, but on June 6, the Germans completely closed the encirclement. On June 20, soldiers and officers received orders to leave the encirclement on their own, but only a few managed to do this (according to various estimates, from 6 to 16 thousand people); Army commander A.A. Vlasov surrendered.
Military operations in May-November 1942
Having defeated the Crimean Front (almost 200 thousand people were captured), the Germans occupied Kerch on May 16, and Sevastopol in early July. On May 12, troops of the Southwestern Front and Southern Front launched an attack on Kharkov. For several days it developed successfully, but on May 19 the Germans defeated the 9th Army, throwing it back beyond the Seversky Donets, went to the rear of the advancing Soviet troops and captured them in a pincer movement on May 23; the number of prisoners reached 240 thousand. On June 28–30, the German offensive began against the left wing of the Bryansk and the right wing of the Southwestern Front. On July 8, the Germans captured Voronezh and reached the Middle Don. By July 22, the 1st and 4th Tank Armies reached the Southern Don. On July 24, Rostov-on-Don was captured.
In the context of a military catastrophe in the south, on July 28, Stalin issued order No. 227 “Not a step back,” which provided for severe punishments for retreating without instructions from above, barrier detachments to combat those who left their positions without permission, and penal units for operations in the most dangerous sectors of the front. On the basis of this order, about 1 million military personnel were convicted during the war years, 160 thousand of them were shot, and 400 thousand were sent to penal companies.
On July 25, the Germans crossed the Don and rushed south. In mid-August, the Germans established control over almost all the passes of the central part of the Main Caucasus Range. In the Grozny direction, the Germans occupied Nalchik on October 29, they failed to take Ordzhonikidze and Grozny, and in mid-November their further advance was stopped.
On August 16, German troops launched an offensive towards Stalingrad. On September 13, fighting began in Stalingrad itself. In the second half of October - the first half of November, the Germans captured a significant part of the city, but were unable to break the resistance of the defenders.
By mid-November, the Germans had established control over the Right Bank of the Don and most of the North Caucasus, but did not achieve their strategic goals - to break through to the Volga region and Transcaucasia. This was prevented by counterattacks of the Red Army in other directions (Rzhev meat grinder, tank battle between Zubtsov and Karmanovo, etc.), which, although they were not successful, nevertheless did not allow the Wehrmacht command to transfer reserves to the south.
Second period of the war (November 19, 1942 – December 31, 1943): a radical turning point
Victory at Stalingrad (November 19, 1942 – February 2, 1943)
On November 19, units of the Southwestern Front broke through the defenses of the 3rd Romanian Army and on November 21 captured five Romanian divisions in a pincer movement (Operation Saturn). On November 23, units of the two fronts united at Sovetsky and surrounded the enemy’s Stalingrad group.
On December 16, troops of the Voronezh and Southwestern Fronts launched Operation Little Saturn in the Middle Don, defeated the 8th Italian Army, and on January 26, the 6th Army was cut into two parts. On January 31, the southern group led by F. Paulus capitulated, on February 2 – the northern; 91 thousand people were captured. The Battle of Stalingrad, despite the heavy losses of Soviet troops, was the beginning of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The Wehrmacht suffered a major defeat and lost its strategic initiative. Japan and Türkiye abandoned their intention to enter the war on the side of Germany.
Economic recovery and transition to the offensive in the central direction
By this time, a turning point had also occurred in the sphere of the Soviet military economy. Already in the winter of 1941/1942 it was possible to stop the decline in mechanical engineering. The rise of ferrous metallurgy began in March, and the energy and fuel industry began in the second half of 1942. By the beginning, the USSR had a clear economic superiority over Germany.
In November 1942 - January 1943, the Red Army went on the offensive in the central direction.
Operation Mars (Rzhevsko-Sychevskaya) was carried out with the aim of eliminating the Rzhevsko-Vyazma bridgehead. Formations of the Western Front made their way through the Rzhev-Sychevka railway and carried out a raid on enemy rear lines, but significant losses and a lack of tanks, guns and ammunition forced them to stop, but this operation did not allow the Germans to transfer part of their forces from the central direction to Stalingrad.
Liberation of the North Caucasus (January 1 – February 12, 1943)
On January 1–3, the operation to liberate the North Caucasus and the Don bend began. Mozdok was liberated on January 3, Kislovodsk, Mineralnye Vody, Essentuki and Pyatigorsk were liberated on January 10–11, Stavropol was liberated on January 21. On January 24, the Germans surrendered Armavir, and on January 30, Tikhoretsk. On February 4, the Black Sea Fleet landed troops in the Myskhako area south of Novorossiysk. On February 12, Krasnodar was captured. However, the lack of forces prevented Soviet troops from encircling the enemy’s North Caucasian group.
Breaking the siege of Leningrad (January 12–30, 1943)
Fearing encirclement of the main forces of Army Group Center on the Rzhev-Vyazma bridgehead, the German command began their systematic withdrawal on March 1. On March 2, units of the Kalinin and Western Fronts began pursuing the enemy. On March 3, Rzhev was liberated, on March 6, Gzhatsk, and on March 12, Vyazma.
The January-March 1943 campaign, despite a number of setbacks, led to the liberation of a vast territory (North Caucasus, lower reaches of the Don, Voroshilovgrad, Voronezh, Kursk regions, part of the Belgorod, Smolensk and Kalinin regions). The blockade of Leningrad was broken, the Demyansky and Rzhev-Vyazemsky ledges were eliminated. Control over the Volga and Don was restored. The Wehrmacht suffered huge losses (approx. 1.2 million people). The depletion of human resources forced the Nazi leadership to carry out a total mobilization of elders (over 46 years old) and younger ages(16–17 years old).
Since the winter of 1942/1943, the partisan movement in the German rear became an important military factor. The partisans caused serious damage to the German army, destroying manpower, blowing up warehouses and trains, and disrupting the communications system. The largest operations were raids by the M.I. detachment. Naumov in Kursk, Sumy, Poltava, Kirovograd, Odessa, Vinnitsa, Kyiv and Zhitomir (February-March 1943) and detachment S.A. Kovpak in the Rivne, Zhitomir and Kyiv regions (February-May 1943).
Defensive Battle of Kursk (July 5–23, 1943)
The Wehrmacht command developed Operation Citadel to encircle a strong group of the Red Army on the Kursk ledge through counter tank attacks from the north and south; If successful, it was planned to carry out Operation Panther to defeat the Southwestern Front. However, Soviet intelligence unraveled the Germans' plans, and in April-June a powerful defensive system of eight lines was created on the Kursk salient.
On July 5, the German 9th Army launched an attack on Kursk from the north, and the 4th Panzer Army from the south. On the northern flank, already on July 10, the Germans went on the defensive. On the southern wing, Wehrmacht tank columns reached Prokhorovka on July 12, but were stopped, and by July 23, the troops of the Voronezh and Steppe Front drove them back to their original lines. Operation Citadel failed.
The general offensive of the Red Army in the second half of 1943 (July 12 - December 24, 1943). Liberation of Left Bank Ukraine
On July 12, units of the Western and Bryansk fronts broke through the German defenses at Zhilkovo and Novosil, and by August 18, Soviet troops cleared the Oryol ledge of the enemy.
By September 22, units of the Southwestern Front pushed the Germans back beyond the Dnieper and reached the approaches to Dnepropetrovsk (now the Dnieper) and Zaporozhye; formations of the Southern Front occupied Taganrog, on September 8 Stalino (now Donetsk), on September 10 - Mariupol; The result of the operation was the liberation of Donbass.
On August 3, troops of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts broke through the defenses of Army Group South in several places and captured Belgorod on August 5. On August 23, Kharkov was captured.
On September 25, through flank attacks from the south and north, the troops of the Western Front captured Smolensk and by the beginning of October entered the territory of Belarus.
On August 26, the Central, Voronezh and Steppe Fronts began the Chernigov-Poltava operation. The troops of the Central Front broke through the enemy defenses south of Sevsk and occupied the city on August 27; On September 13, we reached the Dnieper on the Loev-Kyiv section. Units of the Voronezh Front reached the Dnieper in the Kyiv-Cherkassy section. Units of the Steppe Front approached the Dnieper in the Cherkassy-Verkhnedneprovsk section. As a result, the Germans lost almost all of Left Bank Ukraine. At the end of September, Soviet troops crossed the Dnieper in several places and captured 23 bridgeheads on its right bank.
On September 1, the troops of the Bryansk Front overcame the Wehrmacht Hagen defense line and occupied Bryansk; by October 3, the Red Army reached the line of the Sozh River in Eastern Belarus.
On September 9, the North Caucasus Front, in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Military Flotilla, launched an offensive on the Taman Peninsula. Having broken through the Blue Line, Soviet troops took Novorossiysk on September 16, and by October 9 they had completely cleared the peninsula of Germans.
On October 10, the Southwestern Front began an operation to liquidate the Zaporozhye bridgehead and captured Zaporozhye on October 14.
On October 11, the Voronezh (from October 20 - 1st Ukrainian) Front began the Kyiv operation. After two unsuccessful attempts to take the capital of Ukraine with an attack from the south (from the Bukrin bridgehead), it was decided to launch the main blow from the north (from the Lyutezh bridgehead). On November 1, in order to divert the enemy’s attention, the 27th and 40th armies moved towards Kyiv from the Bukrinsky bridgehead, and on November 3, the strike force of the 1st Ukrainian Front suddenly attacked it from the Lyutezhsky bridgehead and broke through the German defenses. On November 6, Kyiv was liberated.
On November 13, the Germans, having brought up reserves, launched a counter-offensive in the Zhitomir direction against the 1st Ukrainian Front in order to recapture Kyiv and restore defenses along the Dnieper. But the Red Army retained a vast strategic Kiev bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnieper.
During the period of hostilities from June 1 to December 31, the Wehrmacht suffered huge losses (1 million 413 thousand people), which it was no longer able to fully compensate. A significant part of the USSR territory occupied in 1941–1942 was liberated. The plans of the German command to gain a foothold on the Dnieper lines failed. Conditions were created for the expulsion of the Germans from Right Bank Ukraine.
Third period of the war (December 24, 1943 – May 11, 1945): defeat of Germany
After a series of failures throughout 1943, the German command abandoned attempts to seize the strategic initiative and switched to a tough defense. The main task of the Wehrmacht in the north was to prevent the Red Army from breaking through into the Baltic states and East Prussia, in the center to the border with Poland, and in the south to the Dniester and the Carpathians. The Soviet military leadership set the goal of the winter-spring campaign to defeat German troops on the extreme flanks - on the Right Bank of Ukraine and near Leningrad.
Liberation of Right Bank Ukraine and Crimea
On December 24, 1943, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched an offensive in the western and southwestern directions (Zhitomir-Berdichev operation). Only at the cost of great effort and significant losses did the Germans manage to stop the Soviet troops on the line Sarny - Polonnaya - Kazatin - Zhashkov. On January 5–6, units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front attacked in the Kirovograd direction and captured Kirovograd on January 8, but were forced to stop the offensive on January 10. The Germans did not allow the troops of both fronts to unite and were able to hold the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky ledge, which posed a threat to Kyiv from the south.
On January 24, the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts launched a joint operation to defeat the Korsun-Shevchenskovsky enemy group. On January 28, the 6th and 5th Guards Tank Armies united at Zvenigorodka and closed the encirclement ring. On January 30, Kanev was taken, on February 14, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky. On February 17, the liquidation of the “boiler” was completed; More than 18 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers were captured.
On January 27, units of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched an attack from the Sarn region in the Lutsk-Rivne direction. On January 30, the offensive of the troops of the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts began on the Nikopol bridgehead. Having overcome fierce enemy resistance, on February 8 they captured Nikopol, on February 22 - Krivoy Rog, and by February 29 they reached the river. Ingulets.
As a result of the winter campaign of 1943/1944, the Germans were finally driven back from the Dnieper. In an effort to make a strategic breakthrough to the borders of Romania and prevent the Wehrmacht from gaining a foothold on the Southern Bug, Dniester and Prut rivers, the Headquarters developed a plan to encircle and defeat Army Group South in Right Bank Ukraine through a coordinated attack by the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts .
The final chord of the spring operation in the south was the expulsion of the Germans from Crimea. On May 7–9, troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, supported by Black Sea Fleet They took Sevastopol by storm, and by May 12 they defeated the remnants of the 17th Army that fled to Chersonesus.
Leningrad-Novgorod operation of the Red Army (January 14 – March 1, 1944)
On January 14, troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts launched an offensive south of Leningrad and near Novgorod. After defeating the German 18th Army and pushing it back to Luga, they liberated Novgorod on January 20. In early February, units of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts reached the approaches to Narva, Gdov and Luga; On February 4 they took Gdov, on February 12 - Luga. The threat of encirclement forced the 18th Army to hastily retreat to the southwest. On February 17, the 2nd Baltic Front carried out a series of attacks against the 16th German Army on the Lovat River. At the beginning of March, the Red Army reached the Panther defensive line (Narva - Lake Peipus - Pskov - Ostrov); Most of the Leningrad and Kalinin regions were liberated.
Military operations in the central direction in December 1943 - April 1944
As the tasks of the winter offensive of the 1st Baltic, Western and Belorussian fronts, the Headquarters set the troops to reach the line Polotsk - Lepel - Mogilev - Ptich and the liberation of Eastern Belarus.
In December 1943 - February 1944, the 1st PribF made three attempts to capture Vitebsk, which did not lead to the capture of the city, but completely depleted the enemy forces. The offensive actions of the Polar Front in the Orsha direction on February 22–25 and March 5–9, 1944 were also unsuccessful.
In the Mozyr direction, the Belorussian Front (BelF) on January 8 dealt a strong blow to the flanks of the 2nd German Army, but thanks to a hasty retreat it managed to avoid encirclement. Lack of forces prevented Soviet troops from encircling and destroying the enemy’s Bobruisk group, and on February 26 the offensive was stopped. Formed on February 17 at the junction of the 1st Ukrainian and Belorussian (from February 24, 1st Belorussian) fronts, the 2nd Belorussian Front began the Polesie operation on March 15 with the goal of capturing Kovel and breaking through to Brest. Soviet troops surrounded Kovel, but on March 23 the Germans launched a counterattack and on April 4 released the Kovel group.
Thus, in the central direction during the winter-spring campaign of 1944, the Red Army was unable to achieve its goals; On April 15, she went on the defensive.
Offensive in Karelia (June 10 – August 9, 1944). Finland's withdrawal from the war
After the loss of most of the occupied territory of the USSR main task The Wehrmacht began to prevent the Red Army from entering Europe and not losing its allies. That is why the Soviet military-political leadership, having failed in attempts to reach a peace agreement with Finland in February-April 1944, decided to begin the summer campaign of the year with a strike in the north.
On June 10, 1944, LenF troops, with the support of the Baltic Fleet, launched an offensive on the Karelian Isthmus, as a result, control over the White Sea-Baltic Canal and the strategically important Kirov Railway connecting Murmansk with European Russia. By early August, Soviet troops had liberated all of the occupied territory east of Ladoga; in the Kuolisma area they reached the Finnish border. Having suffered defeat, Finland entered into negotiations with the USSR on August 25. On September 4, she broke off relations with Berlin and ceased hostilities, on September 15, she declared war on Germany, and on September 19, she concluded a truce with the countries anti-Hitler coalition. The length of the Soviet-German front was reduced by a third. This allowed the Red Army to free up significant forces for operations in other directions.
Liberation of Belarus (June 23 – early August 1944)
Successes in Karelia prompted the Headquarters to carry out a large-scale operation to defeat the enemy in the central direction with the forces of three Belarusian and 1st Baltic fronts (Operation Bagration), which became the main event of the summer-autumn campaign of 1944.
The general offensive of the Soviet troops began on June 23–24. A coordinated attack by the 1st PribF and the right wing of the 3rd BF ended on June 26–27 with the liberation of Vitebsk and the encirclement of five German divisions. On June 26, units of the 1st BF took Zhlobin, on June 27–29 they surrounded and destroyed the enemy’s Bobruisk group, and on June 29 they liberated Bobruisk. As a result of the rapid offensive of the three Belarusian fronts, the German command’s attempt to organize a defense line along the Berezina was thwarted; On July 3, troops of the 1st and 3rd BF broke into Minsk and captured the 4th German Army south of Borisov (liquidated by July 11).
The German front began to collapse. Units of the 1st PribF occupied Polotsk on July 4 and, moving down the Western Dvina, entered the territory of Latvia and Lithuania, reached the coast of the Gulf of Riga, cutting off Army Group North stationed in the Baltic States from the rest of the Wehrmacht forces. Units of the right wing of the 3rd BF, having taken Lepel on June 28, broke through into the valley of the river in early July. Viliya (Nyaris), on August 17 they reached the border of East Prussia.
The troops of the left wing of the 3rd BF, having made a rapid push from Minsk, took Lida on July 3, on July 16, together with the 2nd BF, they took Grodno and at the end of July approached the north-eastern protrusion of the Polish border. The 2nd BF, advancing to the southwest, captured Bialystok on July 27 and drove the Germans beyond the Narev River. Parts of the right wing of the 1st BF, having liberated Baranovichi on July 8, and Pinsk on July 14, at the end of July they reached the Western Bug and reached the central section of the Soviet-Polish border; On July 28, Brest was captured.
As a result of Operation Bagration, Belarus, most of Lithuania and part of Latvia were liberated. The possibility of an offensive in East Prussia and Poland opened up.
Liberation of Western Ukraine and the offensive in Eastern Poland (July 13 – August 29, 1944)
Trying to stop the advance of Soviet troops in Belarus, the Wehrmacht command was forced to transfer units there from other sectors of the Soviet-German front. This facilitated the operations of the Red Army in other directions. On July 13–14, the offensive of the 1st Ukrainian Front began in Western Ukraine. Already on July 17, they crossed the state border of the USSR and entered South-Eastern Poland.
On July 18, the left wing of the 1st BF launched an offensive near Kovel. At the end of July they approached Prague (the right bank suburb of Warsaw), which they managed to take only on September 14. At the beginning of August, German resistance increased sharply, and the advance of the Red Army was stopped. Because of this, the Soviet command was unable to provide the necessary assistance to the uprising that broke out on August 1 in the Polish capital under the leadership of the Home Army, and by the beginning of October it was brutally suppressed by the Wehrmacht.
Offensive in the Eastern Carpathians (September 8 – October 28, 1944)
After the occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1941, Metropolitan of Tallinn. Alexander (Paulus) announced the separation of Estonian parishes from the Russian Orthodox Church (the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church was created on the initiative of Alexander (Paulus) in 1923, in 1941 the bishop repented of the sin of schism). In October 1941, at the insistence of the German General Commissioner of Belarus, the Belarusian Church was created. However, Panteleimon (Rozhnovsky), who headed it in the rank of Metropolitan of Minsk and Belarus, maintained canonical communication with the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan. Sergius (Stragorodsky). After the forced retirement of Metropolitan Panteleimon in June 1942, his successor was Archbishop Philotheus (Narco), who also refused to arbitrarily proclaim a national autocephalous Church.
Considering the patriotic position of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan. Sergius (Stragorodsky), the German authorities initially prevented the activities of those priests and parishes that declared their affiliation with the Moscow Patriarchate. Over time, the German authorities began to be more tolerant of the communities of the Moscow Patriarchate. According to the occupiers, these communities only verbally declared their loyalty to the Moscow center, but in reality they were ready to assist the German army in the destruction of the atheistic Soviet state.
In the occupied territory, thousands of churches, churches, and houses of worship of various Protestant movements (primarily Lutherans and Pentecostals) resumed their activities. This process was especially active in the Baltic states, in the Vitebsk, Gomel, Mogilev regions of Belarus, in the Dnepropetrovsk, Zhitomir, Zaporozhye, Kyiv, Voroshilovgrad, Poltava regions of Ukraine, in the Rostov, Smolensk regions of the RSFSR.
The religious factor was taken into account when planning domestic policy in areas where Islam traditionally spread, primarily in the Crimea and the Caucasus. German propaganda declared respect for the values of Islam, presented the occupation as the liberation of peoples from the “Bolshevik godless yoke,” and guaranteed the creation of conditions for the revival of Islam. The occupiers willingly opened mosques in almost every settlement of the “Muslim regions” and provided the Muslim clergy with the opportunity to address believers through radio and print. Throughout the occupied territory where Muslims lived, the positions of mullahs and senior mullahs were restored, whose rights and privileges were equal to the heads of administrations of cities and towns.
When forming special units from among prisoners of war of the Red Army, much attention was paid to religious affiliation: if representatives of peoples who traditionally professed Christianity were mainly sent to the “army of General Vlasov”, then to such formations as the “Turkestan Legion”, “Idel-Ural” representatives of “Islamic” peoples.
The “liberalism” of the German authorities did not apply to all religions. Many communities found themselves on the verge of destruction, for example, in Dvinsk alone, almost all of the 35 synagogues operating before the war were destroyed, and up to 14 thousand Jews were shot. Most of the Evangelical Christian Baptist communities that found themselves in the occupied territory were also destroyed or dispersed by the authorities.
Forced to leave the occupied territories under the pressure of Soviet troops, the Nazi invaders took away liturgical objects, icons, paintings, books, and items made of precious metals from prayer buildings.
According to far incomplete data from the Emergency state commission to establish and investigate the atrocities of the Nazi invaders, 1,670 Orthodox churches, 69 chapels, 237 churches, 532 synagogues, 4 mosques and 254 other prayer buildings were completely destroyed, looted or desecrated in the occupied territory. Among those destroyed or desecrated by the Nazis were priceless monuments of history, culture and architecture, incl. dating back to the 11th-17th centuries, in Novgorod, Chernigov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Kyiv, Pskov. Many prayer buildings were converted by the occupiers into prisons, barracks, stables, and garages.
Position and patriotic activities of the Russian Orthodox Church during the war
June 22, 1941 Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan. Sergius (Stragorodsky) compiled the “Message to the Pastors and Flock of Christ’s Orthodox Church,” in which he revealed the anti-Christian essence of fascism and called on believers to defend themselves. In their letters to the Patriarchate, believers reported on the widespread voluntary collection of donations for the needs of the front and defense of the country.
After the death of Patriarch Sergius, according to his will, Metropolitan took over as locum tenens of the patriarchal throne. Alexy (Simansky), unanimously elected at the last meeting of the Local Council on January 31-February 2, 1945, Patriarch of Moscow and All Rus'. The Council was attended by Patriarchs of Alexandria Christopher II, Antioch Alexander III and Georgian Callistratus (Tsintsadze), representatives of the Constantinople, Jerusalem, Serbian and Romanian patriarchs.
In 1945, the so-called Estonian schism was overcome, and the Orthodox parishes and clergy of Estonia were accepted into communion with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patriotic activities of communities of other faiths and religions
Immediately after the start of the war, the leaders of almost all religious associations of the USSR supported the liberation struggle of the peoples of the country against the Nazi aggressor. Addressing believers with patriotic messages, they called upon them to honorably fulfill their religious and civil duty to protect the Fatherland, to provide all possible financial assistance the needs of the front and rear. The leaders of most religious associations of the USSR condemned those representatives of the clergy who deliberately went over to the side of the enemy and helped to impose a “new order” in the occupied territory.
The head of the Russian Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, Archbishop. Irinarch (Parfyonov), in his Christmas message of 1942, called on the Old Believers, a considerable number of whom fought on the fronts, to serve valiantly in the Red Army and resist the enemy in the occupied territory in the ranks of the partisans. In May 1942, the leaders of the Unions of Baptists and Evangelical Christians addressed a letter of appeal to believers; the appeal spoke of the danger of fascism “for the cause of the Gospel” and called on “brothers and sisters in Christ” to fulfill “their duty to God and to the Motherland” by being “the best warriors at the front and the best workers in the rear.” Baptist communities were engaged in sewing linen, collecting clothes and other things for soldiers and families of the dead, helped in caring for the wounded and sick in hospitals, and looked after orphans in orphanages. Using funds raised in Baptist communities, the Good Samaritan ambulance plane was built to transport seriously wounded soldiers to the rear. The leader of renovationism, A. I. Vvedensky, repeatedly made patriotic appeals.
In relation to a number of other religious associations, state policy during the war years remained invariably tough. First of all, this concerned “anti-state, anti-Soviet and fanatical sects,” which included the Doukhobors
- http://www.pravenc.ru/text/150063.html
“That longest day of the year, with its cloudless weather,
He gave us a common misfortune for all of us, for all four years.
She pressed such a trail and laid so many on the ground,
That for twenty years and thirty years you can’t believe that you’re alive....”
K. M. Simonov
On June 22, 1941, at 4 a.m., without a declaration of war, after artillery and air preparation, the main forces of the Wehrmacht and the troops of the German allies (about 190 divisions) suddenly launched a powerful offensive along the entire western border of the USSR from the Black Sea to the Baltic Sea.
Kyiv, Riga, Kaunas, Vindava, Libau, Siauliai, Vilnius, Minsk, Grodno, Brest, Baranovichi, Bobruisk, Zhitomir, Sevastopol and many other cities, railway junctions, airfields, and naval bases of the USSR were bombed. Artillery shelling of border fortifications and areas of deployment of Soviet troops near the border was carried out. At 5-6 o'clock in the morning Nazi troops crossed the state border of the USSR and launched an offensive deep into Soviet territory. Only an hour and a half after the start of the offensive, the German Ambassador to the Soviet Union, Count Werner von Schulenburg, made a statement declaring war on the USSR.
At 12 noon, all radio stations of the Soviet Union broadcast a government message about the attack on our country fascist Germany. In a statement with which on behalf of the Central Committee Communist Party and the Soviet government, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V. M. Molotov spoke, pointing out that the attack of Nazi Germany on the USSR was a treachery unparalleled in the history of civilized peoples.
Following the government message, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the mobilization of citizens liable for military service in 1905-1918 was transmitted. birth. On June 23, the Headquarters of the Main Command was created Armed Forces USSR (later Headquarters of the Supreme High Command) headed by the People's Commissar of Defense, Marshal of the Soviet Union S. K. Timoshenko.
In border battles and in the initial period of the war (until mid-July), the Red Army lost 850 thousand people killed and wounded; 9.5 thousand guns, over 6 thousand tanks, about 3.5 thousand aircraft were destroyed; About 1 million people were captured. German army occupied a significant part of the country, advanced inland to 300-600 km, losing 100 thousand people killed, almost 40% of tanks and 950 aircraft. However, the plan for a lightning war, during which the German command intended to capture the entire Soviet Union in a few months, failed.
On July 13, 1992, by resolution of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Russian Federation, the day of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War was declared the Day of Remembrance of Defenders of the Fatherland.
June 8, 1996 Russian President B.N. Yeltsin declared June 22 a Day of Memory and Sorrow. On this day, national flags are lowered throughout the country and entertainment events and programs are cancelled. The Day of Remembrance and Sorrow is also celebrated in Ukraine and Belarus, which were the first to take the blow of the Nazis, and in other CIS countries.
Lit.: 1941 - lessons and conclusions. M., 1992; The same [Electronic resource]. URL: http://militera.lib.ru/h/1941/index.html ; Anfilov V. A. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War (June 22 - mid-July 1941). Military historical essay. M., 1962; The same [Electronic resource]. URL : http://militera.lib.ru/research/anfilov/index.html; Halder F. War diary. Daily notes of the Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces 1939-1942. T. I. M., 1968. From the contents: June 22, 1941 (Sunday). 1st day of the war; The same [Electronic resource]. URL: http://militera.lib.ru/db/halder/1941_06.html ; Zhukov G.K. Memories and reflections. In 2 vols. T. 1. Ch. 10. The beginning of the war. M., 2002; The same [Electronic resource]. URL: http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/zhukov1/10.html ;Note from the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs dated June 21, 1941 [Electronic resource] // Winners - Soldiers of the Great War. 2005-2018. URL:
A few minutes later, Hitler's hordes invaded the USSR. Simultaneously with the invasion of ground forces, hundreds of enemy aircraft began to bomb airfields, naval bases, communication centers and lines, railway stations, military camps and other military installations. Many Soviet cities were subjected to massive air raids: Libau, Riga, Kaunas, Minsk, Smolensk, Kyiv, Zhitomir, Sevastopol, etc. Enemy aircraft operated in the entire western border strip - from the Gulf of Finland to the Black Sea. First of all, it sought to destroy the fighter aircraft of the border military districts at the airfields. As a result of sudden air strikes, the enemy managed to knock out a significant part of the fighter aircraft, mainly new designs, which greatly facilitated the fight for fascist German aviation for air supremacy.
Thus, Hitler’s Germany, treacherously violating the non-aggression pact concluded in 1939, suddenly attacked our Motherland. Together with her, military operations against Soviet army started the armed forces of Finland, Romania, Italy, Slovakia, Finland, Spain, Bulgaria and Hungary. The predatory attack of Hitlerite Germany on the USSR became a fait accompli. However, those people who were not directly exposed to the first blows of the enemy and did not receive combat orders from higher headquarters did not yet believe that the war had begun. And it is no coincidence that, having received the first reports from border posts about an enemy invasion, some commanders gave instructions to the troops not to cross the border and not to open fire on enemy aircraft. But this did not last long. Soviet troops began to rapidly advance to the border to meet the invading enemy. Soon, together with the border guards, they entered into battle with the enemy.
The fighting on the ground and in the air became extremely intense. Fierce and bloody battles unfolded along the entire front. Despite the incredibly difficult situation in which we had to fight Soviet soldiers, officers and generals from the very first hours of the war, they showed great courage and mass heroism.
The military-political goals of the Soviet Union in the war with Nazi Germany were defined in the directive of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks dated June 29, 1941. The goal of the Great Patriotic War against the fascist invaders was not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our country, but also assistance to all the peoples of Europe groaning under the yoke of German imperialism.
The situation for the Soviet Army in the first days of the war was difficult. Due to the delay in taking measures to bring the troops of the border military districts into combat readiness, our formations were not deployed in a timely manner to repel the aggressor's attack, they entered the battle separately, in parts, and as a result often suffered failures. Advancing along various routes to the front line and meeting the enemy, they fought against him in separate areas. Therefore, the defensive actions of the Soviet troops were of a focal nature. Since there was no continuous front, enemy formations, especially tank units, had the opportunity to strike on the flanks and from the rear. Under these conditions, Soviet troops had to fight surrounded and retreat to the rear lines.
The enemy occupied a significant part of the country, advanced up to 300-600 km, losing 100 thousand people killed, almost 40% of tanks and 950 aircraft. Our losses were even more horrific. Border battles and the initial period of the war (until mid-July) generally led to the defeat of the Red Army. She lost 850 thousand people killed and wounded, 9.5 thousand guns, St. 6 thousand tanks, approx. 3.5 thousand aircraft; approx. captured. 1 million people. On June 23, the Headquarters of the High Command was created (from August 8 - the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command). All power was concentrated in the one created on June 30 State Committee Defense (GKO). On August 8, J.V. Stalin became the Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The main military events of the summer-autumn campaign of 1941 were the Battle of Smolensk, the defense of Leningrad and the beginning of its blockade, the military disaster of Soviet troops in Ukraine, the defense of Odessa, the beginning of the defense of Sevastopol, the loss of Donbass, the defensive period of the Battle of Moscow. The Red Army retreated 850-1200 km, but the enemy was stopped in the main directions near Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov and went on the defensive. The winter campaign of 1941-42 began with a counter-offensive of Soviet troops in the western strategic direction. During it, a counteroffensive near Moscow, the Lyuban, Rzhevsko-Vyazemskaya, Barvenkovsko-Lozovskaya and Kerch-Feodosia landing operations were carried out. Soviet troops removed the threat to Moscow and the North. Caucasus, eased the situation in Leningrad, completely or partially liberated the territory of 10 regions, as well as St. 60 cities. The blitzkrieg strategy collapsed. It was destroyed approx. 50 enemy divisions.
The enemy established an occupation regime on the occupied territory of the USSR. The territories of the Byelorussian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Estonian SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, and 13 regions of the RSFSR were subject to German occupation. Moldova and some areas of the south of the Ukrainian SSR (Transnistria) were included in Romania, part of the Karelo-Finnish SSR was occupied by Finnish troops.
More than ten million Soviet citizens became victims of the occupiers.
As the Russian historian G. A. Bordyugov points out, in the affairs of the Extraordinary State Commission “to establish and investigate the atrocities of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices” (June 1941 - December 1944), 54,784 acts of atrocities against civilians in the occupied Soviet Union were recorded. territories. Among them are crimes such as “the use of civilians during hostilities, the forced mobilization of civilians, the shooting of civilians and the destruction of their homes, rape, the hunt for people - slaves for German industry.”
In the summer-autumn campaign of 1942, Soviet troops had an unrealistic task: to completely defeat the enemy and liberate the entire territory of the country. The main military events unfolded in the southwestern direction: the defeat of the Crimean Front, the military disaster of Soviet troops in the Kharkov operation, the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad, Donbass, Stalingrad defensive operations, battle in the North. Caucasus. In the northwestern direction, the Red Army carried out the Demyansk and Rzhev-Sychevsk offensive operations. The enemy advanced 500-650 km, reached the Volga, and captured part of the passes of the Main Caucasus Range. The territory was occupied, where before the war 42% of the population lived, 1/3 of the gross output was produced, and more than 45% of the sown areas were located. The economy was put on a war footing. A large number of enterprises were relocated to the eastern regions of the country (2,593 in the second half of 1941 alone, including 1,523 large ones), and 2.3 million heads of livestock were exported. In the first half of 1942, 10 thousand aircraft, 11 thousand tanks, approx. 54 thousand guns. In the 2nd half of the year their output increased by more than 1.5 times. Soviet-British agreement of July 12, 1941, Moscow Conference of representatives of the USSR, USA and Great Britain (September 29 - October 1, 1941), Declaration of 26 states of January 1, 1942 on the military alliance of countries that fought against fascism, Soviet-American agreement of June 11, 1942 formed the core of the anti-Hitler coalition.
In the winter campaign of 1942-43, the main military events were the Stalingrad and North Caucasus offensive operations and the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad. The Red Army advanced 600-700 km westward, liberating the territory of St. 480 km2, defeated 100 divisions (40% of the enemy forces on the Soviet-German front). Favorable conditions were created to complete the Allied offensive in the North. Africa, Sicily and South. Italy. In the summer-autumn campaign of 1943, the decisive event was the Battle of Kursk. The partisans played an important role (Operation Rail War). During the battle for the Dnieper, 38 thousand settlements were liberated, including 160 cities; With the capture of strategic bridgeheads on the Dnieper, conditions were created for an offensive in Belarus. In the Battle of the Dnieper, the partisans carried out Operation Concert to destroy enemy communications. The Smolensk and Bryansk offensive operations were carried out in other directions. The Red Army fought up to 500-1300 km and defeated 218 divisions. An important stage in the development of international and inter-allied relations became the Tehran Conference (November 28 - December 1, 1943). 
During the winter campaign of 1943-44, the Red Army carried out an offensive in Ukraine (10 simultaneous and sequential front-line operations united by a common plan), completed the defeat of Army Group South, reached the border with Romania and transferred hostilities to its territory.
Almost simultaneously, the Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation unfolded; Leningrad was finally released. As a result of the Crimean operation, Crimea was liberated. Soviet troops advanced 250-450 km westward and liberated approx. 300 thousand km2 of territory reached the state border with Czechoslovakia. In June 1944, the Allies opened the 2nd Front in France, which worsened the military-political situation in Germany. During the summer-autumn campaign of 1944, Soviet troops carried out the Belarusian, Lvov-Sandomierz, East Carpathian, Iasi-Kishinev, Baltic, Debrecen, East Carpathian, Belgrade, partially Budapest and Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive operations. The liberation of Belarus, Ukraine and the Baltic states (except for some regions of Latvia), partially of Czechoslovakia was completed, Romania and Hungary were forced to capitulate and entered the war against Germany, the Soviet Arctic and the northern regions of Norway were liberated from the occupiers. On February 4-11, 1945, the Crimean Conference of the leaders of the USSR, Great Britain and the USA took place in Yalta.
The 1945 campaign in Europe included the East Prussian, Vistula-Oder, completion of Budapest, East Pomeranian, Lower Silesian, Upper Silesian, Western Carpathian, Vienna and Berlin operations, which ended with the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany. After Berlin operation Soviet troops, together with the 2nd Army of the Polish Army, the 1st and 4th Romanian Armies and the 1st Czechoslovak Corps, carried out the Prague operation. On June 24, the Victory Parade took place in Moscow. At the Berlin Conference of the leaders of the three great powers, which took place in July-August, an agreement was reached on issues of post-war peace in Europe. On August 9, 1945, the USSR, fulfilling its allied obligations, began military operations against Japan.
During the Manchurian operation, Soviet troops defeated the Kwantung Army and liberated South. Sakhalin and Kuril Islands. On September 2, 1945, Japan signed the unconditional surrender. On the Soviet-German front, 607 enemy divisions were defeated and captured, and 75% of their military equipment was destroyed. According to various sources, Wehrmacht losses ranged from 6 million to 13.7 million people. The USSR lost approx. 27 million people, including 11.3 million people at the front, 4-5 million partisans, many people died in the occupied territory and in the rear of the country. There were approx. in fascist captivity. 6 million people. Material damage amounted to 679 billion rubles. In a difficult bloody war Soviet people made a decisive contribution to the liberation of the peoples of Europe from the fascist yoke. Victory Day (May 9) is celebrated annually as a national holiday and a day of remembrance for those killed.
Bordyugov G. A. The Wehrmacht and the Red Army: on the question of the nature of crimes against the civilian population. Report at the International Scientific Conference “The Experience of World Wars in the History of Russia”, September 11, 2005, Chelyabinsk.
Anfilov V.A. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War (June 22 - mid-July 1941). Military historical essay. - M.: Voenizdat, 1962.
http://cccp.narod.ru/work/enciklop/vov_01.html.
We have collected for you the most best stories about the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Stories from the first person, not made up, living memories of front-line soldiers and witnesses of the war.
A story about the war from the book of priest Alexander Dyachenko “Overcoming”
I was not always old and frail, I lived in a Belarusian village, I had a family, a very good husband. But the Germans came, my husband, like other men, joined the partisans, he was their commander. We women supported our men in any way we could. The Germans became aware of this. They arrived in the village early in the morning. They kicked everyone out of their houses and drove them like cattle to the station in a neighboring town. The carriages were already waiting for us there. People were packed into the heated vehicles so that we could only stand. We drove with stops for two days, they gave us no water or food. When we were finally unloaded from the carriages, some were no longer able to move. Then the guards began throwing them to the ground and finishing them off with the butts of their carbines. And then they showed us the direction to the gate and said: “Run.” As soon as we had run half the distance, the dogs were released. The strongest reached the gate. Then the dogs were driven away, everyone who remained was lined up in a column and led through the gate, on which it was written in German: “To each his own.” Since then, boy, I can't look at tall chimneys.
She exposed her arm and showed me a tattoo of a row of numbers on the inside of her arm, closer to the elbow. I knew it was a tattoo, my dad had a tank tattooed on his chest because he is a tanker, but why put numbers on it?
I remember that she also talked about how our tankers liberated them and how lucky she was to live to see this day. She didn’t tell me anything about the camp itself and what was happening in it; she probably pitied my childish head.
I learned about Auschwitz only later. I found out and understood why my neighbor couldn’t look at the pipes of our boiler room.
During the war, my father also ended up in occupied territory. They got it from the Germans, oh, how they got it. And when ours drove a little, they, realizing that the grown-up boys were tomorrow’s soldiers, decided to shoot them. They gathered everyone and took them to the log, and then our airplane saw a crowd of people and started a line nearby. The Germans are on the ground, and the boys are scattered. My dad was lucky, he escaped with a shot in his hand, but he escaped. Not everyone was lucky then.
My father was a tank driver in Germany. Their tank brigade distinguished herself near Berlin on the Seelow Heights. I've seen photos of these guys. Young people, and all their chests are in orders, several people - . Many, like my dad, were drafted into the active army from occupied lands, and many had something to take revenge on the Germans for. That may be why they fought so desperately and bravely.
They walked across Europe, liberated concentration camp prisoners and beat the enemy, finishing them off mercilessly. “We were eager to go to Germany itself, we dreamed of how we would smear it with the caterpillar tracks of our tanks. We had a special unit, even the uniform was black. We still laughed, as if they wouldn’t confuse us with the SS men.”
Immediately after the end of the war, my father’s brigade was stationed in one of the small German towns. Or rather, in the ruins that remained of it. They somehow settled down in the basements of the buildings, but there was no room for a dining room. And the brigade commander, a young colonel, ordered the tables to be knocked down from shields and a temporary canteen to be set up right in the town square.
“And here is our first peaceful dinner. Field kitchens, cooks, everything is as usual, but the soldiers do not sit on the ground or on a tank, but, as expected, at tables. We had just started having lunch, and suddenly German children began crawling out of all these ruins, basements, and crevices like cockroaches. Some are standing, but others can no longer stand from hunger. They stand and look at us like dogs. And I don’t know how it happened, but I took the bread with my shot hand and put it in my pocket, I looked quietly, and all our guys, without raising their eyes to each other, did the same.”
And then they fed the German children, gave away everything that could somehow be hidden from dinner, just yesterday’s children themselves, who very recently, without flinching, were raped, burned, shot by the fathers of these German children on our land they had captured.
The brigade commander, Hero of the Soviet Union, a Jew by nationality, whose parents, like all other Jews of a small Belarusian town, were buried alive by punitive forces, had every right, both moral and military, to drive away the German “geeks” from his tank crews with volleys. They ate his soldiers, reduced their combat effectiveness, many of these children were also sick and could spread the infection among the personnel.
But the colonel, instead of shooting, ordered an increase in the food consumption rate. And German children, on the orders of the Jew, were fed along with his soldiers.
What kind of phenomenon do you think this is - the Russian Soldier? Where does this mercy come from? Why didn't they take revenge? It seems beyond anyone’s strength to find out that all your relatives were buried alive, perhaps by the fathers of these same children, to see concentration camps with many bodies of tortured people. And instead of “taking it easy” on the children and wives of the enemy, they, on the contrary, saved them, fed them, and treated them.
Several years have passed since the events described, and my dad, having graduated military school in the fifties, took place again military service in Germany, but already as an officer. Once on the street of one city a young German called out to him. He ran up to my father, grabbed his hand and asked:
Don't you recognize me? Yes, of course, now it’s hard to recognize that hungry, ragged boy in me. But I remember you, how you fed us then among the ruins. Believe me, we will never forget this.
This is how we made friends in the West, by force of arms and the all-conquering power of Christian love.
Alive. We'll endure it. We will win.
THE TRUTH ABOUT WAR
It should be noted that not everyone was convincingly impressed by V. M. Molotov’s speech on the first day of the war, and the final phrase caused irony among some soldiers. When we, doctors, asked them how things were at the front, and we lived only for this, we often heard the answer: “We are scuttling. Victory is ours... that is, the Germans!”
I can’t say that J.V. Stalin’s speech had a positive effect on everyone, although most of them felt warm from it. But in the darkness of a long line for water in the basement of the house where the Yakovlevs lived, I once heard: “Here! They became brothers and sisters! I forgot how I went to jail for being late. The rat squeaked when the tail was pressed!” The people were silent at the same time. I have heard similar statements more than once.
Two other factors contributed to the rise of patriotism. Firstly, these are the atrocities of the fascists on our territory. Newspaper reports that in Katyn near Smolensk the Germans shot tens of thousands of Poles we had captured, and that it was not us during the retreat, as the Germans assured, that were perceived without malice. Anything could have happened. “We couldn’t leave them to the Germans,” some reasoned. But the population could not forgive the murder of our people.
In February 1942, my senior operating nurse A.P. Pavlova received a letter from the liberated banks of Seliger, which told how, after the explosion of a hand fan in the German headquarters hut, they hanged almost all the men, including Pavlova’s brother. They hung him on a birch tree near his native hut, and he hung for almost two months in front of his wife and three children. The mood of the entire hospital from this news became menacing for the Germans: both the staff and the wounded soldiers loved Pavlova... I ensured that the original letter was read in all the wards, and Pavlova’s face, yellowed from tears, was in the dressing room before everyone’s eyes...
The second thing that made everyone happy was the reconciliation with the church. The Orthodox Church showed true patriotism in its preparations for the war, and it was appreciated. Government awards showered on the patriarch and clergy. These funds were used to create air squadrons and tank divisions with the names "Alexander Nevsky" and "Dmitry Donskoy". They showed a film where a priest with the chairman of the district executive committee, a partisan, destroys atrocious fascists. The film ended with the old bell ringer climbing the bell tower and ringing the alarm, crossing himself widely before doing so. It sounded directly: “Fall yourself with the sign of the cross, Russian people!” The wounded spectators and the staff had tears in their eyes when the lights came on.
On the contrary, the huge money contributed by the chairman of the collective farm, it seems, Ferapont Golovaty, caused evil smiles. “Look how I stole from the hungry collective farmers,” said the wounded peasants.
The activities of the fifth column, that is, internal enemies, also caused enormous indignation among the population. I myself saw how many of them there were: German planes were even signaled from the windows with multi-colored flares. In November 1941, at the Neurosurgical Institute hospital, they signaled from the window in Morse code. The doctor on duty, Malm, a completely drunken and declassed man, said that the alarm was coming from the window of the operating room where my wife was on duty. The head of the hospital, Bondarchuk, said at the morning five-minute meeting that he vouched for Kudrina, and two days later the signalmen were taken, and Malm himself disappeared forever.
My violin teacher Yu. A. Aleksandrov, a communist, although a secretly religious, consumptive man, worked as the fire chief of the House of the Red Army on the corner of Liteiny and Kirovskaya. He was chasing the rocket launcher, obviously an employee of the House of the Red Army, but could not see him in the darkness and did not catch up, but he threw the rocket launcher at Alexandrov’s feet.
Life at the institute gradually improved. The central heating began to work better, the electric light became almost constant, and water appeared in the water supply. We went to the movies. Films such as “Two Fighters”, “Once Upon a Time There Was a Girl” and others were watched with undisguised feeling.
For “Two Fighters,” the nurse was able to get tickets to the “October” cinema for a show later than we expected. Arriving at the next show, we learned that a shell hit the courtyard of this cinema, where visitors to the previous show were being released, and many were killed and wounded.
The summer of 1942 passed through the hearts of ordinary people very sadly. The encirclement and defeat of our troops near Kharkov, which greatly increased the number of our prisoners in Germany, brought great despondency to everyone. The new German offensive to the Volga, to Stalingrad, was very difficult for everyone. The mortality rate of the population, especially increased in the spring months, despite some improvement in nutrition, as a result of dystrophy, as well as the death of people from air bombs and artillery shelling, was felt by everyone.
My wife’s food cards and hers were stolen in mid-May, which made us very hungry again. And we had to prepare for winter.
We not only cultivated and planted vegetable gardens in Rybatskoe and Murzinka, but received a fair strip of land in the garden near the Winter Palace, which was given to our hospital. It was excellent land. Other Leningraders cultivated other gardens, squares, and the Field of Mars. We even planted about two dozen potato eyes with an adjacent piece of husk, as well as cabbage, rutabaga, carrots, onion seedlings, and especially a lot of turnips. They planted them wherever there was a piece of land.
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The wife, fearing a lack of protein food, collected slugs from vegetables and pickled them in two large jars. However, they were not useful, and in the spring of 1943 they were thrown away.
The ensuing winter of 1942/43 was mild. Transport no longer stopped; all wooden houses on the outskirts of Leningrad, including houses in Murzinka, were demolished for fuel and stocked up for the winter. There was electric light in the rooms. Soon the scientists were given special letter rations. As a candidate of science, I was given a group B ration. It included monthly 2 kg of sugar, 2 kg of cereal, 2 kg of meat, 2 kg of flour, 0.5 kg of butter and 10 packs of Belomorkanal cigarettes. It was luxurious and it saved us.
My fainting stopped. I even easily stayed on duty all night with my wife, guarding the vegetable garden near the Winter Palace in turns, three times during the summer. However, despite the security, every single head of cabbage was stolen.
Art was of great importance. We began to read more, go to the cinema more often, watch film programs in the hospital, go to amateur concerts and artists who came to us. Once my wife and I were at a concert of D. Oistrakh and L. Oborin who came to Leningrad. When D. Oistrakh played and L. Oborin accompanied, it was a little cold in the hall. Suddenly a voice said quietly: “Air raid, air alert! Those who wish can go down to the bomb shelter!” In the crowded hall, no one moved, Oistrakh smiled gratefully and understandingly at us all with one eye and continued to play, without stumbling for a moment. Although the explosions shook my legs and I could hear their sounds and the barking of anti-aircraft guns, the music absorbed everything. Since then, these two musicians have become my biggest favorites and fighting friends without knowing each other.
By the autumn of 1942, Leningrad was greatly deserted, which also facilitated its supply. By the time the blockade began, up to 7 million cards were issued in a city overcrowded with refugees. In the spring of 1942, only 900 thousand were issued.
Many were evacuated, including part of the 2nd Medical Institute. The rest of the universities have all left. But they still believe that about two million were able to leave Leningrad along the Road of Life. So about four million died (According to official data, about 600 thousand people died in besieged Leningrad, according to others - about 1 million. - ed.) a figure significantly higher than the official one. Not all the dead ended up in the cemetery. The huge ditch between the Saratov colony and the forest leading to Koltushi and Vsevolozhskaya took in hundreds of thousands of dead people and was razed to the ground. Now there is a suburban vegetable garden there, and there are no traces left. But the rustling tops and cheerful voices of those harvesting the harvest are no less happiness for the dead than the mournful music of the Piskarevsky cemetery.
A little about children. Their fate was terrible. They gave almost nothing on children's cards. I remember two cases especially vividly.
During the harshest part of the winter of 1941/42, I walked from Bekhterevka to Pestel Street to my hospital. My swollen legs almost couldn’t walk, my head was spinning, each careful step pursued one goal: to move forward without falling. On Staronevsky I wanted to go to a bakery to buy two of our cards and warm up at least a little. The frost penetrated to the bones. I stood in line and noticed that a boy of seven or eight years old was standing near the counter. He bent down and seemed to shrink all over. Suddenly he snatched a piece of bread from the woman who had just received it, fell, huddled in a ball with his back up, like a hedgehog, and began greedily tearing the bread with his teeth. The woman who had lost her bread screamed wildly: probably a hungry family was impatiently waiting for her at home. The queue got mixed up. Many rushed to beat and trample the boy, who continued to eat, his quilted jacket and hat protecting him. "Man! If only you could help,” someone shouted to me, obviously because I was the only man in the bakery. I started shaking and felt very dizzy. “You are beasts, beasts,” I wheezed and, staggering, went out into the cold. I couldn't save the child. A slight push would have been enough, and the angry people would certainly have mistaken me for an accomplice, and I would have fallen.
Yes, I'm a layman. I didn't rush to save this boy. “Don’t turn into a werewolf, a beast,” our beloved Olga Berggolts wrote these days. Wonderful woman! She helped many to endure the blockade and preserved the necessary humanity in us.
On their behalf I will send a telegram abroad:
“Alive. We'll endure it. We will win."
But my unwillingness to share the fate of a beaten child forever remained a notch on my conscience...
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The second incident happened later. We had just received, but for the second time, a standard ration and my wife and I carried it along Liteiny, heading home. The snowdrifts were quite high in the second winter of the blockade. Almost opposite the house of N.A. Nekrasov, from where he admired the front entrance, clinging to the lattice immersed in the snow, a child of four or five years old was walking. He moved his legs with difficulty, his huge eyes on his withered old face peered with horror at the world. His legs were tangled. Tamara pulled out a large, double piece of sugar and handed it to him. At first he didn’t understand and shrank all over, and then suddenly grabbed this sugar with a jerk, pressed it to his chest and froze with fear that everything that had happened was either a dream or not true... We moved on. Well, what more could the barely wandering ordinary people do?
BREAKING THE BLOCKADE
All Leningraders talked every day about breaking the blockade, about the upcoming victory, peaceful life and restoration of the country, the second front, that is, about the active inclusion of the allies in the war. However, there was little hope for allies. “The plan has already been drawn up, but there are no Roosevelts,” the Leningraders joked. They also remembered the Indian wisdom: “I have three friends: the first is my friend, the second is the friend of my friend and the third is the enemy of my enemy.” Everyone believed that the third degree of friendship was the only thing that united us with our allies. (This is how it turned out, by the way: the second front appeared only when it became clear that we could liberate all of Europe alone.)
Rarely did anyone talk about other outcomes. There were people who believed that Leningrad should become a free city after the war. But everyone immediately cut them off, remembering “Window to Europe”, and “The Bronze Horseman”, and the historical significance for Russia of access to the Baltic Sea. But they talked about breaking the blockade every day and everywhere: at work, on duty on the roofs, when they were “fighting off airplanes with shovels,” extinguishing lighters, while eating meager food, going to bed in a cold bed, and during unwise self-care in those days. We waited and hoped. Long and hard. They talked about Fedyuninsky and his mustache, then about Kulik, then about Meretskov.
The draft commissions took almost everyone to the front. I was sent there from the hospital. I remember that I gave liberation to only the two-armed man, being surprised at the wonderful prosthetics that hid his handicap. “Don’t be afraid, take those with stomach ulcers or tuberculosis. After all, they will all have to be at the front for no more than a week. If they don’t kill them, they will wound them, and they will end up in the hospital,” the military commissar of the Dzerzhinsky district told us.
And indeed, the war involved a lot of blood. When trying to get in touch with the mainland, piles of bodies were left under Krasny Bor, especially along the embankments. “Nevsky Piglet” and Sinyavinsky swamps never left the lips. Leningraders fought furiously. Everyone knew that behind his back his own family was dying of hunger. But all attempts to break the blockade did not lead to success; only our hospitals were filled with the crippled and dying.
With horror we learned about the death of an entire army and Vlasov’s betrayal. I had to believe this. After all, when they read to us about Pavlov and other executed generals of the Western Front, no one believed that they were traitors and “enemies of the people,” as we were convinced of this. They remembered that the same was said about Yakir, Tukhachevsky, Uborevich, even about Blucher.
The summer campaign of 1942 began, as I wrote, extremely unsuccessfully and depressingly, but already in the fall they began to talk a lot about our tenacity at Stalingrad. The fighting dragged on, winter was approaching, and in it we relied on our Russian strength and Russian endurance. The good news about the counteroffensive at Stalingrad, the encirclement of Paulus with his 6th Army, and Manstein’s failures in trying to break through this encirclement gave the Leningraders new hope on New Year’s Eve 1943.
I met New Year My wife and I together, having returned around 11 o’clock to the closet where we lived at the hospital, from a round of evacuation hospitals. There was a glass of diluted alcohol, two slices of lard, a 200 gram piece of bread and hot tea with a lump of sugar! A whole feast!
Events were not long in coming. Almost all of the wounded were discharged: some were commissioned, some were sent to convalescent battalions, some were taken to Mainland. But we didn’t wander around the empty hospital for long after the bustle of unloading it. Fresh wounded came in a stream straight from the positions, dirty, often bandaged in individual bags over their overcoats, and bleeding. We were a medical battalion, a field hospital, and a front-line hospital. Some went to the triage, others went to the operating tables for continuous operation. There was no time to eat, and there was no time to eat.
This was not the first time such streams came to us, but this one was too painful and tiring. All the time, a difficult combination of physical work with mental, moral human experiences with the precision of the dry work of a surgeon was required.
On the third day, the men could no longer stand it. They were given 100 grams of diluted alcohol and sent to sleep for three hours, although the emergency room was filled with wounded people in need of urgent operations. Otherwise, they began to operate poorly, half asleep. Well done women! Not only did they endure the hardships of the siege many times better than men, they died much less often from dystrophy, but they also worked without complaining of fatigue and accurately fulfilled their duties.
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In our operating room, operations were performed on three tables: at each table there was a doctor and a nurse, and on all three tables there was another nurse, replacing the operating room. Staff operating room and dressing nurses, every one of them, assisted in the operations. The habit of working many nights in a row in Bekhterevka, the hospital named after. On October 25, she helped me out in the ambulance. I passed this test, I can proudly say, as a woman.
On the night of January 18, they brought us a wounded woman. On this day, her husband was killed, and she was seriously wounded in the brain, in the left temporal lobe. A fragment with fragments of bones penetrated into the depths, completely paralyzing both of her right limbs and depriving her of the ability to speak, but while maintaining the understanding of someone else's speech. Women fighters came to us, but not often. I took her to my table, laid her on her right, paralyzed side, numbed her skin and very successfully removed the metal fragment and bone fragments embedded in the brain. “My dear,” I said, finishing the operation and preparing for the next one, “everything will be fine. I took out the fragment, and your speech will return, and the paralysis will completely disappear. You will make a full recovery!”
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Suddenly my wounded one with her free hand lying on top began to beckon me to her. I knew that she would not start talking any time soon, and I thought that she would whisper something to me, although it seemed incredible. And suddenly the wounded woman, with her healthy naked but strong hand of a fighter, grabbed my neck, pressed my face to her lips and kissed me deeply. I couldn't stand it. I didn’t sleep for four days, barely ate, and only occasionally, holding a cigarette with a forceps, smoked. Everything went hazy in my head, and, like a man possessed, I ran out into the corridor to come to my senses at least for one minute. After all, there is a terrible injustice in the fact that women, who continue the family line and soften the morals of humanity, are also killed. And at that moment our loudspeaker spoke, announcing the breaking of the blockade and the connection of the Leningrad Front with the Volkhov Front.
It was deep night, but what started here! I stood bleeding after the operation, completely stunned by what I had experienced and heard, and nurses, nurses, soldiers were running towards me... Some with their arm on an “airplane”, that is, on a splint that abducts the bent arm, some on crutches, some still bleeding through a recently applied bandage . And then the endless kisses began. Everyone kissed me, despite my frightening appearance from the spilled blood. And I stood there, missing 15 minutes of precious time for operating on other wounded in need, enduring these countless hugs and kisses.
A story about the Great Patriotic War by a front-line soldier
1 year ago on this day, a war began that divided the history of not only our country, but the whole world into before And after. The story is told by Mark Pavlovich Ivanikhin, a participant in the Great Patriotic War, Chairman of the Council of War Veterans, Labor Veterans, Armed Forces and Law Enforcement Agencies of the Eastern Administrative District.
- This is the day when our lives were cut in half. It was a nice, bright Sunday, and suddenly they announced war, the first bombings. Everyone understood that they would have to endure a lot, 280 divisions went to our country. I have a military family, my father was a lieutenant colonel. A car immediately came for him, he took his “alarm” suitcase (this is a suitcase in which the most necessary things were always ready), and we went to the school together, me as a cadet, and my father as a teacher.
Immediately everything changed, it became clear to everyone that this war would last for a long time. Alarming news plunged us into another life; they said that the Germans were constantly moving forward. This day was clear and sunny, and in the evening mobilization had already begun.
These are my memories as an 18-year-old boy. My father was 43 years old, he worked as a senior teacher at the first Moscow Artillery School named after Krasin, where I also studied. This was the first school that graduated officers who fought on Katyushas into the war. I fought on Katyushas throughout the war.
“Young, inexperienced guys walked under bullets. Was it certain death?
“We still knew a lot.” Back in school, we all had to pass the standard for the GTO badge (ready for work and defense). They trained almost like in the army: they had to run, crawl, swim, and also learned how to bandage wounds, apply splints for fractures, and so on. At least we were a little ready to defend our Motherland.
I fought at the front from October 6, 1941 to April 1945. I took part in the battles for Stalingrad, and from Kursk Arc through Ukraine and Poland reached Berlin.
War is a terrible experience. It is a constant death that is near you and threatens you. Shells are exploding at your feet, enemy tanks are coming at you, flocks of German planes are aiming at you from above, artillery is firing. It seems like the earth turns into a small place where you have nowhere to go.
I was a commander, I had 60 people subordinate to me. We must answer for all these people. And, despite the planes and tanks that are looking for your death, you need to control yourself and the soldiers, sergeants and officers. This is difficult to do.
I can’t forget the Majdanek concentration camp. We liberated this death camp and saw emaciated people: skin and bones. And I especially remember the children with their hands cut open; their blood was taken all the time. We saw bags of human scalps. We saw torture and experiment chambers. To be honest, this caused hatred towards the enemy.
I also remember that we entered a recaptured village, saw a church, and the Germans had set up a stable in it. I had soldiers from all the cities of the Soviet Union, even from Siberia; many had fathers who died in the war. And these guys said: “We’ll get to Germany, we’ll kill the Kraut families, and we’ll burn their houses.” And so we entered the first German city, the soldiers burst into the house of a German pilot, saw Frau and four small children. Do you think someone touched them? None of the soldiers did anything bad to them. Russian people are quick-witted.
All the German cities we passed through remained intact, with the exception of Berlin, where there was strong resistance.
I have four orders. Order of Alexander Nevsky, which he received for Berlin; Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree, two Orders of the Patriotic War, 2nd degree. Also a medal for military merit, a medal for the victory over Germany, for the defense of Moscow, for the defense of Stalingrad, for the liberation of Warsaw and for the capture of Berlin. These are the main medals, and there are about fifty of them in total. All of us who survived the war years want one thing - peace. And so that the people who won are valuable.
Photo by Yulia Makoveychuk
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