What was an important event in 1943 The Great Patriotic War

January 1 - January 3 - The transition of the Northern Group of the Transcaucasian Front to the offensive against the 1st German Panzer Army.
January 1 - February 4 - North Caucasian offensive operation of the troops of the Southern and Transcaucasian (North Caucasian) fronts.
January - May - Defeat of the German Army Group "A". The liberation by Soviet troops of most of the North Caucasus. Withdrawal of the 17th German Army to the Taman Peninsula.
January 6 - Introduction of shoulder straps for the army.
January 10 - February 2 - The offensive of the troops of the Don Front in order to eliminate the German troops surrounded near Stalingrad (Operation "Ring").
January 12 - January 30 - Offensive operation of the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts in cooperation with the Baltic Fleet (Operation Iskra). Breaking the blockade of Leningrad.
January 13 Law on "total mobilization" in Germany.
January 13 - January 27 - Ostrogozhsk-Rossosh offensive operation of the Voronezh Front.
January 14-24 Conference of the heads of government of the United States and Great Britain in Casablanca (Morocco).
January 18 Breaking the blockade of Leningrad.
January 24 - February 17 - Voronezh-Kastornenskaya offensive operation of the Voronezh and Bryansk fronts.
January 25 - The troops of the Voronezh Front liberated Voronezh.
January 26 - The uniting of the troops of the 21st and 62nd armies of the Don Front in Stalingrad near Mamaev Kurgan and the division of the encircled German group into two parts.
January 29 - February 18 - Voroshilovgrad offensive operation of the troops of the South-Western and Southern fronts.

January 31 - April 5 - Raid of the partisan cavalry formation of M.I. Naumov through the territory of Kursk, Sumy, Poltava, Kirovograd, Odessa, Vinnitsa, Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions.
January 31 - The surrender of the southern group of German troops led by Field Marshal Paulus in Stalingrad.
February 2 - Surrender of German troops in the northern part of Stalingrad.
February 2 - March 6 - Offensive operations of the troops of the Voronezh and the left wing of the Bryansk (then Central) fronts in the Kursk-Ryl and Kharkov-Poltava directions.
February 2 - May 25 - S.A. Kovpak's unit raid through the Rivne, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions.
February 4 - April 6 - Novorossiysk landing operation of the Black Sea Group of Forces of the North Caucasian Front together with the Black Sea Fleet.
February 4 - Capture by the Soviet troops of the bridgehead in the area of Myskhako (south of Novorossiysk).
February 8 - The troops of the Voronezh Front liberated Kursk. Establishment of the Order of Kutuzov III degree.
February 9 - March 16 - Krasnodar offensive operation of the troops of the North Caucasian Front.
February 9 American troops captured the island of Guadalcanal.

February 11 Decree of the State Defense Committee on the establishment of Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences, headed by Academician I.V. Kurchatov for the development of atomic weapons.
February 12 - March 21 - Offensive operations of the Bryansk, Central and left wing of the Western fronts in the Oryol-Bryansk direction.
February 15 - Introduction of shoulder straps for the personnel of the Navy.
February 15 - February 28 - Elimination of the Demyansky bridgehead by the troops of the North-Western Front.
February 19 - March 23 - Soviet troops repulse the counteroffensive of the Army Group "South" in the Donbass and the Kharkov region.
March 2-31 - Rzhev-Vyazemskaya offensive operation of the troops of the Western and Kalinin fronts.
March 3 - The troops of the Western Front liberated Rzhev.

March 4-19 - Offensive operations of the troops of the North-Western Front in the area of Staraya Russa.
March 8 - The first battle of the 1st separate Czechoslovak battalion with German troops near Sokolovo (Kharkov region).
March 12 - The troops of the Western Front liberated Vyazma.
March 21 - May 13 Allied offensive in Tunisia.
April 1 - The French squadron "Normandy" first entered combat as part of the 1st Air Army of the Western Front.
April 4 - June 7 - Offensive operations of the troops of the North Caucasian Front in the Krasnodar-Taman direction.
April 17 - June 7 - Air battles in the Kuban.
On April 25, the Soviet Union broke off diplomatic relations with the Polish government in exile in London.
April 29 - Beginning of the formation of the 1st separate Czechoslovak infantry brigade on the territory of the USSR.
May 6 - Beginning of the formation of the 1st Polish Infantry Division named after Todeusz Kosciuszko on the territory of the USSR.
May 12-15 Second Washington Conference of US and British Heads of Government. (Conference "Trident").
May 13 Surrender of the Italo-German troops in North Africa.
May 15 Self-dissolution of the Communist International.
May 27 Formation of the National Council of the Resistance in France.
May - June - Fights of Soviet partisans based in the Bryansk forests, with a large punitive expedition of the enemy.
June 3 Establishment of the French National Liberation Committee in Algiers.
June 8-10 - Operations of the Soviet Air Force to destroy enemy aircraft at airfields.
July 5 - August 23 - Battle of Kursk.
July 5-15 - Defensive operation of the troops of the Central Front in the Oryol-Kursk direction.
July 5-23 - Defensive operation of the troops of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts in the Belgorod-Kursk direction.
July 12 - August 23 - The counteroffensive of the Soviet troops on the Kursk Bulge.

July 10 Landing of Anglo-American troops in Sicily.
July 12 - Counter tank battle near Prokhorovka.
July 12 - August 18 - Oryol operation of the troops of the left wing of the Western, Bryansk and Central fronts.
July 22 - August 4 - Mginsk operation of the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts.
July 25 - The fall of the Mussolini regime.
August 3-23 - Belgorod-Kharkov operation of the troops of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts.
August 3 - September 15 - The first stage of the operation of the Soviet partisans to destroy the enemy's railway communications ("Rail War").
August 5 - Liberation of Orel and Belgorod. The first artillery salute was given in Moscow.
August 7 - October 2 - Smolensk operation of the Kalinin and Western fronts.
August 13 - September 22 - Donbass operation of the troops of the South-Western and Southern fronts.
August 17-24 First Quebec Conference of US and British Heads of Government.
August Japan declared the "independence" of Burma.
August 23 - The troops of the Steppe Front, with the assistance of the troops of the Voronezh and South-Western fronts, liberated Kharkov.
August 26 - October 1 - Chernigov-Pripyat operation of the troops of the Central Front.
August 26 - December 22 - Battle for the Dnieper.

September 1 - October 3 - Bryansk operation of the Bryansk Front.
September 2 - Troops of the Voronezh Front liberated Sumy.
September 3 - The beginning of the landing of allied troops in the south of the Apennine Peninsula.
September 8 - The troops of the Southern Front liberated Stalino (Donetsk). Capitulation of Italy. Occupation by German troops of Northern and Central Italy.
September 9-16 - Novorossiysk operation of the troops of the North Caucasian Front and the Black Sea Fleet.
September 9 - October 9 - Novorossiysk-Taman operation of the troops of the North Caucasian Front and the Black Sea Fleet.
On September 9, the Italian fleet surrendered to the Allies. German troops occupied Northern and Central Italy.
September 9 Establishment of the Committee of National Liberation in Italy.
September 16 - Troops of the North Caucasian Front, together with the Black Sea Fleet, liberated Novorossiysk.
September 17 - Troops of the Bryansk Front liberated Bryansk.
September 19 - October 31 - The second stage of the operation of the Soviet partisans to destroy railway communications ("Concert").

September 21 - Introduction of epaulettes for the Suvorovites.
September 21-22 - Exit of the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts to the Dnieper.
September 22-30 - Forcing troops of the Central, Voronezh, South-Western and Steppe fronts of the Dnieper and seizing bridgeheads on its right bank.
September 23 - The troops of the Steppe Front liberated Poltava.
September 25 - Troops of the Western Front liberated Smolensk.
September 26 - Troops of the Bryansk Front liberated Khotimsk. The beginning of the liberation of Belarus.
September 26 - November 5 - Melitopol operation of the troops of the Southern Front.
September 29 - The troops of the Steppe Front liberated Kremenchug.
October 4 - Beginning of the formation of the 1st Romanian Volunteer Division named after Tudor Vladimirescu.
October 6-11 - Nevelsk operation of the troops of the Kalinin Front.
October 9 - Complete liberation of the Taman Peninsula. Completion of the Battle for the Caucasus.
October 10 - Establishment of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky I, II and III degrees.
October 10-14 - Troops of the Southwestern Front eliminated the German bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper and liberated Zaporozhye.
October 12 - Battle of the 1st Polish division named after Todeusz Kosciuszko near Lenino as part of the 33rd Army of the Western Front.
On October 13, the Italian government of Badoglio declared war on Germany. The United States, USSR and Great Britain recognized Italy as a joint belligerent.
October 19-30 Moscow Conference of Foreign Ministers of the USSR, USA and Great Britain.
October 23 - Troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front liberated Melitopol.
October 25 - Troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts liberated Dnepropetrovsk and Dneprodzerzhinsk.
October 26 - The introduction of shoulder straps for Nakhimov.
October 31 - Troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front reached Sivash and Perekop.
October 31 - December 11 - Kerch-Eltigen landing operation of the troops of the North Caucasian Front, the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Flotilla.
November 3-13 - Kyiv offensive operation of the 1st Ukrainian Front.
November 6 - Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated Kyiv.
November 10-30 - Gomel-Rechitsa operation of the troops of the Belorussian Front.
November 13 - December 22 - Kyiv defensive operation of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front.
November 22-26 Cairo Conference of the Heads of Government of the USA, Great Britain and China.
November 26 - Troops of the Belorussian Front liberated Gomel.
November 28 - December 1 - Tehran Conference of the Heads of Government of the USSR, USA and Great Britain.
November 29 Formation of the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia.
December 12 Soviet-Czechoslovak Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Post-War Cooperation.
December 13-31 - Gorodok operation of the troops of the 1st Baltic Front.
December 14 - Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front liberated Cherkassy.

The Great Patriotic War began on June 22, 1941, on the day of All Saints who shone in the Russian land. The Barbarossa plan - a plan for a lightning war with the USSR - was signed by Hitler on December 18, 1940. Now it has been put into action. German troops - the strongest army in the world - advanced in three groups ("North", "Center", "South"), aimed at quickly capturing the Baltic states and then Leningrad, Moscow, and Kyiv in the south.

Start

June 22, 1941 at 3:30 am - German air raids on the cities of Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states.

June 22, 1941 4:00 am - the start of the German offensive. 153 German divisions, 3712 tanks and 4950 combat aircraft entered the fighting (such data are given by Marshal G.K. Zhukov in his book "Memoirs and Reflections"). The enemy forces were several times superior to the forces of the Red Army, both in numbers and in equipment with military equipment.

On June 22, 1941, at 5:30 am, Reich Minister Goebbels, in a special broadcast on the Great German Radio, read out Adolf Hitler's appeal to the German people in connection with the outbreak of war against the Soviet Union.

On June 22, 1941, the Primate of the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Metropolitan Sergius, addresses the faithful with an appeal. In his "Message to the Shepherds and Flocks of Christ's Orthodox Church," Metropolitan Sergius said: "The fascist robbers attacked our Motherland... The times of Batu, the German knights, Charles of Sweden, Napoleon are repeated... The miserable descendants of the enemies of Orthodox Christianity want to once again try to put the people our knees before the untruth... With God's help, and this time, he will dispel the fascist enemy force into dust... Let us remember the holy leaders of the Russian people, for example, Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, who believed their souls for the people and the Motherland... Let us remember the innumerable thousands of simple Orthodox warriors... Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. Together with him, she bore the trials and consoled herself with his successes. She will not leave her people even now. She blesses with a heavenly blessing and the forthcoming nationwide feat. If anyone, then it is we who need to remember the commandment of Christ: “There is no greater love than if a man lays down his life for his friends” (John 15:13)...”

Patriarch Alexander III of Alexandria addressed a message to Christians all over the world about prayerful and material assistance to Russia.

Brest Fortress, Minsk, Smolensk

June 22 - July 20, 1941. Defense of the Brest Fortress. The first Soviet strategic border point located in the direction of the main attack of Army Group Center (to Minsk and Moscow) was Brest and the Brest Fortress, which the German command planned to capture in the first hours of the war.

By the time of the attack, there were from 7 to 8 thousand Soviet soldiers in the fortress, 300 families of military personnel lived here. From the first minutes of the war, Brest and the fortress were subjected to massive bombardments from the air and artillery fire, heavy fighting unfolded on the border, in the city and fortress. The fully equipped German 45th Infantry Division (about 17 thousand soldiers and officers) stormed the Brest Fortress, which delivered frontal and flank attacks in cooperation with part of the forces of the 31st Infantry Division, the 34th Infantry and the rest of the 31st Infantry Division acted on the flanks of the main forces. -th infantry divisions of the 12th army corps of the 4th German army, as well as 2 tank divisions of the 2nd tank group of Guderian, with the active support of aviation and reinforcement units that were armed with heavy artillery systems. The Nazis systematically attacked the fortress for a whole week. Soviet soldiers had to fight off 6-8 attacks a day. By the end of June, the enemy captured most of the fortress, on June 29 and 30 the Nazis launched a continuous two-day assault on the fortress using powerful (500 and 1800-kilogram) bombs. As a result of bloody battles and losses incurred, the defense of the fortress broke up into a number of isolated pockets of resistance. Being in complete isolation hundreds of kilometers from the front line, the defenders of the fortress continued to bravely fight the enemy.

July 9, 1941 - the enemy occupied Minsk. The forces were too unequal. The Soviet troops were in dire need of ammunition, and there was not enough transport or fuel to bring them up, besides, part of the warehouses had to be blown up, the rest were captured by the enemy. The enemy stubbornly rushed to Minsk from the north and south. Our troops were surrounded. Deprived of centralized control and supply, they, however, fought until July 8.

July 10 - September 10, 1941 Smolensk battle. On July 10, Army Group Center launched an offensive against the Western Front. The Germans had a twofold superiority in manpower and fourfold in tanks. The enemy's plan was to cut our western front with powerful strike groups, encircle the main group of troops in the Smolensk region and open the way to Moscow. The battle of Smolensk began on July 10 and dragged on for two months - a period that the German command did not count on at all. Despite all efforts, the troops of the Western Front were unable to complete the task of defeating the enemy in the Smolensk region. During the fighting near Smolensk, the Western Front suffered serious losses. By the beginning of August, no more than 1-2 thousand people remained in his divisions. However, the fierce resistance of the Soviet troops near Smolensk weakened the offensive power of Army Group Center. The enemy strike groupings were exhausted and suffered significant losses. According to the Germans themselves, by the end of August, only the motorized and tank divisions had lost half of their personnel and materiel, and the total losses amounted to about 500 thousand people. The main result of the Smolensk battle was the disruption of the Wehrmacht's plans for a non-stop advance towards Moscow. For the first time since the beginning of World War II, German troops were forced to go on the defensive in their main direction, as a result of which the Red Army command gained time to improve the strategic defense in the Moscow direction and prepare reserves.

August 8, 1941 - Stalin appointed as Supreme Commander Armed Forces of the USSR.

Defense of Ukraine

The capture of Ukraine was of great importance for the Germans, who sought to deprive the Soviet Union of its largest industrial and agricultural base, to seize Donetsk coal and Krivoy Rog ore. From a strategic point of view, the capture of Ukraine provided support from the south to the central grouping of German troops, which faced the main task - the capture of Moscow.

But the lightning-fast capture that Hitler planned did not work out here either. Retreating under the blows of the German troops, the Red Army courageously and fiercely resisted, despite the heaviest losses. By the end of August, the troops of the Southwestern and Southern Fronts withdrew beyond the Dnieper. Once surrounded, the Soviet troops suffered huge losses.

Atlantic charter. Allied Powers

On August 14, 1941, US President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill adopted a declaration aboard the British battleship Prince of Wales in Argentia Bay (Newfoundland), which outlined the goals of the war against the fascist states. On September 24, 1941, the Soviet Union joined the Atlantic Charter.

Leningrad blockade

On August 21, 1941, defensive battles began on the near approaches to Leningrad. In September, fierce fighting continued in the immediate vicinity of the city. But the German troops could not overcome the resistance of the defenders of the city and take Leningrad. Then the German command decided to starve the city out. Having captured Shlisselburg on September 8, the enemy went to Lake Ladoga and blockaded Leningrad from land. German troops encircled the city in a dense ring, cutting it off from the rest of the country. The connection of Leningrad with the "mainland" was carried out only by air and through Lake Ladoga. And with artillery strikes and bombing, the Nazis sought to destroy the city.

From September 8, 1941 (the day of the celebration in honor of the Presentation of the Vladimir Icon of the Mother of God) until January 27, 1944 (the day of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina) continued Leningrad blockade. The most difficult for Leningraders was the winter of 1941/42. Fuel supplies have run out. The power supply to residential buildings was interrupted. The water supply failed, 78 km of the sewer network was destroyed. Utilities have stopped working. Food supplies were running out, since November 20, the lowest norms of bread for the entire time of the blockade were introduced - 250 grams for workers and 125 grams for employees and dependents. But even in the most difficult conditions of the blockade, Leningrad continued to fight. With the beginning of freeze-up, a motor road was laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga. Since January 24, 1942, it was possible to slightly increase the norms for supplying the population with bread. To supply the Leningrad Front and the city with fuel between the eastern and western shores of the Shlisselburg Bay of Lake Ladoga, an underwater pipeline was laid, which went into operation on June 18, 1942 and turned out to be practically invulnerable to the enemy. And in the fall of 1942, a power cable was also laid along the bottom of the lake, through which electricity began to flow into the city. Repeated attempts were made to break through the blockade ring. But it was only in January 1943 that they succeeded. As a result of the offensive, our troops occupied Shlisselburg and a number of other settlements. On January 18, 1943, the blockade was broken. A corridor 8-11 km wide was formed between Lake Ladoga and the front line. The blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted on January 27, 1944, on the day of St. Nina Equal to the Apostles.

During the blockade, 10 Orthodox churches operated in the city. Metropolitan of Leningrad Alexy (Simansky), the future Patriarch Alexy I, did not leave the city during the blockade, sharing its hardships with his flock. With the miraculous Kazan icon of the Most Holy Theotokos, a procession was made around the city. The Reverend Elder Seraphim Vyritsky took upon himself a special feat of prayer - he prayed at night on a stone in the garden for the salvation of Russia, imitating the feat of his heavenly patron, the Monk Seraphim of Sarov.

By the autumn of 1941, the leadership of the USSR turned off anti-religious propaganda. The publication of the magazines "Godless" and "Anti-religious" was discontinued.

Battle for Moscow

From October 13, 1941, fierce battles broke out in all operationally important areas leading to Moscow.

On October 20, 1941, a state of siege was introduced in Moscow and its surrounding areas. A decision was made to evacuate the diplomatic corps and a number of central institutions to Kuibyshev. It was also decided to remove especially important state values from the capital. Muscovites formed 12 divisions of the people's militia.

In Moscow, a prayer service was performed in front of the miraculous Kazan Icon of the Mother of God, and with the icon they flew around Moscow on an airplane.

The second stage of the attack on Moscow, called "Typhoon", the German command began on November 15, 1941. The fights were very hard. The enemy, regardless of losses, sought to break through to Moscow at any cost. But already in the first days of December it was felt that the enemy was running out of steam. Due to the resistance of the Soviet troops, the Germans had to stretch their troops along the front to such an extent that in the final battles on the near approaches to Moscow they lost their penetration ability. Even before the start of our counterattack near Moscow, the German command decided to retreat. This order was issued on the night when the Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive.

On December 6, 1941, on the day of the holy noble prince Alexander Nevsky, a counteroffensive of our troops near Moscow began. Hitler's armies suffered heavy losses and retreated to the west, putting up fierce resistance. The counter-offensive of the Soviet troops near Moscow ended on January 7, 1942, on the feast of the Nativity of Christ. The Lord helped our soldiers. Unprecedented frosts broke out near Moscow, which also helped stop the Germans. And according to the testimonies of German prisoners of war, many of them saw St. Nicholas walking ahead of the Russian troops.

Under pressure from Stalin, it was decided to launch a general offensive on the entire front. But far from all areas had the strength and means for this. Therefore, only the advance of the troops of the North-Western Front was successful, they advanced 70-100 kilometers and somewhat improved the operational-strategic situation in the western direction. Starting on January 7, the offensive continued until early April 1942. Then it was decided to go on the defensive.

The chief of the general staff of the Wehrmacht ground forces, General F. Halder, wrote in his diary: “The myth of the invincibility of the German army has been broken. With the onset of summer, the German army will achieve new victories in Russia, but this will not restore the myth of its invincibility. Therefore, on December 6, 1941, you can considered a turning point, and one of the most fatal moments in the short history of the Third Reich. The strength and power of Hitler reached its zenith, from that moment they began to decline ... ".

Declaration of the United Nations

In January 1942, a declaration of 26 countries was signed in Washington (later known as the "Declaration of the United Nations"), in which they agreed to use all forces and means to fight against aggressive states and not conclude a separate peace or truce with them. An agreement was reached with Great Britain and the United States on the opening of a second front in Europe in 1942.

Crimean front. Sevastopol. Voronezh

On May 8, 1942, the enemy, having concentrated his strike force against the Crimean Front and brought into action numerous aircraft, broke through our defenses. Soviet troops, finding themselves in a difficult situation, were forced to leave Kerch. By May 25, the Nazis captured the entire Kerch Peninsula.

October 30, 1941 - July 4, 1942 Defense of Sevastopol. The siege of the city lasted nine months, but after the capture of the Kerch Peninsula by the Nazis, the situation of Sevastopol became very difficult and on July 4, the Soviet troops were forced to leave Sevastopol. Crimea was completely lost.

June 28, 1942 - July 24, 1942 Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad operation. - combat operations of the troops of the Bryansk, Voronezh, South-Western and Southern Fronts against the German Army Group "South" in the region of Voronezh and Voroshilovgrad. As a result of the forced withdrawal of our troops, the richest regions of the Don and Donbass fell into the hands of the enemy. During the retreat, the Southern Front suffered irreparable losses, only a little more than a hundred people remained in its four armies. During the retreat from Kharkov, the troops of the Southwestern Front suffered heavy losses and could not successfully hold back the enemy's advance. The southern front, for the same reason, could not stop the Germans in the Caucasian direction. It was necessary to block the path of the German troops to the Volga. For this purpose, the Stalingrad Front was created.

Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943)

According to the plan of the Nazi command, the German troops were to achieve in the summer campaign of 1942 those goals that were thwarted by their defeat in Moscow. The main blow was supposed to be delivered on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front in order to capture the city of Stalingrad, access to the oil-bearing regions of the Caucasus and the fertile regions of the Don, Kuban and Lower Volga. With the fall of Stalingrad, the enemy got the opportunity to cut off the south of the country from the center. We could lose the Volga - the most important transport artery, along which goods from the Caucasus went.

The defensive actions of the Soviet troops in the Stalingrad direction were carried out for 125 days. During this period, they carried out two consecutive defensive operations. The first of them was carried out on the outskirts of Stalingrad from July 17 to September 12, the second - in Stalingrad and to the south of it from September 13 to November 18, 1942. The heroic defense of the Soviet troops in the Stalingrad direction forced the Nazi high command to transfer more and more forces here. On September 13, the Germans went on the offensive along the entire front, trying to capture Stalingrad by storm. The Soviet troops failed to hold back his powerful onslaught. They were forced to retreat to the city. Day and night fighting did not stop on the streets of the city, in houses, factories, on the banks of the Volga. Our units, having suffered heavy losses, nevertheless held the defense, not leaving the city.

Soviet troops near Stalingrad were united in three fronts: Southwestern (lieutenant general, from December 7, 1942 - Colonel General N. F. Vatutin), Donskoy (lieutenant general, from January 15, 1943 - Colonel General K K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingradsky (Colonel-General A. I. Eremenko).

On September 13, 1942, a decision was made on the counteroffensive, the plan of which was developed by the Headquarters. The leading role in this development was played by Generals G.K. Zhukov (from January 18, 1943 - Marshal) and A.M. Vasilevsky, they were appointed representatives of the Stavka at the front. A.M. Vasilevsky coordinated the actions of the Stalingrad Front, and G.K. Zhukov - of the South-Western and Don. The idea of the counteroffensive was to strike from the bridgeheads on the Don in the areas of Serafimovich and Kletskaya and from the area of Sarpinsky Lakes south of Stalingrad to defeat the troops covering the flanks of the enemy strike force, and, developing the offensive in converging directions on the city of Kalach, the Soviet farm, to surround and destroy its main forces operating in the interfluve of the Volga and Don.

The offensive was scheduled for November 19, 1942 for the Southwestern and Don Fronts, and for November 20 for the Stalingrad Front. The strategic offensive operation to defeat the enemy near Stalingrad consisted of three stages: the encirclement of the enemy (November 19-30), the development of the offensive and the disruption of the enemy’s attempts to release the encircled grouping (December 1942), the liquidation of the group of Nazi troops surrounded in the Stalingrad region (10 January-February 2, 1943).

From January 10 to February 2, 1943, the troops of the Don Front captured 91 thousand people, including over 2.5 thousand officers and 24 generals, led by the commander of the 6th Army, Field Marshal Paulus.

“The defeat at Stalingrad,” as Lieutenant-General of the Nazi army Westphal writes about this, “threw both the German people and its army in horror. Never before in the entire history of Germany has there been a case of such a terrible death of so many troops.”

And the Battle of Stalingrad began with a prayer service before the Kazan Icon of the Mother of God. The icon was among the troops, prayers and requiems for the fallen soldiers were constantly served in front of it. Among the ruins of Stalingrad, the only surviving building was the temple in the name of the Kazan icon of the Blessed Virgin Mary with a chapel of St. Sergius of Radonezh.

Caucasus

July 1942 - October 9, 1943. Battle for the Caucasus

In the North Caucasus direction in late July-early August 1942, the development of events was clearly not in our favor. The superior forces of the enemy persistently moved forward. On August 10, enemy troops captured Maikop, on August 11 - Krasnodar. And on September 9, the Germans captured almost all the mountain passes. In the stubborn bloody battles of the summer - autumn of 1942, the Soviet troops suffered heavy losses, left most of the territory of the North Caucasus, but still stopped the enemy. In December, preparations began for the North Caucasian offensive operation. In January, German troops began to withdraw from the Caucasus, and Soviet troops launched a powerful offensive. But the enemy put up fierce resistance and the victory in the Caucasus came at a high cost to us.

German troops were driven out to the Taman Peninsula. On the night of September 10, 1943, the Novorossiysk-Taman strategic offensive operation of the Soviet troops began. On September 16, 1943, Novorossiysk was liberated, on September 21 - Anapa, on October 3 - Taman.

On October 9, 1943, Soviet troops reached the coast of the Kerch Strait and completed the liberation of the North Caucasus.

Kursk Bulge

July 5, 1943 – May 1944 Battle of Kursk.

In 1943, the Nazi command decided to conduct its general offensive in the Kursk region. The fact is that the operational position of the Soviet troops on the Kursk ledge, concave towards the enemy, promised great prospects for the Germans. Two large fronts could be surrounded here at once, as a result of which a large gap would have formed, allowing the enemy to carry out major operations in the south and northeast directions.

The Soviet command was preparing for this offensive. From mid-April, the General Staff began to develop a plan for both a defensive operation near Kursk and a counteroffensive. And by the beginning of July 1943, the Soviet command had completed preparations for the Battle of Kursk.

July 5, 1943 German troops began the offensive. The first attack was repulsed. However, then the Soviet troops had to withdraw. The fighting was very intense and the Germans failed to achieve significant success. The enemy did not solve any of the assigned tasks and was eventually forced to stop the offensive and go on the defensive.

The struggle on the southern face of the Kursk ledge, in the zone of the Voronezh Front, was of an exceptionally tense character.

On July 12, 1943 (on the day of the holy supreme apostles Peter and Paul), the largest in military history took place. tank battle near Prokhorovka. The battle unfolded on both sides of the Belgorod-Kursk railway, and the main events took place southwest of Prokhorovka. As Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces P. A. Rotmistrov, the former commander of the 5th Guards Tank Army, recalled, the struggle was extremely fierce, “tanks jumped on each other, grappled, could no longer disperse, fought to the death until one of them flared up torch or did not stop with broken tracks. But the wrecked tanks, if their weapons did not fail, continued to fire. The battlefield was littered with burning German and our tanks for an hour. As a result of the battle near Prokhorovka, none of the parties was able to solve the tasks facing it: the enemy - to break through to Kursk; 5th Guards Tank Army - go to the Yakovlevo area, defeating the opposing enemy. But the way to the enemy to Kursk was closed and the day of July 12, 1943 became the day of the collapse of the German offensive near Kursk.

On July 12, the troops of the Bryansk and Western fronts went on the offensive in the Oryol direction, and on July 15, the troops of the Central.

August 5, 1943 (the day of the celebration of the Pochaev Icon of the Mother of God, as well as the icon of "Joy of All Who Sorrow") was released Eagle. On the same day, the troops of the Steppe Front were liberated Belgorod. The Oryol offensive operation lasted 38 days and ended on August 18 with the defeat of a powerful group of Nazi troops aimed at Kursk from the north.

The events on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front had a significant impact on the further course of events in the Belgorod-Kursk sector. On July 17, the troops of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts went on the offensive. On the night of July 19, the general withdrawal of the Nazi troops began on the southern face of the Kursk salient.

August 23, 1943 liberation of Kharkov the strongest battle of the Great Patriotic War ended - the Battle of Kursk (it lasted 50 days). It ended with the defeat of the main grouping of German troops.

Liberation of Smolensk (1943)

Smolensk offensive operation August 7 - October 2, 1943. In the course of hostilities and the nature of the tasks performed, the Smolensk strategic offensive operation is divided into three stages. The first stage covers the period of hostilities from 7 to 20 August. During this stage, the troops of the Western Front carried out the Spas-Demenskaya operation. The troops of the left wing of the Kalinin Front began the Dukhovshchinskaya offensive operation. At the second stage (August 21 - September 6), the troops of the Western Front carried out the Yelnensko-Dorogobuzh operation, and the troops of the left wing of the Kalinin Front continued to conduct the Dukhovshchinskaya offensive operation. At the third stage (September 7 - October 2), the troops of the Western Front, in cooperation with the troops of the left wing of the Kalinin Front, carried out the Smolensk-Roslavl operation, and the main forces of the Kalinin Front carried out the Dukhovshchinsky-Demidov operation.

September 25, 1943 troops of the Western Front liberated Smolensk- the most important strategic center of defense of the Nazi troops in the western direction.

As a result of the successful implementation of the Smolensk offensive operation, our troops broke into the enemy's heavily fortified multi-lane and deeply echeloned defenses and advanced 200-225 km to the West.

Liberation of Donbass, Bryansk and left-bank Ukraine

August 13, 1943 began Donbass operation Southwestern and Southern fronts. The leadership of Nazi Germany attached exceptionally great importance to keeping the Donbass in their hands. From the very first day, the fighting took on an extremely tense character. The enemy put up stubborn resistance. However, he failed to stop the offensive of the Soviet troops. The Nazi troops in the Donbass faced the threat of encirclement and a new Stalingrad. Retreating from the Left-bank Ukraine, the Nazi command carried out a savage plan, drawn up according to the recipes for total war, for the complete devastation of the territory being abandoned. Along with regular troops, the mass extermination of civilians and their deportation to Germany, the destruction of industrial facilities, cities and other settlements were carried out by SS and police units. However, the rapid advance of the Soviet troops prevented him from fully implementing his plan.

On August 26, the troops of the Central Front (commander - General of the Army K.K. Rokossovsky) launched an offensive, starting to carry out Chernigov-Poltava operation.

On September 2, the troops of the right wing of the Voronezh Front (commander - General of the Army N.F. Vatutin) liberated Sumy and launched an offensive against Romny.

Continuing to successfully develop the offensive, the troops of the Central Front advanced more than 200 km to the south-west and on September 15 liberated the city of Nizhyn, an important stronghold of the enemy defense on the outskirts of Kyiv. 100 km remained to the Dnieper. The troops of the right wing of the Voronezh Front advancing south by September 10 broke the stubborn resistance of the enemy in the area of the city of Romny.

The troops of the right wing of the Central Front crossed the Desna River and on September 16 liberated the city of Novgorod-Seversky.

September 21 (Feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary) Soviet troops liberated Chernihiv.

With the release of Soviet troops at the end of September to the border of the Dnieper, the liberation of the Left-Bank Ukraine was completed.

“... Rather, the Dnieper will flow back than the Russians will overcome it ...”, Hitler said. Indeed, the Broad, deep, high-water river with a high right bank was a serious natural barrier to the advancing Soviet troops. The Soviet high command clearly understood how important the Dnieper was for the retreating enemy, and did everything to force it on the move, seize bridgeheads on the right bank and prevent the enemy from gaining a foothold on this line. They tried to accelerate the advance of troops to the Dnieper, and to develop an offensive not only against the main enemy groupings retreating to permanent crossings, but also in the intervals between them. This made it possible to reach the Dnieper on a broad front and frustrate the plan of the Nazi command to make the "Eastern Wall" impregnable. Significant forces of partisans also actively joined the struggle, which subjected enemy communications to continuous strikes and interfered with the regrouping of German troops.

On September 21 (the feast of the Nativity of the Most Holy Theotokos), the advanced units of the left wing of the Central Front reached the Dnieper north of Kyiv. Troops from other fronts were also successfully advancing these days. The troops of the right wing of the Southwestern Front reached the Dnieper on September 22 south of Dnepropetrovsk. From September 25 to 30, the troops of the Steppe Front in their entire offensive zone reached the Dnieper.

The crossing of the Dnieper began on September 21, the day of the celebration of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

At first, forward detachments crossed over on improvised means under continuous enemy fire and tried to cling to the right bank. After that, pontoon crossings for equipment were created. The troops that crossed to the right bank of the Dnieper had a very difficult time. Before they had time to gain a foothold there, fierce battles flared up. The enemy, having brought up large forces, continuously counterattacked, trying to destroy our subunits and units or to throw them into the river. But our troops, suffering heavy losses, showing exceptional courage and heroism, held the captured positions.

By the end of September, having knocked down the defenses of the enemy troops, our troops crossed the Dnieper in a front section of 750 kilometers from Loev to Zaporozhye and captured a number of important bridgeheads from which it was supposed to develop the offensive further to the west.

For the crossing of the Dnieper, for selflessness and heroism in the battles on the bridgeheads, 2438 soldiers of all branches of the armed forces (47 generals, 1123 officers and 1268 soldiers and sergeants) were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On October 20, 1943, the Voronezh Front was renamed the 1st Ukrainian, the Steppe Front - into the 2nd Ukrainian, Southwestern and Southern Fronts into the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian.

On November 6, 1943, on the day of the celebration of the icon of the Mother of God "Joy of All Who Sorrow", Kyiv was liberated from the fascist invaders by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of General N.F. Vatutin.

After the liberation of Kyiv, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched an offensive against Zhytomyr, Fastov and Korosten. Over the next 10 days, they advanced 150 km west and liberated many settlements, including the cities of Fastov and Zhitomir. On the right bank of the Dnieper, a strategic bridgehead was formed, the length of which along the front exceeded 500 km.

Intense fighting continued in southern Ukraine. On October 14 (the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos), the city of Zaporozhye was liberated and the German bridgehead on the left bank of the Dnieper was liquidated. On October 25, Dnepropetrovsk was liberated.

Tehran Conference of the Allied Powers. Opening a second front

From November 28 - December 1, 1943 took place Tehran conference heads of allied powers against fascism of the states - the USSR (JV Stalin), the USA (President F. Roosevelt) and Great Britain (Prime Minister W. Churchill).

The main issue was the opening of the second front in Europe by the USA and Great Britain, which they did not open despite their promises. At the conference, a decision was made to open a second front in France during May 1944. The Soviet delegation, at the request of the allies, announced the readiness of the USSR to enter the war against Japan at the end of the war. action in Europe. Questions about the post-war structure and the fate of Germany were also discussed at the conference.

December 24, 1943 - May 6, 1944 Dnieper-Carpathian strategic offensive operation. Within the framework of this strategic operation, 11 offensive operations of fronts and groups of fronts were carried out: Zhytomyr-Berdichevskaya, Kirovogradskaya, Korsun-Shevchenkovskaya, Nikopol-Krivorozhskaya, Rivne-Lutskaya, Proskurovsko-Chernovitskaya, Umansko-Botoshanskaya, Bereznegovato-Snigirevskaya, Polesskaya, Odessa and Tyrgu- Frumosskaya.

December 24, 1943 – January 14, 1944 Zhytomyr-Berdichev operation. Having advanced 100-170 km, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front in 3 weeks of hostilities almost completely liberated the Kyiv and Zhytomyr regions and many areas of the Vinnitsa and Rovno regions, including the cities of Zhitomir (December 31), Novograd-Volynsky (January 3) , Belaya Tserkov (January 4), Berdichev (January 5). On January 10-11, advanced units reached the approaches to Vinnitsa, Zhmerinka, Uman and Zhashkov; defeated 6 enemy divisions and deeply captured the left flank of the German grouping, which still held the right bank of the Dnieper in the Kanev area. Prerequisites were created for striking the flank and rear of this grouping.

January 5-16, 1944 Kirovograd operation. After intense fighting on January 8, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front captured Kirovograd and continued the offensive. However, on January 16, repelling the strong counterattacks of the enemy, they were forced to go on the defensive. As a result of the Kirovograd operation, the position of the Nazi troops in the zone of operations of the 2nd Ukrainian Front deteriorated significantly.

January 24 - February 17, 1944 Korsun-Shevchenko operation. During this operation, the troops of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts surrounded and defeated a large grouping of Nazi troops in the Kanevsky salient.

January 27 - February 11, 1944 Rovno-Lutsk operation- was carried out by the troops of the right wing of the 1st Ukrainian Front. On February 2, the cities of Lutsk and Rivne were liberated, on February 11 - Shepetovka.

January 30 - February 29, 1944 Nikopol-Krivoy Rog operation. It was carried out by the troops of the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts in order to eliminate the enemy's Nikopol bridgehead. By the end of February 7, the 4th Ukrainian Front completely cleared the Nikopol bridgehead from enemy troops and on February 8, together with units of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, liberated the city of Nikopol. After stubborn fighting, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front on February 22 liberated the city of Krivoy Rog - a large industrial center and a road junction. By February 29, the 3rd Ukrainian Front, with its right wing and center, advanced to the Ingulets River, capturing a number of bridgeheads on its western bank. As a result, favorable conditions were created for delivering subsequent attacks on the enemy in the direction of Nikolaev and Odessa. As a result of the Nikopol-Krivoy Rog operation, 12 enemy divisions were defeated, including 3 tank and 1 motorized. Having eliminated the Nikopol bridgehead and pushed the enemy back from the Zaporozhye bend of the Dnieper, the Soviet troops deprived the Nazi command of the last hope of restoring land contact with the 17th Army blockaded in the Crimea. A significant reduction in the front line allowed the Soviet command to release forces to capture the Crimean peninsula.

On February 29, the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, General Nikolai Fedorovich Vatutin, was seriously wounded by Bandera. Unfortunately, it was not possible to save this talented commander. He passed away on April 15th.

By the spring of 1944, the troops of four Ukrainian fronts broke into the enemy's defenses all the way from Pripyat to the lower reaches of the Dnieper. Having advanced 150-250 km to the west for two months, they defeated several large enemy groupings and frustrated his plans to restore defense along the Dnieper. The liberation of the Kyiv, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye regions was completed, the entire Zhytomyr, almost completely Rivne and Kirovograd regions, a number of districts of Vinnitsa, Nikolaev, Kamenetz-Podolsk and Volyn regions were cleared of the enemy. Such large industrial regions as Nikopol and Krivoy Rog have been returned. The length of the front in Ukraine by the spring of 1944 reached 1200 km. In March, a new offensive was launched in Right-Bank Ukraine.

On March 4, the 1st Ukrainian Front went on the offensive, which held Proskurov-Chernivtsi offensive operation(March 4 - April 17, 1944).

On March 5, the 2nd Ukrainian Front began Uman-Botoshansk operation(March 5 - April 17, 1944).

March 6 began Bereznegovato-Snigirevsky operation 3rd Ukrainian Front (March 6-18, 1944). On March 11, Soviet troops liberated Berislav, on March 13, the 28th Army captured Kherson, and on March 15, Bereznegovatoe and Snigirevka were liberated. The troops of the right wing of the front, pursuing the enemy, reached the Southern Bug near Voznesensk.

On March 29, our troops captured the regional center, the city of Chernivtsi. The enemy lost the last link between his troops, operating north and south of the Carpathians. The strategic front of the Nazi troops was cut into two parts. On March 26, the city of Kamenetz-Podolsk was liberated.

The 2nd Belorussian Front provided significant assistance to the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front in defeating the northern wing of the Nazi Army Group South. Polessky offensive operation(March 15 - April 5, 1944).

March 26, 1944 advance detachments of the 27th and 52nd armies (2nd Ukrainian Front) west of the city of Balti reached the Prut River, occupying an 85-km section along the border of the USSR with Romania. It would the first exit of Soviet troops to the border of the USSR.
On the night of March 28, the troops of the right wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front crossed the Prut and advanced 20-40 km deep into Romanian territory. On the approaches to Iasi and Chisinau, they met stubborn resistance from the enemy. The main result of the Uman-Botoshansky operation was the liberation of a significant part of the territory of Ukraine, Moldova and the entry of Soviet troops into Romania.

March 26 - April 14, 1944 Odessa offensive operation troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. On March 26, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front went on the offensive in their entire zone. On March 28, after heavy fighting, the city of Nikolaev was taken.

On the evening of April 9, Soviet troops broke into Odessa from the north and captured the city by night assault by 10 am on April 10. Troops of three armies, commanded by Generals V.D. Tsvetaev, V.I. Chuikov and I.T. Shlemin, as well as the horse-mechanized group of General I.A. Pliev, took part in the liberation of Odessa.

April 8 - May 6, 1944 Tyrgu-Frumosskaya offensive operation of the 2nd Ukrainian Front was the final operation of the strategic offensive of the Red Army in the Right-Bank Ukraine. Its purpose was to strike in the direction of Targu Frumos, Vaslui to cover the Chisinau grouping of the enemy from the west. The offensive of the troops of the right wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front began quite successfully. In the period from April 8 to April 11, having broken the resistance of the enemy, they crossed the Siret River, advanced 30-50 km in the southwestern and southern directions and reached the foothills of the Carpathians. However, the tasks were not completed. Our troops went over to the defensive at the achieved lines.

Liberation of Crimea (April 8 - May 12, 1944)

On April 8, the offensive of the 4th Ukrainian Front began with the aim of liberating the Crimea. On April 11, our troops captured Dzhankoy, a powerful stronghold in the enemy's defense and an important road junction. The exit of the 4th Ukrainian Front to the Dzhankoy region endangered the retreat routes of the enemy's Kerch grouping and thus created favorable conditions for the offensive of the Separate Primorsky Army. Fearing encirclement, the enemy decided to withdraw troops from the Kerch Peninsula. Having discovered preparations for withdrawal, the Separate Primorsky Army on the night of April 11 went on the offensive. On April 13, Soviet troops liberated the cities of Evpatoria, Simferopol and Feodosia. And on April 15-16, they reached the approaches to Sevastopol, where they were stopped by the organized defense of the enemy.

On April 18, the Separate Primorsky Army was renamed the Primorsky Army and included in the 4th Ukrainian Front.

Our troops were preparing for the assault. May 9, 1944 Sevastopol was liberated. The remnants of the German troops fled to Cape Chersonese, hoping to escape by sea. But on May 12 they were completely crushed. At Cape Khersones, 21 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were captured, a large amount of weapons and military equipment was captured.

Western Ukraine

July 27 after stubborn fighting was liberated Lviv.

In July-August 1944, Soviet troops liberated from the Nazi invaders western regions of Ukraine, as well as southeastern part of Poland, captured a large bridgehead on the western bank of the Vistula River, from which an offensive was subsequently launched into the central regions of Poland and further to the borders of Germany.

The final lifting of the blockade of Leningrad. Karelia

January 14 - March 1, 1944. Leningrad-Novgorod offensive operation. As a result of the offensive, Soviet troops liberated the territory of almost the entire Leningrad and part of the Kalinin regions from the invaders, completely lifted the blockade from Leningrad, and entered Estonia. The basing area of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet in the Gulf of Finland has expanded significantly. Favorable conditions were created for defeating the enemy in the Baltic states and in areas north of Leningrad.

June 10 - August 9, 1944 Vyborg-Petrozavodsk offensive operation Soviet troops on the Karelian Isthmus.

Liberation of Belarus and Lithuania

June 23 - August 29, 1944 Belarusian strategic offensive operation Soviet troops in Belarus and Lithuania "Bagration". As part of the Belarusian operation, the Vitebsk-Orsha operation was also carried out.
The general offensive was launched on June 23 by the troops of the 1st Baltic Front (commanded by Colonel-General I.Kh. Bagramyan), by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front (commanded by Colonel-General I.D. Colonel General G.F. Zakharov). The next day, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of General of the Army K.K. Rokossovsky went on the offensive. Behind enemy lines, partisan detachments began active operations.

The troops of the four fronts, with persistent and coordinated strikes, broke through the defenses to a depth of 25-30 km, crossed a number of rivers on the move and inflicted significant damage on the enemy.

In the Bobruisk area, about six divisions of the 35th Army and 41st Tank Corps of the 9th German Army were surrounded.

July 3, 1944 Soviet troops liberated Minsk. As Marshal G.K. Zhukov, "the capital of Belarus could not be recognized ... Now everything lay in ruins, and in the place of residential areas there were wastelands covered with piles of broken bricks and debris. The most difficult impression was made by people, residents of Minsk. Most of them were extremely exhausted, exhausted. .."

On June 29 - July 4, 1944, the troops of the 1st Baltic Front successfully carried out the Polotsk operation, destroying the enemy in this area, and on July 4 liberated Polotsk. Troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front on July 5 captured the city of Molodechno.

As a result of the defeat of large enemy forces near Vitebsk, Mogilev, Bobruisk and Minsk, the immediate goal of the Bagration operation was achieved, and several days ahead of schedule. In 12 days - from June 23 to July 4 - Soviet troops advanced almost 250 km. The Vitebsk, Mogilev, Polotsk, Minsk and Bobruisk regions were completely liberated.

On July 18, 1944 (the feast of St. Sergius of Radonezh), Soviet troops crossed the border of Poland.

On July 24 (on the feast day of St. Princess Olga of Russia), the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front with their forward units reached the Vistula near Demblin. Here they released the prisoners of the Majdanek death camp, in which the Nazis exterminated about one and a half million people.

On August 1, 1944 (on the feast of St. Seraphim of Sarov), our troops reached the borders of East Prussia.

The troops of the Red Army, having launched an offensive on June 23 on a front of 700 km, by the end of August advanced 550-600 km to the west, expanding the front of hostilities to 1,100 km. The vast territory of the Belarusian Republic was cleared of the invaders - 80% and a fourth of Poland.

Warsaw Uprising (August 1 - October 2, 1944)

On August 1, 1994, an anti-Nazi uprising was raised in Warsaw. In response, the Germans committed atrocious reprisals against the population. The city was destroyed to the ground. Soviet troops made an attempt to help the rebels, crossed the Vistula and captured the embankment in Warsaw. However, soon the Germans began to push our units, the Soviet troops suffered heavy losses. It was decided to withdraw the troops. The uprising lasted 63 days and was crushed. Warsaw was the front line of the German defense, and the rebels had only light weapons. Without the help of Russian troops, the rebels had practically no chance of victory. And the uprising, unfortunately, was not agreed with the command of the Soviet army in order to receive effective assistance from our troops.

Liberation of Moldova, Romania, Slovakia

August 20 - 29, 1944. Iasi-Chisinau offensive operation.

In April 1944, as a result of a successful offensive in Right-Bank Ukraine, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reached the line of the cities of Iasi and Orhei and went on the defensive. The troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front reached the Dniester River and captured several bridgeheads on its western bank. These fronts, as well as the Black Sea Fleet and the Danube military flotilla, were tasked with carrying out the Iasi-Kishinev strategic offensive operation in order to defeat a large grouping of German and Romanian troops covering the Balkan direction.

As a result of the successful implementation of the Yassy-Kishinev operation, Soviet troops completed the liberation of Moldova and the Izmail region of Ukraine.

August 23, 1944 - an armed uprising in Romania. which resulted in the overthrow of the fascist regime of Antonescu. The next day, Romania withdrew from the war on the side of Germany and on August 25 declared war on her. Since that time, the Romanian troops took part in the war on the side of the Red Army.

September 8 - October 28, 1944 East Carpathian offensive operation. As a result of the offensive of the units of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts in the Eastern Carpathians, our troops liberated almost the entire Transcarpathian Ukraine, on September 20 went to the border of Slovakia, liberated part of Eastern Slovakia. The breakthrough to the Hungarian lowland opened the prospect of the liberation of Czechoslovakia and access to the southern border of Germany.

the Baltics

September 14 - November 24, 1944 Baltic offensive operation. This is one of the largest operations in the autumn of 1944, 12 armies of the three Baltic fronts and the Leningrad front were deployed on the 500-km front. The Baltic Fleet was also involved.

September 22, 1944 - liberated Tallinn. In the following days (until September 26), the troops of the Leningrad Front came to the coast all the way from Tallinn to Pärnu, thereby completing the clearing of the enemy from the entire territory of Estonia, with the exception of the islands of Dago and Ezel.

On October 11, our troops reached borders with East Prussia. Continuing the offensive, by the end of October they had completely cleared the northern bank of the Neman River from the enemy.

As a result of the offensive of the Soviet troops in the Baltic strategic direction, Army Group North was expelled from almost the entire Baltic and lost communications that connected it by land with East Prussia. The struggle for the Baltic was long and extremely fierce. The enemy, having a well-developed road network, actively maneuvered with his own forces and means, put up stubborn resistance to the Soviet troops, often turning into counterattacks and delivering counterattacks. On his part, up to 25% of all forces on the Soviet-German front participated in the hostilities. During the Baltic operation, 112 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Yugoslavia

September 28 - October 20, 1944 Belgrade offensive operation. The purpose of the operation was to use the joint efforts of the Soviet and Yugoslav troops in the Belgrade direction, the Yugoslav and Bulgarian troops in the Nis and Skopje directions to defeat the army group "Serbia" and liberate the eastern half of the territory of Serbia, including Belgrade. To accomplish these tasks, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian (57th and 17th air armies, the 4th guards mechanized corps and units of front subordination) and the 2nd Ukrainian (46th and parts of the 5th air army) fronts were involved . The offensive of the Soviet troops in Yugoslavia forced the German command to make a decision on October 7, 1944 to withdraw its main forces from Greece, Albania and Macedonia. By the same time, the troops of the left wing of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reached the Tisza River, freeing the entire left bank of the Danube east of the Tisza mouth from the enemy. On October 14 (the feast of the Intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos), an order was given to begin the assault on Belgrade.

The 20th of October Belgrade was liberated. The battles for the liberation of the capital of Yugoslavia lasted a week and were extremely stubborn.

With the liberation of the capital of Yugoslavia, the Belgrade offensive operation ended. During it, the army group "Serbia" was defeated and a number of formations of the army group "F" were defeated. As a result of the operation, the enemy front was pushed back 200 km to the west, the eastern half of Serbia was liberated, and the enemy's transport artery Thessaloniki-Belgrade was cut. At the same time, favorable conditions were created for the Soviet troops advancing in the direction of Budapest. The headquarters of the Supreme High Command could now use the forces of the 3rd Ukrainian Front to defeat the enemy in Hungary. The inhabitants of the villages and cities of Yugoslavia warmly welcomed the Soviet soldiers. They took to the streets with flowers, shook hands, hugged and kissed their liberators. The air was filled with solemn bells and Russian melodies performed by local musicians. The medal "For the Liberation of Belgrade" was established.

Karelian front, 1944

October 7 - 29, 1944 Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive operation. The successful conduct of the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk strategic offensive operation by the Soviet troops forced Finland to withdraw from the war. By the autumn of 1944, the troops of the Karelian Front basically reached the pre-war border with Finland, with the exception of the Far North, where the Nazis continued to occupy part of the Soviet and Finnish territories. Germany sought to retain this region of the Arctic, which was an important source of strategic raw materials (copper, nickel, molybdenum) and had ice-free seaports where the forces of the German fleet were based. The commander of the Karelian Front, General of the Army K. A. Meretskov, wrote: “Under the feet of the tundra, damp and somehow uncomfortable, from below breathes lifelessness: there, in the depths, permafrost lying in islands begins, and after all, soldiers have to sleep on this land, laying under him only one half of his overcoat ... Sometimes the earth rises with bare masses of granite rocks ... Nevertheless, it was necessary to fight. And not just fight, but attack, beat the enemy, drive him and destroy him. I had to remember the words of the great Suvorov: "Where a deer passed, a Russian soldier would pass there, and where a deer did not pass, a Russian soldier would pass anyway." On October 15, the city of Petsamo (Pechenga) was liberated. Back in 1533, a Russian monastery was founded at the mouth of the Pechenga River. Soon here, at the base of a wide bay of the Barents Sea, convenient for sailors, a port was built. Through Pechenga there was a lively trade with Norway, Holland, England and other Western countries. In 1920, under a peace treaty of October 14, Soviet Russia voluntarily ceded the Pechenga region to Finland.

On October 25, Kirkenes was liberated, and the struggle was so fierce that every house and every street had to be stormed.

854 Soviet prisoners of war and 772 civilians driven by the Nazis from the Leningrad region were rescued from concentration camps.

The last cities our troops reached were Neiden and Nautsi.

Hungary

October 29, 1944 - February 13, 1945 The assault and capture of Budapest.

The offensive began on 29 October. The German command took all measures to prevent the capture of Budapest by Soviet troops and the withdrawal of its last ally from the war. Fierce battles flared up on the outskirts of Budapest. Our troops achieved significant success, but they could not defeat the enemy's Budapest grouping and take possession of the city. Finally managed to surround Budapest. But the city was a fortress prepared by the Nazis for a long defense. Hitler ordered to fight for Budapest to the last soldier. The battles for the liberation of the eastern part of the city (Pest) went on from December 27 to January 18, and its western part (Buda) - from January 20 to February 13.

During the Budapest operation, Soviet troops liberated a significant part of the territory of Hungary. The offensive operations of the Soviet troops in the autumn and winter of 1944–1945 in the southwestern direction led to a radical change in the entire political situation in the Balkans. In addition to Romania and Bulgaria, which were previously withdrawn from the war, another state was added - Hungary.

Slovakia and Southern Poland

January 12 - February 18, 1945. West Carpathian offensive operation. In the West Carpathian operation, our troops had to overcome the defensive lines of the enemy, stretching in depth for 300-350 km. The offensive was carried out by the 4th Ukrainian Front (commander - General of the Army I.E. Petrov) and part of the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. As a result of the winter offensive of the Red Army in the Western Carpathians, our troops liberated vast areas of Slovakia and southern Poland with a population of about 1.5 million people.

Warsaw-Berlin direction

January 12 - February 3, 1945. Vistula-Oder offensive operation. The offensive in the Warsaw-Berlin direction was carried out by the forces of the 1st Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov and the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev. Soldiers of the Polish Army fought together with the Russians. The actions of the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts to defeat the Nazi troops between the Vistula and the Oder can be divided into two stages. On the first (from January 12 to 17), the enemy's strategic defense front was broken through in a strip of about 500 km, the main forces of Army Group A were defeated, and conditions were created for the rapid development of the operation to a greater depth.

January 17, 1945 was liberated Warsaw. The Nazis literally wiped the city off the face of the earth, and subjected the local residents to merciless destruction.

At the second stage (from January 18 to February 3), the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, with the assistance on the flanks of the troops of the 2nd Belorussian and 4th Ukrainian fronts, in the course of the rapid pursuit of the enemy, defeated the enemy reserves advanced from the depths, captured Silesian industrial region and went out on a wide front to the Oder, capturing a number of bridgeheads on its western bank.

As a result of the Vistula-Oder operation, a significant part of Poland was liberated, and hostilities were transferred to German territory. About 60 divisions of German troops were defeated.

January 13 - April 25, 1945 East Prussian offensive operation. In the course of this long-term strategic operation, the Insterburg, Mlavsko-Elbing, Hejlsberg, Koenigsberg and Zemland front offensive operations were carried out.

East Prussia was Germany's main strategic foothold for attacking Russia and Poland. This territory also tightly covered access to the central regions of Germany. Therefore, the fascist command attached great importance to the retention of East Prussia. Relief features - lakes, rivers, swamps and canals, a developed network of highways and railways, strong stone buildings - greatly contributed to the defense.

The overall goal of the East Prussian strategic offensive operation was to cut off the enemy troops located in East Prussia from the rest of the fascist forces, press them to the sea, dismember and destroy in parts, completely clearing the territory of East Prussia and Northern Poland from the enemy.

Three fronts took part in the operation: the 2nd Belorussian (commander - Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky), the 3rd Belorussian (commander - General of the Army I.D. Chernyakhovsky) and the 1st Baltic (commander - General I.Kh. Bagramyan). They were assisted by the Baltic Fleet under the command of Admiral V.F. Tributs.

The fronts began the offensive successfully (January 13 - the 3rd Belorussian and January 14 - the 2nd Belorussian). By January 18, the German troops, despite desperate resistance, suffered a heavy defeat in the places of the main blows of our armies and began to retreat. Until the end of January, waging the most stubborn battles, our troops captured a significant part of East Prussia. Coming out to the sea, they cut off the East Prussian grouping of the enemy from the rest of the forces. At the same time, on January 28, the 1st Baltic Front captured the large seaport of Memel (Klaipeda).

On February 10, the second stage of hostilities began - the elimination of isolated enemy groups. On February 18, General of the Army I.D. Chernyakhovsky died from a serious wound. The command of the 3rd Belorussian Front was entrusted to Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky. During intense fighting, Soviet troops suffered serious losses. By March 29, it was possible to defeat the Nazis, who occupied the Heilsber region. Further, it was planned to defeat the Koenigsberg grouping. Around the city, the Germans created three powerful defensive positions. The city was declared by Hitler the best German fortress in the history of Germany and "absolutely impregnable bastion of the German spirit."

Assault on Koenigsberg started April 6th. On April 9, the garrison of the fortress capitulated. Moscow celebrated the completion of the assault on Koenigsberg with a salute of the highest category - 24 artillery volleys from 324 guns. The medal "For the capture of Koenigsberg" was established, which was usually done only on the occasion of capturing the capitals of states. All participants in the assault received a medal. On April 17, the grouping of German troops near Koenigsberg was liquidated.

After the capture of Koenigsberg, only the Zemland enemy grouping remained in East Prussia, which was defeated by the end of April.

In East Prussia, the Red Army destroyed 25 German divisions, the other 12 divisions lost from 50 to 70% of their composition. Soviet troops captured more than 220 thousand soldiers and officers.

But the Soviet troops also suffered huge losses: 126.5 thousand soldiers and officers died and went missing, more than 458 thousand soldiers were injured or out of action due to illness.

Yalta Conference of the Allied Powers

This conference was held from February 4 to February 11, 1945. The heads of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain - I. Stalin, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill took part in it. The victory over fascism was no longer in doubt, it was a matter of time. The conference discussed the post-war structure of the world, the division of spheres of influence. It was decided to occupy and divide Germany into occupation zones and to allocate its own zone to France. For the USSR, the main task was to ensure the security of its borders after the end of the war. So, for example, there was a provisional government of Poland in exile, based in London. However, Stalin insisted on the creation of a new government in Poland, since it was from the territory of Poland that attacks on Russia were conveniently carried out by its enemies.

In Yalta, the “Declaration on a Liberated Europe” was also signed, which, in particular, stated: “The establishment of order in Europe and the reorganization of national economic life must be achieved in such a way that will allow the liberated peoples to destroy the last traces of Nazism and fascism and create democratic institutions of their own choice.

At the Yalta Conference, an agreement was concluded on the entry of the USSR into the war against Japan two or three months after the end of the war in Europe and on the condition that Russia return South Sakhalin and the adjacent islands, as well as the naval base in Port Arthur that previously belonged to Russia and on the condition transfer of the Kuril Islands to the USSR.

The most important outcome of the conference was the decision to convene a conference in San Francisco on April 25, 1945, at which it was supposed to work out the Charter of the new United Nations.

Coast of the Baltic Sea

February 10 - April 4, 1945. East Pomeranian Offensive. The enemy command continued to hold the coast of the Baltic Sea in Eastern Pomerania in its hands, as a result of which between the armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, which reached the Oder River, and the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front, whose main forces were fighting in East Prussia, in early February 1945 a gap about 150 km long was formed. This strip of terrain was occupied by the limited forces of the Soviet troops. As a result of hostilities, by March 13, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 2nd Belorussian fronts reached the coast of the Baltic Sea. By April 4, the East Pomeranian enemy grouping was liquidated. The enemy, having suffered huge losses, not only lost a bridgehead convenient for operations against our troops preparing for an attack on Berlin, but also a significant part of the coast of the Baltic Sea. The Baltic Fleet, having relocated its light forces to the ports of Eastern Pomerania, took advantageous positions on the Baltic Sea and could provide the coastal flank of the Soviet troops during their offensive in the Berlin direction.

Vein

March 16 - April 15, 1945. Vienna offensive operation In January-March 1945, as a result of the Budapest and Balaton operations carried out by the Red Army, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front (commander - Marshal of the Soviet Union F. I. Tolbukhin) defeated the enemy in the central part of Hungary and moved west.

April 4, 1945 Soviet troops completed the liberation of Hungary and launched an offensive against Vienna.

Fierce battles for the capital of Austria began the very next day - April 5th. The city was covered from three sides - from the south, east and west. Leading stubborn street battles, Soviet troops advanced towards the city center. Fierce battles flared up for each quarter, and sometimes even for a separate building. By 2 p.m. on April 13, the Soviet troops were completely liberated Vienna.

During the Vienna operation, Soviet troops fought 150-200 km, completed the liberation of Hungary and the eastern part of Austria with its capital. The fighting during the Vienna operation was extremely fierce. The most combat-ready divisions of the Wehrmacht (6th SS Panzer Army) opposed the Soviet troops here, which shortly before that had inflicted a serious defeat on the Americans in the Ardennes. But the Soviet soldiers in a fierce struggle crushed this color of the Nazi Wehrmacht. True, the victory was achieved at the cost of considerable sacrifice.

Berlin offensive operation (April 16 - May 2, 1945)

The Battle of Berlin was a special, incomparable operation that determined the outcome of the war. Obviously, the German command also planned this battle as decisive on the Eastern Front. From the Oder to Berlin, the Germans created a continuous system of defensive structures. All settlements were adapted to all-round defense. On the immediate approaches to Berlin, three lines of defense were created: an external barrier zone, an external defensive bypass and an internal defensive bypass. The city itself was divided into defense sectors - eight sectors along the circumference and a specially fortified ninth, central, sector, where government buildings, the Reichstag, the Gestapo, and the imperial office were located. Heavy barricades, anti-tank barriers, blockages, concrete structures were built on the streets. The windows of the houses were strengthened and turned into loopholes. The territory of the capital, together with the suburbs, was 325 sq. km. The essence of the strategic plan of the High Command of the Wehrmacht was to hold the defenses in the east at any cost, contain the advance of the Red Army, and in the meantime try to conclude a separate peace with the United States and England. The Nazi leadership put forward the slogan: "It is better to surrender Berlin to the Anglo-Saxons than to let the Russians into it."

The offensive of the Russian troops was planned very carefully. In a relatively narrow sector of the front, 65 rifle divisions, 3155 tanks and self-propelled vehicles, about 42 thousand guns and mortars were concentrated in a short time. The idea of the Soviet command was to break through the enemy defenses along the Oder and Neisse rivers with powerful blows from the troops of three fronts and, developing the offensive in depth, encircle the main grouping of Nazi troops in the Berlin direction with the simultaneous dissection of it into several parts and the subsequent destruction of each of them. them. In the future, Soviet troops were to reach the Elbe. The completion of the defeat of the Nazi troops was supposed to be carried out jointly with the Western allies, an agreement in principle with which to coordinate actions was reached at the Crimean Conference. The main role in the upcoming operation was assigned to the 1st Belorussian Front (commander Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov), the 1st Ukrainian Front (commander - Marshal of the Soviet Union I.S. Konev) was to defeat the enemy group south of Berlin. The front delivered two blows: the main one in the general direction of Spremberg and the auxiliary one on Dresden. The beginning of the offensive of the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts was scheduled for April 16. On the 2nd Belorussian Front (commander - Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky) was to launch an offensive on April 20, force the Oder in its lower reaches and strike in a north-western direction in order to cut off the West Pomeranian enemy grouping from Berlin. In addition, the 2nd Belorussian Front was tasked with part of the forces to cover the coast of the Baltic Sea from the mouth of the Vistula to Altdamm.

It was decided to start the main offensive two hours before dawn. One hundred and forty anti-aircraft searchlights were supposed to suddenly illuminate enemy positions and objects of attack. Sudden and powerful artillery preparation and air strikes, followed by an attack by infantry and tanks, stunned the Germans. Hitler's troops were literally sunk in a continuous sea of fire and metal. On the morning of April 16, Russian troops were successfully moving forward in all sectors of the front. However, the enemy, having come to his senses, began to resist from the Seelow Heights - this natural line stood as a solid wall in front of our troops. The steep slopes of the Zelov Heights were pitted with trenches and trenches. All approaches to them were shot through with multi-layered cross-artillery and rifle-machine-gun fire. Separate buildings have been turned into strongholds, barriers made of logs and metal beams have been set up on the roads, and the approaches to them have been mined. On both sides of the highway leading from the city of Zelov to the west, there were anti-aircraft artillery, which was used for anti-tank defense. The approaches to the heights were blocked by an anti-tank ditch up to 3 m deep and 3.5 m wide. Having assessed the situation, Marshal Zhukov decided to bring tank armies into battle. However, even with their help it was not possible to quickly seize the border. Seelow heights were taken only by the morning of April 18, after fierce battles. However, on April 18, the enemy was still trying to stop the advance of our troops, throwing all his available reserves towards them. Only on April 19, suffering heavy losses, the Germans could not stand it and began to retreat to the outer contour of the defense of Berlin.

The offensive of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed more successfully. Having crossed the Neisse River, by the end of the day on April 16, combined-arms and tank formations had broken through the main enemy defense line on a front of 26 km and to a depth of 13 km. During the three days of the offensive, the armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced up to 30 km in the direction of the main attack.

Storming Berlin

April 20 began the assault on Berlin. Long-range artillery of our troops opened fire on the city. On April 21, our units broke into the outskirts of Berlin and started fighting in the city itself. The fascist German command made desperate efforts to prevent the encirclement of their capital. It was decided to remove all troops from the Western Front and throw them into the battle for Berlin. However, on April 25, the encirclement ring around the Berlin grouping of the enemy was closed. On the same day, a meeting of Soviet and American troops took place in the Torgau region on the Elbe River. The 2nd Belorussian Front, by active operations in the lower reaches of the Oder, reliably fettered the 3rd German Panzer Army, depriving it of the opportunity to launch a counterattack from the north against the Soviet armies surrounding Berlin. Our troops suffered heavy losses, but, inspired by the successes, they rushed to the center of Berlin, where the main command of the enemy, led by Hitler, was still located. Fierce battles unfolded on the streets of the city. The fighting did not stop day or night.

April 30 early in the morning began assault on the Reichstag. The approaches to the Reichstag were covered by strong buildings, the defense was held by selected SS units with a total number of about six thousand people, equipped with tanks, assault guns and artillery. At about 3 pm on April 30, the Red Banner was hoisted over the Reichstag. However, the fighting in the Reichstag continued throughout the day of 1 May and the night of 2 May. Separate scattered groups of Nazis, who settled in the basement, capitulated only on the morning of May 2.

On April 30, the German troops in Berlin were divided into four parts of different composition, and their unified command was lost.

At 3 am on May 1, the chief of the general staff of the German ground forces, General of the Infantry G. Krebs, by agreement with the Soviet command, crossed the front line in Berlin and was received by the commander of the 8th Guards Army, General V. I. Chuikov. Krebs announced Hitler's suicide, and also handed over a list of members of the new imperial government and the proposal of Goebbels and Bormann for a temporary cessation of hostilities in the capital in order to prepare the conditions for peace negotiations between Germany and the USSR. However, this document did not say anything about surrender. Krebs' message was immediately reported by Marshal G.K. Zhukov to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. The answer was: seek only unconditional surrender. On the evening of May 1, the German command sent an envoy who announced the refusal to capitulate. In response to this, the final assault began on the central part of the city, where the Imperial Chancellery was located. On May 2, by 3 p.m., the enemy in Berlin had completely ceased resistance.

Prague

May 6 - 11, 1945. Prague offensive operation. After the defeat of the enemy in the Berlin direction, the only force capable of providing serious resistance to the Red Army remained the Army Group Center and part of the Army Group Austria, located on the territory of Czechoslovakia. The idea of the Prague operation was to encircle, dismember and in a short time defeat the main forces of the Nazi troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia by delivering several blows in converging directions to Prague, to prevent their retreat to the west. The main attacks on the flanks of Army Group Center were delivered by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front from the area northwest of Dresden and the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front from the area south of Brno.

On May 5, a spontaneous uprising began in Prague. Tens of thousands of city residents took to the streets. They not only built hundreds of barricades, but also seized the central post office, telegraph, railway stations, bridges over the Vltava, a number of military depots, disarmed several small units stationed in Prague, and established control over a significant part of the city. On May 6, German troops, using tanks, artillery and aircraft against the rebels, entered Prague and captured a significant part of the city. The rebels, having suffered heavy losses, turned over the radio to the allies for help. In this regard, Marshal I. S. Konev ordered the troops of his shock group to launch an offensive on the morning of May 6.

On the afternoon of May 7, the commander of Army Group Center received on the radio an order from Field Marshal V. Keitel about the surrender of German troops on all fronts, but did not bring him to his subordinates. On the contrary, he gave the troops his order, in which he stated that the rumors of surrender were false, they were being spread by Anglo-American and Soviet propaganda. On May 7, American officers arrived in Prague, who announced the surrender of Germany and advised to stop the fighting in Prague. At night it became known that the head of the German garrison in Prague, General R. Toussaint, was ready to enter into negotiations with the leadership of the rebels about surrender. At 4 p.m., an act of surrender was signed by the German garrison. Under its terms, German troops received the right to freely withdraw to the west, leaving heavy weapons at the exit from the city.

On May 9, our troops entered Prague and, with the active support of the population and the fighting squads of the rebels, the Soviet troops cleared the city of the Nazis. The possible retreat of the main forces of Army Group Center to the west and southwest with the capture of Prague by Soviet troops was cut off. The main forces of the Army Group "Center" were in the "bag" east of Prague. On May 10-11, they capitulated and were captured by Soviet troops.

Surrender of Germany

On May 6, on the day of the Holy Great Martyr George the Victorious, Grand Admiral Doenitz, who was the head of the German state after the suicide of Hitler, agreed to the surrender of the Wehrmacht, Germany recognized itself defeated.

On the night of May 7, in Reims, where Eisenhower's headquarters was located, a preliminary protocol on the surrender of Germany was signed, according to which, from 23 hours on May 8, hostilities ceased on all fronts. The protocol specifically stipulated that it was not a comprehensive surrender treaty for Germany and its armed forces. It was signed on behalf of the Soviet Union by General ID Susloparov, on behalf of the Western Allies by General W. Smith, and on behalf of Germany by General Jodl. Only a witness was present from France. After the signing of this act, our Western allies hastened to notify the world of Germany's surrender to the American and British troops. However, Stalin insisted that "surrender must be committed as the most important historical act and adopted not on the territory of the winners, but where the fascist aggression came from - in Berlin, and not unilaterally, but necessarily by the supreme command of all countries of the anti-Hitler coalition ".

On the night of May 8-9, 1945, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany was signed in Karlshorst (an eastern suburb of Berlin). The ceremony of signing the act took place in the building of the military engineering school, where a special hall was prepared, decorated with the state flags of the USSR, the USA, England and France. At the main table were representatives of the allied powers. The hall was attended by Soviet generals, whose troops took Berlin, as well as Soviet and foreign journalists. Marshal Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov was appointed representative of the Supreme High Command of the Soviet troops. The High Command of the Allied Forces was represented by the British Air Marshal Arthur V. Tedder, the commander of the US strategic air forces, General Spaatz, and the commander-in-chief of the French army, General Delattre de Tassigny. From the German side, Field Marshal Keitel, Admiral of the Fleet von Friedeburg and Colonel General of Aviation Stumpf were authorized to sign the act of unconditional surrender.

The ceremony of signing the surrender at 24 o'clock was opened by Marshal G.K. Zhukov. At his suggestion, Keitel presented to the heads of the Allied delegations a document on his powers, signed by Doenitz. The German delegation was then asked whether it had the Act of Unconditional Surrender in hand and whether it had studied it. After Keitel's affirmative answer, the representatives of the German armed forces, at the sign of Marshal Zhukov, signed an act drawn up in 9 copies. Then Tedder and Zhukov put their signatures, and representatives of the United States and France as witnesses. The procedure for signing the surrender ended at 00:43 on May 9, 1945. The German delegation, by order of Zhukov, left the hall. The act consisted of 6 paragraphs of the following content:

"one. We, the undersigned, acting on behalf of the German High Command, agree to the unconditional surrender of all our armed forces on land, sea and air, as well as all forces currently under German command, to the High Command of the Red Army and at the same time to the High Command Allied Expeditionary Force.

2. The German High Command will immediately issue orders to all German commanders of the land, sea and air forces and to all forces under German command to cease hostilities at 23:01 hours Central European Time on May 8, 1945, to remain in their places where they are at this time, and disarm completely, handing over all their weapons and military equipment to local Allied commanders or officers assigned by representatives of the Allied High Command, not to destroy or cause any damage to steamships, ships and aircraft, their engines, hulls and equipment, but also machines, armaments, apparatuses and all military-technical means of warfare in general.

3. The German High Command will immediately assign appropriate commanders and ensure that all further orders issued by the Supreme High Command of the Red Army and the High Command of the Allied Expeditionary Forces are carried out.

4. This act shall not prevent its replacement by another general instrument of surrender, concluded by or on behalf of the United Nations, applicable to Germany and the German armed forces as a whole.

5. In the event that the German High Command or any armed forces under its command do not act in accordance with this act of surrender, the High Command of the Red Army, as well as the High Command of the Allied Expeditionary Force, will take such punitive measures or other actions. as they deem necessary.

6. This act is drawn up in Russian, English and German. Only Russian and English texts are authentic.

At 0:50 the meeting was adjourned. After that, a reception took place, which was held with great enthusiasm. Much was said about the desire to strengthen friendly relations between the countries of the anti-fascist coalition. The festive dinner ended with songs and dances. As Marshal Zhukov recalls: "Soviet generals danced beyond competition. I also could not resist and, remembering my youth, I danced" Russian ""

The land, sea and air forces of the Wehrmacht on the Soviet-German front began to lay down their arms. By the end of the day on May 8, the Kurland Army Group, pressed against the Baltic Sea, stopped resisting. About 190 thousand soldiers and officers, including 42 generals, surrendered. On the morning of May 9, German troops surrendered in the area of Danzig and Gdynia. About 75 thousand soldiers and officers, including 12 generals, laid down their arms here. Task Force Narvik capitulated in Norway.

The Soviet landing force, which landed on the Danish island of Bornholm on May 9, captured it 2 days later and captured the German garrison (12,000 people) stationed there.

Small groups of Germans on the territory of Czechoslovakia and Austria, who did not want to surrender along with the bulk of the troops of Army Group Center and tried to make their way to the west, the Soviet troops had to destroy until May 19.

The final ending of the Great Patriotic War was victory parade, held on June 24 in Moscow (that year, the Feast of Pentecost, the Holy Trinity, fell on this day). Ten fronts and the Navy sent their best soldiers to participate in it. Among them were representatives of the Polish army. The consolidated regiments of the fronts, led by their illustrious commanders, marched solemnly along Red Square under battle banners.

Potsdam Conference (July 17 - August 2, 1945)

This conference was attended by governmental delegations of the allied states. The Soviet delegation headed by JV Stalin, the British delegation headed by Prime Minister Winston Churchill and the American delegation headed by President G. Truman. The first official meeting was attended by heads of government, all foreign ministers, their first deputies, military and civilian advisers and experts. The main issue of the conference was the question of the post-war structure of the countries of Europe and the reorganization of Germany. An agreement was reached on political and economic principles for coordinating Allied policy towards Germany during the period of Allied control over it. The text of the agreement stated that German militarism and Nazism were to be eradicated, all Nazi institutions were to be dissolved, and all members of the Nazi Party were to be removed from public office. War criminals must be arrested and brought to justice. The production of German armaments must be prohibited. With regard to the restoration of the German economy, it was decided that the main attention should be given to the development of peaceful industry and agriculture. Also, at the insistence of Stalin, it was decided that Germany should remain a single entity (the United States and England proposed dividing Germany into three states).

According to N.A. Narochnitskaya, “The most important, although never spoken aloud, result of Yalta and Potsdam was the actual recognition of the succession of the USSR in relation to the geopolitical area of the Russian Empire, combined with the newfound military power and international influence.”

Tatyana Radynova

It began at the end of 1942 with the beginning of the counteroffensive of the Soviet army - after the victory in Battle of Stalingrad. The incredible feat of the Soviet soldiers (at the cost of the lives of more than 1.2 million soldiers) turned the whole course World War II. Stalingrad hell is reflected in hundreds of literary works, musical works, theater, cinema, television, computer games.

February 2, 1943 Panzer Army General Paulus was completely destroyed, the rest of the divisions of the Wehrmacht, the 8th Italian army of Gariboldi, the 2nd Hungarian army, the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies and the 369th Croatian regiment were defeated in Stalingrad cauldron and scattered. It's hard to describe the hysteria Hitler who realized that the Soviet Union was by no means a "colossus with feet of clay" (as he himself said before), but blitzkrieg « Barbarossa"not only went to hell, but the whole course of the war began to threaten with defeat.

At this time, all of Europe froze, following the course of hostilities on the Eastern Front. Both the German generals and the allies of the USSR in anti-Hitler coalition were aware that the most important battles of the world war at that moment were taking place on the territory of the Soviet Union.

On August 23, Kharkov was liberated and the battle for the Dnieper. On September 22, Soviet troops began to force the Dnieper, and during the subsequent Korsun-Shevchenko operation surrounded and defeated the German troops. Started in October Kyiv offensive operation and on November 6, the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was liberated from the Nazi invaders.

Immediately after the Kursk Bulge, an operation was undertaken to liberation of Donbass. Donbass operation began on August 13, 1943, by the troops of the southern front, who on the eve expelled the Nazis from the Kuban, Rostov-on-Don and Taganrog. The most fierce fighting unfolded in the area of the villages of Kuibyshevo-Marinovka-Snezhnoye. The fascists occupied the dominant height known as Saur-Tomb. During repeated assaults, the height passed from hand to hand several times, until on August 31 the Soviet soldiers finally occupied it, and the Germans retreated. During the entire Donbass operation (especially in breaking through the defense mius-front, up to 800 thousand people died, although these data have not been verified. After the war, a memorial complex was built on Saur-Mogila, which, unfortunately, was destroyed during the fighting in August 2014, when the height passed into the hands of the Ukrainian military, then the army of the Donetsk Republic several times. On September 5, the 4th Ukrainian Front liberated an important industrial center - Artemovsk, and on September 8 - Stalino (Donetsk). By September 22, 1943, the Nazis were driven out to Zaporozhye, and the operation to liberate the Donbass was completed.

November 28, 1943 in Tehran (Iran) took place Tehran conference, which brought together the leaders of the governments of the USSR ( Stalin), Great Britain (Churchill) and USA (Roosevelt). During the meeting, the heads of state finally decided to open Second Front. Recall that the bombing of London by the Germans began in September 1940, and the Japanese as early as December 7, 1941 during attacks on Pearl Harbor destroyed over half of the American Pacific Fleet and killed 2,500 US citizens. During the conference, agents Hitler they tried to organize a terrorist attack and eliminate the leaders of the USSR, the USA and England, fortunately - unsuccessfully. Based on this event, in 1980 Mosfilm filmed Tehran-43.

By the end of 1942, the turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War gradually moved into a new stage - the offensive of the Soviet army against Nazi Germany and its allies. Not the last role in this turning point was played by the Soviet partisans. Partisan movement carried out with the support of the Soviet government. The reconnaissance and sabotage activities of Soviet citizens behind enemy lines in the occupied territories had no less effect than the actions of Denis Davydov's partisans in

TIME: 50 min.

VENUE: club

LEARNING QUESTIONS:

End of the Battle of Stalingrad.
Breaking the blockade of Leningrad.
North Caucasian operation "Small land".
Battle of Kursk.
Battle for the Dnieper.
Battle for Novorossiysk.

LITERATURE:

G.A. Kumanev 1941-1945 Brief history, documents, photographs

INFORMATION PROCEDURE:

TOPIC 4:"The most important operations of the Red Army and Navy in 1943".

Reports from the Soviet Information Bureau from the first days of 1943 brought good news about new victories in the battle against fascism.

The operations of the Soviet troops were carried out in accordance with the offensive plan developed by the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command in the second winter campaign and in 1943. It provided for the consistent entry of the main forces of the Red Army along almost the entire length of the Soviet-German front - from Lake Ladoga to the Black Sea. In the course of the offensive, it was necessary to finally wrest the strategic initiative from the hands of the enemy and launch a mass expulsion of the Nazi invaders from Soviet soil. At the same time, the main efforts of the Red Army were concentrated on the southern wing of the front, where powerful blows had already been dealt to the Nazis at the end of the past year of the war.

By the beginning of 1943, the Soviet Armed Forces were opposed by 195 divisions and 2 brigades - 73 percent of all enemy troops and about 60 percent of Nazi Germany's aviation, as well as 66 divisions and 13 brigades of its allies. Due to the lack of a second front in Europe, the Soviet Union had to grind alone in a cruel and difficult struggle the selective and most combat-ready formations of the fascist bloc. In January 1943, offensive operations of the Red Army unfolded in the region of Stalingrad, in the North Caucasus, the Upper Don, near Leningrad, in the Donbass, in the region of Rzhev and Demyansk.

The task of liquidating the encircled Nazi group near Stalingrad was assigned to the troops of the Don Front (commander - General K.K. Rokossovsky). It was envisaged to cut this grouping with strikes from several directions and destroy it piece by piece.

Fierce fighting continued for more than three weeks. On January 20, Colonel General Paulus requested Hitler's consent to surrender. But the fascist Fuhrer did not want to hear about the surrender of the encircled troops, although it was obvious that their further resistance was pointless. On the morning of January 22, Paulus repeated his request, but received the same negative answer in a categorical form.

The denouement was approaching. On January 25, units of the 21st Army broke into Stalingrad from the west, and the next day, in the area of Mamaev Kurgan, they joined forces with the troops of the 62nd Army. Thus, the encircled group was divided into two parts (southern and northern). Her combat capability has plummeted.

On January 31, the southern group capitulated. On the same day, the commander of the 6th German Army F. Paulus, who had been promoted by Hitler the day before to field marshal general, was captured along with his headquarters.

On February 2, after a powerful fire strike by Soviet artillery, the northern group also stopped resisting. This meant the victorious finale of the grandiose Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted 200 days and nights. In the course of it, the largest strategic grouping of the Nazi troops suffered a crushing defeat. The total losses of the enemy in killed, wounded, captured and missing amounted to about one and a half million soldiers and officers. Only from January 10 to February 2, 1943, during the liquidation of the enemy surrounded at Stalingrad, 22 divisions were defeated.

In this battle, the Soviet Union dealt a crushing blow not only to the elite enemy troops, but to the entire social and political system of fascism. The world saw that until recently, the powerful German fascist machine had significantly broken down. The morale of the troops of the Nazi bloc was greatly undermined.

Germany entered a period of deep crisis, its ally Japan, as well as Turkey, finally abandoned plans to start a war against the USSR.

The victory at the walls of Stalingrad was the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second World War. She created favorable opportunities for delivering subsequent powerful blows to the enemy. Firmly seizing the initiative in their hands, the Armed Forces of the USSR began the mass expulsion of the invaders from Soviet soil.

Of particular importance in the second winter campaign was the breakthrough of the enemy blockade of Leningrad. This difficult operation was carried out in January 1943 by the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts.

There was a large enemy grouping near Leningrad: the 18th German Army, which besieged the city from the south and southeast, had 25 divisions, and the Finnish army, which closed the blockade ring from the north, had about 5 divisions. During the sixteen months of the most severe siege of Leningrad, the enemy created powerful defensive fortifications around the city, making maximum use of the already favorable natural boundaries for him.

On January 12, soldiers of the 67th Army of the Leningrad Front and the 2nd Shock Army of the Volkhov Front, supported by two air armies, rushed towards each other through the Shlisselburg-Sinyavinsky ledge. On the sixth day of the offensive, despite the stubborn resistance of the enemy, they united in the areas of workers' settlements No. 5 and No. 1.

Thus, the many-month-long enemy blockade of the city of Lenin was broken.

The most important link in the general offensive of the Red Army, which unfolded at the beginning of the year, was the North Caucasian operation of the Southern and Transcaucasian fronts in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet. The main goal of this operation, carried out from January 1 to February 4, 1943, was to defeat the enemy groups concentrated here and liberate the industrial and agricultural regions of the Don, Kuban and Terek.

In an effort to avoid the encirclement of their troops in the North Caucasus, on January 1, the Nazi command began to withdraw them from the Mozdok-Nalchik region in a northwestern direction. Parts of the Red Army relentlessly pursued the stubbornly resisting enemy.

The battle for the Caucasus flared up with renewed vigor. By the beginning of February, the main grouping of enemy troops was forced to retreat to Taman, and a small part to Rostov. At the same time, Hitler hoped to retain the Taman Peninsula at any cost in order to launch a new offensive into the Caucasus from here in the summer of 1943. Therefore, the Nazis did everything possible to prevent the Soviet troops from breaking through here. They fortified the area of Novorossiysk especially strongly, where fierce fighting had been going on for several months. Landing on the outskirts of the city on February 4, 1943, the landing under the command of Major Ts. L. Kunikov laid the foundation for the creation of an important bridgehead, which went down in history under the name "Small Land". For 225 days it was heroically defended by the valiant warriors of the 18th Army and the Black Sea sailors.

Inspired by the communists, the glorious defenders of Malaya Zemlya largely contributed to the defeat of the Nazi invaders near Novorossiysk in the autumn of 1943.

The offensive operations of the Red Army in the North Caucasus continued until mid-February. By this time, Soviet troops had advanced 160-600 kilometers, having cleared most of the territory of the North Caucasus and the Rostov region from enemy occupation.

On February 15, taking advantage of the favorable situation created, the soldiers of the North-Western Front went on the offensive in the areas of Demyansk and Staraya Russa. The offensive continued here until March 1, as a result of which the Demyansky bridgehead was liquidated, which the enemy held for almost a year and a half. By the end of March, it was possible to clear the Rzhev-Vyazma ledge from the enemy, which the Nazis called "a pistol aimed at the chest of Moscow."

As a result of stubborn battles, the front line moved away from the Soviet capital by another 130-160 kilometers.

The fighting of the Red Army in the winter of 1942/43 put the Nazi troops in a difficult situation. However, the fascist command was able to send new reserves from Western Europe to the Eastern Front, regrouped troops and temporarily stabilized the front line. In the Left-Bank Ukraine and in the Donbass, the enemy even launched a counteroffensive and in March 1943 again captured Kharkov, which had been liberated before by the Red Army.

During the winter campaign, the Soviet Armed Forces successfully accomplished a number of important strategic tasks. From November 1942 to the end of March 1943, they defeated more than 100 enemy divisions, or more than 40 percent of all forces operating against the USSR. During this time, the Red Army pushed back the fascist troops by almost 600-700 kilometers, and an area of over 480 thousand square kilometers was cleared of the invaders.

By the spring of 1943, there was a lull on the battlefields. Both belligerents conducted accelerated preparations for new active operations.

Nazi Germany sought to restore its shaken position on the Eastern Front, take revenge for the defeat at Stalingrad and turn the tide of the war in its favor.

By the beginning of the third year of the war, fascist Germany had 42 more divisions on the Soviet-German front than at the beginning of hostilities against the USSR. However, these forces were not enough to conduct offensive operations simultaneously in several strategic directions. The Hitlerite command decided to organize a powerful offensive only on one - the Kursk - sector of the front. The plan developed, called the Citadel, was based on the idea of surrounding and destroying Soviet troops on the Kursk ledge of the front, and then developing an offensive inland. By July 1943, the enemy had concentrated up to 50 of his best divisions in the Kursk area, including 16 tank and motorized divisions, large artillery and aviation forces. In total, in the battle of Kursk, the enemy planned to use more than a third of all German formations located on the Soviet-German front. The Nazis were preparing a massive use of new heavy tanks "Tiger", "Panther" and self-propelled guns "Ferdinand".

All this testified to the fact that the armed forces of the fascist bloc were still a powerful military machine, the complete destruction of which required enormous efforts. In the order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin on February 23, 1943 said: “The enemy has been defeated, but he has not yet been defeated. The fascist German army is going through a crisis because of the blows received from the Red Army, but this does not mean that it cannot recover. The fight against the German invaders is not yet over - it is only unfolding and flaring up. It would be foolish to believe that the Germans will leave at least a kilometer of our land without a fight.

The plan of the Soviet command was distinguished by great courage and originality. The transition to a temporary deliberate defense was the most advantageous way to bleed the enemy strike groupings during a defensive battle and thereby create favorable conditions for the transition of Soviet troops to a counteroffensive and a general offensive. According to the developed plan, the troops of several fronts were preparing for the battle of Kursk. The supply of Soviet troops with everything necessary continued to grow steadily.

By the beginning of the Battle of Kursk, the preparation for it of units and formations of the Bryansk, Central, Voronezh, Steppe, Southwestern Fronts, as well as the left wing of the Western Front, was actually completed.

At dawn on July 5, 1943, the Nazis attacked the defenses of the Soviet fronts. The battle immediately took on a very tense character.

Soviet soldiers stubbornly defended each defensive line, destroying thousands of enemy soldiers and officers, hundreds of tanks, assault guns and other military equipment.

On July 12, 1943, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to bring large tank and combined arms reserves into battle. On the fields near the hitherto little-known village of Prokhorovka, an unprecedented tank battle in the history of wars unfolded, in which about 1200 armored vehicles participated on both sides. Hitler threw here his selected SS Panzer Divisions - "Dead Head", "Reich", "Adolf Hitler".

In heavy fighting, the enemy was exhausted and bled. Parts of the Red Army launched a counteroffensive. On August 5, overcoming the stubborn resistance of the enemy, Soviet troops captured Orel and Belgorod. On August 23, Kharkov was taken by storm. Starting with these victories, every major victory of the Red Army began to be celebrated with salutes.

The victory at Kursk was the hardest defeat of fascist Germany, from which the enemy was no longer able to recover until the end of the war. It changed the balance of forces even more in favor of the Red Army, creating favorable conditions for its general offensive. In this battle, the offensive strategy of the Wehrmacht suffered a final collapse.

The Soviet Armed Forces retained the strategic initiative and did not let it go until the end of the war.

After the victorious conclusion of the Battle of Kursk, a general summer offensive of the Soviet troops followed. It unfolded on the front from Nevel to the Sea of Azov with a length of up to 2 thousand kilometers. During three months of offensive fighting, the soldiers of the Red Army liberated hundreds of large cities and towns.

A major event in the second period of the Great Patriotic War was the battle for the Dnieper. It was here that Hitler hoped to create an impregnable "Eastern Wall" and move on to a protracted positional war in order to gradually deplete the forces of the Red Army. But this plan was thwarted by the Soviet command.

Before the Soviet troops liberating Ukraine, there was a difficult task: without slowing down the offensive, overcome the Dnieper on the move and destroy the Eastern Wall created by the enemy.

Side by side with the soldiers of the Red Army, 11 partisan formations were preparing to cross the Dnieper.

At the end of August 1943, the troops of the Red Army, with the coordinated efforts of four fronts, broke through the enemy defenses. By the end of September, the Donbass and vast areas of Left-Bank Ukraine were cleared of the enemy.

Consistently implementing the developed plan, the Soviet command increased its strikes against the enemy in other sectors of the Soviet-German front. On September 10, at the direction of the Headquarters, the troops of the North Caucasian Front again went on the offensive. They were faced with the task of clearing the Black Sea coast from the enemy in the Novorossiysk region and liberating the Taman Peninsula.

On the very first day of the offensive, forward landing detachment No. 2 under the command of Lieutenant Commander V. A. Botylev broke into the port of Novorossiysk and captured the railway station. Other paratroopers landed behind him.

At the same time, soldiers of the 18th Army made their way into the city from the north. From the south, the positions of the Nazis were stormed by small-landers. The struggle was for every square meter of the city. But, no matter how the enemy resisted, the onslaught of Soviet soldiers and sailors was unstoppable.

On September 14, the small-landers united with the troops advancing from the mainland, and on September 16, Moscow saluted the soldiers of the North Caucasian Front and the sailors of the Black Sea Fleet, who won a complete victory in the battle for Novorossiysk.

The defeat of the fascist troops in Novorossiysk was the beginning of the collapse of the powerful defensive fortifications of the enemy - the so-called "Blue Line" - and was of great importance for the expulsion of the enemy from the Taman Peninsula and the beginning of our attack on the Crimea, and thereby the beginning of the liberation of Ukraine. The victory in Novorossiysk created favorable conditions for the completion of the battle for the complete liberation of the Caucasus from the Nazi invaders.

The defeat of the Nazi troops near Novorossiysk provided favorable conditions for the defeat of the enemy's Taman grouping.

Thus ended the battle for the Caucasus victoriously, which was a significant milestone in the armed confrontation between the Soviet people and fascism.

At the beginning of September 1943, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command directed the Soviet troops to carry out an extremely important task - to reach the Dnieper on a wide front and force this powerful water barrier on the move. Without slowing down the pace of the offensive, by the end of September, on a 750-kilometer front, the Red Army reached the Dnieper and immediately began to force it.

The battle for the Dnieper lasted almost the whole of October. The enemy launched counterattacks, trying to throw the Soviet troops from the bridgeheads they had captured into the river. However, the Red Army repulsed the onslaught of the Nazi troops.

After fierce fighting, the capital of Soviet Ukraine was liberated. In the battles for Kyiv, the soldiers of the Red Army inflicted enormous damage on the enemy, completely defeating 15 divisions.

As a result of the liberation of Kyiv, a large bridgehead was formed to the west of it, which was of great strategic importance. Realizing this, the enemy sent fresh reinforcements here and launched a new counteroffensive in mid-November. At the cost of heavy losses on November 25, he managed to advance towards Kyiv by 35-40 kilometers and recapture Zhitomir. However, the further advance of the enemy troops was stopped. With combined blows, the troops of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian fronts defeated the fascist group. Having finally lost all hope of holding the Eastern Wall in their hands, the Nazis rolled to the west.

The battle for the Dnieper was brilliantly won by the Armed Forces of the USSR and was one of the most important events of the second period of the Great Patriotic War.

By the beginning of November, the Red Army had already liberated almost two-thirds of the Soviet land occupied by them from enemy troops. In the summer-autumn battles of 1943, more than 100 German divisions were defeated. The past year in the Great Patriotic War turned out to be a turning point, primarily because the Red Army succeeded for the first time during the war in carrying out a large summer offensive, and also because in a relatively short time it was possible to defeat the most experienced old cadres of the fascist troops, at the same time tempering and multiplying its own footage in successful offensive battles.

1943

January 12-18, 1943 The blockade of Leningrad was broken. The breakthrough was carried out by the armies of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts with the active assistance of the Baltic Fleet. During the blockade, 850,000 people died from starvation, cold and bombing in the city. There could have been much fewer deaths if the city leadership had calculated everything in advance and taken the necessary measures.

January 24 - February 2, 1943 carrying out the Voronezh-Kastornensky operation. It was successfully carried out by the armies of the Voronezh and Bryansk fronts, having liberated the city of Voronezh.

July 5, 1943 the battle of Kursk, which lasted about two months and went down in history as the largest tank military battle ever fought.

July 12, 1943 the largest tank battle during the 2nd World War near the village of Prokhorovka. Approximately 1200 tanks, as well as assault guns, simultaneously participated in the oncoming battle from both sides. The battle formations mingled with each other. Those vehicles that survived fought between the fires of burning tanks.

July 12 - August 23, 1943 active offensive of the Soviet army near Kursk. Having tired the enemy, the Red Army began to actively advance. The armies of the Bryansk, Western, Central, Voronezh, and also the Steppe fronts took part in the battle. On August 5, our troops liberated Orel and Belgorod, and on August 23, the city of Kharkov. At this stage, the Battle of Kursk ended.

August 5, 1943 in Moscow, the first salute was given in honor of the victories of the Soviet Army. Salute was given on the liberation of Orel, as well as Belgorod. September - December 1943 a fierce battle for the Dnieper River. During this operation, the "Eastern Wall" was defeated - which is a powerful defensive line of the German troops. Most often, by swimming or on the most ordinary rafts, people tried to get to the other side and gain a foothold there, making the basis for the subsequent offensive.

September 16, 1943 The city of Novorossiysk was liberated. The armies of the North Caucasian Front together with the Black Sea Fleet took part in its liberation.

October 28, 1943 The Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a decree on accomplices of fascism. In the period from October to June 1943-1944, Kalmyks (140,000), Tatars (200,000), Chechens (400,000), Ingush (100,000), Karachays (80,000), Balkars (40,000).

December 12, 1943 Between the USSR and Czechoslovakia, an agreement was signed on friendship and further cooperation after the war.

December 24, 1943 - May 12, 1944 an operation was carried out to liberate the Right Bank of Ukraine, as well as the Crimea. December 1943 successful reflection of the active offensive of the German troops.

USSR and allies

Germany and allies

		Breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad

		Kursk Bulge

		Battle for the Dnieper