What was the war 1941 1945. The beginning of the great Patriotic war
The Great Patriotic War- the war of the USSR with Germany and its allies in - years and with Japan in 1945; an integral part of World War II.
From the point of view of the leadership of Nazi Germany, the war with the USSR was inevitable. The communist regime was regarded by him as alien, and at the same time capable of striking at any moment. Only the rapid defeat of the USSR gave the Germans the opportunity to ensure dominance on the European continent. In addition, he gave them access to the rich industrial and agricultural regions of Eastern Europe.
At the same time, according to some historians, Stalin himself, at the end of 1939, decided on a preemptive attack on Germany in the summer of 1941. On June 15, Soviet troops began strategic deployment and advance to the western border. According to one version, this was done in order to strike at Romania and German-occupied Poland, according to another, to frighten Hitler and force him to abandon plans to attack the USSR.
The first period of the war (June 22, 1941 - November 18, 1942)
The first stage of the German offensive (June 22 - July 10, 1941)
On June 22, the mobilization of those liable for military service born in 1905-1918 was carried out in the USSR, and from the first days of the war, a mass registration of volunteers began. On June 23, in the USSR, an emergency body of the highest military administration, the Headquarters of the High Command, was created to direct military operations, and there was also a maximum centralization of military and political power in the hands of Stalin.
On June 22, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill made a radio statement supporting the USSR in its struggle against Hitlerism. On June 23, the US State Department welcomed the efforts of the Soviet people to repel the German invasion, and on June 24, US President Franklin Roosevelt promised to provide the USSR with all possible assistance.
On July 18, the Soviet leadership decided to organize a partisan movement in the occupied and frontline regions, which gained momentum in the second half of the year.
In the summer-autumn of 1941, about 10 million people were evacuated to the east. and more than 1350 large enterprises. The militarization of the economy began to be carried out with harsh and energetic measures; all the material resources of the country were mobilized for military needs.
The main reason for the defeats of the Red Army, despite its quantitative and often qualitative (T-34 and KV tanks) technical superiority, was the poor training of privates and officers, the low level of operation of military equipment and the lack of experience among the troops in conducting major military operations in modern warfare. . The repressions against the high command in 1937-1940 also played a significant role.
The second stage of the German offensive (July 10 - September 30, 1941)
On July 10, Finnish troops launched an offensive and on September 1, the 23rd Soviet Army on the Karelian Isthmus withdrew to the line of the old state border, occupied before the Finnish war of 1939–1940. By October 10, the front had stabilized along the line Kestenga - Ukhta - Rugozero - Medvezhyegorsk - Lake Onega. - river Svir. The enemy was unable to cut the communication lines of European Russia with the northern ports.
On July 10, the Army Group "North" launched an offensive in the Leningrad and Tallinn directions. August 15 fell Novgorod, August 21 - Gatchina. On August 30, the Germans reached the Neva, cutting off the railway communication with the city, and on September 8 they took Shlisselburg and closed the blockade ring around Leningrad. Only the tough measures of the new commander of the Leningrad Front, G.K. Zhukov, made it possible to stop the enemy by September 26.
On July 16, the Romanian 4th Army took Kishinev; the defense of Odessa lasted about two months. Soviet troops left the city only in the first half of October. In early September, Guderian crossed the Desna and on September 7 captured Konotop ("Konotop breakthrough"). Five Soviet armies were surrounded; the number of prisoners was 665 thousand. Left-bank Ukraine was in the hands of the Germans; the way to the Donbass was open; Soviet troops in the Crimea were cut off from the main forces.
The defeats on the fronts prompted the Headquarters to issue order No. 270 on August 16, qualifying all soldiers and officers who surrendered as traitors and deserters; their families were deprived of state support and were subject to exile.
The third stage of the German offensive (September 30 - December 5, 1941)
On September 30, Army Group Center launched an operation to capture Moscow (Typhoon). On October 3, Guderian's tanks broke into Orel and took to the road to Moscow. On October 6-8, all three armies of the Bryansk Front were surrounded south of Bryansk, and the main forces of the Reserve (19th, 20th, 24th and 32nd armies) - west of Vyazma; the Germans captured 664,000 prisoners and more than 1,200 tanks. But the advance of the 2nd tank group of the Wehrmacht to Tula was thwarted by the stubborn resistance of the brigade of M.E. Katukov near Mtsensk; The 4th Panzer Group occupied Yukhnov and rushed towards Maloyaroslavets, but was held up near Medyn by Podolsk cadets (October 6–10); the autumn thaw also slowed down the pace of the German offensive.
On October 10, the Germans attacked the right wing of the Reserve Front (renamed the Western Front); On October 12, the 9th Army captured Staritsa, and on October 14 - Rzhev. On October 19, a state of siege was declared in Moscow. On October 29, Guderian tried to take Tula, but was repulsed with heavy losses for himself. In early November, the new commander of the Western Front, Zhukov, with an incredible effort of all forces and constant counterattacks, managed, despite huge losses in manpower and equipment, to stop the Germans in other directions.
On September 27, the Germans broke through the defense line of the Southern Front. Most of the Donbass was in the hands of the Germans. During the successful counter-offensive of the troops of the Southern Front, Rostov was liberated on November 29, and the Germans were driven back to the Mius River.
In the second half of October, the 11th German Army broke into the Crimea and by mid-November captured almost the entire peninsula. Soviet troops managed to hold only Sevastopol.
Counteroffensive of the Red Army near Moscow (December 5, 1941 - January 7, 1942)
On December 5-6, the Kalinin, Western and Southwestern fronts switched to offensive operations in the northwestern and southwestern directions. The successful advance of the Soviet troops forced Hitler on December 8 to issue a directive on the transition to defense along the entire front line. On December 18, the troops of the Western Front launched an offensive in the central direction. As a result, by the beginning of the year, the Germans were pushed back 100–250 km to the west. There was a threat of coverage of the army group "Center" from the north and south. The strategic initiative passed to the Red Army.
The success of the operation near Moscow prompted the Headquarters to decide on the transition to a general offensive along the entire front from Lake Ladoga to the Crimea. The offensive operations of the Soviet troops in December 1941 - April 1942 led to a significant change in the military-strategic situation on the Soviet-German front: the Germans were driven back from Moscow, Moscow, part of the Kalinin, Oryol and Smolensk regions were liberated. There was also a psychological turning point among the soldiers and the civilian population: faith in victory was strengthened, the myth of the invincibility of the Wehrmacht was destroyed. The collapse of the lightning war plan gave rise to doubts about the successful outcome of the war, both among the German military-political leadership and among ordinary Germans.
Luban operation (January 13 - June 25)
The Lyuban operation was aimed at breaking through the blockade of Leningrad. On January 13, the forces of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts launched an offensive in several directions, planning to link up at Lyuban and encircle the enemy's Chudov grouping. On March 19, the Germans launched a counterattack, cutting off the 2nd shock army from the rest of the forces of the Volkhov Front. Soviet troops repeatedly tried to release it and resume the offensive. On May 21, the Stavka decided to withdraw it, but on June 6 the Germans completely closed the encirclement. On June 20, soldiers and officers were ordered to leave the encirclement on their own, but only a few managed to do this (according to various estimates, from 6 to 16 thousand people); commander A.A. Vlasov surrendered.
Military operations in May-November 1942
Having defeated the Crimean Front (almost 200 thousand people were taken prisoner), the Germans occupied Kerch on May 16, and Sevastopol in early July. On May 12, the troops of the Southwestern Front and the Southern Front launched an offensive against Kharkov. For several days it developed successfully, but on May 19 the Germans defeated the 9th Army, throwing it behind the Seversky Donets, went to the rear of the advancing Soviet troops and on May 23 took them into pincers; the number of prisoners reached 240 thousand. On June 28-30, the German offensive began against the left wing of the Bryansk and the right wing of the Southwestern Front. On July 8, the Germans captured Voronezh and reached the Middle Don. By July 22, the 1st and 4th tank armies had reached the Southern Don. On July 24, Rostov-on-Don was taken.
In the conditions of a military catastrophe in the south, on July 28, Stalin issued order No. 227 “Not a step back”, which provided for severe punishments for retreating without instructions from above, detachments to deal with unauthorized leaving positions, penal units for operations on the most dangerous sectors of the front. On the basis of this order, during the war years, about 1 million military personnel were convicted, of which 160 thousand were shot, and 400 thousand were sent to penal companies.
On July 25, the Germans crossed the Don and rushed south. In mid-August, the Germans established control over almost all the passes in the central part of the Main Caucasian Range. In the Grozny direction, the Germans occupied Nalchik on October 29, they failed to take Ordzhonikidze and Grozny, and in mid-November their further advance was stopped.
On August 16, German troops launched an offensive against Stalingrad. On September 13, fighting began in Stalingrad itself. In the second half of October - the first half of November, the Germans captured a significant part of the city, but could not break the resistance of the defenders.
By mid-November, the Germans established control over the Right Bank of the Don and most of the North Caucasus, but did not achieve their strategic goals - to break into the Volga region and Transcaucasia. This was prevented by the counterattacks of the Red Army in other directions (the Rzhev meat grinder, the tank battle between Zubtsov and Karmanovo, etc.), which, although unsuccessful, nevertheless did not allow the Wehrmacht command to transfer reserves to the south.
The second period of the war (November 19, 1942 - December 31, 1943): a radical change
Victory at Stalingrad (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943)
On November 19, units of the Southwestern Front broke through the defenses of the 3rd Romanian Army and on November 21 took five Romanian divisions in pincers (Operation Saturn). On November 23, units of the two fronts joined at the Soviet and surrounded the Stalingrad enemy grouping.
On December 16, the troops of the Voronezh and South-Western Fronts launched Operation Little Saturn on the Middle Don, defeated the 8th Italian Army, and on January 26, the 6th Army was cut into two parts. On January 31, the southern grouping led by F. Paulus capitulated, on February 2 - the northern one; 91 thousand people were captured. The Battle of Stalingrad, despite the heavy losses of the Soviet troops, was the beginning of a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War. The Wehrmacht suffered a major defeat and lost the strategic initiative. Japan and Turkey abandoned their intention to enter the war on the side of Germany.
Economic recovery and transition to the offensive in the central direction
By this time, a turning point had also occurred in the sphere of the Soviet military economy. Already in the winter of 1941/1942 it was possible to stop the decline in engineering. In March, ferrous metallurgy began to rise, and in the second half of 1942, energy and the fuel industry began to rise. By the beginning there was a clear economic superiority of the USSR over Germany.
In November 1942 - January 1943, the Red Army launched an offensive in the central direction.
Operation "Mars" (Rzhev-Sychevskaya) was carried out in order to eliminate the Rzhev-Vyazma bridgehead. The formations of the Western Front made their way through the Rzhev-Sychevka railway and raided the enemy rear, however, significant losses and a lack of tanks, guns and ammunition forced them to stop, but this operation did not allow the Germans to transfer part of their forces from the central direction to Stalingrad.
Liberation of the North Caucasus (January 1 - February 12, 1943)
On January 1–3, an operation began to liberate the North Caucasus and the Don bend. On January 3, Mozdok was liberated, on January 10-11 - Kislovodsk, Mineralnye Vody, Essentuki and Pyatigorsk, on January 21 - Stavropol. On January 24, the Germans surrendered Armavir, on January 30 - Tikhoretsk. On February 4, the Black Sea Fleet landed troops in the Myskhako area south of Novorossiysk. On February 12, Krasnodar was taken. However, the lack of forces prevented the Soviet troops from encircling the enemy's North Caucasian grouping.
Breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad (January 12–30, 1943)
Fearing the encirclement of the main forces of Army Group Center on the Rzhev-Vyazma bridgehead, the German command began on March 1 their systematic withdrawal. On March 2, units of the Kalinin and Western fronts began pursuing the enemy. On March 3, Rzhev was liberated, on March 6 - Gzhatsk, on March 12 - Vyazma.
The January-March 1943 campaign, despite a series of setbacks, led to the liberation of a huge territory (the North Caucasus, the lower reaches of the Don, the Voroshilovgrad, Voronezh, Kursk regions, and part of the Belgorod, Smolensk, and Kalinin regions). The blockade of Leningrad was broken, the Demyansky and Rzhev-Vyazemsky ledges were liquidated. Control over the Volga and Don was restored. The Wehrmacht suffered huge losses (about 1.2 million people). The depletion of human resources forced the Nazi leadership to conduct a total mobilization of older (over 46 years old) and younger ages (16-17 years old).
Since the winter of 1942/1943, the partisan movement in the German rear has become an important military factor. The partisans caused serious damage to the German army, destroying manpower, blowing up warehouses and trains, disrupting the communications system. The largest operations were the raids of the detachment of M.I. Naumov in Kursk, Sumy, Poltava, Kirovograd, Odessa, Vinnitsa, Kyiv and Zhytomyr (February-March 1943) and S.A. Kovpak in Rivne, Zhytomyr and Kyiv regions (February-May 1943).
Defensive battle on the Kursk Bulge (July 5–23, 1943)
The Wehrmacht command developed Operation Citadel to encircle a strong group of the Red Army on the Kursk ledge through counter tank strikes from the north and south; if successful, it was planned to carry out Operation Panther to defeat the Southwestern Front. However, Soviet intelligence unraveled the plans of the Germans, and in April-June a powerful defensive system of eight lines was created on the Kursk ledge.
On July 5, the German 9th Army launched an attack on Kursk from the north, and the 4th Panzer Army from the south. On the northern flank, already on July 10, the Germans went on the defensive. On the southern wing, Wehrmacht tank columns reached Prokhorovka on July 12, but were stopped, and by July 23, the troops of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts pushed them back to their original lines. Operation Citadel failed.
The general offensive of the Red Army in the second half of 1943 (July 12 - December 24, 1943). Liberation of Left-bank Ukraine
On July 12, units of the Western and Bryansk fronts broke through the German defenses at Zhilkovo and Novosil, by August 18, Soviet troops cleared the Orlovsky ledge from the enemy.
By September 22, units of the Southwestern Front pushed the Germans back beyond the Dnieper and reached the approaches to Dnepropetrovsk (now the Dnieper) and Zaporozhye; formations of the Southern Front occupied Taganrog, on September 8, Stalino (now Donetsk), on September 10 - Mariupol; the result of the operation was the liberation of Donbass.
On August 3, the troops of the Voronezh and Steppe Fronts broke through the defenses of Army Group South in several places and captured Belgorod on August 5. On August 23 Kharkov was taken.
On September 25, by means of flank attacks from the south and north, the troops of the Western Front captured Smolensk and by the beginning of October entered the territory of Belarus.
On August 26, the Central, Voronezh and Steppe Fronts launched the Chernigov-Poltava operation. The troops of the Central Front broke through the enemy defenses south of Sevsk and occupied the city on August 27; On September 13, they reached the Dnieper at the Loev–Kyiv section. Parts of the Voronezh Front reached the Dnieper in the Kyiv-Cherkassy sector. The formations of the Steppe Front approached the Dnieper in the Cherkasy-Verkhnedneprovsk section. As a result, the Germans lost almost all of Left-Bank Ukraine. At the end of September, Soviet troops crossed the Dnieper in several places and captured 23 bridgeheads on its right bank.
On September 1, the troops of the Bryansk Front overcame the Wehrmacht's defense line "Hagen" and occupied Bryansk, by October 3, the Red Army reached the line of the Sozh River in Eastern Belarus.
On September 9, the North Caucasian Front, in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov military flotilla, launched an offensive on the Taman Peninsula. Having broken through the Blue Line, Soviet troops took Novorossiysk on September 16, and by October 9 they completely cleared the peninsula of the Germans.
On October 10, the Southwestern Front launched an operation to eliminate the Zaporozhye bridgehead and on October 14 captured Zaporozhye.
On October 11, the Voronezh (since October 20 - 1st Ukrainian) Front began the Kyiv operation. After two unsuccessful attempts to take the capital of Ukraine with an attack from the south (from the Bukrinsky bridgehead), it was decided to launch the main attack from the north (from the Lyutezhsky bridgehead). On November 1, in order to divert the attention of the enemy, the 27th and 40th armies moved to Kyiv from the Bukrinsky bridgehead, and on November 3rd, the shock group of the 1st Ukrainian Front suddenly attacked him from the Lyutezhsky bridgehead and broke through the German defenses. On November 6, Kyiv was liberated.
On November 13, the Germans, having pulled up their reserves, launched a counteroffensive against the 1st Ukrainian Front in the Zhytomyr direction in order to recapture Kyiv and restore the defense along the Dnieper. But the Red Army held the vast strategic Kyiv bridgehead on the right bank of the Dnieper.
During the period of hostilities from June 1 to December 31, the Wehrmacht suffered huge losses (1 million 413 thousand people), which it was no longer able to fully compensate for. A significant part of the territory of the USSR occupied in 1941–1942 was liberated. The plans of the German command to gain a foothold on the Dnieper lines failed. Conditions were created for the expulsion of the Germans from the Right-Bank Ukraine.
Third period of the war (December 24, 1943 - May 11, 1945): defeat of Germany
After a series of failures throughout 1943, the German command abandoned attempts to seize the strategic initiative and switched to a tough defense. The main task of the Wehrmacht in the north was to prevent the breakthrough of the Red Army into the Baltic states and East Prussia, in the center to the border with Poland, and in the south to the Dniester and the Carpathians. The Soviet military leadership set the goal of the winter-spring campaign to defeat the German troops on the extreme flanks - in the Right-Bank Ukraine and near Leningrad.
Liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine and Crimea
On December 24, 1943, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched an offensive in the western and southwestern directions (Zhytomyr-Berdichev operation). Only at the cost of great effort and significant losses did the Germans manage to stop the Soviet troops on the Sarny-Polonnaya-Kazatin-Zhashkov line. On January 5–6, units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front struck in the Kirovograd direction and captured Kirovograd on January 8, but on January 10 they were forced to stop the offensive. The Germans did not allow the connection of the troops of both fronts and were able to keep the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky ledge, which posed a threat to Kyiv from the south.
On January 24, the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian fronts launched a joint operation to defeat the enemy's Korsun-Shevchensk grouping. On January 28, the 6th and 5th Guards Tank Armies joined at Zvenigorodka and closed the encirclement. Kanev was taken on January 30, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky on February 14. On February 17, the liquidation of the "cauldron" was completed; more than 18 thousand Wehrmacht soldiers were taken prisoner.
On January 27, units of the 1st Ukrainian Front struck from the Sarn region in the Lutsk-Rivne direction. On January 30, the offensive of the troops of the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian fronts began on the Nikopol bridgehead. Having overcome the fierce resistance of the enemy, on February 8 they captured Nikopol, on February 22 - Krivoy Rog, and by February 29 they reached the river. Ingulets.
As a result of the winter campaign of 1943/1944, the Germans were finally driven back from the Dnieper. In an effort to make a strategic breakthrough to the borders of Romania and prevent the Wehrmacht from gaining a foothold on the Southern Bug, Dniester and Prut rivers, the Headquarters developed a plan to encircle and defeat Army Group South in Right-Bank Ukraine through a coordinated strike of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts .
The final chord of the spring operation in the south was the expulsion of the Germans from the Crimea. On May 7–9, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, with the support of the Black Sea Fleet, stormed Sevastopol, and by May 12 they defeated the remnants of the 17th Army that had fled to Chersonese.
Leningrad-Novgorod operation of the Red Army (January 14 - March 1, 1944)
On January 14, the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts launched an offensive south of Leningrad and near Novgorod. Having inflicted a defeat on the German 18th Army and pushed it back to Luga, they liberated Novgorod on January 20. In early February, units of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts reached the approaches to Narva, Gdov and Luga; On February 4 they took Gdov, on February 12 - Luga. The threat of encirclement forced the 18th Army to hastily retreat to the southwest. On February 17, the 2nd Baltic Front carried out a series of attacks against the 16th German Army on the Lovat River. In early March, the Red Army reached the defensive line "Panther" (Narva - Lake Peipsi - Pskov - Ostrov); most of the Leningrad and Kalinin regions were liberated.
Military operations in the central direction in December 1943 - April 1944
As the tasks of the winter offensive of the 1st Baltic, Western and Belorussian fronts, the Headquarters set the troops to reach the Polotsk-Lepel-Mogilev-Ptich line and liberate Eastern Belarus.
In December 1943 - February 1944, the 1st PribF made three attempts to capture Vitebsk, which did not lead to the capture of the city, but exhausted the enemy's forces to the limit. The offensive actions of the Polar Front in the Orsha direction on February 22-25 and March 5-9, 1944 were not successful either.
On the Mozyr direction, the Belorussian Front (BelF) on January 8 dealt a strong blow to the flanks of the 2nd German Army, but thanks to a hasty retreat, it managed to avoid encirclement. The lack of forces prevented the Soviet troops from encircling and destroying the Bobruisk enemy grouping, and on February 26 the offensive was stopped. Formed on February 17 at the junction of the 1st Ukrainian and Belorussian (since February 24, 1st Belorussian) fronts, the 2nd Belorussian Front began the Polessky operation on March 15 with the aim of capturing Kovel and breaking through to Brest. Soviet troops surrounded Kovel, but on March 23 the Germans launched a counterattack and on April 4 released the Kovel group.
Thus, in the central direction during the winter-spring campaign of 1944, the Red Army was unable to achieve its goals; On April 15, she went on the defensive.
Offensive in Karelia (June 10 - August 9, 1944). Finland's exit from the war
After the loss of most of the occupied territory of the USSR, the main task of the Wehrmacht was to prevent the Red Army from entering Europe and not to lose its allies. That is why the Soviet military-political leadership, having failed in their attempts to reach a peace agreement with Finland in February-April 1944, decided to start the summer campaign of the year with a strike in the north.
On June 10, 1944, LenF troops, with the support of the Baltic Fleet, launched an offensive on the Karelian Isthmus, as a result, control was restored over the White Sea-Baltic Canal and the strategically important Kirov Railway connecting Murmansk with European Russia. By early August, Soviet troops had liberated all of the occupied territory east of Ladoga; in the Kuolisma area, they reached the Finnish border. Having suffered a defeat, Finland on August 25 entered into negotiations with the USSR. On September 4, she broke off relations with Berlin and ceased hostilities, on September 15 she declared war on Germany, and on September 19 she concluded a truce with the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. The length of the Soviet-German front was reduced by a third. This allowed the Red Army to free up significant forces for operations in other directions.
Liberation of Belarus (June 23 - early August 1944)
Successes in Karelia prompted the Headquarters to conduct a large-scale operation to defeat the enemy in the central direction with the forces of three Belorussian and 1st Baltic fronts (Operation Bagration), which became the main event of the summer-autumn campaign of 1944.
The general offensive of the Soviet troops began on June 23–24. The coordinated strike of the 1st PribF and the right wing of the 3rd BF ended on June 26–27 with the liberation of Vitebsk and the encirclement of five German divisions. On June 26, units of the 1st BF took Zhlobin, on June 27–29 they surrounded and destroyed the Bobruisk grouping of the enemy, and on June 29 they liberated Bobruisk. As a result of the rapid offensive of the three Belorussian fronts, an attempt by the German command to organize a line of defense along the Berezina was thwarted; On July 3, the troops of the 1st and 3rd BF broke into Minsk and took the 4th German army in pincers south of Borisov (liquidated by July 11).
The German front began to crumble. Formations of the 1st PribF occupied Polotsk on July 4 and, moving downstream of the Western Dvina, entered the territory of Latvia and Lithuania, reached the coast of the Gulf of Riga, cutting off Army Group North stationed in the Baltic states from the rest of the Wehrmacht forces. Parts of the right wing of the 3rd BF, having taken Lepel on June 28, broke through into the valley of the river in early July. Viliya (Nyaris), on August 17 they reached the border of East Prussia.
The troops of the left wing of the 3rd BF, having made a swift throw from Minsk, took Lida on July 3, on July 16, together with the 2nd BF - Grodno, and at the end of July approached the northeastern ledge of the Polish border. The 2nd BF, advancing to the southwest, captured Bialystok on July 27 and drove the Germans across the Narew River. Parts of the right wing of the 1st BF, having liberated Baranovichi on July 8, and Pinsk on July 14, at the end of July they reached the Western Bug and reached the central section of the Soviet-Polish border; On July 28 Brest was taken.
As a result of Operation Bagration, Belarus, most of Lithuania and part of Latvia were liberated. The possibility of an offensive in East Prussia and Poland opened up.
Liberation of Western Ukraine and offensive in Eastern Poland (July 13 - August 29, 1944)
Trying to stop the advance of Soviet troops in Belarus, the Wehrmacht command was forced to transfer formations there from the rest of the sectors of the Soviet-German front. This facilitated the operations of the Red Army in other directions. On July 13–14, the offensive of the 1st Ukrainian Front began in Western Ukraine. Already on July 17, they crossed the state border of the USSR and entered South-Eastern Poland.
On July 18, the left wing of the 1st BF launched an offensive near Kovel. At the end of July, they approached Prague (the right-bank suburb of Warsaw), which they managed to take only on September 14th. In early August, the resistance of the Germans intensified sharply, and the advance of the Red Army was stopped. Because of this, the Soviet command was unable to provide the necessary assistance to the uprising that broke out on August 1 in the Polish capital under the leadership of the Home Army, and by the beginning of October it was brutally suppressed by the Wehrmacht.
Offensive in the Eastern Carpathians (September 8 - October 28, 1944)
After the occupation of Estonia in the summer of 1941, the Tallinn Metropolitan. Alexander (Paulus) announced the separation of the Estonian parishes from the Russian Orthodox Church (the Estonian Apostolic Orthodox Church was established on the initiative of Alexander (Paulus) in 1923, in 1941 the bishop repented of the sin of schism). In October 1941, at the insistence of the German General Commissar of Belarus, the Belarusian Church was established. However, Panteleimon (Rozhnovsky), who headed it in the rank of Metropolitan of Minsk and Belarus, retained canonical communion with the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Met. Sergius (Stragorodsky). After Metropolitan Panteleimon was forcibly retired in June 1942, Archbishop Filofei (Narko), who also refused to arbitrarily proclaim a national autocephalous Church, became his successor.
Given the patriotic position of the Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Met. Sergius (Stragorodsky), the German authorities initially hindered the activities of those priests and parishes who claimed to belong to the Moscow Patriarchate. Over time, the German authorities became more tolerant of the communities of the Moscow Patriarchate. According to the invaders, these communities only verbally declared their loyalty to the Moscow center, but in reality they were ready to assist the German army in the destruction of the atheistic Soviet state.
In the occupied territory, thousands of churches, churches, prayer houses of various Protestant denominations (primarily Lutherans and Pentecostals) have resumed their activities. This process was especially active on the territory of the Baltic States, in the Vitebsk, Gomel, Mogilev regions of Belarus, in the Dnepropetrovsk, Zhytomyr, Zaporozhye, Kyiv, Voroshilovgrad, Poltava regions of Ukraine, in the Rostov, Smolensk regions of the RSFSR.
The religious factor was taken into account when planning domestic policy in areas where Islam was traditionally spread, primarily in the Crimea and the Caucasus. German propaganda declared respect for the values of Islam, presented the occupation as the liberation of peoples from the "Bolshevik godless yoke", guaranteed the creation of conditions for the revival of Islam. The invaders willingly went to the opening of mosques in almost every settlement of the "Muslim regions", provided the Muslim clergy with the opportunity to contact the believers through the radio and the press. Throughout the occupied territory where Muslims lived, the positions of mullahs and senior mullahs were restored, whose rights and privileges were equated with the heads of administrations of cities and settlements.
When forming special units from among the prisoners of war of the Red Army, much attention was paid to confessional affiliation: if representatives of the peoples who traditionally professed Christianity were mainly sent to the "army of General Vlasov", then to such formations as the "Turkestan Legion", "Idel-Ural", they sent representatives of the "Islamic" peoples.
The "liberalism" of the German authorities did not extend to all religions. Many communities were on the verge of destruction, for example, in Dvinsk alone, almost all of the 35 synagogues that operated before the war were destroyed, up to 14 thousand Jews were shot. Most of the Evangelical Christian Baptist communities that found themselves in the occupied territory were also destroyed or dispersed by the authorities.
Forced to leave the occupied territories under the onslaught of Soviet troops, the Nazi invaders took out liturgical objects, icons, paintings, books, items made of precious metals from prayer buildings.
According to the far from complete data of the Extraordinary State Commission for Establishing and Investigating the Atrocities of the Nazi Invaders, 1670 Orthodox churches, 69 chapels, 237 churches, 532 synagogues, 4 mosques and 254 other prayer buildings were completely destroyed, looted or desecrated in the occupied territory. Among those destroyed or desecrated by the Nazis were priceless monuments of history, culture and architecture, incl. relating to the XI-XVII centuries, in Novgorod, Chernigov, Smolensk, Polotsk, Kyiv, Pskov. Many prayer buildings were converted by the invaders into prisons, barracks, stables, and garages.
The position and patriotic activities of the Russian Orthodox Church during the war
On June 22, 1941, the Patriarchal Locum Tenens Met. Sergius (Stragorodsky) compiled a "Message to the Shepherds and Flocks of the Orthodox Church of Christ", in which he revealed the anti-Christian essence of fascism and called on the faithful to defend themselves. In their letters to the Patriarchate, believers reported that voluntary collections of donations for the needs of the front and the defense of the country had begun everywhere.
After the death of Patriarch Sergius, according to his will, Met. Alexy (Simansky), unanimously elected at the last meeting of the Local Council on January 31-February 2, 1945, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. The Council was attended by Patriarchs Christopher II of Alexandria, Alexander III of Antioch and Kallistratus (Tsintsadze) of Georgia, representatives of the Patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Serbia and Romania.
In 1945, the so-called Estonian schism was overcome, and Orthodox parishes and the clergy of Estonia were accepted into communion with the Russian Orthodox Church.
Patriotic activities of communities of other confessions and religions
Immediately after the start of the war, the leaders of almost all religious associations of the USSR supported the liberation struggle of the peoples of the country against the Nazi aggressor. Addressing the faithful with patriotic messages, they called for worthy fulfillment of their religious and civic duty to defend the Fatherland, to provide all possible material assistance to the needs of the front and rear. The leaders of most religious associations in the USSR condemned those representatives of the clergy who consciously went over to the side of the enemy and helped to impose a "new order" on the occupied territory.
The head of the Russian Old Believers of the Belokrinitsky hierarchy, Archbishop. Irinarkh (Parfyonov), in his Christmas message of 1942, called on the Old Believers, a considerable number of whom fought on the fronts, to serve valiantly in the Red Army and to resist the enemy in the occupied territory in the ranks of the partisans. In May 1942, the leaders of the Unions of Baptists and Evangelical Christians addressed the believers with a letter of appeal; the appeal spoke of the danger of fascism "for the cause of the Gospel" and called for "brothers and sisters in Christ" to fulfill "their duty to God and to the Motherland", being "the best soldiers at the front and the best workers in the rear." Baptist communities were engaged in tailoring, collecting clothes and other things for the soldiers and families of the dead, helped in the care of the wounded and sick in hospitals, and took care of orphans in orphanages. Funds raised in the Baptist congregations were used to build a Merciful Samaritan ambulance to transport seriously wounded soldiers to the rear. The leader of Renovationism, A. I. Vvedensky, repeatedly made patriotic appeals.
With regard to a number of other religious associations, the policy of the state during the war years remained invariably tough. First of all, this concerned “anti-state, anti-Soviet and savage sects”, which included the Dukhobors.
- http://www.pravenc.ru/text/150063.html
On June 22, 1941, at 4 o'clock in the morning, fascist Germany treacherously invaded the USSR without declaring war. This attack ended the chain of aggressive actions of Hitlerite Germany, which, thanks to the connivance and instigation of the Western powers, grossly violated the elementary norms of international law, resorted to predatory seizures and monstrous atrocities in the occupied countries.
In accordance with the Barbarossa plan, the fascist offensive began on a broad front by several groupings in various directions. The army was stationed in the north "Norway" advancing on Murmansk and Kandalaksha; an army group was advancing from East Prussia to the Baltic states and Leningrad "North"; most powerful army group "Centre" had the goal of defeating units of the Red Army in Belorussia, capturing Vitebsk-Smolensk and taking Moscow on the move; army group "South" was concentrated from Lublin to the mouth of the Danube and led the attack on Kyiv - Donbass. The plans of the Nazis boiled down to delivering a surprise strike in these areas, destroying border and military units, breaking through to the rear, capturing Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv and the most important industrial centers of the southern regions of the country.
The command of the German army expected to end the war in 6-8 weeks.
190 enemy divisions, about 5.5 million soldiers, up to 50 thousand guns and mortars, 4300 tanks, almost 5 thousand aircraft and about 200 warships were thrown into the offensive against the Soviet Union.
The war began in exceptionally favorable conditions for Germany. Before the attack on the USSR, Germany captured almost all of Western Europe, whose economy worked for the Nazis. Therefore, Germany had a powerful material and technical base.
Germany's military products were supplied by 6,500 largest enterprises in Western Europe. More than 3 million foreign workers were involved in the military industry. In Western European countries, the Nazis looted a lot of weapons, military equipment, trucks, wagons and steam locomotives. The military and economic resources of Germany and its allies greatly exceeded those of the USSR. Germany fully mobilized its army, as well as the armies of its allies. Most of the German army was concentrated near the borders of the Soviet Union. In addition, imperialist Japan threatened an attack from the East, which diverted a significant part of the Soviet Armed Forces to defend the country's eastern borders. In the theses of the Central Committee of the CPSU "50 years of the Great October Socialist Revolution" an analysis of the reasons for the temporary failures of the Red Army in the initial period of the war is given. They are connected with the fact that the Nazis used temporary advantages:
- the militarization of the economy and the whole life of Germany;
- lengthy preparations for a war of conquest and more than two years of experience in conducting military operations in the West;
- superiority in armament and the number of troops concentrated in advance in the border zones.
They had at their disposal the economic and military resources of almost all of Western Europe. The miscalculations made in determining the possible timing of an attack by Nazi Germany on our country and the related omissions in preparing to repulse the first blows played their role. There were reliable data on the concentration of German troops near the borders of the USSR and the preparation of Germany for an attack on our country. However, the troops of the western military districts were not brought to a state of full combat readiness.
All these reasons put the Soviet country in a difficult position. However, the enormous difficulties of the initial period of the war did not break the fighting spirit of the Red Army, did not shake the stamina of the Soviet people. From the first days of the attack, it became clear that the blitzkrieg plan had collapsed. Accustomed to easy victories over the Western countries, whose governments betrayed their people to be torn to pieces by the occupiers, the fascists met stubborn resistance from the Soviet Armed Forces, border guards and the entire Soviet people. The war lasted 1418 days. Groups of border guards bravely fought on the border. The garrison of the Brest Fortress covered itself with unfading glory. The defense of the fortress was led by Captain I. N. Zubachev, regimental commissar E. M. Fomin, major P. M. Gavrilov and others. (In total, about 200 rams were made during the war years). On June 26, the crew of Captain N.F. Gastello (A.A. Burdenyuk, G.N. Skorobogaty, A.A. Kalinin) crashed into a column of enemy troops on a burning plane. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers from the first days of the war showed examples of courage and heroism.
Lasted two months Smolensk battle. Born here near Smolensk soviet guard. The battle in the Smolensk region delayed the enemy advance until mid-September 1941.
During the Battle of Smolensk, the Red Army thwarted the plans of the enemy. The delay of the enemy offensive in the central direction was the first strategic success of the Soviet troops.
The Communist Party became the leading and guiding force for the defense of the country and the preparation for the destruction of the Nazi troops. From the first days of the war, the Party took urgent measures to organize a rebuff to the aggressor, carried out a huge amount of work to restructure all work on a war footing, to turn the country into a single military camp.
“For a real war,” wrote V. I. Lenin, “a strong organized rear is necessary. The best army, the most devoted to the cause of the revolution, people will be immediately exterminated by the enemy if they are not sufficiently armed, supplied with food, and trained ”(V. I. Lenin, Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 35, p. 408).
These Leninist instructions formed the basis for organizing the struggle against the enemy. On June 22, 1941, on behalf of the Soviet government, V. M. Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, spoke on the radio about the "robber" attack of fascist Germany and a call to fight the enemy. On the same day, a Decree was adopted by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the introduction of martial law on the European territory of the USSR, as well as a Decree on the mobilization of a number of ages in 14 military districts. On June 23, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on the tasks of party and Soviet organizations in war conditions. On June 24, the Evacuation Council was formed, and on June 27, by a decree of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR “On the procedure for the export and placement of human contingents and valuable property”, the procedure for the evacuation of productive forces and the population to the eastern regions was determined. In the directive of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated June 29, 1941, the most important tasks for mobilizing all forces and means to defeat the enemy were set out to party and Soviet organizations in the front-line regions.
“... In the war with fascist Germany imposed on us,” this document said, “the question of life and death of the Soviet state is being decided, of whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement.” The Central Committee and the Soviet government urged to realize the full depth of the danger, to reorganize all work on a war footing, to organize all-round assistance to the front, to increase the production of weapons, ammunition, tanks, aircraft in every possible way, to export all valuable property in the event of the forced withdrawal of the Red Army, and to destroy what cannot be taken out , in the areas occupied by the enemy to organize partisan detachments. On July 3, the main provisions of the directive were set out in a speech by IV Stalin on the radio. The directive determined the nature of the war, the degree of threat and danger, set the tasks of turning the country into a single military camp, strengthening the Armed Forces in every possible way, restructuring the work of the rear on a military basis, and mobilizing all forces to repulse the enemy. On June 30, 1941, an emergency body was created to quickly mobilize all the forces and means of the country to repel and defeat the enemy - State Defense Committee (GKO) headed by I. V. Stalin. All power in the country, state, military and economic leadership was concentrated in the hands of the State Defense Committee. It united the activities of all state and military institutions, party, trade union and Komsomol organizations.
Under war conditions, the restructuring of the entire economy on a war footing was of paramount importance. approved at the end of June "Mobilization national economic plan for the III quarter of 1941", and on August 16 "The military economic plan for the IV quarter of 1941 and for 1942 for the regions of the Volga region, the Urals, Western Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia". In just five months of 1941, more than 1360 large military enterprises were relocated and about 10 million people were evacuated. Even according to bourgeois experts industry evacuation in the second half of 1941 and early 1942 and its deployment in the East should be considered among the most amazing feats of the peoples of the Soviet Union during the war. The evacuated Kramatorsk plant was launched 12 days after arriving at the site, Zaporozhye - after 20. By the end of 1941, the Urals produced 62% of iron and 50% of steel. In scope and significance, this was equal to the largest battles of wartime. The restructuring of the national economy on a war footing was completed by the middle of 1942.
The Party did a great deal of organizational work in the army. In accordance with the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, on July 16, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree "On the reorganization of political propaganda bodies and the introduction of the institution of military commissars". From July 16 in the Army, and from July 20 in the Navy, the institution of military commissars was introduced. During the second half of 1941, up to 1.5 million communists and more than 2 million Komsomol members were mobilized into the army (the party sent up to 40% of the entire membership to the active army). Prominent party leaders L. I. Brezhnev, A. A. Zhdanov, A. S. Shcherbakov, M. A. Suslov and others were sent to party work in the army.
On August 8, 1941, I. V. Stalin was appointed Supreme Commander of all the Armed Forces of the USSR. In order to concentrate all the functions of managing military operations, the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was formed. Hundreds of thousands of communists and Komsomol members went to the front. About 300 thousand of the best representatives of the working class and intelligentsia of Moscow and Leningrad joined the ranks of the people's militia.
Meanwhile, the enemy stubbornly rushed to Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol and other major industrial centers of the country. An important place in the plans of fascist Germany was occupied by the calculation of the international isolation of the USSR. However, from the very first days of the war, an anti-Hitler coalition began to take shape. Already on June 22, 1941, the British government announced its support for the USSR in the fight against fascism, and on July 12 signed an agreement on joint actions against Nazi Germany. On August 2, 1941, US President F. Roosevelt announced economic support for the Soviet Union. September 29, 1941 gathered in Moscow tri-power conference(USSR, USA and England), which developed a plan for Anglo-American assistance in the fight against the enemy. Hitler's calculation for the international isolation of the USSR failed. On January 1, 1942, a declaration of 26 states was signed in Washington anti-Hitler coalition about the use of all the resources of these countries for the struggle against the German bloc. However, the allies were in no hurry to provide effective assistance aimed at defeating fascism, trying to weaken the belligerents.
By October, the Nazi invaders, despite the heroic resistance of our troops, managed to approach Moscow from three sides, simultaneously launching an offensive on the Don, in the Crimea, near Leningrad. Heroically defended Odessa and Sevastopol. September 30, 1941 the German command begins the first, and in November - the second general offensive against Moscow. The Nazis managed to occupy Klin, Yakhroma, Naro-Fominsk, Istra and other cities of the Moscow region. Soviet troops fought a heroic defense of the capital, showing examples of courage and heroism. The 316th rifle division of General Panfilov fought to the death in fierce battles. A partisan movement unfolded behind enemy lines. About 10 thousand partisans fought near Moscow alone. On December 5-6, 1941, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive near Moscow. At the same time, offensive operations were launched on the Western, Kalinin and Southwestern fronts. The powerful offensive of the Soviet troops in the winter of 1941/42 drove the fascists back in a number of places at a distance of up to 400 km from the capital and was their first major defeat in World War II.
Main result Moscow battle consisted in the fact that the strategic initiative was wrested from the hands of the enemy and the blitzkrieg plan failed. The defeat of the Germans near Moscow was a decisive turn in the military operations of the Red Army and had a great influence on the entire subsequent course of the war.
By the spring of 1942, the production of military products was established in the eastern regions of the country. By the middle of the year, most of the evacuated enterprises were deployed in new places. The transfer of the country's economy to a military footing was largely completed. In the rear - in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia, the Urals - there were more than 10 thousand industrial construction projects.
Instead of men who went to the front, women and youth came to the machines. Despite very difficult living conditions, Soviet people worked selflessly to ensure victory at the front. They worked one and a half to two shifts to restore industry and supply the front with everything necessary. All-Union socialist competition developed widely, the winners of which were awarded Red Banner GKO. In 1942 agricultural workers organized overplanned crops for the defense fund. The collective farm peasantry supplied the front and rear with food and industrial raw materials.
The situation in the temporarily occupied regions of the country was exceptionally difficult. The Nazis plundered cities and villages, mocked the civilian population. At the enterprises, German officials were appointed to oversee the work. The best lands were selected for farming for German soldiers. In all occupied settlements, German garrisons were kept at the expense of the population. However, the economic and social policy of the Nazis, which they tried to pursue in the occupied territories, immediately failed. The Soviet people, brought up on the ideas of the Communist Party, believed in the victory of the Soviet country, did not succumb to Hitler's provocations and demagogy.
Winter offensive of the Red Army in 1941/42 dealt a powerful blow to fascist Germany, to its military machine, but the Nazi army was still strong. Soviet troops fought stubborn defensive battles.
In this situation, the nationwide struggle of the Soviet people behind enemy lines played an important role, especially partisan movement.
Thousands of Soviet people went to partisan detachments. A partisan war developed widely in the Ukraine, in Belorussia and in the Smolensk region, in the Crimea and in a number of other places. In cities and villages temporarily occupied by the enemy, underground party and Komsomol organizations operated. In accordance with the resolution of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks of July 18, 1941 No. "On the organization of the struggle in the rear of the German troops" 3,500 partisan detachments and groups, 32 underground regional committees, 805 city and district party committees, 5,429 primary party organizations, 10 regional, 210 inter-district city and 45 thousand primary Komsomol organizations were created. To coordinate the actions of partisan detachments and underground groups with units of the Red Army, by decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on May 30, 1942, at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, the central headquarters of the partisan movement. Headquarters for the leadership of the partisan movement were formed in Belarus, Ukraine and other republics and regions occupied by the enemy.
After the defeat near Moscow and the winter offensive of our troops, the Nazi command was preparing a new major offensive with the aim of capturing all the southern regions of the country (Crimea, the North Caucasus, the Don) up to the Volga, capturing Stalingrad and tearing Transcaucasia from the center of the country. This posed an exceptionally serious threat to our country.
By the summer of 1942, the international situation had changed, characterized by the strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition. In May - June 1942, agreements were signed between the USSR, Britain and the USA on an alliance in the war against Germany and on post-war cooperation. In particular, an agreement was reached on the opening in 1942 in Europe second front against Germany, which would have greatly accelerated the defeat of fascism. But the allies in every possible way delayed its opening. Taking advantage of this, the fascist command transferred divisions from the Western Front to the Eastern. By the spring of 1942, the Nazi army had 237 divisions, massive aviation, tanks, artillery and other types of equipment for a new offensive.
intensified Leningrad blockade, almost daily subjected to artillery fire. In May, the Kerch Strait was captured. On July 3, the High Command ordered the heroic defenders of Sevastopol to leave the city after a 250-day defense, since it was not possible to keep the Crimea. As a result of the defeat of the Soviet troops in the area of Kharkov and the Don, the enemy reached the Volga. The Stalingrad Front, created in July, took upon itself the powerful blows of the enemy. Retreating with heavy fighting, our troops inflicted huge damage on the enemy. In parallel, the fascist offensive was going on in the North Caucasus, where Stavropol, Krasnodar, Maykop were occupied. In the Mozdok area, the Nazi offensive was suspended.
The main battles unfolded on the Volga. The enemy sought to capture Stalingrad at any cost. The heroic defense of the city was one of the brightest pages of the Patriotic War. The working class, women, old people, teenagers - the entire population rose to the defense of Stalingrad. Despite the mortal danger, the workers of the tractor factory daily sent tanks to the front lines. In September, fighting broke out in the city for every street, for every house.
USSR, Eastern and Central Europe |
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German aggression |
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Soviet victory, unconditional surrender of the German Armed Forces |
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Territorial changes: |
The collapse of the Third Reich. Formation of the socialist camp in Eastern Europe. Division of Germany. |
Opponents |
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Italy (until October 1943) |
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Romania (after September 1944) |
Finland (until September 1944) |
Bulgaria (after October 1944) |
Romania (until September 1944) |
Blue Division (Spain) (volunteers, until 1943) |
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Commanders |
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Joseph Stalin |
Adolf Gitler † |
Georgy Zhukov |
Fedor von Bock † |
Boris Shaposhnikov † |
Ernst Bush |
Alexander Vasilevsky |
Heinz Guderian |
Konstantin Rokossovsky |
Hermann Goering † |
Ivan Konev |
Ewald von Kleist |
Alexey Antonov |
Günther von Kluge † |
Ivan Bagramyan |
Georg von Küchler |
Semyon Budyonny |
Wilhelm von Leeb |
Kliment Voroshilov |
Wilhelm List |
Leonid Govorov |
Erich von Manstein |
Andrey Eremenko |
Walter Model † |
Mikhail Kirponos † |
Friedrich Paulus |
Rodion Malinovsky |
Walther von Reichenau † |
Kirill Meretskov |
Gerd von Rundstedt |
Ivan Petrov |
Ferdinand Schörner |
Markian Popov |
Erhard Raus |
Semyon Timoshenko |
Benito Mussolini † |
Ivan Tyulenev |
Giovanni Messe |
Fedor Tolbukhin |
Italo Gariboldi |
Ivan Chernyakhovsky † |
Petre Dimitrescu |
Michal Zymerski |
Constantin Constantinescu |
Constantine Vassiliou-Rescanu |
Carl Gustav Emil Mannerheim |
Emmanuel Ionescu |
Carl Lennart Ash |
Nicolae Cambrai |
Gustav Yani |
Damyan Velchev |
Ferenc Szombatey |
Vladimir Stoichev |
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Josip Broz Tito |
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GreatPatriotic War (1941-1945)- the war of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics against Nazi Germany and its European allies (Bulgaria, Hungary, Italy, Romania, Slovakia, Croatia, Spain); decisive part of World War II.
Name
In the appeal, the words "great" and "patriotic" are used separately. For the first time this phrase in its usual form was applied to this war in the articles of the Pravda newspaper dated June 23 and 24, 1941, and at first it was perceived not as a term, but as one of the newspaper clichés, along with other similar phrases: "holy people's war" , "Holy Patriotic People's War", "Victorious Patriotic War". The term " Patriotic War"was secured by the introduction of the military Order of the Patriotic War, established by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of May 20, 1942. The name is preserved in the post-Soviet states (Ukr. Great Vitchiznyan War, white VyalikayaAichyn Vayna, abh. Aџynџt? ylat? andYeibashradu and etc.). In foreign countries that were not part of the USSR, where Russian is not the main language of communication, the name "" is practically not used. In English-speaking countries, it is replaced by the term - EasternFront World War II(English) (Eastern Front of World War II), in German historiography - Deutsch-SowjetischerKrieg, Russlandfeldzug, Ostfeldzug(German) ( German-Soviet war, Russian campaign, Eastern campaign).
Recently, in Russia, the term began to be periodically used to refer to the Great Patriotic War. "Great War", which is historically not entirely correct - in the late 1910s, this term was applied to the First World War.
Position as of June 22, 1941
By June 22, 1941, three army groups were concentrated and deployed near the borders of the USSR (a total of 181 divisions, including 19 tank and 14 motorized, and 18 brigades), supported by three air fleets. In the strip from Goldap to Memel, on a front with a length of 230 km, the North Army Group (29 German divisions supported by the 1st Air Fleet) was located under the command of Field Marshal V. Leeb. The divisions included in it were combined into the 16th and 18th armies, as well as the 4th tank group. By the directive of January 31, 1941, she was tasked with " to destroy the enemy forces operating in the Baltic States and by seizing ports on the Baltic Sea, including Leningrad and Kronstadt, to deprive the Russian fleet of its strongholds.» In the Baltic, the German command allocated about 100 ships, including 28 torpedo boats, 10 minelayers, 5 submarines, patrol ships and minesweepers, to support Army Group North and operate against the Baltic Fleet.
To the south, in the strip from Goldap to Vlodava on a front with a length of 500 km, the Army Group Center was located (50 German divisions and 2 German brigades supported by the 2nd Air Fleet) under the command of Field Marshal F. Bock. Divisions and brigades were combined into the 9th and 4th field armies, as well as the 2nd and 3rd tank groups. The task of the group was Advancing with large forces on the flanks, defeat the enemy troops in Belarus. Then, by concentrating mobile formations advancing south and north of Minsk, it is possible to reach the Smolensk region as quickly as possible and thereby create the prerequisites for the interaction of large tank and motorized forces with the North army group in order to destroy enemy troops operating in the Baltic states and the Leningrad region.»
In the strip from Polesie to the Black Sea, on a front with a length of 1300 km, Army Group South was deployed (44 German, 13 Romanian divisions, 9 Romanian and 4 Hungarian brigades, which were supported by the 4th air fleet and Romanian aviation) under the command of G. Rundstedt. The grouping was divided into the 1st tank group, the 6th, 11th and 17th German armies, the 3rd and 4th Romanian armies and the Hungarian corps. According to the "Barbarossa" plan, the troops of the "South" group were instructed - having tank and motorized formations in front and delivering the main blow with the left wing to Kyiv, destroy Soviet troops in Galicia and the western part of Ukraine, timely capture the crossings on the Dnieper in the Kyiv region and to the south to ensure a further offensive east of the Dnieper. The 1st Panzer Group, in cooperation with the 6th and 17th armies, was ordered to break through between Rava-Russkaya and Kovel and through Berdichev, Zhitomir to reach the Dnieper in the Kyiv region. Further, moving along the Dnieper in a southeast direction, it was supposed to prevent the withdrawal of the defending Soviet units in the Right-Bank Ukraine and destroy them with a strike from the rear.
In addition to these forces, a separate army of the Wehrmacht "Norway" under the command of General N. Falkenhorst was deployed in the territory of occupied Norway and in Northern Finland - from Varanger Fjord to Suomussalmi. It was directly subordinate to the High Command of the German Armed Forces (OKW). The "Norway" army was tasked with capturing Murmansk, the main naval base of the Northern Fleet, Polyarny, the Rybachy Peninsula, and the Kirov railway north of Belomorsk. Each of its three corps was deployed in an independent direction: the 3rd Finnish corps - in Kestenga and Ukhta, the 36th German corps - in Kandalaksha and the German mountain rifle corps "Norway" - in Murmansk.
There were 24 divisions in the OKH reserve. In total, more than 5.5 million people, 3,712 tanks, 47,260 field guns and mortars, and 4,950 combat aircraft were concentrated to attack the USSR.
On June 22, 1941, in the border districts and fleets of the USSR there were 3,289,850 soldiers and officers, 59,787 guns and mortars, 12,782 tanks, of which 1,475 were T-34 and KV tanks, 10,743 aircraft. The three fleets included about 220 thousand personnel, 182 ships of the main classes (3 battleships, 7 cruisers, 45 leaders and destroyers, and 127 submarines). The direct protection of the state border was carried out by the border units (land and sea) of eight border districts. Together with the operational units and subdivisions of the internal troops, they numbered about 100 thousand people. The repulsion of a possible attack from the west was assigned to the troops of five border districts: Leningrad, Special Baltic, Western Special, Kyiv Special and Odessa. From the sea, their actions were to be supported by three fleets: the Northern, the Red Banner Baltic and the Black Sea.
The troops of the Baltic Military District under the command of General F.I. Kuznetsov included the 8th and 11th armies, the 27th army was in formation west of Pskov. These units held the defense from the Baltic Sea to the southern border of Lithuania, on a front 300 km long.
The troops of the Western Special Military District under the command of General D. G. Pavlov covered the Minsk-Smolensk direction from the southern border of Lithuania to the Pripyat River on a front 470 km long. This district included the 3rd, 4th and 10th armies. In addition, formations and units of the 13th Army were formed in the area of Mogilev, Minsk, Slutsk.
The troops of the Kyiv Special Military District under the command of General M.P. Kirponos, as part of the 5th, 6th, 12th and 26th armies and formations of district subordination, occupied positions on a front with a length of 860 km from Pripyat to Lipkan.
The troops of the Odessa Military District under the command of General Ya. T. Cherevichenko covered the border in the area from Lipkan to the mouth of the Danube, 480 km long.
The troops of the Leningrad Military District under the command of General M. M. Popov were supposed to defend the borders of the northwestern regions of the country (Murmansk region, the Karelian-Finnish SSR and the Karelian Isthmus), as well as the northern coast of the Estonian SSR and the Hanko Peninsula. The length of the land border in this area reached 1300 km, and the sea border - 380 km. The 7th, 14th, 23rd armies and the Northern Fleet were located here.
It should be noted that according to modern historians, the Wehrmacht did not have a clear qualitative superiority of technology. So, all the tanks in service with Germany were lighter than 23 tons, while the Red Army had medium tanks T-34 and T-28 weighing over 25 tons, as well as heavy tanks KV and T-35 weighing over 45 tons.
Nazi plans for the USSR
The following documents testify to the military-political and ideological goals of Operation Barbarossa:
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The chief of staff of the operational leadership of the OKW, after the corresponding correction, returned the draft document “Instructions on the special problems of Directive No. reported to the Führer after revision in accordance with the following position: The forthcoming war will be not only an armed struggle, but at the same time a struggle between two worldviews. In order to win this war in conditions where the enemy has a huge territory, it is not enough to defeat his armed forces, this territory should be divided into several states headed by their own governments, with which we could conclude peace treaties. The creation of such governments requires great political skill and the development of well thought out general principles. Every revolution on a large scale brings to life phenomena that cannot simply be brushed aside. Socialist ideas in today's Russia can no longer be eradicated. These ideas can serve as an internal political basis for the creation of new states and governments. The Jewish-Bolshevik intelligentsia, which is the oppressor of the people, must be removed from the scene. The former bourgeois-aristocratic intelligentsia, if it still exists, primarily among emigrants, should also not be allowed to power. It will not be accepted by the Russian people and, moreover, it is hostile to the German nation. This is especially noticeable in the former Baltic States. In addition, we must by no means allow the replacement of the Bolshevik state by a nationalist Russia, which in the end (as history testifies) will once again oppose Germany. Our task is precisely to create these socialist states dependent on us as quickly as possible and with the least expenditure of military effort. This task is so difficult that one army is not able to solve it. An entry dated March 3, 1941 in the diary of the Headquarters of the Operational Command of the High Command of the Wehrmacht (OKW) |
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30.3.1941 ... 11.00. Big meeting with the Fuhrer. Almost 2.5 hour speech... The struggle of two ideologies... The great danger of communism for the future. We must proceed from the principle of soldier's camaraderie. The communist has never been and never will be our comrade. It's about fighting for destruction. If we do not look like this, then, although we will defeat the enemy, in 30 years the communist danger will arise again. We are not waging war in order to conserve our enemy. Future political map of Russia: Northern Russia belongs to Finland, protectorates in the Baltic States, Ukraine, Belarus. The struggle against Russia: the destruction of the Bolshevik commissars and the communist intelligentsia. The new states must be socialist, but without their own intelligentsia. We must not allow a new intelligentsia to form. Here only the primitive socialist intelligentsia will suffice. We must fight against the poison of demoralization. This is far from a military-judicial issue. Unit and subunit commanders are required to know the aims of the war. They must lead in the struggle ..., firmly hold the troops in their hands. The commander must give his orders, taking into account the mood of the troops. The war will be very different from the war in the West. In the East, cruelty is a boon for the future. Commanders must make sacrifices and overcome their hesitation... Diary of the Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces F. Halder |
Forces that fought on the side of Germany
The Wehrmacht and the SS troops replenished over 1.8 million people from among the citizens of other states and nationalities. Of these, during the war years, 59 divisions, 23 brigades, several separate regiments, legions and battalions were formed. Many of them bore names according to state and nationality: "Wallonia", "Galicia", "Bohemia and Moravia", "Viking", "Denemark", "Gembez", "Langemark", "Nordland", "Nederland", " Charlemagne" and others.
The armies of Germany's allies - Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia - participated in the war against the Soviet Union. The Bulgarian army was involved in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia, but the Bulgarian ground units did not fight on the Eastern Front.
The Russian Liberation Army (ROA) under the command of General A. Vlasov also sided with Nazi Germany, although it was not part of the Wehrmacht.
A huge number of South Caucasian and North Caucasian units in the service of the Third Reich. The largest of which is the Sonderverband Bergmann (Battalion Bergmann). Also the Georgian Legion of the Wehrmacht, the Azerbaijani Legion, the North Caucasian SS detachment, etc.
As part of the army of Nazi Germany, the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS, General von Panwitz, fought. In order to justify the use of the Cossacks in the armed struggle on the side of Germany, a "theory" was developed, according to which the Cossacks were declared descendants of the Ostrogoths.
The Russian corps of General Shteifon, the corps of Lieutenant General of the tsarist army Pyotr Nikolaevich Krasnov and a number of separate units formed from citizens of the USSR also acted on the side of Germany.
Territories of military operations
the USSR
Byelorussian SSR, Ukrainian SSR, Moldavian SSR, Estonian SSR, Karelian-Finnish SSR, Latvian SSR, Lithuanian SSR, as well as a number of territories of other republics: Leningrad, Murmansk, Pskov, Novgorod, Vologda, Kalinin, Moscow, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk , Oryol, Bryansk, Kursk, Lipetsk, Voronezh, Rostov, Ryazan, Stalingrad regions, Krasnodar, Stavropol Territories, Kabardino-Balkarian, Crimean, Ossetian, Chechen-Ingush Republics, Krasnodar Territory (combat operations at sea), Chuvash ASSR (air raid) , Astrakhan (air raids), Arkhangelsk (air raids), Gorky (air raids), Saratov (air raids), Tambov (air raids), Yaroslavl (air raids) regions of the RSFSR, Kazakh SSR (air raid on the city of Guryev), Abkhaz ASSR (GSSR).
Other countries
The military operations of the Soviet armed forces on the territory of other occupied countries and states of the fascist bloc - Germany, Poland, Finland, Norway, Romania, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, as well as Austria, which was part of Germany, created by the Nazi regime, are not separated from the Great Patriotic War Croatia and Slovakia.
The initial period of the war (June 22, 1941 - November 18, 1942)
On June 18, 1941, some formations of the border military districts of the USSR were put on alert. On June 13-15, 1941, the Directives of the NGOs and the General Staff (“To increase combat readiness ...”) were sent to the western districts on the beginning of the advancement of units of the first and second echelons to the border, under the guise of “exercises”. The rifle units of the districts of the first echelon, according to these directives, were to take up defense 5-10 km from the border, parts of the second echelon, rifle and mechanized corps, were to take up defense 30-40 km from the border. These Directives were published in a collection of documents under the general supervision of A. Yakovlev “Russia. XX century. 1941 Documents» book 2.
On June 18, an additional command followed, an order to bring all parts of the western districts to full combat readiness. This telegram-order is mentioned in the interrogation protocols of the ZapOVO command, which did not comply with either the orders of June 13-15, or the subsequent orders to bring their units to full combat readiness of June 18. Marshal I. Kh. Bagramyan describes these directives in more detail in his memoirs as early as 1971, describes how they were brought to the command of the districts and how these directives were actually carried out. Some parts of the western districts, the same mechanized corps of K.K. Rokossovsky in KOVO, were not notified at all about these orders and directives, and entered the war, having learned about the attack only on June 22, 1941.
The military-political leadership of the state at 23:30 on June 21 made a decision aimed at partially bringing the five border military districts to combat readiness. The directive prescribed the implementation of only part of the measures to bring to full combat readiness, which were determined by operational and mobilization plans. The directive, in fact, did not give permission for the full implementation of the cover plan, since it ordered "not to succumb to any provocative actions that could cause major complications." These restrictions caused bewilderment, requests to Moscow followed, while only a few minutes remained before the start of the war.
However, in essence, this “Directive No. 1 of 06/21/41” in reality, it only (and above all) reported the probable date of the German attack - “.... 1. During June 22-23, 1941, a sudden attack by the Germans on the fronts of the LVO is possible, Prib. OVO, Zap. OVO, KOVO, Od. OVO….” Also, this directive ordered the units to BE in full combat readiness, and not to BRING the units to full b.g. Thus, Directive No. 1 of 06/21/41 confirms that orders and directives on bringing units to combat readiness have already gone before it in parts of the western districts - directives from NPOs and the General Staff of June 12-13, and telegrams of the General Staff on bringing to full combat readiness Ready June 18th. Directive No. 1 by its very content says that it does not at all give a command to bring parts of the western districts to combat readiness. The purpose of this directive is just to communicate a fairly accurate date and a reminder to the command of the districts "to be in full combat readiness, to meet a possible surprise attack by the Germans or their allies."
The miscalculation in time exacerbated the existing shortcomings in the combat readiness of the army and thereby sharply increased the objectively existing advantages of the aggressor. The time available to the troops that did not receive orders from their command in the districts on June 15-18, to bring them to full combat readiness, after receiving Directive No. 1 of June 21, was clearly not enough. Instead of 25-30 minutes, it took an average of 2 hours and 30 minutes to alert the troops to bring them to combat readiness. The fact is that instead of the signal "Proceed to implement the cover plan for 1941" joins and joins received an encrypted directive with restrictions on the input of the cover plan. However, the same Bagramyan quite rightly writes that the General Staff could not give a direct order to put into effect a “cover plan” in that situation in June 1941. from June 13-15, when the directives of NGOs and the General Staff signed on June 12-13 came to the districts on the start of "exercises" for parts of these districts and their advancement to the defense lines in accordance with cover plans. However, the open and covert non-compliance by the command of the western districts (especially in Belarus) with the directives of June 12-13 led to the failure to bring these districts to combat readiness.
Under these conditions, even formations and units of the first echelon of the covering armies, which had constant combat readiness within 6-9 hours (2-3 hours - to raise an alarm and collect, 4-6 hours - to advance and organize defense), did not receive this time. Instead of the specified period, they had no more than 30 minutes, and some formations were not notified at all even about Directive No. 1 of 06/21/41. disrupt wire communications with troops in the border areas. As a result, the headquarters of the districts and armies did not have the opportunity to quickly transmit their orders.
Zhukov states that the commands of the western (Western Special, Kyiv Special, Baltic Special and Odessa) border military districts at that time were moving forward to field command posts, which were supposed to arrive on June 22. G.K. Zhukov also points out in his “Memoirs and Reflections” that a few days before the attack, parts of the western districts actually received orders to start advancing to the defense lines (under the guise of “exercises”) to the border. These orders (Zhukov called them "recommendations") came from People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko S.K. to the commanders of the western districts.
However, the command of these districts began to sabotage these orders and "recommendations" in a strange way. This sabotage took place especially openly in Belarus, in the ZapOVO, where General of the Army D. Pavlov commanded. In the indictment in the Pavlov case, as a result, it was written down - "weakened the mobilization readiness of the troops."
Summer-autumn campaign 1941
On June 22, 1941, at 4:00 am, the Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop presented the Soviet Ambassador in Berlin Dekanozov with a note declaring war and three appendices to it: “Report of the German Minister of the Interior, the Reichsführer SS and the Chief of the German Police to the German government on the sabotage work of the USSR, directed against Germany and National Socialism", "Report of the German Foreign Ministry on propaganda and political agitation of the Soviet government", "Report of the High Command of the German Army to the German government on the concentration of Soviet troops against Germany". In the early morning of June 22, 1941, after artillery and aviation training, German troops crossed the border of the USSR. After that, at 5:30 am, German Ambassador to the USSR V. Schulenburg appeared before the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V. M. Molotov and made a statement, the content of which was that the Soviet government was pursuing a subversive policy in Germany and in the occupied countries, pursued a foreign policy directed against Germany, and "concentrated all its troops on the German border in full combat readiness." The statement ended with the following words: "The Führer therefore ordered the German armed forces to confront this threat with all the means at their disposal." Along with the note, he handed over a set of documents identical to those that Ribbentrop had handed to Dekanozov.
In the north of the Baltic, the implementation of the Barbarossa plan began on the evening of June 21, when German minelayers based in Finnish ports set up two large minefields in the Gulf of Finland. These minefields were eventually able to trap the Soviet Baltic Fleet in the eastern Gulf of Finland.
On June 22, Romanian and German troops crossed the Prut, and also tried to force the Danube, but the Soviet troops did not let them do this and even captured bridgeheads on Romanian territory. However, in July-September 1941, Romanian troops, with the support of German troops, occupied all of Bessarabia, Bukovina and the interfluve of the Dniester and the Southern Bug (for more details, see the articles Defensive operation in Moldova, Romania in World War II).
At 12 noon on June 22, 1941, Molotov made an official address to the citizens of the USSR on the radio, announcing the German attack on the USSR and announcing the start of a Patriotic War.
In accordance with the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of June 22, 1941, from June 23, the mobilization of 14 ages (born 1905-1918) in 14 military districts out of 17 was announced. In the other three districts - Transbaikal, Central Asian and Far Eastern - mobilization was announced a month later by a special decision of the government in a covert way as "large training camps."
On June 23, the Headquarters of the High Command (from August 8, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command) was created, headed by I.V. Stalin, who from August 8 also became the Supreme Commander. On June 30, the State Defense Committee (GKO) was created. Since June, the people's militia began to form.
Finland did not allow the Germans to strike directly from their territory, and the German units in Petsamo and Salla were forced to refrain from crossing the border. There were episodic skirmishes between Soviet and Finnish border guards, but in general, a calm situation remained on the Soviet-Finnish border. However, starting on 22 June, German Luftwaffe bombers began using Finnish airfields as a refueling base before returning to Germany. On June 23, Molotov summoned the Finnish ambassador to him. Molotov demanded from Finland a clear definition of its position in relation to the USSR, but the Finnish ambassador refrained from commenting on Finland's actions. On June 24, the commander-in-chief of the German Ground Forces sent an instruction to the representative of the German command at the headquarters of the Finnish army, which stated that Finland should prepare for the start of the operation east of Lake Ladoga. In the early morning of June 25, the Soviet command decided to launch a massive air strike on 18 Finnish airfields using about 460 aircraft. On June 25, in response to the large-scale air raids of the USSR on the cities of Southern and Central Finland, including Helsinki and Turku, as well as the fire of Soviet infantry and artillery on the state border, Finland announced that it was again at war with the USSR. During July - August 1941, the Finnish army, in the course of a series of operations, occupied all the territories that had ceded to the USSR following the results of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940.
Hungary did not immediately take part in the attack on the USSR, and Hitler did not demand direct assistance from Hungary. However, the Hungarian ruling circles urged the need for Hungary to enter the war in order to prevent Hitler from resolving the territorial dispute over Transylvania in favor of Romania. On June 26, 1941, the Soviet Air Force allegedly bombed Kosice, but there is an opinion that it was a German provocation that gave Hungary casebelli(formal reason) for entering the war. Hungary declared war on the USSR on June 27, 1941. On July 1, 1941, at the direction of Germany, the Hungarian Carpathian Group of Forces attacked the Soviet 12th Army. Attached to the 17th German Army, the Carpathian group advanced far into the southern part of the USSR. In the autumn of 1941, the so-called Blue Division of Spanish volunteers also began hostilities on the side of Germany.
On August 10, the State Defense Committee issued a decree on the mobilization of those liable for military service born in 1904-1890 and conscripts born in 1922-1923 in the Kirovograd, Nikolaev, Dnepropetrovsk regions and areas west of Lyudinovo - Bryansk - Sevsk, Oryol region. On August 15, this mobilization was extended to the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, on August 20 - to the Zaporozhye region, on September 8 - to a number of districts of the Oryol and Kursk regions, on October 16 - to Moscow and the Moscow region. In general, by the end of 1941, over 14 million people were mobilized.
Meanwhile, German troops seized the strategic initiative and air supremacy and inflicted defeats on the Soviet troops in border battles. Which lost 850 thousand people killed and wounded and about 1 million people captured.
The main events of the summer-autumn campaign of 1941:
- Belostok-Minsk battle (June 22 - July 8, 1941),
- Battle for Dubno - Lutsk - Brody (1941) (June 24 - June 30, 1941),
- Defensive operation in Moldova
- Battle of Smolensk (July 10 - September 10),
- Battle of Uman (late July - August 8, 1941),
- Battle for Kyiv (August 7 - September 26, 1941),
- Defense of Leningrad and the beginning of its blockade (September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944),
- Defense of Odessa (August 5 - October 16, 1941),
- The beginning of the defense of Sevastopol (October 4, 1941 - July 4, 1942),
- Defensive period of the Battle of Moscow (September 30 - December 4, 1941),
- Encirclement of the 18th Army of the Southern Front (October 5-10, 1941).
- Tula defensive operation (October 24 - December 5, 1941)
- Battles for Rostov (November 21-27, 1941),
- Kerch landing (December 26, 1941 - May 20, 1942).
Results of the initial period of the war
By December 1, 1941, the losses of the Red Army only by prisoners amounted to 3.5 million military personnel. German troops captured Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Moldova, Estonia, a significant part of the RSFSR, Ukraine, moved inland up to 850-1200 km, while losing 740 thousand people (of which 230 thousand were killed).
The USSR lost the most important raw materials and industrial centers: Donbass, Krivoy Rog ore basin. Minsk, Kyiv, Kharkov, Smolensk, Odessa, Dnepropetrovsk were abandoned. Was in the blockade of Leningrad. The most important sources of food in Ukraine and southern Russia fell into the hands of the enemy or were cut off from the center. Millions of Soviet citizens found themselves in the occupied territories. Hundreds of thousands of civilians died or were driven into slavery in Germany. The German army, however, was stopped near Leningrad, Moscow and Rostov-on-Don; the strategic goals outlined by the Barbarossa plan could not be achieved.
Winter campaign 1941-1942
On November 16, the Germans began the second stage of the offensive against Moscow, planning to encircle it from the northwest and southwest. On the Dmitrovsky direction, they reached the Moscow-Volga canal and crossed to its eastern bank near Yakhroma, captured Klin on Khimki, crossed the Istra reservoir, occupied Solnechnogorsk and Krasnaya Polyana, and took Istra on Krasnogorsk. In the southwest, Guderian approached Kashira. However, as a result of the fierce resistance of the armies of the Polar Front, the Germans were stopped in all directions in late November - early December. The attempt to take Moscow failed.
During the winter campaign of 1941-1942, a counteroffensive was carried out near Moscow. The threat to Moscow was removed. Soviet troops pushed back the enemy in the western direction for 80-250 km, completed the liberation of the Moscow and Tula regions, and liberated many areas of the Kalinin and Smolensk regions. On the southern front, Soviet troops defended the strategically important Crimea.
On January 5, 1942, an extended meeting was held at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command to discuss strategic plans for the near future. The main report was made by Chief of the General Staff Marshal BM Shaposhnikov. He outlined not only a plan for further pushing the enemy back from Moscow, but also plans for a large-scale strategic offensive on other fronts: breaking the blockade of Leningrad and defeating the enemy in Ukraine and Crimea. G.K. Zhukov spoke out against the strategic offensive plan. He pointed out that, due to the lack of tanks and artillery, it was not possible to break through the German defenses, and that the proposed strategy would only lead to useless losses in manpower. Zhukov was supported by the head of the State Planning Committee of the USSR N. A. Voznesensky, who pointed out the impossibility of providing the proposed plan with a sufficient amount of equipment and weapons. Beria and Malenkov supported the plan. Summing up the discussion, Stalin approved the plan, saying: “We must quickly defeat the Germans so that they cannot advance when spring comes”.
In accordance with the adopted plan, offensive operations were undertaken at the beginning of 1942: the Rzhev-Vyazemsky operation, the Kerch-Feodosiya landing operation, and others. The enemy managed to repulse all these offensives with heavy losses for the Soviet troops. On January 18, 1942, the Barvenkovo-Lozovskaya operation began. Fierce battles continued for two weeks, as a result of which the Soviet troops managed to break through the German defenses on a 100 km long front, advance 90-100 km in the western and south-western directions and seize a bridgehead on the right bank of the Northern Donets.
Summer - autumn 1942
Based on incorrect data on the losses of the Wehrmacht during the winter offensive of the Red Army, the Supreme Command of the USSR in the summer-autumn campaign of 1942 set an impossible task for the troops: to completely defeat the enemy and liberate the entire territory of the country. The main military events took place in the southwestern direction: the defeat of the Crimean Front, the catastrophe in the Kharkov operation (12-25.05), the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad strategic defensive operation (28.06-24.07), the Stalingrad strategic defensive operation (17.07-18.11), the North Caucasian strategic defensive operation (25.07-31.12). The enemy advanced 500-650 km, went to the Volga, took possession of part of the passes of the Main Caucasian Range.
A number of major operations took place in the central direction: the Rzhev-Sychev operation (30.7-23.8), which merged with the counterattack of the troops of the Western Front in the Sukhinichi region, Kozelsk (22-29.8), a total of 228,232 people were lost); as well as in the north-western direction: the Luban offensive operation (7.1-30.4), merged with the operation to withdraw the 2nd shock army from the encirclement (13.5-10.7), which was surrounded as a result of the first operation; total losses - 403,118 people.
For the German army, the situation also began to take a menacing turn: although its losses continued to be significantly lower than the Soviet ones, the weaker German war economy did not allow the replacement of lost aircraft and tanks at the same speed as the opposite side did, and the extremely inefficient use of manpower in the army did not allow to replenish the divisions operating in the East to the required extent, which led to the transition of a number of divisions to a six-battalion staff (from a nine-battalion one); the personnel of combat companies in the Stalingrad direction was reduced to 27 people (out of 180 in the state). In addition, as a result of operations in the South of Russia, the already very long eastern front of the Germans was significantly lengthened, and the German units themselves were no longer enough to create the necessary defensive densities. Significant sections of the front were occupied by the troops of Germany's allies - the Romanian 3rd and the emerging 4th armies, the 8th Italian and 2nd Hungarian armies. It was these armies that turned out to be the Wehrmacht's Achilles' heel in the autumn-winter campaign that followed soon after.
On July 3, 1941, Stalin addressed the people with the slogan “Everything for the front! Everything for victory!“; By the summer of 1942 (in less than 1 year), the transfer of the USSR economy to a military footing was completed.
With the outbreak of war in the USSR, a mass evacuation of the population, productive forces, institutions and material resources began. A significant number of enterprises were evacuated to the eastern regions of the country (about 2,600 in the second half of 1941 alone), and 2.3 million heads of cattle were taken out. In the first half of 1942, 10,000 aircraft, 11,000 tanks, and 54,000 guns were produced. In the 2nd half of the year, their output increased by more than 1.5 times. In total, in 1942, the USSR produced 5.91 million small arms of all types (excluding revolvers and pistols), guns and mortars of all types and calibers (excluding aircraft, sea and tank / self-propelled guns) 287.0 thousand units, 24.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns of all types, 25.4 thousand aircraft of all types, including 21.7 thousand combat aircraft. A significant amount of military equipment was also received under Lend-Lease.
As a result of agreements between the USSR, Great Britain and the USA in 1941-1942. formed the core of the anti-Hitler coalition.
occupation regime
Hitler viewed his attack on the USSR as a "Crusade" to be waged by terrorist methods. Already on May 13, 1941, he released the military from all responsibility for their actions in the implementation of the Barbarossa plan:
Guderian remarked on this:
The territories of the Byelorussian, Ukrainian, Estonian, Latvian, Lithuanian SSR, 13 regions of the RSFSR were subjected to German occupation during the war.
The Moldavian SSR and some regions of the south of the Ukrainian SSR (Transnistria) were under the control of Romania, part of the Karelian-Finnish SSR was occupied by Finnish troops.
The regions began to be called provinces, counties (since January 1943 - districts) and volosts were established, and the population was registered. Along with the German military and administrative authorities (military commandant's offices, district and district administrations, agricultural administrations, the Gestapo, etc.), there were institutions of local self-government with the police. Burgomasters were appointed at the head of cities and counties, volost administrations were headed by volost foremen, and elders were appointed in villages. Magistrates' courts acted to deal with criminal and civil cases that did not affect the interests of the German army. The activities of local institutions were aimed at the execution of orders and orders of the German command, the implementation of Hitler's policy and plans in relation to the occupied population.
The entire able-bodied population was obliged to work in enterprises opened by the Germans, in the construction of fortifications for the German army, in the repair of highways and railways, their clearing of snow and rubble, in agriculture, etc. In accordance with the “new order of land use”, collective farms were communal farms were liquidated and formed, instead of state farms, "state farms" were formed - state farms of the German government. The population was instructed to unquestioningly comply with the predatory norms established by the Germans for the supply of meat, milk, grain, fodder, etc. for the German army. German soldiers robbed and destroyed state and public property, expelled civilians from their homes. People were forced to live in unsuitable premises, dugouts, they were deprived of warm clothes, food, livestock.
The Germans organized political schools - a special institution for propaganda and agitation. Public lectures on political topics were held without fail at enterprises and organizations in the city and in the countryside. Lectures and reports were given through local radio broadcasting. D. Malyavin also reports on propaganda calendars.
From December 1941, three times a week in Orel, the German newspaper Rech began to appear in Russian with pronounced anti-Soviet publications. Illustrated brochures, leaflets, posters were distributed among the population: “Who is Adolf Hitler”, “Is this war patriotic for the peoples of Russia”, “The new land order is the basis of well-being”, “Now take on the restoration of the motherland” and others - about German politics in occupied countries, about the "happy life" of Soviet prisoners of war and citizens sent to work in Germany, etc.
The Germans opened churches, schools and other cultural and educational institutions. The repertoire of theaters was also determined by German propagandists; in cinemas, in the overwhelming majority, only German films with Russian translation were shown.
Compulsory schooling was introduced using Soviet textbooks, from which everything that did not correspond to Nazi ideology was removed. Parents who did not send their children to schools were forced to do so by the imposition of fines. Teachers were interviewed by the Gestapo and two-week political courses were organized. From April 1943 the teaching of history was banned and the so-called "lessons of current events" were introduced, which required the use of German newspapers and special German political pamphlets. Children's groups were organized in the schools attached to the churches to teach the Law of God. At the same time, the invaders destroyed a huge number of books in libraries.
For most of the places that were occupied, this period lasted two to three years. The invaders introduced here for Soviet citizens aged 18 to 45 years (for Jews - from 18 to 60 years old) strict labor service. At the same time, the working day, even in hazardous industries, lasted 14-16 hours a day. For refusal and evasion of work, failure to follow orders, the slightest disobedience, resistance to robbery and violence, helping partisans, membership in the Communist Party and the Komsomol, belonging to the Jewish nationality and simply for no reason, executions, executions by hanging, beatings and torture with a fatal outcome followed. Fines were applied, imprisonment in concentration camps, requisition of livestock, etc. The Slavs, Jews and Gypsies, as well as all the rest, according to the Nazis, were subjected to repressions by the fascist invaders, first of all, “subhumans”. So, in Belarus, every third inhabitant was destroyed.
In the occupied territories, death camps were created, where, according to general estimates, about 5 million people died.
In total, more than 7.4 million people were deliberately exterminated in the occupied territory. civilian population.
Great damage to the Soviet population, which was under occupation, was caused by the forcible deportation of its most able-bodied part for forced labor in Germany and the occupied industrialized countries. Soviet slaves were called "Ostarbeiters" (Eastern workers) there.
Of the total number of Soviet citizens forcibly taken to work in Germany (5,269,513 people), after the end of the war, 2,654,100 people were repatriated to their homeland. They did not return for various reasons and became emigrants - 451,100 people. The rest 2 164 313 people. died or died in captivity.
The period of a radical change (November 19, 1942-1943)
Winter campaign 1942-1943
On November 19, 1942, the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops began, on November 23, parts of the Stalingrad and Southwestern fronts united near the city of Kalach-on-Don and surrounded 22 enemy divisions. During Operation Little Saturn, which began on December 16, the Don Army Group under the command of Manstein suffered a serious defeat. And although the offensive operations undertaken in the central sector of the Soviet-German front (Operation Mars) ended unsuccessfully, the success in the southern direction ensured the success of the winter campaign of the Soviet troops as a whole - one German and four armies of Germany's allies were destroyed.
Other important events of the winter campaign were the North Caucasian offensive operation (in fact, the pursuit of forces withdrawing from the Caucasus in order to avoid the encirclement of the Germans) and the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad (January 18, 1943). The Red Army advanced 600-700 km to the West in some directions, defeated five enemy armies.
On February 19, 1943, the troops of the Army Group "South" under the command of Manstein launched a counteroffensive in the southern direction, which made it possible to temporarily wrest the initiative from the hands of the Soviet troops and push them back to the east (in some directions for 150-200 km). A relatively small number of Soviet units were surrounded (on the Voronezh front, due to the mistakes of the front commander F. I. Golikov, who was displaced after the battle). However, the measures taken by the Soviet command, already at the end of March 1943, made it possible to stop the advance of the German troops and stabilize the front.
In the winter of 1943, the German 9th Army of V. Model left the Rzhev-Vyazma ledge (see Operation Buffel). Soviet troops of the Kalinin (A. M. Purkaev) and Western (V. D. Sokolovsky) fronts began to pursue the enemy. As a result, Soviet troops pushed the front line away from Moscow by another 130-160 km. Soon the headquarters of the German 9th Army led the troops on the northern face of the Kursk salient.
Summer-autumn campaign 1943
The decisive events of the summer-autumn campaign of 1943 were the Battle of Kursk and the Battle of the Dnieper. The Red Army advanced 500-1300 km, and although its losses were greater than the losses of the enemy (in 1943, the losses of the Soviet armies in killed reached the maximum for the entire war), the German side could not, due to the less efficient military industry and the less efficient system of using human resources for military purposes, to make up for their even smaller losses as quickly as the USSR could do. This provided the Red Army with a generally stable dynamics of advancement to the West during the third and fourth quarters of 1943.
November 28 - December 1, the Tehran Conference of I. Stalin, W. Churchill and F. Roosevelt took place. The main issue of the conference was the opening of a second front.
Third period of the war (1944 - May 9, 1945)
The third period of the war was characterized by a significant quantitative growth of the German armed forces, especially in technical terms. For example, the number of tanks and self-propelled guns in the Wehrmacht by January 1, 1945 amounted to 12,990 units, while by January 1, 1944 - 9,149, and by January 1, 1943 - only 7,927 units. This was the result of the activities of Speer, Milch and others in the framework of the program of military mobilization of the German industry, which began in January 1942, but began to give serious results only in 1943-1944. However, the quantitative growth due to the huge losses on the Eastern Front and the lack of fuel for the training of tankers and pilots was accompanied by a decrease in the quality level of the German armed forces. Therefore, the strategic initiative remained with the USSR and its allies, and Germany's losses increased significantly (it is believed that the reason for the increase in losses was, among other things, the growth of the technical equipment of the Wehrmacht - there was more equipment that could be lost).
Winter-spring campaign of 1944
Winter campaign 1943-1944 The Red Army started grandiose offensive on the right-bank Ukraine(December 24, 1943 - April 17, 1944). This offensive included several front-line operations, such as Zhytomyr-Berdichevskaya, Kirovogradskaya, Korsun-Shevchenkovskaya, Lutsk-Rivne, Nikopol-Krivoy Rog, Proskurov-Chernovitskaya, Umansko-Botoshanskaya, Bereznegovato-Snigirevskaya and Odessa.
As a result of a 4-month offensive, Army Group South under the command of Field Marshal E. Manstein and Army Group A, commanded by Field Marshal E. Kleist, were defeated. Soviet troops liberated the Right-Bank Ukraine, the western regions, reached the state border in the south of the USSR, in the foothills of the Carpathians (during the Proskurov-Chernivtsi operation) and on March 28, crossing the Prut River, entered Romania. Also, the offensive on the right-bank Ukraine includes the Polessky operation of the 2nd Belorussian Front, which operated north of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front.
The troops of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd 4th Ukrainian Fronts, the 2nd Belorussian Front, ships of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov Flotilla and a large number of partisans in the occupied territories took part in the offensive. As a result of the offensive, the front was moved away from its original positions at the end of December 1943 to a depth of 250-450 km. The human losses of the Soviet troops are estimated at 1.1 million people, of which a little more than 270 thousand are irretrievable.
Simultaneously with the liberation of the Right-bank Ukraine, began Leningradsko-Novgorodskayaoperation(January 14 - March 1, 1944). As part of this operation, the following operations were carried out: Krasnoselsko-Ropsha, Novgorod-Luga, Kingisepp-Gdov and Starorussko-Novorzhevskaya front-line offensive operations. One of the main goals was to lift the blockade of Leningrad.
As a result of the offensive, the Soviet troops defeated the North Army Group, under the command of Field Marshal G. Küchler. The almost 900-day blockade of Leningrad was also lifted, almost the entire territory of the Leningrad, Novgorod regions, most of the Kalinin region was liberated, Soviet troops entered the territory of Estonia. This offensive of the Soviet troops deprived the German command of the opportunity to transfer the forces of Army Group North to Right-Bank Ukraine, where they inflicted main blow Soviet troops in the winter of 1944
The troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, part of the forces of the 2nd Baltic Front, the Baltic Fleet, long-range aviation and partisans participated in the operation. As a result of the Leningrad-Novgorod operation, the troops advanced 220-280 km. The losses of the Soviet troops - more than 300 thousand people, of which irretrievable - more than 75 thousand.
April-May marked Crimean offensive operation(April 8 - May 12). During it, 2 front-line operations were carried out: Perekop-Sevastopol and Kerch-Sevastopol; the purpose of the operation is the liberation of the Crimea. Soviet troops liberated the Crimea and defeated the 17th field army of the Germans. The Black Sea Fleet regained its main base - Sevastopol, which significantly improved the conditions for basing and conducting combat operations both for the fleet itself and for the Azov military flotilla (on the basis of which the Danube military flotilla was formed). The threat to the rear of the fronts that liberated Right-Bank Ukraine was eliminated.
The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, the Separate Primorsky Army under the command of A. I. Eremenko, the Black Sea Fleet, the Azov military flotilla (later renamed the Danube military flotilla) participated in the liberation of Crimea. The losses of the Soviet troops amounted to a little less than 85 thousand people, of which more than 17 thousand were irretrievable. Soviet troops liberated Crimea in a little over a month, while it took the Germans almost 10 months just to capture Sevastopol.
Summer-autumn campaign of 1944
In June 1944, the Allies opened a second front, which slightly worsened the military situation in Germany. In the summer-autumn campaign of 1944, the Red Army carried out a number of major operations, including the Belorussian, Lvov-Sandomierz, Iasi-Kishinev, and Baltic operations; completed the liberation of Belarus, Ukraine, the Baltic states (except for some regions of Latvia) and partially Czechoslovakia; liberated the northern Arctic and the northern regions of Norway. Romania and Bulgaria were forced to capitulate and enter the war against Germany (Bulgaria was at war with Great Britain and the USA, but not with the USSR, the USSR declared war on Bulgaria on September 5, 1944 and occupied it, the Bulgarian troops did not resist).
In the summer of 1944, Soviet troops entered the territory of Poland. Even before that, on the territory of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus, as well as Lithuania, Soviet troops met with the formations of the Polish partisan Home Army (AK), which was subordinate to the Polish government in exile. It was given the task, as the Germans retreated, to seize the liberated areas both in Western Belarus, Western Ukraine and Lithuania, and in Poland itself so that the incoming Soviet troops would already find a formed power apparatus there, supported by armed detachments subordinate to the emigrant government.
Soviet troops first carried out joint operations with the AK against the Germans, and then the AK officers were arrested, and the fighters were disarmed and mobilized into the pro-Soviet Polish Army of General Berling. On the liberated lands, that is, directly in the rear of the Red Army, attempts continued to disarm the AK detachments, which went underground. This happened from July 1944 on the territory of Poland itself. Already on August 23, 1944, the first stage of interned AK fighters was sent from Lublin to the camp near Ryazan. Before being sent, they were kept in the former Nazi concentration camp Majdanek. On July 21, 1944, the Polish Communists and their allies created the Polish Committee of National Liberation in Chełm - a temporary pro-Soviet government of Poland, despite the fact that Poland had a legitimate government - the Polish government in exile.
On August 1, 1944, when the advanced forces of the Red Army were approaching the capital of Poland, Warsaw, the “Krayova Army” raised an uprising in the city. The rebels fought for two months against the superior forces of the German troops, but on October 2, 1944, they were forced to capitulate. The 1st Belorussian Front did not provide significant assistance to the rebels - having overcome up to 600 km in the Belorussian operation, it met stubborn enemy resistance near Warsaw and went on the defensive.
On August 30, 1944, the Slovak National Uprising began against the pro-German regime of the Slovak Republic, led by Josef Tisso. To help the rebels, Soviet troops launched the Carpatho-Dukela operation on September 8. But in early November 1944, German troops crushed the uprising even before the Soviet troops could help the rebels.
In October 1944, Soviet troops successfully carried out the Debrecen operation and launched the Budapest operation with the aim of defeating German troops in Hungary and withdrawing it from the war. However, the German troops in Budapest capitulated only on February 13, 1945. On December 28, 1944, a provisional government of Hungary was created, which on January 20, 1945 concluded a truce with the USSR.
On October 25, 1944, the State Defense Committee announced the call for military service of conscripts born in 1927. They called up 1 million 156 thousand 727 people - the last military call.
Winter-spring campaign of 1945
military front
The offensive operations of the Soviet troops in the western direction resumed only in January 1945. January 13 began ( East Prussian operation). In the Malawian direction, the goal was to defeat the Malawian enemy grouping and cut off Army Group Center, which was defending in East Prussia, from the rest of the forces of the Nazi armies. As a result of the fighting, Soviet troops occupied part of East Prussia, liberated the territory of northern Poland, and, blocking the enemy’s East Prussian grouping from the West and South-West, created favorable conditions for its subsequent defeat (see. Mlawsko-Elbingskayaoperation). In the Kaliningrad direction, an offensive operation was launched against the Tilsit-Insterburg grouping of German-fascist troops. As a result, the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front advanced to a depth of 130 km and defeated the main German forces, creating conditions for the completion of the East Prussian operation jointly with the 2nd Belorussian Front (see Insterburg-Koenigsberg operation). In another direction in Poland on January 12 began ( Vistula-Oderoperation), during which, by February 3, the territory of Poland west of the Vistula was cleared of German troops and a bridgehead on the right bank of the Oder was captured, which was subsequently used in the attack on Berlin. In southern Poland and Czechoslovakia, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front overcame most of the Western Carpathians, and by February 18 they reached the upper reaches of the Vistula, which contributed to the advance of the 1st Ukrainian Front in Silesia.
March 16 starts Vienna offensive operation to conquer the city of Vienna. On the way to the capital of the Austrian part of the Third Reich, the 6th SS Panzer Army was defeated. In early April, on the territory of Czechoslovakia, Soviet troops with fierce battles move further west, freeing settlements from the Germans. On April 7, they approach the suburbs of Vienna, where they meet stubborn resistance from the Germans. Heavy fighting begins for Vienna, which was taken on April 13.
At the same time, battles for Königsberg begin in East Prussia (see below). Königsberg operation). At a slow pace, Soviet troops are retaking kilometer after kilometer, street battles begin. As a result of the Koenigsberg operation, the main forces of the East Prussian group of Germans were defeated. In the Polish direction, by March 1945, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts reached the line of the Oder and Neisse rivers. According to the shortest distance from the Kustrinsky bridgehead to Berlin, 60 km remained. Anglo-American troops completed the liquidation of the Ruhr grouping of German troops and by mid-April advanced units reached the Elbe. The loss of the most important raw material areas led to a decline in industrial production in Germany. Difficulties increased in replenishing the casualties suffered in the winter of 1944/45. Nevertheless, the German armed forces were still an impressive force. According to the intelligence department of the General Staff of the Red Army, by mid-April they numbered 223 divisions and brigades. On April 16, 1945, the Berlin offensive operation of the Soviet troops began. On April 25, 1945, Soviet troops on the Elbe River met for the first time with American troops advancing from the West. On May 2, 1945, the Berlin garrison capitulated. After the capture of Berlin, Soviet troops carried out the Prague operation - the last strategic operation in the war.
Political front
On January 19, 1945, the last commander of the AK, Leopold Okulitsky, issued an order to disband it. In February 1945, representatives of the Polish government in exile who were in Poland, most of the delegates of the Council of National Unity (a temporary underground parliament) and the leaders of the AK were invited by NKGB General I. A. Serov to a conference on the possible entry of representatives of non-communist groups into the Provisional Government, which was supported Soviet Union. The Poles were given security guarantees, but they were arrested in Pruszkow on March 27 and taken to Moscow, where they were tried. On February 4-11, 1945, the Yalta Conference of Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt took place. It discussed the basic principles of post-war politics.
End of the war
At midnight on May 8, the war in Europe ended with the unconditional surrender of the German armed forces. The fighting lasted 1418 days. Nevertheless, having accepted the surrender, the Soviet Union did not sign peace with Germany, that is, formally remained at war with Germany. The war with Germany was formally ended on January 25, 1955 by the issuance by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the decree "On the termination of the state of war between the Soviet Union and Germany."
On June 24, the Victory Parade took place in Moscow. At the Potsdam Conference of the leaders of the USSR, Great Britain and the USA, held in July - August 1945, an agreement was reached on the post-war structure of Europe.
The Soviet Union's war against Japan (August 9 - September 2, 1945) was a direct continuation and an important component of the Great Patriotic War.
Battles, operations and battles
The largest battles of the Great Patriotic War:
- Defense of the Arctic (June 29, 1941 - November 1, 1944)
- Battle of Moscow (September 30, 1941 - April 20, 1942)
- Siege of Leningrad (September 8, 1941 - January 27, 1944)
- Battle of Rzhev (January 8, 1942 - March 31, 1943)
- Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943)
- Battle for the Caucasus (July 25, 1942 - October 9, 1943)
- Battle of Kursk (July 5 - August 23, 1943)
- Battle for the Right-Bank Ukraine (December 24, 1943 - April 17, 1944)
- Belarusian operation (June 23 - August 29, 1944)
- Baltic operation (September 14 - November 24, 1944)
- Budapest operation (October 29, 1944 - February 13, 1945)
- Vistula-Oder operation (January 12 - February 3, 1945)
- East Prussian operation (January 13 - April 25, 1945)
- Battle of Berlin (April 16 - May 8, 1945)
Losses
There are various estimates of the losses of the Soviet Union and Germany during the war of 1941-1945. The differences are related both to the methods of obtaining the initial quantitative data for different groups of losses, and to the calculation methods.
In Russia, official data on losses (of the army) in the Great Patriotic War are data published by a group of researchers led by Grigory Krivosheev, a consultant at the Military Memorial Center of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, in 1993. According to updated data (2001), the losses were as follows:
- The human losses of the USSR - 6.8 million military personnel "killed, died of wounds, in captivity, from diseases, accidents, executed by the verdicts of the tribunals" and 4.4 million captured and missing. General demographic losses (including dead civilians) - 26.6 million Human;
- German casualties - 4.047 million servicemen dead and dead (including 3.605 million dead, dead from wounds and missing at the front; 442 thousand dead in captivity), more 2.91 million
- The casualties of Germany's allied countries - 806 thousand military personnel who died (including 137.8 thousand who died in captivity) 662.2 thousand returned from captivity after the war.
- Irreversible losses of the armies of the USSR and Germany with satellites (including prisoners of war) - 11.5 million and 8.6 million people respectively. The ratio of irretrievable losses of the armies of Germany with the satellites and the USSR is: 1:1.3.
USSR and the anti-Hitler coalition
After the German attack on the USSR, the latter became an ally of Great Britain. On June 22, 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill said:
On July 12, the USSR signed an agreement with Great Britain on joint actions in the war against Germany. On July 18, a similar agreement was signed with the Czechoslovak government in exile, and on July 30 with the Polish government in exile.
On August 14, an agreement was reached with the Polish government in exile on the formation in the USSR of an army of Polish citizens who fell into Soviet captivity as a result of the Polish campaign of the Red Army in 1939, as well as Polish citizens who were deported or imprisoned (in respect of them, on August 12, a decree was adopted on amnesty).
On September 24, 1941, the USSR joined the Atlantic Charter, while expressing its dissenting opinion on certain issues. On September 29 - October 1, 1941, a meeting of representatives of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain took place in Moscow, which ended with the signing of a protocol on mutual deliveries. The first British Arctic convoy "Dervish" with military supplies for the USSR arrived in Arkhangelsk even before that, on August 31, 1941. To ensure the supply of military cargo to the USSR along the southern route, in August 1941, Soviet and British troops were sent to Iran.
Stalin's position in the war
On the occasion of the 24th anniversary of the “formation of the Red Army”, Joseph Stalin, in his Order No. 55, threw the following rebuke to the National Socialist press, allegedly claiming that the Soviet Union was striving to destroy the German people:
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It can be said with all certainty that this war will lead either to the fragmentation or to the complete destruction of the Hitlerite clique. Ridiculous are the attempts to identify the entire German people and the German state with this clique. The experience of history says that the Hitlers come and go, but the German people, and the German state, remain. The strength of the Red Army lies in the fact that it does not know racial hatred, which is the source of Germany's weakness ... All freedom-loving peoples oppose National Socialist Germany ... We are at war with a German soldier not because he is German, but because he fulfills an order to enslave our people" - Stalin I.V. Order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR dated February 23, 1942 No. 55 // Works. - M.: Writer, 1997. - T. 15. - S. 93-98. |
Opinions and ratings
It is noted that the losses of the USSR many times exceeded the losses of the other countries of the anti-Hitler coalition, while the overall contribution to the victory was largely made by the struggle of the Soviet people. Here is what the well-known Soviet publicist Strelnikov writes about this:
Paying tribute to all the fighters against fascism, it must be emphasized that the contribution to the overall victory was different. The main merit in the defeat of Nazi Germany undoubtedly belongs to the Soviet Union. Throughout the Second World War, the Soviet-German front remained the main one: it was here that 507 divisions of the Wehrmacht and 100 divisions of Germany's allies were defeated ... |
The main result of the Great Patriotic War was the elimination of the mortal danger, the threat of enslavement and genocide of the Russian and other peoples of the USSR. The powerful, inhumane enemy reached Moscow in just 4 months, retaining offensive capabilities right up to the Kursk Bulge. The turning point in the war and the victory were the result of an incredible exertion of forces, the mass heroism of the people, which amazed both enemies and allies. The idea that inspired the workers of the front and rear, uniting and multiplying their strength, reconciling with the cruelty of the emergency measures of their own leadership, with unjustified sacrifices, was the idea of \u200b\u200bdefending their Fatherland as a just and righteous cause. The victory aroused among the people a sense of national pride and self-confidence. |
When the sun's rays were just about to illuminate the earth on the western border of the USSR, the first soldiers of Nazi Germany set foot on Soviet soil. The Great Patriotic War (WWII) has been going on for almost two years, but now a heroic war has begun, and it will go not for resources, not for the domination of one nation over another, and not for the establishment of a new order, now the war will become sacred, popular and its price will be life, real and life of future generations.
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. The beginning of the Second World War
On June 22, 1941, four years of inhuman efforts began to count down, during which the future of each of us hung practically in the balance.
War is always a disgusting business, but The Great Patriotic War (WWII) was too popular for only professional soldiers to participate. All the people, from young to old, stood up to defend the Motherland.
From the first day Great Patriotic War (WWII) the heroism of a simple Soviet soldier became a role model. What in the literature is often called "to stand to death" was fully demonstrated already in the battles for the Brest Fortress. The vaunted soldiers of the Wehrmacht, who conquered France in 40 days and forced England to cowardly huddle on their island, faced such resistance that they simply could not believe that ordinary people were fighting against them. As if they were warriors from epic tales, they stood up with their breasts to protect every inch of their native land. For almost a month, the garrison of the fortress fought off one German attack after another. And this, just think, 4,000 people who were cut off from the main forces, and who did not have a single chance of salvation. They were all doomed, but they did not succumb to weakness, did not lay down their arms.
When the advanced units of the Wehrmacht go to Kyiv, Smolensk, Leningrad, fighting is still going on in the Brest Fortress. 
Great Patriotic War always characterize manifestations of heroism and perseverance. Whatever happened on the territory of the USSR, no matter how terrible the repressions of tyranny would be, the war equalized everyone.
A vivid example of changing attitudes within society, Stalin's famous address, which was made on July 3, 1941, contained the words - "Brothers and Sisters." There were no more citizens, there were no high ranks and comrades, it was a huge family, consisting of all the peoples and nationalities of the country. The family demanded salvation, demanded support.
Fighting continued on the eastern front. German generals first encountered an anomaly, there is no other way to call it. Designed by the best minds of Hitler's general staff, blitzkrieg, built on rapid breakthroughs of tank formations, followed by the encirclement of large parts of the enemy, no longer worked like a clock mechanism. Getting into the environment, the Soviet units fought their way through, and did not lay down their arms. To a serious extent, the heroism of soldiers and commanders thwarted the plans of the German offensive, slowed down the advance of enemy units and became a turning point in the war. Yes, yes, it was then, in the summer of 1941, that the plans for the offensive of the German army were completely thwarted. Then there were Stalingrad, Kursk, the Battle of Moscow, but all of them became possible thanks to the unparalleled courage of a simple Soviet soldier who, at the cost of his own life, stopped the German invaders.
Of course, there were excesses in the leadership of military operations. It must be admitted that the command of the Red Army was not ready for WWII. The doctrine of the USSR assumed a victorious war on the territory of the enemy, but not on its own soil. And in technical terms, the Soviet troops were seriously inferior to the Germans. So they went into cavalry attacks on tanks, flew and shot down German aces on old planes, burned in tanks, and retreated without giving up a shred without a fight.
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. Battle for Moscow
The plan for the lightning-fast capture of Moscow by the Germans finally collapsed in the winter of 1941. A lot has been written about the Moscow battle, films have been made. However, every page of what was written, every frame of footage is imbued with the unparalleled heroism of the defenders of Moscow. We all know about the parade on November 7, which passed through Red Square, while German tanks were moving towards the capital. Yes, this was also an example of how the Soviet people are going to defend their country. The troops went to the front line immediately from the parade, immediately entering the battle. And the Germans could not resist. The iron conquerors of Europe stopped. It seemed that nature itself came to the aid of the defenders, severe frosts hit, and this was the beginning of the end of the German offensive. Hundreds of thousands of lives, widespread manifestations of patriotism and devotion to the Motherland of soldiers in encirclement, soldiers near Moscow, residents who for the first time in their lives held weapons in their hands, all this stood up as an insurmountable obstacle on the enemy’s path to the very heart of the USSR.
But then the legendary offensive began. German troops were thrown back from Moscow, and for the first time they knew the bitterness of retreat and defeat. We can say that it was here, in the snowy areas under the capital, that the fate of the whole world, and not just the war, was predetermined. The brown plague, which up to that time had engulfed country after country, people after people, found itself face to face with people who did not want to, could not bow their heads.
The 41st was coming to an end, the western part of the USSR lay in ruins, the occupying troops were fierce, but nothing could break those who ended up in the occupied territories. There were also traitors, what can we hide, those who went over to the side of the enemy, and forever stigmatized themselves with the rank of “policeman”. And who are they now, where are they? The Holy War does not forgive traitors in their own land.
Speaking of Holy War. The legendary song very accurately reflected the state of society in those years. The People's and Holy War did not tolerate the subjunctive declension, and weakness. The price of victory or defeat was life itself.
d. allowed to change the relationship between the authorities and the church. Subjected to long years of persecution, during WWII The Russian Orthodox Church helped the front with all its might. And this is another example of heroism and patriotism. After all, we all know that in the west, the Pope simply bowed to the iron fists of Hitler.
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. guerrilla war
Separately, it is worth mentioning the guerrilla war during WWII. The Germans first met with such fierce resistance from the population. Regardless of where the front line passed, military operations were constantly taking place behind enemy lines. The invaders on Soviet soil could not get a moment of peace. Whether it was the swamps of Belarus or the forests of the Smolensk region, the steppes of Ukraine, death awaited the invaders everywhere! Whole villages went to the partisans, together with their families, with relatives, and from there, from the hidden, ancient forests, they attacked the Nazis.
How many heroes spawned the partisan movement. Both old and very young. Young boys and girls who went to school yesterday have matured today and performed feats that will remain in our memory for centuries.
While fighting was going on on the ground, the air, in the first months of the war, completely belonged to the Germans. A huge number of aircraft of the Soviet army were destroyed immediately after the start of the fascist offensive, and those who managed to take to the air could not fight German aircraft on an equal footing. However, the heroism WWII manifests itself not only on the battlefield. A low bow, all of us living today, give to the rear. In the most severe conditions, under constant shelling and bombardment, plants and factories were exported to the east. Immediately upon arrival, on the street, in the cold, workers stood at the machines. The army continued to receive ammunition. Talented designers created new models of weapons. They worked 18-20 hours a day in the rear, but the army did not need anything. Victory was forged at the cost of the enormous efforts of each person.
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. Rear
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. Blockade Leningrad.
Blockade Leningrad. Are there people who would not hear this phrase? 872 days of unparalleled heroism covered this city with eternal glory. German troops and allies could not break the resistance of the besieged city. The city lived, defended and struck back. The road of life, connecting the besieged city with the mainland, became the last for many, and there was not a single person who would refuse, who would chicken out and not take food and ammunition to Leningraders along this ice ribbon. Hope never really died. And the credit for this entirely belongs to ordinary people who valued the freedom of their country above all else!
All history of the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945 written by unprecedented feats. Only real sons and daughters of their people, heroes, could close the embrasure of an enemy pillbox with their body, throw themselves under a tank with grenades, go for a ram in an air battle.
And they were rewarded! And let the sky over the village of Prokhorovka turn black from soot and smoke, let the waters of the northern seas receive dead heroes every day, but nothing could stop the liberation of the Motherland.
And there was the first salute, August 5, 1943. It was then that the fireworks began counting in honor of a new victory, a new liberation of the city.
The peoples of Europe today no longer know their history, the true history of the Second World War. It is thanks to the Soviet people that they live, build their lives, give birth and raise children. Bucharest, Warsaw, Budapest, Sofia, Prague, Vienna, Bratislava, all these capitals were liberated at the cost of the blood of Soviet heroes. And the last shots in Berlin mark the end of the worst nightmare of the 20th century.
The Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) is one of the most important events in the history of the Russian people, which left an indelible mark on the soul of every person. Our g...
By Masterweb
10.04.2018 02:00The Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) is one of the most important events in the history of the Russian people, which left an indelible mark on the soul of every person. In a seemingly short four years, almost 100 million human lives were lost, more than 1,500 cities and towns were destroyed, more than 30,000 industrial enterprises and at least 60,000 kilometers of roads were disabled. Our state was going through a severe shock, which is hard to comprehend even now, in peacetime. What was the war like 1941-1945? What stages can be identified in the course of hostilities? And what are the consequences of this terrible event? In this article we will try to find answers to all these questions.
The Second World War
The Soviet Union was not the first to be attacked by fascist troops. Everyone knows that the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 began only 1.5 years after the start of the World War. So what events started this terrible war, and what kind of hostilities were organized by fascist Germany?
First of all, it is worth mentioning the fact that on August 23, 1939, a non-aggression pact was signed between Germany and the USSR. Along with it, some secret protocols were signed regarding the interests of the USSR and Germany, including the division of Polish territories. Thus, Germany, which had the goal of attacking Poland, secured itself against retaliatory steps on the part of the Soviet leadership and, in fact, made the USSR an accomplice in the partition of Poland.
So, on September 1, 1939, the fascist invaders attacked Poland. The Polish troops did not put up adequate resistance, and already on September 17, the troops of the Soviet Union entered the lands of Eastern Poland. As a result, the territories of the West of Ukraine and Belarus joined the territory of the Soviet state. On September 28 of the same year, Ribbentrop and V.M. Molotov signed an agreement on friendship and borders.
Germany failed to carry out the planned blitzkrieg, or lightning-fast outcome of the war. Military operations on the Western Front until May 10, 1940 are called the "strange war", since no events occurred during this period of time.
Only in the spring of 1940, Hitler resumed the offensive and captured Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France. The operation to capture England "Sea Lion" was unsuccessful, and then the plan "Barbarossa" for the USSR was adopted - the plan for the start of the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945).
Soviet preparation for war
Despite the non-aggression pact concluded in 1939, Stalin understood that the USSR would in any case be drawn into a world war. Therefore, the Soviet Union adopted a five-year plan to prepare for it, carried out in the period from 1938 to 1942.
The primary task in preparing for the war of 1941-1945 was the strengthening of the military-industrial complex and the development of heavy industry. Therefore, during this period, numerous thermal and hydroelectric power stations were built (including those on the Volga and Kama), coal mines and mines were developed, and oil production increased. Also, great importance was given to the construction of railways and transport hubs.
The construction of backup enterprises in the eastern part of the country was carried out. And the costs of the defense industry have increased several times. At this time, new models of military equipment and weapons were also released.
Equally important was the preparation of the population for war. The workweek now consisted of seven eight-hour days. The size of the Red Army was significantly increased due to the introduction of compulsory military service from the age of 18. It was mandatory for workers to receive special education; criminal liability was introduced for violations of discipline.
However, the real results did not correspond to the planned management, and only in the spring of 1941, an 11-12-hour working day was introduced for workers. And on June 21, 1941, I.V. Stalin gave the order to put the troops on alert, but the order reached the border guards too late.
USSR entry into the war
At dawn on June 22, 1941, fascist troops attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war, from that moment the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 began.
At noon of the same day, Vyacheslav Molotov spoke on the radio, announcing the beginning of the war to Soviet citizens and the need to resist the enemy. The next day, the Top Bet was created. high command, and on June 30 - State. The Defense Committee, in fact, received all the power. I.V. became the Chairman of the Committee and the Commander-in-Chief. Stalin.
Now let's move on to a brief description of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Plan "Barbarossa"
Hitler's plan "Barbarossa" was as follows: he assumed the rapid defeat of the Soviet Union with the help of three groups of the German army. The first of them (northern) would make an attack on Leningrad, the second (central) - on Moscow and the third (southern) - on Kyiv. Hitler planned to complete the entire offensive in 6 weeks and reach the Volga strip Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan. However, the confident rebuff of the Soviet troops did not allow him to carry out a "blitzkrieg".
Considering the forces of the parties in the war of 1941-1945, we can say that the USSR, although slightly, was inferior to the German army. Germany and its allies had 190 divisions, while the Soviet Union had only 170. 48,000 German artillery were fielded against 47,000 Soviet artillery. The number of enemy armies in both cases was approximately 6 million people. But in terms of the number of tanks and aircraft, the USSR significantly surpassed Germany (in the amount of 17.7 thousand against 9.3 thousand).
At the first stages of the war, the USSR suffered setbacks due to incorrectly chosen tactics of warfare. Initially, the Soviet leadership planned to wage war on foreign territory, not letting fascist troops into the territory of the Soviet Union. However, such plans were not successful. Already in July 1941, six Soviet republics were occupied, the Red Army lost more than 100 of its divisions. However, Germany also suffered considerable losses: in the first weeks of the war, the enemy lost 100,000 men and 40% of its tanks.
The dynamic resistance of the troops of the Soviet Union led to the disruption of Hitler's plan for a blitzkrieg. During the Battle of Smolensk (July 10 - September 10, 1945), the German troops needed to go on the defensive. In September 1941, the heroic defense of the city of Sevastopol began. But the main attention of the enemy was concentrated on the capital of the Soviet Union. Then preparations began for an attack on Moscow and a plan to capture it - Operation Typhoon.
Battle for Moscow
The battle for Moscow is considered one of the most important events of the Russian war of 1941-1945. Only the stubborn resistance and courage of the Soviet soldiers allowed the USSR to survive in this difficult battle.
On September 30, 1941, German troops launched Operation Typhoon and launched an offensive against Moscow. The offensive began successfully for them. The fascist invaders managed to break through the defenses of the USSR, as a result of which, having surrounded the armies near Vyazma and Bryansk, they captured more than 650 thousand Soviet soldiers. The Red Army suffered significant losses. In October-November 1941, battles were fought only 70-100 km from Moscow, which was extremely dangerous for the capital. On October 20, a state of siege was introduced in Moscow.
From the beginning of the battle for the capital, G.K. was appointed commander-in-chief on the Western Front. Zhukov, however, he managed to stop the German offensive only by the beginning of November. On November 7, a parade was held on the capital's Red Square, from which the soldiers immediately went to the front.
In mid-November, the German offensive began again. When defending the capital, the 316th Infantry Division of General I.V. Panfilov, who at the beginning of the offensive repulsed several tank attacks of the aggressor.
On December 5-6, the troops of the Soviet Union, having received reinforcements from the Eastern Front, launched a counteroffensive, which marked the transition to a new stage in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. During the counteroffensive, the troops of the Soviet Union defeated almost 40 German divisions. Now the fascist troops were "thrown back" from the capital by 100-250 km.
The victory of the USSR significantly influenced the spirit of the soldiers and the entire Russian people. The defeat of Germany made it possible for other countries to begin the formation of an anti-Hitler coalition of states.
Battle of Stalingrad
The successes of the Soviet troops made a deep impression on the leaders of the state. I.V. Stalin began to count on a speedy end to the war of 1941-1945. He believed that in the spring of 1942, Germany would repeat the attack on Moscow, so he ordered the main forces of the army to be concentrated precisely on the Western Front. However, Hitler thought differently and prepared a large-scale offensive in the south.
But before the start of the offensive, Germany planned to capture the Crimea and some cities of the Ukrainian Republic. Thus, the Soviet troops on the Kerch Peninsula were defeated, and on July 4, 1942, the city of Sevastopol had to be abandoned. Then Kharkov, Donbass and Rostov-on-Don fell; created a direct threat to Stalingrad. Stalin, who realized his miscalculations too late, on July 28 issued the order "Not a step back!", Forming barrage detachments for unstable divisions.
Until November 18, 1942, the inhabitants of Stalingrad heroically defended their city. Only on November 19, the troops of the USSR launched a counteroffensive.
Three operations were organized by the Soviet troops: "Uranus" (11/19/1942 - 02/2/1943), "Saturn" (12/16-30/1942) and "Ring" (11/10/1942 - 02/2/1943). What was each of them?
The plan "Uranus" assumed the encirclement of fascist troops from three fronts: the front of Stalingrad (commander - Eremenko), the Don Front (Rokossovsky) and the South-Western Front (Vatutin). Soviet troops planned to meet on November 23 in the city of Kalach-on-Don and give the Germans an organized battle.
Operation "Small Saturn" was aimed at protecting oil fields located in the Caucasus. Operation "Ring" in February 1943 was the final plan of the Soviet command. The Soviet troops were supposed to close the "ring" around the enemy army and defeat his forces.
As a result, on February 2, 1943, the enemy group surrounded by Soviet troops surrendered. The commander-in-chief of the German army, Friedrich Paulus, was also captured. The victory at Stalingrad led to a radical turning point in the history of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Now the strategic initiative was in the hands of the Red Army.
Battle of Kursk
The next most important stage of the war was the battle on the Kursk Bulge, which lasted from July 5 to 08/23/1943. The German command adopted the Citadel plan, aimed at encircling and defeating the Soviet army on the Kursk Bulge.
In response to the enemy's plan, the Soviet command planned two operations, and it was supposed to start with active defense, and then bring down all the forces of the main and reserve troops on the Germans.
Operation Kutuzov was a plan to attack German troops from the north (the city of Orel). Sokolovsky was appointed commander of the western front, Rokossovsky was appointed commander of the Central, and Popov was appointed commander of the Bryansk. Already on July 5, Rokossovsky delivered the first blow to the enemy army, ahead of his attack by only a few minutes.
On July 12, the troops of the Soviet Union launched a counteroffensive, marking a turning point in the course of the Battle of Kursk. On August 5, Belgorod and Orel were liberated by the Red Army. From August 3 to August 23, the Soviet troops carried out an operation to finally defeat the enemy - "Commander Rumyantsev" (commanders - Konev and Vatutin). It was a Soviet offensive in the area of Belgorod and Kharkov. The enemy suffered another defeat, while losing more than 500 thousand soldiers.
The troops of the Red Army managed to liberate Kharkov, Donbass, Bryansk and Smolensk in a short period of time. In November 1943, the siege of Kyiv was lifted. The war of 1941-1945 was drawing to a close.
Defense of Leningrad
One of the most terrible and heroic pages of the Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and of our entire history is the selfless defense of Leningrad.
The blockade of Leningrad began in September 1941, when the city was cut off from food sources. The most terrible period was the very cold winter of 1941-1942. The only way to salvation was the Road of Life, which was laid on the ice of Lake Ladoga. At the initial stage of the blockade (until May 1942), under constant enemy bombing, Soviet troops managed to deliver more than 250 thousand tons of food to Leningrad and evacuate about 1 million people.
For a better understanding of what hardships the inhabitants of Leningrad endured, we recommend watching this video.
Only in January 1943, the blockade of the enemy was partially broken, and the supply of the city with food, medicine, and weapons began. A year later, in January 1944, the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted.
Plan "Bagration"
From June 23 to August 29, 1944, the USSR troops carried out the main operation on the Belarusian front. It was one of the largest in the entire Great Patriotic War (WWII) 1941-1945.
The goal of Operation Bagration was the final crushing of the enemy army and the liberation of Soviet territories from the fascist invaders. Fascist troops in the areas of individual cities were defeated. Belarus, Lithuania and part of Poland were liberated from the enemy.
The Soviet command planned to proceed with the liberation of the peoples of European states from the German troops.
Conferences
On November 28, 1943, a conference was held in Tehran, which brought together the leaders of the "Big Three" countries - Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill. At the conference, the dates for the opening of the Second Front in Normandy were set and the obligation of the Soviet Union to enter the war with Japan after the final liberation of Europe and defeat the Japanese army was confirmed.
The next conference was held on February 4-11, 1944 in Yalta (Crimea). The leaders of the three states discussed the conditions for the occupation and demilitarization of Germany, held talks on convening a founding conference of the United Nations and adopting a Declaration on a Liberated Europe.
The Potsdam Conference took place on July 17, 1945. Truman was the leader of the United States, and K. Attlee spoke on behalf of Great Britain (since July 28). At the conference, new borders in Europe were discussed, a decision was made on the size of reparations from Germany in favor of the USSR. At the same time, already at the Potsdam Conference, the prerequisites for a Cold War between the United States and the Soviet Union were outlined.
End of World War II
According to the requirements discussed at conferences with representatives of the Big Three countries, on August 8, 1945, the USSR declared war on Japan. The USSR army dealt a powerful blow to the Kwantung Army.
In less than three weeks, Soviet troops under the leadership of Marshal Vasilevsky managed to defeat the main forces of the Japanese army. On September 2, 1945, the Japanese Surrender Act was signed on the USS Missouri. The Second World War has ended.
Effects
The consequences of the war of 1941-1945 are extremely diverse. First, the military forces of the aggressors were defeated. The defeat of Germany and its allies meant the collapse of dictatorial regimes in Europe.
The Soviet Union ended the war as one of the two superpowers (along with the United States), and the Soviet army was recognized as the most powerful in the world.
In addition to the positive results, there were incredible losses. The Soviet Union lost approximately 70 million people in the war. The economy of the state was at a very low level. Terrible losses were suffered by the major cities of the USSR, which took upon themselves the strongest blows of the enemy. The USSR was faced with the task of restoring and confirming the status of the world's greatest superpower.
It is difficult to give an unambiguous answer to the question: "What is the war of 1941-1945?" The main task of the Russian people is to never forget the greatest deeds of our ancestors and proudly and "with tears in their eyes" celebrate the main holiday for Russia - Victory Day.
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