Two trains passed towards each other across the border with Germany in Brest. A train with wheat and coal thundered towards the Reich - the USSR continued to fulfill the clauses of the Molotov-Ribbentrop agreement on the supply of raw materials. And from Germany a fast train from Berlin to Moscow rushed by. There were almost no passengers in it.
In the Red Army units located along the border with Germany, only the guards did not sleep. Almost half of the officers were not on the ground. The day before they were given leave until the evening of Sunday, June 22.
Defector at the outpost
On the very bank of the Western Bug in the town of Sokalsk, at a Soviet border post, a car from a neighboring town is waiting. There is no German translator at the outpost, but one is needed very urgently. They had already sent to Sokalsk for a German teacher from a local school, but he went fishing.
At nine in the evening on June 21, a border guard patrol detained a German corporal. He was soaked to the skin. He demanded that he be taken to the commander. The corporal introduced himself as Alfred Liskov, said that he was a communist, that he knew the time when the Germans were planning to attack the Soviet Union. The head of the border post, Major Bychkovsky, did not understand German well, and he did not believe in the attack, but he decided to quickly take Liskov to Vladimir-Volynsk, where there was definitely an interpreter.
Interrogation of Liskov
By half past midnight, a truck with a German defector, Major Bychkovsky and two soldiers drove into the courtyard of the commandant’s office. The translator was woken up.
“I am Alfred Liskov, corporal of the 115th Wehrmacht Infantry Division. I am 30 years old, I am a communist. A carpenter by profession. I have two children and a wife in the town of Kolberg in Prussia. I swam across the Bug to inform the Soviet commanders about the impending attack by the German army.”
“Units of the Wehrmacht on the evening of Saturday June 21 received orders to prepare for the offensive. It starts at 4 am today. The offensive will go along the entire front. Artillery preparation will begin at half past four.”
Major Bychkovsky contacts the district commander by phone. He conveys everything that Liskov said. The commander doesn't believe it. Then Bychkovsky calls the army commander over the commander’s head. He also listens to the major skeptically, but passes on his report to Moscow.
Trouble in the General Staff
Liskov's report is transferred to the Chief of the General Staff Georgy Zhukov. Zhukov wakes up People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko, who comes to the General Staff. They are trying to find Stalin.
German sabotage detachments and assault infantry detachments are being pulled up to the bridges over the Bug. They have orders to seize bridges and crossings by half past two in the morning and prevent the Soviet border guards from destroying them.
Stalin is found at the Blizhnaya dacha in Kuntsevo. The leader is sleeping. The NKGB officer who received the call from Zhukov refuses to wake Stalin. They persuade him for about half an hour.
Rising and performing
A wake-up call began in the German units stationed along the border with the USSR. The soldiers put on their ammunition and form marching columns to move into attack positions.
Stalin was finally awakened. He listened to Zhukov and said that “this Liskov of yours did not appear by chance.” He ordered Zhukov and Timoshenko to go to the Kremlin. Then he demanded that Poskrebyshev’s personal secretary summon People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov to the Kremlin. Stalin quickly gets ready and goes to the Kremlin.
German sabotage detachments and grenadiers quietly seize almost all crossings across the Bug and other rivers along the border along the entire front line from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Just as quietly, six border posts are being destroyed in the Bialystok area. The personnel were partially killed with melee weapons, and partially captured.
First salvos
Corporal Liskov and Major Bychkovsky return to the outpost. The German teacher has returned from fishing and is summoned to Bychkovsky. The teacher again translates Liskov’s words to the major. Bychkovsky asks: “Where exactly will the artillery strike be delivered and at what time?” Liskov begins to answer, at that moment the roar of guns is heard from the west. The glass in the outpost headquarters is rattling and cracking.
Bombers and fighters take off from Luftwaffe field airfields and fly towards the USSR.
Zhukov and Timoshenko convince Stalin to accept a directive on active counteraction to the Wehrmacht in the event of the outbreak of hostilities. Stalin refuses. As a result, Directive No. 1 is adopted. Units of the Red Army must not succumb to provocations and avoid direct clashes with the enemy until further notice.
German Ambassador to the USSR Schulenburg receives a telegram from Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop. Instructions in the telegram. Schulenburg must convey to Molotov that Germany, in order to ensure the security of the Reich and the violation of the 1939 treaty by the Soviet Union, is forced to begin active military actions. Essentially, this is a declaration of war.
First bombings
German He-111 and Ju-87 bombers bomb Kyiv, Minsk, Kaunas, Riga, Vilnius, Tallinn, Soviet airfields and the location of Red Army units.
Corporal Liskov was sent under escort to Lvov. From there he should be taken to Kyiv, and then to Moscow. Major Bychkovsky commands the defense of the border post.
Violated the order and saved the fleet
The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Oktyabrsky, having received Directive No. 1, decided not to carry out the order. He ordered that all available artillery be prepared to repel the air raid. At 4.12 German bombers appeared over Sevastopol. The fleet was withdrawn from the harbor and fought off the raids with heavy fire. Not a single warship was sunk. In Sevastopol itself, residential buildings and warehouses were damaged.
Brest Fortress
Wehrmacht grenadiers storm the Brest Fortress. With the first attack they occupy almost half of the fortress, but the border guards counterattack and knock the Germans out of new positions. German divisions bypass the fortress and continue to advance deep into the USSR.
Declaration of war
Schulenburg arrives in the Kremlin and delivers a note declaring war to Molotov. “The USSR concentrated all its troops on the German border in full combat readiness. Thus, the Soviet government has violated treaties with Germany and intends to attack the Reich from the rear while it fights for its existence. The Fuehrer ordered the German armed forces to counter this threat with all means at their disposal."
Molotov conveys Schulenburg's note to Stalin. Stalin is silent. Molotov mutters: “We don’t deserve this.”
Several fighter planes that miraculously survived the bombing take off from a field airfield of the Soviet Air Force in Moldova. In the sky they come across a flight of new Su-2 bombers. One of the fighters mistakes them for Germans and attacks. The bomber squadron commander's Su-2 was shot down and another bomber was damaged. The fighter lands at the airfield, the commander of the IAP (fighter aviation regiment) runs towards the pilot, and as he runs he pulls a pistol out of his holster. For shooting down his “bomber,” the pilot will be shot right on the spot, but at that moment German Ju-87s dive onto the airfield. The air regiment commander's head is torn off by a bomb explosion. The pilot manages to escape execution. His name is Alexander Pokryshkin.
Order to counterattack
Stalin demands from Timoshenko and Zhukov to draw up Directive No. 2. Red Army units were ordered to attack German troops along the entire front line.
Near the Lithuanian town of Alytus, German advanced units run into the well-prepared defense of the Red Army. The Wehrmacht's advance in this area was stopped. There is a battle going on.
Goebbels at the microphone
At nine in the morning Moscow time and seven in Berlin time, the chief propagandist of the Reich, Joseph Goebbels, begins his daily radio program. In it he talks about the beginning of the war with the Bolsheviks. He explains it by saying that “the Reds provoked our troops, regularly invaded the territory of the Reich and were preparing for war.” In Berlin and other German cities, people gather in squares and discuss the news.
Stalin is silent at the Politburo meeting. They expect decisions and orders from him, but he brushes them off. He sits down with Molotov to write the text of an appeal to the Soviet people.
Rumors about war are spreading around Moscow, but there is no confirmation. There is nothing on the radio about the German attack.
Beginning of the retreat
German troops approach Grodno. The Red Army is retreating. The remnants of the Soviet infantry division try to gain a foothold in the city, but two powerful air raids destroy most of the soldiers. The rest retreat.
Counterattack
Directive No. 2 reaches some parts of the Red Army from Moscow. They are trying to launch a counterattack. They attack without preparation, without support from the flanks, without knowing exactly which side the enemy is on. Several divisions are surrounded, several are completely destroyed. Communication with the army commander and military districts has been disrupted. There is no communication between neighboring parts.
Appeal to the Soviet people
At noon, the voice of People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov sounded from all the country's loudspeakers and radio outlets. Stalin refused to read the appeal. Residents of the USSR learned about the beginning of the war with Germany.
German troops entered Grodno and, without stopping, move on
Calling up reservists
Recruitment centers are opening at military registration and enlistment offices, and the recruitment of reservists begins. All men born between 1905 and 1918 are subject to conscription. In Moscow, Leningrad and other cities, queues form at military registration and enlistment offices.
The Luftwaffe is again bombing Minsk, Kyiv, Sevastopol, Kaunas, the Hanko naval base, and dozens of cities in Ukraine and Belarus.
The center of Minsk is almost completely destroyed.
The Germans were left without water
The advanced units of the Wehrmacht had covered more than 25-30 kilometers since early morning. The soldiers are exhausted. Field kitchens cannot keep up with the avant-garde. The infantrymen's canteens ran out of water. In most parts the losses are small. The Germans are advancing along the roads, the Red Army is retreating through forests and rough terrain.
Ran out of goals
German bomber pilots report that they have nothing to bomb. Soviet airfields, barracks, arsenals, concentrations of armored vehicles and other military facilities were destroyed. Pilots receive permission to hunt for individual units of equipment and manpower.
Soviet border guards in the Sokal area launch a counteroffensive and push the Germans back beyond the Bug. But the losses are so great that the border guards and the infantry attached to them have to retreat again.
Corporal Liskov flies to Moscow
Alfred Liskov is taken to one of the field airfields near Lvov. Almost on the last surviving plane he is taken to Moscow.
Reference:
Alfred Liskov will speak to workers and soldiers in Moscow, Leningrad, and other cities of the USSR. He will write leaflets calling on German soldiers to surrender. In August 1941 he would join the leadership of the Comintern. In September, he had a personal quarrel with Georgi Dimitrov, the future leader of post-war Bulgaria. In October he will go with the Comintern on evacuation to Bashkiria. In December 1941 he would be arrested, presumably following Dimitrov’s denunciation. He will be accused of spying for Germany, anti-Semitism and treason. In February 1942, Liskov would be shot in one of the NKVD camps in Bashkiria.
Stalin leaves for his dacha
Joseph Stalin leaves the Kremlin. Members of the Politburo are told that the leader has gone to the Near Dacha and has been ordered not to let anyone in to see him.
Soviet planes attack Finland
The Finnish army has not taken any active action since the morning. But Soviet aviation (new Su-2 bombers) began to bomb Finnish cities and ports, and artillery on Hanko Island began to shell Finnish territory.
At five in the evening the Finns repulsed the last attack of the day by the Soviet Air Force. Finnish losses - about 1,500 civilians killed and wounded, about 300 military personnel killed. USSR losses - 65 bombers and fighters shot down.
Encounter battles
Soviet divisions continue to launch counterattacks. But these throws are scattered and poorly organized. There is no coordination between parts. As a result, personnel losses reach 90% in some divisions.
A German grenadier goes to a just knocked out Soviet tank and a killed Red Army tankman (outskirts of Grodno).
The first prisoner of war camps
By evening, there were several tens of thousands of Soviet prisoners in the Bialystok-Brest area alone. The German soldiers and officers did not know what to do with them. They have no orders in this regard, and the field police, which are engaged in escorting prisoners, cannot keep up with the vanguard of the army. Officers make local decisions. Some leave the Red Army soldiers to simply sit on the roadsides without any security. Others assign two or three infantrymen to the prisoners. Still others simply shoot those who surrender.
By seven in the evening, by order of the commander of Army Group Center von Bock, executions were prohibited. The surrendered Red Army soldiers are lined up and sent to the western bank of the Bug. There they are collected in fields hastily fenced with barbed wire. On one such field there can be up to 5 thousand prisoners. They are not really protected or fed. The wounded do not receive medical care. Many Red Army soldiers flee from such camps on the first night.
Churchill calls for support for the USSR
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill addresses the nation on the BBC.
“The Nazi regime has the worst features of communism. “He has no foundations or principles other than greed and the desire for racial domination. In its cruelty and furious aggressiveness it surpasses all forms of human depravity. Over the past 25 years, no one has been a more consistent opponent of communism than me. I won't take back a single word I said about him. But all this pales in comparison to the spectacle now unfolding. The past with its crimes, follies and tragedies disappears.
I see Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields that their fathers have cultivated since time immemorial.
I see them guarding their homes, where their mothers and wives pray - yes, for there are times when all pray - for the safety of their loved ones, for the return of their breadwinner, their protector and support.
I see tens of thousands of Russian villages, where livelihoods are torn from the ground with such difficulty, but where primordial human joys exist, where girls laugh and children play.
I see the vile Nazi war machine approaching all this with its dapper, spur-clanging Prussian officers, with its skilled agents who have just pacified and tied a dozen countries hand and foot.
I also see the gray, trained, obedient mass of the fierce Hun soldiers, advancing like clouds of crawling locusts.
We have only one unchanging goal. We are determined to destroy Hitler and all traces of the Nazi regime. Nothing can turn us away from this, nothing. We will never come to an agreement, we will never enter into negotiations with Hitler or with anyone from his gang. We will fight him on land, we will fight him by sea, we will fight him in the air, until, with God's help, we have rid the earth of his very shadow and freed the nations from his yoke. Any person or state that fights against Nazism will receive our help. Any person or state that goes with Hitler is our enemy...
This is our policy, this is our statement. It follows that we will provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can...”
Preparing for a counteroffensive
There is no connection between divisions and military districts, there is no connection between the armies and Moscow. General Pavlov, commander of the Western Front, gives orders to the few units he can reach. They were all ordered to prepare early in the morning to go on the offensive and drive the Germans out of the territory of the USSR.
On the bombed airfields of the Red Army lie the skeletons of burnt-out aircraft. In total, 1,489 vehicles were destroyed on earth during this long day. Another 385 in the air. A little more than 400 aircraft remained of the Soviet military aviation stationed at the border.
The commander of the Air Force of the Western Special Military District, Ivan Kopec, having received a summary of the losses for the day, escorted the adjutant out of his office, wrote a letter home and shot himself.
Nine divisions of the Red Army are surrounded. It is impossible to calculate personnel losses. On June 22, in some areas, the Wehrmacht advanced 60-120 kilometers deep into Soviet territory.
The radio repeats the appeal of the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov to the Soviet people. After the broadcast, the first front-line report comes. Its general meaning: the German offensive was stopped, the enemy lost several thousand soldiers and officers, hundreds of tanks and aircraft. The Red Army successfully launched a counteroffensive.
Stalin does not get in touch. None of the Politburo members dare to go to his Near Dacha.
The advanced units of the Wehrmacht were finally brought food and water. There is a thick layer of dust on the soldiers. They look with curiosity at damaged and abandoned Soviet armored vehicles.
Columns of captured Red Army soldiers are being transported to the western bank of the Bug. There are about 50 thousand of them.
The short summer night takes its toll and darkness thickens over the former border.
On June 22, 1941, at 4 o’clock in the morning, Nazi Germany treacherously invaded the USSR without declaring war. This attack ended the chain of aggressive actions of Nazi Germany, which, thanks to the connivance and incitement 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 wide front by several groups in different directions. An 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"; the most powerful army group "Center" had the goal of defeating the Red Army units in Belarus, capturing Vitebsk-Smolensk and taking Moscow on the move; army group "South" was concentrated from Lublin to the mouth of the Danube and led an attack on Kyiv - Donbass. The Nazis' plans boiled down to delivering a surprise attack in these directions, destroying border and military units, breaking through deep into the rear, and capturing Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv and the most important industrial centers in 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, 4,300 tanks, almost 5 thousand aircraft and about 200 warships were thrown into the offensive against the Soviet Union.
The war began in extremely 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 of the largest enterprises in Western Europe. More than 3 million foreign workers were involved in the war industry. In Western European countries, the Nazis looted a lot of weapons, military equipment, trucks, carriages and locomotives. The military-economic resources of Germany and its allies significantly 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 theses of the CPSU Central Committee "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 due to the fact that the Nazis used temporary advantages:
They had the economic and military resources of almost all of Western Europe at their disposal. Miscalculations in determining the possible timing of Hitler Germany’s attack on our country and the associated omissions in preparation for repelling the first blows played a role. There was reliable information about the concentration of German troops near the borders of the USSR and Germany’s preparations 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 situation. However, the enormous difficulties of the initial period of the war did not break the fighting spirit of the Red Army or shake the fortitude of the Soviet people. From the first days of the attack, it became clear that the plan for a lightning war had collapsed. Accustomed to easy victories over Western countries, whose governments treacherously handed over 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 fought bravely at 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. On June 22, 1941, at 4:25 a.m., fighter pilot I. I. Ivanov made the first ram. (In total, about 200 rams were carried out during the war). On June 26, the crew of Captain N.F. Gastello (A.A. Burdenyuk, G.N. Skorobogatiy, A.A. Kalinin) crashed into a column of enemy troops on a burning plane. From the first days of the war, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers showed examples of courage and heroism.
lasted two months Battle of Smolensk. Born here near Smolensk soviet guard. The battle in the Smolensk region delayed the enemy's advance until mid-September 1941.
During the Battle of Smolensk, the Red Army thwarted the enemy's plans. 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 directing force for the country's defense and preparation for the destruction of Hitler's troops. From the first days of the war, the party took emergency measures to organize resistance to the aggressor; a huge amount of work was carried out to reorganize all work on a military basis, turning the country into a single military camp.
“To wage a war for real,” wrote V.I. Lenin, “a strong, organized rear is needed. The best army, the people most devoted to the cause of the revolution will be immediately exterminated by the enemy if they are not sufficiently armed, supplied with food, and trained” (Lenin V.I. Poln. sobr. soch., vol. 35, p. 408).
These Leninist instructions formed the basis for organizing the fight 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 with a message about the “robbery” attack of Nazi Germany and a call to fight the enemy. On the same day, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was adopted 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, the resolution 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 removal and placement of human contingents and valuable property” determined the procedure for the evacuation of productive forces and the population to the eastern regions. 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 outlined to party and Soviet organizations in the front-line regions.
“...In the war imposed on us with fascist Germany,” this document said, “the question of life and death of the Soviet state is being decided, whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement.” The Central Committee and the Soviet government called for realizing the full depth of the danger, reorganizing all work on a war footing, organizing comprehensive assistance to the front, increasing the production of weapons, ammunition, tanks, aircraft in every possible way, and in the event of a forced withdrawal of the Red Army, removing all valuable property, and destroying what cannot be removed. , in enemy-occupied areas to organize partisan detachments. On July 3, the main provisions of the directive were outlined in a speech by J.V. Stalin on the radio. The directive determined the nature of the war, the degree of threat and danger, set the tasks of transforming the country into a single combat camp, comprehensively strengthening the Armed Forces, restructuring the work of the rear on a military scale, and mobilizing all forces to repel the enemy. On June 30, 1941, an emergency body was created to quickly mobilize all the country’s forces and resources to repel and defeat the enemy - State Defense Committee (GKO) led 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.
In war conditions, the restructuring of the entire economy on a war footing was of paramount importance. At the end of June it was approved “Mobilization national economic plan for the third quarter of 1941.”, and on August 16 “Military-economic plan for the IV quarter of 1941 and 1942 for the regions of the Volga region, the Urals, Western Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia" In just five months of 1941, over 1,360 large military enterprises were relocated and about 10 million people were evacuated. Even according to the admission of bourgeois experts evacuation of industry 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 were producing 62% of cast 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 mid-1942.
The party carried out a lot of organizational work in the army. In accordance with the decision of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on July 16, 1941 “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 (up to 40% of the total strength of the party was sent 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 active army.
On August 8, 1941, J.V. Stalin was appointed Supreme Commander-in-Chief 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 best representatives The working class and intelligentsia of Moscow and Leningrad joined the ranks of the people's militia.
Meanwhile, the enemy stubbornly rushed towards Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol and other important 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 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 it signed an agreement on joint actions against fascist Germany. On August 2, 1941, US President F. Roosevelt announced economic support for the Soviet Union. On September 29, 1941, the conference of representatives of the three powers(USSR, USA and England), at which a plan for Anglo-American assistance in the fight against the enemy was developed. Hitler's plan to isolate the USSR internationally failed. On January 1, 1942, a declaration of 26 states was signed in Washington anti-Hitler coalition about using all the resources of these countries to fight against the German bloc. However, the Allies were in no hurry to provide effective assistance aimed at defeating fascism, trying to weaken the warring parties.
By October, the Nazi invaders, despite the heroic resistance of our troops, managed to approach Moscow from three sides, while simultaneously launching an offensive on the Don, in the Crimea, near Leningrad. Odessa and Sevastopol defended themselves heroically. On September 30, 1941, the German command launched the first, and in November - the second general offensive against Moscow. The Nazis managed to occupy Klin, Yakhroma, Naro-Fominsk, Istra and other cities in the Moscow region. Soviet troops conducted a heroic defense of the capital, showing examples of courage and heroism. The 316th Infantry Division of General Panfilov fought to the death in fierce battles. A partisan movement developed 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 Soviet troops in the winter of 1941/42 drove the Nazis back in a number of places to a distance of up to 400 km from the capital and was their first major defeat in the Second World War.
Main result Moscow battle was that the strategic initiative had been wrested from the hands of the enemy and the plan for a lightning war had 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 further course of the war.
By the spring of 1942, military production had been established in the eastern regions of the country. By the middle of the year, most of the evacuated enterprises were set up in new locations. The transition of the country's economy to a war footing was basically completed. In the deep rear - in Central Asia, Kazakhstan, Siberia, and the Urals - there were over 10 thousand industrial construction projects.
Instead of the 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. We worked one and a half to two shifts to restore industry and supply the front with everything necessary. The All-Union Socialist Competition developed widely, the winners of which were awarded a challenge Red Banner of the State Defense Committee. Workers Agriculture organized in 1942 above-plan 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 areas of the country was extremely difficult. The Nazis plundered cities and villages and abused the civilian population. German officials were appointed at the enterprises to supervise the work. The best lands were selected as farms for German soldiers. In all occupied settlements, German garrisons were maintained at the expense of the population. However, the economic and social policies of the fascists, which they tried to implement in the occupied territories, immediately failed. Soviet people, brought up on the ideas of the Communist Party, believed in the victory of the Soviet country and did not succumb to Hitler’s provocations and demagoguery.
Winter offensive of the Red Army in 1941/42 dealt a powerful blow to Nazi Germany and its military machine, but Hitler’s army was still strong. Soviet troops fought stubborn defensive battles.
In this situation, the nationwide struggle of the Soviet people behind enemy lines, especially partisan movement.
Thousands of Soviet people joined partisan detachments. Guerrilla warfare developed widely in Ukraine, Belarus and the Smolensk region, Crimea and 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 dated July 18, 1941. “On the organization of the fight in the rear of 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, a 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 goal of capturing all the southern regions of the country (Crimea, North Caucasus, Don) right up to the Volga, capturing Stalingrad and separating Transcaucasia from the center of the country. This posed an extremely 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 concluded between the USSR, England 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 significantly speed up the defeat of fascism. But the Allies delayed its opening in every possible way. Taking advantage of this, the fascist command transferred divisions from the Western Front to the Eastern Front. By the spring of 1942, Hitler's army had 237 divisions, massive aviation, tanks, artillery and other types of equipment for a new offensive.
Intensified Leningrad blockade, exposed to artillery fire almost daily. In May, the Kerch Strait was captured. On July 3, the Supreme Command gave the order to the heroic defenders of Sevastopol to leave the city after a 250-day defense, since it was not possible to hold Crimea. As a result of the defeat of Soviet troops in the region of Kharkov and the Don, the enemy reached the Volga. The Stalingrad Front, created in July, took on powerful enemy attacks. Retreating with heavy fighting, our troops inflicted enormous damage on the enemy. In parallel, there was a fascist offensive in the North Caucasus, where Stavropol, Krasnodar, and Maykop were occupied. In the Mozdok area, the Nazi offensive was suspended.
The main battles took place 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 defend Stalingrad. Despite the mortal danger, workers at the tractor plant sent tanks to the front lines every day. In September, battles broke out in the city for every street, for every house.
Today's topic of the lecture is the battle in the sky on June 22, 1941, the confrontation between the Red Army and the Luftwaffe. Today we will talk both directly about the battle and about the background.
I would like to note that in Soviet times little attention was paid to this issue in the literature. There were no special publications on this topic at all, and in some studies that covered the development of Soviet armed forces and in particular the Air Force, several paragraphs or, at best, a chapter were devoted to this problem.
Everything led to the fact that by the beginning of the 90s, stereotypes had formed, a very definite picture of that day and previous events, which can be briefly characterized by the following points: the defeat of the Red Army Air Force was due to the surprise of the German attack, as a rule, it was always added that there were More than 60 Soviet airfields were attacked and over 1,200 aircraft were destroyed. Almost all publications added that the Luftwaffe had a numerical superiority over the Soviet Air Force and that most of the Soviet aircraft were outdated or technically faulty. There were around 2 thousand aircraft of new types, Yak-1, MiG-3, LaGG-3, Pe-2, Il-2. The Luftwaffe, together with its allies, had about 5 thousand aircraft in all publications, thus they were superior to the Red Army Air Force technically and numerically.
This information wandered from book to book, and there were few variations. Basically, people who were interested in this topic could glean information from the memories of eyewitnesses or participants. By the beginning of the 90s, certain myths had developed. This had negative consequences: in connection with the so-called. “freedom of speech” gave birth to pseudo-theories that tried to answer who was to blame. It turned out that in fact, either the generals betrayed and this catastrophe occurred, or the Soviet soldiers did not intend to fight. In particular, such a theory was put forward by the well-known Mark Solonin, who devoted several books to this topic. In them, he tries to prove that supposedly no battle took place in the air, and that the Russian pilots simply fled, abandoned their equipment and retreated far to the east. This started already in the early 2000s. The first publication was called: “Where did Stalin’s falcons fly away?” Briefly, I would like to dispel doubts: they fought the enemy as best they could, using all the forces and means that were available at that moment, simply the lack of documentary material made it possible for such people to operate with unverified facts.
The first thing that Solonin is wrong about is that he starts from the wrong tasks. He could not even determine the composition of the Soviet Air Force grouping on June 22 in the Western border districts, since at that time he did not have information about the real composition and deployment of the Air Force in the western districts. And then, using operational reports, operational documentation, combat reports, he draws incorrect conclusions. He believes that if, say, a regiment had 50 aircraft, and the next day the report says that there are 20 aircraft left, and in terms of losses in the same operational report it says 10 aircraft, against this background he says: “And where what about the remaining cars?" And he expresses some theses that are completely untrue, because operational reports were very different from reports of losses, and often what was written in the morning operational report, for example, on June 22, 1941, was completely inconsistent with what later , a few days later was given to higher command as losses. That is, the person initially set the wrong direction, then “put” under his version certain documents that do not correspond to the research format. Roughly speaking, he starts talking about quantity, and in the end he operates with operational documents that had nothing to do with this quantity. Thus, a person makes incomprehensible conclusions and puts forward crazy theories. The strangest thing is that this is picked up by many on the Internet, and some kind of conspiracy theory practically begins.
How did things really go?
The condition of the Red Army Air Force at the beginning of World War II, by September 1, 1939, and by June 22, 1941, was far from optimal. Why? There were quite objective reasons. Firstly, the very geography of our country played against the Red Army, which implied the presence of a very powerful group on Far East, including the air force, and in Transcaucasia. The forces that the Soviet Union should have had at that time could not be transferred quickly. Let's say aviation from Central Russia to the Far East. There wasn’t even a flight route, so the plane had to first be disassembled and transported in trains. This took a lot of time, so the Soviet leadership was forced to maintain very powerful groups in the Far East and Transcaucasia. That is, initially the Soviet Union needed to have much more strength in peacetime, accordingly, to produce more aircraft, graduate more pilots, spend more resources, fuel, engine hours, and so on.
Second aspect: The Soviet Union only began industrialization in the early 20s. To develop such an industry as aircraft manufacturing in 10–15 years is a very difficult task, considering that neither production nor development took place in Tsarist Russia. Purchased engines and aircraft structures were used. Although there were outstanding designers, Sikorsky is the same, but basically what was used at the front was Allied equipment, which, at best, was produced under license. In general, it was not possible to overcome the problem of creating our own high-quality aircraft industry and equipment at the beginning of World War II.
Map of the construction of operational airfields
A striking example: by September 1, the Luftwaffe received several engines with power above 1000 hp. Unfortunately, the Red Army Air Force did not have such equipment and lagged behind for almost an entire period.
Thus, in technical terms, Soviet aircraft were inferior to German ones. Another reason for this was the production of aluminum, which in the USSR was 3–4 times behind that of Germany. Accordingly, the Germans could afford to build all-metal aircraft from duralumin, which, naturally, are lighter, but the USSR was forced to build aircraft of mixed designs, heavier, which, in the presence of weak engines, created a difficult situation.
The second issue, which, as a rule, has not been and is not covered, is the organizational and mobilization activities carried out from 1938 until the beginning of the war. The Soviet Union, as is known, although it did not fully enter the war on September 1, began preparations long ago. There was a “bias” towards quantitative parameters. There were reasons for this, including the territory. We took the path of more aircraft, pilots, formations, parts, at the expense of quality. The training of flight personnel, which was already not up to par in the 30s, completely fell to an unacceptable minimum in the 38–40s, and graduating pilots, as a rule, the most they could master on a combat aircraft was takeoff and landing . There were often cases when graduating cadets had literally 20–30 flights on combat aircraft. They practically couldn’t even take off and land. At the beginning of 1939, the Red Army Air Force had about 150 aviation regiments, in 1940 they added another 100, and in 1941 they began to form another 100 regiments. Thus, in terms of quantitative characteristics, the Red Army Air Force had a perfect armada - 350 aviation regiments, more than 20 thousand combat aircraft, 23 thousand pilots in combat units, plus 7 thousand instructor pilots in military schools and 34 thousand simultaneously trained cadets. With such indicators there was no talk of any quality of preparation. This is another reason that the events were quite tragic.
In many countries, including Japan, the opposite trend was observed. They paid too much attention to the quality of pilot training and, as a result, lost a lot in numbers. When in 1942-44 the Americans knocked out the bulk of their experienced pilots - probably everyone knows this story - it turned out that the Japanese simply did not have the personnel. The bias in both directions is not very good, and only the Americans managed to find a middle ground, and only due to the fact that they had the richest country. They had the opportunity to train good pilots in huge quantities and at the same time produce excellent aircraft and engines.
Due to the so-called organizational and mobilization measures, the composition of the personnel units was greatly “liquified.” Even those units that were formed in the 30s and reorganized into regiments in 1938, from them throughout the 40-41 years, experienced pilots and commanders were regularly taken and sent as command staff to the newly formed units. This led to negative consequences, because the personnel of the personnel units was greatly weakened.
Let's move on to preparing for war. Both Germany and the Soviet Union were preparing to conduct combat operations in the air quite decisively. Both sides intended to carry out the first operations specifically to gain air supremacy and were preparing to act on airfields first. However, the approaches differed. The German Air Force took a more detailed approach to this issue. An important factor here was that the Germans held fewer organizational events, formed fewer units, retaining the pre-war personnel in a very good composition. Of course, they had losses in the campaign in the West, the campaign of 1940, but overall the core remained. If the Germans had 23 fighter groups at the beginning of World War II, then on June 22 they had about 40 fighter groups, i.e. The composition has increased, but not much. And the Soviet Air Force, which had 55 fighter regiments on September 1, 1939, already had about 150 by 1941, and the number of personnel and equipment in them was meant to be greater than that of the Luftwaffe. The quality of training suffered because of this, but there were other reasons related to intelligence activities. The Germans at one time created a powerful reconnaissance aviation even before the war, which included units at all levels of subordination, starting from the Wehrmacht high command, which had its eyes in the form of a specialized unit, or rather, a formation, the Rovel chief group, which included both reconnaissance aviation units , as well as infrastructure, laboratories, airfields, which allowed them to conduct reconnaissance on the highest level. The Germans began preparing for military operations against the Soviet Union immediately after the final approval of the Barbarossa plan, which was adopted in December 1940; accordingly, the Germans began preparations from the beginning of January. The planes were specially built, or rather, converted from existing models: high-altitude engines were installed on them, they received camouflage in the form of civilian identification marks, and all weapons were removed from them. In addition, several Yu-86 aircraft were designed with pressurized cabins, which allowed them to operate from altitudes of 12–13 km. At that time, this was the maximum altitude for interceptors, and it was difficult to use interceptor fighters effectively. Plus, the fact that there was no radar field over the Soviet-German border played a role. The Soviet Union had several radar stations, but they were all located in the area of Leningrad and Moscow, so the activities of German intelligence officers were completely unpunished. You can look at a map, a real map from TsAMO, which gives an idea of the activities of German reconnaissance aircraft.
This is the region of East Prussia and the Baltic states. One of the squadrons, based in the Königsberg area, the 2nd squadron of the Rovel Obergruppe, carried out reconnaissance flights along the route: they took off from the Seerappen airfield along Königsberg, further over the Baltic Sea, arrived approximately in the Libau region, further in the Riga region, made reconnaissance flights over the entire territory of the Baltic States, Belarus and went to their territory in the Brest region, landed at an airfield in the Warsaw region, refueled and carried out a return reconnaissance flight along the same route in the opposite direction. Soviet VNSO posts, that is, observation and detection, very rarely recorded these flights because they were carried out at high altitude. Unfortunately, we do not know how many such flights were carried out. Soviet data speaks of 200 flights, but in reality there were many more. There is no German data, but there is factual confirmation of these German actions: the Germans at one time were able to photograph almost all the main Soviet airfields, railway stations, and troop concentrations. For example, an aerial photograph taken from a German reconnaissance aircraft on April 10, 1941.
Aerial photography. Kaunas, April 10, 1941
It shows Kaunas, the famous Kaunas Fortress, the airfield, more precisely, the southern part of the airfield, where the 15th Fighter Regiment of the 8th Mixed Division was based. Hangars and aircraft parking areas are visible. The detail in these images was amazing, you can see everything, including every plane. The Luftwaffe crews for whom such tablets were being prepared had the opportunity to familiarize themselves in detail with future targets. This activity was carried out on a daily basis, without stopping almost until June 22, before the invasion, and we have some opportunities in retrospect to see how the situation changed.
For example, here is a later photo taken on June 9, the entire Kaunas airfield is already visible, including what we saw in the previous photo - the hangars of the 15th IAP, the planes are standing in three rows in front of the hangars, you can even count each plane now. In the northern part of the airfield of the 31st IAP, you can count all the planes and plan approaches for bombing on both sides.
Aerial photography. June 9, 1941
What could the Red Army oppose in terms of intelligence? Many have noticed that recently there have been a number of publications devoted to the intelligence activities of various structures. She, of course, was very important, but, unfortunately, she did not provide materials similar to the German ones. Here, by the way, is a Yu-86 aircraft with a pressurized cabin, civilian registration plates are visible. This is the only vehicle lost during these reconnaissance flights. A unique photo. The crew landed in the Rivne area - their engines failed. The Germans managed to blow up the plane before they were captured, but, nevertheless, Soviet specialists were able to extract several remnants of photographic equipment, including film where it was clear that the Germans were photographing railway crossings in the Korosten area.
Downed Yu-86
The Soviet Air Force could rely on intelligence information collected, as a rule, in the 1930s, because permission for intelligence activities was not received until at least the beginning of June. There are several notes written by the heads of the Red Army Air Force department - first Rychagov, then Zhigarev, who asked Timoshenko and Stalin to begin reconnaissance over German territory, but until mid-June there was no such decision. Soviet pilots were forced to rely on less current data that was collected back in the 30s. For some objects they were of quite good quality - for example, the plan of Königsberg, which is quite good, there are map materials, even some photographic materials on which the Devau airfield is marked. But the bulk of the data was represented by approximately these diagrams, which at best contained target coordinates, a small description and a simple diagram, which, of course, can be used as a visual aid, but it was almost impossible to find the airfield using it.
Soviet pilots were forced to act in such situations often at random. The difference in intelligence between the Germans and the Red Army Air Force is roughly understandable. According to the plans (we do not take into account political questions about who was going to attack first and who was not), the Soviet cover plans for the Red Army were to act aggressively, delivering a series of attacks on German airfields. But the problem was that due to the lack of up-to-date intelligence information, some of the attacks, even according to these plans, would have been carried out on empty airfields where there were no combat units, and vice versa, those airfields where combat units were located, according to the plan, should not have been attacked .
The Germans, accordingly, could adjust their plans until June 22 and have up-to-date information, seeing the movements of the Red Army Air Force as if online. And when some comrades doubt that the Germans had such successes on June 22, this is quite strange. Because, having information about where it was necessary to strike, the Germans did not even need to expend effort for this, only selecting small groups of aircraft that carried out precise strikes.
The aspect of technical preparation for combat operations is interesting. The Luftwaffe carried out research after the Polish and French events and especially during the “Battle of Britain.” Tactics of action against enemy airfields were developed, which included both tactical techniques and the use of specialized ammunition. A range of weapons was developed for the purpose, including fragmentation bombs, which were supposed to become know-how, an effective method of destroying aircraft at airfields. This is a small SD-2 bomb, weighing 2.5 kg, the smallest bomb at that time intended for combat. Next came the SD-10 in the nomenclature, then the SD-50 fragmentation bomb, and the last, SD-250, this is already a very heavy bomb, but it was rarely used. The main bombs that were used were SD-2 and SD-50.
Aviation bombs SD-2 and SD-50
What was their advantage? German planes received holders for these bombs, which made it possible to hang a very large number of them. Let's say that an ordinary Messerschmitt fighter had the ability to hang 96 such bombs. Despite the fact that the bomb was small at first glance, it had an effectiveness equal to an 82-mm mine, that is, very serious: hitting an aircraft almost always disabled it. In addition, some of this ammunition was clocked, making it an even greater problem for airfields. They could explode an hour or two after they were dropped.
This is what a plane from the second group of the 27th Fighter Squadron, equipped with bombs, looked like in the field.
A real photo of June 1941 in the Suwalki area. SD-2 suspensions for the BF-110 heavy fighter, it has 48 bombs under each wing, the total load is 96 bombs. They also practiced hanging 4 SD-50 bombs, which, in principle, is also effective. Please note that, for example, a typical SB, the main bomber in the Red Army Air Force by 1941, as a rule, carried a load of only 6 FAB-100 bombs, that is, the Mi-109 fighter was actually equivalent to the SB.
An interesting video of the attack with SD-2 bombs is that it shows the area of airfields that could have been covered with them. This is the first footage, this is an SD-50 bombing, by the way. But SD-2 is being bombed. That is, even a small group of German fighters equipped with such bombs could with a high degree of confidence guarantee the destruction of materiel that was not covered.
German bombers were also prepared specifically for operations against airfields. They, as a rule, carried (Junkers-88 and Dornier-17) 360 of these bombs, which is what we just saw. A group of three aircraft could drop 1000 of these bombs. In addition, even larger ammunition was used, mainly SD-50 bombs. In the range of the German Ju-88 and Dornier-17 bombers, 20 such bombs could be suspended without overload, and the Heinkel-111 bomber could suspend 32 such bombs without overload. That is, the attack of the Junkers-88 flight was equivalent to an attack by an SB group of 9 aircraft.
Accordingly, the Heinkel-111 link could drop almost 100 such bombs, and this is equivalent to the actions of a squadron of DB-3 aircraft, into which 10 “hundred parts” were suspended. In addition, all German fighters at that time were already armed with cannons, two guns or one each, if we talk about the Me-109 F. Soviet aircraft were armed mainly with machine guns, there were a very small number of I-16 aircraft with cannon armament, and The Yak-1 aircraft have just entered production.
An important factor was the enemy’s organization itself. The Luftwaffe is clearly a branch of the military in Germany, which reported directly to the Reichsmarschall and then to the Fuhrer and had its own fully structured structure. In addition to the actual aviation units, there was also rear support and anti-aircraft artillery, which was very powerful. The Red Army Air Force was not fully a branch of the military; it was rather a branch that was subordinate to the ground forces. Interesting fact: Until June 30, 1941, there was no post of commander of the Red Army Air Force, there was a head of department. The front air force commanders reported directly to the front commanders, and this subsequently played a negative role. In addition to mobilization and organizational measures, the Soviet Air Force in 1939–40. moved to the territory of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, and the Baltic states, so they were forced to build a new network of airfields along the entire border. For example, this is part of the map of airfield construction in the Baltic states. Accordingly, that system of subordination to the ground forces created a very serious problem: the Soviet Air Force was stretched along the entire front from Murmansk to the Black Sea in a thin layer. Because the construction of airfields was just underway, the Red Army Air Force was forced to keep part of its forces much to the east, approximately along the Smolensk-Kyiv-Zaporozhye meridian. It turned out that the air force was divided into at least two echelons, separated from each other by approximately 400–500 kilometers. The units located in the area of Tallinn, Smolensk, Orsha, Mogilev, Kyiv, Proskurovo, Krivoy Rog could not help the first echelon units in the first battles. But the construction of airfields was not carried out properly either in 1939 or 1940. '41 was the year when they tried to close these gaps. The construction of 800 operational airfields began at once, in addition, at 240 airfields they began to build such standard concrete runways, which also did not add optimism, because even a person who is not familiar with construction understands that such a gigantic number of construction projects in six months is simply impossible build.
Layout of stripes at the airport
Accordingly, here is one of the photographs of how the Red Army soldiers install a grid for pouring a concrete strip.
Laying mesh for pouring concrete strip
Distribution of forces. In the Baltics, the first aviation corps is located approximately from Königsberg to the border, and accordingly the Red Army Air Forces opposing it are located here, the 6th division, here the 7th division, here the 8th, here the 57th, and the fourth, for example, is located as far in the Tallinn, Tartu area, and in such a formation it cannot begin hostilities. It cannot conduct effective combat operations, even with bombers. That is, the Germans could use all their forces in the first strike, but the Soviet Air Force could not. Moreover, even according to the cover plan, part of the forces still had to be located along the line of the Western Dvina, that is, at a distance of about 250 km from the border, and also accordingly, I can’t imagine how they could participate in the border battle from such a perspective. This happened everywhere, not only in the Baltic states, throughout the Western Front, the Southwestern Front, and the Air Force of the 9th Army in Moldova. The Soviet Air Force entered with far from optimal composition, being divided into several echelons. Even the first echelon was then divided into two echelons along the border, and at a distance of about 250 km, and the third echelon was at a distance of 400–500 km from the border. Everyone knows from textbook data that the Luftwaffe had somewhere around 2.5 thousand combat aircraft, the Red Army Air Force had about 7.5 thousand combat aircraft in the Western districts, but it is impossible to actually use most of the forces for the above reasons. In addition, the Red Army Air Force was in the deployment stage, and if the Germans could field all of their 20 fighter groups in optimal composition on June 22, then of the 69 fighter regiments represented in the western districts, 24 were of real combat value, 7 of which were in the second or third echelons. It was simply impossible to use the notorious numerical superiority. The Soviet Air Force had to enter the battle in parts, which gave the Germans an excellent opportunity to defeat them, which subsequently happened.
The preliminary part, unfortunately, is not so rosy, but, nevertheless, it really happened. Being in such a formation, in such a condition, with such forces and preparation, the Soviet Air Force, I must say honestly, did not have the slightest chance of winning the preliminary battle. They could only delay the inevitable defeat of the first echelon and wait for the arrival of the second and third echelons in order to continue the battle with a more powerful force.
Let's move on to the war itself. Here, for example, are the results of the first strike. The western and northwestern directions were planned for 4 am, that is, the German planes were supposed to cross the Soviet-German border with the first salvos of the artillery offensive, and after 15–20 minutes they had already struck the forward airfields. In the southwestern and southern direction it was an hour later, apparently due to light conditions.
Here is the Kaunas airfield, its southern part. The same parking lots that we saw in the first episode, bomb craters are visible. Not everything is visible, because I had to crop the picture a little.
Kaunas. result of the bombing
People who say that it was impossible to destroy such a large number of aircraft on June 22 are sinning against the truth, because this is confirmed by objective data from German control. Shooting on June 23, this is photo control. And this is what it looked like on earth. This is the same parking lot, hangars, there are planes standing in three rows. It can be seen that the second row is completely destroyed, the back row is completely destroyed, but in the first row there is something more or less alive left. The shooting was carried out on these two planes; in fact, they were also half burned.
Kaunas. The result of the bombing
This gives an idea of the effectiveness of the German strikes. In reality, on June 22, the Red Army Air Force faced an incredibly strong enemy, persistent in achieving its goal, and there was no chance of winning this confrontation, at least not in the first operation.
These are photographs from Signal magazine - the same group of aircraft, but from a different angle. Here is the spread of this “Signal”. Here are all the photos from the Baltic states - these are Kaunas, Kedaniai, Alytus, a visual German report on the hostilities.
Signal Magazine
As for the very first point: another negative factor was that on the morning of June 22, there was no agreement among the military-political leadership, and for a very long time a clear order to start hostilities was not given. In fact, there was no surprise as such, because the troops of the Soviet border districts began to rise on alarm long ago on June 22, and in the Baltic states on the 19th–20th the planes were dispersed where possible, due to airfield construction, to field airfields , and one squadron was always in readiness number two, that is, ready to take off within 5–10 minutes. But for some reason this completely normal state was violated on the night of June 21-22 by the notorious “directive No. 1,” which was handed over to the troops at about one in the morning on June 22. The following postulates were stated there: during an attack, do not get involved in battle, and do not return fire until enemy aircraft open fire. This greatly upset the mood of Soviet commanders and pilots. In films of the Soviet era, we saw where, roughly speaking, Pavlov, the commander of the Western Front, or some other characters call Tymoshenko, the People's Commissar of Defense, and say: “Well, look, the Germans are attacking.” And in response they are told not to give in to provocations, to remain calm, and so on. Instead of clearly and clearly telling the commanders how to act, they were given a choice: either to attack, or to fight, or not to fight, to wait, maybe this is a provocation. And in the context of the Air Force, this played a negative role, because while the ground forces did not enter the battle everywhere on June 22, the Air Force on June 22 entered the battle in almost full strength. This moment, when the first blow was not reflected, had a completely negative impact in the future. Even Kaunas, the destroyed airfields that we saw, was done during the first raid, although the Germans did not set such a goal of destruction in this first raid. For them, it was more of a sighting exercise; basically, they set the task of conducting additional reconnaissance and once again clarifying the targets. However, where they had excellent intelligence documents, they acted in powerful groups. Several airfields were destroyed in the Baltic states, and our Air Force suffered serious losses. The situation was the same in Ukraine and Belarus. Even the very first strikes were very effective. But I emphasize once again that this was not their main task, the main one was additional exploration. What happens next is this: some Soviet military leaders who were presented with such a puzzle solved it in the normal way: for example, in the Baltics, the commander of the Air Force was Alekei Ivanovich Ionov, an aviation major general.
Ionov A.I., Major General of Aviation
Here he is, still a brigade commander, in his pre-war rank. He most likely received an order from the chief of staff of the North-Western Front, Klenov, to conduct military operations, and in response to the first strike, they raised (I honestly don’t know if a cover plan was introduced, but at least orders, which were assigned to the formations, clearly corresponded to the cover plan), bomber regiments were raised into the air and went to bomb German airfields and other targets. For example, a man, at that time a captain, Mikhail Antonovich Krivtsov, he was the commander of the first Soviet squadron, which dropped bombs on Tilsit on the morning of June 22.
Krivtsov Mikhail Antonovich
There is an interesting fact associated with this man, which, again, speaks of the role of the individual: a directive put a choice in front of people, and the most decisive commanders acted decisively, such as Ionov, Krivtsov, a number of other commanders, while others simply sat on the ground and did not succumb to provocations; some regiments did not even take off into the air. And those who took off obeyed the order not to open fire first, and the German Air Force suffered very small losses in the first raid because of this. Not only did the directive not regulate these actions, but when the planes of the Northwestern Front were already approaching German airfields, bases, etc., from the People's Commissariat of Defense or from the General Staff, it is now difficult to say whether an order was received by radio to turn around and bomb do not produce on German territory. One squadron of the 46th Sbap returned from a combat course. But people like Krivtsov showed determination, their own opinion and still dropped the bombs, thanks to which the Germans received at least some kind of retaliatory blow at that moment. Further more.
All planes were returned and they were allowed to operate only up to the border. At about 7:15 a.m. there was the so-called “directive No. 2,” which again did not allow the plan to be put into effect; it spoke in “interesting” language and set local tasks. There was a completely incomprehensible phrase to bomb Koenigsberg and Memel - it is not clear why it was said. Otherwise, it was allowed to shoot down enemy planes, act in the tail, that is, after the strike, pursue the enemy plane and bomb its units, but, unfortunately, it arrived in the districts by 9 am. What is 9 am? The Germans carried out the first series of attacks at 4–5 am, the next series was at 7–8 am. The goal of the latter was not only a reconnaissance mission, but also the destruction of aviation at airfields. The second raid of German planes was focused on materiel, additional reconnaissance, that is, the German pilots had already visited German airfields once, they had no questions, they acted clearly. Several regiments in Belarus were simply completely destroyed as a result of these raids. Indeed, completely, they then did not act at all. For example, the 113th and 16th bomber regiments were completely destroyed, not a single one of their aircraft took part in any operations after that. This is not an isolated case. When the directive arrived, because of these morning stop orders, apparently, the comrades were a little on edge and were already afraid to produce some independent things, and this directive also raised questions for them. Interesting fact: in the documents of the 125th high-speed bomber regiment of the Air Force of the Western District, the division commander persistently, several hours after receiving the directive, tries to force the regiment commander to fly out on a combat mission, he finally, at about 11.45, agrees to do this, and asks to give Every 5 minutes he receives a radio message on board to see if the order has been cancelled. This is what people have been brought to by such nonsense. As a result, his last doubts disappeared when they listened to Molotov’s speech about the declaration of war in the air at 12-odd o’clock. By such actions, before lunch, aviation was put in the role of a manager: either we are at war, or we are not at war. Many said and wrote that the connection was interrupted. Many units, whose connection with their superiors was interrupted, actually worked better, because, having no connection, they began to conduct combat operations, without looking at anyone, making a decision on their own. Before lunch, the Germans managed to carry out three, if we take the Baltic states and the Western Front, and two sorties, if we take the South-Western Front, against our airfields. The effect was devastating.
Now, if we take Tilsit, these were the results of the first flight of nine of Mikhail Krivtsov’s 9 sbap, which was the first to drop bombs on the Tilsit railway station.
Tilsit. The result of the bombing
These are the results of SD-2 strikes on Vilnius airfield. The burned-out Chaika and, possibly, its “killer” are visible; here you can see that the pylon for SD-2 is suspended.
Result of SD-2 strikes on Vilnius airfield
Accordingly, the Western Front - the forward airfields of three divisions were attacked, on which by 10.00, after the second raid, they were completely defeated, for example, in the 10th division - 74th regiment, 33rd regiment, 123rd regiment. In the 10th mixed division, the 124th and 126th regiments were defeated. In reality, there remained in the regiments: in the 33rd - not a single aircraft, in the 74th - not a single combat-ready aircraft, the 123rd IAP was able to withdraw 13 fighters, the 126th IAP was able to withdraw 6 fighters, the 124th - 1.
I have one interesting comrade from Poland who said and wrote several times: “Mikhail, this is impossible, only a nuclear strike...” Well, everything was possible, this is confirmed by our documents, not German ones, it is precisely the documents of the Red Army Air Force that confirm this level losses. At an airfield with 50–60 aircraft, in 2–3 sorties the Germans could destroy almost all the equipment. Well, of course, these were both destroyed and damaged cars. But a damaged plane, if your engine crankcase is punctured or even the tires are shot, you cannot repair in the near future.
The 13th Sbap was completely destroyed, the 16th Sbap of the neighboring 11th Division, and the 122nd IAP received heavy defeats. Thus, by 10 am the situation was completely unbearable. There is a telegram, intercepted by the Germans, from a commander from Bialystok, Chernykh, who almost openly asked for help. Ultimately, the only thing he was allowed to do was withdraw to the Pinsk-Baranovichi-Volkovysk-Lida line, that is, 100 kilometers. And by 12 o’clock these formations, almost in full force, with only one fighter regiment remaining, were redeployed to the second line. But then it came into force that the Red Army was just unfolding, that is, there was no mobilization, so the rear services were in a peacetime state, so retreat and quickly transfer the materials that were available: bombs, a supply of fuel and lubricants, to the airfields of the second runway, to which relocated, it was difficult. The airfields were in the process of being built, there weren’t even garrisons there, and there were mostly builders, units that were constructing the runways. But even this withdrawal did not guarantee anything: the Germans already bombed the Lida and Pinsk airfield in the afternoon. It is interesting that units from the Bialystok salient first retreated to the Bialystok area, they were bombed from there within 2-3 sorties, and they, too, were forced to travel further after lunch. Having moved to the second line, the regiments did not conduct combat operations due to lack of material resources and became passive witnesses. Approximately the same situation arose in the Baltic states, but with the addition that the energetic commander of the Air Force was constantly trying to act according to his plans. He was one of the few leaders of the Red Army Air Force who understood that it was necessary to fight for dominance until the very end, but, unfortunately, on June 22, certain circumstances did not allow him to do this. Why? I have already said that the Air Force is subordinate to the ground forces, to the ground commanders. At 8–9 o'clock in the morning there were breakthroughs of German groups on Taurage and Alytus, so the front commander or chief of staff - it is difficult to establish who really led this - gave the order to strike these retractable tank wedges, respectively, the entire Northwestern Air Force front were focused on fighting these units. That is, German planes continued to attack new Soviet airfields or repeat attacks on old ones; they operated throughout the day, without stopping, even in small groups. The Soviet Air Force did not respond to them in principle, acting against the motorized units of the Wehrmacht.
The belated reaction of the Western Front, what I already described, the commander of one of the regiments asked for a radiogram to be sent to him every 5 minutes on board, whether the flight had been cancelled. A little later, General Pavlov gave the order for active military operations against the enemy, around 5.30. An order was issued for actions against German airfields, but at 6–7, “amateur activity” was prohibited, and the Air Force stood for several more hours under a hail of blows. The Western Front Air Force strikes were late, but they happened. By the way, what’s interesting is that one of the regiments, the 125th Sbap, as I already said, attacked the Berzhniki airfield in the Suwalki salient. The Nine attacked, bombed, even damaged one German plane and returned completely without losses. There was also an airfield in Biała Podlaska, this was even later: one of the 130th Sbap also attacked, and the Germans had losses. The most interesting thing is that the SB was bombed from a height of 5 kilometers and still hit. To be objective, only two attacks were carried out on German airfields: one airfield in the Suwalki salient, Berzhniki, and one in Biała Podlaska, in the Brest region, to the west.
Plan for the location of the air force in the Baltics
Despite these timid attacks, on June 22, in the morning in the Baltic states and in the afternoon in the area of Suwalki and Brest, they were practically ineffective (the loss of three aircraft was worth nothing). However, after this, the Germans did not use fighter aircraft in repeated attacks, but used them for loitering and even carried out an airfield maneuver, that is, they transferred fighter regiments to their airfields so as not to be under attack. This again suggests that if the Red Army Air Force had acted according to the cover plan for German airfields, no matter how effective it was, we now understand that most of the airfields would have been attacked in vain, since there would have been no German aircraft there. However, the actions themselves, like a magnet, would attract German planes and, accordingly, would not give them the opportunity to attack Soviet airfields. And so it happened: the regiments of the advanced Western Front were thrown back from the border before lunch on June 22, in the Baltic states the same process occurred after 2 hours. As soon as the sorties against the German columns ended, most of the units were immediately moved to the Riga area, in the area of Daugavpils, Mitava, that is, most of the airfields, and most of the airfields of the district were generally located within a 200 km zone, they were abandoned and the units moved to a distance of 200– 250 km from the border. Accordingly, the advanced units of the Soviet troops, which were still fighting on the borders, were thereby completely deprived of support from fighters. That is, while the bombers could still fly quite normally with a bomb load, the fighters were practically unable to operate from such a distance. The departure from the Baltic states had been suggested even earlier, and commanders at all levels asked for it, but the task was to bomb tank columns, and they still carried out these sorties and only after that redeployed.
The situation was approximately the same in the Kiev Military District. The Germans also attacked virtually advanced airfields along the entire border period, starting from Kovel to Lvov, along the border to Chernivtsi. The Germans had the audacity in the confrontation with the Kyiv Military District, having a limited number of forces, to even bomb Kyiv. Neither Minsk was bombed on June 22, nor Riga was bombed, but for some reason Kyiv was, although the Germans had very limited forces in the Kyiv district zone. KOVO itself had the most powerful air force, more than 2000 aircraft, and most importantly, most of the fighter air regiments of the Kyiv district were personnel, that is, they could repel German aircraft, which was done. The Luftwaffe suffered the greatest losses precisely in the zone of the Kyiv Military District. For example, the 3rd group of the 51st bomber squadron operating in the area of Stanislav and Lvov lost about half of its strength, that is, 15 aircraft. The 7th squadron of the 3rd group of the 55th squadron, which in the first flight bombed the airfield in the area of Brody and Dubno with 6 planes, of the 6 planes that took off, lost 2 over the target, 2 burned out (one fell on Soviet territory, one landed at the airfield there , but burned out), and two were damaged with wounded shooters and landed at the airfield in Klimentsovo. That is, the Soviet Air Force also gave a very definite answer if the commanders had the determination to act without orders from above. But, nevertheless, all airfields were practically attacked, some airfields were simply destroyed, for example, the airfield of the 62nd Shap Lisyachich was attacked several times, and literally in the first flight 50 aircraft were destroyed. The Chernivtsi airfield was attacked twice, but even after the first sortie, most of the 149th was destroyed. The neighboring airfield was also attacked, most of the 247th IAP was destroyed, and the total losses somewhere reached 100 aircraft.
There is an opinion that in Moldova, through some incredible tricks, the district command managed to avoid defeat due to the fact that they were dispersed among operational airfields. I want to say that this is a myth. The fact is that the Germans were separated from the Romanians somewhere along the meridian of Chisinau, and, accordingly, the German 4th Air Corps, which was based in Romania, operated precisely at airfields in the Chernivtsi region. A little west of Chisinau there was an airfield of the 55th IAP, Balti, which was attacked several times on June 22, and also suffered heavy losses, which were not reflected in the reports, which gave the opportunity to some of the officers of this district to write in their memoirs, to promote themselves that they succeeded . Although, in fact, if their opponents were not the Romanians, but the Germans, most likely, the fate of the district air force would also be sad.
In the Kiev Military District, Soviet units practically did not retreat to airfields; only some units withdrew on June 22, including from Chernivtsi. Why did this happen? In fact, the strip from Kovel to Stanislav (on the Ukrainian side) is a rather undeveloped strip, and there was a problem with airfields in general. Therefore, the Germans had airfields quite far from the border, and our closest airfields in the Lvov region were somewhere 100 kilometers from the border. Accordingly, German planes were forced to operate at full range in some places and were unable to achieve decisive success at all airfields with bombing. They suffered heavy losses.
The command of the Air Force front, apparently, did not even try to draw any conclusions. In addition, according to some reports, the front air force commander Ptukhin was already removed from leadership, and, apparently, on June 22 did not even participate in combat planning. At least there is no serious combat order.
Diagram of the deployment of air force units on the Western Front
If we take the Baltics and the Western Front, who at least tried to act on German airfields in response, then there was no 9th Army on the Southern Front and in the Air Force, although reconnaissance activities were carried out. If anyone has read Pokryshkin’s memoirs, he describes a reconnaissance raid on Romanian airfields around lunchtime on June 22, when he arrived, reported to the command, and was told: “Sorry, we will have other goals.” And the Air Force of the 9th Army in the afternoon received an order to bomb the crossings on the Prut, and from the Air Force of the Southwestern Front, the 2nd regiment was given the task of bombing German tank units that crossed the Bug and advanced on Vladimir-Volynsky. That's all.
That is, on June 22, by 18:00, the Soviet Air Forces in the Baltic States and Belarus were driven to the rear line of the airfields, practically no military operations were conducted after 18:00, and the only thing they could do was patrol, patrol over their own airfields, and cover it. The Luftwaffe finished its sorties at the airfields somewhere later, around 20 o’clock, but it was already “catching up” when German reconnaissance officers discovered that detour to the rear line and tried to reconnoiter in order to continue the operation the next day. The same thing happens in the zone of the South-Western Front, the Southern Front. The enemy completely controlled the sky over the forward lines, the Red Army Air Force practically did not participate in patrolling over the borders, forward units, and the only thing that happened was a blow to the German troops who were crossing the Bug in the Vladimir-Volynsky area.
The Germans, by their actions on June 22, especially in the first half of the day, ensured dominance in the zone of the North-Western and Western fronts somewhere at a distance of 200-250 km from the border, completely knocking out Soviet units from there. They were not yet completely defeated, but they were defeated, and the territory remained with the enemy. In the Southwestern Front, many units were also driven out of their airfields, not all, but very many. When leadership of the Southwestern Front was resumed on June 23, almost all units were redeployed further, deeper into the territory, 50–100 km, that is, to the Ternopil and Rivne region. A situation arose when there were no Soviet air units about 200 km from the borders. For a fighter, 200 km at that time was just a matter of flying and returning; there was no time for an air battle. The units that were along the border had already lost complete cover. Conclusion: thanks to its unique preparation, its technical capabilities, persistence in achieving goals, a well-formed plan, and tactically competent actions of the Luftwaffe, unfortunately, managed to defeat the Red Army Air Force on June 22.
Loading ammunition
What could be the positive aspects? First: there was no defeatist mood, despite the fact that many are now trying to create some kind of image of scurrying pilots and fleeing generals. All this is obvious nonsense. Part of the Air Force of the North-Western Front and part of the Air Force of the Western Front retreated, having strictly received orders, but if they had retreated earlier without an order, they could have saved part of the forces, part of the funds. The Soviet pilots did, in my opinion, everything possible. There are confirmed episodes of 4 or even 5 ramming attacks. Quite fierce battles took place along the entire front line. However, the Germans were not “whipping boys”; they gained very serious experience in Western Europe, and besides, they, on occasion, tried to avoid serious military clashes. As an example, these are the actions of the 1st German bomber squadron against the Liepaja airfield. The 148th Fighter Aviation Regiment was based there. The Germans, using such a simple technique as approaching from the sea, destroyed and damaged 41 aircraft of this regiment in one day. There were no German fighters there at all. There were no serious air battles for the reason that the Germans came in, bombed and dived towards the sea. On I-153 it was very difficult to catch up with Yu-88. This served, at one time, as one of Solonin’s theories when he found an operational report of the North-Western Front, where it was written that there were 14 aircraft losses per day, and on the morning of the 23rd in Riga there were 27 aircraft of the regiment. And he says: “Where did the 30 cars go?” In fact, due to inconsistencies in operational documents, only the very first operational report of the regiment or combat report reached the front headquarters. After this, the battles for Liepaja began, and accordingly, the regiment’s headquarters began to move towards Riga and try to retreat. Apparently, the data was not transmitted, so only the first encryption message reached front headquarters, which mentioned 14 destroyed aircraft. Then there were more losses, and the last loss was around 8 pm, when by chance the Germans, apparently, got in at the moment when the planes were refueling and destroyed almost the entire squadron. But this again suggests that the Germans did not stop acting. They had success in the morning, they did not stop developing it and, characteristically, even attacked targets that had already been abandoned by Soviet units. Some airfields, for example, Vilnius, Kaunas, there were no combat-ready units of the Red Army there at all, there were rear services, there were planes that had no pilots, or they were faulty, old and subject to transfer to other units. However, the Germans continued to hammer until the evening, thus depriving pilots who could have moved there from other airfields and picked up materiel from such an opportunity. The Luftwaffe did not intend to end the fight for air supremacy on June 22, and what they had succeeded in, they happily continued on June 23, and began even earlier, at about 3 o’clock in the morning.
Some Soviet commanders understood this very well. Alexey Ivanovich Ionov, for example, as soon as the opportunity allowed him, as soon as they completed the battle with German mechanized units, he took the regiment to the Dvina line. Even before the advent of Directive No. 3, which implied Soviet offensive on Lublin, he already gave the order on the morning of June 23 to act according to the cover plan. Just as pilots, regiment and squadron commanders spent the whole day trying to counteract the enemy as best they could, so at the level of Air Force commanders there were people who were well versed in the situation, understood and tried to respond adequately. Unfortunately, the tools that were available at that time did not yet allow this to be done fully. That is, it was almost impossible to fight the Luftwaffe that was there at that moment. One more point: anti-aircraft artillery could have protected us from the first strikes, to a certain extent. Why did this happen? The Red Army was in the stage of reorganization, most of the anti-aircraft units in the territory of western Ukraine, Belarus, and the Baltic states were in the process of formation. Many people remember from Soviet films, especially when they make accusations and say: why were your anti-aircraft divisions somewhere at the training ground? The answer is obvious: the anti-aircraft gunners carried out combat coordination, because for most of the Red Army soldiers of these units it was their first year of service, and they still had to train. Again, the Red Army was not mobilized, so the regular units of anti-aircraft machine guns that were available at each airfield were not only understaffed and instead of 9 machine guns they had only 3, well, quad Maximum installations, but they also felt a shortage of personnel , and there was simply no one to put many machine guns into operation. Unlike, again, the Germans. The Luftwaffe had a completely different organization, and the anti-aircraft units were subordinate to the Wehrmacht, and less, most of the anti-aircraft units and anti-aircraft guns were subordinate to the Luftwaffe. The Luftwaffe command could build an umbrella over whatever arrangement they saw fit. Accordingly, the anti-aircraft units of the Luftwaffe and the Wehrmacht were in combat-ready condition at the beginning of the war and had a huge amount of small-caliber anti-aircraft artillery. If in the Soviet Union before the war they produced about 1.5 thousand small-caliber anti-aircraft guns of 25 mm and 37 mm, which practically did not have time to be used by the troops, because they were mostly released at the end of the 40th and the beginning of the 41st and were just beginning to join the troops. In addition, there was a very big problem because there was very little ammunition for these anti-aircraft guns. All the documents that we looked at were 1 ammo in the unit, and in the warehouses of the districts there were no 37-mm shells at all, as well as 85 mm for heavy anti-aircraft guns.
What conclusion could be drawn from this and why was it not drawn? Probably, that defeat was morally difficult, so there was no serious analysis. Some commanders of formations wrote reports in hot pursuit, but they were still unable to rise above the situation, accordingly, everyone had their own opinion, no one analyzed it, did not collect it, and reports on the combat operations of the Southwestern Front, Northwestern and Western , they were made: Southwestern - in August 1941, Western Front - generally at the beginning of 42. By this time, at the headquarters of the Western Front Air Force there were no longer people who participated in all these events, that is, the reports are half-hearted, to be honest, about nothing. The situation was not analyzed, no conclusions were even drawn as to why this unfortunate cruel defeat occurred. Subsequently, in 42-43, the Soviet Air Force stepped on the same rake. There are no examples when an attack on German airfields could end with such an effect as that of the Luftwaffe. For example, push back Luftawaffe units from these airfields and gain air supremacy over some area, even a local one. That is, no instrument was created, it even seems to me that it was not created throughout the war, any adequate instrument, nor were any specialized bombs prepared technically. This lecture was intended largely to say that history teaches no one anything. The fact that it was possible to draw conclusions and then effectively conduct military operations - unfortunately, was not analyzed, did not materialize into conclusions or instructions. The Red Army then, unfortunately, followed the same rake for almost the entire war. And it is impossible to even remember such serious operations as those carried out by the Luftwaffe. The events of the Battle of Kursk are often cited, supposedly there was something there, but recent studies show that the preparatory things, when attempts to destroy raids were carried out in May-June, failed miserably and were akin, for example, to the attempts on June 25, 1941 to bomb Finnish aviation from military operations. The same thing: the lack of serious targeted reconnaissance, specialized ammunition, and strike tactics. The Germans must be given their due: they continued and expanded this operation, that is, on June 23–24–25, they bombed Soviet aircraft in this zone, somewhere around 200–250 km. This was the last line, because, as we saw, the configuration of the new border, mainly airfields were built on these annexed territories. And after that, strictly speaking, the Soviet Air Force had a paradoxical situation; they were forced to retreat to the area of Pskov, Smolensk, Mogilev, Proskurovo, Kyiv, and so on. The retreat was irreversible, vast spaces were no longer covered by anything, and the Germans could do whatever they wanted there. Soviet aviation was no longer there. Literally on the 26th, relocation began to an even more rear line 400–500 km from the border, and the fighting, in general, was still ongoing. Lvov was taken on June 30, the battles for Riga took place on June 27–28–29, Minsk, respectively, everyone also knows when the encirclement was closed at the end of June. They lost air support, all because of the actions of the Luftwaffe. This is not connected with defeatist sentiments, with a reluctance to fight, with a lack of fighting spirit and patriotism. In no case. People on the ground did everything they could. They fought to the last opportunity, having that technique, that preparation. Many died heroic deaths. We don’t even know most of the heroes - the same Krivtsov who was the first to drop bombs on German territory. He died in the 44th regiment commander; he was not even a Hero of the Soviet Union. The same Ionov - he, unfortunately, was arrested on June 24 in a large group of aviation commanders. A person has a completely unique destiny. He was a pilot back in the First World War, then went through all the stages of his military career, commanded a squadron and a brigade for a very long time, graduated from the academy, participated in the Finnish campaign as the chief of staff of the 14th Air Force Army, and acted in the most adequate manner in the border battle. This man had a clear focus, a clear understanding of the essence of the first operation and many processes in general. His talent lay not even in the field of knowledge, but in the field of military art. However, he was arrested and shot on February 42 with a large group of commanders, although I believe that this man was worthy of becoming an air marshal and commander of the Red Army Air Force.
In conclusion, maybe I’ll add a spoonful of honey to our sad story. The only place where the Soviet Air Force managed to defend its airfields, and to defend them for a whole month, was Moldova. In Moldova there were Romanians who were not at all as professional as their colleagues in the Luftwaffe, plus they did not have the same tools as the Luftwaffe, that is, technical training, ammunition, reconnaissance, and so on. The first flights of the Romanians were akin to the Soviet ones. The Romanian Air Force, allocated for combat operations, all ended up at the Bolgarika airfield, this is in the Izmail region, only one Soviet fighter regiment, the 67th, was based there, and all day the Romanians tried to bomb this regiment, attack, and as a result they lost more than a dozen aircraft, actually confirmed shot down. At the same time, the regiment itself lost a meager amount: one pilot with the plane in the air, 5 planes damaged and two more pilots wounded. That is, the whole day the regiment fought off all the Romanian Air Force, in fact, and did not give the slightest opportunity to the descendants of the Roman patricians to do anything. That is, all groups were scattered, defeated, and suffered losses with minimal losses to the Red Army. In many ways - the role of the individual. The chief of staff of the regiment developed tactics, this is confirmed in documents and memoirs - patrolling in large groups over the airfield. He constantly kept one or two fully equipped squadrons over the airfield, they replaced each other, and only single groups of aircraft could break through to the airfield, completely by accident, which could slip between patrols. Here's the story. If the 4th Luftwaffe Air Corps had not operated in parts of the Southwestern Front in the Chernivtsi region, but had attacked Chisinau and Odessa, I think the outcome would have been different. And so this allowed the Soviet units in the area of Izmail, Chisinau, Odessa to make their feasible contribution to the beginning of victorious actions.
Article 1. Border of the Soviet Union
Article 2. How the Minister of the Third Reich declared war on the USSR
Article 4. Russian spirit
Article 6. Opinion of a Russian citizen. Reminder for June 22
Article 7. Opinion of the American Citizen. Russians are best at making friends and fighting.
Article 8. The Perfidious West
Article 1. BORDER OF THE SOVIET UNION
Http://www.sologubovskiy.ru/articles/6307/
On this early morning in 1941, the enemy dealt a terrible, unexpected blow to the USSR. From the first minutes, border guard soldiers were the first to engage in mortal combat with the fascist invaders and courageously defended our Motherland, defending every inch of Soviet land.
At 4.00 on June 22, 1941, after powerful artillery preparation, advanced detachments of fascist troops attacked border outposts from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Despite the enemy’s enormous superiority in manpower and equipment, the border guards fought steadfastly, died heroically, but did not leave the defended lines without orders.
For many hours (and in some areas for several days), the outposts in stubborn battles held back the fascist units on the border line, preventing them from capturing bridges and crossings across the border rivers. With unprecedented stamina and courage, at the cost of their lives, the border guards sought to delay the advance of the advanced units of the Nazi troops. Each outpost was a small fortress; the enemy could not capture it as long as at least one border guard was alive.
Thirty minutes were allocated by Hitler's general staff to destroy Soviet border outposts. But this calculation turned out to be untenable.
Not a single one of the nearly 2,000 outposts that took on the unexpected blow of superior enemy forces flinched or surrendered, not a single one!
The border fighters were the first to repel the pressure of the fascist conquerors. They were the first to come under fire from enemy tank and motorized hordes. Before anyone else, they stood up for the honor, freedom and independence of their Motherland. The first victims of the war and its first heroes were the Soviet border guards.
The border outposts located in the direction of the main attacks of the Nazi troops were subjected to the most powerful attacks. In the offensive zone of Army Group Center in the sector of the Augustovsky border detachment, two fascist divisions crossed the border. The enemy expected to destroy the border outposts in 20 minutes.
1st border outpost of senior lieutenant A.N. Sivacheva defended herself for 12 hours and was completely killed.
3rd outpost of Lieutenant V.M. Usova fought for 10 hours, 36 border guards repelled seven fascist attacks, and when the cartridges ran out they launched a bayonet attack.
The border guards of the Lomzhinsky border detachment showed courage and heroism.
4th outpost of Lieutenant V.G. Malieva fought until 12 o'clock on June 23, leaving 13 people alive.
The 17th border outpost fought with the enemy infantry battalion until 7 o'clock on June 23, and the 2nd and 13th outposts held the defense until 12 o'clock on June 22 and only by order did the surviving border guards withdraw from their lines.
The border guards of the 2nd and 8th outposts of the Chizhevsky border detachment fought bravely with the enemy.
The border guards of the Brest border detachment covered themselves with unfading glory. The 2nd and 3rd outposts held out until 18:00 on June 22. 4th outpost of senior lieutenant I.G. Tikhonova, located near the river, did not allow the enemy to cross to the eastern bank for several hours. At the same time, over 100 invaders, 5 tanks, 4 guns were destroyed and three enemy attacks were repulsed.
In their memoirs, German officers and generals noted that only wounded border guards were captured; not one of them raised their hands or laid down their arms.
Having marched solemnly across Europe, from the first minutes the Nazis encountered unprecedented tenacity and heroism of soldiers in green caps, although the Germans' superiority in manpower was 10-30 times greater, artillery, tanks, and planes were brought in, but the border guards fought to the death.
The former commander of the German 3rd Panzer Group, Colonel General G. Goth, was subsequently forced to admit: “both divisions of the 5th Army Corps immediately after crossing the border encountered entrenched enemy guards, which, despite the lack of artillery support, held their positions until the last one."
This is largely due to the selection and staffing of border outposts.
Recruitment was carried out from all republics of the USSR. Junior commanding officers and Red Army soldiers were drafted at the age of 20 for 3 years (they served in naval units for 4 years). Commanding personnel for the Border Troops were trained by ten border schools (schools), the Leningrad Naval School, the Higher School of the NKVD, as well as the Frunze Military Academy and the Military-Political Academy named after
V. I. Lenin.
Junior commanding officers were trained in district and detachment schools of the Ministry of Taxation, Red Army soldiers - at temporary training points at each border detachment or separate border unit, and naval specialists were trained in two training border naval detachments.
In 1939 – 1941, when staffing border units and units on the western section of the border, the leadership of the Border Troops sought to appoint middle and senior commanding officers with service experience, especially participants in the fighting at Khalkhin Gol and on the border, to command positions in border detachments and commandant’s offices. with Finland. It was more difficult to staff the border and reserve outposts with commanding personnel.
By the beginning of 1941, the number of border outposts doubled, and the border schools could not immediately meet the sharply increased need for middle command personnel, so in the fall of 1939, accelerated training courses for outpost commands were organized from junior command personnel and Red Army soldiers in their third year of service, and preference was given to those with combat experience. All this made it possible to fully staff all border and reserve outposts by January 1, 1941.
In order to prepare to repel the aggression of Nazi Germany, the USSR Government increased the density of security of the western section of the country's state border: from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. This area was guarded by 8 border districts, including 49 border detachments, 7 detachments of border courts, 10 separate border commandant's offices and three separate air squadrons.
The total number of people was 87,459, of which 80% of the personnel were located directly on the state border, including 40,963 Soviet border guards on the Soviet-German border. Of the 1,747 border outposts guarding the state border of the USSR, 715 were located on the western border of the country.
Organizationally, the border detachments consisted of 4 border commandant's offices (each with 4 linear outposts and one reserve outpost), a maneuver group (detachment reserve of four outposts, totaling 200 - 250 people), a junior command school - 100 people, a headquarters, an intelligence department, a political agency and rear. In total, the detachment consisted of up to 2,000 border guards. The border detachment guarded the land section of the border with a length of up to 180 kilometers, and on the sea coast - up to 450 kilometers.
Border outposts in June 1941 had a staff strength of 42 and 64 people, depending on the specific terrain and other conditions of the situation. At the outpost of 42 people there were the head of the outpost and his deputy, the foreman of the outpost and 4 squad commanders.
Its armament consisted of one Maxim heavy machine gun, three Degtyarev light machine guns and 37 five-round rifles of the 1891/30 model. The outpost's ammunition was: 7.62 mm cartridges - 200 pieces for each rifle and 1600 pieces for each light machine gun, 2400 pieces for a heavy machine gun, RGD hand grenades - 4 pieces for each border guard and 10 anti-tank grenades for the entire outpost.
The effective firing range of rifles is up to 400 meters, machine guns - up to 600 meters.
At the border outpost of 64 people there were the head of the outpost and his two deputies, a foreman and 7 squad commanders. Its weapons: two Maxim heavy machine guns, four light machine guns and 56 rifles. Accordingly, the amount of ammunition was greater. By decision of the head of the border detachment at the outposts where the most threatened situation developed, the number of cartridges was increased by one and a half times, but subsequent developments showed that this supply was only enough for 1 - 2 days of defensive actions. The outpost's only technical means of communication was a field telephone. The means of transport were two horse-drawn carriages.
Since the Border Troops during their service constantly encountered various violators at the border, including armed ones and as part of groups with whom they often had to fight, the degree of preparedness of all categories of border guards was good, and the combat readiness of such units as the border outpost and the border post , the ship was actually constantly full.
At 4 o'clock Moscow time on June 22, 1941, German aviation and artillery simultaneously carried out massive fire strikes on the military and industrial facilities, railway junctions, airfields and seaports on the territory of the USSR to a depth of 250 - 300 kilometers from the state border. Armadas of fascist planes dropped bombs on peaceful cities of the Baltic republics, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Crimea. Border ships and boats, together with other vessels of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, entered into the fight against enemy aircraft with their anti-aircraft weapons.
Among the targets at which the enemy launched fire strikes were positions of covering troops and locations of the Red Army, as well as military camps of border detachments and commandant's offices. As a result of the enemy's artillery preparation, which lasted from one to one and a half hours in various sectors, units and units of the covering troops and border detachment units suffered losses in manpower and equipment.
The enemy launched a short but powerful artillery strike on the towns of the border outposts, as a result of which, all wooden buildings were destroyed or engulfed in fire, the defensive structures built near the border outpost towns were largely destroyed, and the first wounded and killed border guards appeared.
On the night of June 22, German saboteurs damaged almost all wire communication lines, which disrupted the control of border units and Red Army troops.
Following air and artillery strikes, the German High Command moved its invasion forces along a front of 1,500 kilometers from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian Mountains, having in the first echelon 14 tank, 10 mechanized and 75 infantry divisions with a total of 1 million 900 thousand troops equipped with 2500 tanks , 33 thousand guns and mortars, supported by 1200 bombers and 700 fighters.
At the time of the enemy attack, there were only border outposts on the state border and behind them, 3–5 kilometers away, were individual rifle companies and rifle battalions of troops performing the task of operational cover, as well as defensive structures of fortified areas.
The divisions of the first echelons of the covering armies were located in areas 8-20 kilometers away from their assigned deployment lines, which did not allow them to deploy in a timely manner into battle formation and forced them to engage in battle with the aggressor separately, in parts, unorganized and with large losses in personnel and military equipment.
The course of military operations at the border outposts and their results were different. When analyzing the actions of border guards, it is imperative to take into account the specific conditions in which each outpost found itself on June 22, 1941. They depended to a large extent on the composition of the advanced enemy units attacking the outpost, as well as on the nature of the terrain along which the border passed and the directions of action of the strike groups of the German army.
For example, a section of the state border with East Prussia ran along a plain with a large number of roads, without river barriers. It was in this sector that the powerful German Army Group North turned around and struck. And on the southern section of the Soviet-German front, where the Carpathian Mountains rose and the San, Dniester, Prut, and Danube rivers flowed, the actions of large groups of enemy troops were difficult, and the conditions for the defense of border outposts were favorable.
In addition, if the outpost was located in a brick building rather than a wooden one, then its defensive capabilities were significantly increased. It must be taken into account that in densely populated areas, with land plots well developed for agriculture, building a platoon stronghold for an outpost presented great organizational difficulties, and therefore it was necessary to adapt premises for defense and build covered firing points near the outpost.
On the last night before the war, the border units of the western border districts carried out enhanced security of the state border. Some of the personnel of the border outposts were on the border section in border guards, the main personnel were in platoon strongholds, and several border guards remained in the outpost premises to protect them. The personnel of the reserve units of the border commandant's offices and detachments were located in the premises at the place of their permanent deployment.
For the commanders and Red Army soldiers who saw the concentration of enemy troops, what was unexpected was not the attack itself, but the power and cruelty of the air raid and artillery strikes, as well as the massive number of moving and firing armored vehicles. There was no panic, fuss or aimless shooting among the border guards. Something happened that we had been waiting for a whole month. Of course, there were losses, but not from panic and cowardice.
Ahead of the main forces of each German regiment, shock forces moved up to a platoon with sappers and reconnaissance groups on armored personnel carriers and motorcycles with the tasks of eliminating border patrols, capturing bridges, establishing the positions of the Red Army covering troops, and completing the destruction of border outposts.
In order to ensure surprise, these enemy units in some sections of the border began to advance during the period of artillery and aviation preparation. To complete the destruction of the personnel of the border outposts, tanks were used, which, being at a distance of 500 - 600 meters, fired at the strongholds of the outposts, remaining out of the reach of the outpost's weapons.
The first to discover the crossing of the state border by the reconnaissance units of the Nazi troops were the border guards who were on duty. Using pre-prepared trenches, as well as folds of terrain and vegetation as cover, they engaged the enemy and thereby gave a signal of danger. Many border guards died in battle, and the survivors retreated to the strongholds of the outposts and became involved in defensive actions.
On the river border areas, the enemy's advanced units sought to capture bridges. Border patrols to guard bridges were sent out in groups of 5-10 people with a light and sometimes a heavy machine gun. In most cases, border guards prevented the enemy's advanced groups from seizing bridges.
The enemy used armored vehicles to capture the bridges, transported their advanced units on boats and pontoons, surrounded and destroyed the border guards. Unfortunately, the border guards did not have the opportunity to blow up the bridges across the border river and they fell to the enemy intact. The rest of the outpost’s personnel also took part in the battles to hold bridges on the border rivers, inflicting serious losses on enemy infantry, but being powerless against enemy tanks and armored vehicles.
Thus, while defending the bridges across the Western Bug River, the entire personnel of the 4th, 6th, 12th and 14th border outposts of the Vladimir-Volynsky border detachment died. The 7th and 9th border outposts of the Przemysl border detachment also died in unequal battles with the enemy, defending bridges across the San River.
In the zone where the attack groups of the Nazi troops were advancing, the advanced enemy units were stronger in numbers and weapons than the border outpost, and, moreover, included tanks and armored personnel carriers. In these directions, border outposts could hold back the enemy for only one to two hours. The border guards repelled the enemy infantry attack with machine gun and rifle fire, but enemy tanks, after destroying the defensive structures with cannon fire, burst into the outpost stronghold and completed their destruction.
In some cases, the border guards managed to knock out one tank, but in most cases they were powerless against armored vehicles. In the unequal fight with the enemy, almost all of the outpost's personnel died. The border guards who were in the basements of the brick buildings of the outposts held out the longest, and while continuing to fight, they died, blown up by German landmines.
But the personnel of many outposts continued to fight the enemy from the outpost strong points to the last man. These battles continued throughout June 22, and individual outposts fought surrounded by battle for several days.
For example, the 13th outpost of the Vladimir-Volyn border detachment, relying on strong defensive structures and favorable terrain conditions, fought surrounded by battle for eleven days. The defense of this outpost was facilitated by the heroic actions of the garrisons of the pillboxes of the fortified area of the Red Army, who, during the period of artillery and aviation preparation of the enemy, prepared for defense and met him with powerful fire from guns and machine guns. In these pillboxes, commanders and Red Army soldiers defended themselves for many days, and in some places for more than a month. German troops were forced to bypass this area, and then, using toxic fumes, flamethrowers and explosives, destroy the heroic garrisons.
Having joined the ranks of the Red Army, together with it the border guards bore the brunt of the fight against the German invaders, fought against his intelligence agents, reliably protected the rear of the Fronts and Armies from attacks by saboteurs, destroyed groups that had broken through and the remnants of encircled enemy groups, everywhere showing heroism and KGB ingenuity , perseverance, courage and selfless devotion to the Soviet Motherland.
To summarize, it must be said that on June 22, 1941, the fascist German command launched a monstrous military machine against the USSR, which attacked the Soviet people with particular cruelty, which had neither measure nor name. But in this difficult situation, the Soviet border guards did not flinch. In the very first battles, they showed boundless devotion to the Fatherland, unshakable will, and the ability to maintain steadfastness and courage, even in moments of mortal danger.
Many details of the battles of several dozen border outposts remain unknown, as do the fates of many border defenders. Among the irretrievable losses of border guards in the battles in June 1941, more than 90% were “missing in action.”
Not intended to repel an armed invasion by regular enemy troops, the border outposts steadfastly held out under the pressure of the superior forces of the German army and its satellites. The death of the border guards was justified by the fact that, by dying as entire units, they provided access to the defensive lines of the Red Army cover units, which in turn ensured the deployment of the main forces of the Armies and Fronts and ultimately created the conditions for the defeat of the German armed forces and the liberation of the peoples of the USSR and Europe from fascism.
For the courage and heroism shown in the first battles with the Nazi invaders on the state border, 826 border guards were awarded orders and medals of the USSR. 11 border guards were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, five of them posthumously. The names of sixteen border guards were assigned to the outposts where they served on the day the war began.
Here are just a few episodes of fighting on that first day of the war and the names of the heroes:
Platon Mikhailovich Kubov
The name of the small Lithuanian village of Kybartai became widely known to many Soviet people on the very first day of the Great Patriotic War - a border outpost was located nearby, which selflessly entered into an unequal battle with a superior enemy.
On that memorable night, no one slept at the outpost. Border patrols continually reported the appearance of Nazi troops near the border. With the first explosions of enemy shells, the fighters took up a perimeter defense, and the head of the outpost, Lieutenant Kubov, with a small group of border guards went to the site of the firefight. Three columns of Nazis were heading towards the outpost. If he and his group take the fight here, try to delay the enemy as much as possible, the outpost will have time to prepare well for the meeting with the invaders...
A handful of fighters under the command of 27-year-old Lieutenant Platon Kubov, carefully disguised, repelled enemy attacks for several hours. All the fighters died one after another, but Kubov continued to fire from the machine gun. We've run out of ammunition. Then the lieutenant jumped on his horse and rushed to the outpost.
The small garrison became one of the many outpost-fortresses that blocked, even if only for hours, the enemy’s path. The border guards of the outpost fought until the last bullet, until the last grenade...
In the evening, local residents came to the smoking ruins of the border outpost. Among the piles of dead enemy soldiers, they found the mutilated bodies of the border guards and buried them in a mass grave.
Several years ago, the ashes of the Kubov heroes were transferred to the territory of the newly rebuilt outpost, which on August 17, 1963 was named after P. M. Kubov, a communist, a native of the village of Revolutionary, Kursk region.
Alexey Vasilievich Lopatin
In the early morning of June 22, 1941, shell explosions thundered in the courtyard of the 13th outpost of the Vladimir-Volyn border detachment. And then planes with a fascist swastika flew over the outpost. War! For 25-year-old Alexey Lopatin, a native of the village of Dyukova Ivanovo region, it started literally from the first minute. A lieutenant, who had graduated from a military school two years earlier, commanded the outpost.
The Nazis hoped to crush the small unit right away. But they miscalculated. Lopatin organized a strong defense. The group sent to the bridge over the Bug prevented the enemy from crossing the river for more than an hour. Every single one of the heroes died. The Nazis attacked the defense at the outpost for more than a day, unable to break the resistance of the Soviet soldiers. Then the enemies surrounded the outpost, deciding that the border guards would surrender on their own. But machine guns still hindered the advance of Nazi columns. On the second day, a company of SS men was scattered and thrown into a small garrison. On the third day, the Nazis sent a fresh unit with artillery to the outpost. By this time, Lopatin had hidden his soldiers and the families of the command staff in a secure basement of the barracks and continued the battle.
On June 26, Nazi guns rained down fire on the ground part of the barracks. However, new fascist attacks were again repulsed. On June 27, thermite shells rained down on the outpost. The SS men hoped to force the Soviet soldiers out of the basement with fire and smoke. But again the wave of Nazis rolled back, met by well-aimed shots from the Lopatinites. On June 29, women and children were sent out from under the ruins, and the border guards, including the wounded, remained to fight to the end.
And the battle continued for another three days, until the ruins of the barracks collapsed under heavy artillery fire...
The Motherland awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to the brave warrior, candidate party member Alexei Vasilyevich Lopatin. His name was given to one of the outposts on the western border of the country on February 20, 1954.
Fedor Vasilievich Morin
The birch tree at the third blockhouse stood like a wounded soldier with a crutch, leaning on a hanging branch broken by a shell fragment. The earth trembled around, black smoke hung over the ruins of the outpost. The howl had lasted for more than seven hours.
Since the morning, the outpost had no telephone connection with headquarters. There was an order from the head of the detachment to retreat to the rear lines, but the messenger sent from the commandant’s office did not reach the outpost, struck by a stray bullet. And Lieutenant Fyodor Marin did not even think about retreating without an order.
Rus, give up! - the fascists shouted.
Marin gathered the seven remaining fighters in the blockhouse, hugged and kissed each one.
“Better death than captivity,” the commander told the border guards.
“We will die, but we will not give up,” he heard in response.
Put on your caps! Let's go in full uniform.
They loaded their rifles with the last rounds of ammunition, embraced once again and went towards the enemy. Marin sang “Internationale”, the soldiers took it up, and the fire rang: “This is our last and decisive battle...”
Two days later, a fascist sergeant major, captured by soldiers of a Red Army battalion, told how the Nazis were dumbfounded when they heard the revolutionary anthem through the roar.
Lieutenant Fedor Vasilyevich Morin, posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, is still serving as border guard today. His name was given to the outpost he commanded on September 3, 1965.
Ivan Ivanovich Parkhomenko
Awakened at dawn on June 22, 1941 by the roar of artillery cannonade, the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Maksimov, jumped on his horse and rushed to the outpost, but before reaching it, he was seriously wounded. The defense was led by political instructor Kiyan, but he soon died in a battle with the Nazis. Sergeant Major Ivan Parkhomenko took command of the outpost. Following his instructions, the machine gunners and riflemen fired accurately at the Nazis crossing the Bug and tried to prevent them from reaching our shore. But the enemy's superiority was too great...
The fearlessness of the foreman gave the border guards strength. Parkhomenko invariably appeared where the battle was particularly fierce, where his courage and commanding will were needed. A fragment of an enemy shell did not miss Ivan. But even with a broken collarbone, Parkhomenko continued to lead the battle.
The sun was already at its zenith when the trench in which the last defenders of the outpost were concentrated was surrounded. Only three people could shoot, including the sergeant major. Parkhomenko had his last grenade left. The Nazis were approaching the trench. The sergeant major, gathering his strength, threw a grenade towards the approaching car, killing three officers. Bleeding, Parkhomenko slid to the bottom of the trench...
Up to a company of Nazis was destroyed by the soldiers of the border outpost under the command of Ivan Parkhomenko, at the cost of their lives they delayed the enemy’s advance for eight hours.
On October 21, 1967, the name of Komsomol member I. I. Parkhomenko was assigned to one of the border outposts.
Eternal glory and memory to the Heroes!!! We remember you!!!
http://gidepark.ru/community/832/content/1387276
The tragedy of June 1941 has been studied inside and out. And the more it is studied, the more questions remain.
Today I would like to give the floor to an eyewitness of those events.
His name is Valentin Berezhkov. He worked as a translator. Translated for Stalin. He left a book of magnificent memoirs.
On June 22, 1941, Valentin Mikhailovich Berezhkov met... in Berlin.
His memories are truly priceless.
As they tell us, Stalin was afraid of Hitler. He was afraid of everything and therefore did nothing to prepare for war. And they also lie that everyone, including Stalin, was confused and scared when the war began.
And here's how it really happened.
As Foreign Minister of the Third Reich, Joachim von Ribbentrop declared war on the USSR.
“Suddenly at 3 a.m., or 5 a.m. Moscow time (it was already Sunday, June 22), the phone rang. An unfamiliar voice announced that Reich Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was waiting for Soviet representatives in his office at the Foreign Office on Wilhelmstrasse. Already from this barking unfamiliar voice, from the extremely official phraseology, there was a whiff of something ominous.
Having driven out onto Wilhelmstrasse, from a distance we saw a crowd near the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Although it was already dawn, the entrance with a cast-iron canopy was brightly illuminated by floodlights. Photographers, cameramen, and journalists were bustling around. The official jumped out of the car first and opened the door wide. We went out, blinded by the light of Jupiters and the flashes of magnesium lamps. An alarming thought flashed through my head - is this really war? There was no other way to explain such a pandemonium on Wilhelmstrasse, especially at night. Photo reporters and cameramen constantly accompanied us. Every now and then they ran forward and clicked shutters. A long corridor led to the minister's apartment. Along it, standing at attention, were some people in uniform. When we appeared, they clicked their heels loudly, raising their hands in a fascist salute. Finally we found ourselves in the minister's office.
At the back of the room there was a desk, behind which sat Ribbentrop in a casual gray-green ministerial uniform.
When we came close to desk, Ribbentrop stood up, silently nodded his head, extended his hand and invited him to follow him to the opposite corner of the room at the round table. Ribbentrop had a swollen crimson face and dull, as if frozen, inflamed eyes. He walked ahead of us, head down and staggering a little. “Is he drunk?” - flashed through my head. After we sat down and Ribbentrop began to speak, my assumption was confirmed. He apparently really drank heavily.
The Soviet ambassador was never able to present our statement, the text of which we took with us. Ribbentrop, raising his voice, said that now we would talk about something completely different. Stumbling over almost every word, he began to explain rather confusingly that the German government had information regarding the increased concentration of Soviet troops on the German border. Ignoring the fact that over the past weeks the Soviet embassy, on behalf of Moscow, has repeatedly drawn the attention of the German side to flagrant cases of violation of the border of the Soviet Union by German soldiers and aircraft, Ribbentrop stated that Soviet soldiers violated the German border and invaded German territory, although there were no such facts in there was no reality.
Ribbentrop further explained that he was briefly summarizing the contents of Hitler’s memorandum, the text of which he immediately handed to us. Ribbentrop then said that the German government viewed the current situation as a threat to Germany at a time when it was waging a life-or-death war with the Anglo-Saxons. All this, Ribbentrop said, is regarded by the German government and the Fuhrer personally as the intention of the Soviet Union to stab the German people in the back. The Fuhrer could not tolerate such a threat and decided to take measures to protect the life and safety of the German nation. The Fuhrer's decision is final. An hour ago, German troops crossed the border of the Soviet Union.
Then Ribbentrop began to assure that these German actions were not aggression, but only defensive measures. After this, Ribbentrop stood up and stretched out to his full height, trying to give himself a solemn appearance. But his voice clearly lacked firmness and confidence when he said the last phrase:
- The Fuhrer instructed me to officially announce these defensive measures...
We also got up. The conversation was over. Now we knew that shells were already exploding on our land. After the robbery attack took place, war was officially declared... Nothing could be changed here. Before leaving, the Soviet ambassador said:
- This is brazen, unprovoked aggression. You will still regret that you committed a predatory attack on the Soviet Union. You will pay dearly for this..."
And now the end of the scene. Scenes of the declaration of war on the Soviet Union. Berlin. June 22, 1941. Office of Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop.
“We turned and headed towards the exit. And then the unexpected happened. Ribbentrop, mincing, hurried after us. He began to patter and whisper that he was personally against this decision of the Fuhrer. He even allegedly dissuaded Hitler from attacking the Soviet Union. Personally, he, Ribbentrop, considers this madness. But he couldn't help it. Hitler made this decision, he didn’t want to listen to anyone...
“Tell Moscow that I was against the attack,” we heard the last words of the Reich Minister when we were already going out into the corridor...”
Source: Berezhkov V.M. “Pages of Diplomatic History”, “ International relationships"; Moscow; 1987; http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/berezhkov_vm2/01.html
My comment: Drunk Ribbentrop and USSR Ambassador Dekanozov, who not only “is not afraid”, but also speaks directly with a completely undiplomatic directness. It is also worth noting that the German “official version” of the start of the war completely coincides with the version of Rezun-Suvorov. More precisely, the London prisoner-writer, traitor-defector Rezun rewrote a version of Nazi propaganda into his books.
Like, poor defenseless Hitler defended himself in June 1941. And they believe this in the West? They believe. And they want to instill this belief in the Russian population. At the same time, Western historians and politicians believe in Hitler only once: June 22, 1941. Neither before nor after they believe him. After all, Hitler said that he attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, solely defending himself from Polish aggression. Western historians believe the Fuhrer only when it is necessary to discredit the USSR-Russia. The conclusion is simple: whoever believes Rezun believes Hitler.
I hope you are beginning to understand a little better why Stalin considered the German attack to be an impossible stupidity.
P.S. The fate of the heroes in this scene turned out differently.
Joachim von Ribbentrop was hanged by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Because he knew too much about behind-the-scenes politics on the eve of and during the world war.
Vladimir Georgievich Dekanozov, the then USSR Ambassador to Germany, was shot by the Khrushchevites in December 1953. After the murder of Stalin, and then the murder of Beria, the traitors did the same thing that happened in 1991: they smashed the security agencies. They purged everyone who knew and who knew how to make politics at the “world level.” And Dekanozov knew a lot (read his biography).
Valentin Mikhailovich Berezhkov lived a complex and interesting life. I recommend everyone to read his book of memoirs.
http://nstarikov.ru/blog/18802
Article 3. Why was Germany’s attack on the USSR called “treacherous”?
Today, on the 71st anniversary of the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union and the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, I would like to write about an issue that, in my memory, has not become the subject of discussion, although it lies right on the surface.
On July 3, 1941, addressing the Soviet people, Stalin called the Nazi attack “treacherous.”
Below is full text that speech, including an audio recording. But it’s worth starting by looking for an answer to the question: why did Stalin call the attack “treacherous”? Why is it that already on June 22, in Molotov’s speech, when the country learned about the start of the war, Vyacheslav Molotov said: “This unheard-of attack on our country is a treachery unparalleled in the history of civilized peoples.”
What is “treachery”? It means "broken faith." In other words, both Stalin and Molotov characterized Hitler's aggression as an act of "broken faith." But faith in what? So, Stalin believed in Hitler, and Hitler broke this faith?
How else to perceive this word? The USSR was headed by a world-class politician, and he knew how to call a spade a spade.
I offer one answer to this question. I found it in an article by our famous historian Yuri Rubtsov. He is a Doctor of Historical Sciences, a professor at the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Yuri Rubtsov writes:
“During the entire 70 years that have passed since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, the public consciousness has been looking for an answer to an apparently very simple question: how did it happen that the Soviet leadership, having seemingly irrefutable evidence of Germany’s preparation of aggression against the USSR, continued to the end in its the opportunity was not believed and was taken by surprise?
This seemingly simple question is one of those questions to which people search endlessly for an answer. One answer is that the leader was the victim of a large-scale disinformation operation carried out by German intelligence services.
Hitler's command understood that surprise and the maximum force of a strike against the Red Army troops could be ensured only when attacking from a position of direct contact with them.
Tactical surprise during the first strike was achieved only on the condition that the date of the attack was kept secret until the last moment.
From May 22, 1941, within the framework final stage operational deployment of the Wehrmacht, the transfer of 47 divisions began to the border with the USSR, including 28 tank and motorized divisions.
In general, all versions of the purposes for which such a mass of troops are concentrated near the Soviet border boiled down to two main ones:
- to prepare for the invasion of the British Isles, so that here, in the distance, to protect them from attacks by British aircraft;
- to forcefully ensure a favorable course of negotiations with the Soviet Union, which, according to hints from Berlin, were about to begin.
As expected, a special disinformation operation against the USSR began long before the first German military echelons moved east on May 22, 1941.
A. Hitler took a personal and far from formal part in it.
Let's talk about the personal letter that the Fuhrer sent to the leader of the Soviet people on May 14. In it, Hitler explained the presence of about 80 German divisions near the borders of the Soviet Union by that time with the need to “organize troops away from English eyes and in connection with recent operations in the Balkans.” “Perhaps this gives rise to rumors about the possibility of a military conflict between us,” he wrote, switching to a confidential tone. “I want to assure you—and I give you my word of honor—that this is not true...”
The Fuhrer promised, starting from June 15-20, to begin a massive withdrawal of troops from the Soviet borders to the west, and before that he implored Stalin not to succumb to the provocations that those German generals who, out of sympathy for England, “forgot about their duty” could supposedly go to. . “I look forward to meeting in July. Sincerely yours, Adolf Hitler" - on such a “high” note
He finished his letter.
This was one of the peaks of the disinformation operation.
Alas, the Soviet leadership accepted the Germans' explanations at face value. Trying to avoid war at all costs and not give the slightest pretext for an attack, Stalin until the last day forbade bringing the troops of the border districts into combat readiness. As if the reason for the attack still somehow worried the Nazi leadership...
On the last pre-war day, Goebbels wrote in his diary: “The question regarding Russia is becoming more acute every hour. Molotov asked to visit Berlin, but received a decisive refusal. Naive assumption. This should have been done six months ago..."
Yes, if only Moscow had really become alarmed, at least not six months, but half a month before the hour “X”! However, the magic of confidence that a collision with Germany could be avoided was so possessed by Stalin that, even having received confirmation from Molotov that Germany had declared war, in a directive issued on June 22 at 7 o’clock. 15 minutes. To repel the invading enemy, he forbade our troops, with the exception of aviation, to cross the German border line.”
This is the document cited by Yuri Rubtsov.
Of course, if Stalin believed Hitler’s letter, in which he wrote “I expect a meeting in July. Sincerely yours, Adolf Hitler,” then it becomes possible to correctly understand why both Stalin and Molotov called the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union with the word “treacherous.”
Hitler “broke the faith” of Stalin...
Here we should, perhaps, dwell on two episodes from the first days of the war.
In recent years, a lot of dirt has been poured on Stalin. Khrushchev lied that Stalin hid in the country and was in shock. The documents don't lie.
Here is the “JOURNAL OF J.V. STALIN’S VISITS IN HIS KREMLIN OFFICE” in June 1941.
Since this historical material was prepared for publication by employees working under the leadership of Alexander Yakovlev, who harbored a certain hatred for Stalin, one cannot doubt the authenticity of the documents cited. They were published in publications:
- 1941: In 2 books. Book 1/ Comp. L. E. Reshin et al. M.: International. Democracy Foundation, 1998. - 832 p. - (“Russia. XX century. Documents” / Edited by Academician A. N. Yakovlev) ISBN 5-89511-0009-6;
- The State Defense Committee decides (1941-1945). Figures, Documents. - M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2002. - 575 p. ISBN 5-224-03313-6.
Below you will read the entries “Journal of visits of I.V. Stalin in his Kremlin office” from June 22 to June 28, 1941. The publishers note:
“The dates of receptions of visitors that took place outside Stalin’s office are marked with an asterisk. Sometimes the following errors are found in journal entries: the day of the visit is indicated twice; there are no entry and exit dates for visitors; the sequential numbering of visitors is violated; There are incorrect spellings of surnames.”
So, before you are the real concerns of Stalin in the first days of the war. Note, no dacha, no shock. From the first minutes of meetings and conferences to make decisions and give instructions. In the very first hours, the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was created.
June 22, 1941
1. Molotov NPO, deputy. Prev. SNK 5.45-12.05
2. Beria NKVD 5.45-9.20
3. Timoshenko NPO 5.45-8.30
4. Mehlis Head. GlavPUR KA 5.45-8.30
5. Zhukov NGSh KA 5.45-8.30
6. Malenkov Secret. Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks 7.30-9.20
7. Mikoyan deputy Prev. SNK 7.55-9.30
8. Kaganovich NKPS 8.00-9.35
9. Voroshilov deputy Prev. SNK 8.00-10.15
10. Vyshinsky et al. MFA 7.30-10.40
11. Kuznetsov 8.15-8.30
12. Dimitrov member. Comintern 8.40-10.40
13. Manuilsky 8.40-10.40
14. Kuznetsov 9.40-10.20
15. Mikoyan 9.50-10.30
16. Molotov 12.25-16.45
17. Voroshilov 10.40-12.05
18. Beria 11.30-12.00
19. Malenkov 11.30-12.00
20. Voroshilov 12.30-16.45
21. Mikoyan 12.30-14.30
22. Vyshinsky 13.05-15.25
23. Shaposhnikov deputy NGOs for SD 13.15-16.00
24. Tymoshenko 14.00-16.00
25. Zhukov 14.00-16.00
26. Vatutin 14.00-16.00
27. Kuznetsov 15.20-15.45
28. Kulik deputy NPO 15.30-16.00
29. Beria 16.25-16.45
The last ones left at 16.45
June 23, 1941
1. Molotov member. GK rates 3.20-6.25
2. Voroshilov member. GK rates 3.20-6.25
3. Beria member. Rates TK 3.25-6.25
4. Tymoshenko member. Main book rates 3.30-6.10
5. Vatutin 1st deputy. NGSh 3.30-6.10
6. Kuznetsov 3.45-5.25
7. Kaganovich NKPS 4.30-5.20
8. Zhigarev teams. VVS KA 4.35-6.10
Last ones out 6.25
June 23, 1941
1. Molotov 18.45-01.25
2. Zhigarev 18.25-20.45
3. Timoshenko NPO USSR 18.59-20.45
4. Merkulov NKVD 19.10-19.25
5. Voroshilov 20.00-01.25
6. Voznesensky Prev. Gospl., deputy Prev. SNK 20.50-01.25
7. Mehlis 20.55-22.40
8. Kaganovich NKPS 23.15-01.10
9. Vatutin 23.55-00.55
10. Tymoshenko 23.55-00.55
11. Kuznetsov 23.55-00.50
12. Beria 24.00-01.25
13. Vlasik beginning. personal security
Last left 01.25 24/VI 41
June 24, 1941
1. Malyshev 16.20-17.00
2. Voznesensky 16.20-17.05
3. Kuznetsov 16.20-17.05
4. Kizakov (Len.) 16.20-17.05
5. Zaltsman 16.20-17.05
6. Popov 16.20-17.05
7. Kuznetsov (Kr. m. fl.) 16.45-17.00
8. Beria 16.50-20.25
9. Molotov 17.05-21.30
10. Voroshilov 17.30-21.10
11. Tymoshenko 17.30-20.55
12. Vatutin 17.30-20.55
13. Shakhurin 20.00-21.15
14. Petrov 20.00-21.15
15. Zhigarev 20.00-21.15
16. Golikov 20.00-21.20
17. Shcherbakov section of the 1st MGK 18.45-20.55
18. Kaganovich 19.00-20.35
19. Suprun pilot test. 20.15-20.35
20. Zhdanov member. p/bureau, secret 20.55-21.30
The last ones left at 21.30
June 25, 1941
1. Molotov 01.00-05.50
2. Shcherbakov 01.05-04.30
3. Peresypkin NKS, deputy. NPO 01.07-01.40
4. Kaganovich 01.10-02.30
5. Beria 01.15-05.25
6. Merkulov 01.35-01.40
7. Tymoshenko 01.40-05.50
8. Kuznetsov NK Navy 01.40-05.50
9. Vatutin 01.40-05.50
10. Mikoyan 02.20-05.30
11. Mehlis 01.20-05.20
Last ones left 05.50
June 25, 1941
1. Molotov 19.40-01.15
2. Voroshilov 19.40-01.15
3. Malyshev NK Tankoprom 20.05-21.10
4. Beria 20.05-21.10
5. Sokolov 20.10-20.55
6. Tymoshenko Prev. Main book rates 20.20-24.00
7. Vatutin 20.20-21.10
8. Voznesensky 20.25-21.10
9. Kuznetsov 20.30-21.40
10. Fedorenko teams. ABTV 21.15-24.00
11. Kaganovich 21.45-24.00
12. Kuznetsov 21.05.-24.00
13. Vatutin 22.10-24.00
14. Shcherbakov 23.00-23.50
15. Mehlis 20.10-24.00
16. Beria 00.25-01.15
17. Voznesensky 00.25-01.00
18. Vyshinsky et al. MFA 00.35-01.00
Last ones left 01.00
June 26, 1941
1. Kaganovich 12.10-16.45
2. Malenkov 12.40-16.10
3. Budyonny 12.40-16.10
4. Zhigarev 12.40-16.10
5. Voroshilov 12.40-16.30
6. Molotov 12.50-16.50
7. Vatutin 13.00-16.10
8. Petrov 13.15-16.10
9. Kovalev 14.00-14.10
10. Fedorenko 14.10-15.30
11. Kuznetsov 14.50-16.10
12. Zhukov NGSh 15.00-16.10
13. Beria 15.10-16.20
14. Yakovlev beginning. GAU 15.15-16.00
15. Tymoshenko 13.00-16.10
16. Voroshilov 17.45-18.25
17. Beria 17.45-19.20
18. Mikoyan deputy Prev. SNK 17.50-18.20
19. Vyshinsky 18.00-18.10
20. Molotov 19.00-23.20
21. Zhukov 21.00-22.00
22. Vatutin 1st deputy. NGS 21.00-22.00
23. Tymoshenko 21.00-22.00
24. Voroshilov 21.00-22.10
25. Beria 21.00-22.30
26. Kaganovich 21.05-22.45
27. Shcherbakov 1st secret. MGK 22.00-22.10
28. Kuznetsov 22.00-22.20
The last ones left at 23.20
June 27, 1941
1. Voznesensky 16.30-16.40
2. Molotov 17.30-18.00
3. Mikoyan 17.45-18.00
4. Molotov 19.35-19.45
5. Mikoyan 19.35-19.45
6. Molotov 21.25-24.00
7. Mikoyan 21.25-02.35
8. Beria 21.25-23.10
9. Malenkov 21.30-00.47
10. Tymoshenko 21.30-23.00
11. Zhukov 21.30-23.00
12. Vatutin 21.30-22.50
13. Kuznetsov 21.30-23.30
14. Zhigarev 22.05-00.45
15. Petrov 22.05-00.45
16. Sokokoverov 22.05-00.45
17. Zharov 22.05-00.45
18. Nikitin Air Force KA 22.05-00.45
19. Titov 22.05-00.45
20. Voznesensky 22.15-23.40
21. Shakhurin NKAP 22.30-23.10
22. Dementyev deputy NKAP 22.30-23.10
23. Shcherbakov 23.25-24.00
24. Shakhurin 00.40-00.50
25. Merkulov deputy NKVD 01.00-01.30
26. Kaganovich 01.10-01.35
27. Tymoshenko 01.30-02.35
28. Golikov 01.30-02.35
29. Beria 01.30-02.35
30. Kuznetsov 01.30-02.35
The last ones left 02.40
June 28, 1941
1. Molotov 19.35-00.50
2. Malenkov 19.35-23.10
3. Budyonny deputy. NPO 19.35-19.50
4. Merkulov 19.45-20.05
5. Bulganin deputy Prev. SNK 20.15-20.20
6. Zhigarev 20.20-22.10
7. Petrov Gl. design art. 20.20-22.10
8. Bulganin 20.40-20.45
9. Tymoshenko 21.30-23.10
10. Zhukov 21.30-23.10
11. Golikov 21.30-22.55
12. Kuznetsov 21.50-23.10
13. Kabanov 22.00-22.10
14. Stefanovsky flight tests. 22.00-22.10
15. Suprun pilot test. 22.00-22.10
16. Beria 22.40-00.50
17. Ustinov NK military. 22.55-23.10
18. Yakovlev GAUNKO 22.55-23.10
19. Shcherbakov 22.10-23.30
20. Mikoyan 23.30-00.50
21. Merkulov 24.00-00.15
Last ones left 00.50
And one more thing. Much has been written about the fact that on June 22, Molotov spoke on the radio, announcing the attack of the Nazis and the beginning of the war. Where was Stalin? Why didn't he come forward himself?
The answer to the first question is in the lines of the “Visit Log”.
The answer to the second question, apparently, lies in the fact that Stalin, as the political leader of the country, should have understood that in his speech all the people were waiting to hear the answer to the question “What to do?”
Therefore, Stalin took a break for ten days, received information about what was happening, thought about how to organize resistance to the aggressor, and only after that came out on July 3 not just with an appeal to the people, but with a detailed program for waging war!
Here is the text of that speech. Read and listen to the audio recording of this speech by Stalin. You will find in the text a detailed program, including the organization of partisan actions in occupied territories, the hijacking of steam locomotives and much more. And this is just 10 days after the invasion.
This is strategic thinking!
The strength of history falsifiers is that they juggle with their own invented cliches that have a given ideological orientation.
Read the documents better. They contain true Truth and Power...
July 3 marks the 71st anniversary of I.V.’s legendary performance. Stalin on the radio. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov in his last interview called this speech one of the three “symbols” of the Great Patriotic War.
Here is the text of this speech:
“Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters!
Soldiers of our army and navy!
I am addressing you, my friends!
The treacherous military attack of Hitler Germany on our Motherland, launched on June 22, continues, despite the heroic resistance of the Red Army, despite the fact that the best divisions of the enemy and the best units of his aviation have already been defeated and have found their grave on the battlefield, the enemy continues to push forward, throwing new forces to the front. Hitler's troops managed to capture Lithuania, a significant part of Latvia, the western part of Belarus, and part of Western Ukraine. Fascist aviation is expanding the areas of operation of its bombers, bombing Murmansk, Orsha, Mogilev, Smolensk, Kyiv, Odessa, and Sevastopol. A serious danger looms over our Motherland.
How could it happen that our glorious Red Army surrendered a number of our cities and regions to fascist troops? Are the fascist German troops really invincible troops, as the fascist boastful propagandists tirelessly trumpet?
Of course not! History shows that there are no invincible armies and never have been. Napoleon's army was considered invincible, but it was defeated alternately by Russian, English, and German troops. Wilhelm's German army during the first imperialist war was also considered an invincible army, but it was defeated several times by Russian and Anglo-French troops and was finally defeated by Anglo-French troops. The same must be said about the current Nazi German army of Hitler. This army has not yet encountered serious resistance on the continent of Europe. Only on our territory did it meet serious resistance. And if, as a result of this resistance, the best divisions of the Nazi army were defeated by our Red Army, then this means that Hitler’s fascist army can and will be defeated just as the armies of Napoleon and Wilhelm were defeated.
As for the fact that part of our territory was nevertheless captured by fascist German troops, this is mainly explained by the fact that the war of fascist Germany against the USSR began under favorable conditions for the German troops and unfavorable ones for the Soviet troops. The fact is that the troops of Germany, as a country waging war, were already completely mobilized and the 170 divisions abandoned by Germany against the USSR and moved to the borders of the USSR were in a state of full readiness, waiting only for a signal to move, while the Soviet troops needed more mobilize and move closer to the borders. Of no small importance here was the fact that fascist Germany unexpectedly and treacherously violated the non-aggression pact concluded in 1939 between it and the USSR, regardless of the fact that it would be recognized by the whole world as the attacking party. It is clear that our peace-loving country, not wanting to take the initiative to violate the pact, could not take the path of treachery.
It may be asked: how could it happen that the Soviet government agreed to conclude a non-aggression pact with such treacherous people and monsters as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was there a mistake made here by the Soviet government? Of course not! A non-aggression pact is a peace pact between two states. This is exactly the kind of pact Germany offered us in 1939. Could the Soviet government refuse such a proposal? I think that not a single peace-loving state can refuse a peace agreement with a neighboring power, if at the head of this power are even such monsters and cannibals as Hitler and Ribbentrop. And this, of course, is subject to one indispensable condition - if the peace agreement does not affect either directly or indirectly the territorial integrity, independence and honor of the peace-loving state. As you know, the non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR is just such a pact. What did we win by concluding a non-aggression pact with Germany? We provided our country with peace for a year and a half and the opportunity to prepare our forces to fight back if Nazi Germany risked attacking our country contrary to the pact. This is a definite win for us and a loss for Nazi Germany.
What did Nazi Germany win and lose by treacherously breaking the pact and attacking the USSR? She achieved by this some advantageous position for her troops for a short period of time, but she lost politically, exposing herself in the eyes of the whole world as a bloody aggressor. There can be no doubt that this short-term military gain for Germany is only an episode, and the enormous political gain for the USSR is a serious and long-term factor on the basis of which the decisive military successes of the Red Army in the war with Nazi Germany should unfold.
That is why our entire valiant army, our entire valiant navy, all our falcon pilots, all the peoples of our country, all the best people of Europe, America and Asia, and finally, all the best people of Germany condemn the treacherous actions of the German fascists and sympathize with The Soviet government, they approve of the behavior of the Soviet government and see that our cause is just, that the enemy will be defeated, that we must win.
Due to the war imposed on us, our country entered into a mortal battle with its worst and insidious enemy - German fascism. Our troops are heroically fighting an enemy armed to the teeth with tanks and aircraft. The Red Army and Red Navy, overcoming numerous difficulties, selflessly fight for every inch of Soviet land. The main forces of the Red Army, armed with thousands of tanks and aircraft, enter the battle. The bravery of the Red Army soldiers is unparalleled. Our resistance to the enemy is growing stronger and stronger. Together with the Red Army, the entire Soviet people are rising to defend the Motherland. What is required in order to eliminate the danger looming over our Motherland, and what measures must be taken to defeat the enemy?
First of all, it is necessary that our people, the Soviet people, understand the full depth of the danger that threatens our country, and renounce complacency, carelessness, and moods of peaceful construction, which were quite understandable in pre-war times, but are destructive at the present time, when the war is fundamentally changed position. The enemy is cruel and unforgiving. His goal is to seize our lands, watered by our sweat, to seize our bread and our oil, obtained by our labor. He sets as his goal the restoration of the power of the landowners, the restoration of tsarism, the destruction national culture and the national statehood of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Uzbeks, Tatars, Moldovans, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and other free peoples of the Soviet Union, their Germanization, their transformation into slaves of German princes and barons. Thus, the matter is about the life and death of the Soviet state, about the life and death of the peoples of the USSR, about whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement. It is necessary for the Soviet people to understand this and stop being carefree, for them to mobilize themselves and reorganize all their work in a new, military way, which knows no mercy to the enemy.
It is further necessary that in our ranks there is no place for whiners and cowards, alarmists and deserters, so that our people do not know fear in the struggle and selflessly go to our Fatherland War of Liberation against the fascist enslavers. The great Lenin, who created our state, said that the main quality of Soviet people should be courage, bravery, ignorance of fear in struggle, readiness to fight together with the people against the enemies of our Motherland. It is necessary that this magnificent quality of the Bolshevik become the property of millions and millions of the Red Army, our Red Navy and all the peoples of the Soviet Union. We must immediately restructure all our work on a military basis, subordinating everything to the interests of the front and the tasks of organizing the defeat of the enemy. The peoples of the Soviet Union now see that German fascism is indomitable in its furious anger and hatred of our Motherland, which has ensured free labor and prosperity for all working people. The peoples of the Soviet Union must rise to defend their rights, their land against the enemy.
The Red Army, the Red Navy and all citizens of the Soviet Union must defend every inch of Soviet land, fight to the last drop of blood for our cities and villages, and show the courage, initiative and intelligence characteristic of our people.
We must organize comprehensive assistance to the Red Army, ensure intensive replenishment of its ranks, ensure that it is supplied with everything necessary, organize the rapid advance of transports with troops and military supplies, and extensive assistance to the wounded.
We must strengthen the rear of the Red Army, subordinating all our work to the interests of this cause, ensure the enhanced work of all enterprises, produce more rifles, machine guns, guns, cartridges, shells, aircraft, organize the protection of factories, power plants, telephone and telegraph communications, and establish local air defense .
We must organize merciless fight with all sorts of disorganizers of the rear, deserters, alarmists, rumor mongers, destroy spies, saboteurs, enemy paratroopers, providing prompt assistance to our destroyer battalions in all this. It must be borne in mind that the enemy is insidious, cunning, and experienced in deception and spreading false rumors. You need to take all this into account and not give in to provocations. It is necessary to immediately bring before a military tribunal all those who, with their alarmism and cowardice, interfere with the cause of defense, regardless of their faces.
In the event of a forced withdrawal of units of the Red Army, it is necessary to hijack the entire rolling stock, not leave a single locomotive or a single carriage to the enemy, not leave a single kilogram of bread or a liter of fuel to the enemy. Collective farmers must drive away all the livestock and hand over the grain for safekeeping to government agencies for transportation to the rear areas. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, bread and fuel, which cannot be exported, must be absolutely destroyed.
In areas occupied by the enemy, it is necessary to create partisan detachments, mounted and on foot, to create sabotage groups to fight units of the enemy army, to incite partisan warfare anywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to forests, warehouses, and convoys. In occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every step, and disrupt all their activities.
The war with Nazi Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war. It is not only a war between two armies. At the same time, it is a great war of the entire Soviet people against the Nazi troops. The goal of this nationwide Patriotic War against the fascist oppressors is not only to eliminate the danger looming over our country, but also to help all the peoples of Europe groaning under the yoke of German fascism. We will not be alone in this war of liberation. In this great war, we will have faithful allies in the people of Europe and America, including the German people, enslaved by Hitler’s bosses. Our war for the freedom of our Fatherland will merge with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence, for democratic freedoms. It will be a united front of peoples standing for freedom, against enslavement and the threat of enslavement by Hitler's fascist armies. In this regard, the historic speech of the British Prime Minister, Mr. Churchill, on assistance to the Soviet Union and the declaration of the US government on its readiness to provide assistance to our country, which can only evoke a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of the peoples of the Soviet Union, are quite understandable and indicative.
Comrades! Our strength is incalculable. The arrogant enemy will soon be convinced of this. Together with the Red Army, many thousands of workers, collective farmers, and intellectuals are rising to war against the attacking enemy. The millions of our people will rise up. The working people of Moscow and Leningrad have already begun to create a militia of many thousands to support the Red Army. In every city that is threatened by an enemy invasion, we must create such a people's militia, rouse all working people to fight in order to defend their freedom, their honor, their Motherland with their breasts in our Patriotic War against German fascism.
In order to quickly mobilize all the forces of the peoples of the USSR, to repel the enemy who treacherously attacked our Motherland, the State Defense Committee was created, in whose hands all power in the state is now concentrated. The State Defense Committee has begun its work and calls on all the people to rally around the party of Lenin-Stalin, around the Soviet government for selfless support of the Red Army and Red Navy, for the defeat of the enemy, for victory.
All our strength is in support of our heroic Red Army, our glorious Red Navy!
All the forces of the people are to defeat the enemy!
Forward, for our victory!”
Speech by J.V. Stalin on July 3, 1941
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr3ldvaW4e8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pD5gf2OSZA&feature=related
Another speech by Stalin at the beginning of the War
Stalin's speech at the end of the war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrIPg3TRbno&feature=related
Sergei Filatov
http://serfilatov.livejournal.com/89269.html#cutid1
Article 4. Russian spirit
Nikolay Biyata
http://gidepark.ru/community/129/content/1387287
www.ruska-pravda.org
The fury of Russian resistance reflects the new Russian spirit, backed by newfound industrial and agricultural power
Last June, most Democrats agreed with Adolf Hitler - in three months the Nazi armies would enter Moscow and the Russian case would be similar to the Norwegian, French and Greek. Even the American communists trembled in their Russian boots, believing in Marshal Timoshenko, Voroshilov and Budyonny less than in generals Moroz, Dirt and Slush. When the Germans got stuck, their fellow travelers who had lost faith returned to their previous beliefs, a monument to Lenin was unveiled in London, and almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief: the impossible had happened.
The purpose of Maurice Hindus' book is to show that the impossible was inevitable. The fury of Russian resistance, he said, reflected the new Russian spirit, backed by newfound industrial and agricultural power.
Few observers of post-revolutionary Russia can speak about this more competently. Among American journalists, Maurice Gershon Hindus is the only professional Russian peasant (he arrived in the United States as a child).
After four years at Colgate University and graduate school at Harvard, he managed to maintain a slight Russian accent and a close connection with the good Russian soil. “I am,” he sometimes says, spreading his arms in Slavic style, “a peasant.”
Fu-fu, smells like Russian spirit
When the Bolsheviks began to "liquidate the kulaks [successful farmers] as a class," journalist Hindus traveled to Russia to see what was happening to his fellow peasants. The fruit of his observations was the book “Humanity Uprooted,” a bestseller whose main thesis is that forced collectivization is hard, deportation to the Far North for forced labor is even harder, but collectivization is the greatest economic restructuring in human history ; it changes the face of the Russian land. She is the future. Soviet planners shared the same view, resulting in journalist Hindus having unusual opportunities to observe the emergence of a new Russian spirit.
In Russia and Japan, he, relying on his direct knowledge, answers a question that may well decide the fate of the Second World War. What is this new Russian spirit? It's not that new. “Fu-fu, it smells like the Russian spirit! Previously, the Russian spirit had never been heard of, never seen before. Nowadays the Russian is rolling around the world, catching your eye, hitting you in the face.” These words are not taken from Stalin's speech. The old witch named Baba Yaga says them all the time in ancient Russian fairy tales.
Grandmothers whispered them to their grandchildren when the Mongols burned the surrounding villages in 1410.
They repeated them when the Russian spirit expelled the last Mongol from Muscovy twenty years before Columbus discovered the New World. They probably repeat them today.
Three forces
By “the power of an idea,” Hindus means that in Russia owning private property has become a social crime. “The concept of the deep depravity of private enterprise has penetrated deeply into the consciousness of people - especially, of course, young people, that is, those who are twenty-nine or younger, and there are one hundred and seven million of them in Russia.”
By "force of organization" the author Hindu means the total control of the state over industry and agriculture, so that every peacetime function actually becomes military function. “Of course, the Russians never hinted at the military aspects of collectivization, and so foreign observers remained completely unaware of this element of the vast and brutal agricultural revolution. They emphasized only those consequences that concerned agriculture and society... However, without collectivization, they would not have been able to fight the war as effectively as they are fighting it.”
“The power of the machine” is an idea in the name of which an entire generation of Russians denied themselves food, clothing, cleanliness and even the most basic amenities. “Like the power of a new idea and a new organization, it saves the Soviet Union from dismemberment and destruction by Germany.” “In the same way,” the author Hindus believes, “she will save him from the encroachments of Japan.”
His arguments are less interesting than his analysis of Russian power in the Far East.
Russia's Wild East, stretching three thousand miles from Vladivostok, is quickly becoming one of the world's largest industrial belts. Among the most fascinating sections on Russia and Japan are those in which the legend that Siberia is an Asian glacier or exclusively a place of hard labor is destroyed. In fact, Siberia produces both polar bears and cotton, and has large modern cities, such as Novosibirsk ("Siberian Chicago") and Magnitogorsk (steel), and is also the center of Russia's gigantic arms industry. Hindus believes that even if the Nazis reach the Ural Mountains, and the Japanese reach Lake Baikal, Russia will still remain a powerful industrial state.
No to a separate world
In addition, he believes that the Russians will not agree to a separate peace under any circumstances. After all, they are not just waging a war for liberation. In the form of a war of liberation they continue the revolution. “Too vivid to forget are the memories of the sacrifices that people made for every machine, every locomotive, every brick for the construction of new factories... Butter, cheese, eggs, white bread, caviar, fish, which were supposed to there are them and their children; the textiles and leather from which clothes and shoes were to be made for them and their children were sent abroad... to obtain the currency that was used to pay for foreign cars and foreign services... Indeed, Russia is waging a nationalist war; the peasant, as always, fights for his home and his land. But today's Russian nationalism rests on the idea and practice of Soviet or collectivized control over the "means of production and distribution" while Japanese nationalism rests on the idea of veneration of the Emperor."
Directory
The somewhat emotional judgments of the author Hindus are surprisingly confirmed by the book of the author Yugov, “The Russian Economic Front in Peace and Wartime.” Not such a friend of the Russian revolution as the author Hindus, the economist Yugov is a former employee of the USSR State Planning Committee, who now prefers to live in the USA. His book on Russia is much more difficult to read than the book by the author Hindus, and contains more facts. It does not justify the suffering, death and oppression that Russia had to pay for its new economic and military power.
He hopes that one of the results of the war for Russia will be a turn towards democracy - the only system under which, in his opinion, economic planning can really work. But the author Yugov agrees with the author Hindus in his assessment of why the Russians fight so fiercely, and it is not a matter of “geographical, everyday variety” of patriotism.
“The workers of Russia,” he says, “are fighting against a return to the private economy, against a return to the very bottom of the social pyramid... The peasants are persistently and actively fighting Hitler, because Hitler would return the old landowners or create new ones according to the Prussian model. Numerous nationalities of the Soviet Union are fighting because they know that Hitler is destroying all opportunities for their development...”
“And finally, all citizens of the Soviet Union go to the front to fight resolutely until victory, because they want to defend those undoubtedly magnificent - although inadequately and insufficiently implemented - revolutionary achievements in the field of labor, culture, science and art.. There are many claims and demands from workers, peasants, various nationalities and all citizens of the Soviet Union against the dictatorial regime of Stalin, and the struggle for these demands will not stop for a day. But at present, for the people, the most important task is to protect their country from an enemy who personifies social, political and national reaction.”
"Time", USA
Article 5. The Russians come for theirs. Sevastopol - the prototype of Victory
Author - Oleg Bibikov
Miraculously, the day of the liberation of Sevastopol coincides with the day Great Victory. In the May waters of the Sevastopol bays, to this day we can see the reflection of the fiery Berlin sky and the Victory Banner in it.
Undoubtedly, in the solar ripples of those waters one can discern the reflection of other victories to come.
“No name in Russia is pronounced with more reverence than Sevastopol” - these words belong not to a Russian patriot, but to a fierce enemy, and they are not pronounced with the intonation that suits our hearts.
Colonel General Karl Allmendinger, appointed on May 1, 1944, commander of the 17th German Army, which repelled the offensive operation of the Soviet troops, addressing the army, said: “I received an order to defend every inch of the Sevastopol bridgehead. You understand its meaning. Not a single name in Russia is pronounced with more reverence than Sevastopol... I demand that everyone defend in the full sense of the word, that no one retreat, that they hold every trench, every crater, every trench... The bridgehead is heavily equipped in engineering throughout its entire depth respect, and the enemy, wherever he appears, will become entangled in the network of our defensive structures. But none of us should even think about retreating to these positions located in the depths. The 17th Army in Sevastopol is supported by powerful air and sea forces. The Fuhrer gives us enough ammunition, aircraft, weapons and reinforcements. The honor of the army depends on every meter of the assigned territory. Germany expects us to do our duty."
Hitler ordered to hold Sevastopol at any cost. In fact, this is an order - not a step back.
In a sense, history repeated itself in a mirror image.
Two and a half years earlier, on November 10, 1941, an order was issued by the commander of the Black Sea Fleet F.S. Oktyabrsky, addressed to the troops of the Sevastopol defensive region: “The glorious Black Sea Fleet and the fighting Primorsky Army are entrusted with the defense of the famous historical Sevastopol... We are obliged to turn Sevastopol into an impregnable fortress and, on the approaches to the city, destroy more than one division of presumptuous fascist scoundrels... We have thousands of wonderful fighters, a powerful The Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol coastal defense, glorious aviation. Together with us, the battle-hardened Primorsky Army... All this gives us complete confidence that the enemy will not pass, will break his skull against our strength, our might..."
Our army has returned.
Then, in May 1944, Bismarck's long-standing observation was once again confirmed: do not expect that once you take advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever.
Russians always return their...
In November 1943, Soviet troops successfully carried out the Lower Dnieper operation and blocked Crimea. The 17th Army was then commanded by Colonel General Erwin Gustav Jäneke. The liberation of Crimea became possible in the spring of 1944. The start of the operation was scheduled for April 8.
It was the eve of Holy Week...
For most contemporaries, the names of fronts, armies, unit numbers, names of generals, and even marshals, no longer say anything or almost nothing.
It happened like in a song. Victory is one for all. But let's remember.
The liberation of Crimea was entrusted to the 4th Ukrainian Front under the command of Army General F.I. Tolbukhin, a separate Primorsky Army under the command of Army General A.I. Eremenko, to the Black Sea Fleet under the command of Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky and the Azov military flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral S.G. Gorshkova.
Let us remember that the 4th Ukrainian Front included: the 51st Army (commanded by Lieutenant General Y.G. Kreiser), the 2nd Guards Army (commanded by Lieutenant General G.F. Zakharov), the 19th Tank Corps ( Commander Lieutenant General I.D. Vasiliev; he will be seriously wounded and on April 11 he will be replaced by Colonel I.A. Potseluev), 8th Air Army (commander Colonel General of Aviation, renowned ace T.T. Khryukin).
Every name is a significant name. Everyone has years of war behind them. Others began their battle with the Germans back in 1914-1918. Others fought in Spain, in China, Khryukin had a sunken Japanese battleship to his credit...
On the Soviet side, 470 thousand people, about 6 thousand guns and mortars, 559 tanks and self-propelled guns, and 1,250 aircraft were involved in the Crimean operation.
The 17th Army included 5 German and 7 Romanian divisions - a total of about 200 thousand people, 3,600 guns and mortars, 215 tanks and assault guns, 148 aircraft.
On the German side there was a powerful network of defensive structures, which had to be torn to shreds.
A big victory is made up of tiny victories.
The chronicles of the war contain the names of privates, officers and generals. Chronicles of the war allow us to see the Crimea of that spring with cinematic clarity. It was a blissful spring, everything that could bloom, everything else sparkled with greenery, everything dreamed of living forever. Russian tanks of the 19th Tank Corps had to bring the infantry into the operational space and break into the defense. Someone had to go first, lead the first tank, the first tank battalion into the attack and almost certainly die.
The chronicles tell about the day of April 11, 1944: “The introduction of the main forces of the 19th Corps into the breakthrough was ensured by the lead tank battalion of Major I.N. Mashkarin from the 101st Tank Brigade. Leading the attackers, I.N. Mashkarin not only controlled the battle of his units. He personally destroyed six cannons, four machine gun emplacements, two mortars, dozens of Nazi soldiers and officers...”
The brave battalion commander died that day.
He was 22 years old, he had already participated in 140 battles, defended Ukraine, fought at Rzhev and Orel... After the Victory, he would be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). The battalion commander, who broke the defense of Crimea in the Dzhankoy direction, was buried in Simferopol in Victory Square, in a mass grave...
An armada of Soviet tanks burst into operational space. On the same day, Dzhankoy was also released.
Simultaneously with the actions of the 4th Ukrainian Front, the Separate Primorsky Army also went on the offensive in the Kerch direction. Its actions were supported by aviation of the 4th Air Army and the Black Sea Fleet.
On the same day, partisans captured the city of Stary Krym. In response, the Germans retreating from Kerch carried out an army punitive operation, killing 584 people, shooting everyone who caught their eye.
Simferopol was cleared of the enemy on Thursday, April 13. Moscow saluted the troops who liberated the capital of Crimea.
On the same day, our fathers and grandfathers liberated the famous resort cities - Feodosia in the east, Yevpatoria in the west. On April 14, Good Friday, Bakhchisarai was liberated, and therefore the Assumption Monastery, where many defenders of Sevastopol who died in the Crimean War of 1854–1856 were buried. On the same day, Sudak and Alushta were liberated.
Our troops swept through Yalta and Alupka like hurricanes. On April 15, Soviet tank crews reached the outer defensive line of Sevastopol. On the same day, the Primorsky Army approached Sevastopol from Yalta...
And this situation was like a mirror reflection of the autumn of 1941. Our troops, preparing for the assault on Sevastopol, stood in the same positions where the Germans and Romanians were at the end of October 1941. The Germans could not take Sevastopol for 8 months and, as Admiral Oktyabrsky predicted, they smashed their skull on Sevastopol.
Russian troops liberated their holy city in less than a month. The entire Crimean operation took 35 days. The actual assault on the Sevastopol fortified area took 8 days, and the city itself was taken in 58 hours.
To capture Sevastopol, which could not be liberated immediately, all our armies were united under one command. On April 16, the Primorsky Army became part of the 4th Ukrainian Front. General K.S. was appointed the new commander of the Primorsky Army. Miller. (Eremenko was transferred to the command of the 2nd Baltic Front.)
Changes also occurred in the enemy camp.
General Jenecke was removed on the eve of the decisive assault. It seemed advisable to him to leave Sevastopol without a fight. Jenecke had already survived the Stalingrad cauldron. Let us remember that in the army of F. Paulus he commanded an army corps. In the Stalingrad cauldron, Jeneke survived only thanks to his dexterity: he faked a serious injury from shrapnel and was evacuated. Yeneke also managed to evade the Sevastopol cauldron. He did not see any point in defending Crimea under the blockade. Hitler thought differently. The next unifier of Europe believed that after the loss of Crimea, Romania and Bulgaria would want to leave the Nazi bloc. On May 1, Hitler deposed Jenecke. General K. Allmendinger was appointed commander-in-chief of the 17th Army.
From Sunday 16 April to 30 April, Soviet forces made repeated attempts to breach the defences; achieved only partial success.
The general assault on Sevastopol began on May 5 at noon. After a powerful two-hour artillery and aviation preparation, the 2nd Guards Army under the command of Lieutenant General G.F. Zakharova fell from the Mekenzi Mountains to the North Side area. Zakharov’s army had to enter Sevastopol, crossing the Northern Bay.
The troops of the Primorsky and 51st armies, after an hour and a half of artillery and air preparation, went on the offensive on May 7 at 10:30 am. The Primorsky Army operated in the main direction of Sapun Gora - Karan (village of Flotskoye). East of Inkerman and the Fedyukhin Heights, the attack on Sapun Mountain (this is the key to the city) was led by the 51st Army... Soviet soldiers had to break through a multi-tiered fortification system...
Hundreds of bombers of the Hero of the Soviet Union, General Timofey Timofeevich Khryukin, were irreplaceable.
By the end of May 7, Sapun Mountain became ours. Assault red flags were raised to the summit by private G.I. Evglevsky, I.K. Yatsunenko, Corporal V.I. Drobyazko, Sergeant A.A. Kurbatov... Sapun Mountain is the forerunner of the Reichstag.
The remnants of the 17th Army, several tens of thousands of Germans, Romanians and traitors to their homeland, gathered at Cape Chersonesos, hoping for evacuation.
In a certain sense, the situation of 1941 was repeated, repeated in a mirror image.
On May 12, the entire Chersonesos peninsula was liberated. The Crimean operation is completed. The peninsula presented a monstrous picture: the skeletons of hundreds of houses, ruins, fires, mountains of human corpses, mangled equipment - tanks, planes, guns...
A captured German officer testifies: “...we were constantly receiving reinforcements. However, the Russians broke through the defenses and occupied Sevastopol. Then the command gave a clearly belated order - to hold powerful positions on Chersonesos, and in the meantime try to evacuate the remnants of the defeated troops from the Crimea. Up to 30,000 soldiers have accumulated in our area. Of these, it was hardly possible to remove more than one thousand. On the tenth of May I saw four ships enter Kamyshevaya Bay, but only two came out. Two other transports were sunk by Russian aircraft. Since then I have not seen any more ships. Meanwhile, the situation became more and more critical... the soldiers were already demoralized. Everyone fled to the sea in the hope that, perhaps, at the last minute some ships would appear... Everything was mixed up, and chaos reigned all around... It was a complete disaster for the German troops in the Crimea.”
On May 10, at one in the morning (at one in the morning!) Moscow saluted the liberators of the city with 24 salvos from 342 guns.
It was a victory.
This was a harbinger of the Great Victory.
The Pravda newspaper wrote: “Hello, dear Sevastopol! Favorite city of the Soviet people, hero city, hero city! The whole country joyfully greets you!” "Hello, dear Sevastopol!" - the whole country repeated then.
"Strategic Culture Foundation"
S A M A R Y N K A
http://gidepark.ru/user/kler16/content/1387278
www.odnako.org
http://www.odnako.org/blogs/show_19226/
Author: Boris Yulin
I think everyone knows that on June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began.
But when reminded of this event on TV, you usually hear about a “preventive strike”, “Stalin is no less to blame for the war than Hitler”, “why did we get involved in this unnecessary war”, “Stalin was an ally of Hitler” and other vile nonsense.
Therefore, I consider it necessary to once again briefly recall the facts, because the flow of Artistic Truth, that is, vile nonsense, does not stop.
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked us without declaring war. She attacked deliberately, after long and careful preparation. Attacked by superior forces.
That is, it was blatant, undisguised and unmotivated aggression. Hitler made no demands or claims. He did not urgently try to scrape out troops from anywhere for a “preemptive strike” - he simply attacked. That is, he staged an act of obvious aggression.
On the contrary, we had no intention of attacking. We did not carry out or even begin mobilization, no orders were given for an offensive or preparation for it. We fulfilled the terms of the non-aggression pact.
That is, we are a victim of aggression, without any options.
The non-aggression pact is not an alliance treaty. So the USSR was never(!) an ally of Nazi Germany.
The Non-Aggression Pact is just that, a Non-Aggression Pact, no less, but no more. It did not give Germany the opportunity to use our territory for military operations, and did not lead to the use of our armed forces in hostilities with Germany’s opponents.
So all the talk about the alliance of Stalin and Hitler is either a lie or nonsense.
Stalin fulfilled the terms of the treaty and did not attack - Hitler violated the terms of the treaty and attacked.
Hitler attacked without making any claims or conditions, without giving the opportunity to resolve everything peacefully, so the USSR had no choice whether to enter the war or not. The war was imposed on the USSR without asking consent. And Stalin had no choice but to fight.
And it was impossible to resolve the “contradictions” between the USSR and Germany. After all, the Germans did not seek to seize the disputed territory or change the terms of the peace agreements in their favor.
The goal of the Nazis was the destruction of the USSR and genocide of the Soviet people. It just so happened that communist ideology, in principle, did not suit the Nazis. And it just so happened that in a place that represented “necessary living space” and intended for the harmonious settlement of the German nation, some Slavs brazenly lived. And all this was clearly voiced by Hitler.
That is, the war was not about redrawing treaties and border lands, but about the destruction of the Soviet people. And the choice was simple - die, disappear from the map of the Earth, or fight and survive.
Was Stalin trying to avoid this day and this choice? Yes! Had tried.
The USSR made every effort to prevent war. Tried to stop the division of Czechoslovakia, tried to create a system of collective security. But the contractual process is complicated because it requires the consent of all contracting parties, and not just one of them. And when it turned out to be impossible to stop the aggressor at the beginning of the path and save all of Europe from war, Stalin began to try to save his country from war. Withhold from war at least until readiness for defense is achieved. But we managed to win only two years.
So on June 22, 1941, the might of the strongest army and one of the strongest economies in the world fell upon us without a declaration of war. And this power had the goal of destroying our country and our people. No one was going to negotiate with us - only destroy us.
On June 22, our country and our people accepted a battle that they did not want, although they were preparing for it. And they endured this terrible, difficult battle, breaking the back of the Nazi beast. And they received the right to live and the right to remain themselves.
Everyone remembers what the result of the negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama looked like. The leaders of the two countries could not look each other in the eye. The moment of truth has arrived. Details of the meeting between the leaders of the two countries are beginning to leak out and many previously unclear things are becoming clear. Why both presidents didn't have a face. Today we can say with confidence that today the two powers are closer than ever to fatal actions.
Everything turned out to be very simple. Realizing the impossibility of pushing through a resolution on Syria necessary for war in the UN Security Council, Washington is relying on exerting pressure or striking Iran. In the end, it is not Syria that interests Washington, but Iran. The United States is transferring troops to Kuwait, from here to the border with Iran is only 80 kilometers. The very troops that Obama promised to withdraw from Afghanistan will now be redeployed to Kuwait. The first 15 thousand military personnel have already received orders to redeploy.
There is a travel mood in the editorial offices of Western media. Everything is moving towards a serious deterioration of the situation.
President Vladimir Putin said quite a lot in his own words, saying that he would not go into intelligence with anyone, joking that he “hasn’t served for a long time.”
The world did not understand his joke, but was wary.
In this joke, as in all others, there is some truth, sometimes a very large part. In general, it was necessary to listen carefully to what the Russian president was saying.
It seems that the US Marines are quite seriously planning to act against the Russian paratroopers.
Just thinking about what could happen makes your body break out in a cold sweat. This location is too dangerous due to its proximity ground forces almost guaranteed to end in a collision.
This first step - the redeployment of 15 thousand marines to Kuwait, may not be the most obvious intention, because in the end with such forces you will not start a war, but if this batch of troops is followed by the next one, it will be possible to speak with confidence about the impending threat.
For now, in fact, this redeployment plays more into the hands of Russia than of America. Of course, now oil is creeping up and the risks are becoming higher. Russia will be the main beneficiary in this show, because it is always good to be a seller when the price of your product is high, and, of course, it is unprofitable to buy oil when you yourself have “raised” the price for it.
In this case, the US budget will bear additional burdens.
Another truth in this story is that neither president will be able to back down in this confrontation. If Obama backs down, he will bury his election because Americans don't like weaklings (who does?).
Therefore, Obama will have to come up with something to remain with a “handsome face.”
Putin cannot back down either. In addition to geopolitical interests, there is an expectation among Russian citizens that their president will not give up this time, as he has never given up before. It was not for nothing that they voted for him and entrusted him with building a strong Russia.
Putin cannot deceive the expectations of his citizens, he has indeed never deceived those who voted for him, and it seems that this time he is also going to demonstrate his very advanced qualities as a leader, perhaps even a crisis manager.
The matter could perhaps have been resolved peacefully if the presidents of the two countries had announced some new idea, program, or joint project of the two states. In this case, no one would dare to reproach their president, because two countries would benefit from this, and the whole world would become safer.
Both presidents would benefit here. But such a project still needs to be invented. Judging by the faces of Obama and Putin, there is no such project.
But there are ever-increasing disagreements.
In this case, Obama's career is in big doubt, Putin's career is not in danger. Putin has already passed the elections, but Obama still has it ahead.
However, as always in such cases, you need to look at the details. They are sometimes quite eloquent.
Nuclear-powered ships make their first moves
According to some reports, nuclear-powered ships of the two most powerful fleets - the Northern and Pacific - may already in the coming days receive a combat mission to take up a strike position in neutral waters off the US mainland. This has happened before, when in 2009 two nuclear-powered missile carriers surfaced in different places off the east coast of the United States. This was done completely deliberately, in order to indicate their presence.
The report of an American journalist, a specialist in military issues, looks strange. Then he said that these boats are not scary because they do not have intercontinental missiles. It remains only to understand why a boat that is in the 200s nautical miles from shore intercontinental ballistic missiles, if its standard P-39s cover a distance of up to 1,500 nautical miles.
The R-39 solid-fuel missiles with three-stage propulsion engines used by the D-19 complex are the largest submarine-launched missiles with 10 multiple nuclear warheads weighing 100 kilograms each. Even one such missile can lead to a global catastrophe for an entire country; there are 20 units on board the Project 941 Akula submarine that surfaced in 2009. Considering that there were two boats, the optimistic mood of the American commentator of this event is simply incomprehensible.
Where is Georgia and where is Georgia
The question may arise: why talk now about what happened in 2009? I think there are parallels here. On August 5, 2009, when the military events of the 08/08/08 war were still fresh in memory, serious pressure was put on Russia. The orders of the Russian authorities to withdraw from Abkhazia and South Ossetia were dictated almost as an order. Then all events revolved around Georgia. On July 14, 2009, the US Navy destroyer Stout entered Georgian territorial waters. Of course, this is putting pressure on the Russians. It was then, half a month later, that two boats surfaced off the coast of North America.
If one of them was located near Greenland, then the second surfaced right under the nose of the largest naval base. The Norfolk naval base is located only 250 miles northwest of the site of the ascent, but it may be indicative that the boat surfaced closer to the coastline of the state of Georgia (this is the name of the former Georgian SSR, now Georgia, in the English manner.) That is, in some special way these two events may intersect. You sent a ship to us in Georgia (Georgia), so get our submarine from your Georgia.
This looks like some kind of hellish joke that would make no one laugh. With this comparison of events, the author wants to show that there is no need to think that Putin has no choice and must concede in Syria, where the US Navy group is tens of times more representative than the Russian Navy in Tartus, even after the arrival of Russian paratroopers there.
Today the war may be such that having defeated Russia in Syria, you can again be surprised off the coast of Georgia. The Pentagon understands this well. Americans are able to understand well the meaning of what is said, and even better they understand the meaning of what is shown.
Thus, one should not expect Putin to back down from his plans in Syria. The only thing that can force Putin to take a step back is truly normal human relations.
Naive Russians still believe in friendship. The author of these lines is already tired of repeating to his American colleagues and writing in his articles: Russians in general are best at making friends and fighting. Whatever the Russian president chooses to choose from, it will always be done “from the heart and on a grand scale.”
http://gidepark.ru/community/8/content/1387294
“Democratic” America surpassed fascist Germany...
Olga Olgina, with whom I am constantly in contact in Hydepark, published an article by Sergei Chernyakhovsky, whom I know from honest, relevant publications.
I read it and thought...
June 22, 1941. I just published an article on my blogs by my friend Sergei Filatov, “Why was the German attack on the USSR called “treacherous”?” And in one comment, an anonymous blogger, no data, I looked into his personal account - he writes to me (I keep his spelling):
“On June 22, 1941, at 4:00 am, Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop handed the Soviet Ambassador in Berlin Dekanozov a note declaring war. Officially, the formalities have been completed."
This anonymous person is unhappy that we Russians call Germany’s attack on our homeland treacherous.
And then I caught myself...
My parents survived June 22, 1941. My father, a colonel, a former cavalryman, was then in Monino. At the aviation school. As they said then, from “horse to engine!” We were preparing personnel for aviation... Dad and Mom experienced the first bombings... and then.... Four terrible years of war!
I experienced something else - March 19, 2011. When the NATO alliance began to bomb the Libyan Jamahiriya.
Why am I saying this?
“Foreign Minister Ribbentrop handed the Soviet ambassador in Berlin Dekanozov a note declaring war. Officially, the formalities have been completed."
Was a note handed to the ambassador of the Libyan Jamahiriya in some capital of some democratic country of the NATO alliance?
Have formalities been officially completed?
There is only one answer - no!
There were no notes, memoranda, letters, there were no formalities.
It turns out that this was a new, humane, democratic war of the humane, democratic West against a sovereign, Arab, African state.
To anyone who starts hinting to me about UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which supposedly gave the NATO alliance the right to this war, I will say - and I will be supported by all international lawyers who still have a conscience: make a tube out of the paper of this resolution and insert it in one place . This resolution did not give anyone any right in any letter. Everything was invented, composed, distributed, and therefore cast in bronze! Steadfast like the Statue of Liberty!
I really like one image of her that I found on the Internet: the statue, unable to withstand the mockery of America and its partners against freedom and human rights, covers its face with its hands. She's ashamed!
Why is it embarrassing?
Because there was no declaration of war. And no one can talk about the treachery of the West in relation to the Jamahiriya and personally to its leader, with whom every Western politician - and thousands of photographs confirm this - tried to kiss personally.
Kiss of Judas!
Now each of us knows what it is!
I kissed you - and now anything is possible!
No notes or formalities!
And now I come to the most important thing: if the West is chattering at every corner that it is ready to strike Syria, then, forgive me, will the formalities be observed? Will notes declaring war be delivered IN ADVANCE to Syrian ambassadors in Western capitals?
Oh, there are no ambassadors anymore?
And there is no one to give it to?
What a shame!
It turns out that the smart, cunning West has surpassed Hitler. Now you can attack, bomb, kill, commit any atrocities WITHOUT DECLARING WAR!
And no treachery!
Now read Chernyakhovsky’s article, which Olgina published.
"Democratic" America surpassed Nazi Germany...
Olga Olgina:
Sergei Chernyakhovsky:
Sergei Filatov:
http://gidepark.ru/community/2042/content/1386870
Anonymous blogger:
http://gidepark.ru/user/4007776763/info
The situation in the world is now worse than it was in 1938-1939. Only Russia can stop the war
On June 22 we remember the tragedy. We mourn the dead. We are proud of those who took the blow and responded to it, as well as the fact that, having received this terrible blow, the people gathered their strength and crushed the one who inflicted it. But all this is turned to the past. And society has long forgotten the thesis that kept the world from war for 50 years - “The forty-first year should not be repeated,” and it was kept not by repetition, but by practical implementation.
Sometimes even quite pro-Soviet-oriented people and political figures (not to mention those who consider themselves subjects of other countries) express skepticism about the overload of the USSR economy with military expenditures, and sneer at the “Ustinov Doctrine” - “The USSR must be ready to wage a simultaneous war with any two other powers” (meaning the USA and China) and claim that it was the adherence to this doctrine that undermined the economy of the USSR.
Whether it was torn or not is a big question, because until 1991, in the vast majority of industries, output was growing. But why the store shelves turned out to be empty, but were immediately filled with products in just two weeks after it was allowed to arbitrarily increase prices for them - this is another question for other people.
Ustinov actually advocated this approach. But he was not the one who formulated it: in world politics, the status of a great country has long been determined by its ability to wage a simultaneous war with any two other countries. And Ustinov knew why he defended it: because on June 9, 1941, he accepted the post of People's Commissar of Armaments of the USSR and knew what it cost to arm the army when it was already forced to fight an under-armed war. And with all the changes in the title of the position, he remained in it until he became Minister of Defense - until 1976.
Then, at the end of the 80s, it was announced that the USSR’s weapons were no longer needed, that the Cold War was over, and that now no one was threatening us. The Cold War has a very important virtue: it is not “hot”. But as soon as it ended, “hot” wars began in the world, and now in Europe.
However, no one has attacked Russia yet – from among the independent countries and directly. But, firstly, it has already been repeatedly attacked by “small military actors” - on the instructions and with the support of large countries. Secondly, the big ones did not attack mainly because Russia still had the weapons that were created in the USSR, and, with all the decomposition of the army, state and economy, these weapons were enough to repeatedly destroy any of them individually and all together. But after the creation of the American missile defense system, this situation will no longer exist.
Moreover, the current situation in the world is not much better, or rather, no better than the situation that developed both before 1914 and before 1939-41. The conversation that if the USSR (Russia) stops opposing the West, disarms and abandons its socio-economic system, then the threat of world war will disappear and everyone will live in peace and friendship cannot even be considered bewilderment. This is an outright lie aimed at the moral capitulation of the USSR, in particular because most wars in history were wars not between countries with different socio-political systems, but between countries with a homogeneous system. In 1914, England and France were not much different from Germany and Austria-Hungary, and monarchical Russia fought on the side not of the latter monarchies, but of the British and French democracies.
In the 30s, the leader of fascist Italy, Benito Mussolini, was one of the first to call for the creation of a system of European collective security to repel possible Hitlerite aggression, and he agreed to an alliance with the Reich only when he saw that England and France were refusing to create such a system. And the Second World War began not with a war between capitalist countries and the socialist USSR, but with conflicts and war between capitalist countries. And the immediate cause was the war between two not just capitalist, but fascist countries - Germany and Poland.
To believe that there cannot be a war between the USA and Russia because both of them today, let’s be careful, are “non-socialist”, is simply being captive of the aberrations of consciousness. By 1939, Hitler had conflicts not so much with the USSR as with countries socially similar to him, and these conflicts were fewer than those in which the United States is already involved today.
Hitler then sent troops into the demilitarized Rhine Zone, which, however, was located on the territory of Germany itself. He carried out the Anschluss of Austria, formally - peacefully on the basis of the will of Austria itself. With the consent of the Western powers, he seized the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, and then captured Czechoslovakia itself. And he participated on the side of Franco in the Spanish Civil War. There are four conflicts in total, one of which is actually armed. And everyone recognized him as the aggressor and said that war was on the doorstep.
USA and NATO today:
1. Twice they carried out aggression against Yugoslavia, dismembered it into parts, seized part of its territory and destroyed it as a single state.
2. Invaded Iraq, overthrew the national government and occupied the country, establishing a puppet regime there.
3. They did the same in Afghanistan.
4. Prepared, organized and unleashed the war of the Saakashvili regime against Russia and took it under open protection after the military defeat.
5. They carried out aggression against Libya, subjected it to barbaric bombings, overthrew the national government, killed the leader of the country, and brought a generally barbaric regime to power.
6. Untied civil war in Syria, they are practically participating in it on the side of their satellites, preparing military aggression against the country.
7. Threatening war against sovereign Iran.
8. Overthrew national governments in Tunisia and Egypt.
9. They overthrew the national government in Georgia and installed a puppet dictatorial regime there, and in fact occupied the country. Up to the deprivation of her right to speak native language: now the main requirement in Georgia when applying for civil service and when receiving a diploma higher education– Fluency in the US language.
10. Partially accomplished the same thing or tried to do it in Serbia and Ukraine.
A total of 13 acts of aggression, 6 of which were direct military interventions. Against four, including one armed, Hitler had by 1941. The words pronounced are different - the actions are similar. Yes, the United States can say that in Afghanistan it acted in self-defense, but Hitler could also say that in the Rhineland he acted in defense of German sovereignty.
It seems absurd to compare the democratic United States with fascist Germany, but this does not make it any easier for the Libyans, Iraqis, Serbs and Syrians killed by the Americans. In terms of the scale and number of acts of aggression, the United States has long surpassed Hitler's Germany in the pre-war era. Only Hitler, paradoxically, was much more honest: he sent his soldiers into battle, sacrificing their lives for him. The United States basically sends its mercenaries, and they themselves strike from almost around the corner, killing the enemy from planes from a safe position.
The United States, as a result of its geopolitical offensive, committed three times more acts of aggression and unleashed six times more military acts of aggression than Hitler did in the pre-war period. And the point in this case is not which of them is worse (although Hitler looks almost like a moderate politician against the backdrop of non-stop US wars in recent years), but that the situation in the world is worse than it was in 1938-39 . The leading and hegemony-seeking country carried out more aggression than a similar country by 1939. Acts of Hitler's aggression were relatively local and concerned mainly adjacent territories. US acts of aggression are widespread throughout the world.
In the 1930s, there were several relatively equal centers of power in the world and Europe, which, with a successful combination of circumstances, could prevent aggression and stop Hitler. Today there is one center of power striving for hegemony and many times superior in its military potential to almost all other participants in world political life.
The danger of a new world war is greater today than in the second half of the 1930s. The only factor that makes it unrealistic for now is Russia’s deterrent capabilities. Not the other nuclear powers (their potential for this is insufficient), but Russia. And this factor will disappear in a few years, when the American missile defense system is created.
Maybe war is inevitable. Maybe she won't exist. But it will not happen only if Russia is ready for it. The whole situation is developing too much like the beginning of the twentieth century and the 1930s. The number of military conflicts involving leading countries of the world is growing. The world is heading towards war.
Russia has no other choice: it must prepare for it. Transfer the economy to a war footing. Look for allies. Re-equip the army. Destroy enemy agents and fifth column.
June 22, 1941 really should not happen again.
Here is an article by Sergei Chernyakhovsky. Let me add: of course, it should not happen again. But if it happens again, then the first blows, vile, treacherous, and there is no other way to call them, will fall on peaceful Syrian cities and villages...
How it happened to the cities and villages of the Soviet Union.
June 22, 1941...
http://gidepark.ru/community/8/content/1386964
For the first time, the events of the first day of the war are told directly at the sites of the main hostilities. The film contains a lot of new information unknown to the viewer. For example, that the first Soviet city was recaptured from the Germans on June 23, 1941! About the fierce battles in the Vladimir-Volynsky region, about the feat of the garrisons of Soviet fortified areas, about the fact that the Soviet Air Force was not destroyed, as the almost official myth says, as well as about other little-known pages of the war.
Get up, huge country,
Stand up for mortal combat
With fascist dark power,
With the damned horde!
On the fifth day of the war, the whole country sang this song with lyrics by Lebedev-Kumach and music by Aleksandrov.
And the war began at dawn on June 22, 1941. Fascist Germany treacherously, without declaring war, attacked the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Its aircraft carried out massive attacks on airfields, railway junctions, naval bases, military bases and many cities to a depth of 250-300 km from the border.
Here it is necessary to remember that in 1941 the Soviet Union was going to celebrate the 24th anniversary of the Great October Revolution.
Over these 24 years, our country has achieved a lot. Automobile factories were built in Moscow, Gorky, and Yaroslavl. Tractor factories appeared in Leningrad, Stalingrad, Kharkov, and Chelyabinsk. All of them could make tanks. Our aviation set world records for flight range. The Soviet state could resist any other state, but it was difficult for us to fight with all of Europe.
Nazi Germany and its satellites concentrated large contingents of troops against the Soviet Union - 190 divisions (including 19 tank and 14 motorized) and a large amount of military equipment: about 4,300 tanks and assault guns, 47.2 thousand guns and mortars, 4,980 combat aircraft and over 190 warships. And all this force was thrown at our country. From the ice of the Arctic to the Black Sea, the war burned with fire, destroyed cities and burned villages, and killed civilians.
Under Plan Barbarossa, Germany wanted to defeat the Soviet Union in six weeks. At the same time, the main forces of the Red Army were supposed to be destroyed, preventing their withdrawal into the depths of the country. But from the very beginning of the war, the plans of the fascist command were thwarted by the courage and heroism of our army and the entire people.
The first to receive the enemy's blow were the border troops and divisions located near the border. We had more than 500 border outposts along our western border. Hitler's command allocated no more than 30 minutes to destroy the outpost. But the outposts fought for days and weeks, and the Brest Fortress, located on the border at the confluence of the Mukhavets River and the Bug River, fought with the enemies for more than a month. All this time, the defenders of the Brest Fortress pinned down an entire fascist German division. Most of the defenders of the fortress fell in battle, some made their way to the partisans, and some of the seriously wounded and exhausted were captured. The defense of the Brest Fortress is a vivid example of the patriotism and mass heroism of Soviet soldiers. Representatives of 30 nations and nationalities of the Soviet Union fought among the defenders of the Brest Fortress.
But, despite heroic resistance, the covering troops were unable to detain the enemy in the border zone. In order to preserve strength, Soviet troops were forced to retreat to new lines.
Nazi troops in a short time advanced 400-450 km in the northwestern direction, 450-600 km in the western direction, 300-350 km in the southwestern direction, captured the territory of Lithuania, Latvia, part of Estonia, a significant part of Ukraine, almost all of Belarus, Moldova, invaded the western regions of the Russian Federation, reached the distant approaches to Leningrad, and threatened Smolensk and Kyiv. A mortal danger loomed over the Soviet Union.
Based on the current situation, the Soviet command at the end of June decided to switch to strategic defense on the entire Soviet-German front. The troops of the first strategic echelon were given the task of preparing a system of echeloned defensive stripes and lines in the directions of the enemy’s main attacks, relying on which, through persistent and active counteraction, to undermine the offensive power of the enemy, stop him and gain time to prepare a counter-offensive.
The treacherous attack of Nazi Germany aroused the anger and indignation of the Soviet people. In a single impulse, he rose to defend his homeland. At rallies that spread throughout the country, Soviet people branded the fascist barbarians with shame and vowed to brutally punish the invaders who broke in. Military registration and enlistment offices were stormed by thousands of boys and girls, men and women - communists, Komsomol members and non-party members. They demanded immediate dispatch to the front, submitted an application with a request to be sent behind enemy lines, to partisan detachments.
The misfortune that befell the Fatherland united the entire people like never before. The entire people, the entire huge country rose up to fight to the death for a holy and just cause. Each day passed, both at the front and in the rear, was measured by the answer to the question: What did you do for the front, for victory? The efforts of the entire people - soldiers, workers, collective farmers, intelligentsia, were subordinated to one goal - to defend the Motherland from the fascist barbarians. And for this he spared neither his strength nor his life.
The word patriotism has acquired a special meaning and meaning. It required no translations or explanations. Love for the Motherland knocked in the heart of every Soviet person: whether he was standing in a workshop for five days at a machine or going to ram an enemy plane, whether he was donating his personal savings to the defense fund or blood for wounded soldiers.
Already in the first days and weeks of the war, thousands of exploits and boundless self-sacrifice of the bravest Soviet soldiers were written in its chronicles. At that time, the names of most of these courageous people who fought to the last bullet, to the last drop of blood were not yet known.
The results of these days and weeks, the most difficult for the Soviet people and their soldiers, already testified to the first failures in the implementation of Hitler’s plans for a “lightning war.”
The enemy failed to destroy the main forces of the Soviet Army in border battles, as he had hoped. The resistance of our troops grew every day. And deep in the rear, reserves for the front were being prepared at an accelerated pace. It was incredibly difficult to form, arm and train new regiments and divisions of the Soviet Army, but every day an increasingly powerful stream of fresh reserves went to the front. It significantly outnumbered the enemy's reserves, which were sent to the front to make up for the losses they had suffered.
Hundreds of industrial enterprises were on wheels at that time - they were relocated from threatened areas to the deep rear of the country. It took time to install equipment and put it into operation at new locations. The most active part of the working class and specialists of operating enterprises joined the ranks of the Soviet Army. Only a small part of qualified workers and specialists remained at the enterprises, without whom it was impossible to begin mass production of military products. Hundreds of thousands of women and teenagers replaced those who went to the front.
But these difficulties were overcome in the shortest possible time. The production of weapons, military equipment, ammunition and various equipment for the defenders of the Motherland increased every day.
Socialist agricultural workers also showed massive labor heroism. Collective and state farms donated a huge number of tractors and vehicles to equip troop reserves. There are even fewer men left in this sector of the economy than in industry and transport. And in the countryside, women and teenagers became the decisive force. It was they who had to harvest the crops from the vast sown areas. Mostly removed by hand. In front-line areas, harvesting was often carried out under enemy fire. And, nevertheless, with the help of hundreds of thousands of townspeople, students and schoolchildren, agricultural workers also coped with the most important task for the front and the whole country - they put into state bins such an amount of food, without which there would have been a successful war.
Throughout its course, the war showed that the courage and heroism of the Soviet people turned out to be an invincible force that was able to prevent a grave crime against humanity.
.jpg)
