THIS DAY WE APPROVED AS WE COULD...

Great Patriotic War in dates and memoirs of veterans

Yuzhnoportovy district

1943 August 13 The Donbass offensive operation of the Southwestern and Southern Fronts began and continued until September 22. August 17th. The troops of the Steppe Front began fighting on the northern outskirts of Kharkov. August 23. The Belgorod-Kharkov operation ended. The troops of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts advanced 140 km to the south and south-west and liberated Kharkov. August 25 - December 22. Battle for the Dnieper troops of the Central, Voronezh, Steppe, South-Western and Southern fronts. It included the Chernigov-Pripyat, Gomel-Rechitsa, Donbass, Dnieper airborne, Kyiv offensive and defensive, Melitopol and Zaporozhye operations. 25-th of August. The Chernigov-Pripyat offensive operation began. August 31. The troops of the Central Front entered the borders of northern Ukraine. September 18th. More than 700 settlements have been liberated in the Kiev, Zaporozhye, Melitopol, Dnepropetrovsk, Poltava, Krasnograd, Smolensk, Roslavl directions. September 19th. Parts of the Central Front crossed the Desna. More than 1,200 settlements have been liberated in the Kiev, Zaporozhye, Melitopol, Poltava, and Bryansk directions. September 21. Chernihiv is liberated. September 22nd. Parts of the 13th Army crossed the Dnieper. 23 September. The troops of the Steppe Front crossed the Vorskla River and liberated Poltava. September 24th. The Dnieper airborne operation began (about 10 thousand people). Until October 5, the paratroopers fought behind enemy lines in separate groups. September 25th. The troops of the Steppe and Southwestern Fronts crossed the Dnieper. September 26th. The troops of the Bryansk Front began the liberation of Belarus. The troops of the Voronezh Front crossed the Dnieper. The Melitopol offensive operation began. The left bank of the Dnieper near Kyiv has been completely cleared. September 30th. The Chernigov-Pripyat operation ended, the troops advanced up to 300 km, seized bridgeheads in the Chernobyl area. 2 October. The Smolensk operation ended, the troops advanced 200-250 km westward, defeating 7 enemy divisions, and the liberation of Belarus began. October 3rd. The Bryansk operation ended, the Bryansk industrial region and part of Belarus were liberated. October 6th. The Nevel offensive operation of the troops began Kalinin Front . October 7th. Nevel was liberated, units of the Kalinin Front reached the approaches to Vitebsk. 10 October. The Nevelsk operation ended: the enemy defenses in the Nevel, Velikiye Luki region were broken through and the Dno-Vitebsk railroad connecting the North and Center army groups was cut. The Zaporizhzhya offensive began. The Zaporozhye operation was completed, Zaporozhye was liberated. October 23. Melitopol was liberated, the Germans began to retreat to the Dnieper. the 25th of October. Dnepropetrovsk and Dneprodzerzhinsk were liberated. November 3 - 23. Kyiv offensive operation. November 5. The withdrawal of German troops from Kyiv began. The Melitopol operation was completed, the Crimean enemy grouping was blocked from land. November 6th. Kyiv is liberated. November 7th. The railroad connecting the Kyiv and Krivoy Rog enemy groups was cut. 10th of November. The Gomel-Rechitsa offensive operation of the troops of the Belorussian Front began. 13 - 22 December. Kiev defensive operation of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. November 26th. Gomel is liberated. November 30th. The Gomel-Rechitsa operation was completed, a threat was created to the southern flank of Army Group Center. Fierce fighting troops of the Ukrainian fronts. December 13th. The city of Cherkasy was liberated. 20th of December. The operation to create a strategic foothold on the right bank of the Dnieper has been completed. Dec 22. The Kiev defensive operation was completed, the front was stabilized on the line east of Chernyakhiv - Radomyshl. The battle for the Dnieper ended: a heavy defeat was inflicted on the army groups "South" and "Center", more than 38 thousand settlements were liberated, including 160 cities. December 24, 1943 - April 17, 1944 The offensive of troops in the Right-Bank Ukraine. Included: Zhytomyr-Berdichev, Kirovohrad, Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Rivne-Lutsk, Nikolsko-Krivorozhskaya, Proskurov-Chernivtsi, Uman-Botoshanskaya, Bereznegovato-Snigirevskaya, Odessa and Polessky operations. The Zhytomyr-Berdychiv offensive operation began. The Gorodok operation was completed, the front line was pushed back 60 km. Zhitomir is liberated. January 14, 1944 The Zhytomyr-Berdichev operation ended, the Kiev and Zhytomyr regions, a number of districts of the Vinnitsa and Rivne regions were almost completely liberated, 6 enemy divisions were defeated. January 24 - February 17. Korsun-Shevchenko offensive operation. January 27 - February 11. Rovno-Lutsk offensive operation. February 2. Lutsk and Rivne were liberated. 11 February. The Rovno-Lutsk operation ended, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced 80 km west. February 17. The Korsun-Shevchenko operation was completed, 15 enemy divisions were defeated, including 8 tank divisions. 10th of March. Tank formations cut the Lvov-Odessa railway (the main communication of the southern wing of the enemy troops). March 13. Kherson is liberated. March 15 - April 4. Polissya offensive operation. March 17. The offensive of the Soviet troops on the Right-Bank Ukraine was completed. The liberation of Moldova began. 20th of March. Vinnitsa is liberated. March 26 - April 14. Odessa offensive operation. March 28th. Troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front liberated Nikolaev and crossed the Southern Bug. March 29. Chernivtsi liberated. April, 4. The enemy broke through to the city of Kovel and unblocked it. The Soviet troops, having inflicted a defeat on 12 enemy divisions, stopped the Polessky operation, taking up an enveloping position in relation to Kovel. April 7th. A grouping of German troops (23 divisions, including 10 tank divisions) broke out of the encirclement and connected with the troops that launched a counterattack in the Lvov area. April 10th. Odessa is liberated. 14th of April. Tarnopol (Ternopol), Mykolaiv and Odessa regions were liberated. 9th May. Sevastopol is liberated. June 23 - August 29. Began: Belarusian strategic offensive operation (code name "Bagration"). Included: at the first stage (until July 4) - Vitebsk-Orsha, Mogilev, Bobruisk, Minsk and Polotsk; at the second stage (July 5 - August 29) - the Vilnius, Bialystok, Siauliai, Lublin-Brest and Kaunas operations; Vitebsk-Orsha and Mogilev offensive operations (until June 28); 24 - 29 June. Bobruisk offensive operation. June 26th. Vitebsk and Zhlobin were liberated. June 28th. Mogilev is liberated. June 29. The Bobruisk operation ended, Bobruisk was liberated. June 29 - July 4. Polotsk and Minsk offensive operations. 3 July. Minsk is liberated. July 9th The troops of the Belorussian Front reached the line of the Neman and Molchad rivers. July 15. Troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front crossed the Neman. July 16. The Zaneman part of Grodno was liberated. July 17th. The city of Sebezh was liberated. Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered the territory of Poland. 57,600 German prisoners of war soldiers, officers and generals under escort passed through the squares and streets of Moscow. July 18 - August 2. Lublin-Brest offensive operation. July 27th. The enemy grouping in the Brest area is surrounded. July 28th. Brest was liberated, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Vistula and continued to move towards Warsaw. July. By mid-summer, the occupied regions of the RSFSR were liberated. During the war, Germany captured vast Soviet territories, where almost half of the country's total population lived - 80 million people. Almost 5 million were taken to Germany for forced labor, about half of them died.

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Kolya Yasnopolsky had not been spoiled by life before, but the boy was stubborn and managed to achieve a lot. Originally from a village, he became an orphan at the age of 10. The boy was taken to his brother - the founder of the legendary Magnitogorsk. When the war began, Nikolai was sent to serve in the anti-aircraft artillery school, which was evacuated to Ufa. The course of study at the school was short in a military way. By the end of 1942, Nikolai had already graduated from college with honors and received the rank of lieutenant. He could remain at the school as a platoon commander of cadets, but he turned to the command with a request to send him to the front. Nikolai fought on the 2nd Ukrainian, on the 2nd Belorussian fronts. At first he was the commander of a fire platoon of the 2nd battery of the 1716th Separate Anti-Aircraft Artillery Regiment. Then he took command of the battery - after the death of the battalion commander Dmitry Zvezdin. The battery, commanded by D. Zvezdin, and then by Nikolai, shot down 13 enemy aircraft. “Enemy vultures have swooped in. They tried to bomb the battle formations of our troops when there was a battle for Ensk. The anti-aircraft gunners of Lieutenant Yasnopolsky opened fire. The guns of senior sergeant Kochiev also fired on German aircraft. Sergeant Soroka diligently filed shells. Enemy planes began to come in to bomb the anti-aircraft gunners. At this time, shells from Kochiev's cannon hit a German aircraft. The enemy vehicle on fire fell to the ground ”(from an article in an army newspaper, 1944). The fighting on the right bank of the Dnieper was especially heavy. In flying weather, attacks by enemy dive bombers had to be repulsed every hour, every minute. The infantry could hide in trenches and dugouts, but they, the anti-aircraft gunners, had no right to hide - even in the most brutal raids. Terrible notches remained in my memory: wells clogged with the corpses of our soldiers, stars carved on the backs of Soviet officers, the great grief of the inhabitants of Ukrainian cities and villages ... At the front, fate brought him together with writers for the first time. It brought together in an amazing way: tanks built at the expense of A. Tolstoy, A. Korneichuk came to their corps ... Alexander Mitrofanovich Bondarev continues to recall: “From April to September 1943, our 167th division fought defensive battles near the city of Sumy. My platoon was defending not far from the village of Bititsa, in front of a small river. The battalion commander called me and ordered me to take the "tongue". I picked up the best soldiers, and we began to conduct surveillance in the company's defense zone. We clarified where the German machine-gun crew is located, convenient for capturing the “tongue”. They did everything according to a given program: at a strictly defined time they had breakfast, lunch, dinner, fired from machine guns, artillery and mortars, illuminated the area with rockets. At night, during the rain, we moved in a chain along the stream. A sapper walked ahead, showing us the passages in the minefield. At the appointed place they crossed the stream and began to move in dashes to the machine-gun crew of the Germans. About 50 meters away, three crawled to the trench, and two prepared to divert the fire on themselves. Without much fuss, one German was killed, the second was gagged and his hands were tied. When dragging the "tongue", the Germans lit flares several times. Not far from the river, the Nazis discovered us and opened heavy fire from six-barreled mortars. Our artillery returned fire after a red rocket fired in our direction. One of our scouts was killed, another wounded in the leg. We had to drag the dead man and the "tongue". The task was completed, the command received important information from the captured fascist. During the attack for the settlement of Nedrigailov (Sumy region) on September 5, I was wounded in the right leg by an explosive bullet. The 167th division was preparing to cross the Dnieper. The enemy clung to the water line, did everything to keep Kyiv. The 520th regiment was commanded by Lieutenant Colonel Akulov. Having been discharged from the hospital, I arrived at my regiment. Not to know was our combat unit. The soldiers became builders: they carried timber, boards, barrels. Rafts were made from all available improvised means so that soldiers, weapons and ammunition could be transported. The crossing was very difficult. On October 18, 1943, my assault group, under the cover of fog, quietly crossed the old channel of the Dnieper to the island of the Black Death. Together with us, Petropavlov's company, machine-gun and 50mm mortar platoons also crossed to the island. They began to dig in, but cold October water appeared at a depth of half a meter. The Nazis discovered us and opened fire with all kinds of weapons. Many of our soldiers were killed and wounded. Our artillery and "Katyushas" did not soon succeed in suppressing the enemy's firing points. The desire of soldiers and officers to quickly liberate Kyiv increased our strength tenfold. Fights went on for every quarter, grenades were used and hand-to-hand fighting. By the morning of November 6, on the eve of the 26th anniversary of October, Kyiv was cleared of fascist evil spirits. The Korsun-Shevchenko group of the enemy was surrounded and destroyed. After the liberation of the city of Vasilkovo, the 167th division moved to join units of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. The 520th regiment met with units of this front in the Zvenigorodka area. In January 1944, our regiment marched in a marching column to the settlement of Votylevka. The Germans, having missed us, struck from the rear and beat our positions well. I had to leave Votylevka. In the area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe settlement of Tikhonovka, they took up defense. They dug trenches and part of trenches to the height of a man in order to repel enemy attacks and prevent a breakthrough of fascist formations moving to help the encircled group. In the battles to destroy the Korsun-Shevchenko grouping, the division knocked out and destroyed 78 German tanks and self-propelled guns, captured more than 1000 people. Our 520th regiment destroyed 20 tanks, captured more than 300 people. Valentina Ivanovna Vorobieva, born in 1924, nurse in the surgical department of hospital 4916 on the 2nd Ukrainian front. The front-line hospital had its own medical train, which followed the front. They did not have time to stay in one place - they had to move to a new one. Only there work is being established, again - emergency work, redeployment. On the shoulders of the sisters was all the work of receiving, treating the wounded, and then there was the move. Urgently pack your things, but do not forget anything. It was not easy for a 17-year-old girl to start carrying weights - some of the wounded weighed 90 and 100 kilograms. Some soldiers felt sorry for the weak thin girls, others were afraid that they might drop them, asked them to leave them alone, not to carry them especially up the stairs ... The worst place in the war turned out to be in Ukraine, near Kirovograd. A German group broke through there and surrounded the hospital. And what kind of protection does he have - recovering soldiers and weapons are only personal to officers. We lived in fear for almost a day, until our tanks came and defeated the insolent Germans. And even a little bit, they would have blown up the hospital ... It was even worse when an inexperienced young surgeon “crippled” the young body of a warrior - he amputated a limb that could well have been left and cured. There was no time for the doctor to think, but it was very disappointing for the guys: who would take him into the house? Blood, pus, bandages, so many things that it’s scary to remember ... Maria Ivanovna Svistun recalls that in the summer of 1943 the 89th division went to the village of Kartoyak, Kursk region and held back the left flank of the front. 600 people were collected from the battlefields. The blood is alive and gore, lacerated wounds, torn off limbs, shell-shocked unconscious people. The Battle of Kursk ended, the division was replenished with new personnel, updated with materiel - personal weapons and tools - machine guns, cannons, mortars, went further to the west. “I remember how they crossed the Dnieper River. They crossed to the west coast in small boats of four people each. We were covered by a wave from a shell that exploded nearby. The boat was flooded, all its passengers were in the water. I can't swim, I started to drown. They barely saved me - they dragged me onto a raft with a machine-gun crew that turned out to be nearby. Once she moved from one dugout to another, neighboring one. As soon as I got out, PO-2 descended before my eyes - a downed plane and crashed into the dugout from which I came out. I see that it is difficult for the pilot to get out of the cockpit. I help him out, drag him into a neighboring dugout, and as soon as they closed the door behind them, there was an explosion - it was the plane on fire. How the pilot swore at me from shock! When our troops took Kharkov, I was awarded the medal "For Courage" - they handed it to me there. After the Battle of Kursk, she received the Order of the Red Star, then the medal "For the Victory over Germany", the medal "For Military Merit", and other commemorative medals. Ivan Mikhailovich Manokhin, born in 1925, started the war at the Malinoko station near Zhitomir, as part of the 1416th self-propelled artillery regiment. He was in charge of the combat food warehouse, at the same time he acted as assistant platoon commander. The regiment took part in the liberation of Moldova, they took the cities of Balti, Yampol, the Vapnyarka station. I remember the terrible day when the Germans bombed this junction station for an hour and a half. From the explosions of bombs, the railroad rails stood on end, torn like threads. And the 2nd Ukrainian Front desperately needed ammunition that was stored in the Manokhin warehouse. He feared most of all for his household, prayed to God that he would save ammunition. And, as they say, a miracle happened. After the bombing, they hastily began to repair the tracks, anti-aircraft gunners came to the rescue, and began to repel enemy raids. The tracks were restored, and the first train was loaded with ammunition and sent to the front line. Ivan Mikhailovich received gratitude from the command. He has awards: the Order of the Patriotic War of the 2nd degree, the medal "For the Victory over Germany", commemorative medals. Alexander Ivanovich Atamanov met the war in the city of Yelets. In 1943 he was drafted into the Red Army and sent to the Moscow Mortar School. Upon completion, he was enrolled in a mortar company that fought near Orel. There he was wounded in the right leg and in the chin. The shard is still sitting there. For a month he was treated in a hospital in the city of Klintsy, Bryansk region, and was seconded to the Reserve Regiment. From there - to the front as part of the 140th Siberian Rifle Division, mortar. He served there until March 24, 1945. On that day, in a heavy battle near the city of Moravska-Ostrava, he was wounded: a bullet hit under his nose, under his right eye and went right through. With this wound, he lay in the hospital and was demobilized in the second echelon in December 1945. The most terrible and difficult battles were near Lvov. The 140th division was sent to the front reserve, in one village they fought at night, slept during the day, and then went on the attack again. Atamanov's mortar fire destroyed enemy positions so swiftly and mercilessly that the enemy was forced to retreat. The capture of Lvov was marked by the command of awarding Alexander Ivanovich with the Order of Glory 3rd degree. Iosif Grigoryevich Kheifets was born in Yelets in 1918. He served in the Red Army in Baku in the regimental school of junior commanders in the air defense forces. I was about to be demobilized when the Great Patriotic War began. So I stayed in the south. Member of the defense of the Caucasus. His anti-aircraft gun, and then the battery, division defended the sky over the Kuban. Hitler really wanted to seize the Black Sea ports and hoist a flag with a fascist swastika on Mount Elbrus. On July 26, 1942, having transported tanks and artillery across the Don, German troops launched an offensive to the south. The troops of the Southern Front could not hold back the onslaught and retreated behind the Manych Canal. On July 28, the enemy managed to force this canal in the area of ​​the Vesely farm. Order No. 227 was read to the troops, which emphasized the seriousness of the situation at the front. “Fights are going on in the Voronezh region, on the Don, in the south, near North Caucasus , - the Supreme Commander-in-Chief addressed the troops. “The German invaders are rushing to Stalingrad, to the Volga and want to seize the Kuban, the North Caucasus with oil and other riches at any cost ... To retreat further means to ruin ourselves and at the same time our Motherland.” The fighting of the North Caucasian Front in late July and early August proceeded in an extremely difficult situation. The enemy, who still possessed a quantitative superiority in tanks and aircraft, broke through the defenses of our troops; developing the offensive in the Stavropol direction, by the end of July 30, he had advanced to a depth of 120 km. On August 31, the Nazis captured Anapa. Our troops continued to hold their positions for a whole year until September 1943. At the same time, the advance of German troops in the area of ​​the Tersky Range towards Grozny and Ordzhonikidze was stopped. Our troops repulsed all enemy attacks in the Tuapse region, and then launched a counterattack and defeated the enemy grouping that had penetrated to the south. And here the Germans were forced to abandon the further offensive and go on the defensive. By the end of September - beginning of October in the North Caucasus, the front had stabilized everywhere. Hitler at one of the meetings said that the Crimea should be held as long as possible. The Goebbels department clarified: "If the Russians defended Sevastopol for 250 days, then we will defend it for 15 years." The army of E. Eneke was in the Crimea, it consisted of more than 195 thousand people, 3600 guns and mortars, 5400 machine guns, over 215 assault guns and tanks, 148 aircraft. On April 8, 1944, after a powerful artillery preparation that lasted three hours, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front went on the offensive and very soon broke through the front at Perekop and Sivash. On the night of April 11, from the side of the Kerch Strait, from a small bridgehead captured by our troops back in November last year (I.G. Kheifets was there with his division), the offensive of the Separate Primorsky Army began. On April 15, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front from Bakhchisaray approached the outer defensive bypass of Sevastopol. And on April 16-17, units of the Separate Primorsky Army were already approaching the city from Yalta. Our fleet approached the city from the sea. Now Sevastopol was surrounded on all sides. On the morning of May 7, artillery preparation began already in the Sapun Mountain area. Attack pilots unleashed a sea of ​​​​fire on enemy positions. The barrage of fire was powerful, but short, and now our troops launched a swift attack on the southeastern outskirts of the city. A furious trench battle broke out. It lasted 9 hours. On May 9, Sevastopol was completely liberated, the 17th army of Eneke ceased to exist, its losses on land amounted to 100 thousand people, including about 62 thousand prisoners. Iosif Kheyfets considers the medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus" his most expensive award, and he has more than twenty of them after the Order of the Red Star. Semyon Pavlovich Kutsenko, a teacher in a rural school, fought from the first to the last day of the war, commanded a radio communications platoon of the regiment, and was demobilized as a captain after 6 years of service. He received his first award for the liberation of Sevastopol. It was one of the most difficult battles. After him, the howitzer regiment received the title of Sevastopol. Became the 1232nd Sevastopol Artillery Regiment of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky. Then, near Sevastopol, Semyon was shell-shocked. There was a stunning artillery noise, many could not stand it. The soldiers' eardrums burst. And in the enemy dugouts, when we appeared, the Germans sat in them, as if intoxicated. Some were bleeding from their ears, others from their mouths. They took Sapun Mountain by storm, and all those who survived received awards for participating in this battle. The second award - the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree, he received for crossing the Basi River in Belarus. There were no bridges there, the sappers tried to set up crossings in different places, but the Germans destroyed them with aimed fire. I had to wait until dark. At night they set up their rafts, pontoons. It was not yet dawn when the gunners moved their howitzers to the right bank, and after a while our troops launched an offensive, liberated more than 40 settlements. The medal "For Courage" was received for participation in the battles for the liberation of Novorossiysk. The Malaya Zemlya peninsula was filled with German pillboxes, guns, even tank towers dug into the ground. The defense seemed impregnable. Attacks were replaced by artillery preparation, bombing. Along with the explosions of shells and bombs, coastal stones flew in all directions, they were also ammunition - they hit a living body so hard, they knocked weapons out of their hands. For participation in the defense of the Caucasus and in the battles for its liberation, Semyon Pavlovich was awarded the medal "For the Defense of the Caucasus." Nikolai Nikolaevich Kalinchenko comes from a simple peasant family from the village of Yudovka, in the Kursk province. Kolya left the military school as a volunteer for the Finnish war, then fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. Having started as a company political commissar, Nikolai Kalinchenko by the end of the war was already a battalion commissar, then a regiment party organizer. I had a chance to fight in Transcaucasia, in the North Caucasus. The Order of the Red Star, the Order of the Patriotic War of the II degree, the medals "For Military Merit", "For the Defense of the Caucasus" - this is how the Motherland highly appreciated the military merits of N. Kalinchenko. His native land was occupied by the Nazis, a policeman from his fellow villagers reported that Kalinchenko's father's children were fighting. Mother and father were taken to the forest to be shot, but at that time the partisans arrived and managed to beat them off. Further military service of Nicholas also took place in the southern regions: Azerbaijan, Armenia, Georgia, Turkmenistan, the North Caucasus, Volgograd, Rostov-on-Don. The family fully experienced what the nomadic life of a military man is like. During the service, Nikolai Nikolaevich studied a lot. He retired with the rank of colonel, having served 36 years and was awarded the medals "For Impeccable Service in the Armed Forces" and "Veteran of the Armed Forces".

Annex 1

Liberation of the territory of the USSR and European countries.

Victory over Nazism in Europe (January 1944 - May 1945).

By the beginning of 1944, Germany's situation had deteriorated sharply, its material and human reserves were depleted. The German command went over to a tough defense.

As a result of the winter-spring military campaign of 1944, the main forces of the German fascist army groups were defeated and access to state border. In the spring of 1944 Crimea was cleared of the enemy.

In the summer of 1944, Soviet troops launched a powerful offensive in Karelia, Belarus, Western Ukraine and Moldova. As a result of the advance of Soviet troops in the north, on September 19, Finland, having signed a truce with the USSR, withdrew from the war, and on March 4, 1945, declared war on Germany.
In the autumn of 1944, the Soviet army helped the Bulgarian, Hungarian, Yugoslav peoples in the liberation. In May, German troops surrendered in Italy, Holland, Northwest Germany and Denmark.
In January - early April 1945, almost all of Poland and Czechoslovakia, the entire territory of Hungary were liberated.
During the Berlin operation (April 16 - May 8, 1945), the troops entered Berlin, Hitler committed suicide and the garrison laid down their arms. On May 8, 1945, the German Unconditional Surrender Act was signed in Berlin. Day of liberation of the city - May 9 - became the Day of the Victory of the Soviet people over fascism.

Battle of Moscow

He was appointed commander of the Western Front.

The Germans were on the outskirts of Moscow, 200-300 km remained to the capital

28 infantrymen from the general's rifle division at the Dubosekovo junction entered the battle against 50 fascist tanks and did not let them through to Moscow. “Russia is great, but there is nowhere to retreat - Moscow is behind!” - These words of political instructor Vasily Klochkov spread around the entire front and became winged. The heroes died, but did not retreat.

Bloody, exhausting battles continued throughout the second half of November.

The counteroffensive of the Soviet troops near Moscow developed into a general offensive of the Red Army along the entire Soviet-German front. This was the beginning of a radical turn of events during the Great Patriotic War.

As a result, the Nazi command was forced to switch to strategic defense on the entire Soviet-German front.

Battle of Kursk

It lasted from July 5 to August 23, 1943.

The general plan of the German command was to encircle and destroy the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts defending in the Kursk region. If successful, it was supposed to expand the front of the offensive and return the strategic initiative.

The Soviet command decided to first conduct defensive operations, and then go on the counteroffensive. The offensive of the enemy strike groups was suspended. Hitler's operation "Citadel" was finally buried by the largest oncoming tank battle of the entire Second World War near Prokhorovka - July 12, 1943. 1200 tanks and self-propelled guns simultaneously participated in it from both sides. The victory was for the Soviet soldiers.

On July 12, the second stage of the Battle of Kursk began - the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops. On August 5, Soviet troops liberated the cities of Orel and Belgorod. On August 23, Kharkov was liberated.

So the battle on the Kursk fiery arch ended victoriously. During it, 30 selected enemy divisions were defeated. The fascist German troops lost about 500,000 men, 1,500 tanks, 3,000 guns and 3,700 aircraft. For courage and heroism, over 100 thousand Soviet soldiers - participants in the Battle of the Fiery Arc, were awarded orders and medals.

The Battle of Kursk ended with a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War.

Battle of Stalingrad

Battle of Stalingrad divided into two periods. These are defensive operations and offensive operations.
Stalingrad was a major communications hub connecting the central regions of the country with the Caucasus and Central Asia.

Defensive battles on the outskirts of Stalingrad lasted 57 days and nights. On July 28, the people's commissar of defense issued order No. 000, better known as "Not a step back!".
August 19 became black date of the Battle of Stalingrad- The Germans broke through to the Volga. On August 23, Stalingrad was subjected to the most severe bombardment by German aircraft. Several hundred aircraft struck industrial and residential areas, turning them into ruins.

The Soviet command developed the plan "Uranus" to defeat the Nazis near Stalingrad. It consisted in cutting off the enemy strike group from the main forces with powerful flank strikes and, having surrounded it, destroyed it. November 19 and 20 troops Soviet army brought down tons of fiery metal on the location of the Germans. After breaking through the enemy defenses, the troops began to develop the offensive.
On January 10, 1943, Soviet troops launched Operation Koltso. The Battle of Stalingrad entered its final phase. Pressed against the Volga and cut into two parts, the enemy grouping was forced to surrender.

victory in Battle of Stalingrad marked a turning point in World War II. After Stalingrad, the period of expulsion of the German occupiers from the territory of the USSR began.

The most important military-political events of this period were determined by the ever-increasing power of the military-economic potential of the anti-Hitler coalition, the decisive victorious actions of the Soviet Armed Forces and the intensification of the struggle of the Anglo-American allied forces in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region, culminating in the complete defeat of Nazism.

By the beginning of 1944, Germany's situation had deteriorated sharply, its material and human reserves were depleted. However, the enemy was still strong. The armed forces of Germany and its allies on the Soviet-German front amounted to about 5 million people (236 divisions and 18 brigades), 5.4 thousand tanks and assault guns, up to 55 thousand guns and mortars, more than 3 thousand aircraft. The command of the Wehrmacht switched to a rigid positional defense. In the active army of the USSR by 1944 there were over 6.3 million people, there were over 5 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, over 95 thousand guns and mortars, 10 thousand aircraft. The production of military equipment in the USSR in 1944 reached its peak. Soviet military factories produced tanks 7-8 times, guns 6 times, mortars almost 8 times, aircraft 4 times more than before the war.

The Supreme Command set before the Red Army the task of clearing the Soviet land of the enemy, proceeding with the liberation of the European countries from the occupiers and ending the war with the complete defeat of the aggressor on its territory. The main content of the winter-spring campaign of 1944 was the implementation of successive strategic operations Soviet troops, during which the main forces of the groups of the fascist German armies were defeated and an exit to the state border was opened. In the spring of 1944 Crimea was cleared of the enemy. As a result of a four-month campaign, the Soviet Armed Forces liberated 329 thousand square meters. km of Soviet territory, defeated over 170 enemy divisions numbering up to 1 million people.

Under these favorable conditions, the Western Allies, after two years of preparation, opened a second front in Europe in northern France. With the support of the armed formations of the French Resistance, on July 25, 1944, the Anglo-American troops launched an offensive against Paris, where an armed uprising against the invaders began on August 19. By the time the troops of the Western Allies approached, the capital of France was already in the hands of the patriots. At the same time (from August 15 to 19, 1944), Anglo-American troops, consisting of 7 divisions, landed in the area of ​​​​Cannes in southern France, where, without encountering serious resistance, they quickly moved inland. However, the command of the Wehrmacht in the fall of 1944 managed to avoid the encirclement of their troops and withdraw part of the forces to the western border of Germany. Moreover, on December 16, 1944, having launched a counteroffensive in the Ardennes, the German troops inflicted a serious defeat on the 1st American Army, putting the entire Anglo-American grouping of forces in Western Europe in a difficult position.

Continuing to develop the strategic initiative, in the summer of 1944 Soviet troops launched a powerful offensive in Karelia, Belarus, Western Ukraine and Moldova. As a result of the advance of Soviet troops in the north, on September 19, Finland, having signed a truce with the USSR, withdrew from the war, and on March 4, 1945, declared war on Germany.

The victories of the Soviet troops in the southern direction in the autumn of 1944 helped the Bulgarian, Hungarian, Yugoslav and Czechoslovak peoples in their liberation from fascism. On September 9, 1944, the government of the Fatherland Front came to power in Bulgaria, declaring war on Germany. In September-October, Soviet troops liberated part of Czechoslovakia and supported the Slovak National Uprising. Subsequently, the Soviet Army, together with the troops of Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, continued the offensive in order to liberate Hungary and Yugoslavia.

The "liberation campaign" of the Red Army in the countries of Eastern Europe, which unfolded in 1944, could not but cause an aggravation of geopolitical contradictions between the USSR and its Western allies. And if the American administration was sympathetic to the aspirations of the USSR "to establish a positive sphere of influence over its Western neighbors," then British Prime Minister Winston Churchill was extremely concerned about the strengthening of Soviet influence in this region.

The British Prime Minister made a trip to Moscow (October 9-18, 1944), where he held talks with Stalin. During his visit, Churchill proposed to conclude an Anglo-Soviet agreement on the mutual division of spheres of influence in the countries of South-Eastern Europe, which was supported by Stalin. However, despite the compromise reached, it was not possible to sign this document, since the American ambassador to Moscow, A. Harriman, opposed the conclusion of such an agreement. At the same time, the "gentleman's" secret deal between Stalin and Churchill on the division of spheres of influence in the Balkans played an important role, as evidenced by the further course of events in this region.

During the winter campaign of 1945, further coordination of the military operations of the armed forces of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition was developed.

In early April, the troops of the Western Allies successfully surrounded and then captured about 19 enemy divisions in the Ruhr area. After this operation, the Nazi resistance on the western front was practically broken.

On May 2, 1945, the troops of the German Army Group "C" capitulated in Italy, a day later (May 4) an act was signed on the surrender of the German armed forces in Holland, North-West Germany and Denmark.

In January - early April 1945, as a result of a powerful strategic offensive on the entire Soviet-German front, the Soviet army inflicted a decisive defeat on the main enemy forces with the forces of ten fronts. During the East Prussian, Vistula-Oder, West Carpathian and the completion of the Budapest operations, Soviet troops created the conditions for further strikes in Pomerania and Silesia, and then for an attack on Berlin. Almost all of Poland and Czechoslovakia, the entire territory of Hungary were liberated.

The attempts of the new German government, which on May 1, 1945, after the suicide of A. Hitler, was headed by Grand Admiral K. Doenitz, to achieve a separate peace with the USA and Great Britain (the signing of the preliminary surrender protocol took place in Reims on May 7, 1945) failed. The decisive victories of the Red Army in Europe had a decisive influence on the success of the Crimean (Yalta) Conference of the leaders of the USSR, the United States and Great Britain (from February 4 to 11, 1945), at which the problems of completing the defeat of Germany and its post-war settlement were agreed upon. The USSR confirmed its commitment to enter the war with Japan 2-3 months after the end of the war in Europe.

During the Berlin operation (April 16 - May 8, 1945), the troops captured about 480 thousand people, a huge amount of captured military equipment and weapons. On May 8, 1945, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed in the Berlin suburb of Karl Horst. The victorious outcome of the Berlin operation created favorable conditions for defeating the last large enemy grouping on the territory of Czechoslovakia and providing assistance to the rebellious population of Prague. Day of liberation of the city - May 9 - became the Day of the Victory of the Soviet people over fascism.

28. United Nations Organization, United Nations- an international organization created to maintain and strengthen international peace and security, develop cooperation between states.

"The UN remains a universal forum endowed with unique legitimacy, the supporting structure of the international system of collective security, the main element of modern multilateral diplomacy."

The foundations of its activity and structure were developed during the Second World War by the leading members of the anti-Hitler coalition. The name "United Nations" was first used in the Declaration of the United Nations signed on January 1, 1942.

The UN Charter was approved at the San Francisco Conference, held from April to June 1945, and signed on June 26, 1945 by representatives of 50 states. On October 15, 1945, Poland also signed the Charter, thus becoming one of the original members of the Organization. The date of entry into force of the Charter (October 24) is celebrated as United Nations Day.

· Prague offensive operation- the last strategic operation of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War, during which Prague was liberated from German troops. At the first stage of the battle in the battles on the side of the rebellious inhabitants of Prague, units of the Russian Liberation Army accepted.

The course of hostilities

Army Group Center, numbering up to a million people, under the command of Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, following the order of Hitler, intended to defend in the Prague region and in the city itself, turning it into a "second Berlin".

On May 5, a popular uprising against the German occupation began in Prague. At the request of the rebel Czechs, the 1st division of the ROA under the command of Major General Bunyachenko, who went over to the side of the rebels, provided assistance in the fight against the Nazis. The actions of the ROA are recognized by Czech historians as successful and inspiring a popular uprising. But on the night of May 8, most of the Vlasovites left Prague without receiving any guarantees from the leaders of the uprising regarding their allied status. The departure of the ROA troops complicated the position of the rebels.

The command of the Soviet army remained in the dark about the plans of the US Army to liberate Prague from the Germans, so they waited for instructions for a week after the surrender of Berlin. Only after receiving convincing confirmation of the unwillingness of the Americans to move east of Pilsen, the Soviet army sent the main strike force in the direction of Prague.

On May 9, 1945, the 3rd and 4th Guards Tank Armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Prague. The first to enter the city was the head patrol of the 63rd Guards Chelyabinsk Tank Brigade of three tanks under the command of the commander of the platoon of the guard, junior lieutenant Burakov L.E. (tank No. 1-24-tank commander of the guard lieutenant Goncharenko I.G., tank No. 1-25 - commander of the platoon of the guard, junior lieutenant Burakov L.E.). Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko died. A street in Prague was named after him.

The general retreat from Prague of units of the Wehrmacht and the SS began on May 9 and quickly developed into a stampede towards the western border of Czechoslovakia. Parts of the Red Army and special units of the NKGB, acting together with the Czech partisans, were tasked with preventing the exit from the encirclement of units of Army Group Center, in particular, SS units and ROA formations. During May 10-13, there was a pursuit of the retreating and the systematic destruction of those who refused to surrender. On May 12, General Vlasov was arrested by Soviet soldiers, on the 15th - the commander of the 1st division of the ROA Bunyachenko and some officers of the division headquarters. With the active support of the Czech partisans, the chief of staff of the KONR Armed Forces, General Trukhin, was captured.

On the night of May 11-12, near the demarcation line near the village of Sliwice in the vicinity of the city of Pribram, during a day-long battle, the remnants of the mixed SS divisions retreating from Prague, led by the head of the SS Office in Bohemia and Moraviobergruppenführer SS Count Karl-Friedrich von Pückler-Burghaus, were destroyed . More than 7,000 Germans included the remains of the SS Wallenstein and Das Reich divisions. The group was joined by a certain number of civilian refugees of German origin and personnel of the Nazi administrative institutions in Prague. Having reached the demarcation line, on May 9, von Pückler entered into negotiations with the command of the 3rd US Army, but was denied the possibility of capitulation to the Americans. After that, an impromptu fortified camp was organized by the SS on a hill near the village of Sliwice.

On May 11, von Pückler's camp was attacked by a sabotage group of the NKGB of the USSR under the command of Captain Evgeny Olesinsky. Later, regular units of the Red Army joined the attack with fire support from mechanized formations of the 3rd US Army. After a fire raid, in which the Katyusha multiple rocket launchers took part, a frontal assault on the SS fortifications began, ending with the defeat of the camp and the surrender of the garrison. Of the seven thousand SS men, about a thousand were killed. Pückler-Burghaus himself, responsible for the genocide of Soviet citizens on the territory of the RSFSR in 1941-1942, shot himself.

Marshal Konev was awarded the title of Honorary Citizen of Prague.

· Berlin strategic offensive operation- one of the last strategic operations of the Soviet troops in the European theater of operations, during which the Red Army occupied Berlin, which led to the unconditional surrender of Germany. The operation lasted 23 days - from April 16 to May 8, 1945, during which the Soviet troops advanced westward at a distance of 100 to 220 km. The width of the combat front is 300 km. As part of the operation, the Stettin-Rostock, Zelow-Berlin, Cottbus-Potsdam, Stremberg-Torgau and Brandenburg-Rathen front-line offensive operations were carried out.

· Potsdam Conference took place in Potsdam at the Cecilienhof Palace from July 17 to August 2, 1945 with the participation of the leadership of the three largest powers of the anti-Hitler coalition in World War II in order to determine further steps for the post-war organization of Europe. The Potsdam meeting was the last for the Big Three leaders Stalin, Truman and Churchill (who last days replaced by K. Attlee).

29. Destruction of Japan. End of World War II(May 9, 1945 - September 2, 1945).

In accordance with the allied duty, on April 5, 1945, the USSR denounced the Soviet-Japanese neutrality treaty of 1941 and on August 8 declared war on Japan. The next day, a grouping of Soviet troops, numbering 1.8 million people, deployed fighting. For the strategic leadership of the armed struggle, on July 30, the High Command of the Soviet troops in the Far East was created, which was headed by Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky. The Soviet troops were opposed by the Japanese Kwantung Army, which had 817 thousand soldiers and officers (excluding puppet troops).

For 23 days of stubborn battles on a front with a length of over 5 thousand km, Soviet troops and fleet forces, successfully advancing during the Manchurian, South Sakhalin and Kuril landing operations, liberated Northeast China, North Korea, the southern part of about. Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Together with the Soviet troops, the soldiers of the Mongolian People's Army also participated in the war with Japan. The Red Army made a decisive contribution to the defeat of the Japanese troops in the Far East. Soviet troops captured about 600 thousand enemy soldiers and officers, many weapons and equipment were captured.

On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, on board the American battleship Missouri, Japanese representatives signed the Act of Unconditional Surrender.

The victory of the USSR and the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition over Nazi Germany and militaristic Japan in World War II was of world-historical significance and had a huge impact on the entire post-war development of mankind. The Patriotic War was its most important component.

The Soviet Armed Forces defended the freedom and independence of the motherland, participated in the liberation of the peoples of eleven countries of Europe from fascist oppression, and expelled the Japanese occupiers from Northeast China and Korea. During the four-year armed struggle (1418 days and nights) on the Soviet-German front, the main forces of the fascist bloc were defeated and captured: 607 divisions of the Wehrmacht and its allies. In battles with the Soviet Armed Forces, Nazi Germany lost over 10 million people (80% of all military losses), over 75% of all military equipment.

However, the price of the victory of the Soviet people over fascism was enormous. More than 29 million people passed through the war in the ranks of the Soviet Armed Forces, in total in 1941-1945. 39 fronts acted against Germany and its allies, 70 combined arms, 5 shock, 11 guards and 1 Separate Primorsky armies were formed. The war claimed (according to rough estimates) over 27 million lives of our fellow citizens, including over 11 million soldiers at the front.

During the years of the Patriotic War, more than 1 million command personnel died, died of wounds, went missing. About 4 million partisans and underground fighters died behind enemy lines and in the occupied territories. About 6 million Soviet citizens ended up in fascist captivity. The USSR lost 30% of its national wealth. The invaders destroyed 1,710 Soviet cities and towns, over 70,000 villages and hamlets, 32,000 industrial enterprises, 98,000 collective farms, and 2,000 farms. state farms, 6,000 hospitals, 82,000 schools, 334 universities, 427 museums, 43,000 libraries.Direct material damage alone (in 1941 prices) amounted to 679 billion rubles, while the total costs amounted to 1,890 billion rubles.

30. Results of the war:

Main articles: Aftermath of World War II, Casualties in World War II

Second World War had a huge impact on the fate of mankind. It was attended by 72 states (80% of the world's population). Military operations were conducted on the territory of 40 states. 110 million people were mobilized into the armed forces. The total human losses reached 60-65 million people, of which 27 million people were killed on the fronts, many of them citizens of the USSR. China, Germany, Japan and Poland also suffered heavy casualties.

Military spending and military losses amounted to $4 trillion. Material costs reached 60-70% of the national income of the warring states. Only the industry of the USSR, USA, Great Britain and Germany produced 652.7 thousand aircraft (combat and transport), 286.7 thousand tanks, self-propelled guns and armored vehicles, over 1 million artillery pieces, over 4.8 million machine guns (excluding Germany) , 53 million rifles, carbines and machine guns and a huge amount of other weapons and equipment. The war was accompanied by colossal destruction, destruction of tens of thousands of towns and villages, incalculable disasters of tens of millions of people.

As a result of the war, the role of Western Europe in world politics was weakened. The main powers in the world were the USSR and the USA. Great Britain and France, despite the victory, were significantly weakened. The war showed the inability of them and other Western European countries to maintain huge colonial empires. In the countries of Africa and Asia, the anti-colonial movement intensified. As a result of the war, some countries were able to achieve independence: Ethiopia, Iceland, Syria, Lebanon, Vietnam, Indonesia. In the countries of Eastern Europe, occupied by Soviet troops, socialist regimes were established. One of the main outcomes of the Second World War was the creation of the United Nations on the basis of the Anti-Fascist Coalition formed during the war, to prevent world wars in the future.

In some countries, the guerrilla movements formed during the war tried to continue their activities after the end of the war. In Greece, the conflict between the communists and the pre-war government escalated into a civil war. For some time after the end of the war, anti-communist armed detachments operated in Western Ukraine, the Baltic states, and Poland. continued in China Civil War, which lasted there from 1927.

Fascist and Nazi ideologies were declared criminal at the Nuremberg trials and banned. Support has risen in many Western countries communist parties thanks to them active participation in the anti-fascist struggle during the war. Europe was divided into two camps: the western capitalist and the eastern socialist. Relations between the two blocs deteriorated sharply. A couple of years after the end of the war, the Cold War began.

As a result of the war, the USSR actually returned to its composition the territories annexed by Japan from the Russian Empire at the end of the Russo-Japanese War of 1904-1905 following the Treaty of Portsmouth (southern Sakhalin and, temporarily, Kwantung with Port Arthur and Dalniy), as well as previously ceded Japan in 1875 the main group Kuril Islands and the southern part of the Kuriles assigned to Japan by the Shimoda Treaty of 1855.

PROCESSES OVER WAR CRIMINALS (abbreviated version)

US Army personnel sort through stacks of German documents collected by war crimes investigators as evidence for the International Military Tribunal.

After World War II, international tribunals and state courts conducted trials of war criminals. The trial of the leaders of Nazi Germany was conducted in Nuremberg (Germany) by the International Military Tribunal, which included judges representing each of the four Allied Powers (the United States of America, Great Britain, the Soviet Union and France). From October 18, 1945 to October 1, 1946, the International Military Tribunal tried 22 "principal" war criminals accused of crimes against peace, war crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as conspiracy to commit all these crimes. Twelve convicted felons were sentenced to death, three defendants to life imprisonment, and four others to prison terms ranging from 10 to 20 years. The International Military Tribunal acquitted the three defendants. American military tribunals held 12 more trials of other Nazi leaders in Nuremberg. Leading killer doctors, members of the operational punitive detachments, representatives of the German justice authorities and the German Foreign Ministry, members of the German military high command, as well as leading German industrialists appeared before the court.

Most of the war crimes trials that took place after 1945 were held against officials and low-ranking officials. In the early post-war years, the four Allied Powers also held trials in their occupation zones in Germany and Austria. Most of the initial information about the concentration camp system was based on physical evidence and testimonies presented at these trials. In both the Federal Republic of Germany (West Germany) and the German Democratic Republic (East Germany), trials of Nazi criminals took place for several decades after their establishment as sovereign states. Many of the countries occupied by Germany during World War II or collaborating with it in the persecution of civilians, especially Jews, also hosted post-war state trials. In particular, in Poland, Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, Hungary, Romania and France, thousands of defendants, both Germans and local collaborators, were put on trial. In 1961, the Israeli trial of Adolf Eichmann (chief architect of the deportation of European Jews) attracted worldwide attention. However, many participants in Nazi crimes were never prosecuted or punished and simply returned to their normal lives. The search for German war criminals and their henchmen from other Axis countries continues to this day.

Victory over Nazism in Europe. The most important military-political events of this period were determined by the ever-increasing power of the military-economic potential of the anti-Hitler coalition, the victories of the Soviet Armed Forces, and the intensification of the struggle of the Anglo-American allied forces in Europe and the Asia-Pacific region. By the beginning of 1944, Germany's situation had deteriorated sharply, its material and human reserves were depleted. However, the enemy was still strong. The armed forces of Nazi Germany and its allies on the Soviet-German front amounted to about 5 million people (236 divisions and 18 brigades), 5.4 thousand tanks and assault guns, up to 55 thousand guns and mortars, more than 3 thousand aircraft. The High Command of the Wehrmacht switched to a rigid positional defense. In the active army of the USSR by 1944 there were over 6.3 million people, more than 5 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts (ACS), over 95 thousand guns and mortars, 10 thousand aircraft. The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command set the Red Army the task of clearing the Soviet land of the enemy, proceeding to the liberation of the European countries from the invaders and ending the war with the complete defeat of the aggressor on its territory. The main content of the winter-spring campaign of 1944 was the implementation of successive strategic operations in the Right-Bank Ukraine in a strip of 1,400 km. During the fighting, Soviet troops, as part of four Ukrainian fronts, defeated the main forces of the German armies "South" and group "A" and reached the state border, in the foothills of the Carpathians and on the territory of Romania. At the same time, the troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 2nd Baltic fronts defeated Army Group North, liberating the Leningrad and part of the Kalinin regions. In the spring of 1944 Crimea was cleared of the enemy. As a result of a four-month campaign, the Soviet Armed Forces liberated 329 thousand square meters. km of the territory of the USSR, defeated over 170 enemy divisions numbering up to 1 million people.

Under these favorable conditions, the Western allies, after two years of preparation, opened a "second front" in Europe in northern France: 6 June

1944 the combined Anglo-American forces under the command of the American General D. Eisenhower (over 2.8 million people, up to 11 thousand combat aircraft, over 12 thousand combat and 41 thousand transport ships) crossed the English Channel and the Pas de Calais and launched the Normandy landing operation("Overlord"). In August, the Allies entered Paris.

Soviet troops in the summer of 1944 launched a powerful offensive in Karelia (June 10 - August 9), Belarus (June 23 - August 29), Western Ukraine (July 13 - August 29) and Moldova (August 20-29). On September 19, Finland signed an armistice with the USSR and withdrew from the war, and on March 4

• 1945 declared war on Germany. During the Belarusian operation (codenamed "Bagration"), the Army Group "Center" was defeated, the Belarusian ledge was liquidated, the troops of five Soviet fronts liberated Belarus, Latvia, part of Lithuania, eastern Poland and went to East Prussia. The Lvov-Sandomierz and Yassy-Kishinev operations ended with the liberation of the western regions of Ukraine and the southeastern regions of Poland. During the Iasi-Kishinev operation, 22 German divisions and Romanian troops were destroyed. Romania left the war on the side of Germany and after the anti-fascist uprising of the Romanian people on August 24 declared war on it.
• On September 9, 1944, as a result of a popular uprising, the government of the Fatherland Front came to power in Bulgaria, which also declared war

Germany. In September-October, Soviet troops liberated part of Czechoslovakia and supported the Slovak National Uprising. Subsequently, the Red Army, together with units and formations of Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, continued the offensive in Hungary and Yugoslavia.

In September-November, the troops of the three Baltic and Leningrad fronts cleared almost the entire territory of the Baltic from the Nazis, defeating 26 and destroying three enemy divisions, and blockaded about 38 enemy divisions in Courland. From October 7 to 29, the troops of the Karelian Front, in cooperation with the forces of the Northern Fleet, liberated the Arctic and the northern regions of Norway from the invaders (Petsamo-Kirkenes operation). The front came close to the borders of Nazi Germany, and in East Prussia stepped over them. The enemy found himself in complete military and political isolation, and with the opening of the “second front” in Europe, Germany, squeezed in a vice, could no longer transfer its forces from West to East and was forced to carry out a new total mobilization.

The "liberation campaign" of the Red Army in the countries of Eastern Europe could not but cause an aggravation of geopolitical contradictions between the USSR and its allies. If the American Roosevelt administration was sympathetic to the USSR's desire to "establish a positive sphere of influence over its Western neighbors" and to form "friendly governments" in Eastern European countries, then British Prime Minister Churchill was extremely concerned about the strengthening of Soviet influence in Europe. In order to overcome the political differences that had arisen on the problems of the post-war settlement in the autumn of 1944, it was even planned to hold a new conference of the "Big Three". However, it was not possible to reach an agreement on this issue. First, bilateral Anglo-American negotiations were held in Quebec (September 11 - 19, 1944), where Churchill tried to enlist the support of the United States in solving the problems of the post-war world order, as well as to make adjustments to the Allied military strategy at the final stage of the war, in order to eventually push interests of the USA and the USSR to the benefit of Great Britain. Then the British Prime Minister made a trip to Moscow (October 9-18, 1944), where he held talks with Stalin. During the visit, Churchill proposed to conclude an Anglo-Soviet agreement on the mutual division of spheres of influence in the countries of South-Eastern Europe (the so-called percentage agreement), which was supported by the Soviet leadership. However, despite the compromise reached, it was not possible to sign this document, since the American ambassador to Moscow, A. Harriman, opposed the conclusion of such an agreement. At the same time, the "gentleman's" secret deal between Stalin and Churchill on the division of spheres of influence in the Balkans played an important role, as evidenced by the further course of events in this region.

By the beginning of 1945, on the Soviet-German front, the enemy had 185 divisions and 21 brigades (including Hungarian troops) in the amount of 3.7 million people. During the winter campaign of 1945, the coordination of military operations of the armed forces of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition was developed. Thus, after the counteroffensive of the German troops in the Ardennes, the Anglo-American troops found themselves in a difficult situation. Then at the request

Churchill, the Soviet armies in mid-January, but agreements with the Anglo-American command earlier than planned, went on the offensive from the Baltic to the Carpathians, thus providing effective assistance to the Western allies.

The intensification of the armed struggle in the East allowed the Anglo-American command during January-March to occupy a vast territory between the Meuse and the Rhine and, having accumulated forces, to cross the Rhine on March 24. Allied ground forces in Western Europe by this time consisted of 81 divisions, united in two main groupings of troops (three army groups). They were opposed by 58 divisions and three brigades of the Wehrmacht. On the Soviet-German front were 175 German divisions and 15 brigades.

In early April, the troops of the Western Allies successfully surrounded and then captured the enemy grouping in the Ruhr area. After this operation, the Nazi resistance on the Western Front was practically broken. Using favorable conditions, the Anglo-American-French troops developed an offensive in the center of Germany and by mid-April reached the Elbe line. Near Torgau April 25, 1945 took place historic meeting of Soviet and American troops. In the future, the Western allies advanced in the north - to Lübeck and Wismar, blocking Denmark, and in the south they occupied the southern lands of Germany, entered Upper Austria, took the Czechoslovak cities of Karlovy Vary and Pilsen. On May 2, 1945, the troops of the German Army Group C in Italy surrendered, and a day later an act was signed in Reims on the surrender of the German armed forces in Holland, North-West Germany and Denmark.

In January - early April 1945, as a result of a powerful strategic offensive on the entire Soviet-German front, with the forces of 10 fronts, the Soviet army inflicted a decisive defeat on the main enemy forces. During the East Prussian, Vistula-Oder, West Carpathian and Budapest operations, Soviet troops created the conditions for further strikes in Pomerania and Silesia, and then for an attack on Berlin. Almost all of Poland and Czechoslovakia, the territory of Hungary were liberated. The attempts of the new German government, which was headed by Grand Admiral K. Doenitz on May 1, 1945 after Hitler's suicide, to achieve a separate peace with the USA and Great Britain (the signing of the preliminary surrender protocol took place in Reims on May 7, 1945) failed. It was important Crimean (Yalta) Conference leaders of the USSR, the United States and Great Britain (from February 4 to February 11, 1945). It agreed on the problems of completing the defeat of Germany and the post-war settlement. The USSR confirmed its commitment to enter the war with Japan 2-3 months after the end of the war in Europe.

During Berlin operation(April 16 - May 8, 1945) troops of the 1st (G.K. Zhukov) and 2nd (K.K. Rokossovsky) Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian (I.S. Konev) fronts with the support of two armies Polsky's troops, having defeated 93 enemy divisions, captured about 480 thousand people, a huge amount of captured military equipment and weapons.

On May 8, 1945, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed. The victorious outcome of the Berlin operation created favorable conditions for defeating the last large enemy grouping on the territory of Czechoslovakia and providing assistance to the rebellious population of Prague. City Liberation Day - May 9, 1945 - became the Day of the Victory of the Soviet people over fascism. Held in the suburbs of Berlin Potsdam third conference heads of governments of the USSR, USA and Great Britain (July 17 - August 2, 1945) adopted important decisions on the post-war peace in Europe, the German problem and other issues.

The main stages of the Great Patriotic War..

First stage of the war. Strategic defense stage (June 22, 1941 – November 18, 1942).

Third stage of the war. Liberation of the territory of the USSR and European countries. Victory over Nazism in Europe (January 1944 - May 1945).

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. Together with the Nazi Wehrmacht, the troops of Hungary, Italy, Romania and Finland, allies of Germany, took part in the hostilities against the USSR. In total, 190 divisions, 5.5 million people, were thrown against the USSR. The Great Patriotic War lasted 1418 days.

The plan of attack on the USSR was called the "Plan of Barbarossa" (after the name of the medieval German emperor, known for his aggressive campaigns). This was the plan for blitzkrieg (blitzkrieg). By the winter of 1941, German troops were to reach the Arkhangelsk-Volga-Astrakhan line.

The war on the part of the Soviet Union had a just, liberating character. From the first hours of the invasion, the enemy encountered fierce resistance in a number of cases (the defense of the Brest Fortress).

To organize a rebuff to the Nazi invaders, the Soviet leadership took a number of measures. Martial law was declared throughout the country. The mobilization of the male population began. The Headquarters of the High Command was created. Since August, I.V. Stalin. On June 29, the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks sent a directive to party and Soviet organizations in the front-line regions. It spoke of the need to mobilize all forces and means to defeat the enemy, to protect every inch of land, to evacuate enterprises and people, and set the task of launching a struggle in the rear of the fascist troops. The main provisions of this directive were outlined by Stalin in a radio speech on July 3, 1941. On June 30, the State Defense Committee (GKO) was formed, headed by Stalin. He concentrated in his hands all the power in the country. In a short time, under the leadership of the Evacuation Council, over 1,500 large military factories were relocated to the east. The transfer of peaceful enterprises to the production of military products began. The slogan "Everything for the front, everything for victory!", put forward in the early days, remained the main one throughout the war.

With the outbreak of war, the governments of Britain and the United States issued statements of support for the struggle of the Soviet people. On July 12, an agreement was signed in Moscow on the joint actions of the USSR and Great Britain in the war against Germany. In autumn, an agreement was reached on the supply of weapons and strategic materials by the USSR to the USA and England. The formation of the anti-Hitler coalition began.

Summer - autumn 1941 - a period of serious setbacks for the Red Army. Military formations that entered the war near the borders were defeated. 3.9 million soldiers and officers out of 5 million army died or were taken prisoner. The Nazis captured the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, invaded Russia.

The reasons for the defeats at the initial stage of the war were as follows: 1) the military-economic potential of Germany and its allies was higher than that of the Soviet Union; 2) as a result of Stalin's repressions, the professional level of the Soviet commanding staff dropped sharply. This led to poor training of the troops, while the enemy troops had almost two years of battle experience; 3) major miscalculations of the Soviet leadership in military policy (belittling the role of mechanized formations, decommissioning a number of weapons before launching the production of their new types, destroying fortifications on the old border without creating a new line of defense, etc.); 4) criminal miscalculations in assessing the international situation. Blind faith that Hitler would not violate the non-aggression pact. This led to a sudden enemy attack for the Soviet military and political leadership.

As a result of the heroic defense of Leningrad, the defensive battles near Kiev and Smolensk, the advance of the German troops was suspended, which made it possible for the Soviet command to gain time and bring up reserves.

From September 30, 1941 to the end of April 1942, there was a grandiose battle near Moscow. The German plan for the attack on Moscow was codenamed "Typhoon". Possessing significant superiority in military equipment, the Nazis managed to break through the defenses of the Soviet troops and by the beginning of December reach the Canal. Moscow, force the river. Nara, approach Kashira from the south. However, the enemy could not advance further. On December 5-6, the troops of the Kalinin (I.S. Konev) and Western (G.K. Zhukov) fronts launched a counteroffensive. German troops were thrown back 100-250 km from Moscow. The immediate threat to the capital was eliminated. Hitler's plan for a blitzkrieg against the USSR was thwarted. Near Moscow, they suffered their first strategic defeat in World War II. Germany's allies - Türkiye and Japan - refrained from opening hostilities. The liberation struggle against fascism began to rise in the countries occupied by Germany.

In the summer of 1942, due to the mistakes of the top Soviet political and military leadership (overestimation of their own forces, underestimation of the enemy, the desire to conduct offensive operations on a wide front, the expectation of an enemy offensive in the Central direction), the Red Army suffered a number of major defeats in the North-West, near Kharkov, in the Crimea .

The Hitlerite command undertook a large-scale operation on the southern sector of the Soviet-German front. At the same time, the goals were pursued: to deprive the Red Army of Caucasian oil, to interrupt the connection of the USSR with the allies through Iran, the central regions with Central Asia, to involve Turkey in the war, to destroy the Black Sea Fleet.

In the summer of 1942, the German group "South" broke through the Soviet front and rushed to Stalingrad. Since the end of August, fighting has been going on in the city. At the same time, German troops were advancing in the Caucasian direction. In the area of ​​Stalingrad on November 19, Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive and on November 23 closed the encirclement of 22 fascist divisions, numbering more than 300 thousand people. On February 2, 1943, this grouping was liquidated.

The Battle of Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the war, i.e., the interception of the strategic initiative. Simultaneously with the fighting in the Stalingrad region, Soviet troops were attacking along the entire southern sector of the front. The enemy was forced to withdraw his units from the North Caucasus. By the summer of 1943 the front had stabilized.

On July 5, 1943, the enemy, taking advantage of the favorable configuration of the front in the Kursk region, attempted a counteroffensive with the aim of encircling the Soviet units. The Battle of Kursk began, lasting until August 23. During fierce battles, the German strike force was stopped, and the Soviet troops went on the offensive, freeing Orel, Belgorod. Kharkiv. The Battle of Kursk was a triumph of Soviet military art. German losses amounted to more than half a million people.

From the second half of July 1943, a general strategic offensive of the Red Army began along a front of 2,000 km. As a result of this offensive, he was released. Donbass, Left-bank Ukraine. In September, the battle for the Dnieper began. Soviet troops were able to capture bridgeheads on its right bank. On November 6, 1943, Kyiv was liberated.

During the summer-autumn offensive, half of the enemy divisions were defeated, and significant territories of the USSR were liberated. A new stage of the liberation war against fascism has begun in the occupied countries. The collapse of the fascist bloc began. In 1943, Italy was withdrawn from the war. The largest military-strategic operations of the Soviet troops in the winter - spring of 1944 should include: the final lifting of the 900-day blockade of Leningrad in January 1944. troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts; the liberation of the Right-Bank Ukraine (the most significant events in this sector of the front were the Korsun-Shevchenko operation); the liberation of the Crimea in May by the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front.

In the summer of 1944, even larger battles unfolded. At As a result of the offensive of the Karelian and Leningrad fronts, Finland left the war. At As a result of the operation "Bagration" carried out by the 1st, 2nd, 3rd Belorussian and 1st Baltic fronts, one of the strongest enemy groupings "Center" was defeated, Belarus was liberated, the liberation of the Baltic states began (ended in the fall of 1944) and Poland (ended at the beginning of 1945).

· Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front, as a result of the Lvov-Sandmir operation, defeated the enemy group of troops "Northern Ukraine", occupied Lvov and captured a bridgehead on the left bank of the Vistula.

· The 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, having carried out the Iasi-Chisinau operation, liquidated the German grouping and liberated Chisinau.

In 1944, the entire territory of the USSR was liberated from the Nazi occupation. The Soviet Army transferred military operations to the territories of the allies of fascist Germany and the countries captured by it.

At In August 1944, the new Romanian government declared war on Germany. By the beginning of September, Romania was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

· In September, units of the 3rd Ukrainian Front liberated Bulgaria. On September 9, as a result of the uprising in Sofia, the government of the Fatherland Front came to power.

· Troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front assisted the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia in the liberation of Belgrade (October 20) and the entire country from invaders.

At As a result of heavy fighting in late 1944 - early 1945, Hungary was liberated by the Soviet Army. At In the fall of 1944, Slovakia was liberated by Slovak partisans and Soviet units.

In February 1945, a conference of leaders of the countries participating in the anti-Hitler coalition (USSR, England, USA) was held in Yalta. At the conference, agreements were reached on the future structure of Germany, borders in post-war Europe, the entry of the USSR into the war with Japan, and the creation of the United Nations (UN).

In January 1945, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts carried out the Vistula-Oder operation, as a result of which Poland was cleared of the Nazis. Soviet troops reached the approaches to Berlin, the counteroffensive of German troops in the Ardennes against the Allies was thwarted.

At this time, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian fronts carried out the East Prussian operation. After fierce fighting, Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad) was taken.

From April 16 to May 2, the troops of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts (T.K. Zhukov, K.K. Rokossovsky, I.S. Konev) carried out the Berlin operation. The troops had to overcome the powerful fortifications of the enemy both on the outskirts and in the city itself. On April 18, the Seelow Heights were taken, and from April 22, fighting began on the outskirts of the city. April 24 Berlin was completely surrounded. On April 25, a meeting of Soviet and American troops took place on the Elbe. On May 2, the Berlin garrison laid down their arms. On May 8, Germany capitulated.

On May 5, an uprising began in Prague. Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front came to the aid of the rebels from Berlin. On May 9, Soviet troops entered the city.

From July 17 to August 2, 1945, a conference of leaders of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition (USSR, USA, England) was held in Potsdam, near Berlin. She confirmed and clarified the decisions of the Yalta Conference on the post-war structure of Europe, the borders, and the attitude of the allies towards defeated Germany. The Soviet Union confirmed its decision to enter the war against Japan.

№58/2 MOSCOW BATTLE

April 20, 1942 - The Battle of Moscow ended (began on September 30, 1941) during the Great Patriotic War.

The Moscow battle of 1941-1942 is a set of defensive and offensive operations of the Soviet troops in the Great Patriotic War, carried out from September 30, 1941 to April 20, 1942 in the western strategic direction with the aim of defending Moscow and the Central Industrial Region, defeating the German strike groups that threatened them . It included the strategic Moscow defensive operation (September 30 - December 5, 1941), the Moscow offensive operation (December 5, 1941 - January 7, 1942), the Rzhev-Vyazemskaya operation (January 8 - April 20, 1942) and the front-line Toropetsko-Kholmsky operation (January 9 - February 6, 1942). The troops of the Kalinin, Western, Reserve, Bryansk, left wing of the North-Western and right wing of the South-Western fronts, the troops of the country's Air Defense, and the Air Force participated in the Battle of Moscow. They were opposed by the German Army Group Center.

© RIA Novosti

The collapse of Operation Typhoon. Battle for Moscow in archival footage

By the beginning of the Moscow battle, the situation for the Soviet troops was extremely difficult. The enemy deeply invaded the country, capturing the Baltic states, Belarus, Moldova, a significant part of Ukraine, blockaded Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), reached the distant approaches to Moscow. After the failure of the plan to capture Moscow on the move in the first weeks of the war, the Nazi command prepared a major offensive operation under the code name Typhoon. The plan of the operation provided for dismembering the defense of the Soviet troops with three powerful strikes by tank groups from the areas of Dukhovshchina, Roslavl and Shostka in the eastern and northeastern directions, encircling and destroying Soviet troops in the areas west of Vyazma and east of Bryansk. Then it was planned to capture Moscow from the north and south with strong mobile groups and, in cooperation with the troops advancing from the front, capture it.

The German Army Group Center, intended for the offensive, had 1.8 million people, over 14 thousand guns and mortars, 1.7 thousand tanks and 1390 aircraft. Soviet troops numbered 1.25 million people, 7.6 thousand guns and mortars, 990 tanks, 677 aircraft (including reserve air groups).

The offensive according to the Typhoon plan was launched by the Nazi troops on September 30, 1941 in the Bryansk direction and on October 2 in the Vyazma direction. Despite the stubborn resistance of the Soviet troops, the enemy broke through their defenses. On October 6, he went to the area west of Vyazma and surrounded four armies of the Western and Reserve (on October 10, merged with the Western) fronts there. With their actions in the environment, these armies pinned down 28 enemy divisions; 14 of them could not continue the offensive until mid-October.

A difficult situation also developed in the Bryansk Front. On October 3, the enemy captured Orel, and on October 6, Bryansk. On October 7, the troops of the front were surrounded. Breaking out of encirclement, the armies of the Bryansk Front were forced to withdraw. By the end of October, the Nazi troops reached the approaches to Tula.

On the Kalinin direction, the enemy launched an offensive on October 10 and captured the city of Kalinin (now Tver) on October 17. Troops of the Kalinin Front (created on October 17) stopped the advance of the enemy's 9th Army in the second half of October, taking up an enveloping position in relation to the left wing of Army Group Center.

By the beginning of November, the front passed along the line of Selizharovo, Kalinin, the Volga reservoir, along the rivers Ozerna, Nara, Oka and further Tula, Novosil. In mid-November, fighting began on the near approaches to Moscow. They were especially stubborn in the Volokolamsk-Istra direction. On November 23, Soviet troops left Klin. The enemy captured Solnechnogorsk, Yakhroma, Krasnaya Polyana. In late November - early December, German troops reached the Moscow-Volga canal, crossed the Nara River north and south of Naro-Fominsk, approached Kashira from the south, and captured Tula from the east. But they didn't go any further. On November 27, in the Kashira region and on November 29, north of the capital, Soviet troops launched counterattacks on the southern and northern enemy groupings, on December 3-5, counterattacks in the areas of Yakhroma, Krasnaya Polyana and Kryukov.

By persistent and active defense, the Red Army forced the fascist strike groups to disperse on a huge front, which led to the loss of offensive and maneuvering capabilities. Conditions were created for the transition of Soviet troops to the counteroffensive. The reserve armies began to advance into the zones of the forthcoming actions of the Red Army. The idea of ​​the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops was to simultaneously defeat the most dangerous enemy strike groups that threatened Moscow from the north and south. To Moscow offensive operation the troops of the Western, Kalinin and right wing of the Southwestern (December 18, 1941 transformed into the Bryansk Front) fronts were involved.

The counteroffensive began on December 5 with a blow from the left wing of the Kalinin Front. Waging intense battles, by January 7, Soviet troops reached the line of the Volga River northwest and east of Rzhev. They advanced 60-120 kilometers to the south and south-west, taking up an enveloping position in relation to the German troops in front of the Western Front.

The armies of the right wing of the Western Front, which launched a counteroffensive on December 6, liberated Istra, Klin, Volokolamsk and pushed the enemy back 90-110 kilometers to the west, eliminating the threat of bypassing Moscow from the north. The armies of the left wing of the Western Front delivered powerful blows from several directions against the enemy's 2nd Panzer Army, which had penetrated deeply into the defenses. The fascist German command, fearing the encirclement of its troops east of Tula, began to withdraw them to the west. By the end of December 16, the immediate threat to Moscow was also eliminated from the south.

The right-flank armies of the Southwestern Front during the offensive liberated up to 400 settlements and on December 17 liquidated the Yelets ledge.

Continuing the offensive, by the beginning of January 1942, the Soviet troops pushed the enemy back 100-250 kilometers, inflicted heavy losses on his 38 divisions, and over 11 thousand settlements were liberated.

In early January 1942, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided on the transition of Soviet troops to a general offensive near Leningrad, as well as in the western and southwestern directions. The troops of the western direction were tasked with encircling and defeating the main forces of Army Group Center.

The offensive, which unfolded over a vast area, was carried out in separate directions, and the fronts began operations at different times and under different conditions. In the western direction, the troops of the Western and Kalinin Fronts carried out the Rzhev-Vyazemskaya, and the left wing of the North-Western (from January 22 Kalinin) Front - the Toropetsko-Kholmskaya operation, as a result of which the Germans were driven back from the capital by another 80-250 kilometers. Soviet troops penetrated deep into their defenses at the junction of Army Groups North and Center, disrupting operational interaction between them. However, it was not possible to encircle and destroy the main forces of Army Group Center.

Despite the incompleteness, the general offensive in the western direction achieved significant success. The enemy was thrown back 150-400 kilometers to the west, the Moscow and Tula regions, many areas of the Kalinin and Smolensk regions were liberated.

The enemy lost more than 500 thousand people killed, wounded and missing, 1.3 thousand tanks, 2.5 thousand guns and other equipment.

Germany suffered its first major defeat in World War II.

In the Battle of Moscow, Soviet troops also suffered significant losses. Irretrievable losses amounted to 936,644 people, sanitary - 898,689 people.

The outcome of the Battle of Moscow had enormous political and strategic consequences. There was a psychological turning point among the soldiers and the civilian population: faith in victory strengthened, the myth of the invincibility of the German army collapsed. The collapse of the lightning war plan ("Barbarossa") gave rise to doubts about the successful outcome of the war, both among the German military-political leadership and among ordinary Germans.

The Battle of Moscow was of great international importance: it contributed to the strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition, forced the governments of Japan and Turkey to refrain from entering the war on the side of Germany.

For the exemplary performance of combat missions during the Battle of Moscow and the valor and courage shown at the same time, about 40 units and formations received the title of guards, 36 thousand Soviet soldiers were awarded orders and medals, of which 110 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In 1944, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established the medal "For the Defense of Moscow", which was awarded to more than one million defenders of the city.

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