June 21, 1941, 13:00. German troops receive the code signal "Dortmund", confirming that the invasion will begin the next day.

Commander of the 2nd Tank Group of Army Group Center Heinz Guderian writes in his diary: “Careful observation of the Russians convinced me that they did not suspect anything about our intentions. In the courtyard of the Brest fortress, which was visible from our observation points, they were changing the guards to the sounds of an orchestra. The coastal fortifications along the Western Bug were not occupied by Russian troops."

21:00. Soldiers of the 90th border detachment of the Sokal commandant's office detained a German serviceman who crossed the border Bug River by swimming. The defector was sent to the detachment headquarters in the city of Vladimir-Volynsky.

23:00. German minelayers stationed in Finnish ports began to mine the exit from the Gulf of Finland. At the same time, Finnish submarines began laying mines off the coast of Estonia.

June 22, 1941, 0:30. The defector was taken to Vladimir-Volynsky. During interrogation, the soldier identified himself Alfred Liskov, soldiers of the 221st Regiment of the 15th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. He said that at dawn on June 22, the German army would go on the offensive along the entire length of the Soviet-German border. The information was transferred to higher command.

At the same time, the transmission of Directive No. 1 of the People's Commissariat of Defense for parts of the western military districts began from Moscow. “During June 22-23, 1941, a surprise attack by the Germans is possible on the fronts of LVO, PribOVO, ZAPOVO, KOVO, OdVO. An attack may begin with provocative actions,” the directive said. “The task of our troops is not to succumb to any provocative actions that could cause major complications.”

The units were ordered to be put on combat readiness, to secretly occupy firing points of fortified areas on the state border, and to disperse aircraft to field airfields.

It is not possible to convey the directive to military units before the start of hostilities, as a result of which the measures specified in it are not carried out.

Mobilization. Columns of fighters are moving to the front. Photo: RIA Novosti

“I realized that it was the Germans who opened fire on our territory”

1:00. The commandants of the sections of the 90th border detachment report to the head of the detachment, Major Bychkovsky: “nothing suspicious was noticed on the adjacent side, everything is calm.”

3:05 . A group of 14 German Ju-88 bombers drops 28 magnetic mines near the Kronstadt roadstead.

3:07. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, reports to the Chief of the General Staff, General Zhukov: “The fleet's air surveillance, warning and communications system reports the approach of a large number of unknown aircraft from the sea; The fleet is in full combat readiness."

3:10. The NKGB for the Lviv region transmits by telephone message to the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR the information obtained during the interrogation of the defector Alfred Liskov.

From the memoirs of the chief of the 90th border detachment, Major Bychkovsky: “Without finishing the interrogation of the soldier, I heard strong artillery fire in the direction of Ustilug (the first commandant’s office). I realized that it was the Germans who opened fire on our territory, which was immediately confirmed by the interrogated soldier. I immediately began to call the commandant by phone, but the connection was broken...”

3:30. Chief of Staff of the Western District General Klimovsky reports on enemy air raids on the cities of Belarus: Brest, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovichi and others.

3:33. The chief of staff of the Kyiv district, General Purkaev, reports on an air raid on the cities of Ukraine, including Kyiv.

3:40. Commander of the Baltic Military District General Kuznetsov reports on enemy air raids on Riga, Siauliai, Vilnius, Kaunas and other cities.

“The enemy raid has been repulsed. An attempt to strike our ships was foiled."

3:42. Chief of the General Staff Zhukov is calling Stalin and reports the start of hostilities by Germany. Stalin orders Tymoshenko and Zhukov arrive at the Kremlin, where an emergency meeting of the Politburo is convened.

3:45. The 1st border outpost of the 86th August border detachment was attacked by an enemy reconnaissance and sabotage group. Outpost personnel under command Alexandra Sivacheva, having entered into battle, destroys the attackers.

4:00. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, reports to Zhukov: “The enemy raid has been repulsed. An attempt to strike our ships was foiled. But there is destruction in Sevastopol.”

4:05. The outposts of the 86th August Border Detachment, including the 1st Border Outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev, come under heavy artillery fire, after which the German offensive begins. Border guards, deprived of communication with the command, engage in battle with superior enemy forces.

4:10. The Western and Baltic special military districts report the beginning of hostilities by German troops on the ground.

4:15. The Nazis open massive artillery fire on the Brest Fortress. As a result, warehouses were destroyed, communications were disrupted, and there were a large number of dead and wounded.

4:25. The 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division begins an attack on the Brest Fortress.

Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Residents of the capital on June 22, 1941, during the radio announcement of a government message about the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti

“Protecting not individual countries, but ensuring the security of Europe”

4:30. A meeting of Politburo members begins in the Kremlin. Stalin expresses doubt that what happened is the beginning of a war and does not exclude the possibility of a German provocation. People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko and Zhukov insist: this is war.

4:55. In the Brest Fortress, the Nazis manage to capture almost half of the territory. Further progress was stopped by a sudden counterattack by the Red Army.

5:00. German Ambassador to the USSR Count von Schulenburg presented to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Molotov“Note from the German Foreign Office to the Soviet Government,” which states: “The German Government cannot remain indifferent to the serious threat on the eastern border, therefore the Fuehrer has ordered the German Armed Forces to ward off this threat by all means.” An hour after the actual start of hostilities, Germany de jure declares war on the Soviet Union.

5:30. On German radio, the Reich Minister of Propaganda Goebbels reads out the appeal Adolf Hitler to the German people in connection with the start of the war against the Soviet Union: “Now the hour has come when it is necessary to speak out against this conspiracy of the Jewish-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and also the Jewish rulers of the Bolshevik center in Moscow... At the moment, a military action of the greatest extent and volume is taking place, what the world has ever seen... The task of this front is no longer to protect individual countries, but to ensure the security of Europe and thereby save everyone.”

7:00. Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Ribbentrop begins a press conference at which he announces the beginning of hostilities against the USSR: “The German army has invaded the territory of Bolshevik Russia!”

“The city is burning, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?”

7:15. Stalin approves a directive to repel the attack of Nazi Germany: “The troops with all their might and means attack enemy forces and destroy them in areas where they violated the Soviet border.” Transfer of “directive No. 2” due to saboteurs’ disruption of communication lines in the western districts. Moscow does not have a clear picture of what is happening in the combat zone.

9:30. It was decided that at noon, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov would address the Soviet people in connection with the outbreak of war.

10:00. From the speaker's memories Yuri Levitan: “They’re calling from Minsk: “Enemy planes are over the city,” they’re calling from Kaunas: “The city is burning, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?” “Enemy planes are over Kiev.” A woman’s crying, excitement: “Is it really war?..” However, no official messages are transmitted until 12:00 Moscow time on June 22.

10:30. From a report from the headquarters of the 45th German division about the battles on the territory of the Brest Fortress: “The Russians are resisting fiercely, especially behind our attacking companies. In the citadel, the enemy organized a defense with infantry units supported by 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles. Enemy sniper fire resulted in heavy casualties among officers and non-commissioned officers."

11:00. The Baltic, Western and Kiev special military districts were transformed into the North-Western, Western and South-Western fronts.

“The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours"

12:00. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov reads out an appeal to the citizens of the Soviet Union: “Today at 4 o’clock in the morning, without making any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed us with their planes attacked our cities - Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, and more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Raids by enemy planes and artillery shelling were also carried out from Romanian and Finnish territory... Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has already taken place, the Soviet government has given an order to our troops to repel the bandit attack and expel German troops from the territory of our homeland... The government calls on you, citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally our ranks even more closely around our glorious Bolshevik Party, around our Soviet government, around our great leader, Comrade Stalin.

Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours" .

12:30. Advanced German units break into the Belarusian city of Grodno.

13:00. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issues a decree “On the mobilization of those liable for military service...”
“Based on Article 49, paragraph “o” of the USSR Constitution, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announces mobilization on the territory of the military districts - Leningrad, Baltic special, Western special, Kiev special, Odessa, Kharkov, Oryol, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Ural, Siberian, Volga, North -Caucasian and Transcaucasian.

Those liable for military service who were born from 1905 to 1918 inclusive are subject to mobilization. The first day of mobilization is June 23, 1941.” Despite the fact that the first day of mobilization is June 23, recruiting stations at military registration and enlistment offices begin to operate by the middle of the day on June 22.

13:30. Chief of the General Staff General Zhukov flies to Kyiv as a representative of the newly created Headquarters of the Main Command on the Southwestern Front.

Photo: RIA Novosti

14:00. The Brest Fortress is completely surrounded by German troops. Soviet units blocked in the citadel continue to offer fierce resistance.

14:05. Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano states: “In view of the current situation, due to the fact that Germany declared war on the USSR, Italy, as an ally of Germany and as a member of the Tripartite Pact, also declares war on the Soviet Union from the moment German troops entered Soviet territory.”

14:10. The 1st border outpost of Alexander Sivachev has been fighting for more than 10 hours. The border guards, who had only small arms and grenades, destroyed up to 60 Nazis and burned three tanks. The wounded commander of the outpost continued to command the battle.

15:00. From the notes of the commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal von Bock: “The question of whether the Russians are carrying out a systematic withdrawal remains open. There is now plenty of evidence both for and against this.

What is surprising is that nowhere is any significant work of their artillery visible. Heavy artillery fire is conducted only in the northwest of Grodno, where the VIII Army Corps is advancing. Apparently, our air force has an overwhelming superiority over Russian aviation."

Of the 485 border posts attacked, not a single one withdrew without orders.

16:00. After a 12-hour battle, the Nazis took the positions of the 1st border outpost. This became possible only after all the border guards who defended it died. The head of the outpost, Alexander Sivachev, was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

The feat of the outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev was one of hundreds committed by border guards in the first hours and days of the war. On June 22, 1941, the state border of the USSR from the Barents to the Black Sea was guarded by 666 border outposts, 485 of which were attacked on the very first day of the war. Not one of the 485 outposts attacked on June 22 withdrew without orders.

Hitler's command allotted 20 minutes to break the resistance of the border guards. 257 Soviet border posts held their defense from several hours to one day. More than one day - 20, more than two days - 16, more than three days - 20, more than four and five days - 43, from seven to nine days - 4, more than eleven days - 51, more than twelve days - 55, more than 15 days - 51 outpost. Forty-five outposts fought for up to two months.

Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The workers of Leningrad listen to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti

Of the 19,600 border guards who met the Nazis on June 22 in the direction of the main attack of Army Group Center, more than 16,000 died in the first days of the war.

17:00. Hitler's units manage to occupy the southwestern part of the Brest Fortress, the northeast remained under the control of Soviet troops. Stubborn battles for the fortress will continue for weeks.

“The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland”

18:00. The Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow and Kolomna, addresses the believers with a message: “Fascist robbers attacked our homeland. Trampling all kinds of agreements and promises, they suddenly fell upon us, and now the blood of peaceful citizens is already irrigating our native land... Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. She endured trials with him and was consoled by his successes. She will not abandon her people even now... The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland.”

19:00. From the notes of the Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht Ground Forces, Colonel General Franz Halder: “All armies, except the 11th Army of Army Group South in Romania, went on the offensive according to plan. The offensive of our troops, apparently, came as a complete tactical surprise to the enemy along the entire front. Border bridges across the Bug and other rivers were everywhere captured by our troops without a fight and in complete safety. The complete surprise of our offensive for the enemy is evidenced by the fact that the units were taken by surprise in a barracks arrangement, the planes were stationed at airfields, covered with tarpaulins, and the advanced units, suddenly attacked by our troops, asked the command about what to do... The Air Force command reported, that today 850 enemy aircraft have been destroyed, including entire squadrons of bombers, which, having taken off without fighter cover, were attacked by our fighters and destroyed.”

20:00. Directive No. 3 of the People's Commissariat of Defense was approved, ordering Soviet troops to launch a counteroffensive with the task of defeating Hitler's troops on the territory of the USSR with further advance into enemy territory. The directive ordered the capture of the Polish city of Lublin by the end of June 24.

Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. June 22, 1941 Nurses provide assistance to the first wounded after a Nazi air raid near Chisinau. Photo: RIA Novosti

“We must provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can.”

21:00. Summary of the Red Army High Command for June 22: “At dawn on June 22, 1941, regular troops of the German army attacked our border units on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and were held back by them during the first half of the day. In the afternoon, German troops met with the advanced units of the field troops of the Red Army. After fierce fighting, the enemy was repulsed with heavy losses. Only in the Grodno and Kristinopol directions did the enemy manage to achieve minor tactical successes and occupy the towns of Kalwaria, Stoyanuv and Tsekhanovets (the first two are 15 km and the last 10 km from the border).

Enemy aircraft attacked a number of our airfields and populated areas, but everywhere they met decisive resistance from our fighters and anti-aircraft artillery, which inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. We shot down 65 enemy aircraft.”

23:00. Message from the Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill to the British people in connection with the German attack on the USSR: “At 4 o'clock this morning Hitler attacked Russia. All his usual formalities of treachery were observed with scrupulous precision... suddenly, without a declaration of war, even without an ultimatum, German bombs fell from the sky on Russian cities, German troops violated Russian borders, and an hour later the German ambassador, who just the day before had generously lavished his assurances on the Russians in friendship and almost an alliance, paid a visit to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and declared that Russia and Germany were at war...

No one has been more staunchly opposed to communism over the past 25 years than I have been. I will not take back a single word that was said about him. But all this pales in comparison to the spectacle unfolding now.

The past, with its crimes, follies and tragedies, recedes. I see Russian soldiers as they stand on the border of their native land and guard the fields that their fathers have plowed since time immemorial. I see them guarding their homes; their mothers and wives pray—oh, yes, because at such a time everyone prays for the safety of their loved ones, for the return of their breadwinner, patron, their protectors...

We must provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can. We must call on all our friends and allies in all parts of the world to pursue a similar course and pursue it as steadfastly and steadily as we will, to the very end.”

June 22 came to an end. There were still 1,417 days ahead of the worst war in human history.

The first 4 hours of the Great Patriotic War.

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.

Beginning of the Great Patriotic 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 the plans of the fascist command from the very beginning of the war were thwarted by the courage and heroism of our army and the entire people.

First hit

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 quickly advanced 400-450 km to the north-west, 450-600 km to the west, 300-350 km to the south-west, 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.

Feat of the army and people

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 significance. 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.

22 JUNE 1941 YEAR - THE BEGINNING OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR

On June 22, 1941, at 4 a.m., without declaring war, Nazi Germany and its allies attacked the Soviet Union. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War did not just happen on a Sunday. It was the church holiday of All Saints who shone in the Russian land.

Units of the Red Army were attacked by German troops along the entire border. Riga, Vindava, Libau, Siauliai, Kaunas, Vilnius, Grodno, Lida, Volkovysk, Brest, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovichi, Bobruisk, Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol and many other cities, railway junctions, airfields, naval bases of the USSR were bombed , artillery shelling was carried out on border fortifications and areas of deployment of Soviet troops near the border from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians. The Great Patriotic War began.

At that time, no one knew that it would go down in human history as the bloodiest. No one guessed that the Soviet people would have to go through inhuman tests, pass and win. To rid the world of fascism, showing everyone that the spirit of a Red Army soldier cannot be broken by the invaders. No one could have imagined that the names of the hero cities would become known to the whole world, that Stalingrad would become a symbol of the fortitude of our people, Leningrad - a symbol of courage, Brest - a symbol of courage. That, along with male warriors, old men, women and children will heroically defend the earth from the fascist plague.

1418 days and nights of war.

Over 26 million human lives...

These photographs have one thing in common: they were taken in the first hours and days of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

On the eve of the war

Soviet border guards on patrol. The photograph is interesting because it was taken for a newspaper at one of the outposts on the western border of the USSR on June 20, 1941, that is, two days before the war.

German air raid

The first to bear the blow were the border guards and the soldiers of the covering units. They not only defended themselves, but also launched counterattacks. For a whole month, the garrison of the Brest Fortress fought in the German rear. Even after the enemy managed to capture the fortress, some of its defenders continued to resist. The last of them was captured by the Germans in the summer of 1942.

The photo was taken on June 24, 1941.

During the first 8 hours of the war, Soviet aviation lost 1,200 aircraft, of which about 900 were lost on the ground (66 airfields were bombed). The Western Special Military District suffered the greatest losses - 738 aircraft (528 on the ground). Having learned about such losses, the head of the district air force, Major General Kopets I.I. shot himself.

On the morning of June 22, Moscow radio broadcast the usual Sunday programs and peaceful music. Soviet citizens learned about the start of the war only at noon, when Vyacheslav Molotov spoke on the radio. He reported: “Today, at 4 o’clock in the morning, without presenting any claims to the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country.”

Poster from 1941

On the same day, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published on the mobilization of those liable for military service born in 1905-1918 in the territory of all military districts. Hundreds of thousands of men and women received summonses, appeared at military registration and enlistment offices, and then were sent in trains to the front.

The mobilization capabilities of the Soviet system, multiplied during the Great Patriotic War by the patriotism and sacrifice of the people, played an important role in organizing resistance to the enemy, especially at the initial stage of the war. The call “Everything for the front, everything for victory!” was accepted by all the people. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens voluntarily joined the active army. In just a week since the start of the war, over 5 million people were mobilized.

The line between peace and war was invisible, and people did not immediately accept the change in reality. It seemed to many that this was just some kind of masquerade, a misunderstanding and that everything would soon be resolved.

The fascist troops met stubborn resistance in battles near Minsk, Smolensk, Vladimir-Volynsky, Przemysl, Lutsk, Dubno, Rivne, Mogilev, etc.And yet, in the first three weeks of the war, the Red Army troops abandoned Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, a significant part of Ukraine and Moldova. Six days after the start of the war, Minsk fell. The German army advanced in various directions from 350 to 600 km. The Red Army lost almost 800 thousand people.

The turning point in the perception of the war by the inhabitants of the Soviet Union was, of course, August 14. It was then that the whole country suddenly learned that The Germans occupied Smolensk . It really was a bolt from the blue. While the battles were going on “somewhere there, in the west,” and the reports flashed cities, the location of which many could hardly imagine, it seemed that the war was still far away. Smolensk is not just the name of a city, this word meant a lot. Firstly, it is already more than 400 km from the border, and secondly, it is only 360 km to Moscow. And thirdly, unlike all those Vilno, Grodno and Molodechno, Smolensk is an ancient purely Russian city.

The stubborn resistance of the Red Army in the summer of 1941 thwarted Hitler's plans. The Nazis failed to quickly take either Moscow or Leningrad, and in September the long defense of Leningrad began. In the Arctic, Soviet troops, in cooperation with the Northern Fleet, defended Murmansk and the main fleet base - Polyarny. Although in Ukraine in October - November the enemy captured the Donbass, captured Rostov, and broke into the Crimea, yet here, too, his troops were fettered by the defense of Sevastopol. Formations of Army Group South were unable to reach the rear of the Soviet troops remaining in the lower reaches of the Don through the Kerch Strait.

Minsk 1941. Execution of Soviet prisoners of war

September 30th within Operation Typhoon the Germans started general attack on Moscow . Its beginning was unfavorable for the Soviet troops. Bryansk and Vyazma fell. On October 10, G.K. was appointed commander of the Western Front. Zhukov. On October 19, Moscow was declared under siege. In bloody battles, the Red Army still managed to stop the enemy. Having strengthened Army Group Center, the German command resumed its attack on Moscow in mid-November. Overcoming the resistance of the Western, Kalinin and right wing of the Southwestern fronts, enemy strike groups bypassed the city from the north and south and by the end of the month reached the Moscow-Volga canal (25-30 km from the capital) and approached Kashira. At this point the German offensive fizzled out. The bloodless Army Group Center was forced to go on the defensive, which was also facilitated by the successful offensive operations of Soviet troops near Tikhvin (November 10 - December 30) and Rostov (November 17 - December 2). On December 6, the Red Army counteroffensive began. , as a result of which the enemy was thrown back 100 - 250 km from Moscow. Kaluga, Kalinin (Tver), Maloyaroslavets and others were liberated.

On guard of the Moscow sky. Autumn 1941

The victory near Moscow had enormous strategic, moral and political significance, since it was the first since the beginning of the war. The immediate threat to Moscow was eliminated.

Although, as a result of the summer-autumn campaign, our army retreated 850 - 1200 km inland, and the most important economic regions fell into the hands of the aggressor, the “blitzkrieg” plans were still thwarted. The Nazi leadership faced the inevitable prospect of a protracted war. The victory near Moscow also changed the balance of power in the international arena. The Soviet Union began to be looked upon as the decisive factor in the Second World War. Japan was forced to refrain from attacking the USSR.

In winter, units of the Red Army carried out offensives on other fronts. However, it was not possible to consolidate the success, primarily due to the dispersal of forces and resources along a front of enormous length.

During the offensive of German troops in May 1942, the Crimean Front was defeated in 10 days on the Kerch Peninsula. On May 15 we had to leave Kerch, and July 4, 1942 after stubborn defense Sevastopol fell. The enemy completely captured Crimea. In July - August, Rostov, Stavropol and Novorossiysk were captured. Stubborn fighting took place in the central part of the Caucasus ridge.

Hundreds of thousands of our compatriots ended up in more than 14 thousand concentration camps, prisons, and ghettos scattered throughout Europe. The scale of the tragedy is evidenced by dispassionate figures: in Russia alone, the fascist occupiers shot, strangled in gas chambers, burned, and hanged 1.7 million. people (including 600 thousand children). In total, about 5 million Soviet citizens died in concentration camps.

But, despite stubborn battles, the Nazis failed to solve their main task - to break into the Transcaucasus to seize the oil reserves of Baku. At the end of September, the offensive of fascist troops in the Caucasus was stopped.

To contain the enemy onslaught in the eastern direction, the Stalingrad Front was created under the command of Marshal S.K. Tymoshenko. On July 17, 1942, the enemy under the command of General von Paulus struck a powerful blow on the Stalingrad front. In August, the Nazis broke through to the Volga in stubborn battles. From the beginning of September 1942, the heroic defense of Stalingrad began. The battles were fought literally for every inch of land, for every house. Both sides suffered colossal losses. By mid-November, the Nazis were forced to stop the offensive. The heroic resistance of the Soviet troops made it possible to create favorable conditions for their launching a counteroffensive at Stalingrad and thereby mark the beginning of a radical change in the course of the war.

By November 1942, almost 40% of the population was under German occupation. The regions captured by the Germans were subject to military and civil administration. In Germany, a special ministry for the affairs of the occupied regions was even created, headed by A. Rosenberg. Political supervision was carried out by the SS and police services. Locally, the occupiers formed the so-called self-government - city and district councils, and the positions of elders were introduced in villages. People who were dissatisfied with Soviet power were invited to cooperate. All residents of the occupied territories, regardless of age, were required to work. In addition to participating in the construction of roads and defensive structures, they were forced to clear minefields. The civilian population, mainly young people, were also sent to forced labor in Germany, where they were called “ostarbeiter” and were used as cheap labor. In total, 6 million people were kidnapped during the war years. More than 6.5 million people were killed due to hunger and epidemics in the occupied territory, more than 11 million Soviet citizens were shot in camps and at their places of residence.

November 19, 1942 Soviet troops moved to counter-offensive at Stalingrad (Operation Uranus). The forces of the Red Army surrounded 22 divisions and 160 separate units of the Wehrmacht (about 330 thousand people). Hitler's command formed Army Group Don, consisting of 30 divisions, and tried to break through the encirclement. However, this attempt was unsuccessful. In December, our troops, having defeated this group, launched an attack on Rostov (Operation Saturn). By the beginning of February 1943, our troops eliminated a group of fascist troops that found themselves in a ring. 91 thousand people were taken prisoner, led by the commander of the 6th German Army, General Field Marshal von Paulus. Behind 6.5 months of the Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943) Germany and its allies lost up to 1.5 million people, as well as a huge amount of equipment. The military power of Nazi Germany was significantly undermined.

The defeat at Stalingrad caused a deep political crisis in Germany. It declared three days of mourning. The morale of German soldiers fell, defeatist sentiments gripped wide sections of the population, who trusted the Fuhrer less and less.

The victory of the Soviet troops at Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Second World War. The strategic initiative finally passed into the hands of the Soviet Armed Forces.

In January - February 1943, the Red Army launched an offensive on all fronts. In the Caucasian direction, Soviet troops advanced 500 - 600 km by the summer of 1943. In January 1943, the blockade of Leningrad was broken.

The Wehrmacht command planned summer 1943 conduct a major strategic offensive operation in the Kursk salient area (Operation Citadel) , defeat the Soviet troops here, and then strike in the rear of the Southwestern Front (Operation Panther) and subsequently, building on the success, again create a threat to Moscow. For this purpose, up to 50 divisions were concentrated in the Kursk Bulge area, including 19 tank and motorized divisions, and other units - a total of over 900 thousand people. This group was opposed by the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts, which had 1.3 million people. During the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle of World War II took place.

On July 5, 1943, a massive offensive of Soviet troops began. Within 5 - 7 days, our troops, stubbornly defending, stopped the enemy, who had penetrated 10 - 35 km behind the front line, and launched a counter-offensive. It has begun July 12 in the Prokhorovka area , Where The largest oncoming tank battle in the history of war took place (with the participation of up to 1,200 tanks on both sides). In August 1943, our troops captured Orel and Belgorod. In honor of this victory, a salute of 12 artillery salvoes was fired for the first time in Moscow. Continuing the offensive, our troops inflicted a crushing defeat on the Nazis.

In September, Left Bank Ukraine and Donbass were liberated. On November 6, formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Kyiv.

Having thrown the enemy back 200 - 300 km from Moscow, Soviet troops began to liberate Belarus. From that moment on, our command maintained the strategic initiative until the end of the war. From November 1942 to December 1943, the Soviet Army advanced westward by 500 - 1300 km, liberating about 50% of the enemy-occupied territory. 218 enemy divisions were defeated. During this period, partisan formations, in whose ranks up to 250 thousand people fought, caused great damage to the enemy.

The significant successes of the Soviet troops in 1943 intensified diplomatic and military-political cooperation between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. On November 28 - December 1, 1943, the Tehran Conference of the “Big Three” took place with the participation of I. Stalin (USSR), W. Churchill (Great Britain) and F. Roosevelt (USA). The leaders of the leading powers of the anti-Hitler coalition determined the timing of the opening of a second front in Europe (the landing operation Overlord was scheduled for May 1944).

Tehran Conference of the “Big Three” with the participation of I. Stalin (USSR), W. Churchill (Great Britain) and F. Roosevelt (USA).

In the spring of 1944, Crimea was cleared of the enemy.

In these favorable conditions, the Western Allies, after two years of preparation, opened a second front in Europe in northern France. June 6, 1944 the combined Anglo-American forces (General D. Eisenhower), numbering 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, began the largest war in years airborne Normandy Operation (Overlord) and entered Paris in August.

Continuing to develop the strategic initiative, in the summer of 1944, Soviet troops launched a powerful offensive in Karelia (June 10 - August 9), Belarus (June 23 - August 29), Western Ukraine (July 13 - August 29) and Moldova (June 20 - 29). August).

During Belarusian operation (code name "Bagration") Army Group Center was defeated, Soviet troops liberated Belarus, Latvia, part of Lithuania, eastern Poland and reached the border with East Prussia.

The victories of Soviet troops in the southern direction in the fall of 1944 helped the Bulgarian, Hungarian, Yugoslav and Czechoslovak peoples in their liberation from fascism.

As a result of military operations in 1944, the state border of the USSR, treacherously violated by Germany in June 1941, was restored along the entire length from the Barents to the Black Sea. The Nazis were expelled from Romania, Bulgaria, and most areas of Poland and Hungary. In these countries, pro-German regimes were overthrown and patriotic forces came to power. The Soviet Army entered the territory of Czechoslovakia.

While the bloc of fascist states was falling apart, the anti-Hitler coalition was strengthening, as evidenced by 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).

But still The Soviet Union played a decisive role in defeating the enemy at the final stage. Thanks to the titanic efforts of the entire people, the technical equipment and armament of the army and navy of the USSR reached its highest level by the beginning of 1945. In January - early April 1945, as a result of a powerful strategic offensive on the entire Soviet-German front with forces on ten fronts, the Soviet Army decisively defeated the main enemy forces. During the East Prussian, Vistula-Oder, West Carpathian and completion of the Budapest operations, Soviet troops created the conditions for further attacks in Pomerania and Silesia, and then for an attack on Berlin. Almost all of Poland and Czechoslovakia, as well as the entire territory of Hungary, were liberated.

The capture of the capital of the Third Reich and the final defeat of fascism was carried out during Berlin operation (April 16 - May 8, 1945).

April 30 in the bunker of the Reich Chancellery Hitler committed suicide .

On the morning of May 1, over the Reichstag by sergeants M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria was hoisted the Red Banner as a symbol of the Victory of the Soviet people. On May 2, Soviet troops completely captured the city. Attempts by the new German government, which was headed by Grand Admiral K. Dönitz on May 1, 1945 after the suicide of A. Hitler, to achieve a separate peace with the USA and Great Britain failed.

May 9, 1945 at 0:43 a.m. In the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed. On behalf of the Soviet side, this historical document was signed by the war hero, Marshal G.K. Zhukov, from Germany - Field Marshal Keitel. On the same day, the remnants of the last large enemy group on the territory of Czechoslovakia in the Prague region were defeated. City Liberation Day - May 9 became Victory Day of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The news of the Victory spread throughout the world with lightning speed. The Soviet people, who suffered the greatest losses, greeted it with popular rejoicing. Truly, it was a great holiday “with tears in our eyes.”

In Moscow, on Victory Day, a festive fireworks display of a thousand guns was fired.

Great Patriotic War 1941-1945

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

22 June 1941 of the year

- the beginning of the Great Patriotic War

On June 22, 1941, at 4 a.m., without declaring war, Nazi Germany and its allies attacked the Soviet Union. Units of the Red Army were attacked by German troops along the entire border. Riga, Vindava, Libau, Siauliai, Kaunas, Vilnius, Grodno, Lida, Volkovysk, Brest, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovichi, Bobruisk, Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol and many other cities, railway junctions, airfields, naval bases of the USSR were bombed , artillery shelling was carried out on border fortifications and areas of deployment of Soviet troops near the border from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathians. The Great Patriotic War began.

At that time, no one knew that it would go down in human history as the bloodiest. No one guessed that the Soviet people would have to go through inhuman tests, pass and win. To rid the world of fascism, showing everyone that the spirit of a Red Army soldier cannot be broken by the invaders. No one could have imagined that the names of the hero cities would become known to the whole world, that Stalingrad would become a symbol of the fortitude of our people, Leningrad - a symbol of courage, Brest - a symbol of courage. That, along with male warriors, old men, women and children will heroically defend the earth from the fascist plague.

1418 days and nights of war.

Over 26 million human lives...

These photographs have one thing in common: they were taken in the first hours and days of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War.

On the eve of the war

Soviet border guards on patrol. The photograph is interesting because it was taken for a newspaper at one of the outposts on the western border of the USSR on June 20, 1941, that is, two days before the war.

German air raid

The first to bear the blow were the border guards and the soldiers of the covering units. They not only defended themselves, but also launched counterattacks. For a whole month, the garrison of the Brest Fortress fought in the German rear. Even after the enemy managed to capture the fortress, some of its defenders continued to resist. The last of them was captured by the Germans in the summer of 1942.

The photo was taken on June 24, 1941.

During the first 8 hours of the war, Soviet aviation lost 1,200 aircraft, of which about 900 were lost on the ground (66 airfields were bombed). The Western Special Military District suffered the greatest losses - 738 aircraft (528 on the ground). Having learned about such losses, the head of the district air force, Major General Kopets I.I. shot himself.

On the morning of June 22, Moscow radio broadcast the usual Sunday programs and peaceful music. Soviet citizens learned about the start of the war only at noon, when Vyacheslav Molotov spoke on the radio. He said: “Today, at 4 o’clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country.”

Poster from 1941

On the same day, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was published on the mobilization of those liable for military service born in 1905-1918 in the territory of all military districts. Hundreds of thousands of men and women received summonses, appeared at military registration and enlistment offices, and then were sent in trains to the front.

The mobilization capabilities of the Soviet system, multiplied during the Great Patriotic War by the patriotism and sacrifice of the people, played an important role in organizing resistance to the enemy, especially at the initial stage of the war. The call “Everything for the front, everything for victory!” was accepted by all the people. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens voluntarily joined the active army. In just a week since the start of the war, over 5 million people were mobilized.

The line between peace and war was invisible, and people did not immediately accept the change in reality. It seemed to many that this was just some kind of masquerade, a misunderstanding and that everything would soon be resolved.

The fascist troops met stubborn resistance in battles near Minsk, Smolensk, Vladimir-Volynsky, Przemysl, Lutsk, Dubno, Rivne, Mogilev, etc.And yet, in the first three weeks of the war, the Red Army troops abandoned Latvia, Lithuania, Belarus, a significant part of Ukraine and Moldova. Six days after the start of the war, Minsk fell. The German army advanced in various directions from 350 to 600 km. The Red Army lost almost 800 thousand people.

The turning point in the perception of the war by the inhabitants of the Soviet Union was, of course, August 14. It was then that the whole country suddenly learned that the Germans had occupied Smolensk. It really was a bolt from the blue. While the battles were going on “somewhere there, in the west,” and the reports flashed cities, the location of which many could hardly imagine, it seemed that the war was still far away. Smolensk is not just the name of a city, this word meant a lot. Firstly, it is already more than 400 km from the border, and secondly, it is only 360 km to Moscow. And thirdly, unlike all those Vilno, Grodno and Molodechno, Smolensk is an ancient purely Russian city.

The stubborn resistance of the Red Army in the summer of 1941 thwarted Hitler's plans. The Nazis failed to quickly take either Moscow or Leningrad, and in September the long defense of Leningrad began. In the Arctic, Soviet troops, in cooperation with the Northern Fleet, defended Murmansk and the main fleet base - Polyarny. Although in Ukraine in October - November the enemy captured the Donbass, captured Rostov, and broke into the Crimea, yet here, too, his troops were fettered by the defense of Sevastopol. Formations of Army Group South were unable to reach the rear of the Soviet troops remaining in the lower reaches of the Don through the Kerch Strait.

Minsk 1941. Execution of Soviet prisoners of war

September 30th within Operation Typhoon the Germans started general attack on Moscow. Its beginning was unfavorable for the Soviet troops. Bryansk and Vyazma fell. On October 10, G.K. was appointed commander of the Western Front. Zhukov. On October 19, Moscow was declared under siege. In bloody battles, the Red Army still managed to stop the enemy. Having strengthened Army Group Center, the German command resumed its attack on Moscow in mid-November. Overcoming the resistance of the Western, Kalinin and right wing of the Southwestern fronts, enemy strike groups bypassed the city from the north and south and by the end of the month reached the Moscow-Volga canal (25-30 km from the capital) and approached Kashira. At this point the German offensive fizzled out. The bloodless Army Group Center was forced to go on the defensive, which was also facilitated by the successful offensive operations of Soviet troops near Tikhvin (November 10 - December 30) and Rostov (November 17 - December 2). On December 6, the counteroffensive began of the Red Army, as a result of which the enemy was driven back from Moscow by 100 - 250 km. Kaluga, Kalinin (Tver), Maloyaroslavets and others were liberated.

On guard of the Moscow sky. Autumn 1941

The victory near Moscow had enormous strategic, moral and political significance, since it was the first since the beginning of the war. The immediate threat to Moscow was eliminated.

Although, as a result of the summer-autumn campaign, our army retreated 850 - 1200 km inland, and the most important economic regions fell into the hands of the aggressor, the “blitzkrieg” plans were still thwarted. The Nazi leadership faced the inevitable prospect of a protracted war. The victory near Moscow also changed the balance of power in the international arena. The Soviet Union began to be looked upon as the decisive factor in the Second World War. Japan was forced to refrain from attacking the USSR.

In winter, units of the Red Army carried out offensives on other fronts. However, it was not possible to consolidate the success, primarily due to the dispersal of forces and resources along a front of enormous length.

During the offensive of German troops in May 1942, the Crimean Front was defeated in 10 days on the Kerch Peninsula. On May 15 we had to leave Kerch, and July 4, 1942 after stubborn defense Sevastopol fell. The enemy completely captured Crimea. In July - August, Rostov, Stavropol and Novorossiysk were captured. Stubborn fighting took place in the central part of the Caucasus ridge.

Hundreds of thousands of our compatriots ended up in more than 14 thousand concentration camps, prisons, and ghettos scattered throughout Europe. The scale of the tragedy is evidenced by dispassionate figures: in Russia alone, the fascist occupiers shot, strangled in gas chambers, burned, and hanged 1.7 million. people (including 600 thousand children). In total, about 5 million Soviet citizens died in concentration camps.

But, despite stubborn battles, the Nazis failed to solve their main task - to break into the Transcaucasus to seize the oil reserves of Baku. At the end of September, the offensive of fascist troops in the Caucasus was stopped.

To contain the enemy onslaught in the eastern direction, the Stalingrad Front was created under the command of Marshal S.K. Tymoshenko. On July 17, 1942, the enemy under the command of General von Paulus struck a powerful blow on the Stalingrad front. In August, the Nazis broke through to the Volga in stubborn battles. From the beginning of September the heroic defense of Stalingrad began. The battles were fought literally for every inch of land, for every house. Both sides suffered colossal losses. By mid-November, the Nazis were forced to stop the offensive. The heroic resistance of the Soviet troops made it possible to create favorable conditions for their launching a counteroffensive at Stalingrad and thereby mark the beginning of a radical change in the course of the war.

By November 1942, almost 40% of the population was under German occupation. The regions captured by the Germans were subject to military and civil administration. In Germany, a special ministry for the affairs of the occupied regions was even created, headed by A. Rosenberg. Political supervision was carried out by the SS and police services. Locally, the occupiers formed the so-called self-government - city and district councils, and the positions of elders were introduced in villages. People who were dissatisfied with Soviet power were invited to cooperate. All residents of the occupied territories, regardless of age, were required to work. In addition to participating in the construction of roads and defensive structures, they were forced to clear minefields. The civilian population, mainly young people, were also sent to forced labor in Germany, where they were called “ostarbeiter” and were used as cheap labor. In total, 6 million people were kidnapped during the war years. More than 6.5 million people were killed due to hunger and epidemics in the occupied territory, more than 11 million Soviet citizens were shot in camps and at their places of residence.

On November 19, 1942, Soviet troops moved to counter-offensive at Stalingrad (Operation Uranus). The forces of the Red Army surrounded 22 divisions and 160 separate units of the Wehrmacht (about 330 thousand people). Hitler's command formed Army Group Don, consisting of 30 divisions, and tried to break through the encirclement. However, this attempt was unsuccessful. In December, our troops, having defeated this group, launched an attack on Rostov (Operation Saturn). By the beginning of February 1943, our troops eliminated a group of fascist troops that found themselves in a ring. 91 thousand people were taken prisoner, led by the commander of the 6th German Army, General Field Marshal von Paulus. During the 6.5 months of the Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943), Germany and its allies lost up to 1.5 million people, as well as a huge amount of equipment. The military power of Nazi Germany was significantly undermined.

The defeat at Stalingrad caused a deep political crisis in Germany. It declared three days of mourning. The morale of German soldiers fell, defeatist sentiments gripped wide sections of the population, who trusted the Fuhrer less and less.

The victory of the Soviet troops at Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Second World War. The strategic initiative finally passed into the hands of the Soviet Armed Forces.

In January - February 1943, the Red Army launched an offensive on all fronts. In the Caucasian direction, Soviet troops advanced 500 - 600 km by the summer of 1943. In January 1943, the blockade of Leningrad was broken.

The Wehrmacht command planned to conduct a major strategic offensive operation in the Kursk salient area in the summer of 1943 (Operation Citadel), defeat the Soviet troops here, and then strike in the rear of the Southwestern Front (Operation Panther) and subsequently, building on the success, again create a threat to Moscow. For this purpose, up to 50 divisions were concentrated in the Kursk Bulge area, including 19 tank and motorized divisions, and other units - a total of over 900 thousand people. This group was opposed by the troops of the Central and Voronezh fronts, which had 1.3 million people. During the Battle of Kursk, the largest tank battle of World War II took place.

On July 5, 1943, a massive offensive of Soviet troops began. Within 5 - 7 days, our troops, stubbornly defending, stopped the enemy, who had penetrated 10 - 35 km behind the front line, and launched a counter-offensive. It began on July 12 in the Prokhorovka area, where the largest oncoming tank battle in the history of wars took place (with the participation of up to 1,200 tanks on both sides). In August 1943, our troops captured Orel and Belgorod. In honor of this victory, a salute of 12 artillery salvoes was fired for the first time in Moscow. Continuing the offensive, our troops inflicted a crushing defeat on the Nazis.

In September, Left Bank Ukraine and Donbass were liberated. On November 6, formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Kyiv.

Having thrown the enemy back 200 - 300 km from Moscow, Soviet troops began to liberate Belarus. From that moment on, our command maintained the strategic initiative until the end of the war. From November 1942 to December 1943, the Soviet Army advanced westward by 500 - 1300 km, liberating about 50% of the enemy-occupied territory. 218 enemy divisions were defeated. During this period, partisan formations, in whose ranks up to 250 thousand people fought, caused great damage to the enemy.

The significant successes of the Soviet troops in 1943 intensified diplomatic and military-political cooperation between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. On November 28 - December 1, 1943, the Tehran Conference of the “Big Three” took place with the participation of I. Stalin (USSR), W. Churchill (Great Britain) and F. Roosevelt (USA). The leaders of the leading powers of the anti-Hitler coalition determined the timing of the opening of a second front in Europe (the landing operation Overlord was scheduled for May 1944).

Tehran Conference of the “Big Three” with the participation of I. Stalin (USSR), W. Churchill (Great Britain) and F. Roosevelt (USA).

In the spring of 1944, Crimea was cleared of the enemy.

In these favorable conditions, the Western Allies, after two years of preparation, opened a second front in Europe in northern France. On June 6, 1944, the combined Anglo-American forces (General D. Eisenhower), numbering 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 Pas de Calais, began the largest war during the years airborne Normandy Operation (Overlord) and entered Paris in August.

Continuing to develop the strategic initiative, in the summer of 1944, Soviet troops launched a powerful offensive in Karelia (June 10 - August 9), Belarus (June 23 - August 29), Western Ukraine (July 13 - August 29) and Moldova (June 20 - 29). August).

During Belarusian operation (code name "Bagration") Army Group Center was defeated, Soviet troops liberated Belarus, Latvia, part of Lithuania, eastern Poland and reached the border with East Prussia.

The victories of Soviet troops in the southern direction in the fall of 1944 helped the Bulgarian, Hungarian, Yugoslav and Czechoslovak peoples in their liberation from fascism.

As a result of military operations in 1944, the state border of the USSR, treacherously violated by Germany in June 1941, was restored along the entire length from the Barents to the Black Sea. The Nazis were expelled from Romania, Bulgaria, and most areas of Poland and Hungary. In these countries, pro-German regimes were overthrown and patriotic forces came to power. The Soviet Army entered the territory of Czechoslovakia.

While the bloc of fascist states was falling apart, the anti-Hitler coalition was strengthening, as evidenced by 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).

And yet, the Soviet Union played a decisive role in defeating the enemy at the final stage. Thanks to the titanic efforts of the entire people, the technical equipment and armament of the army and navy of the USSR reached its highest level by the beginning of 1945. In January - early April 1945, as a result of a powerful strategic offensive on the entire Soviet-German front with forces on ten fronts, the Soviet Army decisively defeated the main enemy forces. During the East Prussian, Vistula-Oder, West Carpathian and completion of the Budapest operations, Soviet troops created the conditions for further attacks in Pomerania and Silesia, and then for an attack on Berlin. Almost all of Poland and Czechoslovakia, as well as the entire territory of Hungary, were liberated.

The capture of the capital of the Third Reich and the final defeat of fascism was carried out during the Berlin operation (April 16 - May 8, 1945).

On April 30, Hitler committed suicide in the Reich Chancellery bunker.

On the morning of May 1, over the Reichstag by sergeants M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria was hoisted the Red Banner as a symbol of the Victory of the Soviet people. On May 2, Soviet troops completely captured the city. Attempts by the new German government, which was headed by Grand Admiral K. Dönitz on May 1, 1945 after the suicide of A. Hitler, to achieve a separate peace with the USA and Great Britain failed.

May 9, 1945 at 0:43 a.m. In the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed. On behalf of the Soviet side, this historical document was signed by the war hero, Marshal G.K. Zhukov, from Germany - Field Marshal Keitel. On the same day, the remnants of the last large enemy group on the territory of Czechoslovakia in the Prague region were defeated. The day of the liberation of the city - May 9 - became the Victory Day of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The news of the Victory spread throughout the world with lightning speed. The Soviet people, who suffered the greatest losses, greeted it with popular rejoicing. Truly, it was a great holiday “with tears in our eyes.”

In Moscow, on Victory Day, a festive fireworks display of a thousand guns was fired.

Great Patriotic War 1941-1945

Material prepared by Sergey Shulyak

Information from the website hram-troicy.prihod.ru

In 1941, Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. Plan “Barbarossa” came into effect - a plan for a lightning war against the USSR, which, according to the plans of the military-political leadership of Germany, was supposed to lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union within 8-10 weeks. Having unleashed a war against the USSR, the Nazis put forward a version about the supposedly preparing invasion of Europe by the Red Army in 1941, about the threat to Germany, which, in order to protect its country and other Western European countries, was forced to start a preemptive “preventive” war against the Soviet Union. The explanation of war as a preventive measure was first given by Hitler to the Wehrmacht generals on the day of the attack on our country. He said that “now the moment has come when the wait-and-see policy is not only a sin, but also a crime violating the interests of the German people. And, consequently, throughout Europe. Now approximately 150 Russian divisions are on our border. For a number of weeks, there have been continuous violations of this border, not only on our territory, but also in the Far North of Europe and in Romania. The Soviet pilots had fun by not recognizing the border, obviously in order to prove to us that they considered themselves the masters of these territories. On the night of June 18, Russian patrols again penetrated German territory and were pushed back only after a lengthy firefight." The same was mentioned in Hitler’s address “To the Soldiers of the Eastern Front,” read out to the Wehrmacht personnel on the night of June 22, 1941. In it, military actions against the Soviet Union were allegedly motivated by “Russian offensive intentions.”

Officially, this version was put into use on June 22, 1941, in a statement by the German ambassador F. Schulenburg, transmitted to the Soviet government, and in a memorandum presented by I. Ribbentrop on the same day to the Soviet ambassador in Berlin V. Dekanozov - after the invasion of German troops into Soviet territory. Schulenburg's statement argued that while Germany had faithfully observed the Soviet-German non-aggression pact, Russia had repeatedly violated it. The USSR carried out “sabotage, terrorism, and espionage” against Germany and “opposed German attempts to establish a stable order in Europe.” The Soviet Union conspired with England “to attack German troops in Romania and Bulgaria”, concentrating “all available Russian armed forces on a long front from the Baltic to the Black Sea”, the USSR “created a threat to the Reich.” Therefore, the Fuhrer “ordered the German armed forces to repulse this threat with all means at their disposal.” A memorandum from the German government handed to Dekanozov stated: “The hostile behavior towards Germany of the Soviet government and the serious danger manifested in the movement of Russian troops to the German eastern border forces the Reich to respond.” The accusation of the Soviet Union of aggressiveness, of the intention to “blow up Germany from the inside,” was contained in Hitler’s address to the German people, read out on the morning of June 22 by Goebbels on the radio.

Thus, the Nazi leaders, trying to justify fascist aggression, argued that they were forced to take the path of a “preventive” war against the USSR, since it was allegedly preparing to attack Germany, to stab it in the back. The version of a “preventive” strike tries to relieve German fascism of responsibility for starting the war, leads to an assertion of the USSR’s guilt for the beginning, because, as follows from its judgments, the Wehrmacht allegedly took actions that were only offensive in a military sense, but completely justified in a political sense. More broadly, according to some domestic historians, this issue also affects the problem of Nazi Germany’s responsibility for World War II.

In a statement by the Soviet government in connection with the German attack on the USSR, these “justifications” for fascist aggression were qualified as a policy of “retroactively concocting incriminating material about the Soviet Union’s non-compliance with the Soviet-German Pact.”

Domestic historians, revealing the origins of the version of a “preventive” war, emphasize that a similar point of view: “Germany’s war against the USSR is only preventing the impending strike of the Red Army” was also expressed by other leaders of the Third Reich close to Hitler: Rudolf Hess, Heydrich, General - Colonel A. Jodl and others. These statements were picked up by the propaganda department of J. Goebbels and for a long time were used to deceive the German people and the peoples of other countries; the idea of ​​a “preventive” war was increasingly being introduced into people’s minds. Under the influence of this and pre-war propaganda, many Germans, both at the front and in the rear, considered the war to be just, as stated in a security report on July 7, 1941, “an absolutely necessary defensive measure.”

Hitler himself, at a meeting on July 21, 1941, stated: “there are no signs of the USSR acting against us.”

Domestic historians who reject the far-fetched false statements of the Nazis also rely on the fact that the version of a preventive attack - the most convenient one to justify aggression - was essentially rejected by none other than Hitler himself. At a meeting on July 21, 1941, he, characterizing Stalin’s intentions, stated that “there are no signs of action (USSR. – M.F.) no against us." We emphasize that it was at this meeting that Field Marshal V. Brauchitsch received Hitler’s instructions to begin developing a plan for an attack on the USSR.

Let us mention another very important statement by Hitler, in which he concentratedly described the fundamental motives for his decision to start a war against the USSR - it is given in the work of the German historian J. Tauber. On February 15, 1945 (the end of the war was already approaching) Hitler returned to the topic of war. “The most difficult decision of this war was the order to attack Russia,” he said. – There was no longer any hope of ending the war in the West by landing on the English islands. The war could continue endlessly; a war in which the prospects for Americans to participate in it were increasingly increasing... Time - time again and again! – everything worked against us more and more. The only way to force England to peace was to destroy the Red Army and deprive the British of the hope of opposing us on the continent with an equal enemy.”

Please note: there is not a single word about the threat of an attack by the Soviet Union on Germany, about a stab in the back and about other arguments to justify a “preventive” attack on the USSR.

Goebbels: “Preventive war is the safest and most convenient war, considering that the enemy must still be attacked.”

Let's also read the notes of the Minister of Propaganda of the Third Reich, J. Goebbels. On June 16, 1941, he wrote in his diary: “The Fuhrer declares that we must achieve victory, whether we are right or wrong. We must achieve victory by any means, otherwise the German people will be wiped off the face of the earth." On July 9, in an atmosphere of euphoria from the victories of the Wehrmacht, he writes: “Preventive war is the most reliable and convenient war, if we take into account that the enemy must still be attacked at the first opportunity. This is what happened in relation to Bolshevism. Now we will beat him until he is destroyed." As they say, comments are unnecessary here.

The version of a “preventive” war was rejected at the Nuremberg trials of the main war criminals in 1945–1946. Thus, the former head of the German press and radio broadcasting, G. Fritsche, stated in his testimony that he organized a wide campaign of anti-Soviet propaganda, trying to convince the public that “we only anticipated the attack of the Soviet Union... The next task of German propaganda was to ensure that all the time emphasize that it is not Germany, but the Soviet Union, that is responsible for this war, although there was no reason to accuse the USSR of preparing an attack on Germany.” And a number of German generals who testified at the trial did not deny this. Even Paulus, who was the developer of the Barbarossa plan, admitted that “we did not come to our attention with any facts indicating that the Soviet Union was preparing for an attack.” Field Marshal von Rundstedt said: “In March 1941, I did not have the slightest idea about the supposedly carried out (by the USSR. – M.F.) military preparations." He and other generals briefed by Hitler were surprised to hear that “the Russians are arming themselves very heavily and are now deploying troops to attack us.” According to General von Brauchitsch, during a visit to the 17th Army in June 1941, he became convinced that the grouping of Red Army forces had a pronounced defensive character.

Map of Operation Barbarossa

“On June 22, 1941,” the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal notes, “without a declaration of war, Germany invaded Soviet territory in accordance with pre-prepared plans. The evidence presented to the tribunal confirms that Germany had carefully developed plans to crush the USSR as a political and military force in order to clear the way for expansion to the East in accordance with its aspirations... Plans for the economic exploitation of the USSR, the mass deportation of the population, the murder of commissars and political leaders are part of an elaborate plan that began on June 22 without any warning and without legal justification. It was obvious aggression."

The thesis about the preventiveness of an attack, as G. Kumanev and E. Shklyar rightly note, was always included in the official explanations of its actions by the Hitlerite Reich. However, the plan for the invasion of Austria was developed 4 months before the Anschluss, Czechoslovakia 11 months before its occupation, Poland 5 months before the start of hostilities, and the Soviet Union almost a year before the attack. It should be borne in mind that these countries were ready to compromise and make concessions in order not to give Germany a pretext for aggression.

The version of a “preventive” war is completely untenable; there was unprovoked, treacherous aggression on the part of Nazi Germany. A. Utkin believes that “in general, historiographical stars of the first magnitude on this issue agree that in June 1941, it was not a preventive war that was started, but the implementation of Hitler’s true intentions, which were ideologically motivated,” began.

The inconsistency of the Nazi thesis about a “preventive” war has been proven quite thoroughly and in detail in many works of domestic historians. The facts they cited, based on archival and other sources, indicate that the Soviet state did not plan any aggressive actions, without intending to attack anyone. Most Russian authors convincingly show that the thesis about a “preventive” war of Germany against the Soviet Union is intended to distort the socio-political essence of the war of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany, its fair, liberating character. At the same time, they rely on documents that have long become known, indisputably testifying to the barbaric, merciless nature of Germany’s war against the USSR, the essence of which can be described in two words: conquer and destroy.

Hitler: “Our task in Russia is to destroy the state. This is a fight of destruction."

This demand for cruelty towards the population permeates the orders of the German command. Thus, Colonel General E. Gepner demanded: “The war against Russia... This is the long-standing struggle of the Germans against the Slavs, the defense of European culture from the Moscow-Asian invasion, a rebuff to Bolshevism. This struggle must have the goal of turning today’s Russia into ruins, and therefore it must be waged with unheard-of cruelty.”

In 1991, the exhibition “War of Extermination. Crimes of the Wehrmacht in 1941–1944." Documentary exhibition. She demonstrated that on the basis of these orders a war of annihilation was waged against the USSR. The exhibition catalog convincingly shows that the Wehrmacht was responsible for waging a war in the East in 1941–1944, “contrary to international law,” for the extermination of millions of people.

Actions against enemy civilians committed by members of the Wehrmacht and civilians, as stated in the decree of Hitler as Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht on May 13, 1941, on military proceedings in the war with the Soviet Union, will not be subject to mandatory prosecution, even if the act constitutes a war crime or misdemeanor. . This decree legitimized draconian measures against the Soviet population, essentially viewing the war with the Soviet Union as fundamentally different from all other “military campaigns” undertaken in 1939, notes German historian J. Förster. It should be considered, he wrote, “as a struggle of the Germans against the Slavs” with the goal of “destroying present-day Russia.”

Hitler: “We don’t need Tsarist, Soviet, or any Russia”

Specifying long-term plans, Hitler said: “It should be absolutely clear that from these areas (the captured lands. – M.F.) we’ll never leave again.” According to the Fuhrer, they represent a “huge pie” that had to be “mastered.” For an occupied country, three criteria were established: first, to take possession; secondly, to manage; thirdly, exploit. For this, “we will use all necessary measures: executions, evictions, etc.” . He put it in monosyllables: “We don’t need Tsarist, Soviet, or any Russia.”

Goering: “In Russia, between 20 and 30 million people will die of hunger. It’s good that this will happen: after all, some nations need to be reduced.”

What will happen to the Russians and other peoples of the country? Let us turn to the Ost master plan and the documents related to this plan. The plan itself was discovered in the German Federal Archives only in the late 80s of the last century. And it became available in digital form only in December 2009. A document drawn up by Dr. Wetzel, head of colonization of the First Main Political Directorate of the Rosenberg Ministry, dated April 1942, states: “This is not only about the defeat of the state centered in Moscow. The point is most likely to defeat the Russians as a people... from a biological, especially from a racial-biological point of view...” Here is another excerpt from the documents that have become known: “Destruction of the biological power of the eastern peoples through negative demographic policies... Its goal is to change in the future the quantitative relationship between alien peoples and Germans in favor of the latter and thus reduce the difficulties arising from domination over them.” Hitler believed there was no point in feeling sorry for subhumans. “This year in Russia between 20 and 30 million people will die of hunger. Maybe it’s even good that this will happen: after all, some nations need to be reduced,” Goering said in a conversation with Ciano in November 1941, repeating Hitler’s thoughts. In total, in his opinion, no more than 15–30 million people should remain on Russian territory. Let the rest move to the east or die - as they please. Assessing the goals of the entire political leadership of Germany, the German historian O. Klöde writes that “not only Bolshevism, but also the Russian nation was subject to destruction... And in the case of the Slavs in general, Hitler advocated the destruction of not only another worldview, but also a foreign people.”

An unenviable consideration awaited those who remained alive. In one of his table conversations, Hitler said: “The peoples we have conquered must first of all serve our economic interests. The Slavs were created to work for the Germans, and for nothing else. Our goal is to place one hundred million Germans in their current places of residence. German authorities should be located in the best buildings, and governors should live in palaces. Around the provincial centers within a radius of 30–40 kilometers there will be belts of beautiful German villages, connected by centers and good roads. There will be another world on the other side of this belt. Let the Russians live there as they are used to. We will take for ourselves only the best of their lands. Let the Slavic aborigines poke around in the swamp... Limit everything as much as possible! No printed publications... No compulsory schooling..."

On the territory of the USSR it was planned to create four Reichskommissariats - German provinces. Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv and a number of other cities were to be wiped off the face of the earth. In the “Military Folder,” which is one of the most detailed documents outlining the program for the exploitation of the territory of the USSR, the goal of transforming the Soviet Union into a kind of colony of Germany was formulated in completely naked form. At the same time, the attitude towards starvation of the majority of the population was constantly emphasized.

The defeat of the Soviet Union was seen as a decisive prerequisite for establishing complete domination over the European continent and at the same time as the starting point for gaining world domination. German historian A. Hilgruber notes: “The Eastern Campaign occupied a decisive place in the overall military concept of the Nazis,” with the “successful completion of the Eastern War” they hoped to gain freedom of action “to implement their global strategy.” The famous German historian G.A. Jacobsen characterized Hitler's goals as follows: “He (Hitler. – M.F.) firmly decided to dismember Russia, mercilessly exploit and despotically oppress the “Eastern subhumans,” and also use the country for the Great German population.” After the invasion of the Soviet state and the occupation of a number of territories, the Nazis began to carry out a program of genocide against the “race of subhumans” - the Russian nation.

All of the above quite convincingly reveals the main goals of the military-political leadership of Germany in the war with the Soviet Union. They testify to the groundlessness of the allegations about the war between Hitler and Stalin, National Socialism and European Bolshevism, drummed into the heads of the Germans by Goebbels and his henchmen and which today have found like-minded people in Russia. Victory in the war for Nazi Germany would not lead to the destruction of totalitarianism, as some neoliberal historians claim, but to the dismemberment of the country, the destruction of tens of millions of people and the transformation of the survivors into servants of the German colonists.

Attempts to distort the nature of war today are becoming more and more cruel, evil, and aggressive

An informed reader may ask whether it was worthwhile to reveal in such detail the goals of Nazi Germany in the war against the USSR, documentary sources about what is well known to the vast majority of people who are not subject to a feeling of unkind attitude towards their people, towards their Fatherland. Apparently, it should have been, since it is precisely this aspect of the war - the most important and determining its character - that in recent years has increasingly disappeared from television screens and is silent on the radio; There is almost no information about the barbaric plans of fascism in books about the Great Patriotic War, in a number of textbooks for schools and universities. On the eve of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, attempts to distort the nature of the war, the desire to blame the USSR for almost its beginning “are becoming more and more cruel, evil, and aggressive.” What has become undesirable is removed from school textbooks, as M.V. emphasized at a round table held at the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia in March 2010. Demurin (Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Second Class) is the most important provision of the Great Patriotic War: “the most important thing is that the Russian people fought [the battle] not for the sake of glory, but for the sake of life.” Unfortunately, the collapse of the USSR released and gave rise to forces that are interested in revising the origins and course of the Great Patriotic War. And today, 70 years after our victory over Germany, it is extremely important to comprehensively reveal the plans and goals of Nazi Germany in relation to the USSR and its people, as well as the far-reaching calculations of German fascism. They leave no room for any claims of "preventive" war on Hitler's part. The fate of not only the Soviet people, but also the peoples of the whole world depended on the outcome of the struggle of the Soviet state with Nazi Germany.

The war on the part of the Soviet Union had a fundamentally different character. For the peoples of the USSR, the armed struggle against Germany and its allies became the Great Patriotic War for the national independence of their state, for the freedom and honor of their Motherland. In this war, the Soviet people set as their goal to help the peoples of other countries free themselves from the Hitlerite yoke, to save a dead civilization from fascist barbarism.

All attempts, consciously or as a result of a one-sided view generated by the insufficient scientific qualifications of the authors, to rewrite and correct the past, to contribute to the distorted picture of the Great Patriotic War are ultimately futile, no matter how consonant they may be with a particular political situation.

Fictions about war must be contrasted with the truth of history

Of course, the most important condition for this is the need to overcome the underestimation of the positions of falsifiers, a decisive, offensive struggle against the distortion of the essence of the character of the Great Patriotic War. It is necessary to contrast the widespread and growing fictions about the war with the truth of history, based on documentary sources, to deeply reveal the victories of the Soviet troops in the grandiose battles on the Soviet-German front.