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 Panzer Group, 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 fortress of Brest, which was visible from our observation posts, to the sounds of an orchestra, they were holding guards. 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 soldier who had crossed the border river Bug by swimming. The defector was sent to the headquarters of the detachment in the city of Vladimir-Volynsky.
23:00. German minelayers, who were in Finnish ports, began to mine the way out of 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 named himself Alfred Liskov, servicemen of the 221st regiment of the 15th infantry division of the Wehrmacht. He reported 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 has been passed on to the higher command.
At the same time, the transfer of directive No. 1 of the People's Commissariat of Defense for parts of the western military districts begins from Moscow. “During June 22-23, 1941, a sudden attack by the Germans on the fronts of the LVO, PribOVO, ZAPOVO, KOVO, OdVO is possible. The 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 placed on combat readiness, covertly occupy the firing points of fortified areas on the state border, and aviation was dispersed over field airfields.
It is not possible to bring the directive to the military units before the start of hostilities, as a result of which the measures indicated 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 raid.
3:07. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, reports to the Chief of the General Staff, General Zhukov: “The VNOS [air surveillance, warning and communications] system of the fleet reports on the approach from the sea of a large number of unknown aircraft; The fleet is on full alert.
3:10. The UNKGB in the Lvov region transmits by telephone to the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR the information obtained during the interrogation of the defector Alfred Liskov.
From the memoirs of the head of the 90th border detachment, Major Bychkovsky: “Not having finished interrogating 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 air raids 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.
"Enemy raid repulsed. An attempt to strike our ships has been thwarted."
3:42. Chief of the General Staff Zhukov calls Stalin and announces the start of hostilities by Germany. Stalin orders Tymoshenko and Zhukov to arrive at the Kremlin, where an emergency meeting of the Politburo is being convened.
3:45. The 1st frontier post of the 86th Augustow border detachment was attacked by an enemy reconnaissance and sabotage group. Outpost personnel under command Alexandra Sivacheva, having joined the 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 has been thwarted. But there is destruction in Sevastopol.”4:05. The outposts of the 86th August Frontier Detachment, including the 1st Frontier Post of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev, are subjected to heavy artillery fire, after which the German offensive begins. The 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 start of hostilities by German troops on land.
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 Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht begins an attack on the Brest Fortress.
The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Residents of the capital on June 22, 1941 during the announcement on the radio of a government message about the perfidious attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti
"Defending not individual countries, but ensuring the security of Europe"
4:30. A meeting of members of the Politburo begins in the Kremlin. Stalin expresses doubt that what happened is the beginning of the war and does not exclude the version 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 presents the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Molotov“Note from the German Foreign Ministry to the Soviet Government”, which states: “The German government cannot be indifferent to the serious threat on the eastern border, therefore the Führer 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 read out an appeal Adolf Hitler to the German people in connection with the beginning of the war against the Soviet Union: “Now the hour has come when it is necessary to oppose this conspiracy of the Jewish-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and also the Jewish rulers of the Bolshevik center in Moscow ... what the world has only seen ... The task of this front is no longer the protection of individual countries, but the security of Europe and thereby the salvation of all.7:00. Reich Minister for Foreign Ribbentrop begins a press conference at which he announces the start of hostilities against the USSR: "The German army invaded the territory of Bolshevik Russia!"
“The city is on fire, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?”
7:15. Stalin approves the directive on repulsing the attack of Nazi Germany: "The troops will attack the enemy forces with all their strength and means and destroy them in areas where they have violated the Soviet border." The transfer of "Directive No. 2" due to the violation by saboteurs of the communication lines in the western districts. Moscow does not have a clear picture of what is happening in the war zone.
9:30. It was decided that at noon Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, would address the Soviet people in connection with the outbreak of war.
10:00. From the memories of the announcer Yuri Levitan: “They call from Minsk: “Enemy planes are over the city”, they call from Kaunas: “The city is on fire, why are you not transmitting anything on the radio?”, “Enemy planes are over Kyiv.” Women's crying, excitement: “Is it really a war? ..” However, no official messages are transmitted until 12:00 Moscow time on June 22.
10:30. From the report of the headquarters of the 45th German division on the battles on the territory of the Brest Fortress: “The Russians are fiercely resisting, especially behind our attacking companies. In the citadel, the enemy organized defense by infantry units supported by 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles. The fire of enemy snipers led to heavy losses among officers and non-commissioned officers.11:00. The Baltic, Western and Kyiv special military districts were transformed into the Northwestern, Western and Southwestern fronts.
“The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours"
12:00. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov read out an appeal to the citizens of the Soviet Union: "Today at 4 o'clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed from our cities - Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others - more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Enemy aircraft raids 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 piratical attack and drive the German troops from the territory of our homeland ... The government calls on you, citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally their ranks still more closely around our glorious Bolshevik Party, around our Soviet government, around our great leader Comrade Stalin.
Our cause is right. 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 ..."
“On the basis of Article 49 of paragraph “o” of the Constitution of the USSR, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announces mobilization on the territory of the military districts - Leningrad, Special Baltic, Western Special, Kyiv Special, Odessa, Kharkov, Oryol, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Ural, Siberian, Volga, North - Caucasian and Transcaucasian.
13:30. The Chief of the General Staff, General Zhukov, flies to Kyiv as a representative of the newly created Headquarters of the High Command on the Southwestern Front.
Photo: RIA Novosti
14:00. The Brest Fortress is completely surrounded by German troops. Soviet units blockaded in the citadel continue to offer fierce resistance.
14:05. Foreign Minister of Italy Galeazzo Ciano declares: “In view of the current situation, due to the fact that Germany has 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 the German troops enter Soviet territory.”
14:10. The 1st frontier post 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 head of the outpost continued to command the battle.
15:00. From the notes of Field Marshal Commander of Army Group Center bokeh background: “The question of whether the Russians are carrying out a planned withdrawal is still open. There is now ample evidence both for and against this.
It is surprising that nowhere is any significant work of their artillery visible. Strong artillery fire is conducted only in the north-west of Grodno, where the VIII Army Corps is advancing. Apparently, our air force has an overwhelming superiority over Russian aviation.Of the 485 frontier posts attacked, none retreated without an order.
16:00. After a 12-hour battle, the Nazis occupy the positions of the 1st frontier post. 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 class.
The feat of the outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev became one of the hundreds accomplished by the border guards in the first hours and days of the war. On June 22, 1941, the USSR state border from the Barents to the Black Sea was guarded by 666 border outposts, 485 of them were attacked on the very first day of the war. None of the 485 outposts attacked on June 22 withdrew without orders.
The Nazi command took 20 minutes to break the resistance of the border guards. 257 Soviet frontier posts held the 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 outposts. Up to two months, 45 outposts fought.
The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The working people of Leningrad listen to the message about the attack of fascist 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 another week.
"The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland"
18:00. The Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan of Moscow and Kolomna Sergius, addresses the faithful with a message: “Fascist robbers have attacked our homeland. Trampling all sorts of treaties 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. Together with him, she carried trials, and consoled herself with his successes. She will not leave her people even now… The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox to defend 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 the armies, except for the 11th Army of the Army Group South in Romania, went on the offensive according to the plan. The offensive of our troops, apparently, was a complete tactical surprise for the enemy on the entire front. The border bridges across the Bug and other rivers have been 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 the barracks, the planes stood at the airfields, covered with tarpaulins, and the advanced units, suddenly attacked by our troops, asked the command what to do ... The Air Force command reported, that today 850 enemy aircraft have been destroyed, including entire squadrons of bombers, which, having taken to the air without fighter cover, were attacked by our fighters and destroyed.20:00. Directive No. 3 of the People's Commissariat of Defense was approved, instructing the Soviet troops to go on the counteroffensive with the task of defeating the Nazi troops on the territory of the USSR with a further advance on enemy territory. The directive prescribed by the end of June 24 to capture the Polish city of Lublin.
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. June 22, 1941 Nurses assist the first wounded after the Nazi air raid near Chisinau. Photo: RIA Novosti
"We must give Russia and the Russian people all the help we can"
21:00. Summary of the High Command of the Red Army for June 22: “At dawn on June 22, 1941, the 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, the 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 Krystynopol directions did the enemy manage to achieve minor tactical successes and occupy the towns of Kalvaria, Stoyanuv and Tsekhanovets (the first two at 15 km and the last at 10 km from the border).
Enemy aviation attacked a number of our airfields and settlements, but everywhere they met with a decisive rebuff from our fighters and anti-aircraft artillery, which inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. We shot down 65 enemy planes."
23:00. Message from the British Prime Minister 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 generously lavished his assurances to 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 in a state of war ...
No one has been a more staunch opponent of communism over the past 25 years than I have been. I will not take back a single word said about him. But all this pales before the spectacle unfolding now.The past, with its crimes, follies and tragedies, recedes. I see Russian soldiers standing on the border of their native land and guarding the fields that their fathers have plowed since time immemorial. I see how they guard their homes; their mothers and wives pray—oh, yes, because at such a time everyone prays for the preservation of their loved ones, for the return of the breadwinner, patron, their protectors ...
We must give Russia and the Russian people all the help we can. We must call on all our friends and allies in all parts of the world to follow a similar course and pursue it as steadfastly and steadily as we will, to the very end.
June 22 has come to an end. Ahead were another 1417 days of the most terrible war in the history of mankind.
An air defense fighter conducts surveillance from the roof of a house on Gorky Street. Photo: TASS/Naum Granovsky
75 years ago, on June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the USSR. The Great Patriotic War began. In Russia and some countries of the former Soviet Union, June 22 is the Day of Memory and Sorrow.
June 22, 1941 for the USSR and its capital Moscow was determined in Berlin a week before this date - on Saturday, June 14, at a meeting of the Supreme High Command of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. On it, Adolf Hitler gave the last orders to attack the USSR from 04 am on June 22, 1941.
On the same day, a TASS report on Soviet-German relations was circulated, which stated:
"According to the USSR, Germany is just as steadfastly observing the terms of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact as the Soviet Union, which is why, in the opinion of Soviet circles, rumors about Germany's intention to break the pact and launch an attack on the USSR are devoid of any ground."
However, June 22, 1941 for the world's first state of workers and peasants could come a month or a week earlier. The leaders of the Third Reich originally planned to invade Russia at dawn on Thursday 15 May. But on April 6, together with the troops of the allies - Italy and Hungary - the Germans entered Yugoslavia. The Balkan campaign forced Hitler to postpone the time for the conquest of Moscow.
Until noon on June 22, 1941 (and there are hundreds of archival evidence for this), Moscow did not know about the German invasion.
04:30 . 48 watering machines rolled out onto the streets (according to documents).
05:30 . Nearly 900 janitors started work. The morning was serene, sunny, painting "the gentle light of the walls of the ancient Kremlin."
Approximately from 07:00. In parks, squares and other places of usual crowds, "exit" stall trade began to unfold, summer buffets, beer and billiard rooms opened - the coming Sunday promised to be very warm, if not hot. And in places of mass recreation, an influx of citizens was expected.
07:00 and 07:30 . (According to the Sunday schedule - on ordinary days, half an hour earlier). Dairy shops and bakeries have reopened.
08:30 and 09:00 . Grocery and gastronomes have begun work. Department stores, except for GUM and TSUM, did not work on Sundays. The assortment of goods, in essence, is usual for a peaceful capital. In "Dairy" on Rochdelskaya they offered cottage cheese, curd mass, sour cream, kefir, curdled milk, milk, cheese, feta cheese, butter and ice cream. All products - two or three varieties and names.
In Moscow it's a normal Sunday
Gorkogo Street. Photo: TASS / F. Kislov
Grocery store No. 1 "Eliseevsky", the main one in the country, put on the counters boiled, semi-smoked and raw smoked sausages, sausages, sausages from three to four names, ham, boiled pork of three names. The fish department offered fresh sterlet, light-salted Caspian herring (zal), hot-smoked sturgeon, pressed and red caviar. In excess there were Georgian wines, Crimean Madeira and sherry, ports, vodka and rum of one, cognac of four names. At that time, there were no time limits on the sale of alcohol.
GUM and TSUM exhibited the entire range of the domestic clothing and footwear industry, calicos, drapes, bostons and other fabrics, bijouterie, fiber suitcases of various sizes. And jewelry, the cost of individual samples of which exceeded 50 thousand rubles - a fifth of the price of the legendary T-34 tank, the IL-2 victory attack aircraft and three anti-tank guns - ZIS-3 guns of 76 mm caliber according to the "price list" of May 1941. No one could have imagined that day that the Moscow Central Department Store would turn into an army barracks in two weeks.
From 07:00 to the big "mass event" began to prepare the stadium "Dynamo". A parade and competitions of athletes were to take place on it at 12 o'clock.
Around 08:00, 20,000 schoolchildren were brought to Moscow from cities and districts of the region for a children's holiday, which began at 11:00 in Sokolniki Park.
There were no "fermentations" of school graduates on Red Square and on the streets of Moscow on the morning of June 22, 1941. This is the "mythology" of Soviet cinema and literature. The last proms in the capital were held on Friday, June 20.
In a word, all 4 million 600 thousand "ordinary" residents and about one million guests of the capital of the USSR did not know until lunch on June 22, 1941 that the biggest and most bloody war in the history of the country against the invaders had begun that night.
01:21 . The border with Poland, absorbed by the Third Reich, was crossed by the last train loaded with wheat, which the USSR supplied under an agreement with Germany of September 28, 1939.
03:05 . 14 German bombers, having taken off from Koenigsberg at 01:10, dropped 28 magnetic bombs near the raid near Kronstadt, 20 km from Leningrad.
04:00 . Hitler's troops crossed the border near Brest. Half an hour later, a large-scale offensive began on all fronts - from the southern to the northern borders of the USSR.
And when at 11 o'clock in the Sokolniki park the pioneers of the capital greeted their guests with a solemn line - the pioneers of the Moscow region, the German advanced 15, and in some places even 20 km deep into the country.
Solutions at the highest level
Moscow. V.M. Molotov, I.V. Stalin, K.E. Voroshilov (left to right in the foreground), G.M. Malenkov, L.P. Beria, A.S. Shcherbakov (left to right in the second row) and other members of the government are sent to Red Square. Newsreel TASS
The fact that the war was going on, in the rear in the morning of June 22, 1941, was known only to the top leadership of the country, the command of the military districts, the first leaders of Moscow, Leningrad and some other large cities - Kuibyshev (now Samara), Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Khabarovsk.
06:30 . Candidate member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Central Committee and First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Alexander Sergeevich Shcherbakov gathered an emergency meeting of the key leaders of the capital with the participation of senior officers of NGOs, the NKVD and directors of major enterprises. He and the chairman of the city executive committee Vasily Prokhorovich Pronin by that time had the rank of general. At the meeting, priority measures were developed to ensure the life of Moscow in wartime.
Orders were given by telephone directly from the city committee to strengthen the protection of water supply systems, thermal and electric energy, transport and, above all, the subway, food warehouses, refrigerators, the Moscow Canal, railway stations, defense enterprises and other important facilities. At the same meeting, the concept of Moscow's camouflage was formulated "roughly", including the construction of mock-ups and dummies, the protection of government and historical buildings.
At the suggestion of Shcherbakov, from June 23, a ban on entry into the capital was introduced for everyone who did not have a Moscow residence permit. Residents of the Moscow region also fell under it, including those who worked in Moscow. Special passes were introduced. Even Muscovites had to straighten them out, going to the forest for mushrooms or to a suburban dacha - they were not allowed back into the capital without a pass.
15:00. At the afternoon meeting, which took place after the speech on the radio by People's Commissar Molotov and after Shcherbakov and Pronin visited the Kremlin, the authorities of the capital, in agreement with the generals of the Moscow Military District, decided to install anti-aircraft batteries at all high-altitude points in the capital. Later, in the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR, created the next day, June 23, such a decision was called "exemplary." And they sent a directive to the Military Districts to ensure anti-aircraft protection of cities, following the example of the capital.
photography ban
One of the notable decisions of the second meeting of the leadership of Moscow on June 22, 1941: an appeal was formulated with an appeal to the population within three days to hand over cameras, other photographic equipment, film and reagents available for personal use. From now on, only accredited journalists and employees of special services could use photographic equipment.
This is partly why there are few photographs of Moscow in the first days of the war. Some of them are completely staged, as, for example, the famous photograph by Yevgeny Khaldei "Muscovites listen to Comrade Molotov's address on the radio about the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941." On the first war day in the capital of the Union at 12 noon (the time of the live broadcast of the speech of People's Commissar Molotov) it was +24 degrees C. And in the photo - people in coats, hats, in a word, dressed in autumn, as in the twentieth of September, when Presumably this picture was taken.
By the way, the attire of people in that staged photo is very different from the T-shirts, white canvas shoes and trousers, in which, in another photo on June 22, 1941, Muscovites buy soda on Gorky Street (now Tverskaya).
At the same morning meeting on June 22, 1941, which was held by Alexander Shcherbakov, a special resolution was adopted - "to warn and suppress panic moods" in connection with the invasion of Hitler's troops in the USSR. The party secretary and de facto owner of the capital advised all leaders, and especially artists, writers, and newspapermen, to "adhere" to the position that the war would end in a month, a maximum of a month and a half. And the enemy will be defeated on his territory. "And he paid special attention to the fact that Molotov's speech called the war "holy." Two days later, on June 24, 1941, having overcome a protracted depression, Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin), at the suggestion of Lavrenty Beria, appointed Shcherbakov (in addition to the existing positions and regalia) the head of the Sovinformburo - the main and, in fact, the only source of information for the masses during the Great Patriotic War.
Cleanups
Muscovites join the ranks of the people's militia. Photo: TASS
One of the results of the last meeting of the Moscow leadership, which took place after 21:00, was the decision to create fighter battalions. They, apparently, were initiated in the Kremlin, because a day later the overall leadership of the units was entrusted to the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, the head of the NKVD, Lavrenty Beria. But the first fighter battalion in the country became under arms precisely in Moscow, on the third day of the war, on June 24, 1941. In the documents, the destruction battalions were designated as "volunteer formations of citizens capable of owning weapons." The prerogative of admission to them remained with party, Komsomol, trade union activists and other "verified" (so in the document) persons who were not subject to conscription for military service. The task of the extermination battalions was to fight saboteurs, spies, Hitler's accomplices, as well as bandits, deserters, looters and profiteers. In a word, everyone who threatened order in cities and other settlements in wartime.
On the fourth day of the war, the Moscow fighter made the first raids, choosing to begin with the workers' closets and doorways of Zamoskvorechye, the barracks of Maryina Roshcha. The purge was quite effective. 25 bandits with weapons were taken. Five especially dangerous criminals were eliminated in a shootout. Food products (stew, condensed milk, smoked meats, flour, cereals) and industrial goods stolen even before the start of the war from one of the warehouses in the Filey region were confiscated.
Leader's reaction
General Secretary of the CPSU(b) Joseph Stalin. Photo: TASS
In Moscow - not only the city committee of the CPSU (b) and the city executive committee, but the entire supreme power of the USSR. According to the "reflected" documents, Stalin was informed about the invasion of the Nazi troops almost immediately - around 04:35-04:45. He, as usual, did not go to bed yet, and, according to one version, he was at the "near dacha".
The subsequent (second) report on the advance of the Germans along the entire front made a strong impression on the leader. He locked himself in one of the rooms and did not leave it for about two hours, after which he allegedly went to the Kremlin. The text of Vyacheslav Molotov's speech did not read. And he demanded to report to him about the situation on the fronts every half an hour.
According to the testimonies of a number of military leaders, it was just this that was the most difficult to do - communication with the active units, leading fierce battles with the German troops, was weak, if not completely absent. In addition, by 18-19 hours on June 22, 1941, according to various sources, a total of 500 thousand to 700 thousand soldiers and officers of the Red Army were surrounded by the Nazis, who, with incredible efforts, with a terrible shortage of ammunition, equipment and weapons, tried to break through the "rings" of the Nazis.
However, according to other, also "reflected" documents, on June 22, 1941, the leader was on the Black Sea, at a dacha in Gagra. And, according to the USSR ambassador to the United States Ivan Maisky, "after the first report on the German attack, he fell into prostration, completely cut himself off from Moscow, remained out of touch for four days, drinking himself into a stupor."
So is it? Or not? It's hard to believe. It is no longer possible to check - the documents of the Central Committee of the CPSU since then have been massively burned and destroyed at least 4 times. For the first time in October 1941, when panic began in Moscow after the Nazis entered the outskirts of Khimki and the passage of a column of Nazi motorcyclists along Leningradsky Prospekt in the Sokol area. Then at the end of February 1956 and the end of October 1961, after Stalin's personality cult was exposed at the 20th and 22nd Congresses of the CPSU. And, finally, in August 1991, after the defeat of the State Emergency Committee.
And do you need to check everything? It remains a fact that in the first 10 days of the war, the most difficult time for the country, Stalin was neither heard nor seen. And all orders, orders and directives of the first week of the war were signed by marshals and generals, people's commissars and deputies of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR: Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Zhukov, Semyon Timoshenko, Georgy Malenkov, Dmitry Pavlov, Vyacheslav Molotov and even the "party mayor" of the capital Alexander Shcherbakov.
Appeal of Nakrom Molotov
12:15. From the studio of the Central Telegraph, one of the leaders of the Soviet state, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov, spoke on the radio with an appeal.
It began with the words: "Citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union! The Soviet government and its head, Comrade Stalin, instructed me to make the following statement. Today, at 4 o'clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country ... "The performance ended with famous words that turned into an idiom throughout the Great Patriotic War: "Our cause is just! The enemy will be defeated! Victory will be ours!".
12.25. Judging by the "log of visits", Molotov returned from the Central Telegraph Office to Stalin's office.
Muscovites listened to the speech of the People's Commissar, mainly through loudspeakers installed on all streets of the city, as well as in parks, stadiums and other crowded places. In the performance of the announcer Yuri Levitan, the text of Molotov's speech was repeated 4 times at different times.
Muscovites listen to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on our Motherland. Photo: TASS / Evgeny Khaldei
At the same time from about 09:30. until 11:00 there was supposedly a serious discussion in the Kremlin about who should make such an appeal? According to one version, all, as one, members of the Politburo believed that Stalin himself should do this. But he actively denied it, repeating the same thing: the political situation and the situation on the fronts "are not yet clear," and therefore he will speak later.
As time went. And delaying information about the beginning of the war became dangerous. At the suggestion of the leader, Molotov became the one who would inform the people about the beginning of the holy war. According to another version, there was no discussion, because Stalin himself was not in the Kremlin. They wanted to instruct the “all-Union headman” Mikhail Kalinin to tell the people about the war, but he even read from a piece of paper, stumbling, syllable by syllable.
Life after the start of the war
The news of the invasion of Hitler's troops on June 22, 1941, judging by the documents of the archives (reports of employees and freelance agents of the NKVD, police protocols), as well as the recollections of eyewitnesses, did not plunge the residents and guests of the capital into despondency and did not change their plans too much.
Already after the announcement of the beginning of the war, passenger trains Moscow-Adler departed exactly on schedule from the Kursk railway station. And on the night of June 23 - to Sevastopol, which the Nazi aircraft heavily bombed as early as 05:00 on June 22. True, passengers who had tickets exactly to the Crimea were dropped off in Tula. And the train itself was allowed only to Kharkov.
Brass bands played in the parks during the day, performances were staged in theaters to full houses. Barber shops were open until evening. Beer houses and billiard rooms were practically filled with visitors. In the evening, the dance floors were not empty either. The famous foxtrot melody "Rio Rita" was heard in many parts of the capital.
A distinctive feature of the first war day in Moscow: mass optimism. In conversations, in addition to strong words of hatred for Germany and Hitler, it sounded: "Nothing. A month. Well, one and a half. Let's break, crush the reptile!" Another metropolitan sign on June 22, 1941: after the news of the attack of the Nazis, people in military uniform everywhere, even in pubs, began to skip the line.
Anti-aircraft artillery on guard of the city. Photo: TASS/Naum Granovsky
An impressive example of the efficiency of the Moscow authorities. By their order, at screenings in cinemas after 2 pm on the same June 22, 1941, before feature films (and these were "Shchors", "If Tomorrow is War", "Professor Malok", "The Oppenheim Family", "Boxers"), they began to show educational short films like "Blackout an apartment building", "Take care of the gas mask", "The simplest shelters from bombs."
In the evening, Vadim Kozin sang in the Hermitage Garden. In the restaurants "Metropol" and "Aragvi", judging by the "expenditure sheets" of the kitchen and buffet, sandwiches with pressed (black) caviar, herring with onions, fried pork loin in wine sauce, kharcho soup, chanakhi (lamb stew ), lamb cutlet on the bone with a complex garnish, vodka, KV cognac and sherry wine.
Moscow has not yet fully realized that a big war is already underway. And on the fields of its battles, thousands of soldiers of the Red Army have already fallen, hundreds of civilians from Soviet cities and villages have died. In a day, the registry offices of the city will note the influx of fathers and mothers with a request to replace the name Adolf in the birth certificates of their sons with Anatoly, Alexander, Andrey. Being Adolfs (in common parlance - Adiks), who were massively born in the second half of 1933 and at the end of 1939, in June 1941, became not only disgusting, but also not safe.
A week later . In the capital of the USSR, they will gradually begin to introduce cards for food, household essentials, shoes and fabrics.
In two weeks. Muscovites will see newsreel footage showing Soviet villages, villages and towns on fire and women and young children lying near their huts shot by the Nazis.
Exactly one month later. Moscow will survive the first raid of the Nazi aviation, and with its own eyes, not in the cinema, will see the mutilated bodies of fellow citizens who died under the rubble, destroyed and burning houses.
In the meantime, on the first day of the war, in Moscow, everything is approximately the same as in the textbook poem by Gennady Shpalikov "On the dance floor of the Forty-First Year": "It's nothing that there is no Poland. But the country is strong. In a month - and no more - the war will end ... "
Evgeny Kuznetsov
What happened on June 22, 1941? Let us turn to the events of that day and begin with the picture that German sources paint for us.
"June 22, 1941. 3.20 am. A little more - and the rising sun will dry up the dew ... on the wings of fighters of the 23rd Air Force Division, lined up at the airfield near Rovno ... Suddenly, a dull roar of engines broke the silence. ... slipped out from the west three planes, crossed the border of the airfield at a strafing flight and rushed to the long lines of fighters.A second later ... a shower of two-kilogram fragmentation bombs poured from their belly, ... bombs whistled down and exploded among the standing fighters. Hot fragments crashed into the wings and fuselages, pierced gas tanks... Streams of burning gasoline flooded one fighter after another.A thick cloud of oily smoke swirled and grew over the airfield.
Three Heinkel-111s of the 53rd Bombardment Squadron... turned around and passed over the airfield once more, pouring machine-gun fire over the flaming wreckage. Then, having completed their task, they went west, while the stunned pilots jumped out of their beds. In less than 2 minutes, the 23rd Air Force Division as a combat unit ceased to exist, without having had time to fire a single shot in its defense. The division commander, Colonel Vanyushkin, stood among the rubble and wept. ... By noon on June 22, the Soviet Air Force lost 1200 aircraft: 300 were shot down in air battles, and 900 were destroyed at airfields ... "(Military pilots, pp. 58-59).
"... thanks to extensive photographic reconnaissance, carried out mainly by Colonel Rovel's Aufklaringsgruppe in the previous months, all air force bases were discovered. They came under attack by Ju-88 and He-111, while Bf-110 and carrying Bf-109 bombs.The few Soviet fighters that took to the air were easily destroyed.On this day, with the loss of only 32 aircraft, the Luftwaffe destroyed 1811 Soviet aircraft, almost all of them, except 322, were destroyed on the ground.
On the central and southern fronts, from June 22 to June 28, 1570 and 1360 Soviet aircraft were destroyed. The 1st Air Fleet (Army Group North, HQ Insterburg, East Prussia) announced 1,211 air and 487 ground kills from 22 June to 13 July 1941. ...these claims were no doubt exaggerated, but there is no doubt that Soviet losses were enormous (Hitler's Luftwaffe, p. 41).
"As a result of these unexpected strikes, the air forces of the western districts lost about 1,200 aircraft on the first day of the war, including 800 that were destroyed on airfields." The editor writes in a footnote: "The Germans claimed (for the entire front) 322 aircraft destroyed in the air and 1489 on the ground. Part of this discrepancy in the number of aircraft destroyed on the ground is due to the fact that some of the aircraft could be considered repairable, but many of them were lost when the German troops captured the airfields.
The airfields (Tarnovo and Dolyubovo) located right on the border were fired upon by German long-range artillery (Luftwaffe, p. 239).
... "It was early Sunday morning and many soldiers were on leave," said Colonel Vanyushkin, commander of the 23rd Air Division, later taken prisoner [That Vanyushkin again! - E.K.]. With Russian proverbial nonchalance ... both old and new types stood together in uncamouflaged rows..." (Becker, p. 312-313).
The effect of the surprise attack on Soviet airfields was devastating. ... 4-pound fragmentation bombs ....
... "We could hardly believe our eyes," reported Captain Hans von Hahn, commander of I/JG3 operating in the Lvov area. "Row after row of scouts, bombers and fighters stood in lines as if on parade. We were surprised at the number of airfields and aircraft that the Russians were preparing against us" (Becker, p. 313).
In the sector of the 2nd Air Fleet near Brest-Litovsk, the Soviet squadron, which was trying to take off, was bombed at the moment of takeoff. Later it turned out that the perimeter of the airfield was littered with burnt debris (Becker, p. 314).
..."SD2 - fragmentation bombs, nicknamed the "devil's egg", which were on the secret list, are now dropped for the first time in large quantities. Only 4 pounds in weight, they were equipped with small stabilizers and were originally intended to attack infantry from the air With fuses triggered either on impact with the ground or above the ground, the result of the explosion was the scattering of 50 large and 250 smaller fragments of shrapnel at a distance of 12-13 meters (ibid.).
1811 aircraft destroyed: 322 in the air: 1489 - on the ground. ...for Goering, commander of the Luftwaffe, the results seemed so incredible that he ordered them to be secretly checked. For several days, officers of his headquarters drove around the captured airfields, counting the burned-out wreckage of Russian aircraft. The result was even more stunning, bringing the total to over 2,000. ...in the Western District sector, 528 vehicles were destroyed on the ground and 210 in the air (Becker, p. 317).
The German pilot Heinz Knock tells about his first sortie on June 22, after the war he wrote a book of memoirs "I flew for the Fuhrer" based on his diary entries. (The commenter apologizes to readers for quoting this rather odious document without cuts). Although this excerpt tells of a raid on the headquarters of one of the armies of the Baltic district, there can hardly be any doubt that the same thing happened that day over the airfields:
04:00: Alert to all staffers. The airport is bustling with life. All night I hear the distant hum of tanks and vehicles. We are located just a few kilometers from the border.
04:30: All crews gathered in the operating room for a briefing. Our commander, Captain Woitke, is reading the Führer's Special Order to all armed forces.
05:00: We take off and join the fight. In our staffel, 4 aircraft, including mine, were equipped with bombers, and over the past few weeks I have been intensively practicing bombing. Now under the belly of my good "Emil" (Bf 109E - "Emil") there are mounts for hundreds of 2-kg fragmentation bombs. I will gladly throw them to Ivan under his dirty feet.
Flying low over the wide plains, we spot endless German columns rolling east. Groups of bombers above us and frightening-looking Stuka dive-bombers at the same height as us are flying in the same direction. We have to attack from a strafing flight one of the Russian headquarters, located in the forests to the west of Druskininkai.
On Russian territory, on the contrary, everything seems to be asleep. We find the headquarters and fly over the wooden buildings, but we do not see a single Russian soldier. I swoop down on one of the barracks and press the bomb release button. I distinctly feel how the plane, getting rid of the load, bounces up.
Others are dropping their load too. Huge masses of earth rise into the air in fountains and for some time we cannot see anything because of the smoke and dust.
One of the barracks is burning furiously. The camouflage was torn off the cars standing nearby, and they themselves were overturned by the explosion. Finally, the Ivans woke up. The scene below resembles a torn anthill, below everyone is fussing in confusion. Stalin's stepsons in their underwear seek shelter in the forest. Anti-aircraft gunners start shooting at us. I take aim at one of them and open fire with cannon and machine guns. Ivan, who fired a cannon in only his underwear, falls to the ground.
And now for the next one!
One more turn and I'll treat you to lead. The Russians quickly jump up and fire back. "Well, wait, now it's my turn to have some fun, bastards!"
I turn for a new attack.
I have never shot as accurately as today. I descend to a height of two meters, almost cutting off the tops of the trees. Then I pull the control stick sharply towards me. My Ivans lie prone near their guns. One of them jumps to his feet and rushes towards the trees. The rest continue to lie.
I do five or six more passes. We circle the camp like wasps. Almost all barracks are on fire. I'm shooting at the truck. It lights up after the first turn.
05:56: Flight in formation.
The commander sees our laughing faces during the report.
The spell is finally broken. We have long dreamed of doing something similar to the Bolsheviks. We feel not so much hatred as extreme contempt. It is a real pleasure for us to trample the Bolsheviks into the mud from which they have grown" (Knoke, p.44-46).
Commander of the German bombers, General Werner Baumbach:
"... in 24 hours, 1817 Russian aircraft were destroyed, of which 1498 were on the ground, 322 were shot down by fighters and anti-aircraft fire. Goering refused to believe these figures and sent special units to explore the airfields, which in the meantime had been captured by the army. They counted the wreckage of 2000 Russians airplanes" (Paul, p. 219).
"... in total there are 12,000-15,000 Soviet aircraft, of which 7,000 were concentrated in the western districts and in the occupied territories."
"...according to German intelligence, there are 5,700 aircraft on European territory, of which 2,980 are fighters. This turned out to be a serious underestimation; aircraft in reserve fleets were not taken into account."
"June 22 ... complete surprise ... at many airfields, construction has not yet been completed and the planes were standing wing to wing as if for inspection. It was an incredibly attractive target. The Luftwaffe pilots were sure that the Russians themselves were planning a massive attack. ... When the bombers finished their work, the fighters shot down everything that was left."
"The Luftwaffe claimed 1,489 destroyed on the ground and 322 in the air or by anti-aircraft guns. Official Soviet history admits 1,200 losses, of which 800 were on the ground ... Although the planes on the ground were destroyed, their pilots were not injured, and what was most important .. . this made it easier later on to form new units" (Spick, p.75-78).
"1200 aircraft in the first 8 hours..."
"... attacks on Soviet air bases led to the collapse of the Russian command, unable to control its units. Desperate calls broadcast in clear text leave the impression of chaos. According to Milch's personal diary: 1800 aircraft were destroyed on the first day, 800 - on June 23, 557 - on the 24th, 351 - on the 25th, 300 - on the 26th The question of whether the Luftwaffe could destroy so many aircraft is not even discussed, ... a catastrophe of colossal proportions ... "(Murray, p.82-83).
"For several days, He-111, Ju-88, Do-17 made four to six sorties every day, Ju-87 from seven to eight, Bf-109 and Bf-110 - from five to eight, depending on the distance Between 22 and 25 June I Corps attacked 77 airfields in 1,600 sorties, the first bombers found enemy vehicles on the ground, unprotected, often standing in long rows, extremely vulnerable to fragmentation bombs, 4-pounder SD-2s, which bombers and fighter-bombers carried in large numbers... on June 22, 1,800 enemy aircraft were destroyed, on June 29, the OKW reported the destruction of 4,017 Soviet aircraft and German losses of 150 vehicles.
"Goering did not believe Kesselring that 2,500 aircraft were destroyed in the central sector alone, and ordered an investigation. His check showed that Kesselring even downplayed the success of his pilots and the true figure was 200-300 more than he reported at the beginning."
"... On June 30, large air battles broke out in the Bobruisk area, when Soviet aircraft tried to prevent the Germans from forcing the Berezina River. 110 Soviet aircraft were shot down."
"In the first 3 days, the 1st Air Fleet shot down 400 enemy aircraft and destroyed 1100 on the ground, in the next three months - the same number ... By August 30, the 2nd Air Fleet shot down 1380 aircraft and destroyed 1280 on the ground." (Cooper, 222-223).
"The first attack ... 31 airfields near the border were attacked, by the end of the day 1800 Russian aircraft had been destroyed. By the end of the week, Goering announced the destruction of 4990 aircraft, the Luftwaffe lost 179 aircraft. On July 9, JG3 shot down 27 Russian bombers trying to attack their airfield, for 15 minutes By July 26, Me-110s made 1,574 sorties, shot down 92 enemy aircraft in the air and destroyed 823 on the ground. The ZG 26 account is 620 Soviet aircraft."
"On August 30, JG3 pilots destroyed the 1000th Russian aircraft. On August 19, when attacking a Soviet airfield 17 miles southwest of Leningrad, ZG 26 aircraft burned 30 fighters, damaged 15 and shot down 3, increasing their score to 191 in the air and 663 on earth".
"September 8 JG 51 - 2000th air victory. By September 10 - 1357 enemy aircraft in the air, 298 on the ground."
"By November 12, the 2nd Fleet - 40,000 sorties, 2169 Soviet aircraft destroyed in the air, 1657 - on the ground. Probable losses of the enemy - another 281 aircraft destroyed and 811 damaged" (WWII ... p.55-56).
“During the first flight, I notice countless fortifications built along the border. They stretch for many hundreds of kilometers. Some of them are still unfinished. We fly over unfinished airfields: there is a newly built concrete runway, planes are already parked here. For example, along the road on Vitebsk, on which our troops are advancing, there is one of these almost completed airfields with many Martin bombers. They lack either fuel or crews [emphasis mine - E.K.]. Flying over these airfields and fortifications, everyone understands : "We hit just in time..." It looks like the Soviets were making these preparations to set up a base for an invasion against us. Who else in the west would Russia want to attack? If the Russians had completed their preparations, there would be little hope of stopping them." (Rudel, p.21-22).
And now - Soviet sources.
The very first reports make it possible to judge the most serious situation in which the Air Force found itself after the start of the German attack. The operational report of the Northwestern Front, signed at 10 pm on June 22, reports that during enemy attacks 56 Soviet aircraft were destroyed in the air and 32 at the airfields themselves (Collection of combat documents ... further - issue 34, unless otherwise indicated , p. 43). Another report, sent next to the NPO, increases the losses to 100 vehicles and admits that the enemy has achieved complete air superiority (Collection of Combat Documents ... p. 44). The reports always raise the problem of lack of communication with aviation units.
On June 26, front commander Kuznetsov reported: "75% of the crews were not injured. Material losses are 80%. I ask you to reinforce the front with three mixed air divisions. First of all, materiel and pilots are needed."
By July 4, the damage done to the aviation of the front becomes clear from the list of what remains: "6th mixed air division ... 69 aircraft, 7th - 26 aircraft, 8th - 29, 57 - 29 aircraft. In 12 days since the beginning of hostilities, out of 887 aircraft of the front, only 153 aircraft remained in stock (Collection of combat documents ... p. 119).
On June 21, 1942, General D. Kondratyuk, commander of the 6th Army, prepared a report on the air operations of the Northwestern Front in the first days of the war. In this report, he wrote about the problems faced by the front. He noted the lack of airfields and the construction of almost all available airfields - 21 permanent and 49 operational. Despite efforts to camouflage aircraft, German reconnaissance flights reduced this work to nil. He highlighted the following problems of the air units of the front: the concentration of aircraft on existing airfields and the lack of airfields in depth, which increased the vulnerability to German attack; proximity of airfields to the border, poor dispersal of aircraft and planning of movements of units; the presence of old aircraft and equipment; the inability of pilots to fly at night and in bad weather; insufficient staff work and lack of interaction between military branches; poor radio and wire communications; extreme lack of aerial reconnaissance; incomplete reform; inadequate mobilization planning of logistic support.
In conclusion, Kondratyuk writes: “The year of the war showed that the air forces of the Red Army did not meet the requirements of the war. ... a regiment based on two or three airfields lost operational control over its constituent units, the headquarters organization did not provide combat control. . ..The frequent reorganization of aviation had a negative effect on the combat effectiveness of the units ... The lack of a plan of action for the air force in the event of war led to the loss of a significant number of aircraft and pilots. Radio control ... was not worked out "(Collection of combat documents ... pp. 179-183).
The air bases of the Western District suffered even more in the first days of the war. The Germans began hostilities with devastating attacks on the entire network of airfields in the Western District, and German sabotage groups cut off land lines of communication. As communications were disrupted, reports of casualties were slow to arrive, if at all, and commanders could only imagine the havoc the German air force was wreaking in the air and on the ground. It is clear that the Germans were able to immediately achieve overwhelming air superiority. The commander of the aviation of the front, I. Kopets, having made sure that it no longer exists, committed suicide, thereby avoiding the fate that soon befell the commander of the front, D. Pavlov, who was shot on the orders of Stalin along with the officers of his headquarters.
The first detailed report on the aviation of the Western Front appeared on December 31, 1941. Two sections of the report written by N. Naumenko were devoted to a sober assessment of the state of the Air Force before the war and its participation in hostilities in the first eight days of the war: "By April 1941, the combat readiness of the air force units can be characterized as follows: to conduct air combat, bombers - limited ability, no reconnaissance aviation, since its 8 squadrons received 6 aircraft.. 313th and 314th reconnaissance regiments: all crews of young pilots are available, but no aircraft ... 314th reconnaissance aviation regiment. .. by the beginning of the war, only 6 crews flew the Yak-4. The 215th assault aviation regiment - 12 pieces of I-15, pilots were being trained on the Il-2, which at that time the district did not yet have "(Collection of combat documents ... p. 127)
Naumenko noted that all air divisions had old aircraft, except for the 9th mixed division, which was equipped with 262 new MiG-1 and MiG-3 aircraft. But only 140 pilots of the division could fly these new aircraft, training was accompanied by serious accidents ... "Interest in training flights on old aircraft fell, everyone wanted to fly on new machines ... an experience...". He writes further: "As a result of the actions of German and White Pole saboteurs, from 23:00 on June 21, all wire communications between the district headquarters, headquarters of air divisions and regiments were cut ... each airfield was left to itself. This is how the Great Patriotic War began" (Collection of Combat documents ... p. 130).
Then Naumenko proceeds to the results of the first eight days of fighting: "On June 22, during the first attack, the enemy destroyed 538 of our aircraft (out of 1,022 fighters and 887 bombers) and lost 143. After 8 days, our losses amounted to 1,163 aircraft. By June 30, 498 aircraft remained ( Collection of military documents ... pp. 131).
The most powerful units of the Air Force were, as in the case of ground forces, in the Kiev military district. Despite their strength, the aviation units suffered from the same problems. On August 21, Air Force Commander Zhigarev received a report on the aviation of the Kyiv district in the pre-war months and the first days of the war.
According to the report's author, Colonel Astakhov, there were 1166 fighters, 587 bombers, 197 attack aircraft and 53 reconnaissance aircraft in 11 district air divisions and 32 regiments. This number included 223 new Mig-3 and Yak fighters, new Pe-2 and Su-2 bombers, and 31 Yak-4 reconnaissance aircraft. Most of the pilots of the old aircraft were well trained to fly under normal conditions, but could not perform more complex tasks. On the other hand, pilots of new types of aircraft had only basic training and could not be considered combat-ready.
Astakhov summarizes the characteristics of the district's aviation combat readiness: "In general, the aviation of the South-Eastern Front was not sufficiently prepared for combat operations for the following reasons:
A. During the re-equipment of the front aviation with new weapons, some of the old, fully formed aviation regiments (the 52nd and 48th short-range aviation regiments) did not have enough new types of aircraft to conduct combat operations, and their old machines were used in new parts. As a result, before the start of the war, these regiments were in a state of low combat readiness ...
C. Some aviation regiments formed in 1940 (224th, 225th, 138th) had only 20-50% of the equipment of the norm, and as a result, their participation in hostilities was insignificant.
D. Divisional and regimental commanders made poor use of the winter period of 1940-1941 for training, while the airfields were covered with snow and as a result the vast majority of young pilots flew very little in winter ... and the period from May to June did not give them sufficient training for conduct of hostilities.
D. Before the war, the aviation of the Southwestern Front was unable to solve the problem of camouflaging airfields and aircraft and organize air defense. This was due not only to the lack of necessary camouflage and air defense equipment, but also to the fact that commanders at all levels did not pay much attention to these issues.
E. The lack of the necessary organization ... in the actions of front-line aviation in repelling enemy attacks on our airfields in the first three days of the war confirmed that the combat capability of the front's air units is low and during this critical period ... aviation actions do not meet the requirements of NPO order No. 075.
Because of these and other problems," Astakhov wrote further, "the aviation of the Southwestern Front was not ready to repel a surprise enemy attack on 06/22/41." As a result, from June 22 to June 24, the Germans destroyed 237 aircraft at airfields. the training resulted in the loss of another 242 aircraft due to accidents between June 22 and August 10, which is 13% of all losses (1861 aircraft) (Collection of combat documents ... issue 36, pp. 109-116)
And the last. Data on Soviet aircraft captured by the Germans are known. For example, according to German data, (see comments on page 35 of the book "The Soviet Air Force in World War II") by July 8, 1941, the troops of Army Group Center captured 242 Soviet aircraft at airfields, and the total number of captured aircraft in all Western districts could hardly exceed 1000 aircraft, simply because the aviation of the Western District had the most aircraft (after Kyiv) and the Germans advanced faster here. The Germans hardly counted the aircraft that were out of order and destroyed during the raids among the captured ones. Why did they have to fix these cars? They most likely referred to the latter only technically sound aircraft, some of which, having received Luftwaffe identification marks, were used in German air units (see section 6).
At 7 o'clock in the morning on June 22, 1941, Adolf Hitler's address to the people of Germany was read on German radio:
“Burdened with heavy worries, doomed to months of silence, I can finally speak freely. German people! At this moment, an offensive is underway, comparable in scale to the greatest that the world has ever seen. Today I again decided to entrust the fate and future of the Reich and our people to our soldiers. May God help us in this struggle."
A few hours before this announcement, Hitler was informed that everything was going according to plan. At exactly 3:30 am on Sunday, June 22, fascist Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war.
June 22, 1941...
What do we know about this terrible day in the history of Russia?
“The First Day of the Great Patriotic War”, “The Day of Mourning and Sorrow” is one of the saddest and saddest dates in the history of Russia. It was on this day that the manic Adolf Hitler carried out his ruthless and cold-blooded plan to destroy the Soviet Union.
On June 22, 1941, at dawn, the troops of Nazi Germany attacked the borders of the Soviet Union without declaring war and bombed Soviet cities and military formations.
The invading army, according to some sources, numbered 5.5 million people, about 4,300 tanks and assault guns, 4,980 combat aircraft, 47,200 guns and mortars.
The great leader of the peoples Joseph Stalin. Non-aggression pact between Germany and the Soviet Union - better known in history as Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, as well as a number of secret agreements and arrangements with Germany lasted only 2 years. The vile and ambitious Hitler was more cunning and far-sighted than Stalin, and in the early stages of the war this advantage turned into a real disaster for the Soviet Union. The country was not ready for an attack, and even more so for a war.
It is difficult to accept the fact that Stalin, even after numerous reports from our intelligence about Hitler's real plans, did not take proper measures. I didn’t double-check, I didn’t insure myself, I didn’t make sure personally. He remained imperturbably calm even when the decision to go to war with the USSR and the general plan for the future campaign were announced by Hitler at a meeting with the high military command as early as July 31, 1940, shortly after the victory over France. And intelligence reported to Stalin about this ... What Stalin hoped for is still the subject of controversy and discussion ...
Hitler's plan was simple - the liquidation of the Soviet state, the seizure of its wealth, the extermination of the main part of the population and the "Germanization" of the country's territory up to the Urals. The idea of an attack on Russia was hatched by Hitler long before the invasion was planned. In his famous book "Mein Kampf" he published his ideas related to the so-called. eastern lands (Poland and the USSR). The peoples inhabiting them must be destroyed in order for representatives of the Aryan race to live there.
Why was Stalin silent?
Despite the fact that the war from its first days became Holy and Popular, Great Patriotic War it will officially become only 11 days later, precisely after Stalin's radio address to the people on July 3, 1941. Until then, from June 22 to July 3, the Soviet people did not hear their leader. Instead, at noon on June 22, 1941, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Vyacheslav Molotov, announced the beginning of the war with Germany to the Soviet people. And in the following days, this appeal was already published in all newspapers with a portrait of Stalin next to the text.
From Molotov's address, I would like to single out one most interesting paragraph:
The working people of Leningrad listen to the message about the attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti“This war was imposed on us not by the German people, not by the German workers, peasants and intelligentsia, whose sufferings we understand well, but by a clique of bloodthirsty fascist rulers of Germany who enslaved the French, Czechs, Poles, Serbs, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece and others peoples."
It is clear that Molotov only read out what he was given to read. That the compilers of this “statement” were other people ... Decades later, you look at this statement more with reproach ...
This paragraph, as evidence that the authorities in the USSR perfectly understood who the fascists were, but for unknown reasons, people in power decided to pretend to be innocent sheep, stood aside when Hitler, frostbitten on his head, subjugated Europe - the territory that was next to USSR.
The passivity of Stalin and the party, as well as the cowardly silence of the leader in the first days of the war, speaks volumes ... In the realities of the modern world, the people would not forgive their leader for this silence. And then, at that time, he not only closed his eyes to this, but also fought "for the Motherland, for Stalin!"
The fact that Stalin did not address the people immediately after the outbreak of the war was immediately perplexing to some. It is widely believed that Stalin in the initial period of the war was constantly or for a long period in a depressed state or in prostration. According to Molotov's memoirs, Stalin did not want to express his position immediately, in conditions where little was still clear.
Stalin's speech itself is also curious, when he gave the status of the war - the Great and Patriotic! It was after this appeal that the phrase “Great Patriotic War” came into circulation, and in the text the words “great” and “patriotic” are used separately.
The speech begins with the words: “Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Soldiers of our army and navy! I turn to you, my friends!
Further, Stalin talks about the difficult situation at the front, about the areas occupied by the enemy, the bombing of cities; he states: "A serious danger hangs over our Motherland." He rejects the "invincibility" of the Nazi army, while citing the defeat of the armies of Napoleon and Wilhelm II as an example. The failures of the first days of the war are explained by the advantageous position of the German army. Stalin denies that the non-aggression pact was a mistake - it helped secure a year and a half of peace.
Then the question is raised: "What is required in order to eliminate the danger hanging over our Motherland, and what measures must be taken in order to defeat the enemy?" First of all, Stalin proclaims the need for all Soviet people "to realize the full depth of the danger that threatens our country" and to mobilize; it is emphasized that we are talking about "the life and death of the Soviet state, about the life and death of the peoples of the USSR, about whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement."
Assessing Stalin's speech, V. V. Putin said:
“At the most critical moments in our history, our people turned to their roots, to their moral foundations, to religious values. And you remember well when the Great Patriotic War began, the first to inform the Soviet people about this was Molotov, who turned "citizens and citizens". And when Stalin spoke, despite all his rather tough, if not cruel, policy towards the church, he addressed himself in a completely different way - "brothers and sisters". And this made a huge sense, because such an appeal is not just words.
It was an appeal to the heart, to the soul, to history, to our roots, in order to describe, firstly, the tragedy of the ongoing events, and secondly, to encourage people to mobilize them to defend their homeland.
And it was always like this when we faced some difficulties and problems, even in atheistic times, after all, the Russian people could not do without these moral foundations.”
So, June 22, 1941 - "Day of Remembrance and Sorrow" - what else do we know about this day - briefly:
The name "Great Patriotic War" was born by analogy with the Patriotic War of 1812.
Directive No. 21 "Option Barbarossa" - this is how the plan of attack on the USSR is officially called, was adopted and signed by Hitler on December 18, 1940. According to the plan, Germany was to "defeat Soviet Russia in one short campaign." Therefore, on the very first day of the war, more than 5 million German soldiers were “thrown off the chain” on the USSR. According to the plan, the main cities of the USSR - Moscow and Leningrad were to be massively attacked on the 40th day of the war.
The armies of Germany's allies - Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria - participated in the war against the Soviet Union.
Bulgaria did not declare war on the USSR and Bulgarian military personnel did not participate in the war against the USSR (although Bulgaria's participation in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia and military operations against Greek and Yugoslav partisans freed up German divisions to be sent to the Eastern Front). In addition, Bulgaria placed at the disposal of the German military command all the main airfields and ports of Varna and Burgas (which the Germans used to supply troops on the Eastern Front).
The Russian Liberation Army (ROA) under the command of General A. Vlasov also sided with Nazi Germany, although it was not part of the Wehrmacht.
On the side of the Third Reich, national formations from the natives of the North Caucasus and Transcaucasia were also used - the Bergmann Battalion, the Georgian Legion, the Azerbaijani Legion, the North Caucasian SS detachment.
Hungary did not immediately take part in the attack on the USSR, and Hitler did not demand direct assistance from Hungary. However, the Hungarian ruling circles urged the need for Hungary to enter the war in order to prevent Hitler from resolving the territorial dispute over Transylvania in favor of Romania.
Cunning Spaniards.
In the autumn of 1941, the so-called Blue Division of Spanish volunteers also began hostilities on the side of Germany.
Not wanting to openly drag Spain into the Second World War on the side of Hitler and at the same time seeking to strengthen the Falange regime and ensure the country's security, Francisco Franco took a position of armed neutrality, providing Germany on the Eastern Front with a division of volunteers who wished to fight on the side of the Germans against the Soviet Union. De jure, Spain remained neutral, did not join Germany's allies, and did not declare war on the USSR. The division got its name from the blue shirts - the uniform of the Phalanx.
Foreign Minister Sunyer, announcing the formation of the Blue Division on June 24, 1941, said that the USSR was guilty of the Spanish Civil War, that this war dragged on, that there were mass executions, that there were extrajudicial killings. In agreement with the Germans, the oath was changed - they did not swear allegiance to the Fuhrer, but acted as fighters against communism.
The motivations of the volunteers were different: from the desire to avenge those close to them who died in the Civil War to the desire to hide (for the former Republicans, as a rule, they subsequently made up the bulk of defectors to the side of the Soviet army). There were people who sincerely wanted to redeem their Republican past. Many were guided by selfish considerations - the soldiers of the division received a decent salary for those times in Spain, plus a German salary (respectively 7.3 pesetas from the Spanish government and 8.48 pesetas from the German command per day)
As part of the army of Nazi Germany, the 15th Cossack Cavalry Corps of the SS, General von Panwitz, and other Cossack units fought. In order to justify the use of the Cossacks in the armed struggle on the side of Germany, a "theory" was developed, according to which the Cossacks were declared descendants of the Ostrogoths. And this is despite the fact that the Ostrogoths are an ancient Germanic tribe that constituted the eastern branch of the Gothic tribal association, which by the middle of the 3rd century had broken up into two tribal groups: the Visigoths and the Ostrogoths. They are considered one of the distant ancestors of modern Italians.
The protection of the state border of the USSR at the time of the attack consisted of only about 100 thousand people.
One of the first to suffer was the city of Brest and the famous Brest Hero Fortress. Commander of the German 2nd Panzer 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 fortress of Brest, which was visible from our observation posts, to the sounds of an orchestra, they were holding guards. Coastal fortifications along the Western Bug were not occupied by Russian troops.
According to the plan, the fortress should have been captured by 12 o'clock on the first day of the war. The fortress was taken only on the 32nd day of the war. One of the inscriptions in the fortress reads: “I am dying, but I do not give up. Farewell, Motherland. 20/VII-41".
Curious fact:
It is noteworthy that on September 22, 1939, a joint solemn parade of the Wehrmacht and the Red Army was held along the streets of Brest. All this took place during the official procedure for the transfer of the city of Brest and the Brest Fortress to the Soviet side during the invasion of Poland by the troops of Germany and the USSR. The procedure ended with the solemn lowering of the German flag and the raising of the Soviet flag.
Historian Mikhail Meltyukhov notes that at that time Germany tried in every possible way to show England and France that the USSR was its ally, while in the USSR itself they tried in every possible way to emphasize their "neutrality". This neutrality will turn the USSR into a second fall of the Brest Fortress, though a little later - on the very first day of the war on June 22. And only a year later, it will become known about the defenders of the Brest Fortress and their unshakable stamina - from the reports of German soldiers about the battles in Brest.
German troops invade the territory of the USSR In fact, in fact, the war began on the evening of June 21 - in the north of the Baltic, where the implementation of the Barbarossa plan began. That evening, German minelayers based in Finnish ports set up two large minefields in the Gulf of Finland. These minefields were able to lock up the Soviet Baltic Fleet in the eastern part of the Gulf of Finland.
And already on June 22, 1941, at 0306 hours, the Chief of Staff of the Black Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral I. D. Eliseev, ordered to open fire on Nazi aircraft that invaded far into the airspace of the USSR, which made history: it was the very first combat order to repulse the fascists who attacked us in the Great Patriotic War.
The official time of the beginning of the war is considered to be 4 o'clock in the morning, when the Imperial Foreign Minister Ribbentrop presented the Soviet ambassador in Berlin Dekanozov with a note declaring war, although we know that the attack on the USSR began earlier.
In addition to Molotov’s address to the people on the day of the declaration of war on June 22, on the radio, the Soviet people remembered most of all the voice of another person - the voice of the famous radio announcer Yu. Levitan, who also informed the Soviet people about the German attack on the USSR. Although for many years there was a belief among the people that it was Levitan who was the first to read the message about the beginning of the war, in reality, this already textbook text was first read on the radio by Foreign Minister Vyacheslav Molotov, and Levitan repeated it after some time.
It is noteworthy that such marshals as Zhukov and Rokossovsky also wrote in their memoirs that the announcer Yuri Levitan was the first to convey the message. So this championship was preserved by Levitan.
From the memoirs of announcer Yuri Levitan:
“They call from Minsk: “Enemy aircraft over the city”, they call from Kaunas:
“The city is on fire, why are you not transmitting anything on the radio?”, “Enemy planes are over Kyiv.” Women's crying, excitement: “Is it really a war? ..” However, no official messages are transmitted until 12:00 Moscow time on June 22.
On the third day of the war - June 24, 1941 - the Soviet Information Bureau was created with the aim of "... covering international events, military operations on the fronts and the life of the country" in the press and on the radio.
Every day throughout the war, millions of people froze at the radios at the words of Yuri Levitan "From the Soviet Information Bureau ...". General Chernyakhovsky once said: "Yuri Levitan could replace an entire division."
Adolf Hitler declared him his personal enemy number one and promised to "hang him as soon as the Wehrmacht enters Moscow." A reward was even promised for the head of the first announcer of the Soviet Union - 250 thousand marks.
At 5:30. on the morning of June 22 on the German radio, the Reich Minister of Propaganda Goebbels read out an appeal Adolf Hitler to the German people in connection with the outbreak of war against the Soviet Union: “Now the hour has come when it is necessary to oppose this conspiracy of Jewish-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and also Jewish rulers of the Bolshevik center in Moscow ...
At the moment, the greatest in terms of its length and volume of troops, which the world has ever seen, is being carried out ... The task of this front is no longer the defense of individual countries, but the security of Europe and thereby the salvation of all.
June 22 is known for two more speeches - by Adolf Hitler to the German people on the radio on the occasion of the attack on the USSR, where he outlined in detail the reasons for the attack ... and the speech of the most ardent opponent of communism, Winston Churchill, on the air of the BBC radio station.
The most interesting excerpts from this speech:
1. “At 4 o’clock this morning, Hitler attacked Russia.
All his usual formalities of treachery were followed with scrupulous precision. There was a solemnly signed non-aggression pact between the countries. Under the cover of his false guarantees, the German troops drew up their vast force in a line stretching from the White Sea to the Black Sea, and their air force and armored divisions moved slowly and methodically into position. Then 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 generously lavished his assurances of friendship and almost an alliance on the Russians, paid a visit to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and declared that Russia and Germany were at war.
2. “All this did not come as a surprise to me.
In fact, I clearly and clearly warned Stalin about the upcoming events. I warned him as I had warned others before. One can only hope that my signals were not ignored. All I know at the moment is that the Russian people are defending their native land and their leaders have called for resistance to the last.”
3. "Hitler is an evil monster,
insatiable in its lust for blood and plunder. Not satisfied with the fact that all of Europe is either under his heel, or intimidated to a state of humiliated obedience, he now wants to continue the slaughter and devastation in the vast expanses of Russia and Asia ... No matter how poor the Russian peasants, workers and soldiers, he must steal their daily bread . He must destroy their arable land. He must take away from them the oil that drives their plow, and thus bring on a famine of which the history of mankind has never known. And even the bloody slaughter and ruin, which in the event of his victory (although he has not yet won) threaten the Russian people, will only be a stepping stone to an attempt to plunge four or five hundred million living in China and 350,000,000 living in India into this bottomless abyss of human degradation , over which the diabolical emblem of the swastika flutters proudly.
4. The Nazi regime is indistinguishable from the worst features of communism.
It is devoid of any foundations and principles, except for a hateful appetite for racial domination. He is sophisticated in all forms of human malice, in effective cruelty and ferocious aggression. No one has been a more staunch opponent of communism over the past 25 years than I have been. I won't take back a single word said about him. But all this pales before 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 plowed from time immemorial. I see how they guard their homes; their mothers and wives pray - oh yes, because at such a time everyone prays for the preservation of their loved ones, for the return of the breadwinner, patron, their protectors.
I see all the ten thousand Russian villages where livelihoods were so laboriously pulled out of the ground, but there are also primordial human joys, girls laughing and children playing, and all this is being attacked in a disgusting, frenzied attack by the Nazi war machine with its clicking heels , rattling weapons, immaculately dressed Prussian officers, with her skillful secret agents, who had just pacified and tied hand and foot a dozen countries.
5. "My mind returns through the years ago,
in the days when the Russian troops were our ally against the same mortal enemy, when they fought with great courage and firmness and helped to win a victory, the fruits of which, alas, they were not allowed to use, although through no fault of ours ...
We have only one single goal and one unchanging task. We are determined to destroy Hitler and all traces of the Nazi regime. Nothing can turn us away from this. Nothing. We will never negotiate, we will never discuss terms with Hitler or any of his gang. We will fight him on land, we will fight him at sea, we will fight him in the air until, with God's help, we rid the earth of his shadow and free the nations from his yoke.
Any person or state fighting against Nazism will receive our help. Any person or state marching with Hitler is our enemy.
Therefore, we must give Russia and the Russian people all the help we can. We must call on all our friends and allies in all parts of the world to follow a similar course and pursue it as steadfastly and steadily as we will, to the very end.
We have already offered the government of Soviet Russia any technical or economic assistance which we are in a position to give and which may be useful to it. We will bomb Germany day and night, on an increasing scale, dropping ever heavier bombs on them from month to month, so that the German people themselves taste every month an ever sharper portion of the misfortunes that they brought down on humanity.
6. “I cannot speak of the actions of the United States on their behalf,
but I will say this: if Hitler imagined that his attack on Soviet Russia would cause even the slightest divergence in the goals or weaken the efforts of our great democracies determined to destroy him, then he is sadly mistaken ... Now is not the time to moralize over the mistakes of countries and governments that allowed to topple themselves one by one, while by united efforts they could easily save themselves and the whole world from this catastrophe ... "
7. “Hitler's motive is much deeper.
He wants to destroy the power of Russia, because he hopes, if he succeeds, to turn back the main forces of his army and air fleet from the East to our island, because he knows that he will either have to conquer it or pay for his crimes.
The attack on Russia is nothing more than a prelude to an attempt to conquer the British Isles. No doubt he hopes that all this can be completed before the winter comes, and that he can overwhelm Great Britain before the United States Navy and Air Force can intervene.
He hopes that he will be able to repeat again, on an even larger scale than ever before, the very process of destroying his opponents one by one, which has allowed him to flourish and prosper for so long, and that in the end the stage will be cleared for the last act, without which all his conquests will be in vain - namely, the subjugation of the entire Western Hemisphere to his will and his system.
Therefore, the danger that threatens Russia is a threat to us and a threat to the United States, and in the same way, the cause of every Russian who fights for his home and hearth is the cause of all free people and peoples in all parts of the globe.
June 22 is a special day for Russia and all the peoples of the former USSR. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War - 1417 days of the most terrible war in the history of mankind.
This day reminds us of all those who died in battle, were tortured in fascist captivity, died in the rear from hunger and deprivation. We mourn for all those who, at the cost of their lives, fulfilled their holy duty, defending our Fatherland in those harsh years.
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The naked lies are much wider than the history of the pre-war years ....
Grade 5 out of 5 stars by Guest 09.07.2013 17:34
an interesting book, but of course a lot of controversial! The political aspirations of Germany, described in this book, can already be made the property of history textbooks!
Grade 5 out of 5 stars by sergey 19.03.2013 10:01
The book is very concise and at the same time concise.
many of these facts met in other sources. the great merit of the author is that he made a global analysis of the situation in the world, focusing on the interests of countries and world forces.
this book would be recommended for reading in history faculties
Grade 5 out of 5 stars by Victor 21.02.2013 20:23
I read "Antinyurnberg. Unconvicted" yesterday. Esmli "What happened on June 22, 1941?" was just a historical sketch - then this book is a real study. Magnificent in quality, impeccable in texture and brilliant in presentation. The author completely killed all Rezun's writings with one of his books! Like all rezunoids. Usovsky - A master, and a master with a capital letter, I really hope that his books will sooner or later take their place among the best historical studies of our time
Grade 5 out of 5 stars from Regimantas Quederavichus 30.10.2011 15:44
Excuse me, but didn’t Mark Solonin write about the same thing? Only much earlier? I advise you to read "Barrel and hoops". A concept that really explains the defeat of the Red Army in the initial period of the war. Usovsky is very vague about the date November 19, 1942. They say this is the date of the beginning of the unification of the people to fight the Germans. Unconvincing. In Solonin, this process is described and tied to time much more convincingly. I still didn’t like the reference to Zhukov as an example of integrity in relations with Stalin (the episode when he proposes to withdraw the troops of the South-West F and leave Kyiv). It is cited as an example of the "foresight and integrity" of the "Marshal of Victory". I recommend on this issue to read at your leisure so unloved by Usovsky "Herr Rezun", in particular "I take my nightingales back." If Stalin had listened to such advisers more often and had not put them in their place in time, it would have been quite realistic to expect the Germans to appear somewhere in the region of Khabarovsk and Vladivostok.
Serge 12.03.2011 12:13
Let's be more specific! Who specifically is behind the concept of "World Capital"? It is very easy to blame everything on an abstract substance, to come up with some general name for it. It has happened so many times already! Who ruined Russia - the Jews. Who started the world war - World capital. Who drank all the water in the tap - ... Poor sheep Hitler and Stalin. They had no choice but to respond to the vile machinations of a phantom called "World Capital". So they have not calmed down, it turns out. Sitting there in Haifa under the palm trees and dreaming how they could once again milk Russia and Germany and dismember.
Tikhon Khrennikov 11.03.2011 14:28
Usovsky did not "discover America" - he created a coherent and logical concept of the Second World War, free from Soviet and Anglo-Saxon lies. After his books - “What happened on June 22, 1941?”, “From the Sea Lion to Barbarossa: in search of a way out”, “Sold Poland. The origins of the September catastrophe”, “Antinyurnberg. Germany in planning and unleashing World War II. This was done by WORLD CAPITAL. This is the merit of Usovsky.
Algirdas Buzas 26.02.2011 22:45
1. Address of Adolf Hitler to the German people on June 22, 1941 in connection with the attack on the USSR
http://aistor.do.am/publ/obrashhenie_adolfa_gitlera_k_germanskomu_narodu_22_ijunja_1941_goda_v_svjazi_s_napadeniem_na_sssr/1-1-0-220
2. And Hitler's Political Testament
http://radioislam.org/historia/hitler/testam/eng/testa.htm
All this data is open and available The situation with Poland http://s-mahat.ru/cgi-bin/index.cgi?cont=68
The merit of Usovsky - he managed to publish a book. There is a lot of information on the Internet, but the Internet is free from censorship - publishers are not.
Alexander 26.02.2011 17:21
I read "Antinyurnberg" by Usovsky. Mr. Nilov is right - this book really destroys to the very foundations all the lies about the Second World War, and does it gracefully, gracefully, in beautiful Russian, convincingly and vividly. Usovsky is a man. really came to the truth - in regard to the mystery of the Second World War. His concept is the only one that does not have dubious places that Rezun carefully retouches with various lies, and Soviet historians simply hushed up. But the fact that Mr. Usovsky is a Russian National Socialist and a fan of Hitler sharply lowers his rating, alas ...
Algirdas Buzas 17.02.2011 16:34
Unfortunately, I do not have "Antinyurnberg" in electronic form - I had to spend money on a paper version.
Rezun is trying to make Stalin the "author" of World War II. Usovsky proves that this war was started by the financial oligarchy of England and the USA (Anlo-Saxon and Jewish, he writes - "non-national"). And Hitler attacked the USSR not because he decided to "preempt" - but because in this way he tried to outplay the British, seize our resources and, relying on them, try to end the war.
Usovsky has a website www.usovski.ru where he has a lot of articles on this subject - both about tanks, and about the fleet, and in general about everything. I recommend.
And Rezunov's "facts" ... Either he makes the Pe-8 a "superbomber" (although by 1941 both the "Lancaster" and the B-17 already existed, which were much better), then he says that the BT-7 was a "supertank" (although his armor was pierced by ALL anti-tank barrels of the German infantry division - both anti-tank guns, and anti-tank rifles, and 20-mm anti-aircraft guns), but there is nothing to say about "motorway" tanks - nonsense.
Alexey Nilov 20.07.2010 16:39
If there is an opportunity, upload here "Antinyurnberg. Unconvicted" - I will definitely read it (I can’t find it on the internet - everything is only for money).
Well, how do the facts of Rezun differ from the facts of Usovsky - in both books there are facts confirming absolutely the same thing, namely, that at the beginning of the Patriotic War "the Soviet army was superior to the German army in terms of numbers and technology." The conclusions are slightly different, but at the same time they do not contradict each other ... What are the contradictions in the facts?
Grade 3 out of 5 stars from Yuri 07/19/2010 13:39
Usovsky's style is, of course, very emotional, but ALL the facts set forth in his books are confirmed from other sources. Whereas Rezun has lies on lies and lies drive. I'm for you, Yuri. I strongly recommend that you still read Usovsky's book "Antinyurnberg. Unconvicted" - there he has a lot of previously unpublished factual material, excellent analytics - which he does not leave a stone unturned from Rezunov's nonsense
Alexey Nilov 19.07.2010 12:34
According to the style of presentation, Usovsky is more like a talker - (I repeat) he writes too emotionally. But the truth is, it is somewhere in the middle - you need to read both Rezun and Ustinov and other sources - but the main thing is to think with your own head ...
Yuri 18.07.2010 21:32
Rezun is a liar like Munchausen, 90% of his "facts" are lies he invented, he distorts and falsifies.
Usovsky has an excellent study on the causes of the outbreak of World War II - "Antinyurnberg. Unconvicted", in addition, about the role of Poland in unleashing this war - "Sold out Poland. The origins of the September catastrophe." Brilliant analysts, masterful selection of facts and impeccable conclusions.
Rezun, compared to Usovsky, is a miserable talker and a liar.
Alexey Nilov 17.07.2010 16:02
Read Suvorov - Icebreaker. Although the author constantly and caustically "runs into" Suvorov, the author is very far from Suvorov.
The book is written very emotionally and often in the language of "bazaar" grandmothers rather than in a language worthy of a historian. If in the Icebreaker 80-90% of the book are dry facts, then Usovsky has 10-20% facts, the rest is the author's conclusions - and, I repeat, very emotional. The second point that I didn’t like, the author is very nationalistic, in the whole book there are only mentions of the Russian people, and the Russian nation ... it was never mentioned throughout the text that there were other nationalities in the Red Army - it seems that they were drafted into the army exclusively Russian ... Quote: "The three main components of the future Victory - ... and the formation of the Russian national idea as the ideological basis of the war - in the near future will have to tip the scales in favor of the Soviet Union."
The main idea of the book is that Hitler started the war because he needed resources (in particular, Baku oil), and Stalin knew about this but had absolutely no intention of attacking anyone. At the same time, the author himself cites data that at the beginning of the war the Red Army had at least a 3-fold superiority over the Wehrmacht in everything and mobilization was in full swing - and then the author’s conclusions begin that even though the army had a huge morale and lack of training do not allow to consider its army ... But did 5 million people (mouths) mobilize - does it mean that they planned to do something with this army?
Undoubtedly, there is a grain of truth in this book - such is not the desire of soldiers at the beginning of the war to fight for Soviet power. And I am personally sure that in most villages that survived the dispossession, collectivization and famine of the 30s, the Germans were sincerely greeted as liberators with bread and salt ... And soldiers from the same villages were also recruited into the army ...
In summary: the author only confirms Suvorov's idea, although he tries to replace it with some national idea of the Russian nation...
Grade 3 out of 5 stars from Yuri 07/17/2010 00:36
