The predatory plans of the "new order" in Europe and the brutal occupation regime in the enslaved countries strengthened in the minds of the peoples the idea that German fascism is the main enemy of all freedom-loving mankind. The elements of a just war were intensified, and from a bilateral imperialist war it gradually began to turn for the exhausted and oppressed peoples into an anti-fascist liberation war.

In all the occupied countries by this time there was a consolidation of the forces of the resistance movement with the task of uniting the various centers of leadership of the illegal struggle. The communist party organizations were the force that set in motion the struggle against the fascist occupiers. The Communist Parties in their program documents indicated the direction and purpose of this struggle and became its organizers. Some active actions against the occupiers were carried out as a call to struggle and announced that the peoples had risen against German imperialism. In September 4939, strikes and demonstrations against the war took place in the occupied Czechoslovak regions, and on October 18, on the day of the 21st anniversary of the founding of the Czechoslovak Republic, mass communist demonstrations were organized in Prague, Ostrava, Kladno, Pilsen and other cities. In a clash with the fascist invaders, the student Opletal was killed, and his funeral turned into a new mass demonstration in Prague.

In response, the Nazi authorities closed all higher educational institutions and arrested in the fall of 1939 about 8,000 people. Until May 1941, the Gestapo, according to its own data, arrested 5,796 Czech and Slovak communists. The unification of the resistance fighters in Poland turned out to be extremely difficult. The country was dismembered, the Communist Party was disbanded before the war, bourgeois circles in the band and in exile took up anti-communist positions. Until the end of 1939, the Nazis killed about 100 thousand Poles. In the spring of 1940, a wave of physical destruction of the Polish intelligentsia by the Nazis followed - 3,500 people fell victim to it.

Nevertheless, Polish workers carried out actions of struggle, sabotage in factories, mining enterprises and transport. In the first year of the occupation, workers at the Stibler cloth factory in Łódź spoiled a total of 240,000 meters of production. The universities of Warsaw and Poznań, closed by the fascist authorities, started classes illegally. Partisan detachments were created in Kielce, Warsaw, Lublin and other provinces. In the northern countries, the working people also took part in the struggle against fascism. According to Danish sources, in the period from April 1940 to June 1941, 19 major raids were carried out on German military installations, as a result of which a large number of aircraft, tanks, railway cars, gasoline storage facilities and transformer substations were destroyed. In Norway, resistance actions have been consistently carried out, ranging from the boycott of the quisling press and German films to anti-fascist demonstrations with skirmishes and acts of sabotage. On the anniversary of the fascist attack - April 9, 1941 - workers in Norwegian enterprises stopped work for half an hour in protest. At the end of 1940, about 12,000 Norwegians were languishing in prison for speaking out against the occupying authorities.

The Communist Party of the Netherlands very soon managed to act as a leader in the resistance movement. Since October 1940, the newspaper De warheid, the central organ of the Communist Party, began to appear illegally with a circulation of 10,000 copies. In October 1940, students at the University of Leiden and the Technical Institute at Delft went on strike for two days against the dismissal of Jewish teachers from higher education by the fascist authorities. The most significant action of the Resistance was the general political strike in February 1941, in which 300,000 patriots took part and which engulfed the most important cities and enterprises of the country. As a result, all attempts by the German occupation authorities from the Dutch fascists to create a collaborationist government failed.

Large strikes also took place in Belgium: in June 1940 in Lütich, in September of the same year in the Borinage, where 10,000 workers took part. In April and May, a new wave of strikes was supported by 20,000 workers in the industrial city of Charleroi. On the anniversary of the attack of Nazi Germany on Belgium - May 10, 1941 - the workers of the province of Lütich protested against the fascist occupation. 100,000 workers took part in the strike, led by the well-known communist Julien Lao. The occupying authorities and the collaborationist leadership of the concerns were forced to raise wages by 8%. However, with this insignificant handout they were not able to weaken the resistance struggle of the Belgian people. The French resistance movement was especially strong. The illegal committee of the Communist Party succeeded in maintaining leadership of the party organizations in factories and residential areas and in directing progressive forces within the resistance movement. In 1939, 16 illegal editions of Humanite were published, in 1940 there were 79 of them with a total circulation of about 10 million copies. The people's committees, created by the communists, directed many actions of the Resistance, which took place under the slogan of fulfilling the demands of the workers. In December 1940, at the Renault factory, the administration was forced to give instructions to dismantle several hundred motorcycles, as they were rendered unusable by the workers.

The motors of the firm "Gnome et Rone" could not be accepted at the enterprises due to marriage. On November 11, 1940, the day of the armistice of 1918, a demonstration took place in Paris, in the organization of which the famous communist Daniel Kazakova took part. Fascist military units fired on the demonstrators, killing 12 and wounding about 50 people. In April-May 1941, 100,000 miners went on strike for three weeks in the department of Pas-de-Calais. About 2,000 workers were arrested, and 1,500 of them were sent to forced labor in Nazi Germany. In the autumn of 1940, the first partisan detachments arose. Patriots from other sections of the population also took part in the struggle. The Free French movement, which de Gaulle organized in London, gradually grew into a significant military organization. All these examples testify to the unshakable struggle of the peoples against fascist domination, for national independence, for freedom.

Despite the great difficulties that arose before the German resistance movement after the Wehrmacht's invasion of Northern and Eastern Europe, it unwaveringly continued the struggle against Nazism and soon entered the broad anti-fascist front that engulfed most peoples. With the arrest of Willy Gall and the destruction of the party organization he led in Berlin at the beginning of 1940, efforts to create an operational leadership of the KPD in Germany were hampered above all. But other representatives of the Central Committee of the KKE continued to solve this problem. Rudolf Hallmeyer, Heinrich Schmeer and Arthur Emmerlich acted in this direction in Berlin. Rudolf Hallmeier until his arrest in August 1940 actively worked in the Resistance organization led by Robert Urich. In August, the leadership of this organization was formed, which worked illegally in 1936-1937. In addition to Robert Urich, it included the Communists Kurt Lehmann, Franz Mett and the Social Democrat Leopold Tomshik. This resistance organization had strong links with 22 Berlin enterprises, among them the AEG, Osram, Siemens, Deutsche Waffen und Munitionsfabriken. Meetings were regularly held with activists at the enterprises on the methods of anti-fascist activity. They managed to unite the disparate members of the KKE into a single party organization. Its leadership worked according to the directives of the Central Committee and was its representative in Berlin. It also insisted on the unification of resistance organizations in other parts of Germany, as well as on the intensification of the anti-fascist struggle of the Social Democrats. This resistance organization acted as the leadership of the Communist Party on an all-German scale and existed until the defeat of the Gestapo in 1942.

Urich and his associates were closely associated with the Resistance group in Munich, led by retired captain Josef Römer. From the spring of 1940 to the beginning of 1942, they published a joint illegal press organ, the Information Service, which helped the activists of the Resistance movement with information on the situation in the anti-fascist struggle and the formulation of specific tasks. Among many others, this “Information Service” was also received by Resistance organizations in the North Bohemian region, in which German and Czech anti-fascists fought together under the leadership of Wenzel Scholz and Josef Gruba. In October 1939, Gruby established contact with the Central Committee of the KKE through the Resistance organizations in Prague. At the end of 1940, the communists of various organizations of the Resistance in Krauzova Buda met at a meeting where the question of further ways of struggle was discussed.

The existence of direct links between the organization of the Resistance of Robert Urich and other organizations that existed at that time in Berlin and other centers of the Resistance in Germany was also proved. These include organizations led by Ion Sieg, Anton Zefkov, Wilhelm Guddorf and Otto Grabowski. In Leipzig, the resistance organizations grouped around Georg Schumann, Otto Engert and Kurt Kresse continued the anti-fascist struggle, in Thuringia around Theodor Neubauer, in Hamburg around Robert Abshagen, Bernard Bestlein and Franz Jakob.

Stuttgart anti-fascists prepared a leaflet "Voice of the People". Posters and slogans against the Nazi war were posted in Ulm, Wiesbaden and other places. Of great importance for the anti-fascist struggle was the resumption of the publication of the newspaper Rote Fahne. In a special instruction to Arthur Emmerlich, authorized by the Central Committee of the KKE, the Central Committee proposed that this party organ be re-published in Berlin with the help of party organizations and organizations of the Resistance. Arthur Emmerlich led party organizations in the Berlin districts of Moabit and Reinickendorf, as well as in other parts of the city. He had a strong connection with the Teachers' Resistance group led by Kurt Steffelbauer. With the help of all these organizations, he was able to resume publication of Rote Fahne. In January 1941, its first issue was published. In March - double number 2-3 and in May - number 4-5. The newspaper was printed on a typewriter and contained political articles and information based on materials from the Moscow radio.

She directed the practical work of the illegal resistance fighters. Thus, editorial no. 2-3 stated: “The struggle against the imperialist war means: in the factories to train the workers in various forms of resistance against exploitation. The struggle against the imperialist war means: to act, if possible, against all anti-popular measures of the regime. To fight against imperialist war means to deny the regime the means to wage war." The arrest on May 24, 1941 of Arthur Emmerlich in Hamburg, from where he wanted to go to the foreign leadership in Sweden, and of Kurt Steffelbauer, as well as a number of other communists on May 28, disrupted their active publishing activities and the association of members of the Resistance movement.

From the operational reports of the fascist police apparatus, it was established that the anti-fascist struggle intensified in the first period of the war. A report dated December 1, 1939, from the Siemens and Halske plant in Berlin says: “The circle of listeners to enemy radio broadcasts seems to continue to increase ... Here and there organized forms in this direction become noticeable.” The Gestapo in Berlin alone selected about 1,100 proclamations during the first 13 months of the war. The Post Office tracked down about 1,800 proclamations and 1,500 illegal leaflets, which was only a small part of the materials published and distributed. In the spring and October 1940, the Gestapo reported from West and South Germany about "raids on members of fascist youth organizations." This led to the arrest of many young people between the ages of 16 and 24. In one of the operational reports dated January 1, 1941, the leaders of the German Hitler Youth claimed the existence of a youth group that leads to "the political decay of the youth." “The groups are partly modeled after former Marxist youth groups. They are either a continuation of them, or act in the same spirit. These groups pose a significant danger to the education of workers from the Hitler Youth and, by their combined efforts, can stubbornly fight the police. Therefore, it is necessary to take decisive measures and demand the creation of youth work camps for the incorrigible.”

In Stuttgart, an illegal anti-fascist organization regularly listened to Moscow radio broadcasts and then distributed them among the workers. In Dresden, the Resistance organization, whose active leaders were Fritz Schulze and Karl Steip, organized and conducted anti-fascist work until the arrest of most of its members in the spring of 1942. Arthur Emmerlich.

In the autumn of 1939, the resistance groups created before the war by Arvid Harnack and Harro Schulze-Boysen united. This branched anti-fascist organization had strongholds in Berlin and many other German cities, as well as connections abroad. Members of this organization, the playwright Wilhelm Schirmann-Horster, a member of the KPD since 1923, and the 23-year-old communist Hans Komm, worked in Berlin among artists. In the Fascist court case about this organization, it is said: "Shirman was a typical qualified communist leader, he had spiritual dominance over his listeners, delved into communist theory and prepared them for the practical activities of the conspirators."

The resistance organization in Berlin, whose leadership included Hans Günther, published the anti-fascist proclamations "Das Freire Wort" in a circulation of 300 copies. They were posted in various parts of the city. The proclamations emphasized: “Hitler's victory is an eternal war! Every fascist victory brings a new war!” In October-November 1940, anti-war slogans were posted on the Neptune Werft in Rostock, one of which read: "Down with Hitler and his rabble of murderers!" The Gestapo, in their reports, stated the increasing resistance of the workers in the coastal regions. Each report said that shipbuilding workers were unwilling to work overtime and unreliable elements showed a tendency to associate with truants. At the Heinkel factories in Rostock in October-November 1940, the workers forced payment of the bonus that the concern's management wanted to invest in armaments at that time, and the workers promised to build a “hostel” after the war for this amount.

At the zinc smelters in Magdeburg, workers sabotaged the production of armaments. They threw out the slogan "Down with the war!" at the plant. At the Leipzig plant "Khazag" leaflets with the motto "Solidarity with our Polish class brothers" were published by an illegal factory group of the Communist Party. According to the results of the study to date, 76 political trials have been held in Mecklenburg alone from September 1939 to the end of 1940. After the arrests at the end of 1940 and at the beginning of 1941 in Teplice, where Czech, Slovak and German anti-fascists fought together, 300 opponents of Nazism were put on trial. Nazi justice issued 36 death sentences. Many of the bold actions of the anti-fascists show that the most devoted and class-conscious forces of the German people continued their struggle against fascism in the first two years of the Second World War. At the same time, it took various forms: listening to Moscow radio, printing and distributing leaflets, writing anti-fascist slogans, material support for prisoners of war, as well as arrested resistance fighters and workers driven into captivity, carrying out acts of sabotage at enterprises and explaining to the masses the main political issues. At the same time, during this period, there was a strengthening of the organizations of the Resistance, which came out in the subsequent years of the war, and the strengthening, under the leadership of the Central Committee of the KKE, of the permanent operational leadership of the party's illegal struggle in Germany.

In exile, German anti-fascists made efforts to support the struggle against the fascist "new order", against the further expansion of the war and for the defeat of Nazi Germany. In various countries they worked closely together with the national resistance movement and took part in some struggles. In the unoccupied part of France, in Toulouse, in August 1940, an illegal governing body of the KKE in France was formed, which, together with the French resistance fighters, carried out anti-fascist explanatory work among the Wehrmacht servicemen. In the spring of 1941, an illegal governing body of the KKE in the occupied part of France was established in Paris.

The various actions of communist, social democratic and other opponents of German fascism and their selfless, courageous actions, however, were not able to incline the masses to great anti-fascist activity and overthrow the fascist regime from within. The most important prerequisite for this - the unity of action of the working class - was absent due to the anti-communist attitudes of the right-wing Social Democratic leaders.

Characteristic of the concept of the leading Social Democrats was the desire to unite the opponents of Hitler, but without the Communists and even against them. This desire was masked by the wording: it is desirable to conclude an alliance of all "opponents of totalitarian power." At the same time, these Social Democrats were in direct agreement with the anti-communist bourgeois forces. Thus, Theo Gespers, in the magazine Kameradshaft, published by Catholic youth leaders in London, condemning the communists, wrote that he did not think that "the German people want to change one dictatorship for another."

The lack of unity of action among all opponents of fascism, and as a consequence of this, a small number of mass actions against the war made it easier for German fascism to further expand the state-monopoly system to oppress the people, the arms race and the preparation of new crimes against other peoples, and above all against the Soviet Union.

Cīņa) - one of the organizations of the anti-fascist underground on the territory of Riga during the period when the Latvian capital was the administrative center of the General Commissariat of Latvia as part of the large territorial formation "Ostland".

Qinya, an anti-fascist underground organization, functioned during the late period of the Nazi occupation, from 1943 to 1944. It was during the last year and a half of Nazi domination that numerous partisan movements in the territory of occupied Latvia noticeably intensified.

Translated from the Latvian language Ciņa means "Fight". For the most part, members of the underground movement were students of the Latvian Academy of Arts, as well as a number of actors from some Riga theaters. In particular, the active members of the underground organization "Tsinya" were the artists of the Riga theaters: stage art teacher and one of the leading actresses of the Workers' Theater Olga Fritsevna Bormane (1893 - 1968), Arveds Karlovich Mikhelson, who performed under the stage name Rutku Tevs (1886 - 1961 years), who played the main roles in the Main Art Academic Theater of Latvia, as well as the actor and director Teodors Kugrens (? - 1945).

The leaders of this cell of the anti-fascist underground were the former director of the Art Theater, People's Artist of the Latvian SSR Leonid Yanovich Leimanis (1910 - 1974), who acted as the actual founder of this underground organization, as well as a student of the Latvian Academy of Arts Komsomol member Olgerts Urbans (1922 - 1977), who in the post-war years was destined to become a portrait painter. In fact, "Qin" consisted of art students and Riga actors.

Basically, the members of this anti-fascist organization were engaged in the distribution of propaganda posters and leaflets - they voiced a call for sabotage at Riga industrial enterprises, the vast majority of which were forced to serve the interests of the military industry of the Third Reich. Also, "Qinya" was engaged in the collection of weapons and sending them to combat partisan detachments of various organizations of the Latvian resistance movement. In the early spring of 1943, a secret printing house was set up in secret apartment No. 6 in house No. 3 on Vidus Street, under the guidance of Leonid Leimanis, a graduate of the drama studio of the Riga Folk Higher School, which managed to print 19 anti-fascist appeals of various content before the day of the liberation of Riga on October 13, 1944, which were promptly distributed by Qini members with a circulation of 780 to 2800 copies.

1944 was the year of the complete liberation of the territory of the USSR. During the winter and spring offensive operations of the Red Army, the blockade of Leningrad was completely lifted, the Korsun-Shevchenko group of the enemy was surrounded and captured, the Crimea and most of Ukraine were liberated.

On March 26, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal I.S. Konev were the first to reach the state border of the USSR with Romania. On the third anniversary of the attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet country, the grandiose Belarusian offensive operation began, culminating in the liberation of a significant part of Soviet land from German occupation. In the autumn of 1944, the state border of the USSR was restored along its entire length. Under the blows of the Red Army, the fascist bloc collapsed.

The Soviet government officially declared that the entry of the Red Army into the territory of other countries was caused by the need to completely defeat the armed forces of Germany and did not pursue the goal of changing the political structure of these states or violating the territorial integrity. Soviet troops had to fight on the territory of many European countries captured by the Germans, from Norway to Austria. Most of all (600 thousand) Soviet soldiers and officers died and were buried on the territory of modern Poland, more than 140 thousand - in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 26 thousand - in Austria.

The exit of the Red Army on a broad front into Central and South-Eastern Europe immediately raised the question of further relations between the countries of this region and the USSR. On the eve of and during the battles for this vast and vital region, the USSR began to openly support the pro-Soviet politicians of these countries - mainly from among the communists. At the same time, the Soviet leadership sought recognition from the United States and Britain of their special interests in this part of Europe. Given the presence of Soviet troops there, Churchill in 1944 agreed with the inclusion of all the Balkan countries, except Greece, in the sphere of influence of the USSR. In 1944, Stalin secured the creation of a pro-Soviet government in Poland, parallel to the government in exile in London. Of all these countries, only in Yugoslavia did Soviet troops receive powerful support from the partisan army of Josip Broz Tito. On October 20, 1944, together with the partisans, the Red Army liberated Belgrade from the enemy.

Together with the Soviet troops, the Czechoslovak corps, the Bulgarian army, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army, several Romanian units and formations took part in the liberation of their countries. In the summer of 1944, a broad conspiracy - from communists to monarchists - arose for this purpose in Romania. At this time, the Red Army was already fighting on Romanian territory. On August 23, a palace coup took place in Bucharest. The next day the new government declared war on Germany.

On August 31, Soviet troops entered Bucharest. The Romanian armies joined the Soviet fronts. King Mihai later even received the Order of Victory from Moscow (although before that his army had fought against the USSR). At the same time, on fairly honorable terms, Finland managed to withdraw from the war, signing an armistice on September 19, 1944.

Throughout the war, Bulgaria was an ally of Germany and fought against England and the United States, but it did not declare war on the Soviet Union. September 5, 1944 The Soviet government declared war on Bulgaria, giving the order to launch an offensive, however, one of the infantry divisions of the Bulgarian army, lining up along the road, met our units with unfolded red banners and solemn music. After some time, the same events occurred in other directions. Spontaneous fraternization of Soviet soldiers with the Bulgarian people began. On the night of September 9, a bloodless coup took place in Bulgaria. A new government came to power in Sofia, under the strong influence of the communists. Bulgaria declared war on Germany.

At the end of August 1944, a popular anti-fascist uprising broke out in Slovakia, and units of the 1st Ukrainian Front, which included the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps under the command of General L. Svoboda, were sent to help him. Stubborn fighting began in the area of ​​the Carpathian Mountains. On October 6, Soviet and Czechoslovak troops entered the land of Czechoslovakia in the area of ​​​​the Dukla Pass. This day is now celebrated as the Day of the Czechoslovak People's Army. Bloody battles lasted until the end of October. The Soviet troops failed to completely overcome the Carpathians and unite with the rebels. But gradually the liberation of Eastern Slovakia continued. It was attended by the rebels, who went to the mountains and became partisans, and the civilian population. The Soviet command helped them with people, weapons and ammunition.

By October 1944, Germany had the only ally in Europe - Hungary. On October 15, the supreme ruler of the country, Miklos Horthy, also tried to withdraw it from the war, but to no avail. He was arrested by the Germans. After that, Hungary had to fight to the end. Stubborn battles went for Budapest. Soviet troops managed to take it only on the third attempt on February 13, 1945. And the last battles in Hungary ended only in April. In February, the Budapest group of Germans was defeated. In the area of ​​Lake Balaton (Hungary), the enemy made a last attempt to go on the offensive, but was defeated. In April, Soviet troops liberated Vienna, the capital of Austria, and captured the city of Koenigsberg in East Prussia.

The regime of German occupation in Poland was very harsh: during the war, out of 35 million inhabitants, 6 million people died. Nevertheless, from the beginning of the war, a resistance movement, called the Craiova Army (Fatherland Army), operated here. It supported the Polish government in exile. On July 20, 1944, Soviet troops entered the territory of Poland. A provisional government of the country, led by the communists, was immediately created - the National Liberation Committee. The Army of Ludov ("People's Army") was subordinate to him. Together with the Soviet troops and units of the Army, the People's Committee was moving towards Warsaw. The Home Army strongly opposed the coming to power of this committee. Therefore, she tried to liberate Warsaw from the Germans on her own. On August 1, an uprising broke out in the city, in which most of the inhabitants of the Polish capital participated. The Soviet leadership reacted sharply negatively to the uprising. J. Stalin wrote to W. Churchill on August 16: “The Warsaw action is a reckless terrible adventure, costing the population great sacrifices. In the situation that has arisen, the Soviet command has come to the conclusion that it must dissociate itself from the Warsaw indirect liability for the Warsaw action". Not supporting the rebels, the Soviet leadership refused to drop their weapons and food from aircraft.

On September 13, Soviet troops reached Warsaw and stopped on the other side of the Vistula. From here they could watch the Germans mercilessly crack down on the rebels. Now they began to provide assistance, dropping everything they needed from Soviet aircraft. But the uprising was already fading. During its suppression, about 18,000 rebels and 200,000 peaceful Varsovians were killed. On October 2, the leaders of the Warsaw Uprising decided to surrender. As punishment, the Germans almost completely destroyed Warsaw. Residential buildings were burned or blown up. The surviving residents left the city.

By the beginning of 1945, the Soviet active forces had twice as many soldiers as the opposing enemy, three times as many tanks and self-propelled guns, four times as many guns and mortars, almost eight times as many combat aircraft. Our aircraft dominated the air. Nearly half a million soldiers and officers of its allies fought side by side with the Red Army. All this allowed the Soviet command to simultaneously launch an offensive on the entire front and strike at the enemy where it was convenient for us, and when it was beneficial for us.

The troops of seven fronts were involved in the winter offensive - three Belorussian and four Ukrainian. The troops of the 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts continued to block the enemy grouping in Courland from land. The Baltic Fleet helped the ground forces advance along the coast, while the Northern Fleet provided transportation across the Barents Sea. It was planned to start the offensive in the second half of January.

But the Soviet command was forced to amend its plan, and here's why. In mid-December 1944, the Nazis suddenly attacked American and British troops in the Ardennes, on the border of Belgium and France, and pushed the allied forces 100 km to the west, towards the sea. This defeat was especially painful for the British - the situation reminded them of the tragic days of June 1940, when their troops were pressed to the sea in the Dunkirk area. On January 6, Churchill turned to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Armed Forces, I. V. Stalin, with a request to expedite the Red Army's transition to the offensive in order to alleviate the situation of the Anglo-American troops. This request was granted, and the Red Army, despite the incompleteness of preparations, on January 12, 1945, launched a general offensive from the shores of the Baltic to the southern spurs of the Carpathians. It was the largest and most powerful offensive of the entire war.

The main blow was delivered by the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, advancing from the Vistula, south of Warsaw, and moving west, towards the borders of Germany. These fronts were commanded by Marshals of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov and I.S. Konev. These fronts included 2,200,000 soldiers and officers, more than 32,000 guns and mortars, about 6,500 tanks and self-propelled artillery mounts, and about 5,000 combat aircraft. They quickly broke the resistance of the Germans, completely destroyed 35 enemy divisions. 25 enemy divisions lost from 50 to 70% of their composition.

For 23 days the continuous advance to the west continued. Soviet soldiers fought 500 - 600 km. On February 3, they were already on the banks of the Oder. Before them lay the land of Germany, whence the calamity of war had come to us. On January 17, Soviet troops entered the Polish capital. The city, turned into ruins, looked completely dead. During the Vistula-Oder operation (February 1945), the territory of Poland was completely cleared of the Nazi invaders, the Vistula-Oder operation saved the Allied troops in the Ardennes from defeat, where the Americans lost 40 thousand people.

The Soviet command offered to arrange negotiations with the underground leadership of the Home Army. At the same time, at the very first meeting, its head, General L. Okulitsky, was arrested. In June 1945, an open trial was held in Moscow over the leaders of the Home Army. As in previous open trials in Moscow, the defendants pleaded guilty and repented of their "anti-Soviet activities." 12 of them were sentenced to imprisonment.

In mid-January, an equally powerful offensive was launched in East Prussia by the troops of the 3rd and 2nd Belorussian Fronts under the command of General of the Army I.D. Chernyakhovsky and Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky. East Prussia - the nest of Prussian landlords and the military - the Nazis turned into a continuous fortified area with solid reinforced concrete defensive structures. The enemy organized the defense of their cities in advance. He covered the approaches to them with fortifications (adapting old forts, building pillboxes, bunkers, trenches, etc.), and inside the cities most of the buildings, including factory ones, were adapted for defense. Many buildings had an all-round view, others flanked the approaches to them. As a result, many strong strongholds and centers of resistance were created, reinforced with barricades, trenches, and traps. If we add to the above that the walls of some buildings were not even penetrated by 76-mm shells of the ZIS-3 divisional cannons, it becomes clear that the Germans had the opportunity to provide long-term and stubborn resistance to our advancing troops.

The enemy’s tactics in urban combat consisted of firmly holding positions (fortified buildings, quarters, streets, lanes), using high-density fire to impede the movement of the attackers to the object of attack, and in case of its loss, counterattack from neighboring houses to restore the position, create fire bags in the area of ​​the captured object and thereby inflict defeat on the advancing, thwart the attack. The garrison of the building (quarter) was quite numerous, since not only regular Wehrmacht troops, but also militia units (Volkssturm) participated in the defense of the city.

Our soldiers suffered heavy losses. On February 18, a hero of the Great Patriotic War, an outstanding commander, commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, General of the Army I. D. Chernyakhovsky, who was slain by a fragment of an enemy shell, fell on the battlefield. Step by step, squeezing the ring around the encircled German grouping, our units cleared the entire East Prussia of the enemy in three months of fighting. The assault on Koenigsberg began on April 7th. This assault was accompanied by unprecedented artillery and air support, for organizing which Air Force Chief Air Marshal Novikov received a Hero of the Soviet Union. The use of 5000 guns, including heavy artillery of caliber 203 and 305 (!) mm, as well as mortars of 160 mm caliber, 2500 aircraft "... destroyed the fortifications of the fortress and demoralized the soldiers and officers. Going out into the street to contact the headquarters of the units, we did not they knew where to go, completely losing their bearings, so ruined and burning the city changed its appearance" (an eyewitness account from the German side). On April 9, the main fortress of the Nazis capitulated - the city of Koenigsberg (now Kaliningrad). Almost 100 thousand German soldiers and officers surrendered, tens of thousands were killed.

Meanwhile, in the south of the Soviet-German front, in the area of ​​​​Budapest liberated by Soviet troops on February 13, 1945, the Nazis unsuccessfully tried to seize the initiative and repeatedly launched counterattacks. On March 6, they even launched a large counteroffensive between the lakes Velence and Balaton, southwest of Budapest. Hitler ordered to transfer here from the Western European front, from the Ardennes, large tank forces. But the Soviet soldiers of the 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian fronts, having beaten off the fierce attacks of the enemy, resumed the offensive on March 16, liberated Hungary from the Nazis, entered the territory of Austria, and on April 13 captured the capital, Vienna.

In February and March, our troops also successfully thwarted an enemy attempt to launch a counteroffensive in Eastern Pomerania and drove the Nazis out of this ancient Polish region. From mid-April 1945, the troops of the 4th and 2nd Ukrainian fronts launched the final battles for the liberation of Czechoslovakia. On April 30, a large industrial center of Czechoslovakia, Moravska Ostrava, was liberated. The capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, was liberated on April 4, but it was still far from the capital of Czechoslovakia, Prague. Meanwhile, on May 5, an armed uprising of the inhabitants of the city began in Nazi-occupied Prague.

The Nazis were preparing to drown the uprising in blood. The rebels turned on the radio to the allied forces with a call for help. The Soviet command responded to this call. Two tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front made an unprecedented 300-kilometer march from the outskirts of Berlin to Prague in three days. On May 9, they entered the capital of the fraternal people and helped save it from destruction. All the troops of the 1st, 4th and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts joined the offensive, which unfolded from Dresden to the Danube. The fascist invaders were completely expelled from Czechoslovakia.

On April 16, the Berlin operation began, which ended two weeks later with the hoisting of the red banner over the defeated Reichstag. After the capture of Berlin, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front made a swift march to the aid of the insurgent Prague and on the morning of May 9 entered the streets of the Czechoslovak capital. On the night of May 8-9, 1945, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, representatives of the German command signed an act of unconditional surrender of all German armed forces. The war in Europe is over.

The radical change in the course of the Great Patriotic War as a result of the military operations of the Red Army caused a powerful upsurge in the anti-fascist and national liberation movement in the occupied countries, which developed from the first days of the world war and was called the Resistance. It was the inevitable reaction of the populations of the occupied countries to the order established by Germany, Italy and Japan. The situation of the countries they captured was different - the independence of some was simply destroyed, in others regimes were established that duplicated the political system of Germany (Slovakia, Croatia). But the meaning of the "new order" was the same everywhere: the elimination of independence and sovereignty, all democratic and social gains, unbridled economic exploitation and the arbitrariness of the invaders. To this must be added the actions of the German occupation authorities to implement the racial policy of extermination of "inferior" peoples.

Concentration camps were scattered throughout Europe, the largest of which were Auschwitz, Majdanek, Treblinka, Dachau, Buchenwald, Sachsenhausen, Ravensbrück, and Mauthausen. They languished in prisoners of war, members of the resistance movement, people declared racially inferior. In total, 18 million people ended up in concentration camps, 12 of whom were killed. Millions of Europeans were forcibly taken to work in Germany. To keep the population in obedience, a system of hostage-taking and massacres of civilians was widely used. The symbols of this policy were the complete destruction of the inhabitants of the villages of Oradour in France, Lidice in Czechoslovakia, Khatyn in Belarus. In the territories inhabited by the Slavic peoples, the Nazis created the conditions for their gradual degeneration and death. These territories themselves were to be settled by the Aryans. It was a policy of genocide.

The forms of resistance were different. In some cases, it was the collection and transfer of valuable information to the allies. In others - sabotage, disruption of military supplies, disruption of the rhythm of military production, sabotage. In the same years, the first partisan detachments began to be created in Poland, Yugoslavia, Albania, and Greece. One of the first acts of European resistance was the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto in 1943. For almost a month, the poorly armed inhabitants of the Jewish ghetto, doomed to destruction, fought heroic battles with the German troops. The general governing bodies of the resistance movement began to form. So in France it united under the leadership of General Charles de Gaulle.

The resistance movement acquired a mass character, in its ranks there were representatives of different segments of the population. Communists played an active role in the Resistance. It was they who, as a rule, became the organizers of partisan detachments, created liberated areas in the fascist rear, in which power belonged to people's democratic councils or committees. The authority of the communist parties in the struggle against fascism grew, and their numbers increased.

The Communist parties acted independently, since the Comintern was dissolved. Communists who actively fought against fascism participated in the leadership of the resistance movement, gained authority and claimed power or at least participation in the government in many countries. So, in the liberated part of Italy, representatives of all anti-fascist parties, including two communists, entered the government. In the territories that were liberated by the Anglo-American troops, Western countries supported the liberal parties and groups and sought by all means to push the communists out of power. They rightly saw in the communists, despite their struggle against fascism, a destructive force for Western civilization, because the communists set the goal of their activities to destroy it. In the countries that were liberated by the Soviet Army, support was provided to the communist forces. With the support of the USSR, including military support, governments of anti-fascist forces came to power in the countries of Eastern and South-Eastern Europe, in which the communists played a prominent, and often decisive role.

The provisional government of France sought to restore the country's position as a great power. France joined the fight against the fascist bloc. Without doubting victory over Germany and Japan, the great powers that formed the core of the anti-Hitler coalition and bore the brunt of the fight against fascism paid more and more attention to the problems of the post-war structure. The role of the United States, whose economic and military potential has increased significantly during the years of the world war, has increased. The United States ranked first in the world in all economic indicators and expected to play a decisive role in the post-war world. In American society, ideas of class, cooperation, and the transformation of society have spread exclusively through reforms.

In 1943, the anti-fascist movement intensified in Germany and in the countries allied to it. As long as the Wehrmacht was victorious in the war, the Nazi leadership managed to influence the majority of the Germans and subordinate them to their crazy plans for world domination. However, heavy defeats on the Soviet-German front, the loss of North Africa and the capitulation of Italy led to the fact that the population of Germany was losing faith in victory. The huge losses of the fascist German troops in the East, the continued total mobilization, the growing shortage of food and other goods, the Anglo-American air raids led to the growth of anti-fascist and anti-war sentiments not only among the working people, but also among representatives of some bourgeois circles.

Assessing the situation, a member of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany, W. Ulbricht, wrote: “The resistance of the working people to Hitler's fascism will grow. The conditions for the organizational rallying of the anti-fascist forces in Germany became more favorable" (1166) .

The aggravation of internal political relations in Germany contributed to the growth of the activity of the communist and social democratic parties. Under the exceptionally difficult conditions of the Hitlerite dictatorship, the Party organizations that had survived the defeat and were newly created during the war waged a selfless struggle against fascism and the war.

Resistance organizations were strengthened. New fighters poured into them. The number of illegal leaflets and other anti-war propaganda materials distributed has increased. The struggle of the patriots against the war and Nazism was led by the Communist Party of Germany, which sought to unite all sections of the German people in a single anti-fascist front. In his speech at the celebration of the 20th anniversary of the German Democratic Republic, L. I. Brezhnev emphasized: “The best sons of the German people - the communists, anti-fascists carried through the entire Second World War, through terror and persecution, through torture in fascist prisons and concentration camps, loyalty to proletarian internationalism, love for the Soviet Union - the birthplace of socialism "(1167) .

An important milestone in the anti-war and anti-fascist movement of the German people was the creation, on the initiative of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Germany in July 1943 in the USSR, of the National Committee "Free Germany" (NKSG), which included prominent political figures W. Pick, W. Ulbricht, V. Florin, writers I. Becher, V. Bredel, F. Wolf, progressive prisoners of war soldiers and officers. The Soviet government supported the committee in every possible way. He published his own special newspaper and had a radio station. The Free Germany movement united representatives of various segments of the population into a single national front. It had a significant impact on the German prisoners of war who were in the Soviet Union, on the personnel of the Wehrmacht, the German people. In September 1943, at a conference of delegates from POW officers near Moscow, the Union of German Officers was founded. As its platform, the Union adopted the NCSG program and joined it. General W. von Seydlitz, former commander of the 51st Army Corps, was elected chairman of the Union. The Union of German Officers appealed to the German generals and officers. Under the leadership of the KKE and following the example of the NKSG, the Free Germany movement subsequently arose in Denmark, France, Greece, Great Britain, Yugoslavia, Latin America, Sweden, Switzerland, the USA and other countries, which contributed to the intensification of the struggle of German anti-fascists against the Nazi regime.

Assessing the fact of the creation of the Free Germany National Committee, the Pravda newspaper of August 1, 1943 wrote: accidental and temporary failures, as the German fascist leaders repeated in every way, but with inexorable logic they follow from the entire course of the war, from the change that has taken place in the balance of forces of both warring camps ... ".

The underground communist organizations operating in Germany explained to the population the possibilities and ways of withdrawing the country from the war. The organization, headed by A. Zefkov, F. Jakob, B. Bestlein, was especially active, striving to restore the central leadership of the communist underground. During 1943, she managed to contact the underground of Leipzig, Dresden, Bautzen, Erfurt, Weimar, Jena, Gotha, Hamburg, Hanover, Magdeburg, Düsseldorf and Innsbruck (Austria). From the second half of 1943, it actually becomes the anti-fascist center of the country (1168).

In November, under the leadership of the Central Committee of the KKE, the operational leadership of the party and the illegal anti-fascist struggle in Germany itself arose. It included A. Zefkov, F. Jakob, T. Neubauer, G. Schumann and M. Schwantes. The political activities of the operational leadership of the KKE were carried out on the basis of the directives of the Central Committee of the party. “As a result of the creation of a unified leadership of the largest organizations of the party and the resistance movement and the establishment of constantly growing ties throughout Germany, a significant upsurge in the anti-fascist struggle began” (1169).

The Anti-Fascist German People's Front (ANF) organization, which arose in Munich at the end of 1942, was headed by communists and representatives of the radical Christian party of workers and peasants. By the end of 1943, it had extended its activities to the whole of South Germany (1170) . Closely connected with the ANF was Germany's largest underground organization of Soviet prisoners of war and workers, Fraternal Cooperation of Prisoners of War (BSV), which had organized groups in a number of camps.

The expansion and strengthening of the network of the anti-fascist underground in Germany contributed to the organization of the struggle of foreign workers and prisoners of concentration camps. In the districts of Berlin, Leipzig, Chemnitz, Debeln, Soviet underground groups, with the help of German anti-fascists, carried out a series of sabotage at enterprises. Soviet people were at the forefront of the struggle of the prisoners of the fascist camps. In order to coordinate their actions, the camp organizations, with the help of the German communists, established close contacts with each other. Escapes from fascist hard labor became more frequent, and sabotage at enterprises employing foreign workers became even more widespread and effective. The widely ramified network of the BSV was of particular concern to the fascist authorities. The punitive organs in the summer and autumn of 1943 carried out mass raids and searches not only in Germany, but also in Poland and Austria. Hundreds of active members of the organization ended up in the hands of the Gestapo. Despite a number of failures, the struggle of the prisoners continued. She diverted the forces of the Nazis, created an alarming situation in the country.

The growth of the anti-fascist struggle in Germany continued to be hampered by the powerful, widely ramified mechanism of the Gestapo-police apparatus and unbridled national-chauvinist propaganda. A significant part of the leaders of the German resistance movement was forced to stay outside the country.

The activity of the Austrian anti-fascist underground increased. On November 16, the Nazi newspaper Neues Wiener Tageblatt wrote: "You will not find a single enterprise where there were no production failures ... In 108 Viennese enterprises with a number of workers of 47 thousand, 54,366 cases of production failures were registered." The connections of the Austrian underground with foreign workers expanded. Underground groups of the Austrian Front helped hundreds of foreign concentration camp prisoners escape to Switzerland and Slovakia. The underground itself began to switch to methods of armed struggle.

The defeats of the Wehrmacht on the Soviet-German front and in North Africa led to profound changes in the internal political situation of Italy - the closest ally of Nazi Germany. Neither terror nor the demagoguery of its rulers could stop the growing mass anti-war, anti-fascist movement in the country.

The consolidation of anti-fascists was facilitated by powerful strikes that swept in March 1943 throughout all the cities of Northern Italy. At the same time, the main force of the anti-fascist movement, the Communist Party, faced serious difficulties at that time in its attempts to create a united front of struggle. At the end of June, a meeting of representatives of the anti-fascist parties was held in Milan: the Communist, the Socialist, the Proletarian Unity Movement for a Socialist Republic, the Action Party, the Liberal Reconstruction group, and the Christian Democratic Party. The Communists proposed the creation of the National Action Front (1171). A month later, the Committee of Anti-Fascist Opposition Parties was formed, which, along with other parties, included Catholics and liberals. But, apart from the Communists, not a single party took practical steps to prepare mass uprisings against fascism.

After the overthrow of Mussolini, the Badoglio government set the task of withdrawing Italy from the war, preventing popular unrest and revolutionary uprisings. The attitude towards the new government among the opposition parties was different. The Action Party and the Socialists even objected to temporary cooperation with Badoglio. The communists proceeded from the need to unite all forces in order to achieve priority tasks - the conclusion of peace, the struggle against the threat of enslavement of the country by Nazi Germany and against fascism. Speaking for the democratization of the government, they did not demand the immediate liquidation of the monarchy and agreed to cooperate with figures such as Badoglio (1172). When on September 8 the Italian command announced the surrender agreement and the Nazi troops went on the offensive, the leaders of the bourgeois parties abstained from organizing resistance to the Nazi troops who occupied Italian cities. The organizers of the people's fighting squads, which in a number of localities acted together with military units, were communists, socialists and representatives of the Action Party. However, the pockets of resistance were few in number and still insufficiently organized. Therefore, already two days after the announcement of the armistice, the entire territory of Italy, except for the southern tip of the peninsula, was at the mercy of the Nazis.

A new stage began in the history of the Italian anti-fascist movement - the deployment of a mass armed struggle against the invaders and Italian fascists. On September 9, the Roman Committee of Anti-Fascist Opposition Parties decided to transform into the Committee of National Liberation (CLN). The Rome KNO officially recognized the need for armed resistance to the occupiers, but the predominance of conservative elements in it led to the fact that in fact the Committee took a position of waiting. The Christian Democratic and other right-wing parties called for "passive resistance" in order to "reduce the sacrifices of patriots and Christians to a minimum" (1173) . The true leader of the Italian resistance movement soon became the Committee for the National Liberation of Northern Italy, located in Milan. In northern Italy, where the bulk of the Italian proletariat was concentrated, the initiative of the left parties, especially the communists, played a decisive role.

With the beginning of the occupation, many Italians left the cities and hid in the mountains. But by the end of September, only 1.5 thousand of them could be considered active partisans (1174). These were primarily anti-fascist communists, members of the Action Party and socialists. Under their leadership, "political detachments" were created, which played a decisive role in the Italian Resistance.

Numerous formations were also stationed in the mountains, calling themselves "independent" or "military". They consisted mainly of soldiers and officers of the disintegrated Italian army. These detachments were much better armed than the partisan detachments led by the leftist parties, but their morale was low.

At the end of September, the Nazi command began operations against the main areas of concentration of partisans. During these battles, the Italian patriots suffered significant losses. Many "independent" partisan formations ceased to exist: the tactics of waiting and the desire to organize a tough defense, which were adhered to by the officers who commanded them, did not correspond to the nature of guerrilla warfare.

The Italian Communist Party resolutely embarked on the path of organizing mass armed struggle. She believed: "Only a struggle, an open and merciless struggle without delay or compromise, could lead to the liberation of Italy" (1175). On September 20, in Milan, led by L. Longo, the military command of partisan detachments began to function, which began to form military brigades named after Garibaldi in the mountains. In order to develop the struggle in the cities, the communists began to organize combat groups of patriotic action, which carried out raids on enemy headquarters, sabotage, and the elimination of prominent fascists. In the same period, the headquarters of the partisan detachments of the Action Party was created. The well-known anti-fascist figure F. Parry became its leader. The detachments of these parties, which were later joined by the socialists, formed the core of the emerging partisan army.

The difficulties that increased with the onset of cold weather did not stop the growth of the partisan movement in Italy. Partisan detachments in December 1943 numbered about 9 thousand people (1176).

Under the influence of the victories of the Soviet Army and as a result of a further deterioration in the situation of the working people, the anti-war and anti-fascist movement in the countries of Eastern Europe that were part of the Nazi bloc intensified significantly.

Despite the repressions of the fascist authorities, the struggle of the Bulgarian people expanded. The Bulgarian Workers' Party (BRP) and the Workers' Youth Union (RMS) made great efforts to popularize the program of the Fatherland Front among the population and especially in the army, where party and RMS cells played an important role. The radio stations Khristo Botev and Naroden Glas, as well as the newspaper Rabotnichesko Delo, other newspapers and leaflets published by the Central Committee of the BRP and its local committees, were engaged in explaining this program. Letters were sent to progressively minded soldiers and officers, which revealed the treacherous policy of the ruling monarcho-fascist clique, which was pushing the country into the abyss of a military catastrophe. Anti-fascist sentiments penetrated widely into the army; it became an ever less reliable support of the monarcho-fascist regime (1177).

In various parts of the country, committees of the Fatherland Front arose, which united representatives of non-fascist parties and organizations. In August 1943, the National Committee of the Fatherland Front was formed. It included representatives of the Bulgarian Workers' Party, the left wing of the Bulgarian Agricultural People's Union, the People's Union "Link", the left wing of the Bulgarian Workers' Social Democratic Party, the Radical Party, the Union of Craftsmen, the Workers' Youth Union, trade unions and other public, cultural and educational organizations ( 1178) . Participation in the Fatherland Front of various parties significantly expanded its social base, attracted new fighters against fascism to the ranks of front organizations. But this also created certain difficulties associated with the hesitation of the leaders of some parties, in cases where a decisive policy and active actions were required.

By the end of 1943, the fascist elite had to admit that an internal front had formed in the country, which threatened the existence of the regime. As V. Kolarov wrote, Bulgaria "became the scene of a civil war" (1179). The number of acts of sabotage has increased. If in April - June 340 actions of partisans and combat groups were registered, then in July - September - 575 (1180). The number of partisans increased. Their actions became more active. In March-April 1943, a harmonious military organization of the forces fighting against monarcho-fascism was created. The Central Military Commission under the Central Committee of the BRP is transformed into the General Headquarters, which develops military operational plans on a national scale, and the People's Liberation Rebel Army (NOPA) is created. The territory of the country was divided into 12 rebel operational zones (1181). The total strength of the People's Liberation Rebel Army by the end of the year reached 6 thousand people (1182). During the period from April to December, SPPA forces carried out 774 military actions (1183).

At the risk of their lives, Bulgarian workers organized the escape of Soviet people from Nazi captivity, sheltered them, and helped to contact partisan detachments. Bulgarian military personnel also provided assistance to Soviet prisoners of war. Often, when the lives of Soviet citizens were in danger, Bulgarian soldiers and progressive officers rescued them. The first Soviet fighters joined the Bulgarian partisan detachments in the autumn of 1943 (1184) .

An internal political crisis was also brewing in Hungary. The attempts of the Hungarian ruling circles to place the hardships of the war on the working masses to an even greater degree caused the growth of the anti-war and anti-fascist movement. In the summer of 1943, cases of sabotage were noted in the mines of Varpalota. In August, only 2.5 thousand workers left the metallurgical plant of Manfred Weiss, which carried out military orders. In an attempt to counteract the large turnover of agricultural workers, the government on June 25 introduced a law on their forced labor. Increasingly, it came to open anti-war actions of the working people. On September 9, an anti-war demonstration was held by more than 2.5 thousand workers of the Dnoshdyorsky metallurgical plant (1185).

Anti-fascist sentiments penetrated deeper and deeper into the environment of the Hungarian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union. In 1943, the Foreign Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Vietnam opened several anti-fascist political schools for prisoners of war. Subsequently, many listeners joined the Soviet partisan detachments and fought heroically against the Nazis. Others assisted the political agencies of the Soviet troops in carrying out explanatory work among the Horthy troops at the front (1186).

Under the influence of the growing crisis in the country, an alliance of opposition parties was formed in August - the independent party of petty proprietors and the Social Democratic Party. However, the assurances of their leaders that at an opportune moment the Hungarian government would allegedly break with partners in the bloc seriously hampered the unification of the patriotic forces of the people. The leader of the anti-fascist struggle in the country was the Communist Party, which operated deep underground. The communists opposed the participation of Hungary in the predatory war of Nazi Germany, demanded that the country withdraw from the aggressive fascist bloc and go over to the side of the anti-fascist coalition.

On May 1, the Communist Party of Hungary came up with the program "Hungary's Path to Freedom and Peace", in which it called on the workers, peasants, intelligentsia, anti-fascist bourgeoisie, progressive democratic parties and the population of the regions captured by the Horthys to unite in a single national front. The program demanded the immediate withdrawal of Hungary from the war on the side of the fascist bloc, the restoration of the country's independence and the implementation of democratic reforms (1187) . It provided for the release of political prisoners, the abolition of forced and free labor, the complete equality of national minorities, the division of large landlord estates and the transfer of land to those who cultivate it. The Hungarian working class, it was said in the program, has the historic task of mobilizing the country's political forces and leading the struggle for Hungary's independence.

In an effort to withdraw the Communist Party from the blows of the Horthy and Hitlerite authorities, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Poland in June 1943 adopted a fictitious decision to dissolve the Communist Party, which was published in a specially issued leaflet. In reality, the Communist Party was preserved, but for the purpose of secrecy, it became known as the Peace Party. "The very name of the party emphasized its main combat mission, which was then on the agenda - the task of fighting for the country's exit from the Nazi war, expressed the desire for peace of the overwhelming majority of the population" (1188) . However, this tactic did not achieve its goal. It was not possible to hide the communist character of the Peace Party. Because she continued the policies of the CPV, the authorities severely persecuted her.

Despite the terror of Antonescu and his clique, the anti-fascist movement of the Romanian people intensified. In the summer of 1943, under the leadership and with the participation of the Communist Party of Romania, the Patriotic Anti-Fascist Front was created. It also included the Front of Farmers, the Union of Patriots, the Transylvanian Democratic Union of Hungarian Workers in Romania (MADOS). Later, some local organizations of the Social Democratic Party and the Socialist Peasants' Party joined it. The platform of the Patriotic Front was the declaration of the Communist Party of September 6, 1941, which demanded the overthrow of the Antonescu regime, the formation of a truly national government from representatives of all patriotic parties and organizations, an immediate withdrawal from the war on the side of Nazi Germany, the conclusion of peace with the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States, the accession free and independent Romania to the anti-fascist bloc, arrest and punishment of traitors led by Antonescu, recognition of the equality of national minorities (1189).

The Communist Party tried to involve the bourgeois-landowner parties in the Patriotic Front, followed by certain groups of the population. However, the leaders of the national-liberal and national-tsaranist parties refused to cooperate with the communists, and in fact supported the annexationist policy of the Antonescu government towards the USSR. The communists initiated the creation of patriotic combat units, which subsequently played an important role in the overthrow of the Antonescu regime.

At the initiative of the Communist Party, the Patriotic Front organized and led strikes of workers in Galati, Brasov, Aradi, speeches at the pyrotechnic plant, the Rigel factory, the nitrogen plant in Trnavena, the Resita factories, among the railway workers of Grivitsa, Prahov, Brasov, miners of the Jiu valley. In Constanta, workers sabotaged the repair of submarines, in Targovishte they blew up a military warehouse, in Resita they put out of action a power plant, and organized arson at the Prachov oil fields. The railroad disrupted the schedules of the movement of military echelons. Small partisan groups and sabotage detachments were created in the regions of Oltenia, Banat, Argesh, in the mountains of Karash, Vrancea and other regions of the country.

Thousands of Romanian soldiers and officers who were captured on the Soviet-German front chose the only correct path - the path of fighting fascism. With the help of the Soviet government, the formation of the Romanian Volunteer Division named after Tudor Vladimirescu (1190) began in October.

The formation was formed according to the state of the Soviet rifle division and was fully equipped with Soviet weapons and military equipment. The news of the creation of the division caused a huge uproar among the Romanian prisoners of war. In just three days, 12,000 applications were submitted. 90 percent of the prisoners of war soldiers expressed a desire to become its fighters. The division was staffed mainly by Romanian soldiers and officers taken prisoner at Stalingrad. One of the first to enter it were Romanian anti-fascist emigrants, among them communists who fought in the international brigade in Spain - P. Borile, M. Burca, M. Lungu, S. Muntyan, G. Stoica and others (1191).

Growing anti-war sentiment in Finland. They also infiltrated the ranks of the Social Democratic Party. The newspaper Suomen Socialidemokraatti wrote in August: "Discontent among the workers in our country is already very deep and embraces a large mass of people." An expression of anti-war sentiment was a memorandum of 33 political and public figures, most of whom were deputies of the Sejm, demanding Finland's withdrawal from the war (1192). “... In the country,” noted O. Kuusinen, “a political struggle is developing against the anti-Soviet war of the Finnish government. This struggle is waged by groups of the underground Communist Party and other anti-fascist circles” (1193) .

The echo of the Battle of Stalingrad, the victories of the Soviet Army near Kursk and on the Dnieper echoed in Europe with new successes of the anti-fascist forces.

THE FEAT OF THE GERMAN "YOUNG GUARDS" IS 70 YEARS Two years ago I happened to take part in a seminar for teachers of the German language "Culture and art in the city of Munich". While visiting the University of Munich, I was struck by a story about the White Rose resistance movement: how could such a youth political movement arise in the very heart of Germany, where fascism was born? I want to introduce you to the history of these courageous young people.

Article by Alexander Pavlov The student anti-fascist organization "White Rose" for the Germans is the same as the "Young Guard" for those who were born in the USSR. The German youth has its own "Young Guard", about the feat of which the young citizens of Germany begin to tell, perhaps not in kindergarten. The White Rose Resistance movement, of course, was not as numerous as the Krasnodon organization of young anti-fascists, but this is not important for the Germans. The country that unleashed one of the bloodiest wars in the history of the twentieth century is proud of the seven heroes, thanks to whom, as well as thousands of Germans like them, Germany managed to kill the demon of Nazism in itself. It has been 70 years since the defeat of the White Rose. All members of the resistance were executed. The head for the fight against Nazism was laid down by: students of the Faculty of Medicine of the University of Munich Christoph Probst, Hans Scholl, Alexander Schmorell and Willy Graf, student of the Faculty of Philosophy Sophie Scholl, student of the Faculty of Chemistry Hans Leipelt, and Professor of Philosophy Kurt Huber. All the “Belarusians” at the time of execution were from 21 to 25 years old, with the exception of Professor Huber, who by that time had turned 49.

Sophie Scholl

Christoph Probst

Alexander Schmorell at a lecture

Hans Scholl

Willy Graf

Kurt Huber

Although the heroic history of the "White Rose" ended before it really began (the organization lasted a little more than six months), the memory of the feat of young Munich residents is honored sacredly, and in the truest sense of the word - last year one of the "Belarusians", a native of Russia Alexander Schmorell, canonized as a locally venerated saint of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside of Russia. Both squares in front of the main building of the University of Munich (Geschwister-Scholl-Platz and Professor-Huber-Platz) are named after Hans and Sophie Scholl, who are considered to be the main activists of the movement in Germany, as well as Professor Huber.

And in front of the university building, the leaflets of the "White Rose" are forever immortalized

In addition, in the Munich campus, all the streets bear the names of the band members. "White Rose" was formed in June 1942. A little earlier, in the winter of that year, the students met the artist Manfred Eikemeier, who told them about the Jewish ghettos and the mass extermination of Jews. The students were outraged by the racist policies of the authorities. It was then that they had the idea to create an organization to combat the existing regime. The romantic name for the movement was not chosen by chance - that's exactly what, "White Rose", was the name of the anti-fascist novel by the American writer of German origin Bruno Traven. The purpose of the movement was to bring to the ignorant population information about the crimes of the Third Reich against humanity. In one of the first leaflets written by Alexander Schmorell, it was written: “No, we did not want to write about the Jewish question in this leaflet, not to compose a speech in defense of the Jews - no, we only wanted to cite the fact that since the conquest Poland, three hundred thousand Jews in this country were killed in the most brutal way. In this we see a horrendous crime against the dignity of people, a crime that has not been equaled in the entire history of mankind. The guys delivered the first batch of leaflets to German and Austrian cities, placing them selectively in mailboxes. Then they sent out leaflets in letters to various addresses. When the stamps for the envelopes ran out, the Belorozovites began to lay out leaflets in the porches and yards, telephone booths and shops. “We are your conscience,” was written in the leaflets. “White Rose will not leave you alone!” The police quickly found out about the leaflets - many recipients, out of harm's way, hurried to hand them over there themselves. However, they could not catch the “Belarusians” for a long time. Soon the students became so bold that they began to make night trips to the city, during which they left on the walls of the houses the inscriptions “Down with Hitler!”, “Hitler is a murderer!” etc. And a few weeks later, intoxicated with success, forgetting about the precautions and dangers, the guys began to lay out leaflets in the classrooms at the university.

Letter from Hans Scholl from the Eastern Front. It is an exhibit of the museum in the building of the university.

On February 18, 1943, hundreds of leaflets thrown by Sophie Scholl from the top floor of the main building scattered around the courtyard of the University of Munich. In fact, this demarche was not included in the plans of the “Belarusians”: Sophie and her brother Hans had already laid out packs of leaflets with appeals to their classmates near the classrooms on the first floor and were about to leave the main building. But for some reason they suddenly decided to climb higher in order to put the remaining copies there. The students were sure that they would go unnoticed, but they were seen by a university locksmith, who, in the end, handed over the guys to the Gestapo. Why did the participants in the resistance take such a rash step, which ultimately led to their death? “These questions will forever remain unanswered,” says historian Ursula Kaufmann of the White Rose Foundation of the latest action of the German “Young Guards”. Surely, it's all about enthusiasm and "total exhaustion," says the historian. “Of course, it would have been better if they hadn’t gone upstairs that day - until that day the Gestapo could not get on their trail,” Kaufman said. In her opinion, some euphoria due to the gradually loosening power of the National Socialists and the previous successful actions of the White Rose could also play a role. However, the participants in the resistance themselves may have been guided by other motives. “Someone must finally start this process,” Sophie Scholl said a few hours before her execution, in February 1943, when asked about the motives for her actions. Interest in the feat of the "White Rose" has not weakened to this day, especially among students and schoolchildren. After all, many young Germans associate themselves with members of the resistance movement, says Hildegard Kronawitter, chairman of the board of the White Rose Foundation. “The white rose symbolizes purity – including purity of conscience,” Kronawitter says. And the student association of the Ludwig-Maximilian University of Munich has long, although so far unsuccessfully, been fighting to rename their alma mater to the Scholl Brother and Sister University.