22nd of June. Ordinary Sunday. More than 200 million citizens are planning how to spend their day off: go on a visit, take their children to the zoo, someone is in a hurry to play football, someone is on a date. Soon they will become heroes and victims of the war, killed and wounded, soldiers and refugees, blockade runners and prisoners of concentration camps, partisans, prisoners of war, orphans, and invalids. Winners and veterans of the Great Patriotic War. But none of them know about it yet.
In 1941 The Soviet Union was quite firmly on its feet - industrialization and collectivization bore fruit, industry developed - out of ten tractors produced in the world, four were Soviet-made. Dneproges and Magnitogorsk have been built, the army is being re-equipped - the famous T-34 tank, Yak-1, MIG-3 fighters, Il-2 attack aircraft, Pe-2 bomber have already entered service with the Red Army. The situation in the world is turbulent, but the Soviet people are sure that "the armor is strong and our tanks are fast." In addition, two years ago, after three-hour talks in Moscow, USSR People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov and German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop signed a 10-year non-aggression pact.
After the abnormally cold winter of 1940-1941. A rather warm summer has come to Moscow. Amusements operate in the Gorky Park, football matches are held at the Dynamo stadium. The Mosfilm film studio is preparing the main premiere of the summer of 1941 - the editing of the lyrical comedy Hearts of Four, which will be released only in 1945, has just been completed here. Starring the favorite of Joseph Stalin and all Soviet moviegoers, actress Valentina Serova.
June, 1941 Astrakhan. Near the village of Liney
1941 Astrakhan. On the Caspian Sea
July 1, 1940 A scene from the film "My Love" directed by Vladimir Korsh-Sablin. In the center, actress Lidia Smirnova as Shurochka
April, 1941 Peasant greets the first Soviet tractor
July 12, 1940 Residents of Uzbekistan work on the construction of a section of the Great Fergana Canal
August 9, 1940 Byelorussian SSR. Collective farmers of the village of Tonezh, Turovsky district, Polesye region, for a walk after a hard day's work
May 05, 1941 Kliment Voroshilov, Mikhail Kalinin, Anastas Mikoyan, Andrey Andreev, Alexander Shcherbakov, Georgy Malenkov, Semyon Timoshenko, Georgy Zhukov, Andrey Eremenko, Semyon Budyonny, Nikolai Bulganin, Lazar Kaganovich and others in the presidium of the ceremonial meeting dedicated to graduation commanders who graduated from military academies. Joseph Stalin speaking
June 1, 1940. Classes in civil defense in the village of Dikanka. Ukraine, Poltava region
In the spring and summer of 1941, exercises of the Soviet military began to be carried out more and more often on the western borders of the USSR. War is already in full swing in Europe. Rumors reach the Soviet leadership that Germany could attack at any moment. But such messages are often ignored, since a non-aggression pact was signed just recently.
August 20, 1940 Villagers talking to tankmen during military exercises
"Higher, higher and higher
We strive for the flight of our birds,
And breathes in every propeller
The tranquility of our borders."
Soviet song, better known as "March of the Aviators"
June 1, 1941. An I-16 fighter is suspended under the wing of a TB-3 aircraft, under the wing of which a high-explosive bomb weighing 250 kg
September 28, 1939 People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop shake hands after the signing of the joint Soviet-German treaty "On Friendship and Borders"
Field Marshal V. Keitel, Colonel General V. von Brauchitsch, A. Hitler, Colonel General F. Halder (left to right in the foreground) near the table with a map during a meeting of the General Staff. In 1940, Adolf Hitler signed the main directive number 21, codenamed "Barbarossa"
On June 17, 1941, V.N. Merkulov sent an intelligence message received by the NKGB of the USSR from Berlin to I.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov:
“A source working at the headquarters of the German aviation reports:
1. All German military measures to prepare for an armed uprising against the USSR have been completely completed, and a strike can be expected at any time.
2. In the circles of the aviation headquarters, the TASS message of June 6 was perceived very ironically. They emphasize that this statement cannot have any meaning ... "
There is a resolution (regarding 2 points): “To Comrade Merkulov. You can send your "source" from the headquarters of the German aviation to the fucking mother. This is not a "source", but a disinformer. I. Stalin»
July 1, 1940. Marshal Semyon Timoshenko (right), General of the Army Georgy Zhukov (left) and General of the Army Kirill Meretskov (2nd from left) during an exercise in the 99th Rifle Division of the Kyiv Special Military District
June 21, 21:00
At the site of the Sokal commandant's office, a German soldier, Corporal Alfred Liskof, was detained after swimming across the Bug River.
From the testimony of the head of the 90th border detachment, Major Bychkovsky:“Due to the fact that the translators in the detachment are weak, I called a German teacher from the city ... and Liskof repeated the same thing again, that is, that the Germans were preparing to attack the USSR at dawn on June 22, 1941 ... Without finishing the interrogation of the soldier, he heard in the direction Ustilug (first commandant's office) strong artillery fire. 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.
21:30
In Moscow, a conversation took place between People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov and German Ambassador Schulenburg. Molotov protested in connection with the numerous violations of the borders of the USSR by German aircraft. Schulenburg evaded answering.
From the memoirs of Corporal Hans Teuchler:“At 22 o’clock we were lined up and the order of the Fuhrer was read out. Finally, they told us directly why we are here. Not at all for a rush to Persia to punish the British with the permission of the Russians. And not in order to lull the vigilance of the British, and then quickly transfer troops to the English Channel and land in England. No. We - soldiers of the Great Reich - are waiting for a war with the Soviet Union itself. But there is no such force that could hold back the movement of our armies. For the Russians it will be a real war, for us it will be just a victory. We will pray for her."
June 22, 00:30
Directive No. 1 was sent to the districts, containing an order to covertly occupy firing points on the border, not to succumb to provocations and put the troops on alert.
From the memoirs of the German General Heinz Guderian:“On the fateful day of June 22 at 2:10 in the morning, I went to the command post of the group ...
At 03:15 our artillery preparation began.
At 0340 hours - the first raid of our dive bombers.
At 4:15 a.m., the crossing over the Bug began.
03:07
The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Oktyabrsky, called the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, Georgy Zhukov, and said that a large number of unknown aircraft were approaching from the sea; The fleet is in full combat readiness. The admiral offered to meet them with fleet air defense fire. He was instructed: "Act and report to your people's commissar."
03:30
Chief of Staff of the Western District, Major General Vladimir Klimovskikh, reported on a German air raid on the cities of Belarus. Three minutes later, the chief of staff of the Kyiv district, General Purkaev, reported on an air raid on the cities of Ukraine. At 03:40, the commander of the Baltic District, General Kuznetsov, reported a raid on Kaunas and other cities.
From the memoirs of I. I. Geibo, deputy regiment commander of the 46th IAP, ZapVO:“... My chest went cold. In front of me are four twin-engine bombers with black crosses on their wings. I even bit my lip. Why, these are Junkers! German Ju-88 bombers! What to do? .. Another thought arose: "Today is Sunday, and on Sundays the Germans do not have training flights." So it's a war? Yes, war!
03:40
People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko asks Zhukov to report to Stalin about the start of hostilities. Stalin responded by ordering all members of the Politburo to gather in the Kremlin. At that moment, Brest, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovich, Bobruisk, Volkovysk, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Sevastopol, Riga, Vindava, Libava, Siauliai, Kaunas, Vilnius and many other cities were bombed.
From the memoirs of Alevtina Kotik, born in 1925 (Lithuania):“I woke up from the fact that I hit my head on the bed - the ground shook from falling bombs. I ran to my parents. Dad said: “The war has begun. We have to get out of here!” We did not know with whom the war started, we did not think about it, it was just very scary. Dad was a military man, and therefore he was able to call a car for us, which took us to the railway station. They took only clothes with them. All furniture and household utensils remained. At first we rode on a freight train. I remember how my mother covered me and my brother with her body, then they transferred to a passenger train. The fact that the war with Germany, they learned somewhere around 12 noon from people they met. Near the city of Siauliai, we saw a large number of wounded, stretchers, doctors.
At the same time, the Belostok-Minsk battle began, as a result of which the main forces of the Soviet Western Front were surrounded and defeated. German troops captured a significant part of Belarus and advanced to a depth of over 300 km. On the part of the Soviet Union, 11 rifle, 2 cavalry, 6 tank and 4 motorized divisions were destroyed in the Bialystok and Minsk "boilers", 3 commanders and 2 division commanders were killed, 2 commanders and 6 division commanders were captured, another 1 corps commander and 2 commanders divisions were missing.
04:10
The Western and Baltic Special Districts reported on the start of hostilities by German troops on land.
04:12
German bombers appeared over Sevastopol. The enemy raid was repulsed, and an attempt to strike at the ships was thwarted, but residential buildings and warehouses were damaged in the city.
From the memoirs of Sevastopol Anatoly Marsanov:“I was then only five years old ... The only thing that remains in my memory: on the night of June 22, parachutes appeared in the sky. It became light, I remember, the whole city was illuminated, everyone was running, so joyful ... They shouted: “Paratroopers! Paratroopers!”… They don't know that these are mines. And they both gasped - one in the bay, the other - down the street below us, they killed so many people!
04:15
The defense of the Brest Fortress began. By the first attack, by 04:55, the Germans occupied almost half of the fortress.
From the memoirs of the defender of the Brest Fortress Pyotr Kotelnikov, born in 1929:“In the morning we were awakened by a strong blow. Broke the roof. I was stunned. I saw the wounded and the dead, I realized: this is no longer an exercise, but a war. Most of the soldiers of our barracks died in the first seconds. Following the adults, I rushed to the weapon, but they did not give me rifles. Then I, with one of the Red Army soldiers, rushed to extinguish the clothing warehouse. Then he moved with the soldiers to the cellars of the barracks of the neighboring 333rd Infantry Regiment ... We helped the wounded, brought them ammunition, food, water. Through the western wing at night they made their way to the river to draw water, and returned back.
05:00
Moscow time, Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop summoned Soviet diplomats to his office. When they arrived, he informed them of the start of the war. The last thing he said to the ambassadors was: "Tell Moscow that I was against the attack." After that, telephones did not work in the embassy, and the building itself was surrounded by SS detachments.
5:30
Schulenburg officially informed Molotov about the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR, reading out a note: “Bolshevik Moscow is ready to stab in the back of National Socialist Germany, which is fighting for existence. The German government cannot be indifferent to the serious threat on the eastern border. Therefore, the Fuhrer gave the order to the German armed forces to ward off this threat with all their might and means ... "
From the memoirs of Molotov:"The adviser to the German ambassador Hilger, when he handed the note, shed a tear."
From Hilger's memoirs:“He gave vent to his indignation by declaring that Germany had attacked a country with which it had a non-aggression pact. This has no precedent in history. The reason given by the German side is an empty pretext ... Molotov concluded his angry speech with the words: “We did not give any grounds for this.”
07:15
Directive No. 2 was issued, ordering the USSR troops to destroy enemy forces in areas of violation of the border, destroy enemy aircraft, and also “bomb Koenigsberg and Memel” (modern Kaliningrad and Klaipeda). The USSR Air Force was allowed to go "to the depth of German territory up to 100-150 km." At the same time, the first counterattack of the Soviet troops took place near the Lithuanian town of Alytus.
09:00
At 7:00 Berlin time, Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels read out on the radio Adolf Hitler's appeal to the German people in connection with the outbreak of war against the Soviet Union: “... Today I decided to once again put the fate and future of the German Reich and our people into the hands of our soldier. May the Lord help us in this struggle!
09:30
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Kalinin signed a number of decrees, including the decree on the introduction of martial law, on the formation of the Headquarters of the High Command, on military tribunals and on general mobilization, to which all those liable for military service from 1905 to 1918 were born.
10:00
German bombers raided Kyiv and its suburbs. The railway station, the Bolshevik plant, an aircraft plant, power plants, military airfields, and residential buildings were bombed. According to official data, 25 people died as a result of the bombing, according to unofficial data, there were many more victims. However, peaceful life continued in the capital of Ukraine for several more days. Only the opening of the stadium, scheduled for June 22, was canceled; on this day, the football match Dynamo (Kyiv) - CSKA was supposed to take place here.
12:15
Molotov made a speech on the radio about the beginning of the war, where he first called it patriotic. Also in this speech, for the first time, the phrase that became the main slogan of the war is heard: “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours".
From Molotov's appeal:“This unprecedented attack on our country is an unparalleled perfidy in the history of civilized peoples... This war was imposed on us not by the German people, not by the German workers, peasants and intelligentsia, whose suffering 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 other peoples ... This is not the first time our people have to deal with an attacking arrogant enemy. At one time, our people responded to Napoleon's campaign in Russia with a Patriotic War, and Napoleon was defeated and came to his collapse. The same will happen to the arrogant Hitler, who has announced a new campaign against our country. The Red Army and all our people will again wage a victorious patriotic war for the Motherland, for honor, for freedom.
The working people of Leningrad listen to the message about the attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union
From the memoirs of Dmitry Savelyev, Novokuznetsk: “We gathered at the poles with loudspeakers. We listened carefully to Molotov's speech. For many, there was a feeling of some kind of wariness. After that, the streets began to empty, after a while food disappeared from the shops. They weren’t bought up – just the supply was reduced… People weren’t scared, but rather concentrated, doing everything the government told them.”
After some time, the text of Molotov's speech was repeated by the famous announcer Yuri Levitan. Thanks to his soulful voice and the fact that Levitan read the front-line reports of the Soviet Information Bureau throughout the war, it is believed that he was the first to read the message about the beginning of the war on the radio. Even marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky thought so, as they wrote about in their memoirs.
Moscow. Announcer Yuri Levitan during filming in the studio
From the memoirs of announcer Yuri Levitan:“When we, the announcers, were called to the radio early in the morning, the calls had already begun to ring out. They call from Minsk: “Enemy planes 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"? .. And now I remember - I turned on the microphone. In all cases, I remember myself that I only worried internally, only experienced internally. But here, when I uttered the word “Moscow is speaking”, I feel that I can’t continue to speak - a lump stuck in my throat. They are already knocking from the control room - “Why are you silent? Go on! He clenched his fists and continued: "Citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union ..."
Stalin delivered a speech to the Soviet people only on July 3, 12 days after the start of the war. Historians are still arguing why he was silent for so long. Here is how Vyacheslav Molotov explained this fact:“Why me and not Stalin? He didn't want to go first. It is necessary that there be a clearer picture, what tone and what approach ... He said that he would wait a few days and speak when the situation on the fronts cleared up.
And here is what Marshal Zhukov wrote about this:"AND. V. Stalin was a strong-willed man and, as they say, "not from a cowardly dozen." Confused, I saw him only once. It was at dawn on June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked our country. During the first day, he could not really pull himself together and firmly direct events. The shock produced on I. V. Stalin by the attack of the enemy was so strong that his voice even dropped, and his orders for organizing armed struggle did not always correspond to the situation.
From a speech by Stalin on the radio on July 3, 1941:“The war with fascist Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war... Our war for the freedom of our Fatherland will merge with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence, for democratic freedoms.”
12:30
At the same time, German troops entered Grodno. A few minutes later, the bombardment of Minsk, Kyiv, Sevastopol and other cities began again.
From the memoirs of Ninel Karpova, born in 1931 (Kharovsk, Vologda region):“We listened to the message about the beginning of the war from the loudspeaker at the House of Defense. There were a lot of people there. I was not upset, on the contrary, I became proud: my father will defend the Motherland ... In general, people were not afraid. Yes, women, of course, were upset, crying. But there was no panic. Everyone was sure that we would quickly defeat the Germans. The men said: "Yes, the Germans will drape from us!"
Recruiting stations were opened in the military registration and enlistment offices. Queues lined up in Moscow, Leningrad and other cities.
From the memoirs of Dina Belykh, born in 1936 (Kushva, Sverdlovsk region):“All men immediately began to call, including my dad. Dad hugged mom, they both cried, kissed ... I remember how I grabbed him by the tarpaulin boots and shouted: “Daddy, don’t go! They'll kill you there, they'll kill you!" When he got on the train, my mother took me in her arms, we both sobbed, she whispered through her tears: “Wave to dad ...” What is there, I sobbed so much, I could not move my hand. We never saw him again, our breadwinner."
The calculations and experience of the mobilization carried out showed that in order to transfer the army and navy to wartime, it was necessary to call up 4.9 million people. However, when mobilization was announced, 14 ages of conscripts were called up, the total number of which was about 10 million people, that is, almost 5.1 million people more than what was required.
The first day of mobilization in the Red Army. Volunteers in the Oktyabrsky military registration and enlistment office
The conscription of such a mass of people was not caused by military necessity and introduced disorganization into the national economy and anxiety among the masses. Without realizing this, Marshal of the Soviet Union G. I. Kulik suggested that the government additionally call on older ages (1895-1904), the total number of which was 6.8 million people.
13:15
To capture the Brest Fortress, the Germans brought into action new forces of the 133rd Infantry Regiment on the Southern and Western Islands, but this "did not bring changes in the situation." The Brest Fortress continued to hold the line. Fritz Schlieper's 45th Infantry Division was thrown into this sector of the front. It was decided that only infantry would take the Brest Fortress - without tanks. No more than eight hours were allotted for the capture of the fortress.
From a report to the headquarters of the 45th Infantry Division Fritz Schlieper:“The Russians are fiercely resisting, especially behind our attacking companies. In the Citadel, the enemy organized defense with infantry units supported by 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles. The fire of Russian snipers led to heavy losses among officers and non-commissioned officers.
14:30
Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano told the Soviet ambassador in Rome, Gorelkin, that Italy had declared war on the USSR "from the moment German troops entered Soviet territory."
From Ciano's diaries:“He perceives my message with rather great indifference, but this is in his nature. The message is very short, without unnecessary words. The conversation lasted two minutes.
15:00
The pilots of the German bombers reported that they had nothing more to bomb, all airfields, barracks and accumulations of armored vehicles were destroyed.
From the memoirs of Air Marshal, Hero of the Soviet Union G.V. Zimina:“On June 22, 1941, large groups of fascist bombers attacked 66 of our airfields, on which the main aviation forces of the western border districts were based. First of all, airfields were subjected to air strikes, on which aviation regiments were based, armed with aircraft of new designs ... As a result of attacks on airfields and in fierce air battles, the enemy managed to destroy up to 1,200 aircraft, including 800 at airfields.
16:30
Stalin left the Kremlin for the Near Dacha. Until the end of the day, even members of the Politburo are not allowed to see the leader.
From the memoirs of Politburo member Nikita Khrushchev:
“Beria told the following: when the war began, members of the Politburo gathered at Stalin's. I don’t know, all or only a certain group, which most often met with Stalin. Stalin was morally completely depressed and made the following statement: “The war has begun, it is developing catastrophically. Lenin left us the proletarian Soviet state, and we pissed it off.” Literally said so.
“I,” he says, “refuse leadership,” and left. He left, got into the car and drove to a nearby dacha.
Some historians, referring to the memories of other participants in the events, argue that this conversation took place a day later. But the fact that in the first days of the war Stalin was confused and did not know how to act is confirmed by many witnesses.
18:30
The commander of the 4th Army, Ludwig Kubler, gives the order to "pull his own forces" at the Brest Fortress. This is one of the first orders for the retreat of German troops.
19:00
The commander of Army Group Center, General Fedor von Bock, gives the order to stop the execution of Soviet prisoners of war. After that, they were kept in hastily fenced fields with barbed wire. This is how the first camps for prisoners of war appeared.
From the notes of SS Brigadeführer G. Keppler, commander of the "Der Fuhrer" regiment from the SS division "Das Reich":“In the hands of our regiment were rich trophies and a large number of prisoners, among whom were many civilians, even women and girls, the Russians forced them to defend themselves with weapons in their hands, and they bravely fought along with the Red Army.”
23:00
British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a radio address in which he stated that England "will give Russia and the Russian people all the help it can."
Winston Churchill's speech on the air of the BBC radio station:“Over the past 25 years, no one has been a more consistent opponent of communism than me. I won't take back a single word I said about him. But all this pales before the spectacle now unfolding. The past with its crimes, follies and tragedies is disappearing... I see Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields that their fathers have cultivated since time immemorial... I see how the vile Nazi war machine is approaching all this.
23:50
The Main Military Council of the Red Army sent out Directive No. 3, ordering June 23 to launch counterattacks against enemy groups.
Text: Information Center of the Kommersant Publishing House, Tatiana Mishanina, Artem Galustyan
Video: Dmitry Shelkovnikov, Alexey Koshel
A photo: TASS, RIA Novosti, Ogonyok, Dmitry Kuchev
Design, programming and layout: Anton Zhukov, Alexey Shabrov
Kim Voronin
Commissioning Editor: Artem Galustyan
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 put on alert, 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 [airborne 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 an air raid on the cities of Ukraine, including Kyiv.
3:40. Commander of the Baltic Military District General Kuznetsov reports on enemy air raids on Riga, Siauliai, Vilnius, Kaunas and other cities.
"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 Nazi 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 a 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 outbreak of 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. As of 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, ordering the Soviet troops to go on the counteroffensive with the task of defeating the Nazi troops on the territory of the USSR with further advance into the territory of the enemy. 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 one 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 wielding 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 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 to 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 speech 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, it was, to instruct the "all-Union headman" Mikhail Kalinin to tell the people about the war, but he even read from a piece of paper, straying, syllable by word.
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. Within 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 (colloquially - 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, cards for food, household essentials, shoes and fabrics will gradually begin to be introduced.
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
Article 1. Border of the Soviet Union
Article 2. How the Minister of the Third Reich declared war on the USSR
Article 4. Russian spirit
Article 6. Opinion of a Russian citizen. Memo on June 22
Article 7. Opinion of an American Citizen. Russians are best at making friends and at war.
Article 8. Treacherous West
Article 1. BORDER OF THE SOVIET UNION
http://www.sologubovskiy.ru/articles/6307/
On this early morning in 1941, the enemy dealt a terrible, unexpected blow to the USSR. From the first minutes, the border guards were the first to enter into a deadly battle with the fascist invaders and courageously defended our Motherland, defending every inch of Soviet land.
At 04:00 on June 22, 1941, after a powerful artillery preparation, the forward detachments of the fascist troops attacked the border outposts from the Baltic to the Black Sea. Despite the huge superiority of the enemy in manpower and equipment, the border guards fought stubbornly, died heroically, but did not leave the defended lines without an order.
For many hours (and in some areas for several days), the outposts in stubborn battles held back the fascist units on the border line, preventing them from seizing bridges and crossings over the border rivers. With unprecedented stamina and courage, at the cost of their lives, the border guards sought to delay the advance of the advanced units of the Nazi troops. Each outpost was a small fortress, the enemy could not capture it as long as at least one border guard was alive.
Thirty minutes took the Nazi General Staff to destroy the Soviet border outposts. But this calculation turned out to be untenable.
Not one of the almost 2000 outposts that took the unexpected blow of superior enemy forces faltered, did not give up, not one!
The frontier fighters were the first to repulse the onslaught of the fascist conquerors. They were the first to come under fire from the tank and motorized hordes of the enemy. Before anyone else, they stood up for the honor, freedom and independence of their homeland. The first victims of the war and its first heroes were Soviet border guards.
The most powerful attacks were made on the border outposts located in the direction of the main attacks of the Nazi troops. In the offensive zone of the Army Group "Center" in the sector of the Augustow border detachment, two divisions of the Nazis crossed the border. The enemy expected to destroy the border outposts in 20 minutes.
1st border outpost of senior lieutenant A.N. Sivacheva defended for 12 hours, completely perished.
3rd outpost of Lieutenant V.M. Usova fought for 10 hours, 36 border guards repulsed seven attacks of the Nazis, and when the cartridges ran out, they launched a bayonet attack.
Courage and heroism were shown by the border guards of the Lomzhinsky border detachment.
4th outpost lieutenant V.G. Malieva fought until 12 noon on June 23, 13 people survived.
The 17th frontier outpost fought with the enemy infantry battalion until 07:00 on June 23, and the 2nd and 13th outposts held the line until 12:00 on June 22, and only by order did the surviving border guards withdraw from their lines.
The border guards of the 2nd and 8th outposts of the Chizhevsky border detachment bravely fought the enemy.
The border guards of the Brest border detachment covered themselves with unfading glory. The 2nd and 3rd outposts held out until 6 p.m. on June 22. 4th outpost of senior lieutenant I.G. Tikhonova, located by the river, for several hours did not allow the enemy to cross to the eastern bank. At the same time, over 100 invaders, 5 tanks, 4 guns were destroyed and three enemy attacks were repulsed.
In their memoirs, German officers and generals noted that only wounded border guards were captured, none of them raised their hands, did not lay down their arms.
Having marched solemnly across Europe, the fascists from the first minutes faced unprecedented perseverance and heroism of fighters in green caps, although the superiority of the Germans in manpower was 10-30 times, artillery, tanks, aircraft were involved, but the border guards fought to the death.
The former commander of the German 3rd Panzer Group, Colonel-General G. Goth, was subsequently forced to admit: “both divisions of the 5th Army Corps, immediately after crossing the border, ran into the enemy’s dug-in guards, which, despite the lack of artillery support, held their positions until the latter."
This is largely due to the selection and staffing of border outposts.
Manning was carried out from all the republics of the USSR. The junior commanding staff and the Red Army were called up at the age of 20 for 3 years (they served in naval units for 4 years). Commanding personnel for the Border Troops were trained by ten border schools (schools), the Leningrad Naval School, the Higher School of the NKVD, as well as the Frunze Military Academy and the Military-Political Academy named after
V. I. Lenin.
The junior commanding staff was trained in the district and detachment schools of the MNS, the Red Army soldiers were trained at temporary training posts at each border detachment or a separate border unit, and naval specialists were trained in two training border naval detachments.
In 1939 - 1941, when staffing the border units and subunits on the western section of the border, the leadership of the Border Troops sought to appoint to command positions in the border detachments and commandant's offices persons of middle and senior commanding staff with service experience, especially participants in the hostilities at Khalkhin Gol and on the border with Finland. It was more difficult to staff border and reserve outposts with commanding staff.
By the beginning of 1941, the number of border outposts had doubled, and the border schools could not immediately meet the sharply increased need for middle commanding staff, so in the fall of 1939, accelerated training courses for the command of outposts from junior commanding staff and Red Army soldiers of the third year of service were organized, and the advantage was given to persons with combat experience. All this made it possible by January 1, 1941 to fully equip all border and reserve outposts in the state.
In order to prepare to repel the aggression of fascist Germany, the Government of the USSR increased the density of protection of the western section of the state border of the country: from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. This section was guarded by 8 border districts, including 49 border detachments, 7 detachments of border ships, 10 separate border commandant's offices and three separate air squadrons.
The total number of people was 87,459, of which 80% of the personnel were located directly on the state border, including 40,963 Soviet border guards on the Soviet-German border. Of the 1747 frontier outposts guarding the state border of the USSR, 715 are located on the western border of the country.
Organizationally, the border detachments consisted of 4 border commandant's offices (each with 4 linear outposts and one reserve outpost), a maneuver group (a detachment reserve of four outposts, with a total strength of 200 - 250 people), a school for junior commanding staff - 100 people, headquarters, intelligence department, political agency and rear. In total, the detachment had up to 2000 border guards. The border detachment guarded the land section of the border with a length of up to 180 kilometers, on the sea coast - up to 450 kilometers.
Border outposts in June 1941 were staffed by 42 and 64 people, depending on the specific conditions of the terrain and other conditions of the situation. At the outpost numbering 42 people were the head of the outpost and his deputy, the foreman of the outpost and 4 squad commanders.
Its armament consisted of one Maxim heavy machine gun, three Degtyarev light machine guns and 37 five-shot rifles of the 1891/30 model. pieces for an easel machine gun, RGD hand grenades - 4 pieces for each border guard and 10 anti-tank grenades for the entire outpost.
The effective firing range of rifles is up to 400 meters, machine guns - up to 600 meters.
At the border post of 64 people were the head of the outpost and his two deputies, the foreman and 7 squad commanders. Its armament: two Maxim heavy machine guns, four light machine guns and 56 rifles. Accordingly, the amount of ammunition was more. By decision of the chief of the border detachment to the outposts, where the most threatened situation developed, the number of cartridges was increased by one and a half times, but the subsequent development of events showed that this stock was enough for only 1-2 days of defensive operations. The only technical means of communication for the outpost was a field telephone. The vehicle was two horse carts.
Since the Border Troops during their service constantly met various violators on the border, including armed ones and as part of groups with whom they often had to fight, the degree of preparedness of all categories of border guards was good, and the combat readiness of such units as a border outpost and a border post , the ship, was actually constantly full.
At 04:00 Moscow time on June 22, 1941, German aviation and artillery simultaneously, along the entire length of the USSR state border from the Baltic to the Black Seas, launched massive fire strikes on military and industrial facilities, railway junctions, airfields and seaports on the territory of the USSR to a depth of 250 300 kilometers from the state border. Armadas of fascist planes dropped bombs on the peaceful cities of the Baltic republics, Belarus, Ukraine, Moldova and Crimea. Border ships and boats, along with other ships of the Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, with their anti-aircraft weapons, entered the fight against enemy aircraft.
Among the objects on which the enemy launched fire strikes were the positions of the covering troops and the places of deployment of the Red Army, as well as military camps of border detachments and commandant's offices. As a result of the artillery preparation of the enemy, which lasted from one to one and a half hours in various sectors, subunits and units of the covering troops and subunits of the border detachments suffered losses in manpower and equipment.
A short-term but powerful artillery strike was carried out by the enemy on the towns of the frontier outposts, as a result of which all the wooden buildings were destroyed or engulfed in fire, the fortifications built near the towns of the frontier outposts were largely destroyed, the first wounded and killed frontier guards appeared.
On the night of June 22, German saboteurs damaged almost all wire communication lines, which disrupted the control of border units and Red Army troops.
Following air and artillery strikes, the German high command moved its invasion troops along a front of 1,500 kilometers from the Baltic Sea to the Carpathian Mountains, having in the first echelon 14 tank, 10 mechanized and 75 infantry divisions with a total strength of 1,900,000 troops equipped with 2,500 tanks , 33 thousand guns and mortars, supported by 1200 bombers and 700 fighters.
By the time of the enemy attack, only border outposts were located on the state border, and behind them, 3-5 kilometers away, were separate rifle companies and rifle battalions of troops that performed the task of operational cover, as well as defensive structures of fortified areas.
The divisions of the first echelons of the covering armies were located in areas remote from their designated deployment lines of 8-20 kilometers, which did not allow them to deploy in battle formation in a timely manner and forced them to engage in battle with the aggressor separately, in parts, disorganized and with heavy losses in personnel and military equipment.
The course of military operations of the frontier outposts and their results varied. When analyzing the actions of the border guards, it is imperative to take into account the specific conditions in which each outpost found itself on June 22, 1941. They depended to a large extent on the composition of the advanced enemy units that attacked the outpost, as well as on the nature of the terrain along which the border passed and the directions of action of the strike groups of the German army.
So, for example, a section of the state border with East Prussia ran along a plain with a large number of roads, without river barriers. It was in this area that the powerful German Army Group North deployed and struck. And on the southern sector of the Soviet-German front, where the Carpathian Mountains rose and the San, Dniester, Prut, and Danube rivers flowed, the actions of large groupings of enemy troops were difficult, and the conditions for the defense of border outposts were favorable.
In addition, if the outpost was located in a brick building, and not in a wooden one, then its defensive capabilities increased significantly. It must be borne in mind that in densely populated areas with well-developed agricultural land, building a platoon stronghold for an outpost was a great organizational difficulty, and therefore it was necessary to adapt premises for defense and build covered firing points near the outpost.
On the last night before the war, the border units of the western border districts carried out enhanced protection of the state border. Part of the personnel of the frontier outposts was on the border section in frontier detachments, the main part was in platoon strongholds, several border guards remained in the premises of the outposts for their protection. The personnel of the reserve units of the border commandant's offices and detachments were in the premises at the place of their permanent deployment.
For the commanders and Red Army men, who saw the concentration of enemy troops, it was not the attack itself that was unexpected, but the power and cruelty of the air raid and artillery strikes, as well as the mass character of the moving and firing armored vehicles. There was no panic, fuss or aimless shooting among the border guards. What happened for a whole month. Of course, there were losses, but not from panic and cowardice.
Ahead of the main forces of each German regiment, strike groups with a force of up to a platoon with sappers and reconnaissance groups on armored personnel carriers and motorcycles moved with the tasks of eliminating border detachments, capturing bridges, establishing the positions of the Red Army covering troops, and completing the destruction of border outposts.
In order to ensure surprise, these enemy units began advancing in some sections of the border even during the period of artillery and aviation preparation. To complete the destruction of the personnel of the frontier outposts, tanks were used, which, being at a distance of 500 - 600 meters, fired at the strongholds of the outposts, remaining out of reach of the outpost's weapons.
The first to discover the reconnaissance units of the Nazi troops crossing the state border were the border guards who were on duty. Using pre-prepared trenches, as well as terrain folds and vegetation, as a shelter, they entered into battle with the enemy and thereby gave a signal of danger. Many border guards died in battle, and the survivors withdrew to the strongholds of the outposts and joined the defensive operations.
On the river border areas, the advanced enemy units sought to capture the bridges. Border detachments for the protection of bridges were sent as part of 5-10 people with a light, and sometimes with an easel machine gun. In most cases, the border guards prevented the advance groups of the enemy from capturing the bridges.
The enemy attracted armored vehicles to capture bridges, carried out the crossing of his advanced units on boats and pontoons, surrounded and destroyed border guards. Unfortunately, the border guards did not have the opportunity to blow up the bridges across the border river and they were delivered to the enemy in good order. The rest of the personnel of the outpost also took part in the battles to hold bridges on the border rivers, inflicting serious losses on enemy infantry, but being powerless against enemy tanks and armored vehicles.
So, while protecting the bridges across the Western Bug River, the personnel of the 4th, 6th, 12th and 14th border outposts of the Vladimir-Volynsky border detachment died in full force. The 7th and 9th border outposts of the Przemysl border detachment also perished in unequal battles with the enemy, protecting bridges across the San River.
In the zone where the shock groups of the Nazi troops were advancing, the advanced enemy units were stronger in number and weapons than the border outpost, and, moreover, they had tanks and armored personnel carriers. In these areas, border outposts could only hold back the enemy for up to one or two hours. The border guards fired from machine guns and rifles repulsed the attack of the enemy infantry, but the enemy tanks, after the destruction of the defensive structures by fire from the cannons, burst into the stronghold of the outpost and completed their destruction.
In some cases, the border guards managed to knock out one tank, but in most cases they were powerless against armored vehicles. In the unequal struggle with the enemy, the personnel of the outpost almost all perished. The border guards, who were in the basements of the brick buildings of the outposts, held out the longest, and, continuing to fight, they died, blown up by German land mines.
But the personnel of many outposts continued to fight with the enemy from the strongholds of the outposts to the last man. These battles continued throughout June 22, and individual outposts fought in encirclement for several days.
For example, the 13th outpost of the Vladimir-Volynsky border detachment, relying on strong defensive structures and favorable terrain conditions, fought in encirclement for eleven days. The defense of this outpost was facilitated by the heroic actions of the garrisons of the pillboxes of the fortified area of the Red Army, which, during the period of artillery and aviation preparation of the enemy, prepared for defense and met him with powerful fire from guns and machine guns. In these pillboxes, commanders and Red Army soldiers defended themselves for many days, and in some places for more than a month. German troops were forced to bypass the area, and then, using poisonous fumes, flamethrowers and explosives, destroy the heroic garrisons.
Having joined the ranks of the Red Army, along with it, the border guards bore the brunt of the fight against the German invaders, fought against its intelligence agents, reliably guarded the rear of the Fronts and Armies from attacks by saboteurs, destroyed the breakout groups and the remnants of the encircled enemy groups, everywhere showing heroism and Chekist ingenuity , fortitude, courage and selfless devotion to the Soviet Motherland.
Summing up, it must be said that on June 22, 1941, the fascist German command set off a monstrous war machine against the USSR, which fell upon the Soviet people with particular cruelty, which there was no measure or name. But in this difficult situation, the Soviet border guards did not flinch. In the very first battles, they showed boundless devotion to the Fatherland, unshakable will, the ability to maintain stamina and courage, even in moments of mortal danger.
Many details of the battles of several dozen border outposts are still unknown, as well as the fate of many defenders of the border. Among the irretrievable losses of border guards in the battles in June 1941, more than 90% were “missing”.
Not intended to repulse an armed invasion by regular enemy troops, the border outposts steadfastly held out under the onslaught of the superior forces of the German army and its satellites. The death of the border guards was justified by the fact that, dying in whole units, they provided access to the defensive lines of the Red Army cover units, which, in turn, ensured the deployment of the main forces of the Armies and Fronts and ultimately created the conditions for the defeat of the German armed forces and the liberation of the peoples of the USSR and Europe from fascism.
For courage and heroism shown in the first battles with the Nazi invaders on the state border, 826 border guards were awarded orders and medals of the USSR. 11 border guards were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, five of them posthumously. The names of sixteen border guards were assigned to the outposts where they served on the day the war began.
Here are just a few episodes of the fighting on that first day of the war and the names of the heroes:
Platon Mikhailovich Kubov
The name of the small Lithuanian village of Kybartai became widely known to many Soviet people on the very first day of the Great Patriotic War - a border outpost was located nearby, selflessly entering into an unequal battle with a superior enemy.
On that memorable night, no one slept at the outpost. Border guards continually reported on the appearance near the border of the Nazi troops. With the first explosions of enemy shells, the fighters took up all-round defense, and the head of the outpost, Lieutenant Kubov, with a small group of border guards, went to the site of the firefight. Three columns of the Nazis were heading towards the outpost. If he and his group accept the battle here, try to delay the enemy as much as possible, they will have time to prepare well at the outpost for a meeting with the invaders ...
A handful of fighters under the command of 27-year-old Lieutenant Platon Kubov, carefully disguised, repelled enemy attacks for several hours. One by one, all the soldiers died, but Kubov continued to fire from a machine gun. Out of ammo. Then the lieutenant jumped on his horse and rushed to the outpost.
The small garrison became one of the many outposts-fortresses that blocked, if only for a few hours, the path of the enemy. The border guards of the outpost fought to the last bullet, to the last grenade...
In the evening, local residents came to the smoking ruins of the border outpost. Among the piles of dead enemy soldiers, they found the mutilated bodies of the border guards and buried them in a mass grave.
A few years ago, the ashes of the Kubov heroes were transferred to the territory of the newly built outpost, which on August 17, 1963 was named after P. M. Kubov, a communist, a native of the village of Revolutionary Kursk region.
Alexey Vasilievich Lopatin
In the early morning of June 22, 1941, shells exploded in the courtyard of the 13th outpost of the Vladimir-Volynsky border detachment. And then planes with a fascist swastika flew over the outpost. War! For 25-year-old Alexei Lopatin, a native of the village of Dyukov, Ivanovo Region, it began literally from the first minute. The lieutenant, who had graduated from a military school two years earlier, commanded the outpost.
The Nazis hoped to crush the small unit on the move. But they miscalculated. Lopatin organized a strong defense. The group sent to the bridge over the Bug did not allow the enemy to cross the river for more than an hour. The heroes died one by one. The Nazis attacked the defense at the outpost for more than a day, and failed to break the resistance of the Soviet soldiers. Then the enemies surrounded the outpost, deciding that the border guards would surrender themselves. But the machine guns still hindered the advance of the Nazi columns. On the second day, a company of SS men was scattered, thrown at a small garrison. On the third day, the Nazis sent a fresh unit with artillery to the outpost. By this time, Lopatin hid his fighters and the families of the command staff in a secure basement of the barracks and continued to fight.
On June 26, the Nazi guns rained down fire on the ground part of the barracks. However, new attacks by the Nazis were again repulsed. On June 27, thermite shells rained down on the outpost. The SS men hoped to force the Soviet soldiers out of the basement with fire and smoke. But again the wave of the Nazis rolled back, met with well-aimed shots from the Lopatins. On June 29, women and children were sent from the ruins, and the border guards, including the wounded, remained to fight to the end.
And the battle continued for another three days, until the ruins of the barracks collapsed under heavy artillery fire ...
The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded by the Motherland to a brave warrior, a candidate member of the party, Alexei Vasilyevich Lopatin. On February 20, 1954, his name was given to one of the outposts on the western border of the country.
Fedor Vasilievich Morin
A birch near the third blockhouse stood like a wounded soldier with a crutch, leaning on a dangling bough, broken by a shell fragment. The ground trembled all around, black smoke rising from the ruins of the outpost. The howl had been going on for more than seven hours.
In the morning, the outpost had no telephone connection with the headquarters. There was an order from the head of the detachment to withdraw to the rear lines, but the messenger sent from the commandant's office did not reach the outpost, struck by a stray bullet. And Lieutenant Fedor Marin did not even think about retreating without an order.
Rus, give up! - shouted the Nazis.
Marin gathered the seven fighters remaining in the ranks in the blockhouse, hugged and kissed each of them.
Better death than captivity, the commander said to the border guards.
We will die, but we will not surrender, - he heard in response.
Put on caps! Let's go in full force.
They loaded their rifles with the last rounds of ammunition, embraced once more, and charged at the enemy. Marin sang "The Internationale", the soldiers picked up, and it rang over the conflagration: "This is our last and decisive battle ..."
Two days later, a fascist sergeant major, taken prisoner by soldiers of a Red Army battalion, told how the Nazis were dumbfounded when they heard the revolutionary anthem through the roar.
Lieutenant Fyodor Vasilyevich Morin, who was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, is still in the line of sentries of the border today. On September 3, 1965, his name was given to the outpost, which he commanded.
Ivan Ivanovich Parkhomenko
Awakened at dawn on June 22, 1941 by the roar of artillery cannonade, the head of the outpost, Senior Lieutenant Maksimov, jumped on his horse and rushed to the outpost, but before reaching it, he was seriously wounded. The defense was headed by political instructor Kiyan, but he soon died in a fight with the Nazis. The command of the outpost was taken over by Sergeant Major Ivan Parkhomenko. Fulfilling his instructions, machine gunners and arrows fired accurately at the Nazis crossing the Bug, trying not to let them come to our shore. But the superiority of the enemy was too great ...
The fearlessness of the foreman gave the border guards strength. Parkhomenko invariably appeared where the battle was in full swing, where his courage and commanding will were needed. A fragment of an enemy shell did not pass Ivan. But even with a broken collarbone, Parkhomenko continued to lead the fight.
The sun was already at its zenith when the trench, in which the last defenders of the outpost had concentrated, was surrounded. Only three could shoot, including the foreman. Parkhomenko had the last grenade left. The Nazis were approaching the trench. The foreman, gathering his strength, threw a grenade at the approaching car, killing three officers. Bleeding, Parkhomenko slid down to the bottom of the trench...
Before a company of the Nazis, the fighters of the border outpost under the command of Ivan Parkhomenko were exterminated, at the cost of their lives they delayed the advance of the enemy for eight hours.
On October 21, 1967, the name of the Komsomol member I. I. Parkhomenko was given to one of the willows of the border outposts.
Eternal glory and memory to the Heroes!!! We remember you!!!
http://gidepark.ru/community/832/content/1387276
The tragedy of June 1941 has been studied up and down. And the more it is studied, the more questions remain.
Today I would like to give the floor to an eyewitness of those events.
His name is Valentin Berezhkov. He worked as a translator. Translated to Stalin. Left a book of magnificent memoirs.
On June 22, 1941, Valentin Mikhailovich Berezhkov met ... in Berlin.
His memories are truly priceless.
After all, as they tell us, Stalin was afraid of Hitler. He was afraid of everything and therefore did nothing to prepare for the war. And they lie that everyone, including Stalin, was confused and scared when the war began.
And here's how it really happened.
As Foreign Minister of the Third Reich, Joachim von Ribbentrop declared war on the USSR.
“Suddenly at 3 am, or 5 am Moscow time (it was already Sunday June 22), the phone rang. An unfamiliar voice announced that Reich Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop was waiting for Soviet representatives in his office at the Foreign Office on Wilhelmstrasse. Already from this barking unfamiliar voice, from the extremely official phraseology, something ominous wafted.
On reaching the Wilhelmstrasse, we saw from a distance a crowd in front of the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Although it was already dawn, the cast-iron canopy entrance was brightly lit by spotlights. Photojournalists, cameramen, and journalists fussed around. The official jumped out of the car first and opened the door wide. We left, blinded by the light of Jupiters and the flashes of magnesium lamps. A disturbing thought flashed through my head - is this really a war? There was no other way to explain such a pandemonium on the Wilhelmstrasse, and even at night. Photojournalists and cameramen relentlessly accompanied us. They now and then ran ahead, clicked the shutters. A long corridor led to the Minister's apartments. Along it, stretched out, were some people in uniform. When we appeared, they clicked their heels loudly, raising their hands in a fascist salute. Finally, we ended up in the minister's office.
At the back of the room was a desk, behind which sat Ribbentrop in his everyday grey-green ministerial uniform.
When we came close to the writing table, Ribbentrop stood up, silently nodded his head, extended his hand and invited him to follow him to the opposite corner of the hall at the round table. Ribbentrop had a swollen face of a crimson color and cloudy, as if stopped, inflamed eyes. He walked ahead of us with his head down and staggering a little. "Is he drunk?" - flashed through my head. After we sat down and Ribbentrop began to speak, my assumption was confirmed. He must have been drinking really hard.
The Soviet ambassador was never able to state our statement, the text of which we took with us. Ribbentrop, raising his voice, said that now we would talk about something completely different. Stumbling over almost every word, he began to explain, rather confusedly, that the German government had data on the increased concentration of Soviet troops on the German border. Ignoring the fact that in recent weeks the Soviet embassy, on behalf of Moscow, has repeatedly drawn the attention of the German side to egregious cases of violations of the borders of the Soviet Union by German soldiers and aircraft, Ribbentrop stated that Soviet military personnel violated the German border and invaded German territory, although there are no such facts in there was no reality.
Ribbentrop went on to explain that he was summarizing the content of Hitler's memorandum, the text of which he immediately handed over to us. Then Ribbentrop said that the German government considered the situation as a threat to Germany at a time when she was waging a life-and-death war with the Anglo-Saxons. All this, Ribbentrop declared, is regarded by the German government and personally by the Fuhrer as the intention of the Soviet Union to stab the German people in the back. The Führer could not bear such a threat and decided to take measures to protect the life and safety of the German nation. The Fuhrer's decision is final. An hour ago, German troops crossed the border of the Soviet Union.
Then Ribbentrop began to assure that these actions of Germany were not aggression, but only defensive measures. After that, Ribbentrop stood up and drew himself up to his full height, trying to give himself a solemn air. But his voice clearly lacked firmness and confidence when he uttered the last phrase:
- The Führer instructed me to officially announce these defensive measures ...
We also got up. The conversation was over. Now we knew that shells were already exploding on our land. After the completed robbery attack, the war was officially declared ... Nothing could be changed here. Before leaving, the Soviet ambassador said:
“This is brazen, unprovoked aggression. You will regret that you have made a predatory attack on the Soviet Union. You will pay dearly for this…”
And now the end of the scene. Scenes of declaring war on the Soviet Union. Berlin. June 22, 1941. Office of Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop.
“We turned around and headed towards the exit. And then the unexpected happened. Ribbentrop, semenya, hurried after us. He began to say in a whisper, as if he personally was against this decision of the Fuhrer. He even allegedly talked Hitler out of attacking the Soviet Union. Personally, he, Ribbentrop, considers this madness. But he couldn't help it. Hitler made this decision, he did not want to listen to anyone ...
“Tell in Moscow that I was against the attack,” we heard the last words of the Reich Minister when we were already going out into the corridor ... ".
Source: Berezhkov V. M. “Pages of Diplomatic History”, “International Relations”; Moscow; 1987; http://militera.lib.ru/memo/russian/berezhkov_vm2/01.html
My comment: Drunken Ribbentrop and Soviet Ambassador Dekanozov, who not only "is not afraid", but also speaks directly with a completely undiplomatic directness. It is also worth paying attention to the fact that the German "official version" of the start of the war completely coincides with the version of Rezun-Suvorov. More precisely, the London inmate writer, traitor defector Rezun rewrote the version of Nazi propaganda in his books.
Like, poor defenseless Hitler defended himself in June 1941. And this is what the West believes? They believe. And they want to instill this faith in the population of Russia. At the same time, Western historians and politicians believe Hitler only once: June 22, 1941. Neither before nor after do they believe him. After all, Hitler said that he attacked Poland on September 1, 1939, exclusively defending himself from Polish aggression. Western historians believe the Fuhrer only when it is necessary to discredit the USSR-Russia. The conclusion is simple: who believes Rezun, he believes Hitler.
I hope you begin to understand a little better why Stalin considered the German attack to be impossible stupidity.
P.S. The fate of the characters in this scene is different.
Joachim von Ribbentrop was hanged by the Nuremberg Tribunal. Because he knew too much about behind-the-scenes politics on the eve and during the World War.
Vladimir Georgievich Dekanozov, the then Soviet ambassador to Germany, was shot by the Khrushchevites in December 1953. After the murder of Stalin, and then the murder of Beria, the traitors did the same thing that was happening in 1991: they smashed the security agencies. They cleared out everyone who knew and who knew how to make politics at the “world level”. And Dekanozov knew a lot (read his biography).
Valentin Mikhailovich Berezhkov lived a complex and interesting life. I recommend reading his book of memoirs to everyone.
http://nstarikov.ru/blog/18802
Article 3. Why was the German attack on the USSR called "treacherous"?
Today, on the 71st anniversary of the attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union and the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, I would like to write about an issue that, in my memory, has not become a subject of discussion, although it lies right on the surface.
On July 3, 1941, addressing the Soviet people, Stalin called the attack of the Nazis "treacherous."
Below is the full text of that speech, including the audio recording. But it is worth starting with the search for an answer to the question, why did Stalin call the attack "treacherous"? Why already on June 22 in Molotov's speech, when the country learned about the beginning of the war, Vyacheslav Molotov said: "This unheard-of attack on our country is an unparalleled treachery in the history of civilized peoples."
What is "perfidy"? It means "broken faith". In other words, both Stalin and Molotov characterized Hitler's aggression as an act of "broken faith." But faith in what? So, Stalin believed Hitler, and Hitler broke this belief?
How else to take this word? At the head of the USSR was a world-class politician, and he knew how to call a spade a spade.
I offer one answer to this question. I found it in an article by our famous historian Yuri Rubtsov. He is a doctor of historical sciences, professor at the Military University of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation.
Yuri Rubtsov writes:
“During all 70 years that have passed since the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, public consciousness has been looking for an answer to an outwardly very simple question: how did it happen that the Soviet leadership, having seemingly irrefutable evidence that Germany was preparing aggression against the USSR, so until the end in its Opportunity was not believed, and was taken by surprise?
This outwardly simple question is one of those to which people are looking for an answer endlessly. One of the answers is that the leader became the victim of a large-scale disinformation operation carried out by the German special services.
The Hitlerite command understood that the surprise and maximum force of a strike against the troops of the Red Army could be ensured only when attacking from a position of direct contact with them.
Tactical surprise in delivering the first blow was achieved only on the condition that the date of the attack was kept secret until the last moment.
On May 22, 1941, as part of the final stage of the operational deployment of the Wehrmacht, the transfer of 47 divisions to the border with the USSR began, including 28 tank and motorized divisions.
Summarized, all versions of the purpose for which such a mass of troops is concentrated near the Soviet border boiled down to two main ones:
- to prepare for the invasion of the British Isles, in order to protect them here, in the distance, from British air strikes;
- to ensure by force a favorable course of negotiations with the Soviet Union, which, according to hints from Berlin, were about to begin.
As expected, a special disinformation operation against the USSR began long before the first German military echelons moved east on May 22, 1941.
A. Hitler took a personal and far from formal part in it.
Let's talk about the personal letter that the Fuhrer sent on May 14 to the leader of the Soviet people. In it, Hitler explained the presence of about 80 German divisions near the borders of the Soviet Union by the need to "organize troops away from English eyes and in connection with recent operations in the Balkans." “Perhaps this gives rise to rumors about the possibility of a military conflict between us,” he wrote, switching to a confidential tone. “I want to assure you – and I give you my word of honor that this is not true…”
The Fuhrer promised, starting from June 15-20, to begin a massive withdrawal of troops from the Soviet borders to the west, and before that he conjured Stalin not to succumb to provocations that those German generals allegedly could go to, who, out of sympathy for England, “forgot about their duty” . “I look forward to seeing you in July. Sincerely yours, Adolf Hitler" - on such a "high" note
He completed his letter.
It was one of the peaks of the disinformation operation.
Alas, the Soviet leadership took the Germans' explanations at face value. In an effort to avoid war at all costs and not to give the slightest reason to attack, Stalin until the last day forbade bringing the troops of the border districts into combat readiness. As if the reason for the attack still somehow worried the Nazi leadership ...
On the last day before the war, Goebbels wrote in his diary: “The question of Russia is becoming more acute with every hour. Molotov asked for a visit to Berlin, but was resolutely refused. Naive assumption. This should have been done six months ago…”
Yes, if Moscow really got alarmed at least not half a year, but half a month before the hour "X"! However, Stalin was so possessed by the magic of confidence that a clash with Germany could be avoided that, even after receiving confirmation from Molotov that Germany had declared war, in a directive issued on June 22 at 7 o’clock. 15 minutes. Red Army to repulse the invading enemy, he forbade our troops, with the exception of aviation, to cross the line of the German border.
Here is a document cited by Yuri Rubtsov.
Of course, if Stalin believed Hitler's letter, in which he wrote “I look forward to seeing you in July. Sincerely yours, Adolf Hitler”, then it becomes possible to correctly understand why both Stalin and Molotov called the attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union with the word “treacherous”.
Hitler "broke Stalin's faith"...
Here it is necessary, perhaps, to dwell on two episodes of the first days of the war.
In recent years, a lot of dirt has been poured on Stalin. Khrushchev lied that Stalin, they say, hid in the country and was in shock. Documents don't lie.
Here is the "JOURNAL OF VISITS TO JV STALIN IN HIS KREMLIN OFFICE" in June 1941.
Since this historical material was prepared for publication by employees working under the leadership of Alexander Yakovlev, who had a certain hatred for Stalin, there can be no doubt about the authenticity of the documents cited. They have been published in:
- 1941: In 2 books. Book 1 / Comp. L. E. Reshin and others. M.: International. Fund "Democracy", 1998. - 832 p. - (“Russia. XX century. Documents” / Under the editorship of Academician A.N. Yakovlev) ISBN 5-89511-0009-6;
- The State Defense Committee decides (1941-1945). Figures, Documents. - M.: OLMA-PRESS, 2002. - 575 p. ISBN 5-224-03313-6.
Below you will find the entries "Journal of visits to I.V. Stalin in his Kremlin office" from June 22 to June 28, 1941. The publishers note:
“The dates of the reception of visitors, which took place outside Stalin's office, are marked with an asterisk. The journal entries sometimes contain the following errors: the day of the visit is indicated twice; there are no entry and exit dates for visitors; the sequence numbering of visitors is violated; names are misspelled."
So, before you are the real worries of Stalin in the first days of the war. Notice, no dacha, no shock. From the first minutes of the meeting and meeting to make decisions and issue instructions. In the very first hours, the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief was created.
June 22, 1941
1. Molotov NPO, deputy. Previous SNK 5.45-12.05
2. Beria NKVD 5.45-9.20
3. Tymoshenko NGO 5.45-8.30
4. Mehlis Nach. GlavPUR KA 5.45-8.30
5. Zhukov NGSH KA 5.45-8.30
6. Malenkov Secret. Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks 7.30-9.20
7. Mikoyan Deputy Previous SNK 7.55-9.30
8. Kaganovich NKPS 8.00-9.35
9. Voroshilov Deputy Previous SNK 8.00-10.15
10. Vyshinsky et al. MFA 7.30-10.40
11. Kuznetsov 8.15-8.30
12. Dimitrov member Comintern 8.40-10.40
13. Manuilsky 8.40-10.40
14. Kuznetsov 9.40-10.20
15. Mikoyan 9.50-10.30
16. Molotov 12.25-16.45
17. Voroshilov 10.40-12.05
18. Beria 11.30-12.00
19. Malenkov 11.30-12.00
20. Voroshilov 12.30-16.45
21. Mikoyan 12.30-14.30
22. Vyshinsky 13.05-15.25
23. Shaposhnikov Deputy NPO for SD 13.15-16.00
24. Tymoshenko 14.00-16.00
25. Zhukov 14.00-16.00
26. Vatutin 14.00-16.00
27. Kuznetsov 15.20-15.45
28. Kulik Deputy NPO 15.30-16.00
29. Beria 16.25-16.45
Last left 16.45
June 23, 1941
1. Molotov member GK rates 3.20-6.25
2. Voroshilov member GK rates 3.20-6.25
3. Beria member. TC rates 3.25-6.25
4. Timoshenko member GK rates 3.30-6.10
5. Vatutin 1st Deputy NGSH 3.30-6.10
6. Kuznetsov 3.45-5.25
7. Kaganovich NKPS 4.30-5.20
8. Zhigarev teams. VVS KA 4.35-6.10
Last released 6.25
June 23, 1941
1. Molotov 18.45-01.25
2. Zhigarev 18.25-20.45
3. Timoshenko NPO USSR 18.59-20.45
4. Merkulov NKVD 19.10-19.25
5. Voroshilov 20.00-01.25
6. Voznesensky Pred. Mr., Deputy Previous SNK 20.50-01.25
7. Mehlis 20.55-22.40
8. Kaganovich NKPS 23.15-01.10
9. Vatutin 23.55-00.55
10. Tymoshenko 23.55-00.55
11. Kuznetsov 23.55-00.50
12. Beria 24.00-01.25
13. Vlasik early. personal protection
Last released 01.25 24/VI 41
June 24, 1941
1. Malyshev 16.20-17.00
2. Voznesensky 16.20-17.05
3. Kuznetsov 16.20-17.05
4. Kizakov (Len.) 16.20-17.05
5. Salzman 16.20-17.05
6. Popov 16.20-17.05
7. Kuznetsov (Kr. m. fl.) 16.45-17.00
8. Beria 16.50-20.25
9. Molotov 17.05-21.30
10. Voroshilov 17.30-21.10
11. Tymoshenko 17.30-20.55
12. Vatutin 17.30-20.55
13. Shakhurin 20.00-21.15
14. Petrov 20.00-21.15
15. Zhigarev 20.00-21.15
16. Golikov 20.00-21.20
17. Shcherbakov secretary of the 1st CIM 18.45-20.55
18. Kaganovich 19.00-20.35
19. Suprun test pilot. 20.15-20.35
20. Zhdanov member p / bureau, secret. 20.55-21.30
Last left 21.30
June 25, 1941
1. Molotov 01.00-05.50
2. Shcherbakov 01.05-04.30
3. Peresypkin NKS, deputy. NCO 01.07-01.40
4. Kaganovich 01.10-02.30
5. Beria 01.15-05.25
6. Merkulov 01.35-01.40
7. Tymoshenko 01.40-05.50
8. Kuznetsov NK VMF 01.40-05.50
9. Vatutin 01.40-05.50
10. Mikoyan 02.20-05.30
11. Mehlis 01.20-05.20
Last left 05.50
June 25, 1941
1. Molotov 19.40-01.15
2. Voroshilov 19.40-01.15
3. Malyshev NK tank industry 20.05-21.10
4. Beria 20.05-21.10
5. Sokolov 20.10-20.55
6. Timoshenko Rev. GK rates 20.20-24.00
7. Vatutin 20.20-21.10
8. Voznesensky 20.25-21.10
9. Kuznetsov 20.30-21.40
10. Fedorenko teams. ABTV 21.15-24.00
11. Kaganovich 21.45-24.00
12. Kuznetsov 21.05.-24.00
13. Vatutin 22.10-24.00
14. Shcherbakov 23.00-23.50
15. Mehlis 20.10-24.00
16. Beria 00.25-01.15
17. Voznesensky 00.25-01.00
18. Vyshinsky et al. MFA 00.35-01.00
Last left 01.00
June 26, 1941
1. Kaganovich 12.10-16.45
2. Malenkov 12.40-16.10
3. Budyonny 12.40-16.10
4. Zhigarev 12.40-16.10
5. Voroshilov 12.40-16.30
6. Molotov 12.50-16.50
7. Vatutin 13.00-16.10
8. Petrov 13.15-16.10
9. Kovalev 14.00-14.10
10. Fedorenko 14.10-15.30
11. Kuznetsov 14.50-16.10
12. Zhukov NGSH 15.00-16.10
13. Beria 15.10-16.20
14. Yakovlev early. GAU 15.15-16.00
15. Tymoshenko 13.00-16.10
16. Voroshilov 17.45-18.25
17. Beria 17.45-19.20
18. Mikoyan Deputy Previous SNK 17.50-18.20
19. Vyshinsky 18.00-18.10
20. Molotov 19.00-23.20
21. Zhukov 21.00-22.00
22. Vatutin 1st Deputy NGSH 21.00-22.00
23. Tymoshenko 21.00-22.00
24. Voroshilov 21.00-22.10
25. Beria 21.00-22.30
26. Kaganovich 21.05-22.45
27. Shcherbakov 1st sec. MGK 22.00-22.10
28. Kuznetsov 22.00-22.20
Last released 23.20
June 27, 1941
1. Voznesensky 16.30-16.40
2. Molotov 17.30-18.00
3. Mikoyan 17.45-18.00
4. Molotov 19.35-19.45
5. Mikoyan 19.35-19.45
6. Molotov 21.25-24.00
7. Mikoyan 21.25-02.35
8. Beria 21.25-23.10
9. Malenkov 21.30-00.47
10. Tymoshenko 21.30-23.00
11. Zhukov 21.30-23.00
12. Vatutin 21.30-22.50
13. Kuznetsov 21.30-23.30
14. Zhigarev 22.05-00.45
15. Petrov 22.05-00.45
16. Sokokoverov 22.05-00.45
17. Zharov 22.05-00.45
18. Nikitin VVS KA 22.05-00.45
19. Titov 22.05-00.45
20. Voznesensky 22.15-23.40
21. Shakhurin NKAP 22.30-23.10
22. Dementiev Deputy NKAP 22.30-23.10
23. Shcherbakov 23.25-24.00
24. Shakhurin 00.40-00.50
25. Merkulov Deputy NKVD 01.00-01.30
26. Kaganovich 01.10-01.35
27. Tymoshenko 01.30-02.35
28. Golikov 01.30-02.35
29. Beria 01.30-02.35
30. Kuznetsov 01.30-02.35
Last left 02.40
June 28, 1941
1. Molotov 19.35-00.50
2. Malenkov 19.35-23.10
3. Budyonny deputy. NPO 19.35-19.50
4. Merkulov 19.45-20.05
5. Bulganin Deputy Previous SNK 20.15-20.20
6. Zhigarev 20.20-22.10
7. Petrov Gl. feature art. 20.20-22.10
8. Bulganin 20.40-20.45
9. Tymoshenko 21.30-23.10
10. Zhukov 21.30-23.10
11. Golikov 21.30-22.55
12. Kuznetsov 21.50-23.10
13. Kabanov 22.00-22.10
14. Stefanovsky test pilot. 22.00-22.10
15. Suprun test pilot. 22.00-22.10
16. Beria 22.40-00.50
17. Ustinov NK Voor. 22.55-23.10
18. Yakovlev GAUNKO 22.55-23.10
19. Shcherbakov 22.10-23.30
20. Mikoyan 23.30-00.50
21. Merkulov 24.00-00.15
Last left 00.50
And one more thing. Much has been written about the fact that on June 22 Molotov spoke on the radio, announcing the attack of the Nazis and the beginning of the war. Where was Stalin? Why didn't he do it himself?
The answer to the first question is in the lines of the "Journal of Visits".
The answer to the second question, apparently, lies in the fact that Stalin, as the political leader of the country, should have understood that in his speech all the people were waiting to hear the answer to the question "What to do?"
Therefore, Stalin took a break for ten days, received information about what was happening, thought about how to organize resistance to the aggressor, and only after that he spoke on July 3 not just with an appeal to the people, but with a detailed program of warfare!
Here is the text of that speech. Read and listen to the audio recording of Stalin's speech. You will find in the text a detailed program, up to the organization of partisan actions in the occupied territories, the hijacking of steam locomotives and much more. And this is just 10 days after the invasion.
That's strategic thinking!
The strength of the falsifiers of history lies in the fact that they juggle with their own invented clichés that have a given ideological orientation.
Read better documents. They contain the true Truth and Power...
July 3 marks the 71st anniversary of I.V. Stalin on the radio. Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov in his last interview called this speech one of the three "symbols" of the Great Patriotic War.
Here is the text of this speech:
“Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters!
Soldiers of our army and navy!
I turn to you, my friends!
The perfidious military attack of Hitler Germany on our Motherland, launched on June 22, continues, despite the heroic resistance of the Red Army, despite the fact that the best divisions of the enemy and the best units of his aviation have already been defeated and have found their grave on the battlefields, the enemy continues to climb forward, throwing new forces to the front. Hitler's troops managed to capture Lithuania, a significant part of Latvia, the western part of Belarus, and part of Western Ukraine. Fascist aviation is expanding the areas of operation of its bombers, bombarding Murmansk, Orsha, Mogilev, Smolensk, Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol. Our country is in serious danger.
How could it happen that our glorious Red Army surrendered a number of our cities and regions to the fascist troops? Are the German fascist troops really invincible troops, as the boastful fascist propagandists tirelessly trumpet about it?
Of course not! History shows that there are no invincible armies and never have been. Napoleon's army was considered invincible, but it was defeated alternately by Russian, English, German troops. Wilhelm's German army during the first imperialist war was also considered an invincible army, but it was defeated several times by Russian and Anglo-French troops and was finally defeated by Anglo-French troops. The same must be said about Hitler's present German fascist army. This army has not yet encountered serious resistance on the European continent. Only on our territory did it meet with serious resistance. And if, as a result of this resistance, the best divisions of the fascist German army were defeated by our Red Army, then this means that the Nazi fascist army can be defeated and will be defeated just as the armies of Napoleon and Wilhelm were defeated.
As for the fact that part of our territory nevertheless turned out to be captured by fascist German troops, this is mainly due to the fact that the war of fascist Germany against the USSR began under favorable conditions for the German troops and unfavorable for the Soviet troops. The fact is that the troops of Germany, as a country waging war, were already completely mobilized and 170 divisions abandoned by Germany against the USSR and moved to the borders of the USSR were in a state of complete readiness, waiting only for a signal to march, while the Soviet troops needed more mobilize and advance to the borders. Of no small importance here was the fact that fascist Germany unexpectedly and treacherously violated the non-aggression pact concluded in 1939 between it and the USSR, regardless of the fact that it would be recognized by the whole world as the attacking side. It is clear that our peace-loving country, not wanting to take the initiative to violate the pact, could not take the path of treachery.
It may be asked: how could it happen that the Soviet government agreed to conclude a non-aggression pact with such treacherous people and monsters as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was there a mistake on the part of the Soviet government here? Of course not! A non-aggression pact is a peace pact between two states. It was this pact that Germany proposed to us in 1939. Could the Soviet government refuse such a proposal? I think that not a single peace-loving state can refuse a peace agreement with a neighboring power, if at the head of this power there are even such monsters and cannibals as Hitler and Ribbentrop. And this, of course, on one indispensable condition - if the peace agreement does not affect either directly or indirectly the territorial integrity, independence and honor of a peace-loving state. As you know, the non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR is just such a pact. What have we gained by signing a non-aggression pact with Germany? We ensured peace for our country for a year and a half and the possibility of preparing our forces for a rebuff if fascist Germany dared to attack our country in defiance of the pact. This is a definite gain for us and a loss for fascist Germany.
What did fascist Germany gain and lose by treacherously breaking the pact and attacking the USSR? She achieved by this some advantageous position for her troops in a short time, but she lost politically, exposing herself in the eyes of the whole world as a bloody aggressor. There can be no doubt that this short-lived military gain for Germany is only an episode, while the enormous political gain for the USSR is a serious and lasting factor on the basis of which the decisive military successes of the Red Army in the war against fascist Germany should unfold.
That is why our entire valiant army, our entire valiant navy, all our falcon pilots, all the peoples of our country, all the best people of Europe, America and Asia, and finally, all the best people of Germany stigmatize the perfidious actions of the German fascists and sympathize with To the Soviet government, they approve of the behavior of the Soviet government and see that our cause is just, that the enemy will be defeated, that we must win.
By virtue of the war imposed on us, our country entered into a mortal battle with its worst and treacherous enemy - German fascism. Our troops are fighting heroically against the enemy, armed to the teeth with tanks and aircraft. The Red Army and Red Navy, overcoming numerous difficulties, are selflessly fighting for every inch of Soviet land. The main forces of the Red Army, armed with thousands of tanks and aircraft, enter the battle. The courage of the soldiers of the Red Army is unparalleled. Our resistance to the enemy is growing stronger and stronger. Together with the Red Army, the entire Soviet people rises to defend the Motherland. What is required in order to eliminate the danger looming over our Motherland, and what measures must be taken in order to defeat the enemy?
First of all, it is necessary that our people, the Soviet people, understand the full depth of the danger that threatens our country and renounce complacency, carelessness, and moods of peaceful construction, which were quite understandable in pre-war times, but pernicious at the present time, when the war is fundamentally changed position. The enemy is cruel and relentless. He sets as his goal the seizure of our lands, watered with our sweat, the seizure of our bread and our oil, extracted by our labor. It sets as its goal the restoration of the power of the landowners, the restoration of tsarism, the destruction of the national culture and national statehood of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Uzbeks, Tatars, Moldavians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and other free peoples of the Soviet Union, their Germanization, their transformation into slaves of German princes and barons. Thus, it is a question of life and death of the Soviet state, of life and death of the peoples of the USSR, of whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement. It is necessary that the Soviet people understand this and stop being carefree, that they mobilize themselves and reorganize all their work on a new, military basis, which knows no mercy for the enemy.
It is necessary, furthermore, that there be no place in our ranks for whiners and cowards, alarmists and deserters, that our people do not know fear in the struggle and selflessly go to our Patriotic War of Liberation against the fascist enslavers. The great Lenin, who created our state, said that the main quality of the Soviet people should be courage, courage, ignorance of fear in the struggle, readiness to fight together with the people against the enemies of our Motherland. It is necessary that this magnificent quality of a Bolshevik should become the property of millions and millions of the Red Army, our Red Navy and all the peoples of the Soviet Union. We must immediately reorganize all our work on a military footing, subordinating everything to the interests of the front and to the tasks of organizing the defeat of the enemy. The peoples of the Soviet Union now see that German fascism is indomitable in its furious malice and hatred of our Motherland, which has ensured free labor and well-being for all working people. The peoples of the Soviet Union must rise up to defend their rights, their land against the enemy.
The Red Army, the Red Navy and all citizens of the Soviet Union must defend every inch of the Soviet land, fight to the last drop of blood for our cities and villages, show the courage, initiative and ingenuity inherent in our people.
We must organize all-round assistance to the Red Army, ensure an intensified replenishment of its ranks, ensure its supply with everything necessary, organize the rapid advance of transports with troops and military cargo, and provide extensive assistance to the wounded.
We must strengthen the rear of the Red Army, subordinating all our work to the interests of this cause, ensure the intensified work of all enterprises, produce more rifles, machine guns, guns, cartridges, shells, aircraft, organize the protection of factories, power plants, telephone and telegraph communications, establish local air defense .
We must organize a ruthless struggle against all sorts of rear disorganizers, deserters, alarmists, spreaders of rumors, destroy spies, saboteurs, enemy paratroopers, rendering prompt assistance to our destruction battalions in all this. It must be borne in mind that the enemy is cunning, cunning, experienced in deception and spreading false rumors. It is necessary to take into account all this and not succumb to provocations. All those who, by their alarmism and cowardice, interfere with the cause of defense, regardless of their faces, must immediately be brought to trial by a military tribunal.
With the forced withdrawal of Red Army units, it is necessary to steal the entire rolling stock, not to leave the enemy a single locomotive, not a single wagon, not to leave the enemy a single kilogram of bread, not a liter of fuel. The collective farmers must steal all the livestock, hand over the grain for safekeeping to state bodies for its removal to the rear areas. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, grain and fuel, which cannot be taken out must be unconditionally destroyed.
In areas occupied by the enemy, it is necessary to create partisan detachments, mounted and on foot, to create sabotage groups to fight against parts of the enemy army, to kindle guerrilla warfare everywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to forests, warehouses, convoys. In the occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every turn, disrupt all their activities.
The war with fascist Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war. It is not only a war between two armies. It is at the same time a great war of the entire Soviet people against the German fascist troops. The goal of this nationwide Patriotic War against the fascist oppressors is not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our country, but also to help all the peoples of Europe, groaning under the yoke of German fascism. In this war of liberation, we will not be alone. In this great war we will have true allies in the peoples of Europe and America, including the German people, enslaved by the Nazi bosses. Our war for the freedom of our Fatherland will merge with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence, for democratic freedoms. It will be a united front of the peoples standing for freedom against enslavement and the threat of enslavement from Hitler's fascist armies. In this regard, the historic speech by British Prime Minister Mr. Churchill on helping the Soviet Union and the US government's declaration of readiness to help our country, which can only arouse a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of the peoples of the Soviet Union, are quite understandable and revealing.
Comrades! Our strength is incalculable. An arrogant enemy will soon be convinced of this. Together with the Red Army, many thousands of workers, collective farmers, and intellectuals are rising to war against the attacking enemy. Millions of our people will rise up. The working people of Moscow and Leningrad have already begun to create a multi-thousand people's militia to support the Red Army. In every city that is in danger of being invaded by the enemy, we must create such a people's militia, raise all the working people to fight in order to defend our freedom, our honor, our homeland with our breasts in our Patriotic War against German fascism.
In order to quickly mobilize all the forces of the peoples of the USSR, to repulse the enemy who treacherously attacked our Motherland, the State Defense Committee was created, in whose hands all power in the state is now concentrated. The State Defense Committee has begun its work and calls on all the people to rally around the party of Lenin-Stalin, around the Soviet government for the selfless support of the Red Army and the Red Navy, for the defeat of the enemy, for victory.
All our strength is to support our heroic Red Army, our glorious Red Fleet!
All the forces of the people - to defeat the enemy!
Forward, for our victory!
Speech of I.V. Stalin on July 3, 1941
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tr3ldvaW4e8
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pD5gf2OSZA&feature=related
Another speech of Stalin at the beginning of the War
Stalin's speech at the end of the war
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WrIPg3TRbno&feature=related
Sergey Filatov
http://serfilatov.livejournal.com/89269.html#cutid1
Article 4. Russian spirit
Nikolai Biyata
http://gidepark.ru/community/129/content/1387287
www.ruska-pravda.org
The fury of Russian resistance reflects the new Russian spirit, backed by newfound industrial and agricultural power.
Last June, most Democrats agreed with Adolf Hitler - in three months the Nazi armies would enter Moscow and the Russian case would be similar to the Norwegian, French and Greek ones. Even the American Communists trembled in their Russian boots, believing less in Marshal Timoshenko, Voroshilov and Budyonny than in Generals Frost, Mud and Slush. When the Germans got stuck, the disillusioned fellow travelers returned to their former convictions, a monument to Lenin was opened in London, and almost everyone breathed a sigh of relief: the impossible had happened.
The purpose of Maurice Hindus' book is to show that the impossible was inevitable. According to him, the fury of Russian resistance reflects the new Russian spirit, behind which is the newfound industrial and agricultural power.
Few observers of post-revolutionary Russia can talk about it more competently. Among American journalists, Maurice Gershon Hindus is the only professional Russian peasant (he arrived in the United States as a child).
After four years at Colgate University and a graduate student at Harvard, he managed to maintain a slight Russian accent and close ties to the good Russian land. “I,” he sometimes says, spreading his arms in Slavonic, “is a peasant.”
Fufu, smells like Russian spirit
When the Bolsheviks began to "eliminate the kulaks [successful farmers] as a class," the journalist Hindus traveled to Russia to see what was happening to his fellow peasants. The fruit of his observations was the book Humanity Uprooted, a bestseller whose main thesis is that forced collectivization is hard, deportation to the Far North for forced labor is even harder, but collectivization is the greatest economic restructuring in human history ; it changes the face of the Russian land. She is the future. The Soviet planners were of the same opinion, and as a result, the journalist Hindus had unusual opportunities to observe how the new Russian spirit was born.
In Russia and Japan, he, relying on his direct knowledge, answers a question that may well decide the fate of the Second World War. What is this new Russian spirit? It's not that new. “Fu-fu, it smells like a Russian spirit! Previously, the Russian spirit had not been heard of, the view had not seen. Today, the Russian is rolling around the world, it catches your eye, it hits you in the face. These words are not taken from Stalin's speech. Their old witch named Baba Yaga always pronounces them in the most ancient Russian fairy tales.
Grandmothers whispered them to their grandchildren when the Mongols burned the surrounding villages in 1410.
They repeated them when the Russian spirit expelled the last Mongol from Muscovy twenty years before Columbus discovered the New World. They probably repeat them today.
three forces
By "the power of an idea" Hindu means that in Russia the possession of private property has become a social crime. "Deep in the minds of people - especially, of course, young people, that is, those who are twenty-nine and younger, and there are one hundred and seven million of them in Russia - the concept of the deep depravity of private entrepreneurship has penetrated."
By "strength of organization" the Hindu author understands the state's total control over industry and agriculture, so that every peacetime function actually becomes a military function. “Of course, the Russians never hinted at the military aspects of collectivization, and therefore foreign observers remained completely unaware of this element of a massive and brutal agricultural revolution. They emphasized only those consequences that concerned agriculture and society ... However, without collectivization, they would not have been able to wage war as effectively as they are waging it.
"Machine power" is an idea in the name of which an entire generation of Russians denied themselves food, clothing, cleanliness, and even the most basic comforts. "Like the strength of a new idea and a new organization, it saves the Soviet Union from being dismembered and destroyed by Germany." "In the same way," the author Hindus believes, "she will save him from the encroachments of Japan."
His arguments are less interesting than his analysis of Russian power in the Far East.
Russia's Wild East, stretching three thousand miles from Vladivostok, is fast becoming one of the largest industrial belts in the world. Among the most fascinating sections about Russia and Japan are those that debunk the legend that Siberia is an Asian glacier or a purely penal servitude. In fact, Siberia produces both polar bears and cotton, has large modern cities such as Novosibirsk (the "Siberian Chicago") and Magnitogorsk (steel), and is the center of Russia's gigantic arms industry. Hindus believe that even if the Nazis reach the Ural Mountains and the Japanese reach Lake Baikal, Russia will still remain a powerful industrial state.
No to a separate world
In addition, he believes that the Russians will not, under any circumstances, agree to a separate peace. After all, they are not just waging a war for liberation. In the form of a war of liberation, they continue the revolution. “Too alive to be forgotten, the memories of the sacrifices that people made for the sake of every machine tool, every locomotive, every brick for the construction of new factories ... Butter, cheese, eggs, white bread, caviar, fish, which should have been there are they and their children; textiles and leather, from which clothes and shoes were to be made for them and their children, were sent abroad ... to receive the currency that was paid for foreign cars and foreign services ... Indeed, Russia is waging a nationalist war; the peasant, as always, is fighting for his house and his land. But today's Russian nationalism rests on the idea and practice of Soviet or collectivized control over the "means of production and distribution" while Japanese nationalism rests on the idea of honoring the Emperor.
Directory
Somewhat emotional judgments of the author Hindus are surprisingly confirmed by the book of the author Yugov "The Russian Economic Front in Peace and Wartime". Not such a friend of the Russian revolution as the author Hindus, the economist Yugov, a former employee of the USSR State Planning Committee, who now prefers to live in the USA. His book on Russia is much more difficult to read than the book of the Hindu author and contains more facts. It does not justify the suffering, death and oppression that Russia had to pay for its new economic and military power.
He hopes that one of the outcomes of the war for Russia will be a turn towards democracy, the only system in which he believes economic planning can really work. But the author Yugov agrees with the author Hindus in his assessment of why the Russians fight so fiercely, and it's not about the "geographical, everyday variety" of patriotism.
“The workers of Russia,” he says, “are fighting against a return to a private economy, against a return to the very bottom of the social pyramid ... The peasants are stubbornly and actively fighting Hitler, because Hitler would return the old landowners or create new ones according to the Prussian model. Numerous peoples of the Soviet Union are fighting because they know that Hitler is destroying all opportunities for their development ... "
“And finally, all citizens of the Soviet Union go to the front to fight resolutely until victory, because they want to defend those undoubtedly majestic - albeit inadequately and insufficiently implemented - revolutionary achievements in the field of labor, culture, science and art .. The workers, peasants, various nationalities and all citizens of the Soviet Union have many claims and demands against the dictatorial regime of Stalin, and the struggle for these demands will not stop for a day. But at present, for the people, the task of defending their country from the enemy, personifying the social, political and national reaction, is above all else.
"Time", USA
Article 5. Russians come for their own. Sevastopol - the prototype of the Victory
Author - Oleg Bibikov
Miraculously, the day of the liberation of Sevastopol coincides with the day of the Great Victory. In the May waters of the Sevastopol bays, even today we can see the reflection of the fiery Berlin sky and the Banner of Victory in it.
Undoubtedly, in the solar ripples of those waters one can also guess the reflection of other victories to come.
“Not a single name in Russia is pronounced with more reverence than Sevastopol” - these words belong not to a patriot of Russia, but to a fierce enemy, and they are not uttered with the intonation that we like.
Colonel-General Karl Almendinger, appointed commander of the 17th German Army on May 1, 1944, which repelled the offensive operation of the Soviet troops, said to the army: “I received an order to defend every inch of the Sevastopol bridgehead. You understand its meaning. Not a single name in Russia is pronounced with more reverence than Sevastopol ... I demand that everyone defends in the full sense of the word, that no one retreats, that every trench, every funnel, every trench ... relation, and the enemy, wherever he appears, will become entangled in the network of our defenses. But none of us should even think of withdrawing to these positions, located in the depths. The 17th Army in Sevastopol is supported by powerful air and naval forces. The Führer is giving us enough ammunition, planes, armaments and reinforcements. The honor of the army depends on every meter of the entrusted territory. Germany expects us to do our duty."
Hitler ordered to keep Sevastopol at any cost. In fact, this is an order - not a step back.
In a sense, history repeated itself in a mirror image.
Two and a half years earlier, on November 10, 1941, an order was issued by the commander of the Black Sea Fleet F.S. Oktyabrsky, addressed to the troops of the Sevastopol defensive region: “The glorious Black Sea Fleet and the combat Primorsky Army are entrusted with the protection of the famous historical Sevastopol ... We are obliged to turn Sevastopol into an impregnable fortress and, on the outskirts of the city, exterminate more than one division of presumptuous fascist scoundrels ... We have thousands of wonderful fighters, powerful Black Sea Fleet, Sevastopol coastal defense, glorious aviation. Together with us, the battle-hardened Primorsky Army ... All this gives us complete confidence that the enemy will not pass, will break his skull against our strength, our power ... "
Our army is back.
Then, in May 1944, Bismarck's old observation was again confirmed: do not hope that once you take advantage of Russia's weakness, you will receive dividends forever.
Russians always return their...
In November 1943, Soviet troops successfully carried out the Nizhnedneprovsk operation and blocked the Crimea. The 17th Army was then commanded by Colonel General Erwin Gustav Jeneke. The liberation of Crimea became possible in the spring of 1944. The start of the operation was scheduled for 8 April.
It was the eve of Holy Week...
For most contemporaries, the names of fronts, armies, unit numbers, the names of generals, and even marshals, say nothing or almost nothing.
It happened - like in a song. Victory is one for all. But let's remember.
The liberation of Crimea was entrusted to the 4th Ukrainian Front under the command of Army General F.I. Tolbukhin, a separate Primorsky Army under the command of General of the Army A.I. Eremenko, to the Black Sea Fleet under the command of Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky and Azov military flotilla under the command of Rear Admiral S.G. Gorshkov.
Recall that the 4th Ukrainian Front included: the 51st Army (commanded by Lieutenant General Ya.G. Kreizer), the 2nd Guards Army (commanded by Lieutenant General G.F. Zakharov), the 19th Tank Corps ( Commander Lieutenant General I.D. Vasiliev, he will be seriously wounded and on April 11 he will be replaced by Colonel I.A. Potseluev), 8th Air Army (commander Colonel General of Aviation, the famous ace T.T. Khryukin).
Every name is a significant name. Everyone has years of war behind them. Others began their battle with the Germans as early as 1914-1918. Others fought in Spain, in China, Khryukin had a sunken Japanese battleship on his account ...
From the Soviet side, 470 thousand people, about 6 thousand guns and mortars, 559 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1250 aircraft were involved in the Crimean operation.
The 17th Army included 5 German and 7 Romanian divisions - a total of about 200 thousand people, 3600 guns and mortars, 215 tanks and assault guns, 148 aircraft.
On the side of the Germans were a powerful network of defensive structures, which had to be torn to shreds.
Big wins are made up of tiny wins.
The chronicles of the war contain the names of privates, officers and generals. The chronicles of the war allow us to see the Crimea of that spring with cinematic clarity. It was a blissful spring, everything that could bloom, everything else sparkled with greenery, everything dreamed of living forever. The Russian tanks of the 19th tank corps had to bring the infantry into the operational space, crack the defense. Someone had to go first, lead the first tank, the first tank battalion into the attack, and almost certainly die.
The chronicles tell about the day of April 11, 1944: “The main forces of the 19th Corps were introduced into the breakthrough by the head tank battalion of Major I.N. Mashkarina from the 101st Tank Brigade. Leading the attackers, I.N. Mashkarin not only controlled the battle of his units. He personally destroyed six cannons, four machine-gun points, two mortars, dozens of Nazi soldiers and officers ... "
The brave battalion commander died that day.
He was 22 years old, he had already participated in 140 battles, defended Ukraine, fought near Rzhev and Orel ... After the Victory, he would be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously). The battalion commander, who broke into the defense of the Crimea in the Dzhankoy direction, was buried in Simferopol in the Victory Square, in a mass grave ...
The armada of Soviet tanks broke into operational space. On the same day, Dzhankoy was also released.
Simultaneously with the actions of the 4th Ukrainian Front, the Separate Primorsky Army also went on the offensive in the Kerch direction. Its actions were supported by aviation of the 4th Air Army and the Black Sea Fleet.
On the same day, the partisans captured the city of Stary Krym. In response, the Germans, retreating from Kerch, carried out an army punitive operation, killing 584 people, shooting everyone who caught their eye.
Simferopol was cleared of the enemy on Thursday 13 April. Moscow saluted the troops that liberated the capital of Crimea.
On the same day, our fathers and grandfathers liberated the famous resort towns - Feodosia in the east, Evpatoria in the west. On April 14, on Good Friday, Bakhchisarai was liberated, and hence the Assumption Monastery, where many of the defenders of Sevastopol, who died in the Crimean War of 1854-1856, are buried. On the same day, Sudak and Alushta were liberated.
Our troops swept like hurricanes through Yalta and Alupka. On April 15, Soviet tankers reached the outer defensive line of Sevastopol. On the same day, the Primorsky Army also approached Sevastopol from Yalta ...
And this situation was like a mirror image of the autumn of 1941. Our troops, preparing for the assault on Sevastopol, stood in the same positions that the Germans and Romanians were in at the end of October 1941. The Germans could not take Sevastopol for 8 months and, as Admiral Oktyabrsky foretold, they smashed their skull on Sevastopol.
Russian troops liberated their holy city in less than a month. The entire Crimean operation took 35 days. Directly storming the Sevastopol fortified area - 8 days, and the city itself was taken in 58 hours.
For the capture of Sevastopol, which could not be liberated immediately, all our armies were united under one command. On April 16, the Primorsky Army became part of the 4th Ukrainian Front. General K.S. was appointed the new commander of the Primorsky Army. Miller. (Eremenko was transferred to the commander of the 2nd Baltic Front.)
There have also been changes in the enemy camp.
General Jeneke was dismissed on the eve of the decisive assault. It seemed to him expedient to leave Sevastopol without a fight. Jeneke had already survived the Stalingrad cauldron. Recall that in the army of F. Paulus he commanded an army corps. In the Stalingrad cauldron, Yeneke survived only thanks to dexterity: he imitated a serious wound from shrapnel and was evacuated. Jeneke also managed to evade the Sevastopol cauldron. He did not see any point in the defense of the Crimea in the conditions of the blockade. Hitler thought otherwise. The next unifier of Europe believed that after the loss of the Crimea, Romania and Bulgaria would like to leave the Nazi bloc. On May 1, Hitler deposed Jeneke. General K. Almendinger was appointed commander-in-chief of the 17th Army.
From Sunday, April 16 to April 30, Soviet troops repeatedly made attempts to break into the defense; achieved only partial success.
The general assault on Sevastopol began on May 5 at noon. After a powerful two-hour artillery and aviation training, the 2nd Guards Army under the command of Lieutenant General G.F. Zakharov collapsed from the Mekenziev Mountains to the area of the North Side. Zakharov's army was to enter Sevastopol, crossing the Northern Bay.
The troops of the Maritime and 51st armies, after an hour and a half of artillery and aviation preparation, went on the offensive on May 7 at 10:30. On the main direction of Sapun-gora - Karan (village of Flotskoye), the Primorsky Army operated. East of Inkerman and Fedyukhin Heights, the 51st Army led the attack on Sapun Mountain (this is the key to the city) ... Soviet soldiers had to break through a multi-tiered system of fortifications ...
Hundreds of bombers of the Hero of the Soviet Union General Timofey Timofeevich Khryukin were irreplaceable.
By the end of May 7, Sapun Mountain became ours. Assault red flags were raised to the top by privates G.I. Evglevsky, I.K. Yatsunenko, Corporal V.I. Drobyazko, Sergeant A.A. Kurbatov ... Sapun Mountain - the forerunner of the Reichstag.
The remnants of the 17th Army, these are several tens of thousands of Germans, Romanians and traitors to the motherland, accumulated on Cape Chersonese, hoping for evacuation.
In a certain sense, the situation of 1941 was repeated, mirrored.
On May 12, the entire Chersonese peninsula was liberated. The Crimean operation is completed. The peninsula was a monstrous picture: the skeletons of hundreds of houses, ruins, conflagrations, mountains of human corpses, mangled equipment - tanks, planes, guns ...
A captured German officer testifies: “... replenishment was constantly coming to us. However, the Russians broke through the defenses and occupied Sevastopol. Then the command gave a clearly belated order - to hold strong positions on Chersonese, and in the meantime try to evacuate the remnants of the defeated troops from the Crimea. Up to 30,000 soldiers have accumulated in our sector. Of these, it was hardly possible to take out more than one thousand. On May 10, I saw four ships enter Kamysheva Bay, but only two left. Two other transports were sunk by Russian aircraft. Since then, I have not seen any more ships. Meanwhile, the situation was becoming more and more critical... the soldiers were already demoralized. Everyone fled to the sea in the hope that, perhaps, at the last minute, some ships would appear ... Everything was mixed up, and chaos reigned all around ... It was a complete disaster for the German troops in the Crimea.
On May 10, at one in the morning (at one in the morning!) Moscow saluted the liberators of the city with 24 volleys of 342 guns.
It was a victory.
This was a harbinger of the Great Victory.
The Pravda newspaper wrote: "Hello, dear Sevastopol! Beloved city of the Soviet people, hero city, hero city! The whole country joyfully greets you!" "Hello, dear Sevastopol!" - repeated then indeed the whole country.
"Strategic Culture Foundation"
S A M A R Y N K A
http://gidepark.ru/user/kler16/content/1387278
www.odnako.org
http://www.odnako.org/blogs/show_19226/
Author: Boris Yulin
I think everyone knows that on June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began.
But when reminded of this event on TV, you usually hear about the “preemptive strike”, “Stalin is no less guilty of the war than Hitler”, “why did we get involved in this unnecessary war for us”, “Stalin was an ally of Hitler” and other vile nonsense.
Therefore, I consider it necessary to once again briefly recall the facts - for the flow of Artistic Truth, that is, vile nonsense, does not stop.
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked us without declaring war. Attacked deliberately, after a long and thorough preparation. Attacked with overwhelming force.
That is, it was brazen, undisguised and unmotivated aggression. Hitler made no demands or claims. He did not urgently try to scrape troops from anywhere for a "preemptive strike" - he just attacked. That is, he staged an act of obvious aggression.
On the contrary, we were not going to attack. In our country, mobilization was not carried out and did not even begin, orders were not given for an offensive or preparation for it. We fulfilled the terms of the non-aggression pact.
That is, we are a victim of aggression, without any options.
A non-aggression pact is not an alliance treaty. So the USSR has never (!) been an ally of Nazi Germany.
The Non-Aggression Pact is precisely the Non-Aggression Pact, no less, but no more. It did not give Germany the opportunity to use our territory for military operations, did not lead to the use of our armed forces in combat operations with Germany's opponents.
So all the talk about the alliance between Stalin and Hitler is either a lie or nonsense.
Stalin fulfilled the terms of the agreement and did not attack - Hitler violated the terms of the agreement and attacked.
Hitler attacked without putting forward claims or conditions, without giving the opportunity to resolve everything peacefully, so the USSR had no choice whether to enter the war or not. The war was imposed on the USSR without asking for consent. And Stalin had no choice but to fight.
And it was impossible to resolve the "contradictions" between the USSR and Germany. After all, the Germans did not seek to seize the disputed territory or change the terms of the peace agreements in their favor.
The goal of the Nazis was the destruction of the USSR and the genocide of the Soviet people. It just so happened that the communist ideology, in principle, did not suit the Nazis. And it just so happened that in the place that represented the “necessary living space” and intended for the harmonious settlement of the German nation, some Slavs brazenly lived. And all this was clearly voiced by Hitler.
That is, the war was not for redrawing treaties and border lands, but for the destruction of the Soviet people. And the choice was simple - to die, disappear from the map of the Earth, or fight and survive.
Did Stalin try to avoid this day and this choice? Yes! Tried to.
The USSR made every effort to prevent a war. He tried to stop the division of Czechoslovakia, he tried to create a system of collective security. But the contractual process is complicated by the fact that it requires the consent of all the contracting parties, and not just one of them. And when it turned out to be impossible to stop the aggressor at the beginning of the journey and save the whole of Europe from the war, Stalin began to try to save his country from the war. To keep from war at least until readiness for defense is reached. But he managed to win only two years.
So on June 22, 1941, the power of the strongest army and one of the strongest economies in the world fell upon us without declaring war. And this power was intended to destroy our country and our people. No one was going to negotiate with us - only to destroy.
On June 22, our country and our people took the fight, which they did not want, although they were preparing for it. And they endured this terrible, hardest battle, broke the back of the Nazi creature. And they got the right to live and the right to be themselves.
Everyone remembers what the result of the negotiations between Vladimir Putin and Barack Obama looked like. The leaders of the two countries could not look each other in the eye. The moment of truth has come. The details of the meeting between the leaders of the two countries are beginning to leak out, and many still obscure things are becoming clear. Why didn't both presidents have a face. Today it is safe to say that today the two powers are closer than ever to fatal actions.
Everything turned out to be very simple. Understanding the impossibility of getting through the UN Security Council resolution necessary for the war on Syria, Washington relies on exerting pressure or striking at Iran. After all, it is not Syria that interests Washington, but Iran. The United States is moving troops to Kuwait, from here to the border with Iran is only 80 kilometers. The very troops that Obama promised to withdraw from Afghanistan will now be redeployed specifically to Kuwait. The first 15,000 servicemen have already received orders for redeployment.
Travel moods reign in the editorial offices of the Western media. Everything is moving towards a serious deterioration of the situation.
President Vladimir Putin said quite a lot in his own words, saying that he would not go on reconnaissance with anyone, joking that he had “been out of service for a long time.”
The world did not understand his joke, but was wary.
In this joke, as well as in all others, there is some truth, sometimes a very large share. But in general, it was necessary to carefully listen to what the Russian president says.
It looks like the US Marines are going to take a serious stand against the Russian paratroopers.
At the mere thought of what might happen, a cold sweat breaks out on the body. This position of ground forces, too dangerous in its proximity, is almost guaranteed to end in a collision.
This first step, the redeployment of 15,000 Marines to Kuwait, may not be the most obvious intention, because in the end you won’t start a war with such forces, but if this batch of military personnel is followed by the next one, it will be possible to speak with confidence about the impending threat.
So far, in fact, this redeployment plays into the hands of Russia more than America. Of course, now oil will creep up, the risks become higher. Russia will turn out to be the main beneficiary in this show, because it is always good to be a seller when the price of your product is high, and, of course, it is not profitable to buy oil when you yourself “raised” the price for it.
In this case, the US budget will bear the additional burden.
Another truth in this story is that neither president can back down in this confrontation. If Obama backs down, he will bury his election because Americans don't like wimps (who loves them?).
So Obama will have to come up with something to stay with a "beautiful face."
Putin can't back down either. In addition to geopolitical interests, there is an expectation among the citizens of Russia that their president will not surrender this time, as he has never surrendered before. No wonder they voted for him and entrusted him with building a strong Russia.
Putin cannot deceive the expectations of his citizens, he really never deceived those who voted for him, and it seems that this time he is also going to demonstrate his very advanced qualities of a leader, perhaps even a crisis manager.
The matter, perhaps, could be resolved peacefully if the presidents of the two countries announced some new idea, program, joint project of the two states. In this case, no one would dare to reproach their president, because two countries would benefit from this, and the whole world would become safer.
Both presidents would win here. But such a project still needs to be devised. Judging by the faces of Obama and Putin, there is no such project.
But there are growing disagreements.
In this case, Obama's career is a big question mark; nothing threatens Putin's career. Putin has already passed the elections, and Obama is still ahead.
However, as always in such cases, you need to look at the details. They are sometimes very eloquent.
Nuclear-powered ships make the first moves
According to some reports, nuclear-powered ships of the two most powerful fleets - the Northern and Pacific, in the coming days may receive a combat mission to take up a strike position in neutral waters off the US mainland. This has happened before, when in 2009 two nuclear-powered missile carriers surfaced in different places off the east coast of the United States. This was done quite deliberately, in order to indicate their presence.
The report of an American journalist, a military specialist, looks strange. Then he said that these boats are not terrible, because they do not have intercontinental missiles. It remains only to understand why a boat, which is located 200 nautical miles from the coast, needs intercontinental ballistic missiles, if its regular R-39s cover a distance of up to 1,500 nautical miles.
The R-39 rockets, solid propellant with three-stage sustainer engines used by the D-19 complex, are the largest submarine-launched missiles with 10 multiple nuclear warheads of 100 kilograms each. Even one such missile can lead to a global catastrophe for the whole country, on board the Project 941 Akula submarine that surfaced in 2009, 20 units are regularly located. Given that there were two boats, the optimistic mood of the American commentator on this event is simply incomprehensible.
Where is Georgia, and where is Georgia
The question may arise why now talk about what happened in 2009. I think there are parallels here. On August 5, 2009, when the military events of the 08.08.08 war were still fresh in the memory, serious pressure was put on Russia. Orders of the Russian authorities to withdraw from Abkhazia and South Ossetia were dictated almost by order. Then all the events revolved around Georgia. On July 14, 2009, the US Navy destroyer Stout entered Georgian territorial waters. Of course, this is putting pressure on the Russians. It was then, after half a month, that two boats surfaced off the coast of North America.
If one of them was near Greenland, then the second surfaced under the very nose of the largest naval base. The Norfolk Naval Base is only 250 miles northwest of the surfacing site, but it may be indicative that the boat surfaced closer to the coastline of the state of Georgia (this is the name of the former Georgian SSR, now Georgia, in the English manner.) That is, in some special way, these two events may intersect. You sent a ship to us in Georgia (Georgia), so get our submarine from your Georgia.
It looks like some kind of hellish joke, from which it would never occur to anyone to laugh. By this comparison of events, the author wants to show that one should not think that Putin has no way out and that he must give in in Syria, where the US Navy grouping is dozens of times more representative than the Russian Navy in Tartus, even after the arrival of Russian paratroopers there.
Today, the war can be such that having defeated Russia in Syria, one can again be surprised off the coast of Georgia. This is well understood in the Pentagon. Americans are good at understanding the meaning of what is said, and even better they understand the meaning of what is shown.
Thus, one should not expect Putin to back down from his plans in Syria. The only thing that can make Putin take a step back is truly normal human relations.
Naive Russians still believe in friendship. The author of these lines is already tired of repeating to his American colleagues and writing in his articles: Russians in general are best able to make friends and fight. Whichever of these the American president in Russian execution prefers to choose, it will always be done "from the heart and on a grand scale."
http://gidepark.ru/community/8/content/1387294
"Democratic" America surpassed Nazi Germany...
Olga Olgina, with whom I am constantly in contact in Hydepark, published an article by Sergei Chernyakhovsky, whom I know from honest, up-to-date publications.
I read it and thought...
June 22, 1941. I just published on my blogs an article by my friend Sergei Filatov “Why was the German attack on the USSR called “treacherous”?” And in one comment, an anonymous blogger, no data, I looked into his PM - he writes to me (I save his spelling):
“On June 22, 1941, at 4:00 am, the Reich Foreign Minister Ribbentrop presented the Soviet Ambassador in Berlin Dekanozov with a note declaring war. Officially, the formalities were observed."
This anonymous person is not happy that we Russians call the German attack on our Motherland treacherous.
And then I caught myself on the fact that ...
June 22, 1941, my parents survived. Father, a colonel, a former cavalryman, was then in Monino. At the aviation school. As they said then, from “horse to motor!” Prepared personnel for aviation .... Dad and mom experienced the first bombings ... and then .... Four terrible years of war!
I experienced another - March 19, 2011. When the NATO alliance began to bomb the Libyan Jamahiriya.
Why am I doing this?
“Foreign Minister Ribbentrop presented the Soviet Ambassador in Berlin Dekanozov with a note declaring war. Officially, the formalities were observed."
And was a note handed to the Ambassador of the Libyan Jamahiriya in some capital of some democratic country of the NATO alliance?
Were the formalities followed?
There is only one answer - no!
There were no notes, memorandums, letters, there were no formalities.
It turns out that this was a new, humane, democratic war of the humane, democratic West against a sovereign, Arab, African state.
To anyone who starts hinting at UN Security Council Resolution 1973, which allegedly gave the NATO alliance the right to this war, I will say - and all international lawyers who still have a conscience will support me: make a tube out of the paper of this resolution and insert it into one place . This resolution did not give anyone any right by any of its letters. Everything is invented, composed, distributed, and therefore cast in bronze! Unshakable as the Statue of Liberty!
I really like one image of her that I found on the Internet: the statue, unable to withstand the bullying of America and its partners over freedom and human rights, covers its face with its hands. She's ashamed!
Why are you ashamed?
Because there was no declaration of war. And no one can say about the perfidy of the West in relation to the Jamahiriya and personally to its leader, with whom every Western politician - and thousands of photographs confirm this - sought to kiss personally.
Kiss Judas!
Now each of us knows what it is!
Kissed - and now everything is possible!
Without notes and formalities!
And so I came to the most important thing: if the West is talking on every corner that it is ready to strike at Syria, then, forgive me, will the formalities be observed? Will notes declaring war be handed out IN ADVANCE to Syrian ambassadors in Western capitals?
Ah, no more ambassadors?
And no one to give?
What a shame!
It turns out that the smart, cunning West outdid Hitler. Now you can attack, bomb, kill, do any atrocities WITHOUT DECLARATION OF WAR!
And no perfidy!
Now read Chernyakhovsky's article, which Olgina published.
"Democratic" America surpassed Nazi Germany...
Olga Olgina:
Sergei Chernyakhovsky:
Sergei Filatov:
http://gidepark.ru/community/2042/content/1386870
Anonymous blogger:
http://gidepark.ru/user/4007776763/info
The situation in the world is now worse than it was in 1938-1939. Only Russia can stop the war
On June 22, we remember the tragedy. We mourn the dead. We are proud of those who took the blow and responded to it, as well as the fact that, having received this terrible blow, the people gathered their strength and crushed the one who dealt it. But all of this is in the past. And society has not remembered for a long time the thesis that for 50 years kept the world from war - "The forty-first year should not be repeated", and kept it not by repetition, but by practical implementation.
Sometimes even completely pro-Soviet oriented people and political figures (not to mention those who think themselves citizens of other countries) are skeptical about overloading the USSR economy with military spending, ironically about the “Ustinov Doctrine” - “The USSR must be ready to conduct a simultaneous war with any two other powers” (meaning the US and China) and assure that it was the adherence to this doctrine that undermined the economy of the USSR.
Whether it hurt or not is a big question, because until 1991, in the vast majority of industries, output grew. But why, at the same time, the shelves of the stores turned out to be empty, but at the same time they were filled with products for some two weeks after they were allowed to arbitrarily raise prices for them - this is another question for other people.
Ustinov really advocated this approach. But he did not formulate it: in world politics, the status of a great country has long been determined through the ability to wage a simultaneous war with any two other countries. And Ustinov knew why he defended it: because on June 9, 1941, he accepted the post of People's Commissar of Armaments of the USSR and knew what it takes to arm the army when it is already forced to wage war underarmed. And with all the changes in the name of the post, he remained in it until he became Minister of Defense, until 1976.
Then, at the end of the 1980s, it was announced that the arms of the USSR were no longer needed, that the Cold War was over, and that now no one threatens us. The cold war has a very important advantage: it is not "hot". But as soon as it ended, it was the "hot" wars that began in the world, and now in Europe as well.
True, so far no one has attacked Russia - from among independent countries and directly. But, firstly, it has been repeatedly attacked by "small military entities" - on the instructions and with the support of large countries. Secondly, the big ones did not attack mainly because Russia still had the weapons that were created in the USSR, and, with all the decay of the army, state and economy, these weapons were enough to repeatedly destroy any of them individually and all together. But after the creation of the American missile defense system, this situation will no longer exist.
Moreover, the current situation in the world is not much better, or rather, no better than the situation that prevailed both before 1914 and before 1939-41. The talk that if the USSR (Russia) ceases to oppose the West, disarms and abandons its socio-economic system, then the threat of a world war will disappear and everyone will live in peace and friendship cannot even be considered as bewilderment. This is an outright lie aimed at the moral capitulation of the USSR, in particular, because most of the wars in history were wars not between countries with different socio-political systems, but between countries with a homogeneous system. In 1914, England and France were not much different from Germany and Austria-Hungary, and monarchist Russia fought on the side not of the last monarchies, but of the British and French democracies.
In the 1930s, one of the first to call for the creation of a European collective security system to repel possible Hitlerite aggression was the leader of fascist Italy, Benito Mussolini, and he agreed to an alliance with the Reich only when he saw that England and France were refusing to create such a system. And World War II began not with a war between capitalist countries and the socialist USSR, but with conflicts and wars between capitalist countries. And the immediate cause was the war between two not just capitalist, but fascist countries - Germany and Poland.
To believe that there can be no war between the United States and Russia because both of them today, let's say carefully, are "non-socialist", is simply to be a prisoner of the aberrations of consciousness. By 1939, Hitler had conflicts not so much with the USSR as with countries socially homogeneous to him, and there were fewer of these conflicts than those into which the United States has already become involved today.
Hitler then sent troops into the demilitarized Rhine zone, which, however, was located on the territory of Germany itself. He carried out the Anschluss of Austria, formally - peacefully on the basis of the will of Austria itself. With the consent of the Western powers, they seized the Sudetenland from Czechoslovakia, and then captured Czechoslovakia itself. He fought on Franco's side in the Spanish Civil War. There are four conflicts in total, of which one is actually armed. And everyone recognized him as an aggressor and said that the war was on the threshold.
USA and NATO today:
1. Twice they carried out aggression against Yugoslavia, dismembered it into parts, seized part of its territory and destroyed it as a single state.
2. They invaded Iraq, overthrew the national government and occupied the country, setting up a puppet regime there.
3. They did the same in Afghanistan.
4. They prepared, organized and unleashed the war of the Saakashvili regime against Russia and took it under open protection after a military defeat.
5. They carried out aggression against Libya, subjected it to barbaric bombardments, overthrew the national government, killed the leader of the country, and brought a barbaric regime to power in general.
6. They unleashed a civil war in Syria, they practically participate in it on the side of their satellites, they are preparing military aggression against the country.
7. They threaten war on sovereign Iran.
8. They overthrew the national governments in Tunisia and Egypt.
9. They overthrew the national government in Georgia and installed a puppet dictatorial regime there, but in fact occupied the country. Up to the deprivation of her right to speak her native language: now the main requirement in Georgia when applying for a civil service and obtaining a diploma of higher education is fluency in the US language.
10. Partially implemented the same or tried to implement it in Serbia and Ukraine.
A total of 13 acts of aggression, 6 of which are direct military interventions. Against four, including one armed, with Hitler by 1941. Words are pronounced differently - actions are similar. Yes, the US can say that in Afghanistan they acted in self-defence, but Hitler could also say that in the Rhineland he acted in defense of German sovereignty.
As if it would be absurd to compare the democratic United States with fascist Germany, but the Libyans, Iraqis, Serbs and Syrians killed by the Americans do not feel any better. In terms of the scale and number of acts of aggression, the United States has long and far surpassed Hitler's Germany of the pre-war period. Only Hitler, paradoxically, was much more honest: he sent his soldiers into battle, sacrificing their lives for him. The United States, on the other hand, mainly sends its mercenaries, while they themselves strike almost from around the corner, killing the enemy from aircraft from a safe position.
The United States, as a result of its geopolitical offensive, committed three times more acts of aggression and unleashed six times more military acts of aggression than Hitler did in the pre-war period. And the point in this case is not which of them is worse (although Hitler looks almost like a moderate politician against the backdrop of non-stop US wars in recent years), but that the situation in the world is worse than it was in 1938-39 . A leading and hegemonic country carried out more aggression than a similar country by 1939. Acts of Nazi aggression were relatively local and concerned mainly the adjacent territories. US acts of aggression are spread all over the world.
In the 1930s, there were several relatively equal centers of power in the world and Europe, which, with a good combination of circumstances, could prevent aggression and stop Hitler. Today there is one center of power, striving for hegemony and many times superior in its military potential to almost all other participants in world political life.
The danger of a new world war is greater today than in the second half of the 1930s. The only factor that makes it unrealistic so far is Russia's deterrent capabilities. Not other nuclear powers (their potential is insufficient for this), but Russia. And this factor will disappear in a few years, when the American missile defense system is created.
Maybe war is inevitable. Maybe she won't be. But it will not happen only if Russia is ready for it. The whole situation is developing too similar to the beginning of the twentieth century and the 1930s. The number of military conflicts involving the leading countries of the world is growing. The world is going to war.
Russia has no other choice: it must prepare for it. Transfer the economy to war footing. Look for allies. Re-equip the army. Destroy agents and the fifth column of the enemy.
June 22, 1941 really should not happen again.
Here is an article by Sergei Chernyakhovsky. I will add: of course, it should not happen again. But if it happens again, then the first blows, vile, treacherous, and you can’t call them otherwise, will fall on peaceful Syrian cities and villages ...
As it happened with the cities and villages of the Soviet Union.
June 22, 1941...
http://gidepark.ru/community/8/content/1386964
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 kind of 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 fall 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 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.
