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 of him Soviet people At noon on June 22, 1941, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, Vyacheslav Molotov, announced the start of the war with Germany. 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:

“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."

The working people of Leningrad listen to the message about the attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti

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 THE USSR.

The passivity of Stalin and the party, as well as the cowardly silence of the leader in the first days of the war, speaks volumes ... In the realities of the modern world, the people would not forgive their leader for this silence. And then, at that time, he not only closed his eyes to this, but also fought "for the Motherland, for Stalin!"

The fact that Stalin did not address the people immediately after the outbreak of the war was immediately perplexing to some. It is widely believed that Stalin in the initial period of the war was constantly or for a long period in a depressed state or in prostration. According to Molotov's memoirs, Stalin did not want to express his position immediately, in conditions where little was still clear.

Stalin's speech itself is also curious, when he gave the status of the war - the Great and Patriotic! It was after this appeal that the phrase “Great Patriotic War” came into circulation, and in the text the words “great” and “patriotic” are used separately.

The speech begins with the words: “Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Soldiers of our army and navy! I turn to you, my friends!

Further, Stalin talks about the difficult situation at the front, about the areas occupied by the enemy, the bombing of cities; he states: "A serious danger hangs over our Motherland." He rejects the "invincibility" of the Nazi army, while citing the defeat of the armies of Napoleon and Wilhelm II as an example. The failures of the first days of the war are explained by the advantageous position of the German army. Stalin denies that the non-aggression pact was a mistake - it helped secure a year and a half of peace.

Then the question is raised: "What is required in order to eliminate the danger hanging over our Motherland, and what measures must be taken in order to defeat the enemy?" First of all, Stalin proclaims the need for all Soviet people "to realize the full depth of the danger that threatens our country" and to mobilize; it is emphasized that we are talking about "the life and death of the Soviet state, about the life and death of the peoples of the USSR, about whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement."

Assessing Stalin's speech, V. V. Putin said:

“At the most critical moments in our history, our people turned to their roots, to their moral foundations, to religious values. And you remember well when the Great Patriotic War began, the first to inform the Soviet people about this was Molotov, who turned "citizens and citizens". And when Stalin spoke, despite all his rather tough, if not cruel, policy towards the church, he addressed himself in a completely different way - "brothers and sisters". And this made a huge sense, because such an appeal is not just words.

It was an appeal to the heart, to the soul, to history, to our roots, in order to describe, firstly, the tragedy of the ongoing events, and secondly, to encourage people to mobilize them to defend their homeland.

And it was always like this when we faced some difficulties and problems, even in atheistic times, after all, the Russian people could not do without these moral foundations.”

So, June 22, 1941 - "Day of Remembrance and Sorrow" - what else do we know about this day - briefly:

The name "Great Patriotic War" was born by analogy with the Patriotic War of 1812.

Directive No. 21 "Option Barbarossa" - this is how the plan of attack on the USSR is officially called, was adopted and signed by Hitler on December 18, 1940. According to the plan, Germany was to "defeat Soviet Russia in one short campaign." Therefore, on the very first day of the war, more than 5 million German soldiers were “thrown off the chain” on the USSR. According to the plan, the main cities of the USSR - Moscow and Leningrad were to be massively attacked on the 40th day of the war.

The armies of Germany's allies - Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia, Bulgaria - participated in the war against the Soviet Union.

Bulgaria did not declare war on the USSR and Bulgarian military personnel did not participate in the war against the USSR (although Bulgaria's participation in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia and military operations against Greek and Yugoslav partisans freed up German divisions to be sent to the Eastern Front). In addition, Bulgaria placed at the disposal of the German military command all the main airfields and ports of Varna and Burgas (which the Germans used to supply troops on 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 natives were also used. North Caucasus and Transcaucasia - Bergmann Battalion, Georgian Legion, Azerbaijani Legion, 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.

Autumn 1941 fighting on the side of Germany, the so-called Blue Division of Spanish volunteers also began.

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 security of the country, 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 who died in civil war close to the desire to hide (among the former Republicans - they, as a rule, 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 tank group armies "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 soviet man I remember 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 native land and guard 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.

I see all the ten thousand Russian villages where livelihoods were so laboriously wrested from the ground, but there also exist primordial human joys, girls laugh and children play, and all this is attacked in a disgusting, frenzied Nazi attack. war machine with their clicking heels, rattling weapons, immaculately dressed Prussian officers, with her skilful secret agents who have just subdued and tied hand and foot a dozen countries.

5. "My mind returns through the years ago,

in the days when the Russian troops were our ally against the same mortal enemy, when they fought with great courage and firmness and helped to win a victory, the fruits of which, alas, they were not allowed to use, although through no fault of ours ...

We have only one single goal and one unchanging task. We are determined to destroy Hitler and all traces of the Nazi regime. Nothing can turn us away from this. Nothing. We will never negotiate, we will never discuss terms with Hitler or any of his gang. We will fight him on land, we will fight him at sea, we will fight him in the air until, with God's help, we rid the earth of his shadow and free the nations from his yoke.

Any person or state fighting against Nazism will receive our help. Any person or state marching with Hitler is our enemy.

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

We have already offered the Government of Soviet Russia any technical or economic assistance which we are in a position to give and which may be useful to it. We will bomb Germany day and night, on an increasing scale, dropping ever heavier bombs on them from month to month, so that the German people themselves taste every month an ever sharper portion of the misfortunes that they brought down on humanity.

6. “I cannot speak of the actions of the United States on their behalf,

but I will say this: if Hitler imagined that his attack on Soviet Russia would cause even the slightest divergence in the goals or weaken the efforts of our great democracies determined to destroy him, then he is sadly mistaken ... Now is not the time to moralize over the mistakes of countries and governments that allowed to topple themselves one by one, while by united efforts they could easily save themselves and the whole world from this catastrophe ... "

7. “Hitler's motive is much deeper.

He wants to destroy the power of Russia, because he hopes, if he succeeds, to turn back the main forces of his army and air fleet from the East to our island, because he knows that he will either have to conquer it or pay for his crimes.

The attack on Russia is nothing more than a prelude to an attempt to conquer the British Isles. No doubt he hopes that all this can be completed before the winter comes, and that he can overwhelm Great Britain before the United States Navy and Air Force can intervene.

He hopes that he will be able to repeat again, on an even larger scale than ever before, the very process of destroying his opponents one by one, which has allowed him to flourish and prosper for so long, and that in the end the stage will be cleared for the last act, without which all his conquests will be in vain - namely, the subjugation of the entire Western Hemisphere to his will and his system.

Therefore, the danger that threatens Russia is a threat to us and a threat to the United States, and in the same way, the cause of every Russian who fights for his home and hearth is the cause of all free people and peoples in all parts of the globe.

June 22 is a special day for Russia and all the peoples of the former USSR. The beginning of the Great Patriotic War - 1417 days of the most terrible war in the history of mankind.

This day reminds us of all those who died in battle, were tortured in fascist captivity, died in the rear from hunger and deprivation. We mourn for all those who, at the cost of their lives, fulfilled their holy duty, defending our Fatherland in those harsh years.

The attack on the Soviet Union took place without a declaration of war in the morning hours of June 22, 1941. Despite the long preparations for war, the attack turned out to be completely unexpected for the USSR, since the German leadership did not even have a pretext for an attack.

The military events of the first weeks inspired full hope for the success of the next "blitzkrieg". Armored formations advanced quickly and occupied vast expanses of the country. AT major battles and surrounded Soviet army suffered millions of casualties in killed and captured. A large number of military equipment was destroyed or captured as trophies. Again, it seemed that the doubts and feelings of fear that had spread in Germany, despite careful ideological preparation, were disproved by the successes of the Wehrmacht. The Church Board of Trustees of the German Evangelical Church expressed the feelings that gripped many, assuring Hitler by telegraph that "he is supported by all the evangelical Christianity of the Reich in the decisive battles with the mortal enemy of order and Western Christian culture."

The successes of the Wehrmacht evoked various reactions from the Soviet side. There were manifestations of panic and confusion, the soldiers left their military units. And even Stalin first addressed the population only on July 3. In areas captured or annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939/40. part of the population welcomed the Germans as liberators. Nevertheless, from the first day of the war, Soviet troops offered unexpectedly strong resistance even in the most hopeless situations. And the civilian population actively participated in the evacuation and movement of militarily important industrial facilities beyond the Urals.

Persistent Soviet resistance and the heavy losses of the German Wehrmacht (until December 1, 1941, about 200,000 killed and missing, almost 500,000 wounded) soon disproved the German hopes for an easy and quick victory. Autumn mud, snow and a terrible cold in winter interfered with the military operations of the Wehrmacht. The German army was not prepared for the war in winter conditions, it was believed that by this time victory would have been achieved. An attempt to capture Moscow as the political center of the Soviet Union failed, although German troops approached the city at a distance of 30 kilometers. In early December, the Soviet Army unexpectedly launched a counteroffensive, which was successful not only near Moscow, but also in other sectors of the front. Thus, the concept of blitzkrieg was finally wrecked.

In the summer of 1942, new forces were accumulated to advance in a southerly direction. Although the German troops managed to capture large territories and advance as far as the Caucasus, they could not fortify anywhere. The oil fields were in Soviet hands, and Stalingrad became a foothold on the western bank of the Volga. In November 1942, the line of the German fronts in the territory of the Soviet Union reached its greatest extent, but there could be no question of a decisive success.

Chronicle of the war from June 1941 to November 1942

22.6.41. The beginning of the German attack, the advancement of three army groups. Romania, Italy, Slovakia, Finland and Hungary entered the war on the side of Germany.

29/30.6.41 The Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks (b) declares war a "patriotic" war of all the people; formation of the State Defense Committee.

July August. The German offensive along the entire front, the destruction of large Soviet formations in the environment (Bialystok and Minsk: 328,000 prisoners, Smolensk: 310,000 prisoners).

September. Leningrad is cut off from the rest of the country. Over 600,000 captured east of Kyiv Soviet soldiers that are in the environment. The general offensive of the German troops, which are suffering heavy losses, is slowed down due to the constant resistance of the Soviet Army.

2.10.41. The beginning of the offensive on Moscow, some sections of the front line at the end of November were 30 km from Moscow.

5.12.41. The beginning of the Soviet counter-offensive with fresh forces near Moscow, the German retreat. After the intervention of Hitler, the stabilization of the defensive positions of Army Group Center in January 1942 at the cost of heavy losses. Soviet success in the south.

12/11/41. Germany declares war on the USA.

In 1941, the Soviet Army lost 1.5 - 2.5 million soldiers killed and about 3 million prisoners. The number of civilian deaths is not precisely established, but it is estimated in the millions. Losses of the German army - about 200,000 people killed and missing.

January - March 1942 A wide winter offensive of the Soviet Army, partly successful, but not reaching its goals due to heavy losses. The losses of the German army in manpower and equipment were also so great that the continuation of the offensive on a broad front turned out to be impossible at the moment.

May. Failure Soviet offensive near Kharkov; during the counteroffensive, 250,000 Soviet soldiers were surrounded and taken prisoner.

June July. The capture of the fortress of Sevastopol and thus the entire Crimea. The beginning of the German summer offensive, with the aim of reaching the Volga and capturing oil fields in the Caucasus. The Soviet side, in view of the new victories of Germany, is in a state of crisis.

August. German troops reach the Caucasus Mountains, but fail to inflict a decisive defeat on the Soviet troops.

September. The beginning of the battles for Stalingrad, which in October was almost completely captured by the Germans. Nevertheless, the Soviet bridgehead on the western bank of the Volga under the command of General Chuikov could not be destroyed.

9.11.42. Beginning of the Soviet counter-offensive at Stalingrad.

50 The Soviet population listens in the street to the government message about the beginning of the war, 22.6.1941.

Text 33
From a speech on the radio by People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov on 22 June 1941

Citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union! The Soviet government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have instructed me to make the following statement:

Today, at 4 o'clock in the morning, without declaring any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities - Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, moreover, more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Enemy aircraft raids and artillery shelling were also carried out from the Romanian and Finnish territories. This unheard-of attack on our country is treachery unparalleled in the history of civilized peoples. The attack on our country was carried out despite the fact that a non-aggression pact was concluded between the USSR and Germany, and the Soviet government fulfilled all the conditions of this pact in all good faith. The attack on our country was carried out despite the fact that during the entire period of the validity of this treaty the German government could never make a single claim against the USSR regarding the fulfillment of the treaty. All responsibility for this robbery attack on the Soviet Union will fall entirely on the German fascist rulers. [...]

This war was imposed on us not by the German people, not by the German workers, peasants and intelligentsia, whose sufferings we understand very 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 had to deal with an attacking, conceited 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 own 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 once again wage a victorious patriotic war for the Motherland, for honor, for freedom.

Text 34
An excerpt from the diary of Elena Scriabina dated 22.6.1941 about the news of the German attack.

Molotov's speech sounded haltingly, hurriedly, as if he were out of breath. His encouragement sounded completely out of place. Immediately there was a feeling that a monster was approaching menacingly, slowly and terrified everyone. After the news, I ran out into the street. The city was in a panic. People hurriedly exchanged a few words, rushed to the shops and bought everything that came to hand. As if beside themselves, they rushed about the streets, many went to the savings banks to collect their savings. This wave swept over me too, and I tried to get rubles from my passbook. But I came too late, the cashier was empty, the payment was suspended, everyone around was noisy, complaining. And the June day was blazing, the heat was unbearable, someone felt ill, someone cursed in despair. All day the mood was restless and tense. Only in the evening it became strangely quiet. It seemed that everyone was somewhere huddled with horror.

Text 35
Excerpts from the diary of NKVD major Shabalin from 6 to 19 October 1941

Major Shabalin died on 20.10. when trying to get out of the environment. The diary was transferred to the German army for military analysis. Back translation from German; the original is lost.

Diary
Major NKVD Shabalin,
head of the special department of the NKVD
at 50 army

for the accuracy of transmission
Chief of Staff of the 2nd Tank Army
Signed Frh.f. Liebenstein
[...]

The army is not what we used to think and imagine at home. Huge lack of everything. The attacks of our armies are disappointing.

We are interrogating a red-haired German prisoner, a shabby guy, covered in shrouds, extremely stupid. [...]

The situation with the personnel is very difficult, almost the entire army consists of people whose native places have been captured by the Germans. They want to go home. Inactivity at the front, sitting in the trenches demoralize the Red Army. There are cases of drunkenness of command and political personnel. People sometimes do not return from reconnaissance. [...]

The enemy has encircled us. Continuous cannonade. Duel of artillerymen, mortarmen and submachine gunners. Danger and fear almost the whole day. I'm not talking anymore about the forest, the swamp and the lodging for the night. Since the 12th I have not slept any more, since October 8th I have not read a single newspaper.

Creepy! I wander, around the corpses, the horrors of war, continuous shelling! Again hungry and without sleep. He took a bottle of alcohol. Went to the forest to explore. Our complete annihilation is evident. The army is defeated, the convoy is destroyed. I am writing in the woods by the fire. In the morning I lost all the Chekists, I was left alone among strangers. The army collapsed.

I spent the night in the forest. I haven't eaten bread for three days. There are a lot of Red Army soldiers in the forest; there are no commanders. Throughout the night and in the morning the Germans shelled the forest with weapons of all kinds. At about 7 o'clock in the morning we got up and went north. Shooting continues. At the halt, I washed up. [...]

All night we walked in the rain through the swampy terrain. Endless darkness. I was soaked to the skin, my right leg was swollen; terribly hard to walk.

Text 36
Field mail letter from non-commissioned officer Robert Rupp to his wife dated July 1, 1941 about the attitude towards Soviet prisoners of war.

They say that the Fuhrer's order was issued that prisoners and those who surrender are no longer subject to execution. It makes me happy. Finally! Many of the executed, whom I saw on the ground, were lying with their hands raised up, without weapons and even without a belt. I have seen at least a hundred of them. They say that even a truce envoy walking with a white flag was shot dead! After dinner, they said that the Russians were surrendering in whole companies. The method was bad. Even the wounded were shot.

Text 37
Diary entry of the former ambassador Ulrich von Hassell dated 18.8.1941 regarding the war crimes of the Wehrmacht.

Ulrich von Hassell took an active part in the anti-Hitler Resistance of conservative circles and was executed after the assassination attempt on Hitler on July 20, 1944.

18. 8. 41 [...]

The whole war in the east is terrible, the general savagery. One young officer received an order to destroy 350 civilians driven into a large barn, among whom were women and children, at first refused to do this, but he was told that this was a failure to comply with the order, after which he asked for 10 minutes to think and finally did it , sending together with some other machine-gun bursts in open door shed into a crowd of people, and then, finishing off the still alive from machine guns. He was so shocked by this that later, having received a slight wound, he firmly decided not to return to the front.

Text 38
Excerpts from the order of the commander of the 17th Army, Colonel General Hoth, dated 11/17/1941, regarding the basic principles of warfare.

Command
17th Army A.Gef.St.,
1a No. 0973/41 secret. dated 17.11.41
[...]

2. The campaign to the East must end differently than, for example, the war against the French. This summer it becomes more and more clear to us that here, in the East, two internally irresistible views are fighting against each other: the German sense of honor and race, the centuries-old German army against the Asiatic type of thinking and primitive instincts, fueled by a small number of mostly Jewish intellectuals: fear of whip, disregard for moral values, equalization of the lower, neglect of one's life of no value.

51 German Junkere Ju-87 (Shtukas) dive bombers take off from a field airfield in the Soviet Union, 1941.

52 German infantry on the march, 1941

53 Soviet prisoners dig their own grave, 1941.

54 Soviet prisoners before execution, 1941. Both photographs (53 and 54) were in the wallet of a German soldier who died near Moscow. The place and circumstances of the execution are unknown.

More strongly than ever, we believe in a historical turning point, when the German people, by virtue of the superiority of their race and their successes, will assume control of Europe. We are more clearly aware of our calling to save European culture from Asiatic barbarism. Now we know that we have to fight an embittered and stubborn enemy. This struggle can only end in the annihilation of one side or the other; there can be no agreement. [...]

6. I demand that every soldier of the army should be imbued with pride in our successes, with a sense of unconditional superiority. We are the masters of this country which we have conquered. Our feeling of dominance is expressed not in satiety, not in contemptuous behavior, and not even in selfish abuse of power by individuals, but in a conscious opposition to Bolshevism, in strict discipline, inflexible determination and tireless vigilance.

8. There should be absolutely no place for sympathy and gentleness towards the population. The Red soldiers brutally killed our wounded; they dealt cruelly with the prisoners and killed them. We must remember this if the population, which once endured the Bolshevik yoke, now wants to receive us with joy and worship. The Volksdeutsche should be treated with a sense of self-awareness and with calm restraint. The fight against impending food difficulties should be left to the self-government of the enemy population. Any trace of active or passive resistance, or any machinations of Bolshevik-Jewish instigators, must be eradicated immediately. The need for harsh measures against elements hostile to the people and our policy must be understood by the soldiers. [...]

Behind everyday life, we should not lose sight of the worldwide significance of our struggle against Soviet Russia. The Russian masses have been paralyzing Europe for two centuries now. The need to take Russia into account and the fear of her possible attack constantly dominated political relations in Europe and hampered peaceful development. Russia is not a European, but an Asian state. Each step into the depths of this dull, enslaved country allows you to see this difference. From this pressure and from the destructive forces of Bolshevism, Europe and especially Germany must be liberated forever.

For this we fight and work.

Commander Hoth (signed)
Send to the following units: regiments and separate battalions, including construction and service units, to the commander of the patrol service; distributor 1a; reserve = 10 copies.

Text 39
Report of the commander of the rear of the 2nd Panzer Army, General von Schenckendorff dated 24. 3. 1942 regarding looting.

Commander of the 2nd Panzer Army 24.3.42
Rel.: unauthorized requisition;
Appendix

1) The commander of the rear of the 2nd Panzer Army in a daily report dated 23.2.42: “Unauthorized requisition by German soldiers near Navlya is increasing. From Gremyachey (28 km southwest of Karachev), soldiers from the area of ​​Karachevo took away 76 cows without a certificate, from Plastovoye (32 km southwest of Karachev) - 69 cows. Not a single head of cattle remained in either place. In addition, the Russian law enforcement service was disarmed in Plastovoi; the next day the settlement was occupied by partisans. In the area of ​​Sinezerko (25 km south of Bryansk), the soldiers of the platoon commander, Fellow Sebastian (code 2), wildly requisitioned cattle, and in a neighboring village they shot at the village headman and his assistants. [...]

Increasingly, these cases are being reported. In this regard, I especially point out the issued orders on the conduct of troops and their supply in the country in accordance with the order. They are once again reflected in the application.

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

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

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

Then no one knew that it would go down in the history of mankind as the most bloody. No one guessed that the Soviet people would have to go through inhuman trials, go through and win. Rid the world of fascism, showing everyone that the spirit of a Red Army soldier cannot be broken by the invaders. No one could have imagined that the names of the hero cities would become known to the whole world, that Stalingrad would become a symbol of the resilience of our people, Leningrad a symbol of courage, Brest a symbol of courage. That, on a par with male warriors, old men, women and children will heroically defend the earth from the fascist plague.

1418 days and nights of war.

Over 26 million human lives...

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

On the eve of the war

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

German air raid

The first to take the blow were the border guards and the fighters of the cover units. They not only defended, but also went on the counterattack. For a whole month, the garrison of the Brest Fortress fought in the rear of the Germans. Even after the enemy managed to capture the fortress, some of its defenders continued to resist. The last of them was captured by the Germans in the summer of 1942.

The picture was taken on June 24, 1941.

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

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

1941 poster

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

The mobilization capabilities of the Soviet system, multiplied by the patriotism and sacrifice of the people during the Great Patriotic War, played an important role in organizing a rebuff to the enemy, especially on initial stage war. The call "Everything for the front, everything for victory!" was accepted by all the people. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens voluntarily went into the army. In just a week since the beginning of the war, more than 5 million people were mobilized.

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

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

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

The stubborn resistance of the Red Army in the summer of 1941 frustrated Hitler's plans. The Nazis failed to quickly take either Moscow or Leningrad, and in September the long defense of Leningrad began. In the Arctic, Soviet troops, in cooperation with Northern Fleet defended Murmansk and the main base of the fleet - Polyarny. Although in Ukraine in October-November the enemy captured the Donbass, captured Rostov, broke through into the Crimea, yet here too his troops were fettered by the defense of Sevastopol. The formations of the Army Group "South" could not reach the rear of the Soviet troops remaining in the lower reaches of the Don through the Kerch Strait.

Minsk 1941. Execution of Soviet prisoners of war

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

On guard of the Moscow sky. Autumn 1941

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

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

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

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

Hundreds of thousands of our compatriots found themselves in more than 14 thousand concentration camps, prisons, ghettos scattered throughout Europe. Dispassionate figures testify to the scale of the tragedy: only on the territory of Russia, the fascist invaders shot, choked in gas chambers, burned, and hanged 1.7 million. people (including 600 thousand children). In total, about 5 million Soviet citizens died in concentration camps.

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

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

By November 1942, almost 40% of the population was under German occupation. The regions captured by the Germans were subject to military and civil administration. In Germany, even a special ministry for the affairs of the occupied regions was created, headed by A. Rosenberg. Political supervision was in charge of the SS and police services. On the ground, the occupiers formed the so-called self-government - city and district councils, in the villages the posts of elders were introduced. Persons dissatisfied with the Soviet government were involved in cooperation. All residents of the occupied territories, regardless of age, were required to work. In addition to participating in the construction of roads and defensive structures, they were forced to clear minefields. The civilian population, mostly young people, was also sent to forced labor in Germany, where they were called "Ostarbeiter" and used as cheap labor. In total, 6 million people were hijacked during the war years. From hunger and epidemics in the occupied territory, more than 6.5 million people were destroyed, more than 11 million Soviet citizens were shot in camps and at their places of residence.

November 19, 1942 Soviet troops moved into counteroffensive at Stalingrad (Operation Uranus). The forces of the Red Army surrounded 22 divisions and 160 separate units of the Wehrmacht (about 330 thousand people). The Nazi command formed the Don Army Group, consisting of 30 divisions, and tried to break through the encirclement. However, this attempt was not successful. In December, our troops, having defeated this grouping, launched an offensive against Rostov (Operation Saturn). By the beginning of February 1943, our troops liquidated the grouping of fascist troops caught in the ring. 91 thousand people were taken prisoner, led by the commander of the 6th German Army, Field Marshal von Paulus. Behind 6.5 months Battle of Stalingrad(July 17, 1942 – February 2, 1943) Germany and its allies lost up to 1.5 million people, as well as a huge amount of equipment. military power Nazi Germany was significantly undermined.

The defeat at Stalingrad caused a deep political crisis in Germany. It was declared three days of mourning. The morale of the German soldiers fell, defeatist sentiments swept over the general population, which less and less believed the Fuhrer.

The victory of the Soviet troops near Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical turning point in the course of World War II. The strategic initiative finally passed into the hands of the Soviet Armed Forces.

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

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

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

were released in September Left-bank Ukraine and Donbass. November 6 connections 1st Ukrainian front entered Kyiv.

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

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

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

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

Under these favorable conditions, the Western Allies, after two years of preparation, opened a second front in Europe in northern France. June 6, 1944 the combined Anglo-American forces (General D. Eisenhower), numbering over 2.8 million people, up to 11 thousand combat aircraft, over 12 thousand combat and 41 thousand transport ships, having crossed the English Channel and the Pas de Calais, started the biggest war in years landing Norman operation ("Overlord") and entered Paris in August.

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

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

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

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

While the block of fascist states was falling apart, the anti-Hitler coalition was growing stronger, as evidenced by the success of the Crimean (Yalta) conference of the leaders of the USSR, the United States and Great Britain (from February 4 to 11, 1945).

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

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

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

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

May 9, 1945 at 0043 In the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed. On behalf of the Soviet side, this historical document was signed by the hero of the war, Marshal G.K. Zhukov, from Germany - Field Marshal Keitel. On the same day, the remnants of the last large enemy grouping on the territory of Czechoslovakia in the Prague region were defeated. City Liberation Day - May 9 - became the Day of Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The news of the Victory spread like lightning all over the world. The Soviet people, who suffered the greatest losses, greeted her with popular rejoicing. Truly, it was a great holiday "with tears in the eyes."

In Moscow, on Victory Day, a festive salute was fired from a thousand guns.

Great Patriotic War 1941-1945

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union. At 3:30 am, when the fascist German troops received the prearranged signal "Dortmund", an artillery strike was suddenly launched at the Soviet border outposts and fortifications, and a few minutes later the enemy hordes invaded the USSR. Large German aviation forces unleashed thousands of tons of deadly cargo on Soviet airfields, bridges, warehouses, railways, naval bases, communication lines and centers, on sleeping cities. A giant fiery tornado raged in the border regions of the country. For the Soviet people, the cruel and incredibly difficult Great Patriotic War began.

At 12 noon, Molotov made an official address to the citizens of the USSR on the radio, announcing the German attack on the USSR and announcing the start of a Patriotic War. I think everyone has heard and knows the text of this appeal to the Soviet people:

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, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities - Zhytomyr, Kyiv, Sevastopol, Kaunas from their aircraft. 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.

This unheard-of attack on our country is treachery unparalleled in the history of civilized peoples. The attack on our country was carried out despite the fact that a non-aggression pact was concluded between the USSR and Germany, and the Soviet government fulfilled all the conditions of this pact in all good faith. The attack on our country was carried out despite the fact that during the entire period of the validity of this treaty the German government could never make a single claim against the USSR regarding the fulfillment of the treaty. The entire responsibility for this predatory attack on the Soviet Union falls entirely on the German fascist rulers.

"Today, at 4 o'clock in the morning ..." - this particular hour is considered the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. However, the Great Patriotic War began 47 minutes earlier, and not in Brest or on the Prut River, but in Sevastopol.

The war began for Sevastopol at 03:13 on June 22, 1941 with a German air raid. The first bombs flew on the city, mines were dropped into the water area of ​​the bay.

The first mine fell directly into the waters of the Sevastopol Bay - in order to prevent the ships of the Black Sea Fleet from entering the sea. She fell almost at the very place where in the Crimean War, during the defense of Sevastopol, old wooden ships were flooded in order to prevent the Anglo-French squadron from entering the bay. There is also a monument, which is called just that - "Monument to the Scuttled Ships" (it is he in the picture). It was here that the Great Patriotic War began.

The second mine was also thrown for this purpose, but did not hit the water area, but fell on the street. Podgornaya and brought the first victims (about 20 people were killed and wounded). These were the first victims of the Great Patriotic War.

Mines descended on parachutes and exploded when they fell to the ground, several of them fell into the sea. Military experts have suggested that the enemy is dropping conventional anchor mines. On the evening of June 22, as a result of an underwater explosion, the SP-12 tugboat was killed, two days later - a 25-ton floating crane, then the destroyer Bystry. It turned out that the German troops used the new kind weapons - non-contact bottom magnetic mines, which exploded under the influence of the mass of ships passing over them. By laying electromagnetic mines in the fairways, the German command hoped to clog the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, and then destroy the ships with bomber strikes.

However, as a result of the successful work of the air defense forces, the Germans did not complete the task of blocking the Sevastopol bays with mines in order to destroy the fleet with bomber aircraft in the future. For a long time, enemy planes tried to mine the bay, the main fairway.

A means of combating non-contact mines was found by boatmen of the Division for the Protection of the Water Area. At high speed, the boats passed over the places where the fall of mines was noted, and dropped depth charges, from the explosion of which the mines detonated and exploded. But this method was not absolutely reliable and fraught with huge risks.

In order to quickly solve a complex problem, the headquarters of the Black Sea Fleet created a group of military engineers in early July. They got a lot of help researchers Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology E.E. Lysenko, Yu.S. Lazurkin, A.R. Regel, P.G. Stepanov and laboratory assistant K.K. Shcherbo. Soon the first electromagnetic trawl was created.

On August 9, 1941, physicists, later academicians, A.P. Aleksandrov and I.V. Kurchatov arrived in Sevastopol. The days of intense work came (after the departure of A.P. Aleksandrov, the leadership was carried out by Igor Vasilyevich Kurchatov). In a small house on the shore of Holland Bay, I.V. Kurchatov and his group managed to develop a demagnetization system in a uniquely short time. Scientists, together with specialists from the Black Sea Fleet, having carefully and comprehensively studied the fundamental foundations of the new weapon, theoretically substantiated the method of mine protection of ships by demagnetizing them. Based on their research, the special anti-mine treatment of warships before they went to sea gave positive results. Surface and submarine ships of the fleet processed in this way were not afraid of enemy magnetic mines.

Participants in the work on degaussing ships. In the first row - A.R. Regel, Yu.S. Lazurkin, V.D. Panchenko. In the second row - P.G. Stepanov, D.M. Gitelmacher. In the third - I.V. Kurchatov. 1941

Undermining an underwater mine produced by a special trawl developed by the group of I.V. Kurchatov.

The physical principle, in general, is quite simple - the mine sensor reacts to the ship's magnetic field, just like a compass needle. The idea underlying the work on protecting ships from non-contact mines was to demagnetize the ships. It was assumed that this could be done by compensating the magnetic field of the ship using special windings fixed on it, through which a direct current was passed. In this case, the magnetic field of the ship can be compensated magnetic field current to such an extent that the passage of the ship over the mine will not trigger the fuse, which has limited sensitivity.

The first work on degaussing ships was carried out even before the war, but in Sevastopol they worked with larger mines of a new design. By a decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of April 10, 1942, A.P. Aleksandrov, I.V. Kurchatov and six other participants in the work were awarded the Stalin Prize of the first degree for the creation of effective methods for demagnetizing ships and their practical implementation. October 4, 1944 I.V. Kurchatov was awarded the order Red Banner of Labor for solving the same problem. The command of the Black Sea Fleet presented Kurchatov for the medal "For the Defense of Sevastopol". So we can say that the demagnetization of ships in order to protect them from mines also began to develop actively after this work by Alexandrov and Kurchatov in 1941 in Sevastopol.

On land, the enemy came out to Sevastopol only in October 41. Already in mid-September, German and Romanian troops began preparations for the invasion of the peninsula. Until mid-October, our troops managed to keep the enemy on the outskirts of the Crimea. However, on October 22, the Germans reached the last, Ishun line of defense of the Crimean isthmuses and, having captured them, on October 28 broke through to the steppe expanses of the peninsula, developing an offensive in the direction of Sevastopol and Kerch.

On October 29, 1941, a state of siege was introduced in Sevastopol. On October 30, 1941, the second heroic defense of Sevastopol began, which lasted 250 days - until July 4, 1942. From the first battles to last days defense defenders of the city showed dedication, unparalleled stamina and heroism. On November 4, the Sevastopol Defensive Region (SOR) was created to unite all the forces of the Main Base of the Black Sea Fleet. General management of the Main Base of the Black Sea Fleet and its defense was carried out by the Military Council of the Black Sea Fleet. As in the first defense of Sevastopol, Soviet sailors commanded the defense - the successors of Nakhimov, Kornilov, Istomin.

A. A. Deineka, "Defense of Sevastopol" (1942)

The city withstood two assaults (the first was an attempt by German troops to capture the city on the move during October 30 - November 21, 1941, the second - December 17-30). The last, summer assault began on June 7th. For the last, June, assault, both sides were preparing with all their strength: the Sevastopol residents - with the courage of despair, the Germans - with unprecedented frenzy. Their grouping was strengthened to 200 thousand people. The latest weapons were brought near Sevastopol, including the largest cannon of the Second World War "Dora", which was served by a whole division led by a general. One shell weighed 7 tons - it was visible in flight. But only 3 weeks later, from June 30, street fighting began. On the same day, an order was received from the Stavka to leave Sevastopol. However, organized resistance ended on 3 July. Separate centers resisted until June 12. The last defenders of Sevastopol fought on the Kherson Peninsula, on the legendary 35th battery (now there is a unique museum complex dedicated to the heroic defenders of Sevastopol - I recommend visiting everyone, you will not see this anywhere else).

If the defense of Sevastopol lasted 250 days, then the liberation took only a week. On May 5, as a result of a powerful offensive, German fortifications near the Mekenziev Mountains were broken through, and on May 7, Sapun Mountain was taken by storm. After 58 hours, by the end of the day on May 9, 1944, the city was liberated. Sevastopol. May 8, 1965 Sevastopol was awarded the title of Hero City (among the first 7: Leningrad, Odessa, Stalingrad, Kyiv, Brest Fortress and Moscow).

Memorial wall in honor of the heroic defense of Sevastopol and the Alley of Hero Cities Sevastopol (Republic of Crimea) (my photo). Two bayonets reflected by a soldier symbolize two reflected assaults.

Today, June 22, 2015 at 03:13 at the Memorial of the Heroic Defense of Sevastopol in 1941-1942, the All-Russian action "Candle of Memory" will take place.

On June 22, 1941, the German army invaded the territory of the USSR, and the Great Patriotic War began, in which about 27 million Soviet citizens died. This is a tragic date - sacred for each of us, today, on the Day of Memory and Sorrow, we remember and honor the feat of those who died in the Great Patriotic War.

The longest day of the year
With its cloudless weather
He gave us a common misfortune
For all, for all four years.
She so pressed the trace of the tour of the Reichstag

On December 18, 1940, Hitler in Directive No. 21 approved the final plan for the war against the USSR under the code name "Barbarossa". To implement it, Germany and its allies in Europe - Finland, Romania and Hungary - created an invasion army unprecedented in history: 182 divisions and 20 brigades (up to 5 million people), 47.2 thousand guns and mortars, about 4.4 thousand combat aircraft, 4.4 thousand tanks and assault guns, and 250 ships. In the grouping of Soviet troops that opposed the aggressors, there were 186 divisions (3 million people), about 39.4 guns and mortars, 11 thousand tanks and more than 9.1 thousand aircraft. These forces were not brought to combat readiness in advance. Directive General Staff The Red Army about a possible attack by Germany on June 22-23 entered the western border districts only on the night of June 22, and already at dawn on June 22, the invasion began. After a long artillery preparation, at 4.00 in the morning, German troops, treacherously violating the non-aggression pact concluded with the USSR, attacked the Soviet-German border along its entire length from the Barents to the Black Seas. Soviet troops were taken by surprise. The organization of powerful counterattacks against the enemy was hampered by the fact that they were relatively evenly distributed along the entire front along the entire border and dispersed over great depth. With such a formation, it was difficult to resist the enemy.

On June 22, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov. In particular, he said: “This unheard-of attack on our country is an unparalleled treachery in the history of civilized peoples. The attack on our country was carried out despite the fact that a non-aggression pact was concluded between the USSR and Germany.

On June 23, 1941, the highest body of strategic leadership of the armed forces, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, was created in Moscow. All power in the country was concentrated in the hands of the State Defense Committee (GKO), formed on June 30. He was appointed Chairman of the State Defense Committee and Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The country began to implement a program of emergency measures under the motto: “Everything for the front! Everything for the victory! The Red Army, however, continued to retreat. By mid-July 1941, German troops advanced inland Soviet territory 300-600 km, capturing Lithuania, Latvia, almost all of Belarus, a significant part of Estonia, Ukraine and Moldova, created a threat to Leningrad, Smolensk and Kyiv. Mortal danger hung over the USSR.

OPERATIONAL REPORT No. 1 OF THE CHIEF OF THE GENERAL STAFF OF THE RKKA ARMY GENERAL G.K. Zhukov. 10.00, June 22, 1941

At 04:00 on June 22, 1941, the Germans, without any reason, raided our airfields and cities and crossed the border with ground troops ...

1. Northern front: the enemy, with a flight of bomber-type aircraft, violated the border and went into district of Leningrad and Kronstadt...

2. Northwestern front. The enemy at 0400 opened artillery fire and at the same time began to bomb airfields and cities: Vindava, Libava, Kovno, Vilna and Shulyai ...

Z. Western Front. At 4.20, up to 60 enemy aircraft bombarded Grodno and Brest. At the same time, the enemy opened artillery fire on the entire border of the Western Front .... With ground forces, the enemy is developing a strike from the Suwalki area in the direction of Golynk, Dombrova and from the Stokolow area along the railway to Volkovysk. The advancing enemy forces are being specified. …

4. Southwestern Front. At 4.20 the enemy began shelling our borders with machine-gun fire. From 04.30 enemy planes have been bombarding the cities of Lyuboml, Kovel, Lutsk, Vladimir-Volynsky ... At 04.35, after artillery fire in the area of ​​\u200b\u200bVladimir-Volynsky, Lyuboml, enemy ground forces crossed the border, developing an attack in the direction of Vladimir-Volynsky, Lyuboml and Krystynopol ...

The front commanders have put into effect a cover plan and, by active actions of mobile troops, they are striving to destroy the enemy unit that has crossed the border ...

The enemy, having preempted our troops in deployment, forced the Red Army units to take up battle in the process of taking up their starting position according to the cover plan. Using this advantage, the enemy managed to achieve partial success in certain areas.

Signature: Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army G.K. Zhukov

The Great Patriotic War - day after day: based on declassified operational reports of the General Staff of the Red Army. M., 2008 .

RADIO SPEECH BY THE DEPUTY CHAIRMAN OF THE USSR COUNCIL OF PEOPLE'S COMMISSARS AND PEOPLE'S COMMISSAR FOR FOREIGN AFFAIRS OF THE USSR V.M. MOLOTOV June 22, 1941

Citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union!

The Soviet government and its head, Comrade Stalin, have 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, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities - Zhitomir, Kyiv, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, moreover, more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Enemy aircraft raids and artillery shelling were also carried out from the Romanian and Finnish territories.

This unheard-of attack on our country is treachery unparalleled in the history of civilized peoples. The attack on our country was carried out despite the fact that a non-aggression pact was concluded between the USSR and Germany and the Soviet government fulfilled all the conditions of this pact in all good faith. The attack on our country was carried out despite the fact that during the entire period of the validity of this treaty, the German government could never make a single claim against the USSR regarding the implementation of the treaty. All responsibility for this predatory attack on the Soviet Union falls entirely on the German fascist rulers (...)

The government calls on you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally your 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.

Documents of foreign policy. T.24. M., 2000.

J. STALIN'S RADIO SPEECH, July 3, 1941

Comrades! Citizens!

Brothers and sisters!

Soldiers of our army and navy!

I turn to you, my friends!

The perfidious military attack of Nazi 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 parts of his aviation have already been defeated and found their grave on the battlefields, the enemy continues to push forward, throwing new forces to the front (...)

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 current German fascist army. This army has not yet encountered serious resistance on the European continent. Only on our territory did it meet serious resistance (...)

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 (...)

With the forced withdrawal of the 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 kilogram of bread or a liter of fuel (...) In areas occupied by the enemy, partisan detachments, horse and foot, create sabotage groups to fight against units 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, carts. In the occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every step, disrupt all their activities (...)

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 (...)

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 to our victory!

Stalin I. About the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. M., 1947.