USSR in World War II. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people.

The background to the outbreak of World War II is based on the long-term confrontation between the main capitalist countries of the West: England, France, Germany, Japan, the USA, etc. Treaty of Versailles, signed in 1919. after the end of the First World War, did not eliminate the basic contradictions between these states. The leaders of these countries retained the idea of ​​war as the main and natural means of achieving foreign policy goals. Germany, Italy and Japan dreamed of radically redistributing the world in their favor through war. The Soviet leadership, remembering its experience of carrying out the socialist revolution during the First World War, also believed that war could lead to socialism. Revolutions in other countries and thus creating a united socialist community against capitalism.

The defeat of Republican Spain, the policy of non-interference by England, France and the United States in the actions of Germany, where the fascists were in power, made the prospect of a world war more and more real.

1938 ᴦ. - The Munich Treaty, according to which England and France agree to seize the Sudetenland from Germany. Then the Anschluss in Austria, in March 1939. occupation of all of Czechoslovakia, presentation of territorial claims to Poland.

In August 1939 ᴦ. the arrival of a delegation from England and France in Moscow, but without special powers to sign a cooperation agreement against Germany, which decided to force events in its favor. On August 23, a non-aggression treaty was signed between the USSR and Germany with an additional secret protocol on the division of Poland and a number of other territories into spheres of interest of these states, which included the Baltic states, part of the territory of Finland, and Bessarabia. It seemed to Stalin that this pact would push back the danger of war with Germany and would enable us to better prepare for war.

Summer 1938 ᴦ. Japan provoked hostilities on the border with the Soviet Union at Lake Khasan, and in 1939 ᴦ. The Japanese invaded Mongolia and were defeated near the Khalikhin-Gol River. This helped that military operations in the Far East were postponed several years later.

September 1, 1939 ᴦ. Germany attacked Poland. France and Great Britain, bound by a treaty with Poland, declared war on Germany. Thus began the Second world war.

September 17, 1939 ᴦ. Red Army troops entered the former regions of Western Ukraine and Belarus, which were transferred to Poland after civil war. Many tens of thousands of Polish officers were captured. 15 thousand in the spring of 1940 ᴦ. were destroyed in the area of ​​Katyn (Smolensk region), Kharkov and Ostashkov.

On September 28 in Moscow, Molotov and Ribbentrop signed a new Soviet-German treaty on friendship and borders, which included a secret protocol according to which Poland was losing its statehood.

In September-October 1939 ᴦ. under these agreements, groups of Soviet troops were stationed in the Baltic states. In June 1940 ᴦ. pro-communist forces in these countries, with the support of our troops, carried out a coup and in August of the same year became part of the USSR as union republics. Repressions were carried out there just like in other republics of the USSR - dispossession, deportation, executions.

November 30, 1940 ᴦ. The USSR began a war with Finland over territory located near Leningrad - the Finnish Isthmus. The war lasted four months, showing the weakness of the Red Army's equipment and its unpreparedness for a long war. And yet, the soldiers were able to overcome the Finnish defensive line, the so-called Mannerheim Line, and on March 12, a peace treaty was signed between the USSR and Finland, according to which the border was moved several tens of kilometers to the west, which then made it possible to protect against a possible invasion. only Leningrad, but also Murmansk, the railway. At the same time, Finland defended its independence. USSR losses amounted to 290 thousand people, incl. killed - 72 thousand. The reason was the inability of the new commanders, appointed instead of the repressed, to fight, ignorance of the strategy and tactics of war in the harsh conditions of the North.

In December 1939 ᴦ. The USSR was expelled from the League of Nations, and the world saw it as an aggressor no better than Germany.

On September 27, 1940, the Tripartite Pact was concluded between Germany, Italy and Japan. In the same year, Belgium, the Netherlands, Denmark and significant territory of France were captured by Germany in the spring of 1941. Yugoslavia, Greece.

In June 1940 ᴦ. The USSR presented Romania with a demand for the transfer of Bessarabia to it, which was done and after 2 months the Moldavian SSR was created there. The country's leadership understood that a clash with Germany was inevitable and accelerated preparations for war - 43% of the state budget was spent on defense. The production of new products began: IL-2, MIG-3, YAK-1 aircraft; KV and T-34 tanks. The size of the army was increased to 5 million people. From all sides, information was received from our intelligence officers about the imminent German attack on the USSR, but Stalin viewed it as disinformation. For this reason, we can say that, for objective and subjective reasons, the USSR was not actually ready for war.

2.The Great Patriotic War: the course of events and the reasons for victory.

June 22, 1941 ᴦ. without declaring war, German troops crossed our border. Germany's war against the USSR was called the Great Patriotic War, and in the West - the Unknown War.

A number of publications that have appeared in the last decade claim that Stalin was preparing to be the first to attack Germany, that the war was preventive on Germany’s part, ᴛ.ᴇ. warning. Rezun (pseudonym Suvorov), who wrote the book “Icebreaker”, a former KGB officer, and a resident of our intelligence service in the West, especially insists on this point of view. At the same time, this aspect is not traced either in Canaris’s intelligence documents or in our documents. In January 1941. Hitler argued that “Stalin would not openly oppose Germany.” Around the same days, in a conversation with Mussolini, he said: “As long as Stalin is alive, there is no danger.”

The Great Patriotic War is traditionally divided into three periods: 1st period of failures and temporary retreat of the Red Army deep into the territory of the USSR (June 22, 1941 - January 1942; 2nd - the period of a radical turning point during the Second World War (spring 1942 - early 1944 gᴦ.); 3rd - the period of expulsion of fascist troops from the territory of the USSR and defeat in the enemy’s lair (January 1944 - May 1945 ᴦ.).

Hungary, Italy, Romania and Finland participated on the German side in the war against the USSR. At this time, the Soviet Union had no allies in Europe and in the world, except for the labor movement. Germany concentrated 5.5 million soldiers and officers, 3,500 tanks, 5,000 aircraft on our border. The North Army Group attacked the Baltic Republics and Leningrad, the Center Army Group attacked Belarus, Smolensk and Moscow, and the South Army Group attacked Kyiv, Odessa and the Donetsk Basin region.

According to documents of the USSR General Staff, our main forces were far from the border, the fortified areas of the old border were destroyed, and new ones had not yet been built. General Karbyshev was there, who was engaged in the construction of a fortified area of ​​the new border. In the very first days of the war, he was captured and tortured in the Mauthausen concentration camp. The Soviet troops did not form a continuous line of defense, and this allowed the Nazis to break in and advance 25-50 km deep into the country on the very first day. On the same day, we lost 1,200 aircraft, and in the first month of fighting, 725 million people. More than 200 thousand were captured and killed. In mid-September, due to the stubbornness of Stalin, who ordered to defend Kyiv at all costs, the army was surrounded near Kiev and 665 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured, and its commander M.P. Kirponos died in battle. September 19, 1941 ᴦ. Kyiv was abandoned, on September 8 Leningrad was encircled, and by November German troops captured the territory where 40% of the country’s population lived before the war.

At the same time, the country was undergoing a restructuring of its control system from the very beginning of the war: June 30, 1941 ᴦ. The State Defense Committee was created, on July 10 the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, on June 24 - the Evacuation Council, militia units began to be formed, partisan detachments, underground groups in cities captured by the Germans. These were all resistance groups whose actions drew the German troops towards themselves and did not allow the Germans to live in peace in the occupied areas.

In November 1941 ᴦ. the main attention was focused on the fight for Moscow. There were continuous battles for three weeks, the Germans came within 30 km of Moscow. December 5-6, 1941 ᴦ. formations of our troops began a counter-offensive and by the beginning of January 1942 ᴦ. the enemy was driven back 100-250 km from the capital. Thus the plan for a lightning war with the USSR was thwarted.

Hitler shifted his offensive to the south. The leadership of the Red Army suggested that Stalin go on a deep defense and wear down the enemy, but Stalin did not agree. This led to the fact that our troops were defeated in Crimea during the Kerch operation, the Second Shock Army was killed in the Volkhov direction, and our troops were surrounded near Kharkov. The Battle of Khaprkov was called in Western literature the “Kharkov Cauldron,” from which several military commanders escaped and incl. N.S. Khrushchev. Stalin wanted to shoot him for this, but Zhukov came to his defense and thereby saved Khrushchev from execution.

July 12, 1942 ᴦ. The Stalingrad Front was created because By this time, Rostov-on-Don had been captured by the Germans, which threatened the entire Caucasian region. July 28, 1942 ᴦ. Stalin signed order No. 227, called “Not a step back!”

In mid-August 1942. The Germans crossed the Don and by the end of August reached the Volga north of Stalingrad. In September they broke into the city. 80 German divisions fought there, the actions of our troops were led by talented commanders V.I. Chuikov, K.K. Rokossovsky, A.I. Eremenko and others.
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January 10, 1943 ᴦ. The Red Army began the liquidation of the German group in Stalingrad, which ended on February 2, 1943. Summer 1943 ᴦ. the main events unfolded on the Kursk Bulge. On July 12, the famous Prokhorovskoe took place tank battle, On August 5, Oryol and Belgorod were occupied by us, on August 23, Kharkov was liberated, and on November 6, Kyiv. In the fall of 1943 ᴦ. Bryansk, Gomel, Smolensk and other cities were liberated.

These victories of the Red Army had a great influence on Western countries, where the resistance movement against the Nazis developed in defense of the USSR and the demand to join the fight against Hitler’s army.

November 28 - December 1, 1943 ᴦ. A Tehran meeting took place between the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, where a decision was made to bring the war to a victorious end, on the principles of the post-war system, on the creation of the UN, and on the opening of a Second Front against Germany. However, it was opened only in June 1944, when it became clear that the Soviet Union was able to cope independently with fascism in Germany.

The 3rd period of the war is associated with the liquidation of the blockade of Leningrad at the end of January 1944, the liberation of Minsk on July 3, the Korsun-Shevchenko operation in February-March, the liberation of Crimea, the Baltic states, Poland, the Iasi-Kishinev operation, the Vistula-Oder and finally, the Berlin operation, the victory of which made it possible to end the war and led to the surrender of Germany. On May 8, an act of unconditional surrender was signed in the town of Karlshorst, by which time the operation to liberate Prague was completed, where individual units of Hitler’s troops were still resisting. On May 30, Hitler committed suicide and his troupe and his wife, Eva Braun, were burned by his comrades. But they still determined from the remains that it was him.

The decisions of the Yalta Conference (February 1945), and then the Potsdam Conference (July 1945), which were important for the establishment of post-war borders in Europe, the repatriation of citizens released from camps, etc., were very important for the world community.

The reasons for the victory of the Soviet people in this war is, first of all, that millions of people stood up to defend their Fatherland and, regardless of the difficulties of wartime, endured everything and won.

The significance of the victory is that during the war the international forces of fascism and reaction were destroyed. The war confirmed that the system of power created by Stalin or the model of a socialist society, despite everything, was viable and represented a coherent mechanism that was able to protect itself. This victory significantly raised the international authority of the Soviet Union, created the conditions for a large-scale experiment in Europe to create a world system of socialism, and contributed to the collapse of the colonial system and the national liberation movement in colonial and dependent countries.

USSR in World War II. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people. - concept and types. Classification and features of the category "USSR in World War II. Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people." 2017, 2018.

Content:

Introduction: The situation of the Soviet Union on the eve of the Great Patriotic War

The initial period of the war (June 1941 - November 1942). The main task of the army and the people is to survive!

2nd period of the war (November 1942 - end of 1943). The initiative passes to the side of the Red Army. German troops suffer major defeats on the territory of the Soviet Union.

The final period of the war (January 1944 - May 1945). Liberation of the USSR and the countries of Eastern Europe from the Nazi yoke.

Conclusion: A great feat of the Red Army soldiers and home front workers.

Introduction

On the eve of the war, a radical restructuring of our armed forces was carried out. Ground forces included rifle (infantry), armored and mechanized troops, artillery and cavalry. They also included special troops: communications, engineering, air defense, chemical defense and others. Organizationally, they united into ZoZ rifle, tank, motorized and cavalry divisions, 170 of which were located in the western military districts. In the ground forces, over 80% of the personnel of the Armed Forces underwent smriba. The Air Force and Navy were significantly strengthened.

The limited time that our country had did not allow us to resolve all the issues on which the ground-based security of the state depended. The Soviet government tried in every possible way to gain time, at least for another one or two years, when the next five-year plan would be completed, the main task of which was to rearm the army and fleet. Since 1939, samples of the new modern weapons and equipment: T-34 and KV tanks, rocket weapons volley fire BM-13 (“Katyusha”), F. Tokarev self-loading rifle (SVT-40), heavy machine gun (12.7 mm) on a tripod. Many activities were unfinished at the beginning of the war.

The peaceful efforts of the Soviet Union to curb fascist aggression were not supported by England, France and the USA. France was soon conquered by Germany and capitulated, and the British government, fearing the landing of German troops on the islands, did everything to push German fascism to the East, to war against the USSR. And they achieved it. On June 22, 1941, Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. Germany’s European allies – Italy, Hungary, Romania and Finland – also entered the war against the USSR.

German generals warned Hitler about the danger of a war against Russia, emphasizing that the war should end with a German victory a maximum of 3 months after the start, since Germany did not have economic resources for waging a long war in the vast expanses of Russia. To implement the plan for a lightning war (“blitzkrieg”) called “Barbarossa” - a plan for the destruction of Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv, Minsk and the capture North Caucasus, and most importantly Baku with its oil, the Nazis created exceptional military power, the main striking force of which were tank armies capable of quickly moving forward.

To deliver a surprise strike, Hitler pulled 157 German and 37 divisions of Germany's European allies to the borders of the USSR. This armada was armed with about 4.3 thousand tanks and assault guns, up to 5 thousand aircraft, 47.2 thousand guns and mortars and 5.5 million soldiers and officers. The Red Army faced such a monstrous military machine in June 1941.

The Soviet Army in June 1941 in the border military districts had 2.9 million people, 1.8 thousand tanks, 1.5 thousand aircraft of a new design.

But the “blitzkrieg” did not work out for the Nazis, they had to fight for almost 4 years (or rather 1418 days and nights), and as a result, they lost everything and shamefully capitulated in Berlin.

The war can be divided into three periods: the first period – June 1941 – November 1942; second period – November 1942 – end of 1943; third period – January 1944 – May 1945

1.First period.

So, how did military operations take place during the first period? The main directions of military operations: northwestern (Leningrad), western (Moscow), southwestern (Ukraine). Main events: border battles in the summer of 1941, defense of the Brest Fortress; the capture of the Baltic states and Belarus by Nazi troops, the beginning of the siege of Leningrad; Smolensk battles 1941; Kyiv defense, Odessa defense 1941 - 1942; Nazi occupation of Ukraine and Crimea; The Battle of Moscow in September-December 1941. In November 1941, the Germans realized that the “blitzkrieg” had not worked out, so they had to go on the defensive so as not to lose their main forces in the winter of 1941-1942.

On December 5, 1941, the Red Army went on the offensive near Moscow. This was the first major defeat of German troops in the Second World War, starting in the autumn of 1939. This was the collapse of the idea of ​​“blitzkrieg” - a lightning war and the beginning of a turning point in its course. The front in the east for Germany and its allies stopped near Moscow.

However, Hitler could not agree that further military operations against Russia would not lead Germany to victory. In June 1942, Hitler changed the plan - the main thing was to capture the Volga region and the Caucasus in order to provide the troops with fuel and food. The Nazi offensive began in the southeast of our country. A bright page in the history of the Great Patriotic War was the heroic defense of Stalingrad (July 17 – November 18, 1942). The battle for the Caucasus lasted from July 1942 to October 1943.

2. Second period of the war

The second period of the war begins with the counter-offensive of our troops near Stalingrad (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943). By this time, our country was experiencing an increase in military production and an increase in the USSR's combat reserves. The defeat of the 330,000-strong German fascist group over Stalingrad meant a radical turning point in the course of the war.

Offensive operations in the North Caucasus, the Middle Don, as well as breaking the blockade of Leningrad in January 1943 - all this dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the fascist army. In the summer of 1943, Hitler was forced to carry out total mobilization in Germany and in the satellite states. He urgently needed to take revenge for the defeats at Stalingrad and in the Caucasus. German generals no longer believed in a final victory over Russia, but made another attempt to take the initiative in the war on the Kursk Bulge. Here the Germans were preparing enormous tank equipment with the goal of going on the offensive again. The Battle of Kursk lasted for a month (from July 5 to August 5, 1943). The Soviet command launched a powerful artillery warning strike, but despite this, the Germans launched an offensive that lasted from July 5 to July 11, 1943.

And from July 12 to July 15, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive. On August 5, Orel and Belgrade were liberated, in honor of which the first salute during the war years thundered in Moscow to our generals and soldiers who won a major victory. The victory in the Battle of Kursk is regarded as an event of the war, during which the Soviet army “broke the back” of the German troops. From now on, no one in the world doubted the victory of the USSR.

From that moment on, the Soviet army took full strategic initiative, which was retained until the end of the war. In August-December 1943, all our fronts went on the offensive, German troops retreated everywhere beyond the Dnieper. On September 16, Novorossiysk was liberated, and on November 6, Kyiv.

In 1943, Russia achieved complete economic and military superiority over Germany. Recovery has begun national economy in liberated regions and regions. Western countries (England and the USA) understood that next year Soviet army the liberation of European countries will begin. Fearing being late and eager to share the victory over Nazi Germany, the rulers of the United States and Great Britain agreed to open a second front. To do this, they met with the Soviet delegation, headed by Stalin, at the Tehran Conference in 1943.

But even after the agreement on joint actions, the USA and Great Britain were in no hurry to open a second front, guided by their far-reaching plans to bleed the USSR, and after the war to impose their will on Russia.

3. Third period

Liberation of Europe

Defeat the enemy on the territory of European countries

Military operations are transferred to the territory of Germany's allies and the countries it occupied. The Soviet government officially stated that the entry of the Red Army into the territory of other countries was caused by the need to completely defeat the armed forces of Germany and did not pursue the goal of changing the political structure of these states or violating territorial integrity. The political course of the USSR was based on a program for the organization and reconstruction of state, economic and cultural life European peoples, which was put forward back in November 1943, which provided for the provision of liberated peoples with full right and freedom to choose their government system.The heads of some world powers did not agree with this statement. W. Churchill and many Western historians spoke about the establishment of “Soviet despotism” in the liberated territory.

Under the blows of the Red Army, the fascist bloc was falling apart. Finland left the war. In Romania, the Antonescu regime was overthrown and the new government declared war on Germany. During the summer-autumn of 1944, Romania (2nd Ukrainian Front), Bulgaria (2nd Ukrainian Front), Yugoslavia (3rd Ukrainian Front), Hungary and Slovakia were liberated. In October 1944, Soviet troops entered German territory. Together with the Soviet troops, the Czechoslovak corps, the Bulgarian army, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army, and several Romanian units and formations took part in the liberation of their countries.

Chronologically it happened like this. On August 20, troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts went on the offensive on the southern flank and after three days of fighting surrounded the main forces of the German-Romanian troops. On August 23, a military coup took place in Bucharest. The German protege, Marshal I. Antonescu, and a number of his ministers were arrested. Attempts by German troops to capture Bucharest encountered resistance from the city's rebellious population. On August 31, Soviet troops entered the capital of Romania.

The troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, after the final battles in Romania, reached the Danube River to the Bulgarian border and crossed it on September 8. The next day, the pro-German government was overthrown in Sofia.

The victory of Soviet troops in the Balkans and the accession of Romania and Bulgaria to the anti-Hitler coalition created favorable conditions for the liberation of Yugoslavia, Greece and Albania. On October 20, Belgrade was captured by the joint efforts of the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and units of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia.

Under attacks from Soviet troops in the East and Allied forces in the West, the position of the German army at the end of August sharply deteriorated. The German command was unable to fight on two fronts, and on August 28, 1944, it began to withdraw troops in the west to the German borders.

On the Soviet-German front, after the Red Army reached the borders of East Prussia, the Vistula River and the Carpathians, the liberation of Romania, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia, active hostilities took place in Hungary. Under the attacks of the Red Army, German-Hungarian troops were forced to retreat to the Danube. On October 15, 1944, the Hungarian government turned to the allies with a request to conclude an armistice. In response, the German command sent troops to Budapest.

At the end of 1944, changes occurred in the top military leadership. Stalin “expressed the opinion” that the need for representatives of the Headquarters had already disappeared and the coordination of the actions of the fronts could be carried out directly from Moscow. Marshal Zhukov was ordered to lead the 1st Belorussian Front, which would advance on Berlin. On the one hand, Zhukov was given the high honor of personally taking the enemy’s capital and putting a victorious point in the war, and on the other hand, an undeserved insult was inflicted on Marshal Rokossovsky, who was transferred to a secondary direction - the 2nd Belorussian Front [ 8 ]. In February 1945, another deputy people's commissar of defense, Marshal Vasilevsky, was relieved of his duties as chief of the General Staff and appointed commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front. During the period when the fate of the country depended on the courage and talent of Zhukov and Rokossovsky, Stalin made them his closest assistants, awarded them high awards and titles, but when all the difficulties were left behind, the Supreme One removed them from himself in order to single-handedly lead the army to a great victory. At this time, Bulganin, who had little understanding of military affairs, was appointed deputy people's commissar of defense, as well as a member of the Headquarters and the State Defense Committee. By making this purely civilian man his right-hand man in the military department, Stalin demonstrated to everyone that he no longer needed the help of professional military men. On February 17, 1945, the State Defense Committee approved the Headquarters in the following composition: Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, Chief of the General Staff, Army General A.I. Antonov, Deputy People's Commissar of Defense, Army General N.A. Bulganin, marshals G.K. Zhukov and A.M. Vasilevsky.

After a short pause, Soviet troops resumed their offensive. Having crossed the Danube north and south of Budapest, they united west of the city. The Budapest enemy group, numbering 200 thousand soldiers and officers, was surrounded. On February 18, 1945, the capital of Hungary was liberated. The Red Army reached the borders of Austria.

In the first half of January 1945, Soviet troops launched a decisive offensive in Poland. The enemy's main line of defense along the Vistula River was broken through on the very first day. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, commanded by Marshal G.K. since November. Zhukov, already on the third day of fighting they captured the capital of Poland - Warsaw. Rapidly moving west, front troops entered German territory on January 29, 1945, and on February 3, crossing the Oder River, they captured the Küstrin bridgehead in close proximity to Berlin.

Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal I.S. Konev, advancing from the Sandomierz bridgehead, liberated Krakow on January 19, and on January 23 reached the Oder River and crossed it in a number of places.

The 2nd Belorussian Front (commanded by Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky), advancing north of Warsaw, reached the Baltic coast in early February and cut off the group of German troops in East Prussia.

The 3rd Belorussian Front (commander I.D. Chernyakhovsky, and after his death - from February 20, 1945, Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky), having broken into the powerful enemy defenses in East Prussia, encircled a large group of enemy troops in Koenigsberg on January 30.

During the January offensive, the Red Army completely liberated Poland and began military operations directly on German territory.

Fall of Berlin

In the first half of April 1945, the Soviet command began preparing the final strategic operation - the capture of Berlin. In accordance with the plan, Soviet troops were supposed to deliver several powerful attacks on a wide front, encircle and at the same time dismember the enemy’s Berlin group into parts and destroy each of them separately. At the same time, Stalin attached decisive importance to the very fact of the capture of Berlin by Soviet troops without the help of Allied troops. Some Western historians argue that Soviet troops could have taken Berlin back in February, continuing the offensive after reaching the Oder, but dragged out the war in order to forestall the Allies in capturing a number of objects in Central and South-Eastern Europe. The basis for this was the plans of the Soviet command for a non-stop offensive after the January battles with the goal of capturing Berlin on February 15-16. However, the offensive in the Berlin direction was suspended due to large losses, difficulties in material support and the threat of an enemy counterattack from Eastern Pomerania[ 2, p. 317] . And only after all the conditions were created for a decisive blow to Berlin on April 16, the operation was launched.

An impressive superiority over the enemy was created in the directions of the main attacks. The group of Soviet troops numbered 2.5 million people, about 42 thousand guns and mortars, over 6,250 tanks and self-propelled guns, 7,500 combat aircraft.

The attack on Berlin began from the Küstrinsky bridgehead on the Oder River on April 16, 1945 at 3 o'clock local time by troops of the 1st Belorussian Front. It was preceded by powerful artillery and air preparation, after which infantry and tanks rushed into the attack. Most heavy fighting deployed on the Seelow Heights - the main strategic bridgehead on the approaches to Berlin, but by the end of April 17 they were taken. On April 20, Soviet troops reached the eastern outskirts of Berlin. Tank corps bypassed Berlin from the north. On April 16, the 1st Ukrainian Front also went on the offensive. Having broken through several lines of defense, the tank forces of the front rushed towards Berlin, bypassing it from the south. On April 21, fighting broke out on the southern outskirts of Berlin. And on April 24 the ring closed around Berlin. The assault on the capital of the Third Reich began.

The Allied troops, having crossed the Rhine, also advanced deep into Germany to meet the advancing Soviet troops. Their first meeting took place on April 25 on the Elbe River near the city of Torgau.

Meanwhile, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts, overcoming fierce enemy resistance, were approaching the city center. On April 29, Soviet troops broke through to the Reichstag, and after a stubborn battle on the evening of April 30, soldiers of the 150th rifle division over the Reichstag dome the Red Banner of Victory. The Berlin garrison capitulated.

Before May 5, the surrender of several German armies and army groups was accepted. And on May 7, at Eisenhower’s headquarters in the city of Reims, a preliminary protocol on the surrender of the German armed forces on all fronts was signed. The USSR insisted on the preliminary nature of this act. The act of unconditional surrender took place at midnight on May 8 in the Berlin suburb of Karlshort. The historical act was signed by Field Marshal Keitel in the presence of Zhukov and representatives of the command of the USA, Great Britain and France. On the same day, Soviet troops liberated the rebel Prague. From that day on, the organized surrender of German troops began. The war in Europe is over.

During the great liberation mission in Europe, Soviet troops completely or partially liberated the territory of 13 countries with a population of over 147 million people. The Soviet people paid a huge price for this. Irreversible losses at the final stage of the Great Patriotic War amounted to more than 1 million people.

4. Conclusion.

The victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War is a great feat of the Soviet people. Russia lost over 20 million people. Material damage amounted to 2,600 billion rubles, hundreds of cities, 70 thousand villages, and about 32 thousand industrial enterprises were destroyed.

The battle with fascism convincingly showed that feat in the name of the Fatherland is the norm for soldiers and home front workers. During the war, our military leaders showed high military art: I. Kh. Bagramyan, A. M. Vasilevsky, N. F. Vatutin, L. N. Govorov, A. I. Eremenko, G. K. Zhukov, I. S. Konev, R. Ya. Malinovsky, N. K. Rokossovsky, V. D. Sokolovsky, F. I. Tolbukhin, I. D. Chernyakhovsky, N. G. Kuznetsov.

On the Soviet-German front, 607 enemy divisions were defeated or captured, while Anglo-American troops defeated 176 divisions of Germany and its allies. Soviet troops destroyed most of the personnel and military equipment enemy.

During the Great Patriotic War, 6,200 partisan detachments operated behind enemy lines, in which over 1.1 million people fought, and over 220 thousand underground fighters also fought.

During the war, the home front workers performed a feat, supplying the army with everything necessary. “Everything for the front, everything for victory” is the slogan that guided old men and teenagers, women who took the place of the men who went to the front.

This year, events dedicated to the 55th anniversary of the great victory of our people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945 are being organized and held throughout our country.

There are fewer and fewer winners - soldiers of the army and home front - every year, time takes its toll, and the laws of nature are inexorable. That is why today it is so important to remember the glorious deeds of half a century ago and pay attention to everyone who helped defeat fascism.

References:

1. The combat path of the Soviet Armed Forces. Voenizdat. M. 1960

2. The Great Patriotic War. Voenizdat. M. 1989

3.Who was who in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. A quick reference guide. Ed. Republic. M. 1995

4. Borisov N.S., Levandovsky A.A., Shchetinov Yu.A.. The key to the history of the Fatherland - M.: Publishing house Mosk. un-ta.

5. The Great Patriotic War: Questions and Answers /Bobylev P.N., Lipitsky S.V., Monin M.E., Pankratov N.R. - M.: Politizdat.

6. Danilov A.A., Kosulina L.G. History of Russia, twentieth century - M.: Enlightenment.

Foreign policy of the USSR in the pre-war years.

International relations that developed after the First World War were not stable enough. The Versailles system, which divided the world into victorious powers and countries that lost the war, did not provide a balance of power. The restoration of stability was also hampered by the Bolshevik victory in Russia and the rise to power of the Nazis in Germany, leaving these two major powers in a pariah position. They sought to break out of international isolation by getting closer to each other. This was facilitated by the agreement signed in 1922 on the establishment of diplomatic relations and mutual renunciation of claims. Since then, Germany has become the most important trade, political and military partner of the USSR. She, bypassing the restrictions that the Treaty of Versailles imposed on her, trained officers and produced weapons on Soviet territory, sharing the secrets of military technology with the USSR.

Stalin based his calculations related to inciting the revolutionary struggle on rapprochement with Germany. Hitler could destabilize the situation in Europe by starting a war with England, France and other countries, thereby creating favorable conditions for Soviet expansion into Europe. Stalin used Hitler as the “icebreaker of the revolution.”

As you can see, the emergence of totalitarian regimes threatened stability in Europe: the fascist regime was eager for external aggression, the Soviet regime was eager to incite revolutions outside the USSR. Each of them was characterized by a rejection of bourgeois democracy.

The established friendly relations between the USSR and Germany did not prevent them from carrying out subversive activities against each other. The German fascists did not abandon the continuation of the anti-communist struggle, and the Soviet Union and the Comintern organized an uprising in Germany in October 1923, which did not receive mass support and was suppressed. The uprising in Bulgaria, raised a month earlier, and the strike of English miners in 1926, which was financed by the Soviet government, also failed. The failure of these adventures and the stabilization of the democratic regimes of the West did not lead to the abandonment of plans for the implementation of a world revolution, but only prompted Stalin to change the tactics of the struggle for it. Now it was no longer the communist movements in capitalist countries, but the Soviet Union that was proclaimed the leading revolutionary force, and loyalty to it was considered a manifestation of true revolutionism.

The Social Democrats, who did not support the revolutionary actions, were declared the main enemy of the communists, and the Comintern branded them as “social fascists.” This point of view has become mandatory for communists all over the world. As a result, an anti-fascist united front was never created, which allowed the National Socialists, led by Adolf Hitler, to come to power in Germany in 1933, and even earlier, in 1922, Mussolini began to rule Italy. Stalin's position showed a logic subordinate to the plans of the world revolution, and the country's domestic and foreign policies were generally consistent with it.

Already in 1933, Germany withdrew from the League of Nations (the prototype of the UN), and in 1935, in violation of obligations under the Treaty of Versailles, it introduced universal conscription and returned (through a plebiscite) the Saar region. In 1936, German troops entered the demilitarized Rhineland. In 1938, the Anschluss of Austria was carried out. Fascist Italy in 1935-1936. captured Ethiopia. In 1936-1939 Germany and Italy carried out an armed intervention in the Spanish Civil War, sending approximately 250 thousand soldiers and officers to help the rebel General Franco (and the USSR helped the Republicans by sending about 3 thousand “volunteers”).

Another source of tension and war arose in Asia. In 1931-1932 Japan annexed Manchuria, and in 1937 began a large-scale war against China, capturing Beijing, Shanghai and other cities in the country. In 1936, Germany and Japan concluded the Anticom International Pact, and a year later Italy signed it.

In total, during the period from the first to the second world wars, up to 70 regional and local armed conflicts occurred. The Versailles system was maintained only by the efforts of England and France. Moreover, the desire of these countries to maintain the status quo in Europe was weakened by their desire to use Germany against the Bolshevik threat. This is precisely what explained their policy of connivance and “appeasement” of the aggressor, which in fact encouraged Hitler’s growing appetites.

The apogee of this policy was the Munich Agreement in September 1938. Hitler, who considered Germany to be sufficiently strengthened, began to implement his plans for world domination. First, he decided to unite all the lands inhabited by the Germans in one state. In March 1938, German troops occupied Austria. Taking advantage of the passivity of the world community and the support of the German people, who pinned their hopes on Hitler for the revival of the country, the Fuhrer went further. He demanded that Czechoslovakia hand over the Sudetenland, which was populated predominantly by Germans, to Germany. Both Poland and Hungary put forward territorial claims against Czechoslovakia. Czechoslovakia could not resist Germany alone, but was ready to fight in alliance with the French and British. However, the meeting in Munich on September 29-30, 1938 between British Prime Minister Chamberlain and French Prime Minister Daladier with Hitler and Mussolini ended in the shameful capitulation of the democratic powers. Czechoslovakia was ordered to give Germany the most important industrially and militarily Sudetenland, Poland - the Cieszyn region, and Hungary - part of the Slovak lands. As a result of this, Czechoslovakia lost 20% of its territory and most of its industry.

The British and French governments hoped that the Munich Agreement would satisfy Hitler and prevent war. In reality, the policy of appeasement only encouraged the aggressor: Germany first annexed the Sudetenland, and in March 1939 occupied all of Czechoslovakia. With the weapons captured here, Hitler could equip up to 40 of his divisions. The German army quickly grew and strengthened. The balance of power in Europe was rapidly changing in favor of the fascist states. In April 1939, Italy captured Albania. In Spain, the civil war ended with the victory of Franco's fascist regime. Advancing further, Hitler forced the Lithuanian government to return to Germany the city of Memel (Klaipeda), annexed by Lithuania in 1919.

League of Nations status of a free city. Hitler wanted to occupy the city and build a road to it through Polish territory. The Polish government, given what happened to Czechoslovakia, refused. England and France declared that they would guarantee the independence of Poland, that is, they would fight for it. They were forced to speed up their military programs, agree on mutual assistance, and provide guarantees to some European countries against possible aggression.

In the mid-1930s, realizing the danger of fascism, Soviet leaders tried to improve relations with Western democracies and create a system of collective security in Europe. In 1934, the USSR joined the League of Nations, and in 1935 mutual assistance agreements were concluded with France and Czechoslovakia. However, a military convention was not signed with France, and military assistance Czechoslovakia, which was proposed by the USSR, was rejected because it was conditioned by the provision of such assistance to Czechoslovakia by France. In 1935, the Seventh Congress of the Comintern called for the formation of a popular front of communists and social democrats. However, after the Munich Agreement, the USSR found itself in political isolation. Relations with Japan have become strained. In the summer of 1938, Japanese troops invaded the Soviet Far East in the area of ​​Lake Khasan, and in May 1939 they invaded the territory of Mongolia.

In a difficult situation, the Bolshevik leadership began to maneuver, which resulted in dramatic changes in the foreign policy of the USSR. On March 10, 1939, at the XVIII Congress of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Stalin harshly criticized the policies of England and France and stated that the USSR was not going to “pull chestnuts out of the fire” for “warmongers,” meaning these states (and not Nazi Germany) ). However, in order to calm public opinion in the West and put pressure on Germany, the Soviet government on April 17, 1939 proposed that England and France conclude a Tripartite Pact of mutual assistance in case of aggression. Hitler took a similar step in order to prevent a bloc of Western powers with Russia: he invited them to conclude a “Pact of Four” between England, France, Germany and Italy. The USSR began negotiations with England and France, but only as a smoke screen in order to bargain more with Hitler. The other side also used the negotiations to put pressure on Hitler. In general, a great diplomatic game was being played in Europe, in which each of the three parties sought to outmaneuver the other parties.

On May 3, 1939, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs M. M. Litvinov, who was a supporter of an alliance with Western democrats and a Jew by nationality, was replaced by V. M. Molotov. This was a clear symptom of a change in the emphasis of the USSR's foreign policy, which was fully appreciated by Hitler. Soviet-German contacts immediately intensified. On May 30, the German leadership made it clear that it was ready to improve relations with the USSR. The USSR continued negotiations with England and France. But there was no mutual trust between the parties: after Munich, Stalin did not believe in the readiness of the British and French to resist, they also did not trust the USSR, they were playing for time, they wanted to pit the Germans and Russians against each other. On the initiative of the USSR, on August 12, 1939, negotiations began in Moscow with the military missions of England and France. And here difficulties emerged in the negotiations, especially in terms of taking on military obligations and readiness to send troops against the aggressor. In addition, Poland refused to allow Soviet troops through its territory. The motives for the Polish refusal were understandable, but otherwise the Red Army could not act against the German troops. All this made it difficult for the USSR to negotiate with England and France.

The Soviet-German Pact and its consequences

Hitler, on the contrary, expressed a clear readiness to reach an agreement with the USSR, because at that time he needed such a partner. Germany was not yet ready for a big war with the USSR, and Hitler chose the Western option. Back on March 8, 1939, at a secret meeting with the Fuhrer, a strategy was outlined that included the capture of Poland before the fall, and in 1940-1941. - France, then England. The ultimate goal was the unification of Europe and the establishment of fascist domination on the American continent. Therefore, Hitler was interested in a temporary alliance with the USSR.

Stalin made the decision to begin negotiations with Germany at the end of July 1939. However, he did not interrupt contacts with Western countries. Thanks to the efforts Soviet intelligence he knew about the plans of fascist Germany to attack Poland and start a war with England and France; he believed that an agreement with Hitler would delay the USSR’s entry into the war, expand Soviet borders and the sphere of influence of socialism, and carry out a world revolution with the help of the military-political power of the USSR.

On August 23, 1939, after three hours of negotiations in Moscow, the so-called “Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact” was signed. The negotiations took place in deep secrecy, and therefore the announcement of the signing of a non-aggression pact produced the impression of a bomb exploding throughout the world. The parties also signed a more important document - secret protocols on the division of spheres of influence in Eastern Europe (the existence of the protocols was denied by the Soviet leadership until 1989, their existence was confirmed under Gorbachev by the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR). Finland, Estonia, Latvia, Eastern Poland and Bessarabia were included in the sphere of influence of the USSR. It was a secret, shameful conspiracy with the fascist aggressor to divide Eastern Europe.

With the signing of these documents, Soviet foreign policy changed radically, the Stalinist leadership turned into an ally of Germany in the division of Europe. The situation in Europe as a whole changed in favor of fascist Germany. The USSR helped her remove the last obstacle to an attack on Poland and] to start the Second World War.

The assessment of the Pact of August 23, 1939 and, in general, the rapprochement between the Soviet Union and Germany is the subject of heated debate. Supporters of the pact point out as arguments: the existence of a danger of the emergence of a united anti-Soviet front uniting fascist and democratic powers; on the achieved gain in time before the USSR entered the war; to expand the borders of the Soviet Union on the eve of Nazi Germany’s aggression against it. During the Stalinist period these arguments were not questioned. But later, in conditions of pluralism of opinions, their inconsistency was revealed.

The possibility of creating a united anti-Soviet front was extremely unlikely; it could not be created even in 1917-1920. The entry of democratic states of Europe into the war against the USSR was excluded. Moreover, Germany in 1939 in any case could not start a war against the USSR due to the lack of common borders for the deployment of troops and attacks. In addition, she was not then ready for a big war, which was evident in the military campaign against little Poland. The defeat of the Japanese group at the Khalkhin Gol River in Mongolia (July-August 1939) moderated the ambitions of its eastern neighbor, and Japan began to behave more cautiously. On September 15, 1939, an agreement was concluded with the USSR. This defeat was a factor that prompted Japan to subsequently refrain from attacking the USSR. Consequently, the USSR in 1939 was practically insured against a war on two fronts.

The other argument about gaining time is also untenable, since this gain was mutual. The question was who would make the best use of this time. Germany used the 22 months before the attack on the USSR more effectively: it built up its military forces, conquered European states, and deployed its divisions near our borders. The leadership of the USSR was more concerned with external expansion and a bloody war with small Finland, the extermination of the command staff of its army. There was also no gain in acquiring new territories, because they were not militarily mastered, the borders were not strengthened, and were lost in the first days of the war. A common border with Germany appeared, facilitating its attack on the USSR.

It is also important to take into account that the possibilities for continuing negotiations with England and France were also not exhausted. The leadership of the USSR was required to show greater persistence in overcoming the mutual distrust of the parties, in reaching a compromise with their natural allies, which these countries were. (When the Great Patriotic War began, harsh reality inevitably forced the USSR to get closer and become their ally). Instead, it mistakenly reoriented itself towards Nazi Germany, played a “double game”, and then broke off negotiations. It turned out that on August 21, the French representative, General J. Doumenc, received the authority to sign a military convention with Russia.

The rapprochement with Nazi Germany, the conclusion of a pact and secret protocols with it was extremely unfavorable for the USSR; it ultimately led to war and a military disaster at its beginning and historically did not justify itself. Firstly, the signing of the pact freed the hands of the aggressor and provided him with a reliable rear for starting a war and conquering European states. Without the pact, without the neutrality of the USSR, without a reliable rear, it is unlikely that Hitler would have attacked Poland, started a war with England and France, and gained freedom of action in Europe. Secondly, by dividing Poland in agreement with Hitler, creating a common border with Germany, the Stalinist leadership facilitated a surprise attack on the USSR with catastrophic consequences. Thirdly, having become closer to Hitler’s Germany, having signed a pact with it, Stalin lowered the country’s prestige in the world, gave grounds for accusing the USSR of complicity with Nazi Germany, and by expanding into Eastern Poland and the Baltic states, the war with Finland, he opposed and isolated himself from the world community and in December 1939 was expelled from the League of Nations.

Fourthly, having drawn closer to Germany, abandoning the tactics of the VII Congress of the Comintern, the Kremlin gave instructions to stop the fight against fascism, disoriented and disorganized the activities of the communist parties; their disobedient leaders were repressed and sent to the Gulag, and hundreds of communists and anti-fascists were handed over to the fascists. And finally, fifthly, the Soviet-German pact became an obstacle to a possible rapprochement between the USSR and England and France, alienating it from them, making it impossible to jointly fight the aggressor.

The step taken by the Stalinist regime towards rapprochement with Nazi Germany in the desire to delay the start of the war and expand the sphere of its domination was logical for it, but unpromising and disastrous for the country. Retribution for him was inevitable, but it did not follow immediately.

The beginning of the Second World War.

Annexation of the territories of Eastern Europe to the USSR. War with Finland

On September 1, 1939, Hitler attacked Poland. The Second World War began. Polish Army inferior to the German in combat power and could not provide serious resistance to it. It was preparing for war with the USSR rather than with Germany, concentrating 30 formations on the Soviet borders and 22 on the German borders. On September 3, England and France, in accordance with their promises to Poland, declared war on Germany. However, they did not take any military action against Germany, waging the so-called “strange war.”

On September 17, when the outcome of the battles in Poland was no longer in doubt, Soviet troops entered Polish territory under the pretext of protecting “Ukrainian and Belarusian brothers.” About 22 thousand Poles, most of them officers, were captured by the Soviets and were shot in 1940. Stalin wanted to deprive Poland of its military elite. The event is known as the “Katyn tragedy”, because. one of the burials was found in the Katyn forest near Smolensk. It was discovered by the Germans, who widely reported it to the world. The Soviet government refused to admit its guilt, saying that the Poles were executed by the Nazis. It admitted its responsibility only in 1990.

At the insistence of Stalin, the dividing line of Poland was drawn somewhat differently than provided for by the secret protocols. Central Poland with Warsaw went to Germany, and in return the USSR acquired Lithuania. Having received those lost in the Soviet-Polish war of 1920-1921. territories, Stalin included them in the Ukrainian and Belarusian Union Republics. The dividing line of Poland, which became the Soviet-German border, was fixed in the new treaty “On Friendship and Border”, signed by Molotov and Ribbentrop in Moscow on September 29, 1939. On the occasion of the victory over Poland, a Soviet-German parade was held in Brest. This was the fourth partition of Poland (the first three partitions were under Catherine II).

As a result of the conclusion of a pact and treaty of friendship with the USSR eastern border German conquests were protected, and Hitler could turn his aggression to the West. The Western powers relied on the strength of the French Maginot Line and the supremacy of the English and French navies at sea. Some Western leaders still harbored dreams of a Soviet-German conflict. But Hitler planned to conquer Russia only after the subjugation of the West. He used tactics tested in Poland, which involved concentrating large forces of tanks and aircraft on the direction of the main attack, a rapid breakthrough of the defense, deep flanking and encircling enemy forces. On April 9, 1940, German troops captured Denmark almost without firing a shot and began the invasion of Norway. On May 10, German troops invaded Holland and Belgium. When French and British troops moved to help Belgium, they were hit by a German tank column that bypassed the Maginot Line. Having broken through the defenses, the Germans reached the English Channel and surrounded the main forces of the Allied forces in Flanders. 330 thousand allied troops pressed to the sea barely managed to evacuate from Dunkirk to England.

The outcome of the war with France also became obvious. Despite the presence of significant military forces, the morale of French society, especially the country's leadership, was broken, and capitulatory sentiments intensified. The government declared Paris an open city, and on June 14 the Germans entered the capital. On June 16, the new Prime Minister of France, Marshal Pétain, turned to Hitler with a request for a truce. It was signed on June 22, 1940 in the Compiegne Forest, in the same carriage where in 1918 Germany signed the act of surrender in the First World War.

England was the only country that continued the courageous fight against Nazi Germany. Although it did not have significant ground forces, it took advantage of its advantageous geographical position to organize defense. On May 10, 1940, the energetic W. Churchill came to power, who categorically rejected the possibility of a peace agreement with Germany and began work to mobilize all resources to repel the V-enemy. Massive bombing of English cities and losses in the fleet from German submarines did not break the morale of the British. Germany failed to gain supremacy in the air and sea, without which the landing of troops on the British Isles would have been impossible.

In this situation, Hitler postponed the decision on the fate of England to a later date, after the eastern campaign. On July 31, 11940, he declared that the first priority from now on was war with Russia. On December 18, 1940, the plan for an attack on the USSR (“Barbarossa”) was signed. German troops began to move to the East in deep secrecy.

After the outbreak of the Second World War, in 1939-1940. Stalin's leadership was primarily concerned with the annexation of the territories of Eastern European states, “assigned” to him under secret agreements with Germany, to the USSR and further rapprochement with Hitler. Efforts have also been made to strengthen the country’s military and economic potential. Based on secret agreements with Germany, Stalin demanded that the Baltic republics conclude agreements “on mutual assistance” and place their military bases on their territory. In September-October 1939, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were forced to agree to this. Immediately after defeat of France, June 14-16, 1940. Stalin gave the Baltic states an ultimatum to introduce contingents of Soviet troops into their territories (“to ensure security”) and the formation of new governments that would “honestly” fulfill their obligations. “The republics were created.” people's governments", which, with the help of local communists, established Soviet power. In August 1940, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were included in the USSR as union republics. At the end of June 1940, Stalin achieved the return of Bessarabia, occupied by Romania in 1918.

Thus, with virtually no losses, the USSR occupied a territory of half a million square kilometers with a population of 20 million people. Everywhere a standard set of socialist transformations was carried out: the destruction of the private sector, collectivization, the elimination of democratic freedoms, executions, arrests, deportation of hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians, Belarusians, Estonians, Latvians, Lithuanians, etc. to Siberia.

The scenario used in the Baltic states did not work for Finland: the Finns did not agree to either sign a “mutual assistance” agreement or agree to change the border. In October 1939, the Soviet government demanded that Finland move the border away from Leningrad, give up the islands near Kronstadt, and lease the Hanko (Gangut) Peninsula with a naval base that controlled the entrance to the Gulf of Finland. In return, Finland was offered twice the territory, but in uninhabited areas in the north. The Finnish government apparently believed that these demands could be followed by others and refused. The response to Finnish intransigence was Soviet aggression.

On November 30, 1939, Soviet troops fired at their border outpost in the town of Maynila. “Putting the blame” on Finland, the Soviet government declared war on it and the Red Army invaded Finnish territory. A puppet “people's government” of Finland was prepared in advance, ready to declare the country another union republic within the USSR. At the head of the “government” was O. V. Kuusinen, a Finnish and Soviet citizen, one of the leaders of the Comintern. However, Stalin did not achieve a quick victory over the 4 million-strong Finland. Having multiple superiority in manpower, especially in tanks and aircraft. For a long time the Red Army could not break the stubborn resistance of the Finns. At the cost of enormous sacrifices and efforts, it was only in February that she was able to break through Mannerheim’s defensive line. The war lasted 3.5 months. According to the peace treaty concluded on March 12, 1940, the USSR received the territories it claimed. At the cost of 10% of its territory, Finland retained its independence.

The results of the Soviet-Finnish war, called the “winter campaign,” were disappointing for the USSR. For aggression against Finland, the USSR was expelled from the League of Nations and found itself in international isolation. He barely avoided an armed conflict with England and France, who were preparing to send their troops to help the Finns; only the conclusion of peace saved him from this. The victory was achieved at the cost of heavy losses, amounting to 127 thousand people killed on our side (270 thousand wounded and frostbitten), on the Finnish side - 27 thousand. The Red Army showed low combat effectiveness, which served as a factor that strengthened Hitler’s determination to force the attack on the USSR. In the spring of 1940, he explained to his generals that the failures of the Soviet troops were a consequence of internal repression, and that it was important not to give Stalin time to strengthen the army. Taking this into account, the timing of Nazi Germany’s attack on the USSR, originally scheduled for the spring of 1942, was moved up a year earlier.

For Stalin, the relative weakness of the Red Army, revealed in the war, was an incentive for every possible delay in the military conflict and an even greater rapprochement with the Hitler regime. The USSR, undermining the trade blockade of Germany, in 1940 - the first half of 1941 increased economic ties with it, supplying it with oil, cotton, non-ferrous metals and other strategic materials necessary for the German economy on a large scale.

Thus, in the outbreak of the Second World War, the Stalinist regime sided with Hitler. In the official statement of Stalin and Molotov fascist Germany was portrayed as a peacemaker, while England and France were castigated as warmongers. Stalin handed over to Hitler 800 German and Austrian anti-fascists who were on the territory of the USSR. Public opinion inside the country was disoriented, and communists abroad and people sympathizing with the USSR were thrown into shock.

However, outwardly quite correct relations between the USSR and Germany only masked the true intentions of the parties. The truce between them could only be temporary, since both dictators sought world domination and were intensively preparing for war. Hitler brought his troops into Finland and resumed supplying it with weapons, ignoring the discontent of the USSR. On September 27, 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan concluded an agreement in Berlin on a military-political alliance and division of spheres of influence - the Tripartite Pact.

During Molotov's visit to Berlin on November 12-14, 1940, Hitler invited the USSR to take part in the division of the British Empire. However, the Fuhrer rejected the USSR's demand to include Bulgaria in its sphere of influence. Meanwhile, on December 18, Hitler set the date for the attack on the USSR - May 15, 1941. Then, due to the German occupation of Yugoslavia and Greece, as well as difficulties in the forward location of troops, the invasion of the USSR was postponed until June 22.

While delaying the conflict in every possible way, the USSR made efforts to build up its military-industrial complex. During the period 1939 - July 1941, the share of military expenditures increased from 26 to 43%, the output of military products was three times higher than the general rate of industrial growth. Defense factories and backup enterprises were built at an accelerated pace in the east of the country: by the beginning of the war, almost a fifth of all military factories were already located there. The production of new types of military equipment was mastered, such as T-34 tanks, BM-13 rocket launchers, IL-2 attack aircraft, which were superior to all foreign analogues. The army switched from a mixed territorial-personnel system, introduced in the mid-20s to save money, to a personnel system. On September 1, 1939, the Law on General military duty. The number of armed forces from August 1939 to June 1941 increased from 2 million to 5.4 million people.

However, the efforts made to transfer the economy to a military footing and reorganize the army were belated. In addition, this work was carried out in an atmosphere of physical and moral terror, and was accompanied by major mistakes and miscalculations. Many designers and engineers were arrested, some of them later worked in special design bureaus created from prisoners (“sharashkas”). Because of the repressions, entire sectors of the defense industry were in a fever, and the production of new types of military equipment was delayed. Although the USSR produced more aircraft than Germany before the war, the majority of them were outdated models. A similar situation was observed with tanks. Due to unfounded decisions, Stalin removed 76-mm and 45-mm guns from service before the war, the production of which was then urgently resumed. Because of Stalin’s proxies, who lagged behind modern requirements and lived with memories of the Civil War, the development of mortars and machine guns, which Deputy People’s Commissar of Defense G.I. Kulik considered “police weapons,” was delayed. People's Commissar of Defense K.E. Voroshilov called the replacement of a horse in the army with a car a “sabotage theory.”

The terrible blow that struck the army was the Stalinist repressions, as a result of which the overwhelming majority of the senior command personnel were destroyed, including almost all the most trained commanders and military theorists. Of the 85 senior military leaders-members of the Military Council under the People's Commissariat of Defense, 76 people were repressed. A significant part of the middle and junior command staff also suffered: only in 1937-1938. 43 thousand commanders were repressed. The quality of military personnel deteriorated sharply: only 7.1% of the command staff had a higher military education, 3/4 of the commanders were in their positions for less than a year.

As you can see, the army was practically beheaded on the eve of the war. The fact remains that the losses of senior command personnel as a result of Stalin's repressions far exceeded subsequent losses in the war with Germany. The consequence of this was a sharp drop in the level of Soviet military art, which clearly manifested itself on the eve and at the beginning of the Patriotic War.

Stalin not only beheaded the Red Army, exposing the country to attack, but also showed blindness in determining the timing of the Nazi-German invasion. He received information about the impending attack on the USSR, compiled on the basis of a variety of military and diplomatic sources, numbering in the dozens, Stalin was warned about the impending invasion of the USSR (Churchill, the German ambassador to the USSR, an opponent of such a war, Schulenburg. The remarkable Soviet intelligence officer in Japan, Richard Sorge, conveyed the most valuable information about the plans and intentions of both Germany and Japan. However, Stalin did not believe the arguments of intelligence officers, diplomats and foreign statesmen, and considered them disinformation. Stalin responded about Sorge as follows: “There was one of ours (here the “owner” used an obscene word) who. in Japan he has already acquired factories and brothels and even deigned to report the date of the German attack on June 22. Would you like to believe him too?

A TASS report published on June 14, 1941 “exposed” statements by the foreign press about an impending German attack on the USSR. Panickingly afraid of provoking a conflict with Germany, Stalin strictly suppressed any actions that could be regarded as preparation for war, including increasing the combat readiness of troops in border districts. 10 days before the start of the war, flights were banned Soviet aviation in a 10-kilometer border strip.

Stalin’s mistakes in assessing the situation and the moment of Nazi Germany’s attack on the USSR can be explained by the fact that he was afraid of this war and tried in every possible way to delay it, incorrectly believing that it would happen no earlier than 1942. The geopolitical calculation of the leader, who believed that Hitler would not will risk starting a war on two fronts, with unconquered England behind him. Stalin underestimated the degree of Hitler's adventurism. He was confident in his insight and infallibility, as befits an earthly god.

All this could only happen under conditions of a cult of personality, when a monopoly on solving life-changing issues belongs to one person. Consequently, the origins of the numerous tragic miscalculations of the Soviet leadership made in 1939-1941 were rooted in the totalitarian system itself. It did not allow for comprehensive discussion and democratic decision, taking into account alternative options etc. The mistakes that led to the military disaster were the product of the Stalinist regime.

Beginning of the Great Patriotic War

Violating the non-aggression pact, Nazi Germany invaded the USSR on the morning of June 22 without declaring war. The Great Patriotic War began, which became an important part of the Second World War. From that moment on, it became more bloody and cruel, because... Hitler demanded a war of “destruction.” The pre-developed Ost plan declared the Slavs to be an inferior race, proposed to “defeat the Russians as a people, undermine their “biological strength,” destroy their culture, deport tens of millions of people, etc.

According to the Barbarossa plan, it was planned to destroy the main forces of the Red Army in a short-term campaign (up to 10 weeks), striking in three main directions: Leningrad, Moscow and Kyiv. The fascist directive stated: “The ultimate goal of the operation is to create a barrier against Asian Russia along the common Volga-Arkhangelsk line.” The industrial cities of the Urals were also to be bombed. The occupied territories were supposed to be included in Germany or turned into its colonies and populated by Germans.

Germany's allies entered the war against the USSR: Romania and Finland, which had their own scores to settle with it after the annexations of 1940, and later Italy, Hungary, Spain and Slovakia. The invading army numbered 4.4 million people, the vast majority of them Germans, 39 thousand guns and mortars, 4 thousand tanks and assault guns. Soviet troops in the western districts were inferior to the enemy in numbers, but significantly superior to them in the number of weapons. The Red Army had 3 million people here, 39.4 thousand guns and mortars, 11 thousand tanks and assault guns, 9.1 thousand aircraft.

However, despite the numerical advantages in technology, the vast majority of it was outdated. Airplanes and tanks of new types had just begun to enter the army, so in terms of combat characteristics, Soviet weapons were significantly inferior to German ones. The army was in dire need of ammunition, tractors, communications equipment and fuel. Pre-war Stalinist repressions had an extremely negative impact on the combat effectiveness of the Red Army. 90% of the commanders were eliminated from the command structure, and now they had to be appointed from among insufficiently trained personnel. In addition, fear settled in the army, fettering any initiative, when commanders were afraid to take responsibility and make independent decisions.

The surprise of the attack gave the Nazis a huge gain (this was Stalin’s “merit”), as a result of which on the very first day of the war they destroyed, for example, 1,200 aircraft, mainly at airfields. The presence of combat experience in modern maneuver warfare and the high offensive spirit of the German troops, fueled by previous victories in Europe, played a role. Already in the first hours of the war, the Germans easily suppressed the disorganized resistance of Soviet troops on the vast majority of the border and penetrated deeply into the territory of the USSR. Two days later, German tanks in the main directions broke through 230 km from the border. “Cauldrons” were formed in which hundreds of thousands of Red Army soldiers remained. In the Bialystok-Minsk area alone, 28 Soviet divisions were defeated, 288 thousand people were captured, and Minsk fell on June 28. The Nazis defeated Soviet troops near Kyiv, capturing 665 thousand people because of Stalin’s refusal to allow a retreat. By mid-July, the Germans had captured almost the entire Baltic region, Belarus and Right Bank Ukraine. There were troops from the border districts. defeated, the irretrievable losses of the Red Army amounted to more than 700 thousand people, 3.5 thousand aircraft, 6 thousand tanks, 18.5 thousand guns.

Soviet society was in shock, including the dictator himself. According to the memoirs of G.K. Zhukov, Stalin could not believe that the invasion of German troops was not a provocation, but the beginning of a war. In a Directive sent to troops after the official declaration of war, he stressed that they should not violate the German border. The leader did not find the strength to speak to the people and announce on the radio a government statement about the start of the war, entrusting this to Molotov. The dictator fell into severe depression, and the news of the fall of Minsk, received on June 29, plunged him into a state of shock. He went to his dacha in Kuntsevo and did not answer the phone. The next day, members of the Politburo arrived to see him. According to the memoirs of A.I. Mikoyan, Stalin was even frightened by this visit, thinking that he was going to be arrested. However, his comrades only wanted to return him to leadership and suggested that he create and head the State Defense Committee (GKO), concentrating all power in his hands. Stalin agreed and, with his characteristic determination and ruthlessness, took over leadership, heading the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief and the People's Commissariat of Defense.

Not only the leader fell into depression, the rank and file soviet people They were also disoriented and shocked by what was happening. The commanders and Red Army soldiers were not prepared for the tragic development of events; they were brought up on conceptually erroneous slogans that there would be no war with Germany in the near future, and when it began, it would be fought on foreign territory and with “little bloodshed.” Therefore, it was difficult for them to understand what was happening, they easily succumbed to panic when the leadership of the troops was disorganized, the retreat was disorderly and with heavy losses.

Stalin, in his usual manner, searched and found the culprits of the military disaster. The role of scapegoats was assigned to the commander of the Western Front, General D. G. Pavlov, his chief of staff V. E. Klimovskikh, the commander of the Red Army Air Force P. V. Rychagov and dozens of other generals. They were blamed for the defeat of the troops, and they were shot by order of the leader. He himself led the country's defense and became a symbol of resistance to the enemy. On July 3, speaking on the radio, he addressed his “brothers and sisters” with a call for national unity. Gradually, the country's leadership began to control the situation. A restructuring of the command and control of troops and the military industry was carried out, and the evacuation of enterprises and populations from the occupied territories was organized.

Having shot the command of the Western Front, Stalin continued repressive measures against officers, Red Army soldiers and the population. In August, by order of Headquarters, captured Red Army soldiers were declared traitors, and the families of deserted or captured commanders were subject to arrest. In September, even those taken hostage began to be considered “accomplices” of the Nazis. In October-November 1941, as the Germans approached Moscow, Stalin began to use “scorched earth” tactics. By order of the Headquarters it was proposed to “destroy and burn to the ground everything settlements in the rear of German troops at a distance of 40-60 km in depth from leading edge and 20-30 km to the right and left of the roads,” using all available means for this, including aviation, artillery, partisan sabotage groups equipped with Molotov cocktails, etc.

In addition, based on the experience of the civil war, Stalin in July 1941 introduced into the army the institution of commissars, political instructors, who exercised control over the commanders, limiting their powers, and participated with them in making combat decisions. The brutal measures taken by Stalin undoubtedly contributed to the restoration of discipline and restoration of order in the army. However, they also suppressed the initiative of the soldiers and created a panicky fear of any accusations. This was demonstrated on June 22, when many commanders waited until the last moment for instructions from above and did not bring their units into combat readiness.

But in general, from the very beginning of the war, according to the testimony of German generals, Soviet troops defended themselves more stubbornly than in the West, making self-sacrifice in order to destroy fascist soldiers and equipment. The small garrison of defenders of the Brest Fortress, being completely surrounded, put up heroic resistance, fighting the Germans for a month. The further, the more stubborn the resistance of the Soviet troops became. Soviet people were convinced with their own eyes that Germany was waging war to destroy and enslave the Soviet peoples, that Hitler’s “new order” brought slavery to the people, the deportation of Slavs beyond the Urals, the wholesale extermination of communists, gypsies, Jews, the creation of death camps, etc. Faced with a similar danger, the people rose up to fight the fascist invaders. The war acquired a national character and was rightfully called the Great Patriotic War. Accordingly, the losses of the Nazi troops increased, amounting to 100 thousand people by mid-July. Fierce battles took place, a long-term defense of a number of cities was organized, including a two-month battle for Smolensk, the defense of Kyiv (70 days), and Odessa (73 days). Finally, at the beginning of September, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive near Yelnya, during which 8 German divisions were defeated. As a result, the timing German offensive on the capital were disrupted.

Two months behind schedule, on September 30, under the code name “Typhoon,” the attack on Moscow began. The Germans broke through the Soviet defenses near Vyazma and Bryansk, where units of three Soviet fronts - 663 thousand people - were surrounded. In October, Orel, Kaluga, Kalinin, Volokolamsk, and Mozhaisk were captured. It is known that Stalin began to think about concluding a treaty with Germany similar to Brest-Litovsk. On October 10, under Zhukov, the leader instructed the NKVD chief Beria to carry out soundings through his agents about the conditions of such a world. As is known, the Soviet proposal for a separate peace was rejected by Hitler.

In connection with the threat, on October 15, government agencies and foreign missions began to evacuate from Moscow to Kuibyshev, which caused panic among the population. Tens of thousands of refugees moved east. Control of the city was lost, looters robbed stores, liquidation teams mined factories, bridges and railways. Stalin was also ready to leave the capital: his train was standing still. His question to Zhukov sounded uncertain whether we could defend Moscow. Perhaps the marshal's firm answer, his assurance to defend the capital influenced Stalin - he remained in Moscow, and the panic gradually subsided.

On October 19, a state of siege was declared in Moscow. Despite the significant superiority (1.5 times) in personnel, aviation, and tanks (2 times), the Germans were unable to overcome the heroic resistance of the Red Army and militias. The war increasingly acquired the features of a people's war: in the summer and autumn of 1941, up to 10 million civilians participated in the construction of defensive lines, up to 2 million people joined militias. It was becoming more and more difficult for the Germans to move forward. November 7, 1941 anniversary October Revolution A parade took place on Red Square, from where the troops were sent directly to the front. Stalin made a speech, appealing to the images of Russian commanders - Alexander Nevsky, Dmitry Donskoy, Suvorov, Kutuzov. The parade was a demonstration of determination to stand to the end.

As resistance to the enemy intensified, due to the autumn thaw, which slowed down the advance of the equipment, and the onset of frost, the German offensive stopped. Only by mid-November, having brought up new reserves, the Wehrmacht was able to resume the offensive" and made a desperate attempt to take control of Moscow. The enemy approached Moscow by 25-30 km. However, this was the limit of the capabilities of the German army. Through the efforts of the entire country, mobilizing all forces, it was possible to stop and bleed the enemy Despite the huge losses, the USSR had even greater material and human resources. The country lost the territory on which 40% of the population lived, 60% of steel, 70% of coal were produced. industrial production fell by 2 times. However, the production of tanks in the second half of 1941 increased by 2.8 times, aircraft - by 1.6, guns - by 3 times. This helped to partially compensate for the colossal losses of weapons. Human losses by the end of the year amounted to 3.1 million, and according to some sources, over 5 million people, i.e. 90% of the entire pre-war army. According to German documents, they had 3.9 million Soviet prisoners of war alone, of which 1.1 million were still alive by the end of 1942. Essentially, a new army was re-established and managed to stop the enemy’s advance. The replenishment of the army was made possible by mobilization, the formation of volunteer militia battalions, as well as information from intelligence officer Sorge that Japan was not going to attack the USSR in the near future. As a result, fresh Siberian divisions numbering 750 thousand people were brought to Moscow.

1 Although there was no numerical superiority of forces, on Zhukov’s initiative a counteroffensive was prepared near Moscow. On December 5-8, the troops of the Kalinin Front (commander I. S. Konev), the Western Front (Zhukov), and the South-Western Front (S. K. Timoshenko) went on the offensive and by the end of January 1942 pushed the Germans back from Moscow by 150- 200 km, anchored on the Vyazma-Gzhatsk-Rzhev line. At the same time, attacks were carried out near Tikhvin and Rostov-on-Don, and troops were landed on the Kerch Peninsula. As a result of the battle for Moscow, 38 enemy divisions were defeated, its losses reached 0.5 million people. Our losses turned out to be even greater - 514 thousand people.

The Soviet counteroffensive did not lead to the solution of all the assigned tasks: it was not possible to defeat the main forces of the Germans between Moscow and Smolensk, or to release Leningrad, which since the fall of 1941 had heroically fought for 900 days under siege, paying for it with the lives of 800 thousand inhabitants. Despite this, the victory near Moscow was of great importance: the Nazi troops suffered their first major defeat in the entire Second World War. The myth of the invincibility of the German army was dispelled, and the plan for a lightning war against the USSR was thwarted. Germany was faced with the need to wage a protracted war, which was not part of Hitler’s calculations. Now the USSR had the opportunity to mobilize not only its enormous human and material resources for the needs of the war, but also to ensure the patriotic spirit of the army and people, to inspire confidence in victory.

The victory in the Battle of Moscow contributed to the strengthening of the international positions of the USSR. In the first months of the war, the anti-Hitler coalition took shape. Already on June 22, 1941, Churchill, and on June 24, Roosevelt declared support for the Soviet Union. On July 12, a Soviet-British agreement on joint actions against Nazi Germany was adopted. In August, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Canada and signed the Atlantic Charter, which set out the program goals of the anti-Hitler coalition. They stated that they do not seek territorial conquests or other acquisitions, respect the right of peoples to choose their form of government, support the restoration of their sovereign rights, and strive for full cooperation between all countries in the fight against aggression. On August 24, the USSR joined the Atlantic Charter.

On September 29 - October 1, 1941, tripartite decisions were made on the supply of weapons to the USSR and strategic raw materials to England and the USA. On November 7, Roosevelt extended the Lend-Lease law to the USSR. Although during the war years supplies to the Soviet Union under Lend-Lease amounted to only 4% of military production, in a number of positions they were important and significant. For example, supplies of Studebakers and Jeeps helped motorize the Red Army.

On December 7, 1941, Japanese sea-based aircraft attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor on Hawaiian Islands in the Pacific Ocean, destroying 247 aircraft and 14 ships. On December 11, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States. The war started extremely unsuccessfully for the United States; the Japanese gained an advantage at sea, and by the spring of 1942 they had captured the vast majority of Southeast Asia. However, the Soviet victory near Moscow and the entry of the United States into the war became one of the key points of the Second World War, changing the course of further struggle. It became obvious that from now on the war would be fought attrition; the chances of Germany and its allies winning it were slim, since their resources were significantly inferior to the potential of the anti-Hitler coalition.

Meanwhile, the formation of the anti-Hitler coalition was being completed. On January 1, 1942, in Washington, representatives of 26 states signed the United Nations Declaration. Adhering to the purposes and principles of the Atlantic Charter, they declared that they would fight against the members of the Tripartite Pact, cooperate with each other, and not enter into a separate truce or peace with the enemy.

Apart from the USSR, only Great Britain waged a real fight against the fascists in North Africa, the Atlantic and the Mediterranean. Considering the difficult situation of the USSR, the Allies decided to open a second front in Europe in 1942. However, to implement their decision

They were in no hurry due to the riskiness of landing in France, the unpreparedness of the American army, etc. The Americans landed in North Africa, thereby postponing the opening of the second front in Europe to 1943, then to 1944. Thus, the problem of the second front became one of the most painful in relations between the USSR and the USA and England.

On the Eastern Front, fascist German troops, seeking revenge and being unable to advance along the entire front, concentrated their main attack in the south of Russia, in the direction of Stalingrad - the North Caucasus. Hitler planned to defeat the entire southern flank of the Soviet troops, capture areas rich in oil and grain, and then enter the Middle East. At the same time, he took advantage of the military-political miscalculations of Stalin, who, overestimating his own strength, demanded offensive operations along a wide front from Leningrad to Crimea. In addition, Stalin and the General Staff incorrectly assumed that the Germans would deliver the main blow to Moscow.

All “preemptive” offensive operations of the Red Army, undertaken in the spring of 1942, failed and led to a new military catastrophe. She was unable to unlock Leningrad; the 2nd Shock Army was defeated near Volkhov and its commander, General A. A. Vlasov, was captured. The Red Army units in Crimea suffered a particularly severe defeat due to the tyranny and incompetence of the Stalinist commissar L. Z. Mekhlis; as a result, about 175 thousand people were captured near Kerch. It also led to the fall of Sevastopol on July 4, which for 250 Days led a heroic defense, chaining large enemy forces to itself. Disaster befell the troops of the Southern and Southwestern Fronts advancing on Kharkov due to the fact that Stalin did not allow a retreat and did not heed the warning of N.S. Khrushchev, a member of the Military Council of the Southwestern Front, that the Soviet troops were in danger of encirclement. The matter ended with their defeat and the capture of 200 thousand soldiers.

In total, according to some sources, 5.7 million Soviet soldiers were taken into German captivity, of which in 1941 - 3.3 million, according to others, which coincide with German data, - 6.3 million, of whom died 4 million, and in 1941 - 3.9 million people. Despite this, Stalin said: “There are no Russians in captivity. The Russian soldier fights to the end. If he is captured, he automatically ceases to be Russian.” Order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command No. 270 of August 16, 1941 ordered that all those who surrendered be destroyed, their families arrested or deprived of benefits. While the British and Americans regularly sent parcels of medicine, clothing, and food to their prisoners of war through the Red Cross. The Soviet government did not provide any assistance to its captured compatriots. The Nazis already considered the Slavs “subhuman” and treated them accordingly. Executions, hunger, disease, and torture claimed the lives of 3.3 million people (according to other sources, 4 million). About half died in 1941, then the mortality rate decreased, as the Nazis, due to the prolongation of the war, began to use prisoners of war as cheap labor. 3.2 million German soldiers and officers were captured by the Soviets, of which just over 2 million survived.

Realizing what kind of reception awaited them in their homeland, and out of a desire to survive, some Soviet prisoners of war fought on the side of the Wehrmacht. S. Ya. Lavrenov, I. M. Popov in the book “The Collapse of the Third Reich” (Moscow, 2000) give a stunning figure - about 1 million Russian volunteers were on the side of the Wehrmacht, who participated in almost all theaters of military operations - from Norway to North Africa. According to V.V. Malinovsky, a total of 600 thousand Soviet citizens served in the eastern formations created by the Germans. These people provided valuable assistance to the German command in implementing the “new order” being imposed. 50 thousand prisoners joined Vlasov’s “Russian Liberation Army” (ROA). In addition to it, there were several more “Russian armies”. In 1943, over 20 Cossack regiments fought on the side of the Wehrmacht. In addition, Ukrainian, Caucasian, Turkestan, Azerbaijani, Georgian, and Kalmyk national formations were created. Such an impressive number of those who went over to the enemy’s side could not be explained by betrayal alone. People who took the path of cooperation with the fascists were driven by a variety of motives, including hatred of the Soviet system with its repressions, the elementary desire to survive in a brutal war, etc.

As a result of the defeats of the Red Army in the spring of 1942, the path to the East was open, and fascist German troops launched a rapid offensive on the southern sector of the front, occupied Crimea, Voronezh, Rostov, reached Stalingrad and the Main Caucasus ridge, and hoisted a banner with a swastika on the top of Elbrus . According to Zhukov’s recollections, in parts of the Red Army “panic sentiments and violations of military discipline reappeared.” The dangerous moment has arrived again. From mid-summer to the end of autumn, the whole world watched the Battle of Stalingrad with bated breath. It was then, on July 28, 1942, that the famous order No. 227 “Not a step back!” was issued, which provided for the creation of penal companies and battalions (actually suicide bombers), as well as barrage detachments in the rear of units that were supposed to shoot retreating troops.

Stalin again thought about concluding peace. As V. M. Berezhkov writes in his book “Next to Stalin,” Stalin said to Molotov: “As if, Vyacheslav, we did not have to add to the list of governments in exile.” In September, Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.G. Dekanozov met in Stockholm with the German envoy Schnurre. Stalin agreed to give up Western Ukraine, Western Belarus, Bessarabia, and allow German troops to enter the Middle East. The Fuhrer was confident of victory and did not give an answer to the Soviet proposals. However, Hitler, like Stalin, dispersed his forces, sought to simultaneously capture both Stalingrad and the Caucasus, and as a result received neither one nor the other. A turning point in the war

The turning point in the course of the war was prepared by the transfer of industry to a war footing and the increase in the production of weapons. As you know, the result of the German invasion was a 50% decline in industrial production. The Soviet leadership managed to carry out an evacuation of people and equipment unprecedented in history: already in the first six months of the war, 10 million people and more than 1.5 thousand industrial enterprises were moved to the East, almost 80% of military industry enterprises were removed. Everything that could not be taken out was destroyed. These were the conditions of the “scorched earth” tactic put forward by Stalin. At the new location, the factories were put into operation as soon as possible, and the machines began to work in the open air. The Urals and Siberia became the country's largest arsenals. In total, 667 enterprises were relocated to the Urals. In 1942, the production of machine-building plants increased by 4.5 times compared to 1940 in the Urals, Western Siberia- 7.9 times, in Uzbekistan - 5.1 times. b

172 industrial enterprises, separate workshops and installations arrived in Bashkiria. They were located in Ufa, Sterlitamayek, Beloretsk. All enterprises of the republic switched to the development of military products: they mastered the production of mines, shells, grenades, aerial bombs and other products. The Ufa Locomotive Repair Plant has mastered the production of armored trains, the Tirlyansky Metal Rolling Plant has mastered the production of high-quality steel sheets for defense factories, and the Sterlitamak Machine Tool Plant has mastered the production of a number of complex machine tools that are extremely necessary for the defense industry. The Ufa Engine Plant has become a major manufacturer of aircraft engines. Bashkiria remained a leading part of the “Second Baku” and increased its supply of fuel, mastered new types of high-octane gasoline, autol, and kerosene.

The working people of Bashkiria actively participated in providing all possible assistance to the Red Army in such forms as collecting funds for the defense fund, for the construction of tank columns, air squadrons, collecting warm clothes and sending gifts for front-line soldiers, etc. In total, for the production of weapons and military equipment for the Red Army from workers of Bashkiria received 225 million rubles. Over 83 thousand pairs of felt boots, 21 thousand short fur coats, 23 thousand ^ cotton jackets and trousers, 35 thousand hats with ear flaps, over 17 thousand pairs of underwear and more than 100 thousand pairs of socks and stockings were collected.

The USSR, having less industrial potential than Germany and the countries that worked for it, produced much more weapons and equipment during the war years. By the end of 1942, the country's economy was transferred to a military footing and military equipment was being built up at a tremendous pace. Thus, the material prerequisites for a turning point during the war were created. As a result of enormous mobilization work in the rear and the restructuring of the entire economy, the overall balance of forces began to change in our favor for the first time since the beginning of the war. By mid-November 1942, a general superiority of forces over the Nazi troops had been created: 6.6 million people against 6.2 million, 78 thousand guns against 52 thousand, 7.3 thousand tanks against 5 thousand, 4 .5 thousand aircraft versus 3.5 thousand.

The decisive battle of the 1942 military campaign took place in Stalingrad. Fighting took place in the city, and in August the Nazis reached the Volga. The soldiers of the 62nd Army of General V.I. Chuikov and the 64th Army of General M.S. Shumilov, who fought for every house, had only a small bridgehead left on the right bank of the river. Both sides suffered huge losses. Hitler, despite the lack of strength, on the advice of his generals, still tried to capture Stalingrad and the Caucasus. But the Soviet command had favorable opportunities to carry out a counteroffensive. It provided the necessary preponderance of forces on the flanks, where the Romanian units were located, worse armed and less resilient than the German divisions. Under the leadership of Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief Zhukov and Chief of the General Staff A.M. Vasilevsky, an operation was developed to encircle enemy troops at Stalingrad. On November 19, unexpectedly for the Germans, the troops of three fronts launched a counteroffensive - the Southwestern Front (commander N.F. Vatutin), Don (commander K.K. Rokossovsky) and Stalingrad (commander A.I. Eremenko).

Soviet troops united near the cities of Kalach and Sovetsky. Hitler did not allow retreat, and 22 enemy divisions numbering up to 330 thousand people were surrounded. The group sent to help him under the command of Manstein failed to break the Soviet ring and was thrown back. Hitler rejected the Soviet ultimatum to surrender. The group led by Field Marshal Paulus was defeated on February 2, 1943, and 91 thousand people were taken prisoner. The total losses of the Nazi troops in this gigantic battle amounted to 1.5 million people. Four days of mourning were declared in Germany.

Stalingrad was the largest defeat of the German army and the turning point not only of the Great Patriotic War, but also of the entire First World War. The outcome of the battle had a positive impact on the strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition and strengthened defeatist sentiments in the countries of the fascist bloc. On November 23-24, 1942, the 200,000-strong British army of General Montgomery defeated the 100,000-strong German-Italian corps of Field Marshal Rommel near El Alamein in Egypt, not allowing the Germans to break through to Middle Eastern oil. Even earlier, on June 4, 1942, at Midway Atoll in the Pacific Ocean, the Americans defeated the Japanese, destroying four of their best aircraft carriers, one cruiser and 275 aircraft. These victories indicated the beginning of a turning point in the Second World War. Now the strategic initiative passed into the hands of the USSR, the USA and England.

Having won a victory at Stalingrad, Soviet troops launched a general offensive, pushed the Germans back from the Volga and the Caucasus by 600-700 km, liberated Krasnodar, Voronezh, Kursk, Belgorod, Kharkov, and broke the blockade of Leningrad. However, the forces of Nazi Germany were not yet broken. In the spring of 1943, the Germans retook Kharkov and Belgorod, seeking to defeat Soviet troops in the Kursk salient. Hitler, having carried out total mobilization, which was subject to men from 16 to 65 years old and women from 17 to 45 years old, was able to some extent compensate for human losses and sharply increase the production of military equipment, including new models. The absence of a second front allowed him to concentrate large forces on the Kursk Bulge in the summer of 1943: up to 50 divisions and more than 2/3 of all tanks and aircraft located on the Soviet-German front were pulled together.

According to the plan of Operation Citadel, the Germans intended to encircle and destroy Soviet troops stationed on the Kursk Bulge with converging attacks on Kursk from Orel and Belgorod and thereby open the road to Moscow. Rather, it was a desperate attempt to turn the tide of the war in one battle. The Soviet command figured out Hitler's plans and created a superiority of forces. Our units in the battle area were superior to the Germans both in manpower and technology: they numbered 1.3 million people, 2,650 aircraft, 3,300 tanks and assault guns, 19,300 guns and mortars, while the Germans had 0.9 million people, 2,000 aircraft, 2,700 tanks, 10,000 guns and mortars.

The headquarters decided on a deliberate defense on the Kursk Bulge in order to bleed the enemy and then launch a counteroffensive. This plan was implemented. From the testimony of the prisoner, the time of the German attack became known. Two hours before it, on July 5, Soviet artillery launched a preemptive strike on enemy positions. The Germans failed to achieve noticeable successes during the offensive. For a week, our troops stubbornly defended themselves and stopped the enemy, who, due to an unprecedented concentration of forces in certain areas, was able to advance 10-35 km. The culmination of this gigantic battle was the largest tank battle in history, which took place on July 12 near the village of Prokhorovka, in which 1,200 tanks participated on both sides. From that time on, Soviet troops went on the offensive. On the Kursk Bulge, the Wehrmacht lost 0.5 million people and 1.6 thousand tanks.

Thus, the last major German offensive on the Eastern Front failed. It led to irreparable losses for the Wehrmacht. The Battle of Kursk marked the completion of a turning point in the war and the final transfer of strategic initiative into the hands of Soviet troops. By the end of 1943, they took Kyiv (timed to coincide with the anniversary of the October Revolution), Smolensk, Vitebsk, crossed the Dnieper, which Hitler hoped to turn into an “impregnable rampart,” and liberated about half of the territory of the USSR captured by the Germans. The enemy was thrown back 600-1200 km to the west. 218 divisions were defeated.

The partisans, whose number reached 250 thousand, provided enormous assistance to the regular units. The Nazis waged a merciless fight against them, carried out punitive operations against them, sometimes destroyed entire villages with their entire population, but were unable to put an end to the partisan movement. Moreover, it expanded due to the cruelty of the occupation regime. IN! 1943 the number of partisan sabotages increased 5 times. They're in the period Battle of Kursk unleashed a “rail war,” which seriously hampered the transfer of fascist German troops.

The turning point in the war was ensured by the unparalleled heroism of the workers of the Soviet rear. More than half of all those employed in the economy were women, hundreds of thousands of teenagers worked in factories and on collective farms. People fainted from hunger and chronic overwork, but did not give up work. The conditions of the war forced Stalin to listen to the voice of the military leaders and to promote talented and extraordinary people to leadership. Among the military leaders, these were Zhukov, Vasilevsky, Rokossovsky (released from prison), among civilians - Voznesensky, Kuznetsov, Kosygin and others.

The war made some adjustments to the official ideology. Traditional Russian and even imperial values ​​were revived in a socialist shell, which Stalin considered more reliable in those conditions than communist cliches. Officers, shoulder straps, and guards were restored, non-revolutionary orders appeared: Suvorov, Kutuzov and even Alexander Nevsky, despite the fact that the latter was canonized. The rehabilitation of the Orthodox Church has begun.

In general, the Stalinist regime retained its essential features: political terror continued, entire nations were already subjected to repression. In 1941, more than a million Germans from the Volga region were deported; in 1943, more than 93 thousand Kalmyks and 68 thousand Karachais. In 1944, about 500 thousand Chechens and Ingush, 37 thousand Balkars, 183 thousand Crimean Tatars, 12 thousand Bulgarians, 91 thousand Turks, Kurds, Hemshils, etc. were deported. The deportation was accompanied by the execution of civilians and mockery of them by NKVD soldiers. It is impossible to count the enormous sacrifices suffered by the deported peoples during their resettlement to new, undeveloped places in Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

The Gulag system was constantly replenished with new victims of terror. During the war years, the number of prisoners (excluding exiled settlers) did not decrease much: from 2.4 million in 1941. to 1.7 million in 1945 The total number of people serving sentences in prisons, camps, and exiles was 5-7 million people, which was comparable to the size of the active army on the Soviet-German front. It is not surprising that the German intelligence services planned to land troops near Stalin's largest camps, free prisoners, deprive the regime of workers and exert a propaganda influence on the population.

The Allies intensified their actions against German-Italian forces in Africa. In May 1943, they defeated the enemy group here, capturing 240 thousand people. In July-August 1943, Anglo-American forces landed in Sicily, and in September in the Apennines. In July, Mussolini's government was overthrown, and he himself was hanged by Italian partisans. In October, Italy declared war on Germany. In the fall of 1942, the Americans began to go on the offensive against Japan in the Pacific Ocean and won a number of major naval battles. Thus, the Allies made an undoubted contribution to completing the turning point in the war against fascism.

But the Eastern Front remained the main one: two-thirds of the fascist troops were located here. Therefore, the problem of opening a second front remained acute. This topic became the main one at the first meeting of the “Big Three” (Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill) in Tehran in late November - early December 1943. After a heated discussion, a decision was made to land Allied troops in France in May 1944 (Churchill, wanting cut off the USSR from Europe, insisted on landing in the Balkans). At the Tehran Conference, the fate of post-war Germany was also discussed, which the Allies wanted to divide into a number of states, but Stalin did not agree. The question of the future borders of Poland was also being resolved.

Victory over fascism. Defeat of Japan.

Having an overwhelming superiority in manpower and equipment, the Soviet armed forces in 1944 consistently carried out large offensive operations along the entire Eastern Front. 6.3 million people, 5.3 thousand tanks and 10.2 thousand aircraft took part in them. In January, the blockade of Leningrad was finally lifted and the German Army Group North was defeated. Almost simultaneously, an offensive began in Ukraine, which ended in the spring with the liberation of Right Bank Ukraine, Crimea, Moldova and the defeat of Army Group South.

In the offensive of the Red Army along the entire front, a significant role was played by the help of the allies, who supplied the USSR with 22 thousand aircraft to 18% of the Soviet aircraft fleet), 13 thousand tanks (12% of Soviet production), 427 thousand trucks (twice the Soviet production in years of war), 189 thousand field telephones, a million kilometers of telephone cable, 2.6 million tons of petroleum products, 4.3 million tons of food. Supplies went through Iran, the Far East and Siberia, and the North Atlantic, where Anglo-American convoys, breaking through to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, suffered heavy losses.

In 1944, favorable conditions were created for the opening of a second front. On June 6, Anglo-American troops under the command of D. Eisenhower, taking advantage of multiple superiority in forces, launched the largest landing operation in history across the English Channel and landed in northern France. In coordination with the landing of the allies, Soviet troops launched a new offensive in Belarus (Operation Bagration), encircled and defeated a group of 100 thousand people in the Minsk region. Next, Army Group Center was defeated, Belarus, Western Ukraine, and a significant part of the Baltic states were liberated.

Already in the fall of 1944, Soviet troops entered the territory of European countries: Poland, Romania, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Norway. Romania and Finland withdrew from the war and then declared war on Germany. On September 9, the pro-fascist government of Bulgaria was overthrown, and it also declared war on Germany. This was the liberation campaign of the Soviet army in Eastern Europe. However, it gradually turned into a struggle for spheres of influence, which caused an aggravation of contradictions between the USSR, on the one hand, and the USA and Great Britain, on the other. The USSR's desire to form pro-Soviet governments in its neighboring countries caused concern among its allies, especially Churchill.

The problem of delimiting spheres of influence in South-Eastern Europe has since become the most acute for the Allies. Their unity was severely tested, in particular in the Polish question. The USSR did not recognize the Polish government in exile, located in London, and its subordinate Home Army, which fought in Poland. The USA and England supported them. As Soviet troops approached Warsaw, the Home Army rebelled on August 1, 1944, seeking to establish its authority in the capital before the Soviet occupation. Rebels armed only small arms, found themselves in an extremely difficult situation and were forced to ask for Soviet support. However, no help was provided: the Red Army’s offensive was suspended pending the arrival of reserves; Stalin gave almost no weapons to the rebels. When their defeat was imminent, he allowed the US to supply them with weapons, allowing American planes to make stopovers at Soviet airfields. The uprising was suppressed by the Germans with extreme cruelty: 22 thousand rebels and 180 thousand civilians were killed. On January 12, 1945, the Red Army with fresh forces went on the offensive and took Warsaw in one day.

While the war was going on, the Allies kept their differences in check, especially since Hitler counted on the aggravation of relations between his opponents. In February 1945, when Allied forces reached the German border, Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill met in Yalta. They agreed to wage the war until Germany surrendered and agreed on military plans, agreeing on the temporary division of Germany and Berlin into occupation zones. It was decided after the defeat of Germany to disband its armed forces, liquidate or take control of it military industry, collect reparations and give half of it to the USSR, ban the Nazi party, bring its leaders to trial as war criminals. The USSR pledged to enter the war against Japan 2-3 months after the surrender of Germany. For this he was to receive the Kuril Islands, South Sakhalin, and the lease of Port Arthur. It was decided to create the UN.

Roosevelt died on April 12. The death of US President Hytleo and Goebbels declared a heaven-sent miracle that would save Germany. But the miracle did not happen, the course of events did not change, it was determined by real forces. The Anglo-American troops, having with great difficulty repelled the German counter-offensive in the Ardennes at the end of 1944 and the beginning of 1945, went on the offensive. In March they crossed the Rhine, and in April they surrounded and then captured a large group of Germans in the Ruhr. Since the main German forces were still concentrated on the Soviet-German front, the Allies further advanced eastward, encountering almost no resistance.

In January 1945, Soviet troops launched a powerful offensive. Having broken the enemy's defenses, they liberated Poland and Budapest, and crossed the Oder in March. On April 16, the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts, under the command of Zhukov and Konev, respectively, regardless of losses, launched an attack on Berlin. Stalin, by his order, allocated the center of the city to Zhukov, thus noting his merits in the war and appointing him the winner. On April 24, Berlin was surrounded and street fighting began. On April 30, Hitler committed suicide. On May 2, the Berlin garrison capitulated. Beyond Berlin, on the Elbe, Soviet units met with the Americans. On May 7 in Reims, France, and on May 8 in Berlin, German, Soviet, American, British and French representatives signed the acts of surrender of Germany. On behalf of the USSR, the act was signed by Zhukov. Next, Soviet troops moved to help the rebellious Prague. The rebels were clearly inferior to the Nazis militarily, but unexpectedly one of the divisions of the Vlasov army helped them, hoping to earn forgiveness. On May 9, the Red Army entered Prague. May 9 became Victory Day for the peoples of the USSR.

After the capitulation of Germany, issues of the post-war world order were discussed at the Potsdam Conference in July-August 1945. The USSR was represented by Stalin, the USA by President G. Truman, Great Britain - first by Churchill, then he was replaced by K. Attlee, who became prime minister after the Labor victory in the elections . The Allies confirmed the decisions of the Yalta Conference, agreed to transfer part of German territory to Poland, establish a new Polish-German border along the Oder and Neisse rivers, and give part of East Prussia and Koenigsberg to the Soviet Union. The decisions of the Potsdam Conference determined the fate of Europe for almost half a century and laid the foundation for the geopolitical split of the continent, and indeed the entire world, into two warring blocs. The blocs arose later and were headed by two superpowers - the USA and the USSR. The reasons for the split were the increasingly divergent geopolitical interests of the former allies and their struggle for hegemony in Europe and the world.

The need to fight Japan did not yet allow the Allies to move on to open confrontation. The USSR, fulfilling its allied obligations, denounced the neutrality treaty with Japan back in April 1945 and declared war on it on August 8. Soviet troops, having at their disposal 1.8 million people, 5 thousand tanks and 5.2 thousand aircraft, under the command of Vasilevsky began a rapid offensive against the Kwantung Army (0.8 million people, 1.2 thousand tanks, 1.9 thousand aircraft). Possessing a multiple superiority in manpower and equipment, our troops in just over three weeks completely defeated the Japanese, capturing 0.6 million people, and liberated China, North Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

On August 6 and 9, 1945, the Americans dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The death toll was up to 300 thousand people. The use of nuclear weapons was caused not so much by the military as by political reasons- the desire to put pressure on the USSR, to make it compliant. On September 2, 1945, an act of unconditional surrender of Japan was signed in Tokyo Bay on board the American battleship Missouri. Thus ended the Second World War, the bloodiest in human history, which claimed more than 50 million lives and lasted 6 years and one day.

For the peoples of the USSR, the war came at a high price. At least 27 million people died, among which 10-12 million were military personnel, civilians made up the vast majority. Approximately 30% of the national wealth was lost in the war, 1,710 cities, more than 70 thousand villages, and 32 thousand industrial enterprises were destroyed. The country lost approximately half of its urban housing stock and up to 30% of rural homes. 6 thousand hospitals, 82 thousand schools, 43 thousand libraries were destroyed.

This terrible price was the payment not only for the defeat of the best military machine in the world and for fascist genocide. It was also a payment for the “costs”, the miscalculations of the Soviet totalitarian regime, which carried out terror, made criminal strategic and tactical mistakes, failed to prepare for war, failed to effectively manage its military potential and, until the last days of the war, did not take human losses into account in order to achieve its goals. . The people won the war, making countless sacrifices. And official propaganda proclaimed Stalin “the organizer and inspirer of all our victories.”



Option 1

The Second World War was the bloodiest and most brutal military conflict in the entire history of mankind and the only one in which nuclear weapons were used. 61 states took part in it.

Causes of World War II became the imbalance of power in the world and the problems provoked by the results of the First World War, in particular territorial disputes. The winners of the First World War, the USA, England, and France, concluded the Treaty of Versailles on conditions that were most unfavorable and humiliating for the losing countries, Turkey and Germany, which provoked an increase in tension in the world. At the same time, adopted in the late 1930s by England and France, the policy of appeasing the aggressor made it possible for Germany to sharply increase its military potential, which accelerated the Nazis’ transition to active military action.

Members of the anti-Hitler bloc were the USSR, USA, France, England, China (Chiang Kai-shek), Greece, Yugoslavia, Mexico, etc. On the German side, Italy, Japan, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, China (Wang Jingwei), Thailand, Finland, Iraq, etc. participated in World War II. Many states that took part in the Second World War did not take action on the fronts, but helped by supplying food, medicine and other necessary resources.

Main stages of World War II.

June 22, 1941 - approximately mid-November 1942. Attack on the USSR and the subsequent failure of the Barbarossa plan.

second half of November 1942 - end of 1943. A radical turning point in the war and Germany’s loss of strategic initiative. At the end of 1943, at the Tehran Conference, in which Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill took part, a decision was made to open a second front.

the end of 1943 to May 9, 1945. It was marked by the capture of Berlin and the unconditional surrender of Germany.

May 10, 1945 – September 2, 1945. At this time, fighting takes place only in Southeast Asia and the Far East. The United States used nuclear weapons for the first time.

Beginning of World War II- September 1, 1939. On this day, the Wehrmacht suddenly began aggression against Poland. Despite the retaliatory declaration of war by France, Great Britain and some other countries, real help Poland was not provided. Already on September 28, Poland was captured. A peace treaty between Germany and the USSR was concluded on the same day. Having thus received a reliable rear, Germany begins active preparations for war with France, which capitulated already in 1940, on June 22. Nazi Germany begins large-scale preparations for war on the eastern front with the USSR. Plan Barbarossa was approved already in 1940, on December 18. Soviet senior management received reports of an impending attack, but fearing to provoke Germany, and believing that the attack would be carried out at a later date, deliberately did not put the border units on alert.

In the chronology of the Second World War, the most important period is the period June 22, 1941 - May 9, 1945, known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. On the eve of World War II, the USSR was an actively developing state. As the threat of conflict with Germany increased over time, defense and heavy industry and science developed primarily in the country. Closed design bureaus were created, whose activities were aimed at developing the latest weapons. At all enterprises and collective farms, discipline was tightened as much as possible. In the 30s, more than 80% of the officers of the Red Army were repressed. In order to make up for the losses, a network of military schools and academies has been created. But there was not enough time for full training of personnel.

Major battles of World War II:

The Battle of Moscow September 30, 1941 – April 20, 1942, which became the first victory of the Red Army;

The Battle of Stalingrad July 17, 1942 – February 2, 1943, which marked a radical turning point in the war;

Battle of Kursk July 5 – August 23, 1943, during which the largest tank battle of World War II took place near the village of Prokhorovka;

The Battle of Berlin - which led to the surrender of Germany.

But important events for the course of World War II took place not only on the fronts of the USSR. Among allied operations It is worth special mentioning:

the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, which triggered the United States' entry into World War II;

the use of nuclear weapons on August 6 and 9, 1945 to strike Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The end date of World War II was September 2, 1945. Japan signed the act of surrender only after the defeat of the Kwantung Army by Soviet troops.

The battles of World War II, according to rough estimates, claimed 65 million people on both sides. The Soviet Union suffered the greatest losses in World War II - 27 million citizens of the country died. It was he who took the brunt of the blow. This figure is also approximate and, according to some researchers, underestimated. It was the stubborn resistance of the Red Army that became the main cause of the defeat of the Reich.

The results of World War II horrified everyone. Military actions have brought the very existence of civilization to the brink.

In order to prevent similar possibilities of a new world war in the future, at the Yalta Conference in 1945 it was decided to create the United Nations Organization (UN), which still exists today.

The results of the nuclear bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki led to the signing of pacts on the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and a ban on their production and use. It must be said that the consequences of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki are still felt today.

The economic consequences of World War II were also serious. For Western European countries it turned into a real economic disaster. The influence of Western European countries has decreased significantly. At the same time, the United States managed to maintain and strengthen its position.

The significance of World War II for the Soviet Union is enormous. The defeat of the Nazis determined the future history of the country. As a result of the conclusion of the peace treaties that followed the defeat of Germany, the USSR noticeably expanded its borders. At the same time, the totalitarian system was strengthened in the Union. Communist regimes were established in some European countries. Victory in the war did not save the USSR from the mass repressions that followed in the 50s.

Option2

On June 22, 1941, at 4 a.m., without a declaration of war, fascist troops invaded the territory of the USSR. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against the German invaders began.

Hitler's plan "Barbarossa" provided for a lightning war in three main directions - to Leningrad, to Moscow and to Kyiv. It was supposed to defeat the Red Army in the shortest possible time- even before the war with England is over. Already on the fortieth day of the war, it was planned to approach Moscow and capture it by the beginning of autumn. Near Moscow, Hitler hoped to deliver the final blow to the remnants of the Red Army.

Summer-autumn 1941. The first weeks of the war were the most unsuccessful for the Red Army. The enemy's superiority was so great that Soviet troops were unable to hold back their onslaught, despite fierce resistance. Within the first month, Belarus, Lithuania, Latvia, a significant part of Ukraine, Moldova and Estonia were occupied. Soviet troops lost more than 100 divisions and a huge amount of military equipment. Virtually all the forces of the first echelon of the Red Army were defeated in the first weeks of the war.

And yet Hitler did not succeed in a lightning war. The advance into the interior of the country was not as fast as the German command had hoped. The Red Army managed to inflict significant damage on the enemy.

Battle of Moscow (September-December 1941). Thanks to the stubborn resistance of the Red Army, the Nazis approached Moscow much later than envisaged by the Barbarossa plan.

The Germans thoroughly prepared for the assault on the Soviet capital, committing their best forces to this operation and ensuring an overwhelming advantage in manpower and equipment.

On September 30, 1941, the Nazis began a general offensive against Moscow. By mid-October they came close to the capital, overcoming the desperate resistance of Soviet troops. The Germans had already seen the towers of the Moscow Kremlin through binoculars. But thanks to the unparalleled courage and heroism of the defenders of Moscow, the German offensive was stopped in early November. By the end of November, Soviet troops near Moscow received significant reinforcements. And on December 5, 1941, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive. Many cities near Moscow were liberated, the enemy was driven back 250 km from Moscow. Thus, for the first time in World War II, the Nazis suffered their first major defeat.

Siege of Leningrad (September 8, 1941 – January 27, 1944) On September 8, 1941, German troops completely blocked Leningrad, cutting off all approaches to it. The heroic defense of the city began, which lasted almost 900 days.

The most difficult test for the defenders of Leningrad was a terrible famine - especially in the harsh winter of 1941-1942. Food was delivered only across the ice of Lake Ladoga, which was nicknamed the Road of Life. However, this only road to the city was constantly bombed. Only in January 1943 did Soviet troops manage to break through the blockade ring, and an uninterrupted supply of food and weapons to Leningrad began along a narrow corridor only 8-11 kilometers wide that had been recaptured from the enemy. In total, about one million people died from hunger, disease and bombing in Leningrad. But despite the most difficult trials, the city survived and did not surrender to the enemy.

Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 – February 2, 1943). After failure in the Battle of Moscow, the Wehrmacht changed its war plan and set the strategic goal of capturing the Lower Volga and the Caucasus, capturing the southern oil regions and the rich grain regions of the Don and Kuban, cutting off the Caucasus from the center of the country and creating conditions for ending the war in its favor.

The fighting began on the approaches to Stalingrad in July 1942. Unable to hold back the enemy's onslaught, Soviet troops gradually retreated to the city. In September, the main battles took place on the streets of Stalingrad. But at the cost of incredible efforts of the Red Army, by winter they managed to first stop the German offensive and then launch a counteroffensive. As a result of successful military operations, the southern group of enemy forces was surrounded. His attempts to break through the ring were unsuccessful. On February 2, 1943, the Germans announced their surrender. 300 thousand German soldiers and officers surrendered, including the commander of the enemy’s 6th Army, General Paulus.

Fearing a new encirclement, the Nazis hastily withdrew their troops from the North Caucasus they had captured.

Battle of Kursk (July 5 – August 23, 1943). After the defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad, the German command decided to launch a major offensive to regain the lost strategic initiative. For the offensive, the enemy chose the so-called Kursk Bulge. The Battle of Kursk ended in a crushing victory for Russian weapons. In this battle, the Germans lost half a million soldiers, 1,500 tanks, and more than 3,500 aircraft.

Battle of the Dnieper (September-November 1943). The blow of the advancing Soviet troops on the Kursk Bulge was so strong that in a short time after the Battle of Kursk they managed to liberate Kharkov, Donbass, the Taman Peninsula, Bryansk, and Smolensk from the enemy.

In September the battle for the Dnieper began. Overcoming fierce enemy resistance, Soviet soldiers stubbornly moved forward. On November 6, Kyiv was liberated. A large group of German troops was trapped in Crimea. The fundamental turning point in the course of the war was finally consolidated.

Fighting in 1944. Liberation of the USSR and part of Europe from fascism.

In January, the first major blow was struck against the enemy near Leningrad. The blockade was completely lifted.

In February–March, the entire Right Bank of Ukraine was liberated. The Red Army reached the Romanian border.

In May, German troops in Crimea were destroyed.

On June 6, Allied troops landed in Normandy. The Second Front opened. In order to prevent the enemy from transferring troops to the West, the Red Army launched an offensive on the Karelian Isthmus. Vyborg and Petrozavodsk were liberated. Finland, an ally of Germany, was forced to withdraw from the war and begin peace negotiations.

On June 23, the large-scale Operation Bagration began in Belarus. On August 29, Belarus, eastern Poland and part of the Baltic states were liberated from the Nazis. During this operation, the enemy suffered colossal losses, which he was no longer able to replace.

In August, in the Chisinau region, the Red Army defeated German-Romanian troops. On August 31, the capital of Romania, Bucharest, was occupied by Soviet troops. Romania withdrew from the war against the USSR.

In September-October, Estonia, Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia were liberated. Soviet troops reached the borders of Hungary and Czechoslovakia. The capital of Hungary, Budapest, was surrounded. About 200 thousand German soldiers and officers were surrounded.

In total, 120 German divisions were destroyed during the fighting in 1944. The entire territory of the USSR and a significant part of Europe have been liberated from fascist invaders.

Fighting in 1945. The end of the war in Europe.

In early April, Soviet troops liberated the entire territory of Hungary, Poland and East Prussia from the Nazis.

At the end of April, Soviet troops took Berlin. On April 30, the Red Banner of Victory soared over the Reichstag. It was erected by Soviet soldiers Egorov and Kantaria. On the same day, Hitler committed suicide.

On May 8, the German military leadership signed the act of surrender of Germany. The war in Europe is over. Europe was freed from fascism.

For the USSR, the war ended a day later - on May 9. On this day, the remnants of the German army in Czechoslovakia were defeated.