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

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

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

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

At 4.00 on June 22, 1941, the Germans, without any reason, raided our airfields and cities and crossed the border with ground troops...

1. Northern Front: the enemy, with a flight of bomber-type aircraft, violated the border and entered the region of Leningrad and Kronstadt...

2. Northwestern Front. At 4.00 the enemy opened artillery fire and at the same time began to bomb airfields and cities: Vindava, Libava, Kovno, Vilno and Shulyai...

W. Western Front. At 4.20, up to 60 enemy aircraft bombed Grodno and Brest. At the same time, the enemy opened artillery fire along the entire border of the Western Front... With ground forces, the enemy is developing an attack from the Suwalki area in the direction of Golynka, Dąbrowa and from the Stokołów area along the railway to Wolkowysk. The advancing enemy forces are being clarified. ...

4. Southwestern Front. At 4.20 the enemy began shelling our borders with machine-gun fire. From 4.30, enemy planes bombed the cities of Lyuboml, Kovel, Lutsk, Vladimir-Volynsky... At 4.35, after artillery fire in the Vladimir-Volynsky, Lyuboml area, enemy ground forces crossed the border developing an attack in the direction of Vladimir-Volynsky, Lyuboml and Krystynopol...

The front commanders have put into effect a cover plan and, through the active actions of mobile troops, are trying to destroy the enemy units that have crossed the border...

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

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

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

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

Citizens and women of the Soviet Union!

The Soviet government and its head, Comrade Stalin, instructed me to make the following statement:

Today, at 4 o'clock in the morning, without presenting any claims to the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities from their planes - Zhitomir, Kyiv, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, and more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Enemy air raids and artillery shelling were also carried out from Romanian and Finnish territories.

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

The government calls on you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally your ranks even more closely around our glorious Bolshevik Party, around our Soviet government, around our great leader Comrade. Stalin.

Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours.

Foreign policy documents. T.24. M., 2000.

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

Comrades! Citizens!

Brothers and sisters!

Soldiers of our army and navy!

I am addressing you, my friends!

The treacherous military attack of Nazi Germany on our Motherland, which began on June 22, continues. Despite the heroic resistance of the Red Army, despite the fact that the enemy’s best divisions and the best units of his aviation have already been defeated and found their grave on the battlefield, the enemy continues to push forward, throwing new forces to the front (...)

History shows that there are no invincible armies and never have been. Napoleon's army was considered invincible, but it was defeated alternately by Russian, English, and German troops. Wilhelm's German army during the first imperialist war was also considered an invincible army, but it was defeated several times by Russian and Anglo-French troops and was finally defeated by Anglo-French troops. The same needs to be said about the current Nazi German army of Hitler. This army has not yet encountered serious resistance on the continent of Europe. Only on our territory did it encounter serious resistance (...)

It may be asked: how could it happen that the Soviet government agreed to conclude a non-aggression pact with such treacherous people and monsters as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was there a mistake made here by the Soviet government? Of course not! A non-aggression pact is a peace pact between two states. This is exactly the kind of pact Germany offered us in 1939. Could the Soviet government refuse such a proposal? I think that not a single peace-loving state can refuse a peace agreement with a neighboring power, if at the head of this power are even such monsters and cannibals as Hitler and Ribbentrop. And this, of course, is subject to one indispensable condition - if the peace agreement does not affect either directly or indirectly the territorial integrity, independence and honor of the peace-loving state. As you know, the non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR is just such a pact(...)

In the event of a forced withdrawal of units of the Red Army, it is necessary to hijack all rolling stock, not to leave the enemy a single locomotive, not a single carriage, not to leave the enemy a kilogram of bread or a liter of fuel (...) In areas occupied by the enemy, it is necessary to create partisan detachments, horse and foot, create sabotage groups to fight units of the enemy army, to incite partisan warfare anywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to forests, warehouses, and carts. In occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every step, disrupt all their activities (...)

In this great war, we will have faithful allies in the people of Europe and America, including the German people, enslaved by Hitler’s bosses. Our war for the freedom of our Fatherland will merge with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence, for democratic freedoms (...)

In order to quickly mobilize all the forces of the peoples of the USSR, to repel the enemy who treacherously attacked our Motherland, the State Defense Committee was created, in whose hands all power in the state is now concentrated. The State Defense Committee has begun its work and calls on all the people to rally around the party of Lenin - Stalin, around the Soviet government for selfless support of the Red Army and Red Navy, for the defeat of the enemy, for victory.

All our strength is in support of our heroic Red Army, our glorious Red Navy!

All the forces of the people are to defeat the enemy!

Forward, for our victory!

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

Attack of Hitler's Germany on the USSR began at 4 a.m. on June 22, 1941, when German military aircraft launched the first strikes on a number of Soviet cities and strategic military and infrastructure facilities. By attacking the USSR, Germany unilaterally broke the non-aggression pact between the countries, concluded two years earlier for a period of 10 years.

Prerequisites and preparation for the attack

In mid-1939, the USSR changed the course of its foreign policy: the collapse of the idea of ​​“collective security” and the deadlock in negotiations with Great Britain and France forced Moscow to move closer to Nazi Germany. On August 23, the head of the German Foreign Ministry, J. von Ribbentrop, arrived in Moscow. On the same day, the parties signed a Non-Aggression Pact for a period of ten years, and in addition to it, a secret protocol that stipulated the delimitation of the spheres of interests of both states in Eastern Europe. Eight days after the treaty was signed, Germany attacked Poland and World War II began.

The rapid victories of German troops in Europe caused concern in Moscow. The first deterioration in Soviet-German relations occurred in August-September 1940, and was caused by Germany providing foreign policy guarantees to Romania after it was forced to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the USSR (this was stipulated in the secret protocol). In September, Germany sent troops to Finland. By this time, the German command had been developing a plan for a lightning war (“blitzkrieg”) against the Soviet Union for more than a month.

In the spring of 1941, relations between Moscow and Berlin deteriorated sharply again: not even a day had passed since the signing of the Soviet-Yugoslav friendship treaty when German troops invaded Yugoslavia. The USSR did not react to this, as well as to the attack on Greece. After the defeat of Greece and Yugoslavia, German troops began to concentrate near the borders of the USSR. Since the spring of 1941, Moscow received information from various sources about the threat of an attack from Germany. Thus, at the end of March, a letter to Stalin warning that the Germans were transferring tank divisions from Romania to southern Poland was sent by British Prime Minister W. Churchill. A number of Soviet intelligence officers and diplomats reported on Germany's intention to attack the USSR - Schulze-Boysen and Harnack from Germany, R. Sorge from Japan. However, some of their colleagues reported the opposite, so Moscow was in no hurry to draw conclusions. According to G.K. Zhukov, Stalin was confident that Hitler would not fight on two fronts and would not start a war with the USSR until the end of the war in the West. His point of view was shared by the head of the intelligence department, General F.I. Golikov: on March 20, 1941, he presented Stalin with a report in which he concluded that all data about the inevitability of the imminent outbreak of the Soviet-German war “must be regarded as disinformation coming from the British and even, maybe German intelligence."

In the face of the growing threat of conflict, Stalin took formal leadership of the government: on May 6, 1941, he took over as chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. The day before, he spoke in the Kremlin at a reception in honor of graduates of military academies, in particular, saying that it was time for the country to move “from defense to offense.” On May 15, 1941, People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko and the newly appointed Chief of the General Staff G.K. Zhukov presented to Stalin “Considerations on the plan for the strategic deployment of the armed forces of the Soviet Union in the event of war with Germany and its allies.” It was assumed that the Red Army would strike the enemy at a time when the enemy armies were in the process of deployment. According to Zhukov, Stalin did not even want to hear about a preventive strike on German troops. Fearing a provocation that could give Germany a pretext for attack, Stalin forbade opening fire on German reconnaissance aircraft, which had increasingly crossed the Soviet border since the spring of 1941. He was convinced that, by exercising extreme caution, the USSR would avoid war or at least delay it until a more favorable moment.

On June 14, 1941, by order of the Soviet government, TASS published a statement in which it was stated that rumors about Germany’s intention to break the non-aggression pact and start a war against the USSR were devoid of any basis, and the transfer of German troops from the Balkans to eastern Germany was probably associated with other motives . On June 17, 1941, Stalin was informed that the Soviet intelligence officer Schulze-Boysen, an employee of the German aviation headquarters, said: “All German military measures to prepare an armed attack against the USSR are completely completed, and a strike can be expected at any time.” The Soviet leader imposed a resolution in which he called Schulze-Boysen a disinformer and advised him to be sent to hell.

On the evening of June 21, 1941, a message was received in Moscow: a sergeant major of the German army, a convinced communist, crossed the Soviet-Romanian border at the risk of his life and reported that the offensive would begin in the morning. The information was urgently transferred to Stalin, and he gathered the military and members of the Politburo. People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko and Chief of the General Staff G.K. Zhukov, according to the latter, asked Stalin to accept a directive to put troops on combat readiness, but he doubted it, suggesting that the Germans could have planted the defector officer on purpose in order to provoke a conflict. Instead of the directive proposed by Tymoshenko and Zhukov, the head of state ordered another, short directive, indicating that the attack could begin with a provocation of German units. On June 22 at 0:30 am this order was transmitted to the military districts. At three o'clock in the morning everyone gathered at Stalin's left.

Beginning of hostilities

Early in the morning of June 22, 1941, German aviation, with a sudden attack on airfields, destroyed a significant part of Soviet aviation in the western districts. The bombing of Kyiv, Riga, Smolensk, Murmansk, Sevastopol and many other cities began. In a declaration read out on the radio that day, Hitler said that Moscow allegedly “treacherously violated” the treaty of friendship with Germany because it concentrated troops against it and violated German borders. Therefore, the Führer said, he decided “to oppose the Judeo-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and their assistants, as well as the Jews from the Moscow Bolshevik center” in the name of “the cause of peace” and “the security of Europe.”

The offensive was carried out according to the previously developed Barbarossa plan. As in previous military campaigns, the Germans hoped to use the tactics of “lightning war” (“blitzkrieg”): the defeat of the USSR was supposed to take only eight to ten weeks and be completed before Germany ended the war with Great Britain. Planning to end the war before winter, the German command did not even bother to prepare winter uniforms. The German armies, consisting of three groups, were to attack Leningrad, Moscow and Kyiv, having previously encircled and destroyed enemy troops in the western part of the USSR. The army groups were led by experienced military leaders: Army Group North was commanded by Field Marshal von Leeb, Army Group Center by Field Marshal von Bock, Army Group South by Field Marshal von Rundstedt. Each army group was assigned its own air fleet and tank army; the Center group had two of them. The ultimate goal of Operation Barbarossa was to reach the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line. The Germans hoped to paralyze the work of industrial enterprises located east of this line - in the Urals, Kazakhstan and Siberia - with the help of air strikes.

Giving instructions to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, Hitler emphasized that the war with the USSR should become a “conflict of two worldviews.” He demanded a “war of extermination”: “bearers of the state political idea and political leaders” were ordered not to be captured and shot on the spot, which was contrary to international law. Anyone who offered resistance was ordered to be shot.

By the time the war began, 190 divisions of Germany and its allies were concentrated near the Soviet borders, of which 153 were German. They included more than 90% of the armored forces of the German army. The total number of armed forces of Germany and its allies intended to attack the USSR was 5.5 million people. They had at their disposal more than 47 thousand guns and mortars, 4,300 tanks and assault guns, and about 6 thousand combat aircraft. They were opposed by the forces of five Soviet border military districts (at the beginning of the war they were deployed on five fronts). In total, there were over 4.8 million people in the Red Army, who had 76.5 thousand guns and mortars, 22.6 thousand tanks, and approximately 20 thousand aircraft. However, in the border districts of the above there were only 2.9 million soldiers, 32.9 thousand guns and mortars, 14.2 thousand tanks and more than 9 thousand aircraft.

After 4 o'clock in the morning, Stalin was awakened by a phone call from Zhukov - he said that the war with Germany had begun. At 4:30 am, Tymoshenko and Zhukov again met with the head of state. Meanwhile, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov, on Stalin's instructions, went to a meeting with the German Ambassador V. von der Schulenburg. Until Molotov returned, Stalin refused to order counterattacks against enemy units. The conversation between Molotov and Schulenburg began at 5:30 am. On instructions from the German government, the ambassador read out a note with the following content: “In view of the further intolerable threat created for the German eastern border as a result of the massive concentration and training of all the armed forces of the Red Army, the German government considers itself forced to take military countermeasures.” The head of the NKID tried in vain to dispute what the ambassador said and convince him of the innocence of the USSR. Already at 5 hours 45 minutes, Molotov was in Stalin’s office along with L. P. Beria, L. Z. Mehlis, as well as Timoshenko and Zhukov. Stalin agreed to give a directive to destroy the enemy, but emphasized that Soviet units should not violate the German border anywhere. At 7:15 a.m. the corresponding directive was sent to the troops.

Stalin's entourage believed that it was he who should speak on the radio with an appeal to the population, but he refused, and Molotov did it instead. In his address, the head of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs announced the beginning of the war, noted that German aggression was to blame, and expressed confidence in the victory of the USSR. At the end of his speech, he uttered the famous words: “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours!" In order to prevent possible doubts and rumors about the silence of Stalin himself, Molotov added several references to him in the original text of the address.

On the evening of June 22, British Prime Minister W. Churchill spoke on the radio. He stated that in the current situation, his anti-communist views are receding into the background, and the West must provide “Russia and the Russian people” with all the help it can. On June 24, F. Roosevelt, President of the United States, made a similar statement in support of the USSR.

Retreat of the Red Army

In total, on the first day of the war alone, the USSR lost at least 1,200 aircraft (according to German data - more than 1.5 thousand). Many nodes and lines of communication were rendered unusable - because of this, the General Staff lost contact with the troops. Due to the inability to fulfill the demands of the center, the commander of the aviation of the Western Front, I. I. Kopets, shot himself. On June 22, at 21:15, the General Staff sent a new directive to the troops with instructions to immediately launch a counteroffensive, “disregarding the border,” to encircle and destroy the main enemy forces within two days and to capture the areas of the cities of Suwalki and Lublin by the end of June 24. But the Soviet units failed not only to go on the offensive, but also to create a continuous defensive front. The Germans had a tactical advantage on all fronts. Despite the enormous efforts and sacrifices and the colossal enthusiasm of the soldiers, the Soviet troops failed to stop the enemy’s advance. Already on June 28, the Germans entered Minsk. Due to the loss of communication and panic at the fronts, the army became almost uncontrollable.

Stalin was in a state of shock for the first 10 days of the war. He often interfered in the course of events, summoning Timoshenko and Zhukov to the Kremlin several times. On June 28, after the surrender of Minsk, the head of state went to his dacha and for three days - from June 28 to 30 - stayed there continuously, not answering calls and not inviting anyone to his place. Only on the third day his closest associates came to him and persuaded him to return to work. On July 1, Stalin arrived in the Kremlin and on the same day became the head of the newly formed State Defense Committee (GKO), an emergency governing body that received full power in the state. In addition to Stalin, the GKO included V. M. Molotov, K. E. Voroshilov, G. M. Malenkov, L. P. Beria. Later, the composition of the committee changed several times. Ten days later, Stalin also headed the Supreme Command Headquarters.

To rectify the situation, Stalin ordered to send Marshals B.M. Shaposhnikov and G.I. Kulik to the Western Front, but the former fell ill, and the latter himself was surrounded and had difficulty getting out, disguised as a peasant. Stalin decided to shift responsibility for failures on the fronts to the local military command. The commander of the Western Front, Army General D. G. Pavlov, and several other military leaders were arrested and sent to a military tribunal. They were accused of an “anti-Soviet conspiracy”, of deliberately “opening the front to Germany”, and then of cowardice and alarmism, after which they were shot. In 1956, they were all rehabilitated.

By the beginning of July 1941, the armies of Germany and its allies occupied most of the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Belarus, and approached Smolensk and Kyiv. Army Group Center advanced the deepest into Soviet territory. The German command and Hitler believed that the main enemy forces had been defeated and the end of the war was near. Now Hitler was wondering how to quickly complete the defeat of the USSR: continue to advance on Moscow or encircle Soviet troops in Ukraine or Leningrad.

The version of Hitler's "preventive strike"

In the early 1990s, V. B. Rezun, a former Soviet intelligence officer who fled to the West, published several books under the pseudonym Viktor Suvorov, in which he claimed that Moscow planned to be the first to strike Germany, and Hitler, having started the war, only forestalled an attack by Soviet troops. Rezun was later supported by some Russian historians. However, an analysis of all available sources shows that if Stalin was going to strike first, it would be in a more favorable situation. At the end of June and beginning of July 1941, he sought to delay the war with Germany and was not ready for an offensive.

June 21, 1941, 13:00. German troops receive the code signal "Dortmund", confirming that the invasion will begin the next day.

21:00. Soldiers of the 90th border detachment of the Sokal commandant's office detained a German serviceman who crossed the border Bug River by swimming. The defector was sent to the detachment headquarters in the city of Vladimir-Volynsky.

23:00. German minelayers stationed in Finnish ports began to mine the exit from the Gulf of Finland. At the same time, Finnish submarines began laying mines off the coast of Estonia.

June 22, 1941, 0:30. The defector was taken to Vladimir-Volynsky. During interrogation, the soldier identified himself Alfred Liskov, soldiers of the 221st Regiment of the 15th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. He said that at dawn on June 22, the German army would go on the offensive along the entire length of the Soviet-German border. The information was transferred to higher command.

At the same time, the transmission of Directive No. 1 of the People's Commissariat of Defense for parts of the western military districts began from Moscow. “During June 22-23, 1941, a surprise attack by the Germans is possible on the fronts of LVO, PribOVO, ZAPOVO, KOVO, OdVO. An attack may begin with provocative actions,” the directive said. “The task of our troops is not to succumb to any provocative actions that could cause major complications.”

The units were ordered to be put on combat readiness, to secretly occupy firing points of fortified areas on the state border, and to disperse aircraft to field airfields.

It is not possible to convey the directive to military units before the start of hostilities, as a result of which the measures specified in it are not carried out.

Mobilization. Columns of fighters are moving to the front. Photo: RIA Novosti

“I realized that it was the Germans who opened fire on our territory”

1:00. The commandants of the sections of the 90th border detachment report to the head of the detachment, Major Bychkovsky: “nothing suspicious was noticed on the adjacent side, everything is calm.”

3:05 . A group of 14 German Ju-88 bombers drops 28 magnetic mines near the Kronstadt roadstead.

3:07. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, reports to the Chief of the General Staff, General Zhukov: “The fleet's air surveillance, warning and communications system reports the approach of a large number of unknown aircraft from the sea; The fleet is in full combat readiness."

3:10. The NKGB for the Lviv region transmits by telephone message to the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR the information obtained during the interrogation of the defector Alfred Liskov.

3:30. Chief of Staff of the Western District General Klimovsky reports on enemy air raids on the cities of Belarus: Brest, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovichi and others.

3:33. The chief of staff of the Kyiv district, General Purkaev, reports on an air raid on the cities of Ukraine, including Kyiv.

3:40. Commander of the Baltic Military District General Kuznetsov reports on enemy air raids on Riga, Siauliai, Vilnius, Kaunas and other cities.

“The enemy raid has been repulsed. An attempt to strike our ships was foiled."

3:42. Chief of the General Staff Zhukov is calling Stalin and reports the start of hostilities by Germany. Stalin orders Tymoshenko and Zhukov arrive at the Kremlin, where an emergency meeting of the Politburo is convened.

3:45. The 1st border outpost of the 86th August border detachment was attacked by an enemy reconnaissance and sabotage group. Outpost personnel under command Alexandra Sivacheva, having entered into battle, destroys the attackers.

4:05. The outposts of the 86th August Border Detachment, including the 1st Border Outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev, come under heavy artillery fire, after which the German offensive begins. Border guards, deprived of communication with the command, engage in battle with superior enemy forces.

4:10. The Western and Baltic special military districts report the beginning of hostilities by German troops on the ground.

4:15. The Nazis open massive artillery fire on the Brest Fortress. As a result, warehouses were destroyed, communications were disrupted, and there were a large number of dead and wounded.

4:25. The 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division begins an attack on the Brest Fortress.

Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Residents of the capital on June 22, 1941, during the radio announcement of a government message about the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti

“Protecting not individual countries, but ensuring the security of Europe”

4:30. A meeting of Politburo members begins in the Kremlin. Stalin expresses doubt that what happened is the beginning of a war and does not exclude the possibility of a German provocation. People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko and Zhukov insist: this is war.

4:55. In the Brest Fortress, the Nazis manage to capture almost half of the territory. Further progress was stopped by a sudden counterattack by the Red Army.

5:00. German Ambassador to the USSR Count von Schulenburg presented to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Molotov“Note from the German Foreign Office to the Soviet Government,” which states: “The German Government cannot remain indifferent to the serious threat on the eastern border, therefore the Fuehrer has ordered the German Armed Forces to ward off this threat by all means.” An hour after the actual start of hostilities, Germany de jure declares war on the Soviet Union.

7:00. Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Ribbentrop begins a press conference at which he announces the beginning of hostilities against the USSR: “The German army has invaded the territory of Bolshevik Russia!”

“The city is burning, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?”

7:15. Stalin approves a directive to repel the attack of Nazi Germany: “The troops with all their might and means attack enemy forces and destroy them in areas where they violated the Soviet border.” Transfer of “directive No. 2” due to saboteurs’ disruption of communication lines in the western districts. Moscow does not have a clear picture of what is happening in the combat zone.

9:30. It was decided that at noon, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov would address the Soviet people in connection with the outbreak of war.

10:00. From the speaker's memories Yuri Levitan: “They’re calling from Minsk: “Enemy planes are over the city,” they’re calling from Kaunas: “The city is burning, why aren’t you transmitting anything on the radio?” “Enemy planes are over Kiev.” A woman’s crying, excitement: “Is it really war?..” However, no official messages are transmitted until 12:00 Moscow time on June 22.

11:00. The Baltic, Western and Kiev special military districts were transformed into the North-Western, Western and South-Western fronts.

“The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours"

12:00. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov reads out an appeal to the citizens of the Soviet Union: “Today at 4 o’clock in the morning, without making any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed us with their planes attacked our cities - Zhitomir, Kyiv, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, and more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Raids by enemy planes and artillery shelling were also carried out from Romanian and Finnish territory... Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has already taken place, the Soviet government has given an order to our troops to repel the bandit attack and expel German troops from the territory of our homeland... The government calls on you, citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally our ranks even more closely around our glorious Bolshevik Party, around our Soviet government, around our great leader, Comrade Stalin.

Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours" .

12:30. Advanced German units break into the Belarusian city of Grodno.

13:00. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issues a decree “On the mobilization of those liable for military service...”
“Based on Article 49, paragraph “o” of the USSR Constitution, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announces mobilization on the territory of the military districts - Leningrad, Baltic special, Western special, Kyiv special, Odessa, Kharkov, Oryol, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Ural, Siberian, Volga, North -Caucasian and Transcaucasian.

13:30. Chief of the General Staff General Zhukov flies to Kyiv as a representative of the newly created Headquarters of the Main Command on the Southwestern Front.

Photo: RIA Novosti

14:00. The Brest Fortress is completely surrounded by German troops. Soviet units blocked in the citadel continue to offer fierce resistance.

14:05. Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano states: “In view of the current situation, due to the fact that Germany declared war on the USSR, Italy, as an ally of Germany and as a member of the Tripartite Pact, also declares war on the Soviet Union from the moment German troops entered Soviet territory.”

14:10. The 1st border outpost of Alexander Sivachev has been fighting for more than 10 hours. The border guards, who had only small arms and grenades, destroyed up to 60 Nazis and burned three tanks. The wounded commander of the outpost continued to command the battle.

15:00. From the notes of the commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal von Bock: “The question of whether the Russians are carrying out a systematic withdrawal remains open. There is now plenty of evidence both for and against this.

Of the 485 border posts attacked, not a single one withdrew without orders.

16:00. After a 12-hour battle, the Nazis took the positions of the 1st border outpost. This became possible only after all the border guards who defended it died. The head of the outpost, Alexander Sivachev, was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.

The feat of the outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev was one of hundreds committed by border guards in the first hours and days of the war. On June 22, 1941, the state border of the USSR from the Barents to the Black Sea was guarded by 666 border outposts, 485 of which were attacked on the very first day of the war. Not one of the 485 outposts attacked on June 22 withdrew without orders.

Hitler's command allotted 20 minutes to break the resistance of the border guards. 257 Soviet border posts held their defense from several hours to one day. More than one day - 20, more than two days - 16, more than three days - 20, more than four and five days - 43, from seven to nine days - 4, more than eleven days - 51, more than twelve days - 55, more than 15 days - 51 outpost. Forty-five outposts fought for up to two months.

Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The workers of Leningrad listen to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti

Of the 19,600 border guards who met the Nazis on June 22 in the direction of the main attack of Army Group Center, more than 16,000 died in the first days of the war.

17:00. Hitler's units manage to occupy the southwestern part of the Brest Fortress, the northeast remained under the control of Soviet troops. Stubborn battles for the fortress will continue for weeks.

“The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland”

18:00. The Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow and Kolomna, addresses the believers with a message: “Fascist robbers attacked our homeland. Trampling all kinds of agreements and promises, they suddenly fell upon us, and now the blood of peaceful citizens is already irrigating our native land... Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. She endured trials with him and was consoled by his successes. She will not abandon her people even now... The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland.”

20:00. Directive No. 3 of the People's Commissariat of Defense was approved, ordering Soviet troops to launch a counteroffensive with the task of defeating Hitler's troops on the territory of the USSR with further advance into enemy territory. The directive ordered the capture of the Polish city of Lublin by the end of June 24.

Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. June 22, 1941 Nurses provide assistance to the first wounded after a Nazi air raid near Chisinau. Photo: RIA Novosti

“We must provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can.”

21:00. Summary of the Red Army High Command for June 22: “At dawn on June 22, 1941, regular troops of the German army attacked our border units on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and were held back by them during the first half of the day. In the afternoon, German troops met with the advanced units of the field troops of the Red Army. After fierce fighting, the enemy was repulsed with heavy losses. Only in the Grodno and Kristinopol directions did the enemy manage to achieve minor tactical successes and occupy the towns of Kalwaria, Stoyanuv and Tsekhanovets (the first two are 15 km and the last 10 km from the border).

Enemy aircraft attacked a number of our airfields and populated areas, but everywhere they met decisive resistance from our fighters and anti-aircraft artillery, which inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. We shot down 65 enemy aircraft.”

23:00. Message from the Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill to the British people in connection with the German attack on the USSR: “At 4 o'clock this morning Hitler attacked Russia. All his usual formalities of treachery were observed with scrupulous precision... suddenly, without a declaration of war, even without an ultimatum, German bombs fell from the sky on Russian cities, German troops violated Russian borders, and an hour later the German ambassador, who just the day before had generously lavished his assurances on the Russians in friendship and almost an alliance, paid a visit to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and declared that Russia and Germany were at war...

The past, with its crimes, follies and tragedies, recedes. I see Russian soldiers as they stand on the border of their native land and guard the fields that their fathers have plowed since time immemorial. I see them guarding their homes; their mothers and wives pray—oh, yes, because at such a time everyone prays for the safety of their loved ones, for the return of their breadwinner, patron, their protectors...

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

June 22 came to an end. There were still 1,417 days ahead of the worst war in human history.

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

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

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

At that time, no one knew that it would go down in human history as the bloodiest. No one guessed that the Soviet people would have to go through inhuman tests, pass and win. To rid the world of fascism, showing everyone that the spirit of a Red Army soldier cannot be broken by the invaders. No one could have imagined that the names of the hero cities would become known to the whole world, that Stalingrad would become a symbol of the fortitude of our people, Leningrad - a symbol of courage, Brest - a symbol of courage. That, along with male warriors, old men, women and children will heroically defend the earth from the fascist plague.

1418 days and nights of war.

Over 26 million human lives...

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

On the eve of the war

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

German air raid

The first to bear the blow were the border guards and the soldiers of the covering units. They not only defended themselves, but also launched counterattacks. For a whole month, the garrison of the Brest Fortress fought in the German rear. Even after the enemy managed to capture the fortress, some of its defenders continued to resist. The last of them was captured by the Germans in the summer of 1942.

The photo was taken on June 24, 1941.

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

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

Poster from 1941

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

The mobilization capabilities of the Soviet system, multiplied during the Great Patriotic War by the patriotism and sacrifice of the people, played an important role in organizing resistance to the enemy, especially at the initial stage of the war. The call “Everything for the front, everything for victory!” was accepted by all the people. Hundreds of thousands of Soviet citizens voluntarily joined the active army. In just a week since the start of the war, over 5 million people were mobilized.

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

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

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

The stubborn resistance of the Red Army in the summer of 1941 thwarted Hitler's plans. The Nazis failed to quickly take either Moscow or Leningrad, and in September the long defense of Leningrad began. In the Arctic, Soviet troops, in cooperation with the Northern Fleet, defended Murmansk and the main fleet base - Polyarny. Although in Ukraine in October - November the enemy captured the Donbass, captured Rostov, and broke into the Crimea, yet here, too, his troops were fettered by the defense of Sevastopol. Formations of Army Group South were unable to reach the rear of the Soviet troops remaining in the lower reaches of the Don through the Kerch Strait.

Minsk 1941. Execution of Soviet prisoners of war

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

On guard of the Moscow sky. Autumn 1941

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

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

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

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

Hundreds of thousands of our compatriots ended up in more than 14 thousand concentration camps, prisons, and ghettos scattered throughout Europe. The scale of the tragedy is evidenced by dispassionate figures: in Russia alone, the fascist occupiers shot, strangled in gas chambers, burned, and hanged 1.7 million. people (including 600 thousand children). In total, about 5 million Soviet citizens died in concentration camps.

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

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

By November 1942, almost 40% of the population was under German occupation. The regions captured by the Germans were subject to military and civil administration. In Germany, a special ministry for the affairs of the occupied regions was even created, headed by A. Rosenberg. Political supervision was carried out by the SS and police services. Locally, the occupiers formed the so-called self-government - city and district councils, and the positions of elders were introduced in villages. People who were dissatisfied with Soviet power were invited to cooperate. All residents of the occupied territories, regardless of age, were required to work. In addition to participating in the construction of roads and defensive structures, they were forced to clear minefields. The civilian population, mainly young people, were also sent to forced labor in Germany, where they were called “ostarbeiter” and were used as cheap labor. In total, 6 million people were kidnapped during the war years. More than 6.5 million people were killed from famine and epidemics in the occupied territory; more than 11 million Soviet citizens were shot in camps and at their places of residence.

November 19, 1942 Soviet troops moved to counter-offensive at Stalingrad (Operation Uranus). The forces of the Red Army surrounded 22 divisions and 160 separate units of the Wehrmacht (about 330 thousand people). Hitler's command formed Army Group Don, consisting of 30 divisions, and tried to break through the encirclement. However, this attempt was unsuccessful. In December, our troops, having defeated this group, launched an attack on Rostov (Operation Saturn). By the beginning of February 1943, our troops eliminated a group of fascist troops that found themselves in a ring. 91 thousand people were taken prisoner, led by the commander of the 6th German Army, General Field Marshal von Paulus. Behind 6.5 months of the Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943) Germany and its allies lost up to 1.5 million people, as well as a huge amount of equipment. The military power of Nazi Germany was significantly undermined.

The defeat at Stalingrad caused a deep political crisis in Germany. It declared three days of mourning. The morale of the German soldiers fell, defeatist sentiments gripped wide sections of the population, who believed the Fuhrer less and less.

The victory of the Soviet troops at Stalingrad marked the beginning of a radical change in the course of the Second World War. The strategic initiative finally passed into the hands of the Soviet Armed Forces.

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

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

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

In September, Left Bank Ukraine and Donbass were liberated. On November 6, formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front entered Kyiv.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

May 9, 1945 at 0:43 a.m. In the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed. On behalf of the Soviet side, this historical document was signed by the war hero, Marshal G.K. Zhukov, from Germany - Field Marshal Keitel. On the same day, the remnants of the last large enemy group on the territory of Czechoslovakia in the Prague region were defeated. City Liberation Day - May 9 became Victory Day of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The news of the Victory spread throughout the world with lightning speed. The Soviet people, who suffered the greatest losses, greeted it with popular rejoicing. Truly, it was a great holiday “with tears in our eyes.”

In Moscow, on Victory Day, a festive fireworks display of a thousand guns was fired.

Great Patriotic War 1941-1945

Material prepared by Sergey SHULYAK

In the early morning of June 22, 1941, the Great Patriotic War began. The German attack on the USSR came as a complete surprise to the Soviet government. No one expected such treachery from Hitler. The command of the Red Army did everything to avoid giving rise to aggression. There was a strict order among the troops not to give in to provocations.

In March 1941, anti-aircraft gunners of the coastal artillery of the Baltic Fleet opened fire on German intruder aircraft. For this, the fleet leadership almost went under execution. After this incident, cartridges and shells were confiscated from the leading regiments and divisions. The locks on the artillery pieces were removed and put into storage. All border bridges have been cleared. For attempting to shoot at German military aircraft, the perpetrators faced a military tribunal.

And then suddenly the war began. But the draconian order of provocation tied the officers and soldiers hand and foot. For example, you are the commander of an aviation regiment. German planes are bombing your airfield. But you don't know if other airfields are being bombed. If they knew, then it is clear that a war has begun. But you are not allowed to know this. You see only your airfield and only your burning planes.

And each of the millions of officers and soldiers could see only a tiny piece of what was happening. What is this? Provocation? Or is it no longer a provocation? You start shooting, and then it turns out that only in your area the enemy took provocative actions. And what awaits you? Tribunal and execution.

After the outbreak of hostilities on the border, Stalin and the top commanders of the Red Army gathered in his office. Molotov came in and announced that the German government had declared war. The directive ordering the start of retaliatory military action was written only at 7:15 am. After that, it was encrypted and sent to military districts.

Meanwhile, airfields were burning, Soviet soldiers were dying. German tanks crossed the state border, and a powerful large-scale offensive by the fascist army began. Communications in the Red Army were disrupted. Therefore, the directive simply could not reach many headquarters. All this can be summed up in one phrase - loss of control. There is nothing worse in wartime.

Following the first directive, the second directive went to the troops. She ordered a counterattack to begin. Those who received it were forced not to defend, but to attack. This only made the situation worse, as the planes were on fire, the tanks were on fire, the artillery pieces were on fire, and their shells were lying in warehouses. The personnel also had no ammunition. All of them were also in warehouses. And how to carry out counterattacks?

Captured Red Army soldiers and German soldiers

As a result of all this, in 2 weeks of fighting, the entire personnel of the Red Army was destroyed. Some of the personnel died, and the rest were captured. The enemy captured a huge number of tanks, guns and ammunition. All captured equipment was repaired, repainted and launched into battle under German banners. Many former Soviet tanks went through the entire war with crosses on their turrets. And the former Soviet artillery fired at the advancing Red Army troops.

But why did the disaster happen? How did it happen that the German attack came as a complete surprise to Stalin and his entourage? Maybe Soviet intelligence did not work well and overlooked the unprecedented concentration of German troops near the border? No, I didn’t miss it. Soviet intelligence officers knew the location of the divisions, their numbers, and weapons. However, no measures were taken. And why? We'll figure this out now.

Why did Germany attack the USSR unexpectedly?

Comrade Stalin understood that war with Germany could not be avoided, so he prepared for it extremely seriously. The leader paid great attention to personnel. He changed them gradually, step by step. Moreover, he was guided by some of his own principles. But the most remarkable thing is that Joseph Vissarionovich ordered that undesirable people be shot. Soviet intelligence did not escape bloody repressions.

All its leaders were eliminated one after another. These are Stigga, Nikonov, Berzin, Unshlikht, Proskurov. Aralov spent several years under investigation with the use of physical force.

Here is a description of Oskar Ansonovich for Stiggu, written at the end of 1934: “In his work he is proactive, disciplined, hardworking. He has a firm and decisive character. He implements outlined plans and orders with persistence and perseverance. He reads a lot, engages in self-education.” The characteristic is good, but it did not save the scout. As Vysotsky sang: “They took the useful one out, hands behind his back, and threw him into a black crater with a flourish.”

An abandoned Soviet T-26 tank reached Moscow as part of German troops

It goes without saying that when a leader was liquidated, his first deputies, deputies, advisers, assistants, and heads of departments and departments were also subject to liquidation. When department heads were eliminated, a shadow of suspicion fell on the operational officers and the agents they led. Therefore, the destruction of the leader entailed the destruction of the entire intelligence network.

This could have affected the fruitful work of such a serious department as the Intelligence Agency. Of course it could, and it did. The only thing Stalin achieved was to prevent any conspiracy against himself and the Politburo. No one planted a briefcase with a bomb on the leader, unlike Hitler, who limited himself to only one night of long knives. And Joseph Vissarionovich had as many such nights as there were days in a year.

Work on replacing personnel was carried out constantly. It is quite possible that the intelligence service was finally staffed by real masters of their craft. These people thought professionally, and considered their enemies to be exactly the same professionals as themselves. To this we can add high ideological principles, party modesty and personal devotion to the leader of the people.

A few words about Richard Sorg

The work of military intelligence in 1940-1941 can be examined using the example of Richard Sorge. This man was once personally recruited by Yan Berzin. And the work of Ramsay (operational pseudonym Sorge) was supervised by Solomon Uritsky. Both of these intelligence officers were liquidated at the end of August 1938 after severe torture. After this, German resident Gorev and Finnish woman Aina Kuusinen were arrested. Shanghai resident Karl Rimm was summoned to leave and was eliminated. Sorge's wife Ekaterina Maksimova was arrested. She admitted to having connections with enemy intelligence and was eliminated.

And then in January 1940, Ramsay received an encrypted message from Moscow: “Dear friend, you work hard and are tired. Come, relax. We look forward to seeing you in Moscow.” To which the glorious Soviet intelligence officer replies: “With great gratitude I accept your greetings and wishes regarding vacation. But, unfortunately, I cannot come on vacation. This will reduce the flow of important information.”

But the bosses from the Intelligence Directorate are not appeased. They again send an encrypted message: “God bless the work, Ramsay. You can’t change it all anyway. Come, relax. You’ll go to the sea, sunbathe on the beach, drink vodka.” And our intelligence officer answers again: “I can’t come. There’s a lot of interesting and important work.” And the answer was: “Come, Ramsay, come.”

But Richard never heeded the entreaties of his leaders from Moscow. He did not leave Japan and did not go to Russia, because he knew perfectly well what awaited him there. And what awaited him was Lubyansky's deliverance, torture and death. But from the point of view of the communists, this meant that the intelligence officer refused to return to the USSR. He was registered as a malicious defector. Could Comrade Stalin trust such a person? Naturally not.

The legendary Soviet T-34 tanks went to the Germans in the first days of the war and fought in German tank divisions

But you need to know the leader of the peoples. He cannot be denied intelligence, prudence and restraint. If Ramsay had sent a message supported by facts, he would have been believed. However, Richard Sorge had no evidence regarding the German attack on the USSR. Yes, he sent a message to Moscow that the war would begin on June 22, 1941. But such messages also came from other intelligence officers. However, they were not confirmed by ironclad facts and evidence. All this information was based only on rumors. Who takes rumors seriously?

It should be noted here that Ramsay’s main target was not Germany, but Japan. He was faced with the task of preventing the Japanese army from starting a war against the USSR. And Richard managed to do this brilliantly. In the fall of 1941, Sorge informed Stalin that Japan would not start a war against the Soviet Union. And the leader believed this unconditionally. Dozens of divisions were removed from the Far Eastern border and thrown near Moscow.

Where does such faith come from for a malicious defector? And the whole point is that the intelligence officer provided not rumors, but evidence. He named the state against which Japan was preparing a surprise attack. All this was confirmed by facts. That is why Ramsay’s encryption was treated with complete confidence.

Now let’s imagine that in January 1940, Richard Sorge would have left for Moscow, naively believing his bosses from the Intelligence Directorate. And who would then be involved in preventing a Japanese attack on the Soviet Union? Who would have informed Stalin that the Japanese militarists would not violate the Soviet border? Or maybe the leader of the people had dozens of intelligence officers in Tokyo? However, only Sorge became a Hero of the Soviet Union. Therefore, there was no one except him. And how should we then treat Comrade Stalin’s personnel policy?

Why did Stalin believe that Germany was not ready for war?

In December 1940, the leadership of Soviet intelligence informed the Politburo that Hitler had decided to fight on 2 fronts. That is, he was going to attack the Soviet Union without ending the war in the West. This issue was thoroughly discussed, and Joseph Vissarionovich ordered the intelligence officers to organize their work in such a way as to know for sure whether Germany was really preparing for war or was simply bluffing.

After this, military intelligence began to carefully monitor a number of aspects that made up the military preparations of the German army. And Stalin received messages every week that military preparations had not yet begun.

On June 21, 1941, a Politburo meeting took place. It discussed the issue of the enormous concentration of German troops on the western border of the USSR. The numbers of all German divisions, the names of their commanders and locations were given. Almost everything was known, including the name of Operation Barbarossa, the time it began and many other military secrets. At the same time, the head of the Intelligence Directorate reported that preparations for war had not yet begun. Without this, combat operations cannot be carried out. And 12 hours after the end of the Politburo meeting, the German attack on the USSR became a reality.

And how should we then treat military intelligence, which did not see the obvious and misled the leaders of the Soviet state? But the whole point is that the intelligence officers reported only the truth to Stalin. Hitler really did not prepare for war against the Soviet Union.

Joseph Vissarionovich did not believe the documents, considering them a fake and a provocation. Therefore, key indicators were found that determined Hitler's preparation for war. The most important indicator is rams. All residents in Germany were ordered to keep an eye on the sheep.

Information on the number of sheep in Europe was collected and carefully processed. The scouts identified the main centers of their cultivation and slaughtering centers. Residents received information about lamb prices in the markets of European cities 2 times a day.

The second indicator is dirty rags and oily paper that remains after cleaning the weapon.. There were many German troops in Europe, and the soldiers cleaned their weapons every day. The rags and paper used were burned or buried in the ground. But this rule was not always observed. So the scouts had the opportunity to obtain used rags in large quantities. The oiled rags were transported to the USSR, where they were carefully examined by experts.

As a third indicator, kerosene lamps, kerosene gases, kerosene stoves, lanterns and lighters were transported across the border. They were also carefully examined by experts. There were other indicators that were mined in large quantities.

Stalin and the leaders of military intelligence reasonably believed that very serious preparation was needed for a war against the USSR. The most important element of readiness for combat operations were sheepskin coats. About 6 million of them were required. That's why the scouts kept an eye on the sheep.

As soon as Hitler decides to attack the Soviet Union, his General Staff will give the order to prepare the operation. Consequently, mass slaughter of sheep will begin. This will have an immediate impact on the European market. Prices for lamb meat will go down, and prices for lamb skins will soar up.

Soviet intelligence believed that for the war with the USSR, the German army should use a completely different type of lubricating oil for its weapons. Standard German gun oil froze in the cold, which could lead to weapon failure. Therefore, the scouts waited for the Wehrmacht to change the type of oil for cleaning weapons. But the collected rags indicated that the Germans continued to use their usual oil. And this proved that the German troops were not ready for war.

Soviet experts carefully monitored German motor fuel. In the cold, ordinary fuel decomposed into non-combustible fractions. Therefore, the General Staff had to give an order for the production of other fuel that would not decompose in the cold. Scouts transported samples of liquid fuel across the border in lanterns, lighters, and Primus stoves. But tests showed that there was nothing new. German troops used their usual fuel.

There were other aspects that were under the careful control of intelligence officers. Any deviation from the norm should have been a warning signal. But Adolf Hitler launched Operation Barbarossa without any preparation. Why he did this is a mystery to this day. German troops were created for the war in Western Europe, but nothing was done to prepare the army for the war in Russia.

That is why Stalin did not consider the German troops ready for war. His opinion was shared by all the intelligence officers. They did everything possible to uncover preparations for the invasion. But there was no preparation. There was only a huge concentration of German troops near the Soviet border. But there was not a single division ready for combat on the territory of the Soviet Union.

So was the new cohort of intelligence officers, who replaced the old cadres, to blame for failing to predict Germany’s attack on the USSR? It seems that the liquidated comrades would have behaved in exactly the same way. They would look for signs of preparation for hostilities, but they would not be able to find anything. Since it is impossible to detect what is not there.

Alexander Semashko