Countries liberated from the Nazis by the Soviet army. Liberation of European countries by Soviet forces and its employees

The policy and strategy of the USSR and the Anglo-American allies in the liberation of Europe

At the final stage of the war in Europe, the advance of troops largely determined the post-war alignment of forces. The Resistance Movement, where the leading role was played by the communist parties, could also determine the political structure in the states liberated from the fascists. Politics and military strategy during this period were especially closely intertwined. The Soviet leadership strove for the fastest and most decisive end of the war with the complete defeat of fascism. At the same time, the task of strengthening the post-war international position of the USSR was also solved. The Anglo-American leadership sought to strengthen its influence in Europe, preserve the capitalist system as much as possible and limit the influence of the USSR. All this complicated allied relations and left an imprint on strategic decisions.

Taking into account the agreement reached with the allies on the opening of a second front, the growing power of the Red Army and the increased level of Soviet military art, the Supreme Command Headquarters adopted a plan for a decisive strategic offensive in 1944. the territory of the USSR and the liberation of the peoples of Europe.

The offensive, launched in the winter of 1944 near Leningrad and Novgorod, went on continuously. The Red Army did not give the enemy respite. From the end of December 1943 to mid-May 1944, our troops marched westward over 1 000 km, defeated 99 divisions and 2 enemy brigades (of which 22 divisions and 1 brigade were destroyed). On the Right Bank Ukraine - the main direction of the offensive - the Nazi command deployed 43 divisions and 4 brigades, of which 34 divisions and all brigades were from European countries and from Germany itself.

In the spring of 1944, Soviet troops reached the southwestern border of the USSR and transferred the hostilities to the territory of Romania. The troops of generals F.I.Tolbukhin and A.I. Eremenko, together with the forces of the Black Sea Fleet and the Azov military flotilla, under the command of admirals F. S. Oktyabrsky and S. G. Gorshkov, liberated the Crimea.

By this time, the Allies prepared for the landing of their troops in northern France. Operation Overlord is the largest strategic landing in history, involving a huge expeditionary force of 2 million 876 thousand people. The disembarkation began at dawn on 6 July. During the first two days, 250 thousand people were deployed with 300 guns and 1,500 tanks. Paying tribute to the scale and skill of the Allied amphibious operations, it is necessary to assess the weaknesses of the German "Atlantic Wall", the main forces of the Wehrmacht fought on the Soviet-German front.

Simultaneously with the Allied offensive in the west, in the summer of 1944, the largest offensive operations of the Red Army were deployed. On June 10, the liberation of Karelia began, which led the Finnish government to a decision to withdraw from the war. This was followed by the main blow in Belarus and Western Ukraine.

The Belarusian operation ("Bagration") is one of the largest in the Second World War. It was carried out on a front with a width of 1,100 km by the forces of 4 fronts, numbering about 2 million people, 36,400 guns and mortars, 5,200 tanks and self-propelled guns, 5,300 aircraft. On 26% of the entire length of the Soviet-German front, 40% of the personnel, 77% of the tanks and 53% of the aircraft of the entire active army were concentrated. This made it possible to achieve superiority in forces: in the number of troops - 2: 1; guns - 3.8: 1; tanks - 5.8: 1; aircraft - 3.9: 1. The offensive began suddenly for the enemy, who was waiting for him in the south. On June 23, after powerful air strikes and active actions of the Belarusian partisans, Soviet troops wedged themselves into the enemy's defenses. Tank and mechanized groupings rushed into the resulting gaps. On July 3, Minsk was liberated, to the east of which 105 thousand German soldiers and officers remained in the encirclement ring. In other "boilers" near Vitebsk and Bobruisk, another 30 thousand and 40 thousand, respectively, are surrounded. The troops of the fronts were commanded by I. Kh. Bagramyan, G. F. Zakharov, K. K. Rokossovsky, I. D. Chernyakhovsky.

Soviet troops developed a swift offensive and reached the border of East Prussia to the Grodno-Bialystok line, and in the south to Brest. During the offensive in Belarus, the Lvov-Sandomierz operation began to liberate Western Ukraine.

In connection with the entry of our troops into Polish territory, the Soviet government in its statement declared the independence of Poland and entered into an agreement with the Polish Committee for National Liberation (PKNL) on the relationship between the Soviet command and the Polish administration. PKNO took over the leadership of the struggle of the Polish people against the occupiers and the restoration of the economy in the liberated regions, began to carry out democratic reforms.

At the direction of the London émigré government, the leadership of the Polish underground, without warning the Soviet command, began an uprising in Warsaw with the aim of bringing the Polish émigré government to power with an anti-Soviet orientation. Soviet troops, exhausted by that time by long battles, were unable to provide effective assistance to the rebels, attempts to connect with the rebels did not give positive results. The Germans brutally suppressed the uprising, destroyed Warsaw.

The grandiose offensive of the Red Army intensified the demand of the public in the USA and England to intensify actions in France. But the Allied offensive from the bridgehead in Normandy began only on July 25, 5 days after the failed assassination attempt on Hitler. German troops tried to counter-strike, but to no avail, and began to retreat. On August 15, the allied landing also landed in the south of France, after which the Germans began an organized withdrawal along the entire Western Front. By August 25, the Allies took possession of the French territory between the Seine and the Loire. Resistance fighters fought the invaders across the country. The armed struggle of the French people greatly aided the offensive of the Allied forces. The central link in the struggle was the successful Parisian armed uprising led by the communists.

The allied command, seeking to strengthen its influence in the country and prevent the strengthening of the Communists, delayed the agreement with the French government after the landing and carried out the occupation regime for 3 months. It was only on August 26, after the liberation of Paris, that the Allies signed an agreement with the French authorities, as they preferred, according to Churchill, "De Gaulle France over communist France."

The Hitlerite command withdrew its troops to the former Franco-German border and took emergency measures to strengthen the "western defensive wall". The allied armies advanced in the wake of the retreating German units without encountering significant opposition. On September 2, they crossed the Belgian border, liberated Brussels, and on September 10 they captured Luxembourg. By this time, the Germans had occupied the Siegfried defensive line and stopped the Allied offensive on it.

The joint offensive of the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition hastened the collapse of the Nazi bloc and intensified the struggle of anti-fascist forces in the countries of Eastern, Central and Southern Europe. In the countries occupied by fascist Germany and the states allied with it, a sharp polarization of forces occurred during the war. The big bourgeoisie and reactionary circles united with the fascist regime, and in the anti-fascist Resistance movement the left forces, led by the communists, rallied. The struggle of the anti-fascist forces for national liberation merged with the revolutionary struggle for democratic and socialist transformations. The victories of the Soviet Union made socialism popular among the broad masses and strengthened the influence of the communist parties. The entry of Soviet troops into the territory of the countries of Eastern and Central Europe revolutionized the liberation movement, supported the political forces of a socialist orientation.

The policy of the Anglo-American allies in the liberated territories of European states was aimed at preserving the pre-war regimes, weakening the influence of the communist parties, all-round containment of revolutionary processes and asserting their political influence. These contradictions seriously threatened the unity of the anti-Hitler coalition. The art of politics, its close connection with the effective strategy of each side during the offensive largely determined the course of socio-political processes in European countries at the final stage of World War II.

In the area of ​​the offensive of the Anglo-American troops, in addition to the uprising in France, which made a significant contribution to the liberation of their homeland, armed uprisings against the occupiers also took place in Belgium and Denmark. In Belgium, the rebels liberated Antwerp, while in Denmark the Resistance forces did not receive the support of the Anglo-American troops, and the invaders managed to suppress the uprising. In all the countries of Western Europe liberated by the Anglo-American troops, power remained in the hands of the bourgeoisie, and the Resistance detachments were disarmed. However, the role of the communist parties in the course of the liberation struggle remained so great that the governments of almost all the liberated countries included representatives of the communist parties and the united left forces, despite the efforts of the ruling circles of the United States and Great Britain.

The work of the communist parties under the prevailing conditions during the war differed sharply in each country, and the political situation changed extremely rapidly. Under the new conditions, the activities of the Comintern have already outlived their usefulness, and by a special decision of the Presidium of the ECCI, the Comintern in May 1943 was disbanded. This decision was also important for strengthening the anti-Hitler coalition.

In the countries of Eastern, Southern and Central Europe, the process of the defeat of Hitler's troops by the armed forces of the Soviet Union merged with the liberation anti-fascist people's democratic uprisings and revolutions.

During the Iasi-Kishinev operation to liberate Moldova in Bucharest on August 23, an anti-fascist uprising began under the leadership of the Communist Party of Romania and in agreement with the Romanian king. A "government of national unity" was created, which announced the cessation of hostilities against the United Nations and Romania's acceptance of the armistice terms presented by the USSR, Britain and the United States back in the spring of 1944, but rejected by the then fascist government of Antonescu. Hitler ordered German troops stationed in the rear areas of Romania to suppress the uprising and strike at Bucharest with aircraft. The Soviet leadership decides to provide prompt assistance to the insurgents. Leaving 34 divisions to defeat the encircled enemy troops, the Soviet command sent 50 divisions deep into Romania. By August 29, the encircled enemy troops were defeated, 208.6 thousand people were taken prisoner. By August 31, Soviet soldiers, together with Romanian formations and workers' detachments, liberated Ploiesti, and then entered Bucharest, enthusiastically greeted by the residents.

During the liberation of Romania, Soviet troops reached the borders of Bulgaria, where by the summer of 1944 a communist-led guerrilla war had begun against the monarchist-fascist government, which had drawn Bulgaria into a bloc with Germany and provided its territory and resources to fight against the USSR. In 1944 Bulgaria continued to actively help Germany. The new government of Bulgaria, formed on September 2, 1944, declared neutrality, but still left its territory at the disposal of the German fascists.

On September 5, the Soviet government announced that the policy of so-called neutrality was providing direct assistance to Nazi Germany. It led to the fact that the Soviet Union "from now on will be in a state of war with Bulgaria." On September 7, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front crossed the Romanian-Bulgarian border without firing a shot, greeted by the Bulgarian people as liberators.

On this day, at an illegal meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the BKP, a decision was made to start an uprising at 2 am on September 9. The uprising in Sofia passed bloodlessly and achieved complete victory, ministers and senior military leaders were arrested. The leadership of the Fatherland Front came to power, which declared war on Germany. The Bulgarian army, together with the Soviet troops, entered into an armed struggle against the Nazis. The people's government, which came to power, immediately began to carry out political and socio-economic transformations in the country.

The advance of Soviet troops in Bulgaria dramatically changed the entire situation in southern Europe. The Yugoslav partisans, who, under the leadership of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia for 3.5 years, fought heroically against the Nazis and their accomplices, received direct assistance from the Red Army. In accordance with the agreement of the government of the USSR and the leadership of the liberation movement of Yugoslavia, the Soviet troops, together with the Yugoslav and Bulgarian units, carried out the Belgrade operation. Having defeated the German army grouping, they liberated Belgrade, which became the seat of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Yugoslavia and the National Committee for the Liberation of Yugoslavia, headed by Joseph Broz Tito. The Yugoslav People's Army received a strong rear and military assistance for the further struggle for the complete liberation of the country. In Albania, by the end of November, German troops were driven out by popular resistance forces, and a Provisional Democratic Government was also formed here.

Simultaneously with the offensive in the Balkans, the Red Army advanced into the Eastern Carpathians to help the Slovak partisans and the borders of Hungary. Overcoming fierce enemy resistance, Soviet soldiers liberated a third of Hungarian territory by the end of October and launched an offensive against Budapest. The anti-fascist front of Hungary created the Insurrectionary Liberation Committee, which included several political parties led by the communist. The liberated territory became the basis for the creation of people's power and the development of the people's democratic revolution in the country. December Interim national assembly formed the Provisional Government, which declared war on Germany and began to reorganize the political and economic life of the country on a democratic basis.

In October, the troops of the Karelian Front (General K.A. Meretskov) together with the forces of the Northern Fleet (Admiral A.G. Golovko) liberated the Soviet Arctic and part of Northern Norway. Fulfilling its liberation mission in Europe, the Red Army fought together with the allied people's armies of foreign countries. The People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and the Yugoslav partisans, the Polish Army (1st and 2nd armies) and Polish partisans, the 1st Czechoslovak Corps and Czechoslovak partisans acted against the common enemy - Hitler's troops, from late August to early September 1944 - the Romanian and Bulgarian armies, and at the final stage of the war - units of the new Hungarian army. In the flames of the war against fascism, the foundations of the military commonwealth of the armed forces of the USSR and the new people's republics were formed. Particularly heavy fighting took place in Hungary during the Budapest operation, which began on October 29 and lasted until February 13, 1945 by the forces of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, the Danube flotilla with the involvement of the 1st Bulgarian army and the 3rd Yugoslav army. A bloody defensive battle took place in the area of ​​Lake Balaton, where Soviet troops bravely withstood a powerful enemy tank attack.

In the fall of 1944, the German armed forces stabilized the situation on the Western and Italian fronts and organized fierce resistance on the Eastern front. The Hitlerite leadership decided to go over to active operations on the Western Front in order to achieve a separate peace with the Anglo-American allies "on the principle of force" by launching a major counteroffensive in the Ardennes. This was the first prepared major offensive of the Wehrmacht against the Anglo-American troops and Hitler's last bet on getting out of the war with conditions acceptable to him. German industrialists took all measures to provide the Wehrmacht with the necessary weapons and materiel. At the cost of the brutal exploitation of millions of foreign workers, it was possible to increase military production in the fall of 1944 to the highest level in the entire war (this shows at the same time the low effectiveness of strategic bombing of the Allied aviation for several years).

The surprise offensive of Hitler's troops on December 16, 1944 in the Ardennes inflicted a serious defeat on the American army. The German advance created a critical situation for the Allies in Europe. D. Eisenhower (commander of the allied forces in Europe), assessing the current situation, came to the conclusion that it would be difficult for the allies to cope with the German offensive on their own and asked Roosevelt to find out the prospect of a new Soviet offensive. On January 6, 1945, Churchill asked Stalin to inform him of the possibility of a major offensive on the Vistula front or elsewhere during January. On January 7, 1945, Stalin announced that, given the position of our allies, broad offensive actions would be undertaken in the central sector of the front no later than the second half of January. By the decision of the Headquarters, the beginning of the final offensive of the Red Army was postponed from January 20 to January 12.

The final stage of the war. the conference.

Warsaw was liberated on January 17, Lodz and Krakow on January 19, which, during the retreat, the Nazis mined, but Soviet intelligence officers managed to save the city. In order to preserve the Silesian industrial region, the front commander, I.S.Konev, gives the German troops the opportunity to get out of the encirclement, smashing outgoing formations in the course of the pursuit. By the end of January - early February, the troops of the 1st Belorussian (Marshal Zhukov) and 1st Ukrainian (Marshal Konev) fronts reached the Oder, capturing large bridgeheads on its western coast. Berlin was 60 km away. The troops of the 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts (Marshals Rokossovsky and Vasilevsky), together with the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (Admiral V.F. Tribun), launched an offensive in East Prussia and Pomerania. In the south, Soviet troops advanced in Czechoslovakia and began the liberation of Budapest.

As a result of the Soviet offensive in the winter of 1945, the Hitlerite army suffered a crushing defeat, and the imminent end of the war became a fact. The Nazis' hopes for a protracted war for the "fortress Germany" and for a split in the anti-Hitler coalition collapsed completely.

The coordination of a further offensive against Germany from the west and east and the problems of the post-war world order urgently demanded the convocation of a new conference of the heads of government of the USSR, USA and Great Britain. At the suggestion of the Soviet Union, Yalta was chosen as the venue. This decision showed the increased authority of the USSR and its decisive role in the end of the Second World War. The Crimean (Yalta) Conference of the Heads of Government of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain (J.V. Stalin, F. Roosevelt, W. Churchill) was held from 4 to 11 February 1945. All three powers were united in matters of military strategy with the aim of ending the war as quickly as possible ... The military headquarters agreed on interaction and, accordingly, the boundaries of the occupation zones were fundamentally determined.

The central question - about the future of Germany - has been resolved. The heads of state outlined the foundations of a coordinated policy based on the principles of democratization, demilitarization, denazification, and the creation of guarantees that Germany "will never be able to break the peace." An agreement was reached on the Polish question, which opened the way for the development of a free and independent Polish state within historically fair borders. The fate of the second hotbed of aggression is predetermined, the date for the entry of the USSR into the war in the Far East is fixed - 3 months after the end of the war with Germany. In Yalta, the principle of equality of arms prevailed. "The United States cannot expect that everything will be done at their discretion at 100%, since this is impossible for Russia and Great Britain as well," President Roosevelt noted.

After the Yalta Conference, a coordinated offensive by the forces of the anti-Hitler coalition began from the east and west. It should be noted that during its fierce resistance to the Nazi army was organized mainly on the Soviet-German front (in the first half of April 214 Nazi divisions were concentrated there). A contingent born in 1929 was drafted into the army, and cruel measures were taken to force the army to fight "to the last soldier."

On April 13, Roosevelt died suddenly, and H. Truman became the President of the United States. As a senator in 1941, he said that if Germany won, it was necessary to help the Soviet Union, and if the USSR won, then help Germany, and "let them kill as much as possible." On April 16, in an address to the troops, Hitler assured that Roosevelt's death would cause a turn in the war. The struggle for Berlin was central to the strategy and policy of the last days of fascism. The Hitlerite leadership believed that "it is better to surrender Berlin to the Anglo-Saxons than to let the Russians into it." Berlin and its approaches have been turned into a powerful defensive area.

On April 16, the Berlin strategic operation began. Soviet troops broke through the deeply echeloned enemy defenses and entered the suburbs of Berlin. On April 25, the encirclement of the Berlin group ended. Heavy fighting ensued with the fascist troops fighting with fanatical, fierce despair.

Meanwhile, along the entire Western and Italian Fronts, the Allies accepted the partial surrender of Hitler's troops (bypassing the signing of the act of unconditional surrender of Germany), rapidly advancing through German territory. At the insistence of the Soviet government, on May 8, all the allies signed an act of Germany's unconditional surrender. It was held in liberated Berlin under the chairmanship of Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov. It was only after the signing of the act that German troops in the east began to lay down their arms everywhere. However, to overcome the resistance of the Nazis in Czechoslovakia, where a popular uprising in Prague began against them on May 5, they had to fight even before May 9, when Soviet tank forces completely liberated Prague. The last day of the war was the day of the liberation of the brotherly Czechoslovak people. The Red Army fulfilled its international duty as a liberation army to the end.

May 9 - The Day of the Victory of the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War was approved as a national holiday.

The defeat of Japan and the end of World War II

The war in Europe is over. The victorious countries began to develop documents on the post-war world. The Potsdam Conference July 7 - August 2, 1945 summed up the Second World War in Europe. The decisions taken at it corresponded to the liberating anti-fascist nature of the war and became a turning point in the life of Europe from war to peace. However, the leaders of Britain (Churchill, and then Atley) and the United States (Truman) tried this time to take a "tough stance" against the USSR. During the conference, the US government made its first attempt at launching "atomic diplomacy." Truman informed Stalin about the creation of a powerful new weapon in the United States.

Having received the assurance that the USSR would enter the war with Japan in accordance with the agreement at the Yalta Conference, the United States and Great Britain, which China joined, published in Potsdam a declaration of Japan's unconditional surrender. The Japanese government rejected it.

The Soviet Union began to deploy and prepare its forces to enter the war with Japan. The Mongols also took part in the war: the People's Republic. Japan at that time had large forces in the vast territories of China, Korea, Southeast Asia and the Pacific Islands. The largest grouping of the Japanese army (the Kwantung Army, numbering over 1 million) was located in Manchuria, on the borders of the USSR. According to the calculations of the US command, the war with Japan without the participation of the Soviet Union could last until 1947 with heavy losses.

The US government hastened to complete preparations for the atomic bombing of Japan, despite the obvious futility of Japanese resistance after the USSR entered the war. On the morning of August 6, the first atomic bomb was dropped on the city of Hiroshima. Of the 306 thousand inhabitants, 140 thousand died at once, tens of thousands died later, 90% of the buildings burned down, the rest turned into ruins.

On August 8, the USSR declared war on Japan and on joining the Potsdam Declaration. On the night of August 9, the Soviet Armed Forces launched an offensive. Truman's government ordered a second atomic bomb to be dropped on Japan as soon as possible. On August 9, an American plane atomic bombed the city of Nagasaki, the death toll was about 75 thousand people. The atomic bombings had no strategic significance, they were intended to intimidate the whole world, primarily the USSR, demonstrating the military might of the United States.

After receiving on the radio in the morning of August 9 the news of the entry of the USSR into the war, the Japanese Prime Minister K. Suzuki convened a Meeting of the Supreme Council for the Leadership of the War and told those present: war ".

Soviet historians, like many foreign historians, adhere to the conclusion of the Japanese researcher N. Rekishi: "Although the United States is trying to present the atomic bombing of Japanese cities as a result of its desire to hasten the end of the war, in reality it was not civilian casualties, but the USSR's entry into the war that led to the early end of the war." ... (Orlov A. Secret battle of superpowers. - M., 2000.)

Soviet troops were rapidly advancing deep into the territory of Manchuria, overcoming long-term fortifications and resistance of Japanese troops. Within a few days, the Kwantung Army was defeated, and on August 14, the Japanese government decided to surrender, on August 19, soldiers and officers of the Kwangun Army began to surrender en masse. Soviet troops together with the forces Pacific Fleet and the Amur Red Banner Flotilla liberated Northeast China and North Korea, captured South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.

Units of the Chinese People's Liberation Army entered northeastern China, and the weapons of the surrendering Kwantung Army were transferred to it. Under the leadership of the Chinese Communist Party, people's organs authorities and military units, the Manchu revolutionary base was formed, which played a decisive role in the subsequent development of the revolutionary movement in China.

In North Korea, the Communist Party was restored and the people's organs of power - People's Committees - were formed, which began to carry out socialist and democratic transformations. With the defeat of Japan, uprisings broke out in many occupied countries and people's democratic revolutions took place - in Vietnam, Malaya, Indonesia and Burma.

On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay on the battleship Missouri, under the chairmanship of General MacArthur, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied Forces in the Pacific, the Act of Surrender of Japan was signed. On behalf of the Soviet Union, General KN Derevyanko signed the Act, the whole ceremony took place in 20 minutes. Thus ended the Second World War- the most tragic period in the history of the XX century.

The historical role of the USSR in the defeat of fascism. Sources of victory

The defeat of fascism was achieved by the combined efforts of the states of the anti-Hitler coalition and forces

countries. Each country contributed to the victory by playing its part in this world battle. The historical role of the state in the defeat of fascism constitutes the national pride of the people, determines the country's prestige in the post-war world and political weight in resolving international issues. That is why Western historiography is trying to belittle and distort the role of the USSR in World War II.

The course of events considered earlier, the analysis of the policies and strategies of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition show that the USSR played an outstanding historical role in the general anti-fascist struggle.

The historical role of the USSR in World War II lies in the fact that the Soviet Union was the main military-political force that determined the victorious course of the war, its decisive results and, ultimately, the protection of the peoples of the world from enslavement by fascism.

A general assessment of the role of the USSR in the war is revealed in the following specific provisions.

1) The Soviet Union is the only force in the world that, as a result of a heroic struggle, stopped in 1941 the continuous victorious march of Nazi Germany's aggression across Europe.

This was achieved at a time when the power of the Hitlerite military machine was greatest, and the US military capabilities were just developing. The victory at Moscow dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the German army, contributed to the rise of the Resistance movement and strengthened the anti-Hitler coalition.

2) The USSR, in fierce battles with the main force of the fascist bloc - Nazi Germany, achieved a radical turning point during the Second World War in favor of the anti-Hitler coalition in 1943.

After the defeat at Stalingrad, Germany, and then Japan, switched from an offensive to a defensive war. In the Battle of Kursk, the ability of the Hitlerite army to resist the Soviet offensive was finally broken, and the crossing of the Dnieper opened the way for the liberation of Europe.

3) the Soviet Union in 1944-1945 carried out a liberation mission in Europe, eliminating the fascist domination over most of the enslaved peoples, preserving their statehood and historically fair borders.

4) The Soviet Union made the greatest contribution to the conduct of the general armed struggle and defeated the main forces of the army of the Hitlerite bloc, thereby causing the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan.

This conclusion is based on the following comparative indicators of the armed struggle of the Red Army and the armies of the Anglo-American allies:

- The Red Army fought against the bulk of the troops of Hitlerite Germany. 1941 - 1942 more than 3/4 of all German troops fought against the USSR, in subsequent years more than 2/3 of the number of Wehrmacht formations were on the Soviet-German front. After the opening of the second front, the Eastern Front remained the main one for Germany; in 1944, 181.5 German divisions acted against the Red Army, 81.5 German divisions opposed the Anglo-American troops;

- on the Soviet-German front, hostilities were conducted with the greatest intensity and spatial scope. Out of 1,418 days, 1,320 active battles took place. On the North African front, out of 1,068, respectively, 309; Italian from 663 - 49. Spatial scope was: along the front 4 - 6 thousand km, which is 4 times more than the North African, Italian and West European fronts combined;

- The Red Army defeated 507 German fascist and 100 divisions of its allies, almost 3.5 times more than the allies on all fronts of World War II. On the Soviet-German front, the German armed forces suffered more than 73% of the losses. Here the bulk of the Wehrmacht's military equipment was destroyed: more than 75% of aircraft (over 70 thousand), up to 75% of tanks and assault guns (about 50 thousand), 74% of artillery pieces (167 thousand);

- continuous strategic offensive of the Red Army in 1943 - 1945. at a high rate, reduced the duration of the war, created favorable conditions for the conduct of hostilities by the allies and intensified their military efforts for fear of being "late" with the liberation of Europe.

Western historiography and propaganda carefully conceal or grossly distort these historical facts, attributing a decisive contribution to the victory of the United States and England. In the last decade of the XX century. they are echoed by some Russian historians and publicists of anti-Soviet and Russophobic orientation.

The historical role that the USSR played in the defeat of fascism was worth heavy losses. The Soviet people brought the most sacrificial share to the altar of victory over fascism. The Soviet Union lost 26.6 million people in the war, tens of millions were wounded and maimed, the birth rate fell sharply, and huge damage was done to health; all Soviet people experienced physical and mental suffering; the standard of living of the population fell.

The national economy has suffered enormous damage. The USSR lost 30% of the national wealth. The cost of damage amounted to 675 billion rubles. 1710 cities and towns, more than 70 thousand villages, more than 6 million buildings, 32 thousand enterprises, 65 thousand km railways... The war devastated the treasury, prevented the creation of new values ​​in the national property, led to a number of negative consequences in the economy, demography, psychology, morality, which together amounted to the indirect costs of the war.

The direct losses of the Soviet Armed Forces (including the troops of the KGB and the Ministry of Internal Affairs), that is, they died, died of wounds, disappeared without a trace, did not return from captivity and non-combat losses, amounted to 8,668,400 people during the war years, taking into account the Far Eastern campaign, including the number of the army and navy is 8,509,300 people. A significant part of the losses occurred in 1941 - 1942. (3,048,800 people). In the battles for the liberation of the peoples of Europe and the complete defeat of fascism, hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers laid down their heads: during the liberation of Poland - 600 thousand, Czechoslovakia - 140 thousand, Hungary - 140 thousand, Romania - about 69 thousand, Yugoslavia - 8 thousand, Austria - 26 thousand, Norway - more than a thousand, Finland - about 2 thousand, over 100 thousand Soviet soldiers were killed on German soil.

Anti-Soviet propaganda abroad and some Russian mass media, conducting the same ideological indoctrination of the population, blasphemously juggle the numbers of losses in the Great Patriotic War. By comparing different types losses in the USSR and Germany, they conclude about the "useless rivers of blood" and "mountains of corpses" of Soviet soldiers, blaming them on the "Soviet system", calling into question the very victory of the USSR over fascism. The falsifiers of history do not mention that fascist Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union, unleashing massive means of destruction on the civilian population. The Nazis used inhuman blockades of cities (700,000 people died of starvation in Leningrad), bombardments and shelling of civilians, carried out mass executions of civilians, drove civilians to hard labor and to concentration camps, where they were subjected to mass destruction. The Soviet Union, on the other hand, strictly fulfilled the agreements on the maintenance of prisoners of war, showed a humane attitude towards them. The Soviet command avoided the conduct of hostilities in densely populated areas, and in a number of cases made it possible for Hitler's troops to leave them without hindrance. There were no repressions against the civilian population in the territories occupied by Soviet troops. Hence, the difference in losses among the civilian population of the USSR and Germany is clear.

According to the latest research (Russia and the USSR in the wars of the XX century. Losses of the armed forces: Statistical study / Edited by G.F. together with allies - Polish, Czechoslovak, Bulgarian, Romanian soldiers - by the end of the war amounted to 10.3 million people, of which Soviet soldiers - 8,668,400, including those killed in captivity (according to official archival data). The losses of the fascist bloc totaled 9.3 million people, of which 7.4 million were Nazi Germany, 1.2 million were satellites in Europe and 0.7 million were Japan in the Manchurian operation. Thus, if we exclude our losses associated with the atrocious treatment of prisoners of war by the Nazis, the discrepancy with the combat losses of Germany is very insignificant, despite the harsh conditions of the beginning of the war.

Speaking about losses, we must remember the main thing - the outcome of the war. The Soviet people defended their independence, the USSR made a decisive contribution to the victory over fascism, saving mankind from the enslavement of the most reactionary system of imperialism. Fascist Germany has been defeated, Hitlerism has been eradicated, and there have been no military clashes in Europe for almost half a century. The Soviet Union received guaranteed security on its European borders.

The Soviet Union withstood the hardest invasion and won the greatest victory in the entire thousand-year history of Russia. What are the sources of the strength of the Soviet people in this gigantic battle? The answer to this question is the main content of one of the important lessons of 20th century history. for contemporaries and descendants. Western historiography, as a rule, avoids this issue, or refers to the mistakes of the German command, severe climatic conditions Russia, the traditional endurance of the Russian soldier, the "cruelty of the totalitarian Soviet regime", etc. The scientific approach to the analysis of the sources of victory is based on strict adherence to the basic principles historical science- objectivity, historicism, social approach in their organic unity.

First of all, it is necessary to note the following historical facts. Capitalist tsarist Russia in the First World War, having more territory than the USSR, began the war in 1914 by attacking the enemy, the main forces of which were deployed in the West. She waged a war when from the very beginning Germany had a second front against 1/3 to 1/2 of the armed forces of the countries of the Central Bloc, and in 1916 it was defeated. The Soviet Union withstood the most powerful blow of the aggressor; For 3 years he fought without a second front from 3/4, and after its opening - from 2/3 of the troops of the Hitlerite bloc, using the resources of all of Europe; defeated the most powerful war machine of imperialism and achieved a decisive victory. Hence the conclusion follows.

The main source of victory is the socialist social system.

It became the basis for the following specific sources of victory in an armed struggle.

1) The spiritual power of the Soviet people, which caused massive heroism at the front and in the rear. The just liberating goals of the war made it truly Great, Patriotic, People's.

Soviet patriotism, which absorbed the military traditions and national pride of Russia, also included socialist ideals. The spiritual power of the people manifested itself in the high morale of the troops and labor tension in the rear, in steadfastness and dedication in fulfilling their duty to the Motherland, in the heroic struggle behind enemy lines and in the mass partisan movement.

The feat of Alexander Matrosov, who closed the embrasure of the enemy bunker, became an act of the greatest self-sacrifice in the name of victory over the enemy and a sense of military camaraderie. The first such feat, confirmed by documents, was performed by the political instructor of a tank company Alexander Pankratov on August 24, 1941. Now history knows more than 200 heroes who performed such feats. Air ramming became a mass phenomenon during the war years, it was committed by 561 fighter pilots, 19 attack aircraft crews and 18 bombers, only 400 of them were able to land their cars or escape by parachute, the rest died (the Germans did not even ram over Berlin). 33 people rammed twice, Lieutenant A. Khlobystov three times, Lieutenant B. Kovzan four times. Forever went down in the history of 28 Panfilov heroes, who blocked the way for German tanks to Moscow, and the feat of five marines led by political instructor N. Filchenkov, who at the cost of their lives stopped a tank column that was breaking through to Sevastopol. The whole world was amazed at the resilience of the defenders of Stalingrad, the symbol of which is "Pavlov's house." The feat of Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, who was not broken by the torture of the Nazis, became a legend. In the fight against the common enemy, 100 nations and nationalities of the country showed heroism. 7,998 Russians, 2,021 Ukrainians, 299 Belarusians, 161 Tartars, 107 Jews, 96 Kazakhs, 90 Georgians, 89 Armenians, 67 Uzbeks, 63 Mordvins, 45 Chuvashes, 43 Azerbaijanis, became Heroes of the Soviet Union out of a total of over 11 thousand people. 38 Bashkirs, 31 Ossetians, 16 Turkmens, 15 Lithuanians, 15 Tajiks, 12 Kyrgyz, 12 Latvians, 10 Komi, 10 Udmurts, 9 Estonians, 8 Karelians, 8 Kalmyks, 6 Adyghes, 6 Kabardians, 4 Abkhazians, 2 Moldovans, 2 Yakuts , 1 Tuvan, etc.

2) The cohesion of Soviet society in the fight against the enemy.

The social homogeneity of society, the absence of exploiting classes in it, were the basis for the moral and political unity of all Soviet people during the years of difficult trials. With their minds and hearts, they understood that in rallying their strength and hope for salvation from a foreign yoke. The friendship of the peoples of the USSR, based on social homogeneity, socialist ideology and common goals of struggle, also withstood the test. The Nazis failed to create a "fifth column" in the USSR, to split the Soviet Union, while the lot of traitors was the anger and contempt of the people.

3) the Soviet state system.

The popular character of Soviet power determined the people's complete confidence in the state leadership in the difficult ordeals of the war. The high centralization of state administration, the well-organized work of the system of state bodies and public organizations ensured the rapid mobilization of all the forces of society to solve the most important tasks, the transformation of the country into a single military camp, and close unity of the front and rear.

4) Socialist economy, its planning and distribution economic mechanism and mobilization abilities.

The socialist national economy has won a victory over the German war economy, which uses the superior potential of all of Europe. The powerful industry and collective farm system created in the pre-war years provided the material and technical capabilities of a victorious war. The number of weapons and military equipment significantly surpassed the German, and in terms of quality it was the best in the world. The Soviet rear provided the army with the human resources necessary for victory, and ensured the supply of the front without interruption. The effectiveness of centralized control ensured a gigantic maneuver of productive forces in the difficult conditions of the army's retreat from west to east and the restructuring of production for military needs in the shortest possible time.

5) Activities of the Communist Party.

The party was the backbone of society, the spiritual foundation and organizing force, the real vanguard of the people. The communists carried out the most difficult and dangerous tasks voluntarily, were an example in the fulfillment of military duty and selfless work in the rear. The party, as a leading political force, ensured effective ideological and educational work, the organization of mobilization and production activities, and successfully completed the crucial task of selecting cadres of leaders for waging war and organizing production. Of the total number of those killed at the front, 3 million are communists.

6) Soviet military art, the art of conducting military operations on various scales - in battle, operation (operational art), campaign and warfare in general (strategy).

Ultimately, the art of war realized all the sources of victory in the course of an armed struggle. Soviet military science and military art proved superiority over military theory and practice in Germany, which were considered the pinnacle of bourgeois military affairs and were taken as a model by military leaders of the entire capitalist world. This superiority was achieved in the course of a fierce struggle, using combat experience flexibly and efficiently, taking full account of the requirements of the actual conditions of warfare and the lessons of the failures of the first period.

In the strategy, the superiority of the Soviet military art was expressed in the fact that none of the ultimate goals of the offensive campaigns of the Hitlerite armed forces, despite the heavy defeats of the Soviet troops during the defense, was achieved: in 1941 - defeat near Moscow and disruption of the "lightning war" plan , in 1942 - the defeat at Stalingrad and the collapse of Hitler's plan to achieve a radical turning point in the war with the USSR. The goals of the strategic defense of the Wehrmacht were not achieved either. During the transition to a mobile strategic defense, the Hitlerite command did not succeed in disrupting the Red Army's offensive in 1943 and stabilizing the front. Positional-maneuverable defense 1944-1945 could not bled and stop the steadily developing offensive of the Red Army. In the course of the war, a new, most effective form of strategic action in World War II was perfected - the operation of a group of fronts under the leadership of the Supreme Command Headquarters. Soviet troops successfully carried out hundreds of front-line and army operations, which, as a rule, were distinguished by a creative nature and novelty of methods of action that were unexpected for the enemy.

Noting the superiority of the Soviet military art (which was recognized by all contemporaries, including the military leaders of the defeated Reich, for example, Field Marshal Paulus), it is necessary to point out that military science has several criteria for evaluating military art for various types of combat on land, sea and in the air. In the most general form, an indicator of the level of military art is manifested in the defeat of the forces of the opposing enemy, the defense of one's own and the seizure of his territory, the compulsion to surrender or peace as a result of the war. This also takes into account the ratio of losses on the battlefields, sometimes called the "cost of victory". The detractors of Soviet history often distort the main indicator of the art of war. They "forget" about the victory achieved, the complete surrender of Nazi Germany in defeated Berlin, and the falsified figures of the ratio of losses in favor of the Hitlerite army are presented as the main result of the struggle. They do not note that the number of losses of Soviet troops included more than 1.2 million prisoners who died in concentration camps as a result of the brutal treatment of the Nazis, and more than 3 million losses occurred in the first stage of the war, when the struggle was fought in extremely difficult, unequal conditions.

Thus, the Soviet military art in all respects surpassed the German fascist, which was considered the pinnacle of military affairs in the West. It should be borne in mind that the Soviet Union bore the brunt of the fight against the Hitlerite army, and the small losses of the Anglo-American troops were determined by the policy of delaying the second front and the "peripheral" strategy in anticipation of decisive results of the struggle on the Soviet-German front.

Assessing the superiority of Soviet military art, it is important to emphasize that armed struggle is not only a battle of troops, but also a clash of the mind and will of opposing military leaders. In the battles of the Great Patriotic War, an intellectual victory over the enemy was achieved. The superiority of the leadership's intellect, and not the "mountains of corpses", determined the brilliant victories of the Soviet troops on the battlefields and the victorious end of the war in the defeated Berlin, the complete surrender of the fascist army.

During the war years, a galaxy of talented military leaders, generals and naval commanders - commanders of fronts, fleets, armies and flotillas - who showed brilliant examples of military art: A.I. Antonov, I.Kh. Baghramyan, A.M. Vasilevsky, N. F. Vatutin, N. N. Voronov, L. A. Govorov, A. G. Golovko, A. I. Eremenko, M. V. Zakharov, I. S. Konev, N. G. Kuznetsov, R. Ya Malinovsky, F. S. Oktyabrsky, K. K. Rokossovsky, F. I. Tolbukhin, V. F. Tributs, A. V. Khrulev, I. D. Chernyakhovsky, V. I. Chuikov, B. M. Shaposhnikov and a lot others.

The most outstanding, who received world recognition as a great commander of the 20th century, is Marshal of the Soviet Union, four times Hero of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov, who since the summer of 1942 has been carrying out the functions of leading military operations as Deputy Supreme Commander-in-Chief. The prominent American publicist E. Salisbury, in his book The Great Battles of Marshal Zhukov (Moscow, 1969), assessed his activities as follows: “The name of this stern, decisive man, the commander of generals in the conduct of war by massive armies, will shine over all other military leaders. He turned the tide of battles against the Nazis, against Hitler, not just once, but many times. "

The General Secretary of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Generalissimo I.V. Stalin, who went down in history as one of the outstanding political and state figures of the Second World War ... Roosevelt and Churchill, as heads of the allied states, highly appreciated Stalin's personal contribution to the victory over fascism.

GK Zhukov in 1969, five years before his death, deeply pondering the results of the war, gave the following assessment to Stalin: “Was JV Stalin an outstanding military thinker in the field of building up the armed forces and an expert on operational and strategic issues? ? As a military leader, I studied Stalin thoroughly, since I went through the whole war with him. JV Stalin was in control of the organization of front-line operations and operations of front groups and led them with full knowledge of the matter, well versed in major strategic issues. These abilities of I. V. Stalin were especially evident since Stalingrad. In the leadership of the armed struggle as a whole, JV Stalin was assisted by his natural mind and rich intuition. He knew how to find the main link in a strategic situation and, seizing on it, counter the enemy, conduct one or another offensive operation. Undoubtedly, he was a worthy Supreme Commander-in-Chief. " This assessment of Stalin was well thought out by Zhukov in the quiet of his office at his desk, more than once corrected and rewritten in final form for posterity.

A historic victory over fascism was won by the Soviet people and Russian socialism, which had barely formed in 20 years. In a fierce struggle against reactionary West European imperialism, they proved their superiority. Russian civilization has stood the hardest test. The socialist system gave it enormous vitality in the centuries-old confrontation with the West. He opened up space for the creative forces of the people, rallied them in a single will, created the economic basis for armed struggle, and advanced the people's talents to leadership.

In the name of victory and the future of their homeland, millions of Soviet people gave their lives.

No matter how the events of World War II are interpreted now and its history is not rewritten, the fact remains: having liberated the territory of the USSR from the Nazi invaders, the Red Army carried out a liberation mission - it returned freedom to 11 countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe with a population of 113 million people. ...

At the same time, without challenging the contribution of the Allies to the victory over German Nazism at the same time, it is obvious that the decisive contribution to the liberation of Europe was played by the Soviet Union and its Red Army. This is evidenced by the fact that the most fierce battles in 1944-1945, when, finally, on June 6, 1944, the second front was opened, still took place in the Soviet-German direction.

As part of the liberation mission, the Red Army carried out 9 strategic offensive operations, which were initiated by Yasso-Kishinev (August 20-29, 1944).

During the operations carried out by the Red Army on the territory of European countries, significant forces of the Wehrmacht were defeated. For example, on the territory of Poland there are over 170 enemy divisions, in Romania - 25 German and 22 Romanian divisions, in Hungary - more than 56 divisions, in Czechoslovakia - 122 divisions.

The beginning of the liberation mission was marked by the restoration of the USSR State border on March 26, 1944 and the crossing of the Soviet-Romanian border by the Red Army in the Prut River area following the results of the Uman-Botoshan operation of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. Then the Soviet troops restored a small - only 85 km - section of the USSR border.

It is noteworthy that a regiment took over the protection of the liberated section of the border, the border guards of which took the first battle here on June 22, 1941. And the very next day, on March 27, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front crossed the Soviet-Romanian border, thereby proceeding to the direct liberation of Romania from the Nazis ...

For about seven months, the Red Army liberated Romania - this was the longest stage in the liberation mission. From March to October 1944, more than 286 thousand Soviet soldiers shed their blood here, of which 69 thousand people died.

The significance of the Yasso-Kishchinev operation on August 20-29, 1944 in the liberation mission is due to the fact that during it the main forces of Army Group Southern Ukraine were defeated and withdrawn from the war on the side of Nazi Germany Romania, real prerequisites were created for its liberation itself, as well as other countries of southeastern Europe.

It is noteworthy that the operation itself is called the Iasso-Chisinau Cannes. It was carried out so brilliantly that it testified to the commanding talent of the Soviet military leaders who led this operation, as well as high qualities, including professional and moral, commanders, and, of course, His Majesty - the Soviet Soldier.

The Jassy-Kishinev operation had a great influence on the further course of the war in the Balkans. Although the liberation of Romania itself lasted until the end of October 1944, already at the beginning of September 1944 the Red Army began to liberate Bulgaria. The results of the operation had a demoralizing effect on its then leadership. Therefore, already on September 6-8, the authorities in most cities and settlements Bulgaria went over to the anti-fascist Fatherland Front. On September 8, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, General F.I. Tolbukhin crossed the Romanian-Bulgarian border and, in fact, moved through its territory without a single shot. On September 9 the liberation of Bulgaria was completed. Thus, in fact, the liberation mission of the Red Army in Bulgaria was completed in two days.

Subsequently, the Bulgarian troops took part in hostilities against Germany on the territory of Yugoslavia, Hungary and Austria.

The liberation of Bulgaria created the preconditions for the liberation of Yugoslavia. It should be noted that Yugoslavia is one of the few states that dared to challenge Nazi Germany back in 1941. It is noteworthy that it was here that the most powerful partisan movement in Europe was deployed, which diverted significant forces of Nazi Germany and the collaborationists of Yugoslavia itself. Despite the fact that the territory of the country was occupied, a significant part of it was under the control of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia under the leadership of I. Tito. Having initially turned to the British for help and did not receive it, Tito wrote a letter to Stalin on July 5, 1944, wishing that the Red Army would help NOAU expel the fascists.

This became possible in September - October 1944. As a result of the Belgrade offensive operation, the troops of the Red Army, in cooperation with the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, defeated the German army group "Serbia", liberated the eastern and northeastern regions of Yugoslavia with its capital Belgrade (October 20).

Thus, favorable conditions were created for the preparation and conduct of the Budapest operation, which began 9 days after the liberation of Belgrade (October 29, 1944) and lasted until February 13.

Unlike Yugoslavia, Hungary, like Romania and Bulgaria, was actually a satellite of Nazi Germany. In 1939, she joined the Anti-Comintern Pact and participated in the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia, the attack on Yugoslavia and the USSR. Therefore, a significant part of the country's population had fears that the Red Army would not liberate, but conquer Hungary.

In order to dispel these fears, the command of the Red Army in a special appeal assured the population that it was entering the Hungarian land "not as a conqueror, but as a liberator of the Hungarian people from the German fascist yoke."

By December 25, 1944, the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts surrounded the 188,000-strong enemy grouping in Budapest. On January 18, 1945, the eastern part of the city of Pest was liberated, and on February 13 - I will.

As a result of another strategic offensive operation - Bolotonskaya (March 6 - 15, 1945), the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front with the participation of the 1st Bulgarian and 3rd Yugoslav armies defeated the counteroffensive in the region north of Fr. Balaton is a grouping of German troops. The liberation of Hungary lasted 195 days. As a result of heavy battles and battles, the losses of Soviet troops here amounted to 320,082 people, of which 80,082 are irrecoverable.

The Soviet troops suffered even more significant losses during the liberation of Poland. More than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers sacrificed their lives for its liberation, 1,416 thousand people were wounded, almost half of all the losses of the Red Army during the liberation of Europe.

The liberation of Poland was overshadowed by the actions of the Polish émigré government, which initiated the uprising in Warsaw on August 1, 1944, not coordinated with the command of the Red Army.

The rebels counted on the fact that they would have to fight the police and logisticians. And I had to fight with experienced front-line soldiers and SS troops. The uprising was brutally suppressed on October 2, 1944. This is the price that Polish patriots had to pay for the ambitions of politicians.

The Red Army was able to begin the liberation of Poland only in 1945. The Polish direction, or more precisely the Warsaw-Berlin direction, was the main one from the beginning of 1945 until the end of the war. On the territory of Poland alone, within its present-day borders, the Red Army conducted five offensive operations: Vistula-Oder, East Prussian, East Pomeranian, Upper Silesian and Lower Silesian.

The largest offensive operation in the winter of 1945 was the Vistula-Oder operation (January 12 - February 3, 1945). Its goal was to complete the liberation of Poland from the Nazi occupiers and create favorable conditions for a decisive offensive against Berlin.

In 20 days of the offensive, Soviet troops completely defeated 35 enemy divisions, and 25 divisions suffered losses from 60 to 75% of their personnel. An important result of the operation was the liberation of Warsaw on January 17, 1945 by the joint efforts of the Soviet and Polish troops. On January 19, the troops of the 59th and 60th armies liberated Krakow. The Nazis intended to turn the city into a second Warsaw, having mined it. Soviet troops saved the architectural monuments of this ancient city... On January 27, Auschwitz was liberated, the largest extermination factory set up by the Nazis.

The final battle of the Great Patriotic War - the Berlin Offensive Operation - is one of the largest and bloodiest battles of the Second World War. More than 300 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers died here. Not to dwell on the analysis of the operation itself, I would like to note a number of facts that emphasize the liberating nature of the Red Army's mission.

On April 20, the storming of the Reichstag was launched - and on the same day, food supply points for the population of Berlin were deployed on the outskirts of Berlin. Yes, the act of unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was signed, but Germany itself, today's Germany hardly considers itself a loser.

On the contrary, for Germany it was liberation from Nazism. And if we draw an analogy with the events of another great war - the First World War, when in 1918 Germany was actually brought to its knees, then it is obvious that following the results of the Second World War, Germany, although it was divided, was nevertheless not humiliated. was not overlaid with unbearable reparations, as it was after the Treaty of Versailles.

Therefore, despite the severity of the situation after 1945, the fact that for more than half a century in Europe the "cold war" did not transform into a "hot" Third World War, it seems to be a consequence of the decisions taken at the Potsdam Conference and their implementation in practice. And, of course, the liberation mission of our Red Army also contributed to this.

The main result of the final operations of the Red Army on the territory of a number of countries in Central, South-Eastern and Northern Europe was the restoration of their independence and state sovereignty. The military successes of the Red Army provided political conditions for the creation of the Yalta-Potsdam system of international legal relations with the most active participation of the USSR, which determined the world order for many decades, guaranteeing the inviolability of borders in Europe.

Bocharnikov Igor Valentinovich
(From a speech at the International Scientific Conference "Jassy-Chisinau Operation: Myths and Realities" on September 15, 2014).

Crimean (Yalta) conference

4-11 February 1945... the second meeting of the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition countries - the USSR, the USA and Great Britain - took place near Yalta (Crimea) in the Livadia Palace. J.V. Stalin, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill mainly discussed not so much military plans for the defeat of Germany as post-war world order... They agreed on the terms of Germany's unconditional surrender, negotiated the terms of its occupation and demilitarization.

D. Nalbaldyan. Crimean Conference. 1945

In Yalta, it was decided to convene a constituent conference of the United Nations, which was to be created in order to prevent new wars in the future. The Declaration on a Liberated Europe was adopted, which proclaimed the necessity of coordinating the actions of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in post-war Europe. The USSR confirmed its promise to enter the war against Japan 2-3 months after the defeat of Germany.

Liberation of Europe from Fascism

At the beginning of 1945, 10 Soviet fronts fought on the Soviet-German front, consisting of 6.7 million people, equipped with 107.3 thousand guns and mortars, 12.1 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, 14.7 thousand aircraft. In December 1944 - January 1945, the Anglo-American troops experienced serious difficulties in the Ardennes (south-west of Belgium). Therefore, in January 1945, at the request of W. Churchill, Soviet troops began an offensive ahead of schedule along the entire front line.

January 12 - February 3, 1945 Vistula-Oder operation to defeat the German-Hungarian grouping in the Western Carpathians. After breaking through the enemy's defenses and destroying 17 divisions, the troops of the 1st Belorussian (commander G.K. Zhukov) and 1st Ukrainian (commander I.S.Konev) liberated the territory of Poland to the west of the Vistula. By early February, Soviet troops reached the Oder, capturing a number of bridgeheads on its left bank.

From the document (F. V. Mellentin. Tank battles 1939-1945):

... On January 12, the long-awaited Russian offensive began with the offensive of Konev's troops from the Baranuvsky bridgehead. Forty-two rifle divisions, six tank corps and four mechanized brigades broke into southern Poland and rushed into the industrial region of Upper Silesia ...

On January 9, Guderian warned Hitler that "the Eastern Front is like a house of cards," but Hitler stubbornly continued to think that the preparation of the Russians was just a giant bluff. He demanded a firm hold on the occupied positions and transferred tank reserves from Poland to Hungary, trying in vain to alleviate the position of the troops in Budapest. As a result, a few days later the front of German troops on the Vistula collapsed. Warsaw fell on January 17, on January 18 the Russians captured Lodz and Krakow, and on January 20 Zhukov's advancing troops crossed the border of Silesia. The frozen ground favored rapid advance, and the Russian offensive developed with unprecedented strength and swiftness. It was clear that their High Command had completely mastered the technique of organizing the offensive of huge mechanized armies and that Stalin was determined to be the first to enter Berlin. On January 25, the Russians were already under the walls of my hometown of Breslau, and by February 5 Zhukov reached the Oder near Kustrin, just 80 km from the German capital ...

... It is impossible to describe everything that happened between the Vistula and the Oder in the first months of 1945. Europe has not known anything like this since the fall of the Roman Empire.

January 13-April 25, 1945 troops of the 2nd (commander K. K. Rokossovsky) and the 3rd (commander I. D. Chernyakhovsky, from February 20 - A. M. Vasilevsky) Belarusian and parts of the 1st Baltic ( commander I. Kh.Bagramyan) of the fronts in cooperation with the Baltic Fleet (commander V.F. Tributs) during East Prussian operation broke through the powerful defenses of the German Army Group Center, reached the Baltic Sea and eliminated the main enemy forces (over 25 divisions), occupying East Prussia and liberating the northern part of Poland.

Storming of Koenigsberg

In destroying the enemy at sea during the East Prussian operation, the S-13 submarine under the command of Captain 3rd Rank AI Marinesko achieved outstanding success. On January 30, she sank the German liner "Wilhelm Gustloff" with a displacement of 25.5 thousand tons, on February 9 - the German steamship "General von Steuben" with a displacement of 14.7 thousand tons. Not a single Soviet submariner has achieved such brilliant results in one trip. For military merits, the S-13 submarine was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.

I. I. Rodionov. Destruction of the German liner "Wilhelm Gustlov"

By early April, the territory of Hungary, Poland and East Prussia was liberated from the enemy. In mid-April, the troops of the 1st Belorussian (commander G.K. Zhukov), 2nd Belorussian (commander K.K.Rokossovsky) and 1st Ukrainian (commander I.S.Konev) fronts with a total number of 2.5 million people embarked on the final operation to defeat Germany. According to the developed plan for the destruction of Army Groups Center and Vistula, the capture of Berlin and access to the Elbe for joining with the allies, on April 16, units of the 1st Belorussian Front attacked the central section of the German fortification line on the Oder. They encountered stubborn resistance, especially at the Seelow Heights, which they managed to take only on April 17 at the cost of huge losses.

Battle of Seelow Heights

On April 17, 1945, in the skies over Berlin, the 62nd German plane was shot down by IN Kozhedub, squadron commander, deputy regiment commander, three times Hero of the Soviet Union. During the war years, he fought 120 air battles; shot down 62 aircraft.

I. N. Kozhedub

On April 19, having breached a 30-km gap in the enemy's defenses, units of the 1st Belorussian Front rushed to Berlin and on April 21 reached its suburbs. The 1st Ukrainian Front crossed the Neisse on April 16, broke through the German defenses by April 19, defeated the 4th Panzer Army and moved to Berlin from the south. On April 25, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts completed the encirclement of the Berlin group.

April 25, 1945 units of the 1st Ukrainian Front reached the Elbe and in the area Torgau met with units of the 1st American Army. Here the Eastern and Western Fronts merged.

Meeting of the allies in Torgau

The 2nd Belorussian Front attacked Army Group Vistula, hurrying to help Berlin. On April 20, his troops crossed the Oder and on April 26 captured Stettin. On April 26, the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts began to liquidate the two encircled groups of the Wehrmacht. On April 28, they captured the outskirts of the city and started fighting for the central quarters. April 30, 1945 soldiers of the 150th rifle division M. A. Egorov and M. V. Kantaria hoisted the Red Banner of Victory over the Reichstag.

Hitler committed suicide on the same day. On May 2, the Berlin garrison surrendered. On May 8, in Karlshorst near Berlin, representatives of the victorious countries and the German military command signed the Act of Germany's unconditional surrender. On behalf of the USSR, the document was signed by Marshal G.K. Zhukov.

On the same day, units of the 1st Ukrainian Front occupied Dresden. May 9, 1945... the remnants of the German army in Czechoslovakia surrendered. This day has been announced Happy Victory Day.

However, then the USSR only accepted the surrender of Nazi Germany, formally the war with the Germans ended in 1955, when the decree "On the termination of the state of war between the Soviet Union and Germany" was issued.

On June 24, 1945, the Victory Parade took place on Red Square. He was received by Marshal of the Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov. The parade was commanded by Marshal of the Soviet Union K. K. Rokossovsky. The deposition of the German banners was carried out with gloves to emphasize the aversion to the Nazis. After the parade, gloves and a wooden platform at the Mausoleum were ceremoniously burned.

Potsdam conference

July 17 - August 2, 1945 in the Berlin suburb of Potsdam, a conference of the leaders of the victorious powers was held. The Soviet delegation was headed by J.V. Stalin, the American - by H. Truman, the British - by W. Churchill (on July 28 he was replaced by the new Prime Minister K. Attlee). The central place was taken by the issue of the post-war structure of Europe. It was decided to keep Germany as a single state, to implement measures to disarm and demilitarize it, to completely eliminate the remnants of the fascist regime (the so-called denazification). For this, the troops of the victorious countries (including France) were to enter the territory of Germany, and their stay was not limited. The issue of reparation payments from Germany in favor of the USSR, as the country most affected by Hitler's aggression, was resolved.

The Big Three at the Potsdam Conference

At the conference, the leaders of the victorious powers set new frontiers in Europe. The pre-war borders of the USSR were recognized, the territory of Poland was expanded at the expense of German lands. The territory of East Prussia was divided between Poland and the USSR. The USSR confirmed its commitment to declare war on Japan no later than 3 months.

War of the USSR with Japan

After the defeat of Germany, World War II continued in the Far East, where the United States, Britain and China were at war with Japan. On August 8, the USSR, faithful to its allied obligations, declared war on Japan. During the Manchurian operation, a crushing blow was dealt to the millionth Japanese Kwantung Army.

In two weeks, the Soviet army under the command of Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky defeated the main forces of the Japanese, occupied Harbin and Mukden in northeastern China, Port Arthur, Dalny, Pyongyang. During the landing operations, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands were liberated from the Japanese. Japan's losses on the Far Eastern Front in three weeks amounted to almost 800 thousand people.

On August 6 and 9, the US Armed Forces carried out atomic bombing of the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki with the official goal of accelerating the surrender of Japan. The Little Boy and Fat Man bombs killed 90 to 166 thousand people in Hiroshima and 60 to 80 thousand people in Nagasaki. The necessity and ethical justification of the atomic bombing of Japan is still controversial.

Atomic explosions in Hiroshima (left) and Nagasaki (right)

On September 2, 1945, the Act of Unconditional Surrender was signed aboard the American battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. On behalf of Japan, it was signed by Foreign Minister S. Mamoru and Chief of the General Staff U. Yoshijiro, on behalf of the United States - by General D. MacArthur, on behalf of the USSR - by Lieutenant General KN Derevyanko.

Japan's Unconditional Surrender Act

In the spring of 1944, a radical change took place in the course of the Great Patriotic War. On March 26, 1944, troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev, during the Uman-Botoshan operation, reached the Prut River, the state border of the USSR and Romania. In honor of this event, an artillery salute was given in Moscow.

Red Army troops began to liberate Europe from the "brown plague". More than 1 million Soviet soldiers gave their lives in the struggle to save the enslaved European peoples.

Almost simultaneously with the beginning of the offensive operations of the Red Army in Europe, the allies of the USSR - the USA, England and Great Britain - opened a second front. On June 6, 1944, Anglo-American forces launched Operation Overlord, landing in Normandy.

Romania: Request for Help

As a result of the Iasi-Kishinev operation, carried out from 20 to 29 August 1944, the German-Romanian group of forces was destroyed and the territory of Moldova was liberated. The crushing victory of the Red Army was the impetus for the overthrow of the pro-fascist regime of Ion Antonescu in Romania. On 23 August, an uprising broke out in the country, as a result of which the dictator Antonescu was arrested and a new government was formed. The new authorities announced Romania's withdrawal from the war on the side of Germany, the acceptance of peaceful conditions, and also asked the USSR military aid... On August 31, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian entered Bucharest. On September 12, 1944, in Moscow, the Soviet government signed an armistice agreement with Romania.

Bulgaria: with hope for the Russians

The liberation of Bulgaria took place almost bloodlessly during the Bulgarian operation carried out on September 5-9, 1944. Formally, Bulgaria did not participate in the war against the USSR because of the sympathy of the population of the country for the Russians, who liberated the country from the Ottoman yoke in 1878. Nevertheless, the country was headed by a pro-fascist government, the Bulgarian army performed the function of the occupation forces in Greece and Yugoslavia, and German troops used the entire transport infrastructure of the country. On September 8, the advance units of the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and the Black Sea Fleet entered Bulgaria without encountering resistance.

On September 9, a popular uprising took place in the country, the pro-fascist government was overthrown and the government of the Fatherland Front was formed. In the future, it declared war on Germany and its ally - Hungary.

On the picture: Residents of Sofia greet units of the Soviet Army that entered the city, November 20, 1944.

Yugoslavia: together with the partisans

On April 6, 1941, Nazi troops invaded Yugoslavia, on April 17, the country surrendered. On July 8, 1941, the people's liberation war of Yugoslavia against the German fascist invaders began, which was expressed in a mass partisan movement. It had the same significance as the Great Patriotic War in the history of Russia.

The population of the country sympathized with the Russians and the USSR. The Soviet Union sent instructors to the fraternal people of Yugoslavia for military training.

On September 28, during the Belgrade operation, the Red Army launched an assault on Belgrade, in which Yugoslav partisans also participated. On October 20, 1944, the capital of Yugoslavia was completely liberated from the invaders.

On the picture: The commander of the rifle battalion, Major V. Romanenko, tells the Yugoslav partisans and residents of the village of Starchevo about the military affairs of the young intelligence officer, corporal Viktor Zhaivoronka, September 15, 1944.

Norway: royal recognition

Northern Norway was liberated as a result of the Petsamo-Kirkenes offensive operation, in which the troops of the Karelian Front and the Northern Fleet of the USSR Navy in the north of Norway participated from October 7 to October 29, 1944.

In Norway, the Germans established a tough occupation regime, they used the country's territory as a military base for operations against the northern allied convoys, thanks to which lend-lease deliveries were made to the USSR. Soviet troops were to liberate the Arctic (Luostari and Pechenga) and Kirkenes in Northern Norway from the Nazis.

On October 18, 1944, Red Army soldiers landed in Norway. On October 25, Kirkenes was liberated during fierce fighting.

“We followed with admiration and enthusiasm the heroic and victorious struggle of the Soviet Union against our common enemy,” the Norwegian King Haakon VII noted in his radio speech on October 26, 1944. "It is the duty of every Norwegian to provide maximum support to our Soviet ally."

On the picture: Northern Fleet. Boats with Soviet paratroopers go to the shores of Northern Norway, October 15, 1944. Reproduction of TASS.

Baltics: strategic breakthrough

Lithuania, Estonia and Latvia were liberated from the Nazis during the Belarusian (June 23 - August 29, 1944) and Baltic (September 14 - November 24, 1944) offensive operations.

On July 13, 1944, Vilnius was liberated from the Nazi invaders. Tallinn was liberated on September 22, and the entire territory of Estonia by September 26, 1944. Soviet troops entered Riga on October 15, 1944, and by October 22, most of Latvia had been cleared of the invaders.

Having lost the Baltic states, the Wehrmacht lost an advantageous strategic area, which served as an important industrial, raw material and food base for the Germans.

On the picture: Soviet infantry during an offensive southeast of the city of Klaipeda, October 26, 1944.

Hungary: Supported by volunteers

From October 29, 1944 to February 13, 1945, the Budapest offensive operation was carried out, in which the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts took part. The bloody battles for Budapest continued for a month and a half. The Budapest operation ended with the capture of SS Obergruppenfuehrer Karl Pfeffer-Wildenbruch, who commanded an 188,000-strong group of German troops. Thus, Hungary stopped participating in the war.

In the ranks of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, Hungarian volunteers fought - soldiers and officers of the Hungarian army, who went over to the side of the Soviet troops.

On the picture: A boy in one of the liberated cities of Hungary with a Red Army soldier, March 1, 1945.

Poland: the road to Berlin

Large industrial centers were located in Poland, which were of strategic importance for the Germans, so the Wehrmacht tried to create a powerful, deeply echeloned defense in the country. The enemy's resistance was broken during the Vistula-Oder strategic offensive operation carried out by the forces of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts and lasted from January 12 to February 3, 1945.

Soldiers of the Polish Army fought side by side with the soldiers of the Red Army. It was to them that the Soviet command on January 17, 1945 was given the opportunity to be the first to enter Warsaw, completely destroyed and plundered by the Nazis.

For 23 days of bloody battles for Poland, more than 600 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers gave their lives. As a result of the Vistula-Oder operation, favorable conditions were created for an offensive on Berlin, to which the Red Army approached at a distance of 60-70 km.

Austria: restoring sovereignty

The Vienna offensive began on March 16, 1945 and lasted until April 15. It was attended by the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts and the Danube military flotilla.

Considering that Vienna was the last frontier on the approaches to Germany, the city was an impregnable fortress with anti-tank ditches and anti-personnel barriers. The fierce resistance of the German garrison was broken thanks to the courage and courage of the paratroopers and the assault detachment of the marine corps of the Danube Flotilla. On the night of April 13-14, 1945, Vienna was completely cleared of the German garrison defending it. On April 27, an interim government was created, promulgating the declaration of independence, which the country lost in 1938.

On the picture: An armored personnel carrier of the Red Army clears the streets of Vienna from the enemy. Austria, April 12, 1945.

CZECHOSLOVAKIA: INTERNATIONAL SURGERY

The Prague offensive operation, which lasted from May 6 to 11, 1945, was the last during the Great Patriotic War. After the signing of the surrender of fascist Germany in Czechoslovakia, there remained a powerful grouping of forces of the Army Groups "Center" and "Austria", numbering about 900 thousand people. In early May, anti-Nazi demonstrations began in various cities of Czechoslovakia, and on May 5, 1945, the Czech Resistance raised an armed uprising of the population of Prague. A mass flight of German fascist troops from the city began. On May 7, Marshal of the USSR Ivan Konev gave the order to pursue the enemy. On May 8, the German garrison in Prague capitulated, and on May 9, the Red Army entered Prague. Within a few hours, the city was cleared of the remnants of German troops.

As a result of the Prague operation, about 860 thousand German soldiers and officers surrendered. Soldiers and officers of the USSR, Czechoslovakia, Romania and Poland participated in the liberation of Czechoslovakia from the Nazis.

A fifth of Europeans simply do not know anything about the events of 70 years ago, and only one in eight believes that the Soviet army played a key role in liberating Europe from fascism. For decades, Europeans have been correcting their consciousness regarding the role of the USSR and Russia in the history of the twentieth century. Thus, the goal is achieved to belittle the importance of our country, even at the cost of falsifying the results of World War II and the Victory of the Soviet people, and to send Russia to the margins of history. Nothing personal just business.

Europeans prefer the American army

From March 20 to April 9, 2015, ICM Research conducted a survey for Sputnik in the UK, France and Germany. Three thousand people (1000 in each country) answered the question: who, in your opinion, played a key role in the liberation of Europe in World War II? The majority of those surveyed named the American and British armies as the main liberators. The answers generally looked like this:

Soviet army - 13 percent;

American Army 43 percent

Army of Great Britain - 20%;

Other armed forces - 2 percent;

I don't know - 22 percent.

At the same time, in France and Germany, the main liberator is considered to be the American army, respectively, 61 and 52 percent (in Great Britain alone, 46 percent preferred their own, and not the American army). Judging by the results of the poll, the most misinformed are the inhabitants of France, where only 8 percent of respondents know about the true role of the Soviet army.

A fifth of Europeans have a significant knowledge gap about 70-year-old events. This unconsciousness is all the more striking against the background of generally known and indisputable historical facts. Investing in unconsciousness and false historical landmarks can be costly for Europeans.

Figures and facts: troops, front line, equipment

It was the Soviet Union who stopped the victorious march of Nazi Germany in Europe in 1941. At the same time, the power of Hitler's military machine was the greatest, and the military capabilities of the United States and Great Britain remained modest.

The victory at Moscow dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the German army, contributed to the rise of the Resistance movement and strengthened the anti-Hitler coalition. After the defeat at Stalingrad, Germany, and then Japan, switched from an offensive to a defensive war. In the Battle of Kursk, Soviet troops finally undermined the morale of the Hitlerite army, and the crossing of the Dnieper opened the way for the liberation of Europe.

The Soviet army fought against the bulk of the troops of Nazi Germany. In 1941 - 1942, more than 75 percent of all German troops fought against the USSR, in subsequent years about 70 percent of the Wehrmacht formations were on the Soviet-German front. At the same time, in 1943 it was the USSR that achieved a radical change during the Second World War in favor of the anti-Hitler coalition.

By the beginning of 1944, Germany had suffered significant losses, and yet remained a strong enemy - holding 5 million people on the Eastern Front. Almost 75 percent of German tanks and self-propelled artillery installations (5.4 thousand), guns and mortars (54.6 thousand), aircraft (more than 3 thousand) were also concentrated here.

And after the opening of the second front, the Eastern Front remained the main one for Germany. In 1944, over 180 German divisions operated against the Soviet army. The Anglo-American forces were opposed by 81 German divisions.

On the Soviet-German front, hostilities were conducted with the greatest intensity and spatial scope. Out of 1418 days, active battles lasted 1320 days. On the North African front, respectively, out of 1068 days, 309 were active, on the Italian front, out of 663 days - 49.

Spatial scope Eastern Front was: on the front 4 - 6 thousand km, which four times exceeded the North African, Italian and Western European fronts combined.

The Red Army defeated 507 Nazi divisions and 100 divisions of its allies - 3.5 times more than the allies on all fronts of World War II. On the Soviet-German front, the German armed forces suffered more than 73 percent of the losses. The main part of the Wehrmacht's military equipment was destroyed here: about 75 percent of aircraft (70 thousand), tanks and assault guns (about 50 thousand), artillery pieces (167 thousand).

The continuous strategic offensive of the Soviet army in 1943-1945 shortened the duration of the war, saved millions of British and American lives, and created favorable conditions for our allies in Europe.

In addition to its territory, the USSR liberated 47 percent of the territory of Europe (the allies liberated 27 percent, with the joint efforts of the USSR and the allies, 26 percent of the European territory was liberated).

The Soviet Union eliminated the fascist domination over the majority of the enslaved peoples, preserving their statehood and historically fair borders. If we count on the current state of Europe (separate Bosnia, Ukraine, etc.), then the USSR liberated 16 countries, allies - 9 countries (by joint efforts - 6 countries).

The total population of the countries liberated by the USSR is 123 million, the allies liberated 110 million, and almost 90 million people were liberated by joint efforts.

Thus, it was the Soviet army that ensured the victorious course and outcome of the war, defended the peoples of Europe and the world from Nazi enslavement.

The severity of the loss

Opinion: the United States has inspired Europe: they are the main winner in WWIIAccording to a poll by the Russia Today news agency, Europeans underestimate the contribution of the USSR to victory in World War II. According to the historian Konstantin Pakhalyuk, many Europeans consider history to be something strange and distant, and this is largely due to the influence of the United States.

The Soviet Union made the greatest contribution to the armed struggle, defeated the main forces of the Hitlerite bloc, and ensured the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany and Japan. And the number of our losses in World War II is several times greater than the losses of other countries (even taken together) - 27 million Soviet citizens versus 427 thousand people in the United States, 412 thousand people in Great Britain, 5 million people in Germany.

During the liberation of Hungary, our losses amounted to 140,004 people (112,625 people died), and almost the same - in Czechoslovakia. In Romania - about 69 thousand people, in Yugoslavia - 8 thousand people, Austria - 26 thousand people, in Norway - more than 1 thousand people, in Finland - about 2 thousand people. During the fighting in Germany (including East Prussia), the Soviet army lost 101,961 people (92,316 dead).

In addition to the 27 million dead, tens of millions of our citizens were injured and maimed. On June 22, 1941, the Red Army and the Navy consisted of 4,826,907 servicemen according to the list. During the four years of the war, another 29,574,900 people were mobilized, and in total, together with the personnel, 34 million 476 thousand 752 people were involved in the army, the navy and military formations of other departments. For comparison: in Germany, Austria and Czechoslovakia in 1939 lived German men aged 15 to 65 years 24.6 million.

Huge damage was inflicted on the health of several generations, the living standards of the population and the birth rate fell sharply. During the war, millions of people experienced physical and mental suffering.

The national economy has suffered enormous damage. Our country has lost a third of its national wealth. 1710 cities and towns, more than 70 thousand villages, 6 million buildings, 32 thousand enterprises, 65 thousand km of railways were destroyed. The war devastated the treasury, prevented the creation of new values, and led to negative consequences in the economy, psychology, and morality.

All these facts are deliberately suppressed or distorted by Western propagandists, attributing a decisive contribution to the victory of the United States and Great Britain, in order to belittle the role of our country in the international arena. Nothing personal just business.

Each country made its own contribution to the victory over German fascism. This historical mission determines the authority of the state in the post-war world, political weight in solving international issues. Therefore, no one is allowed to forget or distort the exceptional role of our country in World War II and the victory over German fascism.