Dates of liberation of Soviet cities. Dates of liberation of cities

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... PERIOD GREAT DOMESTIC WARS 1941 - 1945 GG. (with amendments, additions, approved by Rosarkhiv) PREFACE Preparation of this publication Directory ... By place liberation... ¦ ¦ outskirts cities in ¦ and the civilian population...

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Can serve reference book for some... period Great Patriotic wars in the ranks of the active Soviet Army. Navy and NKVD troops, but retired By ... liberation cities, medals “For victory over Germany in Great Patriotic war 1941 - 1945 ...

ARMAVIR. On January 24, 1943, he was released in search of the Transcaucasian Front (left on August 7, 1942).
BARANOVPPCHP. On July 8, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front (left on June 27, 1941).
BATAPSK. On February 7, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Southern Front (left on July 27, 1942).
WHITE CHURCH. On January 4, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left on July 16, 1941).
BELGOROD. On February 9, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Voronezh Front (left on October 24, 1941). On August 5, 1943, it was liberated for the second time by the troops of the Steppe Front (the 18th elevator was abandoned for the second time in 1943).
BOBRUISK. On June 29, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front and the forces of the Dnieper Military Flotilla (left on June 28, 1941).
BORISOV. On July 1, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front (left on July 2, 1941).
BREST (Brest Fortress). On July 28, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front (left on June 22, Brest Fortress - on July 20, 1941).
BRYANSK. On September 17, 1943, Boiici VELIKIE LUKI was liberated. On January 17, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Kalinin Front (left on August 25, 1941).
VILNIUS. On July 13, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front (left on June 24, 1941).
VINNITSA. On March 20, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left on July 21, 1941).
VITEBSK. On June 26, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Baltic and 3rd Belorussian Fronts (left July 11, 1941).
VOLOKOLAMSK. On December 20, 1941, liberated by the troops of the Western Front (abandoned on October 27, 1941).
VORONEZH. On January 25, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Voronezh Front (partially abandoned by July 6, 1942).
VOROSHILOVGRAD. On February 14, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Southwestern Front (left on July 17, 1942).
VYBORG. On June 20, 1944, liberated by the troops of the Leningrad Front and the forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (left on August 30, 1941).
VYAZMA. On March 12, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Western Front (abandoned on October 7, 1941).
GOMEL. On November 26, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Belorussian Front (left on August 19, 1941).
GRODNO. On July 16, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd and 2nd Belorussian Fronts (left on June 23, 1941).
DAUGAVPILS. On July 27, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 2nd and 1st Baltic Fronts (left on June 26, 1941).
"The list includes regional and regional centers, as well as other large cities of the USSR, capitals and large cities of foreign countries along the post-war border.
DNEPROPETROVSK. On October 25, 1943, liberated by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front (left on August 25, 1941).
DROGOBYCH. On August 6, 1944, liberated by the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (left on July 1, 1941).
EVPATORIA. On April 13, 1944, liberated by the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (abandoned on October 31, 1941).
DACE. On December 9, 1941, he was liberated by the troops of the Southwestern Front (left on December 5, 1941).
ELGAVA. On August 1, 1944, liberated by the troops of the 1st Baltic Front (abandoned on June 29, 1941).
ZHITOMIR. November 12, 1943 liberated by troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left July 9, 1941). On December 31, 1943, it was liberated for the second time by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (abandoned for the second time on November 19, 1943).
ZAPOROZHIA. On October 14, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Southwestern Front (left on October 4, 1941).
INSTERBURG (Chernyakhovsk). On January 22, 1945, the city was captured by troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front.
KALININ. On December 16, 1941, he was liberated by the troops of the Kalinin Front (left on October 17, 1941).
KALUGA. On December 30, 1941, liberated by the troops of the Western Front (abandoned on October 13, 1941).
KAMENETS-PODOLSKY. On March 26, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left on July 1, 1941).
KAUNAS. On August 1, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front (left on June 23, 1941).
KONIGSBERG (Kaliningrad). On April 9, 1945, the city was captured by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front and the forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet.
KERCH. On December 30, 1941, he was liberated by the troops of the Transcaucasian Front (left on November 16, 1941). On April 11, 1944, it was liberated for the second time by the Separate Primorsky Army and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet (abandoned for the second time on May 15, 1942).
KYIV. On November 6, 1943, liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left on September 19, 1941).
KIROVOGRAD. On January 8, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (left on August 4, 1941).
KISHINEV. On August 24, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front (left on July 16, 1941).
KOTELNIKOVSKY (Kotelnikovo). On December 29, 1942, he was liberated by the troops of the Stalingrad Front (left on August 2, 1942).
KRASNOGVARDEYSK (Gatchina). On January 26, 1944, liberated by the troops of the Leningrad Front and the forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (abandoned on September 13, 1941).
KRASNODAR. On February 12, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the North Caucasus Front (left on August 12, 1942).
KREMENCHUG. On September 29, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Steppe Front (abandoned on September 8, 1941).
KRIVOY ROG. On February 22, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front (left on August 15, 1941). ".
KURSK. On February 8, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Voronezh Front (left on November 4, 1941).
LIEPAJA. On May 9, 1945, he was liberated (surrender) by the troops of the Leningrad Front (abandoned on June 27, 1941).
MEADOWS. On February 12, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the Leningrad Front (left on August 24, 1941).
LUTSK. On February 2, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left on June 25, 1941).
LVIV. On July 27, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left on June 30, 1941).
MAYKOP. On January 29, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Transcaucasian Front (left on August 10, 1942).
MLLGOBEK. On January 3, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Transcaucasian Front (left on September 12, 1942).
MPLLEROVO. On January 17, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Southwestern Front (left on July 16, 1942).
MINSK. On July 3, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd, 2nd and 1st Belorussian Fronts (left on June 28, 1941).
MOGILEV. On June 28, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front (left on July 26, 1941).
BRAIN. On January 3, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Transcaucasian Front (left on August 25, 1942).
MOZYR. On January 14, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the Belorussian Front (left on August 22, 1941).
YOUTH. On July 5, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front (left on June 26, 1941).
NALCHIK. On January 4, 1943, he was released in search of the Transcaucasian Front (left on October 28, 1942).
NARVA. On July 26, 1944, liberated by the troops of the Leningrad Front and the forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (left on August 17, 1941).
NIKOLAEV (regional). On March 28, 1944, liberated by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet (left on August 17, 1941).
NOVGOROD. On January 20, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the Volkhov Front (left on August 19, 1941).
NOVOROSSIYSK. On September 16, 1943, it was liberated by the troops of the North Caucasus Front and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet (partially abandoned on September 9, 1942).
ODESSA. On April 10, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front (left on October 16, 1941).
EAGLE. On August 5, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Bryansk Front (abandoned on October 3, 1941).
ORSHA. June 27, 1944 liberated by troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front
(abandoned July 16, 1941). PETROZAVODSK. June 28, 1944 liberated by troops of the Karelian Front
and the forces of the Onega military flotilla (abandoned on October 2
1941).
POLOTSK. July 4, 1944 liberated by troops of the 1st Baltic Front
(abandoned July 16, 1941). POLTAVA. On September 23, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Steppe and Voronezh Fronts (left on September 18, 1941). PROSKUROV (Khmelnitsky). March 25, 1944 liberated by troops of the 1st
Ukrainian Front (abandoned July 8, 1941). PSKOV. July 23, 1944 liberated by troops of the 3rd Baltic Front
(abandoned July 9, 1941). REZEKNE. July 27, 1944 liberated by troops of the 2nd Baltic Front
(left 4 July 1941). RECHITSA. November 17, 1943 liberated by the troops of the Belorussian Front
(abandoned 23 August 1941). RZHEV. March 3, 1943 liberated by troops of the Western Front (left 14
October 1941).

RIGA. On October 13, 1944, liberated by the troops of the 3rd and 2nd Baltic Fronts; western part of the city - October 15, 1944 (abandoned July 1, 1941).
SMOOTH. On February 2, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left on June 28, 1941).
ROSTOV-ON-DON. On November 29, 1941, liberated by the troops of the Southern Front and the 56th Separate Army (left on November 21, 1941). On February 14, 1943, it was liberated for the second time by the troops of the Southern Front (abandoned for the second time on July 24, 1942).
SEVASTOPOL. On May 9, 1944, liberated by the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet (left on July 3, 1942).
SIMFEROPOL. On April 13, 1944, liberated by the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (left on November 1, 1941).
SLUTSK. On June 30, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front (left on June 26, 1941).
SMOLENSK. On September 25, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Western Front (abandoned on July 16, 1941).
STAVROPOL. On January 21, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Transcaucasian Front (left on August 5, 1942).
STALINGRAD. On February 2, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Don Front (partially abandoned by November 11, 1942).
STALINO (Donetsk). On September 8, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Southern Front (abandoned on October 21, 1941).
STANISLAV (Ivano-Frankivsk). On July 27, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (left on July 2, 1941).
SUMS. On September 2, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Voronezh Front (left on October 10, 1941).
TAGANROG. On August 30, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Southern Front and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet (abandoned on October 17, 1941).
TALLINN. On September 22, 1944, liberated by the troops of the Leningrad Front and the forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (left on August 28, 1941).
TARNOPOL (Tsrnopol). April 14, 1944 liberated by troops of the 1st
Ukrainian Front (abandoned July 3, 1941). TARTU. August 25, 1944 liberated by troops of the 3rd Baltic Front
(abandoned July 24, 1941). TIKHVIN. December 9, 1941 liberated by troops of the 4th Separate Army
(abandoned November 8, 1941). UZHGOROD. October 27, 1944 liberated by troops of the 4th Ukrainian
front.
UMAN. On March 10, 1944, he was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (left on July 30, 1941).
KHARKIV. On February 16, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the Voronezh Front (left on October 25, 1941). On August 23, 1943, it was liberated for the second time by the troops of the Steppe Front (left for the second time on March 16, 1943).
KHERSON. March 13, 1944 liberated by troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front
(abandoned 19 August 1941). CHERKASSY. On December 14, 1943, he was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (left on August 22, 1941). CHERKESSK. January 17, 1943 liberated by troops of the Transcaucasian Front
(left 11 August 1942). CHERNIGOV. September 21, 1943 liberated by troops of the Central Front
(abandoned September 9, 1941). CHERNOVITSY (Chernivtsi). March 29, 1944 liberated by troops of the 1st
Ukrainian Front (abandoned July 5, 1941). SIAULIAI. July 27, 1944 liberated by troops of the 1st Baltic Front
(left June 26, 1941). MINES. February 12, 1943 liberated by troops of the Southern Front (abandoned
July 21, 1942).
SHLISSELBURG (Pstrokrepost). On January 18, 1943, liberated by the troops of the Leningrad Front and the forces of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (abandoned on September 8, 1941).
ELISTA. On December 31, 1942, he was liberated by the troops of the Stalingrad Front (left on August 12, 1942).

Cities of European countries
AUSTRIA
VEIN. On April 13, 1945, he was liberated by the troops of the 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts.
PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC OF BULGARIA
VARNA. September 8, 1944 liberated by troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front
and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet. SHUMLA (Kolarovgrad, Shumen). September 9, 1944 liberated by troops of the 3rd
Ukrainian Front.
HUNGARIAN PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC
BUDAPEST. On February 13, 1945, he was liberated by the troops of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts.
DEBRECEN. On October 20, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
SEGED. On October 11, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
GERMAN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC
BERLIN. May 2, 1945 liberated by troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st
Ukrainian fronts. DRESDEN. On May 8, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. POTSDAM. On April 27, 1945, liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st
Ukrainian fronts.
NORWAY
KPRKENES. On October 25, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the Karelian Front and the forces of the Northern Fleet.
POLISH PEOPLE'S REPUBLIC
BELOSTOK. On July 27, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front. BRESLAU (Wroclaw). On May 6, 1945, he was liberated by the search for the 1st Ukrainian Front.
BYDGOSZCZ On January 23, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front. WARSAW. On January 17, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front. Gdynia. On March 28, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front. DANZIG (Gdansk). On March 30, he was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front. KATOWICE. On January 28, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front.
KRAKOW. On January 19, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. KUSTRIN (Kostshpn). On March 12, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front.
LODZ. On January 19, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front. LUBLIN. On July 24, 1944 he was released by the search of the 1st Belorussian Front. POZNAN. On February 23, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front.
PRAGUE (fortress, suburb of Warsaw). On September 14, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front.
CZENSTOCHOWA. On January 17, 1945, he was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukraine Front.
STETTIN (Szczecin). On April 26, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front.
SOCIALIST REPUBLIC OF ROMANIA
BUCHAREST. On August 31, 1944, troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entered the city.
GALATS. On August 27, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. CLUJ (Cluj-Napoca). On October 11, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
CONSTANTZA. August 29, 1944 liberated by troops of the 3rd Ukrainian
front and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet. PLOESTI. August 30, 1944 liberated by troops of the 2nd Ukrainian
front.
YASSY. On August 21, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
CZECHOSLOVAK SOCIALIST REPUBLIC
BANSKA-BPSTRITSA. On March 25, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
BRATISLAVA. On April 4, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.
BRNO. On April 26, 1945, liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. ZVOLEN. On March 14, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front. KOSHPTSE. On January 19, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front. MORAWSKA-OSTRAVA (Ostrava). April 30, 1945 liberated by troops
4th Ukrainian Front. PRAGUE. On May 9, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. PRESOV. On January 19, 1945, it was liberated by the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front.
SOCIALIST FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
BELGRADE. On October 20, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front in cooperation with units of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia.
SUBOTICA. On October 11, 1944, it was liberated by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front.

Directory "Liberation of cities: Directory on the liberation of cities during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" / M.L.Dudarenko, Yu.G.Perechnev, V.T.Eliseev and others - M.: Voenizdat, 1985. - 598 p. .
The factual material of the reference book was prepared by the Central Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the Institute of Military History of the USSR Ministry of Defense and the Central Naval Archive under the general editorship of Army General S.P. Ivanov.
Scanned at the Information Retrieval Center of the Public Youth Organization "Fatherland Association" of the Republic of Tatarstan.
Material for all countries is placed not only in one file, but also for convenience is divided into parts (by country). Within the country, cities are listed in alphabetical order. If the modern name of the city differs from the name of the war period, then it is enclosed in brackets. For example, ABRENE (PYTALOVO). In addition, it is given an independent name and placed alphabetically in the form PYTALOVO, see ABRENE. All factual material is placed under the name that the city bore on the day of liberation.

Introduction

In the history of the Soviet multinational state, the most difficult test and the most heroic epic was the Great Patriotic War. It went down in history as the largest armed clash between the striking forces of imperialism and world reaction with the world's first socialist state. The political goals of the USSR were to eliminate the mortal danger hanging over the country, to protect the socialist Fatherland and to prevent the fascist aggressor from destroying it. The goal of the USSR was also the liberation of the peoples of Europe from the Nazi invaders. Just political goals were a powerful incentive in the mobilization of all human, material and spiritual forces of the Soviet state. The class nature of the war - the struggle of two political systems that are opposite in content, progressive and reactionary - determined the decisive and uncompromising nature of the war. Only the complete defeat of Nazi Germany - there was no other outcome for the Soviet people in this struggle.

The path of the Soviet people to victory was difficult. For almost four years - 1418 days and nights, fierce battles raged on the Soviet-German front, requiring colossal efforts of all the forces of the state in order to first stop and then defeat the military machine of the Third Reich, which relied on the economy of almost all of Western Europe.
The first period of the Great Patriotic War (June 22, 1941 - November 18, 1942).

Strategic defense of the Soviet Armed Forces.

The first defeat of the Wehrmacht near Moscow.

Failure of the Nazi coalition's attempt to crush the USSR in 1942.

The Great Patriotic War began for the USSR under extremely unfavorable conditions. Having a well-armed personnel army with two years of experience in modern warfare, fascist Germany treacherously, without declaring war, attacked Soviet soil with 190 divisions, which had 47.2 thousand guns and mortars, almost 4,300 tanks and assault guns, about 5,000 aircraft . The efforts of 5.5 million Nazi soldiers and officers were invested in this blow. The Nazis sent 83 percent of the ground forces of the Nazi Wehrmacht to the Soviet-German front, including 86 percent of tank and 100 percent of motorized divisions, and four of the five air fleets at their disposal. History has never seen such an invasion army.
By the time of the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union, there were 170 divisions and 2 brigades in its western border districts. The number of troops reached 2.7 million people, 37.5 thousand guns and mortars, 1,475 KV and T-34 tanks, 1,540 new types of combat aircraft.
Taking into account the significant superiority in the number of troops and military equipment, as well as the temporary military gain determined by the surprise of the attack, the fascist command expected to put an end to the Soviet Union within three to four weeks.

The Soviet Armed Forces had to, in extremely difficult conditions, first of all, stop the German military machine. It took almost a year and a half to solve this problem, which constituted the first period of the Great Patriotic War.

Already in the first days of the war, during the border battles, the enemy command was forced to admit that it had encountered an enemy completely different from the one in the West. By mid-July, losses in the ground forces alone amounted to about 100 thousand people and about half of the tanks participating in the offensive. By July 19, 1941, the enemy had lost 1,284 aircraft.
The fascist army did not know such losses during all the fighting in the West. The Soviet army withstood the first furious onslaught of the enemy, its resistance continuously increased.
The results of the first defensive operations of the Soviet Army were immediate. Already on July 30, 1941, Hitler was forced to sign a directive on the transition to defense in the main Moscow strategic direction.
The main enemy groups in the first period of the war were aimed at capturing the most important strategic and political centers of the country. How mighty bastions stood in the way of the enemy hordes Minsk, the fortress of Brest, Kyiv, Odessa, Moscow, Tula, Sevastopol, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Novorossiysk, Kerch.
In the battles for these cities, the inspiring and organizing will of the Communist Party, the military valor of the troops, and the courage of the population were clearly demonstrated. Warriors and home front workers, adults and children, sparing no effort, forged victory. Neither the explosions of bombs and shells, nor the furious attacks of the enemy broke the morale of the people. People's militias, courageous partisans and fearless underground fighters fought shoulder to shoulder with Soviet soldiers. There was a struggle for every inch of Soviet land.
The front line, which passed in 1941-1942, is the frontier of military glory for the Soviet people. near Leningrad, Moscow, Tula, Stalingrad and Novorossiysk. It was here that the further advance of the enemy was finally stopped. In the subsequent months of the war, Nazi troops suffered crushing defeats near these same cities.
During the period of the enemy offensive, the defense of other cities by Soviet troops was of no small importance.
The capital of the Byelorussian SSR, Minsk, was in the direction of the main attack of the fascist German troops rushing towards Moscow in 1941. In the first days of the war, the military command and party organizations of the city mobilized all forces and means for its defense. Within three to four days, 27 thousand privates, command and political personnel were sent to the ranks of the Soviet Army, more than 700 cars and tractors, about 20 thousand horses and other types of mobilization resources were received. The population and material assets were urgently evacuated. About 1.5 million people were evacuated from Belarus to the east, 109 large industrial enterprises, over 5 thousand tractors, about 675 thousand heads of livestock, and various property were transported to the rear areas.
The patriots of Minsk played a major role in the development of the partisan war in the Belarusian SSR. A large underground party organization, headed by the city party committee, operated here. 213 partisan brigades and 258 separate detachments fought in Belarus. By the end of 1943, the liberated and partisan-controlled areas occupied about 60 percent of the entire territory of the republic; During the war years, about 20 thousand people from Minsk joined the partisans. In some partisan formations in the Minsk region, more than 30 percent of the personnel were Minsk residents. The activity of the Minsk underground became especially intensified in 1943-1944. Due to mass sabotage of the population and sabotage by underground workers, many enterprises in the city were inactive. On the eve of the offensive of the Soviet Army on the night of June 20, 1944, the partisans of Belarus blew up 40,775 rails, and in the following days they almost completely paralyzed traffic on the most important railways. During the offensive operations of the Soviet Army, over a thousand partisan detachments actively helped Soviet troops liberate the cities and villages of Belarus. For special merits, fortitude and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to eight organizers, leaders and active fighters of the Minsk underground, and about 60 underground participants were awarded government awards.
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 26, 1974 for outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of Minsk in the fight against the Nazi occupiers, a major role in the development of the nationwide partisan movement in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War and in commemoration of the 30th anniversary liberation of the Byelorussian SSR from the Nazi invaders, the city of Minsk was awarded the honorary title “Hero City” with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
In the difficult days of 1941, the heroic garrison of the Brest Fortress, which numbered 3.5 thousand Soviet soldiers, fought for over a month. The fascist German command, deciding to capture the fortress on the move, sent the 12th Army Corps against it. In the center of his battle formation was the 45th Division, reinforced by three artillery regiments.
From June 22 until the end of the month, fighting took place throughout the entire territory of the fortress. During this period, the defenders of the fortress not only defended themselves, but also repeatedly attacked the enemy.
From the end of June until the 20th of July, the fighting in the Brest Fortress was mainly of a focal nature. Small groups of surviving heroes took refuge in the ruins of defensive structures and basements of buildings and continued stubborn resistance.
The defense of the Brest Fortress is one of the most striking examples of the mass heroism of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. Representatives of more than 30 nationalities and nationalities of the Soviet Union fought among the defenders of the fortress. Most of the participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress died, only a few managed to escape from the enemy ring and continue the fight against the enemy as part of the Soviet Army and in partisan detachments. The Motherland highly appreciated the exceptional merits of the participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress: many of them were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union, two were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1965 states:
“Repelling the treacherous and sudden attack of the Nazi invaders on the Soviet Union, the defenders of the Brest Fortress, in extremely difficult conditions, showed outstanding military valor, mass heroism and courage in the fight against the Nazi aggressors, which became a symbol of the unparalleled fortitude of the Soviet people.
Noting the exceptional services of the defenders of the Brest Fortress to the Motherland... to award the Brest Fortress the honorary title "Fortress-Heroes" with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
The Smolensk defensive battle lasted for almost two months (from July 10, 1941). Counterattacks by the troops of the Western Front near Vitebsk and Velikiye Luki, Rogachev and Zhlobin, Orsha and Krasny, Smolensk and other areas forced the enemy to suspend the offensive. He failed to achieve his intended goals and immediately reach the Soviet capital. In the fire of the Battle of Smolensk, the Soviet Guard was born. On September 18, for mass heroism, courage of personnel, high military skill, the 100th, 127th, 153rd and 161st rifle divisions, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, were transformed, respectively, into the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Guards Rifle Divisions.
Near Orsha, Soviet rocket-propelled mortars (Katyushas) were used for the first time.
In the first period of the war, the struggle for the capital of Soviet Ukraine, Kyiv, played an important role. The defense of the city lasted 71 days (from July 11 to September 19, 1941). The troops of the Kyiv fortified region and the 37th Army created in August on their base, as well as the 5th and 26th armies, aviation, and the Dnieper detachment of ships of the Pinsk military flotilla fought staunchly on the outskirts of Kyiv. Together with. It was defended by border regiments and the population of the city by units of the Soviet Army.
By decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine, the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Council of People's Commissars of the Republic, a city defense headquarters was created. 200 thousand Kiev residents voluntarily joined the ranks of the Soviet Army. Party organizations of the city and region sent more than 30 thousand communists to the army. Already at the beginning of the war, 13 fighter battalions and 19 militia units were created in Kyiv, numbering about 35 thousand fighters.
On June 30, 1941, the construction of defensive lines began, on the construction of which up to 160 thousand Kiev residents worked daily. They dug about 55 km of anti-tank ditches, built over 15 km of scarps, more than 1,400 bunkers and laid about 15 km of minefields.
During defensive battles, the Soviet Army defeated over ten enemy divisions and destroyed more than 100 thousand fascist soldiers and officers. The defense of Kyiv played an important role in thwarting Hitler’s “blitzkrieg” plan and delaying the enemy’s attack on Moscow until October 1941. In 1961, the medal “For the Defense of Kyiv” was established, which was awarded to the defenders of the city. On May 8, 1965, for outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of Kyiv in the fight against the Nazi invaders, the hero city, previously awarded the Order of Lenin for these services, was awarded the Gold Star medal by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
For 73 days the enemy trampled around the walls of Odessa. Its heroic defense began on August 5, 1941 and was carried out by soldiers of the Primorsky Army, the Black Sea Fleet, and the population of the city. 90 percent of local communists joined the ranks of the defenders of Odessa. During the first week of war, 45 fighter battalions were created in the city and region, then 6 special volunteer detachments intended for conducting barricade-street fighting. At the call of the Odessa Party organization, over 100 thousand people took part in the defensive work, building three defensive lines in a short time. During the defense, city enterprises produced 5 armored trains, 55 tanks, 1,262 mortars, 965 flamethrowers, about 310 thousand grenades, up to 250 thousand anti-personnel mines and other weapons and equipment for the front. The enemy never managed to break into the city. Only in connection with the change in the general situation at the front, on September 30, 1941, the Soviet command gave the order for the evacuation of troops, which ended on October 16.
The enemy lost 160 thousand soldiers and officers, up to 100 tanks, and about 200 aircraft near Odessa. The entire population of the city and region, temporarily falling under the yoke of the invaders, offered active resistance to the Nazis. More than 20 thousand residents of Odessa went into the catacombs. There were 6 partisan detachments and 45 underground groups operating in the city and its suburbs. The underground and partisans of the city and region destroyed more than 5 thousand soldiers and officers, organized 27 crashes of military trains and caused other material damage to the enemy.
The Motherland highly appreciated the exploits of the defenders of Odessa. 14 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 57 were awarded the Order of Lenin, more than 30 thousand participants in the heroic defense were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Odessa”. For outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of the city in the fight against the Nazi invaders, on May 8, 1965, the hero city of Odessa was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
The largest military-political significance in the military operations of 1941-1942. had the battle of Moscow (September 30, 1941 - April 20, 1942). It covered a vast territory of eight regions of the Russian Federation, carried out in a strip about 1000 km wide and more than 350 km deep. The Battle of Moscow is the main event of the first period of the Great Patriotic War, one of the largest battles of the Second World War. In the initial stage of the fight for Moscow alone, 3 million people, up to 22 thousand guns and mortars, about 2.7 thousand tanks and up to 2 thousand aircraft took part on both sides.
On September 30, enemy groups dealt a strong blow in the Bryansk direction and on October 2 in the Vyazma direction. Fierce bloody battles unfolded. The Soviet Army suffered heavy losses in them. However, the enemy failed to achieve the goals set by the Typhoon plan. He also suffered huge losses and was stopped. It took the Nazis two weeks to resume the offensive. The Soviet command used this pause to strengthen the immediate approaches to the capital.
On November 15-16, two powerful enemy groups launched strong attacks in order to bypass Moscow from the north and south. At the cost of huge losses, they managed to push back the Soviet troops. In some areas, the Nazis were at a distance of 25-30 km from the Soviet capital. But the enemy's offensive capabilities have already been exhausted. The plan to encircle and capture Moscow was a complete failure.
During the days of heavy fighting in the Moscow direction, the whole country came to the defense of the capital. Trains with troops and weapons came here from all the regions and republics. Residents of Moscow and the Moscow region made a great contribution to the defense of the city. In July 1941, 12 divisions of the people's militia (over 120 thousand people), 25 destruction battalions (18 thousand people), 25 workers and communist battalions were created. In October - November, four more divisions of the people's militia were formed. Over 500 thousand Moscow residents, mostly women, participated in the construction of defensive structures on the approaches to the capital and in the city itself. Powerful fortifications were also built around Moscow. The total length of anti-tank ditches reached 361 km, scarps - 331 km. Muscovites built 4,026 cannon and 3,755 machine-gun pillboxes and bunkers, created 1,528 km of forest debris, dug more than 5 thousand km of trenches, installed 24 thousand metal hedgehogs on the streets and squares of the capital, and equipped 1,400 firing points.
An important measure in disrupting the enemy's November offensive near Moscow was the counteroffensive organized by Headquarters near Tikhvin (November 10 - December 30) and Rostov-on-Don (November 17 - December 2). As a result, the Nazi command was unable to remove a single division from the Army Groups "North" and "South" to strengthen its troops advancing in the Moscow direction.
December 5-6, 1941 troops of the Western (commander Army General G.K. Zhukov), Kalinin (commander Colonel General I.S. Konev) and the right wing of the Southwestern (commander Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko) fronts launched a decisive counteroffensive. By this time, party and Komsomol organizations in the capital and region had sent 114 thousand communists and more than 300 thousand Komsomol members to the front. The Moscow Military District formed rifle formations, artillery and mortar units. During the counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow, which developed into a general strategic offensive, the enemy was thrown back 100-250 km to the west. The Soviet army cleared over 11 thousand settlements from fascist invaders, defeated 38 enemy divisions, completely liberating the Moscow and Tula regions, many areas of the Kalinin and Smolensk regions. The Soviet Army seized the strategic initiative in the main strategic direction and held it for about six months. In none of the previous campaigns did the armed forces of Nazi Germany suffer such failures. The loss of initiative in the conduct of military operations deprived the Nazis of a major military advantage. Together with the collapse of the “blitzkrieg” plan, all the Hitler clique’s plans for world domination essentially collapsed.
The historic victory of Soviet troops near Moscow marked the beginning of a radical turn in the course of the Great Patriotic War. The defeat of the Wehrmacht in the winter of 1941/42 was its first major defeat in the Second World War. The myth of the invincibility of the Nazi army was dispelled. In total, in the battle of Moscow, fascist German troops lost more than 500 thousand soldiers and officers, 1,300 tanks, 2,500 guns, more than 15 thousand vehicles and much other equipment.
For the heroism and courage shown in the battle of Moscow, 36 thousand soldiers and commanders were awarded orders and medals, 110 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, over 1 million people were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Moscow”. About 40 formations and units were awarded guards ranks. On May 8, 1965, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, for outstanding services to the Motherland, mass heroism, courage and fortitude shown by the workers of the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the fight against the Nazi invaders, the city of Moscow was awarded the honorary title "Hero City" with presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
In the harsh autumn of 1941, Tula, the southern outpost of the capital of our Motherland, stood in the way of the armored hordes of the enemy. Tula was defended by soldiers of the 50th Army and almost the entire population of the city. 2-4 thousand people worked daily on the construction of structures. In a short time they built two lines of fortifications with deep anti-tank ditches, obstacles and barricades. By the beginning of the siege, three defensive lines had been created around the city, and within its boundaries there were four powerful defensive sectors. In Tula, 79 fighter battalions were formed, numbering 10,256 people, the 330th Infantry Division and the Tula Workers' Regiment, which became famous in battles with the enemy. At the same time, partisan detachments were created. In October 1941, 31 partisan detachments and 73 sabotage groups operated behind enemy lines. Tula workers provided the city's defenders with weapons, military equipment and ammunition. During the month and a half of the siege, using worn-out equipment left after the evacuation of factories, Tula residents repaired 89 tanks, 100 guns, 529 machine guns, about 200 vehicles, and manufactured thousands of rifles and pistols, grenades and mines.
From October 30 to November 14, the Nazi command, throwing more and more forces, tried to take possession of the city. However, all fascist attacks were repulsed by the courageous defenders of Tula. The enemy's attempts to bypass the city from the east and southeast were also thwarted.
The heroic defense of Tula was the final stage of the October battles of the Soviet Army on the southern approaches to Moscow. In December 1941, the Tula offensive operation began. By January 1942, the Tula region was basically liberated from the fascist occupiers. Tula residents carefully preserve the heroic traditions of the city’s defenders. In their honor, a majestic monument stands on Victory Square. There are 430 obelisks and memorial plaques in the city and its surroundings.
On December 7, 1976, for the courage and fortitude shown by the defenders of Tula during the heroic defense of the city, which played an important role in the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow during the Great Patriotic War, Tula, which had previously been awarded the Order of Lenin, was awarded the honorary title "Hero City" " with the presentation of the Gold Star medal.
The heroic defense of Sevastopol, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, continued for 250 days. She is an example of mass heroism and self-sacrifice of the troops of the Primorsky Army and sailors of the Black Sea Fleet. Sevastopol defense 1941 – 1942 had important military-political and strategic significance. Having pinned down large enemy forces for a long time, the defenders of Sevastopol violated the plans of the Nazi command on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. On October 30, 1941, the enemy tried to capture Sevastopol on the move. But this attempt was thwarted by his garrison. After this, the fascist command launched three more major offensives. On July 3, 1942, Soviet troops were forced to leave Sevastopol.
In 250 days of heroic defense, the Nazi troops lost up to 300 thousand people killed and wounded, and a large amount of military equipment. The working people of the city played an important role in the defense of Sevastopol. Militia units were formed to fight the enemy. By July 10, 1941, 14,776 people had enrolled in them, from which the Sevastopol People's Militia Division, fighter and communist battalions were formed. On the approaches to the city, three defensive lines were created with a total length of 104 km and a depth of up to 15 km. By the beginning of the defense, 75 artillery posts had been built on them, and 9,576 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines had been installed.
An underground party organization operated in enemy-occupied Sevastopol. By November 1942, she led 17 patriotic groups. On December 22, 1942, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the medal “For the Defense of Sevastopol” was established, which was awarded to its participants. For the heroism and courage shown in the defense of Sevastopol, 46 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
For outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of Sevastopol in the fight against the Nazi invaders, and in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. On May 8, 1965, the hero city was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
During the struggle for Crimea and the defense of Sevastopol, the working people of the city of Kerch, soldiers of the Soviet Army and Navy showed heroism, courage and fortitude. In the first days of the war, 16 thousand residents of Kerch joined the Armed Forces. To combat enemy landings in the city, anti-aircraft defense units and the Kerch fighter battalion were formed. Under the leadership of the city party organization, all city enterprises began producing military products. Two armored trains were manufactured and sent to the front. The Voikov metallurgical plant alone provided the defending Soviet troops with about 100 thousand grenades, 250 flamethrowers, 22 mortars, and 100 tons of anti-tank incendiary mixture. Since October 1941, the city was repeatedly subjected to massive attacks by enemy aircraft, and in mid-November, after two weeks of fierce fighting on the Kerch Peninsula, it was captured by the Nazis. On December 30, Soviet troops liberated the city, but in May

1942 Kerch was abandoned by them again.

The long (over five months) stubborn struggle in the Adzhimushkai quarries became a legendary page in the history of the war. Soviet patriots showed the world an example of loyalty to military duty, mutual assistance, and military brotherhood.
September 14, 1973 for outstanding services to the Motherland, mass heroism, courage and fortitude shown by the working people of Kerch, soldiers of the Soviet Army, Navy and Aviation during the Great Patriotic War, and in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the defeat of the Nazi troops at After the liberation of Crimea, the city was awarded the honorary title "Hero City" with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
The heroic feat of the Neva stronghold, the cradle of the Great October Revolution - Leningrad, will not fade in the centuries.
The defenders of the city of Lenin, the entire Soviet people, did what seemed impossible to defend Leningrad. In July 1941, in heavy, bloody battles, troops of the Northwestern (commander Major General P. P. Sobennikov) and Northern (commander Lieutenant General M. M. Popov) fronts, sailors of the Red Banner Baltic Fleet (commander Vice Admiral V . F. Tributs) detained the enemy on the distant approaches to Leningrad. At the cost of heavy losses, on September 8, 1941, the Nazis managed to reach Leningrad directly and blockade it from the land side. However, neither the starvation blockade, nor barbaric air raids, nor massive artillery shelling broke the spirit of the defenders of the city of Lenin. Leningrad lived, worked and fought heroically.
Leningraders made a great contribution to the defense of their city. About 500 thousand Leningraders built defensive structures, 300 thousand volunteered for 10 divisions of the people's militia, the ranks of the Soviet Army and partisan detachments, 20 thousand joined the MPVO battalions, 17 thousand joined the destruction battalions. 70 percent of communists and 90 percent of Komsomol members of Leningrad fought on the fronts. In commemoration of the feat of troops, mass heroism and courage of the population of Leningrad, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 22, 1942, the medal “For the Defense of Leningrad” was established, which was awarded to about 930 thousand people.
On May 8, 1965, for outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of Leningrad in the fight against the Nazi invaders under difficult conditions of a long enemy blockade, the hero city, previously awarded the Order of Lenin for these services, was awarded the Gold Star medal ".
The Battle of Stalingrad (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943) had a huge impact on the development of the Great Patriotic War and the entire Second World War. In terms of ferocity and intensity, in scope and consequences, this battle surpassed everything that history had known so far. On an area of ​​almost 100 thousand square meters. km, bloody battles did not subside for more than 200 days. The troops of Stalingrad (commander Colonel General A.I. Eremenko), South-Eastern (commanders Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko, Lieutenant General V.N. Gordov, Colonel General A.) participated in the battle at different times. I. Eremenko), South-Western (commander Colonel General N.F. Vatutin), Don (commander Colonel General K.K. Rokossovsky) fronts and the Volga Military Flotilla (commander Rear Admiral D. D. Rogachev). At certain stages, more than 2 million people, 26 thousand guns and mortars, more than 2 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery units, and 2 thousand combat aircraft operated on both sides.
By mid-1942, superiority in forces and means continued to remain on the enemy's side. However, the Nazi command well understood that it could no longer go on the offensive on the entire Soviet-German front, and decided in the summer of 1942 to launch an offensive on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front with the aim of reaching the oil regions of the Caucasus and the fertile regions of the Don, Kuban, Lower Volga.
By July 17, 1942, the enemy concentrated large forces in the great bend of the Don, intending to capture Stalingrad. The enemy had about 270 thousand soldiers and officers, 3 thousand guns and mortars and about 500 tanks. They were supported by up to 1,200 combat aircraft of the 4th Air Fleet. Soviet troops in the Stalingrad direction numbered 160 thousand people, 2.2 thousand guns and mortars and about 400 tanks. Thus, the enemy had a superiority in men by 1.7 times, in artillery and tanks by 1.3 times, and in aircraft by more than 2 times.
The working people of the Stalingrad region provided great assistance to the troops. Up to 50 thousand residents of Stalingrad joined the ranks of the people's militia. In areas of the region temporarily occupied by the enemy, 39 partisan detachments and sabotage groups operated. To combat saboteurs and enemy airborne assaults, 80 fighter battalions were created, numbering 11 thousand fighters. Four defensive lines were built on the approaches to Stalingrad and in the city itself. In total, by the beginning of the defense of the city, up to 2,750 km of trenches and communication passages, up to 1,860 km of anti-tank ditches had been built, and up to 85 thousand positions for fire weapons had been equipped. 150 thousand workers of the Stalingrad factories, under conditions of continuous bombing from the air and under severe artillery fire, provided the front with tanks, guns, mortars (including rocket launchers), ammunition and equipment.
By September 13, 1942, the enemy came close to the city and on October 15, in a narrow area, broke through to the Volga in the area of ​​the Stalingrad Tractor Plant. All his attempts to capture the city were defeated by the courage and iron staunchness of the defenders of Stalingrad.
And in November the Nazis managed to break through to the Volga south of the Barrikady plant. But this was the last “success” of the enemy.
The heroic defense of Stalingrad lasted 125 days. During the defensive battles, the Nazi troops lost about 700 thousand killed and wounded, over 2 thousand guns and mortars, more than 1 thousand tanks and assault guns and over 1.4 thousand aircraft.

The enemy was drained of blood and could no longer advance. This created the conditions for the Soviet troops to launch a counteroffensive. The plan of the Hitlerite command, designed for the rapid capture of Stalingrad, as well as the plan for the entire summer-autumn campaign of 1942, failed.

May 8, 1965 By Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR for outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of the city of Volgograd in the fight against the Nazi invaders, and in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. The hero city was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
In the summer of 1942, simultaneously with the attack on Stalingrad, the fascist German command began operations to capture the Caucasus. The Battle of the Caucasus (July 25, 1942 – August 19, 1943) occupies an important place in the history of the Great Patriotic War. It cannot be considered in isolation from the Battle of Stalingrad, which throughout the entire struggle had an exceptional influence on the course of the struggle for the Caucasus. In turn, events in the Caucasus also had a beneficial effect on the actions of Soviet troops near Stalingrad. During the defensive period of the battle for the Caucasus, the struggle for Novorossiysk was of great importance. The Novorossiysk defensive operation (August 19 - September 26, 1942) involved troops of the North Caucasus (commander Marshal of the Soviet Union S. M. Budyonny), the Black Sea group of forces of the Transcaucasian (commander General of the Army I. V. Tyulenev) fronts, forces of the Black Sea Fleet (commander Vice Admiral F. S. Oktyabrsky) and the Azov Military Flotilla (commander Rear Admiral S. G. Gorshkov).
During fierce fighting, the enemy managed to capture a number of points on the eastern, northern and western approaches to Novorossiysk, and on September 7 - the railway station, then the elevator and the port. On September 10, Soviet soldiers stopped the enemy in the southeastern part of the city. The fighting continued until September 26. The enemy was forced to stop offensive actions and go on the defensive. The population of the city provided great assistance to the troops.
During the Novorossiysk defensive operation, the enemy lost 14 thousand soldiers and officers, 47 tanks, 95 guns and mortars, 25 aircraft, 320 vehicles and much other military equipment. For outstanding services to the Motherland, mass heroism, courage and fortitude shown by the working people of Novorossiysk and the soldiers of the Soviet Army, Navy and Aviation during the Great Patriotic War, and in commemoration of the 30th anniversary of the defeat of fascist troops in the defense of the North Caucasus, Novorossiysk on September 14, 1973 The city was awarded the honorary title "Hero City" with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.
The first period of the war was the most difficult for the Soviet people and their Armed Forces. The troops of Nazi Germany captured the territory where, before the war, about 42 percent of the population lived and a third of the gross industrial output of the USSR was produced. However, Nazi Germany did not achieve its goals in the war with the Soviet Union. Her political and military plans failed. The well-coordinated and growing military economy of the USSR, the dedication of the Soviet people at the front and in the rear created the conditions for a radical change in the course of the war in favor of the USSR.
Second period of the war (November 19, 1942 - end of 1943)

A radical turning point during the Great Patriotic War.

By the second half of November 1942, the situation on the Soviet-German front remained extremely tense. The USSR and its Armed Forces continued to fight one-on-one against the Hitlerite coalition. Considering that the fascist German troops were drawn into a long struggle for Stalingrad, and in the Caucasus went on the defensive, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command assigned the troops operating in the Stalingrad direction the task of going on a counteroffensive. The defeat of the largest and most active enemy group here created the conditions for the development of an offensive in the Kharkov, Donbass and North Caucasus directions.
On November 19, troops of the Southwestern Front (commanded by Lieutenant General N.F. Vatutin) and part of the Don forces (commanded by Lieutenant General K.K. Rokossovsky), and on November 20 of the Stalingrad front (commanded by Colonel General A. I. Eremenko) fronts went on a counteroffensive and on the fifth day, November 23, united in the Sovetsky area, 30 km southwest of Kalach. 22 divisions and 160 separate enemy units with a total number of 330 thousand soldiers and officers were surrounded. It took Soviet troops 75 days to encircle and defeat the Nazi troops at Stalingrad. During the 200 days and nights of the Battle of Stalingrad, the fascist bloc lost a quarter of the forces operating at that time on the Soviet-German front. The total enemy losses in killed, wounded, captured, and missing amounted to 1.5 million soldiers and officers. The Wehrmacht completely lost 32 divisions and 3 brigades, and 16 of its divisions were severely defeated.
The victorious outcome of the Battle of Stalingrad was of great military and political significance. It made a decisive contribution to achieving a radical turning point both during the Great Patriotic War and throughout the Second World War, and was the most important stage on the path to victory over the fascist bloc. Conditions were created for the development of a general offensive of the Soviet Army and the mass expulsion of the Nazi occupiers from Soviet soil.
As a result of the Battle of Stalingrad, the Soviet Armed Forces wrested the strategic initiative from the enemy and retained it until the end of the war. The victory at Stalingrad raised the authority of the Soviet Union and its Armed Forces even higher and was a decisive factor in the further strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition. The peoples of Europe, enslaved by Nazi Germany, who believed in imminent liberation, rose up to more actively fight against the Nazi invaders. The defeat in the Battle of Stalingrad was a serious moral and political shock for the entire Nazi Germany, shook its foreign policy positions, and undermined the trust of its satellites. Japan was forced to abandon plans for active action against the USSR. The outstanding victory at Stalingrad demonstrated the increased power of the Soviet Army and its high military art.
For military distinctions in the Battle of Stalingrad, 44 formations and units were given the names Stalingrad, Abganerovsky, Donskoy, Basarginsky, Voroponovsky, Zimovnikovsky, Kantemirovsky, Kotelnikovsky, Srednedonsky, Tatsinsky, 55 were awarded orders, 183 units, formations and associations were transformed into guards. Tens of thousands of soldiers and officers were awarded orders and medals, 112 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The medal "For the Defense of Stalingrad", established by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, was awarded to over 700 thousand participants in the battle.
The greatness of the immortal feat of the heroic defenders of Stalingrad will always be reminded by a wonderful monument - the ensemble on Mamayev Kurgan.
The victory of the Soviet Armed Forces in the North Caucasus is closely connected with the victory on the Volga. In January 1943, Soviet troops went on the offensive in the Caucasian direction and by the beginning of April advanced 500-600 km, liberating most of the Caucasus. Fierce fighting continued in the Novorossiysk area.
A heroic page in the history of the city was the amphibious landing on the night of February 4, 1943 in the Stanichka area. Five days later, on a bridgehead of 30 square meters. km, called Malaya Zemlya, there were already 17 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers. The heroic epic of Malaya Zemlya lasted 225 days. For courage and bravery, 21 warriors - defenders of Malaya Zemlya were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, hundreds of soldiers and officers were awarded orders and medals.
During the Novorossiysk-Taman offensive operation carried out by the troops of the North Caucasus Front (commander Colonel General I. E. Petrov) in cooperation with the Black Sea Fleet (commander Vice Admiral L. A. Vladimirsky) and the Azov Flotilla (commander Rear Admiral S. . G. Gorshkov), on the morning of September 16, Novorossiysk was liberated.
For heroism and skillful actions during the liberation of Novorossiysk, 19 formations and units of the 18th Army and the Black Sea Fleet received the honorary name Novorossiysk. On May 7, 1966, Novorossiysk was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
In the summer of 1943, the Nazis attempted to change the course of the war in their favor by launching an offensive on the Kursk Bulge. But the enemy was defeated again. To imagine the Battle of Kursk, its scale and consequences, it is enough to say that about 4 million people, over 69 thousand guns and mortars, more than 13 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, and about 12 thousand combat aircraft took part in it on both sides. During this grandiose battle, the Nazi troops lost over 500 thousand soldiers and officers, 1.5 thousand tanks, over 3.7 thousand aircraft, 3 thousand guns. In the Battle of Kursk, the last attempt of the fascist German command to seize the strategic initiative failed. Having suffered a crushing defeat, the Nazi troops switched to strategic defense along the entire Soviet-German front. The counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Kursk developed into a general offensive, which in the subsequent months of 1943 led to the collapse of the Nazi front from Velikiye Luki to the Black Sea. The battle led to a further change in the balance of forces at the front. Nazi Germany and its allies were forced to go on the defensive on all fronts of the Second World War, which had a huge impact on its outcome.
An integral and most important part of the summer-autumn offensive of the Soviet Army, which began during the counteroffensive near Kursk, is the Battle of the Dnieper. This battle covers a number of strategic offensive operations carried out in order to liberate Left Bank Ukraine, Donbass, Kyiv, as well as to capture bridgeheads of strategic importance on the right bank of the Dnieper. During the fierce battles in the Battle of the Dnieper, about 3.9 million people, 63.8 thousand guns and mortars, 4.5 thousand tanks and self-propelled artillery units and over 4.9 thousand aircraft acted on both sides.
The fascist German command decided to stop the advance of the Soviet Army with stubborn defense and retain the most important economic regions of Ukraine. The enemy placed great hopes on the Eastern Wall - a strategic defensive line, the main part of which was a section of the Dnieper River.
By September 30, the armies of the Central (commanded by Army General K.K. Rokossovsky), Voronezh (commanded by Army General N.F. Vatutin) and Southwestern ( Commander General of the Army R. Ya. Malinovsky) fronts, capturing 23 bridgeheads. The entire Left Bank Ukraine was almost completely liberated from the enemy.
On November 3, 1943, the Kiev offensive operation of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front began. On November 6, the Red Banner hoisted over the capital of Ukraine. In total, in this operation, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front defeated 15 enemy divisions in ten days, destroyed and captured about 1,200 guns and mortars, 600 tanks and assault guns, 90 aircraft, and about 2 thousand vehicles. For the courage and courage shown in the battles for Kyiv, 65 units and formations were awarded the honorary name of Kyiv. 663 soldiers who most distinguished themselves during the crossing of the Dnieper and the liberation of Kyiv were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Numerous monuments, obelisks and the Ukrainian State Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945, which opened in Kyiv, remind of the terrible days of the heroic struggle of the capital of Ukraine.
By the end of December, two strategic bridgeheads were formed on the right bank of the Dnieper: one in the area of ​​Rechitsa, Korosten, Kyiv; the second - in the Kirovograd and Krivoy Rog directions. The presence of these bridgeheads created opportunities for the deployment of operations to liberate Belarus and Right-Bank Ukraine.
Having overcome most of the Eastern Wall, the Soviet Army upset the plans of the fascist German command to successfully conduct a protracted defensive war. The battle showed the inevitability of the defeat of Nazi Germany only by the forces of the Soviet Union, even if a second front was not opened.
During operations carried out in the Donbass, on the Left Bank of Ukraine and on the right bank of the Dnieper, the Soviet Army inflicted a heavy defeat on the Nazi troops. During the period August-December 1943, it defeated over 60 enemy divisions, including 11 tank and motorized divisions. To make up for the losses of its troops on the Eastern Front, the fascist German command at the end of 1943 - beginning of 1944 was forced to resort to “super-total” mobilization.
The third period of the war (January 1944 - May 9, 1945).

The defeat of the fascist bloc.

Expulsion of enemy troops from the USSR.

Liberation from occupation of European countries.

The complete collapse of Nazi Germany and its unconditional surrender.
In 1944, the Soviet Army carried out successive strategic operations on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea. In January - March 1944, during the offensive in Right Bank Ukraine, Soviet troops defeated Army Groups "A" and "South", reached the state border, the foothills of the Carpathians and the territory of Romania.
Simultaneously with the operations in Right Bank Ukraine, an offensive was carried out near Leningrad and Novgorod. As a result of the Leningrad-Novgorod operation (January 14-March 1, 1944), fascist German troops were thrown back to the west by 220-280 km, and in early August 1944 during the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation (June 10-August 9) suffered the defeat of the enemy group on the northern wing of the Soviet-German front. The security of Leningrad was completely ensured.
Thus ended the battle for Leningrad, which lasted from July 10, 1941 to August 9, 1944. This battle was of outstanding importance during the Great Patriotic War. It was attended by troops of the Northern (commander Lieutenant General M. M. Popov), Northwestern (commander Major General P. P. Sobennikov), Leningrad (commander Army General L. A. Govorov), Volkhovsky (commander Army General K. A. Meretskov), Karelian (commander Army General K. A. Meretskov) and 2nd Baltic (commander Colonel General M. M. Popov) fronts, Red Banner Baltic Fleet forces (commander Admiral V. F. Tributs), Ladoga ( commander Rear Admiral V.S. Cherokov) and Onega (commander Rear Admiral P.S. Abankin) flotillas, long-range aviation formations and the country's Air Defense Forces.
The working people of Leningrad made an invaluable contribution to the defeat of the enemy. Under the most difficult conditions of the blockade of the city, they manufactured and repaired 2 thousand tanks, 1,500 aircraft, 225 thousand machine guns, 12 thousand mortars, about 10 million shells and mines.
The Battle of Leningrad is part of the heroic struggle of the Soviet people and their Armed Forces against the Nazi invaders. This battle, in its spatial scope, covered the territory of almost the entire northwestern part of the country and had enormous political, economic and strategic significance. For the heroism and courage shown in the battle for Leningrad, over 350 thousand soldiers, officers and generals who took part in the defense of the city were awarded orders and medals, 226 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 6 thousand partisans were awarded military orders and medals of the USSR, and 19 of them are the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
On June 23, 1957, during the celebration of the 250th anniversary of Leningrad, the Central Committee of the CPSU, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR and the Council of Ministers of the USSR wrote in their greeting: “The nine-hundred-day defense of the besieged city is a legendary story of courage and heroism, which aroused the surprise and admiration of contemporaries and will forever remain in the memory of future generations."
On April 10, 1944, as a result of fierce fighting, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front liberated Odessa. The 27 units that most distinguished themselves in the battles for the liberation of the city were given the honorary name of Odessa. 24 units were awarded orders, hundreds of soldiers were awarded high government awards.
During the Crimean operation (April 8 - May 12, 1944), carried out by the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (commander Army General F.I. Tolbukhin), the Separate Primorsky Army (commander Army General A.I. Eremenko), and the forces of the Black Sea Fleet (commander Admiral F.S. Oktyabrsky) and the Azov military flotilla (commander Rear Admiral S.G. Gorshkov), on April 11 the city of Kerch was liberated.
During the occupation of Kerch, the Nazis destroyed 85 percent of the housing stock, killed 15 thousand civilian Soviet citizens, and deported more than 14 thousand residents to Germany. But neither executions, nor torture, nor executions broke the will of the Kerch residents. An underground organization operated in the city. The partisan detachment, based in the Starokarantino quarries, destroyed over 600 fascist soldiers and officers, disabled 5 guns, 32 vehicles, captured a lot of weapons, ammunition, and a radio station. In 1943 – 1944 Three partisan detachments waged an armed struggle against the enemy.
The Victory Banner hoisted on Mount Mithridates, where the granite arrow of the Obelisk of Glory now stands in memory of those who here, on Kerch soil, defended the freedom and independence of our Motherland.
For the courage and heroism shown in the battles for Kerch, more than 10 thousand Soviet soldiers were awarded orders and medals, 134 of its defenders were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 20 units and formations were given the honorary name of Kerch.
On May 5, 1944, the battles for Sevastopol began. On May 9, the city of Russian military glory was liberated. 118 formations and units that distinguished themselves during the liberation of the city were given the honorary name of Sevastopol. 126 soldiers received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In the summer of 1944, the Soviet Army dealt a powerful blow to the enemy in Belarus. During the Belarusian strategic operation (June 23 - August 29), the main forces of Army Group Center were defeated.
On July 3, Minsk was liberated by the troops of the 3rd, 2nd and 1st Belorussian Fronts (commanded by Generals I.D. Chernyakhovsky, G.F. Zakharov, K.K. Rokossovsky), while the eastern city was surrounded and destroyed by more than 100,000 group of Nazi troops. More than 50 formations and units of the Soviet Armed Forces that most distinguished themselves in the Minsk operation were given the honorary name Minsk.
In mid-July 1944, during the Lublin-Brest offensive operation, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front crossed the Bug, bypassed Brest from the north and south, surrounding the Brest enemy group. On July 28, troops of the 61st Army, with the assistance of part of the forces of the 28th and 70th armies of the 1st Belorussian Front, liberated the city and fortress of Brest. The 47 most distinguished units and formations of the front were given the honorary name of Brest.
As a result of the Belarusian operation, Soviet troops completed the liberation of Belarus, liberated part of Lithuania and Latvia, entered the territory of Poland, and approached the borders of East Prussia.
In August 1944, as a result of the Iasi-Kishinev operation, the army group "Southern Ukraine" was surrounded and defeated, Romania was withdrawn from the war. This created favorable conditions for the victory of popular uprisings in Romania and Bulgaria. The new democratic governments of these countries declared war on Germany.
The powerful offensive of the Soviet Army continued until the end of 1944. Soviet troops liberated part of Czechoslovakia and the eastern part of Hungary. Troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, in cooperation with the troops of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, liberated the capital of Yugoslavia, Belgrade. In October 1944, the troops of the right wing of the Karelian Front (commanded by Army General K. A. Meretskov), in cooperation with the Northern Fleet (commanded by Admiral A. G. Golovko), defeated the 20th Nazi Army, liberated the Soviet Arctic and captured the northern regions of Norway.
The victories of the Soviet Armed Forces led to outstanding political and military results. The territory of the USSR was completely liberated from the Nazi invaders (with the exception of the northwestern part of the Latvian SSR) and the state border from the Barents to the Black Sea was restored. All the main strategic groupings of the enemy - Army Groups "North", "Northern Ukraine", "A", "Southern Ukraine" ("South") were defeated. In the summer and autumn of 1944 alone, 96 fascist divisions and 24 brigades were destroyed and captured. 219 divisions and 22 brigades lost from 50 to 75 percent of their strength. The total losses of the fascist German army on the Soviet-German front during this time amounted to 1.6 million people, 6,700 tanks, 28 thousand guns and mortars, more than 12 thousand aircraft. Nazi Germany lost almost all of its allies and found itself in complete political isolation. In mid-1944, the great liberation campaign of the Soviet Army began, providing direct assistance to the peoples of Europe in their struggle against Nazi Germany.
In January - the first half of April 1945, a powerful offensive of the Soviet Army unfolded along the entire Soviet-German front. During the largest operations - East Prussian, Vistula-Oder, Budapest and Vienna - the main groups of Nazi troops were defeated, all of Poland, a significant part of Czechoslovakia, Hungary, part of Austria with the capital Vienna were liberated.
On April 16, the Berlin operation began. Soviet troops surrounded and defeated a large enemy group and captured the capital of Germany on May 2. 93 divisions and many individual units were defeated, 480 thousand people were captured, and a huge amount of military equipment and weapons were captured. On May 8, in Karlshorst (a suburb of Berlin), the Act of Unconditional Surrender of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany was signed.
On May 6-11, 1945, Soviet troops, providing assistance to the rebellious (May 1-5) population of Prague and other regions of Czechoslovakia, defeated the troops of Army Group Center, which refused to capitulate, during the Prague operation. May 9 became Victory Day over Nazi Germany, in which the USSR played a decisive role. This predetermined the outcome of the Second World War in favor of the countries of the anti-fascist coalition.
Defeat of Imperialist Japan (August 9 – September 2, 1945)
With the surrender of Germany, the war in Europe ended, but the war in the Far East and the Pacific, waged by the United States, Great Britain and their allies, continued. Japan, despite significant losses, still had large armed forces, especially ground forces (5.5 million people), and continued to resist. The American command expected to end the war with Japan a year and a half after the defeat of Germany. To speed up the end of the war, at the Crimean Conference in 1945, it was decided that the USSR would enter the war with Japan. Fulfilling allied obligations, as well as in order to ensure the security of its Far Eastern borders and eliminate the source of aggression in Asia, the Soviet Union declared war on Japan on August 8. During the 23 days of the Manchurian operation, conducting an offensive on a front of over 5 thousand km, Soviet troops, in cooperation with the Pacific Fleet and the Amur Flotilla, defeated the Kwantung Army. Having advanced to a depth of 600-800 km, they liberated Manchuria, the provinces of Northeast China, North Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands.
The enemy lost 677 thousand people. The defeat of the Kwantung Army was the USSR's decisive contribution to the victory over Japan. On September 2, the Japanese government capitulated. The source of aggression was eliminated, and the national liberation movement of the peoples of the Far East and Southeast Asia intensified in the Far East.
During the operations of 1944 - 1945. The Soviet Army made a decisive contribution to the liberation of the peoples of Europe from fascist enslavement, thereby fulfilling its international duty to humanity. During the Soviet Army's great liberation mission in Europe, the following were liberated from Hitler's yoke: Romania, Poland, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia (eastern regions), Czechoslovakia (most of them), Hungary, Norway (Finmark province), Austria (eastern regions), Germany (eastern regions), Denmark (Bornholm island). During the Manchurian operation, Soviet troops liberated the northeastern provinces of China and the territory of Korea up to the 36th parallel. About 7 million Soviet soldiers fought fierce battles with the enemy for more than a year on the territory of 12 countries in Europe and Asia, covering about 2,200 thousand square meters. km, liberated a territory with a population of about 147 million people. Soviet soldiers showed massive heroism outside the borders of their native country. During the final battles of the Great Patriotic War, more than 9 million orders and medals were awarded. Tens of thousands of Soviet soldiers were awarded foreign state awards, many formations and units were given honorary names of the cities of foreign countries they liberated. More than 1 million Soviet soldiers gave their lives in the struggle for the liberation of enslaved peoples.
Without the victory of the Soviet people, the fate of humanity would have become tragic and unbearably difficult. German and Japanese contenders for world domination brought him slavery in the worst forms, the destruction of centuries-old achievements of world civilization and culture, and the physical extermination of tens of millions of people. Under the banner of creating a “new order,” they established their terrorist dictatorship wherever they invaded, suppressing any possibility of independent life and free development of peoples.
The historical liberation mission of the Soviet Armed Forces aroused the deep gratitude of peoples to Soviet soldiers, which is reflected in official documents, statements of prominent political and government figures and ordinary citizens, numerous documents and monuments, works of fine art, books and songs.
During the Second World War, the main theater of military operations was the Soviet-German front. Essentially, not only the fate of the Soviet people, but also the fate of all humanity was decided here.
In the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet people and their Armed Forces made a decisive contribution to achieving victory over Nazi Germany and its allies. Throughout the war, the overwhelming majority of the armed forces of Nazi Germany were on the Soviet-German front. Here, in the strip from the Barents to the Black Sea, from June 1941 to mid-1944, from 190 to 270 enemy divisions operated, while from 9 to 20 divisions acted against the Anglo-American troops in North Africa, and in Italy - from 7 to 26 divisions.
Even after the Allies opened a second front in Western. In Europe in the summer of 1944, the Soviet-German front still attracted the main forces, most of the weapons and military equipment of the fascist bloc. By the end of 1944, 185 selected enemy divisions and 21 brigades fought against the Soviet Union, and Nazi Germany held 74 poorly trained and equipped divisions and 3 brigades against the Anglo-American troops. The situation changed little in 1945. The fascist German command used four of the five available air fleets and all the aviation of its allies against the USSR.
Intense and fierce battles on the Soviet-German front not only attracted, but also absorbed large forces of Germany and its allies, making it impossible to transfer troops from here to other fronts. In total, 607 divisions of the fascist bloc were defeated or captured here (including 507 German ones). The Allies accounted for 176 defeated or captured enemy divisions, most of them at the final stage of the war, when the enemy in the West offered weak resistance and simply laid down their arms.
On the Soviet-German front, the German armed forces lost over 10 million people killed, wounded and missing out of 13.6 million total losses during the war. Here the bulk of the Wehrmacht's military equipment was destroyed: 70 thousand combat aircraft (about 70 percent), 50 thousand tanks and assault guns (up to 75 percent), 167 thousand artillery pieces (74 percent), 2,500 various ships and auxiliary vessels .
The length of the Soviet-German front was unparalleled. From the very first days of the war, it reached over 4 thousand km. By the fall of 1942, the front expanded and exceeded 6 thousand km. Its extent was four times greater than the North African, Italian and Western European ones combined. By the beginning of 1945, the Soviet-German front line had been reduced to 2,200 km, but even at that time the Allied front in Northern France reached only 800 km.
Of the 1418 days of existence of the Soviet-German front, active combat operations were carried out for 1320 days, which is 93 percent of the time. And on the North African front, for 1068 days of its existence, only 309 days, or 29 percent of the time, are spent on active operations. The Italian front existed for 663 days, of which active operations were carried out for 492 days, or 74 percent of the time. On the Western European front alone, in the final period of the war, out of 338 days, active operations were carried out for 293 days, or 87 percent of the time, but the conditions in which these actions took place and the degree of enemy resistance differed sharply from the indicators of the struggle on the Soviet-German front.
Thus, the Soviet-German front was the decisive front of the Second World War. The main strategic result of the armed struggle on this front, which had important military-political significance, was the destruction of the armed forces of the states of the fascist bloc, which led to the collapse of the entire political and military machine of Nazi Germany and its allies.
In the fierce battle with fascism, such moral and political qualities of the Soviet people as high communist ideology, courage, perseverance, unity, class hatred of the enemy, and readiness to defend their Motherland without sparing life were revealed.
The just, liberating goals of the war waged by the Soviet Union gave rise to such mass heroism that history has never known, nor has any country that participated in the Second World War known. The Great Patriotic War confirmed that feat in the name of the Motherland is the norm of behavior of Soviet soldiers in battle. In total, more than 11,600 people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for heroic deeds performed in the Great Patriotic War, 98 of them were awarded two Gold Star medals, and 3 were awarded three medals. Four Heroes of the Soviet Union - A.V. Aleshin, I.G. Drachenko, P.Kh. Dubinda and N.I. Kuznetsov - full holders of the Order of Glory. There are 87 women among the wartime Heroes of the Soviet Union.
Among the Heroes of the Soviet Union are people of different nationalities and nationalities, warriors of all branches of the Armed Forces. Among them, more than 8 thousand are representatives of the Ground Forces, more than 2 thousand - the Air Force, about 500 people - the Navy, and others. 10,900 military orders were awarded to formations, units and ships. More than 7 million soldiers were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet state, many soldiers, commanders and political workers were awarded orders and medals of foreign countries.
In 1941, the Soviet Guard was born. The glory of the first guard formations spread throughout the country. Soon guards regiments, brigades, divisions, corps and entire armies appeared in all branches of the armed forces and branches of the Armed Forces. On May 9, 1945, the Soviet Armed Forces awarded the guards rank to 11 combined arms and 6 tank armies, a cavalry-mechanized group, 82 different corps, 215 divisions, 177 regiments, 59 brigades for various purposes, a fortified area, 18 warships and a large number units of various types of troops.
During the Great Patriotic War, the assignment of honorary names to units and formations of the Soviet Armed Forces in honor of their liberation or capture of cities, towns, villages and hamlets of our Motherland, European countries, North-East China and North Korea, South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands became widespread. The tradition of assigning honorary names to military units and formations originated in our country during the civil war.
The first honorary names were assigned to tank and mechanized corps and air divisions that distinguished themselves in battle during the Battle of Stalingrad (Don, Zimovnikov, Kotelnikov, Stalingrad and Tatsin). In honor of the victory in the Battle of Kursk, a number of formations and units that distinguished themselves during the liberation of Belgorod and Orel on August 5, 1943 were given the honorary names of Belgorod and Oryol.
During the war, many individual battalions, divisions, regiments, brigades, divisions and corps were awarded honorary titles for excellent combat operations, courage and bravery of their personnel after the names of the capitals of the Union republics they liberated and other cities temporarily captured by the enemy, as well as the capitals of foreign states , cities and other settlements in Europe and Asia, by the names of rivers, mountain ranges, lake systems, islands, peninsulas that were forced, overcome or liberated by Soviet troops.
The feat of the home front workers was also striking and widespread. The medal “For Valiant Labor in the Great Patriotic War” alone was awarded to over 16 million Soviet citizens.
A manifestation of the life-giving Soviet patriotism and boundless devotion of our people to the socialist Motherland during the war years was the heroic struggle of the Soviet people on Soviet territory temporarily occupied by the Nazis. During the war, more than 6,200 partisan formations and underground groups operated behind enemy lines, in which over 1 million partisans and underground fighters - representatives of all the peoples of the USSR - fought. Patriots from other countries also fought in the ranks of the Soviet partisans: Czechs, Slovaks, Poles, Romanians, Yugoslavs, Hungarians, Belgians, French, Germans, etc.
In terms of scale, political and military results, the heroic struggle of the Soviet people on Soviet soil temporarily occupied by the enemy acquired the significance of an important military-political factor in the defeat of the aggressor. It not only provided direct assistance to the Soviet Army in expelling the enemy from the country, but also served as a powerful motivating example for the peoples of other countries who found themselves under fascist occupation. For courage and heroism, more than 127 thousand partisans were awarded the medal "Partisan of the Patriotic War", over 184 thousand partisans and underground fighters were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union.
During the war, national units and formations of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Yugoslavia and France were formed on the territory of the Soviet Union. They received from the Soviet government the necessary weapons, controls, transport, ammunition, fuel and equipment.
The war with Nazi Germany caused innumerable disasters to the Soviet people, who lost over 20 million of their sons and daughters. Fascist monsters, in wild anger towards everything Soviet, mercilessly exterminated innocent people, destroyed flourishing cities, towns, villages and stations, robbed residents, mocked them, took away their parents from children, deprived the elderly and women of bread and shelter, doomed them to starvation of the population. Enormous damage was caused to the national economy of the USSR.
The Nazis destroyed and plundered 1,710 cities and towns, burned more than 70 thousand villages, completely or partially destroyed about 32 thousand industrial enterprises, destroyed 65 thousand kilometers of railways, plundered 98 thousand collective farms, about 5 thousand state farms and MTS, destroyed tens of thousands of hospitals, schools, technical schools, universities, and libraries. No state, either in the Second World War or in previous wars, suffered such damage.
In the war against German fascism, the advantages of the Soviet social and state system, the economic power of the Soviet state, the unity of the front and rear, the friendship of the peoples of the USSR, the combat power and combat effectiveness of the Soviet Armed Forces, the superiority of Soviet military art, the experience of command personnel, and high moral and combat qualities were clearly demonstrated. Soviet soldiers. The Soviet people, led by the Communist Party, have rightfully acquired the glory of a heroic people, a heroic people, a victorious people.
The victory that was won in the battles of the Great Patriotic War is also the victory of our heroic working class, collective farm peasantry, intelligentsia, and the victory of the entire multinational Soviet people. This is the victory of the glorious Soviet Army, created by the revolution, educated by the party, inextricably linked with the people. This is a victory for Soviet military science, the combat skill of all branches of the military, and the art of Soviet commanders who came from the people.
The victorious outcome of the Great Patriotic War was ensured thanks to the leading, guiding and mobilizing role of the CPSU. In extremely difficult conditions, the party managed to mobilize the entire people for the sacred struggle against the Nazi invaders. During the war years, the party became a truly fighting party, and its Central Committee became a combat headquarters, which exercised the highest political and strategic leadership of the country and the Armed Forces. The loyal sons and daughters of the party fought in the most critical sectors. By the end of the war, every fourth soldier was a member or candidate member of the party. 3 million Soviet communists gave their lives defending the Motherland and humanity.
The great victory of the Soviet Union over fascist Germany and imperialist Japan showed the greatness of our socialist Motherland, the omnipotence of communist ideas, and gave amazing examples of dedication and heroism.
No one is forgotten and nothing is forgotten. Soviet people remember and highly honor the deeds and exploits of heroes. From their example, they learn to live, fight, win, and pass on this historical connection of times and generations to their descendants. In bronze, granite and marble obelisks, memorial plaques and steles, in the names of streets and squares, the memory of the glorious warriors who became the pride of our people is immortalized. Sacred tribute to the memory of their heroic deeds is also expressed in military historical works.
In the book brought to the attention of readers, an attempt is made to show on a large scale the achievements of the Soviet Armed Forces, which have passed through trials and victories along the roads, to liberate many hundreds of Soviet and foreign cities. The content of the work testifies to the patriotism and internationalism of the Soviet people and their Armed Forces, to the brilliant military skill of our generals, military leaders and commanders. “Victory in the Great Patriotic War,” says the Resolution of the CPSU Central Committee “On the 40th Anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet People in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945,” “showed the superiority of Soviet military science and military art, the high level of strategic leadership and combat skill of our military personnel."
Let this book become a monument to the living and the fallen - to those who with all their might brought the day of the Great Victory closer.
Hero of the Soviet Union,

army General,

Professor S. Ivanov

I was surprised to learn that many people do not know about Przemysl. The first city liberated by our troops during the Great Patriotic War. I want to fill this gap in knowledge of history.

German attack.

There is a city in Poland called Przemysl. Before the war, it was divided by a river into two parts. The eastern one was called Przemysl and belonged to the USSR, and the western one was called Premzel and belonged to Germany.

Modern city diagram

On June 22, 1941, there were practically no troops in the Soviet part of the city. The garrison consisted of 1 company of the 66th regiment of the 10th division of the NKVD troops, guarding the bridges over the San River, platoons of the 150th separate bullet battalion of the 8th fortified area, the commandant's office, the headquarters of the 99th rifle division of the Red Army and the outposts of the Przemysl 92nd border detachment.

Early in the morning of June 22, German guns opened fire on the right bank of Przemysl. The city housed the headquarters of the 92nd border detachment and the 1st battalion of the regiment of the NKVD troops, the administration of the 4th border commandant's office and units of the 99th infantry division. Warehouses, a hospital, a railway station building, and residential buildings caught fire. After artillery preparation, the offensive began. The strategic goal in Przemysl for the Germans was bridges; they tried to capture them in an intact condition at night. Where the garrison “243 kilometer” of the 66th regiment was defended under the command of junior lieutenant S. Motorin and the border guards of the 14th outpost A.N. Patarikin. Later they were joined by a group of soldiers of the 1st company of the 66th regiment under the command of junior lieutenant Ya. Berezhny.

View from the German part of the city to ours

Operational report from the headquarters of the 66th regiment to the division command dated June 22, 22:00: “at 04:10, fire was opened on the city of Przemysl from the side of German territory, the battalion building was damaged, the garrisons went over to defend the facilities. at 9:00 the enemy infantry began an attack on our territory. The 243 km garrison, together with the border guards, held back the enemy until 10:30, after which, under the pressure of superior enemy forces, supported by artillery fire, they retreated to the 247 km garrison.”

German attacks continued several times, including with the support of tanks. The fierce resistance of the Soviet border guards is evidenced by a former sergeant major who participated in the attacks on the 9th outpost: “...The fire was terrible! We left a lot of corpses on the bridge, but we never took possession of it right away. Then the commander of my battalion ordered the San to be forded on the right and left in order to surround the bridge and capture it intact. But as soon as we rushed into the river, the Russian border guards began to pour fire on us here too. The losses were terrible... Seeing that his plan was being thwarted, the battalion commander ordered fire from 80 mm mortars. Only under his cover did we begin to infiltrate the Soviet shore... We could not advance further as quickly as our command wanted. The Soviet border guards had firing points along the coastline. They sat in them and shot literally until the last cartridge... Nowhere, never have we seen such fortitude, such military tenacity... They preferred death to the possibility of capture or withdrawal...”

Under the cover of artillery and mortar fire, the Nazis sent more than two companies to capture the bridge. The security forces managed to repel eight attacks. Then the Germans transported the main forces across the river in rubber boats downstream. The situation became critical. At one of the defense sectors, from a group led by the assistant head of the outpost, Lieutenant P.S. Nechaev was the only surviving commander. When the Nazis, having surrounded him on all sides, tried to capture him, Nechaev blew himself up and five Germans with a grenade.
It must be said that the party organization of the city was able to field a militia detachment during these short hours of war. This detachment, numbering 190 people, under the command of the first secretary of the city committee P.V. Orlenko came to the aid of border guards and units of the 66th NKVD regiment. Entering the battle right away.

The heroic actions of the defenders made it possible to gain time for the approach of units of the 99th Infantry Division of Colonel N.I. Dementieva. But on June 22 at 14:00 our units left the city. In addition to the garrisons of the bunkers of the 8th Przemysl UR.

Scheme of the center of the city of Przemysl with the placement of bunkers of the Przemysl UR.

A bunker captured by the Germans

He is currently

On the same day, a plan for a counterattack against the Germans was developed. To attack the city from the south, a combined battalion was formed from border guards and soldiers of the NKVD regiment, commanded by Art. Lieutenant G.S. Polywater. At night, the battalion commander sent four groups of reconnaissance officers to Przemysl.
Using their knowledge of the city, they managed to quietly penetrate Przemysl and obtain information about the location of enemy troops, their firing points in squares and street intersections. Several “tongues” were captured, and from them they learned about the impending German offensive and the time of its start. A decision was made: to forestall the enemy and launch an attack on the city half an hour earlier.

With the support of the 71st Howitzer Artillery Regiment, 99th Artillery. division, the combined Polivoda battalion, border outposts of the 4th commandant's office and units of the 99th division (machine gun company and anti-tank battery) went on the attack. Street fighting broke out.

Pravda special correspondent D. Novoplyansky described it this way: “The invaders strengthened themselves most strongly on the Square of Five Corners. Machine guns were firing from the windows of the four-story building, as if from embrasures. The border guards nevertheless made their way into this building. Komsomol member Shcherbitsky threw an enemy machine gunner out of a second floor window. Sergeant Major Malkov threw grenades at the Nazis holed up in the basement. Guide Andreev and two border guards followed the dog, which unerringly found disguised machine gunners. At 14-00 two enemy tanks appeared on the square, they were shot by our artillerymen who arrived in time..."

By mid-day on June 23, the Soviet part of the city was completely cleared of the Germans, and Polivoda’s battalion broke into the German part of Przemysl - into the city of Premzel across the San River, that is, into the territory of the Reich proper. Having freed both his prisoners and those of the Gestapo. Thus, the city of Przemysl became the first Soviet city recaptured from the Germans on June 23, 1941. And Premzel became the first city on Reich territory taken by Allied troops during the Second World War. However, by the evening of June 23, Soviet troops received orders to return to the Soviet part of the city. Which was done on June 24. On the day when the country heard in the Sovinformburo report: “With a swift counterattack, our troops again captured Przemysl.” This was the first message about a large strategically important city being recaptured from the enemy, about the first successful counterattack of the Red Army.

Senior Lieutenant G.S. Polywater.

For five days our units held the city, inflicting significant losses on the enemy. And only on June 27, due to the general deterioration of the situation at the front (German breakthrough to Lvov), Przemysl was abandoned in an organized manner by order of the command.
At 6.15 on June 27, Polivoda’s battalion departed from Przemysl. But there were still cover groups in the city that continued to resist until dawn on June 28, 1941. One of the last to leave the city that morning with a heavy machine gun were Lieutenant A.N. Patarikin and Sergeant A.M. Kalyakin.

Only then did fascist troops enter the city. But they did this too with caution. Only at 8-9 o’clock in the morning did groups of Nazi intelligence officers appear on the streets. But the garrisons of pillboxes 8 of the fortified area remained in their places. The garrison of the bunker on the banks of the San near Castle Hill under the command of Junior Lieutenant Chaplin held out until June 30 and was completely destroyed. This bunker, known as kaponiera 8813, houses a private museum telling the story of the heroic defense of the city in 1941. However, the monument erected to Lieutenant Nechaev at the site of his death was demolished in the early 90s of the last century.

In 1944, Przemysl was finally liberated by Soviet troops. And in 1945, the southern part of the city was completely transferred to Poland.
Information about tanks flashed several times in the messages. And then we need to figure out what it could be. These were either captured tanks captured by the Germans in France in 1940. And those available in the German infantry divisions. Or ersatz self-propelled guns, made from captured armored tankettes, armed with machine guns and 37-mm anti-tank guns mounted on them. A kind of PAK carrier, of which there were more than a thousand in the Wehrmacht.

PAK "carrier in battle.

Or it could be PzKpfw B2 of the 102nd battalion of flamethrower tanks. It consisted of two companies, each of which, in addition to 12 flamethrower vehicles, had three support tanks (linear B2, armed with a 75-mm cannon). A total of 30 heavy tanks. The 102nd battalion is subordinate to the headquarters of the 17th Army, whose divisions stormed the Przemysl fortified area. On June 29, the assault on Soviet pillboxes began with the participation of flamethrower tanks. The report of the commander of the 2nd battalion of the 520th infantry regiment allows us to restore the picture of the battle. “On the evening of June 28, the 102nd battalion of flamethrower tanks reached the indicated starting positions. At the sound of tank engines, the enemy opened fire from cannons and machine guns, but there were no casualties. With a delay caused by thick fog, at 5.55 on June 29, 8.8 cm Flak opened direct fire at the embrasures of the pillboxes. The anti-aircraft gunners fired until 7.04, when most of the embrasures were hit and fell silent. Following the green rocket, the 102nd Flamethrower Tank Battalion went on the attack at 7.05. Engineering units accompanied the tanks. Their task was to place high-explosive charges under the enemy’s defensive fortifications. When some pillboxes opened fire, the sappers were forced to take cover in an anti-tank ditch. 88-mm anti-aircraft guns and other types of heavy weapons returned fire. The sappers were able to reach their designated targets, plant and detonate high-explosive charges. The pillboxes were heavily damaged by 88mm gun fire and could only fire periodically. The flamethrower tanks were able to get close to the pillboxes. The defenders of the pillboxes put up desperate resistance. Two flamethrower tanks were hit by a 76mm cannon from a pillbox. Both tanks burned down, but the crews managed to abandon the damaged vehicles. The flamethrower tanks failed to hit the pillboxes. The flammable mixture could not penetrate through the ball installations into the bunker. The defenders of the fortifications continued to fire."

PzKpfw B2 102nd battalion of flamethrower tanks

Captured tanks in the service of the Wehrmacht

Kreuzer Panzerkampfwagen Mk.IV 744(e) - captured British cruiser tank A-13 Mk II, destroyed in 1941. True near Brest.

Liberation of cities

Directory "Liberation of Cities: A Guide to the Liberation of Cities during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945" / M.L.Dudarenko, Yu.G.Perechnev, V.T.Eliseev and others - M.: Voenizdat, 1985. - 598 p. .

The factual material of the reference book was prepared by the Central Archive of the USSR Ministry of Defense, the Institute of Military History of the USSR Ministry of Defense and the Central Naval Archive under the general editorship of Army General S.P. Ivanov.

Scanned at the Information Retrieval Center of the Public Youth Organization "Fatherland Association" of the Republic of Tatarstan.

Material for all countries is placed not only in one file, but also for convenience is divided into parts (by country). Within the country, cities are listed in alphabetical order. If the modern name of the city differs from the name of the war period, then it is enclosed in brackets. For example, ABRENE (PYTALOVO). In addition, it is given an independent name and placed alphabetically in the form PYTALOVO, see ABRENE. All factual material is placed under the name that the city bore on the day of liberation.

Introduction

In the history of the Soviet multinational state, the most difficult test and the most heroic epic was the Great Patriotic War. It went down in history as the largest armed clash between the striking forces of imperialism and world reaction with the world's first socialist state. The political goals of the USSR were to eliminate the mortal danger hanging over the country, to protect the socialist Fatherland and to prevent the fascist aggressor from destroying it. The goal of the USSR was also the liberation of the peoples of Europe from the Nazi invaders. Just political goals were a powerful incentive in the mobilization of all human, material and spiritual forces of the Soviet state. The class nature of the war - the struggle of two political systems that are opposite in content, progressive and reactionary - determined the decisive and uncompromising nature of the war. Only the complete defeat of Nazi Germany - there was no other outcome for the Soviet people in this struggle.

The path of the Soviet people to victory was difficult. For almost four years - 1418 days and nights, fierce battles raged on the Soviet-German front, requiring colossal efforts of all the forces of the state in order to first stop and then defeat the military machine of the Third Reich, which relied on the economy of almost all of Western Europe.

Strategic defense of the Soviet Armed Forces.

The first defeat of the Wehrmacht near Moscow.

Failure of the Nazi coalition's attempt to crush the USSR in 1942.

The Great Patriotic War began for the USSR under extremely unfavorable conditions. Having a well-armed personnel army with two years of experience in modern warfare, Nazi Germany treacherously, without declaring war, launched an attack on Soviet soil with 190 divisions, which had 47.2 thousand guns and mortars, almost 4,300 tanks and assault guns, about 5,000 aircraft . The efforts of 5.5 million Nazi soldiers and officers were invested in this blow. The Nazis sent 83 percent of the ground forces of the Nazi Wehrmacht to the Soviet-German front, including 86 percent of tank and 100 percent of motorized divisions, and four of the five air fleets at their disposal. History has never seen such an invasion army.

By the time of the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union, there were 170 divisions and 2 brigades in its western border districts. The number of troops reached 2.7 million people, 37.5 thousand guns and mortars, 1,475 KV and T-34 tanks, 1,540 new types of combat aircraft.

Taking into account the significant superiority in the number of troops and military equipment, as well as the temporary military gain determined by the surprise of the attack, the fascist command expected to put an end to the Soviet Union within three to four weeks.

The Soviet Armed Forces had to, in extremely difficult conditions, first of all, stop the German military machine. It took almost a year and a half to solve this problem, which constituted the first period of the Great Patriotic War.

Already in the first days of the war, during the border battles, the enemy command was forced to admit that it had encountered an enemy completely different from the one in the West. By mid-July, losses in the ground forces alone amounted to about 100 thousand people and about half of the tanks participating in the offensive. By July 19, 1941, the enemy had lost 1,284 aircraft.

The fascist army did not know such losses during all the fighting in the West. The Soviet army withstood the first furious onslaught of the enemy, its resistance continuously increased.

The results of the first defensive operations of the Soviet Army were immediate. Already on July 30, 1941, Hitler was forced to sign a directive on the transition to defense in the main Moscow strategic direction.

The main enemy groups in the first period of the war were aimed at capturing the most important strategic and political centers of the country. How mighty bastions stood in the way of the enemy hordes Minsk, the fortress of Brest, Kyiv, Odessa, Moscow, Tula, Sevastopol, Leningrad, Stalingrad, Novorossiysk, Kerch.

In the battles for these cities, the inspiring and organizing will of the Communist Party, the military valor of the troops, and the courage of the population were clearly demonstrated. Warriors and home front workers, adults and children, sparing no effort, forged victory. Neither the explosions of bombs and shells, nor the furious attacks of the enemy broke the morale of the people. People's militias, courageous partisans and fearless underground fighters fought shoulder to shoulder with Soviet soldiers. There was a struggle for every inch of Soviet land.

The front line, which passed in 1941-1942, is the frontier of military glory for the Soviet people. near Leningrad, Moscow, Tula, Stalingrad and Novorossiysk. It was here that the further advance of the enemy was finally stopped. In the subsequent months of the war, Nazi troops suffered crushing defeats near these same cities.

During the period of the enemy offensive, the defense of other cities by Soviet troops was of no small importance.

The capital of the Byelorussian SSR, Minsk, was in the direction of the main attack of the fascist German troops rushing towards Moscow in 1941. In the first days of the war, the military command and party organizations of the city mobilized all forces and means for its defense. Within three to four days, 27 thousand privates, command and political personnel were sent to the ranks of the Soviet Army, more than 700 cars and tractors, about 20 thousand horses and other types of mobilization resources were received. The population and material assets were urgently evacuated. About 1.5 million people were evacuated from Belarus to the east; 109 large industrial enterprises, over 5 thousand tractors, about 675 thousand heads of livestock, and various property were transported to the rear areas.

The patriots of Minsk played a major role in the development of the partisan war in the Belarusian SSR. A large underground party organization, headed by the city party committee, operated here. 213 partisan brigades and 258 separate detachments fought in Belarus. By the end of 1943, the liberated and partisan-controlled areas occupied about 60 percent of the entire territory of the republic; During the war years, about 20 thousand people from Minsk joined the partisans. In some partisan formations in the Minsk region, more than 30 percent of the personnel were Minsk residents. The activity of the Minsk underground became especially intensified in 1943-1944. Due to mass sabotage of the population and sabotage by underground workers, many enterprises in the city were inactive. On the eve of the offensive of the Soviet Army on the night of June 20, 1944, the partisans of Belarus blew up 40,775 rails, and in the following days they almost completely paralyzed traffic on the most important railways. During the offensive operations of the Soviet Army, over a thousand partisan detachments actively helped Soviet troops liberate the cities and villages of Belarus. For special merits, fortitude and heroism shown in the fight against the Nazi invaders, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union to eight organizers, leaders and active fighters of the Minsk underground, and about 60 underground participants were awarded government awards.

Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 26, 1974 for outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of Minsk in the fight against the Nazi occupiers, a major role in the development of the nationwide partisan movement in Belarus during the Great Patriotic War and in commemoration of the 30th anniversary liberation of the Byelorussian SSR from the Nazi invaders, the city of Minsk was awarded the honorary title “Hero City” with the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

In the difficult days of 1941, the heroic garrison of the Brest Fortress, which numbered 3.5 thousand Soviet soldiers, fought for over a month. The fascist German command, deciding to capture the fortress on the move, sent the 12th Army Corps against it. In the center of his battle formation was the 45th Division, reinforced by three artillery regiments.

From June 22 until the end of the month, fighting took place throughout the entire territory of the fortress. During this period, the defenders of the fortress not only defended themselves, but also repeatedly attacked the enemy.

From the end of June until the 20th of July, the fighting in the Brest Fortress was mainly of a focal nature. Small groups of surviving heroes took refuge in the ruins of defensive structures and basements of buildings and continued stubborn resistance.

The defense of the Brest Fortress is one of the most striking examples of the mass heroism of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War. Representatives of more than 30 nationalities and nationalities of the Soviet Union fought among the defenders of the fortress. Most of the participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress died, only a few managed to escape from the enemy ring and continue the fight against the enemy as part of the Soviet Army and in partisan detachments. The Motherland highly appreciated the exceptional merits of the participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress: many of them were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union, two were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated May 8, 1965 states:

“Repelling the treacherous and sudden attack of the Nazi invaders on the Soviet Union, the defenders of the Brest Fortress, in extremely difficult conditions, showed outstanding military valor, mass heroism and courage in the fight against the Nazi aggressors, which became a symbol of the unparalleled fortitude of the Soviet people.

Noting the exceptional services of the defenders of the Brest Fortress to the Motherland... to award the Brest Fortress the honorary title "Fortress-Heroes" with the presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

The Smolensk defensive battle lasted for almost two months (from July 10, 1941). Counterattacks by the troops of the Western Front near Vitebsk and Velikiye Luki, Rogachev and Zhlobin, Orsha and Krasny, Smolensk and other areas forced the enemy to suspend the offensive. He failed to achieve his intended goals and immediately reach the Soviet capital. In the fire of the Battle of Smolensk, the Soviet Guard was born. On September 18, for mass heroism, courage of personnel, high military skill, the 100th, 127th, 153rd and 161st rifle divisions, by order of the People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR, were transformed, respectively, into the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Guards Rifle Divisions.

Near Orsha, Soviet rocket-propelled mortars (Katyushas) were used for the first time.

In the first period of the war, the struggle for the capital of Soviet Ukraine, Kyiv, played an important role. The defense of the city lasted 71 days (from July 11 to September 19, 1941). The troops of the Kyiv fortified region and the 37th Army created in August on their base, as well as the 5th and 26th armies, aviation, and the Dnieper detachment of ships of the Pinsk military flotilla fought staunchly on the outskirts of Kyiv. Together with. It was defended by border regiments and the population of the city by units of the Soviet Army.

By decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of Ukraine, the Presidium of the Supreme Council and the Council of People's Commissars of the Republic, a city defense headquarters was created. 200 thousand Kiev residents voluntarily joined the ranks of the Soviet Army. Party organizations of the city and region sent more than 30 thousand communists to the army. Already at the beginning of the war, 13 fighter battalions and 19 militia units were created in Kyiv, numbering about 35 thousand fighters.

On June 30, 1941, the construction of defensive lines began, on the construction of which up to 160 thousand Kiev residents worked daily. They dug about 55 km of anti-tank ditches, built over 15 km of scarps, more than 1,400 bunkers and laid about 15 km of minefields.

During defensive battles, the Soviet Army defeated over ten enemy divisions and destroyed more than 100 thousand fascist soldiers and officers. The defense of Kyiv played an important role in thwarting Hitler’s “blitzkrieg” plan and delaying the enemy’s attack on Moscow until October 1941. In 1961, the medal “For the Defense of Kyiv” was established, which was awarded to the defenders of the city. On May 8, 1965, for outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of Kyiv in the fight against the Nazi invaders, the hero city, previously awarded the Order of Lenin for these services, was awarded the Gold Star medal by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.

For 73 days the enemy trampled around the walls of Odessa. Its heroic defense began on August 5, 1941 and was carried out by soldiers of the Primorsky Army, the Black Sea Fleet, and the population of the city. 90 percent of local communists joined the ranks of the defenders of Odessa. During the first week of war, 45 fighter battalions were created in the city and region, then 6 special volunteer detachments intended for conducting barricade-street fighting. At the call of the Odessa Party organization, over 100 thousand people took part in the defensive work, building three defensive lines in a short time. During the defense, city enterprises produced 5 armored trains, 55 tanks, 1,262 mortars, 965 flamethrowers, about 310 thousand grenades, up to 250 thousand anti-personnel mines and other weapons and equipment for the front. The enemy never managed to break into the city. Only in connection with the change in the general situation at the front, on September 30, 1941, the Soviet command gave the order for the evacuation of troops, which ended on October 16.

The enemy lost 160 thousand soldiers and officers, up to 100 tanks, and about 200 aircraft near Odessa. The entire population of the city and region, temporarily falling under the yoke of the invaders, offered active resistance to the Nazis. More than 20 thousand residents of Odessa went into the catacombs. There were 6 partisan detachments and 45 underground groups operating in the city and its suburbs. The underground and partisans of the city and region destroyed more than 5 thousand soldiers and officers, organized 27 crashes of military trains and caused other material damage to the enemy.

The Motherland highly appreciated the exploits of the defenders of Odessa. 14 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 57 were awarded the Order of Lenin, more than 30 thousand participants in the heroic defense were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Odessa”. For outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of the city in the fight against the Nazi invaders, on May 8, 1965, the hero city of Odessa was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

The largest military-political significance in the military operations of 1941-1942. had the battle of Moscow (September 30, 1941 - April 20, 1942). It covered a vast territory of eight regions of the Russian Federation, carried out in a strip about 1000 km wide and more than 350 km deep. The Battle of Moscow is the main event of the first period of the Great Patriotic War, one of the largest battles of the Second World War. In the initial stage of the fight for Moscow alone, 3 million people, up to 22 thousand guns and mortars, about 2.7 thousand tanks and up to 2 thousand aircraft took part on both sides.

On September 30, enemy groups dealt a strong blow in the Bryansk direction and on October 2 in the Vyazma direction. Fierce bloody battles unfolded. The Soviet Army suffered heavy losses in them. However, the enemy failed to achieve the goals set by the Typhoon plan. He also suffered huge losses and was stopped. It took the Nazis two weeks to resume the offensive. The Soviet command used this pause to strengthen the immediate approaches to the capital.

On November 15-16, two powerful enemy groups launched strong attacks in order to bypass Moscow from the north and south. At the cost of huge losses, they managed to push back the Soviet troops. In some areas, the Nazis were at a distance of 25-30 km from the Soviet capital. But the enemy's offensive capabilities have already been exhausted. The plan to encircle and capture Moscow was a complete failure.

During the days of heavy fighting in the Moscow direction, the whole country came to the defense of the capital. Trains with troops and weapons came here from all the regions and republics. Residents of Moscow and the Moscow region made a great contribution to the defense of the city. In July 1941, 12 divisions of the people's militia (over 120 thousand people), 25 destruction battalions (18 thousand people), 25 workers and communist battalions were created. In October - November, four more divisions of the people's militia were formed. Over 500 thousand Moscow residents, mostly women, participated in the construction of defensive structures on the approaches to the capital and in the city itself. Powerful fortifications were also built around Moscow. The total length of anti-tank ditches reached 361 km, scarps - 331 km. Muscovites built 4,026 cannon and 3,755 machine-gun pillboxes and bunkers, created 1,528 km of forest debris, dug more than 5 thousand km of trenches, installed 24 thousand metal hedgehogs on the streets and squares of the capital, and equipped 1,400 firing points.

An important measure in disrupting the enemy's November offensive near Moscow was the counteroffensive organized by Headquarters near Tikhvin (November 10 - December 30) and Rostov-on-Don (November 17 - December 2). As a result, the Nazi command was unable to remove a single division from the Army Groups "North" and "South" to strengthen its troops advancing in the Moscow direction.

December 5-6, 1941 troops of the Western (commander Army General G.K. Zhukov), Kalinin (commander Colonel General I.S. Konev) and the right wing of the Southwestern (commander Marshal of the Soviet Union S.K. Timoshenko) fronts launched a decisive counteroffensive. By this time, party and Komsomol organizations in the capital and region had sent 114 thousand communists and more than 300 thousand Komsomol members to the front. The Moscow Military District formed rifle formations, artillery and mortar units. During the counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow, which developed into a general strategic offensive, the enemy was thrown back 100-250 km to the west. The Soviet army cleared over 11 thousand settlements from fascist invaders, defeated 38 enemy divisions, completely liberating the Moscow and Tula regions, many areas of the Kalinin and Smolensk regions. The Soviet Army seized the strategic initiative in the main strategic direction and held it for about six months. In none of the previous campaigns did the armed forces of Nazi Germany suffer such failures. The loss of initiative in the conduct of military operations deprived the Nazis of a major military advantage. Together with the collapse of the “blitzkrieg” plan, all the Hitler clique’s plans for world domination essentially collapsed.

The historic victory of Soviet troops near Moscow marked the beginning of a radical turn in the course of the Great Patriotic War. The defeat of the Wehrmacht in the winter of 1941/42 was its first major defeat in the Second World War. The myth of the invincibility of the Nazi army was dispelled. In total, in the battle of Moscow, fascist German troops lost more than 500 thousand soldiers and officers, 1,300 tanks, 2,500 guns, more than 15 thousand vehicles and much other equipment.

For the heroism and courage shown in the battle of Moscow, 36 thousand soldiers and commanders were awarded orders and medals, 110 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, over 1 million people were awarded the medal “For the Defense of Moscow”. About 40 formations and units were awarded guards ranks. On May 8, 1965, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, for outstanding services to the Motherland, mass heroism, courage and fortitude shown by the workers of the capital of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics in the fight against the Nazi invaders, the city of Moscow was awarded the honorary title "Hero City" with presentation of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

In the harsh autumn of 1941, Tula, the southern outpost of the capital of our Motherland, stood in the way of the armored hordes of the enemy. Tula was defended by soldiers of the 50th Army and almost the entire population of the city. 2-4 thousand people worked daily on the construction of structures. In a short time they built two lines of fortifications with deep anti-tank ditches, obstacles and barricades. By the beginning of the siege, three defensive lines had been created around the city, and within its boundaries there were four powerful defensive sectors. In Tula, 79 fighter battalions were formed, numbering 10,256 people, the 330th Infantry Division and the Tula Workers' Regiment, which became famous in battles with the enemy. At the same time, partisan detachments were created. In October 1941, 31 partisan detachments and 73 sabotage groups operated behind enemy lines. Tula workers provided the city's defenders with weapons, military equipment and ammunition. During the month and a half of the siege, using worn-out equipment left after the evacuation of factories, Tula residents repaired 89 tanks, 100 guns, 529 machine guns, about 200 vehicles, and manufactured thousands of rifles and pistols, grenades and mines.

From October 30 to November 14, the Nazi command, throwing more and more forces, tried to take possession of the city. However, all fascist attacks were repulsed by the courageous defenders of Tula. The enemy's attempts to bypass the city from the east and southeast were also thwarted.

The heroic defense of Tula was the final stage of the October battles of the Soviet Army on the southern approaches to Moscow. In December 1941, the Tula offensive operation began. By January 1942, the Tula region was basically liberated from the fascist occupiers. Tula residents carefully preserve the heroic traditions of the city’s defenders. In their honor, a majestic monument stands on Victory Square. There are 430 obelisks and memorial plaques in the city and its surroundings.

On December 7, 1976, for the courage and fortitude shown by the defenders of Tula during the heroic defense of the city, which played an important role in the defeat of Nazi troops near Moscow during the Great Patriotic War, Tula, which had previously been awarded the Order of Lenin, was awarded the honorary title "Hero City" " with the presentation of the Gold Star medal.

The heroic defense of Sevastopol, the main base of the Black Sea Fleet, continued for 250 days. She is an example of mass heroism and self-sacrifice of the troops of the Primorsky Army and sailors of the Black Sea Fleet. Sevastopol defense 1941 – 1942 had important military-political and strategic significance. Having pinned down large enemy forces for a long time, the defenders of Sevastopol violated the plans of the Nazi command on the southern wing of the Soviet-German front. On October 30, 1941, the enemy tried to capture Sevastopol on the move. But this attempt was thwarted by his garrison. After this, the fascist command launched three more major offensives. On July 3, 1942, Soviet troops were forced to leave Sevastopol.

In 250 days of heroic defense, the Nazi troops lost up to 300 thousand people killed and wounded, and a large amount of military equipment. The working people of the city played an important role in the defense of Sevastopol. Militia units were formed to fight the enemy. By July 10, 1941, 14,776 people had enrolled in them, from which the Sevastopol People's Militia Division, fighter and communist battalions were formed. On the approaches to the city, three defensive lines were created with a total length of 104 km and a depth of up to 15 km. By the beginning of the defense, 75 artillery posts had been built on them, and 9,576 anti-tank and anti-personnel mines had been installed.

An underground party organization operated in enemy-occupied Sevastopol. By November 1942, she led 17 patriotic groups. On December 22, 1942, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the medal “For the Defense of Sevastopol” was established, which was awarded to its participants. For the heroism and courage shown in the defense of Sevastopol, 46 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

For outstanding services to the Motherland, courage and heroism shown by the working people of Sevastopol in the fight against the Nazi invaders, and in commemoration of the 20th anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War of 1941 - 1945. On May 8, 1965, the hero city was awarded the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal.

During the struggle for Crimea and the defense of Sevastopol, the working people of the city of Kerch, soldiers of the Soviet Army and Navy showed heroism, courage and fortitude. In the first days of the war, 16 thousand residents of Kerch joined the Armed Forces. To combat enemy landings in the city, anti-aircraft defense units and the Kerch fighter battalion were formed. Under the leadership of the city party organization, all city enterprises began producing military products. Two armored trains were manufactured and sent to the front. The Voikov metallurgical plant alone provided the defending Soviet troops with about 100 thousand grenades, 250 flamethrowers, 22 mortars, and 100 tons of anti-tank incendiary mixture. Since October 1941, the city was repeatedly subjected to massive attacks by enemy aircraft, and in mid-November, after two weeks of fierce fighting on the Kerch Peninsula, it was captured by the Nazis. On December 30, Soviet troops liberated the city, but in May

liberation Document

American troops and thus liberationcities will become a “trump card” in negotiations... for the local population. In the official reference book The British Army SAS is characterized by... the war itself (See: Modern Japan: Directory. M., 1973. P. 123; ...