Washington's reaction to the German attack on the USSR The treacherous attack of Hitler's Germany on the Soviet Union caused widespread outrage in the United States. Many US political, public and trade union organizations immediately issued declarations announcing

Vyacheslav Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR:

“The advisor to the German ambassador, Hilger, shed tears when he handed over the note.”

Anastas Mikoyan, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee:

“Immediately members of the Politburo gathered at Stalin’s. We decided that we should make a radio appearance in connection with the outbreak of the war. Of course, they suggested that Stalin do this. But Stalin refused - let Molotov speak. Of course, this was a mistake. But Stalin was in such a depressed state that he did not know what to say to the people.”

Lazar Kaganovich, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee:

“At night we gathered at Stalin’s when Molotov received Schulenburg. Stalin gave each of us a task—me for transport, Mikoyan for supplies.”

Vasily Pronin, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council:

“On June 21, 1941, at ten o’clock in the evening, the secretary of the Moscow Party Committee, Shcherbakov, and I were summoned to the Kremlin. We had barely sat down when, turning to us, Stalin said: “According to intelligence and defectors, German troops intend to attack our borders tonight. Apparently, a war is starting. Do you have everything ready in urban air defense? Report!" At about 3 o'clock in the morning we were released. About twenty minutes later we arrived at the house. They were waiting for us at the gate. “They called from the Central Committee of the Party,” said the person who greeted us, “and instructed us to convey: the war has begun and we must be on the spot.”

• Georgy Zhukov, Pavel Batov and Konstantin Rokossovsky
• RIA News

Georgy Zhukov, Army General:

“At 4:30 a.m. S.K. Timoshenko and I arrived at the Kremlin. All the summoned members of the Politburo were already assembled. The People's Commissar and I were invited into the office.

I.V. Stalin was pale and sat at the table, holding an unfilled tobacco pipe in his hands.

We reported the situation. J.V. Stalin said in bewilderment:

“Isn’t this a provocation of the German generals?”

“The Germans are bombing our cities in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states. What a provocation this is...” replied S.K. Timoshenko.

...After some time, V.M. Molotov quickly entered the office:

"The German government has declared war on us."

JV Stalin silently sat down on a chair and thought deeply.

There was a long, painful pause.”

Alexander Vasilevsky,Major General:

“At 4:00 a.m. we learned from the operational authorities of the district headquarters about the bombing of our airfields and cities by German aircraft.”

Konstantin Rokossovsky,Lieutenant General:

“At about four o’clock in the morning on June 22, upon receiving a telephone message from headquarters, I was forced to open a special secret operational package. The directive indicated: immediately put the corps on combat readiness and move in the direction of Rivne, Lutsk, Kovel.”

Ivan Bagramyan, Colonel:

“...The first strike of German aviation, although it was unexpected for the troops, did not at all cause panic. In a difficult situation, when everything that could burn was engulfed in flames, when barracks, residential buildings, warehouses were collapsing before our eyes, communications were interrupted, the commanders made every effort to maintain leadership of the troops. They firmly followed the combat instructions that became known to them after opening the packages they kept.”

Semyon Budyonny, Marshal:

“At 4:01 on June 22, 1941, Comrade Timoshenko called me and said that the Germans were bombing Sevastopol and should I report this to Comrade Stalin? I told him that I needed to report immediately, but he said: “You’re calling!” I immediately called and reported not only about Sevastopol, but also about Riga, which the Germans were also bombing. Comrade Stalin asked: “Where is the People’s Commissar?” I answered: “Here next to me” (I was already in the People’s Commissar’s office). Comrade Stalin ordered the phone to be handed over to him...

Thus began the war!”

• RIA News

Joseph Geibo, deputy regiment commander of the 46th IAP, Western Military District:

“...I felt a chill in my chest. In front of me are four twin-engine bombers with black crosses on the wings. I even bit my lip. But these are “Junkers”! German Ju-88 bombers! What to do?.. Another thought arose: “Today is Sunday, and the Germans don’t have training flights on Sundays.” So it's war? Yes, war!

Nikolai Osintsev, chief of staff of the division of the 188th anti-aircraft artillery regiment of the Red Army:

“On the 22nd at 4 o’clock in the morning we heard sounds: boom-boom-boom-boom. It turned out that it was German aircraft that unexpectedly attacked our airfields. Our planes did not even have time to change their airfields and all remained in their places. Almost all of them were destroyed."

Vasily Chelombitko, head of the 7th department of the Academy of Armored and Mechanized Forces:

“On June 22, our regiment stopped to rest in the forest. Suddenly we saw planes flying, the commander announced a drill, but suddenly the planes began to bomb us. We realized that a war had begun. Here in the forest at 12 o’clock in the afternoon we listened to Comrade Molotov’s speech on the radio and on the same day at noon we received Chernyakhovsky’s first combat order for the division to move forward, towards Siauliai.”

Yakov Boyko, lieutenant:

“Today, that is. 06/22/41, day off. While I was writing a letter to you, I suddenly heard on the radio that the brutal Nazi fascism was bombing our cities... But this will cost them dearly, and Hitler will no longer live in Berlin... I have only one thing in my soul right now hatred and desire to destroy the enemy where he came from..."

Pyotr Kotelnikov, defender of the Brest Fortress:

“In the morning we were awakened by a strong blow. It broke through the roof. I was stunned. I saw the wounded and killed and realized: this is no longer a training exercise, but a war. Most of the soldiers in our barracks died in the first seconds. I followed the adults and rushed to arms, but they didn’t give me a rifle. Then I, along with one of the Red Army soldiers, rushed to put out the fire at the clothing warehouse.”

Timofey Dombrovsky, Red Army machine gunner:

“Planes poured fire on us from above, artillery - mortars, heavy and light guns - below, on the ground, all at once! We lay down on the bank of the Bug, from where we saw everything that was happening on the opposite bank. Everyone immediately understood what was happening. The Germans attacked - war!

Cultural figures of the USSR

• All-Union Radio announcer Yuri Levitan

Yuri Levitan, announcer:

“When we, the announcers, were called to the radio early in the morning, the calls had already begun to ring out. They call from Minsk: “Enemy planes are over the city,” they call from Kaunas: “The city is burning, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?”, “Enemy planes are over Kiev.” A woman’s crying, excitement: “Is it really war?”.. And then I remember - I turned on the microphone. In all cases, I remember that I was worried only internally, only internally worried. But here, when I uttered the words “Moscow speaks,” I feel that I can’t speak further - there’s a lump stuck in my throat. They’re already knocking from the control room: “Why are you silent? Continue!” He clenched his fists and continued: “Citizens and women of the Soviet Union...”

Georgy Knyazev, director of the Archive of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad:

V.M. Molotov’s speech about the attack on the Soviet Union by Germany was broadcast on the radio. The war began at 4 1/2 o'clock in the morning with an attack by German aircraft on Vitebsk, Kovno, Zhitomir, Kyiv, and Sevastopol. There are dead. Soviet troops were given the order to repel the enemy and drive him out of our country. And my heart trembled. Here it is, the moment we were afraid to even think about. Ahead... Who knows what's ahead!

Nikolai Mordvinov, actor:

“Makarenko’s rehearsal was going on... Anorov bursts in without permission... and in an alarming, dull voice announces: “War against fascism, comrades!”

So, the most terrible front has opened!

Woe! Woe!”

Marina Tsvetaeva, poet:

Nikolai Punin, art historian:

“I remembered my first impressions of the war... Molotov’s speech, which was said by A.A., who ran in with disheveled hair (grey) in a black silk Chinese robe . (Anna Andreevna Akhmatova)».

Konstantin Simonov, poet:

“I learned that the war had already begun only at two o’clock in the afternoon. The entire morning of June 22, he wrote poetry and did not answer the phone. And when I approached, the first thing I heard was war.”

Alexander Tvardovsky, poet:

“War with Germany. I’m going to Moscow.”

Olga Bergolts, poet:

Russian emigrants

• Ivan Bunin
• RIA News

Ivan Bunin, writer:

"22nd of June. From a new page I am writing the continuation of this day - a great event - Germany this morning declared war on Russia - and the Finns and Romanians have already “invaded” its “limits.”

Pyotr Makhrov, Lieutenant General:

“The day the Germans declared war on Russia, June 22, 1941, had such a strong effect on my entire being that the next day, the 23rd (the 22nd was Sunday), I sent a registered letter to Bogomolov [the Soviet ambassador to France], asking him send me to Russia to enlist in the army, at least as a private.”

Citizens of the USSR

• Residents of Leningrad listen to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union
• RIA News

Lidia Shablova:

“We were tearing up shingles in the yard to cover the roof. The kitchen window was open and we heard the radio announce that war had begun. The father froze. His hands gave up: “Apparently we won’t finish the roof anymore...”.

Anastasia Nikitina-Arshinova:

“Early in the morning, the children and I were awakened by a terrible roar. Shells and bombs exploded, shrapnel screamed. I grabbed the children and ran out into the street barefoot. We barely had time to grab some clothes with us. There was horror on the street. Above the fortress (Brest) Planes were circling and dropping bombs on us. Women and children rushed around in panic, trying to escape. In front of me lay the wife of one lieutenant and her son - both were killed by a bomb.”

Anatoly Krivenko:

“We lived not far from Arbat, in Bolshoy Afanasyevsky Lane. There was no sun that day, the sky was overcast. I was walking in the yard with the boys, we were kicking a rag ball. And then my mother jumped out of the entrance in one slip, barefoot, running and shouting: “Home! Tolya, go home immediately! War!"

Nina Shinkareva:

“We lived in a village in the Smolensk region. That day, mom went to a neighboring village to get eggs and butter, and when she returned, dad and other men had already gone to war. On the same day, residents began to be evacuated. A big car arrived, and my mother put all the clothes on my sister and me, so that in winter we would also have something to wear.”

Anatoly Vokrosh:

“We lived in the village of Pokrov, Moscow region. That day, the guys and I were going to the river to catch crucian carp. My mother caught me on the street and told me to eat first. I went into the house and ate. When he began to spread honey on bread, Molotov’s message about the beginning of the war was heard. After eating, I ran with the boys to the river. We ran around in the bushes, shouting: “The war has begun! Hooray! We will defeat everyone! We absolutely did not understand what this all meant. The adults discussed the news, but I don’t remember there was panic or fear in the village. The villagers were doing their usual things, and on this day and in the following cities, summer residents came.”

Boris Vlasov:

“In June 1941, I arrived in Orel, where I was assigned immediately after graduating from the Hydrometeorological Institute. On the night of June 22, I spent the night in a hotel, since I had not yet managed to transport my things to the allocated apartment. In the morning I heard some fuss and commotion, but I slept through the alarm. The radio announced that an important government message would be broadcast at 12 o'clock. Then I realized that I had slept through not a training alarm, but a combat alarm—the war had begun.”

Alexandra Komarnitskaya:

“I was vacationing in a children’s camp near Moscow. There the camp leadership announced to us that war with Germany had begun. Everyone—the counselors and the children—started crying.”

Ninel Karpova:

“We listened to the message about the beginning of the war from the loudspeaker at the House of Defense. There were a lot of people crowding there. I wasn’t upset, on the contrary, I was proud: my father will defend the Motherland... In general, people were not afraid. Yes, the women, of course, were upset and cried. But there was no panic. Everyone was confident that we would quickly defeat the Germans. The men said: “Yes, the Germans will flee from us!”

Nikolay Chebykin:

“June 22 was Sunday. Such a sunny day! And my father and I were digging a potato cellar with shovels. About twelve o'clock. About five minutes before, my sister Shura opens the window and says: “They are broadcasting on the radio: “A very important government message will now be transmitted!” Well, we put down our shovels and went to listen. It was Molotov who spoke. And he said that German troops treacherously attacked our country without declaring war. We crossed the state border. The Red Army is fighting hard. And he ended with the words: “Our cause is just! The enemy will be defeated! Victory will be ours!".

German generals

• RIA News

Guderian:

“On the fateful day of June 22, 1941, at 2:10 a.m., I went to the group’s command post and climbed to the observation tower south of Bogukala. At 3:15 a.m. our artillery preparation began. At 3:40 a.m. - the first raid of our dive bombers. At 4:15 a.m. the forward units of the 17th and 18th tank divisions began crossing the Bug. At 6:50 a.m. near Kolodno I crossed the Bug in an assault boat.”

“On June 22, at three hours and minutes, four corps of a tank group, with the support of artillery and aviation, which was part of the 8th Aviation Corps, crossed the state border. Bomber aircraft attacked enemy airfields, with the task of paralyzing the actions of his aircraft.

On the first day, the offensive went completely according to plan.”

Manstein:

“Already on this first day we had to become familiar with the methods by which the war was waged on the Soviet side. One of our reconnaissance patrols, cut off by the enemy, was later found by our troops, he was cut out and brutally mutilated. My adjutant and I traveled a lot to areas where enemy units could still be located, and we decided not to surrender alive into the hands of this enemy.”

Blumentritt:

“The behavior of the Russians, even in the first battle, was strikingly different from the behavior of the Poles and allies who were defeated on the Western Front. Even when surrounded, the Russians steadfastly defended themselves.”

German soldiers and officers

• www.nationaalarchief.nl.

Erich Mende, Chief Lieutenant:

“My commander was twice my age, and he had already fought with the Russians near Narva in 1917, when he was a lieutenant. “Here, in these vast expanses, we will find our death, like Napoleon...” he did not hide his pessimism. “Mende, remember this hour, it marks the end of the old Germany.”

Johann Danzer, artilleryman:

“On the very first day, as soon as we went on the attack, one of our men shot himself with his own weapon. Clutching the rifle between his knees, he inserted the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger. This is how the war and all the horrors associated with it ended for him.”

Alfred Durwanger, Lieutenant:

“When we entered the first battle with the Russians, they clearly did not expect us, but they could not be called unprepared either. Enthusiasm (we have) there was no sign of it! Rather, everyone was overcome by a sense of the enormity of the upcoming campaign. And the question immediately arose: where, near what settlement will this campaign end?!”

Hubert Becker, lieutenant:

“It was a hot summer day. We walked across the field, suspecting nothing. Suddenly artillery fire fell on us. That’s how my baptism of fire happened - a strange feeling.”

Helmut Pabst, non-commissioned officer

“The offensive continues. We are constantly moving forward through enemy territory, and we have to constantly change positions. I'm terribly thirsty. There is no time to swallow a piece. By 10 in the morning we were already experienced, shelled fighters who had seen a lot: positions abandoned by the enemy, damaged and burned tanks and vehicles, the first prisoners, the first killed Russians.”

Rudolf Gschöpf, chaplain:

“This artillery barrage, gigantic in its power and coverage of territory, was like an earthquake. Huge mushrooms of smoke were visible everywhere, instantly growing out of the ground. Since there was no talk of any return fire, it seemed to us that we had completely wiped this citadel off the face of the earth.”

Hans Becker, tanker:

“On the Eastern Front I met people who could be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle for life and death.”

VL / Articles / Interesting

How it happened: what Hitler actually faced on June 22, 1941 (part 1)

22-06-2016, 08:44

On June 22, 1941, at 4 o’clock in the morning, Germany treacherously, without declaring war, attacked the Soviet Union and, starting to bomb our cities with peacefully sleeping children, immediately declared itself as a criminal force that did not have a human face. The bloodiest war in the entire history of the Russian state began.

Our fight with Europe was deadly. On June 22, 1941, German troops launched an attack on the USSR in three directions: eastern (Army Group Center) towards Moscow, southeastern (Army Group South) towards Kiev and northeastern (Army Group North) towards Leningrad . In addition, the German Army “Norway” was advancing towards Murmansk.

Together with the German armies, the armies of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland and volunteer formations from Croatia, Slovakia, Spain, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and other European countries attacked the USSR.

On June 22, 1941, 5.5 million soldiers and officers of Hitler’s Germany and its satellites crossed the border of the USSR and invaded our land, but in terms of the number of troops, the armed forces of Germany alone exceeded the Armed Forces of the USSR by 1.6 times, namely: 8.5 million people in the Wehrmacht and a little more than 5 million people in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. Together with the armies of the Allies, Germany on June 22, 1941 had at least 11 million trained, armed soldiers and officers and could very quickly make up for the losses of its army and strengthen its troops.

And if the number of German troops alone exceeded the number of Soviet troops by 1.6 times, then together with the troops of the European allies it exceeded the number of Soviet troops by at least 2.2 times. Such a monstrously huge force opposed the Red Army.

The industry of the Europe it united with a population of about 400 million people worked for Germany, which was almost 2 times the population of the USSR, which had 195 million people.

At the beginning of the war, compared to the German troops and its allies that attacked the USSR, the Red Army had 19,800 more guns and mortars, 86 more warships of the main classes, and the Red Army also outnumbered the attacking enemy in the number of machine guns. Small arms, guns of all calibers and mortars were not only not inferior in combat characteristics, but in many cases were superior to German weapons.

As for armored forces and aviation, our army had them in quantities that far exceeded the number of units of this equipment available to the enemy at the beginning of the war. But the bulk of our tanks and aircraft, compared to the German ones, were “old generation” weapons, morally obsolete. Most of the tanks had only bulletproof armor. A significant percentage were also faulty aircraft and tanks subject to write-off.

At the same time, it should be noted that before the start of the war, the Red Army received 595 units of KB heavy tanks and 1225 units of T-34 medium tanks, as well as 3719 new types of aircraft: Yak-1, LaGG-3, MiG-3 fighters, Il-3 bombers 4 (DB-ZF), Pe-8 (TB-7), Pe-2, Il-2 attack aircraft. Basically, we designed and produced the specified new, expensive and high-tech equipment in the period from the beginning of 1939 to the middle of 1941, that is, for the most part during the validity of the non-aggression treaty concluded in 1939 - the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact.

It was the presence of a large number of weapons that allowed us to survive and win. For despite the huge losses of weapons in the initial period of the war, we still had a sufficient amount of weapons to resist during the retreat and for the offensive near Moscow.

It must also be said that in 1941 the German army did not have equipment similar to our heavy KB tanks, IL-2 armored attack aircraft and rocket artillery such as the BM-13 (Katyusha), which could hit targets at a distance of more than eight kilometers.

Due to the poor performance of Soviet intelligence, our army did not know the direction of the main attacks planned by the enemy. Therefore, the Germans had the opportunity to create a multiple superiority of military forces in breakthrough areas and break through our defenses.

The capabilities of Soviet intelligence are greatly exaggerated in order to belittle the military merits and technical achievements of the USSR. Our troops were retreating under the pressure of superior enemy forces. Units of the Red Army had to either quickly retreat to avoid encirclement, or fight in encirclement. And it was not so easy to withdraw the troops, because in many cases the mobility of the German mechanized formations that broke through our defenses exceeded the mobility of our troops.

Of course, not all groups of Soviet troops were capable of mobile German formations. The bulk of the German infantry advanced on foot, just as our troops mostly retreated, which allowed many units of the Red Army to retreat to new lines of defense.

The encircled covering troops held back the advance of the Nazi hordes until the last possible opportunity, and the units retreating in the battles, joining forces with the 2nd echelon troops, significantly slowed down the advance of the German armies.

In order to stop the German armies that had broken through the border, large reserves were needed, equipped with mobile formations that could quickly approach the site of the breakthrough and push the enemy back. We did not have such reserves, since the country did not have the economic capacity to maintain an army of 11 million in peacetime.

It is unfair to blame the USSR government for this development of events. Despite the desperate resistance to industrialization from certain forces within the country, our government and our people did everything they could to create and arm the army. It was impossible to do more in the time available to the Soviet Union.

Our intelligence, of course, was not up to par. But it’s only in the movies that scouts get blueprints for airplanes and atomic bombs. In real life, such drawings will take up more than one railway car. Our intelligence did not have the opportunity to obtain the Barbarossa plan in 1941. But even knowing the direction of the main attacks, we would have to retreat before the monstrous force of the enemy. But in this case we would have fewer losses.

According to all theoretical calculations, the USSR should have lost this war, but we won it because we knew how to work and fight like no one else on earth. Hitler conquered Europe, except Poland, in an effort to unite and subordinate to the will of Germany. And he sought to exterminate us both in battles, both the civilian population and our prisoners of war. About the war against the USSR, Hitler said: “We are talking about a war of extermination.”

But everything didn’t go as planned for Hitler: the Russians left more than half of their troops far from the border, announced mobilization after the start of the war, as a result of which they had people to recruit new divisions, took military factories to the East, did not lose heart, but fought steadfastly for every inch of land. The German General Staff was horrified by Germany's losses in men and equipment.

The losses of our retreating army in 1941, of course, were greater than the German ones. The German army created a new organizational structure, including tanks, motorized infantry, artillery, engineering units and communications units, which made it possible not only to break through the enemy’s defenses, but also to develop it in depth, breaking away from the bulk of its troops by tens of kilometers. The proportions of all types of troops were carefully calculated by the Germans and tested in battles in Europe. With such a structure, tank formations became a strategic means of combat.

We needed time to create such troops from newly manufactured equipment. In the summer of 1941, we had neither the experience of creating and using such formations, nor the number of trucks needed to transport infantry. Our mechanized corps, created on the eve of the war, were significantly less advanced than the German ones.

The German General Staff assigned the name “Barbarossa” to the plan for an attack on the USSR, named after the German emperor of horrific cruelty. On June 29, 1941, Hitler declared: “In four weeks we will be in Moscow, and it will be plowed up.”

Not a single German general in his forecasts spoke about the capture of Moscow later than August. For everyone, August was the deadline for the capture of Moscow, and October - the territory of the USSR to the Urals along the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line.

The US military believed that Germany would be busy in the war with the Russians from one to three months, and the British military - from three to six weeks. They made such predictions because they knew well the force of the blow that Germany unleashed on the USSR. The West assessed how long we would last in the war with Germany.

The German government was so confident of a quick victory that it did not even consider it necessary to spend money on warm winter uniforms for the army.

Enemy troops were advancing from the Barents to the Black Seas on a front stretching over 2,000 thousand kilometers.

Germany was counting on a blitzkrieg, that is, a lightning strike on our armed forces and their destruction as a result of this lightning strike. The location of 57% of Soviet troops in the 2nd and 3rd echelons initially contributed to the disruption of the Germans' plan for the blitzkrieg. And in combination with the tenacity of our troops in the 1st echelon of defense, the German plan for a blitzkrieg was completely disrupted.

And what kind of blitzkrieg can we talk about if the Germans in the summer of 1941 could not even destroy our aviation. From the first day of the war, the Luftwaffe paid a huge price for their desire to destroy our aircraft at airfields and in the air.

People's Commissar of the Aviation Industry of the USSR from 1940 to 1946 A.I. Shakhurin wrote: “During the period from June 22 to July 5, 1941, the German Air Force lost 807 aircraft of all types, and during the period from July 6 to 19, another 477 aircraft. A third of the German air force that they had before the attack on our country was destroyed.”

Thus, only for the first month of fighting in the period from 22.06. By July 19, 1941, Germany lost 1284 aircraft, and in less than five months of fighting - 5180 aircraft. Surprisingly, only a few people in all of greater Russia know about such glorious victories of ours in the most unfortunate period of the war for us.

So who destroyed these 1,284 Luftwaffe aircraft in the first month of the war and with what weapons? These planes were destroyed by our pilots and anti-aircraft gunners in the same way as enemy tanks were destroyed by our artillerymen, because the Red Army had anti-tank guns, planes and anti-aircraft guns.

And in October 1941, the Red Army had enough weapons to hold the front. At this time, the defense of Moscow was carried out to the limit of human strength. Only Soviet, Russian people could fight like that. Deserves a kind word from I.V. Stalin, who back in July 1941 organized the construction of concrete pillboxes, bunkers, anti-tank barriers and other protective military construction structures, fortified areas (Urov) on the approaches to Moscow, who managed to provide weapons, ammunition, food and uniforms fighting army.

The Germans were stopped near Moscow, first of all, because even in the fall of 1941, our men fighting the enemy had weapons to shoot down planes, burn tanks and crush enemy infantry to the ground.

On November 29, 1941, our troops liberated Rostov-on-Don in the south, and Tikhvin in the north on December 9. Having pinned down the southern and northern groups of German troops in battle, our command created favorable conditions for the Red Army’s offensive near Moscow.

It was not the Siberian divisions that provided the opportunity for our troops to go on the offensive near Moscow, but the reserve armies created by Headquarters and brought to Moscow before our troops went on the offensive. A. M. Vasilevsky recalled: “A major event was the completion of the training of regular and extraordinary reserve formations. At the line Vytegra - Rybinsk - Gorky - Saratov - Stalingrad - Astrakhan, a new strategic line was created for the Red Army. Here, on the basis of the decision of the State Defense Committee, adopted on October 5, ten reserve armies were formed. Their creation throughout the Battle of Moscow was one of the main and daily concerns of the Party Central Committee, the State Defense Committee and Headquarters. We, the leaders of the General Staff, daily reported in detail on the progress of the creation of these formations when reporting to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the situation at the fronts. Without exaggeration, we can say: in the outcome of the Battle of Moscow, the decisive factor was that the party and the Soviet people promptly formed, armed, trained and deployed new armies to the capital.”

The Battle of Moscow can be divided into two parts: defensive from September 30 to December 5, 1941 and offensive from December 5 to April 20, 1942.

And if in June 1941 we were suddenly attacked by German troops, then in December 1941, near Moscow, our Soviet troops suddenly attacked the Germans. Despite the deep snow and frost, our army advanced successfully. The German army began to panic. Only Hitler's intervention prevented the complete defeat of the German troops.

The monstrous power of Europe, faced with Russian power, could not defeat us and, under the blows of Soviet troops, fled back to the West. In 1941, our great-grandfathers and grandfathers defended the right to life and, celebrating the New Year of 1942, proclaimed toasts to the Victory.

In 1942, our troops continued to advance. The Moscow and Tula regions, many areas of the Kalinin, Smolensk, Ryazan and Oryol regions were liberated. The manpower losses of Army Group Center alone, which had recently been stationed near Moscow for the period from January 1 to March 30, 1942, amounted to over 333 thousand people.

But the enemy was still strong. Already by May 1942, the Nazi army had 6.2 million people and weapons superior to the Red Army. Our army numbered 5.1 million people. without air defense troops and the Navy.

Thus, in the summer of 1942, against our ground forces, Germany and its allies had 1.1 million more soldiers and officers. Germany and its allies maintained superiority in troop numbers from the first day of the war until 1943. In the summer of 1942, 217 enemy divisions and 20 brigades were operating on the Soviet-German front, that is, about 80% of all German ground forces.

In connection with this circumstance, the Headquarters did not transfer troops from the Western to the Southwestern direction. This decision was correct, as was the decision to place strategic reserves in the area of ​​Tula, Voronezh, Stalingrad and Saratov.

Most of our forces and resources were concentrated not in the southwestern, but in the western direction. Ultimately, this distribution of forces led to the defeat of the German, or rather the European army, and in this regard it is inappropriate to talk about the incorrect distribution of our troops by the summer of 1942. It was thanks to this distribution of troops that in November we were able to gather forces at Stalingrad sufficient to defeat the enemy, and were able to replenish our troops when conducting defensive battles.

In the summer of 1942, against German troops superior to us in strength and means, we could not hold the defense for long in the direction of the main attack, and were forced to retreat under the threat of encirclement.

It was still impossible to compensate for the missing numbers with artillery, aviation and other types of weapons, since the evacuated enterprises were just beginning to operate at full capacity, and the military industry of Europe was still superior to the military industry of the Soviet Union.

German troops continued their offensive along the western (right) bank of the Don and sought, at all costs, to reach the large bend of the river. Soviet troops retreated to natural lines where they could gain a foothold.

By mid-July, the enemy captured Valuiki, Rossosh, Boguchar, Kantemirovka, and Millerovo. The eastern road to Stalingrad and the southern road to the Caucasus opened before him.

The Battle of Stalingrad is divided into two periods: defensive from July 17 to November 18 and offensive, which ended with the liquidation of a huge enemy group, from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943.

The defensive operation began on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. From July 17, the forward detachments of the 62nd and 64th armies offered fierce resistance to the enemy at the border of the Chir and Tsymla rivers for 6 days.

The troops of Germany and its allies were unable to take Stalingrad.

The offensive of our troops began on November 19, 1942. The troops of the Southwestern and Don Fronts went on the offensive. This day went down in our history as Artillery Day. On November 20, 1942, the troops of the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. On November 23, troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts united in the area of ​​Kalach-on-Don, Sovetsky, closing the encirclement of German troops. The Headquarters and our General Staff calculated everything very well, tying Paulus’s army hand and foot at a great distance from our advancing troops, the 62nd Army located in Stalingrad, and the offensive of the Don Front troops.

Our courageous soldiers and officers celebrated New Year's Eve 1943, just like New Year's Eve 1942, as victors.

A huge contribution to the organization of the victory at Stalingrad was made by the Headquarters and the General Staff, headed by A. M. Vasilevsky.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted 200 days and nights, Germany and its allies lost ¼ of the forces operating at that time on the Soviet-German front. “The total losses of enemy troops in the Don, Volga, and Stalingrad areas amounted to 1.5 million people, up to 3,500 tanks and assault guns, 12,000 guns and mortars, up to 3,000 aircraft and a large amount of other equipment. Such losses of forces and means had a catastrophic impact on the overall strategic situation and shook the entire military machine of Hitler’s Germany to the core,” wrote G. K. Zhukov.

Over the two winter months of 1942-1943, the defeated German army was thrown back to the positions from which it launched its offensive in the summer of 1942. This great victory of our troops gave additional strength to both the fighters and the home front workers.

The troops of Germany and their allies were defeated near Leningrad. On January 18, 1943, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts united, the ring of the blockade of Leningrad was broken.

A narrow corridor 8-11 kilometers wide, adjacent to the southern coast of Lake Ladoga, was cleared of the enemy and connected Leningrad with the country. Long-distance trains began running from Leningrad to Vladivostok.

Hitler was going to take Leningrad in 4 weeks by July 21, 1941 and send the liberated troops to storm Moscow, but he could not take the city by January 1944. Hitler ordered proposals to surrender the city to German troops not to be accepted and to wipe the city off the face of the earth, but in fact, the German divisions stationed near Leningrad were wiped off the face of the earth by the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts. Hitler stated that Leningrad would be the first large city captured by the Germans in the Soviet Union and spared no effort to capture it, but did not take into account that he was fighting not in Europe, but in Soviet Russia. I did not take into account the courage of the Leningraders and the strength of our weapons.

The victorious completion of the Battle of Stalingrad and the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad became possible not only thanks to the steadfastness and courage of the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, the ingenuity of our soldiers and the knowledge of our military leaders, but, above all, thanks to the heroic work of the rear.

To be continued...

In 1941, Germany treacherously attacked the Soviet Union. Plan “Barbarossa” came into effect - a plan for a lightning war against the USSR, which, according to the plans of the military-political leadership of Germany, was supposed to lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union within 8-10 weeks. Having unleashed a war against the USSR, the Nazis put forward a version about the supposedly preparing invasion of Europe by the Red Army in 1941, about the threat to Germany, which, in order to protect its country and other Western European countries, was forced to start a preemptive “preventive” war against the Soviet Union. The explanation of war as a preventive measure was first given by Hitler to the Wehrmacht generals on the day of the attack on our country. He said that “now the moment has come when the wait-and-see policy is not only a sin, but also a crime violating the interests of the German people. And, consequently, throughout Europe. Now approximately 150 Russian divisions are on our border. For a number of weeks, there have been continuous violations of this border, not only on our territory, but also in the Far North of Europe and in Romania. The Soviet pilots had fun by not recognizing the border, obviously in order to prove to us that they considered themselves the masters of these territories. On the night of June 18, Russian patrols again penetrated German territory and were pushed back only after a lengthy firefight." The same was mentioned in Hitler’s address “To the Soldiers of the Eastern Front,” read out to the Wehrmacht personnel on the night of June 22, 1941. In it, military actions against the Soviet Union were allegedly motivated by “Russian offensive intentions.”

Officially, this version was put into use on June 22, 1941, in a statement by the German ambassador F. Schulenburg, transmitted to the Soviet government, and in a memorandum presented by I. Ribbentrop on the same day to the Soviet ambassador in Berlin V. Dekanozov - after the invasion of German troops into Soviet territory. Schulenburg's statement argued that while Germany had faithfully observed the Soviet-German non-aggression pact, Russia had repeatedly violated it. The USSR carried out “sabotage, terrorism, and espionage” against Germany and “opposed German attempts to establish a stable order in Europe.” The Soviet Union conspired with England “to attack German troops in Romania and Bulgaria”, concentrating “all available Russian armed forces on a long front from the Baltic to the Black Sea”, the USSR “created a threat to the Reich.” Therefore, the Fuhrer “ordered the German armed forces to repulse this threat with all means at their disposal.” A memorandum from the German government handed to Dekanozov stated: “The hostile behavior towards Germany of the Soviet government and the serious danger manifested in the movement of Russian troops to the German eastern border forces the Reich to respond.” The accusation of the Soviet Union of aggressiveness, of the intention to “blow up Germany from the inside,” was contained in Hitler’s address to the German people, read out on the morning of June 22 by Goebbels on the radio.

Thus, the Nazi leaders, trying to justify fascist aggression, argued that they were forced to take the path of a “preventive” war against the USSR, since it was allegedly preparing to attack Germany, to stab it in the back. The version of a “preventive” strike tries to relieve German fascism of responsibility for starting the war, leads to an assertion of the USSR’s guilt for the beginning, because, as follows from its judgments, the Wehrmacht allegedly took actions that were only offensive in a military sense, but completely justified in a political sense. More broadly, according to some domestic historians, this issue also affects the problem of Nazi Germany’s responsibility for World War II.

In a statement by the Soviet government in connection with the German attack on the USSR, these “justifications” for fascist aggression were qualified as a policy of “retroactively concocting incriminating material about the Soviet Union’s non-compliance with the Soviet-German Pact.”

Domestic historians, revealing the origins of the version of a “preventive” war, emphasize that a similar point of view: “Germany’s war against the USSR is only preventing the impending strike of the Red Army” was also expressed by other leaders of the Third Reich close to Hitler: Rudolf Hess, Heydrich, General - Colonel A. Jodl and others. These statements were picked up by the propaganda department of J. Goebbels and for a long time were used to deceive the German people and the peoples of other countries; the idea of ​​a “preventive” war was increasingly being introduced into people’s minds. Under the influence of this and pre-war propaganda, many Germans, both at the front and in the rear, considered the war to be just, as stated in a security report on July 7, 1941, “an absolutely necessary defensive measure.”

Hitler himself, at a meeting on July 21, 1941, stated: “there are no signs of the USSR acting against us.”

Domestic historians who reject the far-fetched false statements of the Nazis also rely on the fact that the version of a preventive attack - the most convenient one to justify aggression - was essentially rejected by none other than Hitler himself. At a meeting on July 21, 1941, he, characterizing Stalin’s intentions, stated that “there are no signs of action (USSR. – M.F.) no against us." We emphasize that it was at this meeting that Field Marshal V. Brauchitsch received Hitler’s instructions to begin developing a plan for an attack on the USSR.

Let us mention another very important statement by Hitler, in which he concentratedly described the fundamental motives for his decision to start a war against the USSR - it is given in the work of the German historian J. Tauber. On February 15, 1945 (the end of the war was already approaching) Hitler returned to the topic of war. “The most difficult decision of this war was the order to attack Russia,” he said. – There was no longer any hope of ending the war in the West by landing on the English islands. The war could continue endlessly; a war in which the prospects for Americans to participate in it were increasingly increasing... Time - time again and again! – everything worked against us more and more. The only way to force England to peace was to destroy the Red Army and deprive the British of the hope of opposing us on the continent with an equal enemy.”

Please note: there is not a single word about the threat of an attack by the Soviet Union on Germany, about a stab in the back and about other arguments to justify a “preventive” attack on the USSR.

Goebbels: “Preventive war is the safest and most convenient war, considering that the enemy must still be attacked.”

Let's also read the notes of the Minister of Propaganda of the Third Reich, J. Goebbels. On June 16, 1941, he wrote in his diary: “The Fuhrer declares that we must achieve victory, whether we are right or wrong. We must achieve victory by any means, otherwise the German people will be wiped off the face of the earth." On July 9, in an atmosphere of euphoria from the victories of the Wehrmacht, he writes: “Preventive war is the most reliable and convenient war, if we take into account that the enemy must still be attacked at the first opportunity. This is what happened in relation to Bolshevism. Now we will beat him until he is destroyed." As they say, comments are unnecessary here.

The version of a “preventive” war was rejected at the Nuremberg trials of the main war criminals in 1945–1946. Thus, the former head of the German press and radio broadcasting, G. Fritsche, stated in his testimony that he organized a wide campaign of anti-Soviet propaganda, trying to convince the public that “we only anticipated the attack of the Soviet Union... The next task of German propaganda was to ensure that all the time emphasize that it is not Germany, but the Soviet Union, that is responsible for this war, although there was no reason to accuse the USSR of preparing an attack on Germany.” And a number of German generals who testified at the trial did not deny this. Even Paulus, who was the developer of the Barbarossa plan, admitted that “we did not come to our attention with any facts indicating that the Soviet Union was preparing for an attack.” Field Marshal von Rundstedt said: “In March 1941, I did not have the slightest idea about the supposedly carried out (by the USSR. – M.F.) military preparations." He and other generals briefed by Hitler were surprised to hear that “the Russians are arming themselves very heavily and are now deploying troops to attack us.” According to General von Brauchitsch, during a visit to the 17th Army in June 1941, he became convinced that the grouping of Red Army forces had a pronounced defensive character.

Map of Operation Barbarossa

“On June 22, 1941,” the verdict of the Nuremberg Tribunal notes, “without a declaration of war, Germany invaded Soviet territory in accordance with pre-prepared plans. The evidence presented to the tribunal confirms that Germany had carefully developed plans to crush the USSR as a political and military force in order to clear the way for expansion to the East in accordance with its aspirations... Plans for the economic exploitation of the USSR, the mass deportation of the population, the murder of commissars and political leaders are part of an elaborate plan that began on June 22 without any warning and without legal justification. It was obvious aggression."

The thesis about the preventiveness of an attack, as G. Kumanev and E. Shklyar rightly note, was always included in the official explanations of its actions by the Hitlerite Reich. However, the plan for the invasion of Austria was developed 4 months before the Anschluss, Czechoslovakia 11 months before its occupation, Poland 5 months before the start of hostilities, and the Soviet Union almost a year before the attack. It should be borne in mind that these countries were ready to compromise and make concessions in order not to give Germany a pretext for aggression.

The version of a “preventive” war is completely untenable; there was an unprovoked, treacherous aggression on the part of Nazi Germany. A. Utkin believes that “in general, historiographical stars of the first magnitude on this issue agree that in June 1941, it was not a preventive war that was started, but the implementation of Hitler’s true intentions, which were ideologically motivated,” began.

The inconsistency of the Nazi thesis about a “preventive” war has been proven quite thoroughly and in detail in many works of domestic historians. The facts they cited, based on archival and other sources, indicate that the Soviet state did not plan any aggressive actions, without intending to attack anyone. Most Russian authors convincingly show that the thesis about a “preventive” war of Germany against the Soviet Union is intended to distort the socio-political essence of the war of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany, its fair, liberating character. At the same time, they rely on documents that have long become known, indisputably testifying to the barbaric, merciless nature of Germany’s war against the USSR, the essence of which can be described in two words: conquer and destroy.

Hitler: “Our task in Russia is to destroy the state. This is a fight of destruction."

This demand for cruelty towards the population permeates the orders of the German command. Thus, Colonel General E. Gepner demanded: “The war against Russia... This is the long-standing struggle of the Germans against the Slavs, the defense of European culture from the Moscow-Asian invasion, a rebuff to Bolshevism. This struggle must have the goal of turning today’s Russia into ruins, and therefore it must be waged with unheard-of cruelty.”

In 1991, the exhibition “War of Extermination. Crimes of the Wehrmacht in 1941–1944." Documentary exhibition. She demonstrated that on the basis of these orders a war of annihilation was waged against the USSR. The exhibition catalog convincingly shows that the Wehrmacht was responsible for waging a war in the East in 1941–1944, “contrary to international law,” for the extermination of millions of people.

Actions against enemy civilians committed by members of the Wehrmacht and civilians, as stated in the decree of Hitler as Supreme Commander of the Wehrmacht on May 13, 1941, on military proceedings in the war with the Soviet Union, will not be subject to mandatory prosecution, even if the act constitutes a war crime or misdemeanor. . This decree legitimized draconian measures against the Soviet population, essentially viewing the war with the Soviet Union as fundamentally different from all other “military campaigns” undertaken in 1939, notes German historian J. Förster. It should be considered, he wrote, “as a struggle of the Germans against the Slavs” with the goal of “destroying present-day Russia.”

Hitler: “We don’t need Tsarist, Soviet, or any Russia”

Specifying long-term plans, Hitler said: “It should be absolutely clear that from these areas (the captured lands. – M.F.) we’ll never leave again.” According to the Fuhrer, they represent a “huge pie” that had to be “mastered.” For an occupied country, three criteria were established: first, to take possession; secondly, to manage; thirdly, exploit. For this, “we will use all necessary measures: executions, evictions, etc.” . He put it in monosyllables: “We don’t need Tsarist, Soviet, or any Russia.”

Goering: “In Russia, between 20 and 30 million people will die of hunger. It’s good that this will happen: after all, some nations need to be reduced.”

What will happen to the Russians and other peoples of the country? Let us turn to the Ost master plan and the documents related to this plan. The plan itself was discovered in the German Federal Archives only in the late 80s of the last century. And it became available in digital form only in December 2009. A document drawn up by Dr. Wetzel, head of colonization of the First Main Political Directorate of the Rosenberg Ministry, dated April 1942, states: “This is not only about the defeat of the state centered in Moscow. The point is most likely to defeat the Russians as a people... from a biological, especially from a racial-biological point of view...” Let us give another excerpt from the documents that have become known: “Destruction of the biological power of the eastern peoples through negative demographic policies... Its goal is to change in the future the quantitative relationship between alien peoples and Germans in favor of the latter and thus reduce the difficulties arising from domination over them.” Hitler believed there was no point in feeling sorry for subhumans. “This year in Russia between 20 and 30 million people will die of hunger. Maybe it’s even good that this will happen: after all, some nations need to be reduced,” Goering said in a conversation with Ciano in November 1941, repeating Hitler’s thoughts. In total, in his opinion, no more than 15–30 million people should remain on Russian territory. Let the rest move to the east or die - as they please. Assessing the goals of the entire political leadership of Germany, the German historian O. Klöde writes that “not only Bolshevism, but also the Russian nation was subject to destruction... And in the case of the Slavs in general, Hitler advocated the destruction of not only another worldview, but also a foreign people.”

An unenviable consideration awaited those who remained alive. In one of his table conversations, Hitler said: “The peoples we have conquered must first of all serve our economic interests. The Slavs were created to work for the Germans, and for nothing else. Our goal is to place one hundred million Germans in their current places of residence. German authorities should be located in the best buildings, and governors should live in palaces. Around the provincial centers within a radius of 30–40 kilometers there will be belts of beautiful German villages, connected by centers and good roads. There will be another world on the other side of this belt. Let the Russians live there as they are used to. We will take for ourselves only the best of their lands. Let the Slavic aborigines poke around in the swamp... Limit everything as much as possible! No printed publications... No compulsory schooling..."

On the territory of the USSR it was planned to create four Reichskommissariats - German provinces. Moscow, Leningrad, Kyiv and a number of other cities were to be wiped off the face of the earth. In the “Military Folder,” which is one of the most detailed documents outlining the program for the exploitation of the territory of the USSR, the goal of transforming the Soviet Union into a kind of colony of Germany was formulated in completely naked form. At the same time, the attitude towards starvation of the majority of the population was constantly emphasized.

The defeat of the Soviet Union was seen as a decisive prerequisite for establishing complete domination over the European continent and at the same time as the starting point for gaining world domination. German historian A. Hilgruber notes: “The Eastern Campaign occupied a decisive place in the overall military concept of the Nazis,” with the “successful completion of the Eastern War” they hoped to gain freedom of action “to implement their global strategy.” The famous German historian G.A. Jacobsen characterized Hitler's goals as follows: “He (Hitler. – M.F.) firmly decided to dismember Russia, mercilessly exploit and despotically oppress the “Eastern subhumans,” and also use the country for the Great German population.” After the invasion of the Soviet state and the occupation of a number of territories, the Nazis began to carry out a program of genocide against the “race of subhumans” - the Russian nation.

All of the above quite convincingly reveals the main goals of the military-political leadership of Germany in the war with the Soviet Union. They testify to the groundlessness of the allegations about the war between Hitler and Stalin, National Socialism and European Bolshevism, drummed into the heads of the Germans by Goebbels and his henchmen and which today have found like-minded people in Russia. Victory in the war for Nazi Germany would not lead to the destruction of totalitarianism, as some neoliberal historians claim, but to the dismemberment of the country, the destruction of tens of millions of people and the transformation of the survivors into servants of the German colonists.

Attempts to distort the nature of war today are becoming more and more cruel, evil, and aggressive

An informed reader may ask whether it was worthwhile to reveal in such detail the goals of Nazi Germany in the war against the USSR, documentary sources about what is well known to the vast majority of people who are not subject to a feeling of unkind attitude towards their people, towards their Fatherland. Apparently, it should have been, since it is precisely this aspect of the war - the most important and determining its character - that in recent years has increasingly disappeared from television screens and is silent on the radio; There is almost no information about the barbaric plans of fascism in books about the Great Patriotic War, in a number of textbooks for schools and universities. On the eve of the celebration of the 70th anniversary of Victory in the Great Patriotic War, attempts to distort the nature of the war, the desire to blame the USSR for almost its beginning “are becoming more and more cruel, evil, and aggressive.” What has become undesirable is removed from school textbooks, as M.V. emphasized at a round table held at the State Central Museum of Contemporary History of Russia in March 2010. Demurin (Envoy Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Second Class) is the most important provision of the Great Patriotic War: “the most important thing is that the Russian people fought [the battle] not for the sake of glory, but for the sake of life.” Unfortunately, the collapse of the USSR released and gave rise to forces that are interested in revising the origins and course of the Great Patriotic War. And today, 70 years after our victory over Germany, it is extremely important to comprehensively reveal the plans and goals of Nazi Germany in relation to the USSR and its people, as well as the far-reaching calculations of German fascism. They leave no room for any claims of "preventive" war on Hitler's part. The fate of not only the Soviet people, but also the peoples of the whole world depended on the outcome of the struggle of the Soviet state with Nazi Germany.

The war on the part of the Soviet Union had a fundamentally different character. For the peoples of the USSR, the armed struggle against Germany and its allies became the Great Patriotic War for the national independence of their state, for the freedom and honor of their Motherland. In this war, the Soviet people set as their goal to help the peoples of other countries free themselves from the Hitlerite yoke, to save a dead civilization from fascist barbarism.

All attempts, consciously or as a result of a one-sided view generated by the insufficient scientific qualifications of the authors, to rewrite and correct the past, to contribute to the distorted picture of the Great Patriotic War are ultimately futile, no matter how consonant they may be with a particular political situation.

Fictions about war must be contrasted with the truth of history

Of course, the most important condition for this is the need to overcome the underestimation of the positions of falsifiers, a decisive, offensive struggle against the distortion of the essence of the character of the Great Patriotic War. It is necessary to contrast the widespread and growing fictions about the war with the truth of history, based on documentary sources, to deeply reveal the victories of the Soviet troops in the grandiose battles on the Soviet-German front.

June 22, 1941 will forever remain in the history of our country as the day the bloody and cruel war began. NTV tells what happened on that terrible morning and how the Great Patriotic War began.

Read below

June 21, 1941

13:00 (Berlin time) German troops received the Dortmund signal, meaning the offensive would begin on June 22 as planned.

In Germany, Colonel General Guderian checked the readiness of the advanced combat units for the offensive: “... Careful observation of the Russians convinced me that they did not suspect anything about our intentions. In the courtyard of the Brest fortress, which was visible from our observation points, they were changing the guards to the sounds of an orchestra. The coastal fortifications along the Western Bug were not occupied by Russian troops."

21:30 In Moscow, a conversation took place between the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov and the German Ambassador Schulenburg. Molotov protested in connection with repeated violations of the USSR border by German planes. The ambassador avoided answering.

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

June 22, 1941

00:10 Border troops detained a defector from the German side, Alfred Liskov, who left his unit and swam across the Bug. During interrogation, the detainee said that at about 4 am the German army would begin crossing the Bug.

01:00 Stalin summoned Chief of the General Staff Georgy Zhukov and People's Commissar of Defense Semyon Timoshenko to the Kremlin. They reported on Liskov's message. They are joined by People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov. Zhukov and Tymoshenko insist on issuing Directive No. 1.

01:45 Directive No. 1 was sent to the districts with the order to secretly occupy firing points on the border, not to succumb to provocations and to bring troops to combat readiness.
"1. During 22-23.6.41, a surprise attack by the Germans on the fronts of LVO, PribOVO, ZAPOVO, KOVO, OdVO is possible. An attack may begin with provocative actions.
2. The task of our troops is not to succumb to any provocative actions that could cause major complications. At the same time, the troops of the Leningrad, Baltic, Western, Kyiv and Odessa military districts should be in full combat readiness to meet a possible surprise attack from the Germans or their allies.
3. I order:
a) during the night of June 22, 1941, secretly occupy firing points of fortified areas on the state border;
b) before dawn on June 22, 1941, disperse all aviation, including military aviation, to field airfields, carefully camouflage it;
c) put all units on combat readiness. Keep troops dispersed and camouflaged;
d) bring air defense to combat readiness without additional increases in assigned personnel. Prepare all measures to darken cities and objects;
e) do not carry out any other activities without special orders.
Tymoshenko. Zhukov."

3:07 The first reports of artillery shelling began to arrive.

3:40 People's Commissar of Defense Semyon Timoshenko asks Zhukov to report to Stalin about the start of full-scale hostilities. At this time, the cities of Brest, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovichi, Bobruisk, Volkovysk, Kiev, Zhitomir, Sevastopol, Riga, Vindava, Libava, Siauliai, Kaunas, Vilnius and many others were bombed.

The chief of staff of the Black Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral I.D. Eliseev, ordered to open fire on German planes that invaded the airspace of the Soviet Union.

4:00 German troops went on the offensive. The Great Patriotic War began.

Photo: TASS

4:15 The defense of the Brest Fortress began.

4:30 The Western and Baltic districts reported the beginning of large-scale military operations by German troops on land. 4 million German and allied soldiers invaded the border territory of the USSR. 3,350 tanks, 7,000 various guns and 2,000 aircraft were involved in the battles.

4:55 Almost half of the Brest Fortress is occupied by German troops.

5:30 The German Foreign Ministry sent a note to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR in which it stated: “Bolshevik Moscow is ready to strike in the back of National Socialist Germany, which is fighting for existence. The German government cannot remain indifferent to the serious threat on its eastern border. Therefore, the Fuhrer gave the order to the German armed forces to ward off this threat by all means and means..."

7:15 Directive No. 2 was transmitted to the western military districts of the Soviet Union, which ordered the USSR troops to destroy enemy forces in areas of border violation, as well as “to use reconnaissance and combat aircraft to establish the concentration areas of enemy aircraft and the grouping of their ground forces. Using powerful strikes from bomber and attack aircraft, destroy aircraft at enemy airfields and bomb groups of their ground forces..."

9:30 The Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Mikhail Kalinin, signed decrees on the introduction of martial law in the country, on the formation of the Headquarters of the High Command, on military tribunals and general mobilization, to which all those liable for military service from 1905 to 1918 were born.

Photo: TASS

10:00 An air raid was carried out on Kyiv and its suburbs. A railway station, factories, power plants, military airfields and residential buildings were attacked.

12:00 The People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR spoke on the radio. V. M. Molotov.
“...Today at 4 o’clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities from their planes Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, and more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Enemy aircraft raids and artillery shelling were also carried out from Romanian and Finnish territory... Germany attacked the USSR, despite the peace-loving position of the Soviet Union, and that thereby Nazi Germany was the attacking party...
Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has already taken place, the Soviet government has given our troops the order to repel the bandit attack and expel German troops from the territory of our Motherland... Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours".

After some time, the text of Molotov’s speech was repeated by the famous announcer Yuri Levitan. There is still an opinion that it was he who first read the message on the radio about the beginning of the war.

12:30 German troops entered Grodno. Minsk, Kyiv and Sevastopol were subjected to repeated bombing.

13:00 Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano said that Italy declared war on the USSR:
“In view of the current situation, due to the fact that Germany declared war on the USSR, Italy, as an ally of Germany and as a member of the Tripartite Pact, also declares war on the Soviet Union from the moment German troops entered Soviet territory, that is, from 5.30 on June 22”

14:00 The Brest Fortress continued to hold its defense. German military leaders decided that the fortress would be taken only by infantry, without tanks. It took no more than 8 hours to take it.

Photo: TASS / Valery Gende-Rote

15:00 German bomber pilots continue air raids. The Baltic strategic defensive operation of the North-Western Front of F.I. Kuznetsov and part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet began. At the same time, the Belarusian strategic defensive operation of the Western Front of D. G. Pavlov and the defensive operation in Western Ukraine of the South-Western Front began.

16:30 Beria, Molotov and Voroshilov left the Kremlin. In the first 24 hours after the start of the war, no one else met with Stalin, and there was practically no communication with him. Stalin addressed the Soviet people only on July 3, 1941. Historians are still arguing about why this happened.

18:30 One of the German military commanders gives the order to “withdraw his own forces” from the Brest Fortress. This was one of the first orders for the retreat of German troops.

Photo: TASS

19:00 The commander of the German Army Group Center gives the order to stop the execution of the first Soviet prisoners of war and create special camps for them.

21:15 Directive No. 3 was transmitted to the western military districts of the Soviet Union. In it, People's Commissar of Defense Semyon Timoshenko orders the bombing of Koenigsberg and Danzig, as well as air strikes 100-150 km deep into Germany.

23:00 British Prime Minister Winston Churchill makes a radio address in which he declares that England is ready to provide the USSR with all the assistance it can give.
“... We are determined to destroy Hitler and all traces of the Nazi regime. Nothing can turn us away from this, nothing. We will never come to an agreement, we will never enter into negotiations with Hitler or with anyone from his gang. We will fight him on land, we will fight him by sea, we will fight him in the air, until, with God's help, we have rid the earth of his very shadow and freed the nations from his yoke. Any person or state that fights against Nazism will receive our help. Any person or state that goes with Hitler is our enemy... This is our policy, this is our statement. It follows that we will provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can. We will appeal to all our friends and allies in all parts of the world to adhere to the same course and carry it out as steadfastly and steadily to the end as we will do...”

23:50 The Main Military Council of the Red Army sent out a directive that ordered counterattacks against enemy forces on June 23.

June 23, 1941

00:00 For the first time, a report from the Red Army High Command appeared on the nightly radio news: “At dawn on June 22, 1941, regular troops of the German army attacked our border units on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and were held back by them during the first half of the day. In the afternoon, German troops met with the advanced units of the field troops of the Red Army. After fierce fighting, the enemy was repulsed with heavy losses. Only in the Grodno and Kristinopol directions did the enemy manage to achieve minor tactical successes and occupy the towns of Kalwaria, Stoyanuv and Tsekhanovets (the first two are 15 km and the last 10 km from the border). Enemy aircraft attacked a number of our airfields and populated areas, but everywhere they met decisive resistance from our fighters and anti-aircraft artillery, which inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. We shot down 65 enemy aircraft.”

Photo: TASS / Nikolay Surovtsev

It is known that on the first day of the war, German troops advanced along the entire border 50-60 km deep into the territory of the USSR. Almost 4 more years of war lay ahead.

Victory will be ours: how the Great Patriotic War began