Stories for children about the war 1941 1945. Two non-fictional stories about the war

My mother is Pinigina (Glukhova) Maria Grigorievna, born in 1933, the village of Vititnevo, Elninsky district, Smolensk region.
Her mother, my grandmother - Glukhova (Shavenkova) Alexandra Antonovna, born in 1907, village Vititnevo, Elninsky district, Smolensk region, died in Irkutsk on June 6, 1986.
Her father, my grandfather - Glukhov Grigory Sviryanovich, born in 1907, village Vititnevo, Elninsky district, Smolensk region, died on November 11, 1942 in a hospital.

The war began. My father went, like all the men in the village, to the front. He died in the hospital. We got the funeral after the war and I didn't have a single photo of my father. Our house and village were all burned down, only coals remained, what kind of photographs are there.

We made inquiries about the place of burial, the last in 2012, the answer is one - we do not know.

From the beginning of the war, somewhere until October, we in our village did not hear the sounds of war. And then, suddenly, we were ordered to line up along the road and meet the Germans. It was unexpected. We didn't know what would happen to us. They put on everything that was on themselves. And there were 2-3 dresses and then canvas, they lived very poorly. We were lined up in rows on both sides of the road. The Germans rode on motorcycles and cars, held their submachine guns in front of them, stopped next to us and began poking at us and shouting "Yudo", walked around all the houses, turned over all the hay, they were looking for Jews, as the adults said. And then they grabbed the pigs, chickens, and cooked them right there. I remembered screams, tears. They did not stay with us and immediately drove on.

A few days later, new Germans arrived and they drove us into several houses on the edge of the village. They themselves occupied most of our homes.
I remember we had a Russian stove, and the Germans could not light it up. They brought my mother and me to our house and made us heat the stove. And they themselves threw hay in the hut, laughed and lay on it and shouted: "Moscow is gut, Stalin is kaput."

In the afternoon we were forced to go to the site, the Germans were in swimming trunks, as they were sunbathing, they installed a machine with a horn, and turned on music in German. Everyone had to dance. The women sat huddled together and were silent. They began to pull them to dance, but nothing worked, everyone was afraid. The children and I are the same "swollen".

The next time they had a dance again, officers sat in front, with badges. They made me sing. I sang ditties and danced, and the ditties were about the war, about the Germans.

“We have Germans standing, costumes turn green,
They abandoned their wives, they hope for the Russians "

They were translated and they laughed. And I didn’t understand that it could be dangerous, despite the fact that I was small. Then a few more times they made me sing ditties on the street, on other days. But everything worked out for me and my mother.

All the inhabitants of the village were driven under escort to the bathhouse, their clothes were handed over to the "frying", that is, for processing, then the German smeared our children’s heads, and we ran away. Obliged to do injections.

But these Germans also left, and we moved back to our house. Before the war, my father built a nice big house, I hardly remember my father. The house had a good Russian stove. There were many Prussians behind it, these are such large cockroaches 4-5 cm, but we slept on it. It was difficult to heat the stove, there was no firewood. A forest of bushes, let's go with my mother for firewood, the ax is completely stupid, we will make bundles of branches, my mother will put a small bundle on my shoulders. I had to drag. These twigs burned for about 10 minutes. Mother often cried and prayed on her knees. The trouble and the gain was a cow, milk always. She stayed with us because she butted and recognized only her mother. When all the cattle were evacuated, she fled into the forest, she could not be found, then she herself came home, that is, to us.

The Germans needed to work for them, and old people and children interfered with them. Therefore, the old and young with their mothers were sent to Germany. When they announced our departure, I jumped for joy. I wanted to go to the city, jumped and shouted "we will walk in hats." But when the adults screamed, I got scared, I got scared. They loaded everyone and us into a big car, i.e. Mom, me, aunt and sister and grandmother, she was 90 years old, hunched over and small, she was not allowed to stay in the village. Only those who could work were left. Toward nightfall we were all accommodated in a small house. There were many people, they gathered from all the villages. The grandmother could not walk; the German carried her into the house on a hump (back). When everyone fell asleep, my mother and I and 5 more families ran away. Grandma and aunt and sister stayed. My grandmother was deaf, she would cry, wail and run away, everyone would not be able to, that's what I think now. Mom was very hard. Then they said that she kept calling my mother - “Sasha! Sasha! "

It was winter, there was practically no forest, there were bushes. The Germans were waiting for us in the village, but they did not look for us in the forest. We lived in the forest for a week, slept on the branches of the trees. My mother woke me up so that I would not freeze, made me walk and jump. When the last crackers ran out, I had to go to the village. Mother sent me to my aunt. I was very afraid to approach the house, there could be Germans there. She stood and cried. My aunt saw me and began to hide. When everything had calmed down, the mother came. There were already other Germans in the village and therefore they did not look for us.

I apparently looked older than my years, they added 2 years to me so that they would no longer be taken to Germany. Like other children, they began to drive me to dig trenches for the Germans. The children were forced to dig trenches about a meter long and more than a meter high. The German was in charge of us, he did not allow us to be distracted, we only heard: "Work Klein." I was 8 years old. Somehow our children saw that the children were working and began to shoot to disperse us. We scattered screaming. They were taken to and from work under an escort, the convoy - 2 people, and adults were driven to dig dugouts even closer to the front line. They came later from work than we did.

Once everyone was kicked out of their homes, there were no adults yet. We were forced to walk along the road to another village, 10 km away. We didn’t know where our relatives were, our mother wasn’t there, but we had to go with tears. They settled in a house, in which one could only squat, there were so many people. Our relatives came running late in the evening. Voices were heard everywhere, names were shouted, everyone was looking for their relatives.

Our planes began to bomb the fascists in our village Vetitnevo - this is Elninsky district, Smolensk region. It was the front line. The Germans drove everyone into a dugout, its length is 100 meters, on the right side of the entrance there are beds covered with straw, their width is about 2 meters. My mother and I did not go down into the dugout. We had a cow, she did not leave her mother, we could not leave her alone. Another 3 families remained under the shed. It was night, we fell asleep. Next to me is my grandmother and my little cousin, my mother stayed next to the cow. I woke up from the rumble and scream. An incendiary mine fell very close, my handkerchief fell off, a splinter caught my finger and went deaf, apparently concussed, I did not hear anything. Grandma is covered in blood, her leg is injured, her eyes are missing, and later she went blind. I ran to my mother. She cannot stand up, her leg is injured. The neighbor was killed. The Germans took their mother and grandmother to the hospital.

On the outskirts of our village, everything was mined. The Germans were waiting for the offensive right here, in our village. The attack began. Ours were advancing, explosions from mines were heard, but the field was not cleared. Then the Katyusha was hit. The attacks continued. We all stood, listened and watched, with tears in our eyes. Our village was on fire, the fire was clearly visible. The Germans began to retreat.

Mother was not there. The hospital was in a neighboring village. The village and the road were bombed. I did not wait for my mother and ran to her right along the road, not realizing that I could die. I still don’t understand how it happened, how I stayed alive. Shells exploded from all sides, I rushed, i.e. I ran, saw nothing around, only my mother was in front of my eyes. I saw her very far away, her leg was bandaged, on crutches. With God's help, we returned to the village, God heard the mother's prayers.

The village was burned down and of course our home. There were many of our dead soldiers on the ground, some officer walked around and looked for addresses on his clothes (in pockets, on collars), but most of them did not find anything and everyone was thrown into the pit. The kids and I ran and watched everything that was happening. Then they found soldiers for a long time and buried them. Even in our garden, there were graves next to our house.

It was winter. Nowhere to live. They dug a dugout, this is a room underground, a small window, made a stove so that you can cook food. The wick burned in the dugout day and night, i.e. kerosene was poured into the bottle, and apparently some kind of twisted rag was inserted. Everyone had to live in such dugouts, sometimes they lit splinters. The cow stayed with us, it's amazing that nothing happened to her. We survived the winter. Spring began, everything began to melt, the clay began to crawl. I had to move upstairs, there were small dugouts located next to the pillbox. People began to dig up logs, i.e. dismantled dugouts and built huts. We had a cow instead of a horse, harnessed it and carried everything that was needed for everyone on it. There were no men, everything was done by the women and children themselves, they built without nails, of course.

Before the war, I finished 1st grade. And when our area was liberated from the Germans, all the children went to school. I had to walk 5 km to school, textbooks were given for 5 people, but from the village I was alone and they didn’t give me textbooks. My mother found a textbook for me somewhere in the Belarusian language, she did not understand much in it, but she had to study.

Many mines remained in the fields, many cartridges. The kids and I ran and collected the cartridges. 7 boys were killed by land mines. We tied feathers to the casings, and we made ink from the soot that was in the rockets. Therefore, they were always dirty. They wrote on books or cardboard, from which they made shells, cartridges.

I really wanted to study, but my mother said: "I will not teach you." All the guys went to school, and I sat at home and cried every day. And my mother said that they didn’t take me to school. That's how I didn't even finish the 5th grade. I also had to work on a collective farm, plow, sow, I was 10 years old. They plowed on bulls, I alone followed the bull, and there was so much in the ground - shells, and skulls, and bones. This is how my career began, but this was not included in my work experience. I was still little at the time.
Trofimenko L.I. 28.02.2012

After reading these memories, my friend Olga wrote poetry, I read them to my mother, who at that time was already 79 years old, and was only 8 years old during the war.
She remembered everything again and told me, and tears came to her eyes. These are the verses.

* * *
War! Into the life of the Russian people
An unexpected guest burst in
And in my heart it exploded with pain,
Bringing only adversity with me.

All around is pain, suffering and anguish,
The men went to fight
Their holy duty is to defend their native land.
Children and women’s hands remained in the village.

And how much they had to endure,
Living under the Germans without feeling protected?
And constantly seeing death nearby?
And only God knows what tears are shed there!

The cross was heavy, because it is every day on the chopping block,
They tried to humiliate them in every possible way.
How hard it is in constant fear
Remain a woman and not betray the faith!

Their life is like a feat, maybe not noticeable,
We must keep it in our memory.
So let us be for them, living and dead,
To lift up our prayers to God!

For the girl who ran under fire
With only one thought - to see my mother
And only mother's prayer warmed
And she helped her to escape unharmed.

But many left a thread of life there,
Your husbands, children, health, happiness,
But they managed to preserve the Russian soul,
Preventing the Nazis from tearing it apart.

(March 2012 Olga Titkova)

Vladimir Bogomolov's stories about the defenders of Stalingrad

Vladimir Bogomolov. The feat of the guards

Our tankers were ordered to break through the enemy's defenses in the area of ​​the Petrov plant. The enemy met the Soviet vehicles with powerful barrage of battery fire. But that did not stop the guardsmen. They broke into the location of the Nazis and began to destroy equipment and manpower.

The crew of Junior Lieutenant Mikhail Kitiy acted boldly and decisively. With fire and tracks, he destroyed eight guns, nine machine guns and three bunkers of the Nazis.

But then the tank ran into a mine and froze in place. Immediately, eight enemy tanks surrounded the wrecked car. Mikhail Kitiya and his friends were offered to surrender. However, the heroes decided to enter into an unequal battle, but the honor of the guardsmen would not be dishonored.

With well-aimed fire, they put out of action three more Nazi tanks. But then our combat vehicle also caught fire. The Nazis expected that now the Soviet tankers would open the hatch and get out with their hands up. But instead, they heard the song that the guardsmen were singing:

This is our last and decisive battle

With the "Internationale" will rise

human race ...

The enemy was rushing to the southern outskirts of Stalingrad. The Nazis decided to cross the Oak Ravine in order to take to the streets of the city. But then a platoon of senior sergeant Mikhail Khvastantsev stood in their way as an impregnable fortress. On the position of the fighters there were twenty tanks and a landing of machine gunners.

Already five hundred, four hundred meters are left to the battery.

The Nazis decided that our soldiers fled in panic. But Khvastantsev and his friends were preparing for a mortal battle. And when the tanks approached 300-200 meters, the guards opened fire.

The enemy could not stand it and turned back. But there was not a lull for long. German bombers appeared over our gunners. Bombs fell with a howl, and columns of earth, smoke and fire rose.

The commander ordered the wounded to leave the position and entered into single combat with the tanks, which were going on a new assault on the battery. From the surviving cannon, he knocked out another fascist vehicle, but the shells ran out.

The enemy column and submachine gunners split into two groups and embraced the daredevil in a half-ring. But Khvastantsev was not taken aback: with well-aimed fire from an anti-tank rifle he knocked out another tank. The rest moved forward. Then Mikhail jumped out of the trench and threw a grenade under the tracks of the head tank. The car shuddered, but continued to move towards the trench.

Khvastantsev barely had time to jump into the trench when heavy tracks began to iron the ground. The tank passed. Mikhail jumped out again and threw the last grenade in the trail: the tank caught fire ... But at the same moment Khvastantsev was struck by a burst of machine-gun fire.

The commander died, but the enemies did not break into the city. Our new battery approached the place of battle: the artillerymen threw the Nazis away from the Oak Ravine far into the steppe.

The attacks of the Nazis became more and more furious, it was more and more difficult for our soldiers to restrain the onslaught of the brutal enemy. Fewer and fewer fighters remained in the defense sectors. But I had to hold on. "No step back!" - this was the order of the Headquarters of the High Command.

It seemed to the Nazis that one more effort, one more new thrust - and the city of Stalingrad would be taken ...

Meanwhile, at the direction of the State Defense Committee, the General Staff, together with the front commanders, was developing a plan to encircle and defeat the fascist armies in the Stalingrad region.

- Are we going to Mamaev Kurgan, grandfather? The boy asked as they boarded the tram again.

- Yes, granddaughter! We will definitely visit there. After all, this mound is the most important in the battle for our city.

- And I know why Mamayev Kurgan is the most important.

- Why? - asked the grandfather.

- Because the war was buried in it. We learned the song about Mamayev Kurgan at the collection of our October star.

- Well, what kind of song is that?

And Vanya sang:

There is silence on Mamaev Kurgan,

Silence is behind Mamaev Kurgan,

The war is buried in that mound.

A wave gently splashes into the peaceful shore.

Grandpa fiddled with the tips of his mustache, looked at Vanya, stroked his head and said:

- That's right, granddaughter! Very true in the song!

Vladimir Bogomolov. Mamayev Kurgan

In mid-September, the enemy, having received fresh reserves, intensified their attacks. The German fascist troops managed to break through to the center of the city, to the Tsaritsa River, and reach the Mamayev Kurgan, gain a foothold at certain heights ...

The fascist generals understood that if they managed to hold onto certain heights and capture the Mamayev Kurgan, they would be able to shoot Stalingrad in all directions, and then finally capture the city. And in these difficult and dangerous days for the city, the command of the Stalingrad Front from the headquarters reserve allocated the 13th Guards Division of Major General Rodimtsev to help the defenders of the city.

From the air, the guardsmen were assisted by pilots under the command of Generals Golovanov and Rudenko. The artillerymen of the Stalingrad Front fired at the enemy positions with heavy fire.

Rodimtsev's guardsmen successfully crossed to the right bank and with an unexpected counterattack threw back the enemy that had broken through to the center of the city.

But the dominant heights over the city, including part of the Mamayev Kurgan, were still in the hands of the Nazi troops.

The guardsmen of General Rodimtsev's division were ordered to drive the enemy off the Mamayev Kurgan.

All day Major Dolgov's regiment stormed the hill. The Nazis at the top of the hill set up machine guns and mortars and continuously fired at the advancing fighters.

But the guards, where by crawling, where by dashes, were getting to the top. It was already dark when the soldiers reached the middle of the slope. At night, Captain Kirin's battalion burst into the Nazi trenches. The submachine guns did not stop for a minute, grenades exploded. Tracer bullets cut through the dark night sky. Iron clanged: it was our fighters in hand-to-hand combat who beat the Nazis on their helmets with rifle butts. The fighting shouted, the wounded groaned.

Finally, the Nazis wavered and began to retreat. The guardsmen have completely mastered the height.

But at dawn the Germans went on the offensive again. Enemy mortars hit, planes began to bomb our positions.

Fire and smoke covered the entire summit.

Two infantry regiments and enemy tanks moved to the height to attack.

Twelve times our fighters met hand-to-hand with the enemy. Now the guards rolled back down, then the fascists retreated. But the Nazis did not manage to return the top of the mound.

On the third day, the Nazis threw in reinforcements - already a whole division went to Dolgov's regiment. For each of our fighters there were up to ten Nazis.

Enemy cannons rumbled again, trenches ironed out of the trenches of tanks, fascist planes dived. But nothing frightened the defenders of the mound.

They didn't flinch. They stood to death.

A heavy tank was going to the trench of the Komsomol member of the sailor Misha Panikha.

Komsomolets prepared for a duel - he raised a bottle with a combustible mixture, but at that moment an enemy bullet broke the bottle. The liquid instantly ignited and doused the daredevil. Misha Panikakha rose above the ground with a burning torch and, holding the second bottle in his hands, went to the enemy tank ...

The communication line was damaged during the battle.

The lieutenant sent one soldier to repair the damage. But he did not get to the broken wire.

They sent the second one, but he didn’t make it either.

The third was sent - Matvey Putilov.

Several minutes passed - the phone started working. But Putilov did not return.

Sergeant Smirnov crawled along his trail and saw the signalman near the funnel dead, his teeth clamped the ends of the broken wire. Apparently, while crawling, Matvey was seriously wounded, weakened, having lost a lot of blood, and was unable to connect the ends of the broken wire with his hands.

The signalman took the ends of the wires in his mouth and clamped them with his teeth. It was then that the telephone started working at the command post.

Maybe Matvey Putilov was not wounded by a splinter from a mine or a shell, but was knocked out by an enemy sniper? Just then, a German sniper, the head of the Berlin school of snipers, appeared on the mound. He put many of our soldiers out of action.

The fascist was so disguised that it was impossible to find him.

Then the commander summoned the communist Vasily Zaitsev. Zaitsev was an excellent sniper.

It was he who said on the mound: "There is no land for us beyond the Volga!" And his words became an oath for all defenders of Stalingrad.

The commander summoned Zaitsev and gave the task to find and destroy the fascist.

Zaitsev crawled to look for a convenient place for himself, and the fascist, it is true, noticed him: only Vasily took off his helmet and put it on the breastwork of the trench, the bullet - bang! - and pierced the helmet.

Zaitsev hid and waited for the fascist to shoot again, to reveal himself.

An hour passed, another ...

The fascist is silent.

"Nothing," Zaitsev thinks, "we'll wait."

For several hours the soldier lay with bated breath and waited.

In the morning, when the cold sun had just illuminated the ground, a shot rang out - someone was spotted by a German sniper.

This was enough for Zaitsev's sniper bullet to hit the target.

On the right slope of the Mamaev Kurgan, near a small ravine where a small stream flows, there was a battalion of Captain Benyash.

Eight or ten times a day, the Nazis went to attack the battalion's trenches. The Germans were left without water, and a stream flowed along the bottom of the ravine. So they decided to recapture the ravine.

For more than a hundred days, the fighters restrained the enemy's attacks, but the Nazis did not get drunk from this stream.

Our command was preparing a general offensive plan. It was important to keep everything in deep secrecy from the enemy. For the transfer of soldiers and military equipment, ammunition and food by rail, 1,300 wagons were sent daily; 27 thousand vehicles were involved in the transportation of military cargo. The transfer of troops and equipment was carried out covertly.

At the headquarters of the fronts - South-West (commanded by General of the Army N.F. Vatutin), Donskoy (commanded by Lieutenant General K.K.Rokossovsky), Stalingrad (commanded by Colonel-General A.I. Eremenko) - they clarified and studied in detail the counter-offensive plan : it was decided to pinch the main enemy grouping in the Stalingrad area - the armies of Paulus and Goth in giant pincers, deliver swift strikes on them north-west and south of Stalingrad, and then go to the area of ​​the city of Kalach-on-Don, close the ring of the enemy grouping and defeat the fascist army.

And on November 19, 1942, after a lengthy artillery preparation, in which 1,500 guns participated, the implementation of the master plan for the counteroffensive began.

The troops of the Southwestern and Don fronts went on the offensive, and on November 20 the troops of the Stalingrad front went on the offensive.

Vladimir Bogomolov. In the city on the Volga - silence

Slightly to the right of the battalion of Captain Benyash was the mortar battery of Senior Lieutenant Bezdidko.

The mortar men of this battery became famous for hitting the enemy without a miss.

What the fascists did not do to destroy our mortars: they bombed from planes, tried to cover the positions of the daredevils with artillery, sent submachine gunners ... But Bezdidko's batteries withstood everything, survived!

And when in January 1943 the order was given to go on the offensive, Bezdidko's mortarmen opened a hurricane of fire on the enemy.

The salvoes of the guardsmen were well-aimed - half an hour after the shelling of the enemy, a wide gap was made in the positions, where our tanks and infantry rushed.

The Nazis could not stand it and began to retreat rapidly. It was difficult for our soldiers to pursue the rapidly retreating enemy in deep snow.

Suddenly the soldiers see - shells are bursting ahead ...

They hear - tanks are thundering and a loud and formidable "hurray!"

"Their!" - swept joyfully through the ranks of the soldiers. - "Ours!" And an hour later, beyond the hollow at Mamaev Kurgan, the soldiers met the first tank, which was going to help the defenders of the city. And after him the rest of the combat vehicles of the army of General Chistyakov moved.

Behind the cars with a loud "hurray!" infantrymen were advancing - the troops of the 21st Army. They allied with the 62nd Army.

The fighters hugged each other in joy, jumped and tumbled in the snow. An accordion appeared from somewhere, the accordion player stretched out the furs, began to play loudly, and the merry dance of the winners went in a circle.

330 thousand Nazi soldiers and officers commanded by Field Marshal Paulus found themselves in a ring and could not get out of the encirclement. Our command suggested that the surrounded surrender.

And Field Marshal Paulus on January 31, realizing that resistance was useless, despite Hitler's order to fight, fight, fight at all costs, surrendered together with his headquarters.

The encircled enemy divisions surrendered.

As early as the morning of February 2, 1943, on the outskirts of the city, near the Barrikada, Tractor and Krasny Oktyabr factories, separate groups of Nazis tried to resist our soldiers, but at four o'clock in the afternoon silence fell in the city on the Volga.

Through the ruins of the city destroyed during the battles, along its outskirts, columns of captured Nazi soldiers stretched and stretched. They were led by our fighters, they were led by the victors.

And it became clear all over the world that the Soviet people, their heroic army inflicted the most crushing defeat on the fascist troops and were able to put an end to the Nazi invaders.

Throughout Nazi Germany, a three-day mourning period was declared.

As soon as there was silence in the city, the Stalingraders began to rebuild their city almost completely destroyed by the enemy.

And the victorious soldiers continued to develop the offensive, freeing other cities and villages of our Motherland from enemies.

The path of the victorious Soviet soldiers was in

one direction - to Berlin!

There is silence on Mamaev Kurgan.

People slowly climb the granite stairs. There are many people.

Warriors are walking as gray as Vanin's grandfather. On soldier's tunics and military uniforms orders and medals.

They're coming young - boys and girls.

Boys and girls with pioneer ties, Octobrist stars are coming ...

Citizens of the country of the Soviets are going to bow to the memory of the heroes.

The whole world knows Mamaev Kurgan and its ensemble-monument. And there is no such person on earth who would not have heard about Stalingrad, about this heroic height - the Mamayev Kurgan.

Vladimir Bogomolov. Eternal flame

By clearly typing the step, the guard of honor of the pioneers of the hero-city is changing. In their hands they have real machine guns, with which their fathers and grandfathers fought for the city on the Volga.

"One two Three!" - boys in red ties are walking up the stairs to the granite obelisk that rises above the mass grave of the defenders of Stalingrad.

"One two Three!" - the honor guard of the pioneers is dispersed.

"One-two!" - they replace their comrades at the post.

The tongues of flame of the Eternal Flame curl upward.

The music sounds solemn.

Everyone standing at the mass grave in the square on the Square of the Fallen Fighters take off their hats ...

Vanya and grandfather are also filming.

People stand silently.

They honor the memory of those who gave their lives for the victory over the enemy, for the victory over Hitler's fascism.

Vanya raises his head and looks at his grandfather, at his tunic, at orders and medals.

- "For the defense of Stalingrad!" - whisper the boy's lips. - Here it is, a medal that grandfather cherishes so much! ..

Vanya looks at his grandfather, at the medal, at the pioneers standing on the guard of honor at the Eternal Flame, and thinks that he will grow up soon and become a pioneer, and will do a lot of good deeds in order to get the right to march in the guard of honor and take up the honor watch at monument to the heroes.

The Brest Fortress stands on the border. It was attacked by the Nazis on the very first day of the war.

Fascists could not take the Brest Fortress by storm. We walked around her to the left, to the right. She remained with the enemies in the rear.

The fascists are advancing. The battles are going on near Minsk, near Riga, near Lvov, near Lutsk. And there, in the rear of the Nazis, the Brest Fortress is fighting.

Difficult for the heroes. Bad with ammunition, bad with food, especially bad with water for the defenders of the fortress.

All around the water - the Bug river, the Mukhovets river, branches, channels. There is water all around, but there is no water in the fortress. Water under fire. A sip of water is dearer than life here.

Water! - rushes over the fortress.

There was a daredevil, rushed to the river. He rushed and immediately collapsed. The soldier was killed by the enemies. Time passed, another brave one rushed forward. And he died. The third replaced the second. The third was also dead.

A machine gunner lay not far from this place. I was scribbling, scribbling a machine gun, and suddenly the line was cut off. Machine gun overheated in battle. And the machine gun needs water.

The machine gunner looked - the water evaporated from the hot battle, the machine-gun cover was empty. I looked over to where the Bug is, where the ducts are. Looked to the left, to the right.

Eh, it was not.

He crawled to the water. He crawled on his bellies, clung to the ground like a snake. He is getting closer to the water, closer. Right next to it, just off the coast. The machine gunner grabbed his helmet. Scooped up, like a bucket, water. Again creeping back like a snake. Closer to our own, closer. That's right next to it. He was picked up by his friends.

Brought some water! Hero!

The soldiers are looking at the helmet, at the water. Eyes cloudy with thirst. They do not know that the machine gunner brought water for the machine gun. They are waiting, and suddenly a soldier will treat them - at least by the throat.

The machine-gunner looked at the soldiers, at his dry lips, at the heat in his eyes.

Come, - said the machine gunner.

The fighters stepped forward, but suddenly ...

Brothers, it would not be for us, but for the wounded, - someone's voice rang out.

The fighters stopped.

Of course, the wounded!

Right, take it to the basement!

Soldiers sent the soldier to the basement. He brought water to the basement where the wounded were lying.

Brothers, - he said, - voditsa ...

Get it, - he handed the soldier a mug.

The soldier was reaching for the water. I already took a mug, but suddenly:

No, not me, ”said the soldier. - Not for me. Bring the children, darling.

The fighter brought water to the children. And I must say that in the Brest Fortress, along with adult soldiers, there were also women and children - the wives and children of military personnel.

The soldier went down to the basement where the children were.

Come on, ”the fighter turned to the guys. - Come, stand, - and, like a magician, he takes out his helmet from behind.

The guys are watching - there is water in the helmet.

Children rushed to the water, to the soldier.

The soldier took a mug, carefully poured it on the bottom. Looks at who to give. He sees a kid with a pea next to him.

On, - held out to the kid.

The kid looked at the fighter, at the water.

To the folder, - said the kid. - He's there, he shoots.

Drink, drink, - the soldier smiled.

No, - the boy shook his head. - Folder. - I never drank a sip of water.

And others refused after him.

The fighter returned to his own. He talked about the children, about the wounded. He gave the helmet with water to the machine gunner.

The machine gunner looked at the water, then at the soldiers, at the soldiers, at his friends. He took the helmet and poured water into the metal casing. He came to life, earned, shot a machine gun.

The machine gunner covered the fighters with fire. Again there were daredevils. To the Bug, towards death, they crawled. The heroes returned with water. They gave the children and the wounded to drink.

The defenders of the Brest Fortress fought bravely. But there were fewer and fewer of them. Bombed them from the sky. The cannons were fired with direct fire. From flamethrowers.

Fascists are waiting - just about, and people will ask for mercy. Just about, a white flag will appear.

They waited, they waited - the flag was not visible. Nobody asks for mercy.

The battles for the fortress did not stop for thirty-two days “I am dying, but I am not giving up. Goodbye, Motherland! " - wrote on the wall with a bayonet one of its last defenders.

These were the words of goodbye. But it was also an oath. The soldiers kept their oath. They did not surrender to the enemy.

The country bowed to the heroes for this. And you freeze for a minute, reader. And you bow deeply to the heroes.

Feat at Dubosekov

In mid-November 1941, the Nazis resumed their offensive against Moscow. One of the main enemy tank attacks fell on the division of General Panfilov.

Departure Dubosekovo. 118th kilometer from Moscow. Field. Hills. Coppices. Lama twists a little further. Here, on a hill, in an open field, the heroes from the division of General Panfilov blocked the Nazis' path.

There were 28 of them. The fighters were headed by political instructor Klochkov.

The soldiers burst into the ground. We clung to the edges of the trenches.

Tanks rushed, motors hum. The soldiers counted:

Twenty pieces.

Klochkov chuckled:

Twenty tanks. So it turns out, less than one per person.

Less, - said Private Yemtsov.

Of course, less, - said Petrenko.

Field. Hills. Coppices. Lama twists a little further.

The heroes entered the battle.

Hooray! - echoed over the trenches.

It was the soldiers who hit the first tank.

"Hurray!" Is thundering again. It was the second who stumbled, snorted the engine, clanked the armor and froze. And again "hurray!" And again. Fourteen tanks out of twenty were knocked out by the heroes. They moved away, the surviving six crawled away.

He choked, you see, a robber, - said Sergeant Petrenko.

Eka, the tail is tucked in.

The soldiers rested. They see an avalanche coming again. They counted - thirty fascist tanks.

Political instructor Klochkov looked at the soldier. All froze. Quiet. Only an iron clang is heard. All the tanks are closer, closer.

Friends, - said Klochkov, - Russia is great, and there is nowhere to retreat. Behind Moscow.

The soldiers entered the battle. Fewer and fewer heroes are alive. Yemtsov and Petrenko fell. Bondarenko died. Trofimov died, Narsunbai Esebulatov was killed. Shopokov. Fewer and fewer soldiers and grenades.

Klochkov himself was wounded. I went up to meet the tank. Threw a grenade. A fascist tank was blown up. The joy of victory lit up Klochkov's face. And at the same second the bullet struck the hero. Political instructor Klochkov fell.

The Panfilov heroes fought steadfastly. They proved that there is no limit to courage. They did not let the fascists pass.

Departure Dubosekovo. Field. Hills. Coppices. A Lama is winding somewhere nearby. Departure Dubosekovo is an expensive, sacred place for every Russian heart.

House

Soviet troops advanced rapidly. A tank brigade of Major General Katukov was operating in one of the sectors of the front. The tankers were catching up with the enemy.
And suddenly a stop. A blown up bridge in front of the tanks. It happened on the way to Volokolamsk in the village of Novopetrovskoye. The tankers' engines were muffled. The fascists are leaving them before our very eyes. Someone fired at the fascist column from a cannon, only fired the shells in the wind.

Aufvederseen! Farewell! - the fascists shout.
- Ford, - someone suggested, - ford, comrade general, across the river.
General Katukov looked - the Maglusha river meanders. The banks are steep near Maglushi. Tanks do not climb steep slopes.
The general pondered.
Suddenly a woman appeared at the tanks. A boy with her.
“Better there, near our house, comrade commander,” she turned to Katukov. - There is a river already. The rise is gentler.

The tanks moved forward behind the woman. Here is a house in a hollow. Ascent from the river. The place is really better here. And yet ... The tankers are watching. General Katukov is watching. Tanks cannot pass here without a bridge.
“We need a bridge,” the tankers say. - Logs are needed.
“There are logs,” the woman replied.
The tankers looked around: where are the logs?
- Yes, here they are, here, - the woman says and points to her house.
- So after all the house! - burst out from the tankers.
The woman looked at the house, at the soldiers.
- Yes, that the house is a piece of wood. Either the people are losing ... Either to grieve about the house, - said the woman. - Really, Petya? - turned to the boy. Then again to the soldiers: - Disassemble it, dear ones.
The tankers do not dare to touch the house. The cold is in the yard. Winter is gathering strength. How can you be without a home at this time?
The woman understood:
- Yes, we are in the dugout somehow. - And again to the boy: - Really, Petya?
- True, maman, - Petya answered.
And yet the tankers are crumpled, standing.
Then the woman took the ax and went to the edge of the house. She hit the crown herself first.
“Well, thanks,” General Katukov said.
The tankers dismantled the house. They set up a crossing. They rushed after the fascists. Tanks are passing by the fresh bridge. A boy and a woman are waving their hands to them.

What is your name, dignity? - shouted the tankers. - Who should we remember with a kind word?
“Petenka and I are Kuznetsovs,” the woman replies, blushing.
- And by name, first name, patronymic?
- Alexandra Grigorievna, Pyotr Ivanovich.
- Low bow to you, Alexandra Grigorievna. Become a hero, Pyotr Ivanovich.
The tanks then caught up with the enemy column. They crushed the fascists. Then we went west.

The war has died down. She danced with death and misfortune. Her flashes died down. But the memory of human exploits did not erase. The feat at the Maglushi river is not forgotten either. Go to the village of Novopetrovskoe. In the same hollow, in the same place, a new house flaunts. The inscription on the house: "Alexandra Grigorievna and Peter Ivanovich Kuznetsov for the feat accomplished during the Great Patriotic War."
The Maglusha river meanders. There is a house above Maglusha. With a veranda, with a porch, in carved patterns. The windows look at the kind world.

Novo-Petrovskoe, the place of exploit of the Kuznetsov family. On December 17, 1941, they gave their house to the tankmen of the 1st Guards Tank Brigade for the construction of a bridge across the Maglusha River. Eleven-year-old Petya Kuznetsov led the tanks through a minefield, receiving a severe concussion. There is a memorial plaque on the Kuznetsovs' house.

Dovator

In the battles near Moscow, along with other troops, Cossacks also took part: Don, Kuban, Terek ...

Dashing, sparkling in battle Dovator. Okay sitting in the saddle. Kubanka hat on the head.

General Dovator is in command of the Cossack Cavalry Corps. The villagers are looking at the general:

Our blood - Cossack!

General Lev Mikhailovich Dovator

The fighters argue where he comes from:

From the Kuban!

It is Terskiy, Terskiy.

Ural Cossack, from the Urals.

Transbaikal, Daurian, consider a Cossack.

The Cossacks did not agree. We contacted the Dovator:

Comrade corps commander, tell me, what village are you from?

Dovator smiled:

You are not looking there, comrades. There is a village in the Belarusian forests.

And rightly so. Not a Cossack Dovator at all. He is Belarusian. In the village of Khotin, in the north of Belarus, not far from the city of Polotsk, this is where the corps commander Dovator was born.

Back in August - September, Dovator's equestrian group walked along the fascist rear areas. She smashed warehouses, headquarters, carts. Then the Nazis got it badly. Rumors spread among the fascist soldiers - 100 thousand Soviet horsemen broke through to the rear. But in fact, there were only 3000 people in Dovator's equestrian group.

When Soviet troops near Moscow went on the offensive, Dovator's Cossacks again broke through to the fascist rear.

Fascists are afraid of Soviet horsemen. Behind every bush they see a Cossack ...

Fascist generals appoint a reward for the capture of Dovator - 10 thousand German marks.

Like a thunderstorm, like spring thunder, is going along the fascist rear areas Dovator.

Throws the fascists into a shiver. Wake up, hearing the whistle of the wind.

Dovator! - they shout. - Dovator!

Hear the blow of hooves.

Dovator! Dovator!

The fascists are raising the price. They appoint 50 thousand marks for Dovator. Like a dream, a myth for enemies Dovator.

Dovator is riding a horse. The legend follows him.

Fortress

The fascists cannot take Stalingrad. They began to assert that Stalingrad was an impregnable fortress: they say, impenetrable ditches surround the city, they say, ramparts and embankments have risen around Stalingrad. Every step is powerful defensive structures and fortifications, various engineering tricks and traps.

The Nazis do not call city quarters quarters, they write - fortified areas. They do not call houses houses, they write - forts and bastions.

Stalingrad is a fortress, the fascists say.

German soldiers and officers write about this in letters to their homes. They read letters in Germany.

Stalingrad is a fortress, a fortress - they are trumpeting in Germany.

Generals scribble reports. Each line is the same:

“Stalingrad is a fortress. An impregnable fortress. Continuous fortified areas. Insurmountable bastions ”.

Fascist newspapers publish articles. And these articles are all about the same:

"Our soldiers are storming the fortress."

"Stalingrad is the strongest fortress in Russia."

"Fortress, fortress!" - the newspapers shout. Even front-line leaflets write about it.

And Stalingrad was never a fortress. There are no special fortifications in it. The city is like a city. Houses, factories.

One of the Nazi leaflets got to the Soviet soldiers. The soldiers laughed: "Yeah, the Nazis do not write this because of an easy life." Then they carried it, showed the leaflet to a member of the Military Council of the 62nd Army, divisional commissar Kuzma Akimovich Gurov; they say, look, comrade commissar, what fables the fascists are writing.

The commissioner read the leaflet.

Everything is correct, ”he said to the soldiers. - The fascists write the truth. But what about the fortress, of course.

The soldiers were embarrassed. Maybe so. The bosses always know better.

A fortress, ”Gurov repeated. - Of course, a fortress.

The soldiers looked at each other. You will not argue with the authorities!

Gurov smiled.

Your hearts and your courage - here it is, an impregnable fortress, here they are, irresistible borders and fortified areas, walls and bastions.

The soldiers also smiled. The Commissioner said understandably. It's nice to listen to that.

Kuzma Akimovich Gurov is right. About the courage of Soviet soldiers - these are the walls that the Nazis broke their necks against in Stalingrad.

Twelve poplars

There were stubborn battles in the Kuban. Once the commander of one of the regiments visited a rifle squad. Twelve fighters in the squad. The soldiers froze in the ranks. They stand in a row, one to one.

Introduced to the commander:

Private Grigoryan.

Private Grigoryan.

Private Grigoryan.

Private Grigoryan.

The regiment commander is amazed at what it is. The soldiers continue their report:

Private Grigoryan.

Private Grigoryan.

Private Grigoryan.

The regiment commander does not know what to do - are they joking, perhaps, there are soldiers above him?

Set aside, - said the regiment commander.

Seven fighters introduced themselves. Five are unnamed. The company commander bent down to the regiment commander, pointed to the others, and said quietly:

All Grigoryans too.

Now the regiment commander looked in surprise at the company commander - was the company commander joking?

All Grigoryans. All twelve, ”said the company commander.

Indeed, all twelve people in the squad were Grigoryans.

Same names?

Twelve Grigoryans, from the elder Barseg Grigoryan to the younger Aghasi Grigoryan, were relatives, members of the same family. Together they went to the front. Together they fought, together they defended their native Caucasus.

One of the battles for the Grigoryanov squad was especially difficult. The soldiers kept an important line. And suddenly an attack by fascist tanks. People converged on metal. Tanks and Grigoryans.

They climbed, climbed, tore apart the tanks with howling. They threw fire without counting. The Grigoryans survived the battle. We held the line before the arrival of ours.

Victory comes at a heavy cost. There is no war without death. There is no battle without death. Six Grigoryans in that terrible battle with the Nazis dropped out of the squad.

It was twelve, six left. Brave warriors continued to fight. They drove the fascists from the Caucasus, from the Kuban. Then they liberated the fields of Ukraine. Soldier's honor and family honor were brought to Berlin.

There is no war without death. There is no battle without death. Three died in battle. Bullets cut the lives of two. Only the youngest Aghasi Grigoryan returned from the battlefields unharmed.

Twelve poplars have been planted in their hometown of Leninakan in memory of a brave family and heroic warriors.

Poplars have grown now. From meter-long seedlings they became giants. They stand in a row, one to one, like soldiers in a formation - a whole squad.

Soldier Zhelobkovich walked with everyone. A soldier is walking along the Belarusian land, along the fatherland. Closer and closer to home. His village is Khatyn.

A soldier is marching towards his comrades in battle in the company:

Don't know Khatyn? Khatyn, brother, a forest miracle!

And the soldier begins the story. The village stands in a clearing, on a hillock. The forest parted here, gave free rein to the sun. Like, thirty houses in Khatyn. Houses scattered across the clearing. The wells slid into the ground. The road rushed into the spruce. And where the road pressed against the forest, where the fir trees rested their trunks into the sky, on the very hillock, on the highest edge of Khatyn, he lives - Ivan Zhelobkovich.

And Zhelobkovich lives opposite. And Zhelobkovich lives on the left. And Zhelobkovich lives on the right. They, Zhelobkovich, in this Khatyn, as they say, are at least a dime a dozen.

The warrior was walking towards his Khatyn.

House remembered. Those who stayed in the house. He left his wife. Old woman's mother, three-year-old daughter Marishka. A soldier is walking, Marishka is carrying a gift - a ribbon in her pigtail, a ribbon as red as fire.

Troops are marching fast. Soon the warrior will see the old woman's mother. The mother will embrace the old woman. The soldier will say:

Soon the soldier will see his wife. The soldier will kiss his wife. The soldier will say:

He will take Marishka in his arms. Will throw the soldier Marishka. He will also tell her:

The soldier will take out a present:

Come on, Marishka!

The warrior was walking towards his Khatyn. I thought about friends and neighbors. Soon he will see all Zhelobkovichi. Will see the Yatskevichs, Rudakovs, Mironovichs. The soldier of Khatyn will smile. The soldier will say:

They went out to Khatyn. Nearby, a kilometer from these places.

Soldier to the commander. Like, there is a village nearby. Here, they say, is a ravine, behind the ravine there is a small forest. Passed the little forest, and here is Khatyn. The company commander listened.

Well, - he said, - go.

A soldier is marching towards Khatyn. Here is the ravine. Here is the little forest. The huts are about to appear now. Now he will see his mother. Now he will hug his wife. Mariska will be given a gift. Will throw Marishka to the sun.

He went through the woods. I went out to the clearing. He went out and froze. He looks, does not believe - Khatyn is not in his place. Only burnt pipes stick out on the ashes.

A soldier stopped, shouted:

Where are people?! Where are people?!

People died in Khatyn. Adults, children, old women - everything. The fascists came here:

Partisans! Bandits! Forest robbers!

The Nazis drove the inhabitants into the barn. They burned all the people in the barn.

A soldier ran up to his father's house. Collapsed to ash. The soldier sobbed and groaned. The gift flew off, fell out of the hands. The ribbon fluttered, beat from the wind. Soared into a red flame above the ground.

Khatyn is not alone. There were many such Khatyns on the Belarusian land.

Sea to the right, mountains to the left

The Far Soviet North. Kola Peninsula. Barencevo sea. Arctic Circle.

And here, beyond the Arctic Circle, there are battles. The Karelian Front is beating.

You will turn here to face the front - the mountains on the left, the sea on the right. There, further, behind the front line, lies the state of Norway. The Nazis captured the country of Norway.

In 1941, the Nazis broke into the Soviet Arctic. They tried to capture the city of Murmansk, our northernmost seaport.

Our troops did not allow the Nazis to reach Murmansk. Murmansk is not only the northernmost port, it is an ice-free port in the north. Ships can come here all year round, both in summer and in winter. Important military supplies came to us through Murmansk by sea. That is why Murmansk is so important for the Nazis. The fascists were torn, but did not break through. Our heroes kept Murmansk. And now the time has come to defeat the fascists here too.

The places here for battle are extremely difficult. The mountains. Cliffs. Rocks. Chilling winds. The sea is always knocking on the shore. There are many places here where only a deer will pass.

It was autumn. It was the month of October. The long polar night is about to come.

Preparing to defeat the enemies in the north, the commander of the Karelian Front, General of the Army Kirill Afanasyevich Meretskov, turned to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command in Moscow with a request to provide KV tanks for the front. Their armor is thick, durable, powerful weapons. KB - good tanks. However, by this time they were outdated.

General Meretskov asks at KB Headquarters, and they tell him:

Why KV. We will highlight more advanced tanks for you.

No, please KB, - says Meretskov.

Were surprised at the Headquarters:

Why is KB in the North? There, in many places, only a deer will pass.

Where the deer passes, Soviet tanks will also pass, ”Meretskov replies. - Please CV.

Well, look - you are the commander! - said the Headquarters.

The front received these tanks.

The Nazis did not import tanks or heavy weapons to the Far North.

“Mountains, cliffs, rocks. Where to mess with heavy tanks here, ”they reasoned.

And suddenly Soviet tanks appeared, besides the KV.

Tanks ?! - the fascists are perplexed. - KB? What! How? Why? Where from ?! After all, only the deer will pass!

Send Soviet tanks to the Nazis.

On October 7, 1941, the Soviet offensive in the Far North began. Our troops quickly broke through the fascist defenses. We broke through, went ahead.

Of course, not only tanks played a major role here. The attack came from land. The attack came from the sea. On the left is the infantry, on the right was the Northern Fleet. Soviet pilots were beating from the air. In the general row, sailors, infantrymen, tankers, and aviators fought here. The victory was common.

The year 1944 ended with the battles for the liberation of the Soviet Arctic - a battle and decisive one. 1945 was approaching, a victorious year.

The last meters of the war counts

The storming of the Reichstag began. Together with everyone in the attack Gerasim Lykov.

A soldier never dreamed of such a thing. He is in Berlin. He's at the Reichstag. The soldier looks at the building. Columns, columns, columns. A glass dome crowns the top.

Soldiers broke through with a fight. In the last attacks, in the last battles, the soldiers. The war is counting the last meters.

Gerasim Lykov was born in a shirt. Since the 41st he has been at war. He knew the retreats, he knew the surroundings, he went forward for two years. The fate of the soldier kept.

I'm lucky, the soldier joked. “A bullet has not been cast for me in this war. The shell is not machined for me.

And it is true, they were not touched by the fate of the soldiers.

Wife and parents are waiting for a soldier in a distant Russian land. The soldier's children are waiting.

They are waiting for the winner. Are waiting!

In the attack, in a fit of dashing soldiers. The war is counting the last meters. The soldier does not hide his joy. The soldier is looking at the Reichstag, at the building. Columns, columns, columns. A glass dome crowns the top.

The last clamor of the war.

Forward! Hooray! - shouts the commander.

Hurray-ah-ah! - Lykov repeats.

And suddenly a shell struck next to the soldier. He raised the earth with the ninth wave. She shot down a soldier. Soldiers covered with earth.

Who saw only gasped:

This is how the bullet was not cast for him.

This is how the shell is not machined.

Everyone in Lykov's company knows - an excellent comrade, an exemplary soldier.

He should live and live. I would return to my wife, to my parents. Children are happy to kiss.

And suddenly the shell struck again. Near the first place. A bit completely out of the way. This one also pulled with great force. He raised the earth with the ninth shaft.

The soldiers are looking - they do not believe their eyes.

The soldier was alive. I fell asleep - I dumped his shell. After all, fate happens. To know, indeed, a bullet has not been cast for him. The shell is not machined for him.

Victory Banner

- Sergeant Egorov!

I, Sergeant Yegorov.

Junior Sergeant Kantaria.

I am Junior Sergeant Kantaria.

The commander summoned the fighters. Soviet soldiers were entrusted with an honorable assignment. They were presented with a battle banner. This banner was to be installed on the Reichstag building.

The fighters are gone. Many looked after them with envy. Everyone now wanted to be in their place.

There is a battle at the Reichstag.

Bending down, Egorov and Kantaria run across the square. Soviet soldiers are closely watching their every step. Suddenly the Nazis opened a furious fire, and the standard-bearers had to lie down for cover. Then our soldiers begin to attack again. Egorov and Kantaria run on.

Now they are on the stairs. We ran to the columns supporting the entrance to the building. Kantaria gives Yegorov a seat, and he tries to attach a banner at the entrance to the Reichstag.

"Oh, it would be higher!" - breaks out from the fighters. And, as if hearing their comrades, Yegorov and Kantaria take off the banner and run on. They burst into the Reichstag and disappear behind its doors.

The battle is already underway on the second floor. Several minutes pass, and in one of the windows, not far from the central entrance, the Red Banner reappears. Appeared. Swung. And disappeared again.

The soldiers were worried. What about the comrades? Aren't they killed ?!

A minute passes, two, ten. More and more anxiety grips the soldiers. Another thirty minutes pass.

And suddenly a cry of joy breaks out from hundreds of soldiers. Friends are alive. The banner is intact. Bending down, they run at the very top of the building - along the roof. So they straightened up to their full height, holding the banner in their hands and waving to their comrades. Then they suddenly rush to the glazed dome, which rises above the roof of the Reichstag, and carefully begin to climb even higher.

Fighting was still going on in the square and in the building, and on the roof of the Reichstag, at the very top, in the spring sky over the defeated Berlin, the Victory Banner was already confidently fluttering. Two Soviet soldiers, the Russian worker Mikhail Yegorov and the Georgian youth Militon Kantaria, and together with them thousands of other fighters of different nationalities through the war, brought him here, to the most fascist den, and set him in fear of enemies, as a symbol of the invincibility of Soviet weapons.

Several days passed, and the fascist generals declared themselves finally defeated. Hitlerite Germany was completely defeated. The great liberation war of the Soviet people against fascism ended in our complete victory.

It was May 1945. Spring thundered. People and the land rejoiced. Moscow saluted the heroes. And joy soared into the sky like lights.

Part 1

Nikolay Baryakin, 1945

THE START OF THE WAR

I worked as an accountant in the Pelegovsky forestry of the Yuryevetsky forestry enterprise. On June 21, 1941, I arrived at my father's home in Nezhitino, and the next morning, having turned on the detector receiver, I heard the terrible news: Nazi Germany attacked us.

This terrible news quickly spread throughout the village. The war began.

I was born on December 30, 1922, and since I was not even 19 years old, my parents and I felt that they would not take me to the front. But already on August 11, 1941, I was drafted into the army using a special kit, and with a group of Yurievites I was sent to the Lvov military machine-gun and mortar officer school, which by that time had relocated to the city of Kirov.

After graduating from college in May 1942, I received the rank of lieutenant and was sent to the active army on the Kalinin front in the area of ​​Rzhev in the Third Rifle Division of the 399th Rifle Regiment.

After the defeat of the Germans near Moscow, fierce defensive and offensive battles were fought here from May to September 1942. The Germans on the left bank of the Volga built a multi-echeloned defense with the installation of long-range guns. One of the batteries, codenamed "Berta", was stationed in the area of ​​the Semashko holiday home, and it was here that at the end of May 1942 we launched an offensive.

NINE ROTA COMMANDER

I had a platoon of 82mm mortars under my command, and we covered our rifle companies with fire.

One day the Germans launched an attack, throwing tanks and a large number of bombers at us. Our company took up a firing position in the immediate vicinity of the infantry trenches and conducted continuous fire on the Germans.

The fight was hot. One crew was incapacitated; the company commander, Captain Viktorov, was seriously wounded and he ordered me to take command of the company myself.

So for the first time in difficult combat conditions, I became the commander of a unit, in which there were 12 combat crews, a service platoon, 18 horses and 124 soldiers, sergeants and officers. It was a great test for me, because at that time I was only 19 years old.

In one of the battles I received a shrapnel wound in my right leg. I had to stay for eight days in the regiment's sanroth, but the wound healed quickly, and I again accepted the company. From the explosion of the shell I was lightly concussed, and my head ached for a long time, and sometimes there was a hellish ringing in my ears.

In September 1942, after reaching the bank of the Volga, our unit was withdrawn from the battle zone for reorganization.

A short rest, replenishment, preparation, and we were again thrown into battle - but on a different front. Our division was included in the Steppe Front and now we were advancing with battles in the Kharkov direction.

In December 1942, I was early promoted to the rank of senior lieutenant, and I was officially appointed deputy commander of a mortar company.

We liberated Kharkov and came close to Poltava. Here the company commander, Senior Lieutenant Lukin, was wounded, and I again assumed command of the company.

WOUNDED SANITARY

In one of the battles for a small settlement, our company nurse Sasha Zaitseva was wounded in the abdomen. When we ran up to her with one platoon commander, she took out a pistol and shouted that we should not approach her. A young girl, even in moments of mortal danger she retained a sense of girlish shame and did not want us to bare her for dressing. But choosing the moment, we took the gun away from her, bandaged her and sent her to the medical battalion.

Three years later, I met her again: she married an officer. In a friendly conversation, we recalled this incident, and she seriously said that if we had not taken away her weapon, she could have shot both of us. But then she cordially thanked me for saving me.

A SHIELD OF PEACEFULS

On the outskirts of Poltava, we occupied the village of Karpovka with battles. We dug in, set up mortars, fired in a fan, and sat down to dinner right at the command post in the late afternoon silence.

Suddenly, a noise was heard from the direction of the German positions, and the observers reported that a crowd of people was moving towards the village. It was already dark and a man's voice came from the darkness:

Brothers, the Germans are behind us, shoot, do not regret!

I immediately gave the command over the phone to the firing position:

Obstacle fire no. 3.5 min, quick, fire!

A moment later, a barrage of mortar fire fell on the Germans. Scream, moan; return fire shook the air. The battery made two more fire raids, and everything was quiet. All night until dawn we stood in full combat readiness.

In the morning we learned from the surviving Russian citizens that the Germans, having gathered the inhabitants of nearby farmsteads, forced them to move to the village in a crowd, and themselves followed them, hoping that in this way they would be able to capture Karpovka. But they miscalculated.

ATROCITY

In the winter of 1942-43. we liberated Kharkov for the first time and successfully moved further west. The Germans retreated in panic, but retreating, they did their terrible deeds. When we occupied the Bolshiye Maidany farm, it turned out that not a single person was left in it.

The Nazis literally in every house ransacked heating devices, knocked out doors and windows, and set some houses on fire. In the middle of the farm they laid an old man, a woman and a child girl on top of each other and pierced them all with a metal crowbar.

The rest of the inhabitants were burnt behind the farm in a stack of straw.

We were exhausted by the long day's march, but when we saw these terrible pictures, no one wanted to stop, and the regiment moved on. The Germans did not expect this and at night, taken by surprise, paid for the Big Maidans.

And now, as if alive, Katina stands in front of me: early in the morning the frozen corpses of the Nazis were piled up in piles on carts and taken to a pit to permanently remove this evil from the face of the earth.

SURROUNDING UNDER KHARKOV

So, fighting, liberating farm after farm, we deeply invaded the Ukrainian land with a narrow wedge and approached Poltava.

But the fascists recovered somewhat and, having concentrated large forces in this sector of the front, launched a counteroffensive. They cut off the rear and surrounded the Third Panzer Army, our division and a number of other formations. A serious environmental threat has arisen. An order was given to Stalin to leave the encirclement, help was sent, but the planned withdrawal did not work.

An infantry group of twelve men and I were cut off from the regiment of the fascist motor-column. Hiding in a railway booth, we took up a perimeter defense. The Nazis, firing a machine-gun burst at the booth, slipped further, and we orientated ourselves on the map and decided to cross the Zmiev-Kharkov highway and go through the forest to Zmiev.

The cars of the fascists were walking along the road in an endless stream. When it got dark, we seized the moment and, holding hands, ran across the road and found ourselves in the saving forest. For seven days we dodged through the forest, at night in search of food we entered settlements, and finally got to the city of Zmiev, where the defensive line of the 25th rifle guards division was located.

Our division was stationed in Kharkov, and the next day I was in the arms of my fighting friends. My orderly Yakovlev from Yaroslavl handed me letters that came from home and said that he had sent a notice to my family that I had died in the battles for the Motherland in the Poltava region.

This news, as I later learned, was a heavy blow to my loved ones. Besides, not long before that, my mother had died. I learned about her death from the letters that Yakovlev gave me.

SOLDIER FROM ALMA-ATA

Our division was withdrawn to reorganize to the area of ​​the village of Bolsheteritsky, Belgorodsky district.

Again preparation for battle, exercises and the adoption of a new replenishment.

I remember a case that later played a big role in my life:

A soldier from Alma-Ata was sent to my company. After practicing for several days in the platoon where he was assigned, this soldier asked the commander to allow him to talk to me.

And so we met. A literate, cultured man in pince-nez, dressed in a soldier's greatcoat and boots with windings, he looked somehow pitiful, helpless. Apologizing for the disturbance, he asked to listen to him.

He said that he worked in Alma-Ata as a chief physician, but had a fight with the regional military commissar, and he was sent to a marching company. The soldier swore that he would be more useful if he fulfilled the duties of at least a medical instructor.

He did not have any documents in support of what was said.

You still need to prepare for the coming battles, ”I told him. - Learn to dig in and shoot, and get used to frontline life. And I will report you to the regiment commander.

During one of my reconnaissance, I told this story to the regiment commander, and a few days later the soldier was dispatched from the company. Looking ahead, I will say that he really turned out to be a good medical specialist. He received the rank of military doctor and was appointed chief of the medical battalion of our division. But I learned about all this much later.

KURSK ARC

In July 1943, the great battle began on the Oryol-Kursk Bulge. Our division was put into action when, having exhausted the Germans on the defensive lines, the entire front went over to the offensive.

On the very first day, with the support of tanks, aviation and artillery, we advanced 12 kilometers and reached the Seversky Donets, immediately crossed it and broke into Belgorod.

Everything was confused in a pitch roar, in smoke, the grinding of tanks and the screams of the wounded. The company, having changed one firing position and firing a volley, removed, took up a new position, again fired a volley and again moved forward. The Germans suffered heavy losses: we captured trophies, guns, tanks, prisoners.

But we also lost comrades in arms. In one of the battles, the platoon commander from our company, Lieutenant Alyoshin, was killed: we buried him with honors on the Belgorod land. And for a long time, for more than two years, I corresponded with Alyoshin's sister, who loved him very much. She wanted to know everything about this nice guy.

A lot of soldiers were left forever lying on this earth. Even a lot. But the living moved on.

RELEASE OF KHARKOV

On August 5, 1943, we entered Kharkov again, but now for good. In honor of this great victory, victorious salutes were thundered in Moscow for the first time in the entire war.

On our sector of the front, the Germans, hastily retreating to the area of ​​the city of Merefa, finally managed to organize a defense and halt the offensive of the Soviet army. They took advantageous positions, all the heights and former military barracks, dug in well, set up a large number of firing points and unleashed a flurry of fire on our units.

We also took up defensive positions. The firing positions of the company were chosen very well: the command post was located at the glass factory and was moved directly into the trenches of the rifle company. A battery of mortars began to fire aimed fire at the entrenched Germans. From the observation post, the entire front edge of the Germans' defenses could be seen, so that I could see every exploding mine, which lay exactly along the trenches, at a glance.

For more than four days, stubborn battles for Merefa went on. Hundreds of mines were fired on the heads of the fascists and, finally, the enemy could not withstand our onslaught. In the morning, Merefa was handed over.

Twelve people died in my company in the battles for this city. Right next to me, at the observation post, my orderly Sofronov, a Penza collective farmer, was killed - a sincere person, the father of three children. While dying, he asked me to report his death to his wife and children. I sacredly fulfilled his request.

For participation in the battles on the Kursk Bulge, many soldiers and officers were awarded orders and medals of the Soviet Union. Our division also received many awards. For the liberation of Kharkov and for the battles on the Kursk Bulge, I was awarded the Order of the Red Star and received three times personal congratulations from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Comrade Stalin I.V.

In August 1943, I was awarded the next rank of captain ahead of schedule, and in the same month I was admitted to the ranks of the Communist Party. The party card, medal and shoulder straps of ceremonial uniform were presented to me by the deputy commander of the division at the firing position of the battery.

FAITHFUL HORSE

After the end of the Battle of Kursk, our Third Rifle Division, as part of the Second Ukrainian Front, fought for the liberation of Ukraine.

On that day, the regiment was on the march, the front troops were regrouping. Having dispersed in port, we, observing camouflage, moved along country roads. As part of the first rifle battalion, our ministry moved last, followed by the battalion headquarters and the service unit. And when we entered a narrow hollow of a small rivulet, we were unexpectedly fired upon from armored vehicles by the Germans.

I rode astride a beautiful gray, very intelligent horse, which did not save me from any deaths. And suddenly a sharp blow! A bullet from a large-caliber machine gun pierced right next to my foot at the stirrup. Mishka's horse shuddered, then reared up and fell on its left side. I just managed to get off the saddle and hid behind Mishka's body. He groaned and it was over.

The second machine-gun burst once again hit the poor animal, but Mishka was already dead - and he, dead, again saved my life.

The subdivisions accepted the order of battle, opened aimed fire, and the group of fascists was destroyed. Three transporters were taken as trophies, sixteen Germans were captured.

POLICE

At the end of the day we occupied a small farm located in a very picturesque place. It was time for a golden autumn.

They quartered the people, placed mortar carts on alert, set up sentries, and the three of us, my deputy A.S. Kotov and the orderly (I don't remember his last name) went to one of the houses to rest.

The owners, an old man with an old woman and two young women, greeted us very warmly. Having rejected our army rations, they brought us all sorts of food for dinner: expensive German wine, moonshine, fruit.

Together with them we started eating, but at some point one of the women told Kotov that the owner's son, a policeman, was hiding in the house, and that he was armed.

Captain, let's have a smoke, - Kotov called me, took my arm and led me out into the street.

A sentry stood quietly by the porch. Kotov hastily told me what the young woman had told him. We warned the sentry and told him to watch that no one left the house. They raised a platoon on alarm, cordoned off the house, searched and found this villain in a chest, which I sat on several times.

He was a man of 35-40 years old, healthy, well-groomed, in German uniform, with a Parabellum pistol and a German machine gun. We arrested him and sent him under escort to the headquarters of the regiment.

It turned out that the German headquarters were quartered in the house of this family, and all of them, except for the woman who warned us, worked for the Germans. And she was the wife of her second son, who fought in the units of the Soviet troops. The Germans did not touch her, because the old men passed her off as their daughter, not as their son's daughter-in-law. And that his son was alive and fighting against the Germans, only his wife knew. His parents considered him dead, tk. back in 1942 they received a "funeral". Many valuable fascist documents were confiscated in the attic and in the shed.

Were it not for this noble woman, tragedy could have happened to us that night.

ALEXANDER KOTOV

One evening, during a halt, a group of soldiers dragged three Germans: an officer and two soldiers. Kotov and I began to ask them what part they were from, who they were. And before they knew it, the officer took a pistol out of his pocket and fired point-blank at Kotorva. I knocked the pistol out of him with a sharp movement, but it was too late.

Alexander Semyonovich got up, somehow calmly took out his inseparable "TT" and shot everyone himself. The pistol fell out of his hands and Sasha was gone.

He still stands in front of me as if he were alive - always cheerful, smart, modest, my deputy for political affairs, my comrade, with whom I spent more than a year on the fields of war.

Once we were on the march and, as always, rode with him on horseback in front of the column. The population greeted us with joy. All who survived ran out into the streets and looked for their relatives and friends among the soldiers.

One woman suddenly looked intently at Kotov, waved her arms and shouted "Sasha, Sasha!" rushed to his horse. We stopped, dismounted, stepped aside, letting a column of soldiers pass.

She hung on his neck, kissed, hugged, cried, and he carefully removed her: "You must have been mistaken." The woman recoiled and sank to the ground with a cry.

Yes, she really was wrong. But when she saw us off, she insisted that he was "exactly like my Sasha" ...

In difficult moments, in hours of rest, he was very fond of humming a cheerful old melody: "You, Semyonovna, the grass is green ..." And suddenly, because of some absurdity, this dear person died. Damn those three German prisoners!

Senior Lieutenant Alexander Semyonovich Kotov was buried on Ukrainian soil under a small grave mound - without a monument, without rituals. Who knows, maybe now bread is green in this place or a birch grove is growing.

MENTAL ATTACK

Moving with battles almost strictly to the south, our division reached the German fortifications in the Magdalinovka area and took up defensive positions. After the battles on the Kursk Bulge, in the battles for Karpovka and other settlements, our units were weakened, there were not enough soldiers in the companies, and in general the troops felt tired. Therefore, we perceived defensive battles as a respite.

The soldiers dug in, set up firing points and, as always, zeroed in on the most likely approaches.

But we only had to rest for three days. On the fourth day, early in the morning, when the sun rose, the German infantry moved in an avalanche directly to our positions. They walked to the beat of the drum and did not shoot; they had neither tanks, nor aircraft, nor even conventional artillery barrage.

At a marching pace, in green uniforms, with rifles at the ready, they marched in chains under the command of officers. It was a psychic attack.

The defense of the farm was occupied by one incomplete battalion, and in the first minutes we were even somewhat confused. But the command "For battle" sounded and everyone got ready.

As soon as the first ranks of the Germans approached the place we had shot, the battery opened fire from all the mortars. The mines landed exactly on the attackers, but they continued to move in our direction.

But then a miracle happened, which no one expected. Several of our tanks opened fire from behind the houses, which approached at dawn, and which we did not even know about.

Under mortar, artillery and machine-gun fire, the psychic attack was drowned out. We shot almost all the Germans, only a few of the wounded were then picked up by our rear detachments. And we went forward again.

FORCING THE DNEPR

Moving in the second echelon of the 49th Army, our division immediately crossed the Dnieper west of Dnepropetrovsk. Having approached the left bank, we took up a temporary defense, let the shock groups through, and when the advanced troops were entrenched on the right bank, our crossing was also organized.

The Germans continually counterattacked us and rained down on our heads merciless artillery fire and aerial bombs, but nothing could deter our troops. And although many soldiers and officers are forever buried in the Dnieper sands, we reached the pro-coastal Ukraine.

Immediately after crossing the Dnieper, the division turned sharply to the west and fought in the direction of the town of Pyatikhatka. We liberated one settlement after another. The Ukrainians greeted us with joy and tried to help.

Although many did not even believe that it was their liberators who had come. The Germans convinced them that the Russian troops were defeated, that an army of foreigners in uniform was marching in order to destroy them all - therefore, indeed, many took us for strangers.

But these were some minutes. Soon all the nonsense dissipated, and our children were hugged, kissed, rocked, and what these glorious long-suffering people could treat them with.

After standing in Pyatikhatki for several days and having received the necessary replenishment, weapons and ammunition, we again started offensive battles. Our task was to capture the city of Kirovograd. In one of the battles, the battalion commander of the First Battalion was killed; I was at his command post and by order of the regiment commander was appointed to replace the deceased.

Having summoned the chief of staff of the battalion to the command post, he conveyed through him the order to accept the ministry by Lieutenant Zverev, and gave the order to the rifle companies to move forward.

After several stubborn battles, our units liberated Zheltye Vody, Spasovo and Adjashka and reached the approaches to Kirovograd.

Now the mine company was moving at the junction of the 1st and 2nd rifle battalions, supporting us with mortar fire.

KATYUSHI

On November 26, 1943, I gave the order to the battalion to conduct an offensive along the Ajamka-Kirovograd highway, placing the companies on a ledge to the right. The first and third companies advanced in the first line, while the second company followed the third company at a distance of 500 meters. At the junction between the second and our battalion, two mortar companies were moving.

By the end of the day on November 26, we had occupied the commanding heights, spread out in the corn field, and immediately began to dig in. Telephone communication was established with the companies, the regiment commander and neighbors. And although it was dusk, it was restless at the front. It was felt that the Germans were conducting some kind of regrouping and that something was being prepared on their part.

The front line was continuously illuminated by rockets, tracer bullets were firing. And from the side of the Germans, the noise of engines was heard, and sometimes the screams of people.

Intelligence soon confirmed that the Germans were preparing for a major counteroffensive. Many new units arrived with heavy tanks and SPGs.

At about three in the morning the commander of the 49th Army called me, congratulated on the victory achieved and also warned that the Germans were preparing for battle. Having specified the coordinates of our location, the general very much asked to hold fast in order to prevent the Germans from crushing our troops. He said that on the 27th by lunchtime fresh troops would be brought in, and in the morning, if necessary, a volley from the Katyusha would be fired.

The head of the artillery regiment, Captain Gasman, immediately contacted. Since we were good friends with him, he simply asked: "Well, how many" cucumbers "and where are you, my friend, to throw?" I realized that they were talking about 120mm mines. I gave Gasman two directions in which to fire throughout the night. Which he did it regularly.

Just before dawn, there was absolute silence along the entire front,

The morning of November 27 was cloudy, foggy and cold, but soon the sun came out and the fog began to dissipate. In the haze of dawn, German tanks, self-propelled guns and figures of running soldiers appeared like ghosts in front of our positions. The Germans went on the offensive.

Everything was shaken in an instant. A machine gun went off, guns rumbled, rifle shots slammed. We brought down an avalanche of fire on the Fritzes. Not counting on such a meeting, tanks and self-propelled guns began to retreat, and the infantry lay down.

I reported the situation to the regiment commander and asked for urgent help. believed that the Germans would soon go on the attack again.

Indeed, a few minutes later the tanks, picking up speed, opened targeted machine-gun and artillery fire along the line of shooters. The infantry again rushed after the tanks. And at that moment, from behind the edge of the forest, there was a long-awaited salvage volley of "Katyushas", and seconds later - the roar of exploding shells.

What a miracle these Katyushas are! I saw their first volley back in May 1942 in the Rzhev area: there they fired with thermite shells. A whole sea of ​​solid fire on a huge square and nothing alive - that's what a "Katyusha" is.

Now the shells were fragmentation. They were torn apart in a strict checkerboard pattern, and where the blow was directed, rarely anyone survived.

Today the Katyusha hit the target. One tank caught fire, and the remaining soldiers rushed back in panic. But at that time on the right side, two hundred meters from the observation post, a Tiger tank appeared. Noticing us, he fired a volley from a cannon. Machine-gun fire - and the telegraph operator, my orderly and the messenger were killed. My ears rang, I threw myself out of my trench, reached for the telephone tube and, suddenly receiving a hot blow in the back, helplessly sank into my hole.

Something warm and pleasant began to spill over my body, two words flashed through my head: “That's it, the end,” and I lost consciousness.

WOUND

I woke up in a hospital bed with an elderly woman sitting next to it. The whole body ached, objects seemed vague, there was severe pain in the left side, the left hand was lifeless. The old woman brought something warm, sweet to my lips, and with great effort I took a sip, and then plunged into oblivion again.

A few days later, I learned the following: our units, having received new reinforcements, which the general had told me about, drove the Germans back, captured the outskirts of Kirovograd and established themselves here.

Late in the evening I was accidentally discovered by the orderlies of the regiment and, together with other wounded, were taken to the division's medical battalion.

The head of the medical battalion (an Alma-Ata soldier whom I once saved from a mortar plate) recognized me and immediately transported me to his apartment. He did his best to save my life.

It turned out that the bullet, having passed a few millimeters from the heart and shattered the shoulder blade of the left hand, flew out. The wound was over twenty centimeters long and I lost over forty percent of my blood.

For about two weeks my Alma-Ata man and the old lady-hostess took care of me around the clock. When I got a little stronger, they sent me to the Znamenka station and handed me over to the ambulance train, which was being formed here. The war on the Western Front was over for me.

The ambulance train, which I got into, was heading east. We drove through Kirov, Sverdlovsk, Tyumen, Novosibirsk, Kemerovo and finally arrived in the city of Stalinsk (Novokuznetsk). The train was on the way for almost a month. Many of the wounded died on the way, many were operated on on the way, some recovered and returned to duty.

They carried me out of the train on a stretcher and took me to the hospital by ambulance. The agonizing long months of bed life dragged on.

Soon after arriving at the hospital, I underwent an operation (cleaning the wound), but even after that I could neither turn around, let alone get up, or even sit down.

But I began to recover and after five months I was sent to a military sanatorium located near Novosibirsk on the picturesque bank of the Ob. A month spent here gave me the opportunity to finally recover my health.

I dreamed of returning to my unit, which, after the liberation of the Romanian city of Iasi, was already called Yassko-Kishinevskaya, but everything turned out differently.

HIGHER EDUCATIONAL COURSES

After the sanatorium I was sent to Novosibirsk, and from there - to the city of Kuibyshev, Novosibirsk Region, to the training regiment of the deputy commander of the training mortar battalion, where the sergeant staff for the front was trained.

In September 1944 the regiment was relocated to the area of ​​the Khobotovo station near Michurinsk, and from here in December 1944 I was sent to Tambov for the Higher tactical courses for officers.

May 9, the Great Victory Day, we met in Tambov. What a triumph, true joy, what happiness this day brought to our people! For us, warriors, this day will remain the happiest of all the days lived.

After completing the courses at the end of June, we, five people from the group of battalion commanders, were seconded to the headquarters and sent to Voronezh. The war ended, a peaceful life began, the restoration of destroyed cities and villages began.

I did not see Voronezh before the war, but what the war did to it, I know, I saw it. And it was all the more joyful to watch this wonderful city rise from the ruins.

The Great Patriotic War began on June 22, 1941 - on the day when the German fascist invaders, as well as their allies, invaded the territory of the USSR. It lasted four years and became the final stage of the Second World War. In total, about 34 million Soviet soldiers took part in it, more than half of whom died.

Causes of the Great Patriotic War

The main reason for the outbreak of World War II was the desire of Adolf Hitler to lead Germany to world domination by capturing other countries and establishing a racially pure state. Therefore, on September 1, 1939, Hitler invaded Poland, then Czechoslovakia, initiating the Second World War and conquering more and more territories. The successes and victories of Nazi Germany forced Hitler to violate the non-aggression pact concluded between Germany and the USSR on August 23, 1939. He developed a special operation called "Barbarossa", which implied the capture of the Soviet Union in a short time. This is how the Great Patriotic War began. It took place in three stages

Stages of the Great Patriotic War

Stage 1: June 22, 1941 - November 18, 1942

The Germans captured Lithuania, Latvia, Ukraine, Estonia, Belarus and Moldova. The troops moved inland to capture Leningrad, Rostov-on-Don and Novgorod, but the main goal of the Nazis was Moscow. At this time, the USSR suffered heavy losses, thousands of people were taken prisoner. On September 8, 1941, the military blockade of Leningrad began, which lasted 872 days. As a result, the Soviet troops were able to halt the German offensive. The Barbarossa plan failed.

Stage 2: 1942-1943

During this period, the USSR continued to build up its military power, industry and defense grew. Thanks to the incredible efforts of the Soviet troops, the border of the front was pushed back to the west. The central event of this period was the greatest Battle of Stalingrad in history (July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943). The goal of the Germans was to capture Stalingrad, the great bend of the Don and the Volgodonsk isthmus. During the battle, more than 50 armies, corps and divisions of the enemy were destroyed, about 2 thousand tanks, 3 thousand aircraft and 70 thousand vehicles were destroyed, German aviation was significantly weakened. The victory of the USSR in this battle had a significant impact on the course of further military events.

Stage 3: 1943-1945

From defense, the Red Army gradually goes over to the offensive, moving towards Berlin. Several campaigns were implemented aimed at destroying the enemy. A partisan war broke out, during which 6,200 detachments of partisans were formed, trying to independently fight the enemy. The partisans used all available means, including clubs and boiling water, set up ambushes and traps. At this time, the battles for the Right-Bank Ukraine, Berlin, take place. The Belarusian, Baltic, Budapest operations were developed and put into action. As a result, on May 8, 1945, Germany officially declared defeat.

Thus, the victory of the Soviet Union in the Great Patriotic War became, in fact, the end of the Second World War. The defeat of the German army put an end to Hitler's desire to gain dominion over the world, universal slavery. However, victory in the war came at a heavy price. Millions of people died in the struggle for the Motherland, cities, villages and villages were destroyed. All the last funds went to the front, so people lived in poverty and hunger. Every year on May 9 we celebrate the Day of the Great Victory over fascism, we are proud of our soldiers for giving life to future generations and ensuring a bright future. At the same time, the victory was able to consolidate the influence of the USSR on the world stage and turn it into a superpower.

Briefly for children

More details

The Great Patriotic War (1941-1945) is the most terrible and bloody war for all the time of the USSR. This war was between two powers, the mighty power of the USSR and Germany. In a fierce battle, over the course of five years, the USSR nevertheless defeated its adversary with dignity. Germany, when attacking the union, hoped to quickly capture the entire country, but they did not expect how powerful and selenium the Slavic people were. What has this war led to? To begin with, let's look at a number of reasons, why did it all start?

After the First World War, Germany was greatly weakened, the strongest crisis overcame the country. But at this time, Hitler came to rule and introduced a large number of reforms and changes, thanks to which the country began to flourish, and people showed their confidence in him. When he became a ruler, he pursued a policy in which he informed people that the nation of Germans is the most excellent in the world. Hitler was fired up with the idea of ​​revenge for the First World War, for the terrible one to lose, he had an idea to subjugate the whole world. He started with the Czech Republic and Poland, which later grew into the Second World War.

We all remember very well from history textbooks that before 1941 an agreement was signed not to attack the two countries, Germany and the USSR. But Hitler did attack. The Germans had a plan called "Barbarossa". It clearly stated that Germany must capture the USSR in 2 months. He believed that if at his disposal all the strength and power of the strange, then he could fearlessly enter the war with the United States.

The war began so lightning fast, the USSR was not ready, but Hitler received not what he wanted and expected. Our army put up a lot of resistance, the Germans did not expect to see such a strong rival in front of them. And the war dragged on for 5 long years.

Now we will analyze the main periods during the entire war.

The initial stage of the war is June 22, 1941 to November 18, 1942. During this time, the Germans captured most of the country, as well as Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Moldova, Belarus. Further, the Germans already had Moscow and Leningrad before their eyes. And they almost succeeded, but the Russian soldiers turned out to be stronger than them and did not allow them to capture this city.

To their great regret, they captured Leningrad, but what is most surprising, the people living there did not let the invaders into the city itself. The battles for these cities took place until the end of 1942.

The end of 1943 and the beginning of 1943 were very difficult for the German army and at the same time happy for the Russians. The Soviet army launched a counteroffensive, the Russians began to slowly but surely recapture their territory, and the invaders and their allies slowly retreat to the west. Some of the allies were destroyed on the spot.

Everyone remembers perfectly well how the entire industry of the Soviet Union switched to the production of military supplies, thanks to which they were able to repulse the enemies. The army grew from retreating to attackers.

The final. 1943 to 1945. The Soviet soldiers gathered all their strength and began to recapture their territory at a high pace. All forces were directed towards the occupiers, namely Berlin. At this time, Leningrad was liberated, and other previously captured countries were recaptured. The Russians were decisively heading for Germany.

The last stage (1943-1945). At this time, the USSR began to take its land piece by piece and move towards the invaders. Russian soldiers conquered Leningrad and other cities, then they proceeded to the very heart of Germany - Berlin.

On May 8, 1945, the USSR entered Berlin, the Germans announce their surrender. Their ruler could not stand it and left on his own.

And now the worst thing about the war. How many people died for the fact that we would now live in the world and enjoy every day.

In fact, history is silent about these terrible numbers. For a long time the USSR hid the number of people. The government hid data from the people. And people then understood how many died, how many were taken prisoner, and how many missing people to this day. But after a while, the data still surfaced. According to official sources, up to 10 million soldiers died in this war, and about 3 million were in German captivity. These are terrible numbers. And how many children, old people, women died. The Germans shot everyone mercilessly.

It was a terrible war, unfortunately it brought a lot of tears to families, the country was in ruin for a long time, but slowly the USSR was getting back on its feet, post-war actions subsided, but did not subside in the hearts of people. In the hearts of mothers who did not wait for their sons from the front. Wives who remained widows with children. But what a strong Slavic people are, even after such a war, they rose from their knees. Then the whole world knew how strong the state is and how strong in spirit people live there.

Thanks to the veterans who defended us when they were very young. Unfortunately, at the moment there are only a few of them left, but we will never forget their feat.

Report on the Great Patriotic War

On June 22, 1941, at 4 a.m., Germany attacked the USSR without first declaring war. Such an unexpected event briefly put the Soviet troops out of action. The Soviet army met the enemy with dignity, although the enemy was very strong and had an advantage over the Red Army. Germany had a lot of weapons, tanks, aircraft, when the Soviet army was just moving from cavalry protection to weapons.

The USSR was not ready for such a large-scale war, many of the commanders at that time were inexperienced and young. Of the five marshals, three were shot and recognized as enemies of the people. Joseph Vissarionovich Stalin was in power during the Great Patriotic War and did everything possible for the victory of the Soviet troops.

The war was cruel and bloody, the whole country began to defend the Motherland. Everyone could join the ranks of the Soviet army, the youth created partisan detachments and tried to help in every way. All men and women fought for the protection of their native land.

The struggle for Leningrad lasted 900 days, residents who were in the blockade. Many soldiers were killed and taken prisoner. The Nazis created concentration camps where they mocked and starved people. The fascist troops hoped that the war would end within 2-3 months, but the patriotism of the Russian people turned out to be stronger, and the war dragged on for 4 long years.

In August 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad began, lasting six months. The Soviet army won and captured more than 330 thousand Nazis. The Nazis could not come to terms with their defeat and began an offensive on Kursk. 1200 vehicles took part in the Battle of Kursk - it was a massive battle of tanks.

In 1944, the troops of the Red Army were able to liberate the Ukraine, the Baltic States, Moldova. Also, Soviet troops received support from Siberia, the Urals and the Caucasus and were able to drive off enemy troops from their native lands. Many times the Nazis wanted to lure the troops of the Soviet army into a trap by cunning, but they did not succeed. Thanks to the competent Soviet command, the plans of the Nazis were destroyed and then they used heavy artillery. The Nazis launched into battle heavy tanks such as: "tiger" and "panther", but despite this, the Red Army gave a worthy rebuff.

At the very beginning of 1945, the Soviet army broke into German territory and forced the Nazis to admit defeat. On May 8-9, 1945, the Act of surrender of the forces of fascist Germany was signed. Officially, May 9 is considered Victory Day, and is celebrated to this day.

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