The famous Kazan historian Mikhail Cherepanov reflects on what key events took place on the eve of the war and why our army was defeated in the first days of the war.
Why myths persist
June 22 went down in the history of our country as a tragic event. Soviet cities were subjected to brutal bombing by Hitler's Luftwaffe. The Day of Remembrance and Sorrow is an occasion to once again reflect on what caused the mass death on our territory of not only military personnel, but also civilians. Why was our Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (RKKA) unable to hold not only the borders of our homeland, but also half of its European part? Were the reasons for our defeat in 1941-1942 the result of subjective factors, political mistakes of the country's leadership, as historical encyclopedias and textbooks still claim? Or were there other reasons that did not depend on the specific decisions of Stalin and his circle? Who bears the burden of responsibility for the tragedy of the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War? Is it only based on Hitler's Nazism?
Agree that without a real understanding of the causes of what happened 75 years ago, we will not be able to prevent the recurrence of the apocalypse. And the saddest thing is that all attempts by historians to find an answer to the questions asked are thwarted not by scientific counter-arguments, but by active secrecy and suppression of the real facts of history. It seems that it is beneficial for someone to leave more and more generations of Russians in the dark, to feed them myths.
The outcome of the war will be decided in the Caucasus, and not on the Western Front.
Let us recall at least one of these myths that still lives in textbooks: our country was not at all prepared to repel the aggression of enemies, to defend itself. We had neither experience in the army nor military equipment for this. And in general, 40 thousand career military personnel in the USSR were repressed (it is hinted - shot) by Stalin himself. On the other hand, it is argued that it was our country that was the forge of fascist Germany personnel and the initiator of the Second World War.
I will leave these and similar statements to the conscience of domestic and foreign historians who have been defending their doctoral dissertations on this slander for decades. I suggest looking at the situation from a different perspective. The one that was not exactly classified for 75 years, but was taken beyond the scope of serious scientific research. But, in my opinion, it is precisely in it that the main reasons for certain actions of the leadership of our country are hidden, which led to the tragedy of June 1941. Judge for yourself.
The key to understanding is in Syrian Aleppo
Coincidentally, these days the attention of our and the world media is focused on the tragic events in the Syrian town of Aleppo. The blood of civilians and our soldiers is being shed there today. There is a kind of center for the fight against the global forces of terror. And few people know that it was in Aleppo that an event took place that became decisive in the chain of subsequent political steps by leaders of different countries, which led to the tragedy of June 22, 1941.
It was in Aleppo on March 20, 1940 that a meeting of representatives of the French and British military commands took place, at which it was noted that in June 1940 20 military airfields would be built in the Middle East. Their main target is Soviet oil fields in the Caucasus and the Caspian coast.This decision was not spontaneous. This is evidenced by the statements and actions of politicians in France and Great Britain over the past few months. Let's trace their chronicle.
On October 31, 1939, the British Minister of Supply stated: “If Russian oil fields are destroyed, not only Russia will lose oil, but also any of its allies.” He was echoed by the French Minister of Finance: “The French Air Force will bomb oil fields and refineries in the Caucasus from Syria.”
On January 8, 1940, the German consulate in Geneva confirmed: “England intends to launch a surprise attack not only on the Russian oil regions, but will also try to simultaneously deprive Germany of Romanian oil sources in the Balkans.”
On January 11, 1940, the British embassy in Moscow reported that an action in the Caucasus could “bring Russia to its knees in the shortest possible time.”
On January 24, 1940, the Chief of the Imperial General Staff of England, General E. Ironside, presented a memorandum: “We can provide effective assistance to Finland only if we strike Baku in order to cause a serious state crisis in Russia.”
February 1, 1940. Iranian Minister of War A. Nakhjavan expressed a desire to purchase 60 bombers and 20 fighters from England, expressing his readiness to use them to destroy Baku.
February 1940. The commander of the French Air Force in Syria, General J. Jonot, put it clearly: “The outcome of the war will be decided in the Caucasus, and not on the Western Front.”
March 8, 1940. The British Committee of Chiefs of Staff presented the government with a report “The Consequences of Military Actions against Russia in 1940.”
In Ankara, the British, French and Turkish military discussed the issue of using Turkish airfields to bomb the Caucasus. They expected to destroy Baku in 15 days, Grozny in 12, Batumi in 2 days. Even on the day of the German attack on France, its military informed Churchill of their readiness to bomb Baku.
On March 30 and April 5, 1940, the British carried out reconnaissance flights over the territory of the USSR.
British bombers in the Iranian city of Abadan. Photo: From personal archive
June 14, 1940. German occupation of Paris. Seizure of documents of the French General Staff. Soviet intelligence receives confirmation from German sources: the bombing of the Caucasus is being prepared.
So Stalin received information from his intelligence about a real threat to his only oil field. What actions should any head of state take in his place?
Opening of the Transcaucasian Front
Spring 1940. The Main Directorate of the Red Army Air Force has prepared a list of military-industrial facilities in Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, and Palestine.
Summer 1940. The Transcaucasian Military District is reinforced by 10 divisions (five rifle, tank, cavalry and three aviation). The number of aircraft increased from several dozen to 500. Combined arms armies were formed and deployed: the 45th and 46th on the border with Turkey, the 44th and 47th on the border with Iran.
November 14, 1940. Soviet-German negotiations in Berlin ended with an agreement on joint operations against Great Britain. German troops were to be transferred through the USSR to Turkey, Iran and Iraq.
April 1941. British commandos have captured the port of Basra in Iraq. In record time, a plant sprang up there to assemble cars that arrived from the USA with ready-made kits.
May 5, 1941. The Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army reported: “The available forces of German troops for operations in the Middle East are expressed in 40 divisions. For the same purposes, up to two parachute divisions have been concentrated with probable use in Iraq.”
May 10, 1941. Hitler's deputy in the party, Rudolf Hess, brought the British government a proposal to end the war and achieve an agreement on the basis of anti-communism. England had to give Germany freedom of action against Soviet Russia, and Germany agreed to guarantee England the preservation of its colonial possessions and dominance in the Mediterranean.
In May 1941, Germany offered Great Britain an end to the war. Photo: Commons.wikimedia.org / Bundesarchiv, Bild 146-1971-033-33 / CC-BY-SA
May 15, 1941. Order No. 0035 “On the fact of unimpeded passage of the Yu-52 aircraft across the border” was signed. Hitler's envoy brought a letter to Stalin about his desire to continue the war with Great Britain.
May 19, 1941. Timoshenko and Zhukov proposed to Stalin the idea of a preventive strike on Germany.
May 1941. In Azerbaijan alone, 3,816 civilians have been mobilized to be sent to Iran. No comments
Beginning of June 1941. In the Central Asian Military District, with the participation of representatives of the General Staff of the Red Army, command and staff exercises “Concentration of a Separate Army to the State Border” were held.
July 8, 1941. Directive of the NKVD of the USSR and the NKGB of the USSR No. 250/14190 “On measures to prevent the transfer of German intelligence agents from Iranian territory.”
August 23, 1941. Supreme Command Headquarters Directive No. 001196 “To the Commander of the Central Asian Military District on the formation and entry into Iran of the 53rd separate army” and Supreme Command Headquarters Directive No. 001197 “To the Commander of the Transcaucasian Military District on the deployment of the Transcaucasian Front and the entry of two armies into Iran” were signed.On August 25, 1941, three armies of the Red Army (44th, 47th and 53rd separate), 1264 aircraft and the Caspian military flotilla numbering over 350 thousand soldiers and officers crossed the border of Iran with the task of “destroying 3 divisions of Iranians in case of resistance.”
February 23, 1942. The first convoy of 50 cars was sent by the British through Iran to the Soviet Union.
Let us clarify the scale of our forces in Iran: 47th Army (63rd and 76th Mountain Rifle Divisions, 236th Infantry, 6th and 54th Tank Divisions, 23rd and 24th Cavalry Divisions, 2 battalions of a motorcycle regiment, 2 anti-aircraft -artillery divisions, 2 self-propelled artillery divisions);
44th Army (20th and 77th mountain rifle divisions, 17th mountain cavalry division, motorized regiment, anti-aircraft artillery regiment, 2 fighter aviation regiments);
53rd Army (39th, 68th, 83rd mountain rifle divisions);
4th Cavalry Corps (18th and 44th mountain cavalry divisions, 2 anti-aircraft artillery divisions, 2 fighter aviation regiments).Official losses of the Red Army in Iran from August 25 to 30, 1941 - about 50 people killed, about 100 wounded and shell-shocked, 4000 evacuated due to illness; 3 aircraft were lost, 3 more did not return for unclear reasons.
Let me remind you that in the Note of the Government of the USSR to the Government of Iran on August 25, 1941, it was mentioned that “56 German intelligence officers infiltrated Iranian military enterprises under the guise of engineers and technicians... turning the territory of Iran into an arena for preparing a military attack on the USSR.”
It turns out that against 56 German intelligence officers on August 25, 1941 (when the Nazis were already near Smolensk), Stalin sent three well-armed and experienced armies outside our country? Or did we send troops against another enemy? And most importantly, when was this done?
Fayzrakhman Galimov Photo: photo from personal archive
A war veteran, a Chistopol resident (died in 2004), in his book “Soldier’s Roads” (Kazan, 1998) writes: “Our 83rd Mountain Rifle Division from June 22 to October 1941 participated in military operations on Iranian territory, and I worked in Iran as an intelligence officer from May 15 to September 1941. From the beginning of 1940, at the intelligence school we studied the Persian language, the geography of this country, the life of the population - even to the point of dressing in Iranian clothes. Major Muhammad Ali worked with me. When we asked why all this was needed, the instructors answered: to catch and interrogate defectors.
In May 1941, the school was put on alert. We received an order: to go to the Nakhichevan region. They began to prepare us to cross the Iranian border. At the beginning of June I found myself in Iran. At first I walked with fishing rods, and when I got to Tehran, I became a “shoemaker.” I went to see a merchant who worked for Soviet intelligence. He provided me with documents. Further the path lay to the Caspian Sea, where a meeting with the mentor was scheduled. Having met with the major, I learned that the purpose of my drop was to prevent a possible German landing. The agents reported that the Germans were preparing explosions at the oil fields of Baku. Our scouts discovered a boat with explosives on the shore. Having contacted headquarters, they received an order to destroy the object, and on June 21 the boat was blown up. For this operation I was awarded the medal “For Military Merit”. The award sheet says so: “For saving the oil fields of Baku.”
On June 22, at 5.00, when German planes were already bombing Soviet cities, our 83rd Mountain Rifle Division crossed the border and was stationed on Iranian territory. The regiments walked along the waterless steppe, crossing sandy and rocky deserts. Some could not stand the heat and fainted. Horses also fell. Among the fighters there were patients with cholera. In Tabriz, Tehran, Qom (Moku) we were greeted by empty streets - residents were sitting at home. Having eliminated the German landing forces, we went to the shores of the Caspian Sea and waited for a new order, but it never came... The division’s campaign ended in early September. The patients were transported by sea to the USSR. Many soldiers returned home with tropical diseases.
During the operation, I combined the duties of a platoon commander of an artillery battery and an interpreter for the division commander. In 1942, the 83rd Mountain Rifle Division was sent to the combat area near Tuapse. The main contingent of Soviet troops stayed in Iran until 1946.”
Maybe the veteran got something wrong? Could the 83rd Mountain Division be in Iran already on June 22, if the official order to begin the offensive was received only on August 25?
But Galimov is right. Confirmation of this is the fate of the commander of the 83rd Mountain Rifle Division, Major General Sergei Baidalinov. He led the division from May 1939 and was arrested on the territory of Northern Iran on July 12, 1941, sentenced to capital punishment for violating NKO Order No. 00412. He was shot immediately. Rehabilitated on October 30, 1958. This is recorded in the book of Doctor of Historical Sciences A.A. Pechenkin “The senior command staff of the Red Army during the Second World War” (Moscow, 2002).
How could the division commander end up on Iranian territory in July 1941?
If you carefully study the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, you can be convinced that long before the official start of the Iranian campaign, soldiers and officers of the 83rd Mountain Rifle Division “went missing in action.”
- Junior lieutenant, commander of a rifle platoon of the 150th mountain rifle regiment, Vafin Irshod Sagadievich, born in 1915, disappeared in April 1941 (TsAMO, op. 563783, no. 14).
- Contact with Lieutenant Syutkin Kuzma Vasilievich, platoon commander of the 67th artillery regiment, in which he served since November 1938, was lost since June 1941 (TsAMO, op. 11458, no. 192).
- About the Red Army soldier of the 428th Mountain Rifle Regiment Delas Ivan Arsentievich, born in 1921, “there has been no news since June 26, 1941.” (TsAMO, op. 18002, no. 897).
- Red Army soldiers of the same regiment Juraev Numon went missing in July 1941 (TsAMO, inventory 977520, file 413), and Chalbaev Mikhail Fedorovich, born in 1921. died on August 20, 1941 (TsAMO, op. 977520, no. 32).
- Spiridonov Nikolai Spiridonovich, born in 1915, from the village of Vazhashur, Kukmorsky district, who served as a Red Army soldier from October 4, 1939, died in Iran. The last letter from him is dated July 22, 1941 (TsAMO, inventory 18004, no. 751).
Soldiers from other divisions of the 53rd separate army also went missing in July 1941.
You can call this errors in the records, but it can be considered proof of the rightness of our fellow countryman Galimov. What does this mean? The fact that Soviet troops were brought into Iran not on August 25, 1941 to ensure lend-lease, but on June 22 in order to show Hitler that we “do not give in to provocations” and, in accordance with the agreement reached in November 1940 in Berlin, we protect our oil from threats from Great Britain.
Already on June 22, 1941, the British Ambassador to Russia Cripps asked Molotov about the advisability of the presence of Red Army units on the border with Iran.
If you believe the official documents, on August 25, 1941, not paying attention to the real threat of the Wehrmacht to our capitals, we tried at any cost to secure the road to receive 50 British cars... in 1942. Would they have been useful in the event of the fall of Moscow and Leningrad? But could our army alone cope with three Iranian divisions?Everyone will have their own answer to these questions. But it’s time to finally name the real reason for our defeats on the western border in June 1941: Hitler would not have dared to attack the USSR without unequivocal support from Great Britain. But Stalin did not consider him his enemy, because he saw a real threat to his oil-bearing areas from future allies - England and France.
And no less important reason for the introduction of our troops into Iran, I think, was Russia’s desire since tsarist times to build a canal from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. What could be more important than direct access to the Indian Ocean, bypassing the Turkish Straits and the Suez Canal? Today this project is being discussed again at the highest level between the leaders of our states.
The reason for the introduction of our troops into Iran, I think, was Russia’s desire since tsarist times to build a canal from the Caspian Sea to the Persian Gulf. Photo.
An air defense fighter conducts surveillance from the roof of a house on Gorky Street. Photo: TASS/Naum Granovsky
75 years ago, on June 22, 1941, the troops of Nazi Germany invaded the USSR. The Great Patriotic War began. In Russia and some countries of the former Soviet Union, June 22 is the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow.
June 22, 1941 for the USSR and its capital Moscow was determined in Berlin a week before this date - on Saturday, June 14, at a meeting of the Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces of Nazi Germany. On it, Adolf Hitler gave the last orders to attack the USSR from 04 am on June 22, 1941.
On the same day, a TASS report on Soviet-German relations was circulated, which stated:
“According to the USSR, Germany is as steadily observing the terms of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact as the Soviet Union, which is why, in the opinion of Soviet circles, rumors about Germany’s intention to break the pact and launch an attack on the USSR are devoid of any basis.”
However, June 22, 1941 for the world’s first state of workers and peasants could have come a month or a week earlier. The leaders of the Third Reich initially planned to invade Russia at dawn on Thursday, May 15th. But on April 6, together with the troops of the allies - Italy and Hungary - the Germans entered Yugoslavia. The Balkan campaign forced Hitler to postpone the conquest of Moscow.
Until noon on June 22, 1941 (and there is hundreds of archival evidence of this), Moscow did not know about the German invasion.
04:30. According to documents, 48 water sprinklers rolled out onto the streets.
05:30. Almost 900 janitors started working. The morning was fine, sunny, painting the “gentle light of the walls of the ancient Kremlin.”
From approximately 07:00. In parks, squares and other places where people usually gather, “outdoor” hawker trade began to unfold, summer buffets, beer halls and billiards opened - the coming Sunday promised to be very warm, if not hot. And in places of mass recreation, an influx of citizens was expected.
07:00 and 07:30. (according to the Sunday schedule - on ordinary days half an hour earlier). Dairy shops and bakeries opened.
08:30 and 09:00. Grocery stores and grocery stores have started operating. Department store stores, except for GUM and TSUM, were closed on Sundays. The range of goods is essentially normal for a peaceful capital. The "Molochnaya" on Rochdelskaya offered cottage cheese, curd mass, sour cream, kefir, yogurt, milk, cheese, feta cheese, butter and ice cream. All products are of two or three varieties and names.
It’s an ordinary Sunday in Moscow
Gorkogo Street. Photo: TASS/F. Kislov
Gastronome No. 1 "Eliseevsky", the main one in the country, put on the shelves boiled, half and uncooked smoked sausages, frankfurters, sausages from three to four types, ham, three types of boiled pork. The fish department offered fresh sterlet, lightly salted Caspian herring (zalom), hot smoked sturgeon, pressed and red caviar. There was an abundance of Georgian wines, Crimean Madeira and sherry, port wines, one type of vodka and rum, and four types of cognac. At that time there were no time restrictions on the sale of alcohol.
GUM and TSUM exhibited the entire range of the domestic clothing and footwear industry, calico, drapes, Boston and other fabrics, costume jewelry, and fiber suitcases of various sizes. And jewelry, the cost of individual samples of which exceeded 50 thousand rubles - a fifth of the price of the legendary T-34 tank, the IL-2 victory attack aircraft and three anti-tank guns - ZIS-3 76 mm caliber guns according to the "price list" of May 1941. No one could have imagined that day that the Central Department Store of Moscow would turn into army barracks in two weeks.
From 07:00 they began to prepare the Dynamo stadium for the big “mass event”. At 12 o'clock there was to be a parade and athletic competition.
Around 08:00, 20 thousand schoolchildren were brought to Moscow from cities and districts of the region for a children's holiday, which began at 11 o'clock in Sokolniki Park.
There were no “fermentations” of school graduates around Red Square and the streets of Moscow on the morning of June 22, 1941. This is the “mythology” of Soviet cinema and literature. The last graduation ceremonies in the capital took place on Friday, June 20.
In a word, all 4 million 600 thousand “ordinary” residents and about one million guests of the capital of the USSR did not know until lunch on June 22, 1941 that the biggest and bloodiest war with the invaders in the history of the country had begun that night.
01:21. The last train, loaded with wheat, which the USSR supplied under an agreement with Germany on September 28, 1939, crossed the border with Poland, absorbed by the Third Reich.
03:05. 14 German bombers, taking off from Koenigsberg at 01:10, dropped 28 magnetic bombs at a roadstead near Kronstadt, 20 km from Leningrad.
04:00. Hitler's troops crossed the border in the Brest area. Half an hour later they launched a large-scale offensive on all fronts - from the southern to the northern borders of the USSR.
And when at 11 o’clock in the Sokolniki park the capital’s pioneers greeted their guests, the pioneers of the Moscow region, with a ceremonial line, the German advanced 15, and in some places even 20 km into the interior of the country.
Solutions at the highest level
Moscow. V.M. Molotov, I.V. Stalin, K.E. Voroshilov (from left to right in the foreground), G.M. Malenkov, L.P. Beria, A.S. Shcherbakov (from left to right in the second row) and other members of the government head to Red Square. TASS photo chronicle
Only the top leadership of the country, the command of military districts, the first leaders of Moscow, Leningrad and some other large cities - Kuibyshev (now Samara), Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), knew that the war was going on in the rear in the first half of the day on June 22, 1941. Khabarovsk.
06:30. Candidate member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Central Committee and First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) Alexander Sergeevich Shcherbakov convened an emergency meeting of key leaders of the capital with the participation of senior officers of NGOs, the NKVD and directors of the largest enterprises. He and the chairman of the city executive committee Vasily Prokhorovich Pronin by that time had the rank of general. At the meeting, priority measures were developed to ensure the life of Moscow in wartime.
Directly from the city committee by telephone, orders were given to strengthen the security of water supply systems, heat and electrical energy, transport and, above all, the metro, food warehouses, refrigerators, the Moscow Canal, railway stations, defense enterprises and other important facilities. At the same meeting, the concept of camouflaging Moscow was “roughly” formulated, including the construction of models and dummies, the protection of government and historical buildings.
At the suggestion of Shcherbakov, from June 23, a ban was introduced on entry into the capital for anyone who did not have Moscow registration. Residents of the Moscow region, including those who worked in Moscow, also fell under it. Special passes were introduced. Even Muscovites had to straighten them out when going to the forest to pick mushrooms or to a suburban dacha - without a pass they were not allowed back into the capital.
15:00. At the afternoon meeting, which took place after People's Commissar Molotov spoke on the radio and after Shcherbakov and Pronin visited the Kremlin, the capital authorities, in agreement with the generals of the Moscow Military District, decided to install anti-aircraft batteries at all high-altitude points of the capital. Later, at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR, created the next day, June 23, this decision was called “exemplary.” And they sent a directive to the Military Districts to ensure anti-aircraft protection of cities following the example of the capital.
Prohibition on photography
One of the remarkable decisions of the second meeting of the Moscow leadership on June 22, 1941: an appeal was formulated calling on the population to hand over their personal cameras, other photographic equipment, photographic film and reagents within three days. From now on, only accredited journalists and employees of special services could use photographic equipment.
This is partly why there are few photographs of Moscow in the first days of the war. Some of them are completely staged, such as, for example, the famous photograph by Yevgeny Khaldei “Muscovites listen to Comrade Molotov’s address on the radio about the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941.” On the first war day in the capital of the Union at 12 o'clock in the afternoon (the time of the live broadcast of People's Commissar Molotov's speech) it was +24 degrees C. And in the photo - people in coats, hats, in a word, dressed for autumn, as in the twentieth of September, when , presumably this photo was taken.
By the way, the clothes of the people in that staged photo are very different from the T-shirts, white canvas boots and trousers in which in another photo on June 22, 1941, Muscovites are buying soda on Gorky Street (now Tverskaya).
At the same morning meeting on June 22, 1941, which was chaired by Alexander Shcherbakov, a special resolution was adopted to “prevent and suppress panic” in connection with the invasion of Hitler’s troops in the USSR. The party secretary and de facto owner of the capital advised all leaders and, especially, artists, writers, and newspapermen to “stick” to the position that the war would end in a month, a maximum of a month and a half. And the enemy will be defeated on its territory." And he drew special attention to the fact that in Molotov’s speech the war was called “sacred.” Two days later, on June 24, 1941, having overcome a protracted depression, Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin), at the suggestion of Lavrentiy Beria, appointed Shcherbakov (in addition to existing positions and regalia) as the head of the Sovinformburo - the main and, in fact, the only source of information for the masses during the Great Patriotic War.
Sweeps
Muscovites enroll in the ranks of the people's militia. Photo: TASS
One of the results of the last meeting of the Moscow leadership, which took place after 21:00, was the decision to create fighter battalions. They, apparently, were initiated in the Kremlin, because a day later the general leadership of the units was entrusted to the deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, head of the NKVD Lavrentiy Beria. But the country’s first fighter battalion came under arms precisely in Moscow, on the third day of the war, June 24, 1941. In the documents, the destroyer battalions were designated as “volunteer formations of citizens capable of owning weapons.” The prerogative of admission to them remained with party, Komsomol, trade union activists and other “verified” (as in the document) persons who were not subject to conscription for military service. The task of the extermination battalions was to fight saboteurs, spies, Hitler's accomplices, as well as bandits, deserters, looters and speculators. In a word, everyone who threatened order in cities and other populated areas during wartime conditions.
On the fourth day of the war, the Moscow fighter plane made its first raids, choosing to begin with the workers' closets and gateways of Zamoskvorechye and the barracks of Maryina Roshcha. The “cleansing” was quite effective. 25 bandits with weapons were captured. Five particularly dangerous criminals were eliminated in a shootout. Food products (stewed meat, condensed milk, smoked meats, flour, cereals) and industrial goods, stolen before the start of the war from one of the warehouses in the Fili region, were seized.
The leader's reaction
General Secretary of the CPSU (b) Joseph Stalin. Photo: TASS
In Moscow - not only the city committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the city executive committee, but the entire highest government of the USSR. According to the “reflected” documents, Stalin was informed about the invasion of Nazi troops almost immediately - around 04:35-04:45. He, as usual, had not yet gone to bed, and, according to one version, was at the “nearby dacha.”
The subsequent (second) report on the advance of the Germans along the entire front made a strong impression on the leader. He locked himself in one of the rooms and did not leave it for about two hours, after which he allegedly went to the Kremlin. I did not read the text of Vyacheslav Molotov’s speech. And he demanded that he report to him about the situation at the fronts every half hour.
According to the testimony of a number of military leaders, this was precisely what was most difficult to do - communication with the active units conducting fierce battles with German troops was weak, or even completely absent. In addition, by 18-19 hours on June 22, 1941, according to various sources, a total of 500 thousand to 700 thousand soldiers and officers of the Red Army were surrounded by the Nazis, who, through incredible efforts, with a terrible shortage of ammunition, equipment and weapons, tried to break through the "rings" of the Nazis.
However, according to other, also “reflected” documents, on June 22, 1941, the leader was on the Black Sea, at a dacha in Gagra. And, according to the USSR Ambassador to the USA Ivan Maisky, “after the first report of the German attack, he fell into prostration, completely cut himself off from Moscow, remained out of touch for four days, drinking himself into a stupor.”
Is that so? Or not? It's hard to believe. It is no longer possible to verify - documents of the CPSU Central Committee have since been massively burned and destroyed at least 4 times. For the first time in October 1941, when panic began in Moscow after the Nazis entered the outskirts of Khimki and a column of Nazi motorcyclists passed along Leningradsky Prospekt in the Sokol area. Then at the end of February 1956 and the end of October 1961, after the revelations of Stalin’s personality cult at the XX and XXII Congresses of the CPSU. And finally, in August 1991, after the defeat of the State Emergency Committee.
And is it necessary to check everything? The fact remains that in the first 10 days of the war, the most difficult time for the country, Stalin was neither heard nor seen. And all orders, orders and directives of the first week of the war were signed by marshals and generals, people's commissars and deputies of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR: Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Zhukov, Semyon Timoshenko, Georgy Malenkov, Dmitry Pavlov, Vyacheslav Molotov and even the "party mayor" of the capital Alexander Shcherbakov.
Appeal from Nakrom Molotov
12:15. From the studio of the Central Telegraph, one of the leaders of the Soviet state, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, Vyacheslav Molotov, made an appeal on the radio.
It began with the words: “Citizens and women of the Soviet Union! The Soviet government and its head, Comrade Stalin, instructed me to make the following statement. Today, at 4 o’clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country ..." The speech ended with the famous words that became the idiom of the entire Great Patriotic War: "Our cause is just! The enemy will be defeated! Victory will be ours!"
12.25. Judging by the “log of visits”, Molotov returned from the Central Telegraph to Stalin’s office.
Muscovites listened to the People's Commissar's speech mainly through loudspeakers installed on all city streets, as well as in parks, stadiums and other crowded places. Performed by announcer Yuri Levitan, the text of Molotov’s speech was repeated 4 times at different times.
Muscovites are listening to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on our Motherland. Photo: TASS/Evgeny Khaldey
Moreover, from approximately 09:30. until 11:00 there was allegedly a serious discussion in the Kremlin about who should make such an appeal? According to one version, all members of the Politburo believed that Stalin himself should do this. But he actively pushed back, repeating the same thing: the political situation and the situation on the fronts “are not yet clear,” and therefore he will speak later.
As time went. And delaying information about the beginning of the war became dangerous. At the leader’s suggestion, Molotov became the one who would notify the people of the start of the holy war. According to another version, there was no discussion because Stalin himself was not in the Kremlin. They wanted to entrust the “All-Union Elder” Mikhail Kalinin to tell the people about the war, but he even read from a piece of paper, stuttering, syllable by syllable.
Life after the start of the war
The news of the invasion of Hitler's troops on June 22, 1941, judging by archival documents (reports of NKVD employees and freelance agents, police reports), as well as the recollections of eyewitnesses, did not plunge residents and guests of the capital into despondency and did not change their plans too much.
After the announcement of the start of the war, Moscow-Adler passenger trains departed from the Kursk station exactly on schedule. And on the night of June 23 - to Sevastopol, which Nazi aircraft brutally bombed at 05:00 on June 22. True, passengers who had tickets specifically to Crimea were dropped off in Tula. But the train itself was only allowed to go to Kharkov.
During the day, brass bands played in parks, and performances took place in theaters to full houses. Hairdressers were open until the evening. The beer halls and billiard rooms were practically packed with visitors. In the evening the dance floors were not empty either. The famous melody of the foxtrot "Rio-rita" was heard in many parts of the capital.
A distinctive feature of the first military day in Moscow: mass optimism. In conversations, in addition to strong words of hatred towards Germany and Hitler, they heard: “Nothing. A month. Well, a month and a half. We’ll smash, crush the reptile!” Another metropolitan sign of June 22, 1941: after the news of the Nazi attack, people in military uniform were allowed to skip the line everywhere, even in pubs.
Anti-aircraft artillery guarding the city. Photo: TASS/Naum Granovsky
An impressive example of the efficiency of the Moscow authorities. By their order, at screenings in cinemas after 14:00 on June 22, 1941, before feature films (and these were “Shchors”, “If Tomorrow is War”, “Professor Malok”, “The Oppenheim Family”, “Boxers”) they began to show educational short films like “Blackout of a residential building”, “Take care of your gas mask”, “The simplest shelters from air bombs”.
In the evening Vadim Kozin sang in the Hermitage garden. In the "Metropol" and "Aragvi" restaurants, judging by the "expense sheets" of the kitchen and buffet, sandwiches with pressed (black) caviar, hall herring with onions, fried pork loin in wine sauce, kharcho soup, and chanahi (lamb stew) were especially popular ), lamb cutlet on the bone with a complex side dish, vodka, KV cognac and sherry wine.
Moscow has not yet fully realized that a big war is already underway. And on the fields of its battles, thousands of Red Army soldiers have already fallen, hundreds of civilians of Soviet cities and villages have died. Within a day, the city registry offices will notice an influx of fathers and mothers asking to replace the name Adolf on the birth certificates of their sons with Anatoly, Alexander, and Andrey. Being Adolfs (in common parlance - Adiks), who were born en masse in the second half of 1933 and at the end of 1939, in June 1941 it became not only disgusting, but also unsafe.
A week later . In the capital of the USSR, cards will gradually be introduced for food, household essentials, shoes and fabric.
In two weeks. Muscovites will see newsreel footage of Soviet villages, towns and cities burning, and women and young children lying near their huts, shot by the Nazis.
Exactly in a month. Moscow will survive the first raid of Hitler's aircraft, and will see firsthand, not in the movies, the mutilated bodies of fellow citizens who died under the rubble, destroyed and burning houses.
In the meantime, on the first day of the war, in Moscow everything is approximately the same as in the textbook poem by Gennady Shpalikov “On the dance floor in the Forty-First Year”: “It’s okay that Poland doesn’t exist. But the country is strong. In a month – and no more – the war will end... "
Evgeny Kuznetsov
In the early morning of June 22, 1941, a terrible disaster came to Soviet soil. The silence of a summer Sunday morning was broken by the hum of the engines of Nazi Germany bombers. In a few minutes, the bombs they dropped would fall on the heads of the inhabitants of the cities of the Soviet Union.
A military invasion of unprecedented scale would begin along the entire length of the western border of the USSR, in which 190 divisions, 4 thousand tanks, 47 thousand guns and mortars, and about 4.5 thousand aircraft took part.
The Great Patriotic War began, in which the very existence of not only the Soviet Union, but also the peoples inhabiting it was at stake.
The victory came at a high price - the war claimed the lives of 27 million Soviet citizens.
We know a lot about the first tragic days of the Nazi invasion and at the same time we know almost nothing.
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Great Victory, the Russian Ministry of Defense on its Internet portal opened the exhibition “The First Day of War”, the exhibition of which contains a collection of historical documents from the funds of the Central Archive of the Russian Ministry of Defense, dedicated to the events of the first days of the beginning of the great confrontation.
Among the more than 100 historical documents, there are many that until now were in closed funds of the special storage facility and were previously accessible only to archive workers and military specialists.
"Bomb Koenigsberg and Memel"
“...The troops, with all their might and means, attack enemy forces and destroy them in areas where they violated the Soviet border. Do not cross the border until further notice.
Using reconnaissance and combat aircraft to establish the concentration areas of enemy aircraft and the grouping of their ground forces. Using powerful strikes from bomber and attack aircraft, destroy aircraft at enemy airfields and bomb the main groupings of his ground forces.
Air strikes should be carried out 100-150 kilometers deep into German territory. Bomb Koenigsberg and Memel. Do not conduct raids on the territory of Finland and Romania until special instructions.
Timoshenko, Malenkov, Zhukov."
At the end of the order there is an instruction: “t. Vatutin - to bomb Romania.”
From operational report No. 1 of the General Staff of the Red Army at 10:00 on June 22, 1941:
“4:00 6/22/41 the Germans, without any reason, raided our airfields and cities and crossed the border with ground troops.
...The enemy, having forestalled our troops in deployment, forced units of the Red Army in the process of occupying their initial position according to the cover plan. Using this advantage, the enemy managed to achieve partial success in certain areas.
Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, Army General Zhukov."
From the combat report of the headquarters of the 3rd Army No. 1 at 4:45 on June 22, 1941 to the commander of the Western Special Military District:
“The enemy at 4:00 on June 22 violated the state border in the area from Sopotskin station to Augustow, bombed Grodno, in particular the army headquarters. Wired communication with the units was disrupted, they switched to radio, two radio stations were destroyed. We act in strict accordance with the directive to cover the state border.”
“The enemy dropped troops, the number of troops has not been established”
From the operational report of the Air Force headquarters of the Western Special Military District No. 02 dated June 22, 1941 at 20:00:
“... I have no contact with the three air divisions and have still not been able to obtain operational reports from them...
At the Novy Dvor airfield, up to 15 I-16 aircraft of the 112th Fighter Aviation Regiment were destroyed... At the Cherlen airfield, all materiel was completely destroyed... all materiel of the 41, 124, 126 and 129 IAP was destroyed by the enemy at the airfields.”
“After artillery preparation, the enemy air force violated the state border and, starting at 4:15 on June 22, 1941, carried out raids and bombed objects on our territory. At 5:25 the enemy infantry and tanks went on the offensive...
At 6:00 on 22.6.41, a motorcycle battalion with tanks occupied Kretinga and by 9:00 before the infantry regiment occupied Karten. In the Vezhaychey area, a battalion of tanks reached Rietavas... at 7:30 the enemy tank battalion occupied Le Havre...
...at 7:30 the enemy dropped airborne troops into the Vojgira area, by 10:00 the number of landing forces had not been established...”
“To smash the enemy with a counter blow”
From a combat order from the headquarters of the Kyiv Special Military District to the commander of the 15th Mechanized Corps on June 22, 1941:
“According to a report from the commander of the 124th Infantry Division, the left flank of the division was thrown back to Stoyanów. Large enemy motorized units were found moving towards Radzechów.
The commander of the troops ordered the 15th MK to move out of the occupied area in the direction of Radzechow and, with a counter strike, defeat the enemy’s motorized mechanized units and restore the position of the 124th Infantry Division.
Nashtafront Purkaev.”
“The 5th Army, with covering units, is fighting stubbornly and continues to concentrate troops along the front. In the Gorodlo area there were up to 200 enemy tanks at 16:00 on 22.6.41 in readiness to cross the river. Bug. At 16:20, an enemy airborne force from 18 aircraft landed in the Kovel area...
124th Infantry Division - defends the front of Barane Peritoki, Bobyatyn, Stoyanuv. On the right flank of the division the enemy occupied Porytsk...
During the day, enemy aircraft repeatedly bombed Lutsk, Lyuboml, Wlodzimierz, Kovel, and Rivne. 4 enemy aircraft shot down...
According to local NKVD authorities and district military registration and enlistment offices, parachute troops of unknown numbers were landed in the Kozov area (southeast of Brzezhany) and 12 km northwest of Zalischiki; units of the 80th and 49th infantry divisions were sent to eliminate them...”
“During the day, Romanian troops, with the support of German units, conducted active reconnaissance along the entire front of the army, trying to cross the Prut and Danube rivers at a number of points. All enemy attacks were repulsed...
2/263 joint venture with 1/69 AP defends the Kartal region. Trophies - 5-7 enemy aircraft were shot down, 5 crew members were taken prisoner. Losses are being confirmed."
RIA News
“The Russians asked the command what to do”
From the diary of the Chief of the General Staff of the German Ground Forces Colonel General Halder, entry dated June 22, 1941:
“Border bridges across the river. The Bug and other rivers were captured everywhere by our troops without a fight and in complete safety. The complete surprise of our offensive for the enemy is evidenced by the fact that the units were taken by surprise in a barracks arrangement, the planes were stationed at airfields, covered with tarpaulins, the units, suddenly attacked by our troops, asked the command about what to do...
A Russian radiogram was intercepted: “The headquarters of the 3rd Army has been defeated. Send fighters”...
The Air Force command reported that our air force destroyed 800 enemy aircraft... Our losses still amount to 10 aircraft... I believe that the Russian command, due to its slowness, will in the near future be unable to organize counteraction to our offensive.”
"The population is moving east"
From the morning report of the operational department of Army Group Center dated June 22, 1941 at 8:00 a.m.:
“In the 4th Army sector, the offensive continues successfully. In general, there is weak enemy resistance. Apparently, the enemy was taken by surprise in all areas...
Resistance in Brest is mainly in the urban part - in the fortress...
Units of the 800th Special Purpose Regiment on Augustow, which prematurely went on the offensive, were thrown back by the enemy...
In the sector of the 8th Army Corps, the action of one heavy enemy artillery battery is noted...
By 6:15, the 39th Motorized Corps reached the Murganinkai area (5 km southwest of Kalvaria). The bridges near Sventoyansk and across the Neman River in the Merech and Alytus areas have not yet been destroyed.
The population is moving east."
Mobilization. Columns of fighters are moving to the front. Moscow, June 23, 1941. Photo: RIA Novosti
“Where the enemy met, he stood to the death”
“Border positions are partially unoccupied. The enemy is completely taken by surprise, which is confirmed by aerial reconnaissance data and Russian radio interception (reports are transmitted in clear text). There are few prisoners...
Russians are in a bad mood, in part because of the poor food supply. The soldiers don't want to hear anything about politics. During combat operations, each soldier is entitled to a set of 15 cartridges.”
“Where the enemy was encountered, he put up fierce and brave resistance and fought to the death. There were no reports of defectors or those who surrendered from anywhere. Therefore, the battles were marked by greater ferocity than during the Polish campaign or the Western Campaign...
A single Soviet fighter was distinguished by greater tenacity than a Russian soldier of the World War era, which must be a consequence of Bolshevik ideas, which were also fueled by political commissars (who, as a precaution, took off their insignia and wore soldiers' greatcoats). He felt the result of the dominance of Soviet power, which instilled in him insensibility and real contempt for death.”
Alexander Usovsky
Doubting the reliability of generally accepted judgments is not a whim of a perverted mind; rather, it is a sincere attempt to find the truth where it is buried under a layer of skillful lies.
The seeker - let him find!
He who loves instruction loves knowledge;
but whoever hates reproof is ignorant.
Book of Proverbs of Solomon, chapter 12.
Minasova M.M.,
Levchenko D.E.,
Korbanu I.V.,
Pasko SM.,
Nikolaychuk V.M.,
Nikolaychuk A.M.,
Kravtsova Yu.M.,
Chernikova N.A.,
Shcherbitova T.N.,
Mityurnikova Y.A.
What is this book about?
About courage and betrayal, about valor and deceit, about honor and meanness, about heroes and traitors, about marshals and privates. About war.
The one that in the history of mankind was called the Second World War. And part of which was the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against Nazi Germany.
Once again about the war? - the reader will be indignant. Yes, as much as possible, in the end! Who cares about a war that ended sixty years ago? Another three or four, or maybe ten years will pass, and the last participant in those events will pass away. Why stir up the old? Maybe we can also start a theoretical debate about the causes and outcome of the Crimean (and ideally, the Hundred Years) War? You need to live today, plan tomorrow and anticipate the day after tomorrow - and not delve into yellowed archival papers and feel the rusty dead iron of tanks and guns of that war. Enough about “valor, about exploits, about glory” - it’s time to get used to the fact that peace has reigned in Europe for sixty years! True, there was a mess in the Balkans about six years ago - well, that’s what the Balkans are for...
Moreover, the whole truth about the war has already been told to the Soviet (Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, and further on the list) people. Or rather, even two truths.
There is a version of Soviet agitprop - it was created by thousands of historians, memoirists, fiction writers, film directors and talented (and not so talented) actors.
The essence of this concept is this:
Germany was striving for hegemony in Europe (and in the future - in the world), capitalist states surrendered country after country to Hitler, and only the USSR was a constant principled opponent of fascism. And for this, the Germans broke into our peaceful sleeping house at dawn on June 22. Their goal was to destroy the world's first proletarian state and overthrow Soviet power. We fell victim to a surprise attack, our army was not ready to repel the aggression of the insidious enemy, so the Germans reached first Moscow, and then the Volga. And only at the cost of superhuman effort from the entire Soviet people were we able to survive and win.
The concept may be overly ideological, but still relatively coherent and logical - if we consider that emotions can also be part of the material reasons for a military conflict.
Everything is quite simple. The German fascists (the fact that in Germany there was a national, but still a socialist party in power and what goals it pursued was silently suppressed) simply really wanted to attack us and destroy our native communist power, so that they could then turn us all into slaves and divide the country into estates for the German Bauers. Germany was demonized according to all the rules of military propaganda: the Germans were monsters whose goal in life was the destruction of “the world’s first proletarian state.”
Thanks to this approach, the entire history of World War II was reduced to four years of bloodshed on the East European Plain, which, according to Soviet historians, occurred solely because of the fascists’ brutal hatred of the Soviet country. We “took through” the gigantic (in scope, not in the number of bayonets involved) battles in the Pacific Ocean and the operations of our allies in Southeast Asia and North Africa as optional material. “Secondary theatres”, what can we say about them! Armies of millions fought at Stalingrad, but Montgomery and Rommel combined had barely two dozen divisions. Is this a battle? Not to mention Midway, where only a dozen ships and fifteen thousand sailors fought. When there is blood in rivers, when corpses are in mountains - this is war!
This approach to the history of the Second World War, sooner or later, was bound to cause a reaction of rejection - among people far from history, and a reaction of skeptical distrust - among those who knew this subject in the slightest degree. After all, what happens: in all the books we write that we had better technology than the Germans, our soldiers showed massive heroism, selfless devotion and love for the Motherland - but still retreated to the Volga! Well, okay, a “surprise attack” could take the troops by surprise at the border - but all our other armies were two hundred, five hundred, a thousand kilometers from the front line! They should have met the advancing Germans with hostility!
And out of a natural distrust of Soviet propaganda, a second doctrine was born, explaining why Hitler attacked the USSR.
Rezun - Master. Master with a capital M, and I won’t get tired of repeating this. How brilliantly he carried out this remarkable disinformation operation! His books sold (and still sell!) in millions of copies, his versions on June 22 are voiced from university departments and almost from church pulpits. This man is a genius! But only a genius of lies.
His concept works on the reader's subconscious. Is it nice to think that we were such bunglers! We have the enemy at the gates, saboteurs are swarming in clouds, cutting wires, German tanks are lining up track to track along the entire border - and we are sleeping with our hats on! We sign pacts with the fascists! We send them wheat and iron ore concentrate!
And it’s a completely different matter - under the guise of a pact, we blind the Germans, while we ourselves ruthlessly plan a strike at the very heart of Germany. That's cool! Stalin is the greatest politician of all times! True, Hitler forestalled him a little, and the war somehow went a little wrong, but everything was planned well!
If the first, “Soviet” concept portrayed the Germans as fiends of hell who desired Russian blood, reduced Hitler to a primitive murderous maniac, and portrayed Stalin as a gullible good-natured person, then Rezun’s concept is already good because it abandoned the Soviet overly emotional assessments of the beginning of the war and gave a more a less intelligible (in its own way, of course) explanation for all the absurdities and absurdities that happened in the first days of the Great Patriotic War.
June 21, 1941, 13:00. German troops receive the code signal "Dortmund", confirming that the invasion will begin the next day.
Commander of the 2nd Tank Group of Army Group Center Heinz Guderian writes in his diary: “Careful observation of the Russians convinced me that they did not suspect anything about our intentions. In the courtyard of the Brest fortress, which was visible from our observation points, they were changing the guards to the sounds of an orchestra. The coastal fortifications along the Western Bug were not occupied by Russian troops."21:00. Soldiers of the 90th border detachment of the Sokal commandant's office detained a German serviceman who crossed the border Bug River by swimming. The defector was sent to the detachment headquarters in the city of Vladimir-Volynsky.
23:00. German minelayers stationed in Finnish ports began to mine the exit from the Gulf of Finland. At the same time, Finnish submarines began laying mines off the coast of Estonia.
June 22, 1941, 0:30. The defector was taken to Vladimir-Volynsky. During interrogation, the soldier identified himself Alfred Liskov, soldiers of the 221st Regiment of the 15th Infantry Division of the Wehrmacht. He said that at dawn on June 22, the German army would go on the offensive along the entire length of the Soviet-German border. The information was transferred to higher command.
At the same time, the transmission of Directive No. 1 of the People's Commissariat of Defense for parts of the western military districts began from Moscow. “During June 22-23, 1941, a surprise attack by the Germans is possible on the fronts of LVO, PribOVO, ZAPOVO, KOVO, OdVO. An attack may begin with provocative actions,” the directive said. “The task of our troops is not to succumb to any provocative actions that could cause major complications.”
The units were ordered to be put on combat readiness, to secretly occupy firing points of fortified areas on the state border, and to disperse aircraft to field airfields.
It is not possible to convey the directive to military units before the start of hostilities, as a result of which the measures specified in it are not carried out.
Mobilization. Columns of fighters are moving to the front. Photo: RIA Novosti
“I realized that it was the Germans who opened fire on our territory”
1:00. The commandants of the sections of the 90th border detachment report to the head of the detachment, Major Bychkovsky: “nothing suspicious was noticed on the adjacent side, everything is calm.”
3:05 . A group of 14 German Ju-88 bombers drops 28 magnetic mines near the Kronstadt roadstead.
3:07. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, reports to the Chief of the General Staff, General Zhukov: “The fleet's air surveillance, warning and communications system reports the approach of a large number of unknown aircraft from the sea; The fleet is in full combat readiness."
3:10. The NKGB for the Lviv region transmits by telephone message to the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR the information obtained during the interrogation of the defector Alfred Liskov.
From the memoirs of the chief of the 90th border detachment, Major Bychkovsky: “Without finishing the interrogation of the soldier, I heard strong artillery fire in the direction of Ustilug (the first commandant’s office). I realized that it was the Germans who opened fire on our territory, which was immediately confirmed by the interrogated soldier. I immediately began to call the commandant by phone, but the connection was broken...”3:30. Chief of Staff of the Western District General Klimovsky reports on enemy air raids on the cities of Belarus: Brest, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovichi and others.
3:33. The chief of staff of the Kyiv district, General Purkaev, reports on an air raid on the cities of Ukraine, including Kyiv.
3:40. Commander of the Baltic Military District General Kuznetsov reports on enemy air raids on Riga, Siauliai, Vilnius, Kaunas and other cities.
“The enemy raid has been repulsed. An attempt to strike our ships was foiled."
3:42. Chief of the General Staff Zhukov is calling Stalin and reports the start of hostilities by Germany. Stalin orders Tymoshenko and Zhukov arrive at the Kremlin, where an emergency meeting of the Politburo is convened.
3:45. The 1st border outpost of the 86th August border detachment was attacked by an enemy reconnaissance and sabotage group. Outpost personnel under command Alexandra Sivacheva, having entered into battle, destroys the attackers.
4:00. The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Vice Admiral Oktyabrsky, reports to Zhukov: “The enemy raid has been repulsed. An attempt to strike our ships was foiled. But there is destruction in Sevastopol.”4:05. The outposts of the 86th August Border Detachment, including the 1st Border Outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev, come under heavy artillery fire, after which the German offensive begins. Border guards, deprived of communication with the command, engage in battle with superior enemy forces.
4:10. The Western and Baltic special military districts report the beginning of hostilities by German troops on the ground.
4:15. The Nazis open massive artillery fire on the Brest Fortress. As a result, warehouses were destroyed, communications were disrupted, and there were a large number of dead and wounded.
4:25. The 45th Wehrmacht Infantry Division begins an attack on the Brest Fortress.
Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. Residents of the capital on June 22, 1941, during the radio announcement of a government message about the treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti
“Protecting not individual countries, but ensuring the security of Europe”
4:30. A meeting of Politburo members begins in the Kremlin. Stalin expresses doubt that what happened is the beginning of a war and does not exclude the possibility of a German provocation. People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko and Zhukov insist: this is war.
4:55. In the Brest Fortress, the Nazis manage to capture almost half of the territory. Further progress was stopped by a sudden counterattack by the Red Army.
5:00. German Ambassador to the USSR Count von Schulenburg presented to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Molotov“Note from the German Foreign Office to the Soviet Government,” which states: “The German Government cannot remain indifferent to the serious threat on the eastern border, therefore the Fuehrer has ordered the German Armed Forces to ward off this threat by all means.” An hour after the actual start of hostilities, Germany de jure declares war on the Soviet Union.
5:30. On German radio, the Reich Minister of Propaganda Goebbels reads out the appeal Adolf Hitler to the German people in connection with the start of the war against the Soviet Union: “Now the hour has come when it is necessary to speak out against this conspiracy of the Jewish-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and also the Jewish rulers of the Bolshevik center in Moscow... At the moment, a military action of the greatest extent and volume is taking place, what the world has ever seen... The task of this front is no longer to protect individual countries, but to ensure the security of Europe and thereby save everyone.”7:00. Reich Minister for Foreign Affairs Ribbentrop begins a press conference at which he announces the beginning of hostilities against the USSR: “The German army has invaded the territory of Bolshevik Russia!”
“The city is burning, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?”
7:15. Stalin approves a directive to repel the attack of Nazi Germany: “The troops with all their might and means attack enemy forces and destroy them in areas where they violated the Soviet border.” Transfer of “directive No. 2” due to saboteurs’ disruption of communication lines in the western districts. Moscow does not have a clear picture of what is happening in the combat zone.
9:30. It was decided that at noon, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov would address the Soviet people in connection with the outbreak of war.
10:00. From the speaker's memories Yuri Levitan: “They’re calling from Minsk: “Enemy planes are over the city,” they’re calling from Kaunas: “The city is burning, why aren’t you broadcasting anything on the radio?” “Enemy planes are over Kiev.” A woman’s crying, excitement: “Is it really war?..” However, no official messages are transmitted until 12:00 Moscow time on June 22.
10:30. From a report from the headquarters of the 45th German division about the battles on the territory of the Brest Fortress: “The Russians are resisting fiercely, especially behind our attacking companies. In the citadel, the enemy organized a defense with infantry units supported by 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles. Enemy sniper fire resulted in heavy casualties among officers and non-commissioned officers."11:00. The Baltic, Western and Kiev special military districts were transformed into the North-Western, Western and South-Western fronts.
“The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours"
12:00. People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov reads out an appeal to the citizens of the Soviet Union: “Today at 4 o’clock in the morning, without making any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed us with our cities - Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others - with their planes, and more than two hundred people were killed and wounded. Raids by enemy planes and artillery shelling were also carried out from Romanian and Finnish territory... Now that the attack on the Soviet Union has already taken place, the Soviet government has given an order to our troops to repel the bandit attack and expel German troops from the territory of our homeland... The government calls on you, citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally our ranks even more closely around our glorious Bolshevik Party, around our Soviet government, around our great leader, Comrade Stalin.
Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours" .
12:30. Advanced German units break into the Belarusian city of Grodno.
13:00.
The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issues a decree “On the mobilization of those liable for military service...”
“Based on Article 49, paragraph “o” of the USSR Constitution, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR announces mobilization on the territory of the military districts - Leningrad, Baltic special, Western special, Kiev special, Odessa, Kharkov, Oryol, Moscow, Arkhangelsk, Ural, Siberian, Volga, North -Caucasian and Transcaucasian.
13:30. Chief of the General Staff General Zhukov flies to Kyiv as a representative of the newly created Headquarters of the Main Command on the Southwestern Front.
Photo: RIA Novosti
14:00. The Brest Fortress is completely surrounded by German troops. Soviet units blocked in the citadel continue to offer fierce resistance.
14:05. Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano states: “In view of the current situation, due to the fact that Germany declared war on the USSR, Italy, as an ally of Germany and as a member of the Tripartite Pact, also declares war on the Soviet Union from the moment German troops entered Soviet territory.”
14:10. The 1st border outpost of Alexander Sivachev has been fighting for more than 10 hours. The border guards, who had only small arms and grenades, destroyed up to 60 Nazis and burned three tanks. The wounded commander of the outpost continued to command the battle.
15:00. From the notes of the commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal von Bock: “The question of whether the Russians are carrying out a systematic withdrawal remains open. There is now plenty of evidence both for and against this.
What is surprising is that nowhere is any significant work of their artillery visible. Heavy artillery fire is conducted only in the northwest of Grodno, where the VIII Army Corps is advancing. Apparently, our air force has an overwhelming superiority over Russian aviation."Of the 485 border posts attacked, not a single one withdrew without orders.
16:00. After a 12-hour battle, the Nazis took the positions of the 1st border outpost. This became possible only after all the border guards who defended it died. The head of the outpost, Alexander Sivachev, was posthumously awarded the Order of the Patriotic War, 1st degree.
The feat of the outpost of Senior Lieutenant Sivachev was one of hundreds committed by border guards in the first hours and days of the war. On June 22, 1941, the state border of the USSR from the Barents to the Black Sea was guarded by 666 border outposts, 485 of which were attacked on the very first day of the war. Not one of the 485 outposts attacked on June 22 withdrew without orders.
Hitler's command allotted 20 minutes to break the resistance of the border guards. 257 Soviet border posts held their defense from several hours to one day. More than one day - 20, more than two days - 16, more than three days - 20, more than four and five days - 43, from seven to nine days - 4, more than eleven days - 51, more than twelve days - 55, more than 15 days - 51 outpost. Forty-five outposts fought for up to two months.
Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. The workers of Leningrad listen to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union. Photo: RIA Novosti
Of the 19,600 border guards who met the Nazis on June 22 in the direction of the main attack of Army Group Center, more than 16,000 died in the first days of the war.
17:00. Hitler's units manage to occupy the southwestern part of the Brest Fortress, the northeast remained under the control of Soviet troops. Stubborn battles for the fortress will continue for weeks.
“The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland”
18:00. The Patriarchal Locum Tenens, Metropolitan Sergius of Moscow and Kolomna, addresses the believers with a message: “Fascist robbers attacked our homeland. Trampling all kinds of agreements and promises, they suddenly fell upon us, and now the blood of peaceful citizens is already irrigating our native land... Our Orthodox Church has always shared the fate of the people. She endured trials with him and was consoled by his successes. She will not abandon her people even now... The Church of Christ blesses all Orthodox Christians for the defense of the sacred borders of our Motherland.”
19:00. From the notes of the Chief of the General Staff of the Wehrmacht Ground Forces, Colonel General Franz Halder: “All armies, except the 11th Army of Army Group South in Romania, went on the offensive according to plan. The offensive of our troops, apparently, came as a complete tactical surprise to the enemy along the entire front. Border bridges across the Bug and other rivers were everywhere captured by our troops without a fight and in complete safety. The complete surprise of our offensive for the enemy is evidenced by the fact that the units were taken by surprise in a barracks arrangement, the planes were parked at airfields, covered with tarpaulins, and the advanced units, suddenly attacked by our troops, asked the command about what to do... The Air Force command reported, that today 850 enemy aircraft have been destroyed, including entire squadrons of bombers, which, having taken off without fighter cover, were attacked by our fighters and destroyed.”20:00. Directive No. 3 of the People's Commissariat of Defense was approved, ordering Soviet troops to launch a counteroffensive with the task of defeating Hitler's troops on the territory of the USSR with further advance into enemy territory. The directive ordered the capture of the Polish city of Lublin by the end of June 24.
Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. June 22, 1941 Nurses provide assistance to the first wounded after a Nazi air raid near Chisinau. Photo: RIA Novosti
“We must provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can.”
21:00. Summary of the Red Army High Command for June 22: “At dawn on June 22, 1941, regular troops of the German army attacked our border units on the front from the Baltic to the Black Sea and were held back by them during the first half of the day. In the afternoon, German troops met with the advanced units of the field troops of the Red Army. After fierce fighting, the enemy was repulsed with heavy losses. Only in the Grodno and Kristinopol directions did the enemy manage to achieve minor tactical successes and occupy the towns of Kalwaria, Stoyanuv and Tsekhanovets (the first two are 15 km and the last 10 km from the border).
Enemy aircraft attacked a number of our airfields and populated areas, but everywhere they met decisive resistance from our fighters and anti-aircraft artillery, which inflicted heavy losses on the enemy. We shot down 65 enemy aircraft.”
23:00. Message from the Prime Minister of Great Britain Winston Churchill to the British people in connection with the German attack on the USSR: “At 4 o'clock this morning Hitler attacked Russia. All his usual formalities of treachery were observed with scrupulous precision... suddenly, without a declaration of war, even without an ultimatum, German bombs fell from the sky on Russian cities, German troops violated Russian borders, and an hour later the German ambassador, who just the day before had generously lavished his assurances on the Russians in friendship and almost an alliance, paid a visit to the Russian Minister of Foreign Affairs and declared that Russia and Germany were at war...
No one has been more staunchly opposed to communism over the past 25 years than I have been. I will not take back a single word that was said about him. But all this pales in comparison to the spectacle unfolding now.The past, with its crimes, follies and tragedies, recedes. I see Russian soldiers as they stand on the border of their native land and guard the fields that their fathers have plowed since time immemorial. I see them guarding their homes; their mothers and wives pray—oh, yes, because at such a time everyone prays for the safety of their loved ones, for the return of their breadwinner, patron, their protectors...
We must provide Russia and the Russian people with all the help we can. We must call on all our friends and allies in all parts of the world to pursue a similar course and pursue it as steadfastly and steadily as we will, to the very end.”
June 22 came to an end. There were still 1,417 days ahead of the worst war in human history.