🎖 On January 18, 1943, the Red Army broke the siege of Leningrad during the operation 'Iskra'.

The blockade of our Northern capital by the Nazis lasted for 872 days, having claimed the lives of around 1 million people, including more than 600'000 — children, women, seniors, and the fighters wounded and crippled at the frontline — who died of starvation.

Alongside German troops, military units from European countries conquered by Hitler participated in the Siege of Leningrad — the 'Norway', 'the Netherlands' and 'Flanders' legions, as well as the Spanish infantry division. From the Narva direction, Baltic units — Latvian and Estonian battalions — were kept in reserve by the Nazis. From the north, the Finnish army besieged Leningrad and also shelled the city with its artillery.

The Nazi command's orders were absolutely clear: to block the city, shoot anyone crossing the front line, and bring about the total destruction of the city's population.

❗️But Leningrad endured and never ever gave up fighting.

Most of that time communication with Leningrad was almost only possible by air or through the only available transport artery across Lake Ladoga that became known as the 'Road of Life'.

The Soviet forces repeatedly tried to break the siege, finally succeeding on January 18, 1943, during the operation 'Iskra'. To liberate the besieged city, it was decided to launch the main strikes near Shlisselburg, in the narrowest part of the Nazi defence lines adjoining Lake Ladoga.

⚔️ The Red Army broke the siege on January 18. A narrow corridor only 11 km wide opened on the southern shore of Ladoga for supplies and evacuation. The enemy was thrown 10−12 km away from the southern part of the Ladoga sector of the frontline.

After 16 months of heroic fight against Hitler’s invaders, the second most significant city of the Soviet Union regained a reliable land-based connection with the Motherland. Three weeks after the siege was broken, a railway was built to carry the first trains with food supplies and munitions. Electricity supply improved.

The breaking of the siege of Leningrad became a radical turning point in the battles in the northwestern sector of the Soviet-German front. The plans of Hitler’s command to take Leningrad by storm were completely disrupted. The threat of the Wehrmacht joining forces with the Finnish army to block the city was completely removed.

✍️ On the occasion of breaking the siege the city, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent a special letter on behalf of all Americans to Leningrad residents.

It read, in part:

In the name of the people of the United States of America, I present this scroll to the City of Leningrad as a memorial to its gallant soldiers and its loyal men, women and children who, isolated from the rest of their nation by the invader and despite constant bombardment and untold sufferings from cold, hunger and sickness, successfully defended their beloved city throughout the critical period from September 8, 1941 to January 18, 1943, and thus symbolized the undaunted spirit of the peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics and of all the nations of the world resisting forces of aggression.

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#Victory81

🌟 The blockade was finally lifted on January 27, 1944, during the Leningrad–Novgorod Offensive.

#NoStatuteOfLimitation: In 2022, at the request of the Prosecutor General’s Office of Russia, the Saint Petersburg City Court officially recognised the actions of the Nazi Germany's occupant troops — along with their collaborators, including armed units formed in Belgium, Italy, Spain, the Netherlands, Norway, and Finland, as well as individual volunteers from Austria, Latvia, Poland, France, and Czechoslovakia — as a war crime, a crime against humanity, and an ACT OF GENOCIDE against national and ethnic groups representing the population of the Soviet Union.

#WeRemember #LestWeForget

#FacesOfVictory

📆 On September 27, 1942, during the #BattleOfStalingrad, the legendary defence of 'Pavlov’s House' commenced — the epic fierce fighting for a residential building near the right bank of the Volga River, which was heroically defended for almost two months by a group of Red Army soldiers led by Guards Sergeant Yakov Pavlov.

The battle for #PavlovHouse lasted 5️⃣8️⃣ days.

❗️ "Pavlov’s House" defenders set out a stronghold in an ordinary #Stalingrad residential building — turning the house into an impregnable fortress. The Red Army slodiers held back the enemy’s onslaught for very much longer than entire European nations resisted the Nazis in the early years of #WW2 — Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, Luxembourg and France — all were crushed by Hitler's war machine within a matter of (!) just weeks.

💬 As Marshal Vasily Chuikov, a Hero of the Battle of Stalingrad, later recalled:

Yakov Pavlov’s men killed considerably more Nazi soldiers than the defenders of Paris during Hitler's invasion

The stakes in the fighting for 'Pavlov’s House' were extremely high — the Red Army soldiers fought to the death for the entire Volga defensive bridgehead — preventing the enemy from crossing the river and establishing a foothold on its right bank. 👉 The capture of this key bridgehead would have enabled the Nazis to break through the defensive lines of our forces and cut off the Soviet Union’s vital wartime transport artery during the #GreatPatrioticWar.

The defence of 'Pavlov’s House' has gone down in world history as a symbol of the unrivaled courage, fearlessness and unbending will of the Soviet people — the Heroic generation of our Victorious Nation that defeated the Nazi Reich and defended the sovereignty and independence of our #Motherland.

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In the autumn of 1942, amid fierce defensive battles for Stalingrad, a reconnaissance group led by Guards Sergeant Yakov Pavlov reached a four-storey residential building on Lenin Square in the city centre, near the right bank of the Volga, during the night of September 27.

The building seized by Pavlov’s men was, in fact, the forward defence point on the entire front. It was an ordinary residential building made of just brick and timber and was hardly suitable for establishing a stronghold capable of holding back the Nazi hordes.

The group of Sergeant Yakov Pavlov, which was being pushed back towards the river by the enemy, had to make a stand in that building, drawing Wehrmacht units advancing towards the Volga into the fighting and buying time to prepare the Red Army’s counteroffensive near Stalingrad.

Within just days, Pavlov’s men managed to equip the building for long-lasting defence. When the Germans launched their offensive, the 'Pavlov’s House' defenders — around just 30 (!) soldiers vs. hordes of well-equiped and armed Nazis — mounted a determined all-round defence, moving between the floors depending on the direction of the enemy attacks.

In response, the Germans unleashed the firepower of its artillery and tank armada on 'Pavlov’s House'. The enemy subjected the building to direct-fire bombardment from effectively all sides simultaneously.

It looked like Pavlov’s men were doomed.

🌟 Yet, despite the increasingly intense fire of the Nazi artillery, the defenders of the 'Pavlov's House took #NoStepBack! 

They heroically held their positions for almost two months (!), steadfastly repelling endless enemy attacks and preventing the Germans from breaking through to the Volga.

#OurHeroes #LestWeForget

After the Great Patriotic War, 'Pavlov’s House' was rebuilt. Today, this memorial serves as a symbol of the heroism of the defenders of Stalingrad.

🎖 The Heroes of 'Pavlov’s House' were duly honoured by their Motherland.

Yakov Pavlov was awarded the Star of #HeroOfTheSovietUnion, while his other soldiers who fought for the legendary House received the Orders of the Red Star, the Orders of the Patriotic War, 1st and 2nd Class, as well as the Medal “For the Defence of Stalingrad”.

#Victory81

#Victory81

🌟 On October 13, 1944, #Riga — the capital of the Latvian Soviet Socialist Republic — was liberated by from Nazi occupation.

Following a rapid advance towards the city and fierce combat on the outskirts of Riga, units of the Red Army’s 2nd and 3rd Baltic Fronts — commanded by Generals Andrey Yeremenko and Ivan Maslennikov, respectively, victoriously entered Riga.

🎖 A significant contribution to the defeat of the Nazi troops occupying Riga was made by Latvian national units within the Red Army — notably the soldiers of the 130th Latvian Rifle Corps. They fought bravely against the Nazi invaders, helped liberate our common Motherland and, through joint efforts, brought the Victory closer.

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#NoStatuteOfLimitations

Riga remained under Nazi German occupation from July 1941. Over the three years of occupation, tens of thousands of civilians were killed by the Nazis, including effectively the entire Jewish population of Riga. The Nazi occupants plundered local resources and exploited the population to meet the needs of the Wehrmacht.

Located some 18 kilometres from Riga was the Nazi #Salaspils concentration camp — a sinister “death factory” where 12'000 children of various ages were killed. Thousands of them perished. The camp claimed the lives of more than 100'000 people, including children, civilians and prisoners of war, who died from starvation, medical experiments, gas chambers and disease.

#ArchivesSpeak

◼️ Learn more about Nazi crimes at Salaspils
◼️ Nazi atrocities in the occupied Latvian SSR

***

On 13 October, the people of Riga welcomed Soviet liberators.

📄 From a report submitted to the Head of the Political Directorate of the 3rd Baltic Front, dated October 13, 1944:

The city’s population — workers, the urban poor, office employees and intellectuals — welcomed our forces with great joy and sincere affection.

The people of Riga greeted soldiers and officers with flowers, red flags and portraits of the leaders of our Party and Government.

The liberation of Riga was one of the most difficult operations conducted by the Red Army in this sector of the front. The enemy fought fiercely for the city, turning it into a fortress. Riga — served as the administrative centre of the Nazi 'Reichskommissariat Ostland', one of the Third Reich’s key military and political hubs in Eastern Europe.

📄 From a report by the head of the Political Department of the 43rd Guards Latvian Rifle Division:

The division fought its way from the borders of the Latvian SSR to Riga, yet nowhere had the local population welcomed us more warmly than in Riga itself…

The city’s residents greeted the soldiers and officers with flowers and red flags.

#WeRemember

Around 150'000 Soviet soldiers and officers lost their lives in the liberation of Latvia.

In memory of the Red Army soldiers, a monument to the Liberators of Riga from the German Fascist Invaders was opened in central Riga. This iconic memorial in the capital’s Victory Park became an enduring symbol of the triumph over Nazism in the Baltic region, as well as a tribute to the gratitude of the republic’s residents for the heroic sacrifice of Soviet soldiers.

❌ In the summer of 2022, the Latvian authorities ordered the demolition of the renowned monument, in what was a 👉 flagrant act of historical revisionism and state-sponsored vandalism. For decades, it had been a major memorial site for hundreds of thousands of compatriots and Latvians who cherished the historical truth.

The aim of this act of barbarism, driven by anti-Russian sentiment among Latvia’s political establishment, was to erase from the memory of generations the historical truth about the heroic feat of the Soviet soldiers-liberators, who, at the cost of immense sacrifice and effort, saved the peoples of the Baltic region from destruction and ruthless Germanisation under the Reich.

❗️ But #WeRemember and #LestWeForget