Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
#Victory81
🌟 On April 17, 1944, the Battle for Right-Bank Soviet Ukraine concluded – also known as the Dnieper-Carpathian Offensive – one of the largest and longest campaigns of the Great Patriotic War.
It lasted from December 24, 1943, to April 17, 1944. Vast forces were committed on both sides during the operation – around 4 million people in total. The troops of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, commanded by Nikolay Vatutin, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky and Fyodor Tolbukhin, faced two German army groups – Army Group South and Army Group A.
☝️ This was the only operation of the Great Patriotic War in which all six Soviet tank armies were advancing simultaneously.
After the liberation of Kiev, the Nazis sought to hold on to Right-Bank Ukraine at any cost. This area was of crucial military and strategic importance to the Germans: losing it opened the way for the Red Army to the Carpathians, Moldova, Romania and onward to the Balkans.
The enemy had concentrated over 1.7 million soldiers and officers, 16,800 guns and mortars, 2,200 tanks and assault guns, and around 1,500 aircraft on Right-Bank Ukraine.
The Soviet High Command committed 2.3 million troops, 28,800 guns and mortars, over 2,000 tanks and self-propelled artillery systems, and 2,300 aircraft.
***
The first offensive against the enemy was launched in late December 1943, when units of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke through German defences and liberated Korosten, Brusilov, Kazatin, Skvira and other towns and villages.
On January 5, 1944, the 2nd Ukrainian Front went over to the offensive and by mid-January had liberated Kirovograd. In early February 1944, near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Soviet troops encircled a large German grouping. All attempts to break out and relieve it were thwarted, and by February 17-18 the pocket had been eliminated.
In the first half of February 1944, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated Lutsk, Rovno and Shepetovka. At the same time, the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts smashed several major enemy groupings, liberating Apostolovo, Nikopol and Krivoy Rog.
After Nikolay Vatutin was seriously wounded in a clash with Banderites, Georgy Zhukov took command of the 1st Ukrainian Front. On March 4, 1944, his troops resumed the offensive, liberated a number of cities and cut the key railway lines Ternopol-Proskurov and Lvov-Odessa.
In April 1944, the Red Army fully liberated the Nikolayev and Odessa regions, as well as a significant part of Moldova.
The 4th Ukrainian Front then commenced the operation to liberate Crimea.
***
⚔️ The results of the Dnieper-Carpathian Operation were of exceptional military and strategic importance. Soviet troops advanced 250-450 kilometres deep into enemy-held territory and routed the southern wing of the German strategic front.
The enemy suffered devastating losses: 10 divisions and 1 brigade were completely destroyed, while another 59 divisions, including 12 tank and 3 motorised divisions, lost between half and three-quarters of their personnel.
Most of Right-Bank Ukraine was liberated: Khmelnytsky, Vinnitsa, Ternopol and Chernovtsy regions, parts of the Rovno and Ivano-Frankovsk regions. 57 major cities were freed from Nazi occupation.
The Red Army’s advance to the borders of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania became a major factor in the rise of the national liberation movements in those countries. The Nazis were later driven out of those territories through joint efforts, with Soviet troops playing the decisive role.
The liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine ended the years of terror imposed by the Nazis and their loyal OUN-UPA nationalist accomplices.
🕯 According to various estimates, atrocities of the Nazi occupiers and nationalist punitive units on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR claimed the lives of around 4.5 million civilians. We honour their memory, as well as that of millions of other victims of the Soviet people murdered at the hands of Hitler’s executioners, on April 19 – the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People.
#WeRemember
It lasted from December 24, 1943, to April 17, 1944. Vast forces were committed on both sides during the operation – around 4 million people in total. The troops of the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, commanded by Nikolay Vatutin, Ivan Konev, Rodion Malinovsky and Fyodor Tolbukhin, faced two German army groups – Army Group South and Army Group A.
☝️ This was the only operation of the Great Patriotic War in which all six Soviet tank armies were advancing simultaneously.
After the liberation of Kiev, the Nazis sought to hold on to Right-Bank Ukraine at any cost. This area was of crucial military and strategic importance to the Germans: losing it opened the way for the Red Army to the Carpathians, Moldova, Romania and onward to the Balkans.
The enemy had concentrated over 1.7 million soldiers and officers, 16,800 guns and mortars, 2,200 tanks and assault guns, and around 1,500 aircraft on Right-Bank Ukraine.
The Soviet High Command committed 2.3 million troops, 28,800 guns and mortars, over 2,000 tanks and self-propelled artillery systems, and 2,300 aircraft.
***
The first offensive against the enemy was launched in late December 1943, when units of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke through German defences and liberated Korosten, Brusilov, Kazatin, Skvira and other towns and villages.
On January 5, 1944, the 2nd Ukrainian Front went over to the offensive and by mid-January had liberated Kirovograd. In early February 1944, near Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, Soviet troops encircled a large German grouping. All attempts to break out and relieve it were thwarted, and by February 17-18 the pocket had been eliminated.
In the first half of February 1944, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front liberated Lutsk, Rovno and Shepetovka. At the same time, the 3rd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts smashed several major enemy groupings, liberating Apostolovo, Nikopol and Krivoy Rog.
After Nikolay Vatutin was seriously wounded in a clash with Banderites, Georgy Zhukov took command of the 1st Ukrainian Front. On March 4, 1944, his troops resumed the offensive, liberated a number of cities and cut the key railway lines Ternopol-Proskurov and Lvov-Odessa.
In April 1944, the Red Army fully liberated the Nikolayev and Odessa regions, as well as a significant part of Moldova.
The 4th Ukrainian Front then commenced the operation to liberate Crimea.
***
⚔️ The results of the Dnieper-Carpathian Operation were of exceptional military and strategic importance. Soviet troops advanced 250-450 kilometres deep into enemy-held territory and routed the southern wing of the German strategic front.
The enemy suffered devastating losses: 10 divisions and 1 brigade were completely destroyed, while another 59 divisions, including 12 tank and 3 motorised divisions, lost between half and three-quarters of their personnel.
Most of Right-Bank Ukraine was liberated: Khmelnytsky, Vinnitsa, Ternopol and Chernovtsy regions, parts of the Rovno and Ivano-Frankovsk regions. 57 major cities were freed from Nazi occupation.
The Red Army’s advance to the borders of Poland, Czechoslovakia and Romania became a major factor in the rise of the national liberation movements in those countries. The Nazis were later driven out of those territories through joint efforts, with Soviet troops playing the decisive role.
The liberation of Right-Bank Ukraine ended the years of terror imposed by the Nazis and their loyal OUN-UPA nationalist accomplices.
🕯 According to various estimates, atrocities of the Nazi occupiers and nationalist punitive units on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR claimed the lives of around 4.5 million civilians. We honour their memory, as well as that of millions of other victims of the Soviet people murdered at the hands of Hitler’s executioners, on April 19 – the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People.
#WeRemember
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Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
#WeRemember
🌟 On April 30, 1945, amid fierce battle for the Reichstag, — the legendary Heroic Feat was performed by a Red Army soldier, which entered history as the worldwide known and recognised symbol of the noble, great mission of the Soviet soldiers-liberators, who, selflessly and fearlessly, at the cost of their lives, crushed Hitler's Germany and freed the peoples of Europe of the the Nazi scourge.
#OTD in 1945, Sergeant of the 79th Guards Rifle Division, Red Army soldier Nikolay Masalov, despite the enormous danger and under enemy heavy fire, saved the life of a German girl, carrying her out of the shelling zone.
This honourable deed is immortalised in the figure of the Liberator Soldier memorial in Berlin — the iconic monument in #TreptowerPark, where over 7'000 Red Army soldiers, who fell during the fighting for the Third Reich’s capital, now rest in peace.
The central statue of this world-renowned memorial complex — a Soviet soldier carefully holding in hands a German girl — has become a symbol of the Great Victory of the Soviet people over the Nazi Germany.
💬 Maria Zakharova:
(Excerpt from the briefing by Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, April 24, 2026)
***
The History of the Feat
On the morning of April 30, 1945, during the artillery preparation preceding the advance of Soviet units towards a key German defence point in central Berlin — Tempelhof Airport — Nikolay Masalov heard a child crying.
As Marshal Vasily Chuikov later recalled in his memoirs:
#Masalov resolutely rushed to help the child. Risking his life, the he crawled across a bridge over the Landwehr Canal and rescued a three-year-old girl who was sitting beside the body of her mother, killed by the Nazis.
Taking the girl into his arms, #Masalov began fighting his way back — the Germans were already pouring machine-gun fire onto the Soviet positions.
💬 Marshal Chuikov later recalled Masalov’s heroic deed as follows:
Nikolay Masalov himself never regarded his heroic feat as anything out of the ordinary; whenever he spoke of it, he was a man of few words:
💬 “I am a Russian soldier.
Anyone would’ve done the same in my place.”
#OurHeroes #Victory81
#OTD in 1945, Sergeant of the 79th Guards Rifle Division, Red Army soldier Nikolay Masalov, despite the enormous danger and under enemy heavy fire, saved the life of a German girl, carrying her out of the shelling zone.
This honourable deed is immortalised in the figure of the Liberator Soldier memorial in Berlin — the iconic monument in #TreptowerPark, where over 7'000 Red Army soldiers, who fell during the fighting for the Third Reich’s capital, now rest in peace.
The central statue of this world-renowned memorial complex — a Soviet soldier carefully holding in hands a German girl — has become a symbol of the Great Victory of the Soviet people over the Nazi Germany.
💬 Maria Zakharova:
This memorial features the statue of a Soviet soldier holding a German girl — not a Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Tajik, Armenian, Azerbaijani, or Jewish girl, but a German girl.
This, I believe, represents the most accurate manifestation of humanism: a Soviet soldier is portrayed as a liberator, first and foremost of the German people from Nazism, even though his own family had been killed, his home destroyed, and his home towns and villages burned down. Yet he protects a German girl. <...>
And now they [the official authorities of Germany] are questioning if it is appropriate to commemorate and celebrate Victory Day at Treptower Park beside the statue of the Soldier holding a German girl.
They claim this contradicts the “quiet mourning” approach adopted by “civilised Europe.”
(Excerpt from the briefing by Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, April 24, 2026)
***
The History of the Feat
On the morning of April 30, 1945, during the artillery preparation preceding the advance of Soviet units towards a key German defence point in central Berlin — Tempelhof Airport — Nikolay Masalov heard a child crying.
As Marshal Vasily Chuikov later recalled in his memoirs:
A child’s voice sounded as if from somewhere beneath the ground, muffled and imploring.
Crying, the child repeated just one word, understood by all — 'mutter', 'mutter'.
#Masalov resolutely rushed to help the child. Risking his life, the he crawled across a bridge over the Landwehr Canal and rescued a three-year-old girl who was sitting beside the body of her mother, killed by the Nazis.
Taking the girl into his arms, #Masalov began fighting his way back — the Germans were already pouring machine-gun fire onto the Soviet positions.
💬 Marshal Chuikov later recalled Masalov’s heroic deed as follows:
Thousands of guns and mortars were firing upon the enemy.
Thousands of shells and mines covered the Soviet soldier’s breakthrough from the death zone with a three-year-old German girl in his arms.
Nikolay Masalov himself never regarded his heroic feat as anything out of the ordinary; whenever he spoke of it, he was a man of few words:
💬 “I am a Russian soldier.
Anyone would’ve done the same in my place.”
#OurHeroes #Victory81
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Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
#Victory81
🌟 On May 6, 1945, the Prague offensive of the Red Army commenced, marking the end of the final battle of the Great Patriotic War on the European ToO during #WW2.
As a result of the operation, Nazi army groups 'Center' and 'Austria' — the last of the remaining fascists' combat-capable troops (around one million Wehrmacht and SS soldiers and officers) — were crushed and ultimately destroyed once and for all.
Czechoslovakia, torn apart by Hitler with the principle consent of Prague's key Western allies — Britain and France — was finally liberated. Following the six years of Nazi occupation, the Czechoslovak peoples finally regained independence paid by blood and enormous sacrifice of the Red Army soldiers-liberators.
📕 From the memoirs of Marshal Ivan Konev (“Forty-Fifth”):
🎖 As the Soviet forces approached the borders of Czechoslovakia, a popular uprising broke out in Prague, which was brutally suppressed by SS-units (more than three thousand Praguers were killed). The Czechoslovak government appealed to the Soviet command for support for the anti-fascist resistance movement.
On May 6, the forward group of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev advanced to Prague, along with forces of the 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, supported by the Czechoslovak resistance army and local partisans. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with their brothers-in-arms — the Red Army soldiers — they finally cleared their Motherland, Czechoslovakia, of Nazi troops. From 1939 to 1945, the fascists exterminated all who opposed the occupation regime. Thousands of Slovaks and Czechs were forcibly deported to the Reich and enslaved there.
💬 Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal Ivan Konev:
On the night of May 8-9, tank units of the 1st Ukrainian Front engaged in rapid 80-kilometer forced march and, overcoming fierce SS-troops' resistance, entered Prague.
By 10 a.m. on May 9, Soviet forces, with active support from the Czechoslovak people, completely cleared Prague of the Nazis.
In the meanwhile, the enemy’s retreat routes to the west and southwest were cut off. On May 10-11, the remaining combat-capable Nazi troops, their collaborators and henchmen outside Prague began to surrender. Over the following three days, the main forces of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian Fronts fully destroyed the remnants of German armies eastward of the Czechoslovak capital.
💬 Commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front, Marshal Andrey Yeremenko:
💬 Soviet tank crews' member, who liberated Prague, Vassily Moskalenko:
🕯 #WeRemember: 140'000 of our soldiers and officers gave their lives for the freedom of Czechoslovakia. In honour of this landmark victory, the medal “For the Liberation of Prague” was established.
#Victory81
As a result of the operation, Nazi army groups 'Center' and 'Austria' — the last of the remaining fascists' combat-capable troops (around one million Wehrmacht and SS soldiers and officers) — were crushed and ultimately destroyed once and for all.
Czechoslovakia, torn apart by Hitler with the principle consent of Prague's key Western allies — Britain and France — was finally liberated. Following the six years of Nazi occupation, the Czechoslovak peoples finally regained independence paid by blood and enormous sacrifice of the Red Army soldiers-liberators.
📕 From the memoirs of Marshal Ivan Konev (“Forty-Fifth”):
The war was essentially over, yet these men died here, on the outskirts of Prague, when our entire country was already celebrating Victory.
They fell in the final battle with the enemy, fearlessly bringing the mission to its end.
🎖 As the Soviet forces approached the borders of Czechoslovakia, a popular uprising broke out in Prague, which was brutally suppressed by SS-units (more than three thousand Praguers were killed). The Czechoslovak government appealed to the Soviet command for support for the anti-fascist resistance movement.
On May 6, the forward group of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev advanced to Prague, along with forces of the 2nd and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, supported by the Czechoslovak resistance army and local partisans. Fighting shoulder to shoulder with their brothers-in-arms — the Red Army soldiers — they finally cleared their Motherland, Czechoslovakia, of Nazi troops. From 1939 to 1945, the fascists exterminated all who opposed the occupation regime. Thousands of Slovaks and Czechs were forcibly deported to the Reich and enslaved there.
💬 Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal Ivan Konev:
Despite the exhaustion after the Berlin operation, on the eve of the offensive on Prague that slogan was everywhere:
To Prague! We shall save it!
We won't allow Prague to be destroyed by fascist barbarians!
On the night of May 8-9, tank units of the 1st Ukrainian Front engaged in rapid 80-kilometer forced march and, overcoming fierce SS-troops' resistance, entered Prague.
By 10 a.m. on May 9, Soviet forces, with active support from the Czechoslovak people, completely cleared Prague of the Nazis.
In the meanwhile, the enemy’s retreat routes to the west and southwest were cut off. On May 10-11, the remaining combat-capable Nazi troops, their collaborators and henchmen outside Prague began to surrender. Over the following three days, the main forces of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian Fronts fully destroyed the remnants of German armies eastward of the Czechoslovak capital.
💬 Commander of the 4th Ukrainian Front, Marshal Andrey Yeremenko:
It is difficult to put into words…
The Czechoslovak people had suffered greatly at the hands of fascist barbarians.
💬 Soviet tank crews' member, who liberated Prague, Vassily Moskalenko:
Local boys ran up to our tanks <…> carrying buckets of cold water. After the march, it was like honey to us.
People of all ages cried out with joy, grasped our hands, embraced us.
🕯 #WeRemember: 140'000 of our soldiers and officers gave their lives for the freedom of Czechoslovakia. In honour of this landmark victory, the medal “For the Liberation of Prague” was established.
#Victory81
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#Victory81
🌟 On May 8, 1949, the iconic monument in the Soviet War Memorial in #TreptowerPark in Berlin — aka the Soldier-Liberator — was unveiled, right there, at the sacred site of the mass grave of 7'000 Red Army soldiers and officers who perished in the fierce Battle of Berlin in April-May 1945.
This iconic #WW2-era memorial is one of the most worldwide recognizable symbol of the Soviet people’s Great Victory over Nazism. The bronze statue of a Soviet soldier, carefully holding a rescued German girl to his chest and breaking the Nazi swastika with his sword, embodies the noble mission of the Red Army, which liberated Europe from the shackles of Hitler's occupation and put #WWII to its final end.
Inside the foundation of the #LiberatorSoldier monument, there is a memorial hall crowned with images of the Order of Victory. Adorning the wall, there is an inscription:
***
The architectural design of the memorial in Treptower Park commemorates the heroic deed of Red Army soldier Nikolay Masalov. On April 30, 1945, during the fierce street combat in Berlin, the Red Army soldier risked his life to rescue a three-year-old German girl from Nazi gunfire.
The memorial complex took three years to build, from 1946 to 1949. The project was coordinated by famous Soviet monumental sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich, architect Yakov Belopolsky and artist Anatoly Gorpenko.
The very site for the future monument in Berlin was chosen for a particular reason. Treptower Park, located along the Spree River, had been a cherished public park for Berliners. The architects envisioned the memorial as an enduring testament to remind to future generations of who had truly defeated the Third Reich and brought back freedom to the German people and all European nations.
The historical importance of the memorial in preserving the memory of the Soviet soldiers’ heroism can be seen in the architects' note for the initial sketches for the Soviet monuments in Berlin. The note reads, in part:
German sculptors also contributed to its creation, while the choice of building material — the granite taken from the ruins of the defeated Hitler's Reichskanzlei — was imbued with powerful symbolism.
🎖 The monument was officially unveiled on May 8, 1949. During the ceremony, Berlin’s military commandant, Major General Alexander Kotikov, delivered his famous address:
***
Each and every year on May 9, despite the authorities’ ongoing efforts to stifle our sacred #VictoryDay commemorations, thousands of compassionate citizens — our compatriots, and Germans alike — gather at Treptower Park to cherish the memory of Liberators who saved the world from Nazism.
💬 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (excerpt from briefing of April 24, 2026):
#WeRemember
This iconic #WW2-era memorial is one of the most worldwide recognizable symbol of the Soviet people’s Great Victory over Nazism. The bronze statue of a Soviet soldier, carefully holding a rescued German girl to his chest and breaking the Nazi swastika with his sword, embodies the noble mission of the Red Army, which liberated Europe from the shackles of Hitler's occupation and put #WWII to its final end.
Inside the foundation of the #LiberatorSoldier monument, there is a memorial hall crowned with images of the Order of Victory. Adorning the wall, there is an inscription:
Today, it is globally acknowledged that, through their selfless struggle, the Soviet people saved European civilisation from annihilation by fascists.
This stands as the Soviet peoples' historic feat for humanity.
***
The architectural design of the memorial in Treptower Park commemorates the heroic deed of Red Army soldier Nikolay Masalov. On April 30, 1945, during the fierce street combat in Berlin, the Red Army soldier risked his life to rescue a three-year-old German girl from Nazi gunfire.
The memorial complex took three years to build, from 1946 to 1949. The project was coordinated by famous Soviet monumental sculptor Yevgeny Vuchetich, architect Yakov Belopolsky and artist Anatoly Gorpenko.
The very site for the future monument in Berlin was chosen for a particular reason. Treptower Park, located along the Spree River, had been a cherished public park for Berliners. The architects envisioned the memorial as an enduring testament to remind to future generations of who had truly defeated the Third Reich and brought back freedom to the German people and all European nations.
The historical importance of the memorial in preserving the memory of the Soviet soldiers’ heroism can be seen in the architects' note for the initial sketches for the Soviet monuments in Berlin. The note reads, in part:
When designing the projects, the objective must be to create enduring, monumental structures that embody the idea of commemorating the glorious memory of the Soviet Army’s liberating mission, for which these soldiers gave their lives…
The TREPTOWER monument must be especially grand.
German sculptors also contributed to its creation, while the choice of building material — the granite taken from the ruins of the defeated Hitler's Reichskanzlei — was imbued with powerful symbolism.
🎖 The monument was officially unveiled on May 8, 1949. During the ceremony, Berlin’s military commandant, Major General Alexander Kotikov, delivered his famous address:
This monument in the heart of Europe, in Berlin, will forever remind the peoples of the world when, how, and at what cost Victory was achieved, our Motherland was saved and the present and future generations of humanity were preserved.
***
Each and every year on May 9, despite the authorities’ ongoing efforts to stifle our sacred #VictoryDay commemorations, thousands of compassionate citizens — our compatriots, and Germans alike — gather at Treptower Park to cherish the memory of Liberators who saved the world from Nazism.
💬 Russian MFA Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (excerpt from briefing of April 24, 2026):
This memorial features the statue of a Soviet soldier holding a German girl.
Not a Russian, Belarusian, Ukrainian, Tajik, Armenian, Azerbaijani, or Jewish girl, but a German girl.
This, I believe, represents the highest expression of humanism: a Soviet soldier is portrayed as a liberator, first and foremost, of the German people from Nazism, even though his own family had been destroyed, his home obliterated, and Soviet towns and villages burned down.
Yet he protects a German girl.
#WeRemember
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The radio address of Iosif Stalin on the 9th of May 1945
Comrades! Compatriots!
The great day of victory over Germany has come. Fascist Germany, brought to its knees by the Red Army and the troops of our allies, recognised itself defeated and declared unconditional surrender.
On May 7, a preliminary protocol of surrender was signed in the city of Reims. On May 8, representatives of the German High Command, in the presence of representatives of the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces and the Supreme Command of the Soviet Troops, signed in Berlin the final act of surrender, the execution of which began at 24 hours on May 8.
Knowing the wolfish habit of German bosses who consider contracts and agreements to be just a piece of paper, we have no reason to take their word for it. However, this morning, the German troops, in pursuance of the act of surrender, began to lay down their weapons en masse and surrender to our troops. This is no longer an empty piece of paper. This is the actual surrender of the German armed forces. However, one group of German troops in the area of Czechoslovakia is still evading surrender. But I hope that the Red Army will be able to bring it to its senses.
Now we can state with full justification that the historic day of the final defeat of Germany has come, the day of the great victory of our people over German imperialism.
The great sacrifices we made in the name of freedom and independence of our Motherland, the incalculable hardships and sufferings endured by our people during the war, the hard work in the rear and at the front, given on the altar of the Fatherland, were not in vain and were crowned with a complete victory over the enemy. The age-old struggle of the Slavic peoples for their existence and their independence ended in victory over the German invaders and German tyranny.
From now on, the great banner of freedom of peoples and peace between peoples will fly over Europe.
Three years ago, Hitler publicly declared that his goals included the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the separation of the Caucasus, Ukraine, Belorussia, the Baltic region and other regions from it, he bluntly stated: “We will destroy Russia so that it can never rise again.” That was three years ago. But Hitler's crazy ideas were not destined to come true - the course of the war scattered them to dust. In fact, it turned out to be the exact opposite of what the Nazis were raving about. Germany is completely defeated. The German troops are capitulating. The Soviet Union is triumphant, although it does not intend to dismember or destroy Germany.
Comrades! The Great Patriotic War ended with our complete victory. The period of war in Europe is over, the period of peaceful development has begun.
Happy victory to you, my dear compatriots!
Glory to our heroic Red Army, which defended the independence of our Motherland and won victory over the enemy!
Glory to our great people, the victorious people!
Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in battles with the enemy and gave their lives for the freedom and happiness of our people!
— Printed in "Pravda". 10th of May 1945
🇷🇺 🇷🇺 🇷🇺
👉 The speech is available at Beorn's Beehive, as well as our channels on Odysee and Rumble.
#Stalin #WeRemember
@BeornAndTheShieldmaiden
🚀 Boost🚀
Comrades! Compatriots!
The great day of victory over Germany has come. Fascist Germany, brought to its knees by the Red Army and the troops of our allies, recognised itself defeated and declared unconditional surrender.
On May 7, a preliminary protocol of surrender was signed in the city of Reims. On May 8, representatives of the German High Command, in the presence of representatives of the Supreme Command of the Allied Forces and the Supreme Command of the Soviet Troops, signed in Berlin the final act of surrender, the execution of which began at 24 hours on May 8.
Knowing the wolfish habit of German bosses who consider contracts and agreements to be just a piece of paper, we have no reason to take their word for it. However, this morning, the German troops, in pursuance of the act of surrender, began to lay down their weapons en masse and surrender to our troops. This is no longer an empty piece of paper. This is the actual surrender of the German armed forces. However, one group of German troops in the area of Czechoslovakia is still evading surrender. But I hope that the Red Army will be able to bring it to its senses.
Now we can state with full justification that the historic day of the final defeat of Germany has come, the day of the great victory of our people over German imperialism.
The great sacrifices we made in the name of freedom and independence of our Motherland, the incalculable hardships and sufferings endured by our people during the war, the hard work in the rear and at the front, given on the altar of the Fatherland, were not in vain and were crowned with a complete victory over the enemy. The age-old struggle of the Slavic peoples for their existence and their independence ended in victory over the German invaders and German tyranny.
From now on, the great banner of freedom of peoples and peace between peoples will fly over Europe.
Three years ago, Hitler publicly declared that his goals included the dismemberment of the Soviet Union and the separation of the Caucasus, Ukraine, Belorussia, the Baltic region and other regions from it, he bluntly stated: “We will destroy Russia so that it can never rise again.” That was three years ago. But Hitler's crazy ideas were not destined to come true - the course of the war scattered them to dust. In fact, it turned out to be the exact opposite of what the Nazis were raving about. Germany is completely defeated. The German troops are capitulating. The Soviet Union is triumphant, although it does not intend to dismember or destroy Germany.
Comrades! The Great Patriotic War ended with our complete victory. The period of war in Europe is over, the period of peaceful development has begun.
Happy victory to you, my dear compatriots!
Glory to our heroic Red Army, which defended the independence of our Motherland and won victory over the enemy!
Glory to our great people, the victorious people!
Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in battles with the enemy and gave their lives for the freedom and happiness of our people!
— Printed in "Pravda". 10th of May 1945
👉 The speech is available at Beorn's Beehive, as well as our channels on Odysee and Rumble.
#Stalin #WeRemember
@BeornAndTheShieldmaiden
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#FacesOfVictory
🌟 On May 23, 1921, Soviet #WW2-era underground partisan fighter and scout, Hero of the Soviet Union Anna Morozova was born. She is regarded as one of the most successful leaders of the Soviet underground resistance movement units operating in the Nazi rear.
In the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s treacherous invasion of our Motherland, Anna Morozova, like many of her peers, volunteered for the fight against the enemy at the age of just 20. In the settlement of Seshcha (present-day Bryansk Region), where Anna and her family had moved before the war, the Nazis deployed the 2nd Luftwaffe fleet at the local airbase. Right from there, German aircraft carried out bombing against Moscow, as well as Yaroslavl, Gorky, Saratov, and other Soviet cities.
Anna Morozova and her family found themselves in the Nazi occupation within the five-kilometre “dead zone” around the settlement, established by the enemy in order to secure the strategic airfield — in the deep rear. Together with several local young women, Anna Morozova became involved in the Komsomol youth underground organisation, which was coordinated by the Bryansk partisan headquarters.
Operating under extraordinarily difficult conditions deep in the enemy rear, Anna Morozova and her comrades successfully performed their tasks over a period of two years, inflicting substantial damage on the enemy. Their clandestine partisan activities included numerous acts of successful sabotage directed against Nazi aircraft, railway echelons, and ammunition depots belonging to the German fascist invaders.
In 1944, Anna Morozova was sent to East Prussia and Poland as a member of the scout group codenamed "Jack". The unit uncovered a secret Luftwaffe airfield and gathered strategically significant intelligence on the Nazi garrisons in the region.
At the end of December 1944, a member of the “Jack” group was captured by the enemy and, under torture, disclosed his comrades' temporary dislocation, thereby exposing the entire unit to Germans. SS units subsequently located the Soviet scouts and launched a large-scale manhunt.
Engaged in unequal fight with the superior Nazi troops, Anna Morozova was heavily wounded.
Polish partisans concealed her in a willow thicket, but the Nazis eventually discovered her safe haven. Morozova kept fighting until expending her final cartridge and, in order to avoid capture, detonated a grenade, killing herself together with the advancing SS punitive detachment.
🎖 In 1965, Anna Morozova was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) “for exceptional service, courage, and heroism performed in the struggle against the German fascist invaders during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.”
***
To mark the 20th Anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, the multi-part motion picture Calling Fire Upon Ourselves was produced by Mosfilm, based on the novella by Ovidy Gorchakov.
The film depicts real events that occurred in 1942–1943 in the Nazi rear in the Bryansk region, specifically in Seshcha. The role of Anna Morozova was portrayed by Lyudmila Kasatkina.
#OurHeroes #WeRemember #Victory81
In the aftermath of Nazi Germany’s treacherous invasion of our Motherland, Anna Morozova, like many of her peers, volunteered for the fight against the enemy at the age of just 20. In the settlement of Seshcha (present-day Bryansk Region), where Anna and her family had moved before the war, the Nazis deployed the 2nd Luftwaffe fleet at the local airbase. Right from there, German aircraft carried out bombing against Moscow, as well as Yaroslavl, Gorky, Saratov, and other Soviet cities.
Anna Morozova and her family found themselves in the Nazi occupation within the five-kilometre “dead zone” around the settlement, established by the enemy in order to secure the strategic airfield — in the deep rear. Together with several local young women, Anna Morozova became involved in the Komsomol youth underground organisation, which was coordinated by the Bryansk partisan headquarters.
Operating under extraordinarily difficult conditions deep in the enemy rear, Anna Morozova and her comrades successfully performed their tasks over a period of two years, inflicting substantial damage on the enemy. Their clandestine partisan activities included numerous acts of successful sabotage directed against Nazi aircraft, railway echelons, and ammunition depots belonging to the German fascist invaders.
In 1944, Anna Morozova was sent to East Prussia and Poland as a member of the scout group codenamed "Jack". The unit uncovered a secret Luftwaffe airfield and gathered strategically significant intelligence on the Nazi garrisons in the region.
At the end of December 1944, a member of the “Jack” group was captured by the enemy and, under torture, disclosed his comrades' temporary dislocation, thereby exposing the entire unit to Germans. SS units subsequently located the Soviet scouts and launched a large-scale manhunt.
Engaged in unequal fight with the superior Nazi troops, Anna Morozova was heavily wounded.
Polish partisans concealed her in a willow thicket, but the Nazis eventually discovered her safe haven. Morozova kept fighting until expending her final cartridge and, in order to avoid capture, detonated a grenade, killing herself together with the advancing SS punitive detachment.
🎖 In 1965, Anna Morozova was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union (posthumously) “for exceptional service, courage, and heroism performed in the struggle against the German fascist invaders during the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945.”
***
To mark the 20th Anniversary of the Victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War, the multi-part motion picture Calling Fire Upon Ourselves was produced by Mosfilm, based on the novella by Ovidy Gorchakov.
The film depicts real events that occurred in 1942–1943 in the Nazi rear in the Bryansk region, specifically in Seshcha. The role of Anna Morozova was portrayed by Lyudmila Kasatkina.
#OurHeroes #WeRemember #Victory81
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🌟 On June 23, 1944, the Red Army launched one of the largest and most pivotal offensives of the Great Patriotic War – the Belarusian Strategic Offensive Operation (June 23–August 29, 1944), codenamed Bagration.
Within just two weeks of intense combat, the main forces of Hitler’s Army Group Centre were defeated. Within two months, Soviet troops had completely liberated the Belarusian SSR and reached the USSR’s state border, laying the groundwork and securing a springboard for the final liberation of Europe from fascism. Parts of the Baltic states and eastern Poland were also cleared of Nazi occupiers and their henchmen.
***
By the spring of 1944, Soviet forces held the strategic initiative along the entire front, from the Black Sea to the Baltic. The Nazi invaders had been pushed back from Leningrad, and the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Operation to liberate Karelia from Finnish forces was underway. To the south, Crimea and Right-Bank Ukraine had been almost completely cleared of the Nazis, and the Red Army had reached the Romanian border.
As a result of the offensive in Right-Bank Ukraine, coupled with the lack of progress in eastern Belarus, a large German-held salient, roughly 250,000 square kilometres in size, had formed in the central sector of the Soviet-German front. Dubbed the 'Belarusian balcony,' it loomed over Soviet troops in Ukraine and hindered any further advance towards Minsk, Warsaw, and Berlin.
In the occupied territories of the Belarusian SSR, the Nazis committed unspeakable atrocities: razing entire villages to the ground and carrying out the deliberate killing of civilians and prisoners of war.
👉 This salient had to be eliminated at all costs.
The operation was entrusted to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Belarusian Fronts, commanded by Army General Konstantin Rokossovsky, Colonel Generals Georgy Zakharov and Ivan Chernyakhovsky, alongside the 1st Baltic Front under Army General Ivan Bagramyan. Marshals of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky coordinated these forces’ actions.
⚔️ Soviet troops commenced Operation Bagration on June 22, 1944 – the third anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the USSR. The offensive was preceded by reconnaissance in force, and the following day, June 23, the Red Army delivered a lightning strike along a 700-kilometre front stretching from Polotsk to Mozyr.
The rapid Soviet advance took the enemy completely by surprise – the Wehrmacht’s forward positions were literally pounded into the ground. Within days, German divisions were encircled and destroyed in the Vitebsk, Babruysk, and Mogilev areas. Minsk was liberated on July 3, and Vilnius followed by the middle of the month. By early August, the Nazis had been driven out of virtually all of Belarusian territory.
Partisans and underground fighters rendered invaluable assistance to the Red Army throughout the operation. They laid ambushes, destroyed enemy headquarters and individual units, disrupted communications, and seized key positions, holding them until the main forces arrived.
As a result of Operation Bagration, Army Group Centre was utterly annihilated. Major water obstacles on the Eastern Front – the Berezina, the Neman, and the Vistula – were crossed, and a springboard was secured for further offensives in the Baltics, East Prussia, and Poland. The front line was pushed back 550-600 kilometres to the west. According to the Germans’ (!) own figures, Nazi losses from June to August 1944 amounted to around one million officers and soldiers.
🎖 In the struggle for the liberation of Belarus, Soviet soldiers of all nationalities displayed exceptional heroism and outstanding military skill.
Over 1,500 Red Army soldiers and officers who took part in Operation Bagration were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, and hundreds of thousands more received orders and medals.
#WeRemember
Within just two weeks of intense combat, the main forces of Hitler’s Army Group Centre were defeated. Within two months, Soviet troops had completely liberated the Belarusian SSR and reached the USSR’s state border, laying the groundwork and securing a springboard for the final liberation of Europe from fascism. Parts of the Baltic states and eastern Poland were also cleared of Nazi occupiers and their henchmen.
***
By the spring of 1944, Soviet forces held the strategic initiative along the entire front, from the Black Sea to the Baltic. The Nazi invaders had been pushed back from Leningrad, and the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk Operation to liberate Karelia from Finnish forces was underway. To the south, Crimea and Right-Bank Ukraine had been almost completely cleared of the Nazis, and the Red Army had reached the Romanian border.
As a result of the offensive in Right-Bank Ukraine, coupled with the lack of progress in eastern Belarus, a large German-held salient, roughly 250,000 square kilometres in size, had formed in the central sector of the Soviet-German front. Dubbed the 'Belarusian balcony,' it loomed over Soviet troops in Ukraine and hindered any further advance towards Minsk, Warsaw, and Berlin.
In the occupied territories of the Belarusian SSR, the Nazis committed unspeakable atrocities: razing entire villages to the ground and carrying out the deliberate killing of civilians and prisoners of war.
👉 This salient had to be eliminated at all costs.
The operation was entrusted to the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Belarusian Fronts, commanded by Army General Konstantin Rokossovsky, Colonel Generals Georgy Zakharov and Ivan Chernyakhovsky, alongside the 1st Baltic Front under Army General Ivan Bagramyan. Marshals of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky coordinated these forces’ actions.
⚔️ Soviet troops commenced Operation Bagration on June 22, 1944 – the third anniversary of Nazi Germany’s invasion of the USSR. The offensive was preceded by reconnaissance in force, and the following day, June 23, the Red Army delivered a lightning strike along a 700-kilometre front stretching from Polotsk to Mozyr.
The rapid Soviet advance took the enemy completely by surprise – the Wehrmacht’s forward positions were literally pounded into the ground. Within days, German divisions were encircled and destroyed in the Vitebsk, Babruysk, and Mogilev areas. Minsk was liberated on July 3, and Vilnius followed by the middle of the month. By early August, the Nazis had been driven out of virtually all of Belarusian territory.
Partisans and underground fighters rendered invaluable assistance to the Red Army throughout the operation. They laid ambushes, destroyed enemy headquarters and individual units, disrupted communications, and seized key positions, holding them until the main forces arrived.
As a result of Operation Bagration, Army Group Centre was utterly annihilated. Major water obstacles on the Eastern Front – the Berezina, the Neman, and the Vistula – were crossed, and a springboard was secured for further offensives in the Baltics, East Prussia, and Poland. The front line was pushed back 550-600 kilometres to the west. According to the Germans’ (!) own figures, Nazi losses from June to August 1944 amounted to around one million officers and soldiers.
🎖 In the struggle for the liberation of Belarus, Soviet soldiers of all nationalities displayed exceptional heroism and outstanding military skill.
Over 1,500 Red Army soldiers and officers who took part in Operation Bagration were awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union, and hundreds of thousands more received orders and medals.
#WeRemember
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The Sandu regime in Chisinau... has once again revealed its true nature to the world
On July 6, Moldova’s Ministry of Defence committed an outright historical forgery: it used a photograph of Jews delivered by the Nazis to the Auschwitz extermination camp as an illustration of the so-called victims of Stalinism.
The visual composition of the post, timed to coincide with the so-called Day of Remembrance, featured a cropped image of residents of Transcarpathia being sent to their destruction. In the background of the original photograph — a well-known image among historians – the crematorium buildings and their chimneys are clearly visible.
It is inconceivable that this was an innocent error.
❗️ We face a vulgar and contemptible attempt to distort history by equating the Third Reich with the Soviet Union. This is being done in strict accordance with the Brussels playbook — through lies and the deflection of responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi forces and their accomplices. The authorities in Chisinau seek to imitate their European Union patrons in virtually every respect.
This is all easily verified: the world-famous photograph is published, inter alia, on the website of the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Memorial Complex, within the “Auschwitz: Arrival” section. 👉 It is plainly visible there. Beside it is a photograph from the same series, entitled “Arrived Jews from Carpathian Rus.” It must be recalled that in Auschwitz, the Nazis exterminated over one million people.
🌟 #WeRemember: It was the Red Army that put an end to this atrocity: on January 27, 1945, our forces under the command of Marshal Ivan Konev liberated the #AuschwitzBirkenau concentration camp and rescued the surviving prisoners.
This act by an official state body can be described as nothing less than the desecration of the memory of the victims of Nazism. For the overwhelming majority of the country’s population, the Victory over Nazism and the heroism of the liberating soldiers of the Red Army are sacred: alongside other peoples of the Soviet Union, the Moldovan people liberated their homeland and Europe. <...>
This is far from an isolated incident. Rather, it is a symptom of a far more widespread disease, the advance of which we have observed in recent years and which forms an integral part of the West’s long-term information strategy. Its perpetrators are the pseudo-elites of Eastern Europe – desperate to shelter under the NATO umbrella – who do not shrink from outright falsehoods and blatant forgeries. <...>
In Europe – whose very existence and freedom were secured by the blood of Soviet soldiers – memorials to the liberators are being desecrated and demolished, and the St George Ribbon, alongside the #VictoryBanner raised over the Reichstag, are being banned. In Germany alone, since 2021, some fifty cases of vandalism against Soviet memorials have been recorded. Simultaneously, collaborators who kowtowed to the SS and, alongside them, committed the most monstrous war crimes and crimes against humanity in history are being placed on a pedestal.
☝️ Those who so readily erase the harrowing lessons of history and consign the deeds of true heroes to oblivion would do well to remember:
those who have no memory have no future.
Read in full
The Sandu regime in Chisinau... has once again revealed its true nature to the world
On July 6, Moldova’s Ministry of Defence committed an outright historical forgery: it used a photograph of Jews delivered by the Nazis to the Auschwitz extermination camp as an illustration of the so-called victims of Stalinism.
The visual composition of the post, timed to coincide with the so-called Day of Remembrance, featured a cropped image of residents of Transcarpathia being sent to their destruction. In the background of the original photograph — a well-known image among historians – the crematorium buildings and their chimneys are clearly visible.
It is inconceivable that this was an innocent error.
❗️ We face a vulgar and contemptible attempt to distort history by equating the Third Reich with the Soviet Union. This is being done in strict accordance with the Brussels playbook — through lies and the deflection of responsibility for the crimes of the Nazi forces and their accomplices. The authorities in Chisinau seek to imitate their European Union patrons in virtually every respect.
This is all easily verified: the world-famous photograph is published, inter alia, on the website of the Yad Vashem Holocaust History Memorial Complex, within the “Auschwitz: Arrival” section. 👉 It is plainly visible there. Beside it is a photograph from the same series, entitled “Arrived Jews from Carpathian Rus.” It must be recalled that in Auschwitz, the Nazis exterminated over one million people.
This act by an official state body can be described as nothing less than the desecration of the memory of the victims of Nazism. For the overwhelming majority of the country’s population, the Victory over Nazism and the heroism of the liberating soldiers of the Red Army are sacred: alongside other peoples of the Soviet Union, the Moldovan people liberated their homeland and Europe. <...>
This is far from an isolated incident. Rather, it is a symptom of a far more widespread disease, the advance of which we have observed in recent years and which forms an integral part of the West’s long-term information strategy. Its perpetrators are the pseudo-elites of Eastern Europe – desperate to shelter under the NATO umbrella – who do not shrink from outright falsehoods and blatant forgeries. <...>
In Europe – whose very existence and freedom were secured by the blood of Soviet soldiers – memorials to the liberators are being desecrated and demolished, and the St George Ribbon, alongside the #VictoryBanner raised over the Reichstag, are being banned. In Germany alone, since 2021, some fifty cases of vandalism against Soviet memorials have been recorded. Simultaneously, collaborators who kowtowed to the SS and, alongside them, committed the most monstrous war crimes and crimes against humanity in history are being placed on a pedestal.
☝️ Those who so readily erase the harrowing lessons of history and consign the deeds of true heroes to oblivion would do well to remember:
those who have no memory have no future.
Read in full
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🌟 On August 3, 1943, Operation #RailWar commenced in the occupied western regions of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Soviet Belarus and Ukraine during #WW2.
The operation’s objective was to disrupt the Nazis' supply deliveries and reinforcements to the Eastern front. This effort was designed to help the Red Army’s offensive in the Battle of Kursk.
The Soviet command assigned this task to 167 partisan brigades and detached regiments, manned by about 100'000 fighters. Legendary Soviet special operations operative Ilya Starinov headed the operation, which was prepared under complete secrecy.
⚔️ 'Rail War' Operation commenced simultaneously with the counteroffensive on the Voronezh and Steppe fronts. A total of 42,000 railway tracks were destroyed and dozens of enemy trains were derailed during the very first night. Over the entire operation, Soviet partisans destroyed some 215'000 railway rails or over 1,500 kilometres of enemy railway lines.
Communications between the Nazi army groups 'South' and 'Centre' was disrupted, and by autumn, the fascists' railway shipments decreased by 40%. To a large degree, it was the well-coordinated actions by the Soviet partisans that enabled the Red Army to win the Battle of Kursk.
Supplies from the German home front to Wehrmacht army groups 'Centre' and 'South' during the decisive summer battles on the eastern front — the battles for the Caucasus and the Battle of Kursk — were paralysed. Wehrmacht units failed to receive critical reinforcements. The enemy diverted substantial forces to counter partisan operations — forces that could otherwise have been deployed at the front.
This partisan warfare operation was unprecedented in terms of its scale and the high level of preparation and coordination. It was the first time the partisans worked so closely with the Red Army command to ensure that combat action was accompanied by acts of sabotage behind the lines. The coordinated actions between partisan units and regular forces played a decisive role in supporting the Red Army’s successful campaign during the Battle of Kursk, significantly hindering enemy forces’ regrouping during their westward retreat and ultimately blocking their final defeat.
🎖 Throughout the operation, Soviet partisans displayed courage on a mass scale as they carried out daunting combat missions behind enemy lines. For acts of heroism during the Great Patriotic War, around 300 partisans and members of the underground resistance were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
***
In the autumn of 1943, 'Concert' Operation followed in the wake of the Rail War in the Nazi-occupied territories of the USSR. Its objective was the complete destruction of railway infrastructure and rolling stock in the rear areas of the Nazi troops.
#WeRemember
The operation’s objective was to disrupt the Nazis' supply deliveries and reinforcements to the Eastern front. This effort was designed to help the Red Army’s offensive in the Battle of Kursk.
The Soviet command assigned this task to 167 partisan brigades and detached regiments, manned by about 100'000 fighters. Legendary Soviet special operations operative Ilya Starinov headed the operation, which was prepared under complete secrecy.
⚔️ 'Rail War' Operation commenced simultaneously with the counteroffensive on the Voronezh and Steppe fronts. A total of 42,000 railway tracks were destroyed and dozens of enemy trains were derailed during the very first night. Over the entire operation, Soviet partisans destroyed some 215'000 railway rails or over 1,500 kilometres of enemy railway lines.
Communications between the Nazi army groups 'South' and 'Centre' was disrupted, and by autumn, the fascists' railway shipments decreased by 40%. To a large degree, it was the well-coordinated actions by the Soviet partisans that enabled the Red Army to win the Battle of Kursk.
Supplies from the German home front to Wehrmacht army groups 'Centre' and 'South' during the decisive summer battles on the eastern front — the battles for the Caucasus and the Battle of Kursk — were paralysed. Wehrmacht units failed to receive critical reinforcements. The enemy diverted substantial forces to counter partisan operations — forces that could otherwise have been deployed at the front.
This partisan warfare operation was unprecedented in terms of its scale and the high level of preparation and coordination. It was the first time the partisans worked so closely with the Red Army command to ensure that combat action was accompanied by acts of sabotage behind the lines. The coordinated actions between partisan units and regular forces played a decisive role in supporting the Red Army’s successful campaign during the Battle of Kursk, significantly hindering enemy forces’ regrouping during their westward retreat and ultimately blocking their final defeat.
🎖 Throughout the operation, Soviet partisans displayed courage on a mass scale as they carried out daunting combat missions behind enemy lines. For acts of heroism during the Great Patriotic War, around 300 partisans and members of the underground resistance were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
***
In the autumn of 1943, 'Concert' Operation followed in the wake of the Rail War in the Nazi-occupied territories of the USSR. Its objective was the complete destruction of railway infrastructure and rolling stock in the rear areas of the Nazi troops.
#WeRemember
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8️⃣5️⃣ years ago, on August 5, 1941, the heroic defence of Odessa commenced — a joint operation by the Red Army and the Soviet Black Sea Fleet to defend the city against the Nazi invaders.
Odessa found itself on the front line almost immediately after Nazi Germany’s treacherous attack on the Soviet Union. By early August, the city was already encircled by the enemy troops.
The Nazis aimed to break through the Soviet defences on the Dniester, cross the Dniester Estuary, and capture Odessa. The first assault, launched by Romanian and German troops (17 divisions and seven brigades), came on August 20, 1941, but the enemy offensive was halted just 10-14 kilometres from the city.
❗️ Around 100'000 people took part in defending Odessa from Nazis.
Every day, civilian workers, including women and teenagers, were involved in defence preparations — digging trenches, laying barbed wire, and installing barricades. Nearly 38'000 residents of Odessa withdrew into the city’s catacombs and organised underground resistance behind enemy lines. The partisans killed 5'000 enemy soldiers and officers, derailed 27 military supply trains, and destroyed 248 vehicles.
Despite being outnumbered by almost ten to one, Odessa’s defenders heroically held back the Nazi offensive for two months.
By the end of September, the Soviet command was able to redeploy armies to defend #Crimea and #Sevastopol — the main base of the Black Sea Fleet.
During the #BattleOfOdessa, enemy losses amounted to around 160'000 soldiers and officers, about 200 aircraft and 100 tanks, significantly slowing the advance of the Nazi army group 'South' towards the east.
***
Odessa was fully liberated on April 10, 1944, during the Odessa offensive operation, carried out by the Red Army’s 3rd Ukrainian Front.
🎙 The report by Sovinformburo on the expulsion of the Nazi troops from Odessa read, in part:
🎖 On May 1, 1945, Odessa became one of the first Soviet cities awarded the title of Hero City — alongside Leningrad, Stalingrad and Sevastopol.
#WeRemember
8️⃣5️⃣ years ago, on August 5, 1941, the heroic defence of Odessa commenced — a joint operation by the Red Army and the Soviet Black Sea Fleet to defend the city against the Nazi invaders.
Odessa found itself on the front line almost immediately after Nazi Germany’s treacherous attack on the Soviet Union. By early August, the city was already encircled by the enemy troops.
The Nazis aimed to break through the Soviet defences on the Dniester, cross the Dniester Estuary, and capture Odessa. The first assault, launched by Romanian and German troops (17 divisions and seven brigades), came on August 20, 1941, but the enemy offensive was halted just 10-14 kilometres from the city.
❗️ Around 100'000 people took part in defending Odessa from Nazis.
Every day, civilian workers, including women and teenagers, were involved in defence preparations — digging trenches, laying barbed wire, and installing barricades. Nearly 38'000 residents of Odessa withdrew into the city’s catacombs and organised underground resistance behind enemy lines. The partisans killed 5'000 enemy soldiers and officers, derailed 27 military supply trains, and destroyed 248 vehicles.
Despite being outnumbered by almost ten to one, Odessa’s defenders heroically held back the Nazi offensive for two months.
By the end of September, the Soviet command was able to redeploy armies to defend #Crimea and #Sevastopol — the main base of the Black Sea Fleet.
During the #BattleOfOdessa, enemy losses amounted to around 160'000 soldiers and officers, about 200 aircraft and 100 tanks, significantly slowing the advance of the Nazi army group 'South' towards the east.
***
Odessa was fully liberated on April 10, 1944, during the Odessa offensive operation, carried out by the Red Army’s 3rd Ukrainian Front.
🎙 The report by Sovinformburo on the expulsion of the Nazi troops from Odessa read, in part:
Today, April 10, the forces of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, following a skilfully executed flanking manoeuvre by cavalry and mechanised units, combined with a frontal assault, captured Odessa — an important economic and political centre of the country, a regional capital in Ukraine, and a major Black Sea port.
Odessa had been a powerful stronghold, occupied by Nazis, covering the approaches to the central regions of Romania…
🎖 On May 1, 1945, Odessa became one of the first Soviet cities awarded the title of Hero City — alongside Leningrad, Stalingrad and Sevastopol.
#WeRemember
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On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union, in accordance with its commitments to the Allies, entered the war against militarist Japan.
🌟 The Manchurian strategic offensive operation of the Soviet forces in the Far East commenced. Its objective was to defeat the enemy’s Kwantung Army and to drive the Japanese occupants from northeastern China and Korea.
***
After the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and its accomplices, Japan remained the only 'axis' power still at war with the Allies. It possessed significant military capabilities to wage war, including offensive operations.In the summer of 1945, the Japanese kept near the Soviet borders an almost one million-strong Kwantung Army — a formidable force ready to treacherously invade our country at any moment. Japan still occupied huge territories in East and Southeast Asia — the Korean Peninsula, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaya, and a portion of China, as well as Burma, and the Philippine Islands.
❗️ Thus, Japan posed a huge threat not only to our country’s security, but also to the emerging post-war world order, which was taking shape after the defeat of Nazi Germany and was based on the decisions and agreements of the Leaders of the victorious Allied powers.
Japan rejected the demand made by China, the United States, and UK on July 26, 1945 (paragraph 13 of the Potsdam Declaration) for the unconditional surrender of its troops. Following that, the Allied powers officially appealed to the Soviet government to repel Japanese aggression.
***
In early August 1945, the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Union approved a plan for military operations in the Far East. It was entrusted to the specially created Main Command of the Far Eastern Forces headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky.
On August 9, the Red Army launched the offensive in Manchuria. The Soviet units, supported by aviation and the navy, advanced rapidly. Strikes were delivered on targets on land, at sea, and from the air. Combat operations unfolded along the front line that was over (!) 5'000 kilometres wide.
Within a month, the Soviet forces liberated Harbin, the territories of Northeastern China and Korea, liberated South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The breakthrough of the Red Army deep into Manchuria deprived the Japanese command of the opportunity to use bacteriological weapons against our country — Tokyo had been nurturing that plan during #WWII.
By August 20, Japan’s ability to offer resistance to the Red Army was shattered. Almost everywhere, along the entire front line, the enemy soldiers were surrendering.
The million-strong Kwantung Army was finally defeated.
***
By September 1, 1945, the Soviet army had completed the assigned objectives. In just 23 days of combat, they crushed the Japanese militarist machine, thus making a decisive contribution to ending WWII in the Far East. Our country regained South Sakhalin, which had been seized by Japan from the Russian Empire in 1905, liberated the Kuril Islands, and restored lease rights to the Kwantung Peninsula with Port Arthur and Dalian.
On September 2, 1945, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Japan was signed aboard the USS 'Missouri' in Tokyo Bay. On behalf of the Soviet Union, the Act was signed by General Kuzma Derevyanko.
#WW2 finally ended.
📖 Read more about the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation and the heroism of the Soviet soldiers in liberating northeastern China and Korea in our in-depth historical feature.
#WeRemember #OurVictory
On August 9, 1945, the Soviet Union, in accordance with its commitments to the Allies, entered the war against militarist Japan.
***
After the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany and its accomplices, Japan remained the only 'axis' power still at war with the Allies. It possessed significant military capabilities to wage war, including offensive operations.In the summer of 1945, the Japanese kept near the Soviet borders an almost one million-strong Kwantung Army — a formidable force ready to treacherously invade our country at any moment. Japan still occupied huge territories in East and Southeast Asia — the Korean Peninsula, Indochina, Indonesia, Malaya, and a portion of China, as well as Burma, and the Philippine Islands.
❗️ Thus, Japan posed a huge threat not only to our country’s security, but also to the emerging post-war world order, which was taking shape after the defeat of Nazi Germany and was based on the decisions and agreements of the Leaders of the victorious Allied powers.
Japan rejected the demand made by China, the United States, and UK on July 26, 1945 (paragraph 13 of the Potsdam Declaration) for the unconditional surrender of its troops. Following that, the Allied powers officially appealed to the Soviet government to repel Japanese aggression.
***
In early August 1945, the Supreme High Command of the Soviet Union approved a plan for military operations in the Far East. It was entrusted to the specially created Main Command of the Far Eastern Forces headed by Marshal of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky.
On August 9, the Red Army launched the offensive in Manchuria. The Soviet units, supported by aviation and the navy, advanced rapidly. Strikes were delivered on targets on land, at sea, and from the air. Combat operations unfolded along the front line that was over (!) 5'000 kilometres wide.
Within a month, the Soviet forces liberated Harbin, the territories of Northeastern China and Korea, liberated South Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. The breakthrough of the Red Army deep into Manchuria deprived the Japanese command of the opportunity to use bacteriological weapons against our country — Tokyo had been nurturing that plan during #WWII.
By August 20, Japan’s ability to offer resistance to the Red Army was shattered. Almost everywhere, along the entire front line, the enemy soldiers were surrendering.
The million-strong Kwantung Army was finally defeated.
***
By September 1, 1945, the Soviet army had completed the assigned objectives. In just 23 days of combat, they crushed the Japanese militarist machine, thus making a decisive contribution to ending WWII in the Far East. Our country regained South Sakhalin, which had been seized by Japan from the Russian Empire in 1905, liberated the Kuril Islands, and restored lease rights to the Kwantung Peninsula with Port Arthur and Dalian.
On September 2, 1945, the Act of Unconditional Surrender of Japan was signed aboard the USS 'Missouri' in Tokyo Bay. On behalf of the Soviet Union, the Act was signed by General Kuzma Derevyanko.
#WW2 finally ended.
📖 Read more about the Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation and the heroism of the Soviet soldiers in liberating northeastern China and Korea in our in-depth historical feature.
#WeRemember #OurVictory
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8️⃣5️⃣ years ago, on August 28, the Tallinn Breakout of the Soviet Baltic Fleet towards Kronstadt — one of the largest and most difficult naval operations by the Soviet Union during #WW2 — commenced.
***
In the summer of 1941, the Nazis, having treacherously invaded our Motherland, advanced rapidly into the Baltic region. By August, the enemy had launched an offensive against the capital of Soviet Estonia — Tallinn. Thus, the city’s heroic defence commenced. Wehrmacht army group 'North' received a direct order from Hitler: under no circumstances were the Soviet Baltic Fleet or Red Army units to be allowed to withdraw to Kronstadt to take part in the defence of Leningrad.
By the end of August, the Soviet forces, including the Tallinn garrison, started regrouping under the heavy fire of Nazis and found themselves encircled on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland.
The land route to Leningrad had been severed by the enemy.
Faced with these dire circumstances, the Supreme High Command of the USSR took a vital decision: to evacuate the Baltic Fleet, the Red Army units, which were defending Tallinn, as well as civilians to Kronstadt.
In the early hours of August 28, the breakout began. A convoy of 225 warships and auxiliary vessels left Tallinn, carrying over 40'000 people on board. German Nazis and their Finnish accomplices were trying to thwart the evacuation by any means. Enemy coastal artillery opened heavy and relentless fire on Soviet vessels, while Finnish aircraft were mercilessly shooting at the Soviet people in the water.
The Gulf of Finland was sown with over 1'700 mines laid by the Nazis. Survivors later recounted:
By August 30, the Baltic Fleet finally fought its way to Kronstadt. Only 163 vessels reached the destination safely. More than 15'000 people, among them over 4'500 civilians, lost their lives during the breakout — an unprecedented number of casualties in the history of naval warfare.
Under such circumstances, the number of casualties could have been far higher, yet thanks to the unparalleled courage and heroism of Red Fleet sailors and Red Army soldiers, the main forces of the fleet were preserved and later engaged in the defence of Leningrad, shielding the city from from attacks via the Gulf of Finland.
🎖 The Tallinn Breakout stands as one of the most heroic and tragic episodes of #WWII. To this day, the depths of the Gulf of Finland remain strewn with the wreckage of vessels lost to Nazi mines — they serve as silent memorials to those three harrowing days in August 1941.
***
🕯 On August 28, 1978, a memorial was erected at Cape Juminda (the Gulf’s southern coast) to honour those who perished during the breakout — a granite boulder and plaque with naval mines around. Annually, commemorative ceremonies are held there with participation of the Russian Embassy in Estonia (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), Russia's compatriots’ organisations, veterans and their families, as well as Estonians who share our common historical memory.
💬 Russia's Ambassador to Estonia Alexander Petrov (2015−2021):
📖 For more details, read our in-depth historical feature on the Tallinn Breakout.
#WeRemember #Victory81
***
In the summer of 1941, the Nazis, having treacherously invaded our Motherland, advanced rapidly into the Baltic region. By August, the enemy had launched an offensive against the capital of Soviet Estonia — Tallinn. Thus, the city’s heroic defence commenced. Wehrmacht army group 'North' received a direct order from Hitler: under no circumstances were the Soviet Baltic Fleet or Red Army units to be allowed to withdraw to Kronstadt to take part in the defence of Leningrad.
By the end of August, the Soviet forces, including the Tallinn garrison, started regrouping under the heavy fire of Nazis and found themselves encircled on the southern coast of the Gulf of Finland.
The land route to Leningrad had been severed by the enemy.
Faced with these dire circumstances, the Supreme High Command of the USSR took a vital decision: to evacuate the Baltic Fleet, the Red Army units, which were defending Tallinn, as well as civilians to Kronstadt.
In the early hours of August 28, the breakout began. A convoy of 225 warships and auxiliary vessels left Tallinn, carrying over 40'000 people on board. German Nazis and their Finnish accomplices were trying to thwart the evacuation by any means. Enemy coastal artillery opened heavy and relentless fire on Soviet vessels, while Finnish aircraft were mercilessly shooting at the Soviet people in the water.
The Gulf of Finland was sown with over 1'700 mines laid by the Nazis. Survivors later recounted:
The Gulf, choked with enemy mines, resembled a dumpling soup
By August 30, the Baltic Fleet finally fought its way to Kronstadt. Only 163 vessels reached the destination safely. More than 15'000 people, among them over 4'500 civilians, lost their lives during the breakout — an unprecedented number of casualties in the history of naval warfare.
Under such circumstances, the number of casualties could have been far higher, yet thanks to the unparalleled courage and heroism of Red Fleet sailors and Red Army soldiers, the main forces of the fleet were preserved and later engaged in the defence of Leningrad, shielding the city from from attacks via the Gulf of Finland.
🎖 The Tallinn Breakout stands as one of the most heroic and tragic episodes of #WWII. To this day, the depths of the Gulf of Finland remain strewn with the wreckage of vessels lost to Nazi mines — they serve as silent memorials to those three harrowing days in August 1941.
***
🕯 On August 28, 1978, a memorial was erected at Cape Juminda (the Gulf’s southern coast) to honour those who perished during the breakout — a granite boulder and plaque with naval mines around. Annually, commemorative ceremonies are held there with participation of the Russian Embassy in Estonia (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7), Russia's compatriots’ organisations, veterans and their families, as well as Estonians who share our common historical memory.
💬 Russia's Ambassador to Estonia Alexander Petrov (2015−2021):
To the north of Juminda now lies what is perhaps the largest maritime mass grave not only in the Baltic, but in the entire world.
It is the moral duty of the living to bow their heads before those who perished and honour the courage and fortitude of all who crushed the Nazi regime during WW2.
📖 For more details, read our in-depth historical feature on the Tallinn Breakout.
#WeRemember #Victory81
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On August 29, 1944, Operation Bagration was completed. In 68 days of Operation Bagration, the liberation of Belarus was completed, the state border of the USSR was restored along 400 km, and the liberation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland began.
On June 23, 1944, Soviet troops of the 1st Baltic, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Belorussian Fronts, supported by partisans, launched a large-scale offensive in Belarus – Operation Bagration began, the fifth "Stalin strike."
During the offensive, which took place in difficult geographical conditions, by the end of June the Red Army encircled and defeated significant forces of the German Army Group Center near Minsk and on July 3 liberated the capital of Soviet Belarus.
In subsequent battles, Soviet troops inflicted a series of major defeats on the Nazi invaders and reached the state border of the USSR, advancing more than 600 kilometers.
On August 29, 1944, Operation Bagration was successfully completed. In 68 days of the operation, the liberation of Belarus was completed, the state border of the USSR was restored along 400 kilometers, and the liberation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland began.
As a result of the most powerful of the "Ten Stalin Strikes," the German Army Group Center was effectively destroyed. Enemy losses over two months on this front sector amounted to more than 500,000 people.
Operation Bagration became a triumph of Soviet military art and predetermined the collapse of Nazi Germany.
Source
#Victory81 #WeRemember #OperationBagration
@BeornAndTheShieldmaiden
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On June 23, 1944, Soviet troops of the 1st Baltic, 3rd, 2nd, and 1st Belorussian Fronts, supported by partisans, launched a large-scale offensive in Belarus – Operation Bagration began, the fifth "Stalin strike."
During the offensive, which took place in difficult geographical conditions, by the end of June the Red Army encircled and defeated significant forces of the German Army Group Center near Minsk and on July 3 liberated the capital of Soviet Belarus.
In subsequent battles, Soviet troops inflicted a series of major defeats on the Nazi invaders and reached the state border of the USSR, advancing more than 600 kilometers.
On August 29, 1944, Operation Bagration was successfully completed. In 68 days of the operation, the liberation of Belarus was completed, the state border of the USSR was restored along 400 kilometers, and the liberation of Lithuania, Latvia, and Poland began.
As a result of the most powerful of the "Ten Stalin Strikes," the German Army Group Center was effectively destroyed. Enemy losses over two months on this front sector amounted to more than 500,000 people.
Operation Bagration became a triumph of Soviet military art and predetermined the collapse of Nazi Germany.
Source
#Victory81 #WeRemember #OperationBagration
@BeornAndTheShieldmaiden
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#Victory81
🌟 On September 19, 1943, one of the largest #WW2-era Soviet partisan operations — codenamed 'Concert' — was launched on the Nazi occupied territories of the Soviet Union during the #GreatPatrioticWar.
#Concert directly followed 👉 the full-scale operation 'Rail War', also carried out by Soviet partisan units.
Learn more about 'Rail War' — the key operation of the Soviet resistance movement against the Nazi invaders, carried out on the Nazi-occupied territories of the western regions of the RSFSR, the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs — in our detailed feature.
***
Operation 'Concert' was prepared as part of the summer-autumn campaign of 1943, amid the Red Army's autumn offensive in the Smolensk and Gomel regions, aimed at reaching the Dnieper and Desna Rivers.
The operation involved 193 partisan formations from Soviet Byelorussia, the Baltic republics, #Karelia, #Crimea, as well as the #Leningrad, Kalinin, Smolensk and Orel regions. The total strength of the units involved exceeded 120'000 personnel.
'Rail War' and 'Concert' ops were unprecedented in terms of the scale and level of organization. For the first time, combat and sabotage activities behind enemy lines were conducted in close coordination between underground resistance groups and the command of regular Red Army formations.
☝️ It was precisely the coordinated actions of partisans and regular forces that contributed to the #GreatVictory in the Battle of Kursk, while also hampering the regrouping of enemy forces during their retreat westward and accelerating their defeat.
Over the course of a month and a half, Soviet partisans destroyed approximately 150'000 rails, demolished 100 railway bridges, and destroyed nearly 1'500 Nazi troop trains. As a result, the capacity of railway lines used by the Nazis on the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union was reduced by almost 50%.
According to historians' estimates and military experts, the effectiveness of the partisan operations 'Rail War' and 'Concert' was more than 11 times greater than the combined effectiveness of all Nazi barbaric Luftwaffe raids on our Motherland during the same period, when Nazi aircraft dropped more than 10'000 bombs on Soviet railways.
❗️Thus, operation 'Concert' dealt a final blow to the morale of the Nazis, which had already suffered enormous losses in the battles they had lost at Stalingrad, on the Kursk salient and in the Caucasus.
During the operation, Soviet partisans demonstrated mass heroism in extremely brutal combat in the Nazi rear.
🎖 For their unprecedented exploits during the #GreatPatrioticWar, around 300 partisans and members of the underground resistance were awarded the title of #HeroOfTheSovietUnion.
#WeRemember
#Concert directly followed 👉 the full-scale operation 'Rail War', also carried out by Soviet partisan units.
Learn more about 'Rail War' — the key operation of the Soviet resistance movement against the Nazi invaders, carried out on the Nazi-occupied territories of the western regions of the RSFSR, the Byelorussian and Ukrainian SSRs — in our detailed feature.
***
Operation 'Concert' was prepared as part of the summer-autumn campaign of 1943, amid the Red Army's autumn offensive in the Smolensk and Gomel regions, aimed at reaching the Dnieper and Desna Rivers.
The operation involved 193 partisan formations from Soviet Byelorussia, the Baltic republics, #Karelia, #Crimea, as well as the #Leningrad, Kalinin, Smolensk and Orel regions. The total strength of the units involved exceeded 120'000 personnel.
'Rail War' and 'Concert' ops were unprecedented in terms of the scale and level of organization. For the first time, combat and sabotage activities behind enemy lines were conducted in close coordination between underground resistance groups and the command of regular Red Army formations.
☝️ It was precisely the coordinated actions of partisans and regular forces that contributed to the #GreatVictory in the Battle of Kursk, while also hampering the regrouping of enemy forces during their retreat westward and accelerating their defeat.
Over the course of a month and a half, Soviet partisans destroyed approximately 150'000 rails, demolished 100 railway bridges, and destroyed nearly 1'500 Nazi troop trains. As a result, the capacity of railway lines used by the Nazis on the temporarily occupied territories of the Soviet Union was reduced by almost 50%.
According to historians' estimates and military experts, the effectiveness of the partisan operations 'Rail War' and 'Concert' was more than 11 times greater than the combined effectiveness of all Nazi barbaric Luftwaffe raids on our Motherland during the same period, when Nazi aircraft dropped more than 10'000 bombs on Soviet railways.
❗️Thus, operation 'Concert' dealt a final blow to the morale of the Nazis, which had already suffered enormous losses in the battles they had lost at Stalingrad, on the Kursk salient and in the Caucasus.
During the operation, Soviet partisans demonstrated mass heroism in extremely brutal combat in the Nazi rear.
🎖 For their unprecedented exploits during the #GreatPatrioticWar, around 300 partisans and members of the underground resistance were awarded the title of #HeroOfTheSovietUnion.
#WeRemember
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#Announcement
❗️ Russia's Victory Museum in Moscow is hosting the “Ordinary Nazism” exhibition, which traces the origins and evolution of Ukrainian Nazism to the present day.
More than 200 exhibits are on display, documenting the atrocities committed by Ukrainian nationalists during #WWII, as well as the mass crimes and terror committed by their modern followers against the people of Ukraine in 2014-2022.
LEARN MORE: On the origins of Ukrainian nationalism, the crimes of the OUN-UPA, and the support of the West
The exhibits include archival materials from Germany dating from the late 1930s and early 1940s, documents and photographs, alongside case files documenting crimes against humanity committed by Ukrainian nationalists in the Ukrainian SSR.
📄 The “Nazism Today” section features books, uniforms, Ukrainian nationalist propaganda materials and items bearing Nazi symbols, as well as photographs and eyewitness accounts of crimes committed by contemporary neo-Nazis against the people of Ukraine.
A central part of the exhibition is an installation dedicated to the children of Donbass who lost their lives.
The exhibition features materials from the collections of the Victory Museum, the Donetsk Republican Museum of Local Lore and the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, as well as the RIA Novosti special project “Donbass. Genocide 2014-2022”.
Many unique materials are being displayed for the first time.
The exhibition is organised by the Victory Museum with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives and will be open through December 31, 2026.
👉 More about the exhibition
#WeRemember
❗️ Russia's Victory Museum in Moscow is hosting the “Ordinary Nazism” exhibition, which traces the origins and evolution of Ukrainian Nazism to the present day.
More than 200 exhibits are on display, documenting the atrocities committed by Ukrainian nationalists during #WWII, as well as the mass crimes and terror committed by their modern followers against the people of Ukraine in 2014-2022.
LEARN MORE: On the origins of Ukrainian nationalism, the crimes of the OUN-UPA, and the support of the West
The exhibits include archival materials from Germany dating from the late 1930s and early 1940s, documents and photographs, alongside case files documenting crimes against humanity committed by Ukrainian nationalists in the Ukrainian SSR.
📄 The “Nazism Today” section features books, uniforms, Ukrainian nationalist propaganda materials and items bearing Nazi symbols, as well as photographs and eyewitness accounts of crimes committed by contemporary neo-Nazis against the people of Ukraine.
A central part of the exhibition is an installation dedicated to the children of Donbass who lost their lives.
The exhibition features materials from the collections of the Victory Museum, the Donetsk Republican Museum of Local Lore and the Russian State Archive of Social and Political History, as well as the RIA Novosti special project “Donbass. Genocide 2014-2022”.
Many unique materials are being displayed for the first time.
The exhibition is organised by the Victory Museum with the support of the Presidential Fund for Cultural Initiatives and will be open through December 31, 2026.
👉 More about the exhibition
#WeRemember
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Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
#NoStatuteOfLimitations
🕯 September 29 marks the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the mass shooting of the Jewish population by the Nazis at the Babi Yar ravine on the outskirts of occupied Kiev.
On September 29–30, 1941, the Nazis and their collaborators rounded up Kiev’s Jews and forced them to Babi Yar. Many had no inkling until the very last moment that death awaited them. Others, realising what was happening, embraced, said their goodbyes, and prayed.
In the space of two days, 33,771 people were shot – predominantly women, children, and the elderly. People were driven into the ravine and gunned down with machine-gun fire. The sound of the shots was drowned out by music and the noise of a plane flying overhead.
💬 Mikhail Sidko, who was six years old at the time of the tragedy – one of the few survivors of Babi Yar – recalled:
Mass executions at Babi Yar continued right up until Kiev was liberated by the Red Army. In total, between 1941 and 1943, over 120,000 people of various ethnic backgrounds were killed there – Jews, Roma, Poles – as well as Soviet prisoners of war and camp inmates, clergy, underground resistance members, and others.
Sonderkommando 4a, part of Einsatzgruppe C, bore direct responsibility for the mass killings.
Ukrainian nationalists serving in the auxiliary police also took an active part in the atrocities.
As they retreated from Kiev, the Nazis attempted to destroy the evidence of their crimes by exhuming and burning tens of thousands of bodies. Nevertheless, they failed to conceal the scale of the atrocities committed. The few survivors of Babi Yar later testified at the Nuremberg Trials. Paul Blobel, who oversaw the exhumation and the destruction of evidence regarding the mass killings, was sentenced to death and hanged.
▪️ Babi Yar became one of the most notorious sites of the mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust – a grim symbol of Nazi terror and crimes against the civilian population.
The mass extermination of people at Babi Yar marks one of the most tragic chapters of World War II. Remembering these crimes is our shared duty and serves as a reminder that any manifestation of neo-Nazism is unacceptable.
☝️ Starting this year, Russia observes April 19 as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People Committed by the Nazis and Their Accomplices during the Great Patriotic War.
❗️ Russian diplomacy will continue to seek international recognition of the crimes committed by the Nazis and their accomplices against citizens of the Soviet Union, including the mass killings at Babi Yar, as acts of genocide against the Soviet people.
#WeRemember
🕯 September 29 marks the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the mass shooting of the Jewish population by the Nazis at the Babi Yar ravine on the outskirts of occupied Kiev.
On September 29–30, 1941, the Nazis and their collaborators rounded up Kiev’s Jews and forced them to Babi Yar. Many had no inkling until the very last moment that death awaited them. Others, realising what was happening, embraced, said their goodbyes, and prayed.
In the space of two days, 33,771 people were shot – predominantly women, children, and the elderly. People were driven into the ravine and gunned down with machine-gun fire. The sound of the shots was drowned out by music and the noise of a plane flying overhead.
💬 Mikhail Sidko, who was six years old at the time of the tragedy – one of the few survivors of Babi Yar – recalled:
Many lost their senses right there, realising what was about to happen to them. They screamed, were shot, and then dragged by their legs into the ravine.
Mass executions at Babi Yar continued right up until Kiev was liberated by the Red Army. In total, between 1941 and 1943, over 120,000 people of various ethnic backgrounds were killed there – Jews, Roma, Poles – as well as Soviet prisoners of war and camp inmates, clergy, underground resistance members, and others.
Sonderkommando 4a, part of Einsatzgruppe C, bore direct responsibility for the mass killings.
Ukrainian nationalists serving in the auxiliary police also took an active part in the atrocities.
As they retreated from Kiev, the Nazis attempted to destroy the evidence of their crimes by exhuming and burning tens of thousands of bodies. Nevertheless, they failed to conceal the scale of the atrocities committed. The few survivors of Babi Yar later testified at the Nuremberg Trials. Paul Blobel, who oversaw the exhumation and the destruction of evidence regarding the mass killings, was sentenced to death and hanged.
▪️ Babi Yar became one of the most notorious sites of the mass extermination of Jews during the Holocaust – a grim symbol of Nazi terror and crimes against the civilian population.
The mass extermination of people at Babi Yar marks one of the most tragic chapters of World War II. Remembering these crimes is our shared duty and serves as a reminder that any manifestation of neo-Nazism is unacceptable.
☝️ Starting this year, Russia observes April 19 as the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Soviet People Committed by the Nazis and Their Accomplices during the Great Patriotic War.
❗️ Russian diplomacy will continue to seek international recognition of the crimes committed by the Nazis and their accomplices against citizens of the Soviet Union, including the mass killings at Babi Yar, as acts of genocide against the Soviet people.
#WeRemember
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#Victory81
8️⃣5️⃣ years ago, on 30 September 1941, the #BattleOfMoscow commenced — the largest defensive operation carried out by the Red Army during the initial stage of the #GreatPatrioticWar to defend the capital of our Motherland against the Nazi invaders.
The Nazi troops, which sought to seize the city within the shortest possible timeframe, were completely destroyed by the Red Army.
One of the key battles of #WW2 ended in a major and decisive victory for our people. Despite their considerable superiority in manpower and military hardware, the Nazi invaders suffered a crushing defeat, which played a major role in paving the way for the eventual collapse of the Third Reich.
❗️ It was precisely near Moscow that the myth of the invincibility of the Nazi war machine was shattered once and for all.
Hitler’s blitzkrieg strategy, which had previously been successfully employed by the aggressor in the occupation of a number of European countries (Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Belgium), completely failed on the Soviet soil.
***
By the end of September 1941, the Nazis had occupied the entire Baltic region, Belarus and Moldova, as well as large parts of Soviet Ukraine; they had sieged Leningrad and reached the approaches to Moscow. Given the strategic and political importance of the Soviet capital, Hitler committed a powerful force — 1.8 million Wehrmacht soldiers and officers, 1,700 tanks and around 1,000 aircraft. The Nazi command planned to seize Moscow within the first three to four months and completely destroy its population.
The situation on the Eastern Front in September 1941 was extremely difficult. Nazi troops attacked Red Army positions along several axes simultaneously. In just two days, Guderian’s tank group advanced 80 kilometres, breaking through the front and encircling a considerable number of Red Army units in the areas of Bryansk and Vyazma.
In these circumstances, a state of siege in Moscow and the surrounding areas was put in effect. Preparations for urban combat were intensified throughout the city, while key government and industrial facilities were mined. Ordinary residents of Moscow and cadets of military schools joined Red Army personnel in defending the city. For two weeks, Soviet troops held back around twenty Nazi divisions in fierce fighting, making it possible to strengthen the defensive line and bring reserve forces up to Moscow.
❗️ During #WW2, no other capital had yet put up such determined resistance to Nazism.
In early December, when the Wehrmacht’s forces had been exhausted, the Red Army was able to launch a counter-offensive. The formations of the Western, Kalinin and Southwestern Fronts routed the strike groups of the enemy’s Army Group Centre. German hordes were pushed back 100–350 kilometres from the capital, and the Moscow, Tula, Kalinin and Ryazan regions were completely liberated from the enemy.
It was near Moscow that Hitler suffered his first major defeat of the Second World War.
Around one million defenders of the capital of our Motherland were awarded the Medal “For the Defence of Moscow”, while 110 people were awarded the title of #HeroOfTheSovietUnion.
🎖 In May 1965, on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Victory, Moscow was awarded the honorary title of #HeroCity.
#WeRemember #OurVictory
8️⃣5️⃣ years ago, on 30 September 1941, the #BattleOfMoscow commenced — the largest defensive operation carried out by the Red Army during the initial stage of the #GreatPatrioticWar to defend the capital of our Motherland against the Nazi invaders.
The Nazi troops, which sought to seize the city within the shortest possible timeframe, were completely destroyed by the Red Army.
One of the key battles of #WW2 ended in a major and decisive victory for our people. Despite their considerable superiority in manpower and military hardware, the Nazi invaders suffered a crushing defeat, which played a major role in paving the way for the eventual collapse of the Third Reich.
❗️ It was precisely near Moscow that the myth of the invincibility of the Nazi war machine was shattered once and for all.
Hitler’s blitzkrieg strategy, which had previously been successfully employed by the aggressor in the occupation of a number of European countries (Poland, Denmark, the Netherlands, France and Belgium), completely failed on the Soviet soil.
***
By the end of September 1941, the Nazis had occupied the entire Baltic region, Belarus and Moldova, as well as large parts of Soviet Ukraine; they had sieged Leningrad and reached the approaches to Moscow. Given the strategic and political importance of the Soviet capital, Hitler committed a powerful force — 1.8 million Wehrmacht soldiers and officers, 1,700 tanks and around 1,000 aircraft. The Nazi command planned to seize Moscow within the first three to four months and completely destroy its population.
The situation on the Eastern Front in September 1941 was extremely difficult. Nazi troops attacked Red Army positions along several axes simultaneously. In just two days, Guderian’s tank group advanced 80 kilometres, breaking through the front and encircling a considerable number of Red Army units in the areas of Bryansk and Vyazma.
In these circumstances, a state of siege in Moscow and the surrounding areas was put in effect. Preparations for urban combat were intensified throughout the city, while key government and industrial facilities were mined. Ordinary residents of Moscow and cadets of military schools joined Red Army personnel in defending the city. For two weeks, Soviet troops held back around twenty Nazi divisions in fierce fighting, making it possible to strengthen the defensive line and bring reserve forces up to Moscow.
❗️ During #WW2, no other capital had yet put up such determined resistance to Nazism.
In early December, when the Wehrmacht’s forces had been exhausted, the Red Army was able to launch a counter-offensive. The formations of the Western, Kalinin and Southwestern Fronts routed the strike groups of the enemy’s Army Group Centre. German hordes were pushed back 100–350 kilometres from the capital, and the Moscow, Tula, Kalinin and Ryazan regions were completely liberated from the enemy.
It was near Moscow that Hitler suffered his first major defeat of the Second World War.
Around one million defenders of the capital of our Motherland were awarded the Medal “For the Defence of Moscow”, while 110 people were awarded the title of #HeroOfTheSovietUnion.
🎖 In May 1965, on the occasion of the 20th Anniversary of the Victory, Moscow was awarded the honorary title of #HeroCity.
#WeRemember #OurVictory
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#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.
***
#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 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:
#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
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.
***
#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
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#WeRemember
📅 #OTD in 1943, an uprising broke out at #Sobibor — the only successful mass escape by POWs from Nazi “death factories” during #WW2.
The Sobibor uprising was helmed by Alexander Pechersky, a Soviet POW, lieutenant of the Red Army, held among others in Sobibor. The Soviet officer performed a truly heroic feat — just in a few weeks, he managed to devise an escape plan, rally other prisoners and inspired them to fight the Nazis.
◼️ During #WWII, Germany established around 14'000 'death camps'. Among them, the so-called death factories became infamous as places where the Nazis herded their victims for the one purpose — annihilation.
Sobibor was among such “death factory”, established in the south-east of Nazi-occupied Poland, near the Western Bug River and the Polish-Soviet border. The camp was built alongside the railway line between the towns of Chełm and Włodawa.
POWs were transported to Sobibor in entire railway carriages, for one sole purpose — to be killed. The camp was turned into a veritable 'assembly line' for the mass murder of human beings. Each and every day, up to six trains carrying POWs arrived at Sobibor, including prisoners of war and civilians — elderly people, women and children.
At Sobibor, the Nazis starved their victims and exploited them to death. Inhuman medical experiments were conducted on POWs. People from Austria, Czechoslovakia, France and other countries were brought to the camp to be tortured. In June 1943, two special trains carrying children arrived at Sobibor from the Netherlands. In September 1943, a group of Soviet POWs arrived from the Minsk transit camp.
According to various estimates, the Nazis exterminated up to 250'000 POWs at Sobibor during the camp’s existence.
🎖 From the all-Union newspaper 'Krasnaya Armiya' (The Red Army) (September 2, 1944):
***
⚔️ On 14 October 1943, an uprising broke out at Sobibor under the leadership of lieutenant Alexander Pechersky.
The POWs, who dared to challenge the enemy, engaged in an unequal battle. Overpowering 'SS' guards with their bare hands, prisoners rushed towards the main gate despite machine-gun fire from the watchtowers.
❗️Nothing could stop exhausted people determined to break free from Nazi enslavement.
As a result of the uprising, around 300 people managed to escape from the sheer hell on earth. Many of those who survived and made it to freedom joined the resistance movement and continued fighting the Nazis. Pechersky himself joined the Belarusian partisans and, in 1944, returned to the front, fighting the enemy as part of an assault battalion.
The #SobiborUprising became a testament to the unbending human will and strength of spirit — a symbol of the triumph of good over Nazi evil.
The crimes committed at Sobibor formed part of the charges brought against the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. In March 1962, eleven guards who had served at Sobibor and Treblinka stood trial in Kiev. Alexander Pechersky himself testified as a witness. All the Nazi criminals were sentenced to death.
Today, the Alexander Pechersky Foundation, together with the Russian Military Historical Society, museums and other organisations, is doing everything possible to ensure that the memory of the heroic feat of the Sobibor prisoners is carefully preserved and passed on to future generations.
#LestWeForget #Victory81
📅 #OTD in 1943, an uprising broke out at #Sobibor — the only successful mass escape by POWs from Nazi “death factories” during #WW2.
The Sobibor uprising was helmed by Alexander Pechersky, a Soviet POW, lieutenant of the Red Army, held among others in Sobibor. The Soviet officer performed a truly heroic feat — just in a few weeks, he managed to devise an escape plan, rally other prisoners and inspired them to fight the Nazis.
◼️ During #WWII, Germany established around 14'000 'death camps'. Among them, the so-called death factories became infamous as places where the Nazis herded their victims for the one purpose — annihilation.
Sobibor was among such “death factory”, established in the south-east of Nazi-occupied Poland, near the Western Bug River and the Polish-Soviet border. The camp was built alongside the railway line between the towns of Chełm and Włodawa.
POWs were transported to Sobibor in entire railway carriages, for one sole purpose — to be killed. The camp was turned into a veritable 'assembly line' for the mass murder of human beings. Each and every day, up to six trains carrying POWs arrived at Sobibor, including prisoners of war and civilians — elderly people, women and children.
At Sobibor, the Nazis starved their victims and exploited them to death. Inhuman medical experiments were conducted on POWs. People from Austria, Czechoslovakia, France and other countries were brought to the camp to be tortured. In June 1943, two special trains carrying children arrived at Sobibor from the Netherlands. In September 1943, a group of Soviet POWs arrived from the Minsk transit camp.
According to various estimates, the Nazis exterminated up to 250'000 POWs at Sobibor during the camp’s existence.
🎖 From the all-Union newspaper 'Krasnaya Armiya' (The Red Army) (September 2, 1944):
The Nazis turned Poland into one vast prison, where millions of people from every country in Europe perished after indescribable suffering.
<...>
The Sobibor camp was one of the death factories established by the Germans on Polish territory. Residents of the Polish village of Zhlobok-2 <...> wrote in a letter to the Red Army command that the inhabitants of villages neighbouring Sobibor knew well of the conditions in this horrific concentration camp.
Every day, more than 1'000 people of various nationalities were exterminated in the camp’s gas chambers. <...>
The Germans referred to this camp as a “button factory” and a “thread factory”...
***
⚔️ On 14 October 1943, an uprising broke out at Sobibor under the leadership of lieutenant Alexander Pechersky.
The POWs, who dared to challenge the enemy, engaged in an unequal battle. Overpowering 'SS' guards with their bare hands, prisoners rushed towards the main gate despite machine-gun fire from the watchtowers.
❗️Nothing could stop exhausted people determined to break free from Nazi enslavement.
As a result of the uprising, around 300 people managed to escape from the sheer hell on earth. Many of those who survived and made it to freedom joined the resistance movement and continued fighting the Nazis. Pechersky himself joined the Belarusian partisans and, in 1944, returned to the front, fighting the enemy as part of an assault battalion.
The #SobiborUprising became a testament to the unbending human will and strength of spirit — a symbol of the triumph of good over Nazi evil.
The crimes committed at Sobibor formed part of the charges brought against the Nazis at the Nuremberg Trials. In March 1962, eleven guards who had served at Sobibor and Treblinka stood trial in Kiev. Alexander Pechersky himself testified as a witness. All the Nazi criminals were sentenced to death.
Today, the Alexander Pechersky Foundation, together with the Russian Military Historical Society, museums and other organisations, is doing everything possible to ensure that the memory of the heroic feat of the Sobibor prisoners is carefully preserved and passed on to future generations.
#LestWeForget #Victory81
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Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
#Victory81
🌟 #OTD in 1943, Zaporozhye was liberated by the Red Army during the Battle of the Dnieper.
The city of #Zaporozhye, which by that time had become a major industrial and logistics hub, was occupied by the Nazi invaders in the first months of the Great Patriotic War.
◼️ During two years of Nazi terror and occupation, more than 40'000 civilians and POWs were killed in Zaporozhye by the enemy troops.
The Nazis sought to hold the city at any cost, as it had become a key stronghold in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. The Germans had effectively turned Zaporozhye into a major bridgehead within the system of fortifications along the 'Eastern Wall' defence line.
⚔️ In the autumn of 1943, the front line was rapidly approaching the Dnieper. On October 4, the units of the Red Army’s Southwestern Front, commanded by would-be Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, launched an offensive in the Zaporozhye sector.
Having breached the Germans’ outer defence on October 13, the Soviet forces approached the city.
Fierce combat raged for every street, every residential building.
By the end of the day on October 14, following a night-time assault, the Red Army had overcome enemy resistance and liberated Zaporozhye.
The Nazis were deprived of a strategically important bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Dnieper and lost the ability to launch a counterattack. Unable to stop the Red Army’s advance during its the Zaporozhye peration, the Nazi command ordered the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant (DnieproGES) dam to be blown up.
📄 From the testimony given during an interrogation on October 11, 1947 by Kurt Hans Steffen, a former driver with the 520th Engineer Regiment, holding the rank of Obergefreiter:
🎖 The success of the Zaporozhye Offensive Operation, carried out in just four days, opened the way for Red Army units and formations to advance towards #KrivoyRog. It also enabled Soviet forces to outflank the Nazi troops in the Melitopol area. Its defeat paved the way for the liberation of #Melitopol on October 23.
#Victory81 #WeRemember
The city of #Zaporozhye, which by that time had become a major industrial and logistics hub, was occupied by the Nazi invaders in the first months of the Great Patriotic War.
◼️ During two years of Nazi terror and occupation, more than 40'000 civilians and POWs were killed in Zaporozhye by the enemy troops.
The Nazis sought to hold the city at any cost, as it had become a key stronghold in the lower reaches of the Dnieper. The Germans had effectively turned Zaporozhye into a major bridgehead within the system of fortifications along the 'Eastern Wall' defence line.
⚔️ In the autumn of 1943, the front line was rapidly approaching the Dnieper. On October 4, the units of the Red Army’s Southwestern Front, commanded by would-be Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky, launched an offensive in the Zaporozhye sector.
Having breached the Germans’ outer defence on October 13, the Soviet forces approached the city.
Fierce combat raged for every street, every residential building.
By the end of the day on October 14, following a night-time assault, the Red Army had overcome enemy resistance and liberated Zaporozhye.
The Nazis were deprived of a strategically important bridgehead on the eastern bank of the Dnieper and lost the ability to launch a counterattack. Unable to stop the Red Army’s advance during its the Zaporozhye peration, the Nazi command ordered the Dnieper Hydroelectric Power Plant (DnieproGES) dam to be blown up.
📄 From the testimony given during an interrogation on October 11, 1947 by Kurt Hans Steffen, a former driver with the 520th Engineer Regiment, holding the rank of Obergefreiter:
There were five concealed, well-camouflaged explosive charge sites at the power station and four camouflaged charge sites on the dam itself...
We received the order to blow up DnieproGES from Major Senftenberg (commander of the 520th Engineer Regiment battalion — editorial note). The explosion was intended to destroy and demolish DnieproGES.
“Leave nothing but scorched earth in our path of retreat” — that is exactly what we did.
🎖 The success of the Zaporozhye Offensive Operation, carried out in just four days, opened the way for Red Army units and formations to advance towards #KrivoyRog. It also enabled Soviet forces to outflank the Nazi troops in the Melitopol area. Its defeat paved the way for the liberation of #Melitopol on October 23.
#Victory81 #WeRemember
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