At the beginning of 1944, the Red Army had absolute superiority over the enemy. The rearmament of the army with modern equipment has been completed. The victories significantly raised the morale of the troops. Valuable experience in offensive operations was gained. Germany's military potential was steadily declining. The Red Army was preparing for the complete liberation of the territory of the USSR from the enemy.

On January 14, 1944, the troops of the Leningrad (L.A. Govorov) and Volkhov (K.A. Meretskov) fronts went on the offensive. As a result, Novgorod was liberated on January 20, and by January 27 the siege was lifted from Leningrad. In February, units of the Red Army cleared the Oktyabrskaya Railway line connecting Moscow and Leningrad from the enemy. By the end of February, the offensive stopped at the Narva-Pskov line.

In Ukraine, Red Army troops took Kirovograd on January 5, 1944, and by February 3 they surrounded the enemy’s Korsun-Shevchenko group. A significant part of it managed to break through, but the enemy’s losses were very significant.

In March, the armies of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts resumed their offensive. They liberated Nikolaev, and on April 10 - Odessa. In April, troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front under the command of F.I. Tolbukhin started fighting in the Crimea and on May 9, at the cost of heavy losses, they took Sevastopol. On May 12, the battle for the peninsula ended. A significant part of the enemy’s 17th Army defending it managed to be evacuated by sea.

June 6, 1944 The Anglo-American allies opened a second front with their landing in Normandy. This distracted a certain part of the Wehrmacht forces. Soviet troops, according to the plan approved at the Tehran Conference, inflicted new powerful blows on the enemy. On June 10, the armies of the Leningrad Front launched an offensive in Karelia and took Vyborg on June 20. On June 21 they were supported by the Karelian Front; On June 28, its units captured Petrozavodsk. Soviet troops reached the pre-war border with Finland, which signed an armistice with the USSR on September 19, and declared war on Germany on March 4, 1945.

June 23-24 armies of the 1st (K.K. Rokossovsky), 2nd (G.F. Zakharov), 3rd Belorussian (I.D. Chernyakhovsky) and 1st Baltic (I. Kh. Bagramyan) fronts launched the Belarusian operation (Operation Bagration). Having absolute superiority over the enemy, with a series of powerful blows they surrounded the troops of Army Group Center (E. Bush, then V. Model) in cauldrons near Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, Bobruisk. The enemy's attempts to break out of the encirclement failed. On July 3, units of the 1st and 3rd Belorussian Fronts liberated Minsk, to the east of which another Nazi group was surrounded. The enemy front collapsed over a distance of 400 km. Advancing rapidly, Soviet troops entered Polish territory. The 1st Army of the Polish Army, created on the territory of the USSR, acted together with them. On July 23, Soviet units took Lublin on the move, and then reached the Vistula and captured a number of bridgeheads on its left bank, for which bloody battles broke out.

On July 28, Brest was captured, and the remnants of enemy forces surrounded in this area capitulated. The liberation of Belarus is completed. The expulsion of the Wehrmacht from the Baltic states began: on July 13, the Red Army took Vilnius, on August 1, Kaunas.

On July 13, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front (I.S. Konev) began to carry out the Lvov-Sandomierz operation. Developing the offensive, on July 17 they crossed the Western Bug and entered Poland.

On July 27, Soviet units took the center of Western Ukraine, Lvov, and on July 29, they reached the Vistula and immediately crossed it, capturing a bridgehead on its left bank in the Sandomierz region.

On September 8, formations of the 3rd Ukrainian Front crossed the border of Bulgaria, an ally of Germany, which, however, did not participate in the war against the USSR.

On September 9, as a result of the uprising, the government of the Fatherland Front came to power in Bulgaria and declared war on Germany.

On September 28, Soviet troops entered Yugoslavia, and on October 20, together with the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOLA), they liberated Belgrade. The armies of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian Fronts, trying to save the anti-fascist Slovak uprising from defeat, crossed the border of Czechoslovakia with heavy fighting, captured Mukachevo, Uzhgorod, and the Duklinsky Pass, but due to heavy losses and stubborn enemy resistance they could not advance further. Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entered Hungary and took Debrecen on October 20. In December, the armies of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts surrounded the Budapest enemy group.

Fierce fighting took place in the Baltic states. On September 22, the troops of the Leningrad Front captured Tallinn, and on October 15, Riga. The battles for Klaipeda lasted until the end of January 1945. Army Group North, pushed to the Kurland Peninsula, held out there until the end of the war.

October 7 - November 1, troops of the Karelian Front (K. A. Meretskov), with the support of the Northern Fleet (A. G. Golovko), carried out the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation, during which Petsamo was taken on October 15, and Kirkenes, located in Norway, on October 25 . Fighting in the Arctic have ended.

5.1. Occupation regime.

Even before the war, Hitler approved the Ost plan for the “development” of the eastern territories through the eviction and destruction of 120-140 million of their inhabitants (mostly Slavs). In one of the directives, Hitler demanded that captured Soviet political workers be shot (however, many Wehrmacht commanders did not comply with it).

In a number of places (especially in the Baltic states and Western Ukraine) the population welcomed the invading German troops. In some cases, normal relations were established between Wehrmacht soldiers and local residents, but in general the occupation regime (“new order”) was very difficult. Food, raw materials, equipment, historical and artistic values ​​were exported from the occupied territory. In villages, as a rule, collective farms remained, which facilitated the exploitation of peasants. The population was involved in forced labor. 6 million people were driven to Germany, where they actually became slaves - both of the state and of private individuals. (Upon returning to the USSR after the war, they, like residents of the occupied territories, fell under the suspicion of the authorities.) For storing weapons, reading Soviet leaflets, harboring Red Army soldiers, and communicating with partisans, local residents were threatened with death. Mass executions of Jews were carried out (more than 100 thousand people were shot at Babi Yar alone near Kiev), communists and Komsomol members were destroyed. Concentration camps were created. Both the Gestapo and the SS troops acted especially brutally. For the murder of German military personnel and officials by partisans, hundreds of hostages were mercilessly shot (though this did not stop the partisans). During punitive operations, entire villages were burned and their inhabitants were exterminated. In Belarus alone there were more than 600 such villages (the most famous of them is Khatyn). The occupiers tried to attract local residents who were dissatisfied with the Soviet regime or simply wanted to get comfortable under the “new order” to cooperate. Police detachments and lower-level officials were formed from them (in villages and hamlets - elders, in cities - burgomasters). However, they did not have any serious power. The population of the USSR was considered by the fascists as an “inferior” race, subject to ruthless exploitation, and later to “suppression” by the “Aryan” (i.e. German) race, i.e. simply extermination.

5.2. Partisan movement during the Great Patriotic War Patriotic War.

Already in 1941, the partisan movement began to unfold in the occupied territory, which Stalin called for in his speech on July 3, 1941. The organizers of underground groups and partisan detachments were party and Soviet workers, employees of the State Security Service, left behind enemy lines for this purpose, soldiers and officers of the Red Army who were surrounded or escaped from captivity. By the end of 1941, there were 3,500 partisan detachments, and during the war their number reached 6,000. They attacked small enemy detachments and garrisons, destroyed warehouses, disabled railways, bridges, and trains with cargo (“rail war”). . Underground groups organized sabotage and sabotage in factories and workshops, disabled rolling stock, distributed leaflets with calls to fight and messages about the victories of the Red Army, collected valuable intelligence information, and killed the most hated fascist military and officials and their accomplices. Particularly developed partisan movement happened in Belarus, Northern Ukraine, Bryanshina, Leningrad region, where they were cleared of the enemy large areas(the so-called partisan regions). Some partisan formations - S. A. Kovpak, A. F. Fedorov, M. I. Naumov, A. N. Saburov and others - became so strong that they were able to conduct large-scale raids behind enemy lines. Over time, the partisans were supplied by air from the “mainland” with weapons, food, etc. On May 30, 1942, the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement was created under the SVGK, headed by P. K. Ponomarenko, to lead the partisan movement.

To fight the partisans, the German command had to deploy significant forces (according to Soviet data, up to 20-22 divisions).

As the Red Army approached, partisan detachments sometimes liberated entire cities from the occupiers, and then often joined its ranks. The most experienced of them sometimes went further to the west, continuing sabotage activities behind enemy lines and coming into contact with partisans from Eastern European countries. The partisan movement in the USSR, the largest in Europe during the war, became an important factor in the victory over the enemy.

With every month of 1944, the front inexorably rolled back to the west. There was no doubt that the aggressor was doomed to defeat. But it was also clear that he would resist to the end. Countries anti-Hitler coalition made a joint decision: the only way to end the war is the unconditional surrender of Germany.

By the beginning of 1944, the troops of Nazi Germany and its allies still held a significant part of Ukraine, Belarus, the Baltic states, and stood at the walls of Leningrad, on the Karelian Isthmus. A significant part of Europe was under Hitler's heel. The Allies fought in southern Italy. Germany managed to increase the production of weapons and carry out total mobilization, but the strategic initiative was already lost Hitler's generals. The sharpness and correct assessment of the situation disappeared in their decisions. And vice versa, a number of operations of the Soviet command at the final stage of the war became exemplary in the history of military art.

In 1944, attempts at a large-scale offensive along the entire front were no longer made, but operations were carried out sequentially in various sectors. This transfer of attacks from one direction to another forced the German command to transfer forces from one section of the Soviet-German front to another.

Fighting qualities personnel The Red Army has grown up. the warriors gained experience, skillfully acted in the offensive, and were eager to expel the invaders from their native land as quickly as possible. Hatred towards the invaders grew during the liberation of cities and villages, when soviet soldiers saw traces of destruction, violence and atrocities committed by the Nazis against the local population. Nothing could stop such soldiers.

The year 1944 began with an offensive near Leningrad, as a result of which the city was completely released. Almost simultaneously with this, the operation to liberate Right Bank Ukraine developed. Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front and 2nd Ukrainian Front (I.S. Konov) surrounded the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky enemy group. The onset of a thaw made combat operations difficult. The enemy tried to break the ring. A group of German troops managed to break through the formations of our troops in the Vatutina sector.

In mid-April, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front approached the foothills of the Carpathians. And by the end of March 25, formations of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reached the state border of the USSR.

Exit to the border. The summer of 1944 arrived. The German command believed that the Red Army would continue its offensive in the southern direction. However, since the spring of 1944, preparations have been underway for an operation code-named “Bagration”. The configuration of the front at the site of the operation represented a huge ledge. The flanks were the most protected. It was against them that powerful strikes were planned. The terrain with its rivers, lakes, swamps, and forests was convenient for the defenders and, on the contrary, created great problems for the attackers. In three years, the Nazis turned the cities of Belarus into strong fortified zones. What was so easily abandoned in 1941, now, in the summer of 1944, had to be recaptured, relying on courage, heroism and dedication Soviet soldiers.

The Belarusian operation began on June 23, 1944. Thus Soviet Union fulfilled the obligation to conduct major operations simultaneously with the opening of a second front. On June 6, Allied troops crossed the English Channel and fought their way across (Northern France.

The offensive in Belarus was carried out by forces of four fronts. Zhukov was at the command post commander 3rd) by the army of General A.V. Gorbatova. Participant civil war, one of the few survivors of the meat grinder of the repressions of the 30s, subjected to cruel torture in the dungeons of the NKVD, but not incriminating either himself or any of his comrades (like K.K. Rokossovsky), he was released shortly before the 1st war. The army commander was concerned with achieving victories while saving as many soldiers' lives as possible. Having information about the weaknesses of the enemy’s defense, he suggested that Zhukov change the breakthrough site. Zhukov supported him. With a bold strike, the tank corps managed to capture the crossings across the Berezina, and a significant group of Nazi troops found themselves in a cauldron. The aviation dealt blow after blow. Fuel and lubricants burned, military equipment, covering the battlefield with ominous fire. Hundreds and thousands died German soldiers deceived by Hitler.

A well-thought-out, long-term enemy defense system turned into “cauldrons” - Bobruisk, Minsk, Mogilev, Vitebsk. On July 3, Minsk, or rather its ruins, was liberated. The Soviet soldiers were met by the few surviving residents of the Belarusian capital.

Having superiority in forces, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front developed an offensive. However, the enemy, skillfully maneuvering, organized short counterattacks. On July 29, the advanced units of the front reached Viola and immediately began crossing it. Most of those who crossed in the first ranks died, but the bridgehead on the western bank of the Bkl River was retained. Stern and rarely revealing his feelings, Zhukov, talking about his meeting with the surviving soldiers, wrote: “... I could not listen without excitement and a feeling of bitterness that such brave people were dying.”

The victories won by the Red Army in Belarus and the western regions of Ukraine contributed to the offensive allied forces in the West. The Germans had to leave Normandy. And gradually they began to retreat to the borders of Germany.

The successful operations of the Red Army on the Karelian Isthmus led to the withdrawal of one of Germany's allies, Finland, from the war. The Baltic enemy group, numbering more than 30 divisions, was squeezed in a small part of the territory of Latvia, where it was captured in May 1945. In the struggle for the liberation of the Baltic states from Nazi troops, Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian military formations that were part of the Red Army took an active part Army. Vilnius, Tallinn, and Riga were liberated.

The general contours of the Red Army's combat operations were outlined back in November 1944 by the forces of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts. It was necessary to defeat the German Army Group A and completely liberate Poland. This operation went down in history as the Vistula-Oder operation. The start of the offensive was accelerated by events in Western Front. At the end of December 1944, German troops launched an offensive in the Ardennes on Belgian territory and began to push back the Allied troops, who found themselves in an extremely unfavorable, almost hopeless, position. However, fulfilling their allied duty and at the request of the leadership of the United States and Great Britain, Soviet troops went on the offensive on January 12, 8 days ahead of schedule, pulled back some of the divisions from the west and thereby saved the Anglo-American units from defeat.

On January 17, 1945, Warsaw was liberated. The offensive developed so rapidly that at times the advanced units of the Soviet troops found themselves surrounded by the retreating Wehrmacht forces. In February, Red Army units crossed the Oder, the last major water barrier before Berlin.

The fighting on the bridgeheads captured after crossing the Oder was unusually fierce.

On these same days, when Soviet troops were fighting from the Vistula to the Oder, the operation in East Prussia began. The enemy resisted desperately, the advance of our troops was slow. Everything on this land was adapted for defense: both Teutonic castles and fortresses of the times Seven Years' War, and reinforced concrete pillboxes, even cities and villages. In these battles, the commander received a mortal wound Zm Belorussky front I.D. Chernyakhovsky is the youngest of all front commanders. He was not yet forty years old. The soldiers loved him for his fearlessness and simplicity. He never allowed himself to humiliate a subordinate. A.M. took command of the front. Vasilevsky. A former tsarist staff captain, he was drafted into the Red Army in 1919 and linked his fate with it. Calm, decisive, proactive, Vasilevsky always behaved with dignity.

The culmination of the operation was the assault on Koenigsberg. Perfectly defended and provided with everything necessary, with a selected garrison, the city seemed impregnable. But, having carefully prepared, the Soviet command unleashed the full power of artillery and aviation on the enemy. Assault groups burst into the city. Its commandant O. Lash noted: “It was impossible to imagine before that such a fortress as Konigsberg would fall so quickly.”

Battle for Berlin. It was April 1945. The Red Army was preparing to storm Berlin. Everyone wanted to end the war as soon as possible and understood that this would happen in a matter of weeks. The death of each of his comrades was all the more bitter. After the war, some military leaders, for example General A.V. Gorbatev, expressed the opinion that it would be enough to surround Berlin and put the squeeze on the remnants of Hitler’s troops in it, force them to capitulate, saving the lives of many Soviet soldiers. At Headquarters in the spring of 1945, questions were not posed this way. The leaders of the USSR believed that delaying hostilities could lead to the Germans opening a front in the west. He announced that Hitler had committed suicide on April 30 and proposed to begin negotiations on a truce. This was reported to Stalin, who demanded to negotiate only about unconditional surrender. There was no response from Hitler's successors, and hostilities resumed. But the next day, at 15:00, the Berlin defense headquarters ordered the cessation of hostilities. Berlin has fallen. During the assault on the German capital, Soviet troops lost 300 thousand killed and wounded. The remnants of German troops in northern Germany, pressed against the Baltic Sea coast, also capitulated. On May 9, the act of unconditional surrender of Germany was signed. It was Victory.

By 1944, the situation had changed even more in favor of the Soviet Union. The final period of the war in Europe began. But the path to its end was difficult. The fascist army still remained strong. Due to the absence of a second front, Germany continued to keep its main troops on the Soviet-German front. Its 236 divisions and 18 brigades operated here, which included more than 5 million people, 54 thousand guns, 5,400 tanks, 3 thousand aircraft. Germany still controlled the resources of almost all of Europe.

To strengthen Eastern Front By the end of 1943, the command of the German troops transferred 75 divisions and a large number of military weapons from the west. However, German industry was no longer able to satisfy the continuously increasing demand for military equipment.

From the autumn of 1944 to military service More than 200 thousand people were mobilized into the German armed forces every month. But this replenishment did not compensate for the losses that if the German troops.

In December 1943, Stalin, in a “narrow circle of people,” raised the question of a new form of conducting the 1944 military campaign: superiority over the enemy in terms of strategic initiative, favorable location of troops, sufficient human and material and technical resources made it possible to carry out major operations not in one or two directions, but consistently along the entire front.

Offensive operations 1944, called "Ten Stalinist blows", began immediately after the completion of the 1943 offensive, not allowing the enemy to come to his senses after the defeat in the battles near Kursk and the Dnieper . The task was to develop a sequence of attacks on the enemy that would be unexpected for him, be continuous, and would deprive him of the opportunity to maneuver his forces to repel the main attack.

Thus, main task for 1944 was as follows: to finally defeat the main German groups and complete the expulsion of the invaders from Soviet soil.

Features of military operations in 1944:

1) Almost the entire military campaign of 1944 was developed at the end of 1943. It was the Soviet troops who dictated the nature of actions at the front.

2) Offensive actions were carried out along the entire length of the front, but not simultaneously, but in the form of a series of successive operations on separate sections of the front.

3) These attacks were carried out on opposite sectors of the front, which did not give German troops the opportunity to transfer reserves.

4) The actions of the partisans were coordinated and carried out within the framework of a common strategic plan.

The first blow as a result of which the long-term defense of the Germans was broken, was inflicted by our troops in January 1944 near Leningrad and Novgorod . As a result of this blow, a half-million fascist army was defeated and thrown back to the Baltic States.

Second strike was inflicted in February - April 1944 in Right Bank Ukraine (Korsun-Shevchenko operation) . There, a group of Germans (10 divisions) in the Korsun-Shevchenkovsky area was destroyed. After this, in the midst of the spring thaw, a large-scale offensive was launched. This was so unexpected for the Germans that, fleeing for their lives, they abandoned their equipment and weapons due to the impassability of the roads, and retreated across the river. Bug and Dniester. Right Bank Ukraine was liberated from the enemy. Soviet troops entered the territory of Moldova, and on March 26 they reached the border with Romania.

In April–May 1944 our troops inflicted third crushing blow against the enemy in the area of ​​Crimea and Odessa . It took the Germans 250 days to capture Crimea, and Soviet troops liberated it in 5 days (May 7 - 12, 1944).

Before the Germans had time to recover from the attacks in the south, in June 1944 was brought down on them fourth strike – in the Karelia region. As a result, the Red Army defeated the Finnish troops, liberated Vyborg and Petrozavodsk, and liberated part of the Karelo-Finnish Republic.

Under the influence of the successes of the Red Army, our allies were no longer able to delay further opening of a second front. On June 6, 1944, the American-British command, two years late, began a large landing in Northern France.

Fifth strike was inflicted on the Germans in June – August 1944 during the largest offensive operation in Belarus “Bagration” .

On May 20, 1944, the General Staff completed the development of the plan for the Belarusian offensive operation. It was included in the operational documents of the Headquarters under the code name "Bagration". The successful implementation of the plan of Operation Bagration made it possible to solve a number of other, no less important strategically tasks.

1) Completely clear the Moscow direction from enemy troops, since the front edge of the ledge was 80 kilometers from Smolensk;

2) Complete the liberation of the entire territory of Belarus;

3) Reach the coast of the Baltic Sea and the borders of East Prussia, which made it possible to cut the enemy’s front at the junctions of army groups “Center” and “North” and isolate these German groups from each other;

4) Create favorable operational and tactical prerequisites for subsequent offensive actions in the Baltic states, Western Ukraine, in the East Prussian and Warsaw directions.

Operation Bagration was carried out June 23 - August 29. To defeat the enemy, the Soviet Supreme High Command allocated fronts: 1st Baltic (Army General I.Kh. Bagramyan), 1st (Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky), 2nd (Army General G.F. Zakharov), 3rd (Army General I.D. Chernyakhovsky) Belarusian - a total of 17 armies, incl. 1 tank and 3 air, 4 tank and 2 Caucasian corps, cavalry-mechanized group, Dnieper military flotilla. The actions of the fronts were coordinated by Marshals of the Soviet Union A.M. Vasilevsky, G.K. Zhukov.

By the end of June 22, 1944, a front stretching over 1,100 km in Belarus ran along the line of Lake Nescherdo, east of Vitebsk, Orsha, Mogilev, Zhlobin, along the Pripyat River, forming a huge ledge. Here the troops of Army Group Center defended, which had a well-developed network of railways and highways for wide maneuver along internal lines, blocking the Soviet troops’ path to Warsaw. When Soviet troops went on the offensive, it could deliver powerful flank attacks on the troops of the Baltic and Belorussian fronts

The fascist German troops occupied a pre-prepared, deeply echeloned (2.50-270 km) defense, which was based on a developed system of field fortifications and natural lines. Defensive lines ran, as a rule, along the western banks of numerous rivers that had wide swampy floodplains.

The plan of the Soviet command provided for a simultaneous breakthrough of the enemy’s defenses in 6 sectors in order to dismember his troops and defeat them piece by piece. Particular importance was attached to the defeat of the strongest flank groupings of the Nazis defending in the areas of Vitebsk and Bobruisk, which provided conditions for the rapid advance of large forces of the 3rd and 1st Belorussian Fronts and the development of their success along converging directions to Minsk.

The surviving enemy troops were to be thrown back to a depth of 200-250 km into an area near Minsk unfavorable for defensive operations, cut off their escape routes, encircle them and eliminate them. Subsequently, building up the attack and expanding the front of the offensive, Soviet troops were supposed to reach the western border of the USSR.

The operation consisted of 2 stages. At the first (June 23 - July 4), the Vitebsk-Orsha, Mogilev, Bobruisk, Polotsk, and Minsk operations were carried out. As a result of the 1st stage of the Belarusian operation, the main forces of Army Group Center were defeated, a 400-kilometer gap was formed in the center of the Soviet-German front, and Soviet troops were able to advance to the West.

At the 2nd stage (July 5 - August 29), the Vilnius, Bialystok, Lublin-Brest, Siauliai, and Kaunas operations were carried out.

During the operation, the partisans cut off the enemy’s retreat routes, captured and built new bridges and crossings for the Red Army, independently liberated a number of regional centers, and participated in the liquidation of encircled enemy groups. The Belarusian operation created the conditions for the further advance of the Red Army into German territory.

For participation in the Belarusian operation, more than 1,500 generals, officers, sergeants and soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, 662 formations and units received honorary names after the names of the cities and localities they liberated. In honor of the operation, the Mound of Glory of the Soviet Army, the liberator of Belarus, was built on the 21st km of the Minsk-Moscow highway. The liberation day of Minsk on July 3 is celebrated as Independence Day of the Republic of Belarus

As a result sixth strike (in July – August ) The Red Army drove the Germans back beyond the San and Vistula rivers with the liberation of Western Ukraine and consolidation of the bridgehead west of Sandomierz ( Lviv-Sandomierz operation ).

IN August 1944 (Iasso – Chisinau operation ) our troops inflicted seventh strike- in the Chisinau-Iasi region, where 22 German divisions were surrounded and defeated, forcing the Romanian army to surrender. As a result of this operation, Moldova was completely liberated, Romania and Bulgaria were withdrawn from the war.

As a result the eighth strike (in September - October 1944 ) near Tallinn and Riga German troops were defeated and expelled from the Baltic states, and Finland, which declared war on Germany, was also withdrawn from the war.

Ninth strike our troops inflicted in October 1944 between Tissa and Danube in Hungary and Yugoslavia . As a result of this blow, Hungary was withdrawn from the fascist bloc and a significant part of Yugoslavia was liberated. The troops crossed the Carpathian ridge and entered the territory of Czechoslovakia.

But the northern part of the Soviet-German front still remained. In the plans of the fascist German command, a significant place was occupied by the issue of capturing the northwestern regions of the Soviet Union, taking control Soviet Arctic, sea routes of the Arctic Ocean and the capture of Murmansk railway. This would allow Nazi Germany to secure its northern flank, as well as isolate the USSR from outside world and prevent shipping between our northern ports and the ports of England and the United States. The Nazis also believed that the capture of the Soviet North in the best possible way will provide German communications for the export of strategic raw materials from the USSR and supply of troops of the 20th Mountain Army.

The tenth blow in October 1944 there was an operation troops of the Karelian Front and ships of the Northern Fleet to defeat the 20th mountain German army in Northern Finland , as a result of which the Pechenga area was liberated and the threat to the port of Murmansk and northern sea ​​routes USSR. Soviet troops occupied Pechenga on October 15, cleared the entire area of ​​nickel mines on October 23, and on October 25 entered the borders of allied Norway to liberate it from German troops.

Thus, 1944 ended with a complete and steady advantage of the Red Army over the Wehrmacht. In 1944, the entire territory of the USSR was cleared of Nazi invaders and military operations were transferred to the territory of Germany and its allies. The successes of the Soviet Army in 1944 predetermined the final defeat of Nazi Germany in 1945.

During the fighting in 1944, the Soviet Armed Forces destroyed and captured 138 divisions; 58 German divisions, which suffered losses of up to 50% or more, were disbanded and reduced to battle groups. In the battles for Belarus alone, the Red Army captured 540 thousand German soldiers and officers. On July 17, 1944, up to 60 thousand of this composition, led by 19 generals, were marched through the streets of Moscow.

In January 1944, Soviet troops launched an offensive with the forces of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts, as a result of which the blockade of Leningrad was finally lifted. In April 1944, the forces of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts liberated Right Bank Ukraine and Odessa. In May 1944, the 4th Ukrainian Front captured Crimea. On May 9, Sevastopol was liberated. In some areas, our troops reached the pre-war Soviet border.

The Germans assumed that the summer campaign would begin with increased fighting in the south. However, already in the spring the General Staff began developing a plan for the liberation of Belarus. Operation Bagration began on June 23, 1944. As a result, the German Army Group Center was defeated, Minsk was liberated, and the liberation of the Baltic states and Poland began.

Operation Bagration was carried out as a commitment to the Allies to divert German forces during the opening of a second front.

On June 6, Allied troops crossed the English Channel and began fighting in France. The successes of the Soviet army in the summer campaign of 1944 contributed to the victorious Allied offensive in Europe. The Germans were driven out of Normandy and began to retreat to Germany.

At the same time, the Lvov-Sandomierz operation was carried out to liberate Lvov. As a result, the German group “Northern Ukraine” was defeated.

The 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts carried out the Iasi-Chisinau operation, defeated the troops of the Southern Ukraine group and liberated Chisinau. This victory gave impetus to the start of the liberation uprising in Bucharest and Romania's exit from the war. The occupation was lifted by the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front in September 1944.

By the fall of 1944, the territory of the Soviet Union was cleared of fascists. The liberation of Europe enslaved by the Nazis began. The vast majority of the population of the countries where Soviet troops entered were opponents of the occupying German regime.

The Red Army was perceived in Europe as a liberating army. However, of all the countries, only in Yugoslavia did our army receive real support - from the partisans of Joseph Broz Tito. Belgrade was liberated together with them.

As a result of successful operations on the Karelian Isthmus, Soviet troops defeated 30 Finnish divisions. Blocked on the territory of Latvia, they surrendered in May 1944. Vilnius, Tallinn and Riga were liberated. Finland surrendered on September 19, 1944.

On July 20, 1944, Red Army troops began the liberation of Poland. The right to create governing bodies on Polish territory was recognized by the Polish Committee of National Liberation (PCNL) under the leadership of the communists.

However, Polish emigration in London began to lay claim to power in the future state and demand a revision of the borders of Poland and the USSR established in 1939. On August 1, forces subordinate to the London government raised an anti-Hitler uprising in Warsaw.

Stalin repeatedly warned the rebels about the impossibility of providing support. The Soviet units were exhausted by the long offensive, became separated from the rear and were located at a considerable distance from Warsaw. As a result, the uprising was suppressed and the city was destroyed.

German troops put up fierce resistance in the battles for Hungary. Supported Hungarian army, they repulsed two attempts to capture Budapest.

Bloody battles took place in the area of. Balaton. The fascist resistance was broken only by the beginning of April.

On August 29, 1944, the anti-Hitler Slovak national uprising broke out, but it was suppressed by the Germans, since our troops were unable to cross the Carpathians in time and provide assistance.

On May 5, 1945, an uprising against the Nazis began in Prague. The rebels immediately requested help from the Soviet command, and on May 9, 1945, Soviet tank formations entered Prague.

Korsun-Shevchenkovskaya. Troops of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts under the command of Generals N.F. Vatutin and I.S. On January 28, 1944, Konev encircled ten enemy divisions and completed the defeat of the group. In April 1944, Kherson, Vinnitsa, Nikolaev and at the beginning of April - Odessa were liberated. The Red Army began to eliminate the enemy group in Crimea.

Belarusian operation (“Bagration”) began on June 23, 1944. Soviet troops destroyed large enemy groups near Vitebsk and Bobruisk within six days. Minsk was liberated. The Soviet offensive turned into a general strategic offensive from the Baltic to the Carpathians. Overcoming enemy resistance, Soviet troops reached the German border on August 17.

As a result Iasi-Kishinev operation On August 20–24, 1944, Moldova was liberated.

In October - November 1944, the offensive of the Karelian Front troops on the northern wing was completed, the strategically important Murmansk region and the northeastern regions of Norway were liberated from the enemy.

The victories of the Red Army created the conditions for the liberation of the Nazi-occupied European countries and assistance to their peoples:

2) September 9 An uprising began in the capital of Bulgaria, Sofia. Created Fatherland Front The government broke off relations with Germany and declared war on it. Soviet army entered Sofia;

3) October 20, 1944 troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and parts of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia liberated Belgrade;

4) in Hungary, Soviet troops met fierce enemy resistance. Budapest was liberated from the Nazis on February 13, 1945;

5) Vistula-Oder operation (12.01.-3.02.). Soviet soldiers liberated Warsaw. By the end of March they reached the Baltic Sea coast.

Berlin operation. The offensive in the Berlin direction involved troops of the 1st and 2nd Belorussian Fronts and the 1st Ukrainian Front, led by G.K. Zhukov, K.K. Rokossovsky, I.S. Konev. The offensive began at 5 a.m. on April 16, 1945. The enemy fought back fiercely. On April 21, shock troops of the Red Army broke into the outskirts of Berlin. The troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, advancing from the north and south, united west of Berlin. On the Elbe River, near the city of Torgau, their significant meeting took place with American army. On May 8, in the suburbs of Berlin, an act of unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany was signed. On the Soviet side, the signature was affixed by Marshal G.K. Zhukov. The fighting in Europe ended on May 9 in Prague after Germany signed the act of unconditional surrender.

Historical significance victory in the Great Patriotic War:

1) it was an important part of the Second World War;

2) the entry of the USSR into the war imposed Nazi Germany, radically changed its political character;

3) the heroism of Soviet soldiers, effort Soviet rear were the main sources of victory for the anti-Hitler coalition as a whole;

4) victory in the Great Patriotic War increased the prestige and moral and political authority of the Soviet Union;

5) the victory contributed to the growth of the country’s international influence and the strengthening of international ties.

6) as a result of successful military operations and the victory of the USSR, there was a significant strengthening of the security of the country’s borders, namely: the Pechenga and Klaipeda regions, part of the former East Prussia in the west, became part of the USSR; Southern Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands in the east;

7) as a result of the Crimean (February 1945) and Potsdam (July - August 1945) peace conferences, the participants of which were: the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, Germany was divided into occupation zones. Fascism was outlawed by the world community.

The USSR suffered huge losses during the war:

1) at least 27 million people were killed, died from wounds, died in captivity, or were tortured; 2) approximately 1,710 cities, more than 70 thousand villages, and about 32 thousand enterprises were destroyed.

The war revealed many of the evils of the totalitarian regime in the Soviet Union. But the victory allowed Stalin to switch the attention and energy of the people to restoring the destroyed economy, to declare that the fact of victory was proof of the advantages of socialism.

USSR in the second half of the 40s-80s. XX century

Socio-economic development and socio-political life of the country in post-war period(1945-1953)

After the end of the Great Patriotic War, the Soviet people had the opportunity to begin peaceful work. The main problems of the post-war period:

1) restoration of war-ravaged national economy(approximately 1,710 cities, more than 70 thousand villages, about 32 thousand enterprises were destroyed).

2) demobilization of the army: out of 11.5 million military personnel in 1945–1946. About 8.5 million people were transferred to the reserve, and they needed to be provided with housing, which in a devastated country was an impossible task. Large population in post-war years lived in barracks;

3) an urgent conversion was needed (transfer of the economy to peaceful footing), which could not but lead to a decline in industrial production.

The country's transition to a peaceful path was carried out with the help of the following measures.

1. In September 1945, the State Defense Committee was abolished. All functions of governing the country were concentrated in the hands of the Council of People's Commissars (in March 1946 it was transformed into the Council of Ministers of the USSR).

2. Already in August 1943, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution “On urgent measures to restore the economy in areas liberated from German occupation.” A significant part restoration work was done towards the end of the war.

3. In March 1946, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved a plan for the restoration and further development of the economy for 1946–1950.

The main source of the country's restoration, as well as victory in the war, was selfless enthusiasm Soviet people:

1) during the years of the first post-war five-year plan (1946–1950), 6,200 industrial enterprises were restored and rebuilt;

2) in 1948, the pre-war level of industrial production was achieved;

3) in 1950, the level of pre-war production was exceeded by 73%;

4) the Stakhanov movement began again;

5) the country’s economy did not lose its militaristic orientation even after the war: the Soviet government, even at the new stage, was constantly preparing for a war for survival in a capitalist environment;

6) the leadership of the country and personally I.V. Stalin was interested in the development of the military industry and related scientific research great attention;

7) the first test of the Soviet atomic bomb happened in 1949 at the training ground in Semipalatinsk; 8) in 1947, the first Soviet ballistic missile was tested, which was developed under the leadership of S.P. Queen.

Satisfying the material needs of people, as in the pre-war years, was relegated to the background by the country's leadership. But already in 1947 it was canceled card system for food products. Its abolition, accelerated by the government for propaganda purposes, did little to make things easier: the average salary of workers was low, and high prices in stores flourished. To overcome financial difficulties, a monetary reform was carried out.

The village, as in pre-war times, remained a source for pumping out funds that the state received through the practically unpaid labor of collective farmers. In 1946–1947 Due to drought, there was a poor grain harvest. The village was gripped by famine.

Foreign policy of the USSR in the post-war years. "Cold War"

The results of World War II radically changed the balance of power in the world:

1) The USSR became one of the leading world powers, without which not a single issue of international life could now be resolved;

2) at the same time, the dominance and power of the United States increased during the war years, which allowed the American administration already in the 40s. begin to move away from wartime agreements.

All this led to a period of sharp cooling in Soviet-American relations and the beginning of the Cold War.

The Soviet Union was concerned about the US nuclear monopoly and its attempt to dictate relations with other countries. At the same time, the United States was alarmed by the great growth in the authority of the USSR in Europe and throughout the world.

The US administration adopted the “Marshall Plan” in 1947, the essence of which was to revive the Western European economy through the provision of financial assistance and the latest technologies from overseas. Such assistance was not provided to those regimes where the Communist Party had influence. The desire of Western European countries and the United States to ensure political stability and military security resulted in the formation of the NATO bloc in 1949.

At the same time, the following events were carried out in Eastern European countries:

1) in countries occupied Soviet troops, a socio-political system similar to the Stalinist model of state socialism was emerging;

2) the formation of friendly political regimes in Eastern Europe was the main goal foreign policy Soviet leadership in the first post-war years;

3) in 1945–1948. The USSR concluded bilateral treaties with Czechoslovakia, Poland, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Albania and Yugoslavia;

4) a military bloc of socialist states was created - organization Warsaw Pact(OVD);

5) an economic association was created - the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA).

After World War II began collapse of the world colonial system . The USSR used it to establish its influence in a number of countries that had freed themselves from colonial dependence on almost all continents - in Asia, Africa, and later in Latin America. This was successfully facilitated by the international image of the Soviet Union and its opposition to the former colonial powers.

A bipolar world emerged, in which the camp of capitalist countries led by the USA and the socialist camp led by the USSR were in a state of confrontation. The rivalry between countries, called " cold war", manifested itself not only in the military-technical field, but also in the spheres of economics and culture.

Relations between the USA and the USSR became especially strained during the Korean War (1950–1953). During the war, the USSR and China supported the pro-communist forces, and the United States supported their opponents. As a result of the war, the country was divided into two states: North and South Korea.

Socio-economic development and socio-political development of the USSR in the mid-1950s–early 1960s. The inconsistency of the period of the “Khrushchev Thaw”

1) debunking the cult of Stalin (XX and especially XXII Party Congresses);

2) partial democratization of public life, in which several directions can be distinguished:

a) cessation of terror and rehabilitation of its victims;

b) partial expansion of the rights of Soviets, trade unions and local authorities parties;

c) “thaw” in culture, easing of censorship;

d) weakening of the “Iron Curtain”, the “first sign” of which was the 1st Moscow international festival youth and students 1957;

3) expansion of rights national republics, replacement of Russian leaders with representatives of indigenous nationalities and rehabilitation of repressed peoples with the return of autonomy and former place of residence (with the exception of Crimean Tatars and Volga Germans, rehabilitated only in the late 80s);

4) the resumption of Lenin’s policy of persecution of the church (albeit in a less harsh form);

5) reduction of the army.

Socio-economic reforms This period can be divided into two groups according to content and consequences.

Positives:

1. Reducing exorbitant taxes on peasants by 3 times.

2. More active use of the scientific and technological revolution, the great triumph of which was conquest of space. In October 1957 The Soviet Union launched the world's first artificial satellite Earth, and in April 1961 The world's first manned space flight took place, which was the Soviet pilot-cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin(the designer of the first spaceships was academician S.P. Korolev). Gaining priority in space, in which the USSR overtook the Americans, was a huge achievement and a source of legitimate national pride for Russia, but it was also explained by priority military goals; meanwhile, launched space project was still during Stalin's life.

3. Mass housing construction, the relocation of millions of citizens from communal apartments to separate ones (the so-called “Khrushchev buildings”).

Contradictions and obvious negatives:

1. Replacement industry economic management in the form of ministries, borrowed again from the times of Lenin parochial(economic councils).

2. Continuation of the extensive path of economic development, one of the indicators of which was plowing virgin lands in Kazakhstan, which gave a short-term effect and resulted in their depletion.

3. Liquidation of peasant farms, which meant taking collectivization to the point of absurdity and depriving collective farmers of the last incentive to work.

4. Mass outflow of young people from the devastated village, as a consequence issuing passports to collective farmers (banned under Stalin).

5. Voluntary “leaps” in the economy, striking examples which became the anecdotal corn epic of Khrushchev, as an attempt to solve the food problem with one means.

6. The division of party bodies on an economic basis into industrial and agricultural, which finally reduced them to the level of backup structures for economic management.

In summary results Khrushchev's reforms in the economy can be summarized as follows:

In the beginning- short-term increase in pace economic development, people's enthusiasm and standard of living (especially housing).

In the future -

a) slowdown;

b) a drop in labor productivity, as a consequence fear disappears, in the absence other effective incentives (which state economy unable to give);

c) depopulation of the village and final decline agriculture;

d) food crisis.