World War II between whom. The beginning of the second world war. Dates and events

September 2 at Russian Federation celebrated as "Day of the end of World War II (1945)". This memorable date was established in accordance with the Federal Law "On Amendments to Article 1 (1) Federal law"About the days military glory and memorable dates of Russia "", signed by the President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev on July 23, 2010. The Day of Military Glory was established in memory of compatriots who showed selflessness, heroism, devotion to their Motherland and allied duty to the countries - members of the anti-Hitler coalition in the implementation of the decision of the 1945 Crimean (Yalta) Conference on Japan. September 2 is a kind of second Victory Day for Russia, victory in the East.

This holiday cannot be called new - on September 3, 1945, the day after the surrender of the Japanese Empire, the Day of Victory over Japan was established by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. However, for a long time, this holiday was practically ignored in the official calendar of significant dates.

The international legal basis for establishing the Day of Military Glory is considered the Act of Surrender of the Empire of Japan, which was signed on September 2, 1945 at 9:02 am Tokyo time on board the US battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. On the part of Japan, the document was signed by Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Chief of the General Staff Yoshijiro Umezu. The representatives of the Allied Powers were the Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur, the American Admiral Chester Nimitz, the Commander of the British Pacific Fleet Bruce Fraser, the Soviet General Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko, the Kuomintang General Su Yun-chan, the French General J. K. Halfrich, New Zealand Air Vice Marshal L. Isit and Canadian Colonel N. Moore-Cosgrave. This document put an end to World War II, which, according to Western and Soviet historiography, began on September 1, 1939 with the attack of the Third Reich on Poland (Chinese researchers believe that World War II began with the Japanese army attack on China on July 7, 1937).

Do not use prisoners of war for forced labor;

Provide units that were located in remote areas with additional time to end hostilities.

On the night of August 15, the "young tigers" (a group of fanatic commanders from the War Ministry and the capital's military institutions, headed by Major K. Khatanaka) decided to disrupt the adoption of the declaration and continue the war. They planned to eliminate the "supporters of peace", to remove the text with the recording of Hirohito's speech on the acceptance of the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and the end of the war by the Japanese Empire before it was broadcast on the air, and then persuade the armed forces to continue the struggle. The commander of the 1st Guards Division, which was guarding the imperial palace, refused to take part in the mutiny and was killed. Giving orders on his behalf, the "young tigers" entered the palace, attacked the residences of the head of the Suzuki government, Lord Keeper of the Seal K. Kido, Chairman of the Privy Council K. Hiranuma and the Tokyo radio station. However, they could not find the tapes and find the leaders of the "party of peace". The troops of the capital's garrison did not support their actions, and even many members of the organization of “young tigers, not wanting to go against the decision of the emperor and not believing in the success of the cause, did not join the putschists. As a result, the mutiny failed in the very first hours. The instigators of the conspiracy were not tried, they were allowed to commit ritual suicide by ripping open the abdomen.

On August 15, an appeal from the Japanese emperor was broadcast on the radio. Given the high level of self-discipline among Japanese statesmen and military leaders, a wave of suicides took place in the empire. On August 11, Hideki Tojo, a former prime minister and minister of the army, a staunch supporter of an alliance with Germany and Italy, tried to commit suicide with a shot from a revolver (he was executed on December 23, 1948 as a war criminal). On the morning of August 15, the Minister of the Army Koretika Anami performed hara-kiri "the most magnificent example of the ideal of a samurai", in a suicide note he asked the emperor for forgiveness for the mistakes. The 1st Deputy Chief of the Naval General Staff (previously the commander of the 1st Air Fleet), the "father of the kamikaze" Takijiro Onishi, Field Marshal of the Imperial Japanese Army Hajime Sugiyama, as well as other ministers, generals and officers, committed suicide.

Kantaro Suzuki's cabinet resigned. Many military and political leaders began to lean towards the idea of a unilateral occupation of Japan by US troops in order to keep the country from the threat of the communist threat and to preserve the imperial system. On August 15, hostilities between the Japanese armed forces and the Anglo-American forces ceased. However, Japanese troops continued to offer fierce resistance to the Soviet army. Units of the Kwantung Army were not given the ceasefire order, therefore, the Soviet troops were also not given instructions to stop the offensive. Only on August 19 did the commander-in-chief of the Soviet troops in the Far East, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, meet with the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army Hiposaburo Khata, where an agreement was reached on the procedure for surrender Japanese troops... Japanese units began to surrender their weapons, this process dragged on until the end of the month. The Yuzhno-Sakhalin and Kuril landing operations continued until August 25 and September 1, respectively.

On August 14, 1945, the Americans developed a draft "General Order No. 1 (for the Army and Navy)" on accepting the surrender of the Japanese troops. This project was approved by the American President Harry Truman and on August 15 it was reported to the allied countries. The project indicated the zones in which each of the allied powers was to accept the surrender of the Japanese units. On August 16, Moscow announced that it generally agreed with the project, but proposed an amendment to include all Kurile Islands and the northern half of Hokkaido. Washington has not raised any objection to the Kuril Islands. But with regard to Hokkaido, the American president noted that the Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces on Pacific General Douglas MacArthur surrenders the Japanese armed forces on all the islands of the Japanese archipelago. It was clarified that MacArthur will use symbolic military forces, including Soviet units.

From the very beginning, the American government was not going to let the USSR into Japan and rejected allied control in post-war Japan, which was provided for by the Potsdam Declaration. On August 18, the United States put forward a demand to allocate one of the Kuril Islands for the American Air Force base. Moscow rejected this impudent harassment, stating that the Kuril Islands, according to the Crimean agreement, are the possession of the USSR. The Soviet government announced that it was ready to allocate an airfield for the landing of American commercial aircraft, subject to the allocation of a similar airfield for Soviet aircraft in the Aleutian Islands.

On August 19, a Japanese delegation headed by the Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General T. Kawabe, arrived in Manila (Philippines). The Americans notified the Japanese that their forces were to liberate the Atsugi airfield on August 24, the Tokyo Bay and Sagami Bay areas by August 25, and the Kanon base and the southern part of Kyushu island by the middle of the day on August 30. Representatives of the Imperial armed forces Japan was asked to delay the landing of the occupying forces for 10 days in order to increase safety measures and avoid unnecessary incidents. The request of the Japanese side was granted, but for a shorter period. The landing of the advanced occupation formations was scheduled for August 26, and the main forces for August 28.

On August 20, the Japanese were presented with the Act of Surrender in Manila. The document provided for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces, regardless of their location. Japanese troops were to immediately stop hostilities, release prisoners of war and interneed civilians, ensure their maintenance, protection and delivery to the indicated places. On September 2, the Japanese delegation signed the Act of Surrender. The ceremony itself was structured to show the central role of the United States in the victory over Japan. The procedure for the surrender of Japanese troops in various parts of the Asia-Pacific region dragged on for several months.

The second World War was the result of the expansionist aspirations of Nazi Germany and the policy of "appeasement" carried out for a long time by the leading countries of Western democracies: Great Britain and France. It became the longest and most destructive war in the history of mankind. The main reason for World War II was the desire of the militarized countries - Germany, Italy and Japan - to redistribute the world and create huge colonial empires. On the part of the aggressor countries, the war was aggressive and inhuman in nature. Fascist regimes hatched plans for the physical destruction of "inferior" peoples. Despite the ideological and political contradictions between the countries that became victims of aggression, their leaders gradually realized the need for an uncompromising struggle against a common enemy.

1. The first stage of the war... World War II began on September 1, 1939, with the Nazi Germany attack on Poland. England and France, bound by a military alliance with Poland, declared war on Germany on September 3.

2. The USSR, the USA and Great Britain became the basis of the anti-Hitler coalition during the war years. The decisive role in the defeat of Nazi Germany and its allies was played by the Soviet Union. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people was the most important component of the Second World War, in which one can conditionally distinguish three stages:

3. Each of the stages, in turn, is subdivided into separate periods. Until June 1941, during the war, two periods:

4. "Strange War" characterized by the fact that England and France officially declared war on Germany, but did not fight. Germany also did not conduct active hostilities against them. Poland alone heroically but hopelessly defended itself against superior German forces. Thus, England and France did not provide real assistance to their ally - Poland. In the governments of both powers, supporters of the "appeasement" policy still prevailed, believing that the war would soon end in a compromise with Germany and A. Hitler would direct his aggression against Soviet Union... Not receiving a powerful rebuff during the invasion of Poland, German troops in April - June 1940 captured Norway and Denmark.

5. Under these conditions, the Soviet leadership began to prepare to repel the imminent aggression from Nazi Germany. Since the Polish state actually ceased to exist, the USSR took under its protection the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. On September 17, 1939, the Red Army began a liberation campaign in Eastern Poland, which led to the territorial unity of Ukraine and Belarus within the USSR.

6. The next measure of the Soviet government was the spread of political influence over the Baltic countries - Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia, and then their annexation to the USSR as union republics. As a result of the Soviet-Finnish war of 1939-1940, also known as "Winter war", The Soviet Union managed to achieve important territorial concessions, but it could not include Finland in its zone of interests. In July 1940, the Soviet leadership, in an ultimatum, demanded that the Romanian government transfer the province of Bessarabia, which had been part of Romania since 1918, to the USSR. This demand was satisfied.

7. Thus, the Soviet Union used the war in Europe for its own security. The territory of the USSR has increased significantly. Its borders moved 150-300 km to the west, which contributed to the strengthening of the country's security and military power in the face of the inevitable fascist threat.

8. In May 1940, the "strange war" in Europe ended. Germany simultaneously attacked France, Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg and quickly occupied these countries. For example, the French army was defeated within two weeks.

9. In France, a pro-German Vichy government was formed. The defeat of France changed the geopolitical situation in Europe. Italy entered the war. In September 1940, an agreement was signed on the military alliance of Germany, Italy and Japan. ("The Triple Pact"), which was soon joined by Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and some other countries.

10. After the actual surrender France Germany launched a large-scale war against Great Britain, which remained the only major enemy in Europe. During the "Battle of England", the German military leadership tried to break the resistance of the British with air strikes and a naval blockade, before landing troops on the British Isles (planned Operation Sea Lion). In May 1940, the British government was headed by W. Churchill, who from the very beginning was an open opponent of the policy of imprudent "pacification" of Germany. The British not only withstood, but also rather successfully fought in the Mediterranean. With strikes from Libya and Ethiopia, they repulsed an attempt by Italian troops to seize Egypt and at the beginning of 1941 launched an active offensive. British units also took part in the hostilities against the Italians in Greece. Germany had to save its ally by sending an expeditionary force under the command of General E. Rommel to Libya. In April 1941, German troops invaded Yugoslavia and Greece, forcing the British to urgently evacuate.

11. By June 1941, only two states in Europe retained full independence: the USSR and Great Britain. In the captured continental Europe Hitlerite Germany established "new order" (Hitler's concept of a complete reorganization public life according to the Nazi worldview). In the occupied territories, self-government bodies were formed from representatives of pro-fascist or pro-German parties (groups) that collaborated with the occupiers - collaborators (collaboration is military, economic and political cooperation with the occupiers). The first such experience is known in Norway, where the local administration was headed by V. Quisling. The phenomenon of collaborationism was characteristic of almost all occupied European countries.

12. Second stage of the war... A. Hitler considered conquering Western Europe as preparation for the implementation of its main task - the conquest of "living space" for the German nation in the East. It was assumed that the campaign against the USSR would begin after the resistance in the West was finally broken. However, the statement plan "Barbarossa", the main goal of which was the rapid ("lightning-fast") defeat of the USSR and the occupation of its territory almost to the Urals, took place before the end of the war with England. Hitler signed the plan on December 18, 1940, immediately after the refusal of the Soviet leadership to join the "Triple Pact". But in reality, the main reason for the forced preparation of the war with the Soviet Union was different. The German command feared a possible increase in the combat effectiveness of the Red Army due to the measures taken by the Soviet leadership to re-equip the army and improve the training of its command personnel.

13. The aggression of fascist Germany for the Soviet Union was unexpected. This is largely due to the fact that the country's leadership made a number of serious mistakes. JV Stalin ignored information about the impending aggression, was afraid of provoking the Germans to attack by measures to strengthen the border military districts, underestimating Germany's ability to fight on several fronts. He believed that the source of information about a possible war was England, allegedly interested in a military clash between the USSR and Germany.

14. The German attack on the Soviet Union took place on June 22, 1941 according to the "Barbarossa" plan, according to which the war was supposed to be lightning-fast. ("blitzkrieg") and end within 6-8 weeks (until the fall of 1941) with the rapid defeat of the Red Army in the west of the USSR. The general colonization plan "Ost" provided that the European part of the Soviet Union was to turn into a raw material colony of Germany, which in the future was supposed to be populated by German colonists. It was planned to greatly reduce the Slavic population, and turn the rest into illiterate servants and cheap labor. In the event of the surrender of the Soviet leadership, it was allowed to preserve the USSR in its Asian part as a state dependent on Germany. Germany planned to move its numerous concentration camps from Europe to "Asian Russia". A. Hitler considered the war against the USSR as "something more than just an armed struggle." He demanded to wage a war "for destruction", defeat "Russians as a people", undermine his "biological strength", destroy Russian (Soviet) culture. Mortal danger looms over the peoples of the Soviet Union.

15. From the very beginning, the struggle against German fascist aggression acquired the features of a people's, patriotic war.

16. The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people is traditionally divided into three periods:

http://dic.academic.ru/dic.nsf/bse/76395/ Second

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The first period of the Great Patriotic War... In the first days of the war, Soviet troops suffered huge losses. By the end of September 1941, the Red Army had lost in killed, wounded and captured about 5 million people, as well as a significant part of aircraft and tanks. The enemy approached Moscow and Leningrad, capturing 1.5 million km2 of territory with a population of 74.5 million people.

The people saved the country from complete collapse. Many parts of the Red Army displayed courage and heroism. When surrounded by a small garrison Brest Fortress for about a month he fought against the many times superior enemy forces. German troops faced stubborn resistance in the battle near Smolensk, during the defense of Kiev, Odessa, Sevastopol. More than 20 million people applied to join the Red Army as volunteers, up to 10 million civilians participated in the construction of defensive lines, about 4 million people joined the people's militia, which played an important role in the defense of Moscow, Leningrad and other cities. Behind enemy lines, the organization of partisan and underground movements began. The heroic defense of Leningrad was of great military and political importance.

The largest battle of the first period of the Great Patriotic War was the Battle of Moscow, which took place on September 30, 1941 - April 20, 1942. Soviet troops defeated the enemy, throwing him back 100–250 km along the entire front from Moscow. This was the first major defeat German troops since the beginning of the war.

The historical significance of the victory in the Battle of Moscow was that the myth of the invincibility of the German fascist army was dispelled and the "blitzkrieg" plan was thwarted, the morale of the Red Army and the entire people was strengthened. For Germany, the war dragged on. The defeat of the Germans near Moscow influenced Japan, which refused to enter the war against the USSR. It stepped up its expansion in the Asian region, attacking the American naval base Pearl Harbor (Hawaiian Islands) on December 7, 1941 from aircraft carriers. Continuing the offensive, Japan by June 1942 occupied Thailand, Singapore, the Philippines, Burma, Indonesia, and New Guinea.

The victory near Moscow and the entry into the war of the United States in December 1941 significantly changed the international situation and accelerated the process of forming the anti-Hitler coalition. The beginning of its creation is considered to be July 12, 1941, when an agreement on mutual assistance and support was concluded between the USSR and Great Britain. At the end of 1941, the USSR, the USA and Great Britain signed a protocol on military supplies to the Soviet Union. The supply of military equipment, ammunition, strategic raw materials, foodstuffs and other goods (Lend-Lease) to the USSR by the allies played a large role in the defeat of Nazi Germany. On January 1, 1942, the United Nations Declaration was signed in Washington, in which 26 states that condemned fascism pledged to cooperate with each other in the fight against Nazi Germany and its allies. In the summer of 1942, bilateral agreements on cooperation were concluded between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain, which formed the basis of the anti-Hitler coalition.

The second period of the Great Patriotic War. This period is characterized by the transition of the strategic initiative to the Red Army and a radical turning point in the course of the war. The Soviet command, inspired by the victory near Moscow, sought to consolidate the achieved success by sending significant forces of the Red Army to liberate Ukraine. However, in the battle near Kharkov, a large group of Soviet troops was surrounded and destroyed. Then the German command struck a concentrated blow with the forces of their armies on the unprotected steppes of the southern part of Russia. The Kuban and the North Caucasus were captured. In July 1942, the German army advanced towards Stalingrad and the Volga. The purpose of this offensive was to reach the deep rear of the USSR - to Ural factories- and depriving the Red Army of the fuel resources of the Caucasus. In the event that the Germans crossed the Volga, Japan and Turkey pledged to enter the war against the Soviet Union, and Great Britain and the United States could agree to conclude a separate peace with Germany.

The Soviet leadership decided to give the German fascist troops a decisive rebuff at Stalingrad, where significant forces of the Red Army were drawn. The defeats and failures of the first period of the war became a lesson for the Soviet side. A new officer corps was formed, the troops learned to fight better. The material base of the Red Army has been significantly strengthened. Since the end of 1942, the Soviet economy has produced more weapons and ammunition than Germany and its allies. On the approaches to Stalingrad, many kilometers of fortifications were created, the defense of each house was prepared. At the same time, the well-known order of JV Stalin was issued "Not a step back!"

The success of the Red Army in the Battle of Stalingrad was facilitated by the moral upsurge of Soviet soldiers and commanders, who realized that Stalingrad was the last chance to turn the tide of the war. The stubborn resistance of the defenders of Stalingrad on the approaches to it and during the street battles undermined the morale of the German army. Only after the enemy was morally and physically exhausted, on November 19, 1942, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive, encircling Stalingrad from the north and south. Cut off, the German 6th Army surrendered on February 2, 1943, despite Hitler's orders not to surrender. From that time until the end of the war, the strategic initiative remained with the Soviet troops.

July 5 - August 23, 1943 the Battle of Kursk took place, as a result of which the Nazis also suffered a major strategic defeat. The Soviet battle plan was developed on the basis of data from British intelligence, which transmitted a detailed plan of German military operations to the Soviet command. The counter-offensive of the Red Army was accompanied by a large-scale "rail war", which the partisans began behind enemy lines. In the battle at the Kursk Bulge, Germany lost the bulk of its army and went on the defensive. The expulsion of the German fascist invaders from the territory of the USSR began. From August to December 1943, the battle for the Dnieper line of the "Eastern Wall" continued, which was a system of powerful German defensive fortifications along the Baltic Sea-Belarus-Dnepr line. Despite heavy casualties, Soviet units crossed the Dnieper and liberated Kiev.

From the summer of 1942 to February 1943, decisive military operations took place in the Pacific Ocean. Under the blows of American aviation, the Japanese fleet was forced to retreat north. In 1943, Anglo-American forces successfully advanced in North Africa. Egypt, Cyrenaica, Tunisia were liberated from German and Italian occupation. Landing in Sicily, the Allies forced Italy to surrender. Preparations began for the opening of the second front - the landing of the allied USSR troops in Normandy (in the north of France).

The victories of the Red Army at Stalingrad and at the Kursk Bulge, which marked a radical turning point in the course of the war, contributed to the strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition. At the meeting of the heads of government of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in Tehran (Iran) on November 28 - December 1, 1943, the time and place of the opening of the second front in Europe were determined and the USSR agreed to enter the war against Japan after the end of the war in Europe.

The third period of the Great Patriotic War. In the fall of 1944, the liberation of the USSR was completed. The blockade of Leningrad was lifted, most of the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine and Moldova were liberated. The Red Army's liberation campaign in Europe began.

Two of Germany's allies fell almost without resistance: Romania and Bulgaria. Sofia, the capital of Bulgaria, joyfully greeted Soviet soldiers. Hungary put up fierce resistance. But the most difficult battles unfolded for Poland, which the Germans considered the last bastion that opened the way to Germany. For the liberation of this country from the Nazi occupation, the Soviet Union paid a huge price - more than 600 thousand dead servicemen.

Simultaneously with the Soviet offensive, a second front opened in Europe. In June 1944, American, British and Canadian forces landed in Northern France. The French Resistance Movement provided active support to the allied forces. The Vichy government was overthrown, and France, whose Provisional Government was headed by General Charles de Gaulle, returned to the anti-Hitler coalition. By the beginning of 1945, the fighting had moved to the territory of Germany, which found itself in a ring of fronts. The second meeting of the "Big Three" countries, held in Yalta in February 1945, finally determined the fate of post-war Germany. It was decided to divide this country into occupation zones. The USSR agreed two or three months after the end of hostilities in Europe to enter the war against Japan.

However, given the possibility of concluding a separate alliance of Germany with the United States and Great Britain, the Soviet leadership decided to urgently and independently storm Berlin. On April 16, 1945, the Battle of Berlin began - the last major battle of the Great Patriotic War. Contrary to the hopes of the Nazi leaders, Soviet troops took the city in a few days. On April 30, scouts M. A. Egorov and M. V. Kantaria hoisted the Victory Banner over the Reichstag. On the same day A. Hitler committed suicide. On May 8, 1945, Germany signed an act of complete and unconditional surrender. May 9, 1945 was declared the Victory Day in the USSR.

The final stage of the Second World War. The issues of the end of the world war and the post-war order of the world were discussed at a conference in Potsdam (a suburb of Berlin), which took place on July 17 - August 2, 1945. A number of historical resolutions were adopted at it. Before the solution of the German question, Germany was temporarily divided into four zones of occupation: British, American, Soviet and French, and Berlin, which was in the Soviet zone of occupation, was divided into four sectors. The territory of Poland increased due to the territory of Germany, and East Prussia (now the Kaliningrad region of the Russian Federation) was transferred to the USSR. It was decided to hold demilitarization, denazification and democratization Germany.

The conference set up the International Military Tribunal to try Nazi leaders. The issue of reparations and division equally between the allies of the military and merchant fleets of Germany was resolved.

According to the decisions of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences, the allies began joint military operations against Japan. The United States made the main contribution to the defeat of Japan. From the summer of 1943 to August 1944, American forces liberated the Solomon Islands, New Guinea, the Marshalls and the Caroline Islands, despite fierce resistance from the Japanese army and navy. The central zone of the Pacific Ocean came under the full control of the American fleet. On August 5, 1945, the allies presented Japan with an ultimatum demanding its surrender, after which the United States dropped the first atomic bombs to the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. A great contribution to the overall victory was made by the Soviet Union, which defeated within three weeks the Kwantung Army, numbering more than 1 million soldiers and officers, and liberated Manchuria, as well as South Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands and North Korea. On September 2, 1945, defeated Japan signed an act of surrender. The Second World War, which lasted six years, is over.

The most violent and destructive conflict in human history was the Second World War. It was only during this war that nuclear weapons were used. 61 states became participants of the Second World War. It began on September 1, 1939 and ended on September 2, 1945.

The reasons for the Second World War are quite varied. But, first of all, these are territorial disputes caused by the results of the First World War and a serious imbalance of power in the world. The Versailles Treaty of England, France and the United States, concluded on extremely unfavorable terms for the losing side (Turkey and Germany), led to a constant increase in tension in the world. But the so-called policy of appeasement of the aggressor, adopted by Britain and France in the 1030s, entailed an increase in the military power of Germany and led to the beginning of active hostilities.

The anti-Hitler coalition included: the USSR, England, France, USA, China (Chiang Kai-shek's leadership) Yugoslavia, Greece, Mexico and so on. On the side of Nazi Germany, Japan, Italy, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Albania, Finland, China (the leadership of Wang Jingwei) Iran, Finland and other states took part in the Second World War. Many powers, not taking part in active hostilities, helped by supplying the necessary medicines, food and other resources.

These are the main stages of the Second World War, which are currently identified by researchers.

This bloody conflict began on September 1, 1939. Germany and its allies committed the European blitzkrieg.
The second stage of the war began on June 22, 1941 and lasted until mid-November of the following 1942. Germany attacks the USSR, but Barbarossa's plan fails.
The next in the chronology of the Second World War was the period from the second half of November 1942 to the end of 1943. At this time, Germany is gradually losing its strategic initiative. At the Tehran Conference, in which Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill took part (late 1943), it was decided to open a second front.
The fourth stage, which began at the end of 1943, ended with the capture of Berlin and the unconditional surrender of Nazi Germany on May 9, 1945.
The final stage of the war lasted from May 10, 1945 to September 2 of the same year. It was during this period that the United States used nuclear weapons. Military operations were conducted in the Far East and Southeast Asia.

The outbreak of the Second World War 1939-1945 took place on September 1. The Wehrmacht launched an unexpected large-scale aggression against Poland. France, England and some other states declared war on Germany. But, nevertheless, no real help was provided. By September 28, Poland was completely under German rule. On the same day, a peace treaty was concluded between Germany and the USSR. Fascist Germany thus provided itself with a fairly reliable rear. This made it possible to begin preparations for war with France. By June 22, 1940, France was captured. Now nothing prevented Germany from starting serious preparations for military operations against the USSR. Even then, a plan for a lightning war against the USSR, "Barbarossa", was approved.

It should be noted that on the eve of World War II, the USSR received intelligence about the preparation of the invasion. But Stalin, believing that Hitler would not dare to attack so early, did not give the order to bring the border units on alert.

The actions that unfolded between June 22, 1941 - May 9, 1945 are of particular importance. This period is known in Russia as the Great Patriotic War. Many of the most important battles and events of the Second World War took place on the territory of modern Russia, Ukraine, Belarus.

By 1941, the USSR was a state with a rapidly developing industry, primarily heavy and defense. Much attention was paid to science as well. Discipline on collective farms and in production was as tough as possible. A whole network of military schools and academies was created in order to replenish the ranks of the officer corps, more than 80% of which had been repressed by that time. But, these personnel could not receive full training in a short time.

The main battles of the Second World War are of great importance for world and Russian history.

September 30, 1941 - April 20, 1942 - the first victory of the Red Army - Battle of Moscow.
July 17, 1942 - February 2, 1943 - a radical turning point in the Great Patriotic War, the Battle of Stalingrad.
July 5 - August 23, 1943 - Battle of Kursk. During this period, the largest tank battle of the Second World War took place - at Prokhorovka.
April 25 - May 2, 1945 - Battle of Berlin and the subsequent surrender of Nazi Germany in World War II.

Events that had a serious impact on the course of the war took place not only on the fronts of the USSR. Thus, the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941 led to the entry of the United States into the war. It is worth noting the landing in Normandy on June 6, 1944, after the opening of the second front and the use of the United States nuclear weapons to strike at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

September 2, 1945 was the end date of the Second World War. After the Kwantung Army of Japan was defeated by the USSR, the act of surrender was signed. The battles and battles of World War II claimed at least 65 million lives. The greatest losses in the Second World War were suffered by the USSR, having taken the main blow of the Hitlerite army. At least 27 million people died. But, only the resistance of the Red Army made it possible to stop the powerful war machine of the Reich.

These terrible results of the Second World War could not but horrify the world. For the first time, war threatened the existence of human civilization. Many war criminals were punished during the Tokyo and Nuremberg trials. The ideology of fascism was condemned. In 1945, at a conference in Yalta, a decision was made to establish the UN (United Nations). The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the consequences of which are still palpable today, eventually led to the signing of the Rada of pacts on the non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.

The economic consequences of the Second World War are also obvious. In many countries of Western Europe, this war provoked economic decline. Their influence declined, while the credibility and influence of the United States increased. The significance of the Second World War for the USSR is enormous. As a result, the Soviet Union significantly expanded its borders and strengthened the totalitarian system. Friendly communist regimes have been established in many European countries.

By official version, the war for the USSR began on June 22, 1941. In a speech that sounded on the radio on June 3, 1941, and then in a report on the 24th anniversary of the October Revolution (October 6, 1941), Stalin named two factors that, according to his opinion, led to our failures in the early stages of the war:

1) The Soviet Union lived a peaceful life, maintaining neutrality, and the mobilized and heavily armed German army perfidiously attacked a peace-loving country on June 22;

2) our tanks, guns and aircraft are better than the German ones, but we had very few of them, much less than the enemy.

These theses are a cynical and blatant lie, which does not prevent them from migrating from one political and "historical" work to another. In one of the last, published in the USSR in 1986, the Soviet encyclopedic dictionary reads: “The Second World War (1939-1945) was prepared by the forces of the international imperialist reaction and began as a war between two coalitions of imperialist powers... In the future, she began to take on the part of all states that fought against the countries of the fascist bloc, the character of a just, anti-fascist war, which was finally determined after the entry into the war of the USSR(see the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945) ". " scientists ”of Russia.

Throughout its entire, fortunately, relatively short history The Soviet Union has never been a peace-loving country in which "children slept peacefully." Having failed in an attempt to fan the fire of the world revolution, the Bolsheviks made a conscious bet on war as the main instrument for solving their political and social tasks both domestically and internationally. They intervened in most major international conflicts (in China, Spain, Vietnam, Korea, Angola, Afghanistan ...), helping the organizers of the national liberation struggle and the communist movement with money, weapons and so-called volunteers. The main goal of the industrialization carried out in the country since the 30s was the creation of a powerful military-industrial complex and a well-armed Red Army. And I must admit that this goal is almost the only one that the Bolshevik government managed to achieve. It is no coincidence that, speaking at the May Day parade, which, according to the "peace-loving" tradition, opened with a military parade, People's Commissar of Defense K. Vo-roshilov said: "The Soviet people not only know how, but also love to fight!"

By June 22, 1941, the "peace-loving and neutral" USSR had been participating in World War II for almost two years, and it took part as aggressor countries.

After signing the Hammer-va-Ribbentrop Pact on August 23, which divided most of Europe between Hitler and Stalin, the Soviet Union began its invasion of Poland on September 17, 1939. At the end of September 1939, 51% of the Polish territory was "reunited" with the USSR. At the same time, in relation to the servicemen of the Polish army, excluded by the German invasion and practically not resisting the units of the Red Army, a lot of crimes were committed - Katyn alone cost the Poles almost 30 thousand lives of officers. Even more crimes were committed by the Soviet occupiers against civilians, especially Polish and Ukrainian nationalities. Before the start of the war, the Soviet authorities in the reunited territories tried to drive almost the entire peasant population (and this is the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of Western Ukraine and Belarus) into collective and state farms, proposing a 'voluntary' alternative: collective farm or se-bir". Already in 1940, numerous echelons with deported Poles, Ukrainians and, somewhat later, Lithuanians, Latvians and Estonians moved to Siberia. The Ukrainian population of Western Ukraine and Bu-kovina, which at first (in 1939-40) massively met Soviet soldiers flowers, hoping for liberation from national oppression (from the side, respectively, of the Poles and Romanians), experienced all the delights of the Soviet regime on her own bitter experience. Therefore, it is not at all surprising that in 1941 Germans were already greeted here with flowers.

On November 30, 1939, the Soviet Union began a war with Finland, for which it was recognized as the aggressor and expelled from the League of Nations. This "unknown war", hushed up by Soviet propaganda in every possible way, is an indelible shame on the reputation of the Land of Soviets. Under the far-fetched pretext of a mythical military danger, Soviet troops invaded Finnish territory. “Sweep the Finnish adventurers off the face of the earth! The time has come to destroy the vile booger that dares to threaten the Soviet Union!"- this is how the journalists wrote in the main party newspaper Pravda on the eve of this invasion. It is interesting what a military threat to the USSR this "booger" with a population of 3.65 million people and a poorly armed army of 130 thousand people could pose to the USSR.

When the Red Army crossed the Finnish border, the balance of forces of the belligerents, according to official figures, was as follows: 6.5: 1 in the individual, 14: 1 in artillery, 20: 1 in aviation and 13: 1 in tanks in favor of the USSR... And then the "Finnish chu-do" happened - instead of a quick victorious war, Soviet troops in this "winter war" suffered one defeat after another. According to the calculations of Russian military historians ("The seal of the secret-and removed. Losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in wars, military operations and conflicts" edited by G. Kri-voosheev, M .: Voen-izdat, 1993), minimal losses The Red Army during the Finnish campaign amounted to 200 thousand people... Everything in the world is known by comparison. The dry-going troops of the Soviet allies (England, USA and Canada) in battles for the liberation of Western Europe - from landing in Nor-mandia to reaching El-bu - lost 156 thousand people. The occupation of Norway in 1940 cost Germany 3.7 thousand dead and missing soldiers, and the defeat of the armies of France, Belgium and Holland - 49 thousand people. Against this background, the terrible losses of the Red Army in the Finnish war look eloquent.
Consideration of the "peaceful and neutral" policy of the USSR in 1939-1940. raises another serious question. Who learned from whom in those days the methods of agitation and propaganda - Stalin and Molotov from Hitler and Goebbels, or vice versa? The political and ideological closeness of these methods is striking. Hitler's Germany carried out the anchoring of Austria and the occupation, first of the Sudetenland, and then of the whole of Chechnya, reuniting the lands with the German population into a single Reich, and the USSR occupied half of the territory of Poland under the pretext of reuniting into a single state of “fraternal Ukrainian and Belarusian peoples ”. Germany seized Norway and Denmark in order to protect itself from the attack of the "British aggressors" and to ensure an uninterrupted supply of Swedish iron ore, and the Soviet Union, under the same pretext of border security, occupied the Baltic countries and tried to seize Finland. Like this in common features ah looked like the peace-loving policy of the USSR in 1939-1940, when Nazi Germany was preparing to attack the "neutral" Soviet Union.

Now about one more thesis of Stalin: "History did not allow us enough time, and we did not have time to mobilize and technically prepare for the treacherous attack." It's a lie.

The documents declassified in the 90s after the collapse of the USSR convincingly show the true picture of the country's “unpreparedness” for war. At the beginning of October 1939, according to official Soviet data, the fleet of the Soviet Air Force was 12677 aircraft and exceeded the total number of military aviation of all participants in the outbreak of world war... By the number of tanks ( 14544 ) The Red Army at this time was almost twice the size of the armies of Germany (3419), France (3286) and England (547) combined. The Soviet Union significantly surpassed the belligerent countries not only in quantity, but also in the quality of weapons. In the USSR, by the beginning of 1941, the world's best fighter-interceptor MIG-3, the best guns and tanks (T-34 and KV) were produced, and already from June 21 - the world's first multiple launch rocket launchers (the famous " Katyusha ").

The statement that by June 1941 Germany secretly pulled up troops and military equipment to the borders of the USSR is also not true, providing a significant advantage in military equipment, preparing a treacherous surprise attack on a peaceful country. According to German data, confirmed by European military historians ( see "World War II" ed. R. Holmes, 2010, London), On June 22, 1941, a three-million army of German, Hungarian and Romanian soldiers prepared for the attack on the Soviet Union, at its disposal there were four tank groups with 3266 tanks and 22 fighter air groups (66 squadrons), which included 1036 aircraft.

According to declassified Soviet data, on June 22, 1941, on the western borders, the aggressor was opposed by the 3.5 million Red Army with seven tank corps, which included 11,029 tanks(even more than 2000 tanks in the first two weeks were additionally entered into battle near Shepetovka, Lepe-lem and Daugavpils) and with 64 fighter aviation regiments (320 squadrons), which are armed with 4200 aircraft, to which on the fourth day of the war they transferred 400 aircraft, and by July 9 - still 452 aircraft... Outnumbering the enemy by 17%, the Red Army on the border had overwhelming superiority in military equipment - almost four times in tanks and five times in combat aircraft! The opinion does not correspond to reality that the Soviet mechanized units were equipped with outdated equipment, and the Germans - new and effective. Yes, in Soviet tank units at the beginning of the war there were indeed many tanks of outdated designs BT-2 and BT-5, as well as light tankettes T-37 and T-38, but at the same time almost 15% (1600 tanks) accounted for for the most modern medium and heavy tanks - T-34 and KV, which the Germans had no equal at that time. The Nazis had 895 tankettes and 1,039 light tanks out of 3,266 tanks. Only 1146 tanks could be categorized as averages. Both tankettes and light German tanks (Czech-made PZ-II and PZ-III E) were significantly inferior in their technical and tactical characteristics even to obsolete Soviet tanks, and the best German medium tank PZ-III J at that time did not go into what a comparison with the T-34 (it's pointless to talk about a comparison with a heavy KV tank).

The version about the surprise of the Wehrmacht attack does not look convincing. Even if we agree with the stupidity and naivety of the Soviet party and military leadership and Stalin personally, who categorically ignored the intelligence data and Western special services and watched the deployment of a three million enemy army on the borders, even then, with the military equipment available to the opponents, the surprise of the first strike could ensure success in within 1-2 days and a breakthrough at a distance of no more than 40-50 km. Further, according to all the laws of hostilities, the temporarily retreating Soviet troops, using their overwhelming advantage in military equipment, they had to literally crush the aggressor. But the events on the Eastern Front developed according to a completely different, tragic scenario ...

Catastrophe

Soviet historical science divided the history of the war into three periods. Least attention was paid to the first period of the war, especially the summer campaign of 1941. It was sparingly explained that the Germans' successes were caused by the surprise of the attack and the unpreparedness of the USSR for war. In addition, as Comrade Stalin put it in his report (October 1941): "For every step deep into Soviet territory, the Wehrmacht paid with gigantic irreplaceable losses" (the figure was named 4.5 million killed and wounded, two weeks later in In the editorial of the newspaper Pravda, this figure of German casualties rose to 6 million). What actually happened at the beginning of the war?

From dawn on June 22, Wehrmacht troops poured across the border almost along its entire length - 3000 km from the Baltic to the Black Seas. The Red Army, armed to the teeth, was defeated in a few weeks and thrown back hundreds of kilometers from the western borders. By mid-July, the Germans occupied the whole of Belarus, taking prisoner 330 thousand Soviet servicemen, capturing 3332 tanks and 1809 guns and numerous other military trophies. In almost two weeks, the entire Baltic Sea region was captured. In August-September 1941, most of the Ukraine was in the hands of the Germans - in the Kiev cauldron, the Germans surrounded and captured 665 thousand people, captured 884 tanks and 3718 guns. By the beginning of October, the German Army Group Center reached practically the outskirts of Moscow. In the cauldron near Vyazma, the Germans captured another 663 thousand prisoners.

According to German data, meticulously filtered and refined after the war, in 1941 (the first 6 months of the war) the Germans took prisoner 3806865 Soviet soldiers captured or destroyed 21 thousand tanks, 17 thousand aircraft, 33 thousand guns and 6.5 million small arms.

The military archives declassified in the post-Soviet era generally confirm the volumes of military equipment abandoned and seized by the enemy. As for the human losses, it is very difficult to calculate them in wartime, moreover, for obvious reasons, in modern Russia this topic is practically taboo. And yet, a comparison of data from military archives and other documents of that era allowed some Russian historians striving for truth (G. Kri-vosheev, M. Solonin, etc.) to determine with a sufficient degree of accuracy that for 1941 except surrender 3.8 million people, The Red Army suffered direct combat losses (killed and died from wounds in hospitals) - 567 K people, wounded and sick - 1314 K people, deserters (evading captivity and the front) - from 1 to 1.5 million people and missing or wounded, abandoned in a stampede - about 1 million people The last two figures are determined from a comparison of the personnel of Soviet military units on June 22 and December 31, 1941, taking into account the exact data on the human replenishment of units for this period.

On January 1, 1942, according to Soviet data, 9147 German soldiers and officers were captured ( 415 times less than Soviet prisoners of war!). German, Romanian and Hungarian losses in manpower (killed, missing, wounded, sick) in 1941 amounted to 918 thousand people. - most of them were at the end of 1941 ( five times less than Comrade Stalin announced in his report).

Thus, the first months of the war on the Eastern Front led to the defeat of the Red Army and the almost complete collapse of the political and economic system created by the Bolsheviks. As the numbers of casualties, abandoned military equipment and vast territories seized by the enemy show, the dimensions of this catastrophe are unprecedented and completely dispel myths about the wisdom of the Soviet party leadership, the high professionalism of the officer corps of the Red Army, the courage and resilience of Soviet soldiers and, most importantly, the pre - the devotion and love for the Motherland of simple Soviet people. The army practically crumbled after the very first powerful blows of the German units, the top party and military leadership became confused and showed their complete incompetence, the officer corps was not ready for serious battles and in a significant majority, abandoning their units and military equipment, fled from the battlefield or surrendered to the Germans ; abandoned by the officers, demoralized Soviet soldiers surrendered to the Nazis or hid from the enemy.

Direct confirmation of the gloomy picture painted are the decrees of Stalin, issued by him in the first weeks of the war, immediately after he managed to cope with the shock of the terrible catastrophe. Already on June 27, 1941, a decree was signed on the creation of the notorious barrage detachments(AOR)... In addition to the existing special detachments of the NKVD The ZO existed in the Red Army until the fall of 1944. Defensive detachments, which were available in each rifle division, were located behind regular units and detained or shot on the spot soldiers who fled from the front line. In October 1941, the 1st Deputy Head of the Directorate of Special Departments of the NKVD Solomon Milstein reported to the Minister of the NKVD Lavrenty Beria: "... from the beginning of the war until October 10, 1941, 657,364 servicemen who had lagged behind and fled from the front were detained by special departments of the NKVD and ZO." ... In total, during the war years, according to Soviet official data, military tribunals have condemned 994 thousand military personnel, of them 157593 - executed(7810 soldiers were shot in the Wehrmacht - 20 times less than in the Red Army). For voluntary surrender and cooperation with the invaders, it was fired or 23 former Soviet generals were hanged(not counting dozens of generals who received camp terms).

Somewhat later, decrees were signed to create penal units through which, according to official data, passed 427910 military personnel(penal units existed until June 6, 1945).

Based real figures and facts preserved in Soviet and German documents(decrees, secret reports, notes, etc.), a bitter conclusion can be drawn: in no country that fell victim to Hitler's aggression has there been such moral decay, mass desertion and cooperation with the invaders as in the USSR. For example, the number of personnel of military formations of "volunteer assistants" (the so-called hivi), police and military units of Soviet military personnel and civilians by mid-1944 exceeded 800 thousand people(only in the SS they served more 150 thous. former Soviet citizens).

The dimensions of the catastrophe that befell the Soviet Union in the first months of the war came as a surprise not only to the Soviet elite, but also to the leadership of Western countries and, to some extent, even to the Nazis. In particular, the Germans were not ready to "digest" such a number of Soviet prisoners of war - by mid-July 1941 the flow of prisoners of war exceeded the Wehrmacht's ability to protect and maintain them. On July 25, 1941, the command of the German army issued an order for the mass release of prisoners of a number of nationalities. Until November 13, by this order, was released 318,770 Soviet prisoners of war (mostly Ukrainians, Belarusians and Balts).

The catastrophic size of the defeats of the Soviet troops, accompanied by mass surrender, desertion and cooperation with the enemy in the occupied territories, raise the question of the causes of these shameful phenomena. Liberal-democratic historians and political scientists often note the abundance of similarities in two totalitarian regimes - Soviet and Nazi. But at the same time, one should not forget about their fundamental differences in attitude towards their own people... Hitler, who came to power in a democratic way, brought Germany out of devastation and post-war humiliation, eliminated unemployment, built excellent roads, and conquered a new living space. Yes, in Germany they began to destroy Jews and Gypsies, persecute dissidents, introduce the most severe control over the public and even personal life of citizens, but no one expropriated private property, did not massively shoot or imprison aristocrats, the bourgeoisie and the intelligentsia, did not drive them into collective farms and did not dispossess the peasants - the standard of living of the overwhelming majority of Germans was rising. And, most importantly, with their military, political and economic successes, the Nazis managed to instill in the majority of Germans the belief in the greatness and invincibility of their country and their people.

The Bolsheviks who seized power in tsarist Russia destroyed the best part of society and, having deceived almost all strata of society, brought their peoples famines and deportations, and for ordinary citizens - forced collectivization and industrialization, grossly breaking the usual way of life and lowering the standard of living of most ordinary people.

In 1937-1938. the NKVD authorities arrested 1345 K people, of which 681 thousand - shot... On the eve of the war, in January 1941, according to official Soviet statistics, there were 1,930,000 convicts in the gulag camps, and another 462,000 people. was in prisons, and 1200 thousand - in "special settlements" (total 3 million 600 thousand people). Therefore, a rhetorical question: "Could the Soviet people living in such conditions, under such order and such power, massively show courage and heroism in battles with the Germans, defending" the socialist fatherland, the native communist party and the wise comrade Stalin with their breasts? " - hangs in the air, and the significant difference in the number of surrendered prisoners, deserters and military equipment abandoned on the battlefield between the Soviet and German armies in the first months of the war is convincingly explained by the different attitudes towards to their citizens, soldiers and officers in the USSR and Nazi Germany.

Fracture.
We will not stand behind the price

In October 1941, Hitler, anticipating the final defeat of the Soviet Union, was preparing to receive a parade of German troops in the citadel of Bolshevism - on Red Square. However, events at the front and in the rear already at the end of 1941 began to develop not according to his scenario.

German losses in battles began to grow, the material, technical and food assistance of the allies (mainly the United States) to the Soviet army increased every month, military factories evacuated to the East began to mass produce weapons. In slowing down the offensive impulse of the fascist units, first the autumn thaw, and then the severe frosts of the winter of 1941-1942, helped. But the most important thing is that a radical change gradually took place in the attitude towards the enemy on the part of the people - soldiers, home front workers and ordinary citizens who found themselves in the occupied territories.

In November 1941, in his report on the occasion of the next anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin said a significant and this time absolutely truthful phrase: “ Hitler's stupid policy turned the peoples of the USSR into the sworn enemies of today's Germany". These words formulate one of the most important reasons for the transformation of the Second World War, in which the Soviet Union participated since September 1939, to Great Patriotic War in which the leading role passed to the people... Obsessed with delusional racial ideas, the narcissistic paranoid Hitler, not listening to the numerous warnings of his generals, declared the Slavs "subhuman" who should free up living space for the "Aryan race", and at first serve the representatives of the "master race". Millions of captured Soviet prisoners of war were herded like cattle to huge open areas, entangled with barbed wire, and starved and starved there. By the beginning of the winter of 1941, out of 3.8 million people. more than 2 million from such conditions and treatment were destroyed. The previously mentioned release of prisoners of a number of nationalities, initiated at the initiative of the army command on November 13, 1941, was personally banned by Hitler. All attempts of anti-Soviet national or civil structures that at the beginning of the war collaborated with the Germans (Ukrainian nationalists, Cossacks, Balts, White émigrés) to create at least semi-independent state, military, public or regional structures were nipped in the bud. S. Bandera with part of the leadership of the OUN was sent to a concentration camp. The collective farm system has practically been preserved; the civilian population was forcibly driven to work in Germany, taken hostage en masse and shot on any suspicion. The terrible scenes of the genocide of Jews, the mass death of prisoners of war, the execution of hostages, public executions - all this in front of the population - shocked the inhabitants of the occupied territories. During the first six months of the war, at the hands of the occupiers, according to the most conservative estimates, 5-6 million Soviet civilians died (including about 2.5 million people - Soviet Jews). Not so much Soviet propaganda, as news from the front, stories of those who escaped from the occupied territories and other methods of "wireless telephone" of human rumor convinced the people that the new enemy was waging an inhuman war of complete destruction. An increasing number of ordinary Soviet people - soldiers, partisans, residents of the occupied territories and home front workers - began to realize that in this war the question was posed unequivocally - to die or win. This is what transformed the Second World War in the USSR into the Great Patriotic (People's) War.

The enemy was strong. The German army was distinguished by the resilience and courage of its soldiers, good weapons and a highly qualified general and officer corps. For another long three and a half years, stubborn battles continued, in which at first the Germans won local victories. But more and more Germans began to understand that they would not be able to contain this outburst of almost universal popular rage. The defeat at Stalingrad, the bloody battle on the Kursk Bulge, the growth of the partisan movement in the occupied territories, which from a thin stream organized by the NKVD turned into mass popular resistance. All this produced a radical break in the war on the Eastern Front.

Victories were given to the Red Army at a high price. This was facilitated not only by the fierceness of the resistance offered by the Nazis, but also by the "military leadership" of the Soviet commanders. Raised in the spirit of the glorious Bolshevik traditions, according to which the life of an individual, and even more so of a simple soldier, was worth nothing, many marshals and generals in their careeristic rage (to get ahead of a neighbor and be the first to report on the rapid capture of another fortress, height or city) did not spare their lives soldier. It has not yet been calculated how many hundreds of thousands of Soviet soldiers' lives cost the rivalry between Marshals Zhukov and Konev for the right to be the first to report to Stalin about the capture of Berlin.

From the end of 1941, the nature of the war began to change. The terrible ratio of human and military-technical losses of the Soviet and German armies has sunk into oblivion. For example, if in the first months of the war there were 415 Soviet prisoners of war per captive German, then since 1942 this ratio has approached one (out of 6.3 million captured Soviet soldiers, 2.5 million surrendered in the period from 1942 . to May 1945; during the same time, 2.2 million German soldiers surrendered). People paid for this Great Victory a terrible price - the total human losses of the Soviet Union (10.7 million combat losses and 12.4 million civilians) in World War II account for almost 40% of the losses of other countries participating in this war (including China, which lost only 20 million people). Germany lost only 7 million 260 thousand people (of which 1.76 million - the civilian population).

The Soviet government did not calculate the military losses - it was not profitable for it, because the true size, first of all, of human losses convincingly illustrated the "wisdom and professionalism" of Comrade Stalin personally and his party and military nomenklatura.

The last, rather gloomy and poorly clarified chord of the Second World War (still hushed up not only by post-Soviet, but also by Western historians) was the question of repatriates. By the end of the war, about 5 million Soviet citizens remained alive, who found themselves outside the homeland (3 million people - in the zone of action of the allies and 2 million people - in the zone of the Red Army). Of these, ostarbeiters - about 3.3 million people. of 4.3 million, hijacked by the Germans for forced labor. However, about 1.7 million people also survived. prisoners of war, including those who entered the military or police service to the enemy and voluntary refugees.

The return to the homeland of the repatriates was difficult and often tragic. Remained in the West about 500 thousand people. (every tenth), many were returned by force. The allies who did not want to spoil relations with the USSR and were bound by the need to take care of their subjects who found themselves in the zone of the Red Army were often forced to yield to the Soviets on this issue, realizing that many of the forcibly returned repatriates would be shot or end their lives in the Gulag. In general, the Western allies tried to adhere to the principle - to return Soviet authorities repatriates who have Soviet citizenship or who have committed war crimes against the Soviet state or its citizens.

The topic of the “Ukrainian account” of World War II deserves a special discussion. Neither in Soviet nor in post-Soviet times, this topic was seriously analyzed, with the exception of ideological abuse between supporters of the pro-Soviet "unrewritten history" and adherents of the national-democratic trend. Western European historians (at least English in the previously mentioned book "World War II") determine the loss of the civilian population of Ukraine at 7 million people. If we add here about 2 million more combat losses (in proportion to the part of the population of the Ukrainian SSR in the total population of the USSR), then we get a terrible figure of military losses of 9 million people. - this is about 20% of the total population of Ukraine at that time. None of the countries participating in the Second World War suffered such terrible losses.

In Ukraine, disputes between politicians and historians about the attitude towards the UPA soldiers do not stop. Numerous “admirers of the red flag” proclaim them to be traitors to the Motherland and accomplices of the Nazis, regardless of facts, or documents, or the opinion of European jurisprudence. These fighters for "historical justice" stubbornly do not want to know that the overwhelming majority of the inhabitants of Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and the Baltic states, who found themselves outside the Red Army zone in 1945, were not given away by their Western allies to the Soviets because, according to international law, they were not citizens of the USSR and did not commit crimes against someone else's homeland. So out of 10 thousand SS Galicia fighters captured by the allies in 1945, the Soviets were given only 112 people despite the unprecedented, almost ultimatum, pressure from representatives of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for repatriation. As for the rank and file soldiers of the UPA, they courageously fought against the German and Soviet invaders for their lands and independent Ukraine.

In conclusion, I would like to return once again to the problem of historical truth. Is it worth stirring up the memory of the fallen heroes and looking for ambiguous truths in the tragic events of World War II? The point is not only and not so much in the historical truth, but in the system of “Soviet values” that has survived in the post-Soviet space, including Ukraine. Lies, like rust, eat away not only history, but all aspects of life. "Unrewritten history", exaggerated heroes, "red flags", pompous military parades, renewed Leninist subbotniks, envious aggressive hostility to the West lead directly to the preservation of the wretched unreformed "Soviet" industry, unproductive "collective farm" Agriculture, "The most just", which does not differ in any way from the Soviet times of legal proceedings, the Soviet in essence ("thieves") system of selection of leading personnel, the gracious "people's" militia and "soviet" systems of education and health care. The surviving system of perverted values is largely to blame for the unique post-Soviet syndrome, which is characterized by the complete failure of political, economic and social reforms in Russia, Ukraine and Belarus.

Briefly point by point, the entire course of World War II is divided into five main stages. We will try to describe them in an accessible way for you.

Shortest stages in the table for grades 9, 10, 11
The beginning of the European conflict - stage 1, initial
Opening of the Eastern Front - stage 2
Fracture - stage 3
Liberation of Europe - Stage 4
The end of the war - the final stage 5

Table for ninth, tenth, eleventh grades

Beginning of the European Conflict - First First stage 1939 - 1941

The first stage of the largest armed conflict in its scale began on the day when Nazi troops entered Polish soil and ended on the eve of the Nazi attack on the USSR.
The beginning of the second conflict, which acquired a global scale, was officially recognized on September 1, 1939. At dawn of this day, the German occupation of Poland began and the countries of Europe realized the threat posed by Nazi Germany.
After 2 days, France and the British Empire entered the war on the side of Poland. Following them, the French and British dominions and colonies declared war on the Third Reich. The first to announce their decision were representatives of Australia, New Zealand and India (3. 09), then the leadership of the South African Union (6.09) and Canada (10.09).
However, despite joining the war, the French and British states did nothing to help Poland, and generally did not start any active actions for a long time, trying to redirect the German aggression to the east - against the USSR.
All this ultimately led to the fact that during the first war period Nazi Germany managed to occupy not only Polish, Danish, Norwegian, Belgian, Luxembourgish and Dutch territories, but also most of the French Republic.
After that, the battle for Britain began, which lasted more than three months. True, in this battle the Germans did not have to celebrate victory - they never managed to land troops on the British Isles.
As a result of the first period of the war, most European states found themselves in the fascist German-Italian occupation or fell into dependence on these states.

Opening of the Eastern Front - Second stage 1941 - 1942

The second stage of the war began on June 22, 1941, when the Nazis violated the state border of the USSR. This period was marked by the expansion of the scale of the conflict and the collapse of Hitler's blitzkrieg.
One of the significant events of this stage was also the support of the USSR from the largest states - the USA and Great Britain. Despite their opposition to the socialist system, the governments of these states declared their unconditional assistance to the Union. This laid the foundation for a new military alliance - the anti-Hitler coalition.
The second most important point of this stage of the Second World War is considered to be the joining of the US military actions, provoked by an unexpected and rapid attack by the fleet and aviation of the Japanese Empire on military base Americans in the Pacific. The attack took place on December 7, and the very next day Japan was declared war by the United States, Great Britain and a number of other countries. And after another 4 days, the German and Italian submitted a note to the United States declaring war.

The turning point during World War II - Third stage 1942-1943

The turning point of the war is considered the first major defeat of the German army on the outskirts of the Soviet capital and the Battle of Stalingrad, during which the Nazis not only suffered significant losses, but were also forced to abandon offensive tactics and switch to defensive tactics. These events took place at the third stage of hostilities, which lasted from November 19, 1942 until the end of 1943.
Also at this stage, the allies entered Italy practically without a fight, in which a crisis of power was already brewing. As a result, Mussolini was overthrown, the fascist regime collapsed, and the new government chose to sign a truce with America and Britain. On October 13, Italy entered the war with its former ally.
At the same time, a turning point also occurred in the theater of operations in the Pacific Ocean, where one after another the Japanese troops began to suffer defeat.

Liberation of Europe - Fourth stage 1944 -1945

During the fourth war period, which began on the first day of 1944 and ended on May 9, 1945, a second front was created in the west, the fascist bloc was defeated and all European states were liberated from the German invaders. Germany was forced to admit herself defeated and sign an act of surrender.

End of War - Fifth Final Stage 1945

Despite the fact that the German troops laid down their arms, the world war was not over yet - Japan was not going to follow the example of its former allies. As a result, the USSR declared war on the Japanese state, after which the units of the Red Army began a military operation in Manchuria. As a result, the defeat of the Kwantung Army led to the acceleration of the end of the war.
However, the most significant moment of this period was the atomic bombing of Japanese cities, which was carried out by the US Air Force. It happened on 6 (Hiroshima) and 9 (Nagasaki) August 1945.
This stage ended, and with it the whole war on September 2 of the same year. On this memorable day, on board the American battle cruiser Missouri, representatives of the Japanese government officially signed the act of surrender.