With Prussia - against France, with France - against Germany
President of the Russian Federation Dmitry Medvedev “in order to draw public attention to the Russian stories and the role of Russia in the global historical process "announced 2012 th - the Year of Russian history. It should be noted that this year there are two dates that are of particular importance for the history of the Russian state: 200 marks the years of victory in the war with Napoleon and 70 marks the end of the Moscow battle (20 on April 1942). These events are linked by one common goal - the defense of Moscow.The Wehrmacht’s operation to seize Moscow in the 1941 year, codenamed “Typhoon”, was declared the culminating point of the entire German offensive and was intended to be short-lived with completion before the onset of winter. Two thirds of the German armored units and almost half of the ground forces operating on the Soviet-German front were concentrated for the operation. The leadership of fascist Germany assumed that with the achievement of the goal of the operation, the war with the USSR would be won.
Hitler made a sword for the USSR
Among modern experts, the most eloquent assessment of the Moscow battle was given by the famous English history professor Richard Evans in the article “Why Hitler's ambitious plan failed” published in September GuardNian 2009: “The monstrous scale of the conflict between the Wehrmacht and the Red Army eclipsed all previous events of World War II. More people died on the Eastern Front than on all other fronts combined ... Two years after the start of the war, in September 1941, the German weapon swept away everything in its path: it seemed that the Third Reich could not be stopped in the race for domination in Europe. However, looking back, it becomes clear that this was the apogee of the success of Nazi Germany ... "
Indeed, the operation to seize Moscow began brilliantly. The main forces covering the Soviet capital of the Western Front were surrounded and perished in a giant cauldron near Vyazma. Nevertheless, in the midst of a swift German offensive, unexpected news began to arrive from under the small town of Mtsensk. The theorist and practitioner of the “war of engines" Heinz Guderian subsequently wrote about this: "October 6 ... 4th tank the division was attacked by Russian tanks and she had to survive a difficult moment. For the first time, the superiority of Russian T-34 tanks was manifested in a sharp form. The division suffered significant losses. The planned quick attack on Tula had to be postponed for now ... Our anti-tank weapons could successfully operate against the T-34 only under especially favorable conditions. "
New rocket launchers, the famous Katyushas, also demonstrated their effectiveness. Near Moscow, rocket launchers first appeared in such a large number, and the effect of their volleys was so effective that the feasibility of their further massive use became clear. After the end of the war, Field Marshal Ludwig von Kleist told the famous English military theorist and historian Liddel Garth: “Soviet military equipment and weapons were of excellent quality back in the 1941 year, especially tanks. Artillery was excellent, as were most types of small arms — rifles were more modern than ours and had a higher rate of fire. The T-34 tank was the best tank in the world. ”
“The myth of German invincibility is over,” Halder wrote in his diary, Chief of the General Staff of the Ground Forces. The blitzkrieg strategy, which served as the core of the entire plan of attack on the USSR, failed this time. Over the following months, German soldiers and officers could hardly avoid the fate of the Napoleonic army.
Four battalions of French volunteers operated in the 4 of the German army under the command of Field Marshal Kluge. Army Chief General Blumenrit in his memoirs, The Battle of Moscow, wrote: “At Borodin, Field Marshal Kluge addressed them with a speech, recalling how during the time of Napoleon, the French and Germans fought here side by side against a common enemy. The next day, the French bravely went into battle, but, unfortunately, they did not withstand either a powerful attack of the enemy, or a severe frost and snowstorm. Such tests they have never had to endure. The French legion was crushed, suffering heavy losses from enemy fire and frost. A few days later he was taken to the rear and sent to the West. "
Yes, the French did not succeed in 1812 for a year. For almost six days, Soviet troops fought off attacks by superior enemy forces. Borodino field the enemy is not captured. But it didn’t make any sense to defend it further, since the enemy began to bypass the flanks of the Soviet troops. The commander of the 5 Army, parts of which defended the Borodino field, General Dmitry Lelushenko said: “It seemed to us that we are facing history and she commanded with authority: do not shame the glory of those who died here by the death of the brave, multiply their prowess with new feats, stand to death, but block the enemy’s path to Moscow. ” 21 January 1942, units of the 5 Army re-entered the Borodino field.
It should be noted that the defeat of the Wehrmacht near Moscow was largely predetermined as far back as 1939, when a non-aggression agreement was signed between Germany and the USSR. Thanks to this, the USSR gained time to strengthen its defense capability. In particular, the strength of the Armed Forces from September 1939 of the year to 21 of June 1941-th increased more than 2,8 times. Production of weapons in the middle of the year 1940 began at the tractor, shipbuilding and some other non-military factories.
The Yak-1, MiG-3 fighter jets, Il-2 attack aircraft, Pe-2 bomber, T-34 tank, Katyusha mortars, new samples of guns, machine guns, machine guns were created and mastered. To a large extent, this became possible thanks to the expanded trade and economic cooperation between the USSR and Germany, which made it possible to acquire much-needed materials, equipment and technologies that were not available at that time in other markets, in exchange for the supply of certain types of raw materials. As noted in the fourth volume of the study “German Reich and the Second World War”, published in Germany in 1983, deliveries of German equipment contributed to the intensive development of the USSR military industry.
In Germany, the newest weapons were purchased, including airplanes, which made it possible to create domestic ones that are not inferior to the German ones. In particular, the most massive Soviet anti-tank cannon, the famous "Forty-Five", was an upgraded Soviet instrument of the German company "Rainmetal". The M-17 aircraft engine was nothing more than a licensed BMW, and 203-mm shells on the heads of Germans rushing towards Leningrad were attacked by the German cruiser Lutz, bought in 1940 and renamed the Tallinn.
The German leadership took such an unprecedented step in order to frighten the USSR with its weapons, believing that nothing of the kind would be created in the Soviet Union in the near future. On this occasion, in his book “The Purpose of Life”, an outstanding aircraft designer Alexander Yakovlev, who participated in the familiarization with German as a part of the Soviet trade delegation in November 1939 aviation technique, wrote: “We were confused by the fact that if this is a modern technique, then why do they show it to us. However, we firmly believed that this equipment should be purchased and how to study it. ” With the weapons developed on the basis of these models, the Soviet army reached Berlin, where the Third Reich was defeated.
TOTAL CONTRIBUTION TO VICTORY
All that was done in the USSR in the pre-war years in order to strengthen the country's defense capability turned out to be insufficient to repel large-scale Hitler aggression. The whole of continental Europe worked for Germany, and the economy and human resources of not only European countries conquered by Hitler but also neutral ones were used to prepare for war. The military superiority of the Nazis was undeniable. These circumstances formed the basis of the Barbarossa plan, which stipulated that the defeat of the Soviet Union would take no more than 8 – 10 weeks. The Hitler leadership was so confident in the successful implementation of this plan that since the spring of 1941, it has begun to elaborate plans for winning world domination using the resources of the conquered USSR.
In the service diary of the Supreme Command of the German Armed Forces for 17 February 1941, Hitler’s demand was that “after the end of the Eastern campaign, it is necessary to foresee the seizure of Afghanistan and the organization of an offensive against India”. The seizure of Afghanistan, and then of India, where the German troops were to unite with the Japanese troops, was scheduled to be held in the late autumn of 1941 of the year and in winter from 1941 to 1942 of the year. After solving the British problem, Germany, in alliance with Japan, intended to seize the US and Canada by landing large naval landings. 22 June 1941, the British Prime Minister Winston Churchill became aware of the Nazi attack on the USSR. He held a meeting of the main cabinet members, at which it was decided to make a statement on the support of the USSR in the war against Germany.
Churchill’s statement on the evening of June 22 emphasized that, while remaining an implacable opponent of communism, the British government viewed Hitler’s Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union as a prelude to an attempt to conquer the British Isles. “Therefore, the danger threatening Russia,” he said in his speech, “is the danger threatening us and the United States, just like the business of every Russian fighting for their home and home is the business of free people and free peoples in all corners of the globe. " 24 June 1941, speaking at a press conference, US President Franklin Roosevelt said: "Of course, we are going to provide Russia with all the help we can."
For the USSR, not declarations and beautiful words were important, but concrete help. October 1 in Moscow signed a protocol on the Lend-Lease.
Professor Temple History University Vladislav Zubok notes the important psychological significance of Lend-Lease: “The Americans very much doubted whether it was possible to extend Lend-Lease to the USSR because they expected that the country would collapse under the pressure of the Nazis. And it seemed that in August – September 1941 of the year there were all reasons for this forecast. Roosevelt’s statement that it was necessary to help the Soviet Union and that the blitzkrieg would fail, became a serious psychological support for the Soviet people. ” Indeed, large-scale deliveries began on a regular basis only after not only the blitzkrieg and the myth of the invincibility of Nazi Germany were buried in the Moscow battle, but also Hitler's plans to win world domination. Marshal Georgy Zhukov, to whom great merit belongs, emphasized: "In the battle of Moscow, a solid foundation was laid for the subsequent defeat of fascist Germany." The turning point in the war went through a series of stages, the first of which was a victory near Moscow.
As a result, the attitude of Great Britain and the USA to the efforts that the Soviet Union put into action against the aggressor changed significantly. The victory of the Soviet troops near Moscow accelerated the design, and then the strengthening of the anti-Hitler coalition. On January 1, in Washington, the 26 states of the anti-Hitler coalition, including the USSR, the USA and the UK, signed a declaration in which they committed themselves to using all their resources to fight against the aggressor.
Without a doubt, this was the result of successful actions of the Red Army near Moscow, the highest rating of which was given by the leaders of the anti-Hitler coalition countries. In a speech on London radio 15 February 1942, Winston Churchill said: “Leningrad and Moscow are not taken. The Russian armies are on the battlefield ... They are victoriously advancing, expelling the mean invader from their native land, which they so bravely defend and love so much. Moreover, they were the first to dispel the Nazi legend. Instead of victory and abundant booty, which he and his hordes gathered in the West, Hitler has so far found only disaster in Russia, defeat, shameful unspeakable crime, beating or death of millions of German soldiers and the icy wind blowing over Russian snow. ” Franklin Roosevelt gave the same assessment of events in those days in his message to the US Congress: “The great victory in the battle of Moscow was the beginning of a radical turn in the war. This outstanding event strengthened the international prestige of the Soviet Union. Bearing the brunt of the struggle against fascist Germany, the USSR firmly occupied the leading position in the anti-Hitler coalition. ”
The defeat of the Germans near Moscow made a great impression on the head of the Free France organization, General de Gaulle. The general dedicated a special performance on 20 on January 1942, which, in particular, said: “The French people enthusiastically welcome the successes and growth of the forces of the Russian people, because these successes bring France closer to its desired goal - to freedom and vengeance ... that tomorrow Russia will undoubtedly appear in the first row of winners, gives Europe and the whole world a guarantee of balance, to which France has much more reason to rejoice than any other power ... Unfortunately, too often for centuries along the way Franco-Russian Union met interference or opposition generated by intrigue or misunderstanding. Nevertheless, the need for such a union becomes apparent at every new turn of history. ”
The emperor had great conquest plans. VVVereshchagin Napoleon at the Borodino Heights. 1897. State Historical Museum, Moscow
Without a doubt, if we evaluate the effectiveness of cooperation between the states of the anti-Hitler coalition, then the supply of Lend-Lease played a role in defeating Nazism. Without outside help, the Soviet Union would have had much more difficulty. During the war, 78 convoys arrived in Murmansk and Arkhangelsk, including a total of 1400 ships and delivering more than 5 million tons of strategic cargo. The Northern Corridor remained the main channel for supplying allied Soviet aid until the end of 1943, when the Americans built a new Trans-Iranian railway and, through Iran, the USSR began to receive up to a million tons of strategic cargo monthly. There was a third route - for the flight of aircraft from Fairbanks airbase in Alaska further through Siberia.
According to American sources, the USSR received 2680 thousand tons of steel, more than 170 thousand tons of aluminum, 29,4 thousand tons of tin, 240 thousand tons of copper, 330 thousand telephones, 2 thousand radars, 5 thousand radio stations, 480 thousand cars (152 thousand of which were Studebakers), 900 thousand tons of explosives, 18 million pairs of shoes and much more. Experts note that “the important role played by the supply of non-ferrous metals, without which it is impossible to produce armor. Otherwise, it’s impossible to explain how the USSR could increase the production of tanks significantly. ” In Soviet historiography, it was usually argued that the amount of aid under the Lend-Lease of the USSR was rather small - only about 4% of the funds spent by the country on the war. Abroad, at the same time, it was claimed that victory over Germany was determined by Western weapons.
Today, the attitude in the republics of the former USSR to the help of the allies has changed somewhat and attention has also turned to the fact that both quantitative and qualitative characteristics of equipment and access to new types of weapons and equipment were of no small importance. On this occasion, after the war, Marshal Zhukov said: “After all, it is impossible to deny that the Americans were driving us so many materials, without which we could not form our reserves and could not continue the war ... We didn’t have explosives, gunpowder. There was nothing to equip rifle cartridges. The Americans really bailed us out with gunpowder and explosives. And how much they drove us to sheet steel! Unless we could quickly establish the production of tanks, if not for the American help with steel? .. Without the American trucks, we would have nothing to blow our artillery. ” But all this came after the defeat of the Wehrmacht near Moscow.
LESSONS OF HISTORY ARE NOT TO BE DISCLOSED
The Moscow battle, due to the significance of its results for the further course and outcome of the Second World War, which had the saddest consequences for Hitler's Reich, immediately after the end of the war caused a lot of publications. German generals and Western historians tried to justify the defeat of the Wehrmacht by natural conditions: huge Russian expanses, impassable mud in the autumn thaw, the fierce frosts of the continental winter. Indeed, the 1941 / 42 winter of the year was a harsh one, but it was for both sides. True, the Soviet troops were better protected from the cold. In November, they were already dressed and shod in winter, while the Germans did not have winter uniforms.
To say that no one in Germany knew what the weather was like in Russia would be too naive. In his book, Blumentrit writes how Wehrmacht officers and generals prepared for the march to the East after Hitler approved the Barbarossa plan: “A very strange atmosphere has been created in these months. First of all, we had a clear idea of what the new war would entail. In World War I, many of us as junior officers fought in Russia, and therefore we knew what awaited us. Among the officers felt some anxiety, insecurity. But the duty of service required careful, painstaking work. All maps and books concerning Russia soon disappeared from bookstores. I remember that on the table of Field Marshal Hans von Kluge in Warsaw there was always a pile of such books. The Napoleonic 1812 campaign of the year was the subject of special study. Kluge read General de Kolenkur's reports on this campaign with great attention. They revealed the difficulties of war and even life in Russia. The places of battles of the Great Army of Napoleon were marked on our maps. We knew that we would soon follow in the footsteps of Napoleon. ”
Indeed, the memoirs of Armand de Kolenkur “Napoleon's campaign to Russia”, which, apparently, carefully studied not only Kluge, should have given a lot of useful information for Wehrmacht generals. The fact is that the author’s objectivity and knowledge of Russian reality make his memoirs a valuable historical document. After all, Kolenkur from 1807 to 1811 was the French ambassador to Russia for a year and in this position he tried to do everything possible to prevent a conflict between the two powers. In 1812, he returned to Russia with Napoleon.
In his memoirs, in particular, he cites his conversation with Napoleon on the eve of the French army crossing the Neman River. Napoleon wanted to hear Kolenkur’s opinion on the retreat of the Russian army without a battle from the Russian part of Poland, which he believed had dropped Russia's authority in the eyes of the Poles. Kolenkur writes about this: “I told him that I didn’t believe in correct battles, and I think, as I always said to him, that the Russians have not so little territory so that they could not give him a decent piece to at least remove him to a greater distance from France and force him to shatter his forces. " In the end, this Russian strategy led Napoleon to defeat. With him, the Neman forced the 420-thousandth army, which consisted of almost a quarter of Germans, Italians, Dutch, Poles and representatives of other European nations, and only slightly more than 10 thousand returned.
Due conclusions from the memoirs Kolenkur was not made. In the book The German Generals Tell, Liddel Garth recalls about this General Blumentrit. He says that after the German “troops came upon a well-fortified defense on the Nara River and were stopped, all the commanders began to ask:“ When will we stop? ”They remembered what happened to Napoleon’s army. Many of them began to re-read Kolenkur's grim memoirs about the 1812 year. I still have before my eyes the commander of the 4 Army General Field Marshal Kluge, as he, with difficulty pulling his legs out of the mud, walks through the yard to his command post and stands in front of the map with the book Kolenkur in his hands. And so every day. ”
Liddell Garth notes in his book that he “was particularly interested in this remark by Blumentrit, because in August 1941, when nothing seemed to be able to stop the German offensive, I wrote an article in the October issue of Strand magazine, using numerous quotes from Kolenkur to show the impending doom of Hitler’s campaign against Russia. I told Blumentrit that the German generals, apparently, began to remember Kolenkur too late. He nodded affirmatively, grinning grimly.
Perhaps in the history of wars it is difficult to find another such example, when ignoring the lessons of the past would lead to such consequences. However, this phenomenon still continues to occur. And in our fatherland there are enough politicians, political scientists, experts who, out of ignorance or in the interests of short-term political advantage, forget the lessons from the events of the recent past. After all, how many angry words were said and written about the procurement by the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation of small quantities of weapons and military equipment abroad. And no one remembered that if the Soviet Union had not done this in Germany before the war, then the Wehrmacht in 1941 would celebrate victory. However, the twentieth century managed to avoid Hitler’s “new world order” in the Millennial Reich, which meant for the peoples of the planet a global concentration camp with crematoriums.
MILITARY COOPERATION OF YESTERDAY AND TODAY
After the end of the Second World War, the Cold War began, ending with the collapse of the USSR, which may seem like a paradise compared to what the 21st century presents to us. September 11 The new era of 2001 began, when international terrorism, contrary to all human principles and opposed to the laws of civilization, manifested itself especially harshly. Vladimir Putin was the first of the world leaders to send a telegram to George Bush, in which, in particular, it was noted: “A series of barbarous terrorist acts directed against innocent people causes our indignation and indignation. Please convey our most sincere condolences to the relatives of the victims of this tragedy, as well as to all the victims, the entire American people. We understand your grief and pain. Russians experienced the horror of terror. There is no doubt that such inhuman actions should not go unpunished. The entire international community must stand together in the fight against terrorism. ”
And it really happened just as in the years of the struggle with Nazism. The world community has come together to jointly oppose terrorism. Today, in Afghanistan, where the main bases and training camps of international terrorism were located, the International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) was established in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolution 1386 No. 20 of December 2001. Now the command of the ISAF is carried out by the NATO bloc. As part of the ISAF military units 49 countries - both NATO members and non-members.
For well-known reasons, Russia has not sent its military contingent to Afghanistan, but it provides significant assistance on the supply of operations in Afghanistan. So, across the Russian territory passes the Northern distribution network, through which more than 50% of the international coalition's cargo enters Afghanistan. At present, Moscow and NATO have agreed to launch the so-called multimodal reverse transit from Afghanistan to Europe, which will combine air and ground transportation of goods, which will increase the efficiency of withdrawal of the NATO contingent from Afghanistan, scheduled for 2014 year. Ulyanovsk was chosen as a transshipment base for this purpose.
However, such cooperation between Russia and NATO in solving the problems of joint counteraction to international terrorism is not to the liking of many Russian patriots. They blame the country's leadership for allegedly creating a NATO base on Russian territory. In this regard, it should be recalled that in 1941 at the airport of the North fleet Vaenga, located a few dozen kilometers north of Murmansk, was based on the 151st Royal Air Force wing (39 Hurricanes fighters and 556 military personnel). The combat mission of the air wing was to provide air defense for the Northern Fleet's naval base in Murmansk and sea convoys with Lend-Lease cargo.
You can recall the other combat operations of British aviation, which involved bases under the Arkhangelsk and Murmansk, shuttle flights of Allied bombers that bombed objects in Nazi Germany, on the airfield near Poltava. From June to October 1944, from the Poltava airfield hub, which allowed American troops to stay up to 1200, seven Allied task forces conducted 18 air operations. They participated 1030 aircraft, including the 529 B-17 "Flying Fortress". These military-political aspects of the cooperation of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition contributed to the acceleration of the victory over Nazism.
The United States and Great Britain helped the Soviet Union not because of the love of communist ideology, but in their desire to save themselves from Nazism. Today, Russia and the West are not divided by ideology. Especially in the fight against a common enemy, such as international terrorism, it is necessary to show the highest possible level of military-political cooperation. The only way to defeat him.
The defeat of the Wehrmacht in the battle of Moscow created the conditions for the final victory over Nazism. And millions of people in those countries that were destined to be hit by the German military machine and were to be destroyed as "unnecessary human material", according to Nazi racial theory, are primarily due to their salvation for the unprecedented sacrificial feat of the Soviet soldier near Moscow. That is why this great historical event lives and will always live in the memory not only of Russia, but also of other nations of the world.
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