The Ministry of Defense has published archival documents dedicated to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War
The Russian Ministry of Defense is opening a new multimedia project called "The day the blitzkrieg crashed"dedicated to the first days of the Great Patriotic War. The section was launched on the eve of the 80th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War.
The users of the section will be presented with archival documents of the German-fascist command on the preparation of the blitzkrieg in the East. According to the documents, Hitler and his generals were assigned from 9 to 17 weeks for the entire eastern company. Archival materials reveal the preparation of the Nazis for the attack on "Soviet Russia", the forces and funds allocated for the "short-term campaign."
The level of preparation for the attack was quite high; the German-fascist command pinned great hope on the surprise of the strike along the entire border line.
Another block of documents speaks of the preparation of the Soviet command for possible hostilities against the background of an understanding of the inevitability of a large-scale war with Germany.
- says the report of the Chief of Staff of the Western Special Military District to the Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army on June 21, 1941.
Despite the preparation, the blow of the Nazis was still sudden. However, the Red Army put up stubborn resistance, bloody battles began on the border with superior enemy forces. In some areas, the enemy was driven back and even had to retreat. The courage and heroism of the soldiers of the Red Army, who did not allow the enemy to carry out a "lightning campaign" in the first days of the war, is described in archival documents disclosed by the Ministry of Defense.
At the same time, the article "National Defense" published an article by the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service, Sergei Naryshkin, dedicated to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. As follows from the material, for the first time about a possible German attack on the USSR, Soviet intelligence learned back in 1932. And the first information about the beginning of preparations for the invasion was the message of the station in France on August 4, 1940 about the beginning of the transfer of the released Nazi troops from the western front to the Soviet borders.
At the same time, the German special services carried out work on disinformation, strategic and operational camouflage, so it was not possible to determine the exact date of the attack for a long time. Only the foreign intelligence for the period from July 1940 to June 1941 sent to Moscow 120 information messages with the estimated dates, and there was also a residency, various missions, etc.
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