I. Stalin On the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union
Chairman of the State Defense Committee I.V. Stalin spoke on the radio with an appeal to the Soviet people, in which he outlined a program to combat the German fascist invaders.
By decision of the Headquarters of the High Command, Major General P.P. Sobennikov took command of the troops of the North Western Front.
The troops of the Western Front fought for crossings across the river. Berezina in the areas of Chernyavka, Berezino and to the south.
By the end of the day, the advancing Romanian-German troops captured bridgeheads on the northeast bank of the river. Prut east of Botoshan and in the Yassy region, from where they subsequently launched an offensive in the general direction of Mogilev-Podolsky.
The heroic 23-day defense of Mogilev by Soviet troops and self-defense detachments of over 12 thousand people began.
In the garrisons Northern Fleet began the formation of detachments of the people's militia from the civilian population. The majority of the civilian staff of the Northern Fleet expressed a desire to join the detachments.
The Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Ukraine and the Council of People's Commissars of the Ukrainian SSR ordered all regional party committees and regional executive committees of the republic located on the right bank of the Dnieper to evacuate all valuable property of collective farms, state farms, MTS, industrial enterprises, FZO schools and vocational schools.
German troops occupied the cities of Drissa, Lepen, Zhlobin, Rogachev in Belarus; in Ukraine - Ternopil, Berezhany, Bolekhiv, Dolyna, Nadvirna; in Latvia - Valdemarpils, Gulbene, Kandava, Sigulda, Talsi.
From I. Stalin's speech on the radio
Comrades! Citizens!
Brothers and sisters!
Soldiers of our army and navy!
I turn to you, my friends!
The treacherous military attack of Hitler Germany on our Motherland, launched on June 22, continues. Despite the heroic resistance of the Red Army, despite the fact that the best divisions of the enemy and the best parts of his aviation have already been defeated and found their grave on the battlefields, the enemy continues to push forward, throwing new forces to the front. Hitler's troops managed to capture Lithuania, a significant part of Latvia, the western part of Belarus, and part of Western Ukraine. Fascist aviation is expanding the areas of operation of its bombers, bombarding Murmansk, Orsha, Mogilev, Smolensk, Kiev, Odessa, Sevastopol. Our country is in serious danger.
How could it happen that our glorious Red Army surrendered a number of cities and regions to the fascist troops? Are the German fascist troops really invincible troops, as the boastful fascist propagandists tirelessly trumpet about it?
Of course not! History shows that there are no invincible armies and never have been. Napoleon's army was considered invincible, but it was defeated alternately by Russian, English, German troops. German army Wilhelm during the first imperialist war was also considered an invincible army, but it was defeated several times by Russian and Anglo-French troops and was finally defeated by Anglo-French troops. The same must be said about Hitler's present German fascist army. This army has not yet encountered serious resistance on the European continent. Only on our territory did it meet with serious resistance. And if, as a result of this resistance, the best divisions of the fascist German army were defeated by our Red Army, then this means that the Nazi fascist army can also be defeated and will be defeated, as the armies of Napoleon and Wilhelm were defeated.
As for the fact that part of our territory nevertheless turned out to be captured by the fascist German troops, this is mainly due to the fact that the war of fascist Germany against the USSR began under favorable conditions for the German troops and unfavorable for the Soviet troops. The fact is that the troops of Germany, as a country waging war, were already completely mobilized, and 170 divisions thrown by Germany against the USSR and moved to the borders of the USSR were in a state of fully prepared, waiting only for a signal to speak, while the Soviet troops still had to mobilize and move closer to the borders. Of no small importance here was the circumstance that fascist Germany unexpectedly treacherously violated the non-aggression pact concluded in 1939 between it and the USSR, regardless of the fact that it would be recognized by the whole world as the attacking side. It is clear that our peace-loving country, not wanting to take the initiative to violate the pact, could not take the path of treachery.
It may be asked: how could it happen that the Soviet government agreed to conclude a non-aggression pact with such treacherous people and monsters as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was there a mistake on the part of the Soviet government here? Of course not! A non-aggression pact is a peace pact between two states. It was this pact that Germany proposed to us in 1939. Could the Soviet government refuse such a proposal? I think that not a single peace-loving state can refuse a peace agreement with a neighboring power, if at the head of this power there are even such monsters and cannibals as Hitler and Ribbentrop. And this, of course, on one indispensable condition - if the peace agreement does not affect either directly or indirectly the territorial integrity, independence and honor of a peace-loving state. As you know, the non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR is just such a pact.
What have we gained by signing a non-aggression pact with Germany? We ensured peace for our country for a year and a half and the possibility of preparing our forces for a rebuff if fascist Germany dared to attack our country in defiance of the pact. This is a definite gain for us and a loss for fascist Germany.
What did fascist Germany gain and lose by treacherously breaking the pact and attacking the USSR? She achieved by this some advantageous position for her troops in a short time, but she lost politically, exposing herself in the eyes of the whole world as a bloody aggressor. There can be no doubt that this short military gain for Germany is only an episode, while the enormous political gain for the USSR is a serious and lasting factor on the basis of which the decisive military successes of the Red Army in the war against fascist Germany should unfold.<...>
What is required in order to eliminate the danger looming over our Motherland, and what measures must be taken in order to defeat the enemy?
First of all, it is necessary that our people, the Soviet people, understand the full depth of the danger that threatens our country, and renounce complacency, carelessness, the mood for peaceful construction, which is quite understandable in our country. war time, but pernicious now, when the war has fundamentally changed the situation<...>The matter is, therefore, about the life and death of the Soviet state, about the life and death of the peoples of the USSR, about being peoples Soviet Union free or enslaved. It is necessary that the Soviet people understand this and stop being carefree, that they mobilize themselves and reorganize all their work on a new, military basis, which knows no mercy for the enemy.
It is necessary, furthermore, that there be no place in our ranks for whiners and cowards, alarmists and deserters, that our people know no fear in the struggle and selflessly go to our Patriotic War of Liberation against the fascist enslavers. The great Lenin, who created our state, said that the main qualities of the Soviet people should be courage, courage, ignorance of fear in the struggle, readiness to fight together with the people against the enemies of our Motherland. It is necessary that this magnificent quality of a Bolshevik become the property of millions and millions of the Red Army, our Red Navy and all the peoples of the Soviet Union.<...>
The Red Army, the Red Navy and all citizens of the Soviet Union must defend every inch of Soviet land, fight to the last drop of blood for our cities and villages, show the courage and initiative inherent in our people<...>
With the forced withdrawal of Red Army units, it is necessary to steal the entire rolling stock, not to leave the enemy a single locomotive, not a single wagon, not to leave the enemy a kilogram of bread or a liter of fuel. The collective farmers must steal all the livestock, hand over the grain for safekeeping to state bodies for its removal to the rear areas. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, grain and fuel, which cannot be exported, must, of course, be destroyed.
In areas occupied by the enemy, you need to create partisan detachments, mounted and on foot, to create sabotage groups to fight against parts of the enemy army, to incite guerrilla war everywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to forests, warehouses, carts. In the occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every turn, disrupt all their activities.
The war with fascist Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war. It is not only a war between two armies. It is at the same time a war of the entire Soviet people against Nazi German troops. The goal of this nationwide Patriotic War against the fascist oppressors is not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our country, but also to help all the peoples of Europe, groaning under the yoke of German fascism. In this liberation war we won't be alone. In this great war we will have true allies in the peoples of Europe and America, including the German people, enslaved by the Nazi bosses. Our war for the freedom of our Fatherland will merge with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence, for democratic freedoms. It will be a united front of peoples standing for freedom against enslavement and the threat of enslavement from Hitler's fascist armies. In this connection, the historic speech by British Prime Minister Mr. Churchill on helping the Soviet Union and the US government's declaration of readiness to help our country, which can only arouse a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of the peoples of the Soviet Union, are quite understandable and revealing.
Comrades! Our strength is incalculable. An arrogant enemy will soon be convinced of this. Together with the Red Army, many thousands of workers, collective farmers, and intellectuals are rising to war against the attacking enemy. Millions of our people will rise up. The working people of Moscow and Leningrad have already begun to create a multi-thousand people's militia to support the Red Army. In every city that is in danger of being invaded by the enemy, we must create such civil uprising to rouse all the working people to fight in order to defend with their breasts their freedom, their honor, their homeland in our Patriotic War against German fascism.
In order to quickly mobilize all the forces of the peoples of the USSR to repulse the enemy who treacherously attacked our Motherland, a State Committee Defense, in whose hands all power in the state is now concentrated. The State Defense Committee has begun its work and calls on all the people to rally around the party of Lenin-Stalin, around the Soviet government for the selfless support of the Red Army and the Red Navy, for the defeat of the enemy, for victory.
All our strength is to support our heroic Red Army, our glorious Red Fleet!
All the forces of the people - to defeat the enemy!
Forward to our victory!
Chronicle of events in Leningrad
Some areas Leningrad region[then the Leningrad region included the territory of the present Novgorod and Pskov regions - ed. author] have already begun to be called front-line. At cluster meetings of the secretaries of the rural district party committees, convened on July 3 by the regional party committee, instructions were given: in the event of the appearance of the enemy, the fighter battalions and detachments should remain in place and fight behind enemy lines.
The district committees immediately set about organizing forest bases, preparing caches of food and clothing. More than 4,000 rifles and explosives have been issued to areas threatened by enemy invasion.
Leningrad is becoming more and more like a front-line city. Those enrolled in the 1st Volunteer Division were ordered to report to the barracks. Some school buildings and premises of institutions that had made room became barracks. Kirovsky district. The division headquarters is located in the Gorky Palace of Culture.
Militiamen receive grenades and cartridges. There aren't enough rifles for everyone. There is a lack of experienced commanders. Of the 1824 commanders of all levels in the division of the Kirov region, there are only 10 regular military men.
Memoirs of David Iosifovich Ortenberg, editor-in-chief of the Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper
The day before, late in the evening, the secretary of the Central Committee of the party, A.S. Shcherbakov.
— How is the newspaper?
- We're finishing. Soon the strips will go under the press, - I reported cheerfully.
- Hold the front page. There will be important material, - Alexander Sergeevich warned.
It happened often. These are now central newspapers, as a rule, they are printed in the evening, so that by morning they will certainly be in time for readers. And in wartime, quite often in the morning, rotary machines were just launched.
This was due to many reasons. One of the main ones was that Stalin worked almost all night and the General Staff, the apparatus of the Central Committee of the Party, TASS, the Soviet Information Bureau, and, consequently, the editorial offices of newspapers adapted to this routine. Reports from the fronts also came late.
If someone told us then about today's newspaper release schedule, we probably would have considered it fantastic. It was not for nothing that the editorial wits savored the anecdote about a certain newspaper, the Terek, which supposedly in ancient times was not only made, but circulated a day in advance. The boys who were selling this newspaper seemed to be running around the streets shouting:
- "Terek" for tomorrow! .. Tomorrow's news! ..
But jokes are jokes, but business is business. In anticipation of important material, it was necessary to make room for it on the front page. And there was something important too. In any case - such that I did not want to put it off for the next issues of the newspaper. This means that the re-layout of other bands is inevitable.
I especially wanted to keep a message with Leningrad front about air ramming by fighter pilots Zdorovtsev and Kharitonov. At Khalkhin Gol, Skobarihin and Mashnin became famous for this, boldly chopping the tails of Japanese bombers with the propellers of their machines. We wrote a lot about them in the Heroic Red Army. And now junior lieutenants Zdorovtsev and Kharitonov have distinguished themselves. I wanted their names to thunder on all fronts, throughout the country.
I considered the highlight of the issue an essay about Lieutenant Viktor Zhigov, which occupied three columns under the heading "Heroes of the Patriotic War." With this rubric, we also kind of continued the traditions of the Heroic Red Army. There it was called: "Heroes of Khalkhin Gol."
On the vast front from the Barents to the Black Sea, every hour, every minute, tens, hundreds, maybe even thousands, of heroic deeds were performed. It would seem that it is easier to maintain the section "Heroes of the Patriotic War". But in reality it was no easy task. Try to get to the hero, if he has not left the battle yet, and if he is wounded and evacuated to the rear? And another laid down his head ...
I have already mentioned that we did not immediately release Ilyenkov into the active army. I then said that there was an important matter for him in the editorial office itself. And he had in mind just this section - "Heroes of the Patriotic War"; Vasily Pavlovich led a similar column in the Heroic Campaign in the winter of 1939-1940.
Once Ilyenkov went into the secretariat of the editorial office, saw how they were tormented over headlines for essays about heroes, and expressed the right idea:
- You don't have to be smart. You just need to put the name of the hero in the title. In every feat, the main thing is a person. And let everyone remember his name...
And so it went from then on. First of all, essays by Ilyenkov himself were published with the following headings: "Fighter Pilot Kuznetsov", "Battalion Commissar Stafeev", "Artilleryman Yevgeny Zolyavin".
Many other Krasnozvezdovites also invested their work, their souls in the “Heroes of the Patriotic War” section. The materials published under this heading, as a rule, belonged to the pen of writers, which probably determined the steady sympathy of the readers of our newspaper for them. Of course, not everything here met high criteria, some essays were too informative, looked more like extended correspondence - the newspaper haste affected. But they also played their part, glorifying the courage and valor of the front-line soldiers.
Writers then worked not for the distant future, but for the needs of the day, for the battle. However, much has stood the test of time. In the essays published by Krasnaya Zvezda, snatched, one might say, from the fire of battles, one can find finely drawn landscapes, battle scenes, and characters of people, colorful speech. Such works were later included in books.
Having turned over and signed three pages of the newspaper for publication, I phoned Pyotr Pospelov and Lev Rovinsky, the editors of Pravda and Izvestia, and asked if they knew anything about the important material for which the first page was reserved. No, they knew no more than I did.
One could only assume that Stalin's speech was possible. Everyone had been waiting for this since the first days of the war and wondered why such a speech was being postponed.
I went to GlavPUR and confirmed my guess. I had to return to the office immediately. There will be responses. Usually they were collected by journalists. But there were few journalists left in the editorial office - almost all of them were at the fronts. The writers helped. Ilya Ehrenburg, Lev Slavin, Vasily Ilyenkov, Boris Galin, Semyon Kirsanov, Nikolai Bogdanov, Semyon Tregub rushed to airfields near Moscow, to the firing positions of anti-aircraft gunners covering the capital, to reserve regiments, to recruiting centers, to hospitals.
I wanted to send a telegram to front-line correspondents - to connect them to urgent business. I compiled several versions of such a telegram with vague hints. However, he did not dare to get ahead of events. I hoped that experienced journalists themselves would guess in time about the responses.
The night is running out - soon 5 o'clock in the morning, but there is still nothing. Is Stalin's supposed speech being postponed? I called the director of TASS Ya.S. Khavinson. He cheated: he didn’t say “yes” or “no”. Please wait.
Stalin spoke at 6:30 am. More than once I listened to his speeches both on the radio and at meetings in the Kremlin. But none thrilled me as much as this. Already the first Stalinist words literally pierced the soul: “Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Soldiers of our army and navy! I turn to you, my friends! .. "
He himself was visibly agitated, which made the Georgian accent more clearly heard, more often and longer than usual, there were pauses.
The bitter truth was in his words. He very frankly answered the burning questions that worried all our people at that time.
Of course, later, decades after the war, much was revealed more deeply, our mistakes, miscalculations and first military failures were explained in more detail. But even what we heard then from Stalin shed a clear light on what happened and what is happening, and most importantly, strengthened the Soviet people's sense of optimism, faith in their own strength.
An hour later we received the text of Stalin's speech. Around nine in the morning, the rotation threw out the first thousand copies of the Red Star with this very important document.
Morning message 3 July
During the night of July 3, fierce battles between our troops and motorized units of the enemy continued in the Borisov direction and in the Kremenets, Zbarazh, and Tarnopol regions. In the remaining sectors of the front, night searches for scouts and battles of local significance took place.
In the Borisov direction, the advanced units of the enemy repeatedly tried to cross the river. Berezina. However, these attempts were thwarted everywhere by the actions of our troops.
After the battles in the Lutsk direction, as a result of which our troops stopped the advance of large enemy motorized mechanized units to Shepetovka and inflicted heavy damage on them, part of this enemy grouping tried to break through in a southerly direction to Tarnopol. Throughout the night, our troops held back the advance of this grouping of enemy troops by stubborn battles. The fights continue.
Our aviation in air battles during July 2 destroyed 61 enemy aircraft, while losing 28 aircraft.
Today at six thirty minutes, the Chairman of the State Defense Committee I. V. Stalin spoke on the radio, calling on the peoples of the Soviet Union, our valiant Red Army and Navy, our falcon pilots to a selfless national liberation war against the fascist enslavers, to complete defeat enemy to victory.
The call of the leader of the peoples, Comrade Stalin, caused the greatest upsurge among the workers, peasants, and intelligentsia, unprecedented enthusiasm and the will to win over the Nazi hordes - over the fierce, insidious and cruel enemies of our Motherland and all progressive mankind. In cities, in factories, railways, the call of the leader was enthusiastically taken up in Soviet institutions.
The workers and employees of the Moscow factory "Red Defense" at a rally dedicated to the speech of the Chairman of the State Defense Committee, Comrade Stalin, declared their full readiness to defend the Motherland with their breasts. “We, women,” said Comrade. Grishakin, - we will replace our fathers, husbands, sons on the labor front, we will devote all our strength to the defense of the fatherland from fascist hordes. We are sure of victory over the insidious enemy.”
Rallies and meetings of working people are held in Leningrad, Kiev, Kharkov, Rostov-on-Don, Sverdlovsk and hundreds of other cities and regions of the country.
In Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev, many tens of thousands of working people are signing up as volunteers for the people's militia to support the Red Army.
Expressing the thoughts and feelings of all Soviet people, the locksmith of one of the Moscow factories, comrade. Muravchev stated in his speech at the rally: Great Stalin calls on the Soviet people to fight against bloody fascism. There is not and cannot be such a citizen in our country who would not answer the call of the leader. All our people have risen to deliver a mortal blow to the enemy, united into an invincible and powerful force around the Soviet government, around their native Bolshevik party and our beloved leader, comrade Stalin.
Soviet troops are fighting for the freedom and honor of our country with great stamina and courage. Red warriors fight to the last drop of their blood for a just cause, for Soviet power, for the vital interests of all progressive mankind.
Many newspapers in England, the USA, Turkey, Sweden, Japan and other countries write about the exceptional heroism of the Red warriors: eastern front extremely fierce. Red soldiers defend themselves with exceptional tenacity, bravery and courage. The fighting in the East is even more fierce than last year's fighting in the West against the French and the British. " Soviet soldier has exceptional fighting qualities. He fights hard to the last bullet. Op can quickly build trenches or camouflaged posts on any land.
The courage and selflessness of the soldiers of the Red Army were demonstrated to the whole world in the very first days of the struggle against the fascist invaders. Soldiers of the Red Army courageously defend every inch of Soviet land, heroically fight for Soviet cities and villages, showing courage, initiative and intelligence, characteristic of the great Soviet people.
Eleven fascist planes headed for the airfield, where the division of Senior Lieutenant Starikov was located. Four Soviet fighters instantly took to the air. The cars of the pilots Ivanov and Filimonov rushed into the very middle of the enemy planes. A few minutes later, one German fighter was on fire on the ground. The rest, not accepting the fight, turned back, randomly dropping bombs. From fragments of one of the bombs, a Soviet bomber prepared for departure caught fire. The slightest delay could lead to the explosion of the bomb load. Military technician 1st rank Leutin, senior lieutenant Tatarchuk and political instructor Makeev immediately extinguished the fire and prevented the danger of the aircraft exploding.
A group of enemy tanks, supported by aviation and artillery, crossed the N River and launched an attack on our artillery battalion. The division commander, Captain Sinyavsky, ordered direct fire to shoot enemy tanks. With well-aimed fire, the artillerymen destroyed 37 tanks.
The fascist troops are striving to send small parachute landings into our rear for sabotage purposes, which are systematically destroyed by our units and destruction battalions.
In the N. area, observers reported to Captain Andreev about the appearance of aircraft. The captain recognized them as enemy transport planes. After 10 minutes, the Red Army surrounded the area where, according to the captain, the German paratroopers could land. Soon 80 paratroopers, led by an officer, were captured.
The workers of the Moscow plant named after Lepse announced the Stakhanov watch until the final defeat of the fascist hordes.
At Moscow enterprises, a movement for combining professions is widely developed. Workers and women workers master a second specialty in order to replace their comrades who have gone to the front. Dozens of workers at the Moskabel plant are learning plumbing without leaving their main job; workers tt. Sorotov, Makarov and others work simultaneously as turners and millers. At the Malenkov plant, female employees learn to work on the machines in the evenings.
Evening message 3 July
During July 3, our troops fought fierce battles in the Dvina, Minsk and Tarnopol directions against large motorized units of the enemy.
Everywhere the enemy is met with stubborn resistance from our troops, destructive artillery fire and crushing blows from Soviet aircraft.
Thousands of German corpses, flaming tanks and downed enemy planes remain on the battlefield.
On the Dvina direction during the day there were major battles at the turn of the river. Zap. Dvina, especially stubborn and fierce in the areas of Jakobstadt and Dvinsk.
Only after the enemy brought up fresh reserves did he manage to cross over to the northern bank of the river. Zap. Dvin near Jakobstadt and Dvinsk, where fierce battles flared up again.
In the Minsk direction, the enemy suffered significant losses as a result of the stubborn resistance of our troops.
The enemy cannot bear the bayonet strikes of our troops.
During the day there were stubborn battles on the river. Berezina, where our troops inflict significant defeat on the enemy with joint infantry, tank, artillery and aviation strikes.
It has been established by battles that enemy tanks avoid combat collisions with our heavy and medium tanks, and where our fighters appear, air supremacy quickly passes to them.
Our aviation throughout the day carried out strikes against the motorized units of the enemy at the crossings over the Zap. Dvina in the Bobruisk and Tarnopol directions.
The results of air battles are being specified.
The speech on the radio by I. V. Stalin, Chairman of the State Defense Committee, caused a new upsurge in national patriotism. Across the country - from Murmansk to Tbilisi, from Tallinn to Vladivostok - crowded rallies were held. Millions of ardent Soviet patriots, inspired by the speech of Comrade Stalin, are determined to defend every inch of Soviet land and fight to the last drop of blood for our cities and villages, fight selflessly and mercilessly until the complete defeat and destruction of the fascist barbarians.
Workers, peasants, intellectuals submit tens of thousands of applications with a request to be sent to the ranks of the active Red Army or enlisted in the people's militia. Speaking at a rally of workers and employees of the Krasny Bogatyr plant, an old personnel officer Klavdia Ivanovna Guresva in simple words expressed the general opinion of the Krasnobogatyrs: “My husband is a participant in the battles with the White Finns. Now he beats fascist dogs at the front. I will give all my strength to production, work tirelessly for defense. But I am always ready to take a rifle, a grenade into my hands and beat the enemy until he is completely destroyed. The participants in the meeting of many thousands of workers and employees of the Tashkent Textile Plant solemnly vowed to sacredly fulfill all the instructions of Comrade Stalin, to work selflessly and disciplinedly in production.
The speech of the leader caused a new upsurge of Soviet patriotism in the collective farms and state farms of the country. Collective farmers and collective farmers Yaroslavl region organize convoys with vegetables and dairy products. Collective farmers of the Pervomaisky district delivered about 30 carts of flax from their stocks to the procurement point. Many collective farms in Poshekhono-Volodarsky, Uglichsky, Nerekhtsky and other districts completed their annual plan for the supply of milk and meat ahead of schedule. Collective farmers of the Irkutsk region unanimously decide on the early fulfillment of all obligations to the state. Many collective farms decided to immediately start delivering grain to the state on account of the deliveries of 1941 from last year's stocks. Kolkhoz im. Voroshilov has already handed over 6,000 poods of grain to the state, the Gigant collective farm - 4,500 poods.
Millions of Soviet patriots at the front and in the rear are ready to defend their homeland, their honor and freedom to the last drop of blood and help the Red Army to crush the enemy.
The bomber link of the unit commanded by Colonel Efimov headed for enemy territory. Leading navigator Senior Lieutenant Suslov brought the airships exactly to the target. Rapidly emerging from the clouds, the planes attacked the enemy airfield. Not a single enemy plane had time to take to the air. After the bombing of the airfield, the link turned around and flew further, into the depths of enemy territory, to reconnoiter new military installations. Soon the observer noticed the enemy convoy. The enemy was spreading reinforcements and ammunition. A flight of planes rushed to the enemy. The convoy was dispersed and partially destroyed. All planes returned to their base.
Facts of sabotage are becoming more frequent every day deep behind enemy lines. At the Skoda factories, a lot of artillery pieces have recently been damaged. In Holland, a new German chemical plant was completely destroyed, set on fire by Dutch patriots. In Norway, 11 wagons with German military supplies were blown up. Polish residents, hiding in roadside forests, shots from guns punch holes in tanks in which oil is transported from Romania to Germany.
Reports begin to come in about the actions of partisan detachments in Soviet areas captured by the enemy. Here is one of those facts. A train with ammunition for the German artillery was advancing along the narrow-gauge line towards the front. On the way to advance the train, the guards noticed thick smoke, and then a flame that raged on both sides of the railway track. Wanting to slip through the danger zone at full speed, the driver developed a high speed. The maneuver failed: in the very center of the forest fire, the path turned out to be littered with burning trees. When the guards of the train began to scatter the barrier, shots from shotguns and a light machine gun were heard on the tracks. The daring attack of the guerrillas was crowned with complete success: the ammunition train exploded; the team that accompanied the wagons was destroyed. The partisans - brave Soviet patriots - managed to escape in time.
The fascist bosses of the city of Lahti in Finland announced that they would pay the pilots a thousand Finnish marks for each downed Soviet aircraft. Judging by latest posts from the front, the Finnish pilots do not burden the cash desk of the municipality of Lahti. This, apparently, was what the “generous” municipality was counting on: a patriotic gesture was made without any monetary risk.
The shameless lies of the German military reports are now common knowledge. Thus, for example, the military observer of the American newspaper "Post Meridiem" states in one of his last articles: "The German Information Bureau has earned its reputation for advancing three races faster than the German troops. Last autumn, this agency shot down three times the number of British aircraft that the British had. Another well-known American newspaper, the Christian Science Monitor, rightly notes: "German radio messages are intended to confuse world public opinion."
Comrades! Citizens!
Brothers and sisters! Soldiers of our army and navy!
I turn to you, my friends!
The treacherous military attack of Nazi Germany on our homeland, launched on June 22, continues. Despite the heroic resistance of the Red Army, despite the fact that the best divisions of the enemy and the best parts of his aviation have already been defeated and found their grave on the battlefields, the enemy continues to push forward, throwing new forces to the front. Hitler's troops managed to capture Lithuania, a significant part of Latvia, the western part of Belarus, and part of Western Ukraine. Fascist aviation is expanding the areas of operation of its bombers, bombarding Murmansk, Orsha, Mogilev, Smolensk, Kiev, Odessa, Sevastopol. Our country is in grave danger.
How could it happen that our glorious Red Army surrendered a number of our cities and regions to the fascist troops? Are the German fascist troops really invincible, troops, as the boastful fascist propagandists tirelessly trumpet about it?
Of course not! History shows that there are no invincible armies and never have been. Napoleon's army was considered invincible, but it was defeated alternately by Russian, English, German troops. Wilhelm's German army during the first imperialist war was also considered an invincible army, but it was defeated several times by Russian and Anglo-French troops and was finally defeated by Anglo-French troops. The same must be said about Hitler's present German fascist army. This army has not yet encountered serious resistance on the European continent. Only on our territory did it meet with serious resistance. And if, as a result of this resistance, the best divisions of the fascist German army were defeated by our Red Army, then this means that the Nazi fascist army can be defeated and will be defeated just as the armies of Napoleon and Wilhelm were defeated.
As for the fact that part of our territory nevertheless turned out to be captured by fascist German troops, this is mainly due to the fact that the war of fascist Germany against the USSR began under favorable conditions for the German troops and unfavorable for the Soviet troops. The fact is that the troops of Germany, as a country waging war, were already completely mobilized, and the 170 divisions thrown by Germany against the USSR and moved to the borders of the USSR were in a state of complete readiness, waiting only for a signal to march, while the Soviet troops needed it was still to mobilize and move closer to the borders. Of no small importance here was the fact that fascist Germany unexpectedly and treacherously violated the non-aggression pact concluded in 1939 between it and the USSR, regardless of the fact that it would be recognized by the whole world as the attacking side. It is clear that our peace-loving country, not wanting to take the initiative to violate the pact, could not take the path of treachery.
It may be asked: how could it happen that the Soviet Government agreed to conclude a non-aggression pact with such treacherous people and monsters as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was it allowed here from the outside Soviet Government error? Of course not! A non-aggression pact is a peace pact between two states. It was this pact that Germany proposed to us in 1939. Could the Soviet Government refuse such a proposal? I think that not a single peace-loving state can refuse a peace agreement with a neighboring power, if at the head of this power there are even such monsters and cannibals as Hitler and Ribbentrop. And this, of course, on one indispensable condition - if the peace agreement does not affect either directly or indirectly the territorial integrity, independence and honor of a peace-loving state. As is known, the non-aggression pact between Germany and the USSR is just such a pact.
What have we gained by signing a non-aggression pact with Germany? We ensured peace for our country for a year and a half and the possibility of preparing our forces for a rebuff if fascist Germany dared to attack our country in defiance of the pact. This is a definite win for us and a loss for fascist Germany.
What did fascist Germany gain and lose by treacherously breaking the pact and attacking the USSR? She achieved by this some advantageous position for her troops in a short time, but she lost politically, exposing herself in the eyes of the whole world as a bloody aggressor. There can be no doubt that this short military gain for Germany is only an episode, while the enormous political gain for the USSR is a serious and long-term factor on the basis of which the decisive military successes of the Red Army in the war against fascist Germany should unfold.
That is why all our gallant army, all our gallant navy, all our falcon pilots, all the peoples of our country, all the best people Europe, America and Asia, finally, all the best people of Germany - stigmatize the perfidious actions of the German fascists and sympathize with the Soviet Government, approve of the behavior of the Soviet Government and see that our cause is just, that the enemy will be defeated, that we must win.
By virtue of the war imposed on us, our country entered into a mortal battle with its worst and insidious enemy - German fascism. Our troops are heroically fighting the enemy, armed to the teeth with tanks and aircraft. The Red Army and Red Navy, overcoming numerous difficulties, are selflessly fighting for every inch of Soviet land. The main forces of the Red Army, armed with thousands of tanks and aircraft, enter the battle. The courage of the soldiers of the Red Army is unparalleled. Our resistance to the enemy is growing stronger and stronger. Together with the Red Army, the entire Soviet people rises to defend the Motherland.
What is required in order to eliminate the danger looming over our Motherland, and what measures must be taken in order to defeat the enemy?
First of all, it is necessary that our people, the Soviet people, understand the full depth of the danger that threatens our country, and renounce complacency, carelessness, the mood for peaceful construction, which was quite understandable in pre-war times, but pernicious at the present time, when the war has radically changed position. The enemy is cruel and relentless. He sets as his goal the seizure of our lands, watered with our sweat, the seizure of our bread and our oil, extracted by our labor. It sets as its goal the restoration of the power of the landowners, the restoration of tsarism, the destruction of the national culture and national statehood of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Uzbeks, Tatars, Moldavians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and other free peoples of the Soviet Union, their Germanization, their transformation into slaves of German princes and barons. Thus, the issue is about the life and death of the Soviet state, about the life and death of the peoples of the USSR, about whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement. It is necessary that the Soviet people understand this and stop being carefree, that they mobilize themselves and reorganize all their work on a new, military basis, which knows no mercy for the enemy.
It is necessary, furthermore, that there be no place in our ranks for whiners and cowards, alarmists and deserters, that our people know no fear in the struggle and selflessly go to our patriotic war of liberation against the fascist enslavers. The great Lenin, who created our State, said that the main quality of the Soviet people should be courage, courage, ignorance of fear in the struggle, readiness to fight together with the people against the enemies of our homeland. It is necessary that this magnificent quality of a Bolshevik should become the property of millions and millions of the Red Army, our Red Navy and all the peoples of the Soviet Union.
We must immediately reorganize all our work on a military footing, subordinating everything to the interests of the front and to the tasks of organizing the defeat of the enemy. The peoples of the Soviet Union now see that German fascism is indomitable in its furious malice and hatred of our Motherland, which has ensured free labor and well-being for all working people. The peoples of the Soviet Union must rise up to defend their rights, their land against the enemy.
The Red Army, the Red Navy and all citizens of the Soviet Union must defend every inch of Soviet land, fight to the last drop of blood for our cities and villages, display the courage, initiative and intelligence inherent in our people. We must organize all-round assistance to the Red Army, ensure an intensified replenishment of its ranks, ensure its supply with everything necessary, organize the rapid advance of transports with troops and military cargo, and provide extensive assistance to the wounded.
We must strengthen the rear of the Red Army, subordinating all our work to the interests of this cause, ensuring the intensified work of all enterprises, producing more rifles, machine guns, guns, cartridges, shells, aircraft, organizing the protection of factories, power plants, telephone and telegraph communications, and establishing local air defense .
We must organize a merciless struggle against all sorts of disorganizers of the rear, deserters, alarmists, spreaders of rumors, destroy spies, saboteurs, enemy paratroopers, rendering prompt assistance to our destruction battalions in all this. It must be borne in mind that the enemy is cunning, cunning, experienced in deception and spreading false rumors. It is necessary to take into account all this and not succumb to provocations. It is necessary to immediately bring to trial the Military Tribunal all those who, with their alarmism and cowardice, interfere with the cause of defense, regardless of their faces.
With the forced withdrawal of Red Army units, it is necessary to steal the entire rolling stock, not to leave the enemy a single locomotive, not a single wagon, not to leave the enemy a kilogram of bread or a liter of fuel. The collective farmers must steal all the livestock, hand over the grain for safekeeping to state bodies for its removal to the rear areas. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, bread for fuel, which cannot be exported, must be unconditionally destroyed.
In areas occupied by the enemy, it is necessary to create partisan detachments, mounted and on foot, to create sabotage groups to fight against parts of the enemy army, to kindle guerrilla warfare everywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to forests, warehouses, convoys. In the occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every turn, disrupt all their activities.
The war with fascist Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war. It is not only a war between two armies. It is at the same time a great war of the entire Soviet people against the German fascist troops. The goal of this nationwide patriotic war against the fascist oppressors is not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our country, but also to help all the peoples of Europe, groaning under the yoke of German fascism. In this war of liberation, we will not be alone. In this great war we will have true allies in the peoples of Europe and America, including the German people, enslaved by the Nazi bosses. Our war for the freedom of our fatherland will merge with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence, for democratic freedoms. It will be a united front of peoples standing for freedom against enslavement and the threat of enslavement from Hitler's fascist armies. In this regard, the historic speech of British Prime Minister Mr. Churchill on helping the Soviet Union and the US government's declaration of readiness to help our country, which can only arouse a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of the peoples of the Soviet Union, are quite understandable and indicative.
Comrades! Our strength is incalculable. An arrogant enemy will soon be convinced of this. Together with the Red Army, many thousands of workers, collective farmers, and intellectuals are rising to war against the attacking enemy. Millions of our people will rise up. The working people of Moscow and Leningrad have already begun to create a multi-thousand people's militia to support the Red Army. In every city that is in danger of being invaded by the enemy, we must create such a people's militia, raise all the working people to fight in order to defend our freedom, our honor, our homeland with our breasts - in our Patriotic War against German Fischism.
In order to quickly mobilize all the forces of the peoples of the USSR, to repulse the enemy who treacherously attacked our homeland, the State Defense Committee was created, in whose hands all power in the state is now concentrated. The State Defense Committee has begun its work and calls on all the people to rally around the party of Lenin-Stalin, around the Soviet Government for the selfless support of the Red Army and the Red Navy, for the defeat of the enemy, for victory.
All our strength is to support our heroic Red Army, our glorious Red Fleet!
All the forces of the people - to defeat the enemy!
Forward, for our victory!
Such is our history - great and long-suffering, that there is not a single, as they say, "living place" in it, equally perceived and valued now by the community of the Russian world. Even this, ingenious in its simplicity, deeply meaningful beginning in the leader's address to the Soviet people is interpreted by liberal circles - public and church, who have grown bolder, which did not arise suddenly - as flirting with the people, a forced replacement for the usual Bolshevik rhetoric.
« Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters! Soldiers of our army and navy! I turn to you, my friends!» , - with deep feeling, for the first time in Russian history with such words, Stalin began his speech on the radio on July 3, 1941.
In the verbal triad - “Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters!”, as in a drop of water, reflected the changed, after October 17, the composition of the society of the former Russian Empire. At the head of his "citizens", in the first place, were "comrades", but both of them - all of them, after all, are "brothers and sisters", among whom there are many, direct in spirit, heirs of Orthodox Russia, for whom these two words are particularly memorable and familiar.
Of course, not everything was so simple in Soviet society, and the war confirmed this. Many "citizens" did not fully accept the "comrades", being unable to forgive them "their deeds" in the Red Terror, in the genocide of the Russian people, the destruction of churches and clergy. But, in the words “brothers and sisters”, a call for unification sounded: “A serious danger loomed over our Motherland.”
Common sense, if it is not deliberately turned off, does not allow us to deny the leading role of Stalin - the Supreme Commander of the USSR Armed Forces, Chairman of the State Defense Committee in the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. The history of this difficult war shows that victory, in the end, was achieved through superiority Soviet army over the Hitlerite, better equipped than the German one, military equipment, thanks to the best organization the work of the entire industry of the USSR, the incredible, heroic efforts of all the people at the front and in the rear, in partisan detachments and in the underground resistance.
The demagogic rhetoric of the liberal hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church: “I believe that Stalin was a monster, a spiritual freak who created a terrible, anti-human system of governing the country, built on lies, violence and terror. He unleashed genocide against the people of his country and bears personal responsibility for the death of millions of innocent people. In this regard, Stalin is quite comparable to Hitler ... Victory in the war is the victory of the people. A people that showed the greatest will to resist. The miracle of victory in the war is a great manifestation of the strength of the spirit of our people, which neither Stalin nor Hitler managed to break” [Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev). Mission in the world].
"Miracle" is a Soviet military equipment: has long been the best Russian artillery in the world - "God of War", the best tank of the Second World War T-34, the best "flying tank" in the world - the armored attack aircraft Il-2 (the most massive aircraft of the Second World War), the famous rocket artillery "Katyusha" which terrified the Nazis.
Stalin personally knew all the designers, directors of factories working for the armament of the army, kept under control the timing and number of produced military equipment. So many films have been written and shot about this that only a person who does not want to know and accept the obvious can not know these facts of history.
But, no matter how great Stalin's merits in building socialism in the USSR, victory in the Great Patriotic War, creating our "nuclear shield", his attitude to the Russian Orthodox Church, assessment of the power of that period - remain central to our religious consciousness. Was Stalin's power from God, or was he really a "monster, a spiritual freak" who can be compared with Hitler? Let's take a closer look at this topic.
For people of my generation - the Komsomol members of the 50s, who stood at the mourning post at the banner in those March days of 1953, for our front-line parents - the comparison of Stalin with Hitler is unthinkable, blasphemous and insulting. My own uncle Klemenov Moisei Kaleevich, a participant in the Battle of Stalingrad, on his last trip to his sister, took with him, along with medals, award certificates for military merit, signed by Stalin. In our city hospital, he soon died, before his death he asked that a rifle salvo be fired at his grave. But he was a private, and this is how military men are buried, only starting with a major, as the local military commissar explained to his mother. Originally from the Kuban, Uncle Moses was a calm, self-possessed person, but I don’t know if he would have restrained himself when he heard such words about Stalin.
On the "Russian People's Line", in " hot topic"Stalin", one of its authors explained to readers about people insulting the memory of the leader: « People who curse Stalin are those who understand that they are revealed as the fifth column of our reality.» [Hegumen Evstafiy: Stalin's dialectic - red against black].
I will add, as I understand it, in a broader sense, these words to be true: these people cut off their retreat routes, inspired by forces from outside, they decided to go against Russia and its people.
Stalin destroyed the demons generated by the revolution on Russian soil. Stalin expelled fascist demons from the Russian land. And therefore, following the words of St. John Chrysostom, let us say that it is ridiculous and reckless to identify Hitler with Stalin and say that both of them had power not from God...
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill in July 2009, speaking in live the largest TV channel of Ukraine "Inter", said: " Both in Nazism and in Stalinism there are repressions, and against their own people, too, as in many other regimes that existed. But how is Nazism different from any other system? It is distinguished by its misanthropy... This is a policy and philosophy that justifies any human cruelty that aims to destroy people. This is why you can't put everything on the same level»...
And the President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin, regarding the given topic, said that “ it is impossible to put Nazism and Stalinism on the same level, because the Nazis directly, openly, publicly announced one of the goals of their policy - the destruction of entire ethnic groups: Jews, Gypsies, Slavs. With all the ugliness of the Stalinist regime, with all the repressions, even with all the exiles of entire peoples, the goals of the destruction of peoples will never Stalinist regime I didn’t put it in front of me, and an attempt to put one and the other on the same level has absolutely no basis» [cit. by: Igor Evsin. ].
The issue of repression remains one of the key issues in assessing the acts of Stalin. Just do not attribute to him, unprecedented in scale, the genocide of the Russian people under Lenin, perpetrated by his comrades-in-arms Sverdlov, Zinoviev, Trotsky, and there are no number of his associates and successors of the world, global revolution. Hegumen Evstafiy, whose words have already been quoted, speaking about the suffering and the dialectical nature of Stalin's policy, explains: the victims of the Stalinist period were not in vain - they were historically inevitable victims of creation, the construction of a country in which future generations could then live happily.
By the way, Metropolitan Hilarion (Alfeev) grew up safely, received an education, including music, which was so useful to him in the army and now, it is in this one, created under Stalinist rule, country. The victims of the collapse of the USSR, privatization, with its bloody, you can’t say otherwise, redistribution of property, the construction of now, who knows what, capitalism is no less than the “Stalinist repressions” deliberately exaggerated by the Trotskyist Nikita Khrushchev.
Under Stalin, a noticeable increase in the population of the country began: abortions were banned, nurseries, kindergartens, schools were built, human rights to free medical care, education, social Security, old-age pensions.
What people are most worried about right now is justice, which has always been in the price in Russia: to live in good conscience. Under Stalin, if there was corruption, it was not in power structures, but mostly in trade. Today, the authorities cannot cope with corruption, even at its highest levels - governors and ministers. Now tell me, was Stalin's power not pleasing to God?!
Stalin creatively, in accordance with the current moment, approached the problems of ideology, considering it the key to educating the people. Here is what one of the authors of the RNL writes about this.
“Recall, for example, how the Soviet ideology changed during the Great Patriotic War. With one appeal of "brothers and sisters" on July 3, 1941, Stalin changed our ideological official doctrine - a completely different spirit blew. He was deeply alien to the atheist Bolsheviks and Trotskyists...
Stalin betrayed pure Leninism-Bolshevism, primarily in spirit. He abandoned the goals of the "world revolution", he put at the forefront the state interests of the empire he was recreating, he rehabilitated Russian patriotism, he recognized the rightful place of the Church in Soviet society - becoming, one might say, like-minded in this with Metropolitan Sergius, who, at his will, was elected Patriarch in 1943 - and not because Stalin would not have wanted this before, but because it was not possible, he would not have been allowed to do this ...
So, the main difference between Stalin and Bolshevism was the return to the Russian spirit in our lives. This is what he most displeased the Bolsheviks-Trotskyists-Leninists, and indeed the completely non-communist pro-Western intelligentsia, and indeed the entire West. And still not satisfied. And will never do. The spirit is not the same! All other talk - about the "cult of personality", about repression - this is all secondary. Lenin had a much greater cult of personality, as well as the victims of Lenin's repressions, completely unfounded - this is all accepted by the "freedom-loving West", this does not bother anyone ... Why? Because it was against traditional Russia, was of the same spirit with the West, with Russophobia and godlessness, with the one who always stands behind them ... ”[Archpriest Nikolai Bulgakov. Revenge of Bolshevism. To the 60th anniversary of the XX Congress of the CPSU].
Hegumen Evstafiy (Zhakov) expressed a sound idea in his conversation: “Stalin became the “Master” in 1939, when Litvinov, who was closely connected with the West, was removed.” We should draw our attention to this circumstance: too many people like Litvinov, if not in terms of intellectual level, then out of a passionate desire to break through to the top of power, appeared in Russia.
An accurate sign for identifying people of this kind, including Stalin's detractors, is their flashing in the media. After all, it is widely known to everyone: where does the wind blow into the sails of their imaginary “popularity”, which is polar opposite to the real opinion of people who think about them, in whom there has never been a shortage in Russia. The trouble is that the Russian authorities, to put it mildly, do not like such people, limiting their access to the “reins of government”.
Let us return, however, to the topic of this article and give the floor to the author of the RNL, Igor Evsin.
Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Sergius (Stargorodsky): “Before the start of a new state year let us pray more earnestly for our God-protected country and for its authorities, headed by our God-given Leader. May the Lord grant them strength and strength for many years to continue their great service for the benefit of the peoples entrusted to them...
Patriarch Alexy (Simansky) in publications ... calls Stalin a brilliant leader, and also “Our God-given Supreme Leader”, “the wise Leader, whom the Providence of God chose and appointed to lead our Fatherland along the path of prosperity and glory» .
Likewise, the famous Metropolitan Nikolai (Yarushevich) - the head of the DECR MP ... calls Stalin a genius, and besides "God put on his feat of serving our Motherland» [Igor Evsin. Stalin. Was his authority from God? ].
“Until the 1930s, Stalin was only one of the most influential political figures, but in subsequent years its political weight in domestic politics- out of competition. He is the undisputed leader. It should be noted that Lenin, Trotsky, Sverdlov made their careers thanks to the powerful external support of the special services of England, Germany and the United States. Lenin was burdened with obligations to his sponsors, whom he called "useful idiots" (however, despite endless concessions and sacrifices, he never managed to get rid of their dependence). Trotsky and Sverdlov (people of Wall Street), who were indebted to Jewish world capital, were also under a certain influence of external forces that invested big money in the Russian revolution.
Stalin, it seems, ascended the political Olympus thanks to his own efforts, without the help of foreign intelligence agencies. Being prudent in his connections, he had a chance and was able to become an independent politician, which cannot be said about his political competitors.
Under the leadership of Stalin, the country again, as it was under the Russian autocrats, gained full state sovereignty. Stalin returned autocracy to Russia in a distorted, perverted form. He was able to establish a political system with sole supreme power. During the years of his reign, as in the autocracy, the people knew one name at the top of power - Stalin" [Nikolai Dozmorov. We remember Stalin].
My school years fell on the edges of camps and exiles: Kazakhstan - northern and central, Eastern Siberia. Often the road to the school passed by the "thorn" behind which the prisoners worked, and sometimes, during classes at school, we heard the shots of the guards: those were endless attempts to escape from the construction zone. In those parts, almost every fifth or sixth adult man graduated from Stalin's "school", but never, anywhere, from anyone, I had to hear a bad word about Stalin.
I will always remember the words of my mother, spoken by her after the death of the leader: “How will we, son, live without Stalin?” My respectful, without exaltation, attitude towards Stalin was not changed by Khrushchev's report at the Twentieth Congress of the CPSU, which was introduced to us in 1956 by the father of my comrade, a front-line soldier, a colonel holding a high position in a prison camp, which was located not far from our houses, on the opposite side of the ravine.
The reading of Solzhenitsyn's books did not change my attitude towards Stalin either. This is like an attitude towards parents - sacred and unquestioning: so that we do not learn new things about them, sometimes not quite pleasant to us, they remain our native people.
Our Stalin, as such for us and our history, will remain forever, and no one can change this fact. Father John (Krestyankin) gave wise advice regarding Joseph Stalin: “Do not condemn him, God is his Judge. Don't be judges" [Leonid Bolotin.
Comrades! Citizens! Brothers and sisters!
Soldiers of our army and navy!
I turn to you, my friends!
The treacherous attack of Nazi Germany on our Motherland, begun on June 22, continues. Despite the heroic resistance of the Red Army, despite the fact that the best divisions of the enemy and the best parts of his aviation have already been defeated and found their grave on the battlefields, the enemy continues to push forward, throwing new forces to the front. Hitler's troops managed to capture Lithuania, a significant part of Latvia, the Western part of Belarus, part of Western Ukraine. Fascist aviation is expanding the areas of operation of its bombers, bombarding Murmansk, Orsha, Mogilev, Smolensk, Kiev, Odessa, Sevastopol. Our country is in serious danger.
How could it happen that our glorious Red Army surrendered a number of our cities and regions to the fascist troops? Are the German fascist troops really invincible troops, as the boastful fascist propagandists tirelessly trumpet about it?
Of course not! History shows that there are no invincible armies and never have been. Napoleon's army was considered invincible, but it was defeated alternately by Russian, English, German troops. Wilhelm's German army during the first imperialist war was also considered an invincible army, but it was defeated several times by Russian and Anglo-French troops and was finally defeated by Anglo-French troops. The same must be said about Hitler's present German fascist army. This army has not yet encountered serious resistance on the European continent. Only on our territory did it meet with serious resistance. And if, as a result of this resistance, the best divisions of the fascist German army were defeated by our Red Army, then this means that the Nazi fascist army can be defeated and will be defeated just as the armies of Napoleon and Wilhelm were defeated.
As for the fact that part of our territory nevertheless turned out to be captured by fascist German troops, this is mainly due to the fact that the war of fascist Germany against the USSR began under favorable conditions for the German troops and unfavorable for the Soviet troops. The fact is that the troops of Germany, as a country waging war, were already fully mobilized and 170 divisions abandoned by Germany against the USSR and moved to the borders of the USSR were in a state of complete readiness, waiting only for a signal to march, while the Soviet troops needed more mobilize and advance to the borders. Of no small importance here was the fact that fascist Germany unexpectedly and treacherously violated the non-aggression pact concluded in 1939 between it and the USSR, regardless of the fact that it would be recognized by the whole world as the attacking side. It is clear that our peace-loving country, not wanting to take the initiative to violate the pact, could not take the path of treachery.
It may be asked: how could it happen that the Soviet government agreed to conclude an attack pact with such treacherous people and monsters as Hitler and Ribbentrop? Was there a mistake on the part of the Soviet government here? Of course not! A non-aggression pact is a peace pact between two states. It was precisely such a pact that Germany offered us in 1939. Could the Soviet government refuse such an offer? I think that not a single peace-loving state can refuse a peace agreement with a neighboring power, if at the head of this power there are even such monsters and cannibals as Hitler and Ribbentrop. And this, of course, on one indispensable condition - if the peace agreement does not affect either directly or indirectly the territorial integrity, independence and honor of a peace-loving state. As you know, the Non-Aggression Pact between Germany and the USSR is just such a pact.
What have we gained by signing a non-aggression pact with Germany? We ensured peace for our country for a year and a half and the possibility of preparing our forces for a rebuff if fascist Germany dared to attack our country in defiance of the pact. This is a definite gain for fascist Germany.
What did fascist Germany gain and lose by treacherously breaking the pact and attacking the USSR? She achieved by this some advantageous position for her troops in a short time, but she lost politically, exposing herself in the eyes of the whole world as a bloody aggressor. There can be no doubt that this short military gain for Germany is a serious and lasting factor on the basis of which the decisive military successes of the Red Army in the war against fascist Germany should unfold.
That is why our entire valiant army, our entire valiant navy, all our falcon pilots, all the peoples of our country, all the best people of Europe, America and Asia, and finally, all the best people of Germany stigmatize the perfidious actions of the German fascists and sympathize with To the Soviet governments, they approve of the behavior of the Soviet government and see that our cause is just, that the enemy will be defeated, that we must win.
By virtue of the war imposed on us, our country entered into a mortal battle with its worst and treacherous enemy - German fascism. Our troops are fighting heroically against the enemy, armed to the teeth with tanks and aircraft. The Red Army and the Red Navy, overcoming numerous difficulties, are selflessly fighting for every inch of Soviet land. The main forces of the Red Army, armed with thousands of tanks and aircraft, enter the battle. The courage of the soldiers of the Red Army is unparalleled. Our resistance to the enemy is growing stronger and stronger. Together with the Red Army, the entire Soviet people rises to defend the Motherland.
What is required in order to eliminate the danger looming over our Motherland, and what measures must be taken in order to defeat the enemy.
First of all, it is necessary that our people, the Soviet people, understand the full depth of the danger that threatens our country, and renounce complacency, carelessness, and moods of peaceful construction, which were quite understandable in pre-war times, but pernicious at the present time, when the war is fundamentally changed position. The enemy is cruel and relentless. He sets as his goal the seizure of our lands, watered with our sweat, the seizure of our bread and our oil, extracted by our labor. It sets as its goal the restoration of the power of the landowners, the restoration of tsarism, the destruction of the national culture and national statehood of Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Uzbeks, Tatars, Moldavians, Georgians, Armenians, Azerbaijanis and other free peoples of the Soviet Union, their Germanization, their transformation into slaves of German princes and barons. Thus, it is a question of life and death of the Soviet state, of life and death of the peoples of the USSR, of whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement. It is necessary that the Soviet people understand this and stop being carefree, that they mobilize themselves and reorganize all their work on a new, military basis, which knows no mercy for the enemy.
It is further necessary that there be no place in our ranks for whiners and cowards, alarmists and deserters, that our people know no fear in the struggle and selflessly go to our Patriotic War of Liberation against the fascist enslavers. The great Lenin, who created our state, said that the main quality of the Soviet people should be courage, courage, ignorance of fear in the struggle, readiness to fight together with the people against the enemies of our Motherland. It is necessary that this magnificent quality of a Bolshevik become the property of millions of the Red Army, our Red Navy and all the peoples of the Soviet Union.
We must immediately reorganize all our work on a military footing, subordinating everything to the interests of the front and to the tasks of organizing the defeat of the enemy. The peoples of the Soviet Union now see that German fascism is indomitable in its furious malice and hatred of our Motherland, which has ensured free labor and well-being for all working people. The peoples of the Soviet Union must rise up to defend their rights, their land against the enemy.
The Red Army, the Red Navy and all citizens of the Soviet Union must defend every inch of the Soviet land, fight to the last drop of blood for our cities and villages, show the courage, initiative and ingenuity inherent in our people.
We must organize all-round assistance to the Red Army, ensure an intensified replenishment of its ranks, ensure its supply with everything necessary, organize the rapid advance of transports with troops and military cargo, and provide extensive assistance to the wounded.
We must strengthen the rear of the Red Army, subordinating all our work to the interests of this cause, ensure the intensified work of all enterprises, produce more rifles, machine guns, guns, cartridges, shells, aircraft, organize the protection of factories, power plants, telephone and telegraph communications, establish local air defense .
We must organize a merciless struggle against all sorts of disorganizers of the rear, deserters, alarmists, spreaders of rumors, destroy spies, saboteurs, enemy paratroopers, rendering prompt assistance to our destruction battalions in all this. It must be borne in mind that the enemy is cunning, cunning, experienced in deception and spreading false rumors. It is necessary to take into account all this and not succumb to provocations. All those who, by their alarmism and cowardice, interfere with the cause of defense, regardless of their faces, must immediately be brought to trial by a military tribunal.
In the event of a forced withdrawal of units of the Red Army, it is necessary to steal the entire rolling stock, not to leave the enemy a single locomotive, not a single wagon, not to leave the enemy a single kilogram of bread, not a liter of fuel. The collective farmers must steal all the livestock, hand over the grain for safekeeping to state bodies for its removal to the rear areas. All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, grain and fuel, which cannot be exported, must, of course, be destroyed.
In areas occupied by the enemy, it is necessary to create partisan detachments, mounted and on foot, to create sabotage groups to fight against parts of the enemy army, to kindle guerrilla warfare everywhere and everywhere, to blow up bridges, roads, damage telephone and telegraph communications, set fire to forests, warehouses, convoys.
In the occupied areas, create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices, pursue and destroy them at every turn, disrupt all measures.
The war with fascist Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war. It is not only a war between two armies. It is at the same time a great war of the entire Soviet people against the German fascist troops. The goal of this nationwide Patriotic War against the fascist oppressors is not only to eliminate the danger hanging over our country, but also to help all the peoples of Europe, groaning under the yoke of German fascism. In this war of liberation, we will not be alone. In this great war we will have true allies in the peoples of Europe and America, including the German people, enslaved by the Hitlerite rulers. Our war for the freedom of our Fatherland will merge with the struggle of the peoples
Europe and America for their independence, for democratic freedoms. It will be a united front of the peoples standing for freedom against enslavement and the threat of enslavement from Hitler's fascist armies. In this regard, the historic speech of the Prime Minister of Great Britain Mr. Churchill on assistance to the Soviet Union and the Declaration of the US government on readiness to render assistance to our country, which can only arouse a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of the peoples of the Soviet Union, are quite understandable and indicative.
Comrades! Our strength is incalculable. An arrogant enemy will soon be convinced of this. Together with the Red Army, many thousands of workers, collective farmers, and intellectuals are rising to war against the attacking enemy. Millions of our people will rise up. The working people of Moscow and Leningrad have already begun to create a multi-thousand people's militia to support the Red Army. In every city that is in danger of being invaded by the enemy, we must create such a people's militia, raise all the working people to fight in order to defend our freedom, our honor, our homeland with our breasts in our Patriotic War against German fascism.
In order to quickly mobilize all the forces of the peoples of the USSR, to repulse the enemy who treacherously attacked our Motherland, the State Defense Committee was created, in whose hands all power in the state is now concentrated. The State Defense Committee has begun its work and calls on all the people to rally around the party of Lenin-Stalin, around the Soviet government for the selfless support of the Red Army and the Red Navy, for the defeat of the enemy, for victory.
All our strength is to support our heroic Red Army, our glorious Red Fleet!
All the forces of the people - to defeat the enemy!
Forward to our victory!
This text is an introductory piece.
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