Vyacheslav Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR:

"The adviser to the German ambassador Hilger, when he handed the note, shed a tear."

Anastas Mikoyan, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee:

“Immediately, members of the Politburo gathered at Stalin’s. We decided that it was necessary to make a speech on the radio in connection with the outbreak of the war. Of course, they suggested that Stalin do it. But Stalin refused - let Molotov speak. Of course, this was a mistake. But Stalin was in such a depressed state that he did not know what to say to the people.

Lazar Kaganovich, member of the Politburo of the Central Committee:

“We gathered at Stalin's at night when Molotov received Schulenburg. Stalin gave each of us a task - to me for transport, to Mikoyan - for supplies.

Vasily Pronin, Chairman of the Executive Committee of the Moscow City Council:

“On June 21, 1941, at ten o'clock in the evening, Shcherbakov, secretary of the Moscow Party Committee, was summoned to the Kremlin. We had barely sat down when, addressing us, Stalin said: “According to intelligence and defectors, German troops intend to attack our borders tonight. Apparently, the war begins. Do you have everything ready in urban air defense? Report!" We were released at about 3 am. Twenty minutes later we arrived at the house. They were waiting for us at the gate. “They called from the Central Committee of the party,” the person who met him said, “and they instructed me to convey: the war has begun and we must be on the spot.”

• Georgy Zhukov, Pavel Batov and Konstantin Rokossovsky
• RIA News

Georgy Zhukov, General of the Army:

“At 4:30 am, Timoshenko and I arrived at the Kremlin. All the summoned members of the Politburo were already assembled. Me and the people's commissar were invited to the office.

I.V. Stalin was pale and sat at the table, holding a pipe not stuffed with tobacco in his hands.

We reported the situation. J.V. Stalin said in bewilderment:

“Is this not a provocation of the German generals?”

“The Germans are bombing our cities in Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltics. What kind of provocation is this…” S.K. Timoshenko answered.

... After some time, V.M. Molotov quickly entered the office:

"The German government has declared war on us."

JV Stalin silently sank into a chair and thought deeply.

There was a long, painful pause."

Alexander Vasilevsky,major general:

"At 4 o'clock with minutes, we became aware from the operational bodies of the district headquarters about the bombing of our airfields and cities by German aircraft."

Konstantin Rokossovsky,lieutenant general:

“At about four in the morning on June 22, upon receiving a telephone message from the headquarters, I was forced to open a special secret operational package. The directive indicated: immediately put the corps on combat readiness and advance in the direction of Rovno, Lutsk, Kovel.

Ivan Bagramyan, Colonel:

“... The first strike of German aviation, although it turned out to be unexpected for the troops, did not at all cause panic. In a difficult situation, when everything that could burn was on fire, when barracks, houses, warehouses collapsed before our eyes, communications were interrupted, the commanders made every effort to maintain leadership of the troops. They firmly followed the combat regulations that became known to them after opening the packages they had stored.

Semyon Budyonny, Marshal:

“At 04:01 on June 22, 1941, Comrade Timoshenko, People's Commissar, called me and said that the Germans were bombing Sevastopol and should I report to Comrade Stalin about this? I told him that it was necessary to report immediately, but he said: “You call!” I immediately called and reported not only about Sevastopol, but also about Riga, which the Germans are also bombing. Tov. Stalin asked: "Where is the People's Commissar?" I answered: “Here, next to me” (I was already in the People’s Commissar’s office). Tov. Stalin ordered the phone to be handed over to him ...

Thus the war began!

• RIA News

Iosif Geibo, deputy regiment commander of the 46th IAP, ZapVO:

“... My chest went cold. In front of me are four twin-engine bombers with black crosses on their wings. I even bit my lip. Why, these are Junkers! German Ju-88 bombers! What to do? .. Another thought arose: "Today is Sunday, and on Sundays the Germans do not have training flights." So it's a war? Yes, war!

Nikolai Osintsev, chief of staff of the division of the 188th anti-aircraft artillery regiment of the Red Army:

“On the 22nd, at 4 o’clock in the morning, we heard sounds: boom-boom-boom-boom. It turned out that it was German aircraft that unexpectedly flew into our airfields. Our planes did not even have time to change these airfields and all remained in their places. Almost all of them were destroyed."

Vasily Chelombitko, head of the 7th department of the Academy of Armored and Mechanized Troops:

“On June 22, our regiment stopped to rest in the forest. Suddenly we see planes flying, the commander announced a drill, but suddenly the planes began to bomb us. We understood that the war had begun. Here in the forest at 12 noon they listened to Comrade Molotov's speech on the radio and on the same day at noon received the first combat order of Chernyakhovsky about the division moving forward towards Siauliai.

Yakov Boyko, lieutenant:

“Today, i.e. 06/22/41, day off. While I was writing a letter to you, I suddenly hear on the radio that the brutal Nazi fascism bombed our cities ... But this will cost them dearly, and Hitler will no longer live in Berlin ... I now have only one in my soul hatred and the desire to destroy the enemy where he came from ... "

Peter Kotelnikov, defender Brest Fortress:

“In the morning we were awakened by a strong blow. Broke the roof. I was stunned. I saw the wounded and the dead, I realized: this is no longer an exercise, but a war. Most of the soldiers of our barracks died in the first seconds. Following the adults, I rushed to the weapon, but they did not give me rifles. Then I, with one of the Red Army men, rushed to extinguish the wares.

Timofei Dombrovsky, Red Army machine gunner:

“Airplanes poured fire on us from above, artillery - mortars, heavy, light guns - below, on the ground, and all at once! We lay down on the banks of the Bug, from where we saw everything that was happening on the opposite bank. Everyone immediately understood what was happening. The Germans attacked - war!

Cultural figures of the USSR

• All-Union Radio announcer Yuri Levitan

Yuri Levitan, announcer:

“When we, the announcers, were called to the radio early in the morning, the calls had already begun to ring out. They call from Minsk: “Enemy planes over the city”, they call from Kaunas: “The city is on fire, why aren’t you transmitting anything on the radio?”, “Enemy planes are over Kiev.” Women's crying, excitement: "Is it really war"? .. And now I remember - I turned on the microphone. In all cases, I remember myself that I only worried internally, only experienced internally. But here, when I uttered the words “Moscow is speaking”, I feel that I can’t continue to speak - a lump in my throat got stuck. They are already knocking from the control room - “Why are you silent? Go on! He clenched his fists and continued: "Citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union ..."

Georgy Knyazev, Director of the Archives of the USSR Academy of Sciences in Leningrad:

V.M. Molotov's speech about the German attack on the Soviet Union was broadcast on the radio. The war began at 4 1/2 in the morning with an attack by German aircraft on Vitebsk, Kovno, Zhitomir, Kyiv, and Sevastopol. There are dead. The Soviet troops were ordered to repulse the enemy, to drive him out of our country. And my heart trembled. Here it is, the moment we were afraid to even think about. Ahead... Who knows what's ahead!

Nikolay Mordvinov, actor:

“Makarenko was rehearsing... Anorov bursts in without permission... and in an alarming, muffled voice says: “War against fascism, comrades!”

So, the most terrible front has opened!

Woe! Woe!”

Marina Tsvetaeva, poet:

Nikolai Punin, art historian:

“I remembered the first impressions of the war ... Molotov’s speech, which A.A. ran in with disheveled hair (grayed) in a black Chinese silk robe . (Anna Andreevna Akhmatova)».

Konstantin Simonov, poet:

“The fact that the war had already begun, I learned only at two o'clock in the afternoon. All morning on June 22, he wrote poetry and did not answer the phone. And when he came up, the first thing he heard was war.

Alexander Tvardovsky, poet:

"War with Germany. I'm going to Moscow."

Olga Bergolts, poet:

Russian emigrants

• Ivan Bunin
• RIA News

Ivan Bunin, writer:

"22nd of June. From a new page I am writing the continuation of this day - a great event - Germany this morning declared war on Russia - and the Finns and Romanians have already "invaded" its "limits".

Pyotr Makhrov, lieutenant general:

“The day the Germans declared war on Russia, June 22, 1941, had such a strong effect on my whole being that the next day, on the 23rd (the 22nd was Sunday), I sent a registered letter to Bogomolov [the Soviet ambassador in France], asking him send me to Russia to be enrolled in the army, at least as a private.”

USSR citizens

• Residents of Leningrad listen to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union
• RIA News

Lydia Shablova:

“We were tearing shingles in the yard to cover the roof. The kitchen window was open and we heard the radio announce that the war had begun. Father froze. His hands dropped: “We will probably not finish the roof ...”.

Anastasia Nikitina-Arshinova:

“Early in the morning, a terrible roar woke me and the children. Shells and bombs burst, shrapnel screeched. I grabbed the children and ran barefoot into the street. We barely had time to grab some clothes with us. The street was terrified. Above the fortress (Brest) planes circled and dropped bombs on us. Women and children rushed around in a panic, trying to escape. In front of me lay the wife of one lieutenant and her son - both were killed by a bomb.

Anatoly Krivenko:

“We lived not far from the Arbat, in Bolshoy Afanasevsky Lane. There was no sun that day, the sky was covered with clouds. I was walking in the yard with the boys, we were chasing a rag ball. And then my mother jumped out of the entrance in one combination, barefoot, running and shouting: “Home! Tolya, go home immediately! War!"

Nina Shinkareva:

"We lived in a village in Smolensk region. That day, my mother went to the neighboring village for eggs and butter, and when she returned, father and other men had already gone to war. On the same day, residents began to evacuate. A big car arrived, and my mother put on all the clothes that my sister and I had, so that in winter we also had something to wear.

Anatoly Vokrosh:

“We lived in the village of Pokrov, Moscow Region. On that day, the guys and I were going to the river to catch carp. Mother caught me on the street, told me to eat first. I went to the house and ate. When he began to spread honey on bread, Molotov's message about the beginning of the war was heard. After eating, I ran away with the boys to the river. We rushed about in the bushes, shouting: “The war has begun! Hooray! We will defeat everyone!" We had absolutely no idea what it all meant. The adults discussed the news, but I don't remember any panic or fear in the village. The villagers were doing their usual things, and on this day, and in the following cities, summer residents gathered.

Boris Vlasov:

“In June 1941, he arrived in Oryol, where he was assigned immediately after graduating from the Hydrometeorological Institute. On the night of June 22, I spent the night in a hotel, as I had not yet managed to transport my things to the allotted apartment. In the morning I heard some fuss, turmoil, and the alarm signal overslept. It was announced on the radio that an important government message would be broadcast at 12 o'clock. Then I realized that I overslept not a training, but a combat alarm - the war began.

Alexandra Komarnitskaya:

“I rested in a children's camp near Moscow. There, the camp leadership announced to us that the war with Germany had begun. Everyone—the counselors and the children—began to cry.”

Ninel Karpova:

“We listened to the message about the beginning of the war from the loudspeaker at the House of Defense. There were a lot of people there. I was not upset, on the contrary, I became proud: my father will defend the Motherland ... In general, people were not afraid. Yes, women, of course, were upset, crying. But there was no panic. Everyone was sure that we would quickly defeat the Germans. The men said: “Yes, the Germans will drape from us!”.

Nikolay Chebykin:

“June 22 was Sunday. Such a sunny day! And my father and I dug a cellar for potatoes with shovels. About twelve o'clock. Somewhere at five minutes, my sister Shura opens the window and says: “The radio broadcasts:“ A very important government message will be transmitted now! Well, we put down the shovels and went to listen. It was Molotov. And he said that the German troops, treacherously, without declaring war, attacked our country. passed state border. The Red Army is fighting hard. And he ended with the words: “Our cause is right! The enemy will be defeated! Victory will be ours!".

German generals

• RIA News

Guderian:

“On the fateful day of June 22, 1941, at 2:10 am, I went to command post group and went up to the observation tower south of Bogukaly. At 03:15 our artillery preparation began. At 3 o'clock 40 min. - the first raid of our dive bombers. At 04:15, the forward units of the 17th and 18th Panzer Divisions began to cross the Bug. At 6 hours 50 minutes at Kolodno, I crossed the Bug in an assault boat.

“On June 22, at three and a half hours, four corps of the tank group, with the support of artillery and aviation, which was part of the 8th aviation corps, crossed the state border. Bomber aircraft attacked enemy airfields, with the task of paralyzing the actions of his aircraft.

On the first day, the offensive proceeded completely according to plan.

Manstein:

“Already on this first day, we had to get acquainted with the methods by which the war was waged on the Soviet side. One of our reconnaissance patrols, cut off by the enemy, was later found by our troops, it was cut out and brutally mutilated. My adjutant and I traveled a lot in areas where enemy units could still be located, and we decided not to surrender alive into the hands of this enemy.

Blumentritt:

“The behavior of the Russians, even in the first battle, was strikingly different from the behavior of the Poles and allies who were defeated on the Western Front. Even being in the encirclement, the Russians staunchly defended themselves.

German soldiers and officers

• www.nationaalarchief.nl.

Erich Mende, Oberleutnant:

“My commander was twice my age, and he had already had to fight the Russians near Narva in 1917, when he was in the rank of lieutenant. “Here, in these endless expanses, we will find our death, like Napoleon ...” he did not hide his pessimism. “Mende, remember this hour, it marks the end of the old Germany.”

Johann Danzer, artilleryman:

“On the very first day, as soon as we went on the attack, one of ours shot himself with his own weapon. Clutching the rifle between his knees, he inserted the barrel into his mouth and pulled the trigger. Thus ended the war and all the horrors associated with it.

Alfred Dürwanger, lieutenant:

“When we entered into the first battle with the Russians, they clearly did not expect us, but they could not be called unprepared either. Enthusiasm (we have) was not in sight! Rather, everyone was seized by a sense of the grandeur of the forthcoming campaign. And then the question arose: where, at which settlement will this campaign end?!”

Hubert Becker, lieutenant:

“It was a hot summer day. We walked across the field, suspecting nothing. Suddenly, artillery fire fell upon us. That's how my baptism of fire happened - a strange feeling.

Helmut Pabst, non-commissioned officer

“The advance continues. We are constantly moving forward through enemy territory, we have to constantly change positions. I'm terribly thirsty. There is no time to swallow a piece. By 10 in the morning we were already experienced, fired upon fighters who had time to see a lot: positions abandoned by the enemy, tanks and vehicles wrecked and burned out, the first prisoners, the first killed Russians.

Rudolf Gshöpf, chaplain:

“This artillery preparation, gigantic in terms of power and coverage of the territory, was like an earthquake. Huge mushrooms of smoke were visible everywhere, instantly growing out of the ground. Since there was no talk of any return fire, it seemed to us that we had completely wiped this citadel off the face of the earth.

Hans Becker, tanker:

"On Eastern Front I met people who can be called a special race. Already the first attack turned into a battle not for life, but for death.

22nd of June. Ordinary Sunday. More than 200 million citizens are planning how to spend their day off: go on a visit, take their children to the zoo, someone is in a hurry to play football, someone is on a date. Soon they will become heroes and victims of the war, killed and wounded, soldiers and refugees, blockade runners and prisoners of concentration camps, partisans, prisoners of war, orphans, and invalids. Winners and veterans of the Great Patriotic War. But none of them know about it yet.

In 1941 The Soviet Union stood quite firmly on its feet - industrialization and collectivization bore fruit, industry developed - out of ten tractors produced in the world, four were Soviet-made. Dneproges and Magnitogorsk have been built, the army is being re-equipped - the famous T-34 tank, Yak-1, MIG-3 fighters, Il-2 attack aircraft, Pe-2 bomber have already entered service with the Red Army. The situation in the world is turbulent, but the Soviet people are sure that "the armor is strong and our tanks are fast." In addition, two years ago, after three-hour talks in Moscow, People's Commissar for foreign affairs USSR Molotov and German Foreign Minister Ribbentrop signed a non-aggression pact for a period of 10 years.

After the abnormally cold winter of 1940-1941. A rather warm summer has come to Moscow. Amusements operate in the Gorky Park, football matches are held at the Dynamo stadium. The Mosfilm film studio is preparing the main premiere of the summer of 1941 - the editing of the lyrical comedy Hearts of Four, which will be released only in 1945, has just been completed here. Starring the favorite of Joseph Stalin and all Soviet moviegoers, actress Valentina Serova.

June, 1941 Astrakhan. Near the village of Liney

1941 Astrakhan. On the Caspian Sea

July 1, 1940 A scene from the film "My Love" directed by Vladimir Korsh-Sablin. In the center, actress Lidia Smirnova as Shurochka

April, 1941 Peasant greets the first Soviet tractor

July 12, 1940 Residents of Uzbekistan work on the construction of a section of the Great Fergana Canal

August 9, 1940 Byelorussian SSR. Collective farmers of the village of Tonezh, Turovsky district, Polesye region, for a walk after a hard day's work

May 05, 1941 Kliment Voroshilov, Mikhail Kalinin, Anastas Mikoyan, Andrey Andreev, Alexander Shcherbakov, Georgy Malenkov, Semyon Timoshenko, Georgy Zhukov, Andrey Eremenko, Semyon Budyonny, Nikolai Bulganin, Lazar Kaganovich and others in the presidium of the ceremonial meeting dedicated to graduation commanders who graduated from military academies. Joseph Stalin speaking

June 1, 1940. Classes in civil defense in the village of Dikanka. Ukraine, Poltava region

In the spring and summer of 1941, western borders The USSR increasingly began to conduct exercises of the Soviet military. War is already in full swing in Europe. Rumors reach the Soviet leadership that Germany could attack at any moment. But such messages are often ignored, since a non-aggression pact was signed just recently.
August 20, 1940 Villagers talking to tankmen during military exercises

"Higher, higher and higher
We strive for the flight of our birds,
And breathes in every propeller
The tranquility of our borders."

Soviet song, better known as "March of the Aviators"

June 1, 1941. An I-16 fighter is suspended under the wing of a TB-3 aircraft, under the wing of which a high-explosive bomb weighing 250 kg

September 28, 1939 People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov and German Foreign Minister Joachim von Ribbentrop shake hands after the signing of the joint Soviet-German treaty "On Friendship and Borders"

Field Marshal V. Keitel, Colonel General V. von Brauchitsch, A. Hitler, Colonel General F. Halder (left to right in the foreground) near the table with a map during a meeting of the General Staff. In 1940, Adolf Hitler signed the main directive number 21, codenamed "Barbarossa"

On June 17, 1941, V.N. Merkulov sent an intelligence message received by the NKGB of the USSR from Berlin to I.V. Stalin and V.M. Molotov:

“A source working at the headquarters of the German aviation reports:
1. All German military measures to prepare for an armed uprising against the USSR have been completely completed, and a strike can be expected at any time.

2. In the circles of the aviation headquarters, the TASS message of June 6 was perceived very ironically. They emphasize that this statement cannot have any meaning ... "

There is a resolution (regarding 2 points): “To Comrade Merkulov. You can send your "source" from the headquarters of the German aviation to the fucking mother. This is not a "source", but a disinformer. I. Stalin»

July 1, 1940. Marshal Semyon Timoshenko (right), General of the Army Georgy Zhukov (left) and General of the Army Kirill Meretskov (2nd from left) during an exercise in the 99th Rifle Division of the Kiev Special Military District

June 21, 21:00

At the site of the Sokal commandant’s office, he was detained German soldier Corporal Alfred Liskoff, who swam across the Bug River.

From the testimony of the head of the 90th border detachment, Major Bychkovsky:“In view of the fact that the interpreters in the detachment are weak, I called a teacher from the city German language... and Liskof repeated the same thing again, that is, that the Germans were preparing to attack the USSR at dawn on June 22, 1941 ... Without finishing the interrogation of the soldier, he heard strong artillery fire in the direction of Ustilug (the first commandant's office). I realized that it was the Germans who opened fire on our territory, which was immediately confirmed by the interrogated soldier. I immediately began to call the commandant by phone, but the connection was broken.

21:30

In Moscow, a conversation took place between People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Molotov and German Ambassador Schulenburg. Molotov protested in connection with the numerous violations of the borders of the USSR by German aircraft. Schulenburg evaded answering.

From the memoirs of Corporal Hans Teuchler:“At 22 o’clock we were lined up and the order of the Fuhrer was read out. Finally, they told us directly why we are here. Not at all for a rush to Persia to punish the British with the permission of the Russians. And not in order to lull the vigilance of the British, and then quickly transfer troops to the English Channel and land in England. No. We - soldiers of the Great Reich - are waiting for a war with the Soviet Union itself. But there is no such force that could hold back the movement of our armies. For the Russians it will be a real war, for us it will be just a victory. We will pray for her."

June 22, 00:30

Directive No. 1 was sent to the districts, containing an order to covertly occupy firing points on the border, not to succumb to provocations and put the troops on alert.

From the memoirs of the German General Heinz Guderian:“On the fateful day of June 22 at 2:10 in the morning, I went to the command post of the group ...
At 03:15 our artillery preparation began.
At 0340 hours - the first raid of our dive bombers.
At 4:15 a.m., the crossing over the Bug began.

03:07

The commander of the Black Sea Fleet, Admiral Oktyabrsky, called the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, Georgy Zhukov, and said that a large number of unknown aircraft were approaching from the sea; The fleet is in full combat readiness. The admiral offered to meet them with fleet air defense fire. He was instructed: "Act and report to your people's commissar."

03:30

Chief of Staff of the Western District, Major General Vladimir Klimovskikh, reported on a German air raid on the cities of Belarus. Three minutes later, the chief of staff of the Kyiv district, General Purkaev, reported on an air raid on the cities of Ukraine. At 03:40, the commander of the Baltic District, General Kuznetsov, reported a raid on Kaunas and other cities.

From the memoirs of I. I. Geibo, deputy regiment commander of the 46th IAP, ZapVO:“... My chest went cold. In front of me are four twin-engine bombers with black crosses on their wings. I even bit my lip. Why, these are Junkers! German Ju-88 bombers! What to do? .. Another thought arose: "Today is Sunday, and on Sundays the Germans do not have training flights." So it's a war? Yes, war!

03:40

People's Commissar of Defense Timoshenko asks Zhukov to report to Stalin about the start of hostilities. Stalin responded by ordering all members of the Politburo to gather in the Kremlin. At this point, Brest, Grodno, Lida, Kobrin, Slonim, Baranovich, Bobruisk, Volkovysk, Kiev, Zhytomyr, Sevastopol, Riga, Vindava, Libava, Siauliai, Kaunas, Vilnius and many other cities were bombed.

From the memoirs of Alevtina Kotik, born in 1925 (Lithuania):“I woke up from the fact that I hit my head on the bed - the ground shook from falling bombs. I ran to my parents. Dad said: “The war has begun. We have to get out of here!” We did not know with whom the war started, we did not think about it, it was just very scary. Dad was a military man, and therefore he was able to call a car for us, which took us to the railway station. They took only clothes with them. All furniture and household utensils remained. At first we rode on a freight train. I remember how my mother covered me and my brother with her body, then they transferred to a passenger train. The fact that the war with Germany, they learned somewhere around 12 noon from people they met. Near the city of Siauliai, we saw a large number of wounded, stretchers, doctors.

At the same time, the Belostok-Minsk battle began, as a result of which the main forces of the Soviet Western Front were surrounded and defeated. German troops captured a significant part of Belarus and advanced to a depth of over 300 km. On the part of the Soviet Union in the Bialystok and Minsk “boilers”, 11 rifle, 2 cavalry, 6 tank and 4 motorized divisions were destroyed, 3 commanders and 2 commanders were killed, 2 commanders and 6 division commanders were captured, another 1 corps commander and 2 commanders divisions were missing.

04:10

The Western and Baltic Special Districts reported on the start of hostilities by German troops on land.

04:12

German bombers appeared over Sevastopol. The enemy raid was repulsed, and an attempt to strike at the ships was thwarted, but residential buildings and warehouses were damaged in the city.

From the memoirs of Sevastopol Anatoly Marsanov:“I was then only five years old ... The only thing that remains in my memory: on the night of June 22, parachutes appeared in the sky. It became light, I remember, the whole city was illuminated, everyone was running, so joyful ... They shouted: “Paratroopers! Paratroopers!”… They don't know that these are mines. And they both gasped - one in the bay, the other - down the street below us, they killed so many people!

04:15

The defense of the Brest Fortress began. By the first attack, by 04:55, the Germans occupied almost half of the fortress.

From the memoirs of the defender of the Brest Fortress Pyotr Kotelnikov, born in 1929:“In the morning we were awakened by a strong blow. Broke the roof. I was stunned. I saw the wounded and the dead, I realized: this is no longer an exercise, but a war. Most of the soldiers of our barracks died in the first seconds. Following the adults, I rushed to the weapon, but they did not give me rifles. Then I, with one of the Red Army soldiers, rushed to extinguish the clothing warehouse. Then he moved with the soldiers to the cellars of the barracks of the neighboring 333rd Infantry Regiment ... We helped the wounded, brought them ammunition, food, water. Through the western wing at night they made their way to the river to draw water, and returned back.

05:00

Moscow time, Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs Joachim von Ribbentrop summoned Soviet diplomats to his office. When they arrived, he informed them of the start of the war. The last thing he said to the ambassadors was: "Tell Moscow that I was against the attack." After that, telephones did not work in the embassy, ​​and the building itself was surrounded by SS detachments.

5:30

Schulenburg officially informed Molotov about the beginning of the war between Germany and the USSR, reading out a note: “Bolshevik Moscow is ready to stab in the back of National Socialist Germany, which is fighting for existence. The German government cannot be indifferent to the serious threat on the eastern border. Therefore, the Fuhrer gave the order to the German armed forces by all means and means to ward off this threat…”

From the memoirs of Molotov:"The adviser to the German ambassador Hilger, when he handed the note, shed a tear."

From Hilger's memoirs:“He gave vent to his indignation by declaring that Germany had attacked a country with which it had a non-aggression pact. This has no precedent in history. The reason given by the German side is an empty pretext ... Molotov concluded his angry speech with the words: “We did not give any grounds for this.”

07:15

Directive No. 2 was issued, ordering the troops of the USSR to destroy enemy forces in areas of violation of the border, destroy enemy aircraft, and also “bomb Koenigsberg and Memel” (modern Kaliningrad and Klaipeda). The USSR Air Force was allowed to go "to the depth of German territory up to 100-150 km." At the same time, the first counterattack of the Soviet troops took place near the Lithuanian town of Alytus.

09:00

At 7:00 Berlin time, Reich Minister of Public Education and Propaganda Joseph Goebbels read out on the radio Adolf Hitler's appeal to the German people in connection with the outbreak of war against the Soviet Union: “... Today I decided again to put the fate and future of the German Reich and our people into the hands of our soldier. May the Lord help us in this struggle!

09:30

Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR Mikhail Kalinin signed a number of decrees, including the decree on the introduction of martial law, on the formation of the Headquarters of the High Command, on military tribunals and on general mobilization, to which all those liable for military service from 1905 to 1918 were born.

10:00

German bombers raided Kyiv and its suburbs. The railway station, the Bolshevik plant, an aircraft plant, power plants, military airfields, and residential buildings were bombed. According to official data, 25 people died as a result of the bombing, according to unofficial data, there were many more victims. However, peaceful life continued in the capital of Ukraine for several more days. Only the opening of the stadium, scheduled for June 22, was canceled; on this day, the football match Dynamo (Kyiv) - CSKA was supposed to take place here.

12:15

Molotov made a speech on the radio about the beginning of the war, where he first called it patriotic. Also in this speech, for the first time, the phrase that became the main slogan of the war is heard: “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours".

From Molotov's address:“This unprecedented attack on our country is an unparalleled treachery in the history of civilized peoples... This war was imposed on us not by the German people, not by the German workers, peasants and intelligentsia, whose suffering we understand well, but by a clique of bloodthirsty fascist rulers of Germany who enslaved the French, Czechs , Poles, Serbs, Norway, Belgium, Denmark, Holland, Greece and other peoples ... This is not the first time our people have to deal with an attacking arrogant enemy. At one time, our people responded to Napoleon's campaign in Russia with a Patriotic War, and Napoleon was defeated and came to his own collapse. The same will happen to the arrogant Hitler, who has announced a new campaign against our country. The Red Army and all our people will again wage a victorious patriotic war for the Motherland, for honor, for freedom.

The working people of Leningrad listen to the message about the attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union

From the memoirs of Dmitry Savelyev, Novokuznetsk: “We gathered at the poles with loudspeakers. We listened carefully to Molotov's speech. For many, there was a feeling of some kind of wariness. After that, the streets began to empty, after a while food disappeared from the shops. They weren’t bought up – just the supply was reduced… People weren’t scared, but rather focused, doing everything the government told them to do.”

After some time, the text of Molotov's speech was repeated by the famous announcer Yuri Levitan. Thanks to his soulful voice and the fact that Levitan read the front-line reports of the Soviet Information Bureau throughout the war, there is an opinion that it was he who was the first to read the message about the beginning of the war on the radio. Even marshals Zhukov and Rokossovsky thought so, as they wrote about in their memoirs.

Moscow. Announcer Yuri Levitan during filming in the studio

From the memoirs of announcer Yuri Levitan:“When we, the announcers, were called to the radio early in the morning, the calls had already begun to ring out. They call from Minsk: “Enemy planes over the city”, they call from Kaunas: “The city is on fire, why are you not transmitting anything on the radio?”, “Enemy planes are over Kiev.” Women's crying, excitement - "is it really a war"? .. And now I remember - I turned on the microphone. In all cases, I remember myself that I only worried internally, only experienced internally. But here, when I uttered the word “Moscow is speaking”, I feel that I can’t continue to speak - a lump stuck in my throat. They are already knocking from the control room - “Why are you silent? Go on! He clenched his fists and continued: "Citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union ..."

Stalin delivered a speech to the Soviet people only on July 3, 12 days after the start of the war. Historians are still arguing why he was silent for so long. Here is how Vyacheslav Molotov explained this fact:“Why me and not Stalin? He didn't want to go first. It is necessary that there be a clearer picture, what tone and what approach ... He said that he would wait a few days and speak when the situation on the fronts cleared up.

And here is what Marshal Zhukov wrote about this:"AND. V. Stalin was a strong-willed man and, as they say, "not from a cowardly dozen." Confused, I saw him only once. It was at dawn on June 22, 1941, when Nazi Germany attacked our country. During the first day, he could not really pull himself together and firmly direct events. The shock produced on I. V. Stalin by the attack of the enemy was so strong that his voice even dropped, and his orders for organizing armed struggle did not always correspond to the situation.

From a speech by Stalin on the radio on July 3, 1941:“The war with fascist Germany cannot be considered an ordinary war ... 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.”

12:30

At the same time, German troops entered Grodno. A few minutes later, the bombardment of Minsk, Kyiv, Sevastopol and other cities began again.

From the memoirs of Ninel Karpova, born in 1931 (Kharovsk, Vologda region):“We listened to the message about the beginning of the war from the loudspeaker at the House of Defense. There were a lot of people there. I was not upset, on the contrary, I became proud: my father will defend the Motherland ... In general, people were not afraid. Yes, women, of course, were upset, crying. But there was no panic. Everyone was sure that we would quickly defeat the Germans. The men said: "Yes, the Germans will drape from us!"

Recruiting stations were opened in the military registration and enlistment offices. Queues lined up in Moscow, Leningrad and other cities.

From the memoirs of Dina Belykh, born in 1936 (Kushva, Sverdlovsk region):“All men immediately began to call, including my dad. Dad hugged mom, they both cried, kissed ... I remember how I grabbed him by the tarpaulin boots and shouted: “Daddy, don’t go! They'll kill you there, they'll kill you!" When he got on the train, my mother took me in her arms, we both sobbed, she whispered through her tears: “Wave to dad ...” What is there, I sobbed so much, I could not move my hand. We never saw him again, our breadwinner."

Calculations and experience of the mobilization carried out showed that in order to transfer the army and navy to wartime, 4.9 million people were required to be called up. However, when mobilization was announced, 14 ages of conscripts were called up, the total number of which was about 10 million people, that is, almost 5.1 million people more than what was required.

The first day of mobilization in the Red Army. Volunteers in the Oktyabrsky military registration and enlistment office

The conscription of such a mass of people was not caused by military necessity and introduced disorganization into National economy and anxiety to the masses. Without realizing this, Marshal of the Soviet Union G. I. Kulik suggested that the government additionally call on older ages (1895 - 1904), the total number of which was 6.8 million people.

13:15

To capture the Brest Fortress, the Germans brought into action new forces of the 133rd Infantry Regiment on the Southern and Western Islands, but this "did not bring changes in the situation." The Brest Fortress continued to hold the line. Fritz Schlieper's 45th Infantry Division was thrown into this sector of the front. It was decided that only infantry would take the Brest Fortress - without tanks. No more than eight hours were allotted for the capture of the fortress.

From a report to the headquarters of the 45th Infantry Division Fritz Schlieper:“The Russians are fiercely resisting, especially behind our attacking companies. In the Citadel, the enemy organized defense with infantry units supported by 35-40 tanks and armored vehicles. The fire of Russian snipers led to heavy losses among officers and non-commissioned officers.

14:30

Italian Foreign Minister Galeazzo Ciano told the Soviet ambassador in Rome, Gorelkin, that Italy had declared war on the USSR "from the moment German troops entered Soviet territory."

From Ciano's diaries:“He perceives my message with rather great indifference, but this is in his nature. The message is very short, without unnecessary words. The conversation lasted two minutes.

15:00

The pilots of the German bombers reported that they had nothing more to bomb, all airfields, barracks and concentrations of armored vehicles were destroyed.

From the memoirs of Air Marshal, Hero of the Soviet Union G.V. Zimina:“On June 22, 1941, large groups of fascist bombers attacked 66 of our airfields, on which the main aviation forces of the western border districts were based. First of all, the airfields on which they were based were subjected to air strikes. aviation regiments, armed with aircraft of new designs ... As a result of attacks on airfields and in fierce air battles, the enemy managed to destroy up to 1200 aircraft, including 800 at airfields.

16:30

Stalin left the Kremlin for the Near Dacha. Until the end of the day, even members of the Politburo are not allowed to see the leader.

From the memoirs of Politburo member Nikita Khrushchev:
“Beria told the following: when the war began, members of the Politburo gathered at Stalin's. I don’t know, all or only a certain group, which most often met with Stalin. Stalin was morally completely depressed and made the following statement: “The war has begun, it is developing catastrophically. Lenin left us the proletarian Soviet state, and we pissed it off.” Literally said so.
“I,” he says, “refuse leadership,” and left. He left, got into the car and drove to a nearby dacha.

Some historians, referring to the memories of other participants in the events, argue that this conversation took place a day later. But the fact that in the first days of the war Stalin was confused and did not know how to act is confirmed by many witnesses.

18:30

The commander of the 4th Army, Ludwig Kübler, gives the order to "pull own forces» at the Brest Fortress. This is one of the first orders for the retreat of German troops.

19:00

The commander of Army Group Center, General Fedor von Bock, gives the order to stop the execution of Soviet prisoners of war. After that, they were kept in hastily fenced fields with barbed wire. This is how the first camps for prisoners of war appeared.

From the notes of SS Brigadeführer G. Keppler, commander of the "Der Fuhrer" regiment from the SS division "Das Reich":“In the hands of our regiment were rich trophies and a large number of prisoners, among whom were many civilians, even women and girls, the Russians forced them to defend themselves with weapons in their hands, and they bravely fought along with the Red Army.”

23:00

British Prime Minister Winston Churchill delivered a radio address in which he stated that England "will give Russia and the Russian people all the help it can."

Winston Churchill's speech on the air of the BBC radio station:“Over the past 25 years, no one has been a more consistent opponent of communism than me. I won't take back a single word I said about him. But all this pales before the spectacle now unfolding. The past with its crimes, follies and tragedies is disappearing... I see Russian soldiers standing on the threshold of their native land, guarding the fields that their fathers have cultivated since time immemorial... I see how the vile Nazi war machine is approaching all this.

23:50

The Main Military Council of the Red Army sent out Directive No. 3, ordering June 23 to launch counterattacks against enemy groups.

Text: Information Center Publishing house "Kommersant", Tatiana Mishanina, Artem Galustyan
Video: Dmitry Shelkovnikov, Alexey Koshel
Photo: TASS, RIA Novosti, Ogonyok, Dmitry Kuchev
Design, programming and layout: Anton Zhukov, Alexey Shabrov
Kim Voronin
Commissioning Editor: Artem Galustyan

An air defense fighter conducts surveillance from the roof of a house on Gorky Street. Photo: TASS/Naum Granovsky

75 years ago, on June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany invaded the USSR. The Great Patriotic War began. In Russia and some countries of the former Soviet Union, June 22 is the Day of Memory and Sorrow.

June 22, 1941 for the USSR and its capital Moscow was determined in Berlin a week before this date - on Saturday, June 14, at a meeting of the Supreme High Command of the armed forces of Nazi Germany. On it, Adolf Hitler gave the last orders to attack the USSR from 04 am on June 22, 1941.

On the same day, a TASS report on Soviet-German relations was circulated, which stated:

"According to the USSR, Germany is just as steadfastly observing the terms of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact as the Soviet Union, which is why, in the opinion of Soviet circles, rumors about Germany's intention to break the pact and launch an attack on the USSR are devoid of any ground."

However, June 22, 1941 for the world's first state of workers and peasants could come a month or a week earlier. The leaders of the Third Reich originally planned to invade Russia at dawn on Thursday 15 May. But on April 6, together with the troops of the allies - Italy and Hungary - the Germans entered Yugoslavia. The Balkan campaign forced Hitler to postpone the time for the conquest of Moscow.

Until noon on June 22, 1941 (and there are hundreds of archival evidence for this), Moscow did not know about the German invasion.

04:30 . 48 watering machines rolled out onto the streets (according to documents).
05:30 . Nearly 900 janitors started work. The morning was serene, sunny, painting "the gentle light of the walls of the ancient Kremlin."
Approximately from 07:00. In parks, squares and other places where people usually gather, "exit" stall trade began to unfold, summer buffets, beer and billiard rooms opened - the coming Sunday promised to be very warm, if not hot. And in places of mass recreation, an influx of citizens was expected.
07:00 and 07:30 . (According to the Sunday schedule - on ordinary days, half an hour earlier). Dairy shops and bakeries have reopened.
08:30 and 09:00 . Grocery and gastronomes have begun work. Department stores, except for GUM and TSUM, did not work on Sundays. The assortment of goods, in essence, is usual for a peaceful capital. In "Dairy" on Rochdelskaya they offered cottage cheese, curd mass, sour cream, kefir, curdled milk, milk, cheese, feta cheese, butter and ice cream. All products - two or three varieties and names.

In Moscow it's a normal Sunday

Gorkogo Street. Photo: TASS / F. Kislov

Grocery store No. 1 "Eliseevsky", the main one in the country, laid out boiled, half and raw smoked sausages, sausages, sausages from three to four items, ham, boiled pork of three items. The fish department offered fresh sterlet, light-salted Caspian herring (zal), hot-smoked sturgeon, pressed and red caviar. In excess there were Georgian wines, Crimean Madeira and sherry, ports, vodka and rum of one, cognac of four names. At that time, there were no time limits on the sale of alcohol.

GUM and TSUM exhibited the entire range of the domestic clothing and footwear industry, calicos, drapes, bostons and other fabrics, bijouterie, fiber suitcases of various sizes. And jewelry, the cost of individual samples of which exceeded 50 thousand rubles - a fifth of the price of the legendary T-34 tank, the victory IL-2 attack aircraft and three anti-tank guns - ZIS-3 guns of 76 mm caliber according to the "price list" of May 1941. No one could have imagined that day that the Moscow Central Department Store would turn into an army barracks in two weeks.

From 07:00 to the big "mass event" began to prepare the stadium "Dynamo". A parade and competitions of athletes were to take place on it at 12 o'clock.
Around 08:00, 20,000 schoolchildren were brought to Moscow from cities and districts of the region for a children's holiday, which began at 11:00 in Sokolniki Park.

There were no "fermentations" of school graduates on Red Square and on the streets of Moscow on the morning of June 22, 1941. This is the "mythology" of Soviet cinema and literature. Latest proms in the capital were held on Friday, June 20.

In a word, all 4 million 600 thousand "ordinary" residents and about one million guests of the capital of the USSR did not know until lunch on June 22, 1941 that the biggest and most bloody war in the history of the country against the invaders had begun that night.

01:21 . The border with Poland, absorbed by the Third Reich, was crossed by the last train loaded with wheat, which the USSR supplied under an agreement with Germany of September 28, 1939.
03:05 . 14 German bombers, having taken off from Koenigsberg at 01:10, dropped 28 magnetic bombs near the raid near Kronstadt, 20 km from Leningrad.
04:00 . Hitler's troops crossed the border near Brest. Half an hour later, a large-scale offensive began on all fronts - from the southern to the northern borders of the USSR.

And when at 11 o'clock in the Sokolniki park the pioneers of the capital solemn ruler met their guests - the pioneers of the Moscow region, the German advanced 15, and in some places even 20 km deep into the country.

Solutions at the highest level

Moscow. V.M. Molotov, I.V. Stalin, K.E. Voroshilov (left to right in the foreground), G.M. Malenkov, L.P. Beria, A.S. Shcherbakov (left to right in the second row) and other members of the government are sent to Red Square. Newsreel TASS

The fact that the war was going on, in the rear in the morning of June 22, 1941, was known only to the top leadership of the country, the command of the military districts, the first leaders of Moscow, Leningrad and some other large cities - Kuibyshev (now Samara), Sverdlovsk (now Yekaterinburg), Khabarovsk.

06:30 . Candidate member of the Politburo, Secretary of the Central Committee and First Secretary of the Moscow City Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks Alexander Sergeevich Shcherbakov gathered an emergency meeting of the key leaders of the capital with the participation of senior officers of NGOs, the NKVD and directors of major enterprises. He and the chairman of the city executive committee Vasily Prokhorovich Pronin by that time had the rank of general. At the meeting, priority measures were developed to ensure the life of Moscow in wartime.

Directly from the city committee, by telephone, orders were given to strengthen the protection of water supply systems, thermal and electrical energy, transport and, above all, the subway, food warehouses, refrigerators, the Moscow Canal, railway stations, defense enterprises and other important facilities. At the same meeting, the concept of Moscow's camouflage was formulated "roughly", including the construction of mock-ups and dummies, the protection of government and historical buildings.

At the suggestion of Shcherbakov, from June 23, a ban on entry into the capital was introduced for everyone who did not have a Moscow residence permit. Residents of the Moscow region also fell under it, including those who worked in Moscow. Special passes were introduced. Even Muscovites had to straighten them out, going to the forest for mushrooms or to a suburban dacha - they were not allowed back into the capital without a pass.

15:00. At the afternoon meeting, which took place after the speech on the radio by People's Commissar Molotov and after Shcherbakov and Pronin visited the Kremlin, the authorities of the capital, in agreement with the generals of the Moscow Military District, decided to install anti-aircraft batteries at all high-altitude points in the capital. Later, in the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR, created the next day, June 23, such a decision was called "exemplary." And they sent a directive to the Military Districts to ensure anti-aircraft protection of cities, following the example of the capital.

photography ban

One of the notable decisions of the second meeting of the leadership of Moscow on June 22, 1941: an appeal was formulated with an appeal to the population within three days to hand over cameras, other photographic equipment, film and reagents available for personal use. From now on, only accredited journalists and employees of special services could use photographic equipment.

This is partly why there are few photographs of Moscow in the first days of the war. Some of them are completely staged, such as, for example, the famous photograph by Yevgeny Khaldei "Muscovites listen to Comrade Molotov's address on the radio about the beginning of the war on June 22, 1941." On the first war day in the capital of the Union at 12 noon (the time of the live broadcast of the speech of People's Commissar Molotov) it was +24 degrees C. And in the photo - people in coats, hats, in a word, dressed in autumn, as in the twentieth of September, when Presumably this picture was taken.

By the way, the attire of people in that staged photo is very different from the T-shirts, white canvas shoes and trousers, in which, in another photo on June 22, 1941, Muscovites buy soda on Gorky Street (now Tverskaya).

At the same morning meeting on June 22, 1941, which was held by Alexander Shcherbakov, a special resolution was adopted - "to warn and suppress panic moods" in connection with the invasion of Hitler's troops in the USSR. The party secretary and de facto owner of the capital advised all leaders, and especially artists, writers, and newspapermen, to "adhere" to the position that the war would end in a month, a maximum of a month and a half. And the enemy will be defeated on his territory. "And he paid special attention to the fact that Molotov's speech called the war "holy." Two days later, on 06/24/41, having overcome a protracted depression, Joseph Dzhugashvili (Stalin), at the suggestion of Lavrenty Beria, appointed Shcherbakov (in addition to the existing positions and regalia) the head of the Sovinformburo - the main and, in fact, sole source information for the masses during the Great Patriotic War.

Cleanups

Muscovites join the ranks of the people's militia. Photo: TASS

One of the results of the last meeting of the Moscow leadership, which took place after 21:00, was the decision to create fighter battalions. They, apparently, were initiated in the Kremlin, because a day later the general leadership of the units was entrusted to the Deputy Chairman of the Council People's Commissars, head of the NKVD Lavrenty Beria. But the first fighter battalion in the country became under arms precisely in Moscow, on the third day of the war, on June 24, 1941. In the documents, the destruction battalions were designated as "volunteer formations of citizens capable of owning weapons." The prerogative of admission to them remained with party, Komsomol, trade union activists and other "verified" (so in the document) persons who were not subject to conscription for military service. The task of the extermination battalions was to fight saboteurs, spies, Hitler's accomplices, as well as bandits, deserters, looters and profiteers. In a word, all those who threatened order in the cities and other settlements in wartime conditions.

On the fourth day of the war, the Moscow fighter made the first raids, choosing to begin with the workers' closets and doorways of Zamoskvorechye, the barracks of Maryina Roshcha. The purge was quite effective. 25 bandits with weapons were taken. Five especially dangerous criminals were eliminated in a shootout. Food products (stew, condensed milk, smoked meats, flour, cereals) and industrial goods stolen even before the start of the war from one of the warehouses in the Filey region were confiscated.

Leader's reaction

General Secretary of the CPSU(b) Joseph Stalin. Photo: TASS

In Moscow - not only the city committee of the CPSU (b) and the city executive committee, but the entire supreme power of the USSR. According to the "reflected" documents, Stalin was informed about the invasion of the Nazi troops almost immediately - around 04:35-04:45. He, as usual, did not go to bed yet, and, according to one version, he was at the "near dacha".

The subsequent (second) report on the advance of the Germans along the entire front made a strong impression on the leader. He locked himself in one of the rooms and did not leave it for about two hours, after which he allegedly went to the Kremlin. The text of Vyacheslav Molotov's speech did not read. And he demanded to report to him about the situation on the fronts every half an hour.

According to the testimonies of a number of military leaders, it was just this that was the most difficult to do - communication with the active units, leading fierce battles with the German troops, was weak, if not completely absent. In addition, by 18-19 hours on June 22, 1941, according to various sources, a total of 500 thousand to 700 thousand soldiers and officers of the Red Army were surrounded by the Nazis, who, with incredible efforts, with a terrible shortage of ammunition, equipment and weapons, tried to break through the "rings" of the Nazis.

However, according to other, also "reflected" documents, on June 22, 1941, the leader was on the Black Sea, at a dacha in Gagra. And, according to the USSR ambassador to the United States Ivan Maisky, "after the first report on the German attack, he fell into prostration, completely cut himself off from Moscow, remained out of touch for four days, drinking himself into a stupor."

So is it? Or not? It's hard to believe. It is no longer possible to check - the documents of the Central Committee of the CPSU since then have been massively burned and destroyed at least 4 times. For the first time in October 1941, when panic began in Moscow after the Nazis entered the outskirts of Khimki and the passage of a column of Nazi motorcyclists along Leningradsky Prospekt in the Sokol area. Then at the end of February 1956 and the end of October 1961, after Stalin's personality cult was exposed at the 20th and 22nd Congresses of the CPSU. And, finally, in August 1991, after the defeat of the State Emergency Committee.

And do you need to check everything? It remains a fact that in the first 10 days of the war, the most difficult time for the country, Stalin was neither heard nor seen. And all orders, orders and directives of the first week of the war were signed by marshals and generals, people's commissars and deputies of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR: Lavrenty Beria, Georgy Zhukov, Semyon Timoshenko, Georgy Malenkov, Dmitry Pavlov, Vyacheslav Molotov and even the "party mayor" of the capital Alexander Shcherbakov.

Appeal of Nakrom Molotov

12:15. From the studio of the Central Telegraph, one of the leaders of the Soviet state, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov, spoke on the radio with an appeal.

It began with the words: "Citizens and citizens of the Soviet Union! The Soviet government and its head, Comrade Stalin, instructed me to make the following statement. Today, at 4 o'clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country ... "The speech ended with the famous words that turned into an idiom throughout the Great Patriotic War:" Our cause is just! The enemy will be defeated! Victory will be ours!".

12.25. Judging by the "log of visits", Molotov returned from the Central Telegraph Office to Stalin's office.

Muscovites listened to the speech of the People's Commissar, mainly through loudspeakers installed on all streets of the city, as well as in parks, stadiums and other crowded places. In the performance of the announcer Yuri Levitan, the text of Molotov's speech was repeated 4 times at different times.

Muscovites listen to a message about the attack of Nazi Germany on our Motherland. Photo: TASS / Evgeny Khaldei

At the same time from about 09:30. until 11:00 there was supposedly a serious discussion in the Kremlin about who should make such an appeal? According to one version, all, as one, members of the Politburo believed that Stalin himself should do this. But he actively denied it, repeating the same thing: the political situation and the situation on the fronts "are not yet clear," and therefore he will speak later.

As time went. And delaying information about the beginning of the war became dangerous. At the suggestion of the leader, those who inform the people about the beginning holy war, became Molotov. According to another version, there was no discussion, because Stalin himself was not in the Kremlin. They wanted to instruct the “all-Union headman” Mikhail Kalinin to tell the people about the war, but he even read from a piece of paper, stumbling, syllable by syllable.

Life after the start of the war

The news of the invasion of Hitler's troops on June 22, 1941, judging by the documents of the archives (reports of employees and freelance agents of the NKVD, police reports), as well as the recollections of eyewitnesses, did not plunge the residents and guests of the capital into despondency and did not change their plans too much.

Already after the announcement of the beginning of the war, passenger trains Moscow-Adler departed exactly on schedule from the Kursk railway station. And on the night of June 23 - to Sevastopol, which the Nazi aircraft heavily bombed as early as 05:00 on June 22. True, passengers who had tickets exactly to the Crimea were dropped off in Tula. And the train itself was allowed only to Kharkov.

Brass bands played in the parks during the day, performances were staged in theaters to full houses. Barber shops were open until evening. Beer houses and billiard rooms were practically filled with visitors. In the evening, the dance floors were not empty either. The famous foxtrot melody "Rio Rita" was heard in many parts of the capital.

A distinctive feature of the first war day in Moscow: mass optimism. In conversations, in addition to strong words of hatred for Germany and Hitler, it sounded: "Nothing. A month. Well, one and a half. Let's break, crush the reptile!" Another metropolitan sign on June 22, 1941: after the news of the attack of the Nazis, people in military uniform everywhere, even in pubs, began to skip the line.

Anti-aircraft artillery on guard of the city. Photo: TASS/Naum Granovsky

An impressive example of the efficiency of the Moscow authorities. By their order, at screenings in cinemas after 2 p.m. on June 22, 1941, before feature films(and these were "Shchors", "If there is war tomorrow", "Professor Malok", "The Oppenheim Family", "Boxers") began to show educational short films like "Blackout of an apartment building", "Take care of a gas mask", "Simple shelters from air bombs" .

In the evening, Vadim Kozin sang in the Hermitage Garden. In the restaurants "Metropol" and "Aragvi", judging by the "expenditure sheets" of the kitchen and buffet, sandwiches with pressed (black) caviar, herring with onions, fried pork loin in wine sauce, kharcho soup, chanakhi (lamb stew ), lamb cutlet on the bone with a complex garnish, vodka, KV cognac and sherry wine.

Moscow has not yet fully realized: big war already going. And on the fields of its battles, thousands of soldiers of the Red Army have already fallen, hundreds of civilians from Soviet cities and villages have died. Within a day, the registry offices of the city will note the influx of fathers and mothers with a request to replace the name Adolf in the birth certificates of their sons with Anatoly, Alexander, Andrey. Being Adolfs (colloquially - Adiks), who were massively born in the second half of 1933 and at the end of 1939, in June 1941, became not only disgusting, but also not safe.

A week later . In the capital of the USSR, they will gradually begin to introduce cards for food, household essentials, shoes and fabrics.
In two weeks. Muscovites will see newsreel footage showing Soviet villages, villages and towns on fire and women and young children lying near their huts shot by the Nazis.
Exactly one month later. Moscow will survive the first raid of the Nazi aviation, and with its own eyes, not in the cinema, will see the mutilated bodies of fellow citizens who died under the rubble, destroyed and burning houses.

In the meantime, on the first day of the war, in Moscow, everything is approximately the same as in the textbook poem by Gennady Shpalikov "On the dance floor of the Forty-First Year": "It's nothing that there is no Poland. But the country is strong. In a month - and no more - the war will end ... "

Evgeny Kuznetsov

Germany, Finland. At 0010 hours, a group of 14 Ju-88 bombers took off from Koenigsberg and at 0305 hours dropped 28 magnetic mines near the Kronstadt raid.
The lead aircraft was carried by a Finnish officer, who ensured that the group landed at Utti airfield in southern Finland for refueling. Another group of German bombers at the same time reached Leningrad through Finnish airspace.

THE USSR. At 00.30 minutes Directive No. 1 was transmitted to the western military districts:

"1. During June 22-23, 1941, a sudden attack by the Germans on the fronts of the LVO, PribOVO, ZAPOVO, KOVO, OdVO is possible. The attack may start with provocative actions.
2. The task of our troops is not to succumb to any provocative actions that could cause major complications. At the same time, the troops of the Leningrad, Baltic, Western, Kyiv and Odessa military districts should be in full combat readiness to meet a possible surprise attack by the Germans or their allies.
3. I order:
a) during the night of June 22, 1941, covertly occupy the firing points of fortified areas on the state border;
b) before dawn on June 22, 1941, disperse all aviation, including military aviation, over field airfields, carefully disguise it;
c) put all units on combat readiness. Keep the troops dispersed and camouflaged;
d) put the air defense on alert without an additional rise in assigned staff. Prepare all measures to darken cities and objects;
e) no other activities are to be carried out without special instructions.
Timoshenko. Zhukov."




June 22 At 04:00 on June 22, 1941, the Chief of Staff of the Black Sea Fleet, Rear Admiral I. D. Eliseev, ordered to open fire on German aircraft that invaded far into the airspace of the USSR, which made history: it was the very first combat order to repulse the Nazis who attacked the USSR in the Great Patriotic War.


THE USSR. At 4:10 a.m., the UNKGB in the Lvov region transmitted by telephone to the NKGB of the Ukrainian SSR a message about the transition to Soviet territory in the area of ​​​​the city of Sokal, Wehrmacht corporal Alfred Liskov. During interrogation at the headquarters of the border detachment, he stated that the offensive of the German troops would begin at dawn on June 22.




On June 22, at 4:30 a.m., German troops went on the offensive. The Great Patriotic War began.
THE USSR. At 5:25 a.m., D. G. Pavlov sent a directive to the commanders of the 3rd, 10th and 4th armies: “In view of the mass hostilities that have emerged from the Germans, I order: to raise troops and act in a combative way.”

Germany. At 5:30 a.m., the German Foreign Ministry sent a Note dated June 21, 1941 to the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR, in which it stated:

“... The Soviet government, contrary to its obligations and in clear contradiction with its solemn statements, acted against Germany, namely:
Subversive work against Germany and Europe was not only continued, but also intensified with the outbreak of the war.
Foreign policy became increasingly hostile towards Germany.
All armed forces on the German border were concentrated and deployed in readiness for attack.
Thus, the Soviet government betrayed and violated treaties and agreements with Germany. The hatred of Bolshevik Moscow for National Socialism turned out to be stronger than political reason. Bolshevism is the mortal enemy of National Socialism.
Bolshevik Moscow is ready to stab in the back National Socialist Germany, which is fighting for existence.
The German government cannot be indifferent to the serious threat on the eastern border. Therefore, the Fuhrer gave the order to the German armed forces to ward off this threat with all their might and means ... "


THE USSR. By a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated June 22, 1941, from June 23, the mobilization of 14 ages (1905-1918 years of birth) in 14 military districts out of 17 was announced. month by a special decision of the government in a covert way as "large training camps."

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How it was: what Hitler really faced on June 22, 1941 (part 1)

22-06-2016, 08:44

On June 22, 1941, at 4 o'clock in the morning, Germany treacherously, without declaring war, attacked the Soviet Union and, starting to bomb our cities with peacefully sleeping children, immediately declared itself to be a criminal force that did not have a human face. The most bloody war throughout the history of the existence of the Russian state.

Our fight with Europe was deadly. On June 22, 1941, German troops launched an offensive against the USSR in three directions: east (Army Group Center) to Moscow, southeast (Army Group South) to Kiev and northeast (Army Group North) to Leningrad . In addition, the German army "Norway" was advancing in the direction of Murmansk.

Together with the German armies, the armies of Italy, Romania, Hungary, Finland and volunteer formations from Croatia, Slovakia, Spain, Holland, Norway, Sweden, Denmark and other European countries advanced on the USSR.

On June 22, 1941, 5.5 million soldiers and officers of Nazi Germany and its satellites crossed the border of the USSR and invaded our land, but in terms of the number of troops, the armed forces of Germany alone exceeded the Armed Forces of the USSR by 1.6 times, namely: 8.5 million people in the Wehrmacht and a little over 5 million people in the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army. Together with the Allied armies, Germany had at least 11 million trained, armed soldiers and officers on June 22, 1941, and could very quickly make up for the losses of its army and strengthen its troops.

And if the number of only German troops exceeded the number of Soviet troops by 1.6 times, then together with the troops of the European allies it exceeded the number of Soviet troops by at least 2.2 times. Such a monstrously huge force opposed the Red Army.

The industry of Europe united by it worked for Germany with a population of about 400 million people, which was almost 2 times the population of the USSR, which had 195 million people.

At the beginning of the war, the Red Army, compared with the troops of Germany and its allies that attacked the USSR, had 19,800 units more guns and mortars, 86 units more warships of the main classes, and the Red Army outnumbered the attacking enemy in the number of machine guns. Small arms, guns of all calibers and mortars, in terms of combat characteristics, not only were not inferior, but in many cases even surpassed German weapons.

As for the armored forces and aviation, our army had them in numbers that far exceeded the number of units of this equipment that the enemy had at the beginning of the war. But the bulk of our tanks and aircraft compared to the German ones were weapons of the "old generation", obsolete. Tanks for the most part were only with bulletproof armor. A considerable percentage were also defective aircraft and tanks to be written off.

At the same time, it should be noted that before the start of the war, the Red Army received 595 KB heavy tanks and 1,225 T-34 medium tanks, as well as 3,719 new types of aircraft: Yak-1, LaGG-3, MiG-3 fighters, Il- 4 (DB-ZF), Pe-8 (TB-7), Pe-2, Il-2 attack aircraft. Basically, we designed and produced the specified new, expensive and science-intensive equipment in the period from the beginning of 1939 to the middle of 1941, that is, for the most part during the validity of the non-aggression pact concluded in 1939 - the "Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact".

It was the presence of a large number of weapons that allowed us to survive and win. For, despite the huge losses of weapons in the initial period of the war, we still had a sufficient amount of weapons to resist during the retreat and for the offensive near Moscow.

It must be said that in 1941 the German army did not have equipment similar to our heavy KB tanks, armored attack aircraft IL-2 and rocket artillery, such as BM-13 ("Katyusha"), capable of hitting targets at a distance of more than eight kilometers.

Due to the poor work of Soviet intelligence, our army did not know the direction of the main attacks planned by the enemy. Therefore, the Germans had the opportunity to create a multiple superiority of military forces in the breakthrough areas and break through our defenses.

The capabilities of Soviet intelligence are greatly exaggerated in order to belittle the military merits and technical achievements of the USSR. Our troops retreated under the onslaught of superior enemy forces. Parts of the Red Army had to either withdraw quickly to avoid encirclement, or fight in encirclement. And it was not so easy to withdraw the troops, because in many cases the mobility of the German mechanized formations that had broken through our defenses exceeded the mobility of our troops.

Of course, not all groupings of Soviet troops were capable of mobile German formations. The main part of the German infantry advanced on foot, as our troops basically retreated, which allowed many units of the Red Army to retreat to new lines of defense.

The encircled covering troops held back the advance of the Nazi hordes to the last opportunity, and the units retreating in battles, uniting with the troops of the 2nd echelon, significantly slowed down the advance of the German armies.

In order to stop the German armies that had broken through the border, large reserves were needed, equipped with mobile formations that could quickly approach the breakthrough site and push the enemy back. We did not have such reserves, since the country had no economic opportunities to maintain an 11 millionth army in peacetime.

It is unfair to blame the government of the USSR for such a development of events. Despite the desperate resistance to industrialization on the part of certain forces within the country, our government and our people have done everything they could to create and equip an army. It was impossible to do more in the time allotted to the Soviet Union.

Our intelligence, of course, was not up to par. But it's only in the movies that scouts get drawings of aircraft and atomic bombs. IN real life such drawings will take far from one railway car. Our intelligence did not have the opportunity to receive the Barbarossa plan in 1941. But even knowing the direction of the main blows, we would have to retreat before the monstrous force of the enemy. But in this case we would have less losses.

According to all theoretical calculations, the USSR should have lost this war, but we won it, because we knew how to work and fight like no one else on earth. Hitler conquered Europe, except for Poland, in an effort to unite and subordinate to the will of Germany. And he sought to exterminate us both in battles, and the civilian population, and our prisoners of war. About the war against the USSR, Hitler said: "We are talking about a war of extermination."

But everything did not go as planned for Hitler: the Russians left more than half of the troops far from the border, announced mobilization after the start of the war, as a result of which they had people to recruit new divisions, took military factories to the East, did not lose heart, but fought steadfastly for every inch of land. The German General Staff was horrified by Germany's losses in men and equipment.

The losses of our retreating army in 1941, of course, were greater than the German ones. The German army created a new organizational structure, including tanks, motorized infantry, artillery, engineering units and communications units, which made it possible not only to break through the enemy’s defenses, but also to develop it in depth, breaking away from the bulk of its troops for tens of kilometers. The proportions of all military branches were carefully calculated by the Germans and tested in battles in Europe. With such a structure, tank formations became a strategic means of struggle.

We needed time to create such troops from newly manufactured equipment. In the summer of 1941, we had neither the experience of creating and using such formations, nor the number of trucks needed to transport infantry. Created on the eve of the war, our mechanized corps were much less perfect than the German ones.

The General Staff of Germany gave the plan of attack on the USSR the name "Barbarossa" after the German emperor of terrifying cruelty. On June 29, 1941, Hitler declared: "In four weeks we will be in Moscow, and it will be plowed up."

Not a single German general spoke in his forecasts about the capture of Moscow later than August. For everyone, August was the deadline for the capture of Moscow, and October - the territory of the USSR to the Urals along the line Arkhangelsk - Astrakhan.

The US military believed that in the war with the Russians, Germany would be occupied from one to three months, and the military of England - from three to six weeks. They made such predictions, because they knew well the force of the blow that Germany brought down on the USSR. How long we will hold out in the war with Germany, the West estimated by itself.

The German government was so sure of quick victory, which did not even consider it necessary to spend money on warm winter uniforms for the army.

Enemy troops advanced from the Barents to the Black Seas on a front stretching over 2,000 thousand kilometers.

Germany counted on a blitzkrieg, that is, a lightning strike on our armed forces and their destruction as a result of this lightning strike. The location of 57% of Soviet troops in the 2nd and 3rd echelons initially contributed to the disruption of the Germans' calculation for a blitzkrieg. And in combination with the resilience of our troops in the 1st defense echelon, it completely disrupted the German calculation for a blitzkrieg.

And what kind of blitzkrieg can we talk about if the Germans in the summer of 1941 could not even destroy our aircraft. From the first day of the war, the Luftwaffe paid a huge price for the desire to destroy our aircraft on the airfields and in the air.

From 1940 to 1946, the People's Commissar of the Aviation Industry of the USSR, A. I. Shakhurin wrote: “During the period from June 22 to July 5, 1941, the German Air Force lost 807 aircraft of all types, and for the period from July 6 to 19, another 477 aircraft. A third of the German air force that they had before attacking our country."

Thus, only for the first month of fighting in the period from 22.06. By July 19, 1941, Germany lost 1284 aircraft, and in less than five months of fighting - 5180 aircraft. Surprisingly, only a few people in the whole of large Russia know today about our glorious victories in the most unfortunate period of the war for us.

So who and with what weapons destroyed these 1284 Luftwaffe aircraft in the first month of the war? These aircraft were destroyed by our pilots and anti-aircraft gunners in the same way that our artillerymen destroyed enemy tanks, because the Red Army had anti-tank guns, aircraft and anti-aircraft guns.

And in October 1941, the Red Army had enough weapons to hold the front. At this time, the defense of Moscow was carried out at the limit of human strength. Only Soviet, Russian people could fight like that. Deserves good word I. V. Stalin, back in July 1941, organized the construction of concrete pillboxes, bunkers, anti-tank barriers and other protective military construction structures, fortified areas (Urov) on the outskirts of Moscow, who managed to provide weapons, ammunition, food and uniforms to the fighting army.

The Germans were stopped near Moscow, first of all, because even in the autumn of 1941, our men fighting the enemy had weapons to shoot down planes, burn tanks and mix enemy infantry with the ground.

On November 29, 1941, our troops liberated Rostov-on-Don in the south, and Tikhvin was liberated in the north on December 9. Having pinned down the southern and northern groupings of German troops, our command created favorable conditions for the offensive of the Red Army near Moscow.

It was not the Siberian divisions that made it possible for our troops to go on the offensive near Moscow, but the reserve armies created by the Stavka and brought up to Moscow before our troops went on the offensive. A. M. Vasilevsky recalled: “A major event was the completion of the preparation of regular and extraordinary reserve formations. At the turn of Vytegra - Rybinsk - Gorky - Saratov - Stalingrad - Astrakhan, a new strategic line was being created for the Red Army. Here, on the basis of the decision of the GKO, adopted on October 5, ten reserve armies were formed. Creating them throughout the entire battle of Moscow was one of the main and daily concerns of the Central Committee of the Party, the State Defense Committee and the Headquarters. We, the leaders of the General Staff, daily, when reporting to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the situation on the fronts, reported in detail on the progress in the creation of these formations. It can be said without exaggeration: in the outcome of the Battle of Moscow, the fact that the party and the Soviet people promptly formed, armed, trained and deployed new armies under the capital was of decisive importance.

The battle near Moscow can be divided into two parts: defensive from September 30 to December 5, 1941 and offensive from December 5 to April 20, 1942.

And if in June 1941 German troops suddenly attacked us, then in December 1941 near Moscow our Soviet troops suddenly attacked the Germans. Despite the deep snow and frost, our army successfully advanced. Panic broke out in the German army. Only the intervention of Hitler prevented the complete defeat of the German troops.

The monstrous force of Europe, faced with the Russian force, could not overcome us and, under the blows of the Soviet troops, fled back to the West. In 1941, our great-grandfathers and grandfathers defended the right to life and, meeting the New Year 1942, proclaimed toasts to the Victory.

In 1942, our troops continued to advance. The Moscow and Tula regions, many districts of the Kalinin, Smolensk, Ryazan and Oryol regions were liberated. Losses in manpower only of the Army Group Center, which until recently stood near Moscow for the period from January 1 to March 30, 1942, amounted to over 333 thousand people.

But the enemy was still strong. By May 1942 fascist german army had 6.2 million people and weapons superior to the Red Army. Our army numbered 5.1 million people. without air defense troops and the Navy.

Thus, in the summer of 1942 against our ground forces Germany and its allies had 1.1 million more soldiers and officers. Germany and its allies maintained superiority in the number of troops from the first day of the war until 1943. In the summer of 1942, 217 enemy divisions and 20 enemy brigades operated on the Soviet-German front, that is, about 80% of all German ground forces.

In connection with this circumstance, the Headquarters did not transfer troops from the Western to the South-Western direction. This decision was correct, as was the decision to deploy strategic reserves in the area of ​​Tula, Voronezh, Stalingrad and Saratov.

Most of our forces and means were concentrated not in the south-western, but in the western direction. Ultimately, this distribution of forces led to the defeat of the German, or rather European, army, and in this regard, it is inappropriate to talk about the incorrect distribution of our troops by the summer of 1942. It was thanks to this distribution of troops that we were able in November to gather forces near Stalingrad sufficient to defeat the enemy, and were able to replenish our troops in defensive battles.

In the summer of 1942, we could not hold the defense for a long time against the German troops, which were superior to us in forces and means, and were forced to retreat under the threat of encirclement.

It was not yet possible to compensate for the missing number of artillery, aviation and other types of weapons, since the evacuated enterprises were just beginning to operate at full capacity, and the military industry of Europe still surpassed the military industry of the Soviet Union.

German troops continued their offensive along the western (right) bank of the Don and sought, by all means, to reach the large bend of the river. Soviet troops retreated to natural lines where they could gain a foothold.

By mid-July, the enemy captured Valuiki, Rossosh, Boguchar, Kantemirovka, Millerovo. Before him opened the eastern road - to Stalingrad and the south - to the Caucasus.

The battle of Stalingrad is divided into two periods: defensive from July 17 to November 18 and offensive, culminating in the liquidation of a huge enemy group, from November 19, 1942 to February 02, 1943.

The defensive operation began on the distant approaches to Stalingrad. From July 17, the forward detachments of the 62nd and 64th armies offered fierce resistance to the enemy at the turn of the Chir and Tsymla rivers for 6 days.

The troops of Germany and its allies could not take Stalingrad.

The offensive of our troops began on November 19, 1942. The troops of the Southwestern and Don Fronts went on the offensive. This day went down in our history as Artillery Day. On November 20, 1942, the troops of the Stalingrad Front went on the offensive. On November 23, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts united in the Kalach-on-Don, Sovetsky area, closing the encirclement of German troops. The Headquarters and our General Staff calculated everything very well, tying Paulus's army hand and foot with a great distance from our advancing troops, the 62nd Army, located in Stalingrad, and the offensive of the troops of the Don Front.

New Year's Eve 1943 was celebrated by our courageous soldiers and officers, just like New Year's Eve 1942, by the victors.

A huge contribution to the organization of the victory at Stalingrad was made by the Headquarters and the General Staff, headed by A. M. Vasilevsky.

During the Battle of Stalingrad, which lasted 200 days and nights, Germany and its allies lost ¼ of the forces operating at that time on the Soviet-German front. “The total losses of enemy troops in the region of the Don, Volga, Stalingrad amounted to 1.5 million people, up to 3500 tanks and assault guns, 12 thousand guns and mortars, up to 3 thousand aircraft and a large number of other equipment. Such losses of forces and means had a catastrophic effect on the general strategic situation and shook the entire military machine of Nazi Germany to its foundations, ”wrote G.K. Zhukov.

During the two winter months of 1942-1943, the defeated German army was driven back to the positions from which it had begun the offensive in the summer of 1942. This great victory for our troops gave additional strength to both the fighters and the home front workers.

The troops of Germany and their allies were also defeated near Leningrad. On January 18, 1943, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts united, the ring of the blockade of Leningrad was broken.

A narrow corridor 8-11 kilometers wide, adjacent to the southern coast of Lake Ladoga, was cleared of the enemy and connected Leningrad with the country. Long-distance trains began to run from Leningrad to Vladivostok.

Hitler was going to take Leningrad in 4 weeks by July 21, 1941 and send the liberated troops to storm Moscow, but he could not take the city by January 1944 either. Hitler ordered proposals for the surrender of the city German troops not to accept and wipe the city off the face of the earth, but in fact, the German divisions stationed near Leningrad were wiped off the face of the earth by the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts. Hitler declared that Leningrad would be the first major city, captured by the Germans in the Soviet Union and spared no effort to capture it, but did not take into account that he was fighting not in Europe, but in Soviet Russia. I did not take into account the courage of the Leningraders and the strength of our weapons.

The victorious conclusion of the Battle of Stalingrad and the breakthrough of the blockade of Leningrad became possible not only thanks to the stamina and courage of the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, the ingenuity of our soldiers and the knowledge of our military leaders, but, above all, thanks to the heroic work of the rear.

To be continued...

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