For all peoples of Russia and the former Soviet Union, May 9th marks Victory Day in the Great Patriotic War (1941-1945). Eighty years have passed since the end of the War. Several generations have grown up, the political map of the planet has changed, and the Soviet Union, which claimed an epic victory over Nazism and saved the entire world in 1945, has since dissolved. Those tragic events have long become a memory of distant history. So why does Russia still celebrate the 9th of May every year as its biggest holiday?
Russians say that the war has left a deep imprint on every family’s history. This means that there is no family in this 150 million-person country that did not lose a member in that war. Behind these words lie the fates of millions of people, their sufferings, and their losses. Behind these words, there is also the immense pride of victory, the truth, and the memory. We can say without exaggeration that that war was the hardest ordeal in the history of Russia and the Soviet Union, a tragedy for mankind that crippled the fate of several generations. The USSR faced extreme cruelty and responded with unparalleled courage, sacrifice, and patriotism.
After the Nazi regime seized power in Germany in 1933, it was only a matter of time before a major military conflict would be unleashed. After World War II began in 1939, the Wehrmacht (German Army) brought practically all of Europe under its control. The USSR was left alone to face the fascist threat.
At 4:00 a.m. on June 22, 1941, the Wehrmacht attacked the Soviet Union’s territory in violation of all international treaties in force and without declaring war. On the Soviet front, the Nazi troops numbered 4.3 million soldiers, 166 army divisions, 4,300 tanks, more than 42,000 guns and mortars, about 4,700 airplanes, and 200 navy vessels. The Soviet troops numbered 3.2 million soldiers, 59,700 guns and mortars, 1,660 tanks, and 2,700 battle planes. Despite the sudden and massive Nazi assault, the Soviet Army fiercely resisted from the very first day. Germany’s plan, the Blitzkrieg (the “lightning war”), which aimed for the Soviet Union’s defeat within a few months, failed immediately. The staunch defence of Brest Fortress, Leningrad (now St. Petersburg), Kyiv, Odesa, and Sevastopol, and the battles of Rzhev, Smolensk, Moscow, and other cities destroyed the Blitzkrieg.
It is a historical fact that the USSR was the only State that managed to stop Hitler’s expansion. This had a fundamental importance for the course of the entire World War II. After the almost unresisted defeat of France and the voluntary subjugation of the rest of mainland Europe by the Nazis, a mortal danger hung over Great Britain. The Soviet Army eventually pushed the enemy back, defeating Nazi troops everywhere – Moscow, Stalingrad, and Leningrad, the Caucasus, Kursk, Ukraine, Belarus, and finally Berlin. The sons of a multinational Soviet State fought shoulder to shoulder under the motto “For the Motherland!” They were Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Yakuts, Chuvash, Georgians, Kazakhs, Chechens, and representatives of other nations. Without their heroism, it would have been impossible to defeat the enemy.
The siege of Leningrad was one of the most horrifying episodes of World War II. It lasted 872 days, from September 1941 until January 1944, when it was finally broken by the Soviet Army. German troops surrounded the city and completely cut it off from supplies. The civilians, almost three million, refused to surrender. There was no heating in winter, no water supply, no electricity, and very little food. Along with air and artillery shelling, hunger and bitter cold were the city’s main enemies. Exhausted people died in the streets, which were piled with human bodies. But the city survived, and its resistance was summed up in the motto: “Troy fell, Rome fell, and Leningrad did not fall.” The blockade claimed hundreds of thousands of lives; some estimates are as high as 1.5 million.
From September 1941, heavy fighting took place in the suburbs of Moscow. In April 1942, the Red Army hurled the enemy back 100-250 km from Moscow. In July 1942, the Battle of Stalingrad, the most brutal standoff in human history, began. It covered a territory of 100,000 square kilometres. The total number of both armies was more than 2 million people. Stalingrad, as a major industrial centre on the Volga River, was an important target for Hitler. Hitler thought that seizing Stalingrad – “Stalin’s City” – would strike a fatal blow to the Soviet spirit. The military order was: “Not One Step Back.” The horror of Stalingrad lasted for 199 days, costing 1.5 million lives from both sides.
The Red Army offensive in 1942-1943 formed the so-called Kursk Bulge, which the Soviet command chose for strategic defence to exhaust the enemy, counterattack, and defeat the Germans. The Kursk defensive operation engaged 1.3 million soldiers, 21,600 artillery pieces and mortars, 518 rocket artillery units, 3,500 tanks and self-propelled artillery vehicles, and 2,200 aircraft from the Soviet side. The German Army deployed huge contingents – 50 divisions (including 16 tank and motorized divisions) and numerous other military equipment. The entire German grouping accumulated 900,000 soldiers, 10,000 artillery pieces and mortars, 2,700 tanks and self-propelled assault guns, and 2,000 aircraft.
The 50-day-long Battle of Kursk (July 5 - August 23, 1943) was a pivotal point of World War II. Its violence, persistence, and concentration of forces were unparalleled. On July 12, the Red Army launched the offensive. That day witnessed the largest tank battle in history, with 1,200 tanks and self-propelled guns involved from both sides. It lasted 24 hours and resulted in the Germans’ retreat with losses of 10,000 men and over 360 tanks. On August 23, the enemy was flung back 150 km to the west, with the cities of Orel, Belgorod, and Kharkiv liberated.
After the Kursk victory, the odds further favoured the Red Army. It became the turning point of World War II. After the Battle of Kursk, the tide of the War utterly reversed toward the inevitable defeat of Germany. The military success strengthened the USSR’s international support. On October 19-30, 1943, Moscow hosted a conference of the Soviet Union, Great Britain, and the USA, which decided to wage the war until the unconditional surrender of Germany and agreed on the principles of the post-war settlement. The Soviet-Anglo-American coalition was significantly boosted by the Tehran Conference (November 28 – December 1, 1943). Berlin’s hopes for a split in the anti-Hitler coalition failed, and the completion of World War II began. The USSR’s allies opened the second front in Europe on June 6, 1944, when British and American troops landed in Normandy, northern France.
It is worth recalling that the length of the Soviet-German front was four times greater than all other German fronts combined in 1944. Up to 201 German divisions fought on the Soviet front, whereas only 21 divisions were on the American-British fronts. Hitler’s troops suffered major losses from the Red Army – 70 percent of manpower and 75 percent of military equipment (tanks, guns, and aircraft). That is why the Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill, wrote: “It was the Russian Army who tore the guts out of the German war machine.”