Lectures 4-7.
On June 22, 1941, Nazi Germany violated the Soviet-German non-aggression treaty - its army invaded the territory of the USSR without declaring war. The Great Patriotic War (WWII) began. She became the most important integral part The Second World War, which largely changed the course of the latter.
The Nazis launched an offensive in three strategic directions - Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev. The beginning of the war was extremely unfavorable for the Red Army in Belarus. The German army delivered the main blow here in the areas of Brest and Grodno. The number of enemy troops in manpower and equipment in these directions exceeded Soviet troops 5 times.
As a result of the forced retreat of the Red Army, tank formations of German troops approached Minsk by the end of the day on June 24. However, they failed to capture the capital on the move. From June 25 to 28, heavy fighting took place here, where the defense was held by the 2nd and 44th Rifle Corps of the 13th Army. Near Minsk, among others, the 100th Infantry Division (Major General I.M. Russiyanov) glorified itself. Only in the evening of June 28, 1941, German tanks broke into Minsk. This ended the first, most tragic, period of defensive battles on the territory of Belarus.
After the capture of Minsk, fierce battles broke out in the Borisov region. Here for two days the 1st Moscow Motorized Rifle Division under the command of Colonel Ya.G. Kreizer, cadets of the Borisov Tank School, together with the people's militia, held back the onslaught of General Guderian's tank forces. This made it possible for the Soviet command to create a new line of defense along the Western Dvina and Dnieper in early June 1941. The largest at the beginning of the Second World War tank battle occurred in the area of Senno and Lepel. In the battles near Orsha on July 14, for the first time in the history of the war, a new formidable weapon was used - rocket launchers (Katyushas). The defenders of Vitebsk glorified themselves. The battle for Mogilev became a heroic and at the same time tragic page of the Second World War. For more than three weeks from July 3 to July 26, 1941, soldiers of the 172nd Infantry Division under the command of Major General M.T. Romanov repelled numerous enemy attacks. Having not captured the city either by storm or after a long siege, German troops bypassed it from the south and north and, having closed the ring, moved on. On July 16, 1941, Smolensk fell, but Mogilev still held out 200 km from the front line. Only on July 26, when the city’s defenders had an average of three rounds of ammunition left and no food left at all, M.T. Romanov was forced to give the order to retreat.
The last of the regional centers of the BSSR was captured on August 19, 1941. By the autumn of 1941, the entire territory of Belarus was occupied by Nazi troops. Heavy two-month defensive battles of Soviet troops on the territory of Belarus contributed to the disruption of the fascist plan for a “blitzkrieg” and made it possible for the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Headquarters to concentrate reserves and carry out defensive measures in the Moscow direction.
In general, military operations in the summer and autumn of 1941 meant a military disaster for the USSR. The Nazis occupied the Baltic states, Belarus, Ukraine, surrounded Leningrad, and advanced on Moscow. As a result of the summer-autumn campaign of 1941, the Red Army suffered colossal losses in manpower - more than 5 million people killed, wounded and captured. Almost all aircraft and tanks were lost. The reasons for the defeat of the Red Army in the summer and autumn of 1941 were:
a) gross miscalculations by the country’s leadership in assessing the real military situation;
b) insufficient professional training of a significant part of the command personnel of the Red Army;
c) weakening the country’s defense capability and the combat capability of the Red Army through unjustified repressions against leading personnel armed forces countries;
d) miscalculations of a military-strategic nature;
e) incomplete work on technical equipment of the armed forces on the eve of the war.
June 22, 1941 fascist Germany treacherously attacked the USSR. BSSR was one of the first Soviet republics took on the blow of the Wehrmacht troops. Belarus was occupied by Nazi troops.
The border outposts were the first to meet the invaders. They immediately put up such resistance as the fascist aggressors had never encountered before. Until the last bullet, the border guards stood at their lines, preferring death to retreat and captivity. During the week of fighting, the soldiers of the 9th border outpost of Lieutenant Kizhevatov of the Brest Fortress destroyed about a battalion of Nazis. The garrison of the Brest Fortress held out for about a month, although the German generals only allocated a few hours to capture it. The last pockets of his resistance were suppressed only in August.
The military pilots of the Western Front showed courage: on the first day of the war they made more than 1.9 thousand sorties, carried out a number of bombing attacks on enemy airfields, and destroyed more than 100 enemy aircraft in battles. The crews of the aircraft of Captain Gastello and Captain Maslov sent their damaged aircraft to large concentrations of enemy military equipment.
Already on June 28 it was captured. Minsk The defenders of the capital in the first years of the war used the so-called. “glass artillery” (bottles with a flammable mixture for fighting tanks). During the first 3 days of fighting, soldiers of the 100th Infantry Division destroyed about 100 enemy tanks.
Near Borisov, Nazi troops felt the power of the new Soviet T-34 tanks. On July 6, 1941, near Senno in the Vitebsk region, one of the largest such battles at the beginning of the Second World War took place. About 1,600 tanks from both sides took part in it. The enemy was pushed back 40 kilometers.
Near Orsha, a battery of Katyusha rocket launchers under the command of Captain Flerov struck the enemy for the first time. Once surrounded, the battery made a more than 150-kilometer march along enemy rear lines. By order of the commander, the artillerymen blew up combat installations with weapons that were secret at that time.
For almost a month, from July 1 to July 26, the soldiers of the division under the command of General Romanov, being surrounded, with the help of the local militia, held back a tank armada near Mogilev. This defense significantly slowed down the Nazi offensive and allowed the Soviet command to gain valuable time to organize counteraction to the enemy.
By the beginning of September 1941, the entire territory of Belarus was occupied. Faced with fierce resistance from the Red Army troops, the Nazis did not achieve their plans for a “lightning war” and gave the Supreme High Command the opportunity to concentrate reserves and prepare for defense in the Moscow direction.
German military actions in Western Europe for the period 1939–1941 led to the occupation of 12 countries. The USSR becomes the main target for Germany.
The plan for an attack on the Soviet Union, codenamed “Barbarossa,” was set out in Directive No. 21, signed by A. Hitler on December 18, 1940. It was a complex of military, political and economic measures, according to which, during a short-term military campaign, the Armed Forces Soviet Union will be destroyed. The main blow was to be delivered by German troops by Army Group Center, which was tasked with defeating Soviet troops in Belarus. Army Group North planned to liquidate Red Army units in the Baltic states and capture Leningrad. Army Group South, according to the plan, struck in the direction of Kyiv with the aim of encircling and eliminating Soviet troops on the right bank of the Dnieper. At the same time, the German command relied on the “lightning war” strategy, which fully justified itself in the West. Hitler's leadership believed that in the future the remnants of the defeated Red Army formations would not be able to provide serious resistance. During the implementation of the operation, the German Wehrmacht needed: in the center - to reach Moscow by August 15, 1941, in the south - to capture the Donetsk basin, and by October 1, 1941 to complete fighting and reach the Arkhangelsk-Volga line.
Hitler’s war plans in the east were based on the Nazi doctrine of racial-ideological war, which provided for an attack by the German Wehrmacht on the USSR, the seizure of “living space” in the east, political domination and genocide against the population, the extermination of the carriers of Soviet ideology - commissars, party leaders and intelligentsia – racial and ideological struggle against Jews, massacres Soviet prisoners of war.
At dawn on June 22, 1941, Germany attacked the USSR without declaring war. 190 divisions (153 German and 37 Allied) in the amount of 5.5 million people took part in the attack. The Great Patriotic War began, which lasted 1,418 days and nights, which became an integral and decisive part of the Second World War.
From the first days of the war, tough defensive battles unfolded on the territory of Belarus. The defenders of the Brest Fortress performed a legendary feat. Being completely surrounded, with a lack of water, food and ammunition, its garrison held back enemy forces for almost a month (June 22–July 20, 1941), which had an almost 10-fold advantage. The head of the defense was Major P. M. Gavrilov, the defense headquarters was headed by captain I. M. Zubachev, regimental commissar E. M. Fomin. The courage and human dignity of the defenders of the fortress and loyalty to military duty are evidenced by the inscriptions left on the walls: “We will die, but we will not leave the fortress!”, “I am dying, but I am not giving up. Goodbye, Motherland. 20.VII.41.” For the exploits performed by the defenders of the fortress, on May 8, 1965, by decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Brest Fortress was awarded the title of hero fortress.
On June 26, 1941, German mechanized units approached the capital of Belarus. The battle for Minsk began, in which from June 25 to 28, 1941, troops of the 100th Infantry Division under the command of Major General I. M. Russiyanova. During the bloody battles, the Nazis lost over 100 tanks, more than 200 were knocked out. For the first time during the war, the defenders of the capital used the so-called “glass artillery” – bottles with a flammable mixture to fight tanks (“Molotov cocktail”). In the battles for Minsk near Radoshkovichi, the bomber crew under the command of captain M. F. Gastello.
The fighting was intense at the turn of the Berezina River in the area of Borisov and Bobruisk. Soviet troops dealt a powerful blow to the enemy near Borisov: in three days of fighting, the enemy lost up to 70 tanks and more than 2 thousand soldiers and officers. But on July 1, enemy tank and motorized units broke through to the eastern bank of the Berezina. Over the course of 11 days of continuous fighting, Soviet soldiers weakened the enemy on the lines of the Nacha, Bobr, and Adrov rivers and in the area of the cities of Borisov, Krupki, and Tolochin. The enemy's plans to quickly cross the Berezina River in the Bobruisk area were thwarted. In one battle alone, 20 enemy tanks were destroyed here. On July 12–16, 1941, heavy battles for Orsha were fought by troops of the 18th and 73rd rifle divisions from the 20th Army of the Western Front. Near Orsha on July 14, a battery of rocket launchers (Katyusha) under the command of Captain I. A. Flerova.
The fighting in the Mogilev region was extremely intense. The defense of the city lasted 23 days (July 3–26, 1941). The city on the Dnieper was defended by the 172nd Infantry Division of the general M. T. Romanova and a 12,000-strong detachment of people's militias led by A. P. Morozov, I. I. Khavkin. Particularly fierce battles took place on Buinichesky Field, where the front line of defense was located. Here the defense was carried out by soldiers of the 388th Infantry Regiment under the leadership S. F. Kutepova. In just 14 hours on July 12, 1941, 39 enemy tanks and armored personnel carriers were destroyed here. The feat of the city’s defenders was glorified in their works by K. Simonov in the novel “The Living and the Dead”, Mogilev writers P. Shesterikov, M. Shumov and others.
The last of the regional cities of the BSSR was captured on August 19, 1941, Gomel, the fighting for which lasted almost 20 days. The defense of the city was held by troops of the 13th and 21st armies of the Central Front. One of the participants in the defense of the city was a fighter pilot B. I. Kovzan- the only pilot in the world who made four air rams and survived.
Heavy two-month defensive battles of the Red Army troops on the territory of Belarus created the necessary conditions to disrupt the fascist plan for a “blitzkrieg”, dispelled the myth of the invincibility of the German army, gave the Soviet command the opportunity to regroup forces and collect the necessary reserves to organize defense in the Moscow direction against the fascist German army group “Center”.
Preparing for an attack on the USSR, the Nazis at the end of 1940 developed the “Barbarossa” plan, according to which they hoped to defeat the main forces of the Red Army before the onset of winter and victoriously end the war. Germany gradually redeployed its troops to Polish territory, closer to the USSR border. On the border with Belarus, by the beginning of the war, the German military command concentrated the most powerful army grouping, “Center,” which consisted of 50 divisions, 1,800 tanks, 14,300 guns and mortars, 1,680 combat aircraft, 820 thousand soldiers and officers. On the Soviet side, these forces were opposed by the troops of the Western Special Military District, which from June 22, 1941 became known as the Western Front. It consisted of 44 divisions, 3 brigades, 8 fortified areas and the Pinsk military flotilla, 2202 tanks, 10087 guns and mortars, 1909 combat aircraft. The total number of troops on the Western Front was 672 thousand soldiers and officers.
Hitler's intentions to attack the Soviet Union were warned by intelligence officers and defectors who named the exact date of the fascist attack. All the more surprising was the TASS statement on June 14, 1921 that rumors about an upcoming attack on the USSR were false and provocative. It was on this day that Hitler gathered all the army group commanders in Berlin to listen to their reports on the completion of preparations for war. At this meeting, G. Guderian stated that it would take him 5-6 days to reach Minsk.
At dawn on June 22, 1941, German troops crossed the border of the USSR. Taking advantage of the carelessness of the railway workers and the command of the Brest garrison, the Germans transferred a train with sealed cars, containing armed soldiers and officers, from across the Bug to the Brest-Zapadny station. They occupied the station and part of the city, leaving border guards and military personnel in the fortress behind.
The inability of the command to foresee the course of military operations was also manifested in the deployment of military formations of the Western Front in the Bialystok ledge. Of the 26 divisions of the first echelon, 19 were concentrated here, including all tank and motorized ones. The 10th Army was supposed to hold the defense in the center - the strongest. On the flanks stood the 3rd and 4th armies - weaker ones. The Germans knew this well and began their attack from the flanks. On the first day of the war, Hoppner's 4th group broke through the front of the 3rd Army and Manstein's corps broke into the breakthrough; by the evening of June 22, 3 divisions of the Red Army were scattered, and 5 others suffered losses of up to 70% of their personnel. The 14th mechanized corps in the Pruzhany-Kobrin area was almost completely destroyed on the same day. About 14 thousand Soviet soldiers died here.
On the night of June 22-23, front commander Pavlov tried to organize a counteroffensive, but this led to huge losses of manpower and equipment. On June 23 and 24, the 6th and 11th mechanized corps were killed. The front command made attempts to delay the German advance in the Polotsk-Vitebsk area. And this attempt was unsuccessful.
On June 25, northeast of Slonim, the tanks of Guderian and Hoth completed the encirclement of units that were retreating from Bialystok. On June 26, the Germans captured Baranovichi, and on June 27, most of the units of the Western Front fell into a new encirclement in the Novogrudok region. 11 divisions of the 3rd and 10th armies were destroyed.
On June 26, 1941, German mechanized units approached Minsk. The troops of the 13th Army held the lines until June 28. The troops of the 100th Infantry Division of Major General I.M. fought heroically. Rusiyanov in the Ostroshitsky town area. By the evening of June 28, German troops occupied Minsk. Retreating to the east, units of the Red Army fought heavy defensive battles. All the burdens of the country's defense were placed on the shoulders of ordinary soldiers. Only on June 29, a directive was given by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to party and Soviet organizations in the front-line regions, in accordance with which additional mobilization into the Red Army was carried out. In June–August, more than 500 thousand residents of Belarus were mobilized.
To combat enemy saboteurs and paratroopers, fighter squads were created. In mid-July, 78 fighter battalions were created. More than 200 militia units were created to help the army. More than 1.5 million people were evacuated to the eastern regions of the USSR, equipment from 124 enterprises, 5 thousand tractors, and 674 thousand heads of livestock were removed. Collectives from 60 research institutes and laboratories, 6 theaters, more than 20 higher and secondary specialized institutions, and 190 children's institutions were evacuated to the eastern regions of the country.
At the beginning of July 1941, the Soviet command attempted to create a defense line along the Western Dvina and Dnieper. There were three days of fighting in Borisov. On July 14, rocket mortars were used for the first time near Orsha. Fierce fighting broke out in the Bobruisk area. From July 3 to July 28, the defense of Mogilev continued. During the 14-hour battle on the Buynitsky field alone, 39 enemy tanks and armored personnel carriers were destroyed. Heavy fighting took place for Gomel on August 12-19. By the beginning of September 1941, the entire territory of Belarus was occupied by German troops.
During the defensive battles, the Red Army troops lost 1.5 million people, 10 thousand guns and mortars, 5 thousand tanks and 2 thousand aircraft. Despite heavy losses, Soviet soldiers fought selflessly and performed unprecedented feats. In the Grodno area, a border guard outpost repelled fascist attacks for ten hours. Until the end of June 1941, the garrison of the Brest Fortress fought staunchly. In the first days of the war, the crew of captain N.D. Gastello directed his damaged aircraft towards a concentration of enemy equipment and manpower. Pilots P.S. rammed enemy planes in the first hours of the war. Ryabtsev over Brest, A.S. Danilov in the Grodno region, S.M. Gudimov in the Pruzhany area, D.V. Kokarev.
The catastrophe of the Red Army at the beginning of the war was a consequence of the existence of harsh totalitarian regime. One of the reasons for this disaster was the incompetence and self-confidence of the party and state apparatus in the center and locally. In the first days of the war, the leadership of the BSSR called on the population to remain calm and convinced people that the enemy would not pass through. Resolutions were adopted to combat “alarmists.” At the same time, trains were being prepared for the evacuation of Central Committee employees and government agencies. Three days before the occupation, during a tragic period for the people, the leaders of the republic, without announcing a general evacuation, secretly left the city on the night of June 24-25. The defense of the western military districts turned out to be unprepared. As a result of repression of military personnel in the second half of the 30s. About 40% of the most trained, experienced officers, generals, and marshals were destroyed. Marshal A.M. Vasilevsky subsequently stated that without the repressions of 1937, perhaps the 1941 war would not have happened at all
Occupation regime on the territory of Belarus. Having captured the territory of Belarus, the Nazis established an occupation regime here, the so-called “ new order" According to the Ost plan, only 25% of the population was supposed to remain in Belarus to be used as work force. The remaining 75% were subject to destruction or deportation. A new one was installed Administrative division Belarus. The eastern part was classified as the “army rear area.” Power here was exercised by military and police authorities subordinate to the headquarters of Army Group Center. The southern part of Belarus along a line 20 km north railway Brest-Gomel was assigned to the Reichskommissariat of Ukraine. The Germans included the northeastern part into Prussia and the general district “Lithuania”. The remaining 1/3 of the territory of Belarus - Baranovichi, Vileika, Minsk (without the eastern regions), the northern regions of the Brest, Pinsk and Polesie regions - became part of the general district of Belarus, which was included in the Ostland flight commissariat with a residence in Riga and divided for 10 districts. These districts were headed by German officials (Gebietskommissars). A supporting role was played by local institutions - councils, headed by burgomasters, elders, and voits appointed by the Nazis.
The so-called “new order” was supported by the armed formations of the SS (security squads), SA (assault squads), security police and SD security service, Gestapo, secret field police, counterintelligence agencies of the Abwehr, gendarmerie, etc. Special operational groups were created ( Einsatzgruppen) to fight partisans and underground fighters.
There were 260 death camps, their branches and departments operating on the territory of Belarus. In the Trostenets death camp alone, 206,500 people were killed. Ghettos for Jews were organized in all cities. One of the largest was the Minsk ghetto, in which about 100 thousand Jews were exterminated. During the period of occupation, the occupiers carried out more than 140 major punitive operations in Belarus against partisans and civilians. During 28 such operations only in 1942-1943. The punitive forces killed 70 thousand people. The punitive forces destroyed over 5295 settlements, including 628 who were burned along with their residents. During the war, 2 million 200 thousand people died in Belarus, 380 thousand inhabitants were taken to Germany.
To put the economy of Belarus at the service of the Reich, the occupiers organized work industrial enterprises. They carried out registration of the working population. The working day lasted 12 hours. Wage was minuscule. Even minor disobedience could result in a worker being sent to a concentration camp. In the spring of 1942, land reform was carried out on the territory of the General District of Belarus. All collective farms were dissolved, and their lands were transferred to the family use of peasants within the framework of the so-called land cooperatives. On the territory of the eastern part of Belarus, collective farms remained for a long time.
The German administration in Belarus from July 17, 1943 to September 22, 1943 was headed by General Commissioner (Gauleiter) W. Kube. After E. Mazanik and M. Osipova carried out the partisans’ sentence, the General Commissariat was headed by Police General K. Gotberg. V. Kube sought to attract local residents to cooperation within the framework of auxiliary government bodies and the police. On October 22, 1941, the Belarusian People's Self-Help (BNS) was created, headed by Dr. I. Ermachenko. She took on the functions of providing for the needy population, had the right to organize shelters, medical institutions, hold cultural events, publish books, magazines on Belarusian language. On June 29, 1942, the creation of the Belarusian Self-Defense Corps (BCS) was proclaimed. From June 1942 to April 1943, 20 battalions were created. They were poorly armed, not eager to fight, and easily succumbed to partisan propaganda. In the spring of 1943, the BKS detachments were disbanded.
On June 22, 1943, the Union of Belarusian Youth (UBY) was created. The highest body of the SBM was the Central Headquarters, headed by M. Ganko and N. Abramova. The task of this organization was to educate young people in the spirit of the Hitler Youth, prepare them for work in military factories in Germany and service in military auxiliary units of the Wehrmacht. Members of the organization wore a special uniform. The SBM numbered 12,635 people in 1944. About 5 thousand of them were sent to work and study in Germany.
In December 1943, the Belarusian Central Rada (BCR) was created. R. Ostrovsky was appointed president of the BCR. The Rada became an advisory body. She's formal occupation authorities transferred social security, culture and education. On February 23, Gottberg issued an order to create Belarusian Regional Defense (BKO) and instructed the BCR to carry out the mobilization of the male population 1908-1924. birth. At the end of April 1944, 45 battalions were formed, which numbered about 30 thousand people. The main task of the BKO was to fight together with the police against the partisans. However, the created battalions did not live up to the hopes of the Germans. After the liberation of Belarus, part of the BKO formations ended up in Germany. According to various sources, the collaborationist movement in Belarus numbered 80-100 thousand people, a significant part of them were involved in different formations Germans forcibly.
Preparing for an attack on the USSR, the Nazis at the end of 1940 developed the “Barbarossa” plan, according to which they hoped to defeat the main forces of the Red Army before the onset of winter and victoriously end the war. Germany gradually redeployed its troops to Polish territory, closer to the USSR border. On the border with Belarus, by the beginning of the war, the German military command concentrated the most powerful army grouping, “Center,” which consisted of 50 divisions, 1,800 tanks, 14,300 guns and mortars, 1,680 combat aircraft, 820 thousand soldiers and officers. On the Soviet side, these forces were opposed by the troops of the Western Special Military District, which from June 22, 1941 became known as the Western Front. It consisted of 44 divisions, 3 brigades, 8 fortified areas and the Pinsk military flotilla, 2202 tanks, 10087 guns and mortars, 1909 combat aircraft. The total number of troops on the Western Front was 672 thousand soldiers and officers.
Hitler's intentions to attack the Soviet Union were warned by intelligence officers and defectors who named the exact date of the fascist attack. All the more surprising was the TASS statement on June 14, 1941 that rumors about an upcoming attack on the USSR were false and provocative. It was on this day that Hitler gathered all the army group commanders in Berlin to listen to their reports on the completion of preparations for war. At this meeting, G. Guderian stated that it would take him 5-6 days to reach Minsk.
At dawn on June 22, 1941, German troops crossed the border of the USSR. Taking advantage of the carelessness of the railway workers and the command of the Brest garrison, the Germans transferred a train with sealed cars, containing armed soldiers and officers, from across the Bug to the Brest-Zapadny station. They occupied the station and part of the city, leaving border guards and military personnel in the fortress behind.
The inability of the command to foresee the course of military operations was also manifested in the deployment of military formations of the Western Front in the Bialystok ledge. Of the 26 divisions of the first echelon, 19 were concentrated here, including all tank and motorized ones. The 10th Army was supposed to hold the defense in the center - the strongest. On the flanks stood the 3rd and 4th armies - weaker ones. The Germans knew this well and began their attack from the flanks. On the first day of the war, Hoppner's 4th group broke through the front of the 3rd Army and Manstein's corps broke into the breakthrough; by the evening of June 22, 3 divisions of the Red Army were scattered, and 5 others suffered losses of up to 70% of their personnel. The 14th mechanized corps in the Pruzhany-Kobrin area was almost completely destroyed on the same day. About 14 thousand Soviet soldiers died here.
On the night of June 22-23, front commander Pavlov tried to organize a counteroffensive, but this led to huge losses of manpower and equipment. On June 23 and 24, the 6th and 11th mechanized corps were killed. The front command made attempts to delay the German advance in the Polotsk-Vitebsk region. And this attempt was unsuccessful.
- On June 25, northeast of Slonim, the tanks of Guderian and Hoth completed the encirclement of units that were retreating from Bialystok. On June 26, the Germans captured Baranovichi, and on June 27, most of the units of the Western Front fell into a new encirclement in the Novogrudok region. 11 divisions of the 3rd and 10th armies were destroyed.
- On June 26, 1941, German mechanized units approached Minsk. The troops of the 13th Army held the lines until June 28. The troops of the 100th Infantry Division of Major General I.M. fought heroically. Rusiyanov in the Ostroshitsky town area. By the evening of June 28, German troops occupied Minsk. Retreating to the east, units of the Red Army fought heavy defensive battles. All the burdens of the country's defense were placed on the shoulders of ordinary soldiers. Only on June 29, a directive was given by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks to party and Soviet organizations in the front-line regions, in accordance with which additional mobilization into the Red Army was carried out. In June - August, more than 500 thousand residents of Belarus were mobilized.
To combat enemy saboteurs and paratroopers, fighter squads were created. In mid-July, 78 fighter battalions were created. More than 200 militia units were created to help the army. More than 1.5 million people were evacuated to the eastern regions of the USSR, equipment from 124 enterprises, 5 thousand tractors, and 674 thousand heads of livestock were removed. Collectives from 60 research institutes and laboratories, 6 theaters, more than 20 higher and secondary specialized institutions, and 190 children's institutions were evacuated to the eastern regions of the country.
At the beginning of July 1941, the Soviet command attempted to create a defense line along the Western Dvina and Dnieper. There were three days of fighting in Borisov. On July 14, rocket mortars were used for the first time near Orsha. Fierce fighting broke out in the Bobruisk area. From July 3 to July 28, the defense of Mogilev continued. During the 14-hour battle on the Buynitsky field alone, 39 enemy tanks and armored personnel carriers were destroyed. Heavy fighting took place for Gomel on August 12-19. By the beginning of September 1941, the entire territory of Belarus was occupied by German troops.
During the defensive battles, the Red Army troops lost 1.5 million people, 10 thousand guns and mortars, 5 thousand tanks and 2 thousand aircraft. Despite heavy losses, Soviet soldiers fought selflessly and performed unprecedented feats. In the Grodno area, a border guard outpost repelled fascist attacks for ten hours. Until the end of June 1941, the garrison of the Brest Fortress fought staunchly. In the first days of the war, the crew of captain N.D. Gastello directed his damaged aircraft towards a concentration of enemy equipment and manpower. Pilots P.S. rammed enemy planes in the first hours of the war. Ryabtsev over Brest, A.S. Danilov in the Grodno region, S.M. Gudimov in the Pruzhany area, D.V. Kokarev.
By the beginning of September 1941, the entire territory of Belarus was occupied by the Nazi invaders. The failures of the Red Army at the beginning of the war had real reasons. Serious mistakes of the Stalinist leadership on the eve of the war in foreign policy, mass repression The senior command staff of the Red Army and the failure to take sufficient measures to strengthen the country's defense capabilities did not allow the military and economic potential to be realized in the first months of the war and led to enormous material and human losses. Excusing failures and losses in initial period war, I.V. Stalin blamed the command of the Western Front for this. Its commander D.G. Pavlov and some other military leaders were convicted and shot.
So, despite the difficult situation, the Red Army stubbornly resisted Hitler’s powerful military group and, with its heroic actions, contributed to the disruption of the fascist plan for a “lightning war.”
During the Great Patriotic War 1941-45 the economy and Agriculture countries. A lot of people died, the exact number is still unknown. And at the present time, teams are being organized to search for missing soldiers, so that they can be buried and inform their relatives about their heroic deeds.
The war affected all generations. Not only those liable for military service went to the front. Many teenagers, not yet having finished school, rushed to the front. Boys and girls tried to do everything in their power to help in the fight against the invaders. Young girls flocked to military hospitals to help the wounded. Many of them died. Many women, with small children to take care of, worked in factories and factories. Children and old people, standing at the machines day and night, made weapons for the soldiers, constantly without enough food, in the cold and overcoming the most difficult conditions. They did everything in their power to help survive the war and defeat the invaders.
Many soldiers and officers were awarded orders and medals, many received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. The title of Hero of the Second World War was awarded to soldiers, officers, sailors, partisans, and pioneers. All the people of a huge country began to defend their Motherland. Everyone gave their strength to fight the enemy, both those who fought at the front and those who worked in the rear. Only thanks to the exploits of millions of people, the new generation received the right to free life. These are the defenders of the Brest Fortress, Minsk, Gomel, Mogilev, and all of Belarus.
We must remember the names of the heroes who gave their lives in the struggle for liberation: Alexander Matrosov, Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya, Nikolai Gastello and many others, including children.
