In 1948, offers began to come in. The history of the formation of Israel as a state

Acquired in 1948, when Ben Gurion announced to the whole world about the proclamation of an independent sovereign state of Israel.

Ben Gurion read this statement in the museum building on Rothschild Street in Tel Aviv. Israel's independence was proclaimed one day before the end of the British mandate to rule Palestine.

Then, when Israel was created, the Declaration of its Independence wrote that in November 1947 the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution according to which the Jewish independent state of Israel was created in Eretz Israel.

The same declaration of the United Nations Organization stressed that, like any other people, the Jewish people can be independent, have the right to freedom and independence, as well as to sovereignty in their independent and sovereign state.

Immediately, the sovereign independent state of Israel opened its borders for the repatriation of the Jewish people from all over the world, and the only goal is to unite all Jews scattered around the world. The Declaration of the Founding of Israel also said that the new state will make every effort to develop the new Jewish state and the welfare of the Jewish people. The main postulate of the declaration was the words that from now on the political structure of the State of Israel is aimed at the development and preservation of such main democratic foundations as freedom and justice, peace and tranquility, and will also fully comply with all the teachings of the Hebrew prophets.

The main state principles will be: the full rights of citizens of the country, both in political and social issues, regardless of his religion, gender and race. The Declaration on the founding of Israel said that every citizen of the State of Israel will be guaranteed freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of conscience, the right to speak their native language, the right to a good education, to preserve culture and, to dignified development.

And yet, the Declaration clearly stated that the new state will sacredly preserve monuments and all three religions on the territory of Israel, and will also adhere to and observe the principles of the UN Charter.

Immediately in 1948, after the proclamation of the independence of the State of Israel, it was announced that the new independent state would be and ready to cooperate with the United Nations, with its bodies and representative offices on the implementation of the resolution adopted by the UN General Assembly in November 1947 ...

And, in addition, the new state will take all possible steps to implement the economic unity of Israel.

At the same time, during the creation of Israel, after the proclamation of the formation of a new Jewish state, the Arab population that lives in Israel was put forward an appeal to maintain peace and take part in the construction and revival of a new sovereign state, which will be based on equality. Everyone living in Israel was promised equal representation in all institutions and organizations of the state.

In the year of the proclamation of independence of the State of Israel, he stretched out his hand for good-neighborly relations with all neighboring states, their peoples, appealed to cooperate with the people of Israel, with the people who had been walking towards independence on their land for so long.

The declaration also said that Israel will definitely contribute to the speedy development of the Middle East.

The first state that de facto accepted Israel was the state - the United States of America. President Truman announced this in 1948 on May 14, immediately after Ben Gurion's Declaration of Independence. The country that was the first to recognize Israel de jure was the Soviet Union. This happened in May 1948, after the founding of Israel and the proclamation of a sovereign Israel. A year later, the sovereign independent state of Israel became a member of the United Nations.

The creation of Israel was painful and rather difficult. After the proclamation of the Declaration of Independence, on the second day of the new independent state's existence, the armed armies of the Arab states entered its territory: Syria, Transjordan, Saudi Arabia, Lebanon, Yemen, Egypt. They started a war against Israel. The purpose of the attack was one - the destruction of the Jewish state, since the countries of the Arab world did not recognize the new state of Israel.

The Israeli army won its independence with honor, in the future the 1948 war will be called the War of Independence. It should be added that the Israelis not only defended their independence, but also conquered part of the Arab lands, thereby expanding the territory of Israel. The war ended in June 1949, only a year later a peace treaty was signed, which stated the cessation of hostilities.

In a difficult time, a time of war, the formation and creation of Israel as a state took place. In 1948, Ben Gurion, who became the first prime minister in the history of an independent state, signed a decree on the creation of the Shai secret service, the main function of which was to conduct all types of intelligence: counterintelligence, intelligence.

Later, from one service, three intelligence directorates were made at once: military intelligence, political and counterintelligence. All three special services were created in the new state on the basis of the British special services. Today these special services have names - the Israeli Military Intelligence Service AMAN, the General Security Service "Shabak" - this is how counterintelligence began to be called, and "Mossad" - this is the name of political intelligence.

When Israel was created, the political and state structure of the country was established.

The head of state of Israel is the President. He is elected by members of the Knesset for seven years by secret ballot. The first president of the new state of Israel was Chaim Weizmann. According to the President of Israel, he has no powers of power, but rather is a representative figure in the political hierarchy. The president is a symbol of the state, his task is to perform representative functions. What can a president in Israel do? In addition to representative functions, he approves the new composition of the government after the next elections, and also grants amnesties to convicts.

When Israel was founded, the Knesset was determined as the highest legislative body of power. It is a parliament of 120 deputies elected by party lists through direct voting. The first Knesset became operational after the first elections in 1949. The central executive body is the government. At the head of the government is the Prime Minister, who is actually the head of state of Israel. The first prime minister was Ben Guriron.

The highest judicial body of the state is the Supreme Court, which in Israel is called the High Court of Justice. All major government and government agencies and organizations are located in.

The executive power during the creation of Israel was also determined - these are the mayors of the cities, who are elected locally through direct voting. And yet, it is not separated from the state, and therefore in the cities there are also religious councils, consisting of the clerics of Israel. The services provided by religious advice relate mainly to religious rituals and services, the conclusion of act conditions: marriage, divorce, birth or death.

On May 14, 1948, the State of Israel was proclaimed. The often repeated Psalm 137 from the book of the Psalter, compiled during the first Jewish captivity in Babylon (VI century BC), contains the well-known oath:
"If I forget you, O Jerusalem,
Let my right hand dry up
Let my tongue stick to my palate ... "

Recently I have heard many times: "Stalin created Israel." There was a desire to understand this in detail. Here are the milestones in the establishment of the State of Israel in chronological order. I will omit the period of the Egyptian pharaohs, Roman legionaries and crusaders, and begin chronological description from the end of the 19th century.

Year 1882... The beginning of the first aliyah (waves of emigration of Jews to Eretz Yisrael). In the period before 1903, about 35 thousand Jews were resettled in the province of the Ottoman Empire, Palestine, fleeing persecution in Eastern Europe. Baron Edmond de Rothschild provides enormous financial and organizational assistance. During this period, the cities of Zichron Ya'akov were founded. Rishon LeZion, Petah Tikva, Rehovot and Rosh Pina.

Settlers

Year 1897... The first world Zionist congress in the Swiss city of Basel. Its purpose is to create a national home for Jews in Palestine, then under the rule of the Ottoman Empire. At this conference, Theodor Herzel was elected president of the "World Zionist Organization". (It should be noted that in modern Israel there is practically no city where one of the central streets would not bear the name of Herzel. It reminds me of something ...) Herzel conducts numerous negotiations with the leaders of European powers, including the German Emperor Wilhelm II and the Turkish Sultan Abdul-Hamid II in order to enlist their support in creating a state for the Jews. The Russian emperor told Herzel that, apart from outstanding Jews, he was not interested in the rest.

Opening of the congress

Year 1902... The World Zionist Organization founds the Anglo-Palestinian Bank, which later became the National Bank of Israel (Bank Leumi). The largest bank in Israel, Bank Hapoalim, was created in 1921 by the Israel Trade Union and the World Zionist Organization.

Anglo-Palestinian Bank in Hebron. 1913 year

The year is 1902.Shaare Zedek Hospital established in Jerusalem. (The first Jewish hospital in Palestine was opened by the German doctor Chaumont Frenkel in 1843 - in Jerusalem. In 1854, the Meir Rothschild hospital was opened in Jerusalem. The Bikur Holim hospital was founded in 1867, although it existed as a medicine since 1826 The Hadassah Hospital was founded in Jerusalem by a one-shift women's Zionist organization from the United States in 1912. Assuta Hospital was founded in 1934, Rambam Hospital in 1938 .)

Former Shaare Zedek Hospital Building in Jerusalem

Year 1904.The beginning of the second aliyah. In the period up to 1914, about 40 thousand Jews moved to Palestine. The second wave of emigration was caused by a series of Jewish pogroms on the territory of the Russian Empire, the most famous of which was the Chisinau pogrom of 1903. The second aliyah organized the kibbutz movement. (A kibbutz is an agricultural commune with common property, equality in work, consumption, and other attributes of communist ideology.)

Winery in Rishon Lezion 1906th year.

The year is 1906.Lithuanian painter and sculptor Boris Shatz founds the Jerusalem Academy of Arts Bezalel.

Bezalel Academy of Arts

The year is 1909.Creation in Palestine of the paramilitary Jewish organization Hashomer, the purpose of which was self-defense and the protection of settlements from the raids of the Bedouins and robbers who stole herds from the Jewish peasants.

Zipora Zayd

The year is 1912.In Haifa, the Jewish German Ezra Foundation founded the Technion Technical School (since 1924 - the Institute of Technology). The language of instruction is German, later - Hebrew. In 1923, Albert Einstein visited him and planted a tree there.

Albert Einstein visiting the Technion

In the same 1912 year Naum Tsemach, together with Menachem Gnesin, gathers a troupe in Bialystok, Poland, which became the basis for the professional theater Habim, created in 1920 in Palestine. The first theatrical performances in Hebrew in Eretz Yisrael date back to the period of the first aliyah. On Sukkot in 1889 in Jerusalem, the Lemel school hosted the play "Zrubabel, O Shivat Tzion" ("Zrubabel, or Return to Zion") based on the play by M. Lilienblum. The play was published in Yiddish in Odessa in 1887, translated and staged by D. Elin.

Founder of the first Hebrew theater Naum Tsemakh

The year is 1915. On the initiative of Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor (more details and), a "Detachment of Mule Drivers" is created as part of the British army, consisting of 500 Jewish volunteers, most of whom are immigrants from Russia. The detachment takes part in the landing of British troops on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the coast of Cape Helles, losing 14 dead and 60 wounded. The detachment is disbanded in 1916.

Hero of the Russo-Japanese War Joseph Trumpeldor

The year is 1917.The Balfour Declaration is an official letter from British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour to Lord Walter Rothschild. After the defeat in the First World War, the Ottoman Empire lost its power over Palestine (the territory that was under the rule of the British crown). Content of the declaration:
Foreign Office, November 2, 1917
Dear Lord Rothschild,
I have the honor to convey to you, on behalf of His Majesty's Government, the following declaration, which expresses sympathy for the Zionist aspirations of the Jews, submitted to and approved by the Cabinet of Ministers:
"His Majesty's Government approves of the establishment in Palestine of a national home for the Jewish people and will make every effort to promote this goal; it is clearly understood that no action should be taken that might violate the civil and religious rights of existing non-Jewish communities. in Palestine, or the rights and political status enjoyed by Jews in any other country. "
I would be most grateful if you would bring this Declaration to the attention of the Zionist Federation.
Yours sincerely,
Arthur James Balfour.
In 1918, France, Italy and the United States supported the declaration.

Arthur James Balfour and the Declaration

The year is 1917.On the initiative of Rotenberg, Jabotinsky and Trumpeldor, the Jewish Legion was created as part of the British army. It includes the 38th battalion, the basis of which was the disbanded Mule Drivers Squad, British Jews and a large number of Russian Jews. In 1918, the 39th battalion was created, consisting mainly of Jewish volunteers from the United States and Canada. The 40th battalion consists of people from the Ottoman Empire. The Jewish Legion takes part in the hostilities in Palestine against the Ottoman Empire, with about 100 casualties out of a total of about 5,000 people.

Jewish Legion soldiers at the Western Wall in Jerusalem in 1917

The year is 1918.The creation of a university in Palestine was discussed at the First Zionist Congress in Basel, but the foundation stone of the University of Jerusalem took place in 1918. The University officially opened in 1925. It is noteworthy that Albert Einstein bequeathed to the Hebrew University all his letters and manuscripts (more than 55 thousand titles), as well as the rights to commercial use of his image and name. This brings the university millions of dollars annually.

Opening ceremony, 1925

The year is 1918.The Haaretz newspaper was published. (The first newspaper in Hebrew was published in Jerusalem in 1863 under the title. The Jerusalem Post was published in 1938, and the most popular newspaper today, Yediot Ahoronot (The Last), in 1939. )

Halebanon newspaper, 1878

The year is 1919.Third aliyah. Due to Britain's violation of the League of Nations mandate and the introduction of restrictions on the entry of Jews, by 1923, 40 thousand Jews moved to Palestine, mainly from Eastern Europe.

Harvesting in 1923

The year is 1920.Creation of the Haganah, a Jewish military underground organization in Palestine, in response to the Arab destruction of the northern settlement of Tel Hai, which killed 8 people, including Trumpeldor, the hero of the war in Port Arthur. In the same year, a wave of pogroms swept in Palestine, when armed Arabs robbed, raped and killed Jews with the non-interference and sometimes complicity of the police. After the Arabs killed 133 and wounded 339 Jews in one week, the highest elected body of Jewish self-government appointed a special Defense Council headed by Pinchas Rutenberg. In 1941, the Haganah fighters under British command carried out a series of sabotage raids into Vichy Syria. In one of the operations in Syria, Moshe Dayan was wounded and lost his eye. By May 1948, there were about 35 thousand people in the ranks of the Haganah.

One of the founders of the Haganah Pinchas Rutenberg

The year is 1921.Pinchas Rutenberg (revolutionary and associate of priest Gapon, one of the founders of the Jewish self-defense units "Haganah") founds the Jaffa Electric Company, then the Palestinian Electric Company, and since 1961 the Israeli Electric Company.

Hydroelectric power station Naharaim

The year is 1922.Stalin was elected to the Politburo and Orgburo of the Central Committee of the RCP (b), as well as the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the RCP (b).

The year is 1922. Representatives of 52 countries that made up the League of Nations (the predecessor of the UN) officially approve the British Mandate in Palestine. At that time, Palestine meant the current territories of Israel, the Palestinian Authority, Jordan and parts of Saudi Arabia. The 28-paragraph mandate was intended to "establish the political, administrative and economic conditions in the country for the safe formation of a Jewish national home." For example:

Article 2. The mandate is responsible for creating such political, administrative and economic conditions that will ensure the establishment of a Jewish national home in Palestine, as set out in the preamble, and the development of institutions of self-government and to protect the civil and religious rights of the inhabitants of Palestine, regardless of race and religion.

Article 4. The relevant Jewish Agency will be recognized as a public body for the purpose of consultation and interaction with the Palestinian Authority in such economic, social and other matters as may affect the establishment of a Jewish national home and the interests of the Jewish population in Palestine, and being subject to the control of the Administration, facilitate and participation in the development of the country.

A Zionist Organization, if its organization and establishment is appropriate in the opinion of the Mandate-holder, will be recognized by such an agency. She will take steps to consult with His Majesty's Government to ensure the cooperation of all Jews who wish to contribute to the establishment of a Jewish national home.

Article 6. The Palestinian Authority, while ensuring that the rights and conditions of other groups of the population are not infringed upon, will facilitate Jewish immigration under suitable conditions, and will encourage, in cooperation with the Jewish Agency as stipulated in Article 4, dense Jewish settlement of lands, including state lands and vacant lands. not necessary for social needs.

Article 7. The Palestinian Authority will be responsible for drafting national legislation that will include provisions to facilitate the acquisition of Palestinian citizenship by Jews who choose Palestine as their place of permanent residence.
More details. It is noteworthy that under the "Palestinian Authority" the League of Nations meant the Jewish authorities and generally did not mention the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating an Arab state on the mandated territory, which also included Jordan.

Territories covered by the British mandate

The year is 1924.Under the presidium of the Council of Nationalities, the Central Executive Committee of the USSR creates a Committee for the Land Arrangement of Jewish Workers (KomZET) "in order to attract the Jewish population of Soviet Russia to productive labor." Among other things, KOMZET aims to create an alternative to Zionism. In 1928, the Presidium of the Central Executive Committee of the USSR adopted a resolution "On assigning to KomZET for the needs of the continuous settlement of free lands by working Jews in the Amur strip of the Far Eastern Territory." Two years later, the Central Executive Committee of the RSFSR adopts a decree "On the formation of the Biro-Bidzhan national region as part of the Far Eastern Territory", and in 1934 it receives the status of an autonomous Jewish national region.

Pioneers.

The year is 1924. Fourth Aliyah. In two years, about 63 thousand people move to Palestine. Emigrants are mainly from Poland, since by that time the USSR was already blocking the free exit of Jews. At this time, the city of Afula was founded in the Jezreel Valley on the lands purchased by the American Development Company of Eretz Yisrael.

Ra'anana City 1927

The year is 1927. The Palestinian pound is introduced into circulation. In 1948, it was renamed the Israeli lira, although the old name Palestine Pound was present on the bills in Latin script. This name was present on the Israeli currency until 1980, when Israel switched to shekels, and from 1985 to this day, the new shekel has been in circulation. Since 2003, the new shekel has been one of the 17 international freely convertible currencies.

Sample of a bill of that time

Israeli lira in the 1960s.

The year is 1929.Fifth Aliyah. In the period up to 1939, in connection with the flourishing of Nazi ideology, about 250 thousand Jews moved from Europe to Palestine, 174 thousand of whom in the period from 1933 to 1936. In this regard, tensions are increasing between the Arab and Jewish populations of Palestine. Under Arab pressure in 1939, the British authorities issued the so-called "White Paper", according to which, in violation of the terms of the League of Nations mandate and the Balfour Declaration, within 10 years after the publication of the book in Palestine, a single bi-national state of Jews and Arabs should be created. Jewish immigration to the country for the next 5 years is limited to 75 thousand people, after which it should have stopped altogether. An Arab consent is required to increase immigration quotas. On 95% of the territory of Mandatory Palestine, it is prohibited to sell land to Jews. From that moment on, immigration of Jews to Palestine became practically illegal.

Packaging of citrus fruits in Herzliya in 1933

The year is 1933.Egged, the largest transport cooperative to this day, is established.

British checkpoint at the entrance to Tel Aviv from Jerusalem, 1948.

The year is 1944.A Jewish Brigade is formed as part of the British Army. The British government initially opposed the idea of \u200b\u200bcreating Jewish militias, fearing that this would give more weight to the political demands of the Jewish population of Palestine. Even the invasion of Rommel's army into Egypt did not change their fears. Nevertheless, the first recruitment of volunteers for the British army was held in Palestine at the end of 1939, and already in 1940, Jewish soldiers in British units took part in battles in Greece. In total, the British army has about 27,000 volunteers from Mandatory Palestine. In 1944, Britain changes its mind and creates the Jewish Brigade, nevertheless sending 300 British soldiers to it, just in case. The total number of the Jewish brigade is about 5,000 people. The losses of the Jewish brigade amounted to 30 killed and 70 wounded, 21 soldiers were awarded military awards. The brigade was disbanded on May 1, 1946. Veterans of the McLeaf and Laskov Brigade later became Chiefs of the General Staff of the Israel Defense Forces.

Soldiers of the Jewish brigade in Italy in 1945

The year is 1947. 2nd April. The British government from the Palestine Mandate, arguing that it is unable to find an acceptable solution for Arabs and Jews, and asks the UN to find a solution to the problem. (In the Assembly "s discussion of the question, the representative of the United Kingdom stated that his government had tried for years to solve the problem of Palestine, but, having failed, had brought it to the United Nations.)

The year is 1947. November 10th, Sherut Avir ("Air Service") is organized. On November 29, 1947, there were 16 aircraft purchased by private individuals:
One Dragon Rapide (single twin-engined aircraft), 3 Taylorcraft-BL, one RWD-15, two RWD-13, three RWD-8, two Tiger Moth, Auster, RC-3 Seabee amphibious aircraft and Beneš-Mráz Be-550.
In addition, the Etzel organization had a Zlín 12 aircraft at its disposal,

Amphibious aircraft RC-3 Seabee

Year 1947... November 29th. The United Nations adopts a plan for the partition of Palestine (UN General Assembly Resolution 181). This plan provides for the termination of the British Mandate in Palestine by August 1, 1948 and recommends the creation of two states on its territory: a Jewish and an Arab. Under the Jewish and Arab states, 23% of the mandated territory transferred to Great Britain by the League of Nations is allocated (for 77% Great Britain organized the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, 80% of whose citizens are the so-called Palestinians). The UNSCOP commission allocates 56% of this territory to the Jewish state, 43% to the Arab state, and one percent goes under international control. Subsequently, the section is adjusted taking into account the Jewish and Arab settlements, and 61% is allocated to the Jewish state, the border is moved so that 54 Arab settlements fall into the territory allocated to the Arab state. Thus, only 14% of the territories allocated by the League of Nations for the same purposes 30 years ago will be allocated for the future Jewish state.

33 countries vote for the plan: Australia, Byelorussian SSR, Belgium, Bolivia, Brazil, Venezuela, Haiti, Guatemala, Denmark, Dominican Republic, Iceland, Canada, Costa Rica, Liberia, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Nicaragua, New Zealand, Norway, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Poland, USSR, USA, Ukrainian SSR, Uruguay, Philippines, France, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Ecuador, South Africa. Of the 33 votes "For", 5 are under the influence of the USSR, including the USSR itself: the Byelorussian SSR, Poland, the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and Czechoslovakia.
13 countries vote against the plan: Afghanistan, Egypt, Greece, India, Iraq, Iran, Yemen, Cuba, Lebanon, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey.
10 countries abstaining: Argentina, United Kingdom, Honduras, Republic of China, Colombia, Mexico, El Salvador, Chile, Ethiopia and Yugoslavia. (There were no Stalin satellites among the abstaining satellites.) Thailand did not participate in the vote.

The Jewish authorities of Palestine happily accept the UN plan to partition Palestine, Arab leaders, including the League of Arab States and the Supreme Arab Council of Palestine, categorically reject this plan.

The year is 1948.On February 24, a decision was made to create the Armored Service, armed with homemade armored vehicles. The first and only armored battalion is created in June 1948. It includes 10 Hotchkiss H-39 tanks just purchased in France, a Sherman tank purchased from the British in Israel and two Cromwell tanks stolen from the British. By the end of the year, 30 decommissioned Shermans were purchased to replace the unsuccessful Hotchkiss in Italy, but their technical condition allows only 2 tanks to be put into battle. Of the total number of Israeli tanks, only 4 have guns.

Tank Hotchkiss Н-39 in the Latrun Museum

The year is 1948.On March 17, an order was issued to establish the "Marine Service" - the future Israeli Navy. Already in 1934, the Beitar naval school was opened in Italy, in which the future sailors of Israel were trained, in 1935 a naval department was opened at the Jewish Agency, in 1937 a shipping company began operating in Palestine, and in 1938 in the city of Akko, the still operating School of Naval Officers was opened. Since 1941, 1,100 Jewish volunteers from Palestine, including 12 officers, have served in the British Royal Navy. In January 1943, a naval division called PalYam ("Marine Company") was created in Palmach. From 1945 to 1948, they manage to deliver about 70 thousand Jews to Palestine, bypassing the British authorities. In 1946, the Jewish Agency and the Federation of Trade Unions set up the Cim shipping company.

At the time of Israel's declaration of independence, the fleet includes 5 large ships:

Corvette A-16 "Eilat" (former American icebreaker U.S.C.G. Northland with a displacement of 2 thousand tons)

K-18 (former Canadian corvette HMCS Beauharnois with a displacement of 1350 tons, arrived in Palestine on 06/27/1946 with 1297 immigrants on board)

K-20 "Hagana" (former Canadian corvette HMCS Norsyd with a displacement of 1350 tons)

K-24 "Maoz" (the former German cruise liner "Sitra" with a displacement of 1700 tons, until 1946 in the service of the US Coast Guard under the name USGG Cythera)

K-26 "Leg" (former American patrol ship ASPC Yucatan with a displacement of 450 tons)

Landing craft:

P-25 and P-33 (former German landing boats with a displacement of 309 tons, purchased in Italy)

P-51 "Ramat Rachel" and P-53 "Nitzanim" (landing boats with a displacement of 387 tons, donated by the Jewish community of San Francisco)

P-39 "Gush Etzion" (former British tank landing boat LCT (2) with a displacement of 300-700 tons)

Auxiliary vessels:

Sh-45 "Khatag Haafor" (a former American tug, purchased in Italy, with a displacement of 600 tons)

Sh-29 "Drom Africa" \u200b\u200b(a former whaling vessel with a displacement of 200 tons, donated by the Jewish community of South Africa)

The year is 1948.May 14th. The day before the end of the British mandate for Palestine, David Ben-Gurion proclaims the creation of an independent Jewish state on the territory allocated according to the UN plan.

Plan for the partition of Palestine on the eve of the War of Independence, 1947.

The year is 1948.May 15th. The Arab League declares war on Israel, and Egypt, Yemen, Lebanon, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Syria, and Trans-Jordan attack Israel. Trans-Jordan annexes the West Bank of the Jordan River and Egypt annexes the Gaza Strip (territories allotted to an Arab state).

The year is 1948. On May 20, a week after the declaration of independence of the state, the first of ten modified Czechoslovak Messerschmitts was delivered to Israel - at a price of $ 180,000 per plane. For comparison, the Americans sold fighters for $ 15,000 and bombers for $ 30,000 per plane. The Palestinian Air Service purchased from different countries medium-sized C-46 Commando transport aircraft for $ 5,000, C-69 Constellation four-engine transport aircraft for $ 15,000 apiece, and B-17 heavy bombers for $ 20,000. All in all, Czechoslovak aircraft made up about 10-15% of the combat strength of the Israeli Air Force in 1948. By the end of 1948, of the 25 S-199 delivered, twelve were lost for various reasons, seven were in various stages of repair, and only six were fully operational.

Avia S-199 in a museum in Israel

The year is 1949.In July, a ceasefire agreement is signed with Syria. The War of Independence is over.

Ceasefire line 1949

Myths about how Stalin created Israel:

Myth 1: If not for Stalin, then in 1947 the partition plan would not have been approved and the independent state of Israel would not have been created.
If we assume that Stalin would have been against the plan for partitioning Palestine (I wonder what alternative he would have proposed? To leave Palestine under the eternal mandate of its sworn enemy Great Britain, which itself has already renounced the mandate?), Then even taking into account the votes of the socialist camp, the number of countries that voted "For "there were more (28 versus 18). Of the 33 votes "For", 5 were under the influence of the USSR, including the USSR itself: the Byelorussian SSR, Poland, the USSR, the Ukrainian SSR and Czechoslovakia. Yugoslavia pursued an independent policy, there were no Soviet troops on its territory. Gromyko's speech at the UN was very touching, but nothing more. It should not be forgotten that after the end of World War II, Great Britain was unable to maintain its colonies and protectorates. Thus, India, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Myanmar, Malaysia, Malta, Cyprus, Kuwait, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain and many others gained independence. Palestine was no exception, and Britain itself brought the keys to this territory (where the national liberation struggle was in full swing) to the UN, shredding, of course, everything it could. Whether the UN voted for partition or not, the state of Israel actually already existed by that time. Its own financial system was created, including currency, health and education systems (schools and universities), transport, infrastructure, electricity production, agriculture. Local self-government bodies were organized, in fact there were military units and production enterprises, there was a cultural life, press, theaters. Stalin had nothing to do with all of the above. Moreover, many things were created not thanks to, but in spite of Stalin.

Myth 2. Apart from the USSR, no one else in the world wanted a Jewish national home.
The USSR also did not want to create such a hearth in Palestine. As an alternative, he tried unsuccessfully to create such a hotbed in the Far East. After the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Region, Jews accounted for about 16% of its inhabitants (only 17 thousand of the 3 million Jews living in the USSR at that time), and today it is less than one percent. Stalin did not allow Soviet Jews to leave for their historical homeland, and after the creation of Israel began an anti-Jewish campaign ("Murderers in white coats", "Rootless cosmopolitans", etc.).

Myth 3. Stalin saved Israel by allowing the delivery of captured German weapons from Czechoslovakia.
Arms deliveries from Czechoslovakia did exist, but they were not decisive. So, the Navy did not receive any assistance at all, there were no supplies of heavy equipment (tanks, armored personnel carriers, etc.). Deliveries were limited to 25 converted "Messerschmitts" of poor quality at astronomical prices and small arms. Anticipating indignation, I agree that at that time any barrel was very valuable, but it is not worth exaggerating the importance of these supplies. In Czechoslovakia, about 25 thousand rifles, more than 5 thousand light machine guns, 200 heavy machine guns, more than 54 million cartridges were purchased. For comparison: in March 1948 alone, 12,000 Stan submachine guns, 500 Dror machine guns, 140,000 grenades, 120 three-inch mortars and 5 million rounds of ammunition were already in production at one underground in Palestine. The same Czechoslovakia supplied arms to the Arabs. For example, during Operation Shoded, Haganah's fighters intercepted the ship Argyro with 8,000 rifles and 8,000,000 rounds of ammunition from Czechoslovakia destined for Syria. Artillery, for example, during the War of Independence mainly consisted of French cannons purchased from Switzerland. Moreover, after the war in Czechoslovakia, the so-called Slansky trial took place. During the show trial of a group of prominent figures of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, among whom was a veteran of the Civil War in Spain, General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia Rudolf Slansky, as well as 13 other high-ranking party and state leaders (11 of whom were Jews), were accused of all deadly sins, including the "Trotskyist-Zionist-Tito conspiracy." They were reminded of the supply of weapons to the Zionists, although Slansky was the only one who opposed these supplies. As a result, 11 people were executed, and 3 were sentenced to life imprisonment.

Myth 4. Jewish front-line soldiers, as a rule, communists, were sent to Palestine as on a business trip - in fact, in the same way as 15 years earlier "volunteers" were sent from the USSR to Spain.
Stalin was not going to let anyone leave the country "where man breathes so freely," although General Dragunsky came up with the idea of \u200b\u200bforming a division of Jewish front-line soldiers to be sent to Palestine. There were no Soviet volunteers in either the army, the air force or the Israeli navy. Volunteers from other countries (primarily from the USA, South Africa and Great Britain) were, but not from the USSR.

Conclusion: Stalin did not create Israel.

In 1947 Great Britain returned its mandate to Palestine to the United Nations. On November 29, the UN Special Committee on Palestine recommended dividing Palestine into two independent states - Jewish and Arab. After the British left Palestine, on May 15, 1948, the creation of the State of Israel was proclaimed. The newly emerged state opened its doors to Jewish immigrants from all over the world.

The Second World War ended, the world celebrated the victory over Nazism. In this war, a significant part of the almost 9 millionth Jewish community of Europe died, but for the survivors the trials are not over yet.

After the war, the British imposed even greater restrictions on Jewish repatriation to Palestine. The answer was the creation of the "Jewish Resistance Movement". Despite the British naval blockade and border patrols, from 1944 to 1948 about 85,000 people were transported to Palestine by secret, often dangerous routes.

The situation in the country was extremely unstable, practically in crisis, and the British government was forced to hand over the solution of the Palestinian problem to the UN. On November 29, 1947, the UN General Assembly by a majority of votes - 33 to 13 - adopted a resolution on the division of Palestine into two states.

The creation of the State of Israel, the first Jewish state in almost 2 thousand years, was announced in Tel Aviv on May 14, 1948. The declaration came into force the next day, when the last British soldiers left Palestine. Day 15 May Palestinians called al-Nakba - "Catastrophe".

Since the beginning of the year, military actions have taken place between the Arab and Jewish forces, aimed at holding and seizing territories. The Jewish militant organizations Irgun and Lehi achieved great success, having conquered not only the territories allotted to them by the UN declaration, but also a significant part of those that were intended for the Arab state.

On April 9, Jewish militants killed a significant number of the inhabitants of the village of Deir Yassin near Jerusalem. Frightened by this, several hundred thousand Palestinians fled to Lebanon, Egypt and what is now known as the West Bank.

Jewish forces have made strides in the Negev desert, Galilee, West Jerusalem, and much of the coastal plain.

On the day of Israel's proclamation, five Arab countries - Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria and Iraq - declared war on Israel and immediately invaded the newly created state, but their armies were pushed back by the Israelis. The war, which lasted 15 months, killed more than 6,000 people on the Israeli side. They gave their lives to make the existence of the State of Israel a reality. The following year, the Knesset, the Israeli parliament, passed a law on a national holiday on the 5th day of the month of Iyar, called Yom ha-Atzmaut - Independence Day.

As a result of the ceasefire, Israel incorporated much of the former British Palestine into its borders. Egypt held on to the Gaza Strip; Jordan annexed the area around Jerusalem and the land now known as the West Bank; this accounted for about 25% of the territory of the Mandatory Palestine.

The monstrous catastrophe that befell the Jewish people under Hitler clearly demonstrated that the only solution to the problem is the creation of an independent Jewish state in Eretz Israel, where the Jewish people will be provided with a dignified existence in conditions of freedom and security.

Hundreds of thousands of Jews around the world have prayed for the fulfillment of the dream of many generations. This cherished dream has become a reality - the outstanding Zionist leader David Ben-Gurion proclaimed the creation of the State of Israel in the ancient homeland of the Jewish people. Ben-Gurion announced: “We, members of the Provisional National Council, representatives of the Jewish population and the Zionist movement, on the day of the end of the British Mandate for Palestine, by virtue of our natural and historical right and on the basis of a decision of the UN General Assembly, hereby declare the creation of a Jewish state on Earth Israel is the State of Israel ”.

The State of Israel was created at the cost of the lives of thousands of soldiers and officers who died in the name of the Jewish people having their own corner on earth - the country in which their ancestors lived, the country in which the Holy Temple stood and the Jewish kingdom was.

The State of Israel does not forget those to whom it owes its existence. The eve of the Independence Day is declared the Day of Remembrance for the soldiers who died in the wars of Israel. Memorial candles are lit in the evening. In Jerusalem, at the military cemetery on Mount Herzl, the central ceremony of this day is being held, which is opened by the Chief Rabbi of the Israel Defense Forces with the Izkor prayer. The mourning ceremony is attended by the leadership of the state and members of the families of the victims.

At ten o'clock in the morning, the sound of a siren is heard and life freezes throughout the country for two minutes - people stand to pay tribute to the memory of the fallen soldiers. State flags have been lowered, mourning meetings are held at military cemeteries throughout the day, and mourning meetings are held in schools. Soldiers and schoolchildren are guarding the memorials to the victims. The whole country is in a special mood on this day, saluting those who fell fighting for the creation of the state and the safety of its inhabitants.

In Israel, the holiday is celebrated with solemn receptions, military bases are open to the public, air parades are held and equipment of the navy is demonstrated. Today Israel can be proud of the technical equipment of the army.

Religious Jews read special prayers and necessarily the "a-Lel" prayer, symbolizing the national liberation of Israel.

With the onset of darkness, the Day of Remembrance ends - and a colorful ceremony of celebration of the Independence Day begins on Mount Herzl. 12 people, men and women, representing different segments of the Israeli population, light 12 torches in honor of the achievements of the State of Israel. The national flag is raised again to the top of the flagpole. At the end of the ceremony, the night sky is illuminated with colorful fireworks. The city squares are filled with celebrating people.

Artists perform on the stage, orchestras play. The streets and balconies of houses are decorated with Israeli flags. In synagogues, a prayer is read for the welfare and security of the state, which also expresses the hope that all the sons of the Jewish people will return to their country. Independence Day concludes with a solemn ceremony of presenting Israel's State Prizes for Scientific Research, Literature and Art.

The harsh winter of early 1947 in England was accompanied by the most serious fuel crisis in the country's history. The industry practically stopped, the British were desperately freezing. The British government, more than ever, wanted good relations with the Arab oil-exporting countries. On February 14, Foreign Minister Bevin announced London's decision to transfer the issue of a mandated Palestine to the United Nations, as British peace proposals were rejected by both Arabs and Jews. It was a gesture of despair.

"NOW THE WORLD WILL NOT BE HERE"

On March 6, 1947, Soviet Foreign Ministry advisor Boris Stein handed over to First Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Vyshinsky a note on the Palestinian issue: “Until now, the USSR has not formulated its position on the question of Palestine. The transfer by Great Britain of the question of Palestine to the discussion of the United Nations presents for the USSR an opportunity for the first time not only to express its point of view on the question of Palestine, but also to take an effective part in the fate of Palestine. The Soviet Union cannot but support the demands of the Jews to create their own state on the territory of Palestine. "
Vyacheslav Molotov, and then Joseph Stalin, agreed. On May 14, Andrei Gromyko, the USSR's permanent representative to the UN, voiced the Soviet position. At a special session of the General Assembly, he said, in particular: “The Jewish people suffered exceptional calamities and sufferings in the last war. In the territory where the Nazis ruled, the Jews were subjected to almost complete physical extermination - about six million people died. The fact that not a single Western European state was able to ensure the protection of the elementary rights of the Jewish people and protect them from violence by the fascist executioners explains the desire of the Jews to create their own state. It would be unfair to disregard this and deny the right of the Jewish people to realize such an aspiration. "

Joseph Stalin acted as the "godfather" of the state of Israel

"Since Stalin was determined to give the Jews his state, it would be foolish for the United States to resist!" - concluded US President Harry Truman and instructed the "anti-Semitic" State Department to support the "Stalinist initiative" at the UN.
In November 1947, Resolution No. 181 (2) was adopted on the creation of two independent states on the territory of Palestine: a Jewish and an Arab immediately after the withdrawal of British troops (May 14, 1948). On the day of the adoption of the resolution, hundreds of thousands of Palestinian Jews were mad with happiness , took to the streets. When the UN made a decision, Stalin smoked his pipe for a long time, and then said: "That's it, now there will be no peace here." “Here” is in the Middle East.
Arab countries did not accept the UN decision. They were incredibly outraged by the Soviet position. The Arab Communist Parties, which are accustomed to fighting against "Zionism - the agents of British and American imperialism," were simply at a loss to see that the Soviet position had changed beyond recognition.
But Stalin was not interested in the reaction of the Arab countries and local communist parties. It was much more important for him to consolidate, in defiance of the British, diplomatic success and, if possible, to join the future Jewish state in Palestine to the world camp of socialism being created.
For this, the USSR prepared a government "for the Jews of Palestine." Solomon Lozovsky, a member of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, a former Deputy People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, director of the Soviet Information Bureau, was to become the prime minister of the new state. Twice Hero of the Soviet Union, tanker David Dragunsky was approved for the post of Minister of Defense, and Grigory Gilman, a senior intelligence officer of the USSR Navy, became Minister of Naval Affairs. But in the end, a government was created from the International Jewish Agency, headed by its chairman Ben-Gurion (a native of Russia); and already ready to fly to Palestine, the "Stalinist government" was dismissed.
The adoption of the resolution on the partition of Palestine was the signal for the beginning of the Arab-Jewish armed conflict, which lasted until mid-May 1948 and was a kind of prelude to the first Arab-Israeli war, which was called the "War of Independence" in Israel.
The Americans imposed an embargo on the supply of weapons to the region, the British continued to arm their Arab satellites, the Jews were left with nothing: their partisan detachments could only defend themselves with homemade rifles and rifles and grenades stolen from the British. In the meantime, it became clear that the Arab countries would not allow the UN decision to take effect and would try to exterminate Palestinian Jews even before the state was declared. After a conversation with the Prime Minister of this country, the Soviet envoy to Lebanon, Solod, reported to Moscow that the head of the Lebanese government expressed the opinion of all Arab countries: “If necessary, the Arabs will fight for the preservation of Palestine for two hundred years, as was the case during the crusades. ".
Weapons poured into Palestine. The sending of "Islamic volunteers" began. The military leaders of the Palestinian Arabs, Abdelkader al-Husseini and Fawzi al-Kavkaji (who recently served the Fuehrer faithfully) launched a widespread offensive against the Jewish settlements. Their defenders retreated to coastal Tel Aviv. A little more, and the Jews will be "thrown into the sea." And, no doubt, this would have happened if not for the Soviet Union.
Along with weapons from the countries of Eastern Europe, Jewish warriors who had experience of participation in the war against Germany arrived in Palestine

Stalin prepares a beachhead

By Stalin's personal order, at the end of 1947, the first shipments of small arms began to arrive in Palestine. But this was clearly not enough. On February 5, a representative of Palestinian Jews, through Andrei Gromyko, urged an increase in supplies. Having listened to the request, Gromyko, without diplomatic evasions, busily inquired whether it was possible to ensure the unloading of weapons in Palestine, since there is still an almost 100,000 British contingent there. This was the only problem that the Jews in Palestine had to solve, the rest was taken over by the USSR. Such guarantees have been received.

The Palestinian Jews received weapons mainly through Czechoslovakia. Moreover, at first, captured German and Italian weapons were sent to Palestine, as well as those produced in Czechoslovakia at the Škoda and ChZ factories. Prague made good money on this. The airfield at Ceske Budejovice was the main transshipment base. Soviet instructors retrained American and British volunteer pilots - veterans of the recent war - on new machines. From Czechoslovakia (via Yugoslavia), they then made risky flights to the territory of Palestine itself. They were carrying dismantled aircraft, mainly German Messerschmitt fighters and British Spitfires, as well as artillery and mortars.
One American pilot said: “The cars were loaded to capacity. But you knew - if you sit in Greece, they will take away the plane and the cargo. If you sit in any Arab country, they will simply kill you. But when you land in Palestine, poorly dressed people are waiting for you. They don't have weapons, but they need them to survive. These will not allow themselves to be killed. Therefore, in the morning you are ready to fly again, although you understand that each flight may be the last. "
The supply of weapons to the Holy Land was often overgrown with detective details. Here is one of them.
Yugoslavia provided Jews not only with airspace, but also with ports. The first to load was the Panama-flagged Borea. On May 13, 1948, he delivered cannons, shells, machine guns and about four million rounds of rounds to Tel Aviv, all hidden under a 450-ton load of onions, starch and cans of tomato sauce. The ship was already ready to moor, but then the British officer suspected contraband, and under the escort of British warships "Borea" moved to Haifa for a more thorough search. At midnight the British officer glanced at his watch. “The mandate is over,” he told the captain of the Borea. - You are free, continue on your way. Shalom! " The Borea became the first ship to unload in a free Jewish port. Following from Yugoslavia, other transport workers arrived with a similar "stuffing".
Permanent Representative of the USSR to the UN Andrei Gromyko actively promoted the idea of \u200b\u200b"the right of the Jewish people to create their own state"
Not only future Israeli pilots were trained on the territory of Czechoslovakia. In the same place, in Ceske Budeevitsy, tankers and paratroopers were trained. One and a half thousand infantrymen of the Israel Defense Forces were trained in Olomouc, another two thousand - in Mikulov. They formed a unit that was originally called the Gottwald Brigade in honor of the leader of the Czechoslovak communists and the leader of the country. The brigade was transferred to Palestine through Yugoslavia. Medical personnel were trained in Wielké Štrebne, radio operators and telegraph operators in Liberec, and electrical mechanics in Pardubice. Soviet political instructors conducted political studies with young Israelis. At Stalin's “request”, Czechoslovakia, Yugoslavia, Romania and Bulgaria refused to supply arms to the Arabs, which they did immediately after the end of the war purely for commercial reasons.
In Romania and Bulgaria, Soviet specialists trained officers for the Israel Defense Forces. Here, the preparation of Soviet military units for transferring to Palestine began to help Jewish military units. But it turned out that the fleet and aviation would not be able to provide a swift landing operation in the Middle East. It was necessary to prepare for it, first of all to prepare the receiving party. Soon Stalin realized this and began building a "Middle East bridgehead." And the already trained fighters, according to the memoirs of Nikita Khrushchev, were loaded onto ships to be sent to Yugoslavia in order to save the "brotherly country" from the presumptuous Tito.

OUR PERSON IN HAIFA

Along with weapons from the countries of Eastern Europe, Jewish warriors who had experience of participating in the war against Germany arrived in Palestine. Soviet officers also went to Israel in secret. Soviet intelligence also gained great opportunities. According to General of State Security Pavel Sudoplatov, "the use of Soviet intelligence officers in combat and sabotage operations against the British in Israel began as early as 1946." They recruited agents among the Jews leaving for Palestine (mainly from Poland). As a rule, these were Poles, as well as Soviet citizens who, taking advantage of family ties, and in some places forging documents (including nationality), traveled through Poland and Romania to Palestine. The relevant authorities were well aware of these tricks, but received a directive to turn a blind eye to it.
At the direction of Lavrenty Beria, the best officers of the NKVD-MGB were sent to Palestine.
True, to be precise, the first Soviet "specialists" arrived in Palestine shortly after the October Revolution. In the 1920s, on the personal instructions of Felix Dzerzhinsky, the first Jewish self-defense forces "Israel Shoikhet" were created by the resident of the Cheka Lukacher (operational pseudonym "Khozro").

So, Moscow's strategy called for an increase in clandestine activities in the region, especially against the interests of the United States and Great Britain. Vyacheslav Molotov believed that these plans could be implemented only by concentrating all intelligence activities under the control of one department. The Committee of Information was created under the Council of Ministers of the USSR, which included the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Ministry of State Security, as well as the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces. The committee was directly subordinate to Stalin, and was headed by Molotov and his deputies.
At the end of 1947, the head of the department for the Near and Far East of the Komiinform, according to information, Andrei Otroshchenko, convened an operational meeting, at which he said that Stalin had set the task: to guarantee the transition of the future Jewish state to the camp of the USSR's closest allies. To do this, it is necessary to neutralize the ties of the Israeli population with American Jews. The selection of agents for this "mission" was entrusted to Alexander Korotkov, who headed the department of illegal intelligence in Komiinform.
Pavel Sudoplatov wrote that he had allocated three Jewish officers for secret operations: Garbuz, Semenov and Kolesnikov. The first two settled in Haifa and created two agent networks, but did not take part in sabotage against the British. Kolesnikov managed to organize the delivery of small arms and faust cartridges captured from the Germans from Romania to Palestine.
Sudoplatov's people were engaged in specific activities - they were preparing the very bridgehead for a possible invasion of Soviet troops. They were most interested in the Israeli military, their organizations, plans, military capabilities, ideological priorities.
And while the UN was in disputes and behind the scenes negotiations on the fate of the Arab and Jewish states in Palestine, the USSR began to build a new Jewish state at a shock Stalinist pace. We started with the main thing - with the army, intelligence, counterintelligence and police. And not on paper, but in practice.
The Jewish territories resembled a military district, raised on alarm and urgently began military deployment. There was no one to plow, everyone was preparing for war. By order of Soviet officers, people of the required military specialties were identified among the settlers, brought to the bases, where they were quickly checked by the Soviet counterintelligence, and then urgently taken to ports, where the ships were unloaded in secret from the British. As a result, a full crew got into the tanks that had just been delivered from the side to the pier and drove military equipment to the place of permanent deployment or directly to the place of battles.
Israel's special forces were created from scratch. The best officers of the NKVD-MGB took direct part in the creation and training of the commandos ("Stalin's falcons" from the Berkut detachment, the 101st intelligence school and the "C" department of General Sudoplatov), \u200b\u200bwho had experience in operational and sabotage work: Otroshchenko, Korotkov, Vertiporokh and dozens of others. In addition to them, two generals from the infantry and aviation, a vice admiral of the Navy, five colonels and eight lieutenant colonels, and, of course, junior officers for direct work on the ground, were urgently sent to Israel.

David Ben-Gurion. Golda Meir

Among the "juniors" were mainly former soldiers and officers with the corresponding "fifth column" in the questionnaire, who expressed a desire to repatriate to their historical homeland. As a result, Captain Halperin (born in Vitebsk in 1912) became the founder and first head of the Mossad intelligence, created the Shin Bet public security and counterintelligence service. In the history of Israel and its special services, "the honorary pensioner and faithful heir of Beria", the second person after Ben-Gurion, entered under the name Iser Harel. Officer Smersha Livanov founded and directed the foreign intelligence service Nativa Bar. He took the Jewish name Nehimiyya Levanon, under which he entered the history of Israeli intelligence. Captains Nikolsky, Zaitsev and Malevany "set" the work of the Israel Defense Forces special forces, two naval officers (names could not be established) created and trained a naval special forces unit. Theoretical training was regularly reinforced by practical exercises - raids on the rear of the Arab armies and the cleansing of Arab villages.
Some of the scouts found themselves in piquant situations, if they happened elsewhere, dire consequences could not be avoided. So, one Soviet agent infiltrated the Orthodox Jewish community, and he himself did not even know the basics of Judaism. When this was discovered, he was forced to admit that he was a personnel security officer. Then the council of the community decided: to give the comrade a proper religious education. Moreover, the authority of the Soviet agent in the community has grown sharply: the USSR is a fraternal country, the settlers reasoned, what secrets could there be from it?
Immigrants from Eastern Europe willingly made contact with Soviet representatives, told everything they knew. The Jewish military especially sympathized with the Red Army and the Soviet Union, did not consider it shameful to share secret information with Soviet intelligence officers. The abundance of sources of information created a deceptive sense of their power among the station staff. “They,” we quote the Russian historian Zhores Medvedev, “intended to secretly rule Israel and, through it, also influence the American Jewish community.”
The Soviet special services were active both in the left and pro-communist circles, and in the right-wing underground organizations Lehi and Etzel. For example, a resident of Beer Sheva, Haim Bresler in 1942-1945. was in Moscow as part of the representative office of LEKHI, was engaged in the supply of weapons and trained militants. He has photographs of the war years with Dmitry Ustinov, then Minister of Armaments, later Minister of Defense of the USSR and a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU, with prominent scouts: Yakov Serebryansky (worked in Palestine in the 1920s with Yakov Blumkin), General of State Security Pavel Raikhman and other people. The acquaintances were quite significant for a person included in the list of heroes of Israel and veterans of LYOKHI.

Tel Aviv, 1948

"INTERNATIONAL" SING IN CHOROM

At the end of March 1948, Palestinian Jews unpacked and assembled the first four captured Messerschmitt 109 fighters. On this day, the Egyptian tank column, as well as the Palestinian partisans, were only a few tens of kilometers from Tel Aviv. If they had captured the city, the Zionist cause would have been lost. Troops capable of covering the city were not at the disposal of Palestinian Jews. And they sent everything that was - these four planes into battle. One returned from the battle. But when they saw that the Jews had aircraft, the Egyptians and Palestinians got scared and stopped. They did not dare to take the virtually defenseless city.
As the date for the proclamation of the Jewish and Arab states approached, passions around Palestine were heating up in earnest. Western politicians vied with each other to advise Palestinian Jews not to rush to proclaim their own state. The US State Department has warned Jewish leaders that if Arab armies attack the Jewish state, the United States should not be counted on for help. Moscow, however, strongly advised - to proclaim a Jewish state immediately after the last British soldier leaves Palestine.
Arab countries did not want the emergence of either a Jewish state or a Palestinian state. Jordan and Egypt were going to divide Palestine, where as of February 1947 lived 1 million 91 thousand Arabs, 146 thousand Christians and 614 thousand Jews, among themselves. For comparison: in 1919 (three years before the British mandate) 568 thousand Arabs, 74 thousand Christians and 58 thousand Jews lived here. The balance of power was such that the Arab countries did not doubt their success. The Secretary General of the Arab League promised: "It will be a war of annihilation and a grand slaughter." Palestinian Arabs were ordered to temporarily leave their homes so as not to accidentally fall under the fire of advancing Arab armies.
Moscow believed that Arabs who did not want to stay in Israel should settle in neighboring countries. There was also another opinion. It was voiced by the Permanent Representative of the Ukrainian SSR to the UN Security Council Dmitry Manuilsky. He proposed "resettling the Palestinian Arab refugees to Soviet Central Asia and creating an Arab union republic or autonomous region there." Funny, isn't it! Moreover, the Soviet side had the experience of mass migrations of peoples.
On the night of Friday 14 May 1948, amid a salute of seventeen guns, the British High Commissioner of Palestine sailed from Haifa. The mandate has expired. At four o'clock in the afternoon in the museum building on Rothschild Boulevard in Tel Aviv, the State of Israel was proclaimed (among the variants of the name, Judea and Zion also appeared.) Future Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion, after persuading the frightened (after the US warning) ministers to vote for the proclamation of independence, promising the arrival of two million Jews from the USSR within two years, read the Declaration of Independence prepared by "Russian experts".
A massive wave of Jews was expected in Israel, some with hope and some with fear. Soviet citizens - retirees of the Israeli special services and the IDF, veterans of the Israeli Communist Party and former leaders of numerous public organizations in unison argue that indeed in post-war Moscow and Leningrad, other large cities of the USSR, rumors about "two million future Israelis" were spreading. In fact, the Soviet authorities planned to send such a number of Jews in the other direction - to the North and the Far East.
On May 18, the Soviet Union was the first to recognize the Jewish state de jure. On the occasion of the arrival of Soviet diplomats, about two thousand people gathered in the building of one of the largest cinemas in Tel Aviv, "Ester", about five thousand more people stood on the street, listening to the broadcast of all the speeches. A large portrait of Stalin and the slogan "Long live friendship between the State of Israel and the USSR!" Were hung over the presidium table. The working youth choir sang the Jewish anthem, then the anthem of the Soviet Union. The whole audience was already singing "Internationale". Then the choir sang "March of the Artillerymen", "Song of Budyonny", "Get up, the country is huge."
Soviet diplomats declared in the UN Security Council: since the Arab countries do not recognize Israel and its borders, Israel may not recognize them either.

ORDER LANGUAGE - RUSSIAN

On the night of May 15, the armies of five Arab countries (Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, as well as “seconded” units from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and several other states) invaded Palestine. The spiritual leader of the Muslims of Palestine, Amin al-Husseini, who was at one with Hitler throughout the Second World War, addressed his followers with the admonition: “I declare a holy war! Kill the Jews! Kill them all! " "Ein Brera" (no choice) - this is how the Israelis explained their willingness to fight even in the most unfavorable circumstances. And in fact, the Jews had no choice: the Arabs did not want concessions on their part, they wanted to exterminate them all, in fact, declaring a second Holocaust.
The Soviet Union "with all its sympathy for the national liberation movement of the Arab peoples" officially condemned the actions of the Arab side. At the same time, instructions were given to all law enforcement agencies to provide the Israelis with all the necessary assistance. A massive propaganda campaign in support of Israel began in the USSR. State, party and public organizations began to receive a lot of letters (mainly from citizens of Jewish nationality) with a request to send them to Israel. The Jewish Anti-Fascist Committee (JAC) has actively joined in this process.
Immediately after the Arab invasion, a number of foreign Jewish organizations appealed to Stalin personally with a request to provide direct military support to the young state. In particular, special emphasis was placed on the importance of sending "Jewish volunteer pilots on bombers to Palestine." “You, a person who has proven your sagacity, can help,” said one of the telegrams of American Jews addressed to Stalin. "Israel will pay you for the bombers." It was also noted here that, for example, in the leadership of the "reactionary Egyptian army" there are more than 40 British officers "in the rank above the captain."
On the night of May 15, the armies of five Arab countries (Egypt, Syria, Iraq, Jordan and Lebanon, as well as “seconded” units from Saudi Arabia, Algeria and several other states) invaded Palestine.
Another batch of "Czechoslovak" aircraft arrived on May 20, and after 9 days a massive air strike was launched against the enemy. From that day on, the Israeli Air Force seized air supremacy, which largely influenced the victorious conclusion of the War of Independence. A quarter of a century later, in 1973, Golda Meir wrote: “No matter how radically the Soviet attitude towards us changed over the next twenty-five years, I cannot forget the picture that was presented to me then. Who knows if we would have resisted if not for the weapons and ammunition that we were able to buy in Czechoslovakia?
Stalin knew that Soviet Jews would ask to go to Israel, and some (needed) of them would receive a visa and leave to build a new state there according to Soviet patterns and work against the enemies of the USSR. But he could not allow the mass emigration of citizens of a socialist country, a victorious country, especially its glorious warriors.
Stalin believed (and not unreasonably) that it was the Soviet Union that saved more than two million Jews from inevitable death during the war. It seemed that the Jews should be grateful, and not put a spoke in the wheel, not lead a line against Moscow's policy, not encourage emigration to Israel. The leader was literally enraged by the news that 150 Jewish officers officially asked the government to send them as volunteers to Israel to help in the war with the Arabs. As an example to others, they were all severely punished, some were shot. Did not help. Hundreds of soldiers, with the help of Israeli agents, fled from groups of Soviet troops in Eastern Europe, while others used a transit point in Lvov. At the same time, they all received fake passports with fictitious names, under which they later fought and lived in Israel. That is why there are very few names of Soviet volunteers in the archives of Mahal (the Israeli union of internationalist soldiers), the well-known Israeli researcher Michael Dorfman, who has been working on the problem of Soviet volunteers for 15 years, is sure. He confidently declares that there were many of them, and they almost built the "ISSR" (Israeli Soviet Socialist Republic). He still hopes to complete the Russian-Israeli TV project, interrupted by a default in the mid-1990s, and in it "tell a very interesting and possibly sensational story of the participation of Soviet people in the formation of the Israeli army and special services." , in which "there were many former Soviet military personnel."
Less known to the general public are the facts of the mobilization of volunteers in the Israel Defense Forces, which was carried out by the Israeli embassy in Moscow. Initially, the employees of the Israeli diplomatic mission assumed that all activities to mobilize demobilized Jewish officers were carried out with the approval of the USSR government, and the Israeli ambassador Golda Meerson (since 1956 - Meir) sometimes personally handed the lists of Soviet officers who had left and were ready to leave for Israel to Lavrentiy Beria. However, later this activity became one of the reasons for “accusing Golda of treason,” and she was forced to leave the post of ambassador. With her, about two hundred Soviet servicemen managed to leave for Israel. Those who did not succeed were not repressed, although most of them were demobilized from the army.
How many Soviet soldiers left for Palestine before and during the War of Independence is not known for certain. According to Israeli sources, 200,000 Soviet Jews used legal or illegal channels. Of these, "several thousand" are military personnel. In any case, Russian was the main language of "interethnic communication" in the Israeli army. He also ranked second (after the Polish) in the whole of Palestine.
The first Soviet resident in Israel in 1948 was Vladimir Vertiporokh, who was sent to work in this country under the pseudonym Rozhkov. Vertiporokh later admitted that he went to Israel without much confidence in the success of his mission: firstly, he did not like Jews, and secondly, the resident did not share the leadership's confidence that Israel could be made a reliable ally of Moscow. Indeed, experience and intuition did not deceive the scout. The political emphasis changed sharply after it became clear that the Israeli leadership had refocused its country's policy towards close cooperation with the United States.
The leadership led by Ben-Gurion, from the moment the state was proclaimed, feared a communist coup. Indeed, there were such attempts, and they were brutally suppressed by the Israeli authorities. This is the shooting on the raid of Tel Aviv of the landing ship Altalena, later called the Israeli cruiser Aurora, and the uprising of sailors in Haifa, who considered themselves followers of the case of the sailors of the battleship Potemkin, and some other incidents, the participants of which did not hide their goals - the establishment of Soviet power in Israel on the Stalinist model. They blindly believed that the cause of socialism was triumphant all over the world, that the "socialist Jewish man" was almost complete and that the conditions of the war with the Arabs created a "revolutionary situation." All that was needed was an order "strong as steel", one of the participants in the uprising said a little later, because hundreds of "red fighters" were already ready to "resist and oppose the government with arms in hand." It is no accident that the epithet of steel is used here. Steel was then in vogue, like everything Soviet. A very common Israeli surname Peled means "Stalin" in Hebrew. But the "cry" of the recent hero of "Altalena" followed - Menachem Begin called on the revolutionary forces to turn their weapons against the Arab armies and, together with Ben-Gurion's supporters, to defend the independence and sovereignty of Israel.

INTERBRIGADES IN JEWISH

In a continuous war for its existence, Israel has always evoked sympathy and solidarity from Jews (and non-Jews) living in different countries of the world. One example of such solidarity was the voluntary service of foreign volunteers in the ranks of the Israeli army and their participation in hostilities. All this began in 1948, immediately after the proclamation of the Jewish state. According to Israeli data, approximately 3,500 volunteers from 43 countries arrived then in Israel and took direct part in hostilities as part of the units and formations of the Israel Defense Forces - Tzwa Hagan Le Israel (abbreviated as IDF or IDF). By country of origin, the volunteers were divided as follows: approximately 1000 volunteers came from the United States, 250 from Canada, 700 from South Africa, 600 from the UK, 250 from North Africa, 250 each from Latin America, France and Belgium. There were also groups of volunteers from Finland, Australia, Rhodesia and Russia.
These were not accidental people - military professionals, veterans of the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition, with invaluable experience gained on the fronts of the recently ended World War II. Not all of them had a chance to live to see victory - 119 foreign volunteers died in the battles for Israeli independence. Many of them were posthumously awarded the next military rank, up to the brigadier general.
The story of each volunteer reads like an adventure novel and, unfortunately, is little known to the general public. This is especially true of those people who, in the distant 20s of the last century, began an armed struggle against the British with the sole purpose of creating a Jewish state on the territory of mandated Palestine. Our compatriots were at the forefront of these forces. It was they who, in 1923, created the paramilitary organization BEITAR, which was engaged in the military training of fighters for Jewish units in Palestine, as well as to protect Jewish communities in the diaspora from Arab gangs of pogromists. BEITAR is an acronym for the Hebrew words Brit Trumpeldor ("Trumpeldor's Union"). So she was named in honor of the officer of the Russian army, Knight of St. George and hero of the Russian-Japanese war, Joseph Trumpeldor.
In 1926, BEITAR entered the World Organization of Zionist Revisionists, headed by Vladimir Zhabotinsky. The most numerous combat formations of BEITAR were in Poland, the Baltic countries, Czechoslovakia, Germany and Hungary. In September 1939, the command of ETZEL and BEITAR planned to carry out the operation "Polish landing" - up to 40 thousand BEITAR fighters from Poland and the Baltic countries were to be transferred by sea from Europe to Palestine in order to create a Jewish state on the conquered bridgehead. However, the outbreak of World War II canceled these plans.
The division of Poland between Germany and the USSR and its subsequent defeat by the Nazis dealt a heavy blow to the formations of BEITAR - together with the entire Jewish population of occupied Poland, its members ended up in ghettos and camps, and those of them who found themselves on the territory of the USSR often became objects of persecution by the NKVD for excessive radicalism and arbitrariness. The head of the Polish BEITAR Menachem Begin, the future Israeli prime minister, was arrested and sent to serve time in the Vorkuta camps. At the same time, thousands of Beitarians fought heroically in the ranks of the Red Army. Many of them fought as part of the national units and formations formed in the USSR, where the percentage of Jews was especially high. In the Lithuanian division, the Latvian corps, in Anders' army, in the Czechoslovakian corps of General Liberty there were entire units in which commands were given in Hebrew. It is known that two pupils of BEITAR, sergeant Kalmanas Shuras from the Lithuanian division and warrant officer Antonin Sokhor from the Czechoslovak corps were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for their exploits.
When the State of Israel was created in 1948, the non-Jewish part of the population was exempted from compulsory military service on a par with Jews. It was believed that it would be impossible for non-Jews to fulfill their military duty due to their deep kinship, religious and cultural ties with the Arab world, which had declared total war on the Jewish state. However, already in the course of the Palestinian war, hundreds of Bedouins, Circassians, Druze, Muslim Arabs and Christians voluntarily joined the ranks of the IDF and decided to forever link their fate with the Jewish state.
The Circassians in Israel are the Muslim peoples of the North Caucasus (mainly Chechens, Ingush and Adygs) who live in villages in the north of the country. They were drafted into both the IDF combat units and the border police. Many of the Circassians became officers, and one rose to the rank of colonel in the Israeli army. "In the war for Israel's independence, the Circassians joined the Jews, who were then only 600,000, against 30 million Arabs, and since then have never betrayed their alliance with the Jews," said Adnan Kharhad, one of the elders of the Circassian community.

PALESTINE: THE ELEVENTH STALIN'S IMPACT?

Debates are still ongoing: why did the Arabs need to invade Palestine? After all, it was clear that the situation at the front for the Jews, although it remained serious enough, nevertheless improved significantly: the territory allotted to the Jewish state by the UN was already almost completely in the hands of the Jews; Jews captured about a hundred Arab villages; Western and Eastern Galilee was partially under Jewish control; Jews achieved a partial lifting of the blockade of the Negev and unblocked the "road of life" from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem.
The fact is that each Arab state had its own calculation. The King of Transjordan, Abdullah, wanted to capture all of Palestine - especially Jerusalem. Iraq wanted to get access to the Mediterranean Sea through Transjordan. Syria has become obsessed with Western Galilee. The influential Muslim population of Lebanon has long glanced greedily at Central Galilee. And Egypt, although it did not have territorial claims, was worn with the idea of \u200b\u200bbecoming the recognized leader of the Arab world. And, of course, in addition to the fact that each of the Arab states invading Palestine had their own reasons for the "campaign", they were all attracted by the prospect of an easy victory, and this sweet dream was skillfully supported by the British. Naturally, without such support, the Arabs would hardly have agreed to open aggression.
The Arabs have lost. The defeat of the Arab armies in Moscow was regarded as a defeat for England and were unspeakably happy about this, they believed that the positions of the West had been undermined throughout the Middle East. Stalin made no secret of the fact that his plan was brilliantly implemented.
The armistice agreement with Egypt was signed on February 24, 1949. The front line of the last days of fighting turned into an armistice line. The Gaza Strip remained in the hands of the Egyptians. No one disputed Israelis' control of the Negev. The besieged Egyptian brigade left Fallujah with weapons in hand and returned to Egypt. She was given all military honors, almost all officers and most of the soldiers received state awards as "heroes and victors" in the "great battle against Zionism." On March 23, in one of the border villages, a truce was signed with Lebanon: Israeli troops left this country. An armistice agreement with Jordan was signed on Fr. Rhodes on April 3, and finally, on July 20, on neutral territory between the positions of the Syrian and Israeli forces, an armistice agreement was signed with Damascus, according to which Syria withdrew its troops from a number of areas bordering with Israel, which remained a demilitarized zone. All these agreements are of the same type: they contained mutual obligations of non-aggression, defined the demarcation lines of the armistice with a special proviso that these lines should not be considered as "political or territorial boundaries." The agreements did not mention the fate of Israel's Arabs and Arab refugees from Israel to neighboring Arab countries.
Documents, figures and facts give a definite idea of \u200b\u200bthe role of the Soviet military component in the formation of the State of Israel. No one helped Jews with weapons and immigrant soldiers, except the Soviet Union and the countries of Eastern Europe. Until now, one can often hear and read in Israel that the Jewish state withstood the "Palestinian war" thanks to "volunteers" from the USSR and other socialist countries. In fact, Stalin did not give the green light to the volunteer impulses of Soviet youth. But he did everything so that within six months the mobilization capabilities of the sparsely populated Israel could "digest" the huge amount of supplied weapons. Young people from the "nearby" states - Hungary, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, to a lesser extent, Czechoslovakia and Poland - made up the conscript contingent that made it possible to create a fully equipped and well-armed Israel Defense Forces.
In total, 1,300 km2 and 112 settlements, which were allocated by the UN decision to the Arab state in Palestine, were under Israeli control; under Arab control were 300 km2 and 14 settlements, by the UN decision, assigned to the Jewish state. In fact, Israel occupied a third more territory than was envisaged in the decision of the UN General Assembly. Thus, according to the terms of the agreements reached with the Arabs, Israel was left with three-quarters of Palestine. At the same time, part of the territory assigned to the Palestinian Arabs came under the control of Egypt (Gaza Strip) and Transjordan (since 1950 - Jordan), which in December 1949 annexed the territory that was named the West Bank. Jerusalem was divided between Israel and Transjordan. Large numbers of Palestinian Arabs fled from war zones to safer locations in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, as well as to neighboring Arab countries. Of the original Arab population of Palestine, only about 167,000 remained in Israel. The main victory of the War of Independence was that already in the second half of 1948, when the war was still in full swing, one hundred thousand immigrants arrived in the new state, which was able to provide them with housing and work.
In Palestine, and especially after the creation of the State of Israel, there were exceptionally strong sympathies for the USSR as a state that, firstly, saved the Jewish people from destruction during World War II, and, secondly, provided enormous political and military assistance to Israel in his struggle for independence. In Israel, humanly loved "Comrade Stalin", and the overwhelming majority of the adult population simply does not want to hear any criticism of the Soviet Union. “Many Israelis idolized Stalin,” wrote the son of the famous intelligence officer Edgar Broyde-Trepper. "Even after Khrushchev's speech at the XX Congress, portraits of Stalin continued to adorn many government institutions, not to mention kibbutzim."

On October 10, 1948, the next launch of the R-1 ballistic missile took place. (First launch - September 17, 1948)

The first domestic-made rocket R-1 began its history on April 14, 1948. 13 research institutes and 35 factories were involved in the creation of the R-1 rocket. The RD-100 rocket engine passed bench tests in May 1948. On September 10, 1948, its firing tests began, and on September 17, 1948, the first R-1 rocket assembled at the NII-88 pilot plant in Podlipki was launched at the Kapustin Yar test site. The first launch was unsuccessful. Due to the failure of the control system, the rocket deviated from the track by almost 50 degrees.

October 10, 1948 (according to other sources, October 31), the first successful launch took place. In total, within the framework of flight design tests, 10 missiles were fired in 1948 and 20 missiles in 1949. On May 7, 1949, the first launch of the R-1A was carried out - a modification of the rocket for testing a detachable warhead. In the first test series, 4 launches took place. The 5th and 6th launches were with scientific equipment on board.

On November 30, 1950, the R-1 rocket was put into service with the first missile formation - 92 Special Purpose Brigade RVGK, stationed at the Kapustin Yar training ground. She received the NATO designation SS-1 "Scunner". The R-1 rocket was developed by organizations headed by S.P. Korolev (rocket, complex), V.P. Glushko (engine), N.A. Pilyugin (control system and ground test and launch equipment), V.P. Barmin (ground launching, refueling and other equipment), V.I. Kuznetsov (command instruments).

The main parts of the rocket were: a warhead, an instrument compartment, a fuel tank, an oxidizer tank, and a tail compartment with an engine. The main design features of the rocket were the use of a non-detachable warhead with the use of suspended (non-bearing) fuel tanks located in the power case. The power body of the rocket was a rigid frame made of steel stringers and frames with a sheath of sheet steel. The oxidizer and fuel tanks were made of sheet aluminum alloy.

For the stabilization of the rocket in flight, four powerful and heavy (weight about 300 kg) stabilizers were responsible. Control bodies of two types were required: air (mounted on stabilizers) and gas-jet (placed in a jet of combustion products flowing from a nozzle) rudders. The single-chamber liquid-propellant rocket engine ran on fuel - liquid oxygen and a 75% aqueous solution of ethyl alcohol. The fuel supply system is pumping, open-ended (the gas spent in the turbine was released into the atmosphere).

As a working fluid of the turbine, we used a steam-gas formed during the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide in the presence of a catalyst — sodium permanganate solution; the supply of peroxide and permanganate to the reactor was displacement. Thus, the engine required four fluid components to operate. Their consumption per second was: 75 kg / s of liquid oxygen, 50 kg / s of alcohol, and 1.7 kg / s of sodium peroxide and permanganate. In this case, the specific impulse was equal to 2021 m / s at the Earth and - 2366 m / s in the void. Such low values \u200b\u200bof specific impulse were explained by the use of low-calorie fuel (water was added to the fuel, because otherwise they could not provide cooling of the chamber), low parameters of the engine's working process and the use of an open-loop control system.

The engine had a large mass, which was explained by the imperfection of the design of all its main units: the combustion chamber (low pressure, poor organization of the fuel combustion processes), the turbo pump unit (low speed), the steam and gas generator (displacement system for supplying components). Ignition of fuel in the combustion chamber when starting the engine was carried out by a pyrotechnic incendiary device. The indicators that determine the speed, and, consequently, the range of the rocket, were extremely low for the R-1.
An autonomous inertial control system was used on the rocket, which included a stabilization loop for the angular position of the rocket on the active segment of the flight path (AUT) and an automatic range control, in which a gyroscopic acceleration integrator was used. The control system had a significant mass (the mass of control devices was about 200 kg with a total mass of the instrument compartment of 520 kg) and was insensitive to the parallel drift of the rocket. As a result, the missile's accuracy (1.5 km) should be assessed as low, bearing in mind that it corresponded to a flight range of only about 300 km.

The effectiveness of the warhead on targets was determined by the fact that the warhead contained an explosive charge (HE) weighing about 800 kg. At the same time, the radius of destruction of city buildings did not exceed 20 - 25 m, and the rocket could only be used to hit large, weakly protected targets by shooting in squares. The ground processing equipment of the complex included more than 20 special machines and units. The preparation of the rocket for launch was carried out by a calculation of 11 people in two positions - technical and combat (launch). The main content of work at the technical position was checking the missile systems, docking it with the warhead.

The rocket was transported to the combat position on an 8U22 or 8U24 ground carriage, with the help of which the rocket was then installed on the launch pad and used to prepare the rocket for launch. On the rocket, after installing it in a vertical position, the control system was checked, fuel and steam and gas generation facilities were refueled, and aiming was carried out. At the same time, a special responsibility was assigned to the combat crew of putting on a removable rotary service platform on the head of a vertically standing rocket.

If this operation was carried out carelessly, it was possible that the support ring of the platform would touch the fuse of the warhead located at the top of its cone. When preparing the rocket for launch, manual operations were carried out with the rocket engine - adjusting the pressure reducers of the steam and gas generator depending on the concentration and temperature of hydrogen peroxide. By this, the engine parameters approached the nominal. An incendiary device was installed into the engine chamber from below through a nozzle. The rocket was launched from a special armored vehicle with a control panel. The time for preparing the rocket at the technical position was 2-4 hours, at the combat position - up to 4 hours.

Thus, the combat readiness of the complex, that is, the time from receiving the launch command to the missile launch was at least 6 - 8 hours, after which it was necessary to either launch it or postpone the launch to the next day. Draining oxygen, fuel, checking systems and refueling took a long time. Despite the obvious flaws in the design, the R-1 rocket was almost an exact copy of the German FAU-2. Nevertheless, the P-1 played its enduring historical role, allowing in a short time to create in the USSR all the conditions necessary for the further development of a new type of weapon and to determine the ways and directions of this development.

Back in 1946, i.e. before the development of the R-1 rocket, the first missile formation of the Soviet Army was formed - the RVGK special purpose brigade. The personnel of the brigade began acquaintance with the new equipment in Germany, then took part in the launches of V-2 and R-1 missiles in the USSR. Based on the experience of the special-purpose brigades, the development of issues of military operation and the combat use of long-range missiles began.

Since 1953, design and engineering work on the modernization of the R-1 was carried out in Dnepropetrovsk, aimed at increasing the manufacturability of production and improving its operation. As a result, the R-1M rocket differed from the prototype in a simplified design and a significantly modified control system, which made it possible to double the firing accuracy. In 1955, after ten launches, flight tests of the R-1M were successfully completed, but did not go into mass production, since it no longer met the increased requirements of customers, primarily in terms of range.

The performance characteristics of the R-1 missile

Maximum firing range: 270 km.
Maximum flight speed: 1465 m / s.
Maximum height: 77 km.
Approximate flight time: 5 min.
Main engine running time: 206 sec.
Shooting accuracy: 1.5 km
Head type: monoblock
Payload: 815 kg.
Launch weight: 13.4 tons.
Rocket length: 14.6 m.
Rocket diameter: 1.65 m.
Fuel weight: 8.5 tons.