Charitable wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting." Issue # 77, March 2015 .. Battle of Berlin.
Battle of Berlin
Wall newspapers of the charitable educational project "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting" (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They are delivered free of charge to most educational institutions, as well as in a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions of the city. The publications of the project do not contain any advertising (only the logos of the founders), are politically and religiously neutral, written in an easy language, well illustrated. They are conceived as informational "braking" for students, awakening cognitive activity and the desire to read. Authors and publishers, without pretending to the academic completeness of the presentation of the material, publish interesting facts, illustrations, interviews with famous figures of science and culture and hope thereby to increase the interest of schoolchildren in the educational process. Please send your comments and suggestions to: [email protected] We thank the Education Department of the Administration of the Kirovsky District of St. Petersburg and everyone who unselfishly helps in the distribution of our wall newspapers. Our special thanks go to the Battle of Berlin. The feat of the standard-bearers ”(site panoramaberlin.ru), who kindly allowed to use the materials of the site, for invaluable help in creating this issue.
Fragment of the painting by PA Krivonosov "Victory", 1948 (hrono.ru).
Diorama "Storming Berlin" by artist V.M.Sibirskiy. Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (poklonnayagora.ru).
Berlin operation (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle of Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Berlin operation
Scheme of the Berlin operation (panoramaberlin.ru).
"Fire in Berlin!" Photo by A.B. Kapustyansky (topwar.ru).
The Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation is one of the last strategic operations soviet troops on European theater military operations, during which the Red Army occupied the capital of Germany and victoriously ended the Great Patriotic War and World War II in Europe. The operation lasted from April 16 to May 8, 1945, the width of the front of hostilities was 300 km. By April 1945, the main offensive operations of the Red Army in Hungary, East Pomerania, Austria and East Prussia were completed. This deprived Berlin of the support of industrial areas and the possibility of replenishing reserves and resources. Soviet troops reached the line of the Oder and Neisse rivers, only a few tens of kilometers remained to Berlin. The offensive was carried out by the forces of three fronts: the 1st Belorussian under the command of Marshal G.K. Zhukov, the 2nd Belorussian under the command of Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky and the 1st Ukrainian under the command of Marshal I.S. Konev, with the support of the 18th air army, Dnieper military flotilla and the Red Banner Baltic fleet. The Red Army was opposed by a large grouping in the Vistula Army Group (Generals G. Heinrici, then K. Tippelskirch) and Center (Field Marshal F. Schörner). On April 16, 1945, at 5 a.m. Moscow time (2 hours before dawn), artillery preparation began in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front. 9,000 guns and mortars, as well as more than 1,500 BM-13 and BM-31 installations (modifications of the famous Katyushas) for 25 minutes grind the first line of the German defense on the 27-kilometer section of the breakthrough. With the beginning of the attack, the artillery fire was transferred deep into the defense, and 143 anti-aircraft searchlights were turned on in the breakthrough areas. Their blinding light stunned the enemy, disarmed night vision devices and at the same time illuminated the road for advancing units.
The offensive unfolded in three directions: through the Seelow Heights directly to Berlin (1st Belorussian Front), south of the city, along the left flank (1st Ukrainian Front) and further north, along the right flank (2nd Belorussian Front). The largest number of enemy forces was concentrated in the sector of the 1st Belorussian Front, and the most intense battles flared up in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Seelow Heights. Despite fierce resistance, on April 21, the first Soviet assault detachments reached the outskirts of Berlin, and street battles began. In the afternoon of March 25, units of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts united, closing the ring around the city. However, the assault was still ahead, and the defense of Berlin was carefully prepared and well thought out. It was a whole system of strongholds and nodes of resistance, streets were blocked by powerful barricades, many buildings were turned into firing points, underground structures and the metro were actively used. Faust cartridges became a formidable weapon in the conditions of street fighting and limited space for maneuver, they inflicted especially heavy damage on tanks. The situation was also complicated by the fact that all German units and individual groups of soldiers retreating during the fighting on the outskirts of the city were concentrated in Berlin, replenishing the garrison of the city's defenders.
The battles in the city did not stop day or night, almost every house had to be taken by storm. However, thanks to the superiority in force, as well as the experience of fighting in the city, accumulated in the past offensive operations, the Soviet troops moved forward. By the evening of April 28, units of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Reichstag. On April 30, the first assault groups broke through the building, flags of units appeared on the building, on the night of May 1, the Banner of the Military Council was hoisted, which was located in the 150th rifle division... And by the morning of May 2, the Reichstag garrison surrendered.
On May 1, only the Tiergarten and the government quarter remained in the hands of the Germans. The imperial chancellery was located here, in the courtyard of which was the bunker of Hitler's headquarters. On the night of May 1, by prior arrangement, General Krebs, the chief of the general staff of the German ground forces, arrived at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army. He informed the commander of the army, General V. I. Chuikov, about Hitler's suicide and about the proposal of the new German government to conclude an armistice. But the government’s categorical demand for unconditional surrender, received in response, was rejected. Soviet troops resumed the assault with renewed vigor. The remnants of the German troops were no longer able to continue resistance, and in the early morning of May 2, a German officer, on behalf of the commander of the Berlin defense, General Weidling, wrote an order of surrender, which was replicated and, with the help of loud-speaking installations and radio, was brought to the German units defending in the center of Berlin. As this order was brought to the attention of the defenders, resistance in the city ceased. By the end of the day, the troops of the 8th Guards Army cleared the central part of the city from the enemy. Individual units that did not want to surrender tried to break through to the west, but were destroyed or scattered.
During the Berlin operation, from April 16 to May 8, Soviet troops lost 352,475 people, of which 78,291 people were irretrievably lost. In terms of daily losses of personnel and equipment, the battle for Berlin surpassed all other operations of the Red Army. The losses of the German troops according to the reports of the Soviet command were: killed - about 400 thousand people, captured about 380 thousand people. Part of the German troops was pushed back to the Elbe and surrendered to the allied forces.
The Berlin operation dealt the final crushing blow to the armed forces of the Third Reich, which, with the loss of Berlin, lost their ability to organize resistance. Six days after the fall of Berlin, on the night of May 8-9, the German leadership signed an act of unconditional surrender of Germany.
Storming of the Reichstag (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle for Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Storming of the Reichstag
Reichstag assault map (commons.wikimedia.org, Ivengo)
The famous photograph "A captured German soldier at the Reichstag", or "Ende" - in German "The End" (panoramaberlin.ru).
The storming of the Reichstag is the final stage of the Berlin offensive operation, the task of which was to capture the building of the German parliament and hoist the Victory Banner. The Berlin offensive began on April 16, 1945. And the operation to storm the Reichstag lasted from April 28 to May 2, 1945. The assault was carried out by the forces of the 150th and 171st rifle divisions of the 79th rifle corps 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. In addition, two regiments of the 207th Infantry Division were advancing in the direction of the Krol-Opera. By the evening of April 28, units of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army occupied the Moabit area and from the northwest approached the area where, in addition to the Reichstag, the building of the Ministry of the Interior, the Krol-Opera theater, the Swiss embassy and a number of other structures were located. Well fortified and adapted for long-term defense, together they constituted a powerful node of resistance. On April 28, the corps commander, Major General S.N. Perevertkin, was tasked with taking over the Reichstag. It was assumed that the 150th SD should occupy the western part of the building, and the 171st SD - the eastern one.
The main obstacle to the advancing troops was the Spree River. The only possible way to overcome it was the Moltke Bridge, which the Nazis blew up when the Soviet units approached, but the bridge did not collapse. The first attempt to take it on the move ended in failure, because heavy fire was fired at it. Only after artillery preparation and destruction of emplacements on the embankments was it possible to capture the bridge. By the morning of April 29, the forward battalions of the 150th and 171st Infantry Divisions under the command of Captain S.A. Neustroev and Senior Lieutenant K.Ya. Samsonov crossed to the opposite bank of the Spree. After the crossing, on the same morning, the building of the Swiss embassy, \u200b\u200bfacing the square in front of the Reichstag, was cleared of the enemy. The next target on the way to the Reichstag was the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, nicknamed by the Soviet soldiers "Himmler's House". The huge, solid six-story building was additionally adapted for defense. A powerful artillery preparation was carried out to capture Himmler's house at 7 o'clock in the morning. For the next day, units of the 150th Infantry Division fought for the building and by dawn on April 30 captured it. The road to the Reichstag was then opened.
Before dawn on April 30, the following situation developed in the combat area. The 525th and 380th Regiments of the 171st Infantry Division fought in the quarters north of Königplatz Square. The 674th regiment and part of the forces of the 756th regiment were engaged in cleaning the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the remnants of the garrison. The 2nd battalion of the 756th regiment went out to the moat and took up defenses in front of it. The 207th Infantry Division was crossing the Moltke Bridge and preparing to attack the building of the Krol Opera Theater.
The garrison of the Reichstag numbered about 1000 people, had 5 armored vehicles, 7 anti-aircraft guns, 2 howitzers (equipment, the location of which has been preserved with accurate descriptions and photographs). The situation was aggravated by the fact that the Königplatz between the “Himmler house” and the Reichstag was an open space, moreover, crossed from north to south by a deep moat left from an unfinished metro line.
In the early morning of April 30, an attempt was made to immediately break into the Reichstag, but the attack was repulsed. The second assault began at 13:00 with a powerful half-hour artillery barrage. Parts of the 207th Infantry Division with their fire suppressed the firing points located in the building of the Krol Opera, blocked its garrison and thereby facilitated the assault. Under the cover of artillery barrage, battalions of the 756th and 674th rifle regiments went over to the attack and, on the move, breaking through a moat filled with water, broke through to the Reichstag.
All the time, while the preparations and the assault on the Reichstag were going on, fierce battles were fought on the right flank of the 150th Infantry Division, in the zone of the 469th infantry regiment... Taking up a defensive position on the right bank of the Spree, the regiment fought off numerous German attacks for several days, aimed at reaching the flank and rear of the troops advancing on the Reichstag. Artillerymen played an important role in repelling German attacks.
The scouts of S.E. Sorokin's group were among the first to break into the Reichstag. At 14:25, they installed a homemade red banner, first on the stairs of the main entrance, and then on the roof, on one of the sculptural groups. The banner was noticed by the soldiers at Königplatz. Inspired by the banner, all new groups broke through into the Reichstag. During the day of April 30, the upper floors were cleared of the enemy, the remaining defenders of the building took refuge in the basements and continued fierce resistance.
In the evening of April 30, the assault group of Captain V.N. Makov made its way into the Reichstag, at 22:40, set up its banner on the sculpture above the front pediment. At night from April 30 to May 1, M.A.Egorov, M.V. Kantaria, A.P. Berest, with the support of machine gunners from the company I.A. Syanov, climbed onto the roof, hoisted the official Banner of the Military Council, issued by the 150th rifle division. It was it that later became the Banner of Victory.
At 10 o'clock in the morning on May 1, German troops launched a concerted counterattack from outside and from inside the Reichstag. In addition, a fire broke out in several parts of the building, Soviet soldiers had to fight it or move to non-burning rooms. Strong smoke has formed. However, the Soviet soldiers did not leave the building, they continued to fight. The fierce battle continued until late in the evening, the remnants of the Reichstag garrison were again driven into the cellars.
Realizing the senselessness of further resistance, the command of the Reichstag garrison proposed to start negotiations, but on the condition that an officer with the rank of colonel at least should take part in them from the Soviet side. Among the officers who were at that time in the Reichstag, there was no one older than the major, and communication with the regiment did not work. After a short preparation, A.P. Berest went to the negotiations as a colonel (the tallest and most personable), S.A. Neustroev as his adjutant and private I.Prygunov as an interpreter. The negotiations took a long time. Not accepting the conditions set by the Nazis, the Soviet delegation left the basement. However, in the early morning of May 2, the German garrison capitulated.
On the opposite side of the Königplatz square, the battle for the building of the Krol-opera theater was going on all day on May 1. Only by midnight, after two unsuccessful assault attempts, the 597th and 598th regiments of the 207th rifle division captured the theater building. According to the report of the chief of staff of the 150th rifle division, during the defense of the Reichstag, the German side suffered the following losses: 2500 people were destroyed, 1650 people were taken prisoner. There is no exact data on the losses of Soviet troops. On the afternoon of May 2, the Victory Banner of the Military Council, hoisted by Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest, was transferred to the dome of the Reichstag.
After the Victory, under a treaty with the allies, the Reichstag withdrew to the territory of the British occupation zone.
History of the Reichstag (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle of Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Reichstag history
Reichstag, late 19th century photo (from Illustrated Review of the Past Century, 1901).
Reichstag. Modern view (Jürgen Matern).
The Reichstag Building (Reichstagsgebäude - "the building of the state assembly") is a famous historical building in Berlin. The building was designed by the Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot in the Italian High Renaissance style. The foundation stone of the building of the German Parliament was laid on June 9, 1884 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. Construction lasted ten years and was completed under Kaiser Wilhelm II. On January 30, 1933, Hitler became head of the coalition government and chancellor. However, the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) had only 32% of the seats in the Reichstag and three ministers in the government (Hitler, Frick and Goering). As chancellor, Hitler asked President Paul von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call new elections, hoping to achieve a majority for the NSDAP. New elections were scheduled for March 5, 1933.
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building burned down as a result of arson. The fire became for the National Socialists, who had just come to power, led by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, an excuse to quickly dismantle democratic institutions and discredit their main political enemy - the Communist Party. Six months after the fire in the Reichstag in Leipzig, the trial of the accused communists begins, among whom were Ernst Torgler, chairman of the communist faction in the parliament of the Weimar Republic, and the Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov. Dimitrov and Goering during the process led a fierce skirmish that went down in history. It was not possible to prove guilt in the burning of the Reichstag building, but this incident allowed the Nazis to establish absolute power.
After that, rare meetings of the Reichstag took place at the Krol-Opera (which was destroyed in 1943), and in 1942 they stopped. The building was used for propaganda meetings, and after 1939 for military purposes.
During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops stormed the Reichstag. On April 30, 1945, the first, homemade Victory Banner was hoisted on the Reichstag. On the walls of the Reichstag, Soviet soldiers left many inscriptions, some of which were preserved and left during the restoration of the building. In 1947, by order of the Soviet commandant's office, the inscriptions were “censored”. In 2002, the Bundestag raised the question of removing these inscriptions, but the proposal was rejected by a majority of votes. Most of the surviving inscriptions of Soviet soldiers are in the interior of the Reichstag, now accessible only with a guide by appointment. There are also traces of bullets on the inside of the left pediment.
On September 9, 1948, during the blockade of Berlin, a rally was held in front of the Reichstag building, which brought together over 350 thousand Berliners. Against the backdrop of the destroyed building of the Reichstag with the famous appeal to the world community "Peoples of the world ... Take a look at this city!" Mayor Ernst Reuter addressed.
After the surrender of Germany and the collapse of the Third Reich, the Reichstag remained in ruins for a long time. The authorities could not decide in any way whether it was worth restoring it or it would be much more expedient to demolish it. Since the dome was damaged during the fire, and was practically destroyed by aerial bombardment, in 1954 what was left of it was blown up. And only in 1956 it was decided to restore it.
The Berlin Wall, erected on August 13, 1961, took place in the immediate vicinity of the Reichstag building. It ended up in West Berlin. Subsequently, the building was restored and, since 1973, has been used as an exposition of a historical exhibition and as a meeting room for the bodies and factions of the Bundestag.
On June 20, 1991 (after the reunification of Germany on October 4, 1990), the Bundestag in Bonn (the former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany) decides to move to Berlin in the Reichstag building. After a competition, the reconstruction of the Reichstag was entrusted to the English architect Lord Norman Foster. He managed to preserve the historical appearance of the Reichstag building and at the same time create the premises for the modern parliament. The huge vault of the 6-storey building of the German Parliament is carried by 12 concrete columns, each weighing 23 tons. The dome of the Reichstag has a diameter of 40 m and a weight of 1200 tons, including 700 tons of steel structures. The observation deck, equipped on the dome, is located at a height of 40.7 m. Being on it, you can see both the circular panorama of Berlin and everything that happens in the conference room.
Why was the Reichstag chosen to hoist the Victory Banner? (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle of Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Why was the Reichstag chosen to hoist the Victory Banner?
Soviet artillerymen making inscriptions on shells, 1945. Photo by O.B. Knorring (topwar.ru).
The storming of the Reichstag and the hoisting of the Victory Banner over it for every Soviet citizen meant the end of the most terrible war in the history of mankind. Many soldiers gave their lives for this purpose. However, why was the Reichstag building chosen, and not the Reich Chancellery, as a symbol of victory over fascism? There are various theories on this, and we will consider them.
The fire of the Reichstag in 1933 became a symbol of the collapse of old and "helpless" Germany, and marked the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. A year later, a dictatorship regime was established in Germany and a ban was introduced on the existence and founding of new parties: all power is now concentrated in the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party). The power of the new powerful and "most powerful in the world" country was to be located from now on in the new Reichstag. The 290-meter-high building was designed by the Minister of Industry, Albert Speer. True, very soon Hitler's ambitions will lead to the Second World War, and the construction of a new Reichstag, which was assigned the role of a symbol of the superiority of the "great Aryan race", will be postponed indefinitely. During the Second World War, the Reichstag was not the center of political life, only occasionally there were speeches about the "inferiority" of the Jews and the question of their complete extermination was decided. Since 1941, the Reichstag has only played the role of the base of the air forces of Nazi Germany, which was led by Hermann Goering.
Back on October 6, 1944, at a ceremonial meeting of the Moscow Soviet in honor of the 27th anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin said: “From now on, our land is free of Hitler's scum, and now the Red Army has its last, final mission: to complete the task together with the armies of our allies defeat the Nazi army, finish off the fascist beast in its own lair and hoist the Victory Banner over Berlin. " However, over which building should the Victory Banner be hoisted? On April 16, 1945, on the day the Berlin offensive began, at a meeting of the chiefs of political departments of all armies from the 1st Belorussian Front, Zhukov was asked where to put the flag. Zhukov forwarded the question to the Main Political Directorate of the army and the answer was - "Reichstag". For many Soviet citizens, the Reichstag was the "center of German imperialism", a hotbed of German aggression and, ultimately, the cause of the terrible suffering of millions of people. Each Soviet soldier considered it his goal to destroy and destroy the Reichstag, which was compared to the victory over fascism. On many shells and armored vehicles the inscriptions were made in white paint: "Across the Reichstag!" and "To the Reichstag!"
The question of the reasons for choosing the Reichstag for hoisting the Victory Banner is still open. We cannot say for sure if any of the theories are true. But the most important thing is that for every citizen of our country the Victory Banner in the captured Reichstag is a reason for great pride in their history and their ancestors.
Banners of Victory (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle of Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Bearers of Victory
If you stop a bystander on the street and ask him who planted the Banner on the Reichstag in the victorious spring of 1945, the most likely answer would be: Yegorov and Kantaria. Perhaps they will still remember Berest, who accompanied them. The feat of M.A.Egorov, M.V. Kantaria and A.P. Berest is known all over the world today and is beyond doubt. It was they who installed the Banner of Victory, Banner No. 5, one of the 9 specially prepared banners of the Military Council, distributed among the divisions advancing in the direction of the Reichstag. This happened on the night of April 30 to May 1, 1945. However, the theme of hoisting the Victory Banner during the storming of the Reichstag is much more complicated, it is impossible to limit it to the history of a single banner group.
The red flag raised over the Reichstag was seen by Soviet soldiers as a symbol of Victory, a long-awaited point in a terrible war. Therefore, in addition to the official Banner, dozens of assault groups and individual fighters carried banners, flags and flags of their units (or even completely self-made) to the Reichstag, often without even knowing anything about the Banner of the Military Council. Pyotr Pyatnitsky, Pyotr Shcherbina, the reconnaissance group of Lieutenant Sorokin, the assault groups of Captain Makov and Major Bondar ... And how many more unknown units, not mentioned in the reports and combat documents, could have been?
Today, perhaps, it is difficult to establish exactly who was the first to hoist the red banner on the Reichstag, and even more so to draw up a chronological sequence of the appearance of various flags in different parts of the building. But it is also impossible to limit ourselves to the history of only one, official, Banner, to single out some and leave others in the shadows. It is important to preserve the memory of all the heroes-standard-bearers who stormed the Reichstag in 1945, who risked themselves in the last days and hours of the war, precisely when everyone especially wanted to survive - after all, Victory was very close.
Banner of Sorokin's group (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle for Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Sorokin's group banner
Intelligence group S.E. Sorokin in the Reichstag. Photo by I. Shagin (panoramaberlin.ru).
Newsreel footage of Roman Karmen is known all over the world, as well as photographs of I. Shagin and Y. Ryumkin, taken on May 2, 1945. They show a group of fighters with a red banner, first on the square in front of the central entrance to the Reichstag, then on the roof.
This historical footage captures the soldiers of the reconnaissance platoon of the 674th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division under the command of Lieutenant S.E. Sorokin. At the request of the correspondents, they repeated for the chronicle their path to the Reichstag, traversed with battles on April 30. It so happened that the first to approach the Reichstag were units of the 674th rifle regiment under the command of A.D. Plekhodanov and the 756th rifle regiment under the command of F.M. Zinchenko. Both regiments were part of the 150th Infantry Division. However, by the end of the day on April 29, after crossing the Spree over the Moltke Bridge and fierce battles to capture the "Himmler house", units of the 756th regiment suffered heavy losses. Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Plekhodanov recalls that in the late evening of April 29, the division commander, Major General V.M. Shatilov, summoned him to his OP and explained that in connection with this situation, the main task of storming the Reichstag falls on the 674th regiment. It was at that moment, returning from the division commander, Plekhodanov ordered S.E. Sorokin, the regimental reconnaissance platoon commander, to select a group of fighters who would go in the forward line of the attackers. Since the Banner of the Military Council remained at the headquarters of the 756th regiment, it was decided to make a homemade banner. The red banner was found in the basements of the "Himmler house".
To fulfill the task, S.E. Sorokin selected 9 people. These are senior sergeant V.N. Pravotorov (party organizer of the platoon), senior sergeant I.N. Lysenko, privates G.P. Bulatov, S.G. Oreshko, P.D.Bryukhovetsky, M.A. Packkovsky, M.S. Gabidullin, N. Sankin and P. Dolgikh. The first assault attempt, undertaken in the early morning of April 30, was unsuccessful. After the artillery barrage, a second attack was launched. "Himmler's House" was only 300-400 meters away from the Reichstag, but it was an open area of \u200b\u200bthe square, the Germans were firing at it multi-layered. When crossing the square, N. Sankin was seriously wounded and P. Dolgikh was killed. The remaining 8 scouts were among the first to break into the Reichstag building. Clearing the way with grenades and automatic bursts, G.P. Bulatov, carrying the banner, and V.N. Pravotorov climbed to the second floor along the central staircase. There, in the window overlooking the Königplatz, Bulatov secured the banner. The flag was noticed by the fighters, who had fortified themselves in the square, which gave new strength to the offensive. The soldiers of Grechenkov's company entered the building and blocked the exits from the basements, where the remaining defenders of the building settled. Taking advantage of this, the scouts carried the banner to the roof and fixed it on one of the sculptural groups. It was at 14:25. Such a time of hoisting the flag on the roof of the building appears in combat reports along with the names of the scouts of Lieutenant Sorokin, in the memoirs of the participants in the events.
Immediately after the assault, the soldiers of Sorokin's group were promoted to the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, they were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner - for the capture of the Reichstag. Only IN Lysenko a year later, in May 1946, was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero.
Banner of Makov's group (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle for Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Makov's group banner
Soldiers of the group of Captain V.N. Makov. From left to right: sergeants M.P. Minin, G.K. Zagitov, A.P. Bobrov, A.F. Lisimenko (panoramaberlin.ru).
On April 27, as part of the 79th Rifle Corps, two assault groups of 25 people each were formed. The first group, led by Captain Vladimir Makov, from the artillerymen of the 136th and 86th artillery brigades, the second, led by Major Bondar from other artillery units. Captain Makov's group operated in the battle formations of Captain Neustroev's battalion, which in the morning of April 30 began to storm the Reichstag in the direction of the front entrance. Fierce fighting continued throughout the day with varying success. The Reichstag was not taken. But some fighters nevertheless entered the first floor and hung several red red coats from the broken windows. It was they who became the reason that some leaders hastened to announce the capture of the Reichstag and hoisting over it at 14:25 "the flag of the Soviet Union." A couple of hours later, the whole country was notified about the long-awaited event by radio, and the message was transmitted abroad. In fact, by order of the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, the artillery preparation for the decisive assault was started only at 21:30, and the assault itself began at 22:00 local time. After Neustroev's battalion moved to the front entrance, four from Captain Makov's group rushed forward along the steep stairs to the roof of the Reichstag building. Paving the way with grenades and automatic bursts, she reached her goal - against the background of a fiery glow, the sculptural composition "Goddess of Victory" stood out, over which Sergeant Minin hoisted the Red Banner. On the cloth he wrote the names of his comrades. Then Captain Makov, accompanied by Bobrov, went down and immediately reported by radio to the corps commander, General Perevertkin, that at 22:40 his group was the first to hoist the Red Banner over the Reichstag.
On May 1, 1945, the command of the 136th Artillery Brigade presented to the highest government award - conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - Captain V.N. Makov, senior sergeants G.K. Zagitov, A.F. Lisimenko, A.P. Bobrov, sergeant M.P. Minin. Consecutively, on May 2, 3 and 6, the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, the commander of the artillery of the 3rd Shock Army and the commander of the 3rd Shock Army confirmed the application for the award. However, the assignment of the titles of heroes did not take place.
At one time, the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation conducted a study of archival documents related to the hoisting of the Victory Banner. As a result of studying this issue, the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation supported a petition to confer the title of Hero of the Russian Federation on a group of the above-named soldiers. In 1997, all Makov's five received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union from the Permanent Presidium of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. However, this award could not have full legal force, since the Soviet Union no longer existed at that time.
M.V.Kantaria and M.A.Egorov with the Victory Banner (panoramaberlin.ru).
Banner of Victory - 150th Rifle Order of Kutuzov, II Class, Idritskaya Division, 79th Rifle Corps, 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front.
The banner installed on the dome of the Reichstag by Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest on May 1, 1945, was not the very first. But it was this banner that was destined to become the official symbol of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The issue of the Victory Banner was decided in advance, even before the storming of the Reichstag. The Reichstag found itself in the offensive zone of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. It consisted of nine divisions, in connection with which nine special banners were made for transfer to assault groups in each of the divisions. The banners were handed over to the political departments on the night of April 20-21. In the 756th rifle regiment The 150th Infantry Division got the banner # 5. Sergeant M.A. Egorov and junior sergeant M.V. Kantaria were chosen to carry out the task of hoisting the Banner, too, in advance, as experienced scouts, who had acted in pairs more than once, and fighting friends. Senior Lieutenant A.P. Berest was sent to accompany the scouts with the banner by the battalion commander S.A. Neustroev.
During the day on April 30, Banner No. 5 was at the headquarters of the 756th regiment. Late in the evening, when several home-made flags were already installed on the Reichstag, by order of F.M. Zinchenko (commander of the 756th regiment), Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest climbed to the roof and fixed the Banner on Wilhelm's equestrian sculpture. After the surrender of the remaining defenders of the Reichstag, on the afternoon of May 2, the Banner was transferred to the dome.
Immediately after the end of the assault, many direct participants in the assault on the Reichstag were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the order to award this high rank was issued only a year later, in May 1946. Among the recipients were M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria, A.P. Berest was awarded only the Order of the Red Banner.
After the Victory, under an agreement with the allies, the Reichstag remained on the territory of the British occupation zone. The redeployment of the 3rd Shock Army was carried out. In this regard, the Banner, erected by Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest, was removed from the dome on May 8. Today it is kept in the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow.
Banner of Pyatnitsky and Shcherbina (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle for Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Banner of Pyatnitsky and Shcherbina
A group of soldiers of the 756th Infantry Regiment, in the foreground with a bandaged head - Pyotr Shcherbina (panoramaberlin.ru).
Among the many attempts to plant the red banner on the Reichstag, not all, unfortunately, were successful. Many fighters died or were wounded at the time of their decisive throw, never reaching the cherished goal. In most cases, even their names were not preserved, they were lost in the cycle of events on April 30 and the first days of May 1945. One such desperate hero is Pyotr Pyatnitsky, a private in the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division.
Pyotr Nikolayevich Pyatnitsky was born in 1913 in the village of Muzhinovo, Oryol province (now the Bryansk region). He went to the front in July 1941. Many difficulties fell to the lot of Pyatnitsky: in July 1942 he was seriously wounded and taken prisoner, only in 1944 the advancing Red Army liberated him from the concentration camp. Pyatnitsky returned to service, by the time of the storming of the Reichstag he was a liaison officer of the battalion commander, S.A. Neustroev. On April 30, 1945, the soldiers of the Neustroev battalion were among the first to approach the Reichstag. Only the Königplatz square separated from the building, but the enemy was constantly firing on it. Through this square, in the forward line of the attackers, Pyotr Pyatnitsky rushed with a banner. He ran to the front entrance to the Reichstag, had already climbed the steps of the stairs, but here he was overtaken by an enemy bullet and died. It is still not known exactly where the hero-standard-bearer is buried - in the cycle of events of that day, his comrades-in-arms missed the moment when Pyatnitsky's body was taken from the steps of the porch. The supposed place is a common mass grave of Soviet soldiers in the Tiergarten.
And the flag carried by Pyotr Pyatnitsky was picked up by junior sergeant Shcherbina, also Peter, and fixed on one of the central columns when the next wave of attackers reached the Reichstag porch. Pyotr Dorofeevich Shcherbina was the commander of the rifle squad in the company of I.Ya. Syanov; in the late evening of April 30, it was he and his squad who accompanied Berest, Egorov and Kantaria to the roof of the Reichstag to hoist the Victory Banner.
The correspondent of the divisional newspaper VE Subbotin, a witness to the events of the storming of the Reichstag, in those days of May made a note about Pyatnitsky's feat, but the story did not go further than the "divisional". Even the family of Pyotr Nikolayevich considered him missing for a long time. He was remembered in the 60s. Subbotin's story was published, then even a note appeared in “History of the Great Patriotic War” (1963. Military Publishing House, vol. 5, p. 283): “... Here the flag of the warrior of the 1st battalion of the 756th rifle regiment of junior sergeant Pyotr Pyatnitsky was hoisted hit by an enemy bullet on the steps of the building ... ". In the homeland of the soldier, in the village of Kletnya, in 1981, a monument was erected with the inscription "Brave participant in the storming of the Reichstag", one of the streets of the village was named after him.
Famous photo of Evgeniy Khaldei (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle for Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:The famous photo of Evgeny Khaldei
Evgeny Ananievich Khaldei (March 23, 1917 - October 6, 1997) - Soviet photographer, military photojournalist. Evgeny Khaldei was born in Yuzovka (now Donetsk). During the Jewish pogrom on March 13, 1918, his mother and grandfather were killed, and Zhenya, a one-year-old child, received a bullet wound in the chest. He studied at the cheder, at the age of 13 he started working at a factory, then he took the first picture with a homemade camera. At the age of 16 he started working as a photojournalist. Since 1939 he has been a correspondent for the TASS Photo Chronicle. Filmed Dneprostroy, reports about Alexei Stakhanov. Represented the editorial staff of TASS in the navy during the Great Patriotic War. He spent all 1418 days of the war with a Leica camera from Murmansk to Berlin.
A talented Soviet photojournalist is sometimes called "the author of one photo." This, of course, is not entirely fair - during his long career as a photographer and photojournalist, he took thousands of photographs, dozens of which became "photo icons". But it was the photograph "The Banner of Victory over the Reichstag" that went around the world and became one of the main symbols of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph "Banner of Victory over the Reichstag" in the Soviet Union became a symbol of victory over Nazi Germany. However, few people remember that in fact the photo was staged - the author took the picture only the next day after the actual hoisting of the flag. Largely thanks to this work, in 1995 in France, Chaldeus was awarded one of the most honorable awards in the art world - "Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters".
By the time the war correspondent approached the filming location, the fighting had long subsided, and many banners were fluttering in the Reichstag. But the pictures had to be taken. Yevgeny Khaldei asked the very first soldiers he met to help him: climb the Reichstag, set up a banner with a hammer and sickle and pose a little. They agreed, the photographer found a winning angle and shot two cassettes. His characters were the fighters of the 8th Guards Army: Alexei Kovalev (sets the banner), as well as Abdulhakim Ismailov and Leonid Gorichev (assistants). After the photographer took off his banner - he took it with him - and showed the pictures to the editorial office. According to the daughter of Yevgeny Khaldei, in TASS the photo "was accepted as an icon - with sacred trepidation." Evgeny Khaldei continued his career as a photojournalist, filming the Nuremberg trials. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin ordered to present all the participants in the commemorative photograph to the title of Hero of Russia, however, by that time Leonid Gorichev had already passed away - he died of his wounds shortly after the end of the war. To date, not one of the three soldiers, immortalized in the photograph "Banner of Victory over the Reichstag", has survived.
Winners' autographs (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle for Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:Winners' Autographs
Soldiers sign on the walls of the Reichstag. Photographer unknown (colonelcassad.livejournal.com).
On May 2, after fierce battles, Soviet soldiers completely cleared the Reichstag building from the enemy. They went through the war, reached Berlin itself, they won. How can you express your joy and exultation? To mark your presence where the war began and where it ended, to say something about yourself? To indicate their involvement in the Great Victory, thousands of victorious fighters left their murals on the walls of the captured Reichstag.
After the end of the war, it was decided to preserve a significant part of these inscriptions for posterity. Interestingly, in the 1990s, during the reconstruction of the Reichstag, inscriptions were discovered hidden under a layer of plaster from the previous restoration in the 1960s. Some of them (including the meeting room) have also been preserved.
For 70 years, autographs of Soviet soldiers on the walls of the Reichstag remind us of the glorious deeds of the heroes. It is difficult to express the emotions that you feel while there. I just want to silently consider each letter, mentally speaking thousands of words of gratitude. For us, these inscriptions are one of the symbols of Victory, the courage of heroes, the end of the suffering of our people.
Autograph at the Reichstag "We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, we came to Berlin!" (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle of Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:"We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, we came to Berlin!"
panoramaberlin.ru
Autographs at the Reichstag were left not only from themselves, but also from entire units and divisions. A fairly well-known photograph of one of the columns of the central entrance shows just such an inscription. It was made immediately after the Victory by the pilots of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Odessa Red Banner Order of the Suvorov Regiment. The regiment was based in one of the suburbs, but on one of the May days, the personnel specially came to look at the defeated capital of the Third Reich.
D.Ya. Zilmanovich, who fought as part of this regiment, after the war wrote a book about the combat path of the unit. There is also a fragment that tells about the inscription on the column: “The pilots, technicians and aviation specialists received permission from the regiment commander to go to Berlin. On the walls and columns of the Reichstag they read, scratched with bayonets and knives, written in charcoal, chalk and paint, many names: Russian, Uzbek, Ukrainian, Georgian ... More often than others they saw the words: “Got it! Moscow – Berlin! Stalingrad-Berlin! " The names of almost all cities in the country were encountered. And signatures, many inscriptions, names and surnames of soldiers of all military branches and specialties. They, these inscriptions, turned into tablets of history, into the verdict of the victorious people, signed by hundreds of its valiant representatives.
This enthusiastic impulse - to sign a verdict to defeated fascism on the walls of the Reichstag - engulfed the guards of the Odessa Destroyer. They immediately found a large staircase, put it to the column. The pilot Makletsov took a piece of alabaster and, climbing the steps to a height of 4-5 meters, brought out the words: "We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, we came to Berlin!" Everyone clapped. A worthy completion of the difficult combat path of the glorious regiment, in which 28 Heroes of the Soviet Union fought during the Great Patriotic War, including four who were twice awarded this high rank.
Autograph at the Reichstag "Stalingraders Shpakov, Matyash, Zolotarevsky" (wall newspaper 77 - "Battle for Berlin")
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:"Stalingradians Shpakov, Matyash, Zolotarevsky"
panoramaberlin.ru
Boris Zolotarevsky was born on October 10, 1925 in Moscow. At the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was only 15. But his age did not prevent him from defending his homeland. Zolotarevsky went to the front, reached Berlin. After returning from the war, he became an engineer. Once, while on an excursion in the Reichstag, the veteran's nephew discovered his grandfather's signature. And on April 2, 2004, Zolotarevsky again found himself in Berlin to see his name left here 59 years ago.
In his letter to Karin Felix, a researcher of the surviving autographs of Soviet soldiers and the further destinies of their authors, he shared his experiences: “The recent visit to the Bundestag made such a strong impression on me that I did not then find the right words to express my feelings and thoughts. I am very touched by the tact and aesthetic taste with which Germany preserved the autographs of Soviet soldiers on the walls of the Reichstag in memory of the war, which became a tragedy for many nations. It was a very exciting surprise for me to see my autograph and the autographs of my friends: Matyash, Shpakov, Fortel and Kvasha, lovingly preserved on the former smoky walls of the Reichstag. With deep gratitude and respect, B. Zolotarevsky. "
Yakov Ryumkin was born in 1913. At the age of 15, he came to work in one of the Kharkov newspapers as a courier. Then he graduated from the working faculty of Kharkov University and in 1936 became a photojournalist for the newspaper "Communist" - the publication of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (at that time the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was in Kharkov). Unfortunately, during the war, the entire pre-war archive was lost.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Ryumkin already had considerable experience in the newspaper. He went through the war from its very first days to the end as a photojournalist for Pravda. Filmed on different fronts, the most famous were his reports from Stalingrad. The writer Boris Polevoy recalls this period: “Even among the restless tribe of military press photographers, it was difficult to find during the war a more colorful and dynamic figure than Pravda correspondent Yakov Ryumkin. In the days of many offensives, I saw Ryumkin in the leading offensive units, and his passion for delivering a unique photograph to the editorial office, without hesitation either in work or in means, was also well known. " Yakov Ryumkin was wounded and concussed, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and the Order of the Red Star. After the Victory he worked in Pravda, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Ogonyok, and Kolos publishing house. Filmed in the Arctic, on virgin lands, made reports on party congresses and a large number of the most diverse reports. Yakov Ryumkin died in Moscow in 1986. The Reichstag was only a milestone in this large, eventful and vibrant life, but perhaps one of the most significant.
panoramaberlin.ru
The photo was taken on May 10, 1945 by the correspondent of "Front illustration" Anatoly Morozov. The plot is random, not staged - Morozov drove to the Reichstag in search of new shots after sending a photo report to Moscow about the signing of the Act of Germany's unconditional surrender. A soldier caught in the lens of a photographer - Sergei Ivanovich Platov - has been at the front since 1942. He served in the infantry, mortar regiments, then in intelligence. He began his combat path near Kursk. That is why - "Kursk - Berlin". And he comes from Perm himself.
In the same place, in Perm, he lived after the war, worked as a mechanic at a factory and did not even suspect that his painting on the Reichstag column, captured in the picture, had become one of the symbols of Victory. Then, in May 1945, the photograph did not catch the eye of Sergei Ivanovich. Only many years later, in 1970, Anatoly Morozov found Platov and, having specially arrived in Perm, showed him a photograph. After the war, Sergei Platov again visited Berlin - the GDR authorities invited him to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Victory. It is curious that on the anniversary coin, Sergei Ivanovich has an honorable neighborhood - on the other hand, the meeting of the 1945 Potsdam Conference is depicted. But the veteran did not live to see her graduation - Sergei Platov died in 1997.
panoramaberlin.ru
“Seversky Donets - Berlin. Artillerymen Doroshenko, Tarnovsky and Sumtsev "- there was such an inscription on one of the columns of the defeated Reichstag. It would seem that it is just one of the thousands and thousands of inscriptions left in the days of May 1945. But still - she's special. This inscription was made by Volodya Tarnovsky, a 15-year-old boy, and at the same time - a scout who went a long way to Victory and survived a lot.
Vladimir Tarnovsky was born in 1930 in Slavyansk, a small industrial town in the Donbass. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Volodya was barely 11 years old. Many years later, he recalled that this news was not perceived by him as something terrible: “We, boys, are discussing this news and remember the words from the song:“ And on the enemy's land we will smash the enemy with little blood, a mighty blow ”. But everything turned out differently ... ".
Stepfather immediately, in the first days of the war, went to the front and never returned. And already in October the Germans entered Slavyansk. Volodya's mother, a communist, a party member, was soon arrested and shot. Volodya lived with his stepfather's sister, but did not consider it possible for himself to stay there for a long time - a hard, hungry time, besides him, his aunt has her own children ...
In February 1943, Slavyansk was briefly liberated by the advancing Soviet troops. However, then our units had to withdraw again, and Tarnovsky left with them - first to distant relatives in the village, but, as it turned out, conditions there were no better. In the end, one of the commanders involved in the evacuation of the population took pity on the boy and took the regiment with him as his son. So Tarnovsky ended up in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th rifle division. “At first I was considered the son of the regiment. He was a messenger, delivered various orders, reports, and then he had to fight in full, for which he received military awards. "
The division liberated Ukraine, Poland, crossed the Dnieper, Oder, took part in the battle for Berlin, from its very beginning from the artillery preparation on April 16 to the end, took the buildings of the Gestapo, the post office, the imperial chancellery. Vladimir Tarnovsky also went through all these important events. He simply and directly speaks about his military past and his own feelings, feelings. Including how at times it was scary, how hard some tasks were given. But the fact that he, a 13-year-old teenager, was awarded the 3rd degree Order of Glory (for his actions to save the wounded division commander during the battles on the Dnieper), is able to express how good a fighter Tarnovsky became.
Not without funny moments. Once, during the defeat of the Yasso-Kishinev group of Germans, Tarnovsky was instructed to single-handedly deliver a prisoner - a tall, strong German. For the fighters passing by, the situation looked comical - the prisoner and the escort looked so contrasting. However, not for Tarnovsky himself - he walked all the way with a cocked machine gun at the ready. Successfully delivered the German to the division's reconnaissance commander. Subsequently, Vladimir was awarded the medal "For Courage" for this prisoner.
The war ended for Tarnovsky on May 2, 1945: “By that time, I was already a corporal, a reconnaissance observer of the 3rd Division of the 370th Berlin Artillery Regiment of the 230th Stalin-Berlin Infantry Division of the 9th Red Banner Brandenburg Corps of the 5th Shock Army ... At the front, I joined the Komsomol, had soldier's awards: the medal "For Courage", the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree and the "Red Star" and especially significant "For the capture of Berlin." Frontline training, soldier's friendship, education received among the elders - all this helped me a lot in later life.
Tags:"Sapunov"
panoramaberlin.ru
Perhaps one of the strongest impressions from visiting the Reichstag for every Russian is the autographs of Soviet soldiers preserved to this day, news of the victorious May 1945. But it is difficult to even try to imagine what a person, a witness and a direct participant in those great events experiences, after decades looking among the many signatures at one only - his own.
Boris Viktorovich Sapunov, the first in many years, had such a feeling. Boris Viktorovich was born on July 6, 1922 in Kursk. In 1939 he entered the history faculty of the Leningrad State University... But it began Soviet-Finnish war, Sapunov volunteered for the front, was an orderly. After the end of hostilities, he returned to Leningrad State University, but in 1940 he was again drafted into the army. By the time the Great Patriotic War began, he served in the Baltics. He went through the whole war as an artilleryman. As a sergeant in the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, he participated in the battle for Berlin and the storming of the Reichstag. He completed his combat path by signing the walls of the Reichstag.
It was this signature on the southern wall facing the courtyard of the northern wing, at the level of the plenary hall, that Boris Viktorovich noticed - 56 years later, on October 11, 2001, during an excursion. Wolfgang Thierse, who was President of the Bundestag at the time, even ordered the case to be documented, since he was the first.
After demobilization in 1946, Sapunov again came to Leningrad State University, finally there was an opportunity to graduate from the Faculty of History. Since 1950 he has been a post-graduate student of the Hermitage, then a researcher, since 1986, a chief researcher in the Department of Russian Culture. B.V. Sapunov became a prominent historian, doctor of historical sciences (1974), a specialist in ancient Russian art. He was an honorary doctor of the University of Oxford, a member of the Peter's Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Boris Viktorovich passed away on August 18, 2013.
Zhukov about the battle for Berlin
Category: Curious Petersburg Tags:At the end of this issue, we present an excerpt from the memoirs of Marshal of the Soviet Union, four times Hero of the Soviet Union, holder of two Orders of Victory and many other awards, USSR Defense Minister Georgy Zhukov.
“The final attack of the war was carefully prepared. On the banks of the Oder River, we concentrated a huge striking force, some shells were brought up for a million shots on the first day of the assault. And then came this famous night of April 16. Exactly at five o'clock it all started ... The Katyusha hit, more than twenty thousand guns were fired, the hum of hundreds of bombers was heard ... One hundred and forty anti-aircraft searchlights flashed, located in a chain every two hundred meters. A sea of \u200b\u200blight fell on the enemy, blinding him, snatching objects from the darkness to attack our infantry and tanks. The battle scene was immense, impressive power. In all my life I have not experienced an equal sensation ... And there was also a moment when in Berlin over the Reichstag in the smoke I saw how a red cloth trembled. I am not a sentimental person, but a lump of excitement came to my throat. "
Berlin strategic offensive operation (Berlin operation, Capture of Berlin) - an offensive operation of Soviet troops during the Great Patriotic War, which ended with the capture of Berlin and victory in the war.
The military operation was carried out in Europe from April 16 to May 9, 1945, during which the territories seized by the Germans were liberated and Berlin was taken under control. The Berlin operation was the last in the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War.
As part of the Berlin operation, the following smaller operations were carried out:
- Stettin-Rostock;
- Zelovsko-Berlin;
- Cottbus-Potsdam;
- Shtremberg-Torgau;
- Brandenburg-Rathenovskaya.
The aim of the operation was the capture of Berlin, which would allow the Soviet troops to open the way to join with the Allies on the Elbe River and thus prevent Hitler from dragging out World War II for a longer period.
The course of the Berlin operation
In November 1944, the General Staff of Soviet troops began planning an offensive operation on the approaches to the German capital. During the operation, it was planned to defeat the German Army Group "A" and finally liberate the occupied territories of Poland.
At the end of the same month, the German army launched a counteroffensive in the Ardennes and was able to push back the Allied troops, thereby putting them on the brink of defeat. To continue the war, the allies needed the support of the USSR - for this, the leadership of the United States and Great Britain turned to the Soviet Union with a request to send their troops and conduct offensive operations in order to distract Hitler and give the allies the opportunity to recover.
The Soviet command agreed, and the USSR army launched an offensive, but the operation began almost a week earlier, due to which there was insufficient preparation and, as a result, heavy losses.
By mid-February, Soviet troops were able to cross the Oder, the last obstacle on the way to Berlin. A little more than seventy kilometers remained to the capital of Germany. From that moment on, the battles took on a more protracted and fierce character - Germany did not want to surrender and tried with all its might to contain the Soviet offensive, but it was quite difficult to stop the Red Army.
At the same time, preparations began on the territory of East Prussia for the assault on the Konigsberg fortress, which was extremely well fortified and seemed almost impregnable. For the assault, the Soviet troops carried out a thorough artillery preparation, which, as a result, bore fruit - the fortress was taken unusually quickly.
In April 1945 soviet army began preparations for the long-awaited assault on Berlin. The leadership of the USSR was of the opinion that in order to achieve the success of the entire operation, it was necessary to urgently conduct an assault without delaying, since the protraction of the war itself could lead to the fact that the Germans could open another front in the West and conclude a separate peace. In addition, the Soviet leadership did not want to give Berlin to the Allied forces.
The Berlin offensive operation was prepared very carefully. Huge reserves of combat were transferred to the outskirts of the city. military equipment and ammunition, the forces of three fronts were drawn. The operation was commanded by marshals G.K. Zhukov, K.K. Rokossovsky and I.S. Konev. In total, more than 3 million people participated in the battle on both sides.
Storming Berlin
The assault on the city began on April 16 at 3 am. By the light of searchlights, one and a half hundred tanks and infantry attacked the defensive positions of the Germans. A fierce battle was fought for four days, after which the forces of three Soviet fronts and troops of the Polish army managed to take the city in a ring. On the same day, Soviet troops met with the Allies on the Elbe. As a result of four days of fighting, several hundred thousand people were captured, dozens of armored vehicles were destroyed.
However, despite the offensive, Hitler did not intend to surrender Berlin, he insisted that the city should be held at all costs. Hitler refused to surrender even after the Soviet troops approached the city, he threw all available human resources, including children and the elderly, on the battlefield.
On April 21, the Soviet army was able to reach the outskirts of Berlin and engage in street fighting there - German soldiers fought to the last, following Hitler's orders not to surrender.
On April 29, Soviet soldiers began storming the Reichstag building. On April 30, the Soviet flag was hoisted on the building - the war ended, Germany was defeated.
Results of the Berlin operation
The Berlin operation put an end to the Great Patriotic War and the Second World War. As a result of the rapid offensive of the Soviet troops, Germany was forced to surrender, all chances of opening a second front and concluding peace with the allies were ruined. Hitler, having learned about the defeat of his army and the entire fascist regime, committed suicide.
How this most important historical event took place. What preceded it, what were the plans and the balance of forces of the opposing sides. How the operation of Soviet troops to capture Berlin developed, the chronology of events, the storming of the Reichstag with the hoisting of the Victory Banner and the significance of the historical battle.
The capture of Berlin and the fall of the Third Reich
By mid-spring 1945, the main events were unfolding over a large part of Germany. By this time Poland, Hungary, almost all of Czechoslovakia, Eastern Pomerania and Silesia were liberated. The Red Army troops liberated the capital of Austria - Vienna. The rout of large enemy groupings in East Prussia, Courland, and the Zemlyand peninsula was completed. Most of the coast of the Baltic Sea remained with our army. Finland, Bulgaria, Romania and Italy were withdrawn from the war.
In the south, the Yugoslav army, together with Soviet troops, cleared most of Serbia and its capital Belgrade from the Nazis. The allies forced the Rhine from the west and the operation to defeat the Ruhr group was coming to an end.
The German economy experienced enormous difficulties. The raw material regions of the previously occupied countries were lost. The industrial decline continued. The production of military products fell by more than 60 percent in six months. In addition, the Wehrmacht experienced difficulties with mobilization resources. Sixteen-year-old boys were already subject to the draft. However, Berlin still remained not only the political capital of fascism, but also a major economic center. In addition, in the Berlin direction, Hitler concentrated his main forces with a huge combat potential.
That is why the defeat of the Berlin group of German troops and the capture of the capital of the Third Reich were so important. The battle for Berlin and its fall was to put an end to the Great Patriotic War and become the natural outcome of the Second World War of 1939-1945.
Berlin offensive operation
All participants were interested in the early end of hostilities anti-Hitler coalition... Fundamental issues, namely: who will take Berlin, the division of spheres of influence in Europe, the post-war structure of Germany and others, were resolved in the Crimea at a conference in Yalta.
The enemy understood that the war was lost strategically, but in the current situation he tried to extract tactical benefits. Its main task was to drag out the war in order to find ways out for separate negotiations with the Western allies of the USSR in order to obtain more favorable terms of surrender.
There is also an opinion that Hitler had hope for the so-called weapon of retaliation, which was in the stage of final development and was supposed to reverse the balance of power. That is why the Wehrmacht needed time, and losses did not play any role here. Therefore, Hitler concentrated 214 divisions on the Soviet-German front, and only 60 on the American-English front.
Preparation of an offensive operation, position and tasks of the parties. The balance of forces and means
On the German side, the defense of the Berlin direction was assigned to the army groups "Center" and "Vistula"... The construction of the echeloned defense was carried out from the beginning of 1945. The main part of it was made up of the Oder-Neissen line and the Berlin defensive area.
The first was a deep defense of three strips up to forty kilometers wide, with powerful strongholds, engineering barriers and areas prepared for flooding.
In the Berlin defensive area, three so-called defensive ring lines were equipped. The first, or external, was prepared at a distance of twenty-five to forty kilometers from the center of the capital. It included strongholds and points of resistance in settlements, lines of defense along rivers and canals. The second main, or internal, up to eight kilometers deep, passed along the outskirts of Berlin. All lines and positions were tied into a single fire system. The third city bypass coincided with the ring railway. Berlin itself was divided into nine sectors by the command of the Nazi troops. The streets leading to the city center were barricaded, the first floors of buildings were turned into permanent firing points and structures, trenches and caponiers were dug for guns and tanks. All positions were connected by message moves. For a hidden maneuver, the metro was supposed to be actively used as rockadic roads.
The operation of the Soviet troops to capture Berlin began to be developed during the winter offensive.
Battle of Berlin plan
The intention of the command was as follows - to break through the Oder-Neissen line with coordinated strikes from three fronts, then, developing an offensive, reach Berlin, surround the enemy grouping, cut it into several parts and destroy it. In the future, no later than 15 days from the start of the operation, reach the Elbe to join the Allied forces. For this, the Headquarters decided to involve the 1st and 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts.
Due to the fact that the Soviet-German front narrowed, the Nazis in the Berlin direction managed to achieve an incredible density of troops. In some areas, it reached 1 division per 3 kilometers of the front line. The army groups "Center", "Vistula" consisted of 48 infantry, 6 tank, 9 motorized divisions, 37 separate infantry regiments, 98 separate infantry battalions. Also, the Nazis had about two thousand aircraft, including 120 jet. In addition, about two hundred battalions of the so-called Volkssturm were formed in the Berlin garrison, their total number exceeded two hundred thousand people.
Three Soviet fronts outnumbered the enemy and had the 21st combined-arms army, 4 tank and 3 air corps, in addition, 10 separate tank and mechanized corps and 4 cavalry corps. It was also envisaged to attract the Baltic Fleet, the Dnieper military flotilla, long-range aviation In addition, Polish units took part in the operation - they had 2 armies, a tank and an aviation corps, 2 artillery divisions, and a mortar brigade.
By the beginning of the operation, Soviet troops had an advantage over German ones:
- in personnel by 2.5 times;
- in guns and mortars 4 times;
- in tanks and self-propelled artillery installations by 4.1 times;
- in planes 2.3 times.
Start of operation
The offensive was about to begin 16 april... In front of him, in the offensive zone of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, one rifle battalion from each tried to open fire weapons on the front line of the enemy's defense.
IN 5.00 artillery preparation started on the appointed date. After that 1 -Th Belorussian Front under the command of Marshal Zhukov went on the offensive, delivering three blows: one main and two auxiliary. The main in the direction to Berlin through Seelow Heights and the city of Seelow, auxiliary - north and south of the capital of Germany. The enemy stubbornly resisted, and it was not possible to take the heights from a swoop. After a series of roundabout maneuvers, only towards the end of the day, our army finally took the city of Zelov.
On the first and second day of the operation, battles were fought in the first line of defense of the German fascists. Only on April 17 was it finally possible to make a dent in the second lane. The German command tried to stop the offensive by introducing available reserves into battle, but did not succeed. The battles continued on April 18 and 19. The pace of progress remained very slow. The Nazis were not going to surrender, their defenses were filled with a large number of anti-tank weapons. Dense artillery fire, constraint in maneuvering due to difficult terrain - all this influenced the actions of our troops. Nevertheless, at the end of the day on April 19, they broke through the third and last line of defense of this line. As a result, in the first four days, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front advanced 30 kilometers.
The offensive of the 1st Ukrainian Front under the command of Marshal Konev was developing more successfully. For the first day, the troops crossed the Neisse River, pierced the first line of defense and wedged in to a depth of 13 kilometers. The next day, having thrown the main forces of the front into battle, they broke through the second line and advanced 20 kilometers. The enemy withdrew across the Spree River. The Wehrmacht, preventing a deep bypass of the entire Berlin grouping, transferred the reserves of the "Center" group to this area. Despite this, on April 18, our troops crossed the Spree River and broke into the front edge of the defense of the third line. At the end of the third day, in the direction of the main attack, the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced to a depth of 30 kilometers. In the process of further movement by the second half of April, our units and formations cut off the Vistula Army Group from the Center. Large enemy forces were semi-encircled.
Troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front, commanded by Marshal Rokossovsky, according to the plan, they were supposed to advance on April 20, but in order to facilitate the task of the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, they began to cross the Oder on the 18th. By their actions, they drew off part of the enemy's forces and reserves to themselves. Preparations for the main phase of the operation have been completed.
Storming Berlin
All 3 Soviet fronts, before April 20, basically completed the task of breaking through the Oder-Neissen line and destroying Hitler's troops in the suburbs of Berlin. It was time to move on to the storming of the German capital itself.
The beginning of the battle
The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front on April 20 began shelling the outskirts of Berlin with long-range artillery, and 21 broke through the first bypass line. Since April 22, battles have been fought directly in the city. The distance between the troops of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts advancing from the northeast from the south was reduced. The prerequisites were created for the complete encirclement of the German capital, and it also became possible to cut off from the city and encircle a large grouping of the 9th Infantry Army of the enemy, up to two hundred thousand people, with the task of preventing its breakthrough into Berlin or retreat to the west. This plan was implemented on April 23rd and 24th.
To avoid encirclement, the Wehrmacht command decided to remove all troops from western front and throw it on the deblockade of the capital and the surrounded 9th Army. From April 26, part of the forces of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts took up defensive positions. It was necessary to prevent a breakthrough both from the inside and from the outside.
The battles to destroy the encircled grouping continued until May 1. In some areas, the fascist German troops managed to break through the defense ring and leave in the western direction, but these attempts were stopped in time. Only small groups were able to break through and surrender to the Americans. In total, about 120 thousand soldiers and officers, a large number of tanks and field guns were captured in this sector by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts.
On April 25, Soviet troops met with the Americans on the Elbe. Through a well-organized defense and access to the Elbe, the units of the 1st Ukrainian Front created a very successful foothold. It became important for the subsequent offensive against Prague.
The climax of the Berlin battle
Meanwhile, in Berlin, the fighting reached its climax. Assault detachments and groups carried out their advance deep into the city. They successively moved from building to building, from block to block, from district to district, destroying pockets of resistance, disrupting the control of the defenders. In the city, the use of tanks was limited.
However, tanks played an important role in the battle for Berlin. Forged in tank battles on the Kursk Bulge, during the liberation of Belarus and Ukraine, tankers were not frightened by Berlin. But they were used only in close cooperation with the infantry. Single attempts, as a rule, resulted in losses. Artillery units also encountered certain features of their use. Some of them were attached to assault groups for direct fire and destruction fire.
Storming of the Reichstag. Banner over the Reichstag
On April 27, battles for the city center began, which were not interrupted either day or night. The Berlin garrison did not stop fighting. On April 28, it again flared up near the Reichstag. It was organized by the troops of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. But our soldiers were able to come close to the building only on April 30.
Assault groups were given red flags, one of which, belonging to the 150th Infantry Division of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front, later became the Banner of Victory. It was erected on May 1 on the pediment of the building by the soldiers of the rifle regiment of the Idritsa division M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria. It was a symbol of the capture of the main fascist citadel.
Bearers of Victory
While preparations for the Victory Parade in June 1945 were in full swing, the question did not even arise of whom to appoint the standard-bearers of the Victory. It was Yegorov and Kantaria who were instructed to act as assistants to the flag bearer and carry the Victory Banner across the main square of the country.
Unfortunately, the plans were not given to come true. The front-line soldiers who defeated the fascists were unable to cope with combat science. In addition, combat wounds were still making themselves felt. In spite of everything, they trained very hard, sparing no effort or time.
Marshal G.K. Zhukov, who hosted that famous parade, watched the rehearsal for carrying the banner and came to the conclusion that it would be too difficult for the heroes of the battle for Berlin. Therefore, he ordered the removal of the Banner to be canceled and the parade held without this symbolic part.
But after 20 years, two heroes still carried the Victory Banner across Red Square. It happened at the 1965 Victory Parade.
Taking Berlin
The storming of the Reichstag did not end with the capture of Berlin. By May 30, the German troops defending the city were cut into four parts. Their control was completely disrupted. The Germans were on the brink of disaster. On the same day, the Fuhrer took his own life. On May 1, the chief of the Wehrmacht General Staff, General Krebe, entered into negotiations with the Soviet command and offered to temporarily stop hostilities. Zhukov put forward the only demand - unconditional surrender. It was rejected and the assault resumed.
In the deep night of May 2, the commander of the defense of the German capital, General Weidling, surrendered, and our radio stations began to receive a message from the Nazis asking for a ceasefire. By 15.00 the resistance had completely stopped. The historic assault is over.
The battle for Berlin ended, but the offensive continued. The 1st Ukrainian Front began a regrouping, the purpose of which was to attack Prague and liberate Czechoslovakia. At the same time, the 1st Byelorussian by May 7 went on a wide front to the Elbe. The 2nd Belorussky reached the shore of the Baltic Sea, and also entered into interaction with the 2nd British army, positioned on the Elbe. Subsequently, he began the liberation of the Danish islands in the Baltic Sea.
The results of the storming of Berlin and the entire Berlin operation
The active phase of the Berlin operation lasted a little over two weeks. Its results are as follows:
- a large group of the Nazis was defeated, the command of the Wehrmacht practically lost control of the remaining troops;
- the main part of the top leadership of Germany was captured, as well as almost 380 thousand soldiers and officers;
- experience gained in using different types of troops in urban battles;
- made an invaluable contribution to the Soviet military art;
- according to various estimates, it was the Berlin operation that dissuaded the leadership of the United States and Britain from starting a war against the USSR.
On the night of May 9, Field Marshal Keitel in Potsdam signed an act that signified the complete and unconditional surrender of Germany. So May 9 became the Day of the Great Victory. A conference was soon held there, at which the fate of post-war Germany was decided and the map of Europe was finally redrawn. There were still a few months left until the end of World War II in 1939-1945.
All the heroes of the battle were noted by the leadership of the USSR. More than six hundred people were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
In addition, in order to recognize special services to the Fatherland, a medal was developed "For the capture of Berlin." An interesting fact - the fighting in the German capital was still going on, and in Moscow a sketch of the future medal was already presented. The Soviet leadership wanted Russian soldiers to know that wherever they fought for the glory of the Motherland, their awards will find their heroes.
More than a million people have been awarded. In addition to our soldiers, the servicemen of the Polish troops who distinguished themselves in battles also received medals. There are a total of seven such awards established for victories in cities outside the USSR.
Charitable wall newspaper for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting." Issue # 77, March 2015 .. Battle of Berlin.
Battle of Berlin
Wall newspapers of the charitable educational project "Briefly and clearly about the most interesting" (site site) are intended for schoolchildren, parents and teachers of St. Petersburg. They are delivered free of charge to most educational institutions, as well as to a number of hospitals, orphanages and other institutions in the city. The publications of the project do not contain any advertising (only the logos of the founders), are politically and religiously neutral, written in an easy language, well illustrated. They are conceived as informational "braking" for students, awakening cognitive activity and the desire to read. Authors and publishers, without pretending to the academic completeness of the presentation of the material, publish interesting facts, illustrations, interviews with famous figures of science and culture and hope thereby to increase the interest of schoolchildren in the educational process. Please send your feedback and suggestions to: [email protected] We thank the Education Department of the Administration of the Kirovsky District of St. Petersburg and everyone who unselfishly helps in the distribution of our wall newspapers. Our special thanks go to the Battle of Berlin. The feat of the standard-bearers ”(site panoramaberlin.ru), who kindly allowed to use the materials of the site, for invaluable help in creating this issue.
Fragment of the painting by PA Krivonosov "Victory", 1948 (hrono.ru).
Diorama "Storming Berlin" by artist V.M.Sibirskiy. Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War (poklonnayagora.ru).
Berlin operation
Scheme of the Berlin operation (panoramaberlin.ru). 
"Fire in Berlin!" Photo by A.B. Kapustyansky (topwar.ru).
The Berlin strategic offensive operation is one of the last strategic operations of Soviet troops in the European theater of operations, during which the Red Army occupied the capital of Germany and victoriously ended the Great Patriotic War and World War II in Europe. The operation lasted from April 16 to May 8, 1945, the width of the front of hostilities was 300 km. By April 1945, the main offensive operations of the Red Army in Hungary, East Pomerania, Austria and East Prussia were completed. This deprived Berlin of the support of industrial areas and the possibility of replenishing reserves and resources. Soviet troops reached the line of the Oder and Neisse rivers, only a few tens of kilometers remained to Berlin. The offensive was carried out by the forces of three fronts: the 1st Belorussian under the command of Marshal G.K. Zhukov, the 2nd Belorussian under the command of Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky and the 1st Ukrainian under the command of Marshal I.S. Konev, with the support of the 18th the air army, the Dnieper military flotilla and the Red Banner Baltic fleet. The Red Army was opposed by a large grouping in the Vistula Army Group (Generals G. Heinrici, then K. Tippelskirch) and Center (Field Marshal F. Schörner). On April 16, 1945, at 5 a.m. Moscow time (2 hours before dawn), artillery preparation began in the zone of the 1st Belorussian Front. 9,000 guns and mortars, as well as more than 1,500 BM-13 and BM-31 installations (modifications of the famous Katyushas) for 25 minutes grind the first line of the German defense on the 27-kilometer section of the breakthrough. With the start of the attack, the artillery fire was moved deep into the defense, and 143 anti-aircraft searchlights were turned on in the breakthrough areas. Their dazzling light stunned the enemy, disarmed night vision devices and at the same time illuminated the road for advancing units.
The offensive unfolded in three directions: through the Seelow Heights directly to Berlin (1st Belorussian Front), south of the city, along the left flank (1st Ukrainian Front) and further north, along the right flank (2nd Belorussian Front). The largest number of enemy forces was concentrated in the sector of the 1st Belorussian Front, and the most intense battles flared up in the area of \u200b\u200bthe Seelow Heights. Despite fierce resistance, on April 21, the first Soviet assault detachments reached the outskirts of Berlin, and street battles began. In the afternoon of March 25, units of the 1st Ukrainian and 1st Belorussian fronts united, closing the ring around the city. However, the assault was still ahead, and the defense of Berlin was carefully prepared and well thought out. It was a whole system of strongholds and nodes of resistance, streets were blocked by powerful barricades, many buildings were turned into firing points, underground structures and the metro were actively used. Faust cartridges became a formidable weapon in the conditions of street fighting and limited space for maneuver, they inflicted especially heavy damage on tanks. The situation was also complicated by the fact that all German units and individual groups of soldiers retreating during the fighting on the outskirts of the city were concentrated in Berlin, replenishing the garrison of the city's defenders.
Fighting in the city did not stop day or night, almost every house had to be taken by storm. However, thanks to the superiority in strength, as well as the experience gained in the past offensive operations in combat in the city, the Soviet troops moved forward. By the evening of April 28, units of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front reached the Reichstag. On April 30, the first assault groups broke through into the building, flags of units appeared on the building, on the night of May 1, the Banner of the Military Council, located in the 150th rifle division, was hoisted. And by the morning of May 2, the Reichstag garrison surrendered.
On May 1, only the Tiergarten and the government quarter remained in the hands of the Germans. The imperial chancellery was located here, in the courtyard of which was the bunker of Hitler's headquarters. On the night of May 1, by prior arrangement, General Krebs, the chief of the general staff of the German ground forces, arrived at the headquarters of the 8th Guards Army. He informed the commander of the army, General V. I. Chuikov, about Hitler's suicide and about the proposal of the new German government to conclude an armistice. But the government’s categorical demand for unconditional surrender, received in response, was rejected. Soviet troops resumed the assault with renewed vigor. The remnants of the German troops were no longer able to continue resistance, and in the early morning of May 2, a German officer, on behalf of the commander of the Berlin defense, General Weidling, wrote an order of surrender, which was replicated and, with the help of loud-speaking installations and radio, was brought to the German units defending in the center of Berlin. As this order was brought to the attention of the defenders, resistance in the city ceased. By the end of the day, the troops of the 8th Guards Army cleared the central part of the city from the enemy. Individual units that did not want to surrender tried to break through to the west, but were destroyed or scattered.
During the Berlin operation, from April 16 to May 8, Soviet troops lost 352,475 people, of which 78,291 people were irretrievably lost. In terms of daily losses of personnel and equipment, the battle for Berlin surpassed all other operations of the Red Army. The losses of the German troops according to the reports of the Soviet command were: killed - about 400 thousand people, captured about 380 thousand people. Part of the German troops was pushed back to the Elbe and surrendered to the allied forces.
The Berlin operation dealt the final crushing blow to the armed forces of the Third Reich, which, with the loss of Berlin, lost their ability to organize resistance. Six days after the fall of Berlin, on the night of May 8-9, the German leadership signed an act of unconditional surrender of Germany.
Storming of the Reichstag
Reichstag assault map (commons.wikimedia.org, Ivengo)
The famous photograph "A captured German soldier at the Reichstag", or "Ende" - in German "The End" (panoramaberlin.ru).
The assault on the Reichstag is the final stage of the Berlin offensive, whose task was to capture the building of the German parliament and hoist the Victory Banner. The Berlin offensive began on April 16, 1945. And the operation to storm the Reichstag lasted from April 28 to May 2, 1945. The assault was carried out by the forces of the 150th and 171st rifle divisions of the 79th rifle corps of the 3rd shock army of the 1st Belorussian Front. In addition, two regiments of the 207th Infantry Division were advancing in the direction of the Krol-Opera. By the evening of April 28, units of the 79th Rifle Corps of the 3rd Shock Army occupied the Moabit area and from the northwest approached the area where, in addition to the Reichstag, the building of the Ministry of the Interior, the Krol-Opera theater, the Swiss embassy and a number of other structures were located. Well fortified and adapted for long-term defense, together they constituted a powerful node of resistance. On April 28, the corps commander, Major General S.N. Perevertkin, was tasked with taking over the Reichstag. It was assumed that the 150th SD should occupy the western part of the building, and the 171st SD - the eastern one.
The main obstacle to the advancing troops was the Spree River. The only possible way to overcome it was the Moltke Bridge, which the Nazis blew up when the Soviet units approached, but the bridge did not collapse. The first attempt to take it on the move ended in failure, because heavy fire was fired at it. Only after artillery preparation and destruction of emplacements on the embankments was it possible to capture the bridge. By the morning of April 29, the forward battalions of the 150th and 171st Infantry Divisions under the command of Captain S.A. Neustroev and Senior Lieutenant K.Ya. Samsonov crossed to the opposite bank of the Spree. After the crossing, on the same morning, the building of the Swiss embassy, \u200b\u200bfacing the square in front of the Reichstag, was cleared of the enemy. The next target on the way to the Reichstag was the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, nicknamed by the Soviet soldiers "Himmler's House". The huge, solid six-story building was additionally adapted for defense. A powerful artillery preparation was carried out to capture Himmler's house at 7 o'clock in the morning. For the next day, units of the 150th Infantry Division fought for the building and by dawn on April 30 captured it. The road to the Reichstag was then opened.
Before dawn on April 30, the following situation developed in the combat area. The 525th and 380th Regiments of the 171st Infantry Division fought in the quarters north of Königplatz Square. The 674th regiment and part of the forces of the 756th regiment were engaged in cleaning the building of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the remnants of the garrison. The 2nd battalion of the 756th regiment went out to the moat and took up defenses in front of it. The 207th Infantry Division was crossing the Moltke Bridge and preparing to attack the building of the Krol Opera Theater.
The garrison of the Reichstag numbered about 1000 people, had 5 armored vehicles, 7 anti-aircraft guns, 2 howitzers (equipment, the location of which has been preserved with accurate descriptions and photographs). The situation was aggravated by the fact that the Königplatz between the “Himmler house” and the Reichstag was an open space, moreover, crossed from north to south by a deep moat left from an unfinished metro line.
In the early morning of April 30, an attempt was made to immediately break into the Reichstag, but the attack was repulsed. The second assault began at 13:00 with a powerful half-hour artillery barrage. Parts of the 207th Infantry Division with their fire suppressed the firing points located in the building of the Krol Opera, blocked its garrison and thereby facilitated the assault. Under the cover of artillery barrage, battalions of the 756th and 674th rifle regiments went over to the attack and, on the move, breaking through a moat filled with water, broke through to the Reichstag.
All the time, while the preparations and the assault on the Reichstag were going on, fierce battles were fought on the right flank of the 150th Infantry Division, in the zone of the 469th Infantry Regiment. Having taken up defenses on the right bank of the Spree, the regiment fought off numerous German attacks for several days, aimed at reaching the flank and rear of the troops advancing on the Reichstag. The gunners played an important role in repelling German attacks.
The scouts of S.E. Sorokin's group were among the first to break into the Reichstag. At 14:25, they installed a homemade red banner, first on the stairs of the main entrance, and then on the roof, on one of the sculptural groups. The banner was noticed by the soldiers at Königplatz. Inspired by the banner, all new groups broke through into the Reichstag. During the day of April 30, the upper floors were cleared of the enemy, the remaining defenders of the building took refuge in the basements and continued fierce resistance.
In the evening of April 30, the assault group of Captain V.N. Makov made its way into the Reichstag, at 22:40, set up its banner on the sculpture above the front pediment. At night from April 30 to May 1, M.A.Egorov, M.V. Kantaria, A.P. Berest, with the support of machine gunners from the company I.A. Syanov, climbed onto the roof, hoisted the official Banner of the Military Council, issued by the 150th rifle division. It was it that later became the Banner of Victory.
At 10 o'clock in the morning on May 1, German troops launched a concerted counterattack from outside and from inside the Reichstag. In addition, a fire broke out in several parts of the building, Soviet soldiers had to fight it or move to non-burning rooms. Strong smoke has formed. However, the Soviet soldiers did not leave the building, they continued to fight. The fierce battle continued until late in the evening, the remnants of the Reichstag garrison were again driven into the cellars.
Realizing the senselessness of further resistance, the command of the Reichstag garrison proposed to start negotiations, but on the condition that an officer with the rank of colonel at least should take part in them from the Soviet side. Among the officers who were at that time in the Reichstag, there was no one older than the major, and communication with the regiment did not work. After a short preparation, A.P. Berest went to the negotiations as a colonel (the tallest and most personable), S.A. Neustroev as his adjutant and private I.Prygunov as an interpreter. The negotiations took a long time. Not accepting the conditions set by the Nazis, the Soviet delegation left the basement. However, in the early morning of May 2, the German garrison capitulated.
On the opposite side of the Königplatz square, the battle for the building of the Krol-opera theater was going on all day on May 1. Only by midnight, after two unsuccessful assault attempts, the 597th and 598th regiments of the 207th rifle division captured the theater building. According to the report of the chief of staff of the 150th rifle division, during the defense of the Reichstag, the German side suffered the following losses: 2500 people were destroyed, 1650 people were taken prisoner. There is no exact data on the losses of Soviet troops. On the afternoon of May 2, the Victory Banner of the Military Council, hoisted by Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest, was transferred to the dome of the Reichstag.
After the Victory, under a treaty with the allies, the Reichstag withdrew to the territory of the British occupation zone.
Reichstag history
Reichstag, late 19th century photo (from Illustrated Review of the Past Century, 1901).
Reichstag. Modern view (Jürgen Matern).
The Reichstag Building (Reichstagsgebäude - "the building of the state assembly") is a famous historical building in Berlin. The building was designed by the Frankfurt architect Paul Wallot in the Italian High Renaissance style. The foundation stone of the building of the German Parliament was laid on June 9, 1884 by Kaiser Wilhelm I. Construction lasted ten years and was completed under Kaiser Wilhelm II. On January 30, 1933, Hitler became head of the coalition government and chancellor. However, the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers' Party) had only 32% of the seats in the Reichstag and three ministers in the government (Hitler, Frick and Goering). As chancellor, Hitler asked President Paul von Hindenburg to dissolve the Reichstag and call new elections, hoping to achieve a majority for the NSDAP. New elections were scheduled for March 5, 1933.
On February 27, 1933, the Reichstag building burned down as a result of arson. The fire became for the National Socialists, who had just come to power, led by Chancellor Adolf Hitler, an excuse to quickly dismantle democratic institutions and discredit their main political enemy - the Communist Party. Six months after the fire in the Reichstag in Leipzig, the trial of the accused communists begins, among whom were Ernst Torgler, chairman of the communist faction in the parliament of the Weimar Republic, and the Bulgarian communist Georgi Dimitrov. Dimitrov and Goering during the process led a fierce skirmish that went down in history. It was not possible to prove guilt in the burning of the Reichstag building, but this incident allowed the Nazis to establish absolute power.
After that, rare meetings of the Reichstag took place at the Krol-Opera (which was destroyed in 1943), and in 1942 they stopped. The building was used for propaganda meetings, and after 1939 for military purposes.
During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops stormed the Reichstag. On April 30, 1945, the first, homemade Victory Banner was hoisted on the Reichstag. On the walls of the Reichstag, Soviet soldiers left many inscriptions, some of which were preserved and left during the restoration of the building. In 1947, by order of the Soviet commandant's office, the inscriptions were “censored”. In 2002, the Bundestag raised the question of removing these inscriptions, but the proposal was rejected by a majority of votes. Most of the surviving inscriptions of Soviet soldiers are in the interior of the Reichstag, now accessible only with a guide by appointment. There are also traces of bullets on the inside of the left pediment.
On September 9, 1948, during the blockade of Berlin, a rally was held in front of the Reichstag building, which brought together over 350 thousand Berliners. Against the backdrop of the destroyed building of the Reichstag with the famous appeal to the world community "Peoples of the world ... Take a look at this city!" Mayor Ernst Reuter addressed.
After the surrender of Germany and the collapse of the Third Reich, the Reichstag remained in ruins for a long time. The authorities could not decide in any way whether it was worth restoring it or it would be much more expedient to demolish it. Since the dome was damaged during the fire, and was practically destroyed by aerial bombardment, in 1954 what was left of it was blown up. And only in 1956 it was decided to restore it.
The Berlin Wall, erected on August 13, 1961, took place in the immediate vicinity of the Reichstag building. It ended up in West Berlin. Subsequently, the building was restored and, since 1973, has been used as an exposition of a historical exhibition and as a meeting room for the bodies and factions of the Bundestag.
On June 20, 1991 (after the reunification of Germany on October 4, 1990), the Bundestag in Bonn (the former capital of the Federal Republic of Germany) decides to move to Berlin in the Reichstag building. After a competition, the reconstruction of the Reichstag was entrusted to the English architect Lord Norman Foster. He managed to preserve the historical appearance of the Reichstag building and at the same time create the premises for the modern parliament. The huge vault of the 6-storey building of the German Parliament is carried by 12 concrete columns, each weighing 23 tons. The dome of the Reichstag has a diameter of 40 m and a weight of 1200 tons, including 700 tons of steel structures. The observation deck, equipped on the dome, is located at a height of 40.7 m. Being on it, you can see both the circular panorama of Berlin and everything that happens in the conference room.
Why was the Reichstag chosen to hoist the Victory Banner?
Soviet artillerymen making inscriptions on shells, 1945. Photo by O.B. Knorring (topwar.ru).
The storming of the Reichstag and the hoisting of the Victory Banner over it for every Soviet citizen meant the end of the most terrible war in the history of mankind. Many soldiers gave their lives for this purpose. However, why was the Reichstag building chosen, and not the Reich Chancellery, as a symbol of victory over fascism? There are various theories on this, and we will consider them.
The fire of the Reichstag in 1933 became a symbol of the collapse of old and "helpless" Germany, and marked the rise to power of Adolf Hitler. A year later, a dictatorship regime was established in Germany and a ban was introduced on the existence and founding of new parties: all power is now concentrated in the NSDAP (National Socialist German Workers Party). The power of the new powerful and "most powerful in the world" country was to be located from now on in the new Reichstag. The 290-meter-high building was designed by the Minister of Industry, Albert Speer. True, very soon Hitler's ambitions will lead to the Second World War, and the construction of a new Reichstag, which was assigned the role of a symbol of the superiority of the "great Aryan race", will be postponed indefinitely. During the Second World War, the Reichstag was not the center of political life, only occasionally there were speeches about the "inferiority" of the Jews and the question of their complete extermination was decided. Since 1941, the Reichstag has only played the role of the base of the air forces of Nazi Germany, which was led by Hermann Goering.
Back on October 6, 1944, at a ceremonial meeting of the Moscow Soviet in honor of the 27th anniversary of the October Revolution, Stalin said: “From now on, our land is free of Hitler's scum, and now the Red Army has its last, final mission: to complete the task together with the armies of our allies defeat the Nazi army, finish off the fascist beast in its own lair and hoist the Victory Banner over Berlin. " However, over which building should the Victory Banner be hoisted? On April 16, 1945, on the day the Berlin offensive began, at a meeting of the chiefs of political departments of all armies from the 1st Belorussian Front, Zhukov was asked where to put the flag. Zhukov forwarded the question to the Main Political Directorate of the army and the answer was - "Reichstag". For many Soviet citizens, the Reichstag was the "center of German imperialism", a hotbed of German aggression and, ultimately, the cause of the terrible suffering of millions of people. Each Soviet soldier considered it his goal to destroy and destroy the Reichstag, which was compared to the victory over fascism. On many shells and armored vehicles the inscriptions were made in white paint: "Across the Reichstag!" and "To the Reichstag!"
The question of the reasons for choosing the Reichstag for hoisting the Victory Banner is still open. We cannot say for sure if any of the theories are true. But the most important thing is that for every citizen of our country the Victory Banner in the captured Reichstag is a reason for great pride in their history and their ancestors.
Bearers of Victory
If you stop a bystander on the street and ask him who planted the Banner on the Reichstag in the victorious spring of 1945, the most likely answer would be: Yegorov and Kantaria. Perhaps they will still remember Berest, who accompanied them. The feat of M.A.Egorov, M.V. Kantaria and A.P. Berest is known all over the world today and is beyond doubt. It was they who installed the Banner of Victory, Banner No. 5, one of the 9 specially prepared banners of the Military Council, distributed among the divisions advancing in the direction of the Reichstag. This happened on the night of April 30 to May 1, 1945. However, the theme of hoisting the Victory Banner during the storming of the Reichstag is much more complicated, it is impossible to limit it to the history of a single banner group.
The red flag raised over the Reichstag was seen by Soviet soldiers as a symbol of Victory, a long-awaited point in a terrible war. Therefore, in addition to the official Banner, dozens of assault groups and individual fighters carried banners, flags and flags of their units (or even completely self-made) to the Reichstag, often without even knowing anything about the Banner of the Military Council. Pyotr Pyatnitsky, Pyotr Shcherbina, the reconnaissance group of Lieutenant Sorokin, the assault groups of Captain Makov and Major Bondar ... And how many more unknown units, not mentioned in the reports and combat documents, could have been?
Today, perhaps, it is difficult to establish exactly who was the first to hoist the red banner on the Reichstag, and even more so to draw up a chronological sequence of the appearance of various flags in different parts of the building. But it is also impossible to limit ourselves to the history of only one, official, Banner, to single out some and leave others in the shadows. It is important to preserve the memory of all the heroes-standard-bearers who stormed the Reichstag in 1945, who risked themselves in the last days and hours of the war, precisely when everyone especially wanted to survive - after all, Victory was very close.
Sorokin's group banner
Intelligence group S.E. Sorokin in the Reichstag. Photo by I. Shagin (panoramaberlin.ru).
Newsreel footage of Roman Karmen is known all over the world, as well as photographs of I. Shagin and Y. Ryumkin, taken on May 2, 1945. They show a group of fighters with a red banner, first on the square in front of the central entrance to the Reichstag, then on the roof.
This historical footage captures the soldiers of the reconnaissance platoon of the 674th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division under the command of Lieutenant S.E. Sorokin. At the request of the correspondents, they repeated for the chronicle their path to the Reichstag, traversed with battles on April 30. It so happened that the first to approach the Reichstag were units of the 674th rifle regiment under the command of A.D. Plekhodanov and the 756th rifle regiment under the command of F.M. Zinchenko. Both regiments were part of the 150th Infantry Division. However, by the end of the day on April 29, after crossing the Spree over the Moltke Bridge and fierce battles to capture the "Himmler house", units of the 756th regiment suffered heavy losses. Lieutenant Colonel A.D. Plekhodanov recalls that in the late evening of April 29, the division commander, Major General V.M. Shatilov, summoned him to his OP and explained that in connection with this situation, the main task of storming the Reichstag falls on the 674th regiment. It was at that moment, returning from the division commander, Plekhodanov ordered S.E. Sorokin, the regimental reconnaissance platoon commander, to select a group of fighters who would go in the forward line of the attackers. Since the Banner of the Military Council remained at the headquarters of the 756th regiment, it was decided to make a homemade banner. The red banner was found in the basements of the "Himmler house".
To fulfill the task, S.E. Sorokin selected 9 people. These are senior sergeant V.N. Pravotorov (party organizer of the platoon), senior sergeant I.N. Lysenko, privates G.P. Bulatov, S.G. Oreshko, P.D.Bryukhovetsky, M.A. Packkovsky, M.S. Gabidullin, N. Sankin and P. Dolgikh. The first assault attempt, undertaken in the early morning of April 30, was unsuccessful. After the artillery barrage, a second attack was launched. "Himmler's House" was only 300-400 meters away from the Reichstag, but it was an open area of \u200b\u200bthe square, the Germans were firing at it multi-layered. When crossing the square, N. Sankin was seriously wounded and P. Dolgikh was killed. The remaining 8 scouts were among the first to break into the Reichstag building. Clearing the way with grenades and automatic bursts, G.P. Bulatov, carrying the banner, and V.N. Pravotorov climbed to the second floor along the central staircase. There, in the window overlooking the Königplatz, Bulatov secured the banner. The flag was noticed by the fighters, who had fortified themselves in the square, which gave new strength to the offensive. The soldiers of Grechenkov's company entered the building and blocked the exits from the basements, where the remaining defenders of the building settled. Taking advantage of this, the scouts carried the banner to the roof and fixed it on one of the sculptural groups. It was at 14:25. Such a time of hoisting the flag on the roof of the building appears in combat reports along with the names of the scouts of Lieutenant Sorokin, in the memoirs of the participants in the events.
Immediately after the assault, the soldiers of Sorokin's group were promoted to the titles of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, they were awarded the Orders of the Red Banner - for the capture of the Reichstag. Only IN Lysenko a year later, in May 1946, was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero.
Makov's group banner
Soldiers of the group of Captain V.N. Makov. From left to right: sergeants M.P. Minin, G.K. Zagitov, A.P. Bobrov, A.F. Lisimenko (panoramaberlin.ru).
On April 27, as part of the 79th Rifle Corps, two assault groups of 25 people each were formed. The first group, led by Captain Vladimir Makov, from the artillerymen of the 136th and 86th artillery brigades, the second, led by Major Bondar from other artillery units. Captain Makov's group operated in the battle formations of Captain Neustroev's battalion, which in the morning of April 30 began to storm the Reichstag in the direction of the front entrance. Fierce fighting continued throughout the day with varying success. The Reichstag was not taken. But some fighters nevertheless entered the first floor and hung several red red coats from the broken windows. It was they who became the reason that some leaders hastened to announce the capture of the Reichstag and hoisting over it at 14:25 "the flag of the Soviet Union." A couple of hours later, the whole country was notified about the long-awaited event by radio, and the message was transmitted abroad. In fact, by order of the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, the artillery preparation for the decisive assault was started only at 21:30, and the assault itself began at 22:00 local time. After Neustroev's battalion moved to the front entrance, four from Captain Makov's group rushed forward along the steep stairs to the roof of the Reichstag building. Paving the way with grenades and automatic bursts, she reached her goal - against the background of a fiery glow, the sculptural composition "Goddess of Victory" stood out, over which Sergeant Minin hoisted the Red Banner. On the cloth he wrote the names of his comrades. Then Captain Makov, accompanied by Bobrov, went down and immediately reported by radio to the corps commander, General Perevertkin, that at 22:40 his group was the first to hoist the Red Banner over the Reichstag.
On May 1, 1945, the command of the 136th Artillery Brigade presented to the highest government award - conferring the title of Hero of the Soviet Union - Captain V.N. Makov, senior sergeants G.K. Zagitov, A.F. Lisimenko, A.P. Bobrov, sergeant M.P. Minin. Consecutively, on May 2, 3 and 6, the commander of the 79th Rifle Corps, the commander of the artillery of the 3rd Shock Army and the commander of the 3rd Shock Army confirmed the application for the award. However, the assignment of the titles of heroes did not take place.
At one time, the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation conducted a study of archival documents related to the hoisting of the Victory Banner. As a result of studying this issue, the Institute of Military History of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation supported a petition to confer the title of Hero of the Russian Federation on a group of the above-named soldiers. In 1997, all Makov's five received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union from the Permanent Presidium of the Congress of People's Deputies of the USSR. However, this award could not have full legal force, since the Soviet Union no longer existed at that time.
M.V.Kantaria and M.A.Egorov with the Victory Banner (panoramaberlin.ru).
Banner of Victory - 150th Rifle Order of Kutuzov, II Class, Idritskaya Division, 79th Rifle Corps, 3rd Shock Army, 1st Belorussian Front.
The banner installed on the dome of the Reichstag by Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest on May 1, 1945, was not the very first. But it was this banner that was destined to become the official symbol of Victory in the Great Patriotic War. The issue of the Victory Banner was decided in advance, even before the storming of the Reichstag. The Reichstag found itself in the offensive zone of the 3rd Shock Army of the 1st Belorussian Front. It consisted of nine divisions, in connection with which nine special banners were made for transfer to assault groups in each of the divisions. The banners were handed over to the political departments on the night of April 20-21. The 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division received the banner # 5. Sergeant M.A. Egorov and junior sergeant M.V. Kantaria were chosen to carry out the task of hoisting the Banner, too, in advance, as experienced scouts, who had acted in pairs more than once, and fighting friends. Senior Lieutenant A.P. Berest was sent to accompany the scouts with the banner by the battalion commander S.A. Neustroev.
During the day on April 30, Banner No. 5 was at the headquarters of the 756th regiment. Late in the evening, when several home-made flags were already installed on the Reichstag, by order of F.M. Zinchenko (commander of the 756th regiment), Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest climbed to the roof and fixed the Banner on Wilhelm's equestrian sculpture. After the surrender of the remaining defenders of the Reichstag, on the afternoon of May 2, the Banner was transferred to the dome.
Immediately after the end of the assault, many direct participants in the assault on the Reichstag were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. However, the order to award this high rank was issued only a year later, in May 1946. Among the recipients were M.A. Egorov and M.V. Kantaria, A.P. Berest was awarded only the Order of the Red Banner.
After the Victory, under an agreement with the allies, the Reichstag remained on the territory of the British occupation zone. The redeployment of the 3rd Shock Army was carried out. In this regard, the Banner, erected by Yegorov, Kantaria and Berest, was removed from the dome on May 8. Today it is kept in the Central Museum of the Great Patriotic War in Moscow.
Banner of Pyatnitsky and Shcherbina
A group of soldiers of the 756th Infantry Regiment, in the foreground with a bandaged head - Pyotr Shcherbina (panoramaberlin.ru).
Among the many attempts to plant the red banner on the Reichstag, not all, unfortunately, were successful. Many fighters died or were wounded at the time of their decisive throw, never reaching the cherished goal. In most cases, even their names were not preserved, they were lost in the cycle of events on April 30 and the first days of May 1945. One such desperate hero is Pyotr Pyatnitsky, a private in the 756th Infantry Regiment of the 150th Infantry Division.
Pyotr Nikolayevich Pyatnitsky was born in 1913 in the village of Muzhinovo, Oryol province (now the Bryansk region). He went to the front in July 1941. Many difficulties fell to the lot of Pyatnitsky: in July 1942 he was seriously wounded and taken prisoner, only in 1944 the advancing Red Army liberated him from the concentration camp. Pyatnitsky returned to service, by the time of the storming of the Reichstag he was a liaison officer of the battalion commander, S.A. Neustroev. On April 30, 1945, the soldiers of the Neustroev battalion were among the first to approach the Reichstag. Only the Königplatz square separated from the building, but the enemy was constantly firing on it. Through this square, in the forward line of the attackers, Pyotr Pyatnitsky rushed with a banner. He ran to the front entrance to the Reichstag, had already climbed the steps of the stairs, but here he was overtaken by an enemy bullet and died. It is still not known exactly where the hero-standard-bearer is buried - in the cycle of events of that day, his comrades-in-arms missed the moment when Pyatnitsky's body was taken from the steps of the porch. The supposed place is a common mass grave of Soviet soldiers in the Tiergarten.
And the flag carried by Pyotr Pyatnitsky was picked up by junior sergeant Shcherbina, also Peter, and fixed on one of the central columns when the next wave of attackers reached the Reichstag porch. Pyotr Dorofeevich Shcherbina was the commander of the rifle squad in the company of I.Ya. Syanov; in the late evening of April 30, it was he and his squad who accompanied Berest, Egorov and Kantaria to the roof of the Reichstag to hoist the Victory Banner.
The correspondent of the divisional newspaper VE Subbotin, a witness to the events of the storming of the Reichstag, in those days of May made a note about Pyatnitsky's feat, but the story did not go further than the "divisional". Even the family of Pyotr Nikolayevich considered him missing for a long time. He was remembered in the 60s. Subbotin's story was published, then even a note appeared in “History of the Great Patriotic War” (1963. Military Publishing House, vol. 5, p. 283): “... Here the flag of the warrior of the 1st battalion of the 756th rifle regiment of junior sergeant Pyotr Pyatnitsky was hoisted hit by an enemy bullet on the steps of the building ... ". In the homeland of the soldier, in the village of Kletnya, in 1981, a monument was erected with the inscription "Brave participant in the storming of the Reichstag", one of the streets of the village was named after him.
The famous photo of Evgeny Khaldei
One of the photographs by E. Khaldei taken on the roof of the Reichstag on May 2 (panoramaberlin.ru).
Evgeny Ananievich Khaldei (March 23, 1917 - October 6, 1997) - Soviet photographer, military photojournalist. Evgeny Khaldei was born in Yuzovka (now Donetsk). During the Jewish pogrom on March 13, 1918, his mother and grandfather were killed, and Zhenya, a one-year-old child, received a bullet wound in the chest. He studied at the cheder, at the age of 13 he started working at a factory, then he took the first picture with a homemade camera. At the age of 16 he started working as a photojournalist. Since 1939 he has been a correspondent for the TASS Photo Chronicle. Filmed Dneprostroy, reports about Alexei Stakhanov. Represented the editorial staff of TASS in the navy during the Great Patriotic War. He spent all 1418 days of the war with a Leica camera from Murmansk to Berlin.
A talented Soviet photojournalist is sometimes called "the author of one photo." This, of course, is not entirely fair - during his long career as a photographer and photojournalist, he took thousands of photographs, dozens of which became "photo icons". But it was the photograph "The Banner of Victory over the Reichstag" that went around the world and became one of the main symbols of the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War. Yevgeny Khaldei's photograph "Banner of Victory over the Reichstag" in the Soviet Union became a symbol of victory over Nazi Germany. However, few people remember that in fact the photo was staged - the author took the picture only the next day after the actual hoisting of the flag. Largely thanks to this work, in 1995 in France, Chaldeus was awarded one of the most honorable awards in the art world - "Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters".
By the time the war correspondent approached the filming location, the fighting had long subsided, and many banners were fluttering in the Reichstag. But the pictures had to be taken. Yevgeny Khaldei asked the very first soldiers he met to help him: climb the Reichstag, set up a banner with a hammer and sickle and pose a little. They agreed, the photographer found a winning angle and shot two cassettes. His characters were the fighters of the 8th Guards Army: Alexei Kovalev (sets the banner), as well as Abdulhakim Ismailov and Leonid Gorichev (assistants). After the photographer took off his banner - he took it with him - and showed the pictures to the editorial office. According to the daughter of Yevgeny Khaldei, in TASS the photo "was accepted as an icon - with sacred trepidation." Evgeny Khaldei continued his career as a photojournalist, filming the Nuremberg trials. In 1996, Boris Yeltsin ordered to present all the participants in the commemorative photograph to the title of Hero of Russia, however, by that time Leonid Gorichev had already passed away - he died of his wounds shortly after the end of the war. To date, not one of the three soldiers, immortalized in the photograph "Banner of Victory over the Reichstag", has survived.
Winners' Autographs
Soldiers sign on the walls of the Reichstag. Photographer unknown (colonelcassad.livejournal.com).
On May 2, after fierce battles, Soviet soldiers completely cleared the Reichstag building from the enemy. They went through the war, reached Berlin itself, they won. How can you express your joy and exultation? To mark your presence where the war began and where it ended, to say something about yourself? To indicate their involvement in the Great Victory, thousands of victorious fighters left their murals on the walls of the captured Reichstag.
After the end of the war, it was decided to preserve a significant part of these inscriptions for posterity. Interestingly, in the 1990s, during the reconstruction of the Reichstag, inscriptions were discovered hidden under a layer of plaster from the previous restoration in the 1960s. Some of them (including the meeting room) have also been preserved.
For 70 years, autographs of Soviet soldiers on the walls of the Reichstag remind us of the glorious deeds of the heroes. It is difficult to express the emotions that you feel while there. I just want to silently consider each letter, mentally speaking thousands of words of gratitude. For us, these inscriptions are one of the symbols of Victory, the courage of heroes, the end of the suffering of our people.
"We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, we came to Berlin!"
panoramaberlin.ru
Autographs at the Reichstag were left not only from themselves, but also from entire units and divisions. A fairly well-known photograph of one of the columns of the central entrance shows just such an inscription. It was made immediately after the Victory by the pilots of the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Odessa Red Banner Order of the Suvorov Regiment. The regiment was based in one of the suburbs, but on one of the May days, the personnel specially came to look at the defeated capital of the Third Reich.
D.Ya. Zilmanovich, who fought as part of this regiment, after the war wrote a book about the combat path of the unit. There is also a fragment that tells about the inscription on the column: “The pilots, technicians and aviation specialists received permission from the regiment commander to go to Berlin. On the walls and columns of the Reichstag they read, scratched with bayonets and knives, written in charcoal, chalk and paint, many names: Russian, Uzbek, Ukrainian, Georgian ... More often than others they saw the words: “Got it! Moscow – Berlin! Stalingrad-Berlin! " The names of almost all cities in the country were encountered. And signatures, many inscriptions, names and surnames of soldiers of all military branches and specialties. They, these inscriptions, turned into tablets of history, into the verdict of the victorious people, signed by hundreds of its valiant representatives.
This enthusiastic impulse - to sign a verdict to defeated fascism on the walls of the Reichstag - engulfed the guards of the Odessa Destroyer. They immediately found a large staircase, put it to the column. The pilot Makletsov took a piece of alabaster and, climbing the steps to a height of 4-5 meters, brought out the words: "We defended Odessa, Stalingrad, we came to Berlin!" Everyone clapped. A worthy completion of the difficult combat path of the glorious regiment, in which 28 Heroes of the Soviet Union fought during the Great Patriotic War, including four who were twice awarded this high rank.
"Stalingradians Shpakov, Matyash, Zolotarevsky"
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Boris Zolotarevsky was born on October 10, 1925 in Moscow. At the start of the Great Patriotic War, he was only 15. But his age did not prevent him from defending his homeland. Zolotarevsky went to the front, reached Berlin. After returning from the war, he became an engineer. Once, while on an excursion in the Reichstag, the veteran's nephew discovered his grandfather's signature. And on April 2, 2004, Zolotarevsky again found himself in Berlin to see his name left here 59 years ago.
In his letter to Karin Felix, a researcher of the surviving autographs of Soviet soldiers and the further destinies of their authors, he shared his experiences: “The recent visit to the Bundestag made such a strong impression on me that I did not then find the right words to express my feelings and thoughts. I am very touched by the tact and aesthetic taste with which Germany preserved the autographs of Soviet soldiers on the walls of the Reichstag in memory of the war, which became a tragedy for many nations. It was a very exciting surprise for me to see my autograph and the autographs of my friends: Matyash, Shpakov, Fortel and Kvasha, lovingly preserved on the former smoky walls of the Reichstag. With deep gratitude and respect, B. Zolotarevsky. "
"I. Ryumkin filmed here "
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There was such an inscription on the Reichstag - not only "got it", but "shot here". This inscription was left by Yakov Ryumkin, a photojournalist, the author of many famous photographs, including the one who shot together with I. Shagin on May 2, 1945, a group of S.E. Sorokin's scouts with a banner.
Yakov Ryumkin was born in 1913. At the age of 15, he came to work in one of the Kharkov newspapers as a courier. Then he graduated from the working faculty of Kharkov University and in 1936 became a photojournalist for the newspaper "Communist" - the publication of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (at that time the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was in Kharkov). Unfortunately, during the war, the entire pre-war archive was lost.
By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Ryumkin already had considerable experience in the newspaper. He went through the war from its very first days to the end as a photojournalist for Pravda. Filmed on different fronts, the most famous were his reports from Stalingrad. The writer Boris Polevoy recalls this period: “Even among the restless tribe of military press photographers, it was difficult to find during the war a more colorful and dynamic figure than Pravda correspondent Yakov Ryumkin. In the days of many offensives, I saw Ryumkin in the leading offensive units, and his passion for delivering a unique photograph to the editorial office, without hesitation either in work or in means, was also well known. " Yakov Ryumkin was wounded and concussed, was awarded the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree and the Order of the Red Star. After the Victory he worked in Pravda, Sovetskaya Rossiya, Ogonyok, and Kolos publishing house. Filmed in the Arctic, on virgin lands, made reports on party congresses and a large number of the most diverse reports. Yakov Ryumkin died in Moscow in 1986. The Reichstag was only a milestone in this large, eventful and vibrant life, but perhaps one of the most significant.
“Platov Sergey. Kursk - Berlin "
“Platov Sergey Iv. Kursk - Berlin. 05/10/1945 ". This inscription on one of the columns in the Reichstag building has not survived. But the photograph that captured it became famous, bypassed a huge number of all kinds of exhibitions and publications. It has even been reproduced on a commemorative coin issued for the 55th anniversary of the Victory.
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The photo was taken on May 10, 1945 by the correspondent of "Front illustration" Anatoly Morozov. The plot is random, not staged - Morozov drove to the Reichstag in search of new shots after sending a photo report to Moscow about the signing of the Act of Germany's unconditional surrender. A soldier caught in the lens of a photographer - Sergei Ivanovich Platov - has been at the front since 1942. He served in the infantry, mortar regiments, then in intelligence. He began his combat path near Kursk. That is why - "Kursk - Berlin". And he comes from Perm himself.
In the same place, in Perm, he lived after the war, worked as a mechanic at a factory and did not even suspect that his painting on the Reichstag column, captured in the picture, had become one of the symbols of Victory. Then, in May 1945, the photograph did not catch the eye of Sergei Ivanovich. Only many years later, in 1970, Anatoly Morozov found Platov and, having specially arrived in Perm, showed him a photograph. After the war, Sergei Platov again visited Berlin - the GDR authorities invited him to the celebration of the 30th anniversary of the Victory. It is curious that on the anniversary coin, Sergei Ivanovich has an honorable neighborhood - on the other hand, the meeting of the 1945 Potsdam Conference is depicted. But the veteran did not live to see her graduation - Sergei Platov died in 1997.
"Seversky Donets - Berlin"
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“Seversky Donets - Berlin. Artillerymen Doroshenko, Tarnovsky and Sumtsev "- there was such an inscription on one of the columns of the defeated Reichstag. It would seem that it is just one of the thousands and thousands of inscriptions left in the days of May 1945. But still - she's special. This inscription was made by Volodya Tarnovsky, a 15-year-old boy, and at the same time - a scout who went a long way to Victory and survived a lot.
Vladimir Tarnovsky was born in 1930 in Slavyansk, a small industrial town in the Donbass. At the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, Volodya was barely 11 years old. Many years later, he recalled that this news was not perceived by him as something terrible: “We, boys, are discussing this news and remember the words from the song:“ And on the enemy's land we will smash the enemy with little blood, a mighty blow ”. But everything turned out differently ... ".
Stepfather immediately, in the first days of the war, went to the front and never returned. And already in October the Germans entered Slavyansk. Volodya's mother, a communist, a party member, was soon arrested and shot. Volodya lived with his stepfather's sister, but did not consider it possible for himself to stay there for a long time - a hard, hungry time, besides him, his aunt has her own children ...
In February 1943, Slavyansk was briefly liberated by the advancing Soviet troops. However, then our units had to withdraw again, and Tarnovsky left with them - first to distant relatives in the village, but, as it turned out, conditions there were no better. In the end, one of the commanders involved in the evacuation of the population took pity on the boy and took the regiment with him as his son. So Tarnovsky ended up in the 370th artillery regiment of the 230th rifle division. “At first I was considered the son of the regiment. He was a messenger, delivered various orders, reports, and then he had to fight in full, for which he received military awards. "
The division liberated Ukraine, Poland, crossed the Dnieper, Oder, took part in the battle for Berlin, from its very beginning from the artillery preparation on April 16 to the end, took the buildings of the Gestapo, the post office, the imperial chancellery. Vladimir Tarnovsky also went through all these important events. He simply and directly speaks about his military past and his own feelings, feelings. Including how at times it was scary, how hard some tasks were given. But the fact that he, a 13-year-old teenager, was awarded the 3rd degree Order of Glory (for his actions to save the wounded division commander during the battles on the Dnieper), is able to express how good a fighter Tarnovsky became.
Not without funny moments. Once, during the defeat of the Yasso-Kishinev group of Germans, Tarnovsky was instructed to single-handedly deliver a prisoner - a tall, strong German. For the fighters passing by, the situation looked comical - the prisoner and the escort looked so contrasting. However, not for Tarnovsky himself - he walked all the way with a cocked machine gun at the ready. Successfully delivered the German to the division's reconnaissance commander. Subsequently, Vladimir was awarded the medal "For Courage" for this prisoner.
The war ended for Tarnovsky on May 2, 1945: “By that time, I was already a corporal, a reconnaissance observer of the 3rd Division of the 370th Berlin Artillery Regiment of the 230th Stalin-Berlin Infantry Division of the 9th Red Banner Brandenburg Corps of the 5th Shock Army ... At the front, I joined the Komsomol, had soldier's awards: the medal "For Courage", the Order of Glory of the 3rd degree and the "Red Star" and especially significant "For the capture of Berlin." Frontline training, soldier's friendship, education received among the elders - all this helped me a lot in later life.
It is noteworthy that after the war, Vladimir Tarnovsky was not admitted to the Suvorov school - due to the lack of a metric and a certificate from the school. Neither the awards, nor the combat path passed, nor the recommendations of the regiment commander helped. The former little intelligence officer graduated from high school, then institute, became an engineer at a shipyard in Riga, and eventually became its director.
"Sapunov"
panoramaberlin.ru
Perhaps one of the strongest impressions from visiting the Reichstag for every Russian is the autographs of Soviet soldiers preserved to this day, news of the victorious May 1945. But it is difficult to even try to imagine what a person, a witness and a direct participant in those great events experiences, after decades looking among the many signatures at one only - his own.
Boris Viktorovich Sapunov, the first in many years, had such a feeling. Boris Viktorovich was born on July 6, 1922 in Kursk. In 1939 he entered the history department of the Leningrad State University. But the Soviet-Finnish war began, Sapunov volunteered for the front, was an orderly. After the end of hostilities, he returned to Leningrad State University, but in 1940 he was again drafted into the army. By the time the Great Patriotic War began, he served in the Baltics. He went through the whole war as an artilleryman. As a sergeant in the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, he participated in the battle for Berlin and the storming of the Reichstag. He completed his combat path by signing the walls of the Reichstag.
It was this signature on the southern wall facing the courtyard of the northern wing, at the level of the plenary hall, that Boris Viktorovich noticed - 56 years later, on October 11, 2001, during an excursion. Wolfgang Thierse, who was President of the Bundestag at the time, even ordered the case to be documented, since he was the first.
After demobilization in 1946, Sapunov again came to Leningrad State University, finally there was an opportunity to graduate from the Faculty of History. Since 1950 he has been a post-graduate student of the Hermitage, then a researcher, since 1986, a chief researcher in the Department of Russian Culture. B.V. Sapunov became a prominent historian, doctor of historical sciences (1974), a specialist in ancient Russian art. He was an honorary doctor of the University of Oxford, a member of the Peter's Academy of Arts and Sciences.
Boris Viktorovich passed away on August 18, 2013.
At the end of this issue, we present an excerpt from the memoirs of Marshal of the Soviet Union, four times Hero of the Soviet Union, holder of two Orders of Victory and many other awards, USSR Defense Minister Georgy Zhukov.
“The final attack of the war was carefully prepared. On the banks of the Oder River, we concentrated a huge striking force, some shells were brought up for a million shots on the first day of the assault. And then came this famous night of April 16. Exactly at five o'clock it all started ... The Katyusha hit, more than twenty thousand guns were fired, the hum of hundreds of bombers was heard ... One hundred and forty anti-aircraft searchlights flashed, located in a chain every two hundred meters. A sea of \u200b\u200blight fell on the enemy, blinding him, snatching objects from the darkness to attack our infantry and tanks. The battle scene was immense, impressive power. In all my life I have not experienced an equal sensation ... And there was also a moment when in Berlin over the Reichstag in the smoke I saw how a red cloth trembled. I am not a sentimental person, but a lump of excitement came to my throat. "
List of used literature:
1. History of the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union 1941-1945. In 6 volumes - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1963.
2. Zhukov G.K. Memories and Reflections. 1969.
3. Shatilov VM Banner over the Reichstag. 3rd edition, revised and enlarged. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1975 .-- 350 p.
4. Neustroev S.A. The road to the Reichstag. - Sverdlovsk: Middle Ural Book Publishing House, 1986.
5. Zinchenko F.M. Heroes of the storming of the Reichstag / Literary record of N.M. Ilyash. - 3rd ed. -M .: Voenizdat, 1983 .-- 192 p.
6. Sboychakov M.I. They took the Reichstag: Dokum. The story. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1973 .-- 240 p.
7. Serkin S.P., Goncharov G.A. Bearer of Victory. A documentary story. - Kirov, 2010 .-- 192 p.
8. Klochkov I.F. We stormed the Reichstag. - L .: Lenizdat, 1986 .-- 190 p.
9. Merzhanov Martyn. So it was: The last days fascist Berlin. 3rd ed. - M .: Politizdat, 1983 .-- 256 p.
10. Subbotin V.E. How wars end. - M .: Soviet Russia, 1971.
11. Minin M.P. Difficult Roads to Victory: Memoirs of a Veteran of the Great Patriotic War. - Pskov, 2001 .-- 255 p.
12. Egorov M. A., Kantaria M. V. Banner of Victory. - Moscow: Military Publishing, 1975.
13. Dolmatovsky, E.A. Autographs of the Victory. - M .: DOSAAF, 1975. - 167 p.
When researching the stories of Soviet soldiers who left autographs at the Reichstag, materials collected by Karin Felix were used.
Archival documents:
TsAMO, f.545, op.216338, d.3, sheets 180-185; TsAMO, f.32, op.64595, d.4, ll.188-189; TsAMO, f.33, op.793756, d.28, l.250; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196, d.144, l.44; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196, d.144, l.22; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196, d.144, l.39; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196 (cor.5353), d.144, l.51; TsAMO, f.33, op.686196, d.144, l.24; TsAMO, f.1380 (150SID), op.1, d.86, l.142; TsAMO, f.33, op.793756, d.15, l.67; TsAMO, f.33, op.793756, d.20, l.211
The issue was prepared on the basis of material from the panoramaberlin.ru website with the kind permission of the project team “Battle for Berlin. Feat of the standard-bearers ".
1945 Berlin operation
After the end of the Vistula-Oder operation, the Soviet Union and Germany began preparations for the Battle of Berlin as the decisive battle on the Oder, as the culmination of the war.
By mid-April, the Germans had concentrated 1 million people, 10.5 thousand guns, 1.5 thousand tanks and 3.3 thousand aircraft on the 300-kilometer front along the Oder and Neisse.
On the Soviet side, huge forces were accumulated: 2.5 million people, over 40 thousand guns, more than 6 thousand tanks, 7.5 thousand aircraft.
Three Soviet fronts operated on the Berlin axis: 1st Belorussian (commander - Marshal G.K. Zhukov), 2nd Belorussian (commander - Marshal K.K.Rokossovsky) and 1st Ukrainian (commander - Marshal I.S. Konev).
The offensive on Berlin began on April 16, 1945. The hottest battles took place in the sector of the 1st Belorussian Front, where the Seelow Heights were located, covering the central direction. (The Seelow Heights are a ridge of heights in the North German Plain, 50-60 km east of Berlin. It runs along the left bank of the old Oder river bed, up to 20 km long. A well-equipped 2nd line of defense Germans, which was occupied by the 9th Army.)
To capture Berlin, the Soviet High Command used not only the frontal blow of the 1st Belorussian Front, but also the flanking maneuver of the 1st Ukrainian Front's formations, which had broken through to the German capital from the south.
The troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front advanced towards the Baltic coast of Germany, covering the right flank of the forces advancing on Berlin.
In addition, it was supposed to use part of the forces of the Baltic Fleet (Admiral V.F. Tributs), the Dnieper military flotilla (Rear Admiral V.V. Grigoriev), the 18th Air Army, and three air defense corps.
Hoping to defend Berlin and avoid unconditional surrender, the German leadership mobilized all the country's resources. As before, the main forces of the ground forces and aviation were sent by the German command against the Red Army. By April 15, 214 German divisions fought on the Soviet-German front, including 34 tank and 14 motorized and 14 brigades. 60 German divisions, including 5 tank divisions, acted against the Anglo-American troops. The Germans created a powerful defense in the east of the country.
Berlin to great depths was covered by numerous defensive structures erected along the western bank of the Oder and Neisse rivers. This line consisted of three strips 20–40 km deep. In engineering terms, the defense in front of the Kyustrinsky bridgehead and in the Kotbus direction, where the most powerful groups of Nazi troops were concentrated, was especially well prepared.
Berlin itself was turned into a powerful fortified area with three defensive rings (external, internal, urban). The central sector of the capital, in which the main state and administrative institutions were located, was especially carefully prepared in engineering terms. There were more than 400 long-term reinforced concrete structures in the city. The largest of them are six-story bunkers dug into the ground, each containing up to a thousand people. For covert maneuvering of troops, the subway was used.
The German troops, which were on the defensive in the Berlin direction, were united into four armies. In addition to the regular troops, the Volkssturm battalions, which were formed from young people and the elderly, were involved in the defense. The total number of the Berlin garrison exceeded 200 thousand people.
On April 15, Hitler addressed the soldiers Eastern Front with an appeal to repel the offensive of the Soviet troops at all costs.
The plan of the Soviet command provided for powerful blows of the troops of all three fronts to break through the enemy's defenses along the Oder and Neisse, encircle the main grouping of German troops in the Berlin direction, and reach the Elbe.
On April 21, the forward units of the 1st Belorussian Front broke into the northern and southeastern outskirts of Berlin.
On April 24, southeast of Berlin, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front met with the formations of the 1st Ukrainian Front. The next day, these fronts were connected to the west of the German capital - thus, the encirclement of the entire Berlin enemy grouping was completed.
On the same day, units of the 5th Guards Army of General A.S. Zhadov met on the banks of the Elbe in the Torgau area with reconnaissance groups of the 5th corps of the 1st American army, General O. Bradley. The German front was cut. The Americans are 80 km away from Berlin. Since the Germans willingly surrendered to the Western Allies, and fought to the death against the Red Army, Stalin feared that the Allies might seize the capital of the Reich before us. Aware of these concerns of Stalin, the commander-in-chief of the Allied forces in Europe, General D. Eisenhower, forbade the troops to move to Berlin or take Prague. Nevertheless, Stalin demanded that Zhukov and Konev clear Berlin by May 1. On April 22, Stalin gave them orders for a decisive assault on the capital. Konev had to stop parts of his front on a line that ran through the railway station just a few hundred meters from the Reichstag.
Since April 25, there have been fierce street fighting in Berlin. On May 1, the red banner was raised over the Reichstag building. On May 2, the city's garrison capitulated.
The fight for Berlin was a life-and-death struggle. From April 21 to May 2, 1.8 million artillery rounds (more than 36 thousand tons of metal) were fired in Berlin. The Germans defended their capital with great tenacity. According to the memoirs of Marshal Konev, "German soldiers still surrendered only when they had no way out."
As a result of the fighting in Berlin, out of 250 thousand buildings, about 30 thousand were completely destroyed, more than 20 thousand were in a dilapidated state, more than 150 thousand buildings had medium damage. Public transport did not work. More than a third of the metro stations were flooded. 225 bridges were blown up by the Nazis. The entire system of utilities ceased to function - power plants, water pumping stations, gas plants, sewerage.
On May 2, the remnants of the Berlin garrison in the amount of more than 134 thousand surrendered, the rest fled.
During the Berlin operation, Soviet troops defeated 70 infantry, 23 tank and motorized divisions of the Wehrmacht, captured about 480 thousand people, captured up to 11 thousand guns and mortars, over 1.5 thousand tanks and assault guns, 4500 aircraft. ("The Great Patriotic War 1941-1945. Encyclopedia", p. 96).
Soviet troops in this final operation suffered heavy losses - about 350 thousand people, including over 78 thousand - irrevocably. On the Seelow Heights alone, 33,000 Soviet soldiers died. The Polish army lost about 9 thousand soldiers and officers.
Soviet troops lost 2,156 tanks and self-propelled artillery installations, 1,220 guns and mortars, and 527 aircraft. ("The classification has been removed. Losses of the Armed Forces of the USSR in wars, hostilities and military conflicts". M., 1993. S. 220.)
According to Colonel General A.V. Gorbatov, “from a military point of view, Berlin did not need to be assaulted ... It was enough to take the city into a ring, and he himself would surrender in a week or two. Germany would inevitably surrender. And on the assault, at the very end of the victory, in street battles, we put at least one hundred thousand soldiers ... ". “This is what the British and Americans did. They blocked the German fortresses and waited months for their surrender, sparing their soldiers. Stalin acted differently. " ("History of Russia XX century. 1939-2007". M., 2009. S. 159.)
The Berlin operation is one of the largest operations of the Second World War. The victory of the Soviet troops in it became a decisive factor in the completion of the military defeat of Germany. With the fall of Berlin and other vital areas, Germany lost its capacity for organized resistance and soon surrendered.
On May 5-11, the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts advanced towards the capital of Czechoslovakia - Prague. The Germans were able to hold the defense in this city for 4 days. On May 11, Soviet troops liberated Prague.
On May 7, Alfred Jodl signed an unconditional surrender to the Western allies in Reims. Stalin agreed with the allies to consider the signing of this act as a preliminary protocol of surrender.
The next day, May 8, 1945 (or rather, at 0 hours 43 minutes on May 9, 1945), the signing of the Act of Germany's unconditional surrender was completed. The act was signed by Field Marshal Keitel, Admiral von Friedeburg and Colonel General Stumpf, who were authorized to do so by Grand Admiral Dönitz.
The first paragraph of the Act read:
"1. We, the undersigned, acting on behalf of the German High Command, agree to the unconditional surrender of all our armed forces on land, sea and air, as well as all forces currently under German command, the High Command of the Red Army and at the same time the Supreme Command of the Allies expeditionary forces ".
The meeting for the signing of the Act of German surrender was chaired by the representative of the Supreme High Command of the Soviet troops, Marshal G.K. Zhukov. British Air Marshal Arthur W. Tedder, US Strategic Air Force Commander General Carl Spaats, and General Jean Delatre de Tassigny, Commander-in-Chief of the French Army, were present as representative of the Allied High Command.
The price of victory is the undeserved losses of the Red Army from 1941 to 1945. (Information from the declassified repositories of the General Staff, published in Izvestia on June 25, 1998.)
Irrecoverable losses of the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War amounted to 11,944,100 people. Of these, 6885 thousand people were killed and died from wounds, various diseases, died in catastrophes, committed suicide. Missing, captured or surrendered - 4559 thousand. Killed on the way to the front under bombing or for other reasons, 500 thousand people.
The total demographic losses of the Red Army, including losses from which 1,936 thousand people who returned from captivity after the war are deducted, servicemen who were recruited into the army for the second time, who ended up in the occupied and then liberated territory (they were considered missing), 939 thousand people, is 9 168 400 people. Of these, the payroll (ie, those who fought with weapons in hand) 8,668,400 people.
In total, the country has lost 26.6 million citizens. The civilian population suffered the most during the war - 17,400,000 killed and deceased.
By the beginning of the war, 4,826,900 people served in the Red Army and in the navy (there were 5,543,000 servicemen in the state, taking into account 74,900 people who served in other formations).
Mobilized to the fronts (including those already serving at the time of the German attack) 34,476,700 people.
After the end of the war, 12 839 800 people remained in the army lists, of which 11 390 thousand people were in the ranks. 1046 thousand people were undergoing treatment and 400 thousand people were in the formation of other departments.
In the course of the war, 21,636,900 people left the army, of which 3,798,000 were fired due to injury and illness, of which 2,576,000 were permanently disabled.
3,614 thousand people were transferred to work in industry and local self-defense. Aimed at staffing the troops and organs of the NKVD, in the Polish Army, the Czechoslovak and Romanian armies - 1,500 thousand people.
More than 994 thousand people were convicted (of whom 422 thousand were sent to penal units, 436 thousand people were sent to places of detention). 212 thousand deserters and those who lagged behind the echelons on their way to the front were not found.
These figures are amazing. At the end of the war, Stalin announced that the army had lost 7 million people. In the 60s, Khrushchev called "more than 20 million people."
In March 1990, an interview with the then Chief of the General Staff of the USSR Armed Forces, General of the Army M. Moiseyev, was published in the "Voenno-istoricheskiy zhurnal": gratuitous losses among servicemen amounted to 8,668,400 people.
During the first period of the fighting (June - November 1941), our daily losses at the fronts were estimated at 24 thousand (17 thousand killed and 7 thousand wounded). At the end of the war (from January 1944 to May 1945 - 20 thousand people a day: 5.2 thousand killed and 14.8 thousand wounded).
During the war, our army lost 11,944,100 people.
In 1991, the work of the General Staff was completed to clarify losses in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.
Direct losses.
The direct losses of the Soviet Union in the Second World War are understood as the losses of servicemen and civilians who died as a result of hostilities and their consequences, due to an increase in the mortality rate compared with peacetime, as well as those people from the USSR population on June 22, 1941 who left territory of the USSR during the war and did not return. The human losses of the Soviet Union did not include indirect demographic losses due to a decrease in the birth rate during the war and an increase in mortality in the post-war years.
A complete estimate of all human losses can be obtained by the demographic balance method, by comparing the size and structure of the population at the beginning and end of the war.
The estimation of the human losses of the USSR was carried out during the period from June 22, 1941 to December 31, 1945 in order to take into account the deaths of the wounded in hospitals, the repatriation of prisoners of war and displaced civilians to the USSR, and the repatriation of citizens of other countries from the USSR. For the calculation, the borders of the USSR were taken on June 21, 1941.
According to the 1939 census, the population on January 17, 1939 was determined at 168.9 million people. Another 20.1 million people lived in the territories that became part of the USSR in pre-war years... The natural increase in 2.5 years by June 1941 amounted to about 7.91 million people.
Thus, in mid-1941, the population of the USSR was approximately 196.7 million people. The population of the USSR as of December 31, 1945 is estimated at 170.5 million people, of which 159.6 million were born before 06/22/1941. The total number of people who died and ended up outside the country during the war years was 37.1 million (196.7-159.6). If the mortality rate of the population of the USSR in 1941-1945 remained the same as in the pre-war 1940, the number of deaths during this period would have amounted to 11.9 million people. Subtracting this value (37.1-11.9 million), the human losses of the generations born before the start of the war amounted to 25.2 million. To this figure it is necessary to add the losses of children born during the war years, but who died due to an increased in comparison with the "normal" level of child mortality. Of those born in 1941-1945, approximately 4.6 million did not survive until early 1946, or 1.3 million more than would have died at the 1940 death rate. These 1.3 million should also be attributed to losses due to the war.
As a result, direct human losses of the population of the USSR as a result of the war, estimated by the demographic balance method, amount to approximately 26.6 million people.
According to experts, 9-10 million deaths during the war can be attributed to the net increase in mortality as a result of worsening living conditions.
Direct losses of the population of the USSR during the war years amounted to 13.5% of its population by mid-1941.
Irrecoverable losses of the Red Army.
By the beginning of the war, the army and the navy consisted of 4,826,907 servicemen on the list. In addition, 74,945 military personnel and military builders served in the formations of civilian departments. For 4 years of the war, minus the re-conscripts, another 29,574 thousand were mobilized. In total, together with the personnel, 34,476,700 people were involved in the army, navy and paramilitary formations. Of these, about one third were annually in the ranks (10.5-11.5 million people). Half of this composition (5.0-6.5 million people) served in the army.
In total, according to the General Staff commission, during the war years, 6,885,100 servicemen were killed, died of wounds and diseases, died in accidents, which amounted to 19.9% \u200b\u200bof those recruited. Missing, captured 4559 thousand people, or 13% of those called up.
Total total losses of personnel of the Soviet armed forces, including border and internal troops, during the Second World War amounted to 11 444 100 people.
In 1942-1945 on the liberated territory, 939,700 servicemen from among those previously held captive, surrounded and in the occupied territory were recruited into the army.
About 1,836,600 former military personnel returned from captivity at the end of the war. These servicemen (2 775 thousand people) were rightly excluded from the irrecoverable losses of the armed forces by the commission.
Thus, the irrecoverable losses of the personnel of the Armed Forces of the USSR, taking into account the Far Eastern campaign (killed, died of wounds, disappeared and did not return from captivity, as well as non-combat losses) amounted to 8,668,400 people.
Sanitary losses.
The commission established them in the amount of 18 334 thousand people, including: 15 205 600 people were wounded, shell-shocked, 3 047 700 people got sick, 90 900 people were frostbitten.
In total, 3 798 200 people were demobilized from the army and navy during the war due to injury or illness.
Every day on the Soviet-German front, an average of 20,869 people were out of action, of which about 8,000 were irretrievable. More than half - 56.7% of all irrecoverable losses - fell on 1941-1942. The largest average daily losses were noted in the summer-autumn campaigns of 1941 - 24 thousand people and in 1942 - 27.3 thousand per day.
The losses of Soviet troops in the Far Eastern campaign were relatively small - for 25 days of hostilities, losses amounted to 36,400 people, including 12,000 killed, died and went missing.
Behind enemy lines, there were about 6 thousand partisan detachments - more than 1 million people.
Head of the Directorate of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation for perpetuating the memory of the fallen defenders of the Fatherland, Major General A.V. Kirilin in an interview with the weekly "Argumenty i Fakty" (2011, No. 24) cited the following data on the losses of the Red Army and Germany during the war of 1941-1945:
From June 22 to December 31, 1941, the losses of the Red Army exceeded 3 million people. Of these, 465 thousand were killed, 101 thousand died in hospitals, 235 thousand people died from diseases and accidents (military statistics included those shot by their own in this category).
The catastrophe of 1941 was determined by the number of missing and prisoners - 2,355,482 people. Most of these people died in German camps on the territory of the USSR.
The number of Soviet military losses in the Great Patriotic War is 8,664,400 people. This is a figure that is confirmed by documents. But not all of the people we consider as casualties perished. For example, in 1946 480 thousand “displaced persons” left for the West - those who did not want to return to their homeland. A total of 3.5 million people are missing.
About 500 thousand people drafted into the army (mainly in 1941) did not get to the front. They are now classified as general civilian losses (26 million) (disappeared during the bombing of trains, remained in the occupied territory, served in the police) - 939.5 thousand people who were re-called into the Red Army during the liberation of Soviet lands.
Germany, without taking into account the allies, lost 5.3 million on the Soviet-German front in killed, dead from wounds, missing, and prisoners - 3.57 million. For one killed German there were 1.3 Soviet soldiers. 442 thousand German prisoners died in Soviet captivity.
Of the 4,559,000 Soviet soldiers who were captured by Germany, 2.7 million people died.
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