In order to find out the combat effectiveness of the Red Army, in the summer of 1938 the Japanese provoked a border incident in the Vladivostok region, which turned into a real battle that lasted about two weeks, ending with the Japanese retreating and a truce was concluded.

In May 1939, in order to test the Soviet-Mongolian defense capability, the Japanese invaded Mongolia. The Soviet command, located 120 km. from the place of hostilities, led the operations sluggishly and ineptly. When the command was entrusted to General Zhukov, the situation changed. After 4 months of stubborn fighting, Zhukov managed to surround and destroy the main enemy forces. The Japanese asked for peace.

The tense situation in the Far East forced the Soviets to keep an army of 400,000 there.

Negotiations between England and France with Nazi Germany

Despite the growing danger of German and Japanese aggression, the ruling circles of England, France and the USA tried to use Germany and Japan to fight against the Soviet Union. With the help of the Japanese and Germans, they wanted to destroy or at least significantly weaken the USSR and undermine its growing influence. It was precisely this that was one of the main reasons that led the ruling circles of the Western powers to pursue a policy of "appeasement" of the fascist aggressors. The reactionary governments of England and France, with the support of the United States, tried to come to an agreement with Nazi Germany at the expense of the USSR, as well as the states of Southeastern Europe. England was the most active.

The British government sought to conclude a bilateral Anglo-German agreement. To do this, it was ready to provide long-term loans, to agree on the delimitation of spheres of influence and markets. The policy of conspiring with Hitler was especially intensified after N. Chamberlain came to power. In November 1937, the British Prime Minister sent his closest collaborator, Lord Halifax, to Germany. A recording of a conversation between Halifax and Hitler at Obersalzberg on November 19, 1937, shows that the Chamberlain government was ready to give Germany a "free hand in Eastern Europe", but on the condition that Germany promise to remake political map Europe in their favor peacefully and gradually. This meant that Hitler would undertake to coordinate with England his plans of conquest in relation to Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Danzig.

Shortly after this conversation between Halifax and Hitler, the British government invited French Prime Minister Chautain and Foreign Minister Delbos to London. The last to be declared was that the support that France considers to be giving to Czechoslovakia under the Mutual Assistance Pact goes far beyond what is approved in England. Thus, the Chamberlain government began to put pressure on France to withdraw from its obligations under the mutual assistance pact with Czechoslovakia. In London, not without reason, it was believed that the mutual assistance pacts that Czechoslovakia had with France and the USSR strengthened its international position, and therefore the Chamberlain government pursued tactics aimed at undermining these pacts.

The policy of aiding Hitler's aggression in Europe was intended not only to "appease" Hitler and direct Nazi Germany's aggression to the East, but also to achieve the isolation of the Soviet Union.

On September 29, 1938, the so-called Munich Conference was convened. At this conference, Daladier and Chamberlain, without the participation of representatives of Czechoslovakia, signed an agreement with Hitler and Mussolini. Under the Munich Agreement, Hitler achieved the implementation of all his demands, presented to Czechoslovakia: the dismemberment of this country and the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany. The Munich Agreement also contained the obligation of England and France to participate in "international guarantees" of the new Czechoslovak borders, the determination of which was within the competence of the "international commission". Hitler, for his part, accepted the obligation to respect the inviolability of the new borders of the Czechoslovak state. As a result of the dismemberment, Czechoslovakia lost almost 1/5 of its territory, about 1/4 of its population, and almost half of its heavy industry. The Munich Agreement was a cynical betrayal of Czechoslovakia by England and France. The French government betrayed its ally, failed to fulfill its allied obligations.

After Munich, it became obvious that the French government was not fulfilling its obligations under the allied treaties. This applied primarily to the Franco-Polish alliance and the Soviet-French mutual assistance treaty of 1935. And, indeed, in Paris they were going to denounce all the agreements concluded by France, and especially the Franco-Polish agreements and the Soviet-French pact on mutual assistance, as soon as possible. In Paris, they did not even hide their efforts to push Germany against the Soviet Union.

Such plans were hatched even more actively in London. Chamberlain hoped that after Munich Germany would direct its aggressive aspirations against the USSR. During the Paris talks with Daladier on November 24, 1938, the British Prime Minister said that "the German government may have the idea of starting the dismemberment of Russia by supporting agitation for an independent Ukraine." It seemed to the countries participating in the Munich Agreement that the political course they had chosen was triumphant: Hitler was about to set off on a campaign against the Soviet Union. But on March 15, 1939, Hitler very expressively showed that he did not take into account either England or France, or the obligations that he had assumed to them. German troops suddenly invaded Czechoslovakia, completely occupied it and liquidated it as a state.

Soviet-German negotiations in 1939

In the tense political situation to the limit in the spring and summer of 1939, negotiations began and took place on economic, and then on political issues. The German government in 1939 was clearly aware of the danger of a war against the Soviet Union. It did not yet have the resources that, by 1941, the capture of Western Europe had given it. As early as the beginning of 1939, the German government offered the USSR to conclude a trade agreement. On May 17, 1939, the German Foreign Minister Schnurre met with the USSR Charge d'Affaires in Germany G.A. Astakhov, where they discussed the issue of improving Soviet-German relations.

At the same time, the Soviet government did not consider it possible, due to the tense political situation in relations between the USSR and Germany, to negotiate on expanding trade and economic ties between both countries. The People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs pointed this out to the German Ambassador on May 20, 1939. He noted that economic negotiations with Germany have recently started several times, but turned out to be fruitless. This gave the Soviet government a reason to tell the German side that it had the impression that the German government, instead of business negotiations on trade and economic issues, was playing a kind of game, and that the USSR was not going to participate in such games.

Nevertheless, on August 3, 1939, Ribbentrop, in a conversation with Astakhov, stated that there were no unresolved issues between the USSR and Germany and proposed signing a Soviet-German protocol. Still counting on the opportunity to achieve success in negotiations with Britain and France, the Soviet government rejected this proposal.

But after negotiations with Britain and France reached an impasse due to their unwillingness to cooperate with the USSR, after the receipt of information about secret negotiations between Germany and England, the Soviet government became convinced of the complete impossibility of achieving effective cooperation with the Western powers in organizing a joint rebuff to the fascist aggressor. On August 15, a telegram arrived in Moscow in which the German government asked to receive the Minister of Foreign Affairs in Moscow for negotiations, but the Soviet government hoped for success in negotiations with England and France and therefore did not react to this telegram. On August 20, a new urgent request from Berlin followed on the same issue.

In the current situation, the government of the USSR then made the only right decision - to agree to the arrival of Ribbentrop to conduct negotiations, which ended on August 23 with the signing of the Soviet-German non-aggression pact. Its conclusion for some time saved the USSR from the threat of a war without allies and gave time to strengthen the country's defense. The Soviet government agreed to conclude this treaty only after the unwillingness of Britain and France to repulse Hitler's aggression together with the USSR had finally become clear. The agreement, which was designed for 10 years, entered into force immediately. The agreement was accompanied by a secret protocol delimiting the spheres of influence of the parties in Eastern Europe: Estonia, Finland, Bessarabia ended up in the Soviet sphere; in German - Lithuania. The fate of the Polish State was passed over in silence, but in any case, the Belarusian and Ukrainian territories, included in its composition under the Riga Peace Treaty of 1920, were supposed to go to the USSR after the German military invasion of Poland.

Secret protocol in action

8 days after the signing of the treaty, German troops attacked Poland. On September 9, the Soviet leadership informed Berlin of its intention to occupy those Polish territories that, in accordance with the secret protocol, were to go to the Soviet Union. On September 17, the Red Army entered Poland under the pretext of providing "assistance to Ukrainian and Belarusian blood brothers" who were in danger as a result of the "disintegration Polish state". As a result of the agreement reached between Germany and the USSR, a joint Soviet-German communiqué was published on September 19, stating that the purpose of this action was to "restore peace and the order violated due to the collapse of Poland." This allowed the Soviet Union to join own a vast territory of 200 thousand km 2 with a population of 12 million people.

International situation on the eve of the Second World War

After the hopes of Soviet Russia for a world revolution collapsed, the Soviet leaders had to think about how to establish trade and diplomatic relations with the "capitalists". An obstacle to the recognition of the Bolshevik government was the refusal to recognize the debts made by the tsarist and Provisional governments, as well as to pay foreigners for the property taken from them by the Soviets. But there was also a more serious reason. In addition to the Commissariat for Foreign Affairs, in Soviet Russia there was another body that pursued its own, unofficial foreign policy - the Comintern (Communist International), whose task was to undermine the state foundations of countries with whose governments Soviet diplomacy tried to establish normal relations.

Afraid of the communists, but at the same time needing a market for their industrial products and Russian raw materials, the European powers and the United States compromised. Not recognizing Soviet power, they began a lively trade with the Soviets. Already in December 1920, the United States lifted the ban on trade transactions of its private firms with Soviet Russia. Many European powers followed suit.

On April 10, 1922, an international conference opened in Genoa, to which the Soviet delegation was invited for the first time. Its head, Commissar for Foreign Affairs Chicherin, declared the readiness of the Soviet government to recognize the tsarist debts if it is recognized and if loans are opened to it. Of all the 33 countries present, Germany was the only one to accept this proposal, and on April 16 in Rapallo she concluded not only a trade but also a secret agreement with Soviet Russia - the “Operation Kama”. According to which the Junkers plant was built, which produced several hundred military aircraft for Germany by 1924, submarines began to be built for it at the shipyards of Petrograd and Nikolaev; in Lipetsk and Borsoglebsk, aviation schools were opened for German pilots and a whole network of airfields was built, on which, starting from 1927, German pilots received training; in Kazan, a tank school was opened, and in Lutsk, an artillery German school.

In 1926, an agreement on neutrality was signed between Germany and the USSR. German-Soviet cooperation continued further.

England was especially hostile to the Bolsheviks while the Conservatives, led by Churchill, were in power there. When power passed to the Labor Party in 1924, England established diplomatic relations with the USSR. Its example was followed by almost all European states, as well as Japan, China and Mexico. Only Yugoslavia and the United States firmly held on to non-recognition. This, however, did not prevent the Americans from conducting a lively trade with the Soviets.

In 1927, due to a scandal over secret British War Office documents, the British government broke off diplomatic relations with the Soviets, but continued trade between the two countries.

During the first 16 years after the war, the situation in Europe, from the outside, was calm. True, in Germany, after the social-democratic experiment, the people entrusted power to Field Marshal Hindenburg, but his presidency posed no threat to the world.

At the urging of France, Germany joined the League of Nations in 1925. On October 4 of the same year, a conference was convened in Locarno, at which England, Italy, France, Germany, and Belgium signed an agreement on mutual guarantees between these countries and on the guarantee of the inviolability of the borders of Poland and Czechoslovakia.

British politicians wanted conditions to be created in the East that would exclude the possibility of a German-Soviet clash. But Germany did not want to give up its claims in the East and come to terms with the loss of its lands that had gone to Poland, and rejected this proposal.

Germany is arming

While the victorious countries were enjoying a peaceful life and dreaming of a lasting peace, Germany was arming itself. Already in 1919, the German Minister Rethenau created the conditions for the restoration of the military industry. Many old factories and factories were converted, and new ones (built with American and British money) were built so that they could be quickly adapted to wartime needs.

In order to circumvent the ban on maintaining a regular army, the German General Staff, from the allowed one hundred thousandth contingent, created a cadre of officers and non-commissioned officers for a millionth army. Were open cadet corps and many youth organizations were created in which military training was secretly carried out. Finally, a general staff was created, developing a plan for a future war. Thus, everything was created so that, under favorable conditions, it was possible to quickly create a powerful military force. It only remained to wait for the appearance of a leader who would break down the external barriers that prevented the creation of this force.

Hitler's rise to power

In the 1920s, a new, hitherto unknown figure appeared on the political arena of Germany - Adolf Hitler. An Austrian by birth, he was a German patriot. When the war began, he volunteered for the German army and rose to the rank of corporal. At the end of the war, during a gas attack, he was temporarily blind and ended up in the hospital. There, in his reflections, he explained his misfortune with the defeat of Germany. In search of the reasons for this defeat, he came to the conclusion that it was the result of betrayal by the Jews, who undermined the front with their intrigues, and the intrigues of the Bolsheviks - participants in the "world Jewish conspiracy."

In September 1919, Hitler joined the German Workers' Party. A year later, he already became its leader - the "Fuhrer". In 1923, the French occupation of the Ruhr area aroused the indignation of the German people and contributed to the growth of Hitler's party, which has since become known as the National Socialist.

After an unsuccessful attempt to seize power in Bavaria, Hitler had to spend 13 months in prison, where he wrote his book "Mein Kampf" ("My Struggle").

Hitler's popularity grew rapidly. In 1928, he had 12 deputies in the Reichstag (parliament), and in 1930 there were already 230.

At that time, Hindenburg was already over 80 years old. The leaders of the general staff were supposed to find a deputy for him. Since Hitler was striving for the same goal as them, their choice settled on him. In August 1932, Hitler was unofficially invited to Berlin. After meeting him, Hindenburg said: “This man in the role of Chancellor? I'll make him postmaster and he can lick my head stamps." However, on April 30, 1933, although reluctantly, Hindenburg agreed to appoint him Chancellor.

Two months later, Hitler opened the first Reichstag of the III Empire, the next day the majority (441 against 94) of the deputies gave him emergency, unlimited powers for four years.

In 1929, after an era of economic prosperity, a severe crisis suddenly broke out in the United States. Very quickly, it spread throughout the world, it did not bypass Germany either. Numerous factories and factories were closed, the number of unemployed reached 2,300,000. Germany became unable to pay reparations.

When an international conference on disarmament met in Geneva in April 1932, the German representatives began to seek the abolition of reparation payments. Having been refused, they demanded the abolition of all weapons restrictions. Not having received consent to this demand, they left the conference. This caused a stir among the representatives of the Western powers, who made every effort to return the German delegation. When Germany was offered equality in arms with other powers, her delegation returned.

In March 1933, the British government proposed the so-called "MacDonald Plan", according to which the French army should be reduced from 500 to 200 thousand, and the German army could be increased to the same number. Since Germany was forbidden to have military aircraft, the allied states had to reduce theirs to 500 aircraft each. When France began to demand a 4-year delay for the destruction of its heavy weapons, Hitler ordered the German delegation not only to leave the conference, but also the League of Nations.

Having received power, Hitler immediately set about implementing his idea - the unification of all German peoples into one state - Great Germany. The first object of his claims was Austria. In June 1934 he made an attempt to capture her. But the outbreak of the Nazi uprising was soon crushed, and Hitler decided to temporarily retreat. On March 9, 1935, the government officially announced the creation air force, and on the 16th about the introduction of universal military service. In the same year, Italy went over to the side of Germany and captured Abyssinia.

After the introduction of universal conscription, by a special agreement with England, Germany received the right to restore the navy with submarines. Secretly created military aviation already equal to English. Industry openly produced armaments. All this did not meet with serious opposition from the side. Western countries and USA.

On March 7, at 10 o'clock in the morning, an agreement was signed on the demilitarization of the Rhineland, and 2 hours later, on Hitler's orders, German troops crossed the borders of this area and occupied all the main cities in it. Until mid-1936, all of Hitler's illegal actions were based solely on the indecision of France and England and the self-isolation of the United States. In 1938, the situation was different - Germany could now rely on the superiority of its military power, the military industry operating at full capacity, and on an alliance with Italy. This was enough to proceed with the capture of Austria, which was needed not only for the implementation of part of his plan - the unification of all Germanic peoples, but also opened the door for him to Czechoslovakia and Southern Europe. After appropriate diplomatic pressure, Hitler issued an ultimatum, which was rejected. On March 11, 1938, German troops crossed the Austrian border. After the occupation of Vienna, Hitler proclaimed the accession of Austria to German Empire.

The tense situation in the Far East forced the Soviets to keep an army of 400,000 there.

Negotiations between England and France with Nazi Germany

The British government sought to conclude a bilateral Anglo-German agreement. To do this, it was ready to provide long-term loans, to agree on the delimitation of spheres of influence and markets. The policy of conspiring with Hitler was especially intensified after N. Chamberlain came to power. In November 1937, the British Prime Minister sent his closest collaborator, Lord Halifax, to Germany. The recording of a conversation between Halifax and Hitler in Obersalzberg on November 19, 1937, shows that the Chamberlain government was ready to give Germany "freedom of hands in Eastern Europe", but on the condition that Germany promised to redraw the political map of Europe in its favor by peaceful means and gradually. This meant that Hitler would undertake to coordinate with England his plans of conquest in relation to Austria, Czechoslovakia, and Danzig.

The policy of aiding Hitler's aggression in Europe was intended not only to "appease" Hitler and direct Nazi Germany's aggression to the East, but also to achieve the isolation of the Soviet Union.

On September 29, 1938, the so-called Munich Conference was convened. At this conference, Daladier and Chamberlain, without the participation of representatives of Czechoslovakia, signed an agreement with Hitler and Mussolini. Under the Munich Agreement, Hitler achieved the implementation of all his demands, presented to Czechoslovakia: the dismemberment of this country and the annexation of the Sudetenland to Germany. Also, the Munich Agreement contained the obligation of England and France to participate in the "international guarantees" of the new Czechoslovak borders, the definition of which was within the competence of the "international commission". Hitler, for his part, accepted the obligation to respect the inviolability of the new borders of the Czechoslovak state. As a result of the dismemberment, Czechoslovakia lost almost 1/5 of its territory, about 1/4 of its population, and almost half of its heavy industry. The Munich Agreement was a cynical betrayal of Czechoslovakia by England and France. The French government betrayed its ally, failed to fulfill its allied obligations.

Such plans were hatched even more actively in London. Chamberlain hoped that after Munich Germany would direct its aggressive aspirations against the USSR. During the Paris talks with Daladier on November 24, 1938, the British Prime Minister said that "the German government may have an idea about how to start the dismemberment of Russia by supporting agitation for an independent Ukraine." It seemed to the countries participating in the Munich Agreement that the political course they had chosen was triumphant: Hitler was about to set off on a campaign against the Soviet Union. But on March 15, 1939, Hitler very expressively showed that he did not take into account either England or France, or the obligations that he had assumed to them. German troops suddenly invaded Czechoslovakia, completely occupied it and liquidated it as a state.

Soviet-German negotiations in 1939

Secret protocol in action

8 days after the signing of the treaty, German troops attacked Poland. On September 9, the Soviet leadership informed Berlin of its intention to occupy those Polish territories that, in accordance with the secret protocol, were to go to the Soviet Union. On September 17, the Red Army entered Poland under the pretext of providing "assistance to Ukrainian and Belarusian blood brothers" who were in danger as a result of the "disintegration of the Polish state." As a result of the agreement reached between Germany and the USSR, a joint Soviet-German communiqué was published on September 19, stating that the purpose of this action was to "restore peace and the order violated as a result of the collapse of Poland." This allowed the Soviet Union to annex a huge territory of 200 thousand km 2 with a population of 12 million people.

Following this, the Soviet Union, in accordance with the provisions of the secret protocol, turned its eyes towards the Baltic countries. On September 28, 1939, the Soviet leadership imposed a “mutual assistance pact” on Estonia, under the terms of which it “provided” its naval bases to the Soviet Union. A few weeks later similar agreements were signed with Latvia and Lithuania.

On October 31, the Soviet leadership presented territorial claims to Finland, which erected 35 km along the border along the Karelian Isthmus. from Leningrad, a system of powerful fortifications known as the Mannerheim Line. The USSR demanded to demilitarize the border zone and move the border 70 km. from Leningrad, liquidate the naval bases on Hanko and the Aland Islands in exchange for very significant territorial concessions in the north. Finland rejected these proposals, but agreed to negotiate. On November 29, taking advantage of a minor border incident, the USSR terminated the non-aggression pact with Finland. The next day, hostilities began. The Red Army, which failed to cross the Mannerheim Line for several weeks, suffered heavy losses. Only at the end of February 1940 did the Soviet troops manage to break through the Finnish defenses and capture Vyborg. The Finnish government sued for peace and, under an agreement on March 12, 1940, ceded the entire Karelian Isthmus with Vyborg to the Soviet Union, and also provided it with its naval base on Hanko for 30 years. This short but very costly war for the Soviet troops (50 thousand killed, more than 150 thousand wounded and missing) demonstrated to Germany, as well as to the most far-sighted representatives of the Soviet military command, the weakness and unpreparedness of the Red Army. In June 1940, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania were included in the USSR.

A few days after the entry of the Red Army into the Baltic states, the Soviet government sent an ultimatum to Romania, demanding that Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina be handed over to the USSR. In early July 1940, Bukovina and part of Bessarabia were incorporated into the Ukrainian USSR. The rest of Bessarabia was annexed to the Moldavian SSR, which was formed on August 2, 1940. Thus, within one year the population of the Soviet Union increased by 23 million people.

Deterioration of Soviet-German relations

Outwardly, Soviet-German relations developed favorably for both sides. The Soviet Union carefully complied with all the conditions of the Soviet-German economic agreement signed on February 11, 1940. For 16 months, right up to the German attack, he delivered in exchange for technical and military equipment agricultural products, oil and mineral raw materials totaling about 1 billion marks. In accordance with the terms of the agreement, the USSR regularly supplied Germany with strategic raw materials and food purchased from third countries. The economic assistance and mediation of the USSR were of paramount importance for Germany in the conditions of the economic blockade declared by Great Britain.

At the same time, the Soviet Union followed with concern the victories of the Wehrmacht. In August-September 1940, the first deterioration of Soviet-German relations occurred, caused by the presentation by Germany after the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina of foreign policy guarantees to Romania. She signed a series of economic agreements with Romania and sent a very significant military mission there to prepare the Romanian army for war against the USSR. In September, Germany sent its troops to Finland.

Despite the changes in the Balkans caused by these events in the fall of 1940, Germany made several more attempts to improve German-Soviet diplomatic relations. During Molotov's visit to Berlin on November 12-14, very intense, although not leading to concrete results, negotiations were held regarding the accession of the USSR to the tripartite alliance. However, on November 25, the Soviet government handed the German Ambassador Schuleburg a memorandum outlining the conditions for the USSR to enter the tripartite alliance:

The territories located south of Batumi and Baku in the direction of the Persian Gulf should be considered as a center of attraction for Soviet interests;

German troops must be withdrawn from Finland;

Bulgaria, having signed an agreement on mutual assistance with the USSR, passes under its protectorate;

A Soviet naval base is located on Turkish territory in the Straits zone;

Japan renounces its claims to Sakhalin Island.

The demands of the Soviet Union remained unanswered. On behalf of Hitler, the Wehrmacht General Staff was already (since the end of July 1940) developing a plan for a lightning war against the Soviet Union, and at the end of August, the first military formations were transferred to the east. The failure of the Berlin negotiations with Molotov led Hitler to the adoption on December 5, 1940 of the final decision on the USSR, confirmed on December 18 by "Directive 21", which set the start of the implementation of the Barbarossa plan on May 15, 1941. The invasion of Yugoslavia and Greece forced Hitler on April 30, 1941 to postpone this date to June 22, 1941. The generals convinced him that the victorious war would last no more than 4-6 weeks.

At the same time, Germany used the memorandum of November 25, 1940 to put pressure on those countries whose interests were affected by it, and above all on Bulgaria, which in March 1941 joined the fascist coalition. Soviet-German relations continued to deteriorate throughout the spring of 1941, especially in connection with the invasion of Yugoslavia by German troops a few hours after the signing of the Soviet-Yugoslav friendship treaty. The USSR did not react to this aggression, as well as to the attack on Greece. At the same time, Soviet diplomacy managed to achieve a major success by signing a non-aggression pact with Japan on April 13, which significantly reduced tension on the Far Eastern borders of the USSR.

Despite the alarming course of events, the USSR, until the very beginning of the war with Germany, could not believe in the inevitability of a German attack. Soviet deliveries to Germany increased significantly due to the renewal on 11 January 1941 of the 1940 economic agreements. In order to demonstrate its "confidence" to Germany, the Soviet government refused to take into account the numerous reports that had been received since the beginning of 1941 about an attack being prepared against the USSR and did not take the necessary measures on its western borders. Germany was still viewed by the Soviet Union "as a great friendly power".

Second World War prepared and unleashed by the forces of the most aggressive states - fascist Germany and Italy, militaristic Japan with the aim of a new redivision of the world. It began as a war between two coalitions of imperialist powers. In the future, it began to take on the part of all states that fought against the countries of the fascist bloc, the character of a just, anti-fascist war, which was finally formed after the USSR entered the war.

Introduction

The causes of the Second World War is one of the main issues in the history of the 20th century, which has an important ideological and political significance, as it reveals the perpetrators of this tragedy, which claimed more than 55 million people. human lives. For more than 60 years, Western propaganda and historiography, fulfilling a socio-political order, have been hiding the true causes of this war and falsifying its history, seeking to justify the policy of Great Britain, France and the United States in complicity in the aggression of fascism, and shift the responsibility of the Western powers for unleashing the war to the Soviet leadership.

The object of research is the history of the Second World War.

The subject of the research is the causes of the Second World War.

The purpose of the study is to study the causes of the Second World War

- analyze the causes of the Second World War;
- to consider the readiness of the countries participating in the war for the Second World War;
-determine the prerequisites for the beginning of the Second World War.

The situation in the world on the eve of the Second World War

The Second World War was the result of geopolitical contradictions between the leading world powers, which escalated by the end of the 1930s. Defeated during the First World War, Germany, having overcome the economic consequences of defeat in the world war by the end of the 20s, sought to regain its lost positions in the world. Italy, which took part in the First World War on the side of the Anglo-French coalition (Entente), considered itself deprived in the colonial partitions that occurred after its end. In the Far East, Japan, which has significantly strengthened as a result of the weakening of Russia's positions in the Far East during the civil war and swallowed up the Far Eastern colonies of Germany after the First World War, began to more and more openly collide in this region with the interests of the British Empire and the United States. The Soviet Union, whose geopolitical interests were in no way taken into account by the system of the Versailles agreements that ended the First World War, sought to ensure its international security by splitting the “capitalist encirclement” and supporting the so-called “socialist revolutions” around the world (primarily in Eastern and Central Europe). and in China).

War is an action of a political nature, and politics is worked out by certain social forces, political parties and their leaders.

The main direction of policy is dictated by economic interests, but the very process of policy development, the determination of the means and methods of its implementation, to a large extent depends on the ideology and worldview of its creators.

The most grandiose, bloody and terrible war in the history of mankind, called the Second World War, did not begin at all on September 1, 1939, the day when Nazi Germany attacked Poland. The outbreak of World War II was inevitable from the moment the war ended in 1918, which led to the redivision of almost all of Europe. Immediately after the signing of all the treaties, each of the redrawn countries, from which part of the territories were taken away, began its own little war. While it was carried on in the minds and conversations of those who did not return victorious from the front. They relived the events of those days again and again, looking for the reasons for the defeat and conveying the bitterness of their own loss to their growing children.

The beginning of the Second World War was preceded by the coming to power in Germany of Adolf Hitler (1933), the signing of the Anti-Comintern Pact between Germany and Japan (1936), the emergence of hotbeds of war both in Europe (the capture of Czechoslovakia by Germany in March 1939) and in the east (beginning of the Sino-Japanese War in July 1937)

The members of the anti-Hitler bloc were: the USSR, the USA, France, England, China (Chiang Kai-shek), Greece, Yugoslavia, Mexico, etc. Germany participated in World War II: Italy, Japan, Hungary, Albania, Bulgaria, Finland, China (Wang Jingwei), Thailand, Finland, Iraq, etc. Many states - participants in the Second World War, did not conduct operations on the fronts, but helped by supplying food, medicines and other necessary resources.

This gigantic slaughter continued for six years. September 2, 1945, the surrender of Imperial Japan, was the last point. World War II - the largest war in history, was unleashed by Germany, Italy and Japan in order to revise the results of the Versailles Peace Treaty of 1919 and the Washington Conference on the Limitation of Naval Arms and the Problems of the Far East.

Background of World War II

The reason was the country's backwardness and the pernicious course of its government, which did not want to "spoil relations" with Germany and placed its hopes on Anglo-French help. The Polish leadership rejected all proposals to participate together with the Soviet Union in a collective rebuff to the aggressor. This suicidal policy led the country to a national tragedy.

Having declared war on Germany on September 3, England and France saw it as an unfortunate misunderstanding, which was soon to be resolved. “The silence on the Western Front,” W. Churchill wrote, “was broken only by an occasional cannon shot or a reconnaissance patrol.” The Western powers, despite the guarantees given to Poland and the agreements signed with it (England signed such an agreement a week before the start of the war), in reality they did not intend to provide active military assistance to the victim of aggression. During the tragic days for Poland, the Allied troops were inactive. Already on September 12, the heads of government of England and France came to the conclusion that help to save Poland was useless, and made a secret decision not to open active hostilities against Germany.

When the war broke out in Europe, the US declared its neutrality. In political and business circles, the prevailing opinion was that the war would bring the country's economy out of the crisis, and military orders from the warring states would bring huge profits to industrialists and bankers.

Territorial disputes that arose as a result of the redivision of Europe by England, France and the allied states. After the collapse of the Russian Empire as a result of its withdrawal from hostilities and the revolution that took place in it, as well as due to the collapse of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, 9 new states appeared on the world map at once. Their boundaries were not yet clearly defined, and in many cases disputes were fought over literally every inch of land. In addition, the countries that lost part of their territories sought to return them, but the winners, who annexed new lands, were hardly ready to part with them. The centuries-old history of Europe did not know better way resolution of any, including territorial disputes, except for hostilities, and the outbreak of World War II became inevitable;

colonial disputes. It is worth mentioning here not only that the losing countries, having lost their colonies, which provided the treasury with a constant influx of funds, certainly dreamed of their return, but also that a liberation movement was growing inside the colonies. Tired of being under the yoke of certain colonizers, the inhabitants sought to get rid of any subordination, and in many cases this also inevitably led to armed skirmishes;

rivalry between the leading powers. It is difficult to admit that Germany, erased from world history, after her defeat did not dream of taking revenge. Deprived of the opportunity to have its own army (except for a volunteer army, the number of which could not exceed 100 thousand soldiers with light weapons), Germany, accustomed to the role of one of the world's leading empires, could not come to terms with the loss of its dominance. The beginning of World War II in this aspect was only a matter of time;

dictatorial regimes. A sharp increase in their number in the second third of the 20th century created additional preconditions for the outbreak of violent conflicts. Paying great attention to the development of the army and weapons, first as a means of suppressing possible internal unrest, and then as a way to conquer new lands, the European and Eastern dictators by all means brought the beginning of World War II closer;

the existence of the USSR. The role of the new socialist state, which arose on the ruins of the Russian Empire, as an irritant for the United States and Europe can hardly be overestimated. Fast development communist movements in a number of capitalist powers, against the background of the existence of such a clear example of victorious socialism, could not but inspire fear, and an attempt to wipe the USSR off the face of the earth would have been made inevitably.

World War II and the post-war order of the world

International relations on the eve of the Second World War. Reasons for the instability of the system of international relations. The impact of the world economic crisis of 1929-1933. to intensify rivalry among the major powers. Threat to world stability from fascist states. The foreign policy program of the Nazi Party of Germany. Causes of World War II. Beginning of World War II.

2. USSR on the eve and during the Great Patriotic War

The policy of creating a system of collective security. The Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and secret protocols on the delimitation of spheres of influence. German attack on Poland. The entry of Soviet troops into Western Ukraine and Belarus. War with Finland.

The main stages of the Great Patriotic War. Plan Barbarossa. Failures of the Red Army in the initial period of the war and their causes. Restructuring the life of the country on a military footing. Defensive battles in the summer and autumn of 1941. The defeat of the fascist troops near Moscow was a decisive military-political event in the first year of the war. Order No. 227 of July 28, 1942 "Not one step back." Defense of Stalingrad. Battles in the Caucasus. A radical turning point in the course of the war and its victorious end. worldwide historical meaning and the lessons of the Great Patriotic War.

3. International relations after World War II. Cold War: confrontation between socialist and capitalist systems

Results of the Second World War. Nuremberg Tribunal. Creation of the UN, its composition, structure and functions. Causes cold war. Fulton speech by W. Churchill. "Iron curtain". "The Truman Doctrine". Marshall plan. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki marked the beginning of the nuclear age. Creation of hostile military-political blocs of NATO and the Warsaw Pact. Arms race.

1. World War II as a Manifestation of the Crisis of Modern Civilization

The birth of fascism. The world on the eve of World War II

Fascism was a reflection and result of the development of the main contradictions of Western civilization. His ideology absorbed (bringing to the grotesque) the ideas of racism and social equality, technocratic and statist concepts. An eclectic intertwining of various ideas and theories resulted in the form of accessible populist doctrine and demagogic politics. The National Socialist German Workers' Party grew out of the Free Workers' Committee for the Achievement good peace"- a circle founded in 1915 by a worker Anton Drexler. At the beginning of 1919, other organizations of the National Socialist persuasion were created in Germany. In November 1921, a fascist party was created in Italy, with 300,000 members, 40% of them workers. Recognizing this political force, the king of Italy ordered in 1922 the leader of this party Benito Mussolini(1883-1945) to form a cabinet of ministers, which since 1925 becomes fascist.

According to the same scenario, the Nazis came to power in Germany in 1933. Party leader Adolf Gitler(1889-1945) receives the position of Reich Chancellor from the hands of the President of Germany Paul von Hindenburg (1847-1934).

From the first steps, the fascists proved themselves to be irreconcilable anti-communists, anti-Semites, good organizers, capable of reaching out to all segments of the population, and revanchists. Their activities could hardly have been so rapidly successful without the support of the revanchist monopoly circles in their countries. The presence of their direct ties with the Nazis is beyond doubt, if only because next to the dock in Nuremberg in 1945 were the leaders of the criminal regime and the largest economic magnates of Nazi Germany (G. Schacht, G. Krupp). It can be argued that the financial resources of the monopolies contributed to the fascisization of countries, the strengthening of fascism, designed not only to destroy the communist regime in the USSR (anti-communist idea), inferior peoples (the idea of racism), but also to redraw the map of the world, destroying the Versailles system of the post-war system (revanchist idea).

The phenomenon of fascisization of a number of European countries has even more clearly demonstrated the critical state of the entire Western civilization. In essence, this political and ideological trend represented an alternative to its foundations by curtailing democracy, market relations and replacing them with a policy of etatism, building a society of social equality for the chosen peoples, cultivating collectivist forms of life, inhumane treatment of non-Aryans, etc. True, fascism did not imply total destruction of Western civilization. Perhaps, to a certain extent, this explains the relatively loyal attitude of the ruling circles of democratic countries towards this formidable phenomenon for a long time. In addition, fascism can be attributed to one of the varieties of totalitarianism. Western political scientists have proposed a definition of totalitarianism based on several criteria that have received recognition and further development in political science. Totalitarianism characterized by: 1) the presence of an official ideology, covering the most vital areas of human life and society and supported by the overwhelming majority of citizens. This ideology is based on the rejection of the hitherto existing order and pursues the task of rallying society to create a new way of life, not excluding the use of violent methods; 2) the dominance of a mass party built on a strictly hierarchical principle of government, as a rule, with a leader at the head. Party - performing the functions of control over the bureaucratic state apparatus or dissolving in it; 3) the presence of a developed system of police control, penetrating all public aspects of the life of the country; 4) the almost complete control of the party over the media; 5) full control of the party over law enforcement agencies, primarily the army; 6) management of the central government of the economic life of the country.

A similar characterization of totalitarianism is applicable both to the regime that has developed in Germany, Italy and other fascist countries, and in many respects to the Stalinist regime that has developed in the 30s in the USSR. It is also possible that such a similarity of various guises of totalitarianism made it difficult for politicians who were at the head of democratic countries in that dramatic period of modern history to realize the danger posed by this monstrous phenomenon.

Already in 1935, Germany refused to comply with the military articles of the Treaty of Versailles, followed by the occupation of the Rhine demilitarized zone, withdrawal from the League of Nations, Italian assistance in the occupation of Ethiopia (1935-1936), intervention in Spain (1936-1939), Anschluss (or accession) of Austria (1938), the dismemberment of Czechoslovakia (1938-1939) in accordance with the Munich Agreement, etc. Finally, in April 1939, Germany unilaterally terminates the Anglo-German naval agreement and the non-aggression pact with Poland, so the casus arose belli (cause for war).

1) The international situation on the eve of World War II At the end of 1938, the inevitability of a new war in Europe became quite obvious. The Italian attack on Ethiopia in 1935, the German-Italian intervention against Republican Spain and their assistance to the Francoists in the years, the Anschluss of Austria in 1938, the aggressive policy of Japan - allies of Germany and Italy - in the Far East, the Munich Agreement of 1938 - all these acts of aggression indicated the imminence of a new large-scale armed conflict. In this situation, most European countries, in an effort to protect themselves, are playing a "double game", trying to simultaneously conclude a non-aggression pact with Germany and create a "security system" together with the USSR. The Soviet Union was no exception in this situation either. It must be said that he had the preconditions for rapprochement with both England and France, and with Germany. The former include, firstly, the participation of the USSR in various peace pacts and conventions of the 1920s and 1930s, along with England, France and the USA, the Soviet-French and Soviet-Czechoslovak mutual assistance treaties (1935); secondly, the aggressive policy of the countries of the Triple Alliance towards the Union. Germany and Japan signed Anti-Comintern pact in 1936, in addition, Japan waged military operations against the USSR (beginning in the summer of 1938, they continued until the autumn of 1939; fierce battles took place in August 1938 in Eastern Siberia in the area of Lake Khasan, and then in Mongolia, where they lasted for several months, ground and air battles in the Khalkhin Gol region ended in victory for the Soviet troops.On September 15, 1939, a truce was signed). On the other hand, December 6, 1938. in Paris, France and Germany signed non-aggression pact; in 1938, the Munich agreement and the division of Czechoslovakia took place without the participation of the USSR; all this could be regarded as an attempt by Western countries to direct German aggression against the Soviet Union. Ultimately, this led to the fact that the USSR, like other states, pursued a dual policy.

2) The beginning of the Second World War and the events in Belarus. On September 1, 1939, Nazi Germany attacked Poland. On September 3, France and England declared war on Germany. The Second World War began. The courageous resistance of the Polish army at Gdynia, Modlin, Warsaw could not resist the well-armed machine of the Nazi Reich. By mid-September, fascist troops occupied almost all the vital centers of Poland, surrounded Brest on September 14, and Bialystok fell on September 15. On September 17, the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Polish border. The Belorussian front consisted of more than 200 thousand soldiers and officers. He was opposed by 45 thousand Polish soldiers and officers. There were almost no hostilities between Polish and Soviet troops. About 40 cases of resistance by border patrols were recorded, as well as battles near Kobrin, Vilna, Sopotskin. The most stubborn battles unfolded near Grodno. The losses of the Belorussian Front amounted to 316 people killed and 642 wounded. By September 25, Western Belarus was completely occupied by the Red Army. Already on September 22, General Guderian and brigade commander Krivoshein took the parade of German and Soviet troops on the main street of Brest, then the Soviet troops were withdrawn beyond the Bug. On September 28, an agreement between the USSR and Germany on friendship and borders was signed in Moscow, according to which a new border was established. Western border Soviet Union along the so-called Curzon Line. In a secret additional protocol, an agreement was recorded on the entry of the territory of Lithuania into the sphere of influence of the USSR in exchange for Lublin and part of the Warsaw Voivodeships, which fell into the sphere of influence of Germany. On October 10, 1939, by decision of the USSR government, Vilna and the Vilna Voivodeship were transferred to Lithuania, and in the summer of 1940 - the Sventyansky and Gadutishsky regions, part of the Ostrovetsky, Oshmyansky and Svirsky regions. On October 1, 1939, the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks adopted a resolution “Issues of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine”, which obliged them to convene the Ukrainian and Belarusian People's Assemblies. On October 22, 1939, elections to the People's Assembly were held in Western Belarus, in which 929 deputies were elected. On October 28-30, the People's Assembly of Western Belarus was held in Bialystok. It adopted a declaration on the establishment of Soviet power throughout Western Belarus, the confiscation of landed estates, the nationalization of banks and large-scale industry. Simultaneously with measures to expand the social base of the new government, the repressive apparatus of the Stalinist dictatorship intensively "cleansed out the enemies of the people." At the end of September 1939 a number of Belarusian leaders of the national liberation movement were arrested and then repressed - A. Lutskevich, V. Bogdanovich, A. Stankevich, I. Poznyak and others. According to a secret decree of the NKVD of the USSR, forest guards and siegemen were subject to eviction from Western Belarus. From February 1940 to June 20, 1941, more than 125 thousand people were repressed.

3) German occupation of European countries At a time when Poland was heroically fighting the Nazis, a “strange war” began in Western Europe, not supported by military operations. It was a time when European adversaries tried to guess each other's intentions. U.S. Senator Borah coined the expression "phantom" or "imaginary" war. Churchill, speaking of this period, used Chamberlain's definition of "the twilight of war", and the Germans called it "sitting war" ("sitzkrieg"). as it turned out later, false - air alert. An aircraft of the British Air Force took off for reconnaissance in the Kiel Canal zone, where it discovered a number of German warships anchored. Having received his report, a squadron of 29 bombers flew to the Kiel area. The planes dropped their bombs, hitting only the battleship Admiral Scheer and the light cruiser Emden. The success of the raid was insignificant: the bombs bounced off the armored deck of the Admiral Scheer before they could explode, the cruiser Emden received minor damage. During these episodic skirmishes, Poland pleaded with England for help - the immediate bombing of German airfields and industrial centers that were within the range of British bomber aircraft. England's answer to the events in Eastern Europe consisted in "truth raids", this is the name given to them by the British Minister of Aviation C. Wood. They boiled down to dropping millions of propaganda leaflets over Germany from the air in the hope that the German people, having learned about the depravity of their rulers, would rebel and overthrow them. It was also calculated that these raids would intimidate the Germans by demonstrating Germany's vulnerability to air raids. The first such raid took place on the night of September 3, when 6 million copies of Letters to the German People weighing more than 13 tons were dropped into Germany. Among the British, such actions caused only widespread indignation at the government's inability to help Poland. Nevertheless, the British Expeditionary Force was transferred to the Western Front, where it reinforced the significant French forces already there. 76 Anglo-French divisions (of which only 4 were English) stood against 32 German divisions, hiding behind the "Siegfried Line", but did not go on the offensive, which, of course, would have diverted the German armed forces from the Polish front. The French and British called their behavior "strategic waiting."

4) USSR ON THE EVE OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR. The economy of the USSR that had developed by that time was characterized by: - in fact, the complete nationalization of the means of production, although the existence of two forms of socialist property was formally legally established: state and group (cooperative-collective farm); - curtailment of commodity-money relations (although not their complete absence), deformity the objective law of value (prices are determined not on the basis of market supply and demand, but are dictated by the state); - extremely rigid centralism in management with minimal economic independence in the localities; administrative-command distribution of resources of the final product from centralized funds.-Management economic activity using predominantly administrative and administrative methods. With excessive centralization of executive power, bureaucratization of the economic mechanism and economic ties develops. At the turn of the 1920s and 1930s, the country's leadership adopted a policy of all-round acceleration of industrial development and the forced creation of socialist industry. This policy was most fully embodied in the five-year plans for the development of the national economy. The third five-year plan (gg.) was a natural continuation of the second and first. The first two five-year plans were overfulfilled. Industry doubled in the four years of the first five-year plan, and the 2.1-fold increase planned for the second five-year plan was practically completed by a 2.2-fold increase. According to the plan of the Third Five-Year Plan, the heavy and defense industry continued to advance especially rapidly. Thus, from an economic point of view, there was a fact of accelerated development of the defense industry. On the whole, the huge production capacities created during the two pre-war five-year plans, and especially in the three pre-war years, provided the basis for the country's defense capability. From a military point of view, the Party line on the accelerated development of industry in eastern regions, creation of backup enterprises in a number of branches of engineering, oil refining and chemistry. The material reserves laid down on the eve of the war were aimed at ensuring the transfer of the economy to a war footing and the food of the troops until the economy was fully operational for the needs of the war. Extraordinary IV session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR in September 1939 adopted the "Law on universal military duty". Under the new law, persons who are at least 19 years old are drafted into the army, and for those who have graduated from high school, the draft age is set at 18 years. The state apparatus and the management of industry have undergone major changes, become more flexible, and cumbersomeness and excessive centralization have been eliminated. New people's commissariats were created (for road transport, construction, etc.), which were directly related to strengthening the country's defense. All these changes were caused by the increased volume of work, the requirements of preparation for active defense against aggression, the possibility of which grew with each passing month.

5) The goals of Germany in the war against the USSR. Plan Barbarossa. On July 22, 1940, the development of war projects began. Behind Hitler's plans, the doctrine of a racial-ideological war clearly loomed, which provided for the attack of the German Wehrmacht on the USSR, the seizure of living space in the East, political domination and genocide against the population, the destruction of the bearers of Soviet ideology (party leaders, commissars, intelligentsia), racial and ideological struggle against Jews, massacres of Soviet prisoners of war. The National Socialists considered the "Soviet Jewish-Bolshevik regime" to be the main ideological enemy. December 18, 1940 Hitler signed Directive No. 21 of the Supreme High Command, which received the code name "Option Barbarossa" and was the main guiding document of the war against the USSR. In it, the German armed forces were tasked with “defeating Soviet Russia during one short-term campaign”, for which it was supposed to use all the ground forces, with the exception of those that performed occupation functions in Europe, as well as about 2/3 of the Air Force and only a small part of the Navy. Rapid operations with a deep and rapid advance of tank wedges, the German army had to destroy the Soviet troops located in the western part of the USSR and prevent the withdrawal of their combat-ready units into the interior of the country. Further, quickly pursuing the enemy, the German troops reached the line from where Soviet aviation would not be able to carry out raids on the Third Reich. The ultimate goal of the campaign is to reach the line Arkhangelsk - Volga - Astrakhan, creating there, if necessary, the conditions for the German Air Force to influence the Soviet industrial centers Ural. Germany relied on the strategy of "blitzkrieg". The immediate strategic goal of the German leadership was the defeat and destruction of Soviet troops in the Baltic States, Belarus and Right-Bank Ukraine. It was assumed that during offensive operations the Wehrmacht would reach Kyiv with fortifications east of the Dnieper, Smolensk and the area south and west of Lake Ilmen. Further, it was necessary to occupy the Donetsk coal basin in a timely manner, and in the north - to quickly reach Moscow. According to the plan, Army Group "North" was to lead an offensive in the direction of Leningrad, Army Group "Center" and "South" - to Moscow and Kyiv, respectively. It was recognized as necessary to avoid a major battle in the Bialystok region, and to fight it no later than in the Minsk region. It was also envisaged to prevent flank counterattacks by the Soviet troops. Preparations for an attack on the USSR were carefully disguised. On March 24, 1941, the commander of Army Group Center, F. von Bock, ordered the construction of various fortifications along the borders of Poland and East Prussia, supposedly intended for defense against a possible Soviet offensive. It was also decided not to prevent Soviet air reconnaissance from observing the ongoing work. The Wehrmacht Joint Command (OKB) sought to keep the personnel of the troops in the dark about Operation Barbarossa as long as possible. In accordance with the instructions of the OKW headquarters of May 8, 1941, the officers were to be informed about eight days before the start of hostilities, and the privates and non-commissioned officers - only in the very last days.

6) Fascist attack Germany on the USSR and will defend the battles on the territory of B. 22 Cherveny 1941 Hitler's troops barged in on the frontiers of the USSR. The enemy struck at the airfields, chigunach knots, garades Parts of the Chyrvonai Army carried vyalikiya strata. The strike of the "Center" army group, which was advancing on the territory of Belarus on Maskva, was attacked by warriors of 3 and 10 armies, and the taksama of the warriors of 4 armies (general), yakiya abaranyali Brest. 10 zen vyali bai border guards 4 outposts of lieutenant A. Kizhevatava, 7 attacks of adbil 3 outposts of lieutenant V. Usava. A. Kizhevatavu and V. Usavu was awarded the title of Hero of the Savetsk State Union. The Abaronians of the Brestskaya Krepasti - warriors of Captain I.M. Nyamnogim managed to vyr-vazza z crepasti i pradouzhyts baratzba z enemies. Heraichna zmagaliska letchyki. Adzin from the first taranau zdzeisniu In the first days of the war, the pilots sacked 1890 bayous flights and stole more than 100 samaletau. Nyagledzyachy on the masculinity and geraism of the Savets warriors, the fascists broke the abaron from Belarus. The abyss of Minsk was planned for early in the afternoon and the troops of Zakhodnyag were sent to the front. On the 4th day, the Nazis seemed to fall to Minsk. 44 troops and 2 infantry corps, 100 infantry divisions, 108 infantry divisions, azhytsyauliali Abaron. The Savetsky warriors did not succeed in escaping Minsk At the getty of the kyarunitsva of the USSR, a number of measures were taken to mabilize the resources of the country for the adpor of aggression. The mabilization at the Black Red Army began to grow. At a patch of lime, 1941 (suitable for the paradox of Stauki Galounaga kamandavannya) Arganize a line of abarons on Zakhodnyai Dzvin and Dnyapra. Here were transferred 37 dyviziy, yakiya mugli b dapamagchy did not let the pratsiunik break to Muskva. On some zen, the fascistau was stranded on the Byarezine race near the district of Babruisk. lipenya Magileu i 19 zhniunya - Gomel. The parazhenne of the Savetsky troops was abumoullen nepadryhtavanastsu and abarons of the troops of Zakhodnyaga front. The strata of the front laid 400 thousand chalaveks for the agulnaya kolkastsi, 750 thousand Nyagledzyachi for the heroic supraciulenne of the chirvonaarmeytsau, and the end of the life of the akupiravana of the territory of Belarus. All the blame for the parazhenne was put on the kyraunitstva of the Zakhodny fronts. Iago kamanduyuchi i iago headquarters were asujans i rasstralany. Once upon a time, the abaron of Belarus did not allow the practical worker to implement the plan "malankavay vayny" for 2 months, and the magician Chyrvonai Army gave the right-weights of abaronic measures to the maskowy kirunka.

7) Measures of the Soviet state to organize the defense of the country. The nature of military construction in the second half of the 1930s was determined by the fact that by that time there was a need to eliminate the mixed territorial-personnel system of organizing the army. With this system of manning the army, introduced as a result of military reform years, the Red Army soldiers at short-term training camps were not able to sufficiently study and master new complex equipment. In connection with this, the territorial units significantly lost their combat effectiveness and did not have the necessary mobilization readiness. The transition to the personnel system was carried out gradually, on the basis of a large preparatory work. It was enshrined in the new "Law on General Conscription" adopted in the fall of 1939. By law, the draft age was lowered from 21 to 18 years. By the beginning of 1940, all divisions of the Red Army became personnel. The recruitment of the army on a personnel basis required an increase in the registration of those liable for military service and a reorganization of the organization of their conscription for active military service. In this regard, local military administration bodies were reorganized - military commissariats were created in the territories, regions, autonomous republics and cities, while their number increased by more than 4 times. As a result of recruiting the army on a personnel basis, the strength of the Armed Forces in the period from 1936 to 1939 almost doubled. If in 1936 they numbered 1 million 100 thousand people, then on August 31, 1939 there were already more than 2 million people. The growing threat of an attack on the Soviet Union after the outbreak of World War II necessitated a further significant increase in the size of the Red Army. During the period from 1939 to June 1941, 125 new divisions were formed. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were 5.3 million people in the Red Army.

8)Activities of the USSR in the international arena. Creation of the anti-Hitler coalition. One of the main tasks of the Soviet foreign policy in the first months of the war there was an organization of economic interaction between the countries that opposed Nazi Germany and its allies, primarily between the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. It was necessary to immediately resolve the issue of large-scale deliveries of weapons, military equipment and strategic raw materials to the USSR. The Anglo-Soviet agreement of January 1, 2001 and the visit to the USSR by G. Hopkins, the closest adviser to US President F. Roosevelt, that followed it at the end of the same month, were of significant importance for cooperation. In September-October 1941, a conference of government delegations from the USSR, England and the USA was held in Moscow, at which the issue of distributing the resources of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition was considered. From October 1, 1941 to June 30, 1942, the United States and Britain agreed to send 400 aircraft, 500 tanks, anti-aircraft and anti-tank guns, and other types of weapons and military equipment to the Soviet Union every month. The USSR expressed its readiness to pay for these deliveries with funds from the country's gold reserves. Until the end of 1941, the USSR received under Lend-Lease1 weapons and materials worth 545,000 dollars. The Moscow Conference was a great success in strengthening the anti-fascist coalition. On the basis of the “Agreement between the governments of the USSR and Great Britain on joint actions in the war against Germany”, signed on July 12, 1941, England provided the USSR with a loan of 10 million pounds sterling for a period of 5 years. But soon deliveries from the British Isles began to be carried out also on the terms of Lend-Lease. Already on August 1, 1941, an English ship arrived in Arkhangelsk with depth charges and magnetic mines. Enormous work began on the assembly and transportation of weapons, military equipment and other goods to the USSR. The governments of the allied countries noted with high awards heroic deeds Soviet and British sailors who participated in the escort and protection of summer convoys in 1942. Some Soviet sailors of the military and merchant fleet were awarded orders of Great Britain, and a group of English sailors were awarded orders of the USSR. For the acceptance of aircraft assembled in Iran and Iraq, as well as their further distillation by air to the Soviet Union, an air base was created in the Persian Gulf port of Abadan, where, together with Soviet officers and foreign military and civil aviation specialists worked as privates. An intermediate air base was created in Tehran for the technical inspection of aircraft and preparing them for flight to the Soviet Union. Airfields were equipped in the Azerbaijan SSR, classes were organized to train Soviet pilots, engineers and technicians in the combat use of American and British aircraft, and maintenance was arranged. In addition to weapons, the Soviet Union received under Lend-Lease a significant amount of industrial equipment, fuels, lubricants, explosives, chemical raw materials, etc. It should be noted that, in turn, the Soviet Union helped its partners in the anti-Hitler coalition to the best of its ability. The USA received from the USSR 300,000 tons of chromium ore, 32,000 tons of manganese ore, a significant amount of platinum, gold, etc., totaling $2.2 million. Cooperation of states, organizations, thousands ordinary people, who worked together as part of Lend-Lease, testified to the fact that everyone understood well that only by defeating fascism could one ensure peaceful life themselves and future generations.

9)Battle for Moscow.Causes of the defeats of the Red Army in the initial period of the war

On September 15, a plan for a decisive offensive against Moscow was presented, code-named "Typhoon". In accordance with it, Army Group Center concentrated up to half of all troops on the Soviet-German front in the Moscow direction by the end of September, creating a significant superiority of forces against three Soviet front formations. The location of the Soviet troops was extremely unfortunate. On September 30, the tank group of G. Guderian and the 2nd field army of Weichs delivered a powerful blow to the left flank of the Bryansk Front. The road to Moscow was open. The position of the capital remained critical. On November 15, a new offensive of Army Group Center began. The enemy quickly moved to the regional cities and soon captured them. The battles with the Nazi invaders were very difficult. On December 6, units of the Red Army launched a counteroffensive near Moscow, during which they launched a counterattack on the advanced groupings of the Nazi troops north and south of the capital. The immediate threat to Moscow was eliminated. The victory of the Red Army near Moscow was the first major defeat of the Nazis in World War II, which meant the complete collapse of the "blitzkrieg" plan. Shortcomings in the quality of the Red Army were primarily the cause of its failures in the initial period of the war. The Red Army was severely lacking in automatic small arms. One of the reasons for the tragic outcome of the initial period of the war is the gross miscalculation of the political and military leadership of the Soviet Union regarding the timing of the aggression, which turned out to be sudden for the Red Army. The enemy smashed the Soviet troops in parts. The decision on the transition to strategic defense, adopted only on the eighth day of the war, turned out to be belated. The morale and combat qualities of the Red Army did not correspond to pre-war ideas. Massive repressions did not pass without a trace for the combat readiness of the army. They contributed to the growth of lack of initiative, the deterioration of the training of commanders, the fall in discipline, not to mention the loss of a large number of professional personnel. The war revealed significant shortcomings in command and control. It must be admitted that the Red Army was not prepared for the conditions of the modern industrial war - the war of engines. This is the main reason for its defeats in the initial period of hostilities.

10)Administrative-territorial division of the occupied territory of Belarus. Occupational control apparatus. In the occupied territory, the Nazis introduced a new administrative-territorial division. Two Reichskommissariats were created: "Ukraine" and "Ostland". Belarusian lands were divided and included in different territorial administrative divisions . The northwestern regions of the Brest region and the Bialystok region with the cities of Grodno and Volkovysk were annexed to East Prussia (Bialystok district). The southern regions of the Brest, Pinsk, Polesye and Gomel regions with the regional centers of Brest, Pinsk, Mozyr went to the Reichskommissariat "Ukraine". The northwestern districts of the Vileyka region were included in the General District of Lithuania. Vitebsk, Mogilev, most of the Gomel and eastern regions of the Minsk region - to the zone of the army rear of the Army Group "Center". The remaining territory - Baranovichi, Vileika, Minsk (except for the eastern regions), the northern regions of the Brest, Pinsk and Polesye regions became part of the General District of Belarus, which belonged to the Ostland Reichskommissariat (residence in Riga). The General District of Belarus was divided into 10 districts (gebits): Baranovichi, Borisov, Vileika, Gantsevichi, Gluboksky, Lida, Minsk, Novogrudsky, Slonimsky, Slutsky. The main concern of the occupation administration was the personal accounting of the population. Moving from one settlement to another was allowed only with a special pass issued by the local commandant's office, and only in the daytime. Mandatory propiska (registration) was introduced for all newcomers to the settlement. Identity cards were issued to residents for a certain period of time. In addition to the photo, last name, first name and information about the date and place of birth, it indicated the external data of the owner. Gauleiter V. Kube headed the General Commissariat of Belarus1 from August 1941 to September 22, 1943. Under his direct leadership, a policy of genocide and "scorched earth" was carried out, the material and cultural values of the republic were plundered. V. Kube was killed by the Minsk underground. He was replaced by Gruppenführer of the SS troops K. von Gottberg, who continued the same Nazi policy. Districts were headed by gebitskommissars, cities - by state commissars, districts - by ort commissars. In the zone of the army rear, power belonged to the command of the army units, military field and local commandant's offices. A supporting role was played by local institutions - councils. Burgomasters were at the head of city, district or county (county) councils, volost elders were appointed in volost councils, and elders, soltys, and voits were appointed in villages. Collaborationist bodies and organizations were created. Collaborators became employees of city and district governments, burgomasters, elders and their assistants, they replenished the ranks of the auxiliary police. A bet was also made on Belarusian nationalism. In October 1941, by the decision of the General Commissariat of Belarus, the Belarusian People's Self-Help (BNS) was created. It set itself the goal of providing assistance to victims of hostilities, as well as the development of Belarusian culture. Basically, the BNS was engaged in recruiting and exporting the local population for forced labor in Germany. The Central Council, appointed by Gauleiter V. Kube, became the governing body of this organization. District departments of the BNS were created in the districts. In June 1942, V. Kube creates the Belarusian Self-Defense Corps (BCS). Officer courses were opened for Belarusians in Minsk. However, there were few who wanted to cooperate with the Nazis. In the autumn of 1942, the attention of the invaders to the BCS weakened. Instead of this structure, they decided to create Belarusian police battalions under the leadership of German officers. In the spring of 1943, the BCS was liquidated. The Belarusian Scientific Society, Belarusian trade unions and judicial structures were also organized. In June 1943, the German authorities created an advisory body - the Belarusian Council of Trust. In December of the same year, the Belarusian Central Rada was created - a puppet government of 14 people. The invaders saw it as a means to mobilize the forces of the Belarusian people to fight the partisans, to use the Belarusian economy more fully for their own purposes. The leaders of the Rada launched a special activity during the creation of the Belarusian Regional Defense (BKO), i.e., the “national army”. On March 6, 1944, the general mobilization of the male population of 1908-1924 was announced. birth. In total, about 24 thousand people were mobilized. As the Red Army approached, mass desertion began in the BKO. Many of the mobilized went into partisan detachments.

11)The policy of genocide, the destruction of the material and cultural values of Belarus. In 1940 the General Plan "Ost" was developed - a plan related to one of the main goals of the German leadership to capture the "living space" necessary for the prosperity of the Third Reich, its colonization, the liberation of the "living space" from the "excessive" indigenous population. Hence the strategic concept of waging war in the East - a war of annihilation. Winning in the East was not enough. It was necessary to destroy the army, the country, the people. In accordance with the general plan "Ost", it was planned to exterminate 120-140 million people on the territory of the USSR and Poland. A terrible fate was prepared for the Belarusian people. 25% of the Belarusian population was supposed to be Germanized, 75% were to be destroyed. During the war, based on the plan "Ost", the Nazis developed short-term specific tasks for the destruction of the population. Materials of such developments were found in the documents of the Reichskommissariat "Ostland". According to the map - scheme, dated November 17, 1942. Belarus from its western border to the Grodno-Slonim line, the southern part of the Brest region, the regions of Pinsk, Mozyr and the rest of Polissya along the line of Pruzhany, Gantsevichi, Parichi, Rechitsa was supposed to be completely cleared of the local population and settle on it only German colonists. In all major cities of Belarus, the Nazis intended to create settlements for the privileged strata of German society. The number of local population that could be left in these cities was determined by an exact calculation: for every master of the "higher race", two slaves of the "lower" race. So in Minsk and the region it was planned to settle 50 thousand German colonists and leave 100 thousand local population, in Molodechno and its environs - 7 thousand Germans and 15 thousand Belarusians, respectively, in Baranovichi 10 thousand Germans and 20 thousand local residents, in Gomel - 30 thousand Germans and 50 thousand local residents, in Mogilev and Bobruisk - 20 thousand Germans and 50 thousand inhabitants. June 22, 1941 Nazi Germany attacked the Soviet Union without declaring war. By the end of August 1941 the entire territory of Belarus was occupied. The implementation of the policy of genocide of the Belarusian people by the Nazis began from the first days of the war. Executions and mass executions took on enormous proportions. Soldiers and officers of the Wehrmacht carried out massacres against the civilian population everywhere. The practical implementation of the crimes was facilitated by the indoctrination of the soldiers of the Wehrmacht and the SS, carried out in preparation for aggression against the USSR.

12)The policy of the occupiers in the economic sphere. The fascist occupation authorities established a system of political terror in all the occupied countries and regions. The main goal of fascist coercive domination in the occupied countries, both in its generally accepted and in its specific forms of manifestation, was the scrupulous economic robbery of these countries. Using the state-monopoly power of German finance capital in the interests of the military fascist economy, the fascist administration carried out, along with direct robbery by confiscating stocks of raw materials, gold and foreign exchange funds, imposing high occupation payments and other things, also forcibly subordinating the financial system and partial "integration" of the economic the potential of the occupied countries with the help of the most powerful and influential German monopoly associations. Moreover, new state-monopoly bodies arose, such as, for example, the main department "Ost" for the occupied Polish regions, the northern "Aluminum Joint-Stock Company", "Continental Oil Joint-Stock Company”, using the intermediary services of which the German concerns ensured their share of the wealth in the occupied countries, in this way Krupp, Flick, Klöckner, Rechling, Mannesmann, Hermann Goering-Werke and other monopoly groups often, in alliance with large banks, appropriated the most valuable mining and metallurgical enterprises, steel and rolling mills of Upper Silesia, northern French and Belgian industrial regions, copper mines in Yugoslavia, that is, in fact, entire industries of the occupied countries. By such methods, the most powerful German concern "IG Farbenindustri" took possession of the products of the Polish chemical and oil industries, the Norwegian aluminum industry, as well as chemical plants in Belgium and Yugoslavia. In addition, other sectors of the heavy and light industries of these countries - Polish textile enterprises, Danish shipyards or the Dutch electrical industry - were turned into objects of preferential rights of German monopolies. In close connection with the above process was the increase in the volume of military-industrial tasks for the industry of the occupied countries. The plundering of the food stocks of the occupied countries also took on a large scale.

13) Collaboration in Belarus. In the initial period of the war, the development of political and military collaboration took place at an insignificant pace, which is explained by the successes of the Germans at the front and the lack of need for them to develop collaborationist structures. The German leadership hoped for a quick victory in the war and was skeptical about the ability of the Belarusian population to nation-state construction due to the weakness of ethnic self-consciousness. The activity of collaborators during this period was reduced mainly to the work of non-political structures, the largest of which was the Belarusian People's Self-Help, created on October 22, 1941, the purpose of which was proclaimed to be health care, education and culture. With the help of Belarusian collaborators, the German authorities tried to use scientific personnel who ended up in the occupied territory. In June 1942, they created the "Belarusian Scientific Association". Gauleiter of Belarus V. Kube became its honorary president. However, Belarusian scientists boycotted the work of the partnership, and it existed only on paper. Other non-political collaborationist structures were also created ("Women's League", trade unions, etc.). At the same time, attempts to create the Belarusian Free Self-Defense Corps were unsuccessful due to the opposition of the military authorities and the SS. The attempt to create a Belarusian autocephaly with the aim of separating Belarusian believers from the Moscow Patriarchate was also unsuccessful. The situation that had developed by 1943 forced the German command to reconsider its attitude towards the collaborationist movement. On June 22, 1943, the Union of Belarusian Youth (SBM) was formally created, which became an analogue of the Hitler Youth in Belarus (in fact, it existed since 1942). On the initiative of Cuba, on June 27, 1943, the creation of the Rada of Trust under the General Commissariat of Belarus was proclaimed. This body was an administrative commission, the only task of which was to work out and present to the occupying authorities the wishes and proposals from the population. On December 21, 1943, instead of the Rada of Trust, on the initiative of K. Gotberg (who became the General Commissar after the assassination of Cuba by partisans), the Belarusian Central Rada (BCR) was created, with R. Ostrovsky (1887-1976), head of the Minsk District Council, appointed as its president. The activities of the Rada were not effective, since the Rada did not have real political power (only in matters of social guardianship, culture and education it had the right to relatively independent solutions), and its members held different views on the future of Belarus and often did not know local conditions. In the eyes of the population, therefore, it could not have authority. The Rada was indirectly connected with war crimes - in particular, with ethnic cleansing against the Polish population. In occupied Belarus, many collaborationist newspapers and magazines were published: Belorusskaya Gazeta, Pagonya (Pahonia), Biełaruski hołas (Belarusian Voice), Novy Shlyakh (Novy Path), etc. These publications were anti-Semitic, anti-Soviet and pro-fascist propaganda. On February 23, 1944, K. Gotberg issued an order to create the Belarusian Regional Defense (BKO) - a military collaborationist formation, headed by Franz Kuschel, and instructed the BCR to mobilize. The 45 BKO battalions formed by the end of March were poorly armed. Their discipline gradually decreased, there were not enough officers. By the end of the occupation, the BKO was used to fight partisans, guard various facilities and do chores. The most important activities of the BCR at the final stage of the war were the reorganization of the BKO units and the replenishment of Belarusian military formations by recruiting new soldiers, the creation of auxiliary contingents for use in the German defense system, and the organization of the anti-Soviet partisan movement on the territory of Belarus. Initially, it was supposed to reorganize the BKO into the Belarusian Legion. In preparation for this reorganization in September 1944, at the same time, groups were selected from among those recruited by the "Union of Belarusian Youth" as "air defense assistants" (from 2.5 to 5 thousand people) for training at the anti-aircraft artillery school. After completing the course of study, they were included in the air defense units of Berlin. The last event of the BCR on the territory of Belarus was the holding on June 27, 1944 (a week before the liberation of Minsk) in Minsk of the Second All-Belarusian Congress. The name of the congress was chosen to confirm the continuity with the First All-Belarusian Congress, which took place in 1918 also under the German occupation. The congress delegates announced the severance of diplomatic relations with Russia, proclaimed the BCR the only representative of the Belarusian people and decided to send Hitler a statement of his support.

14)Formation and development of the partisan movement.Organizational structure of the partisan forces. During the course of the war partisan movement passed three stages of development, which basically coincide chronologically with the three periods of the Great Patriotic War. In the first period of the war (June 1941 - November 18, 1942), the partisan movement experienced all the difficulties and hardships associated with the unpreparedness of the Soviet people for this method of resisting the enemy. There was no theory of partisan struggle developed in advance, there were no well-thought-out organizational forms, and therefore no appropriate personnel. There were also no secret bases with weapons and food. All this doomed the first partisan formations to a long and painful search for everything that was necessary for effective combat operations. The fight against an experienced and well-armed enemy had to start almost from scratch. On July 1, 1941, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Belarus adopts a directive "On the deployment guerrilla war Behind Enemy Lines”, in which the regional committees, city committees and district committees were instructed to create partisan detachments to conduct a fierce struggle against the enemy. The further the enemy moved deep into Soviet territory, the less favorable the situation became for him, since the population had already managed to recover somewhat from the shock caused by the sudden attack of Germany on the USSR. The activities of the first partisan detachments commanded by V. Korzh, G. Bumazhkov, F. Pavlovsky, M. Shmyrev and others are widely known. Already at the end of 1941, over 2 thousand partisan detachments with a total number of 90 thousand people fought behind enemy lines including in Belarus - about 230 detachments and groups consisting of over 12 thousand people. Among the first partisans there were many servicemen who were unable to break through from the encirclement to the front line or who escaped from captivity. About 500,000 servicemen participated in the partisan movement during the war years. The partisan detachments led fighting from the first days of the German invasion. The Pinsk partisan detachment (commander V. Korzh) fought the first battle on June 28, 1941, attacking the enemy column. The partisans set up ambushes on the roads, impeding the advance of enemy troops. The partisan detachment "Red October" under the command of T. Bumazhkov and F. Pavlovsky in mid-July defeated the headquarters of the enemy division, destroyed 55 vehicles and armored cars, 18 motorcycles, and seized a large number of weapons. On August 6, 1941, the commanders of this detachment were the first of the partisans to be awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In August and the first half of September, Belarusian partisans carried out a mass destruction of telegraph and telephone communications on the lines connecting the Army Groups "Center" and "South". They continuously ambushed the recovery teams, signal battalions and exterminated them. From the first days of the enemy invasion, sabotage by partisans and underground workers began on railway communications. Especially the activities of the partisans intensified during the battle of Moscow. When deploying partisan detachments and underground organizations, the party-state leadership relied extensively on the organs of the NKVD - the NKGB. They contributed to the armament and logistics of partisan detachments, trained partisans in intelligence and counterintelligence activities, conspiracy and communications, and protected spies from penetrating into their midst. These bodies also carried out the preparation of partisan groups and detachments and their transfer to the front line. Often, the destruction battalions under the jurisdiction of the NKVD passed to the position of partisan detachments. From the very beginning of the struggle, the independent detachment became the main organizational and combat unit of the partisans. Its number usually did not exceed 80-100 people, the detachment was divided into platoons (groups) and squads. The detachment was headed by a commander, a commissar, and sometimes a chief of staff. The armament was mainly light small arms, which could be collected on the battlefield or obtained from the enemy. The detachments were usually based within the boundaries of their own area on well-known terrain. The most common unit of partisan detachments was the brigade, which numbered from several hundred to several thousand people and included from three to five, and sometimes more detachments. As the number of partisan formations grew and their material base strengthened, reconnaissance, sabotage, economic and sanitary services were created, and, if necessary, units for training partisans in various military specialties. Printing houses appeared, where newspapers, leaflets, proclamations were printed. A clear control system was taking shape, which included the command of the partisan formation (commander and necessarily the commissar), headquarters, and the party political apparatus. In January 1942, by decision of the State Defense Committee, three special schools were formed, where cadets received theoretical knowledge and practical skills in partisan struggle. By September 1942, 15 partisan detachments and 100 organizational groups were formed and sent behind enemy lines. In December, on the basis of the courses, the Belarusian School for the Training of Partisan Workers was formed. By September 1943, she had trained more than 940 partisan specialists. 30 May 1942 for coordination partisan activity The Central Headquarters of the Partisan Movement (TSSHPD) was created. On September 9, 1942, the Belarusian headquarters of the partisan movement (BSHND) began to function. The BSHPD launched an active combat activity: created partisan detachments, planned and coordinated the fighting of partisans, and improved the structure of partisan formations. Thus, by the autumn of 1942, the partisan movement had an established system of centralized leadership, which helped the partisans to interact more closely with the army in the field. 1943 became a turning point in the course of the Great Patriotic War. The Red Army successfully led the offensive along the entire front. Under these conditions, the partisan and underground movement acquired the character of a nationwide struggle against the Nazi invaders. In the summer of 1943, the TsSHPD developed an operation code-named "Rail War". Its first stage began on August 3 and lasted until September 15. It was timed to coincide with the offensive of Soviet troops in the Belgorod-Kharkov direction. The results of the operation were impressive. Only in Belarus, railway traffic was paralyzed for 15-30 days. Echelons with troops and military equipment of the enemy, urgently heading towards Orel, Belgorod and Kharkov, "got stuck" on the way, and often were destroyed by partisans. Enemy traffic has been reduced by almost 35-40%. The invaders suffered huge material losses. During the autumn offensive of the Red Army from September 25 to November 1, 1943, the second stage of the "Rail War" was held under the code name "Concert", in which Belarusian partisans played a decisive role. They blew up tens of thousands of rails, derailed more than a thousand echelons, destroyed 72 railway bridges, exterminated more than 30 thousand enemy soldiers and officers. The third stage of the "Rail War" began on the night of June 20, 1944, on the eve of the Belarusian operation "Bagration", and continued until the complete liberation of Belarus. Partisan formations carried out raids (long military marches in the occupied territory), during which Nazi garrisons were destroyed, trains were derailed, new partisan formations were created, and mass political work was carried out among the population. As a result of the fighting of the partisans, significant territories were liberated from the invaders, on which free partisan zones were created. By the beginning of 1943, Belarusian partisans controlled about 30% of the occupied territory of the republic, by the end of the year - about 60%, they managed to free about 38 thousand people. km2 of Belarusian land. There were more than 20 partisan zones, where life went according to the laws of Soviet power. They were equipped with 18 airfields through which cargo was delivered from big land, wounded partisans and children were evacuated. Food, clothes, newspapers, film shifters, printing presses and even musical instruments were delivered by air to the rear of the enemy. The partisans got the opportunity to correspond with relatives and friends living in the Soviet rear. In late 1943 - early 1944, the partisan formations of Belarus consisted of 157 brigades and 83 separate detachments, in which more than 270 thousand partisans fought. The Polish resistance movement operated in the western regions of Belarus. It existed from the moment the Red Army entered the territory of Western Belarus, and until the start of World War II, its activities were directed against Soviet power. After the German attack on Poland, the Polish Armed Struggle Union (SVB, then AK) began to fight on two fronts - against the Soviet government and the Germans. AK had significant forces. In 1942 - the first half of 1943, the formations of the AK and partisans carried out many armed actions against the German invaders. After the expulsion of the Nazi occupiers from the Belarusian land, the Krayova Army went deep underground, continuing a fierce armed struggle against Soviet power in the western regions of Belarus. And only in 1954 the Polish armed underground was liquidated.

15) Organization of the anti-fascist underground. The activities of the underground in the second period of the war The party underground was active in the enemy's rear. From the first days of the war, under his leadership, militant anti-fascist underground Komsomol and youth organizations and groups were created in Baranovichi, Orsha, Grodno, Gomel, Bobruisk, Brest, Mogilev, Mozyr and many others. settlements . Some organizations managed to form in advance, others - after the seizure of the territory by the Wehrmacht troops. At the end of June 1941, the first underground organizations were created in Minsk, which were led by the Minsk underground city committee of the CP (b) B under the leadership of I. Kovalev. During the years of occupation, the underground fighters brought more than 10 thousand families of Minsk residents into partisan detachments, including about a thousand families of suicide bombers from the Minsk ghetto. The underground members of Minsk were the most active. They staged explosions, arson and other sabotage on the enemy's communications, took out the wounded soldiers and commanders of the Red Army from the encirclement, assisted them, and distributed leaflets. In the summer - autumn of 1941, underground anti-fascist groups began to operate in Grodno. The members of the groups helped the soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, who were in Nazi captivity, recorded and distributed reports of the Soviet Information Bureau. During the battles near Moscow in December 1941, sabotage at the Minsk railway junction reduced the capacity of its highway by almost 20 times. In Gomel, the underground blew up a restaurant with German officers who were there. K. Zaslonov's group was active in the Orsha railway depot. With its help, several dozen steam locomotives were put out of action, and the operation of the station was repeatedly paralyzed. The underground paid great attention to agitation and propaganda work among the population behind enemy lines. In January 1942, the publication of the periodical "Herald of the Motherland", the newspaper "Patriot of the Motherland", and leaflets was organized in Minsk. By the end of the year, about 20 underground newspapers were being published in Belarus. Great tasks were assigned to the underground fighters: reconnaissance, distribution of leaflets, newspapers and proclamations, familiarizing the population with the appeals of the party and government of the USSR, acts of sabotage at industrial enterprises and transport, organizing sabotage, all possible assistance to the partisan movement. The first military winter and spring of 1942 turned out to be the most difficult for the underground workers. Lack of experience, disregard for secrecy led to the failure of many underground organizations. As a result, the Minsk underground suffered enormous damage: in March-April 1942, the German secret services arrested over 400 people, destroyed a printing house, and many safe houses. The Germans seized members of the city committee of the party S. Zaits and I. Kazints, secretary G. Semenov. Until the beginning of May, the Nazis subjected those arrested to sophisticated torture. Soon, the residents of Minsk saw a terrible picture: 28 leading workers of the underground were hanged on trees and telegraph poles. 251 underground workers were shot. The second period of the war is characterized by a significant expansion of the network of combat underground in cities and towns. The destruction of the Nazis was carried out in various ways. On July 30, 1943, the underground fighters of the Osipovichi under the leadership of F. Krylovich committed one of the largest acts of sabotage of the Second World War - they destroyed four trains with military equipment, ammunition, fuel (one of the echelons was loaded with Tiger tanks). The offensive of the Red Army contributed to the strengthening of the political and sabotage work of underground organizations. The underground workers of Minsk, together with the partisans, destroyed the German regional leadership, the leaders of the Belarusian nationalists, and with them a group of SD officers. In August 1941, V. Kube arrived in Minsk and was appointed General Commissar of Belarus. Under his leadership, the invaders committed terrible atrocities: they burned villages, destroyed thousands of civilians and prisoners of war. On the night of September 22, 1943, the Gauleiter was executed by the Minsk underground in his residence. Soviet patriot Elena Mazanik planted a mine in the bedroom of V. Kube, on which he was blown up. The Nazis brutally avenged the death of Gauleiter Kube. illustrious Soviet spy N. Often, moving from underground methods of struggle to partisan actions, the patriots saved hundreds of thousands of citizens from being driven into fascist slavery, prevented the destruction and looting of enterprises, factories, mines and residential buildings. The growing resistance to the enemy was also explained by the increasingly tough socio-economic, political and military measures of the occupiers. In the cities, the Germans persistently tried to attract workers and employees to restore industrial enterprises. However, little came of this: the workers hid tools and equipment, made them unusable, and managed to take finished products out of the shops. Of course, the Nazis were not going to put up with the current situation. Increasingly, they moved from "intimidation" to mass repression. The peasants made their contribution to the fight against the enemy. In a variety of ways they tried to preserve collective farm property. The peasants evaded paying taxes, disrupted the supply of agricultural products, and hindered trade and barter with the occupying authorities. The resistance behind enemy lines vividly demonstrated the patriotism of people, their unbending will to win, their readiness to make self-sacrifice in order to protect not only their families, but also the Fatherland. It was truly a popular movement.

16) Stalingrad and Kursk battles. A turning point in the war The Battle of Stalingrad was of decisive importance in the course of all the events of 1942 on the Soviet-German front. It began on July 17, 1942 in difficult conditions for the Soviet troops: the German troops outnumbered the Red Army in personnel by 1.7 times, in artillery and tanks - by 1.3 times, in aircraft - by more than 2 times. In mid-October 1942, in the Stalingrad direction, almost on a 900-kilometer front, the enemy went over to the defensive. The exception was Stalingrad, where the fighting continued with the same force. In the first half of November, German air reconnaissance and other sources invariably confirmed that the Soviet command was not only reinforcing troops in Stalingrad, but was also concentrating large forces northwest and south of the city. The Stalingrad strategic counter-offensive operation (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943) was carried out in three stages: 1) breaking through the defense, defeating the enemy's flank groupings and encircling his main forces (November 19-30, 1942); 2) disruption of the enemy's attempts to release his encircled grouping and the development of the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops on the outer front of the encirclement (December 12-31, 1942); 3) liquidation of the encircled grouping of German troops in the area of Stalingrad (January 10 - February 2, 1943). In the first three days of the offensive by the troops of the Southwestern and right wing of the Don fronts, the enemy suffered a crushing defeat. By the end of the third day of the operation, the enemy defenses northwest of Stalingrad had been hacked. While the German command was looking for ways to prevent the impending catastrophe, the Soviet troops continued active operations. On November 23, the troops of the Southwestern and Stalingrad fronts, in cooperation with the Don Front, completed the encirclement of the enemy's Stalingrad grouping. The immediate task of the counteroffensive was solved. Fierce fighting continued until 30 November. The Soviet command took the first step towards seizing the strategic initiative. The final stage of the battle of Stalingrad was the operation "Ring", carried out from January 10 to February 2, 1943 in order to eliminate the encircled enemy grouping. The Battle of Stalingrad lasted from July 1942 to the beginning of February 1943 and was the longest during the Great Patriotic War. The victory at Stalingrad was a decisive contribution to achieving a radical change in the Great Patriotic War and had a decisive influence on the further course of World War II. Battle of Kursk. In the spring of 1943, the Allied Powers already had all the material resources, as well as a sufficient number of troops, to open a second front. However, this has not happened at this time. From mid April General base The Red Army began to develop plans for a defensive operation near Kursk and a counteroffensive under the code name Operation Kutuzov. At that time, on the Kursk ledge, preparations were underway for an unprecedented depth of defense of the Red Army. During a period of relative calm, both sides made great efforts to comprehensively prepare for the summer-autumn operations. The Soviet armed forces were clearly ahead. The actions of the enemy were characterized by the intensive use of all means. On the morning of July 12, the battle began, called Prokhorovskoye. On both sides, over 1,100 tanks and self-propelled guns were involved in it. On July 15, a turning point occurred in the Battle of Kursk: Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive and pursuit of the enemy. The plans of the German command completely failed. In the Kursk defensive operation, the troops of the Central, Voronezh and Steppe fronts thwarted the plan of the Wehrmacht to encircle and defeat more than a million Soviet troops. The Nazi command sought to hold its positions to the last soldier. However, it was not possible to stabilize the front. On August 5, 1943, Soviet troops liberated Orel and Belgorod. The victory of the Red Army near Kursk and its exit to the river. The Dnieper marked the completion of a radical change during the Great Patriotic and World War II. The strategic situation changed dramatically in favor of the anti-Hitler coalition. The leaders of the allied states decided to hold talks at the highest level.

17) Liberation of Belarus from German invaders. The Belarusian people fought steadfastly against the Nazi occupiers. And the long-awaited liberation came: on September 23, 1943, Soviet troops liberated Komarin, and on September 26 - Khotimsk, the first regional centers of Belarus. By September 1943, about 100 thousand people fought in partisan formations. This impressive force, equal in number to two combined arms armies of the period of the Great Patriotic War, together with the formations of the Red Army, liberated native Belarus. By October 1943, the troops of the Western Front reached the border of Belarus, and the Bryansk Front - to the border of the river. Pronya to the city of Propoisk and further along the river. Sozh. From September 27, 1943 to February 24, 1944, the troops of the Central, Kalinin, Western and 1st Baltic fronts, as well as partisan detachments and brigades of Belarus, completely or partially liberated 36 districts of Belarus, 36 district and 2 regional centers (Gomel and Mozyr ). Subsequently, the troops of the Central, Kalinin and Western fronts were transformed into the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian Fronts. In May 1944, almost the entire length of the Soviet-German front was calm, both opposing sides were preparing for the upcoming battles. The tasks of the Red Army for the summer and autumn of 1944 were to complete the expulsion of the occupiers from Soviet territory, to restore the State Border of the USSR along its entire length. To this end, during the summer-autumn campaign, it was planned to prepare and consistently conduct a whole series of strategic offensive operations in a vast area - from the Arctic to the Black Sea. Priority in the future campaign was given to the central sector of the Soviet-German front. Only by destroying a large strategic enemy grouping, which was the Army Group "Center", it was possible to liberate Belarus. At the same time, it was taken into account that an extensive network of partisan formations was actively operating in the occupied territory of the republic, which constantly disorganized the rear of the enemy. Berlin was also preparing for hostilities. Units and formations of the Wehrmacht were urgently replenished with personnel. From January to May 1944 on Eastern front two motorized and one infantry divisions were deployed. Nevertheless, it should be noted that as a result of the losses incurred in the winter campaign of 1943/44, the total number of troops operating against the Red Army decreased by 900 thousand people. The number of military equipment has also been reduced. Despite the loss of initiative, the Wehrmacht command still did not consider the war lost. In the center of the Soviet-German front, a Belarusian ledge was formed up to 1,100 km long, the top of which went far to the east. The ledge was of great operational and strategic importance: it covered the shortest routes to East Prussia and Poland. In its space, about 600 km deep, six armies defended themselves. The German command sought to keep the Belarusian ledge at any cost. The main role in this was assigned to the Army Group Center, which included 63 divisions and 3 brigades with a total strength of 1.2 million people. In Belarus, the Germans created a strong defense in terms of engineering. Its borders and bands extended inland for 250-270 km. Big cities were turned into powerful nodes of resistance, and Vitebsk, Orsha, Bobruisk, Mogilev, Borisov and Minsk were declared "fortified areas" by Hitler's order. The commanders of these areas gave the Fuhrer written commitments to hold them to the last soldier.

18) Military operations on the fronts of the Second World War (North Africa, the Pacific Ocean, the Mediterranean. The opening of the second front). In the autumn of 1942 Fascist aggression reached its apogee. The armed forces of Germany and its allies in Europe and North Africa, and Japan in the Asia-Pacific region, seized a huge territory Under the heel of the German invaders was almost the entire continental Western Europe, the Balkans, the Baltic States, Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, the western regions of Russia, in the north Africa is part of Libya and Egypt. Japan captured a significant part of China, occupied many islands and almost a third of the water area Pacific Ocean . The fascist bloc was opposed by 34 states that were part of the anti-Hitler coalition. However, of the entire composition of the anti-Hitler coalition, only the Soviet Union used its military and economic might in full to fight the enemy. The Soviet-German front remained the most significant in World War II. The second most important theater of war in 1942 was the North African one. Groupings of troops, limited in composition, operated here, and the ongoing operations, in terms of scale and results achieved, could not be compared with military operations on the Soviet-German front, although they indirectly influenced the general military-political situation in the world. This summer, German-Italian troops under the command of General E. Rommel invaded the northeastern regions of Egypt. The result was a direct threat to Alexandria, Suez and Cairo. In response, American and British troops under the command of General D. Eisenhower from November 8 to 11 carried out large landings on the coast of North-West Africa in the areas of Casablanca and west of Algiers. By December 1, the total number of landing forces was brought to 253 thousand people. The position of the German and Italian troops in North Africa was becoming difficult: deprived of support from the European continent, squeezed from the west, south and east, under the dominance of the air and fleet of the American-British troops in the Mediterranean basin, they were doomed. In early November 1942, the 8th British Army, during two weeks of offensive fighting, broke the resistance of the Italo-German troops near El Alamein and drove them out of Egypt. On May 13, 1943, the Italo-German troops in Tunisia capitulated. The hostilities in North Africa are over. In July - August 1943, the Allies landed on the island of Sicily and captured it. On July 25, Mussolini's regime was overthrown and Italy signed a truce with the Allies, and on October 13 declared war on Germany. The third theater of war was the Asia-Pacific. In mid-1942, in this theater, Japan dealt a serious blow to the armed forces of the United States and Great Britain. Its troops held the occupied part of China, seized the Hawaiian and Philippine Islands, captured Indonesia, Singapore, Burma, reached the borders of India, threatened Australia and New Zealand. Scattered on numerous fronts and hundreds of islands, the Japanese troops were exhausted. From July 1942, the United States intensified the fight against German submarines off the coast of North America, which were trying to strike at important coastal targets. In the second half of the year alone, the Germans lost 66 boats here. This forced the German naval leadership to withdraw the main forces of the submarine fleet to the center of the Atlantic. But even in this area they faced increased opposition. In the end, Hitler decided to concentrate the main efforts of surface and submarine forces in the North Atlantic. As a result, the activity of the German fleet in the area increased dramatically. The situation in the Balkans was unfavorable for Germany and its allies, where the national liberation struggle intensified. In Yugoslavia alone, the partisan formations of I. Broz Tito by the end of 1942 controlled a fifth of the country's territory. Thus, the situation in the world as a whole, and especially on the Soviet-German front, by the beginning of the winter campaign of 1942/43 was complex and contradictory. The overall superiority in the armed forces and combat means has already passed to the side of the USSR and its allies in the anti-Hitler coalition. The enemy was stopped everywhere and experienced great difficulties both at the front and in the rear. But this did not yet predetermine his final defeat, especially since at that moment the states of the anti-Hitler coalition, despite the changed balance of forces, also experienced considerable difficulties. The problem of opening a second front arose immediately after the German attack on the Soviet Union. However, the United States and England, which announced on June 22-24, 1941, their readiness to assist the Soviet Union, were in no hurry, and could not do anything concrete in this direction at that time. The defeat of the Germans near Moscow, which put an end to the "blitzkrieg" and meant that Germany was being drawn into a protracted war in the east, dispelled for some time the doubts of the US and British leadership about the combat capabilities of the USSR. But now the leaders of the Western powers faced another question: would the Soviet Union stand if Germany repeated last year's powerful onslaught on the Red Army in 1942? The command of the US Army was well aware of the strategic importance of the invasion of Western Europe and the opening of a second front, where large ground forces would operate, for they were aware that in a continental war, which was basically the Second World War, the final victory would be won on the fronts, leading to vital areas of Germany. In May - June 1942, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the USSR V. Molotov visited London and Washington, where he negotiated the opening of a second front. Justifying their refusal to open a second front in Europe, the leaders of the United States and Britain referred to military-technical and other reasons. the allies were clearly inclined to believe that in 1943 the second front would not be opened. The US and British leadership did everything to gain a foothold in the North African region and expand their positions there. And only after the defeat of the Germans near Kursk at the Tehran Conference was it decided to open a second front in May 1944. The concentration of forces and means on the British Isles began in order to “start the operation on May 1, 1944 from such a bridgehead on the continent from which further offensive actions could be carried out. The offensive of the American-British expeditionary forces in Normandy, which began on June 6, 1944, was one of the most important military and political events of the Second World War. For the first time, the Reich had to fight on two fronts, which Hitler had always feared so much. "Overlord" became the largest amphibious landing operation of a strategic scale. Many factors contributed to its success: the achievement of surprise, the interaction of forces and combat arms, the correctly chosen direction of the main attack, uninterrupted supply, the high morale and combat qualities of the troops, and the huge rise in the forces of the Resistance movement in Europe.

19) Liberation by the Red Army of the countries of Central and South-Eastern Europe.Liberation of Romania. On March 26, 1944, Soviet troops reached the river. Prut - State border of the USSR with Romania. The dictator of Romania, Marshal I. Antonescu, organized the sounding of the terms of the truce with the allies. The terms of the armistice provided for the restoration of the Soviet-Romanian border under the 1940 treaty; compensation for losses caused to the Soviet Union by military operations and the occupation of Soviet territory by the Romanian troops; ensuring free movement of the allied troops on the Romanian territory in accordance with military needs. For about seven months, the Red Army fought on Romanian territory against German troops, while suffering considerable losses. Liberation of Bulgaria. After the defeat of the German-Romanian troops, the withdrawal of Romania from the war, and with the approach of the Soviet troops, the ruling circles of Bulgaria began to look for a way out of the situation. The main force opposing the government was the anti-fascist workers and peasants, the progressive intelligentsia. On September 6, the Bulgarian government announced the severance of relations with Germany and requested the terms of a truce with the USSR. Gradually, the campaign of Soviet troops in Bulgaria was completed. It took place in favorable political conditions and was not associated with the conduct of hostilities. Liberation of Yugoslavia. Since the troops of the Yugoslav patriots were not able to defeat the enemy and liberate the country on their own, the High Command of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (NOAJ) sought help from other states. On October 1, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command approved the plan for the Belgrade Strategic offensive operation, and the Soviet troops went on the offensive. In September - October 1944, the troops of the Red Army, in close cooperation with the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, defeated the German army group "Serbia", liberated the eastern and northeastern regions of Yugoslavia with its capital Belgrade. Simultaneously with the Belgrade offensive operation, the Red Army troops began to liberate such states of Central Europe as Czechoslovakia, Hungary and Austria. The military operations here were extremely tense. Liberation of Czechoslovakia. Until August 1944, the partisan movement in Slovakia did not gain significant momentum. In July, the Ukrainian headquarters of the partisan movement began to send specially trained organizing groups to Slovakia. As a result of the activities of partisan detachments, several regions were liberated in Central Slovakia by the end of August. The Soviet leadership, at the request of the Czechoslovak side, ordered to immediately begin preparations for a special offensive operation. The offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front began on September 8, and the 4th Ukrainian - a day later. At the same time, the resistance of the enemy by this moment had noticeably increased. Since October, the troops of the 1st and 4th Ukrainian fronts began the East Carpathian operation and provided direct assistance to the Slovak national uprising. Liberation of Hungary. On October 16, 1944, with the approach of Soviet troops to the Hungarian border, M. Horthy signed a renunciation of power and documents on the transfer of the post of head of state to Hitler. In the fierce battles that unfolded, the troops of Marshal Tolbukhin, despite the superiority of the German troops in tanks, not only stopped their advance, but also threw them back to their original positions. Although the offensive of the Soviet troops developed slowly, the position of the encircled enemy was getting worse and worse. Liberation of Poland and Austria. The most difficult situation developed "in Poland. In August 1944, the front commanders K. Rokossovsky and G. Zakharov, under the leadership of G. Zhukov, developed a plan to encircle the German troops near Warsaw. However, this plan was not destined to come true. The command of the Home Army and the Polish government in exile in London, without the consent of the Soviet authorities, an uprising in Warsaw was raised on August 1, 1944. The uprising was brutally suppressed. The Nazis celebrated their last victory on the ruins of Warsaw. Only on January 17, 1945, Warsaw was liberated by Soviet troops and the 1st Army of the Polish Army, which has been advancing together with the Red Army since the beginning of the liberation of Belarus. In early April, Soviet troops moved the fighting to the eastern regions of Austria. On April 13, Soviet troops completely occupied the capital of Austria.

20) The defeat of Nazi Germany. End of WWII. The final battle of the Great Patriotic War was the Battle of Berlin (April 16 - May 8, 1945). The troops of three fronts took part in it - the 1st and 2nd Belorussian (Zhukov, Rokossovsky) and the 1st Ukrainian (Konev). The Nazi command mobilized all the resources of the country, hoping to defend the capital. By April 15, 214 divisions were fighting on the Soviet-German front, of which 34 were tank divisions. The 1st Ukrainian Front was given the task of crushing the grouping of enemy troops in the area of Cottbus and south of Berlin. Before the 2nd Belorussian Front, the task was set, by crossing the Oder, to defeat the enemy's Stetting grouping. This ensured the actions of the 1st Belorussian Front from the north. Thus, by the beginning of the Berlin operation, all three fronts had 2.5 million people, 41,600 guns and machine guns, 6,250 tanks, and 7,500 combat aircraft. Before the offensive, a comprehensive training of troops was carried out. At dawn on April 16, the air was shaken by the roar of thousands of guns. The enemy, suppressed by artillery fire, offered no resistance at the forefront of defense. By the end of the first day, it was possible to break the opponent's defenses in a fortified position near the railroad embankment. By the end of April 17, the second line of defense on the Zelenovsky Heights was broken through. On April 21, troops of the 1st Belorussian Front cut off the ring road of Berlin, and battles began for the suburbs. On April 20, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front approached the Zossensky defensive area, which covered Berlin from the south. By the end of April 22, formations of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts made their way to the streets of Berlin. On April 24 - 25, 1945, by the unification of the shock groups of the fronts, the ring around the enemy troops was closed. Panic broke out in the city. Many leaders of the fascist party left the capital. By the end of the day on April 25, Soviet troops reached the borders of the central sector of the city. The Nazi command hoped to break the encirclement, but the ring was shrinking more and more every day. The battles for the center of Berlin were especially fierce. On the morning of April 30, battles broke out for the Reichstag. Fights took place literally for every room. On the night of May 1, a red banner was hoisted on the pediment of the building. The position of the enemy was hopeless. On April 30, Hitler committed suicide. At 00:40 on May 2, 1945, the Germans made a radio request to cease fire. On May 8, in the suburbs of Karlshorst, Marshal (USSR), Marshal A. Tedder (Great Britain), General K. Spaats (USA), General J. Delattre de Tassigny (France) and a representative of the German High Command signed an act of unconditional surrender. On June 5, 1945, the Declaration of the Defeat of Germany was signed.

21) The defeat of militaristic Japan. End of World War II. The participants of the Berlin conference also paid attention to the issues of the Far East. After the end of the war in Europe, Japan was in a difficult position - she had to fight alone. At the same time, the interests of restoring peace demanded the speedy liquidation of the Far Eastern seat of war. During the work of the Potsdam Conference, a message arrived about the successful test of the American atomic bomb. Many US leaders were inclined to use the atomic bomb against Japan and end the war faster. On August 6 and 9, 1945, the cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were dropped atomic bombs who announced to the world about the advent of a new, atomic era. This act of the US authorities pursued both military and political goals - to hasten the end of the war and at the same time demonstrate to the world the might and strength of the United States. As early as April 5, 1945, the Soviet government demonstrated a treaty with Japan on neutrality, and on August 8, V. Molotov met with the Japanese ambassador in Moscow, Sato, and stated that the Soviet government had considered itself in a state of war with Japan since August 9. This news was immediately conveyed to Tokyo. Japan was moving inexorably towards a national catastrophe. All attempts by the government and military command to delay unconditional surrender were ultimately futile. The plan of military operations of the armed forces of the USSR against Japan provided for the conduct of the Manchurian and South Sakhalin strategic offensive operations, the Kuril landing operation and the landing operation to capture the northern part of the island. Hokkaido to the line stretching from Kushiro to Rumoe. The general leadership of military operations in the campaign was carried out by the High Command of the Soviet troops in the Far East, headed by the most experienced military leader Marshal of the Soviet Union A. Vasilevsky. The idea of the Far East campaign was to simultaneously invade Manchuria from Transbaikalia, Primorye and the Amur region by Soviet troops to deliver crushing blows to the Kwantung grouping and liberate the northeastern provinces of China and North Korea from the Japanese invaders. Two deep and powerful counter strikes were envisaged - from the territory of the Mongolian People's Republic and the Soviet Primorye, which was supposed to put the troops of the Kwantung grouping in front of the need to defend on two fronts. At the first stage, on August 9, at about one in the morning, the forward and reconnaissance detachments of the three fronts crossed the USSR state border and wedged into Manchuria. Thanks to the crushing blows of the Soviet troops, the powerful Japanese fortified lines were broken through. During the first six days of the offensive, Soviet and Mongolian troops defeated the enemy in 16 fortified areas and advanced 250-400 km in some directions. At the second stage of the Manchurian offensive operation (August 15-20), the defeat of the main forces of the Kwantung grouping was completed, the most important political and economic centers of Northeast China were liberated and North Korea. A mass surrender of Japanese troops began. The Far East campaign dramatically changed Japan's position on other fronts. During the 24-day military campaign (August 9 - September 2), the Kwantung Army (General O. Yamada) of the enemy in Manchuria was defeated, Korea, South were liberated. Sakhalin and the Kuril Islands. Seeing the catastrophe of the Kwantung Army on August 14, the Japanese government decided to capitulate, it was unable to fight. On September 2, 1945, in Tokyo Bay, on the American battleship Missouri, Japan signed an act of complete and unconditional surrender. This act ended the second world war of the anti-Hitler coalition with the countries of the fascist bloc.

22) Combat activity of partisans. Partisan zones and features of life on their territory. In the years partisans carried out daily combat operations against the invaders. In battles, the partisans conquered entire regions. This led to the creation of partisan zones, which were under the complete control of the partisans. In 1943, 20 partisan zones were formed, which occupied 60% of the territory of the republic. Soviet power was restored in the partisan zones, "forest" schools for children worked, and civilians worked in the fields along with the partisans.

The heroic partisan leaders, outstanding commanders and organizers of the partisan movement inflicted enormous damage on the enemy:,, and others.

Underground Komsomol organizations were loyal assistants of the party in the fight against the Nazis in the occupied territory. Many underground Komsomol members were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Dozens of partisan zones were created deep behind enemy lines, which were completely controlled by the people's avengers, partisan territories and even partisan forest republics with Soviet authorities. Such a republic - a huge region of an insurgent people who did not submit to the enemy - existed, for example, in the Leningrad region, Pskov and Novgorod forests. 400 villages and villages lived behind enemy lines according to the laws of the Soviet state, having expelled the fascist administration. Here their own newspapers were published, party and Komsomol meetings were held. The military force of the republic was the 2nd partisan brigade, headed by a commander and a commissar. The Nazis repeatedly besieged the region with punitive expeditions, mercilessly bombed its villages and villages. But the edge remained unconquered.

Partisan territories with local bodies of Soviet power actively operating on their territory were also in occupied Belarus. District and village councils, district committees of the party and the Komsomol, schools and hospitals worked in the Luban, Oktyabrsky and Starobinsky districts.

23) Soviet rear during the Great Patriotic War. In the fight against the fascist invaders, not only military units, but also all the home front workers participated. On the shoulders of people in the rear fell the most difficult task of supplying the troops with everything necessary. The army had to be fed, clothed, shoes, weapons, military equipment, ammunition, fuel, and much more were continuously supplied to the front. All this was created by the home front workers. The leadership of the Soviet Union, with a unique diversity of the regions of the country, an insufficiently developed system of communications, managed to ensure the unity of the front and rear, the strictest discipline of execution at all levels, with unconditional submission to the center. The centralization of political and economic power made it possible for the Soviet leadership to concentrate its main efforts on the most important, decisive areas. Under the dominance of state property in the country, the authorities managed to achieve the maximum concentration of all material resources, carry out a quick transition of the economy to a war footing, carry out an unprecedented transfer of people, industrial equipment, and raw materials from areas threatened by German occupation, to the East. Until the end of 1941, more than 10 million people, over 2.5 thousand enterprises, as well as other material and cultural values were evacuated to the rear. In the shortest possible time (on average, after one and a half to two months), the evacuated enterprises began to work and began to produce the products necessary for the front. Everything that could not be taken out was mostly destroyed or disabled. In general, the restructuring of the Soviet economy on a war footing was carried out in an unusually short term- within one year. Other belligerent states took much longer to do so. By the middle of 1942, in the USSR, most of the evacuated enterprises were working at full strength for defense, 850 newly built factories, workshops, mines, and power plants were producing products. The lost capacities of the defense industry were not only restored, but also significantly increased. Having subdued National economy the needs of the war, the Soviet Union was able to provide the Red Army with high-quality weapons and ammunition in the amount necessary to achieve victory.

24) Activities of the first partisan detachments. After the German troops occupied the territory of the republic in many of its regions, the struggle of the population against the invaders began. It was carried out in a variety of forms - from non-compliance with the measures of the occupying authorities to armed resistance. The most tangible for the Wehrmacht and the police forces were the actions of armed partisan detachments and groups. Among the first, independently emerged, was the Pinsk partisan detachment under the command, numbering about 60 people. On the territory of the Oktyabrsky district of the Polesye region, the Red October detachment was actively operating. Its leaders and on August 6, 1941 became the first partisans - Heroes of the Soviet Union. On the basis of the former destruction battalions, partisan detachments were formed in Paritsky, Lelchitsky, Yelsky, Loevsky, Rogachevsky, Mekhovsky and other regions of Belarus. In total, in the second half of 1941, about 60 detachments and groups arose independently. Most of the partisan formations were those that were organized by the party and Soviet bodies. Under their leadership, in the eastern regions of the republic, before their occupation, special briefings and instructions were carried out, short-term courses and training centers were created. They operated in Mogilev, Lezna, Vitebsk, Gomel, Mozyr, Polotsk, and other settlements. The result of this work was that in July-September over 430 partisan detachments and organizational groups were formed in a centralized manner, in which there were more than 8300 people. The activities of the partisans caused serious concern among the invaders.

With the onset of winter cold and due to the lack of the required amount of weapons, ammunition, food, warm clothes and medicines, part of the detachments and groups temporarily self-liquidated or switched to a semi-legal position, so that later, with the arrival of spring warmth, they would again take up arms. But even in winter conditions, about 200 partisan detachments and groups continued their armed struggle against the invaders. Over time, they grew into large partisan formations that inflicted significant losses on the enemy in manpower and equipment. Positive influence the Moscow battle had an impact on the development of partisan struggle. The defeat of the Germans at the walls of the capital of the USSR vividly testified that the plan of "blitzkrieg" was buried, that the war would be long and the aggressor, in the end, would be defeated. A new rise in the partisan movement in Belarus took place in the spring-summer of 1942: the number of detachments and groups grew, which united into brigades, "garrisons", military task forces; the armament of the "forest" fighters was significantly improved, the structure of the partisan forces was improved. They increasingly acquired a military device. Brigades mainly consisted of detachments, which in turn were divided into platoons, squads. At the beginning of January 1943, the number of partisans in Belarus exceeded 56 thousand people.

The growth of the partisan movement caused a wave of punitive enemy expeditions. During May-November 1942, the Nazis carried out more than 40 punitive operations in different regions of Belarus. In the course of them, the enemy sometimes managed to push the patriots out of their areas of permanent deployment for some time, but he could not liquidate the partisan movement. After successful completion Battle of Stalingrad, other front-line operations in 1943, primarily the battle of Kursk, the partisan forces began to increase even faster.

25) The meaning of the great victory.

In terms of scale, cruelty, human and material losses, the Second World War has no equal. It affected the fate of 4/5 of the population the globe. Military operations were conducted on the territory of 40 states. About 60 million people died in the war, 27 million people lost the Soviet Union. Among its peoples, Belarus suffered the most, losing every third inhabitant. Irretrievable losses of the Wehrmacht, its allies and various paramilitary formations from among foreign citizens, who took part in the battles on the Soviet-German front, amounted to 8 people. During the fascist invasion, the civilian population was exterminated by mass executions and burnings. 628 Belarusian villages and villages were burned to the ground in the place with the inhabitants. 7.4 million people were exterminated in the occupied Soviet territory, more than 1.5 million of them in Belarus. Near Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk and on the Dnieper, the enemy suffered incomparably greater losses than in all the battles with the Western allies of the USSR throughout the Second World War. The victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War was determined by a group of interrelated factors. But still, the main merit belongs to the Soviet people, who managed to rally in the face of a common misfortune, forgetting or pushing their grievances and hardships into the shadows. Defeat in this war could be not only a national-state, but also a social catastrophe. The Soviet people and their armed forces inflicted a crushing defeat on Nazi Germany and other states of the fascist bloc. By overthrowing Nazism, the Soviet Union saved humanity from the threat of enslavement. For Germany, the results of the war were unprecedented: the country lost its statehood for several years and its territorial integrity for many years. The violence committed on a global scale turned into a disaster for the Third Reich and a tragedy for the German people. The victory in the war brought the USSR into the ranks of the leading powers of the post-war world. The prestige and importance of the Soviet Union in the international arena has increased significantly. The victory also became a turning point in world social development and gave rise to new global trends. A new stage in international relations has begun. One of the important results of the victory is the preservation of territorial integrity and the consolidation of Russia's historical borders. The results of the Great Patriotic War allow us to draw an important lesson that can be called reminiscent - the ability to realistically assess the state and trends in the development of society, the international situation, the state of forces in the world. Politicians should be ultimately responsible for decisions, and the decisions themselves should be adequate to the interests of the country and the people.

Introduction

The situation in the world on the eve of the Second World War

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