#FacesOfVictory

⭐️During Stalingrad battle, an ordinary house was turned into a genuine fortress – through the efforts of Soviet heroes, Sgt Yakov #Pavlov & Lt Ivan #Afanasiev.

It withstood 58-day shelling, today remains the symbol of the tenacious resistance of Soviet defenders.

110 years ago, on 27 July 1911, Nikolay Kuznetsov was born, Soviet intelligence agent, who is known to have operated in Nazi-occupied Ukraine during WW2 using fake German identity of senior lieutenant Paul Siebert.

He was the one who uncovered the Nazi operation “Citadel” (Wehrmacht’s offensive in the Kursk salient), obtained information of Hitler’s plans to assassinate Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill during the Tehran Conference in 1943.

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110 лет назад, 27 июля 1911 г. родился Николай Кузнецов - советский разведчик, в годы Великой Отечественной войны действовавший на территории оккупированной Украины под именем старшего лейтентанта Пауля Зиберта.

Именно он передал в Москву инфомрацию об операции "Цитадель" (наступление Вермахта на Курской дуге), получил важные сведения о планах Гитлера организовать покушение на Сталина, Рузвельта и Черчилля во время Тегеранской конференции в 1943 г.

#FacesofVictory #NikolayKuznetsov #OutstandingRussians #WW2 #WWII

⭐️ #OTD in 1921, legendary Soviet fighter pilot Lidiya Litvyak was born. She went down in history under the call sign «White Lily». According to legend, this flower was painted on her aircraft.
 
Since childhood, Lidiya had dreamed of conquering the sky. Already at the age of 14, she enrolled in an aeroclub, and at 15, she made her first solo flight. After graduating from the aviation school, the 19-year-old herself prepared cadets for flights.
 
⚔️ After the start of the Great Patriotic War, Litvyak enrolled in the women’s 586th Fighter Aviation Regiment, where she piloted the Yakovlev Yak-1 fighter.

In September, Lidiya participated in the fierce battles over Stalingrad. Due to her successes in the sky, Litvyak was transferred to the 9th Guards Fighter Aviation Regiment, the «regiment of aces». After the successful counter-offensive at Stalingrad in 1943, Lydiya Litvyak was sent to fight in the skies over Donbass.
 
🕯 On August 1, 1943, during the defence of Donbass, Litvyak engaged in an air battle with several Messerschmitts, which were superior to the Yak-1 in speed and manoeuvrability. The radio operators intercepted alarming reports from the pilots in the sky: «Lily has been shot down!». The crash site of the Litvyak fighter could not be found for decades. At the time of her last combat mission, she was only 21 years old.
 
The «White Lily» carried out 168 combat sorties and destroyed 16 enemy aircraft (12 solo and four shared victories). She became the most effective female pilot of World War II.

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⭐️ On August 20, 1941, the crew of a KV-1 tank under the command of Senior Lieutenant Zinovy Kolobanov took out 22 Nazi tanks in one battle.

The legendary encounter occurred near Krasnogvardeisk (Gatchina), where commander of the heavy tank company Kolobanov had been ordered to hold back the advance of German troops towards Leningrad.

⚔️ Kolobanov and his unit took up well-prepared defence positions and set up an ambush. When the enemy’s hardware reached the site, the senior lieutenant’s crew took out the first and last vehicles with precise strikes. The German column was stranded on a narrow road and could not escape from the armour-piercing shells of the Soviet tank.

Thanks to the tactical genius, Kolobanov’s company of five tanks destroyed 43 enemy tanks and armoured vehicles on that day and left the battle site without any losses only after they had run out of munitions. The senior lieutenants’ KV-1 tank had 156 hit marks on its armour but none of the shells pierced it.

☝️ Kolobanov and his subordinates’ feat is unparalleled. The battle near Krasnogvardeisk became one of the most successful tank battles in world history. The actions of the senior lieutenant significantly slowed down the advance of the Nazis towards Leningrad.

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⭐️ #OTD in 1895, outstanding Marshal, twice Hero of the Soviet Union Alexander Vasilevsky was born. During the most difficult years of the Great Patriotic War, he headed the General Staff of the Red Army, formulating and coordinating the most important Soviet strategic operations.

A theological seminary graduate, Alexander Vasilevsky had dreamed of becoming an agronomist in his younger years, but World War I disrupted his plans.

The young officer deployed to the front where he quickly became a Staff Captain, a rank similar to Captain in the Soviet and Russian Armed Forces. Vasilevsky then realised that he would pursue a military career for the rest of his life.

Major General Vasilevsky was serving with the General Staff when the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 started. He came to head the General Staff some time later. As a member of the General Headquarters and its representative, he deployed to fronts where the challenges were greatest.

Vasilevsky’s military talents were manifested vividly during the Battle of Stalingrad (1942-1943). He co-authored the plan for a counteroffensive and directly supervised operations to repel a counterstrike by the Wehrmacht’s Hoth Army Group that tried to relieve the 6th German Army, commanded by Friedrich von Paulus, in and around Stalingrad.

Later, Vasilevsky coordinated operations of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts during the Battle of Kursk, planned and conducted operations to liberate Donbass, the Ukrainian west bank of the Dnieper River, and Crimea.

In February-April 1945, Vasilevsky commanded the 3rd Belarusian Front whose units stormed and seized Konigsberg. In June-August 1945, he commanded Soviet forces in the Far East and contributed to the defeat of Japan’s powerful Kwantung Army in just 24 days.

After the war, Vasilevsky headed the Ministry of the Soviet Armed Forces and actively promoted the national veterans’ movement. An urn with his ashes is currently interred in the necropolis that is part of the Kremlin Wall.

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🎖 #OTD in 1908, Dmitry Ustinov was born – the legendary People’s Commissar of Armaments during the Great Patriotic War & World War II – it was he who ensured that the Soviet military industrial complex was evacuated during the first months of the war, and surpassed the Axis potential, contributing greatly to the Victory over Nazism.

He gained this high post at the age of only 32, having risen from a fitter to People’s Commissar of Armaments. He was appointed to that post on June 9, 1941, less than two weeks before Nazi Germany’s treacherous attack on the Soviet Union. The first few months of the war were especially difficult. Ustinov worked 20 hours a day to evacuate defence plants from the endangered areas and to launch military production in besieged Moscow and Leningrad.

📈 The young commissar was assigned a vital and seemingly insurmountable task – to prevail over the German military machine, which the whole of Europe was supplying with weapons. Ustinov worked selflessly to attain that goal. During the war, the Soviet Union produced nearly twice as many weapons as Germany and the countries it occupied.

Ustinov greatly contributed to the production of artillery guns and rifles and to the challenging scientific and technological task of creating new armaments. During his term in office, the manufacturing of artillery guns increased fivefold and of rifles, by 22 times.  

After the war, Ustinov was appointed Minister of the Defence Industry of the USSR contributing immensely to strengthening the defence capabilities of our country. In 1976, he received the rank of Marshal of the Soviet Union.

🕯 Dmitry Ustinov died in 1984 and was the last person whose ashes were interred in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis.

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🕯 #OnThisDay, in 1941, Dmitry Lavrinenko, the most successful tank operator of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War, was killed on the approaches to Volokolamsk. During two and a half months of ferocious fighting, he took part in 28 battles, destroying 52 Nazi tanks, a result no other Red Army soldier was able to surpass.

Lavrinenko took part in the Battle of Moscow and provided support to the famous Panfilov Division. He demonstrated great skill in driving a T-34 tank, the ability to manoeuvre between the clumsy German machines, and the capacity to make unconventional decisions during the battle for the capital.

The 27-year-old hero was killed in December 1941 by a bomb fragment when liberating the village of Goryuny during the counteroffensive near Moscow. Before his death, he destroyed an enemy heavy tank, the 52nd tank on his kill score.

🎖 Posthumously awarded with the Hero of the Soviet Union title.

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📅 On February 11, 1930, the youngest Hero of the Soviet Union Valya Kotik was born.

When the Nazis occupied his home village Shepetovka, 11-year-old Valya began fighting against the invaders. The young partisan showed exceptional bravery.

Valya often put his life at risk, participating in real combat operations. He directly took part in attacks on German convoys, bridge demolitions, and ambushes. He was frequently ordered to monitor German patrols, memorize their schedules and movements. The intelligence gathered by Valya was always very prompt and reliable, characterized by precision and accuracy.

🕯 On February 16, 1944, during heavy fighting for Izyaslav, Valya was severely wounded and died the next day at the age of 14.

For his heroism in the fight against the occupiers, Valya Kotik was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. He was also awarded the Order of Lenin, the Order of the Patriotic War 1st class, and the Medal "Partisan of the Great Patriotic War" 2nd class.

In many cities of the former Soviet republics, monuments installed and streets named in honor of the heroic boy.

❗️ In today's Ukraine Valya's legacy is being erased, instead other "heroes" are being cherished - Hitler's cronies, murderers and war criminals. Since 2022, there is no longer a Valya Kotik street in Kiev, nor there is a monument in the village of Dolhoye in the Zakarpattia region, now dismantled.

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