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📆 80 years ago, #OTD in 1944 the Jassy-Kishinev Strategic Offensive of the Red army was launched during #WW2

⚔️ It was conducted by the troops of the 2nd and the 3rd Ukrainian Fronts with the support of the Black Sea Fleet and the Danube Military Flotilla against the Army Group “South Ukraine” consisting of German and Romanian formations.

⚔️ The offensive resulted in the encirclement and complete decimation of defending German forces, opening way further to Eastern Europe for the Red Army.

☝️ The defeat of the Nazis also resulted in a coup in Romania which overthrew the Axis ally dictator Antonescu and allied with the Soviet Union against Germany.

🌟 In only 9 days, the Nazi forces were crushed with 22 enemy’s divisions totally eliminated.

#Victory79 #WeRemember
🌟 #OTD 80 years ago, the capital of Soviet Moldavia Kishinev was liberated from Nazi occupation by the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.

⚔️ On the night of 23 August 1944, Soviet troops completed the encirclement of the enemy’s grouping of 18 divisions near Kishinev. On the next day, 24 August 1944, the troops of the 5th Shock Army led by General N.Berzarin broke into the city and purged it.

🔻 Сommander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, General F.Tolbukhin, issued an ultimatum to the 3rd Romanian Army and the 9th German infantry division calling on the enemy to surrender. On the 24th and the 25th August 1944, Romanian and German soldiers ceased their resistance.

🕯 During the 3 years of Kishinev’s occupation, some 20.000 residents were murdered. In the Kishinev ghetto 9.000 – 13.000 prisoners were kept. When the Red Army entered Kishinev, only 6 survivors were found in ghetto.

#WWII #Victory79 #WeRemember
📆 81 years ago the Battle of the Dnieper began – one of the major campaigns of #WW2, consisting of several operations.

It involved over 4 million men from both sides with the frontline stretched for 750 km.

⚔️ As a result of the 4-months battle, almost entire left-bank Ukraine was recovered from Nazi invaders.

Considerable Red Army forces crossed the Dnieper – one of the largest European rivers – in a short time period to create several strategic lodgements on the western bank.

🌟 In November 1943, Soviet troops liberated the capital of Ukraine Kiev which was of great political and spiritual significance. Regaining of important industrial regions of Ukraine let USSR increase military production.

☝️ The Battle of the Dnieper laid bare the fact that complete liberation of Ukraine and Red Army’s access to the borders with Romania, Hungary, Poland and Slovakia was just a matter of time.

#WWII #WeRemember #Victory79
🌟 Today marks 81 years since the liberation of the city of Taganrog from the Nazis as part of the Donbass Strategic Offensive of the Red Army.

Nazi occupation of the city had lasted 683 days (since 17 October 1941).

❗️ During this period, the invaders committed multiple atrocities against the local population, including massacre at Gully of Petrushino, use of children as forced blood donors, etc. The population of the city diminished nearly twice and was less than 80.000 people in August 1943.

⚔️ It was only at the second attempt that Red Army forces broke through the heavily fortified “Mius Front” defensive line and entered Taganrog, located to the west of it (the 1st attempt during the Mius Offensive in July-August failed to breach it).

#Victory79
📆 85 years ago Nazi Germany invaded Poland starting World War II

In full accordance with the blitzkrieg doctrine, despite the Polish army’s fierce resistance, German troops reached Warsaw already in a week after the attack, while military and political leaders of Poland had fled to Romania.

The war came about as a result of an entire complex of factors among which the Versaille Treaty’s predatory conditions imposed on Germany by World War I victorious powers, as well as the “policy of appeasement” of Hitler led by the European countries wishing to direct Nazi aggression eastwards against the Soviet Union.

☝️ This political line peaked with Munich Agreement signed by the Great Britain, France, Germany and Italy on 30 October 1938 resulting in dismemberment of Czechoslovakia which ceased its existence.

👉 It was the 1938 Munich turning point, following which the World War II became inevitable.

🕯 World War II went down in history as the bloodiest war ever.

It involved 62 of 73 existing states with total number of victims amounting up to 70 million men.

❗️World War II saw the only combat use of nuclear weapons by the US against Japan.

#WeRemember #Victory79
🌟 Today marks 79 years since the Japanese Instrument of Surrender was signed, marking the end of World War II

⚔️ 🇯🇵 In view of the total defeat of the Kwantung army during the Manchurian strategic offensive, Emperor Hirohito announced on the radio rescript of surrender on 15 August 1945 following which the Japanese soldiers started to surrender to the Red Army.

The ceremony of signing of the agreement was held aboard the US battleship “Missouri” with participation of representatives of the Allied nations. For the Soviet Union the document was signed by Lieutenant General K.Derevyanko.

#Victory79 #WWII
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🗓 September 3 marks the Day of Military Glory in Russia — the day of victory over militarist Japan and the end of World War II.

On September 2, the representative of the USSR General Kuzma Derevyanko and the allies of the Soviet Union during WWII signed the Instrument of Surrender of militarist Japan.

At the Tehran (1943) and Yalta (1945) conferences of the heads of the Big Three Joseph Stalin agreed to help the United States and Britain in the war against Japan, which at that time the USSR had a pact of neutrality with.

It was agreed in Tehran that the USSR would enter the war two or three months after the surrender of Germany.

The redeployment of Soviet soldiers to the Far East began even before Berlin was captured. According to the plan the Soviet forces were to encircle and defeat the enemy in the Far East within two months but victory was achieved much faster — merely 11 days later.

☝️ The Red Army dealt a crushing blow to the Kwantung Army, which became one of the key factors of Axis Japan's defeat. Southern part of Sakhalin, the Kuril Islands, Manchuria and part of Korea were liberated from Japanese occupation.

📹 The Russian Military Historical Society

#Victory79 #WeWereAllies
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🏅 On September 10, 1943, the Novorossiysk Landing Operation, one of the largest and most successful Soviet operations of the Great Patriotic War, commenced.

The Nazi invaders had a firm grip on Novorossiysk, leading to the Soviet command making a decision to storm the city simultaneously from land and sea. After a massive artillery and mortar shelling of enemy positions, the marines broke into the Novorossiysk port.

Heavy fighting continued in the city streets, often escalating into hand-to-hand combat. Ultimately, the Soviet soldiers broke the German defence, and on September 16, the enemy was finally driven out of Novorossiysk.

The Soviet forces crushed the 73rd German infantry division, the 4th and 101st German mountain rifle divisions, the 4th Romanian mountain rifle division, and the German marine port teams.

The liberation of Novorossiysk by the Red Army left the Nazis without the largest Black Sea base and sealed the fate of the German group of troops on the Taman Peninsula: the threat of the Germans using this bridgehead as a base for active military operations in the south was effectively eliminated.

🎖 Following the Novorossiysk Landing Operation, eight army and navy soldiers and officers who distinguished themselves most during the liberation of the city were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

#Victory79
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📆 80 years ago (1944) the Baltic Offensive of the Red Army during #WWII was commenced which lasted for 71 days

This region was vital to the Nazi war machine, linking it with Scandinavia via which Germany received important strategic support materials. The Baltic States supplied Germany with food, and Estonia also delivered oil products.

⚔️ The fight for the Baltic region was protracted and extremely fierce. Up to a quarter of all Nazi forces on the Soviet-German front took part in it.

As a result of the Red Army’s Baltic offensive, the Nazi Army Group North was pushed out of almost the entire region and lost its ground-based communications with East Prussia. Of 59 Nazi divisions, 26 were routed and three were completely destroyed.

☝️ With the loss of the Baltic region, Germany was deprived of an advantageous strategic area that gave its fleet freedom of action in the eastern part of the Baltic Sea. It also lost an important industrial, raw materials and food base.

🌟 The Red Army created conditions for developing its onslaught during the 1945 East-Prussian offensive.

#Victory79 #WW2 #WeRemember
🌟 85 years ago, on 17 September 1939, the Red Army entered Poland which was under attack by Nazi Germany

Despite the Polish army’s resistance, German troops reached Warsaw already in a week after the attack (1st of September), while military and political leaders of Poland had fled to Romania. Western allies of Poland – Great Britain and France – failed to fulfill their treaty obligations and remained idle.

☝️ It was only when it became absolutely clear that Great Britain and France were not going to help their ally and the Wehrmacht could swiftly occupy entire Poland and thus appear on the approaches to Minsk that the Soviet Union decided to send in, on the morning of September 17, Red Army units into the so-called Eastern Borderlines (Kresy), which nowadays form part of the territories of Belorussia, Ukraine and Lithuania.

❗️Obviously, there was no alternative.


Otherwise, USSR would have to enter the inevitable war with the Nazis from very disadvantageous strategic positions, while millions of people of different nationalities, including the Jews living near Brest and Grodno, Przemyśl, Lvov and Wilno, would be left to die at the hands of the Nazis and their local accomplices – anti-Semites and radical nationalists.

#WW2 #WWII #WeRemember #Victory79
📆 81 years ago, on 23 September 1943, the liquidation of the Vilna Ghetto in Lithuania began marking the final phase of Holocaust in Nazi-occupied Baltic region.

▪️ During 23-24 September, over 10.000 Jews were sorted and put on the train by German soldiers with the help of Lithuanian auxiliaries.

▪️ The majority of the Jews were sent to the Vaivara concentration camp in Estonia, killed in the forest of Paneriai, or sent to the death camps in German-occupied Poland.

☝️ Throughout the period of German occupation, local collaborators participated actively in punitive actions against Jewish population. Nevertheless, present-day Lithuanian policy is aimed at rehabilitation of WW2 criminals and minimizing their role in the genocide of the Jewish nation.

❗️ Lithuanian authorities resist to recognize the scope to which Lithuanians collaborated with the Nazis, whereas Nazi collaborators and war criminals are further glorified for their anti-Soviet resistance.

#StopNazism #Victory79 #WWII #WW2 #WeRemember
🌟 81 years ago, #OTD in 1943, Smolensk was liberated from Nazis as part of the Smolensk Strategic Offensive codenamed “Suvorov”

The operation was carried out by the troops of the Soviet Western Front supported by partisan units.

⚔️ The enemy put up strong resistance trying to hold an important transport junction and besides the town where Army Group “Centre” headquarters were located from the Autumn of 1941. But the Red Army’s pincer attack from the south and front strikes from the northeast decided the town’s fate. On 25 September 1943 a red banner was hoisted over the hotel “Smolensk”.

▪️ Smolensk was under Nazi occupation over two years - from 16 July 1941 till 25 September 1943.

🕯 During that period 135.000 of 157.000 Smolensk residents were exterminated by Nazi punitive forces. 870 of 900 industrial enterprises in Smolensk region were destroyed.

⚔️ With the liberation of Smolensk, a bridgehead was created for further offensive in Belorussia within “Bagration” operation of 1944.

☝️ The whole world witnessed courage and commitment of Soviet soldiers whereas the Western allies realized, the Red Army would reach the Atlantic ocean unless they open the Second Front in Europe.

#WWII #WW2 #WeRemember #Victory79
📆 #OTD 80 years ago the East Carpathian Offensive of the Red Army and the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps against German-Hungarian forces during #WW2 finished

▫️ In summer of 1944, Soviet troops reached the foothills of the Carpathians and encountered enemy’s defence-in-depth.

The Red Army units were exhausted during the battles of the western Ukraine. Soviet command thoroughly prepared further operations, given the mountainous terrain and Nazi fortification system.

⚔️ In the meantime, Slovak national uprising against the country’s fascist government began in late August 1944. The leadership of the uprising appealed to the Soviet Union for help.

☝️ In order to support the people of Slovakia, the Stavka decided to attack immediately directly across the Carpathians.

⚠️ As a result of the operation, Soviet troops concluded the liberation of Ukraine and gained control over the Dukla Pass in eastern Slovakia creating bridgehead for the liberation of Czechoslovakia in May 1945.

However, the Red Army couldn’t break through to the Slovak rebel forces and the uprising was suppressed by Nazis.

#WWII #WeRemember #Victory79
📆 80 years ago, on 29 October 1944, the Budapest Offensive was launched by the Red Army during #WW2, aimed at defeating Nazi forces in Hungary and forcing the country out of the war.

Hitler was determined to hold the Hungarian capital at any cost. He attached great importance to Nagykanizsa oil-producing area claiming he would rather surrender Berlin than lose Hungarian oil and Austria.

⚔️ Already by 2 November 1944, having crossed the Danube, Soviet troops approached Budapest. The Red Army successfully repelled a series of Nazi counterattacks at Balaton lake and encircled the city on 26 December 1944.

☝️ Soviet ultimatum to surrender in order to prevent bloodshed was ignored, with Soviet negotiators killed, which left the Red Army no other choice but assault.

⚔️ The takeover of Budapest entailed heavy fighting. The Red Army used a minimum of tanks engaging assault units supported by artillery instead. By 13 February 1944, persistent battles culminated with the capture of the city garrison led by General Karl-Pfeffer Wildenbruch.

🌟 During the Budapest Offensive the Red Army defeated 56 enemy’s divisions with 188.000 soldiers and officers taken prisoners-of-war.

Some 70.000 Jewish prisoners were freed from the Budapest Ghetto. The whole southern flank of the Soviet-German front collapsed forcing Nazis to redeploy additional troops to the south.

The Red Army’s way to Prague and Vienna was opened.

#WWII #WeRemember #Victory79
📆 #OTD in 1941, the Battle of Moscow commenced – one of the biggest battles in the history of the Great Patriotic War.

Ordinary Muscovites and students of military schools stood up to defend the city alongside Red Army soldiers. No other capital resisted Hitler's advance so fiercely.

⚔️ Nazi Germany and its allies planned to defeat the USSR in accordance with the Barbarossa Plan, which aimed to inflict a crushing defeat on the Red Army within a few months using blitzkrieg tactics. According to Barbarossa Plan, Moscow was to be captured by the 40th day after the invasion, with three to four months allotted for the complete elimination of resistance in the occupied Soviet territories.

▪️ By the end of September 1941, the Nazi forces occupied the Baltics, Belarus, Moldavia and a substantial part of Soviet Ukraine, besieged Leningrad and approached Moscow.

☝️ Given the strategic and political importance of the Soviet capital, Hitler committed significant forces to assault: 1.8 million troops, 1,700 tanks, and around 1,000 aircraft.

▪️ Under those circumstances, the State Defence Committee declared a state of siege in Moscow and adjacent areas that had not been captured by the enemy. Intense preparations for street fighting began, and the most important government and industrial facilities were mined.

Hitler’s plan envisaged the capture of Moscow within the first three to four months and the complete destruction of its population. The selfless resistance of the Red Army units, militia and cadets prevented these plans from coming to life. The Soviet forces held back around twenty German divisions in fierce battles that raged for two weeks, which made it possible to reinforce the defence line and move the reserves to Moscow.

In early December, when the Wehrmacht forces were largely depleted, the Red Army was able to launch a counteroffensive, rout the assault units of the Army Group Centre and remove the threat hanging over the capital.

❗️ The success of the Soviet forces in the Battle of Moscow shattered the myth of the Third Reich’s invincibility, foiled Nazi blitzkrieg plans, and deterred the Japanese government, which was already preparing troops to invade the Soviet Union, from joining the war on Germany’s side. This marked Hitler’s first major defeat in World War II.

#BattleOfMoscow #WeRemember #Victory79 #WWII #WW2
📆 110 years ago, #OTD in 1914, Yuri Levitan was born, a primary Soviet radio announcer

🎙He is remembered to have read the Soviet Information Bureau messages about the start of the war with Germany and the victory over Nazis. He voiced information bulletins from the fronts during all four years of fighting. Soviet marshals said his voice had the power of a military division.

👉 Yuri Levitan was rumoured to be in the Third Reich’s enemies list under № 1, while Stalin was listed 2nd. 250.000 Deutschmarks were promised for killing Levitan, and a special SS unit was planning a diversion in Moscow to eliminate the radio presenter.

#OutstandingRussians #Victory79
📆 #OTD 80 years ago the Red Army troops and the National Liberation Army of #Yugoslavia liberated Belgrade from Nazis during the #Belgrade Strategic Offensive.

In September 1944, USSR and Yugoslavia agreed on the entry of Soviet troops in Belgrade and joint actions against Hitlerites.

⚔️ As part of the operation, in October 1944 allied forces breached enemy’s defence in Serbian Carpathians, encircled and defeated the main forces of the German Army Group “Serbia”.

🌟 On 20 October 1944, liberation of north-eastern & eastern parts of Yugoslavia as well as the capital itself was completed.

❗️ Enemy's losses amounted up to 45000 dead & captured prisoners-of-war. The success of the offensive made it possible for the Liberation Army to purge the rest Yugoslavia from the Nazis on its own.

#WW2 #WWII #WeRemember #Victory79
🗓Today marks the Day of Military Honour of Russia. #OTD 83 years ago, the historic military parade was held on the Red Square in the face of the Nazis advance to Moscow, when the front line was only a few dozen kilometres away from the city.

The march involved some 28,500 servicemen, as well as 140 artillery pieces, 160 tanks, and 232 vehicles.

This event boosted the morale of Soviet soldiers throughout the Soviet Union. It showed the world how truly unbreakable the spirit of the Soviet people was. The participants of the parade went directly to the front after it.

A month later, the “invincible” Wehrmacht suffered its first major defeat, and Hitler’s ambitious blitzkrieg plan against the Soviet Union was thwarted.

#WW2 #WWII #Victory79
📆 83 years ago, when #Nazi forces were in the close vicinity of #Moscow, a legendary fight at Dubosekovo railroad station took place which went down in history as the feat of the 28 Panfilov’s men.

On 16 Nov 1941, Nazis launched a new assault on the #Soviet capital expecting to bring the blitzkrieg to a victorious conclusion by the end of the year. In the morning that day, after a preliminary artillery shelling the Wehrmacht’s 2nd Tank Division attacked the units of the Red Army’s 316th Rifle Division led by Major General Ivan Panfilov.

The 4th and the 6th companies of the 2nd battalion of the 1075th regiment took the brunt of Nazi offensive. Having ran short of ammunition, both companies showed unparalleled courage against superior enemy’s forces and repelled several tank attacks with remaining grenades and Molotov cocktails. The Panfilov’s men withstood the Nazi onslaught for 4 hours while the reserves came to cover the capital.

☝️ During the battle, 18 German tanks were destroyed, but almost all Soviet defenders laid down their lives.

🌟 It was during the battle of Dubosekovo that the commander of the 4th company V.Klochkov said the legendary phrase “Russia is vast, yet there’s nowhere to retreat – Moscow is behind us”.

#WW2 #WWII #Victory79
📆 19 November 1942 marked turning the tide of the Battle of Stalingrad.

#OTD Soviet troops of the South-Western, the Don and the Stalingrad fronts after numerous clashes with invaders inside the city commenced a counter-offensive codenamed “Uranus.”

The operation was drawn up by the renowned Soviet generals of #WW2 Alexander Vasilevsky and Georgy Zhukov.

⚔️ After thorough artillery shelling, the Red Army attacked from the northwest and the south with both army groups meeting in the area of Kalach-on-the-Don. This resulted in encirclement of the Nazi 6th Army led by Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus and both Axis-allied Romanian armies.

⚔️ Soviet command believed that Nazis had up to 100,000 troopers deployed at Stalingrad whilst Wehrmacht forces amounted to some 300,000 making the enveloped enemy’s grouping much stronger than it had been considered. Therefore, a separate military operation “Ring” was later developed aimed at liquidation of the encircled forces.

☝️ As a result of the Stalingrad offensive, 2 German armies were annihilated with 2 Romanian and 1 Italian armies crushed leading to the decisive Soviet victory in the Battle of Stalingrad and the beginning of a major turnaround during WW2.

🌟 To commemorate Soviet artillery’s great contribution to the successful outcome of the operation, 19 Nov was established as the Day of Missile Forces and Artillery.

#Victory79 #WeRemember #BattleofStalingrad #WW2