Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🗓 #OTD 210 years ago, on November 26, 1812, the last major battle of the Patriotic War of 1812 between the Russian army and the retreating army of Napoleon began on the Berezina River (the right tributary of the Dnieper). The Russian commanders’ plan was to cut off the enemy’s retreat.
The plan included launching a simultaneous and decisive offensive with all forces deployed on the flanks of the main Russian army in order to defeat the troops guarding Napoleon’s rear and cut off his retreat to the west. At the same time, the main Russian army group led by Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov was to pursue the Grande Armée of the Emperor of France Napoleon from the east.
⚔️ By the end of the three-day battle, Napoleon realised that his artillery and supply train were beyond saving. Less than half of the 85,000-90,000 men were eventually transported to the right bank of the Berezina. Russian troops surrounded the French General Louis Partouneaux’s division (some 4,000 men) in the vicinity of Borisov and forced them to surrender. In total, according to historians, the losses of the French army reached ~50,000 men, including those who drowned in the river, died in the stampede at the crossings, froze to death and were taken prisoner.
The Battle of Berezina broke the Emperor of France. Less than two weeks after the battle ended, Napoleon abandoned his guard and fled to Paris. Only a few dozen thousands of the 500,000 strong army that invaded Russia in June 1812 managed to leave our country six months later.
❗️ It was after Berezina that the French realised the scale of their defeat in Russia. The elimination of what Napoleon once called his “grand” army shocked the people of France so deeply that the expression “C'est la Bérézina” (this is Berezina) became idiomatic in the French language to denoting a complete failure, collapse, or catastrophe. No less important were the impressions of the survivors, that radically changed how other Europeans perceived that war.
The plan included launching a simultaneous and decisive offensive with all forces deployed on the flanks of the main Russian army in order to defeat the troops guarding Napoleon’s rear and cut off his retreat to the west. At the same time, the main Russian army group led by Field Marshal Mikhail Kutuzov was to pursue the Grande Armée of the Emperor of France Napoleon from the east.
⚔️ By the end of the three-day battle, Napoleon realised that his artillery and supply train were beyond saving. Less than half of the 85,000-90,000 men were eventually transported to the right bank of the Berezina. Russian troops surrounded the French General Louis Partouneaux’s division (some 4,000 men) in the vicinity of Borisov and forced them to surrender. In total, according to historians, the losses of the French army reached ~50,000 men, including those who drowned in the river, died in the stampede at the crossings, froze to death and were taken prisoner.
The Battle of Berezina broke the Emperor of France. Less than two weeks after the battle ended, Napoleon abandoned his guard and fled to Paris. Only a few dozen thousands of the 500,000 strong army that invaded Russia in June 1812 managed to leave our country six months later.
❗️ It was after Berezina that the French realised the scale of their defeat in Russia. The elimination of what Napoleon once called his “grand” army shocked the people of France so deeply that the expression “C'est la Bérézina” (this is Berezina) became idiomatic in the French language to denoting a complete failure, collapse, or catastrophe. No less important were the impressions of the survivors, that radically changed how other Europeans perceived that war.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
Sobibor, which was created exclusively to exterminate Jews and prisoners of war, operated from May 15, 1942, to October 15, 1943.
Up to six echelons carrying up to 2,000 people each, including adults, the elderly and children, arrived at the camp every day. Brutal death expected all of them.
One of the most efficient human extermination systems developed by the Nazis was put in place at the camp. The gas chamber, which the prisoners called "the baths", could take up to 800 people.
🕯 Over the period of the camp’s existence, the Nazis brutally murdered up to 250,000 people, according to different data.
Of the 550 prisoners who were at the camp during the uprising, more than a hundred refused to take part in it, hoping that the Nazis would show them mercy. All of these prisoners were exterminated by the Nazi on the following day.
In the next few weeks after the escape, the Nazis staged a real hunt for the fugitives.
On hearing the news of the uprising in Sobibor, SS-Reichsfuehrer Heinrich Himmler became enraged and gave the order to liquidate the camp. The Nazis ploughed the ground on the camp site and planted cabbage with potatoes there, thus not only trying to hide their crimes but also destroy the memory of the prisoners’ heroic feat. But their efforts were in vain.
The history of Sobibor became part of the charges at the Nuremberg trials and the stories told by witnesses and participants in the uprising formed the basis of a number of books and several feature films.
#Victory78 #Sobibor
Please open Telegram to view this post
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
Media is too big
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
In people's eye the battle became a symbol of the indestructibility, steadfastness and selflessness of the Soviet people. Against all odds for 200 days the defenders of Stalingrad fought off enemy waves, finally getting the upper hand and destroying Third Reich's best troops.
It was here that the largest and fiercest battles in history, which radically changed the course of World War II, took place.
This victory in Stalingrad, where the largest group of Nazi Germany troops and its satellites was defeated, was the beginning of the end for the Axis, as well as created conditions enabling Soviet forces to mount a large-scale counteroffensive aimed at expelling the invaders from the Motherland.
Beside strategic and tactical superiority of the Red Army, to the surprise of the Wehrmacht and their Nazi ideologues who deemed themselves better than everyone else, a key factor in the Victory was the will of the Soviet fighters who clang on to every street, nook and cranny. The story of the famous Pavlov's House has become legend, but it's based on a feat of glory, unlike any other, beyond human capability.
✊ The city and its defenders did not surrender to the enemy. Thanks to the incredible will to live, fortitude and courage of the Soviet people — the Nazis suffered a crushing defeat.
🎥 © Russian Military Historical Society
#Stalingrad #Victory80
Please open Telegram to view this post
VIEW IN TELEGRAM