Translated material
Riddle 1941–1945
70 years ago the war began
By the end of September 1941, the German army approached Moscow. Heavy battles on the approaches to the capital began
Riddle 1941–1945. The Red Army, the victim of a catastrophic defeat in the first months of the Patriotic War, managed to revive and win in May 1945. What broke the course of the war - the New Times sorted out
70 years ago, on June 22, 1941, the war began. 50 years after its beginning, the power of the CPSU ended, and it became possible to search, read and publicly discuss real documents and facts.
Virgin
Today we already know exactly what happened. An unprecedented military disaster in history occurred. For several weeks, a huge army (the largest in number in Europe and the world) was destroyed and destroyed. The same army, for the weapons and equipment of which a decade of hard labor and giant material resources were spent. By mid -July 1941, the Germans advanced 350-500 km and occupied an area of 700 thousand square meters. km, which is about three times the territory of Poland, occupied by the Wehrmacht in September 1939, and six times more than Belgium, the Netherlands and units of northeastern France, captured by the Wehrmacht in May 1940. 
And on this a long series of defeats was just beginning. The most severe losses, the largest “encirclement boilers” (near Kiev, Vyazma and Bryansk) did not occur in the first days and weeks after the “sudden attack”. By the end of September 1941, the Red Army only during the seven main strategic operations lost 15,500 tanks, 66,900 guns and mortars, 3.8 million rifle weapons * * “The Secret Strip Filmed”. Statistical study, ed. G.F. Krivosheeva, M., 1993 .. Aviation loss by October 1 reached 17.5 thousand aircraft. In total, in 1941, irretrievable operational losses (those killed, who died from wounds, missing the Red Army amounted to about 7-8 million people. (For more details, see M. Solonin, “June 22. Anatomy of the disaster”, M., 2008.)
| “ In June 1941 , at the beginning of the war, more than 6 million German and Soviet soldiers were concentrated on the front line stretching more than a thousand miles of forests, swamps, steppes and coastal dunes. The tips had, in addition, two million people under a gun in the east ... ”From the book of Katherine Merridale“ The War of Ivan ”(Catherine Merridale. Ivan's War. Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945. New York, 2006) |
It is pointless to compare these figures with the loss of the enemy - all potential opponents of the USSR, combined, did not have so many military equipment. As for the losses of personnel, the Wehrmacht on the Eastern Front irrevocably lost no more than 300 thousand soldiers and officers in the 41st. 20–25 times less than the Red Army. Such proportions do not fit in the mind, such a ratio of losses is possible only when the white colonialists with guns and rifles attacked on natives armed with sticks and stones ...
The decayed army
Today we can already describe in general terms how it happened. The Germans had neither a secret “miracle-armed”, nor laser blasters. There was no organized uprising, nor spontaneous riots, no rallies and “soldiers' committees” in the Red Army. Silently crawled out of the disgusting iron box of the tank, silently tore off the insignia, threw a rifle (machine gun, mortar, a gun, a plane) and attached to an endless, multi -kilometer column, wandering unknown where, under the supervision of a dozen German escorts.
| “ The losses were incredible. By December 1941, in less than six months of the war, the Red Army lost 4.5 million people ... Only the defense of Kyiv was worth the advice of 700 thousand killed and missing ... In the whole, the Red Army was destroyed and restored twice ... "From the book of Katherine Merridale" The War of Ivan "(Catherine Merridale. Ivan's War. Life and Death in the Red Army, 1939–1945. |
The army was not defeated in battle - it crumbled, scattered, melted, turned into smoke. The amount of rifle weapons lost (in every sense of the word) by the Red Army Red Army reached 6290 thousand units by the end of the year. In captivity, the enemy was 3886 thousand people. The NKVD bodies for the protection of the rear of the army in 1941 detained 711 thousand deserters * * “NKVD-MVD of the USSR in the fight against banditry and armed nationalist underground. 1939–1956 ". Collection of documents, comp. N. Vladimirtsev and A. Kokurin, M., 2008 .. To detain those who ran not to the east, but to the west, of course, the detachments could not; The fact that in the future, in the 43–44s was “repeatedly called up” (such an outlandish term) of 940 thousand people, in 43–44-occupied territories), is given a certain idea of the number of this category of this category “lagging and those who have lost their military.” And in the hot sky of the 41st year there was no such “air battle” in which Asas Luftwaffe would be shot down 17 thousand Soviet aircraft-from this number 10 thousand were written off under the article “Unaccounted for decline” * * TsAMO, f. 35, op. 11.333, d. 23, l. 353 .. So, there were planes - and everyone came out. Disfunction ...
Of course, the reasons for turning the Red Army into an uncontrollable crowd had nothing to do with the notorious "lack of means of communication." Already by January 1, 1941, the Red Army included 40 front -line radio stations (RAT), 1613 army and corps (RAF, RAF), 5909 regimental (5AC) radio stations, as well as 35,617 portable radio and radio links (RB, RBC, RBS) - and this is not counting the aviation and tank *** “Russia -“ Russia - “Russia -“ Russia - “Russia -“ Russia - “Russia -“ Russia ”“ Russia - “Russia” “Russia -“ Russia ”Russia -“ Russia “Russia -“ Russia ”Russia -“ Russia ”Russia -“ Russia ” XX century. Documents. 1941 ", Book 2, M., 1998 ..
Technical means of communication were, the problem was the rapid disappearance of subjects ready and those who wanted to get into a connection. And the cause, and the consequence, and the main content of the spontaneous decay of the army was massive failure to fulfill orders, mass desertion (both explicit and hidden), mass surrender and most importantly - the mass flight of a military, party, Chekist and any other authorities.
Stalin was lucky
The question is incomparably more complicated: why could this happen? To occur in the conditions of the regime, which to this day seems to be the millions of our compatriots as an example of the “order” - yes, tough, cruel, very short -lived, by the way, but order ... And next to this issue, the other inevitably grows: why did the war end not in Moscow, but in Berlin? How was this “escaped army” was able to crush the German Wehrmacht?
The Germans could take Moscow before the onset of late autumn. That set of decisions and actions of the German leadership, which, most likely, would lead to this result is quite clear. The main of them could be the transformation of the “eastern campaign” of the Wehrmacht into a civil war in the USSR. All the prerequisites for such a development were, and were in a huge oversupply. In the Baltic states and in Western Ukraine, the armed anti -Soviet uprising broke out in the very first hours (not even days!) War. Among millions of prisoners, it was not so difficult to find a hundred thousand people who were ready (out of ideological or more mundane, career reasons) join the Russian anti -Stalinist army; The cyclopic mountains of weapons and ammunition for such an army were lying in a clean field. It was quite real to repeat the experience of 1917–1918, when Germany, supporting the change of power in Russia, concluded a separate world with the Lenin government and thus secured the freedom of hands for the offensive on the Western Front.
A column of captured Red Army soldiers and male recruitment at a crossing across the San River. June 1941
“Today, a peasant, in comparison with the past, has nothing at all ... And the average salary of a worker is 300-500 rubles per month, for which he can not buy anything. When there is nothing to eat and there is a constant fear of the system, then, of course, the Russians would be very grateful for destruction and getting rid of the Stalinist regime ... If Budyonny and Tymoshenko led the uprising, then perhaps a lot of blood did not spill ... The new Russia does not have to be like the old. She can even be without Ukraine, Belarus and the Baltic states, being in good relations with Germany ... ”***“ Military Historical Archive ”No. 6 (30), 2002.
This is not invented. And not in the novel of the fantasy genre is read. Such conversations were conducted with the Germans by Plenov General Lukin, the commander of the armies, the holder of the Orders of Lenin, the Red Banner, the Red Star, in 1993 posthumously awarded the title of Hero of Russia. The Wehrmacht generals who saw the situation in the Red Army and in prisoners of war camps from close range have repeatedly turned to Hitler with relevant offers; So, the commander of the Army Group Center, Field Marshal von Bock, sent to Berlin a project to create a “liberation army” from 200 thousand volunteers and the formation of the Russian government in Smolensk. His report was returned in November 1941 with the Keitel resolution: "Such ideas cannot be discussed with the Fuhrer ..."
So you should not get carried away with excessive measures to search for “objective premises”, just Stalin in the 41st is very lucky. Fabulously lucky - his opponent was a crazy maniac with delusional ideas of “racial exclusivity” instead of brains in his head. And after the Germans did not take Moscow (more correctly and more precisely, they did not create the conditions under which the Russian anti -Stalinist army could enter Moscow) and even rolled back, leaving a pile of frozen corpses in the snow -white fields, it was after which the “closed chain” and the consequences spun in the opposite direction.
The beginning of the end
Stalin and his minions did a tremendous work. History let them go a lot of time in order to turn the people into the obedient master's whip of biomass. Stalin’s mistake (only by a random coincidence that did not become fatal for him) was that he hoped to always hold the whip in his own hands. In the summer of 1941, the “whip” was in the hands of Stalin's enemy. The German tank seemed no less terrible than the Nagan in the hands of the Chekist, and every new Victory of the Wehrmacht, every new city occupied by the Germans convinced the population that the power was changing and now it was necessary to “bend” in the other direction. Hitler could win, but for this he had to win confidently and quickly, the first serious defeat inevitably became the beginning of the end for him. 
Desertion and surrender to the enemy made sense only in anticipation of the quickly and inevitable collapse of the Soviet Union. In the summer of 1941, it was this option for the development of the events of the war that seemed the most likely-respectively, the flow of prisoners and deserters grew, like a snowball. After Moscow and Stalingrad, even the blindness became clear that in the war against the coalition of the three world powers, Germany would suffer a defeat. Earlier or later, on certain conditions and borders, but the German army will be defeated, Stalin’s power will be established at least throughout the USSR - which means that they will find everyone. You won’t live all your life in the forest, you won’t be served on a deaf farm. Leaving all the pathetics out of brackets, we must state that from some moment, the flight from the battlefield simply ceased to be a rational strategy of personal survival.
Revolution in consciousness
"The winner gets everything." As soon as the front line crawled to the West, the population of the USSR began to switch to the side of the future winner, accepting its rules, its requirements, its slogans. Finally, we must not forget how the previous “candidate for the winners” (Hitler) proved himself in the occupied territory, in camps for captured Red Army soldiers, turned into death camps. Hitler tried very much in order to expel him from his native land and “finish off the fascist beast in the Berlin Logov” became truly hot, sincere and mass. 
In complete contradiction with the Bolshevik teaching, the foundation of the Victory building was a deep coup in the minds of the multimillion -dollar masses of Soviet people. This coup is clearly fixed by objective, measured, mathematical indicators. Starting from the 1st quarter of 1943, the structure of the losses of the personnel of the Red Army becomes “normal”, i.e. The number of missing people is already measured by units of interest. Then, in the spring of 1943, the number of partisan detachments begins to increase, the number of fighters in them, the number of trains launched and kilometers of the destroyed railway canvas * * * See Boyarsky. "Partisans and the army", Minsk, 2001; A. Gogun, “Stalin's Commandos”, M., 2008 ..
On this foundation it was possible to put a material “superstructure”, i.e. Tens of thousands of tanks and aircraft that were driven to the front of military plants evacuated for the Urals, endless caravans of ocean vessels with Lend-Lisovsky deliveries (in total, the USSR received 17 million tons of military, industrial, food, and medical products with a total value of 7 thousand tons of gold). The tough “natural selection” of many years of war has formed a new generation of the command staff of the Red Army.
This army came to Berlin. The new army, even outwardly (shoulder straps instead of “kubari” and “sleepers”) not similar to the one that melted in June of the 41st year.