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🗓 On October 9, Russia marks the Day of Victory over the Nazis in the Battle of the Caucasus, one of the longest and bloodiest series of operations during the Great Patriotic War.

A bridge between Europe and the Middle East, the strategic importance of the Caucasus region further increased after the discovery of vast oil reserves there. After Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic fell into the hands of German invaders, the Kuban and Transcaucasia became the main suppliers of grain and mineral resources for the USSR.

🥇 Despite the tremendous onslaught of the enemy during the initial phase of the Battle (July 25 - December 31, 1942), the Soviet soldiers and officers heroically held their defense. After launching a counteroffensive, the Red Army forced the Germans to retreat, recaptured territories previously occupied by the Nazi invaders, including North Ossetia, Kabardino-Balkaria, Rostov Oblast, Stavropol Krai, and other regions.

During the 1943 offensive in the North Caucasus, the Red Army s inflicted enormous damage on the enemy: over 275,000 soldiers and officers were killed, more than 6,000 were taken prisoner, while 890 tanks, over 2,000 airplanes, 2,127 guns and over 7,000 vehicles were damaged or destroyed.

Hitler's plans to cut off the USSR from its major economic bases in the south of the country and most importantly, to seize the oil fields in the Caucasus, were thwarted. With the victory at Stalingrad and the Battle of the Caucasus the Soviet Union's triumphant march commenced, leading to the liberation of our Motherland from the Nazi invaders.

🎖 All the peoples of our vast country fought selflessly on the Caucasian front and their heroism was highly appreciated. More than 870,000 veterans of those military operations were decorated with the medal For the Defence of the Caucasus, established on January 25, 1943. The Hero of the Soviet Union title was conferred on 138 fighters.

#Victory78
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🌟 #OTD 80 years ago, the only successful mass uprising in a Nazi death camp commenced in Sobibor. Soviet officer Alexander Pechersky led this heroic fight for freedom.

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.

🏅 For many years, the liberated prisoners of Sobibor stayed in touch with their liberator, the leader and initiator of the uprising. In 2016, President of Russia Vladimir Putin issued an executive order awarding Alexander Pechersky the Order of Courage posthumously, which was handed to his granddaughter.

#Victory78 #Sobibor
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📅 On October 28, 1944, the Red Army successfully completed the East Carpathian Strategic Offensive Operation and liberated the entire territory of the Ukrainian SSR.

Soviet Ukraine was among the first regions to take the blow from the Wehrmacht on June 22, 1941. Immediately following the Nazi invasion, the partisan movement set up the headquarters which inflicted serious damage to the enemy.

During the years of the German occupation, the Nazis established a large number of concentration camps, prisons and ghettos on the territory of Ukraine. Several million people were killed by the invaders and their henchmen. Over two million Ukrainians were deported to serve as forced labourers in Germany. About 700 cities and 28,000 villages were destroyed, and more than 16,000 industrial enterprises were ruined.

🕯 The population of Ukraine suffered not only from Nazi invaders but also from the criminal activities of tens of thousands of local nationalists who chose to collaborate and serve the Reich, zealously carrying out ethnic cleansing and brutally murdering communists, Jews and civilians, including the elderly and children.

The forces that are currently in power in Ukraine hail the Nazi collaborators as “heroes” and “fighters for independence” . Some Western countries even go as far as to give them standing ovation in parliament.

The liberation of Ukraine took 680 days. It included 15 major offensive operations, involving nearly half of all personnel and equipment of the Soviet army. Over three million Soviet soldiers and officers lost their lives in the fight against the invaders.

🎖 Millions of Ukrainians fought the Nazis in the ranks of the Red Army. Their contribution to the Victory cannot be overestimated. Some 2.5 million Ukrainian soldiers received orders and medals, including 2021 people who were bestowed the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

❗️ The liberation of Ukraine from the Nazi invaders was a landmark event in the Great Patriotic War, opening the road to Berlin for the Red Army.

#Victory78
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📆 80 years ago, #OTD in 1943 the Tehran Conference codenamed “Eureka” kicked off, the first meeting of the “Big Three” leaders Joseph Stalin, Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill during WW2.

📍 The conference was held in the Embassy of USSR in Persia.

☝️ The most notable outcome of the Conference was the agreement on opening a second front in western Europe against Nazi Germany in May 1944.

🤝 At the same time USSR would launch another major offensive on the Eastern Front that would divert German troops away from the Allied campaign in northern France.

❗️Joseph Stalin agreed in principle that the Soviet Union would declare war against Japan following an Allied victory over Germany.

👉 At Tehran, the three Allied leaders also discussed important issues of the post-war period concerning future Polish borders, fate of the Baltic republics, and formation of the United Nations organization.

#WW2 #WWII #WeRemember #Victory78 #UN78 #TehranConference
Today marks the 82th anniversary of the Soviet Moscow counteroffensive

⚔️ By Dec 1941, the Red Army had managed to stop the enemy & take the initiative in the battle. Soviet commanders discreetly concentrated strategic reserves closer to Moscow.

💡On the morning of Dec 5, the troops at the Kalinin Front (under the command of Colonel Gen Ivan Konev), the Western Front (Army Gen Georgy Zhukov), the Southwestern Front (Marshal Semyon Timoshenko) and the Bryansk Front (Colonel Gen Yakov Cherevichenko) launched a joint offensive in harsh winter conditions.

🕯Over 11 days, despite the enemy’s desperate resistance, the Red Army crushed the Army Group Centre and progressed 65-120 km along the contact line.

🌟 By early Jan of 1942, the Germans were thrown back 100-250 km from Moscow. The Central Russian Moscow, Tula & Ryazan regions were liberated.

❗️During the Moscow counter-offensive, Soviet troops debunked the myth about the Wehrmacht’s invincibility & finally buried Hitler's idea of a Blitzkrieg.

#Victory78
⭐️ #OTD in 1943, Operation #Ring commenced – the last part of the epic Battle of #Stalingrad.

The Red Army encircled the remaining Axis forces, making 24 #Nazi generals surrender.

⚔️ The deadliest battle in history resulted in a decisive Soviet victory.

#RussianHistory #WWII #Victory78
🌟 On January 12, 1943, the Red Army forces launched an offensive that was later codenamed Iskra (Spark).

The goal of the operation was to break the siege of Russia’s city of Leningrad.

⚔️ At 9.30 am on January 12, two thousand Soviet weapons opened fired on Nazi positions. Soviet artillery of the Leningrad Front shelled the left bank of the Neva River for two hours and twenty minutes. After the barrage, soldiers of four first-echelon divisions launched an attack across the frozen river. Light tanks and armoured vehicles supported the infantry.

By late January, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts dissected the Wehrmacht’s defences with powerful strikes from both sides and pushed the enemy 12 kilometres back from Lake Ladoga.

❗️The Germans lost about 30,000 killed, wounded and missing.

☝️ Although the siege of Leningrad was completely lifted only on January 27, 1944, Operation Iskra made it possible to partially unblock the city, considerably improving conditions of living for the besieged people.

🌟 Before that, the famous Road of Life across the ice of Lake Ladoga was the city’s only connection to the mainland.

#WWII #Victory78 #WeRemember #SiegeOfLeningrad
📆 124 years ago, on 12 February 1900, Vasily Chuikov was born, a prominent Soviet military commander, twice Hero of the Soviet Union.

He participated in the Russian Civil War and the Winter War with Finland. In 1940-1942 he served as a military attache and the chief military adviser to Chinese leader Chiang Kai-shek.

🌟 Vasily Chuikov is best remembered to have commanded the 62nd Army involved in the Battle of Stalingrad in 1942-1943. V.Chuikov adopted the “hugging” tactic – keeping the Soviet front-line positions as close to the Germans as physically possible, in order to escape the unimpeded bombing by Nazi aviation.

⚔️ Another V.Chuikov’s tactical option was using of small assault units which repeatedly counterattacked the Nazis not allowing them to consolidate their positions in the city’s ruined blocks.

💬 When given the command of the defense of Stalingrad, V.Chuikov reportedly said: “I swear that I won’t leave the city. We shall hold Stalingrad or die there.”

#Victory78 #WWII