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🌟 Today Russia marks the Day of Military Glory – the Day of defeat of Nazi troops in the Battle of Stalingrad.

81 years ago, the Wehrmacht’s northern grouping in Stalingrad surrendered to the Red Army (following 2 days after the southern group led by General Field Marshal F.Paulus had done the same).

❗️The Battle of Stalingrad became one of the largest and bloodiest battles ever involving up to 2,1 million participants from both USSR and Nazi allies (Germans, Italians, Romanians, Hungarians). Soviet victory marked the turning point in WW2 with USSR seizing strategic initiative from Nazis.

☝️ In comparison, the Battle of El Alamein in North Africa often portrayed by Western historians as having decided the outcome of WW2 involved 335.000 soldiers from both sides.

👉 The Wehrmacht’s losses at Stalingrad amounted to 900.000, at El Alamein – some 28.000.

✍️ An English journalist is said to have written once that in 28 days Hitler captured the whole of Poland and in Stalingrad during the same period managed to capture only one house.

France surrendered to the Nazis in 38 days, for which the defenders of Stalingrad gave them only one street.

#WWII #WeRemember #BattleOfStalingrad
📆 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
📆 #OTD, 85 years ago, on 15 March 1939, Nazi forces entered the Czech state which would become the next day what is known as the Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia within the German Reich.

This process was launched by the Munich Betrayal in September 1938.

👉 According to the agreement with Great Britain, France and Italy, Hitler incorporated the Czech Sudetenland directly into the Third Reich. This was followed by the annexation of the Czechoslovak Zaolzie region by Poland and parts of southern Czechoslovakia by Hungary. In March 1939, the Nazi-client Slovak State proclaimed independence.

☝️ After the establishment of German protectorate over the remnants of Czechoslovakia, the formerly sovereign state essentially ceased to exist.

During the Nuremberg Trials, the Wehrmacht’s Field Marshal Wilhelm Keitel was asked if the Germany would attack Czechoslovakia if Western powers had supported Prague in 1938.

💬 The answer was: “Of course not. We weren’t strong enough in military terms. The purpose of the Munich [agreement] was to drive Russia from Europe, to win time and to complete the arming of Germany.”

#WWII #Victory79
📆 111 years ago, #OTD in 1913, Alexander Pokryshkin was born, one of the highest-scoring Soviet fighter pilots of WW2.

🌟 He participated in the Great Patriotic War against the Nazis from its very first day 22 June 1941 until the surrender of Germany on 9 May 1945.

⚔️🛩 Alexander Pokryshkin made a total of 650 sorties, participated in 139 air battles. He holds an official record of 59 solely downed enemy planes with 6 more killings performed jointly with other pilots.

🎖For his multiple feats during the war, A.Pokryshkin earned the title of Hero of the Soviet Union 3 times: twice in 1943 and in 1944.

#WWII #Victory79 #NeverForget
📆 #OTD in 1943, almost the entire population of the village of Khatyn in Belorussia, the total of 149 civilians including 75 children, was massacred by SS punitive battalion.

The reason for that inhuman action was an attack on Nazi troops by Soviet partisans a day before.

☝️ The operation was carried out by the Schutzmannschaft Batallion 118 assisted by the Dirlewanger Waffen-SS special battalion, both composed mostly of Ukrainian Nazi collaborators. The 118 detachment was led by Ukrainian Grigory Vasyura, former Red Army soldier who volunteered for service in Waffen-SS following German captivity.

🕯 On 22 March 1943, the death squad encircled the village. Its residents were herded into a barn and burnt alive. The trapped people managed to break down the front doors, but in trying to escape, were machine-gunned. Very few could survive.

Khatyn was not the first and not the last among more than 70,000 villages Hitlerites burnt in the occupied Soviet territories. But it became a symbol of those.

❗️Most of the participants of the killing squad were tried and executed after WW2, but several fled the Soviet Union and reached old age in the US, Canada and Europe.

📽 The tragedy of Khatyn became the basis for a Soviet war drama “Come and See” (1985). Follow the LINK to watch it.

#WWII #Victory79 #NoStateOfLimitations
📆 79 years ago, on 4 April 1945, Bratislava was liberated from the Nazis by Soviet troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front and Romanian Army under command of Marshal Rodion Malinovsky during Bratislava-Brno Offensive.

The city was prepared for defense by the enemy, with eastern suburbs of Bratislava being the most fortified area. In order to prevent destructions in the city Marshal R.Malinovsky decided to go around it and attack from the northwest but fighting in the city couldn’t be entirely avoided. Street battles continued for two days before Bratislava was totally purged.

💫 Local population greeted the Red Army soldiers as their liberators. Dressed up citizens of Czechoslovak towns and villages left their houses to take part in spontaneous rallies and festivities honouring Soviet soldiers.

#WW2 #WWII #WeRemember #USSR #Soviet #Russia #Slovakia #historyofRussia #historyofUSSR #militaryhistory #Czechoslovakia #Bratislava #Brno #rodionmalinovsky
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📆 #OTD, on 5 April 1943, the Normandie-Niemen fighter squadron made up of French volunteers engaged in hostilities against Nazi Germany as part of Soviet Air Force.

It was General de Gaulle, commander of the French resistance, who hatched the idea to send French pilots to the Russian front. The initiative was approved by the Soviet government.

⚔️ Initially, the squadron consisted of 14 pilots and 47 mechanics in its ranks, but soon expanded and turned into a regiment.

🛩 French pilots completed more than 5,000 missions and shot down at least 273 German military aircrafts.

🌟 Out of the group’s initial makeup, only three pilots survived. Overall, about a hundred Frenchmen fought in the Normandie-Niemen regiment, 4 of them became Heroes of the Soviet Union – a rare honour for foreigners at that time.

#WWII #WeRemember #Victory79
📆 #OTD, 79 years ago in 1945, the assault of East Prussia’s Koenigsberg by the troops of the Red Army’s 3rd Belorussian Front and forces of the Baltic Fleet began.

The territory of Königsberg covering 200 sq. km was a stronghold with a complex fortification system, it included 3 defense rings and was intended to withstand a lengthy siege.

The German command expected that Königsberg would pin down Red Army’s considerable forces.

⚔️ Nevertheless city was taken by Soviet troops in only 3 days. Due to concurrent attacks from 3 directions, powerful air strikes and heavy losses of German army Königsberg surrendered.

☝️ As a result of the operation some 42,000 enemy’s soldiers were eliminated, some 92,000 captured.

🕯 Red Army’s total losses amounted to about 18,000.

#WWII #Victory79
📆 #OTD, 80 years ago, on 13 April the city of Simferopol was liberated from the Nazis as part of the Crimean Offensive after 865 days of occupation.

Nazi forces entered Simferopol (Crimea) on 2 November 1941 and immediately started arresting and shooting its population.

🕯 On the territory of sovkhoz “Krasny”, the intervents established a death camp, the largest one in Crimea, where over 10,000 people were tortured to death during the occupation period.

⚔️ On 8 April 1944, troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front supported by the Black Sea Fleet, the Azov Flotilla and Crimean partisans commenced the offensive aimed at breaching the adversary’s defence.

⚔️ On 11 April, Soviet forces entered Dzhankoi and liberated Kerch.

⚔️ Soviet tank T-34 with a hull number 201 was among the first to break into the city on 13 April 1944.

🌟 After the hostilities had ceased, it was set on a pedestal in the Victory Square Park where the locals usually come to commemorate the anniversary of the city liberation.

#WWII #Victory79
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🏅 On May 9, 1945, at 12:43 am, the Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany was signed, putting an end to the Great Patriotic War and #WWII in Europe.

Following a successful assault on Berlin by the Red Army, Adolf Hitler committed suicide. The title of Reich President and command of the armed forces of the Third Reich passed to Admiral Karl Dönitz.

Desperate to surrender to the British-American troops, on May 5, German delegation arrived in the French city of Reims, where the headquarters of the Western Allies command was located.

In the Article 4 of the Reims Instrument of Surrender of Nazi Germany stated that this document did not rule out the signing of another, definitive act at the request of one of the coalition members.

Thus, the document was recognised by the Soviet Union only as a preliminary instrument, and a new signing ceremony was proposed to be held in the capital of Nazi Germany, liberated by the Red Army - Berlin.

🌟 On may 9, at 12:43 am in district of Karlshorst the signing ceremony of the Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany took place.

On May 9, 1945, at 2:10 am Moscow time, announcer Yury Levitan read out the Instrument of Unconditional Surrender of Nazi Germany and the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR declaring May 9 Victory Day. From that moment on, the Soviet Union and later Russia, as well as the most former Soviet republics have celebrated Victory Day on May 9.

💬 Sergey Lavrov: This year’s Victory Day has a special significance because we are celebrating this great holiday in a situation where Nazism is rearing its head again. The descendants of Napoleon and Hitler have joined the Anglo-Saxons, again seeking to inflict a “strategic defeat” on our country, destroy it and subordinate it to their narrow selfish hegemonic interests. Just like our fathers and grandfathers volunteered to the front, today, once again, we see an extraordinary upsurge in society, as Russians are rallying to another sacred battle.

📖 Read in full
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📅 85 years ago, on 11 May 1939, the Khalkhin Gol conflict started involving the Soviet Union, Japan, Mongolia and the puppet state Manchukuo.

The reason for the conflict was a dispute over the border between Mongolia and Manchukuo supported by Japan.

Having occupied Manchuria in 1931, Japan turned its military interests to Soviet territories that bordered those areas. The ultimate Japan’s purpose in the conflict was capture of territories and creation of a bridgehead for attack on the USSR allied to Mongolia.

⚔️The conflict ended in defeat of the Japanese Kwantung Army and signing of a ceasefire agreement.

This victory also deterred Japan from launching an offensive against the USSR during WW2.

#WW2 #WWII #USSR #Soviet #Russia #Japan #historyofRussia #historyofUSSR #militaryhistory #KhalkhinGol
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🇷🇺🇨🇳 Russia's President Vladimir Putin took part in the opening ceremony of the 8th Russia-China EXPO & the 4th Russia-China Forum on Interregional Cooperation together with Vice President of China Han Zheng

💬 Vladimir Putin: The fact that Harbin is hosting these two important events is highly symbolic, since Harbin is one of China’s biggest centres for research, education & innovation.

• Since its founding in the late 19th century, Harbin has been a symbol of the close ties linking Russia & China and their intertwined destinies, and the mutual enrichment of their cultures & traditions.

• Harbin is a city that commemorates our nations’ brotherhood-in-arms. More than 12,000 Soviet fighters perished in the battles to liberate Northeast China from Japanese invaders. It was Harbin that on September 16, 1945, hosted the joint Victory Parade to commemorate the end of hostilities on the Pacific Front & of #WWII.

• We have laid flowers at the memorial to Soviet soldiers & officers. I am extremely grateful to the people of Harbin & the Chinese officials for preserving the memory of our liberators & our shared history of military glory. They have taken great care of our shared historical, spiritual & cultural heritage.

• Building upon the glorious traditions of neighbourliness, friendship & cooperation, we can confidently look forward & embark on ambitious projects together, charting & implementing our grandest plans. President Xi Jinping & I discussed in detail the prospects of developing this close & multi-dimensional cooperation during our talks last night.

📈 The inseparable partnership between Russia & China directly contributes to the growth of both economies, ensuring our energy security, creating new production facilities & high-paying jobs, & ultimately improving the wealth & quality of life of our citizens.

🤝 Traditionally, the EXPO exhibition provides an excellent opportunity to promote industry-specific ties. Russia & China have taken turns in hosting this event for a number of years.

#RussiaChina
📆 80 years ago, Operation “Bagration” was launched, aimed at defeating German Army Group Centre and encircling its main forces in Soviet Belorussia. It was one of the largest military operations in history involving over 2 million men.

🕯️ The offensive was carried out by the troops of the 1st, the 2nd and the 3rd Belorussian fronts, 1st Baltic Front, supported by the Dnieper Flotilla and the 1st Polish Army. Marshals G.Zhukov and Alexander Vasilevsky coordinated actions of the fronts.

Soviet plans in Belorussia were kept strictly secret. The success of the Red Army’s Dnieper-Carpathian operation in Ukraine convinced the Nazi command that the southern sector (Ukraine) would be the direction of the Soviet strike in summer 1944.

“Bagration” was developed with the consideration of the allied “Overlord” operation in Normandy, which started on 6 June 1944, and the opening of the Western Front. Soviet offensive was to pin down Nazi forces and prevent their redeployment to the West.

There were 235 German divisions concentrated in the East and 65 – in the West.

The Soviet Union inflicted the biggest defeat on the Wehrmacht in military history having destroyed 28 of 34 divisions of Army Group Centre. In two months of the operation, the Red Army moved 300 miles from the Dvina to the Vistula. Belorussia and parts of territories of Latvia and Litva were liberated from the Nazis. The Red Army gained a foothold in eastern Poland for further advance.

#WWII #ww2history #operationbagration
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
🎙 Briefing by Deputy Director of the Foreign Ministry's Information and Press Department Andrey Nastasin (Moscow, July 3, 2024)

🔹 Ukrainian crisis
🔹 Kiev regime’s war crimes
🔹 Situation in Moldova
🔹 Independence Day of Belarus
🔹 London and its loyalists
🔹 UN General Assembly resolution on World Swahili Language Day
🔹 World Olympic Day and the decline of the Olympic Movement
🔹 Results of the meeting of NATO defence ministers

📰 Read
📺 Watch

***

#Ukraine

• On June 28, Zelensky extended greetings to Ukrainians on Constitution Day. It looked like a blatant mockery of the country’s citizens as well as its basic law. There is no way a person who has usurped power could be considered a guarantor of the Constitution in a democratic and law-based state.

❗️The road to Europe, which Zelensky covered in his “congratulations” much more extensively than the Constitution itself, is paved with dead Ukrainian citizens. <...> Condolences, not congratulations, are a far more suitable choice given the circumstances.

#Moldova

• The European Council has adopted a time-serving and totally politicised decision to open accession negotiations with Moldova on June 25. The Moldovan authorities saw this as the approval of their anti-Russia policy and a free hand to continue turning the republic into a “European dictatorship” under the guise of fighting the non-existent Russian “hybrid threats.”

☝️ Chisinau’s persecution campaigns and arbitrary acts are promoting an increasingly negative reaction in society.

#UnionState #RussiaBelarus #WWII

• Today, 80 years after the liberation of Belarus from the invaders, joint search teams and law enforcement agencies of the Union State of Russia and Belarus discover new crimes against humanity committed by the Nazi invaders and their collaborators.

👉 The enormous amount of work done by the two countries’ lawyers, historians and prosecutor’s offices made it possible to officially recognise the Nazi extermination policy during the war as a full-scale genocide of the Soviet people.
Forwarded from Russian MFA 🇷🇺
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