Legends of courage

No epochal defeat of the Nazis in 1945 would have happened if it were not for the heroic defence in 1941 

At dawn on Sunday, on June 22nd, 1941, Nazi Germany and its allies attacked the USSR without declaring war. The armed forces of the Germans and their allies — Finland, Hungary, Italy and Romania — totalling 5.5 million people were concentrated against the Soviet Union. The USSR had 5.3 million people, of whom 2.9 million were positioned in the western military districts. What is the reason for the failures at the initial stage of hostilities?

The Brest Fortress memorial complex is a symbol of courage and fortitude of the Soviet people    Pavel Bogush

Will to fight

The Nazi’s Army Group Centre, consisting of 820,000 soldiers, acted against the Soviet Western Special Military District that numbered 673,000 military personnel. Alas, the Red Army troops were not put on alert, which became one of the reasons for the USSR’s failures at the beginning of the war.
The border guards were the first to take the blow. Fierce battles unfolded on the approaches to Grodno, Byelorussia. Soldiers of the 3rd army under the command of Lieutenant General Vasily Kuznetsov and border guards of the 86th Avgustov frontier guard led by Major Guriy Zdorny selflessly fought against the enemy.

On the first day, the outpost under the command of Lieutenant Viktor Usov fought off attacks by superior enemy forces for 10 hours. The soldiers of the 1st frontier post led by Senior Lieutenant Aleksandr Sivachyov fought for 11 hours near the village of Golovenchitsy. The border guards of the 4th outpost headed by Senior Lieutenant Feodosiy Kirichenko repelled five enemy attacks near the village of Dorgun. Many border guards died the death of heroes. In memory of their heroic feat, the President of Belarus opened a memorial complex to all border guards on June 22nd, 2004, in Grodno.

The Thirst Monument at the Brest Fortress memorial complex        PAVEL BOGUSH

The unprecedented defence of the Brest Fortress became the legend of exemplary courage and perseverance of the Soviet people. The combat report of German Lieutenant-General Fritz Schlieper dated July 8th, 1941, read, “The Russians in Brest-Litovsk fought with exceptional stubbornness and determination. They showed excellent infantry training and proved a remarkable will to fight.”
From the very first days, the aggressors committed mass massacres of the civilian population. On June 24th and 25th, Nazi pilots shot refugees at the exit from Minsk on Moscow and Mogilev highways. The same atrocity was committed on June 26th near Ostroshitsky Gorodok, Minsk District. A terrible tragedy occurred near Rogachev, Gomel Region, where German murderous pilots riddled with bullets four boys and girls swimming in the Dnieper River.
The pilots of the Western Special Military District, despite finding themselves in an extremely difficult situation on the first day of the war, flew 1,900 combat sorties and shot down more than 100 enemy aircraft. On June 26th, the bomber crew under the command of Nikolai Gastello sent their plane, hit by an enemy shell, to a mechanised enemy column.

Lepel counterattack

The 100th division under the command of Major General Ivan Russiyanov actively repulsed the enemy’s strike near Minsk — the soldiers not only stopped the enemy, but also launched a counteroffensive. Only the great numerical superiority of enemy troops forced the Soviet soldiers to retreat. Due to the lack of anti-tank guns, bottles with a combustible mixture were used there for the first time in the fight against enemy tanks. 
One of the largest tank battles of that period took place on July 6th, 1941. It went down in history as the Lepel Counterattack. About 1,600 tanks participated on both sides. During three days of fighting, the Soviet mechanised corps advanced up to 40 km, but was forced to retreat. Nevertheless, the enemy suffered significant losses, and its striking force and the pace of advance were reduced.
In addition, on July 14th, a battery of rocket-propelled mortars by Captain Ivan Flyorov, consisting of BM-13 Katyusha launchers, hit a cluster of enemy troops and hardware at the Orsha railway junction.
The first tangible counterattack of the Red Army troops was the offensive of the 63rd Rifle Corps under the command of Lieutenant General Leonid Petrovsky in Bobruisk direction on July 13th – August 14th, which enabled the 30-day liberation of Zhlobin and Rogachev.
Intense fights were taking place from July 3rd to July 26th in the area of Mogilev, which was staunchly defended by military units of the Western Front and fighters of the people’s volunteer corps. The resistance of the Soviet troops in southeastern regions of Byelorussia was stubborn, especially near Bobruisk, Zhlobin, Rogachev and Gomel.  
Despite the tenacious resistance of Soviet soldiers and commanders, the Red Army troops were forced to retreat. By the beginning of September 1941, the entire territory of Byelorussia had been captured by the enemy.  

Blitzkrieg failed

Today, historians highlight four key reasons for the failures of the Red Army troops at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. 

• Firstly, the political leadership of the USSR overestimated the importance of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Treaty and hoped that it would be possible to delay the outbreak of war with the help of political and diplomatic means. The information about the preparation of Nazi Germany’s aggression against the Soviet Union, which was received by the General Staff, the People’s Commissariat of Defence and the People’s Commissariat for Foreign Affairs of the Soviet Union in February – May 1941, demanded the immediate bringing of the armed forces to full combat readiness and the mobilisation of all necessary means and resources. 
• Secondly, the tactical training of the command staff was of a low level. Many commanders did not have practical experience in commanding or organising interaction between troops due to the fact that about 40,000 people of the command staff were repressed. Along with that, research by Russian historians has indicated the real existence of an anti-state conspiracy among the Soviet military, which means that purges in the armed forces were required.
• Thirdly, Germany surpassed the USSR in terms of military and economic potential on the eve of the Great Patriotic War. The industry of the occupied European countries worked for the needs of the Nazis. The weapons of more than 200 divisions of the defeated or surrendered armies were used, as well as the troops of Finland, Romania, Hungary, Italy, and Slovakia. After the outbreak of war, Croatia, Spain and Vichy France also sent their volunteers to the Eastern Front. The Wehrmacht had two years of war experience and therefore outperformed the Red Army in professional training.
• Fourthly, the Supreme Soviet military and political leadership made a misjudgement in determining the date of the outbreak of war and the strategic direction of the enemy’s main strike.

Nevertheless, the Red Army sought to contain the powerful onslaught of the enemy and persistently stood in defence of each frontier. As a result, the German’s Army Group Centre had to suspend the offensive since the end of the summer. Hitler’s Operation Barbarossa began to falter. The ‘lightning war’ plan did not work out. This later became the basis of our Great Victory.

FOR REFERENCE

During the difficult initial period of the war, the leadership of the Soviet Union managed to unite all the nations and nationalities of the USSR to oppose the enemy. For outstanding heroism and exemplary courage shown in the defensive battles of 1941, one hundred and twenty-eight people were awarded the Hero of the Soviet Union high title, including eleven representatives of Byelorussia: Aleksei Antonenko, Tikhon Bumazhkov, Solomon Gorelik, Nikolai Gastello, Lev Dovator, Ivan Kovsharov, Aleksandr Lizyukov, Luka Muravitsky, Kirill Osipov, Fyodor Pavlovsky, Boris Higrin.

By Vyacheslav Danilovich, deputy of the House of Representatives, Doctor of Historical Sciences