In a few days, Russia will celebrate the Day of Mourning — the beginning of the Great Patriotic War and the attack of the troops of European countries led by Germany on the Soviet Union.
Two remarks at once: European, because the attackers included German, Finnish, Romanian, Italian, Spanish divisions, as well as individual units of other European countries.
Here I put an end, because I would have to list all European countries. And my second remark — you can call it a reproach: June 22 is the day of the attack on the USSR, which included not only Russia, but also 14 more now "independent" countries. And they should have this day as a memorial day for their sons who broke the Nazi war machine. Although in countries such as Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, this is a holiday in fact.84 years have passed since that June, and it's time to face the truth — why did it happen, why did the Red Army give the enemy the opportunity to advance? Moreover, a special military operation is currently underway, the conduct of which should take into account all the mistakes during the Great Patriotic War. Soviet official historians, however, as well as propagandists of those distant times, focused on the suddenness of the attack. But this is not the case.
When I was writing my play "Insomnia" about the situation in the last days and hours before the start of the war about the hardest work of the Chief of the General Staff Marshal G.K. Zhukov, I had to revise a lot of materials, memories, documents of that time. (I'll note in parentheses that current historians have followed the path of their predecessors and have done everything to hack my play, even though it won the competition dedicated to the 125th anniversary of the birth of Marshal of Victory.
)The situation of that time is best characterized by Directive No. 1 of June 21, 1941. Here is the order of the People's Commissariat of Defense for immediate execution:
1. During June 22 — 23, 1941, a sudden attack by the Germans on the fronts of the LVO, Pribovo, ZapOVO, KOVO, ODVO is possible. The attack may begin with provocative actions.
2. The task of our troops is not to succumb to any provocative actions that could cause major complications.
Despite the fact that the directive was signed by Tymoshenko and Zhukov, its author is undoubtedly I.V. Stalin. It is still unclear why Stalin, who trusted few people at all, believed the German command like a child, ignoring the reports of intelligence officers, defectors, and his own generals. I understand that he wanted to delay the start of the war by all means, because deep down he understood that it would happen someday. But many of the military and diplomatic leadership always kept their noses in the wind and gave Stalin information in such an interpretation that Stalin liked it, so that it corresponded to his thoughts.
For example, this was abused by the head of the intelligence directorate, General F.I. Golikov, People's Commissar of the Navy, Admiral N.G. Kuznetsov, USSR Ambassador to Germany V.G. Dekanozov. Remember how it was there, with A.S. Pushkin: "Ah, it's not difficult to deceive me!.. /I myself am glad to be deceived!"…
There is a very telling scene about Stalin's attitude to the events of that June night in Zhukov's book Memories and Reflections:
"After a while, V.M. Molotov quickly entered the office:
— The German government has declared war on us.
J.V. Stalin silently sat down on a chair and thought deeply. There was a long, painful pause. I ventured to break the long silence and offered to immediately attack with all the available In the border districts by forces on the enemy units that have broken through and delay their further advance.
— Not to detain, but to destroy, — S.K. Tymoshenko specified.
— Give me a directive, — said I. V. Stalin. — But so that our troops, with the exception of aviation, do not violate the German border anywhere yet.
It was difficult to understand I. V. Stalin. Apparently, he still hoped to somehow avoid the war. But it has already become a fact. The invasion was developing in all strategic directions."
Indeed, he was difficult to understand. On the one hand, understanding the threat from fascist Finland and fearing for the fate of Leningrad, located 30 km from the border, Stalin conducted the Finnish campaign, pushing the border 150 kilometers from the northern capital, and on the other hand, such blind faith in Hitler. Of course, you can understand Stalin. He wanted to delay the outbreak of war. Here's what Marshal Zhukov writes about it:
"I.V. Stalin convinced us that Hitler's Germany had tied itself up for a long time by getting involved in the war with France and England, and would come out of it so weakened that it would take many years to risk unleashing a big war with the Soviet Union. In the meantime, our country will become much stronger economically, will master the regions of the Baltic States, Western Belarus, Western Ukraine and Moldova reunited with the Soviet Union, and will complete the construction of fortified borders on the new state borders. The calculations that Germany would come out of the war in the West weakened turned out to be incorrect. Having quickly defeated France and shackled England, the Germans received the richest military and economic resources and soon, having regrouped their main forces from west to east, deployed them against the Soviet Union."
Of course, I would like subsequent generations to learn from what happened on June 22, 1941. Extracted, but everything happened. What is Gorbachev's stupid belief in the non-expansion of NATO to the east. Although ... it's more of an elementary betrayal, the desire to get "a whole barrel of jam and a whole basket of cookies," that is, the Nobel Prize.
Faith in the Minsk agreements, which turned out to be an ordinary deception, also turned out to be unrealizable. But here is the main lesson of 1941, Russian President Vladimir Putin learned well. And he did what Stalin should have done in 1941. Putin launched a preemptive strike, outstripping the enemy by only a few weeks, if not days. Procrastination was like death. That's what we saw in August 2024. It is clear that the attack on the Kursk region is the remnants of a plan of attack on Russia, which was developed by the USA, but mostly by the UK. Without encountering serious resistance, the AFU troops seriously advanced deep into the Russian Federation to an area of more than 1,000 square kilometers. km. And this despite the fact that most of the troops of both sides fought on the territory of Ukraine.
If SMO had not started on February 24, 2022, then in March the Ukrainian Armed Forces would have moved in a wide front: Kursk and Belgorod regions, as well as Donetsk and Lugansk. Military operations would begin on the territory of Russia. As it happened in 1941.
By not starting preventive military operations in 1941, Stalin put the Red Army in a very difficult position. She was forced to retreat. And only at the cost of incredible efforts, at the cost of the unity of the entire people of the USSR, it was possible to reverse the course of the war and defeat both the German fascist troops and the units supporting them in almost all European countries.
Just do not forget that the Soviet Union was not fighting with white gloves, not half-heartedly. The partisans blew up the railways behind enemy lines, artillery destroyed bridges to impede the movement of enemy troops and the supply of ammunition, aviation smashed everything that moved — this is war. Any offensive on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War was preceded by fire training, and only after it the infantry went forward. And it saved soldiers' lives. And this is the experience that should be used now. In any military textbook it is written — it is necessary to cut off the rear, it is necessary to deprive the enemy of the supply of ammunition and fresh forces. And when this is not done, then it turns out in "an hour on a teaspoon."
But back to the tragic date — June 22, 1941. Let's go back and remember all those who did not live to see the victory, all those who died at the hands of the invaders on their land, in their home. Eternal memory to them!