“History of gratitude”: Russian Defense Ministry declassified documents on the liberation of Belgrade

On the occasion of the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Belgrade from Nazi invaders, the Russian Ministry of Defense published previously classified documents from the funds of the Central Archive of the Ministry. We are talking about photocopies of military magazines, political reports, newspaper publications and award sheets of the most distinguished fighters during the Belgrade operation.

War and occupation

After World War I, the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes was formed from small Balkan countries and parts of the territory of Austria-Hungary, renamed Yugoslavia in 1929. In foreign policy, official Belgrade was initially oriented towards Paris and London, and after the outbreak of World War II, it tried to adhere to a policy of neutrality.

However, in early 1941, the leadership of Nazi Germany forced the Prime Minister of Yugoslavia, Dragis Tsvetkovich, to join the Tripartite Pact. Outraged residents overthrew the loyal Reich government. However, Hitler took advantage of this as a formal occasion for the invasion of Yugoslavia, which began on April 6. A week later, SS units captured Belgrade.

“Yugoslavia captured by Germany and its allies was divided into occupation zones and puppet state formations. For example, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina made up the so-called Independent State of Croatia, a pro-Italian puppet government was created in Montenegro, and a number of other regions of the country became directly part of the territories of the invading countries - Germany, Italy, Hungary and Bulgaria, ”he said. Interview RT Georgy Emelianenko, employee of the scientific and methodological department of the Victory Museum.

Serbia, according to the historian, has lost a number of border territories that have left Hungary and Albania.

“In the remaining Serbian territory, the Germans created the Civil Commissariat, led by Milan Achimovic, and then the puppet government of national salvation, which was headed by General Milan Nedic. Unlike neighboring Croatia, which was formally considered an independent state, allied with Germany, Serbia only had the status of an occupied territory under military control, ”he continued.

In Croatia, the Nazis recruited more than 100 thousand volunteers to the Wehrmacht and SS, as well as several tens of thousands of soldiers to the German police order. The Nazis, along with Croatian nationalists, began massacres of Serbs, Jews and other local residents who held opposition views. Scientists estimate the total number of Nazism victims in Yugoslavia at approximately 1.7 million. Only in the Jasenovac concentration camp in Croatia, according to some sources, up to 700 thousand people were killed.

Under the military control of Serbia, the Nazis created a whole system of concentration camps. And at the former training ground in the village of Yaincy near Belgrade, the Nazis carried out mass executions of Serbian and Jewish civilians. About 80 thousand people were killed here.

“In October and November 1941, all Jews remaining there by that time were arrested in Belgrade and other cities of Serbia. By the summer of 1942, most of them were killed, ”said Emelianenko.

The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation published testimony received in 1944 from the prisoner of war of the 392nd German infantry division, Karl Weimann, who reported the abuse of the Nazis by the Serbs in a concentration camp in the Serbian city of Ruma.

“Over a large area, in the open, in the mud were more than 40,000 people. In the center of the square there was a tower with a loudspeaker, through which the names were announced all day. These were lists of Serbs who were supposed to be shot the next day (from 800 to 1000 people a day). In addition to daily executions, police from special forces at night were amused by firing at internees through barbed wire. So many Serbs died, often death caught them in a dream, ”the document says.

In addition, as Emelianenko said, the Nazis practiced capturing and killing hostages in response to the actions of partisans and underground workers.

• Joseph Tito conducts a brigade review, Bosanski Petrovac, November 7, 1942
• © Wikimedia Commons

The patriots, the most active part of which were the Yugoslav communists under the leadership of Josip Broz Tito, from July 4, 1941 switched to an active struggle against the invaders. In the autumn of that year, about two thirds of the territory of Serbia were under the control of the Uzhitsky Republic created by the partisans. As punishers ousted the rebels from one region, the inhabitants of other settlements rebelled. However, at the same time, the Nazis felt confident enough in large cities, which they turned into real fortresses.

According to an expert at the analytical center Platform for Public Diplomacy of Serbia, political scientist Ekaterina Zotova, against the background of the struggle against the occupiers, a split also occurred among the Serbs themselves. Partisans supporting the Communists came into conflict with the Chetnik rebels, who held nationalist and monarchist positions.

“They still cannot give a clear assessment of these events in Serbia,” the expert noted.

Belgrade operation

“In the fall of 1944, Soviet troops launched an offensive in Southeastern Europe. On September 8, troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front entered Bulgaria. The Bulgarian army showed no resistance, and an uprising took place in Sofia on the night of September 8–9, during which the government of the Patriotic Front came to power, declaring war on Germany. Thus, passing through the territory of Bulgaria without resistance, the Soviet troops reached the borders of occupied Yugoslavia, ”said Emelianenko.

According to him, on September 28, units of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, by agreement with the chairman of the National Liberation Committee, Marshal Tito, entered the territory of Yugoslavia, starting the Belgrade offensive operation. In cooperation with the Soviet troops, not only units of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, but also Bulgarian troops operated.

• Soviet participants in the assault on Belgrade
• © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

“On October 14, Soviet troops and units of the NOAU (People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia. - RT ) began fighting directly for Belgrade,” continued Emelyanenko.

Bunkers and bunkers were built on the streets of the city, each house was a well-fortified defensive structure. The Yugoslav capital was defended by a garrison, numbering over 20 thousand people, 40 tanks and about 170 guns and mortars. Heavy fighting on the streets of the city are described in the military journal of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and in the telegraph report.

“The fighting for the city was fierce, stubborn. Fights went beyond every street, house and even floor, ”the document says.

This picture is supplemented by the materials of the magazine "Combat episodes of artillery of the 57th Army."

“The enemy created a powerful long-term defense in advance in the city. Reinforced concrete bunkers were built at the squares and intersections of streets, and firing points were equipped in brick buildings, ”the text says.

So that the Nazis could not realize their plans for the complete destruction of Belgrade, the Soviet troops simultaneously with the fighting engaged in mine clearance. The journal of operations of the 11th separate assault engineering brigade reflects episodes of the assault and clearance of the most important objects in Belgrade - the Albania Hotel and the Kalemegdan Fortress. The document also contains unique patterns, drawings and photographs that convey the emotions of the participants in the fights for the city and the liberated Belgrade.

The political report of the 57th Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front describes how joyfully the inhabitants of the capital of Yugoslavia greeted the Red Army.

“Residents greeted the troops with slogans in honor of the Red Army ... Presented flowers, treated soldiers and commanders with grapes, white bread, invited them to dinner. Women brought flowers to fighters and commanders, decorated passing cars with them. All the streets were filled with people greeting the Red Army, ”the document says.

The Belgradeites decorated the Soviet tank in the city with flowers and wrote on it: “Zhivio Marshal Stalin, Zhivio Marshal Tito!”

Descriptions of the feats of specific soldiers of the Red Army are given in the award documents published by the Ministry of Defense. Thus, the lieutenant of the medical service, medical assistant of the battery of the control of the 42nd separate fighter-anti-tank artillery brigade of the RGK Nikolai Kravtsov, acting as part of the assault group to seize the Belgrade telegraph and telephone exchange, rushed to the bunker embrasure at a critical moment in the battle, sacrificing his life to defeat the enemy. For heroism, he was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union posthumously.

On October 16, during a battle on the outskirts of Belgrade, the assistant commander of the rifle platoon of the 3rd rifle battalion of the 309th guards rifle regiment of the 109th guards rifle division, senior sergeant Ivan Adamenko, having seen that two enemy machine guns did not allow the company to attack, crawled to Bunker and grenade destroyed one of them, and then closed the embrasure of the second with his body. Posthumously he was awarded the Golden Star of the Hero of the Soviet Union.

In the battles for the liberation of Belgrade, more than 2,900 soldiers of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and about a thousand soldiers of the Red Army were killed. On October 20, 1944, the capital of Yugoslavia was completely liberated.

• Belgrade residents meet Soviet troops
• © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

“Today, October 20, at 10 p.m., the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, on behalf of the Motherland, salutes the valiant troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front and the People’s Liberation Army of Yugoslavia for the liberated capital of Yugoslavia Belgrade - twenty-four artillery salvoes of three hundred twenty-four guns,” the statement says Order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of October 20, 1944 No. 201.

According to Emelianenko, after the completion of the Belgrade operation, the NOAA already began to act not as partisan detachments, but as regular troops.

“The liberation of Belgrade finally changed the nature of the war in Yugoslavia. Although the fighting continued, it was no longer a partisan struggle, but the actions of the regular units of the NOUA. The Yugoslav command is located in Belgrade. The Soviet troops continued the offensive from the territory of Serbia towards Hungary, ”the historian emphasized.

He noted that the loss of the capital of Yugoslavia and the route Thessaloniki-Belgrade did not allow the Nazis to quickly evacuate their troops from the south of the Balkans and quickly attract them to participate in hostilities in Hungary and other Eastern European states.

“The story of the liberation of Belgrade is a story of gratitude to the Red Army and its victories, confirmation of the legend about the salvation of Serbia, which always comes from Russia,” summed up Ekaterina Zotova.