The Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, within the framework of the No Statute of Limitations project, is launching a multimedia section “Hungary remembers, cannot forget” on its website.

It contains documents testifying to the exploits of Soviet soldiers and the humane attitude of the USSR leadership towards the population of Hungary, as well as materials exposing the crimes of the Nazi regime.

On the website, you can familiarize yourself with the logs of military operations, registration cards of military graves, personal lists of the dead, award lists of war heroes, documents on the attitude of the local population towards the soldiers of the Red Army and on the assistance of the Soviet leadership to the Hungarian people.

"The fighting was fierce."

The section "Hungary remembers, cannot forget" opens with the pages of the war logs of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, confirming the fierceness and protracted nature of the battles for Hungary and its capital.

Recall that in the fall of 1944, Soviet troops launched an offensive deep into Hungary as part of the Budapest strategic offensive operation. 

  • The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945.

    The battle on the outskirts of Budapest

  • RIA News

“The battles in November, as in October, were fierce and heavy, and our rather large losses in personnel are proof of this,” the magazine says.

German units were especially active in resisting the Red Army.

As the associate professor of the State Academic University of the Humanities Dmitry Surzhik told RT, at the initial stage of the war, hundreds of thousands of Hungarian soldiers fought on the side of the Reich, but in 1944, in response to attempts by official Budapest to establish contacts with the Anti-Hitler coalition, the Nazis occupied Hungary, and Hungarians more didn't trust.

  • Regulations on the work of military commandant's offices

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

“The enemy in the first line of his defense kept mainly Hungarian units.

But in the very first days of our offensive, Hungarian units in the first line were replaced by German units or placed between German units.

In general, this made the German defense more stable and resilient, ”the documents declassified by the Ministry of Defense say.

But by December 1944, as the magazine says, "as a result of the skillful maneuver of our troops of the 2nd and 3rd UV, the entire Budapest enemy group, standing in defense of the capital of the state, was completely surrounded."

In this case, the Nazis suffered serious losses.

As noted in the December magazine, the Nazis took up defensive positions in the urban development of Budapest, using the tactics of strongholds and thereby nullifying the advantages of the Red Army.

  • Military burial record card

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

Declassified documents show that Soviet soldiers displayed unparalleled heroism in the battles for Budapest and nearby cities.

Many of them gave their lives for the liberation of Hungary from the Nazis.

Registration cards of Soviet military graves have been published in a new section on the website of the Ministry of Defense.

In particular, one of these mass graves is located in the city of Dunaharaszti in the central part of Hungary.

13 dead Soviet soldiers are buried in it.

Among them are the Red Army soldier Andrey Bychkov, who was awarded the medal "For Military Merit", as well as Private Fyodor Ignatiev and the Guard Private Nikolai Ozeryan, who were awarded medals "For Courage".

  • Award documents of Fedor Ignatiev

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

In addition, in the section on the website of the Ministry of Defense, award lists for the guard of Senior Lieutenant Fyodor Kolodyazhny from February 16 and April 5, 1945 were published. According to the first of them, during the assault by the Red Army on an important stronghold, a Soviet officer "rolled his guns at a distance of 100 meters from the enemy and, under heavy fire from the enemy, fired devastating artillery fire."

The second document on awarding the Order of the Patriotic War of the 1st degree is already posthumous.

It follows from it that on March 6, 1945, under the onslaught of large enemy forces, Kolodyazhny, "being in the combat formations of the infantry, skillfully controlled the fire of his battery, repulsed the attack of the Germans, while destroying up to a company of German infantry."

On March 11, when repelling an attack by infantry and tanks, he "with the fire of his battery suppressed 2 enemy artillery batteries, one six-barreled mortar and knocked out one enemy tank."

  • A participant in the storming of Budapest, Lieutenant Colonel V. Lebed, who reached from the Volga to Budapest, stands near the Erzsebet Bridge

  • RIA News

  • © Evgeny Khaldei

Historical truth

In the decree of the State Defense Committee published on the website of the Ministry of Defense No. 6803 of October 27, 1944, it is a question of the procedure that the command of the Red Army established in the liberated territories.

According to him, commandants of settlements were appointed, communications lines and the railway were taken under control, contracts were concluded with local manufacturers on the purchase of food for the needs of the army.

“Maintain unchanged all the Hungarian authorities existing in these regions and the existing system of economic and political structure in Hungary.

Do not interfere with the performance of religious rituals and do not touch churches and houses of worship, "the GKO decree emphasizes.

In addition, the document deals with the strict observance of the rights of Hungarian citizens.

"To declare to the general public that all personal and property rights of Hungarian citizens and private societies, as well as their private property, are under the protection of the Soviet military authorities," the decree says.

The document also emphasizes that "not as a conqueror, but as a liberator of the Hungarian people from Nazi oppression, the Red Army entered Hungary, which has no other goals than the goals of defeating the enemy German armies."

As Andrei Koshkin, a full member of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation, noted in an interview with RT, the fact that, despite Hungary's participation in the war, the Soviet command and the Red Army showed generosity to the local population, disposed Hungarian citizens to the Soviet military.

This is confirmed by the documents published on the website of the Ministry of Defense.

  • Battle report of the 2nd Ukrainian Front

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

“I myself saw that in the cities and villages occupied by the Russians, the population lives the same as before, and the Russians do not harm them ... The Germans dragged us into a bloody war against the will of the people ... turned our country into a springboard for defense Germany.

They are destroying our people's property and all that is possible, they take out on their trucks, ”- emphasizes in the appeal of the Chief of the General Staff of the Hungarian Army Vörös Janos to the Hungarian soldiers and people.

In the informational summary of the political department of the 2nd Ukrainian Front on January 14, 1945, it is said that Hungarian soldiers do not want to fight on the side of the Nazis.

  • Letter to the military commander regarding the restoration of power supply

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

"The Germans severely punish those soldiers who refuse to shoot at the Russians ... They shoot such soldiers ... Most of the soldiers thought first of all about how to avoid a collision with the Russians," said Hungarian soldier Thoth Ferenc during interrogation.

According to the summary of the political department of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, “60 percent of the population with all their hearts hate the Germans and are waiting for the arrival of the Russians, as deliverance from torment.

The workers of Budapest clearly sympathize with the Russians. "

  • Soviet soldiers on the streets of Budapest

  • © Wikimedia Commons

Also, the documents published on the website of the Ministry of Defense contain evidence of the crimes of the Nazi occupiers on the territory of Hungary.

So, in the act of March 2, 1945, about the atrocities of the German invaders against the civilian population, it is said that in the winter of 1945 over five hundred numbered corpses were found in the basements of the Hungarian State Clinic in Budapest.

Most of them were Jews and Hungarian workers.

Among them were killed children, including babies.

Another report describes a Jewish pogrom organized by the occupiers, accompanied by the drowning of people in the Danube.

  • Message to unit commanders

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

In addition, the documents contain information about looting and unmotivated atrocities by the Nazis against the civilian population.

“The Germans and Salashists are rampaging in the city, robbing apartments and shops, shooting and hanging many residents, allegedly for deserting and helping the enemy.

On some streets, the corpses of the hanged hang for several days, ”the report of the political department of January 14, 1945 says.

  • Political report to the head of the political department of the TsGV

  • © Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation

The section also contains documents testifying to the assistance of the USSR to the Hungarian population and the state.

“The documents published on the website of the Ministry of Defense are a true story.

Recently, the projects implemented by the department allow us to protect our past from falsifications, arm people with historical truth.

They do not allow rehabilitating Nazism and throwing mud at the exploits of Soviet soldiers, ”summed up Andrei Koshkin.