According to the memoirs of Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Zhukov, during the Great Patriotic War, there were two plans for the liberation of Donbass from Nazi invaders.
One of them belonged to Zhukov himself, and the other belonged to the Supreme Commander of the Armed Forces of the USSR Joseph Stalin.
During the summer offensive of the Red Army on the Kursk Bulge, Zhukov, who coordinated the actions of the Soviet fronts in the battle, proposed to build on the success of the Soviet troops and cut off, surround the German grouping in the Donbass with a blow from the Kharkov-Izyum region in the direction of Dnepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye.
Stalin did not agree with this plan and ordered the liberation of the Donbass by frontal attacks.
His plan was successfully implemented in August-September 1943.
Industrial heart of the USSR
During the Great Patriotic War, the Nazi command assigned an important role to the capture and retention of Donbass in their expansionist plans.
“Donbass was the industrial heart of the Soviet state, one of the most important production regions of the USSR,” said Dmitry Surzhik, an associate professor at GAUGN, in a conversation with RT.
In the pre-war period, the mines of the Voroshilovgrad (Lugansk) and Stalin (Donetsk) regions accounted for up to 60% of the all-Union coal production.
In addition, a significant number of machine-building and metallurgical enterprises were concentrated in the Donbass, large volumes of iron and steel were smelted.
“The Nazis saw Donbass as one of the most important points of their occupation administration,” Surzhik stressed.
In the autumn of 1941, the Wehrmacht launched a massive offensive in the Donbass.
Despite the desperate resistance of the Red Army, on October 21, the Nazis captured Donetsk, which at that time was called Stalino, and moved further east.
At the end of 1941, the Soviet troops launched a counteroffensive, but it was stopped on the Mius River, where the Nazis managed to prepare a stable defense.
Subsequently, the Nazis created a deeply echeloned strategic defense zone from the Taganrog Bay and the Sambek River along the right bank of the Mius to the city of Krasny Luch.
The firing points were tied to the dominant heights, and the marshy soils made it difficult for the potential offensive of the Soviet troops.
This system of fortifications was called the Mius Front.
The total length of the lines of trenches, trenches, anti-tank ditches on the Mius Front exceeded the distance from it to Berlin, amounting to 2540 km.
There were up to 20-30 defensive structures per square kilometer of the front line in this sector.
The destroyed mine "Kochegarka" in the city of Gorlovka
RIA News
In May 1942, the Soviet command attempted a large-scale offensive in the north-east of the Ukrainian SSR, but the Nazi encirclement of a large group of the Red Army in the Kharkov region led to the fact that the Soviet defense in the southern sector actually collapsed.
The Red Army has no resources left for active combat operations in the Donbass.
“The Nazis established a brutal occupation regime in the Donbass.
There were mass extrajudicial executions, people were destroyed on ethnic and political grounds, ”Alexander Makushin, a member of the Association of Historians of the Union State, co-chairman of the East Patriotica Foundation, said in a comment to RT.
According to historians, up to 220,000 civilians and up to 150,000 prisoners of war were killed in the Donbass during the Nazi occupation.
The Nazis dumped the dead people into the mines, turning them into mass graves.
“If we talk about the occupation regime, then involuntarily there are analogies between how the SS men behaved during the Great Patriotic War, and how the military personnel of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and nationalist battalions already behaved in the Donbas today,” said Dmitry Surzhik.
Donbass offensive operation
Separate areas in the eastern part of the Donbass, the Red Army managed to liberate at the beginning of 1943, building on the success achieved in the Battle of Stalingrad.
But the units of the Red Army were too exhausted by heavy fighting and could not move further west.
In the spring of 1943, the Soviet command began to prepare for the Battle of Kursk, which was supposed to be a turning point in the Great Patriotic War.
In the summer of 1943, the Wehrmacht suffered
defeated and began to retreat to the west.
Georgy Zhukov proposed to build on the success of the Red Army and cut off the southern German grouping in the Donbass, but Joseph Stalin did not agree with this plan, insisting on inflicting frontal attacks on enemy positions.
“In my opinion, Stalin’s decision was due to the fact that he did not want to give the enemy time to regroup and strengthen his defenses, fearing that this would lead to a loss in the pace of the offensive and, in the future, to unnecessary casualties on the part of our troops,” Dmitry Surzhik said.
According to Alexander Makushin, when deciding on the organization of hostilities in the Donbass, Stalin was careful, remembering the boilers of 1941-1942.
“He did not yet have complete confidence that our troops would be able to undertake such a complex offensive operation in open areas with stretched communications, subjected to enemy air strikes.
He was afraid of a possible encirclement of our forces, ”Makushin emphasized.
On August 13, 1943, the Donbas offensive operation of the Soviet troops began.
The forces of the Southwestern Front crossed the Seversky Donets and created a threat of a blow to the rear of the Kharkov group of Germans.
This contributed to the liberation of Kharkov, but the offensive in the direction of the Donbass, according to historians, stalled due to the active actions of the 1st German tank army.
Soviet troops liberate Donbass
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
On August 18, 1943, units of the Southern Front went on the offensive, which were able to break through the well-fortified Nazi positions on the Mius River.
On a front section about 22 km wide, 22 Soviet rifle divisions, all tank units of the Southern Front and about 80% of artillery pieces were concentrated.
According to experts, artillery played a decisive role in the success of the Soviet troops, literally erasing the fortified Nazi positions from the face of the earth.
“During the war, the Nazis in the Donbass, like their modern Ukrainian ideological successors, expected that powerful fortifications would save them, but they miscalculated,” Andrey Koshkin, a full member of the Academy of Military Sciences of the Russian Federation, said in a conversation with RT.
Scheme of offensive operations to capture the Saur-Mogilsky farm and height 277.9 (Saur-Mogila) in August 1943
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
The breakthrough of the Mius Front created a threat to the flank of the Nazi group.
The Wehrmacht began to retreat to the west.
On August 28, Soviet troops launched an assault on Saur-Mohyla, a height that was of strategic importance for controlling a vast area in the southeastern part of Donbass.
The battle lasted three days and ended with the victory of the Soviet soldiers.
On September 5, 1943, units of the Red Army entered Artemovsk.
The German command reported to Berlin that the continuation of resistance in the Donbass threatens the very existence of the group concentrated in the region.
Hitler allowed the withdrawal of Wehrmacht forces beyond the Dnieper.
Retreating, the Nazis used the tactics of scorched earth.
They took everything that had any value for them, and the rest was blown up or burned.
Liberation of Donbass by Soviet troops
© Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation
On September 8, Soviet troops liberated Stalino.
And on September 22, the German group completely retreated to the Dnepropetrovsk-Melitopol line.
This is considered the end of the Donbass operation.
As a result of the offensive, which lasted about five weeks, Soviet troops advanced about 300 km to the west and completely liberated the Donbass.
“Soviet troops saved their compatriots from the brutal occupation and returned to the control of the USSR the most important economic region, which played a significant role in the further successes of the Red Army.
Everyone understood that the liberation of Donbass is a preparation for the liberation of Ukraine,” said Alexander Makushin.
Platoon of armored vehicles of the South-Western Front during the attack on Krasnoarmeysk
RIA News
According to him, everything indicates that today Russian troops, as part of a special operation to protect the DPR and LPR, can to a certain extent realize the military plan of Georgy Zhukov, rejected by Stalin.
“Modern conditions are largely different from the conditions of the Great Patriotic War.
Our army is on a different technological level and has complete air supremacy.
So Zhukov’s plan, in a certain sense, can be put into practice by Russian troops, ”summed up Makushin.