On the anniversary of the start of the Great Patriotic War, the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation published documents from the Central Archive of the Moscow Region on its website.

The published materials are placed in a new historical section "Heroes of the first days of the Great War".

They reveal the plans of the Nazi command and talk about the resistance that the USSR offered to the invaders immediately after the start of the aggression.

"Hidden mobilization"

The first block of documents is devoted to the preparation of Nazi Germany for a full-scale invasion of the Soviet Union.

In a special message to the commander of the Western Special Military District, General Dmitry Pavlov, it was said that the Germans were intensifying their preparations for a war with the USSR.

In this document, dated June 6, 1941, intelligence reported on the pulling of new divisions, artillery units to the Soviet borders, the delivery of large batches of air defense equipment, anti-tank guns and bombs.

Along with this, the Nazis established telephone communications, conducted exercises with live firing and equipped positions in settlements in order to further accuse the Red Army of strikes against civilians.

The Nazis did not even disdain to place military infrastructure facilities on the territory of temples.

“The entire strip in the immediate vicinity of the border is reinforced with artillery and machine-gun positions with a complete organization of telephone communications between batteries, command, observation posts ... Farms are used to mask positions and firing points,” the special message noted.

  • Translated pages of the Green Folder

  • © mil.ru

Before the invasion of the Soviet Union, the Nazis warned the inhabitants of the territories adjacent to the USSR that they would be shot if they began to panic with the outbreak of hostilities.

In addition, the special message said that Nazi Germany had completed the “hidden mobilization of officials” in advance to manage the occupied territories of the USSR.

One of the main goals of Germany's aggression against the Soviet Union was the food supply for the armed forces and the civilian population of the Third Reich, as well as the sale of grain abroad.

The industry of the USSR, with some exceptions, the Nazis were going to liquidate.

Such plans of the Third Reich are set out in the "Directive for the management of the economy" (the so-called "Green folder").

This document is the economic subsection of the Barbarossa plan.

It was captured by the troops of the Leningrad Front in early 1942.

From the point of view of the leadership of Nazi Germany, the Bolsheviks should not have reduced grain exports to the West.

According to the Green Folder, Moscow's economic policy has destroyed the "food autarky of Europe", which allegedly provoked famine in the northern and western parts of the Old World.

The authors of the document openly complained that the population of the USSR consumes a lot of bread.

In order to create "grain surpluses" and establish export supplies, the Nazis intended to reduce grain consumption in the occupied territories of the USSR.

The Nazi leadership was aware that such actions would lead to a mass death of Soviet citizens, and forbade them to help in any way.

“Attempts to save the population from starvation by importing surplus products from the black earth belt are a brake on the supply of Europe and undermine Germany’s ability to hold out,” the Green Folder emphasized.

"Until the last shot"

In the first days of the invasion, Nazi Germany dealt a powerful blow to the Soviet Union.

In particular, an extremely difficult situation developed in the Baltic states, which subsequently allowed the Nazis to establish a blockade of Leningrad.

As follows from the documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense, the success of the enemy was largely due to the destruction of the Red Army aviation right at the airfields and the fact that at the time of the invasion, almost all Soviet troops were not on the defensive lines.

As a result, with powerful artillery support, the Wehrmacht punched a gap at the junction of the 8th and 11th armies and within one day was able to advance 60 km deep into the Baltic.

However, the formations of the Red Army in this region offered worthy resistance to the invaders.

In particular, the 125th Rifle Division imposed fierce battles on the enemy.

The formation occupied defensive lines before the German invasion and took on the brunt of the blow of the Nazis in the early days of the Great Patriotic War.

“Fighters and commanders of units and subunits fought heroically ... Division Art.

Lieutenant Kolegaev destroyed up to 30 tanks, Lieutenant Yatsenko's battery knocked out seven tanks in the very first hours of the battle.

Machine gunner-Khasanovets Art.

Sergeant Sulyma (rewarded with the medal "For Courage") destroyed a lot of enemy infantry with his machine gun fire, and knocked out four tanks with grenades, ”the historical form of the 125th division reported.

After a grueling march, the 126th Rifle Division entered the battle with the Nazis in the area of ​​the Neman River.

Despite the fact that before the war the unit was staffed according to the state of peacetime, he managed to repulse the attacks of superior enemy forces and competently get out of the encirclement.

  • Pages of the journal of the combat way of the 126th Infantry Division of the Red Army

  • © mil.ru

The division also launched counterattacks against the advancing enemy.

The journal of the combat route of the formation describes an episode when the Soviet soldiers defeated the forces of the Germans who intended to cross the Neman with "hurricane fire".

Then, with the support of artillery, the Soviet infantry entered the battle - and the enemy was driven back to the northern bank of the river.

In one of the documents published by the Ministry of Defense, the sacrificial feat of the Red Army mortar company Solovyov, almost unknown to a wide audience, is given.

Having shot all the ammunition, the soldier pretended to be going to surrender.

Letting a group of Wehrmacht soldiers come close, "he threw the last grenade he had left under him."

Solovyov died, destroying five Nazis.

The Red Army soldiers fought courageously, demonstrating good training.

The advancing Nazi troops suffered heavy losses.

So, for three days of fighting in Belarus, the soldiers of the 603rd and 85th rifle regiments (SP) destroyed more than 300 Nazi tanks.

“On a massive scale, bottles of gasoline were used, which all the fighters had.

The personnel show examples of courage and heroism.

The captain of the 85th joint venture, Morozov, alone disabled 16 enemy tanks, ”the political report to the head of the Main Directorate of Political Propaganda of the Red Army, Lev Mekhlis, dated June 30, 1941, reported.

The same document told about the famous feat in Belarus of the squadron commander of the 207th long-range bomber regiment, Captain Nikolai Gastello.

After a shell from an enemy anti-aircraft gun hit the gas tank, the pilot directed the burning aircraft at a convoy of invaders' vehicles.

With this heroic deed, he destroyed dozens of enemy vehicles.

In the report of the political propaganda department of the Western Front dated July 1, 1941, it is noted that "the overwhelming mass of fighters and commanders fight courageously at the forefront, show miracles of courage and courage."

This document describes the feat of Captain Sinyagovsky, who was able to organize the air defense of the city of Stolbtsy in Belarus.

  • Excerpts from the report of the Political Propaganda Department of the Western Front dated July 1, 1941

  • © mil.ru

At the time of receiving the order, his division did not have shells for anti-aircraft guns.

In such a situation, the resourceful officer decided to collect ammunition from the retreating units of the Red Army.

During the battles with the Luftwaffe, Sinyagovsky's unit shot down eight enemy aircraft.

The division also distinguished itself in the destruction of Wehrmacht tanks that attacked its position.

“With well-aimed fire, anti-aircraft gunners destroyed 37 enemy tanks.

The fighting was carried out to the last shell, ”the political report explains.

However, the onslaught of the enemy was too great.

The Sinyagovsky division retreated in an organized manner under the cover of 300 Red Army soldiers.

conquest war

As the historian, Associate Professor of GAUGN Dmitry Surzhik, stated in a commentary on RT, the archival documents of the initial period of the Great Patriotic War available for research allow us to conclude that the vast majority of the border units of the Red Army offered fierce resistance to the Nazi invaders, despite insufficient preparation for the invasion.

“The Soviet Union was preparing for war, but the Nazi aggression found the Red Army in a state of reform.

The armed forces of the USSR lacked neither equipment nor experienced personnel.

Nevertheless, the enemy was put up with stubborn resistance, accompanied by mass heroism of the servicemen," Surzhik said.

  • Excerpts from a special message to the commander of the Western Special Military District, General Dmitry Pavlov

  • © mil.ru

According to the expert, the allegations widespread in the West that the USSR allegedly intended to unleash an aggressive war in Europe itself are devoid of any documentary and logical basis.

Surzhik emphasized that it was the leadership of the Third Reich who hatched and carefully worked out the misanthropic plans.

The historian recalled that the only Soviet document that outlines the possibility of preventive hostilities outside the USSR are "Considerations on the plan for the strategic deployment of the forces of the Soviet Union in the event of a war with Germany and its allies."

This document was prepared no earlier than May 15, 1941.

“However, the “Considerations” provided only a preemptive strike against the accumulation of enemy troops, just to forestall the deployment of the Nazi war machine.

It is quite obvious to all reasonable people that the war that Germany unleashed on June 22 was of an aggressive and merciless character towards the Soviet people, ”the expert summed up.