June 22, 1941 - the day of the beginning of the most brutal, most merciless war that ever took place on the territory of the Russian state. Treacherously, without declaring war, German troops invaded the territory of the USSR. Only the courage, courage, and devotion to their country of ordinary Soviet people made it possible to defeat the fascist invaders.
The Great Patriotic War, which lasted almost four years, affected every home, every family, claimed millions of lives. This applied to everyone, because Hitler did not just go to conquer the country, he went to destroy everything and everyone, not sparing anyone or anything. The first information about the attack began to arrive at 3:15 am from Sevastopol, and already at 4 am the entire western land border of the Soviet state was attacked. And at the same time the cities of Kiev, Minsk, Brest, Mogilev and others were subjected to aerial bombardment.
For a long time it was believed that the top leadership of the Union, headed by Stalin, did not believe in the attack of Hitler's Germany in the summer of 1941. However, recent studies of archival documents have allowed a number of historians to believe that the order to bring the western districts to combat readiness was issued by the Directive of the General Staff of the Red Army on June 18, 1941.
This Directive appears in the interrogation protocols of the former commander of the Western Front, General Pavlov, although the Directive itself has not been found so far. According to historians, if it had been completed a few days before the start of hostilities, then by the winter of 1941, German troops would have reached a maximum of Smolensk.
In the first months of the border battles, the Red Army lost about 3 million people killed and taken prisoner. Against the background of the general retreat, the Brest Fortress stands out, which heroically defended for a month, Przemysl - a city where the Soviet army not only withstood the blow of German troops, but also managed to inflict a counterattack and push the Germans back two kilometers deep into Poland.
The troops of the southern front (the former Odessa military district) repulsed enemy attacks and went deep into the territory of Romania for several kilometers. The Soviet navy and naval aviation, brought to full combat readiness a few hours before the attack, did not lose a single ship or aircraft on that tragic day. And naval aviation bombed Berlin in the fall of 1941.
One of the most significant events of the beginning of the war was the capture of the suburb of Leningrad by German troops on September 8, 1941 and the capture of the city in a tight ring. The blockade, which lasted 872 days and was lifted by Soviet troops only in January 1943, caused colossal damage to the city and its inhabitants. Unique architectural monuments were destroyed, palaces and temples, which were considered the pride of the Russian people, were burned. 1.5 million people, including young children, died from hunger, cold and constant bombing.
The selfless and heroic resistance that a simple Russian soldier put up at the very beginning of the war thwarted the Germans' attempt to conduct a blitzkrieg war on the territory of the USSR and bring the great country to its knees in a short six months.
