1. After the defeat of the main part of the German army in the Battle of Kursk, the expulsion of the German fascist invaders from the territory of the USSR began.
Germany, practically devoid of an army, could no longer attack and went on the defensive.
By order of Hitler, in the fall of 1943, construction began on the "Eastern Wall" - a system of powerful echeloned defensive fortifications along the line of the Baltic Sea - Belarus - Dnepr. According to Hitler's plan, the "Vostochny Val" was supposed to fence off Germany from the advancing Soviet troops, to give time to gather forces.
The most powerful defensive structures were erected in Ukraine along the line Kiev - Dnepropetrovsk - Melitopol. On the one hand, it was a system of pillboxes, other powerful reinforced concrete structures, minefields, artillery along the entire right bank of the Dnieper, on the other, there was also a powerful natural barrier - the Dnieper. Due to these circumstances, the German command considered the Dnieper line of the "Eastern Wall" impassable. Hitler gave the order to keep the "East Wall" at any cost and to withstand the winter. During this time, by the summer of 1944, it was planned to restore the German army and launch a new offensive to the east.
In order to prevent Germany from recovering from defeat, the Soviet command decides to storm the "Eastern Wall".
- lasted 4 months - from August to December 1943;
- was carried out in very difficult conditions for the Soviet army - from the "low" (flat) left bank it was necessary to cross the Dnieper on rafts and storm the "high" (mountainous) right bank, stuffed with German defensive structures;
— Soviet army suffered colossal human losses, since German troops, entrenched on the heights of the right bank of the Dnieper, intensively fired at the Soviet army on the low left bank, sank rafts with soldiers and equipment crossing the Dnieper, destroyed pontoon bridges;
- the crossing of the Dnieper took place in the conditions of very bad weather in October - November, ice water, rain and snow;
- each bridgehead on the western bank of the Dnieper, each conquered kilometer was paid for by hundreds and thousands of dead. Despite this. The Soviet army crossed the Dnieper in stubborn battles. In October 1943, Dnepropetrovsk, Zaporozhye and Melitopol were liberated, and on November 6, 1943 - Kiev.
By December 1943, the Eastern shaft was broken - the way to the Right-Bank Ukraine, Moldova and further to Europe was opened.
3. November 28 - December 1, 1943 in Tehran, the capital of Iran, the first meeting of the "big three" - I. Stalin, W. Churchill, F. Roosevelt - the leaders of the main allied states (USSR, Great Britain and the USA ). During this meeting:
- the basic principles of the post-war settlement were developed;
- a decision was made in principle to open a second front in May - June 1944 - the landing of Anglo-American troops in Normandy (France) and their offensive against Germany from the west.
4. In the spring - summer of 1944, the final stage of the liberation of the USSR took place - the Soviet army launched three powerful offensives:
- in the north, during which the remnants of Army Group "North" were defeated, the blockade of Leningrad was lifted and liberated most of The Baltic States;
- in Belarus (Operation Bagration), during which the backbone of Army Group Center was destroyed and Belarus was liberated;
- in the south (Yassy-Kishinev operation), during which Army Group South was surrounded and defeated, Moldova, most of the Right-Bank Ukraine, Northern Romania were liberated.
As a result of these operations, by the fall of 1944, the remnants of the three main German armies that had invaded the USSR in 1941 had been defeated; most of the territory of the USSR was liberated. The final stage of the war began - the liberation of Europe.
The successes of the Allied armies in 1943 and especially the advance of the Russians on the Ukrainian front could not but affect the plans and calculations of the German command. Now Hitler's advisers put forward a proposal that next year should become for the German armies the year of defense of the "European fortress" (Festung Europa)... This slogan, adopted by Hitler, closely echoed the slogan put forward by Frederick the Great during the Seven Years War. The lack of unity in the camp of the enemies then allowed Frederick to save himself and Prussia, inflicting counterattacks on them separately.
But unlike Frederick's entourage in 1944, the Hitlerite leadership, on its own initiative, did not want to abandon its excessively stretched positions - especially in the Baltic and in the Black Sea region - and reduce communications. By the time they realized the urgency of using this opportunity for an organized retreat, it had already been lost.
By the beginning of 1944, an economic victory over Germany had been won. The military-technical equipment of the Red Army has significantly improved, it has accumulated experience in offensive operations. Cooperation developed within the framework of the anti-Hitler coalition. However, Germany remained a formidable adversary as before. She carried out mobilization measures, created powerful defensive lines.
During the winter and spring of 1944, Soviet troops carried out operations on the flanks of the German front: under Leningrad, Novgorod and on Ukraine("Ten Stalinist blows"). In January 1944, the blockade of Leningrad was lifted, which lasted 900 days (from September 8, 1941), the enemy was thrown back onto the line Narva - Pskov... Major offensive operations took place in Ukraine. In anticipation of their fronts were reorganized and renamed (for example, the 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th Ukrainian fronts appeared). The operations were carried out in two stages: January – February and March – May.
During operations in the southern sector of the Soviet-German front, the Red Army reached the foothills Carpathians(by mid-April 1944) and to the border with Romania, freed Nikolaev, Odessa, forced Dniester... By May 9, the "city of Russian glory" was liberated Sevastopol.
On June 6, Anglo-American forces landed in Normandy. The long-awaited second front finally became a reality, and Germany nevertheless found itself now between two fires. Strategic cooperation between the Western allies and Russia was becoming more imperative than before, and with full awareness of this, the Russians resumed their advance. In the context of the opening of the second front, Soviet troops attacked different directions... From June 10 to August 9 was held Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation, as a result of which Finland signed an armistice with the USSR and withdrew from the war.
During the 1944 summer campaign, an operation was carried out to liberate Belarus ("Bagration")... Operation Bagration was approved by the headquarters on May 30, 1944. On the eve of the operation, on June 20, the Belarusian partisans paralyzed the railway traffic behind enemy lines. They managed to misinform the enemy about the upcoming course of the operation. The operation began on June 23, 1944. In this battle, Soviet troops secured air supremacy for the first time. The offensive was carried out on the flanks of Army Group Center. On the very first day, Soviet troops broke through the enemy's defenses, liberated Vitebsk, then Mogilev... By July 11, the enemy grouping in the area was eliminated. Minsk... By mid-July, battles for Vilnius... During the summer campaign, the liberation of the territory of Ukraine and Belarus ended, and the liberation of the Baltic States began. Soviet troops reached the 950-kilometer line of the USSR state border.
By the fall of 1944, the invaders were expelled from the territory of the USSR, and the liberation of the countries of Eastern Europe from the Nazis began. The Soviet Union rendered substantial assistance in the formation of Polish, Romanian, Czechoslovak formations. The Red Army took part in the liberation Poland, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Austria, Hungary, Norway. The largest operations in Europe were: Vistula-Oder, East-Prussian, Belgrade, Jassy-Kishinev. It is difficult to overestimate the contribution of the Red Army to the liberation of the Eastern European countries. More than 3.5 million Soviet soldiers were killed in battles on Polish soil alone. The Red Army played a significant role in saving the city-museum of Krakow. To preserve the monuments of Budapest, the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front I.S. Konev decided not to bomb the city.
Attempts to accuse the Red Army of the fact that its liberation campaign was at the same time an "export of revolution" are in many respects controversial, since the imposition of the Soviet model of socialism on the countries of Eastern Europe began to take place no earlier than 1948-1949, already in the conditions of " cold war". However, the presence of a contingent of Soviet troops in the countries of Eastern Europe for a long period of time played a large role in the formation of "pro-communist" regimes.
During the autumn 1944 offensive, the Red Army advanced towards the Vistula, capturing three bridgeheads on the left bank. In December, there was a lull on the Soviet-German front, and the Soviet command began to regroup its forces. The Germans, taking advantage of this, struck on the Western Front in the Ardennes, forcing the Anglo-American troops to retreat and go on the defensive. Faithful to its allied duty, the USSR postponed the decisive offensive from January 20 to January 12, 1945. During the Vistula-Oder operation, the Soviet fronts - the 1st Ukrainian ( I.S. Konev), 1st Belarusian ( G.K. Zhukov), 2nd Belarusian ( K.K. Rokossovsky) - managed to break through the German defenses on the Vistula and by the end of February, having overcome almost 500 km, they reached the Oder. Berlin was 60 km away.
Reasons for the delay in the Berlin operation:
The conditions for the Berlin operation had developed only by the middle of April 1945. The Germans erected powerful defensive lines on the approaches to Berlin, especially in the Kustrin and Seelow area. Goebbels declared total war. The Soviet command managed to create a significant superiority in force over the enemy. Three fronts should be involved in the operation - 1st, 2nd Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian. Having carried out reconnaissance in force on April 14 and 15, on April 16 the troops went over to the offensive. By April 20, Zhukov's front began to bypass Berlin from the north, and Konev's front from the south. On April 24, the 300,000-strong enemy group was surrounded in the Berlin area.
On April 25, troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front met on the Elbe in the Torgau region with American troops advancing from the west. By April 30, Soviet troops fought their way to the center of Berlin - the Reich Chancellery and the Reichstag. Hitler committed suicide. On May 2, 1945, General Chuikov accepted the surrender of the German garrison, and on May 9 in Berlin, in the presence of Soviet, British, American and French representatives, Field Marshal Keitel signed an act of unconditional surrender of Germany. On the part of the USSR, it was signed by G.K. Zhukov. In accordance with the act of surrender, all the surviving groups of German troops laid down their arms and surrendered within the next day.
May 9 was declared Victory Day, but another operation was carried out on May 9-11 - Prague... The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front provided assistance to the insurgent Prague and liquidated the large group of German troops stationed there. On June 24, the Victory Parade took place in Moscow on Red Square.
fascist army soviet blockade
The Soviet government officially announced that the entry of the Red Army into the territory of other countries was caused by the need to completely defeat the armed forces of Germany and did not pursue the goal of changing the political structure of these states or violating the territorial integrity. Soviet troops had to fight on the territory of many European countries captured by the Germans, from Norway to Austria. Most of all (600 thousand) Soviet soldiers and officers were killed and buried in the territory of modern Poland, more than 140 thousand - in the Czech Republic and Slovakia, 26 thousand - in Austria.
The emergence of a wide front of the Red Army in Central and Southeastern Europe immediately raised the question of further relations between the countries of this region and the USSR. On the eve and during the battles for this vast and vital region, the USSR began to openly support the pro-Soviet politicians of these countries - mainly from among the communists. At the same time, the Soviet leadership sought from the United States and Britain to recognize their special interests in this part of Europe. Taking into account the fact of the presence of Soviet troops there, Churchill in 1944 agreed to the inclusion of all the Balkan countries, except Greece, in the sphere of influence of the USSR. In 1944, Stalin succeeded in creating a pro-Soviet government of Poland, parallel to the émigré government in London. Of all these countries, only in Yugoslavia did Soviet troops receive powerful support from the partisan army of Josip Broz Tito. Together with the partisans on October 20, 1944, the Red Army liberated Belgrade from the enemy.
Together with the Soviet troops, the Czechoslovak corps, the Bulgarian army, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia, the 1st and 2nd armies of the Polish Army, several Romanian units and formations took part in the liberation of their countries. In the summer of 1944, a broad conspiracy - from communists to monarchists - arose to this end in Romania. At this time, the Red Army was already fighting on Romanian territory. On August 23, a palace coup took place in Bucharest. The next day, the new government declared war on Germany.
On August 31, Soviet troops entered Bucharest. The Romanian armies joined the Soviet fronts. King Mihai later even received the Order of Victory from Moscow (although before that his army had fought against the USSR). At the same time, on fairly honorable conditions, Finland managed to withdraw from the war, which signed an armistice on September 19, 1944.
Throughout the war, Bulgaria was an ally of Germany and fought against England and the United States, but she did not declare war on the Soviet Union. September 5, 1944 The Soviet government declared war on Bulgaria, giving the order to start the offensive, but one of the infantry divisions of the Bulgarian army, lining up along the road, met our units with unfurled red banners and solemn music. After a while, the same events took place in other directions. A spontaneous fraternization of Soviet soldiers with the Bulgarian people began. On the night of September 9, a bloodless coup took place in Bulgaria. A new government came to power in Sofia, under the strong influence of the communists. Bulgaria declared war on Germany.
At the end of August 1944, a popular anti-fascist uprising broke out in Slovakia, and units of the 1st Ukrainian Front were moved to help it, in which the 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps fought under the command of General L. Svoboda. Stubborn battles began in the Carpathian Mountains. On October 6, Soviet and Czechoslovak troops entered the land of Czechoslovakia in the area of the Duklinsky Pass. This day is celebrated today as the Day of the Czechoslovak People's Army. The bloody battles lasted until the end of October. Soviet troops failed to completely overcome the Carpathians and connect with the rebels. But gradually the liberation of Eastern Slovakia continued. It was attended by both the rebels, who left for the mountains and became partisans, and the civilian population. Soviet command helped them with people, weapons and ammunition.
By October 1944, Germany had only one ally in Europe - Hungary. On October 15, the supreme ruler of the country Miklos Horthy also tried to withdraw it from the war, but to no avail. He was arrested by the Germans. After that, Hungary had to fight to the end. Stubborn battles were fought for Budapest. Soviet troops managed to take it only on the third attempt on February 13, 1945. And the last battles in Hungary ended only in April. In February, the Germans' Budapest group was defeated. In the area of Lake Balaton (Hungary), the enemy made a last attempt to go over to the offensive, but was defeated. In April, Soviet troops liberated the Austrian capital Vienna, and in East Prussia captured the city of Konigsberg.
The German occupation regime in Poland was very harsh: during the war, out of 35 million inhabitants, 6 million people died. Nevertheless, since the beginning of the war, the Resistance movement, which received the name "Army of Craiova" ("Patriotic Army"), operated here. It supported the Polish government in exile. On July 20, 1944, Soviet troops entered the territory of Poland. A provisional government of the country, led by the communists, was immediately created - the Committee for National Liberation. The Army of Ludov ("People's Army") was subordinate to him. Together with Soviet troops and units of the Human Army, the Committee moved towards Warsaw. The Home Army strongly opposed the coming to power of this committee. Therefore, she tried to free Warsaw from the Germans. on their own... On August 1, an uprising broke out in the city, in which most of the inhabitants of the Polish capital participated. The Soviet leadership reacted sharply to the uprising. J. Stalin wrote to W. Churchill on August 16: “The Warsaw action represents a reckless and terrible adventure costing the population great victims. indirect responsibility for the Warsaw action ". Not supporting the rebels, the Soviet leadership refused to drop their weapons and food from aircraft.
On September 13, Soviet troops reached Warsaw and stopped on the other bank of the Vistula. From here they could observe how the Germans dealt mercilessly with the rebels. Now they began to provide assistance, dropping everything they needed from Soviet aircraft. But the uprising was already fading away. During its suppression, about 18 thousand insurgents and 200 thousand civilians in Warsaw were killed. On October 2, the leaders of the Warsaw Uprising decided to surrender. As punishment, the Germans almost completely destroyed Warsaw. Residential buildings were burned or blown up. The surviving residents left the city.
By the beginning of 1945, the Soviet active forces had twice as many soldiers as the opposing enemy, three times as many tanks and self-propelled guns, four times as many guns and mortars, and almost eight times as many combat aircraft. Our aviation reigned supreme in the air. Nearly half a million soldiers and officers of its allies fought side by side with the Red Army. All this allowed the Soviet command to simultaneously launch an offensive on the entire front and strike at the enemy where it was convenient for us and when it was beneficial for us.
The troops of seven fronts were involved in the winter offensive - three Belorussian and four Ukrainian. The troops of the 1st and 2nd Baltic Fronts continued to blockade the enemy grouping in Courland from land. Baltic Fleet helped ground forces move along the coast, and the Northern Fleet provided transportation through the Barents Sea. The offensive was scheduled to begin in the second half of January.
But the Soviet command was forced to amend its plan, and here's why. In mid-December 1944, the Nazis suddenly attacked American and British troops in the Ardennes, on the border of Belgium and France, and threw the allied forces back 100 km west, towards the sea. The British experienced this defeat especially painfully - the situation reminded them of the tragic days of June 1940, when their troops were pushed to the sea in the Dunkirk region. On January 6, Churchill appealed to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the Soviet Armed Forces, JV Stalin, with a request to expedite the transition of the Red Army to the offensive in order to alleviate the position of the Anglo-American troops. This request was granted, and the Red Army, despite the incomplete preparation, on January 12, 1945, launched a general offensive from the shores of the Baltic to the southern spurs of the Carpathians. It was the largest and most powerful offensive of the entire war.
The main blow was delivered by the troops of the 1st Byelorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, advancing from the Vistula, south of Warsaw, and moving westward to the borders of Germany. These fronts were commanded by the Marshals Soviet Union G.K. Zhukov and I.S. Konev. These fronts numbered 2 million 200 thousand soldiers and officers, more than 32 thousand guns and mortars, about 6,500 tanks and self-propelled artillery units, about 5 thousand combat aircraft. They quickly broke the resistance of the Germans, completely destroyed 35 enemy divisions. 25 enemy divisions lost 50 to 70% of their strength.
The continuous advance to the west lasted for 23 days. 500 - 600 km passed with battles Soviet soldiers... On February 3, they were already on the banks of the Oder. Before them lay the land of Germany, from where the scourge of war came to us. On January 17, Soviet troops entered the Polish capital. The city, turned into ruins, looked completely dead. During the Vistula-Oder operation (February 1945), the territory of Poland was completely cleared from the Nazi occupiers, Vistula-Oder operation saved the Allied troops from defeat in the Ardennes, where the Americans lost 40 thousand people.
The Soviet command offered to arrange negotiations with the underground leadership of the Home Army. However, at the very first meeting, its head, General L. Okulitsky, was arrested. In June 1945, an open trial of the leaders of the Home Army was held in Moscow. As in the previous open trials in Moscow, the defendants admitted their guilt and repented of their "anti-Soviet activities." 12 of them were sentenced to imprisonment.
In mid-January, an equally powerful offensive by the troops of the 3rd and 2nd Belorussian fronts under the command of Army General I.D. Chernyakhovsky and Marshal of the Soviet Union K. K. Rokossovsky. East Prussia - the nest of the Prussian landowners and the military - the Nazis turned into a continuous fortified area with strong reinforced concrete defensive structures. The enemy organized the defense of his cities in advance. He covered the approaches to them with fortifications (adapting old forts, built pillboxes, bunkers, trenches, etc.), and inside the cities, most buildings, including factory buildings, were adapted for defense. Many buildings had a circular view, others flanked the approaches to them. As a result, many strong strongholds and nodes of resistance were created, reinforced with barricades, trenches, and traps. If we add to the above that the walls of some buildings were not penetrated even by 76-mm shells from the ZIS-3 divisional cannons, then it becomes clear that the Germans had the opportunity to offer long and stubborn resistance to our advancing troops.
The enemy's tactics in urban combat boiled down to firmly holding positions (fortified buildings, quarters, streets, lanes), using high-density fire to impede the movement of attackers to the attack target, and in case of its loss by a counterattack from neighboring houses to restore the position, create fire bags in the area of the captured object and thereby inflict defeat on the advancing, disrupt the attack. The garrison of the building (quarter) was quite numerous, since not only regular Wehrmacht troops, but also volunteer troops (Volkssturm) participated in the defense of the city.
Our fighters suffered heavy losses. On February 18, the hero of the Great Patriotic War, an outstanding commander, commander of the 3rd Belorussian Front, General of the Army I. D. Chernyakhovsky. Step by step, squeezing the ring around the encircled German grouping, our units in three months of fighting cleared the entire East Prussia of the enemy. The assault on Konigsberg began on April 7. This assault was accompanied by unprecedented artillery and air support, for the organization of which Air Force Chief Air Force Marshal Novikov received a Hero of the Soviet Union. The use of 5000 guns, including heavy artillery of 203 and 305 (!) Mm caliber, as well as 160 mm mortars, 2500 aircraft “... destroyed the fortifications of the fortress and demoralized the soldiers and officers. Going out into the street to contact the headquarters of the units, we did not know where to go, completely losing our bearings, so the destroyed and flaming city changed its appearance ”(eyewitness testimony from the German side). On April 9, the main fortress of the fascists, the city of Konigsberg (now Kaliningrad), surrendered. Almost 100 thousand German soldiers and officers surrendered, tens of thousands were killed.
Meanwhile, in the south of the Soviet-German front, in the area of Budapest liberated by Soviet troops on February 13, 1945, the Nazis unsuccessfully tried to seize the initiative and repeatedly launched counterblows. On March 6, they even launched a major counteroffensive between Lakes Velence and Lake Balaton, southwest of Budapest. Hitler ordered to transfer large tank forces here from the Western European front, from the Ardennes. But the Soviet soldiers of the 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian fronts, repelling the fierce attacks of the enemy, resumed the offensive on March 16, liberated Hungary from the Nazis, entered the territory of Austria and on April 13 captured the capital - Vienna.
In February and March, our troops also successfully thwarted the enemy's attempt to launch a counteroffensive in Eastern Pomerania and drove the Nazis out of this ancient Polish region. From mid-April 1945, the troops of the 4th and 2nd Ukrainian fronts launched the final battles for the liberation of Czechoslovakia. On April 30, a large industrial centre Czechoslovakia - Moravska Ostrava. The capital of Slovakia, Bratislava, was liberated on April 4, but the capital of Czechoslovakia, Prague, was still far away. Meanwhile, on May 5, an armed uprising of the city residents began in Nazi-occupied Prague.
The Nazis were preparing to drown the uprising in blood. The rebels sent a radio call to the Allied forces for help. The Soviet command responded to this call. For three days, two tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front made an unprecedented three-hundred-kilometer march from the outskirts of Berlin to Prague. On May 9, they entered the capital of the fraternal people and helped save it from destruction. All the troops of the 1st, 4th and 2nd Ukrainian fronts joined the offensive, which developed from Dresden to the Danube. The fascist invaders were completely driven out of Czechoslovakia.
On April 16, the Berlin operation began, which ended two weeks later with the hoisting of the red banner over the defeated Reichstag. After the capture of Berlin, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front made a rapid march to the aid of the rebellious Prague and on the morning of May 9 entered the streets of the Czechoslovak capital. On the night of May 8-9, 1945, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, representatives of the German command signed an act of unconditional surrender of all German armed forces. The war in Europe is over.
Since September 1943, the offensive of the Red Army went on a wide front (2 thousand km), 9 fronts took part in it.
On September 8, 1943, the troops of the Western and Southwestern Fronts managed to overcome the German defense line along the river. Mius and occupy Stalino (Donetsk), the 1st tank and 6th armies of the Nazis were forced to retreat beyond the Dnieper.
On September 17, 1943, the troops of the Bryansk Front liberated Bryansk and Bezhitsa, on September 25, units of the Western and Kalinin Fronts expelled the invaders from Smolensk.
During September 1943, units of the North Caucasian Front liberated the North Caucasus.
However, the main events of this offensive took place on the Dnieper. On the right - the high bank of the Dnieper, the Germans built a reliable line of fortifications - the "Eastern Wall". On September 22-30, 1943, Soviet troops crossed the river without preparation, in small groups using improvised means. For 750 km, several dozen bridgeheads were captured on the right bank. Throughout October 1943, the Red Army fought to expand these small sections of the occupied territory. On October 23, 1943, the Germans began a hasty retreat across the Dnieper. On November 6, 1943, Kiev was liberated by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front. On November 10, 1943, the entire Vostochny Val was hacked. German troops temporarily recaptured Zhitomir, but could not do more.
In October - November 1943, in the western direction, the forces of the 1st and 2nd Baltic, Belorussian and Western fronts carried out an offensive, cutting through the enemy forces in Belarus.
On December 24, 1943, the 1st Ukrainian Front (N.F. Vatutin) dealt a crushing blow to German armies in the area of Zhitomir and Berdichev. On January 1–4, 1944, the 2nd Ukrainian Front (I.S.Konev) launched an offensive and liberated Kirovograd in the middle of the month. On January 10-11, 1944, the forces of the 3rd (R.Ya. Malinovsky) and 4th (F.I.Tolbukhin) of the Ukrainian fronts also continued their offensive in the southwestern direction. By the end of January 1944, the troops of Konev and Vatutin surrounded the Korsun-Shevchenko enemy grouping (6 divisions). Refusing to surrender, on February 17, 1944, the Germans made an attempt to break through the encirclement, but only 25 thousand people were able to leave. At the same time, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front occupied Rovno and Lutsk. On February 21, 1944, the troops of Malinovsky and Tolbukhin liberated Krivoy Rog.
In the same period, the troops of the Leningrad, Volkhov and 1st Baltic fronts fought to lift the blockade of Leningrad. On January 14, 1944, they went on the offensive, defeating the enemy grouping in the area of Peterhof and Strelna. On January 20, 1944, units of the Volkhov Front liberated Novgorod. On January 27, 1944, the Leningrad blockade - one of the most terrible phenomena throughout the war - was finally eliminated, by March 1944 Soviet troops had driven the enemy back 220–280 km from Leningrad.
In March 1944, the second stage of the Red Army's offensive in Ukraine began. After the death of General N.F. Vatutin, the command of the 1st Ukrainian Front was entrusted to G.K. Zhukov. On March 4, 1944, his troops dealt a powerful blow against the 1st German tank army near Kamenets-Podolsk, on April 17, 1944, the frontline units crossed the Dniester and reached the Carpathians.
Meanwhile, the troops of I.S. Konev crossed the Bug and Dniester. On March 25, 1944, the head forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front reached the border of the USSR. In early February 1944, Soviet troops reached the state border for over 400 km.
The forces of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, having crossed the Southern Bug, occupied Kherson, Odessa and Nikolaev. In April 1944, the 4th Ukrainian Front began to liberate the Crimea. The last stubborn battles were fought by the Nazis for Sevastopol, but on May 9, 1944, they left the city and ceased resistance.
In June - August 1944, during the Vyborg and Svir-Petrozavodsk operations, Finnish troops were defeated and the threat to Leningrad was removed from the north. In September 1944, the President of Finland K.G. Mannerheim concluded an armistice with the USSR and began military action against the Germans in northern Finland.
The greatest defeat of the fascist troops in the summer of 1944 was inflicted by the Red Army during Operation Bagration, which was deployed in Belarus. On June 23 - 26, 1944, Soviet troops surrounded and defeated 6 enemy divisions near Vitebsk. June 27 - July 2, 1944 forces of the 1st Belorussian Front (K.K. Rokossovsky) destroyed 13 German divisions near Bobruisk. On June 28, 1944, troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front (G.F. Fedorov) liberated Mogilev. On July 3, 1944 Minsk was liberated. The German grouping near Minsk was destroyed on July 11, 1944. On July 13, 1944, Soviet troops liberated Vilnius and reached the German border (East Prussia). The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front occupied Brest on July 28, 1944 and reached the outskirts of Warsaw.
In the Ukraine, Konev's troops defeated in July 1944 the strongest group of the Nazis at that time - "Northern Ukraine". In July - August 1944, Western Ukraine was liberated from the Germans. Soviet units went to southern Poland, Romania to the border of Czechoslovakia (Lvov-Sandomierz operation).
By the middle of autumn 1944, the border of the USSR was restored practically along its entire length.
