The infantry is going to front lines. 1941.
* * *
WITNESSES:
Viacheslav Molotov. Vodopyanov. Shtemenko. Vasily Grabin. Jambul, Winston Churchill. A. Golovanov, Svetlana Allilueva, Zhukov.
* * *
THE PAGES OF JOSEPH'S LIFE:
1941. The establishment of the State Defense Committee, chaired by Joseph Stalin.
His speech on the radio addressed to citizens of the Soviet Union.
He was appointed People's Commissar of Defense of the USSR.
His order of the air defense of Moscow.
He took part in the conference of representatives of the USSR, Britain and the United States in Moscow. The decree of the State Committee of Defense for the defense of Moscow.
His report of the 24 anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
His speech at the parade of the Red Army in Moscow.
* * *
'The enemy captured a large part of Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and several other areas.
He invaded in the Donbass, hung over Leningrad like a black cloud.
He threatens our glorious capital - Moscow.
German fascist invaders rob our country, destroy cities and villages built by labor of workers, peasants and intellectuals of.
Hitler's hordes are killing and raping civilians in our country, not sparing women, children and the elderly. Our brothers in the areas captured by the Germans in our country are groaning under the yoke of the German oppressors.
Our first goal is to liberate our lands and our peoples from the Nazi yoke.
We do not and cannot have such war aims as imposition of our will and our regime to Slavic and other enslaved peoples of Europe, waiting for help from us.
Our goal is to help these people in their liberation struggle against Nazi tyranny and then give them complete freedom to settle in their land as they want.
The Germans counted on the fragility of the Soviet system, fragility of the Soviet rear.
Assuming that after the first serious blow and the first failures of the Red Army, conflicts between workers and peasants and fight between peoples of the USSR will start.
Revolt will start and the country will fall apart into its constituent parts, which should facilitate promotion of the German invaders up to the Urals.
But Germans miscalculated badly. Failure of the Red Army not only weakened but on the contrary further strengthened both a worker-peasant alliance and friendship between the peoples of the USSR. (Applause).
Moreover, they turned the family of peoples of the USSR into a single, unbreakable camp, supporting the Red Army and its Red Fleet.
Never before was the Soviet rear not as strong as now. (Loud applause).
If the Soviet system so easily endured the test and further strengthened its rear, it means that the Soviet system is now the most stable system.' (Loud applause).
The report of Joseph Stalin at the solemn meeting in honor of 24 anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, 6 November 1941.
* * *
'it cannot be said the he worried. He was upset, yes, but did not show it outward.
Stalin had his own difficulties, of course. It is ridiculous to say he did not worry.
But he is described not in the way he was: they portray him as a repentant sinner!
But it is absurd, of course.
All those days and nights he, as always, worked: he had no time to be confused or lose the power of speech.
The famous polar pilot and the Hero the Soviet Union M. V. Vodopyanov told me that on the June 22, 1941 after learning about the beginning of the war he arrived by seaplane from the north to Moscow, splashed down in Khimki and immediately went to the Kremlin.
He was received by Stalin.
Vodopyanov proposed to perform a raid of our bombers to Nazi Germany.
"How do you see it?" asked Stalin and went to the map.
Vodopyanov drew a line from Moscow to Berlin.
'Is not it better to do it from here? Stalin said and pointed at the islands in the Baltic Sea.
This was the first day of the war...
Stalin, Beria, Malenkov and I went to the Ministry of the Defense.
From there Beria and I went to Stalin at his cottage. It was on the second or third day...
Stalin was in a very difficult condition. He did not swear but was not himself.'
'How did he stand?'
'How did he stand? As Stalin is assumed to stand.
He stood firmly.'
(Molotov to Chuev)
* * *
The General Shtemenko witnesses:
'I can say one thing that Stalin knew military affairs. Not only military strategy but tactics too...
He knew military affairs not generally but well and thoroughly. He knew strategy and lead the war at the highest level.
I refer to some examples. When the Germans approached Moscow in October 1941 had a very difficult position. Many government agencies and the General Staff were evacuated.
The Germans stood near Moscow and was long for Moscow.
A particularly difficult situation was in the direction of Volokolamsk road, the Western Front.
During this period, Stalin had five complete armies, armed with new hardware.
Outside Moscow when operations were commanded by Zhukov and, despite his repeated requests and pleas, Stalin did not give him a single battalion and said that he stood at any price.
Then we thought that Stalin made a mistake.
In the month of December, when the German troops had been bled white, Stalin sent the troops into action.
Germans from Moscow were dropped.
Only then did we realize what a great man Stalin was not only in strategy and in tactics.
The command post of Zhukov during the threatening situation was closer to the defensive line.
Zhukov asked Stalin for permission to transfer his command post away from the defensive line to the Belorussky railway station.
Stalin replied that if Zhukov went to the Belorussky railway station, he would take his place...'
* * *
Chuev:
'Vasily Grabin, the constrictor of guns, You sent greetings, designer.
He gave me a magazine with his book 'Weapons of Victory' and wrote 'Here's how weapons of victory in the era of Stalin was made'.
I asked him, 'Do you think that Stalin was a wise man?'
'It is not the word 'wise'. We have many wise people. He was a sincere man, he cared about people.
Khrushchev said that we were not prepared for war. And I have made all my guns made before the war.
But if we listened to Tukhachevsky, they would not have existed.'
'He says, 'I asked Tukhachevsky put our gun on show. He flatly refused.
Then I said I would state it in the Politburo.
The gun turned out to be the best in the war.
Stalin said the January 1, 1942, 'Your gun saved Russia...'
About Tukhachevsky they wrote, he was Bonaparte. He could have become a traitor.'
'What Bonaparte he was?
He could have become so, he was a traitor, most infamous traitor and the most dangerous�
I asked if there Stalin had hesitations in October 1941: to leave Moscow or stay?
"It's nonsense, he had no hesitation.
He was not going to leave Moscow.
I went only two or three days to the Kuibyshev and left Vosnesensky there as a senior.
Stalin said to me, 'Look how they settled down and immediately come back.'
(Molotov to Chuev).
* * *
We have been your relatives for a long time
We are closer than brothers and sisters
Alma-Ata says to Leningrad.
Not by chance the Baltic Fleet,
Glorious by courage of two centuries,
To Kazakhstan annually sends
Delegations of sailors
Not in vain we send our children
To study from early years
We send them the Neva, to the base of foundations,
Where reaching manhood, minds mature.
What can Jambul hear now?
To you into a steel door
Many-headed hungry boa forces his way
As being distraught by the loss,
As being hungry forever...
He will die at your outposts
No teeth and no scales
The serpent wil hiss in the writhing,
Nightingales sing will again.
Our family will be free!
Leningrad, my children!
The people of Leningrad - the pride is mine!
To Leningrad from all over
Sent to train
Accompany their fighters
Our villages and towns.
Look of the country is stormy and lead,
And a bridle is ready already
Presumptuous to scoundrels.
From the depths of the Kazakh land
Rivers of oil ran down to you
Black charcoal, red copper
And lead, in time and to the pourpose
Is ready a song of death to sing
To gangs longing for Leningrad...
Jambyl, Almaty, September, 1941.
* * *
Molotov:
" Roosevelt believed in dollars. Not to be said he did not believe in anything else but he believed that they were so rich and we were so poor, and so when we became weak, we will would come to them.
Then we would deal with them. And now we have to help to support them.
Here they were wrong.
Here they were not Marxists but we were. When half of Europe left them, they came to their senses.
Here Churchill was, of course, in a very foolish position.
From my point of view, Churchill was the most intelligent of them as an imperialist.
He felt that if we smashed the Germans, it would be dangerous for England. He felt it.
But Roosevelt did think: they come and bow to us.
It is a poor country having is no industry, no bread, so they would come to bow. They have nowhere to go.
But we had a very different looking at it.
Because in this respect, the whole nation was prepared to victims and to fight, and ruthless exposure of any external surroundings.
Of course, we did not believe in a second front but had to seek it.
We dragged them into it: you cannot but you had promised...
Churchill said in 1918 that the Soviet government should be stifled. And at our small banquets and Roosevelt in Tehran and Yalta:
'I get up in the morning and pray that Stalin was alive and well. Only Stalin can save the world!'
I'm confident that it was Stalin who played that crucial role he had in the war.
Tears streamed down his cheeks; he was either a great actor, or he spoke sincerely.
We forced them to run in one harness. Otherwise it would be very hard for us.'
(V. Molotov)
* * *
'It was great happiness for Russi, that during the hardest tests the country was headed by the genius and resolute leader Stalin.
He was the most prominent figure who appealed to our harsh and changeable time in the period, in which all his life passed.
Stalin was a man of extraordinary energy and indomitable willpower, sharp, cruel, ruthless in his conversation. Even I who was brought up here in the British Parliament could do nothing to oppose to him.
Stalin above all possessed a great sense of humor and sarcasm, and the ability to accurately perceive the thoughts.
His articles and speeches he wrote only by himself, and in his writings a gigantic power sounded.
This force was so great in Stalin that he seemed unique among statesmen of all times and peoples.
Stalin produced a great impression on us.
When he entered the hall at the Yalta Conference, we all stood up and, it was strangely enough, held our hands the seams.
He had a deep and meaningful wisdom, devoid of any panic, logically.
He was an undefeated master to find ways out in difficult moments.
In addition, Stalin in the most critical moments, as well as moments of triumph was equally reticent, and never succumbed to illusions.
He was an extraordinarily complex personality.
He created and subjugated the vast empire.
This was the man who destroyed his enemy as his own enemy.
Stalin was a great and unmatched in the world dictator who took Russia from the plow and left it with an atomic weapon.
Well, history and people would not forget of such people."
"Winston Churchill. The speech in the House of Commons on December 21, 1959 at the day the 80th anniversary of Stalin.
* * *
A. Golovanov witnesses:
'At the table only a few people were sitting.
Toasts followed one after another, and I anxiously watched Stalin.
After all, Churchill was a known tippler, arranged around the table something like a contest with Stalin: who would drink more alcohol.
Stalin drank as an equal.
And when Churchill was carried on the hands from the table to rest, he went to Golovanov and said:
"What are you looking at me like that?
Do not worry, I will not ruin Russia through drinking, but I have him tomorrow as a carp in a pan!
* * *
'In late October 1941 I went to Moscow to see my father. He never wrote to me, talking to him on the phone was difficult. He was nervous, angry and replied only that he had no time to talk to me...
Everyone was excited; they had just informed that a reconnaissance, flying over Moscow, everywhere sketched small bombs...
Father did not notice me, I disturb him.
Maps hung and lay around; he reported the situation on the fronts.
Finally, he saw me, he had to say something...
'Well, how are you there, have you made friends with someone from Kuybyshev inhabitants?' he asked, not really thinking about his question.
'No,' I said, 'there they have organized a special school for evacuated children, there are a lot of them there,' I said, do not assuming what would be his reaction.
Father suddenly rose up his quick eyes at me as he always did when anything touched him:
'What? A special school?' I saw that he slowly came into a rage.
'Oh you! He searched for more words, 'oh, you damned caste!
Look, the government, Muscovites came to have to a separate school!
Vlasik, a scoundrel, it's all his work!'
He was already in a rage, and only emergency affairs and the presence of other distracted him from this topic.
He was right: a caste came there.
The beau monde of the metropolitan city arrived, which half evicted, to accommodate all their families, accustomed to a comfortable life and 'were squeezed' here in modest provincial apartments...
But it was too late to talk about caste because it had already arisen. And now, of course, it lived according its caste's laws.
In Kuibyshev where Muscovites were stewed in their own juices this was particularly evident.
In our 'emigrant' school all of Moscow's noble children who taken together were so terrible that some local teachers refused to go into classrooms to conduct lessons.'
(Svetlana Alliluyeva)
* * *
Zhukov witnesses:
'We all witnessed tense and titanic work of the Party Central Committee to strengthen the Red Army and equip it with modern weapons in the years 1938-1941.
We did not have one or one and half of years to prepare for war as Stalin has said repeatedly in private,.
A new stage of development of aviation starts.
New design departments of military aviation are created.
Talented designers S. Ilyushin, A. Mikoyan, S. Lavochkin, V. Petlyakov, A. Yakovlev together with their young teams give Yak-1, MIG-3, LAGG-3, IL-2 bomber, dive bomber PE-2 and many others to military aircraft; altogether about twenty types.
In late 1940 and early in 1941 the struggle for full-scale development of the best types of aircraft started.
The Central Committee of the CPSU(B) and Stalin personally devoted a lot of time and attention to aircraft designers.
The Defense Committee takes a decision to construct nine new aircraft and seven air motor plants...
* * *
'The People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of CPSU(B) require you to:
1) In the fierce fight with the enemy to defend every inch of Soviet land, fight to the last drop of blood for our towns and villages, show courage, initiative and intelligence inherent in our people.
2) Organize comprehensive assistance to the army.
Ensure the orderly conduct of the mobilization of reservists, to provide the Army with all the necessary supplies.
Rapid transport of troops and military cargo, providing extensive aid to the wounded at hospitals, clinics, schools, clubs and institutions.
3) Strengthen the Red Army's rear, subordinating all its activities to the interests of the front.
Provide enhanced work of all enterprises. Explain workers of their responsibilities and the situation.
Organize guarding of factories, power plants, bridges, telephone and telegraph services.
Organize ruthless fight against all disorganizers rear, deserters, panic-mongers, rumor-mongers.
Exterminate spies, saboteurs, enemy parachutists, rendering all this rapid promotion to destroyer battalions.
All Communists must know that the enemy is crafty, cunning, experienced in deception and spreading false rumors, to consider all this in his work and not succumb to provocation.
4) Under the forced retreat of Red Army drive off rolling stock, not to leave the enemy a single engine, a single carriage.
Do not leave a single pound of bread or a gallon of fuel for the enemy.
The collective farmers must drive off cattle, grain to the safety of the public authorities for transportation to the rear.
All valuable property, including non-ferrous metals, grain and fuel, which cannot be withdrawn, must certainly be destroyed.
5) In the areas occupied by the enemy create guerrilla units and subversive groups to combat the enemy troops, to foment partisan warfare everywhere.
To blow up bridges and roads, damage telephone and telegraph lines, arson of warehouses, etc.
Create unbearable conditions for the enemy and all his accomplices In the occupied areas. Pursue and destroy them at every turn, disrupt all their activities.
To guide all these activities in advance, create the best people secure underground cells and safe houses under the responsibility of first secretaries of district committees and regional committees.
In each city, regional center, working village railway station in the state and collective farms.
6) immediately bring to trial by military tribunal of all those who by their panic-mongering and cowardice hinder the work of defense, regardless of the person...
People's Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU(B) state that in the imposed war with Nazi Germany the problem of life and death of the Soviet state is solved.
The fact - the peoples of the Soviet Union free or fall into slavery.
Now everything depends on our ability to quickly organize and act, not wasting a minute of time. Not missing any opportunity to fight with the enemy.
The task of the Bolsheviks to unite the whole nation around the party of Lenin and Stalin around the Soviet government for the selfless support of the Red Army for victory.'
Chairman of the People's Commissars of the USSR and the Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU(B)
Stalin
The deputy of Chairman of People's Commissars of the USSR
Molotov.
29 June 1941
(From the Directive the Council of Peoples Commissars of the USSR and the Central Committee of the CPSU(B) to Party and government organizations in frontline areas.