80 years ago, on June 22, 1941, the German-Soviet war began. As early as December 18, 1940, Hitler signed Directive № 21 "Barbarossa" (on behalf of the German emperor of the twelfth century, who died ingloriously during the Third Crusade). According to this plan, the war had to last 1.5-2 months, during that period the troops were to reach the Arkhangelsk-Volga-Astrakhan border. The German-Soviet war was preceded by a conspiracy between the USSR and Germany over the division of Eastern Europe and the Balkans. During 1939 and the first half of 1941, both states liquidated Poland, the Baltic states, and the Balkan states. The USSR and Germany received common borders, as well as an excuse to attack their neighbor to "liberate" the territories they had conquered.
The German army at that time numbered 166 divisions, 42 thousand guns, 4.1 thousand tanks, 4.8 thousand aircraft. Finland, Hungary, Romania, and Italy allied themselves with Germany. The Red Army had 190 divisions, 60,000 guns, 15.6 thousand tanks, and 10.7 thousand aircraft. However, even under these relatively favorable circumstances, it was not possible to stop the Germans on the Soviet border. According to military doctrine, the USSR was preparing to fight on foreign soil, so more than half of the Soviet stockpiles - weapons, ammunition, uniforms, equipment, fuel - were stored near the border. As a result, during the first week of the war, 30% of all ammunition stockpiles, 5.4 million of 7.6 million rifles, 191,000 of 240,000 machine guns, and 50% of all fuel and feed supplies were either destroyed or captured by the enemy. During the first 3 weeks of the war, the Red Army lost 850,000 men, 3,500 aircraft, 6,000 tanks, and 9,500 guns (German combat losses in manpower were 10 times smaller). The USSR had a quantitative and qualitative advantage in military equipment, and the Third Reich - in manpower, military experience and high morale after the brilliant victories in Europe.
These events were preceded by numerous warnings about the preparation of the Third Reich for war against the USSR. As early as the summer of 1940, on the basis of reports from the Soviet spy Yarema (Ukrainian artist Mykola Glushchenko), a memorandum was drawn up for the top leadership of the USSR on Germany's preparations for aggression. In addition to numerous warnings from intelligence, the information also came from Western powers but was perceived by the Kremlin as an intention to quarrel the USSR with Germany. Just before the offensive, Wehrmacht soldiers deserted, crossed the German-Soviet border, and informed the Soviet military of an impending attack on the USSR. In total, border guards, based on information from defectors and the Polish population abroad, mentioned June 22 as a possible date of the offensive about 25 times. So the German attack was not unexpected. Another thing is that they did not want to believe this message.
According to the Barbarossa plan, the Ukrainian direction was one of the most important. The task was to master the developed economic base of Ukraine, its rich raw materials and fuel resources. That is why the largest part of the German forces - Army Group South (57 divisions and 13 brigades) - had the task in a short time to strike a major blow in the direction of Kiev, to occupy the crossings, preparing an offensive further east. In the first hours of the war, the Germans bombed all the cities of the western regions of the USSR, as well as Kiev, Odessa, Sevastopol, airfields, communication lines, railway junctions, and ammunition depots. The leadership of the USSR and the command of the Red Army were not prepared for such a development. In the first hours of the war, Moscow could not orient itself in the situation and gave orders "not to open fire" and "not to succumb to provocations." It was not until the evening of June 22, 1941, that the Kremlin became convinced that this was not a provocation but a war.
In Ukraine, the German soldiers stood against two fronts: South-West (commander - General M.P. Kirponos); Southern (commander - General I.V. Tyulenev). Seamen of the Chornomorsk Fleet (commander - Admir PS Oktyabrsky), Dunayska and Pinska Vіyskovі flotilla.
30 of June 1941 p. the German forces escaped near Lviv. At once, parts of the OUN escaped from them. For the whole day, representatives of the Ukrainian national political forces at the OUN have adopted the "Act of Renewal of the Ukrainian State", as well as a decree, for Yakim Stetsk, was designated by the head of the Uryad - Ukrainian State Government 26 The Ukrainian state was stripped by the ally of Germany. Germany reacted negatively to the Act of Renovation of the Ukrainian State. S. Bandera and Y. Stetsko were sent out of the country.
On July 5, 1941, the Soviet government of Ukraine decided to evacuate industrial and agricultural facilities and the population of Ukraine. During the evacuation, mainly to Russia and Kazakhstan, 550 large factories and 3.5 million people were evacuated. 2 million inhabitants of the republic were mobilized into the army (200,000 of them were volunteers), and 2 million people created fortifications. On November 1, 1941 the population of Ukraine gave about 1 billion rubles to the Defense Fund.
In the summer of 1941 the Germans advanced through Ukraine as quickly as if they were marching in Paris in 1940. By the end of December 1941, the Wehrmacht had conquered almost the entire territory of Ukraine, only a few districts of Kharkiv and Voroshilovgrad regions, Sevastopol and Kerch were in the hands of the Red Army. The Germans controlled the territory where 80 million people lived before the war (42% of the population of the USSR). In addition, 3.8 million Soviet soldiers (1.3 million of them Ukrainians) were taken prisoner.
The reasons for the defeat of the Red Army in the initial period of the war:
the incorrect military doctrine of the USSR, when it was planned to fight on "foreign territory" and "small blood", the troops did not learn to defend and withdraw;
The 80 years events ago are tragic and instructive. We remember the millions of victims, the heroism of the soldiers, the dedicated work in the rear, but our slogan these days is, "Never again!"
