On the website of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation on June 22, a special section was launched, on which unique archival documents were published - testimonies of Soviet military leaders about the events of June 22, 1941 and the first days of the Great Patriotic War. Previously never published archival documents contain the answers of the commanders of districts, armies, corps and division commanders who exercised command in the early days of the war, to five key questions prepared by the Military-Historical Directorate of the General Staff of the Soviet Army.
The head of the political department of the 4th Ukrainian Front, Major General Leonid Ilyich Brezhnev (center), the future leader of the USSR in 1964-1982, during the Victory Parade.
Here is one more page from the past that has become public. But … there is something to think about. And more questions. There are many questions that I would very much like to ask. And then … to dream a little, because dreams have a "captivating sweetness."
Let's start with comparisons. In the USA, the history of World War II was published in 99 volumes, and in Japan even in 110. But since everything is learned in comparison, we will see in how many volumes the history of the Great Patriotic War was published in Soviet times. First, in six volumes, and the preparation of this edition was begun back in 1957. Here, at VO, there are many people who like to write about the need to study history from Soviet textbooks. That the "democrats" are rewriting today's history. Let's see: in the third volume of the six-volume book, Khrushchev is mentioned 39 times, and Stalin - only 19, although it is obvious that whatever he may be - "bad" or "good", their roles in the history of the war are simply not comparable! Zhukov - "Marshal of Victory" (again, with all the negative and positive, what was said about him then, by the way, and what was said about him negatively in 1957 and up to 1964?) Is mentioned only 4 times (!) - this is generally nonsense, but Hitler -76!
In 1966, the first volume of "The History of the Second World War" appeared in 12 volumes (and the most recent volume was published in 1982), but the story there was different: now Brezhnev was mentioned 24 times, Stalin - 17, Zhukov - 7, Vasilevsky - 4, Khrushchev - also 7 (by inertia or what?), But this is for ALL EDITION, for all 12 volumes! So I don't understand those who are so happy about Soviet textbooks. Here are some specific examples. Want to check it out? Take it and count it! But I don't like such "zigzags" of historical thought. It's like spitting against the wind. Now do you understand how easy it was to denigrate us in the West? "Great country", "great victory" and only 12 volumes, in which Stalin is mentioned only 17 times ?! And Brezhnev … yes, he crossed to Malaya Zemlya 40 times, as he himself said, but 24 times to write about an ordinary colonel? But then the book "Small Land" was published with a circulation of 20 million copies. Moreover, it was studied in the senior classes of the Soviet school, the artist Tikhonov read it on the radio in his soulful voice. It is interesting that there are many people nostalgic for the "saint" of the USSR. But for some reason there is no one who would be nostalgic for the glorious bestseller "Small Land". Even here at VO. And it is not for nothing that the people responded to the appearance of this book with their anecdotes: “Where did you fight the war? Did they sit out at Stalingrad or fought on Malaya Zemlya? " Or: “Comrade Zhukov, are we starting an offensive on Berlin? "Wait, Comrade Stalin, we must first consult with Colonel Brezhnev."
So it is not Russia after 1991 that is famous for the privilege of rewriting history under general secretaries (although it could not do without its "cockroaches in the head", but they will be discussed some other time), but long before this memorable date. And that means there was someone to learn from and on what examples!
Another 12-volume edition has recently been released. It is on the MO website. Weighted, objective … This is how it was positioned, in any case, its editorial staff. I accidentally opened one of its volumes on the page dedicated to the T-34/85 tank, and learned that it entered service with our army in 1944 and immediately showed its superiority … and further in the text. Well, you can't write like that in a serious edition! It is impossible because there are 12 months in a year. It is necessary - if we are really writing the history of the "Great War", and not a fairy tale for children of grades 5-6, maximum 7th, indicate in which month how many of them were produced. How many entered the front and in which units, and how many specifically participated in the battles and in which sectors of the front. Accordingly, how many were completely lost in battles, and how many of them were restored after some time. And so … on all our tanks and planes! Those who fought on them, and those who built them, deserve it, don't they?
But, enough questions, otherwise I, as Socrates (for his questions) will again be accused of inadequate perception of our history. Now let there be only wishes and "dreams", because "it is not harmful for anyone to dream and it is not forbidden for anyone." But first note. The level of knowledge of the majority of people about the war, even here in the VO, is extremely low. Arguing about the role of Lend-Lease, for example, many do not even know, although there is data on the Internet whether our country paid for it or not. There are people who even name the exact year, but … time passes and everything repeats again. And yet … how many times have I already suggested that those wishing to "learn everything" go to the library or the archives, take a filing of the Pravda newspaper for 1944, find a newspaper for June 11 and look at "The Soviet Government's Message on Lend-Lease Supplies." But … no one wrote that he went and looked. However, they continue to write nonsense. Strange, isn't it? After all, this is an official document, you can and should refer to it!
Now let's see, but how could the history of a great country, a great people and a great war look like, worthy of the memory of millions who died on it? You can't decide right away, can you? Then let's count: the first volume is "INTRODUCTION" and less than a volume on this and you can not spend, because you need to show the reasons for the collapse of the Versailles system, the role of the revolution in Russia, Germany and Austria-Hungary, as well as in distant China in changing the world order of society … Contradictions between Japan and the United States, the continental powers and Britain, the economic interests of Germany, the USSR and the United States. Even Amtorg should have been written about, as well as about the Comintern, industrialization, collectivization and … about all those negative moments that took place in the Red Army on the eve of the war. No comment, but simply - the number of violations of discipline, criminal cases, penalties for "immorality" and drunkenness, the low and high level of everything that is possible, noted during the inspections. You can even divide the page in half and write like this, on the left "+", on the right "-", and as a result, the percentage of one to the other and a short conclusion.
It is imperative to write about the complete moral preparation of the population of the USSR for the coming war on the basis of books, films and plays. Before our soldiers in 1941 began to shout, going into the attack, “For the Motherland! For Stalin! they, while still being pre-conscripts, heard and saw exactly how they shouted it in the cinema! That many of the songs that became popular during the war years were written long before it, and that our art prepared people (and prepared!) For difficult military trials and continued to do so afterwards. But that our journalism at that time was by no means up to par and only destroyed the information basis of the Soviet society. Of course, with the demonstration of clear and obvious examples and analysis of the reasons.
In fact, we will need not one, but … two volumes of the introduction. In one, the preconditions of the war, associated with events abroad, while in the other, the entire pre-war history of the USSR should be presented in a condensed form.
The third volume is about the war itself. Since it lasted 1418 days and 46 months, it would be ideal to allocate one for each month. There are an average of 30 days in a month. Let's see how many pages you can allocate for one day. No less than 10, or even more, since we need to describe the actions of our armed forces from the Barents Sea to the Black Sea. Actions of all fronts, armies, divisions … Artillery, tanks and aviation … Infantry and cavalry. Losses and number of prisoners on both sides. In short, all this is possible. But if we describe the heroes and their exploits that took place already from the first hours of the war, the work of evacuation, the work of the rear, the messages of the Soviet Information Bureau - to show how the war was covered in the press, then, of course, ten pages will not be enough for us even for one day. So … 20 pages, right? As a result, we get a hefty tome of 600 pages.
In total, in this way we get a 50-volume history of the Second World War, where two volumes are an introduction, two, respectively - a conclusion written according to the same principle as the preface, and … 46 volumes of the main text, 600 pages in each volume!
And in each such volume, the structure is the same: a message from the Soviet Information Bureau about what happened on that day. The real events of this day. Orders of the Headquarters and local orders. Our and our opponents' losses in manpower and equipment. Consumption volumes by the front and rear. Work in the rear for the production of means of production, food and military equipment. Yes, it is also very important to show what happened on the same day in the big world around us, that is, to give, so to speak, the international aspect of one day of the war. Which, by the way, is again very important in order to emphasize the role of the USSR in the defeat of the Hitlerite coalition. At the end - lists of used archival fonts. If there is no information, then there must be an explanation - why it is missing. And so day after day! All 1418 should be presented as detailed as possible.
And if you add to each volume photocopies of documents from the archives of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, including those documents that are still classified today until … 2045 (!), Photographs from the Krasnogorsk Archive of Film and Photo Documents, the Imperial War Archive in London, the Bundesarchive in Germany, the archive of photographic documents Of the US Congress, portraits of heroes and politicians, soldiers and commanders of the Red Army and home front workers (after all, this is our story, so why not visualize it?), Then … it turns out that 600 pages will not be enough for us. You need two 600-page volumes for every day - like this. It turns out that we need a history of the Second World War in exactly 100 volumes. Another volume will need to be devoted to the war with Japan, even if it is not actually part of the Second World War.
But … this is only the factual side of the matter, without deep analysis. Just the facts, so to speak. This means that special thematic numbers will be needed, in which a deep analysis of the tactics of individual combat arms and their combat means will be given, our losses and those of the enemy will be compared. Thus, the following, generalizing volumes will also be needed: "Infantry of the Soviet Army during the Second World War", "Horse Units of the Soviet Army during the Second World War", "Automobile Transport of the Soviet Army during the Second World War", "Armored Vehicles" (including all crazy projects received in the name of Comrade Stalin), "Aviation" (the same), "Artillery", "Navy", "Logistics services", "Medicine of the front and rear", "Industry of the Second World War and agriculture", "Science, art and culture and the years of war”,“Mass agitation and propaganda”,“Partisan movement during the Second World War”(well, how can it be without it ?!),“Collaboration during the Second World War”(a very important topic, which you simply cannot do without!), "Crime at the front and in the rear" (declassify all personal files of 500 thousand convicted privates and 80 thousandofficers to bury the myth about two million raped German women once and for all!), “GULAG during the war years” (after all, the political processes under Article 58 continued during the war and the Gulag was regularly replenished, so that's who it was replenished with, like "For what"!), "International relations during the war" (that is, everything about the work of Soviet diplomacy), "Soviet intelligence during the war", "Lend-Lease and the Allies", "Heroes and Feats" (more specifically about the heroes and the exploits mentioned in previous volumes), "Creators of Soviet weapons" (personalities, as well as everything about how and what Soviet soldiers fought, about its strengths and weaknesses, design work and prototypes), "Party, Soviet and military leadership during the Second World War "(the experience of mobilization management is very important, isn't it?)," The judicial system of the USSR during the Second World War "(an extremely important volume, which will reflect the legislative basis of the Soviet system of 1941-1945. at this time lawmaking), "Soviet formed not during the war years: universities, schools and out-of-school children's institutions "(you can, of course, insert this into a volume about science and culture, but a separate volume will not hurt, and, finally," Children-Heroes of the Second World War "(after all, most of the hero-children in the army did not serve, but their exploits did not become less significant from this!). Total: 25 more volumes are obtained. The previous 102 and these 25 = 127 volumes, but the last, volume 128, will have to be a generalizing volume devoted to the consequences of the war at the present stage and specifically telling about all attempts to falsify it, including the name and surname. author (ours or foreign), country, title of a book or article, publisher, year of issue, page, as well as text samples. Moreover, the topic of falsification of war may well be given in a separate volume, since it is very relevant and significant today. The most recent volume should contain information about the documentary base, and the clarifications, misprints and comments accumulated during the release of the previous volumes. Thus, it will be an impressive 130-volume edition, covering all the events of the war by day and also absolutely all its aspects. So we and the Americans and the Japanese will morning nose, and all subsequent generations of Russian citizens will give exhaustive documentary material on the greatest war in the history of mankind, which in the future will be extremely difficult to falsify. And it will be a truly worthy monument to all our ancestors, who gave the most precious thing they had - their lives for the victory!
P. S. And here you can see photos with very good captions, which I wanted to insert as illustrations for this article, but I thought that all of them would not be inserted, and they would make an impression all the more together: https://orbitnetwork.ru/uvlecheniya- hobbi / rasskaz / 36457-dokumentalnoe-foto-vov-1941-1945-95-fotografiy.html
