Georgy Zhukov: "The Battle for Moscow cast a long shadow on "Barbarossa" plan"

77 years ago, on April 20, 1942, during the Rzhev-Vyazma operation, one of the most important and bloody battles of the Great Patriotic War - the Battle for Moscow ended.

The Presidential Library’s portal features an extensive electronic collection “Memory of the Great Victory”. Separate selection of materials is devoted to the Battle for Moscow.

Yet in summer - the beginning of September 1941, the Nazi German began to prepare a large offensive operation aimed at seizing the capital of the Soviet Union. The plan envisaged the encirclement of the main forces of the Red Army, covering the city, their destruction in the area of ​​Bryansk and Vyazma and the rapid "bypass" of Moscow from the north and south.   

In turn, the Soviet military command on September 30, 1941 began the Moscow strategic defensive operation. As a result of the bloody battles and the stubborn resistance of our soldiers, by November the German offensive was stopped. On December 5–6, 1941, the Red Army launched a counteroffensive.

The electronic collection of the Presidential Library contains the documentary “Defence of Moscow” by N. Sviderskaya, K. Zakharov and A. Pankratov. The authors familiarize the audience with the main milestones in the defence of the city, using interviews with veterans and historians-specialists, newsreel footage for this purpose.

In particular, the film presents the following curious fact: “The leadership of the Wehrmacht was completely confident of victory (in the Battle for Moscow). Together with the equipment and ammunition, the Germans carried with them award crosses. In the area of ​​Naro-Fominsk, it was possible to stop a special train with two tons of orders for victory in the Moscow battle ... "

On December 2, 1941, in Berlin, the editorial offices of the newspapers were even ordered to leave empty places in the next issue for posting reports about the capture of Moscow, the author of the book “The rout of the German troops near Moscow” (1943), Yevgeny Shilovsky testifies.

However, Moscow never surrendered to the enemy. Although the forces were unequal - the enemy had superiority in tanks, airplanes, strength.

“The “boilers” appeared, the Soviet armies were surrounded. Five armies...And it was a tragedy, - the film "Defence of Moscow" says. “However, being surrounded, the Soviet troops did not lay down their arms, but continued to resist, went farther into the woods, proceeded to guerrilla actions”.

And when parts of the Soviet fronts launched a counteroffensive near Moscow, it was already impossible to stop them. Cities and villages were freed one after another. And it was the collapse of Hitler’s policy aimed at the rapid conquest of the main centers of the Soviet Union. For the first time in World War II, the Nazi Germany was defeated.

The documentary by Maria Byalko, dedicated to the Battle for Moscow, reflects that almost half of the artillery and aviation of the German fascist invaders was concentrated here. A huge contribution to the fact that we managed to defend the capital of the USSR belonged to Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov - at that time an army general, later a marshal of the Soviet Union. The resolution of the State Defence Committee of October 20, 1941 reported: "The defence of the capital at the borders, 100–120 kilometers west of Moscow was entrusted to G. K. Zhukov”.

He was summoned from near Leningrad during the tense days of October 1941, and he lived up to expectations. Although the situation was, as they say, "close call".

From the memoirs of Aleksandr Ustinov, a military photo correspondent for the Pravda newspaper: “The front and rear were so close at that time that sometimes I managed to make front and rear shooting on the same day! Once I got on the trolley bus №12 and drove to Khimki. From here I walked another 10-12 kilometers and found myself at the forefront ... "

The fragments of the newsreel “The Battle for Moscow (September 1941 - January 1942)” on the Presidential Library’s portal contains the names of other prominent Soviet military leaders, without whom this victory would have been impossible: Sokolovsky, Konev, Rokossovsky, Govorov, Boldin, Belov.

This is how the Soviet frontline described what was happening at the front and in the rear during the Battle for Moscow.

The official body of the Moscow regional and city committees of the Communist Party, the Moscow Bolshevik Newspaper, published a feuilleton about Hitler and the main propagandist of the Third Reich Goebbels in December 1941, where the figures mentioned in the framework of the “new formulations for the new order” came up with the idea that the German divisions supposedly leave Tikhvin, Elec, Klin, Kalinin... because of the "inability of the Russians to realize that they are defeated".

Another December issue of the Moscow Bolshevik prints the emotional story of Claudia Arkharova, who first "blessed her brother for the feat" by taking him to the front. A few days later, the woman herself went to war. “A skilled rocket launcher, she skillfully and with dignity and honor protects her native Moscow”, - the article said.

November 1941 issue of the Moscow Bolshevik publishes the story of the collective farmer E. Vasilyeva, who escaped from the village of Mikhailovskoye in Moscow Region. The October issue of the newspaper describes the situation with Moscow factories, which not only continued to work in harsh front-line conditions, but also accomplished a labor feat: “A high example of understanding the requirements of the moment was shown by the N-plant team led by its director, Comrade Zhiltsov. The plant was asked to make a test sample of one of the types of weapons. Its further mass release was supposed to be entrusted to other enterprises. The team of the N-plant, having perfectly fulfilled the task, did not stop there. Driven by the noble feelings of patriotism, they weighed up their possibilities and took it upon themselves to organize the mass release of these weapons”.

As a result, during the Rzhev-Vyazma operation, which was carried out from January 8 to April 20, the Red Army threw the enemy 100–250 kilometers away from Moscow, completely liberating Moscow, Tula and Ryazan Regions, many areas of Kalinin, Smolensk and Orel Regions.

“The whole world was excited by the sudden turn of events. In astonishment, foreign newspapers asked: how did this happen? The “invincible” German army, which was constantly attacking, finally reached almost the very gates of Moscow - and suddenly ran back. Foreign newspapers could not explain this and wrote about the “miracle near Moscow”, - E. Shilovsky writes in his book “The rout of the German troops near Moscow”.

Marshal G. K. Zhukov said: “When people ask me what I remember most of all from the last war, I always answer: the Battle for Moscow. it cast a long shadow on “Barbarossa” plan”.