The first day of the Great Patriotic War in the memories of eyewitnesses

“Today, at 4 o'clock in the morning, without making any claims to the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities from their planes...” – with these words, Vyacheslav Mikhailovich Molotov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars of the USSR and People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs, began his address to Soviet citizens. He finished his speech as follows: “Our cause is right. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours.” This statement was widely published in the Soviet press, and today visitors to the Presidential Library’s portal have a chance to read it, for example, on the pages of the emergency issue of Leningradskaya Pravda dated June 22, 1941.

June 22, the day of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, marks the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow in our country. The war has not spared any Soviet family. The memory of these terrible events is passed down from generation to generation. One has an opportunity to explore family stories, photos, letters of participants of the Great Patriotic War thanks to the large-scale electronic collection of the Presidential Library Memory of the Great Victory, which is regularly updated with new materials.

The Presidential Library presents a selection of excerpts:

• Life in the Occupation and in the First Post-War Years: Pushkin. Gatchina. Estonia: The Diary of Lucy Hordikainen (born 1928)

https://www.prlib.ru/en/node/332433  

Diary entries made by Yulia Alexandrovna Hordikainen (Krivulina) cover the period from the pre-war, 1940, to the very last day of the Great Patriotic War – May 9, 1945. The book was published with the help of Yulia’s twin sister, Sofia Alexandrovna Nuridzhanova (nee Hordikainen). The diary of Sophia – Zosya, as her family called her, was lost.

July 18, 1941:

“June 22 was a bright sunny day; it was hot, clouds were scattered in shreds across the sky. We were in the garden. Suddenly Grandma Dunya quickly came out on the balcony and told us to listen to the radio. Molotov was on the radio. He said that in the morning the Germans attacked the USSR and captured several cities. <...> In the evening we went to look at the tanks coming. The guys stood, waved to the Red Army soldiers and threw lilacs.”

• The Diary of Olga Vladimirovna Doronina: Leningrad, 1941-1944

https://www.prlib.ru/en/item/1289013  

Olga Vladimirovna Dosenko (nee Doronina, born in 1925) is a participant in the Great Patriotic War, a corporal, a resident of besieged Leningrad. From May 1942 to August 1945, she served in units and formations of the Local Air Defence of Leningrad. During the days of the blockade, she kept a diary. She was awarded medals For the Victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945 and For the Defence of Leningrad.

June 22, 1944, Leningrad:

“At the gate we parted. We went home. Changed clothes, washed up, went to lunch in a good mood. Yes! How quickly things change. Suddenly we hear: “Germany bombarded Kiev and other cities. It means war, at 4 a.m. we crossed the border”. The war began. Immediately, everyone’s faces became serious. We came to the dining room. There were three men and two women sitting next to our table. Suddenly one of them got up, pale, and went out. I asked the woman: “What, he was called?” She answered me: “Yes! At a moment’s notice!” I couldn’t stand it and started crying, covering my face with my hands. When I opened my face, I saw tears in the eyes of many."

• The Diary of Igor Konstantinovich Malakhov. Notebook 1. 1941-1942

Igor Konstantinovich Malakhov (born in 1927) was a graduate student at the time of writing the diary; in the summer of 1942, he got a job as an apprentice fitter at the ATUL repair plant, where city buses were repaired, among other things; on August 29, 1942, together with his mother, he was evacuated from Leningrad.

June 22, 1941, Leningrad:

“When we went outside, we immediately noticed something unusual: passers-by were in a hurry, crowds at silent loudspeakers, queues at shops. It turned out that fifteen minutes ago, Comrade Molotov’s speech on the radio ended, announcing the unexpected attack of Hitler’s Germany on the USSR. Immediately everything became clear! We hurried home: we needed to find out more about Molotov’s speech. <...> At 11 o’clock, the decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Council on mobilization and martial law were transmitted. The danger hanging over the country was immediately felt more clearly. At 12 o’clock, to the sounds of the International, we went to bed. A day full of excitement has ended. IT has begun. I have witnessed, not yet participated in, great historical events. What will happen!".

• Yakov Vladimirovich Dukhin: Diary of a Political Officer. Notebook 1. June 24 – August 22, 1941

https://www.prlib.ru/en/item/1277800  

Yakov Vladimirovich Dukhin (born in 1920), a native of the village of Yurevichi, Polessky Region (Belarus), lived with his family in Leningrad. Prior to the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, he served in the army with the rank of senior political officer. During the war he served in the 86th Infantry Division, received the rank of captain. He died on February 10, 1944, was buried in the village of Zarudenye, Lyadsky District, Leningrad Region (from August 22, 1944 – Pskov Region).

June 24, 1941, Leningrad:

"So... the war. It’s the first time I’ve met it personally, I’ve only read about it before. Molotov’s speech was on June 22. I listened together with the fighters. The fighters are indignant at the bandit attack of the arrogant Hitler. They are eager to fight – a wonderful people. Previously, it was somehow unnoticed through all sorts of misdeeds, with which they often let me down. But when it came to a great cause, they did well. “The June set will show itself”, they say. And I believe in it."

• The Diary of Sergei Vasilyevich Khomko about the First Days of the Great Patriotic War

https://www.prlib.ru/en/item/1287558

Sergei Vasilyevich Khomko (born in 1912) was a veteran of the Great Patriotic War. He was called to the front on June 25, 1941 from Leningrad. He was awarded the 2nd Degree Order of the Patriotic War (1985). The handwritten diary reflects the events from June 25 in Leningrad to July 11, 1941 on the front line in Pskov Region.

June 25, 1941:

“A few days ago, the radio let out the quick-winged word “War”! The summer season was beginning. The holiday season, resorts. One word and everything collapsed. Thoughts went in a different direction, followed by deeds. Mobilization began; the first barrage balloons were raised over the city. The first short air alarms, like spring thunderstorms, have passed. An unpleasant feeling of longing pinched my heart. Finally, it’s my turn, on the 25th, according to the agenda, I was summoned to the district military commissariat on the Moika River to the former teacher’s house”.

The electronic collection dedicated to preserving the Memory of the Great Victory has been formed since 2010. It includes official documents, books, periodicals, certificates of combatants and home front workers, their diaries and personal documents. A special category consists of photo and newsreels, articles and newspapers of wartime, audio recordings.

The Presidential Library’s portal also presents the Collection of digitized archival documents, film and photo materials World War II in Archival Documents, which has been formed jointly with the Federal Archival Agency since 2020. Today, it already contains more than 10 thousand archival documents, many of which were previously classified.