Archival documents about key events of Great Patriotic War from January to February 1945 presented on Presidential Library's portal

The collection of digitized archival documents, film, and photographic materials titled World War II in Archival Documents, which was posted on the Presidential Library's portal, has been expanded with more than 80 new documents covering key events from the Great Patriotic War between January 28 until February 13, 1945.

On February 13, 1945, the Budapest Offensive, conducted by the forces of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts of the Red Army, resulted in the complete liberation of Budapest. This final stage of the operation is documented in records from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

These are combat orders and operational directives from the front command for the offensive on Budapest, a map showing the encirclement and elimination of the enemy group in Budapest by the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front during December 1944 and February 1945. Additionally, there is a combat report from the headquarters of the 2nd Ukrainian Front to Supreme Commander J. V. Stalin regarding the complete capture of Budapest.

In the order issued by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, No. 277, gratitude was expressed to the Red Army troops who distinguished themselves during the liberation of Budapest. It was stated that during the battles in Budapest, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front captured over 10,000 enemy soldiers and officers, including the German commander of the Budapest force group, Colonel-General Pfeffer Wildenbruch, and his staff. They also seized a significant amount of weapons and military equipment. The archive of the Political Directorate of the Second Ukrainian Front contains information about the Jewish ghetto in Budapest, which was organized by the Nazis in collaboration with the Germans.

Among the documents of the Central Army of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation are combat reports, orders, summaries, and maps from the headquarters of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian Fronts and their subordinate units during the Vistula-Oder Offensive Operation (which ended on February 3, 1945).

Also included are photographs from collections of the Russian State Military Archive and Russian State Archive of Film and Photographic Documents that capture episodes of the Red Army's liberation of cities and towns in East Prussia, Poland, and Budapest. Photos from the Yalta Conference, held from February 4-11, 1945, between the leaders of the USSR, Great Britain, and the USA, are also posted, as are documents from the Archive of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation covering the Yalta conference.

The documents of the Soviet intelligence services include secret service messages, or cipher telegrams, received from Soviet agents in Washington. One such document is a special message from Deputy People's Commissar of State Security B. Z. Kobulov to J. V. Stalin, V. M. Molotov and L. P. Beria regarding Great Britain's concerns about the development of Soviet-French relations. This message was sent on January 28, 1945 and is archived at the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service.

Another document is a memo from F. F. Kuznetsov, head of the intelligence directorate of the Red Army General Staff, to J. Stalin regarding the proposed transfer of the 6th SS Panzer Army from the Western European to the Soviet-German front. This memo was written on January 30, 1945 and are available in the Russian State Archives of Modern History.

The holdings of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History include documents from the Department of Propaganda and Agitation of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU), including a memo from the deputy head of the Main Political Directorate of the Red Army, I. V. Shikin, addressed to the head of the department, G. F. Alexandrov, regarding the situation at the Auschwitz concentration camp and its liberation by the Red Army on February 9, 1945.

The collection also includes resolutions of the Council of People's Commissars (government) of the USSR, preserved in the State Archives of the Russian Federation, such as On the Stalin Prizes for Outstanding Work in the Fields of Science, Invention, Art, and Literature for the Years 1943-1944, dated January 29, 1945, and On the Organization of Printing Banknotes for the Allied Command in Germany, dated February 10, 1945.

In accordance with the List of instructions for the implementation of the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 2020, the organizers of the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials World War II in Archival Documents are the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv), the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Library.

The Collection is carried out by Rosarkhiv and federal state archives with the participation of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, the state archives of Belarus and others.

To date, the volume of the Collection is over 15 thousand materials: maps, diagrams, periodicals, photographs, newsreels for the period from January 1933 to February 1945.

Archival documents of the Collection World War II in Archival Documents are available from anywhere in the world thanks to the Presidential Library’s portal. Especially for the foreign audience, the titles and annotations to the documents as well as the texts of the accompanying articles are also available in English.

In addition to digitized archival documents the Collection contains a list of the main Internet projects, databases, other thematic online documents, virtual tours of the history of World War II, developed by government agencies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various organizations.

Materials are provided by the Federal Archival Agency