Documents about the main operations of the Great Patriotic War available on the Presidential Library’s portal

On April 21, 2023 over 350 documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation enter the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials dedicated to World War II which is available on the Presidential Library’s portal. They are dedicated to the preparation and holding of the Lyuban, Vyazemskaya, Barvenkovo-Lozovskaya, Kharkov, North Caucasian, Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad, Rzhev-Sychevskaya, Sinyavinskaya operations of the Red Army against the Nazi invaders in the first half of 1942.

The Collection involves over 11 thousand materials, including maps, diagrams, periodicals, photographs, newsreels for the period from January 1933 to November 1942.

The documents chronologically cover mainly the period from January to November 1942 and the preparation and holding of the main operations of the Red Army in these busy months and represent the directives of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, plans of operations and combat logs, combat orders and reports, operational reports of fronts, armies and military units, maps of operational planning and the situation on the fronts, etc.

From January to April 1942, Soviet troops launched an offensive in the northwestern direction in order to release the siege of Leningrad (Lyuban offensive operation). In the western direction, the Rzhev-Vyazemskaya operation was carried out with the aim of encircling and destroying the main forces of Army Group Center. In the south-west, during the Barvenkovo-Lozovskaya operation in January 1942, Soviet troops tried to defeat the Donbass-Taganrog Wehrmacht grouping, in May there were held heavy battles in the Kharkov direction. Fighting continued on the Kerch Peninsula.

Archival materials spotlight the events of the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad and North Caucasian strategic defensive operations, the Rzhev-Sychev and Sinyavino offensive operations in the summer - autumn of 1942 (the documents on the Battle of Stalingrad entered the Collection earlier).

The project includes the most interesting documents of Soviet military intelligence for the period from June 22, 1941 to October 1942 such as special reports of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Red Army, reports of Soviet residents L. A. Sergeev (“Maurice”) from Washington, P. P. Melkishev (“Moliere") from New York, I. A. Sklyarov ("Brion") and A. F. Sizov ("Eduard") from London, N. I. Nikitushev ("Acasto") from Stockholm, C. Rado ("Dora") from Geneva, as well as intelligence from Prague, Warsaw and other cities of Western Europe about the military plans of Germany, Japan and their allies, about the assistance to Nazi Germany by the so-called neutral European countries, about the mood in the military-political circles of the USA and Great Britain and their intentions regarding the opening of a second front in the West.

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.

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.