2023

January 31, 2023 Documents on the defence of Stalingrad and the counteroffensive of the Soviet troops entered the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials “World War II in archival documents” available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The Collection includes about 250 documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation about the Battle of Stalingrad: directives and orders of the Supreme Command Headquarters and orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief on the construction of defensive lines in the Stalingrad area, on measures to protect Stalingrad, on the formation of the Don and Stalingrad fronts, on the timing of the start of the counteroffensive at Stalingrad; combat orders, operational reports and reports from the headquarters of the 62nd Army, the 24th Army, the 1st Tank Army and the 8th Air Army of the Stalingrad Front, the 65th Army of the Don Front on the situation at the front and enemy actions; operational and intelligence reports of the Volga Military Flotilla.

Combat reports, operational reports and orders from the headquarters of the Southeastern Front, Stalingrad and Don fronts tell about the depletion of enemy forces and preventing them from entering the depth of Soviet defence, about conducting military reconnaissance, offensive actions and defensive battles, regrouping troops, destroying the enemy who broke through, clearing land, forming fortified areas and the state of defensive works.

The directives of the commander of the troops of the Southwestern Front contain data on the preparation of an operation to encircle the main forces of the enemy’s Stalingrad grouping, the results of reconnaissance and readiness to launch a counteroffensive.

Also presented are maps and diagrams of the troops of the Stalingrad Front, the positions of units, the ratio of forces of the Red Army and the enemy on the Stalingrad Front, as well as a plan and map of the offensive operation of the troops of the Southwestern Front “Uranus”.

In the near future, the Collection will be updated with more than 1,000 documents from the period of June 22, 1941 – November 19, 1942 from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation.

March 14, 2023 Over 500 documents from the holdings of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation are included in the Collection of Digitized Archival Documents, Film and Photo Materials “World War II in archival documents”.

Chronologically, the documents cover the period from June 22, 1941 to the beginning of 1942. The original directives and orders of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, documents of the General Staff of the Red Army, the command of the fronts and armies – plans of military operations, combat orders, operational reports, combat reports, maps of operational planning and operational situation, etc., as well as captured documents on the plans of the German command are presented.

The documents reflect the events of the initial period of the Great Patriotic War, the so-called border battles (June 22 – early July 1941), the course of the Baltic, Belarusian and Lvov-Chernovtsy strategic defensive operations. The documents highlight the course of hostilities in Moldavia, Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in July 1941, and in the Arctic and Karelia in the summer and autumn of 1941.

A significant amount of materials is devoted to the history of the Battle of Smolensk (July 10 – September 10, 1941), the Kiev Defensive operation (July 7 – September 26, 1941), the battles for Leningrad, Donbass and Rostov in the summer – autumn of 1941, the defence of Odessa and Sevastopol in 1941-1942.

The largest number of materials newly included in the Collection is associated with the history of the first major victories of the Red Army in the winter of 1941. These are documents about the course of the Rostov offensive operation, which ended with the liberation of Rostov on November 29, 1941, about defensive battles on the outskirts of the capital and the counteroffensive of Soviet troops near Moscow in December 1941, which finally destroyed the plans of Nazi Germany for a quick victory.

April 21, 2023 Over 350 documents from the holdings of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation dedicated to the preparation and conduct of the Lyuban, Vyazma, Barvenkovo-Lozovaya, Kharkov, North Caucasus, Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad, Rzhev-Sychyovka, Sinyavino operations of the Red Army against the Nazi invaders in the first half of 1942 entered the Collection “World War II in archival documents” available on the Presidential Library’s portal.

The Collection now contains more than 11 thousand archival documents, film and photographic materials.

Chronologically, the documents cover mainly the period from January to November 1942, spotlight the preparation and conduct of the main operations of the Red Army during these busy months and present the directives of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command, plans of operations and logs of combat operations, combat orders and reports, operational summaries of fronts, armies and military units, maps of operational planning and the situation on fronts , etc .

In January – April 1942, Soviet troops launched an offensive in the north-western direction in order to unblock Leningrad (Lyuban offensive operation). In the western direction, the Rzhev-Vyazma operation was carried out with the aim of encircling and destroying the main forces of Army Group Center. In the southwest, during the Barvenkovo-Lozovaya operation in January 1942, Soviet troops tried to defeat the Donbass-Taganrog grouping of the Wehrmacht; in May there were heavy battles in the Kharkov direction. Fighting continued on the Kerch Peninsula.

Archival materials reflect the events of the Voronezh-Voroshilovgrad and North Caucasus strategic defensive operations, the Rzhev-Sychyovka and Sinyavino offensive operations of summer – autumn 1942 (documents about the Battle of Stalingrad were included in the Collection earlier).

The most interesting documents of the Soviet military intelligence for June 22, 1941 – October 1942 were added to the project: special communications of the GRU of the Red Army, reports of Soviet residents L. A. Sergeyev (“Maurice”) from Washington, P. P. Melkishev (“Moliere”) from New York, I. A. Sklyarov (“Brion”) and A. F. Sizov (“Eduard”) from London, N. I. Nikitusheva (“Akasto”) from Stockholm, Sh. Rado (“Dora”) from Geneva, as well as intelligence from Prague, Warsaw and other cities in Western Europe about the military plans of Germany, Japan and their allies, about the activities of the so-called “neutral” European countries to assist Nazi Germany, about the mood in the military and political circles of the United States and Great Britain and their intentions in regarding the opening of the second front in the West.

 

Viewing archival documents of the Collection is available from anywhere in the world. Especially for the foreign audience, the titles and annotations to the documents and 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 Internet publications of documents, virtual tours of the history of the Second World War, developed by government agencies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various organizations.

 

Executive institution: Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv)

Operator: Boris Yeltsin Presidential Library of the Administrative Directorate of the President of the Russian Federation

 

Participants:

Foreign Policy Archive of the Russian Federation (AVP RF)

Russian State Military Archives (RGVA)

Russian State Archive of the Navy (RGAVMF)

Russian State Archive of Social and Political History (RGASPI)

State Archives of the Russian Federation (GA RF)

Russian State Archives of Contemporary History (RGANI)

Russian State Archives of Film and Photo Documents (RGAKFD)

Russian State Archives of Economy (RGAE)

Russian State Archives in Samara (RGA in Samara)

Central Archives of the Ministry of Defence of the Russian Federation (CA MO RF)

Foreign Intelligence Service Archives of the Russian Federation (Archive of SVR)

Central Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation (CA FSB)

German Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv)

National Archives of the Republic of Belarus (NARB)

Belarusian State Archives of Film and Photo Documents (BGAKFFD)

Belarusian State Archives-Museum of Literature and Art (BGAMLI)