Liberation of Warsaw. Medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw"

31.03.2015

Among the Soviet awards of the Great Patriotic War there are seven medals dedicated to the occupation of European capitals by Soviet troops: "For the capture of Berlin", "For the capture of Vienna", "For the capture of Budapest", "For the capture of Koenigsberg", "For the liberation of Belgrade", "For the liberation Warsaw" and "For the Liberation of Prague". Our author was able to understand why we took Berlin, Koenigsberg, Vienna and Budapest, and liberated Belgrade, Warsaw and Prague.

"Take" and "liberate" are two completely different types of military operations.

Not so long ago, looking at an album with Soviet orders and medals, I noticed one strange circumstance: judging by the name of the medals, our troops took Berlin, Vienna, Budapest, Koenigsberg, and liberated Prague, Belgrade and Warsaw. Quite naturally, I had a question: “And how does the “capture of Vienna”, for example, differ from the “liberation of Prague”?

It would seem that the most simple, lying on the surface, and therefore the first explanation that comes to mind is that enemy cities, that is, cities located directly on the territory of the Third Reich, were taken, but the cities that were occupied by the Germans were liberated. However, upon closer examination, this turned out not to be the case.

For example, we took Vienna. It would seem that everything is correct, because it was part of the Reich itself, and Austria became part of it almost voluntarily. But if you think like that, then we had to take Prague, because it was also annexed peacefully and was part of the Reich itself. However, for some reason we released her!

But there is some logic in the reasoning Soviet leadership in the process of establishing medals (and they were established on the same day - June 9, 1945) was certainly. What did it see as the difference between liberation and taking? To understand this, one must carefully study the operations of the Soviet troops to occupy large European cities and the political circumstances that accompanied them. That's when everything falls into place.

It turns out that all the cities taken by our troops were captured exclusively by regular units of the Red Army and its allies as a result of major military operations with stubborn resistance from the enemy, and it does not matter at all whether they were located directly on the territory of the Reich or on the territory of countries occupied by Germany. We liberated the cities when the local anti-fascist underground or insurgent detachments took part in this in one form or another. But most importantly, all RELEASES had not only a military, but also a serious political significance. They, to be precise, were important for the post-war world order.

In traditional Soviet historiography, all CAPTURES are described in detail and on the whole truthfully. They are reflected in many works of art- books, performances, art and documentaries. RELEASES, on the other hand, are shrouded in a veil of mystery, the authors of Soviet historical works wrote about them sparingly and vaguely, limiting themselves, for example, to phrases like: “On May 9, 1945 at 4.00 in the morning, units of the 10th Guards Tank Corps entered the city of Prague and liberated it” .

In order to make sure that CAPTURES and RELEASES were distinguished by the leadership of the USSR precisely according to the principle described above, we will consider, moreover, taking into account those not published in Soviet years data, all seven operations to occupy large European cities, for participation in which our servicemen were awarded the corresponding medals.

The capture of the city of Königsberg was carried out as part of a very complex and bloody East Prussian operation of the Soviet troops. In the course of it, our troops were to defeat the German Army Group Center.

The operation began on January 13, 1945 with the forces of the 3rd Belorussian and 2nd Belorussian fronts. Parts of the Red Army planned to surround the East Prussian grouping of the enemy, and then destroy it. The enemy offered serious resistance, so it was only possible to block the enemy grouping on January 26, 1945. On January 29, the German troops were cut into three parts: Heilsberg (20 divisions), Königsberg (five divisions) and Zemland (four divisions). And then our offensive faltered. Moreover, by February 19-20, the Germans managed to restore contact with Königsberg. Only at the beginning of March, having put the units in order, did the Soviet command begin to prepare for the assault on the city, which was scheduled for March 28. However, on the appointed day, it did not start, since a strong enemy grouping was not liquidated southwest of Königsberg. The operation to destroy it did not end on March 22, as the Stavka demanded, but a week later. As a result, the assault on Königsberg began only on April 6, 1945.

In Königsberg, the Germans created three lines of defense. The first - 6-8 km from the city center - consisted of trenches, an anti-tank ditch, barbed wire and minefields. There were also 15 forts with 150-200 man garrisons armed with 12-15 guns. The second line ran along the outskirts and consisted of stone buildings, barricades, firing points at intersections and minefields. The third frontier was organized in the city center. It consisted of nine bastions, towers and ravelins (built in the 17th century and rebuilt in 1843-73).

The Königsberg garrison consisted of four fully equipped infantry divisions, several separate infantry regiments, fortress and security formations, as well as several Volkssturm battalions. The total number of German troops defending the city, according to the latest data, reached 60-70 thousand people. This garrison was opposed by Soviet units of 137 thousand people, with the support of 5 thousand guns and mortars, 538 tanks and self-propelled guns, 2444 aircraft.

The assault on Koenigsberg began with a powerful artillery preparation, then, under the cover of a fire shaft, infantry and tanks went on the offensive. The main forces of our troops bypassed the fortified forts, blocking them with rifle battalions reinforced with self-propelled guns, units of sappers and flamethrowers.

Mobile assault units played a decisive role in the capture of the city. They consisted of rifle companies, several artillery pieces with a caliber of 45 to 122 mm, one or two tanks, a platoon of heavy machine guns, a mortar platoon, a platoon of sappers and a squad of flamethrowers.

Only on the fourth day of the assault was the German resistance broken. On the evening of April 9, the commandant of the fortress, General of the Infantry Otto Lyash, realizing the futility of further resistance, ordered the surrender of the Königsberg garrison.

As you can easily see, the capture of Koenigsberg was not an easy task - direct preparation for it and the assault itself took about a month and a half. Moreover, many of our soldiers died under the walls of the capital of East Prussia. How else to explain the lack of official data on our losses directly during the assault on Koenigsberg. In the course of the entire East Prussian operation, our losses were very significant - 126.5 thousand soldiers and officers died and went missing, more than 458 thousand soldiers were injured or out of action due to illness. The troops lost 3,525 tanks and self-propelled artillery, 1,644 guns and mortars, and 1,450 combat aircraft.

The Red Army carried out the assault and capture of Budapest as part of the Budapest operation of the Soviet troops. It was carried out by the forces of two fronts of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian in the period from October 29, 1944 to January 13, 1945. Its goal was to defeat the German troops in Hungary and withdraw this country from the war.

Having launched an offensive operation in Hungary on October 29, 1944, only on December 26, the Soviet units were able to surround Budapest. However, the city itself was defended by the Hungarian-German garrison of 188 thousand people. In addition, the Germans did not lose hope of releasing their Budapest grouping. Before the start of the assault on December 29, our command sent an ultimatum to the garrison. But the proposals of the Soviet side were rejected, and the parliamentarians were vilely killed. After that, fierce battles for the city began.

On January 18, Soviet troops captured Pest, a part of the city located on the left bank of the Danube. Its right-bank part - Buda was turned by the Germans into an impregnable giant fortress. Here, fierce street fighting continued for another 4 weeks. This is largely due to the fact that our troops, trying to preserve the architectural monuments of Buda, practically did not use heavy artillery and aircraft. main role in the capture of Budapest, as well as during the assault on Koenigsberg, assault groups and sapper units played.

The battles for the Hungarian capital lasted about one and a half months - more than for any other European city that our troops took during the Second World War. Such stubborn resistance of the garrison is explained by the repeated attempts of the German high command to release the blockade of Budapest. Only after the failure of the most dangerous third attempt (January 18 - February 7, 1945) did the units settled in Buda lose hope of salvation and ceased resistance on February 13. More than 138 thousand soldiers and officers surrendered.

It is very difficult to determine the losses of the Soviet side during the assault on Budapest, but one thing is clear - they were very significant. This can be judged because during the entire Budapest operation, the Red Army lost 80,026 people killed and 240,056 wounded, as well as 1,766 tanks and self-propelled guns.

The capital of Austria was stormed by our troops as part of the Vienna operation, which became a logical continuation of the Budapest one. The Vienna offensive operation was carried out by the forces of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts from March 16 to April 15, 1945. Our units were opposed by the German Army Group South.

The Red Army began its offensive in the area of Lakes Balaton and Velence. The main blow was delivered north of Velence. This threatened the German troops with encirclement, so they began a hasty retreat from the bag prepared for them. As a result, on April 5, the advanced units of the Red Army reached the approaches to Vienna, where fierce battles immediately ensued.

The Austrian capital was well fortified, had a numerous well-armed garrison and an experienced commander - General of the SS Troops Zep Dietrich.

The direct assault on Vienna began on the morning of 6 April. By April 10, during stubborn battles, Soviet troops squeezed the city's garrison from three sides. This forced the Germans to start retreating to the west. On April 13, our units launched a decisive assault. The onslaught of the Soviet troops turned out to be so powerful that by the evening the Austrian capital had practically fallen. The remnants of the garrison hastily left the city along the last bridge over the Danube remaining in the hands of the Germans.

Preparing Vienna for defense, the Germans mined many architectural monuments and bridges across the Danube, intending to destroy the city in case of failure. According to the official Soviet version, the last assault on Vienna by our fighters was so swift that the Germans simply did not have time to blow it up. The Viennese themselves have a different version. They believe that a group of garrison officers, Austrians by nationality, played a huge role in saving their city from undermining. They de developed Operation Radetzky, in which they were going to surrender the city to Soviet troops without a fight. But the SS units that were part of the Vienna garrison put up fierce resistance to the Red Army, thereby frustrating these bright dreams. However, according to Western historians, it was the conspirators who managed to prevent the undermining of the city.

It is difficult to say what role the Austrian patriots actually played, but they certainly did not succeed in facilitating the assault on the city by our troops. This is eloquently evidenced by the figures of the losses of the Red Army in the Vienna operation - 168 thousand people killed and wounded.

The capture of Berlin is the largest and bloodiest offensive operation of the Soviet troops in Europe. The Berlin operation was launched on April 16, 1945 by units of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts. At dawn, they attacked the German units on the Oder line. The enemy offered desperate resistance, therefore, only by the end of April 19, the German defense line was finally broken through. By the evening of April 21, the tank armies of the 1st Ukrainian Front reached the outer defensive line of the German capital. On the same day, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front bypassed Berlin and continued their accelerated advance towards the Elbe. And only on April 26, parts of our two fronts closed the encirclement around the capital of the Third Reich.

On the same day, a direct assault on the city began. Our troops advanced from the north and south in converging directions towards the center of Berlin. The very next day, the enemy was pushed into the central part of the city in a strip 2-3 km wide, stretching for 16 km from west to east.

Overcoming the colossal resistance of the enemy, on April 28, the Soviet units managed to divide the German grouping in Berlin into three parts. The next day, the battles for the Reichstag began, and on April 30, scouts Mikhail Yegorov and Meliton Kantaria hoisted the banner of Victory on it. On May 1, at 3:50 a.m., the German command informed the Soviet command of Hitler's suicide and tried to start negotiations for an armistice. But the Headquarters demanded unconditional surrender from the Germans and gave them time to think until 10.00. Since there was no answer at the appointed time, our units again began to smash the remnants of the Berlin garrison in the area of the Imperial Chancellery. The battle here continued until 1.50 am on May 2, when the radio station of the Berlin defense headquarters transmitted in German and Russian: “We are sending our parliamentarians to the Bismarck Strasse bridge. We stop hostilities." By 3 pm on May 2, the remnants of the Berlin garrison, totaling more than 134,000 people, had surrendered.

On this, in fact, the battle for Berlin was over, however, the act of surrender of Germany was signed by representatives of the warring parties only on May 8. German resistance during the Berlin operation was desperate in the full sense of the word. This is evidenced by the fact that the losses of Soviet troops in it amounted to 361367 people killed and wounded (irretrievable losses - 81 thousand). And the average daily losses (15,712 people) were even higher than during the Battles of Stalingrad or Kursk.

The liberation of Warsaw is one of the most controversial episodes of World War II. In the summer of 1944, Soviet troops liberated Belarus during Operation Bagration. By the end of July, units of the Red Army crossed the Vistula south of Warsaw. In the northeast, our formations were already fighting on the near approaches to the Polish capital. It would seem that her release was a matter of several days, but then events took a very unusual turn.

In Poland, from the moment it was captured by the Germans in 1939, the so-called "Craiova Army" operated underground. It was subordinate to the London-based Polish government-in-exile led by Stanisław Mikolajczyk. Feeling that not today - tomorrow Soviet troops would enter Warsaw, the British government and the government of Poland in exile decided to raise an anti-German uprising in the country's major cities with the help of the Home Army.

However, the purpose of these speeches was by no means a desire to help the units of the Red Army, but to create pro-English bodies before they arrived in Warsaw. state power, declare independence and thereby prevent Poland from falling into the sphere of influence of the USSR. By the way, they even considered the option of countering the pro-Soviet administration by the Craiova Army, which could be created after the liberation of Poland by the Red Army.

The order to start the uprising in Warsaw was given by the commander of the Home Army, General Tadeusz Komorowski, nicknamed "The Boer", on July 31, 1944. At first, the actions of the rebels were successful - the effect of surprise affected. But then the Germans came to their senses and began to smash the detachments of the rebels. This was also facilitated by the fact that on August 4, Soviet troops stopped their attack on the Polish capital. The rebels were left face to face with the German garrison.

British Prime Minister Churchill and US President Roosevelt tried to persuade the Soviet Supreme Commander I.V. Stalin to continue the operation to liberate Warsaw, but received an answer that the units of the Red Army, after a 500-kilometer throw across the territory of Belarus, were exhausted and could not continue the offensive.

The Soviet government also refused to accept allied planes to their airfields, which were supposed to supply the Varsovians with weapons and ammunition. As a result, the rebels managed to hold out until October 2 and capitulated.

The Soviet attack on Warsaw began again only on January 12, 1945, and already on the 17th, the city was completely liberated without any problems.

Western historians, as a rule, blame Stalin for the failure of the Warsaw Uprising, who, in their opinion, deliberately stopped the movement of our armies, excused by their inability to attack, and gave the Germans the opportunity to drown the rebels in blood. On the one hand, this is probably true, but on the other hand, Stalin acted, although cruelly, but in strict accordance with the Yalta agreements, according to which the new government in Warsaw should not have any contacts with the London one. The British plan to prevent Poland from falling into the sphere of Soviet influence, like many of the actions of our allies, was extremely cynical towards the USSR and unprofitable for our country. Judge for yourself!

The Anglo-Polish plan finally became clear to Stalin on August 3, 1944, when he met in Moscow with the leader of the Polish government in exile, Mikolajczyk, who asked for support for the rebels, but rejected the proposal of the Soviet side to take into account its interests in the formation of authorities in Poland. Stalin proposed the creation of a coalition government from representatives of both pro-British and pro-Soviet Polish politicians. But Mikolajczyk bluntly rejected this proposal. In other words, he denied the USSR the right to participate in determining the post-war fate of Poland.

At the same time, he wanted British interests in this country to be paid for in blood. Soviet soldiers. Naturally, Stalin could not agree to this. And so already on August 4, the Russian armies froze in the suburbs of the Polish capital. Nevertheless, the USSR left Mikolajczyk the opportunity to save the fighters of the Home Army.

Another meeting between the Polish politician and Stalin took place on 9 August. At it, the Soviet leader again voiced the idea of a coalition government, but Mikolajczyk flatly refused to discuss this topic. In the end, to be frank, Stalin only gave the British and Poles the opportunity to decide the fate of Poland themselves (on their own). If they started a rebellion, they should have considered their capabilities. The Soviet Union simply stepped aside, it did not help the Home Army, but did not interfere with it either.

The results of British policy cost the Polish people dearly. It is estimated that over 150,000 Poles lost their lives during the Warsaw Uprising. Were such sacrifices worth a few seats in the coalition government of Poland, which could have been taken by pro-Soviet politicians? The answer must be asked not even from the Poles, but from the English "puppeteers".

In the battles for the liberation of Poland, the losses of the Soviet side amounted to 2016244 people, of which more than 600 thousand were irretrievable. Would it really be fair if all these people died for the British interests?

AT last days World War II, when almost the entire territory of Czechoslovakia was already liberated, Prague still continued to be controlled by German troops. This was primarily due to the fact that the Red Army was delayed in the so-called Ostrava operation. The enemy grouping defending here was destroyed only on April 30, 1945. As a result, the American troops of General Eisenhower turned out to be closer to Prague. On May 4, he informed Stalin that his units could take Prague. Mindful of the behavior of the allies in Warsaw history and realizing that if the Yankees take Prague, then the interests of the USSR will certainly not be taken into account when deciding the future fate of Czechoslovakia, even despite the Yalta agreements, Moscow sent Eisenhower a short but clear answer: “No need!”

In this case, the Americans did not dare to go against the USSR and froze on the line Karlovy Vary - Pilsen - Czech Budejovice, which was agreed back in Yalta.

Meanwhile, the Czech National Council, which consisted mainly of Czech communists, believing that the German garrison of the city was so demoralized that they would not offer serious resistance, decided to act independently and on May 5 raised an uprising in Prague. From a military point of view, this was absolutely ill-conceived and superfluous.

The first thing that started the uprising was that it turned out that the German garrison was not at all demoralized and would burn sedition in the city with a red-hot iron. In such a situation, the leaders of the rebels did not find any other way out but to turn to General Vlasov's "Russian Liberation Army" for help. Her leadership was in front of difficult choice. Ultimately, Vlasov General Sergei Bunyachenko realized that Prague could be a salvation for the ROA.

He decided to liberate the Czech capital from the Nazis and "throw it at the feet" of the Americans. For this, in his opinion, they will not extradite the Vlasovites to the Soviets. As a result, parts of the ROA entered Prague and fought there against the Germans. The Vlasovites acted so successfully that the German units began to run out of strength, without crushing the pockets of resistance of the rebels. Prague was practically liberated, and the time had come to “surrender” to the Yankees. On May 7, the Vlasovites sealed the entire city with leaflets with the slogan: "Death to Stalin, death to Hitler." At this point, the National Council became seriously worried and threw out a cry, picked up by the citizens of Prague: "Vlasovites, leave Prague."

On May 8, units of General Bunyachenko, upset by the ingratitude of the townspeople, left the Czech capital and began to make their way to the west in order to surrender to the Americans. And the fighting in the city flared up with renewed vigor.

On the evening of the same day, the Soviet command decided that it was necessary to save the rebels. The task of capturing Prague was to be solved by the tank armies of Generals Rybalko and Lelyushenko. They had to go through the night of May 8-9 with armored infantry fighting over a hundred kilometers to the Czech capital and liberate it. After tank units formations of the 13th Army and the 5th Guards Army marched on Prague. They coped with the task - on the morning of May 9, having knocked down the last German barriers on the outskirts of Prague, our tankers broke into the city. On May 11, Prague was completely cleared of German troops.

Tragic is the fate of the Vlasovites, who left Prague and hoped to surrender to the Americans. The Yankees simply gave the Soviet troops the opportunity to surround the ROA units on May 17. As a result, part of the Vlasovites fled, and part was destroyed - Soviet authority did not forgive them for their betrayal and intentions to “throw Prague at the feet” of the Americans. There is an opinion that for cooperation with the ROA they were arrested and received different dates some leaders of the Prague uprising, in particular General Kutlvarsh. However, this is not true. They were arrested because they started an adventure that no one needed and thereby killed many people in vain, both Czechs (townspeople) and Soviet soldiers who rushed to Prague regardless of the victims. Moreover, the Soviet side had nothing to do with repressions against the leaders of the Prague uprising - they were carried out by the new leadership of Czechoslovakia.

The liberation of the Yugoslav capital is perhaps the most unusual of all the operations that the Soviet army carried out in Europe.

Well, let's start with the fact that very little has been written about her in our country. Most people even have an opinion that Belgrade, like the whole of Yugoslavia, was liberated from the Germans by the heroic partisans of Josip Broz Tito. This is completely wrong!

In fact, until the autumn of 1944, that is, until units of the Red Army arrived on the territory of Yugoslavia, Tito's National Liberation Army (NOAJ) did not conduct serious military operations against the Germans. Its main opponent was the Serbian Chetnik nationalists of General Drazhe Mikhailovich, who were zealously supported by Britain, who dreamed of returning the king to Yugoslavia with their help. Only these fears forced Broz to keep in touch with Moscow.

Moreover, there was a completely unattractive fact in Tito's fate - he tried to negotiate with the German invaders. He offered to give them the entire lowland Yugoslavia, and to keep only the mountainous regions of Serbia, Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina. If the Germans would go for it, and also help him cope with the Serbian nationalists, then for his part Tito promised to open hostilities against the British if they landed in the Balkans, and to abandon the alliance with the USSR. Such an agreement could well have taken place if Hitler had not personally rejected it, rightly considering the Yugoslav leader a person who would easily violate any agreement if there was even the slightest benefit for him.

I would like to note that Tito did not conduct military operations against the Germans quite consciously, and not because, let's say, of his weakness Liberation Army. Judge for yourself: in the middle of 1944, the number of detachments of the NOAU was more than 650 thousand people. At the same time, the German grouping of troops in Yugoslavia consisted of only a little over 400 thousand soldiers. Perhaps, if desired, and with the military-technical support of the allied countries, Josip Broz could well deal with the German occupation units on his own.

Be that as it may, in September 1944, the troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front reached the capital of Yugoslavia, Belgrade. The actual operation to release him began on 28 September. The Germans desperately resisted, and therefore only on October 12 did the 4th mechanized corps of General Zhdanov approach the border of the city. The Sava river blocked the way for our troops. A bridge led through it to Belgrade, but it was not possible to capture it immediately. Zhdanov requested reinforcements from the command. Front commander Marshal Tolbukhin said that motorized units of the 1st NOAU Army Group under the command of resistance hero General Peko Dapchevich are rushing to the aid of our tankers at full speed.

Two days later, units of the NOAU actually arrived at the location of the 4th mechanized corps. Seeing them, Zhdanov was shocked. The promised reinforcements consisted of several dozen people in broken-down trophy trucks. At their head was a haggard, lanky man in a shabby uniform - this was Peko Dapcevic. However, the dashing Yugoslav warrior did not have to take courage - upon arrival, he joyfully informed Zhdanov that, by order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief of the NOAU, Josip Broz, he would liberate Belgrade together with the Russian units.

In response to this tirade, Zhdanov, waving his hand in the direction of the city, said to Dapchevich: “Beyond the bridge is your capital. Storm!"

Vigor Yugoslav as hand removed.

I'm not crazy about sending people to certain death, he said.

Does that mean I'm crazy? Zhdanov flared up.

After that, Zhdanov again contacted Tolbukhin, explained the whole anecdote of the situation and demanded "normal" reinforcements. The front commander said that the "tramps" from the NOAU must certainly enter the city along with our units - this is a political issue and decided at the very top. He could not give reinforcements, but together with the commander of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Konev, they allocated several artillery regiments and a strong assault air group to Zhdanov.

For three days, our aviation and artillery leveled the Yugoslav capital as a whole and the German positions on the banks of the Sava in particular. After that, our tanks with infantry and Yugoslav partisans on armor broke into the city. October 20 Belgrade was liberated from the Germans.

This is how Tito's partisans "liberated" Belgrade, and the rest of Yugoslavia. Why the lie about self-liberation was necessary for Josip Broz is understandable. With this, he could justify his policy of non-alignment, they say, we saved ourselves, and therefore we owe nothing to either the West or the Soviets. An interesting question is why the opinion has taken root in the minds of our compatriots that the Yugoslavs themselves dealt with the Germans on their territory. Apparently, this happened in the Khrushchev era, when relations between the USSR and Yugoslavia were greatly damaged by the behavior of our very colorful leader. It was during this period that it became profitable for the Soviet leader to say that the Yugoslavs saved themselves and did not owe us anything, because otherwise it turned out that his short-sighted policy towards Yugoslavia led to the fact that Tito turned away from Soviet Union, which means that the death of Soviet soldiers who liberated Yugoslavia was in vain.

Warsaw - the capital, largest city, political, economic, cultural and scientific center of Poland - was occupied by Nazi troops on September 28, 1939, during the period of occupation it was the center liberation struggle Polish people. It was liberated by Soviet troops and troops of the Polish Army on January 17, 1945 during the Warsaw-Poznan offensive operation.

The history of the liberation of Warsaw consists of several stages.

Stage 1 - 1944.

During the Belarusian offensive operation on July 31, 1944, the troops of the right wing of the 1st Belorussian Front (General of the Army K.K. Rokossovsky) approached the outskirts of Warsaw. On August 1, in the city under the leadership of the Home Army (General T. Bur-Komorowski), controlled by the Polish emigrant government, an uprising broke out aimed at capturing political power in the country and preventing the people's government, the Polish Workers' Party and the People's Army from leading the state. A patriotic impulse seized the townspeople, regardless of political affiliation. In the city, fierce battles broke out between the rebels and German troops (about 200 thousand people died during the uprising). To help the rebels, the units of the Polish Army, which were part of the 1st Belorussian Front, with the support of Soviet troops, crossed the Vistula within the city on September 15 and captured several bridgeheads on its left bank. However, it was not possible to keep them - General Bur-Komorowski refused to cooperate with his compatriots, and on October 2 the rebels capitulated. The uprising was brutally suppressed.

2nd stage - 1945.

During the Warsaw-Poznan offensive operation carried out by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front (Marshal G.K. Zhukov) on January 14 - February 3, 1945, the 1st Army of the Polish Army received the task of launching an offensive on the 4th day of the operation and in cooperation with the troops of the 47th, 61st and 2nd Guards Tank Armies of the Front, capture Warsaw. The Soviet 47th Army, having gone on the offensive on January 16, threw back the Nazi troops behind the Vistula, and immediately crossed it north of Warsaw. On the same day, the 2nd Guards Tank Army was brought into battle in the zone of the 5th shock army. She, having made a rapid throw for 80 km in a day, went to the Sokhachev area and cut off the escape routes of the Warsaw enemy grouping. On January 17, the troops of the 47th and 61st armies, together with the 1st army of the Polish Army, liberated Warsaw.

For the exemplary performance of combat missions during the Warsaw-Poznan offensive operation, many formations and units of the front were awarded orders and received honorary titles: "Warsaw", "Brandenburg", "Lodz", "Pomeranian" and others.

On January 17, 1945, the capital of Poland, Warsaw, was liberated by the forces of the 1st Belorussian Front and the 1st Army of the Polish Army. The city was under German occupation since September 28, 1939.

Since 1940, resistance forces have been operating on the territory of Poland, which have not ceased to fight against the invaders. Various armed formations fought for the liberation of the country: the Guards of Ludov, the Army of Ludov, the Home Army, and the Cotton Battalions. There were also mixed partisan detachments led by Soviet officers who found themselves on different reasons in enemy territory. These groups consisted of people of different political views, but united by one goal of fighting a common enemy. The main forces were: the Home Army (AK) oriented towards the Polish government in exile in London and the pro-Soviet Army of Ludov. The attitude of the AK representatives towards the Soviet troops that entered the territory of Poland was well described by the commander of the 1st Belorussian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union K.K. Rokossovsky. He recalled that the AK officers, who wore Polish uniforms, behaved arrogantly, rejected the proposal to cooperate in battles against the Nazi troops, declared that the AK obeyed only the orders of the Polish London government and its representatives ... They defined their attitude towards us in this way: “Against We won’t use weapons for the Red Army, but we don’t want to have any contacts either.” But in the future, the "Akovtsy" repeatedly opposed the units of the Red Army, incl. committing terrorist acts and sabotage in the rear of the advancing Soviet troops.

On August 1, 1944, AK forces, in accordance with their plan, codenamed "The Tempest", raised an uprising in Warsaw in order to liberate it without the help of Soviet troops and ensure the Polish government in exile the opportunity to return to Poland. If successful, this could be used by the Polish government in exile as an argument in the political struggle against the Polish Committee for National Liberation, created in July 1944, and the Home Rada Narodova, as well as in negotiations with the allies, primarily with the USSR, on the post-war state structure Poland.

But the well-armed German garrison in Warsaw, numbering about 15 thousand people, put up serious resistance. Soon it was reinforced by SS and police units and brought up to 50 thousand people. An attempt by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front to force the Vistula and join the rebels ended in failure. The Red Army, drained of blood after the Belarusian operation, and the 1st Army of the Polish Army operating in its composition could not fully assist the rebels. On October 2, the AK command capitulated. The uprising, which lasted 63 days, was defeated. Left-bank Warsaw was almost 90% destroyed.

The beginning of the offensive of the Soviet troops in Poland was scheduled for January 20, 1945. But on January 6, in connection with the major failure of the Anglo-American forces in the Ardennes, British Prime Minister W. Churchill turned to I.V. Stalin with a request to provide assistance and urgently conduct an offensive "on the front of the Vistula or somewhere else." To support the allies, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command had to limit the preparation time for, the beginning of which was postponed to January 12. An important part of this operation was the Warsaw-Poznan operation carried out by the forces of the 1st Belorussian Front, during which it was planned to dismember and destroy the enemy grouping in parts. One of the tasks of the operation was the liberation of the capital of Poland. The troops of the 1st Army of the Polish Army were to enter the city first.

On January 14, in order to encircle the Warsaw grouping of the enemy, the 61st Army of Colonel General P.A. began to attack. Belova. She struck south of the city. The next day, covering Warsaw from the north, Major General's 47th Army went on the offensive. During the day, she advanced to a depth of 12 km and went to the river. Wisla. At 8 am on January 16 from the bridgehead on the left bank of the river. Pilica, the 2nd Guards Tank Army was introduced into the gap, which began to develop an offensive in the direction of Sokhachev, pursuing enemy units defeated in previous battles and covering the right flank of the 46th Panzer Corps of the Nazis. The enemy command, fearing the encirclement of its troops in the Warsaw region, began to hastily withdraw them in a northwestern direction.

Tankers peeped out of the hatches. For such solemn occasion they put on instead of leather helmets confederates. “Long live Polish tankers!”, “Long live people’s Poland!” - sounded in Russian. "Someone's brotherhood of armor!" - rushed in response in Polish. The crossing of the tanks across the bridge was successful.”

The reconnaissance groups of the 2nd and 3rd Lancers managed to cling to the opposite bank and, pushing the Germans, seize the bridgehead. The commander of the cavalry brigade, Colonel Vladzimierz Radzivanovich, immediately sent his main forces there. Acting energetically and assertively, the cavalry brigade liberated the suburban villages of Oborki, Opach, Piaski by the end of the day, which allowed the Polish 4th Infantry Division to advance to its original positions in the Gura Kalwaria area.

In the center of the operational formation of the Polish army, the 6th Infantry Division of the Polish Army was advancing on the capital. Here the Nazis resisted especially stubbornly. Colonel G. Sheipak made the first attempt to cross the Vistula on the ice in the afternoon of January 16th. The enemy met the attackers with strong artillery fire. Shells and mines burst, forming large polynyas and blocking the way for the soldiers. But as soon as they lay down, a flurry of machine-gun fire fell upon them. I had to suspend the offensive and resume it only in the dark.

The offensive of the 47th and 61st Soviet armies developed very successfully. Gura Kalwaria and Piaseczno were released. The population of Piaseczno, young and old, poured into the streets, meeting the Soviet and Polish units with jubilant exclamations. The main forces of the 2nd Guards Tank Army advanced swiftly. It was necessary to accelerate the advance of the advanced units of the 1st Army of the Polish Army.

A flying rally took place in Piaseczno. Here is how S. Poplavsky recalls this: “One of the regiments of the 3rd Infantry Division passed through the city - the other two regiments were already fighting in the foreground of Warsaw. Three tanks with a group of submachine gunners on armor stopped on the square. When Yaroshevich and I approached them, we saw an officer who was surrounded by residents of the surrounding streets.

Sir, tell me, where did the Polish soldiers come from and by what miracle? asked an old man with a goatee and pince-nez.

There is a white eagle on the tanks... Are they really Polish? The skeletal-thin woman stared fixedly at the emblem adorning the armor with large moistened eyes.

The Germans were shouting over the radio day and night that there was no Polish army at all, and that the Soviet troops would never take Warsaw, - added a boy of about fifteen with his arm in a dirty sling.

The officer patiently answered questions, explaining that formidable fighting vehicles with a white eagle on their armor, and fair-haired guys in tank helmets, and submachine gunners in helmets - all this is a part of the new people's army - the Polish Army, which came to rescue their native land from under the fascist yoke " .

At 8 am on January 17, the 4th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Division of Jan Rotkevich was the first to break into the streets of Warsaw. Within 2 hours, he advanced to the largest and most popular Warsaw street - Marszałkowska. The 6th Infantry Regiment, advancing on the left flank of the division, had a harder time: on Invalid Square, it met the fierce resistance of the Nazis, who had settled in the old citadel. It was only thanks to the heroism of the soldiers and officers that this important stronghold was captured. The 6th Regiment then advanced towards Tzheha Kzhizhi Square. A battalion under the command of the Soviet officer Alexander Afanasyev was advancing ahead. During a fierce battle, it was possible to destroy an entire enemy unit, which had settled in the ruins of a corner building, while capturing serviceable guns, machine guns and ammunition. Interacting, the regiments of the 6th and 2nd divisions defeated the enemy in the Saxon Park, and one of the battalions of the 16th Infantry Regiment drove the Nazis from Palace Square with an unstoppable attack.

The battles for an important stronghold - the Main Station were very difficult. The enemy clung to every wing of the building, every corner. The shooting in this part of the city gradually subsided - the enemy retreated. But groups of German snipers and machine gunners were still firing from dilapidated buildings, from ruins and barricades.

At this time, the 1st cavalry brigade had already broken into the Mokotow urban area through Powsyn and Sluzhivets, the 1st infantry division, advancing through Grabice and Czarny Las, entered the Okentse area, and the 4th division, having circled the city from the south, occupied Krenchki, Petruvek.

The battle for the capital of Poland was drawing to a close. Bypassed on both sides by Soviet troops, who closed the encirclement in Sokhachev, then dismembered by blows from Polish units, the fascist group in Warsaw was defeated in street battles. Many Nazis, seeing the hopelessness of resistance, fled the city, others continued to fight with the despair of the doomed, some surrendered. Warsaw was liberated at 3 pm.

Following the 1st Army of the Polish Army, units of the 47th and 61st armies of the Soviet troops entered Warsaw.

"Fascist barbarians destroyed the capital of Poland - Warsaw," the military council of the front reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief.

He recalled: “With the fierceness of sophisticated sadists, the Nazis destroyed quarter after quarter. The largest industrial enterprises wiped off the face of the earth. Residential buildings were blown up or burned down. The city economy is destroyed. Tens of thousands of inhabitants were destroyed, the rest were expelled. The city is dead. Listening to the stories of the inhabitants of Warsaw about the atrocities committed by the German fascists during the occupation and especially before the retreat, it was even difficult to understand the psychology and moral character of the enemy troops.

Chief of Staff of the 1st Belorussian Front, Colonel-General M.S. Malinin reported to the Chief of the General Staff, General of the Army, that the enemy had left Warsaw mined. “In the course of demining, 5,412 anti-tank mines, 17,227 anti-personnel mines, 46 land mines, 232 “surprises”, over 14 tons of explosives, about 14,000 shells, bombs, mines and grenades were removed, collected and blown up.”

The liberation of Warsaw allowed the Red Army to advance significantly towards the German border and played an important role in the post-war relations between the USSR and Poland.

As a result of the 4-day offensive, the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front defeated the main forces of the enemy's 9th Army and not only broke through its tactical defense zone, but also captured the rear army strip (100-130 km). The breakthrough of the defense, which began in three directions, by January 17 merged into a single blow along the entire 270-kilometer front. The remnants of the defeated enemy formations under the blows of the Soviet troops hastily retreated to the west. The enemy reserves brought into the battle - the 19th and 25th tank divisions and part of the forces of the 10th motorized - suffered up to 50% losses and did not have a significant impact on the course of the operation.

However, despite the successful completion of the breakthrough of the enemy defenses, the troops of the front failed to encircle and destroy the main forces of the German 46th and 56th tank corps: the first - in the Warsaw area, the second - between the Magnushevsky and Pulawy bridgeheads.

In both cases, the enemy troops managed to get away from the complete defeat that threatened them.

The first stage of the Vistula-Oder operation, during which the capital of Poland, Warsaw, was liberated, was successfully completed. The German command did not expect such a rapid and deep advance of the Soviet troops and hastened to blame the commander of Army Group A, Colonel General J. Harpe and the commander of the 9th Army, General of Tank Forces S. Luttwitz, for this disaster on the Vistula. They were removed from their posts and replaced respectively by Colonel General F. Schörner and Infantry General T. Busse. The new command hoped to gain a foothold on the defensive lines prepared in the depths and delay the advance of the Red Army.

For the liberation of Warsaw, an award was established - the medal "For the liberation of Warsaw". It was awarded to servicemen of the Red Army, the Navy and the NKVD troops - direct participants in the battles of January 14-17, 1945, as well as organizers and leaders of military operations during the liberation of this city. More than 690 thousand people received the medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw".

In memory of the victory and as a symbol of military friendship between the two fraternal armies, a granite monument was erected in the suburbs of Warsaw - Prague. The Poles called it "Brotherhood of Armor". On granite in two languages - Polish and Russian - the words are carved: "Glory to the heroes of the Soviet army - comrades in arms who gave their lives for the freedom and independence of the Polish people!"

Today, the Polish government calls the liberation of Poland by the Soviet troops a "new occupation", trying to put the actions of fascist Germany and the Soviet Union on the same level. But the names of almost 580 thousand Soviet soldiers and officers of the Red Army, who in 1944-45 cannot be thrown out of history. gave their lives for the right of the Poles to have their own state.

Elena Nazaryan,
Junior Research Fellow, Research
Institute ( military history) Military Academy
of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Candidate of Historical Sciences

HQ DIRECTIVE No. 220275 TO THE COMMANDER OF THE TROOPS

1st BELARUSIAN FRONT TO DESTROY THE WARSAW-RADOM GROUP OF THE ENEMY

The Headquarters of the Supreme High Command orders:

1. Prepare and conduct an offensive operation with the immediate task of defeating the Warsaw-Radom grouping of the enemy and, no later than the 11-12th day of the offensive, capture the Petruwek, Zhikhlin, Lodz line. Further develop the offensive in the general direction of Poznan.

2. The main blow with the forces of four combined arms armies, two tank armies, one cavalry corps to deliver from the bridgehead on the river. Pilica in the general direction to Białobrzegi, Skierniewice, Kutno. With part of the forces, at least one combined arms army and one or two TCs, advance in a northwestern direction in order to roll up the enemy defenses in front of the right wing of the front and, with the assistance of the 2nd Belorussian Front, break the enemy’s Warsaw grouping and capture Warsaw ...

Russian archive: Great Patriotic. Headquarters of the VKG: Documents and materials 1944-1945. M., 1999

WARSAW-POZNAN OPERATION

An important part of the Vistula-Oder operation was the Warsaw-Poznan operation carried out by the forces of the 1st Belorussian Front (Marshal Zhukov), during which it was planned to dismember and destroy the enemy grouping in parts. One of the objectives of the operation was to capture the capital of Poland, Warsaw.

The Warsaw-Poznan operation unfolded on January 14, and on the night of January 17, the rout of the Warsaw group began. The 1st Army of the Polish Army crossed the Vistula north and south of the capital of Poland and broke into the city in the morning. From the Soviet side, the offensive was carried out by the 47th army of General Perkhorovich from the north and the army of General Belov from the southwest. General Bogdanov's 2nd Guards Tank Army also played an important role in the combined attack. By 12 noon, the Soviet-Polish forces completely liberated the destroyed, plundered and deserted Warsaw.

Participants of these events recalled that on the streets of the Polish capital they saw “only ashes and ruins covered with snow. The inhabitants of the city were emaciated and dressed almost in rags. Of the one million three hundred and ten thousand people of the pre-war population, only one hundred and sixty-two thousand now remain in Warsaw. After the incredibly brutal suppression of the Warsaw Uprising in October 1944, the Germans systematically destroyed all the historical buildings of the city...”.

To reward the direct participants in the liberation of Warsaw, at the request of the People's Commissariat of Defense of the USSR, the medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw" was established, which was received by more than 690 thousand people.

THE ORDER WAS NO TIME TO WRITE

By the morning of January 16, German resistance on both flanks was broken by Soviet troops. Soviet tanks cut communications deep in the rear of the 9th German Army. The front of the enemy trembled and wavered. In fact, the Warsaw operation was already won by parts Soviet army. Realizing the impossibility of holding Warsaw, the Nazis began to gradually withdraw their garrisons from Lazienki, Zoliborz, Vloch and the city center.

At 1 pm General Strazhevsky called me to the apparatus, briefly informed me about the beginning of the crossing of our troops in the Yablonnaya area and offered to conduct reconnaissance in battle in front of the brigade front.

The fight had to start in thirty minutes. In such conditions, there is no time to write an order. It is necessary to move on to personal control and organize the interaction of regiments simultaneously with the start of the battle ...

It was a bright sunny day. The ice on the river shimmered like crystal in the rays of the already warming sun. Clearly visible from the command post, the Polish soldiers, scattered in a chain, ran forward without lying down. The enemy opened fire on them. Shells burst on the river, breaking the ice. But by this time, our advanced units had already reached the left bank and began to assault the dam.

I sent squadrons from our right bank to support them. The ice was darkened by many people. The Polish national anthem, transmitted from the command post on the radio, sounded over the river.

Another minute - and the red panels of the squadron banners fluttered at the top of the dam ...

By dawn on January 17, we broke into Jezernaya and straddled the junction of coastal highways to Warsaw.

General Strazhevsky, having familiarized himself with the situation, said jokingly:

Now go straight to the capital. Your lancers should be there first! ..

For the first time in eighteen hours of uninterrupted fighting, I looked up from my phone to get into a car. I was shaking with fatigue.

Soon the 1st separate cavalry brigade, pushing back small enemy barriers, entered Warsaw and in the Krolikarni area connected with units of the 6th Polish infantry division. And at 2 pm on January 17, the commander of the 1st Polish Army, General Poplavsky, was able to send a historical telegram to the Provisional Polish Government in Lublin: “Warsaw is taken!”

V. Radzivanovich - commander of the 1st cavalry brigade of the revived Polish Army. Before the war, he served in the Red Army, holding positions from squadron commander to chief of staff of a regiment and brigade, from 1925 to 1937 he served in the border troops. By the time the Polish Army was formed in 1943, he commanded a guards mechanized brigade on the Southern Front.

BANNER OF POLAND OVER THE CITADEL

At 8 am on January 17, the 4th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Division of Jan Rotkevich was the first to break into the streets of Warsaw. Within two hours, he advanced to the largest and most popular Warsaw street, Marszałkowska. The 6th Infantry Regiment, advancing on the left flank of the division, had a harder time: on Invalid Square, it met the fierce resistance of the Nazis, who had settled in the old citadel, which served as a prison under tsarism. The enemy, apparently, expected to hold out for a long time behind its thick walls: consisting of selected SS men, his garrison was provided with ammunition, food and water for several months. And who knows, maybe the Nazis would have been able to delay the further offensive of the regiment here, if not for the heroism of the soldiers and officers.

To the lieutenant Anatol Shavara, the commander of the 2nd company of the 4th infantry regiment, the soldiers brought some man who wanted to tell something very important. A thin, long-unshaven face and the dirty rags in which he was dressed spoke better than any words about the difficult trials that befell the stranger. Unfortunately, the name of this Pole remained unknown.

Who you are? - asked his lieutenant.

Soldier of the Army of the People. Partizanil, took part in the Warsaw Uprising.

What do you want to report?

I will show you a passage in the fortress wall. Give me some zholnezhki, and I'll lead them there.

Okay, I'll go with you! - answered the lieutenant. Where they crawled, where they rushed closer to the citadel and rounded the fortress wall covered with snow.

You see, a little to the left, - the conductor pointed with his finger at the blackened hole in the wall. - They made a passage to go to the Vistula for water.

And of course, they covered him with a machine gun?

Yes, he is in that pillbox, on the right. If you capture it, you can break into the fortress.

It took mere minutes to draw up a bold plan, then the company began to implement it.

The liquidation of the firing point was entrusted to a platoon of cornet Zabinka, reinforced with a 45-mm gun. The rapid rush of the platoon was so sudden that the pillbox was captured before its inhabitants had time to raise the alarm.

Meanwhile, a handful of brave men, led by a partisan guide, loaded with boxes of dynamite, made their way to the main gate of the fortress. A few minutes later there was a strong explosion, and the heavy cast-iron gate leaves flew into the air. Without delay, two battalions of the 6th Infantry Regiment rushed to storm the citadel. After a heated firefight and lightning-fast hand-to-hand combat, the Nazis ceased resistance. More than two hundred enemy soldiers were captured here. The national banner of Poland flew over the citadel.

S. Poplavsky, a Pole by nationality, who joined the Red Army back in 1920, is a participant in many battles of the Great Patriotic War, commander of the rifle corps. The 1st Polish Army, which he commanded, together with the Soviet troops as part of the 1st Belorussian Front, participated in the liberation of his native Polish land.

IN TWO STAGES

The history of the liberation of Warsaw consists of two stages.

Stage 1 - 1944.

During the Belarusian offensive operation on July 31, 1944, the troops of the right wing of the 1st Belorussian Front (General of the Army K.K. Rokossovsky) approached the outskirts of Warsaw. On August 1, in the city under the leadership of the Home Army (General T. Bur-Komorowski), controlled by the Polish emigrant government, an uprising broke out aimed at seizing political power in the country and preventing the people's government, the Polish Workers' Party and the People's Army from leading the state. A patriotic impulse seized the townspeople, regardless of political affiliation. In the city, fierce battles broke out between the rebels and German troops (about 200 thousand people died during the uprising). To help the rebels, the units of the Polish Army, which were part of the 1st Belorussian Front, with the support of Soviet troops, crossed the Vistula within the city on September 15 and captured several bridgeheads on its left bank. However, it was not possible to keep them - General Bur-Komorowski refused to cooperate with his compatriots, and on October 2 the rebels capitulated. The uprising was brutally suppressed.

2nd stage - 1945.

During the Warsaw-Poznan offensive operation carried out by the troops of the 1st Belorussian Front (Marshal G.K. Zhukov), the 1st Army of the Polish Army received the task of launching an offensive on the 4th day of the operation and in cooperation with troops 47, 61 and 2 th Guards Tank Armies of the Front to capture Warsaw. The Soviet 47th Army, having gone on the offensive on January 16, threw back the Nazi troops behind the Vistula, and immediately crossed it north of Warsaw. On the same day, the 2nd Guards Tank Army was brought into battle in the zone of the 5th shock army. She, having made a rapid throw for 80 km in a day, went to the Sokhachev area and cut off the escape routes of the Warsaw enemy grouping. On January 17, the troops of the 47th and 61st armies, together with the 1st army of the Polish Army, liberated Warsaw.

Residents of Warsaw on the destroyed streets of the city after the liberation.

"THE CITY OF THE DEAD"

On January 17, the 1st Belorussian Front found itself on the same line as the 1st Ukrainian Front. On that day, the troops of the 1st Army of the Polish Army entered Warsaw. They were followed by the flank units of the 47th and 61st armies of the Soviet troops.

To commemorate this event, the Soviet government established the medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw", and a little later, such a medal was also established by the Polish government.

As after the defeat of the German troops near Moscow, Hitler carried out regular executions of his generals for the defeat in the Warsaw region. The commander of Army Group A, Colonel General I. Harpe, was replaced by Colonel General F. Scherner, and the commander of the 9th Army, General S. Lutwitz, was replaced by Infantry General T. Busse.

Having examined the tormented city, the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front reported to the Supreme:

“Fascist barbarians destroyed the capital of Poland - Warsaw. With the ferocity of sophisticated sadists, the Nazis destroyed quarter after quarter. The largest industrial enterprises have been wiped off the face of the earth. Residential buildings were blown up or burned down. The city economy is destroyed. Tens of thousands of inhabitants were destroyed, the rest were expelled. The city is dead."

Listening to stories about the atrocities committed by the German fascists during the occupation and especially before the retreat, it was even difficult to understand the psychology and moral character of the enemy troops.

The destruction of Warsaw was especially difficult for Polish soldiers and officers. I saw how battle-hardened warriors wept and swore an oath to punish an enemy that had lost its human form. As for the Soviet soldiers, we were all bitter to the extreme and determined to severely punish the Nazis for all the atrocities.

The troops boldly and quickly broke any resistance of the enemy and rapidly moved forward.

24 volleys of 324 guns

ORDER OF THE SUPREME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

Commander of the 1st Belorussian Front Marshal of the Soviet Union Zhukov

Chief of Staff of the Front, Colonel-General Malinin

Today, January 17, at 7 p.m., the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, on behalf of the Motherland, salutes the valiant troops of the 1st Belorussian Front, including the 1st Polish Army, which captured the capital of Poland, the city of Warsaw, with twenty-four artillery volleys from three hundred and twenty-four guns.

For excellent fighting I express gratitude to the troops under your command, including the troops of the 1st Polish Army, who took part in the battles for the liberation of Warsaw.

Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the battles for the freedom and independence of our Motherland and our allied Poland!

Death to the German invaders!

Supreme Commander

Russian archive: Great Patriotic. USSR and Poland. M., 1994

70 years ago, in January 1945, the strategic offensive of the Red Army began on the right flank of the Soviet-German front. Carried out by the forces of the 1st Belorussian and 1st Ukrainian fronts, it went down in history as the Vistula-Oder operation. One of the stages of the offensive was the liberation of the Polish capital on January 17, and it was carried out jointly with the fighters of the Polish Army. More than 700 thousand people were awarded the medal "For the Liberation of Warsaw".

Crosses for taking

This was a very significant fact in the very difficult relations between the two countries. Prior to this, our troops, in the main, stormed Warsaw. And, with mutual bitterness.

In 1794, during the uprising of Tadeusz Kosciuszko, the city was stormed by the troops of General Suvorov, who was promoted to field marshal by Catherine II. His subordinates were awarded the Cross "For the Capture of Prague2" (a suburb of Warsaw, there is another name for the award - the Cross "For the Capture of Warsaw").

Another assault took place in 1831 (during the suppression of the uprising of 1830-1831 in the Kingdom of Poland), under the leadership of Field Marshal Paskevich. Its participants were awarded a special medal "For the Capture of Warsaw".
In 1920, during the Soviet-Polish war, the third assault was to take place, but the offensive of the Red Army under the command of Tukhachevsky was stopped on the outskirts of Warsaw.

Help can't wait

Not everything turned out to be so simple with the liberation of the Polish capital during the Great Patriotic War. The troops of the right wing of the 1st Belorussian Front reached its approaches at the end of July 1944, during Operation Bagration, which ended in the defeat of the largest German army group Center. It would seem that one more onslaught - and Warsaw will be in the hands of the attackers. Moreover, Marshal Rokossovsky, a Pole and a native of this city, commanded the 1st Belorussian Front. In addition, in the rear of the Germans, on August 1, 1944, detachments of the Polish Home Army, under the leadership of the government in exile in London, raised an uprising in Warsaw.

Historians are still arguing about the reasons why the Red Army failed to liberate Warsaw in 1944. Some believe that the uprising of the Akovites (from AK - Home Army), which pursued a political goal - to take control of the most important objects of the Polish capital before the arrival of Soviet troops there - could not please Stalin. The offensive was halted and the Germans were given the opportunity to crush the poorly prepared performance of the anti-communist rebels.

Others believe that the Soviet troops, having traveled about 500 kilometers in a month and a half with fierce battles, exhausted themselves when they reached the Vistula, their ranks were greatly thinned, and the rear lagged behind. At the same time, our fighters and commanders came across the previously prepared positions of the Nazis in Poland and their fresh reserves, advanced from the depths - 5 tank divisions, which the Soviet troops counterattacked.

On August 1, 1944, the commander of the German Army Group Center, Field Marshal Model, categorically forbade his subordinates from any withdrawal from their positions. The enemy understood that the Red Army was standing at the gates of Germany.

At the same time, the Soviet command was not informed in a timely manner about the timing and objectives of the uprising, and therefore, given the above factors, it could not really support the rebels (except for artillery fire and individual air strikes).

Several bridgeheads on the left bank of the Vistula, captured in mid-September by units of the Polish Army with the support of Soviet troops, did not play a role in the end - the Akovites could not or did not want to break through to their compatriots. Nevertheless, the bridgeheads came in handy - in 1945 they played the role of springboards in the Soviet offensive.

The British and American allies also failed to provide significant assistance to the rebels (with the exception of a small transport supply of weapons and ammunition, which were delivered by air). Both due to the remoteness from the theater of operations, and due to the inconsistency of general plans with the fighters of General Bur-Komorovsky.

On October 2, 1944, the uprising, during which about 200 thousand people died, was suppressed, and there was an operational pause in this sector of the Soviet-German front until the beginning of 1945. The parties were preparing for a decisive battle. The defenders fortified their positions, the attackers accumulated ammunition and increased the number of troops.

Unpleasant surprise

On January 14, 1945, as part of the Vistula-Oder operation, a smaller-scale Warsaw-Poznan operation began. The troops of the 1st Belorussian Front were now commanded by Marshal Zhukov. And the enemy was no longer the same as last year. The offensive began with reconnaissance in combat by 25 forward battalions from pre-captured bridgeheads on a front of over 100 kilometers. For the Germans, this was an unpleasant surprise.

The Soviet 47th Army, having gone on the offensive on January 16, immediately crossed the Vistula north of Warsaw. On the same day, the 2nd Guards Tank Army cut off the escape routes of the Warsaw enemy grouping with a swift jerk of 80 kilometers.

On January 17, the troops of the 47th and 61st armies, together with the 1st army of the Polish Army, liberated Warsaw. The commander of the latter, Hero of the Soviet Union, General Poplavsky, recalled: “At 8 o’clock in the morning on January 17, the 4th Infantry Regiment of the 2nd Division of Jan Rotkevich was the first to break into the streets of Warsaw ... On January 17, 1945, at three o’clock in the afternoon, I radioed the Polish government and the Military Council 1 th Belorussian Front on the liberation of Warsaw. And in the evening, Moscow solemnly saluted the heroic Soviet and Polish soldiers with twenty-four artillery salvos from 224 guns."

In a combat report dated January 17, 1945, the headquarters of the 1st Army of the Polish Army to the chief of staff of the 1st Belorussian Front noted that by 17.00 the enemy’s organized resistance in the city had been broken, and only “scattered enemy groups remaining in individual houses and cellars of Warsaw".

In turn, having examined the captured city, the Military Council of the 1st Belorussian Front reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief that Warsaw had been destroyed:

"The largest industrial enterprises have been wiped off the face of the earth. Residential buildings have been blown up or burned down. The city economy has been destroyed. Tens of thousands of inhabitants have been destroyed, the rest have been expelled. The city is dead."

On the day of the capture of Warsaw, Hitler removed the commander of Army Group A, General Harpe, and the commander of the 9th Army, General von Lutwitz, from their posts. But this did not help the Germans.

Panic of some and skillful actions of others

The parties finally switched places. The German generals panicked, while their Soviet counterparts were not afraid to massively use troops in the directions of the main attacks. Plus, the advantage of the Red Army in equipment and weapons affected. There were up to 240-250 artillery pieces and mortars and up to 100 tanks and self-propelled guns per 1 km of the front. The 16th Air Army also worked skillfully, striking at the retreating German columns.

As a result, by January 18, the main forces of Army Group "A" were defeated, the defense was broken through to a depth of 100-150 kilometers. On January 19, units of the neighboring 1st Ukrainian Front entered German territory, and also liberated the second largest Polish city after Warsaw, Krakow. By the end of January, Soviet troops reached the distant approaches to Berlin, seizing bridgeheads on the western bank of the Oder.

The Third Reich had only a few months left to exist.