Soviet History: The Great Patriotic War

The Nazi invasion of the USSR in June 1941 heralded the beginning of the most titanic battle in the history of humanity. The war ended in complete defeat for Nazi Germany less than four years later with the fall of Berlin on May 9, 1945. Over 20,000,000 Soviet citizens and soldiers died in the struggle to liberate the Motherland from the fascist aggressors.

Special Collection: The Partisan Resistance

⊙ Before the War

Leon Trotsky on the Rise of German Fascism
A complete collection of Trotsky's writings on Germany covering the years 1930 through 1940.

Dimitrov versus Göbbels Georgi Dimitrov (March 1933 — February 1934)
Letters, writings and transcripts from courtroom hearings from the period of Dimitrov's trial in fascist Germany

Unity of the Working Class against Fascism Georgi Dimitrov (August 13, 1935)
Concluding speech before the Seventh World Congress of the Communist International

Youth Against Fascism Georgi Dimitrov (September 25, 1935)

The People's Front Georgi Dimitrov (December 1935)

Fascism is War Georgi Dimitrov (July 18, 1936)

Soviet Peace Efforts on the Eve of World War II (September 1938-August 1939): Documents and Records (pdf) Ministry of Foreign Affairs (1973)

The Meaning of the Soviet-German Non-Aggression Pact (pdf) V. Molotov (August 1939)

Soviet Peace Policy (pdf ^*) V. Molotov (August 1939 - August 1940)

The Russo-German Alliance: August 1939 – June 1941, 1949

⊙ 1941: Invasion

The attack by fascist Germany; Mobilization of resources; Birth of the partisan resistance; Creation of the Anti-Hitler Coalition; The fall of Smolensk; The seige of Leningrad begins; The defense of Moscow.

Radio Address (pdf) Vyacheslav Molotov (June 22, 1941)
On June 22, 1941 the German Wehrmacht rolled into the Soviet Union. Later that day, V. M. Molotov, People's Commissar of Foreign Affairs, took to the airwaves to inform the Soviet people of the German invasion.

The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet People, Yemelyan Yaroslavsky, 23 June 1941

"Liberation France is Linked Victory Soviet Union" Maurice Thorez (June 25, 1941)
On June 22, 1941 the Wehrmacht rolled into the Soviet Union. Three days later Thorez and long-time party leader André Marty sent the following telegram to Jacques Duclos, who is responsible for the Party within France.

Radio Broadcast J.V. Stalin (July 3, 1941)

Russia on the March: a study of Soviet Foreign Policy J. T. Murphy (June, 1941)
"I had just received the proofs of this book when, with dramatic suddenness, Hitler and his gangsters opened up a new phase of the world war. Without preliminary negotiation or warning their air forces dropped their bombs and their armies crashed across the frontiers of Soviet Russia." — J.T. Murphy

Speech at Celebration Meeting of the Moscow Soviet J.V. Stalin (November 6, 1941)

Speech at the Red Army Parade on the Red Square, Moscow J.V. Stalin (November 7, 1941)

⊙ 1942: The War Escalates

Renewal of the German offensive; The Battle of Stalingrad begins; The defense of the Caucasus.

The Molotov Notes on German Atrocities (pdf ^*) (1942)
Notes sent by V.M. Molotov, People's Commisar for Foreign Affairs to all governments with which the USSR has diplomatic relations

The Soviet Fighting Forces (pdf ^*) Major A.S. Hooper (1942)

We Are Guerillas (pdf ^*) (1942 approx.)
An account of the work of Soviet Partisans behind Nazi lines

Order of the Day, No. 55 J.V. Stalin (February 23, 1942)

A Just War by Klavdia Nikolaeva (May 1942)

Order of the Day, No. 130 J.V. Stalin (May 1, 1942)

Lieutenant Liudmila Pavlichenko to the American People (October 1942)

Answers to Associated Press Moscow Coorespondent's Questions J.V. Stalin (October 3, 1942)

The Turning Point in World War II Mao Zedong (October 12, 1942)

Speech at Celebration Meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Working People's Deputies and Moscow Party and Public Organizations J.V. Stalin (November 6, 1942)

Order of the Day, No. 345 J.V. Stalin (November 7, 1942)

The Allied Campaign in Africa J.V. Stalin (November 13, 1942)

Stalingrad Diary (pdf ^*) Erich Weinert (December 1942 - January 1943)

⊙ 1943: The Turning Point

"The Road of Life" opened at Leningrad; Dissolution of the Communist International; Victory at Stalingrad; The Battle of Kursk; The liberations of Smolensk, Khrakov, Donbass, and Eastern Ukraine and Belorussia.

Order of the Day J.V. Stalin (January 25, 1943)

Order of the Day to the Don Front J.V. Stalin (February 2, 1943)

Order of the Day, No. 95 J.V. Stalin (February 23, 1943)

Soviet-Polish Relations (pdf ^*) (May 1943)
Includes documents by I.M. Maisky (Soviet Ambassador to Great Britain), J.V. Stalin, the Soviet Government, and A.T. Vyshinsky (Assistant People's Commisar of Foreign Affairs)

Order of the Day, No. 195 J.V. Stalin (May 1, 1943)

Polish-Soviet Relations J.V. Stalin (May 4, 1943)

Cables to Mr. Churchill and Mr. Roosevelt on the North African Victory J.V. Stalin (May 7, 1943)

Dissolution of the Communist International (May 15, 1943)

The Comintern Has Long Ceased to Meddle in our Internal Affairs Mao Zedong (May 26, 1943)

Order of the Day J.V. Stalin (July 24, 1943)

Order of the Day J.V. Stalin (August 5, 1943)

Order of the Day J.V. Stalin (November 6, 1943)

Speech at Celebration Meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Working People's Deputies and Moscow Party and Public Organizations J.V. Stalin (November 6, 1943)

Order of the Day, No. 309 J.V. Stalin (November 7, 1943)

⊙ 1944: Counterattack

The Red Army's drive into Eastern Europe and Germany; Liberation of the Baltic states; The seige of Leningrad is lifted; Liberation of the Russian Federation.

The Might of the Soviet State (pdf ^*) M.I Kalinin (1944)

Order of the Day, No. 16 J.V. Stalin (February 23, 1944)

Why We Win (pdf ^*) M.I. Kalinin (April and November 1944)

Order of the Day, No. 70 J.V. Stalin (May 1, 1944)

The Soviet Worker Looks at the War (pdf ^*) (June 1944)
Selections from the Moscow Fortnightly War and the Working Class

On the Allied Landing in Northern France J.V. Stalin (June 13, 1944)

Order of the Day Addressed to Army-General Meretskov J.V. Stalin (June 29, 1944)

Order of the Day to Army-General Chernyakhovsky J.V. Stalin (July 3, 1944)

Order of the Day to Army-Generals Chernyakhovsky and Marshal Rokossovsky J.V. Stalin (July 13, 1944)

Order of the Day to Army-General Tolbukhin and Malinovsky J.V. Stalin (August 24, 1944)

Order of the Day to Marshal Govorov J.V. Stalin (September 22, 1944)

Order of the Day to Army-Generals Maslennikov and Yeremenko J.V. Stalin (October 13, 1944)

Meeting of the Moscow Soviet of Working People's Deputies and Moscow Party and Public Organizations J.V. Stalin (November 6, 1944)

Order of the Day, No. 220 J.V. Stalin (November 7, 1944)

⊙ 1945: Victory

The Yalta Conference; Liberation of Auschwitz (Birkenau), Stutthof, Sachsenhausen, and Ravensbrueck concentration camps, Liberation of Poland, Hungary and Austria; The Fall of Berlin.

Order of the Day, No. 223 J.V. Stalin (January 17, 1945)

Stalin the Soldier (pdf ^*) H. Kahle (February 1945)

Order of the Day, No. 277 J.V. Stalin (February 13, 1945)

Order of the Day, No. 5 J.V. Stalin (February 23, 1945)

Order of the Day, No. 334 J.V. Stalin (April 13, 1945)

The Treaty of Friendship, Mutual Assistance and Post-War Collaboration bewteen the U.S.S.R. and the Polish Republic J.V. Stalin (April 21, 1945)

Message Broadcast on the Evening of April 27, 1945, to the Officers and Men of the Red Army and of the Armies of the Allies on the Occasion of their Linking up on German Soil J.V. Stalin (April 27, 1945)

Order of the Day, No. 20 J.V. Stalin (May 1, 1945)

Berlin Impressions After I. Kudrevatykh (May 1, 1945)

Order of the Day, No. 359 J.V. Stalin (May 2, 1945)

Order of the Day, No. 368 J.V. Stalin (May 9, 1945)

Order of the Day, No. 369 J.V. Stalin (May 9, 1945)

Victory Speech J.V. Stalin (May 9, 1945)

Germany Surrenders! Reported by Lieutenant-Colonel L. Vysokoöstrovsky and Lieutenant-Colonel P. Troyanovsky (May 9, 1945)

Concerning the 16 Arrested Polish Diversionists J.V. Stalin (May 18, 1945)

Toast to the Russian People at a Reception in Honour of Red Army Commanders J.V. Stalin (May 24, 1945)

Order of the Day, No. 370 J.V. Stalin (June 22, 1945)

Year of Victory, (pdf) war memoir by I. Konev, Marshal of the Soviet Union (Moscow, 1966)

⊙ Post War Recovery and Rehabilitation

h-s

Soviet Economy During the Second World War (pdf ^*) N.A. Voznesensky

Law on the Five-Year Plan for the Rehabilitation and Development of the National Economy of the U.S.S.R. (pdf) (Adopted March 18, 1946)

Results of Fulfillment of Five-Year Plan of the U.S.S.R. for 1946-1950 (pdf) The State Planning Committee of the USSR & The Central Statistical Administration of the USSR (April 16, 1951)

⊙ Soviet Overviews of the War

h-s

On the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union. Speeches, Orders of the Day, and Answers to Foreign Correspondents (pdf) J. V. Stalin (pdf)

The Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union, 1941-1945. A General Outline (pdf) (1974)

The Second World War. A Politico-Military Survey (pdf) Grigory Deborin. Survey history of the war, edited by Major General I. Zubkov

Liberation Mission of the Soviet Armed Forces in the Second World War (pdf). Edited and prefaced by Marshal A.A. Grechko (1975)

Secrets of the Second World War (pdf) Grigory Deborin (1971)

"The Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", chapter 3 of Soviet Armed Forces, A Safeguard of Peace: History, Foundations, Mission, by Mikhail Sibilev (1988)

Acknowledgements

* Selected documents provided courtesy of Direct Democracy (Communist) Party, Socialist Truth in Cyprus, and Socialist Party of Cyprus.