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WORKERS OF ALL COUNTRIES, UNITE!

TO THE ETERNAL MEMORY OF THOSE SOVIET PEOPLE WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES

IN THE STRUGGLE AGAINST FASCISM

INSTITUTE OF MARXISM-LENINISM, CC CPSU

Editorial Commission:

Pospelov P.N. (Chairman)

Andreyev V.A.

Bagramyan I.K.

Belov P.A.

Boltin Y.A. (Vice-Chairman)

Bragin M.G.

Grechko A.A.

Ilyichev L.F.

Khvostov V.M.

Kuchkin A.P.

Kukin D.M.

Kurasov V.V.

Mints I.I.

Moskovsky V.P. (Vice-Chairman) Obichkin G.D.

Osipov Z.S.

Polevoi B.N.

Rudenko S.I.

Sidorov A.L.

Sokolovsky V.D.

Telpukhovsky B.S. Timofeyevsky A.A.

Yeliseyev I.D.

Yepishev A.A.

Zakharov M.V.

Zemskov I.N.

Zheltov A.S. Zhilin P.A. Zhukov Y.M.

GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR OF THE SOVIET UNION

1941- 1945 A General Outline

Editorial board of the Second Russian Edition:

Minasyan M.M. (Editor-in-Chief)

Bogdanov P.P.

Burlyai A.A.

Krestnikova N.V. (Literary Editor) Prokofyev Y.A. (Asst. Editor-in-Chief) Yemelyanov A.P.

Yeryomina M.I.

Yershov A.G.

Authors:

Anisimov N.I. Bogdanov P.P. Bogush Y.Y. Boltin Y.A. Burlyai A.A. Dolgy M.S. Fokin N. A. Gurevich S.M. Klimov I.D. Minasyan M.M. Ostoya-Ovsyany 1.D. Pokrovsky S.S. Prokofyev Y.A. Raskat M.Y. Roshchin S.I. Sekistov V.A. Shekhovtsov N.I. Tamonov F.I. Tavrovskaya G.M. Telpukhovsky B.S. Traktuyev M.I. Vaksman L.S. Vasilenko V.A. Yemelyanov A.P. Ershov A.G. Zastavenko G.F.

Abridged translation from the 1970 Russian edition

Note from The Gay Bomb Squad 2026: This version was archived by Comrade Virgo in conjunction with a series of streams reading the text on stream. The goal of the archive was to make another version available outside of the scanned version found on Archive.org. The goal was to preserve the material as authentic to the scanned text as possible. Any typographical errors or unintended deviations from the Source, either through formatting errors or misunderstandings of the scan quality material, are Comrade Virgo’s mistakes and not representative of anything other than that: a mistake.
Original Source material: https://archive.org/details/greatpatrioticwarsovietunion/mode/1up

A nation in which the majority
of the workers and peasants realise, feel and see that they are fighting
for their own Soviet power,
for the rule of the working people,
for the cause whose victory will ensure them and their children
all the benefits of culture, of all that
has been created by human labour—such a nation can never be vanquished.

V.I.LENIN

Translated from the Russian by David Skvirsky and Vic Schneierson

Designed by Vladimir Yeryomin

Великая Отечественная война

Советского Союза Краткий очерк. 1941–1945

На английском языке

First printing 1974

© Translation into English. Progress Publishers 1974

B

10604 – 454

────────────

014(01) – 74 80 – 74

Printed in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

CONTENTS

Part I – EVE OF THE WAR

Chapter One. IMPERIALISTS START THE SECOND WORLD WAR

  1. War Danger Grows. USSR Fights for Peace
  2. Outbreak of the Second World War
  3. German Preparations for War Against the USSR

Chapter Two. THE SOVIET UNION BEFORE THE WAR

  1. Strengthening the Defences
  2. Security of Soviet Frontiers
  3. The Soviet Armed Forces

Part II – ARDUOUS TIMES

Chapter Three. BLITZKRIEG PLAN FRUSTRATED

  1. Sneak Attack on the USSR
  2. First Steps by the Party
  3. The Battle of Smolensk
  4. At the Approaches to Leningrad
  5. The Battles in the South

Chapter Four. THE SOVIET UNION BECOMES A UNITED MILITARY CAMP

  1. Armed Forces Grow Stronger
  2. Economic Reorganisation
  3. The Fight Behind Enemy Lines

Chapter Five. THE BATTLE OF MOSCOW

  1. The Heroic Defence
  2. Red Army Counter-Offensive at Moscow
  3. Red Army General Offensive, Winter 1942
  4. First Major Nazi Defeat
  5. The Peoples Join Hands

Chapter Six. BATTLES IN THE SUMMER AND AUTUMN OF 1942

  1. The Situation and the Plans
  2. Withdrawal from the Crimea
  3. Soviet Setback at Kharkov
  4. Battles at Voronezh and in the Donets Basin
  5. The Heroic Defence of Stalingrad
  6. Battles in the Northern Caucasus

Chapter Seven. MOBILISATION OF THE REAR IN 1942

  1. Build-up of an Efficient War Economy
  2. Science, Technology, Art and Literature
  3. War-Time Living

The Other War Theatres

The First Period of the War – A Brief Summary

Part III – THE TIDE IS TURNED

Chapter Eight. THE STALINGRAD VICTORY

  1. Before the Offensive
  2. The Ring Closes
  3. Wiping Out the Surrounded Enemy
  4. Impact of the Stalingrad Victory
  5. The Beginning of the End

Chapter Nine. THE KURSK SALIENT

  1. Before the Battle
  2. The Enemy Did Not Pass
  3. A Blow in Retaliation

Chapter Ten. BATTLE FOR THE DNIEPER

  1. The Enemy Is Driven Out of the Region East of the Dnieper. Liberation of the Donets Basin
  2. Liberation of Kiev. Battles to Englarg Bridgeheads on the Dnieper
  3. Central Sector of the Front
  4. Unsubdued Soviet Territory

Chapter Eleven. FURTHER LEAP IN PRODUCTION. THE SOVIET UNION’S INTERNATIONAL SITUATION IMPROVES

  1. The Nation Puts Its Shoulder to the Wheel
  2. Anti-Fascist Coalition Solidifies
  3. Upsurge of the National Liberation Movement

Other Theatres of War in 1943

The Second Period of the War – A Brief Summary

Part IV – COLLAPSE OF NAZI GERMANY

Chapter Twelve. RED ARMY OFFENSIVE IN THE WINTER AND SPRING OF 1944

  1. Before the Offensive
  2. Battles at Leningrad and Novgorod
  3. Victory in the Ukraine and the Crimea

Chapter Thirteen. IN THE MAIN DIRECTION

  1. Plans of the Belligerents. Beginning of the 1944 Summer-Autumn Campaign
  2. Eve of the Liberation of Byelorussia
  3. Rout of the Enemy in Byelorussia
  4. End of Nazi Rule in the Ukraine

Chapter Fourteen. LIBERATION OF THE SOVIET BALTIC REPUBLICS

  1. Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the Autumn of 1944
  2. The Enemy Is Driven out of Estonia
  3. The Enemy’s Final Defeat in Lithuania
  4. Liberation of Latvia

Chapter Fifteen. COMMENCEMENT OF THE LIBERATION OF EUROPE

  1. In Poland
  2. Enemy Defeat at Jassy and Kishinev. Liberation of the Moldavian SSR and Rumania
  3. Liberation of Bulgaria
  4. Aid to the Slovak Uprising. Beginning of Czechoslovakia’s Liberation
  5. Liberation of Belgrade
  6. Enemy Defeat in Hungary

Chapter Sixteen. THE SECOND FRONT

  1. Before the Landing
  2. Fighting in France and Belgium

Chapter Seventeen. LABOUR FEAT OF THE PEOPLE. IDEOLOGICAL WORK OF THE PARTY

  1. Heroic Labour Behind the Firing Lines
  2. Economic Rehabilitation
  3. Life of Soviet People
  4. The Party’s Ideological Work

Chapter Eighteen. DEFEAT OF THE ENEMY IN THE WINTER OF 1945

  1. Position and Plans of the Belligerents
  2. Liberation of Poland
  3. Victory in East Prussia
  4. At the Southern Approaches of Nazi Germany
  5. The Crimea Conference

Chapter Nineteen. DOWNFALL OF NAZI GERMANY

  1. Defeat of the Berlin Group
  2. Liberation of Czechoslovakia
  3. The Surrender

Chapter Twenty. STRUGGLE OF THE USSR FOR A DEMOCRATIC PEACE AND INTERNATIONAL CO-OPERATION

  1. The Soviet Union and the Post-War Organisation of the World
  2. Soviet Support for the Independence Struggle of the Peoples of Europe
  3. Potsdam Conference

The Third Period of the War – A Brief Summary

Part V – DEFEAT OF MILITARIST JAPAN

Chapter Twenty-One. ROUT OF THE FAR EASTERN AGGRESSOR

  1. Military and Political Situation
  2. Collapse of the Kwantung Army
  3. Significance of the Red Army’s Victory in the Far East

Part VI – RESULTS OF THE WAR

Chapter Twenty-Two. HISTORIC VICTORY OF THE USSR

  1. Main Results and Consequences of the War
  2. The Soviet Union’s Decisive Role in Defeating the Fascist Bloc
  3. Superiority of the Economic and Political System and Ideology of Socialism
  4. Might of the Soviet Armed Forces
  5. Fighting Behind the Enemy Lines
  6. The Communist Party—Organiser and Inspirer of Victory
  7. People, Be Vigilant

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