1941

  Exhibition of samples of captured weapons - an exhibition of trophies captured by the Red Army during the Great Patriotic War. Acted in the Moscow Central Park of Culture and Rest named after Gorky from June 22, 1943 to October 1, 1948. During its existence, the exhibition was visited by more than 7.5 million people.   (An interesting fact, during the "March of Prisoners" German prisoners passing by Gorky Park could clearly see this exhibition from the Crimean bridge) Creature The decision to create the exhibition was adopted by the State Defense Committee on April 13, 1943. The exhibition is open on June 22, 1943. Major General Ivanov was appointed the head of the exhibition. Exposition The exposition was divided into 6 departments: Artillery; Aviation; Automotive; Armored; Engineering; The rear department. Each department, in turn, included a number of departments. Oversized exhibits - heavy machinery and engineering equipment - were l...

In just 6 months of 1941 Soviets lost (mostly captured) 5 and a half million rifles and 189 000 machine guns, reflecting the destruction of Soviet prewar army and more. In entire 1942 despite grievous losses in late spring and summer and most ferocious battles in military history in autumn, the loss was ‘only’ 2 180 000 rifles and 101 000 machine guns. In double the time losses more than halved mostly due to lost impact of ‘sucker punch’, surprise attack, but also growing abilities of Soviet side and ending of one side show. In 1943 Soviets lost more than 1 million rifles and 100 000 machine guns, again halving the losses of rifles despite being more or less on continuous offensive at neck braking pace. Lines in 1943 moved from Caucasus and Volga into western Ukraine and from approaches to Moscow to White Russia, lengths that dwarfed even Barbarossa. Gigantic production of arms compensated for these losses and by 1/1/1943 Soviets had 5 620 000 rifles and 1 100 000 machine pistol...