1941

In the early morning of December 30, 1941, aterrible picture unfolded in front of a landing party of red sailors on theKerch Peninsula: four thousand citizens from the city, in Bagerovsky Moat, layseven thousand citizens of the city and its environs, torn to pieces by Germanfascists and their minions - policemen and spies. The moat for a kilometer,four meters wide, to a depth of two meters was full of the corpses of women,children, the elderly, adolescents. Near the moat were frozen puddles of blood.There were also baby hats, toys, ribbons, torn buttons, gloves, bottles withnipples, stumps of arms, legs and other parts of the body. All this wassplattered with blood, brains. At the edge of the moat lies a tormented youngwoman. In her dying embrace, an infant is neatly wrapped in a white laceblanket. Next to her lie an 8-year-old girl and a boy of about 5, shot throughby explosive bullets. Their arms gripped her mother’s dress. Next to this womanlies the corpse of another woman. As if...

The march of captured Germans in Moscow (also the Parade of the Vanquished, Operation Big Waltz) took place on Monday, July 17, 1944. About 57,000 German soldiers and officers, mostly captured by the troops of the 1st, 2nd and 3rd Belorussian fronts, marched in columns along the Garden Ring and other streets of the capital. During Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944, the German Army Group Center was defeated. About 400,000 soldiers and officers were destroyed or captured. These losses were much higher than the Stalingrad. Of the 47 generals of the Wehrmacht who fought as commanders of corps and divisions, 21 were captured. Allies doubted such a grand defeat of the Germans in Belarus. It was a good opportunity to demonstrate the successes of the USSR in the war, to raise the spirit of Muscovites and residents of other cities. It was decided to hold captive Germans, led by their generals, through the streets of Moscow and Kiev. The operation was carried out by the NKVD, ...