Years of the 2nd World War. How did the war affect the distribution of forces on the world stage?

September 2 is celebrated in the Russian Federation as “The Day of the End of World War II (1945).” This memorable date was established in accordance with the Federal Law “On Amendments to Article 1(1) of the Federal Law “On Days of military glory and memorable dates of Russia”, signed by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev on July 23, 2010. Military Glory Day was established in memory of compatriots who showed dedication, heroism, devotion to their homeland and allied duty to the countries that were members of the anti-Hitler coalition in implementing the decision of the Crimean (Yalta) conference of 1945 on Japan. September 2 is a kind of second Victory Day for Russia, victory in the East.

This holiday cannot be called new - on September 3, 1945, the day after the surrender of the Japanese Empire, Victory Day over Japan was established by Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. However, for a long time this holiday was practically ignored in the official calendar of significant dates.

The international legal basis for establishing the Day of Military Glory is the Act of Surrender of the Empire of Japan, which was signed on September 2, 1945 at 9:02 am Tokyo time on board the American battleship Missouri in Tokyo Bay. On the Japanese side, the document was signed by Foreign Minister Mamoru Shigemitsu and Chief of the General Staff Yoshijiro Umezu. Representatives of the Allied Powers were Supreme Commander of the Allied Powers Douglas MacArthur, American Admiral Chester Nimitz, Commander of the British Pacific Fleet Bruce Fraser, Soviet General Kuzma Nikolaevich Derevyanko, Kuomintang General Su Yong-chang, French General J. Leclerc, Australian General T. Blamey, Dutch Admiral K. Halfrich, New Zealand Air Vice-Marshal L. Isit and Canadian Colonel N. Moore-Cosgrave. This document put an end to the Second World War, which, according to Western and Soviet historiography, began on September 1, 1939 with the attack of the Third Reich on Poland (Chinese researchers believe that the Second World War began with the attack of the Japanese army on China on July 7, 1937).

Do not use prisoners of war for forced labor;

Provide units located in remote areas with additional time to cease hostilities.

On the night of August 15, the “young tigers” (a group of fanatical commanders from the department of the War Ministry and the capital’s military institutions, led by Major K. Hatanaka) decided to disrupt the adoption of the declaration and continue the war. They planned to eliminate the "peace supporters", remove the text with a recording of Hirohito's speech about accepting the terms of the Potsdam Declaration and ending the war by the Empire of Japan before it was broadcast, and then persuade the armed forces to continue the fight. The commander of the 1st Guards Division, which guarded the imperial palace, refused to take part in the mutiny and was killed. Giving orders on his behalf, the “young tigers” entered the palace and attacked the residences of the head of government Suzuki, Lord Privy Seal K. Kido, Chairman of the Privy Council K. Hiranuma and the Tokyo radio station. However, they could not find the tapes with the recording and find the leaders of the “peace party”. The troops of the capital garrison did not support their actions, and even many members of the “young tigers” organization, not wanting to go against the emperor’s decision and not believing in the success of the cause, did not join the putschists. As a result, the rebellion failed within the first hours. The instigators of the conspiracy were not tried; they were allowed to commit ritual suicide by cutting open the abdomen.

On August 15, an appeal was broadcast on the radio Japanese Emperor. Considering high level self-discipline among Japanese government and military leaders, a wave of suicides occurred in the empire. On August 11, the former Prime Minister and Minister of the Army, a staunch supporter of the alliance with Germany and Italy, Hideki Tojo, tried to commit suicide with a revolver shot (he was executed on December 23, 1948 as a war criminal). On the morning of August 15, “the most magnificent example of the samurai ideal” and the Minister of the Army, Koretika Anami, committed hara-kiri; in his suicide note, he asked the emperor for forgiveness for his mistakes. The 1st Deputy Chief of the Naval General Staff (previously the commander of the 1st Air Fleet), the “father of kamikazes” Takijiro Onishi, Field Marshal, committed suicide Imperial Army Japan Hajime Sugiyama, as well as other ministers, generals and officers.

The cabinet of Kantaro Suzuki resigned. Many military and political leaders began to favor the idea of ​​a unilateral occupation of Japan by US troops in order to preserve the country from the threat of the communist threat and preserve the imperial system. August 15th were discontinued fighting between the Japanese armed forces and the Anglo-American forces. However, Japanese troops continued to offer fierce resistance to the Soviet army. Parts of the Kwantung Army were not given the order to cease fire, and therefore the Soviet troops were also not given instructions to stop the offensive. Only on August 19, a meeting between the commander-in-chief of Soviet troops in the Far East, Marshal Alexander Vasilevsky, and the chief of staff of the Kwantung Army, Hiposaburo Hata, took place, where an agreement was reached on the procedure for the surrender of Japanese troops. Japanese units began to surrender their weapons, a process that dragged on until the end of the month. The Yuzhno-Sakhalin and Kuril landing operations continued until August 25 and September 1, respectively.

On August 14, 1945, the Americans developed a draft of “General Order No. 1 (for the Army and Navy)” on accepting the surrender of Japanese troops. This project was approved by American President Harry Truman and on August 15 it was reported to the allied countries. The draft specified the zones in which each of the Allied powers had to accept the surrender of Japanese units. On August 16, Moscow announced that it generally agreed with the project, but proposed an amendment - to include all Kurile Islands and the northern half of Hokkaido. Washington did not raise any objections regarding the Kuril Islands. But regarding Hokkaido, the American President noted that the Supreme Commander of Allied Forces in the Pacific, General Douglas MacArthur, was surrendering to the Japanese armed forces on all the islands of the Japanese archipelago. It was specified that MacArthur would use symbolic armed forces, including Soviet units.

American government from the very beginning there was no intention of letting the USSR into Japan and rejected allied control in post-war Japan, which was provided for by the Potsdam Declaration. On August 18, the United States put forward a demand to allocate one of the Kuril Islands for the American Air Force base. Moscow rejected this brazen advance, declaring that the Kuril Islands, according to the Crimean Agreement, are the possession of the USSR. The Soviet government announced that it was ready to allocate an airfield for landing American commercial aircraft, subject to the allocation of a similar airfield for Soviet aircraft in the Aleutian Islands.

On August 19, a Japanese delegation led by Deputy Chief of the General Staff, General T. Kawabe, arrived in Manila (Philippines). The Americans notified the Japanese that their forces must liberate the Atsugi airfield on August 24, the Tokyo Bay and Sagami Bay areas by August 25, and Kanon Base and the southern part of Kyushu Island by mid-day on August 30. Representatives of the Imperial Japanese Armed Forces requested a delay in the landing of the occupying forces by 10 days in order to strengthen precautions and avoid unnecessary incidents. The request of the Japanese side was granted, but for a shorter period. The landing of the advanced occupation forces was scheduled for August 26, and the main forces for August 28.

On August 20, the Japanese in Manila were presented with an Act of Surrender. The document provided for the unconditional surrender of the Japanese armed forces, regardless of their location. Japanese troops were required to immediately cease hostilities, release prisoners of war and interned civilians, ensure their maintenance, protection and delivery to designated places. On September 2, the Japanese delegation signed the Instrument of Surrender. The ceremony itself was structured to show main role United States in victory over Japan. The procedure for the surrender of Japanese troops in various areas of the Asia-Pacific region dragged on for several months.

Start Second world wars(September 1, 1939 – June 22, 1941).

At dawn on September 1, 1939, the troops of the German Wehrmacht suddenly launched military operations against Poland. Using overwhelming superiority in forces and means, the Nazi command was able to quickly achieve large-scale operational results. Despite the fact that France, Great Britain and the countries of the British Commonwealth immediately declared war on Germany, they never provided effective and real assistance to Poland. The courageous resistance of Polish soldiers near Mlawa, at Modlin and the heroic twenty-day defense of Warsaw could not save Poland from disaster.

At the same time, the Red Army troops, almost without encountering resistance, occupied the regions of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine from September 17 to 29. September 28, 1939 first campaign Second world wars was completed. Poland ceased to exist.

On the same day, a new Soviet-German treaty “On Friendship and Border” was concluded in Moscow, which formalized the division of Poland. New secret agreements gave the USSR the opportunity for “freedom of action” in creating a “security sphere” on its western borders, secured the annexation of the western regions of Belarus and Ukraine, and allowed the Soviet Union to conclude “mutual assistance” agreements on September 28, 1939 with Estonia, October 5 - with Latvia, October 10 - with Lithuania. According to these agreements, the USSR received the right to locate in republics Baltic States of its troops and the creation on their territories of naval and
air bases. Stalin agreed to transfer into the hands of the Gestapo many hundreds of German anti-fascists hiding in the USSR from the Nazis, and also carried out the deportation of hundreds of thousands of Poles, both former military personnel and the civilian population.

At the same time, the Stalinist leadership increased pressure on Finland. On October 12, 1939, she was asked to conclude an agreement “on mutual assistance” with the USSR. However, the Finnish leadership refused to agree with the USSR, and the negotiations were unsuccessful.

The defeat of Poland and a temporary alliance with Stalin provided Hitler with a reliable rear for carrying out a blitzkrieg in the Western European theater of operations. Already on October 9, 1939, the Fuhrer signed a directive on preparing an attack on France, and 10 days later a plan for the strategic concentration of German troops to conduct offensive operations in the West was approved.

The Soviet leadership took active steps to expand the “security sphere” in the north-west. On November 28, 1939, the USSR unilaterally denounced the non-aggression pact with Finland of 1932, and on the morning of November 30 began hostilities against the Finns, which lasted almost four months. The next day (December 1) in the village. Terijoki was immediately proclaimed the “government of the Democratic Republic of Finland”.

On March 12, 1940, a Soviet-Finnish peace treaty was signed in Moscow, which took into account the territorial claims made by the USSR. The Soviet Union during wars suffered huge human losses: the active army lost up to 127 thousand people killed and missing, as well as up to 248 thousand wounded and frostbitten. Finland lost just over 48 thousand killed and 43 thousand wounded.
Politically this war caused serious damage to the Soviet Union. On December 14, 1939, the Council of the League of Nations adopted a resolution to expel him from this organization, condemning the actions of the USSR directed against the Finnish state and calling on member states of the League of Nations to support Finland. The USSR found itself in international isolation.

Results of the "winter wars" clearly showed the weakness of the "indestructible" Soviet Armed Forces. Soon K.E. Voroshilov was removed from the post of People's Commissar of Defense, and his place was taken by S.K. Timoshenko.
In the spring of 1940, Wehrmacht troops began a large-scale military campaign in Western Europe. On April 9, 1940, a strike group of Nazi troops (about 140 thousand personnel, up to 1000 aircraft and all naval forces) attacked Denmark and Norway. Denmark (which had only a 13,000-strong army) was occupied within a few hours, and its government immediately announced capitulation.

The situation was different in Norway, where the armed forces managed to avoid defeat and retreat into the interior of the country, and Anglo-French troops were landed to help them. The armed struggle in Norway threatened to become protracted, so already on May 10, 1940, Hitler launched an offensive according to the Gelb plan, which envisaged a lightning strike on France through Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, bypassing the French defensive Maginot Line. On June 22, 1940, the act of surrender of France was signed, according to which its northern territory was occupied by Germany, and the southern regions remained under the control of the “government” of the collaborationist Marshal A. Petain (“Vichy regime”).

The defeat of France led to a dramatic change in the strategic situation in Europe. The threat of a German invasion loomed over Great Britain. The war unfolded on sea lanes, where German submarines sank 100-140 British merchant ships every month.
Already in the summer of 1940, the front in the west ceased to exist, and the impending clash between Germany and the USSR began to take on more and more real outlines.

As a result of the German “pacification policy” in the northeast and east of Europe, the USSR included territories with a population of 14 million people, and western border was pushed back by 200-600 km. At the VIII session of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on August 2-6, 1940, these territorial “acquisitions” were legally formalized by the laws on the formation of the Moldavian SSR and the admission of the three Baltic republics to the Union.
After the victory over France, Germany accelerated preparations for the war against the USSR: the issue of the “eastern campaign” was already discussed on July 21, 1940 at a meeting of Hitler with the commanders of the armed forces, and on July 31 he set the task of starting the operation in May 1941 and finishing her for 5 months.

On August 9, 1940, a decision was made to transfer Wehrmacht forces to the borders of the USSR, and from September they began to concentrate in Romania. At the same time, a broad campaign of disinformation to the Soviet leadership began, which played a fatal role in carrying out measures to repel aggression. On September 27 in Berlin, Germany, Italy and Japan signed a tripartite pact, which was subsequently joined by Hungary, Romania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Croatia. Finally, on December 18, 1940, Hitler approved the famous “Barbarossa option” - a plan wars against the Soviet Union.

In order to hide military preparations, I. Ribbentrop, on October 13, 1940, invited I.V. Stalin to take part in the division of spheres of interest on a global scale. A meeting on this issue took place on November 12-13 in Berlin with the participation of V.M. Molotov, but due to mutually unacceptable conditions put forward by both sides, it was not successful.

In the early morning of September 1, 1939, German troops invaded Poland. Goebbels propaganda presented this event as a response to the previous “seizure by Polish soldiers” of a radio station in the German border town of Gleiwitz (it later turned out that the German security service staged the attack in Gleiwitz, using people dressed in Polish uniforms). military uniform German death row prisoners). Germany sent 57 divisions against Poland.

Great Britain and France, bound by allied obligations with Poland, after some hesitation, declared war on Germany on September 3. But opponents were in no hurry to get involved in active struggle. According to Hitler's instructions, German troops were to adhere to defensive tactics on the Western Front during this period in order to “sparing their forces as much as possible, to create the preconditions for the successful completion of the operation against Poland.” The Western powers did not launch an offensive either. 110 French and 5 British divisions stood against 23 German ones, without taking serious military action. It is no coincidence that this confrontation was called a “strange war.”

Left without help, Poland, despite the desperate resistance of its soldiers and officers to the invaders in Gdansk (Danzig), on the Baltic coast in the Westerplatte region, in Silesia and other places, could not hold back the onslaught of the German armies.

On September 6, the Germans approached Warsaw. The Polish government and diplomatic corps left the capital. But the remnants of the garrison and the population defended the city until the end of September. The defense of Warsaw became one of the heroic pages in the history of the struggle against the occupiers.

At the height of the tragic events for Poland on September 17, 1939, units of the Red Army crossed the Soviet-Polish border and occupied the border territories. In this regard, the Soviet note said that they “took under protection the lives and property of the population of Western Ukraine and Western Belarus.” On September 28, 1939, Germany and the USSR, having practically divided the territory of Poland, entered into a friendship and border treaty. In a statement on this occasion, representatives of the two countries emphasized that “thereby they created a solid foundation for lasting peace in Eastern Europe.” Having thus secured new borders in the east, Hitler turned to the west.

On April 9, 1940, German troops invaded Denmark and Norway. On May 10, they crossed the borders of Belgium, Holland, and Luxembourg and began an attack on France. The balance of forces was approximately equal. But the German shock armies, with their strong tank formations and aviation, managed to break through the Allied front. Some of the defeated Allied troops retreated to the English Channel coast. Their remnants were evacuated from Dunkirk at the beginning of June. By mid-June, the Germans had captured the northern part of French territory.

The French government declared Paris an "open city." On June 14, it was surrendered to the Germans without a fight. Hero of the First World War, 84-year-old Marshal A.F. Petain spoke on the radio with an appeal to the French: “With pain in my heart, I tell you today that we must stop the fight. Tonight I turned to the enemy to ask him if he is ready to seek with me ... a means to put an end to hostilities.” However, not all French supported this position. On June 18, 1940, in a broadcast from the London BBC radio station, General Charles de Gaulle stated:

“Has the last word been said? Is there no more hope? Has the final defeat been dealt? No! France is not alone! ...This war is not limited only to the long-suffering territory of our country. The outcome of this war is not decided by the Battle of France. This is a world war... I, General de Gaulle, currently in London, appeal to the French officers and soldiers who are on British territory... with a call to establish contact with me... Whatever happens, the flame of French resistance must not and will not go out.”

On June 22, 1940, in the Compiègne forest (in the same place and in the same carriage as in 1918), a Franco-German truce was concluded, this time meaning the defeat of France. In the remaining unoccupied territory of France, a government was created headed by A.F. Petain, which expressed its readiness to cooperate with the German authorities (it was located in small town Vichy). On the same day, Charles de Gaulle announced the creation of the Free France Committee, the purpose of which was to organize the fight against the occupiers.

After the surrender of France, Germany invited Great Britain to begin peace negotiations. The British government, headed at that moment by a supporter of decisive anti-German actions, W. Churchill, refused. In response, Germany strengthened the naval blockade of the British Isles, and massive German bomber raids began on English cities. Great Britain, for its part, signed an agreement with the United States in September 1940 on the transfer of several dozen American warships to the British fleet. Germany failed to achieve its intended goals in the “Battle of Britain.”

Back in the summer of 1940, the strategic direction was determined in the leadership circles of Germany further actions. The Chief of the General Staff F. Halder then wrote in his official diary: “Eyes are turned to the East.” Hitler at one of the military meetings said: “Russia must be liquidated. The deadline is spring 1941.”

In preparation for this task, Germany was interested in expanding and strengthening the anti-Soviet coalition. In September 1940, Germany, Italy and Japan concluded a military-political alliance for a period of 10 years - the Tripartite Pact. It was soon joined by Hungary, Romania and the self-proclaimed Slovak state, and a few months later by Bulgaria. A German-Finnish agreement on military cooperation was also concluded. Where it was not possible to establish an alliance on a contractual basis, they acted by force. In October 1940, Italy attacked Greece. In April 1941, German troops occupied Yugoslavia and Greece. Croatia became a separate state - a satellite of Germany. By the summer of 1941, almost all of Central and Western Europe was under the rule of Germany and its allies.

1941

In December 1940, Hitler approved the Barbarossa plan, which provided for the defeat of the Soviet Union. It was a blitzkrieg plan ( lightning war). Three army groups - “North”, “Center” and “South” were supposed to break through the Soviet front and capture vital centers: the Baltic states and Leningrad, Moscow, Ukraine, Donbass. The breakthrough was ensured by powerful tank formations and aviation. Before the onset of winter, it was planned to reach the Arkhangelsk - Volga - Astrakhan line.

On June 22, 1941, the armies of Germany and its allies attacked the USSR. A new stage of the Second World War began. Its main front was the Soviet-German front, the most important component was the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet people against the invaders. First of all, these are the battles that were disrupted German plan lightning war. In their ranks one can name many battles - from the desperate resistance of border guards, the Battle of Smolensk to the defense of Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol, besieged but never surrendered Leningrad.

The largest event of not only military but also political significance was the battle of Moscow. The offensives of the German Army Group Center, launched on September 30 and November 15-16, 1941, did not achieve their goal. It was not possible to take Moscow. And on December 5-6, the counter-offensive of the Soviet troops began, as a result of which the enemy was thrown back from the capital 100-250 km, 38 German divisions were defeated. The victory of the Red Army near Moscow became possible thanks to the steadfastness and heroism of its defenders and the skill of its commanders (the fronts were commanded by I. S. Konev, G. K. Zhukov, S. K. Timoshenko). This was Germany's first major defeat in World War II. In this regard, W. Churchill stated: “The Russian resistance broke the back of the German armies.”

The balance of forces at the beginning of the counter-offensive of Soviet troops in Moscow

Important events occurred at this time in the Pacific Ocean. Back in the summer and autumn of 1940, Japan, taking advantage of the defeat of France, seized its possessions in Indochina. Now she decided to strike at the strongholds of other Western powers, especially her main rival in the struggle for influence in South-East Asia- USA. On December 7, 1941, more than 350 Japanese naval aircraft attacked the US naval base at Pearl Harbor (in the Hawaiian Islands).

In two hours, most of the warships and aircraft of the American Pacific Fleet were destroyed or disabled, the number of Americans killed was more than 2,400 people, and more than 1,100 people were wounded. The Japanese lost several dozen people. The next day, the US Congress decided to start a war against Japan. Three days later, Germany and Italy declared war on the United States.

Destruction German troops near Moscow and the entry of the United States of America into the war accelerated the formation of the anti-Hitler coalition.

Dates and events

• July 12, 1941- signing of the Anglo-Soviet agreement on joint actions against Germany.
• August 14- F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill issued a joint declaration on the goals of the war, support for democratic principles in international relations - the Atlantic Charter; in September the USSR joined it.
• September 29 - October 1- British-American-Soviet conference in Moscow, a program for mutual supplies of weapons, military materials and raw materials was adopted.
• November 7- the law on Lend-Lease (transfer by the United States of America of weapons and other materials to opponents of Germany) was extended to the USSR.
• January 1, 1942- The Declaration of 26 states - “united nations” fighting against the fascist bloc was signed in Washington.

On the fronts of the world war

War in Africa. Back in 1940, the war spread beyond Europe. This summer, Italy, which sought to make the Mediterranean its " inland sea"tried to take over the British colonies in North Africa. Italian troops occupied British Somalia, parts of Kenya and Sudan, and then invaded Egypt. However, by the spring of 1941, British armed forces not only drove the Italians out of the territories they had captured, but also entered Ethiopia, occupied by Italy in 1935. Italian possessions in Libya were also under threat.

At the request of Italy, Germany intervened in military operations in North Africa. In the spring of 1941, the German corps under the command of General E. Rommel, together with the Italians, began to oust the British from Libya and blocked the Tobruk fortress. Then Egypt became the target of the German-Italian offensive. In the summer of 1942, General Rommel, nicknamed the “Desert Fox,” captured Tobruk and broke through with his troops to El Alamein.

The Western powers were faced with a choice. They promised the leadership of the Soviet Union to open a second front in Europe in 1942. In April 1942, F. Roosevelt wrote to W. Churchill: “Your and my people demand the creation of a second front in order to remove the burden from the Russians. Our peoples cannot help but see that the Russians are killing more Germans and destroying more enemy equipment than the United States and England combined.” But these promises were at odds with the political interests of Western countries. Churchill cabled Roosevelt: “Don’t let North Africa out of your sight.” The Allies announced that the opening of a second front in Europe was forced to be postponed until 1943.

In October 1942, British troops under the command of General B. Montgomery launched an offensive in Egypt. They defeated the enemy at El Alamein (about 10 thousand Germans and 20 thousand Italians were captured). Most of Rommel's army retreated to Tunisia. In November, American and British troops (numbering 110 thousand people) under the command of General D. Eisenhower landed in Morocco and Algeria. The German-Italian army group, squeezed in Tunisia by British and American troops advancing from the east and west, capitulated in the spring of 1943. According to various estimates, from 130 thousand to 252 thousand people were captured (in total, 12-14 people fought in North Africa Italian and German divisions, while over 200 divisions of Germany and its allies fought on the Soviet-German front).

Fighting in the Pacific Ocean. In the summer of 1942, the American naval forces defeated the Japanese in the battle of Midway Island (4 large aircraft carriers, 1 cruiser were sunk, 332 aircraft were destroyed). Later, American units occupied and defended the island of Guadalcanal. The balance of forces in this combat area changed in favor of the Western powers. By the end of 1942, Germany and its allies were forced to suspend the advance of their troops on all fronts.

"New order"

In the Nazi plans for the conquest of the world, the fate of many peoples and states was predetermined.

Hitler, in his secret notes, which became known after the war, provided for the following: the Soviet Union would “disappear from the face of the earth”, within 30 years its territory would become part of the “Greater German Reich”; after the “final victory of Germany” there will be reconciliation with England, a treaty of friendship will be concluded with it; the Reich will include the countries of Scandinavia, the Iberian Peninsula and other European states; The United States of America will be “permanently excluded from world politics”, it will undergo “complete re-education of the racially inferior population”, and the population “with German blood” will be given military training and “re-education in the national spirit”, after which America will “become a German state” .

Already in 1940, directives and instructions “on the Eastern question” began to be developed, and an extensive program for the conquest of the peoples of Eastern Europe was set out in master plan"Ost" (December 1941). The general guidelines were as follows: “The highest goal of all activities carried out in the East should be to strengthen the military potential of the Reich. The task is to remove from the new eastern regions greatest number agricultural products, raw materials, labor", "the occupied regions will provide everything necessary... even if the consequence of this is starvation millions of people." Part of the population of the occupied territories was to be destroyed on the spot, a significant part was to be resettled in Siberia (it was planned to destroy 5-6 million Jews in the “eastern regions”, evict 46-51 million people, and reduce the remaining 14 million people to the level of a semi-literate labor force, education limited to a four-year school).

In the conquered countries of Europe, the Nazis methodically implemented their plans. In the occupied territories, a “cleansing” of the population was carried out - Jews and communists were exterminated. Prisoners of war and part of the civilian population were sent to concentration camps. A network of more than 30 death camps has engulfed Europe. The terrible memory of millions of tortured people is associated among the war and post-war generations with the names Buchenwald, Dachau, Ravensbrück, Auschwitz, Treblinka, etc. In only two of them - Auschwitz and Majdanek - more than 5.5 million people were exterminated. Those who arrived at the camp underwent “selection” (selection), the weak, primarily the elderly and children, were sent to the gas chambers and then burned in the ovens of the crematoria.

From the testimony of an Auschwitz prisoner, Frenchwoman Vaillant-Couturier, presented at the Nuremberg trials:

“There were eight cremation ovens at Auschwitz. But since 1944 this number has become insufficient. The SS forced the prisoners to dig colossal ditches in which they set fire to brushwood doused with gasoline. The corpses were thrown into these ditches. We saw from our block how, about 45 minutes to an hour after the arrival of the party of prisoners, large flames began to burst out of the crematorium ovens, and a glow appeared in the sky, rising above the ditches. One night we were awakened by a terrible scream, and the next morning we learned from people who worked in the Sonderkommando (the team that serviced the gas chambers) that the day before there was not enough gas and therefore children were thrown into the furnaces of cremation furnaces while still alive.”

At the beginning of 1942, Nazi leaders adopted a directive on the “final solution to the Jewish question,” that is, on the systematic destruction of an entire people. During the war years, 6 million Jews were killed - one in three. This tragedy was called the Holocaust, which translated from Greek means “burnt offering.” The orders of the German command to identify and transport the Jewish population to concentration camps were perceived differently in the occupied countries of Europe. In France, the Vichy police helped the Germans. Even the Pope did not dare to condemn the removal of Jews from Italy by the Germans in 1943 for subsequent extermination. And in Denmark, the population hid Jews from the Nazis and helped 8 thousand people move to neutral Sweden. After the war, an alley was laid out in Jerusalem in honor of the Righteous Among the Nations - people who risked their lives and the lives of their loved ones to save at least one innocent person sentenced to imprisonment and death.

For residents of occupied countries who were not immediately subjected to extermination or deportation, the “new order” meant strict regulation in all spheres of life. The occupation authorities and German industrialists seized a dominant position in the economy with the help of "Aryanization" laws. Small enterprises closed, and large ones switched to military production. Some agricultural areas were subject to Germanization, and their population was forcibly evicted to other areas. Thus, about 450 thousand residents were evicted from the territories of the Czech Republic bordering Germany, and about 280 thousand people from Slovenia. Mandatory supplies of agricultural products were introduced for peasants. Along with control over economic activity the new authorities pursued a policy of restrictions in the field of education and culture. In many countries, representatives of the intelligentsia - scientists, engineers, teachers, doctors, etc. - were persecuted. In Poland, for example, the Nazis carried out a targeted curtailment of the education system. Classes at universities and high schools were prohibited. (Why do you think, why was this done?) Some teachers, risking their lives, continued to teach students illegally. During the war years, the occupiers killed about 12.5 thousand teachers of higher educational institutions and teachers in Poland.

The authorities of Germany's allied states - Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria, as well as the newly proclaimed states - Croatia and Slovakia, also pursued a tough policy towards the population. In Croatia, the Ustasha government (participants of the nationalist movement that came to power in 1941), under the slogan of creating a “purely national state,” encouraged the mass expulsion and extermination of Serbs.

The forced removal of the working population, especially young people, from the occupied countries of Eastern Europe to work in Germany took on a wide scale. General Commissioner “for the use of labor” Sauckel set the task of “completely exhausting all human reserves available in the Soviet regions.” Trains with thousands of young men and women forcibly driven away from their homes reached the Reich. By the end of 1942, German industry and agriculture employed the labor of about 7 million “Eastern workers” and prisoners of war. In 1943, another 2 million people were added to them.

Any insubordination, and especially resistance to the occupation authorities, was mercilessly punished. One of the terrible examples of the Nazis’ reprisal against civilians was the destruction of the Czech village of Lidice in the summer of 1942. It was carried out as an “act of retaliation” for the murder of a major Nazi official, “Protector of Bohemia and Moravia” Heydrich, committed the day before by members of a sabotage group.

The village was surrounded by German soldiers. The entire male population over 16 years of age (172 people) was shot (the residents who were absent that day - 19 people - were captured later and also shot). 195 women were sent to the Ravensbrück concentration camp (four pregnant women were taken to maternity hospitals in Prague, after giving birth they were also sent to the camp, and newborn children were killed). 90 children from Lidice were taken from their mothers and sent to Poland, and then to Germany, where their traces were lost. All houses and buildings of the village were burned to the ground. Lidice disappeared from the face of the earth. German cameramen carefully filmed the entire “operation” - “for the edification” of contemporaries and descendants.

Turning point in the war

By mid-1942, it became obvious that Germany and its allies had failed to carry out their original war plans on any front. In subsequent military actions it was necessary to decide which side would have the advantage. The outcome of the entire war depended mainly on events in Europe, on the Soviet-German front. In the summer of 1942, the German armies launched a major offensive in the southern direction, approached Stalingrad and reached the foothills of the Caucasus.

Battles for Stalingrad lasted more than 3 months. The city was defended by the 62nd and 64th armies under the command of V.I. Chuikov and M.S. Shumilov. Hitler, who had no doubt about victory, declared: “Stalingrad is already in our hands.” But the counteroffensive of Soviet troops that began on November 19, 1942 (front commanders N.F. Vatutin, K.K. Rokossovsky, A.I. Eremenko) ended in the encirclement of German armies (numbering over 300 thousand people), their subsequent defeat and capture , including commander Field Marshal F. Paulus.

During the Soviet offensive, the losses of the armies of Germany and its allies amounted to 800 thousand people. In total in Battle of Stalingrad they lost up to 1.5 million soldiers and officers - approximately a quarter of the forces then operating on the Soviet-German front.

Battle of Kursk. In the summer of 1943, an attempt by a German attack on Kursk from the Orel and Belgorod areas ended in a crushing defeat. On the German side, over 50 divisions (including 16 tank and motorized) took part in the operation. A special role was given to powerful artillery and tank strikes. On July 12, in a field near the village of Prokhorovka, the largest tank battle World War II, in which about 1,200 tanks and self-propelled artillery units collided. At the beginning of August, Soviet troops liberated Oryol and Belgorod. 30 enemy divisions were defeated. Losses German army in this battle there were 500 thousand soldiers and officers, 1.5 thousand tanks. After the Battle of Kursk, the offensive of Soviet troops unfolded along the entire front. In the summer and autumn of 1943, Smolensk, Gomel, Left Bank Ukraine and Kyiv were liberated. The strategic initiative on the Soviet-German front passed to the Red Army.

In the summer of 1943, the Western powers began fighting in Europe. But they did not open, as expected, a second front against Germany, but struck in the south, against Italy. In July, British and American troops landed on the island of Sicily. Soon a coup d'état took place in Italy. Representatives of the army elite removed Mussolini from power and arrested him. A new government was created headed by Marshal P. Badoglio. On September 3, it concluded an armistice agreement with the British-American command. On September 8, the surrender of Italy was announced, and troops of Western powers landed in the south of the country. In response, 10 German divisions entered Italy from the north and captured Rome. On the newly formed Italian front, British-American troops with difficulty, slowly, but still pushed back the enemy (in the summer of 1944 they occupied Rome).

The turning point in the course of the war immediately affected the positions of other countries - allies of Germany. After Battle of Stalingrad representatives of Romania and Hungary began to explore the possibility of concluding a separate peace with the Western powers. The Francoist government of Spain issued statements of neutrality.

On November 28 - December 1, 1943, a meeting of the leaders of the three countries took place in Tehran- members of the anti-Hitler coalition: USSR, USA and Great Britain. I. Stalin, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill discussed mainly the question of the second front, as well as some questions of the structure of the post-war world. US and British leaders promised to open a second front in Europe in May 1944, launching the landing of Allied troops in France.

Resistance movement

Since the establishment of the Nazi regime in Germany, and then the occupation regimes in European countries, the Resistance movement to the “new order” began. It was attended by people of different beliefs and political affiliations: communists, social democrats, supporters of bourgeois parties and non-party people. German anti-fascists were among the first to join the fight in the pre-war years. Thus, at the end of the 1930s, an underground anti-Nazi group arose in Germany, led by H. Schulze-Boysen and A. Harnack. In the early 1940s, it was already a strong organization with an extensive network of secret groups (in total, up to 600 people participated in its work). The underground carried out propaganda and intelligence work, maintaining contact with Soviet intelligence. In the summer of 1942, the Gestapo discovered the organization. The scale of its activities amazed the investigators themselves, who called this group the “Red Chapel.” After interrogation and torture, the leaders and many members of the group were sentenced to death. In his last word At the trial, X. Schulze-Boysen said: “Today you judge us, but tomorrow we will be the judges.”

In a number of European countries, immediately after their occupation, an armed struggle began against the invaders. In Yugoslavia, the communists became the initiators of nationwide resistance to the enemy. Already in the summer of 1941, they created the Main Headquarters of the people's liberation partisan detachments (it was headed by I. Broz Tito) and decided on an armed uprising. By the fall of 1941, partisan detachments numbering up to 70 thousand people were operating in Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina. In 1942, the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia (PLJA) was created, and by the end of the year it practically controlled a fifth of the country's territory. In the same year, representatives of organizations participating in the Resistance formed the Anti-Fascist Assembly of People's Liberation of Yugoslavia (AVNOJ). In November 1943, the veche proclaimed itself the temporary supreme body of legislative and executive power. By this time, half of the country’s territory was already under his control. A declaration was adopted that defined the foundations of the new Yugoslav state. National committees were created in the liberated territory, and the confiscation of enterprises and lands of fascists and collaborators (people who collaborated with the occupiers) began.

The Resistance movement in Poland consisted of many groups with different political orientations. In February 1942, part of the underground armed forces united into the Home Army (AK), led by representatives of the Polish émigré government, which was located in London. “Peasant battalions” were created in the villages. Detachments of the Army of the People (AL) organized by the communists began to operate.

Guerrilla groups carried out sabotage on transport (over 1,200 military trains were blown up and about the same number set on fire), at military enterprises, and attacked police and gendarmerie stations. The underground members produced leaflets telling about the situation at the fronts and warning the population about the actions of the occupation authorities. In 1943-1944. partisan groups began to unite into large detachments that successfully fought against significant enemy forces, and as the Soviet-German front approached Poland, they interacted with Soviet partisan detachments and army units and carried out joint combat operations.

The defeat of the armies of Germany and its allies at Stalingrad had a particular impact on the mood of people in the warring and occupied countries. German service Security reported on the “state of mind” in the Reich: “The conviction has become universal that Stalingrad marks a turning point in the war... Unstable citizens see Stalingrad as the beginning of the end.”

In Germany, in January 1943, total (general) mobilization into the army was announced. The working day increased to 12 hours. But simultaneously with the desire of the Hitler regime to gather the forces of the nation into an “iron fist,” rejection of his policies grew among different groups of the population. Thus, one of the youth circles issued a leaflet with the appeal: “Students! Students! The German people are looking at us! They expect us to be liberated from Nazi terror... Those who died at Stalingrad call on us: rise up, people, the flames are burning!”

After the turning point in the fighting on the fronts, the number of underground groups and armed detachments fighting against the invaders and their accomplices in the occupied countries increased significantly. In France, the Maquis became more active - partisans who carried out sabotage on railways, attacking German posts, warehouses, etc.

One of the leaders of the French Resistance movement, Charles de Gaulle, wrote in his memoirs:

“Until the end of 1942, there were few Maquis detachments and their actions were not particularly effective. But then hope increased, and with it the number of those who wanted to fight increased. In addition, compulsory “labor conscription,” which in a few months mobilized half a million young men, mostly workers, for use in Germany, and the dissolution of the “armistice army,” prompted many dissenters to go underground. The number of more or less significant Resistance groups increased, and they led guerrilla warfare, which played a primary role in exhausting the enemy, and later in the unfolding battle for France.”

Figures and facts

Number of participants in the Resistance movement (1944):

• France - over 400 thousand people;
• Italy - 500 thousand people;
• Yugoslavia - 600 thousand people;
• Greece - 75 thousand people.

By mid-1944, leading bodies of the Resistance movement had formed in many countries, uniting different movements and groups - from communists to Catholics. For example, in France, the National Council of the Resistance included representatives of 16 organizations. The most determined and active participants in the Resistance were the communists. For the sacrifices made in the fight against the occupiers, they were called the “party of those executed.” In Italy, communists, socialists, Christian Democrats, liberals, members of the Action Party and the Democracy of Labor party participated in the work of national liberation committees.

All participants in the Resistance sought first of all to liberate their countries from occupation and fascism. But on the question of what kind of power should be established after this, the views of representatives of individual movements differed. Some advocated the restoration of pre-war regimes. Others, primarily the communists, sought to establish a new, “people's democratic power.”

Liberation of Europe

The beginning of 1944 was marked by major offensive operations by Soviet troops on the southern and northern sectors of the Soviet-German front. Ukraine and Crimea were liberated, and the 900-day blockade of Leningrad was lifted. In the spring of this year, Soviet troops reached the state border of the USSR for more than 400 km, approaching the borders of Germany, Poland, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, and Romania. Continuing the defeat of the enemy, they began to liberate the countries of Eastern Europe. Near Soviet soldiers Units of the 1st Czechoslovak Brigade under the command of L. Svoboda and the 1st Polish Division, formed during the war on the territory of the USSR, fought for the freedom of their peoples. T. Kosciuszko under the command of Z. Berling.

At this time, the Allies finally opened a second front in Western Europe. On June 6, 1944, American and British troops landed in Normandy, on the northern coast of France.

The bridgehead between the cities of Cherbourg and Caen was occupied by 40 divisions with a total number of up to 1.5 million people. The Allied forces were commanded by American General D. Eisenhower. Two and a half months after the landing, the Allies began advancing deeper into French territory. They were opposed by about 60 understrength German divisions. At the same time, resistance units launched an open struggle against the German army in the occupied territory. On August 19, an uprising began in Paris against the troops of the German garrison. General de Gaulle, who arrived in France with the Allied troops (by that time he had been proclaimed head of the Provisional Government of the French Republic), fearing the “anarchy” of the mass liberation struggle, insisted that Leclerc’s French tank division be sent to Paris. On August 25, 1944, this division entered Paris, which by that time had been practically liberated by the rebels.

Having liberated France and Belgium, where in a number of provinces the Resistance forces also launched armed actions against the occupiers, the Allied troops reached the German border by September 11, 1944.

On the Soviet-German front at that time there was a frontal offensive by the Red Army, as a result of which the countries of Eastern and Central Europe.

Dates and events

Fighting in the countries of Eastern and Central Europe in 1944-1945.

1944

• July 17 - Soviet troops crossed the border with Poland; Chelm, Lublin liberated; In the liberated territory, the power of the new government, the Polish Committee of National Liberation, began to assert itself.
• August 1 - the beginning of the uprising against the occupiers in Warsaw; this action, prepared and led by the émigré government located in London, was defeated by the beginning of October, despite the heroism of its participants; By order of the German command, the population was expelled from Warsaw, and the city itself was destroyed.
• August 23 - the overthrow of the Antonescu regime in Romania, a week later Soviet troops entered Bucharest.
• August 29 - the beginning of the uprising against the occupiers and the reactionary regime in Slovakia.
• September 8 - Soviet troops entered Bulgarian territory.
• September 9 - anti-fascist uprising in Bulgaria, the government of the Fatherland Front comes to power.
• October 6 - Soviet troops and units of the Czechoslovak Corps entered the territory of Czechoslovakia.
• October 20 - troops of the People's Liberation Army of Yugoslavia and the Red Army liberated Belgrade.
• October 22 - Red Army units crossed the Norwegian border and occupied the port of Kirkenes on October 25.

1945

• January 17 - troops of the Red Army and the Polish Army liberated Warsaw.
• January 29 - Soviet troops crossed the German border in the Poznan region. February 13 - Red Army troops captured Budapest.
• April 13 - Soviet troops entered Vienna.
• April 16th - started Berlin operation Red Army.
• April 18 - American units entered the territory of Czechoslovakia.
• April 25 - Soviet and American troops met on the Elbe River near the city of Torgau.

Many thousands gave their lives for the liberation of European countries Soviet soldiers. In Romania, 69 thousand soldiers and officers died, in Poland - about 600 thousand, in Czechoslovakia - more than 140 thousand and about the same in Hungary. Hundreds of thousands of soldiers died in other, including opposing, armies. They fought on opposite sides of the front, but were similar in one thing: no one wanted to die, especially in the last months and days of the war.

During the liberation in the countries of Eastern Europe, the issue of power acquired paramount importance. The pre-war governments of a number of countries were in exile and now sought to return to leadership. But new governments and local authorities appeared in the liberated territories. They were created on the basis of the organizations of the National (People's) Front, which arose during the war years as an association of anti-fascist forces. The organizers and most active participants of the national fronts were communists and social democrats. The programs of the new governments provided not only for the elimination of occupation and reactionary, pro-fascist regimes, but also for broad democratic reforms in political life and socio-economic relations.

Defeat of Germany

In the fall of 1944, troops of the Western powers - participants in the anti-Hitler coalition - approached the borders of Germany. In December of this year, the German command launched a counteroffensive in the Ardennes (Belgium). American and British troops found themselves in a difficult position. D. Eisenhower and W. Churchill turned to I.V. Stalin with a request to speed up the offensive of the Red Army in order to divert German forces from west to east. By Stalin's decision, the offensive along the entire front was launched on January 12, 1945 (8 days earlier than planned). W. Churchill subsequently wrote: “It was a wonderful feat on the part of the Russians to speed up a broad offensive, undoubtedly at the cost human lives" On January 29, Soviet troops entered the territory of the German Reich.

On February 4-11, 1945, a conference of the heads of government of the USSR, USA and Great Britain took place in Yalta. I. Stalin, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill agreed on plans for military operations against Germany and post-war policy towards it: zones and conditions of occupation, actions to destroy the fascist regime, the procedure for collecting reparations, etc. An accession agreement was also signed at the conference The USSR entered the war against Japan 2-3 months after the surrender of Germany.

From the documents of the conference of the leaders of the USSR, Great Britain and the USA in Crimea (Yalta, February 4-11, 1945):

“...Our unyielding goal is the destruction of German militarism and Nazism and the creation of guarantees that Germany will never again be able to disturb the peace of the world. We are determined to disarm and disband all German armed forces, to destroy once and for all the German General Staff, which has repeatedly contributed to the revival of German militarism, to confiscate or destroy all German military equipment, to liquidate or take control of all German industry that could be used for military purposes. production; subject all war criminals to fair and speedy punishment and exact compensation in kind for the destruction caused by the Germans; wipe out the Nazi Party, Nazi laws, organizations and institutions from the face of the earth; to remove all Nazi and militaristic influence from public institutions, from the cultural and economic life of the German people, and to take together such other measures in Germany as may prove necessary for the future peace and security of the whole world. Our goals do not include the destruction of the German people. Only when Nazism and militarism are eradicated will there be hope for a dignified existence for the German people and a place for them in the community of nations.”

By mid-April 1945, Soviet troops approached the capital of the Reich, and on April 16 the Berlin operation began (front commanders G.K. Zhukov, I.S. Konev, K.K. Rokossovsky). It was distinguished by both the offensive power of the Soviet units and the fierce resistance of the defenders. On April 21, Soviet units entered the city. On April 30, A. Hitler committed suicide in his bunker. The next day, the Red Banner fluttered over the Reichstag building. On May 2, the remnants of the Berlin garrison capitulated.

During the battle for Berlin, the German command issued the order: “Defend the capital to the last man and to the last cartridge.” Teenagers - members of the Hitler Youth - were mobilized into the army. The photo shows one of these soldiers, the last defenders of the Reich, who was captured.

On May 7, 1945, General A. Jodl signed an act of unconditional surrender of German troops at the headquarters of General D. Eisenhower in Reims. Stalin considered such a unilateral capitulation to the Western powers insufficient. In his opinion, surrender had to take place in Berlin and before the high command of all countries of the anti-Hitler coalition. On the night of May 8-9, in the Berlin suburb of Karlshorst, Field Marshal W. Keitel, in the presence of representatives of the high command of the USSR, USA, Great Britain and France, signed the act of unconditional surrender of Germany.

The last European capital to be liberated was Prague. On May 5, an uprising against the occupiers began in the city. A large group of German troops under the command of Field Marshal F. Scherner, who refused to lay down their arms and broke through to the west, threatened to capture and destroy the capital of Czechoslovakia. In response to the rebels' request for help, units of three Soviet fronts were hastily transferred to Prague. On May 9 they entered Prague. As a result of the Prague operation, about 860 thousand enemy soldiers and officers were captured.

On July 17 - August 2, 1945, a conference of the heads of government of the USSR, USA and Great Britain took place in Potsdam (near Berlin). Those who took part in it were I. Stalin, G. Truman (US President after F. Roosevelt, who died in April 1945), and C. Attlee (who replaced W. Churchill as British Prime Minister) discussed “the principles of the coordinated policy of the allies towards the defeated Germany." A program of democratization, denazification, and demilitarization of Germany was adopted. The total amount of reparations it had to pay was confirmed as $20 billion. Half was intended for the Soviet Union (it was later calculated that the damage inflicted by the Nazis on the Soviet country amounted to about $128 billion). Germany was divided into four occupation zones - Soviet, American, British and French. Liberated by Soviet troops, Berlin and the capital of Austria, Vienna, were placed under the control of the four Allied powers.

At the Potsdam Conference. In the first row from left to right: K. Attlee, G. Truman, I. Stalin

Provision was made for the establishment of an International Military Tribunal to try Nazi war criminals. The border between Germany and Poland was established along the Oder and Neisse rivers. East Prussia went to Poland and partially (the region of Königsberg, now Kaliningrad) to the USSR.

End of the war

In 1944, at a time when the armies of the anti-Hitler coalition countries were conducting a widespread offensive against Germany and its allies in Europe, Japan intensified its actions in Southeast Asia. Its troops launched a massive offensive in China, capturing a territory with a population of over 100 million people by the end of the year.

The strength of the Japanese army at that time reached 5 million people. Its units fought with particular tenacity and fanaticism, defending their positions to the last soldier. In the army and aviation, there were kamikazes - suicide bombers who sacrificed their lives by directing specially equipped aircraft or torpedoes at enemy military targets, blowing themselves up along with enemy soldiers. The American military believed that it would be possible to defeat Japan no earlier than 1947, with losses amounting to at least 1 million people. The participation of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan could, in their opinion, significantly facilitate the achievement of the assigned tasks.

In accordance with the commitment given at the Crimean (Yalta) Conference, the USSR declared war on Japan on August 8, 1945. But the Americans did not want to give up the leading role in the future victory to the Soviet troops, especially since by the summer of 1945 atomic weapons had been created in the United States. On August 6 and 9, 1945, American planes dropped atomic bombs on the Japanese cities of Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

Testimony of historians:

“On August 6, a B-29 bomber appeared over Hiroshima. The alarm was not announced, since the appearance of one plane did not seem to pose a serious threat. At 8.15 am the atomic bomb was dropped by parachute. A few moments later, a blinding light flashed over the city. fire ball, the temperature at the epicenter of the explosion reached several million degrees. Fires in the city, built up with light wooden houses, covered an area within a radius of more than 4 km. Japanese authors write: “Hundreds of thousands of people who became victims of atomic explosions died an unusual death - they died after terrible torture. Radiation even penetrated Bone marrow. In people without the slightest scratch, seemingly completely healthy, after a few days or weeks, or even months, their hair suddenly fell out, their gums began to bleed, diarrhea appeared, their skin became covered with dark spots, hemoptysis began, and in fully conscious they were dying."

(From the book: Rozanov G. L., Yakovlev N. N. Recent history. 1917-1945)

Hiroshima. 1945

As a result of nuclear explosions in Hiroshima, 247 thousand people died, in Nagasaki there were up to 200 thousand killed and wounded. Later, many thousands of people died from wounds, burns, and radiation sickness, the number of which has not yet been accurately calculated. But politicians didn't think about it. And the cities that were bombed did not constitute important military installations. Those who used the bombs mainly wanted to demonstrate their strength. US President G. Truman, having learned that a bomb had been dropped on Hiroshima, exclaimed: “This is greatest event in history!"

On August 9, troops of three Soviet fronts (over 1 million 700 thousand personnel) and parts of the Mongolian army began an offensive in Manchuria and on the coast of North Korea. A few days later they went 150-200 km into enemy territory in some areas. The Japanese Kwantung Army (numbering about 1 million people) was under threat of defeat. On August 14, the Japanese government announced its agreement with the proposed terms of surrender. But Japanese troops did not stop resisting. Only after August 17 did units of the Kwantung Army begin to lay down their arms.

On September 2, 1945, representatives of the Japanese government signed an act of unconditional surrender of Japan on board the American battleship Missouri.

The Second World War is over. 72 states with a total population of over 1.7 billion people took part in it. The fighting took place on the territory of 40 countries. 110 million people were mobilized into the armed forces. According to updated estimates, up to 62 million people died in the war, including about 27 million Soviet citizens. Thousands of cities and villages were destroyed, innumerable material and cultural values ​​were destroyed. Humanity paid a huge price for the victory over the invaders who sought world domination.

The war, in which atomic weapons were used for the first time, showed that armed conflicts in modern world not only everything is threatened with destruction more people, but also humanity as a whole, all living things on earth. The hardships and losses of the war years, as well as examples of human self-sacrifice and heroism, left a memory of themselves in several generations of people. The international and socio-political consequences of the war turned out to be significant.

References:
Aleksashkina L.N. / General history. XX- beginning of XXI century.

From the beginning of 1944, the Soviet army launched a powerful offensive on all fronts. By autumn, most of the territory of the Soviet Union was cleared of occupiers, and the war was moved outside our country.

The Hitler bloc began to rapidly fall apart. On August 23, 1944, the fascist regime in Romania fell, and on September 9, an uprising broke out in Bulgaria. On September 19, an armistice was signed with Finland.

Germany's position deteriorated further after the second front was opened in Normandy (France) on June 6, 1944. Allied troops pushed back the Germans from Italy, Greece, and Slovakia. Things were also going well in the Pacific Ocean. In August 1944, the Americans, after stubborn fighting, captured the Mariana Islands. From an air base located on these islands, American bombers could bomb Japan, whose situation then sharply deteriorated.

All this posed the problem of post-war settlement in full force. In the fall of 1944, at a conference in Dumbarton Oaks (USA), the preparation of the Charter of the new international organization Peacekeeping - UN. A little earlier, at the Bretton Woods conference, issues related to the creation of an international monetary system were discussed. There a decision was made to form two important international financial institutions– The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development (IBRD), on which the entire post-war monetary and financial system rested. The United States began to play a key role in these organizations, skillfully using them to strengthen its influence in world affairs.

Main on final stage the war was to achieve a speedy victory. In the spring of 1944, the war was transferred to the territory of the Reich itself. On April 13, Soviet troops took Vienna, and on April 24, the battle for Berlin began. On April 30, A. Hitler committed suicide, and on May 2, the Berlin garrison capitulated. On the night of May 8-9, 1945, the Germans were forced to sign an act of complete and unconditional surrender of Germany. The war in Europe is over.

The war in the Pacific was also drawing to a close. But the Japanese high military command was not going to put up with the steadily approaching disaster. However, by the spring of 1945, the strategic initiative passed to the side of Japan's opponents. In June, after heavy fighting, the Americans took the island of Okinawa, located in close proximity to the main territory of Japan. The ring around Japan was getting tighter and tighter. The outcome of the war was no longer in doubt.

Its ending was marked by one exceptional important event: On August 6, 1945, the Americans dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima. On August 9, the Americans repeated their attack, the target of which was the city of Nagasaki. On the same day, the Soviet Union entered the war against Japan. On September 2, 1945, Japan surrendered, ending World War II.

In the course of it, an exceptionally aggressive group of states that openly claimed to redivide the world and unify it in their own image and likeness was completely defeated. A serious regrouping of forces also occurred in the camp of the winners. The position of Great Britain, especially France, has noticeably weakened. China began to be considered one of the leading countries, but until the end of the Civil War, it could only nominally be considered a great power. Throughout Europe and Asia, the positions of leftist forces have noticeably strengthened, whose authority, thanks to their active participation in the Resistance movement, has increased noticeably, and, conversely, representatives of right-wing conservative circles, stained by their collaboration with the fascists, have been pushed to the margins of the political process.

Finally, not just two great powers, but two superpowers appeared in the world - the USA and the USSR. The equal power of these two giants, on the one hand, and the complete discrepancy between the value systems that they represented, on the other, inevitably predetermined their sharp clash in the post-war world, and it was precisely this that right up to the turn of the 1980-1990s. became the core of the development of the entire system of international relations.

Everyone knows that the Great Patriotic War ended on May 9, 1945. But if fascist Germany was defeated at that time, then the anti-fascist coalition had one last enemy - Japan, which did not want to give up. But little Japan, although it had lost all its allies, did not think of capitulating even after 60 countries declared war on it at once, but it was the Soviet Union that put an end to World War II by declaring war on the Land of the Rising Sun on August 8, 1945.

Yalta Conference

The decision to declare war on Japan by the USSR was made in the winter of 1945 during the Yalta Conference of the anti-Hitler coalition. Then, from February 4 to 11, the leaders of the USSR, USA and Great Britain, already feeling like winners, literally divided the world into pieces. Firstly, they drew new borders in territories that had previously been occupied by Nazi Germany, and secondly, they resolved the further issue of an alliance between the West and the USSR, which lost any meaning after the end of the war.

But for us, within the framework of the article on the end of the Second World War, the decision on the fate of the Far East is much more important. According to the agreement reached by Winston Churchill, Franklin Roosevelt and, after the victory over Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Union committed itself to entering the war with Japan, for which in exchange it received what it had lost during Russo-Japanese War(1904 – 1905) territory of the Kuril Islands. In addition, the USSR promised to lease Port Arthur and the Chinese Eastern Railway.

There is a version that it was the war with Japan that the USSR paid for the Lend-Lease agreement, which in the Soviet Union was called the “October 17 Program”. Let us recall that within the framework of the agreement, the United States transferred more than 17.5 tons of ammunition, equipment, strategic raw materials and food to the USSR. In exchange, the United States demanded that the USSR, after the end of the war in Europe, launch an offensive against Japan, which attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, forcing Roosevelt to enter World War II.

Soviet-Japanese War

Be that as it may, if not the whole world, then a significant part, took up arms against Japan. So, on May 15, 1945, Japan canceled all agreements with Germany in connection with its surrender. In June of the same year, the Japanese began to prepare to repel an attack on their islands, and on July 12, the Japanese Ambassador in Moscow turned to the USSR authorities with a request to become a mediator in peace negotiations. But he was informed that Stalin and Vyacheslav Molotov had left for Postdam, so they could not yet answer the request. It was in Potsdam that Stalin, by the way, confirmed that the USSR would enter the war with Japan. On July 26, following the Potsdam Conference, the United States, Great Britain and China presented Japan with terms of surrender, which, however, were rejected. Already on August 8, the USSR declared war on Japan.

The Soviet-Japanese War consisted of the Manchurian, South Sakhalin, Kuril and three Korean landing operations. The fighting began on August 9, when the Soviet Union conducted an intensive artillery barrage from sea and land that preceded ground combat as part of the Manchurian Operation. On August 11, the Yuzhno-Sakhalin operation began, and on August 14, the Japanese command turned to the Soviet command with a request for a truce, while hostilities on their part did not stop. Thus, the order to surrender was given only on August 20, but it did not reach some troops immediately, and some even refused to obey the order, preferring to die rather than surrender.

Thus, individual military clashes continued until September 10, although the act of surrender of Japan, which marked the end of World War II, was signed on September 2.

Hiroshima and Nagasaki

Second World War, and in particular the war against Japan, was marked by an event that will forever remain a black spot in world history - on August 6 and 9 the United States committed .

The official purpose of the bombing was to accelerate the Japanese surrender, but many historians and political scientists believe that the United States dropped atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order, firstly, to prevent the USSR from strengthening its influence in the Pacific basin, and secondly, to take revenge on Japan for the attack at Pearl Harbor, and thirdly, to demonstrate to the USSR its nuclear power.

Whatever the reason for the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, it cannot be justified, and primarily because of the human casualties.

Hiroshima was the seventh largest city in Japan. 340 thousand people lived here, as well as the headquarters of the Fifth Division and the Second Main Army. In addition, the city was an important strategic supply point for the Japanese army, and it was for the latter reason that it was chosen as a target for atomic bombing.

On the morning of August 6, 1945, Japanese radars detected the approach of several American aircraft. At first, an air raid alert was announced, but due to the small number of aircraft (only three aircraft), it was canceled, deciding that the Americans were carrying out another reconnaissance. However, a B-29 bomber located at an altitude of 9 kilometers dropped an atomic bomb called “Little Boy”, which exploded over the city at an altitude of 600 meters.

The consequences of the explosion were terrifying. Birds flying past were burned alive, and people at the epicenter of the explosion turned to ashes. In the first seconds of the explosion, about 90% of people located at a distance of 800 meters from the epicenter died. Subsequently, people died from exposure. Hiroshima was wiped off the face of the earth. About 80 thousand people died directly from the explosion. Taking into account long-term impacts, more than 200 thousand people became victims of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.

Before Japan had time to recover from this tragedy, a new one followed - the bombing of Nagasaki. Initially, the United States planned to launch an atomic attack on Nagasaki only on August 11. But due to deteriorating weather these days, the operation was postponed to August 9. The atomic bomb was dropped when bombardier-gunner Ermit Bihan noticed the silhouette of the city stadium in the gap that formed between the clouds. The explosion occurred at an altitude of about 500 meters. Between 60 and 80 thousand people died directly from the explosion. In subsequent years, the number of victims increased to 140 thousand people.

No matter how terrible the consequences of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were, the United States planned to drop 7 more on Japan atomic bombs– one in August, three in September and three in October. Fortunately, this did not happen.

Disputes about the advisability of the atomic bombing of Japan are still ongoing. Some argue that they were necessary for Japan's surrender, while others are confident that this act is a war crime.

Significance of the Soviet-Japanese War

Many historians agree on one thing: even despite the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, without the participation of the Soviet Union in the war against Japan, World War II lasted for several more years. Even the heads of the US military headquarters convinced Roosevelt that Japan would not capitulate before 1947. But this victory would cost the Americans the lives of millions of soldiers. Therefore, it was the USSR’s declaration of war on Japan that became a huge contribution to accelerating the end of World War II.

It should be noted that the events of those years still echo in relation to Russia and Japan. Both countries are actually in a state of war, since a peace treaty has not been signed between them. The sticking point in this issue remains the Kuril Islands, occupied by the USSR in 1945.