26th Anniversary Of The Great October Socialist Revolution
NOVEMBER 6, 1943
Comrades!
Today the peoples of the Soviet Union are celebrating the 26th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
For the third time our country is celebrating the anniversary of her people's revolution in the midst of the Patriotic War.
In October 1941 our motherland was in great distress. The enemy was approaching our capital. He had surrounded Leningrad by land. Our troops were compelled to retreat. Our Army was obliged to exert strenuous efforts and our people to exercise all their strength to check the enemy and to strike him a serious blow near Moscow.
By October 1942 our motherland was in still graver danger. The enemy was almost 120 kilometres from Moscow, had forced his way into Stalingrad and had entered the foothills of the Caucasus. But even in those
grave days our Army and people did not lose heart, but staunchly bore all trials. They found the strength to check the enemy and strike him a counter blow. True to the behests of our great Lenin, they defended the gains of the October Revolution, stinting neither their strength nor their lives. It is well known that the efforts our Army and people exerted then were not in vain.
Shortly after the October days of last year, our troops assumed the offensive and struck other powerful blows at the Germans, first at Stalingrad, in the Caucasus and in the area of the middle reaches of the Don, and then, in the beginning of 1943, at Velikiye Luki, Leningrad and in the area of Rzhev and Vyazma. The Red Army has retained the initiative ever since. Throughout this summer its blows steadily increased in intensity and its military skill improved month after month. Since then our troops have won big victories, and the Germans have sustained defeat after defeat. In spite of all his efforts the enemy has failed to achieve any success of importance on the Soviet-German front.
1. THE RADICAL TURN IN THE COURSE OF THE WAR
The past year -- from the 25th to the 26th Anniversary of the October Revolution -- marked the decisive turn in the course of our Patriotic War.
This year marked such a turn, firstly because, during it, the Red Army, for the first time since the war began, succeeded in conducting a big summer offensive against the German troops, and as a result of the blows our forces inflicted upon them, the German fascist troops were compelled hurriedly to abandon the territory they had seized, often having to save themselves from encirclement by flight and abandoning on the battlefield large quantities of equipment, stores of arms and ammunition, and large numbers of wounded men and officers.
Thus, the successes of our summer campaign in the latter half of this year were the continuation and consummation of the successes of our winter campaign at the beginning of this year.
Now that the Red Army is developing the successes of the winter campaign and has dealt the German troops a powerful blow in the summer, the legend that the Red Army is incapable of conducting a successful summer offensive may be regarded as dead and buried. The past year has shown that the Red Army can successfully attack in the summer as well as in the winter.
As a result of these offensive operations, our troops succeeded during the past year in fighting their way forward from 500 kilometres in the central part of the front to 1,300 kilometres in the South (a p p l a u s e), and in liberating nearly 1,000,000 square kilometres of territory,
i.e., almost two-thirds of the Soviet territory that the enemy had temporarily seized. In the course of this, the enemy troops were hurled back from Vladikavkaz to Kherson, from Elista to Krivoi Rog, from Stalingrad to Kiev, from Voronezh to Gomel and from Vyazma and Rzhev to the approaches to Orsha and Vitebsk.
Having no confidence in the stability of their earlier successes on the Soviet-German front the Germans built formidable defence lines a long time beforehand, particularly along the big rivers. In this year's battles, howev-
er, neither rivers nor formidable fortifications saved the Germans. Our troops shattered the German defences and during the three summer months of 1943 alone, skilfully forced four very difficult river barriers -- the Severny Donetz, Desna, Sozh and Dnieper, not to mention such barriers as the German defences in the area of the river Miuss, west of Rostov, and those in the area of the river Molochnaya, near Melitopol. Now the Red Army is successfully routing the enemy on the other side of the Dnieper.
This year witnessed the turning point in the war also because the Red Army, within a comparatively short time, was able to annihilate or demolish the most experienced and seasoned cadres of the German fascist troops and at the same time to steel and increase its own cadres in the course of the successful offensive fighting this year. In the course of the fighting on the Soviet-German front during the past year the German fascist army lost over 4,000,000 men and officers, of whom no less than 1,800,000 were killed. This year the Germans also lost over 14,000 aeroplanes, over 25,000 tanks and no less than 40,000 guns.
The German fascist army is no longer what it was at the outbreak of the war. At the outbreak of the war it had a sufficient number of experienced cadres; now it is diluted with young, raw and inexperienced officers, whom the Germans are rushing to the front, as they lack both the necessary reserves of officers and the time in which to train them.
The Red Army presents an entirely different picture. Its cadres have grown and have become steeled in the successful offensive battles it fought during the past year.
Its lighting cadres are growing and will continue to grow, for the availability of the necessary reserves of officers gives it both time and opportunity to train young officers and to promote them to responsible posts.
It is characteristic that instead of the 240 divisions that were facing us on our front last year, of which 179 were German, we have 257 divisions facing the Red Army this year, of which 207 are German. Evidently the Germans count on making up for the deterioration in the quality of their divisions by increasing their numbers. The defeat of the Germans during the past year, however, shows that the deterioration in the quality of these divisions cannot be compensated by increasing their numbers.
From the purely military point of view, the defeat of the German troops on our front towards the end of the present year was predetermined by two major events: the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Kursk.
The Battle of Stalingrad ended in the encirclement and rout of the German army 300,000 strong and the capture of about one-third of the surrounded troops. To form an idea of the slaughter on the battlefield of Stalingrad, which was on a scale unprecedented in history, one should know that after the Battle of Stalingrad 147,200 dead German men and officers and 46,700 Soviet men and officers were picked up and buried. Stalingrad marked the beginning of the decline of the German fascist army. It is common knowledge that the Germans never recovered from the Stalingrad slaughter.
As for the Battle of Kursk, that ended in the rout of the two main attacking groups of German fascist troops and in our troops launching a counter-offensive, which
subsequently developed into the Red Army's powerful summer offensive. The Battle of Kursk began with an offensive launched by the Germans against Kursk from the North and South. This was the Germans' last attempt to carry out a big summer offensive in the hope of redeeming their losses in the event of success. It is common knowledge that this offensive failed. The Red Army not only repulsed the German offensive but assumed the offensive itself, and by a series of successive blows delivered in the course of the summer it hurled the German fascist troops beyond the Dnieper.
If the Battle of Stalingrad presaged the decline of the German fascist army, the Battle of Kursk brought it to the brink of disaster.
Lastly, this year witnessed the turning point in the war because the Red Army's successful offensive has seriously aggravated fascist Germany's economic, military and political situation and has brought her to the verge of a grave crisis.
The Germans counted on carrying out a successful offensive on the Soviet-German front this summer to redeem their losses and to bolster up their shaken prestige in Europe. But the Red Army upset the Germans' calculations, repulsed their offensive, launched an offensive itself and proceeded to drive the Germans westward, thereby shattering the prestige of German arms.
The Germans, counting on being able from now on to conduct a protracted war, began to build defence lines and "walls," and proclaimed to all the world that their new positions were impregnable. But once again the Red Army upset the Germans' calculations. It broke through their defence
lines and "walls," and is continuing its advance, thus making it impossible for the Germans to drag out the war.
The Germans counted on being able to improve their position at the front by means of a "total" mobilization. But here, too, events upset the Germans' calculations. The summer campaign has already consumed two-thirds of the "totally" mobilized men, but it does not look as if this has in any way improved the position of the German fascist army. The Germans may find it necessary to proclaim another "total" mobilization, but there is no ground for assuming that a repetition of this measure will preclude the possibility of the "total" collapse of a certain state. (L o u d a p p l a u s e.)
The Germans counted on retaining a firm hold on the Ukraine in order to utilize her agricultural produce for their army and the people at home, and the coal of the Donetz Basin for the factories and railways that are serving the German army. But here, too, they miscalculated. As a result of the Red Army's successful offensive the Germans have lost not only the coal of the Donetz Basin but also the most fertile grain regions of the Ukraine; and there is no reason to suppose that they will not lose the rest of the Ukraine in the near future. (L o u d a p p l a u s e.)
Naturally, all these miscalculations could not but change, and in fact did change, fascist Germany's economic, military and political position fundamentally for the worse.
Fascist Germany is experiencing a grave crisis. She is on the brink of disaster.
The Red Army would not have been able to achieve the successes it has achieved had it not received the assistance of the people, had it not been for the self-sacrificing efforts of the Soviet people in the factories, collieries, mines, in the transport system and in agriculture. Under the stern conditions of war our Soviet people have proved capable of supplying their Army with all its most essential requirements and of constantly improving its fighting equipment. At no time during the present war has the enemy excelled our Army in the quality of armaments. While improving their quality, our industry has supplied the front with ever increasing quantities of armaments.
The past year witnessed the turning point not only in the course of military operations but also in the work of our rear. We were no longer confronted with such tasks as that of evacuating industrial plants to the East and of switching industry over to the production of armaments. Our Soviet state now possesses an efficient and rapidly expanding war economy. Consequently, it was possible to concentrate all the efforts of our people on the task of increasing the output and still further improving the quality of our armaments, particularly of tanks, aircraft, guns, and self-propelled artillery. In this we have achieved great successes. Backed by the entire people, the Red Army has received uninterrupted supplies of fighting equipment, has rained millions of bombs, mines and shells upon the enemy and has brought thousands of tanks and aircraft into action. There is every ground for saying that the self-sacrificing efforts of our Soviet people in the rear will go down in history parallel
with the heroic struggle our Red Army is waging as an unprecedented feat of heroism performed by a people in defending their country. (P r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.)
During this Patriotic War the workers of the Soviet Union, who in the period of peaceful construction built up our great and highly developed socialist industry, have been working with tremendous zeal and energy and have been displaying real labour heroism in their efforts to assist the front.
It is common knowledge that in their war against the U.S.S.R. the Hitlerites have had at their disposal not only the highly developed industry of Germany, but also the fairly powerful industries of the vassal and occupied countries. Nevertheless, the Hitlerites failed to maintain the quantitative superiority in military equipment they enjoyed at the outbreak of the war against the Soviet Union. Credit for the fact that the enemy's former superiority in numbers of tanks, aircraft, mortars and automatic rifles has now been eliminated, for the fact that our Army now experiences no serious shortage of arms, ammunition and equipment is due primarily
to our working class. (L o u d a n d p r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.)
During this Patriotic War the peasants of the Soviet Union, who during the period of peaceful construction transformed their formerly primitive farming into modern agriculture based on collective farming, have displayed a degree of understanding of our common national interests unprecedented in the history of the rural districts. By their self-sacrificing efforts to assist the front they have shown that they regard this war against the Germans as their own, as a war for their own life and liberty.
It is common knowledge that as a result of the invasion of the fascist hordes our country was temporarily deprived of important agricultural districts like the Ukraine, the Don, and the Kuban. In spite of this, however, our collective and state farms have been supplying the Army and the country with food without any serious interruption. Naturally, we could not have coped with this extremely difficult task had it not been for the existence of the collective farm system and the self-sacrificing efforts of our men and women collective farmers. The fact that our Army is not experiencing any shortage of food in this third year of the war, that the population of our country is being supplied with food and industry with raw materials, is evidence of the strength and vitality of the collective farm system and of the patriotism of the
collective farm peasantry. (P r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.)
An important part in assisting the front has been played by our transport system, primarily by our railways, but also by our river, sea and motor transport systems. It is common knowledge that transport is a vital means of communication between the rear and front. Vast quantities of arms and ammunition may be manufactured, but if the transport system fails to deliver them to the front in time they become a mere dead weight as far as the front is concerned. It must be said that the transport system plays a decisive part in the timely delivery to the front of arms, ammunition, food, clothing, etc. Credit for the fact that we have been able to supply the front with all it needs in spite of wartime difficulties and fuel shortage is due primarily to our
transport workers and office employees. (P r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.)
Nor is our intelligentsia lagging behind the working class and the peasantry in its efforts to assist the front. Our Soviet intelligentsia is working devotedly, making its contribution to the defence of our country, and constantly improving the Red Army's equipment and the methods and organization of production. It is helping the workers and collective farmers to increase the output of industry and agriculture, and is promoting Soviet science and culture amidst the conditions of war.
This stands to the credit of our intelligentsia. (P r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.)
All the peoples of the Soviet Union rose as one to defend their country, rightly regarding the present Patriotic War as the common cause of all the working people irrespective of nationality or religion. Today the Hitler politicians themselves realize how hopelessly absurd were their expectations that discord and strife would break out among the peoples of the Soviet Union.
The friendship among the peoples of our country has stood the test of all the hardships and trials of the war and has been still further cemented in the common struggle all the Soviet peoples are waging against the fascist invaders.
This is the source of the strength of the Soviet Union. (L o u d a n d p r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.)
As in the years of peaceful construction, so in the days of war, the leading and guiding force of the Soviet people has been the Party of Lenin, the Bolshevik Party. No party has enjoyed, or enjoys, such prestige among the masses of the people as our Bolshevik Party. This is natural. Under the leadership of the Bolshevik Party the workers, peasants and intellectuals of our country won
their freedom and built up socialist society. In this Patriotic War the Party has been the inspirer and organizer of the nationwide struggle against the fascist invaders. The organizational work conducted by our Party has united all the efforts of the Soviet people, directing them towards the common goal, and concentrating all our strength and resources on the task of defeating the enemy. In the course of the war the Party has still further strengthened its bonds of kinship with the people, it has become still more closely connected with the masses of the working people.
This is the source of the strength of our state. (L o u d a n d p r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.)
The present war has strongly confirmed Lenin's well-known thesis that war is an all-round test of a nation's material and spiritual strength. The history of war shows that only those countries can stand the test which excel their enemies in economic development and organization, whose troops excel in experience, skill and fighting spirit, and whose people excel in endurance and unity throughout the whole course of the war. Ours is precisely such a country.
The Soviet state has never been so stable and firm as it is now, in the third year of the Patriotic War. The experience of the war has proved that the Soviet system is not only the best system for organizing the economic and cultural development of a country in the period of peaceful construction, but also the best system for mobilizing all the forces of the people to resist an enemy in wartime. The Soviet Government that was set up twenty-six years ago transformed our country in a historically short period of time into an impregnable for-
tress. The Red Army's rear is more stable and reliable than that of any other army in the world.
This is the source of the strength of the Soviet Union. (L o u d a n d p r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.
There can be no doubt that the Soviet state will emerge from the war stronger and more consolidated than it was before. The German invaders are desolating and devastating our land in an effort to sap the strength of our state. The Red Army's offensive has exposed more than ever the barbarous, piratical character of the Hitlerite army. In the districts they seized, the Germans have exterminated hundreds of thousands of the civilian population. Like the barbarians of the Middle Ages, or the hordes of Attila, the German fiends trample down our fields, burn down our villages and towns, and demolish industrial plants and cultural institutions. The crimes the Germans are committing are evidence of the weakness of these fascist invaders, for only those who are in temporary occupation, who do not believe that they will be victorious can behave in this way. And the more hopeless the position of the Hitlerites becomes the greater becomes the frenzy with which they commit their atrocities and depredations. Our people will never forgive the crimes these German fiends have committed. We shall bring the German criminals to book for all their villainies! (L o u d a n d p r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e.)
In those areas where the fascist cutthroats exercised their temporary rule we shall have to restore the demolished towns and villages industry, the transport system, agricultural and cultural institutions, and create normal conditions of existence for the Soviet people who have been liberated from fascist slavery. The work of restoring our economy and culture is already proceeding in full swing in the districts which have been liberated from the enemy. But this is only the beginning. We must completely obliterate the consequences of German rule in the districts which have now been liberated from German occupation. This is a great national task. We can, and must, cope with this difficult task in a short time.
3. CONSOLIDATION OF THE ANTI-HITLER COALITION AND DISINTEGRATION OF THE FASCIST BLOC
The past year has witnessed the turning point not only in the Soviet Union's Patriotic War, but in the World War as a whole.
The changes that have taken place in the military and international situation during this year have been favourable to the U.S.S.R. and the Allied countries friendly to her, and detrimental to Germany and her associates in brigandage in Europe.
The results and consequences of the Red Army's victories are felt far beyond the Soviet-German front; they have changed the whole course of the World War and have acquired great international importance. The victory of the Allied countries over the common enemy has drawn nearer, while the relations between the Allies, and the military collaboration of their armies, far from weakening, as the enemy anticipated, have become stronger and more enduring. Eloquent testimony of this is also provided by the historic decisions of the Moscow
Conference of representatives of the Soviet Union, Great Britain and the United States, which were recently published in the press. Our united countries are now determined to deal the enemy joint blows that will result in final victory over him.
This year, the blows the Red Army struck at the German fascist troops were supplemented by our Allies' military operations in North Africa, in the Mediterranean, and in Southern Italy. At the same time the Allies subjected, and are still subjecting, important industrial centres of Germany to effective bombing, thereby considerably weakening the enemy's military power. If to all this we add the fact that the Allies are regularly supplying us with munitions and raw materials of various kinds, it can be said without exaggeration that by all these means they have greatly facilitated the success of our summer campaign. Of course, the Allied armies' present operations in Southern Europe cannot as yet be regarded as a second front, but they are something in the nature of a second front. Obviously, the opening of a real second front in Europe, which is not very remote, will greatly hasten our victory over Hitler Germany and serve still further to consolidate the military collaboration of the Allied countries.
Thus, the events of the past year show that the anti-Hitler coalition is a firmly cemented association of nations and rests on a solid foundation.
It is now obvious to all that by unleashing the present war the Hitler gang has brought Germany and her hangers-on to an
impasse. The defeats the fascist troops have sustained on the Soviet-German front, and the blows our Allies have struck at the Italian and German troops have thoroughly shaken the edifice of the fascist bloc, and it is now crumbling before our very eyes.
Italy has dropped out of the Hitler coalition for good. Mussolini can change nothing, for he, in fact, is a prisoner of the Germans. The next to drop out will be the other partners in the coalition. Discouraged by Germany's military defeats, Finland, Hungary, Rumania and the other vassals of Hitler have now lost all hope of the war ending in their favour and are anxious to find a way out of the bog into which Hitler has dragged them. Now that the time has come for them to answer for their brigandage, Hitler Germany's accomplices in plunder, recently so obedient to their master, are looking about for a loophole, waiting for the opportune moment to slip away from this robber gang unobserved. (L a u g h t e r.)
In plunging into this war, the partners in the Hitlerite bloc anticipated a speedy victory. They decided in advance who were to get the buns and pies, and who the bumps and black eyes. (L a u g h t e r a n d a p p l a u s e.) Naturally, they allocated the bumps and black eyes to their enemies and the buns and pies to themselves. It is now obvious that Germany and her hangers-on will get no buns or pies, but will have to share the bumps and black eyes. (L a u g h t e r a n d a p p l a u s e.)
With this uninviting prospect before them, Hitler's accomplices are now racking their brains to find a way out of the war with as few bumps and black eyes as possible. (L a u g h t e r.)
The case of Italy proves to Hitler's vassals that the longer they put off their inevitable rupture with the Germans, and the longer they allow them to lord it in
their respective countries, the more will their countries be devastated and the more will their peoples suffer. The case of Italy also shows that Hitlerite Germany has no intention of defending her vassal countries, but intends to convert them into arenas of devastating war as long as she can thereby postpone the hour of her own defeat.
German fascism is a lost cause and the bloody "new order" it has set up is on the verge of collapse. An eruption of popular anger against the fascist enslavers is maturing in the occupied countries of Europe. Germany has irretrievably lost her prestige among her allies and the neutral countries; her economic and political ties with the neutral countries have been weakened.
The time when the Hitlerite clique clamoured vociferously about the Germans winning world domination has long passed away. Now, as is well known, the Germans are too busy to worry about world domination; they are worrying about how to get out of this mess alive. (L a u g h t e r a n d a p p l a u s e.)
Thus, the course of the war has shown that the alliance of fascist countries has not been and is not based on a firm foundation. The Hitler coalition is based on the rapacious and predatory aspirations of its members. As long as the Hitlerites were achieving military victories the fascist coalition appeared to be stable; but the very first defeats sustained by the fascist troops actually led to the disintegration of this bandit alliance.
Hitler Germany and her vassals are on the brink of disaster.
The victory of the Allied countries over Hitler Germany will bring up on the order of the day the impor-
tant questions of organizing and restoring the political, economic and cultural life of the peoples of Europe. Our government's policy on these questions remains unchanged. In conjunction with our Allies we shall have to:
1) liberate the peoples of Europe from the fascist invaders and help them to rebuild their national states which the fascist enslavers have dismembered -- the peoples of France, Belgium, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia, Poland, Greece and the other countries now groaning under the German yoke mut again become free and independent;
2) grant the liberated peoples of Europe full right and freedom to decide what form of government they are to have;
3) take measures to ensure that all the fascist criminals who are respollsible for this war and the suffering the peoples have endured shall meet with stern punishment and retribution for all the crimes they have committed, no matter in what country they may hide;
4) establish an order in Europe that will utterly preclude the possibility of further aggression on Germany's part;
5) establish lasting economic, political and cultural collaboration among the peoples of Europe based on mutual confidence and mutual assistance for the purpose of restoring their economic and cultural life which the Germans have wrecked.
During the past year the Red Army and the Soviet people have achieved important successes in the struggle against the German invaders. We have reached a radical turning point in the war in favour of our country, and now the war is drawing towards its climax. But it is not fitting for the Soviet people to rest on their laurels, to exult over their successes. Victory may elude us if complacency appears in our ranks. Victory cannot be won without struggle and effort. It is won by fighting. Victory is near, but to achieve it we must make another effort, we need the self-sacrificing labour of our entire rear, and skilled and resolute operations on the part of our Red Army at the front. We would be committing a crime against our motherland, against the Soviet people who have temporarily fallen under the fascist yoke, and against the peoples of Europe who are groaning under the heel of German tyranny, if we failed to utilize all opportunities for accelerating the enemy's defeat. The enemy must be given no respite. Hence, we must exert all our efforts in order to crush him.
The Soviet people and the Red Army clearly visualize the difficulties of the struggle that lie ahead. But it is now evident that the day of our victory is drawing nigh. The war has reached the stage of completing the expulsion of the invaders from Soviet territory and of liquidating the fascist "new order in Europe." The day is not far distant when we shall have completely driven the enemy from the Ukraine and Byelorussia, and from the Leningrad and Kalinin Regions, and have liberated the peoples of the Crimea, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldavia and the Karelo-Finnish Republic from the German invaders.
For the victory of the Anglo-Soviet-American fighting alliance! (A p p l a u s e.)
For the liberation of the peoples of Europe from the fascist yoke! (A p p l a u s e.)
For the complete expulsion of the German fiends from our soil! (A p p l a u s e.)
Long live our Red Army! (A p p l a u s e.)
Long live our Navy! (A p p l a u s e.)
Long live our daring men and women partisans! (A p p l a u s e.)
Long live our great motherland! (A p p l a u s e.)
Death to the German invaders! (L o u d a n d p r o l o n g e d a p p l a u s e r i s i n g t o a n o v a t i o n.)
ORDER OF THE DAY OF THE SUPREME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
No. 309
MOSCOW, NOVEMBER 7, 1943
Comrades, Red Armymen and Red Navymen, non-commissioned officers, officers and generals, partisans, men and women! Working people of the Soviet Union!
On behalf of the Soviet Government and of our Bolshevik Party, I greet and congratulate you on the occasion of the 26th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution.
We are celebrating the 26th Anniversary of our Great Socialist Revolution at a time when our Red Army is gaining glorious victories over the enemies of our country.
For over two years our people have been waging a war of liberation against the German fascist enslavers. A year ago our country was in extreme distress. At that time the enemy had seized a large part of our territory. Millions of Soviet people were languishing in German captivity. Enemy hordes were pushing towards the Volga in order to envelop Moscow from the East, and besieging the approaches to Transcaucasia. But the Red Army rose like a wall to bar the enemy's progress. Our troops checked the alien robber hordes and then, after defeat- ing them at Stalingrad, drove them headlong westward. Since then, the Red Army has retained the initiative in military operations.
In the winter of 1942-43, our gallant forces routed the armies of picked German, Italian, Rumanian and Hungarian troops, killed or captured over a million enemy men and officers and liberated a vast area amounting to half a million square kilometres.
In the summer of 1943, the Red Army inflicted another crushing blow upon the enemy. In the course of several days our troops smashed the Germans' summer offensive and thereby wrecked Hitler's plan to crush the main forces of the Red Army and to envelop Moscow from the Orel-Kursk direction. Nor is this all. The Red Army itself launched a determined offensive, broke through the enemy's powerful defensive zones, and in the course of three months hurled the enemy westwards for distances ranging in places from 400 to 450 kilometres. During this summer campaign our troops expelled the enemy from the Ukraine up to the Dnieper, from the Donetz Basin, Taman, the Orel Region and the Smolensk Region, crossed to the right bank of the Dnieper, captured Kiev, the capital of Soviet Ukraine, entered Byelorussia, captured the approaches to the Crimea and liberated over 160 towns and over 38,000 other inhabited centres.
During the past year the Red Army recovered from the Germans nearly two-thirds of the territory they had captured from us and liberated from the German yoke tens of millions of Soviet people.
During the past year the Germans lost on the Soviet-German front over 4,000,000 men and officers, of whom no less than 1,800,000 were killed.
On the Soviet-German front the picked cadre divisions of the German fascist army met with an inglorious end. Together with them is buried forever Hitler's plan to conquer the world and to enslave the nations.
True, the German army is still fighting stubbornly, clinging desperately to every defence line. But the defeats the Germans have sustained after their troops were routed at Stalingrad have shaken the fighting spirit of the German army. The Germans are now haunted by the fear of encirclement, and whenever they are in danger of being surrounded by our troops they run, leaving on the battlefield their equipment and wounded.
In the offensive battles fought during the past year our troops gained greater experience in conducting modern warfare. Our officers and generals are skilfully handling their troops and are successfully mastering the art of generalship. The Red Army has become a most formidable and seasoned modern army.
The Red Army's victories have still further strengthened the international position of the Soviet Union. Our Army's offensive was backed by the military operations of the Allied troops in North Africa, on the Italian islands and in Southern Italy. Our Allies' air forces subjected the industrial centres of Germany to serious bombardment. There is no doubt that the blows the Red Army is striking at the German troops in the East, hacked by the blows of the Allies' main forces in the West, will crush the military might of Hitler Germany and lead to the complete victory of the anti-Hitler coalition.
The Red Army would have been unable to achieve the great victories of this year had it not been for the assistance our entire country rendered it. The Soviet peo-
ple are exerting all their efforts to support their Army. Arms, munitions, food and equipment are pouring to the front in an endless stream. The Urals and Kuzbass, Moscow and the Volga Region, Leningrad and Baku, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Georgia and Armenia, all our republics and regions have become mighty arsenals of the Red Army. The Soviet people are successfully restoring the industrial and agricultural districts which have been recovered from the enemy, are re-starting factories, mines and railways, are reviving state farms and collective farms and utilizing the resources of the liberated districts for the purpose of assisting the front.
Our successes are indeed great. But it would be childish for us to rest satisfied with our present achievements. Now that the Red Army is striking at the enemy on the other side of the Dnieper, and is fighting its way to the western frontiers of our country, it would be particularly dangerous to give way to complacency and placidity and to underrate the serious difficulties involved in the forthcoming struggle. The enemy will now fight with exceptional frenzy for every inch of captured territory, because every step forward our Army takes brings nearer the day of retribution for the crimes the Germans have committed on our soil.
The fight for final victory over the German fascist invaders will call for still further effort and further feats of heroism on the part of our Army and our people.
Comrades, Red Armymen and Red Navymen, non-commissioned officers, officers and generals! Partisans, men and women!
In the great battles you have fought against our mortal enemy you have gained important victories which cover the flags of the Red Army and Navy with unfading glory. The Red Army and Navy now have every opportunity for completely clearing our Soviet soil of the German invaders in the very near future.
For the sake of our country's victory over the German fascist fiends
I HEREBY ORDER:
1. All men and non-commissioned officers -- unremittingly to improve their fighting efficiency, strictly to obey the requirements of Army Regulations, field manuals and the orders of their commanders and chiefs, and always and everywhere to maintain exemplary order, firm discipline and a high state of organization.
2. Officers and generals of all arms of the service -- to improve their skill in handling troops on the battlefield and in co-ordinating the operations of all arms, firmly to consolidate the successes of the offensive, swiftly to pursue the enemy's troops, accelerate the advance of the army administrations and more boldly to utilize reserves for fresh blows.
3. The entire Red Army -- boldly and determinedly to break down the enemy's defences, pursue the enemy day and night and prevent him from digging in on intermediate lines, to cut the enemy's communications by skilful and daring manoeuvres, surround and break up his forces and destroy and capture his manpower and material.
4. Partisans, men and women -- to rouse the Soviet people for an armed struggle against the Germans, to increase in every way their assistance to the advancing Red Army, to wreck the enemy's army administrations and staffs, to save Soviet people from being slaughtered or driven into penal servitude in Germany and ruthlessly to exterminate the German fascist scoundrels!
Warriors of the Red Army! Partisans, men and women! Forward to the complete rout of the German fascist invaders!
Long live the 26th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution!
Long live our victorious Red Army!
Long live our victorious Navy!
Long live our brave men and women partisans!
Long live our great motherland!
Vengeance and death to the German fascist invaders!
J. Stalin
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Supreme Commander-in-Chief
ORDER OF THE DAY OF THE SUPREME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF
No. 16
MOSCOW, FEBRUARY 23, 1944
Comrades, Red Armymen and Red Navymen, non-commissioned officers, officers and generals! Partisans, men and women!
The peoples of our country are celebrating the 26th anniversary of the Red Army amidst historic victories won by the Soviet troops over the German fascist troops.
For over a year the Red Army has been conducting a victorious offensive, routing the armies of the Hitler invaders and sweeping them from Soviet soil. During this period the Red Army successfully conducted the winter campaign of 1942-43, won the battles in the summer of 1943, and has developed a victorious offensive in the winter of 1943-44. In these campaigns, unprecedented in the history of war, the Red Army fought its way westward, in places as much as 1,700 kilometres, and cleared the enemy from nearly three-fourths of the Soviet territory he captured.
In the course of the present winter campaign the Red Army has demolished the powerful German defences along the whole length of the Dnieper, from Zhlobin to
Kherson, and has thereby upset the Germans' calculations of successfully conducting a protracted defensive war on the Soviet-German front.
During the three months of the winter campaign, our valiant troops have achieved immense victories in the Ukraine on the right bank of the Dnieper, completed the liberation of the Kiev, Dniepropetrovsk and Zaporozhye Regions, liberated the whole of the Zhitomir Region and almost the whole of the Rovno and Kirovograd Regions, and freed a number of districts of the Vinnitsa, Nikolayev, Kamenets-Podolsk and Volhynia Regions. By its resolute operations, the Red Army thwarted the Germans' attempts to conduct a counter-offensive in the districts of Zhitomir, Krivoi Rog and Uman. The Soviet troops arranged another Stalingrad for the Germans on the right bank of the Dnieper by surrounding and exterminating, in the district of Korsun-Shevchenkovsky, ten German divisions and one brigade.
The Soviet troops won a magnificent victory at Leningrad. Our troops smashed the enemy's powerful system of permanent, deeply echeloned fortifications, routed a strong group of German troops and completely relieved Leningrad from the enemy blockade and savage artillery bombardment. The Soviet troops are now clearing the Leningrad and Kalinin Regions of the last remnants of the fascist fiends and have entered the territory of Soviet Estonia.
The wholesale expulsion of the invaders from Soviet Byelorussia is proceeding on a wide scale: almost the whole of the Gomel and Polesie Regions and a number of districts in the Moghilev and Vitebsk Regions have been liberated.
Amidst the unfavourable conditions of the present winter, our troops, surmounting the powerful enemy defence zones,
in the course of three months of the winter campaign, have cleared the enemy out of about 200,000 square kilometres of Soviet territory. The Red Army has recovered from the enemy over 13,000 inhabited centres, including 82 towns and 320 railway stations. Additional millions of Soviet citizens have been liberated from fascist captivity. Our country has regained important agricultural and industrial districts containing immense deposits of iron and manganese ore. The Germans have been deprived of these economically important districts, to which they clung so desperately.
It should now be obvious to everybody that Hitler Germany is irresistibly heading for disaster. True, in this war, the conditions for conducting war are more favourable for Germany than they were in the last World War when, from beginning to end, she was compelled to fight on two fronts. A serious drawback for Germany, however, is the fact that in this war the Soviet Union has proved to be much more powerful than former tsarist Russia was in the last war. In the first World War six Great Powers -- France, Russia, Great Britain, the United States, Japan and Italy -- were arrayed on two fronts against the German bloc. In the present war, Italy and Japan arrayed themselves on the side of Germany; Finland joined the fascist bloc, and Rumania, which fought Germany in the last war, deserted to Germany's side in this war; and to this day Germany's main forces are operating on one front against the Soviet Union. We know from history that Germany was always victorious when she fought on one front and was vanquished when
compelled to fight on two fronts. In the present war Germany has concentrated her main forces on one front -- against the U.S.S.R. Nevertheless she has not only failed to achieve victory but, as a result of the powerful blows delivered by the armed forces of the Soviet Union, finds herself on the brink of disaster. Since the Soviet Union, fighting single-handed, has not only withstood the onslaught of the German war machine but has inflicted heavy defeats on the German fascist troops, how much more hopeless will Hitler Germany's position be when the main forces of our Allies go into action, and a powerful and ever growing offensive of the armies of all the Allied countries develops!
The German fascist robbers are now making frantic efforts to avert disaster. They have again clutched at "total" mobilization in the rear, although Germany's man power reserves are exhausted. The fascist rulers are making desperate efforts to sow dissension in the camp of the anti-Hitler coalition and thereby prolong the war. Hitler's diplomats are rushing from one neutral country to another in the endeavour to establish contacts with pro-Hitler elements, hinting at the possibility of a separate peace, now with our country and now with our Allies. All these stratagems of the Hitlerites are doomed to failure, for the anti-Hitler coalition is based on the vital interests of the Allies, who have set themselves the object of routing Hitler Germany and her associates in Europe. It is this community of vital interests that is causing the fighting alliance of the U.S.S.R., Great Britain and the United States to become stronger in the course of the war.
The hour of final retribution for all the atrocities the
Hitlerites have committed on Soviet soil and in the occupied countries of Europe is drawing near.
The Red Army's victorious offensive was made possible by the fresh feats of labour heroism the Soviet people have performed in all branches of our national economy. The working people of the Soviet Union consolidated the Red Army's summer victories at the front by fresh production victories in the rear.
The workers in our industries are fulfilling and over fulfilling state plans ahead of time, are starting new industrial plants, blast furnaces and electric power stations, and, in an unprecedentedly short space of time, are restoring the industry that was destroyed by the invaders in the now liberated districts. The heroic efforts of the working class are still further strengthening the Red Army's military material base and thereby bringing nearer the hour of our final victory.
The Soviet peasantry are providing the state with provisions for the Army and the towns and raw materials for industry, and are self-sacrificingly backing the efforts of the Red Army.
The Soviet intelligentsia are rendering the workers and peasants direct assistance and guidance in developing production and in satisfying the Red Army's needs.
The working people in the liberated districts are, day after day, increasing their assistance to the Red Army -- their liberator -- and are directing the products of their restored factories and farms into the common stream of supplies that is flowing to the front.
There can be no doubt that the Soviet people will continue, by their heroic labours, and by straining all their efforts, to ensure a continuous increase in the productive forces of our country for the purpose of securing the speedy and final defeat of the German fascist invaders.
The organization of new military formations in the Union Republics, the ground for which was prepared by the fighting unity of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. during our present Patriotic War and by the entire history of our country, will still further strengthen the Red Army an augment its ranks with new fighting forces.
Comrades, Red Armymen and Red Navymen, non-commissioned officers, officers and generals! Comrades, partisans, men and women!
In this great war of liberation for the freedom and independence of our motherland you have displayed marvels of heroism. The Red Army has achieved a decisive turning point in this war in our favour, and is now confidently marching toward final victory over the enemy. The enemy is sustaining defeat after defeat. He is not yet vanquished, however. The Hitler brigands, realizing that their doom and inevitable retribution for all the fiendish atrocities they have committed on our soil is approaching, are resisting with the fury of despair. They are hurling into the fray their last forces and reserves; they are clinging to every metre of Soviet soil and to every convenient line.
Precisely for this reason, great as our successes may be, we must continue soberly to appraise the enemy's strength, be vigilant and not permit conceit, complacency and carelessness to enter our ranks. There has never been a case in the history of war when the enemy leapt into the abyss of his own accord. To win the war we
must drive the enemy to the precipice and throw him over. Only crushing blows of steadily increasing force can break the enemy's resistance and bring us final victory. For this we must continue to perfect the military training of the men and the military skill of the commanders of our Army. It is the Red Army's duty day after day to improve its skill in the art of war, unceasingly and thoroughly to study the enemy's tactics, skilfully and opportunely see through his crafty designs and oppose the enemy's tactics with our own more perfect tactics. The fighting experience and achievements of the outstanding units and formations of the Red Army must be acquired by
all our troops; the entire Red Army, all its men and officers must learn to fight the enemy according to all the rules of modern military science.
Comrades, Red Armymen and Red Navymen, non-commissioned officers, officers and generals, partisans, men and women!
Greeting and congratulating you on the 26th Anniversary of the Red Army,
I HEREBY ORDER:
1. That all the men and non-commissioned officers of the infantry, trench-mortar units, artillery, air force, tank force, sappers, signal corps and cavalry -- continue unceasingly to perfect their fighting skill, make the fullest use of our splendid fighting equipment, beat the enemy as our valiant Guardsmen are beating him, precisely carry out the orders of their commanders, increase discipline and order, and improve organization.
2. That officers and generals of all arms of the service perfect their skill in the art of leading troops, in
manoeuvring tactics, and in combining the operations of all arms in the course of battle, more boldly and extensively apply in their fighting practice the experience of the outstanding Guards units and formations, raise the efficiency of staffs and army administrations to a higher level, and in every way improve and develop our reconnoitring service.
3. That the entire Red Army, by the skilful combination of fire and manoeuvres, smash the enemy's defences throughout their depth, give the enemy no respite, forestall the enemy's attempts to arrest our advance by means of counter-attacks, skilfully organize the pursuit of the enemy, prevent the latter from withdrawing his material, outflank the enemy's troops by daring manoeuvres, penetrate their rear, surround the enemy's troops, split them up and exterminate them if they refuse to lay down their arms.
4. That partisans, men and women, increase their aid to the Red Army, attack the enemy's staffs and garrisons, wreck his army administrations in the rear, destroy his communications and prevent him from drawing up reserves.
5. That, to celebrate the great victories achieved by the armed forces of the Soviet state during the past year, twenty salvoes of artillery be fired today, February 23, the 26th Anniversary of the Red Army at 18 hours, in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Dniepropetrovsk, Gomel and Rostov in salute of the valiant troops of the Red Army.
Glory to our victorious Red Army!
Glory to Soviet arms!
Glory to our valiant men and women partisans!
Long live our great Soviet Motherland!
Long live our All-Union Communist Party -- the inspirer and organizer of the Red Army's great victories!
Death to the German invaders!
J. Stalin
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Supreme Commander-in-Chief
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