On August 11, 1943, the 1st Tank Army (M.E. Katukov) on the Voronezh Front resumed its offensive south of Bogodukhov. The tankers cut the Kharkiv-Poltava railroad, and were immediately subjected to a counterattack by enemy tanks and infantry. The counterattack was repulsed. In the evening

August 12, 1943 Fighting began on the outer defensive perimeter of Kharkov, engulfed by the troops of the Steppe Front from the north and from the east. After powerful artillery and aviation preparation, Soviet troops attacked enemy positions. * * * In the Bryansk direction

August 13, 1943 Troops Kalinin Front, "silent" for more than a year and a half, went on the offensive in the Dukhovshchina direction, but met with fierce resistance from the Germans - even stronger than the troops that launched the offensive on August 7 Western Front- and

August 14, 1943 In the Kharkov direction, our troops, overcoming the resistance and counterattacks of enemy tanks and infantry, continued the offensive, occupying several settlements. * * * In the Bryansk direction, our troops fought northeast of the city of Karachev. AT

August 16, 1943 On the Voronezh Front, the 1st Tank Army (M.E. Katukov), the 5th Guards Tank Army (P.A. Rotmistrov) and the 6th Guards Army (I.M. Chistyakov) transferred to the Bogodukhov area repelled all enemy attacks. On August 16, the Germans were forced in this direction

On August 17, 1943, the Command of the Bryansk Front received from the Headquarters the task of developing an offensive to the west, capturing the crossing over the Desna with mobile units, forcing it northwest and south of Bryansk and, having mastered the Bryansk bridgehead, continue the offensive on

August 18, 1943 The Oryol operation ended (it began on July 12): the troops of the Bryansk and Central Fronts liquidated the enemy's Oryol bridgehead, defeated 15 enemy divisions and, advancing westward on a front of 400 km to a depth of 150 km, reached Bryansk, but were

August 19, 1943 Our troops continued their offensive in the Bryansk direction, freeing over 20 settlements.* * *In the Kharkov direction, our troops, overcoming the resistance and counterattacks of the enemy, continued the offensive and, advancing on separate

August 20, 1943 The Spas-Demenskaya operation ended: the troops of the Western Front advanced to a depth of 30-40 kilometers and reached the line Terenino - Zimtsy - Malye Savki. * * * * Our troops in the Kharkov direction, overcoming the resistance and counterattacks of the enemy,

August 1, 1943? An outstanding surgeon, Honored Scientist of the RSFSR, Hero of Socialist Labor, Academician of the USSR Academy of Medical Sciences, Lieutenant General of the Medical Service Iustin Ivlianovich (Yustin Yulianovich) Dzhanelidze (1883–1950), professor at the 1st Leningrad

August 11, 1943? Honorary citizen of St. Petersburg, honored coach of the Russian Federation in track and field athletics, master of sports, international referee, academician of the Academy of Tourism Mikhail Mikhailovich Bobrov, a graduate of the Military Institute of Physical Education and Sports, celebrated his 20th birthday. AT

August 14, 1943? Director of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology of the USSR Academy of Sciences, Academician Abram Fedorovich Ioffe, signed Order No. 86 for the staff of the Leningrad Institute of Physics and Technology, who were evacuated in Kazan, on the creation of Laboratory No. 2 of the USSR Academy of Sciences (LIPAN) headed by Professor Igor

August 22, 1943? The Mga operation ended: the troops of the Leningrad and Volkhov fronts did not allow the enemy to restore the ring blockade around Leningrad, but they themselves were unable to advance, let alone remove the blockade from the city. air defense fighter

August 25, 1943? The 35th anniversary was met by the Soviet naval commander, Admiral Alexander Evstafievich Oryol (1908–1997), deputy head of the intelligence department of the headquarters Baltic Fleet, submarine formation commander. After the war, the admiral commanded the Red Banner Baltic

August 26, 1943? The participant of the war Alexander Borisovich Chakovsky (1913–1994) met his 30th birthday, served as a military correspondent in front-line newspapers, later becoming a well-known prose writer, playwright, publicist and literary critic. Hero of Socialist Labor. Headed the magazine "Foreign

The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted the Decree "On Pensions for Personal Civilians Employed in the Construction of Defense Lines in the Control Bodies of Defense Construction and Engineering Troops of the Red Army." The procedure for assigning and the size of disability pensions and on the occasion of the death of the breadwinner extended to the entire civilian staff of military construction detachments, motor columns, motor detachments, animal transport detachments, heavy mechanized detachments, military field construction departments, defense construction departments, geological detachments and their families. as well as for military personnel.

The troops of the Bryansk Front, with the assistance of the troops of the Western and Central Fronts, liberated the city of Orel. The formations that were the first to break into the city of Orel and liberated it were given the military honorary name "Orlovsky". [In subsequent battles, formations and units Soviet army who distinguished himself in the liberation of large cities and important areas, as well as when forcing major rivers were given honorary titles.

The troops of the Central Front went to the city of Kromy - an important road junction and supply base for the Nazi troops - and started a battle on its outskirts.

The troops of the Steppe and Voronezh fronts liberated the city of Belgorod. The formations that were the first to break into the city of Belgorod and liberate it were given the military honorary name "Belgorod".

In the Gulf of Finland, Soviet mines blew up and sank an enemy escort ship "Ost" (1592 tons).

Partisan detachments of the Kiev region defeated a large Nazi garrison and liberated the city of Radomyshl. The partisans destroyed the communication center, bridges and other important buildings of the city, seized and distributed to the local population 3 tons of sugar, 250 head of cattle, 2 thousand m of cloth.

The first salute was held in Moscow in honor of the victory of the Soviet troops of the Bryansk, Western, Central, Steppe and Voronezh fronts.

The All-Russian Conference on Public Education ended in Moscow, which summed up the results of the work of schools in the conditions of the Patriotic War and outlined the tasks facing teachers and all educational workers on the eve of the new academic year.

A report has been published by the Extraordinary State Commission for establishing and investigating the atrocities of the Nazi invaders and their accomplices and the damage they caused to citizens, collective farms, public organizations, state enterprises and institutions of the USSR, about the atrocities of the Nazi invaders in the Stavropol Territory.

Chronicle of besieged Leningrad

Yesterday, the last, sixth in a row, shelling ended at night, and today at 03:20, explosions rumbled again in Leningrad. During the day, over 200 shells hit the city. More than 80 people were injured.

Leningrad writers, workers of arts, radio and publishing houses have gathered today in the House of Writers. For the first time during the war, a broad discussion of the work of Leningrad writers is going on. An overview of the poetry of the war years was made by Vera Inber. Vissarion Sayanov spoke with an analysis of prose works.

The discussion was so detailed that the meeting had to be continued the next day...
At midnight, Leningraders listened on the radio to fireworks in Moscow. This have not happened before! In honor of the troops that liberated Orel and Belgorod today, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ordered twelve artillery salvos from one hundred and twenty guns to be saluted ...

The Leningrad partisans saluted in their own way in honor of the victory at Orel and Belgorod. Detachments of the Volkhov brigade attacked another section of the railway behind enemy lines that night. Between Chasha and Novinka stations, 785 rails were blown up.

Memoirs of David Iosifovich Ortenberg,
executive editor of the newspaper "Krasnaya Zvezda"

All days gone by operational reports report on the advance of our troops in the Oryol direction. It is indicated that they advanced 4, 8, 10 kilometers, the villages and villages recaptured from the enemy are called, and looking at the map, it is easy to understand that Orel is within easy reach. But no, it wasn't that easy. Every day reports are published, correspondence of our special correspondents under the headings "North of the Eagle", "South of the Eagle" - they reveal the picture of the battles for the city. Curious in this regard is Vasily Koroteev's correspondence Under the Eagle. He writes that our troops have already come close to Orel, to the heights behind which lies the city. His correspondence is devoted mainly to the story of how fiercely the battle is going on, with what stubborn resistance of the enemy our divisions and regiments meet.

To illustrate, here are some lines from this material:

“Our troops entered into stubborn battles with the enemy in the depths of his defense, prepared in advance and stretching for 20-45 kilometers ...

The deep defense of the enemy, the advantageous positions that he possessed, his desperate stubbornness and heavy thunderstorms - all this somewhat slowed down the advance of our troops ...

During the fighting in the depths of the defense, the Germans managed to prepare several new intermediate lines, to saturate them with fresh troops. Strengthening the counterattacks, they additionally brought into action large forces of tanks and aircraft, pulled up a lot of artillery ... "

The situation is similar near Belgorod.

And yet the Germans failed to keep Orel and Belgorod, today our troops occupied them. An order was received from the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, which for the first time during the Battle of Kursk indicated which fronts captured these cities. The names of the commanders of the troops of the fronts are named. It is surprising that the representatives of the Stavka G.K. Zhukov and A.M. Vasilevsky were not named in the order, as was the case, for example, in the order on the Battle of Stalingrad or the breaking of the blockade of Leningrad. Both Zhukov and Vasilevsky were there all the days of the battle, they did a lot for victory. After all, the initiative for a deliberate defense with a subsequent transition to a counteroffensive on the Kursk Bulge belonged to Zhukov. The strategic and operational plan of the battle was developed by him together with Vasilevsky. It was they who insisted that Stalin abandon a number of his unreasonable directives, which were fraught with defeats and great losses. Was this not a manifestation of Stalin's jealousy, who sought to attribute all the victories in the Patriotic War to himself?

“Today, August 5, at 24 o’clock,” the order says, “the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, will salute our valiant troops, who liberated Orel and Belgorod, with twelve artillery volleys from 120 guns.”

This is the first salute of those 354 fired from that night until the end of the Patriotic War. The event is outstanding, and the newspaper widely covered it. Newspaper reporters are on the asphalt parade ground, where the gunners lined up their guns. 12am. Cannon blasts shake the air. The capital welcomes the winners.

It is curious how Muscovites met the unexpected fireworks. A volley of 120 guns thunders. And suddenly applause is woven into the echo of shots. Applause rushes from the open dark windows of houses, from sidewalks where people are crowding, from somewhere above, from balconies ... Our reporters overheard the remarks, exclamations, conversations of Muscovites and recorded them. Here are some, colorful and aphoristic:

“This is the kind of shooting I love,” says the old woman Evdokia Semyonovna Kuzovleva, who was met by the Krasnozvezdovites next to the editorial office, on Gorky Street, “at the house where she lives.

Or at the corner of Malaya Dmitrovka and Sadovaya stands a man and applauds for a long time. Then, turning to his random neighbors, who are listening to the victorious rumble of guns, he says impatiently:

No, do you understand what it is? After all, what a victory! How wonderful... After all, we are beating the Germans, and how we are beating! Let's kiss, listen!

Our poets and writers responded to the salute. On the front page of the newspaper printed poems by Nikolai Aseev "Echo of Glory":

Steel deep breasts
They sighed to the very heart:
One hundred and twenty guns
Merged into a growing rumble.

Peals! Peals! Peals!
Sovereign greetings
Responded loudly, Moscow, you
To their glorious sons.

And the echo of unfading glory
In the gunshot
The rumble of Borodin and Poltava
Merged into one.

And flashes flashed,
Passing through the ages,
Crowning the Kremlin towers
Immortality wreaths.

"Salute of Victory" is the name of Alexei Tolstoy's response. He recalls that salute is a Suvorov tradition. “It turns out,” he concludes, “under the hot sun of August, German heels sparkle no worse than the wooden soles of ersatz boots in the January snow. And the Russian bogatyr, wiping the sweat from his face and throwing open the collar on his mighty chest to meet the summer wind, goes forward to the West, as he walked through the snowdrifts in winter. Time is now ours, and not seasons, but Russian military art determines the weather of the battlefield.

On the front page is a large, three-column photograph of batteries shrouded in smoke, and the caption: "Moscow, August 5, 24 hours."

So widely the material devoted to fireworks was given only on Victory Day. But this is the first salute!

The newspaper devoted many pages to the liberation of Orel and Belgorod, not only in the issue. This is understandable - the enemy has been expelled from the major cities of Russia. But not only in this matter. The Battle of Kursk has been going on for a month now. For two weeks there were defensive battles. Those were troubled days - after all, the people did not know that our defense was deliberate. Yes, the reports and our reports reported on the stamina and stubbornness of our troops. Sometimes the kilometers flashed by which the Germans were able to break through. It was unsettling. But now our troops went on the counteroffensive. The reports are modest: they report on the advance of our troops, the liberation of small villages and villages. Where will it end? How will events develop? The reader could not help but ask these questions.

Finally, Orel and Belgorod appeared today. The people sighed. We understood that this was a milestone from which a difficult, not always straight, path began, but a path forward to the West!

This is what the newspaper said in its editorial "Orel and Belgorod". It contains an assessment of the battle on the bridgehead, which in a few lines makes it clear its scale:

“This battle will appear to the eyes of contemporaries as a cluster of military efforts of the opposing sides, as the apotheosis of everything that our troops have done so far. This battle, unusually dense in time, drew into its orbit colossal masses of material resources and human resources. It is unlikely that during the war, in such a relatively limited space and in such a short time, forces acted like those that clashed in the July battle, which has now culminated in the fall of Orel and Belgorod.

The front line speaks of a strategic and operational victory, of the immediate prospects for our offensive.

On the same day that the Supreme Commander's order was published, the newspaper managed to print great article Major General B. Antropov "The Fight for the Orlovsky Bridgehead" - a military review of the battle from the first to last day. By the way, we sat down the author for this article at the end of July, and he supplemented it day by day. He put the last dot after these lines:

“Our units, pursuing the Germans, almost burst into the city on their shoulders and captured the outskirts of Orel from the north and east ... They boldly and quickly stormed the strongholds created by the enemy in large stone buildings, made their way to the rear of his separate groups, surrounded and destroyed them. So, retaking street after street, our units drove the Germans out of Orel and completely took possession of it.

In the same issue there is a large correspondence of Boris Galin "In our Orel". He moved towards Orel along with the advanced units of the 129th Infantry Division, which today received the honorary name of Orlovskaya. It was night. Suddenly there was a sonorous voice, thundering from the most advanced ranks of the advancing. What is it?

At three o'clock in the morning, the writer says, alarming, illuminated by flashes of rockets, artillery fire and machine gun shots, when the fate of Orel was being decided, the exhausted inhabitants of this long-suffering city suddenly heard the voice of the Red Army, the voice of the Motherland. The division advancing on Orel advanced a powerful radio station to the river, to the very line of fire; the fierce battle was still in full swing on the streets of Orel, the houses were still burning, the enemy was still fiercely snapping, but the voice of the advancing army sounded proud, confident and bold:

- The eagle was and will be ours, Soviet city! We are with you, comrades and brothers! We are coming to you!

Then we read: “At dawn, together with the advanced units, we entered Orel ...” This essay, dated August 5, is a story about what Galin saw and heard in the city. And again, as elsewhere, the ruins left by the Germans, devastation, countless victims - the elderly, women and children who fell under the millstone of the fascist machine. And unforgettable meetings.

On the banks of the Oka, Galin witnessed the following scene: a division commander, a general with an adjutant were moving across a blown-up bridge. This was the first Soviet general seen by the inhabitants of the liberated Orel. He, like other officers and soldiers, was brought a bouquet of flowers, asked to wait a minute or two. An elderly woman came out of the nearest house and handed the general her gift - an old saber with a silver notch. The general took the saber, put it to his lips, hugged the woman and drove further into the line of fire. It is only a pity that in the rush of newspapers, Galin did not find out either the origin of this saber or the name of the Orlov woman.

On the second day in the newspaper - an essay by Vasily Grossman "Return". This includes the return of the Red Army to Orel, and the return of the inhabitants to their homes, and the return of Grossman himself to the city. This needs to be told.

In the bitter days of October 1941, our correspondents Vasily Grossman and Pavel Troyanovsky were in Orel on the day when the Germans broke into the city so suddenly that many people did not have time to leave. Barely got out of Orel and our special correspondents. And then this is what happened. They returned to Moscow. I saw their "emka" - all excised with fragments. The editorial staff gathered near her, examined, shook their heads - yes, the guys got it! How did they get out alive?

After talking with their comrades near their emka, Grossman and Troyanovsky came to me and told me about the trouble at the front. I listened to them attentively, but when I learned that they had not brought anything for the newspaper, I could not restrain myself from harsh words. Of course, the newspaper could not print a report on the breakthrough on the Bryansk front, on the capture of Orel by the Germans, until there was an official report. However, we believed that in any battle, even with the most unfavorable outcome for us, true heroes who perform feats are revealed, and it is possible and necessary to write about them!

Without any hesitation, I said to Grossman and Troyanovsky:

“We don’t need your shot through emka, but material for the newspaper. Get back to the front.

It must have been unfair. I do not want to make excuses even now, when I know for sure that the correspondents miraculously escaped from the enemy ring. Looking at the agitated and bewildered faces of these generally courageous, even brave people, it was necessary to tell them something else, to speak softer to them. But remember that time! There was no time for sentiment then ...

Grossman and Troyanovsky immediately went to the front, to the 1st Guards Rifle Corps of General D. D. Lelyushenko, who just that day managed to stop the enemy near Mtsensk. And my remark about the “shot emka” went for a walk along the editorial corridors and even in our front-line correspondent points. But, I think, perhaps not so much in order to tease the editor, but in order to emphasize the immutability of the unwritten laws that have been established in our editorial office since the first days of the war.

I must say that I never forgot about this episode. And these days, in July, when the Orel direction appeared, and we had no doubt that Orel would be returned, sending Grossman to the area of ​​the Battle of Kursk, I told him:

- Vasily Semyonovich! The eagle is your pain. I would like you to be there on the day of the liberation of the city. Remember how you left...

He was in Orel on the day of his release and wrote an essay where he remembered those terrible and tragic days and hours:

“On this first restless and joyful day, when under the receding roar of the cannonade, among the dust and smoke, the Russian, Soviet Eagle rose from the ashes, I remembered the Eagle, which I saw exactly 22 months ago, on that October day of 1941, when German tanks burst in, marching along the Kromskoye highway. I remembered the last night in Orel - a sick, terrible night, the hum of leaving cars, the cry of women running after the retreating troops, the mournful faces of people and the questions that were asked me full of anxiety and anguish. I remembered Orel's last morning, when he seemed to be crying and tossing about, seized with mortal anxiety.

The city then stood in all its beauty, without a single broken glass, without a single destroyed building. But he was a kind of doom and death. This doom was in everything. The whole city was crying, as if a person was parting forever with the most dear and close thing that he had in his life. And the more elegant he looked then, the brighter the autumn sun shone on that last Soviet morning in countless windows of houses, the more hopeless was the longing in the eyes of people who understood and knew that the Germans would be in Orel in the evening.

And, remembering that grief, that anxiety, that terrible confusion that seized the city, I somehow in a special way deeply understood the holy happiness of today's meeting of Orel, devastated and defiled by the Germans, with a great country, with great army, which drives and destroys the hordes of invaders ... "

After reading these lines in the essay "Return", I understood what Vasily Semenovich experienced in the October days of the forty-first year. I met Grossman a year after the Battle of Kursk, already at the front, and in our conversation, which I will tell about later, as if justifying himself, I reminded him of that episode. He smiled and said quite sincerely:

Grossman arrived in Orel on the 5th afternoon. He tells everything that comes before his eyes. In the morning, soldiers of the 380th Rifle Division, which received the title of Orlovskaya only a few hours ago, marched along the main street. Ahead is the banner of Major Plotnikov's regiment. This first parade looks stern in the smoke of conflagrations, in the dust of explosions, in the high fog that covered the sky over the destroyed quarters of the city.

Meetings. Flowers. “From where,” the writer notes, “there were so many flowers at these moments - after all, the city was so severe at the hour of the end of the battle! It seemed that they suddenly blossomed among the streets and courtyards mutilated by the Germans - and children, women threw flowers at the feet of the marching Red Army soldiers, shouted, applauded, cried ... "

And again, in conclusion, Grossman returns to those bitter days of the fall of Orel: “This meeting today and that bitter parting on an October morning in 1941 are one, interconnected. This is a manifestation of the great true love of the people. She is the strongest in the world. Stronger than death."

These joyful hours of liberation, meetings could not obscure grief and sadness, without which there is not a single victory. On the same day, at seventeen o'clock, troops were lined up in regular triangles on May Day Square. They are followed by the townspeople. In the middle of the square - deep mass grave. Slowly swaying, as if floating above the crowd of coffins with the bodies of fallen tankers. Men, women, children shower flowers on the precious remains. The funeral march is silent. And immediately restrained sobs become audible. The people mourn their faithful sons-liberators. Regiment commander Shulgin addresses the people. He names the names of the dead tankers near Orel. Their bodies are lowered into the grave. A triple volley fires. It is echoed by the distant rumble of artillery fire in the west. There is a fight going on. A hill rises above the square. A temporary monument is being erected on it...

Even before the start of the Battle of Kursk, we gathered the "poetic army" and told her to be ready. When the battle on the Kursk Bulge began, poems began to appear one after another. On the day of the liberation of Orel, Semyon Kirsanov responded with a poem "To the Eaglets":

Glory to the eagles who took the Eagle,
a new life is taken with a fight!
Russian soldier with honor found
his glory - the name of the Orlovets!

The foliage is knocked down from the summer branches,
the new frontier is shrouded in smoke,
and Moscow stood behind the fighter,
praises him at midnight with fireworks.

Boris Yefimov did his best for today's issue by printing an expressive caricature.

Next to the red banner stands a Red Army soldier with a smiling face. In his hands he has a rifle with a bayonet. The bayonet pierced the bird of prey. The bird has a fascist sign in its claws. On the head is a cap with the emblem of the Nazis. The beak is gaping in fear. This is an eagle ... And the inscription above the caricature: "The German" eagle "in the Russian Orel."

And what is going on with the Germans, in Germany, at Hitler's headquarters? Ilya Ehrenburg talks about this in the article "August", citing many documents and, of course, angrily and aptly commenting on them.

The most interesting are excerpts from German radio intercepts:

These conflicting messages German propaganda the writer finds an exact comparison: “Let's leave the Fritz to sort out these comments. They are like a Scottish shower: boiling water and ice water mixed up.

No less commotion in the highest military echelons:

“The German command is trying in every possible way to console the Fritz, upset by the loss of Orel. As early as July 30, the Berliner Berzentseitung wrote that Orel was impregnable and that "the Russians would stomp in front of him." And now the German newspapers are assuring the boobies that "The eagle is of no interest to anyone." Reading the German comments, one might think that Orel is a tiny village where three or four Fritz accidentally wandered into. The Germans are silent about the fact that Hitler, until recently, considered Oryol "an impregnable stronghold", that until August 3, German reports spoke of "futile Russian attacks."

If the Germans have already mourned Orel, then they stubbornly hide the loss of Belgorod. German reports read: "In the Belgorod area, we are successfully repelling Russian attacks." Meanwhile, the Soviet flag has been fluttering over Belgorod for the fourth day. From Belgorod, our offensive began in the Kharkov direction. The Germans are silent about this offensive. "Their silence," writes Ehrenburg, "is a good sign: we have hit where it hurts."

In the same issues of the newspaper, material about the liberation of Belgorod is published. Less than Orel, but also a lot.

The fact is that there was no correspondent there. The editors sent Boris Galin from Orel to Belgorod, together with photojournalist Oleg Knorring, by plane, and on the second day, August 7, he handed over his first correspondence “In Belgorod” via Bodo. It can be said that he showed the highest class of efficiency.

In total, Galin had seen enough in Orel and wrote about it in the newspaper on August 5th. But what he saw in Belgorod defies description. And yet he wrote - you can’t be silent!

“On the same day, the German soldiers, retreating, destroyed Orel and Belgorod, German torchlighters rushed through the streets of two Russian cities, setting fire and blowing up our houses. Belgorod, like Oryol, is bleeding, it is covered with ulcers... In Oryol we saw the predatory hand of a German, looked at the Oryol houses crippled by explosions, and it seemed to us that this was the limit of German cruelty. But Belgorod strikes and terrifies more than Orel. Here, German cruelty and meanness manifested itself with even more terrible force. In Belgorod, the Germans, as it were, squeezed the throat of the city: it became numb, it was turned by the Germans into a terrible desert zone. This is a languageless city, oppressive silence reigns in it ... "

Then Galin explains why there is such silence in the city. It turns out that the Germans took away children, youth, old people - in a word, the entire population. A rare passer-by appears on the streets of the city. The writer also found an announcement signed by the “commander of German military units”:

"one. The city of Belgorod is being evacuated. The population will be sent to the rear.

3. All orders must be implicitly executed. Those who fail to comply with the order will be severely punished.”

With sniffer dogs, the Germans hunted the Russian people and, like slaves, were driven away in the direction of Kharkov.

Having handed over the correspondence “In Belgorod” to Moscow, Boris Galin immediately rushed to the 89th Guards Division, which received the title of Belgorod three days ago. His basement essay "89th Belgorodskaya" appeared in the newspaper. He talks about people, their deeds, experiences and plans. Surprisingly accurate, to the smallest detail, Galin restored these days of fighting for the liberation of Belgorod.

The essay begins with these lines:

“It dawned, and the division commander moved his NP to the chalk mountains. Heavy, tall, in a sweaty soldier's tunic, he turned his face to the city and looked long and silently in the direction where the smoke of explosions flared up. He restrained himself, spoke briefly, hoarsely, but he was burning with impatience. This feeling was probably experienced by everyone that morning - from the soldier to the division commander: to cross the field - and here it is, Belgorod. The hills were still smoking from explosions and shots, reared wagons on the tracks were burning, and wisps of fog swarmed in the ravines. To cross the field in blue flowers, in gray sagebrush, in crushed rye, to slip through one and a half kilometers of fire - this was now the most difficult.

For 36 hours, the division fought on the distant approaches to Belgorod, and on the second day it came close to the old, heavily fortified lines German defense. And here the division made a tactical maneuver unexpected for the Germans. The enemy was most worried about his flanks - he knew about the increased skill of the Russians to take the enemy in pincers, dismember and destroy him. And when the 89th division, with a swift blow from all three regiments, artillery and aviation fire, wedged into main frontier German defense, the Germans, who were psychologically unprepared for this, faltered.

Street fighting began. They were difficult and fierce. The essay gives such convincing figures: out of 1,500 Germans killed by the division, more than 800 were killed in the city itself. And what about our losses in these battles? They entered the essay, but did not hit the newspaper pages. Only episodes of heroism remained in the essay Soviet soldiers; some ended tragically. Here is one of them. To the wall of the destroyed house, where the commander of the regiment Ryabtsev settled, crouching to the ground, the cook Sviridenko crawled with a thermos on his back. I wanted to feed my regimental commander:

- Please have breakfast.

Ryabtsev laughed:

“Wait, let’s take the city, then we’ll have breakfast…”

“But it will get cold,” the cook said somehow uncertainly.

But the orderly pushed the cook on the shoulder, pointed to the third building from the corner, and sharply said: "Take the machine gun." At that moment, bullets suddenly whistled from the side of the third house. And the orderly and the cook instantly, without saying a word, shielded their commander. Sviridenko died...

In the mansion of the escaped German burgomaster, Galin met with the officers of the division. The division commander and chief of staff worked on the map. Their thoughts at that moment were far beyond Belgorod - in the direction of Kharkov. They lived already a new operation. And before leaving, Galin overheard a conversation that became the final lines of his essay:

“The officers who were in the room spoke in a whisper about the Belgorod battle ... Why did the Germans, who abandoned divisions with selected personnel, tanks, guns, and aircraft to protect the Belgorod borders, fail? A number of advantages were on their side - dominating heights, well-prepared defense lines. What's the matter? One of the officers said thoughtfully:

- Something happened to the German: he seems to be the same, and it seems not the same ...

The Guard Colonel raised his head.

“Tell me something else,” he said smiling, “to hell with them, with the Germans ... We have changed - and this is the main thing: we fight better, smarter ...”

During the unfolding offensive, Soviet troops inflicted major defeat German army group "Center", advanced westward up to 150 km, defeated 15 enemy divisions, liberated a significant territory from the invaders, including the regional center - Orel.

With the liquidation of the enemy's Oryol bridgehead, from which he began the attack on Kursk, the situation on central section the Soviet-German front, wide opportunities opened up for the development of the offensive in the Bryansk direction and the exit of Soviet troops into the eastern regions of Belarus.

Irretrievable losses of Soviet troops - 112529 (8.7%)

Belgorod-Kharkov strategic offensive"Rumyantsev"

During the offensive, the troops of the Voronezh and Steppe fronts defeated the powerful Belgorod-Kharkov enemy grouping, liberated the Kharkov industrial region, the cities of Belgorod and Kharkov. Favorable conditions were created for the liberation of Left-Bank Ukraine.

Irretrievable losses of the Soviet troops - 71611 (6.2%)

GENERAL APANASENKO

On the day of the second and final liberation of Belgorod from the Nazi invaders near the village of Tomarovka near Belgorod, the deputy commander of the Voronezh Front, General of the Army Iosif Rodionovich Apanasenko, died.

For two days, soldiers of the Red Army, prominent military leaders, and local residents said goodbye to the general. Buried I.R. Apanasenko in the park on the central square of the city. The Belgorod State Museum of Local History has a unique photograph - at the fresh grave of General of the Army I.R. Apanasenko with a simple monument in mournful silence froze Marshal of the Soviet Union Georgy Konstantinovich Zhukov.

On the heavy fighting on the Kursk Bulge I.R. Apanasenko wrote in one of his letters to his wife: “We have been fighting fierce battles in the Belgorod direction for several days now. Every day we hit 300-400 tanks, 200-250 aircraft, tens of thousands of vile Fritz. He has been in battle more than once, raising the morale of his glorious eagles for battle to destroy the Germans.

In the days of heavy bloody battles, Joseph Rodionovich wrote a note-testament: “I am an old soldier of the Russian people. 4 years of the first imperialist war, 3 years of civil war = seven years. And now it fell to my lot and the happiness of a warrior to fight, to defend the Motherland. By nature, I want to always be ahead. If I am destined to die, I ask you to at least burn it at the stake, and bury the ashes in Stavropol. After the death of Joseph Rodionovich, this note was found in his party card. Its contents were reported to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin, who ordered that the general be buried at home. The coffin with the body of Iosif Rodionovich Apanasenko was transported to Stavropol on a military plane and on August 16, with full military honors, with a large gathering of people, he was buried. August 27, 1943 I.R. Apanasenko was posthumously awarded the Order of Lenin. On Fortress Hill in Stavropol, where he found his last resort a monument was erected. The USSR Ministry of Defense issued an order to perpetuate the memory of General of the Army I.R. Apanasenko in Belgorod, and in 1944 a monument was erected in the city square with a star and two banners at the top.

ORDER OF THE SUPREME COMMANDER-IN-CHIEF

On the capture of the cities of Orel and Belgorod

Colonel General Popov

Colonel General Sokolovsky

Army General Rokossovsky

Army General Vatutin

Colonel General Konev

Today, August 5, the troops of the Bryansk Front, with assistance from the flanks of the troops of the Western and Central Fronts, as a result of fierce battles, captured the city of Orel.

Today, the troops of the Steppe and Voronezh fronts broke the resistance of the enemy and captured the city of Belgorod.

A month ago, on July 5, the Germans launched their summer offensive from the Orel and Belgorod regions in order to encircle and destroy our troops stationed in the Kursk salient and occupy Kursk.

Having repelled all enemy attempts to break through to Kursk from Orel and Belgorod, our troops themselves went on the offensive and on August 5, exactly one month after the start of the July offensive of the Germans, they occupied Orel and Belgorod.

Thus, the legend of the Germans that the Soviet troops were not able to conduct a successful offensive in the summer was exposed.

In commemoration of the victory, the 5th, 129th, 380th rifle divisions, which broke into the city of Orel first and liberated it, are given the name "Orlovsky" and continue to be called: 5th Oryol Rifle Division, 129th Oryol Rifle Division, 380th Oryol Rifle Division.

The 89th Guards and 305th Rifle Divisions, which were the first to break into the city of Belgorod and liberated it, will be given the name "Belgorod" and continue to be called: 89th Guards Belgorod Rifle Division, 305th Belgorod Rifle Division.

Today, August 5, at 24:00, the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, will salute our valiant troops, who liberated Orel and Belgorod, with twelve artillery volleys from 120 guns.

For excellent offensive actions, I express gratitude to all the troops led by you who participated in the operations to liberate Orel and Belgorod.

Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle for the freedom of our Motherland!

Death to the German invaders!

Supreme Commander

UNDER RZHEV

Belgorod residents proudly call their city the city of the First salute. On August 5, 1943, at 24:00, the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, for the first time during the war years, saluted our valiant troops, who liberated Orel and Belgorod with twelve artillery salvos from 120 guns. The order to this effect was signed by the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin on the same day. But where and under what circumstances was it signed? This was not reported, and therefore the illusion was created that this was happening as usual in Moscow, in the Kremlin. But it's not.

On August 4, 1943, when fierce battles were going on for Belgorod, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief arrived in the village of Khoroshevo near Rzhev, Kalinin Region, where he studied the situation at the front. Here he met with military leaders, commanders of the fronts A.I. Eremenko and V.D. Sokolovsky. Stalin spent the night in a house in Khoroshev, and the next day received news of the liberation of the cities of Orel and Belgorod. And it was here, on the Kalinin front, 500 meters from Rzhev, on August 5, he signed the historic order on the first salute and ordered to continue to mark the front-line successes of the Red Army with salutes. During the Great Patriotic War, salutes were fired 355 times in honor of the liberation of cities and even small towns from Nazi invaders. And the very first salute was made on August 5, 1943 in honor of the liberation of the ancient Russian cities of Orel and Belgorod.

Today the village of Khoroshevo in the Tver region is the center of the rural settlement "Khoroshevo". As of 2005, 1008 inhabitants lived here. The wooden “Stalin's House”, where the Supreme Commander stayed, has survived to our time. After the war, a library and a museum were opened in it. In the late 1950s, the museum was liquidated, but the library remained.

On July 3, 2015, the official opening of the military-historical museum of the Russian Military-Historical Society “Kalinin Front. August 1943".

SALUTE IN HONOR OF THE TROOPS. MEMORIES OF EREMENKO

Early in the morning of August 5, 1943, at the Melikhovo station in the Kalinin region, a train of eleven wagons stopped - ten covered goods and one passenger. Meeting of the Supreme Commander I.V. Stalin with the commander of the front, General of the Army A.I. Eremenko took place in the neighboring village of Khoroshevo, about one and a half to two kilometers from Melikhovo. It went on for about three hours.

Eremenko described the beginning of the meeting as follows: “He smiled somehow simply and warmly, shook my hand affably and, looking intently at me, said:

You, apparently, are still offended by me for not accepting your offer at the last stage of the Battle of Stalingrad to finish off Paulus. Should not be offended. We know, and all our people know, that in the Battle of Stalingrad you commanded two fronts and played a major role in the defeat of the fascist group near Stalingrad, and who finished off the tied hare does not play a special role.

At the time when the report was completed and the plan of operation was approved by the Supreme Commander, a general entered the room for instructions. He said that Belgorod had been taken by our troops. Enthusiastically accepting this message, I. V. Stalin walked around the room more often, thinking about something. A few minutes later he said: "How do you look at giving a salute in honor of those troops who took Orel and Belgorod?"

After A. I. Eremenko supported the idea of ​​the Supreme, I. V. Stalin began to express his thoughts on this issue: “The troops will feel the approval of their actions, the gratitude of the Motherland. Salutes will inspire the personnel, call them to new feats. Fireworks will notify all our people and the world community about the glorious deeds and soldiers at the front, cause pride in their army and Fatherland, inspire millions of people to labor exploits.

After that, I. V. Stalin picked up the phone and asked to be connected to V. M. Molotov. The answer followed immediately. The conversation with the Supreme Commander A. I. Eremenko conveyed this: “Vyacheslav, did you hear that our troops took Belgorod? - After listening to Molotov's answer, Comrade Stalin continued: - So, I consulted with Comrade Eremenko and decided to give a salute in honor of the troops who took Orel and Belgorod, so order a salute of 100 cannons to be prepared in Moscow, but don't give without me, so as not to spoil this event."

Pochtapolevaya.RF

MOSCOW SPEAKS. MEMORIES OF LEVITAN

As usual, I arrived at the radio studio early in order to familiarize myself with the text in advance. Now the time for the transfer has come, but the reports of the Sovinformburo are still missing and not. We are worried and waiting. We are making various guesses, assumptions ... Finally, a call from the Kremlin: “There will be no reports today. Get ready to read an important document!”. But what?

The hour hand was already approaching eleven in the evening, when we were again announced: "Inform that between 23 and 23 hours and 30 minutes an important government message will be transmitted." Every five minutes we repeated this phrase in very restrained tones. Meanwhile, time went on and on... And then an officer appeared with a large sealed envelope. Hands it over to the Chairman of the Radio Committee. On the package is the inscription: "Transmit by radio at 23.30." And time already, it is possible to tell, is not present. I run down the corridor, tearing open the package as I go. In the studio I’m already saying: “Moscow is speaking”, while I hurriedly scan through the text with my eyes ...

“Pri-kaz-z-z-z Ver-hov-no-ko-man-du-yu-shche-go ...” I read and deliberately draw out the words in order to have time to look into the next lines, to find out ... And suddenly I understand - a big victory: Orel and Belgorod have been liberated! Rippled in the eyes, dry throat. I hurriedly took a sip of water, unbuttoned my collar with a jerk ... I put all the feelings that gripped me into the final lines: “Today, August 5, at 24 o'clock, the capital of our Motherland - Moscow will salute our valiant troops, who liberated Orel and Belgorod, with twelve artillery salvos out of 120 guns"...

(Yu.B. Levitan - the announcer of the All-Union Radio, during the Great Patriotic War read the reports of the Sovinformburo and the orders of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief).

HISTORY OF THE FIRST SALUTE. MEMORIES OF ZHURAVLEV

By the summer of 1943, Muscovites had already lost the habit of the roar of guns. And suddenly they heard the shooting again. But these were no longer the same volleys that were heard in the difficult days of 1941. It was salvos. They evoked joy in the hearts of the Soviet people, all the friends of your Motherland.

The first salute sounded on August 5, 1943 in honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod by the troops of the Western, Central, Voronezh, Bryansk and Steppe fronts.

I. V. Stalin, who was at that time in the troops of the Kalinin Front, ordered to celebrate the liberation of Orel and Belgorod more solemnly - best of all with a salute from guns. I had never had to do such an assignment before. In addition, we did not have blank shells, and it was dangerous to fire with live shells: fragments falling on the city could hit people.

General P. A. Artemyev and I were asked to think about where to get blank shells, as well as to resolve all other issues related to the organization of the salute.

I had to put on my feet my artillery supply, headed by the head of this service, Colonel M. I. Bobtsov. Checked all warehouses. There were plenty of live ammunition. But where can I get blanks? We have long forgotten that they exist in the list of ammunition for anti-aircraft guns. And yet someone remembered that there are such shells. In the pre-war years, in our Kosterevsky camp there was a cannon, from which a shot was fired every evening, which meant that it was time for sleep. It turned out that more than a thousand shells were stocked for this purpose. They were useful to us.

I also made a happy discovery: I remembered that I had seen a division of mountain guns in the Kremlin. I immediately called the commandant of the Kremlin and found out that he had 24 mountain guns and blank shells for them. It was a successful "find", to some extent facilitating our task. When it became clear to us how many blank shells we had, we started counting. It was estimated that about a hundred anti-aircraft guns should be involved in the salute, otherwise the volleys would not be heard in the city. This means that one hundred shells must be used for each salvo, and we have 1200 of them. Therefore, twelve volleys can be fired. If we take into account that the Kremlin mountain guns will fire along with our guns, then we will get a salute of 124 guns.

In the evening General Artemyev and I were summoned to the Kremlin. JV Stalin, who had just returned to Moscow, and the members of the government heard our report on the plan for organizing the salute. It has been approved.

We once again specified in detail the locations of the salute points. Groups of guns were placed in stadiums and wastelands in different parts of Moscow so that the roar of volleys could be heard everywhere. It was decided to appoint senior officers at each of the salute points to senior officers of the headquarters of the Moscow Defense Zone and the Special Moscow Air Defense Army. I remember that P. A. Artemyev even singled out for this purpose the chief of artillery of the zone, General G. N. Tikhonov, my predecessor as commander of the 1st Air Defense Corps.

When all these considerations and the plan for placing salute points were again reported to the government, I. V. Stalin said:

In the old days, when the troops won victories, they rang the bells in all the churches. We, too, will commemorate our victory with dignity. Look, comrades, - he turned to us, - so that everything is in order ...

As soon as the reading of the congratulatory order of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief ended on the radio, an artillery salvo thundered over Moscow. After 30 seconds - the second, then the third ... The last, twelfth, struck exactly six minutes after the first.

Those six minutes made me nervous. Standing on the tower of the command post with a stopwatch in one hand and a handset in the other, I gave the command "Fire!". I confess that after each command, I was not without excitement waiting for its implementation. Seconds passed, and in the darkness of the night, purple flashes arose in different parts of Moscow, the rumble of volleys was heard. Our hastily built control system worked reliably. The gun crews did not let us down either, and the ammunition retained its qualities over the years of storage: there were no misfires.

Among the anti-aircraft gunners who took part in the first salute, there were many heroes of the battles with fascist aircraft. For example, the battery of Senior Lieutenant N. Redkin.

Such is the history of the first victorious salute during the years of the Great Patriotic War. And in total during the war they sounded more than three hundred and fifty. Accidentally born numbers - 124 guns, 12 volleys - later became traditional. Only the rate of fire has changed. During the first salute, the interval between salvos was 30 seconds. Subsequently, at the direction of I.V. Stalin, it was reduced to 20 seconds.

(Daniil Arsentyevich Zhuravlev - former commander of the Moscow Air Defense Front, Colonel General of Artillery)

ALL SALUTES OF THE GREAT PATRIOTIC

Victory salutes produced during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945

During the Great Patriotic War, starting from 1943, on the initiative of I.V. Stalin, a salute system was developed in honor of the victories of the Soviet troops.

Three degrees of salutes were set to commemorate:

1st degree

Particularly outstanding events - 24 volleys of 324 guns (liberation of the capitals of the republics, capitals of foreign states, access to the state border, the end of the war with Germany's allies).

2nd degree

Major events - 20 volleys from 224 guns (liberation of major cities, completion of major operations, crossing of major rivers).

3rd degree

Important military-operational achievements - 12 volleys from 124 guns (seizure of important railway, sea and highway points and road junctions, encirclement of large groups)

The first victorious salute thundered in honor of the liberation of Orel and Belgorod on August 5, 1943, with 12 salvos from 124 guns. It was a 3rd class salute. In honor of the liberation of the cities of Kyiv, Odessa, Sevastopol, Petrozavodsk, Minsk, Vilnius, Chisinau, Bucharest, Tallinn, Belgrade, Warsaw, Budapest, Krakow, Vienna, Prague, as well as for the capture of Koenigsberg and Berlin, salutes were fired in 24 volleys from 324 guns.

The same salutes were fired on March 23, 1944, when our troops reached the southern border, and on April 18, 1944, on the southwestern border. In 1943, there were five days when two victorious salutes were fired and two days - three victorious salutes each. A total of 55 fireworks were fired in 1943.

In 1944, Moscow saluted with two salutes for 26 days, three salutes for four days, and five salutes on July 27 (for the liberation of the cities of Bialystok, Stanislav, Daugavpils, Lvov, Siauliai). A total of 160 salutes were fired in 1944. Five salutes thundered on January 19, 1945 (the cities of Jaslo, Krakow, Mlawa, Lodz were liberated and a breakthrough was made in East Prussia), April 27, 1945 in honor of the connection of Soviet troops with American-British troops in the Torgau region.

Salutes of 20 volleys from 224 guns were fired 210 times, 150 of them in honor of the liberation of large cities, 29 - when breaking through the heavily fortified enemy defenses, 7 - after the defeat of large enemy groups, 12 - in honor of forcing large rivers, 12 - during the invasion our troops in the German provinces, the capture of the island, overcoming the Carpathians. On May 9, 1945, on Victory Day, Moscow saluted the winners with 30 artillery salvos from 1,000 guns.

In 1945 there were 25 days with two salutes, 15 with three, 3 with four and 2 with five salutes. In total, 150 fireworks were fired in 1945. In total, during the period of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945, 365 victorious salutes were fired. All of them were determined and appointed by orders of the Supreme Commander.

Of these, during the war years it was produced:

1st degree - 27 salutes;

2nd degree - 216 salutes;

3rd degree - 122 salutes.

Moscow saluted during the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945:

Troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front - 68 times;

Troops of the 1st Belorussian Front - 46 times;

Troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front - 46 times;

Troops of the 2nd Belorussian Front - 44 times;

Troops of the 3rd Ukrainian Front - 36 times;

Troops of the 3rd Belorussian Front - 29 times;

Troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front - 25 times.