Let Us Remember a World Saved: From the History of the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

The contemporary world celebrates the 75th anniversary of the victory over fascism and the defeat of Nazi Germany as a result of World War II. The anniversary of the victory is rendered important by the need to resist active attempts to distort history, to negate the decisive role of the Soviet people and their army in defeating fascism. The Great Patriotic War has no equal in history in terms of the grandeur and intensity of the armed struggle and the eff orts expended on the home front. The decisive role of the Soviet Union in the defeat of fascist Germany was noted by many contemporaries, not only allies (such as Winston Churchill and Franklin D. Roosevelt, for example) but also opponents. The allies of the anti-Hitler coalition launched widespread off ensives only in the last stage of the war, when the victory was a foregone conclusion and paid for at a high price. The USSR lost 26.6 million citizens, including 8.7 million military personnel and 17.9 million ivilians. Thus it was that the Soviet people saved themselves and European civilization from destruction.

References

1. Akachenok, A. P., and Mizgirev, I. A. (eds.) Vse dlia fonta, vse dlia pobedy: Sbornik vospominanii truzhenikov tyla. Novosibirsk: Zapadno-Sibirskoe knizhnoe izdatel’stvo, 1985. 
2. Fučík, J. Izbrannoe. Moscow: Izdatel’stvo inostrannoi literatury, 1952. 
3. Kozhurin, V. S. Neizvestnaia voina. Deiatel’nost’ Sovetskogo gosudarstva po obespecheniiu uslovii zhizni i truda v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny. Moscow: AON, 1990. 
4. Krivosheev, G. F. (ed.) Velikaia Otechestvennaia bez grifa sekretnosti: Kniga poter’. Moscow: Veche, 2014. 
5. Perepiska Predsedatelia Soveta ministrov SSSR s prezidentami SShA i prem’er-ministrami Velikobritanii vo vremia Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny: In 2 vols. 2nd ed. Moscow: Gospolitizdat, 1976. 
6. Ponomarev, B. N. (ed.) Istoriia Kommunisticheskoi partii Sovetskogo Soiuza. Moscow: Politizdat, 1984. 
7. Trukhanovskii, V. G. Uinston Cherchill’. Politicheskaia biografi ia. 2nd ed. Moscow: Mysl’, 1977