Plan "Ost" About the Nazi program of extermination of entire nations. "Plan Barbarossa"
Among all the alternative history scenarios, the one most often discussed is: what if Hitler had won? What if the Nazis had defeated the Allied forces? What fate would they have prepared for the enslaved peoples?
Today, May 9, is the most suitable day to remember what “alternative future” our great-grandfathers saved us from in 1941-1945.
Very specific documents and evidence have survived to our time, allowing us to get an idea of what plans Hitler and his entourage had for the transformation of the defeated states and the Reich itself. These are the projects of Heinrich Himmler and the plans of Adolf Hitler, set out in their letters and speeches, fragments of the Ost plan in different editions and the notes of Alfred Rosenberg.
Based on these materials, we will try to reconstruct the image of the future that threatened the world in the event of a Nazi victory. And then we’ll talk about how science fiction writers imagined it.
Real projects of the Nazis
Project of a memorial to those who fell on the Eastern Front, which the Nazis intended to erect on the banks of the Dnieper
According to the Barbarossa plan, the war with Soviet Russia was supposed to end two months after it began with the advance of German units reaching the AA line (Astrakhan-Arkhangelsk). Since it was believed that the Soviet army would still have some amount of manpower and military equipment, a defensive rampart should have been erected on the “A-A” line, which over time would turn into a powerful defensive line.
Geographical map of the aggressor: Hitler’s plan for the occupation and dismemberment of the USSR
The national republics and some regions that were part of the Soviet Union were separated from occupied European Russia, after which the Nazi leadership intended to unite them into four Reichskommissariats.
At the expense of the former Soviet territories, a project of phased colonization of the “eastern lands” was also carried out in order to expand the “living space” of the Germans. Within 30 years, 8 to 10 million purebred Germans from Germany and the Volga region should settle in the territories allocated for colonization. At the same time, the local population was supposed to be reduced to 14 million people, destroying Jews and other “inferior” people, including the majority of Slavs, even before the start of colonization.
But nothing good awaited that part of the Soviet citizens that would have escaped destruction. More than 30 million Slavs were to be evicted from the European part of the USSR to Siberia. Hitler planned to turn those who remained into slaves, prohibit them from receiving education and deprive them of their culture.
The victory over the USSR led to the transformation of Europe. First of all, the Nazis were going to rebuild Munich, Berlin and Hamburg. Munich was becoming a museum of the National Socialist movement, Berlin was becoming the capital of the Thousand-Year Empire, which had subjugated the whole world, and Hamburg was to become a single shopping center, a city of skyscrapers, similar to New York.
Model of the new building of the Wagner Opera House. After the war, Hitler intended to completely redesign the Wagner concert hall in Bayreuth
The occupied countries of Europe also expected the most extensive “reforms”. The regions of France, which ceased to exist as a single state, faced different fates. Some of them went to Germany’s allies: fascist Italy and Franco’s Spain. And the entire southwest was supposed to turn into a completely new country - the Burgundian Free State, which was supposed to be an “advertising showcase” for the Reich. The official languages in this state would be German and French. The social structure of Burgundy was planned in such a way as to completely eliminate the contradictions between classes, which “are used by Marxists to foment revolutions.”
Some peoples of Europe faced complete resettlement. Most of the Poles, half of the Czechs and three-quarters of the Belarusians were planned to be evicted to Western Siberia, laying the foundation for centuries of confrontation between them and the Siberians. On the other hand, all the Dutch were going to be transported to Eastern Poland.
“Vatican” of the Nazis, a model of the architectural complex that was planned to be built around Wewelsburg Castle
Finland, as a loyal ally of the Reich, became Greater Finland after the war, receiving the northern half of Sweden and areas with a Finnish population. The central and southern territories of Sweden were part of the Great Reich. Norway was losing its independence and, thanks to a developed system of hydroelectric power stations, was becoming a source of cheap energy for Northern Europe
Next in line is England. The Nazis believed that, having lost their last hope for help from the Continent, England would make concessions, conclude an honorable peace with Germany and, sooner or later, join the Greater Reich. If this did not happen and the British continued to fight, preparations for the invasion of the British Isles should have been resumed, ending this threat before the beginning of 1944.
In addition, Hitler was going to establish full Reich control over Gibraltar. If dictator Franco tried to prevent this intention, then he should have occupied Spain and Portugal within 10 days, regardless of their status as “allies” in the Axis.
The Nazis suffered from gigantomania: sculptor J. Thorak is working on a monument to the autobahn builders. The original statue was supposed to be three times larger
After the final victory in Europe, Hitler was going to sign a friendship treaty with Turkey, based on the fact that it would be entrusted with the defense of the Dardanelles. Turkey was also offered participation in the creation of a single European economy.
Having conquered Europe and Russia, Hitler intended to move into the colonial possessions of Britain. The headquarters planned the capture and long-term occupation of Egypt and the Suez Canal, Syria and Palestine, Iraq and Iran, Afghanistan and Western India. After establishing control over North Africa and the Middle East, Chancellor Bismarck's dream of building the Berlin-Baghdad-Basra railway was to come true. The Nazis were not going to abandon the idea of returning the African colonies that belonged to Germany before the First World War. Moreover, there was talk of creating the core of a future colonial empire on the “dark continent”. In the Pacific Ocean, it was planned to capture New Guinea with its oil fields and the island of Nauru.
Fascist plans to conquer Africa and America
The United States of America was considered by the leaders of the Third Reich as “the last stronghold of world Jewry,” and they had to be “pressed” in several directions at once. First of all, an economic blockade would be declared on the United States. Secondly, a fortified military area was being built in North-West Africa, from where long-range seaplane bombers and A-9/A-10 intercontinental missiles were to launch to strike America.
Thirdly, the Third Reich had to conclude long-term trade agreements with countries Latin America, supplying them with weapons and setting them against their northern neighbor. If the United States did not surrender to the mercy of the winner, then Iceland and the Azores should have been captured as springboards for the future landing of European (German and English) troops on US territory.
Das ist fantastic!
In the Third Reich, science fiction existed as a genre, although, of course, German science fiction writers of that time could not compete in popularity with the authors of historical and military prose. Nevertheless, Nazi science fiction writers found their readers, and some of their opuses were published in millions of copies.
The most famous was Hans Dominik, the author of “novels about the future.” In his books, the German engineer triumphed, constructing fantastic superweapons or coming into contact with alien beings - “uranids”. In addition, Dominic was an ardent supporter of racial theory, and many of his works are a direct illustration of the theses about the superiority of some races over others.
Another popular science fiction writer, Edmund Kiss, devoted his work to describing ancient peoples and civilizations. From his novels, the German reader could learn about the lost continents of Thule and Atlantis, on whose territory the ancestors of the Aryan race allegedly lived.
This is what representatives of the “master race” - “true Aryans” - should have looked like
Alternative history from science fiction writers
An alternative version of history, in which Germany defeated the Allies, has been described by science fiction writers many times. The overwhelming majority of authors believe that the Nazis would have brought the world totalitarianism of the worst type - they would have destroyed entire nations and built a society where there is no place for kindness and compassion.
The first work on this topic - “Night of the Swastika” by Catherine Burdekin - was published in Britain before the Second World War. This is not an alternative history, but rather a warning novel. An English writer, publishing under the pseudonym Murray Constantine, tried to look seven hundred years into the future - into the future built by the Nazis.
Even then she predicted that the Nazis would not bring anything good to the world. After victory in the Twenty Years' War, the Third Reich rules the world. Major cities destroyed, medieval castles were erected on their ruins. The Jews were exterminated without exception. Christians are banned and gather in caves. The cult of Saint Adolphus is being established. Women are considered second-class creatures, animals without a soul - they spend their entire lives in cages, subjected to continuous violence.
During World War II, the dark theme developed. Apart from dozens of stories about what will happen to Europe after the Nazi victory, we can recall at least two major works: the novels “If We Lose” by Marion West and “Illusory Victory” by Erwin Lessner. The second is especially interesting - it considers a version of post-war history, where Germany achieved a truce on the Western Front and, after a respite, gathered its forces and started a new war.
The first alternative fantasy reconstruction depicting the world of victorious Nazism appeared in 1952. In the novel The Sound of the Hunting Horn, the English writer John Wall, writing under the pseudonym Sarban, showed Britain turned by the Nazis into a huge hunting reserve. Guests from the continent, dressed as Wagnerian characters, hunt here for racially inferior people and genetically modified monsters.
Cyril Kornblatt’s story “Two Fates” is also considered a classic. The famous science fiction writer showed America defeated in 1955 and divided into occupation zones by two powers: Nazi Germany and Imperial Japan. The peoples of the United States are subjugated, deprived of the right to education, partially destroyed and driven into “labor camps.” Progress is stopped, science is prohibited and complete feudalism is being imposed.
A similar picture was painted by Philip K. Dick in his novel The Man in the High Castle. Europe is conquered by the Nazis, the United States is divided and given to Japan, the Jews are exterminated, and a new one is brewing in the Pacific region. global war. However, unlike his predecessors, Dick did not believe that Hitler's victory would lead to the degradation of humanity. On the contrary, the Third Reich stimulates him scientific and technological progress and is preparing to colonize planets solar system. At the same time, the cruelty and treachery of the Nazis is the norm in this alternative world, and therefore the Japanese will soon face the fate of the perished Jews.
American Nazis from the film adaptation of The Man in the High Castle
A unique version of the history of the Third Reich was considered by Sever Gansovsky in the story “The Demon of History.” In his alternative world, there is no Adolf Hitler, but there is a charismatic leader, Jurgen Aster - and he, too, starts a war in Europe in order to throw the conquered world at the feet of the Germans. The Soviet writer illustrated the Marxist thesis about predestination historical process: an individual does not decide anything, the atrocities of World War II are a consequence of the laws of history.
The German writer Otto Basil, in his novel If the Fuhrer Knew It, arms Hitler with an atomic bomb. And Frederick Mullaly in his novel “Hitler Wins” describes how the Wehrmacht conquers the Vatican. The famous collection of English-language authors, “Hitler the Victorious,” presents the most incredible outcomes of the war: in one story, the Third Reich and the USSR divide Europe after defeating democratic countries, in another, the Third Reich loses its victory due to a gypsy curse.
The most ambitious work about another war was created by Harry Turtledove. In the tetralogy " World War” and the “Colonization” trilogy, he describes how, in the midst of the battle for Moscow, invaders fly to our planet - lizard-like aliens who have more advanced technologies than earthlings. The war against aliens forces the warring parties to unite and ultimately leads to a scientific and technological breakthrough. In the final novel, the first spaceship built by humans launches into space.
However, the topic is not limited to discussing the results of the war in alternative realities. Many authors use a related idea: what if the Nazis or their opponents learned to travel through time and decided to use future technologies to achieve victory? This twist on the old plot was played out in James Hogan’s novel “Operation Proteus” and in Dean Koontz’s novel “Lightning.”
Poster for the film “It Happened Here”
Cinema did not remain indifferent to the alternative Reich. In a rare pseudo-documentary style for science fiction, the film “It Happened Here” by English directors Kevin Brownlow and Andrew Mollo tells about the consequences of the Nazi occupation of the British Isles. The plot with a time machine and the theft of technology is played out in Stephen Cornwell's action film The Philadelphia Experiment 2. A classic alternative history is presented in the thriller “Fatherland” by Christopher Menall, based on the novel of the same name by Robert Harris.
For example, we can cite Sergei Abramov’s story “A Quiet Angel Flew” and Andrei Lazarchuk’s novel “Another Sky.” In the first case, the Nazis, for no apparent reason, establish European-style democracy in the conquered Soviet Union, after which we suddenly have order and abundance. In Lazarchuk’s novel, the Third Reich also provides fairly comfortable conditions for the conquered peoples, but comes to stagnation and is defeated by the dynamically developing Siberian Republic.
Such ideas are not only harmful, but also dangerous. They contribute to the illusion that the enemy should not have been resisted, that submission to the invaders could change the world for the better. It should be remembered: the Nazi regime carried a colossal charge of hatred, and therefore war with it was inevitable. Even if the Third Reich had won in Europe and Russia, the war would not have stopped, but continued.
Fortunately, most Russian science fiction writers do not believe that the Nazis could have brought peace and democracy to the USSR. In response to novels that portrayed the Third Reich as harmless, works appeared that gave it a sober assessment. Thus, in Sergei Sinyakin’s story “Half-Breed” all the known plans of the top of the Reich to transform Europe and the world are reconstructed. The writer recalls that the basis of Nazi ideology was the division of peoples into full-fledged and inferior, and no reforms could change the Reich’s movement towards the destruction and enslavement of hundreds of millions of people.
Dmitry Kazakov sums up this topic in his novel “The Highest Race.” A detachment of Soviet front-line intelligence officers encounters a group of Aryan “supermen” created in occult laboratories. And our people emerge victorious from the bloody battle.
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Let's remember that in reality, our great-grandfathers and great-grandmothers defeated Hitler's “superman”. And it would be the greatest disrespect for their memory and for the truth itself to claim that they did it in vain...
And here it is - true story. Not alternative
Attack of Hitler's Germany on the USSR began at 4 a.m. on June 22, 1941, when the German military aviation launched the first strikes on a number of Soviet cities and strategic military and infrastructure facilities. By attacking the USSR, Germany unilaterally broke the non-aggression pact between the countries, concluded two years earlier for a period of 10 years.
Prerequisites and preparation for the attack
In mid-1939, the USSR changed the course of its foreign policy: the collapse of the idea of “collective security” and the deadlock in negotiations with Great Britain and France forced Moscow to move closer to Nazi Germany. On August 23, the head of the German Foreign Ministry, J. von Ribbentrop, arrived in Moscow. On the same day, the parties signed a Non-Aggression Pact for a period of ten years, and in addition to it, a secret protocol that stipulated the delimitation of the spheres of interests of both states in Eastern Europe. Eight days after the treaty was signed, Germany attacked Poland and World War II began.
The rapid victories of German troops in Europe caused concern in Moscow. The first deterioration in Soviet-German relations occurred in August-September 1940, and was caused by Germany providing foreign policy guarantees to Romania after it was forced to cede Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina to the USSR (this was stipulated in the secret protocol). In September, Germany sent troops to Finland. By this time, the German command had already been developing a plan for a lightning war (“blitzkrieg”) against Soviet Union.
In the spring of 1941, relations between Moscow and Berlin deteriorated sharply again: not even a day had passed since the signing of the Soviet-Yugoslav friendship treaty when German troops invaded Yugoslavia. The USSR did not react to this, as well as to the attack on Greece. After the defeat of Greece and Yugoslavia, German troops began to concentrate near the borders of the USSR. Since the spring of 1941, Moscow received information from various sources about the threat of an attack from Germany. Thus, at the end of March, a letter to Stalin warning that the Germans were transferring tank divisions from Romania to southern Poland was sent by British Prime Minister W. Churchill. A number of Soviet intelligence officers and diplomats reported on Germany's intention to attack the USSR - Schulze-Boysen and Harnack from Germany, R. Sorge from Japan. However, some of their colleagues reported the opposite, so Moscow was in no hurry to draw conclusions. According to G.K. Zhukov, Stalin was confident that Hitler would not fight on two fronts and would not start a war with the USSR until the end of the war in the West. His point of view was shared by the head of the intelligence department, General F.I. Golikov: on March 20, 1941, he presented Stalin with a report in which he concluded that all data about the inevitability of the imminent outbreak of the Soviet-German war “must be regarded as disinformation coming from the British and even, maybe German intelligence."
In the face of the growing threat of conflict, Stalin took formal leadership of the government: on May 6, 1941, he took over as chairman of the Council of People's Commissars. The day before, he spoke in the Kremlin at a reception in honor of graduates of military academies, in particular, saying that it was time for the country to move “from defense to offense.” On May 15, 1941, People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko and the newly appointed Chief of the General Staff G.K. Zhukov presented Stalin with “Considerations on the strategic deployment plan armed forces Soviet Union in case of war with Germany and its allies." It was assumed that the Red Army would strike the enemy at a time when the enemy armies were in the process of deployment. According to Zhukov, Stalin did not even want to hear about a preventive strike on German troops. Fearing a provocation that could give Germany a pretext for attack, Stalin forbade opening fire on German reconnaissance aircraft, which had been increasingly crossing the Soviet border since the spring of 1941. He was convinced that, by exercising extreme caution, the USSR would avoid war or at least delay it until a more favorable moment.
On June 14, 1941, by order of the Soviet government, TASS published a statement in which it was stated that rumors about Germany’s intention to break the non-aggression pact and start a war against the USSR were devoid of any basis, and the transfer of German troops from the Balkans to eastern Germany was probably associated with other motives . On June 17, 1941, Stalin was informed that Soviet intelligence officer Schulze-Boysen, an employee of the German aviation headquarters, said: “All German military measures to prepare an armed attack against the USSR are completely completed, and a strike can be expected at any time.” The Soviet leader imposed a resolution in which he called Schulze-Boysen a disinformer and advised him to be sent to hell.
On the evening of June 21, 1941, a message was received in Moscow: a sergeant major of the German army, a convinced communist, crossed the Soviet-Romanian border at the risk of his life and reported that the offensive would begin in the morning. The information was urgently transferred to Stalin, and he gathered the military and members of the Politburo. People's Commissar of Defense S.K. Timoshenko and Chief of the General Staff G.K. Zhukov, according to the latter, asked Stalin to accept a directive to put troops on combat readiness, but he doubted it, suggesting that the Germans could have planted the defector officer on purpose in order to provoke a conflict. Instead of the directive proposed by Tymoshenko and Zhukov, the head of state ordered another, short directive, indicating that the attack could begin with a provocation of German units. On June 22 at 0:30 am this order was transmitted to the military districts. At three o'clock in the morning everyone gathered at Stalin's left.
Start of hostilities
Early in the morning of June 22, 1941, German aviation, with a sudden attack on airfields, destroyed a significant part of Soviet aviation in the western districts. The bombing of Kyiv, Riga, Smolensk, Murmansk, Sevastopol and many other cities began. In a declaration read out on the radio that day, Hitler said that Moscow allegedly “treacherously violated” the treaty of friendship with Germany because it concentrated troops against it and violated German borders. Therefore, the Führer said, he decided “to oppose the Judeo-Anglo-Saxon warmongers and their assistants, as well as the Jews from the Moscow Bolshevik center” in the name of “the cause of peace” and “the security of Europe.”
The offensive was carried out according to the previously developed Barbarossa plan. As in previous military campaigns, the Germans hoped to use the tactics of “lightning war” (“blitzkrieg”): the defeat of the USSR was supposed to take only eight to ten weeks and be completed before Germany ended the war with Great Britain. Planning to end the war before winter, the German command did not even bother to prepare winter uniforms. The German armies, consisting of three groups, were to attack Leningrad, Moscow and Kyiv, having previously encircled and destroyed enemy troops in the western part of the USSR. The army groups were led by experienced military leaders: Army Group North was commanded by Field Marshal von Leeb, Army Group Center by Field Marshal von Bock, Army Group South by Field Marshal von Rundstedt. Each army group was assigned its own air fleet and tank army; the Center group had two of them. The ultimate goal of Operation Barbarossa was to reach the Arkhangelsk-Astrakhan line. The Germans hoped to paralyze the work of industrial enterprises located east of this line - in the Urals, Kazakhstan and Siberia - with the help of air strikes.
Giving instructions to the Supreme Command of the Armed Forces, Hitler emphasized that the war with the USSR should become a “conflict of two worldviews.” He demanded a “war of extermination”: “bearers of the state political idea and political leaders” were ordered not to be captured and shot on the spot, which was contrary to international law. Anyone who offered resistance was ordered to be shot.
By the time the war began, 190 divisions of Germany and its allies were concentrated near the Soviet borders, of which 153 were German. They included more than 90% of the armored forces of the German army. The total number of armed forces of Germany and its allies intended to attack the USSR was 5.5 million people. They had at their disposal more than 47 thousand guns and mortars, 4,300 tanks and assault guns, and about 6 thousand combat aircraft. They were opposed by the forces of five Soviet border military districts (at the beginning of the war they were deployed on five fronts). In total, there were over 4.8 million people in the Red Army, who had 76.5 thousand guns and mortars, 22.6 thousand tanks, and approximately 20 thousand aircraft. However, in the border districts of the above there were only 2.9 million soldiers, 32.9 thousand guns and mortars, 14.2 thousand tanks and more than 9 thousand aircraft.
After 4 o'clock in the morning, Stalin was awakened by a phone call from Zhukov - he said that the war with Germany had begun. At 4:30 am, Tymoshenko and Zhukov again met with the head of state. Meanwhile, the People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs V.M. Molotov, on Stalin's instructions, went to a meeting with the German Ambassador V. von der Schulenburg. Until Molotov returned, Stalin refused to order counterattacks against enemy units. The conversation between Molotov and Schulenburg began at 5:30 am. On instructions from the German government, the ambassador read out a note with the following content: “In view of the further intolerable threat created for the German eastern border as a result of the massive concentration and training of all the armed forces of the Red Army, the German government considers itself forced to take military countermeasures.” The head of the NKID tried in vain to dispute what the ambassador said and convince him of the innocence of the USSR. Already at 5 hours 45 minutes, Molotov was in Stalin’s office along with L. P. Beria, L. Z. Mehlis, as well as Timoshenko and Zhukov. Stalin agreed to give a directive to destroy the enemy, but emphasized that Soviet units should not violate the German border anywhere. At 7:15 a.m. the corresponding directive was sent to the troops.
Stalin's entourage believed that it was he who should speak on the radio with an appeal to the population, but he refused, and Molotov did it instead. In his address, the head of the People's Commissariat of Foreign Affairs announced the beginning of the war, noted that German aggression was to blame, and expressed confidence in the victory of the USSR. At the end of his speech, he uttered the famous words: “Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours!” In order to prevent possible doubts and rumors about the silence of Stalin himself, Molotov added several references to him in the original text of the address.
On the evening of June 22, British Prime Minister W. Churchill spoke on the radio. He stated that in the current situation, his anti-communist views are receding into the background, and the West must provide “Russia and the Russian people” with all the help it can. On June 24, F. Roosevelt, President of the United States, made a similar statement in support of the USSR.
Retreat of the Red Army
In total, on the first day of the war alone, the USSR lost at least 1,200 aircraft (according to German data - more than 1.5 thousand). Many nodes and communication lines were rendered unusable - because of this, the General Staff lost contact with the troops. Due to the inability to fulfill the demands of the center, the commander of the aviation of the Western Front, I. I. Kopets, shot himself. On June 22, at 21:15, the General Staff sent a new directive to the troops with instructions to immediately launch a counteroffensive, “disregarding the border,” to encircle and destroy the main enemy forces within two days and to capture the areas of the cities of Suwalki and Lublin by the end of June 24. But the Soviet units failed not only to go on the offensive, but also to create a continuous defensive front. The Germans had a tactical advantage on all fronts. Despite the enormous efforts and sacrifices and the colossal enthusiasm of the soldiers, the Soviet troops failed to stop the enemy’s advance. Already on June 28, the Germans entered Minsk. Due to the loss of communication and panic at the fronts, the army became almost uncontrollable.
Stalin was in a state of shock for the first 10 days of the war. He often interfered in the course of events, summoning Tymoshenko and Zhukov to the Kremlin several times. On June 28, after the surrender of Minsk, the head of state went to his dacha and for three days - from June 28 to 30 - stayed there continuously, not answering calls and not inviting anyone to his place. Only on the third day his closest associates came to him and persuaded him to return to work. On July 1, Stalin arrived in the Kremlin and on the same day became the head of the newly formed State Defense Committee (GKO), an emergency governing body that received full power in the state. In addition to Stalin, the GKO included V. M. Molotov, K. E. Voroshilov, G. M. Malenkov, L. P. Beria. Later, the composition of the committee changed several times. Ten days later, Stalin also headed the Supreme Command Headquarters.
To rectify the situation, Stalin ordered to send Marshals B.M. Shaposhnikov and G.I. Kulik to the Western Front, but the former fell ill, and the latter himself was surrounded and had difficulty getting out, disguised as a peasant. Stalin decided to shift responsibility for failures on the fronts to the local military command. The commander of the Western Front, Army General D. G. Pavlov, and several other military leaders were arrested and sent to a military tribunal. They were accused of an “anti-Soviet conspiracy”, of deliberately “opening the front to Germany”, and then of cowardice and alarmism, after which they were shot. In 1956, they were all rehabilitated.
By the beginning of July 1941, the armies of Germany and its allies occupied most of the Baltic states, Western Ukraine and Belarus, and approached Smolensk and Kyiv. Army Group Center advanced the deepest into Soviet territory. The German command and Hitler believed that the main enemy forces had been defeated and the end of the war was near. Now Hitler was wondering how to quickly complete the defeat of the USSR: continue to advance on Moscow or encircle Soviet troops in Ukraine or Leningrad.
The version of Hitler's "preventive strike"
In the early 1990s, V. B. Rezun, a former Soviet intelligence officer who fled to the West, published several books under the pseudonym Viktor Suvorov, in which he claimed that Moscow planned to be the first to strike Germany, and Hitler, having started the war, only forestalled an attack by Soviet troops. Rezun was later supported by some Russian historians. However, an analysis of all available sources shows that if Stalin was going to strike first, it would be in a more favorable situation. At the end of June and beginning of July 1941, he sought to delay the war with Germany and was not ready for an offensive.
The art of war is a science in which nothing succeeds except what has been calculated and thought out.
Napoleon
Plan Barbarossa is a plan for a German attack on the USSR, based on the principle of lightning war, blitzkrieg. The plan began to be developed in the summer of 1940, and on December 18, 1940, Hitler approved a plan according to which the war was to end in November 1941 at the latest.
Plan Barbarossa was named after Frederick Barbarossa, a 12th century emperor who became famous for his conquests. This contained elements of symbolism, to which Hitler himself and his entourage paid so much attention. The plan received its name on January 31, 1941.
Number of troops to implement the plan
Germany was preparing 190 divisions to fight the war and 24 divisions as reserves. 19 tank and 14 motorized divisions were allocated for the war. The total number of troops that Germany sent to the USSR, according to various estimates, ranges from 5 to 5.5 million people.
The apparent superiority in USSR technology is not worth taking into account, since by the beginning of the war, Germany's technical tanks and aircraft were superior to those of the Soviet Union, and the army itself was much more trained. Enough to remember Soviet-Finnish war 1939-1940, where the Red Army demonstrated weakness in literally everything.
Direction of the main attack
Barbarossa's plan determined 3 main directions for attack:
- Army Group "South". A blow to Moldova, Ukraine, Crimea and access to the Caucasus. Further movement to the line Astrakhan - Stalingrad (Volgograd).
- Army Group "Center". Line "Minsk - Smolensk - Moscow". Advance to Nizhny Novgorod, aligning the Volna - Northern Dvina line.
- Army Group "North". Attack on the Baltic states, Leningrad and further advance to Arkhangelsk and Murmansk. At the same time, the “Norway” army was supposed to fight in the north together with the Finnish army.
| SOUTH | CENTER | NORTH | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Target | Ukraine, Crimea, access to the Caucasus | Minsk, Smolensk, Moscow | Baltic states, Leningrad, Arkhangelsk, Murmansk |
| Number | 57 divisions and 13 brigades | 50 divisions and 2 brigades | 29th Division + Army "Norway" |
| Commanding | Field Marshal von Rundstedt | Field Marshal von Bock | Field Marshal von Leeb |
| General goal | Get on line: Arkhangelsk – Volga – Astrakhan (Northern Dvina) |
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Around the end of October 1941, the German command planned to reach the Volga - Northern Dvina line, thereby capturing the entire European part of the USSR. This was the idea behind the lightning war. After the blitzkrieg, there should have been lands beyond the Urals, which, without the support of the center, would have quickly surrendered to the winner.
Until about mid-August 1941, the Germans believed that the war was going according to plan, but in September there were already entries in the diaries of officers that the Barbarossa plan had failed and the war would be lost. The best proof that Germany in August 1941 believed that there were only a few weeks left before the end of the war with the USSR was Goebbels’ speech. The Minister of Propaganda suggested that the Germans collect additional warm clothes for the needs of the army. The government decided that this step was not necessary, since there would be no war in the winter.
Implementation of the plan
The first three weeks of the war assured Hitler that everything was going according to plan. The army rapidly moved forward, winning victories, but the Soviet army suffered huge losses:
- 28 divisions out of 170 were put out of action.
- 70 divisions lost about 50% of their personnel.
- 72 divisions remained combat-ready (43% of those available at the start of the war).
Over the same 3 weeks, the average rate of advance of German troops deep into the country was 30 km per day.
By July 11, the Army Group “North” occupied almost the entire Baltic territory, providing access to Leningrad, the Army Group “Center” reached Smolensk, and the Army Group “South” reached Kyiv. These were the latest achievements that were fully consistent with the plan of the German command. After this, failures began (still local, but already indicative). Nevertheless, the initiative in the war until the end of 1941 was on the side of Germany.
Germany's failures in the North
Army “North” occupied the Baltic states without any problems, especially since there was practically no partisan movement there. The next strategic point to be captured was Leningrad. Here it turned out that the Wehrmacht was beyond its strength. The city did not capitulate to the enemy and until the end of the war, despite all efforts, Germany was unable to capture it.
Army Failures Center
Army "Center" reached Smolensk without problems, but was stuck near the city until September 10. Smolensk resisted for almost a month. The German command demanded a decisive victory and the advancement of troops, since such a delay near the city, which was planned to be taken without large losses, was unacceptable and called into question the implementation of the Barbarossa plan. As a result, the Germans took Smolensk, but their troops were pretty battered.
Historians today evaluate the Battle of Smolensk as a tactical victory for Germany, but a strategic victory for Russia, since it was possible to stop the advance of troops towards Moscow, which allowed the capital to prepare for defense.
The advance of the German army deep into the country was complicated by the partisan movement of Belarus.
Failures of the Army South
Army “South” reached Kyiv in 3.5 weeks and, like Army “Center” near Smolensk, was stuck in battle. Ultimately, it was possible to take the city due to the clear superiority of the army, but Kyiv held out almost until the end of September, which also hampered the advance of the German army and made a significant contribution to the disruption of Barbarossa’s plan.
Map of the German advance plan
Above is a map showing the German command's offensive plan. The map shows: in green – the borders of the USSR, in red – the border to which Germany planned to reach, in blue – the dislocation and plan for the advancement of German troops.
General state of affairs
- In the North, it was not possible to capture Leningrad and Murmansk. The advance of the troops stopped.
- It was with great difficulty that the Center managed to reach Moscow. At the time the German army reached the Soviet capital, it was already clear that no blitzkrieg had happened.
- In the South it was not possible to take Odessa and seize the Caucasus. By the end of September, Hitler's troops had just captured Kyiv and launched an attack on Kharkov and Donbass.
Why Germany's blitzkrieg failed
Germany's blitzkrieg failed because the Wehrmacht prepared the Barbarossa plan, as it later turned out, based on false intelligence data. Hitler admitted this by the end of 1941, saying that if he had known real situation affairs in the USSR, then he would not have started the war on June 22.
The tactics of lightning war were based on the fact that the country has one line of defense on the western border, all large army units are located on the western border, and aviation is located on the border. Since Hitler was confident that all Soviet troops were located on the border, this formed the basis of the blitzkrieg - to destroy the enemy army in the first weeks of the war, and then quickly move deeper into the country without encountering serious resistance.
In fact, there were several lines of defense, the army was not located with all its forces on the western border, there were reserves. Germany did not expect this, and by August 1941 it became clear that the lightning war had failed and Germany could not win the war. The fact that the Second World War lasted right up to 1945 only proves that the Germans fought in a very organized and brave manner. Thanks to the fact that they had the economy of the whole of Europe behind them (speaking of the war between Germany and the USSR, many for some reason forget that the German army included units from almost all European countries) they were able to fight successfully.
Did Barbarossa's plan fail?
I propose to evaluate the Barbarossa plan according to 2 criteria: global and local. Global(reference point - the Great Patriotic War) - the plan was thwarted, since the lightning war did not work out, the German troops were bogged down in battles. Local(landmark – intelligence data) – the plan was carried out. The German command drew up the Barbarossa plan based on the assumption that the USSR had 170 divisions on the country’s border and there were no additional echelons of defense. There are no reserves or reinforcements. The army was preparing for this. In 3 weeks, 28 Soviet divisions were completely destroyed, and in 70, approximately 50% of the personnel and equipment were disabled. At this stage, the blitzkrieg worked and, in the absence of reinforcements from the USSR, gave the desired results. But it turned out that the Soviet command had reserves, not all troops were located on the border, mobilization brought high-quality soldiers into the army, there were additional lines of defense, the “charm” of which Germany felt near Smolensk and Kiev.
Therefore, the failure of the Barbarossa plan should be considered as a huge strategic mistake of German intelligence, led by Wilhelm Canaris. Today, some historians connect this man with English agents, but there is no evidence of this. But if we assume that this is really the case, then it becomes clear why Canaris palmed Hitler off with the absolute lie that the USSR was not ready for war and all the troops were located on the border.
On August 1, 1940, Erich Marx presented the first version of the plan for war against the USSR. This option was based on the idea of a fleeting, lightning-fast war, as a result of which it was planned that German troops would reach the Rostov-Gorky-Arkhangelsk line, and subsequently to the Urals. Decisive importance was given to the capture of Moscow. Erich Marx proceeded from the fact that Moscow is “the heart of Soviet military-political and economic power, its capture will lead to the end of Soviet resistance.”
This plan provided for two strikes - north and south of Polesie. The northern attack was planned as the main one. It was supposed to be applied between Brest-Litovsk and Gumbinen through the Baltic states and Belarus in the direction of Moscow. The southern strike was planned to be carried out from the southeastern part of Poland in the direction of Kyiv. In addition to these attacks, a “private operation to capture the Baku region” was planned. The implementation of the plan took from 9 to 17 weeks.
Erich Marx's plan was played out at the headquarters of the Supreme High Command under the leadership of General Paulus. This check revealed a serious flaw in the presented option: it ignored the possibility of strong flank counterattacks by Soviet troops from the north and south, capable of disrupting the advance of the main group towards Moscow. The Supreme Command headquarters decided to reconsider the plan.
In connection with Keitel’s message about the poor engineering preparation of the bridgehead for an attack on the USSR, the Nazi command on August 9, 1940 issued an order called “Aufbau Ost”. It outlined measures to prepare a theater of military operations against the USSR, repair and construction of railways and highways, bridges, barracks, hospitals, airfields, warehouses, etc. The transfer of troops was carried out more and more intensively. On September 6, 1940, Jodl issued an order that stated: “I order an increase in the number of occupation troops in the east over the next weeks. For security reasons, Russia should not create the impression that Germany is preparing for an offensive in the eastern direction.”
On December 5, 1940, at the next secret military meeting, Halder’s report was heard on the “Otto” plan, as the war plan against the USSR was originally called, and on the results of staff exercises. In accordance with the results of the exercises, it was planned to destroy the flank groupings of the Red Army by developing an offensive on Kyiv and Leningrad before the capture of Moscow. In this form the plan was approved. There were no doubts about its implementation. Supported by all those present, Hitler said: “It is to be expected that the Russian army, at the very first blow of the German troops, will suffer an even greater defeat than the French army in 1940.”3. Hitler demanded that the war plan provide for the complete destruction of all combat-ready forces on Soviet territory.
The meeting participants had no doubt that the war against the USSR would be ended quickly; CPOK~ weeks were also indicated. Therefore, it was planned to provide only a fifth of the personnel with winter uniforms, Hitler’s General Guderian admits in his memoirs published after the war: “In the High Command of the Armed Forces and in the High Command of the Ground Forces, they so confidently expected to finish the campaign by the beginning of winter that in the ground forces Winter uniform was provided only for every fifth soldier." German generals subsequently tried to shift the blame for the unpreparedness of the winter campaign troops to Hitler. But Guderian does not hide the fact that the generals were also to blame. He writes: “I cannot agree with the widespread opinion that Hitler alone is to blame for the lack of winter uniforms in the fall of 1941.”4.
Hitler expressed not only his own opinion, but also the opinion of the German imperialists and generals when, with his characteristic self-confidence, he said in the circle of his entourage: “I will not make the same mistake as Napoleon; when I go to Moscow, I will set out early enough to reach it before winter.”
The day after the meeting, December 6, Jodl instructed General Warlimont to draw up a directive on the war against the USSR based on the decisions made at the meetings. Six days later, Warlimont presented the text of Directive No. 21 to Yodel, who made several corrections to it, and on December 17 it was handed to Hitler for signature. The next day the directive was approved under the name Operation Barbarossa.
When meeting with Hitler in April 1941, the German ambassador in Moscow, Count von Schulenburg, tried to express his doubts about the reality of the plan, a war against the USSR. BUT he only achieved that he fell out of favor forever.
The fascist German generals developed and put into effect a plan for war against the USSR, which met the most predatory desires of the imperialists. Germany's military leaders unanimously supported the implementation of this plan. Only after Germany’s defeat in the war against the USSR, the beaten fascist commanders, for self-rehabilitation, put forward a false version that they objected to the attack on the USSR, but Hitler, despite the opposition shown to him, still started a war in the East. For example, the West German general Btomentritt, a former active Nazi, writes that Rundstedt, Brauchitsch, and Halder dissuaded Hitler from war with Russia. “But all this did not bring any results. Hitler insisted on his own. With a firm hand he took the helm and led Germany onto the rocks of complete defeat.” In reality, not only the “Führer”, but also the entire German generals believed in the “blitzkrieg”, in the possibility of a quick victory over the USSR.
Directive No. 21 stated: “The German armed forces must be prepared to win through a rapid military operation even before the end of the war with England.” Soviet Russia“- the main idea of the war plan was defined in the directive as follows: “The military masses of the Russian army located in the western part of Russia must be destroyed in bold operations with deep advance of tank units. It is necessary to prevent the retreat of combat-ready units into the vastness of Russian territory... The ultimate goal of the operation is to fence off the common Arkhangelsk-Volga line from Asian Russia.”
On January 31, 1941, the headquarters of the main command of the German ground forces issued the “Troop Concentration Directive,” which set out the general plan of the command, defined the tasks of army groups, and also gave instructions on the location of headquarters, demarcation lines, interaction with the fleet and aviation, etc. This directive, defining the “first intention” of the German army, set it the task of “splitting the front of the main forces of the Russian army, concentrated in the western part of Russia, with quick and deep strikes of powerful mobile groups north and south of the Pripyat swamps and, using this breakthrough, destroying the separated ones. groupings of enemy troops."
Thus, two main directions for the advance of German troops were outlined: south and north of Polesie. North of Polesie the main blow was delivered by two army groups: “Center” and “North”. Their task was defined as follows: “North of the Pripyat marshes, Army Group Center is advancing under the command of Field Marshal von Bock. Having brought powerful tank formations into battle, it makes a breakthrough from the Warsaw and Suwalki area in the direction of Smolensk; then turns the tank troops to the north and destroys them together with the Finnish army and the German troops sent from Norway for this purpose, finally depriving the enemy of his last defensive capabilities in the northern part of Russia. As a result of these operations, freedom of maneuver will be ensured to carry out subsequent tasks in cooperation with German troops advancing in southern Russia.
In the event of a sudden and complete defeat of Russian forces in the north of Russia, the turn of troops to the north will no longer be necessary and the question of an immediate attack on Moscow may arise.”
It was planned to launch an offensive south of Polesie with Army Group South. Its mission was defined as follows: “South of the Pripyat marshes, Army Group “South” under the command of Field Marshal Rutstedt, using a swift strike from powerful tank formations from the Lublin area, cuts off Soviet troops located in Galicia and Western Ukraine from their communications on the Dnieper, captures crossing the Dnieper River in the Kyiv region and to the south of it thus provides freedom of maneuver to solve subsequent tasks in cooperation with troops operating to the north, or to carry out new tasks in the south of Russia.”
The most important strategic goal of Plan Barbarossa was to destroy the main forces of the Red Army concentrated in the western part of the Soviet Union and capture militarily and economically important areas. In the future, German troops in the central direction hoped to quickly reach Moscow and capture it, and in the south - to occupy the Donetsk basin. The plan attached great importance to the capture of Moscow, which, according to the German command, was supposed to bring decisive political, military and economic success to Germany. Hitler's command believed that his plan for war against the USSR would be carried out with German precision.
In January 1941, each of the three army groups received a preliminary task under Directive No. 21 and an order to conduct a war game to test the expected progress of the battles and obtain material for a detailed development of the operational plan.
In connection with the planned German attack on Yugoslavia and Greece, the start of military operations against the USSR was postponed by 4-5 weeks. On April 3, the high command issued an order that stated: “The start of Operation Barbarossa, due to the operation in the Balkans, is postponed by at least 4 weeks.” On April 30, the German High Command made a preliminary decision to attack the USSR on June 22 1941 The increased transfer of German troops to the Soviet border began in February 1941. Tank and motorized divisions were brought up last, so as not to reveal a premature attack plan.
On initial stages war, the German leadership had every chance to capture Leningrad. And yet this did not happen. The fate of the city, in addition to the courage of its inhabitants, was decided by many factors.
Siege or assault?
Initially, the Barbarossa plan envisaged the rapid capture of the city on the Neva by Army Group North, but there was no unity among the German command: some Wehrmacht generals believed that the city should be captured, while others, including the Chief of the General Staff, Franz Halder, assumed that we can get by with a blockade.
At the beginning of July 1941, Halder made the following entry in his diary: “The 4th Panzer Group must set up barriers to the north and south of Lake Peipus and cordon off Leningrad.” This entry does not yet allow us to say that Halder decided to limit himself to blockading the city, but the mention of the word “cordon” already tells us that he did not plan to take the city right away.
Hitler himself advocated the capture of the city, guided in this case by economic rather than political aspects. The German army needed the possibility of unhindered navigation in the Baltic Gulf.
Luga failure of the Leningrad blitzkrieg
The Soviet command understood the importance of the defense of Leningrad; after Moscow it was the most important political and economic center of the USSR. The city was home to the Kirov Machine-Building Plant, which produced the latest heavy tanks of the KV type, which played an important role in the defense of Leningrad. And the name itself - “City of Lenin” - did not allow it to be surrendered to the enemy.
So, both sides understood the importance of capturing the Northern capital. The Soviet side began construction of fortified areas in places of possible attacks by German troops. The most powerful, in the Luzhek area, included more than six hundred bunkers and bunkers. In the second week of July, the German fourth tank group reached this line of defense and could not immediately overcome it, and here the German plan for the Leningrad blitzkrieg collapsed.
Hitler, dissatisfied with the delay in the offensive operation and the constant requests for reinforcements from Army Group North, personally visited the front, making it clear to the generals that the city must be taken as soon as possible.
Dizzy with success
As a result of the Fuhrer's visit, the Germans regrouped their forces and in early August broke through the Luga defense line, quickly capturing Novgorod, Shiimsk, and Chudovo. By the end of the summer, the Wehrmacht achieved maximum success on this section of the front and blocked the last railway going to Leningrad.
By the beginning of autumn, it seemed that Leningrad was about to be taken, but Hitler, who focused on the plan to capture Moscow and believed that with the capture of the capital, the war against the USSR would be practically won, ordered the transfer of the most combat-ready tank and infantry units from Army Group North near Moscow. The nature of the battles near Leningrad immediately changed: if earlier German units sought to break through the defenses and capture the city, now the first priority was to destroy industry and infrastructure.
"Third option"
The withdrawal of troops turned out to be a fatal mistake for Hitler's plans. The remaining troops were not enough for the offensive, and the encircled Soviet units, having learned about the enemy’s confusion, tried with all their might to break the blockade. As a result, the Germans had no choice but to go on the defensive, limiting themselves to indiscriminate shelling of the city from distant positions. There could be no talk of a further offensive; the main task was to maintain the siege ring around the city. In this situation, the German command was left with three options:
1. Capture of the city after the encirclement is completed;
2. Destruction of the city with the help of artillery and aviation;
3. An attempt to deplete the resources of Leningrad and force it to capitulate.
Hitler initially had the highest hopes for the first option, but he underestimated the importance of Leningrad for the Soviets, as well as the resilience and courage of its inhabitants.
The second option, according to experts, was a failure in itself - the density of air defense systems in some areas of Leningrad was 5-8 times higher than the density of air defense systems in Berlin and London, and the number of guns involved did not allow fatal damage to the city’s infrastructure.
Thus, the third option remained Hitler's last hope for taking the city. It resulted in two years and five months of fierce confrontation.
Environment and hunger
By mid-September 1941, the German army completely surrounded the city. The bombing did not stop: civilian targets became targets: food warehouses, large food processing plants.
From June 1941 to October 1942, many city residents were evacuated from Leningrad. At first, however, very reluctantly, since no one believed in a protracted war, and certainly could not imagine how terrible the blockade and battles for the city on the Neva would be. The children were evacuated to the Leningrad region, but not for long - most of these territories were soon captured by the Germans and many children were returned back.
Now the main enemy of the USSR in Leningrad was hunger. It was he, according to Hitler’s plans, who was to play a decisive role in the surrender of the city. In an attempt to establish food supplies, the Red Army repeatedly attempted to break the blockade; “partisan convoys” were organized to deliver food to the city directly across the front line.
The leadership of Leningrad also made every effort to combat hunger. In November and December 1941, which were terrible for the population, active construction of enterprises producing food substitutes began. For the first time in history, bread began to be baked from cellulose and sunflower cake; in the production of semi-finished meat products, they began to actively use by-products that no one would have thought of using in food production before.
In the winter of 1941, food rations reached a record low: 125 grams of bread per person. There was practically no distribution of other products. The city was on the verge of extinction. The cold was also a severe challenge, with temperatures dropping to -32 Celsius. And the negative temperature lasted in Leningrad for 6 months. A quarter of a million people died in the winter of 1941-1942.
The role of saboteurs
During the first months of the siege, the Germans bombarded Leningrad with artillery almost unhindered. They transferred to the city the heaviest guns they had, mounted on railway platforms; these guns were capable of firing at a distance of up to 28 km, with 800-900 kilogram shells. In response to this, the Soviet command began to launch a counter-battery fight; detachments of reconnaissance and saboteurs were formed, which discovered the location of the Wehrmacht's long-range artillery. Significant assistance in organizing counter-battery warfare was provided by the Baltic Fleet, whose naval artillery fired from the flanks and rear of German artillery formations.
Interethnic factor
His “allies” played a significant role in the failure of Hitler’s plans. In addition to the Germans, Finns, Swedes, Italian and Spanish units took part in the siege. Spain did not officially participate in the war against the Soviet Union, with the exception of the volunteer Blue Division. There are different opinions about her. Some note the tenacity of its soldiers, others note the complete lack of discipline and mass desertion; soldiers often went over to the side of the Red Army. Italy provided torpedo boats, but their land operations were not successful.
"Victory Road"
The final collapse of the plan to capture Leningrad came on January 12, 1943, it was at that moment that the Soviet command began Operation Iskra and after 6 days of fierce fighting, on January 18, the blockade was broken. Immediately after this, a railroad was built into the besieged city, later called the “Victory Road” and also known as the “Death Corridor.” The road ran so close to military operations that German units often fired cannons at the trains. However, a flood of supplies and food poured into the city. Enterprises began to produce products according to peacetime plans, and sweets and chocolate appeared on store shelves.
In fact, the ring around the city lasted for another whole year, but the encirclement was no longer so dense, the city was successfully supplied with resources, and the general situation at the fronts no longer allowed Hitler to make such ambitious plans.
