A unique encyclopedia by leading military historians. The first illustrated guide to the Great Patriotic War. The complete history of the war in one volume.
The Great Patriotic War is still, in many ways, a “little-known war”—no matter how much you write about individual battles, “you can’t see the forest for the trees.” Lean in close to the canvas and you don’t see a picture, just meaningless chaos of brushstrokes and colored spots. For those to make sense and an image to begin forming, you’ll have to step back at least a couple paces: “a big thing is seen from a distance.” The greatest tragedy of the 20th century cannot be understood in fragments—only by embracing it with a single glance. The new book by the best military historians provides that opportunity for the first time.
This is not just a chronicle of battles; more than a record of combat actions—it is a grand panorama of the Great Patriotic War that allows you to see it in all details, in full volume, “in 3D,” not only in the tiniest particulars but also in all its grandeur.
Contents:
· TIME OF TITANS
· ON THE WAY TO WAR
· The Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact
· Victory at Khalkhin Gol
· The beginning of World War II
· Soviet–Finnish War 1939–1940
· Reorganizing and rearming the Red Army
· The birth of the “Barbarossa” plan
· “But intelligence reported accurately!”
· The last peaceful month
· June 21, 1941
· THE TWENTY-SECOND OF JUNE
· Actions of German saboteurs
· Beginning of the invasion
· Forces of the sides
· The first tank battles
· Brest Fortress
· Battle in the air
· “They announced that the war had begun…”
· BORDER BATTLE
· The surrender of Grodno
· Tank battles
· Loss of Minsk
· Breakthrough of units of the Western Front from encirclement
· Results of the border battle
· THE FIRST MILITARY SUMMER
· Battle for Mogilev
· Stabilization of the front line near Smolensk
· Actions of the highest Soviet leadership
· Mobilization
· Trials of the commanders of the Western Front
· Situation on the fronts
· Battle for Smolensk
· THE DEFENSE OF KIEV
· Battles on the Stalin Line
· Battles in the near approaches
· The Kiev “cauldron”
· THE BATTLE FOR MOSCOW
· Preparation of Moscow for defense
· Defeat of the Bryansk Front and the Vyazma “cauldron”
· The Mozhaisk defensive line
· Moscow under siege
· November offensive of the Germans on Moscow
· Results of the Battle for Moscow
· THE “RZHEV MEAT GRINDER”
· The Rzhev–Vyazma offensive operation of 1942
· Operation “Seidlitz”
· THE DEFENSE OF ODESSA AND SEVASTOPOL
· Battle for Odessa
· First assault on Sevastopol
· Catastrophe of the Crimean Front
· Second assault on Sevastopol
· THE BATTLE FOR LENINGRAD
· The Luga line
· The beginning of the blockade
· The Tallinn crossing
· In the ring of the blockade
· The Nevsky “pocket”
· The Sinyavino and Lyuban offensive operations
· The death of the 2nd Shock Army
· The treachery of Lieutenant General A. A. Vlasov
· Fighting on Lake Ladoga
· THE BATTLE FOR THE ARCTIC
· War in the Arctic Circle / beyond the Polar Region
· TIME OF HOPE AND DISAPPOINTMENTS
· The Red Army advances
· Catastrophe near Kharkov
· Summer battle for Rzhev
· Operation “Mars”
· THE STALINGRAD BATTLE
· Operation plan “Blau”
· Order: “Not one step back!”
· On the approaches to Stalingrad
· Bombing of August 23
· First assault on the city
· Second assault on the city
· Third assault on the city
· The last German offensives
· Operation “Uranus”
· Destruction of Paulus’s 6th Army
· Results of the Battle of Stalingrad
· THE BREAKTHROUGH OF THE BLOCKADE OF LENINGRAD
· Winter 1942–1943
· THE BATTLE FOR THE CAUCASUS
· Goal: oil
· Battles for the passes
· Kuban bridgehead
· THE BATTLE OF KURSK
· Formation of the Kursk salient
· Plans of the sides
· Operation “Citadel”
· Operation “Kutuzov”
· Operation “Rumyantsev”—the commander’s plan
· THE BATTLE FOR UKRAINE
· September 1943
· Dnieper airborne operation
· Liberation of Kyiv
· Korsun–Shevchenkovsky operation
· Liberation of Western Ukraine
· COMPLETE LIFTING OF THE BLOCKADE OF LENINGRAD
· New plan
· Finland exits World War II
· LIBERATION OF CRIMEA
· The Red Army’s offensive
· LIBERATION OF SOUTH-EASTERN AND CENTRAL EUROPE
· Iassy–Kishinev operation
· Liberation of Yugoslavia
· Battle for Budapest
· Battle by Lake Balaton and the capture of Vienna
· Liberation of Czechoslovakia
· LIBERATION OF BELARUS AND THE BALTICS
· Summer 1944
· Operation “Bagration”
· Liberation of the Baltics
· THE BATTLE FOR GERMANY
· Vistula–Oder operation
· Red Army soldiers and the civilian German population
· Operation “Solstice”
· Assault on Königsberg
· THE FALL OF BERLIN
· A step away from victory
· Seelow Heights
· The final assault
· The Banner of Victory over the Reichstag
· The agony of the Third Reich
· THROUGH GOBI AND KHINGAN
· To the Far East
· Manchurian operation
· Kuril landing operation
· THE PRICE OF VICTORY
· Stalin as Supreme Commander-in-Chief
· Hitler as a commander
· The best commander of the Great Patriotic War
· Losses in the Great Patriotic War