Russia at war 1941-1945

nationalist and Stalinist words were pinned to the old Party anthem, which became the State Anthem of the Soviet Union, while the Internationale became officially the anthem of the Party! There had been tremendous competition in the writing of the new anthem, and on January 5, 1944, it was announced that over 200 also-rans—172 poets and

seventy-six composers—had been paid "consolation prizes" of between 4,000 and 8,000

roubles each!

Meantime—i.e. between July and November 1943—the Red Army was making a

spectacular advance in the Ukraine and elsewhere.

Kharkov was captured by General Konev (Steppe Front), with the aid of General Vatutin (Voronezh Front) and General Malinovsky (South-West Front) on August 23.

The next great victory was General Tolbukhin's in the far south when, after breaking through from the Voroshilovgrad area to the Sea of Azov, his troops captured Taganrog, which the Germans had held ever since the autumn of 1941. 5,000 German prisoners

were taken.

On August 31, Rokossovsky (Central Front) captured Glukhov and penetrated deep into

the northern Ukraine.

Farther south, the Donbas was being rapidly overrun, the Germans fearing encirclement and pulling out, after wrecking factories and coalmines.

On September 8, a Stalin Order covering the whole front page of every newspaper, and addressed to Tolbukhin and Malinovsky, declared that in six days' skilful and rapid

operations, the whole of the Donbas had now been liberated.

On September 10, with the aid of a naval landing west of the city, Tolbukhin and

Malinovsky captured Mariupol on the Sea of Azov.

In the far south the last two German strongholds in the Caucasus were being mopped up.

After five days' heavy fighting the troops of General Petrov and the naval units under Vice-Admiral Vladimirsky captured Novorossisk on September 16—or rather the ruins of that important naval base. The Taman peninsula was cleared by October 7, most of the Germans escaping to the Crimea across the straits of Kerch.

On the 21st, Rokossovsky took the ancient city of Chernigov, already reduced to ruins by German mass bombings in the summer of '41; and, on the 23rd, Konev took Poltava (also almost completely destroyed by the retreating Germans); on the 29th, breaking through to the Dnieper, Konev took Kremenchug.

On the 25th, Sokolovsky (Western Front) took Smolensk.

By the end of the month, as was officially stated, the Red Army was advancing on Kiev, in the Ukraine, and on Vitebsk, Gomel and Mogilev in Belorussia.

If September was marked by a spectacular amount of territory liberated, October was

marked by something even more important— the forcing of the Dnieper. The German

hope of "holding the Dnieper line" was smashed.

The great optimism after the forcing of the Dnieper may be gauged from a poem by

Surkov printed on October 8:

... Avenging Russia is advancing;

Ukraine and Belorussia, wait and hope;

The Germans have not long left to torment you,

The evil days of your bondage are numbered,

From the high banks of the Dnieper

We see the waters of the Pruth and the Niémen.

Russo-Ukrainian Unity was the subject of many articles, and was symbolised in the

establishment of a new high decoration, the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky.

[ For some reason, the Khmelnitsky order was not widely awarded, and never became

popular in the army; it seemed an unnecessary rival to the Suvorov, Kutuzov and Nevsky orders which had the prestige of Stalingrad attached to them. Moreover, it caused some embarrassment when a number of Russian officers of Jewish race refused the

Khmelnitsky order on the ground that the glorious Hetman had been guilty of a

considerable number of pogroms. (Similarly several Poles refused the Suvorov Order,

Suvorov having been one of the worst oppressors of the Polish people.)]

No doubt, in earlier Soviet interpretations, the celebrated 17th century Hetman was not quite as great a man as he was now made out to be; in fact, he was described in the 1931

edition of the Soviet Encyclopaedia as a double-crosser of the worst sort, and indeed something of an agent of the Polish szlachta; but now a different view was taken: A Knight of the Order of Bogdan Khmelnitsky—that is a proud title, (wrote Red

Star). The life of Bogdan Khmelnitsky is an example of the decisive struggle for the brotherly union of the Ukrainian people and its elder brother, the Russian people.

Khmelnitsky clearly realised that the free and prosperous development of the