Russia at war 1941-1945

For a time, during that first half of April, attention shifted to the south. Even before the fall of Budapest in February, the "Democratic Government" of Hungary at Debrecen asked for an Armistice, and this was signed in Moscow on January 20 by Göngös, Weres and Balogh on behalf of Hungary and by Voroshilov on behalf of the three Allied

Powers. As Red Star wrote on the following day:

Hungary was Hitler's last satellite in Europe, and the most stubborn of all. Not until the Red Army had occupied a large part of Hungary did the Horthy Government

feel obliged to break with Germany... But the Germans organised a coup d'état in Budapest and Salasi, a ruffian with a criminal past, and head of the Crossed Arrows

[A Hungarian Nazi organisation.] , became head of the new puppet government... His aim was simply to defend Austria's frontiers with the help of Hungarian

"volunteers". But even Hitler, in his New Year message, had to admit that the partnership was coming to an end.

The Hungarian Democratic Government at Debrecen decided then to declare war

on Germany and sued for an Armistice... The terms are generous, especially when

one considers that Hungary was Hitler's first and last satellite, and that the

Hungarian troops behaved abominably at Voronezh, on the Don, at Orel, Chernigov

and Kiev... The 300 million dollars' reparations (200 to the Soviet Union, 100 to Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia) spread over six years, are generous... Territorially, Hungary returns to her 1937 frontiers, and Hitler's Vienna Award of 1940 is thus

cancelled... Hungary must now take part in the war against Germany... Meantime,

the Soviet troops are completing the liberation of Budapest.

Budapest fell at last on February 13. 110,000 prisoners were taken, among them Col.-

Gen. Pfeffer-Wildenbruch. Eleven panzer divisions—which might have served a better

purpose elsewhere— were now thrown into Hungary, since Hitler was eager to save

Vienna at any price. After the fall of Budapest the Germans launched a strong counter-offensive and the Russians even lost some ground. It was not till the end of March that both Tolbukhin and Malinovsky could say that the German counter-offensive had spent

itself. On March 29 the Russians crossed into Austria; on April 4, Malinovsky captured Bratislava, the capital of Slovakia and, on the 13th, after a week's heavy fighting inside the city, Malinovsky and Tolbukhin occupied Vienna.

A novel feature of the Vienna fighting was the announcement by Tolbukhin that rank-

and-file Nazis had nothing to fear. All kinds of other surprising phrases began to appear in the Soviet press at the time: "The Viennese are helping the Red Army, and they fully understand that the Soviet Union is not fighting against Austrians."

"The Austrians' hatred for Prussianised Germany has deep historic roots..." And, after the fall—or "liberation" as it was called—of Vienna, the Soviet press was full of pleasant little stories of how the Russian soldiers went on pilgrimages to the grave of their favourite composer, Johann Strauss "who had written the music for the film The Great Waltz". Wreaths were also laid on the grave of Beethoven.

Meantime Yeremenko had taken the place of Petrov as commander of the 4th Ukrainian

Front, and the sweep through Czechoslovakia also gained in momentum. On April 26,

Malinovsky entered Brno, the capital of Moravia. However, in the end, neither he nor Yeremenko was destined to liberate Prague. On the very last day of the war, it was

Konev's tanks which made a spectacular breakthrough to the city from Saxony in the