Russia at war 1941-1945

rapid transport of troops and equipment, and help to the wounded.

... All enterprises must intensify their work and produce more and more military

equipment of every kind... A merciless struggle must be undertaken against all

deserters and panic-mongers... We must destroy spies, diversionists and enemy

paratroopers... Military tribunals should immediately try anyone who, through

panic or cowardice, is interfering with our defence, regardless of position or rank...

And then came the famous "scorched-earth" instructions:

Whenever units of the Red Army are forced to retreat, all railway rolling stock must be driven away. The enemy must not be left a single engine, or a single railway

truck, and not a pound of bread nor a pint of oil. The kolkhozniki must drive away all their livestock, hand their grain reserves to the State organs for evacuation to the rear... All valuable property, whether grain, fuel or non-ferrous metals, which

cannot be evacuated, must be destroyed.

Then followed the "partisan war" instructions:

In the occupied territories partisan units must be formed... There must be

diversionist groups for fighting enemy units, for spreading the partisan war

everywhere, for blowing up and destroying roads and bridges and telephone and

telegraph wires; for setting fire to forests, enemy stores and road convoys. In the occupied areas intolerable conditions must be created for the enemy and his

accomplices, who must be persecuted and destroyed at every step...

This war, Stalin continued, was not an ordinary war between two armies; it was a war of the entire Soviet people against the German-Fascist troops. The purpose of this all-people war was not only to destroy the threat hanging over the Soviet Union, but also to help all the nations of Europe groaning under the German yoke. In this war the Soviet people

would have faithful allies in the peoples of Europe and America, including the German people enslaved by their ringleaders ... the Soviet people's struggle for the freedom of their country would be merged with the struggle of the peoples of Europe and America for their independence and their democratic freedoms:

In this connection the historic statement of Mr Churchill on Britain's help to the Soviet Union and the statement by the United States Government on its willingness to help our country can only meet with a feeling of gratitude in the hearts of our people, and are highly indicative.

And then came the conclusion:

Comrades, our forces are immeasurably large. The insolent enemy must soon

become aware of this. Together with the Red Army, many thousands of workers,

kolkhozniki and intellectuals are going to the war. Millions more will rise. The workers of Moscow and Leningrad have already begun to form an opolcheniye

(home guard) of many thousands in support of the Red Army. Such opolcheniye

forces must be constituted in every town threatened with invasion...