History 28/12/19 As Soviet propaganda lied to the citizens of the USSR early in the war
In the initial period of the great Patriotic war the official media (and others in the Soviet Union was not) not reported many of the most important current events that would, in the opinion of the authorities, to undermine the morale of Soviet citizens.
the Announcement by Germany of war
So, the beginning of the war was immediately in the statement of the Commissar for foreign Affairs Molotov at noon on June 22 is presented as “treacherously, without declaring war, attack by” the enemy. That is the fact that at 5:30 am, Molotov received the German Ambassador von Schulenburg, read him an official Memorandum of the German Declaration of war, was hidden by the Soviet government.
the legend that the war was not declared, holding the end of the 50-ies, when it was recognized that the fact that a formal Declaration of war by Germany on the same day took place. However, after that said: Yes, the Declaration of war was, but it was already after one and a half hours after the attack. That is the insidious enemy is not warned of your invasion.
And only in the late 80s, when he published the conversation of the journalist Chueva by Molotov, was still alive at that time, it became known that Stalin and Molotov, in advance knowing about forthcoming beginning of the war, was not attended by the German Ambassador, with the second half of the night to seek an audience with Molotov to hand him the Memorandum. They waited for the actual attack Germany, and so a formal Declaration of war happened after the actual outbreak of hostilities.
of Course, nothing is said about the content of the German Memorandum on the grounds, even obviously contrived, that the Nazi leadership tried to justify before the world their aggression.
Put the city
Perhaps even Soviet citizens who listened to the Sovinformburo, it was clear that we should not take seriously sounded figures of Soviet losses I nGerman troops. Daily it turned out that the German air force, for example, lost several times more planes than the Soviet Union. Same – tanks. Daily on all fronts, Soviet forces inflict “heavy losses”, and even “defeat”. Only that war is somehow on and on marched into the Soviet Union.
the Style of these messages is understandable and even to some extent justified. Therefore, from a vague geographical landmarks Soviet citizens tried to understand where the real fighting is. Because of the Soviet information Bureau very rarely announced the forced abandonment of even a very large and important cities. And if after all declared, then with a very large delay.
Only in the first two days of the war, when messages called bulletins of the high command of the red Army (the Soviet information Bureau was formed on 24 June), there were occasional indications of the exact locations where the battles were fought. So, in summary for June 22, said that in only two directions, the enemy managed to achieve a slight herniation and take a small border city (was called Calvary, Stoyanov and Ciechanowiec). Although actually on the same day the enemy captured, for example, Brest and Przemysl.
for the surrender of Brest, it was reported the next day, June 23. However, the defense of Brest fortress, which the Soviet command was not known, not reported anything. But already since June 24, even such incomplete references abandoned cities disappear from the reported population reports. They begin to appear only “directions”. And very often the direction a particular town continued to be called long after his passing, and sometimes appeared in them only after that.
for Example, on June 28, German troops stormed into Minsk and completely mastered them. But even on 29 June, the Soviet information Bureau announced that “Minsk direction the efforts of our ground forces and aviation further advance broken motomehchastey the enemy is stopped. Outreauour allied forces from their bases and infantry Motomachi the enemy put in an extremely difficult situation”. Prior to July 3, inclusive, in the Soviet information Bureau reports continued to mention “fighting at the Minsk direction,” although there were “directions” in the towns East of Minsk – Borisov, Bobruisk. The abandonment of Minsk was never declared directly.
the same belonged to another large and important city, also the capital of the Federal Republic – Riga, which was surrendered on 1 July. On that day reported only on the surrender of Lviv in connection with the “orderly withdrawal” (actually was left the day before). On 9 July, the Germans seized the important city of Pskov, which lies on the way to Leningrad. July 12, in the reports of the Soviet information appears “the Pskov area”. Already on 16 July the Germans took Smolensk. On 13 August, the Soviet information Bureau admitted that Smolensk had to leave “a few days ago.”
the scale of the losses and defeats
of Course, since falsified data on losses, nothing was reported about the real size of the defeat of the Soviet troops. Sharply been underestimated the magnitude of the catastrophic losses of the Soviet air force in an attack of the enemy airfields on the first day of the war. It was reported that from 22 to 24 June lost only “374 aircraft destroyed, mostly on the ground”. In fact, as we now know, in one day June 22 was destroyed on the ground and in the air at least 1200 Soviet aircraft.
Not to mention the fact that the main forces of the Western front were surrounded and defeated in the first two weeks of the war, that the Soviets have lost only here more than 300 thousand soldiers killed and captured, more than 2,000 tanks. But on 13 July, the Soviet information Bureau brought “the first three weeks of the war”. Mentioning that “fascist propaganda” spreading “fantastic information about losses of the Soviet troops” (which as we now know, was close to the truth), the Soviet information Bureau reported as if the total losses of Soviet troops killed, wounded and captured during this time did not exceed 250 thousand people. As ndon’t know, there were over a million. But this loss figure is one million Soviet officialdom called for the Wehrmacht. In fact, the total German losses in killed, wounded and prisoners reached a million only in winter 1941/42 G.
Repression against generals
At the beginning of July 1941 he was arrested and shot on July 22, four other generals: former Western front commander Dmitri Pavlov, his chief of staff Vladimir Klimovsky, a former head of communications of the same front, Andrey Grigoriev and the commander of the 4th army of the Western front, Alexander Korobkov. Initially they were accused of “anti-Soviet conspiracy,” that is treason.
However, before the Tribunal, Stalin decided to change the wording of the charges. Apparently, feared that the news of the “treason” of the chiefs of that rank will produce a painful impression on the army. The generals were shot “for cowardice and inaction”.
the sentence was reported only personnel of the armed forces from the commander of the regiment and above. The General population in that time, nothing about it knew.
Russian Seven
Source:
© Russian Seven
see also: editor’s choice, “Russian Seven”wanted to do General Vlasov when surrendered in Planta was the biggest surprise of the Germans in the USSR after the beginning waynice not relatives of the deceased on pohorence actually hurt Greta Thunberg suggested articles to Share: Comments Comments on the article “How the Soviet propaganda lied to the citizens of the USSR in the beginning of the war” Please log in to leave a comment! br>
Share on Tumblr
