Which European countries fought on the side of Hitler. Who fought against the USSR in the Great Patriotic War

The Second World War was not only the most terrible tragedy in the history of mankind, but was also the largest geopolitical conflict throughout the development of civilization. Dozens of countries were involved in this bloody confrontation, each of which pursued its own goals: influence, economic gain, protection of its own borders and population.

To achieve their goals, the participants in the Second World War were forced to unite in coalitions. Allied groupings included countries whose interests and goals were most closely intertwined. But sometimes in similar blocks for the sake of solving supreme task even countries that saw the post-war structure of the world in completely different ways were united.

Who were the main and secondary participants in the Second World War? The list of countries that officially acted as a party to the conflict is presented below.

Axis countries

First of all, let's consider the states that are considered to be the direct aggressors that unleashed the Second world war. They are conditionally called the "Axis" countries.

Tripartite Pact countries

The countries of the Tripartite or Berlin Pact were participants in World War II, who played a leading role among the Axis states. They concluded an alliance treaty between themselves on September 27, 1940 in Berlin, directed against their rivals and defining the post-war division of the world in case of victory.

Germany- the most powerful militarily and economically state of the Axis countries, which acted as the main binding force of this association. It carried the greatest threat and caused the heaviest damage to the troops of the anti-Hitler coalition. She is in 1939.

Italy Germany's strongest ally in Europe. unleashed fighting in 1940.

Japan third member of the Tripartite Pact. She claimed exclusive influence in the Asia-Pacific region, within which she fought. Entered the war in 1941.

Minor members of the "Axis"

The secondary members of the "Axis" include participants in the Second World War from among the allies of Germany, Japan and Italy, who did not play primary roles on the battlefields, but nevertheless took part in the hostilities on the side of the Nazi bloc or declared war on the countries of the Anti-Hitler coalition. They belong to:

• Hungary;
• Bulgaria;
• Romania;
• Slovakia;
• Kingdom of Thailand;
• Finland;
• Iraq;
• Republic of San Marino.

States ruled by collaborationist governments

This category of countries includes states occupied during the hostilities by Germany or its allies, in which governments loyal to the Axis bloc were established. It was the Second World War that brought these forces to power. The participants in the Tripartite Pact thus wanted to position themselves in these countries as liberators, not conquerors. These countries include:

Anti-Hitler coalition

Under the symbol "Anti-Hitler coalition" is understood the association of countries that opposed the states of the "Axis". The formation of this allied bloc took place over almost the entire period during which World War II was going on. The participating countries were able to withstand the fight against Nazism and win.

big three

The Big Three are participants in the Second World War from among the countries of the Anti-Hitler Coalition, which made the greatest contribution to the victory over Germany and other Axis states. Possessing the highest military potential, they managed to turn the tide of hostilities, which initially developed not in their favor. First of all, thanks to these countries, World War II ended in triumph over Nazism. The participants in the battles from among the other states of the Anti-Hitler coalition, of course, also deserved the gratitude of all the free peoples of the world for getting rid of the "brown plague", but without the coordinated actions of these three powers, victory would have been impossible.

Great Britain- a state that was the first to enter into open confrontation with Nazi Germany in 1939 after the latter's attack on Poland. Throughout the war created the greatest problems for Western Europe.

the USSR- the state that suffered the greatest human losses during the Second World War. According to some estimates, they exceeded 27 million people. It is at the cost of blood and incredible efforts Soviet people managed to stop the victorious march of the divisions of the Reich and turn the flywheel of the war back. The USSR entered the war after being attacked by Nazi Germany in June 1941.

USA- later than all of the states of the Big Three took part in hostilities (since the end of 1941). But it was the entry of the United States into the war that made it possible to complete the formation of the Anti-Hitler coalition, and successful actions in battles with Japan did not allow it to open a front on Far East against the USSR.

Minor members of the Anti-Hitler Coalition

Of course, in such an important matter as the fight against Nazism, there can be no secondary roles, but the countries presented below still had less influence on the course of hostilities than the members of the Big Three. At the same time, they made their contribution to the end of such a grandiose military conflict as the Second World War. The countries participating in the Anti-Hitler coalition, each by virtue of their capabilities, gave battle to Nazism. Some of them directly opposed the Axis states on the battlefields, others organized the movement against the invaders, and others helped with supplies.

Here you can name the following countries:

• France (one of the first to enter the war with Germany (1939) and was defeated);
• states of the British;
• Poland;
• Czechoslovakia (at the time of the outbreak of hostilities, it actually no longer existed as a single state);
• Netherlands;
• Belgium;
• Luxembourg;
• Denmark;
• Norway;
• Greece;
• Monaco (despite its neutrality, it was alternately occupied by Italy and Germany);
• Albania;
• Argentina;
• Chile;
• Brazil;
• Bolivia;
• Venezuela;
• Colombia;
• Peru;
• Ecuador;
• Dominican Republic;
• Guatemala;
• Salvador;
• Costa Rica;
• Panama;
• Mexico;
• Honduras;
• Nicaragua;
• Haiti;
• Cuba;
• Uruguay;
• Paraguay;
• Turkey;
• Bahrain;
• Saudi Arabia;
• Iran;
• Iraq;
• Nepal;
• China;
• Mongolia;
• Egypt;
• Liberia;
• Ethiopia;
• Tuva.

It is difficult to underestimate the breadth of the scope of such a grandiose tragedy as the Second World War. The number of participants in the largest armed conflict of the 20th century was 62 countries. This is a very high figure, given that at that time there were only 72 independent states. In principle, there were no countries that this grandiose event did not touch at all, even though ten of them declared their neutrality. Neither the memoirs of the participants in the Second World War or the victims of concentration camps, nor even historical textbooks, can convey the full scale of the tragedy. But the current generation should remember well the mistakes of the past so as not to repeat them in the future.

WHO AND IN WHAT NUMBER OF THE PEOPLES OF THE USSR Fought ON THE SIDE OF FASCIST GERMANY Our opponents (and for me - enemies) along that front line in Novorossia, in defiance of our identification of them with genetic traitors - Bandera, cite some crazy numbers about a million, otherwise and two Russians who fought on the side of the Germans. Some agree to the point that this number of the Russian population of the USSR fought in the Vlasov army alone. Follow the content in the group. There will be a continuation of the topic below. I will derive data on those who collaborated with the Nazis as a percentage of the number of peoples mentioned below, according to the 1939 census. Very interesting data are obtained. And for Ukrainians as well. Almost ahead of the rest. And they were far ahead of the Russians in terms of the number of traitors. 3 times ahead. The vaunted Cossacks also turned out to be leaders in terms of traitors. In vain Kolya Kozitsyn is crucifying that they have always stood guard over the people. More often people were sold or robbed, as in Novorosiya now. Pleased with the Kazan Tatars, in last place in terms of the number of collaborators. This was a revelation for me. But the Krymchaks are in the lead, the Ukrainians are far behind, having 4.6% compared to the Ukrainians, with their 0.9% of the population in 1939. I didn't expect anything else here. I know how massively they surrendered to the Germans in the Patriotic War. Not for beautiful eyes they were evicted from the Crimea. Russian, by the way, was 0.3% collaborating with the Germans. Sad descendants of Bandera and Shukhevych. And now on the topic of who sold the Motherland and how. And for how many pieces of silver. Even talking about the two million Russians who fought against the Bolshevik regime (the essence is against their own people), they probably also count 700 thousand emigrants. For all that, not all of them were ethnic Russians. These figures are not just cited - they are an argument for the assertion that the Great Patriotic War is the essence of the Second Civil War Russian people against the hated Stalin. What can be said here? If it really happened that a million Russians stood up under the tricolor banners and fought to the death against the Red Army for a free Russia, shoulder to shoulder with their German allies, then we would have no choice but to admit that yes, The Great Patriotic War really became the Second Civil War for the Russian people. But was it so? To figure it out, one way or another, you should answer a few questions: how many were there, who were they, how did they get into the service, how and with whom did they fight, and what motivated them? WHO TO COUNT? The cooperation of Soviet citizens with the occupiers took place in various forms, both in terms of the degree of voluntariness and the degree of involvement in the armed struggle - from the Baltic SS volunteers who fought fiercely near Narva to the "Ostarbeiters" forcibly driven to Germany. I believe that even the most stubborn anti-Stalinists will not be able to enlist the latter in the ranks of fighters against the Bolshevik regime. Usually, these ranks include those who received rations from the German military or police department, or who held weapons received from the hands of the Germans or pro-German local government. That is, to the maximum, potential fighters against the Bolsheviks fall into: foreign military units of the Wehrmacht and the SS; eastern security battalions; building parts of the Wehrmacht; auxiliary personnel of the Wehrmacht, they are also "our Ivans" or Hiwi (Hilfswilliger: "voluntary helpers"); auxiliary police units ("noise" - Schutzmannshaften); border guard; "Air defense assistants" mobilized to Germany through youth organizations HOW MANY THERE WAS? We will probably never know the exact numbers, since no one really considered them, but some estimates are available to us. A lower estimate can be obtained from the archives of the former NKVD - until March 1946, 283,000 "Vlasov" and other uniformed collaborators were transferred to the authorities. The upper estimate can probably be taken from the works of Drobyazko, which serve as the main source of figures for the proponents of the "Second Civil" version. According to his calculations (whose method, unfortunately, he does not disclose), the Wehrmacht, SS and various pro-German paramilitary and police formations passed through the war years: 250,000 Ukrainians 70,000 Belarusians 70,000 Cossacks 150,000 Latvians 90,000 Estonians 50,000 Lithuanians 70,000 Central Asians 12,000 Volga Crimean Tatars 7,000 Kalmyks 40,000 Azerbaijanis 25,000 Georgians 20,000 Armenians 30,000 North Caucasian nationalities German uniform, he is estimated at 1.2 million, then the Russians (excluding the Cossacks) are left with about 310,000 people. There are, of course, other calculations that give a smaller total number, but let's not waste time on trifles, let's take Drobyazko's estimate from above as the basis for further reasoning. WHO WERE THEY? Hiwi and soldiers of the construction battalions can hardly be considered civil war fighters. Of course, their work freed up for the front German soldiers , but exactly the same applies to the "ostarbeiters". Occasionally, the hiwi were given weapons and fought alongside the Germans, but such incidents are described in the unit's combat logs more as a curiosity than as a mass phenomenon. It is interesting to calculate how many were those who actually held weapons in their hands. The number of hiwis at the end of the war by Drobiazko is about 675,000, if you add construction units and take into account the losses during the war, then I think we are not very wrong in assuming that this category covers about 700-750,000 people out of a total of 1.2 million. This is consistent with with a share of non-combatants among the Caucasian peoples, in the calculation presented by the headquarters of the eastern troops at the end of the war. According to him, out of a total of 102,000 Caucasians who passed through the Wehrmacht and the SS, 55,000 served in the legions, Luftwaffe and SS and 47,000 in hiwi and construction units. It must be taken into account that the proportion of Caucasians enrolled in combat units was higher than the proportion of Slavs. So, out of 1.2 million who wore German uniforms, only 450-500 thousand did this, holding weapons in their hands. Let's now try to calculate the layout of the really combat units of the Eastern peoples. Asian battalions (Caucasians, Turks and Tatars) were formed 75 pieces (80,000 people). Including 10 Crimean police battalions (8,700), Kalmyks and special units, there are approximately 110,000 "combat" Asians out of a total of 215,000. It quite beats with the layout separately for Caucasians. The Baltics endowed the Germans with 93 police battalions (later partly reduced to regiments), with a total number of 33,000 people. In addition, 12 border regiments (30,000) were formed, partly staffed by police battalions, then three SS divisions (15, 19 and 20) and two volunteer regiments were created, through which about 70,000 people probably passed. Police and border regiments and battalions were partly directed to their formation. Taking into account the absorption of some units by others, in total, about 100,000 Balts passed through the combat units. In Belarus, 20 police battalions (5,000) were formed, of which 9 were considered Ukrainian. After the introduction of mobilization in March 1944, police battalions became part of the army of the Belarusian Central Rada. In total, the Belarusian Regional Defense (BKA) had 34 battalions, 20,000 people. Having retreated in 1944 together with the German troops, these battalions were consolidated into the Siegling SS Brigade. Then, on the basis of the brigade, with the addition of Ukrainian "policemen", the remnants of the Kaminsky brigade and even the Cossacks, the 30th SS division was deployed, which was subsequently used to staff the 1st Vlasov division. Galicia was once part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire and was seen as a potential German territory. It was separated from Ukraine, included in the Reich, as part of the General Government of Warsaw and put in line for Germanization. On the territory of Galicia, 10 police battalions (5,000) were formed, and subsequently the recruitment of volunteers for the SS troops was announced. It is believed that 70,000 volunteers turned up at the recruiting sites, but that many were not needed. As a result, one SS division (14th) and five police regiments were formed. Police regiments were disbanded as needed and sent to replenish the division. The total contribution of Galicia to the victory over Stalinism can be estimated at 30,000 people. In the rest of Ukraine, 53 police battalions (25,000) were formed. It is known that a small part of them became part of the 30th SS division, the fate of the rest is unknown to me. After the formation in March 1945 of the Ukrainian analogue of the KONR - the Ukrainian National Committee - the Galician 14th SS division was renamed the 1st Ukrainian and the formation of the 2nd began. It was formed from volunteers of Ukrainian nationality recruited from various auxiliary formations, they recruited about 2,000 people. Of the Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians, about 90 security "Ostbattalions" were formed, through which approximately 80,000 people passed, including the "Russian National People's Army" reorganized into five security battalions. Other Russian combat formations include the 3,000-strong 1st Russian national SS brigade Gil (Rodionov), who went over to the side of the partisans, the approximately 6,000-strong “Russian National Army” of Smyslovsky and the army of Kaminsky (“Russian Liberation Army”). People's Army”), which arose as a self-defense force of the so-called. Lokot Republic. Maximum estimates of the number of people who passed through Kaminsky's army reach 20,000. After 1943, Kaminsky's troops retreated along with the German army and in 1944 an attempt was made to reorganize them into the 29th SS division. For a number of reasons, the reorganization was canceled, and the personnel were transferred to the understaffing of the 30th SS division. At the beginning of 1945, the armed forces of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (the Vlasov army) were created. The first division of the army is formed from the "ost battalions" and the remnants of the 30th SS division. The second division is formed from the "Ostbattalions", and partly from volunteer prisoners of war. The number of Vlasovites before the end of the war is estimated at 40,000 people, of which about 30,000 were former SS and Ostbattalions. In total, about 120,000 Russians fought in the Wehrmacht and the SS with weapons in their hands at different times. The Cossacks, according to Drobyazko's calculations, put up 70,000 people, let's accept this figure. HOW DID THEY GET INTO THE SERVICE? Initially, the eastern parts were staffed with volunteers from among the prisoners of war and the local population. Since the summer of 1942, the principle of recruiting the local population has changed from voluntary to voluntary-compulsory - an alternative to voluntary entry into the police is forced deportation to Germany, "ostarbeiter". By the autumn of 1942, the undisguised coercion begins. Drobyazko, in his dissertation, talks about raids on peasants in the Shepetovka region: those caught were offered a choice between joining the police or being sent to a camp. Since 1943, mandatory military service in various "self-defenses" of the Reichskommissariat "Ostland". In the Baltic States, through mobilization, since 1943, SS units and border guards were recruited. HOW AND WITH WHOM DID THEY FIGHT? Initially, the Slavic eastern parts were created to carry out security services. In this capacity, they were supposed to replace the security battalions of the Wehrmacht, which, like a vacuum cleaner, were sucked out of the rear zone by the needs of the front. At first, the soldiers of the Ostbattalions guarded warehouses and railways, but as the situation became more complicated, they began to be involved in anti-partisan operations. The involvement of the Ostbattalions in the fight against the partisans contributed to their disintegration. If in 1942 the number of “Ostbattalion” soldiers who went over to the side of the partisans was relatively small (although this year the Germans were forced to disband the RNNA due to massive defections), then in 1943 14 thousand fled to the partisans (and this is very, very a lot, with an average number eastern parts in 1943 about 65,000 people). The Germans had no strength to observe the further decomposition of the Ostbattalions, and in October 1943 the remaining eastern units were sent to France and Denmark (while disarming 5-6 thousand volunteers as unreliable). There they were included as 3rd or 4th battalions in the regiments of the German divisions. Slavic eastern battalions, with rare exceptions, were not used in battles on eastern front. In contrast, a significant number of Asian Ostbattalions were involved in the first line of the advancing German troops during the battle for the Caucasus. The results of the battles were contradictory - some showed themselves well, others - on the contrary, turned out to be infected with deserter moods and gave a large percentage of defectors. By the beginning of 1944, most of the Asian battalions also ended up on the Western Wall. Those who remained in the East were consolidated into the Eastern Turkic and Caucasian SS formations and were involved in the suppression of the Warsaw and Slovak uprisings. In total, by the time of the Allied invasion in France, Belgium and the Netherlands, 72 Slavic, Asian and Cossack battalions with a total number of about 70 thousand people had been assembled. In general, and in general, the Ostbattalions in battles with the allies showed themselves poorly (with some exceptions). Of the almost 8.5 thousand irretrievable losses, 8 thousand were missing, that is, most of them were deserters and defectors. After that, the remaining battalions were disarmed and involved in fortification work on the Siegfried Line. Subsequently, they were used to form parts of the Vlasov army. In 1943, Cossack units were also withdrawn from the east. The most combat-ready unit of the German Cossack troops, formed in the summer of 1943, the 1st Cossack division von Panwitz went to Yugoslavia to deal with Tito's partisans. There, they gradually gathered all the Cossacks, deploying the division into a corps. The division took part in the battles on the Eastern Front in 1945, fighting mainly against the Bulgarians. the Baltics gave the largest number troops to the front - in addition to the three SS divisions, separate police regiments and battalions took part in the battles. The 20th Estonian SS division was defeated near Narva, but later restored and managed to take part in the last battles of the war. The Latvian 15th and 19th SS divisions in the summer of 1944 came under attack by the Red Army and could not withstand the blow. Large scale desertion and loss of combat capability are reported. As a result, the 15th division, having transferred its most reliable composition to the 19th, was assigned to the rear for use in the construction of fortifications. The second time it was used in combat in January 1945, in East Prussia, after which it was again withdrawn to the rear. She managed to surrender to the Americans. The 19th remained until the end of the war in Courland. Belarusian policemen and those freshly mobilized in the BKA in 1944 were assembled in the 30th SS division. After the formation, the division in September 1944 was transferred to France, where it took part in battles with the allies. Suffered heavy losses mainly from desertion. Belarusians ran across to the allies in batches and continued the war in the Polish units. In December, the division was disbanded, and the remaining personnel were transferred to staff the 1st Vlasov division. The Galician 14th SS division, barely smelling gunpowder, was surrounded near Brody and almost completely destroyed. Although she was quickly restored, she no longer took part in the battles at the front. One of her regiments was involved in the suppression of the Slovak uprising, after which she went to Yugoslavia to fight Tito's partisans. Since it was not far from Yugoslavia to Austria, the division managed to surrender to the British. The armed forces of the KONR were formed in early 1945. Although the 1st division of the Vlasovites was staffed almost entirely by veterans-punishers, many of whom had already been at the front, Vlasov soared Hitler's brains by demanding more time to prepare. In the end, the division still managed to push to the Oder front, where she took part in one attack against Soviet troops April 13th. The very next day, the division commander, Major General Bunyachenko, ignoring the protests of his German immediate superior, took the division from the front and went to join the rest of Vlasov's army in the Czech Republic. The Vlasov army fought the second battle already against its ally, attacking German troops in Prague on May 5. WHAT MOVED THEM? The driving motives were completely different. First, among the eastern troops, one can single out the national separatists who fought for the creation of their own nation state, or at least a privileged province of the Reich. This includes the Balts, Asian legionnaires and Galicians. The creation of units of this kind has a long tradition - to recall at least the Czechoslovak Corps or the Polish Legion in the First World War. These would fight against the central government, no matter who sits in Moscow - the tsar, the secretary general or the popularly elected president. Secondly, there were ideological and stubborn opponents of the regime. These include the Cossacks (although partly their motives were national separatist), part of the personnel of the Ostbattalions, a significant part of the officer corps of the KONR troops. Thirdly, we can name the opportunists who staked on the winner, those who joined the Reich during the victories of the Wehrmacht, but fled to the partisans after the defeat at Kursk and continued to flee at the first opportunity. These probably made up a significant part of the Ostbattalions and the local police. There were also those on the other side of the front, as can be seen from the change in the number of defectors to the Germans in 1942-44: 1942 - 79769 people 1943 - 26108 people 1944 - 9207 people Fourthly, these were people who hoped to break out of the camp and with a convenient opportunity to go to theirs. It is difficult to say how many of these there were, but sometimes they were recruited for a whole battalion. And, finally, the fifth category - people who would rather survive. This includes the bulk of the hiwi and construction workers, who received a much more nutritious ration in this capacity than in the camp. AND WHAT IS THE RESULT? And the result is a picture completely different from what is drawn by ardent anti-communists. Instead of one (or even two) million Russians who rallied under the tricolor flag in the fight against the hateful Stalinist regime, there is a very motley (and obviously not reaching a million) company of Balts, Asians, Galicians and Slavs who fought each for their own. And basically not with the Stalinist regime, but with partisans (and not only Russians, but also with Yugoslav, Slovak, French, Polish), Western allies, and even with the Germans in general. Doesn't look much like a civil war, does it? Well, except to call these words the struggle of partisans with policemen, but the policemen fought by no means under the tricolor flag, but with a swastika on their sleeves. For the sake of justice, it should be noted that until the end of 1944, until the formation of the KONR and its armed forces, the Germans did not provide an opportunity for Russian anti-communists to fight for the national idea, for Russia without the communists. It can be assumed that if they had allowed this earlier, more people would have rallied “under the tricolor flag”, especially since there were still plenty of opponents of the Bolsheviks in the country. But this is “would” and besides, my grandmother also said in two. And in real history, no “millions under the tricolor flag” were observed. List of sources 1. S.I. Drobyazko Eastern formations in the Wehrmacht (dissertation) 2. S. Drobyazko, A. Karaschuk Russian Liberation Army 3. S. Drobyazko, A. Karaschuk Eastern volunteers in the Wehrmacht, police and SS 4. S. Drobyazko, A.Karashchuk Eastern legions and Cossack units in the Wehrmacht 5. O.V.Romanko Muslim legions in World War II 6. J.Hoffmann History of the Vlasov army 7. V.K.Shtrik-Shtrikfeldt Against Stalin and Hitler 8. N. M. Konyaev Vlasov. Two faces of the general.

Romania:
For military operations against the USSR, the Romanian 3rd Army (mountain and cavalry corps) and the 4th Army (3 infantry corps), with a total strength of about 220 thousand people, were intended. The 3rd Army advanced in Ukraine, crossed the Dnieper in September and reached the coast of the Sea of ​​Azov. From the end of October 1941, units of the Romanian 3rd Army participated in the capture of the Crimea (together with the German 11th Army under the command of von Manstein). From the beginning of August 1941, the Romanian 4th Army conducted an operation to capture Odessa. By September 10, 12 Romanian divisions and 5 brigades were assembled to capture Odessa, with a total number of up to 200 thousand people (as well as German units - an infantry regiment, an assault battalion and 2 heavy artillery regiments). After heavy fighting, Odessa was taken by the Romanian troops on October 16, 1941. The losses of the Romanian 4th Army in this operation amounted to 29 thousand dead and missing and 63 thousand wounded. In August 1942, the Romanian 3rd Army (3 cavalry and 1 mountain divisions) took part in the German attack on the Caucasus. In August, the Romanian cavalry divisions took Taman, Anapa, Novorossiysk (the latter - together with German troops), the Romanian mountain division captured Nalchik in October 1942. On November 19, 1942, the troops of the two Soviet fronts went on the offensive, and on November 23 they formed an encirclement ring around Stalingrad, in which the German 6th Army, part of the troops of the German 4th Army, and the Romanian 6 infantry and 1 cavalry divisions were. By the end of January 1943, the Romanian 3rd and 4th armies were practically destroyed - their total losses amounted to almost 160 thousand dead, missing and wounded. In total, up to 200 thousand Romanians died in the war against the USSR

Italy:
The Italian expeditionary corps for the war against the USSR was created on July 10, 1941, consisting of one cavalry and two infantry divisions, with corps artillery and two air groups (reconnaissance and fighter). In total, the corps had 62 thousand soldiers and officers. There were - 220 guns, 60 machine-gun tankettes, aviation - 50 fighters and 20 reconnaissance aircraft. In September 1941, the Italian corps fought on the Dnieper, in a 100-km section near Dneprodzerzhinsk.
In October-November 1941, the Italian corps participated in the German offensive with the aim of capturing the Donbass. In July 1942, Italian troops on the territory of the USSR were significantly reinforced. The 8th Italian Army was formed, consisting of 3 corps (10 divisions in total, the total number of the army reached in September 1942 - 230 thousand people, 940 guns, 31 light tanks (20 mm gun), 19 self-propelled guns (47 mm gun) , aviation - 41 fighters and 23 reconnaissance).
In December 1942 - January 1943, the Italians repulsed the offensive of the Red Army units northwest of Stalingrad. As a result, the Italian army was actually defeated - 21 thousand Italians were killed, 64 thousand were missing.

The losses of Italians in the USSR from August 1941 to February 1943 amounted to about 90 thousand dead and missing.

Finland:
June 30, 1941 Finnish troops (11 infantry divisions and 4 brigades, totaling about 150 thousand people) went on the offensive in the direction of Vyborg and Petrozavodsk. By the end of August 1941, the Finns reached the approaches to Leningrad on the Karelian Isthmus, and by the beginning of October 1941 occupied almost the entire territory of Karelia (except for the coast of the White Sea and Zaonezhye), after which they went on the defensive at the achieved lines. On June 9, 1944, Soviet troops (total numbering up to 500 thousand people) went on the offensive against the Finns (16 infantry divisions, about 200 thousand people). In the course of heavy fighting, which lasted until August 1944, Soviet troops took Petrozavodsk, Vyborg, and in one sector reached the Soviet-Finnish border in March 1940. On August 29, 1944, Soviet troops went on the defensive. On September 1, 1944, Marshal Mannerheim proposed a truce and Finnish troops withdrew to the March 1940 border. 54,000 Finns died in the war against the USSR.

Hungary:
On July 1, 1941, Hungary sent the Carpathian Group (5 brigades, totaling 40 thousand people) to the war against the USSR, which fought as part of the German 17th Army in Ukraine. In April 1942, the Hungarian 2nd army (about 200 thousand people). In June 1942, she went on the offensive in the Voronezh direction, as part of the German offensive on the southern sector of the German-Soviet front. In the autumn of 1944, all Hungarian military establishment(three armies) fought against the Red Army, already on the territory of Hungary. More than 200 thousand Hungarians died in the war against the USSR

Slovakia:
One division (consisting of 2 infantry regiments, an artillery regiment, a battalion of light tanks, numbering 8 thousand people) fought in Ukraine in 1941, in the Kuban in 1942, and in 1943-1944 performed security functions in the Crimea. Another division (consisting of 2 infantry regiments and an artillery regiment, 8 thousand people) in 1941-1942 performed security functions in Ukraine, in 1943-1944 - in Belarus. About 3.5 thousand Slovaks died in the war against the USSR.

Croatia:
1 volunteer Croatian regiment was sent to the war against the USSR (3 infantry battalions and 1 artillery battalion, with a total number of 3.9 thousand people). The regiment arrived at the front in October 1941. He fought in the Donbass, in 1942 - in Stalingrad. By February 1943, the Croatian regiment was practically destroyed - about 700 Croats were taken into Soviet captivity. About 2 thousand Croats died in the war against the USSR.

Spain:
The Spanish division (18 thousand people) was sent to the northern sector of the German-Soviet front. From October 1941 - fought in the Volkhov region, from August 1942 - near Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In October 1943, the division was returned to Spain, but about 2 thousand volunteers remained to fight in the Spanish Legion (three-battalion). The Legion was disbanded in March 1944, but about 300 Spaniards wished to fight further, and 2 companies of the SS troops were formed from them, who fought against the Red Army until the end of the war. About 5 thousand Spaniards died in the war against the USSR

Belgium:
In 1941, two volunteer legions were formed in Belgium for the war against the USSR. They differed by ethnicity - Flemish and Walloon, both were battalion size. In the fall of 1941, they were sent to the German-Soviet front - the Walloon Legion to the southern sector (Rostov-on-Don, then Kuban), the Flemish Legion to the northern sector (Volkhov). In June 1943, both legions were reorganized into brigades of the SS troops - a volunteer brigade SS troops "Langemark" and volunteer assault brigade SS troops "Wallonia". In October, the brigades were renamed into divisions (remaining in the same composition - 2 infantry regiments each). At the end of the war, both the Flemings and the Walloons fought against the Red Army in Pomerania. About 5 thousand Belgians died in the war against the USSR (2 thousand Belgians were taken into Soviet captivity).

Netherlands:
In January 1942, the Dutch legion arrived at the northern sector of the German-Soviet front, in the Volkhov region. Then the legion was transferred to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). In May 1943, the Dutch legion was reorganized into a volunteer brigade of the SS troops "Netherlands" (as part of two motorized regiments and other units, with a total of 9 thousand people). In 1944, one from the regiments of the Dutch brigade was practically destroyed in the battles near Narva. More than 8 thousand Dutch people died in the war against the USSR.

France:
In October 1941 french legion numbering 2.5 thousand people was sent to the German-Soviet front, to the Moscow direction. The French suffered heavy losses there, and from the spring of 1942 to the summer of 1944 the legion was withdrawn from the front and sent to fight against Soviet partisans in the rear. In September 1944, the French Volunteer Legion was disbanded, instead a French brigade of SS troops was created (numbering more than 7 thousand people). In February 1945, the French brigade of SS troops was renamed the 33rd Grenadier Division of the SS Charlemagne ("Charlemagne") and sent to the front in Pomerania against the Soviet troops. In March 1945 the French division was almost annihilated. Remains French division(about 700 people) at the end of April 1945 defended themselves in Berlin. About 8 thousand Frenchmen died in the war against the USSR.

Denmark:
In May 1942, the Danish corps was sent to the front, to the Demyansk region. From December 1942, the Danes fought in the Velikiye Luki region. At the beginning of June 1943, the Danish volunteer corps was disbanded, many of its members, as well as new volunteers, joined the Danemark regiment of the 11th SS Volunteer Division Nordland (Danish- Norwegian division). In January 1944, the division was sent to Leningrad (now St. Petersburg). Then she participated in the battle of Narva. In January 1945, the division fought against the Red Army in Pomerania, in April 1945 - fighting in Berlin. About 2 thousand Danes died in the war against the USSR.

Norway:
In February 1942, after training in Germany, the Norwegian Legion (1 battalion, numbering 1.2 thousand people) was sent to the German-Soviet front, near Leningrad. In May 1943, the Norwegian Legion was disbanded, most of its fighters joined the Norwegian regiment 11 -th SS Volunteer Division "Nordland" (Danish-Norwegian division). In January 1944 the division was sent to Leningrad. Then she participated in the battle of Narva. In January 1945, the division fought against the Red Army in Pomerania, in April 1945 - fighting in Berlin. About 1 thousand Norwegians died in the war against the USSR.

Now about neutral helpers.

Sweden:
During the Second World War, including - and this is especially important for us - from 1941 to 1945, Sweden, formally remaining a neutral country, in fact actively helped Nazi Germany. Almost the entire Swedish heavy industry worked for these purposes. Even in 1944, up to 80% of Swedish exports went to Germany, the key items of which were steel and ball bearings. According to well-known statistics, up to a third of all German ammunition and weapons were made from Swedish raw materials. That is, in other words, for every third bullet, every third shell, every third bomb that claimed the lives of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, we should be "grateful" to the Swedes.

Switzerland:
In accordance with the Hague Convention of 1907, Switzerland, as a neutral state, had the right to trade with warring countries. Among other goods, it also exported weapons. Between 1939 and 1944, exports of goods to Germany significantly exceeded exports to allied countries - in particular to the United States. German and Italian military cargo was transported by Swiss railways. From 1939 to 1942, 45% of all exported goods were exported to Italy and Germany. The bulk of the deliveries were strategic raw materials, tools and implements of production, technical equipment and products of the chemical industry, in a word, all those products that could be partially used for military purposes.

We continue

Here is an interesting archival document - a list of prisoners of war who surrendered to Soviet troops during the war years. Recall that a prisoner of war is one who fights in uniform with a weapon in his hands.
So,

Germans - 2 389 560,
Hungarians - 513 767,
Romanians - 187 370,
Austrians - 156,682,
Czechs and Slovaks - 69,977,
Poles - 60 280,
Italians - 48 957,
French - 23,136,
Croats - 21 822,
Moldovans - 14 129,
Jews - 10 173,
Dutch - 4 729,
Finns - 2 377,
Belgians - 2010,
Luxembourgers - 1652,
Danes - 457,
Spaniards - 452,
gypsies - 383,
Norwegians - 101,
Swedes - 72.

President of the Academy of Military Sciences, General of the Army Makhmut Gareev gave such an assessment of the participation of a number of European countries in the fight against fascism: - During the war, the whole of Europe fought against us. Three hundred and fifty million people, regardless of whether they fought with weapons in their hands, or stood at the machine, producing weapons for the Wehrmacht, did one thing. Twenty thousand members of the French Resistance died during World War II. And two hundred thousand French fought against us. We also captured sixty thousand Poles. Two million European volunteers fought for Hitler against the USSR.

Of the German troops concentrated on June 22, 1941 on the German-Soviet border, 20% were troops European allies Hitler

Seventy years ago, the Great Patriotic War began. The date is as tragic as it is majestic. For all peoples of the former Soviet Union. But for Europe, sorry, - shameful. And I am by no means blasphemous. Judge for yourself.

In July 2009, in Vilnius, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly adopted the resolution “Reuniting a Divided Europe: Promoting Human Rights and Civil Liberties in the OSCE Region in the 21st Century”. This document, timed to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the outbreak of World War II, contains the words, stunning in their cynicism: "... in the twentieth century, European countries experienced two powerful totalitarian regimes, Nazi and Stalin ..." If you follow this logic of European deputies, it turns out that Hitler and Stalin together attacked Europe. You see, gentlemen, they forgot that there was also the Anschluss of 1938 - the annexation of Austria to Germany, after which Austria disappeared, Ostmark appeared instead. Dear gentlemen, they do not remember that by the treacherous Munich Agreement (conspiracy) of 1938, Europe gave Czechoslovakia to be torn to pieces by Hitler. Apparently, the fact that Poland was defeated in 18 days, and only then Soviet troops were brought into its eastern regions, fell completely out of the mass consciousness of Europeans, France fell after 14 days (capitulated, pay attention to this strange coincidence, 22 June 1940) and Hitler's entire European campaign took six weeks.

And already by that time the Third Reich was not only Germany. It also officially included Austria, the Sudetenland, the "Baltic Corridor" captured from Poland, Poznan and Upper Silesia, as well as Luxembourg, Lorraine and Alsace, Upper Corinthia cut off from Yugoslavia. Germany's allies included Norway, Finland, Czechoslovakia, Italy, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Spain, which allowed Hitler to form an additional 59 divisions during the war years, including 20 SS divisions, 23 separate brigades, several separate regiments, legions and battalions.

The Fuhrer believed that on August 25 his troops would march victoriously through Moscow, as planned by the Barbarossa plan. (Emperor Frederick I Barbarossa, we note, was a participant in the Third Crusade, during which he drowned in the river. Symbolically, however!)

In June 41, it also began crusade, the last and decisive, called, finally, to crown the triumph of Western civilization. The dream of Pope Pius XI came true, who back in February 1930 called for a united campaign against the USSR, and in 1933 concluded a concordat (agreement) with Nazi Germany. The era of thousand years of struggle was to be replaced by the era of thousand years of European domination. The defeat of Hitler proved to be the collapse of the centuries-old strategy of the West. And the West to this day cannot forgive itself for the biggest civilizational failure in history. What, first of all, is evidenced by the very fact of the adoption of the OSCE PA resolution, which Europe, equating Soviet Union to Nazi Germany, places equal responsibility for the outbreak of the Second World War on both states. With frank cynicism, thus trying to remove, first of all, responsibility for the Great European War. Even despite the fact that on September 1, 2009 in Gdansk, German Chancellor Angela Merkel declared to the whole world: “We recognize that Germany attacked Poland, unleashed the Second World War and caused incredible suffering,” the drums sounded again in Europe and frighteningly sounded: "Die Russen kommen" ("The Russians are coming").

Yes, calm down, finally, no one is coming to you with a sword, and is not going to go. It was you who came to us 70 years ago as uninvited guests almost in full European composition. Finland allocated 16 divisions and 3 brigades for the war with the USSR, Romania - 13 divisions and 9 brigades, Hungary - 4 brigades. In total - 29 divisions and 16 brigades of allied forces.

And when Italian and Slovak contingents joined the Germans a little later, by the end of July 41, the troops of Germany's allied countries amounted to almost 30% of the fascist forces.

Even in the victorious April 1945, the formations allied to the Red Army - Polish, Romanian, Bulgarian, Czechoslovak, French - accounted for only 12% of the number of Soviet troops operating at the front.

In total, 5.5 million people, 47.2 thousand guns and mortars, 4.3 thousand tanks and about 5 thousand combat aircraft were concentrated in the eastern grouping of troops of fascist Germany and its allies. The Wehrmacht was also armed with captured tanks of Czechoslovakia and France. The armies of Italy, Hungary, Romania, Finland, Slovakia, Croatia participated in the war against the Soviet Union. The Bulgarian army was involved in the occupation of Greece and Yugoslavia; there were no ground units on the Eastern Front. Large military contingents of France, Poland, Belgium, Albania and other countries fought against the USSR. The anti-Hitler coalition was also opposed by the collaborating states - Vichy France (the capital of Vichy, the puppet regime of Pétain), Norway (the Quisling regime), the Netherlands (the Mussert regime), Slovakia (the pro-fascist Tiso regime). Thus, participation in the “campaign to the East” was practically institutionalized.

Together, so to speak, with the official allies of Germany in the war against the USSR, citizens of those countries that did not officially fight the USSR and even, strange as it may seem, were, like, our allies. The "Legion of French Volunteers" mentioned above, numbering over six thousand people, went to the Eastern Front already in August 1941.

In addition to the French, separate battalions of the Dutch, Norwegians, and Danes fought with the Red Army on the Eastern Front as part of the Wehrmacht. Although Spain was not officially at war with the Soviet Union, nevertheless, from October 1941 until the end of 1943, the Spanish Blue Division was on the Eastern Front. 47,000 people passed through the division in rotation, 4,000 of them died, more than 1,500 were captured. The "Blue Division" was located, mainly under the besieged Leningrad.

The issue of besieged Leningrad should have been raised separately for a long time, and at a level not lower than the UN. In its odious resolution, the OSCE noted the "uniqueness of the Holocaust." But an act of genocide was actually committed against the Leningraders.

In Leningrad, 700,000 people died of starvation alone. The city was blocked by the troops of Germany, Spain, Italy, Finland. Their crime is that they did not provide the population with humanitarian corridors for the transport of food and for the exit of civilians from the besieged city, which caused enormous casualties.

Europe is obviously impressed only by the Katyn graves of Polish officers, but by no means the Leningrad graves of the elderly, women and children.

And if we continue talking about "crimes against humanity", which are emphasized in the European resolution, then it must be said about the attitude towards prisoners of war. In Soviet captivity, in addition to the Germans, there were 1.1 million citizens of European countries, among them - 500 thousand Hungarians, almost 157 thousand Austrians, 70 thousand Czechs and Slovaks, 60 thousand Poles, about 50 thousand Italians, 23 thousand French, 50 thousand Spaniards. There were also Dutch, Finns, Norwegians, Danes, Belgians and others. In our camps, 14.9% of all captured Nazis died. In German - 58% of the captured Red Army soldiers, 2.6% of the French and 4% of the Americans and the British.

It is believed that millions Soviet soldiers died in captivity because Stalin did not sign the Geneva Convention regulating the humane treatment of prisoners. But Germany signed it and was obliged to abide by it. The signature of the USSR did not matter. The Nazis simply did not consider Russian people. The conclusion is clearly not in favor of Europe. Especially considering that, say, France lost more than 600,000 troops in the war killed and wounded (Arthur Banks, World Atlas military history"(A World Atlas of Military History), B.Ts. Urlanis, "The Wars and Population of Europe",

"History of the Second World War 1939-1945", vol. 3.): 84 thousand fell in hostilities in the defense of the national territory, 20 thousand - in the Resistance. And where did the remaining 500,000 French citizens die and get injured, on which German fronts? The question is purely rhetorical. A very similar situation with Poland, Belgium and other "active fighters against fascism." By the way, the weapons that Germany captured in the occupied countries were enough to form 200 divisions. Why, then, are the Europeans, who today put the Stalinist and Hitler regimes on the same level, but did not arm themselves and did not act against both dictators at once? Or - at least against one? Instead, the European countries silently assumed the costs of maintaining the German occupation troops on their territories. France, for example, from the summer of 1940, allocated 20 million German marks daily, and from the autumn of 1942 - 25 million each. These funds were more than enough not only to provide the German troops with everything necessary, but also for the war against the USSR. European countries supplied fascist Germany with more than 80 billion marks, of which 35 billion were given by France.

And not in the Wehrmacht, I emphasize, concentrated the most ideological non-German participants in the war. Much more of them were in the SS.

In 1943-1944. seven new SS divisions appeared: Albanian mountain rifle, Hungarian cavalry and two infantry, two Croatian mountain rifle and the 14th formed in Western Ukraine grenadier division SS troops "Galicia". The Germans also considered the Dutch, Belgians, Danes and British to be peoples of Germanic origin. The so-called German formations of the SS troops in the second half of 1943 consisted of the divisions "Netherlands", "Landstorm Netherlands", "Nordland", "Langermak", "Wallonia". The 29th SS Infantry Division (Italian), the 31st SS Infantry Division "Bohemia and Moravia" (from Czech volunteers, mainly Volksdeutsch), the 33rd SS Infantry Division "Charlemagne" (from French volunteers). On the number and nationality of the "German" volunteers in the SS troops as of January 31, 1944, the following data are available (persons): Norwegians - 5,878, Danes - 7,006, Dutch - 18,473, Flemings - 6,033, Walloons - 2,812, Swedes - 601, Swiss - 1,584, French - 3,480, English - 432, Irish - 115, Scots - 107. Total: 46,521 people, that is, a full-blooded army corps. The last soldier to receive the Knight's Cross for bravery on April 29, 1945 in the Reich Chancellery was the French SS volunteer Eugene Valo, and the French SS battalion from the Charlemagne division defended the Reichstag when the Germans had already fled from there (Special Forces of Russia, N 07 (58) , July 2001). During the war years, the German Wehrmacht and the SS troops replenished over 1.8 million people from among the citizens of European states and nationalities.

Let us remind those who today, while restoring the "national memory", suddenly lost their historical memory, one curious detail. The criminal nature of the organization of the SS as a whole was recognized by the Nuremberg International Military Tribunal: “The SS was used for purposes that are criminal and include the persecution and extermination of Jews, atrocities and murders in concentration camps, excesses committed in the administration of the occupied territories, the implementation of the program of use slave labor, mistreatment of prisoners of war and their murder ... "The Tribunal included in the SS members of the Waffen-SS and members of any kind of police services, emphasizing that "it is impossible to single out any part of the SS that would not take part in this criminal activity." And today, before the eyes of the whole of Europe, in the Baltic States, in Ukraine, the fascists and their modern descendants are being glorified. There is, it is clear, for what and for the sake of what.

The entire European economy, from Norway to France and Czechoslovakia, worked for the fascist war machine. Even neutral countries such as Sweden and Switzerland provided assistance to Nazi Germany, some with iron ore, steel, others with money, precision instruments, and so on. The Swedes also supplied bearings and rare earth elements to Germany. German military orders were carried out by all the large, technically advanced enterprises in Europe. Suffice it to say that only the Czech Skoda factories produced as much military products in the year before the attack on Poland as the entire British military industry. The entire European potential was thrown into the war against the USSR, whose potential, according to formal economic standards, was about four times less (and decreased by about half in the first six months of the war).

One English historian correctly wrote that it was then that "Europe became an economic whole." So, shouldn't she recognize Hitler as the first president of the European Union (posthumously) today, what is called in fact?

But that's not all. Germany received significant assistance through intermediaries from the United States and Latin America. The Rockefeller oil corporation Standard Oil, for example, sold Hitler $20 million worth of gasoline and lubricants through the German concern I.G. Farbenindustri alone. One Venezuelan branch of Standard Oil sent 13,000 tons of oil to Germany every month, which the powerful chemical industry of the Reich immediately processed into gasoline. Until the middle of 1944, the tanker fleet of "neutral" Spain worked almost exclusively for the needs of the Wehrmacht, supplying it with American "black gold", formally intended for Madrid. It got to the point that German submarines, refueling with American fuel directly from Spanish tankers, immediately went to sink American transports carrying weapons for the USSR.

Fuel was not limited. The Germans received from across the ocean tungsten, synthetic rubber, parts and spare parts for the automotive industry, which the Fuhrer supplied with his great friend Mr. Henry Ford Sr. It is known that the Wehrmacht received 30% of tires manufactured at Ford factories, and only in the autumn of 1942, the Ford branch in Switzerland repaired two thousand German trucks. As for the total volume of Ford-Rockefeller deliveries to Germany, there is still no complete information: a commercial secret, they say. But the information leaked out is enough to understand: trade with Berlin was no less intensive than with Moscow. The profits that the Americans have received are in figures of a truly astronomical order. However, as practice has shown, sworn friends also helped the Soviet Union, not at a loss to their own pocket.

Lend-Lease was not free. We paid for everything in gold, caviar, fur. In addition, already in the 70s, the USSR undertook to pay the US 722 million dollars in stages. After the collapse of the USSR, Russia took over the Lend-Lease debt, transferring the last installment in 2001.

According to State Duma deputy, MGIMO professor Vladimir Medinsky, in 1940 there were eight million unemployed in America, in 1942 - not a single one. Medinsky also cites a very curious statement by a professor of history at the University of Kansas Wilson: "The spread of overeating was one of the signs of a marked increase in the standard of living of Americans during the war." And in a brief commentary, he aptly notes: since then, the Americans have been the fattest nation on the planet, and they start to lose weight a little, somewhere a war immediately begins. Isn't it in North Africa and the Middle East now?

Blitzkrieg, however, did not work out. It also failed to defeat the Soviet Union. Moreover, from 190 to 266 of the most combat-ready divisions of the fascist bloc acted against the Red Army in various periods of the war. Note that the Anglo-American troops in North Africa opposed from 9 to 20 divisions, in Italy up to 26, in Western Europe after June 1944 - from 56 to 75 divisions. On the Soviet-German front, the German armed forces suffered more than 73% of losses.

The Red Army defeated 507 Nazi and 100 divisions of its allies, almost 3.5 times more than the allies on all fronts of World War II.

Here, the bulk of military equipment Wehrmacht: more than 75% of aircraft (over 70 thousand), up to 75% of tanks and assault guns (about 50 thousand), 74% of artillery pieces (167 thousand), etc. On the eastern front, hostilities were conducted with the greatest intensity . Of the 1,418 days of the war, 1,320 were active battles. On the North African front, respectively, out of 1,068 - 309; Italian from 663 - 49. The spatial scope was: along the front 4 - 6 thousand km, which is four times more than the North African, Italian and Western European fronts combined. In terms of scale and strategic importance, the four-year battle on the Soviet-German front became the main integral part World War II, since the main burden of the fight against Nazi aggression fell on our country.

The Soviet people made the greatest sacrifice on the altar of Victory. The USSR lost 26.6 million people, tens of millions were injured and maimed, the birth rate dropped sharply, and the standard of living of the population dropped significantly. Huge damage was done to the national economy. The cost of damage amounted to 679 billion rubles. 1,710 cities and towns, more than 70 thousand villages, more than six million buildings, 32 thousand enterprises, 65 thousand km were destroyed and burned railways. The war devastated the treasury, led to a number of negative consequences in the economy, demography, psychology, morality, which together amounted to incredibly large indirect costs of the war.

The given figure - 679 billion rubles, alas, does not exhaust all the losses of the USSR. During the period of the Patriotic War alone, the national economy in the occupied regions of the USSR was underproduced, therefore, lost: 307 million tons of coal, 72 billion kWh of electricity, 38 million tons of steel, 136 thousand tons of aluminum, 58 thousand tractors, 90 thousand machine tools, 63 million centners of sugar, 11 billion poods of grain, 1,922 million centners of potatoes, 68 million centners of meat and 567 million centners of milk. These colossal quantities of goods would have been produced even if production had remained at the level of 1940. But the rate of growth was constantly increasing.

No country in its entire history has suffered such losses. A huge territory in the west of the USSR by May 1945 lay in ruins. The enemy made 25 million people homeless. The material damage caused to the country by the war was equal to almost 30% of the national wealth. For comparison: in the UK - 0.9%, in the US - 0.4%.

When did we have to build that same democracy, the absence of which Europe constantly reproaches us, and even according to the model strictly set by it? Here - I would live!

Europe, it seems, has begun to see the light little by little. For some time now, there has been a discussion in Austrian society about who Austria was during the war years - the first victim or the first collaborator. And recently, the authorities of the Austrian capital announced plans to create a memorial in honor of the soldiers who deserted from Hitler's army. Well, what kind of war they had - now they have such heroes. Over one and a half million Austrians - one in four! - served in the Nazi army. Of the 35 divisions formed in the "Ostmark", 17 acted against the USSR. And after that, the Austrians still dare to argue: why not declare themselves victims of fascism? What refined hypocrisy! Quite characteristic, by the way, for the current European "fighters" against totalitarianism. Nevertheless, even such sly discussions do not take place in Bulgaria, Hungary, Romania, Finland, former allies of Germany, or in the same Czech Republic, Poland, the Baltic countries, which produced weapons for the Third Reich and supplied it with their workers and soldiers. The heirs who were afraid of Hitler, apparently, do not have enough courage either.

On May 1, 2011, the Simon Wiesenthal Center published a list of nine countries in which the acts of Nazi criminals during the Second World War are not investigated due to the statute of limitations or "ideological restrictions". In addition to Austria, which gave the world Adolf Hitler, it also includes Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia and Norway, neutral Sweden, and even Canada, which fought on the side of the anti-Hitler coalition. Ukraine should also be included in this list, where veterans of the SS division "Galicia" and Bandera fighters of the OUN-UPA are honored.

It is noteworthy that the same number of Balts fought on the side of Germany as on the side of the USSR, in other words, for these republics Soviet-German war was, among other things, also a civil war.

V german army, mainly in the SS troops, served about 100 thousand Latvians, 36 thousand Lithuanians and 10 thousand Estonians. Therefore, today it is difficult to get rid of the idea that among the representatives of the current ruling stratum of Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia there are many political heirs of that part of the elite of their countries, which in the early 40s of the last century advocated going over to the side of Germany. After all, the Germans repressed mostly Jews, Poles, and Russians, while the ethnic Balts, loyal to the New Order, eked out a relatively quiet existence. The Nazis were in no hurry to let them in on their plans, according to which, according to one of the "fuhrers" of the SS Konrad Mayer, from among the Baltic population in the places of their current residence, over 50% of Estonians, up to 50% of Latvians and up to 15% of Lithuanians could be left and Germanized . The rest of the Balts, like 80-85% of the Poles, were to be evicted "to a certain area Western Siberia". The Poles, by the way, out of the 35 million population of the country lost six. If it weren’t for the Red Army, many who are now demanding compensation from Russia for the “Soviet occupation” would have experienced the Nazi slogans: “To each his own” and “Work makes you free,” as it was written on the gates of concentration camps.

In 1944-1945. The Soviet Union fulfilled its liberation mission by eliminating fascist domination in Europe. About seven million Soviet soldiers participated in the liberation of 10 European countries. Nearly a million people gave their lives for their freedom. Without the Red Army and its immeasurable sacrifices, the liberation of Europe from the cruel yoke of Nazism would have been impossible. But Europe demands repentance from Russia. Allegedly, following the example of the Germans, although no one has heard German repentance and is unlikely to ever hear. And what should the post-war generations repent of before the world? Everyone himself must atone for his sins, otherwise it turns out un-Christian. After all, Europe was set up and grew up precisely on the Christian faith, however, it has forgotten this - its main value. Only she and, above all, she herself is guilty of unleashing the most destructive and bloody war in the history of mankind. And the Soviet Union is the only force in the world that in 1941 stopped the victorious march of fascist Germany. Europe, terribly democratic and civilized, would fall on its knees before Russia in deep repentance. But it is Russia that she wants to see on her knees. And today it is quite legitimate to put the question this way: maybe Europe did not want liberation at all?

History has repeatedly taught us that we should not have illusions about "grateful humanity." Today, it is not so much the ideological as the geopolitical focus of the OSCE resolution that is most clearly visible. The international status of the Russian Federation still rests on the succession from the USSR. It is based on two so far unshakable substances - a place in the world club of nuclear powers and the position of one of the five members of the UN Security Council with the right of veto. And this status is a consequence of the victory of the USSR in World War II. The resolution is aimed precisely at undermining the legitimacy of Russia's status in the world. Western anti-communism has been replaced by openly herd Russophobia.

And with good reason, I will allow myself to call the resolution "The reunification of a divided Europe: the promotion of human rights and civil liberties in the OSCE region in the 21st century" - the Vilnius conspiracy.

It does not unite in any way, but, on the contrary, divides the reunited Europe, as the continent and the Munich Agreement once divided: on the one hand, again the West, and on the other side, again Russia. In such an incredible way, two sad 70th anniversaries are now intertwined. Rushing, it would seem, into the future, Europe actually descends into the past, into the post-versailles world order, which gave rise to both Hitler and the Second World War. And against whom are you going to fight this time, gentlemen Europeans?

Valery Panov

Special for the Centenary