Photos WW2 Soviet Forces

ACS SU-76M with soldiers on armor from the 10th Tank Corps of the 5th Guards Tank Army of the 2nd Belorussian Front and the bodies of German soldiers on Mühlhausen Street (now the Polish city of Mlynary), January 1945.

The city of Mühlhausen was liberated from Nazi troops on January 24, 1945 during the Mlavsko-Elbing operation.




Calculation of 12.7-mm machine gun DShK sergeant V.I. Plotnikov at a firing position. Western Front, 1st Guards Tank Brigade, January 1942.




January 1943. A tank unit liberated a village on the outskirts of Stalingrad. The local population meets the liberators.

Photographer: Arkady Shaikhet.

Soviet soldiers at the German attack aircraft Henschel Hs 129B-2, serial number W.Nr.141537 Oberleutenant Bartel from 13. (Pz) / SG 9, destroyed by Luftwaffe ground personnel during the retreat at Thorndorf (Vargowitz) airfield. Poland, January 22, 1945.

The soldier on the right is holding a tape for the MG-151/20 automatic cannon.

Author: Victor Temin.

German soldiers and officers captured during the operation to lift the blockade of Leningrad. District of the village of Mga (Kirovsky district of the Leningrad region), January 22, 1944.

Young partisans from the Frunze detachment fought on a par with their adult comrades. Kursk region. January 22, 1942

Photo: Yakov Ryumkin.

Paratroopers dismount from the KV-1 heavy tank during hostilities in the area of the city of Prokhladny, Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. 1942 year.




An Abkhaz soldier with a PPSh submachine gun in the Caucasus mountains, August 1942.

Author: Max Alpert.





An oath written by the defenders of the city of Ordzhonikidze on the wall of a house turned into a bunker. 1942 year. Author: Aron Popelyansky.
"Отсюда выйдем победителями или сложим свои головы. Назад хода нет"



Broken train at the railway on the outskirts of Novorossiysk. 1942 year.



A view from a German plane to the fires on the outskirts of Novorossiysk.




The soldiers are fighting in the village. North Caucasian Front, 1942

Shooting author: Alpert Max Vladimirovich




The rifle squad of lieutenant Chigogidze prepares for an attack. Southeast of Nalchik, 1942





Soldiers are fighting for a settlement in the North Caucasus. North Caucasian Front, 1942 Shooting author: Alpert Max Vladimirovich




The battle for the Shaumyan settlement northeast of Tuapse, December 1942




Cossack guardsmen of the cavalry corps of Lieutenant General Kirichenko on the march. North Caucasian Front, 1942



Guardsmen - artillerymen are firing at enemy firing points. North Caucasian Front, 1943

The unit of Lieutenant Seregin before the attack. North-east of Tuapse, 1943




The captain of the Red Army near a GAZ-M1 passenger car in the village in the Kuban, May 1943

Despite the fact that the buttonholes were replaced by shoulder straps in February, buttonholes were worn until the fall of 1943.



Calculation of the PTRS-41 anti-tank rifle and a machine gunner on the river bank.





Soviet paratroopers are loaded into a TB-3 bomber on the North Caucasian front.




Soviet soldiers are driving the Germans out of the western part of the village of Krymskaya.

Battery gunners PS Tarakanov's fire with direct fire at the enemy from a 45-mm anti-tank gun.





Soviet tanker on a captured German tank Pz.Kpfw. IV in the city of Ordzhonikidze.



The battle in the village of Gizel, the region of Vladikavkaz (at that time - Ordzhonikidze), where the German offensive in the North Caucasus was stopped. November 7, 1942




The 2nd Guards Rifle (future Taman) Division holds the defenses in battles in the North Caucasus.


To break through the Blue Line.

The Blue Line is a line of German fortifications on the Taman Peninsula. The presence of a 400,000-strong military grouping and a reduced front line allowed the Germans to create a very dense defense here. Fighting here continued from February to September 1943, until finally the German troops were evacuated to the Crimea. For the liberation of the Taman Peninsula, the 2nd Guards Rifle Division on October 9, 1943 received the honorary title "Tamanskaya".



Killed German servicemen at the scene of the fighting on the breakthrough of the "Blue Line" ("Blue Line" taken!).

The commander of the female air regiment E.D. Bershanskaya sets a combat mission to her pilots.





Guard Captain V.B. Emelianenko in the cockpit of his Il-2 attack aircraft at the airfield in the village of Timashevskaya.



Armored train of the Azov flotilla "For the Motherland".




Soviet soldiers, supported by T-34 tanks, are fighting for the village of Krymskaya.



The commander of the 52nd Red Banner Tank Brigade, Major V.I. Filippov.



Captain I. Rudnev's scouts set off on a mission. North Caucasus.



Parts of the 18th Army in battle on the embankment of Novorossiysk.



The calculation of the 76.2-mm divisional gun ZiS-3 of the 1942 model of junior sergeant V.F. Barmina destroyed 14 German tanks in a month of fighting. North Caucasian Front, August 1942.

A smoke break for the NKVD fighters - the defenders of the city of Ordzhonikidze. 1942 year.

Interestingly, a lot is known abroad about the contribution of soldiers of the NKVD troops to the victory over fascism? Soviet border guards were fighters of the NKVD, soldiers of the NKVD troops fought in the Brest Fortress, defended Tula, Ordzhonikidze, the Stalingrad elevator. Later, a separate army was created from the NKVD troops.

Now I want to share a part of the archive dedicated to the Brest Fortress. I do not know how famous the feat of this fortress is abroad, but in our country everyone knew about the heroism of the defenders of the Brest Fortress. One of the best books on the topic - "Not included in the lists", by the writer Boris Vasiliev. I strongly advise you to familiarize yourself.

Hero of the defense of the Brest Fortress, commander of the 44th rifle regiment of the 42nd rifle division, Major Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov (1900 - 1979). 1941 year.

P.M. Gavrilov from June 22 to July 23, 1941 led the defense of the Eastern Fort of the Brest Fortress. He managed to rally around himself all the surviving fighters and commanders of various units and subunits, close the most vulnerable places for the enemy to break through. Until June 30, the fort garrison put up organized resistance, staunchly repelling countless enemy attacks and preventing him from breaking into the fort. After the enemy used high-powered bombs and destroyed part of the fort's structures, the Germans managed to break into the fort and capture most of its defenders. From the beginning of July, Major Gavrilov, with the surviving fighters, switched to the tactics of surprise attacks and attacks on the enemy.
On July 23, 1941, from a shell explosion in the casemate, he was seriously wounded and unconscious was captured. He spent the years of the war in the Nazi concentration camps of Hammelburg and Revensburg, having experienced all the horrors of captivity. Released by Soviet troops in May 1945 at the Mauthausen concentration camp. Passed a special check and was reinstated in military rank. But at the same time he was expelled from the party due to the loss of his party card and being in captivity. In the fall of 1945, he was the head of the Soviet camp for Japanese prisoners of war in Siberia on the construction of the Abakan-Taishet railway. In June 1946 he was transferred to the reserve.

After his dismissal in connection with the reduction of the armed forces, he left for Tataria, and then for Krasnodar, where he found his wife and son, whom he had not seen since the first day of the war.

After the radio broadcast in 1955 entitled "In Search of the Heroes of the Brest Fortress", their author - Sergei Smirnov - was written in 1956, and in 1957 the book "Brest Fortress" was published, which showed the feat of the fortress garrison in 1941 year. Thanks to this, P. M. Gavrilov restored his membership in the party and was presented for the award.

By the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 30, 1957, for exemplary fulfillment of military duty in the defense of the Brest Fortress in 1941 and the courage and heroism shown at the same time, Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union with the award of the Order of Lenin and the Gold Star medal (No. 10807 ).

Subsequently, Gavrilov made a number of trips around the USSR, was actively involved in social work. From 1968 until the end of his life he lived in Krasnodar at 103 on Svetlaya Street (in 1980 it was renamed Gavrilova Street).

Pyotr Mikhailovich Gavrilov died in Krasnodar on January 26, 1979. He was buried with military honors at the garrison memorial cemetery in Brest.

Praskovya Leontyevna Tkacheva, the chief nurse of the surgical department of the Brest Fortress hospital, with the wives and children of the commanders of the Red Army, surrounded by German soldiers. June 25-26, 1941.





Soviet amphibious tanks T-38, broken in the Brest Fortress, June-July 1941. In the foreground is a 1937 vehicle with an armored hull and a turret manufactured by the Ordzhonikidze Podolsk plant. Another T-38 tank in the background. The tanks are located on the territory of the citadel next to the White Palace. The military equipment of the 75th separate reconnaissance battalion of the 6th rifle division of the 28th rifle corps of the 4th army of the Western Front was also located there, the vehicle fleet of which was located on the bank at the fork of the Mukhavets river.




Prisoners of the Red Army under the escort of the Germans run across the railway bridge in Brest. June 22, 1941. The German Pz.III medium tank is visible in the background.



German soldier during the battle in the Brest Fortress. June-July 1941.



German infantry on the central island of the Brest Fortress, June 1941.
On the left you can see the premises of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, on the right - the barracks of the 9th frontier post.
View from the Terespolskie Gate.


Three German soldiers at the MG-34 machine gun mounted on the machine gun near the dilapidated ring barracks in the area of the Kholmsky Gate in the Citadel of the Brest Fortress.

A Red Army soldier and his service dog who died in the Brest Fortress.

Even before the start of the war, German saboteurs damaged communications and water supply. The garrison of the Brest fortress was left without water. With the first rays of the sun on June 22, 1941, a massive German shelling and airstrike began. German pilots and gunners bombed the sleeping garrison, officers' houses, barracks and equipment parks. This is very clearly shown in the film "Brest Fortress", which was filmed several years ago by our Belarusian comrades.

The German troops, after the artillery and aviation training, decided that the fortress could be taken with their bare hands. However, they were wrong. In a brutal hand-to-hand combat, Soviet soldiers, using sapper shovels, bricks and stools - weapons depots were littered with explosions - repulsed the first German attack.

By the end of the day, the Germans surrounded the fortress. Together with the soldiers, the family members of the commanders - their wives and children - were also locked up. The Soviet garrison, without food or water, among corpses decomposing in the heat, fought for over a month and made several attempts to leave. The soldiers had no cartridges - they ran out long ago. In fierce battles, soldiers fought off German attacks with their hands and bayonets.

The Germans bombed the fortress, shot it with guns, blew up the walls, but the defenders hid in the dungeons. For more than a month, the soldiers hid in the dungeons. The last organized outbreaks were destroyed only in August and September. The last defender of the Brest Fortress was caught by German soldiers only in the spring of 1942.

There was a lot. I won't tell you everything. But I strongly advise you to watch the movie at the link below. In almost all matters, he is reliable. The only thing, at the end, was confused with the biography of Major Gavrilov.

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Fortress after battles

Assistant Chief of Staff of the 125th Rifle Regiment of the 6th Rifle Division, Senior Lieutenant Alexander Petrovich Zavyalov (17.10.1905-23.01.1942), captured in the Brest Fortress, during interrogation by German officers. According to the available data A.P. Zavyalov was captured on 23.06.1941. He was sent to camp XIII D (62) in Hammelburg, where he died on 23.01.1942.

The famous "Karl" mortars were later brought to shell the Fortress. The artillerymen of the 2nd battery of the 833rd heavy artillery battalion of the Wehrmacht are preparing to fire a 600-mm self-propelled mortar "Karl" (Karl Gerät 040 Nr.III "Odin") near Brest. In the photo near the mortar there is a Munitionsschlepper ammunition carrier mounted on a Pz.Kpwf tank chassis. IV Ausf. E.

On June 22, 1941, Lieutenant A.M. Kizhevatov led the defense of the outpost and was wounded for the first time. On June 23, when only ruins remained of the outpost building, with his soldiers he moved to the cellars of the nearby barracks of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, where a group of soldiers under the command of Senior Lieutenant A.E. Potapov fought. In the following days, together with Potapov, he continued to lead the defense of the barracks of the 333rd regiment and the Terespolsky gate. On June 29, when the ammunition was almost exhausted, it was decided to make a last desperate attempt to break through. Potapov led the breakout group, and 17 wounded soldiers, led by the already seriously wounded Lieutenant Kizhevatov, remained in the fortress for cover. Lieutenant Kizhevatov died in this battle. The breakthrough also ended in failure - most of its participants died or were captured.

In the fall of 1942, in the village of Velikorita, Malorita region, the entire Kizhevatov family was shot: his mother, wife, Ekaterina Ivanovna Milovanova, and children - 15-year-old Nyura, 11-year-old Vanya and 2-year-old Galya.


Andrey Mitrofanovich Kizhevatov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union in 1965.

Shortly before the start of the war, Senior Lieutenant A.E. Potapov was assigned to the commander of the 333rd Infantry Regiment of the 6th Infantry Division and in late May 1941 was appointed senior adjutant (chief of staff) of one of the battalions of this regiment. Since October 1939, after the end of the campaign of Soviet troops in Poland, units of the 6th Infantry Division were stationed in the area of the city of Brest-Litovsk and adjacent areas north of the Mukhavets River, taking over the garrison service in Brest and guarding the state border along the Western Bug River in area of Brest. The barracks of the 333rd Infantry Regiment were located directly in the citadel of the Brest Fortress.

On the night of June 22, 1941, Potapov was on duty at the 333rd Infantry Regiment. With the first explosions of enemy shells and bombs, he raised the regiment on alert. The commander of the regimental school platoon, Lieutenant Naganov, was ordered to take up defensive positions in the area of the Terespol Gate. Realizing that the commander and commissar of the regiment would not be able to break through to the besieged fortress, Potapov led the defense in the area. Acting boldly and decisively, Senior Lieutenant A.E. Potapov and Assistant Chief of Staff of the 333rd Infantry Regiment, Lieutenant A.S. Sanin organized the fighters, thanks to which the enemy, who broke into the citadel, was met with organized fire and suffered heavy losses. Nearby there was a building that housed the 9th border outpost. Here fighters fought under the command of the chief of the outpost, Lieutenant A. M. Kizhevatov. On June 23, when only ruins remained of their building, Kizhevatov and his fighters moved to the basements of the barracks of the 333rd regiment and continued to lead the defense together with Potapov.

Around June 25, a group of fighters from the 132nd battalion of the NKVD convoy troops, who had previously defended in the location of their unit, also ran into the barracks of the 333rd regiment. The soldiers of this group carried with them the battle banner of their battalion, which later, during an attempt to break through, they hid in an air tube on the second floor, opposite the headquarters of the 132nd battalion.

Among the fighters included in the Potapov group, the young pupil of the musician platoon of the regiment Petya Klypa stood out for his courage and courage.

During the week, under the command of Potapov, Sanin and Kizhevatov, the defenders of the barracks of the 333rd Infantry Regiment fought off numerous enemy attacks. Women and children, who were hiding in the basements of the barracks with the soldiers, had to be taken prisoner on the 3rd or 4th day of the war. In the last days of the defense, Lieutenant Sanin fell seriously ill and lay half-delirious, not getting up (he was captured, according to his own recollections, on June 27, and according to the German prisoner of war card - on June 24).

On June 29, when the ammunition nearly ran out, it was decided to make a last desperate attempt to break through. It was supposed to break through not to the north, where the enemy was expecting attacks and kept large forces at the ready, but to the south, towards the Western Island, in order to then turn to the east, cross the Bug arm and pass the hospital on the Southern Island to get into the vicinity of Brest. This breakthrough ended in failure - most of its participants died or were captured. AE Potapov, who was the leader of the breakthrough group, died in this battle. Lieutenant A. M. Kizhevatov, covering the breakthrough, remained in the Citadel and also died in battle.

In his book "Brest Fortress" the writer S.S.Smirnov, referring to the memoirs of a number of participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress, including Peter Klypa, pointed out that A.E. Potapov, perhaps, did not die during the breakthrough, but was taken prisoner and spent some time in a prisoner of war camp in Biala Podlaska. It was even indicated that Potapov was one of the organizers of the mass escape of prisoners of war from this camp in September 1941. However, this information remains fundamentally inaccurate and unconfirmed.

Efim Moiseevich Fomin - Soviet officer, regimental commissar, deputy commander of the 84th Infantry Regiment of the 6th Oryol Red Banner Division. One of the leaders of the defense of the Brest Fortress in June 1941. On June 22, 1941, he led the defense of the Brest Fortress in the ring barracks at the site near the Kholmsky Gate. June 24, 1941 - deputy commander of the fortress defense staff. June 26, 1941 - was captured in the barracks of the 33rd separate engineering regiment, and one of the captured soldiers gave him to the Nazis as a Jew and as a commissar. Fomin was shot - presumably at the Kholmsky gate of the fortress.