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\r\n\r\nThroughout its history, Belarus was the scene of many destructive wars. In contemporary\r\nhistory the largest and most brutal was the Great Patriotic War 1941-1945, a most\r\nsignificant part of the Second World War 1939-1945<\/a>. The Great Patriotic War was fought \r\nbetween the Union of Soviet\r\nSocialist Republics (the USSR), including Belarus (the Belarusian Soviet Socialist\r\nRepublic, BSSR) on the one hand and Germany with its Axis allies on the other from 22 June\r\n1941 to 9 May 1945. In Belarus, military operations were conducted from 22 June 1941 to 28\r\nJuly 1944.<\/p>\r\n\r\n The war started as a result of Germany’s attack on the Soviet Union and for the Soviet\r\npeople it was a war of liberation against the aggressors. The aims of Nazi Germany were\r\nto destroy the Soviet Union as a military and political power, to Germanise the European\r\npart of the USSR, and either to exterminate or to resettle the bulk of its population. <\/p>\r\n\r\n According to Hitler’s plan for the war against the USSR codenamed Operation Barbarossa,\r\nGermany and its allies (Italy, Rumania, Hungary, and Finland) put against the Soviet Union\r\n190 divisions supported by four air fleets (in all, 5.5 million troops, 47,200 guns and\r\nmortars, about 4,300 tanks and assault guns, and 4,980 combat aircraft). The Soviet side\r\nwas considerably less in strength: 170 divisions and two brigades (2.9 million men),\r\n37,500 guns and mortars, 1,800 heavy and medium tanks, 1,540 combat aircraft of new model,\r\nand light tanks and battle planes of older models.<\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n <\/b>On the eve of the war <\/b>the German Wehrmacht was a highly professional and\r\nwell equipped military power. The plans for future military operations were thoroughly\r\ndesigned. A focus was placed on the preparation of tank and mobile units. Many officers\r\nand soldiers had gained combat experience in military campaigns of the Second World War\r\nthat had now lasted for nearly two years. The German industry was oriented towards the\r\nneeds of the army. The troops trained for attack were stationed in the frontier districts\r\nready for combat. On 13 June, the divisional commanders received combat orders for\r\nstarting the offensive, the exact date of which, 22 June, was announced on 15 June, and on\r\n16 June the regiment commanders were informed of the combat missions for the offensive\r\noperation. <\/p>\r\n\r\n In the Red Army, including the Western Special Military District, many new units had\r\nbeen formed in a few prewar months, basically manned with new recruits and not always\r\nready for combat. The fortified zones along the new frontier, which was established after\r\nthe inclusion of Western Belarus into the Belarusian SSR, were complete only in part. The\r\nnew types of tanks and aircraft had just begun to enter the army and their crew lacked\r\nexperience needed to operate them effectively; there was not enough fuel for their\r\ntraining. Another negative point was the fact that the army lost many experienced\r\ncommanders during the campaign of political purges in the late 1930s. The newly appointed\r\ncommanders often did not have enough military education, stayed in their position for a\r\nrelatively short time, and were not always able to show a needed level of command.\r\nNoteworthy is that the preparation of partisan bases conducted in case of war in the late\r\n1920s \u2013 early 1930s was suspended; its organisers were subject to repression. Before the\r\nvery beginning of the war, the Soviet leadership repeatedly made statements in which they\r\ndenounced various reports of an impending German attack as misinformation. The population\r\nwas told not to believe the rumours and the military command to avoid provoking Germany in\r\nall circumstances. <\/p>\r\n\r\n The German ground forces meant for the attack on the Soviet Union were divided into\r\nthree operational strategic formations \u2013 Army Groups North, Center, and South. Belarus\r\nhad to withstand the most powerful of these armies \u2013 Army Group Center (at the outset of\r\nthe war \u2013 50 divisions and two motorised brigades, including 595,620 men, 823 tanks,\r\n11,027 guns and mortars supported by 1,677 combat aircraft; during the first week of the\r\nwar the number of divisions increased to 60). <\/p>\r\n\r\n Facing the Germans were the Soviet troops of the Western Special Military District,\r\nreorganised on 22 June into the Western Front, which numbered 52 divisions and 12\r\nbrigades. On 1 June 1941, the District included 2,900 tanks (2,192 serviceable<\/font>),\r\n14,265 guns and mortars, and 1,923 aircraft (303 of new class). <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n The beginning of the war <\/b>was extremely unfavourable for the Soviet troops. On the\r\nfirst day of combat in Belarus they lost 738 aircraft and remained without air protection\r\nfor a long time. The soldiers often lacked the needed ammunition. The communication lines\r\nwere disrupted by the enemy. The command of the Western Front lost control over the army,\r\nfailed to launch the planned counterattacks and could not stop the enemy in the frontier\r\narea. Many units found themselves encircled and in bloody battle attempted to The situation of the civilian population was also difficult. The continuous\r\nbombardments turned inhabited localities into ruins. The Belarusian roads were full of\r\nrefugees. From the late June an organised evacuation was carried out mainly from the\r\neastern parts of the Republic. The archives of the party and soviet institutions, the\r\nvalues of savings banks and the State Bank were transported to the far hinterland; the\r\ncattle was driven away in an organised way. According to official data, they managed to\r\nevacuate 124 large industrial enterprises and 1.5 million people (some researchers now\r\nthink this figure is inflated almost thrice). <\/p>\r\n\r\n From the first hours of the war Belarus became the scene of severe fighting in which\r\nboth regular troops and civilians alike took part. No frontier post surrendered to the\r\nenemy or left its position without orders. For more than a month the garrison of the Brest\r\nfortress held out. Desperately fought the Soviet soldiers at the approaches to Minsk. Yet,\r\nafter fierce battle on 28 June the Belarusian capital was taken. The number of men killed,\r\nmissing and taken prisoner totaled 341,000. The defenders of Mogilev held out for more\r\nthan three weeks, including a 10,000 people’s volunteers who put up a stubborn resistance\r\nagainst the enemy. In summer 1941 in Belarus the Soviet troops not only fought in defence\r\nbut also conducted offensive operations. Several towns were liberated from the Nazis in\r\nthe result of the Lepel and Rogachev-Zhlobin counterattacks (the towns of Rogachev and\r\nZhlobin were retaken by Germans only a month later). On 14 July 1941, the Katyusha rocket\r\nlaunchers were used for the first time against the enemy near the town of Orsha.<\/p>\r\n\r\n The strong resistance put up against the enemy in Belarus at the beginning of the war\r\ndesrupted the German plans for Blitzkrieg and a quick breakthrough to Moscow. But despite\r\nbravery and heroism, the enemy was not stopped; and by September the whole area of Belarus\r\nhad been occupied by the Germans. <\/p>\r\n\r\n Nearly eight million civilians and about 900,000 Soviet prisoners of war found\r\nthemselves under German occupation in Belarus, which lasted for nearly three years \r\n(the dates of Nazi occupation of Belarusian towns<\/a>). The whole\r\ncontrol over the conquered area was exercised by the German military and civilian authorities<\/a> who, with the support of the SS and SA squads, the SD Security Service, the\r\ncriminal and defence police and local collaborators<\/a> established the Occupation regime<\/b>\r\nin Belarus. <\/p>\r\n\r\n According to the Nazi plan Ost, the so-called New Order was established on the occupied\r\nterritory, a system of political, military and economic measures aimed to liquidate the\r\nSoviet state and its population. As a main tool of the New Order the Nazis used the policy\r\nof genocide, terror and mass killings. The extreme measures of penalty, most often\r\nexecution, were used for minor violations of rules in all spheres of life. 400,000\r\npeople were taken to forced labour in Germany; almost half of them did not return, were\r\nkilled or died. Nearly 250 camps of Soviet POWs and 350 concentration camps, prisons and\r\nother places of incarceration operated in Belarus. 206,500 people were killed only in the\r\nvillage of Trostenets near Minsk, where one of the biggest death camps was located (the\r\nnumber of victims at Trostenets is estimated to be the fourth largest after Auschwitz,\r\nMajdanek and Treblinka). The executions of the Jewish population of Belarus and the Jews\r\ntransported from other European countries were carried out on a large scale; over\r\n530 places of their execution, camps and ghettos have now been ascertained. <\/p>\r\n\r\n\r\n <\/font>The occupiers carried out over 140 punitive expeditions,\r\nwhich aimed to suppress resistance, enslave the civilian population, and plunder their\r\nproperty. During the punitive expeditions they annihilated about 5,500 localities,\r\nincluding 630 villages together with their inhabitants. The scorched village of Khatyn\r\nbecame a terrifying symbol of Nazi crime in Belarus. <\/font><\/p>\r\n\r\n