World Battlefronts: BATTLE OF RUSSIA: The Ousting is at Hand

”Comrades,” said Joseph Stalin in his calm, dry voice, “we have turned the course of the war. . . . The complete ousting of the Fascist invader is at hand.”

A few hours earlier Stalin had an nounced the year’s richest victory: the recapture of Kiev (see p. 25). Moscow’s walls echoed the jubilant salvos of 324 guns, the pealing of the Kremlin’s bells, the happy tumult of the crowds. Now, in Moscow and all over the land, men huddled before the loudspeakers to hear Stalin’s report on the triumphs already scored, on the prospects for tomorrow:

> “Victory is near. But to achieve victory a new mustering of all forces . . . and decisive action of the Red Army on the front are necessary.”

> “Our troops [have] liberated almost two-thirds of the [enemy-held] territory.” ^ “The best German cadres have been destroyed and they cannot get indispensable reserves. Red Army cadres, on the contrary, are growing. . . . Instead of 240 enemy divisions … on our front last year . . . now there stand 257. . . . However, the defeat of German troops . . . shows the worsened quality of their divisions which cannot be compensated by increased numbers.”

> “The defeat of the German Army was decided … at the end of last year. … The Battle of Stalingrad ended with the destruction of an army of 300,000 men. . . . At the end of the Stalingrad battle 147,210 officers and men v. ere picked up from the battlefield and buried. . . . After the Stalingrad slaughter the Germans were unable to recover.”

> “The fighting at Kursk [last July] witnessed the destruction of the main forces. … [It] was the last German attempt to materialize the so-called German offensive. The offensive ended in a complete fiasco. … If Stalingrad was a defeat.. . Kursk was a catastrophe. ; ..”

> “Last year was the turning point not only of military operations but also of production from our industries. . . . The Soviet people quickly adapted themselves to wartime industry and succeeded … in increasing and improving production in armaments. . . . Agriculture [showed] an output unsurpassed in history.”

> “The day is not far off when we will completely liberate the Ukraine, and the

White Russia, Leningrad and Kalinin regions from the enemy; when we will liberate . . . the people of the Crimea and Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Moldavia and Karelo-Finm’sh Republic [i.e., the parts of Finland ceded to Russia in 1940].”