Order of the Day, No. 220, November 7, 1944
Comrades, Red Army men and Red Navy men, sergeants, officers and
generals! Working people of the Soviet Union! Brothers and sisters
forcibly driven to fascist slave labour in Germany!
In the name of the Soviet Government and our Bolshevik Party, I greet
and congratulate you on the 27th Anniversary of the Great October
Revolution in
the midst of decisive victories of the Red Army over the enemies of our
homeland. By the heroic efforts of the Red Army and the Soviet people
our soil has been cleared of the German-fascist invaders.
This year the Soviet troops have rained incessant blows on the enemy,
each one stronger than the last. In winter 1943-44 the Red Army scored
outstanding victories in the Ukraine west of the Dnieper and routed the
Germans before Leningrad. In the spring of this year the Red Army
cleared the Crimea of the Germans. In the summer of 1944 our troops
inflicted major defeats on the Hitlerite army, which brought about a
radical change in the situation on the battlefront against the
German-fascist invaders.
The Red Army broke the powerful enemy defences
on the Karelian Isthmus, and also between Lakes Ladoga and Onega, and
knocked Finland out of the Hitlerite robber bloc. In the historic
battle on Byelorussian soil the Red Army troops utterly routed the
central grouping of the German troops, consisting of three armies,
killing or capturing 540,000 German officers and men. In the battle in
the south the Red Army surrounded and completely annihilated a group of
German troops consisting of two armies; the Soviet troops wiped out or
captured more than 250,000 German officers and men. The Red Army
smashed the Germans in Rumania, threw them out of Bulgaria, and is
battering them on the territory of Hungary. Our troops have crushed the
Baltic grouping of the Hitlerite army.
During the summer campaign of
1944 the Red Army has fought its way from Kishinev to Belgrade—more
than 900 kilometres, from Zhlobin to Warsaw—more than 600
kilometres, from Vitebsk to Tilsit—550 kilometres. The war has now been carried to the territory of fascist
Germany.
In the course of the fighting, the Red Army has driven the
German-fascist invaders from the entire territory of the Soviet Ukraine
and, Byelorussia, the Karelo-Finnish, Moldavian, Esthonian, Latvian and
Lithuanian Soviet Republics. The three-year-old fascist yoke on the
lands of our fraternal Soviet Republics temporarily occupied by the
Germans has been thrown off. The Red Army has restored freedom to tens
of millions of Soviet people.
The Soviet State Frontier, treacherously
violated by Hitlerite hordes on June 22, 1941, has been restored along
its whole length, from the Black Sea to the Barents Sea.
Thus, the past year has been the year of complete liberation of Soviet soil from the German-fascist invaders.
Having completed the liberation of their native soil from the Hitlerite
pollution, the Red Army is now helping the peoples of Poland,
Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia to break the chains of fascist slavery
and to regain their freedom and independence.
In the winter and summer battles of the past year the Red Army
demonstrated its increased military mastery. The Red Army soldiers
skilfully broke up the fortified enemy lines, swiftly pursued the
enemy, surrounded and annihilated him. In offensive battles they
displayed efficient co-ordination of all Soviet arms and high skill in
manœuvre. The Soviet fighters became tempered in battle, learned to
rout and defeat the enemy. The Red Army has developed into a menacing
force, and is superior to the enemy in its military ability and
military equipment.
The strength of the Red Army is many times multiplied by the efficient
work of the Soviet rear. The workers, collective farmers and
intellectuals are honourably fulfilling their duty towards the
Motherland, heroically overcoming the difficulties of war-time,
uninterruptedly supplying the Red Army with arms, ammunition and
provisions. Soviet economy is constantly increasing its strength and is
rendering ever-growing assistance to the front.
The Red Army and the Soviet people are ready to strike new devastating
blows at the enemy. The days of the blood-stained Hitlerite regime are
numbered. Under the blows of the Red Army the fascist bloc has finally
crumbled to pieces. Hitlerite Germany has lost most of its Allies.
The
large-scale operations in Western Europe, carried out with consummate
skill by the armies of our Allies, brought about the defeat of the
German forces in France and Belgium, and the liberation of these
countries from fascist occupation. The allied troops have crossed
Germany’s western frontiers. The joint blows of the Red Army and the
Anglo-American troops against Hitlerite Germany have brought nearer the
hour of the victorious conclusion of the war. The encirclement of
Hitlerite Germany is being completed. The den of the fascist beast has
been invested on all sides, and no tricks of the enemy will save him
from imminent complete defeat.
The Red Army and the armies of our Allies have taken up the initial
positions for the decisive offensive against the vital centres of
Germany. Now the task is to crush Hitlerite Germany within the shortest
possible time, through a vigorous onslaught of the armies of the United
Nations.
Comrades, Red Army men and Red Navy men, sergeants, officers and generals! Working people of the Soviet Union!
In the Great Patriotic War we have defended our Motherland from the
invaders, finally eliminated the threat of enslavement of the peoples
of the U.S.S.R. by the fascist fiends, and we now stand on the eve of
complete victory.
To mark the historic victories of the Red Army at the front, and the
great achievements of the workers, peasants and intellectuals in the
rear, in honour of the liberation of the Soviet soil from the
German-fascist invaders, I order:
Today, on the 27th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist
Revolution, at 20 hours (Moscow time), a salute of 24 artillery salvoes
to be fired in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Petrozavodsk, Tallinn,
Riga, Vilnius, Kishinev, Tbilisi, Sevastopol and Lvov.
Hail the 27th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution!
Long live our free Soviet country!
Long Live our Red Army and Red Navy! Long live the great Soviet people!
Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle for the freedom and independence of our Motherland!
Death to the German invaders!
J. Stalin
Marshal of the Soviet Union,
Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Moscow
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