It is considered the bloodiest for the Soviet people. According to some sources, it claimed about 40 million lives. The conflict began due to the sudden invasion of the Wehrmacht armies into the USSR on June 22, 1941.

Prerequisites for the creation of the Karelian Front

Adolf Hitler, without warning, gave the command to launch a massive attack on the entire front line. The USSR, unprepared for defense, suffered one defeat after another in the first years of the war. 1941 became the most difficult year for the Red Army, and the Wehrmacht was able to reach Moscow itself.

The main battles were fought in Stalingrad, Moscow, Leningrad and other directions. However, the Nazis also tried to conquer more northern regions. To prevent this from happening, the Northern Front was created, subordinate to which was the Karelian Front.

History of creation

Svir-Petrozavodsk operation

In the summer of 1944, fighting intensified again after a lull since 1943. Soviet troops, which had already practically ousted the Wehrmacht forces from the territory of the USSR, carried out the Svir-Petrozavodsk operation. It began on June 21, 1944 and lasted until August 9 of the same year. The attack on June 21 began with a massive artillery barrage and a powerful air strike on the enemy’s defensive positions. Afterwards, the crossing of the Svir River began, and during the fighting, the Soviet army managed to seize a bridgehead on the other bank. On the very first day, the massive attack brought success - the forces of the Karelian Front advanced 6 kilometers. The second day of hostilities was an even greater success - Red Army units managed to push the enemy back another 12 kilometers.

On June 23, the 7th Army launched an offensive. The massive attack developed successfully, and the Finnish armies began a hasty retreat the very next day from the start of the operation. The Finnish units were unable to hold the offensive on any of the fronts and were forced to retreat to the Vidlitsa River, where they took up defensive positions.

In parallel, the offensive of the 32nd Army developed, which managed to capture the city of Medvezhyegorsk, which could not be achieved in 1942. On June 28, the Red Army launched an attack on the more strategically important city of Petrozavodsk. Together with the forces of the Red Army fleet, they managed to liberate the city the very next day. Both sides suffered significant losses in this battle. However, the Finnish army did not have fresh forces, and they were forced to leave the city.

On July 2, the Karelian Front began to attack enemy positions on the Vidlitsa River. Already before July 6, the powerful fascist defense was completely broken, and the Soviet Army managed to advance another 35 km. Fierce battles continued until August 9, but they did not bring success - the enemy held a tight defense, and Headquarters gave the order to move to the defense of already captured positions.

The result of the operation was the defeat of the enemy units that held the Karelo-Finnish SSR and the liberation of the republic. These events led to the fact that Finland received another reason to withdraw from the war.

Petsamo-Kirkenes operation

From October 7 to November 1, 1944, the Red Army, with the support of the fleet, carried out the successful Petsamo-Kirkenes operation. On October 7, powerful artillery preparation was carried out, after which the offensive began. During the successful offensive and breakthrough of the enemy defenses, the city of Pestamo was completely surrounded.

After Pestamo was successfully taken, the cities of Nikel and Tarnet were taken, and at the final stage the Norwegian city of Kirkenes. During its capture, Soviet units suffered significant losses. In the battle for the city, Norwegian patriots provided significant support to the Soviet troops.

Results of the operations performed

As a result of the above operations, the border with Norway and Finland was restored. The enemy had been completely driven out and fighting was already taking place in enemy territory. On November 15, 1944, Finland announced its surrender and withdrew from World War II. After these events, the Karelian Front was disbanded. Its main forces later became part of the 1st Far Eastern Front, which was entrusted with the task of carrying out the Manchurian offensive operation in 1945 to defeat the Japanese army and the Chinese province of the same name.

Instead of an afterword

It is interesting that only on the section of the Karelian Front (1941 - 1945) the fascist army was unable to overcome the border of the USSR - the Nazis were unable to break the defense of Murmansk. Also on this section of the front, dog sleds were used, and the fighters themselves fought in the harsh northern climate. During the Great Patriotic War, the Karelian Front was the largest in length, because its total length reached 1600 kilometers. It also didn't have one continuous line.

The Karelian Front was the only one of all the fronts of the Great Patriotic War that did not send military equipment and weapons to the rear of the country for repairs. This repair was done in special units at enterprises in Karelia and the Murmansk region.

In the early morning of June 22, 1941, German troops invaded the territory of the Soviet Union. Thus began the war, later called the Great Patriotic War, by analogy with the war of 1812 against Napoleon.

Karelia was one of the first to bear the blow. And this blow came not even from the Germans, but from the Finnish neighbors. But let's take things in order.

No declaration of war

It so happened that the Great Patriotic War began on Sunday - on the day when peaceful Soviet citizens were least prepared for it. From the very morning emergency meetings and meetings began in Moscow, then the first orders came. In the morning, it was decided that at 12:00 Molotov, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs, should address the people on the radio.

From the speech of Vyacheslav Molotov:

Today, at 4 o'clock in the morning, without presenting any claims against the Soviet Union, without declaring war, German troops attacked our country, attacked our borders in many places and bombed our cities of Zhitomir, Kiev, Sevastopol, Kaunas and some others, and more than two hundred people were killed and wounded.

Enemy aircraft raids and artillery shelling were also carried out from Romanian and Finnish territory...

...The government calls on you, citizens of the Soviet Union, to rally your ranks even more closely around our glorious Bolshevik Party, around our Soviet government, around our great leader, Comrade Stalin.

Our cause is just. The enemy will be defeated. Victory will be ours.

Immediately after this, mass rallies took place throughout the country - from west to east. In Petrozavodsk, thousands of people came out to a citywide meeting. Men and women shouted anti-war slogans and declared their readiness to defend their homeland from the aggressor.

The first persons of the party and government hierarchy spoke to the audience, including the then first secretary of the Karelian Komsomol Yuri Andropov.

Many rally participants submitted applications on the spot with a request to be sent to the front. According to the order issued on the same day by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, men from 23 to 36 years old were subject to conscription. But both younger and older residents of Karelia wrote statements.

On June 23, rallies were held at enterprises and institutions of the city, including the oldest - the Onega plant. The plant workers adopted a resolution in which they promised:

We will work only in such a way as to fully meet the needs of our Red Army. We will double, triple our forces and defeat, destroy the German fascists.

Onegzavod workers at a rally. Photo: pobeda.gov.karelia.ru

Similar meetings, albeit not as massive, were held at other factories in Karelia. Everywhere the workers talked about the same thing: the enemy will not pass, and we will do everything in our power to win. Both at the front and in the rear.

Many of the workers actually soon found themselves at the front. In general, in the KFSSR, the mobilization of the first wave took place quickly, in just two days: by Sunday evening, about 60 percent of the men subject to conscription showed up at the conscription centers; by the end of the next day, the plan was practically fulfilled.

The statesmen also did not sit idle. On June 22, at seven o’clock in the morning, a meeting of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (Bolsheviks) of the KFSSR began, at which a codegram from Moscow was read out (it reported a surprise attack). Immediately after, people's commissars, heads of departments and their deputies gathered for a meeting.

At about 10 a.m., workers from the Central Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the republic went to the districts: they helped local authorities carry out military organizational activities, primarily the mobilization of those liable for military service in the army and navy.

Militia

On June 24, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR adopted a resolution on the creation of destruction battalions. They were supposed to protect enterprises in the front-line zone and fight enemy agents and saboteurs. By the beginning of July, there were 38 battalions in the KFSSR (with 4,325 people).

At the same time, groups to assist destruction battalions were formed in the regions (there were about a hundred of them). These formations monitored the situation on the ground and, in the event of the appearance of the enemy, were supposed to notify the local leadership.

On July 5, the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic adopted a resolution “On the creation of militia units.” By mid-July, about 30 thousand applications to join their ranks had been submitted. In August, three regiments, 32 battalions and five separate militia companies operated in Karelia. They consisted of about 22 thousand fighters.

The militia guarded important objects - roads, bridges, and so on. In the first months they were used as a reserve to replenish front-line formations.

The militia also helped build defensive structures, military airfields, and roads. People worked almost around the clock in the forests and swamps, lived in tents and dugouts - and all this in conditions of lack of food, shoes and clothing.

In the summer and autumn of 1941, due to the difficult situation at the front, Karelian fighter battalions were constantly sent to the front lines, where they fought with the enemy.

From operational reports of the NKVD:

...A combined fighter battalion of 354 people, created from the Medvezhyegorsk, Pudozh, Belomorsk, Kem and Segezha battalions, from September 28 to October 1 participated together with units of the Red Army in battles with the enemy in the defense of Petrozavodsk. The battalion occupied the line from state farm No. 2, which is southeast of Petrozavodsk, to the Sheltozero tract, and held back regular enemy units in battle for 4 days...

On October 28, by order of the command of the army group of the Medvezhyegorsk direction, the combined Petrozavodsk-Medvezhyegorsk fighter battalion consisting of 362 people was sent to the defense of Medvezhyegorsk, where it remained until October 5, 1941, waging continuous battles with the White Finns...

At the front

Meanwhile, fighting was in full swing on the western border of the Karelo-Finnish SSR. In general, the next Soviet-Finnish war began on June 25 with a Soviet air raid on Finnish airfields. But in order to understand why this raid happened, we need to go back a little.

The Second World War, as you know, began on September 1, 1939, when Wehrmacht troops attacked Poland. Gradually, more and more states became involved in the war, blocs and coalitions were formed. For the first couple of years, Germany moved towards its goal very confidently - it quickly and almost without resistance conquered the territories of neighboring states, expanding its “living space”.

So in the summer of 1940, Hitler’s army conquered Norway and thereby approached the Finnish border. And the Finns got scared.

At the same time, Suomi looked warily at its eastern neighbor. After the outbreak of World War II, a conflict broke out between the USSR and Finland, which turned into the so-called Winter War. For more than three months, the troops of the huge empire and the small republic fought on the Karelian Isthmus and in the Northern Ladoga region, until Finland admitted defeat and concluded a peace treaty beneficial to Moscow.

According to the Moscow Peace, the Northern and Southern Ladoga region, as well as part of the territory in the north of modern Karelia, went to the USSR. Thanks to this, Stalin was primarily able to move the state border west of Leningrad - in a turbulent international situation, this was very important. But the Finns lost a significant part of their lands and could not forget it.

In the spring of 1941, the Finns held a series of negotiations with Nazi Germany, as a result of which they agreed to become part of the Barbarossa plan. Their mission is to take on Soviet forces north of Lake Ladoga and help capture the strategically important Leningrad.

From the very beginning of the Great Patriotic War, German aviation used Finnish airfields as a platform for raids on Soviet territory. Moscow knew about this, and that is why on June 25 Stalin decided to attack the Finns.

The Finns at that time were waiting for the right moment to explain to their people the need for a new war. And when, on June 25, Soviet aviation attacked Finnish airfields where German aircraft were stationed, the Finns had a reason to declare that they were in a state of war. That is, it was not a declaration of war, but rather an acknowledgment of the fact that the country is already in a state of war because it was attacked by a large neighbor.

The need for war was explained to the Finnish people by recalling the results of the Winter War - significant territories that were ceded under a peace treaty in favor of the USSR. And the Finns believed that they were going to regain what was lost during this war.

The Finnish authorities chose the moment for the offensive diplomatically correctly. If the USSR had waited a little longer, the Finns themselves would have started to attack - the attack was scheduled for July 1st. But Moscow did not have enough patience: they decided to take the initiative. This was not entirely correct from both a military and political point of view - the Finns were able to present themselves as victims of the attack. In my opinion, this was a serious mistake by the Soviet leadership.

Military operations on the Karelian Front (at that time it had not yet been separated from the Northern Front) began on July 1: on that day, Finnish troops crossed the Soviet border. The enemy launched an offensive in several directions - in the north (Kestenga, Reboly) and south of the republic. The commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, Karl Mannerheim, officially stated that the goal of the “liberation campaign” was to reconquer the territories that went to the Soviets as a result of the Winter War.

From the order of K. Mannerheim, issued on July 10, 1941:

During the liberation war of 1918, I told the Karelians of Finland and White Sea Karelia that I would not sheathe my sword until Finland and Eastern Karelia became free. I swore this in the name of the Finnish Peasant Army, thereby trusting the courage of our men and the sacrifice of our women.

For twenty-three years the White Sea and Olonets Karelia waited for the fulfillment of this promise; For a year and a half, Finnish Karelia, depopulated after the valiant Winter War, waited for the dawn to rise.

Fighters of the War of Liberation, illustrious men of the Winter War, my brave soldiers! A new day is coming. Karelia joins our marching ranks with its battalions. The freedom of Karelia and the greatness of Finland shine before us in a powerful stream of world-historical events. May Providence, which determines the destinies of peoples, help the Finnish army to fully fulfill the promise that I made to the Karelian tribe.

Soldiers! This land that you will step on is watered with the blood of our fellow tribesmen and soaked in suffering, this is holy land. Your victory will free Karelia, your deeds will create a great, happy future for Finland.

In 1942, Adolf Hitler came to Mannerheim to congratulate the baron on his birthday and discuss plans to fight the Soviet Union. Photo: waralbum.ru

On the territory of the KFSSR, the Karelian Army operated against Soviet troops. On July 10, its main units went on the offensive on the Onega-Ladoga Isthmus. Protracted and brutal battles began. The Finns took Loimola station - thereby cutting off an important railway line of communication between Soviet units. On July 16, the enemy captured Pitkäranta.

Having reached the coast of Lake Ladoga, the Finnish army launched an offensive simultaneously in three directions: Petrozavodsk, Olonets and Sortavala. Soviet troops retreated, fighting stubborn battles with superior enemy forces.

Gradually, the Finns captured the entire Northern Ladoga region, and by the beginning of September they also took Olonets. The enemy advanced deep into Karelia at the cost of thousands of lives on both sides. At the end of September, the Finnish army launched a decisive offensive against Petrozavodsk.

For these purposes, two more infantry divisions of the Karelian Army and several tank battalions were sent from reserve to the combat area. On September 30, they broke through the defenses and rushed to Petrozavodsk. The command of the Petrozavodsk operational group received an order to leave the capital and retreated to the northern bank of the Shuya River. Finnish troops entered the Karelian capital on October 1 early in the morning - at 4:30 am.

An occupation

The arrival of the Finns radically changed life throughout the occupied territory of the KFSSR (and the enemy subjugated about two-thirds of the republic). As the Karelian Army advanced eastward, Soviet authorities evacuated civilians, institutions, and businesses deep into the Soviet Union.

By the end of the year, only a few regions of Karelia remained unoccupied, in which less than one fifth of industrial output was produced. More than 300 thousand people were evacuated to the east of the country. It was possible to remove equipment from 291 enterprises, including the Onega plant, Petrozavodsk ski and mica factories, Kondopoga and Segezha pulp and paper mills.

Enterprises were evacuated to large industrial centers, where they quickly began production again. The Karelo-Finnish State University also had to be evacuated (it moved to Syktyvkar).

After the Finns occupied Petrozavodsk, the capital of the republic was temporarily relocated first to Medvezhyegorsk and then to Belomorsk.

After the occupation of most of the KFSSR, the Finnish authorities began to establish their own order in the republic. In governing, the occupiers used the national principle: the peoples inhabiting the republic were divided into “related” (a more correct translation is “national”) and others (respectively, “non-national”).

The “national” ones included Karelians, Finns, Vepsians, Ingrians, Mordovians, and Estonians. Nationality influenced wages, food distribution, and even freedom of movement. From the very beginning, Mannerheim planned to expel the “unrelated” population to the territories of the USSR occupied by German troops.

In Karelia, the Finns organized concentration camps, through which, according to some sources, a little less than 24 thousand residents of Karelia passed through during the years of occupation. In total, 24 camps operated on the territory of the republic, six of them in Petrozavodsk.

Yuri Kilin, Doctor of Historical Sciences:

The population in the territory occupied by Finnish troops in December 1941 numbered approximately 86 thousand people, approximately equally divided between representatives of the Finno-Ugric peoples and others, mostly Russians.

Approximately half of the “non-national” (epäkansalliset) population, about 20 thousand people, was placed in six concentration camps in Petrozavodsk. This was the most important difference between the Finnish occupation and the German one: the Germans, as a rule, did not place the civilian population behind the wire, considering it irrational from an economic point of view.

The Finns organized concentration camps not only for prisoners of war, but also for civilians, acting on irrational grounds - inspired by nationalist ideas of their superiority over the Slavs.

In the occupied territory it was planned to create a racially pure state - Greater Finland (Suur-Suomi). They did not need the Slavic element. The military command generally advocated placing absolutely all Slavs in concentration camps. The political leadership considered this unnecessary, and therefore about half of the civilian (mostly Slavic) population was placed in camps.

Even Hitler did not think of this, and in this sense, the Finns, by the way, far surpassed the Germans, who never placed such a number of the population (in percentage terms) in camps.

The Finns had a simple idea: we would place the Slavs in camps, and when the main military tasks were resolved, they would all be deported to the territory of “historical Russia” - south of the Svir River.

The Finns' relationship with the “national” peoples was structured differently. The occupiers considered the Karelians and Vepsians to be younger brothers, part of “Greater Finland.” They were given larger rations, they had higher wages, they were allocated plots of land, and they were provided with free access to the church.

The Karelians could keep their own farm. Freedom of movement, of course, was also limited: permission had to be obtained. But still, for the local Finno-Ugric population, life was quite acceptable - at least in the economic sense.

From the book “Political History of Finland 1805-1995”:

The Finns considered themselves the liberators of Eastern Karelia: it seemed to them that finally the idea of ​​the kinship of peoples was becoming a reality. A quarter of those living in Eastern Karelia (85 thousand people) did not leave their homes. Most of them, however, treated the Finns basically the same way they always treat occupiers.

The Finns launched active missionary activities among their fellow tribesmen, relying mainly on the church and school. Part of the Russian population of Eastern Karelia (about 20 thousand people) was sent to concentration camps, where food was especially poor.

Despite constant retreats, by mid-December 1941, Soviet troops finally stopped the advance of enemy armies in all directions of the Karelian Front. The front line has stabilized at the line: the southern section of the White Sea-Baltic Canal - Maselgskaya station - Rugozero - Ukhta - Kestenga - Alakurtti.

The enemy's plans, designed to quickly capture the northern regions of the USSR, failed. Soviet troops managed to preserve the main base of the Northern Fleet - Polyarny, the ice-free port of Murmansk, the northern section of the Kirov Railway (with the Sorokskaya - Obozerskaya railway line), through which cargo passed from Murmansk. In the south of Karelia and on the Karelian Isthmus, the Finnish and German armies failed to unite and create a second blockade ring.

The last significant military success of the Finns was the capture of Povenets on December 6 (it was very cold, the temperature reached -37 degrees Celsius). Thus, the enemy cut off communications along the White Sea-Baltic Canal, which was extremely important from a strategic point of view.

On the same day - December 6 - Great Britain declared war on Finland. The next day, the British dominions - Canada, the Union of South Africa, New Zealand and Australia - did the same.

The front line in Karelia has stabilized. It will change only after two and a half years - with the liberation of the republic from the Finnish invaders. All this time, more than 80 thousand residents of the KFSSR existed under harsh conditions of occupation.

We drove through an area unknown to us through unfamiliar stations and cities, and no one in our car could guess where we were being taken. There was talk about the Northern Front and the Baltic states. After more than 2 weeks of driving, we unloaded, it seems, at the Oyat station and found ourselves on the Karelian Isthmus on the Svir River, along the left bank of which the front line of the Karelian Front passed.

This front was considered the longest - its left flank began at Lake Ladoga, and its right flank ended in the Arctic on the northern border with Finland, abutting the Barents Sea. Finland was an ally of Germany; it had been at war with us since 1941, and there were Finnish troops on the right bank of the Svir. Apparently, she sided with Germany because of the Soviet-Finnish War, which she lost in the winter of 1939–1940. Having provoked an artillery shelling on the Finnish-Soviet border, the Soviet Union declared war on Finland at the end of November 1939 and began to advance with its troops on the Finnish defensive “Mannerheim Line” and on the city of Vyborg.

In conditions of a very cold winter and in poor uniforms (the Red Army soldiers were dressed in greatcoats and wore cloth helmets - “Budenovki”), our troops suffered heavy losses in the wounded and frostbite, storming the “Mannerheim Line”, the approaches to which were carefully mined. At first, the troops did not even have mine detectors, and the soldiers died by being blown up by mines. Even in our remote Belarusian city of Mogilev they knew about this, and two large schools in the city were occupied as hospitals for the wounded and frostbite. Despite our overwhelming numerical superiority, it was only by the beginning of February that the troops approached the “Mannerheim Line” and, having broken through it, began to move towards the Vyborg fortified area. Vyborg was taken in early March, and on March 13 hostilities ceased, and the Soviet-Finnish War ended. According to the peace treaty, the city of Vyborg and part of the Finnish territories were transferred to the Soviet Union. That's why Finland fought with us on the side of the Germans, hoping to regain its territories.

The Karelian Front arose in the first months of the 1941 war, when the Germans began to attack Leningrad from the Baltic states and the southwest, and the Finns from the north and Karelia. In November 1941, at the final stage of the encirclement of Leningrad, Finnish troops had to cross the river. Svir, close with German units on the Karelian Isthmus, helping the Germans create a second blockade ring around Leningrad. However, the Finnish command refused to take part in the blockade of Leningrad. By December, the stubborn resistance of our troops stopped the German offensive near the city. Volkhov and Tikhvin, and Finnish - along the Svir River. On the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts, battles with the Germans for the liberation of the Leningrad region and lifting the blockade continued in the subsequent war years. But, as German Field Marshal General E. von Manstein recalled, the Finnish command refused to take part in the joint attack on Leningrad in August 1942. This behavior of the Finnish command and the moderate conditions of surrender, which preserved the independence and social system of Finland, which was defeated in 1944. , cause confusion among military historians. Some of them assume a secret agreement between the USSR and Finland, concluded no later than September 1941. And on the Karelian Front from December 1941 to the summer of 1944, the troops were actually on a stable defense. So we came to fight on the calmest of fronts.

Our 37th Guards Airborne Corps joined the 7th Army, located along the bank of the Svir. This army also took part in the Soviet-Finnish War, and many trenches, dugouts and dugouts were dug along the shore in which our infantry were located. The batteries of our division were located somewhat far from the shore, having cut down the forest for firing positions, but they also prepared positions and shelters on the shore for direct fire. Our division control platoon was located in a dugout, and a division observation post (OP) was prepared on the river bank for corrective shooting. Personally, as artillerymen, we were armed with carbines (short rifles), and the division was armed with 76-millimeter ZIS-3 cannons, which were attached to American Studebaker vehicles. These vehicles had 3 drive axles and a powerful winch in front of the radiator, capable of pulling a vehicle with cargo out of deep road gullies. The Studebakers were very suitable for our front. And the front was really calm - somewhere in the distance, a single shot from a cannon was sometimes heard, and the soldiers of the 7th Army in our sector calmly went down to the river with pots to draw water, and no one shot at them. The Finns walked just as calmly on their shore.

For two weeks we were preparing to cross the Svir, the width of which in our area was approximately 300 m. The authorities distributed responsibilities, the order of crossings and cargo, which, in addition to personal equipment and weapons, everyone had to take with them. They conducted observations from the OP, identifying targets on the opposite bank of the Svir to hit them with artillery fire. The crossing was scheduled for June 21, on the eve of the 3rd anniversary of the war, and artillery preparation for breaking through the Finnish front began at 11 a.m. 45min. The shelling lasted two hours, and the density of the fire was such that a curtain of clods of earth and smoke from explosions hung over the Finnish coast all this time. Such fire, apparently, so stunned the Finns that only an hour after the end of the artillery barrage, a lone Finnish cannon began to fire somewhere in the distance. In our sector, the crossing of the Svir took place without Finnish resistance, and the commander of our reconnaissance department, junior sergeant Sashka Laptev, crossed in the 1st boat of the division, who was awarded the Order of Glory for this and was then immediately accepted into the party of the All-Union Communist Party of Belarus. In the army at that time there was a rule to immediately accept into the party those awarded orders. Then our entire control platoon, signalmen and scouts, crossed over. Towards evening, quite a lot of infantry crossed to the Finnish coast, and sappers built a bridge and several ferries, along which tanks and our Studebakers with guns began to cross.

Crossing the Svir River. Karelian Front.

Having crossed the Svir in the June heat, we decided to free ourselves from the unnecessary cargo that was preventing us from moving forward. Firstly, we didn’t need overcoats, since we were given raincoats. Secondly, in the artillery the rifle was contemptuously called a “lyushnya”, and why carry a “lyushnya” with you if you can get a captured machine gun? Having carefully folded our overcoats and gas masks in some dugout, and also leaving carbines in it, we brought the command platoon sergeant there and handed it all over to him. Of course, this greatly lightened our military burdens - after all, everyone carried: a raincoat, a captured machine gun with cartridge horns, a duffel bag with soldiers’ belongings and food, a bowler hat and binoculars. The general cargo of the reconnaissance department was a bead and a stereo tube with tripods, which they tried to carry in turns.

Having crossed to the Finnish coast, we began to advance after the infantry through a forested swampy area, the roads of which were paved with fallen thin trees and densely mined. Although sappers walked ahead and cleared the road of mines, mines awaited us literally at every step. Somehow, before our eyes, a soldier was blown up by an infantry mine, leaving the road about 8 meters to recover “out of need.” Part of his foot was torn off, and he began to call for help, bleeding and afraid to move. But before the sappers arrived, no one dared to approach him, for fear of being blown up by mines. They called sappers, who found two more mines near him, and, after providing assistance, sent the soldier to the medical battalion.

Once, on a road along which many cars and soldiers passed and passed, the Studebaker of one of our batteries with a cannon on a trailer ran into an anti-tank mine with its front wheel. The driver and junior lieutenant, the fire platoon commander, were killed in the cockpit. Seven gun crew soldiers sitting in the back on boxes with shells were saved only by the fact that the explosion occurred under the front wheel.

Military operations in this forested swampy area took place as the Finns retreated from one fortified area to another. When our infantry moved to a certain point along a forest road, at some point it was stopped by “cuckoos”. “Cuckoos” were the name given to Finnish snipers camouflaged in the treetops on specially prepared sites. Two or three “cuckoos” could sometimes hold back an entire battalion of infantry, and then the infantry called in artillery. If the artillery was close, then the direct-fire cannons would shoot at the supposed location of the “cuckoo’s nest.” In other cases, the cannons fired from closed positions at the area where the “cuckoos” had settled. As a rule, artillery fire eliminated the “cuckoos” - either they were killed, or they disappeared in an unknown direction, and the infantry continued to move.

On our sector of the front, the Finns had neither aircraft nor tanks, but soldiers often died from mortar attacks. In soldier jargon, mortar attacks were ironically called “sobantuys,” which meant some kind of Muslim holiday. The Finns carefully targeted the area with mortars, and as soon as they suspected at least a small concentration of soldiers (for example, by the smoke of a fire), they fired a mortar salvo at this place. One day one of our scouts got hold of captured pasta. We were tired of eating cereals made from concentrates, and we decided to enjoy pasta. In a clearing with a small dugout, we lit a fire and began to cook pasta. When the pasta was almost ready, we suddenly heard: “Poo!” Poo! Poo!” – characteristic sounds of mortar shots. We rushed to the dugout and began to squeeze inside through a narrow passage. There were about 5 of us, and we all got through when the mine exploded right in the fire. But the last soldier, who happened to be in our company, had his heel cut off by a mine fragment, and he was sent to the medical battalion. And we saw our pasta hanging from the branches of fir trees surrounding the clearing.

After the capture of Olonets, we obtained a captured bicycle with a rack on which we could carry a stereo tube - it weighed 16 kg. A reconnaissance officer named Kukla, who also served as an orderly to the division commander, rode a bicycle. One day he was carrying a stereo tube along a forest road and came under mortar fire. He was killed by fragments of a mine that exploded nearby, and his bicycle was completely crushed. Only the stereo tube remained, and the scouts grieved for their killed comrade and cursed the stereo tube, which they again had to carry on themselves.

The unexpected death of soldiers from mines and mortar attacks seemed like a bad accident that might not have happened. After all, every soldier who is taken to the front hopes that he will not be killed, but someone else will die. But some strange law was in effect. Why, for example, did a cook die during a mortar attack on the road, who brought the camp kitchen to the 3rd battery 2-3 times a day on horseback? After all, the front line was often several kilometers away, and no one died in the battery at the front. It seemed that life and death were controlled not by chance, but by some Supreme Being.

Positions of our troops were erected against the Finnish fortified areas with trenches, dugouts and shelters, the front edge of which was occupied by infantry. And in the artillery, reconnaissance officers were mainly engaged in creating OP for the commanders of their batteries, who adjusted the shooting. Typically, artillery OPs were located behind the front edge of our troops, but within sight of enemy firing points. But the distances to the division batteries were often measured in kilometers. Then the batteries fired from closed positions, and the data for such firing was prepared at the OP by the commanders of the battery or reconnaissance platoon and transmitted to the battery by telephone. Great assistance in correcting the shooting was provided by the topographical platoon, which “linked” the batteries and the OP on the map. The longest distance to the Finns that our batteries once had to shoot at was 13 km.

The 2nd battery of Senior Lieutenant Romanenko shot best from closed positions in the division - he hit the target after one sighting shot. The targets were different: concentrations of Finnish troops, dugouts with firing points, mortar and artillery batteries, vehicles and much more. The foreman of this battery, a Jew by nationality, was very afraid to go to the outpost - both the road was dangerous and the outpost was almost at the forefront. The battery commander knew this weakness of his and used it when the scout brought the so-called “People’s Commissar’s ration” from the battery to the outpost, i.e. 100 g of alcohol. He called the sergeant major to the phone and said that they hadn’t brought much, and I should add (the senior lieutenant liked to drink). The foreman replied that everything had already been distributed, but there was nowhere to get it. Then the commander ordered him to appear at the OP for a conversation. After this, the sergeant major took the bowler hat and walked around the battery soldiers, persuading them to take a leak “in favor of a fellow battery commander.” Since many soldiers, especially young ones, did not drink their portions, the sergeant-major soon collected some alcohol and joyfully announced on the phone: “Everything is in order, Comrade Senior Lieutenant, I’m sending a scout!” So he never appeared at the NP.

The 1st battery under the command of Junior Lieutenant Zubkov, who apparently had no education other than school, fired poorly from closed positions. He understood this and located his NP near the Romanenko NP. When the latter loudly gave commands to the battery about sights, beads, levels, etc., and the telephone operator loudly repeated them into the receiver, Zubkov listened to all this and remembered it. Then, taking into account the positions of his gun and the battery, he reported close data to the battery, allowing it to shoot reasonably well. He was very good at sucking up to his superiors, and after drinking, he said: “I used to be a Ryazan shepherd, and now the country has entrusted me with 4 guns and 60 soldiers!” And the soldiers chuckled: “As I was a Ryazan shepherd, I still am!” When we arrived from the front, he was made deputy division commander for combat units.

We, reconnaissance officers of the control platoon, created an IR for the division commander and the chief of reconnaissance, helped to monitor the Finnish defense and prepare data for shooting. In addition, they played the role of messengers if it was necessary to convey or bring something. Our OP was connected with all the battery OPs, and if the connection was broken, the signalman was sent to look for a break, and the scout was sent to convey some order. Therefore, we can say that the scouts often “cruised” between the OP and the division, covering many kilometers a day.

Once again the front moved, and four of us - Sashka Laptev, Zhenka Klubnikin, Sultagazin and me - were sent to the new front line to mark a place for the NP and prepare something in advance. After looking at the map where to go, we first followed the road. The path was long, and we decided to shorten it along the paths of the swamp. We walked along the paths, jumping from bump to bump, for about five kilometers, and suddenly there was shooting ahead of us. We began to walk around this place and again, hearing shooting, turned onto another path. This went on several times, and we realized that we were lost in this swamp. Being hungry, we were afraid to make a fire and ate our concentrates dry, washing them down with swamp water. Then we began to pick blueberries along the hummocks, and, having satisfied our hunger a little, we began to figure out from the map where we should “get out of the swamp.” The time was approaching night, which in summer in these places was short and was called “white.” Having chosen the direction of movement on the map, we came to a fairly dry place, where a small infantry unit was located in dugouts. The next day we reached our front line along the road and began to build an OP.

While we were with the infantrymen, they told us about the tragedy that happened to their unit. They took up positions on the edge of the forest when our IL attack aircraft, armed with rocket launchers, flew over them. Some lieutenant from their unit “greeted our falcons” with a shot from a rocket launcher, not knowing the color of the rocket that marked the border of our front line. Since the color of the rocket was not the same, the pilots decided that it was the leading edge of the Finnish defense. The attack aircraft turned around and “processed” these positions with rocket launchers. This is how two battalions of our soldiers died because of the lieutenant’s stupid enthusiasm.

It was in this kind of running around between the NP and the battalion batteries that our time at the front passed. At the same time, the tension created by mortar attacks and mine-laden roads never left us. According to the memoirs of the commander of our front, Marshal K.A. Meretskova: “...on the roads from Lodeynoye Pole to Olonets, our sappers discovered and neutralized 40 thousand mines.” And the front, despite the resistance of the Finns, inexorably moved deeper into Karelia. As the same author writes, at the beginning of July 1944 we were 80 km from the Finnish border in 1940, and on July 21 our troops approached it. There was a lull at the front, and at the beginning of August one of the radio operators told us that the government had changed in Finland and we should expect a truce. Soon the battalions and divisions of our 37th Guards Corps were ordered to return to Lodeynoye Pole station and prepare to embark on trains. It seems that in mid-August 1944 the trains took us to the southwest, as we thought to another front.

To be continued.

KARELIAN FRONT, formed by directive of the Supreme Command Headquarters dated August 23. 1941 from part of the Northern troops. fr. in order to ensure the sowing. strategic flank of the Sov. Armed Forces, as well as land. and pestilence communications of the country in the north. The front included the 14th and 7th A,... ... Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: encyclopedia

Front (military), 1) the highest operational formation of the armed forces in the continental theater of military operations. Designed to perform operational and operationally strategic tasks on one of the strategic or several operational... ...

From the first days of the Great Patriotic War, on the basis of the military districts of the western part of the Soviet Union, the deployment of fronts began as an operational strategic unification of units and formations of the Red Army. By June 25, 1941, 5... ... Wikipedia

I (German Front, French front, from Latin frons, genitive frontis forehead, front side) 1) the unification of political parties, trade unions and other organizations to fight for common goals. 2) Place, area where at the same time... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (the names Karelian Regiment, Karelian Volunteer Battalion and Karelian Detachment are also found) was created by the British in July 1918 from the local Karelian population located in the zone of action of the Allied forces in northern Russia in ... Wikipedia

- (from February 23, 1941 22nd UR), built in 1928 37. Covered the approaches to Leningrad from the North-West on the Karelian Isthmus along the state border. The length along the front in different periods is from 70 to 105 km. UR units took... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Karelian fortified area- (from February 23, 1941 22nd UR), built in 192837. Covered the approaches to Leningrad from the north-west on the Karelian Isthmus along the state border. The length along the front in different periods is from 70 to 105 km. UR units took... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

It is proposed to rename this page to Front (military association). Explanation of the reasons and discussion on the Wikipedia page: Towards renaming / March 28, 2012. Perhaps its current name does not correspond to the norms of modern Russian... ... Wikipedia

Books

• Karelian Front in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945. , . The monograph is devoted to the military activities of the Karelian Front during the Great Patriotic War and is the first generalizing work in Soviet historiography. Rich in factual material in...
• Waiting, Tamara Tamarina. Tamara Tamarina was nineteen when, after many requests, the Tashkent Komsomol district committee handed her a summons. She fought in the Arctic - Karelian Front, 30th Separate...

During the war, Finland took the side of the Axis countries with the goal of seizing territory from the USSR up to the “border of the three isthmuses” (Karelian, Olonetsky and White Sea). Hostilities began on June 22, 1941, when, in response to Finnish troops occupying the demilitarized zone of the Åland Islands, Finnish troops were bombed by Soviet aircraft. On June 21-25, German naval and air forces operated from the territory of Finland against the USSR.

In 1941-1944, Finnish troops took part in the siege of Leningrad. By the end of 1941, the front had stabilized, and in 1942-1943 there were no active battles on the Finnish front. In the late summer of 1944, following heavy defeats suffered by the allied Germany and the Soviet offensive in Karelia, Finland proposed a ceasefire, which came into effect on September 4–5, 1944.

The crew of the Soviet 45-mm anti-tank gun 53-K is preparing to open fire on the Karelian front.

Finnish soldiers accept a Pz.Kpfw tank. III from Wehrmacht tankers in a forest.

A Finnish junior sergeant fires from a captured Soviet anti-tank rifle PTRD-41

A Finnish artilleryman fires a shot from a 76-mm cannon 76 K/02-30 in the Repola-Ontrosenvaara area.

Messerschmitt Bf.109G-2 fighter of Lieutenant Urho Sarjamo from the 24th squadron of the Finnish Air Force at a field airfield.

Members of the battery headquarters of the 856th Artillery Regiment, 313th Infantry Division, developing a combat plan.

A group of soldiers and officers of the 313th Infantry Division. Karelian Front.

Soldiers and commanders of the 313th Infantry Division listen to records during moments of rest.

A Finnish gunsmith poses with a belt of 13mm cartridges for an aircraft machine gun in Lappeenranta.

Finnish soldiers inspect a captured Soviet tracked armored artillery tractor T-20 Komsomolets.

Soviet armored car BA-10 on the street of Vyborg.

Finnish Bf.109G fighter after an emergency landing at Utti airfield.

Air gunner of the Finnish Blenheim bomber.

A unit of the 1240th Infantry Regiment is fighting a street battle in Vyborg with the support of T-34-76 tanks.

Soviet soldiers in battle at a cemetery near Vyborg.

Technicians refuel a German Junkers Ju 88A-6 bomber at the Finnish Utti airfield.

Churchill Mk.IV tanks from the 46th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment on Vyborg Street.

A group of soldiers of the Karelian Front having lunch in the forest.

The German representative at the General Staff of the Finnish Army, Infantry General Waldemar Erfurt and the Finnish Colonel, Chief of Staff of the Karelian Army, Gustav Anders Tapola in the village of Leppäsyurya, in Karelia.

Finnish soldiers with a Soviet school card in Kaukola (currently the village of Sevastyanovo, Priozersky district, Leningrad region).

Front-line cameraman in Finnish positions in the Rukajärvi area.

Finnish Air Force officers and Luftwaffe officers talk outside a village house.

Portrait of a Finnish corporal during a break between battles.

Finnish long-term firing point (pillbox) on a hillside.

Finnish technicians check the operation of a Fokker aircraft engine at a field airfield.

Finnish soldiers near captured Soviet ML-20 howitzers in Porlammi.

Finnish soldiers next to a wounded Red Army soldier in the village of Povenets.

Finnish soldier with a service dog in position.

Evacuation of the wounded by Finnish seaplanes Junkers K 43fa in Tiiksijärvi (Tikshozero).

A Finnish army lieutenant bakes fish over a fire.

A Finnish soldier fires an M/40 flamethrower during a battle in the forest.

Fw.189A reconnaissance aircraft of the 32nd Luftwaffe reconnaissance group at a Finnish airfield.

Arriving in Finland, the commander of the 1st Air Fleet, Air Force Colonel General Alfreda Kellera, shakes hands with Finnish liaison officer Lieutenant Polviander.

Finnish fighter "Hawk" 75A-2 1st Lieutenant Jaakko Hillo in flight over the Svir River.

Seaplane He-115C-1 from the 906th Luftwaffe Coastal Aviation Group before takeoff on the shore of a Finnish lake.

The commander of the Finnish Army of Karelia, Infantry General E. Heinrichs, awards Wehrmacht officers.

Hero of the Soviet Union, commander of the 609th Fighter Aviation Regiment, Major L.A. Galchenko with his LaGG-3 fighter.

Two Ju-87 dive bombers from the 3rd Luftwaffe dive bomber squadron at Immola airfield.

Finnish ace Eino Juutilainen at the Lapeenranta airfield.

Commanders of one of the units of the Karelian Front in moments of rest.

Soviet soldiers and commanders at one of the regimental medical posts of the Karelian Front.

Finnish soldiers smoke break near the Karelian village of Kurgenitsa.

Finnish officer with a caught pike on Lake Jägläjärvi.

Finnish soldier with a Maxim M/32-33 machine gun near the village of Rugozero.

Medical battalion tent in the forest on the Karelian front.

Finnish fighter Moran-Saulnier Ms.406 at the airfield near Petrozavodsk.

Marines listen to a gramophone after the liberation of the island of Horsen by Finnish troops.

Finnish soldiers walk along the railway track past broken trains.

Wehrmacht soldiers move over rough terrain in the NSU NK-101 half-track tractor.

The crew of the German ferry "Siebel" with 88-mm FlaK 36 anti-aircraft guns while sailing in Lakhdenpokhya.

Red Army soldiers enter the city of Pitkäranta, which was set on fire by Finnish troops during their retreat.

Soviet self-propelled gun ISU-152, knocked out by the Finns at Tali-Ikhantala. Side view.

Soviet flamethrower ROKS-2 captured by the Finns.

A Red Army soldier who died in Karelia, lying in the water.

War correspondents Konstantin Simonov and Evgeny Petrov (Kataev) on the Karelian front.

War correspondents K.M. Simonov and V.V. Vishnevsky on the road near Vyborg.

Soviet propaganda poster “The inevitable end of Baron Mannerheim” in captured Vyborg.

Soviet prisoners of war repair the street before the parade of Finnish troops in Vyborg.

Finnish artillerymen at the 76-mm cannon 76 K/02-30 in the Repola-Ontrosenvaara area.

Instrument gunner of the battery of the 361st anti-aircraft artillery air defense regiment Kh.V. Trubitsina.

Finnish soldiers examine three cubs found in a den.

A Finnish technician helps the pilot of a Gladiator Mk.II fighter put on a parachute.

Group photo of aces of the 24th Squadron of the Finnish Air Force in front of a Brewster B-239 fighter.

Grand opening of a new bridge over the Sofyanga River.

Uusimaa Dragoon Regiment of the Finnish Army at a parade in the village of Shunga.

Finnish soldiers move during exercises in the area of ​​Lake Khizhozero.

A Finnish soldier with a 20 mm Lahti L-39 anti-tank rifle at a firing position near the Okhta River.

A Finnish soldier fires a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun during the battle on the Svir River.

Finnish soldiers take cover in a trench during the battle on the Svir River.

Finnish soldiers next to a wounded Soviet female soldier in the village of Povenets.

An Estonian soldier of the Finnish army rests during his training period at the anti-tank training center in Huuhkanmäki.

A Finnish lieutenant shows the Swedish captain Wigfors (left) and the American colonel-military attache the barrel of a torn artillery piece in Vyborg.

The corpse of a Red Army soldier who died in Karelia.

Presentation of the battle flag to the best rifle regiment of the 313th Rifle Division on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the UASSR.