KAREL FRONT, formed by the directive of the Headquarters of the Supreme Command of August 23. 1941 from part of the troops of the North. fr. in order to provide sowing. strategic flank of the Soviet Armed. Forces, as well as land. and sea. communications of the country in the S. The front included 14 I and 7 I A, ... ... Great Patriotic War 1941-1945: Encyclopedia

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

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 association of units and formations of the Red Army. By June 25, 1941, 5 was formed ... ... 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) A place, a site where at the same time ... ... Great Soviet Encyclopedia

- (there are also the names Karelian Regiment, Karelian Volunteer Battalion and Karelian Detachment) 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 line of state borders. Front length in different periods from 70 to 105 km. Parts of the UR took ... ... St. Petersburg (encyclopedia)

Karelian fortified area- (from February 23, 1941 - 22nd UR), built in 1928-37. It covered the approaches to Leningrad from the northwest on the Karelian Isthmus along the state border line. The length along the front in different periods is from 70 to 105 km. Parts of the UR took ... Encyclopedic reference book "St. Petersburg"

This page is proposed to be renamed Front (military association). Explanation of reasons and discussion on the Wikipedia page: To rename / March 28, 2012. Perhaps its current name does not comply with the norms of modern Russian ... ... Wikipedia

Books

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

Karelian Front It was formed on September 1, 1941 on the northern wing of the Soviet-German front on the basis of the directive of the Supreme Command Headquarters of August 23, 1941 by dividing the Northern Front into two fronts - Leningrad and Karelian. The front included the 7th and 14th armies, separate formations and units that fought from the first days of the war in the Arctic and Karelia from the Barents Sea to Lake Ladoga. The Northern Fleet was operationally subordinated to the front.

In September 1941, the 7th Army was renamed the 7th Separate Army and subordinated directly to the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. By the middle of 1942, the 19th, 26th and 32nd armies were formed on the basis of the Kandalaksha, Kemskaya, Maselskaya and Medvezhyegorsk operational groups, respectively, and by the end of the year, the 7th air army was formed on the basis of the air force of the front. In February 1944, the 7th separate army, which was defending on the Svir River, again became part of the Karelian Front.

The combat operations of the front are conditionally divided into three main periods.

In the first period (June-December 1941), the troops of the front in stubborn defensive battles stopped the enemy in the Arctic and Karelia.

In the second period (January 1942 - June 1944), the troops of the front, during defensive battles and private offensive operations carried out in January-May 1942 in the Medvezhyegorsk, Kestenga and Murmansk directions, finally frustrated the plans of the German and Finnish commands in the north , bled the enemy forces and created the conditions for going on the offensive.

In the third period (June-November 1944), the troops of the front conducted the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk strategic operation in cooperation with the troops of the Leningrad Front, the Baltic Fleet, the Ladoga and Onega military flotillas on June 10-August 9.

October 7 - October 29, 1944 in cooperation with the Northern Fleet - the Petsamo-Kirkenes strategic operation.

In the course of operations carried out by the troops of the front in 1944, the Arctic and Karelia were liberated and the state border with Norway and Finland was restored.

The front was disbanded on November 15, 1944 on the basis of a directive of the General Staff of November 7, 1944. Its troops became part of other fronts. The field administration of the front was transferred to the Far East, where in 1945 the field administration of the Primorsky Group was created on its basis. Soviet troops on the Far East, then renamed the 1st Far Eastern Front.

Front commanders: Lieutenant General, from April 1943 - Colonel General V. A. Frolov (September 1941 - February 1944); General of the Army, from October 1944 - Marshal of the Soviet Union Meretskov K. A. (February - November 1944)

Members of the Military Council of the Front: Corps Commissar Zheltov A.S. (September 1941 - July 1942); divisional commissar G. N. Kupriyanov (July-November 1942); divisional commissar, from December 1942 - Major General Batrakov P.K. (November 1942 - February 1944); lieutenant general, from November 1944 - colonel general Shtykov T. F. (February-November 1944)

Chiefs of Staff of the Front: Colonel, from November 1941 - Major General Skvirsky L. S. (September 1941 - May 1943); major general, from October 1943 - lieutenant general Pigarevich B. A. (May 1943 - August 1944); Lieutenant General Krutikov A. N. (September-November 1944)

The beginning of the Great Patriotic War and the restructuring of the life of the republic on a military footing

In the early morning of June 22, 1941, the troops Nazi Germany and its allies invaded the territory of the USSR. This is how the Great Patriotic War began... At 12 o'clock on the same day, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, People's Commissar for Foreign Affairs of the country V. M. Molotov made a government announcement on the radio. The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued decrees: "On the mobilization of those liable for military service", "On the declaration of martial law in certain areas of the USSR" (including on the territory of Karelia).

On June 29, 1941, the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Soviet government addressed the governing bodies of the front-line regions with a special directive, the main provisions of which were promulgated by the Chairman of the established State Defense Committee (GKO) I. V. Stalin in a radio speech on June 3, 1941. In particular, it emphasized: “In the war with fascist Germany imposed on us, the question of life and death of the Soviet state is being decided, about whether the peoples of the Soviet Union should be free or fall into enslavement.” This document essentially became a program for mobilizing all the forces of the country to fight the Nazi aggressors and included a wide range of organizational, political, ideological, economic, and military measures to achieve victory over the enemy.

Literally from the first hours of the war, the whole life of Karelia began to be rebuilt. Already at 7 am on June 22, 1941, a meeting of the bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of the KFSSR opened, at which a ciphergram received from the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was read out with a message about a sudden attack on the country by aggressors and priority measures were taken in connection with the created emergency. Immediately after the meeting of the bureau, a meeting of people's commissars, heads of departments and their deputies was held. At about 10 o'clock in the morning, employees of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) and the Council of People's Commissars of the KFSSR left for all areas to provide practical assistance to local party and Soviet bodies in carrying out military organizational measures, primarily the mobilization of those liable for military service of the first stage in the ranks of the Red Army and the Navy.

Immediately after V. M. Molotov's speech on the radio, mass rallies were held on the territory of the republic, at which the inhabitants of Karelia declared their readiness to defend the Motherland. On June 22, a city-wide rally of many thousands took place in Petrozavodsk, at which the chairman of the city council F. V. Balagurov, the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Komsomol of the republic Yu. V. Andropov, university student S. E. Krivoruchko and others spoke. The next day, rallies were held at all enterprises and institutions of the city and, in particular, at the oldest enterprise in Petrozavodsk - the Onega plant. In the adopted resolution, the Onega people wrote: “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 crush, destroy the German fascists.

Thousands of citizens of Karelia expressed their desire to join the ranks of the active Red Army, many of them applied directly at rallies and meetings with a request to send them to the front. Although, according to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated 06/22/1941, those liable for military service born in 1905-1918 (that is, at the age of 23-36 years) were subject to conscription, applications began to come from those who for various reasons were not subject to conscription. According to the military commissar of the KFSSR I. M. Makarov, by the end of the day on June 22, 60% of those subject to conscription into the army appeared at the recruiting stations, and late in the evening of June 23, the mobilization of the first-line conscripts was basically completed. In total for 1941-1945. Armed forces countries received from Karelia about 100 thousand people who fought on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War.

Simultaneously with the mobilization of citizens liable for military service in the ranks of the army, work began on the formation of fighter battalions, units militia and partisan units. Fighter battalions in the republic, as well as in the country as a whole, began to be formed in accordance with the special Decree adopted by the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR of June 24, 1941 "On the protection of enterprises and institutions and the creation of destroyer battalions" to organize the necessary protection in the front line of military and national economic facilities , as well as the fight against enemy agents and saboteurs. Corresponding decisions were made by the leadership of the Karelian-Finnish SSR, their implementation was urgently assigned to local party and Soviet bodies, regional branches of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs of the republic.

Basically, the formation of fighter battalions in the regions of the republic was completed in early July 1941. As of July 7, 1941, there were 38 battalions in total with a total personnel strength of 4325 people. By the autumn of 1941, the total number of fighters increased to 5641 people. At the same time, about 100 groups of assistance to fighter battalions consisting of 700 people were organized in settlements, whose task was to monitor the situation on the ground for timely signaling the appearance of the enemy. From the first days of their existence, these formations were guarded settlements, bridges and especially important objects, raised on combat alert and went out to pursue and eliminate detected enemy landings and sabotage groups.

In the summer and autumn of 1941, due to the difficult situation at the front, the lack of a sufficient number of regular units of the Red Army, the fighter battalions of Karelia were sent to the forefront and fought stubborn battles with the enemy, in which they showed stamina and courage. This is evidenced by numerous operational reports on the NKVD line for July-December 1941: “A consolidated fighter battalion of 354 people, created from the Medvezhyegorsk, Pudozh, Belomorsky, Kemsky and Segezhsky battalions, from September 28 to October 1 participated together with units of the Red Army in battle 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 Sheltozersky tract, for 4 days held back the regular units of the enemy in battle ... a man was sent to the defense of the city of Medvezhyegorsk, where he stayed until October 5, 1941, waging continuous battles with the White Finns ... ". Participating in these first, unequal and most difficult battles against superior enemy forces, the fighter battalions suffered significant losses, but did their duty with honor.

Another form of repelling aggression in the republic, as well as throughout the country, was the creation of parts of the people's militia. The Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the KFSSR adopted a resolution dated 05.07.1941 "On the Creation of People's Militia Detachments". In cities and districts, the first secretaries of city and district committees of the party, the chairmen of the executive committees of the Soviets of Workers' Deputies, and military commissars were engaged in organizing militia detachments. The people's militia consisted of volunteers who wished to defend their land with weapons in their hands. “We consider ourselves mobilized and call on all the working people of Karelia, who can hold weapons, to join the ranks of the people's militia,” the workers of the Onega plant unanimously declared at the rally. Many patriots, men and women, regardless of age, joined the ranks of the people's militia. By mid-July 1941, there were about 30,000 applications for enrollment in militia units. By the beginning of August, 3 regiments, 32 battalions and 5 separate militia companies, which consisted of over 22 thousand fighters, were already operating in Karelia. The divisions were headed by reserve commanders, sergeants and Red Army soldiers. The militias guarded important facilities, roads, bridges, etc., and in the first months of the war they were also used as a reserve to replenish troops at the front.

Invaluable assistance to the front was provided by the creation by the population in the summer and autumn of 1941 of defensive structures, military airfields, roads and other facilities. People worked in forests and swamps almost around the clock, lived in tents and dugouts, lacked clothes, shoes and food. In September-October 1941, 60,000 residents of Arkhangelsk, Vologda and other regions, including over 20,000 residents of Karelia, worked on defense construction. The construction of defensive lines unfolded along the entire front line and included 7 field constructions.

In the first months of the war, Karelia faced an important task - to complete the construction of the Sorokskaya-Obozerskaya railway line in a short time. (This railway line with a length of over 300 km ran along the coast of the White Sea and connected the Kirov and Northern railways.) It was necessary to take the most urgent measures to complete its construction. The leadership of the republic sent several thousand workers to this site, necessary materials, tractors, cars and other equipment. The best cadres of railway builders, and prisoners of the White Sea-Baltic Combine, and the population of the northern regions of the republic worked on the construction of the road. In September 1941, the Sorokskaya-Obozerskaya railway line went into operation.

With the beginning of the war in Karelia, attempts were made to organize their own production of certain types of weapons and ammunition for the needs of the front. Some enterprises (the workshops of the Segezha Pulp and Paper Mill and the Kirov Railway, the Povenets Shipyard) began to produce submachine guns, mortars, mines and grenades. However, under the conditions of the front line, in unsuitable workshops, it was not possible to develop the production of weapons in sufficient quantities and of the appropriate quality. At the beginning of 1942, the enterprises of the created Directorate of the Military Industry, which managed to produce only a few hundred machine guns and mortars, stopped the production of weapons.

Civilian enterprises switched to the production of products for the needs of the front. The Petrozavodsk ski factory began to manufacture army skis. Several dozen types of defense products have been mastered by sawmills. Industrial plants and artels of industrial cooperation began to produce sapper tools, army bowlers, etc., to repair uniforms and shoes for front fighters. Workers of the Kirov railway began to equip armored trains and armored platforms.

The economy of the republic, subordinated to the needs of the front, was characterized by some distinctive features. Firstly, its transition to a military way was carried out in conditions when our troops, fighting defensive battles, for a number of reasons were forced to retreat, leaving their native cities and villages. As a result, many enterprises failed to complete the process of reorganization of production that had begun, and they were evacuated to the eastern regions of the country.

Secondly, already in the first months of the war, the German-Finnish troops managed to make significant advances in the offensive, only one third of the total pre-war territory of the republic escaped occupation. These are the Belomorsky, Loukhsky, Kemsky, Pudozhsky regions, as well as part of the Medvezhyegorsky, Tungudsky and Ukhta regions, where less than one-fifth of industrial output was produced. About 70 thousand people lived here in 1942.

This is the general picture. Even more revealing are the data on the timber industry, the leading branch of the republic's national economy. Of the 46 logging and timber-rafting enterprises that numbered before the war, only 6 continued to operate in the unoccupied territory. The main means of production of the forest industry decreased by 80 percent. In 1942, 15 tractors and 21 motor vehicles worked in the forest, or 5% of the pre-war level. The number of workers also dropped sharply, amounting to a little more than 3,000 by the end of 1941, and 70 percent of them came to the forest plots for the first time. If before the war at logging enterprises women accounted for 25% of the total number of workers, then in 1942 - already 50-60%. The volume of logging in 1942, compared with the level of 1940, decreased by more than 10 times.

Thirdly, industrial enterprises, institutions and organizations for a long time (from December 1941 to mid-1944) were in close proximity to the front. At the same time, much of what the front needed was carried out by the workers of Karelia in the immediate vicinity of the places of hostilities, in the conditions of raids by enemy sabotage detachments and bomber aircraft, which created additional difficulties for conducting the necessary work and a threat to people's lives.

In accordance with the requirements of wartime, theatrical and musical groups, clubs, houses of culture, libraries of the republic rebuilt their activities. The brochures issued by the republican publishing house told about the heroism of the warriors of the North, about the selfless work of the people of the frontline region. Republican newspapers "Lenin's Banner" and "Totuus" ("Pravda"), regional newspapers systematically published materials about the situation on the fronts, about the heroic deeds of the fighters of the Karelian Front, about the life of the rear.

Thus, the restructuring of the national economy and culture of Karelia on a military basis was in full swing, but it was not possible to complete it. The forced retreat of the Red Army units required the evacuation of the population and the relocation to the east of industrial enterprises, valuable property from areas under threat of capture by the enemy.

Thanks to the clear organization as a whole, the evacuation was successful on a large scale and in a short time. In total, according to incomplete data, more than 500 thousand people were evacuated from the republic. The working people of Karelia found shelter among the population of the Vologda, Arkhangelsk, Chelyabinsk and other regions, the Bashkir, Chuvash, Udmurt, Tatar, Komi Autonomous Republics and many other regions of the Soviet Union. In new places, they continued to work selflessly to help the front.

It was possible to timely remove the equipment and property of 291 industrial enterprises, including the Onega plant, the Petrozavodsk ski and Petrozavodsk mica factories, the Kondopoga and Segezha pulp and paper mills, most enterprises of the forestry and woodworking industries, etc. Industrial enterprises and equipment evacuated to the east of the country in a short the deadline was set in new places and production began for the needs of the front.

Institutions of science and culture of the republic were evacuated to the rear areas of the country. Among them Karelian-Finnish State University, who moved to the capital of the Komi ASSR, Syktyvkar. Students and teachers of the university received here the necessary conditions for continuing the educational process.

In connection with the temporary occupation of the capital of the Karelian-Finnish SSR, the state and party bodies of the republic moved from Petrozavodsk to Medvezhyegorsk, and then to Belomorsk, not for a single day stopping their activities aimed at solving the main task of wartime: “ Everything for the front, everything for victory!”

Defensive battles of the Soviet troops in 1941

The defense of the Soviet-Finnish state border was entrusted to the troops of the Leningrad Military District (LVO), whose main forces (23rd and 7th armies) were concentrated on the Karelian and Onega-Ladoga isthmuses. The 14th Army covered the border from Murmansk to Kemi. Protection of troops and facilities in these areas from the air, as well as conducting aerial reconnaissance was assigned to the district air force. The most important operational directions leading inland were covered by a system of fortified areas, the construction and equipping of which had not yet been fully completed.

After the attack of fascist Germany on the Soviet Union on June 24, 1941, by the decision of the Supreme High Command (VGK) of the USSR, the Northern Front was formed on the basis of the Leningrad Military District (commander - Lieutenant General M. M. Popov), which included the 7th, 14 1st and 23rd armies. The border detachments of the Karelian-Finnish, Leningrad and Murmansk border districts, as well as the Baltic Navy. They received the task of defending the state border with Finland with a total length of over 1500 km and preventing the enemy from invading Soviet territory.

On June 26, 1941, formations of the German Army Group North crossed the river. Western Dvina and aimed their strike from the south directly at Leningrad. On the same day, Finnish President R. Ryti, in a radio speech, officially announced the state of war between Finland and the USSR, blaming the Soviet Union for this, which allegedly had already begun hostilities in Finland. For the Soviet Union, this official statement by R. Ryti meant the opening of another battle front - in the European North, including Karelia. On June 27, the command of the Northern Front issued a directive stating that "the opening of hostilities by the Finns and Germans against our front should be expected from hour to hour." Therefore, all troops withdrawn to the state border were put in constant readiness to repel an enemy offensive. The necessary orders were immediately given in all armies, formations and units.

In Finland, as a result of the mobilization carried out, the active army by the beginning of the war consisted of about 470 thousand people. Directly at the Soviet-Finnish border, 21 infantry divisions and 3 brigades of German and Finnish troops were stationed. In the north of Finland, a separate German army "Norway" was deployed (since mid-January 1942, renamed the army "Lapland", and since mid-June 1942 - the 20th mountain army). The enemy outnumbered the Soviet troops in manpower and military equipment by 1.5-2.5 times.

Hostilities began on June 29, 1941 with the transition to the offensive of the German army "Norway", parts of which tried to deliver the main blow to Murmansk. The subsequent attacks of the enemy, who had a fourfold superiority in forces and means in this sector, were not successful. On the night of June 30 to July 1, 1941, Finnish troops also crossed the USSR state border in a number of sectors. On July 10, 1941, Marshal Mannerheim, Commander-in-Chief of the Finnish Armed Forces, issued an order calling on Finnish soldiers to "liberate the lands of the Karelians." In particular, it said: "During the liberation war of 1918, I promised the Karelians of Finland and the White Sea region that I would not sheathe my sword until Finland and East Karelia were free ...".

Fierce bloody battles unfolded in all directions of the front. The first to repulse the enemy forces that invaded the territory of Karelia (in the area of ​​Kuolismaa, Korpiselkya, Vyartsilya, Yakkim, Kumuri, Kangasyarvi, etc.) were Soviet border guards, who more than once demonstrated examples of stamina and heroism. One of the first Heroes of the Soviet Union entered the history of the Great Patriotic War, Senior Lieutenant of the 80th Border Detachment N.F. Kaimanov, who was awarded this high title for his skillful leadership of the defense of the outpost.

The enemy command paid great attention to the offensive in the Kestenga direction with the aim of reaching the Kirovskaya railway near Loukhi station. In July-August, reinforced by reinforcements, enemy troops launched numerous attacks here and were able to capture the regional center of Kestenga, creating a direct threat to the Loukhi station. To help the defending units from the Arkhangelsk region, the 88th rifle division arrived along the Sorokskaya - Obozerskaya railway line. Its warriors managed to stop the enemy and thwart his plans to capture the Loukhi station and access the railway, showed courage and heroism. For the steadfastness and courage shown in battles with the enemy, the 88th Rifle Division was transformed into the 23rd Guards Division. In the Kestenga direction, destruction battalions formed from the inhabitants of Karelia took part in the battles. At the village of Kokkosalmi, 80 fighters of the Kestenga and Loukhsky destruction battalions for 4 hours before the approach of the Red Army units held back the onslaught of about 400 Finnish soldiers and, according to the military command, "showed exceptional stamina and heroism in this battle."

Organized resistance of one regiment of the 54th division and the 73rd border detachment met Finnish troops in the direction of Rebolsk. According to the first secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of the Karelian-Finnish SSR G. N. Kupriyanov, “20 thousand enemy soldiers, many of whom were armed with machine guns, against 4 thousand of ours! From July 3 to July 24, they repelled all attacks and did not retreat from the state border anywhere in this sector. Here, in the Rebolsk direction, for a month "covered one of the most vulnerable sectors of the front" Rugozersky fighter battalion. Near the village of Padany, the advance of the enemy until the approach of our military units was delayed by the partisan detachment "Forward", formed from the inhabitants of the Rugozersky district.

During fierce battles, a few Soviet units retreated to the line of the river. Pisma. Here, in August, the 27th Rifle Division was formed from separate units under the command of Colonel G.K. Kozlov, who later wrote: “In heavy battles, the soldiers of the division showed exceptional stamina. During tense more than two months of fighting initial period war, despite the multiple superiority of the enemy, the division completed its task, covering the Kirov railway.

On July 10, the main forces of the Finnish Karelian army launched an offensive on the Onega-Ladoga Isthmus, where especially protracted and fierce battles unfolded. The enemy managed to capture the Loymola station, thereby cutting off the railway communications in the 7th lane Soviet army, and on July 16 captured Pitkyaranta. Having reached the coast of Lake Ladoga, the Finnish army launched an offensive simultaneously in three directions: Petrozavodsk, Olonets and Sortaval. Our troops retreated, waging stubborn battles with superior enemy forces. In a difficult situation, the command of the 7th Army on July 21 created two operational groups - Petrozavodsk and South, which launched a counteroffensive on July 23. Fierce fighting lasted for several days, the enemy brought into action two fresh divisions. Our troops, having suffered heavy losses, stopped their attacks at the end of July. But the enemy was also forced to go on the defensive, which made it possible to temporarily stabilize the situation.

Soon, at the direction of the commander-in-chief of the north-western direction, K. E. Voroshilov, the 272nd rifle division and the 3rd division of the people's militia of Leningrad arrived at the disposal of the 7th army. Several fighter battalions and reserve rifle regiments newly formed from the inhabitants of the republic also arrived at the front. On August 7, 1941, the High Command of the northwestern direction, in anticipation of the battles on Lake Onega, decided to form the Onega military flotilla.

In the defensive battles for Karelia in the summer of 1941, the soldiers of the 168th and 71st rifle divisions showed exceptional stamina and courage. For a long time, these divisions held the line of defense, opposing the large forces of the Karelian army of the Finns. The former head of the operations department of the 168th division, S. N. Borshchev, notes in his memoirs: “For twenty-five days we fought to the death, defending our state border, and for twenty-five days we held the line of defense.” The 126th rifle regiment of the 71st division, formed on the territory of Karelia, was commanded by Major Walter Valli. The regiment held its lines for a long time and offered stubborn resistance to superior enemy forces. Only after the enemy command brought fresh forces into battle, the 126th regiment began a forced withdrawal. Showed great stamina and courage personnel regiment in the defense of the city of Medvezhyegorsk. He was awarded the Red Banner of the Supreme Soviet of the Karelian-Finnish SSR.

The 52nd regiment of the same division, after stubborn defensive battles near the village of Korpiselkya, retreated to the southeast by order of the command and by mid-July created a stable defense on the eastern shore of Lake Tolvajärvi. The first offensive of the enemy was repulsed. But at the end of July, the newly arrived German 163rd division entered the battle. Here, in the Ristisalmi area, on July 28, 1941, in a battle against the Nazis, P. A. Tikilyainen and the soldiers of his squad accomplished their military feat. For this feat, P. A. Tikilyainen was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

On August 23, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command of the Armed Forces of the USSR decided to divide the Northern Front into two independent fronts - Karelian and Leningrad. The main task of the Karelian Front (KF) was the defense of areas of great economic and strategic importance - Karelia and the Arctic. The composition of the KF (commander until February 1944 - Lieutenant General V. A. Frolov, then - General of the Army K. A. Meretskov) included the 7th, 14th, 19th, 26th, 32nd combined arms armies, the 7th Air Army and other separate formations and units of the Soviet troops; the Northern Fleet, the Ladoga and Onega military flotillas were operationally subordinate to him.

Of all the Soviet fronts of the Great Patriotic War, the KF operated for the longest time (3.5 years) at the longest distance (about 1500 km - from Lake Ladoga to the Barents Sea) and in especially difficult northern climatic conditions. The difficult terrain and undeveloped transport network made it possible to conduct combat operations only in separate, isolated directions (along the roads in the 20-50 km strip), the most important of which were determined in 1941: Olonets, Petrozavodsk, Medvezhyegorsk, Rebolsk, Ukhta, Loukh, Kandalaksha, Murmansk.

At the very end of July, the Finns launched a new offensive on the Karelian Isthmus. As a result of fierce fighting, the enemy broke through the defenses of the 23rd Army and on August 9 reached the coast of Lake Ladoga. Parts of the 23rd Army were divided into three isolated groups. Soon the Finns captured Sortavala, Vyborg, Lakhdenpokhya, Kexholm and a number of other settlements. Only at the beginning of September did the Soviet units manage to stop the advance of the enemy at the turn of the 1939 state border and prevent the Finnish and German troops from joining.

In early September, having regrouped its forces, the Finnish Karelian Army launched a general offensive in the Petrozavodsk and Olonets directions. Its 6th Army Corps delivered the main blow in the direction of Olonets - Lodeynoye Pole. The offensive of the Finnish troops was supported by large groups of dive bombers, which continuously bombed and fired at the Red Army units defending here. Using superiority in forces and means, the enemy broke through the defenses of the Soviet troops and, by the end of September 4, reached the Vidlitsa-Olonets road. On September 5, he captured Olonets, and two days later he went to the northern bank of the Svir at the Lodeynoye Pole - Svirstroy section, cut the Kirov railway. He managed to force the Svir and capture a small bridgehead on its southern coast.

In early September, the 7th Finnish Army Corps struck in the Petrozavodsk direction, where the Petrozavodsk Operational Group was defending in the first line. On a front of 100 km, the 71st Rifle Division, operating to the right of the Petrozavodsk Operational Group, fought stubborn battles on a front of 140 km. As a result of repeated attacks, the Finns managed to break through the defenses of the Soviet units. After a short break on September 20, the Finnish troops again launched an offensive, throwing more than half of their Karelian army into the Petrozavodsk direction. Troops of the Petrozavodsk Operational Group and the civilian population staunchly defended the capital of Karelia. At the end of September, the Finns sent two more infantry divisions and several tank battalions here from the reserve. On September 30, they broke through our defenses and rushed to Petrozavodsk. In connection with the threat to the city and the danger of being cut off, the command of the Petrozavodsk operational group received an order to leave Petrozavodsk and retreat to the northern bank of the river. Shui.

Having captured the city of Petrozavodsk, Finnish troops continued to develop an offensive against the city of Medvezhyegorsk. After heavy stubborn battles with superior enemy forces, the Soviet troops left Medvezhyegorsk. The defense here was held by the Medvezhyegorsk Operational Group (commander - Major General M.S. Knyazev), created from parts of the 7th Army on October 10, 1941 by order of the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. Throughout November, stubborn battles were going on near Medvezhyegorsk. The soldiers of the 71st and 313th divisions fought off 5-8 attacks a day, often going over to counterattacks themselves. The city changed hands. However, our troops had to leave Medvezhyegorsk, retreat across the ice to the eastern shore of the Povenets Bay and take up defense in new positions.

By mid-December 1941, the troops of the Karelian Front finally stopped the advance of enemy armies in all directions. The front line stabilized at the turn: the southern section of the White Sea-Baltic Canal - Maselgskaya station - Rugozero - Ukhta - Kestenga - Alakurtti. The plans of the enemy, designed to quickly capture the northern regions of the USSR, failed. The Soviet troops managed to keep 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 goods from Murmansk passed, and the troops of the Karelian Front were also supplied; 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 first offensive operations of the Soviet troops in 1942-1943.

From December 1941, a new stage of hostilities began on the Karelian Front - a period of stable positional defense. For almost two and a half years, Soviet troops firmly held their positions from the Barents Sea to the river. Svir, fettered significant enemy forces here, and also undertook offensive operations.

So, already on January 3-10, 1942, the Maselga task force under the command of Major General G.A. The Medvezhyegorsk task force under the command of Major General S.G. Trofimenko (71st and 313th rifle divisions, 1st ski brigade consisting of eight battalions) conducted the Medvezhyegorsk offensive operation in order to encircle and eliminate a large grouping of Finnish troops that had superiority in strength and means. On January 3, units of the Maselga Operational Group, after a short artillery preparation, went on the offensive, and units of the Medvezhyegorsk Operational Group began reconnaissance in force. On the night of January 4, the Finnish command, pulling up the nearest reserves, launched several strong counterattacks. Fierce stubborn battles ensued, lasting until January 10-11. With the approach of the enemy's reserves, the balance of forces changed significantly in his favor. The Soviet troops began to lack ammunition and fuel, therefore, at the request of the command of the Karelian Front, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command allowed the offensive to be stopped.

Nevertheless, the results of the Medvezhyegorsk offensive operation were important. Soviet troops advanced westward from 2 to 5 km, liberated a number of settlements and improved their positions. The unexpectedness of the offensive caused confusion in the enemy camp, and Mannerheim personally organized the "repulse of the Russian offensive." The Finnish command did not dare to remove a single regiment from the Medvezhyegorsk direction to strengthen its forces in the area of ​​the river. Svir, which helped the defense of Leningrad. Moreover, the enemy had to throw the available reserves into battle. The January battles of 1942 provided the first experience for the preparation of future decisive offensives by the troops of the Karelian Front. In early February 1942, the Finns, after careful preparation, tried to regain their lost positions. On February 10, units of the 289th and 367th rifle divisions repelled all enemy attacks, after which he no longer took offensive actions on the Karelian front.

On April 24 - May 11, 1942, the troops of the 26th Army of the Karelian Front carried out the Kestenga offensive operation in order to defeat the opposing enemy forces, gain a foothold on a new more western line and strengthen the defense of the Kirov railway. The main blow to Kestenga was delivered by the forces of two divisions: from the north - by the 23rd Guards Rifle Division under the command of Major General V.A. E. Fishman along the highway Loukhi - Kestenga, they were supported by the 67th Marine Rifle Brigade and the 8th Separate Ski Brigade. The Soviet troops, which had a slight superiority here, were opposed by the German SS division "North", the combined Finnish division and a number of other units.

On April 24 at 06:00 in the morning, units of the 23rd and 263rd rifle divisions went on the offensive in the main direction and by the end of the day wedged into the enemy defenses for 1-3 km. Due to weak artillery and air support in conditions of heavy snowfall, the pace of the offensive was slow. In addition, the enemy threw into battle all his reserves and subunits from neighboring sectors of the front in order to restore the situation. After the regrouping of forces on May 3, the Soviet troops resumed the offensive. Subsequently German general Dietmar, assessing these events, will write that as a result of Russian attacks in the Kestenga direction, a critical situation was created, which was localized by the forces of the 163rd Nazi division, hastily transferred here from the area of ​​the river. Svir. After another regrouping of forces, the Soviet troops continued the offensive on May 10, but on May 11, having received instructions from the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command to go on the defensive, they stopped it.

As indicated by the General Staff of the Red Army, as a result of the fighting in the spring of 1942, units of the Karelian Front in the Kestenga and Murmansk directions (the Murmansk offensive operation was carried out with the same tasks on April 28 - May 10, 1942) "did not achieve the combat missions assigned to them and after insignificant successes, they suspended the offensive and consolidated on the achieved lines. The main reason for the small success ... must be considered the unpreparedness of the operations, especially in terms of material support, as a result of which the advancing troops were already without ammunition at the beginning of the operations.

Nevertheless, the Kestenga and Murmansk offensive operations frustrated the enemy’s plans to capture Murmansk and the Loukhi station of the Kirov railway, helped the defense of Leningrad and improved the positions of Soviet troops in certain sectors of the Karelian Front. Only in the Kestenga direction, selected units of the German SS division "North" lost up to 5,000 soldiers and officers killed. The Finnish information service officer O. Paavolainen made the following entry in his diary about the battles in the spring of 1942 in the Louhi (Kesteng) direction: “The Russian offensive in the White Sea ... caused tension of feelings. Defensive battles in the Loukh direction are officially declared over today. Pyrrhic victory again... Now, a year later, everything seems unclear, unreliable, uncertain.”

Under conditions of stabilization of the situation, military operations on a private scale in different sectors of the front were carried out until the decisive battles of 1944. So, on July 25, 1943, Sergeant Nikolai Varlamov accomplished his feat, closing the embrasure of the bunker with his body during the assault on the enemy fortified stronghold near the river. Onda.

The decisive influence on the course of the entire war, including in the north of our country, was exerted by the major victory of the Soviet troops in the Battle of Stalingrad (November 19, 1942 - February 2, 1943). Marshal Mannerheim, referring in his memoirs to the assessment by the top Finnish leadership of the influence of the Battle of Stalingrad on the course of the “big” war and the political course of Finland, wrote: “... On February 3, or a day after the Germans capitulated in Stalingrad, the President Ryti, Prime Minister Rangel and Ministers Walden and Tanner for my opinion on the general situation. During the discussion, it was agreed that big war has come to a turning point and that Finland, at the first appropriate situation, should find a way out of the war. At the same time, it was stated that for the time being the might of Germany hinders the implementation of this decision.

frontline rear

As a result of the evacuation of enterprises and the occupation of most of the territory of Karelia, the output of industrial products in the republic has sharply decreased - compared to the pre-war level, it fell to 10.1%. In areas not occupied by the enemy, there were only 20 small industrial enterprises. In difficult front-line conditions, lumberjacks provided fuel for the population, as well as the Kirov railway. etc., supplied the Karelian Front with skis, boxes for mines and shells, etc. By the end of 1942, logging roads were put into operation in the Belomorsky region: Malengskaya with a locomotive, Virandozerskaya with a motor transport and Kolezhemskaya with horse traction. By the beginning of 1942, woodworking enterprises had mastered the production of more than 40 types of military products: rifle and machine gun stocks, standard houses (caravans), sanitary boats (sleds), wooden cases for mines, etc. Industrial combines and artels produced sapper tools, army kitchens, bowlers, ski bindings, makeshift stoves.

In March 1942, a paramilitary flotilla of the People's Commissariat of the Fishing Industry was created, consisting of 3 divisions: in the White Sea basin (with a base in Belomorsk), Lake Onega and Lake. Vodlozero (with a base in Pudozh) and the Barents Sea (with a base in Teriberka). For 1942-1944 fishermen of Karelia caught 1 million 190 thousand poods of fish for the population and military units of the Red Army.

Railway workers worked in difficult conditions. During the war years on the Kirov railway. about 3 thousand enemy air raids were made (more than 90 thousand air bombs were dropped), the enemies staged sabotage. The uninterrupted movement along the highway was provided by the driver I.P. Pershukevich, the dispatcher E.I. Mekkelev, the switchman A.P. Zharkova and the head of the road P.N. Gartsuev, awarded the title of Hero Socialist Labor. For selfless work, 618 railway workers were awarded orders and medals of the USSR.

Great difficulties fell on the lot of rural workers. Of the 1,443 collective farms that existed before the war, only 133 remained; only 13,000 hectares of cultivated land were cultivated; about 3,000 people worked in the collective farms, of which 2,500 were women. In addition, they had to be involved in the construction of airfields, roads and other military facilities, as well as in logging. The collective farms "Vozrozhdeniye" of the Belomorsky district (chairman - A. I. Klevina) worked successfully, " Parisian Commune"Pudozhsky district (chairman - I.P. Fomina), "Red Star" Loukhsky district (chairman - F.L. Sidorova) and others.

Workers of culture contributed to the achievement of victory. Writers and poets fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War: P. S. Boriskov, T. O. Guttari, A. A. Ivanov, N. G. Gippiev, P. I. Ryabinin-Andreev, I. K. Simanenkov, A. M. Stepanov, A. N. Timonen, B. A. Schmidt, N. M. Yakkola. Ya. V. Rugoev and D. Ya. Gusarov fought in the ranks of the Karelian partisans. From the first days of the war, the satirical “Windows of Karelfintag” were published, in May 1944 the republican exhibition “Front and Rear” opened, at which the works of artists V. N. Popov, G. A. Stronk, K. L. Butorov, K. N. Osipova and others. Musical works on a military theme were created by composers K. Rautio, G. Sinisalo, R. Pergament, L. Vishkarev, A. Holland. Front-line brigades of artists and musicians gave over 4.5 thousand performances and concerts in military units and hospitals. Honored Artist of the Karelian ASSR H. I. Malmi took part in 1927 concerts during the war years, artists of the Kantele ensemble R. Niemi - in 1000, Z. Emelyanova - in 800, People's Artist of the Karelian ASSR V. I. Kononov - in 700, artists of the theater of Russian drama V. D. Tomashevskaya and A. Vysotsky - in 600 concerts. Often, trips to the front and concerts took place under artillery fire or enemy air raids.

Residents of Karelia donated their personal savings to the USSR Defense Fund for the construction of tanks, aircraft and other military equipment. Patronage was organized over military hospitals, the collection of gifts and warm clothes for the fighters of the Karelian Front. Schoolchildren - Timurov's teams - also provided all possible assistance in this.

occupation regime

By the end of 1941, more than half of the entire territory of the Karelian-Finnish SSR was occupied by Finnish and German troops, who introduced their own rules in the life of the population. On the eve of the war, on June 16, 1941, a specially prepared note "Plans for some measures in Eastern Karelia" was circulated in Finland. On its basis, specific issues and main directions of the occupation policy were developed. Its essence boiled down to the fact that Eastern Karelia allegedly historically belonged to Finland and therefore should be part of it. A special study on this ordered by President R. Ryti was published in the autumn of 1941 in Berlin under the title “ Living space Finland". The aggressive intentions of the Finnish ruling circles were also reflected in official documents, in particular, in the orders of the commander-in-chief of the Finnish army, Marshal Mannerheim. The participation of the country in the war was explained and justified, firstly, by the goal of fighting the Soviet regime and, secondly, by the need to liberate kindred peoples and annex their territory to Finland.

The rules for publishing information about East Karelia and the war adopted by the Main Headquarters of the Finnish Army also largely reveal the state, national and military policy of Finland at that time and its occupation administration. According to these rules, it was necessary to speak only about the "liberation" of Eastern Karelia (and not about its conquest) and that the Karelians themselves allegedly asked for their liberation. It was recommended to publicly emphasize that East Karelia is the land of the Karelians, that the Russians have no roots here, and that this territory is of great importance for the defense and independence of Finland. It was necessary to speak not about the people, but about the population of Eastern Karelia, not about the Karelian language, but about the dialect. It was recommended to write kindly about the local population: “Speaking of the backwardness prevailing in Eastern Karelia, it should be emphasized that the Soviet system is to blame for this, and not the population, which, on the contrary, must be given credit for having retained its nationality under difficult conditions and possesses natural intelligence and talent. It should be emphasized that now we want to raise the population of East Karelia to a level corresponding to these wonderful qualities.” All publications and news about the life of Eastern Karelia had to receive prior approval from the Finnish authorities - the censorship department of the Main Headquarters or the headquarters of the Military Directorate of Eastern Karelia.

On July 15, 1941, Marshal Mannerheim ordered the organization of control in the occupied territory - the Military Directorate of Eastern Karelia (VUVK). On the same day, the commander of the VUVK, Lieutenant Colonel V. Kotilainen, issued an appeal to the citizens of the occupied regions of the KFSSR, in which he announced that he had taken over the leadership of the occupied territory and that from that time on, every inhabitant of it was obliged to comply with the requirements of the Finnish military authorities. In each district, a chief was appointed, who owned all the power in the field. In the list of requirements of eight points, local residents were forbidden to have any weapons and radio equipment, to be on the street at night (from 21 to 6 in the morning), to appropriate or damage the remaining state (collective farm) property, to store or distribute political books and unfounded information; it was proposed that the civilian population continue their usual work and submit an inventory of their property, and the remaining Soviet soldiers immediately lay down their arms and surrender. Violation of these requirements could result in the death penalty.

In total, there were about 85 thousand local residents in the occupied part of the Karelian-Finnish SSR, including those displaced from the Leningrad region. To strengthen control and surveillance of them, the occupying authorities conducted a detailed census of the population. In each large village there was a police station, for violation of the established regime (being on the street during curfew, staying in the house of an outsider, leaving the permanent place of residence without a special pass, etc.) various penalties were provided up to execution. About a third of the local population were imprisoned in special camps (concentration, resettlement, labor). Only in the city of Petrozavodsk there were 6 camps, in which 25 thousand people were kept. Here, according to various sources, the result of difficult camp living conditions (overwork, hunger, mass epidemic diseases), as well as executions, resulted in the death of from 4,000 to 7,000 people. In total, according to the data available today, 14 concentration camps were created in the occupied territory of Karelia, in which about 14 thousand people died.

A special area of ​​activity of the occupation administration was "enlightenment and education of the national population." The Karelians should have formed "knowledge of the historical task of the Finnish tribe in its opposition to the age-old desire of Russia to seize Finland." At various educational events, it was necessary to talk about the insignificant successes of the USSR and about the activities of the VUVK for the benefit of the population, to emphasize the national and natural unity of Finland and Karelia. The most important channels of educational work were the newspaper and radio: Vapaa Karjala (Free Karelia) and Aunuksen radio (Olonets Radio). On January 5, 1942, a decree was promulgated on the foundations of a public school in Eastern Karelia. Finnish became the language of instruction in all schools. For this reason, the children of "non-national" parents remained outside the public school until the end of 1943. By the end of 1941, there were 53 schools in which there were 4,700 students. In 1944, the number of schools grew to 112, with 8,393 “national” students, and, in addition, about 3,000 Russian children studied in 13 schools. Particular attention is paid to curricula devoted to worldview subjects (history, geography, Finnish language, religion), special textbooks were created in which Finnish national motifs dominated.

An integral part of the Finnization policy in the occupied territory was the renaming of settlements, streets, names and surnames of local residents. So, already on September 16, 1941, the district chiefs received an order from the VUVK to bring the names of settlements in the occupied territory to uniformity. In particular, it emphasized: “It is necessary to take the names of settlements used by local residents if they are Finnish. A group of villages built close together should be considered one village. Proposals for renaming Russian village names to Finnish with the resolution of the district chief should be sent to us.” At the same time, recommendation lists were sent to the regions for renaming the streets and settlements of Eastern Karelia. For this, the names of the heroes preceding the “tribal wars”, as well as the names of the Karelian and Finnish “tribal” heroes, or the names of the heroes of the Kalevala were proposed. So, the city of Petrozavodsk began to be called Äänislinna (Fortress on Onego), Olonets - Aunuslinna (Olonets fortress). The renaming of the streets of Petrozavodsk took place at the beginning of 1943. The Finnish newspaper Vapaa Karjala (Free Karelia) wrote in this regard: “For the first time in its existence, Petrozavodsk receives national Finnish street names. Thus, the city acquires a truly national character, which, as the most important settlement of Eastern Karelia, it should have. The face of the city is becoming more and more Finnish...”.

Thus, the regime established by the Finnish military authorities on the occupied territory of the Karelian-Finnish SSR was a well-thought-out system of measures (economic, ideological, educational, political), which was largely determined by national factors. The starting point of the occupation policy was that people related to the Finns by nationality (“tribesmen” - Karelians, Finns, Vepsians, Ingrians, who accounted for up to 50% of local residents) must be “liberated” as future citizens of “Greater Finland”. The implementation of such a policy in practice was expressed in the division of the inhabitants of Eastern (Soviet) Karelia into two main groups: “national and non-national”, or privileged and unprivileged in all respects, the population. The first group of people were better provided with social benefits (salary, food and industrial goods, medical care, etc.), special public schools and courses were organized for them at the place of residence and in Finland, and active ideological and educational work was carried out. The second group, mainly Russians, were in worse conditions, and it was they who, first of all, were placed in concentration (labor) camps for the purpose of further movement after the supposed victory in the war of Germany and its allies.

The concrete results of the occupational national policy in Karelia, the attitude of the local population towards it to a certain extent can be judged by the events at the final stage of hostilities in the North: the Soviet offensive that began here in the summer of 1944, the departure of the Finns and the evacuation of local residents with them, which, according to the Finnish military authorities, was carried out on a voluntary basis.

In the occupied territory of Karelia, according to Finnish sources, by the summer of 1944, only 83.5 thousand people of the local population remained, of which 68.5 thousand people lived in settlements, more than 15 thousand people lived in resettlement and concentration camps . About half of the local residents - 41.8 thousand people - belonged to peoples related to the Finns (Karelians, Finns, Vepsians, Ingrians, etc.). According to a detailed report of the Finnish military authorities on the evacuation, a total of 2,799 people, or 3.35%, of the population of Eastern Karelia moved to Finland. Of these, the population related to the Finns was 2196 people. Thus, in general, the number of residents of Karelia who resettled (evacuated) to Finland turned out to be insignificant. It should be noted that for some, the evacuation was inevitable, in particular for those who were in the service of the Finns or actively (collaborators) collaborated with them. Many of the settlers were married to Finns and were already Finnish citizens.

Underground fight

From the first days of the war in Karelia, underground groups and partisan detachments began to be created to fight the invaders. This work was led by the party and Soviet bodies of the republic - the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b), the Council of People's Commissars, the People's Commissariat of State Security, and then the Republican Headquarters partisan movement(RShPD) at the Military Council of the Karelian Front (head - S. Ya. Vershinin). The Central Committee of the Komsomol of the republic and its first secretary, Yu. V. Andropov, took an active part in this work. Many partisans and underground fighters showed themselves with dignity in a difficult combat situation.

So, in June 1942, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic sent young Komsomol women Karelian M. Melentyeva and Vepsian A. Lisitsyna to the Sheltozersky region occupied by Finnish troops. For courage and heroism shown in the performance of responsible tasks, M. V. Melentyeva and A. M. Lisitsyna were posthumously awarded the high title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

In total, more than 120 people were sent to underground work from the beginning of the war until the end of 1943. Of these, members and candidate members of the party - 67, Komsomol members - 46. Of the underground workers in peacetime, 7 people worked as secretaries of district party committees, two chairmen of district executive committees, and 5 people in other leading party, Soviet and Komsomol work. 94 underground workers were Karelians, Vepsians and Finns. 47 of them were between 18 and 25 years old, 73 were between 25 and 40 years old, and one was over 40 years old.

Difficulties in the organization and activities of the underground in Karelia were due to the low density and, in general, the small number of the population. Most of the villages were empty, in many there were only a few people living. So, in s. Rugozero had 19, and in the entire Kestenga region - 82 inhabitants. Under a strict surveillance regime, when every resident was registered with the police, the appearance of a new person, especially in the village, immediately became known to the occupation authorities. In addition, part of the settlements was not far from the front line, which during three years remained unchanged, they housed enemy military units and carried out the most severe occupation regime.

The Finnish authorities have made great efforts to undermine the activities of the underground. They created a widely ramified apparatus for identifying and eliminating resistance, used all possible means in the fight against it, continuously strengthened and improved measures to suppress it. They managed to defeat part of the illegal organizations and inflict tangible losses on the underground. However, despite all the difficulties, the Soviet underground in Karelia existed and intensified its activities day by day. The following underground organizations operated in the occupied territory of the republic: Petrozavodsk, Vedlozero, Zaonezhskaya, Olonetskaya, Segozerskaya and Sheltozerskaya. In addition, party and Komsomol groups operated in the Kondopoga, Prionezhsky and Pryazha regions.

As you know, the creation of underground organizations in the country went in three directions. First, by creating in advance a network of party committees and cells, safe houses, selecting liaison officers, etc.; secondly, through the creation of underground organizations on the initiative of patriots who found themselves in the occupied territory; thirdly, the way of creating preparatory groups in the Soviet rear, and then transferring them across the front line to the enemy rear, to places of future activity. These paths were also used in the creation of underground organizations in Karelia. In the summer of 1941, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic carried out work on the early creation of an underground behind enemy lines. However, many underground workers failed to develop their activities. Having found themselves in difficult conditions and having no work experience, they soon discovered themselves and were liquidated by the Finns, some of them ended up in concentration camps. The way of early creation of underground organizations in Karelia was not widely spread. The most effective way in Karelia turned out to be the way of creating trained groups in the Soviet rear and then transferring them across the front line to the territory occupied by the enemy.

The activity of the underground organizations noticeably intensified from the middle of 1942. By that time they had accumulated a certain amount of experience in fighting the enemy, they had studied the occupation regime and its methods of suppressing resistance in more detail. Under the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic, a special school worked, where the underground workers received training. A sufficient number of radio stations appeared, which improved the possibilities of conspiratorial work. There were more planes on which underground workers could be delivered to any point in the occupied territory. The resistance to the occupation regime of the population increased, inspired by the successes of the Red Army at the front in the battles near Moscow, Stalingrad, Kursk.

The underground in the Olonets region, for example, was created and operated in this way. In the summer of 1942, a group of underground workers began their activities here, consisting of the secretary of the district committee of the party M. M. Delyaev, his deputy secretary of the district committee of the Komsomol A. M. Zvezdina and radio operator O. E. Filippova. However, in October 1942, the Finns managed to arrest the underground. All three were shot in February 1943. The heroes were posthumously awarded military orders of the USSR.

In the same area, in the summer of 1943, a new group of underground workers was created. Karelian Ya. V. Efimov headed it. The group included A. V. Kuzmin, I. P. Yuplova and U. P. Kuzmina. All of them knew the area where they worked in prewar years, so they quickly figured out the situation. After completing the task, in November 1943, the underground fighters reached the front line, having overcome 300 km of the way, but stumbled upon the outposts of the Finnish troops and entered into an unequal battle. Seriously wounded, they were captured and on March 3, 1944 they were shot.

The Sheltozero region was inhabited mainly by Vepsians, and it was located near the front line. Finnish troops carried out great work here to strengthen their defenses, their main communications to ensure defense on the river immediately passed. Svir. The proximity of the front created additional difficulties for the work of the underground, since there were enemy garrisons in each settlement. In August 1943, a group led by D. M. Gorbachev, the secretary of the underground district party committee, began to operate in the Sheltozersky district. It included P. I. Udaltsov, secretary of the underground district committee of the Komsomol, M. F. Asanov, a messenger, and S. K. Paaso, a radio operator. This work covered not only Sheltozersky, but also other areas - with. Ladva (Prionezhsky district), the villages of Voznesenye and Podporozhye (Leningrad region), as well as Petrozavodsk. In total, more than 100 local residents were involved in active underground work in Sheltozerye. Therefore, when, due to the threat of arrest, D. M. Gorbachev, P. I. Udaltsov and S. K. Paaso (M. Asanov died earlier) were forced to leave the front line in April 1944, a new composition of the district committee was formed, which actively worked until the area was liberated from occupation.

In the Vedlozero district, the entire family of the collective farmer Isakov actively participated in underground work. Father - Pavel Isakov - organized appearances for the underground, supplied them with food, warned of danger. His wife sheltered the underground, helped them to establish contact with the local population. The eldest son Fyodor was a liaison, the youngest, 12-year-old, delivered Soviet leaflets and newspapers to the villages.

Political work behind enemy lines played an important role in drawing the population into the underground struggle. Underground organizations had their own activists who carried out this work in 112 settlements. Starting from March 1942, special editions of the republican newspapers Leninskoe Znamya and Totuus (Pravda) (in Finnish) were published regularly, three times a month, for the population of the temporarily occupied regions. In addition to newspapers, hundreds of leaflets were scattered behind enemy lines. Only for the period from October 1941 to July 1942. 32 leaflets were published.

Underground workers also carried out political work among the enemy soldiers, thereby undermining the morale of the enemy troops, reducing their combat effectiveness. Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic, member of the Military Council of the Karelian Front G. N. Kupriyanov reported that the secretary of the Petrozavodsk Underground Committee F. F. Timoskainen “asked the Central Committee to send to Petrozavodsk not only leaflets for our prisoners of war, but also leaflets for Finnish soldiers and citizens. Such leaflets in Belomorsk began to be immediately published and sent to the underground. In addition to leaflets, the newspaper "Voice of a Soldier" in Finnish, which was published by the political department of the front, began to be sent to the city. “The Finns were furious,” writes S. K. Udaltsova (Paaso), a radio operator of the Sheltozero underground committee, in her memoirs, “because they felt that an underground organization was working in the area. The regular appearance of leaflets, Soviet newspapers on the Svir, in Yanigub, among prisoners of war, in Berezhnoye Sheltozero and, most importantly, the mood of the population, and not only local, but also Finnish soldiers, infuriated the head of the district, Captain Orispyai, the police chief Rautanen and the commandants of the villages into a rage " .

The most important place in the work of underground organizations was occupied by intelligence activities. The Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic had close ties with the command of the Karelian Front and was directly connected with the leaders of the partisan movement and underground work behind enemy lines. This made it possible to give specific reconnaissance missions to the underground, and to deliver the obtained intelligence in a timely manner to the command of the Soviet troops. Underground workers reported valuable information about the deployment and number of enemy units, headquarters, the location of airfields, military transportation, etc. Soviet aircraft bombed objects explored by underground workers.

Thus, the Sheltozersky district committee of the party, with the help of local residents, collected data on the deployment of troops and enemy defense installations. “The Komsomol members of the Ascension,” recalls S. K. Udaltsova, “composed detailed map defensive fortifications of the Finns on the river. Svir with a length of 18 km, indicating where the enemy posts, searchlights, guns, firing points, when there is a change of patrols, also vigilantly tracked down which places the Finns were mining. The map was drawn clean by S. Butylkin, and in several sessions I handed it over to the mainland.” The Vedlozero underground, having established that the Finns had begun to build a defensive line in the Olonets region, collected detailed information about it and reported to the command of the Soviet troops. The underground workers got a lot of valuable documents - passes, passports, orders, etc.

During the offensive of the troops of the Karelian Front in the summer of 1944, underground organizations stepped up their activities. The Vedlozero underground, with the approach of the Red Army, destroyed several telephone spans and thereby interrupted the enemy telegraph and telephone communications in the area. The Sheltozero underground committee organized a partisan detachment of over 80 people from the local population, which occupied two settlements - Tikhonitsa and Zalesye - and held them until the arrival of Soviet troops. The partisan detachment also created the Segozersky underground committee. The weapons and ammunition were delivered to the underground workers by our aircraft. The guerrillas set up surveillance of the roads. They occupied the village of Selga and entered the center of the Segozersky district - with. Padans. With the liberation of the territory of Karelia from the Finnish invaders in the summer of 1944, underground organizations and groups ceased their activities.

G. N. Kupriyanov, assessing the importance of the underground movement, subsequently wrote: “Despite all our mistakes and shortcomings, the death of the underground was not in vain. It is difficult to overestimate and it is impossible to represent in figures all the varied and difficult, complex work that they did behind enemy lines. The underground workers were able to provide the Central Committee of the Communist Party and the Military Council of the front with information that was very useful to us both for purely military purposes and for general political purposes. This information helped save thousands of lives of our soldiers. By their actions, they disorganized and weakened the rear of the enemy, created uncertainty among the invaders about the strength of the successes they achieved in the first period of the war.

guerrilla war

Partisan detachments in Karelia began to be created in July 1941. By the decision of the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Karelian-Finnish SSR, a troika was created for their formation on July 2, 1941, consisting of the Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) A. S. Varlamov, Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the KFSSR M. Y. Isakov and People's Commissar of State Security M. I. Baskakov. Later, on August 6, the Central Committee of the Communist Party created a republican headquarters for the leadership of the partisan movement in the Karelo-Finnish SSR, headed by Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars M. Ya. Isakov.

By mid-August 1941, there were 15 partisan detachments in the republic with a total number of 1,700 people. Among them were representatives of more than 30 nationalities of the USSR: Russians, Karelians, Finns, Vepsians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, and others. partisan detachments accounted for 20% of the total number of partisans. The social composition of the first partisan detachments looked like this: workers made up almost 44%, collective farmers - 5% and employees - about 52%. The most competent and experienced militarily and politically workers from the party, Soviet and economic activists were selected for command and political work. Among the first commanders and commissars were 11 secretaries of district committees and city committees of the party and 16 leading workers of the republic.

In the first months of the war, when the enemy, having a numerical superiority, advanced deep into our territory, some partisan detachments entered the battle along with regular units of the Red Army. In September 1941, for example, when the Finnish troops approached Petrozavodsk, partisan detachments “Beat the Nazis”, “For the Fatherland”, a detachment of residents of the Prionezhsky district under the command of F. I. Grekov, were actively operating in their rear and on the near approaches to the city and others. In the north of Karelia - in the Rebolsk, Ukhta and Kestenga directions - in the enemy rear since the autumn of 1941, the Red Onezhets, Battle Cry, Red Partisan and Battle Banner detachments successfully operated. The detachment "Red Onezhets" for three months (August - October 1941) made 10 campaigns behind enemy lines.

In the partisan movement of Karelia, three characteristic stages can be noted, due to the situation at the front, the situation in the occupied territory and the tactics of the partisans' combat operations. The first stage covers the period from July to early December 1941, when the troops of the front fought heavy defensive battles. This is the stage of origin and organizational design of the partisan movement, its formation. The leadership of the republic did a great job of recruiting partisan personnel and forming detachments that began hostilities, gaining experience and developing tactics during the battles.

The second stage, covering the period from December 1941 to June 1944, was the time of stable defense of the troops of the Karelian Front, when the partisans expanded their zone of operations through long and short raids behind enemy lines. They acted not only in the occupied regions of Karelia, but also made trips to the territory of Finland. At this stage, the organizational structure of the guerrilla forces was determined, command cadres were formed and gained combat experience, and the basic principles and features of the tactics of guerrilla warfare were developed.

The third stage is connected with the implementation of decisive offensive operations by the troops of the Karelian Front. It covers the period from the beginning of the offensive of the Soviet army units in June 1944 to full release Karelia from the Finnish troops in September 1944. The combat activities of the partisan detachments at that time were closely linked with the combat operations of the units of the Karelian Front.

In the first months of the war, the partisan movement in Karelia, as in other regions of the country, overcame enormous difficulties of formation, accumulated combat experience. Difficulties and difficulties were not only in the organization of detachments, in which there was no experience. Many partisans had to operate without training in the front-line areas or directly on the front line. There was also a lack of the most necessary - weapons, ammunition, medicines, uniforms and food. Great difficulties were caused by the lack of radio stations, which did not allow timely assistance to the partisans by aviation. However, despite all the difficulties, the partisan detachments of Karelia already at the first stage showed their strength and ability to deliver serious blows to the rear of the enemy.

The peculiarity of the conditions determined the forms and methods, the features of the guerrilla war in Karelia at its second stage. The occupied territory of the republic was inhabited mainly by women, the elderly and children (a third of them were in concentration camps) who, naturally, could not participate in the armed struggle. From many settlements, the population was transferred to Petrozavodsk and imprisoned in concentration camps. The reason for this forced relocation, as noted in one of the reports of the VUVK, was the partisan movement, which became so "brisk" that the occupiers "took measures to evacuate the population." Under such conditions, it was impossible to count on the creation, replenishment and supply of partisan detachments with the help of only residents of the occupied regions. The harsh climate presented certain difficulties for the partisans - a long snowy winter with severe frosts, frequent rains in summer, constant dampness, white nights, in addition, impassability, forests and swamps, numerous lakes and rivers. Because of this, the partisan detachments of Karelia were based on the unoccupied territory of the republic, near the front line. In order to carry out this or that operation in the enemy rear, each time they had to cross the front line twice, cover a distance of up to a hundred or more kilometers, carry weapons, ammunition and food for the entire period of the campaign (often for 30-40 days) and other cargo with a total weight of up to 40 kg per person. A difficult problem was the transportation of the wounded and sick from the enemy rear. The peculiarity of the conditions also affected the form of organization of the partisan forces: as a rule, detachments of up to 100 fighters operated.

At the beginning of 1942, by decision of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic, a partisan brigade was formed, consisting of 9 detachments, a mortar company, a machine gun and reconnaissance platoons. In the summer of 1942, the brigade (commander - I. A. Grigoriev, commissar - N. P. Aristov) made a campaign deep behind enemy lines, which lasted 57 days. She fought the Finns 26 times and caused them significant damage in terms of manpower and equipment. On September 1, 1942, the Soviet Information Bureau reported on this campaign: “Partisans marched through forests and swamps for almost 700 km, delivering sudden attacks on enemy communications. Border units and shutskorov detachments were thrown against the partisans. In battles with the White Finns, the partisans exterminated up to 750 soldiers and officers, destroyed a large number of automatic weapons, radio stations, equipment and ammunition. During the operation, high combat and moral qualities partisans, but the brigade suffered heavy losses - only a small part of it returned to base. This was explained by the fact that it was impossible for such a large formation to covertly cross the front line and then successfully maneuver behind enemy lines. The campaign of the brigade showed that in the conditions of Karelia it is inexpedient to act in such large groups. Therefore, in October 1942, the brigade was disbanded, and each partisan detachment again began to act independently.

The command of the Finnish troops made significant efforts to paralyze the partisan movement. From the beginning of 1942, when the front stabilized, the Finnish units strengthened the protection of their communications, strengthened the occupied coast of Lake Onega and other sectors of the front, trying to close all the paths of the partisans to their rear. Fortified strongholds with artillery, machine guns, observation posts and towers, minefields, barbed wire, etc. were created, field outposts and mobile patrols were organized. In winter, control ski tracks were laid, which were checked by patrols several times a day. Forests were cut down along the roads. The fight against the partisans was carried out by border and specially formed units, consisting of well-trained and trained soldiers who used service dogs. Nevertheless, according to the Finnish researcher H. Seppäl, in the summer of 1942 “the partisan movement expanded so much that the headquarters considered it necessary to send a letter to the troops, which spoke of a noticeable revival in the activities of Soviet partisans, which not only expands, but also brings” destructive actions."

30 May 1942 State Committee Defense formed the Central Headquarters of the partisan movement at the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command. At the same time, partisan headquarters were created at the military councils of the fronts, including the Military Council of the Karelian Front, headed by Major General S. Ya. Vershinin. The headquarters of the partisan movement and the Military Council of the Karelian Front directed the combat activities of the detachments, carried out measures to further strengthen them, recruit and train personnel, and organized raids behind enemy lines.

The partisan detachments of Karelia were constantly replenished with fresh forces, since in the battles of 1941 they suffered significant losses, and some joined the ranks of the Red Army. New units were also created. In March 1942, the Red Banner detachment appeared, and in November, on the initiative of the secretary of the Komsomol Central Committee of the republic, Yu. V. Andropov, the Komsomolets of Karelia appeared. Detachments organized in the Murmansk (“Soviet Murman” and “Bolshevik of the Arctic Circle”), Arkhangelsk (“Polyarnik”, “Bolshevik” and “Stalinets”) and Vologda (“For the Motherland”) regions arrived on the Karelian Front. In March 1944, the partisan detachment "Leningradets" arrived from the Leningrad region. In total during 1942-1944. 2366 fighters arrived to fight in the northern forests, including 553 from the Arkhangelsk region, 292 from Murmansk, 234 from Leningrad, 120 from the Vologda region. Replenishment arrived from other parts of the country. In the "Avengers" detachment, for example, envoys from the Sverdlovsk Region and the Krasnoyarsk Territory fought, in the Zheleznyak detachment - from the Yaroslavl Region, in the detachments of them. T. Antikainen and them. Chapaeva - Komi ASSR, in the detachment "Petrel" - Irkutsk region, in the detachment "Red Banner" - Tashkent.

Partisan detachments during this period were better provided with weapons, ammunition, food and uniforms. In 1943, each detachment already had a walkie-talkie and experienced radio operators, which significantly increased their capabilities, the efficiency of commanding the detachments and providing them with the necessary aviation assistance. At the training center of the partisan movement headquarters, platoon and squad commanders, radio operators, demolition instructors were trained. Before being enrolled in the detachments, all the replenishment that arrived, as a rule, went through monthly training camps at this training point. Particular attention was paid to the training of fighters for combat operations in the conditions of the North - skiing, the ability to navigate the terrain, etc.

For the period from the beginning of 1942 to June 1944. partisans conducted many campaigns behind enemy lines and military operations. In January 1942, a partisan brigade defeated the enemy garrisons on Bolshoi Klimenets Island in Lake Onega. Having made a 40-kilometer throw across the ice of the lake at night in 30-degree frost and a headwind, the soldiers secretly approached the intended target and suddenly attacked the enemy at different points on the island. As a result of a bold blow, the enemy garrisons in the villages of Voevnavolok, Konda, Klimenitsy, Sennaya Guba, Kurgenitsy were defeated. In February 1942, the partisans of the brigade, as a result of a bold raid, defeated the enemy garrisons on the western shore of Lake Onega in the village of Karelgranit and Mayak, and on March 10, 1942, they destroyed a Finnish sabotage detachment at the mouth of the river. Vodly.

During the summer operations of 1942, the Karelian partisans caused significant damage to the German-Finnish invaders in manpower and equipment. They organized seven crashes of military trains, smashing 5 locomotives, 128 wagons, destroyed 59 vehicles, 3 tractors, 10 warehouses with food and ammunition, blew up 18 railway and highway bridges, defeated 9 enemy garrisons. The enemy lost about 2 thousand soldiers and 28 officers killed.

The fighting of the partisans in 1943 took place during a period of a radical change in the situation on the Soviet-German front: the completion of the defeat of the Nazi troops near Stalingrad, the grandiose Battle of Kursk and the offensive of the Soviet troops along the entire front. Partisan detachments have significantly stepped up their activities. In January 1943, a combined group of four partisan detachments (“For the Motherland”, named after T. Antikainen, “Fighting Friends” and named after Chapaev) under the command of V. M. Lopatkin, passing over the ice of Lake Onega in one night more than 30 km, suddenly attacked the enemy garrisons in the villages of Lindome, Krestovaya Bay, Tambits-Mayak. The partisans exterminated over 200 enemy soldiers and officers, destroyed several guns, mortars, machine guns, blew up warehouses with ammunition and equipment. In March 1943, another consolidated group of partisan detachments (“Forward”, “Petrel”, “Zheleznyak” and “Red Onezhets”) under the general command of K.V. Mergube (Rugozersky district), destroyed a garage with cars, warehouses with ammunition, military equipment and fuel.

In connection with the preparation for the offensive of the troops of the Karelian Front, the partisans at the beginning of 1944 significantly intensified their activities. On June 1-2, 1944, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic held a meeting of commanders and commissars of all partisan detachments in Karelia and the Arctic, where they were given specific tasks in connection with the upcoming offensive of the Soviet troops.

In the summer of 1944, 19 partisan detachments operated on the territory of Karelia and the Arctic, in which there were 1557 fighters. The offensive of the Soviet troops on the Karelian Isthmus and in southern Karelia created a favorable situation for operations behind enemy lines. The Finnish command was forced to weaken the garrisons and the protection of its rear, which allowed the partisan detachments to intensify combat operations on the enemy's most important communications. Therefore, for example, out of 19 detachments performing combat missions, 18 penetrated behind enemy lines unnoticed. The partisan detachments operating in the north of Karelia, by their combat operations, prevented the transfer of enemy units to the sectors of the front where our troops were advancing. During the three months of summer operations in 1944, the partisans defeated 9 enemy garrisons, derailed 17 military echelons, destroyed 306 wagons and a lot of weapons and ammunition. They blew up bridges and communication lines, set up ambushes on the enemy's retreat routes. Thus, great assistance was rendered to the troops of the Karelian Front in their successful offensive and the fastest liberation of the territory of the republic from the German-Finnish occupiers.

The selfless struggle of the partisans of Karelia lasted 38 months. On October 8, 1944, a parade of partisans took place in the liberated capital of Karelia, Petrozavodsk. On this day, in an appeal to all the working people of the republic, the partisans reported on their deeds during the three years of the war: they destroyed and wounded several thousand enemy soldiers and officers, defeated 53 enemy garrisons, organized 31 collapse of military trains, blew up 151 bridges, 314 vehicles, 78 warehouses destroyed many other property of the enemy. This was a tangible contribution to the common cause of defeating the German and Finnish invaders in the Soviet North.

Liberation of Karelia from occupation

In the first half of 1944, the Armed Forces of the USSR, having carried out successful military operations near Leningrad and Novgorod, in the Right-Bank Ukraine and in the Crimea, entered the territory of one of Germany's allies - Romania. As a result, favorable conditions were created for the liberation of all regions of the country and the achievement of a complete and final victory over enemy troops. The emerging military-strategic situation and the imminent political and economic crisis in Finland forced its leadership in mid-February 1944 to turn to the Soviet government to clarify the conditions for withdrawing from the war. However, the preconditions for the armistice, which were set out by the Soviet side, were rejected by the Finnish government. It did not respond to the joint appeal of the governments of the USSR, Britain and the USA to the satellites. Nazi Germany dated May 13, 1944, in which the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition warned them of responsibility in the event that the war continued on the side of Germany.

In January 1944, the troops of the Volkhov and Leningrad fronts defeated the German army group "North", which had been blockading the city of Leningrad for 900 days. This victory had a great influence on the course of hostilities in Karelia. According to the memoirs of Marshal K. A. Meretskov, in mid-February he was urgently summoned to the Headquarters of the Supreme Command and informed that the Volkhov Front, which he then commanded, was being liquidated, his troops were being transferred to the Leningrad Front, and Meretskov was appointed commander of the Karelian Front. At the same time, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command formulated in general terms the task assigned to the Karelian Front: during the summer-autumn campaign of 1944, to liberate the occupied regions of Karelia and the Kola Peninsula.

The Soviet Supreme High Command, in order to defeat the Finnish troops and restore the state border in the North-West, decided to carry out the Vyborg-Petrozavodsk operation. It was planned to carry it out by the forces of the Leningrad and Karelian fronts with the assistance of the Baltic Fleet, the Ladoga and Onega military flotillas. Offensive actions were to be launched by the troops of the Leningrad Front (Vyborg operation), and then the troops of the Karelian Front (Svir-Petrozavodsk operation) went over to the offensive. For the operation, 41 divisions, 5 rifle brigades and 4 fortified areas were allocated. They numbered about 450 thousand people, 10 thousand guns and mortars, 800 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1540 aircraft and outnumbered the enemy: in people - 1.7 times, in guns and mortars - 5.2 times, in tanks and self-propelled guns - 7.3 times and in aircraft - 6.2 times.

On June 10, 1944, after careful preparation, the troops of the Leningrad Front under the command of General of the Army L. A. Govorov, as part of the 21st and 23rd armies, with the support of the ships of the Baltic Fleet and aircraft of the 13th Air Army, went on the offensive on the Karelian Isthmus . As a result of 10 days of stubborn fighting, Soviet troops broke through three lanes of a powerful enemy defense in depth and on June 20 captured the city of Vyborg. The enemy, having suffered heavy losses in men and equipment, pulled up fresh reinforcements from southern Karelia to the battle area, which created a favorable environment for offensive operations of units of the Karelian Front on the isthmus between Lake Ladoga and Onega.

On June 21, 1944, the troops of the Karelian Front launched the Svir-Petrozavodsk offensive operation, with the aim of defeating the grouping of Finnish troops between the Onega and Ladoga lakes and liberating southern Karelia. The main blow was delivered by the 7th Army (commander - Lieutenant General A.N. Krutikov) from the Lodeinoye Pole area along Lake Ladoga in the direction of Olonets - Pitkyaranta - Sortavala with access to the state border. In addition, units of the 7th Army were given the task of simultaneously advancing along the western coast of Lake Onega in a northern direction towards Petrozavodsk. The troops of the 32nd Army (commander - Lieutenant General F. D. Gorelenko) were to advance from the area northeast of Medvezhyegorsk in the direction of Suoyarvi, and part of the forces - to Petrozavodsk. The remaining troops of the Karelian Front (14th, 19th, 26th armies) were in readiness to go on the offensive in the event of the transfer of enemy forces from northern to southern Karelia. The Onega and Ladoga military flotillas, the 7th Air Army and 19 partisan detachments took part in the offensive.

The offensive began on the morning of June 21 by forcing the river. Svir and was accompanied by powerful artillery and aviation training. A group of 16 young volunteer fighters began to overcome the Svir up to 400 meters wide. When the enemy opened fire on those who were crossing, our observers managed to clarify the system of enemy firing points and help open targeted fire at them. All 16 guards reached the opposite bank and entrenched themselves on it, contributing to the successful crossing of the river by the main forces. For this selfless feat, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, Soviet soldiers A. M. Aliyev, A. F. Baryshev, S. Bekbosunov, V. P. Elyutin, I. S. Zazhigin, V. A. Malyshev, V. A. Markelov , I. D. Morozov, I. P. Mytarev, V. I. Nemchikov, P. P. Pavlov, I. K. Pankov, M. R. Popov, M. I. Tikhonov, B. N. Yunosov, and N M. Chukhreev was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. As a result of the first day, units of the 7th Army successfully crossed the Svir and broke through the main defensive line of the enemy. They managed to move forward 20-30 km and liberate more than 200 settlements. In commemoration of the victory, the most distinguished units were given the name "Svirsky". The Ladoga and Onega military flotillas provided great assistance to units of the 7th Army. With the help of their landing, units of the 7th Army captured the Olonets fortified area and, after fierce fighting, liberated the city of Olonets on June 25.

At the same time, units of the 32nd Army began active combat operations north of Lake Onega. By the end of the day on June 21, they occupied Povenets, and on June 23, despite the strong resistance of the enemy, Medvezhyegorsk. After the liberation of Medvezhyegorsk, in accordance with the plan of operation, the Soviet troops launched an offensive to the west, in the direction of Chebino - Myanduselga - Porosozero, and the 1070th Infantry Regiment of the 313th Division 2 to the south, in the direction of Kondopoga - Petrozavodsk. On June 28, this regiment captured Kondopoga.

The advance of Soviet troops in all directions created a threat of encirclement of the enemy’s southern grouping and forced him to begin a hasty retreat from the Petrozavodsk region, to which the 368th Rifle Division, interacting with the Onega military flotilla, was advancing along the shore of Lake Onega after forcing the Svir. On June 26, behind enemy lines, near Sheltozero, an assault force landed from armored boats, which forced the Finns to leave the village. Sheltozero. On June 28, a group of paratroopers landed in the area of ​​the Uiskaya Bay, she liberated the village. Wooden. On the same day, the paratroopers of the Onega military flotilla, with the assistance of units of the 32nd Army, advancing along the Kirov railway from the north, and units of the 7th Army, advancing along the western coast of Lake Onega from the south, entered the city of Petrozavodsk at 11:30 , which has been in the hands of the Finns since October 1, 1941.

On June 28, the headquarters of the Karelian Front sent a combat report to the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I.V. Stalin about the liberation of Petrozavodsk. On the morning of June 29, the advanced units of the 368th and 313th rifle divisions entered the city, advancing from the south and north. On the same day, June 29, Moscow saluted the Soviet soldiers who liberated Petrozavodsk with 24 artillery volleys from 324 guns. In honor of the victory, the most distinguished formations and units received the honorary right to be called "Petrozavodsk": 313th Rifle Division, 31st Separate Battalion marines, a division of mine boats, a division of gunboats and a division of armored boats of the Onega military flotilla. On June 30, a citywide mass rally of the population dedicated to the liberation of the city took place on the central square of Petrozavodsk.

In just the first 10 days of the offensive (from June 21 to June 30), the troops of the Karelian Front liberated more than 800 settlements in the Leningrad Region and Karelia, completely cleared the Kirov Railway and the White Sea-Baltic Canal from the enemy. The enemy suffered significant losses in manpower (up to 22 thousand killed) and equipment. Although the main forces of the Finns managed to occupy new lines of defense, the troops of the Karelian Front continued to move forward. In the first half of July, after stubborn fighting, Salmi, Pitkyaranta, Suoyarvi, and Porosozero were liberated. On July 21, the 176th Rifle Division of the 32nd Army reached the state border. By August 9, 1944, Soviet troops reached the line Kudamguba - Kuolismaa - Pitkyaranta, having basically completed the Svir-Petrozavodsk offensive operation.

As a result of one and a half months of fighting, the troops of the left wing of the Karelian Front, in cooperation with the Ladoga and Onega military flotillas, advanced 200-250 km, defeated 6 infantry divisions and 6 different brigades of the Finns. The enemy lost over 50,000 soldiers and officers alone, 470 guns, 165 mortars, 432 machine guns, 30 steam locomotives, over 500 wagons, 50 various warehouses with military equipment, 20 tanks and armored vehicles.

Karelian partisans and underground fighters actively participated in the offensive operation. In the offensive zone of the 7th Army, the underground workers of the Olonetsky, Sheltozersky districts and Petrozavodsk delivered important intelligence information to the Soviet troops and helped liberate settlements. In the combat area of ​​the 32nd Army, partisan detachments operated on enemy communications. So, on July 2, 1944, the Red Banner detachment entered the village. Padany, and the Avengers detachment - in the village of Selga, Medvezhyegorsk region, about which information was received at the headquarters of the partisan movement of the KFSSR. According to both commanders, the local population greeted the partisans very cordially and was waiting for the arrival of the Red Army, 29 residents joined the partisan detachments.

In battles with the enemy, Soviet soldiers showed mass heroism. During the Svir-Petrozavodsk operation, 23,990 people were awarded orders and medals, and 52 were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. Representatives of all peoples and republics of the USSR - Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Georgia, etc. participated in the battles for the liberation of Karelia. Thus, the combat path of the 313th rifle division, formed from the inhabitants of Udmurtia, was inextricably linked with Karelia. In the difficult September days of 1941, she entered the battle near the Karelian village of Pryazha, in the summer of 1944 she conducted offensive operations for the liberation of Petrozavodsk, Medvezhyegorsk, Povenets and many other settlements in Karelia. For successful combat operations, this division was given the honorary name "Petrozavodsk" with the award of the Order of the Red Banner. During the offensive, the 272nd Rifle Division covered about 200 km with fierce battles, liberated 115 settlements, including the regional centers of Salmi and Pitkyaranta. During the operation, the division crossed 8 water barriers - the rivers Svir, Olonka, Tuloksa, etc. For the courage and heroism shown at the same time, 1622 people were awarded orders and medals, 11 soldiers were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. In the battles for Medvezhyegorsk, foreman I. Klyuev immortalized his name, covering the embrasure of the enemy bunker with his body. Lieutenant Colonel V. N. Leselidze, who was awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, died a heroic death near Vidlitsa.

The powerful blows of the Soviet troops on the Karelian Isthmus and in southern Karelia aggravated the internal political and military-economic situation in Finland. Anti-war sentiments grew among the population, the morale of the army fell. All this led to the resignation of President Ryti on August 1, 1944. He was replaced by Marshal Mannerheim. The newly formed government turned to the USSR with a proposal to start negotiations on a truce or peace. The Soviet government agreed to enter into negotiations on the condition that Finland publicly announces the severance of relations with Germany and ensures the withdrawal of Nazi troops from its territory before September 15th. On the night of September 4, the Finnish government made a radio statement that it accepted the preconditions of the USSR government to break off relations with Germany and withdraw German troops from Finland. At the same time, a cessation of hostilities was announced throughout the entire area of ​​\u200b\u200bthe location of the Finnish troops from 8 am on September 4. The Soviet troops of the Karelian and Leningrad fronts also received an order from the Supreme High Command to cease hostilities against Finland from 8 o'clock on September 5.

On September 19, an armistice agreement was signed in Moscow between the USSR and Great Britain, on the one hand, and Finland, on the other. The agreement restored, with some changes, the effect of the peace treaty between the USSR and Finland of March 12, 1940, and its clauses largely related to Karelia. Finland undertook: to withdraw its troops beyond the line of the Soviet-Finnish border of 1940; disarm the German troops remaining on its territory and hand them over to the Soviet side as prisoners of war; to transfer his army to a peaceful position within two and a half months; immediately transfer to the USSR all Soviet and allied prisoners of war and forcibly taken away citizens who were in its power; compensate the USSR for losses caused by military operations and the occupation of Soviet territory in the amount of $300 million; to return to the USSR in full safety all valuables and materials removed from Soviet territory during the war, etc. On the other hand, a peace treaty was signed.

After the conclusion of the armistice, hostilities continued only in the northern sector of the Karelian Front against the 20th German mountain army stationed here. At the end of September 1944, as a result of a roundabout maneuver carried out by the Soviet 19th and 26th armies, the fascist German command withdrew its troops in the Kestenga, Ukhta and Kandalaksha directions. During the fighting, the enemy suffered heavy losses. The territory of Karelia was completely liberated. In October 1944, formations of the Karelian Front, with the support of the ships of the Northern Fleet, successfully completed military operations in the Far North: as a result of the Petsamo-Kirkenes operation, they liberated the occupied regions of the Soviet Arctic. state border in the North-West of the USSR was finally restored.

It should be noted that the success in offensive operations of the units of the Karelian Front was achieved not only due to their superiority in forces, but also due to the superiority of the strategy and tactics of the Soviet command and the mass heroism of the Soviet soldiers. Marshal Mannerheim himself testifies to this in his memoirs: “Our forces at this stage underwent an exceptionally difficult test. This was a consequence not only of the enormous superiority of the enemy in forces, but also of the fact that the positional warfare that lasted for almost 3 years ... dulled their habit of military action. The Red Army, on the contrary, has been going from victory to victory since 1942, and thus has acquired exceptional experience in the offensive ... "

The inhabitants of Karelia fought with honor on all fronts of the Great Patriotic War: in Ukraine and Belarus, in Moldova and the Baltic States, in the Arctic and Crimea. Thus, the 71st Rifle Division, formed in the republic on the eve of the war, having begun its combat path in the North, participated in breaking the blockade of Leningrad, in the battle of Kursk, in the liberation of Ukraine and Poland, and in defeating enemy forces in Germany. Many of the inhabitants of Karelia, fulfilling their duty to the end, fell in the battles for the freedom and independence of the Motherland. The "Book of Memory", published on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Victory, contains the names of more than 40 thousand soldiers, partisans, underground fighters of Karelia who died in 1941-1945. For valor and courage shown in the battles with the German-Finnish troops, thousands of soldiers from Karelia were awarded orders and medals of the USSR. The high title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to 37 people.

The beginning of the revival of peaceful life

After the liberation of the territory of Karelia, evacuated residents from different republics, territories and regions of the Soviet Union began to return to their native places. Them total number there were more than 500 thousand people out of almost 700 thousand people in the population. During the entire wartime, they had to live in very difficult conditions, since the evacuation took place in a hurry and people could not take with them everything necessary for life. The move itself to new places was extremely difficult and was accompanied by the death of many people due to enemy bombing, lack of necessary food and essentials. Yes, and at a new place of residence, the evacuees, at first, had to experience great difficulties in housing, food, and other social services.

In general, the evacuated residents of Karelia (mostly women, children and elderly men) worked in all areas where they were sent: in collective farms, industrial and transport enterprises, in educational and cultural institutions. They contributed to the common cause of the country's Victory over the aggressors. It should be emphasized that many of them were awarded state awards for their selfless work.

The reevacuation also took place in rather difficult conditions, because it was a difficult task to transport hundreds of thousands of people (and many millions of people across the country). Nevertheless, in October-November 1944 alone, more than 50 thousand people were re-evacuated. Special decisions of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Republic provided for a number of measures to provide possible assistance to those arriving: they were entitled to an allowance in the amount of 1,000 rubles per family and temporary exemption from cash taxes and from mandatory supplies of agricultural products to the state, etc.

Immediately after the liberation from the occupation of Petrozavodsk, in early July, the governing bodies of the Karelian-Finnish SSR moved to the capital from Belomorsk, where they were temporarily evacuated. The main efforts of the leadership and working people of the republic were directed to the speedy revival of the social and state life and the economic and cultural life of their native land. In an effort to quickly revive the destroyed cities and villages, they organized massive labor subbotniks and Sundays. So, the day after the liberation of Petrozavodsk, thousands of people went out to clean up the streets of the city and build bridges. The townspeople undertook to work on restoration work for at least 8 hours a week. Before Victory Day, 35 industrial and transport enterprises and workshops were put into operation in the city. Of course, while only the first steps were taken to revive the region, the main work in this direction lay ahead. Suffice it to say that in 1945 the total volume of gross output exceeded 25% of the pre-war level. The sown area in agriculture was 50% of the pre-war size. The population was in dire need of the most necessary - food, clothing, housing. So, hastily put together wooden barracks, and even dugouts, often served as housing. It took time, huge material resources and selfless efforts of all the inhabitants of the republic to bring back to life everything destroyed during the war.

V.G. Makurov, Candidate of Historical Sciences

Chapter 7. Karelian Front (winter 1942 - summer 1944)

As already mentioned, the position of the troops of the Karelian Front from the winter of 1942 to the summer of 1944 was exceptionally stable. Although both sides made several unsuccessful attempts to improve their position. In this regard, we will not go into a general description of the hostilities on the Karelian front, we will only note a few interesting points.

Let's start with the position of the German troops. In February 1942, the German troops operating in northern Finland and northern Norway were separated from the Army of Norway into the Army of Lapland. On June 20, 1942, the Lapland Army was renamed the 20th Mountain Army.

In September 1941, the German 6th Mountain Rifle Division arrived from Greece in the direction of Murmansk. In February 1942, the 7th Mountain Rifle Division, formed on the basis of the 99th Light Infantry Division, arrived from the Balkans to the Murmansk direction. As a result of these measures, the number of German troops in Finland by July 1, 1942 increased to 150 thousand people. In September 1942, the 210th stationary infantry division was formed in Norway, which was also sent to the Murmansk direction. Thus, from the end of 1942 to the beginning of 1944, the 20th Mountain Army was subordinate to the 163rd and 169th Infantry Divisions, the 2nd, 6th and 7th Mountain Rifle Divisions, the 210th Stationary Infantry Division and many separate regiments.

In 1941 - February 1942, the Karelian Front also received significant reinforcements. Among them were the 152nd, 263rd and 367th rifle divisions, eight marine brigades, fifteen separate ski battalions, a tank battalion and two divisions of rocket mortars (M-13 installations). A significant part of the newly arrived reinforcements - two divisions, four brigades of marines, eight separate ski battalions - were transferred by the Military Council of the front to the southern sector of the front - to the area of ​​the Maselskaya - Povenets station.

On December 27, 1941, the Military Council decided to create the Masel task force. On January 3, 1942, parts of the Maselskaya group went on the offensive. The 290th regiment of the 186th division attacked the village of Velikaya Guba without artillery preparation and took it on the move. Regiment commander Major N.V. Azarov skillfully used the 227th tank company subordinate to him for the duration of the operation. The tanks quickly burst into the village, followed by the infantry. The enemy was knocked out of the Great Guba. However, half a kilometer west of the village, two heights remained in the hands of the Finns. From here, the Finns viewed the entire village and approaches to it from the east. On the same day, the 1046th regiment of the 289th division began to advance in the direction of Lake Pettel. The regiment advanced more than a kilometer, pushing the Finns back from the eastern shore of Lake Redu.

The 367th division moved from the 14th siding in the direction of Lake Kommunarov and, successfully repelling counterattacks, advanced 2-3 km on the very first day. The 65th Marine Brigade advanced on the village of Lisya Guba, but could not occupy it. Throughout the first day, the Marines fought a fierce battle, the enemy suffered heavy losses. On the night of January 3-4, the Finns brought up the nearest reserves and in the morning they launched counterattacks throughout the entire sector. On January 5, they brought into battle the second echelons of their divisions and the reserves of the II Rifle Corps. The 1st Infantry Division, which was in the reserve of the Karelian Army, moved from Kondopoga to the battle area. Intense fighting in the Masel direction continued until January 11.

The troops of the Medvezhyegorsk Operational Group launched an offensive on January 6. The artillery preparation before the offensive lasted 40 minutes. Then the 1-26th and 367th regiments of the 71st division crossed the canal and occupied the outskirts of Povenets. On the left flank, two regiments of the 313th division crossed the canal. In Povenets they met stubborn resistance from the enemy. The ski brigade, created from five ski battalions, on the night of January 5-6, reached Cape Gazhiy Navolok on the ice of the Povenets Bay. Having knocked out the enemy from the shore and leaving one company to cover the convoys and protect the coast, the skiers moved in the north with the task of cutting the Medvezhyegorsk-Povenets highway. They managed to advance from Cape Gazhiy Navolok by 2-2.5 km. A stubborn battle went on here on January 6 and 7. The enemy raided the covering company and the brigade's convoys.

After stubborn oncoming battles, on January 11, our troops were forced to withdraw to their starting lines in the Povenets direction. Parts of the Maselskaya operational group occupied the village of Velikaya Guba and improved their positions in a number of places. In general, the offensive of the Red Army can be assessed as unsuccessful. However, the Finns suffered serious losses, and the Finnish command abandoned plans for an offensive in 1942 on the Karelian front.

In March 1942, the troops of the Maselskaya and Medvezhyegorsk operational groups united into the 32nd Army. In June, F.D. became its commander. Gorelenko. The army headquarters was located in the forest near the village of Aita-Lyambi. Commander of the Medvezhyegorsk group, Lieutenant General S.G. Trofimenko accepted the 7th Army.

One of the most important tasks of the Karelian Front was to ensure the uninterrupted operation of the Kirov railway. After the front line stabilized, and the fighting took on a positional character, the enemy held in his hands a section of the railway 310 km long from the Svir station to the Maselskaya station. In the north, from Murmansk to Maselskaya (850 km), there were six independent operational areas. In the first half of 1942 alone, 15 thousand wagons (approximately 230-240 thousand tons) of imported cargo from Murmansk passed through Soroka - Obozersky to the center of the country. In total, several million tons of cargo were transported during the war. To combat the sabotage detachments of the Finns, who periodically penetrated the rear, the railway workers of the Kirov Railway equipped seven armored trains (seven armored locomotives and nineteen armored platforms).

Back in September 1941, Goebbels announced on the radio: "The Kirov road is disabled - it does not work and cannot be restored."

However, in December 1941 British Foreign Secretary Anthony Eden arrived in Murmansk by sea and from there traveled by rail to Moscow. Returning to London, on January 4, 1942, he announced on the radio: “Due to the fact that the flight conditions were very bad, we went to Moscow by train. Part of our journey passed along the railway, which Goebbels says is cut. From my own experience, I can say that Goebbels is wrong - the railway is in perfect order, not damaged and runs smoothly, well.

In February-March 1942, the command of the Karelian Front received information that the Germans were preparing an offensive in the Kestenga direction, and decided to strike the enemy with a counterattack. After the bloody November battles of 1941, the 88th division was on the defensive in the Kestenga direction (in March 1942 it became the 23rd guards division). Its parts successfully carried out the tasks assigned to them. But now, in order to thwart the enemy’s offensive, the Front’s Military Council decided to transfer the 263rd and 186th divisions, two marine brigades and one ski brigade, formed in February 1942 from separate battalions, to the Kestenga direction.

The offensive from the main line of defense of the Soviet troops began on April 26 with artillery preparation, in which 33 batteries of 76-mm guns took part. But their shells could not destroy the long-term fortifications of the enemy, and there were no guns of a larger caliber there. On the same day, the 186th Division and the 80th Marine Brigade went on the offensive on the right flank. For two days they successfully advanced towards Kestenga, overcoming the resistance of the rear and reserve units of the SS division "Nord", which now and then turned into counterattacks. Stubborn battles went on here for several days. On the third day, the 307th regiment of the 163rd enemy division entered the battle. The Germans suffered heavy losses. They threw more and more battalions against our units, they threw them directly from the vehicles, not allowing them to rest and look around, not giving their commanders the opportunity to get used to the terrain.

Simultaneously with our offensive on the flank, the 263rd Division and the Marine Brigade launched several attacks from the front. The SS division "Nord" had been defending here for almost half a year. The Germans built long-term firing points, dug trenches in full profile. The fighting in the Kestenga direction lasted 10 days. The result was the same as in the January battles in the Masel and Povenets directions. Both sides suffered heavy losses and remained in their positions. The Germans seriously damaged the 163rd and 169th Infantry Divisions, as well as the SS Nord Division.

On April 27, 1942, units of the 14th Army went on the offensive in the Murmansk direction. The first two days the 10th Guards Division (former 152nd Rifle Division) advanced successfully. She forced the Germans to leave the first line of defense. The 14th division and the Marine Corps brigade were active in the coastal sector. The Germans strengthened their defense by pushing the second echelons to the front line. On the third day of the fighting, there was some hitch. The Soviet troops regrouped, and a marine brigade went on the offensive. The ships of the fleet opened intense fire on the enemy defenses. On May 2, 3 and 4, stubborn battles went on along the entire front of the 14th Army. Having moved forward several kilometers, units of the 10th Guards Division went into the flank of the Germans, who were defending the bridgehead on the banks of the Western Litsa River.

To develop success, the army commander decided to bring into battle the 152nd reserve division, which was concentrated 30 km from the front line. To overcome this distance, it was necessary to make a day's march. It was planned that on the evening of May 5, the division would approach its starting lines, rest for the night, and enter the battle on the morning of May 6. But these plans were not destined to come true. On the morning of May 5, a strong snowstorm rose in the tundra. The wind knocked people off their feet. Even cars couldn't move. They were ordered to dig holes in the snow, cover themselves with raincoats and sit out. The storm lasted six hours. As a result, the division became incapacitated. 1200 people had to be hospitalized. Many of those who remained in the ranks were also frostbitten. Three people died.

The division had to be returned to the concentration area, where good dugouts were built, and put in order. The troops of the 14th Army were ordered to stop the attacks and retreat to the old lines. Only where the occupied terrain improved our positions did they begin to build new defensive structures.

By mid-May 1942, the Karelian Front had sufficient forces. The front-line reserve included two divisions, two marine brigades and three light brigades formed from separate ski battalions. In addition, the Military Councils of the armies had their own reserves. In March 1942, the commander of the Karelian Front, V.A. Frolov and the commander of the 7th Army F.D. Gorelenko were summoned to Headquarters. Stalin instructed them to think over an offensive plan to the south-west from Maselskaya station with the ultimate task of reaching the rear of the Finnish troops on the Karelian Isthmus and breaking through the blockade of Leningrad from the north with the forces of the 32nd, 7th Separate and 23rd Armies of the Leningrad Front. However, he warned that for the time being, the front headquarters should not be instructed to develop all the details of such an operation.

Note that the soldiers and commanders of the Karelian Front did everything they could to help the residents of besieged Leningrad. So, in March 1942, 300 of the best deer were selected at the Loukhsky reindeer-breeding state farm. Reindeer and two wagons of frozen fish were delivered by rail to Tikhvin. There, the deer were divided into two groups: one went on the ice of Ladoga in teams with fish loaded on sleds, and the other was sent in a herd. In re-ultat, not a single car was required until Leningrad itself. Leningrad residents received 300 heads of deer (about 15 tons of meat) and 25 tons of fish in March in addition to what they could deliver to the city automobile transport along the ice road. This is more than a two-month official norm for 10,000 people.

Needless to say, the command of the Karelian Front accepted the idea of ​​releasing Leningrad from the north with enthusiasm. On June 17, 1942, a member of the Military Council of the Karelian Front G.N. Kupriyanov reported to the Chief of the General Staff A.M. Vasilevsky, that it is supposed to break through the Finnish defenses in the Medvezhyegorsk direction and, passing north of Lake Ladoga, hit the rear of the Finnish troops on the Karelian Isthmus. In a straight line, this was 320 km. For the successful conduct of the operation, the front command requested that eight rifle divisions, three or four tank battalions, two large-caliber artillery regiments, five road-building battalions and two engineering brigades be allocated from the Stavka reserve.

However, due to the defeat of the Soviet troops near Kharkov and the subsequent German offensive on Stalingrad, the operation to unblock Leningrad was postponed. Moreover, in late June - early July 1942, the Stavka took the 71st and 263rd rifle divisions from the Karelian Front. The front command literally begged the Headquarters to leave the 71st division in place, and instead send the 289th division, since the 71st consisted of more than half of the Finns and Karelians and fought well in such difficult climatic conditions. But the 71st Division could have been taken a few days earlier, and that settled the matter. As a result, there were no major operations in 1942 and 1943 on the Karelian front.

The role of aviation in the combat operations of the Karelian Front in 1941-1944 was more modest than on other fronts of the Great Patriotic War. On June 22, 1941, the 7th Army had only a regiment of I-16 fighters (28 vehicles) and nine SB bombers. At the same time, seven SBs were lost in early July 1941 during a raid on the Finnish railway station Ionsu. The 14th Army had a little more aircraft. The aviation of the Northern Fleet had 49 fighters (28 - I-15bis, 17 - I-153, 4 - I-16), 11 SB bombers and 56 seaplanes (49 - MBR-2, 7 - GTS).

At the end of September 1941, the Karelian Front received a regiment of I-16 fighters, a regiment of Pe-2 dive bombers and 50 British Hurricane fighters specifically to cover Murmansk. On August 29, 1941, the Northern Fleet received 42 fighters and 19 DB-ZF bombers from the Baltic and Pacific Fleets. During 1942 and 1943, the aviation of the Karelian Front was replenished with Airacobra fighters and Il-2 attack aircraft, and at the end of 1943, Yak-7 and Yak-9 fighters. At the beginning of 1944, an air division armed with Tu-2 bombers arrived at the front. At the beginning of 1942, the Air Force handed over to the Northern Fleet the 95th Air Regiment armed with Pe-3 long-range fighters. On July 1, 1943, the Northern Fleet had 185 aircraft (including 104 fighters), on June 1, 1944 - 258 aircraft (of which 150 fighters). By the middle of 1943, Soviet pilots managed to gain air supremacy in the Murmansk region.

Among the combat operations of the aviation of the Karelian front, I would like to note two episodes. In November 1941, the fighter of Senior Lieutenant N.F. Repninov (152nd Fighter Aviation Regiment) died after ramming a Finnish plane. On the night of March 5, 1942, the PS-84 aircraft flew over all of Finland to the Gulf of Bothnia and scattered 200,000 leaflets near the cities of Oulu, Suomokalmi and Kemijärvi. If the Finns in March 1942 had carefully read the leaflets, then they would not have had to resent the bombing of their cities in 1944.

Despite the poor population of Karelia before the war and the evacuation of the majority of the population in the autumn of 1941, a partisan movement unfolded in the occupied territories. So, by October 10, 1941, 12 partisan detachments with a total number of 710 people were operating behind the line of the Karelian Front. By this time, the partisans had killed 500 Finnish soldiers, destroyed 45 cars and one armored car, blew up 66 bridges, burned 2 seaplanes on the water and interrupted the communication wires of the Finnish troops 15 times.

Scout Dmitry Yegorovich Tuchin can rightly be called the "Karelian Stirlitz." Before the war, 28-year-old Tuchin worked as the commandant of the building of the Council of People's Commissars in Petrozavodsk. In August 1941, "for systematic drunkenness" he was expelled from the party and expelled from work. "Repressed by the regime" Tuchin left for his native village of Gornoe Sholtozero. In October, the village was occupied by Finnish troops. A couple of days later, Tuchin became the headman of the village. He zealously took up his duties and often traveled on business trips. Went to the headquarters of the Karelian Front detailed information about the movements of the Finnish troops. In particular, it was thanks to the intelligence received from Tuchin that on October 5-6, the 272nd division was transferred by water from Kondopoga to the Voznesenye region, which played an important role in the battles at the sources of the Svir.

In early 1942, Tuchin was invited to Helsinki to a meeting of the leadership of the occupied territories. After the meeting, Tuchin was received by Finnish President Ryti. They talked for a long time, and then Ryti awarded Tuchin with a medal.

In early June 1944, Tuchin formed a large partisan detachment. By plane, machine guns and machine guns were delivered to the detachment. On June 21, when the offensive of the Soviet troops on the Svir River began, and the Finnish troops retreated from Ascension through the Sholtozero region, Tuchin's detachment began hostilities. He destroyed a dozen cars with the retreating Finns, and liberated several villages in the Sholtozero region.

As of January 1, 1944, 1557 people were in the partisan detachments of Karelia. From February 1942 to June 1944, partisans killed 1,364 Finnish soldiers, derailed 7 locomotives, 31 passenger and 107 freight cars, blew up 2 railway and 7 highway bridges.

Despite the fact that in 1943 and the first half of 1944 the Karelian Front did not conduct large offensive operations, it became clear to the Finns that the initiative had finally passed to the Soviet troops.

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

Finnish soldiers take the Pz.Kpfw. III from the tankers of the Wehrmacht in the forest.

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

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

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

Members of the battery headquarters of the 856th artillery regiment of the 313th rifle division for the development of 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 their moments of rest.

A Finnish gunsmith poses with a belt of 13mm machine gun rounds in Lappeenranta.

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

Soviet armored car BA-10 on Vyborg street.

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

Air gunner of the Finnish Blenheim bomber.

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

Soviet soldiers in battle at the 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 at lunch in the forest.

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

Finnish soldiers with a Soviet school card in Kaukola (now 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 are talking near the walls of a village house.

Portrait of a Finnish corporal during a break between battles.

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

Finnish technicians check the operation of the 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 is baking fish over a fire.

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

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

The commander of the 1st Air Fleet, Colonel-General of Aviation Alfred Keller, who arrived in Finland, shakes hands with the Finnish communications officer, Lieutenant Polviander.

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

Seaplane He-115C-1 from the 906th Luftwaffe coastal aviation group before taking off on the shore of the Finnish lake.

Commander of the Finnish Army "Karelia" General of the Infantry E. Heinrichs awards officers of the Wehrmacht.

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

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

Finnish ace Eino Juutilainen at the Lapeenranta airfield.

The 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.

A smoking break for Finnish soldiers near the Karelian village of Kurgenitsa.

A Finnish officer with a pike caught on Lake Jagljärvi.

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

Medical battalion tent in the forest on the Karelian front.

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

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

Finnish soldiers are walking along the railway track past the broken trains.

Wehrmacht soldiers move across rough terrain in an NSU NK-101 half-track tractor.

The crew of the German ferry "Siebel" at the 88-mm anti-aircraft guns FlaK 36 during a voyage to Lahdenpohja.

Red Army soldiers enter the city of Pitkyaranta, set on fire by the Finnish troops during the retreat.

Soviet self-propelled guns ISU-152, knocked out by the Finns at Tali-Ihantala. 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 Yevgeny 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 are repairing the street before the parade of Finnish troops in Vyborg.

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

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

Finnish soldiers are considering three cubs found in a den.

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

A group photo of aces of the 24th squadron of the Finnish Air Force against the background of the Brewster B-239 fighter.

Inauguration of a new bridge across the Sofyanga River.

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

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

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

A Finnish soldier firing a Suomi KP/-31 submachine gun during a 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 training 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 gun in Vyborg.

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

Presentation of the battle banner to the best rifle regiment of the 313th rifle division on behalf of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the UASSR.