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HELL'S SUMMER OF 1941

On June 21, 2018, an exhibition Hell's Summer of 1941 was launched at the Oblast Art Museum on the Day of Sorrow and commemoration of the victims of the war in Ukraine. 

Opening of the exhibitions of the respective thematic direction becomes especially important in terms of the Patriotic War of Ukrainian people against the Moscow imperialism, Nazism, fascism, medieval barbarian, revengeism etc. Hate of the so-called Russian Peace to Ukraine, Europe, America, candid calls to the victorious march in Kiev, Warsaw, Berlin, to erase from the face of the Earth Britain and the United States of America, it all put the world before the threat of another world war. Under these conditions, the theme of the Second World War becomes not only a formidable caveat to modern ambitious politicians, but also very important battleground of contemporary ideological front, aiming to defend Ukrainian interpretation of past events.  

No matter how furious Moscow propaganda is, calling the Horde as "Rus", Russia as "junta", sticking us with labels of "traitors", "fascists’ supporters" and even "fascists", but historical facts conclusively refute all allegations made by modern "Goebbels-TV". For example, during the Second World War, more than 7 million Ukrainian soldiers fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army and Navy. Every second of them passed away in the war, and every second of those who survived - returned home disabled. The total number of Ukrainian deaths is estimated, according to various sources, from 8 to 10 million, and this is one in six Ukrainians.       

Most of the Soviet fronts in the war were led by Ukrainians; by the number of awarded and those who have received the title of hero of the Soviet Union, the Ukrainians took second place. Much has already been written about the anti-fascist struggle of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army soldiers, the secret troops of the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and much more that does not fit the Soviet mythology.

We are proud of the heroism of Ukrainians, who together with other nations of the former Soviet Union stopped "the brown plague" and today we are proud of those who make us bulletproof on the eastern borders of our country against Moscow Horde and their accomplices. Analyzing modern Ukrainian-Moscow war, we involuntarily make parallel with similar events of the Second World War: Ilovaisk-Minsk Offensive, Mariupol – heroic defense of Odessa and Sevastopol, Donetsk airport – Stalingrad, Debaltseve - Battle of Kursk, the "New Order" of the 3rd Reich-"Russian World". Moreover, these interesting parallels prove reasonable and prophetic statements, suggested by some historians in 1970-1980’s, that humanity in the future will face a nasty surprise-the emergence of the new 4TH Reich, with the capital in Moscow.  

Coming 77 years back to those events, it should be noted that June 22, 1941, really was a significant date in the history of the Second World War, as it crashed plans of the politicians of that times, turning former rivals into allies and vise verse. Indeed, on this very day, a grand battle between two bloody dictators, Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin, began to emerge, and each of them sought world domination and stubbornly pursued his goals. Some historians have proposed a version of the pre-emptive attack of the German army. That attack thwarted Stalin plan - an aggressive operation "Spring", implementation of which could have caused the situation, when a large part of Europe had been supposed to be under Moscow's occupation. At any rate, numerical facts confirm exactly this, absolutely logical version. "Red Emperor" had in his possession a huge country with inexhaustible natural and human resources, commercial industry, built on millions of people bones, considerable army and Soviet biomass, ready to die for their leader. The victory seemed so close and easy. The fight was planned to be on the foreign territory and without many victims.  

Nevertheless, Fate had other plans. The summer of 1941 turned into a shame and humiliation for the Soviet empire, a terrible catastrophe worse than a nightmare. The sudden offensive of the enemy, its rapid advance inside the Soviet empire, the complete defeat of the Red Army became a real shock for Soviet people and the country's leadership. Only for the first month of the war "invincible and legendary" lost about 1 million people, including 300 000 dead and 700 000 prisoners; at the beginning of August it almost completely ceased to exist in the original composition, that in dreams was ready in some 1.5-2 months to march in Berlin. The fight was joined by more and more soldiers, losses were immense. It was the result of lack of proper experience and unprofessionalism of the Soviet military leadership, many of which still remained on the level of the First World War. At any rate, at the beginning of the war the numerous cases of battles of Soviet cavalry against German tanks were not jokes, but real facts.

Therefore, it is not surprising that from June to December 1941, Soviet military troops lost 3 138 000 soldiers, 6 million pieces of small arms, 20 thousand tanks, 10 thousand planes. The territory of the USSR, captured by the Wehrmacht, was more than 1.5 million square kilometers, and this is three times more than the territory of France. To compare, during the same period, the loss of Germany land forces amounted to about 750 thousand people, aircraft - several thousand planes.

The real horror for the Red Army was the German tactics of creating unprecedented offence, siege, so-called "pot", which consumed hundreds of thousands of people. As a result of the Belarus "pot", 328,000 Soviet fighters and commanders, Smolensk - 310 thousand, and 103 thousand Uman citizens - fell into German captivity. In the future, this horrible and shameful statistics was continued by "pots" at Kyiv (September) - 665 thousand, Vyazma and Bryansk (October) - 663 thousand. Large sieges of Soviet troops continued in 1942: at Kerch (May) - 150 thousand and Kharkiv (May) - 240 thousand. In total, during 1941-1945, about 5 million Red Army soldiers (!) were captured. Shame can be considered the fact that the Soviet emperor actually abandoned these people, declaring them traitors to the motherland, thus condemning people to terrible torment, firstly in German and then in Soviet camps.

For the sake of justice, it should be noted that the defeat of the Red Army in summer and autumn of 1941 occurred for quite objective reasons as well. The Third Reich was at that time a powerful industrial empire, served by industry of almost all the European countries. Because of the occupation of Europe, the Wehrmacht was equipped with more than 200 enemy divisions. Only in France, the Nazis captured almost 5 thousand tanks, armored personnel carriers, and about 3 thousand planes. Regarding the Soviet arsenal, a considerable part of it was significantly inferior to the German in qualitative terms. It concerned aviation, small arms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery, and especially radio communications.

Germany had two years of successful war experience in Europe and was far ahead of the Soviet military trainings. The Red Army was greatly weakened by the "Great Terror" of 1937-1938, which annihilated many talented and active military professionals.

The crucial mistake was the apparent Germanophilism of the Soviet leadership, which from the outset took the course of rapprochement with Germany and confrontation with the countries of Western democracy. In the 1990s, a book by war historian Manfred Heidler entitled The Reichswehr and the Red Army: Stages of Awesome Cooperation. 1920-1933 came out in Munich.  . One of the stories tells that in the summer of 1925, the military aviation school in  was created in Lipetsk, where about 120 German pilot had Fokker courses, as well as aircraft ground handling staff. In the Kama tank school, Kazan, they trained about 30 German tank men and tested German tanks. North from Samara in 1928, with the participation of the Germans, pilots were training to spray poisonous gases from airplanes, testing chemical mines and grenades. On the other hands, 19 high level officers of the Red Army were trained at the courses of the German General Staff. More than half of the members of the Revolutionary Military Council of this period had contacts with the German General Staff, as they were "sharing experience." As a result, in 1941, the advancing German units were often commanded by officers prepared in USSR by Tukhachevsky and his allies. According to Heidler, at least 20 German aviation pilots from Lipetsk and 10 tankers, trained in Kama, reached General level in Wehrmacht. As they say, comments are needless.

Therefore, the purpose of the display Hell's Summer of 1941 is not only the reflection of the disastrous for the USSR outset of Soviet-German war, but also exact illustration of the consequences of the individual politicians' ambitious plans, who usually turn out to be a tragedy for the country and its citizens.

Picture by Petro Kodaiev Alarm (1954) actually symbolizes the Soviet Rubikon, passed by Adolf Hitler on June 22, 1941, a clear border, which separates peace, even in a totalitarian state, and the hell of war.       

The terrible injustice to ordinary people abandoned, by the leadership, is reproduced in another artwork by Petro Kodiev Sketch to Painting "Occupation" (1954). Horrible is the fact, that instead of remorse for the actual betrayal of the people through giving them up to the enemy, these people would be accused for "they were under the Germans "," collaborated with the enemy", and so on, forcing people to atone "the guilt before the motherland" with their blood. Many people were condemned to camps, exile and other manifestations of "communist paradise". 

It all, the tragedy of the first months of the war, the critical situation in which the soldiers of the Red Army  were, their actual doom and simultaneously sacrifice for the sake of their motherland, the desire at any rate to hold up the enemy, to give the opportunity to battle fellow foothold on new positions, is introduces in the art works of talented Volodymyr Parchevskyi - On Vultures  – fire!  (1965); of Oleksandr Foinytskyi - Ship Is Sinking (1962); and Leonid Kornieiev's - Height (1995).

Commemoration is an important factor in patriotic and courage education, and remains a logical aspect in military exhibitions and displays. In this case, this is the picture by Petro Kodiev - "Field of Fight Glory » (1956), which makes recall, in particular, those who, in summer of 1941, first took the enemy's attack. In addition, the first, as you know, is always the hardest.

 

OLEH YURCHENKO - HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OF 

TOURISM, ETHNOGRAPHY AND INFORMATION

OF KIROVOHRAD OBLAST ART MUSEUM

 

On June 21, 2018, an exhibition Hell's Summer of 1941 was launchedat the Oblast Art Museum on the Day of Sorrow and commemoration of the victimsof the war in Ukraine.Opening of the exhibitions of the respective thematic direction becomesespecially important in terms of the Patriotic War of Ukrainian people against theMoscow imperialism, Nazism, fascism, medieval barbarian, revengeism etc. Hate ofthe so-called Russian Peace to Ukraine, Europe, America, candid calls to thevictorious march in Kiev, Warsaw, Berlin, to erase from the face of the Earth Britainand the United States of America, it all put the world before the threat of anotherworld war. Under these conditions, the theme of the Second World War becomes notonly a formidable caveat to modern ambitious politicians, but also very importantbattleground of contemporary ideological front, aiming to defend Ukrainianinterpretation of past events.No matter how furious Moscow propaganda is, calling the Horde as"Rus", Russia as "junta", sticking us with labels of "traitors", "fascists’ supporters"and even "fascists", but historical facts conclusively refute all allegations made bymodern "Goebbels-TV". For example, during the Second World War, more than 7million Ukrainian soldiers fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army and Navy. Everysecond of them passed away in the war, and every second of those who survived -returned home disabled. The total number of Ukrainian deaths is estimated, accordingto various sources, from 8 to 10 million, and this is one in six Ukrainians.Most of the Soviet fronts in the war were led by Ukrainians; by thenumber of awarded and those who have received the title of hero of the Soviet Union,the Ukrainians took second place. Much has already been written about the anti-fascist struggle of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army soldiers, the secret troops of theOrganization of Ukrainian Nationalists, and much more that does not fit the Sovietmythology.We are proud of the heroism of Ukrainians, who together with othernations of the former Soviet Union stopped "the brown plague" and today we areproud of those who make us bulletproof on the eastern borders of our country againstMoscow Horde and their accomplices. Analyzing modern Ukrainian-Moscow war,we involuntarily make parallel with similar events of the Second World War:
Ilovaisk-Minsk Offensive, Mariupol – heroic defense of Odessa and Sevastopol,Donetsk airport – Stalingrad, Debaltseve - Battle of Kursk, the "New Order" of the3rd Reich-"Russian World". Moreover, these interesting parallels prove reasonableand prophetic statements, suggested by some historians in 1970-1980’s, thathumanity in the future will face a nasty surprise-the emergence of the new 4THReich, with the capital in Moscow.Coming 77 years back to those events, it should be noted that June 22,1941, really was a significant date in the history of the Second World War, as itcrashed plans of the politicians of that times, turning former rivals into allies and viseverse. Indeed, on this very day, a grand battle between two bloody dictators, AdolfHitler and Joseph Stalin, began to emerge, and each of them sought world dominationand stubbornly pursued his goals. Some historians have proposed a version of thepre-emptive attack of the German army. That attack thwarted Stalin plan - anaggressive operation "Spring", implementation of which could have caused thesituation, when a large part of Europe had been supposed to be under Moscow'soccupation. At any rate, numerical facts confirm exactly this, absolutely logicalversion. "Red Emperor" had in his possession a huge country with inexhaustiblenatural and human resources, commercial industry, built on millions of people bones,considerable army and Soviet biomass, ready to die for their leader. The victoryseemed so close and easy. The fight was planned to be on the foreign territory andwithout many victims.Nevertheless, Fate had other plans. The summer of 1941 turned into ashame and humiliation for the Soviet empire, a terrible catastrophe worse than anightmare. The sudden offensive of the enemy, its rapid advance inside the Sovietempire, the complete defeat of the Red Army became a real shock for Soviet peopleand the country's leadership. Only for the first month of the war "invincible andlegendary" lost about 1 million people, including 300 000 dead and 700 000prisoners; at the beginning of August it almost completely ceased to exist in theoriginal composition, that in dreams was ready in some 1.5-2 months to march inBerlin. The fight was joined by more and more soldiers, losses were immense. It wasthe result of lack of proper experience and unprofessionalism of the Soviet militaryleadership, many of which still remained on the level of the First World War. At anyrate, at the beginning of the war the numerous cases of battles of Soviet cavalryagainst German tanks were not jokes, but real facts.Therefore, it is not surprising that from June to December 1941, Sovietmilitary troops lost 3 138 000 soldiers, 6 million pieces of small arms, 20 thousandtanks, 10 thousand planes. The territory of the USSR, captured by the Wehrmacht,was more than 1.5 million square kilometers, and this is three times more than theterritory of France. To compare, during the same period, the loss of Germany landforces amounted to about 750 thousand people, aircraft - several thousand planes.The real horror for the Red Army was the German tactics of creatingunprecedented offence, siege, so-called "pot", which consumed hundreds ofthousands of people. As a result of the Belarus "pot", 328,000 Soviet fighters andcommanders, Smolensk - 310 thousand, and 103 thousand Uman citizens - fell intoGerman captivity. In the future, this horrible and shameful statistics was continued by
"pots" at Kyiv (September) - 665 thousand, Vyazma and Bryansk (October) - 663thousand. Large sieges of Soviet troops continued in 1942: at Kerch (May) - 150thousand and Kharkiv (May) - 240 thousand. In total, during 1941-1945, about 5million Red Army soldiers (!) were captured. Shame can be considered the fact thatthe Soviet emperor actually abandoned these people, declaring them traitors to themotherland, thus condemning people to terrible torment, firstly in German and thenin Soviet camps.For the sake of justice, it should be noted that the defeat of the Red Armyin summer and autumn of 1941 occurred for quite objective reasons as well. TheThird Reich was at that time a powerful industrial empire, served by industry ofalmost all the European countries. Because of the occupation of Europe, theWehrmacht was equipped with more than 200 enemy divisions. Only in France, theNazis captured almost 5 thousand tanks, armored personnel carriers, and about 3thousand planes. Regarding the Soviet arsenal, a considerable part of it wassignificantly inferior to the German in qualitative terms. It concerned aviation, smallarms, anti-tank and anti-aircraft artillery, and especially radio communications.Germany had two years of successful war experience in Europe and wasfar ahead of the Soviet military trainings. The Red Army was greatly weakened bythe "Great Terror" of 1937-1938, which annihilated many talented and active militaryprofessionals.The crucial mistake was the apparent Germanophilism of the Sovietleadership, which from the outset took the course of rapprochement with Germanyand confrontation with the countries of Western democracy. In the 1990s, a book bywar historian Manfred Heidler entitled The Reichswehr and the Red Army: Stages ofAwesome Cooperation. 1920-1933 came out in Munich. . One of the stories tells thatin the summer of 1925, the military aviation school in was created in Lipetsk, whereabout 120 German pilot had Fokker courses, as well as aircraft ground handling staff.In the Kama tank school, Kazan, they trained about 30 German tank men and testedGerman tanks. North from Samara in 1928, with the participation of the Germans,pilots were training to spray poisonous gases from airplanes, testing chemical minesand grenades. On the other hands, 19 high level officers of the Red Army weretrained at the courses of the German General Staff. More than half of the members ofthe Revolutionary Military Council of this period had contacts with the GermanGeneral Staff, as they were "sharing experience." As a result, in 1941, the advancingGerman units were often commanded by officers prepared in USSR byTukhachevsky and his allies. According to Heidler, at least 20 German aviation pilotsfrom Lipetsk and 10 tankers, trained in Kama, reached General level in Wehrmacht.As they say, comments are needless.Therefore, the purpose of the display Hell's Summer of 1941 is not onlythe reflection of the disastrous for the USSR outset of Soviet-German war, but alsoexact illustration of the consequences of the individual politicians' ambitious plans,who usually turn out to be a tragedy for the country and its citizens.
Picture by Petro Kodaiev Alarm (1954) actually symbolizes the SovietRubikon, passed by Adolf Hitler on June 22, 1941, a clear border, which separatespeace, even in a totalitarian state, and the hell of war.The terrible injustice to ordinary people abandoned, by the leadership, isreproduced in another artwork by Petro Kodiev Sketch to Painting "Occupation"(1954). Horrible is the fact, that instead of remorse for the actual betrayal of thepeople through giving them up to the enemy, these people would be accused for "theywere under the Germans "," collaborated with the enemy", and so on, forcing peopleto atone "the guilt before the motherland" with their blood. Many people werecondemned to camps, exile and other manifestations of "communist paradise".It all, the tragedy of the first months of the war, the critical situation inwhich the soldiers of the Red Army were, their actual doom and simultaneouslysacrifice for the sake of their motherland, the desire at any rate to hold up the enemy,to give the opportunity to battle fellow foothold on new positions, is introduces in theart works of talented Volodymyr Parchevskyi - On Vultures – fire! (1965); ofOleksandr Foinytskyi - Ship Is Sinking (1962); and Leonid Kornieiev's - Height(1995).Commemoration is an important factor in patriotic and courage education,and remains a logical aspect in military exhibitions and displays. In this case, this isthe picture by Petro Kodiev - "Field of Fight Glory » (1956), which makes recall, inparticular, those who, in summer of 1941, first took the enemy's attack. In addition,the first, as you know, is always the hardest.
OLEH YURCHENKO - HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT OFTOURISM, ETHNOGRAPHY AND INFORMATIONOF KIROVOHRAD OBLAST ART MUSEUM