THE PEOPLE’S VICTORY OVER FASCISM, THE DECISIVE ROLE OF THE SOVIET UNION AND THE GREAT HISTORIC MERITS OF J.V. STALIN.
(Reproduced from the «ZËRI I POPULLIT» daily, dated May 9, 1965)
THE «NAIM FRASHËRI» PUBLISHING HOUSE
TIRANA, 1965
The correctness of Stalin’s military science and art was magnificently proved in the heat of the Great Patriotic War and in its historic battles.
The imperialists, the international bourgeoisie and world reaction have tried and continue to try to minimize the decisive role played by the Soviet Union in the war against fascism. In this respect they were given ample aid by the Khrushchevite and Titoite revisionists who launched attacks and piled slanders against the Commander-in- Chief of the Soviet Army, J.V.Stalin. But no gross falsifications of bourgeois scribblers who try to hold out «the vast economic and military potential of the USA and of Great Britain» as the principal factor, or to match the Stalingrad battle with that of El Alamein in Africa, and no mean slanders of the Krushchevites and Titoites against Stalin, against the Soviet Army and the Soviet people, can bedim a historical truth.
The correctness of Stalin’s military science and art, his great role as a prominent leader of the Soviet Union and of the Red Army, as an architect of the triumph over Hitlerite Germany, were clearly and forcefully proved in the heat of the Great Patriotic War, in its decisive battles.
Stalin, relying on the principles of marxist-leninist science on the war and army, on the right policy elaborated by the Communist Party and the Soviet State, deeply cognizant of the objective laws governing the establishment of socialism and of the other moral and political factors, raised military science to a higher standard, linked the military problems with the moral and political ones tightly together and defined their reciprocal interdependence very clearly.
Stalin’s military ingenuity lies in his elaboration of many problems and principles of strategy, of operative art, of tactics, and especially in determining scientifically the permanent factors that are continually at work in the war like: the stability behind the lines, the morale of the army, the number and quality of divisions, the armament of the army and the organizational and managing efficiency of cadres. It is precisely in the determination of these problems that the essence of Stalin’s military science and art lie.
With these principles of military science in view the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and the Soviet government took all the necessary measures beforehand, that is, during the period of peaceful reconstruction, to raise and strengthen the defensive capacity of the county, to enhance vigilance and build up all the categories of armed forces.
It was only thanks to these measures that the Soviet Union succeeded in withstanding the aggression of nazi Germany, which aided by the international bourgeoisie after having speedily prepared for war after having occupied all of Europe, taking possession of all its highly developed economic basis, directed its armed forces towards the East and threw them against the Soviet Union.
Assuming that the Soviet state made up of many nations and its army weak and would crumble at the first blow, the German High Command prepared its «Barbarossa» war plan which envisaged to smash the main forces of the Soviet Army with a few powerful and surprise attacks and put the Soviet Union out of action before winter. But the war confirmed that the predictions of the German high military command, based on the momentary factors of their «Blitzkrieg» were fundamentally wrong.
The «Blitzkrieg» of the German fascist army was confronted with Stalin’s idea of strategy which, under circumstances created at the initial period of fighting, aimed at weakening the striking power of the enemy through stubborn and active operations of defence, at gaining time to mobilize, at spreading out and concentrating reserves in order to create superiority in men and technique, at adapting all the industry and economy to the needs of war, so as to create favourable condition conducive to the complete smashing of the enemy forces.
In the major battles of defense undertaken by the Soviet Army in the summer of 1941 and in the fall of 1942 the fierce attacks of the superior German forces were resisted, considerable damage was inflicted on them and their advance was finally brought to a standstill. In bitter and bloody fighting ranging from the bordering regions to the interior of the country, the German army was encountered everywhere with the stubborn resistance of Soviet Army units which grew in numbers uninterruptedly.
The German army had never before met with such resistance. The enemy incurred great losses by the defensive operations at Tihvin, Rostov and Leningrad, at Odessa, Sevastopol and other less protected regions. The heroic defense of Moscow which became a stumbling block for the German army and the counter offensive worked out and directed by Marshal Zhukov according to instructions and ideas of the Commander-in- Chief, resulted in frustrating the amassment of the main German striking force and bringing their in this strategic direction to a final standstill.
The «Blitzkrieg» failed altogether. During four months of fighting Hitlerite Germany lost about four and a half million soldiers killed, wounded or captured in the Soviet front.
The final turn of the tide of the Second World War was brought about by the Soviet Army in the legendary battles of Stalingrad and Kursk. The battle at Stalingrad reflected in a most brilliant way J.V.Stalin’s ideas on launching a strategic counter offensive, on dealing deep blows to besiege and exterminate large groupings of the enemy, on setting up an internal and externally front of encirclement, on hurried and secret concentration of reserves, on selecting the direction of the main strike and on the perfect way of directing the troops in order to realize the objective of the operation.
The historical facts on the legendary battle of Stalingrad familiar to the whole world, discard the false assessment made by Marshals of the Soviet Union A.I. Jeremenko and V.I. Chuykov who, in a servile way and for deliberate reasons, distort historical facts, attributing the merits of this battle to people who have never deserved them.
If the Stalingrad operation was an unparalleled example of besieging and completely annihilating a very large group of enemy forces, the Kursk operation was the brilliant combination of classic defense and resolute counter-offensive, which brought about the annihilation of the most powerful army, mainly of tanks, of the enemy.
The legendary battle of Kursk was carried out according to the proposals of the Commanders of the Central and Voronezh Fronts, Marshals of the Soviet Union K.K.Rokossovsky and Army Corps-General N.F.Vatutin.
The major importance of these battles of the Great Patriotic War is also pointed out in the assessment Stalin made of them when he said: «If the Stalingrad battle announced the sunset of the German fascist army, the Kursk battle pushed it to the brink of catastrophy».
1944 which has gone down in the history of the Great Patriotic War as the year of ten Stalinite attacks, finally decided the fate of the Second World War. In these operations the Soviet Army carried out in a brilliant way the operational and strategic manoeuvre dealing repeated blows, breaking through the German Lines in many directions and depriving the German Command of the ways and means of using its reserves in the directions under threat, besieging and annihilating large groupings of the enemy one after the other.
These gigantic blows, typical of the offensive strategy of the Red Army, brought about the complete liberation of the territory of the Soviet Union, knocked out of battle the satellite states of nazi Germany, carried the war into enemy territory and created in this way favourable conditions for a general assault on all fronts, for the complete annihilation of the enemy in his own territory. These successes of the Soviet Army gave a further impetus national-liberation war of the oppressed peoples of Europe.
The realization of the operational strategic plans by the Soviet Army in last stage of the war was characterized by a general simultaneous attack on all fronts stretching from the Baltic to the Black Sea on a breadth of 1200 kilometers, by the high tempo of attack, by the rapid onward advance over fortified belts and vast water obstacles, by the occupation of big cities and major industrial centres and by the unparalleled massive use of all kinds of weapons and military technique.
The Berlin operation, the greatest classic offensive operation during the whole Second World War, was characterized by the massive participation of forces and means, by the simultaneous assault on many directions, by the continues day and night offensive, by the creation of the internal and external front of encirclement, by the isolation and extermination of enemy groupings one at a time and by the high tempo of attack against a very deep and fortified system of defense of the enemy. After this operation the German army ceased to exist as an organized military power.
During the Second World War the Soviet Army annihilated or captured 507 nazi divisions and about 100 divisions of its satellites.
The achievements of the Soviet Army in the operation of the Second World War confirmed the superiority of the Soviet military art and the application in a creative way of permanent factors that decide the fate of the war.
The stability and power of the Soviet rear ranks based on the Soviet social order, on socialist economy, on the organization of the working masses, on ideology, science and so forth demonstrated its great vitality all along the Great Patriotic War.
The industrial basis of defence in the Soviet Union was set up as a result of the correct farsighted policy of the Communist Party and of the Soviet Government of the socialist industrialization of the country, of the collectivization of farming and the all-round development of science and culture.
Through the fulfilments of five-year plans the economy of the Soviet Union succeeded in solving many complicated problems which enabled equipping the army with all the necessary military means and techniques.
During the Great Patriotic War the unity and high sense of duty of the people and of the Soviet Army were manifested as never before and turned into an irresistible force.
This gigantic and inexhaustible force sprang from the just war which the Soviet people waged in defense of their socialist homeland and from the historic internationalist mission of the Soviet Army. This factor enhanced the patriotism, the spirit of sacrifice, the revolutionary impulse and multiplied in this way the power of the Soviet people and Army to overcome the enormous difficulties and vicissitudes of war and to achieve final victory over the enemy.
The scientific manner of solving the problem of the number, quality and technical equipment of divisions and the proportional development of the kinds of arms and of the armed forces, increased the defensive and offensive power of the Soviet Army.
The successful achievements of these measures enabled the Soviet Union to create the necessary superiority over the enemy in military forces and technique. Soviet military art succeeded also in solving the problem of reserves and masterful use, a thing which influenced a great deal at the decisive moments of the war.
The skilful application of these key-problems of strategy enabled the Soviet Army, during all the stages of the war, to fulfil plans, both during the period of the general counter-offensive for smashing the enemy altogether.
Special attention had been devoted eversince the creation of the Soviet state to the selection, training and educating the cadres of the Soviet Army. These cadres, trained in marxist-leninist science and Soviet military art, directed, with consummate skill, the Soviet troops in the fields of battle. During the Great Patriotic war a whole generation of cadres of the Soviet Army were trained and tempered to combine personal courage and valor with the art of leadership in the fields of battle. It was precisely these cadres and the pleiades of distinguished military leaders that constituted one of those permanent factors that brought about the great historic victory of the Soviet Union.
The heroic war against fascism enhanced a lot the authority and prestige of the Soviet state and of the Bolshevik Party, it brought J.V.Stalin to the fore as a great political leader as well. It confirmed the correctness of the Leninist policy pursued by the Communist Party and the Soviet Government under J.V.Stalin’s guidance both in socialist construction as well as in directing the war for cleansing the Bolshevik Party of Trotzkites, Bukharinites, bourgeois nationalists and other enemies. The onslaught of Hitlerite Germany against the Soviet Union found a very sound Communist Party, of a steel-like organizational and ideological unity, bound as flesh to bone with the people.
Pursuing a Leninist foreign policy the Communist Party and the Soviet Government frustrated all attempts of the imperialist powers to set up a single front of the capitalist states against the Soviet Union.
J.V.Stalin discovered in time the strategic and tactical schemes of these states, made a correct assessment of the contradictions between these states, utilized them thoroughly in the interests of defending and fortifying the Soviet Union.
J.V.Stalin’s great merit lies in setting up the anti-fascist coalition and in preserving the solidarity of this coalition up to the victory on fascism. Under the circumstances when Hitlerite Germany, fascism was the principal enemy of the freedom and independence of peoples, the Communist Party and the Soviet Government did not only accept to ally themselves with England and the United States of America, but made that alliance to serve the interests of all the peoples enslaved by fascist states.
Although the immediate strategic aim – the demolition of fascist states – was the same for all, collaboration with England and the USA was not so light. The British and American governments did not give up their imperialist aims, their aims to weaken the socialist state as much as possible and to establish their sway on every country of the world so as to be able to dictate their own conditions of peace to both the vanquished and the winners once the war was over.
If these aims of England and the USA failed to mature a great merit belongs personally to J.V.Stalin.
The Communist Party and the Soviet government, headed by J.V.Stalin, carried out the principles of collaboration of a socialist state with capitalist countries in a true Leninist way. J.V.Stalin honoured with strictness all inter-allied commitments, maintained sincere military relations with England and the USA, but he never struck up bargains and allowed no one to strike up bargains to the detriment of the Soviet Union and of the enslaved peoples.
J.V.Stalin always maintained a firm stand of principle in his relations with the USA and England during all the war period. At the tripartite Moscow Conference (September 1941), at the Teheran Conference (November 1943), at the Second Moscow Conference
(October 1944), at the Yalta Conference in the Crimea (February 1945) and at the Potsdam Conference in Berlin (July-August 1945) J.V.Stalin distinguished himself as a great statesman, as a fiery champion of the interests of the Soviet Union and of the oppressed peoples, as a wise, far-sighted and capable diplomat of matchless authority.
The Communist Party and the Soviet Government, headed by Stalin, rescued the socialist state from impending destruction, drew the Soviet Union out of the war as a victorious state enjoying great international authority and prestige. The say of the Soviet Union in solving international issues at the end of the war and after became decisive.
After the war American and English politicians and generals together with other servants of imperialism cursed Roosevelt and Churchill who seem to have made impermissible concessions to J.V.Stalin, who have allegedly allowed him to throw dust on their eyes; they reproach them with grave mistakes and with political short-sightedness; they chastise them for having failed to carry out Klausewitz’s familiar principle on «the war as a continuation of politics», for having observed the principle of «unconditional surrender» of the fascist states, for having failed to open the second front in the Balkans, for having helped the Soviet Union with more armaments and strategic materials than needed, for having failed the Soviet Union into the war with Japan before the capitulation of Germany, for having overestimated the Soviet Union as an ally and so on.
It is futile for the imperialist bourgeoisie to lay the blame on and hold responsible their own leaders for the failure of their aims in the Second World War. This failure was inevitable, it was not brought about by the «inability» of the leaders of imperialism but by the heroic war of the Red Army, it was brought about by the national-liberation war of the peoples enslaved by fascism.