75 years ago on June 22nd about 4 am, 1941 Nazi troops invaded the Soviet Union without declaring war and opened the bloodiest page of the World War II – the Great Patriotic War. The Nazis relied on the ‘Blitzkrieg’ operation and the fragmentation of the peoples of the multinational Soviet Union, but the Soviet people showed strong unity that allowed them to resist the enemy’s onslaught and defeat it four years later.
The woman-cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova, told a ‘Vestnik Kavkaza’ correspondent that initially the Soviet army was multinational. "The army had only one purpose – to defend the freedom and independence of their country and each individual despite their nationality – Russian, Georgian, Jewish, Ukrainian or Belarusian. They all were united by the great desire to stop with the ‘brown plague’. They wanted to stand and win. Certainly, friendship and mutual assistance helped them. At the front, the soldiers shared their last piece, not only with each other, but also with the people of the liberated cities, suffering under the yoke of Nazis,’’ she pointed out.
"The Great Victory was achieved at the expense of the overall contribution both the peoples of the Caucasus, and the Siberians, and Far East, and Belarusians, and Ukrainians, and Moldavians, and Kazakhs. They all made a great contribution to the Victory. It would be wrong to single out any one nationality because it was probably the bloodiest war in our history where courage and heroism of our multinational people helped to defeat the enemy," Valentina Tereshkova underlined.
The scientific director of the Russian military-historical society, professor the Moscow State University of Foreign Affairs, Mikhail Myagkov, friendship among peoples became the factor that allowed to win the Great Patriotic War." ‘‘But for friendship of peoples, its ‘fastening’ strength our country would be simply broken, as Hitler had hoped," he said.
"The stronger strikes were, the harder the situation was, the stronger the state system and soldiers’s will to victory became. It's no coincidence that all of our nationalities are among the heroes of the Soviet Union – Russians, Ukrainians, Caucasians, Jews and Tatars. They all fought together for the country. Certainly, everyone had a small homeland, but when they defended Stalingrad they realized they defended both Moscow, and the Caucasus, and the Republic of Karelia, and other regions. The sense of ‘united family’ was been raised at the extremely high level. The Soviet government gave each people an opportunity for self-realization and education. They were fighting not only for their homeland, but also for the system. It was also an important ‘binding’ factor,’’ he added.
Chief Research Officer of the Research Institute (military history) at the Academy of the General Staff of the Russian Federation Armed Forces Miroslav Morozov agreed with him. "In Soviet times, modern military historians believe that the role of friendship of peoples, including the peoples of the Caucasus, was certainly one of the most important factors that helped to win the Great Patriotic War. There are a huge number of historical examples of this. Certainly, but for friendship among peoples there would not be exploits of the heroes of different nationalities and the victory. During the war special attention was focused on the strengthening of friendship of peoples, as it is clear that we would not win without it,’’ he concluded.
