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What happened on June 22st
Day of memory and grief 22 June 2023 year This is the anniversary of the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. It was on this day in the summer of 1941 that the most bloody and terrible war in the history of our country began, which was the main part of the Second World War of 1939-1945.
By June 22, 1941, a lot of historical works were written about the location of Soviet and German troops along the western border of the USSR, a deep analysis of the forces with which the Soviet Union and Germany approached the fierce four-year battle that claimed tens of millions of lives was made. However, historians still cannot give an exact answer to the question – who exactly sixty minutes before the official start of the war, at three in the morning, began the bombardment of Sevastopol? Who wrote the first chapter in history on June 22 as the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow? English archives strictly, for many decades, carefully guard their secrets.
And yet, the main events of the first hours of the long summer day unfolded on the western land borders of the Soviet Union. Close to each other, at a distance of sight through optical instruments, the two main military armadas of that time were located: the Nazi troops and the garrisons of the western military districts of the Red Army. In the reports of the Soviet border troops, in the memoirs of military leaders, in the book for all time “Brest Fortress” by the writer and publicist Sergei Smirnov, it is shown in detail that the thunderous atmosphere of the impending catastrophe hung all the days preceding June 22. In historical documents, works of art and films, one can see that the enemy began hostilities on the western border of the USSR almost at midnight. Already at half past midnight on June 22, Directive No. 1 flew to all districts from Moscow: not to succumb to any provocations at the border, while covertly occupying firing points. So, indeed, our common Day of Memory and Sorrow came – the day the Great Patriotic War began. By three o’clock in the morning, German sappers were engaged in mining Soviet territory. The offensive of the Nazis, which began at 4.00 am, took place in three directions – to Moscow, Leningrad and Kyiv. On June 22, during the German offensive on the so-called “Bialystok ledge”, many border towns of the Soviet Union were captured. The legendary defense of the Brest Fortress began, pinning down individual enemy forces. In addition to the Nazi troops, on June 22, 1941, the Finnish army occupied the demilitarized zone on the Aland Islands. On the same day, an anti-Soviet uprising broke out in Lithuania, raised by supporters of the restoration of independence. Things were a little better in the southern direction, where on June 22, Soviet troops delayed the capture of Moldova by German and Romanian troops.
In the early morning of June 22, the German ambassador to the USSR, Count Schulenburg, presented Vyacheslav Molotov, People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, with a note declaring war. The same note was handed by the Reich Minister of Foreign Affairs of Germany, Ribbentrop, to the Soviet Ambassador in Berlin, Vladimir Dekanozov. After an urgent meeting at the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks at noon, Vyacheslav Molotov spoke on the radio with an appeal to the Soviet people. On the same day, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on mobilization.
The history of the memorable date
Despite the fact that the date was remembered throughout the entire Soviet period (the well-known song, which is called “June 22, exactly at four o’clock”), it acquired the status of a memorable one already in the post-Soviet period. Until the perestroika times, the authorities tried not to officially remind about the Day of Memory and Sorrow, without disturbing the painful memories of their compatriots. In addition, as the history of our country testifies, the celebration of the Victory Day itself on May 9 has a difficult fate. What then to say about the tragic date, which became the beginning of innumerable disasters for many people?
However, the date approaches the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow 2023 with its own little history, which begins already in post-Soviet Our Country. It is noteworthy that the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow since 1992, by the decision of the Supreme Council of the Federation, was called the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of the Fatherland. A few years later, on June 8, 1996, by decree of President Boris Yeltsin, June 22 was officially declared the “Day of Memory and Sorrow” in the Federation. On this day, commemorative events, various patriotic actions are held throughout the country, state flags are flown at half mast, wreaths are laid at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and the Eternal Flame in Moscow and other cities of Our Country.
Since 2009, on the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow on June 22, a traditional memorial action “Candle of Memory” has been held. On this day, early in the morning, representatives of various public organizations come to places associated with the events of the Great Patriotic War with lit candles. The geography of the action is expanding from year to year. It affects not only Our Country and the former republics of the Soviet Union. The “Candle of Memory” takes place even in states that are far from the battles with Nazi Germany. Especially the Day of Memory and Sorrow is celebrated in hero cities and cities of military glory. In addition to the “Candle of Memory” action, similar thematic actions are also held in various settlements on June 22. In Moscow, on the Krymskaya embankment, a “Line of Memory” is held with the lighting of 1418 candles (exactly how many days the war lasted). The most longstanding tradition, dating back to 1992, is the patriotic action “Memory Watch – Eternal Flame”, annually held in the Alexander Garden of the capital. A year ago, on the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow, the Ministry of Defense of the Federation launched the All- military-patriotic action “A Fistful of Memory”, which is aimed at transferring land from mass graves to the historical and memorial complex of the Main Temple of the Armed Forces in Moscow.
The Day of Remembrance and Sorrow on June 22, 2023 will also be celebrated in countries neighboring Our Country. True, this date is called a little differently. In Belarus – the Day of National Remembrance of the Victims of the Great Patriotic War, in Ukraine – the Day of Sorrow and Commemoration of the Memory of the Victims of the War.
Day of Remembrance and Sorrow in Cinematography
Immediately after the 1956th Congress of the CPSU, films began to appear on the screens that touched upon the very beginning of the war. According to the script by Konstantin Simonov, in XNUMX a film about the defense of the Brest Fortress “The Immortal Garrison” was shot. It became the first artistic picture, whose authors decided to turn to the events of the first hours of the war on the western border of the USSR. Interestingly, the picture was created before the publication of the book “Brest Fortress”. Therefore, in the film, along with real events and characters, there is fiction. Today, dozens of domestic feature and documentary films have addressed the topic of the perfidious attack of the Nazis on the Soviet Union and the ups and downs of that June day.
One of the first films of Soviet cinema, which shows the tragic events of June 22, 1941 and the broken fate of the Soviet people, was the only Soviet winner of the international Cannes Film Festival – the military drama of Mikhail Kalatozov and Viktor Rozov “The Cranes Are Flying”. The film was made in 1957. The family happiness of the still young heroes Tatyana Samoilova and Alexei Batalov, walking along the Moscow embankments, on the night of June 22, 1941, is forever destroyed by the war. In the same year, Lev Kulidzhanov shoots the film “The House I Live In”, where the main characters seem to change places. The still very young heroine of Zhanna Bolotova dies at the front, and her young man, played by Vladimir Zemlyanikin, returns from the war. A year later, the film “Volunteers” with Elina Bystritskaya, Mikhail Ulyanov and Leonid Bykov is released. The film novel based on poems by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky does not have a tragic ending, but it contains poetic lines that show the atmosphere of June 1941. The heroes finished school, fell in love, made plans – and in one fateful night it all ended. Enemy raids began, paper crosses appeared on the windows. A voice-over excitedly addresses a young girl who experienced her first love on the eve of the start of the Great Patriotic War: “Are you ready for trials? The war started today! The theme of forever interrupted carefree youth is continued in the films On the Seven Winds (1962), Goodbye, Boys! (1963), “Fifteenth Spring” (1972) and many others. In 1987, Yuri Kara’s sensational film drama “Tomorrow Was a War” was released, which became the film debut for actress Natalya Negoda. In 1995, the film “I am a soldier” appeared on the screens based on the story of Boris Vasiliev “I was not on the lists”. The film tells about the tragic love of a soldier and a Jewish girl who met in Brest on the last peaceful evening of June 1941.
There are films in cinema that already in their title speak of the date of the beginning of the most terrible war, which later became the Day of Memory and Sorrow. The picture “June 22, 1941” with the voiceover of Vasily Lanovoy became the first in the film epic “The Great Patriotic War” (“Unknown War”). In 1992, the actor and director Boris Galkin made a film, which is called, “June 22, exactly at 4 o’clock …”. In the mid-80s, Iosif Kobzon performed a soulful song called “Pre-War Waltz”, which is dedicated to the last days and hours before the start of World War II. The song sounds in another film dedicated to the beginning of the war – “Spy” based on the novel of the same name by Boris Akunin. Of course, this is far from a complete cinematography dedicated to the events of 1941, which caused the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow to appear in our country.