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142nd Rifle Division (Soviet Union)
The 142nd Rifle Division began service in August 1939 as a standard Red Army rifle division, which participated in the Winter War against Finland. It remained on the Karelian Isthmus and had a relatively uneventful war facing the Finns until the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive began on June 10, 1944, from which point it saw much more active service. Following the end of the Continuation War, the division was transferred to 2nd Shock Army in 2nd Belorussian Front. Its soldiers distinguished themselves in the capture of the German city of Graudenz and ended the war fighting through Pomerania. Formation The division began forming in August 1939, north of Leningrad, where it would spend most of the war. On November 30 the Winter War with Finland began, and the division performed creditably enough that it was awarded the Order of the Red Banner. On June 22, 1941, the division was in 19th Rifle Corps of 23rd Army near the Finnish border in Leningrad Military District. Its order of ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Red Army Flag
Red is the color at the long wavelength end of the visible spectrum of light, next to orange and opposite violet. It has a dominant wavelength of approximately 625–740 nanometres. It is a primary color in the RGB color model and a secondary color (made from magenta and yellow) in the CMYK color model, and is the complementary color of cyan. Reds range from the brilliant yellow-tinged scarlet and vermillion to bluish-red crimson, and vary in shade from the pale red pink to the dark red burgundy. Red pigment made from ochre was one of the first colors used in prehistoric art. The Ancient Egyptians and Mayans colored their faces red in ceremonies; Roman generals had their bodies colored red to celebrate victories. It was also an important color in China, where it was used to color early pottery and later the gates and walls of palaces. In the Renaissance, the brilliant red costumes for the nobility and wealthy were dyed with kermes and cochineal. The 19th century brought ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Finnish Invasion Of The Karelian Isthmus
The Finnish invasion of the Karelian Isthmus refers to a military campaign carried out by Finland in 1941. It was part of what is commonly referred to as the Continuation War. Early in the war Finnish forces liberated the Karelian Isthmus. It had been ceded to the Soviet Union on 13 March 1940, in the Moscow Peace Treaty, which marked the end of the Winter War. Later, in the summer of 1944, the Soviet Union reconquered the southern part of the isthmus in the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive. Initial setup of the forces The Finnish forces facing the Karelian Isthmus consisted of two Finnish army corps. The Finnish II Corps was north of the river Vuoksi and the Finnish IV Corps south of it. The Finnish II Corps was commanded by Major-General Taavetti Laatikainen and it consisted of three divisions (the 10th, 15th and 18th divisions) as the 10th Division had been added to it after the II Corps had been forced to give the 2nd Division over to operations in Ladoga Karelia. Nenye (201 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2nd Belorussian Front
The 2nd Belorussian Front (Russian: Второй Белорусский фронт, alternative spellings are 2nd Byelorussian Front) was a military formation, of Army group size, of the Soviet Army during the Second World War. Soviet army groups were known as Fronts. The 2nd Belorussian Front was created in February 1944 as the Soviets pushed the Germans back towards Byelorussia. General Colonel Pavel Kurochkin became its first commander. In hiatus in April 1944, its headquarters was reformed from the army headquarters of the disbanding 10th Army. Operations On 2 January 1944 2BF entered the former Polish territories. On 26 June 1944 the Front's forces captured Mogilev in the Mogilev Offensive. On 4 July, 2BF was tasked with mopping up the remains of Army Group Centre's Fourth Army under the command of General von Tippelskirch and the remains of the Ninth Army in a large pocket southeast of Minsk. On 9 July The 2BF attacks northwest from Vitebsk as part of a major ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Konstantin Rokossovsky
Konstantin Konstantinovich (Xaverevich) Rokossovsky (Russian: Константин Константинович Рокоссовский; pl, Konstanty Rokossowski; 21 December 1896 – 3 August 1968) was a Soviet and Polish officer who became a Marshal of the Soviet Union, a Marshal of Poland, and served as Poland's Defence Minister from 1949 until his removal in 1956 during the Polish October. He became one of the most prominent Red Army commanders of World War II. Born in Warsaw (in present-day Poland; then Vistula Land, part of the Russian Empire), Rokossovsky served in the Imperial Russian Army during World War I. In 1917 he joined the Red Guards (Russia), Red Guards and in 1918 the newly-formed Red Army; he fought with great distinction during the Russian Civil War of 1917–1922. Rokossovsky held senior commands until 1937 when he fell victim to Joseph Stalin's Great Purge, during which he was branded a traitor, imprisoned and probably tortured. After Soviet failures ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
2nd Shock Army
The 2nd Shock Army (russian: 2-я Ударная армия) was a field army of the Soviet Union during the Second World War. This type of formation was created in accordance with prewar doctrine that called for Shock Armies to ''overcome difficult defensive dispositions in order to create a tactical penetration of sufficient breadth and depth to permit the commitment of mobile formations for deeper exploitation.'' However, as the war went on, Shock Armies lost this specific role and reverted, in general, to ordinary frontline formations. Formation The 2nd Shock Army was formed from the Volkhov Front's 26th Army in December 1941 and initially consisted of the 327th Rifle Division and eight separate rifle brigades. During the Lyuban offensive operation in early 1942, the 2nd Shock Army broke through German lines, was cut off from reinforcement along the Volkhov River by a German counter-attack, and was not permitted to retreat. When the order for retreat finally came in, the 2nd w ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Stavka
The ''Stavka'' (Russian and Ukrainian: Ставка) is a name of the high command of the armed forces formerly in the Russian Empire, Soviet Union and currently in Ukraine. In Imperial Russia ''Stavka'' referred to the administrative staff, and to the General Headquarters in the late 19th-century Imperial Russian armed forces and subsequently in the Soviet Union. In Western literature it is sometimes written in uppercase (''STAVKA''), although whether it is an acronym is a subject of debate. ''Stavka'' may refer to its members, as well as to the headquarters location (its original meaning from the old Russian word ''ставка'', 'tent'). Stavka of the Supreme Commander during World War I The commander-in-chief of the Russian army at the beginning of World War I was Grand Duke Nicholas Nicholaievitch, a grandson of Tsar Nicholas I. Appointed at the last minute in August 1914, he played no part in formulating the military plans in use at the beginning of the war. Nik ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Moscow Armistice
The Moscow Armistice was signed between Finland on one side and the Soviet Union and United Kingdom on the other side on 19 September 1944, ending the Continuation War. The Armistice restored the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940, with a number of modifications. The final peace treaty between Finland and many of the Allies was signed in Paris in 1947. Conditions for peace The conditions for peace were similar to what had been agreed in the Moscow Peace Treaty of 1940: Finland was obliged to cede parts of Karelia and Salla, as well as certain islands in the Gulf of Finland. The new armistice also handed all of Petsamo to the Soviet Union, and Finland was further compelled to lease Porkkala to the Soviet Union for a period of fifty years (the area was returned to Finnish control in 1956). Other conditions included Finnish payment of nearly $300,000,000 ($ in today's US dollars) in the form of various commodities over six years to the Soviet Union as war reparations. Finland also a ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Battle Of Vuosalmi
The Battle of Vuosalmi (also known as the Battle of Äyräpää-Vuosalmi) – the main bulk of it – lasted from July 4 to July 17, 1944. It was fought during the Continuation War (1941–1944), a part of World War II, between Finland and the Soviet Union. Background After the Soviets saw that they had failed in the Battle of Tali-Ihantala against the Finnish defenders in the late June and early July 1944, they tried to break the Finnish positions in Vuosalmi (now Druzhnoye) and encircle the southern part of the Finnish forces in the Karelian Isthmus. Soviet forces of the 23rd Army in the region had made unsuccessful low-scale attacks against the Finnish defenses for nearly two weeks at Äyräpää region. Lack of success from the 23rd Army's performance lead to change of command on July 3. Order of battle Finnish Finnish defenses on the Vuosalmi consisted initially of only the 2nd Division (Martola, later Blick). But this was later reinforced with parts of the Armored Divis ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Vuoksi River
The Vuoksi (russian: Вуокса, historically: "Uzerva"; fi, Vuoksi; sv, Vuoksen) is a river running through the northernmost part of the Karelian Isthmus from Lake Saimaa in southeastern Finland to Lake Ladoga in northwestern Russia. The river enters Lake Ladoga in three branches, an older main northern branch at Priozersk (Käkisalmi), a smaller branch a few kilometers to the north of it, and a new southern branch entering further southeast as Burnaya River (Finnish: Taipaleenjoki), which has become the main stream in terms of water discharge. Since 1857, the old northern distributaries drain only the lower reaches of the Vuoksi basin and are not fed by Lake Saimaa. The northern and southern branches actually belong to two separate river systems, which at times get isolated from each other in dry seasons. The descent between Lake Saimaa and Lake Ladoga is . The entire run of the river is via the Priozersk branch, or via the Taipale (Burnaya) branch. It has a drainage ba ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Lake Ladoga
Lake Ladoga (; rus, Ла́дожское о́зеро, r=Ladozhskoye ozero, p=ˈladəʂskəjə ˈozʲɪrə or rus, Ла́дога, r=Ladoga, p=ˈladəɡə, fi, Laatokka arlier in Finnish ''Nevajärvi'' ; vep, Ladog, Ladoganjärv) is a freshwater lake located in the Republic of Karelia and Leningrad Oblast in northwestern Russia, in the vicinity of Saint Petersburg. It is the largest lake located entirely in Europe, the second largest lake after Baikal in Russia, and the 14th largest freshwater lake by area in the world. ''Ladoga Lacus'', a methane lake on Saturn's moon Titan, is named after the lake. Etymology In one of Nestor's chronicles from the 12th century a lake called "the Great Nevo" is mentioned, a clear link to the Neva River and possibly further to Finnish ''nevo'' 'sea' or ''neva'' 'bog, quagmire'. Evgeny Pospelov: ''Geographical names of the world. Toponymic dictionary.'' Second edition. Astrel, Moscow 2001, pp. 106f. Ancient Norse sagas and Hanseatic tr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
