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Second World War was bloody and brutal. Many European countries suffered from its merciless blow. The losses of relatively small Czechoslovakia were striking in their enormous proportions: 35 thousand soldiers, tens of thousands of civilians ... Looking for cheap money, the Germans forcibly took 550 thousand young people to Germany for forced labor. A large piece of territory was disconnected from the country: Carpathian Rus, the Sudetenland and the Tishinsky region. The state as an independent unit ceased to exist, turning into a German colony: the so-called protectorate.

An occupation

At the end of the war, the Center Army, a rather large German group, was stationed in Czechoslovakia. Its membership numbered as many as a million officers and soldiers. The invaders were commanded by Field Marshal Schörner. He was firmly convinced that the Czech Republic should become a completely German country. The fascist considered the incoming information that the Russians were preparing the liberation of Prague to be absurd and unrealistic. As for the capital itself, in May 1945 it became a training ground for the sixth German combat squadron. The invaders especially carefully guarded the airfield where their planes were stationed, as well as the surrounding territory built up with soldiers' barracks.

Interestingly, the liberation of Prague today causes a lot of controversy and discussion. Historians are divided into three camps. Some believe that local rebels cleared the city of Nazis, others talk about the brilliant offensive of the Vlasovites, others focus on decisive maneuvers. There is also a version that Prague was already free by the time the Russians arrived. Is it so? Let's try to figure it out.

The first steps

Indeed, many planned to liberate the city. Of course, the plan of the operation was developed by the Red Army. Since April 1945, the headquarters carefully studied maps of the capital's terrain made from reconnaissance aircraft: they showed the positions of the Germans, their firing points and ammunition depots. These tactical objects were supposed to fall under the main blow.

At the very end, the liberation of Prague began to be prepared in the Czech National Council, formed in 1945. The department, consisting of communists, claimed to lead the mass uprising, the centers of which now and then flared up in the country. But there was no time left to organize the operation, so the CHNS did not play a decisive role in cleaning up the capital.

At the same time, on May 5, the Vlasovites, soldiers of the First Infantry Division of the ROA, entered Prague. The combat unit, under the leadership of Major General Bunyachenko, marked the beginning of the liberation. In a matter of days, they managed to clear the western part of the city, thereby opening the ring of SS men.

American actions

While the Vlasovites began to liberate Prague from the Nazis, American troops under the leadership of General Patton approached the capital from the other side. From the President of the United States, he was instructed to put forward positions on the line Pilsen - Karlovy Vary - Ceske Budejovice. The Germans did not particularly resist the Americans, but the Red Army, advancing from Slovakia, they gave a fierce rebuff. Knowing about the loyalty of the United States to the prisoners, they preferred to fall into their hands than to peremptory communists. Therefore, the speed of the advance of the allies was different.

General Patton took Pilsen. Residents of the city even erected a monument to him after the war. The Americans stopped there: the Red Army was moving towards them, therefore, in order to avoid confusion, they decided to wait. And the US government did not consider Czechoslovakia a political goal. As a result, they decided once again not to risk the lives of soldiers. When the Russians realized that the Allies were backing down, they continued the liberation of Prague on their own.

What happened next?

Meanwhile, after a successful operation to liberate the western part of the city, the Vlasovites retreated. Historians believe that they occupied Prague for two reasons: firstly, they wanted to impress the Americans, and secondly, they hoped for an amnesty after active cooperation with the Germans. But, having failed to agree on a union status with the ChNS, they left the capital.

As you can see, the liberation of Prague fell entirely on the shoulders of the Red Army. The offensive was commanded by His units had just completed the cleansing of Berlin, as they were immediately transferred to the Czech direction. Without even a day's rest, the fighters began to break through to the city. The battalions of the First Ukrainian Front also took an active part in the hostilities. In one of the hot battles for another bridge, Lieutenant Ivan Goncharenko was mortally wounded, after whom one of the Prague streets was later named. The liberation of the Czech capital lasted several days: from 6 to 11 May. It was the final major operation of World War II in Europe.

Offensive

Prague became the last major focus of fascist resistance. Despite the signed surrender, the local invaders did not want to surrender. Instead, they planned to rejoin a huge German unit called the Mitl-Group. The enemy unit continued to conduct active battles, resisting at every turn. Pushed to the south, the Mitl-group decided to join forces with the Nazis who occupied Czechoslovakia. In order to prevent the strengthening of the enemy forces, our soldiers rushed into battle. To take this position has become a matter of honor and conscience.

How did the liberation of Prague by the Soviet troops take place? At first, the Red Army relentlessly pursued Schörner's units in order to prevent them from accomplishing their plans. The bet was made on tankers under the command of Generals Rybalko and Lelyushenko. It was these brave guys who received the order to break through the line of the retreating fascists, leaving them in the rear and thereby cutting off from the SS men hiding in Prague. The plan was this: when the Mitl-group gets to the capital of Czechoslovakia, Russian soldiers will already be there. The main problem for our fighters was only the steep mountains hanging ahead. To overcome this line was the main task of the tankers.

End of the Mitl Group

The historic operation was started by the tank regiments of the First Ukrainian Front. They made their way through narrow, winding and dangerous passes. In the pitch darkness of the night, tracked vehicles swept away the enemy barriers set up by the Germans at every turn. When there was a need, the crews left the tanks: the soldiers restored the bridges with their own hands, cleared the mines.

Finally, having discarded all the barriers, the steel wave of equipment crossed the ridges and rolled down the slope - straight to the Czech capital. The appearance of Soviet tanks on the horizon was so unexpected for the SS that they did not even have time to put up proper resistance. On the contrary, mad with fear, the Germans ran in panic wherever their eyes looked.

Thus ended the liberation of Prague. The date of the significant event is May 11. On this day, the capital of Czechoslovakia was completely cleared of the invaders. Separate groups of fascists were pursued by our tankers for another two days, after which, having captured all the fugitives, they adequately completed a responsible combat mission.

World War II. 1939–1945 Story great war Shefov Nikolai Alexandrovich

Liberation of Czechoslovakia

The last country finally liberated from German occupation was Czechoslovakia. Her liberation began in September 1944, with the East Carpathian operation. Then the Red Army failed to break through to Slovakia, and from November the front in this sector froze until the beginning of 1945. The resumption of active fighting in Czechoslovakia was associated with the general offensive of the right wing of the Soviet front from the Carpathians to East Prussia.

From January 12 to February 18, 1945, the 4th Ukrainian Front (General I.E. Petrov) and part of the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (Marshal R.Ya. Malinovsky) with a total strength of over 480 thousand people. launched an offensive in the Western Carpathians. On the Soviet side, the 1st and 4th Romanian armies (about 100 thousand people), as well as the 1st Czechoslovak army corps (11.5 thousand people) participated in the operation. The Western Carpathians were defended by a 500,000-strong German-Hungarian group (1st Panzer, 8th, 1st Hungarian and part of the forces of the 17th Army).

The Soviet offensive in the Western Carpathians took place in conjunction with the Vistula-Oder operation. Fighting in snow-covered mountainous wooded areas and overcoming well-organized defenses, units of the 4th Ukrainian Front could not develop a high rate of advance. True, their onslaught was facilitated by the rapid advance of Soviet troops in central Poland, which threatened a blow from the north, to the flank and rear of the formations defending the Carpathians.

During the Western Carpathian operation, the southern regions of Poland and a significant part of the territory of Slovakia were occupied. The troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front reached the approaches to the Moravian-Ostrava region, the 2nd Ukrainian - to the Hron River. In the Western Carpathians, the Red Army gained a rare experience of an offensive in the mountains in winter. In these severe battles, the military commonwealth of the Soviet, Czechoslovak and Romanian troops was strengthened. Soviet losses in the West Carpathian operation amounted to about 80 thousand people, the Romanian armies - about 12 thousand people, the Czechoslovak corps - about 1 thousand people.

Having overcome the Western Carpathians, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front (General I. E. Petrov) reached the approaches to the Czech Republic. The way there lay through the Moravian-Ostrava industrial region, which was defended by the Heinrici army group. The ratio of forces is given in the table.

To liberate this region from March 10 to May 5, 1945, the Moravian-Ostrava operation was carried out. She immediately took on a protracted character. In this area, which at that time provided up to 80% of Germany's military products, the Germans created a powerful system of defensive structures. About them, according to the memoirs of a participant in that operation, General K. S. Moskalenko, the Soviet command had a very superficial idea.

During the first eight days of fighting, the troops managed to advance only 6–12 km. The Germans, thanks to the active collection of undercover data, knew about the timing Soviet offensive. They withdrew their units from the first line of defense, and the entire power of the Soviet artillery strike went into the void. The defenders, having Hitler's order (he came to Moravska Ostrava on the eve of the Soviet offensive) to hold this area at all costs, fought steadfastly and decisively, constantly counterattacking. So, in just 4 days (from March 12 to March 15) in the offensive zone of the 38th Army (General Moskalenko), the Germans carried out 39 counterattacks.

Heavy fighting, which lasted almost a month, did not lead to a breakthrough of the German fortification system. On April 5, Soviet troops went on the defensive in this sector. Perhaps not a single offensive operation of the Red Army at the final stage of the war was so unsuccessful. A significant drawback of this operation was the lack of ammunition. So, for artillery pieces, only 0.6 norms of ammunition were released. At the same time, the overall superiority of Soviet troops over the Heinrici group was not overwhelming. It was not enough to successfully break through such powerful fortifications.

The offensive of the 4th Ukrainian Front (Petrov was replaced by General Eremenko from March 25) resumed on April 15, on the eve of the start of the Berlin operation. "Gnawing" into the German defense was tight. Artillery often could not destroy the system of long-term fortifications. So, 152-mm howitzer cannons did not penetrate meter-long walls of 9-hole pillboxes from a distance of 1000 m. Under these conditions, small mobile assault groups armed with explosives and flamethrowers played an important role.

Meanwhile, the situation in other areas began to favor the solution of the tasks of the Moravian-Ostrava operation. During the same period, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front advancing south advanced almost 200 km forward and liberated Brno on April 26. From the north, the positions of the 1st Ukrainian Front hung over the Czech Republic. As a result, the Moravian-Ostrava ledge, deeply protruding to the east, was formed, vulnerable to flank attacks, which threatened to completely encircle the German group defending here.

Such circumstances contributed to the successful completion of the Moravian-Ostrava operation. After fierce fighting, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front, advancing 10–15 km in 10 days, captured Moravian Ostrava on April 30 (production here continued literally until the last German soldiers left the city). The Germans began to retreat to the west, and by May 5, units of the 4th Ukrainian Front reached the approaches to Olomyuts. The losses of the Red Army in the Moravian-Ostrava operation amounted to over 112 thousand people.

Literally on the same day, an uprising against the Germans began in Prague. By that time, the main forces of the Wehrmacht had been defeated in the areas of Berlin and Vienna. This made it possible for the Soviet command to make extensive use of the forces of all the fronts located near the Czech Republic for the operation to liberate Prague. To help the rebels, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian (Marshal I.S. Konev), 2nd Ukrainian (Marshal R.Ya. Malinovsky), 4th Ukrainian (General A.I. Eremenko) fronts were used. They were opposed by Army Group Center (Field Marshal F. Scherner) and Austria (General L. Rendulich). The ratio of forces is given in the table.

By the beginning of May, the last large Wehrmacht grouping that remained combat-ready was in Czechoslovakia. The Germans were actually already surrounded. From the north, east and south it was surrounded by a ring of Soviet fronts, and to the west of Prague were US troops. In the current hopeless situation for the command of Army Group Center, his main task was to withdraw his forces west to the American zone of occupation. In this respect Prague operation became a successful attempt by the Soviet command to stop such a retreat.

The capture of the eastern regions of Germany and Austria allowed the Soviet command to carry out a large-scale flank maneuver and clamp the "Center" army group "in pincers". The operation began on May 6, 1945. The main flank attacks on the German groups were delivered by the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts, whose units from the north (from East Germany) and the south (from the Vienna-Brno line) moved to Prague. On the morning of May 9, the advanced tank units of the 1st Ukrainian Front broke into the Czech capital. During the day, the main forces of both fronts approached it, which surrounded almost a million German groups east of Prague.

The bulk of the troops from Army Group Center surrendered on 10–11 May. This ended the Prague operation, which took less than a week to complete. The total number of prisoners taken during the Prague operation amounted to 860 thousand people. The liberation of Prague was the last major operation of World War II in Europe.

The losses of the Red Army during the Prague operation amounted to over 49 thousand people. Considering that the operation took six days, the daily losses (8.2 thousand people) were very high. This testified to the intensity of the recent battles in Europe and the active resistance of the German units (if not in all, then in certain directions). The participants in this operation were awarded the medal "For the Liberation of Prague". In the battles for the freedom of Czechoslovakia in 1944-1945. 140 thousand Soviet soldiers died.

In general, the irretrievable losses of the Soviet troops during the campaign in Europe in 1945 amounted to 800 thousand people, sanitary - 2.2 million people. German losses during the same time amounted to 1 million killed and over 2 million prisoners (of which 1.3 million surrendered after Germany signed the surrender).

During the completion of the Prague operation in Berlin, the Act of unconditional surrender of Germany was signed. It marked the end of the Great Patriotic War Soviet Union.

The main outcome of the Great Patriotic War was that the Soviet Union was able to defend its independence and win the fight against the strongest military enemy in the history of the country. After the victory in this war, the USSR entered the category of great powers that decided the structure of the post-war world at that time. In fact, the pre-war Soviet borders in the West were recognized, that is, the entry into the USSR: Moldova, the Baltic republics, Western Ukraine and Belarus. The victory of the USSR meant a new alignment of forces in Europe, when Poland, East Germany, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Bulgaria entered the zone of Soviet influence.

The situation at the land borders of the USSR changed radically. Now there were mostly friendly countries there. 1945 was the peak of military success, which the Russian army had not achieved for 130 years. The total irretrievable losses of the Red Army (killed, died of wounds, missing and taken prisoner) amounted to 11.2 million people. (of which 6.2 million people, or more than half, are the losses of the first period of the war - from June 1941 to November 1942). The irretrievable losses of Germany and its allies on the Soviet-German front amounted to 8.6 million people. A special medal "For the victory over Germany in the Great Patriotic War of 1941–1945" was issued for participants in the Great Patriotic War. For this victory, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief I. V. Stalin received the highest military rank of Generalissimo.

Irrecoverable losses of Russia (USSR) and Germany with its allies on the Eastern Front in the First and Second World Wars (thousand people)

Countries	World War I	The Second World War
Russia, USSR	5500	11 200
Germany	550 (20)*	6900** (85)
Austria-Hungary	2300 (60)	-
Turkey	250 (60)	-
Hungary	-	863 (100)
Romania	-	682 (100)
Italy	-	94 (15)
Finland	-	86 (100)
The total losses of Germany and its allies	3100	8625

* The approximate percentage of irretrievable losses of the country's armed forces on the Eastern Front is given in brackets.

** This includes the losses of national and volunteer formations that fought as part of the German armed forces (Austrians, Sudeten Germans, Lorraine, Spaniards, Belgians, Vlasovites, Muslims, etc.).

In the Great Patriotic War, 8 million 668 thousand Soviet soldiers (4.4 percent of the country's population) died on the battlefield, died from wounds and in captivity, went missing. In terms of the number of irretrievable demographic losses, the Great Patriotic War exceeded all the wars of Russia combined. One of the features of this war, which sharply distinguished it from the previous ones, was the huge decline in the civilian population. A significant part of those killed in the Great Patriotic War falls on the civilian population).

The material losses of the country were also unprecedented. Damage to the state and population during the Great Patriotic War amounted to 679 billion rubles (in 1941 prices). During the war, the aggressors destroyed in the USSR:

1.7 thousand cities;

70 thousand villages and villages;

32 thousand factories and factories;

98 thousand collective farms;

4.1 thousand railway stations;

65 thousand km of railway lines;

13 thousand bridges;

84 thousand schools and other educational institutions;

40 thousand hospitals and other medical institutions.

The shock experienced by the country after this terrible invasion had long-term consequences. In particular, the leadership's insistence that something like this never happen again led to a constant and disproportionate military build-up that ultimately undermined the Soviet economy.

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WHEN you look at the current behavior of our former European "allies" in the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance and the Warsaw Treaty Organization, the words of Emperor Alexander III involuntarily come to mind: "Russia has only two allies: its army and navy"...

True, to these two allies, Russia would do well to add historical memory and public reason, but this is so - by the way ...

Let's go back to 1945.

It has already been said about the Poles and more will be said, and now a little about the “brave” Czechs and some details of the “Prague” spring of 1945.

In terms of historical gratitude to Russia, the Czechs did not go far from the Poles. After the disruption by the Warsaw Pact troops of the pro-Western adventure - the "Prague Spring" of 1968 - the Czechs also began to talk about "Russian occupiers" and desecrate monuments to Soviet soldiers. Of course, in 1968 it was the “democratized” youths who did this, and not the gray-haired Praguers, who in 1945 met tankers Rybalko and Lelyushenko with songs as boys. But the youths of 1968 were the children and grandchildren of the Praguers of 1945!

Today, the youths of 1968 have already turned gray, and now they have their own grandchildren. And these grandchildren are also not very grateful to the Russians for their tank rush to Prague in 1945 ...

People who do not know history well or know it well, but prefer "bucks" to the truth, tell fables about poor "Czechoslovaks" (a nationality that never existed in nature), from whom the villain Hitler, as a result of the "Munich Pact" with the West, took away the Sudetenland ( completely inhabited in 1938 by Germans) ...

They also complain about the plight of the Czechs in the Reich, when the Czechs at the Skoda factories assembled tanks for the Eastern Front in black shirts - allegedly in protest ...

They also remember the village of Lidice, which was burned down after the agents of London, for the purpose of provocation, liquidated the SS chief Heydrich, who calmly drove around Prague in an open car without guards ....

But here is some "information for reflection" from the memorandum of the head of the 7th department of the political department of the 7th Guards Army, Major Kozlov, which he sent on June 7, 1945 to the head of the 7th department of the 1st Ukrainian Front:

“The population of Czechoslovakia curses the German nation and will never forget all the atrocities that the Germans inflicted...

However, along with the mostly friendly attitude of the population of Czechoslovakia towards the troops of the Red Army, there are some displeasures ... ".

However, further lines of the memorandum suggested that Major Kozlov used the word "separate" rather for reasons of political correctness. And here is what Major Kozlov wrote further:

“The population of the [western] regions of Czechoslovakia differs sharply in its behavior from the population of the previous regions. If hot battles raged in the eastern part of Czechoslovakia, as a result of which there was great destruction of villages and cities, and the population sat in basements until the arrival of the Red Army, then the western part did not experience this ... The population, therefore, did not experience all the horrors of the war .. .".

Strange - after all, the Czech Republic, as they say, was the subject of "Nazi atrocities" ?! And how did the "freedom-loving" Czechs react to these atrocities in the mountainous - that is, convenient for partisan actions and inconvenient for the actions of the regular army - the Czech Republic?

The Slovaks, although they were officially considered allies of the Reich, but as soon as the Soviet troops approached closer, they raised the Slovak National Uprising in the mountains.

Well, Major Kozlov wrote about this:

“In this territory there are various parties: communist, social democratic, people's socialist, people's.

None of the democratic parties carried out underground work directed against the Germans. Each party, including the communist one, throughout the entire period of the occupation of the Czech Republic was waiting for the arrival of the Red Army, but itself did not show any active actions directed against the German enslavers "...

ONE of the last battles in that war was the battles of the Red Army in the Czech Republic, which ended with the liberation of Prague. However, some argue that Prague, it turns out, was liberated not by the Ore Armada, but by the Vlasovites. If, they say, it wasn’t for them, only small heads would remain from the “Golden Prague”.

And this is also one of the anti-Soviet myths of the 45th year, although units of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) Vlasov did indeed enter Prague in May 1945. And they even shot at the German units sent to suppress the Prague uprising.

However, everything is in order.

On the territory of the Czech Republic, both Soviet troops and American troops were conducting hostilities ... And, as in all other cases, for every drop of Yankee blood there was a bucket of Russian blood - and not because the Americans fought so skillfully, but because the Germans hardly resisted.

April 30, 1945 English Premier Churchill wrote to the new American President Truman:

“There can be little doubt that the liberation by your troops of Prague and as much of Western Czechoslovakia as possible can completely change the post-war situation in Czechoslovakia and may well also affect neighboring countries.”

True, it is not entirely clear what Churchill meant by Western Czechoslovakia? Then there was a separate imperial protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia (or, if you like - the Czech Republic), and separately - the Slovak Republic.

There was no state with the name "Czechoslovakia" then, and it is not on the world map even today - without any Hitler and the "Munich Pact" ... The Czech Republic - separately, Slovakia - separately.

But if Churchill meant the Czech Republic, then the "neighboring countries" for her were - as they are now - Austria, Slovakia and Poland.

Germany then was, of course, not counted.

The situation in all three "neighboring countries" was not the best for the United States and England, and an allied presence in the Czech Republic, and even in Prague, would be a tasty option for Churchill (and not for him alone!)

Interfered with this, as always, the "tyrant" Stalin.

On May 4, 1945, General Eisenhower turned to the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army, General A.I. Antonov with a proposal to develop the offensive of the US Army to the western banks of the Vltava and Elbe. This meant the occupation of Prague by the Americans, but contradicted the decisions of the Crimean (Yalta) Conference and did not correspond to the dividing line established there for Soviet and American troops.

Antonov categorically rejected the proposal, saying that a grouping of Soviet troops had already been created to solve these tasks, and this was indeed the case. Troops of the 1st, 4th, 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts fought against the German army groups "Center" and "Austria". And already in the course of the Berlin operation, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command decided to conduct the Prague operation.

The total number of the German grouping in the Czech Republic was more than 900 thousand people, armed with up to 10 thousand guns and mortars, over 2200 tanks and assault guns and about 1 thousand aircraft.

Three Soviet fronts were to advance along converging directions to Prague from the Dresden region and from the region south of Brno. The troops involved in the operation included more than 1 million people, more than 23 thousand guns and mortars, about 1800 tanks and self-propelled guns and more than 4 thousand aircraft.

On May 2, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command sent directives to the commanders of the fronts to organize the offensive. So, in the directive to Marshal Malinovsky - the commander of the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front - it was, in particular, said:

“In connection with the withdrawal of the enemy in front of the 4th Ukrainian Front, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command orders:

1. The main forces of the troops of the front should be deployed to the west and strike in the general direction on Jhlava, Prague with the task of capturing the line no later than May 12-14: Jhlava, Ulatinch, Gorn, and then reach the river. Vltava and take possession of Prague.

2. Part of the forces of the right wing of the front to continue the offensive in the direction of Olomouc ...

Headquarters of the Supreme High Command

I.Stalin

A.Antonov»

That is, the question of the occupation of Prague and the complete liberation of the Czech Republic was at the beginning of May 1945 a matter of a few days. And there could be no doubt about the complete success.

Strange, of course ... The Czechs sat like a quiet mouse in the imperial protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia from the spring of 1939 to the spring of 1945 under the presidency of the same Gakha, who was president of Czechoslovakia in 1939 ... And suddenly they flared up with such burning hatred for the invaders that they could not endure a maximum of a week and a half before their liberation by the Soviet troops!

And if you really wanted to rebel, then you could at least wait until the moment when the Red Army units come closer to Prague, and this would happen in any case in just a few days. In addition, there was no strong German garrison in the city itself at that moment, the Germans were not going to destroy Prague, they did not carry out mass repressions.

It would not be superfluous to notify the Soviet command of the plans of the rebels in advance, but for some reason this was not done.

One way or another, on the morning of May 5, the uprising began, and by the evening the radio building, the post office, the central telephone exchange, the most important bridges across the Vltava, almost all stations, the Skoda, Avia, and Walter factories were captured. On the night of May 6, up to 1600 barricades were built, and the number of rebels increased to 30 thousand people.

Radio Prague called: "Ore Armada - to help!", But to be precise, Prague then called for help from the Americans. And it's hard to say - who in Prague wanted to see more?

And here a natural question arises, which, for some reason, has not been asked in Russia to this day - is it not because Prague was so hastily raised to an uprising that some people wanted to repeat in May 1945 in Prague, but already - without collapse - "Warsaw" version of the August 1944 uprising?

The commander of the Army Group "Center" Scherner ordered to suppress the uprising in Prague by all means. Troops moved towards Prague from three sides: from the north - the Reich Panzer Division, from the east - the Viking Panzer Division, from the south - a reinforced regiment of the Reich Division.

But the Soviet tank armies were already moving towards Prague...

On May 6, after conducting reconnaissance in force, the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal Konev, launched an offensive with the main forces.

On May 7, the 2nd Ukrainian Front of Marshal Malinovsky began to attack, as well as the 4th Ukrainian Front of Army General Eremenko.

At dawn on May 9, tankers of the 4th and 3rd tank armies of Generals Lelyushenko and Rybalko started fighting on the streets of Prague.

At about 10 o'clock on May 9, a mobile group of the 4th Ukrainian Front entered Prague: the 302nd division in vehicles and the 1st Czechoslovak tank brigade.

At 1300 hours on May 9, the 6th Guards Tank Army and the infantry of the 24th Guards Corps of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entered Prague, and later the 7th Mechanized Corps from the cavalry-mechanized group of General Issa Pliev.

Air support was provided by the 5th Air Army and part of the forces of the 17th Air Army of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.

In hot pursuit, the commander of the armored and mechanized troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front reported on the actions of his troops in the Prague operation. Here is an excerpt from this extensive and dynamic report:

"4 Guards. TA(Guards Tank Army, - S.K.) - 10 Guards. tk(tank corps, - S.K.), developing the offensive in the direction of Premsdorf, Olderish, overcoming mountain passes in the Nikolub region, went to the region of Dukhtsov, Ledvice and at 3.00 9.5.45 advanced units reached the sowing. -zap. outskirts of Prague.

At 14.00 09.5.45, the main forces of the PO entered Prague(forward detachments, - S.K.) corps and fought to clear the city from individual enemy groups.

6th and 5th Guards. mk(mechanized corps, - S.K.), having broken the resistance of the enemy, they overcame the pass with battles. On the night of 9.5.45 guards. mk 16 and 15 guards. mbr(motorized rifle brigade, - S.K.) from 22 Sabr(self-propelled artillery brigade, - S.K.) in the region of heights 757.0, 689.0, 414.0, southeast. Yanov in the region of heights 265.0, 259.0 continued to develop the offensive in the direction of Yanov, Most, Launy, Prague and at 12.30 9.5.45 entered Prague, occupying the southern and south-western. outskirts. 5 Guards MK successively took possession of Saida, Postoloprty, Most, at 9.00 9.5.45 entered Prague and, together with units of the 10th Guards. because he fought with the enemy ... ".

On May 9, 1945, the commander of the 3rd Guards Tank Army, Rybalko, reported to the commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal Konev:

“[At] 6.00 9.5.45 [in] the afternoon(so in the text, - S.K.) in the capital of Czechoslovakia, Prague, the first to enter the city were 69 MSB, the commander of the brigade guards. Colonel Vaganov, 50th MCP(motorcycle regiment, - S.K.), commander of the regiment lieutenant colonel Kalinin, 16 Sabr, commander of the brigade guards. Colonel Popov.

On May 9, 1945, by March 17, the city was completely occupied, contacted the military and civil authorities.

Power in the city belongs to the National Rada, Professor Albert Prazhak.

The military staff of the uprising is the commander of the uprising, Captain Georgy Nezhansky. Order has been restored in the city.

The task force of the army (headquarters of the army, - S.K.) - sowing. outskirts of Prague.

P. Rybalko, Melnikov, Bakhmetiev.

On the same day, the commander of the 4th Guards Tank Army, Lelyushenko, also reported to Marshal Konev:

“At 4.00 9.5.45, the 10th Guards. shopping mall entered the city of Prague and went out to its northeastern outskirts, eastern and southwestern outskirts.

6 Guards mk - to the southern and southwestern outskirts of Prague.

5 Guards mk - to the western outskirts.

Many prisoners and trophies were captured.

Those who resisted were destroyed.

Communication with the rebels - through Brigadier General Vedravba. There are no American troops. There are no neighbors. I conduct reconnaissance in the north-eastern part, south direction. I am tidying up. I'm with the task force - on the western outskirts of Prague.

D. Lelyushenko.

After the elimination of pockets of resistance in the Prague region, the troops of the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian Fronts continued their offensive in order to join the Americans and on May 11, 1945, met with them at the line of Chemnitz, Karlovy Vary, Pilsen.

WHERE a horse with a hoof goes, there is a cancer with a claw ... In the same days, the 1st division of the ROA under the command of "General" Bunyachenko, a former colonel of the Red Army, was in a hurry to Prague. Its number reached 20 thousand people. At the same time, it would be more correct to call the First Division of the ROA the first and last division of the "Russian" "Liberation" "Army". In any case, the first and last relatively combat-ready.

ROA Vlasov is also largely a myth, since only on September 16, 1944, Vlasov met with Himmler and received the latter's consent to the formation of two divisions.

Just!

In the middle of September 1944!

It is believed that Vlasov was dissatisfied with the number "two", because he allegedly counted on ten divisions. However, the point was not only that a compact military formation at the army level, consisting of traitors, but Russians, in the situation of the end of 1944 - beginning of 1945, the Germans did not need anything. The fact was that Vlasov, even in the best of times, would not have been able to recruit decent personnel for ten divisions, and even at the turn of 1944 and 1945 ...

But the former commander of the 389th Rifle Division of the Red Army Bunyachenko, who went over to the Germans on December 17, 1942, managed to form one full-blooded (in terms of numbers) division.

(In 1942, Bunyachenko was sentenced to death by a tribunal of the Northern Group of Forces of the Transcaucasian Front for creating a threat of encirclement for the 9th Army and the entire group - with a replacement of 10 years in prison and the opportunity to serve his sentence in the Army. However, he preferred direct betrayal to atonement ).

The 1st division of the ROA (600th "Panzer Grenadier Division") began to form in Musing in November 1944. Vlasov with the 2nd division (650th according to German numbering) was located 60 kilometers to the south-west - in Heuberg. After a short, unsuccessful and chaotic participation in hostilities against our troops, the 1st division of the ROA reached Dresden and came under the command of Field Marshal Scherner, commander of the Center Forces Group.

Bunyachenko did not get along with Sherner, and on April 27, 1945, the 1st division moved towards the Czech Republic.

But why?

To strengthen Scherner's group?

What a Sherner!

To help Prague?

There was no question of any altruistic motives, from any point of view. In addition, at the end of April 1945, everything was calm in Prague, and not only an anti-German uprising, but no unrest was expected - they began on the morning of May 1, 1945.

What could Bunyachenko's "division" do - twenty thousand people, starting to decompose as a military community and quickly turning into ten thousand? And - against the background of the mighty tank "skating rinks" Rybalko and Lelyushenko, ready to throw!

Even if not a demoralized "division" but a cohort of heroes was moving towards Prague, it would not have survived against Scherner's tanks and Waffen-SS grenadiers and would not have helped the Prague residents. But Bunyachenko's "eagles" did not fly high. They would have to get to the troops of General Eisenhower - and then good luck.

Actually, that's why Bunyachenko went to the combat zone, because the path to the places of deployment of units of the 3rd American Army ran through it. The Vlasovites did not liberate Prague - they went into American captivity, fearing Soviet captivity!

The rushing Vlasov, who joined up with Bunyachenko, also rushed to the Yankees. But even the Americans, who were beginning to pick up the German anti-Soviet cadres remaining idle, did not need Vlasov - he was very odious even for the Yankees. In addition, there were interstate agreements between the USSR and the allies regarding the extradition of this kind of public.

Another thing is the Czechs ...

The Czechs, having seen on their territory a military formation in German uniform but with Russian speech, at first were delighted. Czech partisan detachments made contact with the Vlasovites. On May 2, 1945, the 1st division of the ROA stopped 50 kilometers from Prague, and a delegation of officers of the Czech army arrived at its location from the capital ...

The delegation - an interesting moment - asked Bunyachenko to support the uprising. On May 5, 1945, the uprising began, and the rebels made a radio appeal for help to everyone at once, including the Americans.

On the evening of May 5, Bunyachenko was in the suburbs of Prague, and on May 6, the Vlasovites took part in a clash with SS units sent to suppress the uprising.

Why did the Vlasovites decide to support the Czechs? It is not difficult to understand this - the ROA division entered Prague in the expectation that the Yankees would come there ... After all, by May 5, 1945, units of the American army were much closer to Prague than the Soviet units ... The main thing was to surrender to the Allies or settle in some other way with them, and not with the Soviet command. It was this that predetermined the decision of Vlasov, who was at the location of the division, and Bunyachenko to join the rebels.

The forces in the Czech Republic were also clearly counting on the arrival of the Americans, who brewed "porridge" with a premature uprising, without agreeing on its timing with the Soviet command.

However, by the evening of May 6, 1945, the situation for Vlasov and for the non-communist initiators of the Prague uprising had changed fundamentally. Apparently, the Prague uprising was not initiated by the communists, but the Czech communists were able to quickly seize the initiative from the pro-American Czech leaders and lead the uprising - since it had begun.

In the negotiations between representatives of the Vlasov KONR (Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia) with representatives of the leadership of the uprising, the latter stated that the Czechs of Vlasov did not ask for help, that the rebels who had previously turned to Vlasov for help were not representatives of either the Czech people or the government ... Two-thirds of the newly formed The Czech government was made up of communists, and they advised Bunyachenko to surrender to the advancing Ruda Armada, that is, the Red Army.

The very fact that the communist leadership refused the services of the “Vlasovites” also speaks of their “combat capability”, and that they did not have the strength to influence the situation in a serious way. And the Central Committee of the Czech Communist Party, of course, contacted the command of the Soviet armies by radio and knew that the Lelyushenko and Rybalko tanks were on their way ...

On the way, it turned out that part of the Vlasov command: "Major General" Trukhin, "Major General" Boyarsky, "Major General" Shapovalov and "General" Blagoveshchensky, were captured by Czech Red partisans. Boyarsky was shot, Shapovalov was hanged. Trukhin and Blagoveshchensky - transferred to the Red Army.

The agony of ROA, KONR and their "tops" began.

On May 12, 1945, Vlasov was captured in the zone of location of the 25th tank corps of Major General Fomin. One can cite the full report of General Fomin to the Military Council of the 1st Ukrainian Front about how this happened, but is it worth it?

It is more interesting to return to the allies and to the Prague Uprising.

AFTER the demarche of the Soviet General Staff, insisting on compliance with the agreements reached at the Crimean (Yalta) Conference in February 1945, the 3rd American Army was forced to stop at the Karlovy Vary, Plzen, Ceske Budejovice line.

A simple glance at the map of the Czech Republic and Central Europe shows that by the time the Prague Uprising began, the Americans were closest to Prague. At that moment we were further away - in the area of Dresden and Brno.

The Americans, of course, even without Churchill's hints, understood all the strategic benefits of occupying Prague, but it was not out of hand for Washington to flagrantly violate the agreements reached earlier with Moscow. The Russians were needed as allies in the war against Japan, and how it would turn out with the atomic bomb was still unclear - it was first tested only on July 16, 1945 at the Alamogordo test site in the desert state of New Mexico.

Therefore, the Americans limited themselves to probing - an armored reconnaissance column was sent to the Prague area, and the American captain who commanded it even met with the commander of the First Regiment of the First Division of the ROA "Colonel" Arkhipov. The captain explained that he was not the vanguard of the advancing troops, but only had to assess the situation - and was not at all going to enter Prague.

However, it can be assumed that on May 6, 1945, the question of the possible occupation of Prague by American troops was still open to the Yankees - if the Prague uprising was choking in blood. But since the rebels were doing well, the captain and his scouts went home.

As a result, only the Red Army units occupied Prague.

But not everything here is completely clear.

Soviet sources give the initiative to prepare an uprising, nevertheless, Communist Party Czechoslovakia. Like, on April 29, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia discussed the issue of the uprising and distributed among the members of the Central Committee the responsibilities for leading it, after which a detailed plan of the uprising was developed.

All this, most likely, was the case. But the communist plan for the Prague uprising does not exclude the existence of a non-communist (and even anti-communist, as in Warsaw in 1944) plan for the Prague uprising...

And since the anti-communists had to work "preemptively", they hurried to revolt. Well, in fact, if the Prague uprising, which began on May 5, 1945, was prepared by the communists, then why did it come as a complete surprise to Moscow? After all, the tankers of the armies of Rybalko and Lelyushenko had to urgently break through to Prague without the cover required by the charters - at the maximum possible speed! And all this haste was the result of a strange, not coordinated with us initiative of the citizens of Prague.

Without a doubt, the communists were really preparing an uprising, hoping to set it up by the time the Soviet troops reached the approaches to Prague, that is, somewhere by May 10-11, 1945. But it seems that the pro-American forces in the Czech Republic forced the deadlines, and forced them by agreement with Washington ...

It would be quite logical to assume at the same time that the Yankees authorized the uprising in the expectation that the Russians in an acute situation would falter and agree to the advance of the 3rd American army to the Vltava and Prague. Even if later they had to return to the former line of demarcation, the Yankees would have received a political profit on a trip to Prague.

Firstly, the return of Prague would be a concession to Russia - albeit a prearranged one, but a concession.

And concessions must be paid for with concessions.

Secondly, by entering Prague first, the Americans could influence the development of the situation in the Czech Republic in a more favorable direction for them, since by that time it had developed in the opposite direction.

Finally, an American entry into Prague would have disrupted the enormous political, propagandistic and agitational effect that the Soviet Union obtained by liberating Prague on its own. After all, Soviet troops were advancing through the liberated city in a sea of people and flowers! In no Slavic capital we were met like in Prague.

Did America need it?

THEREFORE, there is no doubt that the Americans took some covert actions in early May 1945 in Czechoslovakia. Let me remind you: on May 4, Eisenhower - certainly with the sanction of Washington - carried out a sounding of the Soviet position, suggesting that the chief of our General Staff, Antonov, agree with the advance of American troops to the western banks of the Vltava and Prague.

Moscow firmly refused Washington, and the very next day Prague revolted, and on May 6, The New York Times reported an uprising in Prague.

The Americans ask us again, we again refuse. And the situation develops as it develops, gradually naturally “turning to the left” and “blushing”. However, there are still a lot of ambiguities.

Here, for example, is what our tank commanders reported...

General Rybalko: “The power in the city belongs to the National Rada, Professor Albert Prazhak. The military staff of the uprising is the commander of the uprising, Captain Georgy Nezhansky ... ".

General Lelyushenko: "Communication with the rebels - through Brigadier General Vedravba."

A strange discrepancy - either the captain leads the uprising, or the general. And Professor Albert Prazhak does not look like an ally of the communist Klement Gottwald. And where are the members of the underground Central Committee of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, the leaders of the supposedly communist - according to Soviet sources - uprising? They should have been in contact with the Soviet communist generals in the first place ...

From a historical distance, and in the light of everything we know today about that war, it can be assumed that the Yankees provoked a premature uprising in Prague in the same way that the British provoked a premature uprising in Warsaw in the summer of 1944. And the motives in both cases were similar - the fear of a final seizure of power in Poland, the Czech Republic and Slovakia by leftist forces, and even - God forbid! - communists.

But 1945 is not 1944! If eight months earlier the Warsaw Uprising was drowned in a sea of blood, then the Prague Uprising was drowned in a sea of flowers and smiles. It is characteristic that on May 9, 1945, Marshal Konev and a member of the Military Council Krainyukov were forced to give the following combat order to the commander of the 4th Guards Tank Army Lelyushenko:

“I order to immediately take Benesov (20 km southeast of Prague). Prevent the Germans from withdrawing to join the Allies. Stop celebrating in Prague.

Report on performance.

KONEV

KRAINYUKOV.

In its originality and meaning, this is, in a way, the most remarkable document of 1945. And in it, in the happiest way, the last military concerns of Konev’s soldiers were mixed up, and their already peaceful fun.

In Warsaw in the summer of 1944, this could not have been the case, but it was not the fault of the Russians - the Poles fell victim to their own provocation. Now times have changed dramatically, and this determined the completely different fates of the two uprisings in the two Slavic capitals.

Sergei Kremlev (Brezkun), especially for the "Ambassadorial order"

In the Soviet decades, lies and hypocrisy played an indispensable role in political governance. Thanks to them, stable myths and fictions were created, with the help of which the authorities manipulated public consciousness and behavior. The collapse of the Soviet Union, which took place in a completely ordinary way and without any heroic pathos, was the result of the inevitable destruction of false values and social relations based on many years of deceit and self-deception. However, the false dogma of the coercive state ideology was quickly replaced by proud triumphalism. Many of our compatriots today temptingly take it for patriotism. In fact, triumphalism hides an indifferent attitude to the national tragedy of one's own country. Obviously, the cause of new moral metamorphoses is often old historical illiteracy, which is based on mossy myths and preserved stereotypes. The danger of such a situation cannot but be disturbing, since a big lie inevitably gives rise to outright cynicism.
The interest in the question of under what circumstances the liberation of Prague took place in May 1945 is quite understandable, especially in connection with the celebration of the 65th anniversary of the victory of the countries of the anti-Hitler coalition over Nazism. The intrigue is connected with the clarification of the true role played in the dramatic Prague events by the military personnel of the 1st Infantry Division of the troops of the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (ROA) and the Red Army. At the same time, it is sad that almost twenty years after the disappearance of Soviet power, instead of honest answers to the questions posed, our contemporaries are offered completely false versions of past events, born sixty years ago in the depths of Stalin's agitprop. Amateurs, whose knowledge of the history of the Prague Uprising does not stand up to scrutiny, zealously act as specialists and connoisseurs today.
What role did the Vlasovites really play in the dramatic Prague events of May 5-8?

The 1st Infantry Division of the KONR troops, Major General Sergei Bunyachenko, left the operational subordination of the German command and began a march to Bohemia from the Oder Front on April 15. Kinschak called Bunyachenko "a graduate of the Military Academy of the Russian General Staff" - an educational institution that never existed in the system of military educational institutions of the USSR. In fact, Bunyachenko graduated from the special faculty of the Military Academy. M. V. Frunze in 1936 with an overall rating of “good”.
Bunyachenko, despite threats from the command of Army Group Center, stubbornly led his strong division south to join General Trukhin's South Group. By April 29, the division (five infantry regiments, seven T-34 tanks, 10 Jaeger PzKpfw-38 (t) self-propelled guns, 54 guns and other heavy weapons) reached the city of Louny, 50-55 km northwest of Prague.
From that moment on, the command of the division was in contact with representatives of the military wing of the Czech Resistance - the delegation of the underground Czech commandant's office "Bartosh" General Karel Kultvasr and Colonel Frantisek Burger. It was this commandant's office that was preparing an armed uprising in Prague. However, there was no talk of the intervention of the 1st division in the uprising. Everything was decided by an unforeseen incident, to which the NKGB detachment "Hurricane" and personally Pyotr Savelyev had nothing to do.

On May 2, General Bunyachenko received a sharp ultimatum from the commandant of Prague, General Rudolf Toussaint. This document is stored in Bunyachenko's investigative materials in the Central Archive of the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation in Moscow, and was published by the author of these lines back in 1998. Toussaint demanded that Bunyachenko proceed to the front section near Brno, following the order of the command of Army Group Center. In case of deviating from the prescribed route, Toussaint threatened to use the armed forces of the Prague garrison, including aviation, against the Vlasovites.
Thus, the division was in the position of the attacked side. And Bunyachenko decided to conclude a military-political agreement with the commandant's office "Bartosh", hoping to gain not only allies in the inevitable clash with the Prague garrison, but also possible political dividends. By the way, Vlasov was against the intervention of the 1st division in the uprising, because, firstly, he was afraid of German reprisals against other Vlasov units, worse armed than the 1st division, and secondly, he believed that the division would lose time and will not have time to go into the zone of responsibility of the US Army. Later, Vlasov's last fear was fully confirmed.
On May 4, the 1st division arrived at Sukhomasty, 25-30 km southwest of Prague. On May 5, General Bunyachenko, the chief of staff of the division, Lieutenant Colonel Nikolai Nikolaev, and the commander of the 4th regiment, Colonel Igor Sakharov, signed a written agreement with representatives of the military wing of the Resistance "On the joint struggle against fascism and Bolshevism." Naturally, the NKGB Uragan group had nothing to do with this event.
Already in the afternoon, Bunyachenko sent Major Boris Kostenko's reconnaissance division to Prague to help the rebels, and the next day, the 1st regiment of Colonel Andrey Arkhipov, a member of the White movement and an officer of the Markovsky Infantry Regiment. A number of officers of the Russian Army, Lieutenant General Pyotr Wrangel, who participated in the Vlasov movement since 1943, served in the 1st regiment.
On May 6, Bunyachenko delivered a response ultimatum to the Prague garrison, whose scattered forces, including SS units, numbered no more than 10,000 troops. The commander of the 1st division demanded that Toussaint lay down his arms - this document from the Central Archive of the FSB was also published by the author of these lines in 1998.

From the night of the sixth to the morning of the eighth of May, units of the 1st division conducted active hostilities against the Wehrmacht and SS troops in the southern quarters of Prague and the central regions adjacent to them. A member of the Czech National Council, Dr. Mahotka, many years later, recalled: “The Vlasovites fought courageously and selflessly, many, without hiding, went straight to the middle of the street and shot at the windows and hatches on the roofs from which the Germans fired. It seemed that they deliberately went to their death, just not to fall into the hands of the Red Army.
The soldiers of the 1st Regiment freed several hundred prisoners, including Jews, from the Pankrac prison, took about 3.5 thousand prisoners and captured up to 70 armored vehicles. Soldiers of the 2nd Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Vyacheslav Artemiev actively fought in the area of Slivinets and Zbraslav. Several dozen killed Vlasovites from this regiment were buried in the cemetery in Lagovichki. The 3rd Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Georgy Ryabtsev (Aleksandrov) fought a stubborn battle for the airfield in Ruzin, and then in the western part of Prague. Soldiers and officers of the 4th regiment fought with the enemy on Smichov and near the Strahov Monastery. The 5th Infantry Regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Pyotr Maksakov remained in Bunyachenko's reserve. The artillery regiment of Lieutenant Colonel Vasily Zhukovsky fired on German batteries on Petrin. It is interesting that Arkhipov was a hero of the First World War, and Nikolaev and Artemyev in the Red Army deserved the Order of the Red Banner of Battle for their bravery - Nikolaev in July 1941, and Artemyev in October 1943.
During the fighting, the 1st division lost more than three hundred soldiers and officers killed, 198 seriously wounded, as well as two T-34 tanks. The losses of the insurgents and the population of the Czech capital, only killed and died from wounds, amounted to 1694 people during the days of the uprising, more than 1.6 thousand Praguers were injured. The losses of the Prague garrison are estimated at a thousand people only killed.
In the early morning of May 8, Bunyachenko led the division out of the city and marched southwest to Pilsen. By that time, the command of the division was convinced that the troops of the 3rd US Army would not occupy Prague, and the approach of the Soviet armies threatened the Vlasovites with death.
The further fate of the doomed Vlasov division is a topic for a separate discussion. After Bunyachenko's division left, the Prague garrison continued to exist for another 8-10 hours. At 4 pm on May 8, General Toussaint signed the protocol of surrender of all the forces of the Prague garrison, which was accepted by the Czech National Council. At 18 o'clock in the Czech capital, the armed confrontation between the Germans and the rebels finally ceased, and the German garrison ceased to exist.

Only 12 hours after the signing of the protocol of surrender, at about four in the morning, on May 9, the first Soviet armored vehicles of the 62nd, 63rd and 70th brigades of the 4th Guards Tank Army of the 1st Ukrainian Front appeared in Prague, as evidenced by documents of the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation in Podolsk. Soviet troops successfully occupied Prague, but there was no one to liberate it from anyone. Interestingly, in the very first days of peace, the Soviet command imposed a categorical ban on the admission of American war correspondents to Prague, fearing the spread of news and rumors about the participation in the battles of the Vlasovites and the mass executions of those servicemen of the Bunyachenko division who, for various reasons, remained in the city.

So whose troops liberated the Czech capital?..
As paradoxical as it sounds, but in all likelihood - draws. The talented Czech historian Stanislav Auski also wrote about this. During the days of the uprising in Prague and its environs, there were indeed separate groups of American military personnel and Soviet paratroopers. These groups performed different tasks. But it is inappropriate to attribute the liberation of the city to them. The Vlasovites left Prague before the end of the uprising and the capitulation of the Prague garrison. The troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front appeared in Prague after the end of the events and, even more so, after the signing of the main act of the general surrender of the German Armed Forces.
However, in our opinion, the soldiers and officers of the 1st division of the KONR troops (ROA) objectively played an outstanding role during the uprising. In the midst of the fighting on May 6-7, with its active actions, Bunyachenko's division diverted most of the forces of the Prague garrison, cut the city into northern and southern parts, preventing the invasion of the capital by Wehrmacht and SS troops located outside of Prague.

As a result of the blockade and capture of the Ruzinsky airfield, the Germans were unable to use aircraft against the Czech insurgents. Thanks to the intervention of the Vlasovites, the losses of the rebels and the townspeople turned out to be much less than they could have been in a different situation. This is the historical truth.
The fate of the mentioned Vlasov generals and officers developed dramatically. Zhukovsky and Nikolaev were shot in 1945 in the USSR. Ryabtsev shot himself after the division was dissolved on 12 May. Generals Vlasov, Bunyachenko, Maltsev, Trukhin were hanged in Moscow on August 1, 1946 by decision of the Stalinist Politburo. Maksakov served 10 years in the camps and was released in 1955. He lived and died in the Soviet Union. Artemiev, Arkhipov, Sakharov and Turkul escaped forced extradition and died in exile. The history of the Prague Uprising really deserves the most serious attention of honest and professional historians.

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I will immediately make an important reservation that I am not a fan and apologist of the ROA, but I consider Vlasov a banal selfish, careerist and opportunist (this conclusion can be drawn even from reading many Provlasov historical books and memoirs), not deserving even a gram of respect.
The history of KONR and ROA was extremely ambiguous, controversial, and generally rather inglorious. There were definitely more negative and even shameful moments in it than positive and bright ones.
Perhaps the participation of the 1st division of the ROA in the Prague uprising was the only truly noble act of this military-political formation, the only truly independent action, the first and last feat.

I have no task to give my detailed historical, political, moral and ethical assessment of this formation in a commentary on Aleksandrov's article, so I will be brief.

A lot of people who talk about "collaborators-traitors", or, on the contrary, about "anti-Bolshevik heroes", do not know the real history of this military formation at all. For example, the fact that in the entire short history of its existence (about six months, if you count from the moment the Prague manifesto was announced and the preparations for the creation of two divisions began), the 1st division of the ROA fought only two battles: with the Soviet army on April 13-15, 1945 (which she blew it with a bang), and with the Germans on May 6-7 of the same year, in last days war (except for the battle on February 9 against the Red Army of a small detachment of Sakharov, who later became part of the 1st division of the ROA). The second division of the ROA did not conduct a single battle in its entire history at all.

Two divisions of the ROA were hastily formed from the merger of the remnants of the RONA Kaminsky, which amounted to about 25% of its original personnel (subsequently it grew greatly due to the massive influx into the division of people who fled from prisoner of war camps and forced labor camps, or liberated from there by the ROA troops, and who joined to her) and several eastern volunteer battalions, that is, Russian collaborationist battalions under German command, who fought on the eastern and western fronts (that is, including against the countries of the west on the side of the Nazis).
Also, the two divisions of the ROA included a certain percentage of people recruited directly from the prisoner of war camps already in the autumn of 1944 (these people had not fought for the Germans before, and their biography in this respect is quite clean), but they made up an insignificant percentage of the total number two divisions.
Subsequently, several dozen anti-Soviet Red Army soldiers went over to the side of the ROA, already during its inclusion in the battles (mainly during the battle on February 9, to the side of the Russian detachment under the command of Igor Sakharov), but they made up a very insignificant percentage of its total number.
Also, the first division, during its march to the Czech Republic on April 15-30, was joined by a significant number of prisoners of war and "Ostarbeiters", as a result of which the division increased from 18 to 23 thousand. In the bulk, they entered the 5th reserve regiment of Maksakov, and did not participate in the battles for Prague.

ROA, with all the ambiguous attitude to this formation in modern Russian society, is part of our history. This part of our history must be given a fair and unbiased assessment, free from the political clichés of the past and the historical speculations of the present.
That is why, as a person who is not a fan of this formation, I am often annoyed by lies and lies on state television, in various historical materials and documentaries, which talk about "the liberation of Prague by the Soviet army."
Whereas, in fact, units of the Red Army entered Prague, already practically liberated from the Nazis, having carried out several small battles with individual SS underdogs.

It is impossible to build this or that concept of national history on a lie. In order to create and build a free nation as a full-fledged political and historical entity, new generations of the Russian people must know the real truth about all the bitter, tragic and controversial pages national history in all their diversity, and not false myths and tales concocted by order of the authorities by various "state-minded" historians and propagandists to turn the Russian people into "obedient cattle for the Great Multinational Empire."
Therefore, the truth about who actually made the main and key contribution to the liberation of Prague, saved its architectural appearance from destruction, and thousands of Prague residents from death, must be told and conveyed to the general public.

Not a single sane person will belittle the role of the Red Army in the liberation of many European countries from Nazi occupation, and the liberation of millions of people from concentration camps.
However, another Russian army played a key role in the liberation of Prague. Far from sinless, with its rather short and tragic history.
For this act, they are forgiven a lot.

PS. In the near future I will write and publish a large and detailed article with my personal detailed assessment of the ROA and KONR, going through all the main points and milestones in the history of this military-political formation.

Photo of ROA soldiers in Prague

Prague operation


	Prague, Czech Republic
	Red Army victory
Opponents
	Germany
Czechoslovakia



Commanders
I. S. Konev	Ferdinand Scherner
S. K. Bunyachenko	Lothar Rendulic
Side forces
2,028,100 men, 30,500 guns, 2,000 tanks, 30,000 aircraft	900,000 men, 9,700 guns, 1,900 tanks, 1,000 aircraft

11,997 killed or missing, 40,501 wounded	40,000 killed and wounded, 860,000 captured

The last strategic operation of the Red Army in the Great Patriotic War, during which the city of Prague was liberated.

Army Group Center, numbering up to a million people, under the command of Field Marshal Ferdinand Schörner, following Hitler's order, intended to defend in the Prague region and in the city itself, turning it into a "second Berlin".

The course of hostilities

The approach of Soviet and American troops intensified the resistance movement in the Czech Republic. In April 1945, 120 partisan detachments operated there, the total number of which did not exceed 7.5 thousand people. The activity of the partisans was of a defensive nature, which was explained primarily by the lack of weapons and the lack of experienced personnel. In addition, the Czech partisan movement was fragmented, did not have a single leading center. The connection of individual detachments with the Soviet command was episodic or absent altogether. Only at the end of April was the creation of the Czech National Council (CNC) completed with difficulty. It consisted of various political organizations, although the Communists played an important role in it. The CNS was headed by Professor of the Prague University A. Prazhak. In domestic policy, this body was guided by "the broadest democracy", and in foreign policy - by "closest cooperation" with the USSR and "friendly relations" with the Western allies. However, deep internal contradictions and weak communication with the leaders of the Resistance on the ground reduced the leading role of the CHNS.

The immediate start of an uprising against the Nazi occupiers was not included in the calculations of either the CHNS, or the Communists, or the illegal Central Council of Trade Unions. The uprising in Prague was prepared by former Czechoslovak military personnel led by General K. Kutyavasr, who acted independently of the ChNS. In early May, their leadership came into contact with the commander of the 1st division of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA), General S. K. Bunyachenko. Formed by a traitor to the Motherland, General A. A. Vlasov, from Soviet soldiers and officers who had been captured by the Germans, this army was moving west, intending to surrender to the Americans. At the moment when representatives of "Bartos" (Kutyavashr's organization) arrived at it, the 1st division of the Vlasovites was 50 km southwest of Prague. Bunyachenko and almost the entire command of the division, counting on political asylum in Czechoslovakia, agreed to an alliance with the Czechs in the fight against "Nazism and Bolshevism." Vlasov himself did not believe in the success of the uprising, but gave the division commander complete freedom of action.

On May 1, the commander of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front received an order no later than May 4 to transfer the line along the Elbe River to the 1st Belorussian Front, and to transfer the released forces to the Prague direction. On the same day, the troops of the right wing and the center of the 1st Ukrainian Front, operating in the 650-km zone from Potsdam to Levenberg (3rd and 5th Guards, 13, 28, 52nd combined arms, 3rd and 4th I Guards Tank Armies, 2nd Army of the Polish Army, 4th Guards, 25th and 1st Polish Tank, 7th Guards Mechanized and 1st Guards Cavalry Corps), began regrouping in a southerly direction and preparing for the offensive to Prague. The troops of the left wing (31st, 2nd, 59th armies) continued to occupy the defense on the line west of Levenberg, north of Krnov. The 6th Army (Lieutenant General V. A. Gluzdovsky) blocked the garrison of the Breslau fortress. The actions of the ground forces of the front were supported by the 2nd Air Army.

The 4th Ukrainian Front (60th, 38th, 1st Guards and 18th Armies, 31st Tank Corps), operating in a 220 km wide strip from Krnov to Vsetin, completed the Moravian-Ostrava operation. The 1st Czechoslovak Army Corps was part of the 18th Army. The ground forces of the front were supported by the 8th Air Army (Lieutenant General of Aviation V.N. Zhdanov), which also included the 1st Czechoslovak Mixed Aviation Division.

From Vsetin to Korneiburg, in a strip of 350 km, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front (40, 53, 7th Guards, 46th combined arms, 6th Guards Tank Armies, 1st and 4th Romanian armies, 1st Guards Cavalry Mechanized Group). Its right wing advanced towards Olomouc towards the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front. The armies of the center and the left wing temporarily went on the defensive. The 23rd Panzer Corps was in the reserve of the front. The ground forces of the front were supported by the 5th Air Army (Colonel-General of Aviation S. K. Goryunov).

Thus, by the beginning of May, on the 1220-km front, as part of three Ukrainian fronts, there were 20 combined arms (including two Romanian and Polish), 3 tank and 3 air armies, a horse-mechanized group (comprising a mechanized and two cavalry corps), 5 tank, mechanized and cavalry separate corps. The total number of the grouping of Soviet troops involved in the Prague operation was 2 million 28 thousand people. It was armed with about 30.5 thousand guns and mortars, up to 2 thousand tanks and self-propelled guns, 3 thousand aircraft. The Soviet troops outnumbered the enemy in people by more than 2 times, and the number of tanks was equal. Our superiority in artillery and aviation was threefold. The favorable overall military-political situation and advantageous operational position allowed the Soviet troops to quickly complete the task of defeating the opposing enemy grouping and completing the liberation of Czechoslovakia, which began as early as September 1944.

The idea of the Prague operation was to encircle, dismember and in a short time defeat the main forces of the Nazi troops on the territory of Czechoslovakia by delivering several blows in converging directions to Prague, to prevent their retreat to the west. The main attacks on the flanks of Army Group Center were delivered by the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front from the area northwest of Dresden and the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front from the area south of Brno. In accordance with this plan, on May 1-2, the Headquarters of the Supreme Command gave the necessary orders to the fronts to conduct an offensive operation. In addition, the 2nd Ukrainian Front was reinforced by the 9th Guards Army, which had previously been part of the 3rd Ukrainian Front. She received the task of advancing in the general direction of Pilsen.

The preparation of the Prague operation was associated with major regroupings of troops on the 1st and 2nd Ukrainian fronts. The 1st Ukrainian Front completed them on May 6, while the 2nd Ukrainian Front did not have time to complete them completely. Meanwhile, the situation in Czechoslovakia required the Soviet command to speed up the start of the operation, originally scheduled for May 7th.

On May 5, Prague spontaneously rebelled. Wanting to save their city from destruction, tens of thousands of its inhabitants took to the streets. They not only built hundreds of barricades, but also seized the central post office, telegraph, railway stations, bridges over the Vltava, a number of military depots, disarmed several small units stationed in Prague, and established control over a significant part of the city. The CHNS tried to take over the leadership of the uprising. However, he still did not seek to coordinate his actions with the Soviet command and did not even establish contact with them. This Council, about which practically nothing was known, was not trusted by either the Soviet command, which saw in it a protege who was in London exile government, nor the Czechoslovak government operating in the liberated territory of the country.

The commander of Army Group Center, Field Marshal F. Scherner, ordered the suppression of the uprising, which cut off the main withdrawal route for his troops to the west. On May 6, German troops, using tanks, artillery and aircraft against the rebels, entered Prague and captured a significant part of the city. The rebels, having suffered heavy losses, turned over the radio to the allies for help. In this regard, Marshal I. S. Konev ordered the troops of his shock group to launch an offensive on the morning of May 6.

Finding themselves in a hopeless situation and not knowing whether military assistance from the allies would soon arrive, the ChNS, to which the Bartosz command was now subordinate, turned to the Vlasovites for help. On May 6, Bunyachenko's division entered Prague. The Vlasovites went into battle against their yesterday's allies under the slogans: "Death to Hitler!", "Death to Stalin!".

By evening, they captured the western part of the city, knocking out the Germans from there. The next day, parts of the division crossed to the right bank of the Vltava River and cut the enemy troops into two parts.

In relation to the new allies, there was no unity in the leadership of the uprising. The ChNS, after certain hesitation and under pressure from the communists, refused further negotiations with the Vlasovites and from their help, realizing that such an alliance could be negatively perceived by the Soviet side. Representatives of the ChNS, who arrived at Bunyachenko's headquarters, brought a letter of thanks to General Vlasov for the assistance rendered and informed the decision of the Council to refuse the services of his army.

Bunyachenko was ready to act against the Germans and separately from the ChNS. Now he asked the Czechs to broadcast his memorandum on the radio, explaining why he ended up in the ROA, why he came to the aid of Prague and now will continue to fight against the Nazis. Representatives of the CHNS refused to comply with this requirement. Realizing that the Americans were not going to attack Prague, and the troops of the Red Army would enter it, Bunyachenko's division on the evening of May 7 began to leave the fighting city, now leaving to the west, to the Americans. The Vlasovites did not heed the requests of the rebels to leave them weapons. Part of the fighters of the division remained in Prague and continued to fight. Undoubtedly, among the Vlasovites there were people who sincerely wanted to fight the Nazis and thereby earn the forgiveness of the Motherland. In total, about 300 Vlasovites died in the battles for the city, according to some sources. With the departure of the Vlasov division from Prague, the Germans again became masters of the situation in it.

The 1st Ukrainian Front attacked Prague from the north through the Ore Mountains. In the early morning of May 6, reconnaissance established that the enemy did not have time to create a continuous defense. In the afternoon, after a short but powerful artillery preparation, the troops of the 13th and 3rd Guards Armies went on the offensive, operating in their lanes of the 25th and 4th Guards Tank Corps, as well as formations of the 3rd and 4th guards tank armies. By evening, the 5th Guards Army also joined the offensive. Simultaneous deployment in the same lanes of combined arms and tank armies is the main distinguishing feature Prague offensive operation. “This immediately ensured the maximum power of the strike, the rapid destruction of the enemy’s defenses and further movement forward without the usual time spent on bringing tanks into the breakthrough,” wrote Marshal I. S. Konev. The most successful was the offensive of the 4th Guards Tank and 13th Armies, whose troops advanced 23 km by the end of the day, having completed the task of the first day of the operation. This success was achieved despite heavy rains making it difficult to drive on wet roads. On this day, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front completed the liquidation of more than 40,000-strong grouping of Nazi troops in Breslau. Recognizing the futility of further resistance, she capitulated.

The offensive of the shock group continued at an increasing pace. On May 7, the 4th Guards Tank and 13th Armies advanced another 45 km and reached the northern slopes of the Ore Mountains. The 3rd Guards Army captured the city of Meissen, and the troops of the 3rd Guards Tank and 5th Guards Combined Arms Armies began fighting for Dresden. On this day, the offensive of the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front unfolded in a strip of more than 400 km. On May 7, the 2nd Ukrainian Front also launched an offensive against Prague. His 7th Guards Army immediately broke the enemy's resistance and advanced to a depth of 12 km in a day. Using its success, the commander of the front forces the next day brought into battle the 6th Guards Tank Army, which rushed to the capital of Czechoslovakia. Meanwhile, the position of the rebels in Prague has seriously deteriorated. German troops advanced towards the city center. At the slightest suspicion, they mercilessly dealt with the inhabitants. The rebels had an acute shortage of weapons and ammunition. Among some of the rebels, capitulation began to appear, many officers of the former Czechoslovak army left the barricades.

On the afternoon of May 7, the commander of Army Group Center received on the radio an order from Field Marshal V. Keitel about the surrender of German troops on all fronts, but did not bring him to his subordinates. On the contrary, he gave the troops his order, in which he stated that the rumors of surrender were false, they were being spread by Anglo-American and Soviet propaganda. Scherner assured the troops that "the war against the Soviet Union will continue."

May 7 was the most difficult day for the insurgents in Prague. American officers arrived at the headquarters of General Kutyavashr, who announced the surrender of Germany and advised to stop the fighting in Prague. At night it became known that the head of the German garrison in Prague, General R. Toussaint, was ready to enter into negotiations with the leadership of the rebels about surrender. They began at 10 o'clock on May 8 in the building where the CNS was located. At 4 p.m., an act of surrender was signed by the German garrison. Under its terms, German troops received the right to freely withdraw to the west, leaving heavy weapons at the exit from the city. By agreeing to such conditions, which bore little resemblance to surrender, the leaders of the rebels simply sought to get rid of the occupiers as quickly as possible.

May 8 and 9 became the decisive days of the Soviet offensive against Prague. On May 8, the troops of the 4th Ukrainian Front captured the city of Olomouc and launched an offensive against Prague. By the end of May 8, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front advanced to a depth of 40 km, broke the enemy’s resistance at the passes through the Ore Mountains and entered the territory of Czechoslovakia. The forward detachments of the tank armies were located 70-80 km from Prague. Tankers of the 4th Guards Tank Army defeated the headquarters of Field Marshal Scherner, who was heading to Karlovy Vary, where the Americans were already. The control of the troops of the Army Group "Center" was violated.

The troops of the 5th Guards Army by the end of May 8 completely captured Dresden. In its vicinity, Soviet soldiers discovered and rescued the most valuable works of world art from the famous Dresden Art Gallery hidden by the Nazis in the caves. The troops of the center and the left wing of the front proceeded to pursue the enemy, who had begun a general withdrawal in the entire offensive zone of these armies. The 2nd Army of the Polish Army occupied the city of Bautzen, and the 52nd Army - Görlitz. On the same day, the Czech cities of Teplice, Bilica, Most and others were liberated. The 2nd Air Army provided effective assistance to the ground forces: during that day alone, its pilots made 2,800 sorties.

The population of Czechoslovakia greeted the Soviet soldiers-liberators with great joy. Residents of many settlements greeted them with red banners and flowers, as they invited dear guests to their homes. Toasts in honor of the great Soviet Union and its army were distributed everywhere in Czech and Russian. On the evening of May 8, the fascist German troops received an appeal from the Soviet command demanding their unconditional surrender and were asked to lay down their arms by 23:00. However, the command of Army Group Center did not even respond to the appeal. As the prisoners later testified, although on that day German troops and the surrender of Germany was announced, but the need to speed up the retreat to the west was immediately indicated in order to surrender to the Americans. An officer of the German General Staff, Colonel Mayer-Detring, arrived at the headquarters of the Army Group Center, who explained the “surrender order” to Scherner in this way: “... continue the fight against the Soviet troops as long as possible, because only under this condition will numerous parts of the German army be able to gain time to break through to the west.

On the night of May 9, the 4th and 3rd Guards Tank Armies made an 80-km throw, and at dawn their advanced units entered Prague, followed by the advanced units of the 3rd Guards and 13th Armies on the morning of May 9 . On the same day at 10 a.m. from the east, the advanced units of the front-line mobile group of the 4th Ukrainian Front entered the capital of Czechoslovakia - the 302nd rifle division (Colonel A. Ya. Klimenko) in vehicles, the 1st Czechoslovak tank brigade from 60 Colonel-General P. A. Kurochkin and the advance detachment of the mobile group of the 38th Army, Colonel-General K. S. Moskalenko.

At 1300, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front entered Prague from the south: the 6th Guards Tank Army and the infantry of the 24th Rifle Corps mounted on vehicles. Later, the 7th mechanized corps (Major General F. G. Katkov) from the cavalry mechanized group of General Pliev came to Prague. The actions of the ground troops of this front were supported not only by their own 5th Air Army, but also by part of the forces of the 17th Air Army (Colonel General of Aviation V. A. Sudets) of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.

With the active support of the population and the fighting squads of the rebels, on May 9, Soviet troops cleared Prague of the Nazis. The possible retreat of the main forces of Army Group Center to the west and southwest with the capture of Prague by Soviet troops was cut off. Outside the encirclement were only a few German divisions, located on the flanks of the grouping and cut off from its main forces. On May 10, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command ordered the fronts to develop an offensive to the west in order to link up with the allies. On the same day, the troops of the 1st Ukrainian Front came into contact with the Americans on the Chemnitz-Rokytsany line. On May 11, Soviet units occupied a ledge south of Rokytsani. The left-flank formations of the 2nd Ukrainian Front went to the Ceske Budejovice area, where they also met with the allied forces. The main forces of the Army Group "Center" were in the "bag" east of Prague.

On May 10-11, they capitulated and were captured by Soviet troops. This was the end of the last major German fascist grouping. Field Marshal Scherner, leaving his subordinate troops to the mercy of fate, on the eve of their surrender, fled by plane from the "cauldron", intending to move to the location of the allied forces. However, the field marshal was not lucky: on the way to southern Germany, his plane made an emergency landing. Scherner tried to escape, but was identified and detained by the Germans themselves, and then extradited by them to the Americans.

During the Prague operation, about 860 thousand enemy soldiers and officers and 35 generals were captured, 9.5 thousand guns and mortars, 1.8 thousand tanks and assault guns, 1.1 thousand aircraft, as well as a large number of other weapons and military equipment.

Finally, the line of contact between the Soviet troops and the Americans was established by the end of May 11 along the line of Chemnitz, Karlovy Vary, Pilsen, Ceske Budejovice and further south to the Austrian border (all settlements, except for Pilsen, were in the Soviet zone). Advancing to the Klatovy area (40 km south of Pilsen), the scouts of the 25th Panzer Corps established that Bunyachenko's division was retreating to the west, along with Vlasov. To capture the traitor, the corps commander, General E. I. Fominykh, assigned a group of scouts led by Captain M. I. Yakushev. On May 12, they completed their task by capturing Vlasov. An American passport in his name, an old party card and a copy of his order to the troops to lay down their arms and surrender to the Red Army were found on him. Bunyachenko's division, which approached the line occupied by the Americans, was not allowed by the Allied command into its zone. Its commander, having learned about this, tore off the shoulder straps of the German major general and disbanded the division. Some soldiers and officers, after this order was brought to them, immediately shot themselves, others listlessly sank to the side of the road, others headed east, towards the Soviet troops. On May 13-14, up to 20 thousand Vlasovites surrendered to Soviet troops in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Pilsen. Vlasov himself and other leaders of the Russian Liberation Army (ROA) were awaiting trial in Moscow.

Losses

The losses of Soviet troops during the Prague operation amounted to about 50 thousand people (including over 11 thousand - irretrievable losses), over 370 tanks and self-propelled guns, 1 thousand guns and mortars, 80 aircraft. In addition, the Polish troops lost about 1 thousand people, the Romanian - over 1.7 thousand and the Czechoslovak - over 500 people. In total, more than 140 thousand Soviet soldiers fell in the battles for the liberation of Czechoslovakia. The Prague operation was another clear evidence of the high military skill of the Soviet military leaders and the combat skills of the soldiers of the Red Army. For courage and heroism shown during the operation, many soldiers received orders and medals, and the most distinguished were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. About 260 units and formations were awarded orders, and more than 50 were given honorary titles.

Personnel

11,997 irretrievable
40,501 wounded and sick
Total 52,498

Material losses

373 tanks and self-propelled guns
1,006 artillery pieces
80 aircraft

Losses of the German side

Surrender of Army Group Center, almost all personnel killed, wounded or capitulated (~850,000 people).

Outcome

To commemorate the victory, the medal "For the Liberation of Prague" was established, which was awarded to 390 thousand people, including more than 40 thousand citizens of Czechoslovakia. After the liberation of Czechoslovakia, in gratitude to the soldiers who died for its freedom and independence, numerous monuments were erected. Streets and squares in different cities and villages are named after Soviet soldiers. One of the squares in Prague, on which a Soviet tank was installed in memory of those unforgettable days, is called the Square of Soviet Tankers. The day of the entry of Soviet troops into Prague - May 9 - became the national holiday of the peoples of Czechoslovakia - Liberation Day.

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