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Red Army strategic operations in World War II

Red Army strategic operations were major military events carried out between 1941 and 1945 on the Eastern Front or in 1945 in the Far East during the Second World War. Such operations typically involved at least one front: the largest military formation of the Soviet Armed Forces. The operations could be defensive, offensive, a withdrawal, an encirclement, or a siege, always conducted by at least two services of the armed forces (the ground and air forces), and often included the navy. In most cases, the Stavka divided strategic operations into operational phases (large operations in their own right). In a few cases the phases were tactical, such as amphibious landings.

Introduction

In Soviet historiography, the Great Patriotic War is divided into three periods:

  1. First (22 June 1941 – 18 November 1942)
  2. Second (19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943)
  3. Third (1 January 1944 – 9 May 1945)

The war with Japan, the Campaign in the Far Eastincluding the Manchurian strategic offensive operation, (9 August 1945 – 2 September 1945)is seen as a separate theater of operations from the Great Patriotic War. During the Second World War, the Red Army carried out a number of military operations. The scope of these operations, usually known by the major cities around which they took place, was usually termed "operational-strategic" or "strategic" depending on scale. An operational-strategic operation was usually undertaken by at least a group of armies or a single front. A strategic operation usually required the cooperation of several fronts to achieve its objectives. In both cases, the operations could last from a week to several months. Strategic operations were combined into seasonal campaigns, because weather and ground conditions affected planning.

Soviet historians disagreed on which operations to classify as strategic or front-level, and operational names often differed in early military studies and later official histories. During the 1960s, 40 strategic operations were discussed; in the 1970s, this had expanded to 55. The six-volume History of the Great Patriotic War (published between 1960 and 1965) and the twelve-volume History of the Second World War 1939–1945, published between 1973 and 1982, did not specify the number of strategic operations. The Military-Historical Journal of the Ministry of Defense published discussions during 1985 and 1986 between military historians and military leaders about strategic operations. As a result of these discussions, a list of strategic operations was developed and the number of troops involved and duration of the operations were specified. This issue was not fully resolved, however, as the work of the Grigory Krivosheyev commission on Soviet casualties (published in 1993) contained a slightly different list of strategic operations.

First period (22 June 1941 – 18 November 1942)

<span class="anchor" id="Summer–Autumn campaign of 1941 (22 June – 4 December)"></span>Summer–autumn 1941 campaign (22 June – 4 December)

<span class="anchor" id="Winter campaign of 1941/42 (5 December 1941 – 30 April 1942)"></span>1941–1942 winter campaign (5 December 1941 – 30 April 1942)

<span class="anchor" id="Summer–Autumn campaign of 1942 (1 May – 18 November)"></span>Summer–autumn 1942 campaign (1 May – 18 November)

Second period (19 November 1942 – 31 December 1943)

<span class="anchor" id="Winter campaign of 1942–1943 (19 November 1942 – 3 March 1943)"></span>1942–1943 winter campaign (19 November 1942 – 3 March 1943)

<span class="anchor" id="Summer–Autumn campaign of 1943 (1 July – 31 December)"></span>Summer–autumn 1943 campaign (1 July – 31 December)

Third period (1 January 1944 – 9 May 1945)

<span class="anchor" id="Winter Spring campaign of 1944 (1 January – 31 May)"></span>Winter-spring 1944 campaign (1 January – 31 May)

<span class="anchor" id="Summer–Autumn campaign of 1944 (1 June – 31 December)"></span>Summer–autumn 1944 campaign (1 June – 31 December)

Riga offensive 14 September – 24 October 1944
Tallinn offensive 17–26 September 1944
Moonsund landing 5–22 October 1944
Memel offensive 27 September – 24 November 1944
Kecskemét-Budapest offensive 29 October – 10 December 1944
Szolnok–Budapest offensive 29 October – 10 December 1944
Nyiregyhaza–Miskolc offensive 1 November – 10 December 1944
Apatin-Kaposvár offensive <small></small> : 7 November – 31 December 1944
Esztergom–Komarno offensive 20 December 1944 – 15 January 1945
Szekesfehervar–Esztergom offensive 20 December 1944 – 13 February 1945
Assault on Budapest 27 December 1944 – 13 February 1945
German: Operation Konrad : 1–27 January 1945

Campaign in Europe 1945 (1 January – 9 May)

See also

Notes

References

External links