"Politruk" Junior Political Officer Alexey Yeremenko leading a counterattack against enemy positions moments before being killed in July, 1942
From a folder of historic cards published in 1985 on the 40th anniversary of the victory of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War we continue our series looking at the Hero Cities and Fortresses as well as other sites and battles critical to the Soviet victory. The folder was entitled "No one is Forgotten. Nothing is Forgotten."
This thirteenth post looks at the heroic role played by the Communist Party of the Soviet Union and its leaders in members during the war. Communists were in the forefront of every battle and millions of communists sacrificed their lives to save the world from the Nazis.
It is important to never forget the tremendous determination, courage and sacrifices of the Soviet peoples and Red Army in the great struggle of liberation against Nazism and fascism that was World War II.
(The twelfth installment was Oryol -- City of the First Fireworks (theleftchapter.com) )
The outstanding feat of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War is inseparable from the activities of the Communist Party. Its Central Committee was the headquarters from which the highest political and strategic leadership of military operations was carried out. The war once again confirmed that there is no force capable of shaking the indestructible unity of the party and the people.
From the first to the last day of the Great Patriotic War, the Communist Party was the single leading force directing the conduct of the war. The party's organizational and ideological activities covered all spheres of life and activity of the Soviet people and the Armed Forces. It made it possible to mobilize and use all the material and spiritual capabilities of the country with maximum efficiency, and ensure a high level of combat capability of troops to defeat the fascist hordes.
The fighting party is how the people called the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, more than four-fifths of which were concentrated in the Armed Forces and sectors of the national economy that served the needs of the front. During the years of the war, the authority of the party increased immeasurably, its ranks became even more united, and the unity of the party and the people became stronger. Going into the fire of battle, the soldiers declared with excitement and pride: “Please consider me a communist.”
The communists raised the morale, discipline, organization and stamina of the soldiers, and instilled confidence in victory. And above all, they themselves were an example of courage and bravery, always being in the most difficult and dangerous sectors of the front. Three million communists died a brave death on the battlefields. New fighters took the place of those who fell: five million Soviet patriots joined the party during the war. In the final battles, every fourth soldier who fought against the enemy was a communist.
The Motherland highly appreciated the feat of the communists - 8237 communists became Heroes of the Soviet Union, of which 113 twice. The Leninist Komsomol was an active combat assistant of the party. 11 million Komsomol members fought on the fronts. Among the Heroes of the Soviet Union, about 13 percent are Komsomol members.
Obelisk to the Feats of the Warrior Communists