Chapter 2 to readers

In people's memory, it is a pity that they will encounter many enemies, although they slowly but surely wear down people's memory.One such enemy is the relentless time, which makes people forget little by little many of the interesting and instructive things of the old life.Sometimes new events and new impressions compel us, unconsciously, to think in another way of what we have experienced, so that the events of long-gone years suddenly give us some face to them. Nothing.Many similar dangers await the memoirist.Knowing this, I don't trust my memory, so I researched the existing literature and interviewed active participants in the various events as I set out to write my memoir.

I am writing about the Great Patriotic War.This war will forever be of immense interest to our generation and ours.The indestructibility of the world's first socialist state, the great patriotism of the Soviets and the unbreakable friendship of the peoples of our country were particularly vividly demonstrated in this most violent and bloodiest armed conflict in history. We always recall with justifiable pride the brilliance of the Soviet Army from the battles of Moscow, Stalingrad and Kursk to the end of the war. It is not surprising that great importance is attached to the descriptions of these battles.However, some people only saw that our army suffered repeated defeats due to the sudden attacks of the invaders in the initial battle, and they felt very confused.It should not be forgotten that it was these austere days that convincingly demonstrated to the world that the Soviet army, under the tried and tested leadership of the Communist Party, could withstand any severe test.The bravery and fearlessness of the Soviet soldiers and the wise leadership of the party and the government bankrupted all the enemy's attempts.

The whole world knows that the armies of many capitalist countries quickly disintegrated and surrendered to the aggressors even under less complicated conditions.Therefore, Hitler's Germany was able to invade the entire Western Europe in a relatively short period of time.The easy victory dazzled the heads of the Fascist leaders, giving them delusions of destroying the Red Army and conquering the Soviet state within six weeks. I would like to tell the reader how this bandit plan went bankrupt from the moment Hitler's armies crossed our borders. This is why I decided to start my memoir on the eve of the war and to base it on the events of the early days of the war (I was in Ukraine in the summer of 1941 and was a witness to these events).It is a pity that the most famous military leaders who directly led the army in the direction of Kyiv died at the end of September 1941. Therefore, all the publicly released materials related to the initial situation of the Ukrainian war are only based on the fact that they cannot fully reflect the truth of the incident. based on the documents.

On the eve of the war, I was Deputy Chief of Staff and Chief of Operations of the Kyiv Special Military District, which was reorganized into the Southwest Front on the first day of the war.I had the opportunity to take a direct part not only in the preparation of the operational plans of the military district on the eve of the war, but also in the organization and command of combat operations on the vast territory of northern Ukraine in the summer of 1941 when we were in extremely unfavorable conditions. The factor that prompted me to write my memoirs is that I sincerely hope to tell readers how the Soviets fought in extremely difficult conditions, resisted the perfidious attacks of the fascist German army, and how to carry forward their heroism to fulfill their military duties to the motherland.

Nothing strengthens friendships like fighting together and going through the toughest trials together.But while I'm writing about people whom I still fondly miss, we strive to be extremely fair and accurate, that is, as the saying goes, "unpretentious" in describing the events of which I testify. Anyone who uses a pen to describe the past knows how difficult it is to write about the events of their own experience.In such situations, sometimes you feel that the actions at your level are logical and easy to explain, while conversely, the actions at other levels are difficult to explain or even wrong.I want to get rid of such subjectivism.So I try to judge the actions of the military chiefs as I judge my own.

In order to help readers understand the events of the early days of the war, I decided to write my memoirs starting from the situation in the Kyiv Special Military District in the months before the war. The Great Patriotic War lasted 1,418 days, and the book only analyzes the first 178 days of the war.This is really just the beginning of the war, from which this book takes its title. During these one hundred and seventy-eight days, the Red Army not only suffered setbacks, but also defeated the enemy and learned to defeat the enemy.I tried to prove this within the scope of my ability, using the Southwest Front Army as an example.

In particular, I tried to explain why the Supreme Command of our army delayed the withdrawal of several armies belonging to the Southwest Front from the Kyiv area as much as possible when the main force of the Southwest Front was threatened by encirclement.The reader can be assured that, although our army had to abandon the Ukrainian capital after seventy days of heroic defense, the resistance has not abated, but has intensified.As a result of enormous efforts, the front has recaptured another large area in the Kyiv-Kharkov direction. I would like to clarify an incorrect understanding that the Southwestern Front retreated eastward from the Belgorod-Kharkov line in October 1941. frustration.I will prove to the reader with eloquent facts that this is not the case.

When I read a lot of Great Patriotic War literature, I noticed that even military historians do not fully understand how the Rostov assault attempt, one of our army's first large-scale offensive campaigns, came about.I had the opportunity to participate in the preparation and execution of this glorious campaign from the beginning to the end, and I have therefore endeavored to describe in detail how the guiding principles of the campaign were born and carried out. It is no accident that the attack on the right flank of the Southwestern Front near Yelets is the last event in my account of the early days of the war.This offensive was actually an integral part of the Great Battle of Moscow, which shattered the myth of the invincibility of Hitler's army.This smaller battle is of interest not only because of its uniqueness, but because it was one of the small streams that fed into the mighty torrent that washed the enemy away from the Soviet capital.

When I dedicate my labor to readers' judgment, I, like every author, hope that readers will not be indifferent, and hope that they will always remember those heroic soldiers who have fulfilled their obligations loyally to their motherland. I am deeply grateful to all my comrades in arms, especially Colonel Alexey Ivanovich Korneyev.I owe it to their help to complete this book despite my busy official and social activities. author