Order of the Day, No. 309, November 7, 1943
Comrades, men of the Red Army and Navy, sergeants, officers and
generals, men and women guerillas, working people of the Soviet Union!
On behalf of the Soviet Government and our Bolshevik Party, I greet and
congratulate you on the occasion of the 26th anniversary of the great
October Socialist Revolution.
We are celebrating the 26th anniversary of the great October Socialist
Revolution at a time of glorious victories of the Red Army over the
enemies of our country.
For more than two years our people have been conducting a war of
liberation against the German-fascist enslavers. A year ago our
Motherland was passing through grave days. At that time the enemy had
seized a large part of our territory. Millions of Soviet people were
languishing in German bondage. The enemy hordes were pressing on
towards the Volga with the object of outflanking Moscow from the east,
and were besetting the approaches to Trans-Caucasia. But the Red Army
with its very bodies barred the road against the enemy. Our troops
halted the foreign bandit hordes and, after routing them at Stalingrad,
began vigorously to drive them to the west. Since then the Red Army has
invariably held the initiative in its hands in all military operations.
In the winter of 1942-43 our gallant troops smashed the picked armies
of the Germans, Italians, Rumanians and Hungarians, killed or took
prisoner over 1,000,000 enemy officers and men and liberated a vast
territory covering an area of about 500,000 square kilometres (195,300
sq. miles).
In the summer of 1943 the Red Army dealt the enemy another crushing
blow. In the course of a few days our troops liquidated the German
summer offensive and so buried Hitler’s plan of routing the main forces
of the Red Army and outflanking Moscow from the directions of Orel and
Kursk. Moreover, the Red Army itself went over to a decisive offensive,
broke through powerful enemy defence zones and, in the space of three
months, drove the enemy back to the west, at some points for a distance
of 400 to 450 kilometres (250-280 miles). During the summer campaign
our troops drove out the enemy from the whole of the Ukraine east of
the Dnieper, from the Donets Basin, from the Taman, Orel and Smolensk
Regions, entered the Ukraine west of the Dnieper and captured Kiev,
capital of the Soviet Ukraine, entered Byelorussia, captured the
approaches to the Crimea and liberated over 160 towns and over 38,000
populated places.
During the past year the Red Army recovered from the Germans almost
two-thirds of our territory previously seized by the Germans and
delivered tens of millions of Soviet people from the German yoke.
During the past year the Germans lost on the Soviet-German front over
4,000,000 officers and men, including at least 1,800,000 killed.
Picked divisions of the German-fascist army met their inglorious end on
the Soviet-German front and, together with them, the Hitlerite plans to
conquer the world and enslave its peoples have been buried for all
time.
True, the German army is still fighting stubbornly, clinging to every
position, but the reverses that the Germans have sustained since the
defeat of their troops at Stalingrad have undermined the fighting
spirit of the German army. To-day the Germans fear encirclement like
the plague, and when threatened by the outflanking manœuvres of our
troops they flee, abandoning their equipment and wounded on the
battlefield.
In the offensive operations of the past year our troops have gained
experience in waging modern war. Our officers and generals skilfully
lead their troops, successfully master the art of military leadership.
The Red Army has become the most powerful and steeled of modern armies.
The Red Army’s victories have still further consolidated the
international position of the Soviet Union. Our army’s offensive has
been supported by the operations of the Allied forces in North Africa,
on the Italian islands and in the south of Italy. The air forces of our
Allies have subjected the industrial centres of Germany to heavy air
bombing attacks. There is no doubt that the Red Army’s blows from the
east against the German troops, supported by blows dealt from the west
by the main forces of the Allies, will lead to the crushing of the
military might of Hitlerite Germany and the complete victory of the
Anti-Hitlerite coalition.
The Red Army could not have gained this year’s great victories without
the aid rendered to the front by the whole people. The Soviet people
are devoting all their strength to support their army. An endless
stream of arms, ammunition, provisions and equipment is flowing to the
front. The Urals and Kuznets Basin, the Moscow and Volga areas,
Leningrad and Baku, Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, Georgia and Armenia—all
our Republics and Regions have become a mighty arsenal for the Red
Army. The Soviet people are successfully restoring the industrial and
agricultural areas recaptured from the enemy. Factories, mills, mines
and railways are being restarted, State and collective farms are being
restored and the resources of the liberated areas are being enlisted to
serve the front.
Our achievements are indeed great, but it would be naive to rest on the
successes achieved. To-day when the Red Army is thrashing the enemy
beyond the Dnieper and is pressing forward to the western borders of
our country, it would be particularly dangerous to lapse into
self-satisfaction or complacency and under-estimate the grave
difficulties of the battles that lie ahead. The enemy will now fight
more viciously than ever for each scrap of territory that he has
seized, because every step forward by our army brings nearer the
Germans’ hour of reckoning for the crimes they have perpetrated on our
soil.
The struggle for final victory over the German-fascist invaders demands
still greater exertions and fresh deeds of valour on the part of our
army and people.
Comrades, men of the Red Army and Red Navy, sergeants, officers and generals, men and women guerillas!
In titanic battles against the accursed enemy you have won great
victories and covered the banners of the Red Army and Navy with undying
glory. The Red Army and Navy now enjoy every possibility for completely
clearing the German invaders from our Soviet soil in the near future.
In the name of the victory of our Motherland over the German-fascist monsters, I order:
(1) All rank and file Red Army men and sergeants: tirelessly to improve
your fighting skill, strictly observe the requirements of the army
regulations and the instructions and orders of your commanders and
generals. Everywhere and at all times observe exemplary order, strict
discipline and a high degree of organization.
(2) Officers and generals of all types of arms: improve your skill in
leading troops on the battlefield and in co-ordinating all types of
arms, firmly consolidate the successes of the offensive, vigorously
pursue the enemy troops, bring up your rear establishments more
rapidly, be bolder in gathering your reserves for fresh blows at the
enemy.
(3) The whole of the Red Army: boldly and resolutely smash the enemy
defences, pursue the enemy day and night, do not give him any chance to
entrench himself on intermediate lines, cut the enemy’s communications
by skilful and daring manœuvres, surround and split up his forces, wipe
out or capture his man-power and material.
(4) Men and women guerillas: rouse the Soviet people to armed struggle
against the Germans, increase by every means your aid to the Red Army
in its advance, smash the enemy rear establishments and headquarters,
save Soviet people from being killed or driven off to slave labour in
Germany, mercilessly exterminate the German-fascist scoundrels.
Red Army men, men and women guerillas! Forward to the complete defeat of the German-fascist invaders!
Long live the 26th anniversary of the great October Socialist Revolution!
Long live our victorious Red Army!
Long live our victorious Navy!
Long live our gallant men and women guerillas!
Long live our great Motherland!
Vengeance and death to the German-fascist invaders!
J. Stalin
Supreme Commander-in-Chief
Marshal of the Soviet Union
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