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The heroic defense of Kyiv (1941), briefly. And again - about the German occupation of Kyiv - and the light shines in the darkness, and the darkness does not embrace it

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The Kiev “cauldron” is the largest in the entire history of mankind... Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army G.K. Zhukov later wrote in his memoirs that even before the start of the battle he reported to Stalin about the need to withdraw troops from the Dnieper bend, but was removed from his post and by the time the Battle of Kiev began, he was replaced as Chief of the General Staff by B.M. Shaposhnikov... Meanwhile, having changed the initial task, the German command began preparations for the transfer of the 2nd Panzer Group of Guderian and the 2nd Army of Weichs from Army Group Center "from the western (Moscow) direction south to Kyiv to destroy the South-Western Front. The Supreme High Command headquarters discovered the turn of Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group to the south and on August 19 allowed Kirponos to withdraw troops beyond the Dnieper, organizing defense along its left bank, and on the right bank it was ordered to hold only Kyiv... On August 24, the 2nd Tank Group launched an offensive against the front forces in the direction of Konotop. A few days later, from the Kremenchug area, people began to meet her Kleist's 1st Panzer Group, simultaneously delivering an additional blow to Poltava... On August 28, von Weichs's 2nd Army launched an offensive from the Gomel region to Chernigov, pushing back M. I. Potapov's 5th Army and, at the same time, squeezing it between its units and units of Guderian's 2nd Panzer Group, which was advancing east towards Konotop, the 21st Army of the Bryansk Front. On September 7, the 2nd Tank Group reached Konotop. On the same day, Marshal S.M. Budyonny turned to Headquarters with a request to withdraw the 5th Army and was again refused. By September 10, in order to cover the right flank of the Southwestern Front from the north and encircle Soviet troops in the Kyiv area, the 2nd Tank Group made a deep breakthrough at the junction with the Bryansk Front in the Konotop - Novgorod-Seversky sector, part of its forces penetrating into the Romn area. The enemy crossed the Desna in areas east of Chernigov and in the Okuninov direction, the Dnieper - near Kremenchug and southeast. By this time, the reserve of the Southwestern Front was completely exhausted... Tupikov, Vasilevsky and Budyonny insisted on the immediate withdrawal of troops from Kyiv, Shaposhnikov was against the immediate withdrawal of troops. The headquarters proposed to conduct desperate attacks on the enemy's Konotop group in cooperation with the Bryansk Front,... Do not abandon Kyiv, do not blow up bridges until further notice. On September 12, Marshal S.M. Budyonny was removed from the post of Commander-in-Chief of the Southern Direction...

On September 15, 1941, the giant ring around the 5th, 21st, 26th and 37th Soviet armies closed. The administration of the Southwestern Front was also surrounded... Pressed on all sides by the enemy, dismembered and left without control, the units, which had suffered heavy losses in previous battles, acted scatteredly and randomly, and more often in small groups. On the night of September 19, Soviet troops left Kyiv... On September 26, the Kiev strategic defensive operation of the Soviet troops was completed. Kyiv cauldron 1941

The defeat near Kiev was a heavy blow for the Red Army... According to German data, by September 24, 665 thousand people were captured near Kiev. According to data published in 1993 by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation, Soviet losses amounted to over 700 thousand people, of which 627.8 thousand were irrevocable. The defeat of the Southwestern Front opened the way for the enemy to Eastern Ukraine, the Azov region and Donbass. On October 8, in the Azov region, the 18th Army of the Southern Front was surrounded and killed, on October 16, the Odessa defensive region was abandoned to the enemy, on October 17, Taganrog fell, on October 25, Kharkov was captured, on November 2, Crimea was occupied and Sevastopol was blocked.

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Telegrams from the commander of the 26th Army, Lieutenant General Kostenko, whose army units fought their way out of encirclement near Orzhitsa ( east of Kyiv, - editor's note).

Burning soviet tank and trucks after an attempt to break out of the “Kyiv cauldron” near the city of Orzhitsa, September 23-26, 1941, from the blog

« The army is surrounded. With the army, all the rear areas of the South-Western Front were surrounded, uncontrollable, fleeing in panic, clogging all the roads, introducing chaos into the troops. All attempts to break through to the east were unsuccessful. We are making our last effort to break through on the Orzhitsa front... If it is 29.9 s until morning. will not be provided real help an auxiliary strike from the east, a disaster is possible.

Storm 26 - Orzhitsa.

« Communication... lost for two days. The 159th Infantry Division is fighting surrounded in Kandybovka, the 196th Infantry Division and 164th Infantry Division are cut off and fighting in the Denisovka area. The remaining parts are surrounded by Orzhitsa. Attempts to break through were unsuccessful. It has accumulated in Orzhitsa a large number of wounded, landing of ambulance planes is impossible due to the small ring of encirclement.22.9. I make my last attempt to escape the encirclement to the east. Please guide me in the situation and whether I can expect real help.

Kostenko, Kolesnikov, Varennikov"

Soviet prisoners of war sort through the military property of units of the Southwestern Front captured by the Germans, Orzhitsa, September 1941, from the blog

« The situation is extremely difficult. With the onset of darkness, I will try to break through with the remnants in the direction of Orzhitsa - Iskovtsy - Peski. Huge convoys of the front and the wounded were forced to leave in Orzhitsa, who could not be removed.

Kostenko, Kolesnikov"

« To the Chief of the General Staff of the Red Army. I'm in Matskovtsy. I have no combat units. I can hold out no more than a day. Will there be support?

Donbass was under the occupiers for almost two years. And all this time people had to not only just live, but also survive. Here the author provides excerpts from conversations with people who survived the occupation of Stalino. These conversations are mosaic in nature. Often the interlocutor's thoughts jumped from one event to another. Often the complete picture could be reconstructed from several sources. In the morning . In the evening . The day after the occupation of Stalino, the Germans staged a rally on Lenin Square, where some representatives of the local population welcomed the new liberators and sang odes of praise to them. In total, in addition to the German armed forces, Romanians and Italians were represented in the city. Italians were remembered by teenagers as cheerful slobs. Romanians, on the other hand, were associated only with gloomy negativity.

Certificate of death. Cause of death: execution by German authorities in Stalino in 1942

Behind the Central Department Store on Kobozev Street lived the famous dermatologist Kaufman in the city. At the beginning of the twentieth century he studied in Germany. He has the best memories of his years of study. Kaufman did not believe in any stories about Nazi atrocities. The nation that gave the world Schiller, Goethe, and Wagner cannot do anything wrong. He often repeated to his acquaintances: “They will bring order and culture!” Kaufman was shot in the first weeks of the occupation. At the beginning of March 1942, the occupation authorities built a ghetto for the Jewish population in the area of the White Pit (circus area), from the so-called “Sobachevka”. These were mostly old people, women and children. O.D. Kritsyn pointed out this place: behind the bridge of trolleybus route No. 10, a site for filling water for irrigation machines. He remembered that the inhabitants of the ghetto were taken to work in the city. In particular, I remember how old men and women crushed ice near the post office, and police guards drove passing citizens to the other side of the street. On the night of April 30 to May 1, the ghetto was liquidated. All the people were taken on foot to (Fallen Communard Avenue, next to the maternity hospital). For some reason, they were led not in a straight line, but along Skladskaya (University Street), Pochtovaya (Komsomolsky Avenue), then near Kalmius the column turned onto Nikolaevsky Avenue (as the Avenue of the Fallen Communards was then called). When the column passed, one of the teenagers found a bundle of rags at the edge of the sidewalk. Some of those going to death threw away (or dropped) their goods. The bundle contained three gold chervonets of royal coinage and a dozen primus needles. All the most valuable things that a city dweller could have at that time.

When the invaders entered the city, they immediately moved the clocks to Berlin time. The German commandant's office was located in the narpita house at Artema, 121. In the 1970s-90s, the Teatralnoye cafe was located in this building. The house seemed to consist of two halves: administrative and residential. By the way, the future Minister of Trade of the USSR A. Struyev lived with his family in its residential part before the war. So, the German commandant’s office was located in the administrative wing of the building. There were guards standing near the entrance, and two huge banners with swastikas hung from top to bottom in the foyer. The commandant's office issued documents for newly arrived business travelers and vacationers to stay in apartments and houses civilians. It is clear that no one from the authorities asked the consent of these persons. Oleg Demyanovich Kritsyn recalled that three more Germans were accommodated in the three-room apartment where he lived with his father and mother. Moreover, two of the tenants were wary of the third tenant and warned the apartment owners to be careful with him: “He is a bad person.”

Market in the city of Stalino (Yuzovka). 1943

The boys hung around the commandant's office and were ready to lead the newly stationed to their housing. Many carried bags with food and some documents. The boy adapted carts, which were importantly called “taxi,” to transport luggage. The approaching warrior put his belongings on a wheelbarrow and the guys wheeled it to the address specified in the settlement order. The payment sometimes included a lump of sugar, chocolate, half a loaf of bread, and sometimes a cracker.

But not every soldier was so kind. The boy really didn’t like Romanians. Not only will he not pay, but he will also make you a nuisance. In order not to serve the Romanians, the guys set up a picket. The approach of an unwanted client was accompanied by a whistle. When the brave warrior, loaded with weapons, approached the parking lot, there was no one there. He had to look for an apartment on his own.

Receipt for acceptance of fruits and vegetables. One accepted live chicken, weighing 1.16 kg. Stalino, 1942

With the beginning of the occupation, Viktor Khailov and his mother moved from their apartment on Sotsgorodok to a private house to grandma's on the 12th line. This street was chosen by German motorists. Cars were parked along the street, and drivers were accommodated in houses. The drivers were responsible for protecting vehicles. The front passed 100-150 km from Stalino, and the city was used as transshipment base, both providing support for the front and resting front-line soldiers from the front line (but more on that later). Usually a convoy went to the front with cargo and returned a few days later. One or two days were given to rest - and everything was repeated again: loading of food and materials to the front line. An elderly driver was accommodated in the Khailovs' house. He knew several Russian words and this is how his communication with the owners took place. The German was very homesick and showed photographs of his wife and two teenage sons. He treated all the inhabitants of the house well, but became especially attached to Victor.

Certificate. Employee Kozlovsky S.P. Born in 1915, he works on behalf of the German command at the Rutchenkovo coking plant. June 1, 1942

Certificate. The presenter of this actually works in the Housing and Economic Department of the Larinsky District Administration as an accountant. January 23, 1942

Just before Christmas 1941, the convoy was loaded again. This time with gifts for front-line soldiers. The guest came in the evening looking gloomy. After thinking a little, he began to quietly explain to Victor: he had to guard the trucks with cargo for several hours tonight. And there are gifts. And not only tobacco, sweets, warm clothes, but also rum. He knows which cars contain what. Then he suggested: let me guard and look around (in the “hairdryer” this is called “standing on the lookout”), and you carefully move several boxes of rum and sweets into my room under the bed. Then we will brotherly divide the spoils.

Soviet leaflet: Under the ensign of Lenin under the leadership of Stalin - forward, for the further defeat of the German occupiers and expelling them from between our Fatherland!

What does a teenager lack? Adventures. Victor agreed to inflict damage on the enemy. Everything was done masterfully and quickly. Victor went to bed. I woke up in the morning to loud voices, one might even say screams. Looked out the window. All the drivers were lined up next to the cars. The officer stood in front of the line, waved his arms and shouted something. Then, with two machine gunners, he went to the house opposite. Victor realized that a search had begun. He quickly rushed to the guest's bed, pulled out the drawers and hid the secret hiding place, known only to him, up to the floor. Just in time, because the officer, machine gunners and a German guest entered them. The officer inspected the room and personally looked under the beds. Having found nothing, the group left. “You just had to see it,” Viktor Trofimovich told me. — When they entered, the driver had a pale, frightened face. But when the officer found nothing under the bed, his eyes became as round as saucers. He could not understand anything: where everything had gone. They could have shot him for the boxes.” About 15 minutes later the guest returned and rushed to Victor with tears, hugs and kisses. He muttered something like: “Thank you, you understand - you saved my life!”

Certificate for the right to use a radio point. 1942-43 Store at the radio point and present it at the request of a representative of the radio point

Certificate for the right to use a radio point. 1942-43 A payment confirmation without a stamp is invalid.

And you know what thoughts swarmed in the teenager’s head: “How could I not help him? He is an accomplice, along with me. How could I?.. It’s a matter of honor.”

Receipt order. Circuit. Yuzovka. March 1942

Viktor Trofimovich had an interesting reaction when a publication appeared in the local press (this was already under independent Ukraine) about four people hanged by the Germans near the Komsomolets cinema. The occupants threw a metal pipe between the branches of two trees and hung all four of them from it. So, the article proposed recognizing those hanged as underground partisans. Viktor Trofimovich was indignant: “I knew two of them personally. Shantrapa, small shantrapa. Something must have been stolen. So they hanged them. Then I too should be counted among the partisans. The Germans loved to swim on the dam between the city headquarters. Money and cameras (and almost every soldier had a camera) were left on the shore. At least three times I stole both money and cameras from people taking water treatments. He gave the money to his mother and sold the Leica at a flea market. It turns out I’m an underground worker too?! They just didn’t catch me, I survived.”

German leaflet. They answered the question with friendly laughter: would you like to return to Stalin’s paradise again?

In the occupied territories, the value of money in Everyday life decreased significantly. As in the early 20s, before the introduction of the NEP, natural exchange prevailed. An expensive Boston suit (in pre-war times its owners were a rare lucky few) cost half a sack of wheat or corn, wedding ring equal in cost to a sack of potatoes. Furniture and real estate did not have a valuation. Food came first in importance, followed by clothing and shoes.

German leaflet. With our work we will help defeat the Bolsheviks. Victory over the Bolsheviks - liberation of the peoples of the USSR!

Not everyone had a job. The occupiers strictly practiced the statement: “He who does not work, does not eat.” Work went to the female part of the population to a greater extent - cleaning, washing and feeding the occupation units. Lucky were those who got a job cleaning the canteens. They were allowed to pick up potato peelings there. The population made potato pancakes or boiled them. Things left over from peacetime were changed into rural areas for products. Some people converted caustic soda (lye) into baking soda at home. Baking soda added to the dough instead of yeast. It was profitable to make an exchange away from industrial centers. The Zaporozhye region was famous in this regard - the Polog and Gulyai Polya districts. Oleg Demyanovich Kritsyn made such a trip as a teenager. Mom somehow got hold of soda and Oleg and his neighbor went to exchange the soda for food. The landmark was clear - a high-voltage electrical line. A road was paved along it. A continuous stream of people with simple wheelbarrows and strollers walked in two directions. Somewhere near Pologi we managed to exchange soda for sunflower oil. True, the villagers warned them to beware of the local commandant. How evil, on way back, a car caught up with them. The German commandant confiscated the oil. Oleg returned empty-handed.

The Donetsk Herald newspaper is the official newspaper for the city of Yuzovka and the region. Friday, October 30, 1942.

Newspaper Donetsk Herald. Job advertisements

All food was issued using a rationing system. To receive food cards, enterprises and institutions were required to submit a request for cards to the Food Supply Administration for Enterprises no later than the day before the start of the next month (1st line, 53). The requirement indicated the total number of workers and then a breakdown of the number of workers in heavy and ordinary work. Next, the number of dependents of these workers and employees was indicated. Children under 14 years of age were considered dependents - family members of the worker and his parents, if they were over 60 years old and lived with the worker.

Soviet troops and German index: Stalino-Stadtkern (Stalino-Center). 14 kilometers

What did the civilian population eat? Bread came first. Boiled beetroot was given only to children as a delicacy. The carrots were grated, dried and then drank carrot tea. Potatoes were distributed in pieces for each family member. Two potatoes a day was considered excess. We prepared flatbreads from corn flour- philanderers. And here it was absolutely impossible to do without a homemade hand mill. As I already mentioned, the potato peelings from German canteens were taken home by civilians, washed, boiled or fried.

Destroyed Mariupol. 1943

Red banner over the liberated Stalino. September 1943

A lot has been experienced over these two years. The witnesses of history have something to remember, although they may not always want to remember.

German cemetery. Stalino, 1943

Photo from the author's archive

In September 1941, Soviet troops surrendered Ukrainian capital advancing German units.
This was preceded by more than three months of fighting, which ended with the encirclement of almost the entire Southwestern Front (SWF) numbering more than 700 thousand people.
At dawn on June 22, 1941, German aircraft raided Kyiv. Bombs flew at the railway station, the Bolshevik plant, an aircraft plant, power plants, military airfields and other strategic objects. Some of them hit residential buildings.
The city began to be prepared for defense. First of all, the authorities took up the Kiev fortified area - a line of more than 200 pillboxes encircling the city, built in 1929-1935. Anti-tank and anti-personnel ditches were built in front of them. Closer to the city, another line of bunkers and ditches was created. In Kyiv itself, barricades were erected from sandbags and anti-tank hedgehogs. Every day, 160 thousand Kiev residents and residents of adjacent villages worked on these works.
In two weeks, Kyiv factories refocused on producing military products. Even schoolchildren collected empty bottles to make Molotov cocktails.
In this direction, the German Army Group South was opposed by the forces of the Kyiv Special Military District (KOVO), which were transformed into the SWF at the beginning of the war. The front outnumbered the enemy both in the number of soldiers and in the amount of equipment. But the Germans were more experienced, they maneuvered well, skillfully bypassed and surrounded Soviet forces. But the Red Army lacked either practice or initiative commanders. However, the troops of the Southwestern Front resisted desperately, surprising the Germans with their tenacity.
The residents of Kiev felt that the situation was becoming more complicated, and began to gradually get out of the city - at least to the surrounding villages. Moreover, from the end of June, enterprises and institutions began to move out. As a result, 335 thousand residents left Kyiv.

How did the Germans manage to capture Kyiv?

The evacuation did not always take place in an orderly manner. Representatives of the party nomenklatura tried to take their families out, sometimes with a huge amount luggage up to the piano and indoor plants. Wherein local authorities the propertied mixed with the families of party members from Western Ukraine, traveling through Kyiv in transit to the east.
The fighting came close to Kyiv. But on August 10, the Red Army soldiers of the 37th Army, Major General Andrei Vlasov, went on the offensive, and within a few days liberated Zhulyany, Pirogovo, Teremki and other suburbs. At that time, few could have imagined that the heroic general would be captured about a year later, in July 1942, already near Leningrad, would agree to cooperate with the Germans, and would become the leader of the army of Russian collaborators - the ROA. And in 1946, Vlasov was executed in Moscow.
The Soviet command, afraid to contradict Stalin, who forbade the surrender of the capital of Ukraine, did not pay attention to the fact that the Germans had gone very far north of the city. In August, Heinz Guderian's Second Panzer Group and a number of other units of Army Group Center, advancing in the Moscow direction, fulfilling the Fuhrer's directive, turned south. Guderian's tanks quickly reached Konotop, a city in the Sumy region, deep in the rear of the Kyiv group. Kleist rushed towards them from the Kremenchug area.
As a result, the troops of the Southwestern Front were on the verge of encirclement, and the military council of the front was ready to leave Kyiv in order to get out of the encirclement. However, Stalin was adamant: on September 11, he personally contacted the commander of the Southwestern Front, Colonel General Mikhail Kirponos, and ordered to hold the city at any cost. Within four days, the Germans completely surrounded the Kyiv group, and only on the night of September 17-18 did Moscow allow Kirponos to retreat.
But time was lost, and only some units got out of the ring.
But about another 700 thousand people - the main forces of the front - were much less fortunate. They were either killed or captured during the Kyiv operation. Getting out of the encirclement, Kirponos himself died, and the 800 officers and generals who accompanied him - the front leadership - were killed or captured.
Leaving Kyiv, Soviet troops, having crossed the Dnieper, blew up all four bridges along which other units and refugees were walking at that moment. The retreating forces also disabled the city's power plant and water supply system and dumped thousands of bags of food into the Dnieper. At that moment, no one thought about those 400 thousand Kiev residents who remained in the city.
Started in Kyiv short period anarchy. The streets and markets were dominated by looters who smashed store windows and entered bank branches and government agencies.
On September 19, the Germans entered Kyiv. The local population greeted the “guests” warily. The residents of the city were struck, as Malakov recalled, by the appearance of the victors - they radiated arrogant superiority.
On the same day, at 14:00, near Bessarabka, a group of elderly Kiev residents brought bread and salt to the German officers, thus trying to improve relations with new government. But the townspeople hoped in vain for peaceful coexistence. Co next day executions of Jews began.
The Red Army returned to the city three years later. During the occupation, tens of thousands of people were taken from Kyiv to work in Germany, and approximately another 100 thousand were shot by the Germans at Babi Yar. The city was severely destroyed.
The liberation of Kyiv turned out to be as bloody and tragic as its defense: trying to enter the capital of Ukraine for the next anniversary October revolution, the Soviet command did not spare the lives of hundreds of thousands of soldiers.

If anyone has any complaints about the author’s value judgments, then please contact him :) :

Kyiv began to be bombed at dawn on June 22, 1941, and on September 19 the Germans entered the city.
The capture of Kyiv was marked by a monstrous and largest catastrophe of all time. world history wars - the encirclement and destruction of the Soviet South-Western Front, Soviet losses amounted to more than 600 thousand people.
A few days later, a farewell gift to the Germans and Kiev residents from the Soviet special services went off - on September 24, a series of explosions occurred in the city center and a severe fire began. Khreshchatyk and the surrounding neighborhoods were practically destroyed.
Unfortunately, the German command was not very bothered by the problems of the people of Kiev and the occupation of the city took place in the best communist traditions. The stay of the Germans in Kyiv was marked by such “delights” as the extermination of people at Babi Yar, the forced sending of Ukrainians to work in Germany and the creation of two concentration camps in the city.
The liberation of Kyiv, like the capture, was accompanied by unimaginable losses. The desire to make it in time for the anniversary of the October Revolution led to incredibly tragic consequences - the liberation of Kyiv cost the lives of 417 thousand Red Army soldiers.

This is a large selection of photographs illustrating those bloody events. There are many rare, unique shots here ancient city, Once again changed owners.

Defensive and anti-tank structures near the grocery store at the intersection of Brest-Litovsky Prospekt (now Pobeda Avenue) and 2nd Dachny Lane (now Industrialnaya Street), 1941. Now this place is the location of the Shulyavskaya metro station.

Defensive structures on Lenin Street (now Bogdan Khmelnitsky) near the intersection with Lysenko Street, 1941. To the right of this place is now the Zoological Museum.

Defensive structures on Khreshchatyk Street, 1941. The photo was taken from Bessarabskaya Square. In the center of the photo, on the left side of the street, you can see the high-rise building of the Central Department Store.
Defensive structures at the intersection of Shevchenko Boulevard with Saksaganskogo and Dmitrievskaya streets, that is, in the area of modern Victory Square, 1941.
Burning Bolshevik plant, the result of German bombing, June 23, 1941.
Construction of earthen defensive structures across Lutheranskaya Street in the Khreshchatyk area, 1941.

German armored personnel carrier SdKfz-231, captured by soldiers of the 1st division of the 4th special purpose battalion of the NKVD.

T-26 on the Chain Bridge, then the bridge was called that. E. Bosch, 1941. The chain bridge was blown up in September 1941 by retreating Red Army soldiers and was never rebuilt. The Metro Bridge now stands on this site.
Captured German self-propelled artillery unit StuG-III at the entrance to the opera house, 1941.
The "Sparkling Water" store looted by looters on Khreshchatyk, September 19, 1941. On this day, German troops entered the city.
The destroyed "Red Corner" in Pavlovsky kindergarten at the intersection of Novo-Pavlovskaya and Gogolevskaya streets, September 19, 1941.
German aerial photograph of Kyiv, June 1941. The numbers indicate: 3 - the building of the old Arsenal, 5 - Podolsky railway bridge, 6 - the E. Bosch bridge and its continuation - the Rusanovsky bridge, 7 - the not yet completed wooden Navodnitsky bridge, now in its place is the bridge named after. Patona, 8 - Darnitsky railway bridge.
The first German cars on Khreshchatyk, September 1941. The photo was taken in the Bessarabsky market area. In 1941 there was a grocery store on this site, but now there are several sports stores there.
Interestingly, the German drives the car while sitting on the door, thus improving his visibility. In the hands of some Kiev residents are bags of food, the last thing they managed to take from the destroyed stores.
An Audi car stands in front of house No. 47 on Khreshchatyk Street, at that time there was the National Hotel there, September 1941. The photo shows that the woman is wearing slippers woven from reeds. The boy on the right is holding a lotto or chess set, probably stolen from some store. At that time, no one needed them anymore...
A German motorcyclist on Khreshchatyk, Kiev residents look at him with interest, September 1941. To the right is the TSUM building, in front is Bessarabka. This is a photo from the American magazine "Life" for November 3, 1941.

Wehrmacht reconnaissance unit, September 19, 1941. On the left is the building of the old Arsenal, on the right is the tower of Ivan Kushkin with an embrasure made in it, in the depths you can see the Holy Trinity Gate of the Lavra. On the sidewalk there are the rails of tram No. 20, now in this place there is a trolleybus route No. 20. Photo from Life magazine.

German soldiers on the fourth tier of the bell tower in the Pechersk Lavra. In the background, the unfinished wooden Navodnitsky Bridge is burning; now in its place is the Paton Bridge. Photo from Life magazine.

The photo was taken from the Lavra bell tower. Below is the garden and defensive walls of the Lavra with the tower of Ivan Kushkin, on the right is the old Arsenal (now there is the Ukrainian Historical Center), in the center of the picture is the Church of St. Theodosius of Pechersk, just above you can see the building of shoe factory No. 1 (now there is the Kiev shoe factory) .

A German sentry on the Lavra bell tower, the Navodnitsky Bridge is burning on the Dnieper, September 20, 1941. Photo from the magazine "Völkischer Beobachter".

A satisfied German rings the bells at the Lavra bell tower, September 20, 1941.

Photo without caption.

German signalman on the territory of the Lavra, September 1941. The bell tower is smoking, it was set on fire by underground fighters or retreating Red Army soldiers. It was only thanks to the efforts of the Germans that the bell tower was saved. On the left you can see the cross on Stolypin’s grave.

Germans in the courtyard of the Upper Lavra near the Trinity Church, September 1941.

German anti-tank gun PAK-35 on Khreshchatyk, the Main Post Office building is visible on the right, autumn 1941. Where the cannon stands in the photo, a house with a clock was later built.

Stalin Square (now European Square), September 1941. German columns are moving up Grushevsky Street. On the left is the Public Library (now the Parliamentary Library), in the back is the Museum of Ukrainian Art, a little higher is the building of the Council of People's Commissars (now the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine).

German columns are moving towards Pechersk, up Grushevsky Street. The Church building is visible in the background, September 1941.

A German Pak-35 fires from the Mariinsky Park at the Red Army units that have retreated to Darnitsa, September 20, 1941.

Germans on Lipki, September 20, 1941. On the right is the Mariinsky Park, on the left is the House of the Red Army (now the House of Officers), and in the background is the church of the palace ensemble (now in its place is the Kiev Hotel). Photo from the magazine "Völkischer Beobachter".

The Germans inspect the fortifications at the intersection of Zhilyanskaya and Kuznechnaya streets, September 20, 1941.

German patrol on Franco Street. Anti-tank hedgehogs and barrels of water for extinguishing possible fires are visible - all that remains of the retreating Red Army, September 1941.

The Germans deploy an anti-aircraft battery on the observation deck in Pionersky Park (formerly Kupechesky), September 1941. Now in this place is the famous “Friendship of Peoples” arch and the same observation deck.

German troops continue to enter the city, the column moves along Saksagansky Street, this is the block between Pankovskaya and Lev Tolstoy streets, September 1941. To the left of the photographer is the house-museum of Lesya Ukrainka.

Shevchenko Boulevard, in front of the Bessarabian market, September 1941.

Photo without caption.

Corner of Shevchenko Boulevard and Vladimirskaya Street, behind the photographer is Shevchenko Park. Piles of earth on the sidewalks are obviously the remains of barricades.

The retreating Red Army soldiers completely destroyed the water supply and sewerage systems. In the photograph, German soldiers are getting water - for themselves and for the people of Kiev - at the site of the former Mikhailovsky Golden-Domed Church (now restored). In the background is the building of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b)U (now the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs).

The hay market, which was completely looted during the days of anarchy (September 18-19).

Refugees in the park near the Golden Gate near the well-known cast-iron fountain.

The first order of the German authorities is for all Kiev residents to register and start working. Those who do not register are declared saboteurs and shot. This shoe shiner started working from the first day, the sign says: “Artel “Shishistik”, tray No. 158.”

Railway station, photograph taken in the first days of the occupation. The station was partially destroyed by German air raids and finally by the retreating Red Army soldiers.

Anti-tank ditch and rifle embrasures on Degtyarevskaya Street.

Kiev residents dismantle defensive structures on Khreshchatyk, September 21-23, 1941.

Dismantling the barricades on Lenin Street (now Bogdan Khmelnitsky Street). On the right you can see the building of the theater. Lesya Ukrainka.

Residents of Kiev, in the presence of a German field marshal, are clearing away the rubble on Institutskaya Street, not far from Khreshchatyk. On the left are German headquarters buses (the German occupation headquarters was located in the building of the October Palace), on the right are Kiev residents snapping up the first occupation leaflets and newspapers, September 21-23, 1941.

The headquarters building of the Kyiv Military District is occupied by the Germans. Now this building houses the secretariat of the President of Ukraine.

"Timurovites" pose for a German photojournalist, September 1941.

Kiev residents on Khreshchatyk listen to a German radio broadcast transmitted from radio cars, autumn 1941. On the left are houses No. 6-12, on the right - No. 5-7.

The beginning of Shevchenko Boulevard, September 1941. On the left is the Palace Hotel (now the Ukraine). On the transformer booth there is still a Soviet poster “Beat the reptile” and a pre-war advertisement “Enrollment for courses for bookkeepers and accountants.” Over time, the Germans erected a gallows here on which they executed “enemies of the Reich,” and only in 1946 they erected a monument to Lenin on this site.

Poster "Hitler the Liberator" on the facade of the opera house, September 1941. The poster was pasted directly onto pre-war theater posters for the operas "Cossacks beyond the Danube", "Natalka-Poltavka", etc.

Distribution of the newspaper "Ukrainian Word" on the streets of Kyiv, October 4, 1941. The girl on the right has the then fashionable “crown” and “passion curl” braids.

At the entrance to the city.

A German officer poses against the background of St. Andrew's Church, autumn 1941.

The bell tower of the Church of the Intercession on Podol and St. Andrew's Church, autumn 1941.

Contrasts of Soviet reality. The mess at the site of the destroyed St. Michael's Cathedral, on the site of which before the war there was some kind of ATP, and the greatness of knowledge of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Ukraine (now the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs), autumn 1941.

The same yard, children of war.

The lobby of the building of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, autumn 1941.

Meeting room of the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR, autumn 1941. Like the lobby, the hall has remained virtually unchanged. Only the full-length sculpture of Stalin, bas-reliefs of the classics of communism and the coats of arms of the USSR and Ukrainian SSR were removed.

House on the hem, photo of a German officer, autumn 1941. The German was not so much surprised that such a house could stand at all, but rather that people still lived in it... He was not even lazy and went into the yard, where he took another photo. "Socialist realism" through the eyes of a German officer.

Remains of barricades at the intersection of Zhilyanskaya and Kominterna streets, then Vokzalnaya Square and the train station. Busts of Lenin and Stalin hang humiliatingly, probably taken from the nearby Leninskaya Kuznya plant. Below is the index "Feldgend. Zug Doebert" - "Feldgendarmerie. Dobert Platoon".

Dynamo Stadium.

Museum of V.I. Lenin.

Near Askold's grave.

German cemetery, in the distance - Askold's grave.

Red building of Shevchenko University.

Philharmonic building on Stalin Square, 1941.

A gramophone record dealer talks with a German soldier.

Sources:
- Book "Kyiv 1941-1943" (Kiy Publishing House, 2000)
- Book by D. Malakov “Here is Yevbaz, and then Peremogi Square” (Kyiv, 2004)
- Forum of the site reibert.info (special thanks to the user Artem)
- Collection of photographs by Stefan Mashkevich
- IRJ Photo Collection
- Stefan Mashkevich's website mashke.org
- Life Magazine
- Magazine "Völkischer Beobachter"

Twenty second of June
At exactly four o'clock,
Kyiv was bombed, they told us
That the war has begun.

This famous song was written by the poet Boris Kovynev to the tune of “The Little Blue Handkerchief” shortly after the start of the war.

The bombing of Kyiv actually began on June 22, but a little later, around 5-6 o’clock in the morning. During the first air raid, German planes attacked airfields, train stations and military plant No. 43, while the Luftwaffe lost from 1 to 4 bombers. This and subsequent raids did not cause large-scale destruction in Kyiv. The Nazis almost did not bomb residential areas - this was probably done with the expectation of the obedience of the population after the capture of the city. However, some strategic sites and several large buildings in the center of Kyiv were destroyed.

Hitler's troops reached Kyiv on the 20th day of the war, July 11, 1941. On this day, reconnaissance of the 13th tank division The Germans attacked the fortifications of the Kyiv fortified area (KiUR) on the Irpen River. It was then that barricades and anti-tank hedgehogs appeared on the streets of Kyiv, and store windows were covered with sandbags. The Wehrmacht was prevented from immediately capturing the capital of the Ukrainian SSR by a distracting blow from the 5th Soviet Army of General Potapov.

By mid-August, the German Army Group South reached the Dnieper along its entire course from Kherson to Kyiv. By the end of the month, the Dnieper was crossed at Zaporozhye, Dnepropetrovsk and Kremenchug, and the 6th Army came close to Kyiv. At the same time, Guderian's tank group was advancing from the northwest.

In mid-September there are four soviet army, holding back enemy attacks in the Kiev direction, fell into the cauldron. On September 19, Soviet troops left Kyiv, and by the end of the month they were defeated.

By the time of entry German troops in Kyiv (around noon on September 19), approximately 400 thousand inhabitants remained in the city. The rest either went to the front or were evacuated.

Podol at the beginning of the occupation

The buildings of the headquarters of the Dnieper flotilla and the NKVD escort troops are burning.

Podolsky district. German artillerymen fire at the barricade on Vyshgorodskaya Street.

Capture of the overpass on Kurenevka

Grocery store near the Bolshevik plant

Corner of Konstantinovskaya and Elenovskaya streets. In the background is the Khryakov mill. Now there is a residential building on this site (Konstantinovskaya St., 63).

Remains of the barricade on Melnikov

The bodies of murdered civilians on Taras Shevchenko Boulevard in occupied Kyiv.

The photograph was taken 10 days after the fall of Kyiv by German war photographer Johannes Hahle, who served in the 637th Propaganda Company (6th German army, which captured the capital of the Ukrainian SSR).

Dead on Lukyanovka

Photo of St. Andrew's Church in the fall of 1941. But more interesting are the domes on the house of the manufacturer Slinko on the left. They were demolished after the war and have not been restored to this day.

Circular barricade on the square. III International (current European Square)

The bombed building of Ginzburg's "skyscraper"

Ginsburg House

In 1930 it looked like this.

The moment a bomb hits a house on Khreshchatyk

The first fires on Khreshchatyk

Khreshchatyk

Destroyed department store

Corner of Khreschatyk and Lutheranskaya

At the Bessarabia market

Dynamo Stadium

Fire victims in Pervomaisky Park

Germans near the Lenin Museum

Hitler's soldiers in a Wanderer W235 on Kirov Street (current Grushevsky)

Germans in the back of a truck on Kirov Street

At the building of the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian SSR

On Vorovskogo Street

A German scooter company on the Dnieper embankment, in the distance is the blown up bridge named after. Evgenia Bosh.

Hungarian troops are moving to one of the crossings across the Dnieper (most likely to the Scharngorst Bridge) past the Lower Caves Kiev-Pechersk Lavra. They're being watched local residents, who return to the city with sleighs full of brushwood collected on the Dnieper slopes. On the right is the pre-war hostel-barracks of the builders of the Navodnitsky Bridge.

The Germans cross the Dnieper on a trimaran

Destroyed steamships on the Dnieper

Struve Bridge, blown up Soviet troops during the retreat on September 19, 1941

Destroyed bridge named after. Evgeniy Bosh

The Germans are building a pontoon crossing.

Others had to travel in inflatable boats.

Red Army soldiers surrender in the Vydubychi area. It was not possible to break through to our own people on the other side of the Dnieper.

Destroyed Assumption Cathedral of the Kiev Pechersk Lavra

Sentinel on the Lavra Bell Tower

In the background is the burning unfinished Navodnitsky Bridge across the Dnieper

The Nazi rings the bell

German flag on the bell tower

Germans at the Ivan Kushnik Tower on January Uprising Street. On the left is the old Arsenal, in front is the Holy Trinity Gate of the Lavra.

A group of German soldiers near the Theodosius Church

At the station

Barricade at the station, on the corner of Kominterna and Zhilyanskaya streets. The Germans brought busts of Stalin and Lenin here.

Remains of barricades on Khreshchatyk

Kiev residents are dismantling the barricade on Institutskaya Street under the supervision of a German field gendarme.

Germans on vacation near the regional committee building (current Maidan)

The Germans on Kalinin Square (now Maidan Nezalezhnosti) are hammering the asphalt, apparently in order to put up some kind of sign. On the left is the building of the former city council, in the background is Khreshchatyk. On the right is a linden tree that survived the war and the new development of Khreshchatyk, but was destroyed in 1981 during the redevelopment of the square.

A crowd of women stands on the corner of Kerosinnaya (now Sholudenko Street) and Lagernaya streets (now this part of it is Marshal Rybalko Street), at the fence of the Zenit stadium, which is now called “Start”. Presumably, they are trying to find out something about the fate of their husbands, sons and brothers, who were kept in neighboring barracks. In berets and with bare heads - city dwellers. A Ukrainian policeman poses for the camera and smiles. He is wearing a Red Army commander's cap with a black band (artilleryman, tankman or signalman) and a soldier's belt. On the left sleeve of the overcoat there is a white cloth bandage with two diagonal stripes; of all the inscriptions, only the largest one is readable: “Wehrmacht”.

The steel lattice fence of the stadium has been preserved, which became widely known since the summer of 1942, when football matches were held here between the “Start” team of bakery plant No. 4, which consisted mainly of players from the pre-war Dynamo Kyiv team, and football players of the occupation forces

Brest-Litovskoe highway

The photographer's attention was drawn to four prisoners of war engaged in repair work. They are talking about something with a German guard standing by the Pullman tram car number 1023. On the stencil is route No. 7, which followed Taras Shevchenko Boulevard and Brest-Litovskoe Highway (Pobedy Avenue) to the street. Field.

Kiev residents listen to the loudspeaker near the vehicle of the 637 propaganda company.

Distributing Nazi flags to Kyiv residents

Corner of Khreschatyk and Karl Marx

It was Luftwaffe soldiers who staged a photo shoot in the conquered city. They were photographed primarily against the backdrop of objects destroyed by German bombings.