Russian Consulate in Cape Town

#HistoryOfDiplomacy 8️⃣0️⃣ years ago, on February 4, 1945, the Yalta (Crimea) Conference of the Allied leaders — Joseph Stalin, Winston Churchill and Franklin D.Roosevelt officially opened. #YaltaConference of the Anti-Hitler coalition leaders went down in history as one of the most significant and key international meetings of the 'Big Three' during #WWII. The Yalta talks became a symbol of successful cooperation between the Soviet Union, the US and the UK in the fight against the common enemy — Nazism. The decisions taken at the Conference outlined the frame of the post-war #YaltaPotsdam international relations system, with the #UNCharter becoming its international legal basis. *** By late 1944 — early 1945, the Red Army expelled the enemy from all the territory of the Soviet Union and proceeded with the operations aimed at liberating Europe from the Nazis. 🌟 In the first days of February 1945, the forces of the Red Army's 1st Byelorussian and the 1st Ukrainian Fronts successfully completed the Vistula-Oder Offensive, overcoming over 500 kilometres in less than a month (!), liberated Poland and then reached the border with Germany. Berlin was just 60 kilometres away. The collapse of the Third Reich was just a matter of time. As the long-awaited common Allies' #Victory over Nazi Germany was as close as never, the future post-war world order-related issues needed to be discussed by the victorious great powers. While the Soviet forces were rapidly advancing in Eastern Europe in January, the preparations for the big negotiations to shape the future of the world were in full swing. Yalta, a Crimean city, was picked as the venue for that historic meeting (February 4-11, 1945). The fate of post-war Germany was the key focus of the Yalta Conference. The Allies reaffirmed their commitment to eliminating German militarism and Nazism, and creating guarantees that “Germany would never be able again to disturb peace of the world.” At the Yalta talks, the 'Big Three' managed to reach agreement on Poland’s post-war borders. The Soviet delegation consistently promoted the idea of ensuring the interests of the Poles and their fundamental right to independence and sovereignty. Winston Churchill, addressing the House of Commons upon his return from Yalta, on February 27, said: "If not for the prodigious exertions and sacrifices of Russia, Poland was doomed to utter destruction at the hands of the Germans. Not only Poland as a state and as a nation, but the Poles as a race were doomed by Hitler to be destroyed or reduced to a servile station". The Yalta Conference resulted also in adopting of 'the Declaration of Free Europe' and other crucial international legal documents on the fundamental principles of the #UnitedNations, laying down the foundation of the Yalta-Potsdam international system. ☝️ The rapidly strengthening international posture and influence of the Soviet Union, bolstered by the outstanding achievements of the Red Army in the battlefields, had a significant impact on the course and the outcomes of the negotiations. By the time Europe was almost freed from the shackles of hitlerism, the Soviet soldier enjoyed the fame of liberator whose noble feat was well-known all across the continent. The decisions of the Yalta Conference strengthened the anti-fascist coalition in the final stages of WWII and contributed to the Victory over Germany. 🎙 From a briefing by Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova (Saransk, January 31, 2025): 💬 "The participants in the Yalta Conference managed to overcome their differences, and, acting in the spirit of true solidarity, mutual respect and trust, abandoned their fleeting interests for the sake of defeating the common enemy and achieving a common victory, peace and freedom for all countries and peoples. Unfortunately, much has changed since then. Now, multiple proponents of historical revisionism tend to falsify historical reality and associate the Yalta agreements with the split of Europe and the bloc confrontation of the post-war period." #WeWereAllies

#Victory80 🌟 February 2, 1943, one of the most brutal battles of #WWII and all of history — the Battle of Stalingrad — concluded. For 2️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ days and nights the Battle of Stalingrad raged on the banks of the Don and the Volga rivers, and in the city proper, or rather what was left of it following merciless Nazi bombardments and stubborn defender fighting for every street, alley and house. The battle itself surpassed in scope and intensity all prior battles of #WWII. During that battle, more than 2.1 million people fought on both sides. By the end of June 1942, the Nazis concentrated in the strip of land from Kursk to Taganrog on the front of 600-650 kilometers up to 35% of infantry, over 50% of armour and motorized divisions of the total number of Wehrmacht troops deployed on the Soviet-German front. During the planning of the Stalingrad operation, the enemy had several objectives: to gain a foothold on the Volga River and thus deprive the #SovietUnion of control over one of the most important transportation arteries of the country. The capture of #Stalingrad, according to the assessment of the Nazi military command, would open the way for the Wehrmacht to the Caucasus, where the Germans hoped to obtain the most important resource for making the war machine continue — oil fields. Traditionally, according to the historians, the Battle was divided into two stages: • Defensive phase: from July 17 to November 18, 1942; • Offensive phase: from November 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943. During the first stage, July 17 - November 18, 1942, the Red Army had to conduct defensive operations and engaged the enemy in fierce street battles directly in the city. The forces of the 62nd and 64th Soviet armies, led by Vassily Chuikov, commander of the 62nd Army, engaged the troops of the 6th Army of the Wehrmacht under the command of Lieutenant General Paulus. By mid-November 1942, as a result of stubborn resistance and the deployment of the Red Army reserves favorable conditions were created for launching the counteroffensive. The plan for the operation code-named#Uranus was developed under the leadership of Army General Georgy Zhukov and Colonel General Alexander Vasilevsky. During the large-scale counteroffensive at Stalingrad (November 19, 1942 — February 2, 1943), Soviet forces conducted the operation #Ring, during which the Red Army managed to drive Paulus's 6th Army into a “cauldron” between the Don and Volga rivers. Realizing the futility of further action, by the end of January the Nazi units began to surrender en masse. On January, 31, General Paulus (promoted by Hitler to to General-Field Marshal), together with other German generals and officers at Stalingrad finally surrendered. OnFebruary 2, the last pockets of Nazi resistance were eliminated. The #BattleOfStalingrad ended with a complete victory of the Red Army. For the first time ever the all-consuming Nazi war machine was weighed, measured and found wanting. This marked a turning point not only in the the Great Patriotic War, but that of the entire #WWII. In Stalingrad, Wehrmacht and its auxiliary forces from the Axis lost 1/4 of all troops deployed by the Reich on the Eastern front. Total enemy losses amount to ~1.5 million soldiers and officers. From that moment forward thestrategic initiative was on the side of the Red Army. The Victory in Stalingrad created favourable conditions for further full-scale counteroffensive of Soviet forces to expel the enemy from the Nazi-occupied territory of the USSR. 🌐 The defeat of the bulk of the enemy troops not only shocked the world and significantly raised the international prestige of the Soviet Union and its Armed Forces, but also contributed to the strengthening and tightening of the anti-Hitler coalition. 🎖 Victory in the Battle of Stalingrad was in large achieved through superior strategy and tactics, but also due to mass heroism of Soviet soldiers, officers and hard work of all those on the home front. 112 participants of the Battle were awarded the title of the Hero of the Soviet Union. #WeRemember

🌟#OnThisDay8️⃣0️⃣ years ago, on January 27, 1945, Auschwitz-Birkenau (Oswiecim, was located in Nazi-occupied Poland) — the most terrifying German extermination camp in #WWII — was liberated by the Red Army’s 1st Ukrainian Front during the Vistula–Oder offensive operation. #Auschwitz was created by the Nazis in 1940 in a building that used to serve as military barracks near a small town called Oswiecim, whose history dates back to the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Having occupied Poland in 1939, the Nazis changed the town's name of Oswiecim to German Auschwitz. Later, in 1941-1943, two more imprisonment facilities were established in the vicinity of Oswiecim. They were: ▪️Auschwitz II — best known to the wider public as #AuschwitzBirkenau, was three kilometres away from the main facility — Oswiecim and located near Brzezinka, a Polish village (Birkenau in German). Auschwitz-Birkenau was the largest "death factory". Equipped with crematoriums and gas chambers, it was created by the Nazis with only one aim — exterminate people. ▪️Auschwitz III (also known as Monowitz). Its prisoners were used by the Nazis for the Third Reich war industries. Following the so-called Wannsee Conference in 1942, the Nazis approved what was called the “final solution to the Jewish question”. Since then, Auschwitz-Birkenau was turned into the main "death factory" for the annihilation of Jews in Europe. ❗️ Prisoners of Oswiecim were held by the Nazis in inhuman, barbaric conditions. They had to do hard, exhausting work until total exhaustion, to endure poor sanitation in the camp's facilities, malnutrition and constant tortures by the guards and SS-troops. It was in Oswiecim that the Germans first tested the "Zyklon-B" poisonous agent on human beings. Prisoners of Auschwitz were also subjected to cruel medical experiments, led by a Nazi criminal, infamous retired military doctor Josef Mengele. In 1944, when the Red Army started the liberation of Europe, the Nazis, in an effort to cover the tracks of their crimes in Auschwitz, rushed to burn documents and destroy the camp's gas chambers, crematoriums, and deported as many prisoners as they could westward to other concentration camps deep in the Third Reich — over 58,000 prisoners were evacuated by the Nazis before Oswiecim and liberated by the Soviet forces in January, 1945. *** In January 1945, the units of the 1st Ukrainian Front launched the Vistula-Oder offensive and, successfully expelling the Nazis from Poland, finally reached Auschwitz. ⚔️ In the late hours of January 27, following three days of fighting the retreating enemy, the Red Army took over Oswiecim and opened the gatesofAuschwitz. The camp’s 7,000 prisoners were freed. Most of them were sick or suffering from extreme exhaustion and tortures. Rescued prisoners burst into tears of joy when they greeted their liberators. Some facilities of the camp were instantly made a hospital. According to various historic estimates, in 1940-1945, from 1.5 to 4 million people perished in Auschwitz-Birkenau. Over the past years, we are witnessing a campaign in several European countries, including Poland, to rewrite and falsify the history of WWII and, in particular, to erase the memory of the feat performed by the Soviet soldiers-liberators who saved the Auschwitz prisoners. 🎙 From a briefing by Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova on topical foreign policy issues (January 23, 2025): 💬 "This year, like all those years before, Russian representatives will not be invited to the commemoration ceremonies at Auschwitz-Birkenau on January 27. That is, there will be no one there to mention the Soviet liberator soldiers and express gratitude to them. In this regard, there is something that needs to be said to the organisers and all the Europeans who will be there: Your lives, your work and leisure, the very existence of your nations, your children have been paid for by Soviet soldiers, their lives, their blood. It was them who crushed the Third Reich machine. You are forever in their debt." 🕯#WeRemember