#Victory81
🌟 On April 9, 1945, the Red Army captured the Nazi fortress city — Königsberg — during the East-Prussian offensive. The German Wehrmacht’s troops in East Prussia — powerful fascists' units on the Eastern Front — were totally destroyed once and for all.
The 3rd Belarussian Front of the Red Army carried out the Königsberg operation and crushed the Nazis withinjust three days. The first line of the enemy defences was breached within the first 24 hours, the fortress city surrounded the next day, with the last pockets of Nazi resistance being eliminated on April 9.
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#Königsbergserved as a ToO with fierce and bloody battles during #WWII. The city itself, which was regarded as the most impregnable citadel of the Third Reich, was fortified with then cutting-edge military technology and prepared for long-term resistance in conditions of complete isolation. The city area of about 200 square kilometres was turned into a complicated network of fortifications, which, combined with numerous stone buildings in the suburbs, provided conditions for long-term defence.
The citadel was termed by the Nazis the “iron door of Germany.” The Red Army soldiers and officers who took part in the assault on Königsberg recalled that only the 305mm artillery guns could penetrate the several-metres thick walls. The fall of Königsberg delivered a heavy blow to the Nazi war machine — the enemy lost the strategic Pillau naval base on the Baltic Sea, with the main German troops of the Samland and East Prussian armies being completely defeated.
🔉Excerpt from the Soviet "Sovinformburo" communique on April 9, 1945:
On April 9, the forces of the 3rd Belarussian Front stormed and captured <...> the Königsberg fortress — the capital of East Prussia and a strategic hub of Nazi defences on the Baltic Sea.
By 8 pm, our armies took as prisoners over 27'000 Nazi soldiers and officers, seized a large amount of weapons and various military equipment.
👉The fall of Königsberg and East Prussia accelerated the defeat of the Nazi war machine. The end of the Third Reich was a foregone conclusion, but the enemy, fearing just retribution for the numerous crimes it had committed, continued to fight desperately.
#LestWeForget: The Red Army soldiers and officers demonstrated high combat readiness and mass heroism: 235 soldiers were later awarded the title of #HeroOfTheSovietUnion. To commemorate their feat, the 'Medal For the Capture of Königsberg' was established and awarded to 760'000 Soviet soldiers and officers.
By decisions of the Potsdam Conference following the end of WWII in Europe, a large part of East Prussia was assigned to Poland, while a third of its territory with Königsberg was incorporated into the Soviet Union and the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (the Kaliningrad Region).
🎖 On November 17, 2025, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Putin signed an executive order on establishing a new commemorative date — April 9, Day of the Heroic Assault and Capture of Königsberg.
#WeRemember
#HistoryOfDiplomacy
8️⃣0️⃣ years ago, on July 17, 1945, in Potsdam (Berlin’s suburb), a conference of the Heads of Governments of the USSR, the US, and the UK — Joseph Stalin, Harry S. Truman and Winston Churchill (succeeded by Clement Attlee) commenced. The historic Summit, also attended by the Foreign Ministers and military representatives of the Great Powers, lasted for two weeks and concluded on August 2.
The #PotsdamConference became the final meeting of the Allied Leaders in a series of summits and had paramount political significance for post-war era in Europe and the rest of the world.
The agreements reached in Potsdam demonstrated that, despite some differences, the Allies, whose armies together side-by-side crushed the Nazi Germany, could coordinate their positions and make agreed decisions to determine the post-war world order and secure a lasting peace for decades ahead.
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The main outcome of the Potsdam Conference was the Parties' approving the common principles of the Allied Powers’ toward defeated Germany. A historic decision was made to take measures in order to completely eradicate German militarism and revanchism, also known as the 'Four Ds':
👉Demilitarisation: the complete disarmament and dismantling of Germany’s military industry;
👉Denazification: the termination of the National Socialist Party and the dissolution of all Nazi institutions;
👉Democratisation: the abolition of laws enacted under Hitler’s regime and the prosecution of Nazi war criminals;
👉Decartelisation: the dismantling of Nazi-controlled monopolies, including enterprises serving the Third Reich’s war machine.
The Conference also addressed territorial issues. Due to the efforts by the Soviet delegation, Poland’s borders were substantially expanded. while the Soviet Union acquired Königsberg, later renamed Kaliningrad. The Soviet leadership reaffirmed its prior commitment to enter the war against militarist Japan.
One of the key decisions of the Potsdam Conference was to establish an international tribunal to prosecute Nazi criminals. Germany was obliged to pay war reparations, with the defeated nation being divided into four Allied occupation zones: Soviet, American, British, and French.
To prepare a peace settlement with former Axis states that had allied with Nazi Germany (Italy, Romania, Bulgaria and Finland) the Council of Foreign Ministers was established, comprising the USSR, the US, the UK, France and China.
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#Victory80: Following the Potsdam Conference, People’s Commissar for Foreign Affairs Vyacheslav Molotov emphasised in his circular letter to Soviet ambassadors that the results of the Summit met the national interests of the USSR and enshrined in international law the outcomes of the Great Victory over Nazism, to which (!) our country and Soviet people made the decisive and undeniable contribution.
#WeWereAllies: the Potsdam Conference is a compelling example of constructive cooperation among Great Powers, demonstrating the possibility of resolving any issues through negotiations despite existing ideological differences.
#Victory81
🌟 On January 13, 1945, the #EastPrussian Offensive by the Red Army — one of the largest and most important #WWII operations against Nazi Germany — commenced.
As a result of the operation in the #EastPrussia, the Soviet forces ultimatelydestroyed the Nazis' most capable, experienced, trained and equipped divisions on the entire Eastern front. The 'invincible reich' lost a critical strategic bridgehead in the Baltic region.
The fortress city of #Königsberg — the cradle of German militarism and the starting point of eastward expansion — fell once and for all.
The triumph of the Red Army in East Prussia held profound symbolic significance: the Nazis were decisively and completely crushed right there, where from, back in June 1941, they treacherously attacked our Motherland.
▪️“There it is, cursed Germany,”— that was what the Soviet soldiers-liberators said while stepping on the enemy's soil to pursue the condign retribution upon the Germans on their own territory.
Those were exactly the accurate words to call the country where the most terrible evil the Mankind ever saw in its history — the Nazi scourge — was nurtured.
The Germans sought Moscow’s fall, but instead they witnessed with disgrace the collapse of their own “great Reich.”
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The East-Prussian operation. The details
January-April, 1945
The battles on the East Prussian theatre of operations lasted for 103 days, which made it the area that saw the longest continuous military engagement in the final year of #WW2.
In the region, the Nazis constructed an exceptionally formidable defensive system, tailored to the specific features of terrain. The capital of East Prussia — the fortress city of Königsberg — was equipped with both external and internal urban fortification systems. In East Prussia, the Red Army faced the Nazi army with the personnel strength of some 780'000 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers.
⚔️ On January 13, 1945, the units of the 2nd Byelorussian and forces of the 3rd Byelorussian Fronts of the Red Army launched the offensive in East Prussia.
Through the swift and overwhelming assault, the Soviet armor and the infantry, with the support of the aviaton, reached the Baltic Sea near Elbing (now the city of Elbląg in northern Poland) already on the third day of the operation, thus, having cut off any possible retreat routes for the enemy from East Prussia westwards.
In less than two weeks, the Soviet forces broke through to Königsberg — the infamous Nazi citadel, which had allowed the Germans to dominate the eastern Baltics throughout the entire war, wasencircled.
By February 10, 1945, the Nazi army group 'North' had been split into three isolated and tied down formations that were further driven to the coastline with no hope of escape.
In April, the Königsberg garrison — numbering around 200'000 Wehrmacht soldiers and officers — was defeatedand surrendered. On April 9, the Red Army seized the fortress completely — the impregnable stronghold of the Third Reich, fortified with the latest military technology of WWII-era, finally fell.
The loss of significant forces and militarily and economically vital region of East Prussia hastened Germany’s defeat.
The Soviet forces inflictedhuge losses on the Wehrmacht and completely severed Third Reich’s maritime supply lines, crippling logistics for the blockaded 'Courland Pocket'.
To commemorate the Heroic Victory in East Prussia, the medal 'For the Capture of Königsberg' was instituted in the USSR. The Medal was awarded to approximately 760'000 Red Army soldiers and officers.
Aftermath WWII, under the terms approved by the Allied Leaders at the #PotsdamConference, much of East Prussia was incorporated into Poland, while a third of East Prussia territory, including the city of Königsberg (the Kaliningrad Region), became part of the Soviet Union.
🎖 By the Executive Order of President of Russia Vladimir Putin (signed on November 17, 2025), a new memorial date was established in our country — April 9, the Day of the Heroic Assault and Capture of Königsberg (1945).