CRASH OF THE GERMAN BLITZKRIEG NEAR MOSCOW

(TO THE 80TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE MOSCOW BATTLE IN THE GREAT PATRIOTIC WAR OF 1941-1945)

The article deals with the issues of the history of the Great Patriotic War related to the battle near Moscow, the first major battle between the German Wehrmacht and the troops of the Red Arm/ It took place in two military operations: the defenсe of
Moscow and the Moscow region (September 30 - early December 1941) and the counteroffensive near Moscow ( December 5-6, 1941 - April 20, 1942). The results of this battle were of great importance for the USSR, the countries of the emerging anti-Hitler coalition and those under the occupation regime of Nazi Germany. The results of the Moscow battle affected the moral and psychological state of the German troops and the German generals, destroying in their minds the myth of the invincibility of the "victorious army of the Wehrmacht." An important role in the victory over the Wehrmacht troops near Moscow was played by the activities of the State Defence Committee, the patriotism and self-sacrifice of the Soviet people in a combat situation and in the rear, military-technical supplies under Lend-Lease. This battle was characterized by heavy losses in manpower. According to a number of historians, the losses of Wehrmacht soldiers in the battle near Moscow are: 160,000 more than in the Leningrad and Stalingrad battles combined; 420 thousand more than in the battles on the Kursk Bulge and 440 thousand more than in the Berlin operation [1]. The irretrievable losses of the Soviet Union were also great, in the battles for their native capital, every fifth soldier of the total number of those killed in the four years of the war on all its fronts was killed, or every fourth soldier who defended the capital (25.3% of the total number of military personnel who participated in battle). This was significantly more than the losses of Great Britain and the United States of America combined in all the battles of the First and Second World Wars [4]. The lessons of the Moscow battle testified to the unity of the front and rear in the USSR in the fight against the aggressor, to the multinational unity of the Soviet people in the face of danger.

Key words: operation "Typhoon", army group "Center", defense of Moscow (Western, Reserve, Bryansk and Kalinin fronts and detachments of the People's Militia), the counteroffensive of the Red Army near Moscow, the collapse of the blitzkrieg.