Essay on the topic “The Great Patriotic War”
The Great Patriotic War for me, as for many young people, is an echo of something terrible, something sad, something that I would never want to happen again. You would never wish on anyone for this grief to happen again. How many tears, how many troubles this evil thing brought, this war, and how long did people move away from it and whether it was forgotten, and it is even possible to assume that it will be forgotten someday.
Films, books, stories of our grandfathers and grandmothers, all this will forever remain in our memory. The war broke out unexpectedly, uninvited, on the warm day of June 22 in the morning of 1941, when all the civilians were sleeping peacefully and thinking about tomorrow as if it were an ordinary day. Everyone had their own plans, their own thoughts for this “tomorrow” and no one thought that for many this day would never come. War broke out...
She, tough and insidious, took away millions of lives, and those who remained suffered a lot of grief, fear and horror. For many years people could not move away from her. Many villages were burned, many fields and pastures were trampled... And although many years have passed, more than seventy years, the imprints of that terrible time remain in the memory of the war soldiers forever. Thanks to them, how many villages and cities were liberated, how many people they were able to save. And the tears of mothers? Those who were waiting for their children from the war? And those who did not wait, went crazy with grief, and those who saw and could contemplate their child, albeit wounded, even without limbs, but their own, beloved child. These feelings cannot be described in words, they cannot be conveyed on paper, these are the feelings of a mother’s tears.
There is no family that the war has not touched them in one way or another. Many men went to the front, many to work in factories, in hospitals, to do everything to somehow bring the end of this vile, cruel war closer.
And my grandfather participated in military affairs. In 1941 he served in Belarus. There was only nothing left before demobilization - 2 months and the war began. Grandfather served on the front line, a German bomb exploded near him, which stunned him and he lost consciousness. I woke up in captivity. The winter of 1941-1942 was cold. Grandfather, in order to warm his feet, decided to tear the footcloths a little away from the blanket... In the morning, one of his people reported that someone had torn the blanket at night. The Germans began checking everyone’s blankets. They saw that he. As punishment, so that others would be disgraced, my grandfather was to be hanged. On the gallows, the grandfather lost consciousness and woke up in the car. The Germans, in order not to take him back, transported him to the other end of the camp. Where behind the fence there was a camp with Poles. Grandfather knew that Polish Germans were given cigarettes and began to walk along the fence and speak Polish. One of the Poles responded. They began to communicate and in the evening he, at his own risk, threw a carton of cigarettes to his grandfather. The next morning our grandfather made an appointment with a doctor; he was very afraid that the doctor would be a German. But for his benefit, the doctor was Russian. Grandfather quietly put 50 cigarettes in his pocket. The doctor said that the grandfather was seriously ill and needed to be seen by his owner. The Germans recorded it. With the remaining 50 cigarettes, my grandfather was able to buy a sweatshirt and shoes for himself. When he left the camp, he was afraid that the Germans would find shoes and a sweatshirt during the inspection... But for his benefit, the Germans at the moment when he left were called somewhere and he was examined by a Russian, who released him. After a certain number of meters, the grandfather changed his shoes - the accompanying Germans were surprised by his clothes and praised the grandfather. The owner had the opportunity to walk some distance unaccompanied, and the grandfather, having accumulated food, ran away from them. He ended up in a Russian detachment. And finding himself not far from the owner in the lull between battles, he went to the owner to thank him for his good treatment. The owner was at first frightened by the arrival of his grandfather. But then we drank tea together.
Now all this seems like interesting, exciting stories, but I remember my grandfather’s face when he told them, and what was happening to his soul...
Example of an essay about the Great Patriotic War - Victory Day
An example of an essay on the theme of the Great Patriotic War - Victory Day
I believe that our ancestors put a deep meaning into the word “victory”. Victory is something that begins “after trouble” and this word does not mean achievement, not triumph, but the end of tragic events.
During the years of fascist occupation, civilians sometimes suffered no less than those who fought on the fronts. Typhus, a deadly infectious disease that wiped out entire families, was raging in cities and villages. Typhus was carried by body lice, and typhoid fever could be contracted through drinking or eating. Civilians were afraid to take water from wells and go to crowded places.
By the way, with the arrival of the Nazis, there were practically no establishments left that local residents could visit. On pharmacies, hairdressers and shops, signs “Only for Germans” hung everywhere; townspeople exchanged food products with villagers in the markets. City residents were forced to work for the occupiers, but the wages were such that a month's pay could only buy one loaf of bread. Quinoa pancakes, green borscht made from nettles and chestnut bread, which tastes very bitter - all these are dishes from the diet of the inhabitants of Minsk and Kyiv captured by the Germans. Some parents sent their children to orphanages because they were given at least some food there.
Sign on a grocery store in Kyiv during the German occupation
Children and teenagers were simply caught on the street during raids, they were sent to labor camps, and those who did not want to work were sent to a concentration camp. Most of the schools were closed, and with the arrival of the Nazis there was no furniture or textbooks. Then in 1943-1944, when the eastern Soviet cities had already been liberated, an action was organized: children from all over the Soviet Union themselves collected pencils, notebooks, textbooks and sent them to the kids who lived in the cities affected by the fascist occupation.
In terrible living conditions, hunger, fear and disease, the only thing that helped me survive was the belief that all this would definitely end. And that long-awaited Victory of 1945 became a great joy for everyone. Now Victory Day is a bright holiday: children walk with balloons, enjoy life, ride on carousels, adults attend concerts, listen to songs of past years, drink a glass of bitter and talk about the war.
The Victory in May 1945 was just as incredibly bright. When Soviet troops returned home, their path lay through Eastern Europe, civilians came out of their homes, set up tables near the road, treated and greeted their liberators. These people, at times, did not even know the Russian language, but the disaster that befell and the long-awaited Victory were common to everyone.
VIDEO: Monument “Alyosha” in Bulgaria
An example of an essay about the Great Patriotic War - Why did the war start?
An example of an essay on the topic of the Great Patriotic War - Why did the war start?
War cannot be comprehended; it is beyond the consciousness of a mentally healthy person. What were the pilots of the German bombers thinking when they dropped bombs on Kyiv and Sevastopol on the morning of June 22? How did the Auschwitz prisoners feel as they led other prisoners to the gas chambers and then carried their dead bodies to the crematorium? How did the German soldier holding the blockade in the hungry winter of 1942 imagine the inhabitants of Leningrad? Did he consider them people?
The Great Patriotic War began not with volleys of guns, but with changes in people's consciousness. Before the start of World War II, life was really hard for the Germans; the country suffered a severe economic crisis. And at this time Hitler entered the political arena, claiming that the Jews were to blame for all the troubles. Jews and other peoples not belonging to the “Aryan race” were declared second-class citizens. The ideas of the fascists found great support in German society, because it is so nice to think that your people are better than others and blame someone else for all the troubles.
The Germans supported Hitler's ideas, and he honestly won the elections
The Nazis quickly conquered almost all of Europe. But they never managed to defeat the Soviet Union. What Russian soldiers and ordinary civilians did also went beyond ordinary human understanding. The Germans were simply afraid of Russian soldiers who could attack their artillery with their bare hands. Civilians hid wounded soldiers in their houses, knowing that the Nazis could shoot them for this, and they were shot, sometimes entire villages.
Nowadays you can often hear that we have forgotten the testaments of our grandfathers, who fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. But recent chronicles say that this is not so. Civilians of Slavyansk, women and children, blocked the road to armored personnel carriers in a human chain. Now Ukraine is already a neighboring country, but the fact remains: the Slavs are still fearless, and it is impossible to defeat such a people.
Essay example - A turning point in the Great Patriotic War: the Battle of Stalingrad
An example of an essay on the topic of the Great Patriotic War - The Battle of Stalingrad
During the Great Patriotic War there were many battles, and we must not forget about any of them. However, I want to highlight one of the battles, namely the Battle of Stalingrad, because it was the turning point in this war. In the fall of 1942, the situation was sad: the Nazis captured the entire mainland of Europe in just 116 days, and despite the desperate resistance of the Red Army, they carried out offensive operations.
The front line stretched for more than 2000 km, Leningrad heroically held the defense in the north, fierce battles near Rzhev did not subside on the approaches to Moscow, the battles for Stalingrad were no less brutal, Hitler really wanted to capture the city that bore the name of his main enemy. In addition, the capture of Stalingrad would have helped the Nazis capture the Caucasus and get to Caspian oil, and this could not be allowed to happen.
Photo from 1942. There is literally not a single house left in Stalingrad that has not been destroyed.
The highly classified Operation Uranus began on the morning of November 19, 1942. Soviet tank divisions broke through the fascist defense line where it was held by Romanian soldiers. This choice was not accidental, because the Romanians had weaker military training than the Germans.
Finding themselves in the rear of the Germans, tank units, accompanying trucks and motorized infantry, rushed to the German rear at high speeds for tanks. After 4 days, the Red Army reached a crossing near the city of Kalach, where they met with their units, which came out to meet them. What is surprising is how unexpected this blow was for the Germans. The German soldiers on duty on the bridge gave it up without a fight, as they mistook the Soviet troops for their own.
A group of three hundred thousand German troops, under the command of Paulus, was completely surrounded. An important role was played by the fact that during these days there was poor visibility and German aviation, called the Luftwaffe, did not help the Nazis repel the attack. Probably an even more important role was played by the will to win of the Soviet soldiers. The very units that took part in Operation Uranus were previously located near Moscow, where they were liberating territories. These soldiers saw with their own eyes the consequences of how the Nazis abused the civilian population.
Essay on the Great Patriotic War: Stalingrad
The encircled army of Paulus had tanks and other military equipment, but due to the fact that the Red Army blocked the fuel supply routes, all this equipment simply turned into a pile of scrap metal. Fascist soldiers suffered from lack of food, cold and constant shelling. The Germans tried to organize supplies using aircraft, but these supplies were categorically not enough. On the way back, the planes took soldiers on board. According to eyewitnesses, German soldiers simply stormed these planes, and some of them tried to fly away by climbing onto the wing.
Hitler forbade the surrounded units to surrender, despite the fact that they were already in an absolutely hopeless situation. And most of the soldiers of Paulus's army died.
The Battle of Stalingrad was the first resounding victory for the Soviet Union and the first major defeat for Nazi Germany. It was this battle that became a turning point during the Great Patriotic War.
Monument-ensemble dedicated to the liberators in Volgograd
How to write an essay about war?
An essay about the war can be written on your own behalf. In such an essay you need to write about your relatives who were at the front during the war. Below is an example of an essay about a grandfather who went through the war.
Example of an essay about war
I don't know what war is. I've read books about her and watched films, but I've never seen her. My grandfather, who was at the front from 1941 to 1943, saw the war. And when he was wounded and ended up in a military hospital, the doctors told him that he would no longer be able to fight. And I sometimes ask him: “Grandfather, you were in the war, tell me about it.” But he frowns and doesn’t want to tell.
Grandfather talks about the war
But one day, my grandfather still told me about the war. When the Great Patriotic War began, my grandparents were very young. In those years there were almost no televisions, and all the news could be found on the radio or it was passed on by word of mouth. They learned the terrible news about the beginning of the war from radio messages.
Nobody wanted to believe that Hitler attacked the USSR. All the people were crying and did not know what they needed to do. And only very young children did not understand anything and continued to play their games. My grandfather was called to the front as an ordinary soldier. He had seven days to get ready and say goodbye to his family. And then the grandmother collected all the food that was in the house into his duffel bag and took him to the station.
There was already a train there, collecting recruits and their commanders into its carriages. The farewell of relatives who did not know whether their husbands, brothers, fathers and children would return home was very sad. On the platform, only the crying of women and children could be heard. And the men tried not to cry, consoled the women and promised to return home with victory.
Farewell to the war
Finally, the train started moving, and there were people on the platform who had lost their sense of reality. It seemed to everyone that they were having a terrible dream and needed to wake up and everything would fall into place again. Thus began a new stage in the life of my grandparents. My grandfather almost immediately found himself on the front line. He went through the entire war as an ordinary soldier and measured the distance from Moscow to Berlin with his soldiers' boots.
Sometimes he wrote letters home. And the soldier’s mail brought grandmother such rare and long-awaited letters from the front. She saved them, and now they lie in a box like a precious family heirloom. I read these letters. In them, grandfather wrote that he was doing well and there was no need to worry about him, and that he would definitely return home.
And when he was wounded and ended up in the hospital, he didn’t tell his family anything, he didn’t want them to suffer because of him. He wrote about his injury only after he had recovered. And I reread this letter with ink blurred from tears from my grandmother many times. This is what was written in this letter.
Soldier's letters triangles
- Letter from the front from my grandfather
My dear wife and son, whom I have never seen before. Everything is fine with me, but I ended up in the hospital with a minor injury. I have been here for three weeks now, and soon I will be discharged and I will ask the command for permission to go home. I hope we will see each other soon and I can hug and kiss you. Now it’s spring outside and I don’t want to think about the bad, you also believe that we will see each other soon.
Today, when many years have passed since the war, we must not forget about the feat of our grandfathers and grandmothers, who came face to face with the enemies of our country. They were able to win and give us a happy childhood. I think we can be like them. To be as brave and honest, to live proudly in our huge country.
