Stalin line
The Stalin Line was a Red Army defensive line that was built on the western borders of the Soviet Union from 1929 . It consisted of a large number of concrete bunkers , which had both light and heavy armament. It extended over the entire western border of the time from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea . It ran from Narva and Pskov via Vitebsk , Mogilew , Gomel and Zhitomir and along the Dniester River to Odessa .
After the occupation of eastern Poland in 1939, which had been added to the Soviet sphere of interest in the Hitler-Stalin Pact , and the occupation of Bessarabia and the Baltic states in 1940, the western border of the Soviet Union shifted about 300 kilometers to the west. Stalin ordered the so-called Molotov Line to be built on the new border and the Stalin Line to be abandoned. Nevertheless, the Stalin Line caused considerable problems for the advance of Army Group South of the Wehrmacht during the German attack on the Soviet Union . The Molotov Line was not yet completed and the Stalin Line partially disarmed, but in the southwestern part of the Stalin Line the Red Army succeeded in preventing German troops from advancing for several days in July 1941. In this section, the German losses in overcoming the well-camouflaged fortifications were very high, although the Nazi propaganda downplayed this.
literature
- Sonja Wetzig: The Stalin Line 1941. Bulwark made of concrete and steel . Edition Dörfler in Nebel-Verlag, Eggolsheim 2005, ISBN 3-89555-337-9 , ( Dörfler Zeitgeschichte ).
