'By October 1941 the situation for the Soviet Union looked desperate. At the start of the month the 3rd and 4rd Panzer armies had joined together to create a massive encirclement around the town of Vyazma, west of Moscow, with the Germans trapping five soviet armies. And together with the German victory at the nearby town of Bryansk, more than 600,000 Red army soldiers were captured.
The road to the Soviet capital now seemed open to Germans.
Moscow was defended by less than 100,000 troops and preparations were being made to move the government east...A secret document ( no.34 ) from the state defence committee, dated 15 October 1941, records that it had been decided 'to evacuate the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the top levels of government...( Comrade Stalin will leave tomorrow of later, depending on the situation )...In the event of enemy forces arriving at the gates of Moscow, the NKVD - Comrade Beria and Comrade Shcherbakov - are ordered to blow up business premises, warehouses and institutions which cannot be evacuated, and all Underground railway electrical equipment...
Meantime, panic was growing amongst the population of Moscow. There were even rumours that Germans had been in the city...In the chaos, many people tried to flee the Soviet capital. The roads and rivers were blocked with people trying to escape from the city by any means they could.'
However, Stalin decided to stay. Somewhere in the middle of October, Stalin called the Commander of the Far East Front, general Apanasenko and asked how many divisions could he send to Moscow. Apanasenko answered up to 20 divisions and immediately ordered to transport divisions in echelons from Far East to Moscow.
These divisions played crucial role in defence of Moscow and following counteroffensive.
And he was able to send forces from the Far East because Japan didn't attacked Soviet Union because of non-aggression pact signed on April 13, 1941 and also because general Apanasenko quickly formed new divisions in the Far East from the local population.
The road to the Soviet capital now seemed open to Germans.
Moscow was defended by less than 100,000 troops and preparations were being made to move the government east...A secret document ( no.34 ) from the state defence committee, dated 15 October 1941, records that it had been decided 'to evacuate the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet and the top levels of government...( Comrade Stalin will leave tomorrow of later, depending on the situation )...In the event of enemy forces arriving at the gates of Moscow, the NKVD - Comrade Beria and Comrade Shcherbakov - are ordered to blow up business premises, warehouses and institutions which cannot be evacuated, and all Underground railway electrical equipment...
Meantime, panic was growing amongst the population of Moscow. There were even rumours that Germans had been in the city...In the chaos, many people tried to flee the Soviet capital. The roads and rivers were blocked with people trying to escape from the city by any means they could.'
However, Stalin decided to stay. Somewhere in the middle of October, Stalin called the Commander of the Far East Front, general Apanasenko and asked how many divisions could he send to Moscow. Apanasenko answered up to 20 divisions and immediately ordered to transport divisions in echelons from Far East to Moscow.
These divisions played crucial role in defence of Moscow and following counteroffensive.
And he was able to send forces from the Far East because Japan didn't attacked Soviet Union because of non-aggression pact signed on April 13, 1941 and also because general Apanasenko quickly formed new divisions in the Far East from the local population.
