The Sunday News
Rtd Brig Gen Abel Mazinyane
In his radio broadcast address to the nation June 1941 Joseph Stalin said: “The war with Nazi Germany is no ordinary war. This is not only a war between armies. This is also a great war of the entire Soviet Nation against the Nazi troops. The aim of this truly people’s patriotic war against fascist oppression is not only to eliminate the danger threatening our country, but also help all the peoples of Europe languishing under the yoke of Germany fascism.”
The Soviet army went to the battle to fulfil the objectives laid out in the above radio address, except that the address had said “the peoples of Europe” instead of “the peoples of the world”, which turned out to be the case. Soviet Union lost 10 million plus lives in the Great Patriotic War. The Second World War cost the whole world, Soviet Union included, about 14 million lives.
The Eastern Front (the front between the Soviet Forces and Germany forces) bore the brunt of the Second World War. The concentration of Germany forces was massive against the Soviet army. In June 1941 the Soviet Army was fighting against one hundred and ninety (190) Germany and its allies divisions, while other fronts were fighting against nine (9). In 1943 the Soviet army was fighting against two hundred and thirty-one (231) divisions, all other fronts were fighting against fifteen (15) divisions and in 1945 January the Soviet army was fighting against one hundred and ninety-six divisions (196), while all other fronts were fighting against one hundred and seven (107) German and its allies’ divisions. The Soviet losses are understandable given the onslaught of the Germany and its allies’ armies against the Soviet people. The Germany army and its allies were carrying out a scotched earth policy against the Soviet Union, no Soviet life was spared.
The Soviet army mounted great offensive with a front stretching from the Barents Sea in the north of the Black Sea in the south. This was a front that covered more than four thousand kilometres (4 000). In this front about seven (7) million troops, seven thousand (7 000) tanks, one hundred thousand (100 000) artillery pieces and thirteen thousand (13 000) combat aircrafts. In 1944 to 1945 the Soviet army fought through, Romania, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Yugoslavia, Austria, Finland, Norway, Denmark, Germany, China and Korea. It liberated all these countries from Nazi Germany and its allies’ fascist occupation.
Due to the international obligation which the Soviet army felt duty bound, to free all the people from Nazi Germany and its allies’ occupation, it lost more than three million lives while performing its international duty. Millions of Soviet soldiers lie buried in countries the Soviet army helped to liberate.
The Soviet Union entered the war against Japan on 8 August 1945 after its forces had captured Berlin and forced Nazi Germany to surrender unconditionally. At Yalta/Cremia (USSR) Conference on 11 February 1945 the leaders of US, UK and France asked the Soviet Union to revoke its peace agreement and start military operations against Japan.
The agreement stated that the Soviet Union was going to start operations against Japan three months after the defeat of Nazi Germany. From 1941 when Nazi Germany attached the Soviet Union, Japan kept a million men strong military force close to the soviet border. This was threatening to attack the Soviet Union. In response the Soviet Union kept about forty divisions in the Far East to guard against the pending attack.
On the 8th of August 1945, the Soviet army crossed the Soviet border to attach the Japanese forces. The Soviet forces were joined by the forces of Mongolia. Mongolia joined the war against militarist Japan on the 10th of August 1945. The operation against Japan on the Far East was on three fronts commanded by Marshal AM Vasilevsky. Prior to his appointment to the command of the Far East Soviet forces, Marshal Vasilevsky was Chief of Staff at the General Head Quarters, responsible for operations.
The Japanese army in Manchuria surrendered to the Soviet army on the 17th of August 1945. The decision to surrender was reached by the commander of the Japanese Kwantung army General Olozo Yamada when he realised that his forces had been devastated by Soviet forces attacks. The total unconditional surrender of Japan was on board the United States battleship Missouri in September 1945. Lieutenant General KA Derevynko signed on behalf of the Soviet Union.
The US air force bombed Nagasaki and Hiroshima on 6 August 1945.
Most of the weapons captured from the Japanese defeated Kwantung army were given to PLA (People’s Liberation Army) of China led by chairman Mao Tsetung.
On 17 August 1945, the independent Republic of Indonesia was proclaimed, on 2 September, the day when the Japanese foreign Minister Shigemitsu Mamoru and Chief of the General Staff Umezu Yoshijiro signed the unconditional surrender, President Ho Chi Minh proclaimed the Republic of Vietnam and Laotian patriots followed suit.
The Soviet Union from its inception embarked on coming to the aid of the oppressed and the weak. They opposed the British during the Anglo-Boer war. The Soviet Union stood with the Republicans against Franco’s dictatorship during the Spanish Civil War. Its forces fought side by side with progressive volunteers from UK and other Western countries during the Spanish war. In the 1960s, sometimes called the period of African independence because the majority of African countries got their independence during this period, the Soviet Union intensified its relations with Africa.
In 1961 Soviet Union planes were assisting Patrice Lumumba’s forces against Moise Tshombe’s forces in Congo. The president of the ANC, Josiah Gumede was invited to the USSR in 1927 on the 10th anniversary of the Great October Revolution.
Contact between USSR and the Zimbabwe liberation movement was in 1961 when an NDP delegation led by Morton Malianga (VP) and JZ Moyo visited Czechoslovakia but TG Silundika had met Soviet delegation in Beirut in 1960.
Almost in the same period the Soviet Union named one of its universities Lumumba. Lumumba University in Moscow (is now called University of International Friendship) was tasked to assist students from Africa and other developing countries.
This University has produced thousands of graduates for Africa and Zimbabwe in particular. Zimbabwean graduates from former Soviet and other former socialist countries have served Zimbabwe well and to the best of their ability. Medical doctors from these institutions served in government hospitals in Zimbabwe for long periods despite the challenges. They are community oriented and perform their duties with humility. This truly reflects their training background.
Besides providing education to African students, University of International Friendship created a good environment to nurse a spirit of patriotism. I had always wondered at why our students in the Soviet Union and other Socialist countries made so many sacrifices for the armed struggle. With the small allowance they were being given, they always set aside something to donate to the armed struggle. After completing their studies they returned and availed themselves to the party for further deployment. These guys are unsung heroes.
Even today the positive environment at the University of International Friendship is that the African spirit is kept alive. Every year there is Africa week. During this week all countries represented at the university are allocated a tent in the campus. At this tent they can fly their flags, display their cultural artifacts, literature and do anything that informs viewers of their country. An African Cup of Nations is held during the week. Also observed in this institution is Africa Day celebration. All the above activities are sponsored by the Russian government.
On the armed struggle front for Zimbabwe the Soviet spared no effort to bring it to its logical conclusion, Majority Rule. Soviet military experts were available to help whenever asked. I remember on several occasions when we had marathon meetings with Soviet officers requesting them to do for us the impossible. They were very patient. At the end they tailor-made programmes to suit our requests, especially on training.
I think the greatest gift the Soviets gave to ZPRA was to emphasise to us, the respect for human life, peoples will, importance of unity and glory in sacrifice. The glorification of sacrifice is demonstrated in Russia today by monuments erected in honour of those who made sacrifice for the Soviet Union. Soviet Union heroes like Chabayev, Alexander Matroski, Marshall Rokosovsky, Marshall Zhikov and many others became ZPRA’s heroes too. Our fighters wanted to emulate these heroes and this produced the best from them. I recall a case of a comrade who had been captured by the Rhodesian forces after he got wounded.
The Rhodesian CIO took him around Salisbury so that he could identify other guerrillas deployed in Salisbury. At one bus stop he came across another comrade who was operating in Salisbury. He immediately gave a sign that he had been captured; that saved the other guys’ lives.
This was confirmed when the comrade escaped and returned to Zambia. Another case is of comrade Mathuba who while handcuffed escaped from capture after killing three Rhodesian soldiers and injuring one after they had taken him to Zambia to identify guerilla bases and the other is of two comrades, one Mao and another whose name I cannot recollect who wiped out an enemy platoon which they surprised while on a reconnaissance mission. The list is endless of comrades’ heroic deeds that were inspired by the Soviet heroism during the Second World War.
Our Russian instructors were very patient while teaching us.
This is because they were teaching us subjects that involved physics, mathematical calculations (when some of us had only had standard six and below), philosophy, dialectical materialism, and other subjects that demanded high educational qualifications. They laboured to simplify the teaching of these subjects so that we could understand. The Soviet Union (USSR) attached Vladmir Shubin to its embassy in Lusaka/Zambia to attend to liberation movements requirements. Remember one time all liberation movements of Southern Africa were housed in Zambia, AMPLA, COREMO, ANC, FRELIMO, PAC, SWANU, SWAPO, ZANU and ZAPU. The presence of Shubin at the embassy made the communication to the Soviet Union easy.
Soviet army experts helped ZPRA organise secure radio communication. Our communication department was well organised. This department beat them hands down. Rhodesians were desperate to disrupt it.
ONCE MORE, CONGRATULATIONS RUSSIA ON THE 70TH ANNIVERSARY VICTORY OVER THE NAZI GERMANY.
