“Fall Blau“ in Color (1/3)

Soviet Union 1942 ▶ “Fall Blau“ in Color (Part 1/3) Ukraine Charkow Kharkiv (Spring 1942) Wehrmacht Heeresgruppe Süd / Army Group South @GERMANHISTORYARCHIVE Playlist ▶ Kharkiv (Ukrainian: Ха́рків) is the second-largest city and municipality in Ukraine. Kharkiv was the first capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, from December 1919 to January 1934, after which the capital relocated to Kyiv. Presently, Kharkiv is a major cultural, scientific, educational, transport and industrial centre of Ukraine, with numerous museums, theatres and libraries, including the Annunciation and Dormition Cathedrals, the Derzhprom building in Freedom Square, and the National University of Kharkiv. Kharkiv was a host city for UEFA Euro 2012. A memorial remember to the thousands of Ukrainian intellectuals murdered by the Soviet NKVD in 1937–38. In December 1917 Kharkiv became the first city in Ukraine occupied by the Soviet troops of Vladimir Antonov-Ovseyenko.[24] The Bolsheviks in the Tsentralna Rada moved to Kharkiv shortly after to make it their stronghold and formed their own Rada on 13 December 1917. By February 1918 Bolshevik forces had captured much of Ukraine. Prior to the formation of the Soviet Union, Bolsheviks established Kharkiv as the capital of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (from 1919 to 1934) in opposition to the Ukrainian People’s Republic with its capital of Kyiv. As the country’s capital, it underwent intense expansion with the construction of buildings to house the newly established Ukrainian Soviet government and administration. Derzhprom was the second tallest building in Europe and the tallest in the Soviet Union at the time with a height of 63 metres (207 ft). In the 1920s, a 150 metres (490 ft) wooden radio tower was built on top of the building. The Roentgen Institute was established in 1931. During the interwar period the city saw the spread of architectural constructivism. In 1928, the SVU (Union for the Freedom of Ukraine) process was initiated and court sessions were staged in the Kharkiv Opera (now the Philharmonia) building. Hundreds of Ukrainian intellectuals were arrested and deported. In the early 1930s, the Holodomor famine drove many people off the land into the cities, and to Kharkiv in particular, in search of food. Many people died and were secretly buried in mass graves in the cemeteries surrounding the city. In 1934 hundreds of Ukrainian writers, intellectuals and cultural workers were arrested and executed in the attempt to eradicate all vestiges of Ukrainian nationalism in Art. The purges continued into 1938. Blind Ukrainian street musicians Kobzars were also gathered in Kharkiv and murdered by the NKVD. In January 1934 the capital of the Ukrainian SSR was moved from Kharkiv to Kyiv. During April and May 1940 about 3,900 Polish prisoners of Starobelsk camp were executed in the Kharkiv NKVD building, later secretly buried on the grounds of an NKVD pansionat in Pyatykhatky forest (part of the Katyn massacre) on the outskirts of Kharkiv. The site also contains the numerous bodies of Ukrainian cultural workers who were arrested and shot in the 1937–38 Stalinist purges. German occupation: During World War II, Kharkiv was the site of several military engagements. The city was captured by Nazi Germany on 24 October 1941. There was a disastrous Red Army offensive that failed to capture the city in May 1942. The city was successfully retaken by the Soviets on 16 February 1943. It was captured for a second time by the Germans on 15 March 1943. It was then finally retaken on 23 August 1943. Seventy percent of the city was destroyed and tens of thousands of the inhabitants were killed. Kharkiv, the third largest city in the Soviet Union, was the most populous city in the Soviet Union captured by the Germans, since in the years preceding World War II, Kyiv was by population the smaller of the two. During World War II, four battles took place for control of the city: First Battle of Kharkov 1941, Second Battle of Kharkov 1942, Third Battle of Kharkov 1943, Fourth Battle of Kharkov 1943 (Operation Polkovodets Rumyantsev). Before the occupation, Kharkiv’s tank industries were evacuated to the Urals with all their equipment, and became the heart of Red Army’s tank programs (particularly, producing the T-34 tank earlier designed in Kharkiv). These enterprises returned to Kharkiv after the war, and continued to produce tanks. history, ww2, Germany, Россия, Ukraine, Charkow, Kharkov, Kharkiv, Stalingrad, Cталинград, simplehistory, military, worldwar, Official Trailer, Official, Battle Of Stalingrad, History Movie, Movie Theater (Industry), German, Operation Uranus, color, colour, Farbe, Fall Blau #history #ww2 #Ukraine #Charkow #Kharkiv #Kharkov #military #color #colour #worldwar2 #wwii #simplehistory