Настоящая история WW2. На русском и английском - стр. 16
Pechenga will join the Russian Federation only in 1944.
Among the advantages in the combat training of troops, after such a harsh school, is the abolition of the institution of political commissars, the experience of breaking through long-term fortifications, the winter war as a whole, and the return to production of a submachine gun (PAP).
Cons, in addition to the hardest losses – the German government understands that, in principle, is able to achieve all-round success in the war against the «colossus on clay feet».
1. The Dot of the Mannerheim Line
2. Howitzer B-4
1. Dot line Mannerheim second generation, «millionaire» (name of the amount in the Finnish stamps expended for the erection). The thickness of reinforced concrete walls is 2 m, the length of the structure is 30 m. Conventional armament is two 76 mm. guns, antitank 37 mm. guns, machine guns. Addition – ditch, mines, barbed wire, concrete bungs. In total, the second generation of BTs is built 7.
2. Howitzer B-4, caliber of 203 millimeters. The main hero of the Finnish war. The nickname «Karelian Sculptor», for the fact that this instrument turns Finnish dots into a kind of avant-garde statues. The parameters of Finnish DOTs are «million»: the length is about 40 meters, the thickness of the walls of reinforced concrete is 2 meters. The result of action B-4 – if not the penetration of the walls, then the psychological impact on the defenders of the DOTs. Many of them, after a long bombardment of the B-4 went crazy.
The entry of the Baltic countries into the USSR
In October 1940, the Soviet Union invites Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, under a mutual assistance agreement, to deploy a military contingent of 25,000 troops on their territory to defend themselves against Hitlerite Germany. It is already clear that the Red Army is inclined to achieve its goals, regardless of any losses. Two weeks later, the governments of these countries are accused of collusion with Germany (which is partly true), repressions against foreigners (Poles, etc.) and are shifting. In the summer of 1940, following the results of nationwide voting, the republics are formed by communist governments and adopt declarations of entry into the Soviet Union; which are immediately approved by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
According to the documents of the NKVD of June 17, 1941, in Lithuania, 5,663 people, mostly secret police officers and «classical capitalists», were subject to detention, 10,186 in Latvia, 5,624 and 9,547 in Latvia respectively, and 3,179 and 5,979 in Estonia.
President of Lithuania Antanas Smyatona wisely emigrates to Germany, then Switzerland and the United States. His Estonian counterpart Konstantin Päts is deported with his family to Siberia, receives 25 years of camps, since 1942 is kept in a prison psychiatric clinic, he died there in 1956. The head of Latvia, Karlis Ulmanis convinces the people that «friends have come», actively cooperates with the new, pro-Soviet government, and in particular, publishes the «Law on the fight against wrecking». Somewhat later he begins to understand the situation, asks the Kremlin for permission to travel to Switzerland, but eventually ends up in the NKVD camp near Krasnovodsk (Turkmenistan), where, in 1942, he dies.