the Red Army liberated the city of Rostov-on-Don from the Nazi Germans invaders.

On February 14, 1943, the Red Army liberated the city of Rostov-on-Don from the Nazi invaders.

#RostovOnDon was occupied twice during the Great Patriotic War. The Nazis took the city in November 1941, and later it was under the enemy occupation again from July 22, 1942 to February 14, 1943. The Germans were determined to hold the city at any costs as it was an important transport hub in the region and a huge administrative centre opening the way for the Nazis to the Caucasus.

In February 1943, the Red Army carried out the Rostov offensive operation to liberate the city, defeat the enemy’s army group on the Don River and thus block the Wehrmacht units’ redeployment to #Donbass.

The Soviet 28th Army under the command of Lieutenant General Vasily Gerasimenko reached the outskirts of Rostov-on-Don following a 600-kilometre march across snow-covered southern steppes.

Four Nazi divisions were concentrated in Rostov-on-Don. The enemy had built there strong defence lines with robust fortifications and numerous machine-gun and artillery firing points.

The Red Army offensive was also complicated by the terrain: the right bank of the Don River, where the city is located, was much higher than the left bank, from which the Soviet forces were launching their attack. The penetration of the enemy defences in the city seemed impossible.

In the early hours of February 8, 1943, the Southern Front forces led by Colonel-General Rodion Malinovsky launched the operation to liberate Rostov-on-Don. The Nazi-occupied city saw brutal, fierce fighting that lasted for six days. On February 14, 1943, the Red Army broke through the enemy’s defences and entered the city from Bataysk. The German garrison was encircled and forced to surrender.

Rostov-on-Don’s pre-war population of more than 1.5 million people was effectively decimated by #WWII and the German occupation, dwindling to 150'000. The Nazis also destroyed there the local industries, looted and captured its cultural heritage.

Thanks to the heroism and unrivalled morale of the Red Army soldiers, Rostov-on-Don was finally liberated after 205 days of occupation. During the Rostov offensive, the Soviet forces not only liberated the Rostov Region, but also took a bridgehead near the Mius River to use it in a further offensive in the direction of Donbass.