Order of the Day, No. 220, November 7, 1944

Comrades, Red Army men and Red Navy men, sergeants, officers and generals! Working people of the Soviet Union! Brothers and sisters forcibly driven to fascist slave labour in Germany!

In the name of the Soviet Government and our Bolshevik Party, I greet and congratulate you on the 27th Anniversary of the Great October Revolution in the midst of decisive victories of the Red Army over the enemies of our homeland. By the heroic efforts of the Red Army and the Soviet people our soil has been cleared of the German-fascist invaders. This year the Soviet troops have rained incessant blows on the enemy, each one stronger than the last. In winter 1943-44 the Red Army scored outstanding victories in the Ukraine west of the Dnieper and routed the Germans before Leningrad. In the spring of this year the Red Army cleared the Crimea of the Germans. In the summer of 1944 our troops inflicted major defeats on the Hitlerite army, which brought about a radical change in the situation on the battlefront against the German-fascist invaders. The Red Army broke the powerful enemy defences on the Karelian Isthmus, and also between Lakes Ladoga and Onega, and knocked Finland out of the Hitlerite robber bloc. In the historic battle on Byelorussian soil the Red Army troops utterly routed the central grouping of the German troops, consisting of three armies, killing or capturing 540,000 German officers and men. In the battle in the south the Red Army surrounded and completely annihilated a group of German troops consisting of two armies; the Soviet troops wiped out or captured more than 250,000 German officers and men. The Red Army smashed the Germans in Rumania, threw them out of Bulgaria, and is battering them on the territory of Hungary. Our troops have crushed the Baltic grouping of the Hitlerite army. During the summer campaign of 1944 the Red Army has fought its way from Kishinev to Belgrade—more than 900 kilometres, from Zhlobin to Warsaw—more than 600 kilometres, from Vitebsk to Tilsit—550 kilometres. The war has now been carried to the territory of fascist Germany. In the course of the fighting, the Red Army has driven the German-fascist invaders from the entire territory of the Soviet Ukraine and, Byelorussia, the Karelo-Finnish, Moldavian, Esthonian, Latvian and Lithuanian Soviet Republics. The three-year-old fascist yoke on the lands of our fraternal Soviet Republics temporarily occupied by the Germans has been thrown off. The Red Army has restored freedom to tens of millions of Soviet people. The Soviet State Frontier, treacherously violated by Hitlerite hordes on June 22, 1941, has been restored along its whole length, from the Black Sea to the Barents Sea. Thus, the past year has been the year of complete liberation of Soviet soil from the German-fascist invaders. Having completed the liberation of their native soil from the Hitlerite pollution, the Red Army is now helping the peoples of Poland, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia to break the chains of fascist slavery and to regain their freedom and independence. In the winter and summer battles of the past year the Red Army demonstrated its increased military mastery. The Red Army soldiers skilfully broke up the fortified enemy lines, swiftly pursued the enemy, surrounded and annihilated him. In offensive battles they displayed efficient coordination of all Soviet arms and high skill in manœuvre. The Soviet fighters became tempered in battle, learned to rout and defeat the enemy. The Red Army has developed into a menacing force, and is superior to the enemy in its military ability and military equipment.

The strength of the Red Army is many times multiplied by the efficient work of the Soviet rear. The workers, collective farmers and intellectuals are honourably fulfilling their duty towards the Motherland, heroically overcoming the difficulties of war-time, uninterruptedly supplying the Red Army with arms, ammunition and provisions. Soviet economy is constantly increasing its strength and is rendering ever-growing assistance to the front. The Red Army and the Soviet people are ready to strike new devastating blows at the enemy. The days of the blood-stained Hitlerite regime are numbered. Under the blows of the Red Army the fascist bloc has finally crumbled to pieces. Hitlerite Germany has lost most of its Allies. The large-scale operations in Western Europe, carried out with consummate skill by the armies of our Allies, brought about the defeat of the German forces in France and Belgium, and the liberation of these countries from fascist occupation. The allied troops have crossed Germany’s western frontiers. The joint blows of the Red Army and the Anglo-American troops against Hitlerite Germany have brought nearer the hour of the victorious conclusion of the war. The encirclement of Hitlerite Germany is being completed. The den of the fascist beast has been invested on all sides, and no tricks of the enemy will save him from imminent complete defeat.

The Red Army and the armies of our Allies have taken up the initial positions for the decisive offensive against the vital centres of Germany. Now the task is to crush Hitlerite Germany within the shortest possible time, through a vigorous onslaught of the armies of the United Nations. Comrades, Red Army men and Red Navy men, sergeants, officers and generals! Working people of the Soviet Union!

In the Great Patriotic War we have defended our Motherland from the invaders, finally eliminated the threat of enslavement of the peoples of the U.S.S.R. by the fascist fiends, and we now stand on the eve of complete victory. To mark the historic victories of the Red Army at the front, and the great achievements of the workers, peasants and intellectuals in the rear, in honour of the liberation of the Soviet soil from the German-fascist invaders, I order: Today, on the 27th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution, at 20 hours (Moscow time), a salute of 24 artillery salvoes to be fired in Moscow, Leningrad, Kiev, Minsk, Petrozavodsk, Tallinn, Riga, Vilnius, Kishinev, Tbilisi, Sevastopol and Lvov. Hail the 27th Anniversary of the Great October Socialist Revolution! Long live our free Soviet country!

Long Live our Red Army and Red Navy! Long live the great Soviet people!

Eternal glory to the heroes who fell in the struggle for the freedom and independence of our Motherland! Death to the German invaders!

J. Stalin

Marshal of the Soviet Union,

Supreme Commander-in-Chief, Moscow