The medal "For the Capture of Vienna" is awarded to military personnel of the Red Army, Navy and NKVD troops who directly participated in the assault and clearing of the Austrian capital, Vienna, from German invaders in March - April 1945.
Description of the medal for the capture of Vienna
Dimensions 32 mm.
Materials brass.
Artist Zvorykina.
Who is it awarded to? all participants in the assault and capture of the capital of Austria.
Reasons for the award Participation in the assault on Vienna.
Price of the medal for the capture of Vienna
Today, prices for the medal for the capture of Vienna start at 3,000 rubles.
Price updated as of 03/27/2020
Recipients of the medal "For the Capture of Vienna"
The medal was established by Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces on June 9, 1945. The same Decree approved the description of the medal and its Regulations. Total Medal "For the Capture of Vienna" approximately 278,000 people were awarded.
Medal for the Capture of Vienna in the USSR award system
"For the capture of Vienna" medal of the USSR
The medal for the capture of Vienna was established along with other medals for the capture of the largest European cities, its development was carried out in connection with the decree of the head of the rear of the Red Army Khrulev, of the many works the project of the artist Zvorykina won. The assault on the capital of Austria took place from March 16, 1945 to April 13, 1945. As a result of the Vienna operation, the Reich lost control over Austrian industry in the Vienna region, and also lost one of the last sources of oil in the Nagykanizhsky region, which, by and large, practically paralyzed the German motorized troops. Particularly distinguished units were called "Viennese". The medal depicts the inscription “for the capture of VIENNA” under the inscription a laurel branch, and above it a five-pointed star, the reverse is also decorated with a five-pointed star and the date “APRIL 13, 1945”.
Description of other awards of the Second World War of the USSR: Medal For the Defense of Sevastopol for the defense of the city of the hero of Sevastopol and the Medal For Victory over Japan in honor of the final defeat of the last enemy in World War II.
Capture of Vienna
The capture of the capital of Austria, Vienna, was one of the stages of the Vienna offensive operation, the goal of which was the final liberation of Hungary, the capture of the Nagykanizsa oil region and the Vienna industrial regions. The operation was carried out by forces of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts, and involved encircling the enemy in Vienna and destroying him.
By the time of the offensive, the city was well prepared for a long-term defense; anti-tank ditches, anti-personnel and anti-tank barriers were dug in tank-hazardous directions, and firing points were equipped in all stone buildings in the city. To strengthen the defending group, Hitler's command created 4 separate regiments of the Vienna Police, numbering about 6,000 people.
The first battles for the capture of Vienna broke out on April 5, 1945, but the fiercely defending German troops did not contribute to the rapid capture of the city. On April 7, 1945, the forces of the Ninth Guards Army, together with the Sixth Guards Tank Army of the USSR Armed Forces, crossed the mountain forest of the Vienna Woods, approaching Vienna from the west. As a result of fierce fighting, by April 10, the fascist group was tightly squeezed on three sides; the German command had one surviving bridge left to withdraw troops - the Imperial Bridge.
To capture the bridge, the command of the USSR army landed troops on April 11, 1945, but they were not successful due to heavy enemy fire, and were forced to lie down before reaching the bridge only 400 meters. In the current situation, the Soviet command decides on a simultaneous strike with all forces fighting for Vienna; in addition, another landing force, consisting of 21 rifle regiments, lands in the area of the Imperial Bridge.
As a result of this attack, by lunchtime on April 13, 1945, the city was cleared of enemy troops, the Imperial Bridge was mined, but the attack by the USSR troops was so swift that the Germans did not have time to blow it up. In order to honor all the fighters who fought for the liberation of the capital of Austria, it was established medal "For the capture of Vienna" established on June 9, 1945.
April 15 is the date marking the end of the Vienna operation in the fight against the German army during the 2nd World War. This operation put an end to fascist tyranny in the lands of Austria, including in its heart - Vienna.
Reference. The Vienna operation (03/16/1945 – 04/15/1945) is a strategically important offensive action by the USSR army against the enemy army during the 2nd World War. The participants in this operation were the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts with the support of the 1st Bulgarian Army. The main objective of the operation was to destroy the invaders in western Hungary and eastern Austria. Main center Austria liberated 04/13/1945.
Dear friends, this event inspired us to create a selection of photographs.
1. USSR Army officers lay flowers. Burial of the Austrian composer Strauss J. Central Cemetery, Vienna, 1945.
2. 6th Tank Army 9th Mechanization Corps 46th Tank Brigade 1st Battalion, Sherman armored vehicles. Vienna street, April 1945
3. 6th Army of Tank 9th Mechanized Corps 46th Tank Brigade 1st Battalion, Sherman armored vehicles. Vienna street, April 1945
4. Vienna, April 1945. 3rd Ukrainian Front. Red Army soldiers in the fight for the Imperial Bridge.
5. Presentation of awards to Red Army soldiers who distinguished themselves in the battles for Vienna. 1945
6. The first to cross the Austrian border were the artillerymen of the Guards self-propelled guns. Shonicheva V.S. on the boulevards of one of the settlements. 1945
7. Red Army soldiers crossing the line. 1945
8. Allied armored vehicles in the vicinity of Vienna. 1945
9. Vienna, 1945. The team of the Sherman M4A-2 vehicle with the commander, who was the first to burst into the city. On the left side is Nuru Idrisov (driver).
10. Vienna, center, 1945. Machine gun squad, battle on one of the boulevards.
11. Vienna, 1945. Red Army soldiers on one of the liberated streets.
12. Vienna, 1945. Red Army soldiers on one of the liberated streets.
13. The Red Army on the streets of liberated Vienna. 1945
14. Boulevard of Vienna after the fighting, 1945
15. Main square. Vienna, 1945. Residents against the backdrop of the ruins of St. Stephen's Church.
16. Vienna, 1945. Victory celebration on one of the boulevards.
17. Vienna vicinity, USSR armored vehicles. April 1945
18. One of the alleys of Vienna, signalmen of the USSR. April 1945
20. Return of residents after the liberation of city streets. Vienna, April 1945
21. Cossack patrol. Vienna street, 1945
22. Celebrating the liberation of the city in one of the squares. Vienna, 1945
23. Soviet armored vehicles on the slopes of the mountains. Austria, 1945
24. USSR combat armored vehicles on the slopes of the Austrian mountains. April 1945
25. Austria, 1945. Guards squad of machine gunners under the leadership of Art. Lt. Gukalov in the battle for the city.
26. Meeting of residents with liberators. Austria, 1945
27. Firing mortars at enemy positions. Detachment of Hero of the USSR Nekrasov. Austria, 1945
28. Conversation between Ser-P. Zaretsky and residents of Lekenhaus. 1945
29. A Soviet officer lays flowers at the grave of the Austrian composer Johann Strauss. Central Cemetery. Vienna, 1945
30. A detachment of Red Army mortarmen are moving the battalion’s 82-mm gun. Vienna, 1945
31. Vienna. May 1945 Red Army soldiers passing the Danube Canal.
32. Soviet officers lay flowers at the grave of the Austrian composer Johann Strauss. Central Cemetery. Vienna, 1945
33. Neighborhoods of Vienna. April 1945 USSR traffic controller Klimenko N.
34. Soviet officer at the grave of composer L. Beethovin. Central Cemetery, Vienna
35. USSR traffic controller at a fork in the Viennese roads. May-August 1945
36. Military equipment of the USSR SU-76M on the streets of Vienna. Austria, 1945
37. Red Army mortar men with regimental weapons. Winter Palace Hofburg. Vienna, 1945
38. USSR M3A1 armored vehicles in combat. Vienna, April 1945
39. Soviet armored vehicle T-34. Vienna, 1945
40. The suicide of a fascist in Vienna right on the street, who had previously shot his family in fear of retribution for what he had done in April 1945.
41. A Soviet girl regulates traffic on the streets of Vienna after liberation in May 1945.
42. A Soviet girl regulates traffic on the streets of Vienna after liberation in May 1945.
43. Reich soldier who died in the battle for Vienna in the spring of 1945.
44. First guards mech. frame. American "Sherman" in Vienna in the spring of 1945.
45. The horrors of war on the streets of Vienna after liberation in the spring of 1945.
46. The horrors of war on the streets of Vienna after liberation in the spring of 1945.
47. Liberators on the streets of Vienna in May 1945. The foreground is a seventy-six-millimeter ZiS-3 cannon.
48. Sherman tanks of the 1st battalion of the 46th Guards Tank Brigade of the 9th Guards Mechanized Corps of the 6th Tank Army on the streets of Vienna. 04/09/1945
49. Combat boats of the Danube flotilla in the spring of '45 in Austria.
50. Band of Soviet troops in the village of Donnerskirchen, Austria, May 9, 1945. In the photo on the right is signalman and orchestrator Pershin N.I.
51. Soviet unit of T-34-85 tanks in the city of St. Pölten, Austria, in the victorious spring of 1945.
52. Aircraft repair brigade of the Guards 213th Fighter Aviation Regiment in Stockerau in Austria in 1945
53. A pair of medium armored vehicles Turan II40M of the Hungarian army, left by the retreating on the railway. stations in the vicinity of Vienna in March 1945.
54. In the photo there is a Hero Soviet Union, guardsman, Major General Kozak S.A. - commander of the 21st Guards Motorized Rifle Corps (years of life from 1902 to 1953). Next to him is Yeletskov S.F., guard colonel.
55. The long-awaited connection of two groups of US and USSR troops in the area of the bridge over the Enns River in the spring of 1945 near the city of Liezen in Austria.
56. The long-awaited connection of two groups of US and USSR troops in the area of the bridge over the Enns River in the spring of 1945 near the city of Liezen in Austria.
57. The advance of our infantry, accompanied by British Valentine tanks, in the vicinity of Vienna in April of the victorious forty-fifth year of the last century.
58. Soviet soldiers, against the backdrop of a T-34-85 tank, greet an American division of armored vehicles at a parade near the city of Linz on May 2, 1945.
59. Attack of an Austrian city by troops of the Soviet Union and an armored car M3 Scout Car of the United States in the victorious forty-fifth.
60. Soviet soldiers at a post on the Austrian road from May to August 1945.
61. Sergeant Guards Zudin and his 120 mm mortar fighters.
62. After the fall of the defense of Vienna, guardsmen of the 80th Division in the spring of 1945.
63. Monument to Soviet soldiers-liberators of Vienna. Nowadays.
64. Monument to Soviet soldiers-liberators of Vienna. Nowadays.
At the beginning of April, Vienna was defended by the remnants of eight tank divisions, one infantry division, personnel of the Viennese military school and up to 15 separate battalions. The basis of the enemy garrison was the undead units of the 6th SS Panzer Army. It is no coincidence that the commander of this army, SS Colonel General Sepp Dietrich, was appointed head of the defense of Vienna, who arrogantly declared: “Vienna will be saved for Germany.” He failed to save not only Vienna, but also his life. On April 6 he was killed.
The fascist German command on the approaches to the city and in Vienna itself prepared numerous defensive positions in advance. In tank-dangerous directions along the outer perimeter, anti-tank ditches were opened and various obstacles and barriers were erected. The enemy blocked the streets of the city with numerous barricades and rubble. Almost all stone and brick buildings were equipped with firing points. The enemy sought to turn Vienna into an impregnable fortress.
On April 1, the Headquarters of the Supreme High Command set the 3rd Ukrainian Front the task of capturing the capital of Austria and, no later than April 12-15, reaching the line of Tulln, St. Pölten, Neu-Lengbach...
The fighting in the city continued continuously: the main forces fought during the day, and units and subunits specially assigned for this purpose fought at night. In the complex labyrinth of streets and alleys of the capital city, the actions of small rifle units, individual tank crews and gun crews, often fighting in isolation from each other, became especially important.
By April 10, the enemy garrison was squeezed on three sides. In this situation, the fascist German command took all measures to hold the only bridge across the Danube remaining in its hands and bring the remnants of its broken units to the northern bank of the river...
Having summarized the experience of combat operations in the previous days, the Front Military Council came to the conclusion that in order to speed up the defeat of the enemy group, it is necessary to conduct a decisive assault, organizing clear interaction of all forces and means participating in it.
In accordance with this conclusion, an operational directive was developed and issued on April 12 to the troops of the 4th, 9th Guards and 6th Guards Tank armies, in which special attention was paid to the simultaneity of the assault. To quickly complete it, the troops were ordered to quickly rush into the attack after the signal - a salvo of Katyusha rockets. Tank units, despite the fire from individual pockets of resistance, had to break through to the Danube as soon as possible. The front’s military council demanded from the army commanders: “Mobilize your troops for a decisive strike with all the means at your disposal and explain that only swift actions will ensure the rapid completion of the task.” A well-organized and prepared assault on the fortified city was carried out in a short time. By the middle of the day on April 13, the enemy garrison was almost completely destroyed... On the evening of April 13, for the liberation of Vienna, the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, saluted the troops of the 3rd and 2nd Ukrainian fronts with twenty-four salvoes from three hundred and twenty-four guns.
Before the fireworks, a Moscow radio announcer read out a message from the Soviet Information Bureau, which said: “The Nazis intended to turn Vienna into a heap of ruins. They wanted to subject the city's inhabitants to a long siege and protracted street battles. With skillful and decisive actions, our troops thwarted the criminal plans of the German command. Within a few days, the capital of Austria, Vienna, was liberated from the Nazi invaders.”
YOU WILL BE FEED AND YOU WILL GO HOME
It was, it seems, on the second day of the assault on Vienna. I was at the command post of the 20th Guards Rifle Corps, Major General N.I. Biryukov, when the scouts brought in a frail, blond boy in a clay-stained uniform.
He should have been kicking a ball in the yard, but they handed him a machine gun,” the corps commander sighed. Suddenly he became embittered: - Surely he shot?
“No way, Comrade General,” the scout reported. - I didn’t have time or really didn’t want to, but I didn’t use the weapon, we checked his machine gun.
When the translator arrived and the interrogation began, the prisoner said that the Nazis first sent all the children from the senior classes of the gymnasium to build defensive facilities, and then gave them machine guns, Faustpatrons and threw them against the Russians... The young man said that he was an Austrian and hated the Germans. They are rapists and robbers. And he kept asking what would happen to him now. He said that their commander warned that the Russians were shooting everyone.
Translate to the prisoner, I told the translator, that the Red Army does not fight children. We are convinced that he will never again take up arms to fight against the Red Army. But if he takes it, let him blame himself...
The boy was incredibly happy. He fell to his knees and began to swear that he would never forget how kind the Soviet general and officers were to him. Telling him to get up, I said:
Your mother is probably worried about you? Now you will be fed and you will go home. Just take with you the appeal of the Red Army command to the Austrians. Read it yourself, give it to your friends and acquaintances. Let them know the truth about the Red Army.
The young man promised to do everything as the Soviet general orders...
Here is the appeal:
“Residents of the city of Vienna!
The Red Army, crushing the Nazi troops, approached Vienna.
The Red Army entered Austria not with the goal of seizing Austrian territory, but solely with the goal of defeating enemy Nazi troops and liberating Austria from German dependence.
The hour for the liberation of the capital of Austria, Vienna, from German rule has come, but the retreating Nazi troops want to turn Vienna into a battlefield, as they did in Budapest. This threatens Vienna and its inhabitants with the same destruction and horrors of war that were inflicted by the Germans on Budapest and its population.
For the sake of preserving the capital of Austria, its historical monuments culture and art I offer:
1. The entire population who cares about Vienna should not evacuate the city, because with the cleansing of Vienna from the Germans, you will be spared the horrors of war, and those who are evacuated will be driven to their deaths by the Germans.
2. Do not let the Germans mine Vienna, blow up its bridges and turn houses into fortifications.
3. Organize the fight against the Germans and protect it from destruction by the Nazis.
4. Everyone should actively prevent the Germans from exporting industrial equipment, goods, food from Vienna and not allow the population of Vienna to be robbed.
Citizens of Vienna!
Help the Red Army in the liberation of the capital of Austria - Vienna, invest your share in the liberation of Austria from the Nazi yoke!
NEW STORM TEAM MOVEMENTS
In the labyrinth of streets, courtyards and alleys of an unfamiliar city, our assault groups mastered new tactics as the battle progressed. In particular, since every now and then it was necessary to break through walls and fences, each warrior, in addition to standard weapons, carried with him a crowbar, a pickaxe or an ax.
An assault group led by the company Komsomol organizer, Red Army soldier Vovk, approached a large five-story building. While the Red Army soldier Ananyev was firing at the windows with a machine gun, Vovk and other soldiers burst into the entrances. Close combat began in the rooms and corridors. Three hours later the building was cleared of the enemy. In the captured ammunition depot, Vovk found Faust cartridges. A few hours later he managed to burn two tiger tanks with them. Right there, on the streets of Vienna, Vovk was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
An enemy machine gunner was holed up in one of the houses, on the second floor. The crew of the anti-tank rifle could not reach him. Then the fighters Tarasyuk and Abdulov, passing through the courtyards, climbed onto the roof of this house. Abdulov attached a long rope to the chimney, Tarasov went down it to the window from which the machine gun was firing, threw an anti-tank grenade inside, and it was all over.
Officer Kotlikov’s unit advanced along the street, from house to house. The enemy was entrenched on both sides, a three-layer machine gun and mortar fire did not allow our guardsmen to drag a heavy machine gun across the street. Then Kotlikov tied a wire to the machine gun and divided his soldiers into two groups. Now they advanced simultaneously on both sides of the street, dragging a machine gun over the wire as needed from one group to another.
Initiative and independence in the actions of small units are one of the decisive conditions for success in battles for a large city. That is why we moved so quickly into the depths of Vienna.
Chapter sixteen.
LIBERATION OF VIENNA
In 1943, Vienna began to be bombed by Allied aircraft. As a result, by August 1944, according to historian Jean de Cara, "Vienna ceased to be Vienna."
On March 12, 1945, Vienna was again subjected to barbaric bombing. In total, about nine thousand people died during 52 air attacks by the Allied forces. Thousands of buildings were damaged or destroyed, tens of thousands of Viennese apartments became uninhabitable, the streets of the city were literally littered with the rubble of what until recently constituted the unique image of Vienna. In general, we can say that during the Anglo-American bombings and then street fighting the city suffered enormous damage, but at the same time the historical ensemble of the Old Town was amazingly preserved.
Street battles for the liberation of Vienna. April 1945
In the period from March 16 to April 15, 1945, after the Vienna offensive operation by the forces of the 2nd Ukrainian Front, Marshal R.Ya. Malinovsky and the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Marshal F.I. Tolbukhin, Vienna was liberated from fascist troops.
On the German side, the Soviet troops were opposed by Army Group South, led by generals Otto Wöhler and then Lothar von Rendulic.
Hitler was not going to surrender Austria and Vienna without a fight. The 6th SS Panzer Army and a number of other units were transferred here. Defensive structures were hastily built. Barricades were erected on the streets and squares of Vienna, and firing points were installed in houses. Bridges over the Danube and canals were mined.
Colonel General von Rendulic, who replaced Otgo Wöhler, was considered a specialist in defense. Not without propaganda tricks. In particular, rumors were deliberately spread that Soviet army will destroy all Austrians who were members of the National Socialist Party, which supposedly has already begun the forced evacuation of the population from the eastern regions of the country to Siberia.
On top of everything else, the fascist command appealed to the residents of Vienna to fight “to the last opportunity.”
On April 5, 1945, units of the 3rd Ukrainian Front were already fighting on the approaches to Vienna. The next day, street fighting broke out on the outskirts of the city. After this, the troops of the 2nd Ukrainian Front were also involved in the operation, which were supposed to bypass the Austrian capital from the north.
As for the mined bridges across the Danube, a group of Russian intelligence officers managed to recapture one of them from the Germans. This is what A.A. remembers about it. Chkheidze, who was at that time a scout of the Danube flotilla, who traveled from Odessa to Vienna:
“On April 5, 1945, Soviet warships with a landing force departed from the piers of Bratislava and headed up the Danube. The battles for the liberation of Austria began […]
I remember it was a warm spring day. From the Danube embankment, I carefully examined the bridges - Vienna and Imperial - through binoculars. The heavy trusses of the first were bathed in water. The Danube water rolled over them. Hitler's generals turned Vienna into a powerful center of resistance. The enemy blocked the streets of the city with numerous barricades and created rubble. Many stone buildings were equipped with firing points. Vienna was the last bastion on the approaches to the southern regions of Germany.
Of the five Viennese bridges, four were blown up, and only the fifth - the Imperial - was mined, but not yet blown up. The fascist German command did everything possible to keep the entire right bank of Vienna in its hands. The attempts of our troops to capture the bridge on April 9 and 10 were repulsed by the enemy.”
This is surprising, but exactly 140 years earlier, Napoleonic General Marbot had already noted the importance of bridges across Vienna. In his famous “Memoirs” this man wrote:
“The city of Vienna is located on the right bank of the Danube, a huge river, the small branch of which passes through this city, and the large one is at a distance of about half a league. The Danube here forms a large number of small islands, united together by a whole series of wooden bridges, ending with one large bridge crossing a wide branch of the river. The bridge reaches the left bank of the river at a place called Spiez. The road to Moravia from Vienna passes through this long chain of bridges. When the Austrians left the crossing, they had one very bad habit of keeping the bridges until the very last moment. They did this in order to be able to return and attack the enemy, who almost always did not give them time for this, but attacked himself, capturing not only manpower, but also the bridges themselves, which, due to carelessness, were not burned. This is exactly what the French did during the Italian Campaign of 1796 at numerous crossings between Lodi and Arcole. However, these lessons were lost on the Austrians. After they left Vienna, which was practically unfit for defense, they retired to the opposite bank of the Danube, without destroying a single one of all the bridges that were thrown across this wide river. They limited themselves to preparing various flammable materials in front of the large bridge in order to light it as soon as the French appeared.”
But the Germans of 1945 were not Austrians early XIX century. Of the five Viennese bridges, they have already blown up four, and carefully mined the fifth, being ready to blow it up at any moment.
According to A.A. Chkheidze, commander of the river ships brigade A.F. Arzhavkin proposed to capture the bridge by simultaneously landing troops on the right and left banks of the Danube at the approaches to the bridge. This plan was approved by the flotilla commander.
“A landing detachment and a covering detachment were formed under the command of Senior Lieutenant S.I. Klopovsky. It included five armored boats. The artillery support ship detachment consisted of eight mortar boats. It was commanded by Senior Lieutenant G.I. Bobkov. A reinforced rifle company from the 80th Guards Rifle Division under the command of Senior Lieutenant E.A. was assigned to the landing. Pilosyan.
Our armored boats were stationed near the place where I was on duty and observing the enemy. Finally, a company of machine gunners appeared. There were more than a hundred of them. The paratroopers brought with them a 45-mm cannon and four heavy machine guns.
Before landing, the naval officer explained to the machine gunners how best to act during the passage on the boat. The entire company boarded two armored boats.
At exactly 11 o'clock, five armored boats departed from the right bank and headed for the Imperial Bridge. They safely passed the destroyed Vienna Bridge and found themselves in the enemy's position.
The appearance of Soviet ships in the city center during the day came as a surprise to the Nazis. Taking advantage of this, Senior Lieutenant Klopovsky set up a smoke screen. And he himself opened fire from cannons and machine guns at enemy batteries located on both sides of the Danube. The enemy responded with heavy fire. The shells from the enemy battery installed at the elevator were especially accurate.
Immediately our aviation carried out a raid on the Nazis. The ships were fighting and firing as they approached the Imperial Bridge. While three boats, maneuvering, destroyed enemy firing points on the shore, two other boats with a landing party separated. The armored boat under the command of Senior Lieutenant A.P. Sinyavsky headed to the left bank, and the armored boat under the command of Senior Lieutenant A.P. Tretyachenko - to the right bank. Klopovsky's boat covered them with a smoke screen.
I clearly saw how our paratroopers quickly disembarked from the boats, how they quickly chased the machine gunners guarding the Imperial Bridge. Soon it was in our hands, and the wires leading to the explosives were cut by the miners.”
Naturally, as soon as the paratroopers captured the Imperial Bridge, the Germans immediately began furious attacks, since they understood perfectly well what the loss of this only bridge would threaten them with (the troops on the right bank would immediately be cut off from the main forces). The defense of the bridge was led by Senior Lieutenant E.A. Pilosyan. On the night of April 12-13, the Germans carried out fierce attacks on the bridge, and although the guards held out very steadfastly, the forces were unequal...
It is not known how it would have ended, but on the morning of April 13, Soviet troops broke through the German defenses in the Vienna Bridge area. Following the paratroopers, soldiers of the 80th Guards Division rushed into the breakthrough. Help arrived in time, the bridge was saved, and on the same day Vienna was completely liberated.
And here is what General S.M. writes about the capture of Vienna in his book “General Staff during the War.” Shtemenko:
“On one of these days, the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, when reporting the situation, said, as he often did, without directly addressing anyone:
And where is the same Social Democrat Karl Renner, who was a student of Kautsky, now? He worked for many years in the leadership of the Austrian Social Democracy and, it seems, was the head of the last parliament of Austria?..
No one answered: they never expected such a question.
“We cannot neglect the influential forces that take anti-fascist positions,” Stalin continued. - Probably, Hitler’s dictatorship taught the Social Democrats something too...
And then we received the task to inquire about the fate of Renner and, if he was alive, to find out his place of residence. We transmitted the corresponding order by telephone to the 3rd Ukrainian Front.
We knew little about the internal situation in Austria […] There was no information about Renner either.
But on April 4, a report came from the Military Council of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, which reported that Karl Renner himself had appeared at the headquarters of the 103rd Guards Rifle Division. Later they told me that it was like this. A tall, gray-haired man in a black suit was led into the room where the staff officers worked and identified himself in German. At first no one paid much attention to him. Then, however, one of the political workers realized who he was dealing with and quickly reported to his superiors.
Renner turned out to be sociable person. He willingly told the officers about his long duty life path. Since 1894, Renner was a member of the Social Democratic Party, in 1918-1920. was Chancellor of the Austrian Republic, and in 1931-1933. - Chairman of the Austrian Parliament. After the Anschluss, Renner retired to Lower Austria, withdrawing from official political activities.
Our officers asked Karl Renner how he thought he would live next. He stated that he was already old, but was ready “with conscience and deed” to contribute to the establishment of a democratic regime in Austria. “Now both communists and social democrats have the same task - the destruction of fascism,” Renner said. Understanding perfectly the situation in Austria, the astute politician, who was in his eighties, correctly assessed his importance as the last pre-Hitler leader of the country's parliament. He offered his assistance in the formation of a provisional government of Austria for wartime and warned in advance: “I expel the Nazis from parliament.”
The conversation continued for quite a long time. It was important for us to know the mood of the Viennese, since intelligence reported extensive preparations for battles in the Austrian capital. Obviously, the Nazi leaders were preparing the city for the fate of Budapest. We also received very vague information about resistance allegedly taking place somewhere in the bowels of the Vienna garrison.
Renner believed that nine-tenths of Vienna's population was anti-Nazi, but fascist repression and Anglo-American bombing frightened the Viennese: they felt depressed and incapable of active action. The Social Democrats, for their part, did not take any organized measures to mobilize the population to fight against the Nazis.
The message about the meeting with Karl Renner was received in Moscow on the evening of April 4. A.I. and I Antonov understood that some decisions would be made on this matter. As a rule, if everything was good at the fronts, I.V. Stalin, members of the Politburo, the State Defense Committee and the government, who usually gathered for meetings in his office in the Kremlin, did not ask any special questions. But this time, during the report of the situation on the 3rd Ukrainian Front, I.V. Stalin, narrowing his eyes slyly, stopped and looked at the “General Staff” for a long time. Having made sure that we understood his thoughts and mood in connection with the telegram about Renner, he again began to walk along the carpet with a satisfied expression on his face. Then, after talking with members of the Politburo, he dictated to us a telegram from Headquarters to the Military Council of the 3rd Ukrainian Front.
The telegram said: 1) trust Karl Renner; 2) inform him that for the sake of restoring the democratic regime in Austria, the command of the Soviet troops will support him; 3) explain to Renner that Soviet troops entered Austria not to seize its territory, but to expel the fascist occupiers. The telegram was signed by I.V. Stalin and A.I. Antonov. I immediately took it to the control room to transfer F.I. Tolbukhin."
After this, as General S.M. says. Shtemenko, it was decided that Marshal F.I. Tolbukhin will appeal to the population of Vienna with a call to resist the Nazis and prevent them from destroying the city, and also on behalf of the Soviet government will convey a statement about the future of Austria.
This statement said:
“The Soviet government does not pursue the goal of acquiring any part of Austrian territory or changing the social system of Austria. The Soviet government adheres to the point of view of the Moscow Declaration of the Allies on the independence of Austria. It will implement this declaration. It will contribute to the elimination of the regime of the Nazi occupiers and the restoration of democratic orders and institutions in Austria.”
“The Red Army entered Austria not with the goal of seizing Austrian territory, but solely with the goal of defeating enemy Nazi troops and liberating Austria from German dependence. The Red Army is fighting against the German occupiers, and not against the population of Austria, which can calmly go about its peaceful work. The rumors spread by the Nazis that the Red Army is destroying all members of the National Socialist Party are lies. The National Socialist Party will be dissolved, but the rank and file of the National Socialist Party will not be touched if they show loyalty to the Soviet troops."
At this time, Soviet troops had already broken into the southwestern and then the southeastern part of Vienna and started stubborn battles there. The most crucial moment in the history of the liberation of the capital of Austria has arrived.
These clarifications yielded results, and the residents of Vienna, despite all the calls of the German command, not only did not resist the Soviet troops, but also took part in the fight against the Nazi occupiers.
Wehrmacht General Kurt von Tippelskirch writes about this:
“Vienna, like other cities, also became the scene of heavy street fighting, but the behavior of the population, as well as individual units participating in the battles for the city, was more aimed at quickly ending the fighting than at resistance.”
Everything that happened was immediately reported to Hitler’s headquarters. The answer from Berlin was not long in coming.
“The rebels in Vienna must be suppressed using the most brutal methods.”
At the beginning of April 1945, the responsibilities for managing the situation in Vienna were assigned to General von Bünau, but on April 7 he was removed, transferring his powers to the commander of the 2nd SS Panzer Corps. Fascist terror was raging in the city, aimed at suppressing the Resistance movement.
By April 10, German troops in Vienna were squeezed on three sides. Three days later, the armed resistance of the Nazis was broken, and Vienna was liberated.
The results of the operation were: the defeat of eleven Wehrmacht tank divisions, 130,000 captured soldiers and officers, over 1,300 destroyed tanks and self-propelled guns. Soviet troops reached the southern borders of Germany, signaling the already predetermined collapse of the Third Reich.
Soviet soldiers and residents of Austria in liberated Vienna. April 1945
Major General I.N. Moshlyak, who commanded the 62nd Guards Rifle Division, recalls:
“Vienna rejoiced. Its residents poured out into the streets. Sheets with the text of the appeal of the commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front, Marshal of the Soviet Union F.I., were pasted on the walls of the houses. Tolbukhin […] Crowds of Viennese residents stood in front of the sheets pasted on the walls, animatedly discussing the text of the appeal. The townspeople waved their hands welcomingly to the columns of our soldiers passing through the streets, many raised a clenched fist - “Mouth front!” For the residents of Vienna, the war is over, the cannons have stopped blaring, machine guns have stopped firing, and cartridges have stopped exploding. Our sapper units began to build crossings across the Danube (the Nazis blew up all the bridges, except one), and repair tram and railway lines.”
But here is the story of the former intelligence officer of the Danube flotilla A.A. Chkheidze:
“The streets and squares of the Austrian capital were crowded with people. Residents treated Soviet soldiers warmly. We liked the architecture of Vienna and its friendly, elegant people. There are many architectural monuments here. I especially remember the majestic St. Stephen's Cathedral.
Austrians are a very musical people. Therefore, the sounds of a violin or accordion could often be heard from the open window.
We also visited Strauss's grave. The Danube sailors laid a wreath to the talented composer. We stood for a long time at his grave, remembering what we had read about Strauss’s life, and especially the episodes of his life known to us from the movie “The Great Waltz.”
We also got acquainted with another “attraction” of Vienna. There was a large concentration camp near the capital. At that time the name Mauthausen did not mean anything to us. But the Austrians told how many Soviet prisoners of war died here. Particularly shocking was the report that in February 1945, feeling imminent retribution for their crimes, the Nazis took a group of prisoners out into the cold in their underwear and began to water them with fire hoses. Among the prisoners of war was Lieutenant General Karbyshev, who suffered a terrible death together with his comrades.”
Karl Renner, in a note sent to the governments of the USSR, USA and Great Britain at the end of April 1945, said:
“Thanks to the victorious advance of the Red Army, which liberated the capital Vienna and a large part of Austria from the armies of the German Empire, it became possible to regain our full political independence, and, based on the decisions of the Crimean Conference, as well as the Moscow Conference of 1943, representatives of the various political parties of the country decided to restore The Republic of Austria as an independent, independent and democratic state."
General SM. Shtemenko says that Karl Renner wrote a letter to I.V. Stalin. Here is its content:
“During its offensive, the Red Army found me and my family in my place of residence Glognitz (near Wiener-Neustadt), where I, together with my party comrades, full of trust, awaited its arrival. The local command treated me with deep respect, immediately took me under their protection and again gave me complete freedom of action, which I was forced to give up with pain in my soul during the fascism of Dollfuss and Hitler. For all this, on my own behalf and on behalf of the working class of Austria, I most sincerely and humbly thank the Red Army and you, its glorious Supreme Commander-in-Chief.”
The subsequent part of Karl Renner's letter dated April 15, 1945 consisted of various types of requests. In particular, he wrote:
“The Hitler regime doomed us here to absolute helplessness. We will stand helpless at the gates of the great powers when the transformation of Europe is realized. Already today I ask for your favorable attention to Austria at the council of the great and, as tragic circumstances allow, I ask you to take us under your powerful protection. We are currently threatened by famine and epidemic, and we are threatened by loss of territory in negotiations with neighbors. In our rocky Alps we already have very little arable land; it provides us with only meager daily food. If we lose another part of our territory, we will not be able to live.”
I.V. Stalin replied to Karl Renner:
“Thank you, dear comrade, for your message of April 15. You can rest assured that your concern for the independence, integrity and well-being of Austria is also my concern.”
As a result, the Austrian Provisional Government was created at the end of April. The government was headed by Karl Renner.
Under the terms of the Potsdam Conference (July 16 - August 2, 1945), Austria and Vienna were divided into four sectors of occupation: Soviet, American, English and French. The city center was allocated for a joint four-way occupation.
Colonel G.M. Savenok, who worked for several years in the Soviet military commandant's office in Vienna in the post-war period, recalls how brutally Vienna was disfigured:
“Before the war, Vienna had about 100,000 residential buildings. By April 13, 3,500 houses were completely destroyed, 17,000 buildings required major repairs. In short, a fifth of the housing stock in the Austrian capital is out of order. 35,000 people were left homeless, including those Viennese who returned from concentration camps and prisons.
Before the war there were 35,000 cars in Vienna. By April 13, by some miracle, 11 trucks and 40 cars had survived.
The fire department of the Austrian capital consisted of 3,760 firefighters and 420 vehicles. There are 18 firefighters and 2 vehicles left. There was no one and nothing to put out the fires.
There was no gas in Vienna. And not only because the gas plants were out of order. A network of gas pipes with a total length of 2,000 kilometers was interrupted in 1,407 places.
The supply of electricity almost completely stopped: power plants were destroyed, and the electrical cable within the city suffered 15,000 damages.
Vienna was left without water: out of 21 reservoirs, 2 remained; the city water supply network was disrupted in 1,447 places.
Of the many dozens of bridges and viaducts, only two bridges were saved by Soviet troops: one across the Danube, the second across the Danube Canal. The rest stuck out of the water like twisted skeletons.
Many Vienna streets became impassable: there were 4,457 shell craters gaping on them.
However, the worst thing is that Vienna was left without food.
Central and regional warehouses were burned, destroyed, and devastated by the retreating fascists. Only a few supplies of flour remained. It was enough only for a few random, far from regular distributions, and even then at the rate of no more than a kilogram of bread per person per week. Vienna was on the verge of real famine.”
On November 25, 1945, the first post-war elections were held in Vienna, and Karl Renner (1870-1950) became the first president of the Second Austrian Republic.
This man was born on December 14, 1870 in the German part of Moravia into a peasant family. He studied law in Vienna, made a living by giving private lessons, and held the position of government librarian. In 1894 he became one of the leaders of the Austrian Social Democratic Party, although he never adhered to orthodox Marxist views. Rather, he was a supporter of the right wing of social democracy, an ideologist of so-called Austro-Marxism.
Karl Renner, President of the Second Austrian Republic
Karl Renner died in Vienna on December 31, 1950. He was buried in the Central Cemetery, which was opened in 1874. There, in the center, in front of the church, there is a round platform sunk into the ground where the presidents of the Second (post-war) Republic are buried.
After Karl Renner died, Austria chose in his place Theodor Kerner (1873-1957), a retired general of the Austrian army, who on April 17, 1945 was appointed by the Soviet occupation forces in Austria as temporary burgomaster of Vienna. In fact, he was the country's first president elected by direct vote. According to the memoirs of Colonel G.M. Savenoka, he was “a seventy-year-old man of rare honesty and modesty.”
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70 years ago, on April 13, 1945, Soviet troops liberated the capital of Austria from fascist invaders
The liberation of Vienna is one of the offensive operations ending the Great Patriotic War. It was part of the Vienna offensive operation of 1945, during which Soviet troops captured the capital of Austria, clearing it of Nazi troops. The operation lasted from April 5 to April 13, 1945.
The Vienna offensive operation, which was completed on April 13, 1945 with the liberation of the capital of Austria from the Wehrmacht, was one of the brilliant offensive operations ending the Great Patriotic War. Therefore, at the same time it was both quite simple and incredibly difficult. These are the very last, decisive battles.
The relative ease of capturing the capital of Austria, compared to other operations, was due to the fact that the Red Army had already worked out a scheme for destroying enemy groups. In addition, by April 1945, our troops already felt the proximity of Victory, and it was impossible to stop them. Although it was especially difficult psychologically to fight at this time, people knew “a little more, a little more,” plus mortal fatigue.
It is clear that it was not an easy ride: our total losses in this operation were 168 thousand people (of which more than 38 thousand people died). The Germans desperately resisted, but their strength was already undermined - before that, the Red Army and the Wehrmacht, in alliance with Hungarian units, fought heavy battles in Hungary. Hitler ordered to hold the Hungarian oil fields at any cost - the battle for Budapest and the subsequent Balaton operation were among the bloodiest battles of the Great Patriotic War. Our troops entered Hungary in October 1944, having previously carried out the Belgorod operation, and only at the end of March 1945 reached Austria. The attitude of the population also differed; while the Hungarians mostly supported the Nazis and were hostile to the Red Army, the Austrians were neutral. Of course, they weren’t greeted with flowers or bread and salt, but there was no hostility.
Assault on Vienna (April 5 – 13, 1945)
The assault on the capital of Austria was the final part of the Vienna offensive operation, which lasted from March 16 to April 15, 1945 by the forces of the 2nd (commander Marshal of the Soviet Union Rodion Malinovsky) and 3rd Ukrainian fronts (commander Marshal of the Soviet Union Fedor Tolbukhin) with the help of the 1st th Bulgarian Army (Lieutenant General V. Stoychev). Its main goal was the defeat of German troops in western Hungary and eastern Austria.
Our troops were opposed by part of the troops of Army Group South (commander General of the Infantry O. Wöhler, from April 7, Colonel General L. Rendulic), part of the troops of Army Group F (commander Field Marshal General M. von Weichs), from March 25 Army Group “E” (commander Colonel General A. Löhr). The German high command attached great importance to the defense of the Vienna direction, planning to stop Soviet troops at these lines and stay in the mountainous and forested regions of Austria, hoping to conclude a separate peace with England and the United States. However, from March 16 to April 4, Soviet forces broke through the German defenses, defeated the forces of Army Group South and reached the approaches to Vienna.
Soviet soldiers fight for the Imperial Bridge in Vienna
To defend the capital of Austria, the German command created a fairly strong group of troops, which included the remnants of the 8th Panzer and 1st Infantry Divisions from the 6th SS Panzer Army, which had withdrawn from the Lake Balaton area, and about 15 separate infantry battalions and Volkssturm battalions. The entire composition of the Vienna military school was mobilized to defend Vienna; 4 regiments of 1.5 thousand people each were created from the Vienna police. The natural conditions of the area around the city favored the German side. From the west, Vienna was covered by a ridge of mountains, and from the northern and eastern sides by a powerful water barrier, the wide and high-water Danube. On the southern side, on the approaches to the city, the Germans created a powerful fortified area, which consisted of anti-tank ditches, developed system fortifications - trenches, pillboxes and bunkers. In all tank-dangerous directions along the outer circumference of Vienna, ditches were dug and anti-tank and anti-personnel barriers were installed.
The Germans prepared a significant part of their artillery for direct fire to strengthen the city's anti-tank defense. Firing positions for artillery were equipped in parks, gardens, squares and squares of the city. In addition, in the destroyed houses of the city (from air strikes) guns and tanks were camouflaged, which were supposed to fire from an ambush. The streets of the city were blocked by numerous barricades, many stone buildings were adapted for long-term defense, becoming real bastions, with firing points equipped in their windows, attics, and basements. All bridges in the city were mined. The German command planned to make the city an insurmountable obstacle to the Red Army, an impregnable fortress.
The commander of the 3rd Ukrainian Front F.I. Tolbukhin planned to take the city with the help of 3 simultaneous attacks: from the south-eastern side - by troops of the 4th Guards Army and 1st Guards Mechanized Corps, from the southern and south-western sides - by troops 6th Guards Tank Army with the 18th Tank Corps and part of the 9th Guards Army troops attached to it. The remaining part of the forces of the 9th Guards Army was supposed to bypass Vienna from the west and cut off the Nazis' escape route. At the same time, the Soviet command tried to prevent the destruction of the city during the assault.
On April 5, 1945, Soviet troops began an operation to capture Vienna from the southeast and south. At the same time, mobile formations, including tank and mechanized units, began to bypass the capital of Austria from the west. The enemy responded with fire and fierce infantry counterattacks with reinforced tanks, trying to prevent the advance of Soviet troops into the city. Therefore, on the first day, despite the decisive actions of the Red Army troops, they were unable to break the enemy’s resistance, and progress was insignificant.
The entire next day, April 6, there were fierce battles on the outskirts of the city. By the evening of this day, Soviet troops were able to reach the southern and western outskirts of the city and broke into the adjacent suburbs of Vienna. Stubborn fighting began within the city limits. The forces of the 6th Guards Tank Army made a roundabout maneuver in the difficult conditions of the eastern spurs of the Alps and reached the western approaches of the city, and after that to the southern bank of the Danube. The German group was surrounded on three sides.
The Soviet command, trying to prevent unnecessary casualties among the civilian population, to preserve the beautiful city and its historical heritage, on April 5 appealed to the population of the capital of Austria with an appeal to stay in their homes, in their localities, and thereby help the Soviet soldiers, preventing the Nazis from destroying the city. Many Austrians, patriots of their city, responded to this call from the command of the 3rd Ukrainian Front; they helped Soviet soldiers in their difficult struggle for the liberation of Vienna.
By the end of the day on April 7, the forces of the right wing of the 3rd Ukrainian Front partly took the Vienna outskirts of Pressbaum and continued to move east, north and west. On April 8, stubborn fighting continued in the city itself, the Germans created new barricades, blockages, blocking roads, laid mines, land mines, and transferred guns and mortars to dangerous directions. During April 9-10, Soviet forces continued to fight their way towards the city center. The Wehrmacht offered especially stubborn resistance in the area of the Imperial Bridge across the Danube, this was due to the fact that if Soviet troops reached it, the entire German group in Vienna would be completely surrounded. The Danube Flotilla landed troops to capture the Imperial Bridge, but heavy enemy fire stopped them 400 meters from the bridge. Only the second landing was able to capture the bridge without allowing it to be blown up. By the end of April 10, the defending German group was completely surrounded; its last units offered resistance only in the center of the city.
On the night of April 11, our troops began to cross the Danube Canal, and the final battles for Vienna were underway. Having broken the enemy's resistance in the central part of the capital and in the neighborhoods that were located on the northern bank of the Danube Canal, Soviet troops cut the enemy garrison into separate groups. The “cleansing” of the city began - by lunchtime on April 13, the city was completely liberated.
Light armored car BA-64 moves through the streets of Vienna
Results of the operation
As a result of the offensive of Soviet troops in the Vienna offensive operation, a large Wehrmacht group was defeated. The forces of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian Fronts were able to complete the liberation of Hungary and occupied the eastern regions of Austria along with its capital, Vienna. Berlin lost control over another major industrial center of Europe - the Vienna industrial region, including the economically important Nagykanizsa oil region. The road to Prague and Berlin from the south was opened. The USSR marked the beginning of the restoration of Austrian statehood.
The quick and selfless actions of the Red Army troops did not allow the Wehrmacht to destroy one of the most beautiful cities in Europe. Soviet soldiers were able to prevent the explosion of the Imperial Bridge over the Danube River, as well as the destruction of many other valuable architectural structures that the Germans had prepared for the explosion or were set on fire by Wehrmacht units during the retreat, including St. Stephen's Cathedral, the Vienna City Hall and other buildings.
