Stalin Line

The Stalin Line was a line of defense, which was built on the western borders of the former USSR in 1929. It consisted of a large number of concrete bunkers, which possessed light and heavy armament. It extended over the entire western border of the Baltic to the Black Sea. It ran from Narva and Pskov over Vitebsk, Mogilev, Gomel and Zhitomir, and along the Dniester to Odessa.

After the occupation of eastern Poland in 1939, which had been struck in the Hitler- Stalin Pact the Soviet sphere of influence, as well as the occupation of Bessarabia and the Baltic States in 1940, the western border of the Soviet Union shifted by about 300 km to the west. Stalin ordered the new frontier to build the so-called Molotov Line and for abandoning the Stalin Line. Nevertheless, the Stalin Line was preparing for the attack on the Soviet Union, the rise of the German Wehrmacht significant problems. Although the Molotov Line was not yet completed and partially disarmed the Stalin line, but in the southwestern part of the Stalin Line, the Red Army to prevent the German troops several days at a rise. In this section, the losses in overcoming the well-camouflaged fortifications were very high.