Coin The liberation of Europe from fascism. Warsaw

Detailed description

By the summer of 1944 the Red Army liberated the territory of Belarus in full and left on the Belarusian-Polish border. A logical extension would be the operation to liberate Poland, and in particular the Polish capital - Warsaw, however, the movement of the Soviet army was halted. The reasons for the transfer of Warsaw operations are the subject of heated debate among historians. Official Soviet historiography of the view, articulated in 1945 personally by Stalin: the troops were tired after a 500-kilometer forced march and had no opportunity to engage in heavy fighting with a large German contingent of Warsaw. Western and part of modern Russian historians interpreted the situation differently: July 31, 1944 in Warsaw, the Home Army revolted connections - clearly pro-Western, and generally negatively related to the paramilitary organization of the USSR. It seems probable assumption that Stalin did not want to help the Polish nationalists, preferring to them murdered by the Germans. Anyway, Soviet troops entered the Polish territory only after the defeat of the Warsaw Uprising in the beginning of January 1945

January 12, 1945 the forces of the 1st Byelorussian Front Warsaw-Poznan operation whose ultimate aim was the liberation of Warsaw began. Together with the Soviet forces in the battles participated previously in the Soviet Union who left Polish immigrants of which were formed several combat units of the Polish Army. January 17 the Polish-Soviet forces crossed the Vistula both north and south of Warsaw, and in the morning on January 18 entered the city. After some street fighting as early as 12 o'clock Warsaw was cleared of Germans.

Obverse description

In the center - the image of the dome of the Senate and the Spassky Tower of the Moscow Kremlin buildings to their right - the mint trademark.. The inscriptions along the rim framed by a circle of dots: at the top - "ТРИ РУБЛЯ 1995 г." at the bottom - "БАНК РОССИИ".

Reverse description

The image of the Soviet and two Polish soldiers holding the flag of Poland against the background of the destroyed Warsaw, inscriptions along the rim separated by two dots: at the top - "ОСВОБОЖДЕНИЕ ЕВРОПЫ ОТ ФАШИЗМА" at the bottom - "ВАРШАВА 17.01.1945 г.". On the side surface of the coin - two incised inscriptions "ТРИ РУБЛЯ", separated by two asterisks.