ABSTRACT
After the Kursk operation, the Soviet High Command commenced a general offensive across the breadth of the Eastern Front from west of Moscow to the Black Sea. By September the concerted drive had slowly forced German forces westward to the line of the Dnepr River. In November the Soviets skillfully employed operational maskirovka to concentrate secretly sufficient forces for a breakout across the river north of Kiev. The Kiev operation created a strategic platsdarm (bridgehead) west of the river from which Soviet forces launched renewed offensives deeper into the Ukraine in December 1943. Throughout the drive to the Dnepr in the fall of 1943, Soviet razvedka effectively monitored the movement of German operational reserves and facilitated both successful Soviet maskirovka and the accomplishment of Soviet objectives. As the second period of war ended, Soviet forces commenced operations which, by late spring, would clear the Ukraine of German forces.
