ABSTRACT

On the 2 October 1941, the Germans launched their first offensive against Moscow. They were not counting merely on the moral and political effect which its fall would produce. Stalin remained on the spot throughout the battle, attending all the meetings of the Committees for the Defence of the City, the chairman of which was the Moscow secretary of the Party, Alexander Chtcherbakov. The personal information service, and in particular the 'Red Orchestra', stated that the date for the taking of Moscow had been fixed by Hitler on the 16-17 October, and that the battle for the capital 'should not last longer than a fortnight'. Once again Hitler had given his generals a fortnight to take the city, which was almost in sight. Once again the terrible blows of the German Army shook the Red Army. In the centre the Russian lines were pierced in the sector of Narofominsk, and the enemy vanguard 311was only eighteen miles from the capital.