On June 22, 1941, when the German forces launched their invasion of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, head of the Communist Party, panicked. It was left to the people's commissar of foreign affairs, V. M. Molotov, to make the radio announcement that Hitler's armies were advancing into Soviet territory. By February 23, 1942, the Germans had been forced to retreat in the Moscow area. At that time, on Red Army Day, Stalin delivered a major speech. In it he made the first announcement of his famous five "permanently operating factors," which were to remain the basis of Soviet military theory until his death in March 1953. The strength of the Red Army is first of all in the fact that it is not waging a predatory nor imperialistic war but a war which is patriotic, liberating and just.