In the history of mankind there are events of truly decisive, fateful significance. With good reason, these include the Great Victory over Germany and Japan. It was won through the joint efforts of 55 states of the anti-Hitler coalition. But the historical truth is that the main brunt of the struggle fell on the lot of the Soviet Union. It was on the Soviet-German front that the most fierce and bloody battles of the Second World War took place. It was here that the path of the Nazi invaders to world domination was blocked, and earthly civilization was saved from complete destruction. The book by the famous Russian historian, Doctor of Historical Sciences, chief researcher at the Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences G. A. Kumanev is intended to help numerous readers, researchers, teachers universities in studying the events of the war years, identifying the historical truth, recreating a true, and not a distorted picture of the difficult struggle of the Soviet people against the fascist invaders during the terrible years of the war.