Defense of the passes of the Bzyb range (August - September 1942)

The article is devoted to the confrontation between the Soviet and German troops on the passes of the Bzyb Range in August - September 1942. As is known, by this time the Wehrmacht forces had suffered serious defeats from the Soviet armed forces near Moscow, Rostov, and Tikhvin. The confrontation took a protracted character, so, planning the summer campaign of 1942, the German command decided to seize the most important economic areas in the south of the USSR. The battle for the Caucasus included both the capture of the region’s passes and access to the Black Sea. It was precisely such fights that became the catalyst for the emergence of special mountain rifle detachments of the Red Army and NKVD troops, which turned the situation in the highlands in our direction. When writing the article, the authors used archival documents from the Central Archive of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation (Podolsk, Moscow Region, Russian Federation), published on the “Memory of the People” portal (pamyat-naroda.ru), as well as the works of foreign, Soviet and Russian researchers.