STALIN JOSEPH: (1878-1953) Soviet Dictator. Leader of the Soviet Union as General Secretary of the Central ...

STALIN JOSEPH: (1878-1953) Soviet Dictator. Leader of the Soviet Union as General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party 1922-52. Rare World War II time letter, being a T.L.S., `I. St[alin]´, in green pencil, to the head of a T.L., three pages typed only to front, folio, Moscow, 6th December 1944, in Cyrillic. The letter bears at the heading ''Copy nº 2 - TOP Secret'', and is entitled `To the Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal of the Soviet Union - Tovarish Stalin I. V.´ The secret military document is sent to Stalin by Chief Marshal of Artillery N. Voronov, and refers to artillery Corps ready to join the military front in December 1944, with the German troops retreating and Russian troops close to Budapest, and states in part `I return from a duty journey to Minsk Artillery Camp, where I have checked the combat readiness of the 6th Breakthrough Artillery Corps. The Corps is ready to be sent, according to your decision, to tovarish Zhukov.´ further reporting in detail `First - The headquarters of the 6th artillery corps, 14th and 29th breakthrough artillery divisions have been formed. Second - Preparatory combat activities and artillery live fire exercises were conducted in my presence by divisions of the Corps. Officers starting from the battery commander and above had served in the Patriotic War. Battery and division commanders joined the Corps after graduating from the Higher Officer Artillery School. Most of the platoon commanders came from military schools… There is up to 30% of the Red Army personnel called into the Army from Western Ukraine and Western Belarus. Much attention has been paid to the training of the headquarters, reconnaissance and communications equipment. Third - Most of the military equipment received is new, and only one part comes from base repairs. Everything has been tested and prepared for battle…. Fifth - Such a powerful artillery Corps was created in a very short period. It is imperative to commit corps to the first battle in an organized way, giving them enough time to be prepared for the battle upon arrival at the battlefront…´ Accompanied by a second Top Secret report attached, three pages, folio, also issued by Vorontsov and addressed to Supreme Commander-in-Chief Marshal of the Soviet Union Tovarish Stalin I. V, dated 22nd November 1944. This one unsigned by Stalin. The report relates to reinforcement of the Bielorussian front divisions, and stating in part `In order to fulfil your task, it will be necessary to allocate - 1) 2,026 officers, 33,910 non-commissioned officers and Red Army men. - 2) 704 units of 76-mm cannons, 1,408 units of 122-mm howitzers. - 3) 1,700 truck tractors and 7,186 motor vehicles…. Fourth - I suggest that the task should be fulfilled by 5th May in the following order..´. It is curious to read that Vorontsov´s deadline to achieve the task was the 5th of May 1945, and couldn´t expect that three days before Berlin would fall and Russian troops would raise the Soviet flag on the Reichstag. Both sets of three pages bear to the front page a red pencil annotation, ''Ad Acta'' and are countersigned at the conclusion by Chief of affairs Pavlov. The second bears to the verso the signatures of Major Yermolaev and Lieutenant Pavlov, certifying that a third copie of the secret report was destroyed on 22nd December 1944. G, 2 Georgy Zhukov (1896-1974) Marshal of the Soviet Union. Zhukov served in World War One and WWII. The most decorated General officer in the history of the Soviet Union and Russia.