J. V. Stalin
Source: Works, Vol. 15
Publisher: Red Star Press Ltd., London, 1984
Transcription/HTML Markup: Salil Sen for MIA, 2009
Public Domain: Marxists Internet Archive (2009). You may freely copy,
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Comrades, artillerymen and mortar-gunners, engineers and technicians, officers and generals of the Soviet artillery!
Today the Soviet people are celebrating Red Army Artillery Day. The whole country is marking today the great importance of the artillery as the main shock-force of the Red Army.
As is well-known, the artillery was that force which helped the Red Army to check the enemy's advance at the approaches to Leningrad and Moscow. The artillery was that force which ensured the routing of the German troops by the Red Army at Stalingrad and Voronezh, at Kursk and Byelgorod, at Kharkov and Kiev, at Vitebsk and Bobruisk, at Leningrad and Minsk, at Jassy and Kishinev.
With its devastating fire the artillery effectively blazed the path for the infantry and tanks in the greatest battles of the Patriotic War, as a result of which the enemy has been ejected from our Motherland.
At present the Soviet artillery together with the whole of the Red Army is dealing crushing blows to the enemy's manpower, equipment and fortifications in the last decisive battles for victory over Germany.
Everybody knows that the Soviet artillery has achieved complete domination on the battlefield over the enemy artillery, that in numerous battles with the enemy Soviet artillery and mortar-gunners have covered themselves with the unfading glory of extraordinary courage and heroism, while commanders and chiefs have displayed high skill in directing fire.
This is a success of which our country may justly be proud.
Comrades, artillerymen and mortar-gunners, engineers and technicians, officers and generals of Soviet artillery! I congratulate you upon Artillery Day!
To mark the decisive successes of the Red Army artillery in the Patriotic War I hereby order:
Today, November 19, Artillery Day, at 19.00 hours, in the capital of our Motherland, Moscow, in the capitals of the Union Republics and in the cities of Leningrad, Stalingrad, Sevastopol, Odessa, Khabarovsk, Novosibirsk, Sverdlovsk, Gorky, Molotov and Tula, our glorious artillerymen shall be saluted on behalf of the Motherland, with 20 artillery salvoes.
May the Soviet artillery live and prosper to strike fear into the enemies of our Motherland!
J. V. STALIN
Marshal of the Soviet Union
Supreme Commander-in-Chief