HISTORICAL DICTIONARY A–Z - Russia: A Reference Guide from the Renaissance to the Present - page 244

time, the industrializing policies of the Soviet
regime brought an unprecedented wave of rural
migrants to the city, drastically increasing its pop-
ulation from 1.6 million in 1912 to 4 million in
1937. Soon after the beginning of hostilities with
Germany in June 1941, German forces advanced
on Moscow. By October 1941 they had reached
the city's outskirts, threatening to capture the
Soviet capital and military headquarters. A Soviet
counterattack in December 1941 forced the Ger-
mans to retreat, and gradually the Soviet war
effort gained strength (see MOSCOW , BATTLE OF ).
In the postwar period, the city continued to grow
in population, reaching 5 million in 1959 and 7
million in 1970. During the era of Mikhail GOR -
BACHEV , Moscow was, together with Leningrad
(St. Petersburg), a stronghold of reformist ideas
and politics. In August 1991, when Communist
hard-liners attempted to overthrow Gorbachev,
the spirited resistance of many Muscovites
helped prevent the coup from succeeding. At the
time of the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the
city's population had reached 9 million. In the
1990s, Moscow continued to be at the center of
Russia's turbulent politics while becoming the
showcase for the new Western-style economy
that emerged after the fall of communism.

commander General Heinz Guderian to assist the
fighting around Kiev, which fell in September
1941. The attack on Moscow, code-named Oper-
ation Typhoon, resumed in late September, by
which time most observers agree the Germans
had precious little time as the long winter season
approached. In the first 10 days of the offensive,
the Germans advanced to within 60 miles of
Moscow, taking Kalinin (Tver) to the north and
Tula to the west. By mid-October, however, rain
and mud had begun to slow down the German
advance, and by November a harsh early winter
had set in. The Germans, expecting an early con-
quest of Moscow, had not issued winter clothing
or supplies to their troops, but Hitler refused to
allow the troops to retreat, thus adding to the
number of casualties. Nevertheless, the Germans
pressed on and by early December they were
within 25 miles of the city center.
Up to this point an orderly evacuation of key
government officials and diplomatic personnel
to the Volga River town of Samara had been tak-
ing place. The approaching advance of the Ger-
mans triggered a temporary panic and looting
among some Moscow residents not authorized
to leave. In response STALIN publicly announced
his intention to remain in the city, while order-
ing the police and the NKVD (secret police) to
shoot looters and those fleeing Moscow. The
arrival of over 100,000 fresh troops from Siberia
and the Far East allowed the Red Army to
mount a counteroffensive that pushed the Ger-
mans to about 60 miles from Moscow. Finally, as
German losses from the cold and the fighting
escalated, Hitler ordered the offensive aban-
doned. The German advance on the Central
Front was halted and the country's capital had
not fallen. The Soviets had resisted successfully
but at a great cost, with over 600,000 troops
killed or captured. The Germans held on to most
of the territories they had gained in this offen-
sive until 1942, but together with their inability
to seize Leningrad, the air of inevitable victory
that had marked the first six months of the Ger-
man invasion had begun to dissipate as a result
of the Battle of Moscow.

Moscow, Battle of (1941)
A winter battle fought between October and
December 1941 on the outskirts of MOSCOW that
marked the first land defeat for the Germans since
their invasion of the Soviet Union in June 1941.
The attack on Moscow was one of three major
offensives launched by the Germans in the sum-
mer of 1941, the other two being attacks on the
key Soviet cities of Leningrad and Kiev. By July
1941, the 60 divisions led by Field Marshal
Feodor von Bock had captured Smolensk, a major
transportation link and gateway to Moscow, a few
hundred miles to the west. While the German
Army Group Center expected to take Moscow by
mid-September, Hitler hesitated as to the priority
of his objectives, ordering instead to halt the
advance on Moscow and dispatch Bock's tank