BATTLE FOR THE CAUCASUS
The article examines the main stages and results of one of the key battles of the Great Patriotic War - the Battle for the Caucasus. The Caucasian region was one of the main theaters of military operations not only of the Great Patriotic War, but also of the Second World War. The plans of the German command envisaged defeating the Soviet grouping of troops defending in the Caucasus direction, gaining access to the oil fields of Maikop, Grozny and Baku, as well as to deposits of tungsten-molybdenum ores, manganese and other strategic resources. In the future, it was envisaged to reach the border with Iran and Turkey and involve them in wars on their side. In the course of fierce battles, the Soviet troops within the framework of the North Caucasian strategic defensive operation (July 25 - December 31, 1942) managed to restrain the enemy's offensive, wear him out and force him to go over to the defensive. German troops were stopped at the approaches to Ordzhonikidze, on the passes of the Main Caucasian ridge, in the southeastern part of Novorossiysk. On January 1, 1943, the North Caucasian strategic offensive operation was launched, during which German troops more than once could find themselves in a "cauldron" similar to the Stalingrad one. This determined, on the one hand, the fierce nature of the resistance, and on the other, the provision of an organized withdrawal to pre-prepared defensive positions, including the so-called "Blue Line" - in-depth defensive lines considered impregnable. In the winter and spring of 1943, during the offensive operations of the North Caucasian and Transcaucasian fronts, the most important administrative, industrial and agricultural North Caucasian centers of the USSR were liberated. The defeat of the enemy's Taman grouping and the liberation of the Taman Peninsula in October 1943 ended the North Caucasian strategic offensive operation and, in general, one of the most heroic battles of the Great Patriotic War - the Battle for the Caucasus.