As we know, the result of the Red Army's counterattack outside Moscow in the winter of 1941-1942 was the complete failure of Germany's Operation Typhoon, which was aimed at capturing the Russian capital.
As a result, the Wehrmacht retreated hundreds of kilometers.
However, despite conflicting opinions, this was not the first major defeat of the Third Reich on the Eastern Front.
The week before Moscow turned over, another major city was liberated: Rostov-on-Don.
This industrial center of half a million people was also an important rail and road hub.
On November 21, 1941, Rostov was captured by General Paul Ludwig Ewald von Kleist's First Tank Army.
Rostov was known in the Soviet Union as the "Pearl of the Don" and was considered by the Germans as the "Gateway to the Caucasus", in other words, the direct route to the wealth of the oil fields in the south of the Soviet Union.
After General Fedor Ramezov's 56th Army of the Defense Corps was pushed back to the left bank of the Don, the Germans were too exhausted from the fierce fighting to continue their offensive and chose to hold their ground.
The period known today as "Bloody Week" has begun for the city of Rostov.
The division "Guard SS Adolf Hitler" executed more than 1,000 civilian prisoners - their bodies lay in heaps in the main squares and streets of the city.
The photo of 16-year-old Viktor Cherevichkin is widely known in Russia, who disobeyed an order to destroy all pigeons in the city (to prevent them from being used for communication purposes).
The boy kept some birds alive for a whole week.
This photograph was eventually used as evidence at the Nuremberg trials.
The Red Army would not accept the loss of Rostov sitting down.
On November 27, three Soviet armies (the 37th, 9th, and 56th) attacked the city from different directions in an attempt to put the Germans on the ropes.
The infantry crossed the thin ice of the Don River and fought the enemy on the spot.
The battles often included physical combat.
Adolf Hitler categorically forbade Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt, commander of Army Group South, to leave Rostov, but German commanders ignored the order.
After several urban battles, the German First Army began to retreat to avoid defeat.
The Führer then immediately replaced Lundstedt with Field Marshal Walter von Reichenau - who simply continued the withdrawal.
Hitler, believing that his decision had been made in haste, went to the Southern Army Command in Poltava (currently central Ukraine). After investigating the situation there, Hitler understood that his decision had been wrong and personally apologized to Lundstedt, who would then continue to serve in occupied France.
On November 29, the Red Army liberated Rostov-on-Don, pushing the Germans back 60-70 kilometers to the banks of the Meuse River, where the Soviet offensive finally stopped.
For a long time the Soviet-German front in the south was stable.
The victory at Rostov not only boosted the morale of the Soviet soldiers and people, but also prevented Reichenau from redeploying his reserves to Moscow, where on December 5 a massive counterattack was launched.
As a Wehrmacht officer later declared, "Our difficulties began in Rostov ......"
Over the next few months, Rostov was a forward city that was regularly bombed by the Luftwaffe .
The city had dozens of hospitals, and the rest of the facilities were used for the manufacture of weapons, ammunition and army equipment.
In May 1942, after the fiasco of the Soviet offensive under Kharkov (now northeastern Ukraine), the Germans gained the ability to break out of the Don, Volga and Caucasus.
On July 24 of the same year, Rostov-on-Don was again occupied.
It was only after the victory at Stalingrad in February 1943 that the Red Army managed to liberate the city.
This time, for good.