Meeting of the Allied Forces on the Elbe. 1945

"...When our troops met the allies on the Elbe and in other areas, they sincerely congratulated each other with the victory over Nazi Germany and expressed their hopes for post-war friendship."

Georgy Zhukov, Memories and Recollections, p. 280.

Вестник фронтовой информации ТАСС. Советские войска соединились с войсками союзников 27 апреля 1945 г. ГА РФ

“TASS Frontline Herald”. Soviet Troops Meet Allied Troops

27 April 1945

State Archive of the Russian Federation

Нота посла Великобритании в СССР Ф.К. Робертса А.Я. Вышинскому с текстом личного послания У. Черчилля И.В. Сталину о задержке направления звукозаписи послания У. Черчилля [о соединении союзных армий] и изменениях, внесенных Черчиллем в текст своего послания. 22 апреля 1945 г. РГАСПИ

Note of the employee of the British Embassy in the USSR Frank K. Roberts to the Deputy People’s Commissar of Foreign Affairs of the USSR Andrei Vyshinsky with the text of a BBC Broadcast by Winston Churchill

22 April 1945

Russian State Archive of Social and Political History

Russian translation.

English original.

"The victorious armies of the allied powers waging a war of liberation in Europe destroyed the German troops and met on Germany territory.

Our purpose and our duty are to defeat the enemy to the end and force him to lay down his arms and accept an unconditional capitulation. The Red Army will fully fulfil this purpose and duty before our people and all freedom-loving peoples.

We salute the valiant troops of our allies standing shoulder to shoulder with Soviet troops on German territory and resolutely determined to fulfil their duty to the end."

The personal and secret message from Joseph Stalin to Winston Churchill on the Joint Actions of Soviet and Allied troops on German territory, 20 April 1945. RGASPI, coll. 558, ser. 11, fold. 272, f. 128.