Smolensk has a war history that is far more significant than its size would suggest. In September 1943, it was a key to Soviet Red Army strategy, and for the German defence. The best English-language podcast for staying up to date on the war in Ukraine is Ukraine: The Latest from the Daily Telegraph. Its creator and executive producer was David Knowles, who passed away unexpectedly in September.   My condolences and sympathies to Mr. Knowles' family, friends, co-workers and colleagues. Map 1: Battle of Smolensk, 1943     Map 2: Operation Suvorov  Map 2: Smolensk region  This gives you an idea of where the smaller towns are in relation to Smolensk. Photo 1: Gen. Yeremenko (right) with Nikita Khrushchev (left) during the Battle of Stalingrad.  Photo 2: Yeremenko in about 1970   Photo 3: Gen. Vasily Sokolovsky in 1946    Sources: Antony Beevor, The Second World War. London, UK: Little, Brown and Co., 2012.  Robert Forczyk, Smolensk 1943: The Red Army's Relentless Advance. Oxford, UK: Osprey Publishing, 2019. Evan Mawdsley, Thunder in the East: The Nazi-Soviet War, 1941–1945. London: Bloomsbury Academic, 2016. Anthony Tucker-Jones, Slaughter on the Eastern Front: Hitler and Stalin’s War 1941–1945. Stroud, Gloucestershire, UK: The History Press, 2017 Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Smolensk_operation.