Why did Stalin stick to Kiev?

Story of World War II: On June 22nd, 1941, Germany launched the famous "Barbarossa" plan, and dispatched 146 divisions to storm the Soviet Union, among which Moscow, Leningrad and Kiev were regarded as the core attack targets.

Among them, the German army, which mainly attacked Kiev, was organized as the "Southern Army Group" with about 39 divisions, with German battlefield veteran Marshal Lundstedt in command. Kiev is the capital of Ukraine today, which was the third largest city, an important industrial base and granary of the whole Soviet Union at that time.

On July 1th, 1941, facing the attack of Lundstedt and his men on Ukraine, they launched an all-out attack. The Soviet Union appointed Xie Miao budyonny as the commander-in-chief, and took out the southwest army and the south army with a total strength of about 1,5, to be under his command to defend against the enemy.

In the early stage of Germany's invasion of Ukraine, the Soviet Union thought that passive defense was the best policy, so it organized several surprise attacks, hoping to replace "defense" with "attack". Unfortunately, however, although there are enough troops and tanks on the Soviet side. However, most soldiers still use tanks as mobile turrets because they have not completed the training of tank combat thinking.

As a result, the tanks lost their own characteristics in the hands of the vast majority of Soviet soldiers, and did not show "heroic" in the face of German attacks.

Boldin, deputy commander of the Western Army of the Soviet Union, personally led the 6th Mechanized Army and 11th Mechanized Army of the Soviet Union to counter an infantry division under the 9th German Army. As a result, he was beaten out of the water by the other side by using terrain and anti-tank guns.

Four mechanized armies led by General Kirponos of the Soviet Union launched a large-scale counter-charge against German tanks in Brody. As a result, due to the lack of a large number of radios, it was difficult for tanks to communicate with each other and could not cooperate well. As a result, it was divided and surrounded by the Germans, and finally it was a fiasco.

When budyonny took over the defense of Ukraine, the German legion had already approached Kiev and assembled in the Uman generation in the south of Kiev. In order to defend Uman, budyonny fought a defensive war with Uman on July 16th.

Unfortunately, the battle of Uman in budyonny was a fiasco. According to German data, as of August 7th, the battle ended, with 13, Soviet troops captured, 317 tanks and 858 guns.

After this battle, the Germans completely opened the door to Kiev, while the Soviet side lost the main force of mechanized troops in the battle. The remaining soldiers in budyonny's hands could only fight the Germans with flesh and blood.

in the face of this disadvantage, it is a superior choice for the Soviet Union to give up Kiev and keep its effective forces. Zhukov, a world war II star, proposed to give up Kiev strategically around July 11th at the beginning of the Uman campaign, but was embarrassedly rejected by Stalin, the supreme leader.

Even on September 11th, after Kiev was about to be besieged, Stalin still rejected budyonny's suggestion to retreat, and even angrily replaced budyonny.

As for why Stalin held Kiev so firmly, he probably thought it was the most important point to win the support of public opinion aimed at the United States. On July 28th, Stalin met with Harry Hopkins, the special envoy of American President Roosevelt.

During the meeting, in order to obtain the material demand of the United States, the Soviet Union urgently needed to assure the United States that the Soviets were capable of resisting the invaders. If the Americans just leave, Kiev, the third largest city, will be lost. When the United States evaluates the risk of aid, this value will definitely soar.