The Third period of World War II describes the events on the Eastern Front

Eastern Front (World War II)

The Eastern Front of World War II was a theatre of World War II between the European Axis powers and co-belligerent Finland against the Soviet Union, Poland, and some other Allies which encompassed Northern, Southern and Eastern Europe from 22 June 1941 to 9 May 1945...

 from the Soviet historiographic

Historiography

Historiography refers either to the study of the history and methodology of history as a discipline, or to a body of historical work on a specialized topic...

 method

Historical method

Historical method comprises the techniques and guidelines by which historians use primary sources and other evidence to research and then to write histories in the form of accounts of the past. The question of the nature, and even the possibility, of a sound historical method is raised in the...

 of periodisation

Periodization

Periodization is the attempt to categorize or divide time into named blocks. The result is a descriptive abstraction that provides a useful handle on periods of time with relatively stable characteristics...

. The period is formally known as the Third Period of the Great Patriotic War and its duration is determined to be from 1 January 1944 to 11 May 1945 although the 9 May is celebrated in the former Soviet union and in the Russian Federation as Victory Day.

The period includes

• Winter Spring Campaign of 1944 from 1 January to 31 May that begun with the Dnieper–Carpathian Offensive and ended with the operations for the liberation of Crimea as the Crimean Offensive on 12 May 1944.
• Summer Autumn Campaign of 1944 from 1 June to 31 December commencing with the Vyborg–Petrozavodsk Offensive and ending with the series of operations in Hungary as part of the Budapest Offensive
  Budapest Offensive
  The Budapest Offensive was the general attack by Soviet forces against Germany and their allies from the territory of Hungary. The offensive lasted from 29 October 1944 until the fall of Budapest on 13 February 1945.-Prelude:...
  
   on 13 February 1945.
• Campaign in Europe 1945 from 1 January to 11 May that commenced with the Vistula–Oder Offensive, and ended with the liberation of Prague during the series of operations as part of the Prague Offensive
  Prague Offensive
  The Prague Offensive was the last major Soviet operation of World War II in Europe. The offensive, and the battle for Prague, was fought on the Eastern Front from 6 May to 11 May 1945. This battle for the city is particularly noteworthy in that it ended after the Third Reich capitulated on 8 May...
  
  .

Sources

• Young, Peter, (ed.) Brig. (ret.), The Almanac of World War II, A.P. Publishing, Sydney, 1981