Russian Emigration During the Second World War (1939 – 1945)

Abstract

The article discusses the situation of Russian emigrants in Poland. factors of influence on its change. After the defeat of Poland in September 1939 and the Soviet-German non-aggression pact on the territory of Western Belarus and Western Ukraine, Red Army troops entered on September 17, 1939. Here they first met with emigrants. Special groups of the People’s Commissariat of Internal Affairs (NKVD) were stationed in the same territory. The board members of all without exception Russian emigrant organizations: cultural, educational, professional, student, charitable and others were arrested. All of them then disappeared in the Stalinist camps. In central Poland, the German invaders created the governor-general under their complete control. In October 1939, A. Hitler appointed G. Frank the Governor-General of the occupied zone. The latter believed that Poland should become a German colony, and the Poles should becomeslaves of the Great German Empire. In 1939, the Russian population of Poland consisted of Polish citizens and emigrants, their interests were defended by the Russian Committee created in 1940, and it was headed by S. L. Wojciechowski. The committee became a recognized representative of the occupation authority of the Russian part of the population of the Governor General. He issued documents for living in the country and leaving it. After the German attack on the USSR, the chairman of the Russian Committee, S. L. Wojciechowski, believed that the overthrow of the Bolshevik power was possible only with German help. However, A. Hitler and the conductor of German Eastern policy Rosenberg advocated the dismemberment of living space. This scenario does not suit most Russian emigrants. Such is the difficult fate of the Russian emigration during the Second World War.