Soviet Prisoners Research Articles

Борьба советских военнопленных с нацистскими оккупантами в Севастополе в 1943–1944 годах

The paper deals with one of the little-studied issues in the history of the resistance movement during the Great Patriotic War, namely, the participation of Soviet prisoners of war in the anti-fascist struggle in the ranks of the Communist underground organization in occupied Sevastopol in 1943–1944. The purpose of this article was to study the formation and structure of the aforementioned organization, as well as the involvement in the antifascist struggle of Soviet prisoners of war, and to identify the effect of their activities on the general course of the anti-Hitler struggle in occupied Crimea. The objects of the research are the underground group headed by Nikolai Ignatyevich Tereshchenko (pseudonym Mikhailov), which was part of the Communist underground organization, and the places where it carried out its anti-fascist operations: camps for Soviet prisoners of war around Sevastopol and in the city itself, especially after Tereshchenko’s escape from German captivity. The study was performed within the framework of the large-scale All-Russian educational project “Without Statute of Limitations” aimed at preserving historical memory. Along with providing insights into the tragedy of the civilian population of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War, the paper highlights the heroic deeds of the anti-fascist resistance movement in the temporarily occupied territory of the Soviet Union and demonstrates the contribution of individuals and groups to the defeat of Nazi Germany and its satellites. The author used documents that were declassified in the course of this project by the Federal Security Service Office for the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and transferred to the Sevastopol Archives. The analysis revealed a significant feature of the Sevastopol underground: prisoners of war were one of the most important components of the Communist underground organization, performing risky and dangerous tasks deep behind enemy lines. According to the plan, in the event of a Black Sea Fleet landing, it was the prisoners of war who were supposed to be the striking force and spark an armed uprising in the occupied city. Consequently, it is concluded that Soviet prisoners of war were one of the combat weapons teams of the Sevastopol underground movement, which carried out various operations: reconnaissance, agitation and propaganda, as well as sabotage and subversion deep behind enemy lines.

Archaeology and the public perception of a Soviet prisoner of war cemetery

Between July 2021 and November 2022, the federal archaeological office of Bremen (Landesarchäologie) excavated the site of a former cemetery for Soviet Prisoners of War and forced labourers. The remains had officially been reinterred at an honorary cemetery in Bremen in 1948. Only a small part of this article is about what the excavation revealed and rather its purpose is to reflect on the situation that has arisen between the federal archaeological office, the politics of Bremen versus two citizen's initiatives at the time of the official closure of the excavation. We set out how local conflicts can emerge from such a highly political topic in an archaeological excavation. We also explore how to manage the public interest while, at the same time, attempting to protect the personal dignity of the buried individuals. We engaged with the historical responsibility the city takes for its industrial sites and its past of profiting from forced labour and with the (often unfamiliar) societal function of the work of archaeologists. The research project aims to identify the people buried and to find out about the status of health provision, food supply and overall daily living in the Soviet POW-camps in Bremen by linking the results of archaeology, bioanthropology and historical sources in a database.

"The War came to me... ": 1939-1941 in the memories of former Soviet prisoners of war decades later

"The War came to me... ": 1939-1941 in the memories of former Soviet prisoners of war decades later

The Extermination of Red Army Soldiers in German Captivity, 1941–1945: Causes, Patterns, Dimensions

ABSTRACT Captive Red Army soldiers made up the majority of victims of Nazi Germany’s starvation policy against Soviet civilians and other non-combatants and thus constituted the largest single victim group of the German war of annihilation against the Soviet Union. Indeed, Soviet prisoners of war were the largest victim group of all National Socialist annihilation policies after the European Jews. Before the launch of Operation Barbarossa, it was clear to the Wehrmacht planning departments on exactly what scale they could expect to capture Soviet troops. Yet, they neglected to make the necessary preparations for feeding and sheltering the captured soldiers, who were viewed by the economic staffs and the military leadership alike as direct competitors of German troops and the German home front for precious food supplies. The number of extra mouths to feed was incompatible with German war aims. The obvious limitations on their freedom of movement and the relative ease with which large numbers could be segregated and their rations controlled were crucial factors in the death of over 3 million Soviet POWs, the vast majority directly or indirectly as a result of deliberate policies of neglect, undernourishment, and starvation while in the ‘care’ of the Wehrmacht. The most reliable figures for the mortality of Soviet POWs in German captivity reveal that up to 3.3 million died from a total of just over 5.7 million captured between June 1941 and February 1945 — a proportion of almost 58 percent. Of these, 2 million were already dead by the beginning of February 1942. In English, there is still neither a single monograph nor a single edited volume dedicated to the subject. This article now provides the first detailed stand-alone synthesis in that language addressing the whole period from 1941 to 1945.

Soviet Prisoners of War in the “Technische Brigade Mineralöl” (Mineral Oil Technical Brigade)

Soviet Prisoners of War in the “Technische Brigade Mineralöl” (Mineral Oil Technical Brigade)

ВПЛИВ НАЦИСТСЬКОГО ПРАВОВОГО ПОЛЯ НА ДОЛЮ РАДЯНСЬКИХ ЄВРЕЇВ-ВІЙСЬКОВОПОЛОНЕНИХ В ОКУПОВАНІЙ УКРАЇНІ (1941–1942 рр.)

The article is devoted to the influence of the legislation of the Third Reich on the fate of Soviet-Jewish prisoners of war who were in the camps of occupied Ukraine. The research methodology is based on the principles of historicism and objectivity; general historical methods (chronological, problem-thematic, analytical); the use of interdisciplinary approaches at the intersection of world history, psychology, ideology, the history of Ukraine, military affairs; memories of those who survived the war. The scientific novelty lies in the formulation of the question, since the fate of Soviet Jews-prisoners of war in Ukraine remains poorly researched. Even before the implementation of the «Barbarossa» plan in Berlin, various departments issued orders, resolutions, and orders that regulated the legal status of Soviet prisoners who were supposed to be captured and kept in special camps («dulags», «stalags», «oflags»). Jewish prisoners of war were separated for execution. Their fate was particularly tragic. The Nazi legal field, both on the eve of the war and during the German-Soviet war, deliberately created conditions under which the use of prisoners of war of Jewish origin was not foreseen and had to be minimal. Military personnel of the Wehrmacht, starting from the top management, which issued numerous orders and decrees of anti-Soviet and anti-Semitic contents, and ending with the grassroots, were directly involved in the legal discrimination and physical elimination of Jewish prisoners of war. Until October 1941, the Wehrmacht got its hands dirty no less than SS teams, and then became less involved in the bloody politics of the Holocaust, transferring the right to exterminate Jews to representatives of the security police and SD. In general, in Germany, the scientific discussion about the bloody role of the Wehrmacht in the Nazi crimes committed on Soviet lands has long been over, and the direct involvement of servicemen in the crimes of the SS and SD no longer needs to be proven.

Башкиры в обороне Севастополя в 1941–1942 гг.

The participation of Bashkiria residents in the Great Patriotic War is the subject of the most serious study. The purpose of this publication is to show the role of the natives of Bashkiria in the heroic defense of Sevastopol. The sources of the study were the database of all defenders of the city compiled by the staff of the museum historical and memorial complex «35 coastal battery». The study was conducted both in relation to specific people and the military units in which they served. The research methodology includes, first of all, a statistical approach. Traditionally, it was believed that the natives and residents of Bashkiria participated in the Great Patriotic War in units formed on the territory of the Bashkir ASSR. This study shows their representation in numerous units of the Primorsky Army and the Black Sea Fleet. The number of those killed during the defense of the city, as well as the number of those captured in the first decade of July 1942 after the fall of the defense, has been revealed. The number of former Soviet prisoners of war who, after their release, took part in hostilities as part of the Red Army has been revealed. It tells about the dramatic fate of the only general from among the natives of Bashkiria during the Great Patriotic War, Ivan Andreevich Laskin.

Dreaming of space: a premonition of Ernest Hemingway

ABSTRACT This article concentrates on the cultural mythology of Ernest Hemingway implicitly inscribed into Aleksei Uchitel’ and Aleksandr Mindadze’s Dreaming of Space (2005). This film offers a presentiment of Hemingway as a symbolic representative of the unattainable West and the life that existed just beyond the reach of most Soviet citizens. In so doing, it engages with the Soviet lost generation, those released from Soviet prison camps after Iosif Stalin’s death. Technological advancement would not result in a progressive, modern Soviet state and this lost generation remained, in the words of Nancy Condee, ‘somnambulants and post trauma casualties’ of Stalin’s terror. Ultimate freedom was only realised by leaving the USSR, a pursuit that had inherent risk. The premonition found in Dreaming of Space is not actually of Soviet scientific and cultural superiority, but of the desire for liberation from the USSR. Certainly, Hemingway was an important part of that counter-culture response.

“We must fight!”. The resistance of the Jews to the genocidal policy in Kremenchuk (1941–1943)

The article examines an almost unexplored topic about the resistance of the Jews to the Nazi genocidal policy in Kremenchuk. The author reviewed historiographical developments on this issue, outlined terminology, and characterized the source base (a part of the sources is introduced into scientific circulation for the first time). The article analyzes the factors that influenced Holocaust flow in the city: the evolution of the “Final Solution to the Jewish Question” during the occupation of the town; events at the front that determined the priority of current tasks for rear structures; demands or the lack of demands for Jewish labor, etc. In accordance with this, the author researched the condition of local Jews and Jews-prisoners of war who got to the Kremenchuk due to the encirclement of parts of the South-Western Front and analyzed the dynamics of the implementation of the Holocaust in the city.The article considers the aspects that prevented the development of a purely Jewish resistance movement in Kremenchuk. Therefore the author explores the opposition of Jews at the individual level and their activities as a member of underground organizations that actively helped Jews (those who were prisoners of war, local people, and those who arrived in the city during the occupation). Consequently, it was investigated that thanks to the cooperation of leaders from among the Soviet prisoners of war and local activists, it was possible to create an effective infrastructure for providing help and rescue to persecuted groups, including Jews. For example, in the «Patriot of the Motherland» underground organization, this infrastructure consisted of a prisoner of war camp, the first city hospital, a Red Cross station, and underground apartments. This enabled those persecuted within the framework of underground organizations to effectively resist the Nazi genocidal policy. The article also analyzes, on an individual level, how both local and Jewish prisoners of war, as well as those who arrived in Kremenchuk, resisted the genocide.

“I Reserve the Right to Criticize My Friends”: The International Committee for Political Prisoners and Its Letters from Russian Prisons

AbstractCampaigns on behalf of Russian political prisoners stretch from the revolutionary “nihilists” of the 1880s to the dissidents of the 1970s. While the efforts of political émigrés and their Western sympathizers – to promote awareness, raise funds, and pressure governments – met with decidedly mixed success, there were several watershed moments. This article examines how one such breakthrough, the compilation and publication of Letters from Russian Prisons in 1925, resulted in the formation of the International Committee for Political Prisoners (ICPP) as the first ever transnational amnesty NGO. Along with 300 pages of harrowing accounts of Soviet prisons, camps, and exile, the book featured endorsements by “Twenty-Two Well-Known European and American Authors”. The disputatious process of this volume's compilation and the controversy greeting its issuance show the challenges of extending civil liberties advocacy to include criticism of the Soviet Union among left and liberal figures in the interwar period. In establishing a new field of endeavor – universalist transnational activism to aid political detainees – the ICPP navigated a complex network of relationships among a diverse array of political and intellectual figures.

Silences and Omissions in Reporting Epidemics in Russian and Soviet Prisons, 1890-2021.

Penitentiary systems serve as breeding grounds for all kinds of diseases. Drawing upon new archival materials, this article examines the history of the management and reporting of epidemics in the Russian prison system from the late Imperial period to the present day. We use the case studies of cholera (1892-1893), typhus (1932-1933), and pulmonary tuberculosis (the 1990s) to examine how the general political and social conjuncture at different times affected the response of prison authorities to epidemics to show that, notwithstanding major shifts in society and polity, there was continuity in the management of epidemics by prison authorities in the long twentieth century. However, there were fundamental discrepancies in the way late Imperial, Soviet, and post-Soviet Russia reported epidemiological emergencies in prisons. We argue that Russia's tumultuous past has reinforced the tendency among the Russian penal administration towards a lack of transparency that has persisted to the present day, in relation to the latest, COVID-19, epidemic.

The selection of Soviet prisoners of war: between Nazi radical ideology and colonial hierarchy

The selection of Soviet prisoners of war: between Nazi radical ideology and colonial hierarchy

Graves of the ‘Other’: Norway and the commemoration of soviet prisoners of war

The memory of other nationalities and their wartime suffering on Norwegian soil are mainly part of a local narrative. While the subject of Soviet prisoners of war is common knowledge in local historical studies, both oral and written, there is virtually no space for a living memory about the Soviet POWs on a national level. Despite forming the largest group of casualties on Norwegian soil during the war, the Soviet POWs have not been included at the national level of the Norwegian history of occupation.

Camp in Pravieniškės near Kaunas in 1941–1944

The camp in Pravieniškės was located within the administrative boundaries of Pravieniškės, located about 25 km from Kaunas. It was established during the period of the Republic of Lithuania, as a correctional facility. In August 1941 the Germans established the Pravieniškės Transitional Labour Camp (Zwangsarbeitslager Provenischken) there, which from 1943 was a branch of the Kaunas Concentration Camp (KL Kaunas) and continued to serve as a labour camp. Detainees were brought to this camp from the prisons of the General Commissariat of Lithuania, i.e. the Lukiszki Prison in Vilnius, the Kaunas Prison and Ponevezh (Panevėžys). People of various nationalities were held in Pravieniškės (Prawieniszki): Lithuanians (60%), Poles, Russians, Roma and Jews (mainly from the Kaunas ghetto). About 1,000 prisoners could be held in this camp at a time. People were sent here for a variety of offences: political prisoners, violators of forced labour orders, Soviet prisoners of war with their families, and those convicted of common crimes. Also incarcerated in Pravieniškės by administrative decision were deserters from the German army convicted of evading military service in the German army. People of Polish nationality placed in Pravieniškės were mainly accused of belonging to the resistance movement, communist activity, listening to the radio, possession of weapons, sabotage, escape from forced labour and communist activity. Guards executed prisoners on the camp grounds and in nearby forests. About 280 Jews were shot there in August 1941, and another 253 Jews in September 1941. Also, many attempts to escape from the camp were punished by execution. As the Eastern Front approached the borders of the Reich, the process of obliterating the traces of the crimes committed began. Due to the relatively small number of those murdered, it was not necessary for the notorious Sonderkommando 1005 to arrive in the area. A few dozen men directed to burn the corpses of those murdered in the nearby forest were enough. Members of the Pravieniškės camp crew were tried after the war by various organs of the Soviet justice system: courts, tribunals and collegia. Also in Poland, at the Institute of National Remembrance in Gdansk, an investigation was conducted into the case. Beginning in mid-July 1944, people convicted by Soviet tribunals were incarcerated in the camp in Pravieniškės: former camp guards, as well as members of the Vilnius Home Army arrested after Operation ‘Ostra Brama’. The prisoners were again employed to work on the peat bog and in the camp greenhouse. Today, every Lithuanian associates the name of Pravieniškės with the prison. A penitentiary facility still operates on the site of the former camp with places for 2,500 inmates, including those sentenced to life imprisonment.

Culture in Times of Crisis: Auerbach, Czapski, Nafisi

This article considers three examples of engagement with cultural texts in times of crisis to show how the White Rose pamphlets fit into a broader tradition. The three examples are: Erich Auerbach’s Mimesis: The Representation of Reality in Western Literature (1946), written in exile in Istanbul during WWII, Józef Czapski’s Lost Time: Lectures on Proust in a Soviet Prison Camp (1948), based on lectures given to fellow inmates in a Soviet camp during WWII, and Azar Nafisi’s Reading Lolita in Tehran (2003), a memoir that describes clandestine classes on English literature given by Nafisi after the Islamic Revolution in Iran. The article shows how the uses to which cultural texts are put in such contexts are often ambiguous and contradictory: rather than telling an idealistic story of the redemptive power of culture in the face of political and social disasters, the aim is to articulate the role that cultural texts can play in inspiring intellectual resistance, while attending critically to the specificities of individual case studies.

The “Cemetery War” in the Town of Mo i Rana. To the History of Soviet War Memorial Heritage in Northern Norway

The events surrounding the Soviet military burial site at the Mo cemetery in the town of Mo i Rana are a bright page of the Soviet military memorial heritage's history in Northern Norway. In 1945, at the burial place of 90 Soviet prisoners who worked on the construction of the Nordlandsbanen rail route, the monument was erected by their comrades. In 1948, through the efforts of the residents of Mo municipality, the monument destroyed by weather was rebuilt. Plans by the central authorities to move the remains from the cemetery to the island of Tjøtta during the all-Norwegian campaign faced with public protest led by members of the Communist Party of Norway. The removal of the remains, scheduled for November 2, 1951, didn’t take place in connection with a large-scale protest action, which later called the “cemetery war”. Residents of Mo i Rana are rightfully proud of this page in their history. In 2020, the memorial at the Mo cemetery was opened after renovation initiated by concerned citizens. In 2021, the efforts of the authorities and residents of Rana municipality to preserve the memory of Soviet soldiers’ feat were marked by Russian state awards.

Another forgotten genocide. Review of the book: Soviet Prisoners of War in the Second World War on Polish Soil: Collected Articles / Edited by J. Wojtkowiak; translated by M. A. Krysan. St. Petersburg: Aletheia, 2018. 196 p

Another forgotten genocide. Review of the book: Soviet Prisoners of War in the Second World War on Polish Soil: Collected Articles / Edited by J. Wojtkowiak; translated by M. A. Krysan. St. Petersburg: Aletheia, 2018. 196 p

ГЛОБАЛЬНЫЙ МИР И ФРОНТОВЫЕ РАНЫ: СОЗДАНИЕ СОВЕТСКОГО КОМИТЕТА ВЕТЕРАНОВ ВОЙНЫ И ПРОТИВОРЕЧИЯ ПОЛИТИКИ ПАМЯТИ В СССР 1950-Х ГОДОВ

The article examines the background and process of creating the Soviet Committee of War Veterans (SKVV) in 1956, as well as its activities in the first years of its existence in the context of international peacekeeping and internal socio-cultural changes. Since 1945, this marked the first attempt to create a public organization that united all major-categories of Soviet veterans of the Great Patriotic War. The Soviet leadership’s desire to join international federa-tions of former World War II participants became primary motivation behind the SKVV’s formation in the mid-1950s. The leadership of the USSR wanted to use the memory of the war in peacekeeping discourse as one of the relevant and effective tools of public diplomacy. To achieve this, they made previously undesirable compromises. For example, they agreed to intensify the exchange of veteran delegations with foreign countries and recognized the veteran status of former Soviet prisoners of war who participated in the resistance movement in Europe. In parallel with international activities in the internal political conditions of the “thaw”, the structures of the SKVV became the environment for the emergence of numerous grassroots initiatives among veterans in social and memorial spheres. As a result, the state-party leadership received not only a new collective actor for public diplomacy, but also a for-malized community of former war veterans who proposed various initiatives and were ready to participate in their implementation. The paper is based on little-known documents from the federal archives, including the Archive of the Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation, State Archive of the Russian Federation, and Russian State Archive of Contemporary History.

Occupation policy of Nazi Germany on Belarusian lands in modern Belarusian historiography

In 2023, Belarusian historians Alesya Korsak and Sergei Kaminsky published a book about one of the camps for Soviet prisoners of war set up by the Nazis on Belarusian soil near Polotsk. The authors used a variety of archival sources from the archives of Minsk, Moscow and Podolsk, many of them introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, as well as published German documents from the archive in Freiburg. The authors’ attempt to reconstruct the history of one single camp, in which more than 18,000 Soviet citizens died during the war years, deserves respect. The work of Korsak and Kaminsky fits well into the modern trends in the development of Belarusian historiography of World War II. Belarusian historians, in close coordination with government agencies, are carrying out large-scale work to identify and systematize documentary materials reflecting the Nazi policy of genocide in the occupied Belarusian lands. The restrictions of the Soviet period, when for political reasons the participation in the Nazi crimes of collaborators from Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, were hushed up, have not been in effect for several decades, which allows specialists to recreate an objective picture of the occupation policy of the Nazis in the period of 1941–1944.

Terror Armii Czerwonej i NKWD na ziemiach polskich w latach 1944-1945

In 1944-45 as a result of Soviet military victories the German occupation of Polish lands ended. The Red Army, which also included NKVD and AC Smiersz counterintelligence units, did not restore independence. The eastern part of Poland was again incorporated into the Soviet Union, and on the remaining territory, enlarged by a part of German lands, Stalin created a dependent communist People’s Poland. To this end, the Red Army and Soviet police formations carried out huge repressive actions against the Polish population, especially against the independence underground with the Home Army at the forefront. The symbol of this repression was, among others, the fate of the leading military leaders of the Polish underground: General Leopold Okulicki murdered in December 1946 in Moscow and General August Fieldorf, who was imprisoned in NKVD camps for over two and a half years and was murdered by the Polish communists in February 1953. Also a leading Polish civilian politician, Deputy Prime Minister of the Polish government Jan Jankowski was abducted by NKVD officers commanded by Ivan Sierov from Warsaw in March 1945, he died in a Soviet prison in 1953.