Victims Of Repression Research Articles

Some Issues of the “Great terror” Problem in Azerbaijan Historiography

The main purpose of writing this article is to assess, from the point of view of Azerbaijani historiography, the event known as the “Great Terror” that occurred in the Soviet Union in 1937–1938. The article, using the example of the Republic of Azerbaijan, examines this wave of repression carried out by the head of the USSR, Joseph Stalin, which entailed the murder of a large number of innocent people in all Soviet republics. In the course of the study, a number of questions are posed and attempted to be resolved. First of all, attention is paid to why and when repression occurs and how it begins. At the same time, the role played by the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Azerbaijan, Mir Jafar Bagirov, during the repressions is revealed, as his influence on the events, how many people became victims of repressions, and so on. The answers to these questions allow us to fully understand the nature of the Great Terror event and get an idea of the current situation. The materials collected during the study were analyzed, and the results obtained were synthesized, taking into account cause-and-effect relationships. During the study, to obtain more objective results, the opinions of individual researchers are critically evaluated, and, if necessary, the inductive method is used. In particular, the use of the inductive method allows us to obtain a general conclusion from individual facts and fully determine the position of Azerbaijani historiography on this issue. To obtain an overall result, the work of researchers studying repression was classified as research conducted by historians, philologists, journalists, archivists, and relatives of the repressed. Since our scientific direction is in the historical aspect, preference was given to the works of historians, but works written in other directions, depending on the topic, were also involved in the research.

EVOLUCIJA ODNOSA MAJKE I KĆERKE U ITALIJANSKOM FEMINIZMU DRUGOG TALASA

With the development of feminist emancipatory concepts, the maternal figure as a symbol of the patriarchal structure becomes a frequent object of criticism. The search for identity has meant the discovery of the female side, that in patriarchy has been subordinated and manipulated for a very long time. The approach towards the mother has undergone many changes, from rejecting the mother in the late sixties when the mother was perceived as part of an authoritarian system, to viewing the mother as a victim of repression, as seen by feminists in the seventies. Critical analysis of philosophical, mythological, religious, and psychoanalytic theories linking motherhood to biology, nature, and submission has led to a change in the perception of motherhood, which over time begins to be seen as a source of creative inspiration. The paper provides an overview of the basic characteristics of Italian second-wave feminism and its most prominent representatives. It then seeks to analyze the evolution of the mother-daughter relationship, primarily through the principles and development of the feminist continental wave, and the influence that the most significant Italian feminists have had on the literary corpus and culture of this country.

Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy by Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard

Reviewed by: Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy by Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard Aryeh Neier (bio) Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy (Cambridge University Press, 2022), ISBN 9781108495639 (hard-back), 324 pages. Rasmus Sinding Søndergaard, a Danish historian teaching at a Swedish university, has written an excellent account of the way that the United States Congress, through its struggles in the 1980s with the Reagan Administration, helped to make the promotion of international human rights an important ongoing component of American foreign policy. His book, Reagan, Congress, and Human Rights: Contesting Morality in US Foreign Policy, is deeply researched. To one who was a close observer and participant in those struggles as they were taking place, Søndergaard’s highly detailed reporting seems flawless. Most of his judgments seem well-considered and fair. And yet, despite his book’s many virtues, it appears to me that Søndergaard has told only part of the story. It was not only struggles with Congress during the Reagan years that led to an ongoing American commitment to promote human rights. It was also the focus on human rights reporting in the mainstream American press during that period and the emergence of an array of nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) dedicated to the human rights cause. The press coverage and the lobbying by NGOs complemented and contributed to the efforts of those members of Congress who were at the forefront of disputes with the Reagan administration. In turn, of course, the battles waged by members of Congress provided material for press attention to human rights, and NGOs built their constituencies by mobilizing their supporters around struggles in Congress. Before the 1970s, the international human rights cause did not attract much attention. It was rarely an issue in the US Congress. Press coverage was scarce. And a civil society movement to promote human rights barely existed. Amnesty International had been founded in 1961, but while it caught on in a few European countries, it had only a small following in the United States. Also, in those days, it restricted its activities to very few issues. Its main activity was to identify “prisoners of conscience” in a number of countries and to organize letter-writing campaigns for them. All of this changed in the 1970s because human rights became a focal point in the Cold War struggle. The most important developments were the emergence of a small dissident movement, quickly subjected to harsh repression in Moscow, at the heart of the Soviet empire; a military coup that was accompanied by extensive torture and killings that overthrew a democratically elected leftist government in Chile; and large scale protests against the Apartheid government in South Africa that were violently suppressed. The geopolitical alignments of the governments engaged in repression became a central part of the story. Some reacted to abuses because of their political sympathies for certain victims of repression. Others were insistent that all such abuses should be condemned and that human rights should be upheld regardless of Cold War alignments. [End Page 157] A member of Congress who responded to the human rights developments in different parts of the world was Representative Donald Fraser of Minnesota. He conducted hearings on those developments and was the principal author of legislation that would change the way the United States Department of State would deal with human rights. Fraser’s legislation mandated the creation of the post of Assistant Secretary for Human Rights, provided that the Department would issue annual “country reports” on the human rights practices of governments worldwide, and prohibited security aid to governments that had practiced gross abuses of rights. The latter provision was seen as a repudiation of the role of Henry Kissinger in facilitating the military coup in 1973 that brought General Augusto Pinochet to power in Chile. The legislation was vetoed by President Gerald Ford, for whom Kissinger served as Secretary of State. It was adopted by Congress over Ford’s veto. An essential part of the process that secured the votes needed to override Ford’s veto is that the legislation won the support of right-wing members of...

HOW MODERN AZERBAIJAN WAS FORMED?

This article is devoted to the history of Soviet and modern Azerbaijan. The regime established by the Bolsheviks in 1920 in Azerbaijan was essentially an occupational one and was based on a repressive policy. S. Kirov, who was placed at the head of the Azerbaijan SSR, relied on Russians and Armenians. In the first years of Soviet power, the Musavat nationalist underground continued its activities. Almost until 1932, the Bolsheviks did not trust ethnic Azerbaijanis to rule Azerbaijan. Only in 1932, J. Stalin instructed M. D. Bagirov to manage Azerbaijan. This faithful Staltinist was previously involved in the massacres of Azerbaijani peasants and was tied to I. Stalin by blood. M. D. Bagirov carried out the Great Terror of 1937-1938. and repressions of the 40s. 20th century in the republic. First of all, the national intelligentsia became the victims of repressions. Forced collectivization and industrialization was carried out, which, however, led to a number of problems in agriculture and industry. The situation was somewhat corrected after the removal of M. D. Bagirov from power in 1954 and after the trial in 1956 of the organizers of the great terror. In the 50-60s. 20th century formed numerous humanitarian intelligentsia. In 1969, G. Aliyev came to power, having made a career for himself in the Soviet special services. In the 70s. 20th century he carried out purges against party members who came to power during the Khrushchev thaw and were guilty of corruption. Under H. Aliyev, Soviet Azerbaijan reached the peak of its development. In addition to heavy industry and oil production, agriculture and light industry also developed. M. Gorbachev's replacement of the Azerbaijani Communist Party leadership plunged the Azerbaijani Communist Party into a crisis. The Azerbaijani communists failed to adequately respond to the challenges from the Armenian irredentists and Azerbaijani national democrats. The People's Front in 1990 actually put Azerbaijan in a state of dual power. M. Gorbachev's attempt to keep Azerbaijan under the rule of the imperial center led to the bloody events of Black January 1990. In the autumn of 1991, Azerbaijan already de jure withdrew from the USSR. The inability of the communists to solve the Karabakh crisis of 1988-1991 actually brought A. Elchibey to power. However, neither A. Mutalibov nor A. Elchibey could cope with the political crisis that engulfed Azerbaijan in 1991-1993. Even G. Aliyev needed several years to build his vertical of power. The opposition was suppressed only in 1995. G. Aliyev was able to stabilize the economy and attracted investments. The authoritarian model made it possible to achieve internal political peace, while under A. Elchibey's democracy, Azerbaijan was in a fever. G. Aliyev transferred power to I. Aliyev in 2003. I. Aliyev liquidated regional clans in 2005 and further strengthened the vertical of power by concentrating power in the hands of his clan. The authoritarian leadership style made it possible to strengthen the economy and modernize the army. The apogee of I. Aliyev’s successes was the Second Karabakh War in 2020. The current president of Azerbaijan is pursuing an emphatically pro-Turkish foreign policy course, which was expressed in the signing of the Shusha Declaration in 2021.

A STUDY OF JADIDISM IN THE INDEPENDENCE PERIOD

In this article, the observations of literary scholar K.Kahramanov on his assessment of the life and work of modern literary figures who were victims of repression in Uzbek literary studies and criticism of the independence period as a methodological update.

“Descendants of the Executioners” in the Space of Memory about the Era of Political Repressions (on the example of the Project “The Investigation of Karagodin”)

This article is devoted to the problem of the place of “descendants of the executioners” in the space of memory of the era of political repression. The article discusses questions about the attitude of the “moral community” that has developed around the victims of repression and their descendants towards the “descendants of the executioners” – on the example of the analysis of the case with D. Karagodin’s project “The Investigation of KARAGODIN”. The study shows that the specified moral community, using the mechanism of dehumanization in relation to the “executioners” (as a mechanism for constructing the image of the enemy), tends to transfer these characteristics to their descendants – despite the fact that, for the most part, the “descendants of the executioners” are “honest descendants”, since they practically do not know / did not know anything about the professional activity and specific actions of their ancestors. Differences were also revealed, causing tension between the acceptable and unacceptable reactions prescribed by the moral community to kinship with the “executioners” and the variety of real experiences of the “descendants of the executioners”. The article analyzes the semantic aspects of the concept of “descendants of executioners”. The author of the article shows that these semantic aspects are often built on different grounds and can intersect, giving rise to internal conflicts including those of ethical nature. The article concludes that the “descendants of the executioners” (“honest descendants”) today are actually not represented in the space of memory of the era of political repression. In the context of increasing government influence to the memory of the era of political repression, and, as a result, of increased tension between the state and the moral community, representatives of this community are not always ready to perceive the voices of the “descendants of the executioners”, who are often associated with modern representatives of the state, alongside with the voices of “descendants of the victims”. All these circumstances significantly complicate the formation of “symmetrical memory” as a condition for successful processing of the difficult past.

AZƏRBAYCANIN İLK DİZAYNERLƏRİ

The article examines the contribution of two German artists of Jewish origin to Azerbaijani art. In the article, the author presents these two artists as the artists who laid the foundations of design in Azerbaijan. Both artists, working in the field of book and magazine illustration, scenography and many other areas, laid the foundations of design art in Azerbaijan. Unfortunately, no matter how successful these artists were in their work, their personal lives failed. Oskar Schmerling lived a difficult life, and his son became the last victim of repression. Joseph Rotter was exiled to Siberia during the war and died there.

«In overwhelming majority they are agent of the Japanese Inteligence service ..»: «Harbinian» order of the NKVD of the USSR № 00593 and the confidential letter to it

The documentary publication contains the operation order of the USSR NKVD № 00593 («Harbinian» order) and enclosed to it a closed letter № 60268 «On the terrorist, sabotage and espionage activities of Japanese agents among Harbinians». At a meeting of the Political Bureau of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks on September 19, 1937, the People's Commissar for Internal Affairs of the USSR Yezhov N.I. presented a draft closed letter № 60268, which reported on the directions and scale of the «activity of Japanese intelligence» in the Soviet state territory. The measures that ensued from this letter were set forth in draft order № 00593. The latter was also presented by Yezhov N.I. to the members of the Political Bureau of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Thus, the closed letter was the justification for the beginning of mass punitive action 130 against the so-called «Harbinians», and the order was an instrument of carrying out this action. The operative documents sent out on September 20, 1937, to the regions of the USSR, set the algorithm for the operation, outlined the target categories, and determined the scale of repression. NKVD officers classified the «Harbinian» operation as «national» («linear»). However, the ethnic aspect was clearly expressed in the text of the documents. Victims of repression should have been not «nationals» and titular groups and the first Russian. The text of the letter and the order, in fact, identified two major target categories: «Harbinians» as former employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway and re-emigrants from China, as well as «Japanese spies». The dependence between the «Harbinian» operation and «Japanese espionage» is obvious. In practice, the expansion of target categories at the expense of «agents of Japanese intelligence» should lead to an increase in arrests under Order No. 00593. Both interrelated documents received the highest party sanction and previously haven’t been published together

Analysis of the paradigm of economic development of Kazakhstan via S. Sadvokasov’s views

The article draws attention to the historical parallels between the general tasks of state self-identity,which were solved by the government at the start of acquiring the sovereign status of the Republic ofKazakhstan in 1991, and those strategic problematic issues that should have been regulated by the governmentof the Kazakh autonomy at the stage of 1920-1926. Unfortunately, despite the relevance of thetopic, there are practically no special comparative studies in the bibliography for establishing continuityin the practice of regulating the economic development of Kazakhstan within the dichotomy of 1921 –2021. The purpose of the study is to revive the names and activities of the leading leaders from amongthe Kazakh leaders who have dropped out of the history of the Fatherland, on the basis of interdisciplinarymethods and archival sources. The article describes the contribution of Smagul Sadvokasov to thestrategy of economic development of the region, provides rare facts from the history of training personnelof the domestic railway transport. The scientific and practical significance of the work is in updatingthe topic of national and state identity and replenishing the biography of the leader of the Kazakhstanimanagement elite, Chairman of the State Planning Committee S. Sadvokasov, who became victims ofrepression. The systematization of rare data, carried out by the author of the article, of the past determinesthe modern directions of integration solutions, for the sake of national interests, in the context ofthe practical experience of previous generations.Key words: Kazakhstan, economy, risks, integration, autonomy, Sadvokasov Smagul.

ЎЗБЕКИСТОН ССРДА СУДЛАР ТОМОНИДАН МЕҲНАТ НИЗОЛАРИНИНГ КЎРИБ ЧИҚИЛИШИ (26.06.1940 йил фармони мисолида)

Using the example of the Uzbek SSR, this article reveals the process of militarization of enterprises and institutions on the eve of the attack of Fascist Germany on the Soviet Union, restrictions on the constitutional right of citizens to freely choose a profession and work, cruel exploitation of the population and the use of tens of thousands of prisoners aslabor by the despotic Soviet regime. The article also highlights the emergence of judges as victims of repression, the strengthening of party and state control over the judicial system based on archival sources.Index Terms:People's Commissariat of Justice, Supreme Court of the Uzbek SSR, people's Court, judge, investigation, sentence, prison, correctional labor, fine, working week, labor discipline, prisoner, military enterprises, decree

Domestic Violence Against Women in Bangladesh: Nature, Reasons and Policy Guidelines

Domestic violence is a pattern of assault and coercive behavior including physical, sexual and psychological attacks, by a person against his/her own intimate partner. Women are more frequently the victims. Domestic violence against women in Bangladesh is a major social problems and barriers to national development. In a patriarchal society like Bangladesh woman always remain subordinate to male and sometimes become victim of repression. This article provides a scenario of different forms of domestic violence against women. As well as reasons of domestic violence i.e., social, cultural, traditional, religion, economical, legal and psychological were also explored and some policy guidelines have been suggested. Keywords: Domestic Violence, Woman, Empowerment, Bangladesh DOI: 10.7176/RHSS/11-8-02 Publication date: April 30 th 2021

From a Farmhand to the Head of an Institute: Life of the Historian Otto Augustovich Lidak

The history of the Bolshevik party figured prominently in the reform of postrevolutionary Soviet science. After the Civil War, many revolutionaries who took accelerated special learning courses subsequently became professors and heads of newly organized academic institutions. Their aim was to prepare new ideologically strong specialists for the country. However, despite their considerable contribution to higher education in the prewar USSR, a significant number of “red professors” became victims of repression in the 1930s. Otto Augustovich Lidak — one of the main Leningrad historians of the Bolshevik party in the 1930s — was a bright representative of this generation. As a Bolshevik in the Civil war, he traveled from Lithuania to the Siberian city of Minusinsk and from Petrograd to Persia. Having all the necessary qualities (social background, revolutionary experience, connections, etc.), O. A. Lidak was able to build a successful academic career within a short period. At various times, he was the head of the Institute of History of the CPSU(b) and the Communist Institute of Journalism. He was also a professor in the Leningrad branch of the Communist Academy, Communist University, Leningrad State University. Finally, he was an active member of the Society of Marxist Historians, the Society of Former Political Prisoners and Exiles, etc. Thus, he was involved in the work of all the major party institutions that prepared “pro-Soviet” cadres. This article considers the milestones of Lidak’s biography and also explores his contribution to the historiography of the Russian Revolution.

Seyfulgabit Majitov-Outstanding educator, mentor and publisher of samples of karakalpak children's folklore

The twentieth century was a period of great changes in the spiritual world of the Karakalpak people. For the first time in the beginning of the captivity, the people of Karakalpakstan had their own national press, and the first books in their native language were published. Seifulgabit Mazhitov, a devoted teacher and representative of the Jadid movement, took an active part in the implementation of this work and wrote the first modern lessons in the Karakalpak language. In order to write the lessons, the people collected oral traditions and gave a lot of space to children's folklore. Despite this, the famous educator fell victim to the years of innocent punishment and became a victim of repression. However, in the end of S. Mazhitov left a rich literary and folk heritage. The article discusses these issues in detail and provides new information.

AZƏRBAYCANIN MAARİF FƏDAİLƏRİ

13 October 1937 entered in the fate of our people with the execution of our intellectuals, who devoted their lives to the development of science, literature, culture, ideas of independence, but whose desires, aspirations were stained with blood. The people of Azerbaijan have lost bright faces, outstanding teachers and world-famous scientists who make up the intellectual wealth of the nation. Among them were Haji Karim Sanili (1878-1937); Bekir Behbud oglu Chobanzade (1893-1937); Hanafi Baba oglu Zeynalli (1896-1937). Presentation of repressed Azerbaijani educators to the world should be the main task of young researchers - teachers, as well as journalists. For this reason, it is recommended that this article be made available to the general public. Key words: one of the members of the new alphabet committee, the creator of the Azerbaijani spelling, the founder of the pedagogical education system, the world-famous Azerbaijani academician, the victims of repression

Influence of the Soviet legal doctrine on the activity of the justice bodies of the Ukrainian SSR during the 20s- 30s of the XX century

The article examines the influence of the Soviet legal doctrine in the activities of the justice bodies of the Ukrainian SSR in the 20s-early 30s of the XX century. It is proved that there were noticeable changes in Marxist views on law, as well as in the entire system of Bolshevik ideology at the turn of the 1920s-1930s. It was at this time that the formation of a new state version of the Bolshevik ideology began, which naturally affected the development of law. It is revealed that during the period of the 20s – early 30s of the XX century, Ukrainian SSR judicial bodies implemented a wide range of tasks. It is established that in addition to fighting criminal and other offences, since the end of the 1920s, they were increasingly faced with punitive and repressive functions. The main attention was paid to protecting the interests of the party-state Bolshevik power. It is proved that the organs of justice gradually turned into an appendage of the party-nomenclature apparatus, whose function was to implement the political will, programs and installations of the Bolshevik party, which fully corresponded to the Soviet legal doctrine, which was formed in the 20s. It is proved that the criminal justice system in the period of the 20s-30s was formed under the influence of the growing role of this party in the state and public life of the country. The ideological basis for the formation of the criminal justice system was Marxism-Leninism, in particular, the doctrine of the dictatorship of the proletariat, which was understood as power over the law. It was found that the main tasks of law enforcement agencies in fighting crime and protecting public order were ignored, or they were given minimal attention. It is proved that, after receiving quite significant powers, law enforcement officers, however, were not themselves protected from the policy of terror, and at any moment each of them could become a victim of repression. It is revealed that the justice bodies of the Ukrainian SSR, as part of the General punitive and repressive mechanism of the existing state system, performed functions that were aimed at approving the totalitarian regime. The thesis that the Soviet system of power at the stage of transition from authoritarianism to totalitarianism increasingly used non-legal methods of management is well-reasoned. The right was of a purely nominal nature, quite often it is a substitute ideology. It is concluded that in this way the state was formed with a blatantly anti-legal essence. It is proved that state coercion largely replaced law and morality in the Soviet system. It is revealed that this trend, in general, determined the nature of the functioning of justice departments of the Ukrainian SSR during the period of the 20s – early 30s of the XX century, when the punitive and repressive mechanism ignored not only morality, but also a law. Keywords: the Soviet legal doctrine, the Soviet system of power, the justice bodies of the Ukrainian SSR, State coercion, punitive and repressive mechanism.

Book Publishing: A Buttress of Stalinism in Russia?

Abstract In today’s Russia, there is a constant clash of opinions when it comes to perceptions of the past, and to what can be learned from Russia’s Soviet experience in general and Stalinist repression in particular. A consensus which seemed just over the horizon between 1998 and 1991 now grows ever more distant. Nearly half of those surveyed in 2017 say that Stalin should not be seen as a state criminal; that the repressions are best discussed less rather than more, and that there is nothing to be gained by dredging up the past. The only way for Russia to pursue a future of democracy and respect for human rights is to leave all of that baggage behind. How has this come to be? What are the roots of these myths of a great and just Stalin that now emerge 65 years after his death? A series of scholars posit that the key lies in Russian society itself, with its tendency towards being ruled with a firm hand and a state that merely takes a neutral position between the liberals and the Stalinists. Others assert that these are successful constructs of the Kremlin, which seeks to inculcate domestic support for authoritarian rule. In order to resolve this disagreement, we studied the book market for Stalin-related literature published within the last twenty years. The study indicates that the market comprises two mostly separate areas: books by Stalin apologists on the one hand, and books by professional historians and recollections by victims of repressions on the other. Quantitative analysis shows that the former receive markedly greater support, which reflects the state’s role over the past fifteen years in forming a positive image of Stalin.

Documenting inherited memories: homage, redemption, and affect in Entre el dictador y yo

ABSTRACTAlthough the concept of postmemory emerged from reflections on the representation and transmission of the Holocaust, the term has come to describe a group of works produced in other geographical contexts that invoke equally traumatic pasts. Over the last two decades in Spain, a considerable number of documentaries has been produced by the generation following those who were victims of repression under the Franco regime. These are works of documentarians who approximate a past they do not remember but that they nonetheless must interrogate in order to define themselves as political subjects. The following article reviews one of the earliest, the documentary Entre el dictador y yo (Between the Dictator and Me) (2005), a collective project undertaken on the occasion of the thirtieth anniversary of Franco’s death. I analyze this film through the lens of memory and postmemory studies of Spain’s traumatic past; this approach intends to offer a critical and comparative reading of the six shorts that make up the documentary, each directed by documentarians born during the transition to democracy. Largely subjective in nature, these documentaries present themselves as exercises of political, social, and family memory about Spain’s recent history, while at the same time they evidence the coexistence of multiple memories of the past.

Pluralism, Governance, and the New Right in German Memory Politics

The memory landscape in Germany has been lauded for its pluralism: for reckoning with the past not only critically but in its many complex facets. Nevertheless, particularly victims of repression in East Germany lament that their plight is not adequately represented and some have recently affiliated themselves with the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party and other groups on the far-right spectrum. This article seeks to explain the seeming contradiction between existing pluralism in German public memory and dissatisfaction with it by tracing how memory activists have shaped memory policy and institutions. Based on extensive interview and archival research, I argue that the infiltration of civil society into the institutions that govern memory in large part explains the strength of critical memory in unified Germany and the country’s ability to accommodate a variety of pasts. However, there is also a distinct lack of pluralism when it comes to the rules of “how memory is done,” to the exclusion of more emotional and politicized approaches that are sometimes favored by some victims’ groups. Using the case of the recent debate about the Hohenschönhausen Memorial, I contend that this explains some of the attraction felt by these groups towards the right.

HISTORICAL FALSE AND TRUTH OF A.I. SOLZHENITSYN. NOTES ON THE FIELDS OF HIS BOOKS

Introduction. The scientific article discusses the views of A.I. Solzhenitsyn on the history of Russia, set out in his writings and in the collection of ideas “Russia, the West, Ukraine” about new dangers threatening world civilization, about the relationship between Russia and Ukraine. His famous manuscript “The GULAG Archipelago”, which played an important role in exposing Stalinism, has a large number of inaccuracies, especially when counting the number of victims of repression. He surpassed the books of V. Shalamov, R. Medvedev and others with extraordinary emotionality and the ultimate specification of the sufferings of prisoners. Fixed idea of A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s books is to recognize the GULAG as the main, almost the only, core of the USSR. A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s collections of historical and artistic texts “Red Wheel” and “Two Hundreds Years Together (1795-1995)” are also not full-fledged sources of historical knowledge.Methods. The author of this scientific article reveals the incorrectness of criticism by the writer of both American and Soviet historical science.Results. In the article analyzes the A.I. Solzhenitsyn’s controversial criticism of the B.N. Yeltsin’s reforms in Russia and the nationalist regime in modern Ukraine. The opposition writer was the ideologue of the destruction of the centralized state-empire in socialist times and remained so in the post-Soviet period.Conclusions. The metamorphosis of an eternally opposition writer has been revealed: anti-Stalinist, anti-Communist, anti-Soviet-traditionalist, anti-state, anti-liberal, Russian nationalist.

POLICY OF TCARISM AND SOVIET LEADERSHIP CONCERNING THE ETHNIC GERMANS DURING THE FIRST AND THE SECOND WORLD WAR

The publication's purpose. The goal of the research is to study the policies of the imperial and Soviet leadership regarding ethnic Germans in the period of the First and Second World Wars and to conduct their comparative analysis. The methodology of work is based on the principles of historicism, systemic, scientific, objectivity, as well as on the use of general scientific and special-historical methods and on the theoretical basis of modern historiography, according to which First and Second World War are considered as two phases of one historical event. This approach opens up the new opportunities for researchers, both in generating ideas, and in the context of the factual reproduction of the past war. The scientific novelty lies in the fact that for the first time in historiography there was made the search for historical parallels between anti-German campaigns concerning the civilian population that took place in two world wars. This allowed us to illustrate the inadmissibility of collective allegations in collaboration based on the ethnic grounds. Conclusions. Numerous deportations of ethnic Germans in 1915 were due to the declarative goals – to prevent the entry of ethnic Germans into the armies of the enemy during the withdrawal of the imperial army. The greatest difference of the policy of the «German issue» in 1914 – 1915 between the policy of 1941 – 1942 was that the actions of the imperial government directly have depended on the military failures of the Russian army. Until the beginning of the Second World War, the victims of repressions except the Germans were also Ukrainians, Russians, Poles and others peoples; officially this side of repression was not being propagated by the authorities. Close to 1941, such repressive actions had a class character. Deportation of the German population during the Second World War was of a purely ethnic character and was carried out as a preventive measure. Only the Soviet security forces in the peacetime resorted to restrictions on the right to life and to direct physical destruction of ethnic Germans. It is noted that the fear of tsarism and Soviet leadership before the fifth column during the war years has played a decisive role in the fate of the German ethnic minority. It is emphasized that in the extraordinary circumstances (war, occupation, the policy of total unification of non-indigenous nations) the ruling government tends to practice the use of the ethnic image of the enemy. Therefore, there is quite logical rhetorical question: who they are – the German colonists, the German refugees, the German special settlers and the Ukrainian «Volksdeutsche», if not «their own» convenient enemies?