'' , native_name_lang = , nickname = Executioner of Khatyn , birth_date = , birth_place =

Chyhyryn Chyhyryn ( uk, Чигирин, ) is a city and historic site located in Cherkasy Raion of Cherkasy Oblast of central Ukraine. From 1648 to 1669 the city was a Hetman residence. After a forced relocation of the Ruthenian Orthodox metropolitan see ...

Kiev Governorate Kiev Governorate, r=Kievskaya guberniya; uk, Київська губернія, Kyivska huberniia (, ) was an administrative division of the Russian Empire from 1796 to 1919 and the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic from 1919 to 1925. It wa ...

Russian Empire The Russian Empire was an empire and the final period of the Russian monarchy from 1721 to 1917, ruling across large parts of Eurasia. It succeeded the Tsardom of Russia following the Treaty of Nystad, which ended the Great Northern War. ...

(now Ukraine) , death_date = , death_place = Pishchalauski Castle,

Minsk Minsk ( be, Мінск ; russian: Минск) is the capital and the largest city of Belarus, located on the Svislach and the now subterranean Niamiha rivers. As the capital, Minsk has a special administrative status in Belarus and is the admi ...

Belorussian SSR The Byelorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR, or Byelorussian SSR; be, Беларуская Савецкая Сацыялістычная Рэспубліка, Bielaruskaja Savieckaja Sacyjalistyčnaja Respublika; russian: Белор� ...

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

, allegiance =

USSR The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen nationa ...

(1936–1941)

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany (lit. "National Socialist State"), ' (lit. "Nazi State") for short; also ' (lit. "National Socialist Germany") (officially known as the German Reich from 1933 until 1943, and the Greater German Reich from 1943 to 1945) was ...

(1941–1945) , branch = Signal corps,

artillery Artillery is a class of heavy military ranged weapons that launch munitions far beyond the range and power of infantry firearms. Early artillery development focused on the ability to breach defensive walls and fortifications during siege ...

(1936–1941)

Auxiliary police Auxiliary police, also called special police, are usually the part-time reserves of a regular police force. They may be armed or unarmed. They may be unpaid volunteers or paid members of the police service with which they are affiliated. The po ...

grenadier A grenadier ( , ; derived from the word '' grenade'') was originally a specialist soldier who threw hand grenades in battle. The distinct combat function of the grenadier was established in the mid-17th century, when grenadiers were recruited fr ...

s (1941–1945) , serviceyears = 1936–1945 , rank =

Senior lieutenant Senior lieutenant is a military grade between a lieutenant and a captain, often used by countries from the former Eastern Bloc. It is comparable to first lieutenant. Finland ( sv, premiärlöjtnant) is a Finnish military rank above ( sv, löjt ...

(1936–1941)

Untersturmführer (, ; short: ''Ustuf'') was a paramilitary rank of the German ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) first created in July 1934. The rank can trace its origins to the older SA rank of ''Sturmführer'' which had existed since the founding of the SA in 1921. ...

(1941–1945) , unit =

67th Rifle Division The 67th Rifle Division was an infantry division of the Red Army. The 20th Rifle Division (territorial defence) was formed from militia brigades in the Leningrad Military District in 1923. On May 21, 1936, it was named the 67th Rifle Division. In ...

(1936–1941)

Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118 ''Schutzmannschaft'' Battalion 118 (Ukrainian Schuma)Natalia Petrouchkevitch, Wilfrid Laurier UniversityVictims and criminals: Schutzmannschaft battalion 118 (Belarus, Ukraine) was a Schutzmannschaft auxiliary police battalion (Schuma). The core o ...

30th Waffen Grenadier Division of the SS , commands =

, battles =

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposin ...

* Liepāja defense *

Khatyn massacre Khatyn ( be, Хаты́нь, Chatyń, ; russian: Хаты́нь, ) was a village of 26 houses and 157 inhabitants in Belarus, in Lahoysk Raion, Minsk Region, 50 km away from Minsk. On 22 March 1943, almost the entire population of the vil ...

, laterwork = State farm economic director , awards = Deprived of all awards , spouse = Maria Vasiura , children = Vasyl, Hennadiy, Natalia, Liudmyla , signature = Hryhoriy Vasiura's Signature.jpg Hryhoriy Mykytovych Vasiura ( uk, Григорій Микитович Васюра, russian: Григорий Никитич Васюра; 15 February 1915 – 2 October 1987) was originally a

senior lieutenant Senior lieutenant is a military grade between a lieutenant and a captain, often used by countries from the former Eastern Bloc. It is comparable to first lieutenant. Finland ( sv, premiärlöjtnant) is a Finnish military rank above ( sv, löjt ...

in the

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army (Russian: Рабо́че-крестья́нская Кра́сная армия),) often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and, after ...

who was captured during the

Nazi invasion of the USSR Operation Barbarossa (german: link=no, Unternehmen Barbarossa; ) was the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany and many of its Axis allies, starting on Sunday, 22 June 1941, during the Second World War. The operation, code-named after F ...

in 1941 and subsequently volunteered for service in the ''

Schutzmannschaft The ''Schutzmannschaft'' or Auxiliary Police ( "protective, or guard units"; plural: ''Schutzmannschaften'', abbreviated as ''Schuma'') was the collaborationist auxiliary police of native policemen serving in those areas of the Soviet Union and ...

'' (the Nazi collaborationist

auxiliary police Auxiliary police, also called special police, are usually the part-time reserves of a regular police force. They may be armed or unarmed. They may be unpaid volunteers or paid members of the police service with which they are affiliated. The po ...

) and the

Waffen-SS The (, "Armed SS") was the combat branch of the Nazi Party's ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS) organisation. Its formations included men from Nazi Germany, along with Waffen-SS foreign volunteers and conscripts, volunteers and conscripts from both occup ...

. Vasiura's wartime activities were not fully revealed until the mid-1980s, when he was convicted as a war criminal by a Soviet military court and executed in 1987 for his role in the

Biography

Early life and Soviet military

Vasiura was born on 9 February 1915 (according to other data, in 1913) in the city of

(now

Cherkasy Region Cherkasy Oblast ( uk, Черка́ська о́бласть, Cherkaska oblast, ), also referred to as Cherkashchyna ( uk, Черка́щина, ) is an oblast (province) of central Ukraine located along the Dnieper River. The administrative center ...

, Ukraine). He worked as a school teacher before

. In 1936, he graduated from the Kiev Military School of Communications. By the beginning of the

in June 1941, Vasiura commanded a communication squad of the

(according to data of his war prisoner card, he served in the artillery forces). During the battle of

Liepāja Liepāja (; liv, Līepõ; see #Names and toponymy, other names) is a state city in western Latvia, located on the Baltic Sea. It is the largest-city in the Kurzeme Planning Region, Kurzeme Region and the third-largest city in the country after R ...

on June 28, he was wounded in the thigh and captured. Vasiura was imprisoned in the camp

Stalag III-A Stalag III-A was a German World War II prisoner-of-war camp at Luckenwalde, Brandenburg, south of Berlin. Camp history Planning for the camp commenced before the invasion of Poland. It was designed to hold 10,000 men, was the largest in the 3rd ...

. While in captivity he agreed to collaborate with the Germans, and in February 1942 he was sent to the school of propagandists (first in Wustrau, later in Wutzetz) organized within the camp

Stalag III-D Stalag III-D was a World War II German Army prisoner-of-war camp located in Berlin. Camp history The camp was established on 14 August 1940 on the corner of Landweg and Osdorfer Straße in Berlin-Lichterfelde. The commandant and camp administratio ...

under the authority of the

Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories The Reich Ministry for the Occupied Eastern Territories (german: Reichsministerium für die besetzten Ostgebiete (RMfdbO) or ''Ostministerium'', ) was created by Adolf Hitler on 17 July 1941 and headed by the Nazi theoretical expert, the Baltic ...

Service in the ranks of punitive forces

After graduating from the school of propagandists in October 1942, Vasiura was sent to

Kiev Kyiv, also spelled Kiev, is the capital and most populous city of Ukraine. It is in north-central Ukraine along the Dnieper, Dnieper River. As of 1 January 2021, its population was 2,962,180, making Kyiv the List of European cities by populat ...

, where he joined the 118th Schutzmannschaft battalion composed of former Soviet soldiers and Ukrainian collaborators. Some sources state that along with other members of the unit he took part in executions of Jews in Babi Yar. Vasiura quickly advanced in the service. From platoon commander, he was promoted to chief of staff over his predecessor in December 1942. The unit had a double leadership: German Major Erich Körner was in charge, while Vasiura supervised the battalion on a daily basis. That same month, the unit was transferred to the occupied

to conduct punitive operations against partisans. The battalion first arrived at

, and then deployed to the town of Pleshchenitsy. From January 1943 to July 1944, Vasiura and his battalion conducted dozens of pacification actions – including operations '' Hornung'', '' Draufgänger'', ''

Cottbus Cottbus (; Lower Sorbian: ''Chóśebuz'' ; Polish: Chociebuż) is a university city and the second-largest city in Brandenburg, Germany. Situated around southeast of Berlin, on the River Spree, Cottbus is also a major railway junction with exten ...

'', '' Hermann'' and ''Wandsbeck'' – that were part of the "dead zone" policy of annihilating hundreds of Belarusian villages in order to remove the support base for the alleged partisans. 60 major and 80 smaller actions affected 627 villages across occupied Belarus.

Khatyn massacre

On the morning of 22 March 1943, three vehicles with the 118th battalion staff were ambushed by "Uncle Vasya's" partisan squad near the village of Khatyn. Partisans killed

Hans Woellke Hans-Otto Woellke (18 February 1911 – 22 March 1943) was a German shot putter, who won a gold medal at the 1936 Summer Olympics and a bronze medal at the 1938 European Championships. Woellke served with the Order Police. During World War II, ...

, the hauptmann (captain) of the auxiliary police and commander of the first battalion's company, who was on his way to the Minsk airport. He was well known as the shot-put champion of the 1936 Olympics.

Hitler Adolf Hitler (; 20 April 188930 April 1945) was an Austrian-born German politician who was dictator of Germany from 1933 until his death in 1945. He rose to power as the leader of the Nazi Party, becoming the chancellor in 1933 and then ...

knew him personally. Woellke's death enraged the policemen, who suspected local peasants of helping the partisans. On the Pleshchenitsy–

Logoysk Lahoysk ( be, Лаго́йск, Lahojsk, ; russian: link=no, Лого́йск, pl, Łohojsk) is a city in the Minsk Region of Belarus and the administrative center of Lahoysk District. History First chronicled in 1078, Lahoysk was the centre ...

road they stopped 50 inhabitants of the village of Kozyri, and killed 26 of them. Soon the 118th battalion and SS-Sturmbrigade Dirlewanger surrounded the village of

Khatyn Khatyn ( be, Хаты́нь, Chatyń, ; russian: Хаты́нь, ) was a village of 26 houses and 157 inhabitants in Belarus, in Lahoysk Raion, Minsk Region, 50 km away from Minsk. On 22 March 1943, almost the entire population of the vil ...

. Following Körner's orders, the soldiers under Vasiura's direction forced the peasants into a barn which they set on fire. They shot everybody who tried to escape. In total, 149 people died (including 75 children).

Later war crimes in Belarus

Vasiura continued serving in the 118th battalion in Belarus. On 13 May 1943 he commanded a unit in a battle against partisans for the village of Dalkovichi, and on May 27, his battalion executed 78 people in the village of Osovi. Then, within the punitive operation ''Cottbus'', the unit massacred residents of the village of Vileika and its suburbs. Afterwards they burned the villages of Makovie and Uborok, where nobody was left alive, and then executed 50 Jews in the village of Kaminska Sloboda. Vasiura later transferred to the 76th Waffen Grenadier Regiment of the 30th Grenadier SS-Division, where he fought until the end of the war. Supposedly, his regiment was smashed in France, where some part of the 118th Schutzmannschaft battalion went over to French partisans. Körner hid the civilian deaths, reporting to his superiors that the 118th battalion fought only against numerous partisan squads. This was due to the decree, issued on 18 November 1942, that forbade involving locals in criminal liability because many villages were "under partisans' oppression".

Post-war times

While at the Soviet filtration camp, Vasiura hid the fact of his service in the auxiliary police and SS. In 1952, the Kiev Military Tribunal sentenced him to 25 years imprisonment, but on 17 September 1955 he was amnestied in accordance with a decree issued by the

Presidium of the Supreme Soviet The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet (russian: Президиум Верховного Совета, Prezidium Verkhovnogo Soveta) was a body of state power in the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR).taken prisoner by the Germans, and obtained an official certificate confirming this. Vasiura moved to the village

Velyka Dymerka Velyka Dymerka ( uk, Велика Димерка) is an urban-type settlement in Brovary Raion (district) of Kyiv Oblast (province) in northern Ukraine. It was founded in 1552 as a village, and it retained that status until it was upgraded to that ...

( Brovary District,

Kyiv Region Kyiv Oblast ( uk, Ки́ївська о́бласть, translit=Kyïvska oblast), also called Kyivshchyna ( uk, Ки́ївщина), is an oblast (province) in central and northern Ukraine. It surrounds, but does not include, the city of Kyiv, w ...

) and became the economic director of the Velikodymersky

state farm State Farm Insurance is a large group of mutual insurance companies throughout the United States with corporate headquarters in Bloomington, Illinois. Overview State Farm is the largest property and casualty insurance provider, and the la ...

. The farm was quite successful under his leadership. However, farm-workers sometimes complained about Vasiura's heavy-handed management as he would cruelly beat the employees. He built a big house, was encouraged several times for conscientious work, and received a membership of the

Communist Party of the Soviet Union "Hymn of the Bolshevik Party" , headquarters = 4 Staraya Square, Moscow , general_secretary = Vladimir Lenin (first) Mikhail Gorbachev (last) , founded = , banned = , founder = Vladimir Lenin , newspaper ...

(CPSU). In 1984, he was awarded the medal Veteran of Labour. He married, and two of his daughters were school teachers. Vasiura became an honorary cadet of the Kiev Military School of Communications. He would give patriotic speeches in front of cadets and pioneers, making reference to his fictional battle feats, pretending that he was a

veteran.

Detention and trial

In 1985, Vasiura demanded the

Order of the Patriotic War The Order of the Patriotic War (russian: Орден Отечественной войны, Orden Otechestvennoy voiny) is a Soviet military decoration that was awarded to all soldiers in the Soviet armed forces, security troops, and to partisan ...

as a veteran. In the archives, employees found only the fact that he went missing in June 1941. Further searches in the archives forced them to review some results of the interrogation of

Vasyl Meleshko Vasyl Andriyovych Meleshko ( Ukrainian: Василь Андрійович Мелешко; Russian: Василий Андреевич Мелешко, Vasiliy Andreevich Meleshko, April 26, 1917 – 1975) was a Ukrainian war criminal who participat ...

, Vasiura's former fellow soldier, who was executed in 1975 for collaboration with the Nazis and participation in the burning of Khatyn. A criminal case was opened "due to the newly discovered circumstances". In November 1986, Vasiura was arrested and transferred to Minsk. With almost no survivors of the Khatyn massacre, the 26 witnesses were former soldiers of the 118th Schutzmannschaft battalion, most of whom had already served their sentences in Soviet camps and prisons. Trail on Hryhoriy Vasiura - Matherials 1

Trail on Hryhoriy Vasiura - Matherials 1

Vasiura initially denied his guilt; he claimed that he did not participate in the punitive operation and did not kill any civilians. But the witnesses all testified that Vasiura gave them orders to kill the villagers. Transcripts of the court case totaled 14 volumes, and the investigators managed to reconstruct the events of 22 March 1943, with accuracy to the minute. Irrefutable evidence of his participation in these military crimes, particularly in the episode at Khatyn, was found. When Vasiura realized that there was no point denying it, he confessed, shouting, "Yes, I burned your Khatyn!" On 26 December 1986 the Tribunal of the

Belorussian Military District , image = Soviet Union Belorussian Military District.svg , image_size = 300px , caption = The territory of the Byelorussian Military District in 1991. , dates = 28 November 1918 – 6 May 1992 , country = (1918–1920) (1920–1991) (1922� ...

, headed by Judge Viktor Glazkov, sentenced Vasiura to death by shooting. He was executed by shooting at Pishchalauski Castle on 2 October 1987. The trial was not public; only two correspondents – of the newspaper ''

Izvestiya ''Izvestia'' ( rus, Известия, p=ɪzˈvʲesʲtʲɪjə, "The News") is a daily broadsheet newspaper in Russia. Founded in 1917, it was a newspaper of record in the Soviet Union until the Soviet Union's dissolution in 1991, and describes i ...

'' and the agency

BelTA The Belarusian Telegraph Agency or BelTA ( be, Беларускае Тэлеграфнае Агенцтва, russian: link=no, Белорусское Телеграфное Агентство, БелТА) is the state-owned national news agency ...

– were assigned to report on it. They completed their articles but were later informed that the materials would not be published. Glazkov claimed that this happened due to the direct involvement of the general secretary of the

Communist Party of Ukraine The Communist Party of Ukraine, Abbreviation: KPU, from Ukrainian and Russian "" is a banned political party in Ukraine. It was founded in 1993 as the successor to the Soviet-era Communist Party of Ukraine which was banned in 1991 (accord ...

Volodymyr Shcherbytsky Volodymyr Vasylyovych Shcherbytsky, russian: Влади́мир Васи́льевич Щерби́цкий; ''Vladimir Vasilyevich Shcherbitsky'', (17 February 1918 — 16 February 1990) was a Ukrainian Soviet politician. He was First Secr ...

, and the

Communist Party of Byelorussia The Communist Party of Byelorussia (CPB; russian: Коммунистическая партия Белоруссии; be, Камуністычная партыя Беларусі) was the ruling communist party of the Byelorussian Soviet Social ...

First Secretary Mikalai Sliunkov. Both were concerned that a public trial of a Ukrainian war criminal would undermine the official discourse of the brotherhood between Soviet peoples. Vasiura was buried in a forest near Logoysk, in the same place where many of his victims lay. There are papers in the archives which contain the coordinates of the place where his body was buried. He has no grave marker. The Belarusian government declassified the records of the trial in March 2008.

External links

"Declassified History. The Executioners of Khatyn"
a documentary by the channel Russia-Cultura, 2014 (in Russian) *

Bibliography

* Oushakine, Serguei Alex (2013)
"Postcolonial Estrangements: Claiming a Space between Stalin and Hitler"
Rites of Place: Public Commemoration in Russia and Eastern Europe. * Rudling, Per Anders (2011)
"Terror and Local Collaboration in Occupied Belarus: The Case of Schutzmannschaft Battalion 118. Part I: Background"
Historical Yearbook. Bucharest: Romanian Academy "Nicolae Iorga" Historical Institute. VIII: 195–214. * Rudling, Per Anders (2012)
"The Khatyn Massacre in Belorussia: A Historical Controversy Revisited"
(PDF). ''Holocaust and Genocide Studies''. 26 (1): 29–58. * Laputska, Valeria (2016)
World War II Criminals in Belarusian Internet Mass-Media: The Cases of Anthony Sawoniuk and Vladimir Katriuk"
(PDF). ''The Journal of Belarusian Studies''. * Singh, Shantanu (2017)
"Khatyn Massacre: One of The Worst Nazi Atrocities"
''Catharsis Magazine''.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Vasiura, Hryhoriy 1915 births 1987 deaths People from Chyhyryn People from Kiev Governorate Communist Party of the Soviet Union members Waffen-SS personnel Executed Ukrainian people Executed mass murderers Executed Soviet collaborators with Nazi Germany Ukrainian people convicted of war crimes Soviet people convicted of murder Ukrainian people convicted of murder Ukrainian mass murderers Soviet mass murderers People executed by the Soviet Union People executed by the Soviet Union by firing squad People executed by firing squad Ukrainian people executed by the Soviet Union Ukrainian people executed abroad Soviet military personnel of World War II from Ukraine Soviet defectors Ukrainian defectors Executed Ukrainian collaborators with Nazi Germany People executed for treason against the Soviet Union Russian Waffen-SS personnel People from Kyiv Oblast

Biography

Early life and Soviet military

Service in the ranks of punitive forces

Khatyn massacre

Later war crimes in Belarus

Post-war times

Detention and trial

See also

External links

Bibliography

References