HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

The war crimes and crimes against humanity which were perpetrated by the Soviet Union and its
armed forces A military, also known collectively as armed forces, is a heavily armed, highly organized force primarily intended for warfare. It is typically authorized and maintained by a sovereign state, with its members identifiable by their distinct ...
from 1919 to 1991 include acts which were committed by the Red Army (later called the Soviet Army) as well as acts which were committed by the NKVD, including acts which were committed by the NKVD's
Internal Troops The Internal Troops, full name Internal Troops of the Ministry for Internal Affairs (MVD) (russian: Внутренние войска Министерства внутренних дел, Vnutrenniye Voiska Ministerstva Vnutrennikh Del; abbreviat ...
. In some cases, these acts were committed upon the orders of the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin in pursuance of the early Soviet Government's policy of '' Red Terror''. In other instances they were committed without orders by Soviet troops against prisoners of war or civilians of countries that had been in
armed conflict War is an intense armed conflict between states, governments, societies, or paramilitary groups such as mercenaries, insurgents, and militias. It is generally characterized by extreme violence, destruction, and mortality, using regular o ...
with the USSR, or they were committed during partisan warfare. A significant number of these incidents occurred in Northern, Central, and Eastern Europe recently before, and during, the aftermath of World War II, involving summary executions and the mass murder of prisoners of war, such as in the
Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
and mass rape by troops of the Red Army in territories they occupied. When the
Allied Powers of World War II The Allies, formally referred to as the United Nations from 1942, were an international military coalition formed during the Second World War (1939–1945) to oppose the Axis powers, led by Nazi Germany, Imperial Japan, and Fascist Ita ...
founded the post-war International Military Tribunal to examine war crimes committed during the conflict by Nazi Germany, with officials from the Soviet Union taking an active part in the judicial processes, there was no examination of Allied Forces' actions and no charges were ever brought against its troops, because they were also an undefeated power which then held Europe under military occupation, marring the historical authority of the Tribunal's activity as being, in part,
victor's justice Victor's justice is a term used to refer to a distorted application of justice to the defeated by the victorious party following an armed conflict. Victor's justice generally involves excessive or unjustified punishment of defeated parties and l ...
. In the 1990s and 2000s, some war crimes trials held in the Baltic states led to prosecution of Russian nationals for crimes against humanity committed during or shortly after World War II, including killings or deportations of civilians. Today, the Russian government engages in historical negationism. Russian media refers to the crimes against humanity and war crimes as a "Western myth", in Russian history textbooks, the atrocities are either altered to portray the Soviets positively or omitted entirely. In 2017, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged the "horrors of Stalinism", but he also criticized the "excessive
demonization Demonization or demonisation is the reinterpretation of polytheistic deities as evil, lying demons by other religions, generally by the monotheistic and henotheistic ones. The term has since been expanded to refer to any characterization of individ ...
of Stalin" by "Russia's enemies".


Background

The Soviet Union did not recognize Imperial Russia's signing of the
Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 The Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 are a series of international treaties and declarations negotiated at two international peace conferences at The Hague in the Netherlands. Along with the Geneva Conventions, the Hague Conventions were amon ...
as binding, and as a result, it refused to recognize them until 1955. This created a situation in which war crimes by the Soviet armed forces could eventually be rationalized. The Soviet refusal to recognize the Hague Conventions also gave Nazi Germany the rationale for its inhuman treatment of captured Soviet military personnel.


Before World War II


Red Army and pogroms

The early Soviet leaders publicly denounced
anti-Semitism Antisemitism (also spelled anti-semitism or anti-Semitism) is hostility to, prejudice towards, or discrimination against Jews. A person who holds such positions is called an antisemite. Antisemitism is considered to be a form of racism. Antis ...
,William Korey, ''The Origins and Development of Soviet Anti-Semitism: An Analysis.'' Slavic Review, Vol. 31, No. 1 (Mar., 1972), pp. 111–135; included in: William Korey,
Anti-Semitism in Russia
', New York: Viking, 1973.
William Korey wrote: "Anti-Jewish discrimination had become an integral part of Soviet state policy ever since the late thirties." Efforts were made by Soviet authorities to contain anti-Jewish
bigotry Discrimination is the act of making unjustified distinctions between people based on the groups, classes, or other categories to which they belong or are perceived to belong. People may be discriminated on the basis of race, gender, age, relig ...
notably during the
Russian civil war , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
, whenever the Red Army units perpetrated
pogrom A pogrom () is a violent riot incited with the aim of massacring or expelling an ethnic or religious group, particularly Jews. The term entered the English language from Russian to describe 19th- and 20th-century attacks on Jews in the Russian ...
s, as well as during the Soviet-Polish War of 1919–1920 at
Baranovichi Baranavichy ( ; be, Бара́навічы, Łacinka: , ; russian: Бара́новичи; yi, באַראַנאָוויטש; pl, Baranowicze) is a city in the Brest Region of western Belarus, with a population (as of 2019) of 179,000. It is no ...
. Only a small number of pogroms were attributed to the Red Army, with the vast majority of the 'collectively violent' acts in the period having been committed by
anti-Communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and the ...
and
nationalist Nationalism is an idea and movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, nationalism tends to promote the interests of a particular nation (as in a in-group and out-group, group of peo ...
forces. The pogroms were condemned by the Red Army high command and guilty units were disarmed, while individual pogromists were court-martialed. Those found guilty could and did face execution. Although pogroms by Ukrainian units of the Red Army still occurred after this, the Jews regarded the Red Army as the only force which was willing to protect them. It is estimated that 3,450 Jews or 2.3 percent of the Jewish victims killed during the Russian Civil War were murdered by the Bolshevik armies. In comparison, according to the
Morgenthau Report The Morgenthau report, officially the ''Report of the Mission of the United States to Poland'', was a report compiled by Henry Morgenthau, Sr., as member of the "Mission of the United States to Poland" which was appointed by the American Commission ...
, a total of about 300 Jews lost their lives in all incidents involving Polish responsibility. The commission also found that the Polish military and civil authorities did their best to prevent such incidents and their recurrence in the future. The Morgenthau report stated that some forms of discrimination against Jews were of a political rather than an anti-Semitic nature and it specifically avoided using the term "pogrom", noting that the term's use was applied to a wide range of excesses, and it also had no specific definition.


The Red Army and the NKVD

On 6 February 1922 the Cheka was replaced by the State Political Administration or OGPU, a section of the NKVD. The declared function of the NKVD was to protect the state security of the Soviet Union, which was accomplished by the large scale political persecution of "class enemies". The Red Army often gave support to the NKVD in the implementation of
political repression Political repression is the act of a state entity controlling a citizenry by force for political reasons, particularly for the purpose of restricting or preventing the citizenry's ability to take part in the political life of a society, thereb ...
s. As an internal security force and a prison guard contingent of the
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
, the Internal Troops repressed political dissidents and engaged in war crimes during periods of military hostilities throughout Soviet history. They were specifically responsible for maintaining the political regime in the Gulag and conducting mass deportations and
forced resettlement Population transfer or resettlement is a type of mass migration, often imposed by state policy or international authority and most frequently on the basis of ethnicity or religion but also due to economic development. Banishment or exile is a ...
. The latter targeted a number of ethnic groups that the Soviet authorities presumed to be hostile to its policies and likely to collaborate with the enemy, including
Chechens The Chechens (; ce, Нохчий, , Old Chechen: Нахчой, ''Naxçoy''), historically also known as ''Kisti'' and ''Durdzuks'', are a Northeast Caucasian ethnic group of the Nakh peoples native to the North Caucasus in Eastern Europe. "Europe ...
,
Crimean Tatars , flag = Flag of the Crimean Tatar people.svg , flag_caption = Flag of Crimean Tatars , image = Love, Peace, Traditions.jpg , caption = Crimean Tatars in traditional clothing in front of the Khan's Palace ...
, and Koreans. Applebaum, Anne (2003), '' Gulag: A History.'' Doubleday. , pg 583: "both archives and memoirs indicate that it was a common practice in many camps to release prisoners who were on the point of dying, thereby lowering camp death statistics."


World War II

War crimes by Soviet armed forces against civilians and prisoners of war in the territories occupied by the USSR between 1939 and 1941 in regions including Western Ukraine, the Baltic states and
Bessarabia Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds o ...
in Romania, along with war crimes in 1944–1945, have been ongoing issues within these countries. Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union, a more systematic, locally controlled discussion of these events has taken place. As the Red Army withdrew after the German attack of 1941 which is known as Operation Barbarossa, numerous reports of war crimes committed by Soviet armed forces against captured German Wehrmacht and Luftwaffe soldiers from the very beginning of hostilities were documented in thousands of files of the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau which was established by Nazi Germany in September 1939 to investigate violations of the Hague and Geneva conventions by Germany's enemies. The targets included both collaborators with Germany and the members of anti-Communist resistance movements such as the Ukrainian Insurgent Army ( UPA) in Ukraine, the
Forest Brothers The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an armed struggle which was waged by the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian partisans, called the Forest Brothers (also: the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars"; et, metsavennad, lv, me� ...
in Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, and the Polish
Armia Krajowa The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) est ...
. The NKVD also conducted the
Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
, summarily executing over 20,000 Polish military officer prisoners in April and May 1940. The Soviets deployed mustard gas bombs during the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang. Civilians were killed by conventional bombs during the invasion.


Estonia

In accordance with the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact Estonia was annexed by the Soviet Union on 6 August 1940 and renamed the Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic. The Estonian standing army was broken up, its officers executed or deported. In 1941, some 34,000 Estonians were drafted into the Red Army, of whom less than 30% survived the war. No more than half of those men were used for military service. The rest were sent to labour battalions where around 12,000 died, mainly in the early months of the war. After it became clear that the German invasion of Estonia would be successful, political prisoners who could not be evacuated were executed by the NKVD, so that they would not be able to make contact with the Nazi government. More than 300,000 citizens of Estonia, almost a third of the population at the time, were affected by deportations, arrests, execution and other acts of repression. As a result of the
Soviet occupation During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into two different ...
, Estonia permanently lost at least 200,000 people or 20% of its population to repression, exodus and war. Soviet political repressions in Estonia were met by an armed resistance by the
Forest Brothers The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an armed struggle which was waged by the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian partisans, called the Forest Brothers (also: the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars"; et, metsavennad, lv, me� ...
, composed of former conscripts into the German military, Omakaitse militia and volunteers in the Finnish Infantry Regiment 200 who fought a
guerrilla war Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare in which small groups of combatants, such as paramilitary personnel, armed civilians, or irregulars, use military tactics including ambushes, sabotage, raids, petty warfare, hit-and-run tactics ...
, which was not completely suppressed until the late 1950s.Valge raamat
pp. 25–30
In addition to the expected human and material losses suffered due to the fighting, until its end this conflict led to the deportation of tens of thousands of people, along with hundreds of political prisoners and thousands of civilians lost their lives. Stalinism resulted in five times more casualties among the Estonians than Hitler's rule.


Mass deportations

On 14 June 1941, and the following two days, 9,254 to 10,861 people, mostly urban residents, of them over 5,000 women and over 2,500 children under 16,Conclusions of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity
, historycommission.ee; accessed 13 December 2016.
Laar, Mart (2006)
Deportation from Estonia in 1941 and 1949
. ''Estonia Today'': Fact Sheet of the Press and Information Department, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs (June 2006).
439 Jews (more than 10% of the Estonian Jewish population) were deported, mostly to
Kirov Oblast Kirov Oblast (russian: Ки́ровская о́бласть, ''Kirovskaya oblast'') is a federal subject of Russia (an oblast) in Eastern Europe. Its administrative center is the city of Kirov. Population: 1,341,312 ( 2010 Census). Geography N ...
, Novosibirsk Oblast or prisons. Deportations were predominantly to Siberia and Kazakhstan by means of railroad cattle cars, without prior announcement, while deported were given few night hours at best to pack their belongings and separated from their families, usually also sent to the east. The procedure was established by the Serov Instructions. Estonians residing in Leningrad Oblast had already been subjected to deportation since 1935.


Destruction battalions

In 1941, to implement Stalin's
scorched earth policy A scorched-earth policy is a military strategy that aims to destroy anything that might be useful to the enemy. Any assets that could be used by the enemy may be targeted, which usually includes obvious weapons, transport vehicles, communi ...
, destruction battalions were formed in the western regions of the Soviet Union. In Estonia, they killed thousands of people including a large proportion of women and children, while burning down dozens of villages, schools and public buildings. A school boy named Tullio Lindsaar had all of the bones in his hands broken then was bayoneted for hoisting the
flag of Estonia The flag of Estonia ( et, Eesti lipp) is a tricolour featuring three equal horizontal bands of blue (top), black (middle), and white (bottom). In Estonian it is colloquially called the (). The tricolour was already in wide use as the symbol ...
. Mauricius Parts, son of the Estonian War of Independence veteran
Karl Parts Karl Parts VR I/1, VR II/2, VR II/3 (15 July 1886 in Palupera Commune, Estonia – 1 September 1941 in Kirov, Soviet Union) was an Estonian military commander during the Estonian War of Independence. In 1915, he graduated from Peterhof Mili ...
, was doused in acid. In August 1941, all residents of the village of Viru-Kabala were killed including a two-year-old child and a six-day-old infant. A partisan war broke out in response to the atrocities of the destruction battalions, with tens of thousands of men forming the
Forest Brothers The Guerrilla war in the Baltic states was an armed struggle which was waged by the Latvian, Lithuanian, and Estonian partisans, called the Forest Brothers (also: the "Brothers of the Wood" and the "Forest Friars"; et, metsavennad, lv, me� ...
to protect the local population from these battalions. Occasionally, the battalions burned people alive. The destruction battalions murdered 1,850 people in Estonia. Almost all of them were partisans or unarmed civilians. Another example of the destruction battalions' actions is the
Kautla massacre The Battle of Kautla ( et, Kautla lahing, ''Kautla veresaun'' or ''Kautla veretöö'') was a battle between Soviet destruction battalions and Estonian Forest Brothers in Kautla, Estonia in July 1941. It included series of murders of civilians ...
, where twenty civilians were murdered and tens of farms destroyed. Many of the people were killed after torture. The low toll of human deaths in comparison with the number of burned farms is due to the
Erna long-range reconnaissance group The Erna long-range reconnaissance group ( et, Erna luuregrupp) was a Finnish Army unit of Estonian volunteers, that fulfilled reconnaissance duties in Estonia behind Red Army lines during World War II. The unit was formed by Finnish military i ...
breaking the Red Army blockade on the area, allowing many civilians to escape.


Latvia

On 23 August 1939, the Soviet Union and Germany signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop non-aggression agreement. Latvia was included in the Soviet sphere of interest. On 17 June 1940, Latvia was occupied by Soviet forces. The Kārlis Ulmanis government was removed, and new illegitimate elections were held on 21 June 1940 with only one party listed, "electing" a fake parliament which made resolution to join the Soviet Union, with the resolution having already been drawn up in Moscow prior the election. Latvia became part of the Soviet Union on 5 August, and on 25 August all people in Latvia became citizens of the Soviet Union. The Ministry of Foreign affairs was closed isolating Latvia from the rest of the world. On 14 June 1941, thousands of people were taken from their homes, loaded onto freight trains and taken to Siberia. Whole families, women, children and old people were sent to labor camps in Siberia. The crime was perpetrated by the Soviet occupation regime on the orders of high authorities in Moscow. Prior the deportation, the Peoples Commissariat established operational groups who performed arrests, search and seizure of the property. Arrests took place in all parts in Latvia including rural areas.


Lithuania

Lithuania, and the other
Baltic States The Baltic states, et, Balti riigid or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term, which currently is used to group three countries: Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, ...
, fell victim to the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. This agreement was signed between the USSR and Germany in August 1939; leading first to Lithuania being invaded by the Red Army on 15 June 1940, and then to its annexation and incorporation into the Soviet Union on 3 August 1940. The Soviet annexation resulted in mass terror, the denial of civil liberties, the destruction of the country's economic system and the suppression of Lithuanian culture. Between 1940 and 1941, thousands of Lithuanians were arrested and hundreds of political prisoners were arbitrarily executed. More than 17,000 people were deported to Siberia in June 1941. After the German attack on the Soviet Union, the incipient Soviet political apparatus was either destroyed or retreated eastward. Lithuania was then occupied by Nazi Germany for a little over three years. In 1944, the Soviet Union reoccupied Lithuania. Following World War II and the subsequent suppression of the Lithuanian Forest Brothers, the Soviet authorities executed thousands of resistance fighters and civilians whom they accused of aiding them. Some 300,000 Lithuanians were deported or sentenced to terms in prison camps on political grounds. It is estimated that Lithuania lost almost 780,000 citizens as a result of the Soviet occupation, of these around 440,000 were war refugees. The estimated death toll in Soviet prisons and camps between 1944 and 1953 was at least 14,000. The estimated death toll among deportees between 1945 and 1958 was 20,000, including 5,000 children. During the restoration of Lithuanian independence in 1990 and 1991, the Soviet army killed 13 people in Vilnius during the January Events.


Poland


1939–1941

In September 1939, the Red Army invaded eastern Poland and occupied it in accordance with the secret protocols of the Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. The Soviets later forcefully occupied the Baltic States and parts of Romania, including
Bessarabia Bessarabia (; Gagauz: ''Besarabiya''; Romanian: ''Basarabia''; Ukrainian: ''Бессара́бія'') is a historical region in Eastern Europe, bounded by the Dniester river on the east and the Prut river on the west. About two thirds o ...
and Northern Bukovina. German historian Thomas UrbanWorldCat
Thomas Urban.
Library catalog. Holdings. Retrieved December 28, 2014.
writes that the Soviet policy towards the people who fell under their control in occupied areas was harsh, showing strong elements of
ethnic cleansing Ethnic cleansing is the systematic forced removal of ethnic, racial, and religious groups from a given area, with the intent of making a region ethnically homogeneous. Along with direct removal, extermination, deportation or population transfer ...
.Thomas Urban,
Der Verlust
', p. 9 (ibidem): "Massendeportationen nach Rußland. Seit dem frühen Morgen zogen Wagen mit ganzen polnischen Familien durch die Stadt zum Bahnhof. Man schaffte reichere polnische Familien, Familien von national gesinnten Anhängern, polnischen Patrioten, die Intelligenz weg, Familien von Häftlingen in sowjetischen Gefängnissen, es war schwer, sich auch nur ein Bild davon zu machen, welche Kategorie Menschen deportiert wurden. Weinen, Stöhnen und schreckliche Verzweiflung in polnischen Seelen ..Sowjets freuen sich lautstark und drohen damit, daß bald alle Polen deportiert werden. Und man könnte das erwarten, weil sie den ganzen 20. Juni über und am folgenden 21. Juni
941 Year 941 ( CMXLI) was a common year starting on Friday (link will display the full calendar) of the Julian calendar. Events By place Byzantine Empire * May – September – Rus'–Byzantine War: The Rus' and their allies, th ...
pausenlos Menschen zum Bahnhof brachten." Alojza Piesiewiczówna.
The NKVD task forces followed the Red Army to remove 'hostile elements' from the conquered territories in what was known as the 'revolution by hanging'. Polish historian, Prof.
Tomasz Strzembosz Tomasz Strzembosz (11 September 1930 – 16 October 2004) was a Polish historian and writer who specialized in the World War II history of Poland. He was a professor at the Polish Academy of Sciences Institute of Political Studies, in Warsaw; a ...
, has noted parallels between the Nazi
Einsatzgruppen (, ; also ' task forces') were (SS) paramilitary death squads of Nazi Germany that were responsible for mass murder, primarily by shooting, during World War II (1939–1945) in German-occupied Europe. The had an integral role in the imp ...
and these Soviet units. Many civilians tried to escape from the Soviet NKVD round-ups; those who failed were taken into custody and afterwards they were deported to Siberia and vanished in the
Gulag The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
s. Thomas Urban,
Der Verlust
' (PDF file, direct download), p. 145. Verlag C. H. Beck 2004, . "Revolution durch den Strick."
Torture was used on a wide scale in various prisons, especially in those prisons that were located in small towns. Prisoners were scalded with boiling water in Bobrka; in Przemyslany, people's noses, ears, and fingers were cut off and their eyes were also put out; in
Czortków Chortkiv ( uk, Чортків; pl, Czortków; yi, ''Chortkov'') is a city in Chortkiv Raion, Ternopil Oblast (province) in western Ukraine. It is the administrative center of the Chortkiv Raion (district), housing the district's local admini ...
, the breasts of female inmates were cut off; and in
Drohobycz Drohobych ( uk, Дрого́бич, ; pl, Drohobycz; yi, דראָהאָביטש;) is a city of regional significance in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. It is the administrative center of Drohobych Raion and hosts the administration of Drohobych urban ...
, victims were bound together with barbed wire. Similar atrocities occurred in Sambor, Stanisławów, Stryj, and
Złoczów Zolochiv ( uk, Золочів, pl, Złoczów, german: Solotschiw, yi, זלאָטשאָוו, ''Zlotshov'') is a small city of district significance in Lviv Oblast of Ukraine, the administrative center of Zolochiv Raion. It hosts the administra ...
. Jan T. Gross. ''Revolution From Abroad: The Soviet Conquest of Poland's Western Ukraine and Western Belorussia.'' Princeton University Press, 2002. pp. 181–182 According to historian, Prof. Jan T. Gross: According to sociologist, Prof. Tadeusz Piotrowski, during the years from 1939 to 1941, nearly 1.5 million persons (including both local inhabitants and refugees from German-occupied Poland) were deported from the Soviet-controlled areas of former eastern Poland deep into the Soviet Union, of whom 58.0% were Poles, 19.4% Jews and the remainder other ethnic nationalities. Only a small number of these deportees returned to their homes after the war, when their homelands were annexed by the Soviet Union. According to American professor
Carroll Quigley Carroll Quigley (; November 9, 1910 – January 3, 1977) was an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations. He is remembered for his teaching work as a professor at Georgetown University, and for his writing about ...
, at least one third of the 320,000 Polish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army in 1939 were murdered.
Carroll Quigley Carroll Quigley (; November 9, 1910 – January 3, 1977) was an American historian and theorist of the evolution of civilizations. He is remembered for his teaching work as a professor at Georgetown University, and for his writing about ...
, ''Tragedy & Hope: A History of the World in Our Time'', G. S. G. & Associates, Incorporated; New Ed edition, June 1975,
It's estimated that between 10 and 35 thousand prisoners were killed either in prisons or on prison trail to the Soviet Union in the few days after the 22 June 1941 German attack on the Soviets (prisons:
Brygidki Brygidki ( uk, Бригідки) is a prison in the building of a former Bridgettine nunnery in Lviv, Ukraine. History The monastery was founded in 1614 at the behest of Anna Fastkowska and Anna Poradowska for girls from noble families. After the ...
,
Zolochiv Zolochiv, ( ua, Золочів) may refer to the following places in Ukraine: * Zolochiv, Lviv Oblast Zolochiv ( uk, Золочів, pl, Złoczów, german: Solotschiw, yi, זלאָטשאָוו, ''Zlotshov'') is a small city of district signifi ...
,
Dubno Dubno ( uk, Ду́бно) is a city and municipality located on the Ikva River in Rivne Oblast (province) of western Ukraine. It serves as the administrative center of Dubno Raion (district). The city is located on intersection of two major ...
, Drohobych, and so on).


1944–1945

In Poland, German
Nazi atrocities The governments of the German Empire and Nazi Germany (under Adolf Hitler) ordered, organized and condoned a substantial number of war crimes, first in the Herero and Namaqua genocide and then in the First and Second World Wars. The most nota ...
ended by late 1944, but they were replaced by Soviet oppression with the advance of Red Army forces. Soviet soldiers often engaged in plunder, rape and other crimes against the Poles, causing the population to fear and hate the regime.Grzegorz Baziur, "Armia Czerwona na Pomorzu Gdańskim 1945–1947" ''Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej'' 2002, nr 7Janusz Wróbel, "Wyzwoliciele czy Okupanci. Żołnierze Sowieccy w Łódzkim 1945–1946" ''Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej'' 2002, nr 7.Łukasz Kamiński "Obdarci,głodni,żli, Sowieci w oczach Polaków 1944–1948" ''Biuletyn Instytutu Pamięci Narodowej'' 2002, nr 7Mariusz Lesław Krogulski, "Okupacja w imię sojuszu" Poland 2001. Soldiers of the
Polish Home Army The Home Army ( pl, Armia Krajowa, abbreviated AK; ) was the dominant resistance movement in German-occupied Poland during World War II. The Home Army was formed in February 1942 from the earlier Związek Walki Zbrojnej (Armed Resistance) es ...
(Armia Krajowa) were persecuted and imprisoned by Russian forces as a matter of course.From reviews of
Norman Davies Ivor Norman Richard Davies (born 8 June 1939) is a Welsh-Polish historian, known for his publications on the history of Europe, Poland and the United Kingdom. He has a special interest in Central and Eastern Europe and is UNESCO Professor ...
, '' God's Playground'', Columbia, . "On the 22 August the NKVD was ordered to arrest and disarm all members of the Home Army who fell into their hands." Carlo D'Est
Rising '44': Betraying Warsaw
New York Times, July 25, 2004. "While t the same timethe NKVD under General Ivan Serov was unleashing another brutal purge against the Poles in the liberated territories of Poland." Donald Davidson
Rising '44' by Norman Davies
London, Macmillan, 2004. . Retrieved December 28, 2014.
Most victims were deported to the gulags in the Donetsk region.Andrzej Paczkowski

pp. 372-375 (in) ''Black Book of Communism. Crimes, Terror, Repression.'' Harvard University Press, London, 1999. "The territories newly annexed by the USSR in the autumn of 1944 subsequently witnessed arrests on a massive scale followed by deportations to the gulags or transfer to forced-labor sites, particularly in the Donetsk region." Retrieved December 28, 2014.
In 1945 alone, the number of members of the Polish Underground State who were deported to Siberia and various labor camps in the Soviet Union reached 50,000.''Poland's holocaust'' By Tadeusz Piotrowski. Page 131.
.
Rzeczpospolita, 02.10.04 Nr 232,
Wielkie polowanie: Prześladowania akowców w Polsce Ludowej
' (Great hunt: the persecutions of AK soldiers in the People's Republic of Poland). Retrieved June 7, 2006.
Units of the Red Army carried out campaigns against Polish partisans and civilians. During the Augustów chase in 1945, more than 2,000 Poles were captured and about 600 of them are presumed to have died in Soviet custody. For more information about postwar resistance in Poland see the
Cursed soldiers The "cursed soldiers" (also known as "doomed soldiers", "accursed soldiers" or "damned soldiers"; pl, żołnierze wyklęci) or "indomitable soldiers" ( pl, żołnierze niezłomni) is a term applied to a variety of anti-Soviet and anti-communist ...
.Agnieszka Domanowska,
Mały Katyń. 65 lat od obławy augustowskiej
' (Little Katyn. The 65 anniversary of Augustow roundup), Gazeta Wyborcza, 2010-07-20.
It was a common Soviet practice to accuse their victims of being fascists in order to justify their death sentences. All the perversion of this Soviet tactic lay in the fact that practically all of the accused had in reality been fighting against the forces of Nazi Germany since September 1939. At that time the Soviets were still collaborating with Nazi Germany for more than 20 months before Operation Barbarossa started. Precisely therefore these kinds of Poles were judged capable of resisting the Soviets, in the same way that they had resisted the Nazis. After the War, a more elaborate appearance of justice was given under the jurisdiction of the
Polish People's Republic The Polish People's Republic ( pl, Polska Rzeczpospolita Ludowa, PRL) was a country in Central Europe that existed from 1947 to 1989 as the predecessor of the modern Republic of Poland. With a population of approximately 37.9 million near ...
orchestrated by the Soviets in the form of mock trials. These were organized after victims had been arrested under false charges by the NKVD or other Soviet controlled security organisations such as the Ministry of Public Security. At least 6,000 political death sentences were issued, and the majority of them were carried out. It is estimated that over 20,000 people died in Soviet prisons . Famous examples include
Witold Pilecki Witold Pilecki (13 May 190125 May 1948; ; codenames ''Roman Jezierski, Tomasz Serafiński, Druh, Witold'') was a Polish World War II cavalry officer, intelligence agent, and resistance leader. As a youth, Pilecki joined Polish underground s ...
or Emil August Fieldorf.Andrzej Kaczyński (02.10.04), (Great hunt: The persecutions of AK soldiers in the People's Republic of Poland), Rzeczpospolita, Nr 232, last accessed 30 September 2013. . The attitude of Soviet servicemen towards ethnic Poles was better than their attitude towards the Germans, but it was not entirely better. The scale of rape of Polish women in 1945 led to a pandemic of sexually transmitted diseases. Although the total number of victims remains a matter of guessing, the Polish state archives and statistics of the Ministry of Health indicate that it might have exceeded 100,000. 
Dr. Marcin Zaremba
of Polish Academy of Sciences, the co-author of the article cited above – is a historian from Warsaw University Department of History Institute of 20th Century History
cited 196 times in Google scholar
. Zaremba published a number of scholarly monographs, among them: ''Komunizm, legitymizacja, nacjonalizm'' (426 pages

''Marzec 1968'' (274 pages), ''Dzień po dniu w raportach SB'' (274 pages), ''Immobilienwirtschaft'' (German, 359 pages), se
inauthor:"Marcin Zaremba" in Google Books.

Joanna Ostrowska
of Warsaw, Poland, is a lecturer at Departments of Gender Studies at two universities: the Jagiellonian University of Kraków, the University of Warsaw as well as, at the Polish Academy of Sciences. She is the author of scholarly works on the subject of mass rape and forced prostitution in Poland in the Second World War (i.e. "Prostytucja jako praca przymusowa w czasie II Wojny Światowej. Próba odtabuizowania zjawiska," "Wielkie przemilczanie. Prostytucja w obozach koncentracyjnych," etc.), a recipient of Socrates-Erasmus research grant from Humboldt Universitat zu Berlin, and a historian associated with
Krytyka Polityczna ''Krytyka Polityczna'' (; "The Political Critique") is a circle of Polish left-wing intellectuals gathered around a journal of the same title founded by Sławomir Sierakowski in 2002 but is open to voices from across the political spectrum. The n ...
.
In Kraków, the Soviet entry into the city was accompanied by mass rapes of Polish women and girls, as well as the plunder of private property by Red Army soldiers. This behavior reached such a scale that even Polish Communists installed by the Soviet Union composed a letter of protest to Joseph Stalin himself, while
church Church may refer to: Religion * Church (building), a building for Christian religious activities * Church (congregation), a local congregation of a Christian denomination * Church service, a formalized period of Christian communal worship * Chri ...
Masses were held in expectation of a Soviet withdrawal. The article concerning World War II history of the city ("Occupied Krakow"), makes references to the fifth volume o
''History of Krakow''
entitled "Kraków in the years 1939-1945,"
see bibliogroup:"Dzieje Krakowa: Kraków w latach 1945-1989" in Google Books
() written by Chwalba from a historical perspective, als
cited in Google scholar.
, url-status=bot: unknown , title=OKUPOWANY KRAKÓW - z prorektorem Andrzejem Chwalbą rozmawia Rita Pagacz-Moczarska, archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080524235517/http://www3.uj.edu.pl/alma/alma/64/01/02.html , archive-date=May 24, 2008
Red Army was also involved in mass-scale looting at liberated territories.


Finland

Between 1941 and 1944, Soviet partisan units conducted raids deep inside Finnish territory, attacking villages and other civilian targets. In November 2006, photographs showing Soviet atrocities were declassified by the Finnish authorities. These include images of slain women and children. The partisans usually executed their military and civilian prisoners after a minor interrogation. Around 3,500 Finnish prisoners of war, of whom five were women, were captured by the Red Army. Their mortality rate is estimated to have been about 40 percent. The most common causes of death were hunger, cold and oppressive transportation.


Soviet Union

On 9 August 1937, NKVD order 00485 was adopted to target "subversive activities of Polish intelligence" in the Soviet Union, but was later expanded to also include Latvians, Germans, Estonians, Finns, Greeks, Iranians and Chinese.


Deportation of kulaks

Large numbers of
kulak Kulak (; russian: кула́к, r=kulák, p=kʊˈlak, a=Ru-кулак.ogg; plural: кулаки́, ''kulakí'', 'fist' or 'tight-fisted'), also kurkul () or golchomag (, plural: ), was the term which was used to describe peasants who owned ove ...
s regardless of their nationality were resettled to Siberia and Central Asia. According to data from Soviet archives, which were published in 1990, 1,803,392 people were sent to labor colonies and camps in 1930 and 1931, and 1,317,022 reached the destination. Deportations on a smaller scale continued after 1931. Data from the Soviet archives indicates 2.4 million Kulaks were deported from 1930 to 1934. The reported number of kulaks and their relatives who had died in labour colonies from 1932 to 1940 was 389,521. Simon Sebag Montefiore estimated that 15 million kulaks and their families were deported by 1937, during the deportation many people died, but the full number is not known.


Retreat by Soviet forces in 1941

Deportations, summary executions of political prisoners and the burning of foodstocks and villages took place when the Red Army retreated before the advancing Axis forces in 1941. In the Baltic States, Belarus, Ukraine, and Bessarabia, the NKVD and attached units of the Red Army massacred prisoners and political opponents before fleeing from the advancing Axis forces.


Deportation of Greeks

The prosecution of Greeks in the USSR was gradual: at first the authorities shut down the Greek schools, cultural centres, and publishing houses. Then, in 1942, 1944 and 1949, the NKVD indiscriminately arrested all Greek men 16 years old or older. All Greeks who were wealthy or self-employed professionals were sought for prosecution first. This affected mostly Pontic Greeks and other Minorities in the Krasnodar Krai and along the Black Sea coast. By one estimate, around 50,000 Greeks were deported.Το πογκρόμ κατά των Ελλήνων της ΕΣΣΔ
''ΕΛΛΑΔΑ'', 09.12.2007
On 25 September 1956, MVD Order N 0402 was adopted and defined the removal of restrictions towards the deported peoples in the special settlements. Afterward, the Soviet Greeks started returning to their homes, or emigrating towards Greece.


Deportation of Kalmyks

During the
Kalmyk deportations of 1943 The Kalmyk deportations of 1943, codename Operation Ulusy () was the Soviet deportation of more than 93,000 people of Kalmyk nationality, and non-Kalmyk women with Kalmyk husbands, on 28–31 December 1943. Families and individuals were forci ...
, codenamed Operation
Ulus Ulus may refer to: Places * Ulus, Bartın, a district in Bartin Province, Turkey *Ulus, Ankara, an important quarter in central Ankara, Turkey ** Ulus (Ankara Metro), an underground station of the Ankara Metro Other uses * ''Ulus'' (newspaper), a ...
sy (Операция "Улусы"), the deportation of most people of the Kalmyk nationality in the Soviet Union (USSR), and Russian women married to Kalmyks, but excluding Kalmyk women married to men of other nationalities, around half of all (97-98,000) Kalmyk people deported to Siberia died before being allowed to return home in 1957.


Deportation of Crimean Tatars

After the retreat of the ''Wehrmacht'' from Crimea, the NKVD deported around 200,000 Crimean Tatars from the peninsula on 18 May 1944.


Deportation of Ingrian Finns

By 1939 the Ingrian Finnish population had decreased to about 50,000, which was about 43% of 1928 population figures, Taagepera (2013), p. 144 and the Ingrian Finn national district was abolished., Taagepera (2013), p. 143 Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the
Leningrad Blockade The siege of Leningrad (russian: links=no, translit=Blokada Leningrada, Блокада Ленинграда; german: links=no, Leningrader Blockade; ) was a prolonged military blockade undertaken by the Axis powers against the Soviet Union, So ...
, in early 1942 all 20,000 Ingrian Finns remaining in Soviet-controlled territory were deported to Siberia. Most of the Ingrian Finns together with Votes and Izhorians living in German-occupied territory were evacuated to Finland in 1943–1944. After Finland
sued for peace Suing for peace is an act by a warring party to initiate a peace process. Rationales "Suing for", in this older sense of the phrase, means "pleading or petitioning for". Suing for peace is usually initiated by the losing party in an attempt to ...
, it was forced to return the evacuees. Soviet authorities did not allow the 55,733 people who had been handed over to settle back in Ingria, and instead deported them to central regions of Russia. Scott and Liikanen (2013), pp. 59–60 The main regions of Ingrian Finns forced settlement were the interior areas of Siberia,
Central Russia Central Russia is, broadly, the various areas in European Russia. Historically, the area of Central Russia varied based on the purpose for which it is being used. It may, for example, refer to European Russia (except the North Caucasus and ...
, and
Tajikistan Tajikistan (, ; tg, Тоҷикистон, Tojikiston; russian: Таджикистан, Tadzhikistan), officially the Republic of Tajikistan ( tg, Ҷумҳурии Тоҷикистон, Jumhurii Tojikiston), is a landlocked country in Centr ...
. Evmenov and Muslimov (2010), p. 92


Deportation of Chechens and Ingush

In 1943 and 1944, the Soviet government accused several entire ethnic groups of Axis collaboration. As a punishment, several entire ethnic groups were deported, mostly to Central Asia and Siberia into
labor camps A labor camp (or labour camp, see spelling differences) or work camp is a detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor as a form of punishment. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons (especi ...
. The European Parliament described the deportation of Chechens and Ingush, where around a quarter people perished, an act of genocide in 2004:


Germany

According to historian
Norman Naimark Norman M. Naimark (; born 1944, New York City) is an American historian. He is the Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of Eastern European Studies at Stanford University, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He writes on modern Easte ...
, statements in Soviet military newspapers and the orders of the Soviet high command were jointly responsible for the excesses of the Red Army. Propaganda proclaimed that the Red Army had entered Germany as an avenger to punish all Germans.
Norman M. Naimark Norman M. Naimark (; born 1944, New York City) is an American historian. He is the Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of Eastern European Studies at Stanford University, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He writes on modern Easte ...
Cambridge: Belknap, 1995
Some historians dispute this, referring to an order issued on 19 January 1945, which required the prevention of mistreatment of civilians. An order of the military council of the
1st Belorussian Front The 1st Belorussian Front (Russian: Пéрвый Белорусский фронт, ''Perviy Belorusskiy front'', also romanized " Byelorussian") was a major formation of the Soviet Army during World War II, being equivalent to a Western army g ...
, signed by Marshal Rokossovsky, ordered the shooting of looters and rapists at the scene of the crime. An order issued by Stavka on 20 April 1945 said that there was a need to maintain good relations with German civilians in order to decrease resistance and bring a quicker end to hostilities.


Murders of civilians

On several occasions during World War II, Soviet soldiers set fire to buildings, villages, or parts of cities, and they used deadly force against locals who attempted to put out the fires. Most Red Army atrocities took place only in what was regarded as hostile territory (see Przyszowice massacre). Soldiers of the Red Army, together with members of the NKVD, frequently looted German transport trains in Poland in 1944 and 1945. Thomas Urban ''Der Verlust'', p. 145, Verlag C. H. Beck 2004, For the Germans, the organized evacuation of civilians before the advancing Red Army was delayed by the Nazi government, so as not to demoralize the troops, who were by now fighting in their own country. Nazi propaganda — originally meant to stiffen civil resistance by describing in gory and embellished detail Red Army atrocities such as the
Nemmersdorf massacre The Nemmersdorf massacre was a civilian massacre perpetrated by Red Army soldiers in the late stages of World War II. Nemmersdorf (present-day Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast) was one of the first prewar ethnic German settlements to fall to th ...
— often backfired and created panic. Whenever possible, as soon as the Wehrmacht retreated, local civilians began to flee westward on their own initiative. Fleeing before the advancing Red Army, large numbers of the inhabitants of the German provinces of East Prussia, Silesia, and Pomerania died during the evacuations, some from cold and starvation, some during combat operations. A significant percentage of this death toll, however, occurred when evacuation columns encountered units of the Red Army. Civilians were run over by tanks, shot, or otherwise murdered. Women and young girls were raped and left to die.
Antony Beevor Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works on the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War. Early life Born in Kensington, Beevor was educated at two i ...
, ''Berlin: The Downfall 1945'', Penguin Books, 2002,
Documentary
on German public TV (ARD) of 2005
Thomas Darnstädt, Klaus Wiegrefe ''"Vater, erschieß mich!"'' in ''Die Flucht'', S. 28/29 (Herausgeber
Stefan Aust Stefan Aust (; born 1 July 1946) is a German journalist. He was the editor-in-chief of the weekly news magazine ''Der Spiegel'' from 1994 to February 2008 and has been the publisher of the conservative leading ''Die Welt'' newspaper since 2014 ...
und Stephan Burgdorff), dtv und SPIEGEL-Buchverlag,
In addition,
fighter bombers A fighter-bomber is a fighter aircraft that has been modified, or used primarily, as a light bomber or attack aircraft. It differs from bomber and attack aircraft primarily in its origins, as a fighter that has been adapted into other roles, ...
of the Soviet
air force An air force – in the broadest sense – is the national military branch that primarily conducts aerial warfare. More specifically, it is the branch of a nation's armed services that is responsible for aerial warfare as distinct from an ...
flew bombing and strafing missions that targeted columns of refugees. Although mass executions of civilians by the Red Army were seldom publicly reported, there is a known incident in
Treuenbrietzen Treuenbrietzen is a town in the Bundesland of Brandenburg, Germany. Geography The municipality Treuenbrietzen is situated 32 km northeast of Wittenberg and includes the localities * city of Treuenbrietzen with its agglomerated suburbs ''L ...
, where at least 88 male inhabitants were rounded up and shot on 1 May 1945. The incident took place after a victory celebration in which numerous girls from Treuenbrietzen were raped and a Red Army
lieutenant-colonel Lieutenant colonel ( , ) is a rank of commissioned officers in the armies, most marine forces and some air forces of the world, above a major and below a colonel. Several police forces in the United States use the rank of lieutenant colonel ...
was shot by an unknown assailant. Some sources claim that as many as 1,000 civilians may have been executed during the incident."Der Umgang mit den Denkmälern." Brandenburgische Landeszentrale für politische Bildung/Ministerium für Wissenschaft, Forschung und Kultur des Landes Brandenburg.
Regina Scheer Regina Scheer (born in 1950) is a German writer and historian. Professional career Born in East-Berlin, Scheer studied theatre and cultural studies from 1968 to 1973 at the Humboldt-Universität zu Berlin.
: ''Documentation of State headquarters for political education / ministry for science, research and culture of the State of
Brandenburg Brandenburg (; nds, Brannenborg; dsb, Bramborska ) is a state in the northeast of Germany bordering the states of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Lower Saxony, Saxony-Anhalt, and Saxony, as well as the country of Poland. With an area of 29,480 squar ...
'', p. 89/9

/ref> The first mayor of the
Charlottenburg Charlottenburg () is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf. Established as a town in 1705 and named after Sophia Charlotte of Hanover, Queen consort of Prussia, it is best known for Charlottenburg Palace, the ...
district of Berlin, Walter Kilian, appointed by the Soviets after the war ended, reported extensive looting by Red Army soldiers in the area: "Individuals, department stores, shops, apartments ... all were robbed blind." In the Soviet occupation zone, members of the SED reported to Stalin that looting and rape by Soviet soldiers could result in a negative reaction by the German population towards the Soviet Union and the future of socialism in East Germany. Stalin is said to have angrily reacted: "I shall not tolerate anybody dragging the honour of the Red Army through the mud." Accordingly, all evidence — such as reports, photos and other documents of looting, rape, the burning down of farms and villages by the Red Army — was deleted from all archives in the future GDR. A study published by the German government in 1974 estimated the number of German civilian victims of crimes during
expulsion of Germans after World War II Expulsion or expelled may refer to: General * Deportation * Ejection (sports) * Eviction * Exile * Expeller pressing * Expulsion (education) * Expulsion from the United States Congress * Extradition * Forced migration * Ostracism * Persona no ...
between 1945 and 1948 to be over 600,000, with about 400,000 deaths in the areas east of Oder and Neisse (ca. 120,000 in acts of direct violence, mostly by Soviet troops but also by Poles, 60,000 in Polish and 40,000 in Soviet concentration camps or prisons mostly from hunger and disease, and 200,000 deaths among civilian deportees to
forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during the Axis-Soviet campaigns (1941-1945) of World War II. Soviet ...
), 130,000 in Czechoslovakia (thereof 100,000 in camps) and 80,000 in Yugoslavia (thereof 15,000 to 20,000 from violence outside of and in camps and 59,000 deaths from hunger and disease in camps). These figures do not include up to 125,000 civilian deaths in the
Battle of Berlin The Battle of Berlin, designated as the Berlin Strategic Offensive Operation by the Soviet Union, and also known as the Fall of Berlin, was one of the last major offensives of the European theatre of World War II. After the Vistula–O ...
. About 22,000 civilians are estimated to have been killed during the fighting in Berlin only.


Mass rapes

Western estimates of the traceable number of rape victims range from two hundred thousand to two million. Following the Winter Offensive of 1945, mass rape by Soviet males occurred in all major cities taken by the Red Army. Women were gang raped by as many as several dozen soldiers during the liberation of Poland. In some cases victims who did not hide in the basements all day were raped up to 15 times. Ostrowska, Zaremba: "Kobieca gehenna". ''Krytyka Polityczna'', 4 March 2009.
Source:
Polityka ''Polityka'' (, ''Politics'') is a centre-left weekly news magazine in Poland. With a circulation of 200,050 (as of April 2011), it was the country's biggest selling weekly, ahead of ''Newsweek''s Polish edition, '' Newsweek Polska'', and ''Wp ...
nr 10/2009 (2695).
According to historian
Antony Beevor Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works on the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War. Early life Born in Kensington, Beevor was educated at two i ...
, following the Red Army's capture of Berlin in 1945, Soviet troops raped German women and girls as young as eight years old. The explanation of "revenge" is disputed by Beevor, at least with regard to the mass rapes. Beevor has written that Red Army soldiers also raped Soviet and Polish women liberated from
concentration camp Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simp ...
s, and he contends that this undermines the revenge explanation, they were often committed by rear echelon units. According to Norman Naimark, after the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping civilians usually received punishments ranging from arrest to execution. However, Naimark contends that the rapes continued until the winter of 1947–48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally confined troops to strictly guarded posts and camps. Naimark concluded that "The social psychology of women and men in the Soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until, one could argue, the present." According to Richard Overy, the Russians refused to acknowledge Soviet war crimes, partly "because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history."


Hungary

According to researcher and author
Krisztián Ungváry Krisztián Ungváry (born 30 October 1969) is a Hungarian historian of 20th century political and military history. He wrote about the siege of Budapest in World War II and researched the work of the secret service under the communist period ...
, some 38,000
civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, ...
s were killed during the
Siege of Budapest The Siege of Budapest or Battle of Budapest was the 50-day-long encirclement by Soviet and Romanian forces of the Hungarian capital of Budapest, near the end of World War II. Part of the broader Budapest Offensive, the siege began when Buda ...
: about 13,000 from military action and 25,000 from starvation, disease and other causes. Included in the latter figure are about 15,000 Jews, largely victims of executions by Nazi SS and
Arrow Cross Party The Arrow Cross Party ( hu, Nyilaskeresztes Párt – Hungarista Mozgalom, , abbreviated NYKP) was a far-right Hungarian ultranationalist party led by Ferenc Szálasi, which formed a government in Hungary they named the Government of National U ...
death squads. Ungváry writes that when the Soviets finally claimed victory, they initiated an orgy of violence, including the wholesale theft of anything they could lay their hands on, random executions and mass rape. Estimates of the number of rape victims vary from 5,000 to 200,000. According to Norman Naimark, Hungarian girls were kidnapped and taken to Red Army quarters, where they were imprisoned, repeatedly raped and sometimes murdered. Even embassy staff from neutral countries were captured and raped, as was documented when Soviet soldiers attacked the Swedish legation in Germany. A report by the Swiss legation in Budapest describes the Red Army's entry into the city: According to historian James Mark, memories and opinions of the Red Army in Hungary are mixed.


Romania

The Soviet Union also committed war crimes in Romania or against Romanians from the beginning of the occupation of Bessarabia and Northern Bukovina in 1940 all the way to the German invasion in 1941, and later from the expulsion of the Germans in the region until 1958. One example was the Fântâna Albă massacre, in which 44–3,000 Romanians were killed by the Soviet Border Troops and the NKVD while attempting to escape to Romania. Such event has been referred to as the "Romanian Katyn". Another infamous massacre committed by Soviet troops was the Lunca massacre, where soviet border troops opened fire against several Romanian civilians attempting to escape into Romania, killing 600 of them, only 57 managed to escape, with another 44 being arrested and tried as "members of a counter-revolutionary organization", 12 of them were sentenced to death, with the rest being sentenced to 10 years forced labour and 5 years loss of civil rights, the family members of those arrested and shot would later be arrested and sent to Siberia and Central Asia During the occupation, the Soviet government and army deported thousands of Romanian civilians from the occupied regions into "special settlements". According to a secret Soviet Ministry of Interior report dated December 1965, 46,000 people were deported from the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic for the period 1940−1953. Religious persecution was also widespread, the Soviet government sought to exterminate all forms of organized religion in its occupied territories, often persecuting the Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim and Jewish churches, the Soviet political police arrested numerous priests, with others being arrested and interrogated by the Soviet NKVD itself, then deported to the interior of the USSR, and killed. Thousands of Transylvanian Saxons would later be deported from 1944 to 1949 under Soviet occupation, with hundreds or even thousands dying on their way to camps in Siberia and Central Asia before being able to come back to their home country.


Yugoslavia

According to Yugoslav politician Milovan Djilas, at least 121 cases of rape were documented, 111 of which also involved murder. A total of 1,204 cases of looting with assault were also documented. Djilas described these figures as, "hardly insignificant if it is borne in mind that the Red Army crossed only the northeastern corner of Yugoslavia".Naimark (1995), pp. 70–71. This caused concern to the Yugoslav communist partisans, who feared that stories of crimes committed by their Soviet allies would weaken their standing among the population. Djilas writes that in response, Yugoslav partisan leader
Joseph Broz Tito Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his death ...
summoned the chief of the Soviet military mission, General Korneev, and formally protested. Despite having been invited "as a comrade", Korneev exploded at them for offering "such insinuations" against the Red Army. Djilas, who was present at the meeting, spoke up and explained the
British Army The British Army is the principal land warfare force of the United Kingdom, a part of the British Armed Forces along with the Royal Navy and the Royal Air Force. , the British Army comprises 79,380 regular full-time personnel, 4,090 Gur ...
had never engaged in "such excesses" while liberating the other regions of Yugoslavia. General Korneev responded by screaming, "I protest most sharply at this insult given to the Red Army by comparing it with the armies of capitalist countries." The meeting with Korneev not only "ended without results", it also caused Stalin to personally attack Djilas during his next visit to the Kremlin. In tears, Stalin denounced "the Yugoslav Army and how it was administered." He then "spoke agitatedly about the sufferings of the Red Army and the horrors that it was forced to endure while it was fighting through thousands of kilometers of devastated country." Stalin climaxed with the words, "And such an Army was insulted by no one else but Djilas! Djilas, of whom I could least have expected such a thing, a man whom I received so well! And an Army which did not spare its blood for you! Does Djilas, who is himself a writer, not know what human suffering and the human heart are? Can't he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometers through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle?" According to Djilas, the Soviet refusal to address protests against Red Army war crimes in Yugoslavia enraged Tito's government and it was a contributing factor in Yugoslavia's subsequent exit from the Soviet Bloc.


Czechoslovakia (1945)

Slovak communist leader Vlado Clementis complained to Marshal
Ivan Konev Ivan Stepanovich Konev ( rus, link=no, Ива́н Степа́нович Ко́нев, p=ɪˈvan sʲtʲɪˈpanəvʲɪtɕ ˈkonʲɪf;  – 21 May 1973) was a Soviet general and Marshal of the Soviet Union who led Red Army forces on the E ...
about the behavior of Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia. Konev's response was to claim it was done mainly by Red Army deserters.


China

During the invasion of Manchuria, Soviet and Mongolian soldiers attacked and raped Japanese civilians, often encouraged by the local Chinese population who were resentful of Japanese rule.Mayumi Itoh, ''Japanese War Orphans in Manchuria: Forgotten Victims of World War II'', Palgrave Macmillan, April 2010,
p. 34.
/ref> The local Chinese population sometimes even joined in these attacks against the Japanese population with the Soviet soldiers. In one famous example, during the Gegenmiao massacre, Soviet soldiers, encouraged by the local Chinese population, raped and massacred over one thousand Japanese women and children. Fujiwara, 1995 p.323 Property of the Japanese were also looted by the Soviet soldiers and Chinese. Many Japanese women married themselves to local Manchurian men to protect themselves from persecution by Soviet soldiers. These Japanese women mostly married Chinese men and became known as "stranded war wives" (zanryu fujin). Following the invasion of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo ( Manchuria), the Soviets laid claim to valuable Japanese materials and industrial equipment in the region. A foreigner witnessed Soviet troops, formerly stationed in Berlin, who were allowed by the Soviet military to go at the city "for three days of rape and pillage." Most of
Mukden Shenyang (, ; ; Mandarin pronunciation: ), formerly known as Fengtian () or by its Manchu name Mukden, is a major Chinese sub-provincial city and the provincial capital of Liaoning province. Located in central-north Liaoning, it is the provinc ...
was gone. Convict soldiers were then used to replace them; it was testified that they "stole everything in sight, broke up bathtubs and toilets with hammers, pulled electric-light wiring out of the plaster, built fires on the floor and either burned down the house or at least a big hole in the floor, and in general behaved completely like savages." According to some British and American sources, the Soviets made it a policy to loot and rape civilians in Manchuria. In Harbin, the Chinese posted slogans such as "Down with Red Imperialism!" Soviet forces faced some protests by Chinese communist party leaders against the looting and rapes committed by troops in Manchuria. There were several incidences, where Chinese police forces in Manchuria arrested or even killed Soviet troops for various crimes, leading to some conflicts between the Soviet and Chinese authorities in Manchuria. Russian historian Konstantin Asmolov argues that such Western accounts of Soviet violence against civilians in the Far East are exaggerations of isolated incidents and the documents of the time don't support the claims of mass crimes. Asmolov also claims that the Soviets, unlike the Germans and the Japanese, prosecuted their soldiers and officers for such acts. Indeed, the incidence of rape committed in the Far East was far less than the number of incidents committed by Soviet soldiers in Europe.


Japan

The Soviet Army committed crimes against the Japanese civilian populations and surrendered military personnel in the closing stages of World War II during the assaults on Sakhalin and
Kuril Islands The Kuril Islands or Kurile Islands (; rus, Кури́льские острова́, r=Kuril'skiye ostrova, p=kʊˈrʲilʲskʲɪjə ɐstrɐˈva; Japanese: or ) are a volcanic archipelago currently administered as part of Sakhalin Oblast in the ...
. On August 10, 1945, Soviet forces carried out fierce naval bombardment and artillery strikes against civilians awaiting evacuation as well as Japanese installations in Maoka. Nearly 1,000 civilians were killed by the invading forces. During the evacuation of the Kuriles and Karafuto, civilian convoys were attacked by Soviet submarines in the Aniva Gulf. Soviet
Leninets-class submarine The ''Leninets'' or L class were the second class of submarines to be built for the Soviet Navy. Twenty-five were built in four groups between 1931 and 1941. They were minelaying submarines and were based on the British L-class submarine, , whic ...
''L-12'' and ''L-19'' sank two Japanese refugee transport ships ''Ogasawara Maru'' and ''Taito Maru'' while also damaging ''No.2 Shinko Maru'' on August 22, 7 days after Hirohito had announced Japan's unconditional surrender. Over 2,400 civilians were killed.


Treatment of prisoners of war

Although the Soviet Union had not formally signed the Hague Convention, it considered itself bound by the convention's provisions. Throughout the Second World War, the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau collected and investigated reports of crimes against the Axis POWs. According to Cuban-American writer Alfred de Zayas, "For the entire duration of the Russian campaign, reports of torture and murder of German prisoners did not cease. The War Crimes Bureau had five major sources of information: (1) captured enemy papers, especially orders, reports of operations, and propaganda leaflets; (2) intercepted radio and wireless messages; (3) testimony of Soviet prisoners of war; (4) testimony of captured Germans who had escaped; and (5) testimony of Germans who saw the corpses or mutilated bodies of executed prisoners of war. From 1941 to 1945 the Bureau compiled several thousand depositions, reports, and captured papers which, if nothing else, indicate that the killing of German prisoners of war upon capture or shortly after their interrogation was not an isolated occurrence. Documents relating to the war in France, Italy, and North Africa contain some reports on the deliberate killing of German prisoners of war, but there can be no comparison with the events on the Eastern Front." In a November 1941 report, the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau accused the Red Army of employing "a terror policy... against defenseless German soldiers that have fallen into its hands and against members of the German medical corps. At the same time... it has made use of the following means of camouflage: in a Red Army order that bears the approval of the
Council of People's Commissars The Councils of People's Commissars (SNK; russian: Совет народных комиссаров (СНК), ''Sovet narodnykh kommissarov''), commonly known as the ''Sovnarkom'' (Совнарком), were the highest executive authorities of ...
, dated 1 July 1941, the norms of international law are made public, which the Red Army in the spirit of the Hague Regulations on Land Warfare are supposed to follow... This... Russian order probably had very little distribution, and surely it has not been followed at all. Otherwise the unspeakable crimes would not have occurred." According to the depositions, Soviet massacres of German, Italian, Spanish, and other Axis POWs were often incited by unit
Commissar Commissar (or sometimes ''Kommissar'') is an English transliteration of the Russian (''komissar''), which means 'commissary'. In English, the transliteration ''commissar'' often refers specifically to the political commissars of Soviet and Ea ...
s, who claimed to be acting under orders from Stalin and the Politburo. Other evidence cemented the War Crimes Bureau's belief that Stalin had given secret orders about the massacre of POWs. During the winter of 1941–42, the Red Army captured approximately 10,000 German soldiers each month, but the death rate became so high that the absolute number of prisoners decreased (or was bureaucratically reduced).
Hubertus Knabe Hubertus Knabe (born 1959) is a German historian and was the scientific director of the Berlin-Hohenschönhausen Memorial, a museum and memorial in a notorious former Stasi torture prison in Berlin. Knabe is noted for several works on oppression i ...
''Tag der Befreiung? Das Kriegsende in Ostdeutschland'', Propyläen 2005,
Soviet sources list the deaths of 474,967 of the 2,652,672 German Armed Forces taken prisoner in the War. Dr. Rüdiger Overmans believes that it seems entirely plausible, while not provable, that an additional German military personnel listed as missing actually died in Soviet custody as POWs, putting the estimates of the actual death toll of German POW in the USSR at about 1.0 million.


Massacre of Feodosia

Soviet soldiers rarely bothered to treat wounded German POWs. A particularly infamous example took place after the Crimean city of
Feodosia Feodosia (russian: Феодосия, ''Feodosiya''; uk, Феодо́сія, Теодо́сія, ''Feodosiia, Teodosiia''), also called in English Theodosia (from ), is a port and resort, a town of regional significance in the Crimea on the coast ...
was briefly recaptured by Soviet forces on December 29, 1942. 160 wounded soldiers had been left in military hospitals by the retreating Wehrmacht. After the Germans retook Feodosia, it was learned that every wounded soldier had been massacred by Red Army, Navy, and NKVD personnel. Some had been shot in their hospital beds, others repeatedly bludgeoned to death, still others were found to have been thrown from hospital windows before being repeatedly drenched with freezing water until they died of hypothermia.


Massacre of Grishchino

The Massacre of Grischino was committed by an armoured division of the Red Army in February 1943 in the eastern Ukrainian towns of Krasnoarmeyskoye, Postyschevo and Grischino. The Wehrmacht Untersuchungsstelle also known as WuSt (Wehrmacht criminal investigating authority), announced that among the victims were 406 soldiers of the Wehrmacht, 58 members of the Organisation Todt (including two
Danish Danish may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to the country of Denmark People * A national or citizen of Denmark, also called a "Dane," see Demographics of Denmark * Culture of Denmark * Danish people or Danes, people with a Danish ance ...
nationals), 89
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional It ...
soldiers, 9 Romanian soldiers, 4 Hungarian soldiers, 15 German civil officials, 7 German civilian workers and 8 Ukrainian volunteers. The places were overrun by the Soviet 4th Guards Tank Corps on the night of 10 and 11 February 1943. After the reconquest by the
5th SS Panzer Division Wiking The 5th SS Panzer Division Wiking (german: 5. SS-Panzerdivision Wiking) or SS Division Wiking was an infantry and later an armoured division among the thirty-eight Waffen-SS divisions of Nazi Germany. It was recruited from foreign volunteers ...
with the support of 333 Infantry Division and the 7th Panzer Division on 18 February 1943 the Wehrmacht soldiers discovered numerous deaths. Many of the bodies were horribly mutilated, ears and noses cut off and genital organs amputated and stuffed into their mouths. Breasts of some of the nurses were cut off, the women being brutally raped. A German military judge who was at the scene stated in an interview during the 1970s that he saw a female body with her legs spread-eagled and a broomstick rammed into her genitals. In the cellar of the main train station around 120 Germans were herded into a large storage room and then mowed down with machine guns.


Postwar

Some German prisoners were released soon after the war. Many others, however, remained in the
GULAG The Gulag, an acronym for , , "chief administration of the camps". The original name given to the system of camps controlled by the GPU was the Main Administration of Corrective Labor Camps (, )., name=, group= was the government agency in ...
long after the surrender of Nazi Germany. Among the most famous German POWs to die in Soviet captivity was Captain
Wilm Hosenfeld Wilhelm Adalbert Hosenfeld (; 2 May 1895 – 13 August 1952), originally a school teacher, was a German Army officer who by the end of the Second World War had risen to the rank of ''Hauptmann'' (Captain). He helped to hide or rescue several Poli ...
, who died of injuries, sustained possibly under torture, in a concentration camp near
Stalingrad Volgograd ( rus, Волгогра́д, a=ru-Volgograd.ogg, p=vəɫɡɐˈɡrat), formerly Tsaritsyn (russian: Цари́цын, Tsarítsyn, label=none; ) (1589–1925), and Stalingrad (russian: Сталингра́д, Stalingrád, label=none; ) ...
in 1952. In 2009, Captain Hosenfeld was posthumously honored by the
State of Israel Israel (; he, יִשְׂרָאֵל, ; ar, إِسْرَائِيل, ), officially the State of Israel ( he, מְדִינַת יִשְׂרָאֵל, label=none, translit=Medīnat Yīsrāʾēl; ), is a country in Western Asia. It is situated ...
for his role in saving Jewish lives during The Holocaust. Similar was the fate of Swedish diplomat and
OSS OSS or Oss may refer to: Places * Oss, a city and municipality in the Netherlands * Osh Airport, IATA code OSS People with the name * Oss (surname), a surname Arts and entertainment * ''O.S.S.'' (film), a 1946 World War II spy film about ...
operative Raoul Wallenberg


After World War II


Hungarian Revolution (1956)

According to the United Nations Report of the Special Committee on the problem of Hungary (1957): "Soviet tanks fired indiscriminately at every building from which they believed themselves to be under fire." The UN commission received numerous reports of Soviet mortar and artillery fire into inhabited quarters in the Buda section of the city, despite no return fire, and of "haphazard shooting at defenseless passers-by."


Czechoslovakia 1968

During the invasion of Czechoslovakia by the Warsaw Pact, 72
Czechs The Czechs ( cs, Češi, ; singular Czech, masculine: ''Čech'' , singular feminine: ''Češka'' ), or the Czech people (), are a West Slavic ethnic group and a nation native to the Czech Republic in Central Europe, who share a common ancestry, c ...
and
Slovaks The Slovaks ( sk, Slováci, singular: ''Slovák'', feminine: ''Slovenka'', plural: ''Slovenky'') are a West Slavic ethnic group and nation native to Slovakia who share a common ancestry, culture, history and speak Slovak. In Slovakia, 4.4 mi ...
were killed (19 in Slovakia), 266 seriously wounded and another 436 lightly wounded.


Afghanistan (1979–1989)

Scholars Mohammad Kakar, W. Michael Reisman and Charles Norchi believe that the Soviet Union was guilty of committing a genocide in Afghanistan. The army of the Soviet Union killed large numbers of Afghans to suppress their resistance. Up to 2 million Afghans were killed by the Soviet forces and their proxies. In one notable incident the Soviet Army committed mass killing of civilians in the summer of 1980. One notable war crime was the Laghman massacre in April 1985 in the villages of Kas-Aziz-Khan, Charbagh, Bala Bagh, Sabzabad, Mamdrawer, Haider Khan and Pul-i-Joghi in the
Laghman Province Laghman (Dari: ) is one of the 34 provinces of Afghanistan, located in the eastern part of the country. It has a population of about 502,148, which is multi-ethnic and mostly a rural society. Laghman hosts a large number of historical landmarks, m ...
. At least 500 civilians were killed. In the Kulchabat, Bala Karz and Mushkizi massacre on 12 October 1983 the Red Army gathered 360 people at the village square and shot them, including 20 girls and over a dozen older people. The Rauzdi massacre and Padkhwab-e Shana massacre were also documented. In order to separate the mujahideen from the local populations and eliminate their support, the Soviet army killed and drove off civilians, and used scorched earth tactics to prevent their return. They used booby traps, mines, and chemical substances throughout the country. The Soviet army indiscriminately killed combatants and noncombatants to ensure submission by the local populations. The provinces of Nangarhar, Ghazni, Lagham, Kunar, Zabul, Qandahar, Badakhshan, Lowgar, Paktia and Paktika witnessed extensive depopulation programmes by the Soviet forces. The Soviet forces abducted Afghan women in helicopters while flying in the country in search of mujahideen. In November 1980 a number of such incidents had taken place in various parts of the country, including Laghman and Kama. Soviet soldiers as well as KhAD agents kidnapped young women from the city of Kabul and the areas of Darul Aman and Khair Khana, near the Soviet garrisons, to rape them. Women who were taken and raped by Russian soldiers were considered 'dishonoured' by their families if they returned home. Deserters from the Soviet Army in 1984 also confirmed the atrocities by the Soviet troops on Afghan women and children, stating that Afghan women were being raped. The rape of Afghan women by Soviet troops was common and 11.8 percent of the Soviet war criminals in Afghanistan were convicted for the offence of rape. There was an outcry against the press in the Soviet Union for depicting the Russian "war heroes" as "murderers", "aggressors", "rapists" and "junkies".


Pressure in Azerbaijan (1988–1991)

Black January ( az, Qara Yanvar), also known as Black Saturday or the January Massacre, was a violent crackdown in
Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world ...
on 19–20 January 1990, pursuant to a
state of emergency A state of emergency is a situation in which a government is empowered to be able to put through policies that it would normally not be permitted to do, for the safety and protection of its citizens. A government can declare such a state du ...
during the dissolution of the Soviet Union. In a resolution of 22 January 1990, the
Supreme Soviet of Azerbaijan SSR The Supreme Soviet of the Azerbaijan SSR ( Azerbaijani: Азәрбаjҹан ССР Али Совети, ''Azərbaycan SSR Ali Soveti''; Russian: Верховный Совет Азербайджа́нской ССР tr. ''Verkhovnyy Sovet Azerb ...
declared that the decree of the
Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 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).Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world ...
and military deployment, constituted an act of aggression. Black January is associated with the rebirth of the
Azerbaijan Republic Azerbaijan (, ; az, Azərbaycan ), officially the Republic of Azerbaijan, , also sometimes officially called the Azerbaijan Republic is a transcontinental country, transcontinental country located at the boundary of Eastern Europe and Wester ...
. It was one of the occasions during the '' glasnost'' and ''
perestroika ''Perestroika'' (; russian: links=no, перестройка, p=pʲɪrʲɪˈstrojkə, a=ru-perestroika.ogg) was a political movement for reform within the Communist Party of the Soviet Union (CPSU) during the late 1980s widely associated wit ...
'' era in which the USSR used force against dissidents.


War crimes trials and legal prosecution

In 1995, Latvian courts sentenced former KGB officer
Alfons Noviks Alfons Noviks (13 February 1908 – 12 March 1996) was a Latvian Soviet state security official and politician. Biography Noviks was born in the family of a poor farmer. Already in the 1920s, he was recruited into the work of the Soviet intellige ...
to a
life in prison Life imprisonment is any sentence of imprisonment for a crime under which convicted people are to remain in prison for the rest of their natural lives or indefinitely until pardoned, paroled, or otherwise commuted to a fixed term. Crimes for ...
for genocide due to forced deportations in the 1940s. In 2003, August Kolk (born 1924), an Estonian national, and Petr Kislyiy (born 1921), a Russian national, were convicted of crimes against humanity by Estonian courts and each sentenced to eight years in prison. They were found guilty of deportations of Estonians in 1949. Kolk and Kislyiy lodged a complaint at the European Court of Human Rights, alleging that the Criminal Code of 1946 of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (SFSR) was valid at the time, applicable also in Estonia, and that the said Code had not provided for punishment of crimes against humanity. Their appeal was rejected since the court found that Resolution 95 of the United Nations General Assembly, adopted on 11 December 1946, confirmed deportations of civilians as a crime against humanity under
international law International law (also known as public international law and the law of nations) is the set of rules, norms, and standards generally recognized as binding between states. It establishes normative guidelines and a common conceptual framework for ...
. In 2004,
Vassili Kononov Vassili Makarovich Kononov or Vasiliy Makarovich Kononov (russian: Василий Макарович Кононов, lv, Vasilijs Kononovs; 1 January 192331 March 2011) was a Soviet partisan during World War II, who was convicted by Latvian supr ...
, a Soviet partisan during World War II, was convicted by Latvian supreme court as a war criminal for killing three women, one of whom was pregnant."CASE OF KONONOV v. LATVIA"
European Court of Human Rights. 17 May 2010. Retrieved 18 May 2010.
He is the only former Soviet partisan convicted of crimes against humanity. On 27 March 2019, Lithuania convicted 67 former Soviet military and KGB officials who were given sentences of between four and 14 years for the crackdown against Lithuanian civilians in January 1991. Only two were present—Yuriy Mel, a former Soviet tank officer, and Gennady Ivanov, a former Soviet munitions officer—while the other were sentenced ''
in absentia is Latin for absence. , a legal term, is Latin for "in the absence" or "while absent". may also refer to: * Award in absentia * Declared death in absentia, or simply, death in absentia, legally declared death without a body * Election in abs ...
'' and are hiding in Russia.


In popular culture


Film

* ''
A Woman in Berlin ''A Woman in Berlin'' (german: Eine Frau in Berlin) is a memoir by German journalist Marta Hillers, originally released anonymously in 1954. The identity of Hillers as the author was not revealed until 2003, after her death. The memoir covers th ...
'' (2008) depicts the mass sexual assaults committed by Soviet soldiers in the Soviet Zone of
Occupied Germany Germany was already de facto occupied by the Allies from the real fall of Nazi Germany in World War II on 8 May 1945 to the establishment of the East Germany on 7 October 1949. The Allies (United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Fr ...
. It is based on the diary of
Marta Hillers Marta Hillers (May 26, 1911 – June 16, 2001) was a German journalist, and the author of the memoir ''Eine Frau in Berlin'' (''A Woman in Berlin''), published anonymously in 1959 and 2003 in German. It is the diary of a German woman from 20 April ...
. * ''
Admiral Admiral is one of the highest ranks in some navies. In the Commonwealth nations and the United States, a "full" admiral is equivalent to a "full" general in the army or the air force, and is above vice admiral and below admiral of the fleet, ...
'' (2008), a film set during the
Russian Civil War , date = October Revolution, 7 November 1917 – Yakut revolt, 16 June 1923{{Efn, The main phase ended on 25 October 1922. Revolt against the Bolsheviks continued Basmachi movement, in Central Asia and Tungus Republic, the Far East th ...
, depicts Red soldiers and sailors committing numerous massacres of former members of the
Imperial Russian Navy The Imperial Russian Navy () operated as the navy of the Russian Tsardom and later the Russian Empire from 1696 to 1917. Formally established in 1696, it lasted until dissolved in the wake of the February Revolution of 1917. It developed from ...
's officer corps. * '' The Beast'' (1988) a film set during the Soviet–Afghan War, depicts Red Army war crimes against civilian noncombatants and a
Pashtun Pashtuns (, , ; ps, پښتانه, ), also known as Pakhtuns or Pathans, are an Iranian ethnic group who are native to the geographic region of Pashtunistan in the present-day countries of Afghanistan and Pakistan. They were historically r ...
clan's quest for revenge. * '' Charlie Wilson's War'' (2007), set during the Soviet–Afghan War, accuses the Soviet State of systematic genocide against Afghan civilians. It is mentioned that Soviet forces are leaving no one alive and are even slaughtering livestock in order to starve the Afghan people into submission. * '' Katyń'' (2007), depicts the
Katyn massacre The Katyn massacre, "Katyń crime"; russian: link=yes, Катынская резня ''Katynskaya reznya'', "Katyn massacre", or russian: link=no, Катынский расстрел, ''Katynsky rasstrel'', "Katyn execution" was a series of m ...
through the eyes of its victims and the decades long battle by their families to learn the truth.


Literature

* '' Prussian Nights'' (1974) a
war poem A war poet is a poet who participates in a war and writes about their experiences, or a non-combatant who writes poems about war. While the term is applied especially to those who served during the First World War, the term can be applied to a p ...
by
Alexander Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
. The narrator, a Red Army officer, approves of the troops' crimes as revenge for Nazi atrocities in Russia, and hopes to take part in the plundering himself. The poem describes the gang-rape of a Polish woman whom the Red Army soldiers had mistaken for a German. According to a review for '' The New York Times'', Solzhenitsyn wrote the poem in
trochaic tetrameter Trochaic tetrameter is a meter in poetry. It refers to a line of four trochaic feet. The etymology of the word Trochaic is the Greek word ''trokhaios'', from the verb ''trecho'', which means "I run". In classical metre, a trochee is a foot consi ...
, "in imitation of, and argument with the most famous Russian war poem, Aleksandr Tvardovsky's '' Vasili Tyorkin''." * '' Apricot Jam and Other Stories'' (2010) by
Alexander Solzhenitsyn Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn. (11 December 1918 – 3 August 2008) was a Russian novelist. One of the most famous Soviet dissidents, Solzhenitsyn was an outspoken critic of communism and helped to raise global awareness of political repress ...
. In a
short story A short story is a piece of prose fiction that typically can be read in one sitting and focuses on a self-contained incident or series of linked incidents, with the intent of evoking a single effect or mood. The short story is one of the oldest ...
about Marshal Georgii Zhukov's futile attempts at writing his memoirs, the retired Marshal reminisces about serving against the peasant uprising in Tambov Province. He recalls
Mikhail Tukhachevsky Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevsky ( rus, Михаил Николаевич Тухачевский, Mikhail Nikolayevich Tukhachevskiy, p=tʊxɐˈtɕefskʲɪj;  – 12 June 1937) nicknamed the Red Napoleon by foreign newspapers, was a Sovie ...
's arrival to take command of the campaign and his first address to his men. He announced that
total war Total war is a type of warfare that includes any and all civilian-associated resources and infrastructure as legitimate military targets, mobilizes all of the resources of society to fight the war, and gives priority to warfare over non-combat ...
and scorched earth tactics are to be used against civilians who assist or even sympathize with the peasant rebels. Zhukov proudly recalls how Tukhachevsky's tactics were adopted and succeeded in breaking the uprising. In the process, however, they virtually depopulated the surrounding countryside. * '' A Man without Breath'' (2013) by
Philip Kerr Philip Ballantyne Kerr (22 February 1956 – 23 March 2018) was a British author, best known for his Bernie Gunther series of historical detective thrillers. Early life Kerr was born in Edinburgh, Scotland, where his father was an enginee ...
. A 1993 Bernie Gunther
thriller Thriller may refer to: * Thriller (genre), a broad genre of literature, film and television ** Thriller film, a film genre under the general thriller genre Comics * ''Thriller'' (DC Comics), a comic book series published 1983–84 by DC Comics i ...
which delves into the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau's investigations of Soviet war crimes. Kerr noted in his Afterward that the Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau continued to exist until 1945. It has been written about in the book of the same name by Alfred M. de Zayas, published by the University of Nebraska Press in 1989. .


Art

* On 12 October 2013 a then 26-year-old Polish art student, Jerzy Bohdan Szumczyk, erected a movable statue next to the Soviet World War II memorial in the Polish city of Gdańsk. The statue depicted a Soviet soldier attempting to rape a pregnant woman; pulling her hair with one hand whilst pushing a pistol into her mouth. Authorities removed the artwork because it had been erected without an official permit, but there was widespread interest in many online publications. The act promoted an angry reaction from the Russian ambassador in Poland.


See also

*
Allied war crimes during World War II Allied war crimes include both alleged and legally proven violations of the laws of war by the Allies of World War II against either civilians or military personnel of the Axis powers. At the end of World War II, many trials of Axis war criminal ...
*
Anti-communist mass killings Anti-communist mass killings are the politically motivated mass killings of communists, alleged communists, or their alleged supporters which were committed by anti-communists and political organizations or governments which opposed communism. Th ...
*
Crimes against humanity under communist regimes Crimes against humanity under communist regimes occurred during the 20th century, including forced deportations, massacres, torture, forced disappearances, extrajudicial killings, terror,Kemp-Welch, p. 42. ethnic cleansing, enslavement and t ...
*
Destruction battalions Destruction battalions,, uk, Винищувальні батальйони, be, Zniszczalnyja batalëny, , et, hävituspataljonid, lt, Naikintojų batalionai, lv, Iznīcinātāju bataljoni, group=nb colloquially istrebitels (истреби� ...
* Evacuation of East Prussia *
Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union was considered by the Soviet Union to be part of German war reparations for the damage inflicted by Nazi Germany on the Soviet Union during the Axis-Soviet campaigns (1941-1945) of World War II. Soviet ...
* German war crimes *
Italian war crimes Italian war crimes have mainly been associated with Fascist Italy in the Pacification of Libya, the Second Italo-Ethiopian War, the Spanish Civil War, and World War II. Italo-Turkish War In 1911, Italy went to war with the Ottoman Empire and in ...
*
Japanese POWs in the Soviet Union After :World War II there were from 560,000 to 760,000 Japanese personnel in the Soviet Union and Mongolia interned to work in labor camps as POWs. Of them, it is estimated that between 60,000 and 347,000 died in captivity.
* Japanese war crimes * Mass killings under communist regimes * List of Soviet Union perpetrated war crimes *
Mass graves in the Soviet Union In July 2010, a mass grave was discovered next to the Peter and Paul Fortress in St. Petersburg, containing the corpses of 80 military officers executed during the Red Terror of 1918–1921. By 2013 a total of 156 bodies had been found in the sam ...
* Mass operations of the NKVD *
Nemmersdorf massacre The Nemmersdorf massacre was a civilian massacre perpetrated by Red Army soldiers in the late stages of World War II. Nemmersdorf (present-day Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast) was one of the first prewar ethnic German settlements to fall to th ...
*
NKVD prisoner massacres The NKVD prisoner massacres were a series of mass executions of political prisoners carried out by the NKVD, the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs of the Soviet Union, across Eastern Europe, primarily Poland, Ukraine, the Baltic states, ...
*
Operation Frühlingserwachen Operation Spring Awakening (german: Unternehmen Frühlingserwachen) was the last major German offensive of World War II. The operation was referred to in Germany as the Plattensee offensive and in the Soviet Union as the Balaton defensive operati ...
* Population transfer in the Soviet Union * Red Terror *
Russian war crimes Russian war crimes since 1991 are the violations of the law of war, including the Hague Conventions of 1899 and 1907 and the Geneva Conventions, consisting of war crimes, crimes against humanity, and the crime of genocide, which the official a ...
*
Soviet occupation During World War II, the Soviet Union occupied and annexed several countries effectively handed over by Nazi Germany in the secret Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact of 1939. These included the eastern regions of Poland (incorporated into two different ...
* United States war crimes * War crimes and atrocities of the Waffen-SS * War crimes of the Wehrmacht


Notes


References


Sources


Marta Hillers
''
A Woman in Berlin ''A Woman in Berlin'' (german: Eine Frau in Berlin) is a memoir by German journalist Marta Hillers, originally released anonymously in 1954. The identity of Hillers as the author was not revealed until 2003, after her death. The memoir covers th ...
: Six Weeks in the Conquered City'' Translated by Anthes Bell, *
Antony Beevor Sir Antony James Beevor, (born 14 December 1946) is a British military historian. He has published several popular historical works on the Second World War and the Spanish Civil War. Early life Born in Kensington, Beevor was educated at two i ...
, ''Berlin: The Downfall 1945'', Penguin Books, 2002, * Bergstrom, Christer (2007). ''Barbarossa – The Air Battle: July–December 1941''. London: Chevron/Ian Allan. . Bergstrom does make a point of noting that crimes against PoWs, and specifically against captured aircrew, were pretty universal in World War II. * Steve Hall and Lionel Quinlan (2000). ''KG55: Greif Geshwader''. Walton on Thames: Red Kite. * Max Hastings, ''Armageddon: The Battle for Germany, 1944–1945'', Chapter 10: Blood and Ice: East Prussia * Fisch, Bernhard, ''Nemmersdorf, Oktober 1944. Was in Ostpreußen tatsächlich geschah.'' Berlin: 1997. . (about most of the Nemmersdorf atrocity having been set up by Goebbels) * John Toland, ''The Last 100 Days'', Chapter Two: Five Minutes before Midnight *
Norman M. Naimark Norman M. Naimark (; born 1944, New York City) is an American historian. He is the Robert and Florence McDonnell Professor of Eastern European Studies at Stanford University, and a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. He writes on modern Easte ...
, ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949.'' Harvard University Press, 1995. *
Catherine Merridale Catherine Anne Merridale, FBA (born 12 October 1959) is a British writer and historian with a special interest in Russian history. Early life and education Merridale was born on 12 October 1959 to Philip and Anne Merridale. She was educated at ...
, ''Ivan's War, the Red Army 1939–1945'', London: Faber and Faber, 2005, * Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, '' The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 1939–1945'' (in Wikipedia). Preface by Professor Howard Levie. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press, 1989. . New revised edition with Picton Press, Rockland, Maine, . * Alfred-Maurice de Zayas, ''A Terrible Revenge. The Ethnic Cleansing of the East European Germans, 1944–1950'',
St. Martin's Press St. Martin's Press is a book publisher headquartered in Manhattan, New York City, in the Equitable Building. St. Martin's Press is considered one of the largest English-language publishers, bringing to the public some 700 titles a year under si ...
, New York, 1994, * Elizabeth B. Walter, ''Barefoot in the Rubble'' 1997,


External links


The forgotten victims of WWII
Masculinities and rape in Berlin, 1945, James W. Messerschmidt, University of Southern Maine

''A Woman in Berlin: Eight Weeks in the Conquered City'',

* ttp://historicaltextarchive.com/books.php?op=viewbook&bookid=7&post=3 Swiss legation report of the Russian invasion of Hungary in the spring of 1945
German rape victims find a voice at last
Kate Connolly, The Observer, June 23, 2002
"They raped every German female from eight to 80"
Antony Beevor, The Guardian, 1 May 2002
Excerpt, Chapter one
The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945–2002 – William I. Hitchcock – 2003 – ( The occupation of East Prussia)
Description of the atrocities of the Red Army in East Prussia
quotations from
Ilya Ehrenburg Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (russian: link=no, Илья́ Григо́рьевич Эренбу́рг, ; – August 31, 1967) was a Soviet writer, revolutionary, journalist and historian. Ehrenburg was among the most prolific and notable autho ...
, poems by anti-cruelty Red Army officers and details of suicides and rapings of German women and children in East Prussia.
Book Review: The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II

HNet review of ''The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945–1949.''


History News Network (Focus on the Asian front) * ttps://web.archive.org/web/20090419015621/http://www.cdi.org/russia/johnson/6043-11.cfm 27 Jan 2002 on-line article regarding author Antony Beevor's references to Soviet rapes in Germany* Report of an eyewitness: Erika Morgenstern, who survived Königsberg 1945 as a child (in German): , , {{DEFAULTSORT:Soviet War Crimes Aftermath of World War II in the Soviet Union War crimes committed by country Crimes against humanity -