russian atrocities in east prussia

[125][126][127] According to Norman Naimark, Hungarian girls were kidnapped and taken to Red Army quarters, where they were imprisoned, repeatedly raped and sometimes murdered. [173] In one notable incident the Soviet Army committed mass killing of civilians in the summer of 1980. Between 1940 and 1941, thousands of Lithuanians were arrested and hundreds of political prisoners were arbitrarily executed. During its invasions of East Prussia, the Russian army deported a large number of German civilians, perhaps as many as 13,600, including 6,500 women and children. All Greeks who were wealthy or self-employed professionals were sought for prosecution first. Mauricius Parts, son of the Estonian War of Independence veteran Karl Parts, was doused in acid. 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. 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. We set out from the town of Suvalki and arrived in the village of Motula, where we only paused to eat, and in the evening we marched to the village of Olshanka, where we stood six versts (one verst is 1.06 kilometers js) from the border of East Prussia. Learn how your comment data is processed. Founded in 1999. As far as I can tell, only one library in the United States owns the book, and only the magic of WorldCat and interlibrary loan brought it to me. by WalterS 14 Nov 2004, 08:29, Post YouTube of the Week Sand Animation of WWII, THE RUSSIAN FRONT New Russian history group blog, More resources for projects | Resource sharing at CHS. . They dies of starvation and from Gestapo bullets. On 21 October 1944, Soviet soldiers killed many German civilians as well as French and Belgian POWs [10] Those found guilty could and did face execution. [54] 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'. historical analysis, as Soviet and East German archives were opened and scholarly research encouraged. Nearly 1,000 civilians were killed by the invading forces. 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. . Torture was used on a wide scale in various prisons, especially in those prisons that were located in small towns. The war crimes and crimes against humanity which were perpetrated by the Soviet Union and its armed forces 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. After the Germans retook Feodosia, it was learned that every wounded soldier had been massacred by Red Army, Navy, and NKVD personnel. In happier times. What links here; Related changes; Printable version; Permanent link; Page information; Cite this page; More actions. Or, at best 15 . French Invasion of Russia (1812-1813)-Prussia was a forced ally of France. [94] 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. We traveled lightly, taking only our weapons, the rest we left behind, we were on field patrol. However, through a combination of coercion and rhetoric, which appealed [] history buffs might start with diary entries from the first days of the war in East Prussia in 1914, found and translated by Josh []. [169][170], Scholars Mohammad Kakar, W. Michael Reisman and Charles Norchi believe that the Soviet Union was guilty of committing a genocide in Afghanistan. In one example, Gauleiter Erich Koch of East Prussia issued strict . Germans parade in Tilsit in 1936 In addition, I wonder about the genre of the field diary for Russian soldiers. . In general, the communication of emotion to oneself seems to not have been among the purposes of most of these diarists. Deutsches Reichs (2nd & 3rd German Empires), was located in extreme Northeast Germany (existed prior to 1945; it was dissolved in 1945). WalterS -- We don't permit racial slurs here, even when accompanied by the prefix "detestable term." Most students of atrocity on the Eastern Front have focused on Galicia or Anatolia, with good reason. [172] The Soviet forces abducted Afghan women in helicopters while flying in the country in search of mujahideen. Its an exciting opportunity. Post East Prussia (German Ostpreuen, stpsn Latin Borussia orientalis Russian ) was a province of Prussia from 17731829 and from 18781945. [128], Even embassy staff from neutral countries were captured and raped, as was documented when Soviet soldiers attacked the Swedish legation in Germany.[129]. Steve, no I dont think theres anything particular to World War I about this soldier mindset at all. [57] Similar atrocities occurred in Sambor, Stanisaww, Stryj, and Zoczw. [118], The explanation of "revenge" is disputed by Beevor, at least with regard to the mass rapes. [127], 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. Jerzy Wgierski, Lww pod okupacj sowieck 19391941, Warszawa 1991, Editions Spotkania, "W czterdziestym nas Matko na Sibir zesali". Some 20,000 . time to avoid being overrun by the Red Army, if they issued orders at all. Despite having been invited "as a comrade", Korneev exploded at them for offering "such insinuations" against the Red Army. [174] The provinces of Nangarhar, Ghazni, Lagham, Kunar, Zabul, Qandahar, Badakhshan, Lowgar, Paktia and Paktika witnessed extensive depopulation programmes by the Soviet forces. German historian Thomas Urban[53] writes that the Soviet policy towards the people who fell under their control in occupied areas was harsh, showing strong elements of ethnic cleansing. At least 500 civilians were killed. Just inside the east Prussian border with Soviet occupied Lithuania, the town of Nemmersdorf (now Mayakovskoye in East Prussia) was the first to fall (temporarily) into the hands of the victorious Soviet Army. 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." It had been one of the strongest pro-German holdouts in the war that formed an independent Latvia after WWI. by Tancred 14 Nov 2004, 03:27, Post [87][88], The prosecution of Greeks in the USSR was gradual: at first the authorities shut down the Greek schools, cultural centres, and publishing houses. Deportations on a smaller scale continued after 1931. Human Rights in Afghanistan Since the Invasion 19791984", "4 Soviet Deserters Tell Of Cruel Afghanistan War", "Full text of European Court of Human Rights Decision on the case Kolk and Kislyiy v. Estonia: Non-Applicability of Statutory Limitations to Crimes against Humanity", "Augstks tiesas prstvji Strasbr gst ieskatu cilvktiesbu aizsardzb", "Amid V-Day Festivities, Soviet Partisan Braces For War Crimes Verdict", "Lithuania convicts Russians of war crimes under Soviet rule", "Polish artist in hot water over Soviet rapist sculpture", "Poland will not charge artist over Soviet rapist sculpture news.net", "Skulptur einer Vergewaltigung in Polen schockiert russischen Botschafter", The Wehrmacht War Crimes Bureau, 19391945, Laws of War: Laws and Customs of War on Land (Hague IV); October 18, 1907, Swiss legation report of the Russian invasion of Hungary in the spring of 1945, "They raped every German female from eight to 80", Description of the atrocities of the Red Army in East Prussia, Book Review: The Siege of Budapest: 100 Days in World War II, Mark Ealey: As World War II entered its final stages the belligerent powers committed one heinous act after another, 27 Jan 2002 on-line article regarding author Antony Beevor's references to Soviet rapes in Germany, Treaty on the Final Settlement with Respect to Germany, General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union, Russian Revolution, Russian Civil War, PolishSoviet War, Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance, Aggravation of class struggle under socialism, Backwardness brings on beatings by others, 1906 Bolshevik raid on the Tsarevich Giorgi, National delimitation in the Soviet Union, Demolition of Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, Case of Trotskyist Anti-Soviet Military Organization, Declaration of the Rights of the Peoples of Russia, Economic Problems of Socialism in the USSR, On the Cult of Personality and Its Consequences, List of awards and honours bestowed upon Joseph Stalin, https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Soviet_war_crimes&oldid=1133030205, Aftermath of World War II in the Soviet Union, Articles with German-language sources (de), Articles with Polish-language sources (pl), CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown, Articles with Romanian-language sources (ro), Articles with Russian-language sources (ru), Short description is different from Wikidata, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2015, Articles with unsourced statements from July 2021, Articles with unsourced statements from November 2010, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from July 2017, Articles lacking reliable references from July 2017, Wikipedia articles needing clarification from September 2022, Wikipedia articles needing factual verification from August 2015, Wikipedia articles needing page number citations from January 2022, Articles with unsourced statements from January 2022, Articles containing Azerbaijani-language text, Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike License 3.0, 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. They used booby traps, mines, and chemical substances throughout the country. The Russian snapper spent over 1,400 days during World War II on the . Soviet soldiers often engaged in plunder, rape and other crimes against the Poles, causing the population to fear and hate the regime. Indiscipline hampered the cohesion and fighting ability of the troops (remember Subbotin's drunk and hungover men in the midst of battle). These last remaining German residents were expelled in more ethnic cleansing of 1949-50. hello. As East Prussia was secured by Soviet forces, over 28,000 Germans were sent to labor camps in the Soviet Union, the little machinery left were broken apart and sent to Russian factories, and even herds of cattle were driven back east. East Prussia (Ostpreuen) was a province of the Kingdom of Prussia from 1773 to 1829 and again from 1878 to 1945. I have a couple of questions born really out of my own ignorance about military history. "[160], 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. 3 August. In tears, Stalin denounced "the Yugoslav Army and how it was administered." Kurland had a mixed population of Latvians and Germans. But we had hardly begun feasting when the alarm was raised. Erna Schneider, born 1936, escaped into the forest from a windowless cattle train transporting East Prussian children to Russia. On Page 234 of his . Estimates of the number of rape victims vary from 5,000 to 200,000. How three million Germans died after VE Dayhttp://www.odfinfo.de/en/History/After-the-Reich.htm'They raped every German female from eight to 80'http://www.od. The facts that he notes rape and looting could equally apply to the German or Russian sides. The Germans were able to prevail and retook much of the ground captured by the Russians. Soviet forces faced some protests by Chinese communist party leaders against the looting and rapes committed by troops in Manchuria. Included in the latter figure are about 15,000 Jews, largely victims of executions by Nazi SS and Arrow Cross Party death squads. [192], Media related to War crimes committed by the Soviet Union at Wikimedia Commons, Violations of the law of war committed by the Soviet Union. [131][132][133] Such event has been referred to as the "Romanian Katyn". In September 1939, the Red Army invaded eastern Poland and occupied it in accordance with the secret protocols of the MolotovRibbentrop Pact. [177][178][179] The Rauzdi massacre and Padkhwab-e Shana massacre were also documented. Many soldiers and officers were buried over the course of those days. The evacuation of East Prussia refers to the evacuation of the German civilian population and military personnel in East Prussia and the Klaipda region between 20 January, and March 1945, as part of the evacuation of German civilians towards the end of World War II. The list of atrocities and apparent war crimes allegedly committed by Russian troops in Ukraine gets longer by the day. It is organised by the Victor Pinchuk Foundation. [174] The Soviet army indiscriminately killed combatants and noncombatants to ensure submission by the local populations. Women were gang raped by as many as several dozen soldiers during the liberation of Poland. [72] 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. all that solves the population problem a man might consider evil, id call it nature, heres to another century of glorious violence . Translated by Joshua Sanborn. [9], The early Soviet leaders publicly denounced anti-Semitism,[10] William Korey wrote: "Anti-Jewish discrimination had become an integral part of Soviet state policy ever since the late thirties." Really interesting, Josh. In November 2006, photographs showing Soviet atrocities were declassified by the Finnish authorities. Nevertheless, the events in East Prussia ought to be of interest more broadly to students of twentieth century Russia and to students of the Great War. Steve convinced me, however, that the blog as a genre held real possibilities for scholars. Djilas writes that in response, Yugoslav partisan leader Joseph Broz Tito summoned the chief of the Soviet military mission, General Korneev, and formally protested. As they were accused across the board of collaborating with the enemy, the Russian army began to remove them from the sensitive areas at the front and in the rear zones in the early months of the war already. She went to Lithuania in 1946 with her sister and brother. This kind of feeling would make sense later in the war, and particularly dug in on the western front where the lines of battle moved little, but Im surprised to see it so early on the eastern front. I might add that I have studied the First World War in the East rather extensively and I don't believe that the Russian troops behaved substantially worse or better than the troops of other countries. [186] Black January is associated with the rebirth of the Azerbaijan Republic. Now outcasts in their own homeland, many succumbed to starvation and disease as virtual slave laborers for their new masters, and the survivors were expelled in the late 1940s. Dear Doverog - I appear to have a slightly different view of the so called History . The Russians regarded East Prussia as the seat of German militarism. ( 1)", "Stadt ohne Mnner - Berlin - Tagesspiegel", 'They raped every German female from eight to 80', "Red Army troops raped even Russian women as they freed them from camps", "Remembering Rape: Divided Social Memory and the Red Army in Hungary 19441945", "Masacrul de la Fntna Alb, ngropat de KGB: peste 2000 de romni ucii de trupele sovietice", "Masacrul de la Fntna Alb. [141][142] 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. Excerpt, Chapter one The Struggle for Europe: The Turbulent History of a Divided Continent 1945-2002 - William I. Hitchcock - 2003 - ISBN -385-49798-9 ( The occupation of East Prussia) Description of the atrocities of the Red Army in East Prussia, quotations from Ilya Ehrenburg, poems by anti-cruelty Red Army officers and details of . When the Allied Powers of World War II 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. The prosecution of these cases legally had to go through local . [69] 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. Furniture and larger objects of art, etc. [93], By 1939 the Ingrian Finnish population had decreased to about 50,000, which was about 43% of 1928 population figures,[94] and the Ingrian Finn national district was abolished.,[95] Following the German invasion of the Soviet Union and the beginning of the Leningrad Blockade, in early 1942 all 20,000 Ingrian Finns remaining in Soviet-controlled territory were deported to Siberia. Does the diary change in tone as the author moves through the war? Then, in 1942, 1944 and 1949, the NKVD indiscriminately arrested all Greek men 16 years old or older. Wyd. Goldsmiths, University of London. by Ogorek 08 Nov 2004, 19:48, Post Reports of Soviet atrocities in the Nemmersdorf massacre of October 1944 and organized rape spread fear and desperation among the civilians. On Feb 24, the first day of the invasion, the Russian army crossed the administrative border of the region from the annexed Crimea and began the . 2 . Aleksandr Subbotin was a cavalryman from the village of Kolkovo in Tver province who served in Rennenkampfs First Army at the start of World War I. [99], According to historian Norman Naimark, statements in Soviet military newspapers and the orders of the Soviet high command were jointly responsible for the excesses of the Red Army. by David Thompson 15 Nov 2004, 07:01, Post More languages. [31] As a result of the Soviet occupation, Estonia permanently lost at least 200,000 people or 20% of its population to repression, exodus and war.[32]. [111], 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 between 1945 and 1948 to be over 600,000, with about 400,000 deaths in the areas east of Oder and Neisse (ca. Whole families, women, children and old people were sent to labor camps in Siberia. This article examines whether East Prussia did, in fact, suffer "unheard-of brutality" at Russian hands during the invasions of 1914-15. When Steve Barnes invited me to join this project, I hadnt given much thought to blogging as a scholarly enterprise. The Krlis 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. "Unheard-of Brutality": Russian Atrocities against Civilians in East Prussia, 1914-1915 * Alexander Watson; Alexander Watson. . And an Army which did not spare its blood for you! In many cases, after looting, the homes were also put on fire, causing a vast total loss Bank safes were emptied without exception even the British and American safes and whatever was found was taken. Your email address will not be published. The original question on this thread was a quest for knowledge about the behavior of Russian troops in East Prussia in 1914, and whether or not they had committed atrocities against the civilian population. [86], 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. 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The European Parliament described the deportation of Chechens and Ingush, where around a quarter people perished, an act of genocide in 2004:[98], Believes that the deportation of the entire Chechen people to Central Asia on 23 February 1944 on the orders of Stalin constitutes an act of genocide within the meaning of the Fourth Hague Convention of 1907 and the Convention for the Prevention and Repression of the Crime of Genocide adopted by the UN General Assembly on 9 December 1948. 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. Archivalien und ausgewlte Erlebenisberichte, Bonn 1989, pp. At 6:45 we arrived in the town of Marusken. Second, and related, it seems that I often hear about the significance of World War I, among other reasons, for the brutalization of warfare. For the same reason, I dont really think that World War I brutalized warfare as such in any substantial way. In some cases victims who did not hide in the basements all day were raped up to 15 times. After World War II its territory was divided between the Soviet Union and Poland. 1915 Persecution Of Six Million Jews Charged Against Russia CIVILIANS FOUND DEAD Telephones and Observations from Tower Said to Have Caused Death of . The original question on this thread was a quest for knowledge about the behavior of Russian troops in East Prussia in 1914, and whether or not they had committed atrocities against the civilian population. On the road to the village we shot about eight spies.