Hillsdale College, Hillsdale, Michigan 49242 December 1988 Volume 17, No. 12 ''Forced Repatriation to the Soviet Union: The Secret Betrayal" Nikolai Tolstoy Editor's Preview: At the end of World War through their villages in flower-strewn II, two million Russians-including White glory. Russians, Cossacks, Slovenians, Croats and What happened to the Russian POWs Serbs who were POWs or simply living in after that, however, was far from glorious. exile-were forcibly repatriated to the They were thrown into wired camps on Soviet Union. Men, women and children the open steppe. During the cruel winter were turned over to the Russian secret of 1941-42, without shelter or proper food, police at gunpoint. Non-Soviet citizens were millions died. This is a Nazi war crime, supposedly exempt, but historian Count undeniably, but it is not one which should Nikolai Tolstoy charges that they were be laid exclusively at Hitler's door. secretly betrayed by a few key military of­ During World War I, Russian prisoners ficials, a future British prime minister received the same treatment as the British, among them. French and American troops; they were all This tragedy, although nearly a half­ signatories of the Hague Convention. Iron­ century old, ought not be forgotten. What ically, it was not Imperial Russia under Czar happened in 1944-47 was more than a Nicholas II which refused to be bound by sinister episode. Even in this era of the Hague agreement but the new Soviet ''glasnost,'' the Soviet Union still denies regime which supplanted it in 1917. Twelve freedom of emigration, one of the most ( ( \ years later, the world powers reached a fundamental human rights, to its people. came later. Though the story is over forty more detailed agreement, the Geneva Con­ Our thanks to the U.S. Business and In­ years old and may not be widely known, vention, but the Soviets remained aloof. dustrial Council who co-sponsored this it is one which continues to gain in Throughout World War II, Russian POWs Shavano Institute for National Leadership significance-and tragedy. were completely unprotected. Except on a lecture on the Hillsdale campus in the fall few rare occasions, the Red Cross was of 1987. Prisoners of War forbidden to enter the camps and Stalin refused to discuss the issue even though he last world war was a long time n 1941, after the demise of the brief Germany urged Red Cross intervention. ago, and for many of us, even those cynical alliance between Hitler and Often with nothing but a barbed wire Twith first-hand experience, it does IStalin, Germany invaded Russia and fence to separate them, the beleaguered indeed seem to have become a distant advanced very swiftly. The German forces Russians were forced to watch their British, memory. Yet some images remain vivid. took several million prisoners in the first French and American counterparts receive Only a child at the time, I remember the three months of their offensive. Mistakenly, food parcels, clothing and letters from London bombing raids as if they happened many of these prisoners and the inhab­ home. Still on record in the British Foreign yesterday. But the particular experience itants of the invaded regions regarded the Office are documents discussing requests which has occupied much of my adult Germans as liberators who were expected from White Russian immigrants in Britain concern, oddly enough, involves a story to overthrow the hated Stalin and restore who pleaded for permission to help their which I understood very little of in the their freedom. Some surrendered Russian countrymen. Foreign Secretary Anthony l940s or for many years afterward. I had Army units marched to meet their supposed Eden said, in effect, "Well, for some reason heard people talking about it in the Russian liberators with bands playing, and Nazi which we know nothing about, Stalin is church where emigres and refugees propaganda films depict Russian peasants determined that nothing should be done gathered in London, but the rest, for me, cheering as the German troops paraded for the Russian prisoners" and nothing indeed was done. It is significant to note troops. Of politics, most of these men knew witnessed on this occasion, but rumors of that Stalin did not oppose humanitarian nothing. All their lives they had been the fate that awaited the Russians abounded aid for other Allied POWs; only for harried hither and thither in the name of and were verified later by first-hand and Russians. For those who recalled his brutal confused ideologies by commanders whose other reliable accounts of mass executions methods of subjugation in the Ukraine, the languages more often than not they could in abandoned quayside warehouses and message is clear. not understand. Among the more educated, factories . The prisoners were marched to Thousands of Russians were drawn into knowledge of their precarious situation these after disembarking and divesting the Third Reich willingly or unwillingly. only contributed to a typically fatalistic themselves of the clothes and possessions Many, of course, had opposed the com­ attitude. the Allies had given them . Many were munist revolution of 1917 and desired autonomy, so they did not consider it treasonable to work for the Nazis. Men, women and children were also abducted "Eden's detailed plan for forcible repatriation was from occupied zones by the hundreds to work as forced labor in Germany. Great formulated before Stalin or any Soviet official had numbers of refugees fled eastward for all raised the issue. '' sorts of reasons, not the least of which was to get out of the line of fire during the German retreat. Consequently, at the war's end, some Soon the British authorities received allowed to live, and were sent to ''educa­ six million Soviet citizens were located in their first glimpse of what it meant to be tional" camps. Regarding the other group Central Europe. The Allies were completely faced with the possibility of compulsory however, here is one British observer's unable to comprehend the scale of such return to the world's first Marxist state: account: a problem. They had no way of assessing Russian POW suicides began in july of 1944. The disembarkation started at 1830 how many Russians were inside Germany The matter was brought before the British hrs. and continued for 4 Yz hrs. The or anywhere else, for that matter, but huge Cabinet (the Americans were only Soviet authorities refused to accept numbers of them showed up in North marginally involved at this time because any of the stretcher cases as such and Africa, Persia, Normandy, and Italy too. they had been delivering all captured even the patients who were dying During the D-Day invasion in june 1944, Russians into British hands), but already were made to walk off the ship British and American military authorities the decision had been made: All Russian carrying their own baggage. Two estimated that one out of every ten German POWs would be returned to the Soviet people only were carried off, one soldiers captured was in reality a Soviet Union, whatever the fate in store for them. man with his right leg amputated and citizen. Of all the nations in Europe, the One member of the government who left one broken , and the other un­ USSR was the only one to witness nearly spoke up for the unfortunate prisoners was conscious. The prisoner who had a million of its subjects enlisting in the Lord Selborne, then Minister of Economic attempted suicide was very roughly enemy army. Warfare, who was also responsible for handled and his wound opened up Many of the Russian prisoners were occupied Europe's sabotage and espionage and was allowed to bleed. He was transported to Britain and were held in operations under the Special Operations taken off the ship and marched training camps originally used for British Executive. Russian-speaking officers under behind a packing case on the docks; his direction recorded dozens of appalling a shot was then heard, but nothing stories of suffering from the POWs. Com­ more was seen. The other 32 About the Author mon to all of them was an absolute dread prisoners were marched or dragged of returning to the Soviet Union. They were into a warehouse 50 yards from the Count Nikolai Tolstoy, heir to the certain that they would be killed or, at the ship and after a lapse of 15 minutes, senior line of the world-famous literary very least, sentenced to the unspeakable automatic fire was heard coming from family, is the author of a number of horrors of the labor camps. Selborne wrote the warehouse; twenty minutes later books, including The Minister and the to Winston Churchill, who promised to a covered lorry drove out of the Massacres, Victims of Yalta, Stalin 's consider the matter again. But at a second warehouse and headed towards the Secret War, The Tolstoys: Twenty Four Cabinet meeting, Selborne, not being a town. Later I had a chance to glance Generations of Russian History, The Cabinet Minister, was barred from pre­ into the warehouse when no one was Quest for Merlin, and, The Coming of senting his evidence and Anthony Eden around and found the cobbled floor the King: The First Book of Merlin. He was able to convince the Prime Minister stained dark in several places around is president of the Association for a Free that all Russian POWs must be repatriated, the sides and the walls badly chip­ Russia and the Soviet Prisoners in forcibly if necessary. ped for about five feet up. Afghanistan Rescue Committee. Inquiries These were not the only victims in this regarding the forced repatriation defense Return to the USSR incident.