Ugly allegations against Soviet troops

I've noticed that on comments to many topics about the Soviet military during the latter stages of World War II/Great Patriotic War in 1945, there are efforts to discredit the Soviet military effort by accusing the Soviet military of containing not just individuals involved in incidents of abuse, but that the 2.5 million Soviet military personnel during and after the Battle of Berlin in 1945 collectively were responsible for all kinds of crimes. There's a particularly disturbing emphasis on rapes and sexual abuse, and I find that associating Russians with these crimes parallels how black people were characterized as prone to such crimes in racist literature. The emphasis on sexual violence says more about the perverted mindset coming from those making the allegations than it does about actual Russian troops.It's often hard to tell whether the attacks on Soviet military personnel are motivated by liberal and Neo-Con anti-communism or whether they're an expression of neo-Nazi or slickly repackaged far-right ideology. They all have an antipathy and hatred for communists, and their propaganda often overlaps. If you compare literature from the John Birch Society and Josef Goebbels's works, there's not that big of a difference.To a large extent, western historiography about Russia amounts to echoing the literature of the Communists' enemies. For the Russian revolution, the Anglo-American historiography typically regurgitates contemporary material published by anti-Soviet newspapers or the butt-hurt expressions of former Tsarist ministers and Provisional Government figures. The deposed Provisional Government leader in Russia, Alexander Kerensky, moved to America and worked at a Stanford University institute. For World War II, we're treated to Nazi-connected propaganda.One of the earliest expressions of these allegations against the Soviet military came from Josef Goebbels: Nazi ideology characterized Russians as animals.As Goebbels wrote in his diary, “we managed to harden the German people and fill them with hatred of the Bolsheviks”Goebbels also wrote:"First of all, mention should be made of the terrible reports that came from Upper Silesia. In individual villages and cities, all women from 10 to 70 have been subjected to countless rape. It seems that this is done by order from above, since an explicit system can be seen in the behavior of the Soviet soldier. Against this, we will now launch a broad campaign at home and abroad."We've had millions of surviving Russian veterans from the war and their experiences by and large don't correspond to the allegations leveled against their military. Their experiences and reminisces contradict the ugly allegations against them.Army General Mahmut GAREEV, President of Russia's Academy of Military Sciences:Of course, cruelty, including sexual violence, did occur. They simply could not have been after what the Nazis did on our land. But such cases were resolutely suppressed and punished. And they did not become massive. After all, as soon as we occupied the village, a commandant's office was immediately created there. It provided the local population with food, medical care. The order was controlled by the commandant patrol service.Personally, I participated in the liberation of East Prussia. I didn’t even hear about sexual violence then. I remember that before the system we were read out the decision of the military tribunal. The essence of the matter was that several soldiers burst into the yard of a prosperous farmer, caught several chickens, geese, and began to cook. When the battle for the farm ended, the owners got out of the basement, where they were hiding, and raised a cry. The patrol came to the noise. The soldier was detained. The commander of the 184th Division, Major General Basan Gorodovikov, ordered the demonstration court of the military tribunal to be arranged. The fighters were given five years in camps. It is easy to assume that the punishment would be immeasurably more severe if one of them were to look at, say, the mistress.There are statistics pertaining to crimes committed by Russian troops in Germany. They indicate 72 cases of rape in the 1st Belorussian Front that contained 900 thousand men during April 1945:The report of the military prosecutor of the 1st Belorussian Front on unlawful actions against civilians from April 22 to May 5, 1945: 124 crimes were recorded in seven front armies for 908 thousand people, of which 72 were for rape. There were 72 cases per 908 thousand men. Moreover, often captured and displaced persons freed from the camps were engaged in robberies and violence, not necessarily Russians, but they blamed the Soviet Army on this.False allegations were leveled at Russian troops:The second trend noted in the document also deserves to be mentioned. Major General of Justice L. Yachenin reports: “There are cases when the Germans engage in provocation, claiming rape, when this did not take place. I myself have identified two such cases. No less interesting is the fact that our people sometimes without verification report on the instance of the violence and killings that occurred, while during the verification this turns out to be fiction ” Vain slander also took place.Russian policy explicitly forbade cruel treatment of the population encountered by the military:Having entered the territory of East Prussia, on January 21, 1945, the commander of the 2nd Belorussian Front, Marshal K.K. Rokossovsky issued order No. 006 , punishing for looting, violence, robberies, senseless arson and destruction. The danger of such phenomena for the morale and fighting efficiency of the army was noted. On January 27, the same order was issued by the Commander of the 1st Ukrainian Front, Marshal I.S. Konev. On January 29, in all battalions of the 1st Belorussian Front, an order was read out by Marshal G.K. Zhukov, which forbade the Red Army from “oppressing the German population, robbing apartments and burning houses”.It's interesting that propaganda coming out of America and Britain accuses Russians of all kinds of horrible deeds against Germans. While some specialist scholars explore the these subjects, there is a relative lack of emphasis on the crimes committed against German civilians by Czechs and Poles, who in 2020 are faithful NATO allies:After the fall of Germany the Czechoslovak government, free from Soviet influence took control of the Sudetenland and immediately began looting German homes and mistreating their inhabitants. The Czechoslovak military took control of the area and began to forcibly remove Germans. Those who remained in their homes began to face persecution such as forced labor, loss of property, and internment camps. Some summary executions occurred as well as the maltreatment of the Germans—particularly former SS and SA members.The Czechoslovak government introduced many rules against the German population, including wearing white armbands to identify people as Germans, being able to shop only during certain hours, not being allowed to use methods of public communication or to change residency.In May, June, and July 1945 Czechs began to expel Germans from the country. Transportation of Germans was harsh. They were put on trains that were ill equipped with food and water or they were marched to the border of Germany.Polish treatment of Germans:Poles released from the camps, prisoners of war of various nationalities, as well as foreign workers living in the city, immediately after their release began to rob food and property from warehouses, shops, private apartments. The largest number of complaints from the population comes to the Poles.Relations between Germans and Poles in these areas were extremely tense, and these relations are especially acute in areas east of the Oder River.Most Germans of this region received the news of the withdrawal of lands east of the Oder to Poland coldly and even with hostility. Ernst Kladt, a resident of the town of Freivelde, a landowner with 20 hectares of land, argues in this way: “If these lands go to Poland, then we all wish to move to Germany. After all, under the Poles, our children will have to go to the Polish school, study the Polish language, and then they will be taken into the Polish army. It’s better to take the rags we have left and leave for the Oder. The Poles are very fake and cruel people. ”A worker, Hans Hahnemann from Treptow, 63 years old, said in an interview: “Everyone curses Hitler, everyone says that he wanted to conquer the world, and led us to the fact that we were under the power of the Poles. This circumstance, by the way, is the worst in the outcome of the war. Everyone is also afraid of Russians, but they are getting better every day, and we expect much more evil from the Poles. The Poles are vengeful; now they have not yet entered the role, and when the Russians leave, the Poles will begin to take revenge for the fact that they previously worked for us. ”Kinbau Wilhelm of Braunsfort says: “The Russians, unlike the Poles, are generous and kind. The Red Army even share tobacco with us. We would like to live under Russian, and not under Polish rule. ” The majority of the German population of Danzig (Gdansk) and Gdynia held the same opinion.The hostile and even hostile attitude of the Germans towards the Poles is partly explained by the rudeness and sometimes atrocities committed by individual Poles, and sometimes by the local Polish authorities in relation to the German population. In some ways, the Poles copy Hitler's methods of dealing with the population of the occupied regions. The Germans sometimes, without any reason, are driven out of their apartments, the Poles unceremoniously take away all their livestock and cattle from the population; There are many cases when the Poles equip carts, go round German settlements on them, taking all their valuable property from the inhabitants. There are many facts of violence against German women, in addition, Poles often take Germans into personal service. via /r/communism https://ift.tt/2zSX6c0