scholarly journals Soviet prisoner of war camps in the territory of the Georgian SSR (1945-1954)

2021 ◽  
Vol 43 ◽  
pp. 227-252
Author(s):  
Vladimer Luarsabishvili

This article uses archival materials kept in the Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Georgia. One of its main fonds is composed by former Soviet State Security (KGB) archive of the Georgian SSR. The materials used here describe in details the legislative base, POW-builders (facilities and scale), the exploitation of the POW workforce in agriculture, housing conditions of POWs as well as their physical conditions, and generate general conclusions regarding the conditions and functioning of the POW camps, revealing its role in the USSR economy and the assessment of the Soviet bureaucratic apparatus. 

Author(s):  
Jörg Baberowski

This chapter examines the changes that were made in Russia after Joseph Stalin's death. Within weeks of Stalin's death, the charges against the “murderer doctors” had been dropped, the use of torture had been outlawed, and the punitive authority of the security apparatus had been limited. Furthermore, the last remaining victims of the “Mingrelian Affair” were released from prison, and Solomon Mikhoels, the assassinated chairman of the Jewish Antifascist Committee, was rehabilitated posthumously. Despotism, the hallmark of Stalinism, would disappear from daily life, and fear and dread would no longer be the ruling standard. Nikita Khrushchev became the new party leader, Georgi Malenkov was made prime minister, Vyacheslav Molotov was allowed to return to his former post as foreign minister, and Stalin's executioner Lavrenty Beria assumed control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the state security apparatus. Throughout the years of de-Stalinization, it remained the great exception for any of the crimes against defenseless individuals to be prosecuted.


2021 ◽  
Vol 2021 (02) ◽  
pp. 226-238
Author(s):  
Alexandеr Epifanov ◽  
Elena Krasnozhenova

The article is devoted to the organizational and legal foundations of the activities of the Stalingrad bodies of internal affairs and state security to establish the Nazi occupation regime and the administration that carried it out in 1942—1943. On the basis of archival materials, many of which are introduced into scientific circulation for the first time, the authors reveal the system of Hitler’s occupation bodies, as well as the atrocities committed by their functionaries.


2020 ◽  
pp. 214-262
Author(s):  
Kevin Riehle

The flow of defectors waned in the early 1950s as the Soviet Union began again to enforce 1930s rules against defection. However, the death of Stalin in 1953, and equally importantly, the arrest and execution of Soviet state security director Lavrentiy Beriya later that year, prompted a brief new wave of defections—ten officers in a thirteen-month period. They defected for similar reasons as their predecessors in the Yezhovshchina period—out of fear that they were in danger from a purge. With Beriya’s downfall came the inevitable purge that followed the arrest of a state security leader during the Stalin era. Any officer who had connected his or her career with Beriya’s was at risk of going down with him. These officers revealed a growing perception of threat from the United States as the leader of the Western alliance, and targeting of U.S. and NATO information dominated their collection requirements.


Author(s):  
ALONZO COBB

The majority of prisoners the author has spoken with are not very concerned about prison overcrowding; they are concerned only with benefiting their own immediate conditions. They only talk about overcrowding and leave a minority of inmates to file the petitions and writs to get rid of overcrowded conditions. In this article, the physical conditions of overcrowded prisons are detailed and strategies are outlined whereby litigious prisoners may protect their own possessions vis-à-vis the prison authorities. For their part, some prison administrators prefer the status quo and are not too keen about inmates meddling in internal affairs. The federal courts in Georgia have mandated that overcrowded prisons come up to minimum standards. Such court action motivates prisoners to work for more humane prisons.


Author(s):  
Shchur Yu.

The purpose of the work. The article is about the personality of a OUN(r) March Groups member Yulian Wojtowych and his work in the field of education in Kherson during the German occupation in particular. The attention is focused on the history of foundingan agricultural school where Yulian Wojtowych taught history and geography. The historiography of the issue embraces works which cover the topic of OUN activities at the South of Ukraine, particularly that of Lev Shankovsky and Yevgen Gorburov, and Mykola Shytiuk. OUN March Groups members’ memoirs and Soviet State Security agencies’investigatoryfiles, as well as operative ones, about OUN activities in Kherson became sources for this research.Results and scientific novelty of the research. It was found out, that educational line was one of the primary ones in the OUN activity in Kherson during the German occupation. Ukrainian nationalists paid special attention to teaching the history of Ukraine in the learning process because this very subject together with geography formed the students’ outlook. As OUN members believed, it was the school which shaped future architects of the Ukrainian State. Yulian Wojtowych who had had complete theological education was actually a teacher of history and geography, participated in composing the history of Ukraine curricula for Kherson schools. In thecrisis situation in education sphere caused by the policy of the Nazi occupational authorities, special (professional) educational institutions, namely agricultural school, were for OUN members of particular interest.The occupational authorities had their own interest in opening such schools which would train mid-level professionals (“help staff”). OUN members considered them as opportunities for Ukrainian youth to obtain education and for themselves to recruit new staff for the struggle for independence of Ukraine. Due to his nationalist underground activities and realization of the organisation leaders’ instructions on the Ukrainian education development, Yulian Wojtowych suffered repressions from the Nazi secret services and had to undergothe “Vodokachka” camp, Buchenwald, Dora and Bergen-Belsen.Key words: Nazi repressions, Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists, OUN March Groups, Agricultural School, Kherson. Мета роботи. Стаття присвячена постаті учасника Похідних груп ОУН-р Юліана Войтовича, а саме його діяльності на освітній ниві у Херсоні під час німецької окупації. В центрі уваги історія створення херсонської сільськогосподарської школи, де Юліан Войтович викладав історію та географію. Історіографія проблеми охоплює роботи, в яких висвітлюється питання діяльності ОУН на Півдні України, зокрема Лева Шанковського та Євгена Горбурова й Миколи Шитюка. Джерелами дослі-дження стали мемуари учасників похідних груп ОУН та слідчі й оперативні справи радянських органів державної безпеки щодо діяльності ОУН у Херсоні. Результати та наукова новизна дослідження. З’ясовано, що освітянський напрямок був одним з провідних в діяльності ОУН у Херсоні під час німецької окупації. Важливе місце в освітньому процесі українські націоналісти відводили викла-данню історії України, оскільки саме цей предмет, разом з географією, формував світогляд учнів. На переконання членів ОУН саме школа формувала майбутніх будівничих Української Держави. Юліан Войтович, який мав закінчену вищу богословську освіту, якраз був викладачем історії та географії, брав участь у складенні програм з курсу історії України для шкіл Херсона. В умовах кризи освітянської галузі, спричиненої політикою нацистської окупаційної влади, значний інтерес для членів ОУН представляли спеціальні (професійні) освітні заклади, зокрема – сільськогосподарська школа. Окупаційна влада мала свій інтерес у відкритті подібних шкіл, які мали готувати фахівців середньої ланки («обслуговуючого персоналу»). Члени ОУН вбачали у подібних школах можливості для української молоді отримати освіту, а також залучення нових кадрів для боротьби за незалежність України. Через свою діяльність у націоналістичному підпіллі, реалізації настанов організаційних провідників щодо розвитку української освіти, Юліан Войтович зазнав репресій нацистських спецслужб, пройшовши шлях від табору «Водокачка» до Бухенвальду, Дори й Берген-Бельзен. Ключові слова: нацистські репресії, Організація українських націоналістів, Похідні групи ОУН, Сільськогосподарська школа, Херсон


Author(s):  
Z.B. Myrzatayeva ◽  

The history of the development of the natural resources of Aschysai, which the Moscow center paid special attention to, was considered one-sided in Soviet historiography. Its light and shadow sides still need to be fully explored. The means of historical and anthropological research in modern historical science allow a comprehensive and objective study of this problem. The article describes the working days of the Japanese in the prisoner of war camp No. 348 of the NKVD - (MVD) of the USSR, created in Aschysai in 1945. Japanese prisoners of war performed the hardest work on the mines of the Aschysai polymetallic combine, agriculture in Turkestan, as well as cultural construction of the region (construction of buildings, industrial enterprises, construction of workers ' settlements). Some of the buildings from which they were built, still serve the people. The article also analyzes the memoirs of children of Polish citizens who were deported in revealing the content of this problem. The study used documents from the archives of the Department of internal Affairs of Kazakhstan in Shymkent, rgae, TSGA RK, Fund the ASMC and the materials of field expeditions (interviews with local residents) in rural communities Ashchysay, Kentau, Bayuldur, etc. the History of camp No. 348 and everyday life of the Japanese prisoners has not previously been the subject of special studies. Accordingly, documentary materials are introduced into scientific circulation here for the first time.


Literary Fact ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 355-364
Author(s):  
Roman D. Timenchik

The article from the author's cycle “From the Index to Akhmatova's Notebooks” (published in various periodicals) demonstrates the attempt of an extensive commentary on Akhmatova's working notes, organized around the characters present on the pages of her notebooks, a kind of free Akhmatova encyclopedia, where different periods of her long life are combined in the onomasticon. A comment of this kind snatches out representative fragments of Akhmatova's epoch, but the degree of presence of different persons in the list, or even their absence, does not always reflect their weight in Akhmatova's biography. The present article is devoted to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs, the General Commissar of State Security Genrikh Yagoda, mentioned not only in the Notebooks, but also in the Diary Pages and in Akhmatova's satirical couplets of the 1930s.


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