Soviet war crimes gives a short overview about serious crimes, which probably offend against international law, committed by the Red Army's (1918-1946, later Soviet Army) leadership and an unknown number of single members of the Soviet armed forces from 1919 to 1990 inclusive including those in Eastern Europe in late 1944 and early 1945, particularly murder and rape. Neither by any international military jurisdiction nor the Red Army’s leadership have any of its members have ever been charged with war crimes by a court of law. Background
On the part of the Axis powers a racist ideology played a primary role in starting World War II and led to immediate, constant and systematic war crimes against the Soviet civilian population during the German invasion and occupation of Russia (1941-45). An estimated 20 million civilians in the Soviet Union lost their lives during the war as a direct or indirect result of combat operations and a policy of systematic annihilation.
On the Soviet side, the Red Army was ideologically orientated and indoctrinated from its first day. It was created in 1918 by the communist Soviet regime in order to defend the new regime in the bloody Russian Civil War. Leon Trotsky, founding father of the Red Army, used propaganda, indoctrination and ruthless terror to defeat the White Army. As a result of severe famine that started during World War I and disease, the deaths of civilians in the Russian Civil War were several times higher than those of combatants. Some sources state that the number of civilian dead in this conflict were 9 times higher than that of troops in the field. The Soviet Union did not recognize Tsarist Russia's assent to the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) as binding on the new regime and refused to sign it until 1955.
Following the repulsion of the German attack on the Soviet Union and Soviet troops entering Germany and Hungary in 1944, the number of war crimes, plunder, murder of civilians, and especially rape, reached a level of previously unknown proportions. For decades, Western scholars have generally explained these atrocities in Germany and Hungary as revenge for German atrocities in the territory of the Soviet Union and for the mass killing of Soviet POWs (3,6 million dead of total a 5,2 million POWs) by the German army. This explanation is now disputed by military historians such as Antony Beevor, at least in regard to the mass rapes. Beevor claims that Red Army soldiers also raped Russian and Polish women liberated from concentration camps, and contends that this undermines the revenge explanation. They are also cases of mass rapes in Polish cities taken by Red Army; for instance, in Kraków Soviet entry brought mass rapes on Polish women and girls, as well as brutal plunder of all private property by Soviet soldiers. This behaviour reached such scale that even communists installed by Soviets were preparing a letter of protest to Joseph Stalin himself, while masses in churches were held in expectation of Soviet withdrawal.
From 1941 on, Stalin was willing to strike back against the invading Axis forces at all costs and led the war with extreme brutality, including against his own soldiers.
The Red Army took much higher casualties than any other military force during World War II, in part because of high manpower attrition and inadequate time for training. Faced with badly equipped infantry units barely capable of standing up against machine guns, tanks and artillery, the tactics of Soviet commanders were often based on mass infantry attacks, inflicting heavy losses on their own troops. This tactic was also used for clearing minefields, which were ‘attacked’ by waves of infantry soldiers in order to clear them. In accordance with the orders of Soviet High Command, retreating soldiers or even soldiers who hesitated to advance faced being shot by rearguard NKVD units: Stalin’s order No 270 of August 16, 1941, states that in case of retreat or surrender, all officers involved were to be shot on the spot and all enlisted men threatened with total annihilation as well as possible reprisals against their families.
On the part of the Axis powers a racist ideology played a primary role in starting World War II and led to immediate, constant and systematic war crimes against the Soviet civilian population during the German invasion and occupation of Russia (1941-45). An estimated 20 million civilians in the Soviet Union lost their lives during the war as a direct or indirect result of combat operations and a policy of systematic annihilation.
On the Soviet side, the Red Army was ideologically orientated and indoctrinated from its first day. It was created in 1918 by the communist Soviet regime in order to defend the new regime in the bloody Russian Civil War. Leon Trotsky, founding father of the Red Army, used propaganda, indoctrination and ruthless terror to defeat the White Army. As a result of severe famine that started during World War I and disease, the deaths of civilians in the Russian Civil War were several times higher than those of combatants. Some sources state that the number of civilian dead in this conflict were 9 times higher than that of troops in the field. The Soviet Union did not recognize Tsarist Russia's assent to the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) as binding on the new regime and refused to sign it until 1955.
Following the repulsion of the German attack on the Soviet Union and Soviet troops entering Germany and Hungary in 1944, the number of war crimes, plunder, murder of civilians, and especially rape, reached a level of previously unknown proportions. For decades, Western scholars have generally explained these atrocities in Germany and Hungary as revenge for German atrocities in the territory of the Soviet Union and for the mass killing of Soviet POWs (3,6 million dead of total a 5,2 million POWs) by the German army. This explanation is now disputed by military historians such as Antony Beevor, at least in regard to the mass rapes. Beevor claims that Red Army soldiers also raped Russian and Polish women liberated from concentration camps, and contends that this undermines the revenge explanation. They are also cases of mass rapes in Polish cities taken by Red Army; for instance, in Kraków Soviet entry brought mass rapes on Polish women and girls, as well as brutal plunder of all private property by Soviet soldiers. This behaviour reached such scale that even communists installed by Soviets were preparing a letter of protest to Joseph Stalin himself, while masses in churches were held in expectation of Soviet withdrawal.
From 1941 on, Stalin was willing to strike back against the invading Axis forces at all costs and led the war with extreme brutality, including against his own soldiers.
The Red Army took much higher casualties than any other military force during World War II, in part because of high manpower attrition and inadequate time for training. Faced with badly equipped infantry units barely capable of standing up against machine guns, tanks and artillery, the tactics of Soviet commanders were often based on mass infantry attacks, inflicting heavy losses on their own troops. This tactic was also used for clearing minefields, which were ‘attacked’ by waves of infantry soldiers in order to clear them. In accordance with the orders of Soviet High Command, retreating soldiers or even soldiers who hesitated to advance faced being shot by rearguard NKVD units: Stalin’s order No 270 of August 16, 1941, states that in case of retreat or surrender, all officers involved were to be shot on the spot and all enlisted men threatened with total annihilation as well as possible reprisals against their families.
However, the Soviet military had always called for a scorched earth policy: a speech delivered by Stalin said that in case of a forced retreat, "the enemy must not be left a single engine, a single railway car, not a single pound of grain or a gallon of fuel".
In Soviet and present Russian history books on the "Great Patriotic War" this order and other Russian atrocities in World War II are hardly mentioned. With rare exceptions (notably Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Lev Kopelev) this evidence was found and published by Western historians after some of the Soviet archives were opened to the public following the Cold War.
Crimes committed by the Red Army in occupied territories (Poland, the Baltic states, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia) between 1939 and 1941 and the follow-up atrocities of 1944–1949 have been present in the historical consciousness of these countries since the crimes were committed. Nevertheless, a systematic, publicly controlled discussion could begin only after the fall of the Soviet Union. This is also true of the territories occupied by Soviet forces in Manchuria and the Kuril Islands after the Soviet Union breached its neutrality pact with Japan in 1945.
Civilian casualties
In Soviet and present Russian history books on the "Great Patriotic War" this order and other Russian atrocities in World War II are hardly mentioned. With rare exceptions (notably Alexander Solzhenitsyn and Lev Kopelev) this evidence was found and published by Western historians after some of the Soviet archives were opened to the public following the Cold War.
Crimes committed by the Red Army in occupied territories (Poland, the Baltic states, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia) between 1939 and 1941 and the follow-up atrocities of 1944–1949 have been present in the historical consciousness of these countries since the crimes were committed. Nevertheless, a systematic, publicly controlled discussion could begin only after the fall of the Soviet Union. This is also true of the territories occupied by Soviet forces in Manchuria and the Kuril Islands after the Soviet Union breached its neutrality pact with Japan in 1945.
Civilian casualties
During the Winter War
The Winter War, also known as the Soviet-Finnish War, broke out when the Soviet Union attacked Finland on November 30, 1939. In November 2006 pictures showing atrocities committed by Soviet soldiers and partisans conducting cross-border raids against Finnish civilians were declassified by Finnish authorities. The pictures include images of slain women and children. They had been kept secret for so long in order not to disturb relations with the powerful neighbor to the east.
1939–1942
The Red Army, in accordance with the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and 16 days after the German attack on Poland, invaded and occupied the eastern part of Poland and later, as negotiated with the Nazi regime, the Baltic States and parts of Ukraine and Bessarabia.
The Soviet policy in all newly controlled areas was ruthless, showing strong elements of ethnic cleansing. NKVD task forces followed the Red Army to clean the conquered territories of "Soviet-hostile elements." The Polish historian Tomasz Strzembosz has noted parallels between the German Einsatzgruppen and these units. Many tried to escape from the Soviet NKVD, and those who failed were mostly taken into custody by the Red Army and afterwards deported to Siberia and/or vanished in the "Gulag".
During 1939-1941, for example, nearly 1.5 million inhabitants of Soviet-controlled areas of former Poland were deported, of whom 63.1% were Poles or other nationalities and 7.4% were Jews. Only a fraction of these deportees survived the war.
According to the American professor Carroll Quigley, at least 100,000 out of 320,000 Polish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army in 1939, was exterminated.
Deportations, executions, torture as well as numerous other crimes against the population (murder, hostage taking, burning down of villages) increased when the Red Army was forced to retreat from the advancing Wehrmacht in 1941. Many political prisoners, arrested by the NKVD, were massacred in order to prevent their falling into German hands. In the Baltic States, Byelorussia, the Ukraine and Bessarabia imprisoned opponents were executed by the NKVD and attached units of the Red Army rather than left behind. These actions by the Soviets increased the hatred of those who had helped the Soviets, or were suspected of being Soviet allies, in particular the Jews. As another result, in these countries the Einsatzgruppen could rely heavily on volunteers, willing to participate in their brutal operations, and tip-offs, especially in the Baltic States.
1943–1945
From the turning point of the war on, the Red Army did not give up territories to the Wehrmacht, but mainly regained lost ground on the Eastern Front. This resulted in revenge actions against all those who were accused of being collaborators during the German occupation, similar to the trials of collaborators in liberated France in France after D-Day. Whilst in France this part of history is documented, debated and subject of many scientific reviews, very little is known today about what happened in the path of the Red Army, re-conquering former Soviet territory of the Baltic States. But some men of these countries voluntarily joined Waffen-SS divisions to defend their homelands against the Soviets, whenever the Red Army was approaching.
In Poland, Nazi atrocities ended in late 1944, but Soviet oppression continued. The role of the Red Army during the Warsaw Uprising remains controversial and is still disputed by some historians. Soldiers of Poland's Home Army (Armia Krajowa) were persecuted, sometimes imprisoned, and often executed following staged trials (as in the case of Witold Pilecki, the organizer of Auschwitz resistance).
1939–1942
The Red Army, in accordance with the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and 16 days after the German attack on Poland, invaded and occupied the eastern part of Poland and later, as negotiated with the Nazi regime, the Baltic States and parts of Ukraine and Bessarabia.
The Soviet policy in all newly controlled areas was ruthless, showing strong elements of ethnic cleansing. NKVD task forces followed the Red Army to clean the conquered territories of "Soviet-hostile elements." The Polish historian Tomasz Strzembosz has noted parallels between the German Einsatzgruppen and these units. Many tried to escape from the Soviet NKVD, and those who failed were mostly taken into custody by the Red Army and afterwards deported to Siberia and/or vanished in the "Gulag".
During 1939-1941, for example, nearly 1.5 million inhabitants of Soviet-controlled areas of former Poland were deported, of whom 63.1% were Poles or other nationalities and 7.4% were Jews. Only a fraction of these deportees survived the war.
According to the American professor Carroll Quigley, at least 100,000 out of 320,000 Polish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army in 1939, was exterminated.
Deportations, executions, torture as well as numerous other crimes against the population (murder, hostage taking, burning down of villages) increased when the Red Army was forced to retreat from the advancing Wehrmacht in 1941. Many political prisoners, arrested by the NKVD, were massacred in order to prevent their falling into German hands. In the Baltic States, Byelorussia, the Ukraine and Bessarabia imprisoned opponents were executed by the NKVD and attached units of the Red Army rather than left behind. These actions by the Soviets increased the hatred of those who had helped the Soviets, or were suspected of being Soviet allies, in particular the Jews. As another result, in these countries the Einsatzgruppen could rely heavily on volunteers, willing to participate in their brutal operations, and tip-offs, especially in the Baltic States.
1943–1945
From the turning point of the war on, the Red Army did not give up territories to the Wehrmacht, but mainly regained lost ground on the Eastern Front. This resulted in revenge actions against all those who were accused of being collaborators during the German occupation, similar to the trials of collaborators in liberated France in France after D-Day. Whilst in France this part of history is documented, debated and subject of many scientific reviews, very little is known today about what happened in the path of the Red Army, re-conquering former Soviet territory of the Baltic States. But some men of these countries voluntarily joined Waffen-SS divisions to defend their homelands against the Soviets, whenever the Red Army was approaching.
In Poland, Nazi atrocities ended in late 1944, but Soviet oppression continued. The role of the Red Army during the Warsaw Uprising remains controversial and is still disputed by some historians. Soldiers of Poland's Home Army (Armia Krajowa) were persecuted, sometimes imprisoned, and often executed following staged trials (as in the case of Witold Pilecki, the organizer of Auschwitz resistance).
Germany 1945
For further information see Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after WWII. German exodus from Eastern Europe. Evacuation of German civilians during the end of World War II.
According to historian Norman Naimark, the propaganda of Soviet troop newspapers and the orders of Soviet high command were jointly responsible for excesses by members of the Red Army. The general tenor in the writings was that the Red Army had come to Germany as an avenger and judge to punish the Germans. The Soviet author Ilya Ehrenburg wrote on January 31, 1945: The Germans have been punished in Oppeln, in Königsberg and in Breslau. They have been punished, but yet not enough. Some have been punished, but yet not all of them ...
Calls of Soviet generals spurred on the soldiers, in addition. On January 12, 1945, army General Cherniakhovsky turned to his troops with the words: There shall be no mercy - for nobody, as there had also been no mercy for us... The land of the fascists must become a desert …
On the German side, any organized evacuation of civilians was forbidden by the Nazi government to boost morale of the troops, now for the first time defending the "Fatherland," even when the Red Army entered German territory in the last months of 1944. German civilians, however, were well aware of the way the Red Army was conducting war against civilians from reports by friends and relatives who had served on the eastern front and feared the Red Army. Also, Nazi propaganda--originally meant to stiffen civil resistance by describing in gruesome and graphic detail Red Army atrocities such as the Nemmersdorf massacre--backfired and created panic among civilians.
As a result and whenever possible, when Nazi officials had already left, civilians began to flee westward at the last moment and on their own initiative.
For further information see Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after WWII. German exodus from Eastern Europe. Evacuation of German civilians during the end of World War II.
According to historian Norman Naimark, the propaganda of Soviet troop newspapers and the orders of Soviet high command were jointly responsible for excesses by members of the Red Army. The general tenor in the writings was that the Red Army had come to Germany as an avenger and judge to punish the Germans. The Soviet author Ilya Ehrenburg wrote on January 31, 1945: The Germans have been punished in Oppeln, in Königsberg and in Breslau. They have been punished, but yet not enough. Some have been punished, but yet not all of them ...
Calls of Soviet generals spurred on the soldiers, in addition. On January 12, 1945, army General Cherniakhovsky turned to his troops with the words: There shall be no mercy - for nobody, as there had also been no mercy for us... The land of the fascists must become a desert …
On the German side, any organized evacuation of civilians was forbidden by the Nazi government to boost morale of the troops, now for the first time defending the "Fatherland," even when the Red Army entered German territory in the last months of 1944. German civilians, however, were well aware of the way the Red Army was conducting war against civilians from reports by friends and relatives who had served on the eastern front and feared the Red Army. Also, Nazi propaganda--originally meant to stiffen civil resistance by describing in gruesome and graphic detail Red Army atrocities such as the Nemmersdorf massacre--backfired and created panic among civilians.
As a result and whenever possible, when Nazi officials had already left, civilians began to flee westward at the last moment and on their own initiative.
Fleeing from the advancing Red Army, more than two million people in the eastern German provinces of (East Prussia, Silesia, Pomerania) died, some from cold and starvation, in the post-war ethnic cleansing, or killed when they got caught up in combat operations. The main death toll, however, occurred when the refugee columns were caught up by units of the Red Army. They were overrun by tanks, looted, shot, murdered; women and girls were raped and afterward left to die. In addition, fighter bombers of the Soviet air force penetrated many kilometers behind the front lines and attacked columns of refugees.
Those who did not flee suffered by taking the burden of Red Army's occupying rules: Murder, rape, robbery, and expulsion. For example, in the East Prussian city of Königsberg, in August 1945 there were approximately 100,000 German civilians still living there after the Red Army had conquered the city. When the Germans were finally expelled from Königsberg in 1948, only about 20,000 were still alive.
The rampage which the Red Army in Germany went on during the occupation of the rest of Eastern Germany often led to incidents like Demmin, a small city conquered by Soviet forces in the spring of 1945. Despite the unconditional and complete surrender of Demmin to the Red Army without any prior fighting in or around the city, nearly 900 people committed suicide after Demmin had been declared open for looting and pillaging for three days by Soviet commanders.
Although mass executions of civilians by the Red Army are not reported on a regular basis, there is a known incident in the Treuenbrietzen, where at least 88 male civilians were rounded up and shot on May 1, 1945. This atrocity took place after a victory celebration of Soviet soldiers, at which numerous girls from Treuenbrietzen were raped and a lieutenant-colonel of the Red Army was shot by an unknown person. Some sources claim even up to 1,000 executed in this event.
Poland 1944-1953
Upon seizure of Polish territories occupied by German forces, Soviet soldiers often engaged in plunder, rapes and banditry against Poles, turning the attitude of population to dislike, fear, and even hate the Soviet regime. Red Army troops participated in anti-Polish actions (e.g., in Augustów region, where about 600 perished).
Rapes and pacifications
Germany
A significant minority of Red Army soldiers raped German women and girls. Estimates of the total number of rape victims range from tens of thousands to two million. After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping were usually punished to various degrees, ranging from arrest to execution. The rapes continued however until the winter of 1947-48, when the problem was finally solved by the Soviet occupation authorities by confining the Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps, completely separating them from the residential population of Eastern Germany.
Consequences
Norman Naimark writes--in The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949--that not only had each victim to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her days, [but] it [also] inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation (the German Democratic Republic). Naimark concludes "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."
Hungary
Just during the occupation of Budapest (Hungary) it is estimated that 50,000 women and girls were raped in this city alone.
Hungarian girls in general were taken to the Soviet quarters where they were incarcerated, raped and sometimes also murdered. The nationality of the rape victims meant nothing to the soldiers, who even attacked the Swedish legation.
Yugoslavia
Although the Red Army only crossed a very small part of Yugoslavia in 1944, the northeastern corner, its activities there caused great concern for the communist partisans that feared that the resulting rape and plunder by their communist allies would weaken their standing with the population. At least 121 cases of rape were documented later, 111 of which also involved murder. In addition 1,204 cases of looting with assault were documented. Stalin responded to a Yugoslav partisan leader's complaints at the Red Army's behaviour with "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?".
Slovakia
The Slovak communist leader Vlado Clementis complained to Marshal I. S. Konev about the behaviour of Soviet troops in Slovakia. The response was to blame the activities mainly on Red Army deserters.
Bulgaria
Thanks to the better discipline in Marshal Tolbukhin's army, the relative similarity in cultures, a century of friendly relations, and an open welcome of the Soviet troops, there was a relative absence of rapes in Bulgaria, especially when compared with the situation during the occupation of Romania and Hungary.
Poland
The Red Army cooperated with the NKVD against Polish partizans and civilians. During the Augustów chase 1945 more than 2000 Poles were captured, and about 600 of them perished.
Manchuria (Japan)
A number of rapes committed by the Soviet soldiers were recorded. Where Soviet soldiers advanced, girls and women fled from their villages and small towns, leaving only boys and men to be found by the Soviet soldiers.
Destruction of cities and looting
In general, Red Army officers declared all cities, villages and farms open to pillaging and looting in Romania, Hungary and Germany. A written order, though, does not exist. But there are several documents in which the way the Red Army’s behaviour pattern is described. One of them is a report of the Swiss legation in Budapest, describing the events when the Red Army entered the city in 1945. It states, for example: During the siege of Budapest and also during the following fateful weeks, Russian (Soviet) troops looted the city freely. They entered practically every habitation, the very poorest as well as the richest. They took away everything they wanted, especially food, clothing and valuables. Every apartment, shop, bank, etc. was looted several times. Furniture and larger objects of art, etc. that could not be taken away were frequently simply destroyed. 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.
Walter Kilian, the first mayor of the Charlottenburg district in Berlin after the war, who was brought into office by the Soviets, reported extensive looting by Red Army soldiers in the area: Individuals, department stores, shops, apartments ... all were robbed blind.
In the Soviet occupied zone, party members of the SED reported to Stalin that looting and rapes by Soviet soldiers could possibly result in a negative reaction of the German population in the respect of the Soviet Union and for the future socialism in East Germany in general. Stalin reacted to the worries of his German comrades with the words "I shall not tolerate anybody dragging the honour of the Red Army through the mud."
Any evidence, such as reports, pictures and other documents of looting, rapes, burning down of farms and villages etc. by the Red Army was therefore deleted from all archives in the Soviet occupied zone in Germany, which later was to become the GDR. In private memories, diaries and photo albums, however, the events of 1945 had been kept as far as possible or thought to be worth it.
On many occasions Soviet soldiers set fire to buildings, villages and parts of cities, shooting anybody trying to extinguish the flames, such as on May 1, 1945, when Soviet soldiers set fire to the city centre of Demmin and stopped anyone from extinguishing the fire. Of all the buildings around the marketplace only the steeple survived the inferno. Most Red Army atrocities took place only in what was regarded as hostile territory .
Those who did not flee suffered by taking the burden of Red Army's occupying rules: Murder, rape, robbery, and expulsion. For example, in the East Prussian city of Königsberg, in August 1945 there were approximately 100,000 German civilians still living there after the Red Army had conquered the city. When the Germans were finally expelled from Königsberg in 1948, only about 20,000 were still alive.
The rampage which the Red Army in Germany went on during the occupation of the rest of Eastern Germany often led to incidents like Demmin, a small city conquered by Soviet forces in the spring of 1945. Despite the unconditional and complete surrender of Demmin to the Red Army without any prior fighting in or around the city, nearly 900 people committed suicide after Demmin had been declared open for looting and pillaging for three days by Soviet commanders.
Although mass executions of civilians by the Red Army are not reported on a regular basis, there is a known incident in the Treuenbrietzen, where at least 88 male civilians were rounded up and shot on May 1, 1945. This atrocity took place after a victory celebration of Soviet soldiers, at which numerous girls from Treuenbrietzen were raped and a lieutenant-colonel of the Red Army was shot by an unknown person. Some sources claim even up to 1,000 executed in this event.
Poland 1944-1953
Upon seizure of Polish territories occupied by German forces, Soviet soldiers often engaged in plunder, rapes and banditry against Poles, turning the attitude of population to dislike, fear, and even hate the Soviet regime. Red Army troops participated in anti-Polish actions (e.g., in Augustów region, where about 600 perished).
Rapes and pacifications
Germany
A significant minority of Red Army soldiers raped German women and girls. Estimates of the total number of rape victims range from tens of thousands to two million. After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping were usually punished to various degrees, ranging from arrest to execution. The rapes continued however until the winter of 1947-48, when the problem was finally solved by the Soviet occupation authorities by confining the Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps, completely separating them from the residential population of Eastern Germany.
Consequences
Norman Naimark writes--in The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949--that not only had each victim to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her days, [but] it [also] inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation (the German Democratic Republic). Naimark concludes "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."
Hungary
Just during the occupation of Budapest (Hungary) it is estimated that 50,000 women and girls were raped in this city alone.
Hungarian girls in general were taken to the Soviet quarters where they were incarcerated, raped and sometimes also murdered. The nationality of the rape victims meant nothing to the soldiers, who even attacked the Swedish legation.
Yugoslavia
Although the Red Army only crossed a very small part of Yugoslavia in 1944, the northeastern corner, its activities there caused great concern for the communist partisans that feared that the resulting rape and plunder by their communist allies would weaken their standing with the population. At least 121 cases of rape were documented later, 111 of which also involved murder. In addition 1,204 cases of looting with assault were documented. Stalin responded to a Yugoslav partisan leader's complaints at the Red Army's behaviour with "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?".
Slovakia
The Slovak communist leader Vlado Clementis complained to Marshal I. S. Konev about the behaviour of Soviet troops in Slovakia. The response was to blame the activities mainly on Red Army deserters.
Bulgaria
Thanks to the better discipline in Marshal Tolbukhin's army, the relative similarity in cultures, a century of friendly relations, and an open welcome of the Soviet troops, there was a relative absence of rapes in Bulgaria, especially when compared with the situation during the occupation of Romania and Hungary.
Poland
The Red Army cooperated with the NKVD against Polish partizans and civilians. During the Augustów chase 1945 more than 2000 Poles were captured, and about 600 of them perished.
Manchuria (Japan)
A number of rapes committed by the Soviet soldiers were recorded. Where Soviet soldiers advanced, girls and women fled from their villages and small towns, leaving only boys and men to be found by the Soviet soldiers.
Destruction of cities and looting
In general, Red Army officers declared all cities, villages and farms open to pillaging and looting in Romania, Hungary and Germany. A written order, though, does not exist. But there are several documents in which the way the Red Army’s behaviour pattern is described. One of them is a report of the Swiss legation in Budapest, describing the events when the Red Army entered the city in 1945. It states, for example: During the siege of Budapest and also during the following fateful weeks, Russian (Soviet) troops looted the city freely. They entered practically every habitation, the very poorest as well as the richest. They took away everything they wanted, especially food, clothing and valuables. Every apartment, shop, bank, etc. was looted several times. Furniture and larger objects of art, etc. that could not be taken away were frequently simply destroyed. 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.
Walter Kilian, the first mayor of the Charlottenburg district in Berlin after the war, who was brought into office by the Soviets, reported extensive looting by Red Army soldiers in the area: Individuals, department stores, shops, apartments ... all were robbed blind.
In the Soviet occupied zone, party members of the SED reported to Stalin that looting and rapes by Soviet soldiers could possibly result in a negative reaction of the German population in the respect of the Soviet Union and for the future socialism in East Germany in general. Stalin reacted to the worries of his German comrades with the words "I shall not tolerate anybody dragging the honour of the Red Army through the mud."
Any evidence, such as reports, pictures and other documents of looting, rapes, burning down of farms and villages etc. by the Red Army was therefore deleted from all archives in the Soviet occupied zone in Germany, which later was to become the GDR. In private memories, diaries and photo albums, however, the events of 1945 had been kept as far as possible or thought to be worth it.
On many occasions Soviet soldiers set fire to buildings, villages and parts of cities, shooting anybody trying to extinguish the flames, such as on May 1, 1945, when Soviet soldiers set fire to the city centre of Demmin and stopped anyone from extinguishing the fire. Of all the buildings around the marketplace only the steeple survived the inferno. Most Red Army atrocities took place only in what was regarded as hostile territory .
Nevertheless, soldiers of the Red Army together with members of the NKVD frequently looted transport trains in 1944 and 1945 in Poland.
Treatment of prisoners of war
Treatment of prisoners of war
The Soviet Union did not recognise the entry of the tsarist Russia to the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) as binding for itself and refused to sign it until 1955. This had already led to barbaric treatment of POWs on both the Polish and the Soviet side during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-21. Moreover, the Soviet Union did not sign the Genevan Prisoners of War convention of 1929 until 1955. Accordingly, the Red Army treated at first Polish and later prisoners of war from Germany, Germany's allies and Japan in a cruel way from the first days of World War II on.
During 1941 emergency landing German flight crews were shot frequently after the capture.Torture, mutilation, murder and other violations of international law were since June 1941 on the agenda. During the winter of 1941/42 the Red Army took approximately 10,000 German soldiers as prisoner each month, but the death rate became so high that the absolute number of the prisoners decreased (or was bureaucratically reduced). The murder of the prisoners was arranged every now and then by instructions, reports and statements of Soviet commanders. Throughout the war, 300,000 German POWs in Soviet captivity died, a loss rate of 14.9%. By contrast, some 3.3 million Soviet POWs died in German captivity, a loss rate of 65%.
Treuenbrietzen massacre
The Treuenbrietzen massacre took place during the last days of April and the first days of May 1945, after a tough battle in which the Red Army took and lost control of the village on more than one occasion; the Red Army rounded up around 1000 (mostly male) civilians and executed them in the nearby forest. According to the German Wikipedia article "Massaker von Treuenbrietzen" the number of victims was between 80 and more than 1000. These executions were allegedly made as retaliation for the death of a high-ranking Soviet officer during the battle for control of the village.
The 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. The UN commission received reports of "haphazard shooting at defenseless passers-by." According to many witnesses Soviet troops fired upon people queuing outside stores. Most of the victims were said to be women and children. Many cases of Soviet fire upon ambulances and red cross vehicles were reported.
During 1941 emergency landing German flight crews were shot frequently after the capture.Torture, mutilation, murder and other violations of international law were since June 1941 on the agenda. During the winter of 1941/42 the Red Army took approximately 10,000 German soldiers as prisoner each month, but the death rate became so high that the absolute number of the prisoners decreased (or was bureaucratically reduced). The murder of the prisoners was arranged every now and then by instructions, reports and statements of Soviet commanders. Throughout the war, 300,000 German POWs in Soviet captivity died, a loss rate of 14.9%. By contrast, some 3.3 million Soviet POWs died in German captivity, a loss rate of 65%.
Treuenbrietzen massacre
The Treuenbrietzen massacre took place during the last days of April and the first days of May 1945, after a tough battle in which the Red Army took and lost control of the village on more than one occasion; the Red Army rounded up around 1000 (mostly male) civilians and executed them in the nearby forest. According to the German Wikipedia article "Massaker von Treuenbrietzen" the number of victims was between 80 and more than 1000. These executions were allegedly made as retaliation for the death of a high-ranking Soviet officer during the battle for control of the village.
The 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. The UN commission received reports of "haphazard shooting at defenseless passers-by." According to many witnesses Soviet troops fired upon people queuing outside stores. Most of the victims were said to be women and children. Many cases of Soviet fire upon ambulances and red cross vehicles were reported.
