Victims of Yalta
Encyclopedia
Victims of Yalta is the British and The Secret Betrayal the American title of a 1977 book by Nikolai Tolstoy
that chronicles the fate of Soviet people
who had been under German control during World War II
and at its end fallen into the hands of the Western Allies
. According to the secret Moscow agreement from 1944
that was confirmed at the 1945 Yalta conference
, all Soviet citizens were to be repatriated
without choice—a death sentence for many by execution or work in a forced-labor camp
.
s, refugee
s, émigré
s and anti-communists. Conditions in Germany for Soviet prisoners were appalling and their mortality rate high, making it attractive for many to join laborers, Russian auxiliary troops, or the Russian Liberation Army
(ROA). The situation for Russian soldiers was complicated by the stance of the Soviet government that rejected efforts by the International Red Cross to intervene and considered any body who had surrendered to the enemy a traitor. The Moscow conference of 1944 and the Yalta agreement laid the groundwork for the participation of the British and American governments to support the repatriation program of the Soviet government. Tolstoy was especially critical of Anthony Eden
's role in trying to appease the Soviets.
In his book Tolstoy describes the fate of various groups:
While Tolstoy primarily discusses the reaction of the British and Americans to the Soviet requests for repatriation, he also describes the action of other governments. Thus repatriation programs were enacted in France, Belgium, Holland, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway. The only country known to have resisted requests to force unwilling Russians to become repatriated was Liechtenstein
. He discusses reasons why governments were willing participants in the repatriation program even when it was obvious that many Russians did not wish to return and that the fate of repatriates was death, torture, or forced labor. One issue for Western Allies was reciprocity, namely concern for their prisoners who had fallen into Soviet hands. While Tolstoy had access to British documents that were opened 30 years after World War II, he indicates Soviet documents remained sealed. Generally, on their side, agents from NKVD
or SMERSH
conducted the handling of the repatriates. Tolstoy, however, obtained information from survivors and defectors. According to his estimate based on data of a former NKVD officer a total of 5.5 million Russians were repatriated from formerly occupied areas, of these 20% either received a death sentence or a 25-year labor camp sentence, 15-20% received sentences of 5 to 10 years, 10% were exiled for 6 years or more, 15 % worked as conscripts in assigned areas and not allowed to return home subsequently, and 15-20% were allowed to return home, but remained ostracized. The remainder was "wastage", that is people who died in transit, got lost, or escaped.
Tolstoy estimates that overall two or more millions Soviet nationals were repatriated. Repatriation efforts were most ardently followed by the British, while American forces were conciliatory with Soviet demands but Tolstoy noted increasing reluctance. While the Soviet government also attempted to "repatriate" people of countries it conquered in and after 1939, the Western Allies resisted to return possibly millions of people from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Bessarabia.
that indicates some initial responses to the book and added some additional notes. Tolstoy followed his investigations with Stalin's Secret War (1981) and The Minister and the Massacres (1986). In these books he deals more with the issue that in May 1945 British forces in Carinthia handed over emigres from Russia who were not Soviet citizens and, in the latter, chronicles also the British release of the anti-communist Slovenes and Croats to Josip Broz Tito
's Yugoslav government. Specifically in the 1986 book he accused Harold Macmillan
, "minister resident" in the Mediterranean then and later prime minister, to persuade the British General Alexander
to ignore a telegram of the Foreign Office that would have excluded individuals who where not Soviet citizens by British law from "repatriation"; application of this directive would have separated Cossacks into emigres and those from the Soviet Union, the former, of course, not subject to repatriation. Another person of interest was Lord Aldington
who as Toby Low was implicated by Tolstoy as giving a key order on May 21, 1945 that sealed the fate of Cossacks including the emigres. In a famous and contentious 1989 libel suit Lord Aldington prevailed against Tolstoy’s charge as a "war criminal". Andrew Roth
in Lord Aldington's obituary indicated that Tolstoy's criticism of Aldington was misdirected and should have targeted Macmillan and Churchill
. Alistair Horne
, Macmillan's biographer, describes Tolstoy's book as "an honorable, and profoundly disturbing book which pulled no punches" was highly critical of Tolstoy's follow-up books, arguing that their increasing stridency and tendency to twist the evidence to fit a preconceived theory effectively vitiated them as serious works of history. Horne notes too, that Macmillan, then 90, felt he was too old to initiate a suit to defend himself. Horne's final judgement is that fresh evidence, uncovered after the publication of Tolstoy's book, proves Tolstoy's notion of a conspiracy to be not just wrong-headed, but outright wrong. Charles Lutton deemed the book a "thoroughly documented account of the British role in repatriation", however he would have liked to have seen more information about the American participation. It should be noted, however, that Lutton's review appears in a journal (The Journal of Historical Review) which, before it ceased publication in 2002, was part of an organization devoted to Holocaust denial.
Nikolai Tolstoy
Count Nikolai Dmitrievich Tolstoy-Miloslavsky is an Anglo-Russian historian and author who writes under the name Nikolai Tolstoy. A member of the prominent Tolstoy family, he is of part Russian descent and is the stepson of the author Patrick O'Brian...
that chronicles the fate of Soviet people
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
who had been under German control during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
and at its end fallen into the hands of the Western Allies
Western Allies
The Western Allies were a political and geographic grouping among the Allied Powers of the Second World War. It generally includes the United Kingdom and British Commonwealth, the United States, France and various other European and Latin American countries, but excludes China, the Soviet Union,...
. According to the secret Moscow agreement from 1944
Moscow Conference (1944)
The Fourth Moscow Conference, also Tolstoy Conference for its code name Tolstoy, between the major Allies of World War II took place from October 9 to October 19 1944....
that was confirmed at the 1945 Yalta conference
Yalta Conference
The Yalta Conference, sometimes called the Crimea Conference and codenamed the Argonaut Conference, held February 4–11, 1945, was the wartime meeting of the heads of government of the United States, the United Kingdom, and the Soviet Union, represented by President Franklin D...
, all Soviet citizens were to be repatriated
Repatriation
Repatriation is the process of returning a person back to one's place of origin or citizenship. This includes the process of returning refugees or soldiers to their place of origin following a war...
without choice—a death sentence for many by execution or work in a forced-labor camp
Labor camp
A labor camp is a simplified detention facility where inmates are forced to engage in penal labor. Labor camps have many common aspects with slavery and with prisons...
.
Contents
Tolstoy describes the various groups of over five million Russians who had fallen into German hands. These include prisoners of war, forced laborers (Ostarbeiter), collaboratorCollaborationism
Collaborationism is cooperation with enemy forces against one's country. Legally, it may be considered as a form of treason. Collaborationism may be associated with criminal deeds in the service of the occupying power, which may include complicity with the occupying power in murder, persecutions,...
s, refugee
Refugee
A refugee is a person who outside her country of origin or habitual residence because she has suffered persecution on account of race, religion, nationality, political opinion, or because she is a member of a persecuted 'social group'. Such a person may be referred to as an 'asylum seeker' until...
s, émigré
Émigré
Émigré is a French term that literally refers to a person who has "migrated out", but often carries a connotation of politico-social self-exile....
s and anti-communists. Conditions in Germany for Soviet prisoners were appalling and their mortality rate high, making it attractive for many to join laborers, Russian auxiliary troops, or the Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army
Russian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
(ROA). The situation for Russian soldiers was complicated by the stance of the Soviet government that rejected efforts by the International Red Cross to intervene and considered any body who had surrendered to the enemy a traitor. The Moscow conference of 1944 and the Yalta agreement laid the groundwork for the participation of the British and American governments to support the repatriation program of the Soviet government. Tolstoy was especially critical of Anthony Eden
Anthony Eden
Robert Anthony Eden, 1st Earl of Avon, KG, MC, PC was a British Conservative politician, who was Prime Minister from 1955 to 1957...
's role in trying to appease the Soviets.
In his book Tolstoy describes the fate of various groups:
- Russians in German service who were captured in North AfricaNorth AfricaNorth Africa or Northern Africa is the northernmost region of the African continent, linked by the Sahara to Sub-Saharan Africa. Geopolitically, the United Nations definition of Northern Africa includes eight countries or territories; Algeria, Egypt, Libya, Morocco, South Sudan, Sudan, Tunisia, and...
, ItalyItalyItaly , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...
, and FranceFranceThe French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
after the Normandy landing consisted usually of forced-labour contingents or, after Normandy, also of Russians fighting within the context of the German Army. The repatriation process resulted in their execution or transport to labor camps, such as VorkutaVorkutaVorkuta is a coal-mining town in the Komi Republic, Russia, situated just north of the Arctic Circle in the Pechora coal basin at the Usa River. Population: - Labor camp origins :...
. - CossackCossackCossacks are a group of predominantly East Slavic people who originally were members of democratic, semi-military communities in what is today Ukraine and Southern Russia inhabiting sparsely populated areas and islands in the lower Dnieper and Don basins and who played an important role in the...
s from the DonDon CossacksDon Cossacks were Cossacks who settled along the middle and lower Don.- Etymology and origins :The Don Cossack Host was a frontier military organization from the end of the 16th until the early 20th century....
, KubanKuban CossacksKuban Cossacks or Kubanians are Cossacks who live in the Kuban region of Russia. Most of the Kuban Cossacks are of descendants of two major groups who were re-settled in the Western Northern Caucasus during the Caucasus War in the late 18th century...
, and Terek and a number of groups from the CaucasusCaucasusThe Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
had resisted the Soviets during the Russian Civil WarRussian Civil WarThe Russian Civil War was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed to the Soviets, under the domination of the Bolshevik party. Soviet forces first assumed power in Petrograd The Russian Civil War (1917–1923) was a...
, had been persecuted under Stalin, and when German troops came in 1942 hoped to be able to resume their struggle with German help. During the German retreat they moved westwards with their families and ended up at the end of the war in CarinthiaCarinthia (state)Carinthia is the southernmost Austrian state or Land. Situated within the Eastern Alps it is chiefly noted for its mountains and lakes.The main language is German. Its regional dialects belong to the Southern Austro-Bavarian group...
and near LienzLienzLienz is a medieval town in the Austrian state of Tyrol. It is the administrative centre of the Lienz district, which covers all of East Tyrol. The municipality also includes the cadastral subdivision of Patriasdorf.-Geography:...
in AustriaAustriaAustria , officially the Republic of Austria , is a landlocked country of roughly 8.4 million people in Central Europe. It is bordered by the Czech Republic and Germany to the north, Slovakia and Hungary to the east, Slovenia and Italy to the south, and Switzerland and Liechtenstein to the...
. Their leaders included Ataman Pavlov (died in 1944), Peter Krasnov, Vyacheslav Naumenko, Timophey Domanov, Sultan Kelech Ghirey, and Andrei ShkuroAndrei ShkuroAndrei Grigoriyevich Shkuro was a Lieutenant General of the White Army.-Biography:...
. These groups, estimated to number about 35,000 people, surrendered to the British in early May 1945 who handed all Cossacks and Caucasians (even if they were not Soviet citizens) to the Soviet NKVDNKVDThe People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
within four weeks. Many Cossacks were executed in JudenburgJudenburg- People :* Renate Götschl* Egon Haar * Herbert Hufnagl, journalist * Gernot Jurtin* Christian Muthspiel, jazz musician, painter* Kurt Muthspiel, composer * Wolfgang Muthspiel* Christian Pfannberger* Walter Pfrimer* Georg Pichler...
, and the remainder sent to the East. - The XVth SS Cossack Cavalry CorpsXVth SS Cossack Cavalry CorpsThe XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps was a German cavalry corps during World War II. With order of February 1, 1945 the Corps was transferred to the Waffen-SS.-History:The summer of 1942 marked the high tide of German success in the East...
commanded by Helmuth von PannwitzHelmuth von PannwitzHelmuth von Pannwitz was a German general who distinguished himself as a cavalry officer during the First and the Second World Wars. Lieutenant General of the Wehrmacht and Supreme Ataman of the XV...
surrendered to the British near VolkermarktVölkermarktVölkermarkt is a city of about 11,000 inhabitants in Carinthia, Austria.According to the 2001 census 2.6% of the population are Carinthian Slovenes....
in Austria on May 10, 1945. By the end of May 17,702 soldiers, including their German officers, and some women and children were handed over to the Soviet NKVD at Judenburg. - The Russian Liberation ArmyRussian Liberation ArmyRussian Liberation Army was a group of predominantly Russian forces subordinated to the Nazi German high command during World War II....
found itself by the end of World War II near PraguePraguePrague is the capital and largest city of the Czech Republic. Situated in the north-west of the country on the Vltava river, the city is home to about 1.3 million people, while its metropolitan area is estimated to have a population of over 2.3 million...
. A part of it helped to liberate the city from the German occupation, only to fight alongside German troops days later to escape capture by the Red ArmyRed ArmyThe Workers' and Peasants' Red Army started out as the Soviet Union's revolutionary communist combat groups during the Russian Civil War of 1918-1922. It grew into the national army of the Soviet Union. By the 1930s the Red Army was among the largest armies in history.The "Red Army" name refers to...
. Many however surrendered to the Red Army, others were hunted down, and some escaped to the Americans near PilsenPlzen RegionPlzeň Region is an administrative unit in the western part of Bohemia in the Czech Republic. It is named after its capital Plzeň .- Communes :...
, only to be handed over to the Soviets. VlasovVlasovVlasov or Vlasoff is a common Russian surname formed from the first name Vlas or from the Slavonic vlas meaning hair. The feminine form of the surname is Vlasova...
, its commander, was arrested by the Americans and repatriated as well. Execution, torture, and labor camps awaited them. - The 162nd Turkoman Division162nd Turkoman DivisionThe 162nd Turkoman Division was a military division that was formed by the German Army during the Second World War. It drew its men from prisoners of war or refugees who came from the Caucasus and from Turkic lands further east. The soldiers were trained at Neuhammer...
had been formed from men from the Caucasus and from Turkic land further east and fought in Italy; its main body surrendered near PaduaPaduaPadua is a city and comune in the Veneto, northern Italy. It is the capital of the province of Padua and the economic and communications hub of the area. Padua's population is 212,500 . The city is sometimes included, with Venice and Treviso, in the Padua-Treviso-Venice Metropolitan Area, having...
in May 1945. They were send to a POW camp near TarantoTarantoTaranto is a coastal city in Apulia, Southern Italy. It is the capital of the Province of Taranto and is an important commercial port as well as the main Italian naval base....
and shipped to OdessaOdessaOdessa or Odesa is the administrative center of the Odessa Oblast located in southern Ukraine. The city is a major seaport located on the northwest shore of the Black Sea and the fourth largest city in Ukraine with a population of 1,029,000 .The predecessor of Odessa, a small Tatar settlement,...
. They received 20-year terms of hard labor. - With the surrender of Germany on May 8, 1945 large number of Russians were liberated, including POWs, HiwiHiwi (volunteer)Hiwi is a German abbreviation. It has two meanings, "voluntary assistant" and "assistant scientist" .- :...
s (volunteers in the Army) and slave laborers (Ostarbeiter). Those in areas under Soviet control came into Soviet possession directly. Those in areas controlled by the Western Allies were to be repatriated. By July 4, 1945, over 1.5 million Russians had been transferred by SHAEF as displaced personDisplaced personA displaced person is a person who has been forced to leave his or her native place, a phenomenon known as forced migration.- Origin of term :...
s (DPs) to the Soviet Occupation Zone. - Operation KeelhaulOperation KeelhaulOperation Keelhaul was carried out in Northern Italy by British and American forces to repatriate Soviet Armed Forces POWs of the Nazis to the Soviet Union between August 14, 1946 and May 9, 1947...
was the final repatriation process that took place in Italy between August 14, 1946 and May 8/9, 1947.
While Tolstoy primarily discusses the reaction of the British and Americans to the Soviet requests for repatriation, he also describes the action of other governments. Thus repatriation programs were enacted in France, Belgium, Holland, Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, and Norway. The only country known to have resisted requests to force unwilling Russians to become repatriated was Liechtenstein
Liechtenstein
The Principality of Liechtenstein is a doubly landlocked alpine country in Central Europe, bordered by Switzerland to the west and south and by Austria to the east. Its area is just over , and it has an estimated population of 35,000. Its capital is Vaduz. The biggest town is Schaan...
. He discusses reasons why governments were willing participants in the repatriation program even when it was obvious that many Russians did not wish to return and that the fate of repatriates was death, torture, or forced labor. One issue for Western Allies was reciprocity, namely concern for their prisoners who had fallen into Soviet hands. While Tolstoy had access to British documents that were opened 30 years after World War II, he indicates Soviet documents remained sealed. Generally, on their side, agents from NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
or SMERSH
SMERSH
SMERSH was the counter-intelligence agency in the Red Army formed in late 1942 or even earlier, but officially founded on April 14, 1943. The name SMERSH was coined by Joseph Stalin...
conducted the handling of the repatriates. Tolstoy, however, obtained information from survivors and defectors. According to his estimate based on data of a former NKVD officer a total of 5.5 million Russians were repatriated from formerly occupied areas, of these 20% either received a death sentence or a 25-year labor camp sentence, 15-20% received sentences of 5 to 10 years, 10% were exiled for 6 years or more, 15 % worked as conscripts in assigned areas and not allowed to return home subsequently, and 15-20% were allowed to return home, but remained ostracized. The remainder was "wastage", that is people who died in transit, got lost, or escaped.
Tolstoy estimates that overall two or more millions Soviet nationals were repatriated. Repatriation efforts were most ardently followed by the British, while American forces were conciliatory with Soviet demands but Tolstoy noted increasing reluctance. While the Soviet government also attempted to "repatriate" people of countries it conquered in and after 1939, the Western Allies resisted to return possibly millions of people from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Bessarabia.
Reactions
In the American edition that appeared after the British one Tolstoy added a postscriptPostscript
A postscript, abbreviated P.S., is writing added after the main body of a letter . The term comes from the Latin post scriptum, an expression meaning "written after" .A postscript may be a sentence, a paragraph, or occasionally many paragraphs added, often hastily and...
that indicates some initial responses to the book and added some additional notes. Tolstoy followed his investigations with Stalin's Secret War (1981) and The Minister and the Massacres (1986). In these books he deals more with the issue that in May 1945 British forces in Carinthia handed over emigres from Russia who were not Soviet citizens and, in the latter, chronicles also the British release of the anti-communist Slovenes and Croats to Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz Tito
Marshal Josip Broz Tito – 4 May 1980) was a Yugoslav revolutionary and statesman. While his presidency has been criticized as authoritarian, Tito was a popular public figure both in Yugoslavia and abroad, viewed as a unifying symbol for the nations of the Yugoslav federation...
's Yugoslav government. Specifically in the 1986 book he accused Harold Macmillan
Harold Macmillan
Maurice Harold Macmillan, 1st Earl of Stockton, OM, PC was Conservative Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 10 January 1957 to 18 October 1963....
, "minister resident" in the Mediterranean then and later prime minister, to persuade the British General Alexander
Harold Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis
Field Marshal Harold Rupert Leofric George Alexander, 1st Earl Alexander of Tunis was a British military commander and field marshal of Anglo-Irish descent who served with distinction in both world wars and, afterwards, as Governor General of Canada, the 17th since Canadian...
to ignore a telegram of the Foreign Office that would have excluded individuals who where not Soviet citizens by British law from "repatriation"; application of this directive would have separated Cossacks into emigres and those from the Soviet Union, the former, of course, not subject to repatriation. Another person of interest was Lord Aldington
Toby Low, 1st Baron Aldington
Toby Austin Richard William Low, 1st Baron Aldington, KCMG, CBE, DSO, TD, DL, PC , was a British Conservative Party politician and businessman.-Life:...
who as Toby Low was implicated by Tolstoy as giving a key order on May 21, 1945 that sealed the fate of Cossacks including the emigres. In a famous and contentious 1989 libel suit Lord Aldington prevailed against Tolstoy’s charge as a "war criminal". Andrew Roth
Andrew Roth
Andrew Roth was a biographer and journalist known for his compilation of Parliamentary Profiles, a directory of British Members of Parliament, which is available online in The Guardian...
in Lord Aldington's obituary indicated that Tolstoy's criticism of Aldington was misdirected and should have targeted Macmillan and Churchill
Winston Churchill
Sir Winston Leonard Spencer-Churchill, was a predominantly Conservative British politician and statesman known for his leadership of the United Kingdom during the Second World War. He is widely regarded as one of the greatest wartime leaders of the century and served as Prime Minister twice...
. Alistair Horne
Alistair Horne
Sir Alistair Allan Horne is a British historian of modern France. He is the son of Sir James Horne and Lady Auriol Horne ....
, Macmillan's biographer, describes Tolstoy's book as "an honorable, and profoundly disturbing book which pulled no punches" was highly critical of Tolstoy's follow-up books, arguing that their increasing stridency and tendency to twist the evidence to fit a preconceived theory effectively vitiated them as serious works of history. Horne notes too, that Macmillan, then 90, felt he was too old to initiate a suit to defend himself. Horne's final judgement is that fresh evidence, uncovered after the publication of Tolstoy's book, proves Tolstoy's notion of a conspiracy to be not just wrong-headed, but outright wrong. Charles Lutton deemed the book a "thoroughly documented account of the British role in repatriation", however he would have liked to have seen more information about the American participation. It should be noted, however, that Lutton's review appears in a journal (The Journal of Historical Review) which, before it ceased publication in 2002, was part of an organization devoted to Holocaust denial.