In this course, Peter Kenez, Professor Emeritus at UC Santa Cruz, explains the events of modern Russian history and introduces its most significant actors—from Vladimir Lenin to Vladimir Putin.
Partisans, Collaborators, & Racial Distinction
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Russian History: from Lenin to Putin
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The Great Patriotic War: Before and After
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Peter KenezProfessor Emeritus
History
The memory of the Great War played,
and has played to this day,
a major role in the consciousness of the Russian people.
It is something which they feel that was something they could be proud of.
In reality, what happened was that, of course,
the Soviet regime had not surprisingly perhaps,
the Nazis from the collaborators.
We must remember that in every country which came under German occupation,
the Germans found the collaborators.
So, what does the war tell us about the believes,
behavior of the peoples of the Soviet Union?
Well, first of all, of course,
there was a relatively large group welcome the Germans.
This was, of course,
overwhelmingly significant in the newly occupied territories.
In the newly occupied territories,
namely in the Baltic states in the western part of
what we call Belarus which had been part of Poland in between the wars,
the Germans were perceived as liberators.
In the Soviet Union itself,
the Cossacks who felt to be victims of the Soviet regime were more likely to collaborate.
Some people in the caucuses of some Muslim minorities were more likely to collaborate.
And, of course, among Russians too.
In one significant instant,
General Vlassov was a hero of the battle around Moscow.
He was captured by the Germans,
and he was willing to give his name for the establishment of
an Anti-Soviet Army made up by Russian prisoners,
and tens of thousands of people volunteered to fight in this army under General Vlassov.
In fact, the Germans did not trust them.
In fact, the army was never really used until the very last days of the war.
So, what are we to make of this?
Well, a crucial fact to remember is how the Germans treated prisoners of war.
The Germans captured over five million Red Army soldiers,
and more than half did not survive the war the way the Germans treated them.
The consequence is that when people volunteer to fight on the German side,
it was not absolutely free will.
It was a question of life and death.
One percent of American prisoners of war,
in this course of the Second World War,
died in German prisoners of war camp.
Over 50 percent of Soviet prisoners of war died in German prisoners of war camp.
This is the way the Germans treated the Slavs.
Well, it is fair to say that the minorities supported the Germans.
As a minority, perhaps as large,
were willing to fight for the Soviet regime,
a Communist Soviet regime.
And the majority of the Russian people fought,
maintain the regime because in effect the Germans gave them no option.
The German behavior was such as collaboration with them was morally impossible.
And so the regime had.
Well, one part of this was successful Soviet propaganda,
which played up an heroic events,
heroic resistance and heroic Russian past,
and we can do no worse than our heroic ancestors.
The regime very much played down the communist nature of the regime.
An aspect of this was to dissolve the Communist International in 1943.
An aspect of this was Stalin's attempt to include
the Russian Orthodox Church in
the effort to give courage to the Russian people.
And Stalin actually met the Russian Patriarch.
And, of course, the Russian Patriarch as a good Russian guard for
resistance in the name of patriotism and the name of defense of the faith.
So one aspect of this was propaganda.
The larger aspect of this was German behavior.
Third, which we must keep in mind,
that the repressive nature of the Soviet regime did not ameliorate.
Those soldiers who were
captured were regarded by the Stalinist leadership as traitors.
The regime maintained NKVD, political police,
which were included in the network of the army leadership,
who were to provide propaganda and watch for
any sign of weakness in resisting the enemy.
And the regime did not hesitate to punish the relatives of those who gave up,
who were unable, who were unwilling to resist.
Well, the Germans carried millions
of the people of the Soviet Union into Germany as slave laborers,
and then the regime was suspicious when they were capable of returning.
The remarkable event which took place among the negotiations
between the Allied leaders and the Soviets in January 1945,
because the Allied leaders,
it never occurred to them that many of
those Russians who found themselves in Germany might not want to return.
And consequently without hesitation,
they signed an agreement that all nationals would be returned.
Well, many of them did not want to return.
And indeed, many of them did return were regarded to be as
traitors and were sent to Siberia.
So, what are we to say about the behavior of the Soviet people?
The primary reason that the regime did not collapse,
I would say, was German behavior.
Well, it was important for the Soviet Union which was
after all a multinational empire to maintain national unity.
And for propaganda purposes,
the heroes of the past of every national minority were given a film,
a film was made about them.
Soviet propaganda played up how Russians and Ukrainians,
and Russians and Georgians,
and Russians and Azeris support one another and they did this in the past.
This was very important for the Soviet leadership.
The Nazis again very stupidly took very little advantage of what they could have.
Though they did have somewhat,
they did have a hierarchy of racial worth in which the Russians and Slavs were low.
They regarded the Cossacks better because actually,
of course, it's not a nationality but it's an in state.
They regarded the Georgians for some reason better than the Armenians,
probably because the memory of the Armenian massacres.
And, of course, they had a special policy toward Jews.
In the course of the war,
over one million Jews were killed by the Germans.
For Soviet propaganda purposes,
when all nationalities were given credit for fighting the Germans,
Jews were not mentioned.
Jews, the particular policy which the Nazis had toward the Jews,
was not suitable for Soviet propaganda purposes because
the Nazis made an attempt
to depict communists as Jews and Jews as communists.
And the Soviet propagandists understood
that we must underplay the role of the Jews,
in order not to give an opportunity for the Nazis
to depict the Soviet regime as part of the world Jewish conspiracy.
The particular problem for
the Soviet leadership was how to deal with the partisan movement.
The partisan movement developed,
of course, during the second half of the war.
At a time when there was a likelihood of success,
a partisan movement can operate obviously better and
attract supporters when it seems that it would be successful.
In some sense of course,
this was enormously useful for the purpose of the Red Army dying down
German troops causing damage to supply lines and in such matters.
On the other hand,
the Stalinist regime could not fully control the partisan movement.
And consequently, the policy line in the partisan movement was somewhat different.
The partisans, let it be known that in the past the Soviet regime has committed
some mistakes and gave the idea to
their followers that the future would be different and better.
And so, the Stalinist regime was always
suspicious of movements and forces which it could not fully control.
Another aspect was for the first time,
the Stalinist leadership made distinctions among nationalities,
declared some nationalities as an enemy and hostile.
Muslim minorities in the Caucasus were deported.
And they were deported not because they showed enmity to the Soviet regime,
but because when they were,
in the case of deporting the Chechens from their place in the Caucasus to Central Asia,
included every Chechen, including party leaders,
they all had to go.
The Tatars were removed from the Crimea, and of course,
the so-called Volga Germans
who lived in Russian territory since the time of Catherine the Great,
in the 18th century, were all deported.
This was the first time that the Soviet regime
actually made racial distinctions,
and this was also part of the story.
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