Zemskov, V.n. The starting stage of repatriation of the Soviet prisoners of war and civilian internees (second half of the year 1944)

Abstract: The issue of return to Russia of the Soviet prisoners of war, the USSR citizens, who were forcibly brought to Germany, and the refugees is one of the least studied issues in the historical literature. Up to the late 1980s the documents on this issues were state secret in Russia. The lack of the sources and objective information caused a lot of myths around this issue. It concerns a number of publications both in the West and in Russia. Often the facts were selected tendentiously and interpretation was biased. Currently the researches have gained access to the previously closed sources, among which special place should be provided for the documents of the Soviet of Ministers (Department of the Plenipotentiary of the Soviet of the People’s Commissars) of the USSR on the Issues of Repatriation, which was formed in October of 1944. Its head was Colonel General F.I. Golikov, who was the former head of the military intelligence. These materials served as the main sources for the author, when this article was prepared. Additionally, for his analytical work the author used the documents of the State Defense Committee, Administration Department of the SPC (Soviet of Ministers) of the USSR, the Secretariat of NKVD (MIA) of the USSR, the Department of Special Camps (Control and Filtering Camps) of the NKVD of the USSR.

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