The Soviet Union (SU or USSR) was a state in Eastern Europe, Central and Northern Asia that existed from 1922 to 1991. It emerged from the so-called Soviet Russia, the successor state of the Russian Empire. The Russian Soviet Republic formed the core of the union and at the same time its largest part, with further constituent republics added. Their number varied over time and was related to the occupation of other countries (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), Soviet republics that existed only for a short time (Karelo-Finlandia) or the division or merger of Soviet republics. In addition, there were numerous autonomous republics or other territorial units with an autonomy status that was essentially limited to linguistic autonomy for minorities.
Before its formal dissolution, the USSR consisted of 15 Soviet republics with a population of approximately 290 million people. At around 22.4 million km², it was the largest territorial state in the world at the time. The Soviet Union was a socialist soviet republic with a one-party system and an absence of separation of powers.
In Stalag X B Sandbostel
Contemporary witness reports of their release
The chapter concerning liberation in the biography of Soviet prisoners of war has yet to be thoroughly researched. It is difficult to document or archive human emotions in official state reports. Instead, there are the witness accounts of some of those affected, such as those collected by the author during his employment at the Berlin association Kontakte-Kontakty in connection with the project “Bürgerengagement für vergessene NS-Opfer” (Citizens’ engagement for forgotten victims of National-Socialism). Former Soviet prisoners from
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. Kiev is the capital and largest city of the country, which has been independent since 1991. Since 2022, the country has been defending itself against a comprehensive Russian invasion, which is directed in particular against the civilian population and the country's critical infrastructure and is part of a war against Ukraine that has been ongoing since 2014 and originated from the Russian Federation with the annexation of the Ukrainian Crimea in 2014.
Belarus (population 2024: 9,109,280, area 207,595 km²) is a country in Eastern Europe that belonged to the Soviet Union until 1991. Its capital and most populous city is Minsk. Belarus borders Ukraine, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, and Russia.
In Belarusian historiography, the country is viewed in the context of the development of East Slavic principalities, especially Polotsk. From the 13th/14th century onwards, the territories of present-day Belarus belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. The official language at that time (Ruthenian) emphasizes the importance of the East Slavic upper class in the Grand Duchy. From the 16th/17th century onwards, the former territory of the Principality of Polotsk became known as White Rus'. At the end of the 18th century, the Belarusian territories were annexed by Russia. It was not until 1918 that Belarusian statehood began to emerge, when the Belarusian People's Republic was briefly proclaimed on the territory occupied by Germany during the First World War. In 1919, it was replaced by the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic. After several restructurings, it became a founding member of the USSR in 1922. Belarus has been independent since the end of 1991. However, the democracy initially introduced was replaced in 1994 by an autcracy which is increasingly dependent on Russia.
Georgia is a republic in the South Caucasus. The land is inhabited by 3.7 million people and is located on the border between eastern Europe and western Asia. The capital of Georgia is Tbilisi. The country is located on the eastern end of the Black Sea and borders Russia as well as Turkey, Azerbaijan and Armenia. Georgia has been an independent state since the fall of the Soviet Union.
The Russian Federation is the largest territorial state in the world and is inhabited by about 145 million people. The capital and largest city is Moscow, with about 11.5 million inhabitants, followed by St. Petersburg with more than 5.3 million inhabitants. The majority of the population lives in the European part of Russia, which is much more densely populated than the Asian part.
Since 1992, the Russian Federation has been the successor state to the Russian Soviet Republic (Russian Socialist Federative Soviet Republic, RSFSR), by far the largest constituent state of the former Soviet Union. It is also the legal successor of the Soviet Union in the sense of international law.
The Republic of Armenia (population 2024: 3,076,200) is the smallest state in Central Asia with an area of 30,743 km². Armenia is located in the Caucasus and borders Georgia to the north, Turkey to the west, Azerbaijan to the east and Iran to the south. Armenia is at war with Azerbaijan. The background to this is the long-standing conflict over the Nagorno-Karabakh region.
The state of Armenia emerged in 188 BCE and followed on earlier state foundations, which were probably founded by the Armenians. Armenia adopted Christianity in either 301 or after 315. As a result of wars and deportations as well as waves of emigration of the Armenian population, new Armenian states were founded in other areas between Asia Minor and the Caucasus. The central event in Armenian history is the genocide of the Armenians in the Ottoman Empire between 1915 and 1918 in which an estimated 1.5 million people lost their lives. This trauma continues to shape the Armenian culture of remembrance and national identity to the present day. After a brief period of renewed independence in 1918-1920 and incorporation into the USSR, Armenia regained independence in 1991.
Kazakhstan is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Nur-Sultan is the capital of the country inhabited by about 18.8 million people. The country is located on the shores of the Caspian Sea and has been independent since 1991. The history of the country is marked by various dynasties that established khanates on its territory until the 18th century, when the country was formally ruled by the Russian Tsarist Empire in the 19th century. From 1936 to 1991, Kazakhstan was part of the Soviet Union.
Uzbekistan (population in 2023: 36,799,800) is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Its capital is Tashkent and the official language is Uzbek and, in the autonomous republic of Karakalpakstan, also Karakalpak. The country borders Afghanistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan.
From 1428, the Uzbek khanates formed in the territory of present-day Uzbekistan, which were at times subject to tribute to the Mughal khans. In 1506, the Khanate of Bukhara (from 1785 Emirate) was established, from which the Khanates of Khiva and Kokand later split off. In 1868, Russia annexed the northern part of the Emirate of Bukhara, while the southern part survived as a Russian protectorate. Khiva became a Russian protectorate in 1873. In 1876, Kokand was conquered and incorporated into the General Government of Turkestan. The Alash-Orda state, which was created during the power struggles in Russia after the October Revolution in 1917, also included parts of present-day Uzbekistan. The Khanate of Khiva was transformed into the Khorezm Soviet People's Republic in 1920, which joined the Soviet Union as the Khorezm Soviet Socialist Republic in 1923. The Emirate of Bukhara also became the Bukhara Soviet People's Republic in 1920, which became part of the Soviet Union in 1924. These pseudo-autonomous entities were incorporated into the Turkestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, from which the Uzbek SSR emerged in 1925. In 1929, the Tajik SSR was split off. In 1936, Karakalpakstan and some others territories was ceded to Uzbekistan by the Russian SFSR. The collapse of the Soviet Union paved the way for Uzbekistan's declaration of independence in 1991. A democratic form of government has not yet been established in the country.
Uzbekistan was one of the less developed republics of the USSR. The rural country is heavily dependent on cotton cultivation, which, however, also causes severe ecological damage in connection with the Soviet Union's large-scale irrigation projects in desert areas. In addition to agriculture, the country benefits from natural gas extraction and - to a lesser extent - mechanical engineering.
Estonia is a country in north-eastern Europe. It is inhabited by around 1.3 million people and borders Latvia, Russia and the Baltic Sea. The most populous city and capital is Tallinn.
Today's Estonian state only regained its political independence in 1991 as a result of the so-called “Singing Revolution” in the Baltic states and in the wake of the collapse of the Soviet Union. Estonian independence was first proclaimed in 1918 and achieved through the “Estonian War of Independence” (1918-1920). As early as 1940, this first Estonian state was replaced by the “Estonian Soviet Socialist Republic”, which was founded under Soviet occupation. With an interruption due to the German occupation during the Second World War (1941-1944) and with slightly different borders, it was a constituent republic of the Soviet Union until 1991. Before 1918, the territory of present-day Estonia was part of the Russian Empire, with its northern part forming the Baltic Governorate of Estonia and its southern part the northern half of the Baltic Governorate of Livonia. In the High and Late Middle Ages and at the beginning of the early modern period, parts of today's country were also under Swedish, Danish and Polish rule, while the Livonian part was also under the sovereignty of the Teutonic Order until 1561.
Estonia has been part of the European Union and NATO since 2004.
Naturally these recollections cannot serve as scientifically verified reconstructions of the year 1945. The source corpus is only partially representative. The interviewees are almost exclusively male and belong exclusively to the group of people who managed to return home. At the time of liberation, they were generally very young (born between 1918 and 1924) and lived to an old age, above the average life expectancy in the Soviet Union. Those belonging to minorities were also interviewed relatively rarely due to lack of access. Nevertheless, the reports are useful testimonies to the emotional world.
Many of the contemporary witnesses felt a double happiness: they regained their personal freedom (many refer to their German detention as “slavery”) and they experienced their country’s own military victory. The latter was also a comfort to those among the liberated who, by their own admission, had had a difficult relationship with Stalinism. Occasional celebrations took place in the Soviet occupied zones. Some reports describe joint Soviet-Western commemorative events “to honor the victims of fascism”. In some places local military commanders paid tribute to the liberated prisoners of war on their own initiative, even if they could not present them with any official decorations.
Liberation – then what?
In addition, many contemporary witnesses expressed their regret at the time that, due to the capitulation, they would no longer have the opportunity to fight the enemy. Sometimes this is connected to a statement that their “sins” had not been sufficiently “atoned for”. This confirms the influence of the Soviet worldview: some of those concerned saw their imprisonment during war as a “crime”. Other former prisoners who were less patriotic to the Soviet system would have relied on the positive effect of their willingness to fight on the outcome of any trial.
Before the interviewees were handed over to the Soviet authorities, they had no exact information about what awaited them at home and how they would be treated. “We did not know what the Soviets had in store for us.” For example, they did not know that Moscow and the Western Allies had agreed an almost complete repatriation of all Soviet citizens to their own countries, if necessary, by force. Several contemporary witnesses, especially Georgians and Armenians, told of their anxieties and fears about their return and about discussions that took place shortly after their liberation. This was the case for prisoners of war who had remained loyal to the cause prisoners of war who had remained loyal to the cause Prisoners of war loyal to the cause were non-collaborators who remained loyal to their oath to the Red Army and refused any collaboration with the Germans to the detriment of their country, e.g. serving as part of a security guard, in the Vlasov army, police and auxiliary units, etc. as much as for those who had collaborated with the Germans in the stalags.
The word used by far the most often to describe their own feelings is “uncertainty”. In the first place, even a loyal Soviet patriot knew that in the Soviet Union, detention as a prisoner of war was considered at least equivalent to a major crime against the state, if not high treason. The political officers of the Red Army had warned them against this at every opportunity. But those who had been liberated banked on the mitigating effect of remaining true to their Fatherland while in German hands. In the second place, some of those interviewed knew people who had been politically persecuted (either shot, arrested, exiled or dekulakised
Arguments in favor of risking the return home, despite such uncertainty, were homesickness (“it is better to die in your own land than to live in a foreign one”), the desire to see one’s own family again, fear of the persecution of family members in the event of non-return, and a general mistrust of German propaganda and the “capitalists” of the West. Moreover, in leaflets and newspapers in the many languages of the Soviet Union, in direct conversations and through the deliberate control of oral propaganda, Soviet government institutions promised a frictionless reintegration of the “brave soldiers who had returned from fascist incarceration” into Soviet society.
Not all of those liberated wanted to return
Ultimately not all Soviet citizens were willing to go back. Reports of the Soviet repatriation authorities from 1945-1946 contain numerous references to sabotage, escape attempts, deceptions with the aim of escaping repatriation and even armed opposition. The contemporary witnesses who were interviewed recounted stories that are plausible from a historical perspective of ex-prisoners who were prepared to remain in Europe or America or who disappeared from accommodation facilities without notice. However, this was not a large-scale phenomenon. The accounts of the various tricks used by those unwilling to return are of particular interest. When they discovered that the Western Allies would not be repatriating the residents of the East Polish territories that were annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939, they purchased falsified papers on the black market, asked churches and international aid organizations for assistance in creating false documents or provided other false information about their place of birth or residence.
The exact number of former Soviet prisoners of war who remained in the West remains unknown to this day. Estimates range from 250,000 (internal report by the Foreign Ministry of the Soviet Union dated 1956) to 400,000 (research-based estimate). Accounts from people who made this choice are virtually non-existent, except for a few diaries and individual self-published books. By way of contrast, around 1.5 million liberated Red Army soldiers were repatriated to their homelands.
Lifelong reprisals against the returnees
Moscow (population 2024: 13,146,907) is the capital of the Russian Federation and the most populous city located entirely in Europe. It is situated in the west of the country. Moscow is also the capital of the Central Russian Federal District. The administrative unit “City of Federal Significance Moscow” includes several other towns and has a population of 13,258,262. The city is by far the most important political, economic, scientific, and cultural center of the country.
Moscow was founded around the 11th/12th century. The construction of the fortification (Kremlin) is dated to the beginning of the second half of the 12th century. In the 13th century, Moscow became the capital of a sub-principality of the Grand Duchy of Vladimir. In the 14th century, the princes of Moscow established themselves as rulers of the entire Rus. However, from 1247 to 1480, it was required to pay tribute to the Golden Horde, which devastated Moscow in 1238. In 1571, the city, which was almost entirely built of wood, was burned down by Tatar troops. By this time, however, Moscow was already the undisputed center of power in Russia. In 1687, the city's first college was opened, followed by its first university in 1775. Peter the Great moved the capital to Saint Petersburg in 1712. Weakened by unrest and plague, Moscow's development lagged behind that of the new capital. The invasion of Napoleon's troops in 1812 brought a deep cut in Moscow's development, with the city's population setting their houses on fire to repel them. The rapid reconstruction gave Moscow a modern cityscape.
After the October Revolution and the relocation of the capital back to Moscow in 1918, the city experienced an enormous expansion of its public infrastructure, and numerous prestigious buildings were erected until World War II. However, the expansion of residential space was never able to keep pace with population growth. This growth could not be slowed down, even by various restrictions on in-migration, some of which are still in force today. However, the city also grew through incorporations, particularly in 1960 and 2012.
In 1980, Moscow hosted the Summer Olympics. In the years that followed, however, the growing crisis in the Soviet Union also affected the city, which, following decentralization movements in the republics and unrest in Russia itself, was ultimately directly affected by the attempted coup in 1991. After the final collapse of the Soviet Union at the end of 1991, Moscow remained the capital of Russia. Since then, the city center in particular has been increasingly characterized by modern, prestigious buildings. Other features of the city's development in the post-Soviet era include the reconstruction of churches destroyed or repurposed during the Soviet era, the renovation of pre-Soviet buildings in the city center, and the expansion of transport infrastructure on the outskirts.
Saint Petersburg (population in 2024: 5,645,943, of which 4,732,198 live in the city proper) is a metropolis in northeastern Russia. It is the country’s second-largest city after Moscow. The city was founded in 1703 by Peter the Great at the mouth of the Neva River in the Baltic Sea. From 1712 to 1918, it was the capital of Russia. Alongside Moscow, St. Petersburg is Russia’s most important site for industry, education, culture, and trade, as well as one of its most important ports. From 1914 to 1924, the city was known as Petrograd, and from 1924 to 1991, as Leningrad.
During World War II, the city was besieged by the German Wehrmacht from September 8, 1941, to January 27, 1944—a total of 871 days. Over one million civilians died in the city, which had been systematically cut off from all supplies.
