History 03/03/20 Any prisoners of war white have always been shot
a prisoner of war, for example, the American civil war 1861-1865 gg. dedicated to the extensive and detailed literature. Quite another matter – the civil war in Russia. No one’s heard anything about the camp for white or red prisoners. Although any war, of course, prisoners of war inevitable. What became of them?
the Bitterness of the first months of the war,
the Civil war in Russia differ a savage fury on both sides. The notion of prisoners initially absent completely. Caught by the enemy was regarded as a mortal enemy. If it failed to lure to his side, it had to be destroyed. At the beginning of the Civil war for the red and white fought mostly volunteers, characterized by a high degree of fanaticism and devotion to the idea. They live in the hands of the enemy, as a rule, not given, and did to captured enemies as well as, in their opinion, the enemy certainly would have done with them.
the First period of the Civil war is full of descriptions of these massacres. The Bolsheviks destroyed as a class of officers, especially generals of the tsarist army, for refusing to cooperate with the Soviet authorities. So, in April 1918 in Taganrog, under the personal direction of narcomoeba Antonov-Ovseenko was shot by General Pavel Rennenkampf. In November, 1918 in Pyatigorsk, the Bolsheviks killed General Nikolai Ruzsky. Both just lived in those cities after retirement and was not involved in any politics.
In turn, the Volunteer army of generals Alekseev, Kornilov and Denikin during the Ice campaign in February-April 1918 weren’t burdened with the baggage of the prisoners. A glimpse of the Denikin wrote in his memoirs that “by the autumn of 1918, the brutal period of the civil war “of extermination” was already obsolete. Extrajudicial executions of prisoners of war was an exception and was persecuted by the chiefs”. This means only one thing: in the beginning the period of the Civil war, such executions in the white army were the rule and never punished.
the Commutation relations to ordinary prisoners
Gradually, both sides in the Civil war created a regular army by mobilization. The incentives for participation in battles waned, decreased, and degree of bitterness. In addition, both white and red had a lack of personnel, therefore, have increasingly tried to fill up the prisoners the ranks of their own armies. According to Denikin, “many thousands of prisoners received into the ranks of the Volunteer army.”
the Bolshevik Leaders sought to break away the ordinary mass of the white armies by their leaders. To this end, the narkomvoenmor and chair of the Trotsky military revolutionary Council of Republic on December 7, 1918, issued an order which read: “Under pain of the strictest penalties forbid the shooting of prisoners of rank and file Cossacks and enemy soldiers”. The fact of this order shows that such executions in the red army, too, was commonplace.
captured, if not killed, they usually were enlisted in non-combatant in the different logistics teams to free up soldiers for the front line. Give the weapon to such defectors, even if they asked for it, both armies were afraid of. Experience has shown that in the next battle such defectors often ran back, with weapons issued to them, and assured that kept life in prison only by agreeing to fight against their former comrades.
the Attitude to such prisoners also differed according to circumstances of time and place. The natives of the area occupied by the army, where they were captured, could be sent home under oath not to take up arms. Although the moment of capture could be accompanied by different kinds of violence and bullying. Denikin admitted: “the Fight, and though not always successful, had to fight against the barbaric technique of undressing the prisoners. Our infantry soon ceased to sin in this respect, concerned with production of prisoners in the system. The Cossacks could not turn away from this cruel reception… Remember what a bad impression productionhad for me, the field near Armavir in the cold October day…, all dotted with the white pieces (stripped to her underwear) prisoners…”.
placed in liquidation
there were categories of prisoners, which the whites always treated without mercy. This is the former officers and generals of the tsarist army. Their service to the Bolsheviks, white was regarded as treason. In November 1918, Denikin ordered that “all [the officers], who will not leave immediately the ranks of the red army, waiting for the curse of the folk and field court of the Russian army – a harsh and merciless.” Later he himself admitted that the order “made a dismal impression on those serving the red, was the life and soul with us.” Denikin was assured that the order, however, “was only a threat” and “did not meet the actual situation”. The facts, however, are stubborn things, and the word with the thing whites have not diverged. So, in October 1919 at Orel was wounded taken prisoner serving in the red army major-General Anton Stankevich and, after refusing to join the Volunteer army, were devoted to court-martial and hanged.
Another category of white had captured political Commissars and all members of the CPSU(b). Kolchak told the administration of his government George Gins: “the Civil war must be ruthless. I order the captains of the parts to shoot all the prisoners of the Communists. Or we shoot them, or they us.”
of Course, the ideological Communists, as well as ideological white officers, tried prisoners do not get. The only exception was the last episode of the civil war, when many officers of the white army of General Wrangel could not be evacuated, and not very much wanted. The Bolsheviks seized the moment and finally broke the morale of white officers with the promise of Amnesty. The commander of the southern front, Mikhail Frunze, with the consent of Lenin and Trotsky, to ensure its officers present themselves for registration. In the winter 1920/21, all these officers – a number from 50 thousand to 120 thousand (reliably now unknown, as all these materials repression kept secret until now) – were shot by order of the Commissars of Bela kun and Rosalie Zemlyachki (Zalkind). It is possible that “good” for the total elimination was also given by Lenin and Trotsky.
Yaroslav Butakov
Source:
© Russian Seven
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