History 16/02/20 That the Soviet Union became prisoners by the Finns after the Winter war
In the Winter of the Soviet-Finnish campaign of 1939 – 1949 according to various sources, driven by domestic and Finnish historians in the red army were captured by the Finnish troops to 1200. Most of them after a few months of captivity were repatriated to their homeland.
Where and how they were
arranging accommodation for the detention of prisoners and Finns were engaged in the Office for POWs and internees (South WPVI) of the NKVD of the USSR. At first, believing in the victory of the red Army in the Winter war and, consequently, anticipating the associated with the result of the campaign a large number of captured enemy soldiers, the office of Beria prepared for the Finns about two dozen offices and camps. But as you know, the triumphant victory in the war with Finland, the Soviet Union failed.
the largest gathering place of the prisoners of the Finns was the Gryazovets camp in Vologda, there to the end of the Winter campaign was of the order of 600 Finnish troops captured (by the most conservative estimates of historians, the total number of captured Finns do not exceed 900). Prisoners were accommodated in three two-storey houses, a former monastery. The place was small, so the bench in the monastery was made a three-tiered.
Prisoners Finns went to work as other prisoners. Moreover, the labour of foreign convicts were paid, they were allowed to receive money transfers and parcels. About nutritional standards can be judged according to what a cohpac has been on the road for one Finnish prisoner of war, when they began to be repatriated – 3 kilos of bread, 700 grams of herring or canned food, 6 grams of tea and 150 sugar. Plus 100 grams of soap, a pack of tobacco, 2 box of matches (this is all for four days).
They tried to raise
the political Department of UPVI NKVD established in the camps for Finnish prisoners of war, both political and cultural-enlightenlsquo work. The Bible and chauvinistic literature they have selected. But in abundance were the works of Russian and foreign classics (although mostly in Russian). In Gryazovetskiy the camp library was also attended by the classics of Marxism-Leninism, the works of Soviet writers and party leaders. A couple of weeks before the beginning of the repatriation in the camp began to arrive, and Newspapers in the Finnish language.
Such educational zeal the camp administration was explained by the fact that the cultural and educational level of the Finnish prisoners mainly were unimportant.
When the Finns began to send home
the First batch of immigrants have moved to Finland almost a month after the official end of combat operations in the Winter campaign – April 16, 1940. According to official data, some stages (April-June) home in trains with wagons of the supply trucks were sent to 838 prisoners, mostly enlisted personnel. In turn, Finland returned to the Soviet prisoners of war. They were several times more (according to various estimates, in Finnish captivity were about 6 thousand soldiers and officers of the red army). The exchange of prisoners took place near the Finnish railway station Vainikkala (South Karelia).
… However, and Finland, and the USSR at the end of the bilateral process remained dissatisfaction with the lives of dozens of servicemen, missing in action, both Soviet and Finnish side – they have remained outstanding. It is also possible that the counting results were in Soviet captivity Finns may differ from official data due to the inclusion in the statistics of soldiers who died from wounds or died in the first days of captivity for other reasons.
Nicholas Syromyatnikov
Source:
© Russian Seven
Featured articles Share: Comments Comments on the article “That the Soviet Union became prisoners by the Finns after the Winter war” Please log in to leave a comment! br>
Share on Tumblr
