Email this article Fate of Soviet prisoners of war during the war years
- Authors: Aristov S.V.1,2
-
Affiliations:
- Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences
- National Research University «Moscow Power Engineering Institute»
- Issue: No 1(120) (2025)
- Pages: 52-63
- Section: NO STATUTE OF LIMITATION
- URL: https://medbiosci.ru/2587-6090/article/view/294067
- DOI: https://doi.org/10.22204/2587-8956-2025-120-01-52-63
- ID: 294067
Cite item
Full Text
Abstract
The paper analyses the situation of Soviet prisoners of war during World War II, explores the causes of their mass captivity and the reasons for the high mortality rate in Nazi camps. The author studies criminal commands of the Wehrmacht as “the Hunger Plan”, and the use of Soviet prisoners of war s in forced labor. The paper examines strategies for survival in captivity, including confronting the camp administration, participation in the Resistance, and collaborationism. It especially focusses on the question of the total number of prisoners and death tolls. The author addresses issues that require further research, such as camp routine, the biographies of captured Soviet generals, and the revealing the identities of dead Soviet prisoners of war and their burial sites.
Keywords
About the authors
Stanislav V. Aristov
Institute of Russian History of the Russian Academy of Sciences; National Research University «Moscow Power Engineering Institute»
Author for correspondence.
Email: aristov_stanislav@hotmail.com
Doctor of Historical Sciences (PhD), Leading Researcher of the Research Center for the History of the Great Patriotic War, Head of the Department of History and Cultural Studies
Russian FederationReferences
- Overmans R. German Historiography, the War Losses, and the Prisoners of War // Eisenhower and the German POWs / Ed. G. Bischoff, S. Ambrose/ New York, 1992. P. 144.
- Shneer A. Plen. Soldaty i ofitsery Krasnoi armii v nemetskom plenu. T. 1. M., 2022. S. 146–229 (in Russian).
- Aristov S. «Imperiya smerti». Kontslagerya Tret'ego Reikha: samaya polnaya illyustrirovannaya entsiklopediya natsistskikh kontslagerei. M., 2022. S. 20 (in Russian).
- Overmans R. Die Kriegsgefangenenpolitik des Deutschen Reiches 1939 bis 1945 // Das Deutsche Reich und der Zweite Weltkrieg / Ed. J. Echternkamp. Munich, 2005. № 9/2. P. 808.
- Burleigh M. The Third Reich — A New History. New York: Hill and Wang, 2000. S. 512–513.
- Polyan P. Sovetskie voennoplennye: skol'ko ikh bylo i skol'ko vernulos'? // Demograficheskoe obozrenie. 2016. T. 3. № 2. S. 52–53 (in Russian).
- Shtrait K. «Oni nam ne tovarishchi…»: vermakht i sovetskie voennoplennye v 1941–1945 gg. M., 2009. S. 305 (in Russian).
- Zemskov V.N. «Statisticheskii labirint». Obshchaya chislennost' sovetskikh voennoplennykh i masshtaby ikh smertnosti // Rossiiskaya istoriya. 2011. № 3. S. 23–24 (in Russian).
- Sud'by voennoplennykh i deportirovannykh grazhdan SSSR: Materialy Komissii po reabilitatsii zhertv politicheskikh repressii // Novaya i noveishaya istoriya. 1996. № 2. S. 92 (in Russian).
- Grif sekretnosti snyat. Poteri Vooruzhyonnykh Sil SSSR v voinakh, boevykh deistviyakh i voennykh konfliktakh: Statisticheskoe issledovanie / G.F. Krivosheev i dr. M., 1993. S. 131 (in Russian).
- Shtrait K. «Oni nam ne tovarishchi…»: vermakht i sovetskie voennoplennye v 1941–1945 gg. M., 2009. S. 8 (in Russian).
- Zemskov V.N. «Statisticheskii labirint». Obshchaya chislennost' sovetskikh voennoplennykh i masshtaby ikh smertnosti // Rossiiskaya istoriya. 2011. № 3. S. 27 (in Russian).
- Aristov S.V. Zhizn' vopreki: strategii vyzhivaniya v natsistskom zhenskom kontslagere Ravensbryuk (1939–1945 gg.): Issledovanie i svidetel'stva. M., 2018 (in Russian).
- Kobylyazh-Bula R. Soldaty Krasnoi armii v lageryakh dlya voennoplennykh Lamsdorf (1941–1945) // Sovetskie voennoplennye vo vremya Vtoroi mirovoi voiny na pol'skikh zemlyakh. SPb., 2018. S. 63 (in Russian).
- Otto R., Keller R. Sovetskie voennoplennye v sisteme kontslagerei Germanii. M., 2020. S. 199 (in Russian).
- Soprotivlenie sovetskikh voennoplennykh v natsistskikh kontsentratsionnykh lageryakh i tsentrakh unichtozheniya: istoriya i pamyat' / S. Aristov, I. Vasil'ev, M. Matskevich, M. Edel'shtein. M., 2022 (in Russian).
- Kudryashov S. Predateli, «osvoboditeli» ili zhertvy rezhima // Svobodnaya mysl'. 1993. № 14. S. 90–91 (in Russian).
- Aleksandrov K. Russkie soldaty Vermakhta. Geroi ili predateli. M., 2005 (in Russian).
- Drobyazko S. Pod znamyonami vraga: antisovetskie formirovaniya v sostave germanskikh vooruzhyonnykh sil. 1941–1945. M., 2004 (in Russian).
- General Vlasov: istoriya predatel'stva: V 2 t. V 3 kn. / Pod red. A.N. Artizova. M., 2015 (in Russian).
- Otto R., Keller R. Sovetskie voennoplennye v sisteme kontslagerei Germanii. M., 2020. S. 319 (in Russian).
- The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum Encyclopedia of Camps and Ghettos, 1933–1945. Vol. IV: Camps and Other Detention Facilities under the German Armed Forces // Ed. by P. Geoffrey. Megargee: Indiana University Press, 2022.
- Nuzhdin O. Generaly i polkovniki RKKA v plenu v gody Velikoi Otechestvennoi voiny. M., 2020 (in Russian).
Supplementary files
