war crimes

Home page » war crimes
|

PHJ № 4 (48) 2025 — V. A. Livtsov. FOR THEM, THE WAR DID NOT END IN 1945. BOOK REVIEW: KOVALEV B. N. “THE THAW” AND HITLER’S HEIRS: FROM THE HISTORY OF THE SEARCH AND PUNISHMENT OF NAZI COLLABORATORS IN NORTHWESTERN RUSSIA IN THE LATE 50S — THE FIRST HALF OF THE 60S OF THE 20TH CENTURY. MOSCOW: ISTORICHESKAYA PAMYAT, 2025. 224 P.

“The Thaw” brought liberation not only to innocent victims. Real criminals, guilty of the death of many thousands of civilians, partisans and soldiers of the Red Army, were also released. Who is to blame for it? Many war criminals found refuge in the West — both in West Germany and in the countries allied with the USSR in the anti-Hitler coalition. How could it happen? Former collaborators of the Nazis, Vlasovites and punishers were often able to successfully hide their past. They were respected as honored veterans of the Great Patriotic War. Why did it happen? The Soviet state security agencies spent decades searching for them. What did they do to ensure that justice prevailed? Answers to these questions can be found in the new book by St. Petersburg historian Boris Kovalev.

PHJ № 2 (46) 2025 — V. I. Bezruchenko. THE EXPULSION OF THE SERBS FROM SARAJEVO IN 1992–1995

The subject of the article is the fate of the Serb community in Sarajevo during the 1992–1995 civil war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The article is based on documents from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia and the archives of the Centre for the Study of War, War Crimes and the Search for Missing Persons in Republika Srpska, as well as documents and materials from the International Independent Commission to Investigate the Plight of Serbs in Sarajevo 1992–1995. The Serb community in Sarajevo, which has existed for centuries, became the target of terror by armed groups and the Democratic Action Party of the President of the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina, A. Izetbegovic. A. Izetbegovic’s regime carried out the ethnic cleansing of Sarajevo, as a result of which the pre-war Serb community virtually disappeared.

PHJ № 4 (44) 2024 – B. N. Kovalev. KILLERS ABOUT KILLERS: TESTIMONY OF FORMER PUNISHERS AGAINST THEIR ASSOCIATES (THE CASE OF G. M. GUREVICH-GURVICH)

The 667th Shelon Battalion, comprising individuals who had collaborated with the Nazi regime, left a trail of violence and destruction in the vicinity of Leningrad. The Soviet state security agencies continued their search for war criminals until 1991. It is regrettable that, following the conclusion of the Second World War, a considerable number of these individuals were able to regularise their immigration status in a number of Western countries, including the USA, the UK, Australia, Canada and West Germany. However, some former punishers who returned to the USSR were subsequently held to account for their actions. From 1947 to 1950, the death penalty was abolished in the Soviet Union. In 1955, an amnesty was proclaimed. The sentences handed down to those who had collaborated were reduced by a factor of two or three. Following their release from incarceration between the 1960s and 1980s, these individuals provided testimony as witnesses to the crimes of their former associates. One of the most notable trials occurred in Novgorod in 1962.