'Potential enemies': How USSR treated occupied population, disabled veterans after WWII
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On July, 3 Belarus officially celebrates the Independence Day – independence from Nazi invaders. Again and again, heroic feats are praised and inspirational victory slogans are chanted. But hardly any official mentions the fact that the life of Belarusians from the occupied territory was not so joyful after the liberation. Having become the hostages of the Soviet system, people got into trouble once again, Belarusian historian Ihar Melnikau told belsat.eu.
According to the historian, in the post-war years the Soviet government began to actively seek collaborators and accomplices of the Nazi regime among the civilian population. Every person who used to live under occupation was automatically suspected of collaborating with Germans. The supporters of Belarusian national interests were also considered traitors. For example, a school teacher that taught the Belarusian language, could have been regarded as a collaborator, which was almost impossible to contest.
Up until 1992, when applying for a job, joining the army or entering higher educational institutions one had to fill out a questionnaire containing the question “What did you and your family do during the occupation?” The family history was examined very deliberately if a person wanted to go abroad. All the officials, candidates for the highest office or employment in the police had to be checked by the KGB.
These measures were extremely popular not only in Belarus, but inthe Baltic states, Ukraine, once occupied part of Russia (Smolensk, Bryansk, Pskov, etc), Melnikau says. It was not until the collapse of the USSR when such questionnaires were done away with.
Preventing the spread of dissent to the east
Searching for accomplices lasted until the late 80s. Mr. Melnikau stresses that the authorities should have looked for them: in fact, there were people among Belarusians who took part in Nazi punitive actions. But their number reached some hundreds – in tens of millions.
“The Soviet Union was not able to feel sorry for its population,” the historian said. And it was clearly seen not only in questionnaires mentioned above, but in pre-war event as well earlier. When in 1939 Western Belarus joined the Byelorussian SSR, the Soviet leadership gave the order to preserve the old border – the so-called ‘line of barriers’. Although the country had been already reunited, the ‘Westerners’ were not usually allowed to enter the eastern part. “It came as a surprise for them. The new citizens kept asking when they would be permitted to visit Minsk,” Melnikau says.
It happened because the residents of Western Belarus were perceived as ‘hostile elements’, who were dangerous for the USSR. In addition, it was necessary to even the two parts of the BSSR as Western Belarus was richer.
“But the main problem was that people in the west thought differently,” Ihar Melnikau stresses. And spreading of free thinking to the east had to be stopped. When the war broke out, many inhabitants of western regions of the BSSR were not to leave due to the ‘fence line’.
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‘Those who fought in the Second World War are not veterans’
The Belarusian SSR recognised the merits of not all Belarusian soldiers that fought against Nazi occupation. A lot of our compatriots during the Second World War joined Anders’ Army that participated in the battles of Monte Cassino and moved across Italy and France.
After the war the KGB began to nurse the soldiers asking them to return to the USSR. And many did come back in 1946-48. In 1951 all of them were deported to Siberia. When they were amnestied 1953-56, they failed to receive the status of a participant of the Great Patriotic War due to their non-participation in the Great Patriotic War… And only in 1995, the independent Belarus granted them the status of war veterans and commemorative medals.
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‘Rumps’: disabled war veterans spoiled the winner country’s image
In 1950-60 the USSR authorities started to get rid of disabled servicemen, of the persons who had laid down their heath for Motherland, had lost their legs and arms, Ihar Melnikau reveals another shameful side of the life in the winner country.
According to the historian, there were millions of disabled war veterans in the USSR. The Soviet Union could not provide pensions and housing for them, and former soldiers had to beg and scrounge, which was spoiling the image of the Soviet system. And they were grabbed and taken to a special centre in the north of Russia. Only in the 1970-80s journalists were allowed access there, and the whole story went public.
“These people, heroes, were forgotten. Here is the real face of the Soviet system,” the historian emphasizes. According to his sources, there were special centres for disabled servicemen in Belarus as well. People should not be afraid of the tragic truth, Melnikau supposes. “The contribution of Soviet soldiers to the victory is great, and it is worth praising. But we must reveal the costs of all this, we must say how many lives were thrown away,” he says.
The authorities remained and remain silent about the tragic pages of war and post-war life. In the Soviet times, ‘our victory’ was prioritized, and the idea of no matter what price we had paid for it was hammered into people’s heads. And now this Soviet pathos, especially in Russia, is turning imperial rhetoric – ‘we won nearly the whole world; if it had been not for us, nobody would have defeated Hitler’.
“They forgot about the Second Front, lend-lease programs, U.S. and British aid. They forgot the fact that troops were liberating Belarus on U.S. M-3 halh-trucks,” the expert notes. We should distance ourselves from Soviet pathetic views on the Great Patriotic war: this would not mean that the Belarusians do not respect the victory any more, Melnikau says. Our people have the right to know more about the tragic and ugly side of war and how the Soviet Union treated citizens after it.
“The historical truth must be open to society. People should be given the opportunity to discuss it. We must open the archives. We should not be afraid of the tragic truth about the war and post-war life,” the historian says.
Danuta Barouskaya/MS
