Back home: Soviet workers of Nazi forced labor who were repatriated and died abroad (1941–1945) in the memory culture of modern Russia
Authors:   Voronezh Institute of High Technologies, Timofeyeva Natalya P. 
Published: December 2024

Soviet prisoners of war and “Eastern workers” were ousted in the USSR from scientific knowledge and memory culture. In Russia, there were works of scientists who touched upon this problem, but lost sight of the activities of Soviet military servants to repatriate liberated USSR citizens and to account the burial sites of compatriots who died in captivity. These issues are important components of the Soviet memory policy in Germany and are inextricably linked to the modern memory culture of Russia. Studying them is the aim of this article. The study is primarily based on documents of the Foundation of the Soviet Military Administration in Germany, which are available in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. Soviet military servants’ activities regarding memorial sites are reflected in the materials from such German memorial complexes as Bergen-Belsen, Buchenwald, Neuengamme, and Flossenbürg. Repatriation of Soviet citizens who were released from captivity required appropriate army services. Most combat officers did not want to work in repatriation authorities due to the situations ambivalence: wartime laws were still effective and considered captivity and work for the enemy as treason, but there already existed the directives of the Peoples Commissar Council on providing repatriates with everything needed. Concerns were also raised about the inevitability of cooperation with the Peoples Commissariat for Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs who were responsible for all issues of repatriation, except for economic ones. In these conditions the repatriate’s memories about their captivity experiences were risky. A tradition of silence about the tragedy of Soviet citizens forced labor and captivity in Nazi Germany began to take shape. Excavation of graves of Soviet citizens who died in Germany, their identification, registration and accounting of the graves were also among the tasks of Soviet military servants. The cold war-induced deterioration of Soviet mission working conditions in the Western occupation zones worsened their performance without affecting transfer of Soviet cemeteries to local German authorities. Thus, the Soviet memory policy in relation to the war burials of Soviet citizens in Germany was expressed in the silencing of that issue at home along with diplomatic efforts to maintain the graves of fellow citizens abroad as material evidences of the war. The government tried to conceal the number of people killed in captivity. The repatriates who caused distrust of the authorities and society were silent about their past until the USSR collapsed. Russian society recognized Soviet military prisoners as war victims. Against this background, the concern about the fate of “Eastern workers” almost disappeared. Preserving the memory of the forced labor tragedy is now possible only depending on current trends in the higher and secondary education system supported by concerned Internet resources. The subject of this article gained relevance due to a natural passion of the war survivor generation and the need to comprehend the experience of captivity and oblivion as part of a general historical experience. This may also be the case for the “coming back home” of war victims whose graves remain unknown in Russia.