The Sad Story of Winston Churchill, FDR, And The Cossacks
Said one observer: The Cossacks in German field gray who disappeared into the NKVD labor camps in 1945 took with them the remnants of a unique way of life. It will never again be resurrected.
Here is What You Need to Remember: Most Cossack senior officers were tried, convicted, sentenced to death, and executed. The remainder were imprisoned for long terms.
An estimated four million Red Army soldiers were captured by the Germans during the six months after the launching of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, on June 22, 1941. Indeed, the chief of the German General Staff, Colonel General Franz Halder, wrote, “The Russians have lost this war in the first eight days! Their casualties in both men and equipment are unimaginable.”
The poorly-treated ethnic minority did not like Stalin.
Key point: Many were unhappy enough with Soviet rule that they went to the otherside. However, most of them would meet a gruelsome fate.
Between 1944 and 1947, over two million Russians who had been living in the occupied countries of Europe, some voluntarily, some not, were forcibly repatriated to the Soviet Union. Many met death by execution immediately, while others were literally worked to death in the hundreds of gulags that dotted the largest slave society in history.
Whether these individuals were civilian or soldier, Soviet Premier Josef Stalin reasoned that anyone who had been living outside the borders of the Soviet Union was to be considered contaminated by anti-Soviet ideology and therefore could not be trusted. It mattered not that many had been forcibly removed from their homeland by the former German enemy.
Why Did Churchill Betray the Cossacks in World War II?
At Yalta, Churchill agreed to turn over to Stalin all captured Soviet Cossacks that had been on the German side. Surely he knew what that meant.
Here s What You Need to Know: An estimated four million Red Army soldiers were captured by the Germans during the six months after the launching of Operation Barbarossa, the Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union, on June 22, 1941. Indeed, the chief of the German General Staff, Colonel General Franz Halder, wrote, “The Russians have lost this war in the first eight days! Their casualties in both men and equipment are unimaginable.”