Alexander G. Zvyagintsev,
Senator of the International Association of Prosecutors
WHO PROFITED FROM WAR…
22 June 1941 threatened to become a fateful day in the history of mankind. It is difficult to imagine what would have become of this date if not for the heroic efforts of the Soviet army, which defeated the Hitlerite hordes.
Hitler used all the most heinous methods in the attack on 22 June 1941.
The Second World War, unleashed in Europe by fascist Germany, and in the east by militaristic Japan, involved more than 80% of the world’s population. More than 110 million people from 61 States participated in it.
Direct losses of the USSR amounted to about 27 million people. After the war in the USSR, the birth rate decreased by 15.5%.
Since June 1941, while waging the liberation war against the Nazi aggressors, our soldiers fought with 607 enemy divisions, while all our allies, taken together, were opposed by 3.5 times less – no more than 176 divisions (and this is taking into account those who fought in North Africa and Southern Italy). The figures of losses are incomparable. For example, in the United States, a little more than 3,000 civilians died during the entire war – the same number died in two Manhattan towers during a terrible terrorist attack.
WHO WERE WE AT WAR WITH
In fact, the entire economy of the countries conquered by the Third Reich really worked against our State. In fact, we were fighting against the military-industrial complex and the resources of the whole of Europe. Equipment, clothing, natural resources, provisions and ammunition were supplied to the Hitlerites from France, the Czech Republic, Belgium, Sweden, the United States (!).
On 1 July 1945, 47 British and American divisions were to deliver a sudden strike against the Soviet troops without declaring war.
The profits of American corporations during the war increased from six billion in 1940 to ten billion in 1944.
Divisions of Spaniards, Italians, Romanians, French, and other countries found an inglorious end on the Russian fields.
And the irretrievable losses of the Red Army during the liberation of European countries amounted to about a million people. In total, about nine million Soviet citizens participated in the liberation of 16 European countries. Their sacrificial feat brought the harsh sentence of the Tribunal of Nations to the Nazi criminals closer.
WHAT WAS PREPARED FOR OUR PEOPLE
On 9 May 1941, the main Nazi ideologist Alfred Rosenberg presented Hitler with a plan for the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. And he received the highest approval of the Führer.
The meaning of the plan was that Russia should never exist again. In its place, it was necessary to create many weak territorial entities that would be at war with each other under the supervision of the Reich. The bet was placed on separatist movements and inciting ethnic hatred. He believed that the Crimea, as a fertile territory, would forever be included in the Reich.
It was planned to form five governorates on the territory of Russia. In the first, the so-called ‘Ostland,’ Rosenberg intended to include Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania and part of Western Belarus. All the inhabitants in these territories needed to be radically ‘germanised’ during the life of only two generations.
The second governorship was thought of as Ukraine with some adjacent territories. Ukraine was supposed to become Germany’s mainstay in controlling Russia.
The Nazis were preparing to use its inhabitants in a very peculiar way. Men were to be warriors, women and old men – to work in the fields and farms. In general, the population of Ukraine should be turned into dumb, uneducated slaves, dying from diseases and drunkenness.
The Caucasus and Turkestan were to become separate governorships.
SHOOT AND HANG OR JUDGE?
At first, an international tribunal was not even an option. Britain, the United States, France and other countries desired to deal with Nazi accomplices without any trial or legal nuances – all they wanted was revenge.
But the USSR firmly insisted on the need for a transparent and objective trial, so that the history lesson would become even more vivid and instructive.
From 17 July to 2 August 1945, the Potsdam (Berlin) Conference of the heads of government of the USSR, Great Britain and the United States was held. Official commitments were made there – to try the perpetrators.
But the realization of this idea was still too far away.
A STAB IN THE BACK FROM THE ALLIES
The Nuremberg Trial could not take place for a completely different reason. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill had a plan for the ‘Operation Unthinkable.’ This plan appeared on 22 May 1945 – 13 days after Victory Day.
The operation was to begin on 1 July 1945. On this day, 47 British and American divisions, without declaring war, were supposed to deliver a surprise attack on Soviet troops, who did not expect such meanness from the allies.
The insidious adventure failed but the tension among the winners continued to persist even after 20 November – the beginning of the Nuremberg Trial. As it became known thanks to the Soviet intelligence officer Donald MacLean, the American military officers under the pretext of ‘preserving world peace’ developed a project for the ‘Operation Pincher.’ The project was born on 2 March 1946, and in fact repeated the ‘Operation Unthinkable.’
The plan provided for a clash between the United States and the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1949 in the event of an aggravation of the bilateral situation.
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It is not subject to oblivion
Translated by Elizaveta O. Ovchinnikova
