Russian magazine edited by Sergei Lavrov about the denazification of Ukraine

The article “The Soviet Union's experience of denazification in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany” was published in the October issue of the magazine whose editor-in-chief is the Minister of Foreign Affairs Sergei Lavrov. She wrote it Irina Grachevahead of the research department of the Ministry of National Defense at the Military University of Alexander Nevsky.

In the introduction, Gracheva mentioned Vladimir Putin's speech at the beginning of the war in 2022, in which he “identified as one of the most important goals of the SCO [Specjalnej Operacji Wojskowej, czyli wojny] denazification of Ukraine.” To achieve this goal, according to her, it is necessary to use the “rich practical experience” that the Soviet authorities accumulated “while implementing a similar task in the territory of Germany occupied by the Red Army as a result of World War II.”

At the beginning of the article, Gracheva noted that the Soviet authorities began to gain experience in the field of “denazification” already at the final stage of the war, among others. thanks to the work of the NKVD at the front.

Then the author recalled the first order of the Soviet military commandant of Berlin, which dissolved the structures of the Nazi party and obliged their leadership and military officers to report to the commandant's office within a few days. Those who did not show up or hid were faced with “severe responsibility under the laws of war,” writes Graczowa.

The author also repeatedly quotes one of the documents of the military council and political leadership of the 1st Ukrainian Front fighting in Germany in 1945. He ordered the involvement of the German population in order to “eradicate the poison of Nazism from the German body.” The document also provided for propaganda activities that were intended, among others, to: “to give the population a correct idea of ​​the Soviet Union” and “to popularize Comrade Stalin's statements about Germany and the German people.”

Gracheva also describes the experiences of the Soviet military administration established to manage the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany. He pays particular attention to the work of “denazification commissions”. As he writes, by 1948 they “removed” approximately 520,000 from local government bodies and enterprises. “former members of the Nazi party, militarists and war criminals.” 150 thousand former SS, Gestapo and Nazi Party officers were interned, and 17,000 of them ended up in prison, writes the author.

At the same time, he notes that not all Soviet officials recognized the difference between the various political forces in Germany, “because of which innocent people were arrested, and even those fighting against the Nazi regime.” As an example, Graczowa gives the arrest of the mayor of Eisenach, Dr. Freesdorf, without adding that he spent five years in an NKVD camp.

As Graczowa writes, by 1948 the military administration “carried out basic democratic changes in East Germany, purged local government bodies, police and judicial bodies of open and hidden Nazis, established national and provincial governments” to which it then transferred all powers.

️”The experience gained by the Soviet occupation authorities in the field of denazification of Germany is worth using in the authorities and military administration of the Russian Federation when conducting similar activities in the territories liberated during a special military operation from the Kiev neo-Nazi regime. Unfortunately, so far this experience has been used to a limited extent,” Gracheva sums up.

What is known about the author of the article?

In 2016, Graczowa completed her master's degree at Lesgaft University in St. Petersburg (the equivalent of the Polish Academy of Physical Education) in the field of “Physical Education” and started working at the Military Institute of Physical Education. In 2020, she moved to work at the Military University of Warsaw. Nevsky.