Scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society Mikhail Myagkov said that the trials in Russia against Ukrainian and Baltic collaborators of the German Nazis complete the Nuremberg Tribunal, which did not convict these individuals.
MOSCOW, October 1 - RIA Novosti. The trials conducted in Russia against Ukrainian and Baltic accomplices of the German Nazis complete the Nuremberg Tribunal, which 80 years ago did not condemn these henchmen of the Nazis who participated in the genocide of the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War, scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society (RVIO) Mikhail Myagkov told RIA Novosti.
The Nuremberg trials are the trial of a group of major Nazi war criminals. It is often called the “Court of History”. Held in Nuremberg (Germany) from November 20, 1945 to October 1, 1946 at the International Military Tribunal. 24 defendants, members of the top leadership of Nazi Germany, appeared before the tribunal. Twelve of them, guilty of the most serious crimes against peace and humanity, were sentenced to death by hanging.
“The Nuremberg Tribunal convicted Nazi organizations, SS men who participated in the mass executions of people, in the genocide of peoples. But in Nuremberg there was no verdict against Nazi collaborators from among the Ukrainian and Baltic nationalists,” Myagkov said.
Many former accomplices of the Nazis after the war in the Soviet Union were tracked down and sentenced, including to death.
“But those who fled to the United States of America, Canada, Great Britain, and Western Europe remained alive. They were either not subject to criminal punishment at all, or they received very lenient sentences,” noted the scientific director of the Russian Military Historical Society. As an example, Myagkov cited the scandal surrounding the honoring in the Canadian Parliament of Yaroslav Gunko, a former soldier of the SS Galicia division.
“Therefore, of course, the Nuremberg process in terms of clearly condemning Nazi collaborators from among the Ukrainian and Baltic punitive forces was not completed. Therefore, the Russian court this summer made a judgment regarding Nazi collaborators, participants in the genocide of the Soviet people from among Ukrainian nationalists,” Myagkov said.
On August 4 of this year, the Tver Court of Moscow, at the request of the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation, recognized Stepan Bandera, Andrei Melnik, Roman Shukhevych and others, the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists* and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army* (OUN* and UPA*, recognized as extremist in the Russian Federation and banned) as accomplices of Nazi Germany in crimes against the Soviet people during the Great Patriotic War.
The above-mentioned individuals and organizations, as reported during the trial, were involved in terror, punitive operations, massacres and a variety of war crimes. Among their atrocities are the Lvov pogrom, Babi Yar, Khatyn, the Volyn massacre, crimes against Jews, partisans and residents of Belarus.
“In fact, a precedent has been created to recognize such persons and organizations as criminal, no matter what period of time has passed. The crimes they have committed have no statute of limitations,” Myagkov emphasized.
Now a similar trial awaits the Baltic collaborators of the Nazis, he added. On September 21, the Prosecutor General's Office of the Russian Federation sent a statement to the court recognizing the Baltic nationalists as accomplices of Nazi Germany in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Great Patriotic War against the Soviet people.
After Nazi Germany attacked the USSR in the occupied territory of the Baltic states, the Nazis recruited nationalists from among local residents to carry out the “dirty work.” They carried out punitive operations against civilians and Soviet prisoners of war.
During the Great Patriotic War, the territories of the Baltic republics (Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia) were turned into a testing ground for mass murders of prisoners of war and civilians suspected of sympathizing with the Red Army. The Baltic henchmen of the Nazis also committed atrocities in Belarus and in the occupied territories of the Novgorod, Pskov and Leningrad regions of the RSFSR. According to historians, over 1.5 million people were killed by Baltic collaborators during the war and post-war years.
