On March 18, the head of the Prosecutor General's Office of Belarus Andrei Swede stated that his department plans to initiate a criminal case on the fact of the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War. We explain what genocide is how many Belarusians died during the war and what this initiative explains, Tut.BY.
What did the Prosecutor General stated?
- The Prosecutor General's Office began a few months ago a job aimed at solving the issue of initiating a criminal case on the fact of the genocide of the Belarusian people during the Great Patriotic War. Today, the head of state is reported. This work continues in conjunction with other state bodies, the Academy of Sciences, with archives. And we are talking about that in the near future such a question will be considered, - said the Swede.He also said that the Prosecutor General's Office together with Parliament prepared a bill aimed at counteracting the heroization of Nazism.
What is genocide?
If you answer as simple as possible, then the genocide is the destruction of people of a certain nation, ethnos, race or religion.
The Criminal Code of Belarus (Article 127) characterizes the genocide as "actions committed with the aim of systematic destruction of a fully or partially any racial, national, ethnic, religious group or a group determined on the basis of any other arbitrary criterion by killing members of such a group or causing They are serious bodily harm, or intentional creating life conditions designed for the full or partial physical destruction of such a group, or the violent transfer of children from one ethnic group to another, or adopting measures to prevent childbearing in the environment of such a group. "
He is punishable by imprisonment for a period of ten to twenty-five years, or life imprisonment, or death penalty.
In the Belarusian Criminal Code, the genocide has no limitations.
We add that this term has appeared thanks to the native of Belarus. Rafael Lemkin, who was born on the territory of the modern Zelwinsky district of the Grodno region, introduced the concept of "genocide" to the international right. His colleague Gersh Lauterpacht introduced the wording "Crime against humanity." This happened in 1945 in connection with the Nuremberg Tribunal.
How many Belarusians died during the war?
The exact number of losses of the Belarusian population is still unknown. In essence, any voiced digit is perceived by opponents as politicized. The man who calculated it is accused either in the understatement of the atrocities of the Hitler's regime, or, on the contrary, in the desire to overstate the numbers of what was. Therefore, the dispersion is very significant.
As noted on the site "Archives of Belarus", if 9.2 million people lived in its current borders in Belarus, then at the end of 1944 - 6.3 million people.
- According to the FEK (Emergency State Commission. - approx. Tut.BY) to investigate the atrocities of the German-fascist invaders, in total on the territory of the BSSR, 2,219,136 people of civilians and prisoners of war were killed. However, it later turned out that information about human losses for a number of areas was significantly understated and that data on some prisoners of war camps are inaccurate. The missors of the Red Army fighters from among Belarusian residents are not included in this figure. Also taken into Germany, civilians were also taken into Germany. Currently, some researchers believe that taking into account indirect losses over the years of the Great Patriotic War died from 2.5 to 3 and more million people in Belarus, i.e. Not less than every third.
For the sake of objectivity, we also give the data of foreign historians, which are generally called smaller numbers than their Belarusian colleagues (data are quoted on the work of "Belarus in CantExcece Germans, G_staryigrafіі Gіstores, another Susvothy Vaine". Its author Sergey Novikov - one of the most authoritative specialists in this problem) .
Thus, the historian B. Kyari calls the figure of 1.6 million, H. Gerls - 1.6-1.7 million in the early 1990s, Lengard wrote about 2.2 million Belarusians. Polish researcher M. Ivanov writes about at least 3.4 million dead residents (1.4 million civilians excluding Jews, 800 thousand dead at the front, at least 350 thousand - in captivity, 100 thousand - in the partisans, the Army Craiova, 650 thousands of Jews, etc.). That is, every third.
Agree: Whatever these figures, they are terrible.
According to the site "Archives of Belarus", the direct material damage was calculated 75 billion rubles (in prices of 1941), which was 35 times the pre-war budget of the republic. The Belarusian economy was discarded at 1913.
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The Great Patriotic War (and in general the second world) became without exaggerating the most terrible disaster in the history of Belarus.
Destruction of Belarusians is a genocide?
Yes. Not every war is genocide. But the actions of the Nazis during World War II fall under this category.Under the guard of the Nazis, the Nazis held more than 140 major punitive operations, during which the tactics of genocide and the "scorched land" manifested. Often they received romantic names - like "Winter Magic", which was held in February - April 1943. Then, according to German data, 3.9 thousand civilians were killed. According to the estimates of modern Russian historians, it is about 10-12 thousand destroyed civilians.
During such operations, many settlements were destroyed. There are different figures in the literature. We present the data on "Gіstores of Belarus", written by employees of the Institute of History of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus. As the researcher, Alexey Litvin, notes, during punitive operations 5454 villages were burned. The fate of Khatny, where civilians were destroyed, 629 villages were divided. 185 of them were never revived.
More than 260 death camps, their branches and departments operated in Belarus. Among them, the death camp in the Treaty, where 206.5 thousand people were destroyed. In terms of the number of those killed, this is the fourth camp after Auschwitz, Majdanec and Toplinki. You can recall the camp in Ozarichi. He existed only ten days. But during this time more than 10 thousand people died.
At the conscience of the Nazis, the murder of Jews and the destruction of the ghetto, for example, Minsk.
The fact of genocide is indisputable.
Why initiate a criminal case?
If the facts of genocide are well known and have long been proven, why to initiate a criminal case?
Pay attention to three circumstances.
Firstly, the bill, aimed at counteracting the heroization of Nazism, can be indirectly aimed at the national symbolism - the white-red-white flag and the coat of arms of "pursuit", which were used during the occupation of individual collaborars.
Meanwhile, as historic Anton Rudak writes, "Niyakіya Aftqynyyaya Dakuments AB Skonnnі" Pagonі "is a side of the Germans' by the shortener, Dagatul's shortness." It was used semiably. According to Rudak (the article was published in the state newspaper "Culture", later it was removed from the site), the police never worn white-red-white dressings. Presumably, they were used by the participants of the corps of the Belarusian self-defense created to combat partisans. But the Germans were afraid to arm them and eventually disbanded. Also, the bandages were members of the Union of Belarusian youth. Flags used in public events in the last year before the liberation of Belarus.
It was a fluff form with collaborants - also came in other countries. The Vichi Government used the national flag of France. The Russian liberation army of General Vlasov used the Andreev flag, and its separate formations are a modern Russian white-blue-red flag, etc. But at the same time, modern French, Russians and representatives of other nationalities do not refuse their national symbolism.
Secondly, the recognition of the genocide during the Great Patriotic War will bring to the responsibility of those people who deny his facts will cause Nazi regime, etc. After all, criminal liability on such issues is a pan-European practice. It exists in Austria, Belgium, Hungary, Germany, Israel, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Poland, Portugal, Russia, France, the Czech Republic and other countries. It is important that in the legislation of many countries separately registered responsibility for the denial of the Holocaust.
Thirdly, we are talking about the use of Russian experience. On March 18, Alexander Lukashenko mentioned our Oriental neighbors as an example of promptness to change legislation. What is it talking about? In 2020, in Russia, the investigating authorities began to massively initiate cases of the genocide of civilians during the Great Patriotic War. In seven regions of Russia, at least 10 criminal cases of genocide against the civilian population of the USSR were initiated.
In November last year, the Investigative Committee has raised a criminal case on genocide in the Millerian district of the Rostov region during the German-fascist occupation. Previously, the criminal case on the genocide was opened in connection with the mass killings of the civilian population in Karelia during the Great Patriotic War.
According to some facts, the court has already said their word. For example, in October last year, the Soletsky District Court recognized the genocide the massacres of civilians by the Nazis in the village of a tin slide of the Leningrad region in 1942 (since 1944 - Novgorod region).
But there is another circumstance. Article 354.1 of the Criminal Code of Russia ("The rehabilitation of Nazism") provides for responsibility as denial of the facts established by the Nuremberg Tribunal, and the approval of crimes committed by the Nazis and for "the distribution of obviously false information about the activities of the USSR during the Second World War", as well as " The spread of expressing express disrespects for information about the Days of Military Glory and commemorative dates of Russia related to the defense of the Fatherland ". And this wording leaves opportunities for its very wide interpretation: from the criticism of Stalin to Soviet policy as a whole - both before and during the war. Tut.BY.