Paul Goble
Staunton, Sept. 19 – Having examined the cases of 14,000 people who were repressed during Stalin’s time and then rehabilitated in the 1990s and early 2000s, Russian prosecutors over the last two years have cancelled those rehabilitation orders because the individuals involved cooperated with the Nazis during World War II, Andrey Ivanov says.
The spokesman for the Procurator General’s office said these people had been found to have worked with the SS or served in occupation administrations or worked in groups that Moscow classified as Banderites, Vlasovites, and other anti-Soviet organizations (kommersant.ru/doc/7166201 and istories.media/news/2024/09/19/za-2-goda-prokuratura-otmenila-reabilitatsiyu-bolee-4-tis-zhertv-politicheskikh-repressii/).
Ivanov told Kommersant that the cancellations have come only after careful and exhaustive examination, but he added that such examinations and cancellations will continue. Indeed, recent Russian government statements suggest they could expand exponentially (windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/09/moscows-plan-to-revisit-rehabilitation.html and windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/2024/09/as-part-of-its-war-against-ukraine.html).
If that happens, this Moscow effort will be unlikely to unite Russians as the Kremlin clearly hopes but rather deepen divisions by reopening old wounds and raising new questions about the vast number of Russians and other Soviet citizens who were wrongly repressed during Soviet times.
That is especially likely because Ivanov did not make clear whether their participation in pro-German anti-Soviet groups was the original reason for their repression or whether they were repressed for other supposed “crimes” and their rehabilitation now is being cancelled because they can be charged with having cooperated with the invader.
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