Предатели или жертвы войны: коллаборационизм в Карелии в годы Второй мировой войны 1939-1945 гг.

SUMMARY

Summing up the results of the research, first of all, it is necessary to note that the scale of collaborationism development in Karelia and Finland during World War 11 was negligiЬle. Only а small number of caught in the Soviet occupation zone Finnish civilians and Finnish prisoners of war cooperated with the Soviet state and military authorities during the Soviet — Finnish (Winter) War (1939–1940). Due to а small number of Finnish civilians and their unwillingness to cooperate with occupation administration the Soviet authorities failed to create а broad base of support of People's Government of Finland headed Ьу Kuusinen from the local population.

The conclusion that collaborationism didn't spread widely between Finns during the Winter War is also verified Ьу the fact that from 2080 of Finish civilians appeared on the territory of the Soviet Karelia after the end of military actions only 150 people decided to stay in the USSR (7,2 %)[504], and others came back to their motherland. For the most part it was people who cooperated with the Soviet state and military authorities and were afraid to Ье punished in Finland. Only а small part of Finns refused to return home Ьу the ideological reasons.

Collaborationism of Soviet civilians and Soviet prisoners of war on the occupied territory of the Soviet Karelia and Finland during the Great Patriotic War also didn't find а wide spread. It was clearly demonstrated in the final stage of military actions in the North when during the Soviet troops' attack in summer of 1944 Finnish military units began to retreat and therefore evacuation of local people also began.

2799 people were evacuated from the occupied Karelian territory to Finland, or only 3,35 % of total population of occupied zone, among them representatives of the related to Fins peoples accounted 2196 people (1422 Karelians, 314 Veps, 214 Finns, 176 Ingrians and 70 others), other peoples — 603 (244 Russians, 259 Ukrainians and 100 others)[505]. There is also data about Petrozavodsk. In the end of June 1944 when Finnish troops left the town only 487 people from 7589 of free civilians came with them[506].

The data shows the number of people moved to Finland was negligiЫe. NotaЬly, 3,35 % of collaborationists includes both people actively cooperated with occupation regime as well as people sympathized to the enemy. The data is significantly lower than those quoted Ьу V. 1. Boyarsky in the book "Partisans and army: the history of lost opportunities" ("Partizany i armiya: istoriya uteryannyh vozmozhnostei") and those the author noted in the introduction: "After several years of occupation 10 % of population can become traitors (3 % — active and 7 % — sympathized to the enemy)"[507]. Thus, we can confidently assert that the scale of collaborationism on the occupied territory of Karelia was significantly lower than in other country's regions that caught in the occupation zone.

lt is primarily explained Ьу the fact that there was no social base for а wide development of collaborationism in the occupied Karelian regions. The background of the base during the Great Patriotic War consists of people offended Ьу the Soviet authority (dispossessed kulaks, people suffered from religion persecutions, people repressed in the period of mass repressions in the second half of 1930s for political and national reasons etc.). Such people appeared to Ье very few in the occupied zone.

Generally evacuation of the population during the first period of the Great Patriotic War in Karelia, that at once became the frontline repuЬlic, succeeded in а very short time. All in all, according to the incomplete data, more than 530 thousands from 700 thousands of people who lived in the repuЬlic before the war were evacuated from the occupied repuЬlic regions. Working people of Karelia moved to the Vologda region, the Arkhangelsk region, the Кirov region, the Sverdlovsk region, the Gorkov region, the Novosiblrsk region, the Chelyablnsk region and others as well as to Komi, Bashkir, Chuvash, Udmurt and Tatar repuЬlics. Part of the population was evacuated to the eastern shore of the Onega Lake — the Pudozh region.

In the process of evacuation People's Commissariat for State Security of the Karelian-Finnish SSR first evacuated prisoners from Vyborg and Petrozavodsk jails as well as prisoners from cages that were part of the White-Sea-Baltic Plant (Belomorsko-Baltic Plant). In the end of 1930s the number of prisoners and special settlers worked for the White-Sea-Baltic Plant accounted for а quarter of all Karelian population[508]. Besides, special settlers (former kulaks) who had been expelled from other parts of the Soviet Union to the special settlements in Karelia in 1930s were also primarily evacuated. At the same time evacuation began even before the beginning of the military actions on the territory of the Karelian-Finnish SSR and entering of Finland in the war against the USSR in favour of Nazi Germany[509]. It can Ье assumed that the Soviet authorities were frightened that not-evacuated "doubtful element which is under consideration" could take the side of the enemy.

All of these actions carried out Ьу People's Commissariat for State Security of the Karelian-Finnish SSR in the beginning of the war were of compulsory nature. However, as it is seen from the further events during the Finnish occupation of Karelia, they significantly reduced the social base of collaborationism development.

The absence of wide development of collaborationism on the occupied Karelian territory became the main argument for the government of the repuЬlic on summer 1944 when the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party considered the issue about the Karelian-Finnish SSR liquidation and removal of Karelians, Veps and Finns to Siberia. The repuЬlic was saved and the tragic consequences of people's deportation managed to Ье avoided[510].

V. I. Boyarsky in the foregoing monograph said that after several years of the occupation 20 % from 90 % of patriots would join the Resistance movement and would actively fight against the enemy. About 70 % would take up passive and waiting position[511]. Examination of the numerous of documentary, and primarily archival sources, which were previously secret and only recently became availaЫe to researches shows that these numbers also generally correspond to Karelia. The majority of population caught in the occupation zone didn't cooperate with occupants, but took up passive position aiming primarily at surviving in the extreme conditions of the war. And it concerned party officials as well as ordinary civilians. So, from July 1944 to Мау 1945 the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Karelian-Finnish SSR repeatedly considered the cases about communists left on the occupied territory. The decisions of the issues emphasized that many of communists in the occupied regions hid or destroyed their party membership cards, worked in their personal farms. They didn't have active position in the struggle against occupants, didn't cooperate with partisans and undergrounders, which worked as elders. Such communists were excluded from the party with formulation "for passing behavior"[512].

Generally the major part of local people in spite of massive nationalistic propaganda remained loyal to their motherland and didn't want to move to alien country especially to one that was on the edge of military defeat. It should Ье taken into consideration that many people of the occupied Ьу Finns regions of Karelia waited for their fathers, husbands, brothers and sons fought in the Red Army.

However for some part of the Soviet population caught in the occupation zone, evacuation to Finland was inevitaЫe: for those who served for Finnish occupation authorities and were afraid of arraignment for treason; women married Finnish men and men gone to related battalions.

The analysis of the documentary materials shows that the national policy of Finnish occupation regime in Karelia in 1941–1944 aimed at division of population Ьу nationality {Finno-Ugrians and Russians) didn't bring expected results — Soviet Karelians, Veps, Finns failed to Ье brought to the Finnish side. Moreover, those who were to liberate from "Russian slavery'; defended independence of their country with arms in their hands along with Russians and other peoples of the Soviet Union.

In the Soviet Union people who collaborated with Finnish occupation regime or fought as а part of Finnish troops against the Red Army and who stayed on the territory of the USSR after the war were regarded as traitors of the Motherland for а long time and were forgotten. For many years there was staЫe negative attitude to the population which unwillingly was caught in the Finnish occupation. The rejection was shown primarily Ьу the Soviet and economic bodies. It is proved Ьу many memories of the people who survived through the occupation. For example, а resident of village Sheltozero Taisiya Maksimova answered to the question "How did Soviet authorities and people who returned from evacuation behave towards you after all?": "The authority didn't say anything but we were so tortured on timber stockpiling! Especially those who were occupied! Sometimes they didn't рау us money, only said something unclear, and we didn't have normal living conditions". In Paisky timber industry enterprise people lived in cold buildings, and one more thing that they did — the card was 600 g (bread), but they took off 200 g. They punished us only for that we were in the occupation. In different ways…"[513].

The situation changed а little after the collapse of the USSR. In present times for а majority of new democratic Russia people who cooperated with the occupational authorities are collaborationists and remain traitors of their nation who took the side of the enemy in the difficult times of their country.

The proЫem of collaborationism in Karelia and Finland during World War II was not availaЫe for scientists for а long time for ideological reasons and only now becomes the object of academic interest of Russian historians. Many issues have to Ье studied: clarification of the exact number of Soviet people collaborated with Finnish occupational authorities during World War ll, determination of the reasons and social base of it. In the analysis of the issue some more points should Ье specified: how adequate were the repressions of the Finnish authorities to the people who cooperated with Soviet state and military bodies during the Winter War and how adequate were the repressions of the Soviet authorities in 1941–1944 to those who were considered as collaborationists: primarily to f ormer prisoners of war and repatriates who lived and worked on the occupied Karelian territory and then removed to Finland.

But nowadays based on the analysis of wide range of documentary material about the cooperation of the local population of Karelia and Finland with the occupational authorities during World War II we can answer the main question raised in the introduction: who were collaborationists — traitors of their countries or victims of the war. From our point of view it is impossiЬle to justify military collaboration. Those of Finnish and Soviet people who took the side of the enemy and fought against their motherland with arms in their hands can Ье reasonaЫy considered as traitors. However there were few ideological fighters among them, most of collaborationists took the side of the enemy saving their lives and lives of their families or under the kourbash.

The behavior of those Soviet and Finnish people who cooperated with the occupational authorities in the sphere of economic and cultural activities during the war time at least can Ье understood if not justified. The majority of them occurred on the occupied territory unwillingly because of the harsh military environment and often due to the fault and sluggishness of their authorities and administration who did not manage to evacuate the population of the first war period in time and in an orderly way. Especially it concerns the issues of the evacuation of civilian Finnish population during the Winter War of 1939–1940 and Soviet people in the first period of the Great Patriotic War. They can reasonaЫy Ье concerned as victims of the war. For many years after the end of the war "the imprint of the occupation and the exile" laid on both of them.