DOI: 10.7256/2585-7797.2019.4.30356

Abstract: The article characterizes Soviet prisoners of NKVD/MVD special camps located in East Germany in 1945-1950. On the basis of a relational database created the author analyzes gender, age and nationality of Soviet citizens (special camp prisoners) as well as their distribution according to articles of conviction, sentences and places in the camps on the USSR's territory. The sources are documents of the fund of the special camp department stored in the State Archive of the Russian Federation. First of all, these are the so called echelon lists of convicted prisoners. The main methods of the study are database methods and technologies. They are used to structure the archival information about Soviet special camps prisoners and characterize them. Until now the studies about the history of special camps have somewhat ignored Soviet prisoners who made up a big part of the total number of prisoners since the extensive German historiography mainly have addressed Stalinist repressions against the Germans living in the Soviet zone of Germany occupation. The article concludes that with regard to Soviet prisoners special camps were a place of temporary detention and preservation of labor balance demanded by Gulag economy.

DOI: 10.7256/2454-0609.2019.1.27819

Abstract: The subject of this study is the liquidation process of special camps of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, which operated in the Soviet zone of occupied Germany during the period of 1945 - 1950. Based on a wide range of sources, above all sources from the State Archives of the Russian Federation (GA RF) and the Archives of Foreign Policy of the Russian Federation (AVP RF), the author analyzes the complex of reasons (pertaining to both foreign and domestic policies) that prompted I. V. Stalin to make the decision to gradually release the detainees from the special camps (consisting, for the most part, of interned German citizens). The author gives particular attention to the examination of the features behind the operation of special camps in the period under review. The methodological basis of this study is constituted by the principles of historicism, analysis and synthesis, as well as the historical-genetic method, which allowed the author to consistently analyze the stages of the camp network closure within the context of the Soviet policy towards Germany. The article demonstrates how the need for the dissolution of special camps, due to their inefficiency and the high costs of their operation, gradually saturated at the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the USSR, as well as presents an analysis of this process' ties with Stalin's policies in East Germany. The article substantiates the idea that the easing of the repressive policies in East Germany was directly linked to the creation of the German Democratic Republic and Stalin’s desire to consolidate as wide a range of citizens as possible around the ruling party (SED - Socialist Unity Party of Germany) to further Sovietize the country.