[RedStar] Recently, the information complex “World War II in Archival Documents”, presented on the portal of the Presidential Library, was supplemented by more than two hundred previously classified documents provided by the FSB of Russia: materials from the 4th Directorate of the NKVD/NKGB of the USSR and the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence “SMERSH” on the results of the actions of sabotage and reconnaissance groups behind enemy lines in the occupied territories of the Ukrainian and Byelorussian SSRs.
Among the documents from which the secrecy classification has been removed, one can see on the electronic portal of the library intelligence reports on the situation in the territory occupied by the enemy, reports of the agent "Colonist" (N.I. Kuznetsov), intelligence information on the training of intelligence officers and saboteurs by the enemy in special schools, reports of the head of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" V.S. Abakumov to the State Defense Committee of the USSR on the atrocities of the Gestapo, the use of gas chambers to destroy the civilian population.
Also in the public domain are now documents of the FSB Directorate of Russia for the Voronezh, Rostov and Novgorod regions, Krasnodar Krai - these are reports of the regional NKGB directorates with intelligence data on the situation in the territory temporarily occupied by the Nazis, on the results of operational-Chekist work in the liberated areas, on Soviet citizens driven to work in Germany, on captured documents of the German army and occupation authorities and other documentary evidence.
Of particular interest are the SMERSH documents on the arrest of German intelligence and counterintelligence agents, in particular on the detention of German agents Tavrin and Shilova, who were sent into the Soviet rear to assassinate I.V. Stalin.
Among the declassified documents of the NKVD/NKGB of the USSR and the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" from 1943-1944, there are also materials dedicated to the activities of Ukrainian nationalist formations (OUN, UPA) and the fight against them, the liquidation of the Baltic nationalist organization "Aizsargi", the arrest of prominent figures of the Estonian nationalist movement.
The head of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR P.A. Sudoplatov informed the 3rd Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR on December 9, 1942: "In the war of Germany against the USSR, the OUN (Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists) as a whole took an active part on the side of Germany. <…>
The OUN's assistance to Germany was expressed in armed uprisings in the rear of Soviet troops during the retreat of the Red Army, espionage and sabotage against the USSR; active participation in the creation of local government bodies and police in the occupied territory of the USSR" (Central Archives of the FSB of Russia. F. 3. Op. 10. D. 387. L. 2).
A number of documents illustrate the attitude of Ukrainian nationalists towards the Polish population. The report of the 4th Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR dated February 16, 1943 recorded: "A group of OUN members (a Bandera movement), hiding in the villages of the Sarny region, carried out a massacre of the Polish population in early February 1943.
In the village of Poroslya, the number of killed and maimed adults and children reaches 150 people" (Central Archives of the FSB of Russia. F. 4. Op. 1. D. 469. L. 126). The report of May 28, 1943 contains information about the complete destruction of the entire population of two Polish villages (Central Archives of the FSB of Russia. F. 4. Op. 1. D. 473. L. 327).
In August 1943, a special report spoke of the murder of about 2,000 Poles in the city of Vladimir-Volynsky by Bandera supporters: “The German garrison, police and Cossacks, numbering up to 600 people, did not take any measures against the reprisals against the Poles, and only after the reprisals did the German command post an announcement calling on Poles to join the gendarmerie to fight the Bandera supporters” (Central Archives of the FSB of Russia. F. 4. Op. 1. D. 477. L. 152).
When a direct clash with the Red Army became inevitable, Banderites began collaborating with the German occupiers
When a direct clash with the Red Army became inevitable, Banderovites went for direct cooperation with the German occupiers. Attached to the message of the Main Directorate of Counterintelligence "SMERSH" to the State Defense Committee of the USSR dated March 31, 1944 was a translation of a secret German order on "the attitude towards members of the national "Ukrainian Insurgent Army", which indicates the existence of an agreement between the UPA leadership and the German command (CA FSB of Russia. F. 14os. Op. 1. D. 8. L. 73-75).
In accordance with the List of instructions for the implementation of the Address of the President of the Russian Federation to the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation dated January 15, 2020, the organizers of the complex of digitized archival documents, film and photo materials "World War II in Archival Documents" are the Federal Archival Agency (Rosarkhiv), the Presidential Property Management Department of the Russian Federation and the Presidential Library.
The materials for posting on the Presidential Library portal are prepared by Rosarchive and the federal state archives with the participation of the Ministry of Defense of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation, the Federal Security Service of the Russian Federation, the Foreign Intelligence Service of the Russian Federation, and the state archives of the Republic of Belarus. The volume of the information complex today is more than 12.7 thousand materials: maps, diagrams, periodicals, photographs, newsreels for the period from January 1933 to December 1944.
Digitized archival documents on the topic "World War II in archival documents" are available from anywhere in the world thanks to the Presidential Library portal. Especially for the foreign audience, the titles and annotations of the documents and the texts of the accompanying articles are also published in English. In addition to archival documents, the complex contains a list of the main Internet projects of the library, databases, thematic electronic publications of documents, virtual tours on the history of World War II, developed by government agencies of the constituent entities of the Russian Federation and various organizations.