In one of previous thread I was directing attention to the origins of circulating numbers - “2 million raped in Germany” and “110 thousands raped in Berlin” - showing their strange origin.
But in this thread I would like to share with you the result of my humble research (original Russian blog entry link).
This time the focus is different. Hopefully the following information can be useful in bringing light and help understanding what happened in 1945 in Europe during the WWII.
Goal:
Evaluate how Military Tribunals of Soviet Army (MT RKKA) were fighting against the crimes committed by Soviet servicemen against civilian population.
Find share of verdicts for crimes against civilians in total number of verdicts. Show trends of such verdicts for the period 1 half 1945.
Source data:
The reports on private and sergeant ranks by MT of front formations for the period December 1944 to May 1945 (approximate time of entry to the Axis territory is given).
The reports of the following MT were included into this research:
[ul]
[li]3 Belorussian Front : (Eastern Prussia, Poland) ; Eastern Prussia from app. 1 week Jan 1945.
[/li][li]2 Belorussian Front : (Germany, Poland) ; Germany from first week February 1945.
[/li][li]1 Belorussian Front : (Germany, Poland) ; Germany from first week February 1945.
[/li][li]1 Ukrainian Front : (Germany, Czechoslovakia) ; Germany from first week February 1945.
[/li][li]4 Ukrainian Front : (Czechoslovakia, Poland) ;
[/li][li]2 Ukrainian Front : (Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Austria) ;
[/li][li]3 Ukrainian Front : (Romania, Yugoslavia, Hungary, Austria) ;
[/li][li]37 Detached Army : (Bulgaria) ;
[/li][/ul]
Usually, MT sent reports every 10 days or monthly to the “Bureau for Personnel War Losses Registration” and contained among others the column: “Sentenced for what crime, according to which paragraph, and penalty”.
I accounted all the verdicts were crimes were committed by servicemen against civilian population. Such classification is determined primarily by the paragraph of the criminal code used in verdict. the following verdicts were accounted as crimes against civilians (CAC):
[ul]
[li]193-28 (robbery, unlawful destruction of property and violence, as well as the illegal confiscation of property under the pretext of military necessity, committed against the population in the area of military operations - from 3 years to Capital Punishment).
[/li][li]19 (preparation fr a crime) if linked to paragraph 193-28.
[/li][/ul]
Also the verdicts according to different paragraph were included if extra available information allowed for certain positive classification.
F.ex. the following verdicts were included as crimes against civilians:
[ul]
[li]Leonid I. Yakunin, 10.04.45, paragraph 136 part 2, 10 years of labor camp for “killed German family”.
[/li][li]Anton E. Bouhtoyarov, 29.05.1945, paragraph 165 part 3, 3 years of labor camp for “robbery of civilians”
[/li][li]Ivan F. Puchkov, paragraph 136 part 2, Capital Punishment for “rape and murder”
[/li][li]Dmitry I. Kluev, 28.02.1945, paragraph 153 part 2, 7 years of labor camp for “rape of 13 y.o. girl”.
[/li][/ul]
I would like to note, that in the beginning I intended to acount rape and other crimes separately. But during the analysis it appeared not to be possible due to uncertainty. The paragraph 193-28 was very often used in verdicts for rape. But in those cases where the extra information is missing it was not possible to make definitive classification. Therefore all the crimes are marked as CAC (rape, robbery, violence, etc).
This data limitation has nonetheless a positive side, because it yields the lower boundary of the estimated share of verdicts for CAC. I.e. the error lies on one (higher) side of the result.
Result:
Total verdicts of all kinds - 6490 (from 97 MT reports).
Verdicts for CAC - 319.
Share of CAC - at least 4,91%.
Here is the overall result as well as the result per Front formation (see territories involved above):
Per month:
Result per front per month:
Trends for number and share of CAC per front per month:
The figures and trends above show that MT of RKKA were indeed punishing for crimes against civilian population. The share of verdicts for CAC is sizeable and if we recall that the biggest group of verdict is for political charges, then it will be clear that the aforementioned figure of 4,91% should be reconsidered upwards. In my estimation it should be 1,5 to 2 times higher, i.e. app. 10%.
So MT RKKA were sentencing for crimes against civilians . The trends show that it was done steadily despite time and front formation.
But what about the sentences? Here si the result:
The most common sentence is 10 years in labor camp. Capital punishment - 3rd most common.
In app. 1,8% cases the sentence was replaced by active duty on the front line. In reality, IMO, there were more of such cases, but the material available does not allow for further research.
Sentences per month:
Sentences per Front formation:
Per Front formation and per month:
My conclusion:
[ol]
[li]The MT RKKA indeed punished for crimes against civilians in Europe.
[/li][li]The prosecution is systematic (it is not sporadic action) and takes sizeable share of MT work load, i.e. app 5% (or 10% if counting w/o political charges).
[/li][li]It is not so far possible to conclude that there is notable deviation in share of verdicts across occupied territories, i.e. we cannot say that for crime against a German civilian was punishing less than for a crime against other civilians.
[/li][li]The punishments are given according to the appropriate paragraphs of the criminal code.
[/li][/ol]
Future plans include further analysis of the period June - December 1945.
The trend of war and post-war periods seem to be somewhat different, according to my preliminary data.