360 years ago, on April 6, 1654, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich signed a letter of grant to Hetman Bogdan Khmelnytsky. The charter meant the actual annexation of part of the Western Russian lands (Little Russia) to Russia, limiting the independence of the hetman's power. In the document, for the first time, the words “autocrat of all Great and Little Russia” were used as the title of the Russian sovereign. This charter and the Pereyaslav Rada itself became the prerequisites for the long Russian-Polish war (1654-1667).

It all started with the uprising of the Western Russian population under the leadership of Bogdan Khmelnitsky. A huge part of the Russian land was captured by Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, which united and created the state of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The Russian and Orthodox population was under severe ideological (religious), national and economic oppression. This constantly led to violent uprisings and riots, when the population, driven to extremes, responded to the oppression of the Poles and Jews (they carried out much of the economic exploitation of the local population) with wholesale massacres. Polish troops responded by “cleansing” entire regions, destroying Russian villages and terrorizing the survivors.

As a result, the Polish “elite” was never able to integrate the Western Russian regions into the common Slavic empire, or create an imperial project that would satisfy all groups of the population. This ultimately ruined the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth (). Throughout the first half of the 17th century, uprisings raged in Little Russia. The most active (passionate) group were the Cossacks, who became the instigators and the fighting core of the rebellious masses.

The reason for the new uprising was the conflict between the Chigirin centurion Bogdan Khmelnitsky and the Chigirin sub-elder Danil (Daniel) Chaplinsky. Shlyakhtich seized the centurion's property and kidnapped Khmelnitsky's mistress. In addition, Chaplinsky ordered his 10-year-old son Bogdan to be whipped, after which he fell ill and died. Bogdan tried to get justice in a local court. However, Polish judges considered that Khmelnitsky did not have the necessary documents for Subotov’s ownership. Moreover, he was not properly married; the kidnapped woman was not his wife. Khmelnitsky tried to sort things out with Chaplinsky personally. But as an “inciter” he was thrown into the Starostin prison, from which his comrades freed him. Bogdan, not finding justice in the local authorities, at the beginning of 1646 went to Warsaw to complain to King Władysław. Bogdan knew the Polish king from earlier times, but his appeal was unsuccessful. No documents have been preserved about the content of their conversation. But according to a rather plausible legend, the elderly king explained to Bogdan that he could not do anything (the central government in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth was extremely weak) and finally said: “Don’t you have a saber?” According to another version, the king even gave Bogdan a saber. In the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, most disputes among the gentry ended in a duel.

Bogdan went to Sich - and away we go. Quite quickly, a detachment of hunters (as volunteers were called) gathered around the offended centurion to settle scores with the Poles. All of Little Rus' then resembled a bundle of dry firewood, and even soaked in flammable substances. A spark was enough to start a powerful fire. Bogdan became this spark. In addition, he showed good management abilities. People followed the successful leader. And the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth found itself in a state of “kinglessness.” This predetermined the outcome of the scale of the uprising, which instantly grew into a liberation and peasant war.

However, the Cossacks, although they entered into alliances with the Crimean Tatars, who, taking advantage of the moment, hijacked entire villages and regions, clearly did not have enough strength to cope with the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and achieve what they wanted (initially they wanted to achieve maximum independence and benefits within a single states). The lord's arrogance did not give Warsaw the opportunity to find a compromise with the Cossack foreman. Realizing that Warsaw would not make concessions, Bogdan Khmelnitsky was forced to look for an alternative. The Cossacks could become vassals of the Ottoman Empire, receiving a status like the Crimean Khanate, or submit to Moscow.

Since the 1620s, the Little Russian elders and clergy have repeatedly asked Moscow to accept them as their citizenship. However, the first Romanovs more than once rejected such proposals. Tsars Michael and then Alexei politely refused. At best, they hinted that the time had not yet come. Moscow was well aware that such a step would cause a war with Poland, which then, despite all its troubles, was a powerful power. Russia was still recovering from the consequences of the long and bloody Time of Troubles. The desire to avoid war with Poland was the main reason for Moscow’s refusal to interfere in any way in events on the territory of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. In 1632-1634. Russia tried to recapture Smolensk, but the war ended in failure.

But in the fall of 1653, Moscow decided to go to war. The Khmelnitsky uprising took on the character of a national liberation war. Poland suffered a series of heavy defeats. In addition, significant military transformations (regular army regiments were created) and preparations were carried out in Russia. Domestic industry was ready to supply the army with everything necessary. In addition, large purchases were carried out abroad, in Holland and Sweden. Military specialists were also discharged from abroad, strengthening personnel. In order to eliminate parochial disputes (on the topic “who is more important”) in the army, and they more than once led the Russian troops to defeat, on October 23, 1653, the tsar in the Assumption Cathedral of the Kremlin announced: “Governors and military men of all ranks should be in the current service without places..." In general, the moment was successful in order to liberate the Western Russian lands from the Poles. In January 1654, the Pereyaslav Rada took place.

For Bogdan's troops the situation was difficult. In March-April 1654, the Polish army occupied Lyubar, Chudnov, Kostelnya and were “exiled” to Uman. The Poles burned out 20 cities, many people were killed and captured. Then the Poles retreated to Kamenets.

Banner of the Great Sovereign Regiment of 1654

War

Campaign of 1654. The first to set out on the campaign were the siege artillery (“outfit”) under the command of the boyar Dolmatov-Karpov. On February 27, 1654, guns and mortars moved along the “winter route.” On April 26, the main forces of the Russian army set out from Moscow under the command of Prince Alexei Trubetskoy. On May 18, the Tsar himself came out with the rearguard. Alexey Mikhailovich was still young and wanted to gain military glory.

On May 26, the tsar arrived in Mozhaisk, from where two days later he set out towards Smolensk. The beginning of the war was successful for the Russian troops. The Poles did not have significant forces on the eastern border. Many troops were diverted to fight the Cossacks and rebel peasants. In addition, the Russian population did not want to fight with their brothers; often the townspeople simply surrendered the cities.

On June 4, Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich received news of the surrender of Dorogobuzh to Russian troops. The Polish garrison fled to Smolensk, and the townspeople opened the gates. On June 11, Nevel was also surrendered. On June 14, news arrived about the surrender of Belaya. On June 26, the first skirmish of the Advanced Regiment with the Poles took place near Smolensk. On June 28, the tsar himself was near Smolensk. The next day the news came about the surrender of Polotsk, and on July 2 - about the surrender of Roslavl. On July 20, news was received of the capture of Mstislavl, and on July 24 - of the capture of the small fortresses of Disna and Druya ​​by the troops of Matvey Sheremetev.

On August 2, Russian troops occupied Orsha. The army of the Lithuanian hetman Janusz Radziwill left the city without a fight. On August 12, in the battle of Shklov, Russian troops under the command of Prince Yuri Baryatinsky forced the army of Hetman Radziwill to retreat. On August 24, Russian troops under Trubetskoy defeated the army of Hetman Radziwill in the Battle of the Oslik River (Battle of Borisov). The Russian army stopped the attack of the Lithuanian troops, and the attack of the “winged” hussars did not help either. Russian infantry, built in three lines, began to press back the army of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania. At the same time, the cavalry of the left flank under the command of Prince Semyon Pozharsky made a roundabout maneuver, entering from the flank. The Lithuanian troops began to panic and ran. Radziwill himself, wounded, barely escaped with several people. Poles, Lithuanians and Western mercenaries (Hungarians, Germans) were smashed to smithereens. About 1 thousand people were killed. About 300 more people were taken prisoner, including 12 colonels. They captured the hetman's banner, other banners and signs, as well as artillery.

Almost simultaneously Gomel was captured. A few days later Mogilev surrendered. On August 29, the Cossack detachment of Ivan Zolotarenko took Chechersk, Novy Bykhov and Propoisk. On August 31, Shklov surrendered. On September 1, the tsar received news of the enemy’s surrender of Usvyat. Of all the Dnieper fortresses, only Old Bykhov remained under the control of the Polish-Lithuanian troops. The Cossacks besieged it from the end of August to November 1654, and were never able to take it.

Tsar Alexei Mikhailovich, planning to annex to the Russian kingdom not only Smolensk, lost during the Time of Troubles, but also other Western Russian lands captured in the 14th - 15th centuries. Lithuania and Poland, took measures to gain a permanent foothold in the lands recaptured from the Poles. The sovereign demanded that the governors and Cossacks not offend new subjects, “who are of the Orthodox Christian faith, who will not learn to fight,” and it was forbidden to take and ruin them. The Orthodox gentry from Polotsk and other cities and lands were offered a choice: to enter the Russian service and go to the Tsar for a salary, or to leave freely for Poland. Quite significant contingents of volunteers joined the Russian troops.

In a number of cities, like Mogilev, residents retained their previous rights and benefits. Thus, townspeople could live under Magdeburg law, wear the same clothes, and not go to war. They were forbidden to be evicted to other cities, city courtyards were freed from military quarters, Poles (Poles) and Jews (Jews) were forbidden to live in the city, etc. In addition, Cossacks could not live in the city, they could visit the city only by service.

It must be said that many local townspeople and peasants had a wary attitude towards the Cossacks. They were self-willed and often plundered cities and settlements. They treated the local population as enemies. So, the Cossacks of Zolotarenko not only robbed the peasants, but also began to take quitrents in their favor.

Russian archers of the 17th century

Soon besieged Smolensk also fell. On August 16, Russian commanders, wanting to distinguish themselves in the presence of the Tsar, staged a premature, poorly prepared assault. The Poles repelled the attack. However, this was where the successes of the Polish garrison ended. The Polish command was unable to organize the townspeople to defend the city. The gentry refused to obey, did not want to go to the walls. The Cossacks almost killed the royal engineer, who tried to drive them out to work, and deserted in droves. The townspeople did not want to participate in the defense of the city, etc. As a result, the leaders of the defense of Smolensk, Voivode Obukhovich and Colonel Korf, began negotiations on the surrender of the city on September 10. However, the population did not want to wait and opened the gates themselves. The townspeople flocked to the king. On September 23, Smolensk became Russian again. The Polish command was allowed to return to Poland. The gentry and townspeople received the right to choose: stay in Smolensk and swear allegiance to the Russian Tsar or leave.

On the occasion of the surrender of Smolensk, the tsar arranged a feast with the governors and heads of hundreds, and the Smolensk gentry were allowed to the tsar’s table. After this, the king left the army. Meanwhile, the Russian army continued its offensive. On November 22 (December 2), the army under the command of Vasily Sheremetev took Vitebsk after a three-month siege.

1655 Campaign

The campaign began with a series of minor setbacks for Russian troops, which were unable to change the strategic situation in Poland's favor. At the end of 1654, a counter-offensive of 30 thousand began. army of the Lithuanian hetman Radziwill. He besieged Mogilev. Residents of Orsha went over to the side of the Polish king. Residents of the town of Ozerishche rebelled, part of the Russian garrison was killed, and another was captured.

Radziwill was able to occupy the suburbs of Mogilev, but the Russian garrison and townspeople (about 6 thousand people) held out in the inner fortress. On February 2 (12), Russian troops made a successful sortie. The attack was so unexpected for the Lithuanian army that Radziwill's troops retreated several miles from the city. This allowed the regiment of Hermann Fanstaden (about 1,500 soldiers), who came from Shklov, to enter the city and capture several dozen convoys with supplies.

On February 6 (16), Radziwill, without waiting for all forces to arrive, began an assault on the city. He hoped for a quick victory, since Colonel Konstantin Poklonsky (a Mogilev nobleman who swore allegiance to the Russian Tsar with his regiment at the beginning of the war) promised to surrender the city. However, most of Poklonsky’s regiment remained faithful to the oath and did not follow the traitor. As a result, instead of a swift capture, there was a bloody battle. Heavy street fighting continued throughout the day. The Poles were able to capture part of the city, but the fortress survived.

On February 18, the Poles again launched an assault, but it was repelled. Then the great hetman began a siege, ordered to dig tunnels and lay mines. Three more assaults followed on March 8, April 9 and 13, but Russian troops and townspeople repelled them. The assault, which took place on the night of April 9, was particularly unsuccessful. The defenders of the fortress blew up three tunnels, the fourth collapsed on its own and crushed many Poles. At the same time, the Russians made a sortie and beat many Poles, who were confused by such a start to the assault.

At this time, a detachment of Cossacks moved forward to help Mogilev along with the forces of governor Mikhail Dmitriev. Radziwill did not wait for the approach of Russian troops and on May 1 he “walked away in shame” for the Berezina. When leaving, the hetman took many townspeople with him. However, the Cossacks were able to defeat part of Radziwill’s army and recaptured 2 thousand people. As a result of the siege, the city suffered greatly, up to 14 thousand citizens and residents of surrounding villages died from lack of water and food. However, the heroic defense of Mogilev was of great strategic importance. The Polish-Lithuanian forces were tied up by a siege for a significant time and refused serious action in other directions. The hetman's army suffered heavy losses and was demoralized, which overall had a very negative impact on the conduct of the 1655 campaign by the Polish army.

To be continued…

Maxim Khrustalev

Master plan "Ost"

“We must kill from 3 to 4 million Russians a year...”

From A. Hitler’s directive to A. Rosenberg on the implementation of the Ost General Plan (July 23, 1942):

“The Slavs must work for us, and if we no longer need them, let them die. and health care are unnecessary for them. Slavic fertility is undesirable... education is dangerous. It is enough if they can count to one hundred... Every educated person is our future enemy. All sentimental objections should be abandoned. We must rule this people with iron determination... Military speaking, we must kill three to four million Russians a year.”

Many have probably heard about the “General Plan Ost”, according to which Nazi Germany was going to “develop” the lands it had conquered in the East. However, this document was kept secret by the top leadership, and many of its components and annexes were destroyed at the end of the war. And only now, in December 2009, this ominous document was finally published. Only a six-page excerpt from this plan appeared at the Nuremberg trials. It is known in the historical and scientific community as “Comments and proposals of the Eastern Ministry on the “General Plan ‘Ost’.”

As was established at the Nuremberg trials, these “comments and proposals” were drawn up on April 27, 1942 by E. Wetzel, an employee of the Ministry of Eastern Territories, after familiarizing himself with the draft plan prepared by the RSHA. As a matter of fact, it was on this document that until very recently all research on Nazi plans for the enslavement of the “eastern territories” was based.

On the other hand, some revisionists could argue that this document was just a draft drawn up by a minor official in one of the ministries, and it had nothing to do with real politics. However, at the end of the 80s, the final text of the Ost plan, approved by Hitler, was found in the federal archives, and individual documents from there were presented at an exhibition in 1991. However, it was only in November-December 2009 that the “General Plan “Ost” - the foundations of the legal, economic and territorial structure of the East” was fully digitized and published. This is reported on the website of the Historical Memory Foundation.

As a matter of fact, the German government’s plan to “free up living space” for Germans and other “Germanic peoples,” which included the “Germanization” of Eastern Europe and mass ethnic cleansing of the local population, did not arise spontaneously, nor out of nowhere. The German scientific community began to make the first developments in this direction even under Kaiser Wilhelm II, when no one had heard of National Socialism, and he himself was just a skinny rural boy. As a group of German historians (Isabelle Heinemann, Willy Oberkrome, Sabine Schleiermacher, Patrick Wagner) clarifies in the study “Science, planning, expulsion: the “Ost” General Plan of the National Socialists”:

“Since 1900, racial anthropology and eugenics, or racial hygiene, can be spoken of as a specific direction in the development of science at the national and international levels. Under National Socialism, these achieved the position of leading disciplines that supplied the regime with methods and principles to justify racial policies. There was no precise and uniform definition of "race". Conducted racial studies raised the question of the relationship between “race” and “living space”.

At the same time, “the political culture of Germany already in the Kaiser’s empire was open to thinking in nationalist concepts. The rapid dynamics of modernization at the beginning of the twentieth century. greatly changed the way of life, daily habits and values ​​and raised concerns about the “degeneration” of the “German essence”. “Salvation” from this irritating experience of a turning point lay, it seemed, in a re-awareness of the “eternal” values ​​of the peasant “nationality.” However, the way in which German society intended to return to these “eternal peasant values” was chosen in a very peculiar way - the seizure of land from other peoples, mainly to the East of Germany.

Fourth – Russia to the Urals.

The fifth governorate was to be Turkestan.

However, this plan seemed “half-hearted” to Hitler, and he demanded more radical solutions. In the context of German military successes, it was replaced by the “General Plan Ost”, which generally suited Hitler. According to this plan, the Nazis wanted to resettle 10 million Germans to the “eastern lands”, and from there deport 30 million people to Siberia, and not only Russians. Many of those who glorify Hitler's collaborators as freedom fighters would also be subject to deportation if Hitler had won. It was planned to evict beyond the Urals 85% of Lithuanians, 75% of Belarusians, 65% of Western Ukrainians, 75% of residents of the rest of Ukraine, 50% of Latvians and Estonians each.

By the way, about the Crimean Tatars, about whom our liberal intelligentsia loved to lament so much, and whose leaders continue to pump up their rights to this day. In the event of victory, which most of their ancestors served so faithfully, they would still have to be deported from Crimea. Crimea was to become a “purely Aryan” territory called Gotengau. The Fuhrer wanted to resettle his beloved Tyroleans there.

The plans of Hitler and his associates, as is well known, thanks to the courage and colossal sacrifices of the Soviet people, failed. However, it is worth reading the following paragraphs of the above-mentioned “comments” to the Ost plan - and see that some of its “creative heritage” continues to be implemented, moreover, without any participation of the Nazis.

“In order to avoid an increase in population that is undesirable for us in the eastern regions... we must consciously pursue a policy to reduce the population. By means of propaganda, especially through the press, radio, cinema, leaflets, short brochures, reports, etc., we must constantly instill in the population the idea that it is harmful to have many children. It is necessary to show how much money it costs, and what could be purchased with these funds. It is necessary to talk about the great danger to a woman’s health that she is exposed to when giving birth to children, etc. Along with this, the broadest propaganda of contraceptives must be launched. It is necessary to establish widespread production of these products. The distribution of these drugs and abortions should not be restricted in any way. Every effort should be made to expand the network of abortion clinics... The better the quality of abortions performed, the more confidence the population will have in them. It is clear that doctors must also be authorized to perform abortions. And this should not be considered a violation of medical ethics..."

It is very reminiscent of what began to happen in our country with the beginning of “market reforms”.

Source – “Advisor” – a guide to good books.

“General Plan Ost” belongs to history – the history of the forced relocation of individuals and entire nations. This story is as old as the history of humanity itself. But Plan Ost opened up a new dimension of fear. It represented a carefully planned genocide of races and peoples, and this in the industrialized era of the mid-20th century! We are not talking here about the struggle for pastures and hunting grounds, for livestock and women, as in ancient times. We are talking here not about the genocide of the Spaniards against the indigenous inhabitants of Central and South America, and not about the extermination of Indians in North America, as in later centuries - during early capitalism and colonialism. In the "General Plan Ost", under the cover of a misanthropic, atavistic racial ideology, it was about profit for big capital, about fertile lands for large landowners, wealthy peasants and generals, and about profit for countless petty criminals and hangers-on.

The most important interests of the regime and the ruling elite, which came together in the "General Plan Ost", mainly include the following:

– political and military “security” of the captured and in the distant future through “eviction”, including mass destruction, and “Germanization of the soil”, i.e. “forced assimilation” (Umvolkung);

– social-imperialist interest in firmly consolidating one’s own social base (a mass base) through “settlements”, i.e. through the creation of vast, regime-dependent, economically strong layers of German peasants and large landowners, and also through the unification of the German urban middle strata;

- expansion of large capital, aimed at the exploitation of raw materials (oil, ore, metals, cotton and other agricultural raw materials), to huge markets for consumer goods, to expand investment opportunities and capital export markets (including the military industry (weapons and military equipment ), military construction, airfields, “strong points” and “German” settlements, peasant households and estates, industrial and transport buildings of all types) and obtaining cheap labor;

– interest in unlimited sources of food for the “gentlemen” for an unlimited period.

Actually, the background of the “General Plan Ost” is as truly German in nature as it is imperialist and dates back to the First World War and even earlier. The Pan-German League provided for in its “Memorandum on the Objectives of War” of September 1914 “the widespread expulsion of the population and the settlement by the German peasantry” of the territories of Russian Poland and Russia. The German business unions demanded the same thing: “Ensuring the growth of our population, and thereby our military strength.” The so-called Professorial Memorandum of 1347 intellectuals and industrialists dated July 8, 1915, which unvarnishedly spoke of the truly “German spirit” and the “influx of barbarians from Eastern Europe,” was also frightening. However, pan-Germanists already in 1911 (the Moroccan crisis) demanded in the western direction “a final settlement of accounts with France”: the transfer of rights to Germany in the territories up to the canal zone (the mouth of the Somme) and the Mediterranean Sea (Toulon), which must be “liberated from people” . The industrialist of the Saar region, Hermann Rochling, later a confidant of Hitler, at the beginning of the 1914 war proposed: “In the ore basin (in Lorraine - YES.) today there are practically only Italians, Alsace-Lorraineers and Poles living - people who should be ousted by the Germans. ... For this purpose I would be here if this ... needs to be accomplished.”

So, if some of the basic ideas of the “General Plan Ost” were thought out and expressed already during the First World War and even earlier, yet in its “mature” version the various reactionary tendencies of capitalism and imperialism were combined in a new way. Here they first united with barbaric racism and anti-Semitism, with the officially declared goal of genocide, the destruction of entire races and peoples. To put it as succinctly as possible, we can call it a radically racist, genocidal version of the imperialist German expansion to the East. The close connection between General Plan Ost and the Holocaust is noteworthy. Including the racist intent to exterminate tens of millions of Slavs, General Plan Ost was also the main experimental space for the murder of Jews throughout Europe, and indeed the world, and was intended to provide territory for an unlimited number of ghettos and death camps. In contrast to the Holocaust, the General Plan Ost envisaged a broad imperialist program of plunder and expansion.

As always, eastern expansion was externally justified either by the “Bolshevik threat”, “the flood caused by the storm in Asia” (Heydrich), or the “need for expansion of space” for the Germans - the deadly ideology of the planners was clear and quite openly discussed in internal circles: that what we need we can only get through violence and war. We will only get a new “German people’s soil” if we “destroy” those who occupy it. One of the participants in the Nuremberg trials testified that Himmler already at the beginning of 1941 explained to his twelve SS group leaders that the extermination of 30 million Slavs was “the goal of the campaign against Russia.” The same witness confirmed to the Soviet prosecutor "that the fight against the partisan movement was a pretext for the extermination of the Slavic and Jewish population." By the beginning of the Eastern Campaign, Hitler had already given instructions that the occupied areas “as quickly as possible” should be calmed “... best of all, by shooting everyone who looks askance.” The double meaning of the slogan about “blood and soil” was to be taken literally: the owners (of the captured lands) were subject to destruction, and since they would hardly submit voluntarily, the German “blood march” (Hitler) was inevitable. "Securing" the captured (Hitler's favorite expression) would also cost the constant use of violence and blood.

"General Plan Ost" in action

There are early attempts by historians to dismiss the "General Plan Ost" as a chimera, a "daydream", the systematized delirium of a monomaniac, as just a project that had meaning only in the imagination of Hitler, Himmler, Heydrich and the SS and had no practical implementation. Even then, their biased attitude was clear; today, thanks to research, this view is completely outdated. In the meantime, it has been established that the “General Plan Ost” gave work to hundreds, even thousands of criminals: politicians, SS ranks, officers and soldiers, bureaucrats, scientists and ordinary murderers; that it led to the expulsion and death of hundreds of thousands, even millions of Jews, Poles, Czechs, Russians and Ukrainians.

Hitler, with his decree of October 7, 1939, “On the Strengthening of the German Nation,” entrusted Heinrich Himmler, the “Reichsführer of the SS” and head of the German police, with all powers to implement the plan. Himmler immediately awarded himself the title of “Reichskommissar” and henceforth was considered the chief of “general planning” for the “space of Eastern Europe,” which immediately provided jobs for SS employees and additionally created special institutions.

The "General Plan Ost" was not a separate document, but consisted of a number of successive plans (1939 - 1943), which continued to be created step by step as they moved to the East, in step with the German conquests. Today we include under this concept not only the plans created by Himmler’s services, but also, in a broad sense, documents created in a similar spirit by rival Nazi institutions - the DAF (German Labor Front), land management and territorial planning authorities - and not least Wehrmacht institutions, about which little is still known.

The first documents of the plan, dating back to the end of 1939 - beginning of 1940, concerned defeated Poland, primarily its western regions, which were immediately annexed (Wartegau, Danzig - West Prussia, eastern Upper Silesia). The first victims were Jews and most of the Poles living in the annexed areas. All Jews without exception, and this is 560 thousand people, according to SS reports, were “evacuated”, which means that they were transported across the border to the General Government, some also “temporarily” only as far as the city of Lodz, where they were jammed into ghettos and camps and later, like most of the Jewish population of the General Government, were tortured to death in death camps. 50 percent of Poles (3.4 million) were to be immediately "expelled" to the General Government to make room for German peasants and townspeople.

The General Government was a special case. At first, it was exempt from expulsion and resettlement activities, since, by order of the “Fuhrer,” it served as a springboard for an attack on the USSR, as well as a reservoir of labor. In 1942–1943 Himmler began the inhumane “relocations” and expulsions of tens of thousands of peasants from 300 villages in the Lublin region (Zamosc district) and resettling them with “ethnic Germans”. After the Warsaw Uprising of 1944, Warsaw was declared a dead city and from 500 to 600 thousand residents of Warsaw were forcibly removed - some to concentration camps, and some for forced labor in Germany. But initially it was planned to make all of Poland a German land.

What happened in the annexed areas was, as a rule, the expropriation of Jews and Poles, their expulsion from peasant households, and expulsion from cities and districts. But what did not happen throughout the war was the resettlement of Germans from Germany, from neighboring lands and from other countries for colonization and management in the “liberated” territories. According to the “General Resettlement Plan” of 1943, a total of 15.7 million such “settlers” were supposed to populate the “space of Eastern Europe” (including the annexed regions, the “protectorate” and the Baltic states) in the first 25–30 years after the war. There are hardly one million people, whom during the war they managed to scrape together with all sorts of promises throughout Europe (Banat, Crimea, Alsace, South Tyrol, etc.), and, if they left their collection camps at all, then only for a short time time. More needs to be said about these people with the strange status of being both criminals and victims.

Even before September 1, 1939, there was a country in Eastern Europe that became one of the first victims of German violence - Czechoslovakia. Already in 1938, all Czechs were expelled from the annexed Sudetenland regions. For the "Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia" there were at first only vague plans for the future, something similar to the "layering" on the local population of "leadership layers, layers of artisans and free small landowners" from among the German people as "lords" over the "slow and industrious peoples of landless peasants "(K.F. Muller, 1940). Heydrich spoke quite openly after taking office as “Reich Protector” in the fall of 1941 about subsequent Germanization. But differently than in Poland and the USSR, this “hidden” Germanization remained in the protectorate. As elsewhere, Jews, communists and other opponents of the occupiers were persecuted, forcibly removed and sooner or later killed. In addition, quite extensive studies of Czech peasants were carried out for “racial purity”, but without mass expropriations and evictions, only the settlement (of the territory) of several thousand “ethnic Germans”, which was considered as a “condition for Germanization”. The Protectorate was heavily industrialized, it had a particularly developed military industry, and therefore this territory was and remained the most important military workshop of the Nazi Reich. There is no doubt that after the war this territory was to become German soil. Hitler announced in a narrow circle his firm intention “to evict all elements that do not represent racial value from Czech territory and move them to the East. Some Czechs, they say, are very diligent, and if they are dispersed during resettlement throughout the occupied eastern territories, perhaps they will make good guards.”

The main time for the creators of the “General Plan” came with the attack on the USSR. Back in 1941, a large number of developments were released, which then arose as a result of competition between the Main Office of Reich Security and Himmler's headquarters service as “Reich Commissioner for Strengthening the Spirit of the German Nation.” On May 28, 1942, Himmler received a memo “General Plan Ost. Legal, economic and territorial foundations of eastern construction” from professor at the University of Berlin and high SS leader Konrad Meyer (Meyer-Hetling). He provided for the murder, starvation and expulsion of 30 - 40 million Slavs and other “subhumans” - Poles, Jews, Russians, Belarusians, Ukrainians, Gypsies and, of course, “Bolsheviks” of any origin and nationality. This was to be followed by German colonization of vast areas of land from Leningrad to Ukraine, Crimea, Donetsk and Kuban regions, to the Volga and Caucasus; I also dreamed of the Urals and Lake Baikal.

The cost of these crimes in a short time is in the millions. This should also include about three million Soviet prisoners of war, whom the Wehrmacht left to die of hunger and cold in camps in 1941-42; then 500-600 thousand residents of Warsaw, who in the late autumn of 1944 after the Warsaw Uprising were herded into concentration camps or forced labor. In forced labor in Germany and elsewhere, many tens of thousands died from starvation, exhaustion and cruel treatment.

Another barbaric version of the “General Plan Ost” is, in fact, a hunt for children “capable of Germanization”, who were “caught” throughout the war in the occupied eastern territories, as well as in the “Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia”, studied for their “racial purity” was placed in camps and shelters and taken to Germany (according to Polish data, from 150 to 200 thousand Polish children alone). There they were finally “Germanized” and Naziified in the shelters of the Lebensborn (“Source of Life”) program, and then given to Nazi families. But they also often worked in the military industry and maintained anti-aircraft guns. Even in 1944, SS combat groups were looking for children in Russia “capable of Germanization” who, after the bloody massacres of the SS, were left without a home and without parents.

Officials and doctors involved in population planning saw especially in Poland a suitable experimental field for carrying out sterilizations, forced abortions, and other “political-demographic” measures on a large scale, regardless of basic health care standards. Further, Karl Heinz Roth drew attention to the fact that the idea of ​​​​the "General Plan Ost" was transferred to the German Germans: terrorist measures and death sentences for sexual contacts between Germans and forced laborers from Eastern Europe against pregnant women from among workers engaged in forced labor, and, subsequently, the murder of tuberculosis patients. Most workers who became pregnant had a choice only between forced termination of pregnancy and hell in the camp's maternity barracks. Newborns who survived sooner or later died in notorious “baby care settings.”

The victims of the “General Plan Ost” policy in a broader sense were also many millions of Czech, Polish and Soviet people who lived in their homeland (in the occupied territories) under conditions of constant racist discrimination, the threat of expulsion and death, and in conditions of a ban on engaging in professional activities and forced to do hard work, confiscation of property, and at the same time they were often forced to eke out a miserable existence, especially in cities that were under a “siege situation” (Hans Frank).

Victims and criminals

At the end of 1942, the Reich SS Commissioner for the “strengthening of the German nation” reported 629 thousand migrants from among ethnic Germans (“Volksdeutsche”), who were brought from the Baltic states, Belarus, Romania, Yugoslavia and South Tyrol. It was reported that another 400 thousand Volksdeutsche were on the way from South Tyrol and Ukraine. This means that in the midst of a life-or-death war, a migration of peoples was staged, a million people were moved here and there, most of them against their own will. They left property and valuables worth 4.5 billion Reichsmarks and carried with them 700 thousand pieces of luggage, so it was not always even one piece of luggage per person. They needed 1,500 buildings and barracks, 135 ships and barges, 14,200 railroad cars, and thousands of trucks and horse-drawn carts to transport their belongings.

According to the master plan, the specified 15.7 million settlers were to be gathered from all over the world, including from overseas. The Nazi leadership promised war veterans of German nationality, especially “disabled war veterans,” after the war, land ownership and peasant households in the east. Hitler's generals, ministers and holders of the Knight's Cross, already starting from the victory over Poland, were busy with land ownership and often received generous “subsidies” from the hands of the “Fuhrer”. Heinrich von Einsiedel, then a young air officer, reports a similar kind of victorious sentiment among the officers. Hopes for similar trophies also spread among the rank and file. Heinrich Böll, then a soldier on the Eastern Front, observed this himself. Prince Zain-Wittgenstein asked his bank, the Deutsche Bank, for help in “returning” his “Russian estates” amounting to 300 thousand morgens or more. However, in the end, during a large-scale retreat, this went so far that the SS began to calculate how many people could be recruited from bombed German cities after they had lost their homes and property for resettlement in the eastern regions.

According to statistics from Himmler’s headquarters, compiled at the end of 1942, out of 629 thousand migrants, 445 thousand took root in the new settlement. Of these, in particular:

It still remains rather vague and little researched what kind of work the Wehrmacht performed during these “you-” and “relocations”.

Of course, such figures must be viewed with caution. We are talking about a report on the successful completion of the task of the huge bureaucratic apparatus of the SS, and in this document, on the one hand, the terrible accompanying circumstances for the evicted and resettled people were completely hushed up, and on the other, the figures were rather inflated than underestimated.

Here it would be necessary to check the data, if they exist at all, about the evacuation of similar populated areas during later Wehrmacht retreats. So, during the retreat from southern Ukraine in the fall of 1943, about 100 thousand settlers had to flee with convoys or by rail (!), who had to abandon almost all of “their” property, except for livestock. From where they were resettled - to the Zhitomir region, the Volyn-Podolsk region and further to the west - they finally fled in 1944.

The fate of hundreds of thousands of Germans, “Volksdeutsche” and “Germanic” settlers has not yet been thoroughly investigated. Mobilized by unscrupulous promises of fertile peasant lands, fishing grounds and a “lordly” existence, sometimes by persuasion, pressure and force, they were moved like chess pieces across the geographical map of Europe. For many years, transporting them from camp to camp, sooner or later settling them, they were finally carried away into the unknown by the retreating Wehrmacht divisions.

There are no more detailed answers to most questions. What was the ratio in recruitment between those who simply obeyed orders and volunteers? What were the main motives for leaving your former homeland? Did you resist this? Where and for how long were the flows of migrants taken, how did the main organization of “resettlement” function? How long did the life of the displaced people in the camps last and what did it look like? How did their political views and mentality develop under the influence of National Socialist propaganda and real living conditions? How did the resettlement of the participating groups of peoples, individual settlers and entire families end with the end of the war and in the post-war period? So many questions and so few answers.

Let's take a final look at the true culprits, the criminal executors of this plan. It must be said that the murderers themselves, who brought death and fires to the occupied territories as part of the SS task forces, in countless units of the Wehrmacht and in key positions of the occupation bureaucracy, only in a small part were punished for their deeds. Tens of thousands of them “dissolved” and could some time later, after the war, lead a “normal” lifestyle in West Germany or elsewhere, for the most part avoiding persecution or at least censure.

I would like to cite just one particularly important and particularly famous example, that of the leading SS scientist and expert Himmler, who developed the most important versions of the Ost General Plan. He stood out among those dozens, even hundreds of scientists - Earth researchers of various specializations, specialists in territorial and demographic planners, racial ideologists and eugenics specialists, ethnologists and anthropologists, biologists and doctors, economists and historians - who supplied data to the killers of entire nations for their bloody work. It was precisely this “General Plan Ost” of May 28, 1942 that was one of the high-quality products of such killers at their desks. It was indeed, as Miroslav Karni, a deceased Czech historian and friend of mine, wrote, a plan “in which the scholarship, advanced technical methods of scientific work, ingenuity and vanity of the leading scientists of Nazi Germany were invested,” a plan “that turned the criminal phantasmagoria of Hitler and Himmler into a fully developed system, thought out to the smallest detail, calculated down to the last mark.”

The author responsible for this plan, full professor and head of the Institute of Agronomy and Agricultural Policy at the University of Berlin, Konrad Meyer, called Meyer-Hetling, was an exemplary example of such a scientist. Himmler made him head of the “chief staff service for planning and land holdings” in his “Imperial Commissariat for the Strengthening of the Spirit of the German Nation” and first as a Standarten and later as an SS Oberführer (corresponding to the rank of colonel). In addition, as the leading land planner in the Reich Ministry of Food and Agriculture, who was recognized by the Reichsfuehrer of Agriculture and the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Regions, in 1942 Meyer was promoted to the position of chief planner for the development of all German-controlled areas. As a person, he was an ordinary careerist, subservient to Himmler, so he was a cruel taskmaster over the scientists subordinate to him, of whom he had up to two dozen.

From the beginning of the war, Meyer knew in every detail about all the planned abominations; Moreover, he himself drew up decisive conclusions and plans for this. In the annexed Polish regions, as he officially announced already in 1940, it was assumed “that the entire Jewish population of this region, numbering 560 thousand people, had already been evacuated and, accordingly, would leave the region during this winter.” In order to populate the annexed areas with at least 4.5 million Germans (until now 1.1 million people had permanently lived there), it was necessary to “expel (further) 3.4 million Poles train by train.”

Barely a year and a half had passed when large-scale, ambitious goals drew him to the USSR. Germany's "need for expanding space," he triumphed then, could finally be eliminated through a "new creative construction" of large space. “Only the destruction of Soviet power and the inclusion of the eastern territories in the European living space returns complete freedom of planning to the empire and makes it possible to use new areas for settlement.”

Meyer died peacefully in 1973 at the age of 72 as a retired West German professor. The scandal surrounding this Nazi killer began after the war with his participation in the Nuremberg war crimes trials. He was indicted along with other SS ranks in the case of the so-called General Office for Race and Resettlement (RuSHA) (Case No. 8), sentenced by a United States court to a minor punishment only for membership in the SS and released in 1948. Although in the verdict the American judges agreed that he, as a senior SS officer and a person who worked closely with Himmler, should have “known” about the criminal activities of the SS, they confirmed that there was “nothing aggravating” under the “General Plan Ost.” It cannot be argued that he “knew nothing about evacuations and other radical measures”, and that this plan “was never put into practice” anyway. The prosecution representative really could not present conclusive evidence at that time, since the sources, especially the “General Plan” of 1942, had not yet been discovered. And the court even then made decisions in the spirit of the Cold War, which meant the release of “honest” Nazi criminals and potential future allies, and did not think at all about bringing Polish and Soviet experts as witnesses.

Ibid., S. 538.

Right there. Bd. 38. Nürnberg, 1949. Dok. L-221, S. 92; S. 87 et seq. Protocol (Bormann) of Hitler's conversation with Rosenberg, Lammers, Keitel and Goering on July 16, 1941.

See about this first of all: Roth K.H. "Generalplan Ost" - "Gesamtplan Ost". Forschungsstand, Quellenprobleme, neue Ergebnisse // Rössler, Schleiermacher (Hsg.). Decree. op. S. 25-117; Müller R.-D. Hitlers Ostkrieg und die deutsche Siedlungspolitik. Die Zusammenarbeit von Wehrmacht, Wirtschaft und SS. Frankfurt a. M., 1991.

Polish lands occupied by German troops during World War II. - Note translation

Roth K.H. Decree. Op. S. 107, Tab. 2.

The Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia is a dependent state entity established in the territories of Bohemia, Moravia and Silesia (Czech Silesia), inhabited by ethnic Czechs. The protectorate was formed on March 15, 1939 by personal decree of Hitler following the proclamation of independent Slovakia. - Note translation

Státni Úst ředni Archiv, Prag, Kanzlei K.H. Frank 114-3/14 (see also note 1, S. 120).

Müller R.-D. Decree. Op. S. 203, Doc. 33, report on the activities of the RKF/Stabshauptamt, end of 1942.

Quote see: Müller R.-D. Decree. cit., S. 103 (Koeppen-Bericht, Nov. 1941).

Publ. at Czesław Madajczyk: Generalny Plan Wschodni. Zbiór documentów. Warzawa, 1991 (since published entirely in German); Eichholtz D.: Der „Generalplan Ost“ (mit Dokumenten) // Jahrbuch für Geschichte, 1982, Nr. 26, S. 217-274 (there see: “Kurze Zusammenfassung” dated May 5, 1942).

Rauschning, H. Gespräche mit Hitler. Zürich – Wien – New York, 1940. S. 129.

IMG, Bd. 31. S. 84. Dok. PS-2718: “Aktennotiz über Ergebnis der heutigen Besprechung mit den Staatssekretären über Barbarossa”, 2. 05. 1941.

. “Lebensborn” (“Source of Life”) is a program developed by Reichsführer SS Heinrich Himmler to create a “Nordic race,” i.e., a special “pure” race, through selective selection. - Note translation

This SS action received the name “HEU-Aktion” from the abbreviation of the first letters of the German words: “homeless”, “homeless”, “homeless”. - Note ed.

Müller R.-D. Decree. Op. S. 200 et seq. (and also note 8).

Prince Heinrich zu Sein-Wittgenstein was a descendant of the Russian cavalry general Peter Christianovich Wittgenstein (1768 - 1843), who commanded the 1st Infantry Corps during the Patriotic War of 1812. - Note ed.

Morgen is a German land measure equal to 0.25 hectares. - Note translation

See: Eichholtz D. Geschichte der deutschen Kriegswirtschaft 1939-1945, Bd. II. Berlin, 1985; Munich, 1999/2003. S. 429.

Transnistria, or Transnistria, is a zone of Romanian occupation on the territory of the USSR during the Second World War. It was formed in accordance with the German-Romanian treaty signed in Bendery on August 30, 1941, according to which the territory between the Southern Bug and the Dniester, including parts of the Vinnitsa, Odessa, Nikolaev regions of Ukraine and the left bank part of Moldova, came under the jurisdiction and management of Romania. - Note translation

Müller R.-D. Decree. Op. S. 202 et seq. (and also note 8).

Right there. S. 208 et seq., Doc. 38, Rs. Ostministerium, October 26, 1943.

An exception is the work of Karl Stulpfarr: Stuhlpfarrer K. Umsiedlung Südtirol 1939-1940. In 2 Bd. Wien - Munich, 1985.

Kárny M. General plan Vychod // Československy časopis historický, 3/1977, s. 371.

. "Planungsgrundlagen für den Aufbau der Ost gebiete" (Januar 1940) in the publication: Konrad Meyers erster "Generalplan Ost" (April / Mai 1940), o. V., Dok. 1, S. 1 // Mitteilungen der Dokumentationsstelle zur NS-Sozialpolitik, H. 4/1985.

Quoted from: Meyer K. Reichsplanung und Raumordnung im Lichte der volkspolitischen Aufgabe des Ostaufbaus (1942). See in: Wolschke-Bulmahn J. Gewalt als Grundlage nationalsozialistischer Stadt- und Landschaftsplanung in den “einge gliederten Ostgebieten” // Rössler, Schleiermacher. Decree. Op. S. 330 et seq.

One of the five main departments of the SS. His tasks included monitoring the racial purity of the SS ranks, checking the Aryan origin of SS candidates and their relatives. Also dealt with issues of resettlement of SS colonists to the occupied territories. - Note translation

Rössler M.: Konrad Meyer und der “Generalplan Ost” in der Beurteilung der Nürnberger Prozesse // Rössler, Schleiermacher. Decree. Op. S. 366, Doc. 11. The verdict of the International Military Tribunal (correctly: American Military Tribunal I. - D.A.) in Nuremberg to Konrad Meyer-Hetling. Extract from the minutes of the meeting.

Plan Ost is a fairly extensive topic for discussion and an entire book could easily be written about it, which we will not do now. In this article we will look at the Ost plan briefly and to the point. And let's start, probably, with the definition of this term.

Plan Ost or General Plan Ost (this term is also found) is a very extensive policy of world domination by the Third Reich of Nazi Germany in Eastern Europe.

One of the main goals of the Germans during the Ost plan was the full-scale eviction of the population of Poland (approximately 85%) and the settlement of these territories with Germans.

This plan was to be fully realized within thirty long years. The development of this project was carried out by the famous political and military figure of the Reich, Heinrich Himmler. In addition to him, it should also be noted such a person as Erhard Wetzel, because he was one of the main authors of this plan.

The idea called the Ost plan most likely appeared back in 1940 and its initiator was the same Himmler.

Himmler decided to implement his plan immediately after the imminent victory over the USSR, but the turning point in the Great Patriotic War completely abandoned the implementation of this project; in 1943 it was completely abandoned, since the Reich had to find a way to regain its advantage in the war.

“Remarks and Proposals on the General Plan Ost” is the main document that can tell all the goals of the Nazis regarding the settlement of Eastern Europe.

In total, this document is divided into four large sections, which should be discussed in detail.

The issue of resettlement of Germans is discussed in the first section. According to the plan, they were supposed to occupy the eastern territories. At the same time, representatives of the Slavic peoples were also supposed to remain in these territories, but their number should not exceed 14 million people - these are small numbers, approximately 15% of the total population of those territories. In addition, this section states that all Jews living in these territories, and this is at least 6 million people, must be completely liquidated - that is, they all had to be killed without any exceptions.

The second question does not deserve special attention, but with the third the situation is different. It discussed the most pressing issue - the Polish one, because the Nazis believed that the Poles were the most hostile ethnic group towards the Germans and their issue needed to be resolved radically.

The author of the document says that it is impossible to kill all Poles, this would completely undermine the trust of other peoples in the Germans, which the Germans did not want at all. Instead, they decided to resettle almost all the Germans somewhere. It was planned to deport them to the territory of South America, namely to the territory of modern Brazil.

In addition to the Poles, the future fate of Ukrainians and Belarusians was considered here. It was also not planned to kill these peoples.

Approximately 65% ​​of all Ukrainians were to be deported to Siberia, 75% of Belarusians were to follow the Ukrainians. It also says about the Czechs: 50% are to be deported and 50% should be Germanized.

The fourth section discusses the fate of the Russian people. The fourth section is one of the most important, since the Germans considered the Russian people to be one of the most problematic in the East, of course, after the Jews.

The Germans understood that the Russian people were extremely dangerous for them, they identified this in their biology, but they simply did not have the opportunity to destroy them completely. As a result, they wanted to find a way to somehow control the Russian population in the East. They developed a system that would reduce the birth rate among the Russian people.

There is an interesting fact: many historians believe that the word “eviction” cannot be interpreted directly, since the Germans considered this word to be the complete liquidation of those percentages of the population that were designated in the document.

In total, approximately 6.5 million ethnic Germans were supposed to move to the East, who were supposed to look after the remaining Slavic population (14 million). This was a document from 1941, but already in 1942 it was decided to double the number of immigrants - almost 13 million Germans.

Among this large number of Germans, about 20-30% should have been people engaged in agriculture, which would provide the entire German people with the necessary amount of food.

It is interesting that there was never a final version of the Ost plan, there were only a few projects, and even those were constantly rewritten and changed. The Germans planned to spend huge sums on the implementation of all these processes - more than 100 billion marks.

As a conclusion, it should be said that although the Ost plan was not implemented, which saved the lives of millions of people, many still died. Approximately 6 or 7 million people were killed during the German occupation of Eastern Europe. Moreover, of these 6-7 million civilians, the majority, which is quite understandable, of those killed were representatives of the Jewish ethnic group.

The very last document of the Ost plan was published in 2009 and anyone, having found the necessary scientific literature, can familiarize themselves with its full content and, so to speak, plunge into the monstrous plans of the leadership of the Third Reich regarding the population of Eastern Europe.

Plan details

Implementation time:

1939 – 1944

Victims: Eastern European and USSR populations (mostly Slavic)

Place: Eastern Europe, occupied territory of the USSR

Character: racial-ethnic

Organizers and implementers: the National Socialist Party of Germany, pro-fascist groups and collaborators in the occupied territories “Plan Ost” was a program of mass ethnic cleansing of the population of Eastern Europe and the USSR as part of a more global Nazi plan to “liberate living space” (the so-called Lebensraum) for the Germans and other “Germanic peoples” at the expense of the territories of “lower races” such as the Slavs.

The goal of the plan: Germanization of the lands" in Central and Eastern Europe, provided for the movement of populations in the de facto annexed regions of Western and Southern Europe (Alsace, Lorraine, Lower Styria, Upper Carniola) and from countries that were considered German (Holland, Norway, Denmark ).

Excerpt from the "General Plan Ost" Revision dated June 1942 Part C. Delimitation of settlement territories in the occupied eastern regions and principles of restoration: The penetration of German life into large areas of the East confronts the Reich with the urgent need to find new forms of settlement in order to bring the size of the territory into line and the number of German persons present. In the Ost General Plan of July 15, 1941, the delimitation of new territories was provided as the basis for development for 30 years.

Plan Description

Plan Ost was a plan of the German government of the Third Reich to “liberate living space” for Germans and other “Germanic peoples,” which included mass ethnic cleansing of the population of Eastern Europe. The plan was developed in 1941 by the Main Directorate of Reich Security and presented on May 28, 1942 by an employee of the Office of the Headquarters of the Reich Commissioner for the Consolidation of the German People, SS Oberführer Meyer-Hetling under the title “General Plan Ost - the foundations of the legal, economic and territorial structure of the East” .

The “Ost plan” has not been preserved in the form of a completed plan. It was extremely secret, apparently existed in a few copies; at the Nuremberg trials, the only evidence of the existence of the plan was the “Comments and proposals of the Eastern Ministry” on the “Ost” master plan,” according to prosecutors, written on April 27, 1942 by E. Wetzel, an employee of the Ministry of Eastern Territories, after familiarizing himself with the draft plan prepared by the RSHA. Most likely, it was deliberately destroyed.

According to Hitler’s own instructions, officials ordered that only a few copies of the Ost Plan be made for part of the Gauleiters, two ministers, the “Governor General” of Poland and two or three senior SS officials. The remaining SS Fuhrers of the RSHA had to familiarize themselves with the Ost Plan in the presence of the courier, sign that the document had been read, and return it. But history shows that it was never possible to destroy all traces of crimes on such a scale as those committed by the Nazis. Both in letters and in speeches of Hitler and other SS officers, references to the plan occur more than once. Two memos have also been preserved, from which it is clear that this plan existed and was discussed. From the notes we learn in some detail the contents of the plan.

According to some reports, the "Plan Ost" was divided into two - "Small Plan" "Big Plan". The Small Plan was to be carried out during the war. The German government wanted to focus on the Big Plan after the war. The plan provided for different percentages of Germanization for different conquered Slavic and other peoples. “Non-Germanized” were to be evicted to Western Siberia. The implementation of the plan was to ensure that the conquered territories would acquire an irrevocably German character.

According to the plan, the Slavs living in the countries of Eastern Europe and the European part of the USSR were to be partially Germanized, and partially deported beyond the Urals or destroyed. It was intended that a small percentage of the local population be left behind to be used as free labor for the German colonists.

According to the calculations of Nazi officials, 50 years after the war, the number of Germans living in these territories was supposed to reach 250 million. The plan applied to all peoples living in the territories subject to colonization: it also spoke about the peoples of the Baltic states, which were also supposed to be partially assimilated , and partially deported (for example, Latvians were considered more suitable for assimilation, unlike Lithuanians, among whom, according to the Nazis, there were too many “Slavic impurities”). As can be assumed from the comments to the plan preserved in some documents, the fate of the Jews living in the territories to be colonized was almost not mentioned in the plan, mainly because at that time the project of the “final solution of the Jewish question” had already been launched, according to which the Jews were subject to total destruction. The plan for the colonization of the eastern territories was, in fact, the development of Hitler’s plans regarding the already occupied territories of the USSR - plans that were especially clearly formulated in his statement of July 16, 1941 and then were further developed in his table conversations. He then announced the settlement of 4 million Germans on the colonized lands within 10 years and at least 10 million Germans and representatives of other “Germanic” peoples within 20 years. Colonization should have been preceded by the construction - by prisoners of war - of large transport highways. German cities were to appear near river ports, and peasant settlements along the rivers. In the conquered Slavic territories, the policy of genocide was envisaged in its most extreme forms.

Methods for implementing the GPO plan:

1) physical extermination of large masses of people;

2) population reduction through the deliberate organization of famine;

3) population decline as a result of an organized decline in the birth rate and the elimination of medical and sanitary services;

4) extermination of the intelligentsia - the bearer and successor of scientific and technical knowledge and skills of the cultural traditions of each people and the reduction of education to the lowest level;

5) disunity, fragmentation of individual peoples into small ethnic groups;

6) resettlement of masses of the population to Siberia, Africa, South America and other regions of the Earth;

7) agrarianization of the captured Slavic territories and deprivation of the Slavic peoples of their own industry.”

The fate of the Slavs and Jews according to Wetzel's comments and suggestions

Wetzel envisioned the expulsion of tens of millions of Slavs beyond the Urals. The Poles, according to Wetzel, “were the most hostile to the Germans, numerically the largest and therefore the most dangerous people.”

German historians believe that the plan included:

· Destruction or expulsion of 80-85% of Poles. Only approximately 3-4 million people were to remain on Polish territory.

· Destruction or expulsion of 50-75% of Czechs (about 3.5 million people). The rest were subject to Germanization.

· Destruction of 50-60% of Russians in the European part of the Soviet Union, another 15-25% were subject to deportation beyond the Urals.

· Destruction of 25% of Ukrainians and Belarusians, another 30-50% of Ukrainians and Belarusians were to be used as labor

According to Wetzel's proposals, the Russian people were to be subjected to measures such as assimilation ("Germanization") and population reduction through a reduction in the birth rate - such actions are defined as genocide.

From A. Hitler’s directive to the Minister for Eastern Affairs A. Rosenberg on the implementation of the Ost General Plan (July 23, 1942)

The Slavs must work for us, and if we no longer need them, let them die. Vaccinations and health protection are unnecessary for them. Slavic fertility is undesirable... education is dangerous. It is enough if they can count to one hundred... Every educated person is our future enemy. All sentimental objections should be abandoned. We must rule this people with iron determination... Military speaking, we must kill three to four million Russians a year.

After the end of the war, out of approximately 40 million dead Slavic peoples (Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Poles, Czechs, Slovaks, Serbs, Croats, Bosnians, etc.), the Soviet Union lost more than 30 million, more than 6 million Poles died and over 2 million inhabitants of Yugoslavia. “Generalplan Ost”, as should be understood, also meant the “Final Solution of the Jewish Question” (German: Endlösung der Judenfrage), according to which the Jews were subject to total extermination. In the Baltics, Latvians were considered more suitable for "Germanization", but Lithuanians and Latgalians were not, since there were too many "Slavic admixtures" among them. Although the plan was supposed to be launched at full capacity only after the end of the war, within its framework, nevertheless, about 3 million Soviet prisoners of war were destroyed, the population of Belarus, Ukraine and Poland was systematically exterminated and sent to forced labor. In particular, in Belarus alone the Nazis organized 260 death camps and 170 ghettos. According to modern data, during the years of German occupation the losses of the civilian population of Belarus amounted to about 2.5 million people, that is, about 25% of the population of the republic.

Almost 1 million Poles and 2 million Ukrainians were - most of them not of their own free will - sent to forced labor in Germany. Another 2 million Poles from the annexed regions of the country were forcibly Germanized. Residents who were declared “racially undesirable” were subject to resettlement to Western Siberia; Some of them were supposed to be used as auxiliary personnel in the management of the regions of enslaved Russia. Fortunately, the plan could not be fully realized, otherwise we would not be here anymore.

Rosenberg's predecessor project

The master plan was preceded by a project developed by the Reich Ministry for Occupied Territories, headed by Alfred Rosenberg. On May 9, 1941, Rosenberg presented the Fuhrer with draft directives on policy issues in the territories that were to be occupied as a result of aggression against the USSR.

Rosenberg proposed creating five governorates on the territory of the USSR. Hitler opposed the autonomy of Ukraine and replaced the term “governorship” with “Reichskommissariat”. As a result, Rosenberg’s ideas took the following forms of implementation.

· The first - Reichskommissariat Ostland - was supposed to include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Belarus. Ostland, where, according to Rosenberg, a population with Aryan blood lived, was subject to complete Germanization within two generations.

· The second governorate - Reichskommissariat Ukraine - included Eastern Galicia (known in fascist terminology as District Galicia), Crimea, a number of territories along the Don and Volga, as well as the lands of the abolished Soviet Autonomous Republic of Volga Germans. According to Rosenberg's idea, the governorate was supposed to gain autonomy and become the support of the Third Reich in the East.

· The third governorate was called the Reichskommissariat Caucasus, and separated Russia from the Black Sea.

· Fourth - Russia to the Urals.

· The fifth governorate was to become Turkestan.

The success of the German campaign in the summer-autumn of 1941 led to a revision and tightening of the German plans for the eastern lands, and as a result, the Ost plan was born.