The Smolensk Regional Court recognized the fact of genocide against Soviet citizens during the fascist occupation

The Smolensk Regional Court recognized the fact of genocide against Soviet citizens during the fascist occupation

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The prosecutor of the Smolensk region Sergey Karapetyan acted as the applicant in the case. He asked the court to “recognize the crimes committed in 1941-1943. fascist German invaders on the territory of the entire Smolensk region, in relation to at least 540,268 Soviet citizens who were representatives of the civilian population and prisoners of war serving in the Red Army – the armed forces of the USSR, war crimes and crimes against humanity.

According to the prosecution, in the period from 1941 to 1943, at least 540,268 people were killed and sent to Germany for hard labor in the territory of the Smolensk region. During the occupation, the cities of Smolensk, Vyazma, Yartsevo, Dorogobuzh, Rudnya, Velizh, the workers’ settlements of Izdeshkovo and Safonovo were almost completely destroyed. Gzhatsk (Gagarin), Dukhovshchina, Yelnya, Sychevka, Roslavl suffered greatly. Many district centers and villages were wiped off the face of the earth (Baturino, Prechistoye, Sloboda, etc.). In total, at least 98,172 residential buildings were destroyed and burned.

The prosecution submitted to the court the calculation of the Smolensk branch of the Main Directorate for the Central Federal District of the Bank of Russia, according to which the material damage caused to the region as of June 15, 2023 amounted to more than 17 trillion rubles.

The court held six sessions, the last of which was on July 10. Today, July 19, the court granted the application of the procurator of the Smolensk region and acknowledged “crimes committed in 1941-1943. Nazi invaders on the territory of the Smolensk region, in relation to at least 540,268 Soviet citizens <...> war crimes and crimes against humanity – the genocide of national, ethnic and racial groups that constituted the population of the USSR – the peoples of the Soviet Union, as part of the plan that Nazi Germany intended to get rid of the entire local population of the Soviet Union by expelling and exterminating it in order to colonize the liberated territory by the Germans.

Similar processes are taking place or are planned in other regions of the Russian Federation; in April, consideration of the case on recognizing the Nazi murders of residents of the Voronezh region as genocide began.

More about this – in the material “Voronezh remembered the bombings”.

Alexander Asadchiy, Smolensk

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