All histories that I have ever read agree that the USSR had not ratified the Geneva Convention as of 22 June 1941, and therefore had to hurriedly make unofficial arrangements with neutral states relating to the treatment of POWs. That suggests that Soviet ratification was not publicly known, or on record anywhere.
it says in the document mr Mills – no further ratification is needed.
If the declaration signed by Litvinov was kept hidden in the archives (I presume that by CAGOR Oleg is referring to TsGAOR = Tsentral'nyi Gosudarstvennyi Arkhiv Oktiabr'skoi Revoliutsii = Central State Archive of the October Revolution) and has only now been discovered, that suggests that a decision to adhere to the Geneva Convention was initially made but then rescinded, and the initial ratification never communicated to the League of Nations.
Where else they were suppose to keep old documents? The fact that USSR ratified Geneva convention was commonplace knowledge back in USSR. Why this myth persisted here – I don’t really know.
If the USSR had really wanted to adhere to the Geneva Convention, then surely it would have made its ratification public, so that there could be no doubt on the issue. And one might well ask the question why the Soviet Government did not proclaim during the war itself that it had ratified the Convention in 1930, and why it had to make hurried unofficial arrangements with Sweden. The actions of the Soviet Government after the German invasion do not indicate any knowledge of such ratification.
what actions that would be mr. Mills? Soviet regulations on treatment of POWs were in agreement with the Geneva.
Another example. When the Soviet Union went to war with Finland in November 1939, did it openly acknowledge that it had ratified the Geneva Convention in 1930 and would abide by its provisions?
why would it do it again 9 years later?