Allied War Crimes : The Dragoun Mission.

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

In December 1944 a soviet NKVD committee commanded by general dragoun came to Paris.Their goal was to ''repatriate'' the white russians czarists emigrees and their families who had fleed from communism in 1917.... ( I am not talking about the ones who collaborated in one way or other with the Nazis or joined the Wlassov army ! I am talking about people who didn't collaborate,who were civilians and had adopted another nationality.) In France,the gaullist authorities delivered 102,481 russians emigrees who were sent to the Gulag camps via Marseilles and Odessa by boats (french or russians ?) - by ''virtue'' of french-russian agreement of June 1945 - ( i already said somewhere that the gaullist government had dealed with Stalin to avoid a communist revolution in France....That may well be part of this deal !)

The dragoun Mission didn't restricted to France...They sent ''hunter commandos'' to Holland, Switzerland : the Swiss government,scared by the soviets,delivered some dozens of russians emigrees too....so Switzerland wasn't exempt of allied war crimes !!!!!!!!!!
And to most western countries,like in Belgium where by belgian-russian agreement of March 13th 1945,the NKVD agents kidnapped belgian civilians from russian ascendence in the streets of Bruxelles ,the belgian police received orders not to interfere....untill december 28th 1945 when belgian minister of Justice,Marcel Gregoire,started to restrict those soviet actions because too many kidnappings happened in daylight and the scandal was growing among the people.
But in total more than ONE million russian exilees,elderlies,women ,children, from western Europa would be given to the soviets in less than one year.
This i considere as one of the most vile and hypocrital allied war crimes,because lots of western governments are involved.
If any italian reader have infos about the Dragoun Mission in Italy,please add the facts. Don't ask me more,this is all i know...... but if you try today to research french and belgianofficial archives about those agreements with the russians (i told the dates) ,you will see uncomfortable faces and all doors closed soon .( i know because i tried !!!)

[David Thompson]

Ostuf Charlemagne -- This is another interest we have in common, although I haven't had much luck getting information. For an earlier thread on a related subject in this section of the forum, see:

Soviet War Crimes? Disappearances in Soviet Captivity
http://www.thirdreichforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=18756

[Peter H]

This link only estimates 40,000 White Russians still around at the start of the Second World War in France:

http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~glebov/exil ... s/hill.doc

The film East-West presented a different approach--in 1946 Stalin 'tricked' a lot of Russians home with the promise of a good life in the Soviet Union and no hard feelings.

Were does the truth lie?

The White Russians of Manchuria have also been discussed in a recent thread:

http://www.thirdreichforum.com/viewtopic.php?t=30285

A link to the fate of the White Russians of Harbin.At least half of them got out to the West,expelled by the Chinese Communists as 'undesirables'.Many of the Jewish populace ended up in Australia.Only 20 or so aged White Russians still live in Harbin.

http://north-korea.narod.ru/immigrants.htm

If the Soviets couldn't get their act together in rounding up all White Russians in Manchuria,with a Soviet Army in place,what chance was there in relying on French efficiency?

[David Thompson]

Moulded -- I got the impression that the Soviets were mostly interested in people who might be influential in anti-Soviet politics or who were targeted for reasons of "settling old scores," rather than all former citizens of the USSR. There were a number of Soviet kidnappings and murders of white Russian emigres in France even before WWII started, and the activity definitely continued after the war ended. It happened elsewhere as well, as in the murder of Leon Trotsky in Mexico by the Soviet agent Ramon Mercader. When the Soviet murder activities were exposed by the defection of the assassin Stashinski (I hope I remember the spelling correctly), the KGB began to use Bulgarian and killers of other nationalities as "cut-outs." If you want me to dig up some admittedly cold-war vintage documentation, I'd be happy to oblige.

[Peter H]

Thanks David,if not too difficult.

I agree that the Soviet agenda was to settle old scores with the leaders of the White Russian movement and a figure quoted of 102,000 people rounded up and shipped out would have included many French born wives and children.Can this figure be supported or verified?Or does it really include Soviets who had served in the Wehrmacht?

Even the Manchurian link shows that after the initial 10,000 White Russian leadership was eliminated,some voluntary return aspect laid in the repatriation of the general run of the mill Russian emigre.

As mentioned the film East-West,set in 1946, presents a different view on the emigres return,much like the Manchurian experience of dupped volunteers being conned backed in returning to Mother Russia.Whether this is just fiction or a cover up is another thing.

[David Thompson]

Moulded -- Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn said the same thing (in Gulag Archipelago) about former Soviet citizens being duped into returning after WWII, so the film is definitely not the only source for that allegation. I'll see what I can find on the Soviet kidnap and murder program in foreign countries for you and post it here.

[Panzermahn]

Ostuf Charlemagne,

In 1945, the russians sent a contingent of Bolshevik officers to Vaduz, Liechenstein to demand the return of approximately 1,000 Soviet nationalities who had taken refuge in Liechenstein after the fall of Germany. The Prince of Liechenstein refused and defy the mighty Dzugashvilli but he refused the entry of a Russian Grand Duke (Grand Duke Michael, please correct me if i'm wrong) 400 russian men and women took up the offer to return to Bolshevik Russia and was never heard again while the remainder decided to stay at Liechenstein anmd were taken care by the Liechenstein Red Cross which were founded just a week after the surrender of Germany. Those who remained at Liechenstein eventually emigrated to South American countries principally Argentina

I wonder if this is a part of Dragoun mission you have mentioned

[Peter H]

Some prominent White Russians in France who supposedly escaped the dragnet and prospered in the postwar era....and not a word of protest from any of them.

Nicholas Nikolaevich Evreyinov (1887-1972). Well known director, actor, playwright and historian of theatre. Escaped to Paris.

Alexander Nikolaevich Naumov (1868-1950). Minister of Agriculture under the tsar. Escaped to France.

Vasili Alexeevich Maklakov (1869-1957). Member of the Central Committee of the KaDet Party, member of the second, third and fourth Imperial Duma. Lawyer. In 1917 appointed Ambassador of the Provisional Government in Paris. Stayed in Paris, where after World War II was criticized for his friendly attitude towards the Soviet-Union.

Nicholas Nikolaevich Poradyelov (1887-1948). Colonel. Friend and bodyguard of Kerensky. Escaped to Paris in 1917.

Grigori Viktorovich Adamovich (1894-1971). Poet and literature critic; escaped to Paris.

Valeri Constantinovich Agafonov. Writer, professor.
Escaped to Paris. Died in 1955.

Marc Chagall (1887-1985). Painter.

Alexander Vasilievich Davidoff (1881-1955). Descendant of the Decembrists Troubetzkoy and Davidoff. Escaped to Paris.

Gayito (Georges) Ivanovich Gazdanov (1903-1971). Writer, escaped to Paris.

Kristof Gavrilovich Kafian (1900-1971). Musician. Wrote on March 21, 1971, regarding the closure of the last Russian lodge in Paris, `Everything has been said! We are exhausted! We have no more to say! We're all going to die!'

Josif Grigorievich Loris-Melikov (1860-1950). Diplomat under the tsar in Siam, Sweden and Norway. Escaped to Paris and died in the Russian nursery home of Sainte- Geneviève-des-Bois.

Serge Constantinovich Makovsky (1877-1962). Son of the well known painter; poet, literary man. Was from 1909 to 1917 artistic director of the revue Apollon, in St. Petersburg. Escaped to Paris.

Alexander Maximovich Volkovisky (?-1957). Sculptor. In 1920 member of the board of the Writers' House in Petrograd. Escaped to Paris.

Vladimir Mikhaïlovich Zenzinov (1881-1953). Member of the Executing Committee of the Petrograd Soviet. Escaped to Paris, where he was Kerensky's right hand at the paper Dni.

Lev Aronson (Dominique) (1893-1984). From 1911 to 1919 drama critic in St. Petersburg, after which he escaped to Paris. Founder of the Prix Dominique, for young artists.

Jean Pougny (1892-1956). On his tomb is an Orthodox cross. Painter, escaped in 1919. In the same tomb is resting the painter Xenia Boguslavsky (1892-1972), to whom he got married in 1912.

Alexandre Benois (Alexander Nikolaevich Benua) (1870-1960). Russian painter and stage designer who mainly worked for Diaghilev's Ballets Russes. Meritorious art historian and art critic. Worked from 1918 until 1926 as curator of the Hermitage in St. Petersburg and settled down in Paris in 1926.

Metropolitan Polycarpe (Peter Sikorsky) (1875 -1953). Lawyer and from 1918 until 1920 a high official in the Democratic Ukrainian Republic. In 1942 appointed Metropolitan of the Ukrain-Orthodox Church.

Yuri Terapiano (1892-1980). Literature critic and poet. Went to law-school in Kiev. After the White Army was defeated, he escaped to Constantinople. Some time later he settled down in Paris.

Alexandra Ekster (1884-1949). Painter who studied in the academy of arts in Kiev, and mainly designed theatre décors and costumes. She escaped to France in 1924.

Nicholas Kalmakov (1873-1955). Painter and member of Monde de l'Art. In 1908 his décor of Oscar Wilde's Salomé, in the theatre of Vera Kommissaryevskaya in St. Petersburg, caused an enormous fuss, and the play was prohibited the same evening. He died under miserable circumstances in a nursing home in Chelles.

Archbishop Grigori (Tarassov) (1893-1981). Chemistry-engineer. He was sent to France in 1916, where he became a pilot and flew for the French airforce. In 1953 he succeeded Metropolitan Vladimir.

Vladimir Krymov (1878-1968). Publisher in St. Petersburg. After the February Revolution of 1917 he left Russia helter-skelter. At first he tried his luck in Berlin, but successively he left for Paris. The novels which he wrote in the twenties and thirties, were very much valued by the Russian emigrants, and even translated into English.

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

Interesting facts from everybody,at last we are documented !
I really have not many more about this topic,as i said when i tried to find more,doors closed ,so something obviously hugly happened.....about the more than 100,000 extradited from France,maybe the ones of the Wlassov army or hiwis are incluided,but i just don't know......
In Liechtenstein ,(nice remark ,Panzermahn) ,this is not part of the Dragoun Mission but can be viewed as within the same stalinists toughts.Those were Wlassov army,so the russians were pretty fast to react,even threatening the Liechtenstein with armed invasion.... the Red army was not far away in Austria,and he took the Liechtenstein authorities a lot of balls to deny Stalin's request !
About the list showed by Moulded,i don't really ounderstand your point,some of these people were jews and others even NKVD / KGB agents,so they had no querrel pending with Stalin.
If i remember well the french had during some years a concentration camp,watched by armed communists just for to keep russian nationals ... this camp was closed manu militari by french gendarmerie as far as in 1950 ! But i gone look through my archives for more infos .

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

I forgot,in France they made a movie - a positive one - more than 5 years ago,about the situation of those wlassovian soldiers in Liechtenstein.Movie was called ''vent d' est '' ( East wind ) and stayed more than one week on cinema ( a record when you know how the left controls the show -biz there....) i think a friend of mine have a video cassette of this movie.I gone e-mail him for a copie.If i get it,i can make copies and send to anybody interested.

[Peter H]

Ostuf,
The list of prominent White Russians untouched by the NKVD shows that the cultural and spiritual elite of the White Russian community in France continued on their merry way.If you were trying to eliminate an opposition why ignore these leaders of this community?To pass them off as Jews or NKVD agents is conjecture at this stage.Stalin's later obsession with Jewish plots against his regime meant no safety as a Jew(even if you had survived the Nazi Occupation),while informers against the small White Russian populace was a redundant job if you had no-one to inform on.

The repatriation of Soviet citizens by the French under the Yalta Agreement:

http://monderusse.revues.org/docannexe/ ... 1-2000.pdf

Firstly the agreement covered Metropolitan France and the French Occupied Zone in Germany.Soviet citizens meant those residing in the Soviet Union as at June 1941.White Russian emigres were excluded.

The numbers included former turncoat Wehrmacht members,Soviet POWs,escaped Soviet POWs serving with the Marquis,and slave labour workers( a lot of Ukrainians ended up in Alsace-Lorraine,the Saar etc).

[Orok]

Hi,

I think this thread should be named "Soviet War Crime" instead of the sweeping "Allied War Crime." For as far as I can see there was no allied coordinated action in the commiting of such crimes!

On the other hand there were indeed a lot of active cooperations between axis countries in committing war crimes, although to varying degrees and some were obviously coerced. So I would have no problem with the expression of "Axis War Crime"!

Just my 2 cents!

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

Orok : sorry but if i remember well,the soviets were allies with the brits and the americans !

Moulded : The Yalta agreement was in 1943.
The agreement i talk about was (in France ) in June 1945,between De Gaulle govt and the soviets,as a result of the dragoun Mission (Dragoun was received by De Gaulle ) and was about to capture russian emigrees who didn't collaborate with the Nazis.And the ''antisemitism'' of Stalin begin in the 50's...(The plot of the White Dress) in 1945 it was always judeo-bolshevism,either you believe it or not .

[Peter H]

The Yalta Agreement was signed in February 1945.Pre-war Russian emirges were excluded from repatriation;France ratified the agreement in mid 1945.The Allied motive was to rescue their own POWs in Eastern Europe,should they fall into Soviet hands,and not antagonise Stalin to hold Allied POWs as hostage as such.

Around 1.3 million Soviet citizens(detained labourers and workers) were shipped out from Western Europe, plus 0.7 million who had served in the Wehrmacht,and of course former Soviet POWs of the Germans numbering well over a million.Some Russian Wehrmacht members were even shipped out from Fort Dix,USA.This caused a stink in Congress and the Americans,as much as possible,tried to limit repatriation to those who had worn the German uniform and not Soviet civilians who had been rounded up to work for the Germans.

The only documented case of Russian emirges being deported was the unfortunate Cossack Corps incident under the British General Alexander. Cossacks,White Russians,ended up being among those returned to the USSR.Tolstoy has indicated that Alexander was definitely informed in writing that no emirges(defined as living outside the USSR pre-war) should be among the deportees.

SMERSH teams were especially active in the British & French sectors of Occupied Germany and caused discord,fear and loathing.

I'm all open to supporting evidence of White Russians suffering this fate,especially in collusion with Western governments,but what are the sources?

[Ostuf Charlemagne]

Thanks to correct me about the date of signature of Yalta agreement.....
even so russian civilians were deported in the case of france openly by govt.forces ,in the case of belgium more by kidnapping ,you have mentionned SMERSH teams ,they where surely ounder the Dragoun Mission at last in the western countries.