- Not all. I well remembered two Kiev grannies. They sat opposite me at the wake of my relative. It was more than 10 years ago. They talked among themselves. And they spoke Russian. First scolded Yushchenko - they did not like him. And then suddenly one said the other - do you remember the Germans?Okay, but keep in mind that by 1943 most Kievans absolutely hated the Germans and were quite ready to welcome the Soviets back in.
Tell me - they didn’t touch our people just like that, for no reason, did they? And the second granny nodded her head in agreement.
And here are the urs ... Then she fell silent - and then added. - They took people unclear why. And they muzzled people just like that - no one could understand why. Today was a man - and tomorrow there is no man. And no one asks where he has gone. We were all very afraid
- I'm not very interested in what the Germans said. I know that they burned or blew up something in Kiev. But this was at best a few percent of what the Russians burned or blew up in 1941.Scorched earth policy is never nice, but it can hardly be used as an example of Soviet oppression of Ukraine. The Germans did same things during their withdrawal, burning villages, destroying infrastructure etc. I'll use Himmler's words: "It is neccessary that in retreating from the regions of Ukraine we do not leave behind a single person, head of livestock or measure of grain. The enemy should find there a completely burned and devastated land."
Again - for the Germans, we were a foreign population in the occupied territories. Nevertheless, Grigory Malakhov, one of the famous Kiev residents wrote in a book of memoirs that the Germans, had taken his brother out of the city with his kindergarten to the resort suburb - with the personnel of the kindergarten. By the by - it was a family of the Soviet officer who fought the Germans at the time. And the Germans arranged kindergartens in Kiev for such children
And they gave them two bags of flour and a bag of sugar. There the children were later found by Russian soldiers. For some reason, the Germans led our civilian population out of the cities when large-scale shooting was being expected there. Moreover, they even took our old people from Kiev from the nursing home from Kiev. They did a number of things that were completely incomprehensible, based on the thesis that they wanted to destroy us
Again - you will not find anywhere in the Germans an order similar to the Russian order. It appeared when the Germans were approaching Moscow -
SUPREME HIGH COMMAND OFFICE
ORDER
dated November 17, 1941 No. 428
ON THE CREATION OF SPECIAL TEAMS FOR THE DESTRUCTION AND BURNING OF SETTLEMENTS IN THE REAR OF THE GERMAN FASCIST TROOPS
Moscow
...
Supreme High Command ORDERS:
1. Destroy and burn down all settlements in the rear of German troops at a distance of 40-60 km in depth from the front line and 20-30 km to the right and left of the roads.
For the destruction of settlements within the specified range, immediately send aircraft, make extensive use of artillery and mortar fire, reconnaissance teams, skiers and partisan sabotage groups equipped with Molotov cocktails (in original - бутылки с зажигательной смесью - Dir), grenades and subversive weapons ....
Приказ Ставки ВГК от 17.11.1941 № 428 — Викитека
- Have you seen the Germans destroy their own settlements - without thinking about how many of German inhabitants will be burned there or lose a roof over their heads? And this is November 1941 - the very severe Russian winter of 1941-1942 began. Does this Russian practice not seem cannibalistic to you?
After all, this is precisely what the unfortunate Zoya Kosmodemyanskaya did, which was later made the famous Soviet heroine. She burned the huts of Russian peasants in the villages in the 40-degree frost
- Funny.Brutal, but once again it can hardly be used as evidence that the USSR specifically targeted Ukraine. They also famously demolished the Church of Christ the Saviour in Moscow.
The church is a rather ugly Russian cathedral of the 19th century. And the Kiev churches that the Russians blew up are of the 12-13th century. They are unique. Tell you that the Russians did not blow up ANY of their 12-13th-century churches in the 1930s? Neither in Novgorod the Great, nor in Vladimir-on-Klyazma, nor in Suzdal, nor in Rostov. No one. And they have blown up almost all the medieval temples in Kiev in the 1930s and in 1941. Only Sofia miraculously survived. There were plans to demolish the temple too - and to arrange an Avenue of Parades on this site. I have a detailed book with these plans and schemes of the Soviet development of the ancient part of Kiev in the 1930s-1940s
Maybe I have to tell you that Kiev was completely destroyed - even worse than under Batu in 1240 - in 1482. And the Crimean Tatars Mengli-Geray did it at the direct instigation of Moscow Tsar Ivan the Third. It was he who strongly advised the Crimean Khan - his "brother" - to burn Kiev. And in gratitude, the khan then sent to Moscow valuable church relics from the Kiev temples burnt by these Busurmani. These are facts that you can’t get anywhere.