POST-WAR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION OF COLLABORATIONISTS IN THE MOLOTOV REGION: TO THE ASSESSMENT OF IMPUTATIONS’ VALIDITY

Authors

  • A. B. Suslov

Keywords:

Soviet state security bodies, MGB, collaborationists, criminal prosecution, verification of official documents, falsification, post-war time, Molotov region

Abstract

The paper is aimed at examining criminal prosecution of the collaborationists, which is one of the most important activities of the post-war Soviet state security bodies. The research is based on the files of state security bodies in the Molotov region. In historiography, the issue is in general explored. Particularly, some papers describe well the evolution of legislative environment for criminal justice and penal sanctions for collaborationism. However, scholars, as a rule, do not verify information that can be found in official documents. Therefore, the author focuses mainly on the opportunities of using the investigations’ files as sources for the assessment of validity of imputations of collaborationism. The source analysis shows that, in general, a style of the significant part of accused persons’ evidences which can be found in the records of interrogations, bills of indictment, and other materials of the studied trials, shows an adequate representation of the most part of events. The author demonstrates that the state security bodies of Molotov region did an important work for the state and society, disclosing collaborationists and initiating criminal prosecution against them. They did a large-scale and intensive work to identify the criminals and prove their guilt. The analysis of declassified documents of investigation bodies and tribunals lets the author to conclude that a large part of those evidences are persuasive. However, the ability to extend the research results to the activity of the state security service as a whole depends on whether historians would have the opportunity for studying all the documents of the Soviet state security service of the war and post-war period dealing with the trials against collaborationists.

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Published

2020-11-17

How to Cite

Suslov, A. B. (2020). POST-WAR CRIMINAL PROSECUTION OF COLLABORATIONISTS IN THE MOLOTOV REGION: TO THE ASSESSMENT OF IMPUTATIONS’ VALIDITY. PERM UNIVERSITY HERALD. History, 50(3), 109–117. Retrieved from http://press.psu.ru/index.php/history/article/view/3901