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| Italian war prisoners in Soviet Union 1942-1954. | |||
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| {{Multiple issues| | |||
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| '''Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union''' is the narrative of POWs from the ] (the ARMIR and CSIR) and of their fate in ] Soviet Union during and after ]. | |||
| Figures. | |||
| Almost all the Italian militaries captured on the Russian front were taken over during the decisive Soviet “Small Saturn offensive” which annihilated the ARMIR (Italian Army in Russia, about 235,000 men strong), between 11/12/1942 and 2/3/1943. In this period the total figure of missing Italian soldiers was 84,830. According to the Soviet archives, 54,400 Italian prisoners of war (POWs) reached the Soviet concentration camps alive; 44,315 POWs died in captivity inside the camps, most of them in the winter 1943; a list of the soldiers’ names, in Cyrillic, including date and place of death was yielded by Russian authorities after 1989. Eventually 10,085 POWs were repatriated between 1945 and 1954. The individual fate of 30,430 soldiers, dead during the fights and the withdrawal or after the capture is less known. It may be roughly estimated that about 20,000 men lost their lives due to the fights and 10,000 men died from the moment they became prisoners to that of their registration inside the concentration camps. Henceforth, it may be concluded that at least 54,000 Italian POWs died in Russia, with an astounding mortality rate of 84.5%, very high also if compared with the mortality of Russian POWs captured by the Germans during WW II (1,938,000 survivors over 5,160,000 captured). | |||
| ==Characteristics== | |||
| Facts. | |||
| Travels to the destination camps in captivity covered hundreds of kilometres and were done mainly on foot; they were reported by survivors as the “davai” marches, (“davai” is Russian for “go ahead”) under the watch of Red Army soldiers, and, often, of partisans with little mercy for those who fell down congealed or exhausted; the transfer was completed into goods trains, where many prisoners died as a consequence of the extremely rigid temperatures and lack of food. Suzdal 160, Tambov, Oranki, Krinowoje, Michiurinsk, sited in Eastern European Russia, were the lagers where most Italian POWs were detained in dismal conditions; others are known just by their reference numbers, as Lager 58/c and Lager 171. Epidemic typhus and starvation related diseases, worsened by the rigid Russian winter climate, were the major causes of mortality inside the camps. Brutality from the soviet troops and partisans over unarmed prisoners was reported, but survivors testified also episodes of comradeship among soldiers of the two opposite nations, especially on the front line, and, more often, of humanity from the Russian civilians. POWs in Soviet Union received plenty of communist propaganda, which was carried out by communist cadres of the their own nationality, fled to Soviet Union due to the fascism (known in Italy as fuoriusciti, “people who left home”). Despite allurements and threats, most of the prisoners, particularly if not previously compromised with the fascism, resisted the propaganda. POWs’ conditions improved greatly with the spring 1943, because of Soviet Government concern, enhanced POW camps’ administration, sharply decreased figures of survived soldiers to care for and increased food availability (mainly provided by the US). Most of the survivors were allowed to come back to Italy in 1945/46. In the same years, a group of Italian officers under detention were accused of war crime and sentenced to many years of forced labour. After the death of Stalin accusations proved to be forged and they all were released in 1954. Italians in the Soviet Union had not acted as occupation troops, and atrocities against partisans and civilians of some scale were, therefore, unlikely. Soviets captured by the CSIR (Italian Expeditionary Corps in Russia, from July 1941 to June 1942) were delivered up to the Germans and endured the cruel treatment given to the Russians soldiers under Nazi rule; after the establishment of the ARMIR (from July 1942 to May 1943), prisoners were kept under Italian custody and benefited reasonable conditions, being fed with standard Italian Army rations. The issue of Italian POWs in Soviet Union remained a hot political argument in post-war Italy; it was never seriously investigated, because the Soviet authorities’ unwillingness to yield information allowed no answer about the destiny of the tens of thousands of missing soldiers. Their case was used in an instrumental way by the centre-right parties which accused the Soviet Union not to return its POWs, and denied as anti-communist propaganda by the left during the first democratic elections in Italy (1948). Unbiased information underpinning the size of the tragedy and an objective historical reconstruction came only after the fall of the Soviet Union when most of the public interest in Italy had already faded away. | |||
| Over 60,000 Italian ] (POWs) were taken captive by the ] in the ]. Almost all of them were captured during the decisive Soviet "]" offensive in December 1942 which annihilated the Italian Army in Russia (]).<ref>{{Cite book |last=Giusti |first=Maria Teresa |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=jxQxEAAAQBAJ&dq=60%2C000+Italian+POWs+in+the+USSR&pg=PA275 |title=Stalin's Italian Prisoners of War |date=2021-04-30 |publisher=Central European University Press |isbn=978-963-386-356-5 |language=en}}</ref>{{Rp|page=275}} | |||
| At its height, the ARMIR was about 235,000 strong, and operated between December 1942 and February 1943 in support of the German forces engaged in and around ]. In this period the total figure of missing Italian soldiers amounted to 84,830 (Italian Ministry of Defence, 1977a 1977b). According to the Soviet archives, 54,400 Italian ] reached the Soviet prisoner camps alive; 44,315 prisoners (over 81%) died in captivity inside the camps, most of them in the winter of 1943.{{Fact|date=December 2024}} Another estimate for the death rate in the Soviet camp was 56.5%.<ref name=":9" />{{Rp|page=|pages=200–201}} | |||
| A 79% estimate of death rate has been suggested for the Italian soldiers held by the Soviet Union: (estimate by {{ill|Thomas Schlemmer|de}}). According to Schlemmer, only 10,032 POWs were eventually repatriated out of approximately 48,000 that arrived in the POW camps. Another 22,000 died during the marches to the camps.<ref>Thomas Schlemmer, Invasori, non vittime – La campagna italiana di Russia 1941–1943, Bari, Laterza, 2009, {{ISBN|978-88-420-7981-1}}, page 153</ref> Another estimate for the number of repatriated soldiers is 19,000-21,000 but it includes Italians captured by the USSR in later stages of the war.<ref name=":9">{{Cite book |last=Moore |first=Bob |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/43087 |title=Prisoners of War: Europe: 1939-1956 |date=2022-05-05 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-187597-7 |language=en |doi=10.1093/oso/9780198840398.001.0001}}</ref>{{Rp|page=|pages=7, 200–201}} | |||
| A list of the soldiers' names, in ], including date and place of death, was yielded by the Russian authorities after 1989 (Italian Ministry of Defence, 1996). 10,085 prisoners were repatriated between 1945 and 1954. The individual fate of 30,430 soldiers, who died during the fighting and the withdrawal or after capture, is less well known. It is estimated that about 20,000 men lost their lives due to the fighting and 10,000 men died between the time they became prisoners to the time they registered inside the camps. | |||
| Russian sources list the deaths of 28,000 of a total (according to them) of 49,000 Italian POWs in the Soviet Union from 1942 to 1954.<ref>Vadim Erlikman. ''Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik''. Moscow 2004. {{ISBN|5-93165-107-1}} Page 47</ref> | |||
| ==The way to the POW camps== | |||
| Travel to the destination camps in captivity covered hundreds of kilometres and was done mainly on foot. They were reported by survivors as the "davai" marches. "Davai!" is a ] expression of urging, in this context meaning "keep moving!" The prisoners were escorted by the ] and often ] without mercy for those who fell down frozen or exhausted (Revelli, 1966). The transfer was completed by using ]s, where many prisoners died of the extremely cold temperatures and lack of food. | |||
| ==Camps, treatment and causes of death== | |||
| Suzdal 160, ], Oranki, Krinovoje, ], sited in Eastern ], were the camps where most Italian POWs were detained in dismal conditions. Others were known just by their reference numbers, as Lager 58/c and Lager 171 (Italian Ministry of Defence, 1996). ] and starvation related diseases were the major causes of mortality inside the camps (Giusti, 2003). Brutality from the Soviet troops and partisans to unarmed prisoners was reported, but survivors testified also to episodes of comradeship among soldiers of the two opposing nations, especially on the front line (Rigoni Stern, 1965) and, compassion from the Russian civilians (Vio, 2004). | |||
| The Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union were subject to plenty of ]. The propaganda was delivered by Italian Communist cadres who had fled fascism in Italy to the Soviet Union, known in Italy as ''fuoriusciti'' (expatriates) (Zilli, 1950). Despite allurements and threats most of the prisoners, particularly if not previously compromised by ], resisted the propaganda (Giusti, 2000). Prisoners' conditions improved greatly with the spring of 1943 because of Soviet Government concern and better camp administration, sharply increasing the food supply and the numbers of soldiers surviving. | |||
| ==Reasons for forgotten tragedy== | |||
| The issue of Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union remained a hot political topic in post-war ]. It was never seriously investigated because of the Soviet authorities' unwillingness to yield information about the destiny of the tens of thousands of missing soldiers. Their case was used in an instrumental way by the centre-right parties which accused the Soviet Union of not returning its prisoners of war (] manifesto, 1948), and denied as anti-communist propaganda by the left (Robotti) during the first democratic elections in Italy (1948). Unbiased information underpinning the size of the tragedy and an objective historical reconstruction came only after the fall of the Soviet Union (Giusti, 2003) when most public interest in Italy had already faded away.<ref name=":9" />{{Rp|page=7}} | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| ==References== | |||
| <references/> | |||
| ==Further reading== | |||
| *{{in lang|ru}} CHIDK (Centr Hranenja Istoriko-Documentalnoj Kollekcij, F. 1p, 1/4b, 4/n,b 4/1,b, 4/4,b) | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Democrazia Cristiana manifesto. ''Mandati in Russia dai Fascisti, trattenuti dai comunisti'', 1948 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}}Giusti, Maria Teresa. ''La propaganda anti-fascista tra i prigionieri di guerra Italiani nell'URSS''. Il Mulino, Bologna, anno 3, numero 3, September 2000 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Giusti, Maria Teresa. ''I prigionieri italiani in Russia''. Il Mulino Bologna 2003 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Italian Ministry of Defence. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. ''Le operazioni del CSIR e dell'ARMIR dal Giugno 1941 all'ottobre del 1942''. Roma, 1977 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Italian Ministry of Defence. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. ''Le operazioni delle unità italiane al fronte russo 1941-1942''. Roma 1977 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Italian Ministry of Defence. Commissariato Generale Onoranze Caduti in Guerra. ''CSIR-ARMIR, Campi di prigionia e fosse comuni''. Stabilimento grafico militare, Gaeta 1996. | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Clementi, Marco. "L'alleato Stalin". Rizzoli 2011 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Reginato, Enrico. ''Dodici anni di prigionia nell'URSS''. Garzanti 1965 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} ]. ''La strada del Davai''. Einaudi Torino 1966 | |||
| *{{in lang|ru}} ] (Rossiskiy Gosudarstvennyj Arhiv Social'no-Političeskoj Istorii f. 495 o 77: d. 26, d. 21a, d. 25, d. 26, d. 27, d. 39, d. 40, d. 49) | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} ]. ''Il sergente nella neve''. Einaudi 1965 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Ricchezza, Antonio. ''Storia Illustrata di tutta la campagna di Russia: luglio 1941 – maggio 1943''. Longanesi 1978 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Robotti, Paolo. ''Perché non si è fatta luce sulla campagna di Russia. Dove sono i soldati dell'ARMIR''. Supplemento all'Unità, 13 Agosto 1948 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Valori, Aldo. ''La campagna di Russia CSIR, ARMIR 1941-1943''. Roma 1951 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Vio, Emilio. ''Corvi sulla neve''. Roma Ellemme 2004 | |||
| *Werth, Alexander. ''Russia at war: 1941-1945''. Carroll & Graf, New York 1964 | |||
| *{{in lang|it}} Zilli, Valdo. ''Fascisti e anti-fascisti. Il trattamento politico dei prigionieri di guerra nell'URSS''. In 'Il ponte'', anno 6, No 11, November 1950 | |||
| ==See also== | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| *] | |||
| {{World War II|state=collapsed}} | |||
| {{DEFAULTSORT:Italian Prisoners Of War In The Soviet Union}} | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
| ] | |||
Latest revision as of 22:14, 20 December 2024
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Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union is the narrative of POWs from the Italian Army in Russia (the ARMIR and CSIR) and of their fate in Stalin's Soviet Union during and after World War II.
Characteristics
Over 60,000 Italian prisoners of war (POWs) were taken captive by the Red Army in the Second World War. Almost all of them were captured during the decisive Soviet "Operation Little Saturn" offensive in December 1942 which annihilated the Italian Army in Russia (Armata Italiana in Russia (ARMIR)).
At its height, the ARMIR was about 235,000 strong, and operated between December 1942 and February 1943 in support of the German forces engaged in and around Stalingrad. In this period the total figure of missing Italian soldiers amounted to 84,830 (Italian Ministry of Defence, 1977a 1977b). According to the Soviet archives, 54,400 Italian prisoners of war reached the Soviet prisoner camps alive; 44,315 prisoners (over 81%) died in captivity inside the camps, most of them in the winter of 1943. Another estimate for the death rate in the Soviet camp was 56.5%.
A 79% estimate of death rate has been suggested for the Italian soldiers held by the Soviet Union: (estimate by Thomas Schlemmer [de]). According to Schlemmer, only 10,032 POWs were eventually repatriated out of approximately 48,000 that arrived in the POW camps. Another 22,000 died during the marches to the camps. Another estimate for the number of repatriated soldiers is 19,000-21,000 but it includes Italians captured by the USSR in later stages of the war.
A list of the soldiers' names, in Cyrillic, including date and place of death, was yielded by the Russian authorities after 1989 (Italian Ministry of Defence, 1996). 10,085 prisoners were repatriated between 1945 and 1954. The individual fate of 30,430 soldiers, who died during the fighting and the withdrawal or after capture, is less well known. It is estimated that about 20,000 men lost their lives due to the fighting and 10,000 men died between the time they became prisoners to the time they registered inside the camps.
Russian sources list the deaths of 28,000 of a total (according to them) of 49,000 Italian POWs in the Soviet Union from 1942 to 1954.
The way to the POW camps
Travel to the destination camps in captivity covered hundreds of kilometres and was done mainly on foot. They were reported by survivors as the "davai" marches. "Davai!" is a Russian expression of urging, in this context meaning "keep moving!" The prisoners were escorted by the Red Army and often partisans without mercy for those who fell down frozen or exhausted (Revelli, 1966). The transfer was completed by using freight trains, where many prisoners died of the extremely cold temperatures and lack of food.
Camps, treatment and causes of death
Suzdal 160, Tambov, Oranki, Krinovoje, Michurinsk, sited in Eastern European Russia, were the camps where most Italian POWs were detained in dismal conditions. Others were known just by their reference numbers, as Lager 58/c and Lager 171 (Italian Ministry of Defence, 1996). Typhus and starvation related diseases were the major causes of mortality inside the camps (Giusti, 2003). Brutality from the Soviet troops and partisans to unarmed prisoners was reported, but survivors testified also to episodes of comradeship among soldiers of the two opposing nations, especially on the front line (Rigoni Stern, 1965) and, compassion from the Russian civilians (Vio, 2004).
The Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union were subject to plenty of propaganda. The propaganda was delivered by Italian Communist cadres who had fled fascism in Italy to the Soviet Union, known in Italy as fuoriusciti (expatriates) (Zilli, 1950). Despite allurements and threats most of the prisoners, particularly if not previously compromised by fascism, resisted the propaganda (Giusti, 2000). Prisoners' conditions improved greatly with the spring of 1943 because of Soviet Government concern and better camp administration, sharply increasing the food supply and the numbers of soldiers surviving.
Reasons for forgotten tragedy
The issue of Italian prisoners of war in the Soviet Union remained a hot political topic in post-war Italy. It was never seriously investigated because of the Soviet authorities' unwillingness to yield information about the destiny of the tens of thousands of missing soldiers. Their case was used in an instrumental way by the centre-right parties which accused the Soviet Union of not returning its prisoners of war (Democrazia Cristiana manifesto, 1948), and denied as anti-communist propaganda by the left (Robotti) during the first democratic elections in Italy (1948). Unbiased information underpinning the size of the tragedy and an objective historical reconstruction came only after the fall of the Soviet Union (Giusti, 2003) when most public interest in Italy had already faded away.
See also
References
- Giusti, Maria Teresa (April 30, 2021). Stalin's Italian Prisoners of War. Central European University Press. ISBN 978-963-386-356-5.
- ^ Moore, Bob (May 5, 2022). Prisoners of War: Europe: 1939-1956. Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/oso/9780198840398.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-187597-7.
- Thomas Schlemmer, Invasori, non vittime – La campagna italiana di Russia 1941–1943, Bari, Laterza, 2009, ISBN 978-88-420-7981-1, page 153
- Vadim Erlikman. Poteri narodonaseleniia v XX veke : spravochnik. Moscow 2004. ISBN 5-93165-107-1 Page 47
Further reading
- (in Russian) CHIDK (Centr Hranenja Istoriko-Documentalnoj Kollekcij, F. 1p, 1/4b, 4/n,b 4/1,b, 4/4,b)
- (in Italian) Democrazia Cristiana manifesto. Mandati in Russia dai Fascisti, trattenuti dai comunisti, 1948
- (in Italian)Giusti, Maria Teresa. La propaganda anti-fascista tra i prigionieri di guerra Italiani nell'URSS. Il Mulino, Bologna, anno 3, numero 3, September 2000
- (in Italian) Giusti, Maria Teresa. I prigionieri italiani in Russia. Il Mulino Bologna 2003
- (in Italian) Italian Ministry of Defence. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. Le operazioni del CSIR e dell'ARMIR dal Giugno 1941 all'ottobre del 1942. Roma, 1977
- (in Italian) Italian Ministry of Defence. Stato Maggiore Esercito. Ufficio Storico. Le operazioni delle unità italiane al fronte russo 1941-1942. Roma 1977
- (in Italian) Italian Ministry of Defence. Commissariato Generale Onoranze Caduti in Guerra. CSIR-ARMIR, Campi di prigionia e fosse comuni. Stabilimento grafico militare, Gaeta 1996.
- (in Italian) Clementi, Marco. "L'alleato Stalin". Rizzoli 2011
- (in Italian) Reginato, Enrico. Dodici anni di prigionia nell'URSS. Garzanti 1965
- (in Italian) Revelli, Nuto. La strada del Davai. Einaudi Torino 1966
- (in Russian) RGASPI (Rossiskiy Gosudarstvennyj Arhiv Social'no-Političeskoj Istorii f. 495 o 77: d. 26, d. 21a, d. 25, d. 26, d. 27, d. 39, d. 40, d. 49)
- (in Italian) Rigoni Stern, Mario. Il sergente nella neve. Einaudi 1965
- (in Italian) Ricchezza, Antonio. Storia Illustrata di tutta la campagna di Russia: luglio 1941 – maggio 1943. Longanesi 1978
- (in Italian) Robotti, Paolo. Perché non si è fatta luce sulla campagna di Russia. Dove sono i soldati dell'ARMIR. Supplemento all'Unità, 13 Agosto 1948
- (in Italian) Valori, Aldo. La campagna di Russia CSIR, ARMIR 1941-1943. Roma 1951
- (in Italian) Vio, Emilio. Corvi sulla neve. Roma Ellemme 2004
- Werth, Alexander. Russia at war: 1941-1945. Carroll & Graf, New York 1964
- (in Italian) Zilli, Valdo. Fascisti e anti-fascisti. Il trattamento politico dei prigionieri di guerra nell'URSS. In 'Il ponte, anno 6, No 11, November 1950
See also
- Italian prisoners of war in Australia
- Italian participation in the Eastern Front
- Military history of Italy during World War II
- Prisoners of war in World War II
- World War II casualties
- World War II casualties of the Soviet Union
