The Last Secret: The Delivery to Stalin of Over Two Million Russians by Britain & the United States

by Nicholas Bethell

One crease to spine, Very slight signs of age or use. 1976, 4 1/2 By 7"

Genres: History, World War II, Soviet Union, Nonfiction

224 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 1974

About the author

Nicholas William Bethell, 4th Baron Bethell (19 July 1938 – 8 September 2007) was a British politician. He was a historian of Central and Eastern Europe. He was also a translator and human rights activist. He sat in the House of Lords as a Conservative from 1967 to 1999. He served as an appointed member of the European Assembly from 1975 to 1979, and as an elected Member of the European Parliament from 1979 to 1994, and from 1999 to 2003.

Reviews

[Mostafa · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.3 stars
در سال ۱۹۷۳ اسنادی از آرشیو وزارت امور خارجه انگلستان از حالت محرمانه خارج شد که موضوع کتاب "راز بزرگ" است که در سال ۱۹۷۴ نوشته شد

حدود ۵۰۰۰۰ هزار نفر از اهالی کازاک( که با قزاق ها فرق دادند) در ناحیه جنوب غرب روسیه و جنوب شرق اکراین در مجاور رود دُن( رمان دُن آرام اثر سترگ میخائیل شولوخوف به این قوم می پردازد) زندگی می کردند که از ظلم استالین به ستوه آمده بودند.... آنها پس از مهاجرت به غرب، در دوره جنگ جهانی دوم به ارتش آلمان پیوستند، الحاق آنها به ارتش نازی صرفا برای مبارزه با استالین در جبهه شرق بود اما از آنها در جبهه غرب و جنگ با انگلستان و آمریکا به کارگیری شد که در نهایت، توسط قوای متفق در غرب اسیر شدند..... این کتاب، راوی بازگشت خونبار این گروه از زنان و کودکان و مردانیست که حتی در جبهه نبرد نیز شرکت نکردند و حال می بایست به عنوان خائن به شوروی ( طبق معاهده یالتا) بازگردانده شوند. افرادی که در بهترین حالت می بایست به سیبری تبعید شوند..... افسرانی که در جنگ شرکت داشتند، در همان ابتدا اعدام شدند، سربازانی که با لباس آلمان جنگیده بودند تحت عنوان خائن به وطن محاکمه شدند و برخی هم قبل از تحویلشان به روس ها، خودکشی کردند که صحنه های دلخراشی را در تاربخ جنگ جهانی دوم رقم زد..... وزارت خارجه انگلستان، تحویل این افراد را حتی فراتر از معاهده یالتا تضمین کرد ، عاقبت خوش خدمتی به استالین مرگ هزاران نفر از این افراد در تبعیدگاه های استالین بود که نخست وزیر انگلستان ( چرچیل) و وزیر امور خارجه( ایدن) نقش کلیدی در انتقال این افراد داشتند

[Eric · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a fascinating and depressing story of how the Allied powers (Britian and the United States) turned over Russian citizens to the Soviet Union in the immediate aftermath of World War 2. Like most historical acounts concerning communist Russia, it's a story filled with needless tragedy and terror.

As the Allies began their 1944 invasion of France and began their march west to Berlin, they aquired hundreds of thousands of Russians who, for various reasons, had donned a German uniform to fight against the Soviets. Several Russians willingly did so out of their hatred for the communists, while several others were forced by the Germans by being offered a "choice" of either starving to death in a German POW camp, or joining the German army. Several of these soldiers had families that traveled with their German units. Several of these soldiers were Russian citizens, while others were citizens of other countries that fell under communist control and were forced to fight in the Red Army. One prominent Soviet general was allowed to form his own unit of former Red Army soldiers in the German army.

But the majority of these Russians in German uniforms were forced into German service against their will.

What were the Allies to do with these captured Russians wearing the enemy's uniform? In the first chapter, Bethell describes the process in which the British ministry reached their ultimate decision: they were to be returned, by force if necessary, to Russia. Stalin wanted them back, and the Allies didn't want to tick him off because they knew the Red Army had collected British and American POWs as they marched toward Germany from the east.

Trouble was, most of the Russian soldiers and their families didn't want to go back. In fact, many committed suicide rather than return to Russia. They knew what awaited them: execution or ten years in the Gulag. Stalin didn't care if they were forced to fight for the Germans, he didn't care if all they did for the German army was to dig trenches and build roads; he distrusted every one of them.

Bethell describes in heartbreaking detail the ordeal of these Russians, plus the harsh duty that sympathetic British officers carried out in returning them to Russia. Most officers felt it was wrong to turn them over. But they were ordered to do so, and even worse, ordered to lie to the Russians and their families as they waited their fate in British camps. The British high command didn't want the Russians to know in advance they were to be returned, since they knew the soldiers would resist, kill themselves, or flee. So the officers watching over them were ordered to tell the Russians that they would not be turned over - until the time came to turn them over.

When that time arrived, many indeed killed not only themselves, but their wives and children first. There are accounts of husbands shooting their families before turning the gun on themselves. There are accounts of a mother throwing her two small children into a raging river, and then jumping in after them. Russians hanged themselves and cut their wrists and throats, and begged Allied soldiers to shoot them. Anything to avoid going back to Russia.

Their fears were grounded in truth. Virtually all of them, along with innocent women and children, were either executed or sent to Gulag to die. British officers reported seeing groups of Russians, once they were let off their ship or train, being led to a warehouse or wooded area by Red Army soldiers, and then hearing the rattle of machine gun fire. No trials, no reviews, no attempt made to determine guilt or innocence.

It's a depressing book. But important to remember to avoid repeating similar mistakes. In fact, the West seemed to have learned that. In 1952, toward the end of the Korean War, the communists demanded the return of all Korean and Chinese citizens in South Korea. This time, the West refused.

[Valerie Thompson · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this in the mid eighties and it opened my eyes in a major way, a disturbing yet necessary read for one to understand the system of which we are all a part.

[Ivan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A first look into the problem of fair evaluation of the events following the World War 2 and the main features of the conflict, which still stay obscured due to the considerations of respectability for the governments of the Western European countries and the lack of recognition of the real objectives, shared both by the defeated Nazi Germany and the victorious allies - namely diminishing the importance of the Eastern Europe, regardless of the human cost of such an endeavour. In addition to that and in the light of the recent declassification of the full figures of the Eastern European victims of the war standing at 51 million people, this book was at the forefront of research of the WW2 being the continuation of the Russian Civil war, the struggle for independence of the Russian imperial colonies and the opportunistic racist plan of the British government to weaken the Central Europe to kill off the majority of Germans and Russians by their own hands. Reading about W.Churchill and the domestic policies of Britain will show that the sole reason for Britain not joining the German government was that the British ruling classes didn't like the idea of the Germans being equal to them, Germans being intermixed with Slavic peoples, and of course sharing the colonial bounties and repenting for the completely unjust World War 1 started on the phony premises of "Teuton Peril", not because they did not somehow support the whole ideology developed by Hitler.

There is definitely a need of reevaluating the roles of every actor of WW2, and a New Nuremberg Case - this time against British, French and Soviet war criminals or their descendants.

[James Blakey · Rating 5 out of 5]

The history they didn't teach me in school.

The first time I learned about the Allies forced reparation of Soviet soldiers and citizens after World War 2 was watching the 1995 James Bond film "Goldeneye." The antagonist 006/Alec Trevelyan (played by Sean Bean) is the son of forcible repatriated Cossacks, and intends to destroy London in retribution. When Trevelyan reveals this to Bond (Pierce Brosnan, 007 comments that the repatriation was "Not our finest hour."

Nicholas Bethell did a tremendous job combing government documents and newspaper articles, interviewing survivors of repatriation and the Allied officers and soldiers involved in the operation.

It's interesting to read how some Allied soldiers and officers thought the repatriations were wrong, but it was just another wrong in a war of wrongs. And they followed their orders to send back these POWs, knowing full well that they would be tortured and/or killed.

[John Geddes]

"Adds much material to Epstein's research [in Operation Keelhaul https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/6...] on the repatriations of Russians and their families who ended the war on the wrong (i.e. losing) side."

IHR Revisionist Bibliography 1981
https://archive.is/LWkOQ

[Edward Gerk · Rating 5 out of 5]

It's a shocker. War or not, allies or not, the West treated many Russian returnees unfairly. We have a lot to answer for, especially since leaders knew what waited for many when they returned to Soviet soil.

[Ipswichblade · Rating 4 out of 5]

Harrowing but interesting book about the forced repatriation of Russians by the UK and USA after the war

[Josh · Rating 5 out of 5]

very good