On Approaches to the Assessment of Interactions of Soviet Partisans and Finnish Saboteurs with Civilians during World War II
| 13 August 2024
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Verigin S.G.,
Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation
On Approaches to the Assessment of Interactions of Soviet Partisans and Finnish Saboteurs with Civilians during World War II
Abstract
The issue of the activities of the Soviet sabotage/reconnaissance units and partisan parties in the Finnish troops’ rear and suchlike activities of the Finnish reconnaissance units in the Soviet rear in the days of military confrontation on the Karelian front (1941-1944), as well as interactions of these two special detachments with civilians of two countries up to the 1990s is virtually unstudied in the scholarship. During the Soviet period (from the end of the war to “perestroika”) the countries didn’t touch upon these sensitive historical issues for fear of exacerbation of relations between the USSR and Finland. Collapse of the Soviet Union, sweeping changes occurred in Russia in the last 20 years and disappearance of inflexible ideological attitude system gave new opportunities for studying this topic. New documents and materials that have become available show that many issues concerning the partisan movement in Karelia remain unstudied, several points demand reassessment. Only during the recent years researchers gained access to the documents of the departmental archives (Archive of the Federal Security Service (FSB) Directorate for the Republic of Karelia and Archive of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Karelia) and were able to research the activities of the Soviet sabotage/reconnaissance units of the People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (NKVD) and the military intelligence in the rear of the Finnish troops during the war (1941 – 1944) and assess its effectiveness. There are new publications on the activities of the Finnish diversionary troops in the Soviet rear and their attitude towards non-combatants and civilians. Further studying of international law aspects concerning the Soviet and Finnish sabotage/reconnaissance units’ activities directed to civilians and non-combatants in the days of World War II in the North is needed. Maximum effect can be achieved within the framework of joint Russian-Finnish projects.
Keywords
World War II, Russia, Finland, the Soviet partisans, the Finnish saboteurs
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About the authors
Verigin Sergey Gennadievich, PhD in History, professor, director of the History, Political and Social Sciences Institute of the Petrozavodsk State University, Petrozavodsk, Russian Federation, +7-911-400-46-51, This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it