"NKVD or Commisar Memoir?" Topic
7 Posts
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| Frothers Did It And Ran Away | 03 Nov 2014 6:20 a.m. PST |
Can anyone recommend a first hand account written by someone from the less savoury side of the Soviet war effort? |
| tberry7403 | 03 Nov 2014 7:33 a.m. PST |
Wouldn't that be a confession of having committed "War Crimes"? Plus I don't think Uncle Joe would approve of someone admitting what was done in his name. |
| Martin Rapier | 03 Nov 2014 7:50 a.m. PST |
The most famous account is probably the one Nikita Kruschev wrote abut his time as a Red Commisar. Commisar and NKVD are not synonymous. |
| Tango India Mike | 03 Nov 2014 8:41 a.m. PST |
I think Uncle Joe would have it put in the memory hole… |
| Zargon | 03 Nov 2014 1:04 p.m. PST |
Try looking at their activities just after the war as told by perhaps people who had to endure their 'special' policing practices, perhaps the Czechs or Poles there must be some word that got out, I'd be interested myself.
Any thing in the book 'Ivan's War'
Cheers |
| myxemail | 03 Nov 2014 1:33 p.m. PST |
Check out "Through the Maelstrom" by Boris Gorbachevsky. He was a political officer in the Soviet army. Forward by David Glantz. Mike |
| Frothers Did It And Ran Away | 03 Nov 2014 3:38 p.m. PST |
Commisar and NKVD are not synonymous. I know  Gorbachevsky sounds like the sort of thing I'm after thanks! |
| Martin Rapier | 04 Nov 2014 7:57 a.m. PST |
If you want something more ground level, 'Drawings from the Gulag' by Danzig Baldaev is worth a look. He worked as an NKVD prison guard, but as the orphan of an enemy of the state wasn't either a commisar or an NKVD officer. Pretty horrible stuff, although as it also appears to be a psychological purgative, some of the broader generalisations might be taken with a pinch of salt although I don't have any doubt he individual incidents were real. Interesting observations about the vory v zakone, which were one of his principal interests and iirc he was directed by the NKVD to study them. It covers the workings of the Soviet Gulag from 1918 until around the 1960s, so doesn't cover the Tsarist predecesors nor the modern equivalents. |
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is back from Council of Five Nations.