THE LEGAL PROCESS OF 1966 IN MINERALNYE VODY OVER THE CASE OF THE ACCOMPLICES TO THE GERMAN INVADERS: PECULIARITIES OF PREPARATION AND CONDUCTING

Abstract

The article throws light upon the gaps in the manifestations of collaborationism in Stavropol territory during the Great Patriotic War, when a greater part of the territory was under the German occupation. The author examines the criminal activity of the police structures and their German patrons in the town of Mineralnye Vody in 1942-1943 who carried out mass extermination of peaceful Soviet citizens. The author reveals the mechanism of the preparation by the occupation authorities of the mass extermination of the Jewish population in Autumn 1942 and the participation in it of the local collaborationists. The post-war activity of the KGB bodies to expose the crimes of the Nazi accomplices and their subsequent searches in the territory of the Soviet Union is also examined. It is emphasized, that there is no prescription for such crimes. The peculiarities of the preparation and conducting of the legal process over the case of the former policemen held in 1966 in the town of Mineralnye Vody are described in detail. The participation of the large circles of the public in the conducting of the legal procedures is analyzed, the attitude of the population to the severe verdict delivered by the Court-Martial to the former German accomplices is accentuated.

Keywords

• the great patriotic war
• stavropol territory
• german occupation
• collaborationism
• police
• extermination of peaceful citizens
• search for german accomplices
• court-martial
• media coverage
• just revenge