The Activities of the Internal Troops of the NKVD of the USSR for the Protection of the Rear and the Reception of Prisoners of War of the Wehrmacht in the Stalingrad Area (1942–1943)

Abstract

The activities of the internal troops of the NKVD of the USSR for the protection of the rear of the active army and the organization of camps for enemy prisoners of war in the Stalingrad area are among the most significant and still little-studied problems in the history of the Great Patriotic War. Stalingrad and its environs were not only the place of fierce resistance of enemy troops when they were surrounded but also the place of one of their most large-scale and deciding defeats. The subsequent reception and accommodation of Hitler’s prisoners of war became unprecedented in its scale and composition, which required solving new significant tasks by the internal troops of the NKVD of the USSR. The purpose of this work is to summarize the experience of the NKVD internal troops in working with prisoners of war of the Wehrmacht captured during the Battle of Stalingrad. The author analyzed the process of forming the Stalingrad prisoner-of-war camps; determined the main lines of work with prisoners of war in the conditions of the front-line area; summarized the practices of creating proper living conditions for prisoners of war, organizing their nutrition, medical support, escorting them under guard, etc. The author has shown that the Soviet military authorities, bodies of internal affairs, and commanding officers of internal troops made every effort and used every available opportunity to preserve the lives and health of enemy prisoners. Despite the fact that faults and shortcomings in organizing the reception, transportation, and accommodation of prisoners of war were quite common, as a rule, they were of a individual rather than general nature and led to the strictest responsibility. The leadership of the NKVD bodies and troops did not remain indifferent to violations of the rules for the reception and detention of prisoners of war and persistently fought to eliminate the shortcomings, applying appropriate sanctions to those responsible regardless of their titles and military ranks. The conclusions and generalizations made in this article expand the understanding of Russian history during the Great Patriotic War and of the organization and activities of the internal troops of the NKVD of the USSR in wartime conditions.

Keywords

• great patriotic war
• internal troops of the nkvd of the ussr
• stalingrad
• prisoners of war
• pow camps