History 01/02/20 Why European soldiers feared captured Russian
One of the manifestations of blatant cruelty towards the Russian prisoners became the case after the battle of Fraustadt in 1706 during the Northern war. He described in some detail in the book Alexander Bespalov “Russian auxiliary corps in the service of Saxony during the great Northern war”. This battle ended with the victory of the Swedes, and captured many Russian soldiers and their allies of the Saxons. And if the last General Reheld spared, the Russian immediately after the battle was ordered to destroy. For the Swedes this order seemed perfectly logical.
I would not love the Russian
the Battle of Fraustadt is just one of many examples. The fate of Russian prisoners in the course of two decades, the Northern war was unenviable. However, in subsequent wars took them prisoner is reluctant, although the European allies of Russia are usually treated more graciously. Especially if those are not provided fierce resistance. This was one of the reasons.
Russian soldiers have always shown the wonders of the resistance, fighting to the last even with the obvious advantage of the enemy. They chose not to surrender and to die in battle, believing that it is better a glorious death than a shameful life. The Europeans generally were more considerate, leaving their weapons and advancing towards the enemy with their hands up, when the defeat became obvious.
In the Middle ages and in modern times in Europe, prisoners were often recruited.They were fighting on the enemy side in exchange for food, sometimes money, and – most importantly –life. Of course, in collisions with “” these soldiers were not very reliable and sought to be captured “back”. So they tried to use on other fronts.
But with the Russians, this number is not passed. They remained loyal to Tsar and Fatherland, even while in captivity. And at the first opportunity triestrying to escape or harm “adversary”. That is, besides that Russian is not passed to the enemy, they still demanded careful attention and protection. Of course, to feed such “inconvenient” prisoners nobody wanted.
the Red army soldiers in German captivity
the First days of the war became a disaster for the Soviet Union. As a result of the environments were captured about 3 million people. Is the number of workers initially cheered the Germans. But they had a chance encounter with high moral qualities of the Russian soldier. Whenever the Russians tried to run, and preferred to die with weapons in hand to take with him as many of the enemy soldiers. That’s how he wrote about Hitler in his diary: “the Russians are fighting like beasts, to my last breath, and they have to kill one after another.”
Disasters first days of the war were not repeated and boilers were less common. Even the Soviet soldiers did not count on the favor of the enemy, but because the prisoner chose not to give up. The Germans have gone to the deliberate extermination of Russian prisoners of war in the camps: they were given reduced rations used at the most heavy work and for experimentation.
Yaroslav Gorbunov
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