Looting Normal Wartime Conduct Khrushchev

Khrushchev Remembers, by Nikita Khrushchev. 1970

Includes NKVD-Gestapo Cooperation, Initial Jewish Lack of Fear of Nazis, Normalcy of Wartime Looting (Not Only Poles From Jews), etc.

This work focuses on personages. It requires a good deal of background knowledge to fully appreciate. I discuss a few matters.

Nikita Khrushchev harkens back to the time before the Russian Revolution. He suggests that the 19th and early-20th century pogroms against Jews, and the reformist and revolutionary elements, had been instigated by the tsarist Russian authorities. The editor mentions the Black Hundreds and the Union of Russian People. (p. 266). [However, various scholars have stated that there is no archival evidence in support of the tsarist Russian government being behind the pogroms.]

Throughout this work, Khrushchev condemns Stalin for his brutality. He suggests that Lenin and Stalin differed in this manner: Lenin acted in an uncompromising manner towards the enemies of the Russian Revolution until Soviet power had been consolidated. Stalin, in contrast, was ruthless in an ongoing and indiscriminate manner. (p. 569). Of course, this is based on how one defines “the enemies of the Revolution”, and whether one thinks of the Revolution as a one-time act, or as an ongoing “permanent Revolution” against never-ending assumed threats. It also depends upon what one defines as “the enemies of the people”. Under totalitarianism, anything can and does happen.

Nikita Khrushchev became good friends with Wanda Wasilewska. He described her as a Communist of boundless loyalty, and one of a few people who could talk back to Stalin and retain his good graces. (p. 145).

THE GESTAPO AND THE NKVD IN CAHOOTS

After the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact, and the ensuing German-Soviet conquest of Poland in 1939, the USSR and Nazi Germany cooperated in various matters. Khrushchev (p. 141) confirms the fact, stated in Polish sources, that the Soviet NKVD and Nazi German Gestapo closely worked together. Khrushchev comments, (quote) These events were reported to me by Comrade Serov, the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs in the Ukraine. Serov’s duties required him to have contacts with the Gestapo. A Gestapo representative used to come to Lvov (Lwow, Lviv) on official business. (unquote). (p. 141).

ZYDOKOMUNA EXCULPATION FAILS: JEWS VOLUNTARILY RETURN TO NAZI-HELD TERRITORY

Part of the NKVD-Gestapo cooperation involved the transfer of peoples between Soviet-occupied eastern Poland and German-occupied western and central Poland. Khrushchev describes what happened, (unquote) Serov described the followed scene to me: “There are long lines standing outside the place where people register for permission to return to Polish territory. When I took a closer look, I was shocked to see that most of the people in line were members of the Jewish population. They were bribing the Gestapo agents to let them leave as soon as possible to return to their original homes.” (unquote). (p. 141).

The voluntarily return of Jews to Nazi-ruled territory refutes the oft-quoted exculpation that the 1939-1941 Jewish-Soviet collaboration (Zydokomuna), in conquered Poland, had been driven by gratitude for not falling into Nazi hands. Obviously, had the Jews been mortally afraid of the Nazis at the time, it would have been unthinkable for any of them to choose to return to Nazi-held territory. [The actual Holocaust was not to start for well over another year, and was not even imagined, by the Jews, at the time.]

STALINGRAD, AND THE NORMALCY OF WARTIME LOOTING

Nikita Khrushchev describes his experiences at the pivotal Battle of Stalingrad. He was then part of the operation that removed the bodies of thousands of German soldiers, and burned them in pyres, before the spring got warm and brought the threat of disease. (p. 199).

He adds the following detail, (quote) Around Stalingrad we found dead German soldiers who had been stripped half naked. Their trousers and boots were often missing. It wasn’t the wolves who had gotten to them. It was the work of pillagers, I’m sorry to say. I think probably both soldiers and civilians had taken part in the pillaging. (unquote). (p. 199).

Now consider the media-acclaimed Jan T. Gross, who had accused Poles of being greedy and anti-Semitic (what else?) for appropriating Jewish belongings during WWII. From Khrushchev’s experiences, it is obvious that looting was not something that Poles “did to the Jews”. It was a common wartime conduct that respected no nationality as either perpetrator or target.

NOT TRUE THAT THE SOVIET UNION WON WORLD WAR II

Quite a few Russian commentators suggest that it was the Soviet Union that was responsible for the defeat of Nazi Germany, and that the West’s contribution was a sideshow. In contrast, Khrushchev appreciates the crucial role of Lend Lease aid from the West. (pp. 225-226). In particular, the motorized vehicles provided via Lend Lease aid played a decisive role in making the Red Army maneuverable in its drive from Stalingrad to Berlin. Khrushchev expressed shame that, even so many years after the end of WWII, the Soviet military still had relied on American equipment for transport. (p. 226).

THE EVENTS OF 1956: POLAND WOULD HAVE FOUGHT A SOVIET INVASION

Khrushchev describes the invasion of Hungary, by the USSR, in 1956. In contrast, the editor gives the reason for the fact that the Soviet Union did not invade Poland in 1956. He claims that Marshal Rokossovsky, then Polish Minister of Defense, though a Soviet Army commander, warned the Kremlin leadership that the Polish Army would fight, as a body, against any Soviet invaders. (p. 419).

THE CUBAN MISSILE CRISIS (OCTOBER 1962)

Khrushchev states that, while the Soviet military had not deployed all the missiles it had intended to in Cuba, some of them were already operational at the time of the Crisis. They could have been launched against Washington, New York, Chicago, etc. (p. 496).