Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 1 Origins of Soviet Counterinsurgency
- 2 The Borderland Societies in the Interwar Period: The First Soviet Occupation and the Emergence of Nationalist Resistance
- 3 The Borderlands under German Occupation (1941–1944): Social Context of the Soviet Reconquest
- 4 Nationalist Resistance after the Soviet Reconquest
- 5 Soviet Agrarian Policy as a Pacification Tool
- 6 Deportations, “Repatriations,” and Other Types of Forced Migration as Aspects of Security Policy
- 7 Amnesties
- 8 Red Rurales: The Destruction Battalions
- 9 Police Tactics: Actions of NKVD Security Units, Intelligence Gathering, Covert Operations, and Intimidation
- 10 The Church in Soviet Security Policy
- 11 Violations of Official Policy and Their Impact on Pacification
- 12 Conclusion: Nationalist Resistance and Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Global Context
- Appendix A Note on Used Terms and Geographic and Personal Names
- Appendix B Note on Primary Sources
- Bibliography
- Index
Appendix B - Note on Primary Sources
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 05 May 2010
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Figures
- List of Tables
- Acknowledgments
- Glossary
- Introduction
- 1 Origins of Soviet Counterinsurgency
- 2 The Borderland Societies in the Interwar Period: The First Soviet Occupation and the Emergence of Nationalist Resistance
- 3 The Borderlands under German Occupation (1941–1944): Social Context of the Soviet Reconquest
- 4 Nationalist Resistance after the Soviet Reconquest
- 5 Soviet Agrarian Policy as a Pacification Tool
- 6 Deportations, “Repatriations,” and Other Types of Forced Migration as Aspects of Security Policy
- 7 Amnesties
- 8 Red Rurales: The Destruction Battalions
- 9 Police Tactics: Actions of NKVD Security Units, Intelligence Gathering, Covert Operations, and Intimidation
- 10 The Church in Soviet Security Policy
- 11 Violations of Official Policy and Their Impact on Pacification
- 12 Conclusion: Nationalist Resistance and Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Global Context
- Appendix A Note on Used Terms and Geographic and Personal Names
- Appendix B Note on Primary Sources
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Before the archives containing files on Soviet security policy were declassified in the mid-1990s, authors who explored the conflict in the borderlands based their studies on the memoirs of Soviet partisans and nationalist guerrillas, propaganda pamphlets printed by the resistance and the Soviets, a few Soviet documents captured by Germans and nationalists, and reports of the German counterintelligence. None of these sources yielded much information on Soviet counterinsurgency, and most distorted other aspects of the conflict. The memoirs of Red partisans, sanitized by censors, had to fulfill the order of the Communist party to maintain the myth of an all-people's war against the German invaders. Their authors exaggerate the popular support partisans enjoyed; they rarely mention the nationalist opposition that in some regions was stronger than the German one, and if they do, they inaccurately portray the nationalists as mere German pawns. Since few former partisans survived until Perestroika, no important memoirs emerged when censorship ended in the former Soviet republics. Although some memoirs published in the Soviet Union are more honest than others, they have limited value as primary sources.
The former nationalist guerrillas who escaped to the West had no censors, yet, not unlike Red partisans, they pursued a political agenda. They typically misrepresented Soviet policy, oversimplified the social tensions in the borderlands, and downplayed the radicalism of their movements.
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- The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands , pp. 341 - 350Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2010