Предатели или жертвы войны: коллаборационизм в Карелии в годы Второй мировой войны 1939-1945 гг. - [71]

SUMMARY

Summing up the results of the research, first of all, it is necessary to note that the scale of collaborationism development in Karelia and Finland during World War 11 was negligiЬle. Only а small number of caught in the Soviet occupation zone Finnish civilians and Finnish prisoners of war cooperated with the Soviet state and military authorities during the Soviet — Finnish (Winter) War (1939–1940). Due to а small number of Finnish civilians and their unwillingness to cooperate with occupation administration the Soviet authorities failed to create а broad base of support of People's Government of Finland headed Ьу Kuusinen from the local population.

The conclusion that collaborationism didn't spread widely between Finns during the Winter War is also verified Ьу the fact that from 2080 of Finish civilians appeared on the territory of the Soviet Karelia after the end of military actions only 150 people decided to stay in the USSR (7,2 %)[504], and others came back to their motherland. For the most part it was people who cooperated with the Soviet state and military authorities and were afraid to Ье punished in Finland. Only а small part of Finns refused to return home Ьу the ideological reasons.

Collaborationism of Soviet civilians and Soviet prisoners of war on the occupied territory of the Soviet Karelia and Finland during the Great Patriotic War also didn't find а wide spread. It was clearly demonstrated in the final stage of military actions in the North when during the Soviet troops' attack in summer of 1944 Finnish military units began to retreat and therefore evacuation of local people also began.

2799 people were evacuated from the occupied Karelian territory to Finland, or only 3,35 % of total population of occupied zone, among them representatives of the related to Fins peoples accounted 2196 people (1422 Karelians, 314 Veps, 214 Finns, 176 Ingrians and 70 others), other peoples — 603 (244 Russians, 259 Ukrainians and 100 others)[505]. There is also data about Petrozavodsk. In the end of June 1944 when Finnish troops left the town only 487 people from 7589 of free civilians came with them[506].

The data shows the number of people moved to Finland was negligiЫe. NotaЬly, 3,35 % of collaborationists includes both people actively cooperated with occupation regime as well as people sympathized to the enemy. The data is significantly lower than those quoted Ьу V. 1. Boyarsky in the book "Partisans and army: the history of lost opportunities" ("Partizany i armiya: istoriya uteryannyh vozmozhnostei") and those the author noted in the introduction: "After several years of occupation 10 % of population can become traitors (3 % — active and 7 % — sympathized to the enemy)"[507]. Thus, we can confidently assert that the scale of collaborationism on the occupied territory of Karelia was significantly lower than in other country's regions that caught in the occupation zone.

lt is primarily explained Ьу the fact that there was no social base for а wide development of collaborationism in the occupied Karelian regions. The background of the base during the Great Patriotic War consists of people offended Ьу the Soviet authority (dispossessed kulaks, people suffered from religion persecutions, people repressed in the period of mass repressions in the second half of 1930s for political and national reasons etc.). Such people appeared to Ье very few in the occupied zone.

Generally evacuation of the population during the first period of the Great Patriotic War in Karelia, that at once became the frontline repuЬlic, succeeded in а very short time. All in all, according to the incomplete data, more than 530 thousands from 700 thousands of people who lived in the repuЬlic before the war were evacuated from the occupied repuЬlic regions. Working people of Karelia moved to the Vologda region, the Arkhangelsk region, the Кirov region, the Sverdlovsk region, the Gorkov region, the Novosiblrsk region, the Chelyablnsk region and others as well as to Komi, Bashkir, Chuvash, Udmurt and Tatar repuЬlics. Part of the population was evacuated to the eastern shore of the Onega Lake — the Pudozh region.

In the process of evacuation People's Commissariat for State Security of the Karelian-Finnish SSR first evacuated prisoners from Vyborg and Petrozavodsk jails as well as prisoners from cages that were part of the White-Sea-Baltic Plant (Belomorsko-Baltic Plant). In the end of 1930s the number of prisoners and special settlers worked for the White-Sea-Baltic Plant accounted for а quarter of all Karelian population[508]. Besides, special settlers (former kulaks) who had been expelled from other parts of the Soviet Union to the special settlements in Karelia in 1930s were also primarily evacuated. At the same time evacuation began even before the beginning of the military actions on the territory of the Karelian-Finnish SSR and entering of Finland in the war against the USSR in favour of Nazi Germany[509]. It can Ье assumed that the Soviet authorities were frightened that not-evacuated "doubtful element which is under consideration" could take the side of the enemy.