Soviet war crimes gives a short overview about serious crimes committed by the Red Army's (1918-1946, later Soviet Army) leadership and an unknown number of single members of the Soviet armed forces from 1919 to 1990 inclusive including those in Eastern Europe in late 1944 and early 1945, particularly murder and rape. The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya The Red Army ( Russian: Рабоче-Крестьянская Красная Армия R aboche- K rest'yanskaya K rasnaya A rmiya Eastern Europe is a general term that refers to the Geopolitical region encompassing the easternmost part of the European continent. Murder is the unlawful killing of another human person with Malice aforethought, as defined in Common Law countries Rape, also referred to as Sexual assault, is an Assault by a person involving Sexual intercourse with or Sexual penetration of another person Neither by any international military jurisdiction nor the Red Army’s leadership have any of its members have ever been charged with war crimes by a court of law. War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war" including but not limited to "murder the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied
On the part of the Axis powers an ethnic superiority ideology played a primary role in starting World War II and led to immediate, constant and systematic war crimes against the Soviet civilian population during the German invasion and occupation of Russia (1941-45). The Axis powers also known as the Axis alliance Axis nations Axis countries or sometimes just the Axis were those Countries The racial policy of Nazi Germany refers to the policies and laws implemented by Nazi Germany, asserting the superiority of the so-called " Aryan race " and World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including War crimes are "violations of the laws or customs of war" including but not limited to "murder the ill-treatment or deportation of civilian residents of an occupied An estimated 20 million civilians in the Soviet Union lost their lives during the war as a direct or indirect result of combat operations and a policy of systematic annihilation. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991
On the Soviet side, the Red Army was ideologically orientated and indoctrinated from its first day.  It was created in 1918 by the communist Soviet regime in order to defend the new regime in the bloody Russian Civil War. Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based The Russian Civil War (1917–1923 was a multi-party war that occurred within the former Russian Empire after the Russian provisional government collapsed Leon Trotsky, founding father of the Red Army, used propaganda, indoctrination and ruthless terror to defeat the White Army. Leon Trotsky ( Russian:, Lev Davidovich Trotsky, also transliterated Leo, Lyev, Trotskii, Trotski, Trotskij The White movement (Beloie Dvijenie Белое движение whose military arm is known as the White Army (Belaia Armia Белая Армия or White Guard  As a result of severe famine that started during World War I and disease, the deaths of civilians in the Russian Civil War were several times higher than those of combatants.  Some sources state that the number of civilian dead in this conflict was 9 times higher than that of troops in the field.  The Soviet Union did not recognize Tsarist Russia's assent to the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) as binding on the new regime and refused to sign it until 1955. The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and  The Red Army had also helped carry out genocide under Stalin, including helping oversee the deaths of millions in Ukraine from the Holodomor and elsewhere due to collectivization of argiculture, dekulakization, and the resulting famine. Genocide is the deliberate and systematic destruction in whole or in part of an ethnic racial religious or national group Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. The Holodomor (Голодомор is the famine that took place in Soviet Ukraine during the 1932-1933 agricultural season Collective farming is an organization of agricultural production in which the holdings of several farmers are run as a joint enterprise Dekulakization (раскулачивание was the Soviet campaign of Political repressions including Arrests, Deportations and Executions
Following the repulse of the German attack on the Soviet Union and Soviet troops entering Germany and Hungary in 1944, the number of war crimes, plunder, murder of civilians, and especially rape, reached a level of previously unknown proportions. Operation Barbarossa ( Unternehmen Barbarossa) was the Codename for Nazi Germany 's invasion of the Soviet Union during World War II The Eastern Front of World War II (die Ostfront 1941-1945, der Rußlandfeldzug 1941-1945 (Russian campaign or der Ostfeldzug 1941-1945 (Eastern Campaign Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany ( ˈbʊndəsʁepuˌbliːk ˈdɔʏtʃlant is a Country in Central Europe. Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic Rape, also referred to as Sexual assault, is an Assault by a person involving Sexual intercourse with or Sexual penetration of another person In Soviet and present Russian history books on the "Great Patriotic War" these war crimes are hardly mentioned. Russia (Россия Rossiya) or the Russian Federation ( Rossiyskaya Federatsiya) is a transcontinental Country extending The term Great Patriotic War (Великая Отечественная война Velikaya Otechestvennaya Vojna) is used in Russia and some other  With rare exceptions (notably Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn and Lev Kopelev) this evidence was found and published by Western historians after some of the Soviet archives were opened to the public following the Cold War. Aleksandr Isayevich Solzhenitsyn ( Алекса́ндр Иса́евич Солжени́цын) (December 11 1918 – August 3 2008 was a Russian Novelist Lev Zalmanovich Kopelev (also Lev Zinovevich Kopelev; Russian: Лев Залма́нович Ко́пелев or Лев Зино́вьевич Ко́пелев Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the
Crimes committed by the Red Army in occupied territories (Poland, the Baltic states, Romania, Hungary, the Czech Republic and Slovenia) between 1939 and 1941 and the follow-up atrocities of 1944–1949 have been present in the historical consciousness of these countries since the crimes were committed. Poland (Polska officially the Republic of Poland The Baltic states (Balti riigid Baltijas valstis Baltijos valstybės or Baltic countries are three countries in Northern Europe, all members of the Romania ( dated: Rumania, Roumania Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic The Czech Republic ( ˈt͡ʃɛskaː ˈrɛpuˌblɪka short form in Česko ˈt͡ʃɛskɔ also called Czechia, Slovenia, officially the Republic of Slovenia (Republika Slovenija) is a Country in southern Central Europe bordering Italy to the west Nevertheless, a systematic, publicly controlled discussion could begin only after the fall of the Soviet Union. The Soviet Union 's collapse into independent nations began early in 1985 . This is also true of the territories occupied by Soviet forces in Manchuria and the Kuril Islands after the Soviet Union breached its neutrality pact with Japan in 1945. Manchuria ( Romanized Manchu: Manju,, Маньчжурия Mongolian: Манж is a historical name given to a vast geographic region in northeast The Kuril Islands (ˈkʊrɪl or /ˈkjuˈriˈl/ Кури́льские острова́ əstrʌˈva ru-Latn ''Kuril'skie ostrova'' or Kurile Islands in Russia The was a Pact between the Soviet Union and the Empire of Japan signed in 1941 two years after the brief Soviet-Japanese Border War (1939. For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic Japan topics. 
From 1941 on, Stalin was willing to strike back against the invading Axis forces at all costs and led the war with extreme brutality, including against his own soldiers. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party The Eastern Front of World War II (die Ostfront 1941-1945, der Rußlandfeldzug 1941-1945 (Russian campaign or der Ostfeldzug 1941-1945 (Eastern Campaign  The Red Army took much higher casualties than any other military force during World War II, in part because of high manpower attrition and inadequate time for training.  Faced with badly equipped infantry units barely capable of standing up against machine guns, tanks and artillery, the tactics of Soviet commanders were often based on mass infantry attacks, inflicting heavy losses on their own troops. The Infantry is the oldest and most numerous of the Combat Arms in the Armed forces, and consists For other uses of the phrase see Machine Gun (disambiguation. A tank is a tracked, Armoured fighting vehicle designed for Front-line combat which combines Operational mobility and tactical Artillery (from French artillerie) is a military Combat Arm which employs any apparātus machine This tactic was also used for clearing minefields, which were ‘attacked’ by waves of infantry soldiers in order to clear them.  In accordance with the orders of Soviet High Command, retreating soldiers or even soldiers who hesitated to advance faced being shot by rearguard SMERSH units: Stalin’s order No 270 of August 16, 1941, states that in case of retreat or surrender, all officers involved were to be shot on the spot and all enlisted men threatened with total annihilation as well as possible reprisals against their families. SMERSH (acronym of SMERt' SHpionam, Russ СМЕРть Шпионам Eng Death to Spies) were the counter-intelligence departments in Order No 270, dated August 16, 1941, was issued by Joseph Stalin acting as People's Commissar of Defense . 
The Continuation War was fought between Finland and Soviet Union between 1941 and 1944. The Continuation War (Jatkosota Fortsättningskriget Советско-финская война ( 25 June 1941 &ndash 19 September 1944) During the war Soviet commando units conducted raids into Finnish territory and attacked mostly civilian targets, such as isolated houses and villages. In November 2006, pictures showing atrocities were declassified by Finnish authorities. The pictures include images of slain women and children. They had been kept secret for so long in order not to disturb relations with the powerful neighbor to the east. 
The Red Army invaded and occupied the eastern part of Poland in accordance with the secret protocols of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Later it occupied the Baltic States and parts of Ukraine and Bessarabia. Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Bessarabia ( Basarabia in Romanian, Бесарабія in Ukrainian, Бессарабия in Russian, Бесарабия in Bulgarian
The Soviet policy in all newly controlled areas was ruthless, showing strong elements of ethnic cleansing. Ethnic cleansing is a Euphemism referring to the persecution through imprisonment expulsion or killing of members of an ethnic minority by a majority to achieve ethnic homogeneity NKVD task forces followed the Red Army to clean the conquered territories of "Soviet-hostile elements. " The Polish historian Tomasz Strzembosz has noted parallels between the German Einsatzgruppen and these units. Tomasz Strzembosz (11 September 1930 - 16 October 2004 was a Polish historian specializing in history of Poland during Second World War, Harcmistrz. Einsatzgruppen ( German: "task forces" "intervention groups" were Paramilitary groups formed by Heinrich Himmler and  Many tried to escape from the Soviet NKVD, and those who failed were mostly taken into custody by the Red Army and afterwards deported to Siberia and/or vanished in the "Gulag". Siberia (Сиби́рь Sibir) is the name given to the vast region constituting almost all of Northern Asia and for the most part currently serving The Gulag was the government agency that administered the penal labor camps of the Soviet Union. 
During 1939-1941, for example, nearly 1. 5 million inhabitants of Soviet-controlled areas of former Poland were deported, of whom 63. 1% were Poles or other nationalities and 7. 4% were Jews. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ Only a fraction of these deportees survived the war. 
According to the American professor Carroll Quigley, at least 100,000 out of 320,000 Polish prisoners of war captured by the Red Army in 1939, were exterminated. Carroll Quigley ( November 9, 1910 - January 3, 1977) was a noted historian polymath and theorist of the evolution of civilizations 
Deportations, executions, torture as well as numerous other crimes against the population (murder, hostage taking, burning down of villages) increased when the Red Army was forced to retreat from the advancing Wehrmacht in 1941. Many political prisoners arrested by the NKVD were massacred in order to prevent their falling into German hands. In the Baltic States, Byelorussia, the Ukraine, and Bessarabia, imprisoned opponents were executed by the NKVD and attached units of the Red Army rather than left behind. Belarus ( Belarusian Беларусь / Biełaruś is a Landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered by Russia to the north and east Ukraine (Україна Ukrayina, /ukrɑˈjinɑ/ is a country in Eastern Europe. Bessarabia ( Basarabia in Romanian, Бесарабія in Ukrainian, Бессарабия in Russian, Бесарабия in Bulgarian These actions by the Soviets increased the hatred of those who had helped the Soviets, or were suspected of being Soviet allies, in particular the Jews. PLEASE TAKE NOTE************ As another result, in these countries the Einsatzgruppen could rely heavily on volunteers, willing to participate in their brutal operations, and tip-offs, especially in the Baltic States.  (See also NKVD prisoner massacres. The massacre of prisoners refers to a series of mass executions committed by the Soviet NKVD against prisoners in Poland, the Baltic states, )
From the turning point of the war on, the Red Army did not give up territories to the Wehrmacht, but mainly regained lost ground on the Eastern Front. The Battle of Stalingrad is a commonly used name in English sources for several large operations by Germany and its allies and Soviet forces conducted with the The Eastern Front of World War II (die Ostfront 1941-1945, der Rußlandfeldzug 1941-1945 (Russian campaign or der Ostfeldzug 1941-1945 (Eastern Campaign This resulted in revenge actions against all those who were accused of being collaborators during the German occupation, similar to the trials of collaborators in liberated France in France after D-Day. Collaboration is a recursive process where two or more people or organizations work together toward an intersection of common goals — for example an intellectual While in France this part of history is documented, debated and subject of many scientific reviews, very little is known today about what happened in the path of the Red Army, re-conquering former Soviet territory of the Baltic States. But some men of these countries voluntarily joined Waffen-SS divisions to defend their homelands against the Soviets, whenever the Red Army was approaching. See also List of Waffen SS units All divisions in the Waffen-SS were ordered in a single series regardless of type
In Poland, Nazi atrocities ended in late 1944, but Soviet oppression continued. The role of the Red Army during the Warsaw Uprising remains controversial and is still disputed by some historians. The Warsaw Uprising ( Powstanie Warszawskie) was a World War II struggle by the Polish Home Army ( Armia Krajowa) to liberate Warsaw Soldiers of Poland's Home Army (Armia Krajowa) were persecuted, sometimes imprisoned, and often executed following staged trials (as in the case of Witold Pilecki, the organizer of Auschwitz resistance). Witold Pilecki (May 13 1901 &ndash May 25 1948 ˈvitɔld piˈletski Codenames Roman Jezierski Tomasz Serafiński Druh Witold) was a Soldier "Auschwitz" redirects here For the town see Oświęcim Auschwitz-Birkenau () was the largest of Nazi Germany (See also Lack of outside support in the Warsaw Uprising. The Warsaw Uprising, in 1944 ended in the capitulation of the city and its near total destruction )
For further information see Flight and expulsion of Germans during and after WWII. German exodus from Eastern Europe. The German exodus from Eastern Europe refers to the exodus of ethnic German populations from lands to the east of present-day Germany and Austria. Evacuation of German civilians during the end of World War II. Plans to evacuate German population from the occupied territories in Central and Eastern Europe and from Eastern Germany were prepared by German authorities
According to historian Norman Naimark, the propaganda of Soviet troop newspapers and the orders of Soviet high command were jointly responsible for excesses by members of the Red Army. Norman Naimark, is a historian and acclaimed author specialising in modern East European history Genocide and Ethnic cleansing. The general tenor in the writings was that the Red Army had come to Germany as an avenger and judge to punish the Germans.  The Soviet author Ilya Ehrenburg wrote on January 31, 1945: The Germans have been punished in Oppeln, in Königsberg and in Breslau. An author is defined both as "the person who originates or gives existence to anything" and that authorship determines responsibility for what is created Ilya Grigoryevich Ehrenburg (Илья́ Григо́рьевич Эренбу́рг) ( Kiev, Russian Empire) &ndash August 31, 1967 ( Opole (Oppeln is a city in southern Poland on the Oder River (Odra Königsberg (Karaliaučius Low German: Königsbarg; Królewiec see also other names) was until 1946 the name of Kaliningrad. Wrocław (Breslau Vratislav Vratislavia or Wratislavia Yiddish: ברעסלוי) is the chief City of the historical region of Lower Silesia They have been punished, but yet not enough. Some have been punished, but yet not all of them . . . 
Calls of Soviet generals spurred on the soldiers, in addition. On January 12, 1945, army General Cherniakhovsky turned to his troops with the words: There shall be no mercy - for nobody, as there had also been no mercy for us. Ivan Danilovich Chernyakhovsky, also Cherniakhovsky, (Ива́н Дани́лович Черняхо́вский Uman, current Cherkasy . . The land of the fascists must become a desert …
On the German side, any organized evacuation of civilians was forbidden by the Nazi government to boost morale of the troops, now for the first time defending the "Fatherland," even when the Red Army entered German territory in the last months of 1944. German civilians, however, were well aware of the way the Red Army was conducting war against civilians from reports by friends and relatives who had served on the eastern front and feared the Red Army. Also, Nazi propaganda--originally meant to stiffen civil resistance by describing in gruesome and graphic detail Red Army atrocities such as the Nemmersdorf massacre--backfired and created panic among civilians. Nemmersdorf in East Prussia (today's Mayakovskoye, Kaliningrad Oblast) was one of the first pre-war German villages
As a result and whenever possible, when Nazi officials had already left, civilians began to flee westward at the last moment and on their own initiative.
Fleeing from the advancing Red Army, more than two million people in the eastern German provinces of (East Prussia, Silesia, Pomerania) died, some from cold and starvation, in the post-war ethnic cleansing, or killed when they got caught up in combat operations. East Prussia (Ostpreußen; Rytų Prūsija or Rytprūsiai; Prusy Wschodnie Восточная Пруссия or Vostochnaya Prussiya) refers to the main part Etymology One theory claims that the name Silesia is derived from the Silingi, who were most likely a Vandalic (East Germanic people The main death toll, however, occurred when the refugee columns were caught up by units of the Red Army. They were overrun by tanks, looted, shot, murdered; women and girls were raped and afterward left to die (see also: Prussian Nights). Prussian Nights (Ostpreussische Nächte is a long poem by Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn, a Captain in the Soviet Red Army during the Second  In addition, fighter bombers of the Soviet air force penetrated many kilometers behind the front lines and attacked columns of refugees. Ground-attack aircraft are military aircraft designed to attack targets on the ground and are often deployed as Close air support for and in proximity to their own ground forces An air force, also known in some countries as an air army or historically an army air corps, is in the broadest sense the national military or armed service 
Those who did not flee suffered by taking the burden of Red Army's occupying rules: Murder, rape, robbery, and expulsion. For example, in the East Prussian city of Königsberg, in August 1945 there were approximately 100,000 German civilians still living there after the Red Army had conquered the city. Königsberg (Karaliaučius Low German: Königsbarg; Królewiec see also other names) was until 1946 the name of Kaliningrad. When the Germans were finally expelled from Königsberg in 1948, only about 20,000 were still alive (see also expulsion of Germans after World War II). The expulsion of Germans after World War II was the Forced migration and Ethnic cleansing of German nationals ( Reichsdeutsche) and ethnic
The rampage which the Red Army in Germany went on during the occupation of the rest of Eastern Germany often led to incidents like Demmin, a small city conquered by Soviet forces in the spring of 1945. Demmin (dɛˈmiːn is a Town in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Germany. Despite the unconditional and complete surrender of Demmin to the Red Army without any prior fighting in or around the city, nearly 900 people committed suicide after Demmin had been declared open for looting and pillaging for three days by Soviet commanders. 
Although mass executions of civilians by the Red Army are not reported on a regular basis, there is a known incident in the Treuenbrietzen, where at least 88 male civilians were rounded up and shot on May 1, 1945. Treuenbrietzen is a town in the Bundesland of Brandenburg, Germany. This atrocity took place after a victory celebration of Soviet soldiers, at which numerous girls from Treuenbrietzen were raped and a lieutenant-colonel of the Red Army was shot by an unknown person. Lieutenant Colonel ( Lieutenant-Colonel in English from the French grade 's spelling is a rank of Commissioned officer in the armies Some sources claim even up to 1,000 executed in this event. 
Upon seizure of Polish territories occupied by German forces, Soviet soldiers often engaged in plunder, rapes and banditry against Poles, turning the attitude of population to dislike, fear, and even hate the Soviet regime.  Red Army troops participated in anti-Polish actions (e. g. , in Augustów region, where about 600 perished). The Augustów chase 1945 ( Polish Obława augustowska) was an extraordinary operation undertaken by Soviet forces of the Red Army, the NKVD For more information about this subject, look at Cursed soldiers. The ' cursed soldiers' (Żołnierze wyklęci is a name applied to a variety of Polish Resistance movements that were formed in the later stages of World War II
Following the Soviet capture of Berlin in 1945, one of the largest and most horrible cases of mass rape occurred. Soviet troops raped German women and girls. Estimates of the total number of rape victims range from tens of thousands to two million. After the summer of 1945, Soviet soldiers caught raping were usually punished to various degrees, ranging from arrest to execution.  The rapes continued, however, until the winter of 1947-48, when Soviet occupation authorities finally solved the problem by confining the Soviet troops to strictly guarded posts and camps,“ completely separating them from the residential population of Eastern Germany.
Norman Naimark writes--in The Russians in Germany: A History of the Soviet Zone of Occupation, 1945-1949--that not only had each victim to carry the trauma with her for the rest of her days, [but] it [also] inflicted a massive collective trauma on the East German nation (the German Democratic Republic). The German Democratic Republic ( GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR; commonly known in English as East Germany) was a Socialist state Naimark concludes "The social psychology of women and men in the Soviet zone of occupation was marked by the crime of rape from the first days of occupation, through the founding of the GDR in the fall of 1949, until, one could argue, the present. "
Just during the occupation of Budapest, (Hungary), it is estimated that 50,000 women and girls were raped in this city alone. The Siege of Budapest was a siege of the Hungarian Capital city of Budapest, fought towards the end of World War II in Europe Budapest ( also /ˈbʊ-/) is the capital city of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary it serves as the country's principal Political, Hungary (Magyarország 'mɔɟɔrorsaːg) officially in English the Republic of Hungary ( Magyar Köztársaság, literally Magyar (Hungarian Republic 
Hungarian girls in general were taken to the Soviet quarters where they were incarcerated, raped and sometimes also murdered. The nationality of the rape victims meant nothing to the soldiers, who even attacked the Swedish legation. 
Although the Red Army only crossed a very small part of Yugoslavia in 1944, the northeastern corner, its activities there caused great concern for the communist partisans that feared that the resulting rape and plunder by their communist allies would weaken their standing with the population.  At least 121 cases of rape were documented later, 111 of which also involved murder.  In addition 1,204 cases of looting with assault were documented.  Stalin responded to a Yugoslav partisan leader's complaints at the Red Army's behaviour with "Can't he understand it if a soldier who has crossed thousands of kilometers through blood and fire and death has fun with a woman or takes some trifle?". 
The Slovak communist leader Vlado Clementis complained to Marshal I. S. Konev about the behaviour of Soviet troops in Slovakia. Ivan Stepanovich Konev ( Ива́н Степа́нович Ко́нев ( &ndash May 21, 1973) was a Soviet military commander who led Red  The response was to blame the activities mainly on Red Army deserters. 
Thanks to the better discipline in Marshal Tolbukhin's army, the relative similarity in cultures, a century of friendly relations, and an open welcome of the Soviet troops, there was a relative absence of rapes in Bulgaria, especially when compared with the situation during the occupation of Romania and Hungary. 
The Red Army cooperated with the NKVD against Polish partizans and civilians. During the Augustów chase 1945, more than 2000 Poles were captured, and about 600 of them perished. The Augustów chase 1945 ( Polish Obława augustowska) was an extraordinary operation undertaken by Soviet forces of the Red Army, the NKVD
A number of rapes committed by the Soviet soldiers were recorded. Where Soviet soldiers advanced, girls and women fled from their villages and small towns, leaving only boys and men to be found by the Soviet soldiers.
In general, Red Army officers declared all cities, villages and farms open to pillaging and looting in Romania, Hungary and Germany.  A written order, though, does not exist. But there are several documents in which the way the Red Army’s behaviour pattern is described. One of them is a report of the Swiss legation in Budapest, describing the events when the Red Army entered the city in 1945. Switzerland (English pronunciation; Schweiz Swiss German: Schwyz or Schwiiz Suisse Svizzera Svizra officially the Swiss Confederation A legation was the term used in Diplomacy to denote a diplomatic representative office lower than an Embassy. Budapest ( also /ˈbʊ-/) is the capital city of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary it serves as the country's principal Political, It states, for example: During the siege of Budapest and also during the following fateful weeks, Russian (Soviet) troops looted the city freely. They entered practically every habitation, the very poorest as well as the richest. They took away everything they wanted, especially food, clothing and valuables. Every apartment, shop, bank, etc. was looted several times. Furniture and larger objects of art, etc. that could not be taken away were frequently simply destroyed. In many cases, after looting, the homes were also put on fire, causing a vast total loss. Bank safes were emptied without exception--even the British and American safes--and whatever was found was taken. 
Walter Kilian, the first mayor of the Charlottenburg district in Berlin after the war, who was brought into office by the Soviets, reported extensive looting by Red Army soldiers in the area: Individuals, department stores, shops, apartments . Charlottenburg is a locality of Berlin within the borough of Charlottenburg-Wilmersdorf, named after Queen Sophia Charlotte (1668-1705 . . all were robbed blind. 
In the Soviet occupied zone, party members of the SED reported to Stalin that looting and rapes by Soviet soldiers could possibly result in a negative reaction of the German population in the respect of the Soviet Union and for the future socialism in East Germany in general. The Socialist Unity Party of Germany ( German: Sozialistische Einheitspartei Deutschlands, SED) was the governing party of the German Democratic Stalin reacted to the worries of his German comrades with the words "I shall not tolerate anybody dragging the honour of the Red Army through the mud. "
Any evidence, such as reports, pictures and other documents of looting, rapes, burning down of farms and villages etc. by the Red Army was therefore deleted from all archives in the Soviet occupied zone in Germany, which later was to become the GDR. The German Democratic Republic ( GDR; Deutsche Demokratische Republik DDR; commonly known in English as East Germany) was a Socialist state  In private memories, diaries and photo albums, however, the events of 1945 had been kept as far as possible or thought to be worth it.
On many occasions Soviet soldiers set fire to buildings, villages and parts of cities, shooting anybody trying to extinguish the flames, such as on May 1, 1945, when Soviet soldiers set fire to the city centre of Demmin and stopped anyone from extinguishing the fire. Of all the buildings around the marketplace only the steeple survived the inferno.  Most Red Army atrocities took place only in what was regarded as hostile territory (see also Przyszowice massacre). The Przyszowice massacre (Zbrodnia przyszowicka or tragedia przyszowicka) was a massacre perpetrated by the Red Army against civilian inhabitants of the Nevertheless, soldiers of the Red Army together with members of the NKVD frequently looted transport trains in 1944 and 1945 in Poland. 
The Soviet Union did not recognise the entry of the tsarist Russia to the Hague Conventions (1899 and 1907) as binding for itself and refused to sign it until 1955. The Hague Conventions were international treaties negotiated at the First and Second Peace Conferences at The Hague, Netherlands in 1899 and  This had already led to barbaric treatment of POWs on both the Polish and the Soviet side during the Polish-Soviet War of 1919-21. Moreover, the Soviet Union did not sign the Genevan Prisoners of War convention of 1929 until 1955. The Geneva Conventions consist of four Treaties formulated in Geneva, Switzerland, that set the standards for International law for humanitarian Accordingly, the Red Army treated at first Polish and later prisoners of war from Germany, Germany's allies and Japan in a cruel way from the first days of World War II on.
During 1941 emergency landing German flight crews were shot frequently after the capture. Torture, mutilation, murder and other violations of international law were carried out on German aircrews frequently .  During the winter of 1941/42 the Red Army took approximately 10,000 German soldiers as prisoner each month, but the death rate became so high that the absolute number of the prisoners decreased (or was bureaucratically reduced).  The murder of the prisoners was arranged every now and then by instructions, reports and statements of Soviet commanders. Throughout the war, 300,000 German POWs in Soviet captivity died, a loss rate of 14. 9%. By contrast, some 3. 3 million Soviet POWs died in German captivity, a loss rate of 65%.  German prisoners were not released after the war but many were kept in captivity until as late as 1956 under similar conditions as before.
The Treuenbrietzen massacre took place during the last days of April and the first days of May 1945, after a tough battle in which the Red Army took and lost control of the village on more than one occasion; the Red Army rounded up around 1000 (mostly male) civilians and executed them in the nearby forest. Treuenbrietzen is a town in the Bundesland of Brandenburg, Germany. These executions were allegedly made as retaliation for the death of a high-ranking Soviet officer during the battle for control of the village. 
According to the United Nations Report of the Special Committee on the problem of Hungary (1957): Soviet tanks fired indiscriminately at every building from which they believed themselves to be under fire. The UN commission received numerous reports of Soviet mortar and artillery fire into inhabited quarters in the Buda section of the city despite no return fire. The UN commission received reports of "haphazard shooting at defenseless passers-by. " According to many witnesses Soviet troops fired upon people queuing outside stores. Most of the victims were said to be women and children. Many cases of Soviet fire upon ambulances and red cross vehicles were reported.
For decades, Western scholars have generally explained these atrocities in Germany and Hungary as revenge for German atrocities in the territory of the Soviet Union and for the mass killing of Soviet POWs (3,6 million dead of total a 5,2 million POWs) by the German army. The Hungarian Revolution of 1956 ( Hungarian: 1956-os forradalom) was a spontaneous nationwide Revolt against the Stalinist government of The Prague Spring ( Czech: Pražské jaro, Slovak: Pražská jar) was a period of political liberalization in Czechoslovakia during The Soviet war in Afghanistan, also known as the Soviet-Afghan War or just the Soviet Invasion of Afghanistan, was a nine-year conflict involving The April 9 tragedy refers to the events in Tbilisi, Georgian Soviet Socialist Republic on April 9, 1989, when an Anti-Soviet demonstration January 1991 events in LatviaThe January Events (Sausio įvykiai were a series of events that occurred from January 11–13 1991 in Vilnius, Lithuania. This explanation is now disputed by military historians such as Antony Beevor, at least in regard to the mass rapes. Antony James Beevor (born 14 December 1946) is a British Historian, educated at Winchester College and Sandhurst. Beevor claims that Red Army soldiers also raped Russian and Polish women liberated from concentration camps, and contends that this undermines the revenge explanation. The Polish people, or Poles, (Polacy) are a Western Slavic Ethnic group of Central Europe, living predominantly in Poland. Internment is the imprisonment or confinement of people commonly in large groups without trial  Beevor's claims have encountered vast criticism from historians in Russia and the Russian government.  The Russian ambassador to the UK said "It is a disgrace to have anything to do with this clear case of slander against the people who saved the world from Nazism. " O. A. Rzheshevsky, a professor and President of the Russian Association of World War II Historians, has charged that Beevor is merely resurrecting the discredited and racist views of Neo-Nazi historians, who depicted Soviet troops as subhuman "Asiatic hordes". The term neo-Nazism refers to post- World War II Political movements Social movements and ideologies seeking to revive Nazism,  Other prominent historians such as Richard Overy have criticised Russian "outrage" at the book and defended Beevor. Richard Overy (born 1947 is British historian who has Published extensively on the History of World War II and the Third Reich. Overy accused the Russians of refusing to acknowledge Soviet war crimes, "Partly this is because they felt that much of it was justified vengeance against an enemy who committed much worse, and partly it was because they were writing the victors' history" Polish sources claim that there are cases of mass rapes in Polish cities taken by Red Army, that in Kraków Soviet entry brought mass rapes on Polish women and girls, as well as plunder of all private property by Soviet soldiers. Kraków, in English also spelled Krakow or Cracow (ˈkrækaʊ M-W: krăk'ou krāk'ō is one of the largest and oldest cities in Poland According to them, this behaviour reached such scale that even communists installed by Soviets were preparing a letter of protest to Joseph Stalin himself, while masses in churches were held in expectation of Soviet withdrawal. Joseph Stalin ( ნამდვილი გვარი ჯუღაშვილი|Iosif Vissarionovich Dzhugashvili; March 5 1953 was General Secretary of the Communist Party .
Year 1997 ( MCMXCVII) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display full 1997 Gregorian calendar