Betraying the Lienz Cossacks - Operation Keelhaul 1945

[@derin111]

When I was at school in London in the 1970s, our German language teacher was an ex-WW2 British Intelligence Officer. He actually witnessed exactly such an event, including those who attempted to commit suicide rather than be handed over. He said, they could hear the Soviets executing those they had handed over before they were even out of earshot. This episode had disgusted and clearly traumatised him.

[@THX-ic8yw]

That’s very Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy having an ex British Intelligence Officer as a teacher. Did he drive an old Alvis perchance?

[@ericscottstevens]

There was an account of ex Soviets who fought with the HEER allowed by the allies freely to board a passenger train chartered east back to Russia in the summer of 1945. Many boarded and walked right out the exit on the other side of the train car escaping.

[@SlartibartfastTheFourth]

@@THX-ic8yw😂😂😂

[@Thermopylae2007]

I had an elderly Ukrainian neighbor when I was growing up who'd enrolled in the Wehrmacht and surrendered to the Americans in France, eventually joining the Free Polish Army. I'd hate to think about his chances had his unit been kept to fight on the Eastern Front.

[@harmseberhardharmseberhard9908]

Keelhauling was a punishment, that rarely anyone survived. So the name 'operation keelhaul' is signaling, that the authorities were well aware of the consequence of this 'repatriation' for their POWs.

[@samg5463]

Perhaps the worst legacy of this wouldn’t be felt until the 90s, when this operation would cause a major breech in security at MI6.

[@NGaugeVideo]

And the subsequent theft of a cutting edge French Tiger military Helicopter much to the embarrassment of the French Government.

[@brianallsopp69]

Wasn't a fella called Trevelayan by any chance ? 🤔

[@NGaugeVideo]

And the subsequent theft of a French Tiger military Helicopter much to the embarrassment of the French Government

[@tyree9055]

I'm still trying to figure out why Natashya had on a miniskirt in Siberia to this day! 😂🤣👍

[@vonsopas]

Just came to say this

[@Gfc22]

Countries don't have allies, only interests. Tragic but true.

[@ssyphoniss]

Countries are made from people. Country is nothing without people. So think again who has interests.

[@ra-ge]

Is this an Anglo-Saxon proverb 😂😂

[@mladenmatosevic4591]

It would be inconvenient if foreign powers put serious effort in aiding ethnic groups fighting British Empire.

[@Trevor3777]

Never a truer saying

[@Pentonavalsolutions]

Specially true about britain

[@mitanni0]

I happen to be from Lienz, Austria. Some additions: (1) Quite a number of Cossack kids ended up as East Tyroleans, as their desperate parents gave them away and good willed ppl took them in. (2) Many Cossacks drowned in the river Drau, as they tried to escape. (3) There's a Cossack cemetery in Peggetz. (4) The barracks camp in Peggetz was used for French POWs (who were reportedly quite happy, given the scenic landscape in the Austrian Alps) (5) The Cossacks were brought to Judenburg (Styria, Austria), where they were handed over to the Soviets. (6) The Austrian city naming algorithm is broken. James Bond got it wrong, speaking about the "LINZ Cossacks". LIENZ is quite active in the Austrian chess scene, and delegations erroneously popping up in Linz or even Liezen have become a meme decades ago.

[@immortaltyger1569]

Thanks for those additional details!

[@garybrockwell2031]

Great comment 💯👏

[@AnTalk_blog]

I have been living in Austria for 20 years but learnt about this incident only this summer when cycling along the Drau. There is a Cossack chapel there with brief information.

[@AxelPoliti]

A tragic history made more bitter by wholesale "exceptions". BTW the useful Galicians and Ukrainians were sacrificed in a pointless anti-Soviet guerrilla with no use, except for the regime. Callous stupidity and useless crime.

[@danshabash]

Cossacks that fled with the Nazis were simply SS mass murderers escaping justice. SS specifically employed Cossacks for counter-insurgency, which was a codeword for "mass killings" since Nazi plan has always been to depopulate USSR and hence free up the Lebensraum. The whole narrative around it is just whitewashing Nazi criminals.

[@donalddodson7365]

Dr. Felton, Thank you for researching and reporting this horrible consequence of WW2. Many Americans have accepted an almost mythical and "sanitized" version of WW2. My war was the American War in Vietnam. The USA fostered a wish for self-determination, then abandoned our allies. I grieve for those Ukrainian, Cossak, Georgian and others who survived the war, itself, then were sacrificed as war booty to Stalin's killing camps. 😢

[@dwhitey]

Must admit that General von Pannwitz demonstrated a high degree of honour in choosing to follow his men to certain death. However it is important to note that his unit did commit atrocities while under his command. The point is he could have stayed in Western Allied captivity and been eventually released but instead stayed with his men and shared their fate.

[@RK-gv7rc]

funny that.

[@cleanerben9636]

Doesn't change the fact that the allies committed a war crime

[@brianallsopp69]

I can imagine they weren't too big on taking prisoners ,,,,,

[@punkypink83]

i thought the same. while it is admirable, he's still a dedicated nazi, and had a long history of committing murders in the name of fascism even in his SA days long before he took command of the unit. in fact he was in exile from germany for a bit due to said murders, so i don't feel bad for him.

[@mladenmatosevic4591]

Last stint was in Yugoslavia where they gained fair share of infamy.

[@stogmot1]

we did the same to the poles who fought so valiantly with us , we didnt even let them march in the victory parade in case it upset stalin . Huge black stain on us

[@AlasdairMorrison-z8m]

Many of the Poles chose to stay in the UK, others as with Czechs who had fought with the British returned to their native countries, it was not then appreciated what post war realities would be.

[@albertwolanski7688]

At least Poles were never mentioned here as collaborates with the Nazis.

[@seanwalker6460]

we did not send any poles back to Stalin.

[@garystefanski7227]

​@@seanwalker6460just his puppets.

[@garywayell7211]

@@seanwalker6460 Sorry sean history states after the fall of the third Reich europe was split Poland ended up in Stalins hands,the Axis made it that everyone was to be repatriated to there own countrys. Britain kicked out probably a few thousand after they fought for Britain. Its a factual event very shameful considering.

[@Kstang09]

For England, James?? No. For me.

[@NicolasSchaII]

James Bond Goldeneye, 1995

[@Sedgewise47]

@@NicolasSchaII 😏! (Beat me to it…/SIGH!>)

[@Galois32]

The same five minutes you gave me

[@adiconsdaple2285]

Sean Bean = Alec Trevelian. Pierce Brosnan = James Bond.

[@Adelina-293]

Bond and 006 had a falling out causing 006 to drop out of the film.

[@vanpang9596]

Much respect and salute to German General Helmuth von Pannwitz. He had the option not be surrendered to the Soviets but decided to join the Cossacks into Soviet captivity. He told his British captors "" I have been with them (the cossacks) since the beginning, the good and the bad, I will not abandon them now and will share their fate."

[@TeddyBear-ii4yc]

That's natural, human honour! My past was with them so, naturally, will my future!

[@lodickasvlajeckou]

Well you are interesting, respecting and saluting a war criminal that commited crimes with the Cossack unit and even in the SA. From me these men deserved none respect for the crimes they commited

[@mrsaturdaynightspecial3055]

​@@lodickasvlajeckou What crimes did they commit? Please tell.

[@mglenning1]

​@@mrsaturdaynightspecial3055Cossack war crimes in the Balkans and Italy are well-known, especially if you're a WW2 buff.

[@Governor-n1x]

​@@mglenning1In 1943, von Panwitz responded to the crimes of his soldiers by ordering that anyone committing war crimes would be shot. so he made sure that this type of action did not happen. In fact, in 1996, his family petitioned Russia to re-examine his case, and he was completely acquitted of the crime charges. but in 2001 they withdrew their decision without justification. Like always Russians are changing history in left and right as they see fit🙄

[@michaelzeier650]

About 20 years ago i met a Scottish chap in NZ who was in the Merchant navy in WW2. After the war he was on a ship transporting Soviet pows that fought for Germany from the UK to Odessa. He said it was horrific the closer they got to Odessa the more died by their own hands. Some managed to jump overboard near Gibraltar and drowned. Upon arrival in Odessa the were told by the Soviets these men were going to be used to clear minefields. Sad times indeed.

[@tkm238-d4r]

Considering that the USSR lost 26.6m people, collaborators were almost certainly to face hostility upon return. Among POWs that did not re-join the Soviets during the Soviet advance, meaning those who were liberated from POW camps only at the end of the war, the treatment was also not good. Commissioned officers were demoted and deployed to menial jobs in factories and socially ostracized. Some took to alcoholism and did not live long after the end of the war. The NCOs and enlisted were sent to the Gulag and many remained there until the Khrushchev amnesty around 1956.

[@compaq2441]

My dad worked with a Cossack who escaped from the british camp in early May 1945. He said a few weeks later they sent everyone else to the Russians. He kept going west and surrendered again to the US troops near Wurzburg Germany 4 days later. He told them he was a forced labor worker and since he spoke german russian and english he was put to work translating for them and did that until 1946. He then asked for and received a visa to the US and lived outside Washington DC. In the late 50's he was visited by members of the US army and CIA who discovered his background. ( he never hid with a different name or date of birth) They wanted to know if he had any contacts still in the soviet union and he said no they were all dead.

[@johndough1703]

"Tell us, do you still have any friends and family in Russia?" "Yes (drags half a cigarette), all the ones you sent back to Stalin in cattle cars."

[@locuraromantica]

​@@johndough1703 He missed the oportunity to join the anti totalitarian partissans.

[@anatoliypankevych4853]

Lucky bastard… My uncle’s father was forced to labour camps in Germany. He was then “liberated” by soviets - and sent to gulags as a traitor to “fatherland” though he was just taken from his village, from his family in Ukraine. He never survived soviet camps, we don’t know where he’s buried even.

[@ak9989]

I met a Russian Cossack in 1975. My dad's coworker who escaped from Russia after the war. He was a terek cossack. He never gave more details but my dad thought he served with the Germans

[@lightsinthedarkness]

Terek cossacks are very interesting in their history and culture. Sadly like most of the cossacks it's hard to know how many are still left.

[@user-sw3gjtns]

​@@lightsinthedarknessНе много их осталось.

[@lightsinthedarkness]

@@user-sw3gjtns I've heard.

[@pilgrims6581]

​@@lightsinthedarkness..If most of them aren't voluntarily join the SS to fight against the Soviet maybe their records would have been clean and the Western allies will have second thoughts of sending back to the Soviet for executions, also if irc the Western allies do retain some of those anti-Soviet collaborators, like the Urkainian SS division recruited in Glacia for example and these guys commit a bunch of war crimes unlike other foreign SS groups

[@CatnamedMittens]

​@@pilgrims6581it's so easy to say that from thousands of miles away.

[@mattblom3990]

Interesting fact is in the James Bond film "Goldeneye" it is the Leinz Cossack betrayal that causes 006 to go rogue vs. the British. His parents were killed in the massacre, as he explains in the statue park scene. I was always interested in the story and now you, Dr. Felton, have helped improve my future experience watching Goldeneye. My favourite of all the Bond films.

[@comicbookninja5268]

The best Brosnon film at least.

[@perceptoshmegington3371]

I am eenveencebal!

[@mitanni0]

Tiny correction: 006 claimed the LINZ (Upper Austria) betrayal. LIENZ (Tyrol; where it actually happened) is another town (not to be confused with LIEZEN, Styria).

[@jarniwoop]

I'm going to rewatch 'Goldeneye'

[@oliverpowell3141]

I thought in that scene he actually said his parents actually survived it but couldn’t live with the shame and took their own lives.

[@redcommander27]

When the DC Spy Museum had a temporary James Bond exhibit with artifacts from the movies, it had a plaque about the real-life betrayl of the Cossacks.

[@iseeyou1312]

They were war criminals used in reprisals against civilians throughout Belarus, Ukraine and Yugoslavia, so it was no big loss. The more sadder fact is that so few German and Japanese war criminals were ever punished.

[@ryanh4775]

This is the long version of why Alec trevelyan betrayed MI6.

[@massimoforesti]

Was thinking that, too

[@TheFlashman]

Yes boy! I'm so glad someone said it before me 😂

[@ryanh4775]

@@TheFlashman so now I think the debate comes down to was he justified in his actions.... I don't know do two wrongs really make a right?

[@penguinsmovies]

007 " am I supposed to feel sorry for you?" 006 " no you're supposed to die for me"

[@samparkerSAM]

I thought his parents died in a climbing accident....

[@NGaugeVideo]

'Britain will learn the price of betrayal' Alec Trevelyan Goldeneye.

[@Adelina-293]

006 had the UK by the boot until 007 let him go.

[@captainadams8565]

"Hardly Britain's finest hour."

[@brianallsopp69]

"FOR ENGLAND JAMES" ,,,,,

[@spectreagent00]

​@@brianallsopp69For me.

[@ChrisGuzmanS]

He didn't tell you? He's a Lienz Cossak... He'll betray you... Just like everyone else

[@robinaart72]

I live 15mins from Lienz - I know of this story of course - the locals here tell a much more gruesome story - many (poss hundreds of) women ended themselves and their children with blades in the river (I guess then drowning), which famously ran red, rather than face the horror of being sent back to Russia.

[@Forlyn0]

I have heard this story as well, something common of cossack units was that their entire families at times followed the unit creating a sort of village.

[@Koz4concern]

Don’t confuse the Soviet Union and Russia. The Cossacks loved Russia. They were murdered by anti Russian Soviets headed by bloodthirsty Georgians Stalin and Beria

[@gordonbryce]

Yes, the Cossacks, themselves- that is the best of them, followed an old code of honour that put their lives above capitulating or bowing down to an unworthy foe. However, it is so sad that they thought it better to kill their own children.( Goebbels, Lenin and Stalin were at times horrible human beings but revolutionary wars often throw up the worst types and they set a very bad example that went to infect the whole of Europe and beyond).

[@tomparatube6506]

😭😡😭

[@jonathontroy1447]

There was a lawsuit over Operation Keelhaul. Nikolai Tolstoy was sued by Lord Adderley over his book that went into the operation. He was able to prove a lot of what he said but given the quirks of British defamation law at the time, he had to declare bankruptcy to avoid paying Adderley any damages. Personally I think Operation Keelhaul was shameful and the German general who went with his men into Soviet captivity and later trial and execution is the only person who shows any honour. The western allies were right to be concerned about what would happen to western POWs liberated by the Soviets. The Soviet POWs liberated by their own side often just exchanged the Nazi concentration camps for the Gulags due to exposure to fascist influences.

[@AlasdairMorrison-z8m]

Tolstoy's comments regarding Lord Aldington were misdirected, he had little or no responsibility for the events.

[@lodickasvlajeckou]

Well, first the German general was a war criminal and even that Cossack unit committed them, also don’t know where you found that out soviet pows were just executed, but from my research the ones that weren’t starved by the Germans and survived were mainly the interrogated and may 50k executed

[@bobdollaz3391]

​@@lodickasvlajeckouthe Soviets were war criminals, what's your point?

[@franktank1984]

"exposure to facist influences?" can you hear yourself talk? You act as if their transfer to the gulag was in some way justified.

[@tomrdee]

Thanks for posting this

[@carrickrichards2457]

The Russians were open about the executions, some carried out immediately after handover. Lt General Charles Keightley continued indiscriminate handovers, long after everyone knew the results. There was serious unrest among units involved, to the point Eisenhower eventually stopped it. The subject is difficult to address, thank you for this but please go further.

[@alastairbarkley6572]

How would Eisenhower have stopped it? He ceased to have any multilateral SHAEF authority once Eastern Europe had been divided into autonomous zones of control - British, French, US and USSR. And, Ike didn't become US President until 1953. So, nope...

[@lodickasvlajeckou]

Well the Soviets executed them because majority of them were war criminals, if you do any research on those SS units composed of Soviets they all commited war crimes.

[@imho4990]

I don't feel sorry for them at all. The Cossacks have always served the wrong side and were murderers themselves. They have served in suppressing Polish uprisings and served the Germans who murdered other nations. They have met with just punishment.

[@tkm238-d4r]

"Not exactly our finest moment" Pierce Brosnan as James Bond in Goldeneye. Meanwhile, former KGB Valentin Zukovsky, when talking to Bond about this, did not feel anything uncomfortable.

[@jokodihaynes419]

"That was not our proudest moment"-James Bond Golden Eye

[@Adelina-293]

I let him go.... wrong movie, similar finishing move.

[@thomashallam3566]

Finest you mean.

[@lex1945]

i was waiting for this comment, LOL!

[@TheWeekendMariner]

Who's strangling the cat?

[@michaelhviper]

And with those acts so created Alec Trevelyan. I must say, this made me think about that film.

[@jamesgarman4788]

Thanks for covering this fascinating topic Dr. Mark! Without your channel a lot of these unique stories would be lost to history! Many thanks for posting!

[@robsin2810]

As a Brit. I am disgusted at the treatment of the Kosacks.

[@terryhoath1983]

Let us not forget the British betrayal of Draža Mihailović, (his group in Jugoslavija rescued a number of British pilots keeping them safe from the Nazis) .... another betrayal by the Soviet leaning treasonous Labour Government of 1945-51, the same bunch who were responsible for the current situation in Palestine. We know who controlled the Labour Party in the late 1940s and we know who controls the Labour Party today. It is my view that Stalin may have tried to hold British and other Western POWs as bargaining chips but he should have been told "NO". Remember, Gen Patton wanted to roll straight on through to Moscow and although some of his army may have been reluctant, they would have followed him..Without doubt, many of the Cossacks had committed terrible crimes but should have faced British military justice with the Soviets invited to send witnesses. It is a matter of honour. When surrenders are negotiated, the terms of the surrender MUST be respected.

[@lodickasvlajeckou]

Well you can be disgusted, but they were war criminals, you can do your own research but the Cossack are unit and all the others commited horrible crimes on the eastern front

[@longiusaescius2537]

@lodickasvlajeckou is that why Anglos punished the French for rapes of Italian towns? Anything to justify your perfidy

[@luga718]

And polish too!😡

[@MrThedoublec]

@@lodickasvlajeckou I suppose you think the women and children who would rather die than return to Stalin's murderous oppression were all war criminals too.

[@andrewsnow5840]

I know it sounds odd, but the first time I heard about the Lienz Cossacks was in the movie 007 Golden Eye, where the character Trevelyan, played by Sean Bean, was a Lienz Cossack per Bond. In hindsight sight, this all makes sense. Great video, keep them coming, I always enjoy them.

[@Sedgewise47]

@@andrewsnow5840 In Real Life, MI6’s HR background-checkers couldn’t have been _that_ bad, were they?…

[@andrewsnow5840]

@@Sedgewise47 , very true! 😀

[@Ostenjager]

I can only hope that the officer who “gave his word of honor” and those responsible for the betrayal never knew the peace of a clear conscience ever again.

[@bosmerfromcanada3878]

British and "Word of Honor" don't really belong in the same sentence.

[@jamesdrummond7684]

@@bosmerfromcanada3878 okay comrade

[@dtaylor10chuckufarle]

That hit me hard as well.

[@richarddixon7276]

@@bosmerfromcanada3878 One man's words & promises are not the concerns of those who really hold the power and actually make the decisions . It doesn't make it any better but that's the reality even today .

[@pistonar]

I would imagine that most of those involved slept well after this, especially at the highest level.

[@jokodihaynes419]

"But the thing about betrayal is that it never comes from your enemies"-Lawkeeper Equity Mlp Ace Attorney EOJ

[@lisapet160]

Pro-Nazi Cossacks were enemies of that time anti-Nazi British Army. No betrayal here.

[@NVRAMboi]

egad. I'm such a simpleton. I'd not really considered that truth.

[@whitewittock]

of course not, that doesn't make logical sense?

[@lisapet160]

British Royal Troops and Cossacks Waffen SS were not friends. They could be nowadays, but not that time.

[@bloodybones63]

Wasn't that said by Don Corleone?

[@jollyjohnzz]

My father said it was the most shameful thing he saw in the war. He was the Major in charge of a small camp near Trieste.

[@immortaltyger1569]

Were the people in the camp your father ran turned over to the Soviets?

[@edilemma8052]

The most shameful thing in the war was brutal mass murder of Soviet CIVILIANS in the numbers you, Russian haters in the West, can't even fantom. Your dear Cossacks fought on the side of mass murderers. No ifs or buts.

[@h0lynut]

These cossacks fought for the axis, those who killed your fellow citizens and you have the nerve to call this shameful? Have you so quickly forgot what the Nazis were doing to enemy soldiers, populations throughout europe, and to your own people?

[@AngusSuter]

Thank you for this film Mark. What a sad tale. Thank you for also sharing and hinting at some of the more modern uncomfortable facts.

[@robertwebb1686]

Another EXCELLENT presentation of duplicity that took place in that era that most know nothing about. And it continues to this day. Think about the fall of South Vietnam and Afghanistan and the friends we left behind to a cruel fate

[@tomparatube6506]

Well put. Thank you.

[@karldecori9408]

These were mainly Cossacks who emigrated to Austria after the civil war in Russia. They fought against the Bolsheviks for two generations. Many had long been citizens of Austria. And one must understand the peculiarity of the Cossack class in Russia in order to fully understand this tragedy.

[@barbararice6650]

Total rot 😕

[@neelektronik]

Based British attitude towards the White Cossack collaboration

[@jonathanj.7344]

​@@neelektronikDa comrade.

[@neelektronik]

@@jonathanj.7344 The Cossacks were also massive anti-Semites and religious fairy tales lovers. I'm not going to cry for them.

[@karldecori9408]

@@neelektronik What do you mean by this? Do you think that the Cossacks had no grounds for at least personal revenge after the physical destruction of the Cossacks during the civil war and after? My wife's great-grandfather, a Cossack, was shot right on the threshold of his house in Kuban in 1919, his son was killed in 1920. And my ancestors were subjected to "dekulakization" in the Yaroslavl province. It's good that I found my great-grandmother still alive and in good memory, and old enough to ask about her life.

[@clivedunning4317]

A long preamble to set the scene ! If you have watched the film "A Bridge Too Far" you might recollect the intelligence officer called "Fuller" warning about German units refitting in the area of Arnhem. This character was based on a real chap called Major Brian Urquhart, but his real name was not used because of the confusion it might have caused to cinema goers with General "Roy" Urquhart (they were not related). Brian Urquhart's job was to arrange the transfer of russian POWs to the Soviets. This experience was so upsetting and harrowing to him that he dedicated the rest of his life to conflict resolution. He worked for the UN for many years. He was knighted in 1986 and passed away a few years ago , in 2022. His biography I can thoroughly recommend to anyone, especially if you are wanting to find out more about this incident. It is titled . . ."A Life in Peace & War . . .

[@alastairbarkley6572]

My take on the Airborne sections of Urquhart's (very long) autobiography are a) that he had developed a great animosity to the 1st Airborne Divisional medical services as a result of what he believed to be gross medical negligence following a serious jump injury - and that his actual hatred focussed on the ADMS, Dr Austin Eagger (incorrectly identified as 'Eggar' in Urquhart's book) whom he held responsible. Eagger appears to be the senior MO who takes 'Fuller' off for a 'rest' in the Bridge Too Far movie (as in, "out of my hands, laddie"). This, I think, colours Urquhart's memory over the whole 'Major Fuller' thing [*]. b) A number of senior British officers were what we would now call 'highly strung': Lt. General Frederick 'Boy' Browning was one, Monty's Chief of staff Freddie de Guingand was another - both of them required regular time off for 'rests' brought on by 'pressure and overwork'. Note that this facility was rarely, if ever extended to the common soldier. Brian Urquhart's biography gives several example of him, also, requiring 'rests' so, it's more than possible that he was indeed relieved of duty during the planning for MARKET-GARDEN because he was thought to be overwrought and irrational. Urquhart's 'tanks' have been investigated to death and there's no evidence to support the events as shown in the movie. Far from it. It's quite likely that the intel Browning saw did indeed suggest nothing more than the German 'weak brigade' he's said to have dismissed it as. Urquhart was an intelligent, determined, resourceful man. His post-war duties with the United Nations are definitely his finer and finest hours. [*] One of Arnhem amateur historians (the sort that become very focussed on MARKET-GARDEN) interviewed Eagger before the doctor died in 1993. He didn't learn very much. As a British doctor, now retired, of 40 years standing I can emphatically report, on the basis of what the historian writes, that Eagger fed him a truly laughable pile of garbage about the Urquahrt affair, a heap of heroically absurd BS so high, that he was either pulling the gullible historians leg or making sure that the 'Maj. Fuller' episode was closed, for ever.

[@clivedunning4317]

@@alastairbarkley6572 May I ask what you thought of Urquhart's recollections of the treatment of the cossacks ? Obviously you have gone in to great detail concerning "Fuller/Urquhart " and another view or opinion from someone with knowledge of the background to the characters involved would be most welcome.

[@KapitanGzehotnik]

I really appreciate that Dr Felton made a video about this very-little known treachery (as well as how Allies treated Poles after WW2, about what is another Mark Felton's video). It was one of the worst parts of Allies-Soviet cooperation during and after the war, because Allies sent to Soviet hell millions of people. Just before Nuremberg trials, where they accused Nazi leaders of mass deportations and imprisonments in concentration camps... Hypocrisy.

[@nylotehace4531]

A history lesson for Ukrainians about Western loyalty. Lekcja histori dla Ukraincow na temat lojalnosci zachodu.

[@joshuagabe]

Isn’t this the whole launch of the plot of Goldeneye?

[@dirtdigger949]

@@nylotehace4531 All so the mistake that Churchhill givng Stalin all of Poland was a terrible mistake as well that should never be forgiven!

[@AdmiralBonetoPick]

I think it's pretty well-known, thanks to the James Bond Goldeneye movie.

[@williamjenman6902]

@@dirtdigger949 "given"?. would you prefer WW3 1945 style?

[@MarkBridger-u9b]

The German Officer commanding the Cossacks....went with his men voluntarily to the USSR....even though he did not have too....A descent man and a proper Officer...Kudos to his memory.

[@tomdane]

Thank you Mr. Felton - only self criticism will bring self improvement

[@KeithPrince-cp3me]

Back in 2003 I was working in a hotel in Gullane, East Lothian, which had been used by staff of the free Polish army in ww2. I was living in North Berwick, overlooking the Forth of Fife. One frost morning an elderly man got talking to me at the bus stop. He said in ww2 he'd been in the Royal Navy. At wars end he was aboard a ship taking former members of the free Polish forces back to Poland. He recounted how two of the Poles jumped overboard and drowned and the British officers didn't even try and have them rescued as they knew as soon as the Poles were repatriated back to Poland, then under Soviet control, the Soviets would simply execute them all. These were people who had served the allies, not the Germans. I wonder if anyone can shed light on this episode?

[@vsmicer]

The same fate (via a more prolonged and circuitous route) befell my parents in 1963.

[@Eric-kn4yn]

There would be too many.

[@WoodsLesnik]

My Great-Grandather was one of those men who luckily were not executed however to this day we wonder what tortures he endured in those times.

[@mirekbns]

The Poles were not forcibly repatriated, but many thousands made the decision to return home anyway. Britain was not very welcoming as the Poles were thought to be taking the jobs of returning native soldiers.

[@rosomak8244]

This episode is BS. Most of them where left in freedom after returning.

[@MichaelKng-fk5jk]

My Grandfather only once made a comment on the Lienz Cossacks, he would never speak of it again. He was with Fitzroy Maclean in Yugoslavia and they went with the Partisan escort of the White Russians to Lienz. The comment, I forget the exact words, meaning was very clear, as soon as they arrived and the Soviet NKVD surrounded the White Russians the atmospherics were very dark and ominous. He knew the White Russians were going to be murdered. He stated he was disgusted and shamed by what the British did. To put a better perception on Lienz, my Grandfather hated the SS including the White Russians after what they did in Yugoslavia against the Partisans and civil population and; still thought Lienz was massively wrong.

[@ziegle9876]

The Tito partisans were far worse than any red army unit. They were war crimes, personified, often against their own (non-communist) population.

[@petrovicmotors3775]

Indeed!

[@jokodihaynes419]

"Trust is a very fragile thing it takes years to build seconds to break and an eternity to repair that betrayal can last a lifetime"-Lawkeeper Equity mlp ace attorney EOJ

[@ClarenceCochran-ne7du]

And sometimes, it's lost forever.

[@PogueMahone1]

Good to see you've found a god to worship...🙄😏

[@tonyaustin4472]

Just to add a footnote or two to this excellent video. The Gallician Waffen SS was set up with the specific recognition that it only declared war against the Soviets and not the British and Americans. That was one of the reasons that the Gallician prisoners were not handed over to the Russians. While General Pannwitz and some of his staff stayed with their cossacks voluntarily accompanying them into Russian captivity; other senior officers managed to escape with a number of their men and got away. The scenes when the British handed over the cossacks and their families to the NKVD were even more horrible than described in the video; mothers and children jumped of a bridge to their deaths and many of the British soldiers refused the orders of their officers to force the cossacks into the trucks. Part of the Cossack Division had been stationed in Normandy and had refused to fight the Allies and had surrendered at the first opportunity to them hoping to either fight with the Allies against the Russians or to be allowed to stay in the West: they all knew they faced death is they were handed over to Stalin. Harold Macmillan was also involved in the betrayal of the Cossacks to his shame.

[@suzina3]

Galizian Waffen SS were Ukrainians, citizens of pre-war Poland. Polish generals fighting on the Western Front interceded for them, not knowing what crimes they committed against Poles, Jews and other nations.

[@TankerBricks]

Mark. Thanks for providing my Monday Night Entertainment!

[@squint04]

Mine too!!

[@scottwolf1238]

Murder is murder whether you are committing the act yourself or handing the victims to the ones who you know will committ the act.

[@richardw3052]

Keelhaul was a war crime, no matter how you spin it. The excuse that the russians would have kept POWs as bargaining chips or to enact retribution may be true, but I think there were POWs kept anyway in Russia, not just nazis, but Americans and brits.

[@neilturner6749]

Er repatriating POWs can never be a “war crime”, nor can beating those who initially refuse to cooperate, as they had no legal right to do so. Let’s not lose sight of who did the actual persecution here - it was the Soviet Union and not the Western Allies. Although undeniably a tragic episode, this is another case of trying to re-write history from a revisionist viewpoint.

[@nigelmyall3204]

Not just POWs. The NKVD arrested Fr Walter Ciszek in Poland in 1940 and held on to him for another 20 years. He tells his story in the book "He leadeth me".

[@neilmanhard1341]

@@neilturner6749 You missed an important point. The Cossacks surrendered on the condition that they would NOT be delivered to the Soviets. So, the "war crime" was a violation of the surrendering terms. And, the British even though they didn't persecute the prisoners certainly enabled it. And that can be considered "aiding and abetting", which is also a criminal act.

[@olit-j9432]

​@@neilturner6749 they "repatriated" people who weren't even Soviet citizens

[@neilturner6749]

@@olit-j9432 agreed - that wasn’t right at all, but they would’ve represented only a tiny minority and (again not saying this was “right”) no one at that immediate point in time really cared about a few hundred former enemy combatants getting a raw deal when put in context of the millions worldwide who had died in the previous few years.

[@krisfrederick5001]

I didn't even know about the Lienz Cossacks until the James Bond GoldenEye movie 006 being my favorite.

[@johnclose2925]

Best movie. Best Bond. Best Nintendo 64 game.

[@blank557]

The Allies should not have felt like they were obligated to Stalin and the USSR to do anything more for them, especially after giving him so much lead lease aid at great cost of blood and treasure. The Soviets helped Germany rebuild their army and air force in violation of the Versailles treaty by allowing them to run field exercises in Russia, per the 1922 Rapallo agreement. The world forgets the 1939 non-aggression pact between Hitler and Stalin. They cut up Poland and the Baltic states like gangsters diving turf. The USSR sent millions of tons of raw materials that allowed Hitler to build up it military up to June 22, 1941. Without Stalin's material aid, Hitler could never had invaded France, much less the Soviet Union. Stalin also allowed Hitler's forces passage through their northern waters to attack Norway. While I feel bad for the ordinary Soviet citizen caught up in Stalin's iron rule, I feel no real reason to thank the USSR for fighting the bulk of Hitlers army, because they created the monster that attacked them,since Stalin thought in his conceit he could stab Hitler in the back before Hitler struck him first, and miscalculated.

[@russelconor8704]

exactly!

[@Yegor_Epanchintsev]

Why would Britain felt obligated to USSR, you ask? Because USSR played a biggest role in defeating Nazis and its Allies. Our people fought Germans for three years almost alone, while The Allies, although they helped us with Lend-Lease supplements, hesitated to open the Second Front, until our army got close to the borders of Eastern Europe and it was obvious that USSR could conquer the foreign countries and establish the socialist regimes there. Blaming the USSR for starting WWII, you probably forget that Stalin signed Non-aggresion pact with Hitler, because he failed to negotiate with Britain and France about the joint actions in case of war against Germany. Not because he's baby-eating monster. He didn't even have another choice. Also, why you don't mention Poland, Finland, other countries which signed the exact same treaties with Nazi Germany and also supplied it with all necessary resources? Why you forget about American and British businessmen who willingly worked with Nazis before and even after the WWII?

[@tkm238-d4r]

If you are fine with a Nazi dominated Europe free of Jews and other so-called undesirables, then of course you do not see any purpose in recognizing the Soviet effort in defeating Germany. As Patton supposedly said, "We defeated the wrong enemy". Good point about the 1922 agreement between the USSR and the so-called peaceful freedom-loving democratic Weimar Republic. Everything was fine until that Austrian came in, right? 🙄🙄 Blame Stalin if you want. I am no fan of him. At the same time, please do not forget the inaction and appeasement of the West. Stalin was a cynical opportunist. The Russian and later Soviet establishment since the 18th Century observed the West and reacted accordingly. Germany was the active, Stalin was the passive.

[@LoyalFriend62]

@@Yegor_Epanchintsev I am glad to learn from you that Stalin was not a "baby-eating monster". He was just a regular(?) monster who issued orders for the death of millions of people, including many of his comrades.

[@ButterBallTheOpossum]

The fact that its called operation Keelhaul is very telling

[@jbada17]

Dr Felton keeps dropping knowledge from the sky. All history teachers and professors should be required to take classes from this treasure of humanity.

[@davidbrims5825]

Not really, it’s been well known Churchill stabbing the Cossacks in the back.

[@ColinH1973]

There's an excellent book called 'Victims of Yalta' by Nikolai Tolstoy which documents the whole shameful post-war treatment of tens of thousands of people who trusted the British. It is well worth seeking out.

[@kennethrouse7942]

I've read his thoroughly researched, saddening, and angering book and would agree with you. Also worthwhile is his "The Minister and the Massacres." And so is "The Hidden Russia" by N.N. Krasnov, Jr. Written after he was released from the Gulags, he never saw it published in English as he died suddenly, and there is heavy betting that it was the work of the KGB.

[@MICKEY-q3z]

Fitzroy Maclean wrote a fantastic book - a memoir - entitled Eastern Approaches, about his travels in the USSR's forbidden zones in the 1930s and his wartime experiences in Yugoslavia. Highly recommended!

[@SillertonJackson]

What happened to those Cossacks was dreadful, shameful, and utterly wrong!

[@BryanRombot]

11:00 Yes, Dr. Felton. I most certainly do. Doc, I remember that moment in the Canadian Parliament.

[@HistoricalWonder720]

This video has made me eager to go talk to my neighbor (who is in her 80s) who said she was born in a camp (or something of the sort) in Russia to parents who had their wealth confiscated after ww1 because they had been loyal to the Czar. I don’t know the specifics but intend to find out.

[@tomsenft7434]

She may not be eager to talk to you

[@HistoricalWonder720]

@@tomsenft7434 She told my father everything once, it’s the only reason we know of this. Very friendly person.

[@coffebean94]

​@@tomsenft7434 why wouldn't she be? We're not living in 1937 anymore

[@gianp33]

they did the same with cossacks who were relocated to italy near the border with today slovenia and austria, both cossacks and their families, were being settled in that region of the alps in what was to be called “Kossakenland in Norditalien”, when germany was defeated the british invited the cossack leaders to discuss the situation, they agreed on a place and also agreed on meeting unarmed, the cossacks were true to their word while the brits ambushed them with guns and arrested them, all the while their families were also ambushed and driven with their backs to the main river that flowed down from the mountain, many in desperation, knowing they were being round up to be sent to the USSR jumped into the river and drowned, the cossack leaders were sent to soviet prisons where they were later executed if im not mistaken.

[@nirfz]

I might be wrong, but i think i remember reading that the cossacks had their families with them in the "displaced persons" camps. And the british did not just beat up and even mortaly injure former soldiers, but also women and children that resisted "repatriation".

[@guyherd6071]

Truth....soldiers, wives, children, executed after being forced at bayonet point to March into Russian captivity where many were machine gunned almost immediately. Wish I still had the references to give you. Testimony from British soldiers said they could hear the gunfire and screams just over the hills where the Cossacks were handed over to russians.

[@harding10B]

Those Cossacks who left Russia and were never Soviet citizens should never have been handed over.

[@StevenSmith-dc1fq]

Fascinating. I once read a novel, The Drau river flows to Siberia, that described the Brit betrayal, but wasn't sure it was bona fide. Well, turns out it was a bigger betrayal than I thought.

[@GVGames1986]

So that is why Sean Bean (006) got so angry!

[@HealthySkepticism1775]

I am so happy to see so many comments about the James Bond movie Goldeneye (1995)

[@NicolasSchaII]

There was a guy called Alec …

[@jamesfairmind2247]

Mark, as an early subscriber, thank you for another top production as always. Now please correct me if I am wrong, but for some reason that I cannot pin down, I believe that there is some evidence of quite a number of US military personnel (possibly also British) who were held in captivity in Russia by the Soviets for decades after this event. Possibly originally held as collateral relating to the Cossacks but ultimately still retained for the rest of their lives in the USSR (perhaps for future use as bargaining chips or tragically just lost in the bureaucracy) Am I right or not? I genuinely do not know.

[@Subcomandante73]

Thank you for sharing this important story. A dark episode indeed and very shameful.

[@dragosstanciu9866]

3:15 Hundreds of thousands of Cossacks were victims of the Holodomor famine during Stalin's time.

[@OllamhDrab]

That's one of the things that complicates, sometimes mitigates, maybe, some of the story of Cossacks and other Ukrainians and similarly-situated peoples among whom some collaborated witht he Nazis, (and some horrifically-so.) But it's not so hard to imagine some being willing to side with *anyone* fighting the regime oppressing their people. Maybe not the best idea siding with someone who'd do the same or worse of course, cause obviously a different brand of authoritarian bigots would be no bargain, but a lot of their elders and grandparents were what, Czarists, anyway. Complicated, probably why they shouldn't have let the Soviets rush the process of sorting everyone out individually so.

[@signorasforza354]

@@OllamhDrab why every single time people forget that soviets were actually collaborating with nazis much longer? And they were even worse?

[@lodickasvlajeckou]

Hahahha, you don’t know anything about those famines, they only happened due to drought and many more Russians and Kazakhs died than Ukrainians

[@signorasforza354]

@@lodickasvlajeckou sure, vanyatka. Laugh more, you can repeat

[@ronti2492]

A film was made in the 60's called 'Before winter comes' with actors David Niven and Topol. The setting was Austria and it dealt with Soviet citizens being sent back by the British. I don't recall it was specifically about Lienz.

[@PkPvre]

Both very funny and depressing. Thanks for the suggestion. Since the prisoners were either send to Linz or Freistadt it's safe to assume it wasn't about Leinz, although the same story played out as described in the video.

[@lablackzed]

I remember watching it a true betrayal of British honour .

[@stewartmckeand6099]

Aren't you thinking of Fiddler on the Roof?

[@Trodon1987]

This is one of the best videos you’ve made. Thank you.

[@samprastherabbit]

Yet again Mark you've delivered a master class in even handed & unbiased historical research- all rhe facts, however unpalatable, embarrassing or disgraceful in this case.

[@ANGLORUSSIANCZ]

When I was a child I found a book by Nikolai Tolstoy (yes, that Tolstoy family) called VICTIMS OF YALTA. It was the first time it ocurred to me that there are no "good" and "bad" guys. This was a crime against humanity.

[@hertoramann]

They trusted Germans and fought with them. Their German general never left them alone. He knew that what will happen and didn’t left them. They trusted Britts, and Britts handed them over to Soviets without hesitation. UK never trustable ally nor enemy. But at least they are gentlemen.

[@kaanerdem2822]

Definition of being gentleman is not what brits do or act accordingly, thats what cowards do. The brits wherent known in history of being gentlemen fighters, never made alone remarkable battle against a huge opponent (from the crusaders till now). Even theyve lost few crucial battles against a dying empire in the ww1 at their height power. They had a mighty naval power although and made their succes against primitive tribal gangs with bows and axes in their hands in the overseas.

[@t16205]

Nothing was gentle about how they forced the Cossacks into USSR

[@hertoramann]

@@kaanerdem2822 At least they are not as savage as Soviets I mean but it became an irony

[@mullerreus145]

@@kaanerdem2822 What embarrassing fanfiction lmao

[@faithlesshound5621]

While Churchill must take ultimate responsibility for what the British Army did, the men on the spot were General Sir Charles Keightley, the commander of troops in Austria who supposedly ignored his orders to return only citizens of the USSR, and the British Minister in residence, Harold Macmillan.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

All of them were citizens of USSR.

[@Allmotorzl1]

@@aleksazunjic9672No? Mark litteraly said a lot of them fled after the Russian civil war and were long time citizens in Austria and other countries by 1945….

[@longiusaescius2537]

Least enthusiastically communist anglo

[@hermanvonsprudelwasser]

They still remember in Lienz.

[@notagooglesimp8722]

Thank you. My grandpa was part of the US Army during the occupation of italy. Very well read man despite having only 8 or 9 years of education before he had to start helping out on the family farm. When I was 10 or I asked him what he thought of the British, did he meet any in his time in europe? And he was very resentful about the british. And their leaders and how by the book or almost numb they were in everything. And he told me all about the POWs that got left to the Soviet fate. But he also said something about a few american ones that were left in soviet hands and they weren't the B-29 crews from the pacific. It was some other group. But It really pissed him off and he was a pretty even keel guy.

[@williedesmond8201]

Best channel on utube for world war 2 info

[@scottrobinson3281]

This infamous story has been well buried. I have read so much about WWII and I have never heard of this. I admire Cossack culture and happily, it appears to be thriving in Russia today.

[@jsldj]

"Not exactly our finest hour." James Bond (GoldenEye)

[@28ebdh3udnav]

I don't know if you talked about this but I think you should do a video of American POWs that were intentionally left behind from 1917 all the way through Vietnam

[@MarkFeltonProductions]

I'm looking into it

[@Abcdefg-tf7cu]

There is zero evidence of American POWs being "left behind" in Vietnam. That is a myth popularized by the Rambo movies. The Vietnamese government would have at least tried to negotiate for their release decades ago if they actually had hundreds of American prisoners after the war.

[@Ostenjager]

@@MarkFeltonProductionsI read somewhere that a small number of American civilians who were captured when the Japanese occupied Attu, Alaska were essentially forgotten about for a long time before being repatriated. Attu village has stood abandoned since the Japanese were there. I could be wrong.

[@deaddocreallydeaddoc5244]

@@Abcdefg-tf7cu What I recall is a slow process of recovering some remains of Americans. They were mostly the remains of pilots shot down.

[@ethan9868]

@@Abcdefg-tf7cu It's not a myth, it was in fact pretty common knowledge after the war.

[@wanderingvagabond1634]

The Cossack cemetery at Peggetz near Lienz has a memorial chapel dedicated to this incident thats now known as "Tragedy on the Drava."

[@dapinelli]

I actually wrote on this forum years ago and asked Mark to do a video about this, From what I've read for many years is that Britain also sent back orginary, regular Russian soldiers that had been captured by Hitler and even by the American and British forces. Stalin being paranoid, considered them to be potential and future traitors, since these soldiers had been around allied soldiers and therefore, corrupted. So he also had them killed.

[@Supercereal4]

Indeed, this was not the first British abandonment of the Cossacks, as Gen. Wrangel writes of his dealings with them in Always with Honor

[@pbh9195]

I remembered hearing about this in Goldeneye, wasn't sure it was an actual tribe or loosely inspired by one Thanks for posting this

[@vinniemoran7362]

I first found out about this in the Bond film "Golden Eye", where Agent 006 Sean Bean turns out to be a Lienz Cossack. Remember coming home and reading about them. Huge betrayal by the British.

[@stanpodol8233]

My relatives from Warsaw, Poland told me that the Russian Cossacks who served in Waffen SS were extremely brutal and as often as not absolutely savage, especially when they were used to suppress the Warsaw rebellion against German occupation. With all due respect to the Author it is next to impossible for me to believe in brave and noble Cossacks, let alone feel sorry for them.

[@rramos117]

Trevelyan: And in one of life's little ironies, the son went to work for the government whose betrayal caused the father to kill himself and his wife. James Bond: Hence Janus. The two-faced Roman god come to life. Trevelyan: For England, James? James Bond: No. For me

[@Rushfelt33]

Bloody Hell, did Mark know i just watched Goldeneye or KZbin? Either way? Well played

[@Fathervinyard]

only know about this because of a james bond film

[@lancegoodthrust546]

And you're bragging this?

[@Fathervinyard]

@@lancegoodthrust546😂 well it made me interested over 20 years ago and i know the full story now after investigating 20 years ago so what else ?

[@akaJughead]

​@@lancegoodthrust546 Don't be a dick

[@BlackAcePlays]

@@lancegoodthrust546 No one here in Austria knows it, except you are interested in history and learn it by yourself. It is not even mentioned in school, at least ~25 years ago it wasn't.

[@Herr.P]

Which one?

[@maxkourosh278]

Nothing good came out of Stalin.

[@TRUMPisGODhaha]

Stalin dances in 5 inch stilleto heals dressed like an alphabet cultist. Oh wait that's elensky

[@mladenmatosevic4591]

So sad Hitler went after Soviet Union instead of forming Nazi version of United Europe.

[@Lord_Messiah_Disciple]

The victory of Stalingrad, now Volgograd? 😅

[@065Tim]

​@@Lord_Messiah_DiscipleYou really think that was because Stalin was such a great leader and strategist?

[@alfaromeo2011]

Correct, but not much good came out of neither Chamberlain nor Churchill for that matter.

[@geo1402]

I am mostly Greek but had some don,kuban and tseritse cossacks in my family about 4 to 6 generations back, learning this gives me an idea about what probably happened to my great great great great grandfather/mother

[@Tracie.....]

When you discover yet another example of when your countries word means less than nothing.

[@alinapopescu872]

The way I see it, a British officer's word of honour isn't worth the air used to utter it.

[@gbcb8853]

Nor a Dutch?

[@longiusaescius2537]

@gbcb8853 dutch don't larp as honourable

[@rodneyhull9764]

years ago I met an old soldier who was a guard at a displaced person camp. He told me there were a few nationalities within but the Russians were lawless. Arranged football matches had to be won by the Russians or else there were numerous murders following a defeat. He also said every woman in the camp was pregnant.

[@FGH9G]

Alec Trevelyan intensifies*

[@DEEPENFRIENDSHIP]

Sean Bean told me about this when I was ten and I remembered it forever.

[@shivmongoose3343]

My high school German teacher was Lithuanian and my college professor was Latvian. Only those few of us students who were polite, persistent, and patient could get either one of them to share even the mildest of their experiences. The social climate in 1977 dictated that we were better off being sheltered from the harsh truths that our grandparents had seen and felt. The worst thing you can do to your children is make their lives easier.

[@sailordude2094]

Britain was very nice to the Soviet Union right after the war. Then Churchill talked about the Iron Curtain so I guess the relationship had soured by early 1946. That didn't last long. Thanks for talking about "hidden" history Mark!

[@EdMcF1]

No, Attlee sold them jet engines after that.

[@dhm7815]

Churchill was voted out of office on 26 July 1945, only a month after VE day and a month before VJ day. He was not PM in 1946.

[@aleksazunjic9672]

Completely wrong. British prepared war against USSR (Operation Unthinkable) . It was weariness of the population and general situation with Japan that prevented such outcome.

[@rubbishmodeller]

@@sailordude2094 "Hidden" history? Not at all - this is all well known.

[@charrogate]

I recently found an account after my father died who served in the 🇬🇧 army engaged as an interpreter in post war Germany describing similar horrific events involving suicide 😨

[@gplusgplus2286]

Please do a video about Rhodesia; or is it too recent?

[@dammad8584]

This historic event was not a proud moment for the British, its called" the betrayal". A very sad decision even now. "Best of the Best"..ty Mark Felton

[@TheD777777]

Brits sold out many more in Austria, not just Cossacks.

[@igorsagdeev7881]

Yes, many Ostarbeiters were also returned.

[@YuriiHolodov]

I don't understand why children who were born on foreign soil were returned to USSR to die in Siberia of malnourishment and mistreatment. USSR citizenship is like slavery, passed to ancestors.

[@YuriiHolodov]

I don't understand why children who never were USSR citizens and born on foreign soil, were sent to almost certain deaths in Siberia.

[@davidcordell6556]

@@YuriiHolodovbecause the people in charge couldn’t convince President Truman to carry on the war against the communists. ( Because the British were bankrupt )The Yanks only signed on to defeat the Nazis. And the Japs and didn’t have the guts to stand up and continue the war ?

[@aleksazunjic9672]

@@YuriiHolodov They were not sent to certain death, i.e. majority of children did survive. And they were citizens of Imperial Russia and its successor USSR.

[@ClarenceCochran-ne7du]

Another Great "What If?" What if the Westen Allies had told Stalin to piss off? Stalin had the men for a war with his former allies, but even then, Truman (at the War's end), had the A-Bomb. Obviously, repatriating Soviet Citizens who fought against Stalin's rule was a bad choice. It didn't ease tensions between the East and the West to any great degree, history shows that. If anything, it enboldened Stalin, who without the material aid from the US, couldn't harness domestic weapon production until very late in the war. Without that aid, Stalin would never have managed his assault from the East.

[@РыжийСтарпом]

Most of this people probably newer was a citizens of ussr.

[@Asgard2208]

The allies provided 7% of USSR's total war production. Let's not belittle the Soviet effort.

[@longiusaescius2537]

@Asgard2208 wrong

[@jjhendo]

So this is what they were talking about in Goldeneye.🤔

[@Football__Junkie]

1:35 I guarantee those Georgian volunteers were not looked at favorably by Stalin. Betrayed by his own countrymen.

[@Checkit12]

Mark would have done this sooner but he had to cross reference his sources with the actual ppl in this time etc. we got em figured out. Haha love these

[@dhm7815]

Painful to hear.