The guest from Brussels made such a statement at a meeting with the students of the Scandinavian Languages \u200b\u200bDepartment of the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade, informed RTS.
Stoltenberg acknowledged that many people in Serbia are still very painful about the events of 19 years ago and have a negative attitude towards NATO. Therefore, the official stressed, the purpose of his visit was to "send an important message" to Serbian youth. Stoltenberg spoke about the importance of close cooperation of this country with NATO, although Serbia has repeatedly declared its preservation of military neutrality.
The head of the North Atlantic Alliance also touched upon another unpleasant topic for the Serbs - Kosovo, where, as the Norwegian recalled, the organization is represented by KFOR units, whose task is "to preserve security and protect all communities." The NATO leader also noted the importance of the dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina.
Stoltenberg took part in the lecture as the most famous politician in the modern world - a native speaker of the Norwegian language. The high-ranking official tried to be extremely polite and friendly with young Serbs.
He recalled how in the early 1960s he lived in Belgrade for several years, where his father worked as the ambassador of Norway, and ate his first ice cream in his life in Kalemegdan, a park near the city fortress.
After the lesson, students willingly shared their impressions. According to Irena Popovich, Stoltenberg tried to present NATO as an exclusively defensive organization, which "does not attack or extend its power to foreign lands, but only protects peace and order."
The listeners admitted that they had received a lot of new information, which they had not previously suspected, but mostly remained unconvinced.
NATO's aggression against Yugoslavia, which then included modern Serbia and Montenegro, began on March 24 and lasted until June 10, 1999. The overall command was carried out by the head of the NATO armed forces in Europe, Wesley Clark. The operation received the full support of the US President, Head and Prime Minister of Great Britain.
The official reason for the bombing was the bloody clashes between the Albanian paramilitary group the Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought for the independence of the region, where ethnic Albanians lived more than Serbs, and the Yugoslav security forces. The West accused the authorities of Yugoslavia of ethnic cleansing, turning a blind eye to similar - and often more massive and brutal - crimes on the part of the Kosovo Albanian formations.
Dmitry Okunev / "Gazeta.Ru"
Events have shown the complete failure of the Yugoslav air defense systems. NATO aircraft almost without damage broke into the airspace over Yugoslavia, inflicting missile and bomb strikes on Belgrade, Novi Sad, Podgorica and other settlements. For nearly three months of intervention, the attacking side lost only one attack aircraft - the American F-117A Nighthawk, which was shot down 40 km west of the Serbian capital on the third day of the aggression, March 27, by the obsolete Soviet S-125 Neva air defense system.
It was not possible to catch the pilot - he escaped from the police, and then was evacuated to Italy.
There is a version that the battery under the command of Colonel Zoltan Dani hit the object by mistake, accidentally opening fire and having no specific target. The remains of the F-117 are on display at the Belgrade Aviation Museum near the airport. The country's defensive power was negatively affected by the collapse of greater Yugoslavia, the sanctions imposed following the results of the Bosnian War, and the provisions of the Dayton agreements on arms reduction. Of the 20 air force bases in 1991, Yugoslavia had only five left by 1999. Almost all equipment was of little use for modern warfare.
At the same time, in 1996, Russia, as part of the repayment of the USSR's debt to the SFRY, offered to supply the Yugoslavs with 20 MiG-29 fighters and S-300 air defense systems. President Milosevic refused such a deal.
The attacks by NATO aircraft were mainly aimed at military and engineering facilities, as well as communications, but civilian infrastructure was also heavily damaged. The bombing killed from about 300 (according to Yugoslavia) to 1200 (NATO version) security officials and at least 500 civilians. Many were left homeless and homeless. The Serbian authorities have decided not to restore some of the bomb-damaged buildings. So, in the center of Belgrade, a dilapidated former building rises, attracting foreign tourists.
The Radio and Television Building, whose workers NATO has accused of a "propaganda campaign", is in about the same condition. According to the interpretation, the destruction of the television center fell into the category of war crimes. The attack by Tomahawk missiles killed 16 employees who were broadcasting the nightly news bulletin at the time. Then, in April, a raid was made on the Ushche shopping center.
In Belgrade's Tashmaidan park, a stele was installed in memory of the journalists and studio staff. The word "Why?" Is engraved on it.
Russian citizens were also victims of the bombing. A group of engineers burned to death during the bombing of Belgrade, at least one more person died in the destruction of a bridge near the Petrovaradin fortress in Novi Sad. Posters with photographs and the names of those killed from among the civilian population are regularly displayed at the building of the Assembly, the parliament of Serbia, where they traditionally protest against the visit of foreign politicians, to one degree or another involved in the tragic events.
Dmitry Okunev / "Gazeta.Ru"
Spontaneous anti-American rallies were a response to the Yugoslav events in Russia. During one of them, the crowd almost destroyed the American embassy: the police barely managed to contain the onslaught of young people, and only the entrance of the building was damaged. Dmitry Okunev / "Gazeta.Ru"
On a peacekeeping mission in the midst of air strikes, they visited Belgrade, and. As Nemtsov later said, Russian deputies tried to persuade the Serbian Patriarch Pavel and Pope John Paul II to ask Clinton to stop the attack. The pontiff refused, citing the fact that the American president would not listen to him.
The participation of the Russian army in the conflict was limited to a raid of 200 peacekeepers stationed in Bosnia on Pristina, where on the night of June 12 it was to take control of the Slatina airport. One of the commanders of the operation was the current president of Ingushetia, at that time a major who was awarded the title of Hero of Russia.
Attention in this article, photographs are used and facts are given that are not recommended to be viewed and read by children, pregnant women and people with a weak nervous system.
I want to continue this topic, because I find everything and find too many new facts. And it is still desirable to know them in order to understand with whom we are neighbors. With the cultured and civilized West, as they present us, or with the rabid beast for which the seas of blood shed by it are not a reason for reflection. You know, what is most striking is that how quickly people who imagine themselves cultured and civilized turn into a moment ... not even into animals, if an animal kills it only for food or protection. These same beings can calmly enjoy the torment of others.
You and I are often reproached with the Red Terror during the Civil War, while for some reason the White Terror is silent. But here it is understandable that the West also took part in it. So they are silent about him. And with all these reproaches, they forget their interesting pages of history. Let's see together what they are silent about?
France
So - La Belle France, beautiful France. Noble musketeers, stinking kings and courtiers, fine wine…. Are they really “white and fluffy”?
The Vendée Rebellion. Did not hear? As in all of France, peasant demonstrations took place in the Vendée in 1789-1792. But the uprising of 1793, which began as a jaqueria, later developed into a counter-revolutionary rebellion. Ending in the defeat of the rebels three years later, the war claimed the lives of more than 200,000 people. The Vendée, with its Celtic population, its untouched Christianity, its lack of urban culture and the closeness between nobles and peasants, represented a stark contrast to the rest of France. The Vendéans have always been devout and devoted to the royal house. Relatively little constrained by the previous order and under the influence of the clergy, which was large in the region, they were extremely hostile to the Revolution. One of the reasons for the uprising is called compulsory recruitment into the revolutionary army. Upon receiving news of the events in the Vendée, the National Convention declared everyone involved in the uprising outlawed. On January 7, 1794, the Republicans seized the Isle of Noirmoutier with the help of transport ships. The royalists who were on it capitulated, but the commissioners of the Convention violated the terms of the treaty and shot up to 1,500 prisoners, after which the commander of the republican troops, General Turro, having received reinforcements, decided to finally suppress the uprising and for this he moved 12 flying detachments to Vendée (about 15 thousand people in total). known as infernal columns, which destroyed houses, villages, forests on their way and mercilessly shot all prisoners. In response to this, the royalists did not give mercy to their opponents. Terrible atrocities were committed on both sides, but the Republicans were unable to suppress the remnants of the uprising. "The Vendée must become a national cemetery," proclaimed the brave General Tyurro, who led the "infernal columns" of punishers. The massacre lasted 18 months. Executions and guillotines (even children's guillotines were delivered from Paris) were not enough to execute the decree. The destruction of people took place, according to the revolutionaries, not fast enough. We decided: to drown. The city of Nantes, as Norman Davis writes, was "the Atlantic port of the slave trade, and therefore there was a fleet of huge floating prisons at hand." But even this fleet would quickly dry up. Therefore, they came up with the idea of \u200b\u200btaking out a barge loaded with people on a reliable rope leash at the mouth of the Loire, drowning it, then pulling it out again with ropes ashore and slightly drying it before using it again. It turned out, writes Davis, "a wonderful reusable execution device."
It was not enough for revolutionary entertainers to simply kill people. They took pleasure in ripping off their clothes and tying them in pairs before being loaded onto barges. Pregnant women were tied naked face to face with old men, boys with old women, priests with girls, this was called "republican weddings."
So that those hiding in the forests would not survive, but would die of hunger, cattle were slaughtered, crops and houses were burned. Jacobin General Westermann wrote with enthusiasm to Paris:
“Citizens of the Republicans, the Vendee no longer exists! Thanks to our free saber, she died along with her women and their offspring. Using the rights given to me, I trampled children with horses, cut out women. I have not regretted a single prisoner. I destroyed everyone. "
Whole departments were depopulated, according to various estimates, from 400 thousand to a million people were exterminated.
How do you like it? Culturally? In a European way? Move on. War of 1812. We are now presenting her through films - everything is decorous, noble. But in fact, the French on our territory frolic just like the Nazis in the forties of the 20th century.
"For victory, it is necessary that the common soldier not only hate his opponents, but also despise them." (Napoleon, Emperor of France)
So they despised us. Monasteries were destroyed, monuments of architecture were blown up. The altars of Moscow churches were deliberately turned into stables and latrines. With a cruel death, they killed priests who did not give away church relics, raped nuns, and used ancient icons to light up stoves. At the same time, the soldiers knew for sure that they had come to a barbaric, wild country. Napoleon ordered, when delivering food to the Kremlin, instead of horses to use for this Russian of both sexes.
"The devastation of the peasants by the passing army of the conqueror, countless marauders and simply plundering French deserters was so great that hatred of the enemy grew every day." "Napoleon's invasion of Russia". Evgeny Tarle is a Russian and Soviet historian.
Napoleon's army nowhere decisively, even in Egypt, even in Syria, behaved so unbridled, did not kill and torture the population so brazenly and cruelly as in Russia. Numerous Moscow monasteries were ravaged by her daughter. The soldiers tore off the silver frames from the icons, collected lamps and crosses. For ease of observation, they blew up the Church of St. John the Baptist, which stood next to the Novodevichy Convent. In the Vysokopetrovsky monastery, the invaders set up a slaughterhouse, and the cathedral church was turned into a butcher's shop. The entire monastery churchyard was covered with caked blood, and in the cathedral, pieces of meat and the entrails of animals hung on chandeliers and nails driven into the iconostasis. In the Andronievsky, Pokrovsky, Znamensky monasteries, French soldiers stabbed icons with wood, the faces of the saints were used as targets for shooting. In the Chudov Monastery, the French, putting on mitres and the vestments of the clergy on themselves and on their horses, rode around and laughed a lot. In the Danilov Monastery, the shrine of Prince Daniel was stripped off and the clothes from the thrones were stripped. In the Mozhaisky Luzhetsky Monastery, the icon of St.John the Baptist kept here has traces of a knife - the French used it as a cutting board, chopped meat on it. Hieromonk of the Znamensky Monastery Pavel and the priest of the St. George Monastery Ioann Alekseev were killed. The priest of the Forty Saints Church, Peter Velmyaninov, was beaten with rifle butts, stabbed with bayonets and sabers for not giving them the keys to the church. The monks of the Novospassky monastery buried the priest, but the French then dug up his grave three times: when they saw the fresh earth, they thought that they had buried a treasure in this place. In the Epiphany Monastery, the treasurer of the Aaron Monastery was dragged by the French by the hair, pulled out his beard and then carried loads on it, harnessing them to a cart. A cultured nation has come to "familiarize the barbarians" with the achievements of civilization. The methods did not change - robbery, murder, violence.
“... The imperial column was approaching Gzhatsk; she was amazed to meet the newly killed Russians on her way. The remarkable thing is that each of them had exactly the same head cuts and that the bloody brain was spattered right there. It was known that there were two thousand Russian prisoners in front of us and that they were accompanied by the Spaniards, Portuguese and Poles ... "
“Napoleon kept a gloomy silence; but the next day the killings stopped. They confined themselves to condemning these unfortunates to starve to death behind fences, where they were driven for the night, like cattle. No doubt it was barbarism; but what was to be done? Let them go free? They would talk about our plight and, joining their own, would violently rush after us. In this merciless war, giving them life was tantamount to sacrificing ourselves. I had to be cruel out of necessity ... "(General Philippe-Paul de Segur, personal adjutant of Bonaparte)
Clear? Cruel out of necessity. This is European civilization.
Move on. Everyone knows about such a country - Algeria? So there our lovely monsieur, too, turned to the full breadth of the European soul. In 1830, the Europeans invaded Algeria, and already in 1834 - Paris officially announced its seizure and annexation of the territory. For over 100 years, Algeria becomes part of the French Republic. Local residents, a country that proclaimed the slogan “Freedom. Equality. Brotherhood, ”she announced as second-class people. On May 8, 1945, in the city of Setif, an uprising of the Algerians against the arbitrariness of the colonists began. The last straw for the start of the uprising was the murder of a young man by police for carrying the Algerian flag. The French authorities used machine guns and artillery. According to various sources, up to 45 thousand people died, the French lost about a thousand. The uprising was suppressed. In 1949, France signed the IV Geneva Convention, which, in particular, calls for adherence to the norms of humanism in relation to prisoners of war and the civilian population. But this did not in any way affect the number of crimes against humanity. In 1954, a full-scale war of independence began. In fact, it turned into a genocide of the Muslim population, which France never recognized.
"The French conducted all their time suppressing the Algerian uprisings extremely brutally, with the methods they used to crush the Vendée, and they did not hide that these were the same methods - they were cruel in the way that few people were cruel, - some tribes were simply destroyed as a result of genocide."
“The uprisings did not stop for a minute, and mutual bitterness reached a boiling point, that when the National Liberation Front led the war, the conversation was only about“ it's either all or nothing, ”compromises were rejected by the Algerians from the very beginning, because they they said: “How much can you ?! We will either die or win. " (Said Zakirovich Gafurov)
“Since 1954, we French have become complicit in the genocide. Under the pretext of establishing peace, we have killed over a million people in Algeria in armed raids. We burned entire villages along with their inhabitants, massacred the population, taking out unborn children from their mothers, tortured to death. Entire tribes suffered from cold and hunger, and died from epidemics in concentration camps. About half a million Algerians died in these camps. " (Simone de Beauvoir, French writer)
French in Algeria (photo from open sources)
Here are just a few facts from those years: 9 out of 10 Arab women prisoners were abused during the Algerian War - mass rape was a common practice of French troops, especially in rural areas. No one dared to object or protest among the soldiers, women were considered part of the soldier's trophy received during the operation. The disaffected could even be accused of supporting the Algerian National Liberation Front. Torture and bullying became commonplace in the Algerian tragedy: people were forced to dig their own graves, into which they were thrown and buried up to their necks, leaving them to die of thirst. They were beaten with rifle butts, trained dogs were set on them, their bodies were fed to dogs, an electric current was passed through the most sensitive points of the body, forced to sit on glass shards, their bodies were forcefully filled with water until their stomachs were swollen, and then they jumped on them so that water began to come out of the mouth, ears, nose, pulled out nails with hot tongs, burned eyelashes, removed scalps, rolled on a carpet consisting of thorns, tore the body, tying one part to a tree and the other to a car.
"Humane" treatment of the local population (photo from open sources)
Others were forced to carry heavy loads, to sweep the road with their tongues, harnessed to carts instead of horses, forced to throw hay into the air and then collect it, run around the house for 10 hours, people were forced to erect walls, destroy them, build again. Such tortures were used against the local population, which it is simply indecent to mention, since it is an open abomination. To teach the art of torture and extermination of the population, the French even founded a special school, which began its work in May 1958. Ordinary soldiers did not lag behind the professional executioners. Here is a quote from the memoirs of one of the soldiers who tortured women:
“We knew what we were doing, something was wrong, but we didn’t know that we were psychologically killing these women,” says one of the soldiers. - You should consider the issue in the context of the era: at twenty we looked at Algerians as subhuman, and women fell into an even lower category, they were worse than dogs ... Besides racism, there was isolation, boredom, madness, drunkenness ... " ...
On March 19, 1962, the war was over. The Evian Accords were signed: Algeria finally gained independence at a very high price. Over 8 years of conflict, 1.5 million civilians died, the country lost 15% of its population
And where did it all start? Before colonization by France, Algeria was a fairly strong state and controlled most of the Mediterranean basin until the defeat, which the Ottoman fleet suffered in 1827. In 1830, a huge military expedition was equipped by the French under the command of General Bourmont. Before taking action, they made an appeal to the Algerian population. The text of the appeal sounded like this:
“We, the French and your friends, are now heading to the capital of the country - the city of Algeria. We pledge our good intentions, and if you join us and prove that you are able to ensure our security, then power will remain in your hands, as before, and you will preserve the independence of your country. "
Nevertheless, immediately after entering the territory of Algeria, the French began to commit crimes.
For example, the employees of the colonial French troops competed among themselves who would collect the most severed ears or limbs of the local population in order to receive a reward. The reports sent by representatives of the French special services to Paris at the time stated:
“We have completely destroyed mosques. The population, to whom we promised respectful treatment, was robbed by seizing their property free of charge. We judged all those who enjoyed the respect and support of the population, because with their courage they were dangerous "
French officers did everything in their power to exterminate as much of the indigenous population as possible, to erase its national identity by ruthlessly exterminating the population. The male part of the population was exterminated, and women and children were loaded onto ships and taken to the Polynesian Islands. All who did not show obedience and dog loyalty were exterminated. Having counted the victims of the massacre alone, the French found one thousand three hundred killed, and there were no wounded for the simple reason that no one was left alive. This is evidenced by the words of one of the French officers of Montianak. On November 26, 1830, in the Algerian city of Blida, the French staged an unprecedented massacre against the civilian population. They did not spare anyone, neither the elderly, nor the old women, nor women, nor even babies. The French officer Troller, who organized this massacre, showed extraordinary talent in this bloody affair and turned the city into a cemetery in just a few hours. The streets of the "dead" city were strewn with corpses, and no one could count how many people were killed then.
Major Montagnac, who led the French units in the area of \u200b\u200bthe city of Skikda in 1843, admits that the heads of the Arabs were cut off, believing that the Arabs should be killed after reaching the age of fifteen. In other words: "We must kill everyone who does not agree to crawl like dogs at our feet." In addition, this commander "became famous" for the murders of the civilian population, even when the resistance ceased, preferring the beheading to prison confinement. Montagnac's favorite strategy of struggle was the total extermination of the population, be it men, women or children. This is evidenced by an excerpt from his letter to one of his friends:
“You asked me what we did with women. We left some hostages, while others were exchanged for cattle or sold at auctions like a herd of sheep ... .. These are our methods of fighting the Arabs, my friend. To kill men, and to load women and children on ships and send them to the Polynesian Islands. In short, the extermination of all those who refuse to crawl at our feet like dogs "
In his book "Letters of a Soldier" Montagnac describes the atrocities of the French in one of the battles: "We managed to count one thousand three hundred women and children killed, with the exception of the wounded, which were not there for the reason that we did not leave the wounded."
The French general Cavaignac confesses to the extermination of the whole tribe of Beni Sabih in 1844: “Our soldiers gathered firewood and piled it at the entrance to the cave into which we drove members of the Beni Sabih tribe. Firing points were placed around so that no one could get out of there and set fire to firewood "
As for those members of the tribe who managed to avoid death in the "Montagnac oven" and who were outside the territory of the Beni Sabih tribe, Colonel Banropar took care of them, who, within a year since the death of their relatives, managed to collect them, shackled , in another cave. Then he ordered to brick up all the exits so that no one could escape from this mass grave.
And please tell me how they differ from the Nazis?
There were also French colonial units - Moroccan gumiers. They are still very well remembered in Italy.
Gumiers (photo from open sources)
Even if they were under the operational control of the Anglo-American command, their officers were French. And this is what these "liberators" are famous for:
Historians testify that after the battle, the Moroccan gumiers committed brutal pogroms in the surrounding villages. All girls and women were raped, and teenage boys were not saved. Records of the 71st German division record 600 rapes of women in the small town of Spigno in just three days. More than 800 men were killed while trying to save their relatives, girlfriends or neighbors. The pastor of the town of Esperia tried in vain to save the three women from the violence of the Moroccan soldiers - the gumiers tied the priest and raped him all night, after which he soon died. The Moroccans also plundered and took away everything of any value. Moroccans chose the most beautiful girls for gang rape. To each of them, queues of gumiers were lined up, wanting to have fun, while other soldiers held the unfortunate. So, two young sisters, 18 and 15 years old, were raped by more than 200 gumiers each. The younger sister died from her injuries and breaks, the older one lost her mind and was kept in a psychiatric hospital for 53 years until her death. In Sicily, the gumiers raped everyone they could capture. The atrocities that the Moroccan gumiers committed for several months in Italy were given the name marocchinate from Italian historians - a derivative from the name of the native country of the rapists.
On October 15, 2011, Emiliano Ciotti, President of the National Association of Marocchinate Victims, made an assessment of the scale of the incident: “From the numerous documents collected today, it is known that at least 20,000 reported incidents of violence have been committed. This number still does not reflect the truth - medical reports of those years indicate that two-thirds of raped women, out of shame or modesty, chose not to report anything to the authorities. Based on the comprehensive assessment, we can confidently say that at least 60,000 women were raped. On average, North African soldiers raped them in groups of two or three, but we also have testimonies of women raped by 100, 200 and even 300 soldiers, ”Ciotti said.
And how do you like this portrait of "beautiful France"?
Do you know that in Vietnam, as part of the Foreign Legion, a lot of punitive forces from the SS, ROA and other Nazi rabble fought? France welcomed them all with pleasure. It was here that the skills of the former SSE members who fought on the Eastern Front, knew what dense forests were, knew what a guerrilla war was and did not know pity for the local natives, came in handy.
The most interesting thing is that France is not going to repent for any of these crimes.
Let's move on to other civilized Europeans.
Spain
In just 21 years after the landing of Columbus on the islands of the Caribbean, the largest of them, today's Haiti and the Dominican Republic, has lost almost all of its indigenous population - about 8 million people killed, died from disease, hunger, slave labor.
This is how it was BEFORE the arrival of the Spaniards:
"The tropical idyll that we find in the descriptions of Columbus and Peter Martyr was mostly true." About Tainos (Arawak): “These people did not need anything. They cared for their plants, were skilled fishermen, canoeists and swimmers. They built attractive dwellings and kept them clean. Aesthetically, they expressed themselves in the tree. free time to practice ball games, dance and music. They lived in peace and friendship. " (geographer Karl Sauer)
Columbus, seeing all this, wrote in his diary:
"These people walk in what their mother gave birth to, but they are good-natured ... they can be made free and converted to our Holy Faith. They will make good and skillful servants."
"50 soldiers are enough to conquer them all and make them do whatever we want."
"The locals allow us to go where we want and give us everything we ask of them."
Based on modern data, it can be said that when on October 12, 1492, Christopher Columbus descended on one of the islands of the continent, soon called the "New World," its population ranged from 100 to 145 million people. Two centuries later, it dropped by 90%. To this day, the most "fortunate" of the peoples of the Americas that once existed have retained no more than 5% of their former population. So in Hispaniola, where about 8 million Tainos flourished until 1492, by 1570 there were only two miserable villages of the indigenous inhabitants of the island, about which 80 years ago Columbus wrote that "there are no better and more affectionate people in the world."
From 1519 to 1594, the population in Central Mexico, the most populous region of the American continent, fell by 95%, from 25 million to barely 1 million 300 thousand people. In the 60 years since the arrival of the Spaniards, the population of Western Nicaragua has declined by 99%, from more than 1 million to less than 10 thousand people. In Western and Central Honduras in half a century, 95% of the indigenous people were killed. In Cordoba, near the Gulf of Mexico, 97% in a little more than a century. In the neighboring province of Jalapa, 97% of the population was also destroyed: from 180 thousand in 1520 to 5 thousand in 1626. By the end of the 16th century, about 200 thousand Spaniards moved to Mexico, Central America and further south. By the same time, from 60 to 80 million indigenous people of these regions were destroyed.
Columbus ordered all residents over the age of 14 to hand over a thimble of golden sand or 25 pounds of cotton to the Spaniards every three months (in areas where there was no gold). Those who fulfilled this quota were hung around their necks with a copper token indicating the date of receipt of the last tribute. The token gave its owner the right to three months of life. Those caught without this token or with expired ones were cut off the hands of both hands, hung them around the victim's neck and sent her to die in their village. During the governorship of Columbus, up to 10 thousand Indians were killed in this way in Hispaniola alone. It was almost impossible to meet the established quota.
"The Spaniards were betting who could cut a man in two with one blow, or cut his head off, or they ripped open their stomachs. They tore the babies from their mothers' breasts by the legs and smashed their heads against stones ... They strung other children on their long swords together. with their mothers and everyone who stood before them. "
“The Spaniards took pleasure in inventing sophisticated cruelty and torture. They built a gallows high enough for the hanged man to touch the ground with his toes to avoid suffocation, and thus hanged thirteen Indians, one by one, in honor of Christ the Savior and his apostles.
While the Indians were still alive, the Spaniards tested the sharpness and strength of their swords on them, opening their chests with one blow so that the insides were visible, and there were some who did worse things. Then, straw was wrapped around their excised bodies and burned alive. One soldier caught two children, two years old, stabbed their throats with a dagger and threw them into the abyss. "
“Numerous testimonies from numerous witnesses tell of how the Indians are led in columns to the mines. They are chained to each other with neck shackles. Those who fall have their heads cut off. They talk about children who are locked in houses and burned, and who are stabbed to death if they walk too slowly. It is common practice to cut off women's breasts and strap heavy weights to their legs before dropping them into a lake or lagoon. They talk about babies torn from their mothers, killed and used as road signs. Fugitive or "wandering" Indians are cut off their limbs and sent to their villages, having severed hands and noses hanging around their necks. They talk about "pregnant women, children and old people who are caught as much as possible" and thrown into special pits, at the bottom of which sharp stakes are dug and "they are left there until the pit is full." And a lot, a lot more. " (Stanard)
The Spaniards brought to the Caribbean a large consignment of Mastiffs and Greyhounds, trained to kill people and eat their entrails. The Spaniards began to feed their dogs with human flesh. Living children were considered a special delicacy. The colonialists allowed dogs to gnaw them alive, often in the presence of their parents. In the Caribbean, there was a chain of "butcher shops" where the bodies of the Indians were sold as dog food.
“… When I returned from Cartagena, I met a Portuguese named Rohe Martin. On the porch of his house there were parts of the hacked Indians to feed his dogs, as if they were wild animals ... ”(From a letter from one of the conquistadors)
And here's how it was all justified:
"to use gunpowder against the Gentiles is to smoke incense for the Lord" (Fernandez de Ovieda)
"How can one doubt that nations so uncivilized, so barbaric and corrupted by so many sins and perversions were justly conquered." (theologian Juan de Sepúlveda)
"common people" universally consider as sages those who are convinced that American Indians are not people, but "a special, third kind of animals between man and ape and were created by God to better serve man."
And notice all this long before Hitler. And the methods, and the words are the same.
Republicans killed or executed about 50 thousand supporters and sympathizers of the Francoists. The Francoists killed three times as many people. The number of 150,000 killed does not include victims of deliberate bombing and shelling of residential areas in Madrid, Barcelona, \u200b\u200bValencia and other cities. The Franco women were first raped and then shot. After the capture of any city or village, the troops, allegedly carrying "law and order", received two hours of robbery and violence.
“In the village of Mavalkarnero, near Madrid, the Francoists captured two girls, whose fault was that they were members of a union. General Mohammed Ben Mizzian, the highest-ranking officer in Franco's Moroccan units, ordered the girls to be thrown into the barracks with Moroccan soldiers. I tried to protest, and Mizzian told me, "Don't worry, they won't survive more than four hours." (American journalist John Whitaker)
Whitaker has witnessed other war crimes. He left descriptions of the killing of 200 wounded in a hospital in Toledo. Whitaker also described the Badajoz bullfighting carnage in August 1936. When Whitaker asked General Juan Yague if it was true that he had killed four thousand people in the arena, the general boastfully replied: “Of course. Do you think I was going to take 4000 Reds off when we attacked? Or should I have left them there so that they would make Badajoz the red capital? "The general did not leave the arena for a whole day. Within 24 hours, he commanded the execution of more than 2,000 people. In Triana, a working-class district of Seville, in the early days of the mutiny, the Phalangists killed about 6,000 people.
Counting the victims of the Franco regime could begin only after the death of the dictator in 1975 and has not been completed to this day. In 2002, construction workers in Toledo stumbled upon a mass grave in the backyard of a cemetery house. It turned out that the remains of people who went missing in September 1936 were buried there. Not only soldiers, but civilians, women and children lay in the graves.
Children killed by the Francoists (photo from open sources)
Everything is cultural and European, isn't it?
Already on July 13, 1941, the first echelon with Spanish volunteers went to Germany, where they were collected in Bavaria in a training camp. The backbone of the "Blue Division" was made up of phalangists and career soldiers of the Francoist army who went through the civil war in Spain. These were ideological fascists who had experience in fighting, they participated in punitive operations against the "red" in their homeland. As Soviet historians testify, the Spanish volunteers were distinguished by atrocities against the local population and brutal torture applied to prisoners. For example, during the liberation of the village of Dubrovka in the Novgorod region from the invaders, the Red Army found the corpses of Russian soldiers brutally tortured by the Spanish Blue Division: “Both corpses are scalped<…> the facial bones of one of the corpses are crushed, the fingernails are torn off, the hands are smoked and have burn marks. Each corpse has one eye gouged out and ears cut off. All these atrocities were perpetrated by the cutthroats of the Spanish Blue Division, the Izvestia newspaper reported from the front.
Finland
What was the difference between the "hot Finnish guys"? Well, read:
“During the civil war in Finland, it seems that the whites' desire to make Russians scapegoats for all atrocities and thereby substantiate their own ideas was behind the incited Russophobia,” “for psychological reasons, they tried to mask the cruel truth about the fratricidal war with an alleged ideological struggle in defense of Western culture from the Russians, declared sworn enemies ... without an external enemy, it would be difficult to raise the masses to war. " (Finnish historian O. Karemaa)
“If we love our country, we need to learn to hate its enemies ... Therefore, in the name of our honor and freedom, let our motto sound:“ Hatred and love! Death of "russi" (Finnish contemptuous name for Russians), be they red or white! " Or: “Russia has always been and will forever remain the enemy of humanity and humane development. Was there ever any benefit from the existence of the Russian people for humanity? No!" (From Finnish newspapers of the time)
On April 29, 1918, the city of Vyborg was captured by units of Finnish nationalists. The massacre in the city continued until June 16. Entering Vyborg, the members of the "Guard Corps" and the huntsmen grabbed all the Russians who came across them on the streets: officers, officials, gymnasium students ... They were taken to the Friedrichgam Gate, behind which death awaited the captured.
“... not far from the Pimenovs' house, two realists were killed, who ran out in uniforms to greet the“ whites ”; 3 cadets were killed in the city; the Reds who surrendered were cordoned off and driven into the fortress ditch; at the same time, they captured part of the crowd that was on the streets, and indiscriminately and indiscriminately finished off in the ditch and in other places ... Before the execution, they tore off watches, rings from people, took away wallets, pulled off boots, clothes, etc. ... Russian officers ... their relatives then searched for them in the heaps of bodies in the ditch: they even had their underwear taken off. "
The witness of the tragedy Katonsky told the following:
“… The“ whites ”rushed into the city shouting“ shoot the Russians ”. They broke into apartments, grabbed and killed, took people to the ramparts and shot ... They dealt mainly with men, but there were also children. "
“Along with many hundreds of Russian families in the city of Vyborg, my family also suffered a grave misfortune. Three of my nephews, whom I raised as my children (they were orphans): Grigory Aleksandrovich Mikhailov, 23 years old, Andrey Aleksandrovich Mikhailov, 20 years old, and Pyotr Aleksandrovich Mikhailov, 18 years old, died in vain and innocent victims at the hands of the Finnish White Guards. On the first day of the entry of the Finnish White Guard into Vyborg, they took their documents and went to register with the White Guard authorities. Not knowing any guilt behind themselves, they walked boldly and trustingly, confident in the nobility and regularity of the actions of the White Guard. And they paid dearly for their trust. Without any guilt, they were shot by the White Guards. My wife later found them outside the Friedrichham Gate in a common heap of Russian martyrs. "
Father Mikhail Uspensky, archpriest of the Vyborg Cathedral:
“The prisoners were placed in the moat so that they formed a right angle. The guards were ordered to line up in front of the prisoners and shoot. The soldiers who were at the beginning of the procession began to shoot first, then everyone else, including the narrator (…). Almost immediately, as soon as the shooting began, most of the prisoners fell to the ground. Despite this, the shooting continued for about five minutes more. On the ramparts were soldiers, gamekeepers (...). After a while, a man in a German jaeger uniform ordered the rifles to be raised, and the fire stopped, after which the men came closer to the dead. Then, first, two, one of whom was in a German jaeger uniform, began to shoot from a revolver into the heads of the wounded, but still living people. Others gradually joined them. "
“… The sight was indescribably awful. The bodies of those who were shot lay at random, some in what position. The walls of the ramparts were stained with caked blood on one side. It was impossible to move between the ramparts, the earth turned into a bloody mess. Search was out of the question. Nobody would be able to inspect such piles of bodies. "
The attorney from the city of Vaasa Josta Breklund, who personally participated in the execution
“What animal is the most human? This is "russa". Due to the great popularity of the competition, the second round was held, in which the proverb became the best: "Hit on the back - you will get rid of the cough, kill - and you will get rid of" russa ".
newspaper "Suojeluskuntalaisen" 1921
These are the European orders.
And here is how they behaved fighting on the side of Hitler .. It is better not to read the impressionable.
“Numerous materials have been collected concerning the brutal massacre of the Finnish White bandits over the prisoners, especially the wounded, by Soviet soldiers and officers. It testifies to the savage, barbaric torture and torture that the Finnish sadists subjected their victims to before they killed them. Many of the found corpses of tortured Soviet officers and soldiers have stab wounds, many have their ears and nose cut off, eyes gouged out, limbs are twisted from joints, stripes of skin and five-pointed stars were cut out on the body. Finnish monsters practiced burning people alive at the stake. 25.VI-1944, on the shores of Lake Ladoga, the corpse of an unknown Red Army soldier was found, boiled alive at the stake in a large iron barrel. From the testimony of the prisoners of war, it is clear that among the White Finnish soldiers, the wild, cannibal custom of boiling the heads of slain Soviet prisoners of war in order to separate the soft covers from the skull has spread. No less awful is the fate of Soviet prisoners of war, whose lives were saved at the first minute. In the concentration camps, a regime was established, calculated on the extinction of prisoners of war by a slow, painful death. When reports appeared in foreign, including Swiss, press about the barbaric regime and the high mortality rate in Finnish prisoner of war camps, Mannerheim was forced in December 1942 to issue the following statement: “British information claims that he died in prisoner of war camps in Finland from hunger 20,000 prisoners. Until August of this year, 12,000 prisoners really died ... ””.
From a report on the atrocities of the White Finns in the temporarily occupied territory of the USSR, sent to the head of GlavPURKKA A.S. Shcherbakov by his deputy I.V. Shikin (Moscow, July 28, 1944)
On June 28, 1944, the Finns attacked a group of wounded Red Army soldiers near the village of Tosku-Selga. They stabbed them in the face with a knife, smashed their heads with rifle butts and axes and thus killed 71 wounded Red Army soldiers. So, the guard of Lieutenant Sych has a skull split in two and gouged out his eyes, the guard of Private Knyazev has five bayonet wounds on his face, Guard Sergeant Artyomov has his face cut with a razor, his arms are twisted back, one wounded was doused with gasoline and burned (the corpse cannot be identified).
On July 4, 1944, the corpse of a senior sergeant was lying next to the trench in the defense sector, which was recaptured by our soldiers. The instrument of their atrocity - a large Finnish knife - was left by the Finns stuck in the chest of a Soviet soldier. The senior sergeant's hands were stained with blood, and the position of the corpse proved that the bandits were thrusting the senior sergeant's hands into his slit throat. According to the found Red Army book, it was established that it was Senior Sergeant Boyko. Not far from Boyko were the bodies of other soldiers. The Finns cut off the ear of one fighter, they punched out a huge hole in the forehead of another, and gouged out the eyes of the third.
On June 20, 1944, during the occupation of the 7th company of the 3rd battalion of the 1046th battalion of the Finnish defense, the head of an unknown Soviet soldier was found in the trench of the Finns, in front of the entrance to the dugout of the command post, put on a stake driven in front of the door of a mined dugout.
The newspaper "Komsomolskaya Pravda" dated August 11, 1944 published a letter from Senior Lieutenant V. Andreev:
“Dear comrade editor! Take a look at this photo. It shows Lieutenant Olkinuorja in the Finnish Army. In his hands is the skull of a tortured and killed Red Army soldier. As the prisoners showed, this beast in uniform decided to keep the skull of its victim “as a keepsake” and ordered the soldiers to boil it in a cauldron and clean it. And in the suitcase of the captured Fin Saari, we found photographs like this. Saari tortured the prisoners, chopped off their arms and legs, and ripped open their bellies. He even installed a system: first he chopped off the feet, hands, then the legs, forearms, and only then cut off the head. "
The captured corporal of the 4th company of the 25th battalion of the 15th Finnish infantry division Kauko Johannes Haikisuo testified on July 6, 1944: “I heard such an incident from soldier Markus Koivunen. One platoon of deep reconnaissance of the armored division of Lagus caught in the spring of 1943 somewhere in Karelia a Red Army soldier. Finnish scouts scalped the Red Army man, hung the scalp on a branch, and then killed the prisoner. From this you can conclude how we treat Russian prisoners of war. "
August Lappeteleinen, sergeant of the medical service of the 7th company of the 30th regiment of the 7th infantry division of the Finnish army made the following statement to the command of the Red Army:
“On April 25, 1943, I and the commander of the 2nd platoon, Feldwebel Esko Savolainen, went to the command post of the 7th company. Company Commander Seppo Rusanen addressed me: “Listen, junior sergeant. I have a task for you: I need to get a human skull, and you, as a medical professional, will need to boil your head out to get the skull. " On April 26, the company commander called me. We drove about 2 km. There was the Kalle stronghold, where Russian intelligence officers attacked in winter. Three Red Army soldiers were killed here, their corpses were lying uncleaned. When the platoon commander and I examined these corpses, he found a suitable head, and I chopped off the head with an ax with me. Then the lieutenant told me: "Take this head on a shovel, and I will take a picture of it." The lieutenant then told me that I would have to boil it down as quickly as possible so that it would not spoil. Before I put my head in the cauldron, the lieutenant came and took another picture of it. After that, I saw this skull on his desktop. And then in early August Rusanen went on vacation and took this skull with him. According to the soldiers of the department of management Liavala and Räsänen, Rusanen took the skull as a gift to his bride. ”
During the interrogation, a soldier of the 101st Finnish Infantry Regiment Aarie Ensio Moilanen testified: “The reconnaissance and sabotage detachment, of which I am a member, set fire to the village of Koikari… the women ran to meet us and asked not to shoot them. We raped some of these women and shot all of them. They left no one. I still remember a beautiful girl whom my comrades and I raped, and then shot ”.
The captured Finnish soldier of the 13th company of the 20th infantry brigade Toivo Arvid Laine testified: “In early June 1944 I was in Petrozavodsk. Children from 5 to 15 years old were accommodated in the camp. The children were terrifying to look at. They were small, living skeletons, dressed in unimaginable rags. The children were so exhausted that they forgot how to cry and looked at everything with indifferent eyes.
FROM MESSAGES OF THE SOVIET INFORMATION BUREAU
“Near the village V. in the northwestern direction of the front, the Finns captured and captured two wounded Red Army soldiers. One of them was shot by the Nazis, and the other was burned alive at the stake. On the northern front, the White Finns captured the military technician Ladonin, wounded in both legs. The Shutskorites cut his face with a razor, gouged out his eyes and inflicted many knife wounds. The mutilated corpse of Comrade The Red Army men found Ladonin in the closet of the house, which housed the office of the White Finnish battalion. "
Looting in the Finnish army is strongly encouraged and is the responsibility of Finnish soldiers. The secret instruction of the headquarters of the 7th Finnish Infantry Division No. 511 says: "In all circumstances, as soon as the situation permits, it is necessary to remove all uniforms and equipment from the killed enemy soldiers. If necessary, prisoners of war can be involved in this work. (Reason: telegraphic order of the headquarters. Karelian army) ".
The Red Army soldier Sergei Pavlovich Terentyev who escaped from the White Finnish captivity spoke about the unbearable suffering of Soviet prisoners of war languishing in a camp near the city of Pitkyaranta. "This camp," Terentyev said, "contains wounded Red Army soldiers. They are not provided with any medical assistance.<...> We were given a mug of flour stew per day. The Finnish executioners have invented a terrible torture for us. They girded the prisoner with barbed wire and dragged him along the ground. The corpses of tortured Soviet soldiers are taken out of the camp every day. "
“A group of fighters of the N unit operating on the Karelian front found the corpses of 11 Soviet soldiers who had been brutally tortured by the White Finns in a repulsed trench. The Red Army men Bachinov G.M., Uglov V.V. and Bogdanov I.S. were wounded in the battle and captured. The White Finns tortured them for a long time and carved five-pointed stars on their chests. The identity of the rest of the tortured fighters could not be established, since the bandits mutilated them beyond recognition. "
Finns take photographs of the skin taken from a LIVE Red Army soldier (photo from open sources)
“... The Finnish accomplices of the German fascists are also doing the same atrocities in the Far North. On the Karelian Front, during the offensive of the Red Army units, dozens of corpses of the wounded Red Army soldiers tortured by the Finnish fascists were found. So, at the Red Army soldier Sataev, the Finns gouged out his eyes, cut off his lips, and pulled out his tongue. They cut off the ear of the Red Army soldier Grebennikov, gouged out his eyes and inserted empty casings into them. After long torture, the Red Army soldier Lazarenko was crushed by the Finns' skull and stuffed with crackers, cartridges were driven into his nostrils, and a five-pointed star was burned out on his chest with hot metal.
We, the undersigned, servicemen of the 26th joint venture: military assistant of the 2nd battalion Fedor Fedoseevich Karataev, sergeant major Karabanin Pavel Mikhailovich, Red Army men: Viktor Ivanovich Konovalov and Nikolai Zinovievich Korolev, of this date we have drawn up a real act of the following:
When our unit entered the village. Stolbovaya Gora, Medvezhyegorsk region, Karelo-Finnish SSR, which was recaptured from the Finns, we found in one of the peasant yards the corpse of the Red Army soldier of the 7th company of the 24th joint venture Zubekhin Nikolai, brutally tortured and robbed by Finnish knackers. The Red Army man had his eyes gouged out, his lips were cut out. The Finns took off Zubekhin's shoes. They took all the documents. The corpse was buried by us in the village. Stolbovaya Gora, Medvezhyegorsk region, K-F SSR. We confirm the correctness of the above with signatures.
(Signatures)
We, the undersigned, confirm that the Red Army soldier Sataev was seriously wounded in the battle on November 13, 1941. They did not have time to evacuate him to the rear. The raging Finnish fascists mutilated a seriously wounded Red Army soldier. During a personal examination of Sataev's corpse, we found that his eyes were gouged out, his lips were cut off, his tongue was torn out, his chest was cut with knives.
The commander of the 9th rifle company, Lieutenant Fedorkovich, the political instructor of the company Danidochkin, the commander of the 2nd platoon of the 9th company, junior lieutenant Pantyutin, the Red Army soldier Borisenko.
We, the undersigned, the commander of the 9th rifle company, Lieutenant Fedorkovich, the political instructor of the 9th company, Danilochkin, and the medical instructor of the 9th company, Spirkin, drew up a real act that during the battle on November 13, 1941, the Red Army soldier Grebennikov was seriously wounded in the leg. It was not possible to evacuate Grebennikov to the rear. The Finnish monsters decided to take out their bestial malice on the captured Red Army soldier. The Finns tortured the fighter.
So, his ear was cut off, his eyes were gouged out, the fingers on his right hand were cut off, his throat was cut and several severe wounds were inflicted on his chest.
(Signatures)
We, the undersigned, political instructor Zektser, instructor R.A. Sokko and V.A.Ulitovsky, drew up a real act stating that on November 25, 1941, at 48 kilometers in the Kestengsky direction, during the retreat of the enemy, we found the corpse of a Red Army soldier, doused with some liquid that has corroded all the skin and clothing of the Red Army soldier. The soldier's face is turned into a solid mass of meat.
(Signatures)
Finns pose with a frozen Red Army prisoner (photo from open sources)
We, the undersigned, having examined the corpses of fighters brutally tortured by the Finns, Comrades. Malkov and Tochilin, we state the following:
On the skull of Comrade. Tochilin, there is a cut wound in the occipital bone. In the area of \u200b\u200bboth mastoid processes, there are extensive cut wounds. There is a lacerated knife wound in the region of the left clavicle. There is also a laceration on the upper one-third of the shoulder.
Corpse skull comrade Malkov is crushed by a blunt weapon. On the supraorbital and infraorbital regions, there are sharp hemorrhages and abrasions as a result of blows with a blunt instrument. On the right, in the chest area, there is a torn wound with torn edges. The body of the corpse was burned to char. On various parts of the body, the skin is cut in strips of various sizes.
What is the present act drawn up.
The head of the medical service, military doctor Khaimovich, technician-quartermaster I rank Mikey, military doctor Makienko, Red Army soldier Chileev, Red Army soldier Parkov.
We, the undersigned, military doctors of the 3rd rank Golynsky and Padaryan, junior political instructor Bestolov, foreman Bochkarev, orderly Zhukov, Red Army soldier Bosenko, military assistant Ryabov, having examined the corpses of the Red Navy men brutally tortured by Finnish bandits, TT. Ziva and Kuleshov and the Red Army men Baranov and Krivulin, we state the following:
1. The sailor Kuleshov has his right ear cut off, in the face area there are traces of blows with a butt and a number of bayonet wounds, his right leg is twisted in the knee and hip joints, and there are bayonet wounds.
2. The Red Navy man Ziva has burnt skin of his face, his mustache and beard are burned, there is a large bruise in the area of \u200b\u200bthe right eye, there is a wound inflicted with a cold weapon on the left temple;
3. The Red Army soldier Krivulin has a wound inflicted with a cold weapon in the area of \u200b\u200bthe carotid artery, the carotid artery was opened, on the right side of the clavicle there is also a wound inflicted with a cold weapon, there is damage to large blood vessels and a fracture of the clavicle, a number of wounds on the right shoulder, the upper eyelid of the left eye is cut out , the eye is damaged.
4. Red Army soldier Baranov suffered 6 bayonet wounds in the chest, cruciform wounds on both heels.
March 14, 1942. Military investigator of the military prosecutor's office 10 GSP junior military lawyer Stepachenko, military commissar of the 35 GSP battalion commissar Bankovsky, representative of the Political Department senior battalion commissar Pegoev, senior political instructor Serdyukov, military doctor Kravchuk, Red Army guards Filin, this number made a real act in the guards that in the area 8th Rifle Company, on the eastern bank of the Zapadnaya Litsa River, the corpse of a Red Army soldier was found brutally tortured by fascist bandits from the 6th Mountain Jaeger German Division. The surname of the Red Army soldier could not be established due to the lack of any documents.
The corpse lay in a dugout on a bunk, mined. Upon examination of the corpse of the Red Army soldier, it was established that the Red Army soldier was captured wounded in the right shoulder and right ankle joint. There are no traces of medical assistance. The wounded Red Army soldier was subjected to monstrous, brutal torture, the Red Army soldier's eyes were gouged out with a bayonet, there are 3 bayonet wounds on his face, burns to the body with a hot iron in the chin area, there are 4 penetrating bayonet wounds in the chest area, the chest is dented, ribs are broken, there is a huge hemorrhage skin, in the abdomen, 3 piercing bayonet wounds, a large hemorrhage in the muscles and subcutaneous fat layer. All over the body there are traces of beating with a blunt object. The left shoulder joint was severed with a sharp object, the hands of both hands were burned, the left hand was severed, the penis was severed, the left thigh was cut and the knee joint was severed, the left shin was also cut and severed. We have photographed the corpse of a Red Army soldier who was brutally tortured by German bandits.
(Signatures)
About the atrocities of the Nazis against the wounded soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, committed from 28 to 30 March 1942.
The commission consisting of the senior political instructor Pichugin D.S., the Red Army soldiers I.A.Akulin and M.M. Sha-dura, sergeant Tovarkovsky and corporal Ivanov established:
1. The Nazis gouged out the eyes of the murdered junior sergeant Dmitry Ivanovich Veselkov.
2. The nose of the Red Army soldier Kovalev Vasily Sergeevich was cut off.
3. Red Army soldier Timofey Ivanovich Ulyashev cut his throat with a knife.
These and other testimonies in the book “The Monstrous Atrocities of the Finnish-Fascist Invaders on the Territory of the Karelian-Finnish SSR. Collection of documents and materials. " Sulimin S., Truskinov I., Shitov Nikolay Fedorovich.
I don't even know what to call these creatures that committed such atrocities. I just can't find the words.
By the way, look at what kind of commemorative coin they issued not so long ago. Depicts Vyborg, the execution of the Russians. (photo from open sources)
Hungary
Hungary together with Germany attacks the USSR on June 22, 1941. The motto of the Hungarian Royal Army was: "The price of Hungarian life is Soviet death."
The brutal Magyars did not stand on ceremony with the civilian population and prisoners.
I am reporting the facts of the atrocities of the Hungarian occupiers against Soviet citizens. After the liberation of the village of Shchuchye, traces of monstrous reprisals were found there. Lieutenant Vladimir Salogub, being wounded, was captured and brutally tortured. More than 20 stab wounds were found on his body. Political instructor Fyodor Bolshakov had stars carved on his arms, and there were several knife wounds on his back. The peasant Kuzmenko was shot because only four cartridges were found in his hut. Many residents' belongings and livestock were taken away. Many women were raped, - wrote the head of the political department of the Voronezh Front, Lieutenant General Sergei Shatilov on August 31, 1942.
“In 1943, in the Chernyansky district of the Kursk region, the Hungarians burned 360 captured Russian soldiers and civilians alive. In the same region, on the Kharyevka farm, the allies of the Germans mutilated 4 Red Army soldiers with bayonets and buried them alive in the soil. "
"A fire burned brightly there. Two Magyars were holding the prisoner by the shoulders and legs and slowly roasting his stomach and legs over the fire. They either lifted him above the fire, then lowered him, and when he was quiet, the Magyars threw his body face down on the fire. the prisoner twitched again. Then one of the Magyars thrust a bayonet into his back with a flourish "(From the reports to the command of the Soviet army.)
... “When they saw the men of our village, they said that they were partisans. And on the same date, they seized my husband Mazerkov Sidor Borisovich, born in 1862, and my son Mazerkov, Alexei Sidorovich, born in 1927, and tortured them, and after this torture they tied their hands and threw them into a pit, then lit straw and burned people alive in a potato pit. On the same day they not only burned my husband and son, they also burned 67 men ”... (From the testimony of a collective farm worker VF Mozerkova)
Hungarians on the Eastern Front (photo from open sources)
“It was in the month of May on the 28th day of 1942. I and almost all the inhabitants went into the forest. These thugs also followed there. They are in our place, where we (inaudible) with our people, shot and tortured 350 people, including my children were tortured: daughter Nina 11 years old, Tonya 8 years old, little son Vitya 1 year old and son Kolya 5 years old. I was barely alive under the corpses of my children. " (Collective farmer E. Vedeshina)
“In our village Karpilovka, only Hungarian units (Magyars) perpetrated atrocities and atrocities, especially in the period May-August 1943 […] they ordered us to take shovels, gathered us to an anti-tank ditch about 40 people and ordered us to bury an anti-tank ditch with shot corpses. […] The moat was about 30 meters long and 2 meters wide. The corpses lay in a mess, and it was difficult to establish traces of firearms, for it was a bloody mess of old men, old women and teenagers. There was a terrible picture, and I could not look closely where their wounds were and where they were shot. " (Resident of the village of Karpilovka R.S. Troy)
Quote from the diary of Honved Ferenc Boldijar (company 46 / 1.2., Field mail 115/20):
“When we entered the village, I set fire to the first three houses myself. We killed men, women, children, burned the village. Let's go further ... Our magnificent hussars set fire to the village, the third company set fire to rockets. From there we went on to reconnaissance. During the time we spent in reconnaissance, the hussars burned six villages ... "
The facts of such atrocities can be listed for a very long time, it is a pity that few people know about them, or they prefer to forget. You can normally perceive a soldier who honestly fought with you on the battlefield, but such creatures who enjoy the suffering of defenseless people cannot be called human.
Poland
We will not delve into the depths of the centuries, relations between Poland and Russia are not simple enough from time immemorial. Let's start from the moment when Poland was given independence.
On August 29, 1918, the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR issued a decree renouncing the treaties concluded by the Russian Empire with Austria and Prussia, including those concerning the partition of Poland as contradicting the "principle of self-determination of nations and the revolutionary legal consciousness of the Russian people." On October 6, 1918, an independent state was proclaimed by the Regency Council of Poland. And immediately Poland begins to promote the idea of \u200b\u200brecreating the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the Black to the Baltic Seas. On December 19, 1918, the Polish army occupies Vilna. On January 6, 1919, the first clash of Polish troops with soldiers of the Red Army takes place. Moscow proposes negotiations on the settlement of the border issue, but Warsaw refuses them. The Soviet-Polish war flared up, during which, thanks to the "genius" of Tukhachevsky, the Battle of Warsaw was lost. As a result of the defeat at Warsaw, the Soviet troops of the Western Front suffered heavy losses. On March 18, 1921, in Riga between Poland, on the one hand, and the RSFSR (whose delegation also represented the Byelorussian SSR) and the Ukrainian SSR, on the other, the Riga Peace Treaty was signed, which brought the final line under the Soviet-Polish war. As a result, Western Belarus and Western Ukraine retreat to Poland. More than 146 thousand Red Army soldiers were captured by the Poles. Of these, 65,000 returned home. This is how a typical Polish concentration camp is described by a member of the International Committee of the Red Cross.
Polish concentration camp (photo from open sources)
“From the guardhouse, as well as from the former stables in which the prisoners of war are housed, a sickening smell emanates. The prisoners huddle chilly around a makeshift stove, where a few logs are burning - the only way to heat. At night, hiding from the first cold weather, they are packed in tight rows in groups of 300 people in poorly lit and poorly ventilated barracks, on boards, without mattresses and blankets. The prisoners are mostly dressed in rags ... due to the overcrowding of premises that are not suitable for living; joint close living of healthy prisoners of war and infectious patients, many of whom died immediately; malnutrition, as evidenced by numerous cases of malnutrition; edema, hunger during three months of stay in Brest - the camp in Brest-Litovsk was a real necropolis. "
The brave Polish cavalrymen were very fond of organizing competitions in felling, putting defenseless prisoners on the parade ground and competing to see who would best cut the Russian. European entertainment, nothing to say.
Poland begins to pursue a policy of "pacification of seedlings". This is a policy of gradual polonization of Western Ukraine and Belarus. Ban on Ukrainian and Belarusian languages, ethnic cleansing. The slogan “Poland for Poles” sounds at the official level. (Well, how did they differ from the Germanic Nazis?)
“On April 5, 1943, the Poles were killed in the village. Antonovka, Lublin Voivodeship, seven Russian female medical workers who escaped from German captivity. Near the Krasnostav cape, which is southeast of the city of Lublin, the captured wounded from the Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Red Army were shot.
From the special message of the 2nd section of the 4th Directorate of the NKGB of the USSR, May 10, 1944: “In early April of this year. in with. Guta-Koshtelianska, which is near the town of Yanov, 8 Poles from the "Guard of Ludova" detachment were killed. Last summer, an armed detachment under the command of Lech in the Janowska forest killed 23 Red Army soldiers who had escaped from German captivity. In March of this year. there were also killed three wounded Soviet partisans from the Kovpak unit, left to be healed. "
“Major Kanarchik, who was awarded the Golden Star, two Orders of the Patriotic War and two Orders of the Red Star, was sent on leave after being wounded in a car with several officers, a nurse and privates - machine gunners. The car was ambushed, about 30 bandits fired at the car, only one private survived. The bandits doused all the dead with gasoline and burned them. Later, several members of the gang were captured, and showed that a Polish officer was in charge of the detachment. " (Head of the Political Department of the 3rd Belorussian Front)
In the rear of the 1st Byelorussian Front, the NKVD bodies for the period from July 22 to November 22 recorded 11 terrorist attacks in which nine people were killed and wounded. General Telegin reports at the end of November about 50 terrorist attacks in which 56 servicemen were injured.
The deputy commissar of defense, General of the Army Bulganin, in a memo for Stalin, gives general statistics: as a result of the actions of the Polish reactionaries from August 1 to November 25, 1944, 184 soldiers and officers were killed, 78 were wounded.
On May 16, 1945, three Red Army soldiers were taken prisoner, whose bodies were found two days later. The enclosed forensic medical examination reports conclude that the soldiers were subjected to "long, inhuman brutal torture and torture, after which they were shot at point-blank range with firearms."
On May 22, 30 "AK" soldiers attacked the airfield, the bandits killed three pilots and burned them. According to "Smersh", from September 1944 to May 1945, underground terrorists committed 127 terrorist attacks in Poland in which 136 people were injured.
"Armed self-defense" kills the hospital staff and the Red Army soldiers wounded in the fight against the Nazis. A faulty Soviet plane lands in a field near a Polish town: one of the pilots is looking for a place to call him: he is being killed. The battalion commander, who recently received the title of Hero of the Soviet Union for crossing the Dnieper and returns after treatment to his family on a short vacation, also dies at the hands of self-defenders. And all this during a fierce war with the Nazis! Moreover, the eyes of the Red Army men are gouged out, their bellies are ripped open ", (head of Rosarkhiv Andrey Artizov)
Here are some more Europeans.
Romania
Hitler agreed to annex Bessarabia, Bukovina and the interfluve of the Dniester and the Southern Bug to Romania. These territories came under the control of the Romanian authorities, on them the Bukovina Governorate (under the direction of Rioshyanu), the Bessarabian Governorate (Governor - K. Voiculescu) and Transnistria (Governor G. Aleksianu became the governor) were established. Chernivtsi became the capital of the Bukovina governorate, Chisinau in Bessarabia, and Tiraspol, and then Odessa, in Transnistria. Antonescu demanded that the local authorities behave as if "the power of Romania was established in this territory for two million years." The population of the occupied territories was divided into three categories - ethnic Romanians, national minorities and Jews, who received identity cards of different colors (Romanians - white, national minorities - yellow, Jews - green).
“On August 4, 1942, German-Romanian troops occupied our village and immediately began to plunder the entire population. They took away milk, eggs, clothes, chickens, sheep, and also the Romanians showed atrocities against women. They were raped. I personally know that they raped our citizen L. at the age of 23. Now she is no longer alive. 3-4 days later, the Germans and Romanians began to gather the Jewish population who lived in the village, of the evacuees there were 22 people, they were tortured, they were raped, and during the same days they were all gathered and driven to the village of Kamenka, and after a few days we learned that they were all shot there. "
“Three men, Pleshakov, Sorokin and Babkin, were driven off to the patrol, held for 8 days, beaten, not fed and given no water. Then all of them - there were 100 of them in the camp - were admitted to the trough at the well. These persons were killed. Babkin died of exhaustion and beating. K. died of rape by three Romanian soldiers. Pleshakov was beaten and shot. Korotkov was shot in the yard. Sorokin, beaten by Romanian soldiers, was taken to the steppe and there is no further news about him. "
"... Two boys were crushed by a tank ...". “In the house of the collective farmer Karpova V.I. killed by the Romanian monsters Karpov V.N. and Brykalina E.The. from a machine gun, innocent ... ". “In December 1942, a collective farmer ZAI was raped. Romanian soldiers ... ". “On December 4, V.V. Kalyuka was killed. Romanian soldier (it is not known which unit). The boy died, innocent ... ".
From the minutes of the commission to investigate the atrocities of the Romanian occupiers:
“On Bolshoi Fontana, more than 100 men were seized and shot, 200 people were hanged in Slobodka, near the market, 251 Odessans were executed in Moldavanka, 400 citizens were hanged on balconies and trees along Aleksandrovsky Prospekt - Jews, Ukrainians, Russians. After the liberation of the city, 22 thousand corpses of civilians of Odessa were found in mass graves near the area of \u200b\u200bartillery depots near the Lyustdorf road. "
“In January 1942, the Romanian administration of Odessa exiled 20,000 local Jews to the Golta concentration camp - in unheated wagons, in the cold, without food or water. For a year and a half, every prisoner died. "
“The Romanians came for the Germans. They felt like full-fledged owners. There was always a whip with the Romanians, which he used as soon as he didn’t like something. My neighbor was so beaten that he did not get out of bed for two months. They beat and humiliated people, regardless of their human dignity, raped women and girls. In the center of Kamenka, the Nazis set up a Jewish ghetto. They fenced this place with barbed wire and kept the Jews all summer long, in the heat, from hand to mouth and without water. If someone dared to come up and bring water to the captives, then this daredevil was brutally beaten ... And in winter the Romanians began the mass extermination of Jews. They made ice holes in the Dniester and pushed everyone in them: both helpless old people, children, and women. They took off their clothes. " (Resident of Kamenka V. Shpak)
And this list of crimes of enlightened Europeans is endless. It is simply impossible to cite all the facts and memories, because if you only list all the cases, you will have to write many books. One article cannot fit. And it’s terrible to reread it all. This is a true portrait of the West, not the pretty picture that is shown on TV. This is the real face.
Western civilization is a maddened monster. And it is no coincidence that National Socialism is a product of the West. All Western civilization is built on Nazism and blood. Both atrocities and ethnic extermination are their inventions. And do not be confused by the fact that they are now promoting tolerance and racial equality. This is just another mask that will be removed quickly if necessary. And pay attention - they only increase the policy of Russophobia and "dehumanization" of Russians. Draw conclusions.
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The politics of the modern West is imbued with double standards. They recall the tolerance and inadmissibility of encroachments on the territorial integrity of states only in those cases when it affects their tactical and strategic interests.
At the same time, they themselves repeatedly crossed the line of unacceptable actions in relation to entire countries and peoples. The world community should never forget about the events that took place in the period from March to June 1999 in the territory of the former Yugoslavia. It was then that the North Atlantic Alliance conducted the Allied Force military operation, which claimed the lives and destroyed the fate of many thousands of civilians. Not only military facilities, but also civilian infrastructure were under the blows of NATO air strikes. According to official information alone, the number of civilians killed by the United States and the European Union was more than 1.7 thousand people. These included at least 400 children. Another 10 thousand people were seriously injured, and about 1 thousand people simply went missing. The enormity of this military operation is aggravated by the fact that a large number of lives were claimed by NATO bombings after their completion. The tolerant European Union is trying not to remember especially what kind of ammunition was used in the implementation of the anti-human operation "Allied Force". They included depleted radioactive uranium. This has adversely affected the health of many of those people who were lucky enough to survive under the NATO bombing. However, at the end of hostilities and to this day, the main culprits have not been punished for bombing of Yugoslavia.
The reason for the start of the NATO bombing
Western politicians justified this operation with the term "humanitarian intervention". However, such "explanations" are a cynical substitution of the true reasons for their actions in the eyes of the world community. The war in Yugoslavia was unleashed even without obtaining a permission from the United Nations. It will never be considered legitimate and is a real example of military aggression by NATO countries against a sovereign state. The formal reason for the bombing of Yugoslavia was a wave of ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. As you know, the territory of the former socialist Yugoslavia repeated the fate of the Soviet Union and by that time was already a separate union state. Western countries largely contributed to the eruption of new ethnic conflicts and civil wars on the Balkan Peninsula. The Kosovar Albanians were chosen as "heroes" by Washington. This region territorially and politically belonged to the then Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. However, back in 1996, the movement of Albanian separatists, secretly supported by the American special services, intensified here. In February 1998, the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army declared a "struggle for independence." The war in Yugoslavia began with armed acts of violence not only against the state police, but also against peaceful Serb citizens. There were real casualties. Official Belgrade was forced to respond to this with an internal force operation aimed at eliminating the bandit formations from among the Kosovars. In the course of this operation, one of the leaders of the separatists, A. Yashari, was destroyed. However, 82 Albanian villagers were injured in central Kosovo, where internal fighting was taking place. Western leaders immediately took advantage of this pretext and began to put pressure on Belgrade. A temporary truce between the parties within the country did not bring results. After another clash between Belgrade forces and Albanian separatists, scenes of allegedly executed Albanians by the FRY forces were falsified, and the NATO operation began.
The real reasons for the NATO aggression in Yugoslavia
Some researchers drew attention to some coincidence of the beginning of the NATO aggression against the FRY and the internal political events in the United States. We remind readers that at that moment there was a scandal related to the intimate relationship of the American President Clinton with Monica Lewinsky. American leaders have always had a knack for using foreign policy to solve personal problems. However, in this case, the goals of the West were much more ambitious. The barbaric NATO bombing in Federal Yugoslavia became a tool for achieving the following goals:
- change of leadership in the lands of Serbia and Montenegro with the subsequent reorientation of the most pro-Russian part of the former Yugoslavia towards the West;
- state division of Serbia and Montenegro together with the transformation of Kosovo into a separate state;
- the elimination of the army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia;
- free deployment and consolidation of NATO forces in the Balkan Peninsula and, in particular, in Serbia and Kosovo;
- testing the military power of the North Atlantic Alliance in real combat. Destruction of old weapons and approbation of new types of weapons;
- demonstration to the whole world of NATO's significant role in the alleged settlement of ethnic conflicts.
It is noteworthy that the United Nations monitored the general situation on the territory of the FRY. However, no sanctions were issued from the UN in response to the open intervention of NATO countries in Yugoslavia. Why? Why war in Yugoslavia went unpunished? The UN resolution, which condemned the actions of the North Atlantic Alliance, received only 3 votes in the Security Council. Only the Russian Federation, China and Namibia dared to openly condemn the actions of Washington and NATO. Certain criticism of NATO was voiced in the West. A number of independent media tried to draw the attention of the world community to the fact that the aggressive actions of the North Atlantic Alliance without the appropriate sanction of the UN Security Council are a direct violation of the Charter of the United Nations and all the canons of international law. However, by and large, the West has not yet voiced an official objective assessment of this criminal military operation.
Consequences of the barbaric bombing of Yugoslavia
The most terrible "result" of the NATO aggression in the FRY is the death of at least 1.7 thousand civilians, as well as thousands of wounded and missing. If we talk about economic damage, then the losses are more than significant. As a result of the war in Yugoslavia, all the most important objects of the civilian infrastructure operating at that time were destroyed or seriously damaged. National oil refineries, bridges, power centers and major enterprises were hit by deadly missiles from the Alliance forces. More than 500 thousand people were left without work and means of subsistence. A huge number of citizens lost their homes. According to the estimates of the future Serbian authorities, the war in Yugoslavia caused economic losses equivalent to 20 billion US dollars.
Such a barbaric action could not pass without leaving a trace from the point of view of ecology. Targeted bombing of oil refineries contributed to the release of sending substances into the atmosphere. We are talking about hydrochloric acid, poisonous alkalis and chlorine compounds. The spilled oil got into the Danube waters. This led to the poisoning not only of the territories of modern Serbia, but also of the countries that were located downstream of the largest European river. The use of ammunition, including depleted uranium, provoked outbreaks of cancer and hereditary diseases. The NATO operation killed thousands of people, and hundreds of thousands are still feeling the consequences of this terrible tragedy in our time.
A war crime on the part of the United States and the European Union must not be forgotten by humanity. After such operations, the statements of NATO leaders that the military bloc ensures "peace in Europe" sound doubly cynical. Only thanks to the sensible policy of the Russian Federation, at present, there is a certain parity of forces that does not allow the West to repeat this in any of the countries they dislike. They still continue to organize "democratic revolutions" and set fraternal peoples against each other. However, this will not last forever. The world is on the verge of radical change. And I want to believe that it will no longer allow death and destruction from the bombing of the "humanitarian rescuers" from the NATO bloc.
NATO bombing began in the former Yugoslavia twenty years ago. The military operation, which was not coordinated with the UN (that is, under international law it was interpreted as an armed aggression against a sovereign state), began on March 24, 1999 and lasted until June 10.
It was she who became the prologue to the final collapse of Yugoslavia. And she set precedents in the international territorial sense, laying the foundations for the recognition of Kosovo ten years later.
The Kosovo example became the official reason for Russia to recognize Abkhazia and South Ossetia as independent countries - and then to seize Crimea as well.
Anyway, it was precisely with the bombing of the former Yugoslavia that Russia began its "big turn" towards anti-Western policy, which eventually resulted in a bloody conflict on the territory of Ukraine.
"Strana" recalls how NATO bombed Serbia and what it led to.
Prehistory of the military operation
In the mid-1990s, separatists were gaining strength in Kosovo, which was part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia - by this time, almost the majority of the region's population were Albanians (despite the fact that the region itself was considered the cradle of Serbian culture and statehood). Since 1996, armed violence has increased in Kosovo. On February 28, 1998, the Kosovo Liberation Army announced the beginning of an armed struggle for the independence of the then unrecognized state.
Throughout 1998, NATO countries demanded that Belgrade cease hostilities in Kosovo and Metohija (that is, on the sovereign territory of Yugoslavia, which, of course, was not a legal requirement from the point of view of international law). NATO began planning an air campaign against Yugoslavia on 24 September.
On October 13, the NATO Council ordered the operation to begin within 96 hours. The Yugoslav authorities yielded, and on October 15 a truce was concluded in Kosovo, which involved the withdrawal of Yugoslav army units to their places of permanent deployment. The truce entered into force on 25 October.
However, conflicts between Serbs and Albanians continued. In January 1999, the Yugoslav army and police resumed operations against the separatists.
The immediate cause for NATO intervention was the incident in Racak, when 45 Albanians were killed in an attack on a village held by the Kosovar Liberation Army. Western officials claimed that the Albanians were executed, while the Yugoslav authorities said they died in battle. On January 30, NATO threatened with air strikes if the Yugoslav authorities continued to refuse to negotiate with the Kosovar leaders.
Belgrade announced interference in internal affairs and refused to comply with the requirements.
The beginning and course of the bombing
The main part of the military operation, which received the name "Allied Force", consisted in the use of aviation to bomb strategic targets in Serbia.
The first missile strikes were made on March 24 at about 20.00 local time on the radar installations of the Yugoslav army on the Montenegrin Adriatic coast. At the same time, a military airfield several kilometers from Belgrade and large industrial facilities in the city of Pancevo, located less than twenty kilometers from the capital of the FRY, were subjected to missile attacks.
Military strategic objects in large cities, including the capital, Belgrade, as well as numerous civilian objects, including residential ones, were hit. A total of 53 targets were hit. For the first time since World War II, martial law was declared in most major cities in Serbia and Montenegro.
The operation involved 14 countries with 1,200 aircraft at their disposal. Also in the complex operation were involved 3 aircraft carriers, 6 attack submarines, 2 cruisers, 7 destroyers, 13 frigates, 4 large landing ships. The total composition of NATO forces involved in the operation exceeded 60 thousand people.
During the operation, NATO aircraft made more than 35 thousand sorties, more than 23 thousand bombs and missiles were fired. At the same time, prohibited types of ammunition with radioactive impurities, mainly depleted uranium, were used.
Implications for Serbia
More than 2 thousand civilians became victims of the bombing, including 89 children, mainly in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija, more than 5 thousand people were injured, more than a thousand people were missing.
The final amount of material damage to Yugoslavia has not been determined. According to various estimates, it could be from $ 30 to $ 100 billion. About 200 industrial enterprises, oil storage facilities, energy facilities, infrastructure facilities, including 82 railway and road bridges were destroyed or seriously damaged.
At least 100 monuments of history and architecture, which were under state protection and under the protection of UNESCO, were damaged.
However, despite the significant damage from the bombing, the Yugoslav army retained its ammunition capacity. Moreover, her hands were completely untied and she actually defeated the Albanian separatists in Kosovo.
NATO was faced with the need to start a ground operation in Kosovo, which was associated with heavy casualties. Therefore, the West turned to the then Russian President Boris Yeltsin for help. And the Kremlin persuaded Yugoslavia to compromise.
The bombing was stopped after the signing of the Military-Technical Agreement in Kumanov between the representatives of the Yugoslav army and NATO countries.
Control over Kosovo passed to an international force, which included both NATO forces and Russia. This was the compromise. However temporary. The West still played a key role in governing the region and gradually transferred most of the powers to the structures of ethnic Albanians. Kosovo declared independence in 2008. It was recognized by the United States and many EU countries, but not a single Slavic state, including Ukraine, recognized it.
In Serbia itself, under the influence of defeat from NATO, the government changed. The pro-Western forces, which came as a result of the "bulldozer Maidan," two years later extradited ex-President Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague Tribunal.
He was accused of the genocide of the Kosovar Albanians, but during the five years of the trial they could not pass a sentence.
Milosevic died of a heart attack in prison in 2006.
The consequences of the bombing for the world and Ukraine
The consequences of this war "backfired" in Ukraine many years later.
After the Western countries recognized the independence of Kosovo - the territory of Serbia without the consent of Serbia itself - Russia began to use this precedent in its own interests.
So, in the same 2008, Moscow recognized the independence of Abkhazia and South Ossetia from Georgia. And in 2014 - the results of the referendum in Crimea, which voted to join Russia.
If it were not for the example of the West, then, perhaps, Moscow would not have become so calmly creating unrecognized entities on the territory of other countries. And if she did, then the degree of criticism against her would be many orders of magnitude higher.
But it was not only the recognition of Kosovo that laid the foundation for today's Russian policy.
It was precisely that NATO operation in Serbia that took place 20 years ago. When it started, Russian Prime Minister Yevgeny Primakov turned his plane in the skies over the Atlantic and canceled his visit to the United States.
Primakov's pivot became a symbol of the reversal of all Russian politics - "away from the United States." Moscow felt that following Yugoslavia, Russia itself could become the next victim. That launched the process of national consolidation and alienation from the West.
In the same 1999, Vladimir Putin became Russian Prime Minister, who continued and deepened Primakov's U-turn. And the US allies - Ukraine and Georgia - have their own "Kosovo".
It is interesting that for the present anniversary in the West they tried to sweeten their pill. On March 20, a court in The Hague sentenced former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadzic to life in prison. But this is unlikely to somehow neutralize the consequences of NATO's actions in Yugoslavia, which Ukraine is now experiencing.
(Operation Allied Force) is an air operation of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) in the period from March 24 to June 10, 1999. The American campaign for the operation was codenamed "Noble Anvil". In some sources it appears under the name "Merciful Angel".
The reason for the international intervention was the interethnic conflict between the Albanians and Serbs who historically lived in Kosovo. On September 23, 1998, the UN Security Council approved Resolution 1199, which demanded that the FRY authorities and the leadership of the Kosovar Albanians ensure a ceasefire in Kosovo and begin negotiations without delay.
The situation became especially aggravated after the incident in the village of Racak on January 15, 1999, when there was a major armed clash between representatives of the Yugoslav security forces and militants of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
Talks held in February-March 1999 in Rambouillet and Paris (France). The parties could not reach an agreement, the President of the FRY Slobodan Milosevic refused to sign military annexes to the agreement on the settlement of the crisis.
March 24, 1999, without the sanction of the UN Security Council, the NATO alliance on the territory of the FRY. The decision to start the operation was made by the then NATO Secretary General Javier Solana.
The official reason for the outbreak of hostilities was the presence of Serbian troops in the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. Serbian authorities have also been accused of ethnic cleansing.
In the first month of Operation Allied Force, NATO aircraft averaged about 350 daily sorties. At the NATO summit in Washington on April 23, 1999, the leaders of the alliance decided to intensify the air campaign.
In total, during the operation by NATO forces, according to various sources, from 37.5 to 38.4 thousand sorties were made, during which more than 900 targets were attacked in Serbia and Montenegro, more than 21 thousand tons of explosives were dropped.
In the course of the airstrikes, prohibited types of munitions with radioactive impurities, mainly depleted uranium (U 238), were used.
Soon after the start of the military aggression, the parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia voted to join the alliance of Russia and Belarus. Russian President Boris Yeltsin blocked this process, as such a decision could give rise to a number of international difficulties.
The bombing stopped on June 9, 1999 after representatives of the FRY army and NATO in the Macedonian city of Kumanovo signed a military-technical agreement on the withdrawal of the troops and police of the Federal Yugoslavia from Kosovo and on the deployment of international armed forces on the territory of the region.
The number of military and civilians who died during the operation has not yet been precisely established. According to the Serbian authorities, about 2,500 people, including 89 children, were killed during the bombing. 12.5 thousand people were injured.
The human rights organization Human Rights Watch has confirmed 90 incidents in which civilians were killed in NATO bombing.
According to the organization, between 489 and 528 civilians were killed during Operation Allied Force.
More than 60% of civilian lives were claimed by 12 military incidents, including an airstrike on a convoy of Albanian refugees from Djakovica (April 14), during which 70 to 75 people were killed and more than 100 were injured; a raid on the cities of Surdulica (April 27) and Nis (May 7), an attack on a bus on a bridge near Pristina (May 1), a strike on the Albanian village of Korisha (May 14), during which, according to various sources, from 48 to 87 died civilians.
According to NATO official data, during the campaign, the alliance lost two soldiers (the crew of the American An 64 helicopter, which crashed during a training flight in Albania).
About 863 thousand people, primarily Serbs living in Kosovo, voluntarily left the region, another 590 thousand became internally displaced persons.
The final amount of damage that was caused to industrial, transport and civil facilities of the FRY was not named. According to various estimates, it was measured in the amount of $ 30 to $ 100 billion. About 200 industrial enterprises, oil storage facilities, energy facilities, infrastructure facilities, including 82 railway and road bridges were destroyed or seriously damaged. At least 100 monuments of history and architecture, which were under state protection and under the protection of UNESCO, were damaged.
On June 10, the UN Security Council adopted Resolution 1244, according to which an international civilian security presence was established on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija. The document also prescribed the withdrawal from Kosovo of the military, police and paramilitary forces of the FRY, the free return of refugees and displaced persons and unhindered access to the territory of humanitarian aid organizations, as well as the expansion of the degree of self-government for Kosovo.
On June 12, 1999, the first units of an international force led by NATO - KFOR (Kosovo Force, KFOR) entered the region. Initially, the number of KFOR was about 50 thousand people. At the beginning of 2002, the contingent of peacekeepers was reduced to 39 thousand, by the end of 2003 to 17.5 thousand soldiers.
As of early December 2013, the number of the unit was about 4.9 thousand soldiers from more than 30 countries.
The Independent Commission to Investigate the War Crimes of NATO Leaders against Yugoslavia, created on August 6, 1999 at the initiative of Swedish Prime Minister Hans Göran Persson, concluded that NATO's military intervention was illegal because the alliance had not received prior approval from the UN Security Council. However, the actions of the allies were justified by the fact that all diplomatic means of resolving the conflict had been exhausted.
The Commission criticized the use of cluster bombs by NATO aircraft, as well as the bombing of chemical industrial complexes and oil refineries on the territory of the FRY, which caused significant environmental damage.
In March 2002, the UN confirmed radioactive contamination in Kosovo as a result of NATO bombing.
The material was prepared on the basis of information from RIA Novosti and open sources