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GULAG Operation

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GULAG Operation
Part of Operation Zeppelin
A punishment cell block in one of the subcamps of Vorkutlag. The GULAG Operation planned to liberate prisoners from camps like Vorkutlag in the Komi ASSR and recruit them for anti-Soviet guerrilla warfare.
TypeGuerrilla warfare
Location
PlannedMid-1942
Planned bySoviet POWs in German captivity
Commanded byIvan Georgievich Bessonov [ru]
Mikhael Meandrov
ObjectiveInstigate a guerrilla war in Siberia against Soviet authorities
Date2–9 June 1943 (1943-06-02 – 1943-06-09)
OutcomeOperational failure
  • NKVD detects guerrillas
  • Bessonov and Meandrov executed following end of war
Casualties4 (2 in June 1943, Bessonov and Meandrov after end of war)

The GULAG Operation was a German military operation in which German and Soviet anti-communist troops were to create an anti-Soviet resistance movement in Siberia during World War II by liberating and recruiting prisoners of the Soviet GULAG system. Despite ambitious plans, only a small group of former Soviet POWs was airlifted to the Komi Republic in June 1943. Members of the group were captured or killed days after landing.

Ambitious plans

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The plan was designed in mid-1942 by Soviet POWs in German captivity in the Hammelburg POW camp, primarily by an NKVD officer, Brigade Commander Ivan Georgievich Bessonov [ru],[1][2] and a Red Army officer, Colonel Mikhael Meandrov.[3] The plan, part of the German efforts to create anti-communist resistance behind the Soviet lines, called for a naval and air invasion of Siberia by allied German and anti-Soviet Red Army forces, targeting the GULAG penal system camps, recruiting more anti-Soviet forces from the prisoners, and thus opening a second front in the war between Nazi Germany and Soviet Union.[1][2][3]

The plan called for the creation of insurgent activity in the extensive region from the Northern Dvina River to the Yenisey and from the extreme north to the Trans-Siberian Railway. The region of the planned actions was divided into three operational zones: Northern (right shore of the flow of northern Dvina), central (near the Pechora River) and eastern (from the Ob River to the Yenisey).[3] Landing force members had to seize the GULAGS, free and arm the prisoners and deportees and move with them in the general direction of the south.[1][2]

Implementation and aftermath

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The plan, part of the larger Operation Zeppelin, was analysed and tentatively approved by the Reich Security Head Office (RSHA) and steps were taken towards implementing it.[1] About 150 Soviet POWs were conscripted into the units that were to be used in the operation: two assault groups of 50–55 people each, the group of the radio operators consisting of 20–25 people and the support (medical) female group of 20 people.[3]

On 2 June 1943, the first group of 12 former Soviet POWs, trained by the Germans and dressed in NKVD uniforms, were airdropped in the Komi Republic. On 9 June, the group was however detected (two killed, rest taken prisoner) by real NKVD troops.[1][2][3]

Soon after this failure, the Germans decided to abandon the operation. The anti-communist group that Bessonov founded in the POW camp was disbanded, and he himself was transferred to the Sachsenhausen concentration camp.[1][3] Some of Bessonov's organisation members were employed in other German anti-Soviet operations, without any notable successes. Bessonov and Meandrov survived the war to be executed by the Soviet authorities after being transferred to their custody.[2][3]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f Parrish, Michael (2004). Sacrifice of the Generals: Soviet Senior Officer Losses, 1939-1953. Scarecrow Press. p. 44. ISBN 0-8108-5009-5.
  2. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e Parrish, Michael (1996). The Lesser Terror: Soviet State Security, 1939-1953. Greenwood Publishing Group. p. 160. ISBN 0-275-95113-8.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b c d e f g Melenberg, Aleksandr (1 March 2004). ДЕСАНТ НА ГУЛАГ. Novaya Gazeta (in Russian).
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