The Nazi occupation of Kabardino-Balkaria during the Great Patriotic War: A History Without a Statute of Limitations

In the year of the 80^th anniversary of the great victory, we once again remember the tragic events associated with the genocide of the Soviet people. This very definition was enough for the Nazis to use various sophisticated methods to exterminate women, children, old people and prisoners of war-people of different nationalities in our country. Of the 27 million Soviet citizens who died, more than

Half were civilians. The plan to exterminate our compatriots was prepared by the Nazis even before the start of World War II. According to the Directive on Economic Policy of the Economic Headquarters (the hunger plan), for example, it was envisaged that 20 to 30 million inhabitants of the Soviet Union would be exterminated by depriving them of food. The document states: «We are condemning these people to death by starvation not only because they are extra mouths to feed, but also because the Great Russians-both under the Tsar and under the Bolsheviks- were and remain enemies of Germany and Europe». According to the National Center for Historical Memory under the President of the Russian Federation, the Nazis and their allies organized 528 death camps in the occupied territories of the RSFSR, where our citizens lived and died in inhumane conditions.

80 years ago, at the Nuremberg Military Tribunal, a new definition of their atrocities was heard: crimes against humanity and genocide.

 The task of preserving historical memory was and remains relevant. This is connected with the ongoing attempts to falsify the history of the Second World War, to conceal or distort the historical truth about the sacrifices made by the Soviet people, and to downplay the role of the USSR in the victory. For many years, information about the Nazis extermination policies and crimes against humanity was not the subject of widespread discussions and only recently appeared in the university curriculum on Russian history. This was also a state policy when our country tried to build relations with the West. It is for this same reason that Soviet history textbooks omitted information about the fact that the fight against Ukrainian fascism continued until the mid- 1950s. Today, this topic is not only relevant; the history of genocide has become a key point in preserving the historical memory of the Great Patriotic War. Preserving memory means transmitting information to the younger generation, students, and schoolchildren. This is the task of historians today.

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