Abstract

Based on archival materials, first introduced into scientific circulation, the article deals with the topic of Soviet soldiers from the Udmurt ASSR, who, after being captured, were kept in the Nazi concentration camp Buchenwald. A small number of such prisoners of war held behind barbed wire, survived, and after their liberation they re-joined the ranks of the Red Army. Some of these soldiers and offi cers were “buried” twice: first they were considered killed in action, then as those who died in captivity. However, despite all the hardships, they survived, celebrated the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and returned to their homeland. The topic is relevant as it has not been suffi ciently discussed in Russian historiography, and scholars have not paid enough attention to many aspects of the front-line biographies of soldiers from the Udmurt republic, held in Nazi detention centres or missing in action. The author made an attempt to generalize and analyse previously known and newly revealed facts. The article provides information about the participation of one of the natives of Udmurtia in the uprising of prisoners, which began on 11 April 1945 and, even before the arrival of American troops, led to the liberation of all Buchenwald prisoners. As an introduction to the work, the author describes the regime in the concentration camp, which was specially organized for the extermination of prisoners of war and other categories of prisoners recognized as opponents of the Nazi dictatorship and the Third Reich, and uses the published materials of the Nuremberg Trials and the recollections of eyewitnesses. The author looks at the main milestones in the biographies of soldiers and officers from Udmurtia who were able to endure all the hardships of life in this concentration camp. The analysis of the archival documents has revealed some of the reasons that determined the incarceration of Soviet prisoners of war in Buchenwald. Many of the facts mentioned in the article are presented in the scholarly literature for the first time. The study sheds light on one of the “blank spots” in the history of the Great Patriotic War.