Introduction; 1. Origins of Soviet counterinsurgency; 2. The borderland societies in the interwar period: the first Soviet occupation and the emergence of nationalist resistance; 3. The borderlands under German occupation (1941–4): social context of the Soviet re-conquest; 4. Nationalist resistance after the Soviet re-conquest; 5. Soviet agrarian policy as a pacification tool; 6. Deportations, 'repatriations' and other types of forced migrations as aspects of security policy; 7. Amnesties; 8. Red rurales: the destruction battalions; 9. Police tactics: actions of NKVD security units, intelligence gathering, covert operations and intimidation; 10. The church in Soviet security policy; 11. Violations of official policy and their impact on pacification; 12. Conclusion: nationalist resistance and Soviet counterinsurgency in the global context; Appendix 1. Note on used terms and geographic and personal names; Appendix 2. Note on primary sources.
This book investigates the Soviet response to nationalist insurgencies between 1944 and 1953 in the regions the Soviet Union annexed after the Nazi-Soviet pact.
Alexander Statiev is Assistant Professor at the University of Waterloo, Canada. He has published articles in the Journal of Military History, Kritika, War in History, the Journal of Strategic Studies, the Journal of Genocide Research, and the Journal of Slavic Military Studies. Professor Statiev's teachings focus on Russian and East European history.
Review of the hardback: 'The Soviet Union's annexation of western
borderlands at the end of World War II sparked fierce insurgencies
against Soviet rule, especially in western Ukraine and the Baltic
states. Alexander Statiev draws extensively on Russian archival
sources to provide a detailed, insightful account of the Soviet
regime's counterinsurgency doctrine in those regions. No previous
study in English has addressed this topic in such depth and such
breadth. Even those who would challenge some of Statiev's
conclusions and findings can be grateful for the immense amount of
research he has done.' Mark Kramer, Harvard University
Review of the hardback: 'One of the most obscure aspects of Soviet
history has long been the violent pacification of the Soviet
borderlands after the end of World War II. Professor Statiev has
for the first time produced a strikingly original, honest, and
comprehensive account of that hidden history. Free of polemic and
prejudice, his account will become the standard work.' Richard
Overy, University of Exeter
Review of the hardback: 'Statiev's book provides an insightful and
meticulous look at the postwar counterinsurgency campaigns in the
Soviet Union's western borderlands, shedding new light on the
ruthless struggle for control from the Baltics to Ukraine.' Dave
Stone, Kansas State University
'… Statiev has certainly produced a work that is both a valuable
contribution to the literature on Soviet nationalities policy and
counterinsurgency, and one that should provide material of interest
to a wide academic audience.' Alexander Hill, Canadian Slavonic
Papers
'Statiev refutes the historiography's neat dichotomy between
foreign usurpers persecuting the national freedom fighters of
Ukraine and the Baltic states. Rather, he characterizes the
conflict as a civil war fought on the village level, neighbor
against neighbor. He provides numbers transformed into charts from
archival and secondary sources to show that Ukrainians and Balts
made up not only most of the insurgents but also the majority of
counterinsurgents (in destruction battalions and village
militias).' Kate Brown, Slavic Review
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