Americans in the Gulag
Among the factors that influenced the Cold War were the detention of several hundred of Americans in the Gulag, in addition to the obstacles in returning some 2,000 American POW out of estimated 75,000 ones who ended up in the Soviet occupation zone of Germany by 1945, as well as the reunification of Soviet wives with their American husbands.[1]
Americans in Soviet-occupied territories[]
Some 5,000 Americans fell into Soviet hands when the Red Army occupied Eastern Poland in 1939. Some 2,000 more claiming American citizenship were added when the Soviets pushed the Nazis from Poland in 1944. Of the latter ones about 600 cases were confirmed and about 100 proved to be false. Many of all of these claimed the dual Polish and American citizenship. The mistreatment of American citizens ranged from denying consular access to incarceration in Gulag, to execution. Most of them, together with the local population, were forcibly assigned the Soviet citizenship, even the American-born Americans. Attempts to renounce this citizenship or to contact the American embassy were blocked, these people were harassed by the authorities, and those who were most insistent landed in Gulag on trumped-up charges. A similar situation was in the Baltic States. The protests by the United States were stonewalled by the Soviets. The situation went to the extremes: the American embassy strongly advised not to insist on the American citizenship in the cases when the person was threatened with the arrest.[1]
Cold War wars and espionage[]
A number of Americans, mostly military pilots, were captured during the Korean War in North Korea and ended up in the Soviet Union. In a 1992 letter, Boris Yeltsin stated that nine US planes had been shot down in the early 1950s and 12 Americans had been held prisoners.[2] As a result, in March 1992, a joint Russian American was created to review these cases.[3][4][5][6] Dmitri Volkogonov, a former Soviet general and co-chairman of the Task Force Russia told a US Senate Committee that 730 airmen had been captured on Cold War spy flights.[7]
Prisoners[]
- Alexander Dolgun
- Thomas Sgovio
- Walter Ciszek, Polish-American Jesuit priest who conducted clandestine missionary work in the Soviet Union between 1939 and 1963.
- Isaiah Oggins American communist and spy for the Soviet secret police
- Margaret Werner Tobien, together with her mother they were accused of espionage in 1943. Earlier, in 1937 her father, a worker of Ford Motors in the Soviet Union, was accused of treason.
- Lovett Fort-Whiteman, American political activist and Communist International functionary
- John H. Noble, American businessman in Germany
- Homer Harold Cox, kidnapped in East Berlin in 1949 and released in 1953 , together with US Merchant Marine Leland Towers [8]
- William Marchuk, kidnapped in 1949 and released in 1955 [9]
See also[]
References[]
- ^ a b Americans in the Gulag: Detention of US Citizens by Russia and the Onset of the Cold War, 1944-49, Cathal J. Nolan, Journal of Contemporary History, Vol. 25, No. 4 (Oct., 1990), pp. 523-545 JSTOR 260760
- ^ Soviets Held 12 GIs in 1950s, Yeltsin Says, Los Angeles Times.
- ^ United States-Russia Joint Commission on POWs and MIAs and the Defense POW/Missing Personnel Office Joint Commission Support Division Archival Documents Databases
- ^ 12th report
- ^ Task Force Russia Report 17 March-16 April 1993 18th report
- ^ Task Force Russia -- Triweekly Report -- 19 June-9 July 1993
- ^ Soviets Executed GIs After WWII : Prisoners: Other Americans were forced to renounce citizenship, Yeltsin writes Senate panel. But no sign of POWs from Korea, Vietnam wars found, Russian says., Los Angeles Times.
- ^ Michael E. Allen, The Gulag Study p.28
- ^ Foreign News: Vorkuta, Time, Monday, Jan. 24, 1955
Further reading[]
- Foreign Gulag detainees