In the Liberated Regions of USSR
SCHWASZ, SOLOMON M.
In the Liberated Regions of USSR By SOLOMON M. SCHWASZ Koted ftuuian Kihola, author of many studies FOR ....II.....* of Soviet eitisens the dark days of ¦ Herman oeewpatlen have come to «n end....
...W.) V" Yet in the general framework of the reconstruction plan, the restoration of industry has obviously been pushed into the background...
...According to this census, the population of 339 thoussnd square kilometers numbered 1«.9 millions, which amounts to 60 persons to the square kilometer, while, according to the Soviet census of January 1930, the average density of the population in the Ukraine reached 97 persons to the square kilometer (or I73.ii to the square mile...
...Commissioner Valentine issued histructioiw to the head of his .sabotage squad to augment Ms force and give protection in the sections of the eRy which have suffered most from the outrages...
...For the salvation of these people, and for the economic restoration of regions devastated by war and occupation, vigorous measnrts had to be, and were, taken...
...Restored are mainly small pits snd small plants, si well as electric power plants in a volume that is necessary to satisfy the immediate needs of the population, but any large work for the reconstruction of industry has been postponed...
...Trust, at the time when the decree was published, the basic, industrial regions occupied by the Germans—the Donbas and the Dnieper region—had net yet been liberated...
...It is striking that this decree dees net contain any provisions for the reconstruction of industry...
...And yet, a report from Kiev cabled by Maurice Hindus states that at the moment when the Red Army entered the town, the population numbered only 26.-000...
...Over the past weekend there were signs of an awakening...
...municipal enterprises were destroyed...
...In January 1943 the Germans took a census of thee population m the greater part of the Ukraine (including Crimea which the Germans had joined to the Ukraine...
...There is no trace of aa organised mass re-evacuation of industrial arorkers...
...The devastation wrought in the urban population appears to have been still greater, as demonstrated by figures for several towns, according to the census of January 1939 and 1943: CITY: Population in 1989: In 1943: Kiev__........JMKflOQ___306.000 Duieprojctrovsk-601,000_280,000 Krivoi Rog-19M09--:26.0»0 Zsnoroshis-,-8B»,tt»__120,000 Dniaprodsierzhinsk -148.000- 75.000 Poltava-„-130,00*_76,000 * * e TTHUS the decrease of the urban population * amounts to about 60 per cent These arid figures testify to a terrible tragedy...
...A striking example is Kiev Where the reduction of pepulatie* was especially shocking: the material destruction in Kiev was less sweeping than in other liberated towns, silica untfT the very last moment the Germans were apparently hoping to hold Kiev, and therefore started the systematic destruction of the towu only on November 4. two days before the Red Araiy regained Kiev...
...If Hindus' eatimatioa of the population of Kiev at the beginning and at the end of November was correct (and it was confirmed by Lawrence, whose estimate for Nov...
...SO), thou it appears that the great majority of the "Soviet" population that still remained in Kiev at the beginning of the year baa disappeared in recent meat he...
...THERE is some evidence to show that a part of the ?'vics*nc» which is growing in sections of New'York City is mere adolescent hooliganism In a few cases Protestant churches have been defaced along with Jewish synagogues, gome non-Jewish citterns hsve been set upon...
...It is pot without reason that, according to Sulzberger's report, the authorities are preventing the refugee* from returning to the liberated regions...
...industrial plants were ruined, and a great number of factory buildings were blown up...
...As to the reconstruction ef agriculture, the situation is different Bnt this subject will be dealt with in a future article...
...peasants were reduced to misery...
...An Editorial— Hooliganism in N.Y...
...New York H*rM Tribune, Dec...
...Considerable ss the tight of the urban population to the country may have been, this tight alone rauAet 'account for the tremendous decrease There- ia every reason to believe that the devastation and slaughter during the occupation, especially during the last few weeks, were much greater than has been assumed...
...Thus the decrease of the Ukrainian population from the beginning of 1943 amounts to about 25 per cent...
...This order Wis carried into effect with the customary German punctiliousness...
...It seems that m the Donbas vast-scale reconstruction work is to be launched only in its eastern part, outside of ths Ukraine, which was liberated at the beginning of this year, and which apparently suffered less destruction...
...Many were evacuated or followed the retreating Red Army, but owing to the speedy German advance in the summer and autumn of 1041, the great majority were forced to remain behind, and had to drain the bitter cup of oppression...
...For tne first few days after the liberation, rejoicing ^ overshadowed everything else...
...It will grow unless we see action...
...20 was 75,600—New York Times, Nov...
...But even now when the whole of the Donbas, and almost the whale of the Dnieper region, are free, any large-stale reconstruction of industry is not even envisaged...
...1.) According to the German census, at the beginning of 1943 the population of Kiev reached 305,000, including hangers-on at the rear of the German army that flooded Kiev and per haps the German garrison as well...
...This is truly a terrible proportion...
...But from the very outset both the population and tne authorities were faced with many problems the people had been starring, and Were in a state of ntter exhaustion...
...In the Soviet territories liberated since the beginning of 1943 the copulation -before the war amounted to 30 million...
...At the beginning of September the Department of Economy of the German Southern Army's Commsnd issued instructions for the evacuation to Germany of whatever industrial equipment coiitd be removed, and for the destruction of the rest...
...at the end of November, according to this report, after a considerable part of the inhabitant*—who during the occupation had fled to the country, in the last few weeks even took to the forest—returned to Kiev, the population numbered about 100,000...
...The last weeks and days of the «*e a pat ion were particularly tragic...
...Part of the populace was deported to Germany, many millions perished, yet the majority survived...
...According io the report of the otfciul Soviet commiisfem which investigated the industrial undertakings iu the '-recently libernted Donbas region, the Germans, before leaving, demolished all blast and open-hearth furnaces, all rolling mills, all coke-plants, all elevators and cranes, all electric poweV plants of any importance, almost all coal-pit* (for instance, fn the 8talin province, out of 162 pits 140 were throughly destroy**", and only 12 small pits remained intact...
...But thf police officers themselves are authority for the statomeint that in the main the out borate of barbarism are directed against Jews It was the picture of a Jewish boy, with face ripped from mouth to ear, which horrified New Yorkers the" other day is it stared from newspaper pages...
...But the two groups could opt have been very numerous, so that as late as January of this year the basic population of Kiev exceeded 200,000...
...e IN the economic domain, the greatest destruction «>< 1 suffered by industry...
...But the reconstruction of industry upon a vast plan would now divert considerable means and manpower from immediate defense work, and must therefore be delayed till a distant future...
...The text of the report was reprinted in the Washington Soviet Information Bulletin «f N©T...
...The psrdon accorded to Officer Drew gave rise to suspicions that the department was vitiated by the presence of Christian Prerrters oh the force: The equanimity with which the Mayor and Police Commissioner 'received reports of outrages heightened these suspicion...
...their homes in towns and villages Were burnt down...
...The sense of danger has not, however, bain allayed...
...These devastations exceeded by far those in the occupied countries in Western Europe...
...T,he folios Department has been slow to respond to public prodding...
...to responsibilities...
...The report of Commissioner of Investigationnorlands has hash long delayed...
...However, this is an exception caused probably by the need1 for supplying coal to the local population and, first of all, to the liberated railroads...
...This thing has been going on for months...
...An to the other industries, their restoration ia apparently music of the future...
...Only in Poland, and perhaps in the Uurkansti will the-task of economic >> construction assume such vast dimensions as in the Soviet Union...
...This is not admitted openly for fear of hurting the feeling of local workers who hsve been longing for liberation and dreaming of the plants running once more...
...Thr Red Army's winter offensive, followed, after'ft three months' interval, by a renewed offensive in Ju)>, i.suited in the liberation of many territories, moat of which hud lived for nearly two years nnder a brutal regime of occupation...
...The Mayor made new promises...
...But before discussing them, let us try to ascertain the losses in the population of those tormented territories...
...On August 21 the Soviet government issued a degree "On urgent measure* for the reconstruction of economy in the regions liberated from the German occupation...
...In this section considerable reconstruction work was started almost immediately after the liberation, and as early as the beginning of May one of the most important pits of the "Rostovugol" combine was ready for exploitation, while in other medium and large pits, work was started somewhat later (/;cestui, Aug...
Vol. 27 • May 1944 • No. 2
