Scorched Earth Tactics and Criminal Mobilization (1941–1945)
The Soviet authorities' treatment of Ukraine as a colonial resource during the war. During the 1941 retreat the directive of the USSR Sovnarkom and the Central Committee of 29 June 1941 was in force: "In the forced withdrawal of Red Army units… leave the enemy not a kilogram of grain, not a liter of fuel… All valuable property… that cannot be evacuated must without fail be destroyed"[1]. In 1943–1944, on the liberated territory, the mobilization of the "chornosvytnyky" was carried out: they were "thrown into combat often at once, without undergoing military training… sometimes unarmed, not even changed into military uniform"[2].
Actors
Instruments Applied
| ID | Name | Procedures |
|---|---|---|
| S0010 | Regular Army | 3 |
| S0008 | Government | 1 |
Procedures Carried Out
The 1941 scorched-earth tactic under the directive of the USSR Sovnarkom and the Central Committee of 29 June 1941: "In the forced withdrawal of Red Army units, drive off the rolling railway stock, leave the enemy not a single locomotive, not a single railcar"[1]; the Dnipro hydroelectric station was "destroyed at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War… (see the Directive of the USSR Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the VKP(b) of June 29, 1941)"[3].
The total removal of industrial equipment and food supplies into the interior of the USSR: "550 industrial facilities were moved into the interior of the USSR (190 of all-Union and 360 of republican subordination)"; "From the Right Bank to the left bank of the Dnipro were ferried 4,498 tractors, 680 combines, 690 motor vehicles"[4].
The mass conscription by field draft offices of the population of just-liberated territories: "'Chornosvytnyky' or 'black infantry' – such was the unofficial name given to men and youths mobilized by field military commissariats, and in fact by the commanders of formations, units, and detachments in 1943–1944 after the Red Army's liberation of enemy-occupied territories"[2].
The use of untrained conscripts as expendable material: they were "thrown into combat often at once, without undergoing military training in reserve units, sometimes unarmed, not even changed into military uniform (hence the name)"[2]. The scale is visible from a single episode: "after the Red Army first took Kharkiv in the spring of 1943, about 15 thousand people aged 15 to 45 were mobilized into it and sent to the front without training," with "1 rifle per 5-10 men"[2].