Dead Men Walking: The Parade of the Vanquished
Moscow, 1944. When the Red Army finally went on the offensive during Operation Bagration, not only did they push the German Army back, but they also managed to capture hundreds of thousands of PoWs. When the war finally came to an end in Europe, the Soviet Union now found itself with a large number of Germans who would be put to work “rebuilding” the USSR after years of war.
Stalin’s Show of Power
But before this, Stalin, being the happy-go-lucky guy he was, decided that he wanted to show off just how successful the Red Army had been (under his leadership, of course). So he came up with a plan to humiliate the Germans one last time, which involved marching 57,000 PoWs through the streets of Moscow in a parade.
For this, the NKVD was tasked with assembling the PoWs who would be used in the parade. Selecting those who were healthy enough to walk on their own and actually giving them warm meals consisting of Cabbage soup beforehand. With the exception of the high-ranking PoWs (Generals, Colonels, officers), the men were not allowed to clean up or wear any medals they had prior to being captured/surrendering. While the aforementioned Generals and Officers would lead the parade themselves, all the while an army of NKVD members kept a watchful eye. Either on horseback or dressed in plain clothes, among the crowds who came out to see them.
The Parade and Its Aftermath
When the parade finally passed, a small fleet of street cleaners passed spraying down the route. Remember that “warm meal” they got? Well, as it turned out, Cabbage Soup is sometimes used as a laxative and the Germans were given it after days without food. So while the water trucks were officially there to wash down the “dirt”, it was more than likely they were washing away something else.
After the parade was done, the PoWs were loaded onto trains and were taken to one of the many Gulags and mines in Siberia to work. Many of whom would indeed end up dying in those conditions, while those who were lucky enough to survive would not go home for another decade.
~NC
