Sunday, October 14, 2012

NKO Directive No. 35105s of 8 September 1941

Since I am writing a series of posts on Russian-Germans who fought against the Nazis I thought it might be helpful to reproduce the order that removed most of their ethnic kinsmen from Soviet military institutions.

Directive of the Peoples Commissariat of Defense USSR

No. 35105s from 8 September 1941

Expel from units, academies, military instruction establishments and institutions of the Red Army, both at the front, and in the rear, all military service personnel in the ranks and the commanding staff those of German nationality and send them to internal regions for assignment to construction battalions.

In those cases, when commanders and commissars jointly reckon it is necessary to leave military service personnel of German nationality in a unit, they are required to present a petition on the reasons motivating this decision to the NKO through the Military Councils of fronts, regions and sections of the army. 

Inform me about the execution of this directive no later than 15 September.

Peoples Commissar of Defense USSR J. Stalin

Source: A.A. German, T.S. Ilarionova, I.R. Pleve, Istoriia nemtsev rossii: Khrestomatiia, Moscow: MSNK-Press, 2005, doc. 8.2.3., p. 253. Translation from Russian into English by J. Otto Pohl.

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