The scorched earth principle. Soviet scorched earth tactics: causes of death of civilians and prisoners of war. Other examples of the use of scorched earth tactics

As the popular saying goes: “If you want peace, prepare for war.” Here, dear friends, this is what it’s all about. You and I often read catchy headlines in the media, they say, the militants agreed to surrender their weapons, 30 cities came under the control of Syria with the support of Russia, etc. All this is often taken for granted, but how often do we ask the question - at what cost are these victories given to us?

We must understand that the enemy will not return an inch of land just like that. Here, you see, even in football, grown men cry because a couple of balls flew into their goal, and the team was defeated. But this is nothing compared to the defeats that Russia inflicts on the enemy in the Arab Republic. There the stakes are much higher - these are not balls in the net, but human lives, at the cost of which the enemy held their positions for a long time.

Therefore, leaving a city or town is a much greater defeat for them, one might say, a tragedy of their entire life. That is why they fight to the death, to the last bullet, so as not to lose their possessions. To put it mildly, defeating such an opponent at the front is very difficult. In this article, we will use a specific example to tell you what incredible efforts our military personnel are making to ensure that beautiful headlines appear in the media the next day.

So, let's recall the chronology of the events of the last week. Exactly a week ago, last weekend, our military personnel met with representatives of the rebels in the city of Busra al-Sham. Then we managed to push our position a little, and the armed groups agreed to surrender their positions. However, the problem is that illegal armed groups in the Arab Republic are like fleas on a stray dog. This is an endless Syrian wedding in Malinovka, where the government changes every day. And it’s not entirely clear with whom to negotiate. Thus, a few days after the deal on July 1, in the middle of the week we again faced a problem - some of the groups refused to accept a peaceful solution. It’s worth mentioning here that Russia’s actions are very tough, but the problem is being solved very quickly. When our military personnel were once again faced with the impenetrable intractability of the militants, we had to resort to radical measures. But first, let's outline what points we couldn't agree on?

Firstly, our side demanded the immediate surrender of all weapons and heavy equipment. The militants insisted on the gradual surrender of weapons, hoping to “clean up their tracks.”

Secondly, the militants demanded the opportunity to freely leave the combat area. This was the case in Eastern Ghouta, when we provided the rebels with “green buses”. But, apparently, our military is quite tired of this practice, since when we release the militants, we later have to fight with these same people in other parts of Syria. Therefore, the requirement is simple - either go over to the side of the Syrian army or be shot.

As a result, the rebels rejected our side's demands. Introducing himself as Alexander, the Russian officer threatened the militants that if they did not agree to the deal, then 40 planes would immediately leave the Khmeimim air base to begin attacks on the rebel positions. This warning did not work, but the officer kept his words. On Wednesday, July 4, an operation by the Russian Aerospace Forces, unprecedented in its scale, began in the southwest. Having started combat missions on Wednesday, our pilots carried out attacks on enemy positions for 15 hours without a break, firing more than 600 missiles during this time. The operation was completed only the next day - Thursday, July 5. Think about the scale of the work done! This is about the price of our victories. But on the same day, Hussein Abazid, representing the interests of the southwestern militant group, said that the rebels were again ready for negotiations. He also complained, saying it’s not fair, Russia is pursuing a “scorched earth” tactic. Negotiations took place again on Friday 6 July. As a result of the meeting, it was agreed that Syrian troops and Russian military police would occupy a number of settlements in the east of Daraa province.

In addition, the most important settlement of Nasib, where the checkpoint of the same name is located on the border with Jordan, came under the control of government troops. In order to achieve local success, the strategically important city of Saida had previously come under the control of the Syrian army in this area. Thus, at the moment, the Syrian-Jordanian border is almost completely controlled by soldiers of the Syrian army and military personnel of the Russian Guard. As for the southern part, where clashes continue, 30 settlements there, on the Russian side’s terms, agreed to join the ceasefire. At the moment, the militants are firmly holding their positions in the west of Daraa - the city of Tafas is under their control. In general, the southwestern front of the militants is doomed to defeat, now it’s only a matter of time. At the moment, more than 60% of the territory of southwest Syria is already under the control of the Syrian army. I would like all this to end as soon as possible. It’s also time to think about people - 320 thousand people have already left their homes. In about three weeks. Of these, approximately 60 thousand are languishing near the Jordanian border.

It's 45 degrees outside. So it's very difficult for people. For our guys, accordingly, the service is not all sugar either.

What is a scorched earth policy?

A scorched earth policy is a military strategy that targets anything that may be useful to the enemy when moving through or leaving an area. In particular, all assets that are used or could be used by the enemy are aimed at objects such as food sources, transportation, communications, industrial resources and, even, people in the area.

This strategy can be used by military personnel in enemy territory or even on their own soil. It may overlap, but it is not the same as punitive destruction of enemy resources, which is done for purely strategic/political reasons rather than strategic/operational reasons.

Famous historical examples of scorched earth tactics include the Russian army strategy during Napoleon's failed invasion of Russia, William Tecumseh Sherman's March to Sea during the American Civil War, Lord Kitchener's move against the Boers, the initial Soviet retreat under Joseph Stalin during the German army's invasion of The Soviet Union in World War II, and the subsequent retreat of Nazi Germany on the Eastern Front.

The strategy of destroying food and water supplies to civilians in a conflict zone was prohibited, in accordance with Article 54 of the First Protocol of the 1977 Geneva Conventions. The relevant passage says:

It is prohibited to attack, destroy, remove or render unusable objects necessary for the survival of the civilian population, such as food supplies, agricultural areas producing food, crops, livestock, drinking water supply facilities, and irrigation facilities, in order to prevent their use by civilians population or the enemy side, regardless of motive, whether to cause starvation among the civilian population, force them to leave, or for any other reason.

"Scorched earth tactics" in ancient times

The Scythians used scorched earth techniques against the Persian king Darius the Great during his European Scythian campaign. The Scythians, who were nomadic herders, retreated deep into the steppes, destroying food supplies and poisoning wells. Many of Darius' soldiers died from starvation or dehydration.

The Greek general Xenophon recorded in his book Anabasis that the Armenians burned their crops and food supplies before leaving due to the advance of a ten-thousand-strong Greek hoplite army.

The Greek mercenary general Memnon suggested that the Persian satraps use scorched earth tactics against Alexander as he moved into Asia Minor. As a result, Alexander retreated.

The "scorched earth" strategy in the Roman era

The system of punitive destruction of property and subjugation of people during a military campaign was known as vastatio. Two of the first recorded uses of scorched earth tactics occurred during the Gallic Wars. The first time this tactic was used was by the Celtic Helvetii due to the invasion of unfriendly Germanic tribes. They were forced to leave their homes in southern Germany and Switzerland. To add incentive to leave their lands, the Helvetii destroyed everything they could not take with them. After they were defeated by the Roman-Gallic army, the Helvetii were forced to rebuild the ruined German and Swiss plains that they themselves had destroyed.

The second case demonstrates the actual military value: during the Great Gallic War, the Gauls under Vercingetoric planned to lure Roman armies into Gaul and then capture and destroy them. To this end, they ravaged the countryside of the Low Countries and France. This indeed created enormous problems for the Romans, but Roman military triumphs over the Gallic alliance showed that this alone was not enough to save Gaul from Roman enslavement.

During the Second Punic War in 218-202. BC, the Carthaginians selectively used this method during their passage through Italy. After the end of the Third Punic War in 146 BC. The Roman Senate also decided to use this method for the final destruction of the Carthaginian capital of Carthage (near modern Tunisia). Buildings were demolished, stones were scattered so that not even rubble remained, and fields were burned. However, the story that they soaked the land with salt is apocryphal.

In 363 AD. Emperor Julian's invasion of Sasanian Persia was interrupted by the use of scorched earth tactics:

The vast region located between the Tigris River and the Median Mountains... was in a very advanced state of cultivation. Julian might have expected that a conqueror who wielded two formidable instruments of persuasion—steel and gold—could easily secure a wealthy existence out of fear or greed of the local population. But, with the approach of the Romans, the rich and smiling prospect instantly disappeared. Wherever they went... there were no cattle; the grass and ripe grain were destroyed by fire; and, as soon as the flames which had interrupted Julian's march had subsided, he saw the melancholy face of the smoking and naked desert. This desperate but effective method of defense can only be used by the enthusiasm of the people who prefer independence to their property; or the severity of a willful ruler who takes public safety into account without giving people freedom of choice.

Use of "scorched earth tactics" in the Middle Ages

Tactics of medieval battles

The British monk Gildas, in his sixth-century treatise On the Ruins of Britain, wrote of an earlier invasion: "For the fire of vengeance... spread from sea to sea... and did not cease until it had destroyed the neighboring cities and lands, and reached the other side of the island "

During the great Viking invasion of England against Alfred the Great and other Saxon and Welsh rulers, the Viking chieftain Hastein, in the late summer of 893, sent his men to Chester to occupy the ruined Roman fortress. The fortified fortress would have provided an excellent base from which to launch raids into northern Mercia, but it is recorded that the Mercians took drastic measures to destroy all crops and livestock in the surrounding villages in order to wipe out the Danes. As a result, the invaders left Chester the following year and went to Wales.

Conquest of northern England

During the Assault on the North campaign, William the Conqueror's decision to stop the rebellion in 1069 resulted in a brutal conquest and subjugation of northern England. William's men burned entire villages from the Humber to the Tees and killed all the inhabitants. Food stores and livestock were destroyed, so that any survivors of the massacre were soon forced to starve during the winter. The destruction is depicted in the Bayeux Tapestry. The survivors were forced to resort to cannibalism. A message has been preserved that since the skulls of the dead were broken and their brains were exposed, they could be eaten. About 100 - 150 thousand people died, and it took centuries for the lands to recover from the damage.

Military tactics in the late Middle Ages

During the Hundred Years' War, both the British and French carried out chevauchée raids into enemy territory to destroy infrastructure.

Robert I the Bruce advised the use of these operational methods to hold off the forces of King Edward of England when the English invaded Scotland, according to an anonymous 14th-century poem:

In 1336, the defenders of Pilenai in Lithuania set fire to the castle and committed mass suicide to make it more costly for the attacking Teutonic Order to win.

This strategy was widely used in the Romanian principalities of Wallachia and Moldavia. Prince Mircea I of Wallachia used it against the Ottomans in 1395, and Prince Stephen III of Moldavia burned the ground in his country when the Ottoman army advanced in 1475 and 1476.

“Raze to the ground” is the deliberate, partial or complete destruction of fortifications without resistance. Sometimes, for example during the Scottish War of Independence and the English Civil War, the aim was to render a structure unfit for further use. In England in the Middle Ages, adulterous castles were usually destroyed if captured by the king. During the Wars of Scottish Independence, Robert I the Bruce adopted a strategy of destroying Scottish castles to prevent them from being occupied by the English. The strategy of destroying castles in Palestine was used by the Mamluks in their wars with the Crusaders.

Use of scorched earth tactics in the early modern era

Further British use of scorched earth tactics in warfare was seen in the 16th century in Ireland, where it was used by English commanders such as Walter Devereaux and Richard Bingham.

The Desmond Riots are a famous case of the tactic being used in Ireland. Much of the province of Munster was devastated. The poet Edmund Spenser left a report on this:

At the end of these wars in Munster; despite the fact that this land had the richest and most fertile country, full of grains and cattle, that you would think that this country would last a long time, but in just a year and a half it was reduced to such wretchedness that a stone heart looked it would be the same. From every corner of the forest and ravines people crawled out on their hands, because their legs could no longer carry them; they looked like the anatomy of death, they spoke like ghosts, crying over their graves; they ate rotten meat, happy that they could find it, yes, and soon each other, and every corpse that they could scrape out of the graves; and, if they found a patch of watercress or wood sorrel, they flocked from everywhere as if on a holiday, but still, unable to continue it for long; so that in a small space there was almost no one left, and what was once the most populous and richest country was suddenly left without man or beast.

In 1630, Field Marshal General Torquato Conti commanded the Imperial forces during the Thirty Years' War. Forced to retreat from the advancing Swedish army of King Gustavus Adolphus, Conti ordered his troops to burn houses, destroy villages, and generally cause as much damage to property and people as possible. His actions are remembered as follows:

To take revenge on the Duke of Pomerania, the imperial general allowed his troops, after his retreat, to perform all kinds of barbarities on the unfortunate inhabitants of Pomerania, who were already suffering, but suffered even more from his greed. Under the pretext of depriving the Swedes of resources, the entire country was devastated and plundered; and often, when the imperialists could no longer maintain the place, they burned it to the ground to leave only ruins to the enemy.

During the Great Northern War, Russia scorched the land in the path of the Swedish troops of King Charles XII.

Romanian-Ottoman wars

In 1462, a massive Ottoman army led by Sultan Mehmed II entered Wallachia. Vlad Tepes retreated to Transylvania. During the retreat, he carried out scorched earth tactics to repel the advance of Sultan Mehmed II. As the Ottoman forces approached Tirgovist, they encountered more than 20,000 men impaled by Vlad the Impaler's soldiers, of whom a "forest" of dead or dying was created. This brutal, harrowing spectacle caused Sultan Mehmed II to withdraw from the battle and instead send Radu, Vlad's brother, to fight Vlad the Impaler.

Great Siege of Malta

In early 1565, Master Jean Pariot de Valette ordered the harvest of all crops in Malta, including unripe grain, to deprive the Ottomans of any local food supplies, as spies warned of an impending Ottoman attack. In addition, the knights poisoned all the wells with bitter herbs and dead animals. The Ottomans arrived on 18 May of that year, and it was then that the Great Siege of Malta began. The Ottomans managed to capture one fort, but were ultimately defeated by the Knights, Maltese military and Spanish naval support forces.

Deccan Wars

Shivaji Maharaj introduced the scorched earth tactics known as Ghanimi Kava. His forces plundered the merchants and businessmen of the Mongol Emperor Aurganzeb and burned the cities, but at the same time, the soldiers were strictly ordered not to rape or harm innocent civilians, nor to commit any disrespectful acts towards any religious societies.

Shivaji's son, Sambhaji Maharaj, was hated by the entire Mongol Empire for his scorched earth tactics until he and his men were captured by Muqarrab Khan and his 25,000-man Mongol army. On 11 March 1689, a group of Qadi Mongols indicted and sentenced Sambhaji to death for indulging in random torture, arson, robbery and mass murder of imperial subjects, but most notably for providing shelter to Sultan Muhammad Akbar, the fourth son of Aurangzeb, who had requested Sambhaji's help. with the goal of winning the Mongol throne from his father, the emperor. Despite all this, Sambhaji was convicted for the three-day devastation committed after the Battle of Burhanpur.

In 1747, the Marathas, led by Raghoji I Bhonsle, began raiding, plundering and annexing territories in Odisha belonging to the Mongol Empire and the Nawab of Bengal, Alivardi Khan. The Maratha cavalry numbered 40 thousand horsemen, who sacked the city of Midnapore and burned granaries and villages.

"Scorched earth" military tactics at the turn of the 19th century

Napoleonic Wars

During 1810, during the (third) Napoleonic invasion of Portugal, the Portuguese population retreated towards Lisbon, ordering the destruction of all food supplies that the French could seize, forage and hide in a wide belt throughout the country. (Although effective methods of food preservation had recently been invented, they were still not suitable for military use because a suitable durable container had not yet been invented.) The order was carried out due to French plunder and general mistreatment with civilians in previous invasions. Poor, indignant people would rather destroy everything that they could not take with them, rather than leave nothing for the French.

After Bussaco, Massena's army marched to Coimbra, where much of the city's old university and library were destroyed, houses and furniture were destroyed, and several civilians who had not sought refuge in the south were killed. Although there were cases of similar behavior by British soldiers, given that Portugal was their ally, such crimes were usually investigated and those found guilty were punished. The sack of Coimbra made the population even more determined to destroy property, and when French troops reached the Torres Vedra line on the way to Lisbon, French soldiers reported that the country "seemed empty before them." When Massena reached the city of Viseu, wanting to replenish the food supplies of his armies, not a single inhabitant remained in the city. The only food items were grapes and lemons, which, if eaten in large quantities, become a laxative rather than a source of calories. Low morale, hunger, disease and indiscipline meant that the French Army of Portugal became much weaker and was forced to retreat the following spring. This method was later recommended to Russia when Napoleon made his move.

In 1812, Tsar Alexander I was able to render Napoleon Bonaparte's invasion of Russia futile by using a scorched earth method similar to that used by the Portuguese. As Russian troops retreated from the advancing French army, they burned the countryside (and presumably Moscow) they passed through, leaving nothing of value for the pursuing French army. Faced with a desolate and useless land, Napoleon's Grande Armée was unable to use the usual teachings on how to live outside the lands it had conquered. Pushing forward relentlessly despite dwindling numbers, the Grand Army met disaster as the invasion continued. Napoleon's army arrived in a virtually abandoned Moscow, which was a tortured, starving shell of its former self, thanks in large part to the use of scorched earth tactics during the Russian retreat. Having essentially captured nothing, Napoleon's troops retreated, and again the scorched earth policy came into force, because, despite the fact that some large food depots had been established on the advance, the route between them had been scorched and had already been used once, so the French the army was starving as it followed the depleted invasion route a second time. Unfortunately, the consequences of this policy on the civilian population in the areas in which it was applied were equally, if not more, destructive than on the Grande Armée.

South American War of Independence

In August 1812, Argentine General Manuel Belgrano led the "Jujuy Exodus", a massive forced movement of people from what are now the provinces of Jujuy and Salta to the south. The "Juju withdrawal" was carried out by the patriotic forces of the army of the North, which fought against the royal army.

Belgrano, faced with the prospect of total defeat and territorial loss, ordered all the men to pack their essentials, including food and furniture, and follow him, in wagons or on foot, along with the cattle and animals that could survive the journey. The rest (houses, crops, food supplies, as well as any iron objects) were to be burned to deprive the loyalists of resources, following a strict scorched earth tactic. On July 29, 1812, Belgrano asked the people of Jujuy to "show their heroism" and join the retreat of the army under his command "if, as you assure, you want to be free." The penalty for ignoring the order was death and destruction of property. Belgrano worked to win the support of the population, and then reported that most people willingly followed him without the need to use force.

The withdrawal began on August 23 and brought together people from Jujuy and Salta; people walked south about 250 km, and finally arrived on the banks of the Pasagí River in the province of Tucumán on the morning of August 29. The Patriots adopted a scorched earth policy and the Spanish invaded the wasteland. Belgrano's army destroyed everything that could provide shelter or be useful to the royalists.

Philippine-American War

US attacks on the Philippine countryside often included scorched earth campaigns where entire villages were burned and destroyed, torture (drinking torture) was used, and civilians were herded into "protected zones". Many civilian deaths were the result of disease and starvation.

While pursuing guerrilla general Emilio Aguinaldo, American troops also poisoned wells to try to dislodge the Filipino rebels.

American Civil War

In the American Civil War, Union forces under Sheridan and Sherman made extensive use of this tactic. General Sherman used it during his March to the Sea. In another Civil War event, in response to Quantrill's raid on Lawrence, Kansas, and the numerous civilian casualties, U.S. Army General Order No. 11 (1863) ordered the near complete evacuation of three and a half counties in western Missouri. , south of the city of Kansas, which were subsequently looted and burned by US Army troops. The Union commander who issued General Order No. 11 was Brigadier General Thomas Ewing Jr., Sherman's brother-in-law. Under the general direction of Sherman, General Sheridan followed this policy in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia and later during the Indian Wars on the Great Plains.

When General Grant's forces broke through Richmond's defenses, Jefferson Davis ordered the destruction of all military installations in Richmond; the fire destroyed much - mostly commercial buildings and some Southern warships docked on the James River. The civilian population was forced to flee in panic from fires started by the Confederates.

Indian Wars

During the Indian Wars of the American West, under the leadership of James Carleton, Kit Carson employed a scorched earth policy, burning Navajo fields and homes and stealing or killing their livestock. He was helped by other Indian tribes with whom the Navajo had been at enmity for a long time, mainly the Ute tribe. The Navajo were forced to surrender due to the destruction of their livestock and food. In the spring of 1864, 8,000 Navajo men, women and children were forced to march 300 miles to Fort Sumner, New Mexico. The Navajo call this trail "The Long Walk." Many died along the way or during the next four years of their internment.

A military expedition, under the command of U.S. Col. Ranald S. McKenzie, was sent to the Texas Panhandle and the Oklahoma Panhandle in 1874 with the goal of moving Indians to reservations in Oklahoma. The Mackenzie expedition captured about 1,200 Indian horses, took them to Tula Canyon and shot them. Left without their main source of livelihood and demoralized, the Comanche and Kiowa abandoned the area (see Palo Duro Canyon).

Boer War

Lord Kitchener adopted a scorched earth policy at the end of the Second Boer War (1899-1902). The Burians, refusing to accept military defeat, adopted a modern form of what we know today as guerrilla warfare, despite the capture of their two capitals. As a result, the British ordered the destruction of farms and civilian homes to prevent food and supplies from being provided to the Boer war effort. An eloquent description of these events comes from an army officer of the time. This destruction left women and children with no means of survival as crops and livestock were also destroyed.

The existence of the concentration camps was discovered by Emily Hobhouse, who visited many of the camps and began petitioning the British government to change its policies. In an attempt to counter Hobhouse's activities, the British called the Fawcett Commission, which confirmed Hobhouse's findings. Later, the British perceived the concentration camps as a humanitarian measure undertaken to care for displaced people until the end of the war, in response to messages from Hobhouse and Fawcett. Negligence on the part of the British, lack of planning, supplies and overpopulation led to a large number of casualties. Ten years after the war, P. L. Goldman officially estimated that an astonishingly large number of Boers had died in the concentration camps - 27,927 people: 26,251 women and children (of whom more than 22,000 were under 16 years of age), 1,676 people over 16 years of age , of which 1421 were elderly.

Other examples of the use of scorched earth tactics

In 1868, the Tuoe tribe harbored Maori leader Te Kooti and were subjected to a scorched earth policy, resulting in their crops and buildings being destroyed and people capable of holding weapons being captured.

Examples of the use of scorched earth tactics in the 20th century

World War I

In World War I, the Imperial Russian Army forces created a destruction zone using a large-scale scorched earth strategy during the retreat from the German Army in the summer/autumn of 1915. Russian troops, retreating more than 600 miles to the front, destroyed everything that could be useful to their enemy, including crops, houses, railroads and entire cities. They also forcibly displaced huge numbers of people. By pushing the Russians back to their homeland, the German army gained large territory from the Russian Empire (in the area that is today Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia and Lithuania).

On 24 February 1917, the German army used scorched earth tactics during a strategic withdrawal from the Somme battlefield to the prepared fortifications of the Hindenburg Line, thereby shortening the front line they had to occupy. Due to the fact that a scorched earth campaign requires a war to be fought on the move, during the First World War there was generally little opportunity to use this tactic, since the fighting in this protracted war took place in the same territories .

Greco-Turkish War (1919-22)

During the Greco-Turkish War (1919–22), the retreating Greek army used scorched earth tactics in the final phase of the war as it retreated from Anatolia. Historian of the Middle East, Sidney Nettleton Fisher, wrote that: "During the retreat, the Greek army used scorched earth tactics, and also committed every possible outrage against the defenseless Turkish inhabitants who met its path." Norman M. Naimark noted that "the Greek retreat was even more devastating to the local population than the occupation."

Second Sino-Japanese War

During the Second Sino-Japanese War, the Imperial Japanese Army used a scorched earth tactic known as the "Three All" Policy. Japan's scorched earth policy has been documented to have caused enormous damage to the environment and infrastructure. In addition, it contributed to the complete destruction of entire villages and the partial destruction of entire cities, such as Chongqing or Nanjing.

The Chinese National Revolutionary Army destroyed dams in an attempt to flood the land to slow the advance of Japanese soldiers, further increasing the environmental impact. This policy led to the Huang He flood in 1938.

The Second World War

When Germany attacked the Soviet Union in June 1941, many district governments took the initiative to implement a "partial" scorched earth policy to deny the invaders electrical, telecommunications, railroad and industrial resources. Parts of the telegraph network were destroyed, some railway and road bridges were blown up, most electrical generators were sabotaged by removing key components, and many mines were destroyed. These actions were repeated later in the war by the German forces of Army Group North and Erich von Manstein's Army Group Don, who, during several military operations, stole crops and destroyed farms and settlements the size of a city or smaller. The rationale for the destruction was that these armies would slowly pursue the Soviet forces, forcing them to rescue their citizens. In Manstein's post-war memoirs, the policy was justified as a means of preventing Soviet theft of food and housing from its own civilians. The most famous victims of the German scorched earth policy were the people of the historic city of Novgorod, which was destroyed in the winter of 1944 to protect the retreat of Army Group North from Leningrad.

At the end of World War II, Finland, which had signed a separate peace with the Allies, had to evict German troops who had been fighting against the Soviets alongside Finnish troops in the northern part of the country. Finnish troops under the leadership of General Hjalmar Siilasvuo attacked aggressively in August 1944, landing at Tornio. This accelerated the German retreat, and by November 1944 the Germans had abandoned most of northern Finland. German forces, forced to retreat due to the overall strategic situation, covered their retreat towards Norway by destroying large areas of northern Finland using a scorched earth strategy. More than a third of the homes in the area were destroyed, and the provincial capital of Rovaniemi was burned to the ground. All but two bridges in the Lapland province were blown up and roads were mined. In Northern Norway, which was also invaded by Soviet troops in pursuit of the retreating German army in 1944, the Germans also used scorched earth tactics, destroying every building that might offer shelter and thus creating a "scorched earth" belt. between themselves and their allies.

In 1945, Adolf Hitler ordered his Minister of Armaments, Albert Speer, to implement a nationwide scorched earth policy, which later became known as Plan Nero. Speer, who was looking to the future, actively resisted the order, just as he had previously refused Hitler's order to destroy French industry when the Wehrmacht was expelled from France, and managed to continue to do so even after Hitler learned of his actions.

During World War II, the railway plow was used in Germany, Czechoslovakia and other countries to prevent enemy use of railways by partially destroying them during the retreat.

Malayan Emergency

Britain was the first country to use herbicides and defoliants (mainly Agent Orange) to destroy the crops and bushes of communist rebels in Malaya during the Malayan Emergency in the 1950s. The goal was to prevent the rebels from using them as cover to ambush a passing convoy of British troops and to destroy the peasants' ability to provide support to the rebels.

Indian annexation of Goa

In response to India's invasion of the 451-year-old Portuguese colony of Goa in December 1961, during the annexation of Portuguese India, the Portuguese President called for a scorched earth tactic - Goa would have to be destroyed before it could be handed over to India.

However, despite orders from Lisbon, Governor General Manuel Antonio Vassallo y Silva took stock of the numerical superiority of Indian troops, as well as the food and ammunition supplies available to his troops, and decided to surrender. He later described the order to destroy Goa as "um sacrifício inútil" (a useless sacrifice).

Vietnam War

The US used Agent Orange as part of its herbicide warfare program during the Vietnam War, Operation Ranch Hand, which aimed to destroy crops and foliage to detect possible enemy hideouts. Agent Blue was used in rice fields to eliminate Viet Cong food supplies.

Gulf War

During the Gulf War in 1990, when Iraqi troops were driven out of Kuwait, they set oil wells on fire as they retreated. Possible reasons for this are discussed in more detail in the article on the Kuwait oil fires. These fires were caused by Iraqi forces, who set fire to more than 600 oil wells as part of a scorched earth policy during their retreat from Kuwait in 1991 after invading the country, but were later forced to leave the country by coalition forces ( see Gulf War). The fires started in January-February 1991, and the last one was extinguished by November of the same year.

Political regime of Rios Montt

Efrain Rios Montt used this method in the Guatemalan Highlands in 1981-1982, although scorched earth tactics were first used under the previous president, Romeo Lucas García. Upon taking office, Rios Montt implemented a new counterinsurgency strategy calling for the use of scorched earth tactics to combat the Guatemalan National Revolutionary Unity uprising, known as Plan Victoria 82, or more commonly nicknamed the local pacification strategy. - Fusiles y Frijoles (Bullets and beans). Rios Montt's policies led to the deaths of thousands (most of them native Mayans).

Indonesian National Revolution

The Indonesian military and pro-Indonesian militias used this method in their scorched earth campaign against Timor-Leste around the time of the 1999 East Timorese independence referendum. Before this, during the Indonesian National Revolution, various cities and strategic places in Indonesia were also subjected to this tactic to prevent the Allied forces (especially the British) and later the Dutch forces from using the same strategy. Notably, in 1946, the Indonesian military and militia burned the city of Bandung in West Java to the ground for the same purpose.

Use of scorched earth tactics in modern history

Darfur conflict in Sudan

The Sudanese government has used a scorched earth strategy as a military strategy in Darfur.

Civil war in Sri Lanka

During the Sri Lankan Civil War in 2009, the United Nations Regional Information Center (UNRIC) accused the Sri Lankan government of using scorched earth tactics.

Libyan Civil War

During the Libyan civil war in 2011, forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi deployed large numbers of landmines in the oil port of Brega, with the aim of preventing the use of port facilities as rebel forces advanced. Additionally, Libyan rebel forces practiced a scorched earth policy where they completely destroyed and refused to rebuild critical infrastructure in cities previously loyal to Muammar Gaddafi, such as Sirte and Tawargha.

Syrian civil war

During the Syrian civil war, forces loyal to Bashar al-Assad in northern Syria burned large areas of trees and forests that were used as cover by Free Syrian Army fighters who hid among the trees when not taking part in battles. Forests were mainly burned in the northern regions of Aleppo, Idlib and Latakia provinces, with fires sometimes spreading across the border into Turkey. The first time the forests were burned deliberately, but as soon as Assad's loyalists withdrew from these areas, they used artillery fire to burn the forests. It is said that it will take about 80 years to completely restore the environment from the damage caused.

The Soviet scorched earth tactics include many aspects: military, economic, demographic and many others. In "The Dissolution of Eastern European Jewry" I only scratched the surface of the topic of demographic changes among Eastern European Jews. Here I want to focus on the economic side of World War II.

The German-Soviet non-aggression pact of August 23, 1939 provided for the following territorial redistributions: Estonia and Latvia passed into the Soviet sphere of interest, and Lithuania fell into the German one./1 After the defeat of Poland, the Soviet government immediately began to put strong pressure on Germany to revise the treaty . In order to maintain peace, Hitler agreed to a second treaty, the so-called Treaty of Friendship and Border of September 28, 1939, Germany renounced its interests in most of Lithuania in exchange for the area between the Vistula and the Bug with a population of about 3.5 million . people, including more than 300,000 Jews./2 This zone was occupied by the Soviets for a very short time, but the Red Army destroyed almost the entire agricultural system, taking livestock and agricultural equipment, before retreating. As a result, the Germans had to bring food in large quantities to prevent famine in this agricultural region./3 This episode should have been a lesson for Germany, but unfortunately it was not.

While Germany was engaged in the Western Campaign from 10 May to 24 June 1940, the Soviet Union occupied almost all of Lithuania between 16 and 22 June after the ultimatum of 15 June - that is, even including territory that was supposed to remain within German areas of interest according to the agreement. This occupation represents not only a gross violation of two Soviet-German treaties, but also the Soviet-Lithuanian mutual assistance treaty (October 10, 1939). The German government was not notified of this action./4 Northern Bukovina, one of the areas of Romania that was outside the Soviet interests agreed to in the treaty, was similarly appropriated by the Soviets, although in this case the Soviets pressured Germany to give their "consent" "in the ultimatum of 24 hours before the start of the occupation. I mention these events only because they demonstrate the determination with which the USSR destroyed the German strategic advantage while gaining its own. They also show that Germany did not have specific military objectives regarding the Soviet Union, because otherwise it is inconceivable that it would have to tolerate Soviet usurpation of the strategically invaluable Lithuanian route to Leningrad and Moscow.

Scorched earth

Faced with a massive Soviet military buildup along the border, and warned by new Soviet demands for unrealistic territorial concessions in Europe, Germany attacked the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941. The Soviets immediately began killing German prisoners of war immediately after capture or after a short interrogation. Even seriously wounded soldiers were not spared. Numerous evidence exists on this score from the West German Research Institute of Military History (Militaergeschichtliche Forschungsamt), which is known for its not at all pro-German bias; it estimates the percentage of captured German soldiers who died in Soviet captivity in 1941-1942 at 90-95 percent./ 5A Within a few days after the outbreak of hostilities, the Kremlin Central Committee issued an order that the troops leave only scorched earth to the enemy. All valuable property was ordered destroyed, regardless of the needs of the remaining civilian population. For this purpose, specially created property destruction squads were used. The aforementioned military research institute commented: “From the very beginning of the war, Stalin and the leadership of the Soviet Union showed through these measures how concerned they were about this armed conflict with Germany, which for them had a completely different character than just a “European war.” 5 B

The measures taken by the Soviet Union between 1940 and 1942 were aimed not only at further developing the Soviet war economy, but also at harming the Germans, even at the cost of huge losses among Soviet citizens. The Soviet scorched earth strategy included the deportation of millions of men, women and children; relocation of thousands of factories; destruction of almost all railway rolling stock; destruction of most agricultural equipment, livestock and grain reserves; systematic destruction, burning and demolition of real estate infrastructure, supplies of all kinds, factory buildings, mines, residential areas, public buildings, government archives, and even cultural monuments; deliberate starvation among the civilian population who remained in the occupied territories. This policy shamelessly used the civilian population as a pawn. This policy is confirmed by so many sources that there can be no difference of opinion. It is strange that this topic has not yet been covered in the scientific literature. Until now, this scorched earth policy has not been studied to the extent it deserves.

Long before the outbreak of the German-Soviet conflict, Stalin began to prepare for a future war in Europe, developing heavy industry in the Urals and Western Siberia, starting with the first Five-Year Plan in 1928. His plans were long-term. In the early 1930s, he had already announced his intention to overtake the most industrialized countries no later than June 1941 - the year when, according to numerous testimonies and statements of Soviet leaders, including Stalin's son, the Red Army will hit Germany in late summer./7 With the help of thousands of engineers and experts from Europe and North America, the core of the Soviet arms industry was created in the region where Europe meets Asia. Millions of Soviet citizens were mercilessly sacrificed in the pursuit of Soviet military superiority over Germany. The Ural industrial region was covered by an extensive network of power lines. In 1940, this was a fairly sparsely populated area, with only four percent of the Soviet population, and producing 4 billion kWh of electricity, but the existing capacity was soon greatly enhanced./8 In other words, per capita electrical capacity in the Ural region became four times more. In preparation for the coming conflict, munitions factories were built throughout the southern Urals and Western Siberia. The railway network in this once sparsely populated area was greatly expanded by the start of the war./9

As soon as the Germans crossed the border, the Soviet Union began implementing an economic mobilization plan. This plan also included the possibility that the enemy might occupy large swathes of the country - as happened during the First World War. For this reason, detailed plans were created for where the dismantled plants were to be transported and sequential instructions for the destruction of what could not be transported. The relationships between the individual plants and their dependence on each other were also carefully taken into account./10 A carefully executed plan included the dismantling and evacuation of equipment and people 8-10 days before the retreat of the Red Army from the territory where the plant or factory was located, then 24 hours were allocated for the destruction of the remaining valuable property with the help of special units. If necessary, Soviet troops offered desperate resistance to ensure sufficient time for special property destruction units to complete their tasks.

Enterprises almost always moved towards the Ural industrial region, in particular to the area of ​​Sverdlovsk, Molotov, Ufa, Chkalov, and Magnitogorsk. This is a region where plants and factories were built several years before the war and where dismantled and transported enterprises from the western regions of the Soviet Union began to operate again./11

In just the first three months after the start of the war, more than 1,360 large industrial enterprises were transported to their new locations. Due to strict control, the evacuated enterprises began to work again in an incredibly short time: only three to four weeks passed before large factories and enterprises again began to provide the Red Army with products. Workers had to work 12-14 hours a day, seven days a week. Within three to four months, Soviet production again reached pre-war levels./12

The Soviet feat was only possible because millions of skilled workers, managers, engineers and specialists were brought to these areas along with their factories. As early as February 1940, German intelligence officers reported the systematic deportation of the Polish, Ukrainian and Jewish populations from Western Ukraine./13 In June 1940, up to one million Jewish refugees from German-occupied Poland, as well as many hundreds of thousands of Poles, were deported to Siberia. Then, in the weeks leading up to June 22, 1941, mass deportations of civilians took place along the entire border with Germany, Hungary, and Romania. The Soviets, informed by spies, Allied intelligence, and German traitors, wasted no time in deporting those civilians who were most needed in the Ural industrial region./14

Soviet historians admitted several years ago that the Soviet Union had plans to rebuild the entire railway system long before the war for military needs in a very short time. The goal was to prevent the Germans from taking possession of strategically important equipment. Soviet success in this endeavor was almost complete: despite the huge number of railway cars, locomotives, and special transport equipment in the border areas intended for the deployment of troops in preparation for an attack on Europe, most of the rolling stock was withdrawn before the Germans attacked its lightning strike on June 22, 1941. During the first five weeks, as German forces pushed the Soviets inland, only 577 locomotives, 270 passenger cars, and 21,947 railroad freight cars fell to the Germans. In percentage terms, this was only 2.3. 0.8 and 2.5 percent of the total value./15

During the first few months of the war, one million railroad cars loaded with industrial equipment, raw materials, and people left the front lines./16 I will not go into the specific scope of the Soviet civilian deportation program. I did this in detail in "The Dissolution". It is enough to note here that before the war, more than 90 million people lived in the areas conquered by Germany during the Second World War. The Soviets deported about 25 - 30 million of them. They concentrated their efforts on deporting specific groups. A large percentage of those deported were from cities located in Ukraine or Belarus, especially if they were located closer to the western border./17

The scorched earth policy was extremely well prepared by the Soviets. The extensive weapons program began 13 years before 1941, long before Adolf Hitler was a viable contender for the leadership of Germany. Significant investments have been made in the rather sparsely populated and underdeveloped area to develop its transport networks, power plants and heavy industry. However, there was a particularly severe lack of social infrastructure, such as housing and hospitals, to provide basic necessities for the millions of civilians deported here between 1940 and 1941. As a result, 15-20 million civilians died from epidemics, hunger, overwork, lack of housing, lack of clothing and the brutal Siberian winter.

Economic collapse in the occupied eastern territories

The picture for the advancing German troops was extremely unfavorable. The railway system has been destroyed. There was no rolling stock. Water pipelines and power plants were destroyed. In order to organize the production of raw materials and petroleum products, the Germans created the so-called economic headquarters "East".
The Soviet scorched earth strategy very quickly forced the economic headquarters to intensify work on the production of any type of product. Even the production of consumer goods was included in the program because the industry in the occupied territories was unable to resume production after the almost complete destruction and dismantling by the Soviets and the deportation of most management personnel and technical specialists.

Electricity production amounted to 2.57 million kW in the occupied territories - approximately one-fourth of all pre-war Soviet production in these territories - less than one-eighth (300,000 kW) was untouched. The Soviet destruction efforts were so thorough that by the end of March 1943 output had been increased to no more than 630,000 kW, which was still only a quarter of the pre-war level. /18 (See Table 1.)

Still, differences across regions were significant. In the Reichskommissariat (ROK) Ostland (Baltic states and Belarus), about half of the original 270,000 kW capacity survived, and by the end of March 1943 almost 90 percent of the pre-war capacity had been returned to service. But in Ukraine, only 7 percent (145,000 kW) of electricity, with a capacity of 2.2 million kW, was still operational. The thoroughness of the Bolsheviks' efforts is evidenced by the fact that by the end of March 1943, they managed to return to operation no more than 350,000 kW of power. This is only 16 percent of pre-war capacity. In practice, even these capacities rarely operated at full capacity due to the guerrilla threat and the almost complete lack of coal supplies. It is clear that industrial production has been dealt a death blow. As already mentioned, electricity production before the war amounted to 10 billion kWh annually in the occupied eastern territories. The German administration succeeded in producing only 750 million kWh of electricity from the time of occupation until the end of 1942. For 1943 it was planned to increase this to 1.4 billion kW/h - which was still 86 percent below pre-war levels - which was never achieved, as only 1 billion kW. h were actually produced./19 It is significant that the planned increase in production and production for 1943 was realized only in isolated cases. Actual production of basic raw materials or energy supplies have fallen far short of stated goals, despite the increased attention paid to economic retooling.

The consequences of the systematic destruction of industrial production by the Soviet army are shown in Table 2.

The main production of coal, iron ore, steel, electricity, cement and other important ones were almost completely destroyed. Compared to pre-war levels, coal production averaged 2.4 percent, iron ore production averaged 1.2 percent, steel production was non-existent, electricity production was 8.8 percent, and cement production was 11.6 percent!

Another evidence of the deplorable state of the economy in the territory of occupied Russia was the number of labor forces. In 1940, Soviet specialists and workers numbered 31.2 million./20 At the end of 1942, industrial employment (excluding food processing) amounted to only 750,000 people. If we count employment only in industrial enterprises, that is, excluding handicrafts, the number of workers was only 600,000 (Table 3)

Six hundred thousand in an area where 75 million lived before the war - impossible! Even if we add the unknown number of people employed in the food industry, it is clear that industrial employment under the German administration was equivalent to one-tenth of the pre-war level. Worst of all, the productivity of this workforce was well below the pre-war norm. It is noteworthy that the Baltic countries (the largest of which, Lithuania, had very little industry) remained with only 8 percent of the population of pre-war levels, yet they still constituted a quarter of the entire industrial workforce under the German administration.

Soviet deportations of qualified personnel led to such forced measures as the "secondment" of about 10,000 civilian specialists from the Reich in order to overcome severe personnel shortages./21 Based on available statistics, it can be argued that the Soviets deported at least 70 percent of workers before the German occupation. This means that the number of workers employed under the German administration (usually less skilled than the deported workers) was between 2 and 3 million. No more than a million people were engaged in production, despite the huge need for workers, unemployment reached enormous proportions (50-70 percent) at the height of the gigantic demand for literally any type of product.
According to Soviet data, before the start of the war, in areas occupied by the Germans by November 1941, 63% of coal, 68% of iron, 58% of steel, 60% of aluminum, 38% of grain and 84% of sugar were produced from all production in the Soviet Union./22 Documents from the German economic headquarters "East" show, in fact, very similar figures. The Soviets, through aid, fires, destruction, sabotage and deportation of workers and the population, made it impossible to use these industrial capacities. Instead of increasing German military and economic power, these areas became a huge burden and created additional costs for the German economy.

Hunger

The following secret report from the German economic headquarters for the period 1-10 October 1941 describes the situation:

Some food was found... it appears that virtually all supplies and raw materials were either systematically removed from these areas or rendered unusable. Thus, raw materials are still being discovered in small quantities, slightly easing the needs of the Reich.... Raw materials have not been supplied to factories for some time./23

The same situation is in the case of food, especially grain. We read the same report:

Our experience shows that the Russians systematically remove or destroy all food supplies. The urban population of the conquered cities would thus have to be fed by the Wehrmacht or would have to starve. It is obvious that by forcing us to provide additional food to the population, the Soviet leadership intends to worsen the already difficult food situation of the German Reich. As a matter of fact, the current food situation allows us to feed the Russian population from our own reserves only if we reduce supplies to the army or reduce rations for our own population./24

At the very beginning of the war, all efforts to destroy property were carried out in the agricultural sector and were timed to coincide with the destruction of machine and tractor stations. Typically, these stations were found empty or with equipment unusable. At first the cattle population remained untouched. But over the following weeks things took a turn for the worse. As the German army advanced from west to east, there was practically no livestock, grain or fuel. The Luftwaffe and POWs reported that the Soviets were harvesting the fields before retreating. After the occupation of Ukraine, it became obvious that the food situation would get worse. In many cases, even the seeds needed for sowing were distributed to help the starving Ukrainians. This, in turn, further reduced the area under cultivation. It is estimated that the occupied eastern territories produced 43 million tons of grain under Soviet rule in 1940. Under the German administration, it was possible to harvest about 13 million tons in 1941. One reason was that the German advance in Russia was most rapid in the northern and central sectors, thereby giving the Soviets time to destroy or evacuate much of the Ukrainian crop. In 1942, even less was harvested, only 11.7 million tons. According to Dallin, the German administration managed to sow about three-quarters of the pre-war acreage. Fertilizer was virtually non-existent and yields per acre were lower in 1942 than in previous years. Compared to an average yield per hectare of approximately 2,200 pounds (14 bushels/acre) in Ukraine in the late 1930s, the Germans managed to obtain only 1,500 pounds (10 bushels/acre)./25 The Soviet scorched earth policy began to be fully realized. : The use of seed grains to alleviate the difficult food situation in the cities, the increasing guerrilla threat and the shortage of workers and equipment greatly reduced the yield obtained.

German specialists were too scattered to effectively ensure the supply of agricultural products. Of course, the Germans periodically tried to “comb” the area to find accumulated supplies, but their efforts were not particularly successful. In retreat, the Red Army also destroyed the entire agricultural distribution system, and the German administration was forced to create its own - no easy task, given wartime conditions. Not only too little time and difficult conditions did not allow the distribution to be organized more successfully, but also the actions of the Bolsheviks resisting in the occupied territories. All these difficulties arose not because of the “German mentality” or “German policy”, which, contrary to the propaganda of the Soviets and Allies, was aimed at seeking mutual understanding with the liberated Slavic peoples.

Far from the ruthlessness that allegedly characterized the German occupation of Russia, it is worth saying that the Germans had never previously encountered the inhumane concept of total war applied by the USSR. Even Jewish historian Alexander Dallin admits: "The Soviet harvest was, in practice, much more efficient (emphasis added) than the German harvest. As a result, German peasants were often able to keep larger reserves than before the war. In all likelihood, hidden reserves remained quite significant." .."/26

Between 1941 and 1943, fifteen thousand railway cars containing agricultural equipment and machinery were sent from Germany to the occupied eastern territories as part of the so-called Ostackerprogramm ("Eastern Agricultural Program"). It included 7,000 thousand tractors, 20,000 thousand generators, 250,000 thousand steel plows, and 3,000,000 million scythes. In addition, thousands of bulls, cows, pigs, and stallions were sent to these areas for breeding purposes. Available statistics indicate that German agricultural aid between July 1941 and 1943 amounted to RM 445 million (Reichsmark)"/27

The pre-war Soviet harvest in 1940 amounted to 82 million tons of grain, of which about 30% was allocated for seeds and feed purposes. Theoretically, the population of the USSR thus had access to 57 million tons, or slightly less than 800 grams per day per person. In practice, of course, this amount was less, since part of this amount was reserved in anticipation of the coming war with Germany./28 Of the thirteen million tons under the German administration in 1941, only 9 million tons were reserved for the indigenous population. Of this amount, 2 million tons were taken by German troops. The amount requisitioned by the German army was indeed quite moderate. This is also evidenced by the fact that the Red Army used only 31.4 million tons of grain in 1940, the last year of peace! While another 350,000 thousand tons were transported to Germany to provide for its civilian population./29 About 7 million tons remained for the population of the occupied territories.

On a per capita basis, this amounted to less than 400 grams per day (less than one pound) - half the level in 1940. Meat and fats were rarely available. But this average does not reflect the full picture. On the one hand, we noted that the yields were probably significantly higher than German statistics indicate. This means that at least the rural population, of which there was a majority, ate much better than the urban population. Also, many urban residents were able to obtain food from peasants illegally, as it is difficult to control the black market. In this way, the cities received food from the peasants, which the German authorities were unable to track; on the other hand, transport is often an insurmountable problem, so that even the minimum supply of food arrived in the cities either late or there was not enough for everyone. In addition, the partisans destroyed or confiscated large portions of the collected grain. Finally, German authorities often tried to issue additional rations to factory workers. Of course, this was only possible at the expense of the rest of the population. The fact that the German authorities were unable to succeed in obtaining special rations for workers in important industries or for those engaged in heavy manual labor shows how serious the situation was./30 Those city dwellers who were unemployed or had no property with which to trade the peasants were really in trouble: hunger was their fate.

The desperate food situation in the cities is shown by regular secret reports from the East Economic Headquarters sent to Berlin:

November 11, 1941: Food shortages and the lack of even the most necessary consumer goods are the main reason why the morale of the Russian and Ukrainian population is becoming more and more depressed... Kiev has not received any grain since its occupation on September 19, 1941. .. Guerillas steal food from civilians at night. Food supplies are also burned by the partisans. Particularly great difficulties exist in the Army Group South zone, where it is impossible to feed all the prisoners of war due to their huge numbers.... The authorities invariably try to find enough food for the prisoners, although even buckwheat porridge is available only in limited quantities.... We are very concerned our ability to feed urban populations in the southern regions. /31

December 8, 1941: The food situation in the city of Kharkov is extremely critical. There is practically no food for the population. There is almost no bread. /32

January 22, 1942: Regular distribution of food to urban civilians in the "South" zone is more and more limited, and the situation will not change for the better in the foreseeable future. /33

23 February 1942: Food supplies to the civilian population of major cities are so low as to be a cause for serious concern. /33
March 1, 1942: Population morale is low due to food problems.... In the densely populated Donetsk region there is not enough food for the entire population. As a result, several thousand people died of starvation. In some cases, even highly qualified specialists and teachers were among the victims. /33

March 5, 1942: The food situation continues to be very serious and some cities are actually starving. In Pushkin it was discovered that there had been a trade in human flesh, passing it off as pork./33
March 16, 1942 (report of the commander of the military rear Central regions): in large cities (the food situation) continues to be unsatisfactory, and in Kharkov it is catastrophic. As time passes, it becomes increasingly difficult to feed the urban population... /33

June 3, 1942: The food situation in the cities is getting worse and worse, because part of the food supplies collected for the population and crops was destroyed by the partisans. /33

Continued efforts by the German authorities to ensure sufficient supplies of food for the civilian population were undermined by disastrously poor harvests, disastrous transport conditions, guerrilla attacks, the destruction of food supplies by the Soviets, and the inability to conduct regular exchanges of goods between major cities and the countryside. While the food supply of the rural population and small towns was relatively sufficient, the civilian population of the large cities and millions of prisoners starved. Thus, the German reputation suffered for the actions of the Soviets.

German economic recovery efforts

Equipment worth one billion RM was imported from the Reich for the mining, energy and manufacturing industries in the occupied territories. To this must be added significant costs for the transport sector, as well as for road construction equipment, the cost of which is estimated at more than one billion Reichsmarks. After supplying significant quantities of coal, which was used as fuel for civilian rail freight transport, German aid for the restoration of industry and infrastructure amounted to over RM 2.5 billion./34 This amount does not include agricultural aid amounting to about half a billion Reichsmarks. The extent of German assistance in the civilian sector can be better appreciated if it is realized that the total industrial production in these areas from the beginning of the occupation to the end of 1943 amounted to approximately 5 billion RM. (This figure includes finished products, repairs, etc.)/35 Although the exact figure is unknown, it is worth assuming that the entire assistance amounted to just over RM 2 billion./36 In other words, the amount of German economic assistance (except for agriculture) was greater than than the cost of all industrial products during the occupation! Annual output per employee was RM 1,000 per year. For comparison: in Germany, a worker produced products worth 4000 RM in 1936./37
Most of the production was absorbed by the German occupation army. Thus, the Soviet scorched earth strategy reduced the supply of consumer goods for its own population of about 50 million to negligible levels. The production of consumer goods was practically zero, because of the destruction and evacuation of all industrial enterprises and raw materials, the deportation of personnel by the Soviets, as well as the impossibility of quickly correcting the situation, thanks to the actions of the partisans. Thus, the urban population could offer nothing to the peasants in exchange for their products. And since the peasant was unable to buy anything with the money he received, he did not want to part with his products, and the exchange was disrupted.
German economic assistance in the occupied Soviet territories amounted to approximately one percent of Germany's gross national product at that time./38 Even today, this figure is more than aid from industrialized countries to developing countries. West Germany, for example, has provided aid equal to about half a percent of GNP since 1960, a period of relative prosperity and low defense spending.

Indeed, economic assistance amounting to about RM 3 billion (including in the industrial and agricultural sectors) to the occupied eastern territories is also equivalent to one-fourth of the total gross investment in fixed assets in Germany in 1942 and 1943 (RM 12 billion)./39

A comparison of traffic volumes between the Reich and the occupied eastern territories provides additional information.

If we take only tonnage, then the Reich received about 20 percent more cargo from the eastern territories than from Germany to the East. Taking into account also about 2 million tons of grain supplied in 1943/40 the exchange for Germany was more profitable at first glance. However, supplies from the Eastern Territories consisted mainly of various raw materials and unprocessed ore of rather low value in monetary terms, while products from Germany were of very high value and quality (with the exception of coal for railway transport). Since finished products cost much more than various raw materials, on the other hand, this exchange was much more profitable for the occupied eastern territories, although, of course, the paucity of available data does not allow us to make calculations over a longer period, even within a large margin of error. The Eastern territories supplied agricultural products worth 1.6 billion Reichsmarks./41 The cost of supplies of German cars, tractors, generators, equipment of all types for industry and agriculture amounted to approximately 3 billion Reichsmarks. From this sum we must deduct the supplies of raw materials and ore produced during the period of occupation, as well as various services rendered to the German army. It is not known what values ​​should be used for these calculations. However, due to the very small amount of raw materials and the extremely low level of industrial production, this value must be about 25 percent of the relatively small amount of 2 billion.

Thus, the occupied eastern territories as such contributed practically nothing economically in the fight against Bolshevism. In fact, they received incredibly generous recovery assistance. This assistance was unlikely to have been done for purely altruistic reasons. Nevertheless, this was a unique period in the history of relations between the occupying power and the conquered territories of the country. It would be wrong to attribute the German economic collapse in the eastern territories solely to the efforts of the Soviets. All the factors mentioned more than once here are undoubtedly very important. However, there is another, no less important aspect. When Germany launched a preemptive strike on the USSR, it did so with an almost complete lack of information about the real Soviet military power, the size of Soviet weapons production and the USSR's preparation for total war. Worse, Germany was completely unprepared to overcome the rough terrain, had no plans for managing the economy in the occupied territories, which could not work on its own, since it depended on directives and decrees from Moscow, since enterprises could not show private initiative, from where all administrative, managerial and technical personnel were deported. These additional problems made the task of establishing an economy in the eastern territories impossible. Chaos brought famine, and starvation brought support for the partisans.

Thus, various aid measures such as the Ostackerprogramm and the gigantic investments in agriculture in the occupied eastern territories were indeed doomed to failure because they did not address the cause of the problem.

Article Soviet Scorched-Earth Warfare: Facts And Consequences by Walter N. Sanning. Published with minor abbreviations

Soviet men and women carry their modest belongings from burning houses on the outskirts of Leningrad, October 21, 1941. The Soviet people used scorched earth tactics, setting their own homes on fire. (AP Photo)

The “scorched earth” tactic involves the complete destruction of any objects during retreat so that they do not fall to the enemy. During the Great Patriotic War it was used by both the Soviet and German sides.

Manstein was one of the proponents of this tactic. In 1942-1944 he commanded the Don and South Army Groups. In the fall of 1943, during the retreat in Left Bank Ukraine, Manstein, following Goering’s orders, used this technique.

He wrote: “In a zone of 20-30 km in front of the Dnieper, everything that could help the enemy immediately continue his offensive on a wide front on the other side of the river was destroyed, destroyed or taken to the rear, that is, everything that could appear for him during the concentration of forces in front of our Dnieper positions a shelter or quartering place, and everything that could facilitate his supply, especially the food supply of his troops.”

According to the military leader, supplies, household property and machines that could be used for military production were removed from the abandoned areas. Non-ferrous metals, grain and industrial crops, as well as horses and livestock were also exported.

At the same time, Manstein stipulates that “in the German army - unlike others - robbery was not allowed”, “strict control was established to exclude the possibility of the export of any illegal cargo.” According to the military leader, the exported property and supplies were exclusively state property and not private property.

Manstein adds that a significant part of the local population then voluntarily followed the retreating units “to get away from the Soviets, whom they feared.” “Long columns formed, which we later saw also in eastern Germany,” notes the military leader.