I know how the Germans treated their Soviet POWs. How did the Finns treat the Soviet POWs that they captured? How many in total did they take and how many went back to the USSR after the war?
Some sites I found on this: FMP - POW Camps in Finland 1939 - 1944 Unknown pages of the history of the Second World War: Soviet prisoners of war in Finland (1941-1944) Fire and Ice: People and Places ------------- After Winter War : The casualties in the Winter War The big question is, what happened to the Soviet POWs The Soviet Union hadn't signed the Geneva convention in 1929, regarding the treatment of POWs (alongside with Germany and Japan). The Soviet POW's were decided to be treated according the Criminal Law of the Soviet Socialistic Republic of 1926. The section 193. "Leaving the battlefield without permission" was defined as an act of treason against the Fatherland, and was to be punished by execution and the confiscation of property. Also, on June 8th 1934 a law was passed, in where "... the full aged (adult) members of the family (of the traitors), who at the time of the crime were living with him or were supported by him, were to lose their right to vote and be banished to southern Siberia for five years." This gave the Soviet soldier only grim options, kill the enemy on the battlefield and die with honor, or lose your honor and be punished by the state. ( -The book made by Viktor Stepakov and Dmitri Orehov (Paraatimarssi Suomeen "Parade march into Finland",1992) clearly states that they were executed. This is backed up by the information acquired from several Soviet POW's captured during the "Continuation War" (1941-1944). They told that they were involved in the transportation of these prisoners to isolated camps where they were interrogated and subsequently shot.-) - Another newer book by Viktor Stepakov (Sodalla on hintansa "The war has it's price",1995) sheds more light on this issue. Although many of the POW's of Winter War were executed, many were sentenced to hard labor in northern Russia. (The sentences were given without logic. While a guy, who had lost both his legs and was captured unconscious, got a 8 year sentence, while an unharmed man got only 5 years.)- According to the newest Finnish source that I have ("Talvisodan Pikkujättiläinen", p.815) , the POWs were transported back to the USSR by trains guarded by the NKVD. The released POWs were sent to one of the camps that had been intended to be filled by Finnish war prisoners (near Juski Gork). A special detachment of 50-men was sent to investigate if the POWs had surrendered out of their own will or if they had helped the enemy. After long investigations, some of the POWs were acquitted and sent home, but some 500 Soviet POWs were executed, and 4 354 were sentenced to hard labor for 5 - 8 years. Note that the no evidence was found against those who were sentenced to hard labor.
Surrendering to the enemy was betraying your country. Reason enough according to Stalin. That´s why several Red Army POW´s did not want to return after war because they knew they were going to Gulag or heaven.
It was not so desperate. According to NKVD statistics, 1.836.562 Soviet soldiers returned had returned from captivity. 233.400 were sentenced to punishment. I don't say Stalin was a humanist, but nevertheless stereotype views are often exaggerative.
Can you perhaps comment on the Stalin order? Order No. 270 - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Order No. 270, dated August 16, 1941, was issued by Joseph Stalin acting as People's Commissar of Defense. The order was aimed primarily to raise command staff's morale, although in a very brutal manner. In the preamble, the order gives examples of troops fighting in encirclement, as well as cases of surrender by military command. The first article directed that any commanders or commissars "tearing away their insignia and deserting or surrendering" should be considered malicious deserters. The order required superiors to shoot these deserters on the spot. Their family members were subjected to arrest. The second article demanded that encircled soldiers used every possibility to fight, and to demand that their commanders organize fighting; according to the order, anyone attempting to surrender instead of fighting must be killed and their family members deprived of any state welfare and assistance. The order also required division commanders to demote and, if necessary, even to shoot on the spot those commanders who failed to command the battle directly in the battlefield. Commenting on that order, Stalin declared: "There are no Soviet prisoners of war, only traitors."
The situations in 1941 and 1945 were absolutely different. Stalin was not a carnivorous demon; he was immoral, cruel, but absolutely practical politician. In 1941 he had to stop panic and desertion by all means available. In 1945 he could afford being less strict.
Oh, that's easy, though sad. Those people who did not want to return home, were regarded as ones who had special reasons for escape. Collaborators, for instance. Say, if you run away, you're guilty.
