Soviet Invasion Decree
(November 1, 1942)
Moscow, November 1, 1942
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of
the USSR on the formation of an Extraordinary State Committee for the
ascertaining and investigation of crimes committed by the German-fascist
invaders and their associates and damage caused by them to citizens,
collective farms, public bodies, State enterprises and institutions
of the USSR:
Having treacherously attacked the Soviet Union, the
German-fascist invaders and their associates commit monstrous crimes
on Soviet territory temporarily occupied by them-they torture, torment
and murder peaceful residents, forcibly abduct hundreds of thousands
of Soviet citizens to foreign slavery, plunder the urban and rural population
wholesale and carry away to Germany the private properties of Soviet
citizens built by their honest labor, also the property of collective
farms and of the State, destroy the monuments of art and culture of
the peoples of the Soviet Union and ransack the artistic and historical
values, destroy places of religious worship and loot their utensils.
For all these monstrous crimes which are being committed
by the German-fascist invaders and their accomplices and for all material
damage they have caused to Soviet citizens, collective farms, cooperative
and other public bodies, State enterprises and institutions of the Soviet
Union, the criminal Hitlerite Government, the German Army Command and
their associates bear the full criminal and material responsibility.
For a full registration of the villainous crimes committed
by the Germans and their accomplices and the damage caused by them to
the citizens, collective farms, public bodies, State enterprises and
institutions of the USSR; for the unification and coordination of the
work already being done by the Soviet State organs for the registration
of these crimes and the damage caused by the invaders; for the definition
of the damage caused by the German occupationists and their associates
to the citizens of the Soviet Union and for establishing the size of
possible compensation for personal damage; for the definition on the
basis of documentary data of the extent of the damage sustained by the
Soviet State, collective farms and public bodies, and subject to compensation
in conformance with the just demands of the Soviet people; for the identification
in all cases where it will be possible of the German-fascist criminals
guilty of the organization or perpetration of the crimes on occupied
Soviet territory, with the object of the prosecution of these criminals
and their strict punishment, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of
the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics resolves:
(1) To form an Extraordinary State Committee for the
ascertaining and investigation of the crimes committed by the German-fascist
invaders and their associates and the damage caused by them to citizens,
collective farms, public bodies, State enterprises and institutions
of the USSR;
(2) To charge the Extraordinary State Committee with
the investigation of crimes committed by the German-fascist invaders,
with the collection of documentary data, their verification, and the
preparation of all material concerning the crimes committed by the Hitlerite
criminals and the material damage caused to Soviet citizens, collective
farms and the State as a result of the occupation of Soviet territories
by the armies of Hitlerite Germany and her associates. With this end
in view, the Committee must conduct as fully as possible the registration
of: (a) the facts of the murder of peaceful citizens and the outrages
perpetrated by the occupationists upon defenseless persons, women and
children and old men, as well as the facts of the abduction of Soviet
people to German slavery; (b) the damage caused by the Hitlerite invaders
to the Soviet population by the destruction of houses and other buildings,
the pillage and destruction of implements, food-stocks, cattle and poultry,
household articles, and also by the exacting from the population of
indemnities, fines, taxes and other levies; (c) the damage caused by
the invasion and brigandage of the German-fascist occupationists to
collective farms, cooperatives, trade unions and other public bodies
through the ransacking and destruction of building structures and equipment:
serving the needs of production and cultural or material needs, stocks
of raw materials, food-stuffs and commodities, sowings of agricultural
crops, forest tracts, fruit and other plantations, as well as other
collective farm and cooperative property; (d) the damage caused by the
occupationists to State enterprises and institutions of the Soviet Union,
through the destruction and looting of plants, factories, power stations,
mines, oilfields, various industrial structures and equipment, railways,
highways, bridges, canals and hydrotechnical structures, railway stations
and harbor structures, sea- and river-going ships, automobiles and horse-drawn
vehicles, communication facilities; also forests, agricultural lands,
harvests, perennial plantations and other national property; (e) the
damage caused by the Hitlerite invaders through the ransacking and destruction
of the artistic, cultural and historical values of the peoples of the
USSR, the destruction of museums, scientific institutions, hospitals,
schools, establishments of higher education, libraries, theaters and
other cultural institutions, also buildings, equipment and utensils
of religious worship; (f) damage caused to the population and the Soviet
State by the evacuation of citizens, industrial enterprises, property
of collective farms and other public bodies to the interior of the USSR;
(3) To authorize the Extraordinary State Committee
to charge the appropriate organs with the investigation and interrogation
of victims, the gathering of testimonies of witnesses and other documentary
data relating to the violence, atrocities, plunder and destruction and
other criminal actions of the Hitlerite occupationists and their associates;
to bind the local organs of the Soviet Government to render the Extraordinary
State Committee every assistance in its work.
(4) To appoint the following members of the Extraordinary
State Committee for the ascertaining and investigation of the crimes
committed by the German-fascist invaders and their associates and the
damage caused by them to citizens, collective farms, public bodies,
State enterprises and institutions of the USSR:
N. Shvernik, President; Academician Burdenko, Academician
Vedeneyev, P. Grizodubova, A. Zhdanov, Nikolai, Metropolitan of Kiev
and Galich, Academician Lysenko, Academician Tarle, Alexei Tolstoy,
Academician Trainin.
(5) To authorize the Council of People's Commissars
to approve the status of the Extraordinary State Committee for the Investigation
of Crimes Committed by the German-fascist Invaders.
Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of
the USSR, Kalinin
Secretary of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of
the USSR, Gorkin
Sources: ibiblio |