Russian POWs in Britain

Factual Questions
1

I was watching an All Creatures Great and Small special that took place shortly after WW2. In this episode James Harriot makes friends with a Russian POW from Siberia who is currently living in a camp in the Yorkshire Dales. At the end of the show he returns to Russia.

Question 1: What was a Russian POW doing in Britain? Russian and Britain were on the same side in WW2. Were there some Russians who fought along side the Germans?

Question 2: If there were Russians fighting against the Allies, what would likely become of them if they were returned to Russia. I can’t imagine that Stalin would be all that forgiving?

2

A lot of Soviets threw their lot in with Germany when it looked like the Wehrmacht was going to roll to an easy victory. Once they had, they were stuck with the decision since Stalin was not forgiving. Many Ukrainians saw the invasion as a liberation. At least, until the SS and gestapo began their activities.

Here is a good article on it.

3

A recent episode of the UK series Foyle’s War involved a Russian POW who was a member of the Russian Liberation Movement who didn’t want to return to the USSR because he knew that he’d be imprisoned or killed if he were.

4

I’d be very suprised if a single one did return to the USSR was alive 5 years after the War was over.

5

In the Bond movie Goldeneye, double-oh-six seeks revenge upon the British government because they sent his parents back to Russia to their deaths.

Here’s Wiki’s article on the historical background.

6

Some were “rehabilitated” after a couple of decades in the gulags.

7

Thanks for the responses,

That is pretty much what I thought. I was confused because the show seemed to indicate the the prisoners were looking forward to getting back to Russia, which seemed a bit unbelievable to me.

But the Russian did make a statement that he was going to be going back to Russia not back to his home is Siberia, so maybe that was meant to be a hint as to what he really faced.

8

According to Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn most of the Russian POWs that Germany held went off to the various gulags after the war. The reasoning, as I remember him explaining it, was that as they had been outside of Russian control and exposed to no telling what sort of evil influnces, they were no longer to be trusted. Could be spies you know.

Given that the above is true it’s hard to believe that those that actually took up arms against them would have been treated much better.

9

I believe some of the soldiers defending Normandy when the allies landed on D-Day were Soviets fighting on the German side.