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The court recognizes the crimes committed by the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of Leningrad Oblast as genocide

The Leningrad Oblast Court recognized the fact of the genocide of the peoples of the USSR by the Nazi invaders during the Great Patriotic War in Leningrad Oblast. Relevant files were submitted, including by the Investigative Committee of Russia.

Thus, within the criminal investigation for genocide during the Great Patriotic War, the Department collected evidence of the targeted mass destruction of civilians and prisoners of war by the Nazi invaders and their accomplices on the occupied territory of Leningrad Oblast.

During investigative actions, the study of archival documents and expert opinions, the interrogation of victims and witnesses, it was possible to fully restore the picture of cruel crimes committed by the Nazis. Investigators found that the German military, who were deployed in the Luga city, were ordered by their command to conduct so-called punitive expeditions. The result of such expeditions was the destruction and execution of the civilian population, the burning of settlements, theft of cattle, the expropriation of food and other property to Germany. At the same time, the punishers were merciless to children, women and the elderly, leaving behind scorched earth. So, during the excavations on the territory of Luga and the Lomonosov raion of Leningrad oblast, the skeletonized remains of 138 people were discovered, including children. The experts stated the violent nature of their death during the Great Patriotic War.

In addition, Soviet citizens were forcibly taken to concentration camps. One of the victims told investigators that being a 6-year-old child, she and her parents from the Shustruchey village, Leningrad Oblast, were forcibly transported to a concentration camp. There she spent 3 years in a barracks behind barbed wire, watching her relatives and friends die. Such facts are widespread and confirm the implementation of the criminal plans of the Nazi invaders, dooming the population of the occupied territories to starvation and death.

The investigators also revealled for certain the atrocities of the Nazis during the retreat from the Leningrad front. They massively shot villagers along the way.

Evidence collected by the investigation and the stable facts indicate that all the crimes were aimed at exterminating the civilian population not only of individual settlements and regions, but of the entire Soviet people.