the soviet partisan movement 1941-1944 by edgar m. howell

THE OCCUPATION FALTERS 99
The common Russian's knowledge of the Germans, based only on
what he had heard of their high organizational and cultural reputation
and the negative Soviet propaganda which had been dinned into his
ears for years, was at best vague. Still, in many areas he had placed
high hopes on their coming, and his realization of the true tenor of their
policy disillusioned him greatly, for in the last analysis he asked for
nothing more than a reasonable life and a recognition of his human
dignity. 3 It was fear of the future and a vague desire for security which
drove him back into the arms of Bolshevism; the absence of any positive
German policy for the future, coupled with the fact that Soviet propaganda
was too often substantiated by German actions. "What do you
want with us, if not slavery?" became the stereotyped question. 4 "We
are ready to sacrifice everything for this common battle, but first we want
to know distinctly and clearly what [we] will get out of it." 5
It is amazing how many of the Nazi hierarchy understood the neutralizing
force of this negative approach, saw how surely it was driving the
Russian people into a common front with the Soviets, and yet were
unable or unwlling to try to influence the deteriorating course of events.
"It would have been better if we had promised them nothing," wrote
Von Homeyer to Rosenberg. 6 "We have hit the Russians . . . too
hard on the head in our manner of dealing. with them," diaried even
so ardent a Nazi as Goebbels. 7 One of Rosenberg's deputies went even
deeper and saw the real wreckage created by Hitler's steadfast negativism:
"The power of resistance of the Red Army and the strength
of the partisan movement has mounted in the same degree as the
population realized our true opinion of them." 8
Land Reform
Throughout modern Russian history, the greatest domestic bone of
contention had always revolved around the question of the emancipation
of the serfs and its complement-the breaking up of the great landed
estates and the distribution of the acreage to the peasants. The
wave of liberalism which swept over western Europe during the 19th
century crept slowly into Russia, bringing emancipation in 1861 and
a gradual process of acquisition of land by the liberated serfs. With
3 Aufzeichnung, Berlin, den 25.X.42., ger. Braeutigam, in I.M.T., op. cit., XXV,
pp. 331-42.
4
OKH/Fde. H. Os. Studien, Ia Nr,3220/42,25.XI.42. _H 3/468.2.
5 Latvian Propaganda leaflet, fohnd 23 Feb 42, in rpt 178, 9 Mar 42 (doc. 3241 ),
in N.M.T., op.cit. (Case 9).
6 Ltr, Von Homeyer [an unidentified occupation official] to Rosenberg, 30 Dec 42.
EAP 99/40, in Rosenberg collection.
7 The Goebbels Diaries,op. cit., pp. 184-85, entry for 25 Apr 42.
8 Aufzeichnung, Berlin, den 25.X.42., ger. Braeutigam, in I.M.T., op. cit., XXV,
pp. 331-42.