PARTISAN REVIEW
On their days of rest, they are compelled to attend football games;
twenty-two men play, the rest look on. Roll calls and checks of all
kinds have multiplied. The sentences imposed upon deserters are
published in the reports of their units, and sometimes of .all the units
of the army of occupation. Deserters to the English and American
zones are singled out for severe treatment. I recall the case of a
soldier who fled to the American zone and was returned to us. The
court sentenced him to be shot and in addition ordered his family
to be deported to a concentration camp. The verdict was read to
every unit, with the following passage: "He fled to the Americans
but was returned to us in accordance with international custom."
At one point desertion assumed such proportions that the courts
shrank from imposing the sentence required by Soviet law, namely,
execution by a firing squad, and confined themselves to the penalty
of imprisonment or deportation to a concentration camp. In the
summer of 1946, however, Marshal Konev issued .a special order
condemning this "moderation" and directing the courts to treat all
cases of desertion to non-Russian areas as high treason and to sen–
tence to death all defendants found
guilty.
Thereupon the number of
executions jumped to a thousand per month.
In these circumstances, attempts to flee westward .are nothing
but a form of suicide. Deserters often form gangs that engage in
banditry.
As
a result many roads in the Soviet zone have become
impassable, and the occupation authorities openly warn against trav–
eling at night.
Side by side with the increasing severity of disciplinary repres–
sion, political propaganda is being intensified. A number of recently
published pamphlets insist upon the need for "greater watchfulness."
These pamphlets are studied in soldiers' circles. There is one, for
instance, on the subject of "treason to the fatherland." After a short
ideological introduction, the text is devoted to a graphic description
of the penalties in store for traitors. A special passage stresses the
point that "not only the traitor himself but also
his
relatives, even
if they have known nothing about the crime, are subject to severe
punishment and will be sent to remote regions."
Much attention is given to "elevating" the level of ideological
orientation of the army, particularly of the officer corps. This "ele–
vating" usually consists in redigesting the
Short Course of the History
302
