After such turbulent events as the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the hostilities in the southeast of Ukraine, the economic sanctions of the West against us, our country began to act more decisively. It seems that now is just the right time to start work on the preparation of a bill on full coverage by Germany of its reparation obligations to the Russian Federation.
World War II became the most destructive in the history of mankind. For the USSR, the damage caused by it was astronomical. I must say that the work on assessing the damage in our country during the Second World War was organized much better than during the First World War. On November 2, 1942, by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, the Extraordinary State Commission for Damages - ChGK - was established under the chairmanship of N. M. Shvernik. It included academicians I. N. Burdenko. B. E. Vedeneev, T. D. Lysenko, I. P. Trainin, E. V. Tarle, pilot V. S. Grizodubova, state party leader A. A. Zhdanov, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galician Nikolai, writer A. N. Tolstoy. Later, the Statute on the Commission was developed and approved by the Council of People's Commissars. All public authorities, without exception, were involved in its work, primarily at the local level, where all cases of damage to property and disorganization of economic life were recorded and recorded. The commission did not stop its work for a single day, until May 9, 1945; it continued its activities after the Victory Day.
As a result of the war, the commission published the following data: the Nazi invaders and their allies destroyed 1,710 cities and more than 70 thousand villages and villages, deprived about 25 million people of homes, destroyed about 32 thousand industrial enterprises, plundered 98 thousand collective farms.
The transport system suffered heavy losses. 4,100 railway stations were destroyed, 65,000 kilometers of railway tracks, 13,000 railway bridges were destroyed, 15,800 steam locomotives and locomotives, 428,000 carriages, 1,400 sea transport vessels were damaged and hijacked. Also destroyed 36 thousand communications enterprises, 6 thousand hospitals, 33 thousand clinics, dispensaries and outpatient clinics, 82 thousand primary and secondary schools, 1520 secondary specialized educational institutions, 334 higher educational institutions, 43 thousand libraries, 427 museums and 167 theaters …
Such well-known firms as Friedrich Krupp & Co., "Hermann Goering", "Siemens Schuckert", "IT Farbenindustri" were engaged in the robbery.
Material damage amounted to about 30% of the national wealth of the USSR, and in the regions subjected to occupation - about 67%. The national economy suffered 679 billion rubles in state prices in 1941.
The ChGK report was presented at the Nuremberg Trials in 1946.
Military and indirect costs
These figures are far from exhaustive of all the damage. With good reason, military expenditures should also be included in the calculation of damages. With the outbreak of the Great Patriotic War, a significant restructuring of the entire activity of the USSR's financial system was required, a significant increase in allocations according to the estimates of the People's Commissariats of Defense and the Navy. Defense for 1941-1945 582.4 billion rubles were allocated, which amounted to 50.8% of the total state budget of the USSR for these years. The national income has also declined from the disorganization of economic life.
The expenditures of the Soviet state on the war with Germany and Japan, the loss of income, which as a result of the occupation suffered state, cooperative enterprises and organizations, collective farms and the population of the Soviet Union, amounted to at least 1,890 billion rubles. The total amount of damage to the USSR during the war years (direct damage, product losses, military spending) reached 2,569 billion rubles.
Only direct material damage to the USSR, according to the ChGK, in currency equivalent amounted to $ 128 billion (then dollars - not today). And the total damage, including indirect losses and military spending, was $ 357 billion. For comparison: in 1944, the gross national product (GNP) of the United States, according to official data from the American Department of Commerce, was $ 361.3 billion.
The total losses of the Soviet Union turned out to be equal to America's annual gross product!
Damage to the USSR in comparison with other participants in the war
Even before the end of World War II, it was clear that it was on the USSR that its main economic burden fell. After the war, various calculations and assessments were made, which only confirmed this obvious fact. West German economist B. Endrux made a comparative assessment of budgetary expenditures for military purposes of the main belligerent countries over the entire period of the war. The French economist A. Claude made comparative estimates of direct economic losses (destruction and theft of property) of the main belligerent countries.
Military budget expenditures and direct economic damage to the main warring countries during the Second World War, according to their estimates, amounted to $ 968.3 billion (in 1938 prices).
In the total amount of budgetary military expenditures during the Second World War of the seven main belligerent countries, the USSR accounted for 30%. In the total amount of direct economic damage to the five countries, the USSR accounted for 57%. Finally, in the total sum total of total losses (the sum of military expenditures and direct economic losses) of the four countries, the USSR accounted for exactly 50%. At the Yalta Conference, Stalin hit the mark when he suggested that half of all reparations that would be assigned to Germany should be transferred to the Soviet Union.
Yalta Reparations Accords: Stalinist Generosity
At the same time, Stalin showed incredible generosity at the Yalta Conference in February 1945. He proposed setting the total amount of reparations for Germany at $ 20 billion, providing that half of this amount ($ 10 billion) would be paid to the Soviet Union as the country that made the greatest contribution to the Victory and suffered the most from the anti-Hitler coalition. With some reservations, F. Roosevelt and W. Churchill agreed with I. Stalin's proposal, as evidenced by the transcript of the Yalta conference. $ 10 billion is approximately the amount of US assistance to the Soviet Union under the Lend-Lease program during the Second World War. $ 10 billion with the then gold content of the US currency ($ 1 = 1/35 troy ounce) were equivalent to 10 thousand tons of gold. And all reparations ($ 20 billion) - 20 thousand tons of gold. It turned out that the USSR agreed only to incomplete 8 percent of covering its direct damages with the help of German reparations. And for all damages, the coverage was 2.8%. So, the proposals for reparations voiced in Yalta can really be called Stalin's generous gesture.
How the figures of the Yalta Conference contrast with those gigantic amounts of reparations that the Entente countries (without Russia) entrusted to Germany at the Paris Conference in 1919!
As a result of the First World War, a peace treaty was concluded, according to which the amount of reparations was determined: 269 billion gold marks - the equivalent of about 100 thousand (!) Tons of gold. Destroyed and weakened first by the economic crisis of the 1920s, and then by the Great Depression, the country was unable to pay colossal reparations and was forced to borrow from other states in order to fulfill the terms of the treaty. The Reparation Commission in 1921 reduced the amount to 132 billion dollars, i.e.about twice. The following countries had the main quotas within this amount: France (52%); Great Britain (22%), Italy (10%). Omitting many details of the history of reparations during the First World War, we note that Hitler, having come to power in 1933, completely stopped paying reparations. The reparations that France and Great Britain received from Germany were used primarily to pay off their debts to the United States. Recall that the United States, as a result of the First World War, turned from a debtor into a major creditor. The main debtors of the United States were precisely France and Great Britain, the amount of the debt - about 10 billion dollars. By the end of 1932, these countries managed to pay America 2.6 billion dollars, with 2 billion dollars in reparation money.
Approaches of the USSR and the Allies to the Solution of the Reparations Issue
After World War II and the formation of the Federal Republic of Germany in 1949, the Foreign Ministers of the United States, Britain and France obliged her to return to paying debts under the Treaty of Versailles. The new reparation demands were, as it were, superimposed on the reparation claims of the already distant First World War. The amount of Germany's reparation obligations at that time was set at $ 50 billion, and the United States, Great Britain and France proceeded from the assumption that the repayment of obligations would be carried out equally by the eastern and western parts of Germany. This decision was taken without the consent of the USSR.
In 1953, according to the London Treaty, which had lost part of the territory of Germany, it was allowed not to pay interest until unification. The unification of Germany on October 3, 1990 entailed the "reanimation" of its reparation obligations under the Versailles Treaty. In order to pay off the debts, Germany was given 20 years, for which the country had to take a twenty-year loan of 239.4 million marks. Poor Germany did not complete the payment of these reparations to its closest allies until late 2010. High relations! How strikingly different from the policy of the USSR, which, a few years after the end of World War II, refused reparations from Romania, Bulgaria and Hungary, which became part of the socialist camp. Even the German Democratic Republic, shortly after its formation, completely stopped the reparations transfers to the Soviet Union. This was fixed by a special agreement between the GDR, on the one hand, and the USSR and the Polish People's Republic (PPR), on the other (complete cessation of reparations from January 1, 1954).
By the way, following the results of the First World War, we did not have any requirements for Germany. Initially (according to the Versailles Peace Treaty), Russia was also among the recipients of reparations. However, in 1922 in Rapallo (at a separate meeting, which took place in parallel with the international economic conference in Genoa), we concluded an agreement with Germany to renounce reparations in exchange for renouncing the claims of the German side in connection with the nationalization of German assets in Russia. According to some sources, Soviet Russia refused reparations in an amount equivalent to 10 billion rubles.
Returning to the issue of Stalin's generosity, it should be noted that Stalin did not hide the reasons for it. He did not want a repeat of what happened in Germany and Europe after the signing of the Versailles Peace Treaty. In fact, this document drove Germany into a corner and "programmed" Europe's movement towards World War II.
The famous English economist John Keynes (an official of the Ministry of Finance), who took part in the discussion of reparations issues at the Paris Peace Conference of 1919, said that the reparation obligations established for Germany exceed its capabilities by at least 4 times.
Speaking at the Paris Peace Conference on the peace treaty with Hungary, the then Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the USSR A. Ya. Vyshinsky explained the essence of the Soviet reparations policy: “The Soviet government is consistently pursuing a line of reparations policy, which consists in proceeding from real plans so as not to strangle Hungary, so as not to undercut the roots of its economic recovery, but, on the contrary, to make it easier for her to make her economic revival, make it easier for her to get on her feet, make it easier for her to enter the common family of the United Nations and participate in the economic revival of Europe."
The Soviet Union also applied a sparing approach to other countries that fought on the side of Germany. So, the peace treaty with Italy imposes on the last obligation to pay the Soviet Union reparations in the amount of $ 100 million, which amounted to no more than 4-5% of the direct damage caused to the Soviet Union.
The principle of a sparing approach to determining the amount of reparations was supplemented by another important principle of Soviet policy. Namely, the principle of preferential repayment of reparation obligations by products of current production.
The second principle was formulated taking into account the lessons of the First World War. Recall that the reparation obligations imposed on Germany after the First World War were exclusively monetary, and in foreign currency. In this situation, Germany had to develop those industries that were focused not on saturating the domestic market with the necessary goods, but on export, with the help of which it was possible to obtain the necessary currency. And besides, Germany was forced to apply for loans to pay the next tranches of reparations, which drove her into debt bondage. The USSR did not want a repetition of this. V. M. At a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers on December 12, 1947, Molotov explained the Soviet position: reparation deliveries, and industry here has already reached 52 percent of the 1938 level. Thus, the industrial index of the Soviet zone, although conditions are more difficult for the restoration of industry, is one and a half times higher than the industrial index of the Anglo-American zone. It is clear from this that reparation deliveries not only do not interfere with the restoration of industry, but, on the contrary, contribute to this restoration. It was envisaged that 25% of the equipment suitable for use would be transferred to the Soviet Union from the western occupation zones. In this case, 15% will be transferred in exchange for the supply of goods, and another 10% - free of charge. As Mikhail Semiryaga notes, out of 300 enterprises in the western occupation zones, planned to be dismantled in favor of the USSR, only 30 were actually dismantled by the spring of 1948.
Reparations issue in the conditions of the Cold War
Let us recall that at the Yalta Conference the principle of the non-monetary nature of reparations was agreed upon by the leaders of the USSR, the USA, and Great Britain. At the Potsdam Conference, our allies reaffirmed it. But later, starting in 1946, they began to actively torpedo it. However, they torpedoed other agreements related to reparations. So, even at the Potsdam Conference, the allies of the USSR agreed that the coverage of Germany's reparation obligations would be partially carried out through the supply of products and the dismantling of equipment in the western occupation zones. However, the allies obstructed us in obtaining goods and equipment from the western occupation zones (only a few percent of the planned volume was received). The Allies also prevented us from gaining access to German assets in Austria.
The West's declaration of a "cold war" against the USSR in 1946 led to the fact that a single allied mechanism for collecting reparations and accounting for them was not created. And with the creation in 1949 of the Federal Republic of Germany (based on the western occupation zones), the possibility of the Soviet Union receiving reparations from the western part of Germany finally disappeared.
How many reparations did the USSR receive?
The specific total number of reparations assigned to Germany as a result of the Second World War, after the Yalta Conference, no longer appeared, including in the documents of the Potsdam Conference. Therefore, the question of reparations still remains rather "muddy". After World War II - at least for the Federal Republic of Germany - there were no reparation clauses similar to the Treaty of Versailles. There were no documented general reparation obligations of Germany. It was not possible to create an effective centralized mechanism for collecting reparations and accounting for the fulfillment of reparation obligations by Germany. The victorious countries satisfied their reparation claims at the expense of Germany unilaterally.
Germany itself, judging by the statements of some of its officials, does not know exactly how much reparations it paid. The Soviet Union preferred to receive reparations not in cash, but in kind.
According to our historian Mikhail Semiryaga, since March 1945, within one year, the highest authorities of the USSR have taken almost a thousand decisions related to the dismantling of 4,389 enterprises from Germany, Austria, Hungary and other European countries. Plus, about a thousand more factories were transported to the Union from Manchuria and even Korea. The numbers are impressive. But everything is judged by comparison. We cited above the data of the ChGK that only the number of industrial enterprises that were destroyed in the USSR by the German fascist invaders amounted to 32 thousand. The number of enterprises dismantled by the Soviet Union in Germany, Austria and Hungary was less than 14%. By the way, according to the then chairman of the USSR State Planning Committee Nikolai Voznesensky, only 0.6% of the direct damage to the Soviet Union was covered by the supply of captured equipment from Germany.
Some data are contained in German documents. So, according to the Ministry of Finance of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Federal Ministry of Internal German Relations, as of December 31, 1997, the withdrawal from the Soviet occupation zone and the GDR until 1953 amounted to 66.4 billion marks, or 15.8 billion dollars, which is equivalent to 400 billion modern dollars. The seizures were made both in kind and in cash.
The main positions of reparation movements from Germany to the USSR were the supply of products of the current production of German enterprises and cash payments in various currencies, including the occupation marks.
Reparation withdrawals from the Soviet occupation zone in Germany and the GDR (until the end of 1953) amounted to 66, 40 billion germ. marks (15, 8 billion dollars at the rate of 1 US dollars = 4, 20 m).
1945-1946 quite widely used such form of reparations as dismantling the equipment of German enterprises and sending it to the USSR.
A fairly extensive literature is devoted to this form of reparations, the seizures of equipment are documented in detail. In March 1945, a Special Committee (OK) of the USSR State Defense Committee was created in Moscow under the chairmanship of G. M. Malenkov. The OK included representatives of the State Planning Commission, the People's Commissariat of Defense, the People's Commissars of Foreign Affairs, Defense and heavy industry. All activities were coordinated by the committee for dismantling military-industrial enterprises in the Soviet zone of occupation of Germany. From March 1945 to March 1946, 986 decisions were made to dismantle more than 4,000 industrial enterprises: 2885 from Germany, 1137 - German enterprises in Poland, 206 - Austria, 11 - Hungary, 54 - Czechoslovakia. Dismantling of the main equipment was carried out at 3474 objects, 1,118,000 pieces of equipment were withdrawn: metal-cutting machines 339,000 pieces, presses and hammers - 44,000 pieces and electric motors - 202,000 pieces. Of the purely military factories in the Soviet zone, 67 were dismantled, 170 were destroyed, and 8 were converted to produce peaceful products.
However, the role of such a form of reparations as the seizure of equipment was not very significant. The fact is that the dismantling of equipment led to the cessation of production in the eastern part of Germany and an increase in unemployment. From the beginning of 1947, this form of reparations was quickly phased out. Instead, on the basis of 119 large enterprises of the eastern sector of the occupation, 31 joint-stock companies with Soviet participation (Soviet joint-stock company - CAO) were created. In 1950, the SAO accounted for 22% of the industrial production of the GDR. In 1954, the CAO were donated to the German Democratic Republic.
It makes sense to keep track of the reparations received
Estimates of reparation movements in favor of the USSR after World War II are also contained in the works of a number of Western economists. As a rule, the numbers do not differ much from those provided by the FRG government. Thus, the American economist Peter Lieberman states that the overwhelming part of reparations in favor of the USSR by the countries of Eastern Europe was carried out in the form of deliveries of current production (about 86% in all countries). It is noteworthy that some countries of Eastern Europe made reparation transfers in favor of the USSR and at the same time were recipients of Soviet aid. In relation to the total volume of reparations in all six countries, Soviet aid amounted to about 6%. The German Democratic Republic accounted for 85% of all reparation movements from Eastern Europe to the USSR.
And what did the reparation transfers to the Soviet Union look like against the background of reparations to Western countries? The statistics on reparations to the West is extremely vague. In the first years after the war, the United States, Great Britain and France focused on the export of coal and coke from their zones of occupation. Also, forests were cut down very actively and timber was removed (both processed and unprocessed). It is noteworthy that most of the supplies of timber and coal were not counted as reparations. Equipment worth 3 billion marks (about $ 1.2 billion) was dismantled and removed from the western zones. Also, the United States, Great Britain and France seized gold with a total volume of 277 tons (equivalent to almost 300 million dollars), sea and river vessels with a total value of 200 million dollars. Under the control of the allies in the anti-Hitler coalition, foreign assets of Germany in the amount of 8-10 billion marks passed under the control of the allies (3, 2 - 4.0 billion dollars). The seizure of German patents and technical documentation by the United States and Great Britain is still estimated at about $ 5 billion. It is difficult to estimate the volume of reparations by Western countries, since many seizures (especially patents and technical documentation) were carried out without official registration and accounting and were not included in the reparations statistics. In the Soviet press, there have been estimates of the total amount of reparations transfers from Germany to Western countries, well in excess of $ 10 billion.
It seems that the current "indistinctness" of the question of how Germany fulfilled its obligations to the USSR is unacceptable. It makes sense for us to keep track of the reparations received.
First, we need to carry out work to identify the necessary documents in the archives of our Russian departments. First of all, in the archives of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Finance.
The thesis that Germany, they say, paid Russia in full for damages during the Second World War, to put it mildly, is doubtful. Of course, if we compare with the figure of reparations in favor of the Soviet Union, which was announced by Stalin at the Yalta conference ($ 10 billion), then Germany even exceeded its plan. And the total volume of reparations of the countries of Eastern Europe in favor of the USSR, as we can see, turned out to be twice as much as Stalin asked at the beginning of 1945. But if we compare the actual reparations with the damage assessments made by the ChGK, then the picture looks quite different. If we take the data of the Ministry of Finance of the Federal Republic of Germany as a basis, then the reparations paid by Germany amounted to 12.3% of the amount of direct damage and 4.4% of the volume of all damage suffered by the Soviet Union from Germany and its allies during the Second World War.
It should be reminded that the reparations figure of $ 10 billion announced at the Yalta conference has not become official. The specific conditions for the payment of reparations by Germany and its allies in the Second World War were discussed for a long time within the framework of the permanent Council of Foreign Ministers of the main victor countries (it functioned until the end of the 1940s). The total amount of reparations for Germany, as we noted above, has not been established.
As for her allies in World War II, the picture is clearer. In 1946, a conference of the victorious countries was held in Paris, at which the terms of the peace treaties of these countries with five states - allies of Nazi Germany (Italy, Hungary, Bulgaria, Romania, Finland) were determined. A large number of bilateral peace treaties of the winning states were signed with the five above-listed states. They were called the Paris Peace Treaties, which entered into force simultaneously - on September 15, 1947. Each bilateral treaty contained articles (section) on reparations. For example, the bilateral agreement between the USSR and Finland provided that the latter undertook to reimburse the losses caused to the Soviet Union ($ 300 million) and return the values taken from Soviet territory. The Soviet-Italian treaty provided for reparation payments from Italy to the USSR in the amount of $ 100 million.
Omitting many curious details of the actual fulfillment of the terms of the agreements that were signed with the countries participating in the fascist bloc, we note that only Finland fully fulfilled all its reparation obligations to the victor countries. Italy did not pay reparations in full. This is the opinion of the experts.
As for Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, these countries after the war took the path of socialist construction, and in 1949 became members of the Council for Mutual Economic Assistance (CMEA). Moscow generously went to meet these countries and renounced its demands for reparations.
After 1975, when the Helsinki Act was signed, there was no return to the topic of reparations during the Second World War. It was believed that this document "nullified" all possible claims and obligations of states on reparations.
So, Germany did not fulfill its obligations on reparations of the Second World War to the USSR in full. Of course, we can say that they don't wave their hands after the fight. They say that they received reparations from Germany in the amount of 16 billion of the then dollars, and thanks for that. And to return to the topic of reparations is stupid and indecent. It is indecent for the reason that numerous agreements have already been reached on the post-war order of the world and Europe. One could agree with this thesis in the 70s or even 80s of the last century. But not in the 21st century, when the West treacherously violated all the agreements that were reached at the conferences in Yalta and Potsdam in 1945. And also the Helsinki Final Act (1975), which consolidated the political and territorial results of the Second World War and the principles of relations between the participating states, including the principle of inviolability of borders, the territorial integrity of states, non-interference in the internal affairs of foreign states, was grossly violated.
Backstage agreements on reparations
Despite the decisions of the Council of Foreign Ministers, the Helsinki Act and other lofty multilateral agreements, some issues of reparations demands and obligations were and continue to be resolved on a bilateral basis, on the sidelines, quietly. First of all, we are talking about Israel, which without much publicity "milked" the descendants of the Third Reich for many years. The agreement between Germany (FRG) and Israel on reparations was signed on September 10, 1952 and entered into force on March 27, 1953 (the so-called Luxembourg Agreement). They say that the German "Aryans" should atone for their Holocaust sin with reparations. By the way, this is probably the only case in the history of mankind when an agreement provides for the payment of reparations to a state that did not exist during the war that gave rise to reparations. Some even believe that Israel owes much of its economy to German reparations rather than Washington's help. During the period of the Luxembourg Agreement, from 1953 to 1965, punctually executed by the FRG, deliveries against German reparations accounted for 12 to 20% of the annual imports to Israel. By 2008, Germany had paid Israel over 60 billion euros in reparations to victims of the Holocaust. By the way, according to our estimates (taking into account changes in the purchasing power of the currency), the amount of reparations received by Israel from Germany for the period 1953-2008. approaching 50% of the total volume of reparations received by the Soviet Union from Germany (1945-1953).
WWII reparations issue begins to revive
Very soon we will be celebrating the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II, and the topic of reparations comes up in one or another European country. An example is Poland, which at the beginning of this century declared that it received less German reparations. The story is complicated enough. As you know, after the Second World War, a fairly significant chunk of the Third Reich went to Poland. Millions of Germans in 1945 were evicted from the territory that came to her. The displaced Germans and their descendants began to file lawsuits with the German courts demanding the return of their property (primarily real estate) that remained in their homeland (in legal language, this is called the right of restitution - the restoration of property rights). It should also be noted that the German courts ruled in favor of the plaintiffs. Even the Prussian Society for the Return of Property was created to represent the interests of such Germans. By the beginning of this century, the total amount of claims and court decisions on them were already measured in billions of dollars. Former German owners of property left behind in Poland were particularly encouraged by the fact that Poland in the 1990s was one of the first in Eastern Europe to enact property restitution laws for Poles. Restitution was and is being carried out both in the traditional way (return of property in kind) and financially. The second method involves the provision of special securities by the state to former owners, which can be used to purchase various assets or turn into money. More than $ 12.5 billion has already been spent on restitution from the treasury. It is also planned to spend tens of billions, since the number of applications has already exceeded 170 thousand.
It is important to emphasize that the right of restitution applies only to Poles. The Germans did not receive any rights, they continue to pursue their claims through the courts.
Experts say that it was this circumstance that prompted the Sejm of Poland to raise in September 2004 the issue of German reparations, which were allegedly not received by the country in full. It is believed that this was an attempt by Poland to defend against German claims. The country's parliament has prepared a document (resolution), which says: "The Seimas declares that Poland has not yet received sufficient reparations and compensation for the huge destruction, material and non-material losses that were caused by German aggression, occupation and genocide."The deputies recommended that the Polish government determine how much Germany should pay for war crimes of the Wehrmacht on the territory of the country, and also transfer this information to the German authorities. According to generally accepted figures, Poland lost six million people during the war years. From 1939 to 1944, Polish industry was virtually destroyed. Warsaw and many other cities in Poland were also completely destroyed. Indeed, the amount of reparations received by Poland could not cover all of its losses. The only question that arises is: to what extent, from the point of view of international law, are attempts to revise the conditions of reparations payments to Germany after almost seventy years justified? Here is what one of the Polish lawyers, who published an article on the issue of German reparations in the periodical Rzeczpospolita, thinks about this: from the systematic destruction of cities, and this was the fate of Warsaw. " By the way, the author of this publication generally brings the reader to the conclusion: if additional compensation is to be required, then not from Germany, but from … Russia. Since after the war Poland did not receive reparations directly from Germany. The USSR received reparations from the territories under its control, and part of them transferred to Poland.
However, it is difficult to say how far Poland is ready to go in these claims. It is not excluded that the statement of the Diet was made only in order to moderate the restorative fervor of the displaced Germans and their descendants.
The only surprise is that the issue of unpaid reparations "surfaced" after between Poland and Germany in 1990-1991. a number of agreements were concluded, which, as it seemed then, “closed” all the counter claims of the two states. For almost ten years Poland has not raised the issue of reparations.
This can partly be explained by the fact that German Chancellor A. Merkel in 2006 publicly declared to Polish Prime Minister J. Kaczynski that the federal government "does not support the private claims of the Germans to return their property in Poland." After that, criticism of A. Merkel intensified within Germany, she was accused of the fact that the government tramples on human rights in the country and interferes in those issues that are the prerogative of the courts. However, there is no guarantee that at some point in time Warsaw will not again return to the topic of reparations. And this time, with its claims, it can no longer turn to Germany, but to Russia.
Poland is not alone in its reparations claims. In 2008, Italy filed a lawsuit with the International Court of Justice in The Hague, demanding to recover reparations from Germany during the Second World War (surprisingly, the lawsuit was filed by a country that fought on the side of Germany). This claim was dismissed, the Hague court defended Germany, stating that Italy's demand "violates the sovereignty of Germany."
"Greek precedent" as a signal to Russia
The last country to revive the theme of World War II reparations was Greece. We all know very well that this southern European country is in a dire financial situation. Despite the recent (2012) unprecedented restructuring of its external debt, Greece continues to be among the leaders in terms of the relative level of sovereign debt. At the end of the third quarter of 2013, the sovereign (public) debt of all countries of the European Union (28 states) in relation to their total gross domestic product (GDP) was 86.8%. In the Eurozone (17 states) this figure was 92.7%. And in Greece it was 171.8%, i.e. almost double the EU average. The situation for Greece is absolutely desperate. Things have reached the point that rating agencies and international organizations have recently transferred Greece from the category of "economically developed" to the category of "developing" countries. MSCI was the first to do this in June 2013. Recall that Greece joined the European Union in 1981, when the country was experiencing an "economic miracle". Greece is a visual aid to the benefits of United Europe membership for the newly acceding countries.
But now we are not talking about the catastrophic situation in Greece, but about the fact that, in search of ways to get out of its deadlocks, the country's government prepared a demand for Germany to pay her reparations following the Second World War.
A detailed justification is attached to the requirement. Greece does not deny that it received certain amounts of reparations from Germany at one time. The first "tranche" of reparations was received in the late 1940s and early 1950s. last century. The main part of the reparations of that time was the supply of industrial products. First of all, machines and equipment. They were delivered for a total of 105 million marks (approximately $ 25 million). In modern prices, this is equivalent to 2 billion euros.
The second "tranche" of reparations fell on the 60s. last century. On March 18, 1960, Greece and the federal government entered into an agreement according to which 115 million marks were sent to the Greek victims of the Nazi regime. These payments were tied to the Greek waiver of additional claims for individual compensation. However, today Greece believes that two "tranches" of reparations were not enough to cover all the damage inflicted on Greece by Nazi Germany. The claim for the third "tranche" was filed by Greece on the initiative of then Prime Minister Yorgos Papandreou to the International Court of Justice in The Hague in January 2011. For some time, they tried to forget about Greece's claim. Moreover, in 2012 Greece received such a generous "gift" as the restructuring of its external public debt.
But the idea of collecting reparations in Greece did not die. In March 2014, President Karolos Papoulias again demanded reparations from Germany for the damage caused to the country during the war. The Greek side claims 108 billion euros in compensation for the destruction and 54 billion euros for loans issued by the Bank of Greece to Nazi Germany, which, of course, were not returned. The total amount of reparations claims of Greece is 162 billion euros. The amount of the claim is about three times less than the estimate of damage, which was announced in early 2013 by the National Council for German War Reparations, headed by war veteran politician and activist Manolis Glezos. The National Council named the amount at half a trillion euros. 162 billion euros is also not weak. To make it clearer, let's present this amount of money in the form of a gold equivalent. At the current level of prices for the "yellow metal", the equivalent of 5-6 thousand tons of gold is obtained. And Stalin, we recall, in Yalta announced the amount of reparations to the Soviet Union, equivalent to 10 thousand tons of metal.
It should be noted that the Greek initiative did not go unnoticed in other European countries. Everyone is closely following the development of events. For example, here is what Dmitry Verkhoturov writes in his article "The Greek precedent" in the "Century" about the possible "demonstration effect" of the Greek claim: Mussolini's regime was also occupied by the Germans, and fighting broke out on its territory. If things do not go well for France, then it will also have the opportunity to demand payments from Germany for the occupation and destruction. And Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Norway, Denmark? And Great Britain may demand to pay for the consequences of the brutal bombing. It will be difficult for Spain to substantiate its claims against Germany, but something can be thought of, for example, to "hang" the damage from the civil war (1936 - 1939) on the Germans. option ", then in a matter of years only memories may remain from the European Union."
Some deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation proposed to conduct an audit of the German reparations received by the Soviet Union. However, from a technical point of view, the task is extremely difficult, and it requires considerable budgetary expenditures.
Therefore, it has not yet come to the bill. In connection with the "Greek precedent", interesting publications appeared in the Russian media, in which the authors try to independently assess how the German reparations helped us to restore the economy destroyed by the war. Pavel Pryanikov in his article “Greece Demands Reparations from Germany” (Newsland) writes: “The Greek case against Germany is very important for Russia, which received mere pennies from the Germans for the horrors of World War II. In total, German reparations in the USSR amounted to 4.3 billion dollars in 1938 prices, or 86 billion rubles at that time. For comparison: capital investments in industry in the 4th five-year plan amounted to 136 billion rubles. In the USSR, 2/3 of the German aviation and electrical engineering industries, about 50% of the rocket and automotive industries, machine tool, military and other factories were transferred. According to the American professor Sutton (the book Sutton A. Western technology … 1945 to 1965 - it is partially quoted from it), reparations made it possible to compensate for the industrial potential lost by the Soviet Union in the war with Germany by about 40%. At the same time, the calculations of the Americans ("Bureau of Strategic Services" of the United States, from August 1944) on the possible reparations of the Soviet Union after the victory over Germany showed a figure of 105.2 billion dollars at that time - 25 times more than the USSR received from the Germans as a result. In current dollars, those $ 105.2 billion is about $ 2 trillion. For this money, and even with the hands and heads of German specialists (their work could be offset against the debt), it would be possible to equip the entire USSR and even more so today's Russia. It is clear that there are no legal ways to collect this money from the Germans. But constantly reminding them of the unpaid debt could be a good foreign policy tool to get Germany to make concessions on important issues. It's another matter that Russia in its current state is incapable of playing such a game either.
But then we will “root” for Greece - suddenly it will show an example to half of Europe, which suffered from the Germans during the Second World War, how to fight for our interests and even receive material dividends from such a struggle”. Note that the cited article was written in May 2013.
Conclusion
I do not exclude that after trampling on the Helsinki Act and canceling out all other agreements on the post-war international order in Europe, an orgy of mutual demands of a reparations nature may begin. For this, by the way, today the history of the Second World War is being reworked so actively.
Today they are trying to convince the world that the decisive contribution to the victory over Germany and the countries of the fascist "axis" was made not by the USSR, but by the countries of the West. The next step in revising history is the admission of the Soviet Union to the main initiators of the Second World War.
And after that, one can begin to present reparation claims to the Russian Federation, as the legal successor of the USSR. They say that the USSR did not liberate Europe, but captured, enslaved and destroyed. Summarizing all of the above on the topic of reparations during the Second World War, it should be recognized that this topic is still not “closed”. We should raise all the documents of the Extraordinary State Commission for Damages, the materials of the Yalta and Potsdam conferences of 1945, documents of the Council of Foreign Ministers of the winning countries, our bilateral agreements of the Paris Peace Treaty of 1947. And also to study the experience of European and other countries in the presentation of reparation claims to Germany many years after the end of the war.
