Page "Gulag" Paragraph 35

Often, one finds statements that Soviet POWs on their return to the Soviet Union were often treated as traitors ( see Order No. 270 ).

According to some sources, over 1. 5 million surviving Red Army soldiers imprisoned by the Germans were sent to the Gulag.

However, that is a confusion with two other types of camps.

During and after World War II, freed PoWs went to special " filtration " camps.

Of these, by 1944, more than 90 percent were cleared, and about 8 percent were arrested or condemned to penal battalions.

In 1944, they were sent directly to reserve military formations to be cleared by the NKVD.

Further, in 1945, about 100 filtration camps were set for repatriated Ostarbeiter, PoWs, and other displaced persons, which processed more than 4, 000, 000 people.

By 1946, the major part of the population of these camps were cleared by NKVD and either sent home or conscripted ( see table for details ).

226, 127 out of 1, 539, 475 POWs were transferred to the NKVD, i. e. the Gulag.