Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!americast-post Newsgroups: americast.twt.news From: americast-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: americast-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: Stalin executed Americans, Yeltsin says Date: Thu, 12 Nov 92 14:51:51 EST Message-ID: \SE A \HD Stalin executed Americans, Yeltsin says \BY Carleton R. Bryant \CR THE WASHINGTON TIMES A remarkable Veterans Day message from Russian President Boris Yeltsin to a Senate committee disclosed that a joint U.S.-Russian POW commission has "discovered shocking facts" of Americans executed under Soviet dictator Josef Stalin. In an extraordinary display of post-Cold War diplomacy, Russian Col. Gen. Dmitri Volkogonov, Mr. Yeltsin's military adviser, yesterday read the Russian leader's statement to the Senate Select Committee on POW-MIA Affairs. Speaking through an interpreter, Gen. Volkogonov, chairman of the Russian contingent of the joint POW commission, told the senators that an exhaustive, six-month examination of Soviet archives had uncovered volumes of data on Americans detained in the Soviet Union since World War II. Based on the commission's archival search and interviews with Russians, "one may conclude that today there are no American citizens forcibly held on the territory of Russia," the general read from Mr. Yeltsin's letter, dated Nov. 5. Gen. Volkogonov, a noted historian and author of books on Soviet leaders, said the joint commission needs to examine more fully some cases of Americans supposedly held in the Soviet Union. "The commission has found traces of American citizens' stay in camps and prisons of the former U.S.S.R. and discovered shocking facts of some of them summarily executed by the Stalin regime and in a number of cases being forced to renounce their U.S. citizenship," Mr. Yeltsin said in the letter. Some of those Americans still live "on the territory of the former Soviet Union," the letter says. "Their names and addresses have been identified" and given to U.S. officials. "A number of former U.S. citizens have stayed in Russia voluntarily after World War II and still reside here," the Russian president said. "Of course, in a democratic Russia, they have the right to decide about their life themselves; all their rights are fully guaranteed." In a written report to the Senate POW committee, Gen. Volkogonov said the Americans in Russia had asked for political asylum. One U.S. citizen, a Florida businessman named Marcus Lee, is in the Lefortovo prison because he is accused of trying to export icons illegally, the general said. Gen. Volkogonov said the fates of a group of Americans who were forced to renounce their citizenship in the 1940s and 1950s have "been tragic for the most part." "Nearly all of them had gone through detention camps and exile. . . . Most of them have died, but some still live on the territory of the former Soviet Union," he said. The number of Americans executed by Stalin was not given. Previous testimony indicated that the Soviets detained about 200 U.S. servicemen with Jewish or Russian surnames at the end of World War II. Yesterday's testimony presumably referred to these servicemen and possibly to Americans who went to the Soviet Union for political reasons before the war. Gen. Volkogonov said the joint commission made great strides in getting data about American MIAs from World War II but has had less success with cases from the Korean and Vietnam wars. His search through Soviet archives has yet to produce any evidence that the Soviets interrogated U.S. prisoners during the Vietnam War, the Russian general said. But archival documents show that the Soviets questioned American POWs during the Korean War, so "it follows logically" that they did so during the Vietnam War, he said. He said he is aware of nine American servicemen who deserted during the Vietnam War and went to the Soviet Union. Without dismissing the idea, he said he does not think there is a "strong possibility" that Americans were taken there from Vietnam. Gen. Volkogonov said that although the joint POW commission has made progress, "in all honesty we must point out that everyone in the new Russia is not of the same mind on the issues faced by our commission. Unfortunately there are still those among us who are locked into the old way of thinking." He recommended that the joint effort be continued for another three to six months. Sen. Robert Smith, New Hampshire Republican and POW committee vice chairman, asked the general about reports of an American Air Force pilot named David Marken being seen in the Soviet prison system. Gen. Volkogonov said those reports originated from an "unreliable source," a criminal named Victor Pugantsev, who sought to trade information on American POWs for relocation in the United States. In a hearing Monday, Mr. Smith said he had contacted the former fiancee of an Air Force pilot named David Markham who reportedly was shot down over Korea in 1952. Sen. John Kerry, Massachusetts Democrat and chairman of the committee, said the Russian announcements were a revelation. He said the Americans still in Russia will "be talked to . . . and asked whether they want to come home." This article is copyright 1992 The Washington Times. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM