The head and the prosecutor of Karelia gave evidence at the process of recognition of the genocide on the territory of the Karelo-Finnish SSR
Today, a historical trial has started in the Supreme Court of Karelia. The examination of the application of the republican prosecutor Dmitry Kharchenkov to recognize the acts as war crimes and crimes against humanity, the genocide of the Soviet people, the crimes committed by the Nazi invaders, the occupation authorities and the Finnish troops on the territory of the Karelo-Finnish SSR during the Great Patriotic War has begun.
In the first days of the war, Soviet Karelia was attacked by the Nazi invaders and their accomplices. From the autumn of 1941 until the end of June 1944, two-thirds of the most economically developed part of the region was under the occupation of Finland, an ally of Nazi Germany. During this time, the Finns created over 100 concentration and labor camps in the republic for the civilians and Soviet prisoners of war.
The head of the Republic of Karelia, Artur Parfenchikov, appealed to the court with a request to satisfy the demands of the prosecutor of the Republic of Karelia in full.
- The trial we are participating in is our sacred responsibility, our duty to the dead and living participants of those terrible war years. All the facts either preserved in the memory of the people who lived through this tragic period or documented are clear evidence of a crime committed against the Soviet people, a crime against the sacred human right, the right to life! – Arthur Parfenchikov emphasized, noting the importance of this historical process in the current period of time.
Let us recall that during the Finnish occupation, more than 8 thousand civilians were killed and tortured in the territory of more than 100 concentration and labor camps, and more than 18 thousand Soviet prisoners of war died. The invaders destroyed cities, villages, and all industrial and agricultural enterprises. According to experts, the total amount of damage caused by the occupation to the economy and infrastructure of the Republic of Karelia is more than 20 trillion modern rubles.
Besides, at the first hearing of the trial, there were the witnesses who survived the occupation, and the experts who studied this period in the history of Karelia and Russia, who confirmed the facts stated by the prosecutor and the Head of the Republic of Karelia.
