“Masters of Death”: a Note by Junior Sergeant V.N. Nakidnev about the Krasny Concentration Camp

Introduction . This research introduces an unknown and previously unpublished document, a note by junior sergeant V.N. Nakidnev “Masters of Death”, which was stored in the State Archives of the Republic of Crimea. It was extracted from the materials of the Crimean Commission on the History of the Great Patriotic War, included in fund P-156 and file number 34. V.N. Nakidnev’s note chronologically falls outside the voluminous file of 208 sheets, begun in 1941 and completed in 1944, since it bears the date and signature of the author from June 3, 1945. Apparently, V.N. Nakidnev needed to draw up the note as a document confirming his stay in the Nazi death camp “Red”. After the liberation of Simferopol and the camp located on the territory of its district by the Red Army, V.N. Nakidnev, who was listed as one of the so-called “brigadiers”, came under suspicion from SMERSH and in June 1944, as a former prisoner, he testified before the Crimean Extraordinary State Commission regarding possible collaboration with the Nazi occupiers. The charge of collaboration was not proven, but thanks to the trial, archival material appeared, which the authors of this article offer to the reader’s attention. Materials and Methods . General theoretical research methods are used. The main research method is the generalization and systemic analysis of V.N. Nakidnev’s note “Masters of Death”. Results . The author of the article gives a brief description of his life before being imprisoned in the concentration camp “Krasny”, describes the circumstances under which he became its prisoner, and later “a liberated prisoner”. V.N. Nakidnev devotes the main attention to the painful stay in “Krasny”, noting that “the camp here was cruel”. Discussion and Conclusion . It has been established that V.N. Nakidnev’s note contains important information about the conditions of detention of prisoners in the “Red” concentration camp and information about the executions of participants in the underground patriotic movement by the Nazis in April 1944. The publication of this document has current practical significance for the modern understanding of the misanthropic ideology and politics of neo-Nazism.