On Monday, the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) in Crimea transferred to the state archive various documents related to the brutal massacre of 900 Red Army soldiers in the town of Sudak committed by the Nazis on the Crimean peninsula during the 1942 occupation.
[The FSB in Russian: Россия: Федеральная Служба Безопасности (ФСБ) ]
Like most intelligence services, the FSB used selective declassification to shape and influence public opinion in ways beneficial to itself and the government.. In Crimea, seized from Ukraine in 2014, the FSB wants to highlight the protective role that Russia has played and recalls how Russians were victimized by the West. This reinforces the Putin government’s message that Russia is under attack from the West.
“After evacuating the town of Sudak, our landing forces from the town could not take out 900 seriously wounded Red Army soldiers and commanders due to the strong artillery and mortar shelling. The German monsters, together with the Tatars, entered the town and carried out savage atrocities against the wounded,” the document dated April 27, 1942, to a senior official said, adding that all 900 people were taken to the seashore and shot.
