Little-known documents on the history of the Great Patriotic War from the collections of the Zonal State Archive in Rechitsa

The archival collection of digital copies of documents from the Extraordinary State Commission of the USSR for the Investigation of the Crimes of Fascism includes the interrogation report of Zinaida Nikiforovna Shaleiko, a resident of the village of Krasny Most, Zaspensky Village Council, Rechitsa District, on April 8, 1945 (F. 864. Op. 1. D. 3. L. 222-222ob).

Here is what she said about the crimes of the Nazi invaders: «On October 15, 1943, a group of German soldiers or officers (I can’t tell them apart), armed with machine guns, arrived in the village of Krasny Most. They took Vasily Ignatyevich Shaleiko, born in 1921, a collective farmer, from his apartment. The Germans beat him in my presence in the house. «And I, Shaleiko’s mother, was forced to watch his abuse; they beat him so severely, he screamed. They took the beaten and bloodied [Vasiliy] away and went to the neighbors’ house—the family of Filipp Titovets—and beat his son, Nikifor Filippovich Titovets, born in 1912. All three were marched through the village of Zaspa and brought to the bushes of the Rivne Slobodsky village council, where they were all shot. All residents of the Zaspensky village council know about this atrocity».

1-2. ЗГАРеч. Ф. 864. Оп. 1. Д. 3. Л. 222-222об