All we drummed into our men about magnanimity seemed to cut across their being asked to hand over unarmed prisoners who might then be massacred out of hand. (MAJOR-GEN BREDIN, London-Irish Rifles)
In 1945, more than two million Soviet and former Russian citizens were forcibly repatriated to the USSR by the British and American authorities. Some had served the Germans because of their hatred of Stalin and his government. In this programme, based on his book of the same name, Nicholas Bethell tells the story of one such group of Cossacks who were driven out of Austria at bayonet point back to Russian labour camps or firing squads.
Producer ROBERTCRADOCK