After 84 years, a court is set to recognize wartime events in the Murmansk region as genocide.

In the year marking the 80th anniversary of Victory, a court process began in the Murmansk region to potentially recognize the events of the Great Patriotic War in the Soviet Arctic as genocide. This isn't the first case of its kind in the country, but according to participants, it is one of the most extensive, given that the hardships in the Kola Arctic were particularly severe. In terms of the number of bombs dropped on the city, Murmansk ranks second only to Stalingrad.

Nelli Ivanovna Bulba recalls that air raids during her childhood were a familiar and terrifying occurrence.

Photo: Maria PASHENKOVA. Go to the Photo Bank of KP

Who will be held accountable?

As of the end of 2024, courts in 25 regions of Russia recognized the crimes committed by German fascist invaders and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War on the territory of the former Soviet Union as military crimes and genocide against the peoples of the USSR.

The first hearing on this matter in Murmansk took place on February 24, 2025, at the Murmansk Regional Court. Anyone interested can attend the open sessions to hear how the picture of the war in the Arctic is being reconstructed. The regional prosecutor's office initiated the process on behalf of the Attorney General of the Russian Federation Igor Krasnov. The official statement from the agency refers to the recognition of the military crimes and crimes against humanity, as well as the genocide of the Soviet people perpetrated by German fascist invaders during the Great Patriotic War from 1941 to 1945 in the territory of the Murmansk region.

“The statement was submitted to protect the national interests of the Russian Federation, the rights of the relatives of the deceased, and to subsequently inform the global community about the victims of the Nazis during the Great Patriotic War, restoring historical justice. A significant volume of materials has been presented to the court as evidence – proof of the mass bombings of the cities in the Murmansk region, the inhumane conditions of prisoners of war, and the destruction of material and cultural values,” - representatives of the Murmansk Regional Prosecutor's Office stated.

The German government and 124 individuals, including the commander of the Northern forces, General Eduard Dietl, are being demanded to be recognized as guilty for the destruction of Arctic cities and the killing of civilians and prisoners of war.

The first hearing on the genocide case in the Murmansk region took place on February 24 at the Murmansk Regional Court.

Photo: Maria PASHENKOVA. Go to the Photo Bank of KP

The goal was to erase the city from the map

The case concerning the Kola Arctic is distinguished by its large volume – 43 volumes.

Bordering Finland and Norway, the Arctic region with access to the sea and the ice-free Kola Bay was targeted for a swift occupation. The plan was to capture Murmansk within a few days, cut off the Kirov railway at Kandalaksha, and gain a convenient base (also rich in natural resources) to launch further offensives into the Soviet North.

The objective was so crucial that the Kola Peninsula was mercilessly, bloodily, and inhumanely attacked from the very first days of the war. Germany deployed its best mountain rifle units, which had participated in battles in Norway, along with its largest bombing squadrons to this front.

The echoes of war in the Murmansk region are still heard today. Not for effect, but as facts – unexploded shells continue to be discovered in Arctic cities and beyond. In 2017, while the branch of the Nakhimov Naval School was being built in Murmansk, a 130mm artillery shell was found on the site. The same year, a cold-water swimming enthusiast accidentally found a FAB-50 (high-explosive aviation bomb) in Semenovskoye Lake. In 2024, the operations of the Murmansk Sea Trade Port were halted for several days when it turned out that another high-explosive aerial bomb had been buried underground for decades.

And such discoveries will continue for years to come. According to the memories of the locals who survived the bombings, the streets of Murmansk were literally littered with shrapnel and unexploded shells. One of the accusations raised in court was that the enemy violated all international rules of warfare by bombing civilian targets, fully aware that there were no military personnel present. In violation of the convention signed by 46 states, including Germany, which prohibited air raids on populated areas, in November 1941 and January 1942, German aviation dropped a total of 11 high-explosive bombs on the fishing settlement of Yokanga, located hundreds of kilometers from the front line.

From June 1941 to April 1942, the enemy conducted 211 air raids, dropping 582 high-explosive bombs on Kola territory. The First Secretary of the Murmansk Regional Committee of the VKP(b) during the Great Patriotic War, Maxim Starostin, wrote that the first mass air raid occurred on August 13, 1941. The most devastating was on June 18, 1942: 12,000 incendiary bombs and 60 shrapnel high-explosive bombs. The city became a black wasteland with a forest of chimneys; over 600 houses were destroyed, leaving 40,000 people homeless. The heat on that unusually warm summer day for the North was so intense that asphalt melted, and clothing smoldered on people. This day is remembered in history as the Day of Courage and Resilience of the Murmansk citizens.

People died from air raids, and homes burned. On February 18, 1943, a terrible event occurred – a bomb hit a wagon loaded with explosives, resulting in a powerful explosion that destroyed a nearby warehouse filled with equipment and food, leading to the loss of tons of fat, flour, and canned goods – an incredible luxury during the hungry war years.

A substantial amount of evidence regarding the committed crimes has been gathered as part of the criminal investigation, including testimonies from war children.

Photo: Maria PASHENKOVA. Go to the Photo Bank of KP

Deprived of childhood

The predatory aviation repeatedly bombarded Murmansk. The city was not meant to be weakened but to be drained of life and erased from the map. From the start of the war until November 1943, the Germans conducted 792 air raids on Murmansk, dropping over 4,000 high-explosive bombs and 181,000 incendiary bombs. For every square kilometer of the city, there were 16 high-explosive bombs and 724 incendiaries; for each resident (at the beginning of the war, the population of the capital of the Kola Arctic was 120,000, which reduced to 28,000 after evacuation) – 30 kilograms of high-explosive and 6 kilograms of incendiary bombs. During a year of hell on earth due to aerial attacks, 172 civilians were killed, including 16 children, the youngest of whom was only 2 months old. These figures were provided by the regional prosecutor's office.

What it was like is recounted in court by members of the "Children of War Murmansk" club. According to them, the war robbed them of their childhood, forcing them to grow up too quickly. The children learned to stop crying and throwing tantrums, and playing in the craters left by shells became their norm.

“We went to bed without undressing. We hardly slept at night. My childhood passed to the sound of a metronome – if it was ticking, everything was fine; as soon as it stopped, trouble was imminent,” recalls Tamara Alexandrovna Ushinskaya, who was 6.5 years old at the beginning of the Great Patriotic War. She vividly remembers the first day of the war – suddenly, the radio started working in the morning.

Tamara Alexandrovna's family lived in an area called Colonization, now the territory above Karl Marx and Papanin Streets. It was bombed slightly less frequently than the center of Murmansk, as there were hardly any houses there. But the little girl clearly remembered that as soon as the air raid siren sounded, she had to grab the bundle her mother prepared