history · 01 June 1945 · 80 years ago
Knowing the fate that would await them at the hands of the Soviets, a pitched battle broke out between British troops and the 28,000 strong Cossack Corps (White Russians who had always opposed the Communists and had been fighting for the Germans), when it was announced that they were to be repatriated to the Russian zone of Austria. Some 700 Cossacks and their families were killed by the British, trampled to death or commit suicide. Almost all the Cossacks who were sent back disappeared without trace.
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