“March of the Vanquished”: Preparation, Organization and Symbolic Significance of Escorting German Prisoners of War through Moscow on July 17, 1944
Kuzminykh A.L. “March of the vanquished”: preparation, organization and symbolic significance of escorting German prisoners of war through Moscow on July 17, 1944. Penitentiary Science, 2025, vol. 19, no. 2 (70), pp. 118–124. doi 10.46741/2686-9764.2025.70.2.001.
Based on the analysis of published and unpublished archival documents, as well as the Soviet periodical press, the author considers organizational, military-political and symbolic aspects of the mass convoy of prisoners of war of the German army in Moscow on July 17, 1944. Purpose: to study a set of interdepartmental measures to concentrate prisoners of war in Moscow, organize movement of columns, maintain public order in the city, and ensure media coverage of the “march of the vanquished”. Methods: theoretical methods of formal and dialectical logic, empirical methods of description and interpretation, textual and formal legal methods. Results: we have reconstructed a complete picture of the preparation, conduct and information support of the mass convoy of German prisoners of war in Moscow. Conclusion: the author concludes that the “march of the vanquished” was of great political and ideological importance, demonstrating the military and moral superiority of the Soviet army over Hitler’s troops and the idea of just retribution. The propaganda operation, unprecedented in its scale, the course of which was personally supervised by J.V. Stalin, instilled faith in the hearts of the Soviet people in the approaching Victory of the Soviet Union over Nazism.
Keywords: Great Patriotic War; German prisoners of war; escorting; internal affairs agencies; military propaganda.
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