The Federal Security Service (FSB) of Russia continues to publish and officially release archival documents that show firsthand the atrocities of the German fascists and their accomplices during the Great Patriotic War in the occupied territory of the Soviet Union.

This time, the FSB of the Russian Federation removed the secrecy classification from documents on the executions of Soviet children and other civilians, which were carried out by one of the most famous special forces units of Nazi Germany, Brandenburg. This special forces unit was created back in 1939 as a special purpose construction and training company, by the summer of 1940 the unit was expanded into the 800th special purpose training regiment Brandenburg, which was directly subordinate to the Abwehr - military intelligence and counterintelligence of the Third Reich, specifically the Abwehr II Directorate. The unit’s tasks included carrying out sabotage and punitive measures in the rear and in the occupied territories of other countries.

(…)

In particular, in August 1942, the 12th company of the 3rd battalion “Brandenburg” received an order to go to the area of ​​the city of Surazh, then part of the Oryol region (since 1944 - part of the Bryansk region). There they had to “defeat the partisans entrenched in the village of Maloye Kovalevo, gather the civilian population and transport them to the city commandant, and destroy the village.”

The order was carried out with German precision. As a result of its execution, soldiers and officers of the 12th company shot 30 civilians, including women, old people and children.

— the classified document says.