Российские немцы в годы Великой Отечественной войны. Участие в боевых действиях, работа в тылу, вклад в Победу

The research is focused on the study of the role and place of Russian (Soviet) Germans during the Great Patriotic War in the context of their participation in war as soldiers and officers of the Red Army, their work in the military rear, as well as their political and ideological work. The study analyzes the social and political niche occupied by Russian Germans to the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, which largely predetermined their historical choice in favor of the actual Motherland, rather than the mythical «super race», as Nazi propagandists counted on. The mentioned circumstance seems key to the authors, since one of them is also an ethnic German, for whom the study of the Russian history is inextricably linked with the history of his own family. The novelty of the proposed study is based on the need of academic and historical data systematization, including archival documents and fundamental research, as well as documented evidence of heroism demonstrated during the Great Patriotic War by Soviet citizens of German nationality. © 2021, Rossiiskaya Akademiya Nauk, Institut Istorii (Russian Academy of Sciences, Institute of General Hist). All rights reserved