World War II ended but the problems continued.


 The Allies made a very harsh decision by sending millions of people back to Stalin's Soviet Union. Among those in great need were the Cossacks, Russians who had fought against Stalin and now felt trapped in Austria.In May 1945 around 50,000 Cossacks, men, women, children and old men were rounded up by the British in the Lienz area and assured protection. This was a deception. The officers were secretly handed over to the Soviets first. Then on June 1 the rest were driven to the same fate.


The scene was chaos. People knew what waited for them. Gulags torture execution. They were not going quietly. Some fought back. Others chose death. They threw themselves into the Drave River, stabbed themselves, leaped from trucks anything to avoid going home.By 1947 the British and the United States had repatriated nearly 2.5 million individuals, many of whom had fled Russia years before the war. The soldiers who were implementing the decisions also seemed shaken. This was not a triumph. It was a betrayal

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