For more than five months, Ukrainian people have been resisting a full-scale Russian invasion. We are at war with a criminal country. Modern Russia with its terrorist attacks, wars of aggression, violations of all existing legal and universal norms, did not appear today, not 20 years ago. Repressions, deportations, mass executions of prisoners, killing of civilians, torture, rape, kidnapping - everything that the Russian army is doing in Ukraine now has deep roots in the Soviet heritage. On January 17, 1945, one of the most mysterious events of the 20th century took place. The man who rescued thousands of Hungarian Jews from imminent death disappeared without a trace – in Soviet torture camps. Searches for relatives, friends and loved ones for many years were in vain. But, despite this, Raoul Wallenberg was and remains one of the most famous Righteous diplomats.

Raoul Wallenberg was born 90 years ago - on August 4, 1912 in Liding, a suburb of Stockholm, in one of the wealthiest families in Sweden. After finishing school, he completed military service. From 1931 he studied architecture at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, graduating with honors. After that, Raoul went into business. He traveled all over Europe for work - for this he was issued a diplomatic passport. Wallenberg held liberal and general humanist views, and therefore he was outraged by the policies of the Nazis in Europe. In 1944, the world realized the scale of the Nazi campaign to exterminate the Jews. Wallenberg was appointed a special attaché at the Swedish embassy in Budapest. His mission was to save as many Jews as possible from extermination by the Nazis. Immediately after arriving in Budapest, from July 9, 1944, the young diplomat introduced an innovation, a new type of document for Hungarian Jews, the so-called Schutzpass (Protection Passport). Wallenberg managed to get permission to issue 4,500 protective passports. But in fact, he exceeded this quota three times. In addition to issuing protective passports, Raoul also recruited hundreds of Jews to the embassy's humanitarian sector, ensuring their protection. He bought houses, on the facades of which he placed the Swedish flag, thereby turning them into untouchable territory, and settled Jews in them.

In January 1945, the Red Army enters Budapest, and the Nazi terror ends. Wallenberg's task in the Hungarian capital was coming to an end. On January 17, 1945, the diplomat left the city together with his assistant and driver, accompanied by Soviet officers and soldiers. None of them are coming back.

Since his disappearance, Wallenberg's family has tried in vain to learn about his fate. By April 1945, there was no doubt that Raoul had disappeared without a trace. Swedish diplomats repeatedly sent requests to the Soviet authorities, but the latter denied the presence of Wallenberg in the country. In 1957, in response to another request, the Swedish government was informed of a “suddenly” discovered handwritten document – Wallenberg's death certificate. According to him, Raoul Wallenberg died in the Lubyanka prison on July 17, 1947. However, the authenticity of this document has not been proven. And this did not put an end to the story of the disappearance and death of Wallenberg. The Swedish government and Wallenberg's relatives did not stop trying to find out the truth. Only in 1989 did their persistence bear fruit. The family members were invited to a meeting in Moscow, where after more than forty years of searching, they were finally given Raoul's passport, his notebook and other personal belongings. According to the official version, these papers were found during the repair of the KGB archives - just like Wallenberg's account card. It is interesting that two columns were left blank in the card: the nature of the crime and the article of the Criminal Code. The investigator of the internal prison, filling out the card on February 6, 1945, simply did not know what to write – the nature of the crime was unclear. In addition, Wallenberg's status was determined as a “prisoner of war”, although this, of course, also raises big questions. In particular: how could he, having the status of a Swedish diplomat, turn out to be a prisoner of war? In 2000, the Chief Military Prosecutor's Office of the Russian Federation made a decision to rehabilitate Wallenberg and his driver, which is also quite surprising, because no one formally condemned them.

On October 31, 2016, Sweden officially recognized the death of Raoul Wallenberg. Such respect and international recognition, neither before nor after Wallenberg, probably no Swede deserved. In 1981, he became the second foreigner who, as an exception, was awarded (albeit posthumously) the title of honorary US citizen. Only seven people were awarded this honor, including Winston Churchill and Mother Teresa. Wallenberg became an honorary citizen of Canada, Israel and Hungary. Streets in Berlin and Washington, Budapest and Mukachevo, streets in many cities of the State of Israel bear his name. Numerous monuments in different countries of the world, films, a large number of books and postage stamps are dedicated to him. But his relatives still need only one thing - to know the truth about the disappearance and death of Raoul Wallenberg.

Dilfuza Hlushchenko