Population transfer in the Soviet Union: Difference between revisions
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'''Population transfer in the Soviet Union''' may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of [[anti-Soviet]] categories of population |
'''Population transfer in the Soviet Union''' may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "[[anti-Soviet]]" categories of population, often classified as "[[enemies of workers]]," deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite directions to fill the [[ethnic cleansing|ethnically cleansed]] territories. |
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In most cases their destinations were underpopulated remote areas (see [[Forced settlements in the Soviet Union]]). This includes deportations to the [[Soviet Union]] of non-Soviet citizens from countries outside the USSR. It has been estimated that, in their entirety, ''internal forced migrations'' affected some 6 million people.<ref>{{cite book| author=[[Pavel Polian]]| title=[[Against Their Will]]: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR| publisher=[[Central European University Press]], 2004 |isbn=9789639241688| page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=8ktrYux1gTMC&pg=PA4&dq=internal+forced+migrations+6+million+people&hl=en&ei=r3E8TNaMNYS0lQf899WfAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=internal%20forced%20migrations%206%20million%20people&f=false 4]}}</ref><ref name="Rosefielde83">{{cite book |title= [[Red Holocaust (2009 book)|Red Holocaust]] |last= Rosefielde |first= Steven |authorlink= Steven Rosefielde |coauthors= |year= 2009 |publisher= [[Routledge]] |location= |isbn= 978-0-415-77757-5 |pages=83 |url= |accessdate=}}</ref> Of these, some 1 to 1.5 million perished as a result.<ref>[[Norman Naimark|Naimark, Norman M.]] ''Stalin's Genocides (Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity).'' [[Princeton University Press]], 2010. p. 131. ISBN 0-691-14784-1</ref><ref name="Rosefielde84">{{cite book |title= [[Red Holocaust (2009 book)|Red Holocaust]] |last= Rosefielde |first= Steven |authorlink= Steven Rosefielde |coauthors= |year= 2009 |publisher= [[Routledge]] |location= |isbn= 978-0-415-77757-5 |pages=84 |url= |accessdate=}}</ref> |
In most cases their destinations were underpopulated remote areas (see [[Forced settlements in the Soviet Union]]). This includes deportations to the [[Soviet Union]] of non-Soviet citizens from countries outside the USSR. It has been estimated that, in their entirety, ''internal forced migrations'' affected some 6 million people.<ref>{{cite book| author=[[Pavel Polian]]| title=[[Against Their Will]]: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR| publisher=[[Central European University Press]], 2004 |isbn=9789639241688| page=[http://books.google.com/books?id=8ktrYux1gTMC&pg=PA4&dq=internal+forced+migrations+6+million+people&hl=en&ei=r3E8TNaMNYS0lQf899WfAw&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCkQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=internal%20forced%20migrations%206%20million%20people&f=false 4]}}</ref><ref name="Rosefielde83">{{cite book |title= [[Red Holocaust (2009 book)|Red Holocaust]] |last= Rosefielde |first= Steven |authorlink= Steven Rosefielde |coauthors= |year= 2009 |publisher= [[Routledge]] |location= |isbn= 978-0-415-77757-5 |pages=83 |url= |accessdate=}}</ref> Of these, some 1 to 1.5 million perished as a result.<ref>[[Norman Naimark|Naimark, Norman M.]] ''Stalin's Genocides (Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity).'' [[Princeton University Press]], 2010. p. 131. ISBN 0-691-14784-1</ref><ref name="Rosefielde84">{{cite book |title= [[Red Holocaust (2009 book)|Red Holocaust]] |last= Rosefielde |first= Steven |authorlink= Steven Rosefielde |coauthors= |year= 2009 |publisher= [[Routledge]] |location= |isbn= 978-0-415-77757-5 |pages=84 |url= |accessdate=}}</ref> |
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== Deportation of social groups == |
== Deportation of social groups == |
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{{Expand section|date=June 2008}} |
{{Expand section|date=June 2008}} |
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[[Kulak]]s ( |
[[Kulak]]s ([[peasant]]s classified as rich by Soviet administration) were the most numerous social group deported by the [[Soviet Union]].<ref>[http://gulaghistory.org/exhibits/nps/onlineexhibit/stalin/crimes.php What Were Their Crimes?]</ref> Resettlement of people officially designated as ''kulaks'' continued until early 1950, including several major waves.<ref>[http://www.soviethistory.org/index.php?action=L2&SubjectID=1929collectivization&Year=1929 Liquidation of the Kulaks]</ref> |
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Large numbers of kulaks regardless of their nationality were resettled to [[Siberia]] and [[Central Asia]]. According to data from Soviet archives, which were published in 1990, 1,803,392 people were sent to labor colonies and camps in 1930 and 1931. Books say that 1,317,022 reached the destination. Deportations on a smaller scale continued after 1931. The reported number of kulaks and their relatives who had died in labour colonies from 1932 to 1940 was 389,521.<ref>[http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers/courtois.html Stephane Courtois, The Black Book of COMMUNISM]</ref> |
Large numbers of kulaks regardless of their nationality were resettled to [[Siberia]] and [[Central Asia]]. According to data from Soviet archives, which were published in 1990, 1,803,392 people were sent to labor colonies and camps in 1930 and 1931. Books say that 1,317,022 reached the destination. Deportations on a smaller scale continued after 1931. The reported number of kulaks and their relatives who had died in labour colonies from 1932 to 1940 was 389,521.<ref>[http://users.cyberone.com.au/myers/courtois.html Stephane Courtois, The Black Book of COMMUNISM]</ref> |
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==Ethnic Operations== |
==Ethnic Operations== |
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{{Repression in the Soviet Union}} |
{{Repression in the Soviet Union}} |
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The partial removal of trouble-making ethnic groups |
The partial removal of potentially trouble-making ethnic groups was a technique used consistently by [[Joseph Stalin]] during his career:<ref>Otto Pohl, ''Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949'', Greenwood Publishing Group 1999, ISBN 0-313-30921-3</ref> [[Poles]] (1939–1941 and 1944–1945), [[Romanians]] (1941 and 1944–1953), [[Lithuanian people|Lithuanians]], [[Latvian people|Latvians]], [[Estonians]] (1941 and 1945–1949), [[Volga German]]s (1941–1945), [[Ingrian Finns]] (1929–1931 and 1935–1939), [[Finns|Finnish people in Karelia]] (1940–1941, 1944), [[Crimean Tatars]], [[Greeks in Ukraine|Crimean Greeks]], [[Kalmyks]], [[Balkars]], [[Karachay-Cherkessia|Karachays]], [[Meskhetian Turks]], [[Karapapaks]], Terekemes, [[Koreans|Far East Koreans]] (1937), [[Chechen people|Chechens]] and [[Ingush people|Ingushs]] (1944). Shortly before, during and immediately after [[World War II]], Stalin conducted a series of deportations on a huge scale which profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union.[http://sovietinfo.tripod.com/WCR-German_Soviet.pdf] It is estimated that between 1941 and 1949 nearly 3.3 million were deported to Siberia and the Central Asian republics.<ref>[http://books.google.com/books?vid=ISBN0415182972&id=lYMsIE5KjmMC&pg=PA130&lpg=PA129&dq=stalin+deportations+tatar&sig=cnQ1lERPtpcCT34zFUEgy8E-eAc The Stalin Era]</ref> By some estimates up to 43% of the resettled population died of [[infectious diseases|diseases]] and [[malnutrition]].<ref>[http://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/USSR.TAB1B.GIF Soviet Transit, Camp, and Deportation Death Rates]</ref> |
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The deportations started with Poles from [[Belarus]], [[Ukraine]] and European Russia (see [[Polish minority in Soviet Union]]) 1932-1936. [[Koryo-saram|Koreans]] in the [[Russian Far East]] were deported in 1937 (see [[Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union]]). |
The deportations started with Poles from [[Belarus]], [[Ukraine]] and European Russia (see [[Polish minority in Soviet Union]]) 1932-1936. [[Koryo-saram|Koreans]] in the [[Russian Far East]] were deported in 1937 (see [[Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union]]). |
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After the [[Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)|Soviet invasion of Poland]] following the corresponding [[invasion of Poland (1939)|German invasion]] that marked the start of [[World War II]] in 1939, the [[Soviet Union]] annexed eastern parts (known as ''[[Kresy]]'' to the Polish) of the [[Second Polish Republic]]. During 1939-1941 1.45 million people inhabiting the region were deported by the Soviet regime, of whom 63.1% were [[Poles]], and 7.4% were [[Jews]].<ref>Poland's Holocaust, Tadeusz Piotrowski, 1998 ISBN 0-7864-0371-3, P.14</ref> Previously it was believed that about 1.0 million Polish citizens died at the hands of the Soviets,<ref>Franciszek Proch, Poland's Way of the Cross, New York 1987 P.146</ref> however recently Polish historians, based mostly on queries in Soviet archives, estimate the number of deaths |
After the [[Soviet invasion of Poland (1939)|Soviet invasion of Poland]] following the corresponding [[invasion of Poland (1939)|German invasion]] that marked the start of [[World War II]] in 1939, the [[Soviet Union]] annexed eastern parts (known as ''[[Kresy]]'' to the Polish) of the [[Second Polish Republic]]. During 1939-1941 1.45 million people inhabiting the region were deported by the Soviet regime, of whom 63.1% were [[Poles]], and 7.4% were [[Jews]].<ref>Poland's Holocaust, Tadeusz Piotrowski, 1998 ISBN 0-7864-0371-3, P.14</ref> Previously it was believed that about 1.0 million Polish citizens died at the hands of the Soviets,<ref>Franciszek Proch, Poland's Way of the Cross, New York 1987 P.146</ref> however recently Polish historians, based mostly on queries in Soviet archives, estimate the number of deaths at about 350,000 people deported in 1939-1945.<ref>Project In Posterum [http://www.projectinposterum.org/docs/european_WWII_casualties.htm](go to note on Polish Casualties by Tadeusz Piotrowski)</ref><ref>[http://www.warsawuprising.com/paper/wrobel2.htm Piotr Wrobel. The Devil's Playground: Poland in World War II]</ref> From the newly conquered Eastern Poland 1.5 million people were deported.<ref>[http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m3955/is_n8_v48/ai_19298459/pg_16 The scale and nature of German and Soviet repression and mass killings]</ref> |
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The same followed in the [[Baltic Republics]] of [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]] and [[Estonia]].<ref>[http://www.am.gov.lv/en/latvia/History-of-Occupation/briefing-paper4/ Soviet Mass Deportations from Latvia]</ref> More than 200,000 |
The same followed in the [[Baltic Republics]] of [[Latvia]], [[Lithuania]] and [[Estonia]].<ref>[http://www.am.gov.lv/en/latvia/History-of-Occupation/briefing-paper4/ Soviet Mass Deportations from Latvia]</ref> More than 200,000 people are estimated to have been deported from the Baltic in 1940-1953. In addition, at least 75,000 were sent to [[Gulag]]. 10% of the entire adult Baltic population was deported or sent to labor camps<ref>[http://www.ahtg.net/TpA/baltstat.html The Baltic States]</ref><ref>[http://www.rel.ee/eng/communism_crimes.htm Communism and Crimes against Humanity in the Baltic states]</ref> (see [[June deportation]], [[Operation Priboi]], [[Soviet deportations from Estonia]]) |
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Likewise, [[Moldovans]] from [[Chernivtsi Oblast]] and [[Moldova]] had been deported in great numbers which range from 200,000 to 400,000.<ref>[http://www.east-west-wg.org/cst/cst-mold/bessara.html Russification and Ethnic Consciousness of Romanians in Bessarabia]</ref> (see [[Soviet deportations from Bessarabia]]) |
Likewise, [[Moldovans]] from [[Chernivtsi Oblast]] and [[Moldova]] had been deported in great numbers which range from 200,000 to 400,000.<ref>[http://www.east-west-wg.org/cst/cst-mold/bessara.html Russification and Ethnic Consciousness of Romanians in Bessarabia]</ref> (see [[Soviet deportations from Bessarabia]]) |
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During World War II, particularly in 1943-44, the Soviet government conducted a series of [[deportation]]s |
During World War II, particularly in 1943-44, the Soviet government conducted a series of [[deportation]]s. Some 1.9 million people were deported to Siberia and the Central Asian republics. Treasonous collaboration with the invading [[Nazi Germany|Germans]] and anti-Soviet [[list of revolutions and rebellions|rebellion]] were the official reasons for these deportations. Out of approximately 183,000 [[Crimean Tatars]], 20,000 or 10% of the entire population served in German battalions.<ref>Alexander Statiev, "The Nature of Anti-Soviet Armed Resistance, 1942-44", ''[[Kritika (journal)|Kritika]]: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History'' (Spring 2005) 285-318</ref> Moreover, Tartar Council organized a mass slaughter of Russian in Crimea, killing between 70,000 and 120,000 Russians. Consequently, Tartars too were transferred en masse by the Soviets after the war."<ref>A. Bell-Fialkoff, A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing. Foreign Affairs, 1993, 110-122)</ref> |
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[[Volga German]]s<ref>[http://www.volgagermans.net/volgagermans/Volga%20German%20Deportation.htm Deportation]</ref> and seven (overwhelmingly [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} or non-[[Slavic Peoples|Slavic]]) nationalities of the [[Crimea]] and the northern [[Caucasus]] were deported: the [[Crimean Tatars]],<ref>[http://www.euronet.nl/users/sota/statshist.html Deportation of Crimean Tatars by Stalin]</ref> [[Kalmykia|Kalmyks]], [[Chechens]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3509933.stm Remembering Stalin's deportations]</ref> [[Ingushetia|Ingush]], [[Balkars]], [[Karachay-Cherkessia|Karachay]]s, and [[Meskhetian Turks]]. All [[Crimean Tatars]] were deported ''en masse'', in a form of [[collective punishment]], on 18 May 1944 as [[special settler]]s to [[Uzbek SSR]] and other distant parts of the Soviet Union. According to [[NKVD]] data, nearly 20% died in exile during the following year and a half. Crimean Tatar activists have reported this figure to be nearly 46%.<ref>[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/05/1350f316-420a-4a90-b42e-b59fe9fcc8e5.html 60 Years After: For Victims Of Stalin's Deportations, War Lives On]</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/1995670.stm Crimean Tatars mark wartime deportations]</ref> (see [[Deportation of Crimean Tatars]]) |
[[Volga German]]s<ref>[http://www.volgagermans.net/volgagermans/Volga%20German%20Deportation.htm Deportation]</ref> and seven (overwhelmingly [[Turkic peoples|Turkic]]{{Citation needed|date=October 2010}} or non-[[Slavic Peoples|Slavic]]) nationalities of the [[Crimea]] and the northern [[Caucasus]] were deported: the [[Crimean Tatars]],<ref>[http://www.euronet.nl/users/sota/statshist.html Deportation of Crimean Tatars by Stalin]</ref> [[Kalmykia|Kalmyks]], [[Chechens]],<ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/3509933.stm Remembering Stalin's deportations]</ref> [[Ingushetia|Ingush]], [[Balkars]], [[Karachay-Cherkessia|Karachay]]s, and [[Meskhetian Turks]]. All [[Crimean Tatars]] were deported ''en masse'', in a form of [[collective punishment]], on 18 May 1944 as [[special settler]]s to [[Uzbek SSR]] and other distant parts of the Soviet Union. According to [[NKVD]] data, nearly 20% died in exile during the following year and a half. Crimean Tatar activists have reported this figure to be nearly 46%.<ref>[http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2005/05/1350f316-420a-4a90-b42e-b59fe9fcc8e5.html 60 Years After: For Victims Of Stalin's Deportations, War Lives On]</ref><ref>[http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/not_in_website/syndication/monitoring/media_reports/1995670.stm Crimean Tatars mark wartime deportations]</ref> (see [[Deportation of Crimean Tatars]]) |
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==Labor force transfer== |
==Labor force transfer== |
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Punitive transfers of population transfers handled by [[Gulag]]<ref>[http://www.jamestown.org/getman_paintings.php?painting_id=1 NIKOLAI GETMAN: The Gulag Collection]</ref> and the system of [[involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union]] were planned in accordance with the needs of the [[colonization]] of the remote and underpopulated territories of the [[Soviet Union]]. (Their large scale has led to a controversial opinion in the West that the economic growth of the Soviet Union was largely based on the [[slave labor]] of Gulag prisoners.) At the same time, on a number of occasions the workforce was transferred by non-violent means, usually by means of "recruitment" (''вербовка''). This kind of recruitment was regularly performed at forced settlements, where people were naturally more willing to resettle. For example, the workforce of the [[Donbass]] and [[Kuzbass]] mining basins is known to have been replenished in this way. |
Punitive transfers of population transfers handled by [[Gulag]]<ref>[http://www.jamestown.org/getman_paintings.php?painting_id=1 NIKOLAI GETMAN: The Gulag Collection]</ref> and the system of [[involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union]] were planned in accordance with the needs of the [[colonization]] of the remote and underpopulated territories of the [[Soviet Union]]. (Their large scale has led to a controversial opinion in the West that the economic growth of the Soviet Union was largely based on the [[slave labor]] of Gulag prisoners.) At the same time, on a number of occasions the workforce was transferred by non-violent means, usually by means of "recruitment" (''вербовка''). This kind of recruitment was regularly performed at forced settlements, where people were naturally more willing to resettle. For example, the workforce of the [[Donbass]] and [[Kuzbass]] mining basins is known to have been replenished in this way. (As a note of historical comparison, in [[Imperial Russia]] the mining workers at state mines (''bergals'', "бергалы", from German ''Bergauer'') were often recruited in lieu of military service which, for a certain period, had a term of 25 years ). |
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There were several notable campaigns of targeted workforce transfer. |
There were several notable campaigns of targeted workforce transfer. |
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*[[Labor Army#Russian Germans|Russian Germans]] |
*[[Labor Army#Russian Germans|Russian Germans]] |
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*[[Virgin Lands Campaign]] |
*[[Virgin Lands Campaign]] |
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*[[Baku]] oil industry workers transfer: During the [[ |
*[[Baku]] oil industry workers transfer: During the [[German-Soviet War]], in October 1942, about 10,000 workers from the petroleum sites of Baku, together with their families, were transferred to several sites with potential oil production (the "Second Baku" area ([[Volga River|Volga]]-[[Ural River|Ural]] oil field), [[Kazakhstan]] and [[Sakhalin]]), in face of the potential German threat, although Germany failed to seize Baku. |
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==Repatriation after World War II== |
==Repatriation after World War II== |
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When the war ended in May 1945, millions of former Soviet citizens |
When the war ended in May 1945, millions of former Soviet citizens were [[Operation Keelhaul|forcefully repatriated]] (against their will) into the USSR.<ref>''The United States and Forced Repatriation of Soviet Citizens, 1944-47'' by Mark Elliott Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 88, No. 2 (Jun., 1973), pp. 253-275</ref> On 11 February 1945, at the conclusion of the [[Yalta Conference]], the [[United States]] and [[United Kingdom]] signed a Repatriation Agreement with the USSR.<ref>[http://www.fff.org/freedom/0895a.asp Repatriation -- The Dark Side of World War II]</ref> |
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The interpretation of this Agreement resulted in the forcible repatriation of all Soviets regardless of their wishes. [[United Kingdom|British]] and [[U.S.]] civilian authorities ordered their military forces in Europe to deport to the [[Soviet Union]] millions of former residents of the USSR ( |
The interpretation of this Agreement resulted in the forcible repatriation of all Soviets regardless of their wishes. [[United Kingdom|British]] and [[U.S.]] civilian authorities ordered their military forces in Europe to deport to the [[Soviet Union]] millions of former residents of the USSR (some of whom [[Collaboration during World War II|collaborated with the Germans]]), including numerous persons who had left Russia and established different citizenship many years before. The forced repatriation operations took place from 1945-1947.<ref>[http://www.hillsdale.edu/news/imprimis/archive/issue.asp?year=1988&month=12 Forced Repatriation to the Soviet Union: The Secret Betrayal]</ref> |
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At the end of World War II, more than 5 million "displaced persons" from the Soviet Union survived in German captivity. About 3 million had been [[Unfree labour|forced laborers]] (Ostarbeiters)<ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers]</ref> in Germany and occupied territories.<ref>[http://summeroftruth.org/enemy/barracks.html Forced Labor at Ford Werke AG during the Second World War]</ref><ref>[http://www.collectinghistory.net/ostarbeiter/index.html The Nazi Ostarbeiter (Eastern Worker) Program]</ref> |
At the end of World War II, more than 5 million "displaced persons" from the Soviet Union survived in German captivity. About 3 million had been [[Unfree labour|forced laborers]] (Ostarbeiters)<ref>[http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,2144,1757323,00.html Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers]</ref> in Germany and occupied territories.<ref>[http://summeroftruth.org/enemy/barracks.html Forced Labor at Ford Werke AG during the Second World War]</ref><ref>[http://www.collectinghistory.net/ostarbeiter/index.html The Nazi Ostarbeiter (Eastern Worker) Program]</ref> |
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Revision as of 12:28, 16 July 2011
| Politics of the Soviet Union |
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Population transfer in the Soviet Union may be classified into the following broad categories: deportations of "anti-Soviet" categories of population, often classified as "enemies of workers," deportations of entire nationalities, labor force transfer, and organized migrations in opposite directions to fill the ethnically cleansed territories.
In most cases their destinations were underpopulated remote areas (see Forced settlements in the Soviet Union). This includes deportations to the Soviet Union of non-Soviet citizens from countries outside the USSR. It has been estimated that, in their entirety, internal forced migrations affected some 6 million people.[1][2] Of these, some 1 to 1.5 million perished as a result.[3][4]
Deportation of social groups
![[icon]](/wiki/File:Wiki_letter_w_cropped.svg){kind=small} | This section needs expansion. You can help by adding to it. (June 2008) |
Kulaks (peasants classified as rich by Soviet administration) were the most numerous social group deported by the Soviet Union.[5] Resettlement of people officially designated as kulaks continued until early 1950, including several major waves.[6]
Large numbers of kulaks regardless of their nationality were resettled to Siberia and Central Asia. According to data from Soviet archives, which were published in 1990, 1,803,392 people were sent to labor colonies and camps in 1930 and 1931. Books say that 1,317,022 reached the destination. Deportations on a smaller scale continued after 1931. The reported number of kulaks and their relatives who had died in labour colonies from 1932 to 1940 was 389,521.[7]
Ethnic Operations
| Mass repression in the Soviet Union |
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| Economic repression |
| Political repression |
| Ideological repression |
| Ethnic repression |
The partial removal of potentially trouble-making ethnic groups was a technique used consistently by Joseph Stalin during his career:[8] Poles (1939–1941 and 1944–1945), Romanians (1941 and 1944–1953), Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians (1941 and 1945–1949), Volga Germans (1941–1945), Ingrian Finns (1929–1931 and 1935–1939), Finnish people in Karelia (1940–1941, 1944), Crimean Tatars, Crimean Greeks, Kalmyks, Balkars, Karachays, Meskhetian Turks, Karapapaks, Terekemes, Far East Koreans (1937), Chechens and Ingushs (1944). Shortly before, during and immediately after World War II, Stalin conducted a series of deportations on a huge scale which profoundly affected the ethnic map of the Soviet Union.[2] It is estimated that between 1941 and 1949 nearly 3.3 million were deported to Siberia and the Central Asian republics.[9] By some estimates up to 43% of the resettled population died of diseases and malnutrition.[10]
The deportations started with Poles from Belarus, Ukraine and European Russia (see Polish minority in Soviet Union) 1932-1936. Koreans in the Russian Far East were deported in 1937 (see Deportation of Koreans in the Soviet Union).
After the Soviet invasion of Poland following the corresponding German invasion that marked the start of World War II in 1939, the Soviet Union annexed eastern parts (known as Kresy to the Polish) of the Second Polish Republic. During 1939-1941 1.45 million people inhabiting the region were deported by the Soviet regime, of whom 63.1% were Poles, and 7.4% were Jews.[11] Previously it was believed that about 1.0 million Polish citizens died at the hands of the Soviets,[12] however recently Polish historians, based mostly on queries in Soviet archives, estimate the number of deaths at about 350,000 people deported in 1939-1945.[13][14] From the newly conquered Eastern Poland 1.5 million people were deported.[15]
The same followed in the Baltic Republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.[16] More than 200,000 people are estimated to have been deported from the Baltic in 1940-1953. In addition, at least 75,000 were sent to Gulag. 10% of the entire adult Baltic population was deported or sent to labor camps[17][18] (see June deportation, Operation Priboi, Soviet deportations from Estonia)
Likewise, Moldovans from Chernivtsi Oblast and Moldova had been deported in great numbers which range from 200,000 to 400,000.[19] (see Soviet deportations from Bessarabia)
During World War II, particularly in 1943-44, the Soviet government conducted a series of deportations. Some 1.9 million people were deported to Siberia and the Central Asian republics. Treasonous collaboration with the invading Germans and anti-Soviet rebellion were the official reasons for these deportations. Out of approximately 183,000 Crimean Tatars, 20,000 or 10% of the entire population served in German battalions.[20] Moreover, Tartar Council organized a mass slaughter of Russian in Crimea, killing between 70,000 and 120,000 Russians. Consequently, Tartars too were transferred en masse by the Soviets after the war."[21]
Volga Germans[22] and seven (overwhelmingly Turkic[citation needed] or non-Slavic) nationalities of the Crimea and the northern Caucasus were deported: the Crimean Tatars,[23] Kalmyks, Chechens,[24] Ingush, Balkars, Karachays, and Meskhetian Turks. All Crimean Tatars were deported en masse, in a form of collective punishment, on 18 May 1944 as special settlers to Uzbek SSR and other distant parts of the Soviet Union. According to NKVD data, nearly 20% died in exile during the following year and a half. Crimean Tatar activists have reported this figure to be nearly 46%.[25][26] (see Deportation of Crimean Tatars)
Other minorities evicted from the Black Sea coastal region included Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians.
After World War II, the German population of the Kaliningrad Oblast, former East Prussia was replaced by the Soviet one, mainly by Russians.
Poland and Soviet Ukraine conducted population exchanges - Poles that resided east of the established Poland-Soviet border were deported to Poland (c.a. 2,100,000 persons) and Ukrainians that resided west of the established Poland-Soviet Union border were deported to Soviet Ukraine (see Operation Vistula. Population transfer to Soviet Ukraine occurred from September 1944 to April 1946 (ca. 450,000 persons). Some Ukrainians (ca. 200,000 persons) left southeast Poland more or less voluntarily (between 1944 and 1945).[27]
In February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev in his speech On the Personality Cult and its Consequences condemned the deportations as a violation of Leninist principles, asserting as a joke that the Ukrainians avoided such a fate "only because there were too many of them and there was no place to which to deport them." His government reversed most of Stalin's deportations, although it was not until as late as 1991 that the Crimean Tatars, Meskhs and Volga Germans were allowed to return en masse to their homelands. The deportations had a profound effect on the non-Russian peoples of the Soviet Union and they are still a major political issue - the memory of the deportations played a major part in the separatist movements in Chechnya and the Baltic republics.
Some peoples were deported after Stalin's death: in 1959, Chechen returnees were supplanted from the mountains to the Chechen plain. The mountaineers of Tajikistan, such as Yaghnobi people were forcibly settled to the plain deserts in the 1970s.
Labor force transfer
Punitive transfers of population transfers handled by Gulag[28] and the system of involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union were planned in accordance with the needs of the colonization of the remote and underpopulated territories of the Soviet Union. (Their large scale has led to a controversial opinion in the West that the economic growth of the Soviet Union was largely based on the slave labor of Gulag prisoners.) At the same time, on a number of occasions the workforce was transferred by non-violent means, usually by means of "recruitment" (вербовка). This kind of recruitment was regularly performed at forced settlements, where people were naturally more willing to resettle. For example, the workforce of the Donbass and Kuzbass mining basins is known to have been replenished in this way. (As a note of historical comparison, in Imperial Russia the mining workers at state mines (bergals, "бергалы", from German Bergauer) were often recruited in lieu of military service which, for a certain period, had a term of 25 years ).
There were several notable campaigns of targeted workforce transfer.
- Twenty-five-thousanders
- Russian Germans
- Virgin Lands Campaign
- Baku oil industry workers transfer: During the German-Soviet War, in October 1942, about 10,000 workers from the petroleum sites of Baku, together with their families, were transferred to several sites with potential oil production (the "Second Baku" area (Volga-Ural oil field), Kazakhstan and Sakhalin), in face of the potential German threat, although Germany failed to seize Baku.
Repatriation after World War II
When the war ended in May 1945, millions of former Soviet citizens were forcefully repatriated (against their will) into the USSR.[29] On 11 February 1945, at the conclusion of the Yalta Conference, the United States and United Kingdom signed a Repatriation Agreement with the USSR.[30]
The interpretation of this Agreement resulted in the forcible repatriation of all Soviets regardless of their wishes. British and U.S. civilian authorities ordered their military forces in Europe to deport to the Soviet Union millions of former residents of the USSR (some of whom collaborated with the Germans), including numerous persons who had left Russia and established different citizenship many years before. The forced repatriation operations took place from 1945-1947.[31]
At the end of World War II, more than 5 million "displaced persons" from the Soviet Union survived in German captivity. About 3 million had been forced laborers (Ostarbeiters)[32] in Germany and occupied territories.[33][34]
Survived POWs, about 1.5 million, repatriated Ostarbeiter, and other displaced persons, totally more than 4,000,000 people were sent to special NKVD filtration camps (not GULAG). By 1946, 80 per cent civilians and 20 per cent of PoWs were freed, 5 per cent of civilians, and 43 per cent of PoWs re-drafted, 10 per cent of civilians and 22 per cent of PoWs were sent to labor battalions, and 2 per cent of civilians and 15 per cent of the PoWs (226,127 out of 1,539,475 total) transferred to the NKVD, i.e. the GULAG.[35][36]
Timeline
See also
- National operations of NKVD
- Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union
- Kalmyk deportations of 1943
- Kalmyk deportations of 1944
- Nazi-Soviet population transfers
- Soviet deportations from Estonia
- Evacuation of East Prussia
- Forced labor of Germans in the Soviet Union
- Deportation of the Crimean Tatars
- Polish areas annexed by the Soviet Union
- Repatriation of Poles
- World War II evacuation and expulsion
- Against Their Will
- Jewish Autonomous Oblast#Jewish settlement and development in the region
Notes
- ^ Pavel Polian. Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR. Central European University Press, 2004. p. 4. ISBN 9789639241688.
- ^ Rosefielde, Steven (2009). Red Holocaust. Routledge. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-415-77757-5.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ Naimark, Norman M. Stalin's Genocides (Human Rights and Crimes against Humanity). Princeton University Press, 2010. p. 131. ISBN 0-691-14784-1
- ^ Rosefielde, Steven (2009). Red Holocaust. Routledge. p. 84. ISBN 978-0-415-77757-5.
{{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter:|coauthors=(help) - ^ What Were Their Crimes?
- ^ Liquidation of the Kulaks
- ^ Stephane Courtois, The Black Book of COMMUNISM
- ^ Otto Pohl, Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949, Greenwood Publishing Group 1999, ISBN 0-313-30921-3
- ^ The Stalin Era
- ^ Soviet Transit, Camp, and Deportation Death Rates
- ^ Poland's Holocaust, Tadeusz Piotrowski, 1998 ISBN 0-7864-0371-3, P.14
- ^ Franciszek Proch, Poland's Way of the Cross, New York 1987 P.146
- ^ Project In Posterum [1](go to note on Polish Casualties by Tadeusz Piotrowski)
- ^ Piotr Wrobel. The Devil's Playground: Poland in World War II
- ^ The scale and nature of German and Soviet repression and mass killings
- ^ Soviet Mass Deportations from Latvia
- ^ The Baltic States
- ^ Communism and Crimes against Humanity in the Baltic states
- ^ Russification and Ethnic Consciousness of Romanians in Bessarabia
- ^ Alexander Statiev, "The Nature of Anti-Soviet Armed Resistance, 1942-44", Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History (Spring 2005) 285-318
- ^ A. Bell-Fialkoff, A Brief History of Ethnic Cleansing. Foreign Affairs, 1993, 110-122)
- ^ Deportation
- ^ Deportation of Crimean Tatars by Stalin
- ^ Remembering Stalin's deportations
- ^ 60 Years After: For Victims Of Stalin's Deportations, War Lives On
- ^ Crimean Tatars mark wartime deportations
- ^ Forced migration in the 20th century
- ^ NIKOLAI GETMAN: The Gulag Collection
- ^ The United States and Forced Repatriation of Soviet Citizens, 1944-47 by Mark Elliott Political Science Quarterly, Vol. 88, No. 2 (Jun., 1973), pp. 253-275
- ^ Repatriation -- The Dark Side of World War II
- ^ Forced Repatriation to the Soviet Union: The Secret Betrayal
- ^ Final Compensation Pending for Former Nazi Forced Laborers
- ^ Forced Labor at Ford Werke AG during the Second World War
- ^ The Nazi Ostarbeiter (Eastern Worker) Program
- ^ (“Военно-исторический журнал” (“Military-Historical Magazine”), 1997, №5. page 32)
- ^ Земское В.Н. К вопросу о репатриации советских граждан. 1944-1951 годы // История СССР. 1990. № 4 (Zemskov V.N. On repatriation of Soviet citizens. Istoriya SSSR., 1990, No.4
General references
- Martin, Terry. 1998. "The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing," Journal of Modern History 70 (December): 813-861.
- Polian, Pavel (Павел Полян), Deportations in the USSR: An index of operations with list of corresponding directives and legislation, Russian Academy of Science.
- Павел Полян, Не по своей воле... (Pavel Polyan, Not by Their Own Will... A History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR), ОГИ Мемориал, Moscow, 2001, ISBN 5-94282-007-4
- 28 августа 1941 г. Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР "О выселении немцев из районов Поволжья".
- 1943 г. Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР "О ликвидации Калмыцкой АССР и образовании Астраханской области в составе РСФСР". *Постановление правительства СССР от 12 января 1949 г. "О выселении с территории Литвы, Латвии и Эстонии кулаков с семьями, семей бандитов и националистов, находящихся на нелегальном положении, убитых при вооруженных столкновениях и осужденных, легализованных бандитов, продолжающих вести вражескую работу, и их семей, а также семей репрессированных пособников и бандитов"
- Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР от 13 декабря 1955 г. "О снятии ограничений в правовом положении с немцев и членов их семей, находящихся на спецпоселении".
- 17 марта 1956 г. Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР "О снятии ограничений в правовом положении с калмыков и членов их семей, находящихся на спецпоселении".
- 1956 г. Постановление ЦК КПСС "О восстановлении национальной автономии калмыцкого, карачаевского, балкарского, чеченского и ингушского народов".
- 29 августа 1964 г. Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР "О внесении изменений в Указ Президиума Верховного Совета СССР от 28 августа 1941 г. о переселении немцев, проживающих в районах Поволжья".
- 1991 г: Laws of Russian Federation: "О реабилитации репрессированных народов", "О реабилитации жертв политических репрессий".
Wikisource
- State Defense Committee Decree No. 5859ss: On Crimean Tatars (See also Three answers to the Decree No. 5859ss)
External links
- Polian's index online
- Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949 by J.Otto Pohl. Books.google.com
- These Names Accuse (Soviet Deportations in Latvia)
- Baltic Deportation Instructions — Full text, English
- DEPORTATIONS Revelations from the Russian Archives at the Library of Congress
- Chechnya: European Parliament recognises the genocide of the Chechen People in 1944
- The scale and nature of German and Soviet repression and mass killings, 1930-45
- Эдиев Д.М. Демографические потери депортированных народов СССР. Ставрополь, 2003
- Polish deportees in the USSR List compiled in 1941 by Tadeusz Romer, the Polish ambassador to Japan
