Figure 1.-- |
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Stalin ordered the forced resettlement of large numbers of non-Russisn Soviet citizens before, during, and after World War II. After seizing eastern Poland and the Baltic republics (Estonia, Latviam and Lithuania), large numbers were arrested and their families deported. During the War large numbers of people, mostly Muslims were forcibly resettled to isolated areas of the Soviet Union. One estimate suggests over 1.5 million people. Those deported included Volga Germans and seven nationalities grom the Crimea and the northern Caucasus were deported (the Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachai, and Meskhetians. There were also other minorities evicted from the Black Sea coastal region (Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians). Stalin was concerned about resistance to Soviet rule, desores for independence, and collaboration with the NAZIs. The possibility of a German attack was given as the reason for resettling the ethnically mixed population of Mtskheta, in southwestern Georgia. The Balkars were reportedly disciplined because it was alleged that they sent a white horse as a gift to Adolf Hitler. The KGB and other security forces rounded up and transported the deportees mostly railroad cargo to isolated areas in Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Siberia, Uzbekistan. These were not well planned deportations. Little arrangements were made to recieve them. Most accounts suggest that about 40 percent of the deportees perished. The Crimean Tatars had an especially horrendous experience. About half died of hunger in the first 18 after having been deportment. After the War there were deportments of Poles to the Poland. Large numbers of people were deported from the former Baltic republics after they were retaken from the NAZIs (1944). There had been some colaboration with the NAZIs in the Ukraine, but there wasno large scale deportmet, probably because of the number of people involved. After Stalin's death (1953),
Nikita Khrushchev began the Destalinization process with a speech at the 20th Party Congress (February 1956). He condemned the deportations as a violation of Leninist principles.
Stalin was concerned about resistance to Soviet rule, desores for independence, and collaboration with the NAZIs.
fter seizing eastern Poland
After seizing Baltic republics (Estonia, Latviam and Lithuania), large numbers were arrested and their families deported. We have developed some unformation on the deportment of Estonians
The largest German population in the Soviet Union was the Volga Germans. I do not know if the NAZIs tried to get Stalin to allow them to return to the Reich after the NAZI invasion (June 1941). This was one group that was forced back to Germany after the War. The Volga Germns were one of several nationalities Stalin deported to isolated areas of the country. The Soviet Givernment ordered the total deportation of Germans from the Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans (August 28, 1941). The deportations was conducted during the first two weeks of September 1941. Most of them were transported to a variety of locations in Siberia Most of the exiled Volga-Germans were at first put to work on kolkhozes (collective farms). Because of the military emergency most by early 1942 weee foeced into the "Trud-Army" (labor army). Many were used in forestry. Women except those who had many children and juveniles were transported north to various settlements to work in the fishing industry (Summer 1942). Soviet authorities next began assgning juveniles to the "Trud-Army" (1943). They worked at the oil and natural gas hauling plants in the South-Ural. The Volga-Germans who had survived the ardous cinditions in the "Trud-Army" were relaeased 1946. The "release" actually meant internal exile mostly in Siberia. They were not allowed to return to their former homeland. The KGB issue "personal exile files" on all adult Volga-German deportees (1946-47). Many were put under "special registration" wjoch meant having to appear for registration and periodic checks. Soviet officials released the Volga-Germans (as well as other German exiles)from exile (February-March 1956). They were not, however given any right to return" home. Many were not allowed to leave their internal exile until the dissolution of the Soviet Union (1991)
During the War large numbers of people, mostly Muslims were forcibly resettled to isolated areas of the Soviet Union. One estimate suggests over 1.5 million people. Those deported included seven nationalities from the Crimea and the northern Caucasus were deported (the Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachai, and Meskhetians.
he Crimean Tatars had an especially horrendous experience. About half died of hunger in the first 18 after having been deportment.
The Russian relationship with Chechnya is a bloody one. Chechnya was conquered by the Russians with considerable bloodshed in the late 19th century. The largely Muslim Chechans harbored continued resentment toward the Russians and the Communist Soviet state. m in the 2Stalin concluded that the Chechens were sympahetic to the NAZIs. We are not sure just how valid this charge us. It is likely that many Chechens were anti-Communist because of their Islamic religion and Stalin's suppression of all religions. We do not know to what exten the Chechens supported the NAZIs wen the Wehrmacy moved into the Caucuses (1942). (Many Soviet citizens in the Baltics, the Ukraine, and other areas of the Soviet Union looked on the Germans as lineraors until their genocidal racial policies toward Slavs became apparent.) We do know that many Chechens served loyally in the Red Army. Stalin ordered that the entire Chechen people be exiled to Siberia. The action was coordinated by he NKVD and launched February 23, 1944. The 1 million Chenchens were brutally packed into box cars in the middle of the winter and deported east to Central Asia Siberia. Little provision was made for them either on the transports or in the camps to where they were deported. Accounts of the transports are harrowing. Chechen women in particular were mortified to being packed together in boxcars with men for the extended trasport. Some women were ashamed to relieve themselve in front of men and held their urine until their bladders burst. Anuyone who resisted was shot or executed n other ways. It is estimated that about one-third of the Chechen people were killed or died in the roundups and transport box cars, although no precise statistics are known to exist. Many more Chechens perished in the harsh conditions of their exile. The Soviet action against the Chechans was virtually unknown at the time outside the Soviet Union. Chechnya is of course well known to the world public.
The possibility of a German attack was given as the reason for resettling the ethnically mixed population of Mtskheta, in southwestern Georgia.
The Balkars were reportedly disciplined because it was alleged that they sent a white horse as a gift to Adolf Hitler.
There were also other minorities evicted from the Black Sea coastal region (Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians).
The KGB and other security forces rounded up and transported the deportees mostly railroad cargo to isolated areas in Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, Siberia, Uzbekistan. These were not well planned deportations. Little arrangements were made to recieve them. Most accounts suggest that about 40 percent of the deportees perished. T
After the War there were deportments of Poles to the Poland.
Large numbers of people were deported from the former Baltic republics after they were retaken from the NAZIs (1944).
There was a great deal of anti-Soviet feeling in the Ukraine. The assault against the Kulaks including the engineered famine had turned many in the Ukraine against the Soviet regime. There was as a result some colaboration with the NAZIs in the Ukraine. There would probably had been much more support had not the NAZIs genocidal appraoch to the Slavs turned many in the Ukrainde aginst them. There was no large scale deportmet, probably because of the number of people involved.
The Communist world was stunned in 1953 with the death of Stalin. Tass announced that he died from a stroke. We now know that he was poisoned. The Chief of
the NKVD, Lavrenti Beri (1899-1953), put rat poison in his wine. Beria was apparently concerned with good reason that diappointments in the H-bomb program
had caused Stalin to prepare for his arrest. Here Beria struck first. Stalin reportedly vomited blood for3 days. [Reed] Beria in the annals of the 20th century is a man
so monsterous thatb he is approached only by Jimmler. In the end it did him no good. Before Beria could effectively use the NKVD to placev hin in power, his
Politboro colleagues had him tried and executed.
After Stalin's death (1953), Nikita Khrushchev began the Destalinization process with a secret speech at the 20th Party Congress (February 1956). He condemned the deportations as a violation of Leninist principles. Khrushchev claomed that there were no mass deportments in the Ukraine "only because there were too many of them and there was no place to which to deport them."
The Soviet Government in 1956 began issuing decrees restoring the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic and the Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Republic. The Government also formed the Kalmyk Autonomous Oblast' and reorganized the Cherkess Autonomous Oblast' into the Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast'. This process did not cover all the people that had veen deported. The Government only partially rehabilitated the Crimean Tatars,
Meskhetians, and Volga Germans. Most were not allowed to return to their former homelands until after the final disintegration of the Soviet Union (1991).
Reed, Thomas C. At the Abyss: An Insider's History of the Cold War (Ballantine Books: 2004).
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