Population transfer in 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 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 Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union.

1 Deportations of social categories
2 Transfers of ethnicities
3 Labor force transfer
4 Timeline
5 See also
6 References
7 Wikisource
8 External links

[edit] Deportations of social categories

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Kulaks were the most numerous social category of deported. Resettlement of people officially designated as kulaks continued until early 1950, including several major waves.

Some ethnic deportations, e.g., of Poles after 1939 from annexed territories of what is now Western Belarus and Western Ukraine (but was then Eastern Poland), were also justified by political/social reasons.

A number of religions, most prominent being Jehovah's Witnesses, were declared anti-Soviet, and their members deported.

[edit] Transfers of ethnicities

The wholesale removal of potentially trouble-making ethnic groups was a technique used consistently by Joseph Stalin during his career: Poles (1934), Koreans (1937), Ukrainians, Jews, Romanians (1939-1941 and 1944-1953) Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians (1940-1941 and 1945-1949), Volga Germans (1941), Balkars, Chechens, Ingushs (1944), Kalmyks (1944), Meskhetian Turks (1944), Crimean Tatars (18 May 1944). Large numbers of kulaks regardless their nationality were resettled to Siberia and Central Asia.

In the years during World War II particularly in 1943-44, the Soviet government conducted a series of deportations. 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 reasons for these deportations. Out of approximately 183,000 Crimean Tatars, 20,000 or 10% of the entire population served in German batallions. <ref>Alexander Statiev, "The Nature of Anti-Soviet Armed Resistance, 1942-44", Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History (Spring 2005) 285-318</ref>

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. Volga Germans and seven (overwhelmingly Turkic or non-Slavic) nationalities of the Crimea and the northern Caucasus were deported: the Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachays, and Meskhetian Turks. Other minorities evicted from the Black Sea coastal region included Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians. From the newly conquered Eastern Poland 400,000 people were deported. The same followed in the Baltic republics of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia (over 200,000 people were deported). Likewise, Romanians from Chernivtsi Oblast and Moldova had been deported in great numbers which range from 200.000 to 400.000. According to the last census in Russia and Kazakhstan, there are 20,000 Romanians in the latter while at least 180,000 exist in the former. The overwhelming majority of these deportees successfully made their trip to Central Asia. For example, out of 225,000 deported Crimeans, 193,000 or 86% were located in their appropriate settlements in October 1946. [1]

After World War II, the population of the Kaliningrad Oblast was replaced by the Soviet one, mainly by Russians.

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 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 Tatarstan, Chechnya and the Baltic republics.

[edit] Labor force transfer

Punitive transfers of population transfers handled by Gulag 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
Labor Army#Russian Germans
Virgin Lands Campaign
Baku oil industry workers transfer: During the Great Patriotic War, in October 1942, about 10,000 workers from petroleum sites of Baku with families were transferred to several sites with potential oil production: the "Second Baku" area (Volga-Ural oil field), Kazakhstan and Sakhalin, under the potential German threat (Germany failed to seize Baku, though).

[edit] Timeline

Population numbers are rounded.

April 1920: 45,000 Terek Cossacks deported to Ukraine and Northern European Russia according to Directive of RKP(b) Central Committee On decossackization, January 21, 1919
1930: Cleansing of Western border regions: 18,000 "socially-dangerous elements" from 22km wide border zone of Ukrainian SSR and Byelorussian SSR deported to Western Siberia and Far East
1930-1936: several waves of deportations of kulaks from "regions of total collectivization" and from various other regions
1933: Migration of 200,000 Kazakh nomads during the famine of 1933 out of Soviet Union into China, Mongolia, Iran, Afghanistan
February-May 1935 deportation of 30,000 Finns - Ingrians from border regions of Leningrad Oblast into Vologda Oblast, Tajik SSR, Kazakh SSR, and Western Siberia.
February-March 1935: Deportations of 42,000 Poles and Germans from border parts of Ukrainian SSR: Kiev and Vinnitsa oblasts to Eastern parts of Ukraine.
May 1936: Deportations of 45,000 Poles and Germans from Ukrainian SSR to Kazakhstan
July 1937: Deportation of 2,000 Kurds from Southern borders (Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Turkmenia, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan) to Kirghiz SSR and Kazakh SSR.
September-October 1937: Total deportation of Koreans (172,000) from border regions of Western Siberia and Far East to Kazakh SSR and Uzbek SSR
September-October 1937: Deportation of 9,000 Chinese and repatriated "Harbinites" (Harbin Russians) from Southern Far East to Kazakh SSR and Uzbek SSR.
January 1938: Deportation of Iranians from Border regions of Azerbaijan SSR to Kazakhstan
1938: Deportation of 6,000 Iranian Jews from Southern borders of Turkmenian SSR into Northern Turkmenian deserts
February 1940: Deportation of 140,000 Poles (deportation of osadniks) from newly acquired Western regions of Belarus and Ukraine to Northern European Russia, Ural and Siberia.
April 1940: Deportation of 61,000 Poles (several social categories) Western regions of Belarus and Ukraine to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan
June 1940: Deportation of 75,000 Poles from Ukraine and Belarus who were fugitives from Poland to Northern European Russia, Ural and Siberia.
July 1940: Deportation of "persons of foreign ethnicity" (инонациональностей) from Murmansk Oblast to Karelo-Finnish SSR and Altai Krai.
May 22, 1941: Deportation of 11,000 of members of families of "counterrevolutionaries and nationalists" from Western Ukraine to Southern Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Omsk Oblast, Novosibirsk Oblast.
June 12, 1941 Deportation of 30,000 of members of families of "counterrevolutionaries and nationalists" from Chernovtsy and Izmail oblasts of Ukraine and from Moldavian SSR to Kazakhstan, Komi ASSR, Krasnoyarsk Krai, Omsk and Novosibirsk oblasts
June 14, 1941 Deportation of "anti-Soviet elements" from annexed Baltic States (in accordance with instructions set out in NKGB Order No. 001223):
- from Lithuania (18,000) to Altai Krai, Novosibirsk Oblast, Kazakhstan and Komi ASSR;
- from Latvia (17,000) to Krasnoyarsk Krai and Novosibirsk Oblast of Russia and Karaganda oblast of Kazakhstan
- from Estonia (10,000) to Kirov Oblast and Novosibirsk Oblast
June 1941: Deportation of 21,000 "nationalists" from Western Belarus
September-October 1941:
- Deportation of 439,000 Germans (Volga Germans and from Saratov and Stalingrad oblast) to Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk and Altai Krais, and Novosibirsk and Omsk oblasts
- Deportation of 91,000 Finns and Germans from Leningrad oblast to Kazakhstan, Krasnoyarsk and Altai Krais, and Novosibiksk and Omsk oblasts
- Deportation of 36,000 Germans from Moscow, Moscow oblast and Rostov oblast to Kazakhstan
- Deportation of 138,000 Germans from Krasnodar and Ordzhonikidze krais, Tula oblast, Kabarda-Balkar ASSR and North Ossetian ASSR to Krasnoyarsk Krai, Irkutsk oblast and Kazakhstan
- Deportation of 110,000 Germans from Zaporozhye, Stalinsk Oblast, and Voroshilovgrad Oblast to Kazakhstan and Astrakhan Oblast
- Deportation of 5,000 Germans from Voronezh oblast to Novosibirsk and Omsk oblasts
- Deportation of 46,000 Germans from Transcaucasus republics to Kazakhstan
- Deportation of 6,000 Germans from Dagestan ASSR and Chechen-Ingush ASSR to Kazakhstan
March-April 1942: Deportation of 9,000 Finns and Germans (as well as "socially-dangeorus elements") from Leningrad and Leningrad oblast to Irkutsk Oblast, Krasnoyarsk Krai and Yakutia
April 1942: Deportation of Greeks, Romanians and some other nationalities from Crimea and Northern Caucasus
June 1942: Deportation of Germans, Romanians, Crimean Tatars, and Greeks of foreign citizenship from Kransnodar Krai and Rostov Oblast
August 1943: Deportation of 500 Karachay "bandits" out of Karachay-Cherkessia AO
November 1943: Complete deportation of Karachays (70,000) to Kazakh SSR and Kirgiz SSR.
December 1943: Deportation of Kalmyks from Kalmyk ASSR to Altai and Krasnoyarsk Krais and Omsk and Novosibirsk oblasts
February 1944: Complete deportations of Chechens (393,000) and Ingushs (91,000) from Chechen-Ingush ASSR and Dagestan to Kazakh SSR and Kirghiz SSR.
March 1944: Complete deportation of Balkars (38,000) from Kabarda-Balkar ASSR to Kazakh SSR and Kirghiz SSR.
March 1944: Deportation of 3,000 Kalmyks from Rostov oblast to Omsk and Novosibirsk oblasts
May 1944: Deportation of Balkars (~100) from Georgia to Kazakh SSR and Kirghiz SSR.
Spring 1944: Search and deportation of all Chechens, Ingushs, Kalmyks, Karachays and Balkars from everywhere to Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan (~4,200)
May 1944: Deportation of 182,000 Crimean Tatars from Crimea to Uzbekistan and a number of other places
June 1944: Deportation of 1,000 Kalmyks from Stalingrad oblast to Sverdlovsk oblast
July 1944: Deportation of 1,800 Truly Orthodox Christians ("истинно-православные христиане") from Ryazan, Voronezh and Oryol oblasts to Tomsk and Tyumen oblasts and Krasnoyarsk krai
June-July 1944:Deportation of Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians, Turks, etc. from Crimea to Uzbekistan (42,000)
November 1944: Deportation of 92,000 Meskhs, Kurds, and Khemshins from Southern Georgia, and 1,000 Lazs from Adjar ASSR to Uzbek SSR, Kazakh SSR, Kirgiz SSR.
June 1948: Deportation of Greeks and Armenian Dashnaks (58,000 ) from the Black Sea coast to Kazakhstan
March 1949: Operation "Priboi", the deportation of 95,000 people from annexed Baltic States (in accordance with instructions by the USSR Minister of State Security Order No. 0068) to the Krasnoyarsk, Novosibirsk, Omsk and Amur regions:
- 32,000 from Lithuania
- 42,000 from Latvia
- 21,000 from Estonia
March 1951, a decree about expulsion of 9,400 Jehovah's Witnesses, including about 4,000 children, from the Baltic States, Moldova, and western parts of Belarus and Ukraine.
December 1951: Deportation of 35,000 kulaks from annexed territories of Baltic States, Western Ukraine, and Western Belarus to Krasnoyarsk Krai, Yakutia, Tyumen Oblast and Kazakhstan

[edit] See also

[edit] 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".