 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Special settlements in the Soviet Union" – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(January 2018) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
Special settlements in the Soviet Union were the result ofpopulation transfers and were performed in a series of operations organized according to social class or nationality of the deported. Resettling of "enemy classes" such asprosperous peasants and entire populations by ethnicity was a method ofpolitical repression in the Soviet Union, although separate from theGulag system ofpenal labor. Involuntary settlement played a role in the colonization ofvirgin lands of the Soviet Union. This role was specifically mentioned in the first Soviet decrees about involuntary labor camps. Compared to the Gulag labor camps, the involuntary settlements had the appearance of "normal" settlements: people lived in families, and there was slightly more freedom of movement; however, that was permitted only within a small specified area. All settlers were overseen by theNKVD; once a month a person had to register at a local law enforcement office at aselsoviet in rural areas or at amilitsiya department in urban settlements. As second-class citizens, deported peoples designated as "special settlers" were prohibited from holding a variety of jobs, returning to their region of origin,[1] attending prestigious schools,[2] and even joining the cosmonaut program.[3] Due to this special settlements have been called by J. Otto Pohl a type ofapartheid.[4]
After the special settlement system was officially abolished in the 1950s, most deported indigenous peoples were allowed to return to their homelands, except for theCrimean Tatars andMeskhetian Turks, who were denied the right of return in the Khrushchev and Brezhnev era and largely remained in areas they were deported to because of the Soviet residence permit system (propiska).[1][5]
Exile settlements (ссыльное поселение,ssylnoye poselenie) were a kind ofinternal exile. The system of political and administrative exile existed inImperial Russia as well. The most notable category of exile settlers in the Soviet Union (ссыльнопоселенцы,ssylnoposelentsy) were thewhole nationalities resettled duringJoseph Stalin's rule (1928–1953). At various times, a number of other terms were used for this category:special settlement (спецпоселение),special resettlement (спецпереселение), andadministrative exile (административная высылка, a term which refers to anextrajudicial way of deciding the fates of people "by administrative means"). Exiles were sent to remote areas of the Soviet Union:Siberia,Kazakhstan,Central Asia, and theRussian Far East.
The major source of the population in exile settlements were victims of what is now calledethnic cleansing. The Soviet government feared that people of certain nationalities would act as "fifth column" subversives during the expected war, and took drastic measures to prevent this perceived threat. The deported were sent to prisons, labor camps, exile settlements, and "supervised residence" (residence in usual settlements, but under the monitoring of theNKVD).
In 1929, the government led byJoseph Stalin designated some regions (known as districts) ofWestern Siberia as locations for future deportations of what were referred to as "socially dangerous classes" of people fromBelarus,Ukraine, and the northwestern part ofEuropean Russia.[6]: 478–481 [7][8] Siberian researchers note that deportations of this period may be characterized as "depeasantization" (Russian:раскрестьянивание) as peasants represented a significant share of those who experienced this kind of repression.[6]: 478–481 [7][8] In 1928, the Soviet Union underwent a goods famine known as theSoviet grain crisis; this led to the forcedcollectivization of agriculture. As a result, the government began to subject members of the farming population of the countryside peasantry to a policy of mass deportations; they were forcibly removed and sent to the regions selected for deportations. This policy was enforced up until 1933, when soviet authorities conducted series of so-called "city cleansings", by which they forced some of the marginalized population (peasants who had hid from earlier deportations,Romani people, and other targeted groups) to resettle.[6]: 478–481 [7][8] Streets of many cities likeLeningrad andMoscow were raided by militia and those who were caught were sent to the East. This policy had fatal consequences for some who were targeted; one example of the harsh environment to which deportees were subjected is the infamousNazino tragedy of 1933 that happened nearTomsk.[6]: 478–481 [7][8] The impact on the deportees to Nazino Island was devastating; over 4,000 people died or disappeared within thirteen weeks, having been given only raw flour to survive.[9] The early deportations coincided withdekulakization andpassportization policies of the Soviet Union.
Several waves of forced resettlement occurred from the territories on the Western borders. These territories includedMurmansk Oblast and the recently annexed lands invaded and occupied by the Soviets under theMolotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany; parts ofPoland andRomania and theBaltic States.
In territories annexed from Poland (theKresy territories and theBiałystok Voivodeship), the initial wave of repression of 1939 was rationalized as removal of "social enemies", or "enemies of the people": military, police and administrative personnel, large landowners, industrialists, and merchants. They were usually sentenced to 8–20 years inlabor camps. In addition, settlers, orosadniks, as well asforesters and railroad workers were forcibly removed.Massive deportations of the Polish population into remote areas of the Soviet Union took place in 1940–1941. Estimates of the total number of deported Poles vary between 400,000 and 1.9 million people, includingprisoner of war.
On 23 June 1940,Lavrenty Beria, head of theNKVD, ordered theMurmansk Oblast to be cleansed of "foreign nationals", which includedScandinavians and all other nationalities. People ofFinnish,Swedish, andNorwegian (see also "Kola Norwegians") ethnicities were moved to theKarelo-Finnish SSR.Germans,Koreans,Chinese, and others were moved toAltay.
Deportations of "exiled settlers" from the Baltic States (Lithuanians,Latvians, andEstonians) and the annexed part of Romania (Bessarabia andNorthern Bukovina) were carried out in May–June 1941.
After the 1941 German invasion of the Soviet Union, Stalin sought a rapprochement with the West, which included establishing diplomatic relations with thePolish government in exile. As the result, Polish citizens were "amnestied" and freed from "special settlement". Deportations of Polish citizens are commemorated by theMonument to the Fallen and Murdered in the East in Warsaw.
These deportations concerned Soviet citizens of "enemy nationality". The affected wereVolga Germans, Finns,Romanians,Italians, andGreeks. At the end of this period,Crimean Tatars were included in this wave of deportation.
These deportations concerned ethnicities declared guilty of cooperation withNazi occupants: a number of peoples ofNorth Caucasus andCrimea:Chechens,Ingush,Balkars,Karachays,Meskhetian Turks,Crimean Tatars, andCrimean Bolgars, as well asKalmyks.
Deportations after the end ofWorld War II were not particularly differentiated or classified by "NKVD operations". The affected were people from the territories that were under the administration of theAxis Powers: family members of persons accused of loyalty to the Axis administration and of persons who continued resistance to Soviet power, which was classified as "banditism". Some formerOstarbeiters were "filtered" into exile as well. "Cleansing" of the annexed territories continued until the early 1950s. In July 1949, a further 35,000 were deported fromBessarabia andNorthern Bukovina, accused of being kulaks or collaborating with the wartime Romanian administration.
Lithuania suffered its heaviest deportation number on the night of May 22, 4 o'clock. Placing people in animal wagons, Stalin deported around 40,000 people, including 10,897 children under the age of 15. The journeys alone took a toll of 5,000 Lithuanian children.[10]
The termukaznik derives from the Russian term "ukaz" that means "decree". It applies to those convicted according to various Sovietukazes, but the most common usage refers to a series of decrees related to what was later formalized in Soviet law asparasitism, orevasion from socially-useful work. Among the first of these was the decree of 2 June 1942 "On criminal culpability for evasion from socially useful work and for social parasitism in the agricultural sector" (Об ответственности за уклонение от общественно полезного труда и за ведение антиобщественного паразитического образа жизни в сельском хозяйстве). It was usually applied tokolkhozniks who failed to carry out theircorvée (trudodni, "labour-days"). The term of exile was 8 years. During 1948–1952 33,266 special settlers("ukazniks") were registered. Unlike other exile settler categories, children of these exiles were not subject to the Decree.
A number of religious groups, such as theJehovah's Witnesses (свидетели иеговы),True Orthodox Church (истинно-православные христиане),Inochentism (иннокентьевцы) andTrue and Free Seventh-day Adventists (адвентисты-реформисты) werepersecuted by the Soviet Union.[citation needed] In particular, members of these groups refused to join theYoung Pioneers, theKomsomol, or to serve in theSoviet Army. Usually members of these groups and especially influential members were subject tocriminal law and treated on a case-by-case basis. However, on 3 March 1951, theUSSR Council of Ministers issued a decree, "On Expulsion of Active Participants of the anti-Soviet Illegal Sect of Jehovists and their Family Members" (Постановление Совета Министров СССР о выселении активных участников антисоветской нелегальной секты иеговистов и членов их семей No. 1290-467 от 3 марта 1951 года). According to this decree, about 9,400 Jehovah's Witnesses, including about 4,000 children,[citation needed] were resettled from theBaltic States,Moldavia, and western parts ofByelorussia andUkraine toSiberia in 1951, an event known as "Operation North".
Only in September 1965, a decree of the Presidium of the USSRCouncil of Ministers canceled the "special settlement" restriction for members of these religious groups.[11]
The above are the major, most populous categories of exile settlers. There were a number of smaller categories. They were small in the scale of the whole Soviet Union, but rather significant in terms of the affected categories of population. For example, in 1950 allIranians, with the exception of persons ofArmenian ethnicity, were resettled fromGeorgia, a population of some 4,776 persons, and in the same year thousands of Christian ethnicAssyrians were deported from Armenia and Georgia to Kazakhstan.[12]
Labor settlements (трудопоселение,trudoposelenie) were a method of internal exile that used settlers forobligatory labor. The main category of "labor settlers" (трудопоселенцы,trudoposelentsy) werekulaks and members of their families deported in 1930s before theGreat Purge. Labor settlements were under the management of theGulag, but they must not be confused withlabor camps.
The first official document that decreed wide-scale "dekulakization" was a joint decree ofCentral Executive Committee andSovnarkom on 1 February 1930. Initially families of kulaks were deported into remote areas"for special settlement" without particular care about their occupation. In 1931–1932 the problems of dekulakization and territorial planning of the exile settlement were handled by a specialPolitburo commission known as theAndreev-Rudzutak Commission (комиссия Андреева-Рудзутака), named afterAndrey Andreyevich Andreyev andYan Rudzutak. The plan to achieve goals like exploitation of natural resources and the colonization of remote areas with "special settlements" instead oflabor camps was dropped after the revelation of theNazino affair in 1933; subsequently theGulag system was expanded.
The notions of "labor settlement"/"labor settlers" were introduced in 1934 and were in official use until 1945. Since 1945, the terminology was unified, and exiled kulaks were documented as "special resettlers – kulaks".
Free settlements (вольное поселение,volnoye poselenie) were for persons released from the confines of labor camps "for free settlement" before their term expiration, as well as for those who served the full term, but remained restricted in theirchoice of place of residence. These people were known asfree settlers (вольнопоселенцы,volnoposelentsy). The term was in use earlier, inImperial Russia, in two meanings: free settlement of peasants orcossacks (in the sense of being free fromserfdom) and non-confined exile settlement (e.g., after serving akatorga term).
In the Soviet Union, a decree ofSovnarkom of 1929 about labor camps[which?] said, in part:[citation needed]
For gradual colonization of the regions where concentration camps are to be established, suggest theOGPU andNarkomat of Justice to urgently plan activities based on the following principles: (1) <to transfer the convicts of good behavior to free settlement ahead of term> (2) <to leave the convicts served full term but restricted in residence, for settlement and supply them with land> (3) <to allow the settlement of released convicts volunteered to stay>.
The "free settlers" of the first category were often required to do the work assigned to the corresponding labor camp or some other obligatory work. Later, people could be assigned for "free settlement" in other places as well, even in towns, with obligatory work wherever a workforce was required.
After thedissolution of the Soviet Union the researchers gained access to the archives of theNKVD. Data on 1 January 1953 show 2,753,356 "deported andspecial settlers".[citation needed]Dmitri Volkogonov, in his book about Stalin,[13] quoted anMVD document that reports 2,572,829 on 1 January 1950.
In Lithuania alone around 131,600 people were banished along with 156,000 sent to gulags.[14]
{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: others (link)