After the Nazi invasion of the USSR up until the deportation of the Volga Germans, the NKVD combed through the Volga German ASSR looking for spies and saboteurs. Between 22 June and 10 August 1941 they arrested a total of 145 ethnic Germans deemed to be politically suspect only two of which they accused of being spies. That is they knew that the population posed no security or political threat to the USSR because they had already filtered out the very few remaining people that were politically suspect. Hence the claims that the deportations were merely understandable security measures and had nothing what so ever to do with racial discrimination are impossible to believe. The breakdown of reasons for arrest are below.
People "spreading defeatist and insurrectionist statements" - 97
Having membership in "anti-soviet and counterrevolutionary groups" - 6
Having "subversive intentions" - 4
Having "terrorist intentions" - 3
Espionage - 2
Despite the fact that they found less than 150 people out of a population of over 366,000 people that were of suspect loyalty they deported the entire population eastward to Siberia and Kazakhstan during September 1941 claiming they were all guilty of treason. In violation of the Soviet constitution they collectively punished the population on the basis of their nationality, confiscated their property, and dissolved their national state formation.
Source: Konstanin Isakov, "1941-Other Germans," New Times, no. 17, 1990, p. 38.
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And Espionage was a common accusation that time, article 58-6 of Criminal Code of RSFSR. In 99.9% had nothing to do with Espionage.
Espionage was a common accusation that time, article 58-6 of RSFSR Penal Code, 99.9% had nothing to do with espionage.So a chance that the people were real spies is very low.
I think so, too. Maybe not even these 150, or these 2, were "real" spies. Since the 1930s people were accused of all sorts of stuff, and were usually innocent.
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