This August marks the 65th anniversary of the deportation of the Russian-Germans to special settlements in Kazakhstan and Siberia. I will be doing a whole series on the ethnic cleansing of the Russian-Germans from European Russia, Ukraine and the Caucasus during the summer and fall of 1941. The official day of commemoration of the deportations is 28 August. On that day in 1941 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued Ukaz 21-160 ordering the deportation of all ethnic Germans living in the Volga region. This region included not only the Volga German Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, but Saratov and Stalingrad oblasts as well. In total more than 400,000 Russian-Germans lived in these territories prior to their deportation during 3-20 September 1941. I will be in transit on 28 August so my post for the official commemoration will probably be on the 29 August. The deportation of the Russian-Germans, however, neither started nor ended with the Volga Germans. The ethnic cleansing of the Russian-Germans started in Crimea on 15 August 1941 and continued up through November. I will be posting on the deportation of each of the various Russian-German communities west of the Urals on the anniversary of their exile. I will start with the Crimean Germans on 15 August and finish with the Russian-Germans in Koshinsk Raion, Kubishev (Samara) Oblast on 21 November. I am trying to publicize these posts to as many people of Russian-German descent in the US as possible. If you know one or more of the more than one million Americans of Russian-German heritage please pass the address of this blog along to him or her. Below I have posted a time line of the deportation of the Russian-Germans during the summer and fall of 1941.
15 August 1941 – NKVD begins evacuation of Russian-Germans in Crimea to Ordzhonikidze Krai and Rostov Oblast. Over 53,000 Crimean Germans forcibly relocated.
28 August 1941 – Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issues Ukaz no. 21-160 ordering the deportation of the Volga Germans to special settlements in Kazakhstan and Siberia.
31 August 1941 – Soviet government orders all able-bodied Russian-German men in Ukraine sent to labor camps in Urals. NKVD rounds up and interns 18,600 men aged 16 to 60.
3-20 September 1941 – NKVD records deporting 446,480 (Other figures 376,717 and 438,280) Russian-Germans from the Volga German ASSR, 46,706 from Saratov Oblast and 26,245 from Stalingrad Oblast.
6 September 1941 – Stalin orders the deportation of Russian-Germans from Moscow and Rostov oblasts.
7 September 1941 – Soviet government dissolves Volga German ASSR.
8 September 1941 – NKVD issues Prikaz no. 35105 removing all ethnic Germans from the Red Army and Soviet military academies and sending them to labor battalions.
10-15 September 1941 – NKVD records deporting 7,020 Russian-Germans from Moscow Oblast.
15-18 September 1941 – NKVD records deporting 38,288 Russian-Germans from Rostov Oblast.
21 September 1941 – Stalin orders the deportation of Russian-Germans from Krasnodar Krai, Ordzhonikidze Krai, Tula Oblast, the Karabardino-Balkar ASSR, and the North Ossetian ASSR.
22 September 1941 – Stalin orders the deportation of Russian-Germans from Zaporozhia, Stalin and Voroshilov oblasts in Ukraine.
25 September – 10 October 1941 – NKVD records deporting 76,361 Russian-Germans from Ukraine and 125,118 from the North Caucasus.
8 October 1941 – Stalin orders the deportation of Russian-Germans from Voronezh Oblast and Transcaucasian republics.
15-30 October 1941 – NKVD records deporting 5,125 Russian-Germans from Voronezh Oblast and 46,633 from Transcaucasian republics.
22 October 1941 – Stalin orders the deportation of the Russian-Germans from Daghestan and the Chechen-Ingush ASSR.
25-30 October 1941 – NKVD records deporting 7,306 Russian-Germans from Daghestan and Chechnya.
2 November 1941 – SNK issues resolution on the deportation of the 5,706 Russian-Germans recorded as living in the Kalmyk ASSR.
21 November 1941- SNK issues resolution on the deportation of the 8,787 Russian-Germans recorded as living in Koshinsk Raion in Kubishev Oblast to Kazakhstan.
25 December 1941 – NKVD reports having deported a recorded 856,168 Russian-Germans from European areas of the USSR and the Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Siberia.
Sources
V.A. Auman and V.G. Chebotareva, eds., Istoriia rossiskikh nemtsev v dokumentakh vol. I, (1763-1992 gg.) (Moscow: MIGP, 1993).
N.F. Bugai, ed., Deportatsiia narodov kryma: Dokumenty, fakty, kommentarii (Moscow,
Insan, 2002).
N.F. Bugai, ed., “Mobilizovat’ nemtsev v robochie kolonny…I. Stalin”: Sbornik dokumentov (1940-e gody) (Moscow: Gotika, 1998).
N.F. Bugai, ed., Iosif Stalin – Lavrentiiu Berii. “ Ikh nado deportirovat’,” Dokumenty, fakty, kommentarii (Moscow, Druzhba narodov, 1992).
Alfred Eisfeld and Victor Herdt, eds. Deportation, Sondersiedlung, Arbeitsarmee: Deutsche in der Sowjetunion 1941 bis 1956 (Koln: Verlag Wissenschaft und Politik, 1996).
A.A. German and A.N. Kurochkin, Nemtsy SSSR v trudovoi armii (1941-1955) (Moscow: Gotika, 1998).
O.L. Milova, ed., Deportatsii narodov SSSR (1930-1950-e gody). Chast’ 2. Deportatsiia nemtsev (Sentiabr’ 1941-Fevral’ 1942 gg.) (Moscow: RAN, 1995).
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5 comments:
Thank-you Dr. Otto for blogging this most neglected anniversary. This month marks the 65th anniversary of the ruthless deportations of my relatives from Russia to Siberia and Kazakhstan which were mandated by Stalin. My great grandfather, Adam Metzler, who came from Russia in 1907, had either a brother or first cousin, who also came to this country. Both ended up in Fresno, California. But, after a few years this cousin/brother became physically sick and thought a return trip to the Volga would heal him. He missed the Volga, and decided to pack up his wife and three children and return to Jost, Russia. He died shortly after returning to Jost. And, as if this were not bad enough, in 1941, his wife and one child were deported to Siberia and his two other children ended up in Kazakhstan. When the Soviet Union collapsed and Russia opened up, Alexander (the cousin/brother) Metzler's daughter, her daughter, husband and sons, who had been living a harsh life in Kazakhstan, immigrated to Germany. Viktor, the great-great grandson of Alexander Metzler is about 26 and he works in a bank in Germany. He's also at university. I tracked him down several years ago with help from the American Historical Society of Germans from Russia. He is a wonderful young man. Sadly, and understandably, his family does not talk openly about Siberia or the harsh life in Kazakhstan.
For years I had always wondered why my father was such a violent, bitter, abusive individual. During my youth, the violence in our house was incredible. In talking to one of my many cousins last spring at a family funeral, I learned that Adam Metzler was also a periodic violent, abusive, bitter alcoholic. From what I gather, when Adam wasn't drinking he was a really nice man, but on several occasions he was institutionalized (now remember, this was in the 1920s, 30s, 40s, and 50s) because of his drinking and violence with his wife and the children. What was at the core of this violence, the bitterness, the depression? I can't imagine what it was like to pack up, sail across the ocean, travel to Fresno, California, only to be taunted with names like "Rooshian" etc., and then, to have any ties with family in Russia cut off because of the cold war and deportation. The pain of deportation directly impacted the generation of my great-grandparents, their relatives, my grandparents and their contemporaries. The pain of deportation indirectly impacted the following generations, my generation. I think it is a travesty of justice that Russia has never taken responsibility for the abuses, loss of property, dignity and heritage inflicted on the Germans from Russia. And, because the U.S. government is cautious with its relations with Russia, the descendents of the Germans from Russia living in the U.S. have never heard their government confront Russia or even acknowledge that this genocide occurred.
Carla Wills-Brandon, Ph.D.
www.carlawillsbrandon.com
drsbrandon@sbcglobal.net
Dear Otto,
Pardon for my bad English. You set up a very interesting chronology - respect. Only few things slightly wrong in here.
There are deported from the Volga German Republic 371,164 (Other figures 365,764) Russian-Germans, 46,706 from Saratov Oblast and 26,245 from Stalingrad Oblast.
According to official figures, by the end of 1941, 799,459 (or 794.059) people had been ‘resettled’ from the European territories of the Soviet Union to Kazakhstan and Siberia, including 444,115 (or 438,715) Volga Germans.
On 31 August 1941 not the Soviet government, but the Politburo the Communist Party (Vsesoiuznaia Kommunisticheskaia Partiia (bol’sheviki) - VKP(b)) take a secret decision “Over the Germans who live on the territory of the Ukrainian SSR.”
On 7 September 1941not the Soviet government (the executive), but the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR (legislature) take the Ukaz “About the administrative organisation of territory of former Volga Germans Republic” among the provinces Saratov (15 cantons) and Stalingrad (7 cantons).
It is better to say: The State Defense Committee (Gosudarstvennyi Komitet Oborony) with Stalin on the top:
- Resolution of the GKO No. 636ss (sovershenno sekretno – top secret) from 6 September 1941: deportation of Russian-Germans from the city and province (oblast) Moscow and Rostov oblasts;
- Resolution of the GKO No. 698ss from 21 September 1941….
- Resolution of the GKO No. 702ss from 22 September 1941….
- Resolution of the GKO No. 743ss from 8 October 1941: deportation of Russian-Germans from Voronezh oblast.
- Resolution of the GKO No. 744ss from 8 October 1941: deportation of Russian-Germans from Transcaucasian republics.
- Resolution of the GKO No. 827ss from 22 Ocober 1941…
======================================================
8. September 1941 issues not the NKVD but it was the directive No 35105 of the Supreme High Command General Headquarters (Stavka Verkhovnogo Glavnokomanduiushchego) removing all ethnic Germans from the Red Army and Soviet military academies…
In addition to this chronological table
3 August 1941 - NKVD (Beriia) order the the resettlement from the Karelo-Finnish Union Republic about 1.200 German families.
24 August 1941 - Zhdanov, Molotov and Malenkov sent a letter to Stalin with they decision to evacuate of 88.700 Finns and 6.700 Germans from the city and province Leningrad.
26 August 1941 - decision by the Central Committee of the VKP(b) and the Council of People’s Commissars (Sovet Narodnykh Komissarov - SNK), i.e. the government, to deporting the Volga Germans.
15. Oktober 1941 - NKVD (Beriia) order with Prikaz 1507 the resettlement from the province Gorki.
30. October 1941 – SNK made the instruction (rasporiazhenie) No. 57k “About displacement the persons of a German nationality from industrial in agricultural areas” for the Uzbek SSR, provinces Molotov (Perm), Chelyabinsk, Sverdlovsk, Chkalov (Orenburg).
6. January 1942 – SNK made the instruction No. 196 rs “About resettlement of persons of a German nationality in the Uzbek SSR”, i.e. to banish the Germans living in the city of Tashkent, in the Tashkent province and in other provinces centers, in Bukhara and Samarkand oblasti.
- 29 May 1942 - Resolution of the GKO No. 1828 ss: deportation of Germans, Crimea Tatars, Romanians, Greeks from Krasnodar region (krai) and Rostov oblast.
Dear Otto, my research article about Germanophobia and Russian Germans in WW2is just published:
- Patriots or Traitors? The Soviet Government and the "German Russians" After the Attack on the USSR by National Socialist Germany". In: Russian-German Special Relations in the Twentieth Century: A Closed Chapter? / edited by Karl Schlögel. New York: Berg Publishers 2006, pp. 133-163
http://www.bergpublishers.com/us/book_page.asp?BKTitle=Russian-German%20Special%20Relations%20in%20the%20Twentieth%20Century
If you have interest, I can send the text as a WORD file.
With best wishes
Viktor Krieger
http://www.viktor-krieger.de/
http://wolgadeutschen.narod.ru/krieger.htm
Home-Email: krieger.buch@t-online.de
Dear Otto, Viktor and Carla,
thank you very much for your articles about the history of Russian Germans.
This tragic event in the History of WWII is hardly mentioned in Mainstream media.
Most left-wing ideologists still believe that there was no racism or ethnic cleansing under the communist dictatorship and that the only victims of the Soviet Regime were the Jewish "Refusniki", persecuted in Brezhnev period of Soviet history.
When it comes to the history of Russian Germans and their sufferings under the Soviet Regime most people would say:
"Hey, they were Germans and the Soviet Union fought a war against Germans. Germans were the "bad guys" and got what they deserved".
This logic is very schizophrenic. On the one hand these modern ideologists say that Communists were not racists and that makes the difference between Communism and Nazism.
On the other hand they talk about a war between Russians and Germans (not between Communism and Nazism). Ilja Ehrenburg talked abut "Killing the Germans" (not the Nazis).
Well, some events in human history are really very schizophrenic and it is nice to know that there are people who tell the truth.
Regards
Art
Dear Dr Otto,
I am not trying to make a political statement. Rather for purely historical reasons I am trying to learn about a Luftwaffe transport aircraft which during WW2 landed in Kazakhstan to make contact with Russio-Germans but was ambushed by the NKVD's Captain Kaydrov. the year was either late 1943 or early 1944. Can anybody help me please with further background or even just a date for the incident ?
Kind regards
Simon Gunson
New Zealand
sy.gunson@gmail.com
Dear Mr. Gunson:
I was not aware that any Luftwaffe planes got to Kazakhstan during the war. So sorry I do not have any information regarding this matter. This is the first time I had ever heard of it.
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