Wednesday, August 17, 2011

This Month is the 70th Anniversary of the Deportation of the Russian-Germans

Stalin began the deportation of the ethnic German population of the European USSR to Kazakhstan and Siberia in August 1941. The official day of commemoration is the 28th of August when the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issued Ukaz 21-160. This decree falsely accused the Volga Germans of harboring tens of thousands of Nazi spies and saboteurs. It then ordered the deportation of all ethnic Germans from the Volga German ASSR, Saratov Oblast, and Stalingrad Oblast to Kazakhstan and Siberia. However, the actual deportation of ethnic Germans began on 15 August 1941 with the forced evacuation of the Crimean Germans to Ordzhonikidze Krai and Rostov Oblast. My posts for the 70th anniversary of this crime against humanity will not be as thorough as the ones I put up five years ago due to time constraints. However, I will be putting up some new posts and linking to some older ones.

1 comment:

PaperSmyth said...

Thank you. I will return to see your later posts. This is an area of personal interest, as many distant relations were among the forced deportees.