Against Their Will: The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR

In Lieu of a Conclusion: Geo-demographic Scale and Repercussions of Forced Migrations in the USSR

In Lieu of a Conclusion: Geo-demographic Scale and Repercussions of Forced Migrations in the USSR Forced migrations were practiced in the USSR starting from 1919– 1920 until 1952–1953, i.e., during one-third of a century and nearly half of the period of the existence of the Soviet Union, which thus won it the dubious position of becoming the world’s leader in the sphere of deportation technology and with regard to the results gained through deportations. The mass—and ostensibly disorderly—forced resettlement of millions of people produced a most serious demographic and economic impact in the regions of departure and destination, and in the entire country. Apart from a certain historical and geographic logic behind the forced migrations, there were organizational logistics and infrastructure (largely located under OGPU-NKVD-KGB control) that determined their implementation. It was not until the 1920s and the years of collectivization that the activists forming the deportation policy grew increasingly concentrated at the Communist Party Central Committee (the “Andreyev Commission,” etc.). As a rule, it was the central supreme authorities that took decisions concerning deportations, even those negligible in terms of numeric strength. However, in particular instances, for example in war-time, the decision -taking level would go down to regional or even military territorial administrations (particularly military districts, and even on the front line). Deportation operations represented key elements—or shall we say “units”—of the USSR deportation policy. We define the notion as follows: banishment of precisely specified groups of people, implemented on a particular territory within a particular period of time using violence (in case of direct exertion of force) or coercive meth- ods (a threat of direct use of force) and in compliance with a previously drafted plan or scenario. As a rule, the scenario in question was stipulated by official legislative acts issued by the state or party authorities (laws and decrees, directives and resolutions, orders and instructions, etc.). The deportation operation might include various less apparent stages (for example, so-called first trains [pervyye eshelony], i.e., the banishment of the main body of the target group, and the follow-up actions aimed at locating persons that were not affected by the first wave of deportation or those that avoided the resettlement), and particular related actions that did not require immediate contact with the deported population but—as political instruments—constitute components of the operation (for example, administrative and territorial, and toponymic repressions, or measures for rehabilitation and repatriation ). Typically, a number of particular individual operations can be grouped based on a variety of their essential attributes, the most significant of such attributes being the population affected, for example, all kulak banishment operations or all instances of the expulsion of Germans. Essentially, such groups represented parts of a larger operation implemented at a higher level. However, since these larger operations normally comprised several individual deportation operations, in a sense they represented a distinct concept and required a specific term. We suggest that the term “deportation campaign” be employed to indicate them. The notion can be defined as a meaningful totality of individual deportation operations that can be brought together based on the same target population affected by them, but often separated in temporal and spatial terms. One can cite such classical examples of deportation campaigns as the “kulak exile” and “preventive deportation of Soviet Germans,” which were carried out in 1930–1934 and 1941–1942 respectively, and included an entire series of individual deportations operations each. Such an approach allows us to discern a deeper inherent association between the deportation policy and general internal policy pursued by the Soviet state. As a rule, particular deportation campaigns comprising individual deportation operations manifest their correlation with specific “political operations” or “political campaigns” conducted in the corresponding period of time (for example, dekulakization and repatriation). AGAINST THEIR WILL 306 Leaping a little ahead, we shall remark that the data at our disposal led us to the conclusion that a total of at least 53 deportation campaigns and some 130 deportation operations were carried out. It also transpired that a number of consequential circumstances and issues that had been paid no heed to previously were in place. For example, some legislative acts were of a general character and related to an entire period or stage, and therefore cannot be ascribed to a particular campaign or operation. Our research also revealed some operations that had not been provided...