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

Employment of Labor of German Civilians from European Countries in the USSR, and Their Repatriation

Employment of Labor of German Civilians from European Countries in the USSR, and Their Repatriation DESTINATION GEOGRAPHY AND EMPLOYMENT OF LABOR OF GERMAN INTERNEES IN THE USSR The geographical pattern of the internees’ destinations is remarkable. As we can see, the State Defense Committee kept their word: most of the internees—over 3/4—were transported to the Donbass and adjacent metal-production areas in southern Ukraine (see table 15 and figure 8). Another 11% were “employed” in the Urals. Relatively small target groups were placed in the North Caucasus, Belorussia, Ukraine and the Moscow Obl. Among the 15 oblasts in which one labor battalion was stationed, only 2 (the Aktyubinsk and Kemerovo Obls.) were located to the east of the Urals, and another 3 in the north of the European part of the USSR (the Karel–Finn ASSR, Arkhangelsk and Murmansk Obls.). Interestingly, male workers were prevalent in the Donbass, while women made up the majority in the Urals. As compared to the placement of the Soviet special resettlers at the time, this geographical pattern looks fairly privileged and “humane.” In essence, it repeats the pattern of placement of the Soviet repatriates, a considerable number of whom were recruited for rehabilitation work in the Donbass mines. It is noteworthy that the Donbass population was most significantly affected by the German campaign of driving Soviet citizens to Germany as a labor force. As early as 29 December 1944 (i.e., 13 days after the crucial decree No. 7161cc was issued), by way of elaborating on the matter the State Defense Committee adopted Resolution “On the use of interned Germans as a labor force” (No. 7252cc).1 The People’s Com- missariats involved initially—the Narkomugol and Narkomchermet— were joined by the Narkomtsvetmet (headed by People’s Commissar Lomako2): its enterprises were to host 20 thousand out of the projected total of 140 thousand labor force, or half of the force that was to be at the Narkomchermet’s disposal (40 thousand), and quarter of that intended for the Narkomugol (80 thousand). The majority of the internees were planned to be sent to the Stalino (56 thousand),Voroshilovgrad (28 thousand) and Rostov (8.5 thousand) Obls., where they were to be employed mainly in the coal industry. In its turn, ferrous metal production was the prevailing sphere in the Dnepropetrovsk Obl. (22.5 thousand). The inclusion of the Narkomtsvetmet [non-ferrous metal production] implied a significant extension of the geographic area where the internee labor would be used: related enterprises were located in the Urals (the Sverdlovsk Obl. was alone to receive 5 thousand people), in the LeninAGAINST THEIR WILL 278 Table 15. Geographical patterns of the distribution of German internees within the USSR, as of 1 January 1946 No. Oblasts Number Internees Proportion and republics of labor of male force battalions Persons % % 1. Stalino Obl. 63 49,452 37.4 55.8 2. Voroshilovgrad Obl. 30 26,015 19.7 64.6 3. Dnepropetrovsk Obl. 27 18,556 14.0 61.2 4. Chelyabinsk Obl. 6 5,185 3.9 42.8 5. Rostov Obl. 5 4,314 3.3 50.9 6. Sverdlovsk Obl. 6 3,470 2.6 45.9 7. Georgian SSR 4 2,972 2.2 88.8 8. Chkalov Obl. 3 2,780 2.1 95.0 9. Kharkov Obl. 4 2,409 1.8 69.6 10. Molotov Obl. 3 1,946 1.5 41.7 11. Zaporozhye Obl. 2 1,608 1.2 77.1 12. Minsk Obl. 3 1,526 1.2 100.0 13. Komi ASSR 2 1,357 1.0 22.3 14. Chuvash ASSR 2 966 0.7 7.9 15. Grozny Obl. 2 927 0.7 35.0 16. Moscow Obl. 3 877 0.7 100.0 17. Kurgan Obl. 788 0.6 7.7 18. North Ossetian ASSR 2 762 0.6 63.1 19–33. Others 14 6,243 4.8 Total 183 132,133 100.0 58.7 Source; RGVA, h. 1p, r. 4a, d. 21, l. 3. grad Obl., North Ossetia, as well as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan and Tajikistan. Special commissions, assigned to manage all relevant tasks, were established in the Stalino, Voroshilovgrad, Dnepropetrovsk and Rostov Obls. They comprised the secretary of the oblast party committee (the commission chairman), the chairman of the oblast executive committee , the chief of the NKVD department and representatives of the interested industries.3 The commissions were authorized...