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June deportation

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The June deportation of 1941 (Estonian: juuniküüditamine, Latvian: jūnija deportācijas, Lithuanian: birželio trėmimai) was a mass deportation of tens of thousands of people during World War II from Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, present-day western Belarus and western Ukraine, and present-day Moldova – territories which had been occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939–1940 – into the interior of the Soviet Union.[1]

The June deportation was ordered by the Soviet dictator Stalin, and organized following formal guidelines set by the NKVD[2] with the Soviet Interior People's Commissar Lavrentiy Beria as the senior executor.[3] The official title of the top secret document was “Resolution On the Eviction of the Socially Foreign Elements from the Baltic Republics, Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and Moldova”.[4] The NKVD and Red Army units carried out the arrests, often in collaboration with the Soviet police and local Communist Party members.[5]

Background

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The June deportations were part of a much larger history of depopulation.[6] The "Stalin deportations" from 1928-1953 targeted 13 different nationalities.[7] The June Deportation marked the first industrialized deportations, using rail.[8]

Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were invaded and occupied, and thereafter annexed, by the Soviet Union in June 1940, in less than a year after Poland and the Baltic countries had been divided into "spheres of influence" between the Soviet Union and Nazi Germany in the 23 August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact.[9] In June 1940 the three independent Baltic countries were occupied by the Soviet Red army and new pro-Soviet puppet governments were installed.[10] Mass deportation campaigns began almost immediately and included Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova.[4]

Deportations

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Planning for mass deportations began as far back as 1939.[4] The deportation took place from 22 May to 20 June 1941,[11] just before the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany.[12] The operations began 22 May in Ukraine and Poland, 12-13 June in Moldova, 14 June in Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, and 19-20 June in Belarus.[2]

The goal of the deportations was to remove political opponents of the Soviet government, not to strengthen security in preparation for the German attack.[13] The NKVD framed the deportees as anti-Soviet, counter-revolutionaries, and criminal elements.[4][14] The fourth wave of mass deportations in occupied Poland[15] and deportations in Ukraine were both intended to combat the "counter-revolutionary" Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists.[14][16] The deportation program served three Soviet goals: to remove dissidents, to change composition of population through Russian migration, and to have cheap slave labor in Gulag camps.[4]

The June deportation campaigns resulted in genocidal levels of depopulation.[17] The goal of depopulation was often reflected by NKVD officials carrying out deportations. For example, in Lithuania, the Lutherans, wealthy, academics, and Nationalists were targeted. Lithuanian affairs commissioner Mikhail Suslov declared "There will be Lithuania – but without Lithuanians."[18][unreliable source?]

The procedure for the deportations was approved by Ivan Serov in the Serov Instructions. People were deported without trials in whole families, which were then split.[15][19] Men were generally imprisoned and most of them died in Siberia in Gulag camps. Women and children were resettled in forced settlements[13] in Omsk and Novosibirsk Oblasts, Krasnoyarsk, Tajikistan, Altai Krais, and Kazakhstan.[11] Thousands of people were stuffed into cattle cars, usually 30–40 under unsanitary conditions leading to casualties, especially among elderly and children.[20] Due to poor living conditions at the destination, the mortality rate was very high. For example, the mortality rate among the Estonian deportees was estimated at 60%.[13]

Following Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev began a program of limited return.[7] In Lithuania, for example, 17,000 people returned by 1956 and 80,000 returned by 1970.[21] Many people deemed nationalist or of non-white ethnic descent were not allowed to return until the 1980s.[22] When survivors did return they faced discrimination and loss of property.[23]

Number of deportees

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The number of deported people include:

Pre-war
country 		Number of deportees
To forced settlements[24]
(from official NKVD reports)		 To prison camps and
forced settlements		 Ovestated estimates
Estonia 5,978 10,000 to 11,000[13]
Latvia 9,546[25] 15,000[25]
Lithuania 10,187 17,500[26]
Poland 11,329 (Western Ukraine)
22,353 (Western Belarus)
24,412 (Western Belarus)[27]		 200,000 to 300,000[24][15]
Romaniaa 24,360 300,000[28]
a Moldavia as well as Chernivtsi Oblast and Izmail Oblast of Ukraine

Remembrance

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Memorial event in Tallinn in 1989
2023 June Deportation Remembrance Day in Estonia

Baltic States hold a day of remembrance on 14 June.[29][30] In Latvia this is the Commemoration Day for the Victims of Communist Genocide.[31]

The Day of Remembrance began following the National Awakening movement in the 1980s.[31] On 14 June 1987, the human rights group Helsinki-86 organized a flower laying ceremony at the Freedom Monument to commemorate the victims of the 1941 deportations.[31] In 1993 the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia (LOM) was founded which organized efforts around Remembrance Days.[30] In Estonia the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory leads vigils on 14 June and 25 March.[23]

In media

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The June deportation has been the subject of several Baltic films from the 2010s. The 2013 Lithuanian film The Excursionist dramatised the events through the depiction of a 10-year-old girl who escapes from her camp. Estonia's 2014 In the Crosswind is an essay film based on the memoirs of a woman who was deported to Siberia, and is told through staged tableaux vivants filmed in black-and-white. Estonia's Ülo Pikkov also addressed the events in the animated short film Body Memory (Kehamälu) from 2012. Latvia's The Chronicles of Melanie was released in 2016 and is, just like In the Crosswind, based on the memoirs of a woman who experienced the deportation, but is told in a more conventional dramatic way.[32]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ Švedas, Aurimas (2020-12-09). "Narratives of Exile and Identity: Soviet Deportation Memoirs from the Baltic States, eds. Violeta Davoliūtė, Tomas Balkelis, Budapest & New York: Central European University Press, 2018. 220 pp. ISBN 978-963-386-183-7". Lithuanian Historical Studies. 24 (1): 262–264. doi:10.30965/25386565-02401021. ISSN 1392-2343. S2CID 230572283.
  2. ^ a b Иванов, Александр (2020). "Narratives of Exile and Identity: Soviet Deportation Memoirs from the Baltic States ed. by Violeta Davoliūtė and Tomas Balkelis". Ab Imperio. 2020 (2): 289–295. doi:10.1353/imp.2020.0047. ISSN 2164-9731. S2CID 226516659.
  3. ^ Vardys, V. Stanley (1966). "How the Baltic Republics Fare in the Soviet Union". Foreign Affairs. 44 (3): 512–517. doi:10.2307/20039184. ISSN 0015-7120. JSTOR 20039184.
  4. ^ a b c d e Kašauskienė, Vanda (1998-11-30). "Deportations From Lithuania Under Stalin. 1940-1953". Lithuanian Historical Studies. 3 (1): 73–82. doi:10.30965/25386565-00301004. ISSN 1392-2343.
  5. ^ Saueauk, Meelis (2015-12-21). ""Erikaader": nomenklatuur ja julgeolekuorganid Eesti NSV-s 1940–1953 [Abstract: "Special cadre": the nomenklatura system and the state security organs in the era of Stalinist rule in the Estonian SSR 1940–1953]". Ajalooline Ajakiri. The Estonian Historical Journal (4): 407. doi:10.12697/aa.2015.4.04. ISSN 2228-3897.
  6. ^ Kohut, Andriy (2020-06-19). "Soviet deportations of OUN family members from Western Ukraine in 1940–1952". Acta Historica Neosoliensia. 23 (1): 72–90. doi:10.24040/ahn.2020.23.01.72-90. ISSN 1336-9148. S2CID 225706844.
  7. ^ a b Pohl, J. Otto (June 2000). "Stalin's genocide against the "Repressed Peoples"". Journal of Genocide Research. 2 (2): 267–293. doi:10.1080/713677598. ISSN 1462-3528. S2CID 59194258.
  8. ^ Blum, Alain; Koustova, Emilia; Grieve, Madeleine; Duthreuil, Catriona (2018). "Negotiating Lives, Redefining Repressive Policies: Managing the Legacies of Stalinist Deportations". Kritika: Explorations in Russian and Eurasian History. 19 (3): 537–571. doi:10.1353/kri.2018.0029. ISSN 1538-5000. S2CID 165555242.
  9. ^ Ziemele, Ineta (2003). "State Continuity, Succession and Responsibility: Reparations to the Baltic States and their Peoples?". Baltic Yearbook of International Law Online. 3 (1): 165–189. doi:10.1163/221158903x00072. ISSN 1569-6456.
  10. ^ Hiden, John; Salmon, Patrick (1994). The Baltic nations and Europe: Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania in the twentieth century (rev. ed.). London New York: Longman. ISBN 978-0-582-25650-7.
  11. ^ a b Bloxham, Donald; Moses, A. Dirk (2010). The Oxford Handbook of Genocide Studies. Oxford University Press. p. 403. ISBN 9780199232116.
  12. ^ Martin, Terry (2001-08-01), "Stalinist Forced Relocation Policies", Demography and National Security, Berghahn Books, pp. 305–339, doi:10.2307/j.ctv287sd9m.16, retrieved 2023-06-14
  13. ^ a b c d Rahi-Tamm, Aigi; Kahar, Andres (2009). "The deportation Operation "Priboi" in 1949" (PDF). In Hiio, Toomas; Maripuu, Meelis; Paavle, Indrek (eds.). Estonia Since 1944: Report of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity. Tallinn: Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity. p. 310. ISBN 978-9949183005. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2019-03-28. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
  14. ^ a b Lovell, Stephen (2011). The Shadow of War: Russia and the USSR, 1941 to the present. John Wiley & Sons. p. 218. ISBN 9781444351590.
  15. ^ a b c Lane, Thomas (2004). Victims of Stalin and Hitler: The Exodus of Poles and Balts to Britain. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 79. ISBN 978-1-349-51584-4.
  16. ^ "Romuald J. Misiunas and Rein Taagepera. The Baltic States: Years of Dependence, 1940–1980; Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press. 1983. pp. xvi, 333". The American Historical Review. June 1984. doi:10.1086/ahr/89.3.807. ISSN 1937-5239.
  17. ^ Mälksoo, Lauri (December 2001). "Soviet Genocide? Communist Mass Deportations in the Baltic States and International Law". Leiden Journal of International Law. 14 (4): 757–787. doi:10.1017/s0922156501000371. ISSN 0922-1565. S2CID 145328825.
  18. ^ "Lithuanian exiles and deportations (1940–1953) | True Lithuania". www.truelithuania.com. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  19. ^ Švedas, Aurimas (2020-12-09). "Narratives of Exile and Identity: Soviet Deportation Memoirs from the Baltic States, eds. Violeta Davoliūtė, Tomas Balkelis, Budapest & New York: Central European University Press, 2018. 220 pp". Lithuanian Historical Studies. 24 (1): 262–264. doi:10.30965/25386565-02401021. ISBN 978-963-386-183-7. ISSN 1392-2343. S2CID 230572283.
  20. ^ Švedas, Aurimas (2020-12-09). "Narratives of Exile and Identity: Soviet Deportation Memoirs from the Baltic States, eds. Violeta Davoliūtė, Tomas Balkelis, Budapest-New York: Central European University Press, 2018. 220 pp". Lithuanian Historical Studies. 24 (1): 262–264. doi:10.30965/25386565-02401021. ISBN 978-963-386-183-7. ISSN 1392-2343. S2CID 230572283.
  21. ^ "Lithuanian exiles and deportations (1940–1953) | True Lithuania". www.truelithuania.com. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  22. ^ Pohl, J.O. (2012). "Soviet apartheid: Stalin's ethnic deportations, special settlement restrictions, and the labor army: The case of the ethnic Germans in the USSR". Human Rights Review. 13 (2): 205–224. doi:10.1007/s12142-011-0215-x. S2CID 255519700.
  23. ^ a b World, Estonian (2023-03-24). "The victims of Soviet deportations remembered in Estonia". Estonian World. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  24. ^ a b Statiev, Alexander (2010). The Soviet Counterinsurgency in the Western Borderlands. Cambridge University Press. pp. 167–168, 184. ISBN 9780521768337.
  25. ^ a b Õispuu, Leo (2014). Name list of persons deported from Estonia 1945-1953 (PDF). Vol. R8/3. Estonian Repressed Persons Records Bureau. p. 16. ISBN 978-9985-9914-6-6. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-01-01. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
  26. ^ Stravinskienė, Vitalija (2012). "Lietuvos lenkų trėmimai: 1941–1952 m." Istorija. Mokslo darbai (in Lithuanian). 87. ISSN 2029-7181. Archived from the original on 2016-12-25. Retrieved 2016-12-31.
  27. ^ Hryciuk, Grzegorz (2007). "Victims 1939–1941: The Soviet Repressions in Eastern Poland". In Barkan, Elazar; Cole, Elizabeth A.; Struve, Kai (eds.). Shared History, Divided Memory: Jews and Others in Soviet-occupied Poland, 1939-1941. Leipziger Universitätsverlag. p. 193. ISBN 9783865832405.
  28. ^ Brezianu, Andrei; Spânu, Vlad (2010). The A to Z of Moldova. Scarecrow Press. p. 117. ISBN 9780810872110.
  29. ^ "Lithuania marks 80th anniversary of Soviet mass deportations". WJXT. Associated Press. 2021-06-14. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  30. ^ a b "Soviet deportations remembered 82 years on". eng.lsm.lv. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  31. ^ a b c "2. Soviet occupation – Latvijas Okupācijas muzejs". 2021-09-07. Archived from the original on 2021-09-07. Retrieved 2023-06-14.
  32. ^ Priimägi, Tristan (2016-11-29). "The Chronicles of Melanie: The dear deported". Cineuropa. Retrieved 2017-02-05.
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