Soviet deportations from Estonia

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As the Soviet Union had occupied Estonia in 1940 and retaken it from Nazi Germany again in 1944, tens of thousands of Estonia's citizens suffered deportation in the 1940s. Deportations were predominantly to Siberia by means of railroad cattle cars, without prior announcement, while deported were given few hours at best to pack and separated from their families, usually also sent to the east. Estonians residing in Leningrad Oblast had already suffered deportation since 1935. The first repressions in Estonia affected Estonia's national elite. On July 17 1940, Commander in Chief of the Armed Forces Johan Laidoner (died in 1953 in Vladimir prison) and his family, and on July 30 1940, President Konstantin Päts (died in 1956 in a psikhushka in Kalinin Oblast) and his family were deported to Penza and Ufa, respectively. In 1941 they were arrested. The country political and military leadership was deported almost entirely, including 10 of 11 ministers and 68 of 120 members of parliament.

As well as on other territories annexed by the Soviet Union in 1939-1940, in Estonia the first large scale deportation of ordinary citizens was carried out by the local operational headquarters of the NKGB of the Estonian SSR under Boris Kumm (chairman), Andres Murro, Aleksei Shkurin, Veniamin Gulst and Rudolf James according to the top secret joint decree No 1299-526ss "Directive on the Deportation of the Socially Alien Element from the Baltic Republics, Western Ukraine, Western Belorussia and Moldavia" by the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (bolsheviks) and the Council of People's Commissars of the Soviet Union of May 14 1941. On June 14 1941, and the following two days, 9,254-10,861 people, mostly urban, of them over 5,000 women and over 2,500 children under 16, 439 Jews (more than 10 percent of the Estonian Jewish population) were deported, mostly to Kirov Oblast, Novosibirsk Oblast or prisons. There hundreds were shot by firing squad. Only 4,331 persons have ever returned to Estonia. 11,102 people were to be deported from Estonia according to the order of June 13, but some managed to escape. The opertation affected Latvia and Lithuania at the same time. Few weeks later, approximately 1,000 people were arrested on Saaremaa for deportation, but the Great Patriotic War started for the Soviet Union and considerable part of the prisoners were freed by the advancing German forces.

During the first year of Soviet rule nearly 54,000 Estonian citizens were executed, deported or mobilized into the Red Army. 5,600 more were drafted, but defected soon. In July 1941 Estonia was took over by Nazi Germany, which retreated only in 1944. Before the beginning of the second Soviet occupation, about 70,000 persons fled abroad for Germany and Sweden. As the Soviets had returned, deportations resumed immediately. The first wave of deportation has always been well documented, as many witnesses were subsequently able to fled abroad during the Second World War. Deportations after 1944 were, however, much harder to document. 18 families (51 persons) were transferred to Tyumen Oblast in October (51 persons), 37 families (87 persons) in November and other 37 families (91 persons) in December as "traitors of the homeland". Also in 1944 at least 30,000 were mobilized for labour service in other parts of the Soviet Union. In August 1945, 407 persons, most of them of German descent, were transferred from Estonia to Perm Oblast.

During collectivization attempt in the Baltic republics, on January 29 1949, the Council of Ministers of the Soviet Union issued top secret decree No. 390–138ss, which obligated the Ministry for State Security (MGB) to exile the kulaks and the people's enemies from the three Baltic Republics forever. So in the early morning of March 25 1949, the second major wave of deportation from the Baltic Republics, operation "Priboy" (Breakers), carried out by MGB began, which was planned to affect 30,000 in Estonia, including peasants. Lieutenant General Pyotr Burmak, commander of the MGB Internal Troops, was in charge for the operation in general. In Estonia the deportations were coordinated by Boris Kumm, Minister of Security of Estonian SSR, and Major General Ivan Yermolin, MGB representative to Estonia. Over 8,000 managed to escape, but 20,722 (7,500 families, over 2.5 percent of the Estonian population, half of them women, over 6,000 children under the age of 16, and 4,300 men) were sent to Siberia during three days. A little over 10 percent of them were men of working age. The deported included invalids, pregnant women and children separated from their parents. Nine trains of people were directed to Novosibirsk Oblast, six to Krasnoyarsk Krai, two to Omsk Oblast, two to Irkutsk Oblast. Many of them perished, most have never returned home. This second wave of the large-scale deportations was aimed to facilitate collectivization, which was implemented with great difficulties in the Baltic republics. As a result, by the end of April 1949, half of the remaining individual farmers in Estonia had joined kolkhozes.

During 1948–1950, a number of Ingrian Finns were also deported from Estonian SSR. The last large-scale campaign of deportations from Estonia took place in 1951, when members of prohibited religious groups from the Baltic countries, Moldavia, Western Ukraine and Belorussia were subject to forcible resettlement.

Riigikogu (Estonian parliament) declared the deportations a crime against humanity, and a few perpetrators of the deportations stood trial and were found guilty. The Russian Federation, being the only legal successor state to the Soviet Union, has never recognized the deportations as a crime and has not paid any compensation.

Notes

Martin, Terry (1998). The Origins of Soviet Ethnic Cleansing. The Journal of Modern History 70.4, 813-861.
Постановление ЦК ВКП(б) и СНК СССР от 14 мая 1941 г. за N 1299-526сс «Директива о выселении социально-чуждого элемента из республик Прибалтики, Западной Украины и Западной Белоруссии и Молдавии». Published in Николай Бугай (ред., 2005) Народы стран Балтии в условиях сталинизма (1940-е – 1950-е годы). Документированная история . Stuttgart: Ibidem-Verlag. P. 103-104. ISBN 3898215253.
According to this decree, the following categories should be transferred: (1) active members of so-called counterrevolutionary organisations and members of their families; (2) former leading officials of the police and prisons, as well as ordinary policemen and prison guards involved in anti-soviet activity or espionage; (3) former significant landowners, merchants, factory owners and leading officials of former governments – all with the members of their families; (4) compromised former officers; (5) the family members of the sentenced to death and of members of counterrevolutionary organisations gone into hiding; (6) individuals repatriated from Germany and subject to resettlement in Germany; (7) refugees from the annexed Polish areas who refused to accept Soviet citizenship; (8) active criminals; (9) prostitutes.
^ Conclusions of the Estonian International Commission for the Investigation of Crimes Against Humanity.
Kareda, Endel (1949). Estonia in the Soviet Grip: Life and Conditions under Soviet Occupation 1947-1949. London: Boreas.
Uustalu, Evald (1952). The History of Estonian People. London: Boreas.
^ Laar, Mart (2006). Deportation from Estonia in 1941 and 1949. Estonia Today. Fact Sheet of the Press and Information Department, Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs. June 2006.
Weiss-Wendt, Anton (1998). The Soviet Occupation of Estonia in 1940-41 and the Jews. Holocaust and Genocide Studies 12.2, 308-325.
^ Parming, Tõnu (1972). Population changes in Estonia, 1935-1970. Population Studies 26.1, 53-78.
^ Taagepera, Rein (1980). Soviet Collectivization of Estonian Agriculture: The Deportation Phase. Soviet Studies 32.3, 379-397.
^ Estonia’s Occupations Revisited: Accounts of an Era. Compiled by Heiki Ahonen. Tallinn: Kistler-Ritso Estonian Foundation, 2004. ISBN 9949108217.
Постановление Совета Министров СССР от 29 января 1949 г. №390-138сс «О выселении с территории Литвы, Латвии и Эстонии кулаков с семьями, семей бандитов и националистов, находящихся на нелегальном положении, убитых при вооруженных столкновениях и осужденных, легализованных бандитов, продолжающих вести вражескую работу, и их семей, а также семей репрессированных пособников бандитов».

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Soviet deportations from Estonia

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Further reading