Consequences Of Forced Peoples’ Migration In Ussr In Context Of Globalization

Abstract

The article considers the conditions of the special resettlement regime as a factor that influenced the culture of the forcibly resettled peoples during the Great Patriotic War in the context of modern globalization processes. This research is based on the analysis of documents from the funds of the central archives of the Russian Federation, as well as field data. The subject of the research is the cultural component of the peoples who were deported during the Great Patriotic War (case study of the Kalmyk and Chechen peoples). In the course of the study the authors focus on the legal aspect of the deportation policy, namely, at the end of the second half of the 20th century the state authorities of the Soviet Union violated the legal norms of the current legislation. It caused the deportation of a number of peoples and creation of dehumanizing special settlement regime precluding the possibility of using the native language, obtaining elementary education, and developing a national culture in general. The authors come to the conclusion that the tendency towards unification in the language sphere is a consequence of both current globalization processes, forced migration of peoples and their stay under the conditions of special resettlement.

Keywords: Forced resettlementdeportationKalmyksChechensglobalization

Introduction

The history of the Soviet Union at the end of the first half of the 20th century is associated with a number of events that left a very negative mark on the fate of its peoples. Beside the fact that the Great Patriotic War affected the entire population of the USSR, by the decision of the highest state authorities a number of peoples was subjected to total, forced resettlement from the primary residence territories to the eastern regions of the country; seven peoples lost their national autonomies: Germans, Karachays, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingushes, Balkars, Crimean Tatars. The study of the regulatory legal framework governing the process of liquidation of these peoples’ statehood and their forced resettlement shows that there was violation of the current legislation at all stages of this process. Firstly, the decisions affecting the interests of entire nations were made not by the supreme legislative body, but by other state authorities: the “authorship” of legal documents belongs not only to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. For example, the deportation of the Karachay, Kalmyk, Chechen and Ingush peoples was carried out in accordance with the decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, while the Balkars and Crimean Tatars were resettled by virtue of the State Defense Committee’s resolutions. As to the Volga Germans, on August 26, 1941 a resolution of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the AUCP(b) On the Germans’ Resettlement from the Republic of the Volga Germans, Saratov and Stalingrad Regions was adopted.

Another important deviation is violation of the subordination of legal sources. The analysis based on the provisions of the 1936 Constitution of the USSR does not allow unequivocally asserting whether the term “decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet” presents a regulatory or delegated act. According to the lawyer L.V. Lazarev, “the Constitution did not preserve for the Presidium the position of the body that replaced the Supreme Soviet of the USSR during the intersessional period. But, on the other hand, it did not define its subject boundaries by giving the Presidium the right to issue resolutions. Thus, an objective prerequisite was created for the fact that a decree could take almost equal status with a law in the area of social relations regulation carried out by the supreme bodies of state power of the USSR” (Lazarev, 1965).

Thus, the case is that the violation was traced in the order of the legislative process; regulatory acts were issued later than delegated ones, while by law the latter should be issued and designed to specify their provisions and facilitate their implementation. Thus, the resolution of the Council of People's Commissars and the Central Committee of the AUCP(b) On the Germans’ Resettlement from the Republic of the Volga Germans, Saratov and Stalingrad Regions is dated August 26, 1941 (Yakovlev, 2005), while the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR On the Resettlement of the Germans Living in the Volga Regions was signed on August 28, 1941 (Stalin Deportations. 1928-1953, 2005). The same situation can be seen regarding the legal framework of the Balkars’ resettlement. The decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council № 117/6 On the Resettlement of the Balkars Living in the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and On Renaming the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was adopted on April 8, 1944 ;it was a regulatory act, however, it was adopted later than the decree of the State Defense Committee №5309ss of March 5, 1944 On the Resettlement of the Balkars from the Kabardino-Balkarian ASSR .

It is obvious, that during the wartime a delegated act that had a simplified procedure of adoption and enactment, unlike the law, allowed adapting to changing reality quite quickly, but in this case it was a decision affecting the destinies of the entire republics, these were mostly elderly persons, women and children. The chronological analysis of legal sources related to the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples showed the following. Thus, according to the resolution of the State Defense Committee №5073ss of January 31, 1944 On Measures of Settlement of Special Settlers within the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSR (The Russian State Archive of the Social Political History, 644, inv. 1, p. 200, sh. 8-12), the NKVD of the USSR had to send up to 400 thousand people to the Kazakh republic and 90 thousand people to the Kyrgyz republic in the context of resettlement in February-March. Paragraph 2 of this resolution reads: “the resettlement of arriving special settlers should be carried out taking into account their labor use, primarily in agriculture and animal husbandry (state farms, part-time farms, collective farms), workers and officers should be used in enterprises of the resettlement areas regarding their specialty”. The semantic content of this provision, apart from the word “special settlers”, makes it possible to interpret the purpose of resettlement as labor migration organized at the state level. The developers of the document took into account all the household needs of the special settlers at the new place.

Thus, the executive authorities of the Union republics had to ensure "the special settlers’ fastest joining the agricultural and industrial artels" giving them their personal plots, they also had to "assist them in the construction of their own houses by providing local and received for this purpose materials, wood, nails, glass". Moreover, by the time of displaced people’s arrival the premises for their accommodation and food should have been provided. According to the document, “before the new harvest the People's Commissariat of Procurements of the USSR was obliged to allocate to the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kazakh SSR 4,800 tons of flour and 2,400 tons of cereals for the period of 4 months, as well as to the Council of People’s Commissars of the Kirgiz SSR – 1,200 tons of flour and 600 tons of cereals, in equal parts monthly, using grain and other products received from special settlers by exchange receipts to cover these funds”; “during 1944 the People's Commissariat of Procurements, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, the People's Commissariat of Dairy-and-Meat Industry and the People's Commissariat of Sovkhozes must replace in kind the livestock and agricultural products delivered by the special settlers of the Kazakh SSR and Kyrgyz SSR by exchange receipts (as to horses - during 1944-1945)”, and “Selkhozbank must issue loans to special settlers of the Kazakh SSR and Kirghiz SSR for the construction of houses, farm buildings and household equipment in the amount of 5,000 rubles for a family in installments of up to 7 years”. On the same day the State Defense Committee issued the resolution №5074ss with the same name as the previous one, but it contained instructions to the people's commissariats on organizing the acceptance of property (including livestock and agricultural products) from the special settlers.” At the same time there was no information about the status of special settlers in the document. Meanwhile, Paragraph 3 of the decree obliged the People’s Commissariat of Transport “to organize the transportation of special settlers from the North Caucasus to the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSR”, and the corresponding commissariats were to provide the people transported with hot meals and medical care, as stipulated in Paragraph 5, with “one doctor, two nurses and the corresponding stock of medicines " (On February 17, 1944 L.P. Beria, a People's Commissar, sent a telegram to I.V. Stalin reporting that “the preparation of the operation to deport the Chechens and Ingushes is almost over” (The State Archive of the Russian Federation, P-9401, inv. 2, d. 64, sh. 167-167) and this allows concluding that the previous two government decrees concerned precisely the Chechen and Ingush peoples. As in the case of the previously forcibly displaced Kalmyks, the preparatory stages of the deportation of the Chechens and the Ingushes “were carried out under the conditions of strict secrecy and were accompanied by active disinformation of the population” (Lidzhieva, 2018). As it was noted in the telegram, “there are many comments among the Chechens and the Ingushes, especially related to the advent of troops. A part of the population responds to the appearance of troops consistent with the official version, according to which the units of the Red Army are training under the mountainous conditions. Another part of the population suggests the eviction of the Chechens and Ingushes. Some believe that they will deport criminals, German allies, and the other anti-Soviet elements” “All the Chechens and Ingushes living in the territory of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, as well as in the adjacent areas, are to be resettled to the other regions of the USSR, and the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic is to be liquidated” – reads Paragraph 1 of the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council On Liquidation of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Administrative Structure of its Territory (The State Archive of the Russian Federation, R-7523, inv. 4, p. 208, sh. 51-54) signed on March 7, 1944 with the signature stamp “Not for publishing”. The date of this regulatory act allows concluding that the forced resettlement of the Chechen and Ingush peoples was carried out on the basis of the government decrees which did not specify the status and nationality of special settlers; that is, the deportation of these peoples had no legal basis at the time of the operation under the code name Lentil . During the operations of peoples’ resettlement, the law enforcement officers violated the law. So, state security officials sometimes stole the resettled persons’ property and valuables .

Problem Statement

Due to the dismissive attitude to the legislative process and the Basic Law – the Constitution of the USSR, under the wartime conditions the supreme authorities of state power deprived their citizens of the constitutional rights and freedoms proclaimed by the 1936 Constitution. Meanwhile, Article 123 states: “The equal rights of citizens of the USSR regardless of their nationality and race in all areas of economic, state, cultural and socio-political life is an immutable law."

Besides, according to Kh.-M.A. Sabanchiev, “the legal system of the Soviet Union did not have a statutory provision in its structure that could provide for collective responsibility and application of punishment on the basis of nationality” (Sabanchiev, 2013). Having the status of special settlers, the representatives of these peoples could not fully realize their rights and abilities.

K.N. Maksimov, one of the researchers of the repressive policy in the Soviet state, believes “... the Kalmyk people preserved their historical memory, despite as a result of the deportation they were deprived of their historical territory, as well as the ability to speak and write in their native language, practice traditional religion, study their history” (Maksimov, 2004). Unfortunately, the Kalmyks are no exception, this situation was typical for all deported peoples. Under the current conditions of globalization one of the main features of which is unification, first of all, the identity of national cultures is lost. The language of the peoples who were repressed in the 20th century, in the authors’ opinion, was endangered.

Research Questions

In recent years, a number of studies on the history of Stalin’s forced resettlement of the USSR peoples was published; their authors identified the causes of forced resettlement, the extent of the tragedy, and the consequences of these mass punitive actions on the basis of significant documentary material and statistical data. Despite the fact that various aspects of the problem of the peoples’ deportation in the USSR during the Great Patriotic War were repeatedly researched in the works of Russian scientists, this topic is of intense public and scientific interest. However, the absence of a complete source base along with the ideology influence does not allow objectively analyzing these issues.

This topic is researched in a series of works by such contemporary scientists as K.N. Maksimov, Kh.-M.A. Sabanchiev, V.B. Ubushaev, F.L. Sinitsyn, A.S. Ivanov, S.S. Tsutsulayeva et al. (Maksimov, 2004; Ubushaev, 1991; Sabanchiev, 2013; Sinitsyn, 2011; Ivanov, 2015). This is only a small part of the research devoted to the subject matter, unfortunately, there is no comprehensive research. It is obvious, that a significant amount of research on these topics was not mentioned in the article due to the requirements of the publication.

Purpose of the Study

The purpose of the research of this article is to study the conditions of the special resettlement regime as a factor influencing the state of culture of peoples that were forcibly resettled during the Great Patriotic War in the context of modern globalization processes by the example of the Kalmyk and Chechen peoples.

Research Methods

The purpose of the study conditioned the usage of the integrated analysis method based on the synthesis of various approaches and methods of scientific research.

Findings

By right of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of December 27, 1943 the Council of People’s Commissars adopted Resolution №1432-425ss; it implied the Kalmyks’ forced resettlement to the Altai and Krasnoyarsk Territories, the Omsk and Novosibirsk Regions. According to the 1939 census of the USSR, the Kalmyk population was 134,402 people, the Chechen population – 407,968 and the Ingush population – 92,120.

On January 8, 1944 the Council of People’s Commissars adopted Resolution №34-14s On Approval of the Regulation on Special Commandant’s Offices (The State Archive of the Russian Federation, R-5446, inv. 47a, p. 3205, sh. 25-28). The resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR №35 On the Legal Status of Special Settlers was adopted on the same day, it regulated the legal status of special settlers, according to Paragraph 3 special settlers did not have the right to leave the region without the permission of a special commandant of the NRVD (The State Archive of the Russian Federation, 5446, inv. 47a, p. 3205, sh. 14). To provide special settlers with a necessary minimum, a number of regulatory legal acts were adopted, however, people found themselves in “extremely difficult living and sanitary conditions” (Elbuzdukaeva, 2016); it was noted in the appeal of P. Beria, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR, to A.I. Mikoyan on November 15, 1944. On October 29, 1945 L.P. Beria sent a letter about the need to provide "minimal assistance" to the Kalmyk special settlers to V.M. Molotov, the Chairman of the Government, as “up to 15 thousand old, handicapped people and mothers of large families” were not provided with food and housing (The State Archive of the Russian Federation, R-9479, inv. 1, p. 153, sh. 136).

Thus, “the previous decisions on this matter basically remained ink on paper, which inevitably led to the death of a considerable number of people doomed to forced resettlement from their homes by the will of the Stalinist leadership” (Lidzhieva, 2018). One of such delegated acts was the order of the Council of People's Commissars №13287 of June 20, 1944 On the Education of Special Settlers’ Children signed by V. Molotov, the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars (The State Archive of the Russian Federation, P-5446, inv. 46a, p. 4374, sh. 4), which regulated the process of educating special settlers’ children: Chechens, Ingushes, Karachays, Balkars and Crimean Tatars who were resettled to the Kazakh, Kyrgyz and Uzbek SSR. This delegated act clearly stated “children ... must be taught in Russian in the existing primary schools at the place of their residence”. It was allowed to enter secondary and higher educational institutions located in the territory of the indicated republics, “but without the right to leave the republic, both during the period of study and after the graduation from the institution”.

However, the modern researchers who were deported as children note: “special settlers’ children did not study at schools, especially during the initial period after deportation. Nobody dealt with issues of their education and teaching” (Murtazaliev, 2003). Moreover, “the commandants and other officers of the internal affairs authorities had a wide opportunity to abuse their position, because they decided whether a special settler would receive a permission to leave for the place of study or not” (Yandarova, 2016). This document was the result of the appeal made on June 19, 1944 by the People's Commissar of the NKVD L.P. Beria to V.M. Molotov, the deputy chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars; it concerned the education of special settlers’ children, indicating that up to 300 thousand children under the age of 16 arrived at the place of special settlement (The State Archive of the Russian Federation, P-5446, inv. 46a, p. 4374, sh. 1-2).

There was no possibility to organize primary education with teaching in national languages, “due to the lack of relevant proven teachers”. This document directly regulated the educational process of these children, however, the Kalmyks were not mentioned in it at all. As A.S. Ivanov notes, “it’s easy to see a manifestation of the “policy of forced assimilation” or an attempt to “detach people from their native roots”. He defines the goal of the Soviet policy related to deported peoples as “creating the right population”, where the main parameters are the Russian language and Russian culture (Ivanov, 2015). According to the USSR Ministry of State Security, on January 1, 1952 “over the entire territory of the resettlement of special settlers they registered 91,943 children of school age who were excluded from compulsory education. ... This number of children who do not attend primary schools (20% of all children of school age) is explained by the lack of winter clothing and footwear due to the difficult financial situation of their parents, the lack of schools in a number of resettlement places or the remoteness of schools from residence places.” (The State Archive of the Russian Federation, P-9479, inv. 1, p. 570, sh. 243). And only years later, when with the help of the local population the repressed peoples could adapt themselves to new conditions, this problem was set up. In a period of late 1954 – early 1955 the Chechen and Ingush youth of the kolkhoz named after Yaroslavski of Enbekshi-Kazakh district, Alma-Ata region wrote a letter to N.A. Mikhailov, the Minister of Culture of the USSR, stating that “... each of us is interested to hear the native language ...” (The Russian State Archive of the Current History, inv. 16, p. 729, sh. 29-30).

To respond to the letter, S. Brykin, the deputy head of the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, prepared a note containing the following information: “At present, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan allows publication of the Republican newspaper Znamya Truda in the Chechen language. Besides, the Propaganda and Agitation Department of the Central Committee of the CPSU, together with the Central Committee of the Communist Party of Kazakhstan, are ready to publish mass-political literature and Agitator's Notebook in the Chechen language, as well as to strengthen cultural and educational work among special settlers” (The Russian State Archive of the Current History, inv. 16, p. 729, sh. 31). The USSR Prosecutor General’s directive On Lifting Certain Restrictions in the Legal Status of Special Settlers №13/132s of July 20, 1954 explained the application of the resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR of July 5, 1954: children older than 16 were removed from the register of the special settlement, if they entered and were sent to educational institutes throughout the USSR (Deportation of the Kalmyks: How it Was, 2001). On August 17, 1956 the Bureau of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Kazakh SSR adopts a resolution On Measures to Strengthen Party-Political, Cultural and Educational Work among Chechens, Ingushes, Karachays and Balkars (The Russian State Archive of the Current History, inv. 33, p. 9, sh. 72-80), which was intended to raise interest among these peoples creating favorable conditions for the development of their national culture in the places of special settlements.

Thus, by solving the problem of preserving the national culture of deported peoples under special settlement conditions, both central and local authorities tried to solve the problem of personnel shortages.

In order to identify the consequences of the forced resettlement of the peoples of the USSR during the Great Patriotic War in the context of globalization, an expert survey was conducted. The object of the survey were representatives of the Kalmyk and Chechen peoples, aged 18 and older. According to the absolute majority of the experts, the main consequences of the deportation of nations during the Great Patriotic War include: demographic losses, loss of traditional religious and cultural values ​​and damage to the national language. Answering the question: “Assess the younger generation’s knowledge of the native language in your republic,” the experts of the Chechen nationality gave the following opinions: excellent – 5%; good – 43%; at the simple level – 47% and unsatisfactory – 5%. It should be noted that it is the representatives of the older generation who assessed the language proficiency as being at the simple level. The opinion of the Kalmyk experts is rather discouraging. Thus, the younger generation’s knowledge of the native language in the republic is rated as good by only 13%; at the simple level – 59% and unsatisfactory – 28%. The latter assessment is typical for the persons aged 18-30, that is, it can be considered as self-assessment. A positive trend under the current conditions of globalization is the return of both the Kalmyk and Chechen peoples to their historical roots and traditional culture. Thus, according to a survey conducted in the Republic of Kalmykia in 2012, “the respondents’ answers to the question: “How well do you know your national culture?” were distributed as follows. The first place was given to respect for national traditions, customs and religious rites by the majority of respondents. This is the opinion of the overwhelming majority of the Kalmyks (73.1%)” (Lidzhieva & Nemgirova, 2015).

According to the majority of the experts, who assessed the current level of observance of the traditional cultural norms in the Chechen Republic, the absolute majority of the Chechens living in the territory of the republic know and observe the traditions and customs of their people. In the authors’ opinion, the low assessment of the level of the Kalmyk youth’s knowledge of the native language given by the experts, is caused by the fact that the previous generation born in the Siberian exile grew up when the national language, writing, literature were strictly banned, and therefore it could not pass them to their children. Besides, unlike the other peoples, the Kalmyks were dispersed in the vast Siberian territory, they lived in the midst of the populations that were radically different both in the religion and in the language group. It also affected the knowledge of traditions and customs of the people, which was reflected in the experts’ answers. For example, according to the experts, the Kalmyks, unlike the Chechens, are less fluent in their native language, they know and observe the norms of traditional culture less. At the same time, according to the experts, the knowledge of the native language under the current conditions is not only necessary but compulsory.

Conclusion

Thus, the documents deposited in the funds of the central archives of the Russian Federation, as well as field materials obtained during the expert survey among the Kalmyk and Chechen people in two republics allowed reconstructing the course of tragic events that caused negative consequences for these peoples. The Soviet state authorities, accusing the civilian population of a number of crimes, created a regulatory legal framework governing the process of peoples’ deportation during the Great Patriotic War with clear violation of current laws. They deprived the peoples of elementary civil rights condemning them and their native culture to extinction

References

1. Deportation of the Kalmyks: How it Was (2001). Collection of documents and materials. Vol. 1. B. 2nd. Elista, Kalmyk publishing house.
2. Elbuzdukaeva, T.U., Yandarova, S.Kh., (2016). Political Aspect of Socialization of Chechens and Ingushes in Education and Culture in Places of Special Settlement in the 1940-50s. Bulletin of Vladikavkaz Scientific Center, 16, 4, 24-29.
3. Ivanov, A.S., (2015). The Educational Environment and Hierarchy at a Special Settlement in Western Siberia (the 1940-1959s). Bulletin of Kalmyk Institute of Humanitarian Studies, RAS, 5, 45-57.
4. Lazarev, L.V., (1965) On the Relationship between Law and Decree, Soviet State and Law. 5, 62-69.
5. Lidzhieva, I.V. (2018). Organization of the Forced Relocation of the Kalmyk People in December of 1943 (according to the documents of the Information Center of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Kalmykia). New Historical Bulletin, 2 (56), 90-103.
6. Lidzhieva, I.V., Nemgirova, S.N., (2015). The Ethnocultural Development of a Region: Monitoring Ethnoconfessional and Intercultural Interaction in the Republic of Kalmykia. Anthropology & Archeology of Eurasia, 53, 74-84.
7. Maksimov, K.N. (2004). The Tragedy of the People: Repressions in Kalmykia. 1918-1940s. Moscow, Nauka.
8. Murtazaliev, V.Yu., (2003). Thirteen Years of Exile, Lawlessness and Trials. The National Policy of the Soviet State: Repressions against the Peoples and the Problems of their Revival. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference (October 23-24, 2003). Elista, KalmSU, 85-88.
9. Sabanchiev, Kh.-M.A. (2013). Forced Deportation of the North Caucasus Peoples in 1943-1944. (on the 70th anniversary of the deportation). Review of the Kabardino-Balkarian Scientific Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 6 (56), 190-195.
10. Sinitsyn, F.L., (2011). Deportation of Peoples as a Factor of Destabilization of the Ethnic Situation in the Volga, Caucasus and Crimea regions of the USSR (1941-1944). Information Security of the Regions. 2 (9), 137-143.
11. Yandarova, S.Kh. (2016). Chechens and Ingushs: Education, Culture under the Conditions of Special Settlement. Society: Philosophy, History, Culture. 5, 60-64.
12. Yakovlev, A.N. (2005). Stalin’s Deportations. 1928-1953. Moscow, MFD: Materik.