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                                Deportations

     Joseph Stalin's forcible resettlement of over 1.5 million
people, mostly Muslims, during and after World War II is now
viewed by many human rights experts in Russia as one of his most
drastic genocidal acts.  Volga Germans and seven nationalities of
Crimea and the northern Caucasus were deported: the Crimean
Tatars, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachai, and
Meskhetians.  Other minorities evicted from the Black Sea coastal
region included Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians.
     Resistance to Soviet rule, separatism, and widespread
collaboration with the German occupation forces were among the
official reasons for the deportation of these non-Russian
peoples.  The possibility of a German attack was used to justify
the resettlement of the ethnically mixed population of Mtskheta,
in southwestern Georgia.  The Balkars were punished for allegedly
having sent a white horse as a gift to Adolf Hitler.
     The deportees were rounded up and transported, usually in
railroad cattle cars, to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kirgizia, and
Siberia -- areas called "human dumping grounds" by historian
Robert Conquest.  Most estimates indicate that close to
two-fifths of the affected populations perished.  The plight of
the Crimean Tatars was exceptionally harsh; nearly half died of
hunger in the first eighteen months after being banished from
their homeland.
     In February 1956, Nikita Khrushchev condemned the
deportations as a violation of Leninist principles.  In his
"secret speech" to the Twentieth Party Congress, he stated that
the Ukrainians avoided such a fate "only because there were too
many of them and there was no place to which to deport them."
That year, the Soviet government issued decrees on the
restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic and the
Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Republic, the formation of the Kalmyk
Autonomous Oblast', and the reorganization of the Cherkess
Autonomous Oblast' into the Karachai-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast'.
The Crimean Tatars, Meskhetians, and Volga Germans, however, were
only partially rehabilitated and were not, for the most part,
permitted to return to their homelands until after the
disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991.





                                                       TOP SECRET


                        STATE DEFENSE COMMITTEE


                State Defense Committee Decree No. 5859ss

           May 11, 1944                       Moscow, the Kremlin



                         On the Crimean Tatars


     During the Patriotic War [World War II], many Crimean Tatars
betrayed the Motherland, deserting Red Army units that defended the
Crimea and siding with the enemy, joining volunteer army units
formed by the Germans to fight against the Red Army; as members of
German punitive detachments, during the occupation of the Crimea by
German fascist troops, the Crimean Tatars particularly were noted
for their savage reprisals against Soviet partisans, and also
helped the German invaders to organize the violent roundup of
Soviet citizens for German enslavement and the mass extermination
of the Soviet people.

     The Crimean Tatars actively collaborated with the German
occupation authorities, participating in the so-called "Tatar
national committees," organized by the German intelligence organs,
and were often used by the Germans to infiltrate the rear of the
Red Army with spies and saboteurs.  With the support of the Crimean
Tatars, the "Tatar national committees," in which the leading role
was played by White Guard-Tatar emigrants, directed their activity
at the persecution and oppression of the non-Tatar population of
the Crimea and were engaged in preparatory efforts to separate the
Crimea from the Soviet Union by force, with the help of the German
armed forces.

     Taking into account the facts cited above, the State Defense
Committee decrees that:

     1.  All Tatars are to be banished from the territory of the
Crimea and resettled permanently as special settlers in the regions
of the Uzbek SSR.  The resettlement will be assigned to the Soviet
NKVD. The Soviet NKVD (comrade Beria) is to complete the
resettlement by 1 June 1944.

     2.  The following procedure and conditions of resettlement are
to be established:

     a)  The special settlers will be allowed to take with them
personal items, clothing, household objects, dishes and utensils,
and up to 500 kilograms of food per family.

     Property, buildings, outbuildings, furniture, and farmstead
lands left behind will be taken over by the local authorities; all
beef and dairy cattle, as well as poultry, will be taken over by
the People's Commissariat of the Meat and Dairy Industries, all
agricultural production by the USSR People's Commissariat of
Procurement, horses and other draft animals by the USSR People's
Commissariat of Agriculture, and breeding cattle by the USSR
People's Commissariat of State Grain and Animal Husbandry Farms.

     Exchange receipts will be issued in every populated place and
every farm for the receipt of livestock, grain, vegetables, and for
other types of agricultural production.

     By 1 July this year, the USSR NKVD, People's Commissariat of
Agriculture, People's Commissariat of the Meat and Dairy
Industries, People's Commissariat of State Grain and Animal
Husbandry Farms, and People's Commissariat of Procurement are to
submit to the USSR Council of People's Commissars a proposal on the
procedure for repaying the special settlers, on the basis of
exchange receipts, for livestock, poultry, and agricultural
production received from them.

     b)  ...

     To facilitate the receipt of livestock, grain, and
agricultural production from the special settlers, the USSR
People's Commissariat of Agriculture (comrade Benediktov), USSR
People's Commissariat of Procurement (comrade Subbotin), USSR
People's Commissariat of the Meat and Dairy Industries (comrade
Smirnov), and USSR People's Commissariat of State Grain and Animal
Husbandry Farms (comrade Lobanov) are to dispatch the required
number of workers to the Crimea, in coordination with comrade
Gritsenko.

     c)  The People's Commissariat of Railroads (comrade
Kaganovich) is to organize the transport of the special settlers
from Crimea to the Uzbek SSR, using specially formed trains,
according to a schedule devised jointly with the USSR NKVD.  The
number of trains, loading stations, and destination points are to
be determined by the USSR NKVD.

     Payment for the transport will be based on the rate at which
the prisoners are transported;

     d)  To each train of special settlers, the USSR People's
Commissariat of Public Health (comrade Miterev) is to assign,
within a time frame to be coordinated with the USSR NKVD, one
physician and two nurses, as well as an appropriate supply of
medicines, and to provide medical and first-aid care to special
settlers in transit;

     e)  The USSR People's Commissariat of Trade (comrade Liubimov)
will provide all trains carrying special settlers with hot food and
boiling water on a daily basis.

     To provide food for the special settlers in transit, the
People's Commissariat of Trade is to allocate the quantity of food
supplies indicated in Appendix No. 1.

     3.  By 1 June of this year, the Secretary of the Central
Committee of the Communist Party (Bolshevik) of Uzbekistan, comrade
Iusupov, the Chairman of the Uzbek SSR Council of People's
Commissars, comrade Abdurakhmanov, and the Uzbek SSR People's
Commissar of Internal Affairs, comrade Kobulov, are to carry out
the following steps in regard to the acceptance and settlement of
the special settlers:

     a)  To accept and settle within the Uzbek SSR 140 to 160
thousand special settlers -- Tatars, sent by the USSR NKVD from the
Crimean ASSR.

     The settlement of the special settlers will occur in state
farm communities, existing collective farms, farms affiliated with
enterprises, and in factory communities, for employment in
agriculture and industry;

     b)  To establish commissions in oblasts where the special
settlers are resettled, consisting of the chairman of the oblast
executive committee, secretary of the oblast committee, and chief
of the NKVD administration, charging them with the implementation
of all measures in connection with the acceptance and distribution
of the newly arrived special settlers;

     c)  To organize raion troikas, consisting of the chairman of
the raion executive committee, secretary of the raion committee,
and chief of the raion branch of the NKVD, charging them with
preparation for the distribution and organization of the acceptance
of the newly arrived special settlers;

     d)  To arrange the automotive transport of the special
settlers, mobilizing the vehicles of any enterprises or
institutions for this purpose;

     e)  To grant plots of farm land to the newly arrived special
settlers and to help them build homes by providing construction
materials;

     f)  To organize special NKVD commandant's headquarters, to be
maintained by the USSR NKVD, in the raions of settlement;

     g)  By 20 May of this year, the Uzbek SSR Central Committee
and Council of People's Commissars are to submit to the USSR NKVD
(comrade Beria) a plan for the settlement of the special settlers
in the oblasts and raions, indicating the destination points of the
trains.

     4.  Seven-year loans of up to 5,000 rubles per family, for the
construction and setting up of homes, are to be extended by the
Agricultural Bank (comrade Kravtsov) to special settlers sent to
the Uzbek SSR, in their places of settlement.

     5.  Every month during the June-August 1944 period, equal
quantities of flour, groats, and vegetables will be allocated by
the USSR People's Commissariat of Procurement (comrade Subbotin) to
the Uzbek SSR Council of People's Commissars for distribution to
the special settlers, in accordance with Appendix No. 2.

     Flour, groats, and vegetables are to be distributed free of
charge to the special settlers during the June-August period, as
repayment for the agricultural production and livestock received
from them in the areas from which they were evicted.

     6.  To augment the automotive transport capacity of the NKVD
troops, garrisoned in the raions of settlement in the Uzbek,
Kazakh, and Kirgiz SSR's, the People's Commissariat of Defense
(comrade Khrulev) is to provide 100 recently repaired "Willys"3
motor vehicles and 250 trucks during the May-June 1944 period.

     7.  By 20 May 1944, the Main Administration for the Transport
and Supply of Petroleum and Petroleum Products (comrade Shirokov)
is to allocate and supply 400 tons of gasoline to locations
specified by the USSR NKVD, and 200 tons of gasoline are to be
placed at the disposal of the Uzbek SSR Council of People's
Commissars.

     The supply of gasoline [for this purpose] is to be carried out
in conjunction with a corresponding reduction of supplies to all
other consumers.

     8.  By 15 May of this year, the Main Supply Administration of
the USSR Ministry of Forestry, USSR Council of People's Commissars
(comrade Lopukhov), is to deliver 75,000 2.75-meter railroad car
boards to the People's Commissariat of Railroads, using any means
at its disposal.

     9.  In May of this year, the People's Commissariat of Finance
(comrade Zverev) is to transfer 30 million rubles from the reserve
fund of the USSR Council of People's Commissars to the USSR NKVD,
for the implementation of special measures.


                            I. Stalin
                            Chairman, State Defense Committee

-----------------------------------------------------------------

cc   :    Comrades Molotov, Beria, Malenkov, Mikoian,
          Voznesenskii,Andreev, Kosygin, Gritsenko, Iusupov,
          Abdurakhmanov, Kobulov (Uzbek SSR NKVD), Chadaev --
          entire document; Shatalin, Gorkin, [illegible]
          Smirnov, Subbotin, Benediktov, Lobanov,
          Zverev,Kaganovich,   Miterev, Liubimov, Kravtsov,
          Khrulev, Zhukov, Shirokov, Lopukhov -- appropriate
          sections.

---------------------------
TRANSLATOR'S COMMENTS:
1.  Notation in upper left-hand corner:  "To be returned to the
State Defense Committee Secretariat (Part II).
2.  Typed along left edge of first page:  "Making copies or
     extracts of this decree is strictly prohibited."
3.  Willys-Overland developed and mass-produced a jeep model that
     was given to the Soviet Union during World War II.