Soviet deportation of Greeks

Soviet deportation of Greeks
Part of Genocides by the Soviet Union
DateBetween 1930s and 1949[1]
TargetGreeks[1]
Attack type
Ethnic cleansing[1]
Deaths18.8%–21.4% of Greeks in the Soviet Union[1]
Victims70,000‒80,000 Greeks[1]
PerpetratorsSoviet Union[1]
MotiveEthnic cleansing[1]

Just as many other ethnic minorities within the Soviet Union,[2][3] Greeks were also persecuted by the totalitarian regime of Joseph Stalin (1878–1953).[1]

Events

Routes of the deportation of the Greeks in the USSR in 1942, 1944, and 1949.
  Crimea, Krasnodar Krai, Rostov, Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan (home regions of the deportees)

Between the 1930s and 1949, Greek schools, cultural centres and publishing houses were banned from operating,[1] while all Greek men older than 16 years old were deported to forced settlements that took the form of cattle trains.[1] One of the Greek victims said:[4]

The whole village, almost 200 families, was deported, here, to the Pakhtaral region in 1949 [...] eight or ten families in each freight car, with the animals [...] most of the people were dying of diarrhea.

Casualties

70,000‒80,000 Greeks were victims of such deportation and 15,000 did not survive,[1] a death rate between 18.8% and 21.4%.[1] The surviving Greeks were not allowed to return to their original homes until the MVD Order N 0402 was adopted on September 25, 1956.[5] Some survivors moved to Greece.[5]

Aftermath

The Soviet deportation of Greeks has been classified as a genocide by some historians.[1]

Footnotes

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
    • Rummel, R. J. (1997). Death by Government. Transaction Publishers. ISBN 978-1-56000-927-6.
    • Photiades, Kostas (1999). Ο ελληνισμός της Ρωσίας και της Σοβιετικής Ένωσης [The Hellenism of Russia and the Soviet Union] (in Greek). Ekdoseis Irodotos. ISBN 978-960-7290-66-3.
    • Gkikas, Anastasis (2007). Οι Έλληνες στη διαδικασία οικοδόμησης του σοσιαλισμού στην ΕΣΣΔ [Greek Participation in the Building of Socialism in USSR] (in Greek). Athens: Syghxroni Epoxi. ISBN 978-960-451-056-6.
    • Το πογκρόμ κατά των Ελλήνων της ΕΣΣΔ, ΕΛΛΑΔΑ, 09.12.2007
    • Pratsinakis, Manolis (2013). The Greek diaspora in the Soviet Union (PDF) (PhD). University of Amsterdam. pp. 45–68.
  2. ↑
  3. ↑
  4. ↑ Voutira, Eftihia (2011). The 'Right to Return' and the Meaning of 'Home': A Post-Soviet Greek Diaspora Becoming European?. LIT Verlag Münster. ISBN 9783643901071.
  5. 1 2 Bugay, Nikolay (1996). The Deportation of Peoples in the Soviet Union. New York City: Nova Publishers. ISBN 9781560723714. OCLC 36402865.
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