Repatriation of Soviet Citizens Shipped by Fascists for Forced Labor in Germany during the Great Patriotic War

Abstract

The article primarily aims to explore the occupation and invasive policies of fascist Germany characterized by enslavement of Soviet citizens and their use as cheap labor force (when shipped for forced labor to Germany). In this regard, the goal of the paper is to cover a number of essentially different sources and, thus, investigate the topic of mass forced shipments of Soviet people from temporarily occupied USSR territories ― including that of the Kalmyk ASSR ― and their return to the Motherland in the context of general repatriation of Soviet residents enslaved by fascists during World War II. The methodological framework is represented by a cognition method based on the principles of historicism, objectiveness, and complete approach. Methods of historiographic and comparative analyses were applied for the investigation and use of historical sources.
The work also provides a comparative analysis of sources from neighboring regions (krais and oblasts) which shows some common tragic consequences of fascist barbarian policies of depopulating USSR territories by forcing Soviet citizens to work in hellish conditions.
A considerable number of people — including from little Kalmykia ― were shipped by fascists for forced labor in Germany, and the harsh working conditions in factories, mines, and farming fields claimed lives of a third of those prisoners. In the aftermath of fascist Germany’s defeat the surviving citizens of the USSR were brought back to their homelands. Still, for many years to come those were referred to as deplorables of Soviet society because of having been kept prisoners in the enemy territory. Only in the 1990s they were rehabilitated and their civil rights reinstated in Russia.