Forced Labor Relocations of Taganrog-Based Ethnic Kalmyks to the Third Reich: Microhistory and Heuristics

Introduction. The article deals with one interesting pattern of research heuristics tackled to create a unified empirical database on forced labor relocations of Rostov Oblast-based Soviet citizens to Nazi Germany. Goals. The source study primarily attempts a consistent reconstruction of individual elements to the ethnic stratification among the O starbeiter (‘Eastern workers’) from the selected region, the former to be facilitated by the current identification of ethnic Kalmyks among such displaced individuals. This specific epistemological perspective has never been addressed by the preceding historiographic tradition, which makes the research practice relevant enough. Materials and methods. The integrated use of traditional archival search methods at the Taganrog Office of Rostov Oblast Archive (Russia) and the City Archive of Lüdenscheid (Germany) made it possible to identify an approximate circle of Kalmyk Soviet citizens forcibly displaced from Taganrog. Results. The paper contributes to a consistent understanding of how Nazi Germany’s forced labor civilian deportations from occupied territories took place, and outlines the phenomenon’s dynamics. The undertaken reconstruction of the ethnic stratification among forcibly displaced Soviet citizens clearly illustrates the rigid universalism of the occupation authorities that were seeking to gain ‘living space’ for ‘true Aryans’. The integrated object for Nazi repressive actions was civilian populations of occupied regions viewed as inferior communities, with no special privileges for any certain ethnic group. A particularly valuable result is that the study has yielded preliminary verifications for a number of ethnic Kalmyks that experienced such forced labor relocations to Nazi Germany.

1. City Archive of Lüdenscheid (North Rhine-Westphalia, Federal Republic of Germany). Biographical collection of forced laborers. (In Germ.)

2. State Archive of Rostov Oblast. (In Russ.)

3. State Archive of Rostov Oblast. Taganrog Office. (In Russ.)

4. Ageeva V. A. Dwellers of Taganrog at forced works in Germany in 1942–1945 (Based on diaries, letters, oral sources). In: Matishov G. G. (ed.) The Great Patriotic War in the History and Memory of the Peoples of the South of Russia: Events, Participants, and Symbols. Conference proceedings (Rostov-on-Don, 30 June – 1 July 2022). Rostov-on-Don: Southern Scientific Center (RAS), 2022. Pp. 476–484. (In Russ.)

5. Ageeva V. A., Trapsh N. A. Forced displacement of the civilian population of Taganrog to forced labor in the Third Reich: Experience of complex characteristics. Proceedings of the Komi Science Centre, Ural Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. Series “History and Philology”. 2023. No. 5(63). Pp. 158–165. (In Russ.) DOI 10.19110/1994-5655-2023-5-158-165

6. Danchenko E. L. The Reluctant Laborers: Ostarbeiter in Nazi Germany’s Agriculture, 1941–1945. Voronezh: Voronezh State Pedagogical University, 2012. 168 p. (In Russ.)

7. Garazha N. A. Ostarbeiter and Soviet POWs, 1941–1945: Psychological aspects of interethnic communication. Historical Psychology & Sociology. 2015. Vol. 8. No. 2. Pp. 98–107. (In Russ.)

8. Garazha N. A. Ostarbeiters and Soviet prisoners of war in the Nazi ideology and in the practice of ethnic segregation during the Great Patriotic War. University Proceedings. Volga Region. Humanities. History. 2015. No. 1(33). Pp. 46–56. (In Russ.)

9. Garazha N. A. Ostarbeiters letters as a source of micro social history and the history of everyday life of the Great Patriotic War (On materials of the collection of Ostarbeiters letters in the funds of the State Archive of the Republic of Crimea). Humanities and Law Research. 2016. No. 4. Pp. 24–30. (In Russ.)

10. Krinko E. F., Zakharina E. A. Ostarbeiters: The dynamics of perceptions and images in the USSR and modern Russia. Heritage of Centuries. 2020. No. 2. Pp. 45–56. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.36343/SB.2020.22.2.004

11. Lebedeva N. A. Specifics of work with electronic databases on search of documents and fate of fighters of the period of history of the Great Patriotic War. Scientific Bulletin of Crimea. 2019. No. 3. Pp. 1–8. (In Russ.)

12. Maksimov K. N. Repatriation of Soviet citizens shipped by fascists for forced labor in Germany during the Great Patriotic War. Oriental Studies. 2018. No. 2. Pp. 68–78. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.22162/2075-7794-2018-36-2-68-78

13. Monraev M. U. Kalmyk Given Names: Semantics. Elista: Gerel, 2012. 255 p. (In Russ.)

14. Namitokova R. Yu. (ed.) Peoples of the North Caucasus: A Comprehensive Dictionary of Given Names. Moscow: Flinta; Nauka, 2012. 584 p. (In Russ.)

15. Nikonova S. I. “East workers” in Nazi Germany: Based on materials from sources of personal origin. Modern Scientific Thought. 2023. No. 3. Pp. 140–145. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.24412/2308-264X-2023-3-140-146

16. Ochirov U. B., Vorobyova V. N. Compiling a prosopography database of 1941–1945 fatal casualties among military servicemen conscripted in one region: The case of the Kalmyk ASSR. Oriental Studies. 2023. Vol. 16. No. 1. Pp. 85–108. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.22162/2619-0990-2023-65-1-85-108

17. Polyan P. M. Victims to Two Dictatorships: Life, Labor, Humiliation and Death of Soviet POWs and Ostarbeiter in Foreign and Home Lands. Moscow: ROSSPEN. 2002. 818 p. (In Russ.)

18. Superanskaya A. V., Gusev Yu. M. (eds.) Peoples of the RSFSR: A Guide to Given Names. Third edition, rev. Moscow: Russkiy Yazyk, 1987. 656 p. (In Russ.)

19. Vorobyova V. N. Memory. Sanl, Vols. 1 and 2. WWII fatal casualties of Soviet military servicemen from the Kalmyk ASSR: A statistical analysis by time, places of birth and conscription. Oriental Studies. 2021. Vol. 14. No. 5. Pp. 956–971. (In Russ.) DOI: 10.22162/2619-0990-2021-57-5-956-971