The June deportation of 1941 (, , ) was a mass deportation of tens of thousands of people during

World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

from

Estonia Estonia, officially the Republic of Estonia, is a country in Northern Europe. It is bordered to the north by the Gulf of Finland across from Finland, to the west by the Baltic Sea across from Sweden, to the south by Latvia, and to the east by Ru ...

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

, present-day western

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

and western

Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the List of European countries by area, second-largest country in Europe after Russia, which Russia–Ukraine border, borders it to the east and northeast. Ukraine also borders Belarus to the nor ...

, and present-day

Moldova Moldova, officially the Republic of Moldova, is a Landlocked country, landlocked country in Eastern Europe, with an area of and population of 2.42 million. Moldova is bordered by Romania to the west and Ukraine to the north, east, and south. ...

– territories which had been occupied by the Soviet Union in 1939–1940 – into the interior of the

Soviet Union The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR), commonly known as the Soviet Union, was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 until Dissolution of the Soviet ...

. The June deportation was ordered by the Soviet dictator Stalin, and organized following formal guidelines set by the

NKVD The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs (, ), abbreviated as NKVD (; ), was the interior ministry and secret police of the Soviet Union from 1934 to 1946. The agency was formed to succeed the Joint State Political Directorate (OGPU) se ...

with the Soviet Interior People's Commissar Lavrentiy Beria as the senior executor. The official title of the top secret document was “Resolution On the Eviction of the Socially Foreign Elements from the Baltic Republics, Western Ukraine, Western Belarus and Moldova”. The

and

Red Army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

units carried out the arrests, often in collaboration with the Soviet police and local Communist Party members.

Background

The June deportations were part of a much larger history of depopulation. The "Stalin deportations" from 1928-1953 targeted 13 different nationalities. The June Deportation marked the first industrialized deportations, using rail. Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania were invaded and occupied, and thereafter annexed, by the Soviet Union in June 1940, in less than a year after Poland and the Baltic countries had been divided into "spheres of influence" between the Soviet Union and

Nazi Germany Nazi Germany, officially known as the German Reich and later the Greater German Reich, was the German Reich, German state between 1933 and 1945, when Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party controlled the country, transforming it into a Totalit ...

in the 23 August 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact. In June 1940 the three independent Baltic countries were occupied by the Soviet

Red army The Workers' and Peasants' Red Army, often shortened to the Red Army, was the army and air force of the Russian Soviet Republic and, from 1922, the Soviet Union. The army was established in January 1918 by a decree of the Council of People ...

and new pro-Soviet puppet governments were installed. Mass deportation campaigns began almost immediately and included Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Ukraine, Belarus, and Moldova.

Deportations

Planning for mass deportations began as far back as 1939. The deportation took place from 22 May to 20 June 1941, just before the invasion of the Soviet Union by Nazi Germany. The operations began 22 May in Ukraine and Poland, 12-13 June in Moldova, 14 June in Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania, and 19-20 June in Belarus. The goal of the deportations was to remove political opponents of the Soviet government, not to strengthen security in preparation for the German attack. The NKVD framed the deportees as anti-Soviet, counter-revolutionaries, and criminal elements. The fourth wave of mass deportations in occupied

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

and deportations in

were both intended to combat the "counter-revolutionary" Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists. The deportation program served three Soviet goals: to remove dissidents, to change composition of population through Russian migration, and to have cheap slave labor in

Gulag The Gulag was a system of Labor camp, forced labor camps in the Soviet Union. The word ''Gulag'' originally referred only to the division of the Chronology of Soviet secret police agencies, Soviet secret police that was in charge of runnin ...

camps. The June deportation campaigns resulted in genocidal levels of depopulation. The goal of depopulation was often reflected by

officials carrying out deportations. For example, in Lithuania, the Lutherans, wealthy, academics, and Nationalists were targeted. Lithuanian affairs commissioner Mikhail Suslov declared "There will be Lithuania – but without Lithuanians." The procedure for the deportations was approved by Ivan Serov in the Serov Instructions. People were deported without trials in whole families, which were then split. Men were generally imprisoned and most of them died in

Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...

in Gulag camps. Women and children were resettled in forced settlements in

Omsk Omsk (; , ) is the administrative center and largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of Omsk Oblast, Russia. It is situated in southwestern Siberia and has a population of over one million. Omsk is the third List of cities and tow ...

and

Novosibirsk Oblast Novosibirsk Oblast () is a federal subjects of Russia, federal subject of Russia (an oblast) located in southwestern Siberia. Its administrative center, administrative and economic center is the types of inhabited localities in Russia, city of N ...

Krasnoyarsk Krasnoyarsk is the largest types of inhabited localities in Russia, city and administrative center of Krasnoyarsk Krai, Russia. It is situated along the Yenisey, Yenisey River, and is the second-largest city in Siberia after Novosibirsk, with a p ...

Tajikistan Tajikistan, officially the Republic of Tajikistan, is a landlocked country in Central Asia. Dushanbe is the capital city, capital and most populous city. Tajikistan borders Afghanistan to the Afghanistan–Tajikistan border, south, Uzbekistan to ...

, Altai Krais, and

Kazakhstan Kazakhstan, officially the Republic of Kazakhstan, is a landlocked country primarily in Central Asia, with a European Kazakhstan, small portion in Eastern Europe. It borders Russia to the Kazakhstan–Russia border, north and west, China to th ...

. Thousands of people were stuffed into cattle cars, usually 30–40 under unsanitary conditions leading to casualties, especially among elderly and children. Due to poor living conditions at the destination, the mortality rate was very high. For example, the mortality rate among the Estonian deportees was estimated at 60%. Following Stalin's death in 1953, Khrushchev began a program of limited return. In Lithuania, for example, 17,000 people returned by 1956 and 80,000 returned by 1970. Many people deemed nationalist or of non-white ethnic descent were not allowed to return until the 1980s. When survivors did return they faced discrimination and loss of property.

Number of deportees

The number of deported people include:

Remembrance

Baltic States The Baltic states or the Baltic countries is a geopolitical term encompassing Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania. All three countries are members of NATO, the European Union, the Eurozone, and the OECD. The three sovereign states on the eastern co ...

hold a day of remembrance on 14 June. In Latvia this is the Commemoration Day for the Victims of Communist Genocide. The Day of Remembrance began following the National Awakening movement in the 1980s. On 14 June 1987, the human rights group Helsinki-86 organized a flower laying ceremony at the Freedom Monument to commemorate the victims of the 1941 deportations. In 1993 the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia (LOM) was founded which organized efforts around Remembrance Days. In Estonia the Estonian Institute of Historical Memory leads vigils on 14 June and 25 March.

In media

The June deportation has been the subject of several Baltic films from the 2010s. The 2013 Lithuanian film '' The Excursionist'' dramatised the events through the depiction of a 10-year-old girl who escapes from her camp. Estonia's 2014 '' In the Crosswind'' is an essay film based on the memoirs of a woman who was deported to Siberia, and is told through staged tableaux vivants filmed in black-and-white. Estonia's Ülo Pikkov also addressed the events in the animated short film ''Body Memory'' (''Kehamälu'') from 2012. Latvia's '' The Chronicles of Melanie'' was released in 2016 and is, just like ''In the Crosswind'', based on the memoirs of a woman who experienced the deportation, but is told in a more conventional dramatic way.

References