Stalin's Directive 50125

[Orphic_Hymn]

Stalin's Directive 50125


Issued by Joseph Stalin on Dec. of 1937 and signed by the minister of defence Dmitry Yazov. Through these orders commenced the so-called "Greek Operation", an ooperation which gave detailed orders for the detention of all Hellenic nationals residing within the USSR.
Result of the 'directive' was the on site excecution of approx. 20.000 Hellenes and the movement of another 3.000 ethnic Hellenes residing in USSR into labor camps. Almost all captured were family men.

This directive was declassified on Apr. 12th 2006 thanks to the efforts of the researcher of Stalinist pogroms and of Hellenic descent, Ivan Juha.

[Tsontos]

thanks orphic. this stuff isnt too well known but it should be. As I understand it a certain Greeks were specifically targeted after the war as well?

[Orphic_Hymn]

Ethnic Cleansing in the USSR, 1937-1949 By J. Otto Pohl
Published 1999 Greenwood Press p. 119-127


THE GREEKS


The last large extraterritorial nationality living on the Crimean peninsula and shores of the Black Sea after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars was the Soviet Greeks. Many of these Greeks had refused to accept Soviet citizenship and sought to maintain their Greek culture in the face of increasing Russian chauvanism. The cultural and ethnic ties between these communities and Greece made them a suspect alien population in the view of the Stalin regime. In order to secure the strategic areas around the Black Sea, the NKVD deported the Soviet Greeks to special settlements in Siberia, the Urals, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia.

The Greeks were the first people to settle the shores of the Crimea and Black Sea coast of Georgia and southern Russia. Greek traders, merchants, farmers, and fishermen lived and prospered in the coastal cities of the Crimean peninsula and Black Sea from the 7th century B.C.E. until World War II. This small community survived under the Tatars, the Tsars, and early Bolsheviks. In the 18th century additional Greek colonists settled the Crimea at the invitation of Catherine II-' During the 19th century many Pontic Greeks left Asia Minor to settle the Crimea and Black Sea coasts of Georgia and southern Russia.

These Greeks and their descendants formed the majority of the Crimean Greek and Black Sea communities by World War I. They spoke an ancient Ionian dialect of Greek barely intelligible to modern Athenians after centuries of separation. From 1916 to 1924 almost 100,000 more Pontic Greeks fled persecution from the Turkish authorities to settle among their compatriots in Georgia, Russia, Ukraine, and the Crimea. In 1938 there were 20,653 ethnic Greeks living in the Crimea (1.8% of the peninsula's population).

Between 27 June and 4 July 1944, Joseph Stalin and Lavrentry Beria forcibly dispersed the Crimean Greeks across the Urals, Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Uzbekistan. In less than a week, the Stalin regime permanently destroyed the centuries-old Crimean Greek community. The Greeks exiled from the Crimea lost their rights as Soviet citizens, their ancestral homeland, and much of their culture as a direct result of the deportation.

In addition to the Crimean Greeks, Stalin deported the large population of ethnic Greeks living on the Black Sea littoral of Georgia and South Russia. In 1779, 30,000 Greek immigrants founded the city of Mariupol under the reign of Catherine II.* After the Russians captured the city of Odessa, the majority of the population was Greek. The 1926 Soviet census counted 213,800 Greeks in the USSR.' Despite being born in the Soviet Union, many of these Greeks had Greek passports as late as 1949. After the collapse of the Tsarist Russian Empire, the Greek government issued these documents to as many ethnic Greeks as they could. The Black Sea Greeks suffered the same fate as their brethren from the Crimea.

The Soviet Greeks, like other ethnic minorities, benefited from the policy of korenzatsiia. In the Crimea, Black Sea littoral, and Ukraine the Soviet government supported Greek-language schools, newspapers, journals, and theaters. The Crimean ASSR had five Greek village Soviets." Among the Greek-language newspapers published in the Soviet Union were Spartacus in Novorossiyisk, Kommimist in Batum, and Kakkinas kapnas (Red Tobacco Grower) in Sukhumi." In Georgia alone, the number of Greek-language schools increased from 22 in 1924 to 140 in 1938. In contrast only one Greek-language school existed in Ukraine in 1928." By 1935 this number, had grown to 21." In 1932, three Greek national raions existed in the Stalin Oblast of Ukraine." The Soviet government also established a Greek national raion in Krasnodar Kray. This territory was inhabited by Greeks who had emigrated to Russia during the 1870s and 1880s and their descendants. These Greeks made their living as tobacco farmers, and the official newspaper of the raion was the Russian language Za sotsialisticheskoc tabakovodslvo (For Socialist Tobacco Farming).

As the 1930s progressed, the Stalin dictatorship continued to display an increasingly virulent Russian chauvinism. This chauvinism manifested itself in the closure of Greek institutions.
In 1937 the Soviet government eliminated nated the Greek national raion in Krasnodar.
In 1938, the Stalin regime closed down the Greek-language Kommunist and began closing Greek schools.* These discriminatory actions prompted many Soviet Greeks to emigrate to Greece. By 1939 the Soviet census showed 286,400 Greeks in the USSR. These Greeks lived under increasing government discrimination and persecution. The deportations of the Crimean and Black Sea Greeks during World War II represented the height of this persecution.
The first deportation of Black Sea Greeks occurred in 1942. On 29 May 1942, Stalin issued GKO order GOKO 1828ss, which ordered the exile of socially dangerous elements, Germans, Romanians, Crimean Tatars, and Greek passport holders from the cities and population centers of Krasnodar Kray and Rostov Oblast.
The resolution allocated the NKVD two weeks to accomplish this task. The NKVD deported 1,402 Greeks from these areas during this operation. The NKVD deported a large number of Greeks from Rostov Oblast, Krasnodar Kray, Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan at this time. This was only the first of several waves of Greek exiles.

Soon after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the Soviet security organs began preparing to exile the Crimean Greeks, Armenians, and Bulgarians. These nationalities all had cultural ties beyond the borders of the Soviet Union. The Stalin regime's paranoia regarding foreign spies and diversionists contributed greatly to the decision to deport these nationalities. In the case of the Greeks, Soviet resentment over the Greek army's intervention in Odessa and Sevastopol in 1919 intensified this paranoia.

On 29 May 1944, Beria informed Stalin that a large number of anti-Soviet elements remained in the Crimea. According to Beria, among these anti-Soviet elements were 14,300 Greeks, 12,075 Bulgarians, and 9,919 Armenians. Beria's specific accusations against the Crimean Greeks were relatively mild compared to those made against the Crimean Armenians and Bulgarians. He accused the Crimean Armenians of engaging in espionage and diversionary activities against the Red Army, and the Crimean Bulgarians of handing over captured Red Army soldiers and partisans to the German military. In contrast, Beria claimed that the "German authorities received assistance from the Greeks in trade, transportation of goods, etc. This accusation, however, carried the same penally for the Crimean Greeks as did the more serious charges against the Crimean Armenians and Bulgarians. Partisan leaders in the Crimea reported that the Greek population displayed passivity in face of the German occupation of the peninsula." They did not, however, report widespread collaboration between the German military and the Crimean Greeks. Despite these reports, Beria recommended to Stalin that the NKVD deport all Greeks, Armenians, and Bulgarians from the Crimea. Stalin endorsed Beria's recommendation.

Stalin personally issued the order to deport the Crimean Greeks, Armenians, and Bulgarians. In his capacity as the chairman of the GKO (State Defense Committee), Stalin issued resolution no. 5984 ss on 2 June 1944." This resolution ordered the deportation of the estimated 39,000 Greeks, Armenians, and Bulgarians from the Crimea to Guryev Oblast in Kazakhstan (7,000) and to Sverdlovsk Oblast (10,000), Molotov Oblast (10,000), Kemerovo Oblast (6,000), and the Bashkir ASSR (6,000) in Russia."

On 24 June 1944, the GKO passed resolution 61000ss ordering the deportation of people in the Crimea with Greek, Turkish, or Iranian passports to Uzbekistan. This resolution applied to 3,531 people with Greek passports.

On 27 and 28 June 1944, the NKVD rounded up all the Crimean Greeks and loaded them on overcrowded and unhygienic trains bound for the east.

On 4 July 1944, the NKVD reported sending 15,040 Crimean Greeks (this number does not include those with foreign passports) to exile in the areas specified in GKO resolution 5984 ss, Uzbekistan, and the Mai ASSR. The Crimean Greeks lost their homes, their livestock, and most of their moveable property during the deportation." The NKVD spread the Crimean Greeks across Siberia, the Urals, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia.

At the same time the NKVD exiled 8,300 Greeks without Soviet citizenship from Rostov and Krasnodar to the eastern regions of the Soviet Union. The Stalin regime sent 3,565 of these Greeks to Krasnoyarsk Kray.3 During this operation, the NKVD confiscated 687 rifles, 53 submachine guns, and 60 revolvers. The NKVD also deported 16,375 ethnic Greeks from Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia during this time. The Soviet regime exiled much of the Greek Diaspora around the Black Sea to the interior of the USSR.
Exiles to special settlements played an important role in the Soviet economy. The Stalin regime concentrated the Crimean Greeks into the oil and paper industries. In Guryev Oblast Kazakhstan, they worked for the People's Commissariat of Oil. In Molotov and Sverdlovsk oblasts they worked for the People's Commissariat of Paper." Neither of these industries were traditional occupations for the Crimean Greeks.

Many Soviet Greeks serving in the Red Army received even harsher treatment than the civilians deported to special settlements. Like the Soviet Germans, the Soviet regime mobilized Greek soldiers in the Red Army into labor battalions. The conditions of these mobilized workers, however, did not significantly differ from the conditions of Gulag prisoners. At the end of World War II the Soviet regime disbanded these work battalions and sent their members to join their ethnic compatriots in exile.
In addition to these work colonies and battalions, 2,610 Soviet Greeks were working in ITLs as Gulag prisoners on 1 January 1942 (see Table 11.1)." On 1 January 1946 the ITU held 1,240 ethnic Greek prisoners. By 1 January 1951 there were 1,558 Soviet Greeks in ITLs and 768 in ITKs (corrective labor colonies).



Table 11.1
Soviet Greeks in Corrective Labor Camps, 1942-1947

1942......2.610
1943......1,859
1944......1.344
1945......1,362
1946......1,240
1947......1,247


■V. N. Zemskov, "Gulag (istoriko-sotsiologicheskil aspekt)." Solsiologichieskie Issledovaniia, no. 6. 1991, table 11, p. 26.


The Soviet Greeks in forced labor institutions suffered substantial deprivations. They worked long hours at heavy labor under unsafe conditions and received meager rations.
In the summer of 1949, the Stalin regime took new repressive measures against the Soviet Greeks. The Soviet government decided to deport many of the Greeks still living in Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Black Sea coast of Russia to Kazakhstan.

On 29 May 1949, the Soviet Council of Ministers passed resolution SM SSR no. 2214-856 ss authorizing the MVD to undertake this action. This resolution ordered the deportation of the Greeks, Turks, and Armenians from the Transcaucasian republics and the Black Sea coast. Initially this resolution specified that this new contingent of Greek exiles would not be considered special settlers, but voluntary settlers." On 2 June 1949, however, the MVD issued order no. 00525, which classified all deported Greeks as special settlers.
On 14 and 15 June 1949, the Soviet security organs removed much of the Greek population from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and the Black Sea Coast." During these two days the MVD exiled a total of 57,680 Greeks, Armenians, and Turks from these areas. Greeks comprised the overwhelming majority of these exiles. Out of 56,142 special settlers counted in this contingent in 1953, 37,352 were Greeks. The MVD deported 6,121 Greeks from Abkhazia alone during this sweep. The SNK issued resolution no. 727-269ss on 21 February 1950. This resolution ordered the exile of Greek passport holders and former Greek citizens from Transcaucasia and the Black Sea coast. On 10 August 1950, the Council of Ministers issued order no. 14133rs, exiling the last remaining Greek passport holders, stateless Greeks, and former Greek citizens possessing Soviet citizenship from the Transcaucasian republics and Black Sea coast. Between 1942 and 1950 the Soviet regime deported a total of 21,199 people with Greek passports to special settlements in the interior of the USSR. The Soviet government issued six separate decrees regarding the deportation of Greeks (see Table 11.2).


Table 11.2
Deportation Orders Pertaining lo Greeks

Order......Date......From...... Citizenship

GKO 1828ss'......29 May 1942......Rostov and Krasnodar...... Greek
GK059845S1...... 2 June 1944......Crimea......Soviet
CKO61005S'...... 24 June 1944......Crimea...... Greek

SM 2214-ft56ss......29 May 1949......Transcaucasia and Black Sea....Soviet

SM 727-269ss......21 February 1950....Transcaucasia and Black Sea......Greek

SM 14133rs......10 August 1950......Transcaucasia and Black Sea....Greek



'Document reproduced in A. Andreevich and Ch. Georgievna, eds.. Istoriia rossiiskikh nemtsev v dokumrnlakh 176.1-1992 (Moscow: Internationa! Institute for Humanitarian Programs, 1993), p. 171.

*N. F. Bugal, Iosif Stalin —Laverentiiu Berii: "likh nado deportirovat ": dokumenty, fakty, kommentarii" (Moscow: Druzhba narodov, 1992). doc. 18. pp. 142-143.
'Bugai, Ikh nado deportiirovat'. doc 23, pp. 222-223.
•tod.
"N. F. Bugal, L Beria-I Stalinu: "Soglasno vashentu ukazaniiu ..." (Moscow: "A1RO XX," 1995), p. 299.



The number of Greeks remaining in the Black Sea region of the USSR after the 1949 and 1950 deportations was considerably smaller than it had been in the years prior to World War II.
After the Greek Civil War, many of the defeated communists emigrated to the USSR. On 27 September 1949, the Council of Ministers passed resolution no. 4067-1674 ss on "Political Emigrants from Greece. This resolution instructed the MVD to settle and find employment for these refugees. Between 10 and 30 September 1949, 11,157 Greeks including 3,241 women and 21 children arrived in the Georgian port of Poti from Albania. Upon arriving in the USSR, the MVD transported these Greeks first to Krasnodar Kray and then to Uzbekistan.
The MVD housed these immigrants in 14 settlements near Tashkent that had formerly been camps for POWs or Soviet prisoners." These Greek immigrants worked in a variety of industrial enterprises and construction projects. Like the deported Soviet Greeks, the Stalin regime viewed the Greek immigrants as a labor source to industrialize undeveloped areas of the USSR.
The Crimean and Black Sea Greeks lived under the restrictions of the special settlement regime until after Stalin's death. On 1 January 1953 the MVD counted 14,760 Crimean Greeks as special settlers (see Table 11.3)


They found 14,486 of these exiles in special settlements, they had arrested 241, and they were searching for the remaining 33. The largest concentration of these exiles was in Uzbekistan, with 4,097 Crimean Greek special settlers. Other large populations of Crimean Greek exiles lived in Sverdlovsk Oblast (3,414), Molotov Oblast (2,268), Bashkir ASSR (1,967), and Kemerovo Oblast (1334)
The MVD counted 37,352 Black Sea Greeks as special settlers on 1 January 1953. They found 37,188 of these exiles in special settlements, they had arrested 163, and they were searching for only one.70 The vast majority of the deported Black Sea Greeks (37,114, or 99.8%) resided in Kazakhstan.71 On 7 March 1956, there were still 10,231 Crimean Greeks in special settlements. Almost the entire Crimean and Black Sea Greek populations remained scattered across the Urals, Siberia, Kazakhstan, and Central Asia for nine years.
Stalin's death allowed the Soviet government to greatly ease its repression of non-Russian nationalities. Between 1954 and 1957, the Soviet government dismantled the special settlement regime. On 5 July 1954 the Council of Ministers released all children under 16 from special settlements. Exiled Greeks aged 16 and over remained confined to special settlements. In August 1955, the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union formed a special commission consisting of Rudenko, Kruglov, Serov, and Gorshenin to release certain categories of special settlers. This commission released the Greeks with Soviet citizenship deported from the Transcaucasian republics and Black Sea coast under SM resolution no. 2214-856ss of 29 May 1949.

Not until 27 March 1956 did the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet issue a decree releasing the Crimean Greeks from special settlements. After almost 11 years of repression, the Soviet regime finally restored these deported Greeks their rights as Soviet citizens. The Soviet state released those Greeks without Soviet citizenship from special settlements on 25 September 1956 with MVD prikaz no. 0402. This decree, however, did not allow the deported Greeks without Soviet citizenship to return to the areas from which they were exiled or receive compensation for property confiscated during the deportations. Non-citizen Greeks did not receive the right of freedom of residence until 1972. They received this right along with the Soviet Germans in a ukaz by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet on 3 November 1972. They remained dispersed across the USSR, far from their traditional settlements on the Black Sea.
The exile to special settlements had a detrimental effect upon Greek culture in the USSR. The loss of Greek-language schools and publications accelerated the assimilation of the deported Greeks into Russian culture. Spread amongst Turkic and Russian populations, many Greeks became linguistically Russified (see Table 11.4). Between 1926 and 1959, the number of Soviet Greeks who spoke Greek as a native language declined from 72.7% to 41.5%.



Table 11.4
Percentage of Soviet Creeks Speaking Greek as a Native Language

Year Percentage
1926 72.7%'
1959 41.5%'
1979 38.0V
'Gerhard Simon. Nationalism and Policy toward the Nationalities in the Soviet Union (Boulder.
Ca Westview. 1991). table A 8, p. 396. Ibid. Ibkl.


Table 11.5'
Greek Population of the Former Soviet Union, 1990

Abkhazia. Georgia 14,633
Adzharia, Georgia 7,379
Other Areas of Georgia 78,292
Ukraine 98,578
Russia 91,654
Kazakhstan 46.714
Uzbekistan 10,479
Other Areas of CIS 10,636
Total 357,975

■Svetlana Alieva, Tak eto bylo. Natsional'nye repressi. v SSSR. 1919-1952 gody (Moscow: Russian International Cultural Fund, 1993), vol. Ill, p. 201.


By 1979 the number of Soviet Greeks who spoke Greek as their first language was a mere 38%." Assimilation and intermarriage steadily eroded the expression of Greek culture in the Soviet Union.
Many of the deported Greeks managed to make their way back to their Black Sea homes after Stalin's death. These Greeks returned to their traditional areas of settlement in Georgia and other regions from which Stalin had deported them (see Table 11.5). The Soviet government, however, did not restore the Greek institutions existing in these areas prior to 1938. Only under Gorbachev did the expression of Greek culture in the Soviet Union receive official sanction. More than half of the Soviet Greek population lived in Georgia and Ukraine by 1990.
Since the collapse of the Soviet Union many ethnic Greeks living in the countries of the former Soviet Union have opted to emigrate. As early as 1990, 22,500 Greeks left the Soviet Union. A similar number of Greeks left the USSR in 1991.

[GreekSlav]

My great Uncle Constantine was one of those Greeks living in southern Russia that was perched. He was taken to the Kolyma gold mine, where the death toll there was about 99%. But my Uncles tell me that someone had told them a Soviet Officer had shot him. Truth or Lie? I prefer to think of it as a lie since Communists lived on lies anyway.

What I do not understand is how a man like Stalin, who felt all non-Russians were ememies of the State, did not shoot his Georgian-ass in the head.

[PhiliptheUniterchaeronea]

WOW Orphic, that was a great find.It even talks about the Greeks there from millenium gone by.

[chicagogeorge]

Interesting historical documents. A shame really......