Why Stalin forbade sending some peoples to war

2024 Author: Richard Flannagan | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-15 23:55

Despite the fact that the Victory in the Great Patriotic War is undoubtedly the merit of the entire Soviet people, according to Stalin's order, not all peoples of a multinational country were equally called to the front. What was the leader afraid of? Collaboration or degeneration of small nations? Why were there special conditions for some nationalities in a country where everything worked according to the principle of "all are equal"?

The opinion that all peoples equally defended their common country and applied equal conditions for the victory over fascism is widespread and absolutely correct. But even if this statement is not questioned, it can be argued that the national policy of the USSR divided the nationalities into those who are more prepared for war, and who are less, based on historical differences and cultural values, and sometimes on the fact of behavior at a given time. segment.

First of all, the ban on conscription was applied to people who were tied to other states: the Germans, who were enough in the USSR before the war, the Japanese, Bulgarians, Romanians, Hungarians, etc. However, from their number, units were formed that were involved in military construction work in the rear. But this rule also had exceptions, therefore, among the indicated nationalities there are people who not only participated in battles, but also received orders and medals. In any case, their admission to the front line was decided on an individual basis and was allowed only if there was confidence in their political reliability. The latter was confirmed by membership in the party, the Komsomol, including members of their family.

At the same time, Slovaks, Croats and Italians were not included in this list. Croats and Slovaks were considered victims of fascist actions, since their states turned out to be occupied territories, and therefore separate parts were even formed from among them. In the second year of the Great Patriotic War, a Czechoslovak military unit was assembled, over time it grew into a corps. During the civil war in their states, many Italians and Spaniards fled from their countries to the USSR and were called up in the forefront, moreover, there were a lot of volunteers among them.

Why were some nationalities not called up for war?

However, already during the war, a decree was issued, according to which the conscription of some nationalities was not canceled, but postponed. In October 1943, the call-up (which had already been started) of young people representing the nationalities of Central Asia, Transcaucasia, Kazakhstan, and the North Caucasus was suspended. The conscription was suspended for a year, that is, they were supposed to begin conscription in November 1944, but not to the army, but to reserve units.

The reason for this decision in the decree is two factors: • political unreliability; • low combat capability of conscripts.

By the way, this decree applied only to young people of certain years of birth (in this case, we are talking about young people born in 1926), this restriction did not apply to older conscripts. And how much has the Soviet army lost without the 17-year-old boys of these nationalities?

The peoples of the Far North, East and Siberia were not even drafted into the army until 1939, when the law on universal conscription was adopted. That is, when the Second World War flared up in the world, representatives of these nationalities first joined the army.

In a number of sources, there is evidence that these nationalities were called up with the rest on an equal footing from the first days of the Great Patriotic War. However, the decision of the State Defense Committee, dated back to the first weeks of the war, exempts the inhabitants of this region (talking about indigenous peoples) from the call to war. Nevertheless, reindeer transport battalions were formed in these regions.

The volunteer movement was actively supported, but in order to get to the front, it was necessary to go through a special commission at the military registration and enlistment office at the place of residence. Among the prerequisites was knowledge of the Russian language, at least an elementary level of education, good health. Native hunters often hit snipers due to their natural accuracy and experience. Many representatives of "non-recruiting" nationalities have been awarded orders and medals for bravery and heroism shown in battle.

Stalinist deportation of peoples

It is traditionally believed that the deportation of peoples is one of the types of repression, Stalin's revenge for complicity with the Germans, who are too loyal to them. They are called the third category of victims of repression, and one of the most widespread, because we are talking about entire peoples who were forcibly sent to Siberia, Kazakhstan and Central Asia.

While some were expelled during the war years as potential accomplices of the enemy, among them were Germans, Koreans, Greeks, others living in the occupied territories were accused of helping the enemy (Crimean Tatars, Caucasian peoples). The total number of people who were forced to leave their homes was 2.5 million people.

However, the resettlement of peoples, and even in the war and post-war years only for "revenge" is a very strange idea even for Stalin. In addition, during this period, defense enterprises, the evacuation population along with all their belongings were transported into the interior of the country, and then there are more than two million people just like that?

Caucasians clearly expressed their attitude to the call to the Red Army by the level of desertion. At the very first announced demobilization, a tenth of the recruits not only did not appear at the conscription point, but also fled, joining the gangs that were forming in the mountains. The percentage was approximately the same during the rest of the draft campaigns. Gangster groups were repeatedly seen aiding German intelligence.

Mass desertion on a permanent basis, assistance to the German side - all this flourished in this region in the middle of hostilities. Colonel Guba Osman, detained by the NKVD, said in his testimony that he easily found accomplices among the Chechens or Ingush. What pushed the representatives of these peoples to such behavior has not been explained by historians, but the most appropriate version is the desire to maintain the level of their well-being, which during this period was at a very high level, especially in comparison with other regions of the USSR. The country's leadership could not close its eyes to such a leadership. Therefore, if we talk about the fact that revenge is a punishment, then the eviction and deportation of peoples may have been Stalin's revenge.

After the check, about 500 thousand people were to be evicted from the mountainous regions, and they were to be taken out within 10 days. As expected by the country's high command, the mountaineers, based on their mentality, should have shown strength and firmness, immediately showed respect for the order and began to appear at the departure points. Only 6 cases of resistance were recorded. In total, about one and a half thousand highlanders died during the resettlement.

Some more data confirming the fact that the freedom-loving highlanders did not at all strive to defend the Motherland in the broad sense of the word. If about 40-50 thousand Chechens and Ingush participated in the mobilization, then only 9 thousand returned from the war. The reason for such a huge difference in numbers is not only the death of soldiers, but rather their desertion, sometimes it exceeded 90%.

The status of a special settler was removed for military services, but it was still impossible to live in the Caucasus, and girls of these nationalities who were married to representatives of other nationalities also did not receive this status and did not resettle.

During wartime, desertion was punishable by shooting or a penal battalion, but this did not stop the inhabitants of the Caucasus, and the measure chosen by Stalin as a punishment is often called by historians exceptionally mild, especially for the toughest leader in the history of our country.

Some historians call deportation a preventive measure, relocating an unreliable population from a strategically important oil-rich site that Germany was counting on was a strategically deliberate decision. The only road to Georgia at that time ran through Ossetia, and the railway line to Baku through Dagestan, from there the oil of Azerbaijan was transported to Grozny, then it was used for the needs of the front. Calmness in this area was the basis for the security of providing the front with fuel. Saboteurs and bandit groups could get out of control and would require military forces to clean up, which would have to be removed from the front. Therefore, voiced to the population "for aiding the Germans" and this, though fair, but not the complete reason that people left their homes.

They say that history does not tolerate the subjunctive mood. Therefore, we will never know which scenario was preferable for these peoples. But there are several facts that indicate that such, at first glance, tough measures taken by the head of state, rather saved the nation than were revenge against it. During the resettlement, each adult member of the family could take with them up to 500 kg of things, at the place of arrival, according to a certificate of left values, they could receive an equivalent value. Despite the hostilities in the country, the population was provided with hot meals. At the same time, the Germans were preparing to "drive" about 50 thousand Crimean Tatars to Germany for work. The Soviet citizens who, by the will of fate, remained in the occupied territories, have always had a special attitude. After the end of the occupation, their own state carefully checked them for involvement and complicity with a hostile state, while before that they had to exist between a rock and a hard place.