The Western Finnic Minorities and the Origins of the Stalinist Nationalities Deportations
Wept the boat without her oars, Pined she for her rowlocks, For her oarsmen did she grieve, To take her o'er the waves…. From a Karelian folk song The Gulag Handbook states that in 1936 “the entire native populations of Finns, Estonians, Letts, Lithuanians, Poles, and Romanians…were transported...
| Published in: | Nationalities Papers |
|---|---|
| Main Author: | |
| Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
1996
|
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/00905999608408440 https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0090599200003366 |
| Summary: | Wept the boat without her oars, Pined she for her rowlocks, For her oarsmen did she grieve, To take her o'er the waves…. From a Karelian folk song The Gulag Handbook states that in 1936 “the entire native populations of Finns, Estonians, Letts, Lithuanians, Poles, and Romanians…were transported” from the border zone of the USSR. Many such peoples began to appear unreliable through Stalinist eyes because they “had relatives across the border,” and “might undermine [propaganda that people] abroad were suffering and that no better life existed than that in the USSR.” Several former officers of the security police confirm that the 1930s saw purges of “unreliable elements” from border regions, including not only “class aliens” and political malcontents, but also minorities whose kinship with populations of neighboring states facilitated the movement of people and of information across borders. More importantly, numerous personal accounts gave rise to the perception in the contemporary Finnish government and popular circles that their brethren were being systematically eliminated from the Soviet borders with Finland and Estonia. |
|---|