How the Deportation of the Finno-Ugric Peoples in 1944 was Prevented

• Published in: Virittäjä
• Main Author: Васильев, Юрий Альбертович
• Format: Article in Journal/Newspaper
• Language: Russian
• Published: Московский гуманитарный университет 2020
• Subjects: Great Patriotic War; Karelian Front; Karelian issue; deportation; Secretariat of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks; I. V. Stalin; M. M. Shur; G. N. Kupriyanov; T. F. Shtykov; Великая Отечественная война; Карельский фронт; карельский вопрос; депортация; секретариат ЦК ВКП(б); И. В. Сталин; М. М. Шур; Г. Н. Куприянов; Т. Ф. Штыков; karelia*; karelian; karelians
• Online Access: https://journals.mosgu.ru/zpu/article/view/1154; https://doi.org/10.17805/zpu.2020.2.2

The article highlights the unique and almost unknown historical fact of preventing the deportation of the Finno-Ugric population of the USSR in 1944 in the Leningrad Region and the Karelian-Finnish SSR, liberated from occupation by the Karelian Front. It was first mentioned in the Finnish media in the late 1980s and early 1990s. However, there is still no scientific historiography on this issue.According to documents of the Russian State Archive of Socio-Political History (RGASPI), discovered as a result of the researcher’s inquiry, during the offensive of the Karelian Front in June — August 1944, there was a real threat of a possible eviction of Ingermanlanders, Karelians, Finns, Vepsians and other indigenous northern peoples who found themselves in the territory occupied by Finnish and German troops during the years of the Great Patriotic War.The author reveals the content of the memorandum written by the war correspondent for the newspaper “Pravda” M. M. Shur to the editorial board of the USSR main party organ, in which the presence of a threat of violent measures against the Finno-Ugric population was indicated in stark terms. According to the war correspondent’s definition, the aggravation of the national issue was called the “Karelian issue”. The author covers collisions related to its further discussion in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of the Bolsheviks and to the participation of the highest party leaders: the secretaries of the Central Committee of the party G. M. Malenkov, A. A. Zhdanov, A. S. Shcherbakov, chief editor of the newspaper “Pravda” P. N. Pospelov.According to the author, the prevention of deportation in the North in 1944 was carried out at the direction of the “highest authority” — Supreme Commander I. V. Stalin. The adoption of this decision was justified by the geopolitical situation, the state interests of the USSR and Finland, which resulted in the conclusion of a ceasefire in Moscow on September 19, 1944. В статье освещается уникальный и практически ...