During the past years the problems regarding national deportations within the USSR have been studied carefully and with utmost attention. The forced resettlements of the 1930s till the 1950s did not only influence and considerably change the lives of individuals, but even of entire peoples, who, up to this day, have not overcome the after-effects of this ethnical banishment. The research of the history of „punished peoples“ after their rehabilitation has become a matter of topical interest. The process of socio-political rehabilitation was a very tedious one for all repressed peoples, among them the Russian Germans.
We have seen that one of the after-effects of the liquidation of the forced resettlement regime was a high migration activity among the former deportees. For the first time after many, many years, they were allowed to move away and take up residence in a place of their own choice. Late in the 1950s, many repressed peoples were given the right to return to their former places of residence. The Soviet Germans, however, were deprived of this possibility. In accordance with the ukase of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated the 13 December 1955 about the abolition of legal restrictions imposed on Germans and their family members, they were not permitted to return to their native villages along the river Volga. The rehabilitation of the Germans came to a political rehabilitation, after. In this way, the administrative-civil and territorial process of rehabilitation did not show any signs of a progress at all. German families were predestined to organize their future lives far away from their historical native towns and villages. Trying hard tpo reunite their own families with other relatives, some of them left the region of Krasnoyarsk and moved to the northern parts of Kazakhstan or West-Siberia. Most of them, however, decided to stay within the territory of the Krasnoyarsk region. One of the most significant characteristics of the German ethnos in the Krasnoyarsk region in the second half of the 1950s till the early 1970s was a comparatively active inner migration, which was favoured by the existing difference of the climatic conditions in the northern and southern territories of the region.
Unfortunately, the regional authorities in charge of the population census did not take into consideration polulation shifts in the rural areas till 1960, nor did they record the national make-up of the migrants. Anyway, the existing indirect signs indicate that an active territorial drift of former special resettlers took place. We were able to state, for example, considerable changes in the number of Germans living in the region, particularly on the Taymyr peninsula and in Khakassia. These information are based on statistics subject to the All-Russian census of the years 1959 an 1970. They proved an evident migration among the Germans who live there. According to the data preserved by the Krasnoyarsk regional GUVD, most of the German special resettlers were living just in these two territories in 1951, shortly before their rehabilitation – 2648 on the Taymyr peninsula and 6825 in Khakassia.
We are aware of the fact that a few German families began to leave the place of their forced settlement still in 1954-1955, when a process of gradual liquidation of the special resettlement regime set in. Documents kept with the regional archives prove that managers, party functionaries and members of the different soviets (counsils) were alarmed by the noticeably progressing decrease of manpower in the production sector. In order to keep the former resettlers in their places of work, additional measures had to be taken with utmost urgency. For the first time, since the existence of special resettlement structures, the contingents of workers were devoted an unremitting attention. On the accounts and reports rendered by special commissions regularly checking the living and working conditions of the resettlers, it is indicated that, in order to maintain this manpower in the producing sector, it was of utmost importance and even a must to considerably improve the material situation of their everyday life and carry out much more active agitation campaigns (Center of the Preservation and Study of documents of contemporary history, library 26, register 29, file 4, sheet 26).
In the very north the cadre question turned out to be a particular problem. Above all, the town committee of the USSR Communist Party in Igarka expressed its grave concern about the drift of Germans from this district, for they made up the majority of those, who worked for the fishing kolkozes, which had been founded here during the war. The mass migration of former resettlers could easily lead to the liquidation of these branches of industry. The secretary of the local town committee asked the regional authorities to immediately take measures in order to support the fishing kolkhoz farms, write off their debths and grant them loans for the construction of houses (Center of the Preservation and Study of documents of contemporary history, library 26, register 29, file 4, sheet 358). These requests were partly complied with, but the half-hearted decisions of the regional authorities were not suited to compensate for the lack of work contingents and forced labour in the fishing industry. The Germans continued to leave the place. The numerical decrease of the German ethnos on the Taymyr peninsula is statistically surveyed by a population census carried through in 1959. The survey says that 1500 Germans lived in the region at that time. In 1970 their number had already decreased to 942 (Krasnoyarsk regional State Archives, library 1300, register 5, file 2966, sheets 14-15-..).
It has to be mentioned that the drift of the Germans from the north was not a general phenomenon of the migration process of this region and period of time. The active industrial exploitation of the Taymyr peninsula in the 1950s till the 1970s, as well as opportunities of making a lot of money, had a favourable effect on the inflow of Russian and Ukrainian families, a fact, which is recorded in the 1970 census. The Russian population of the National Region of Taymyr increased from 21800 in 1959 to 25500 in 1970 – the Ukrainian from 1300 to 1800 (Krasnoyarsk regional State Archives, library 1300, register 5, file 2966, sheets 14-15). Hence, the relief of having the possibility to leave the place of their forced labour resettlement was much more important to the Germans, than the opportunity to gain financial advantages.
The motive of reuniting their families, which had been torn apart during the deportation process, played a considerable role for the choice of their new places of residence. Since the early 1950 they had often made applications with the local commandantS’ offices for being allowed to leave for the relatives, who lived in different districts or even outside the region. As the data of many personal files prove, they only received such a permission in exceptional cases.
The migration of Germans from the southern parts of the region as from the second half of the 1950s was connected with the search for better, more tolerable living conditions in Siberia, as the climate of the south was more favourable. Thus, the German population of Khakassia increased from 6900 in the year 1952 to 10500 in 1959 (Krasnoyarsk regional State Archives, library 1300, register 5, file 2965, sheets 14-19). It is obvious that the increase in population was caused by German resettlers to a considerable extent. During the following decades the number of national Germans remained practically unchanged – about 10000 (Krasnoyarsk regional State Archives, library 1300, register 5, file 2965, sheets 14-19).
From the 1950s till the 1970s the Germans remained village people. L.N. Slavina, who analyzed the results of the demographic and sociocultural development of the Germans under the conditions of the special resettlement regime on the territory of the Krasnoyarsk region, points out the low level of urbanization among the abouve-mentioned ethnic groups – in 1959 merely 21,6% of them lived in towns. [L.N. Slavina. The Germans in the Krasnoyarsk region (some summarized results of the demographic and sociocultural development under the conditions of the special resettlement regime) // The Germans of Russia and the USSR (1940-1941). Information gathered during the International Scientific Conference – Moscow, 2000, p.505]. This situation remained unchanged in the 1960s, as well. According to the 1970 sencus 63,7% of the Germans lived in rural areas , the remaining 36,3% in towns (Krasnoyarsk regional State Archives, library 1300, register 5, file 2962, sheets 14-17). In the southern districts of the region, particularly in Khakassia, the number of farmers even increased – from 67,0% to 71,0% (Krasnoyarsk regional State Archives, library 1300, register 5, file 2965, sheets 14-19). Thus, the number of German townspeople within the region insignificantly increased during the analyzed period of time, in spite of the fact that, in the decades concerned, an active process of industrial exploitation took place. Migration in general showed a downward tendency, which became evident in the 1960s by a quick increase of town dwellers among the Russian and Ukrainian population. In 1970 their number amounted to 63,6% and 77,3% respectively (Krasnoyarsk regional State Archives, library 1300, register 5, file 2965, sheets 14-19).
Thus, all repressed peoples were more or less comdemned to migration in the second half of the 1950s, but there were certain regional characteristics with the Soviet Germans. After the abolition of the typical resettlement regime, there was an evident decrease of the German ethnic group in the northern areas , as well as their increase in the southern parts of the Krasnoyarsk region. The migration of Germans within the territory of the Krasnoyarsk region had almost no influence on the scale of urbanization. In 1970 most of the German families lived in rural areas.
E.L. Zberovskaya
„People and fate. 20th century“. Basic ideas from lectures and reports of
the Scientific Conference.
Krasnoyarsk, 2003.