The influence of power structures on the destinies of Finnish and German special settlers in Murmansk Oblast

Abstract

The article is devoted to such topical issues of ethnopolitical history as dekulakization of Soviet Finns and Germans and deportation on ethnic grounds. With the help of special settlers, the authorities solved the problem of labor shortage at the construction sites of the first five-year plans in remote regions, including Murmansk Oblast. It is noted that the dispossessed peasants constituted the largest group of special settlers in the area of apatite mining. The decision to send a family to special settlement was made by local authorities, and the decision to deport entire nations on ethnic grounds was made by the supreme power. Unlike the deportation of Finns and Germans in the 1940s, the process of dekulakization was performed according to the social criterion (liquidation of the kulaks as a class) rather than ethnic one. The article draws attention to the fact that the deportations were of a preventive nature, since the Soviet Finns and Germans were ethnically related to the nations that were waging war against the USSR. The article also provides examples of mobilization of Germans and Finns into the labor army. The instances of sending women with German ancestry to the Labor Army are pointed out. The deportation of Finns and Germans by order of the authorities had disastrous consequences for the preservation of those ethnic groups and their national culture. The article discusses the stages of deportation depending on the place of residence. Based on the interviews conducted by the author, it can be concluded that staying in Finland or Germany during the war years had an extremely negative impact on the future life of repatriates. The article analyzes the transformation of ethnic self-identity under the influence of state policy towards Soviet Finns and Germans. The main materials were interviews with the representatives of families with Finnish and German ancestry as well as their family archives.

Keywords

• finns
• germans
• special settlers
• special settlements
• deportation
• labor army
• migrations