Victims’ Testimonies of the Soviet Forcible Deportations
The Soviet forcible mass deportations caused a demographic crisis and a national tragedy in the temporarily occupied countries — Ukraine, the Baltic States, and Poland.
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депортації з заходу України 1939-1940
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Story 30: Nataliya
Nataliya, from Ternova village, 20 kilometers northeast of the city of Kharkiv and 7 kilometers from the Russian border, was forcibly deported to Russia on May 31.
Story 29: Svitlana
Svitlana, the 24-year-old woman from a Mariupol suburb, was forcibly deported upon the city’s full siege by Russian troops.
Operation “Priboi”. Deportations from the Baltic States in March 1949.
Deportation processes in the Baltic States were organized by the Soviet occupation regime several times. In June 1941, the Soviets already forcibly deported hundreds of thousands of people from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, but it was considered insufficient to totally subjugate those states.
Story 28: Anna
In late March 2022, it was becoming impossible to survive in Mariupol under siege. No drinking water, no heat and food.
Story 27: Anastasiia
A 15-year-old, Anastasiia, was deported from Kherson to temporarily occupied Crimea in September.
Story 26: Lilya
In September 2022, Kherson was still occupied by the Russians, but they were already preparing for withdrawal as the AFU approached.
Deportation of Ukrainians in 1947. Operation “West”
In 1944, the Soviet army occupied the West of Ukraine once again. While the Soviet troops marched to Berlin, some of them remained in the occupied territories in the West of Ukraine to re-establish the communist regime.
Story 25: Ihor
A 15-year-old Ihor and his mother Natalia lived in Kherson before Russia’s full-scale war. The woman tried to drive her child out of the city, but all the roads were blocked by Russian soldiers.
Story 24: Yevheniia
10-year-old Yevheniia lived with her mother in Kupyansk in Kharkiv region. The city was occupied since the first days of Russia’s full-scale war, but the family didn’t want to leave their home.
Story 23: Andrii
Andrii, a 17-year-old teenager from Mykolaiv, was kidnapped in August 2022 by Russian troops.
Story 22: Serhii
Serhii, a 16-year-old boy, lived near Mariupol. Just before Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, he lost his parents and lived in an orphanage.
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Deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944
The Soviet occupation regime deported people from Ukraine not only based on their economic status (“kulaks”), but also extracted ethnic groups. This article will touch upon the eviction of indigenous people living in Ukraine’s peninsula, Crimea, — Crimean Tatars (qirimli).
Story 21: Yurii
Yurii, 21, was an engineering student from Mariupol. He lived apart from his family, so when the city was besieged, he was split from his parents. Yurii’s mother managed to escape from Mariupol, but Yurii himself was forcibly deported to Russia by the occupants.
Story 20: Anton
Together with other 200 residents of a nursing house in Kakhovka, Anton was forcibly deported to Russia after 8 months under occupation.
Numbers and Evidence of Forcible Deportation of Ukrainians to Russia in the Russo-Ukrainian War
By launching the full-scale war against Ukraine, Russia also began forcibly deporting Ukrainians from occupied territories to the Russian Federation and the Republic of Belarus. Such actions, which count as a crime against humanity, a war crime, and bare signs of genocide, were prepared beforehand by the Russian leadership.
Story 19: Anastasiia and Veronika
Two sisters 15 y.o. Anastasia and 13 y.o. Veronika lived with her mother in Luhansk region.
Forcible Deportations of the Ukrainian Germans in 1935-1941
The Soviet occupation authorities drew different reasons for each ethnic group to be eliminated from the territory of Ukraine, but the procedure was always the same — forcible deportation. In this article, we will draw upon the extraction of ethnic Germans from Ukraine.
Story 18: Oleksandr
Until on November 5, Oleksandr together with other residents of the nursing house were forcibly deported.
Story 17: Bohdan
Bohdan, a 35-year-old man on a wheelchair, was deported to Russia by Russian occupation authorities against his will, but he was able to get away.
Story 16: Yulia
Yulia and her two sons, Ivan, 5, and Matthew, 11, were forcibly deported to Russia. The family was forced to undergo several filtration camps, but abandoned Russian passports and escaped from captivity.
Deportations from the Baltic Countries in 1940-1941
In all occupied territories or areas of influence, the Soviet government used deportation as a method of governance. During the Soviet occupation of 1939-1990, the peoples of Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia became victims of forced deportation from their places of residence.
How Russians deport Ukrainians and what the Russian Orthodox Church has to do with it
Since February 24, 2022, when Russian troops invaded Ukraine, a part of territories in the North, South, and East of the country have been seized.
Story 15: Yevheniia
When Russians occupied Kherson, they forcibly deported children from the region to Russia. 10-year-old Yevheniia was taken from her mother “to be evacuated to a safe place, in a boarding school in Anapa”, Russians said.
Story 14: Andrii
Andrii, 19, together with his mother were deported to Russia from Mariupol.
Story 13: Vlad
Vlad was forcibly deported to Taganrog from Mariupol at the beginning of March 2022. All his documents, stuff, and money burned in his apartment after a shelling.
Story 12: Oleksandr
Oleksandr lived with his mother and sister when the full-scale war began. Soon, the Russian troops occupied their city.
Story 11: Marharyta
8-year-old Marharyta lived with her father in the Kherson region when the full-scale war began. In late October 2022
Mass deportations from the West of Ukraine in 1939-1940
For Europe, 1939 was the beginning of one of the most dramatic pages of the XX century —World War II.
Deportations of Ukrainians in the 1930s. The policy of dekulakization
Forced deportation and persecution accompanied Soviet governance of occupied Ukraine from the beginning until the breakup of the Soviet Union.
Story 10: Pasha
The boy went missing and there were no clues that he survived the shelling. After a while, Pasha’s father, Denis, received a message with a video featuring his son.
Story 9: Tetyana
Tetyana, 25, together with her mother and brother were forcibly deported to Russia from Mariupol in March 2022. The family was hiding in bomb shelters from the start of the full-scale invasion, but they were evicted from there by approaching Russian troops.
Story 8: Anonymous
On September 30, Russian troops broke into a house where a 16-year-old teenager (we keep his name anonymous), lived with his grandmother. It was late at night and there was no reason for such vandalism.
Story 7: Natalia
82-year-old Natalia lost her house in the besieged Mariupol. She hid in bomb shelters for a while, but eventually Russian troops found her and took her to a filtration camp.
Story 6: Yevhen
To survive Russian massive strikes on Mariupol, Yevhen with his son Matvii and daughter Svyatoslava were hiding in bomb shelters. In April, when Russian soldiers came, they gave people only 30 minutes to prepare for the forcible deportation, which they called “evacuation”.
Story 5: Lena
Those 18 new children were abducted by the Russian troops from Snigurivka, Mykolaiv region. They were orphans, too. The Russian occupation regime disregarded the children’s needs and didn’t care for food supplies.
Story 4: Volodymyr
Since Kherson was occupied by the Russian troops, Volodymyr took responsibility and care of 50 orphan kids of age from 4 to 15. The man was the Director of the "Center for Social and Psychological Rehabilitation of Children" and he vowed to protect the orphans.
Story 3: Olena and Andrii
Suddenly the hospital was bombarded. Olena's mother died in the shelling and her son, Andrii, got seriously injured. Olena witnessed him being taken away by the Russian soldiers. They said they would place him in a military hospital. She was helpless in front of them.
Story 2: Davyd
Davyd was 17 when his hometown, Mariupol, was occupied by the Russian Forces. He stayed there till April under heavy shelling and when trying to escape to Ukrainian controlled territory Davyd got imprisoned in an orphanage.
Story 1: Ilia
Davyd was 17 when his hometown, Mariupol, was occupied by the Russian Forces. He stayed there till April under heavy shelling and when trying to escape to Ukrainian controlled territory Davyd got imprisoned...
Deportations of Ukrainians in the 1920s
The deportation history of Ukrainians to Russia began with the colonization of the Cossack lands in the late 18th century and lasts to this day. There were several stages associated with...