Monday, December 14, 2015

13 December 1955

Yesterday was the 60th anniversary of the decree from the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet removing the last of the ethnic Germans in the USSR from the restrictions of the special settlement regime.

On Lifting the Restrictions on the Legal Status of Germans and Members of their Families, found in special settlements. 
Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR from 13 December 1955
Having learned that the existing restrictions on the legal status of special settler-Germans and members of their families, exiled to various regions of the country, are no longer deemed necessary, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet resolves: 
1. To lift from the count of special settlement and free from administrative surveillance of the organs of the MVD Germans and members of their families, exiled as special settlers in the period of the Great Fatherland War, and also Germans - citizens of the USSR, that after repatriation  from Germany were moved to special settlements.
2. Establishes, that the lifting from Germans of the restrictions of special settlement will not lead to the return of property confiscated during exile, and that they do not have the right to return to the places from which they were exiled.  
Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
K. Voroshilov
Secretary of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
N. Pegov

Translated to English from Russian by J. Otto Pohl.

A.A. German and O. Iu. Silant'evoi, eds., "Navechno, bez prava: Ochevidtsy i issledovateli o nemetskom spetsposelenni v SSSR: Sb. nauchn. statei i vospominanii (Moscow: MSNK-Press, 2015), doc. 7, p. 99.

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Not related to the post, sorry, but rather your tagline 'Mann auf dem Weg'. My German is not idiomatic; is that meant to be 'Man on the way', like a traveler, or 'Man in the way', like an obstruction. I'm not trying to imply anything with either reading, just curious.

Came by way of LGM, if you care. And your cite meter will show some hits from Venezuela this week. That's me.

derRach said...

When, if ever, did the Soviet Russian government officially confess their guilt for the premeditated mass murder of ethnic Germans, who happened to reside within Soviet Russia and other Soviet territories?

J. Otto Pohl said...

Unknown:

It is Man on the Way like in a traveler. It is riff on Volk auf dem Weg which is a common descriptor of the Germans from Russia.

J. Otto Pohl said...

derRach

The Soviet government did in 1989.

https://library.ndsu.edu/grhc/research/scholarly/non_peer/declaration.html

The Russian government did in 1991.

derRach said...

Have you personally translated the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic’s (RSFSR) April 26, 1991 law “Concerning the Rehabilitation of the Repressed Peoples?”

Does it offer repatriations or recompense for the stolen lands and properties and the senseless deaths of ethnic Germans? Does it order a census to determine the scope of the deaths during the period of dislocation? Does it even call it genocide or mass murder? If, and it would be a big if, the Russian government would accept responsibility for their predecessor actions and restore the lands and real properties stolen to the survivors if any and to their heirs. Then I could accept their intentions that they sincerely will oppose future genocides.

I ask such questions perhaps rhetorically since I am sickened by the continuing reports from Russia that shows ongoing worship of the cult of Stalin, where he is praised and admired for his crimes. I suppose that Russia is just like other countries where the masses are led by their noses. Stalin and his clique of supporters ought to be tried and condemned if adjudicated guilty, but I shake my head at the current Russian governments winking at praise of Stalin. What the Tsar began, Stalin finished.

J. Otto Pohl said...

derRach:

The 1991 decree reads in part:

"Repressed peoples are regarded as those (nations, nationalities or ethnic groups and other historically formed cultural-ethnic communities of people, for example, Cossacks) against whom was conducted at a state level a policy of slander and genocide, accompanied by forced resettlement, abolition of national-state formations, redrawing of national-territorial borders and establishment of a regime of terror and violence in special settlements."

So yes it does use the word genocide.