Direct Translation via Google Translate. Edited.
[KavkazUzel] In the Volgograd region, no events were officially announced to mark the anniversary of the deportation of the Volga Germans. Descendants of the deportees called these events a tragedy that broke the fates of many families.
As the "Caucasian Knot" wrote, in October 2021, the descendants of the repressed said that even 80 years after the deportation of the Volga Germans from Volgograd, the question of the validity of the actions of the Soviet authorities remains open. Some of the deportees, after returning, found their homes occupied and settled in other territories, said members of the German community in the village of Verkhniy Yeruslan in the Volgograd region.
The Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans was liquidated in the second month after the German invasion of the USSR. On August 28, 1941, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree on the resettlement of Germans living in the Volga region. According to this decree, about a million people were sent to Kazakhstan, Siberia and Central Asia, others were mobilized into labor armies. The deported and mobilized Germans died en masse from exhaustion, disease and unbearable working and living conditions.
The Chairman of the Committee for Information Policy of the Volgograd Administration, Maxim Banov, in response to a request from the "Caucasian Knot", reported that, as of August 25, "no applications for approval of any events dedicated to the memory of the victims of the deportation of the Volga Germans have been received by the Volgograd Administration from public organizations or citizen initiative groups." The "Caucasian Knot" correspondent was also informed at the Old Sarepta German Culture Museum-Reserve (Volgograd) that they will not be holding any events dedicated to this mournful date.
It was not possible to obtain information from the public organization National-Cultural Autonomy of Germans of Volgograd, as their phones were not answered.
Volgograd historian Andrei Kudinov believes that events dedicated to the victims of Stalin's repressions and deportations have been "not in favor" in Volgograd in recent years.
"It is not only unacceptable, but also unsafe to talk about the topics of repression, Stalin's terror, and deportations lately. It is easy to fall under some justification of extremism or Nazism. If earlier the city and regional administration itself organized events in memory of the victims of Stalin's terror, then recently nothing like this has happened," said Andrei Kudinov.
A "Caucasian Knot" correspondent interviewed the descendants of German colonists deported from the Lower Volga region in August 1941. The journalist was interested in the answers to the questions: have the Russian authorities provided and are providing assistance to organizations and the descendants of the repressed themselves, are there any payments.
Nadya Horn is a descendant of Volga Germans. She currently lives in Germany. She moved to Germany with her family with the status of "late migrants". Her family members left Russia gradually - in different years. The first ones left in 1993.
"My entire family lives in Germany. We have never received any assistance from the Russian authorities. In Germany, we received assistance upon arrival, but the later the move, the less compensation," Nadya said.
Alina Liberman told the journalist that she does not know about German organizations in Russia. Her grandfather, who was deported, did not receive any payments from the Russian government. "My grandfather has the status of rehabilitated, no benefits. He says that he himself did not apply anywhere due to his character. Perhaps he could have received. At least, I heard that it was possible at one time. Neither I nor my grandfather know about such organizations, but a long time ago (about 30 years ago) a German woman I knew went and found out something about rehabilitation, benefits, etc. Again, my grandfather is not sure whether it was a public assistance organization or just some kind of government agency," the girl said.
Elena Emrikh has also recently been living in Germany. She told the journalist that, according to her mother, relatives in Russia receive compensation payments of about 2,000 rubles per month. Her mother also has a rehabilitation certificate.
"And sometimes free admission to museums or a discounted ticket. They return 50% of utility bills. And they pay for travel around Russia once a year, wherever you want, but on trains," the girl said.
She knows of two major organizations of Russian Germans, which she believes are the most well-known and influential among her diaspora: the International Union of German Culture (IUCN) and "specialized associations, including the German Youth Association (DJA)."
The girls told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent about the tragedy of their families during the years of deportation. Elena Emrikh collected information about her ancestors from stories of relatives, she also made inquiries to archives. Elena's grandfather, Nikolai Aleksandrovich, was born in 1930 in the city of Marksstadt (since 1942, Marx) in the Saratov region. After the publication of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the resettlement of Germans living in the Volga region on August 28, 1941, the Emrikh family (mother Robert Anna Ivanovna and five children) along with the general mass of their compatriots was deported to Siberia - to Tomsk.
"My grandfather was 10 years old at the time. Unfortunately, their mother fell into an ice hole while crossing a river and died some time later. Three of the five children were taken to an orphanage, which was located in the village of Aleksandrovskoye in the north of Tomsk Oblast. As for my great-grandfather (grandfather's father) Emmerich (original form of the surname) Aleksandr Andreevich, all that is known is that he was taken by NKVD officers in 1938 (he was repressed as an enemy of the people). He most likely died there, and his grave is unknown," Elena said.
On August 2, 1955, Alexander Andreevich's daughter Elizaveta (born in 1926) filed a request with the state security agencies, trying to find out the fate of her father, Elena explained. The woman received the following response: "Emrikh Alexander Andreevich was sentenced to 10 years of imprisonment on August 5, 1938, and his whereabouts are unknown." What the great-grandfather was convicted of, what charges were brought against him, how he died - the family never received answers to these questions.
Nikolai Aleksandrovich told his granddaughter that when he was already an adult, before his rehabilitation he reported monthly to the NKVD department in Tomsk. At that time, he did not have the right to leave the country, she said.
"There is even a document that he signed, stating that he understands that it is forbidden to leave the place of exile, otherwise - 20 years of hard labor. According to documents from the archives, we had a slightly different surname. The NKVD shortened it. For example, the surname was originally Emmerich. And the names were slightly different - German. Grandfather's older sister Emrich Elizaveta and her husband, Mikhail Weber, were allowed to leave for Kazakhstan due to illness (after rehabilitation)," Elena said.
Elena's mother (born in 1955) and her aunt Svetlana Nikolaevna (born in 195) were rehabilitated. The aunt recalled that it was difficult for her to adapt to school with a German surname. "They called her a fascist. By the way, my distant relative is still being bullied at school, called a fascist," the interlocutor was indignant.
Nikolai Aleksandrovich lived in Tomsk all his life, including after rehabilitation. He was buried there. Since Elena's grandfather had three children and seven years of education, the question of higher education did not arise. He was a worker at the Tomsk flour mill. Nikolai Aleksandrovich worked there almost all his life. His wife (Elena's grandmother) was Russian. Since she was the only daughter, there were practically no relatives. "Grandmother kept her maiden name when registering the marriage in order to avoid a mark in the NKVD commandant's office," Elena noted.
"It is surprising that, having overcome many difficulties and humiliations, my grandfather Emrich Nikolai did not want to leave for Germany after rehabilitation. It is probably difficult to start all over again. And the German language had already been forgotten," Elena Emrich concluded her story.
Chelyabinsk native Alina Liberman lost her parents early. From the age of 10, she was raised by her grandmother Nelly and grandfather Lev. Alina's grandfather Lev (Leo) Schil was born in 1936 in the village of Gebel (Ust-Gryaznukha). Now this village administratively belongs to the Kamyshinsky district of the Volgograd region. Lev was not the firstborn in the Schil family. The first children died during the famine in the early 1930s. When Stalin issued a deportation decree, the Schil family - father Ivan (Johan), mother Kristina and newborn brother Alexander - were sent to the village of Cherlak in the Omsk region.
"People were transported in the train like cattle. It was cramped, there was not enough food. My great-grandmother was in the last stages of pregnancy then. She gave birth to Uncle Sasha in September already in Cherlak. What it was like for her to be pregnant with a young son in her arms in that train, it is scary to even imagine. Grandfather remembers those days when he first found himself in a completely Russian-speaking environment. He did not know how to talk to the local children, how to find out the name of the dog from the owners. But gradually, imperceptibly for himself, he mastered the new language and began to use it freely," said Alina.
Soon, Alina's great-grandfather, like other adult men and women, was sent to a Trudarmiya labor camp. Alina's great-grandmother managed to avoid this call-up, since her youngest son Sasha was a baby. At that time, there was a regulation: if all the children in the family reached three years old, then both the father and mother were taken to the Labor Army. "So my grandfather's cousins, aged three and five, were left in the care of neighbors for a long time. It's fortunate that decent people helped the girls survive, and both parents returned alive after the war," the interviewee noted.
The head of the family was mobilized into the Labor Army, Lev, his brother Alexander and mother remained in the village of Cherlak, the three of them. They lived in a roommate's house with a single woman, with whom they worked and helped each other survive during the difficult wartime.
"They fished, felled trees, prepared firewood to keep warm and feed themselves in the Siberian frosts. There were almost no men left in the village, and the women did all the work themselves. Later, the Shil's lived at the village hospital - great-grandmother worked as a cleaner, receiving a roof over their heads, bread, food. Grandfather, as a child, also worked - looked after the head doctor's horse: harnessed it, took it to pasture, drove the cart when the doctor went to patients' homes," Alina said about the life of her ancestors in Siberia.
Her great-grandfather Ivan spent three years in the Labor Army in the northernmost point of the Sverdlovsk region. She assumed it was a logging camp. The conditions there were "horrible, especially in winter." In the pre-war years, her great-grandfather worked as a collector: he traveled to Russian settlements, and could speak and write Russian. This helped him get a job as a clerk in the camp, and saved him from hard labor. He managed to survive and stay healthy.
"During his exile, my great-grandfather met a young woman, Dina, who was also in this camp. They began a relationship. When the war ended, and then the labor exile, my great-grandfather was able to return to his family. He was released on December 31, 1945. By that time, Dina had become pregnant, and their relationship continued. They both ended up in Chelyabinsk. My great-grandfather found his wife and children, moved them from Siberia to the Urals, and managed to get a room nearby so he could continue to take care of his sons. Of course, the Shiel family was destroyed, my great-grandmother was in despair over her breakup with her husband, but, as my relatives say, she never blamed him. She said that the war was to blame for everything, and humbly accepted this reality. But at first, she would simply come home after work, lie down and could not get up," Alina said.
Alina's grandfather, brother and mother lived not far from her father and his new family. The father did not abandon his sons, he brought money and food. Lev helped his father with the shoemaking business - together they sewed slippers and took them to the market to sell. This is how Lev Shil earned money for his first suit, which he wore to school.
"After Stalin's death, restrictions were gradually lifted for Germans. My great-grandfather and his family moved from Chelyabinsk first to Kazakhstan, where his second wife's relatives lived, and then to Kalmykia. My grandfather had reached the age of conscription by that time and was incredibly happy that Russian Germans were allowed to serve in the army on an equal basis with other citizens. This conscription was the first for young people of German nationality, which is why it was truly special for my grandfather. They also abolished the humiliating checks on residence. Now it was possible to move more freely between cities. Previously, in order to visit relatives in Kopeysk (a city adjacent to Chelyabinsk), it was necessary to obtain permission. Now my grandfather could calmly visit his uncle and his family," Alina said.
Alina Liberman and Elena Emrich emphasized that after rehabilitation, the ancestors were not allowed to return to their former places of residence for a long time; all lost property - houses, lands - remained in someone else's ownership.
The Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR "On the resettlement of Germans living in the Volga region" did not correspond to the then current Constitution of 1936, believes lawyer and expert in international law Roman Melnichenko.
"According to the Decree, it was prescribed: "to resettle all Volga Germans", that is, the rights of a certain national group were diminished. According to Article 123 of the Constitution: "Any direct or indirect restriction of the rights of citizens depending on their racial and national affiliation is punishable by law." That is, the Decree contradicted the Constitution, and the Volga Germans should be legally considered illegally repressed," the lawyer explained.
The logic of the Decree itself, according to Melnichenko, does not stand up to any criticism and is presented by a logical chain of three links. First, there is reliable information that there are saboteurs among the Volga Germans. Second, the Volga Germans do not inform the authorities about the saboteurs. Third, if there are sabotage, then our agencies will in response destroy all the Volga Germans indiscriminately.
"The conclusion is that in order to save the Volga Germans from the Russian punitive organs, they must be evicted. This is such Jesuit logic," Roman noted.
"It is significant that from the standpoint of international law, this eviction was not an offense, since only peaceful citizens of another state who fell under occupation enjoy international legal protection. The Volga Germans were citizens of the USSR and could not count on international protection," concluded Roman Melnichenko.
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