The names of the Ukrainian regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk and Kharkiv are not new for the citizens of Romania, who were directly affected by the mistakes of European politicians in the interwar period and during the Second World War. The same can be said about the Russian regions of Rostov, Sverdlovsk, Selyabinsk and the settlement of Aktyubinsk (since 1999 Aktobe) in the west of Kazakhstan.

In all the mentioned places, they were installed by the Soviet authorities, according to decision No. 7161 of December 16, 1944 of the State Defense Committee of the USSR (headed by Joseph Stalin), forced labor battalions staffed by ethnic German citizens from Romania (69,332), Hungary (31,923), Yugoslavia (10,935), Czechoslovakia ( 215) and Bulgaria (75). At the same time, from February to April 1945, 77,741 German citizens from Upper Silesia and West Prussia were transported to the same Soviet labor camps.

For the transportation of Romanian citizens of German nationality, starting from January 8, 1945, the Soviet authorities determined the need for 5,204 wagons, which were to be part of “91 trains, namely:

– at the Sokola station (near Yassy – note by Petre Oprysh): 40, with 2318 wagons;

– at Râmnicu Sărat station: 22, with 1126 cars;

– at Adjudul Nou station: 20, with 1126 cars;

– at Galatz station: 9, with 523 cars.”

A month later, Lavrentiy Beria was reported to NKVD generals Arkady Mykolaivych Apollonov (deputy People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs), Ivan Mykhailovych Gorbatyuk (head of the NKVD Main Department for the Protection of the Red Army Hinterland) and M. I. Sladkevichi, who was tasked with coordinating these transports of Romanian citizens of German nationality, who the fact that “664 officers and operatives of the NKVD, NKGB, 10,443 officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the NKVD special forces and 1,030 officers, non-commissioned officers and soldiers of the Red Army were involved in the operation completed on February 11. 2.” The transportation of Romanian citizens of German nationality to the landing points was carried out by 317 trucks of the 40th regiment of the Red Army, 90 trucks provided by units of the 2nd and 3rd Ukrainian fronts, and 212 trucks of the NKVD troops.

All ethnic Germans from Romania, Hungary, Yugoslavia, Czechoslovakia and Bulgaria and deported to the Soviet Union in January and February 1945 were forced to work in factories and mines under the People’s Commissariat of Coal and Steel Industry. In this way, the “Program for the Reconstruction of the USSR”, developed under the direct leadership of the diplomat Ivan Maisky, was implemented with the aim of obtaining war reparations from Germany in the amount of about 70-75 billion dollars. According to the calculations of Soviet specialists who carried out this program, half of this sum ($35-40 billion) could be obtained through forced labor in the USSR of about 5 million Germans and foreign citizens of German nationality for 10 years.

All this new information and much more can be found in the study of the Romanian military historian and diplomat Ilie Shipor, entitled “Deportation of ethnic Germans to the USSR from some states of South-Eastern Europe (1944-1945). Houses of Romania”. This study is in the volume “XX century. Between war and peace. Romania in the Confusion of History”, edited by Ambassador Dumitru Preda with the support of the European Titulescu Foundation on the occasion of the XXIII International Congress of Historical Sciences (Poznan, August 21-27, 2022).

In order to understand the colossal sums that Germany had to pay to the Soviet Union in the form of war reparations, let us cite a similar situation in which Romania found itself. In the annexes to the Soviet-Romanian Convention on the Supply of Romanian Goods to be Delivered to the Soviet Union for War Reparations (Bucharest, January 16, 1945), the quantity of products, prices, and the deadline for delivery, the payment of $300 million (September 12, 1950 .). Half of this amount was to be paid from Romanian oil supplies (for example: 1.7 million tons in 1945 and 1.6 million tons in 1946). The Romanian authorities agreed to send to the USSR as war reparations: 277,000 tons of corn ($22/ton), 370,000 tons of wheat ($24.75/ton), 35,000 tons of barley ($21/ton). ), 100,000 pigs ($138). /ton), 200,000 oxen ($83/ton), 190,000 horses ($157/head; 20,000 horses in 1945, 30,000 horses in 1946 and 140,000 horses in 1947-1950), 500,000 sheep ($62 /ton), 1,967,000 m³ of wood (the price of round wood was 5 dollars/cubic meter, and resinous wood was 11 dollars/cubic meter), 490 locomotives (0.45 dollars/kg), 6000 wagons and 1200 tanks (0.1775 dollars/kg ), passenger liner “Basarabia” ($1,462 million), mixed passenger-cargo ship “Alba Iulia” ($255,000), two tugs ($120,000, in total), floating dock ($850,000), 160 used river vessels ( $5.5 million) and 167 new river vessels ($11 million), dredges and hoists, a 14-inch rolling mill from the Malaxa plant in Bucharest ($2.46 million), oil industry equipment ($20 million; drilling pumps, hoes, jacks, etc.), turbo-generator (located in Fiennes), machine tools ($4 million), four Furco machines, iron bars and billets ($524,000), etc.

Trying to understand the proportions of military reparations that the authorities in Moscow demanded from Germany, Italy ($100 million), Romania, Finland ($300 million) and Hungary ($200 million), it is very difficult to imagine what 70-75 billion dollars. products and forced labor meant in 1945.

These sums had no significance for Romanian citizens of German nationality who arrived at the beginning of 1945 in 33 forced labor camps in the Donetsk region (coal mines), 19 in Luhansk (coal mines), five camps in Kharkiv (plus two road camps ). detachments), two camps in Dnipropetrovsk, three in Zaporizhzhia, three in Rostov Oblast (plus one road construction detachment), eight camps in Sverdlovsk Oblast, two in Chelyabinsk Oblast and one in Western Kazakhstan (Aktyubinsk).

The Soviet authorities considered all Romanians of German nationality who were rounded up in Romania and sent to forced labor in the USSR to be Germans, even if, starting from March 6, 1945, a pro-communist government led by Dr. Petru Groza was in power. Previous protests by the Romanian authorities regarding the abuses perpetrated by the Soviet authorities against these citizens were brutally rejected by the Soviet military authorities located in Bucharest. If the relevant citizens were seriously ill, they were repatriated to Romania, but for some the corresponding measure was delayed and they were buried in the USSR.

Since we were interested in what happened to the people who returned from the forced labor camps of the Soviet Union and how they were received after returning to Romania, we searched the archives in Bucharest for information about these Romanian citizens and came to the original document, which we will publish below. We realize that the wording in it is not at all consistent with what is in the modern political dictionary, but this is a general problem of today’s politicians, not historians, who strive to reproduce the situations of the past as accurately as possible and explain without them. hypocrisy in front of the general public, editing without changes of documents found in various archives.

Information from the section of the governing bodies of the party, trade union and TMU regarding the difficulties created by Romanian citizens of Roma nationality and their opposition to the return of property and houses of Romanian citizens of German nationality, occupied after March 6, 1945 by citizens of Roma nationality.

CC PMR

SECTION OF LEADING BODIES OF THE PARTY, UNION AND UTM

Sector of party information

[Consemnare manu, cu cerneală albastră]: 160/21 I 954

[Rezoluţia lui Gheorghe Gheorghiu-Dej, cu un creion de culoare roşie:]

20 and 55

We repeat them

Information is being sent[e] without signature –

Information should be sent to all mbp (to members of the Politburo – note by Petre Oprysh)

ss. Gheorghe Georgiou-Dezh

[Consemnare manu, cu creionul negru:] decided

INFORMATION

The Office of the Stalin Regional Committee of the Party, after the conclusions made recently in connection with the difficulties faced by some Gypsies in paying their obligations to the state, the non-cultivation of lands received after appropriation and the destruction of some goods received, based on Decree 81 (from 18 March 1954 – note by Petre Oprysh) from C[omitetului de]. m[iniştri]., took measures.

Thus, it was decided to take all the land and houses from those gypsies who were not managing them well and give them to the GAC and Saxon families based on decree 81. They should be returned to their houses or to the outskirts of the villages based on house exchanges. On January 7, an active briefing was conducted in all district committees and city committees of the party, cadres were sent to the communes, and on January 10, as planned, the action in 116 villages was finished, with one exception.

In this action, the local authorities received support from party members, who actually helped the labor peasant commissions, which provided wagons for the resettlement of gypsy families, etc. Working peasants respond well to this measure, pointing out that: it should have been taken 2 years ago, those who do not work should not stay in the village, this will be an example for other colonists. And some gypsies admitted that they could take better care of the goods they received. There is satisfaction among the population of Germany, and those who have received these goods promise to restore them in a short time. Read the whole article and comment on Contributors.ro