“We singled out the corner and said:“ This will be your home ””
Anniversary of deportation of Bulgarians in 1944 celebrated in Crimea

The memorial plaque on the platform of the Simferopol railway station stands inconspicuously. Hundreds of people pass by it every day, sometimes not knowing that exactly 69 years ago the deported Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks were forcibly removed from here. A stone with an inscription in three languages ​​- Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar - recalls those mournful dates of June 1944.

The beginning of the deportation of Armenians, Bulgarians and Germans from the Crimea, June 1944

Ivan Savelyevich recalls that at that time more than twelve thousand Bulgarians or 1% of the total population lived in the Crimea. They lived mostly in settlements between Simferopol and Feodosia, as well as in the Dzhankoy region. The Bulgarians settled compactly, with their schools and communities of 80-100 people.

I was born in this house on August 21, 1930, the village of Bolgarshchina in Stary Krym, says the RP Ivan Palichev, showing an old faded photo of his house with a tiled roof. — It was a Bulgarian settlement. Mostly Bulgarians, Ukrainians, Greeks and Armenians lived there. There were also three families of Crimean Tatars. All lived together and peacefully.

The interlocutor falls silent for a minute, peering into the windows of the house, to which, after the deportation, he no longer returned. Then he carefully takes out another photograph, dated 1930. This is a family photo.

I was just born, I’m lying in my mother’s arms, ”he shows. - And next to my mother's parents are Ukrainians, but they speak Bulgarian well. Born and lived in Stary Krym. My mother is half Bulgarian and half Ukrainian. And his father is Bulgarian.

When the Patriotic War began, Ivan Palichev graduated from the third grade of the Bulgarian school. After that, the children stopped learning. They resumed only after the war already in Kazakhstan, the city of Gurev, where the family was deported. Ivan Savelievich kept a photograph of 1946, where, being eleven, he, along with other children, went to the fourth grade.

I remember the beginning of the war in Stary Krym very well,” he says. — It was a cloudy day, clouds hung low, collective farm horses ran around the city and raised dust on the roads. And then the Germans on motorcycles appeared from Simferopol. The tanks passed. Our teacher was a Jew - Boris Leonidovich, he taught mathematics in high school. Their Jewish family lived not far from us. He then told my father: “Sava, look, the Germans are coming, they are civilized people, they won’t touch us.” And the father answered: “Listen, the Germans will come, it will be bad for all of us, and especially for you.” And he was right: soon all the Jews and Gypsies of the village were hanged. In 1944, Stary Krym was liberated from Kerch, but the war was not yet over. On May 18, the Crimean Tatars were evicted. We all looked at it with horror. We thought it was so wild. Exactly a month passed, and they began to deport us too. I don’t understand what women and children were to blame for ?! Is it possible that every one of them are traitors to the people?! There are no bad nations, there are bad people in every nation.

Sudden deportation

The mother went to milk the cow, and when she returned, she met soldiers with machine guns. They went into every house and held us at gunpoint,” says Ivan Palichev. - These were young boys of 17-18 years old, who were told that we were traitors and bandits. They did not even come out to talk, they ordered to gather and were silent. There was no time to get together. There were four of us: mother, father, grandmother and me. Loaded into cars, taken to the station in Kirovskoye - Islyam-Terek at that time. We got into calf wagons, which were boarded up with boards, and we were taken in an unknown direction. They did not have time to take anything - a bundle and some grubs. At that time, a good household remained in the house: a Singer sewing machine, two cows, two pigs. Before Kazakhstan in the city of Gurev, now Atyrau, we traveled two months on the road. For weeks they kept us at the stations, they didn’t let anyone near us, they fed us some kind of porridge with a piece of rye bread so that we would not die of hunger.

On the way, grief overtook the family of Ivan Savelyevich - his mother died. At the end of June there was a terrible heat, after which epidemic typhus began. His mother also fell ill. The interlocutor shows a family heirloom - a photograph of a mother who died on the road. She was only 34 years old.

We don't even know where she died, where her grave is now. People gave us a wooden coffin, the train stopped at a half-station, we said goodbye and drove on. The photo was taken by an amateur, and then he gave it to us. There were no doctors or medicines on the way. People were dying in droves. It is said that more than 30% of the deportees died on the way.

New house

When the deportees were brought to the city of Gurev, they were placed in the stables, where horse droppings still lay. The visitors were forced to clean up the droppings, and then each family was given a corner and told: “This will be your home. You can go look for a job in the city.”

At that time, the population of Gurev was about 80 thousand people. My father found a job as a freight forwarder, and I went to the fifth grade. We studied and spoke Russian, but the family spoke Bulgarian. The first years were not easy. The Slavs who lived in Gurev treated us well, but the Kazakhs, on the contrary, considered us traitors. Religion united the Kazakhs with the deported Tatars, and us with the Slavs. After graduating from seven classes, I went to college, and then to the institute. There he went in for sports. He became a master of sports in sambo, and later at the age of 22 became the champion of Kazakhstan in Greco-Roman wrestling. This is how young Savelievich was, - the interlocutor shows his student photo. - From that photo, only white eyebrows remained. And so old. Now I am 84 years old.

Life in a foreign land was different for everyone. I also had to get used to the new climatic conditions, which were harsh compared to the Crimea: very hot in summer and very cold in winter. All this time, Ivan Savelyevich dreamed of returning home to the Crimea.

In Gurev, I became the general director of the largest plant, which unites nine manufacturing enterprises for the manufacture of building materials. All those deported from Crimea worked at this enterprise, which is why they called me an international. Many Crimean Tatars also worked there. And the head of the woodworking shop was the German Yakov Kofman. In general, communication with the Crimean Tatars, and with the Kazakhs, and with the Germans was excellent.

The deportees are waiting on the platform

During his work at the plant, Palichev managed to save money in order to return home. It was 1975. When he returned, he bought a house in Simferopol, where he still lives. He returned to his former parental home many times, but there were already other people living there who had been moved from Kaluga here.

What claims can be made against them, they were also forcibly taken from their homes to the Crimea. We talked to them, they treated us to tea. To date, only about a thousand deported Bulgarians have returned to Crimea. Almost all of them independently bought their own housing, restored their way of life. For some of those who returned after the 1990s, the local Bulgarian society began to help with housing and employment. Now there is hope for a program to support the victims of deportation, which provides for the allocation of land or housing for such families.

August 15, 1941 a resolution of the Council for Evacuation under the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued an order to the Council of People's Commissars of the Crimean ASSR, in agreement with the NKVD, to evict 51 thousand people from the regions of Crimea, where mostly Germans lived. On August 18, an operation was carried out to deport Crimean Germans to the Ordzhonikidzevsky Territory (North Caucasus) and the Rostov Region. Later, the evacuated Germans were resettled in the Kazakh SSR.

May 11, 1944 issued a resolution of the State Defense Committee "On the Crimean Tatars". The NKVD was charged with the duty to deport all Tatars from the territory of Crimea until June 1 "for desertion and cooperation with the Germans" and to settle them in the regions of the Uzbek SSR. The operation to evict the Crimean Tatars took place from 18 to 20 May, more than 180 thousand people were resettled. Another 6,000 Crimean Tatars were mobilized into the Red Army, 5,000 were sent to the Moskovugol trust.

June 2, 1944 Joseph Stalin signed a decree of the State Defense Committee, which ordered the NKVD "to evict from the territory of the Crimean ASSR 37 thousand German accomplices from among the Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians." 10 thousand people were evicted to the Sverdlovsk and Molotov (now Perm Territory) regions, 7 thousand people - to the Guryev region (now Atyrau region of the Kazakh SSR), 6 thousand and 4 thousand, respectively, to the Kemerovo region and the Bashkir Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.

June 24, 1944 A GKO decree was signed, according to which another 3,600 "persons of foreign nationality" were evicted from the Crimea to the Fergana region of the Uzbek SSR. Among them were Greeks, Turks, Iranians, as well as 2 thousand Germans who did not manage to be evicted in 1941.

Most of the deported peoples were able to return to Crimea after the adoption November 14, 1989 The Supreme Soviet of the USSR of the declaration "On the recognition of illegal and criminal acts of repression against peoples subjected to forced resettlement, and ensuring their rights." According to the census 2014, 232.3 thousand Crimean Tatars, 11 thousand Armenians, 2.8 thousand Greeks, 1.8 thousand Bulgarians and Germans live in Crimea.

Foreword

At present, a huge amount of material is available for public use on any occasion, including all the details and nuances about the participation of Armenians living all over the world and in the USSR in the events of 1940-1945, which we will conditionally call the "Great Patriotic War" ".
In all essays, analytical reviews and similar materials compiled by Armenians, there is a very bright, sometimes amazingly positive assessment of the participation and role of Armenians living in both Arm. SSR, in the USSR, and throughout the world, in the events of the Great Patriotic War.
In this analytical review, all these glorious pages will be illuminated and interpreted.
However, a review cannot be considered fair and impartial if it does not consider and disclose more than just a positive story.
I, as the son of a patriot of Armenia, whose father in Damascus (Syria) in 1943 was one of the active organizers of the creation of the tank colony "David of Sasun", which was later donated to the government of the USSR as help in the fight against Nazi Germany, without false modesty, I consider it necessary to argue around the facts of the existence and activities of the Armenian legions of the Wehrmacht, who fought as part of the troops of Hitler's Germany.
The hypocrisy and false patriotism of our historians, who are trying in every possible way to avoid these gloomy pages in the history of Armenians, do us, the patriots of Armenia, a disservice, giving our ill-wishers who do not hesitate to present our nation - all Armenians as traitors and associates of fascist villains, a wide field of activity.
Social networks are currently full of nefarious material compiled by our "well-wishers". Why give these figures such an advantage - to present and interpret in their own way what they a priori cannot be objective, and even understand little?
Below I give a couple of sources, after viewing which any tolerant person will become a militant Armenophobe.
Armenian legion of the Wehrmacht (the true face of this nation)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=txnK9TZOjRc
In Armenia, they are going to erect a monument to Hitler...
isp-ngo.com/?p=2848
A monument to the Nazi criminal was erected in Yerevan.
isp-ngo.com/?p=2943
Large-scale fascist cult created in Armenia
eurasnews.ru/azerbaydzhan/
The leadership of Armenia is known for its fascist
eurasnews.ru/azerbaydzhan/
In this review, we will try to consider all the events in a historical context, interpreting their cause-and-effect sources and, as far as possible, give an objective historical assessment of what was done by all the figures and participants in the events of those times.

1. The history of the emergence and activities of the Armenian legions of the Wehrmacht.

Let us consider the cause-and-effect roots of the formation of the Armenian legions, carrying out an impartial historical analysis and the logic of the events of those times.
To do this, you need to figure out if the Armenians have Russophobia, where it comes from, and what motives prompted the organizers and ideological leaders of these people, organizing the legions of the Wehrmacht, to wage war against the USSR.
The Armenian Legion is a formation of the Wehrmacht, consisting of representatives of the Armenian people. The military goal of this formation was the state independence of Armenia from the Soviet Union. Armenian legionnaires were part of 11 battalions, as well as other units.
1.1 The history of the formation of legins
When planning the invasion of the Soviet Union, the military-political leadership of the German Reich set itself a number of tasks, one of which was the destruction and dismemberment of the multinational Soviet state by creating national governments and military formations. One of the ways to attract representatives of these peoples to the side of Germany was the creation of National Liberation Committees, in which the former leaders and military leaders of the once independent states in exile played a dominant role.
After Hitler approved the creation of the Turkestan legion, made in November 1941, work was intensified to create military units from the eastern peoples. On December 22, 1941, the High Command of the Armed Forces (OKW) issues an order to create four legions from the eastern peoples, among which the Armenian legion is also named. More precise instructions on the creation of the legion followed in the order of February 8, 1942.
Initially, the formation of the unit began on the territory of Poland. A preparatory camp was created in Zayerzhirzh, where prisoners of war were admitted and where they were trained. The Armenian legion itself was stationed in Pulawy. Captain Kuchera was appointed head of the personnel, training and use of the Armenian legion, he would later lead the first Armenian battalion. From July 1942 to the end of 1943, 8 battalions were formed. In addition to the camps for the formation and training of Armenian legionnaires, officer schools were opened, where future officers were trained. One of these schools was located in the town of Legionowo (Poland).
Since May 1942, the formation of parts of the legion has begun on the territory of Ukraine. A training center and training camp was established in Lokhvitsa. Major Engholm was appointed head. Three battalions were formed from September 1942 to February 1943.
Legionnaires underwent both physical and special military training. Typically, the duration of classes reached four months (daily workload 7-9 hours), but the terms, depending on the circumstances, could be accelerated. Military classes had a broad program - they included physical training, drill exercises, the assimilation of the charter of the German army, the assimilation of German teams, the study of the material part of Russian and German weapons, and tactical training. The training was carried out by the commanders of squads and platoons (from among the former prisoners of war), who underwent a two-week training course. Combat training was led by company commanders. After general military training, they moved on to highly specialized training, in military specialties.
At the same time, propaganda work was carried out among the legionnaires. One of the powerful elements of propaganda work was the promise to grant independence to Armenia after the end of the military campaign (similar to Slovakia or Croatia).
According to some information, there were about 27 thousand Armenians in the service of the German Reich, and of these, about 3,000 were in the service of the SS and the German intelligence Abwehr.
The center of the Armenian Legion was located in Pulav, and Ober-Sturmanführer Waldemar Frenzel, the son of an Armenian woman from Tiflis, was immediately appointed commandant of the camp for the Armenian military formation.
At the end of February, General Dro (Drastamat Kanayan) arrived in Berlin, and local influential Armenians organized an audience with the Reichsführer SS Himmler. Along with him were the writer Garo Gevorgyan and a student, an Armenian from Vienna, as an interpreter. The conversation lasted an hour and a half.
-What will happen after the victory of Germany? Himmler asked. - Will the Turks again move with weapons in their hands to Armenia? No. And the creation of the Armenian Legion will serve as a guarantor, this formation, I think, will be able to defend its homeland, of course with our help, from all enemies ...
At the end of the conversation, Dro wished to visit the Armenian military camp, where the future legionnaires and the prisoner of war camp were preparing.
Once among the Armenian prisoners of war, Dro, using his eloquence, began to convince those present in the camp to join the ranks of the Armenian Legion.
He established contact with Armenians from other camps and encouraged them to join his own - joining the legion.
The activities of General Dro very soon bore fruit. In the first month, about 250 volunteers from 3 camps expressed their desire to join the Armenians who were already in the training camp, then another 1500, another 2500, etc.
Dro also created the first Dashnak party cell among the prisoners of war, organized a network of such cells with all the attributes of political training and political education. This party was joined by both immigrants from Armenia, who had long lost faith in the Soviet Motherland, and Armenians who did not even speak Armenian.
For some, joining the Armenian Legion was an illusion to get a new homeland - free Armenia, and for many - the opportunity not to starve to death in harsh prison camps.
However, it should be noted that at the very beginning of the creation of the legion, its ranks were replenished by emigrant Armenians living in Germany, Poland, France and other countries of occupied Europe. Among the legionnaires from Germany there were many Armenian officers of the Wehrmacht, as well as SS officers, of which, for example, the Waffen - SS Standartenfuehrer Vartan Sargsyan, who later on December 12, 1944 commanded the Armenian grenadier company and the SS cavalry group - which was part of Caucasian cavalry unit of the SS. Captain Misak Torlakyan was also widely known - the Abwehrgruppen, who was responsible for the sabotage activities of the Armenian units, the Gruppenfuehrer Razmik Nazaryan, who from October 1944 commanded a special Armenian parcer-grenadier unit of the SS, and many others whose families emigrated to Germany or other countries Europe since the beginning of the events of 1915.
The leading role in the ideological preparation of the Armenian legionnaires was played by members of the national committee formed under the auspices of the Ministry of the Occupied Eastern Territories.
In addition to Dro, another legendary figure in the national movement of 1918-1920 was especially popular. Garegin Nzhdeh (Ter-Harutyunyan).
Nzhdeh in Berlin worked on the creation of sabotage groups of 20-30 people for transfer to Armenia in order to propagate anti-Soviet sentiments and create a Greater Armenia under the protectorate of Germany. Subsequently, these groups were transferred under the command of the Abwehr.
In Germany, Nzhdeh was assisted by the former ambassador of this country in Moscow, an old acquaintance Count Schulenberg.
After some time, the young Suren Bekzaryan, the founder of the “Paykar” publishing house, the son of the former Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Republic of Armenia to Baku, also arrived in Berlin. His goal was to open a new publishing house “Osank” (“Current”) in the Reich, which was to become an ideological and preparatory center for the Armenians of the occupied territories from Odessa to Rostov. Such centers were formed in Simferopol, Sevastopol and other large occupied cities, where the headquarters of the Armenian National Committee were active. Alfred Muradyan, an Armenian from Germany, was also influential in the field of propaganda. He was called the “trustee of the Armenian Legion”. He founded the “Armenakan” (“Haykakan”) movement. The former Prime Minister of the Republic of Armenia Alexander Khatisyan also arrived in Germany.
At meetings with the former Soviet Ambassador Schulenberg, he several times raised the issue of the status of the future Armenia in the plans of the Reich, persuaded this statesman to agree with the Fuhrer on an audience. However, Hitler was adamant: “Until the complete victory, no negotiations on the status of the Soviet states,” he said. By order of the High Command, from the beginning of 1942, special documents were distributed to Armenians living in Germany and the occupied states, which were called “documents for Aryan refugees”.
Until the end of 1944, the Goebbels department published a weekly for Armenian legionnaires (published in Armenian and German), edited by Vigen Shant, the son of Levon Shant. In the same department, many Armenians worked as announcers of radio programs in German, French, Russian and Armenian.
In Berlin, Marseille and Simferopol, newspapers in Armenian were published especially for the Armenian population, such as the weekly “Azat Hayastan” (“Free Armenia”) and “Hayrenik” (“Motherland”).
The commander of the legion was Standartenführer Vartan Sargsyan. He was taken prisoner with the rank of major in the Red Army and rose to the rank of general thanks to his great military organizational skills. The official representative of the Armenian Legion in the Reich was Armik Jalayan, the son of the former Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia. His mother was German and had significant connections in the High Command. The military attache was Sondenführer Alfred Muradyan - a German citizen, an industrialist - a millionaire. The press attache was Harutyun Baghdasaryan.
Of all the Eastern Legions, only the Armenian Legions had a homogeneous national composition. However, there were many cases when Jews were also recruited, whom the Armenians thus saved from inevitable death. This often happened in other Eastern Legions.
1.2. Battalions of the Armenian Legion
808th Armenian infantry battalion
Formed in July 1942 in Poland. The number is 916 Armenians and 41 Germans. Commander - Kuchera. Participated in battles in the Tuapse region. The battalion proved to be unreliable for the command of the Wehrmacht. An underground group operated in the battalion, preparing the transition of legionnaires to the side of the Red Army.
In October 1942, the battalion was disarmed and reorganized into a road construction unit.
809th Armenian infantry battalion "Zeytun"
Formed on August 29, 1942 in Poland. Numbering - 913 Armenians and 45 Germans, was part of the 128th Grenadier Regiment of the 48th Infantry Division. Commander Hermann Becker. On November 18, 1942, he was involved in hostilities in the Caucasus. Participated in battles in the area of ​​Nalchik and Mozdok, the defense of the Kuban of the Kerch Peninsula. For further service in the Netherlands on October 16, 1943, the battalion arrived in Belgium.
From November 29 to December 20, 1943, the battalion conducted retraining and exercises at the training ground in Sisson, after which, on January 8, 1944, it was moved to South Beveland and took up a defensive line along the defense of the Atlantic Wall. The number of the entire personnel at the beginning of February 1944 was 844 people (792 Armenians).
In August 1944, the battalion was transferred to Normandy, where, as a result of the Allied operation "Overlord", it ceased to exist due to heavy losses and the transfer of soldiers to the Allies.
810th Armenian infantry battalion
Formed in 1942 in Poland.
812th engineering and construction battalion
It was organized by order of November 25, 1942 and on February 1, 1943 was finally formed in the city of Pulawy (Poland). The battalion began to serve in Poland in the city of Radom. Relocated on March 10, 1943 to the Netherlands to strengthen the defenses of the Atlantic Wall, located in the vicinity of the city of Bergen op Zoom. The battalion had its own clergyman, and had the opportunity to hold spiritual events. Strictly in accordance with the Armenian calendar, Christian holidays were celebrated, baptisms of those who wished were held.
813th Armenian infantry battalion
Formed in February 1943 in Poland, served in the protection of the Atlantic Wall.
814th Armenian infantry battalion]
Formed in the summer of 1943 in Poland.
815th Armenian infantry battalion
Formed in August 1943 in Poland.
816th Armenian infantry battalion
Formed at the end of 1943 in Poland.
I/125 Armenian battalion
Formed in February 1943 in Ukraine. For the defense of southern France, it was transferred to the Western Front, located 30 km north of the city of Marseille, near the town of Aix-en-Provence.
I/198 Armenian battalion
Formed in September 1942 in Ukraine. For the defense of southern France, he was transferred to the Western Front, located on the coast southwest of Toulon.
II/9 Armenian battalion
Formed in September 1942 in Ukraine. For the defense of Southern France, he was transferred to the Western Front, located near the small town of Hyeres, towards Saint-Tropez and led the coast guard on the islands.
Thus, analyzing the activities of the Armenian legions of the Wehrmacht, we can draw the following conclusions:
the total number of Armenians in the battalions did not exceed 3,000 people.
the organizers and ideological inspirers of these legions were members of the government of the first republic of Armenia (1918-1920), their relatives and close associates, living in exile and actively participating in the ranks of the Dashnaktsutyun party.
all the organizers and members of these formations were obsessed with the idea that by their actions they were saving Armenia and the Armenians, preventing Turkey from attacking Armenia.
all legionnaires and their junior commanders were prisoners of war.
in all cases when the battalions fought on the territory of the USSR, they were soon disbanded due to their unreliability (No. 808-916 Armenians) or because of the transfer of soldiers to the allies (No. 809 - 913 Armenians).
Conclusion to chapter 1.
Analyzing the material presented above, it is difficult to disagree with the fact that the activities of the legionnaires and their ideologists were based on good intentions.
Disappointment with the policies and actions of the Russians and the communist leadership of the USSR, in particular, had very serious reasons.
The repeated facts of "betrayal" of the Russians at the most fateful moments in the history of Armenia could not but cause Russophobia.
The Russian army repeatedly threw the Armenians who fought together with the Russians against the Turks, leaving the Armenian troops, the militia and the unarmed population to be torn to pieces by the Turkish thugs and cannibals.
The forced removal of the Dashnak government in 1920 by the troops of the 11th Red Army, the catastrophic loss of the territory of Western Armenia as a result of V. I. Ulyanov’s pathological love for Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, the company of forced collectivization carried out mediocrely by the communists, the raging wave of repressions that destroys the entire intelligentsia of Armenia, could not add sympathy among Armenians for communist Russia.
The successful attack of fascist Germany on the USSR for Armenians, emigrants, sympathetic to the Dashnaks, was regarded as a historical chance to liberate Armenia from communist tyranny and recreate a united Great Armenia.
An analysis of historical events shows that not one of the ideologists, founders and leaders of the Armenian legions had anything to do with the creation of death camps, repressive and punitive actions of the Nazis.
Let's draw parallels with the facts about the participation of the population of the USSR on the side of the Nazis (policemen, ROA, etc.).
We will process the statistical data (USSR 1939 census, How many Russians fought on the side of Hitler? and present them in the form of a table.
Table 1. Data on the participation of representatives of different nationalities in the ranks of the troops of Nazi Germany in the period 1941-1941
No. Nationality Number in 1939, million Number of traitors, million % of
general
1 Russians 100 0.31 0.31
2 Ukrainians 28 0.25 0.9
3 Armenians 2.15 0.02 0.93
4 Georgians 2.25 0.025 1.11
5 Belarusians 5.3 0.07 1.32
6 Azerbaijanis 2.3 0.04 1.4
7 Cossacks 3.1 0.07 2.26
With a total population of the USSR of 170.56 million people (1939), the number of defectors from the population of the USSR amounted to 1.2 million, that is, an average of 0.7%.
Thus, the Russians (0.3%) should be recognized as the most devoted, and the Cossacks (2.26%), Azerbaijanis (1.4%) turned out to be the most unreliable.
Armenians in this list with Ukrainians occupy 2nd and 3rd places.

2. Participation of foreign Armenians in the war against Nazi Germany.
The population of Armenia (with Artsakh) in 2016 is 3,026,226 people. Of these, 1,408,555 men and 1,617,671 women.
The total number of Armenians living all over the world is 11.166.726.
Consequently, 8.140.500 Armenians live outside of Armenia and Artsakh. Thus, about 27% of Armenians live in the territory of their historical homeland, and more than 73% beyond its borders.
According to the 2010 census, the population of the Russian Federation is 142.86 million people, of which 1.43 million are Armenians (1%).
According to the results of the 1939 census in the USSR, the population was 170.5 million, including 2.153 million Armenians. At the same time, 1.282 ml of Armenians lived in Armenia.
Consequently, before the start of the war in Arm. SSR lived 60% of all Armenians in the USSR.
2.1 The tank column "David of Sasun", created during the Great Patriotic War with funds raised by the Armenian diaspora, and transferred to the 119th separate tank regiment, which fought as part of the 2nd Baltic Front.
The column was named after the character of the medieval Armenian epic "David of Sasun".
The column was formed from January 1943 in the city of Vagharshapat of the Armenian SSR (where the residence of the Catholicos of All Armenians is located) with money collected by representatives of the Armenian diaspora from all over the world. The fundraising was organized by Deputy Catholicos of All Armenians Gevorg Chorekchyan (115,000 US dollars came from the USA, 37,000 Canadian dollars from Canada, 185,000 Lebanese pounds from Lebanon, 276,000 Syrian pounds from Syria, 14,000 Egyptian pounds from Egypt, 2 Egyptian pounds from Iran .5 million rials). The collected funds were enough to create by February 1944 the materiel for a regiment of 21 tanks. The column was equipped with the latest T-34-85 tanks with an 85-mm D-5-T85 cannon, the inscription “;;;;;;;; ;;;;;" (“David of Sasun” in Armenian).
Our family until 1946, that is, before repatriation to the Motherland, in the Arm SSR, lived in Damascus. My father, Alexander Pashayan was one of the active organizers in the propaganda and fundraising of the Syrian Armenians. In his archives, I found drafts and the appeal to compatriots itself, from which one can guess that this appeal was drawn up with his participation.
Compatriots!
It has been two years since our adored Motherland has been at war. When our brothers from Armenia shed blood, when our Motherland tries to preserve itself by all means, we, the Armenians living in the Diaspora, have the duty to follow the example of our brothers.
If circumstances do not allow us to defend our sacred Motherland with our physical strength, then we must at least morally support it with our material means.
In the whole world, perhaps there is no such people who have paid such a high price for their homeland as we Armenians.
The history of Armenia is a series of heroic deeds performed by our compatriots in the struggle for the liberation of the Motherland. This list is filled with Vardans, Davids of Sasun, Tatul Vanadetsi, David Beki, Andraniki, who fought in an unequal battle for the salvation of the Motherland.
The Armenian inherited from his ancestors the idea of ​​defending his independence and freedom, fighting against all kinds of enslavers, tyrants, invaders and robbers.
Now, our holy Etchmiadzin calls us, and the hero of our epic, David of Sasun, inspires us so that we do not remain indifferent when creating such a column named after him.
By the Decree of the Synod of Cilicia, a local commission has already been created to collect donations in order to form the tank column "David of Sasun" with the following composition (members of the commission are listed, including Pashan A.A.).
In this regard, we appeal to the Armenians of Damascus that on June 6, 1943, on Sunday, at 10 o'clock, a public gathering will be held in Ayta Cinema Pallas.
We are sure that not one Armenian will be left without participation in this sacred event.
Donation Commission.

The battle path of the tank column David of Sasun.
On March 20, 1944, the tanks entered the 119th separate tank regiment, which at that moment, as part of the 10th Guards Army, after heavy fighting near Yelnya, was transferred from the Western Front to the 2nd Baltic Front. On May 26, 1944, the regiment was reorganized into the 119th separate tank engineer regiment.
Another unit that received T-34-85 tanks with a D-5T cannon was the 119th tank regiment, which became part of the 2nd Ukrainian Front on March 20, 1944. The vehicles were purchased at the expense of the inhabitants of the Armenian SSR and had an inscription on the towers "David of Sasun", which was derived from the letters of the national alphabet.
On June 15, 1944, the regiment entered the operational subordination of the commander of the 6th Guards Army with the task of engineering support for the offensive of the army troops northwest of the city of Vitebsk in the direction of Sirotino. On July 4, the support of the regiment's tanks allowed the sappers-attack aircraft of the 47th separate assault engineering and construction battalion to capture the bridge across the Western Dvina, prepared by the enemy for the explosion. This ensured the unimpeded crossing of our troops to the right bank and the complete liberation of Polotsk during Operation Bagration. July 23, 1944 the regiment was awarded the Order of the Red Banner.
Since March 1945, the regiment was part of the Moscow Military District. Later, the 135th Guards Tank Regiment was formed on its basis.
2.2 Contribution of Armenians in the USA.
During the most difficult years of World War II, in the ranks of the 10 millionth US Army, side by side with other American soldiers, in all types of armed forces (infantry, air force and naval forces), in all military operations (Asia-Pacific, Euro-African-Middle Eastern, in foreign combat units) served more than 20,000 American Armenians (in 1940, more than 200,000 Armenians lived in the United States). Most of them returned with victory, but there were also many heroic dead (about 500 people), wounded (more than 500) and missing (about 50 people). The US government, having highly appreciated the selfless devotion, courage and military skill of the American Armenians, awarded many of them with the highest orders and titles of the Hero. Thus, a soldier of Armenian nationality who had the highest rank in the US Army during World War II was General Hayk Shekerdzhyan, who in 1942 was awarded this title by President Franklin Roosevelt. He was the first American soldier of Armenian ethnicity to be admitted to the Military Academy at West Point for exceptional civic bravery shown in his youth (at the age of sixteen he boldly rushed into a burning house and saved a woman and her child).
Among the Armenian officers, Commander Jack (Sirak) Nagikyan, Colonels Kerk Buchakh and Sargis Zardaryan and others distinguished themselves with their courage. Senior Lieutenant Ernest (Yervand) Kh. Dervishyan was awarded the exclusive and highest award of the United States - the "Order of Honor of the Congress". This award, which was awarded to only 87 people in the American army, was presented to him for unparalleled bravery shown in May 1944 in the Italian Sistierna area. During a fierce battle, having lost his comrades and found himself surrounded by the enemy alone, Dervishyan managed, thanks to his fantastic martial arts, to capture 45 enemy soldiers at once, capturing 3 machine guns and 10 pistols from them. Demobilized after the war with the rank of Colonel E. Dervishyan, he held a number of high military posts: he was deputy commander of the American National Legion, adviser on military and state issues. For personal heroism during the period of service in the infantry, the second highest award of the United States, the Order of the Special Merit Cross, was awarded to Staff Sergeant Henry Kalpakyan (posthumously), in the naval service, Lieutenant Commander Kedrick Janyan, Colonel Harry Kizirian and 1st Lieutenant Viktor Magakyan. The high Order of the Silver Star was awarded to 52 American Armenians for bravery, five of them posthumously. For exceptional devotion and exemplary service, the Order of the Honored Legion was awarded to Colonel Kerk Buchach, Lieutenant Colonel Aram T. Tutelyan. For the accomplished flight feats, 44 American Armenians were awarded a high award - the Order of the Aviation Cross, of which two were posthumously. The military order, established to reward personal bravery and assistance in a difficult combat situation, was awarded to 11 American Armenians, one of them posthumously. The first hero among the American-Armenian military personnel was a native of Van, Private 1st Class Vardan Aghababyan (from Springfield), who was awarded two of the highest American military orders. He participated in both world wars, was wounded 14 times.
During the bombing of American warships carried out by the Japanese on December 7, 1941 at Pearl Harbor, Corporal James Topalian died in the line of duty (after the war, one of the streets of Boston was named after him). Many American Armenians were involved in the personnel serving the highest ranks of the American army, thereby often becoming eyewitnesses of various historical events. For example, Miss Sue Sarafian of Detroit, for her excellent service in Africa, was included in the staff of the commander of the Anglo-American Allied Forces in Europe, General Dwight Eisenhower, essentially acting as his personal secretary. American Armenians also took part in the preparation and conduct of various peace negotiations, served in intelligence. The Armenians of America have invested all their strength and high intellectual potential on the "internal front", actively working in the field of shipbuilding, ammunition production and other areas of military production, up to the creation of an atomic bomb. 32-year-old nuclear scientist Dr. Harry Dagalyan, in the prime of his talent, died in an explosion during tests that preceded the creation of an atomic bomb. John Hovhannisyan, Simon Hekikyan, Lieutenant Commander Aram Parunak also proved themselves in this area. In the military sphere, senior sergeant Harold Shahnazaryan, who was awarded a special diploma from the Military Department, chemists Major Zaven Nalbandyan and Lieutenant Colonel Karl Dokmejyan, who created the fuel for a new powerful tank, first commissioned in combat conditions during the liberation of Italy, put their knowledge at the service of the security interests of the state. . During the Second World War, American Armenians selflessly served in the field of military medicine. Thanks to the rarest plastic surgeries performed at the General Military Hospital in London, the surgeon from Los Angeles, Lieutenant Colonel Leon Ashchyan, became especially famous.
In addition to individual citizens, numerous national organizations, compatriotic unions and parties of American Armenians made their invaluable contribution to the achievement of the Victory in World War II. For example, the American-Armenian Committee of New York collected donations throughout the war and transferred several million dollars to the government for the purchase of military equipment, for which aircraft and ships were purchased, the names of which are “The Spirit of Armenia”, “Ararat”, etc. - speak for themselves. In August 1942, the Armenians of San Francisco, on behalf of the Armenian Committee, donated the Masis train to the American Red Cross, and only in 1943, 1 million dollars for the military needs of the country. Through the efforts of the League of American-Armenian Citizens of Fresno and Armenian philanthropists who did not wish to disclose their names during 1942;1944. raised an amount of approximately 8.5 million dollars ...
American Armenians actively responded to the government's appeal to issue military shares: Armenians bought them in much larger quantities than citizens of other nationalities. During the fateful years of the struggle against fascism, representatives of different parties of American Armenians not only fulfilled their civic duty, but also actively participated in providing material and moral support to their distant homeland. Evidence of this is the following appeal to the government of the USSR, adopted at a mass rally of American Armenians held in New York in August 1941: “We, American Armenians, whose ancestral homeland is defended by the Red Army, feel that we are obliged to help the Soviet Union until then until fascism is wiped off the face of the earth. During the most decisive years of the war, the Armenians scattered all over the world united in the National Fronts, one of the active organizations of which was the National Council of Armenians of America (NCAA), which was finally formed on March 19, 1944 in New York. By bringing together various American-Armenian organizations (Liberal Democratic Party - LDP, Social Democratic Party - SDP "Hunchak", Progressive Union of Armenians of America, Armenian Benevolent General Union - ABOS, churches of the Christian denomination, various compatriotic unions, etc.), Through its branches throughout the country, the front organized various charitable events, collected donations, took initiatives in favor of the American and Red armies, the Red Cross and the Motherland, and in the post-war years (until 1950) fought for a fair solution to the Armenian question within the framework of the newly formed
United Nations. Thanks to the patriotic efforts of the NSAA, in the spring of 1944, residents of the territories of the USSR liberated from the fascist occupation received 25,000 gifts-parcels with a total value of 75,000 dollars, and Armenia received a whole ship of clothes. In addition, 50 thousand dollars were sent to the Red Army through the Committee for Assistance to Russia, as well as medicines in the amount of 87 thousand dollars. The American-Armenian Committee for Assistance to the War Efforts of the Soviet Union until 1943 sent through donations: $56,000 for the Red Army, $29,000 for those in need, $11,000 for Armenia, and 2,700 pieces of woolen goods worth $9,000. dollars, etc. The Armenians of America made a significant contribution to the creation of the “Sasuntsi David” tank column through the efforts of the entire progressive Diaspora. Thanks to the hasty and organized efforts of the American Armenians, during the period from March 1943 to March 1944, for this purpose, at least 115 thousand dollars in donations were sent from the United States for the construction of the first stage of the Sasuntsi David tank column (and 173 thousand dollars to the fund Red Cross), then 40 thousand for the second stage. Organized through the efforts of the spiritual pastor of the American Armenians, Archbishop Garegin Hovsepyan, the Armenian Commission collected 120,000 dollars in donations for the benefit of the Red Army, Motherland and compatriots from the Diaspora, and 85,000 for the construction of the Sasuntsi David tank column. Most of the Armenians who miraculously survived the Genocide are characterized by the feelings of an Armenian woman whose son, who served in the American troops, bravely fought on the fields of World War II, reached Berlin: “My son avenged those members of his family who were killed during the previous war with the complicity Germans and with their encouragement. He also avenged hundreds of thousands of Armenians slaughtered in the previous war
Source: https://shkolazhizni.ru/culture/articles/45881/ © Shkolazhizni.ru
2.3. Participation of the Armenian community of France.
The Armenian community of France played an active role in the Resistance. The Armenian poet and communist Misak Manouchian became one of the leaders of the Resistance and the commander of the Manouchian Group (the family of chansonnier Charles Aznavour supported Misak and his wife Meline when they were in hiding). The group under the command of Manushyan carried out an operation to eliminate the commandant of Paris, General von Schamburg, who "distinguished himself" by mass executions, and SS Standartenführer Julius Ritter, who was responsible for sending 600,000 civilians to forced labor in Germany.
The Nazi "Red Poster", published in 15,000 copies, depicted Manouchian: "Manouchian, Armenian, gang leader, 56 attacks, 150 dead, 600 wounded." On November 16, 1943, Manushyan was arrested by the German command at the underground headquarters, tortured, and 3 months later he was executed along with 21 members of his group. Arpen Davitian, another executed member of the Manouchian Group, industrialist Napoleon Bullukian (1905-1984), poets Gegham Atmajian (1910-1940) and Ruben Melik were among the best-known members of the French Resistance. The Armenian-French writer Louise Aslanyan (1906-1945) - an activist of the Resistance, was arrested with her husband in 1944, sent to a concentration camp and killed. Many of her manuscripts and diaries were confiscated by the Nazis. Alexander Ghazaryan and Bardukh Petrosyan were awarded the highest military orders of France by General Charles de Gaulle. Henri Karayan (1921-2011), member of the Manouchian Group, participated in the underground distribution of L'Humanit; in Paris and engaged in armed struggle until the Liberation. In 2012, 95-year-old Arsen Shakarian, the last survivor of the Manouchian Group, was elevated to an officer in the Legion of Honor by the President of France.
"Anti-fascist underground patriotic organization", operating in the territories of the USSR, Poland and France, was led by a group of Armenian officers headed by Major S. A. Yagdzhyan
2.4. Tehran 43.
The illegal intelligence activities of Gevork Vartanyan and his wife Gohar (born January 25, 1926, Leninakan) continued in dozens of countries on different continents for about 45 years and remains largely classified. The operation carried out by a group of 19-year-old Vartanyan in 1943 to thwart the assassination attempt by Hitler's special agents on the "Big Three" - Stalin, Churchill and Roosevelt in Tehran is widely covered. The events of the post-war intelligence activities of the Vartanyan spouses in Italy, Germany, France, Greece and the United States also received some publicity in open sources. Working against NATO, the Vartanyans specialized in military-political intelligence, to a lesser extent - in scientific and technical.
Despite the fact that in 1986 the Vartanyans finally completed intelligence work abroad and returned to the USSR, a number of politicians, military men and diplomats with whom they had contact in the West continue to remain public figures after their resignation and engage in social and political activities in their countries. According to colleagues Gevork and Gohar in illegal intelligence, "the work done by the Vartanyan duet is so diverse and comprehensive that it will never be declassified."
Gevorg Vartanyan was born on February 17, 1924 in Rostov-on-Don in an Armenian family. Andrey Vartanyan was an Iranian citizen, the director of an oil mill located in the village of Stepnoy.
In 1930, when Gevork Vartanyan was six years old, his family left Rostov for Iran. His father was connected with the Soviet foreign intelligence and left the USSR on her instructions. After living in Tabriz for six years, the family moved to Tehran. The positions of Vartanyan, a father, a man with connections and a solid position in society, the owner of a confectionery factory, known throughout Iran for its sweets, were a reliable cover for him. Using it, Andrei Vasilievich conducted active intelligence and intelligence work: recruiting, maintaining contact with illegal immigrants. He almost never used the financial resources of the Center, he managed with the money that he earned himself. During the Great Patriotic War, Andrey Vartanyan collected a significant amount of money, which was transferred to the Center for the construction of a tank.
In 1953, Andrei Vartanyan returned from Tehran to Yerevan, having worked in Iran for Soviet intelligence for 23 years. He was a patriot of the USSR and raised his children in the same spirit. It was under the influence of his father that Gevork became a scout.
Following in the footsteps of his father, Gevorg Vartanyan connected his life with intelligence activities. On February 4, 1940, he established contact with the Tehran station of Soviet intelligence in the person of Ivan Agayants. Subsequently, recalling that meeting, he said:
I went to a meeting with a Soviet resident. It was later that I learned that Ivan Ivanovich Agayants was a legendary Soviet intelligence officer. He was a strict and at the same time kind, warm man. I worked with him for a long time, until the end of the war, and he made me a scout. He was busy, but he met with me, taught, trained me.
After meeting with the resident, Gevork Andreevich, who was given the operational pseudonym "Amir", was given the task of creating a group of several reliable guys to help senior colleagues. By that time, a significant part of the population of Iran took a pro-Soviet position. Therefore, Amir quickly completed his first task, gathering a group of like-minded people of about the same age, there were Armenians, Lezgins, Assyrians. All are immigrants from the USSR. Their parents were either expelled from the Soviet Union after 1937, or they themselves were forced to leave. All members of Amir's group were united by love for the Motherland. There were seven like-minded friends who were ready to fight Nazism. The guys did not have any operational training: they learned the methods of conducting surveillance and other professional tricks on the go. The group moved around the city on bicycles, for which Ivan Agayants jokingly called the group "Light Cavalry", and it went down in history under this name. After 2 years, the sister of one of the active members of the Hovhannes residency, Gohar, appeared in the group, who would later become Gevork Vartanyan's life partner.
In 1941, two members of the Vartanyan group were identified by the Iranian police, and they had to be urgently transported to the USSR. Since Vartanyan had contact with them, he was detained. Vartanyan pretended to agree to cooperate and drove around the city with the police, showing the places where the two members of his group had been and the people with whom they allegedly communicated. In fact, these were people who interfered with the work of Soviet intelligence. They were arrested and kept in prison for about six months. Gevorg Vartanyan himself spent three months in prison.
In the early 1940s, in Iran, due to the strategic (mainly due to the large oil reserves) and geographical importance of the region, the interests of the leading world powers of that time intersected. By the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were about 20 thousand German citizens in Iran - military instructors and agents under the guise of merchants, bankers, engineers; Franz Mayer was the head of the German residency in Iran.
Vartanian's group identified about 400 agents among the Iranians working for Germany. After the Soviet-British occupation of Iran in August 1941, they were arrested and mostly recruited to work for the USSR and Great Britain.
In 1942, the British opened an intelligence school in Iran, where they trained agents to be sent to the territory of the USSR. Vartanyan managed to enroll in this school and establish the identity of the students, which helped to detain them after being thrown into the USSR. After a protest from the Soviet side, the intelligence school was closed; at the same time, Vartanyan himself, according to him, acquired valuable intelligence skills at school.
Tehran conference. Operation Long Jump.
The historical significance of the Conference can hardly be overestimated - it was the first meeting of the Big Three, at which the destinies of millions of people, the future of the world were decided. The leadership of the Third Reich also understood this, which instructed the Abwehr to organize an assassination attempt on the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain in Tehran. The secret operation, codenamed "Long Jump", was developed by the head of the SS secret service in the VI department of the imperial security headquarters, Hitler's special agent for special assignments, Obersturmbannführer Otto Skorzeny. Skorzeny's track record included such well-known sabotage operations as the assassination of Austrian Chancellor Dollfuss in 1934, the arrests of Austrian President Miklas and Chancellor Schuschnigg in 1938, after which the Wehrmacht occupied Austria, as well as the release from captivity of Benito Mussolini in 1943, which caused a stir in the press. Later, in 1966, Skorzeny confirmed that he was instructed by Hitler to kill Stalin, Churchill, Roosevelt or steal them in Tehran by entering the British Embassy from the direction of the Armenian cemetery.
At the end of the summer of 1943, the Germans dropped a team of six radio operators into the region of Lake Qom near the city of Qom (70 km from Tehran). At that time, the Nazis had powerful agents there with good cover. The Germans dressed in local clothes, repainted with henna, someone even portrayed a mullah. The Soviet secret services had no access here. On ten camels, the Germans carried a walkie-talkie, weapons, equipment. After 10 days, they were already near Tehran, where they transferred to a truck and got to the city. Their secret villa was located on one of the central streets, not far from the embassies of the USSR and Great Britain. From a villa specially prepared for this by local agents, a group of radio operators established radio contact with Berlin in order to prepare a bridgehead for the landing of saboteurs led by Skorzeny.
Information about the impending terrorist attack was reported to Moscow from the Ukrainian forests by scout Nikolai Kuznetsov, and in the spring of 1943 a radiogram came from the center saying that Germany was planning to carry out sabotage in Tehran during a conference with the leaders of the USSR, the USA and Great Britain. The purpose of the sabotage was the physical elimination or abduction of the main participants in the conference. All members of Vartanyan's group were mobilized to prevent a terrorist act.
Vartanyan's agents, together with the British from MI6, took direction finding and deciphered all their messages. Shortly after a long search for a radio transmitter, the entire group was captured and forced to work with Berlin "under the hood". At the same time, in order to prevent the landing of the second group, during the interception of which it was impossible to avoid losses on both sides, they were given the opportunity to convey that they had been discovered. Upon learning of the failure, Berlin abandoned its plans.
As a result of the operation, a group of young men led by 19-year-old Vartanyan thwarted one of the most secret operations of the Third Reich. A few days before the start of the conference, German agents were arrested in Tehran. The last to be taken was the resident Franz Mayer, who had gone deep underground: he was found in the Armenian cemetery, where he, having dyed and let go of his beard, worked as a gravedigger. Of the large number of agents found, some were arrested and most were recruited. Some were handed over to the British, others were taken to the Soviet Union.
In 1979, the figure of Vartanyan, then known only to a narrow circle of professionals, was used as the prototype of the protagonist by the creators of the Soviet-French action film "Tehran-43" and the actor Igor Kostolevsky, who played the main role of the Soviet intelligence officer. According to Vartanyan himself, he got acquainted with the feature film when it had already been shot, and complained that the city of Tehran in the film does not look very authentic, too “shabby”. In addition, Vartanyan pointed out, there is too much shooting in the picture, but in fact, “a scout ceases to be a scout if he starts using weapons.”
2.5. A brief overview of the activities of foreign Armenians during the national war against Nazi Germany.
The foreign Armenians did not remain aloof from the struggle against fascism. A campaign to assist the Soviet Armed Forces was launched by such organizations as the National Council of American Armenians in the United States, the National Front of Armenians in France, the Armenian National Council of Syria and Lebanon, the Union of Friends of the USSR in Iraq, the Union of Friends of the Armenian culture in Egypt”, “Armenian Front in Romania”, “Cultural Union of Argentine Armenians”, “Armenian Relief Union”, operating in many countries of Latin America, a number of progressive organizations in Cyprus, Jordan, and other countries.
The Armenian diaspora of the whole world extended its helping hand to the Soviet troops. Let's say that the head of the rear of the American army during the war years was a descendant of a family that had escaped the Turkish genocide, General George (Gevorg) Martikyan. More than 30,000 Armenians fought in the allied armies, 20,000 of them in the American and Canadian armies. They participated in the ranks of the French Resistance.
The national hero of France, one of the founders of the French Patriots' Resistance, the poet Misak Manouchian, laid down his head in the fight against fascism. One of the streets of Paris is named after him.
A Soviet Armenian partisan regiment led by Colonel A. Ghazaryan operated in France. Together with the Italian partisans, the national hero, the owner of the highest Italian award, the Soviet citizen M. Dashtoyan, fought.
During the period of occupation, hundreds of patriots from local Armenians, as well as Armenian soldiers who had fled from German captivity, were in the anti-fascist underground in Bulgaria, Romania and other European countries.

3. Armenia and the Armenians of the USSR in the Great Patriotic War
In unleashing aggression against the USSR, the Nazi strategists, in particular, counted on the fact that the numerous peoples inhabiting the Soviet Union would not support the central government and thereby ensure an easy victory for Germany.
As the experience of the war showed, the peoples of the USSR, regardless of their nationality, their religion, as one stood up to fight the invaders. At the same time, they showed true heroism, miracles of courage and selflessness. The enemy faced unprecedented solidity and solidarity of the peoples of the USSR. This turned out to be the most powerful and decisive weapon that the invaders had to face.
For the peoples of the Soviet Union, who fought in a single formation, Germany was a common enemy, and each of them had his own historical experience in defending the Fatherland.
War 1941-1945 was another test for the Armenian people in its centuries-old history.
In 1920 the population of Armenia was only 700 thousand people. By the beginning of the war, it had grown to 1.5 million people. Nevertheless, the republic remained the smallest in the Soviet Union (1.1% of the population of the USSR). And yet, in the ranks of the Soviet Army from 1941 to 1945. more than 500 thousand people left. Armenia and Armenians suffered heavy losses in the Great Patriotic War. Every second did not return from the front. The losses of the Soviet Armenians can be compared with the losses of the American army (more than 300 thousand). The losses of the Armenians of the Diaspora are unknown to us. During the first 10-15 years of the post-war period, the demographics of Armenia underwent great changes, the male population sharply decreased. This was especially noticeable in the villages, where mostly old people, women, and children remained.
Armenian soldiers served in many branches of the Red Army: in the infantry, armored forces, aviation, artillery, in the navy, in the border, rear and sanitary units.
Among the Armenian soldiers there were both ordinary fighters and commanders of all levels, up to the commanders of divisions, corps and armies.
At the beginning of the war (from June 1941 to January 1942), military formations were formed in the Soviet Army on a national basis, further strengthening its combat power.
Of the Armenian soldiers, 6 combined arms divisions were formed. Many Armenians fought in the ranks of the 31st, 61st and 320th rifle divisions, in the 28th and 38th reserve brigades and subunits. The leadership of Armenia staffed and supplied these military units with everything necessary.
At the headquarters, the newspapers “Forward to Victory!”, “Red Warrior”, “Banner of the Warrior” “Forward for the Motherland!” were published.
Combined-arms generals-Armenians constituted a large group among the military leaders in the Soviet Army. But there were many of them in the branches of the troops who took an active part in the Great Patriotic War. To name a few: Colonel General of Artillery M. A. Parsegov, Lieutenant General of Artillery A. S. Eloyan, Lieutenant General of Tank Forces V. S. Temruchi (Damruchan), Lieutenant General of Aviation S. A. Mikoyan (graduate of MGIMO -MO 52), Lieutenant General of the Medical Service A. I. Burnazyan, Colonel General of Aviation S. A. Sardarov, Colonel General of the Medical Service L. A. Orbeli, Colonel General of the Ground Forces Kh. M. Ambaryan and many others , the list could go on.
More than 60 Armenian military leaders were directly involved in directing military operations on all fronts of the Patriotic War. The most prominent of them are Marshal of the Soviet Union - Ivan Bagramyan (1897-1982), Marshal of Aviation - Sergey Khudyakov (Armenak Khamferyants) (1902-1950), Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces - Amazasp Babajanyan (1906-1977) , Admiral of the Fleet of the USSR - Ivan Isaakov (Hovhannes Isahakyan) (1894-1967).
Tens of thousands of Armenian soldiers received awards, orders and medals. The title of Hero of the Soviet Union was awarded to 107 soldiers and officers (including 38 posthumously). Three Orders of Glory, which is equivalent to the title of Hero, were awarded to 27 soldiers.
An interesting fact was captured by history - the military feat of the Armenian village of Chardakhlu. 1250 inhabitants of this village went to the front. 853 of them were awarded orders and medals, 452 died the death of the brave on the battlefield. This village gave the Motherland two marshals (Bagramyan, Babadzhanyan), four Heroes of the Soviet Union, and many senior officers. In all likelihood, not only in our former Soviet Union, but also beyond its borders, it is difficult to find a village similar to the 16-century Artsakh Chardakhl.
Among the Armenians, the first Hero title was awarded to the tanker Karapet Simonyan back in May 1940, and the pilot Lazar Chapchakhyan became the first Hero among the participants in the Great Patriotic War. Hunan Avetisyan and Anavel Rostomyan were presented to the title of Hero posthumously. The pilot Nelson Stepanyan and the famous commander Ivan Bagramyan were twice awarded the Gold Star of the Hero.
Among the brave defenders of the Brest Fortress, there were several dozen Armenians who fought the enemy to the last and fell in battle. Among them are Tavad Baghdasiaran, Sos Nurijonyan, Shmavon Davtyan, Garegin Khachatryan and others.
In the battles for Moscow in November 1941. Professor Hovhannes Alibekyan died. Thousands of Armenian fighters were in the ranks of the defenders of Leningrad.
In the occupied regions of our country, partisan formations were created, in which Armenians participated: these are Belarus, Ukraine, the Leningrad region, and the North Caucasus. In Ukraine, the "Victory" detachment of Sergei Harutyunyan operated. As part of the partisan group of General Naumov, a detachment of them. Mikoyan under the command of Aramais Hovhannisyan. In the period from 1943-1944. they passed, destroying military equipment, a path of 2000 km. On their account, thousands of German soldiers and officers.
Zhora Harutyunyan and Maya Peglevanova were members of the legendary Young Guard. The famous hero of Belarus in the Mogilev region was a pupil of one of the Kirovakan schools Henrikh Zakaryan. He participated in the explosions of enemy headquarters, derailed trains, set fire to ammunition depots. He died during another daring operation.
Tens of thousands of the sons of the Armenian people participated in the liberation of Poland, Czechoslovakia, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Yugoslavia, and Austria from the Nazi yoke. Khachik Hakobjanyan, the former chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Armenian SSR, Nikolai Hovhannisyan, commander of the artillery of the tank army of Marshal Rybalko, died a heroic death here. The famous Armenian 89th Taman division with its legendary commander Nver Safaryan participated in the assault on the capital of the Reich. From the Caucasus to Berlin, the division traveled more than 7,500 km of the combat path, on its account more than 9 thousand destroyed and 11 thousand captured Nazis.
The training of military personnel for the army was organized directly on the territory of Armenia.
Circumstances demanded that a combat-ready military contingent be in Armenia, since its immediate neighbor, Turkey, was ready at any moment to enter the war on the side of Germany.
Armenian enterprises, both previously existing and newly created, produced products of strategic importance for the front - rubber, copper, carbide and much more. The production of military equipment, ammunition, explosives, and means of communication was organized in the republic. Rubber production increased 5 times.
During the war years, about 30 enterprises, 110 shops and workshops were put into operation in Armenia. More than 300 types of products needed for the front were produced in the republic.
The working people of the republic donated their savings (money, gold items, bonds) to the needs of the front. These funds amounted to more than 216 million rubles, which made it possible to build the squadron "Soviet Armenia", "Armenian sportsman", tank columns "Armenian collective farmer" and "Komsomolets of Armenia". Collective farmers of ancient Artashat collected money for the construction of the armored train "Soviet Armenia".
206,000 gift parcels and 45 wagons of food were sent to areas where direct hostilities were taking place.
The faithful Armenians of the Diaspora, led by Catholicos Gevorg IV Cherekchyan, rendered great assistance to the active army, to the front, in particular to the tankers. Significant material resources were collected through donations, the tank columns “David of Sasunsky” and “Hovhannes Baghramyan” were built and transferred to our army.
Here is a letter from Lieutenant General Korobkov dated April 4, 1944, addressed to the Catholicos: “... On February 29, 1944, in a solemn atmosphere of the N-th tank unit, the David of Sasunsky tank column was handed over, which was built on your initiative at the expense of the Armenian clergy and faithful Armenians foreign countries. The officers swore on the tanks "David of Sasun" to mercilessly smash the German invaders. The tank column moved to the front.
Assistant Commander of the Armored Forces of the Red Army, Lieutenant General of the Tank Forces Korobkov.
At the height of the war, in 1943, the Academy of Sciences of the Armenian SSR was established in the Republic. Her scientific activity was entirely devoted to military topics. Worthy of mention are A. G. Iosifyan, brothers A. I. Alikhanov and A. I. Alikhanyan, G. M. Musinyan, N. M. Sisakyan, S. G. Kocharyants, A. L. Kemurdzhiyan, I. L. Knunyants, S. A. Agadzhanov, K. I. Malkhasyan and many other scientists, academicians who have done a lot for the defense of the country and the fight against fascism.
After the capitulation of fascist Germany and the end of the war in Europe, the Soviet Army in August 1945 entered the war against Japan, Germany's ally. The powerful force and swift attacks of the Soviet Army broke the resistance of the Japanese samurai, and on September 2, 1945, an act of unconditional surrender was signed in Tokyo.
In these victorious battles against the Kwantung Army, Armenian soldiers distinguished themselves - Major General Andranik Ghazaryan, Bafat Mntoyan - commander of the 72nd Marine Infantry Brigade, Rafael Martirosyan - head of military communications of the Far Eastern Front.
In the days of the victorious end of the Great Patriotic War, the address of the country's leadership to the Soviet people said: “During the years of the Patriotic War, the Armenian people fulfilled their duty to the Motherland with honor. The Armenian warriors, together with the sons of other peoples of the Soviet Union, selflessly defended the freedom and independence of our Motherland. The workers, collective farmers, intelligentsia of Armenia worked tirelessly to achieve victory over the enemy.”
Speaking about the fate of Armenians in the Great Patriotic War, Marshal G.K. Zhukov wrote: “In the victory over fascism, the Armenians, from the rank and file to the marshal, immortalized their names with the unfading glory of courageous warriors.”
Such is a far from complete list of the merits of the Armenian people in the Great Patriotic War, such is their contribution to the common victory of the peoples of the world over the Nazi occupiers.
Armenians of Nagorno-Karabakh during the war.
During the Patriotic War, Artsakh (then NKAR) was part of the Az.SSR.
If we analyze the figures, it becomes obvious that the government of the Az.SSR solved the national question in the republic at the expense of the Great Patriotic War. Thus, the percentage of mobilization into the army from the NKAR was about 32%, while in the USSR as a whole this percentage was 6%. For comparison, during the total mobilization in Germany, the percentage of mobilization of the population reached 16%. To be honest, the figure of 32% is not just depressing, but simply catastrophic, because it turns out that almost every third inhabitant of the NKAO was drafted or voluntarily joined the army. If we take into account that somewhere around 50% of the population was female, then the remaining approximately 20% of the remaining are old men and male children, and the rest of the male population was at the front. Or it turns out that a large number of women also went to the front. On the other hand, we know from the war in Artsakh that the leadership of Azerbaijan solved the national issue of other indigenous peoples for one thing - mainly Lezgins, Avars and Talysh
According to the all-Union census of 1939, the population of the Nagorno-Karabakh Autonomous Region (NKAO) was 150,838 people, of which 90% were Armenians. Of this number, during the Great Patriotic War, 45,000 thousand or 32% of the population were mobilized and volunteered for the front (in the Soviet Union, out of 194 million - 11 million, that is, 6%). In percentage terms, 5 times more people were mobilized in the NKAO than in the whole country.
During the war, people from Nagorno-Karabakh showed themselves as brave soldiers, which corresponded to their centuries-old military traditions.
24 Karabakh people became Heroes of the Soviet Union, two of them - pilot Nelson Stepanyan (he was awarded the second star posthumously) and Marshal of the Soviet Union Ivan Bagramyan were awarded this title twice.
Seven Karabakh residents became holders of the Order of Glory of all three degrees. One of the first Soviet soldiers awarded the Order of Glory in 1943 was also a Karabakh citizen, a native of the village of Nerkin Sznek of the NKAO Gevork Israelyan (he became a full holder of the Order of Glory in March 1945).
During the war years, the Karabakh Armenian Ivan (Hovhannes) Baghramyan became the only Soviet front commander of non-Slavic origin.
Along with Baghramyan, three more people from Nagorno-Karabakh became marshals. These are Chief Marshal of the Armored Forces Hamazasp Babadzhanyan, Air Marshal Sergei Khudyakov (less known by his real name and surname Armenak Khanferyants), Admiral of the Fleet of the Soviet Union (which is equivalent to the rank of marshal) Ivan Isakov.
Only from one Armenian village in Nagorno-Karabakh, Chardakhlu, located in the northern part of Nagorno-Karabakh, which was part of the Shamkhor region of the former Az. SSR, 1250 people went to the front, 452 died on the battlefields. 853 residents of Chardahlin were awarded orders and medals. This village gave the Motherland two marshals I. Baghramyan and A. Babadzhanyan, four Heroes of the Soviet Union. At the moment, the village of Chardakhlu is occupied by the Azerbaijani army, and the monuments to Soviet marshals have been destroyed.
Of the Karabakh Armenians who went to the front from the NKAR, according to various sources, from 18 to 22 thousand people died, which amounted to 12 to 15 percent of the total population.
Thus, in the small Armenian autonomous region, which was deep in the rear during the war years, every seventh or eighth of its inhabitants died in the war, which was much higher than the average Union level of losses and is comparable, rather, with the losses of Belarus, where, as you know, in conditions of fierce military operations and many years of fascist occupation killed every fourth inhabitant.
The percentage of mobilization of the population into the army in the NKAO (32%) was twice as high as even in Nazi Germany during the Second World War. The Nazis, who carried out several total mobilizations, did not reach such heights - they mobilized 16% of the population. “Stalin considered such a high percentage of German mobilization to be adventurism, which undermined the viability of the country, was one of the reasons for the collapse,” General of the Army S.M. wrote in his memoirs. Shtemenko.
Behind these figures, presumably, there was a well-thought-out mobilization policy of the then leadership of Azerbaijan, which was preoccupied with the desire to complete the long-cherished dream of finally weakening the Armenian Karabakh and accelerating its assimilation.
On the eve of the 70th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War, Azerbaijan launched a campaign to belittle the participation and role of Armenians in this war. The participation of Armenians is evidenced not only by thousands of archival documents, but also by books written on their basis. One of these works is called "The Contribution of the Armenian People to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945", which names the sons of the Armenian people participating in the war, as well as the details of the war, one way or another connected with the Armenian people.
In a conversation with Aysor.am, Doctor of Historical Sciences, co-author of the book Kliment Harutyunyan stated that publications against the Armenian people have recently become more frequent, in which it is noted that the number of Armenians participating in the war is greatly overestimated.
“According to the data of 1941, 1.3 million Armenians lived in Armenia. 300,000 Armenians left for the front from Soviet Armenia. These are the data of our military commissariat, and these are corrected figures. But, in total, in the war of 1941-45. 600 thousand Armenians took part, 300 thousand, as I have already noted, were from Armenia, 200 thousand from other republics of the USSR, 100 thousand from the Diaspora. That is, the assertion that 600,000 Armenians left for the war from Soviet Armenia is not true. But the reality is that 600,000 Armenians participated in the war,” K. Harutyunyan stated.
Another common false statement is about the number of dead Armenians. According to K. Harutyunyan, not 300 thousand Armenians died in the war, but about 200 thousand, 100 thousand of which were from Armenia. There are archival documents testifying to this, our interlocutor explained.
Thirdly, how many Heroes did Armenia give?
“This figure is also misrepresented. The number of Armenian Heroes of the Soviet Union is 106. Of these, 4 received this title in the Soviet-Finnish war (November 1939 - 1940). The title of Hero of the Great Patriotic War was awarded to 99 Armenians, another 3 Armenians were awarded the title of Hero of the USSR for their deeds in the post-war peaceful years,” K. Harutyunyan said.
By the way, in terms of the number of heroes, Armenia occupies a leading position. Georgia gave 89 heroes, Azerbaijan - only 43.
In addition, 26 Armenians received the Order of Glory. Moreover, the first Order of the 3rd degree was awarded to an Armenian - Gevork Israelyan from Karabakh.
“In Armenian books, we write 27, because among them was a man named Oskonyan. But it turned out that he was not an Armenian, but a Ukrainian. And the difference with the Russian versions of the book is due precisely to this. However, there is no significant difference - 27 or 26, since the Armenian people have made a huge contribution. Moreover, we can cite the names of thousands of Armenians who were nominated for the title of Hero of the USSR, but they did not receive these titles and were encouraged in a different way,” he said.
By the way, the book “The Contribution of the Armenian People to the Victory in the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945” also tells about the twice Heroes Nelson Stepanyan and Marshal Baghramyan. And, as you know, among the Azerbaijanis there were no Heroes twice.
“But, in order to keep up with the Armenians, in the time of Gorbachev, Heydar Aliyev requested that Hazi Aslanov be awarded the title of twice Hero. Hazi Aslanov died in 1945, received the title of Hero of the USSR in Stalingrad, and it is noteworthy that the commander of the brigade, Major General Askanaz Karapetyan, who later received the title of Hero of the USSR, introduced him to this title. As you know, Gorbachev listened to Heydar Aliyev, and under his pressure awarded Hazi Aslanov the title of twice Hero,” K. Harutyunyan said.
According to him, recently in Volgograd he saw that the Azerbaijanis installed a memorial plaque in honor of Aslanov. But it is very important to know, K. Harutyunyan said, how Hazi Aslanov was awarded the title of twice Hero.
“So, Nelson Stepanyan and Marshal Bagramyan are real twice Heroes. By the way, Nelson Stepanyan was presented for the title of Hero on August 20, 1944, but he died in December 1944. In the archives of the Russian Ministry of Defense, I found that Nelson Stepanyan was posthumously presented for the title of Hero three times, but he was awarded only the title of Hero twice, and instead For this he was posthumously awarded the Order of the Great Patriotic War of the 1st degree,” said K. Harutyunyan.
He also noted that there were 6 Armenian divisions. Commenting on the statement of the Azerbaijani side that Azerbaijan gave 140 Heroes, K. Harutyunyan noted that Baku attributes to itself the Heroes of Karabakh, but in fact Azerbaijan gave 43 Heroes, of which 5 are Kurds. As for the divisions, their number was equal, although the Azerbaijani divisions remained in the Caucasus and did not reach Berlin.
“Azerbaijan did not have marshals, unlike Armenia. But it is noteworthy that Bagramyan, Babajanyan, Isakov were considered the sons of Azerbaijan. The Azerbaijanis are very sensitive to this issue, and when they say how many marshals Armenia gave, they always and on all platforms say that we gave so much oil. Indeed, they did, but Armenians worked at all these oil wells, starting from engineers and ending with managers,” K. Harutyunyan said.
The interlocutor of Aysor.am stressed that the participation of Armenians in the war of 1941-1945. invaluable...

The material was prepared by Doctor of Chemical Sciences, Professor, Academician of MANEB, Head of the Department of Chemistry of the Bryansk State Engineering and Technology University Pashayan Ararat Aleksandrovich.

May 1944

GKO decides:

1. All Tatars must be evicted from the territory of Crimea and settled permanently as special settlers in the regions of the Uzbek SSR. The eviction is to be assigned to the NKVD of the USSR. To oblige the NKVD of the USSR (comrade Beria) to complete the eviction of the Crimean Tatars before June 1, 1944.

2. Establish the following procedure and conditions for eviction:

a) Allow special settlers to take with them personal belongings, clothing, household equipment, dishes and food in the amount of up to 500 kg per family.

Remaining property, buildings, outbuildings, furniture and household land are taken over by local authorities; all productive and dairy cattle, as well as poultry, are accepted by the People's Commissariat for Meat and Dairy Industry; all agricultural products - the People's Commissariat of the USSR; horses and other draft animals - by the People's Commissariat for Meat of the USSR; pedigree cattle - People's Commissariat of State Farm of the USSR.

Acceptance of livestock, grain, vegetables and other types of agricultural products is carried out with the issuance of exchange receipts for each settlement and each farm.

To entrust the NKVD of the USSR, the People's Commissariat of Agriculture, the People's Commissariat for Meat and Milk Industry, the People's Commissariat of State Farms and the People's Commissariat of Education of the USSR from July 1 of this year. submit proposals to the Council of People's Commissars on the procedure for the return of livestock, poultry, and agricultural products received from them by exchange receipts to special settlers.

b) To organize the reception from the special settlers of the property left by them in the places of eviction, send a commission of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR to the place: the chairman of the commission, comrade. Gritsenko (deputy chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the RSFSR) and members of the commission - comrade. Krestyaninov (member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR), comrade. Nadyarnykh (a member of the board of the People's Commissariat for Foreign Affairs and the MP), comrade. Pustovalov (member of the collegium of the People's Commissariat of Education of the USSR), comrade. Kabanova (Deputy People's Commissar of State Farms of the USSR), comrade. Gusev (member of the board of the People's Commissariat of Finance of the USSR).

To oblige the People's Commissariat of Agriculture of the USSR (comrade Benediktova), the People's Commissariat of the USSR (comrade Subbotina), the People's Commissariat of the USSR and the MP (comrade Smirnova), the People's Commissariat of State Farms of the USSR (comrade Lobanov) to send livestock, grain and agricultural products from special settlers (in agreement with comrade Gritsenko) to the Crimea the required number of workers.

c) To oblige the NKPS (comrade Kaganovich) to organize the transportation of special settlers from the Crimea to the Uzbek SSR in specially formed echelons according to a schedule drawn up jointly with the NKVD of the USSR. The number of trains, loading stations and destination stations at the request of the NKVD of the USSR. Payments for transportation shall be made according to the tariff for the transportation of prisoners.

d) The People's Commissariat for Health of the USSR (comrade Miterev) to allocate for each echelon with special settlers, within the time limits agreed with the NKVD of the USSR, one doctor and two nurses with an appropriate supply of medicines and provide medical and sanitary care for special settlers on the way.

e) The People's Commissariat of the USSR (comrade Lyubimov) to provide all echelons with special settlers daily with hot meals and boiling water. Allocate foodstuffs to the People's Commissariat for catering for special settlers on the way...

3. Oblige the secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party (b) of Uzbekistan comrade. Yusupov, chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR comrade. Abdurakhmanov and People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Uzbek USSR comrade. Kobulov until July 1 of this year. carry out the following measures for the reception and resettlement of special settlers:

a) Accept and resettle within the Uzbek SSR 140-160 thousand people of special settlers of Tatars sent by the NKVD of the USSR from the Crimean ASSR.

The resettlement of special settlers shall be carried out in state farm settlements, existing collective farms, subsidiary farms of enterprises and factory settlements for use in agriculture and industry.

b) In the areas of resettlement of special settlers, create commissions consisting of the chairman of the regional executive committee, the secretary of the regional committee and the head of the UNKVD, entrusting these commissions with carrying out all activities related to the direct accommodation of arriving special settlers.

c) Prepare horse-drawn vehicles for the transportation of special settlers, mobilizing the transport of any enterprises and institutions for this.

d) Ensure that the arriving special settlers are provided with household plots and assist in the construction of houses with local building materials.

e) Organize special commandant's offices of the NKVD in the areas of resettlement of special settlers, attributing their maintenance to the expense of the estimate of the NKVD of the USSR.

f) Central Committee and Council of People's Commissars of the Uzbek SSR by May 20 of this year. submit to the NKVD of the USSR comrade. Beria, a project for the resettlement of special settlers in regions and districts, indicating stations for unloading echelons.

4. To oblige the Agricultural Bank (comrade Kravtsov) to issue loans to special settlers sent to the Uzbek SSR in the places of their settlement for the construction of houses and for household equipment up to 5,000 rubles per family with an installment plan of up to 7 years.

5. To oblige the People's Commissariat of the USSR (comrade Subbotina) to allocate flour, cereals and vegetables to the SNK of the Uzbek SSR for distribution to special settlers during June-August of this year. monthly in equal amounts... Issuance of flour, cereals and vegetables to special settlers during June-August of this year. to produce free of charge, in payment for the agricultural products and livestock accepted from them in the places of eviction.

6. To oblige the NPO (comrade Khruleva) to transfer during May-July this year. to reinforce the vehicles of the NKVD troops stationed by garrisons in the areas of resettlement of special settlers in the Uzbek SSR, the Kazakh SSR and the Kirghiz SSR, 100 jeep vehicles and 250 trucks that were out of repair.

7. To oblige Glavneftesnab (comrade Shirokov) to allocate and ship until May 20, 1944, 400 tons of gasoline to the points at the direction of the NKVD of the USSR and 200 tons to the SNK of the Uzbek SSR. Deliveries of gasoline to be made by evenly reducing supplies to all other consumers.

8. To oblige the Glavsnabless of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR (comrade Lopukhov) to supply the NKPS with 75,000 wagon boards of 2.75 m each at the expense of the sale of resources, with their delivery before May 15 of this year; transportation of NKPS boards to be carried out by one's own means.

9. Narkomfin of the USSR (comrade Zverev) to release the NKVD of the USSR in May of this year. 30 million rubles from the reserve fund of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR for special events.

Chairman of the State Defense Committee
I.Stalin

Deportation of Crimean residents by Stalin's punishers.

Article by Elena Shuvaeva-Petrosyan. Original .

The recent events in Crimea, the annexation of the peninsula to the Russian Federation, and finally, the decree of President V. Putin on the rehabilitation of the deported peoples of Crimea inspired some Crimean Armenians with hope for a return. Recall that the deportation of Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks was carried out at the behest of the leader of all nations, Joseph Stalin, 70 years ago, in June 1944. Almost 10 thousand of our compatriots were deported.

This was the second exodus of the Crimean Armenians. As for the first, it is worth remembering that historians attribute the emergence of Armenian settlements to the 10th-12th centuries.

Kafa (Feodosia), Soldaya (Sudak) and Surkhat (Old Crimea) - it was in these areas that the Armenians who arrived from various regions of Byzantium settled. The immigration flow took on a special scale in the XIII-XV centuries. Most of them were settlers from Ani. Not wanting to be under the rule of the barbarians, the Armenians agreed with the Genoese to resettle in Kafa. The status of Armenians in the Cafe had no analogues in world history. Even the influential Rome had to make significant deviations from its rules and provide the Armenians with maximum opportunities for self-government. Everything changed dramatically in the fateful year 1475. The Ottoman Empire, which came into power after the fall of Byzantium, captures Kafa. Crimea passes to the Ottoman Turks. The consequences were catastrophic. Kafa and other Armenian cities were ravaged and plundered. The brutality of the Turks knew no bounds.

It is also worth remembering that the situation of the Crimean Armenians was also aggravated by numerous Russian-Turkish wars. Crimea all this time was a zone of conflict between the big powers. The Armenians, as true Christians, helped Russia in many ways in this undertaking. Nevertheless, in the last quarter of the 18th century, the clouds again gathered over the Crimean Armenians. A decree was issued by Empress Catherine II on the eviction from the peninsula of virtually the entire Christian, in the majority of the Armenian population. This was the first eviction of the Crimean Armenians. Alexander Suvorov was personally responsible for the process. During 1778, the entire Crimean community - almost 12,600 people - plunged into wagons and moved to new lands. Traveling through the winter steppe was a little easier than crossing the Alps, and therefore every third did not reach the Don. The survivors were rewarded with 86,000 acres of land and the right to found their own city. This is how Nakhichevan-on-Don arose. As for the Crimean Khanate, it never recovered from the loss of the Armenian community. Left without Armenian subjects, the khan revolted against the Russian army out of desperation, for which he paid with the throne, and the wealth of Russia grew with a new province. Crimea did not remain long without the Armenians, who again settled on the peninsula in the 19th century. At the beginning of the 19th century, Armenians from the Ottoman Empire gradually began to arrive in Tauris. Despite the ban on the return of Don Armenians to the Crimea, their number also increased: by 1811, more than two thousand had returned to their native places. The government eventually found it possible to recognize their right to live in Crimea. After the revolution of 1917, the basis of the administrative division of the autonomous republic was the national principle. In 1930, national village councils were created, incl. two Armenian. National regions were also organized, but there was no Armenian among them.

Crimea has been thoroughly cleaned since 1941. First of all, 50 thousand Germans and 10 thousand Austrians, Romanians, Hungarians and Italians were taken out. In April 1944, several secret documents were born in the bowels of the NKVD, which paved the way for the cleansing of the Crimea from all ethnic minorities.

One of these documents appeared on April 13, 1944. It was a joint order of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L. Beria and the People's Commissar of State Security V. Merkulov for N 00419/00137 on measures to clean up the Crimea from anti-Soviet elements. Shortly after this order, on May 29, 1944, People's Commissar Beria burst out with a conceptual message to the leader about the advisability of deporting Armenians, Bulgarians, and Greeks. Here is the letter.

After the eviction of the Crimean Tatars in the Crimea, work continues on the eviction and seizure of the anti-Soviet element by the NKVD of the USSR, checking and combing settlements and forest areas in order to detain Crimean Tatars who may have taken refuge from eviction, as well as deserters and a bandit element.

9919 Armenians, Bulgarians - 12075 people, Greeks - 14300 people are taken into account on the territory of Crimea.

The Armenian population lives in most regions of Crimea. There are no large settlements with Armenian population. The "Armenian Committee" organized by the Germans actively assisted the Germans and carried out a great deal of anti-Soviet work. In the mountains In Simferopol, there was a German intelligence organization “Dromedar”, headed by a former Dashnak general DRO, who led intelligence work against the Red Army and for this purpose created several Armenian committees for espionage and subversive work in the rear of the Red Army and to facilitate the organization of volunteer Armenian legions.

The Armenian national committees, with the active participation of emigrants who arrived from Berlin and Istanbul, carried out work to propagate “independent Armenia”.

There were so-called “Armenian religious communities”, which, in addition to religious and political issues, were engaged in organizing trade and small industry among Armenians. These organizations provided assistance to the Germans, especially by raising funds for the “war needs” of Germany.

The Armenian organizations formed the so-called “Armenian Legion”, which was maintained at the expense of the Armenian communities.

The Bulgarian population lives mostly in the settlements of the region between Simferopol and Feodosia, as well as in the Dzhankoy region. There are up to 10 village councils with a population of 80 to 100 Bulgarians in each. In addition, Bulgarians live in small groups in Russian and Ukrainian villages.

During the period of German occupation, a significant part of the Bulgarian population actively participated in the activities carried out by the Germans to procure bread and food for the German army, assisted the German military authorities in identifying and detaining the Red Army and Soviet partisans. For the assistance provided to the German occupiers, the Bulgarians received from the German command the so-called “safeguard certificates”, which indicated that the person and property of such and such a Bulgarian were protected by the German authorities and that they were threatened with execution for an encroachment on them.

The Germans organized police detachments from the Bulgarians, and also recruited among the Bulgarian population to be sent to work in Germany and to serve in the German army.

The Greek population lives in most regions of Crimea. A significant part of the Greeks, especially in coastal cities, with the advent of the invaders, was engaged in trade and small industry. The German authorities assisted the Greeks in trade, transportation of goods, etc.

The NKVD of the USSR considers it expedient to evict all Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians from the territory of Crimea.

“The State Committee of Defense decides: 1. To oblige the NKVD of the USSR (comrade Beria), in addition to the eviction according to the decree of the State Defense Committee N 5859 of 05/11/1944, of the Crimean Tatars to evict from the territory of the Crimean ASSR 37,000 people of German accomplices from among the Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians. The eviction must be carried out within the period from July 1 to July 5 of this year.”

In turn, the actions of the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs were quick and organized. The operation to evict Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, foreign nationals took place on June 27, 1944.

All persons of these nationalities were subjected to deportation, regardless of gender, age and merit to the Soviet authorities - former underground workers and partisans, war invalids and labor veterans, members of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and Komsomol members, families of Red Army soldiers who died at the front and continue to fight in the army, the elderly , women, children.

People were given several hours to pack, and then in freight cars at gunpoint they were sent to unknown lands. An Armenian woman A.A. Boyadzhieva, who lost six brothers at the front, recalls: “On the night of June 26-27, 1944, the eviction began. We were given 20 minutes to get ready. They said not to take suitcases, you could only take soft things! We didn't know where to start collecting. Two children are small, an old mother, and an old aunt was also visiting. There was just no baked bread, crackers in the house ... They loaded us onto cars and took us to Yevpatoria, and then - to wagons and to the Sverdlovsk region ... At some stations we were standing for days. Arrived July 13th. First they settled in pigsties and poultry houses, then in barracks with shared kitchens...”

The author of the book “Crimean prisoner” Vagharshak Mazlumyan recalls: “In 1944 I was seven years old, a child’s memory, although it is selective, it is tenacious. I remember how my mother began to bother me: “Get up, get up faster, we are being sent out!” But I still can’t wake up, I don’t understand: why, if they send me out, then at night. Already in the carriage, it seems, I finally realized that we no longer had a house, that I would no longer see the street on which I lived, my friends ... I remember the wooden bunks in the carriage, filled with people, they took turns sleeping on them. Many recalled their belongings left at home: they gave only fifteen minutes to pack, what they managed to take in their hands, they took it away. ”

As a result, “spies, traitors to the Motherland and traitors, active accomplices and henchmen of the Nazi occupiers, members of anti-Soviet organizations, gangs and other anti-Soviet elements who assisted the occupiers” turned out to be 225 thousand people in Crimea ...

On July 4, Beria reported to Stalin that the eviction of unreliable elements from Crimea had been completed. The People's Commissar emphasized the quality of the operation he carried out: "There were no incidents during the eviction operation on the ground and along the way."

After the expulsion from the Crimea, special orders were issued on the fronts on the dismissal from the ranks of the Red Army of the fighters of the nationalities subject to expulsion, and sending them to a special settlement. This applied to everyone except senior officers, who, moreover, were not political workers. As of March 1949, from among the Crimean special settlers who previously served in the Red (Soviet) Army, there were: 574 Armenians, 559 Greeks, 582 Bulgarians. also immigrants from the allies of Nazi Germany, countries occupied by it, their descendants, who are citizens of the USSR, were not drafted into the Red Army.

In total, the special settlement was registered: 14,760 Greeks; 12,465 Bulgarians; 8570 Armenians.

The formal basis for the deportation of the Armenians was the accusation of L. Beria in cooperation with the German invaders. The “evidence” of L. Beria cited in the letter to I. Stalin is uncritically repeated by almost all authors when they touch upon the question of the reasons for the deportation of Armenians from the Crimea. At the same time, some researchers note that the decision to deport the Crimean Armenians was made last and the reasons for it are not clear enough, since, unlike the Bulgarians and Greeks, whose deportation can be “explained” in a certain sense by the participation of Bulgaria and Greece in the Nazi coalition, Armenians were drafted into the Red Army.

In fact, even a simple comparison of the data on the number of Armenians in Crimea for 1939 and 1944 clearly shows that almost a quarter of the entire Armenian population of Crimea (that is, almost everyone capable of taking part in hostilities) was drafted into the Red Army before the occupation of Crimea by the Germans. The author of the book “Muslim Legions of the Third Reich” O.V. Romanko notes that the local police, formed by the Germans after the occupation of cities and large settlements of Crimea, “comprised mainly three national groups - Russians, Tatars and Armenians”, but does not cite with specific data on the number of Armenians. At the same time, speaking about the Georgian and Armenian "volunteer legions" in the German troops, he notes the skepticism of the German command towards them because of the high level of desertion. He cites the words of Hitler, who in December 1942 declared that he considered only Muslims reliable: “I consider the formation of these purely Caucasian battalions an extremely risky business, but I see no danger in creating purely Muslim units ...”

The attitude of the “Nazis” towards the Armenians during the twelve years of the existence of the fascist regime underwent qualitative changes. At first, the possessed Fuhrer in his racial calculations, repeating the words of the English racist of the 19th century. Joseph Hugh Chamberlain, came to the conclusion that the Armenians are a piece of ancient Iran and that 80% of the blood of inferior Semites flows in their veins. Similar information was stubbornly planted by the Turks, who insisted on the Semitic origin of the Armenians. The chairman of the committee of the Dashnak Party in Germany, the vice-president of the “Armenian-German Friendship Society” established during the years of the Weimar Republic, Dr. Artashes Abeghyan, who had connections in the highest echelons of the Reich, spent considerable effort to prove the “Aryanism” of the Armenians. In 1934, on the initiative of Abeghyan, the book "Armenians - Aryans" was published in Berlin. The question of the attitude towards the Armenians was partially resolved in May 1942, when Hitler, experiencing a shortage in manpower, gave the green light to the formation of “national committees” and national military units. In the end, the Armenian Committee was created, the formation of the Armenian legion began. The Germans were well informed about the selflessness of the Armenians who fought in the ranks of the Red Army. It is clear that in Berlin, mindful of the previous war and knowing history, they interpreted this as indestructible Armenian Russophilia.

As a result, Armenian, Georgian and Azerbaijani national committees appeared. The Armenian committee was headed by Artashes Abeghyan, Vartan Sargsyan and Drastamat Kanayan, financial assistance was provided by the millionaire Muradyan. The main legitimate goal of the Armenian Committee and the Armenian Legion was to save the Armenians anywhere and with all the means at their disposal.

The Armenian military legion did not fire a single shot on the Eastern Front. First, he was briefly transferred to the North Caucasus - the Dro legion was in the Krasnodar Territory - then they were redeployed to Poland. General Dro, plus, was preparing in Germany at the reconnaissance camp under the code name "Abvergruppe-114" a special-purpose detachment "Dromedar", intended for use in the Transcaucasus. During the two and a half years of its existence, the Armenian Committee saved the lives of many Armenian prisoners of war, played an invaluable role in preventing beatings that could break out in Europe, especially in France and the Balkans, in the occupied zone of the USSR.

Unlike Garegin Nzhde, much less is known about Dro.

He was born on May 1, 1883 in Igdir. He graduated from the Russian gymnasium in Erivan. At the age of 20, he joined the national liberation movement and became a member of the Dashnaktsutyun. On May 11, 1905, he committed a terrorist act in Baku - he threw a bomb - against the Governor-General Nakashidze, who provoked anti-Armenian actions. Together with Nikol Duman, he saved Armenians from the Azerbaijani-Turkish pogroms. In World War I, he rose to the rank of colonel, commanded the Second Armenian Volunteer Detachment. He fought on the Turkish front as part of the Andranik division. Commissioner. Had awards. Assistant Minister of Defense of the First Republic, later Minister. In 1918 he commanded a unit in Lori during the Armenian-Georgian conflict. One of the commanders of the fateful for Armenia Bash-Aparan operation. In the spring of 1920, he entered Karabakh with his unit, united the self-defense forces, and developed a plan of military operations. Restored the national authorities of Karabakh. For several months he was the Minister of Defense of Soviet Armenia. Member of the February (1921) uprising against Soviet power. Emigrated. During the Second World War, he took part in the formation of the Armenian Legion. Thanks to the efforts of Dro, about 40,000 Armenians languishing in Nazi concentration camps escaped death. After the war, Dro settled in the United States and was active in pro-Armenian activities. The last years he lived in Beirut. He died March 8, 1956 in Boston.

As for the cooperation of Dro (Drastamat Kanayan) with the German command, as Garegin Nzhdeh, who was arrested by the KGB, testified during interrogations, the idea of ​​cooperation with Germany, in particular the creation of an “Armenian volunteer legion”, was indeed used by a part of the Dashnaktsutyun party in order to save those captured Armenians - soldiers of the Red Army. According to Nzhdeh's testimony, the Armenian sabotage group created in Germany was originally intended to be used in Turkish Thrace, but then was sent to the Crimea for subsequent transfer to Armenia. All this happened in the autumn of 1943, when units of the Red Army were attacking the Crimea. The transfer to Armenia was out of the question, the Germans were retreating. In the Crimea, the group did not conduct any actions. Moreover, after Nzhdeh’s protest, “the entire group was returned from the Crimea to the city of Samberg, where they were placed in a camp... On the fourth day after their stay in Samberg, a group of Armenians was first transferred to Vienna, and then sent to Bulgaria and sent home” .

Armenian units did not stay long on the Eastern Front. Already in 1943 they were sent to the other end to guard the Atlantic Wall in the Netherlands and France. So, for example, among these units was the 812th Armenian rifle battalion, consisting of 901 Armenians and 58 Germans. It was formed from Armenian prisoners of war in Poland in November 1942 and immediately sent to the Netherlands. Interestingly, the battalion had its own priest, who regularly held spiritual events, and the soldier contingent carefully celebrated all national and Christian holidays.

As part of the 812th battalion, according to the archival materials of the Dutch partisan movement and the reports of the NKVD, an anti-fascist underground operated, the foundations of which were laid back in Poland, when, after the arrest and execution of some Soviet activists from the 808th battalion, the bulk of the personnel was introduced into the newly formed 812th battalion. In fact, the underground organization of the battalion was directly subordinate to British intelligence, and, according to an order from London, about 150 Armenian soldiers, at the moment the British army approached the borders of occupied Holland, mutinied and arrested several Germans.

However, even before that, with the help of one Armenian sergeant major, who led the underground group, the command of the Dutch partisans was able to establish constant contact with the legionnaires. As a result, British agents managed to obtain a large number of secret documents, including maps of the location of enemy units, defensive structures, data on the mood of the population, and much more.

Noting that the decision to expel the Crimean Armenians was made, as it were, “in addition” to the expulsion of other ethnic groups, some Armenian historians believe that the anti-Armenian prejudices of Stalin and Beria in connection with the attempts of the Armenian Apostolic Church to excite at the end of the war played a significant role in this. the question of the return of the Kars region.

Archival documents testify that Armenians, Greeks and Bulgarians were evicted without sufficient grounds. In the memorandum of the head of the Department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Crimean region, Colonel Ryzhikov, to the chairman of the Crimean regional executive committee Kuzmenko, drawn up on February 11, 1954, it is noted that by GKO resolution N 5859, all Crimean Tatars were subject to eviction from the territory of the Crimean region for permanent residence in Uzbekistan. “As for the eviction of Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians,” the note emphasizes, “of these nationalities, according to GKO resolution N 5984, only German accomplices were subject to eviction from the territory of Crimea with their direction for resettlement in the Guryev, Sverdlovsk, Molotov, Kemerovo regions and Bashkir ASSR. However, due to the military situation and the impossibility to check their activities in the occupied territory in a short time, all Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians were evicted in 1944.”

In any case, the “punishment” for cooperation with the occupation regime was carried out by the NKVD not on the basis of documentary evidence of the direct participation of specific individuals in the commission of this crime, but on the basis of their belonging to a certain ethnic group, regardless of gender, age and merits before the Soviet authorities. It is noteworthy that immediately after the ethnic cleansing, Tatars, Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks, who had not even been deported, were banned from entering the peninsula.

“Due to the fact that the Tatars, Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks from the Crimea were resettled in other regions of the Soviet Union,” said P. Zhukov, the head of the SNK of Crimea, in one of the secret dispatches, “these nationalities are not allowed to enter the Crimea.”

The main goal of the ethnic cleansing of Crimea was also clearly stated in the report of the first secretary of the Crimean Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Tyulyaev, at the Plenum of the Regional Committee on November 27, 1944: way of life."

The property left by the special settlers was described and taken to warehouses. Then part of it was transferred according to acts to newly settled residents, enterprises and institutions, as well as to collective farmers who came to Crimea from other regions of the country. At the same time, many abuses were committed, recorded by the prosecutor's office of the Crimea. The lands of the Armenian collective farms “Bolshevik” (840 ha, 40 households) and named after Shaumyan (637 ha, 41 households) of the Simferopol region, as well as the collective farm named after Shahumyan (650 ha) of the Saki region were transferred to other farms.

The method of mass deportations and ethnic cleansing in the form of state terror against entire peoples was the logical result of the “natural” evolution of the repressive Bolshevik regime with its unbridled geopolitical ambitions and assimilationist policies in the national question.

The bulk of the deported Crimean Armenians - almost 90 percent - was placed on the territory of the RSFSR, the rest were scattered around the special settlements of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Bashkiria.

Soon, servicemen dismissed from the ranks of the Red Army joined the special settlers. On August 9, 1944, for this purpose, a directive of the NKVD of the USSR was prepared with the blasphemous title “On uniting the disparate families of the Crimean Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians.” According to the data for 1946, 574 people were noted from among the Crimean special settlers - Armenians who had previously served in the Red Army. On the last day of October 1945, Beria agreed to the release from special settlements of those soldiers and officers of the Red Army who remained in the army without the right to return to the North Caucasus, the Crimea and the territory of the former Kalmyk ASSR.

The situation of the special settlers, especially in the early years, was extremely difficult. Unsuitable premises, poor food, hard work and illness determined the high mortality rate among the special settlers. By a special resolution of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated January 8, 1945 N 35 “On the legal status of special settlers”, they were limited in movement, they had to be registered in special commandant's offices. Unauthorized absence from the settlement area was considered as an escape and entailed criminal prosecution. Nevertheless, in the early years, unauthorized absences from the areas of settlement and escapes from the places of settlements were quite frequent. The number of fugitive special settlers dropped sharply after the decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of November 26, 1948, which provided for 20 years of hard labor for escaping from places of resettlement. The decree noted that the transfer of special settlers "was carried out forever, without the right to return them to their former places of residence."

Already deeply involved by this time in the processes of ethnic transformation, the Crimean Armenians found themselves in unusual geographical conditions, among a hostile alien environment. Unfairly repressed and humiliated, cut off from their homes and deprived of any property, for many years they were forced to endure the mocking regime of special commandant's offices, losing the remnants of ethnic identity and original ethnic culture.

Until 1951, petitions for the release of special settlers from among the Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks, as a rule, were not satisfied. Starting from 1952, at the direction of the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, according to the statements of special settlers from among Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks, a check was carried out, and if cooperation with the occupation authorities was not confirmed, conclusions were made on their release from the special settlement, which were then approved by the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs and sent to the place of settlement for execution. After verification, according to the conclusions approved by the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs, as of February 25, 1954, 805 families (2421 people) were released from the special settlement. By that time, 5,679 Crimean Armenians were in the special settlement.

Since some of the liberated Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks began to return to live in the Crimean region and apply for compensation for damages and the return of property taken away during the deportation, the local authorities began to insist before the highest authorities on the prohibition of special settlers - Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks - from returning to Crimea. This decision was motivated by the fact that the return of property to previously deported persons would allegedly weaken the personal economy of resettlement families and could lead to their departure from Crimea. In addition, it was noted that the settlement of the Crimean region as a border territory by former special settlers is undesirable. As a result, on March 27, 1956, the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces “On the removal of restrictions on the legal status of Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians and members of their families located in special settlements” was issued, according to which Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks evicted from Crimea in 1944 were removed from registered and released from the administrative supervision of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, but did not have the right to return the property confiscated during the eviction, and could not return to their place of residence in the Crimean region.

It should be noted that in order to use the special settlements deported from the very beginning, the administration of special settlements practiced their territorial relocation, so that the area of ​​​​settlement of the deported Armenians expanded even while they were in exile. After the removal of the special settlement regime, this process accelerated significantly.

On September 5, 1967, the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces and the Decree “On the procedure for applying Article 2 of the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Armed Forces of April 28, 1956” were issued, lifting the ban on returning home. The former special settlers-Armenians had hope, and some of them began to illegally move closer to the Crimea - to the Krasnodar and Stavropol Territories, but the bulk of the Crimean Armenians remained in the areas of the former special settlements. According to the data for 1997, 12,765 families of deported citizens of these nationalities (approximately 45-46 thousand people) were registered with the Department for the Return and Settlement of Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Germans of the State Committee for National Affairs of Crimea. It is quite obvious that for the vast majority of the deported Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Germans and their descendants, the return to their homeland did not take place.

In subsequent years, some of the Armenians - former special settlers moved to other regions of the USSR, in particular to the Caucasus and Central Asia. There was no mass return of deported Armenians to Crimea, as the authorities began to take special restrictive measures.

Based on the materials of the book by I. Juhi

“Echelons go to the east”, as well as the media.

After the forced expulsion of the Crimean Tatars from the territory of the peninsula, it was the turn of other national groups. May 29, 1944 People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria reported to I.V. Stalin: “After the eviction of the Crimean Tatars in the Crimea, work continues to identify and seize the anti-Soviet element, combing, etc., by the NKVD of the USSR. Bulgarians currently living on the territory of Crimea are counted - 12,075, Greeks - 14,300, Armenians - 9919 "(in 1939 Among the inhabitants of the peninsula, there were: Bulgarians 15,353 - 1.4% of the total population, Greeks 20,652-1.8%, Armenians 12,873-1.1%). At the same time, it was indicated that “the Bulgarian population lives mostly in the settlements of the region between Simferopol and Feodosia, as well as in the Dzhankoy region. There are up to 10 village councils with a population of 80 to 100 Bulgarian residents in each. The “indictment” followed: “During the German occupation, a significant part of the Bulgarian population actively participated in the measures taken by the Germans to procure bread and food for the German army, assisted the German military authorities in identifying and detaining the Red Army and Soviet partisans, received “safety certificates” from the German command. The Germans organized police detachments from the Bulgarians, and recruitment was carried out among the Bulgarian population to be sent to work in Germany. (Such recruitment was carried out among the entire population of the peninsula, regardless of nationality.)
About the Greeks, Beria reported the following: “The Greek population lives in most regions of the Crimea. A significant part of the Greeks, especially in coastal cities, with the advent of the invaders, took up trade and small-scale industry. The German authorities assisted the Greeks in trade, transportation of goods, etc.” That's all "accusations"!
Then there was a speech about the Armenians: “The Armenian population lives in most regions of Crimea. There are no large settlements with Armenian population. The Armenian Committee organized by the Germans actively cooperated with the Germans and carried out a great deal of anti-Soviet work.
In the mountains In Simferopol, there was a German intelligence organization "Dromedar", headed by the former Dashnak general Dro, who led intelligence work against the Red Army and for this purpose created several Armenian committees for espionage and subversive work in the rear of the Red Army and to promote the organization of volunteer Armenian legions.
The Armenian national committees, with the active participation of emigrants who arrived from Berlin and Istanbul, carried out work to promote "independent Armenia".
There were so-called "Armenian religious communities", which, in addition to religious and political issues, were engaged in the organization of trade and small industry among the Armenians. These organizations provided assistance to the Germans, especially "by raising funds" for the German war effort. The Armenian organizations formed the so-called “Armenian Legion”, which was maintained at the expense of the Armenian communities.”
Beria's conclusion was as follows: "The NKVD considers it expedient to carry out the eviction from the territory of Crimea of ​​all Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians"3. This also applied to partisans, underground workers, to persons who did not at all stain themselves with cooperation with the occupiers.
June 2, 1944 I.V. Stalin signs the decree of the State Defense Committee No. 5984, according to which the NKVD undertook “in addition to the eviction according to the GKO decree No. 5859ss of May 11, 1944, the Crimean Tatars should be evicted from the territory of the Crimean ASSR 37 thousand people. German accomplices from among the Bulgarians, Greeks and Armenians”, who “send for resettlement in agriculture, in subsidiary farms and industrial enterprises of the following regions and republics: Guryev region. Kazakh SSR - 7000 people, Sverdlovsk region. - 10,000 people, Mo
Lotovskaya region -10 000 people, Kemerovo region - 6000 people, Bashkir ASSR - 4000 people. ".
As early as May 7, 1944, B.Z. Kobulov and I.A. Serov, in his note addressed to Beria, asked “to allow the eviction of 330 Germans, Austrians, Hungarians, Romanians, Italians living in the Crimea, as well as up to 1,000 prostitutes living in resorts and cities on the Black Sea coast”5. There is no reason to doubt that the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR refused his henchmen. In 1944, 2,300 Germans were deported from the Crimea. We add that the bulk of the Germans (about 53 thousand people) were taken out of the peninsula back in August 1941, the bulk of the Italians living in the Kerch region - in early 1942, when the Kerch Peninsula was liberated by the Red Army, and along with the Crimean Tatars, local Turks, gypsies, and a small part of the Karaites were expelled. As of March 1949, there were 1280 Russians, 1109 Gypsies, 427 Germans, 272 Turks, 257 Ukrainians and 283 others among the Crimean special contingent in the places of expulsion.
On June 15, 1944, Beria drew Stalin's attention to the fact that “310 families of local residents of Turkish, Greek and Iranian citizenship who had expired Turkish, Greek and Iranian passports were identified in the Crimea. The NKVD of the USSR considers it undesirable to leave them in the Crimea and asks for permission to evict them and send them to one of the regions of the Uebek SSR. The proposal was soon implemented. On June 24, Stalin signs GKO Decree No. 6100ss: “To allow the NKVD of the USSR to evict from the Crimea (local residents of Turkish, Greek and Iranian citizenship who have expired national passports in their hands) and send them to live during the war in the regions of the Uzbek SSR.”
The operation to evict Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians, and foreigners took place on June 27, 1944. People were given several hours to pack, and at gunpoint they were sent to unknown lands in freight cars at gunpoint.
On July 4, Beria reported to Stalin that the eviction of Tatars, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Armenians from Crimea had been completed. A total of 225,009 people were deported, including 183,155 Tatars, 12,422 Bulgarians, 15,040 Greeks, 9,621 Armenians, 1,119 Germans, and 3,652 foreign nationals. “There were no incidents during the eviction operation on the ground and along the way.”
After the expulsion from the Crimea, special orders were issued on the fronts on the dismissal from the ranks of the Red Army of the fighters of the nationalities subject to expulsion, and sending them to a special settlement. This applied to everyone except senior officers, who, moreover, were not political workers. By
March 1949 data of the Crimean special settlers who previously served in the Red (Soviet) Army, there were: Greeks - 559 (8 officers, 86 sergeants, 465 privates), Bulgarians - 582 (9 officers, 76 sergeants, 494 privates), Armenians - 574 (19 officers , 70 sergeants, 485 privates), others - 184 (9 officers, 33 sergeants, 142 privates). At the same time, it should be taken into account that during the years of World War II, Germans, as well as immigrants from the allied states of Nazi Germany, countries occupied by it, their descendants, who are citizens of the USSR, were not drafted into the Red Army.
Until October 1, 1948, 7219 additional people (repatriates, demobilized, etc.) entered the special settlement, who were included in the Crimean contingent. In fact, the number of Crimean natives included in the number of special settlers in 1945-1948 was greater, but some of them were included in the Vlasov contingent. At the same time, until October 1, 1948, 3,531 people were released from the Crimean special settlers who were deported in 1944.
It should be noted that among those deported from the Crimea in 1944, in addition to Tatars, Greeks, Bulgarians, and Armenians, there were several thousand citizens of other nationalities, among whom a significant part were members of mixed families. Moreover, if the husband, for example, was an Armenian, Azena-Russian, both were counted as Armenians. But if the husband was Russian and the wife was Armenian, both were counted as “others”. Among the adult settlers of the Crimean contingent who were not included in the “other” sub-contingent, there were 2882 representatives of various nationalities, including 1917 Russians, 340 Ukrainians, 311 Gypsies, 30 Karaites, 27 Germans, 2 7 Poles, 25 Turkmens, 20 Turks, 17 Jews , 12 Belarusians, 10 Kalmyks, 9 Czechs, 7 Moldovans, 5 Lezgins, 3 Austrians, 3 Latvians, 3 Estonians, 3 Kazakhs, 2 Albanians, 2 Assyrians "2 Kabardians, 2 Bashkirs, 2 Hungarians, 2 Romanians, 1 Azerbaijani, 1 French and 99 others (data for March 1949).
Apparently, in order to avoid in the future "unnecessary" appeals and reasons for changing places of residence in the special settlement, a directive of the NKVD of the USSR "On the connection of disparate families of Crimean Bulgarians, Greeks, Armenians" dated August 9, 1944 was prepared.
The NKVD sought to take into account everything that concerned the special contingent, including the professional and educational level. Among adult Greeks, 71 had a higher education, 592 had a secondary education, 7012 had a lower education, 1424 were illiterate; among Bulgarians these figures were as follows: 45; 375; 6456; 1079 (respectively); among Armenians - 67; 431; 4016; 684; among others (members of families of special settlers from Crimea, including Tatars) -33; 214; 2034; 601; among others (not included in the families of special settlers from Crimea) - 31; 172; 1687; 535 (data for March 1949).
The persons expelled from the Crimea turned out to be settled in various regions of the vast USSR. As of January 1, 1953, of these (together with those arrested and on the wanted list), the following were in the special settlement:
Greeks - in Uzbekistan there were 4097 people in a special settlement (in the Tashkent region - 15 people, Samarkand - 25, Ferghana - 3945, Andijan - 16, Kashkadarya - 39, Bukhara - 2, Karakalpak ASSR - 55); in the Russian Federation - 9253 people (in the Molotov (Perm) region - 2268 people, Sverdlovsk - 3414, Mari ASSR - 128, Kemerovo region -1334, Bashkir ASSR - 1967, Tula region - 5, Kostroma-1, Moscow -2, Kuibyshev - 1, Kirov -4, Tatar ASSR - 32, Krasnoyarsk region - 8, Yakut ASSR - 10, Irkutsk region - 23, Khabarovsk region - 12, Chuvash ASSR - 2, Chelyabinsk region - 10, Novosibirsk - 7, Tyumen - 5, Tomsk - 7, Komi ASSR - 4, Udmurt ASSR - 1, Sakhalin region - 3, in the Far North - 5); in Kazakhstan - 1240 people (in the Guryev region - 1040 people, Alma-Ata - 128, South Kazakhstan - 9, Dzhambul - 20, Taldy-Kurgan - 8, Kyzyl-Orda - 6, Kustanai - 24, Aktobe - 1 , Kokchetavskaya - 1,
North Kazakhstan - 3 people); in Kyrgyzstan - 16 people (in the Frunze region - 4 people, Osh - 2, Issyk-Kul - 6, Talas - 4); in Tajikistan - 153 people; in the Karelo-Finnish SSR - 1 person;
Bulgarians - in Uzbekistan - 53 people (in the Tashkent region - 25 people, Samarkand - 6, Ferghana - 20, Kashkadarya - 1, Karakalpak ASSR - 1); in the Russian Federation -10,388 people (in the Molotov (Perm)
regions - 3625, Sverdlovsk - 2847, Mari ASSR -196, Kemerovo region. - 2365, Bashkir ASSR-768, Tula region. - 4, Moscow - 33, Kirov - 486, Tatar ASSR -
13, Yakut ASSR - 4, Irkutsk region. - 9, Khabarovsk Territory - 4, Chelyabinsk region. - 10, in labor camps and on special buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 2, Novosibirsk region. - 3, Tyumen - 8, Kurgan - 5, Omsk - 1, Udmurt ASSR - 1, Chita region. - 1, in the Far North - 3); in Kazakhstan - 1868 (in the Guryev region - 1659 people, Alma-Ata - 165, South
Kazakhstan - 3, Dzhambul - 5, West Kazakhstan - 7, Kzyl-Orda - 4, Karaganda - 5, Kustanai - 1, Akmola - 3, East Kazakhstan - 10, Semipalatinsk - 4, North Kazakhstan - 2); in Kyrgyzstan - TsOsh region); in Tajikistan - 154 people; in the Karelo-Finnish SSR - 1 person;
Armenians - in Uzbekistan - 381 people (in the Tashkent region - 47 people, Samarkand - 186, Fergana - 111, Andijan - 21, Kashkadarya - 12, Karakalpak Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - 4); in the Russian Federation 7492 people (in the Volotovo (Perm) region -1835 people, Sverdlovsk - 2858, Mari ASSR - 282, Kemerovo region -1385, Bashkir ASSR - 941, Tula region -2, Moscow -23, Kirov - 9 , Tatar ASSR - 83, Krasnoyarsk Territory - 8, Yakut ASSR - 12, Irkutsk Region - 26, Khabarovsk Territory - 7, in forced labor camps and on special buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 7, Novosibirsk Region - 7, Tyumen - 1, Tomsk - 3, Murmansk - 1, Amur - 1, in the Far North - 1); in Kazakhstan 575 people (in Guryev region - 478 people, Alma-Ata - 61, South Kazakhstan - 14, Dzhambul - 1, Taldy-Kurgan - 2, Kzyl-Orda - 1, Karaganda - 3, Kustanai - 7, Semipalatinsk - 7, Kokchetav - 1); in Tajikistan - 121 people; in Turkmenistan - 1 person;
others - in Uzbekistan - 852 people (in the Tashkent region - 166 people, Samarkand - 18, Fergana - 506, Andijan - 73, Namangan - 26, Bukhara - 63); in the Russian Federation - 2371 people (in the Molotov (Perm) region - 426 people, Sverdlovsk - 927, Mari ASSR - 83, Kemerovo region - 357, Bashkir ASSR - 498, Tula region - 3, Kostroma - 23, Kuibyshev - 2, Kirov - 1, Tatar ASSR - 11, Krasnoyarsk Territory - 14, Chuvash ASSR - 4, Chelyabinsk region - 9, in forced labor camps and on special buildings of the Ministry of Internal Affairs - 6, Novosibirsk region - 1, Kurgan - 1, Udmurt - 5); in Kazakhstan - 366 people (in the Guryev region - 256 people, Alma-Ata - 104, South Kazakhstan - 4, Dzhambul - 2); in Kyrgyzstan - 6 people (in the Frunze region - 3 people, Osh - 3); in Tajikistan - 49 people.
In total, the special settlement was registered: 14,760 Greeks, of which 4,444 men, 6,323 women, 3,719 children, 33 people were wanted, 241 were arrested; 12,465 Bulgarians, including 3,689 men, 4,962 women, 3,542 children, 18 people were wanted, 254 were arrested; 8570 Armenians, including 2409 men, 3758 women, 2143 children, 44 were wanted, 216 were arrested; 3644 others, including 756 men, 1732 women, 1004 children, 31 were wanted, 121 were arrested.
V.M. Broshevan and P.K. Tygliyants managed to reveal how the Armenians expelled from the Crimea settled: people who lived in Karasubazar (Belogorsk), Simferopol, Zuisk and Seitler (Nizhnegorsk) districts were sent to the Molotov (Perm) region, to the Sverdlovsk region - in Simferopol and Karasubazar (Belogorsk) district, in Kemerovo region (Prokopyevsk) - in Simferopol, in Bashkiria - in Feodosia, Yalta, Kerch, in Kazakhstan (Guryev) - in the Old Crimea.
Foreign nationals were placed in the Fergana region of Uzbekistan, of which 3531 people had Greek citizenship, 105 - Turkey and 16 people - Iran.
The situation of the special settlers, especially in the early years, was extremely difficult. They often had to live in unsuitable premises, eat poorly, suffer from diseases, and so on. As a result, high mortality. From the moment of the initial resettlement to new places until October 1, 1948, the death rate of the Crimean contingent (expelled from the peninsula of all nationalities) was 6.8 times higher than the birth rate. For 1945-1950. of the Crimean special settlers, 32107 people died, in two years (1951-1952) - 2862 (5007 people were born in 1951).
The regime of special settlements was determined by the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR dated January 8, 1945 No. 35 "On the legal status of special settlers." They were restricted in their movement, they had to be registered in special commandant's offices, etc. Unauthorized absence from the settlement area was considered as an escape and entailed criminal liability. Despite this, people tried to escape from places of expulsion. From the moment of settlement in 1944 until the end of 1948, 8,692 special settlers of the Crimean contingent fled. Until the end of 1948, 6295 people were detained, of which 2645 (42%) were prosecuted. As of January 1, 1949, 2,397 Crimean special settlers were on the run. When checking the state of the passport regime in the Crimea from October 5 to October 20, 1948, 34 fugitive special settlers were identified, of which 1 Tatar, 7 Greeks, 3 Bulgarians, 21 Germans and 2 Russians. Of this number, 10 people were arrested, 18 were returned to places of special settlements, 6 turned out to be bed-sick (they were planned to be sent to a special settlement after recovery). Also found were 18 people released from the special settlement without the right to enter Crimea (they were immediately removed from the Crimean region).
On November 26, 1948, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a Decree “On criminal liability for escapes from places of compulsory and permanent settlement of persons evicted to remote areas of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War”, which emphasized that they were sent “to
forever without the right to return them to their former places of residence. For unauthorized departure (escape) from the places of the special settlement, the "guilty" were prosecuted and punished with hard labor for a term of 20 years; persons facilitating escapes, sheltering fugitives, assisting them, were also brought to criminal responsibility and imprisonment for a term of 5 years. The number of escapes has been markedly reduced.
It should be noted that back in 1944 the special settlement regime was lifted from certain categories of citizens. In August, a directive “Removing the registration of former employees of the NKGB and the NKVD from the registration of special settlements” is issued, in September - “On the procedure for hiring former employees of the NKVD-NKGB belonging to resettled nationalities”. The best conditions for living were created for party and Soviet workers who had the opportunity to get into public service, people with higher and special education. So, according to the data as of August 1, 1950, out of the deported Crimeans of various nationalities, 236 people were employed at enterprises and institutions of a number of ministries. (Ministry of Railways), 2963 (interior), 777 (trade), 1854 (health), 1625 (enlightenment), 199 (finance), 64 (social security), 902 (state security), 9 (justice), 1 ( higher school), 8 (Committee for the Arts), 4946 in state and Soviet institutions, etc. Scammers were actively recruited from among those expelled. For example, on March 1, 1945, in the Molotov (Perm) region, among 20,226 special settlers from the Crimea, the agent-information network consisted of 519 people (5 residents, 12 agents and 502 informants); in Uzbekistan, this network amounted to 2730 people (respectively 15.82 and 2633). At the same time, the organs of the NKVD-MVD-MGB attached special importance to agents among the clergy from among the special settlers. An idea of ​​the scale of this activity is given by the following fact: more than 1/3 of the Muslim priests in Uzbekistan from the persons expelled from the territory of the peninsula were recruited as agents or informers (data for October 1946).
Projects for the release of special settlers began to emerge soon after the death of I.V. Stalin, and they were those who directly organized the expulsion. In the spring of 1953, L.P. Beria and S.N. Kruglov planned to release over 1.7 million people by August 1953, including more than 60 thousand special settlers of the Crimean contingent (children under 16 years old, women of various nationalities, expelled for cohabitation with the invaders). But with the arrest of Beria, this idea was not implemented.
In September 1953, the USSR Ministry of Internal Affairs prepared and submitted to the Central Committee of the CPSU and the Council of Ministers of the USSR proposals for the release of a number of categories of special settlers, including all Crimean Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians and others. The Presidium of the Central Committee of the CPSU considered these proposals only in April 1954, approved them in principle, but considered that they should be implemented in parts. On July 5, 1954, the Decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR “On the removal of certain restrictions on the legal status of special settlers” was signed, according to which children under 16 and children over 16 years of age studying in educational institutions were deregistered from special settlements. Adults could now report to the special commandant's offices once a year (earlier - once a month) and move freely within the republic, territory, region. On July 13, 1954, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of November 26, 1948 was canceled.
The number of the Crimean special contingent began to decline. By January 1, 1955, it numbered 145,229 people, including: 118,351 Tatars, 10,506 Greeks, 8,606 Bulgarians, 5,679 Armenians and 2,087 others22. From May 1955 to March 1956, communists and members of their families were released from the special settlement; participants in the Great Patriotic War and persons awarded orders and medals of the USSR; women who married local residents, as well as women of various nationalities who were evicted along with Crimean Tatars, Greeks, Bulgarians and Armenians on the grounds of marital relations, which later ended; lone invalids and persons suffering from incurable diseases who were not able to independently provide for their existence; family members of those killed on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War; teachers; family members of teachers, participants in the Great Patriotic War, persons awarded orders and medals of the USSR; family members of other persons previously removed from the register of special settlements.
Finally, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued on March 27, 1956 “On the removal of restrictions on the legal status of the Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians and members of their families who were in the special settlement”, since these restrictions “are not necessary in the future”. However, it was established that the removal of these restrictions does not entail the return to the citizens of these nationalities of the property “confiscated during eviction, and that they cannot return to their place of residence in the Crimean region,” about which the former special settlers were taken appropriate receipts.
There was a long way home ahead.

1. Multinational Crimea / Comp. N. G. Stepanova. -
Simferopol, 1998 (Questions - answers; Issue 1). - S. 72.
2. Kanayan Drastamat (1883-1956) - Armenian political and military figure. Member of the Dashnaktsutyun (Union) party. During the 1st World War, he commanded the 2nd Armenian volunteer detachment on the Caucasian front. At the end of 1917 - Commissar of the Armenian Corps. Participated in battles with Turkish invaders (1918). From November 1920 - Minister of War of the Republic of Armenia. He was a member of the temporary Revolutionary Committee of Soviet Armenia (from the group of left Dashnaks), until the beginning of January 1921, he served as commander of its troops. In February 1921, he opposed the Soviet regime. Emigrant (lived in Romania, Lebanon). During the 2nd World War, he joined a part of the Dashnaktsutyun party, which was guided by Nazi Germany. He participated in the creation of legions from among the Soviet Armenian prisoners of war. After the end of the war - an activist of the American National Committee of Armenians without
Homeland (ANCHA), which facilitated the accommodation of displaced persons in Western Europe and the United States. He died in the USA (Armenian Question. Encyclopedia. - Yerevan, 1991. - P. 168).
3. Joseph Stalin - Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported." Documents, facts, comments. - M., 1992. -
pp. 141-142.
4. Ibid. - S. 142.
5. Ibid. - S. 134.
6. Broshevan V., Tygliyants P. Exile and return. - Simferopol, 1994. - S. 27.
7. Zemskov VN Special settlers from the Crimea (1944-1956) // Crimean Museum. - Simferopol, 1995. - No. 1. - P.76.
8. Joseph Stalin - Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported." Documents, facts, comments. - S. 143.
9. RTSKHIDNI. F. 664. - Op 1. - D. 226. - L. 64
10. Joseph Stalin - Lavrenty Beria: "They must be deported." Documents, facts, comments. - S. 144.
11. Ibid. - S. 77.
12. Ibid.-S. 74.
13. Zemskov V. N. Special settlers from the Crimea (1944-1956). - S. 76.
14. Ibid. - S. 78.
15. Ibid. - S. 79-80.
16. Ibid, - S. 76.
17. Broshevan V., Tygliyants P. Exile and return.- P. 61.
18. Zarubin VG Deportation of Crimean Greeks (1944-1956) // Greeks in the history of Crimea. Brief biographical guide. - Simferopol, 2000. - S. 75.
19. Zemskov V. N. Special settlers from the Crimea (1944-1956).-S. 74-75.
20. Ibid. - S. 75.
21. Ibid. - S. 76-77.
22. Ibid. - S. 78.
23. Broshevan V., Tygliants P. Expulsion and return. - S. 148 (Appendix 17).
24. Residents of Crimea - subjects of Greece, Turkey, Iran
released by the Decree of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of September 22, 1956 "On deregistration of special settlements of certain categories of foreign nationals, persons without citizenship, and former foreign nationals accepted into Soviet citizenship."