Chronology of the Forcible Deportation of Soviet Armenians in 1939-1949

In 1939, by the order of the Soviet government, tens of thousands of Armenians from the Azerbaijani SSR (from Baku, Gandzak, Shushi, Kazakh, Shamkhor, Zakatala, Sheki, Shamakhi), as well as from the Nakhichevan Autonomous Republic (Jugha, Agulis, Ordubad, Sadarak, Shahbuz, etc.) were forcibly deported to Kazakhstan.

Five years later, on May 29, 1944, the Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrentiy Beria in his letter to Stalin noted the need to deport Armenians, Greeks, and Bulgarians from Crimea.

Only a few days later, on June 2, 1944, the deputy of Beria Serov reported to the People’s Commissar on the successful implementation of this “operation”, as a result of which tens of thousands of Greeks and Bulgarians and 20 thousand Armenians, whose ancestors had lived for centuries on the Crimean Peninsula, were deported.

It should be noted that the ancestors of great artist Ivan Aivazovsky have descended from Crimea.

On June 28, 1944, by the Number 00183 order of the USSR Minister of State Security, all those Soviet citizens (mainly Armenians) who had previously had Turkish (Ottoman), Persian, Bulgarian, Greek, or Romanian citizenship were deported to Central Asia from the Armenian, Georgian, Azerbaijani SSRs, and also from the entire Black Sea region.

In addition, all those Armenians who had previously been members of three traditional Armenian parties, mostly dashnaks, and a few ramkavars (formerly members of the Hunchakian and Armenakan parties) were also exiled along with their families.

In 1945-1947, about 6 thousand Armenians were deported from Western Ukraine (mainly from Lviv and Galicia) to Poland, mostly supporters of the Armenian Catholic Church.

In 1948-1949, tens of thousands of Armenians, both indigenous and repatriates, were exiled from Soviet Armenia and the southern regions of the USSR to the Altai Territory. At night, old people and babies, women and children, the sick and disabled, in light summer clothes were forcibly deported to cold Siberia and placed in special settlements with restrictions on movement and rights. Their property was confiscated as well.

The most massive deportations took place from 12 to 16 June 1949. The largest number of deportees was recorded on the night of June 13-14. Due to this, June 14 is considered to be the Day of the Repressed Armenians.

Unfortunately, only a few people remember this.

Tigran A. Karapetyan