Population transfer in the Soviet Union

Population transfer in the Soviet Union was the policy of forced resettlement carried out by the Soviet state from the early 1930s to the 1950s. It began with dekulakization, when peasant families labeled kulaks were deported to Siberia, the Urals and Central Asia and put in special settlements. During and after the Second World War, entire ethnic groups were deported, including the Volga Germans, Chechens, Ingush, Crimean Tatars, Kalmyks, Karachays, Balkars and Meskhetian Turks, as well as Poles and people from the Baltic states, usually on accusations of disloyalty or collaboration. Millions were moved, often in freight trains, and many died from hunger, cold and disease. After Stalin's death many were allowed to return, though some groups had to wait until the end of the Soviet period.

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