What Soviet Dictators Have Done in the Past

[Smaland]

In 1940, Lunca, Cernăuți County, and the rest of Northern Bucovina were seized from Romania by the Soviet Union. Northern Bucovina became part of the Ukrainian SSR, and this later became modern-day Ukraine. Photo caption: "On Sunday, February 5, 2023, in the (community) of Mahala in the Cernăuți region, (there was) a memorial service for Romanians killed by the Soviet border guards ... on the night of February 6 to 7, 1941." "The (ceremony) was officiated by Father Nicolae Moroz."


[2] On the night of February 6 to 7, 1941, in the town of Lunca in Herţa County, hundreds of peasants were killed by Soviet border guards together with their children. They were headed for Romania on the frozen Prut River. They were from the following villages: Mahala, Boian, Ostriţa Hertte, Horecea Monastery, Horecea Urbană, Plaiul Cosmunului, Ceahor and Corovia. The dead "were thrown into several common pits, of which only one was discovered. The peasants had made the decision to leave the territories occupied by the Russians (not only) because of their terror, but also the fact that they had relatives on the other side of the border, in the Kingdom of Romania."

"Of the approximately 600 Romanians on whom the Soviets' weapons were directed, only 57 survived who finally managed to (cross) the new border imposed by Moscow and (report) the tragedy. Another 44 fugitives were caught by the Soviet troops, and 23 of them were sentenced to death, the others being sentenced to various prison sentences and sent to Siberia."

Notes:

• [1] The original news story was written entirely in Romanian. I processed the article with Google Translate so as to produce an English version of the article.
• [2] In the first part of this paragraph, I have quoted / paraphrased the English version of the article text, so that it is easier to read for English-speakers. To the same end, I have made inserted words or made word substitutions in various quotations throughout the post.
• [3] All of the quotations were taken from the English version of the news article.

Full story (in Romanian) at BucPress

[Smaland]

The photo was posted along with the article linked to below.

...
The victims of the communist repressions of summer 1941 were detained in Tartu prison. During the last days of June 1941, there were 619 prisoners. As the German army approached, steps were taken to empty the prison, but arrests continued, and on 8 July 1941 the prison still held 223 detainees. So at a meeting of the Estonian Communist Party's Tartu-region committee on the demand of local security leader Alfred Pressman (1894–1973) and with the consent of Estonian NKVD Tartu district leader Pavel Afanasjev (1903–1941) and Communist Party secretary Abronov, a decision was reached to execute the prisoners.
...

...
... On July 8th, 192 innocent people were massacred in Tartu, Estonia, by the Soviet NKVD. Most of them were civilians, including women and children. The massacre was a brutal act of violence that left the community traumatized and marked a dark moment in Estonia's history.
...

...
As the years pass, it is important to remember the lives lost in this tragedy and pay homage to their memory. The Tartu Massacre was not an isolated incident, but part of a larger systematic campaign of terror and oppression by the Soviet NKVD. By remembering the victims and commemorating their sacrifice, we honor their memory and ensure that their tragedy is not forgotten.
...

Note: the first block quotation is from the Wiki article about the massacre, and the second two are from the news article linked to below.

Full story at BNN

[Smaland]

According to the Wiki article about the "June deportation", "around 14,000–15,500 people and their families, including young children under the age of 10" were deported to the Soviet Union. "Out of all the deportees, approximately 5,000 or around 34%-40% of the total number died in exile, on the journey or in executions".

[Smaland]

"Memorial to the victims of the deportations in Karachayevsk, Russia. Photo: NHC (Norwegian Helsinki Committee)". According to the Wiki article about the deportation, "653 (died) during transit, and the number of those who perished was "13,100 — 19,000 in total", including those who died in exile. The photo and its caption was posted along with the article linked to below.

Operation "Seagull" was the very first of the major mass deportations of entire ethnic groups from the Caucasus in 1943-44. Like the deportation of the Kalmyks one month later, the operation to gather all ethnic Karachays was implemented by Lavrenti Beria of the NKVD (present-day FSB). It was approved by Joseph Stalin in October 1943.

On the night of 2 November 1943, arrests began at 02:00 in the morning. Secret police cordoned off villages and gave inhabitants a few hours to collect some basic belongings, before they were systematically brought to cattle carts (railroad cattle cars). Over the next three days, over 68,000 people were gathered up, the entire Karachay ethnic group. Thousands of Karachay men who at the time were fighting the German army on the frontlines were sent into exile if they survived. The Karachay Autonomous Region was dissolved.
...

The author of the article concludes with the following:

...
The memory of the deportations is still alive among Karachays today. – In my family, we talk about it every time we get together. Always. Over the past five years, I’ve noticed that people get in trouble for speaking publicly about Russian imperialism, and not just communism or Stalinism. Since the war in Ukraina, it’s gotten very bad.

Full story at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee

[Sebastianus Rex]

No wonder Russia has a demographic problem...perhaps only Mao's "cultural revolutions" surpassed the death toll of the brutal Soviet regime, over 75 million vs over 60 million according to some to experts.
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM

[Tooting Carmen]

No wonder Russia has a demographic problem...perhaps only Mao's "cultural revolutions" surpassed the death toll of the brutal Soviet regime, over 75 million vs over 60 million according to some to experts.
https://www.hawaii.edu/powerkills/20TH.HTM

But its birth rate collapsed and its drug and alcohol-related deaths vastly increased AFTER the fall of Communism. (Like I have made clear before, I am no apologist for the Soviet regime whatsoever).

[Smaland]

[Smaland]

"Women working at the collective farm, Aul Tereza. Photo: Elbrusoid" A man named Aslan was interviewed for the article linked to below, and the previous quotation is found in the same article.

The operation to gather all ethnic Balkars for deportation was implemented by Lavrenti Beria of the NKVD (present-day FSB). Joseph Stalin approved it. Beria arrived in Nalchik on 2 March 1944, and the deportation began six days later. The entire Balkar ethnic group, a total of 37,713 individuals, were rounded up and loaded into 14 cattle wagons (railroad cattle cars) headed for Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
...

Aslan’s surviving family have described the horrific conditions in the wagons.

– My father’s uncle died on the way, and so did his cousin. The family were not allowed to bury them. Instead, the soldiers threw their dead bodies out of the cattle car. My grandmother said there were many dead bodies were thrown off the train in this manner.
...
In Central Asia, the Balkars suffered from exhaustion and hunger, with food rations tied to work quotas. After the end of World War II, even ethnic Balkars among Red Army officers were also deported to Central Asia.
...

According to the Wiki article about it, "562—3,494" (died) during the deportation", and others died in exile ("7,600 in total").

Full story at the Norwegian Helsinki Committee (NHC).

[Smaland]

"A Chechen fighter stands near the government palace building during a short lull in fighting in Grozny, Chechnya, 1995. [Photo credit:] Mikhail Evstafiev" In the attack on Shali, "At least 55 people were killed and 186 wounded, including five medics hit by flying glass and shrapnel when a bomb blew out the windows of a (hospital) operating room". The photo and its caption were both posted at The Moscow Times, and the second quotation was posted along with the article linked to below.

SHALI, Russia — It was not an attack but a massacre, the survivors of Shali said Wednesday.

When the farmers of this town saw shiny cylinders falling from Russian warplanes Tuesday morning, they assumed they must contain more leaflets calling on the defiant residents of breakaway Chechnya to surrender their weapons to invading Russian forces.

Instead, the jets dropped cluster bombs and missiles on a roadside market, killing dozens of people and incinerating more than 14 cars, witnesses said.

Twenty minutes later, after villagers had come running to help the wounded, the planes circled back and struck again. An hour later, more planes returned to bomb the hospital where the wounded had been taken, as well as the school and a collective farm.
...

Full story in the Los Angeles Times

[Smaland]

Above is a photo of a monument to the victims of the massacre which took place on January 19-20, 1990, and days following. The atrocity was committed in "Baku (Azerbaijan) and nearby regions". "The Soviet troops fired on 200 homes, 80 cars and set fire to a large number (of items) of public and private property, including ambulances. " The photo was posted in the Wiki article about the massacre, and the preceding quotations are part of the article linked to below.

... On the night of January 19-20, under direct instructions from Mikhail Gorbachev, the then General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, military units from the USSR Ministry of Defense, State Security Committee and Ministry of Internal Affairs entered Baku and nearby regions, massacring the civilian population using heavy military equipment and other various forms of weaponry. The Soviet army deployed a large contingent of special and internal troops in Baku who displayed unprecedented cruelty against the peaceful population. The army had brutally killed 82 civilians and severely wounded 20 others until a curfew was announced. Several days after the curfew was announced, 21 more civilians were murdered in Baku. 8 more civilians were killed in areas where a curfew had not been imposed, on January 25 in Neftchala and on January 26 in Lankaran.

As a result of the January tragedy, 131 civilians were killed and 744 more were wounded in Baku and nearby regions. Among those killed were women, children and the elderly, medical employees and policemen.
...

Full story at the Ministry of Defense of the Republic of Azerbaijan