Forced labor of Hungarians in the Soviet Union
Encyclopedia
The topic of forced labor of Hungarians in the Soviet Union in the aftermath of the World War II
was not researched until the fall of Communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union
. While exact numbers are not known, it is estimated that up to 600,000 Hungarians were captured altogether, including an estimated 200,000 civilians. An estimated 200,000 citizens perished. It was part of a larger system of the usage of foreign forced labor in the Soviet Union
.
In addition, an uncertain number of Hungarians were deported from Transylvania
to the Soviet Union in the context of the Romania-Hungary Transylvanian dispute. In 1944, many Hungarians were accused by Romanians of being "partisan
s" and transferred to the Soviet administration. In early 1945, during the "degermanization" campaign all Hungarians with German names were transferred to the Soviets in accordance with the Soviet Order 7161
.
and among the Hungarian minority of Transcarpathia
the phenomenon has been referred to as málenkij robot, a corrupted form of the Russian malenkaya rabota (маленькая работа), meaning "little work". The expression originated during the first wave of deportations of Hungarian civilians: after an occupation of a Hungarian town, civilians were rounded up for "little work" regarding the removal of ruins. The largest single deportation during the first wave occurred in Budapest
. Allegedly Marshal
Rodion Malinovsky
overestimated in his reports the number of POW taken after the Battle of Budapest
, and to make the numbers some 100,000 civilians were gathered in Budapest and its neighborhood. The first wave took place mainly in north-western Hungary, on the path of the advancing Soviet Army
.
The second, more organized wave happened 1–2 months later, in January 1945, covering the whole of Hungary. According to the USSR State Defence Committee Order 7161
, ethnic Germans were to be deported for forced labor from the occupied territories, including Hungary. Soviet authorities had deportation quotas for each region, and when the target was missed, it was filled up with ethnic Hungarians. In addition, Hungarian POW were deported during this period.
POW and civilians were handled by the Main Department for the Affairs of POWs and Internees of the NKVD
(Russian abbreviation: GUPVI), with its own system of labor camps, similar to GULAG
.
The deported people were transported in cargo wagons to transit camps in Romania
and Western Ukraine
. Survivor testimony suggests a high death rate in the camps and in transit from various causes, including epidemic dysentery
, bad weather, and malnutrition.
In the Soviet Union, the Hungarians were placed into approximately 2000 camps. A large number of them were subsequently identified: 44 camps in Azerbaijan
, 158 in the Baltic States
, 131 in Belarus
, 119 in Northern Russia, 53 in the vicinity of Leningrad
, 627 in Central Russia, 276 in Ural Mountains
and 64 in Siberia
.
s for "anti-Soviet activities". These included the following categories.
This group of prisoners was sent to Gulag camps, rather than GUPVI.
During de-Stalinization
, the sentences of the survivors were annulled and 3,500 former convicts returned home. The total number of convicts was estimated by the organization of Hungarian Gulag survivors Szorakész to be about 10,000.
started negotiations about returning Hungarians home in early 1946. The first wave of systematic returns occurred in June–November 1946, interrupted until May 1947. The last to come back, about 3,000 people, were returned only after Stalin's death, during 1953-1955. Hungarian sources estimate that 330,000-380,000 laborers returned in total, giving an estimate of about 200,000 perished in transit and in captivity.
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
was not researched until the fall of Communism and the dissolution of the Soviet Union
Dissolution of the Soviet Union
The dissolution of the Soviet Union was the disintegration of the federal political structures and central government of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , resulting in the independence of all fifteen republics of the Soviet Union between March 11, 1990 and December 25, 1991...
. While exact numbers are not known, it is estimated that up to 600,000 Hungarians were captured altogether, including an estimated 200,000 civilians. An estimated 200,000 citizens perished. It was part of a larger system of the usage of foreign forced labor in the Soviet Union
Foreign forced labor in the Soviet Union
Foreign forced labor was used by the Soviet Union during and in the aftermath of the World War II, which continued up to 1950s.There have been two categories of foreigners amassed for forced labor: prisoners of war and civilians...
.
In addition, an uncertain number of Hungarians were deported from Transylvania
Transylvania
Transylvania is a historical region in the central part of Romania. Bounded on the east and south by the Carpathian mountain range, historical Transylvania extended in the west to the Apuseni Mountains; however, the term sometimes encompasses not only Transylvania proper, but also the historical...
to the Soviet Union in the context of the Romania-Hungary Transylvanian dispute. In 1944, many Hungarians were accused by Romanians of being "partisan
Partisan (military)
A partisan is a member of an irregular military force formed to oppose control of an area by a foreign power or by an army of occupation by some kind of insurgent activity...
s" and transferred to the Soviet administration. In early 1945, during the "degermanization" campaign all Hungarians with German names were transferred to the Soviets in accordance with the Soviet Order 7161
Order 7161
Order 7161 refers to the top secret USSR State Defense Committee Order no 7161ss of December 16, 1944 about mobilisation and internment of able-bodied Germans for works in the USSR...
.
POW and civilians
In HungaryHungary
Hungary , officially the Republic of Hungary , is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is situated in the Carpathian Basin and is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine and Romania to the east, Serbia and Croatia to the south, Slovenia to the southwest and Austria to the west. The...
and among the Hungarian minority of Transcarpathia
Carpathian Ruthenia
Carpathian Ruthenia is a region in Eastern Europe, mostly located in western Ukraine's Zakarpattia Oblast , with smaller parts in easternmost Slovakia , Poland's Lemkovyna and Romanian Maramureş.It is...
the phenomenon has been referred to as málenkij robot, a corrupted form of the Russian malenkaya rabota (маленькая работа), meaning "little work". The expression originated during the first wave of deportations of Hungarian civilians: after an occupation of a Hungarian town, civilians were rounded up for "little work" regarding the removal of ruins. The largest single deportation during the first wave occurred in Budapest
Budapest
Budapest is the capital of Hungary. As the largest city of Hungary, it is the country's principal political, cultural, commercial, industrial, and transportation centre. In 2011, Budapest had 1,733,685 inhabitants, down from its 1989 peak of 2,113,645 due to suburbanization. The Budapest Commuter...
. Allegedly Marshal
Marshal
Marshal , is a word used in several official titles of various branches of society. The word is an ancient loan word from Old French, cf...
Rodion Malinovsky
Rodion Malinovsky
Rodion Yakovlevich Malinovsky was a Soviet military commander in World War II and Defense Minister of the Soviet Union in the late 1950s and 1960s. He contributed to the major defeat of Nazi Germany at the Battle of Stalingrad and the Battle of Budapest...
overestimated in his reports the number of POW taken after the Battle of Budapest
Battle of Budapest
The Siege of Budapest centered on the Hungarian capital city of Budapest. It was fought towards the end of World War II in Europe, during the Soviet Budapest Offensive. The siege started when Budapest, defended by Hungarian and German troops, was first encircled on 29 December 1944 by the Red Army...
, and to make the numbers some 100,000 civilians were gathered in Budapest and its neighborhood. The first wave took place mainly in north-western Hungary, on the path of the advancing Soviet Army
Soviet Army
The Soviet Army is the name given to the main part of the Armed Forces of the Soviet Union between 1946 and 1992. Previously, it had been known as the Red Army. Informally, Армия referred to all the MOD armed forces, except, in some cases, the Soviet Navy.This article covers the Soviet Ground...
.
The second, more organized wave happened 1–2 months later, in January 1945, covering the whole of Hungary. According to the USSR State Defence Committee Order 7161
Order 7161
Order 7161 refers to the top secret USSR State Defense Committee Order no 7161ss of December 16, 1944 about mobilisation and internment of able-bodied Germans for works in the USSR...
, ethnic Germans were to be deported for forced labor from the occupied territories, including Hungary. Soviet authorities had deportation quotas for each region, and when the target was missed, it was filled up with ethnic Hungarians. In addition, Hungarian POW were deported during this period.
POW and civilians were handled by the Main Department for the Affairs of POWs and Internees of the NKVD
NKVD
The People's Commissariat for Internal Affairs was the public and secret police organization of the Soviet Union that directly executed the rule of power of the Soviets, including political repression, during the era of Joseph Stalin....
(Russian abbreviation: GUPVI), with its own system of labor camps, similar to GULAG
Gulag
The Gulag was the government agency that administered the main Soviet forced labor camp systems. While the camps housed a wide range of convicts, from petty criminals to political prisoners, large numbers were convicted by simplified procedures, such as NKVD troikas and other instruments of...
.
The deported people were transported in cargo wagons to transit camps in Romania
Romania
Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...
and Western Ukraine
Ukraine
Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
. Survivor testimony suggests a high death rate in the camps and in transit from various causes, including epidemic dysentery
Dysentery
Dysentery is an inflammatory disorder of the intestine, especially of the colon, that results in severe diarrhea containing mucus and/or blood in the faeces with fever and abdominal pain. If left untreated, dysentery can be fatal.There are differences between dysentery and normal bloody diarrhoea...
, bad weather, and malnutrition.
In the Soviet Union, the Hungarians were placed into approximately 2000 camps. A large number of them were subsequently identified: 44 camps in Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan
Azerbaijan , officially the Republic of Azerbaijan is the largest country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded by the Caspian Sea to the east, Russia to the north, Georgia to the northwest, Armenia to the west, and Iran to...
, 158 in the Baltic States
Baltic states
The term Baltic states refers to the Baltic territories which gained independence from the Russian Empire in the wake of World War I: primarily the contiguous trio of Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania ; Finland also fell within the scope of the term after initially gaining independence in the 1920s.The...
, 131 in Belarus
Belarus
Belarus , officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe, bordered clockwise by Russia to the northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Its capital is Minsk; other major cities include Brest, Grodno , Gomel ,...
, 119 in Northern Russia, 53 in the vicinity of Leningrad
Leningrad
Leningrad is the former name of Saint Petersburg, Russia.Leningrad may also refer to:- Places :* Leningrad Oblast, a federal subject of Russia, around Saint Petersburg* Leningrad, Tajikistan, capital of Muminobod district in Khatlon Province...
, 627 in Central Russia, 276 in Ural Mountains
Ural Mountains
The Ural Mountains , or simply the Urals, are a mountain range that runs approximately from north to south through western Russia, from the coast of the Arctic Ocean to the Ural River and northwestern Kazakhstan. Their eastern side is usually considered the natural boundary between Europe and Asia...
and 64 in Siberia
Siberia
Siberia is an extensive region constituting almost all of Northern Asia. Comprising the central and eastern portion of the Russian Federation, it was part of the Soviet Union from its beginning, as its predecessor states, the Tsardom of Russia and the Russian Empire, conquered it during the 16th...
.
Political prisoners
The third group of deported, in addition to POW and civilians were Hungarians sentenced by Soviet tribunalTribunal
A tribunal in the general sense is any person or institution with the authority to judge, adjudicate on, or determine claims or disputes—whether or not it is called a tribunal in its title....
s for "anti-Soviet activities". These included the following categories.
- Former soldiers who served in occupation forces in the Soviet territory
- Members of paramilitaryParamilitaryA paramilitary is a force whose function and organization are similar to those of a professional military, but which is not considered part of a state's formal armed forces....
youth organization LeventeLevente (organization)Levente Associations or simply "levente" were paramilitary youth organizations in Hungary in the interwar period and during the Second World War. It was established in 1921 with the declared purpose of physical and health training...
of teenagers who had to serve in auxiliary forces by the end of the war - High-ranked officials and non-leftist politicians
This group of prisoners was sent to Gulag camps, rather than GUPVI.
During de-Stalinization
De-Stalinization
De-Stalinization refers to the process of eliminating the cult of personality, Stalinist political system and the Gulag labour-camp system created by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin. Stalin was succeeded by a collective leadership after his death in March 1953...
, the sentences of the survivors were annulled and 3,500 former convicts returned home. The total number of convicts was estimated by the organization of Hungarian Gulag survivors Szorakész to be about 10,000.
Return
The government of Ferenc NagyFerenc Nagy
Ferenc Nagy was a Hungarian politician of the Smallholders Party. He was a Speaker of the National Assembly of Hungary from 29 November 1945 to 5 February 1946 and a member of the High National Council from 7 December 1945 to 2 February 1946.Later he served as Prime Minister of Hungary from 4...
started negotiations about returning Hungarians home in early 1946. The first wave of systematic returns occurred in June–November 1946, interrupted until May 1947. The last to come back, about 3,000 people, were returned only after Stalin's death, during 1953-1955. Hungarian sources estimate that 330,000-380,000 laborers returned in total, giving an estimate of about 200,000 perished in transit and in captivity.
Further reading
- Imre Tatár, "Bánhidától Kijevig: egy volt munkaszolgálatos emlékezése a hazai táborra és a szovjet hadifogságra" (From Banhida to Kiev: memories of a former labor camp inmate of his time in a Hungarian camp and Soviet captivity), Hadtörténelmi közlemények (2002), vol. 115, issue 4, pp 1156–87.
- Genocide or genocidal massacre?: The case of Hungarian prisoners in Soviet custody Human Rights ReviewHuman rights reviewHuman Rights Review is an academic journal established in 1999. It publishes research articles about human rights from various disciplinary perspectives using diverse methodologies. In addition, the journal welcomes pieces on human rights commentary from a practitioner's perspective as well as...
- Венгерские военнопленные в СССР: Документы 1941-1953 годов. Moscow, 2005. ISBN 978-5-8243-0659-0