Soviet leaders and authorities officially condemned nationalism and proclaimed internationalism , including the right of nations and peoples to self-determination. Several distinct ethnic-linguistic groups, including the Balkars , Crimean Tatars , Chechens , Ingush , Karachays , Kalmyks , Koreans , and Meskhetian Turks were collectively deported to Siberia and Central Asia where they were designated "special settlers", meaning that they had few rights and were confined within a small perimeter.
Soviet archives documented , [3] deaths during kulak forced resettlement and up to , deaths of persons deported to forced settlements during the s; [4] however Steven Rosefield and Norman Naimark put overall deaths closer to some 1 to 1. It resulted in deaths of millions of ethnic Ukrainians of starvation in peacetime. The first of these operations called for the arrests of all German citizens and former citizens.
The Germans were said to be Nazi agents. In total, the national operation against Soviet citizens of German descent resulted in the sentencing of at least 55, persons, including 41, sentenced to death. During the war, the strategies of the Soviet Union have been criticized as racist, the extreme tactics used are theorized not only to target the Nazi forces but the German people in general.
The war crimes committed such as mass rapes by Red Army soldiers are used as evidence that the Red Army viewed the German people as the enemy not the Nazi Army. Although all of this is unproven debated theory. The ethnic German minority in the USSR was considered a security risk by the Soviet government and they were deported during the war in order to prevent their possible collaboration with the Nazi invaders.
By early 1,, Germans had been banished to Central Asia and Siberia. By October, only , Germans remained alive in the Soviet labour camps. The Soviet Union began to discuss the idea of the forced labor of Germans as war reparations, their allies did not raise any objections. By the summer of the Soviet forces had reached the Balkans that had ethnic German minorities. State Defense Committee Order of December 16, instructed to intern all able-bodied Germans of ages 17—45 men and 18—30 women residing within the territories of Romania 67, persons , Hungary 31, persons , Yugoslavia 12, persons , which were under the control of the Red Army.
