Summary

Kupiškis dwellers deported after the WWII and their fate

Aušra Jonušytė

The fate of Kupiškis people during the post-war period, when the second Soviet occupation began, is reviewed. The paper deals with repressive measures and their principals, which used force to deport local people to northern regions of the USSR. Data on the largest deportations, which took place in 1948, 1949, 1950 and later are presented; it is analysed why these people were deported, how the principals based their actions and where they had come from.

One can find in the paper how many Soviet officials took part in deportation of families, how the fortune of the deportees was used, and how it used and shared those in power.

The consequences of the deportations, and who created the conditions to take the fortune by force, to intimidate the rest as well as submit them to the strangers are described. It is concluded that, after the war, due to lacking labour force in the Russian Far East regions, Siberia, and the Far North, the deportees were good uncostly manpower to work under severe nature conditions. The deportee families were engaged in wood industry enterprises, kolkhoz farms, timber rafting, fishing, but getting poor ration of bread. Sometimes, falling in disgrace of bosses, during the first winter, they had to live on forest and meadow plants or food wastes discarded by managers.

Main sites, where the deportees from Kupiškis area had been settled, are presented. In 1948 they were settled in Cheremkhovo (Irkutsk Oblast), Asino, Pyshkino Troitskoye (Tomsk Oblast) and Shalinskoye (Krasnoyarsk Krai). Main settlements where Kupiškis deportees lived in Irkustk Oblast were as follows: Srednya, Tylun, Kordon, Atagay, Bodaibo, Zulumay, Suyetykha and Kim. The same year, the people from Kupiškis were also settled in the districts of Mansk (Pimiya settlement) and Asinsk (in different sites uninhabited before) of Krasnoyarsk Krai. The deportees had to build the barrack-type huts themselves.

In 1949, the people from Kupiškis were sent to the same Irkustk Oblast as in 1948 and settled in the settlements of Tylun, Zalavinsk, Balagansk, Bodaibo, Nizhneudinsk, Ziminsk, Tungusk and Zalansk. The main larger settlements were as follows: Bolshoi Kurlik, Godoley, Srednia, Zima, Bolshaya Rechka. In 1950 the deportees were settled in the Krasnoyarsk Krai, Khabarovsk Krai and Tomsk Oblast. Many people from Kupiškis got to the settlements of Bichevaya, Kiya, Lazo of the Lazo District (Khabarovsk Krai).

The paper describes who lived and worked together with the deportees, where their children were going to school, what was their free time and medical aid, as well as how their life conditions changed after the death of Stalin.