were deported. In 1943–1944, Joseph Stalinordered the deportation
of Islamic peoples from the Caucasus and the Crimean peninsula to
Siberia. More than 1.5 million Chechen, Ingush, Balkars, and
Crimean Tatars (just to mention the larger groups) were deported.
The Communist Partyand the police used deportations to reduce
the native populations of Lithuania and the western Ukraine. In fight-
ing insurgencies in these two republics, the MGBdeported hundreds
of thousands of villagers to Central Asia. Mikhail Suslov, who was
Stalin’s man in Lithuania in 1944–1946, said that the way to keep
Lithuania quiet was to have enough boxcars ready. Stalin also insisted
on the ethnic cleansing of Islamic peoples along the Soviet–Turkish
border, who were presumed to be future traitors in a war with Turkey,
a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO).
Deportations were conducted under inhuman conditions by armed
security forces showing no mercy for men, women, and children
who were considered traitors to the motherland for their suspected
support of Nazi Germany or Poland. Thousands of deportees were
murdered by NKVD special troops or died in transit. Crimean and
Chechen historians estimate that one-third of those deported died in
transit or in their first year of exile. Lavrenty Beriarewarded his of-
ficers responsible for the deportations: in 1944, 413 NKVD officers
received decorations for their role in the deportation of Chechen and
Ingush peoples.
Following the war, most of the Ukrainians and Lithuanians re-
turned from exile. In the 1950s and 1960s, the Muslim peoples of the
Caucasus were “forgiven” and allowed to return to their mountain
homes. For the Volga German and Crimean Tatars, forgiveness was
not immediately forthcoming, and most remained in exile until the
1980s. Today, the majority of Volga Germans and Koreans continue
to live in Kazakhstan. For the Chechens, memory of exile and their
hatred of Russian occupation spurred resistance to Moscow in the
two Chechen warsof the late 1990s.DERYABIN, PETR SERGEEVICH (1921–1992). One of the first
important KGB defectors, Deryabin was a war hero who was
wounded three times as a young officer in World War II. Recruited
into the MGB, he first served in the Ninth (Guards) Directorate and
then was posted to Vienna with the First Chief Directorate. In the66 •DERYABIN, PETR SERGEEVICH (1921–1992)06-313 A-G.qxd 7/27/06 7:55 AM Page 66