Ivan Patanen

About political crimes in the rural district of Kuzemkino:
the "Final solution" before Hitler

The great political repressions against the Inkeris in our district were preceded by the collectivisation of the beginning of the 30-ties. Although people were forced to unite in kolkhoz-farms, they tried to create a better life under new conditions there because they were accustomed to hard agricultural work. The arrests started, their hope and plans ended with fear to get into the ranks of "kulaks" [the word kulak "fist" means "a rich farmer exploiter" in the Soviet jargon], "spies"or similar "enemies of the people", constantly invented by N.K.V.D. I was a schoolboy at that time and remember that there was a considerably peaceful period till 1934, if not to mention several men arrested as spies.

Thus Mathew Venno from the village Great Kuzemkino was arrested in 1933 due to the faked denunciation of Ferdinand Simson. Simson was a collaborator of the frontier-guards and their agent, who subsequently became a punitive executor at Nazis' commandos after 1941. Because of his denunciation, M.Venno spent 12 years in prison but returned home only in 1957 after Stalin's death. M.Venno appeared to be the single in the whole district who survived Stalin's concentration camps. He should have been shot to death in 1941 in case the Germans had not been driven away from Moscow. He awaited the shooting together with a group of his ward-mates but the order from Moscow did not come. Nevertheless the situation at the front was not the single purpose of mass shootings. Other purposes might be also celebration of anniversaries of the revolution or the birthdays of Stalin and Lenin.

The said arrests before 1934 was only a "dress rehearsal"of mass repressions which started with the murder of Kirov on 1 December 1934. All people who had gone that day to Leningrad were arrested as accomplices of the murder. The best kolkhoz-farmers, the most able-bodied men were arrested in villages under the accusation of the espionage, sabotage, counter-revolutionary activities. They could not know that their fate had been predestined by the order from Moscow, naming concrete numbers of the victims. These numbers were: 4000 to be shot to death, 8000 to be placed into concentration camps (cf. E.Lunin, The butchers are clean of blood (in Russian). Sankt-Peterburg 1996, 12). The kolkhoz-farms remained without workers. In April 1935 an order came that all relatives of the arrested persons should be prepared for the transportation to a new place of dwelling. Women, old people and children had to get rid of their cattle and pack their things during 2 days. Big carts were given for the transport from each kolkhoz-farm. Every cart was guarded. There were 8 families to be deported from our New Kuzemkino village. They were poor and had not any valuable property. A man of eighty understood that he would never come back. He went to a nearby wood to say good-buy to his motherland. N.K.V.D.-men treated this as an attempt of escape and hurried to seize him. They found him lying on a hummock and weeping.

The carts loaded, their string moved toward Preobrazhenka railway station. They were seen off by the whole village. The people cried and prayed. Nobody knew, where these "kulaks" were transported. The guards drove the attendant villagers away. There had been a freight train at the station already. Head of families, who had been arrested earlier but not sentenced to death, had been also brought there from "Kresty" prison. After the departure of the train nobody was informed about its destination. The relatives came to know this only after a month, the first letters received. It appeared that the deportees were in Tadjikistan. Many Ingrians died on the way, no less perished of unusual Asiatic heat. They all were doomed. But this was just the aim of Moscow.
Nobody knew about the order No 00485 of Nikolai Ezhov, the Narkom of Inner Affairs, that all Germans, Poles, Finns, Estonians and other people from the Baltics had to be liquidated (ibid., 19). The Inkeris, who were autochthons in their own land, were usually treated as Finns.
In Tadjikistan the deportees were strictly guarded. Crossing the boundaries of their territory meant death. One woman from Kirjamo, her name I. Stüf, succeeded to escape and came back to her village. She was seized and shot to death. 

The extermination of our nation began under the pretence of the liquidation of "kulaks" and other "enemies of the people". Arrests usually took place in sowing-time, when the whole people gathered for the agricultural work and therefore it was easy to seize them. The number of pupils in my school apparently grew fewer, vacant desks appeared. Director ordered to unite classes. When going to school, we were struck by sombre view of empty houses, their doors banging in the wind. This did not last long. Soon new people were settled there. They were the former inhabitants of the village of Mertvitsa on the frontier with Estonia. The village was liquidated in one night. Several houses were moved away to other sites, but the majority were demolished for the fire-wood.
The authorities explained that Estonian spies had penetrated on the Soviet territory from that village. Little Estonia appeared to have been a terrible danger for the U.S.S.R. In reality the Soviet State prepared ways for the subsequent annexation first of Estonia and other Baltic countries, then - of the whole Europe. The Red Army had to introduce communism throughout the world. This delirium was the real reason of misanthropic orders for N.K.V.D., aiming to cleanse the future rear of "undesirable elements". The subsequent war as well as the post-war history showed that nothing of these insane aims was achieved, only millions of people murdered and the economy ruined.
The year 1936 was quiet, no mass repressions took place. The arrests began in spring 1937, they continued all summer but they became mass in the autumn. There was not a single day in September-October without pupils coming to school in tears. The people were seized without differentiation, i.e. common farmers, employees, kolkhoz-chairmen. People began to write letters to Krupskaya [Lenin's wife - editor], Kalinin [formal "President"of the U.S.S.R., so-called "People's elder" - editor], other Bolshevik leaders. Nothing helped. All this terror was performed with the signature of Ezhov, head of N.K.V.D.
Finally Ezhov himself was arrested and declared being "enemy of the people". Beria appeared to be a new "People's Commissioner"(Narkom) instead. A hope began to glimmer. Children took the portret of Ezhov, which had decorated the village club, and kicked it in the street as a football. Alas, nobody was released but the arrests continued. 

This was the genocide of the Inkeris who were sentenced to annihilation as a nation by Kremlin "strategists". Their rests had to become dispersed in order even their name would not be mentioned and, later, after many years, "academic"theories could be created about their "assimilation"with the ethnic Russian nation [cf. more than 150 years of the genocide of the Chechens on their own territory, coming to its horrible end in our "democratic"days - editor].

People of our region were seized in the following year 1939 too. I know only 2 persons who came back. The first one was Vasily Eustafyev from the village of Ostrov, born in 1886. He was arrested in 1938 and spent 2 years and 2 months in the prison of "Kresty". He came home unmercifully beaten, after horrible tortures. He endured not signing the absurd accusations. He has a paper of the exoneration. The other was Vasily Vasilyev from the village of Kurovitsy (real name Kukkusi), who also spent 2 years and 2 months in "Kresty".

Losses of the Inkeris due to these crimes may be counted by comparing results of the census of 1926 and the census of 1939. There were 17000 Inkeris in 1926, but 7700 only in 1939 (cf. Finno-Ugrian regions of Russia in ciphers (in Russian). State statistic committee of the Republic of Komi. Syktyvkar 1996, 25). The comparison shows that the number of the Inkeris diminished in 9300 persons, i.e. more than two times, during 13 years. This was a fine work of Leningrad N.K.V.D.

This was the end of the 30-ties, when the mass extermination of the Jews began. The horrible crimes of the Nazis are known to the whole world, their main criminals were hanged in Nurnberg. A lot of books are written about the sufferings of the Jews, a lot of films are created. Concentration camps, in which the Jews were murdered, have been converted into museums. Nevertheless the Nazis were only pupils of the Bolsheviks, who had created the system of mass annihilation earlier. When Hitler declared he had found "the final solution of the Jewish question", he only repeated the Bolsheviks, who had "solved the Ingrian question"at the beginning of 30-ties under the "smoke-screen"of the collectivisation.

13 % of all Ingrians [Inkeris, Votes, Finns of Ingermanland, or Ingria], i.e. 18000, were transported to concentration camps or hard labour in the Kola Peninsula, Middle Asia, Siberia where most of them perished. [Of course, these ciphers do not equal to those of the Jews, because the Jews were much more numberful than the Inkeris. Nevertheless, the total extermination of the Jews started after the Wannsee Conference of 20 January 1942 only. Before this date the losses of the Jews and the Inkeris were at least comparable - editor]. In this way 2 totalitarian states solved their "national questions" [Russia, the official successor of the U.S.S.R., continues this "solution"in Ichkeria up to now - editor].

The extermination of the Ingrians ceased together with the aggression of the U.S.S.R. against Finland in 1939-1940. [First Finland was proposed to sign the "Pact of the Mutual Support", similar to those, proposed to the Baltic states as a prelude to their annexation; simultaneously the Finns were proposed an impudent exchange of the territories - editor]. The Finns, knowing what the Soviets had done with their brothers in Ingria, resisted fiercely. The whole world condemned this aggression, the U.S.S.R. was thrown out from the League of Nations. These were the Englishmen alone, who dared to threaten Stalin that if he did not stop the offensive, they would bomb Baku oil works from their bases in Irak. The Englishmen heroically fought at that time against Germany and Italy. Stalin preferred peace with Finland while his "liberating war"in Europe was prepared. [In fact, the reason was also unexpectedly hard losses of the Bolsheviks in Finland - editor]. Thus a short peace came, but whole Finnish Karelia was occupied by the U.S.S.R. On the other hand, Hitler was informed of the plans of his partner in the division of Poland to attack Germany in the rear as soon as the latter would force La Manche. Therefore he stroke the first. In this way the war on the territory of the U.S.S.R. began in June 1941.
Ingria having become zone of the military actions, the war dispersed the Inkeris in many countries. Some people were evacuated, some fought at the front, some went abroad.

What was the fate of the Inkeris in their homeland after the war? The families came back from places of evacuation, but they were awaited by the militia on the railway station of Ust-Luga. This was the point of filtration. After checking up personal documents, the families, in which "enemies of the people"were found, were separated and sent to inner regions of Russia. Then a reference to those who had fought at the front was necessary. Not all military servicemen had been demobilised then at that time, therefore a reference had to be received from the place of their military service in order a family could be allowed to get home. If a family had a relative who had been in German captivity during the war, all other members of the family had no hope to see their home. It was very difficult to return home for those who had been deported to Finland or Germany during the war. Such situation was at the end of 1945 but it lasted in following years too.
Therefore only a minority gathered again at home after the war. Let us compare the results of the census again. In 1959 there were only 1100 Inkeris in Ingria. Their number diminished in 6600 in comparison with 1939. In 1926 the Inkeris were on the 13th place among other Finno-Ugrian nations of Russia numbering 17000. Today we are on the 21st place numbering 800 persons only, dispersed in our own historical habitat.
Nevertheless this number could be bigger if not new persecutions after the war.

A sovkhoz "The Advanced Worker of Ropsha"was established after the war. It provided inhabitants with means of existence. The ruined agriculture was restored. Such normal life was not desirable by Stalin. On 9 May 1947 the chief of the passport division of the Ruchyi Militia Department arrived in Kuzemkino. Activists with red bands on their sleeves were sent to gather people to the Village Soviet. Lists of new deportees had been already prepared there. People showed their passports but a militia man crossed the stamp of the registration in the passport and explained to its owner that the latter must leave the administrative territory of the Soviet during 24 hours. When one asked "Where may I live then?", the answer was "Where you want, but not in the frontier zone". It was permitted to live on the territory of the Kurovitsy Soviet, because no more frontier zone had been there already. A participant of the war had right to remain at his home, but his family had to go out. Enlisted were even families of the fallen military servicemen. To stay living in their house such families had to present an order (not any medal!) award certificate. The families of Maria Ivanova from Great Kuzemkino, Elsa Mikhailova from Struppovo, Elsa Lobzanova from Ropsha and of many others, who had lost husbands breadwinners in the war, were banished. The same happened to E.Romanova, E.Fyodorova, E.Minaeva, who had lost their sons at the front. A lot of similar samples may be given.
People with crosses in their passports left their home, aged persons and children among them. Many of them died of hunger and cold on the way or railway stations. Maria Bystrova, eighty years old, from New Kuzemkino died at floating bridge across the river Lauga (Luga) near her village when she was forced to leave it. A stable-man Mukhin accidentally found her and buried on the edge of a field.
Forcible banishing took place every spring as it had been before the war. In our district the spring banishing was stopped in 1951, when the Kingisepp Region Committee of the Bolshevik Party succeeded to hinder the last attempt. Maybe the reason was the responsibility of the leaders for not-fulfilling the economic plan. This responsibility still was conformed to rules of the war time, but the number of the agricultural workers was insufficient.
The banished people were registered in the village of Prirechye of the Kurovitsy Soviet. My mother and I lived in New Kuzemkino after we had come back from Finland. 2 my elder brothers were at the front. Although there was only 1 km from our house to Prirechye, the militia banished us there in any way.
In empty houses of New Kuzemkino there settled new people from Great Kuzemkino, Struppovo, Ropsha, Ust-Luga. There were 2 or 3 families at a time in one house. They had a roof and this was good. The absurd was that the local inhabitants, who were real owners of these houses but had been banished outside the frontier zone, were living nearby with no right to come back.
As for Prirechye, a settlement Zemlerob inside it grew rapidly after 9 May 1947. Even cellars of a former landlord's estate house were tenanted. Walls of a barn, burnt out during the war, were restored, haylofts and even haystacks were accommodated to living. Houses began to be built in summer but in winter 1948 all inhabitants had home, although at least 2 families dwelled in one house at a time. Although the settlement grew and became centre of Prirechye, its inhabitants were considered to be deportees, i.e. the second-sort citizens. Even an expression was used, "deportee of Zemlerob".

Time passed. Somewhere far, in Moscow, the end of Stalin was nearing. We knew nothing about this. In 1952 I made a request to the Government for the permission to return home. Unexpectedly the positive answer came. Then other deportees followed our example. Stalin having been dead, the authorities complied with all requests. Our countrymen from other regions began to come back after 1956. The families of the "kulaks", which had been deported to Tadjikistan and Kazakhstan , were released.
[Thus all ideological actions of the Bolsheviks, which had taken place during decades, appeared to be ethnic cleansing in Ingria as well as other non-Russian ethnic territories - editor].

The conclusion may be drawn that the sequence of mass repressions in the rural district of Kuzemkino was the following:
1930-1937 - under the pretence of liquidating the "kulaks",
1937-1938 - under the pretence of fight against the subversive activities, espionage and sabotage,
1945-1951 - under the pretence of establishing order in the frontier zone.
The real aim of all these actions was extermination of the autochthons Inkeris, Votes, local Estonians and Finns. In the years of the terror the Ingrians suffered the greatest losses in comparison to all other nationalities of the U.S.S.R. The share of persons who had been shot to death surpasses 15 %! No other nationality of the U.S.S.R. may be "proud"of such percentage. 20000 Ingrians were shot to death (cf. Gildi L.A. Mass shootings, deportations, sufferings (In Russian). Inkerin Liitto. Sankt-Peterburg 1996).

The main place of mass burials of the shot people was the heath of Levashovo near Leningrad. Since 1990 the newspaper "Vecherniy Leningrad" began to publish Martyrologue of all buried there. Here are some our countrymen from this list:

Vasily SIDOROV, born in 1890, from Great Kuzemkino, non-Party man, an Inkeri. Arrested on 6 August 1937, sentenced to death for the counter-revolutionary activities with the aim of subversion of the Soviet system (article 58-10 of the Penal Code of the RFSR) by Special Triplet of Leningrad region U.N.K.V.D. on 28 August 1937, shot to death on 31 August 1937;

M. JAKONEN, born in 1903, from Great Kuzemkino, an Inkeri;

Ivan ANDREEV, born in 1900, from Great Kuzemkino, a Russian, member of the Bolshevik party since 1925, was engaged as a shop manager in Logi. Arrested on 17 October 1937, shot to death on 18 November 1937;

Alexis PUKKARI, born in 1893, from Struppovo. Arrested on 23 February 1938, shot to death on 5 May 1938;

Alexandre AHONEN, born in 1883, from Struppovo. Arrested on 10 June 1938, shot to death on 10 October 1938.

These were not all victims whose way ended in Levashovo Heath, of course. A great Memorial of the Victims of the Repressions was unveiled on 19 June 1995 in Great Kuzemkino. There were 34 names on it but 10 names were added later. Relatives and countrymen gathered during the inauguration, many of them wept in spite of decades which had passed after the tragedies.
Here are these names:

I.T. AHONEN
M.S. AHONEN
I.P. DEMIDOV
A.M. DANILOV
V.F. EUSTAFYEV
I.N. EUSTAFYEV
K.G. EMELYANOV
A.F. IVANOV
A.F. ISAKOV
L.Y. KAPRALOV
I.N. KIRILLOV
A.K. KOORA
I.E. LARIONOV
A.E. LARIONOV
M.S. LUKIN
V.T. LUTS
P.Z. NIKOLAEV
A.E. OLAVI
A.I. PUKKARI
S.M. PUKKARI
A.D. SARNE
A.I. SIPPO
I.A. STÜF
S.I. AHONEN
E.S. AHONEN
M.S. AHONEN
A.S. AHONEN
P.I. AHONEN
M.P. AHONEN
A.P. AHONEN
V.A. AHONEN
I.I. ANDREEV
M.A. VASILYEV
M.M. ROSENBERG
S.I. KALININ
M.I. PETROV
F.A. STEPANOV
D.E. PYKHTIN
S.P. FYODOROV
P.S. FYODOROV
A.B. FILATOV
P.I. SHEPELEV
I.O. JAKONEN

Let remain in our memory those who had been snatched from this life untimely.