Tragic chapters in the history of the Gagauz people at “Ivdel’lag” (the June 1941 deportation)

Abstract

This article examines the fate of 62 heads of households who were arrested on June 12-13, 1941, in settlements of the Moldavian SSR with a significant Gagauz population during the first mass deportation. The arrests targeted entire families based on reports filed against the head of the household, on charges of counterrevolutionary activity. Among those repressed were village heads, civil servants, merchants, and landowners. Serious procedural violations occurred during the preparation of investigative files by the district bodies of the NKGB of the Moldavian SSR. After arrest, the men were separated from their families, who were sent to a special settlement in Kazakhstan, while the heads of the families were transported by convoy to the Ivdel’lag in the Sverdlovsk region. In the camp, arrest warrants were issued, interrogations were conducted, and charges were brought, often with changes to their classification. Most were convicted under Article 58 of the RSFSR Criminal Code or designated as “socially dangerous elements” under Article 35 of the RSFSR Criminal Code, with sentences of 5-10 years of imprisonment. An analysis of archival materials shows that most of those arrested died in 1941–1942 as a result of harsh conditions of detention. Only eight people survived; the fate of five is unknown. Almost all prisoners of the Ivdel’lag were rehabilitated in 1989.