The release of deportees from the Baltics in 1953 – late 1980s as a way to understand the post-Stalin USSR

• In Event: Baltic Soviet History

Abstract

Around 197 000 people were deported from Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania in 1941 and 1945-1952 during the Soviet occupation. Stalin's death did not signify their immediate release nor any drastic change in the official position towards them. The deportees’ (special settlers’) return home was full of challenges. Why was it so? To answer this question, it does not suffice to evaluate changes in the post-Stalin policies in the light of internal and international events of that time but rather it is crucial to look at the release process on a larger scale including the interwar period in the USSR. Understanding the release process of the deportees from the Baltics from 1953 until the late 1980s also helps comprehend the essence of the Soviet regime after Stalin. While some cosmetic adjustments were interpreted as genuine signs of change for better both by the Soviet and external observers during the Cold War, the founding principles of the order remained unchallenged behind the scenes.

Short Bio

Since February 2017 - Estonian Institute of Historical Memory, researcher and manager of the Kogu Me Lugu oral history portal;
Since February 2020 - a PhD student in History at the Institute of History and Archaeology at the University of Tartu;
2014-2018 - MA in History, Tallinn University

Research interests: Baltic history during the Soviet occupation, Soviet crimes, Soviet legal and state theory, Soviet memory politics, Russian memory politics

A CV available at https://www.etis.ee/CV/Elmar_Gams/eng

Author

• Elmar Gams, Estonian Institute of Historical Memory