The Motherland Calls: “Soft” Repatriation of Soviet Citizens from Europe, 1945–1953
Journal: The Journal of Modern History
Year: 2018

The Allies agreed at Yalta in February 1945 on the speedy repatriation of all persons displaced in the course of the Second World War, despite worrying signs that some Soviet prisoners of war (POWs) and forced laborers would resist return to their homeland. From the Soviet standpoint, repatriation of all Soviet citizens, whether they wanted it or not, was nonnegotiable. Over 4 million POWs and other displaced persons (DPs) were duly dispatched to the Soviet Union by early 1946, with the active c