Evening star., 1949-07-28
Moscow ShuffIes Peoples


Soviet Russia is its revival of practices
thought long since outgrown by the mod
ern world. The redistribution OF slavery
on a huge scale has just been proved be-
yond q reasonable doubt. Indeed, the
Soviet Unions economic system appears
based on forced labor under conditions
both degrading and inhuman.
Now the spotlight is being turned on
another practice equally revolving by civ
ilized standards. This Is the systematic
uprooting of entire populations and their
resettlement in remote portions of the
Soviet Union. At present, such transfers
are proceeding at an accelerated rate all
along Russia's western borders, from the
Baltic to the Black Sea, the worst sufferers
being the Baltic peoples -Esthonians, Lat
VANS and Lithuanians. In all such cases,
the places of the deportees are taken by
politically reliable" immigrants ranging
from Slavic Russians to Mongols or other
Asiatic stocks. The aim in all this is two
fold. First, the borderlands are to be re-
settled with dependable elements. Sec
ond, the racial and cultural identity of
the border peoples Is to be extinguished,
since the deportees are widely scattered
and not allowed to resettle in homogeneous
blocs
This policy of shuffiing peoples has ex-
listed almost from the beginning of the
Soviet regime. 1t was first applied on a
wholesale scale shortly before the German
invasion of Soviet Russia in 1941, when
the entire population of the so-called
,,&a ,eD fho
Volga, numbering several hundred thou
sand, was moved to various parts of
Siberia. At the close OF the late war sew
eral other ethnic groups in the Crimea and
Caucasus were similarly uprooted en- masse
for alleged collaboration with the German
invaders Such deportations have been de-
Tended by Soviet spokesmen as precau-
tionary or punitive measures. The same
can hardly be said of current deportations,
including the uprooting of Jews from the
Ukraine and White Russia. Indeed, there
is evidence to the effect that the same
process is beginning to be applied to "re-
fractory" elements in the satellite coun-
tries, deportations to Russia being numer-
Gus there, while colonies OF Russians are
being installed at strategic points, espe-
cially along the Danube.
Nothing like this has been known since
remote antiquity. Soviet Russia is reviv-
ing the transplantation policy of Assyria
and abylonia-notoriously the two most
brutal and predatory empires of the
ancient world. OF this, the history of the
Hebrews offers two famous examples The
entire population of the Kingdom OF Israel
was uprooted by its Assyrian conquerors
and was 50 effectively dispersed in the
vast reaches of the Assyrian Empire that
they disappeared from human annals, be-
ing known as the Lost Ten Tribes" Later
on the Kingdom of Judah was similarly
extinguished by the Babylonians and the
people transplanted. The Jews were pre-
served partly by the fact that they were
settled compactly in nearby Babylonia and
partly because the Babylonian Empire was
overthrown only half-century later by
the Persians, who proved friendly to the
exiles and permitted their return to
Jerusalem.
An effort is being made to draft a ban
against "genocide" by the United Nations.
Genocide is defined as any systematic at
national or religious group: If that ban
is adopted it would seem that Soviet Rus
sia should be haled before the bar of
judgment as the worst and most fragrant
offender. Its transplantation policy is
rendered the more odious from the brutal
way in which 1t is carried out. The un-
fortunate deportees are usually given al
most no warning, are permitted to take
with them only 4 few personal belongings,
and are transported vast distances in cat
tie trucks or box cars with minimum of
food, care or sanitation. The loss Of life
during these dolorous journeys is fire.
quently appalling. Not even Sargon or
Nebuchadnezzar could have done worse
than that.
1t Is Getting Monotonous
House passage of poll tax bill no longer
is as newsworthy as it used to be- The first