Deported Estonian family Tomasson – typical “class enemies” deported or murdered by the Communists. The father, Johannes Tomasson, died in a labor camp in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia.
Former Communist Party official and Red Army veteran Arnold Meri, responsible for the March 1949 deportation of 251 innocent Estonian civilians, including women and children, from the island of Hiiumaa (Sw. Dagö) has died at age 89 in his home in Tallinn.
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev reacted by awarding Meri – who is regarded as a war hero in Russia – a posthumous medal of honor.
During the month of March in 1949, tens of thousands of people were deported from Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania, packed into cattle cars without food, water, or hygiene. The men were sent to slave labor camps, and the women and children were often left to fend for themselves on the frozen tundra. Many of these people died, and the survivors were left scarred for life by their terrible experiences, which often lasted for decades.
The deportees were chosen from lists drawn up by the Communists, which followed set quotas. If a person on the list was not found or had managed to escape, someone else was arbitrarily arrested to take their place, in order to fulfill the quota. More than 20,000 Estonians were deported between March 25 and 27, 1949.
Mr. Meri had been charged with genocide in Estonia. The genocide charges have angered Moscow, and Russia’s Foreign Ministry has suggested the charges against him were fabricated. Mr. Meri admitted to have taken part in the deportations, but claimed that he was just following orders.
Estonia this week staged several commemoration ceremonies to mark the 60th anniversary of the mass deportations.
Read more here.
For an account of the deportations, watch a video interview with Latvia’s former Foreign Minister, Ms. Sandra Kalniete, here. Ms. Kalniete, author of the best selling With dance shoes in Siberian snows, a book about the deportation of her family to Siberia. Ms. Kalniete was born in exile in Siberia.