Today in Labor History December 28, 1943: Soviet authorities began Operation Ulussy, the deportation of the Kalmyk nation to Siberia and Central Asia. They forcibly relocated over 93,000 people of Kalmyk nationality in cattle wagons on December 28–31 to forced labor camps. The government accused them all of collaborating with the Nazis based on the roughly 5,000 Kalmyks who fought in the Nazi-affiliated Kalmykian Cavalry Corps. However, over 23,000 Kalmyks served in the Red Army and fought against Axis forces at the same time. The deportation resulted in more than 16,000 deaths. Overall, the Soviet government deported millions of ethnic minorities from the 1930s-‘50s, and hundreds of thousands died in the process. In 1956, Khrushchev rehabilitated The Kalmyks. In 1989 the Supreme Council of the Soviet Union declared all of Stalin's deportations "illegal and criminal."
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