Greek diaspora in Russia and the Black Sea ( part 2)

In 1915, the year of the Armenian genocide, Armenians, Greeks and other Christian populations found shelter in the Russian Empire.

During the First World War, the Greeks of Trabzon, who were called Fonts, moved to Transcaucasia in North Caucasus and Crimea.

In 1917, the Central Union of Greeks of Pont was founded, the main goal of which was the creation of the independent Pont Republic.

After the formation of the USSR, this idea crumbled away.

The last wave of settlement of Greeks from Turkey to Russia took place between 1922 and 1923.

While some Trabzon Greeks wanted to move to Greece, the civil war impeded this and as a result, families were strewn.

Between 1937 and 1938, came bloody events beginning with Stalin’s repressions.

Arrests, imprisonment and punishment of Greeks began with the criminalisation of ‘treason and anti-Soviet activity’.

Four successive waves of mass prosecutions under Stalin’s direction followed in October 1937, February 1938, July 1938 and February 1939.

Thousands of Greeks were either executed at this time or were displaced in Siberian concentration camps.

The deportation of Greeks continued into the next decade to Central Asia.

The first to be displaced, in the 1940s, were the Kuban (Southern Russia) and Kerch (ancient Pontikapay) residents, to Alma-Ata of Kazakhstan.

In June 1944, the Greeks of Crimea were exiled to Uzbekistan and Siberia.

On 13 June 1949, Greek Ponts of Caucasus origin were exiled to Central Asia.

Fifteen days later, the Greeks who were in the region maintaining Soviet citizenship were also displaced, and they were forced to declare voluntary abandonment of their place.

Finally, the last Greeks to be displaced were from the Krasnodar region.

The precise number of Greeks to have been displaced from the region has not been calculated, though it is estimated to be between the 40,000 to 70,000.

According to estimates of researcher J.G. Dguxa, more than 23-25,000 Greeks were arrested during the period 1937-38.

Adding to this the numbers who were displaced in the 1940s and the migration patterns previously, this number easily reaches 110-120,000 approximately.

Soviet-era Greek historian N. loannidis explains that there are three likely reasons for these deportations took place, leading to the various scattered Greek communities that we have now: firstly, the USSR Greeks were considered suspect after the defeat of the Democratic Army in Greece; secondly, the leading team in the Georgia had nationalist ideals and considered the Greeks alien; and finally, there was a shortage of working hands for the industrial growth of Central Asia.

This feature has been published courtesy of the Greek Rich List: The Official Publication of Britain’s Top 100 Greek Millionaires. www.greekrichlist.com