Soviet ethnic cleansing in the memory of ethnic minorities: perceptions and collective trauma

The history of the Soviet Union, and the history of the people of the Soviet Union, in some aspects, remain understudied due to the inaccessibility of historical sources. One of the areas where modern historical science has insufficiently deep and fragmented knowledge is the everyday experience of ethnically repressed people in the national regions of the USSR and during their imprisonment in the Gulag camps. For a long time, when studying such a complex topic in practical and semantic terms, attention was primarily focused on the fate of political opponents of the Soviet regime, so attention to the experiences of ethnic women, children, and men was indirect for several reasons at once: even greater inaccessibility of sources due to censorship or direct destruction of archival data, the difficulty of collecting oral sources, and indirect interest in everyday life. In light of the theoretical turn in modern history and the growing interest in private history and oral history, thanks in large part to technical and technological progress, a new niche has opened up for the study of the history of the totalitarian regime, which allows us to cover the insufficient source base - oral history. This study provides a critical look at the national policy of the USSR through a comparative analysis of collective memory and archival data. This thesis investigates the history of ethnic cleansing in the Soviet Union during Stalinism, concentrating on the period between 1930 and 1950. It draws on an extensive dataset of personal testimonies, documents, and archival records collected through rigorous field research and collaboration with historical archives in Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, and NGOs like Memorial (offices located in Russia and Italy). This study not only provides a detailed account of the repressive measures directed against ethnic minorities, but also examines the ideological motivations behind such policies, capturing the profound and enduring impact of Stalinist ethnic cleansing on the collective memory of the affected communities. Through the integration of both oral history and official archival sources, the research offers a unique, multifaceted view of how ethnic cleansing was ideologically motivated and systematically executed under Soviet leadership. State-of-the-art Digital Humanities technologies and tools were employed throughout the research to enhance the depth and verification of the results, particularly in the analysis of data and oral sources, such as interviews collected for the project. Digital Humanities tools, including thematic modeling and sentiment analysis, reveal which themes emerged most strongly within the narratives of survivors and their families, particularly in their accounts of physical and sexual violence, family separation, and the brutal conditions of transportation to labor camps. These findings shed light on the deeply traumatic experiences that have shaped intergenerational memory among ethnic minorities, illuminating the collective memory of ethnic repression as it has been passed down through generations. This research is particularly relevant to current political debates in Eastern Europe, where issues of historical interpretation and collective memory continue to influence national narratives and international relations. By examining the systematic brutality and long-term consequences of Stalinist policies, this study underscores the importance of preserving the memory of these events, counteracting modern tendencies to downplay or obscure the repression of minorities during Soviet rule. As various state actors today attempt to reshape historical narratives for geopolitical gain, this dissertation highlights the urgent need for critical scholarly analysis and preservation of historical truth as a safeguard against revisionism.