The movement of Soviet Germans to emigrate to their historical homeland

On February 17, 1974, a demonstration of Soviet Germans took place near the Viru Hotel in Tallinn. They held placards with slogans such as “We demand an exodus to Germany!” “Respect human rights,” and “Release the participants in the Moscow demonstration.” The militia detained over a hundred people.

It was an action by the Soviet German Emigration Movement aimed at drawing attention to the demand for the right to emigrate to their historical homeland.

The opposition movement that began in the Soviet Union in the 1960s had three directions with mass character. These were the Jewish movement to emigrate to Israel, the Crimean Tatar movement to return to Crimea, and the Soviet German movement to emigrate to the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG). The tactics of all these movements were the same: collective appeals and petitions to the Soviet authorities, international human rights organizations, and Western governments, as well as peaceful demonstrations, pickets, and even hunger strikes.

The authorities severely suppressed these movements; many activists of the emigration movements were imprisoned or repressed extrajudicially. However, unlike the human rights defence movement (dissidence) and the national resistance movements in Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Georgia, and Armenia, activists of the emigration movement were not punished with long prison sentences or forced hospitalization in special mental hospitals. There were isolated imprisonments, but most involved the leaders of the movements and individuals who collaborated with the dissidents. As a rule, they managed to emigrate after being released from imprisonment. Those who participated in the demonstrations of the emigration movement were punished mainly with administrative arrest, fines, or extrajudicially (by dismissal from work or expulsion from university). The relatively mild repressions, but above all the fact that many still managed to emigrate, were the reason why these movements were able to be massive.

Soviet Jews, who were supported by Jewish organizations in the United States, international human rights organizations led by Amnesty International, as well as the governments of several Western countries, proved particularly successful in their efforts. The fact that among the Jews who wanted to return to their historical homeland there were many internationally renowned scientists and cultural figures, who were actively supported by their colleagues living in Western countries, also played a significant role here. This forced the Kremlin to make concessions, and in the 1970s and 1980s tens of thousands of Jews were allowed to leave the Soviet Union. The so-called policy of détente also played a role in those years, and especially the Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe held in Helsinki in August 1975, the final act of which the participating countries (including the Soviet Union) undertook to guarantee their citizens human rights, including the right to emigrate.

Unfortunately, the Crimean Tatars were much less successful in their efforts. The Soviet authorities did not allow them to return to Crimea, although a small number of them did infiltrate there secretly, but offered them places to resettle elsewhere. The movement’s activists were persecuted and repressed, and several of its leaders (e.g. Mustafa Dzhemilev) were repeatedly imprisoned. Only in the late 1980s, during perestroika, did the Crimean Tatars receive permission to return to Crimea.

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Eestikeelset algteksti saab lugeda 11. septembri 2025 postitusest