Instructions regarding the manner of conducting the deportation from the
Lithuanian SSR, Latvian SSR and Estonian SSR, issued by I. Serov,
Deputy People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR
 

Top Secret

Instructions

regarding the manner of conducting the deportation of the anti-Soviet element from
Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia
 

1. General Situation.
 

The deportation of anti-Soviet elements from the Baltic States is a task of great political importance. Its successful execution depends upon the extent to which the county administrative triumvirates and administrative headquarters are capable of carefully working out a plan for executing the operations and of foreseeing in advance all indispensable factors. Moreover, the basic promise is that the operations should be conducted without noise and panic, so as not to permit any demonstrations and other excesses not only by the deportees, but also by a certain part of the surrounding population inimically inclined toward the Soviet administration.
Instructions regarding the manner of conducting the operations are described below. They should be adhered to, but in individual cases the collaborators conducting the operations may and should, depending upon the peculiarity of the concrete circumstances of the operations and in order correctly to evaluate the situation, make different decisions for the same purpose, viz., to execute the task given them without noise and panic.
 

2. Manner of issuing Instructions.

The instructing of operative groups should be done by the county triumvirates within as short a time as possible on the day before the beginning of the operations, taking into consideration the time necessary for travelling to the place of operations.
The county triumvirates previously prepare necessary transportation for transferring the operative groups in the village to the scene of operations.
In regard to the question of allotting the necessary number of automobiles and wagons for transportation, the county triumvirates will consult the leaders of the Soviet party organizations on the premises.
Premises in which to issue instructions must be carefully prepared in advance, and
their capacity exits, entrances and the possibility of gangers fearing must be studied.
During the time instructions are issued the building must be securely guarded by the administrative workers.
In case anyone from among these participating in the operations should fail to appear for instructions, the county triumvirate should immediately take measures to substitute the absentee from a reserve force, which should be provided in advance.
The triumvirate through its representative should notify the officers gathered of the decision of the government to deport an accounted for contingency of anti-Soviet elements from the territory of the respective republic or region. Moreover, a brief explanation should be given as to what the deportees represent.
The special attention of the (local) Soviet-party workers gathered for instructions should be drawn to the fact that the deportees are enemies of the Soviet people and that, therefore, the possibility of an armed attack on the part of the deportees is not excluded.
 

3. Manner of Obtaining Documents.
 

After the issue of general instructions to the administrative groups, they should definitely be issued documents regarding the deportees. The personal files of the deportees must be previously discussed and settled by the administrative groups, parishes and villages, so that there are no obstacles in issuing them.
After receiving the personal files, the senior member of administrative group acquaints himself with the personal files of the family which he will have to deport. He must check the number of persons in the family, the supply of necessary forms to be filled out by the deportee, and transportation for moving the deportee, and he should receive exhaustive answers to questions not clear to him.
At the time when the files are issued, the county triumvirate must explain to each senior member of the administrative group where the deported family is to be settled and describe the route to be taken to the place of deportation. Roads to be taken by the administrative personnel with the deported families to the railway station for embarkation must also be fixed. It is also necessary to point out places where reserve military groups are place in case it should become necessary to call them out during possible excesses.
The possessions and state of arms and munitions must be checked throughout the whole administrative personnel. Weapons must be completely ready for battle, loaded, but the bullet should not be kept in the barrel. Weapons should be used only as a last resort, when the administrative group is attacked or threatened with an attack, or resistance is shown.

 

4. Manner of Executing Deportation.

Should a number of families be deported from one spot, one of the operative workers is appointed senior in regard to deportation from that village, and his orders are to be obeyed by the administrative personnel in that village.
Having arrived in the village, the administrative groups must get in touch (observing the necessary secrecy) with the local authorities: chairman, secretary or members of the village Soviets, and should ascertain from them the exact dwelling of the families to be deported. After that the operative groups together with the local authorities go to the families to be deported.
The operation should be commenced at daybreak. Upon entering the home of the person to be deported, the senior member of the operative group should gather the entire family of the deportee into one room, taking all necessary precautionary measures against any possible excesses.
After having checked the members of the family against the list, the location of those absent and the number of persons sick should be ascertained, after which they should be called upon to give up their weapons. Regardless of whether weapons are delivered or not, the deportees should be personally searched and then the entire premises should be searched in order to uncover weapons.
During the search of the premises one of the members of the operative group should be left on guard over the deportees.
Should the search disclose hidden weapons in small numbers, they should be collected by and distributed among the administrative group. Should many weapons be discovered, they should be piled into the wagon or automobile which brought the administrative group, after any ammunition in them has been removed. Ammunition should be packed and loaded together with rifles.
If necessary, a convoy for transporting the weapons should be mobilized with an adequate guard.
Should weapons, counter-revolutionary pamphlets, literature, foreign currency, large quantity of valuables, etc. be disclosed, a short search act should be drawn upon the spot, which should describe the hidden weapons or counter-revolutionary literature. Should there be any armed resistance, the question of arresting the persons showing armed resistance and of sending them to the county branch of the People's Commissariat of Public Security should be decided by the county triumvirates.
An act should be drawn up regarding those deportees hiding themselves before the deportation or sick, and this act should be signed by the chairman of the Soviet-party organization.
After having been subjected to a search the deportees should be notified that upon the decision of the Government they are being deported to other regions of the Union.
The deportees are permitted to take with them household necessities of a weight of not more than 100 kilograms.

1. Suit.
2. Shoes.
3. Underwear.
4. Bed linen.
5. Dishes.
6. Glasses.
7. Kitchen utensils.
8. Food - an estimated month's supply to a family.
9. The money at their disposal.
10. Haversack or box in which to pack the articles.

It is not recommended that large articles be taken.
Should the contingent be deported to rural districts, they are permitted to take with them a small agricultural inventory: axes, saws and other articles, which should be tied together and packed separately from the other articles, so that when embarking in the deportation train they are loaded into special freight cars.
In order not to mix them with articles belonging to others, the name, father's name, and village of the deportee should be written on his packed property.
When loading these articles into the carts, measures should be taken so that the deportee cannot use them as means of resistance while the column is moving along the highway.
At the time of loading the administrative groups together with representatives of the Soviet-party organizations shall prepare a list of the property and the manner in which it is to be preserved in accordance with instructions received by them.
If the deportee has at his own disposal means of transportation, his property is loaded into the vehicle and together with his family is sent to the designated spot of embarkation.
If the deportees do not have any means of transportation, wagons are mobilized in the village by the local authorities upon directives of the senior member of the administrative group.
All persons entering the home of the deportees during the execution of the operations or found there at the moment when these operations are begun must be detained until the conclusion of the operations, and their relationship to the deportee should be ascertained. This is done in order to disclose persons hiding from the police, militia and other persons.
After having checked the detained persons and ascertained that they are persons in whom the contingent is not interested, they are liberated.
Should the inhabitants of the village begin to gather around the home of the deportee while the operations are going on, they should be called upon to disperse to their homes, and should not be permitted to be formed.
Should the deportee refuse to open the door of his home in spite of the fact that he is aware that members of the People's Commissariat of Public Security are there, the door should be broken down. In individual cases neighbouring administrative groups performing operations in that vicinity should be called upon to assist.
The conveyance of the deportees from the village to the gathering place at the railway station should by all means be done in daylight; moreover, efforts should be made that the gathering of each family should take not more than two hours.
In all cases throughout the operations firm and decisive action should be taken, without the slightest pomposity, noise and panic.
It is categorically forbidden to take any articles away from the deportees except weapons, counter-revolutionary literature and foreign currency, as well as to use the food of the deportees.
All members of the operations must be warned that they will be held strictly responsible before court for attempts to appropriate individual articles belonging to the deportees.
 

5. Manner of Separating Deportee from His Family.

In view of the fact that a large number of the deportees must be arrested and placed in special camps and their families settled at special points in distant regions, it is necessary to execute the operation of deporting both the members of his family as well as the deportee simultaneously, without informing them of the separation confronting them. After having made the search and drawn up the necessary documents for identification in the home of the deportee, the administrative worker shall draw up documents for the head of the family and place them in his personal file, but the documents drawn up for the members of his family should be placed in the personal file of the deportee's family.
While gathering together the family in the home of the deportee, the head of the family should be warned that personal male articles are to be packed into a separate suitcase, as a sanitary inspection will be made of the deported men separately from the women and children.
At the stations the possessions of heads of families subject to arrest should be loaded into the railway cars assigned to them, which will be designated by special administrative workers appointed for that purpose.

 

6. Manner of Convoying the Deportees

It is strictly prohibited for the operators convoying the column of deportees moving along in wagons to sit in the wagons of the deportees. The operators must follow by the side and at the rear of the column of deportees. The senior operator of the convoy should periodically go around the entire column to check the correctness of movement.
The convoy must act particularly carefully in conducting the column of deportees through inhabited spots as well as in meeting passers-by; they should see that there are no attempts made to escape, and no exchange of words should be permitted between the deportees and passers-by.
 

7. Manner of Embarking.

At each point of embarkation the member of the administrative triumvirate and a special person appointed for that purpose shall be responsible for the embarkation.
On the day of the operations the chief of the point of embarkation together with the chief of the deportation train and of the convoying military forces of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs shall examine the railway cars furnished to see whether they are supplied with all necessities (sleeping board, toilet cans, lanterns, railings, etc.) and shall discuss with the chief of the deportation train the manner in which the latter will take over the deportees.
Embarkation at the station shall be detached by the soldiers of the convoying forces of the People's Commissariat of Internal Affairs.
The senior member of the administration group shall deliver to the chied of the deportation train one copy of the list of deportees in each railway car. The chief of the deportation train thereupon shall call out the deportees according to this roll and shall carefully check each family and designate their place in the railway car.
The possessions of the deportees should be loaded into the car together with the deportees, with the exception of the small agricultural inventory, which should be loaded into a separate car.
The deportees should be loaded into railway cars by families; it is not permitted to break up a family (with the exception of heads of families subject to arrest). An estimate of 25 persons to a car should be observed.
After the railway car has been filled with the necessary number of families, it should be locked.
After the people have been taken over and placed into the deportation train, the chief of the train shall bear responsibility for all the persons turned over to him and for their reaching their destination.
After turning over the deportees the senior member of the administrative group shall draw up a report to the effect that he has performed the operations entrusted to him and address the report to the chief of the county administrative triumvirate. The report should briefly contain the name of the deportee, whether any weapons and counter-revolutionary literature were discovered, and how the operations took place.
After having placed the deportees on the deportation train and submitted reports of the results of the operations performed, the members of the administrative group shall be considered free and shall act in accordance with the instructions of the chief of the county branch of the People's Commissariat of State Security.

(Serov)
3 rd Deputy People's Commissar of State Security of the USSR
3 rd rank Commissar of State Security

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Policy of Occupation Powers in Latvia. 1939–1991: A collection of documents. – Rīga, 1999– page 155–161