Figure 1.--Here we German refugees in 1961. This was apparently in West Berlin just before the Communists began building the Berlin Wall.

The Communist Soviet Union (1917) was the world's first totalitarian power. After World War II, the Soviet Union set up Communist police states in Eastern and Central Europe. Communist regimes also appeared in Asia, Africa, and Latin America. The most important was China (1948). Unlike Eastern Europe, China did not have communism imposed on it from the Soviet Union. The Chinese Communists were an entirely separae Communist movement and one that Stalin did not fully support becuse he did not control Mao and the Chinese Communists. Communist seizures of a country normally resulted in a significant refugee flow at first and a steady flow thereafter. The mnain variable was is there was a way out. In Russia, the situation was fluid with the Civil War, but once the Bolsheviks were in cintrol they hardened the borders. It became virtually impossible to escape. The same proved true in Eastern Europe which the Soviets seized adter World War II. There were occasional breakouts such as the Hungarian Revolution (1956). But it was difficult to escape through the Iron Curtain. East Germans in particular wanted to escape, so the Communists built the most formidable and deadly inpervious border in history--the Berlin Wall. Actually it was a border that extended all along the East German frontier with West Germany. A few managed to cross, mostly by going under or over. Cubans faced the Florida Strait, a narrow but treacherous difficult 60 mile crossing wihout a sturdy boat. Many Chinese people wanted to escape, but not only did the Communists make it difficult, but who was going to take in the massive numbers. Some made it to Hong Kong, but the British prevented large-scale border crossings. There was just no space in already over-crowded The most notakle refugee groups fleeing the Communists were the Boat People fleeing the North Vietnamese victory over South Vietnam. The most recent Communist refugee crisis is the unfolding disaster in Venezuela.

America, Latin

Cuba

Communism in Russia was imposed on the population by a small group of ideaologues andexcept for the ruling class with money, there were few opportunities to flee. The same was true of Eastern Europe. Once the Iron Curtain was established, there were very limited opportunities to flee. Cuba was very different. Only 90 miles across the Florida Straits lay Key West and freedom. And despite the still enormous difficulties. hundreds of thousands of Cubans chose to leave their country, often risking their lives. This was substantial movement fora small country. Perhaps 15 percent of the population left Cuba, including much of the educated middle class. There are today in the United States about 1 million Americans of Cuban ancestry. They are among the most successful immigrant groups and the lives they created for themselves in America is in sharp contrat to the poverty that Castro has created in Cuba which before him ws one of the most prosperous Latin American countries. The refugees have arrived in several waves as Castro unfolded his Revolution and American refugee policy fluctuated.

Venezuela

Asia

Cambodia

China

Korea (North)

Laos

Tibet

Vietnam

The first wave of Vietnamese refugees occured in the wake of the Viet Minh victory over the French in North Vietnam (1953). They were primarily Christians, mostly Catholic, fleeing the Communists. Religious people were Communists targets because if the atheist ideology. Both Budhists and Christians were targeted. Christins were a spcial target because if gheuir cinndctions with the French and West in general. Christians became a target again when the Cimmunjists prevailed in the South (1975). Again they were a priority target because they had been strong supporters of the South Vietnamese regime. This time unlike the situation in 1953, the Chruistians and others whohas opposed the Communists had no where to flee. An estimate 150,000 South Vietnamese were desperate to get out of the collapsing country. The included political leaders, military officers, skilled professionals, Christians, and others ho had supported the South Vietnamese Government. Some 1,000 South Vietnamese were able to get out with the Americans. Some orphans were flow out. After that the only way out was by sea, but a t first only a few took to the sea. Cambodia and Laos to the West both fell to the Communists. And the Kymer Rouge was not only more brutal than the North Viernnmes, but hostile to Vietnmese people. Fewer than a thousand Vietnamese successfully fled the nation. Large numbers of people were executed by the Communists. Others were arrsted and held in brutal reducation camps. Those who tried to escape by sea in rickety boats faced pirates, typhoons, and starvation, They were trying to seek sought safety and a new life in refugee camps located in Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Hong Kong. For many, these countries became permanent homes, but most were seeking waystations to political asylum in other countrus, primarily the United States. he immigration of thousands of Vienmeseabd other people from Southeast Asia (1970s and 1980s) resulted in new communities of Vietnamese, Cambodian, Laotian, and Hmong Americans in the United States. They became known as the Boat People as they escaping the Communists by sea. It caused a massive international humanitarin crisis. As the Vietnames more vigorisly pursued socialist reforms such as seizing shps and land, more and more people were increasingkly desperate to leave the country. An unprecedebte 100,000 fled by boat (1979). International attention to the plight of Vietnamese immigrants escalated in 1979, when the human tide of boat people increased to an unprecedented level of 100,000. Public alarm outside of Asia increased when Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Hong Kong, and the Philippines (known as ASEAN countries) declared that they could no longer accept immigrants into their overcrowded camps. But from ten thousand to fifteen thousand immigrants were still leaving Vietnam each month. United Nations secretary general Kurt Waldheim called a conference in response to the impending catastrophe. Sixty-five nations attended the meeting in Geneva, voting to increase funding to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. Utilizing an executive order to raise immigration quotas, President Carter doubled the number of Southeast Asian refugees allowed into the United States each month. Agreements were also reached with Vietnam to establish an orderly departure program. These developments combined to slow the exodus of refugees in 1980 and 1981. By 2000, more than two million Vietnamese had left the nation of their birth to start new lives in foreign lands. >

Europe

Finland

The Soviet Union and NAZI Germany signed a Non-Aggreggion Pact (August 1939). It was in fact a war allince. By 'Non-Agression' it meant that the Sovieys and NAZIs would not attack each other. It was actually an alliance to make possible Sovietand NAZI aggression against their neighbors. The first victim was Poland. Hitler and Stalin only days after sisning the Non-Aggression Pact, launched their first agression. They invaded Poland, launching World War II (September 1939). The next victim was Finland. This time it was the Soviets alone that invaded Finland (November 1939). The result was refugees on a massive scale. The Poles surrounded by the NAZIs and Soviets had no place where they could flee. The Finns did. There were family evacuations from Karelia (the major Soviet target) nd other ages seized by the Soviet. The valiant resitance of the small, poorly equipped Finnish Army provided time for families to flee. Virtually no Finn chose to stay as a result of the savage NKVD treatment of ethic Finns in Ingria. Kareliawas the most heavily populated area and where mos of the evacuees and refugees came from. There were also areas in central and northern Finland seized by the Soviets, but with only smll populations.

Germany (East)

Largely forgotten today is the German refugees crisis following World War II. It is one of the largest refugee crisis in history. The Germans and the Soviets launched World War II creating an refugee crisis even greater than World War I. The Germans were not greatly affected by the World War I refugee crisis because the War was fought for the most part in countries that the Germans had invaded. World War II proved different. For most of the WWar the pattern was similar, the war was fought in countries the Germans invaded. The final year of the War was different. German refugeess began moving west as the Soviet Red Army began approaching the Reich. At the nd of ghe War, areas of eastern Germany were annexed to he Soviet Union and Poland. Both Hitler and Stalin promoted ethnic cleansing policies. Germans fled or were driven from these areas. Soviet policy was that it was the respinsibility of West Germny to absord these people. And other ethnic Germans arrived from other countries (Czechslovakia, Hungary, Romania, and Yugoslavia). These were people whose ancestors had lived there for generations. The behavior of NAZI authoriries were so brutal, however, tht most of these countries wanted the Germans out. And the expulsions were all to often accompanied by the kind of brutality that those people had suffered from the the NAZIs. Those Germans expelled are today referred to in Germany as " Vertriebenen " (expelled ones). The numbers are astonishing. It is believed that some over 30 million people, including ethnic Germans (Volksdeutsche) as well as German citizens (Reichsdeutsche), were permanently or temporarily set in motion from Central and Eastern Europe (1944-48). [Magocsi, pp. 164-68.] All of of this was the result of a mix of NAZI and Communist policies. We do not hear much about it today because the Germans successfully assimitated the refugees in a very short period of time. Compares this to the much smaller number of Palistinian refugees at about the same time (1948-49), but the Arabs refuse to assimilate. In less than a decade the World War II refugees had been effectively assimilated. A much smaller refugee problem began in the aftermath of the post-War era--the Cold War regugees. Germans fleeing the Communist police state the Soviets imposed on their occupation zone. The borders were at first fluid, but fairly quickly the Soviets began to harden the border of their occupation zone and their other Eastern European satellites. As the Iron Curtain formed, their was one leak in the dike--West Berlin. And Germans ppired through it. The first Soviet attempt to close it failed with the Berlin Air Lift (1948-49). Ultimately it became untenable with people steadily leaving the Germn Democratic Reopublic (DDR). It was closed by the Berlin Wall (1961). It took the most formidable biorder obstacke in human history to stem the German desite for freedom, only ending with the the people of East Berlin burst through the Wall leading to the collapse of collpase of the DDR.

Hungary

Hungarians that could, fled to the West. Some 0.2 million Hungarians fled their country. There were only two possibilities as most of Hungary's borders were with other Soviet-controlled satellite countries (Czechoslovakia, the Soviet Union, and Romania). The only possibilities for escape were neutral Austria to the West an Yugoslavia to the south. The Yugoslave border was much longer than the Austrian border. Budapest is located in the north, about equaldistant to the Austrian and Yugoslav border. Yugoslavia was a Communist country, but had its leader, partisan commander Tito had broken with the Soviets when Stalin attemted to take control as he had done the rest of his the Eastern European Empire. Soviet policy at the time was still Stalin's efforts to ostracize the Yugoslavs. Premier Nikita Khrushchev would later move to normalize relations with Tito's Yugoslavia, but at the time relations were frozen. Unlike the Soviet satellites, Yugoslavia did not support the Soviet intervention and for a time proected Nagy in their embassy. As a result, refugess also flowed into Yugoslavia. Camps for the refugees were hastiy set up in both Austria and Yugoslavia. The Hungarians were the first massive refugee flow in Europe since the end of World War II (1945). It took the Europeans by surprise and they were unprepared. Neither Austria or Hungary had the resources needed to deal with the massive influx. Nor were international humanitarian organizations prepared for the unexpected crisis. The two primary organizatins involved were the United Nations and the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC). Both institutions had played an important role in the post-World War II refugee crisis, but had no major refugee crisis to deal with for more than a decade. They were suddenly confronted with a huge crisis with few resources in place to meet thge needs of the refugees. About 15 per cent of the Hungarian refugees who reached the West were minors. Most of them came with their parents. And the officials dealing with te refugees gave priority to families. Western countries quickly accepted the families and made provision for them to build new lives. The United States took no military steps to aid the revolution. This would led to a reassessment of American Cold War policies. The United states did, however, aid the refugees. Many eventually emigrated to the United States. Ironically, Hungary had not signifantly participated in the great European migration to America during the late-19th and early-20th century. Congress made special provision for Hungarian refugees (1956). Other Western countries also accepted the Hungarian families and adult refugees. One of the secial tragedies of the Hungarian Revolution were the young people that had fled the Soviets. The children and teenagers who fled without their parents were not properly assisted. There were about 20,000 of them who came to be called 'unaccompaied minors'. For the most part, Westrn Governments did not want to assume the much more difficult responsibility of caring for unaccompanied minors. Most were older teenagers (15-18 years of age). [N�v�] Ironically these were the same young people that months earlier the Western press had been lauding as valliant freedom fighters.

Romania

The people in most countries envelloped by the Soviet Union were unable to flee. The Finns and Romanians, both victims of Soviet aggression early in World War II, were exceptions. This was becuse Stalin only seized part of these two countries. As a result refuges fled to he unoccupied areas. Virtually all the Finns fled, but only some of the Romanians. The press caption read, "Bessarabians Fleeing Before Red Tide: Bessararabian refugees and Rumanian soldiers mingle in a camp, their posessions strewn around them, during a rest on their retreat from the Russians crossing the Bessarabian border to take pssession of the disputed province." The photograph was dated Juky 30, 1940 (figure 1).

Soviet Union

Sources

Magocsi, Paul Robert. Historical Atlas of East Central Europe (University of Washington Press: 1993).

Created: 6:04 AM 1/13/2017
Last updated: 5:29 PM 10/19/2020