NKVD Order No. 00593, also known as NKVD Order about Harbinites (приказ НКВД о харбинцах, ("Харбинский приказ") by September 20, 1937, undersigned by

Nikolai Yezhov Nikolai Ivanovich Yezhov ( rus, Никола́й Ива́нович Ежо́в, p=nʲɪkɐˈɫaj ɪˈvanəvʲɪt͡ɕ (j)ɪˈʐof; 1 May 1895 – 4 February 1940) was a Soviet secret police official under Joseph Stalin who was head of the N ...

regulated arrest and prosecution of former personnel of the China Far East Railway (KVZhD), who had lived in

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

and reemigrated into the Soviet Union after 1935, when the KVZhD was sold to the Japanese puppet state of

Manchukuo Manchukuo, officially the State of Manchuria prior to 1934 and the Empire of (Great) Manchuria after 1934, was a puppet state of the Empire of Japan in Northeast China, Manchuria from 1932 until 1945. It was founded as a republic in 1932 afte ...

Background

The Chinese Eastern Railway (KVZhD) was constructed in 1897—1903. After the Russo—Japanese War, the southern portion of the railway was ceded to

Japan Japan ( ja, 日本, or , and formally , ''Nihonkoku'') is an island country in East Asia. It is situated in the northwest Pacific Ocean, and is bordered on the west by the Sea of Japan, while extending from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north ...

, which created the South Manchuria Railway out of the former Russian portion of the railway. In the 1920s, some 120,000 Russian citizens lived in Manchuria. 43,500 persons, 64.5% of the population of

, were Russians. The Russian population began to steadily drop as economic conditions deteriorated due to the Bolshevik victory in the Russian Civil War, causing high rates of unemployment. Emigration from Northern Manchuria to the Soviet Union increased in the 1930s as the Soviet Government sold the railway to

, accelerating as some 19,570 residents left Manchuria to the Soviet Union in 1935 alone.

Order No. 00593

By 1935, the NKVD began actively persecuting Harbin repatriates. Yezhov's order to arrest and execute the Harbinites stated that of 25,000 registered "Harbinites" the majority were former White Guardists, "emigre spying-fascist organizations", former policemen etc. and worked for the

ese intelligence service. It was ordered to perform arrests (from October 1, 1937 to December 25, 1937) of all Harbinites that fell into 13 pre-defined categories. Those who didn't match any of the listed categories were to be immediately removed from all jobs related to transport and industry. Soviet intelligence conducted an investigation of Harbin emigres who had recently repatriated to Voronezh Oblast, concluding that out of 2,500 persons investigated, 248 were former members of the White army or intelligence services and 108 were members of overseas political organizations.

Implementation

The operation lasted beyond the deadline of December 25th. According to the data collected by

Memorial A memorial is an object or place which serves as a focus for the memory or the commemoration of something, usually an influential, deceased person or a historical, tragic event. Popular forms of memorials include landmark objects or works of a ...

, 48,133 Harbinites were repressed, of which whom 30,992 were shot.

Background

Order No. 00593

Implementation

Sources

See also