«Harbinian» operation of the NKVD of the USSR in 1937-1938 in the Altai territory

The article is devoted to carrying out "Harbinian" repression campaign in the Altai territory. The campaign was carried out among the national operations of the Great Terror to identify and expose the Japanese spies among former workers of the Chinese Eastern Railway and re-emigrants from China. The former employees and re-emigrants from China, returned to the Soviet Union after the sale of the Chinese Eastern Railway, were called "Harbinian" or "KVZhDintsy" in the Soviet society. The aim of the article is to identify the characteristics of the "Harbinian" campaign in the Altai territory. The article is based on the records of the Commission of the NKVD and the Public prosecutor of the USSR, the records of the Special Troikas and stopped archival-investigatory files of the Great Terror period. The Federal Security Service of Russian Federation for the Altai territory transferred the documents to state custody in the State Archives of the Altai territory. On the expiry of 75-year period these documents were made available to historians. Altai territory, Chita and Novosibirsk region have been leaders in the number of victims, repressed under the "Harbinian" campaign. In the Altai territory 884 people were arrested, of which 576 people were sentenced to death, 249 people were sentenced to 10 years of labor camps. The calculations showed that the proportion of persons who had been repressed by "Harbinian" line in the Altai region was 14,7% of the total number of repressed for National Operations. From September, 1937 to August, 1938 indictments were imposed by the Commission of the NKVD and the Public prosecutor of the USSR in Moscow. Since September, 1937, the punitive powers were entrusted to the Special Troikas, which stopped their work since November 13, 1938. Not only former employees of the Chinese Eastern Railway (CER, KVZhD) and re-emigrants from China, but also representatives of the Chinese, Korean and Mongolian diasporas were accused as Japanese spies in the Altai territory. The share of former employees of the CER and re-emigrants from China was about 30% from the total number of repressed by order No. 00593 in the Altai. Almost a third (about 35%) of all those convicted by the order No. 00593 in the Altay region were the Chinese. The total of 230 Chinese were convicted. By order No. 00593 about 70 Koreans were arrested: it is about 5% of all those arrested on "Harbinian" orders. 50 of so called "mongolists" (i.e. those sent by prisoner transport from Mongolia or defectors of Soviet-Mongolian boarder) were arrested in the Altai. Most of them were Russian White Guards (former members of Kaigorodov's troop). Another part was the Chinese and the rest were the Mongols and the Buryats. Therefore, the cause of the repression was "relation" with the Japanese country rather than national identity as it was in case with Polish, German and other "National Operations".

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