Abstract
This chapter evaluates Soviet repatriation, which generated problems that are typical of virtually all incidents of mass displacement. Returnees became second-class citizens in the USSR for the sin of having been the lowliest of workers in Hitler's forced labor empire. Popular resentment transformed into abuses when state and occupation authorities would not or could not defend returnees. In Soviet-occupied Europe, the chaos of the wartime and postwar periods made repatriate women a target for opportunistic sexual abuse, while accusations of their amorality justified sexualized violence as a form of revenge. An element of official hostility contributed to repatriates' difficulties by giving license to their tormentors. Stalin and other Soviet leaders could have protected returnees with strong, public messages about their status as citizens in good standing. Instead, central leaders demanded that repatriates endure the verification of their wartime biographies, a process that signaled reasons to suspect the returnees.
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