Repressions of the OGPU-NKVD-NKGB against Gypsies 1932–1941: On newly discovered materials from Ukrainian archives

Abstract

This article deals with a little-explored part of the history of the Gypsies: the repressions against them by the Soviet state security organs in the 1930s and 1940s. The persecution and arrest of Gypsies, led by “King” Yegor Mihai and members of the Kwiek royal house, took place both during the terror period of the 1930s and in the early stages of the Second World War. The article is based on previously unknown documents of the Soviet special organs, which are kept in the Ukrainian archives. The analysis of these sources led to the conclusion that the OGPU-NKVD-NKGB repressions against the so-called foreign Roma were aimed at the complete “cleansing” of the cities in the USSR of the presence of this ethnic group. This article was published open access under a CC BY licence: https://creativecommons.org/licences/by/4.0 .