Politics of the British government for the repatriation of soviet DPs from Western Europe in 1944-1948

• Main Author: Olena Naumenko
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv, Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Foreign Countries 2019-10-01
• Series: Європейські історичні студії
• Subjects: repatriation; displaced person (dps); great britain; refugees; division waffen ss galicia
• Online Access: http://eustudies.history.knu.ua/14-2014-naumenko/

The article describes the legal aspect of repatriation of displaced people in British government; The article describes the legal aspect of British politics on repatriation of displaced people; briefly outlines and analyzes the decisions of international meetings of senior officials, that were called upon maintain the organization and operation of this process; discloses the essence and significance of the Yalta agreements for the return of displaced people. In particular, after the Yalta conference, we can clearly see the formation of two separate approaches to repatriation. Thus, we can make a conclusion, that at first time the USSR people’s repatriation had a forcing nature, according to Yalta agreements and clarified protocol to them. But in future, the USA and Great Britain’s governments, especially, after the beginning of Cold War, were giving all kinds of legal and material help DPs, which, because of personal reasons and motives, didn’t aspire to come back, that, in return, on the other hand, considerably deteriorated inter union relations. The Soviet government sought to return all displaced people without any exception, while the Great Britain gave an alternative to all those people, who didn’t want to return to their homeland. In view of this claim, such people were transferred automatically from the category of displaced people to the category of refugees eligible for shelter in Western Europe. The approaches of the British side to different ethnic groups of repatriates are traced; the categories of displaced persons who have not been able to avoid forced return to the USSR under interstate agreements have been identified. As of the end of 1945, with the rise of crisis trends between the governments of the Big Three countries and the controversy surrounding the repatriation issue, the British government decided to halt the forced return of Soviet DPs. In particular, its concerned soldiers of the Waffen SS Galychyna Division, who did not partially come under the conditions of forced return to the USSR, but were able to use the refugee shelter in the Great Britain.