The Nazino affair
The\xa0Nazino affair\xa0(Russian:\xa0\u041d\u0430\u0437\u0438\u043d\u0441\u043a\u0430\u044f \u0442\u0440\u0430\u0433\u0435\u0434\u0438\u044f,\xa0translit.\xa0Nazinskaya Tragediya) was the\xa0mass deportation\xa0of 6,000 people to Nazino Island in the\xa0Soviet Union\xa0in May 1933. The deportees, mostly\xa0political prisoners\xa0and\xa0petty criminals, were forcibly sent to the small, isolated island in\xa0Western Siberia, located 540 kilometers (340\xa0mi) northwest of\xa0Tomsk, to construct a "special settlement". They were abandoned with only\xa0flour\xa0for food, and little in the way of tools, clothing, or shelter, and those who attempted to leave were killed by armed guards.[1][2]\xa0The conditions of the island led to widespread\xa0disease,\xa0abuse of power,\xa0violence, and\xa0cannibalism. Within thirteen weeks, over 4,000 of the deportees related to Nazino Island had died or disappeared, and a majority of the survivors were in ill health.[3][2]
The Nazino affair was virtually unknown until 1988, when an investigation by\xa0Memorialbegan during the\xa0glasnost\xa0reforms in the Soviet Union. The events were popularized in 2002 when reports of a September 1933 special commission by the Communist Party of Western Siberia were published by Memorial.