In June 1941, Hitler launched the offensive on the Eastern Front to invade the Soviet Union (Operation Barbarossa )… an overly ambitious plan. The brutal German offensive managed to break through the unsuspecting Red Army defenses and quickly gain ground. However, the arrival of winter stabilized the front allowing the Red Army to group together and disrupt Hitler's plans. But the Soviets were not alone, they received help from the Arctic Convoys. From Iceland and, above all, from the United Kingdom they crossed the Arctic Ocean to the Soviet ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk. Since August 1941, 78 convoys managed to deliver four million tons of weapons (7,000 planes, 5,000 tanks and ammunition), fuel, food and medicine. Supplies and weapons arriving at the ports of Murmansk and Arkhangelsk had to be distributed across the border of the Soviet Union to stave off the German invasion. Under extreme temperatures and with ice as their only companion, reindeer became the protagonists of transportation .
Until the end of 1939 the minorities of the Arctic (Nenets , Saami , komi …) were exempt from military service in the Red Army, but when the Soviet Union invaded Finland (Winter War ) were forced to enlist. Unfortunately for them, their reindeer and sleds became key to transportation and in 1941, at the start of Operation Barbarossa, they reclaimed them.
Approximately 6,000 reindeer and 600 herders, mainly Nenets , they were recruited to transport ammunition, food and serve as courier between the different units. The reindeer and their herders could travel about 50 kilometers a day with a load of up to 300 kg. They worked for eight hours a day and had to rest one every four hours of work. In the midst of those trips, subjected to hellish weather and on many occasions to the fire of the Germans, they also rescued and brought to safety downed Soviet pilots, and even their own planes for parts. When the war ended, only half of the herders and their reindeer returned home.
Among the Nenets stories are told of his skills with the lasso (arkan ) to catch Germans alive and get information on the enemy. Also about the reindeer lost after a German air attack that managed to return to the home of the Nenets hundreds of kilometers away.
His recognition would not come until February 23, 2012, when a monument was inaugurated in the city of Narian-Mar in tribute to the reindeer herders who died in World War II.
Reindeer Battalion Memorial