[2] However, the data of the General Secretariat For Greeks Abroad give an even lower number (50 people).
[4] Since 1939 and during World War II Greeks living in the Soviet Union—most of them were merchants, but there were also some farmers—suffered deportations, mainly to the steppes of Central Asia, particularly to Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan and Siberia.
[5] For a considerable time after the end of the war, these deported Greeks remained unrehabilitated, and were not allowed to return to their pre-deportation areas of settlement.
Thus some of them chose to leave Siberia to settle in Kazakhstan and (to a lesser extent) in Kyrgyzstan.
[8] The community is represented by the Filia (Friendship) Association of Ethnic Greeks, headed by chairwoman Olga Kupriyanova.