Why were the Chechens and Ingush deported?

February 23rd, 2012 , 04:01 pm

We remember and mourn

February 23 marks 67 years since the day when, in connection with the liquidation of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the forced deportation of Chechens and Ingush to remote areas of Kazakhstan and Central Asia began. Since last year, this day in Chechnya has been celebrated not only as a date of mourning, but also as an official Day of Remembrance and Sorrow.

The mass deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples was carried out on the orders of Joseph Stalin on February 23, 1944. The official reason was the accusation of “aiding the fascist occupiers.” Absurd in its essence, this accusation, however, was completely in line with the logic of the Soviet leadership of the Stalin era, which pursued a policy of state terror, when entire social strata or individual peoples were declared “anti-Soviet.”
Our republic, by the will of Soviet leaders, became the main place of exile for the peoples of the Soviet Union in the 30s and 40s of the 20th century. The vast majority of them were evicted to the Karaganda region, on the territory of which a whole system of camps and special settlements was created.
The special settlers faced a lot of difficulties in their new place of residence: hunger, illness, domestic instability, separation of families, death of loved ones, the humiliating stigma of being an “enemy of the people” - they were able to survive all of this. There is no exact data on the number of deaths as a result of the deportation, but historians estimate that the harsh conditions in the resettlement sites caused the death of tens of thousands of people.
Special settlers worked in the coal basin, participated in housing construction and the construction of industrial enterprises, were engaged in agriculture, and the improvement of cities and towns in our region. Local residents who warmly welcomed representatives of other nationalities resettled to Kazakhstan helped them endure all the hardships of life that befell them, and sometimes simply survive. Only in the 50s did the state policy towards persons on special registration change.
The archives of the Department of the Committee on Legal Statistics and Special Records of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the Karaganda Region contain documents that most fully reflect the period of mass repressions of 1930-1950. Numerous materials from repressed special settlers are concentrated here, namely persons sent to our region for special settlement on national grounds. Tens of thousands of prisoners of about 40 nationalities passed through Karlag alone.
In the archives of the UKPS and the Administration of the State Police of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the Karaganda region, there are about 39 thousand personal files of special settlers, over 4 thousand personal files of foreigners, about 300,000 files of prisoners. There are file cabinets for these cases; a searchable electronic database allows you to make a quick and high-quality search or determine where and when a particular case was sent for storage.
As for the personal files of the Chechens and Ingush, all of them, in accordance with the agreement of the internal affairs bodies of our republics, were sent for storage to the National Archives under the Council of Ministers of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The department's archive contains only lists that reflect the archive numbers of cases, the names of the persons against whom cases were opened, as well as the dates of sending these cases to Chechnya. In this regard, in response to requests for confirmation of legal facts in relation to persons of Chechen nationality, the archival data of the UKPS and the Investigative Directorate of the State Police of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the Karaganda region can only confirm the fact that only adults are staying in the special settlement, i.e. persons against whom personal files were opened.
Due to the military actions that took place on the territory of Chechnya, many documents previously sent for storage to the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic were irretrievably lost. In the absence of supporting archival materials regarding certain categories of special settlements, department employees recommend going to court to establish the legal fact of being in a special settlement. Those interested will receive detailed explanations of what other authorities applicants can contact to obtain supporting information. The addresses of information centers of the Department of Internal Affairs of the regions from which the eviction took place are also given.

Gulzira ZHUNUSOVA, prosecutor of the Department of the Committee on Legal Statistics
and special records of the General Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kazakhstan for the Karaganda region

A day is longer than a century

They lingered in the mosque after prayer to remember the events that happened 67 years ago, on the terrible day of February 23. Men with blue and gray eyes, with brown irises of a hot look, portly men in hats and caps were then just children, some were not yet born, but they have something to tell from the words of their parents.

Sixty-seven years is a short human century, but how much pain and fear, joys and hopes fit in it. What helped them survive, who helped the whole people not become wordless dust, and not lose each survivor’s human appearance?
Through the thickness of years they plunge there, into the salty, hopeless depths, where, as foolish children, they grew up early under a thickness of innocent guilt. And they return back to their evening, painted with warm colors, with salty tears in the corners of their unsteppe eyes.

Bloody sunrise

At 2 a.m. on February 23, 1944, the most famous ethnic deportation operation began - the resettlement of residents of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. There was deportation of “punished peoples” before this - Germans and Finns, Kalmyks and Karachais, and after - Balkars, Crimean Tatars and Greeks, Bulgarians and Armenians living in Crimea, as well as Meskhetian Turks from Georgia. But Operation Lentil, the eviction of almost half a million Vainakhs - Chechens and Ingush - became the largest.
During the day, 333,739 people were removed from populated areas, of which 176,950 were loaded onto trains. A faster eviction was prevented by heavy snow that fell on the afternoon of February 23.

Imran Khakimov:
- It was snowing, raining, people were crying. Many died along the way, they were buried - there was no time, they were simply buried in the snow. Women died from bladder rupture. Because of the modesty instilled by their strict upbringing, they could not relieve themselves in front of everyone...

Magomed Sultygov:
“My father took a snow bath before prayer at the bus stop and contracted an infection. All swollen and delirious. He was hidden in the carriage because the sick were taken off the train and left to die. In the Kustanai region he was placed in a district hospital. He recovered and found a job here...

Ziyavuddi Dakaev:
- My father fought in the Gomel direction. In February 1944, he came to his native land on vacation after being wounded. I went home - a pot was boiling on the stove, and a neighbor was dragging our sofa. There were no more people, the dogs were howling, all the cattle were in alarm. The Armenian neighbor said: “You are being evicted, they have taken you to the station.” Father barely found us. I approached the colonel, he commanded this “parade,” and said: “I’m not going anywhere, take me and my family and shoot me at this wall.” The colonel replied: “I am also a soldier, I am following orders. The only thing I can do is give you a chaise with horses so that you can dress warmly and take food. You are being evicted to Kazakhstan”...

Makasharip Mutsolgov:
- I was ten years old, I remember all this. In the morning we were brought to the area by car and spent the night at the station. We were fed liquid porridge only at bus stops. On the way, they grabbed what they could - a guy, I saw, was dragging a snow retention shield to melt the potbelly stove in the carriage. One soldier caught up with him and hit him.

gloomy morning

Three-year-old Sulim Isakiev was awakened by the whistle of a steam locomotive. The older sister took him by the hand and led him out of the car to the Karaganda-Sortirovochnaya station. This beep is the first thing he remembers from childhood. The first pictures for these children were the steppe, the smoke above the chimneys, the cramped dugout... For Imran Khakimov, the smell of grease from hot bread became a memorable smell, sharp as the sound of a locomotive whistle. And the tongue, together with the pulp of the baursak, tasted the first unfamiliar words for Akhmed Murtazov, the most important for a hungry child: “drink - ish”, “eat - zhe”.

Kharon Kutaev:
- At the station they put us on a sled and drove us around the state farms. We lived first in a dugout in the area of ​​the 18-bis mine, then in barracks on Dorozhnaya Street. At the end of 1945, my grandmother and I were found by a cousin. I fainted with hunger. My brother sold a suit and boots at a flea market. I bought bread. He chewed it and gave it to me, and it came out...

Akhmed Murtazov:
- Mother lived here for only a year and a half. She was very worried when she received a funeral for her father, and never recovered from the grief. Before her death, she gave me behests: don’t steal, don’t be a hooligan, don’t disgrace your father’s name. My mother taught me how to read prayer. I have followed her instructions all my life.
Some gave food to the boys, some didn’t. There was an old woman, we called her “apa”. She fed them baursaks. I will never forget these first Kazakh words. Apa said: “Oh, kim, otyr!” Shay ish, baursak”...

Imran Khakimov:
- Where Kopay-gorod was, there was a meat-packing plant, they grazed sheep there. Hungry people climbed over the low fence and cut off the tails of live sheep. As a boy, I got a job in a bakery in Mikhailovka. The molds were coated with grease to prevent the dough from sticking - there was no oil. You couldn’t put hot bread in your mouth, it stank so much, and when it cooled down, nothing...

Andi Khasuev:
- Our mother had three children. We were placed in a Kazakh family. Bread was always shared equally, the head of the family, a Kazakh, when leaving for work, ordered the women to look after us as if they were their own children. I believe: Kazakhs are the most hospitable, most decent, most responsive people...

Movldi Abaev:
- My father had a 7th grade education, which was a lot in those days. He was appointed assistant commandant. My father organized a canteen - they collected meager rations into a common pot and made a mess. This is how they survived. And in the first winter, many died, especially people from the mountains, they did not undergo acclimatization.
When my parents got married, they found out that there were relatives in Karaganda, and they decided to go. It was easier to survive here - there was work. We rode on the roof of the carriage, I don’t know how we didn’t freeze...

Magomed Sultygov:
- My father’s first wife died, leaving four children. And my mother was left alone - the whole family died of typhus, she herself barely got out. People found out where there were single men and women. So the father and his children went to Kokchetav, got married, and brought their mother. The commandant found out that she had arrived without permission and wanted to take her to the NKVD. Then people gathered, and one Russian man stood up for my parents; he had six sons who fought, and all his superiors stayed with him. They defended their mother.

Work noon

We came to the full holder of the “Miner’s Glory” badge, holder of the Order of the Red Banner of Labor, Akhmed Murtazov, together with Uvays Dzhanaev, head of the Karaganda regional Chechen-Ingush ethnocultural association “Vainakh”. “I’ve known him for more than twenty years,” says Uvais Khavazhievich, surprised. “But I only recently found out that we have such a well-deserved one.”

Akhmed Dashaevich recalls:
“They were almost entirely disabled people returning from the front, without arms, without legs, shell-shocked. We were trained in the FZO as a labor reserve. I studied to be a machine operator, that’s what it was called, but what kind of mechanization is there... There was a cutting machine, they cut the layer with it. There weren't many of us, the machine operators, and when the boss asked me to stay for the second shift, I never refused, although I was tired. There was no hot water in the bathhouse - either the stoker was not working or the pump was not working. But there is no one to complain to. Still, life in the hostel was much better compared to the dugout: it was warm, the bed was changed.
Our group of machine operators was assigned to mine No. 33-34. Our foreman was a good mentor, Hero of Socialist Labor Pyotr Akulov. I worked for him for five years, then he got sick and died. It became difficult, because I was a young guy, and there were forty-year-old men there, they didn’t want to listen to me. I wrote an application to the site manager to transfer to the Kostenko mine.
At the Kostenko mine I truly became an adult. I began to pursue a policy similar to that of my first foreman. He was strict, but fair, and knew how to tell and show ten times, and that’s how he taught. Then the “Donbass-1” and “Donbass-2” combines appeared. The relief is huge...
I didn’t think about family until I got on my feet. Normal earnings appeared - we have a comprehensive Komsomol youth brigade, everyone is strong and fast. My portrait hung on the city Honor Board. Then he got married. I didn’t drink vodka, I didn’t make friends with drunks, I didn’t smoke, I behaved with dignity.
I did as the head of the site, Malakhov, told me. First I graduated from evening school, then from technical school. They offered me a promotion, but I refused. He said: “When I retire and can’t cope with young people, you’ll find a salaried job.” So I worked with young people until retirement, until 1989.
They threw me from section to section, there were some lagging behind, for reinforcement. The head of the mine, Melnikov, persuaded, he knew how. I have this principle: if you treat me like a human being, I will do the same, if it’s rude, I won’t stand on ceremony in response.
And before my well-deserved rest, Drizhd called me and asked if I wanted a car. I replied that I would like a Volga, but not a Zhiguli. “Well done,” he says, “you understand.” I wrote a statement in front of him, he drew a circle instead of a signature, he did that. And I got the Volga.

Warm evening and new morning

Makasharip Mutsolgov was ten years old in 1944. And for ten years he dreamed of returning to his homeland. In 1955, I got a ticket to Moscow and hid on the top bunk for four days. I arrived safely from the capital to the Caucasus, found my home, Ossetians lived there. I sat on my native bench, wandered around the village and went back to Kazakhstan. Since then, he has visited the Caucasus more than once. They all go there from time to time, men who lingered after prayers at the mosque that evening. But living there, they admit, is still uncomfortable. It's better in Kazakhstan.
From their sunset they turn with their covenants to the new dawn. Just as their mothers and fathers instructed them, they want to be heard by the new generation.

Akhmed Murtazov:
- When a person has free time, he finds bad company. I didn’t have time - I went to the DND, was the chairman of the comrades’ court. And my sons were involved in sports sections. I also raise my grandchildren. Not a single policeman ever came to our house. And I was at the police station only when I received my passport.
We say: sit on a Kazakh cart, sing along to Kazakh songs, ride on a Russian chaise, sing Russian songs. If everyone speaks their own language, we will not understand each other. This is how hostility and denunciations arise. This brings me terrible pain. This is also prohibited by our faith - to inform on people, to speak badly about them.

Movldi Abaev:
“We need to know the story, no matter how bitter it may be, and talk about it so that our children and grandchildren know.” Why do people live in peace in Kazakhstan? Because we have experienced a lot - hunger and cold, and how hard it is when you are left alone with trouble.

Andi Khasuev:
- Nobody infringed on me, and how can anyone infringe on me? Since I was ten years old, I have been earning my own bread and sharing this bread. Those who eat by themselves and do not share with anyone are discriminated against. And if you swallow a large piece, it will get stuck in your throat.
I wish the younger generation will never experience such grief as we and our fathers. Kazakhstan is our common home, and love for this home should be pure and strong, like spring water that comes from the very depths to a height of hundreds of meters.
After these words, all the men nod their heads in agreement and say: you couldn’t say it better. So be it!

Olga MOOS

Human warmth

This real story could form the basis of a story or become a script for a feature film. Life throws intricate plots at us, persistently demanding an answer to the eternal “to be or not to be?” In this story, to be human meant to snatch another person from oblivion. To find a lost son, one had to become a father again. The spindle turns, and the thread of fate is spun, and the canvas turns out to be embroidered. White on black.

After a month of torment in windswept carriages, the family of displaced Makhmudovs arrived at the Zhosaly station in the Kyzylorda region. It was cold and hungry in the new place. Daud and Rabiat Makhmudov, together with the rest of the Chechen families, also scattered across the steppes, dug dugouts. They tried to survive - no matter what the grief was, but the children, 9-year-old Saidamin and very little Tamara, had to be saved.
Unable to withstand the hardships and cold Kazakhstan winter, the Makhmudovs’ father and mother died. Saidamin and Tamara could have shared the fate of many children of the post-war period - vagrancy, special detention centers. But fate decreed otherwise.
One morning, on the threshold of the orphanage where the brother and sister ended up, a short Kazakh man with light gray hair at his temples appeared. Seeing Saidamin, he said: “Let’s go live with me. My only son disappeared in the war. Maybe you can replace it for me. I will call you Abylaykhan, as my son. And my name is Arutdin, my last name is Kulimov.”
So Saidamin Makhmudov had a new family. They lived poorly, but amicably - a small house, father and mother, sisters. Everyone, both household and village residents, unquestioningly obeyed their father, the chairman of the collective farm. And he, in turn, demanded respect from everyone for his adopted son. He taught his wife Ziyashkul: “Don’t ask your son to carry water from the well; among the Chechens this is considered women’s work. Let him chop wood, look after the horses... He respects our customs in everything, and we will respect the customs of his native land.”
Seven years flew by like seven days. One morning, like a steppe lark, a rumor flew across the steppes that a Red Army officer who had returned from the war was walking around Saryarka, looking for his surviving relatives. He's been walking for five or six years now, and he's found everyone except the youngest, Saidamin.
This story would not exist if the brothers had not found each other. But it turned out to be difficult to come to an agreement - Saidamin-Abylaikhan forgot his native language. The Red Army soldier says to him in Chechen: “Hello, brother!”, and Saidamin says to him: “Nemene?” He again: “I am Kasum, your cousin!” Saidamin answered sadly: “Men seni bilmeimin...”
When I realized, I began to break free from my brothers’ hands: “I’m not going anywhere!” The father asked the unexpected guests to leave him and his son alone. I guessed that he was afraid to leave. Here everything is native - both the people and the steppe, but there is the unknown. Arutdin said simply and wisely: “Son, your homeland is there, sooner or later it will call you. You were my support in difficult times, but now I have no right to hold you. If you decide to return, the doors of your home are open for you. Go, may Allah bless you!”
And that's not the whole story. All the good that Arutdin Kulimov did for others returned to him increased a hundredfold. Soon the news came: his own son Abylaykhan was alive, he was on his way and would soon be in his father’s house!
People from all over the area gathered for the big event. In the most honorable place behind the dastarkhan are Saidamin, Kasum and Abylaykhan. They listen carefully to their father’s parting words:
- Whatever sprout you plant, that’s how the tree will grow. Whatever you put in your son’s heart, he will take it to people. My sons are my pride. And even if Saidamin decided to leave for his homeland, it must be so, this is the call of the blood, you can’t escape it. But those who lived here will certainly return, because our land is rich in kind people.
The parting words turned out to be prophetic. Many years later, by the will of fate, Saidamin's children - ten brothers and sisters, as well as grandchildren and great-grandchildren - moved to Karaganda. The Makhmudov family numbers about seventy people. Some live in Chechnya, some in Kazakhstan, and we can talk about each for a long time. Everyone grew up to be worthy people: builders, engineers, doctors, athletes, miners. The eldest son, Sadyk, received a high award in 1990 - the “Miner’s Glory” badge, III degree. The youngest, Akhmed, became a mullah and graduated from the Islamic University in Grozny.
Saidamin Makhmudov, living in the Caucasus, always remembers his second homeland. More than once he made pilgrimages to the holy places of Kazakhstan and now, despite his venerable age - 76 years, he comes to Karaganda to visit his children. Together with them, he repeats the words of his father, Arutdin Kulimov, which are passed down from generation to generation in the Makhmudov family:
- We went through a lot in difficult times for the country, we supported each other as best we could, regardless of who was of what kind and what nation. Now our duty is to live in peace and harmony under one shanyrak spread over this blessed land. Now that we have everything, sometimes human warmth is not enough. Therefore, we must not forget that we all come from the same past, and we should not judge each other, but understand.

In the winter of 1944, Operation Lentil began - the mass expulsion of Chechens and Ingush from the North Caucasus. Why did Stalin decide on deportation, how did it happen, what did it lead to? This page of history still causes controversial assessments today.

Desertion

Until 1938, Chechens were not systematically drafted into the army; the annual draft was no more than 300-400 people. Since 1938, conscription has been significantly increased. In 1940-41, it was carried out in full accordance with the law “On General Military Duty,” but the results were disappointing. During the additional mobilization in October 1941 of persons born in 1922, out of 4,733 conscripts, 362 people evaded reporting to recruiting stations. By decision of the State Defense Committee, from December 1941 to January 1942, the 114th national division was formed from the indigenous population in the Chi ASSR. According to data at the end of March 1942, 850 people managed to desert from it. The second mass mobilization in Checheno-Ingushetia began on March 17, 1942 and was supposed to end on the 25th. The number of persons subject to mobilization was 14,577 people. However, by the appointed time, only 4887 were mobilized, of which only 4395 were sent to military units, that is, 30% of what was allocated according to the order. In this regard, the mobilization period was extended until April 5, but the number of mobilized people increased only to 5,543 people.

Uprisings

The policies of the Soviet government, primarily the collectivization of agriculture, caused mass discontent in the North Caucasus, which repeatedly resulted in armed uprisings. From the moment of the establishment of Soviet power in the North Caucasus until the start of the Great Patriotic War, 12 major anti-Soviet armed uprisings took place in Checheno-Ingushetia alone, in which from 500 to 5,000 people took part.
But to speak, as has been done for many years in party and KGB documents, about the “almost universal participation” of Chechens and Ingush in anti-Soviet gangs, of course, is absolutely groundless.

OPKB and ChGNSPO

In January 1942, the “Special Party of Caucasian Brothers” (OPKB) was created, uniting representatives of 11 peoples of the Caucasus (but operating mainly in Checheno-Ingushetia). The program documents of the OPKB set the goal of fighting “Bolshevik barbarism and Russian despotism.”
The party's coat of arms depicted fighters for the liberation of the Caucasus, one of whom was killing a poisonous snake, and the other was cutting the throat of a pig with a saber. Israilov later renamed his organization the National Socialist Party of the Caucasian Brothers (NSPKB).

According to the NKVD, the number of this organization reached five thousand people. Another large anti-Soviet group on the territory of Checheno-Ingushetia was the Chechen-Gorsk National Socialist Underground Organization (ChGNSPO) created in November 1941 under the leadership of Mairbek Sheripov. Before the war, Sheripov was the chairman of the Forest Industry Council of the Chi ASSR; in the fall of 1941, he opposed Soviet power and managed to unite under his command the detachments operating in the Shatoevsky, Cheberloevsky and part of the Itum-Kalinsky districts.

In the first half of 1942, Sheripov wrote a program for the ChGNSPO, in which he outlined his ideological platform, goals and objectives. Mairbek Sheripov, like Israilov, proclaimed himself an ideological fighter against Soviet power and Russian despotism. But among his loved ones, he did not hide the fact that he was driven by pragmatic calculations, and the ideals of the struggle for freedom of the Caucasus were only declarative. Before leaving for the mountains, Sharipov openly declared to his supporters: “My brother, Sheripov Aslanbek, in 1917 foresaw the overthrow of the Tsar, so he began to fight on the side of the Bolsheviks. I also know that Soviet power has come to an end, so I want to meet Germany halfway.”

"Lentils"

On the night of February 24, 1944, NKVD troops surrounded populated areas with tanks and trucks, blocking all exits. Beria reported to Stalin about the start of Operation Lentil.

The relocation began at dawn on February 23. By lunchtime, more than 90 thousand people were loaded into freight cars. As Beria reported, there was almost no resistance, and if it did arise, the instigators were shot on the spot. On February 25, Beria sent a new report: “The deportation is proceeding normally.” 352 thousand 647 people boarded 86 trains and were sent to their destination. Chechens who fled into the forest or mountains were caught by NKVD troops and shot. During this operation, monstrous scenes occurred. The residents of the village of Khaibakh were driven into a stable by security officers and set on fire. More than 700 people were burned alive. The migrants were allowed to take with them 500 kilograms of cargo per family.

The special settlers had to hand over livestock and grain - in exchange they received livestock and grain from local authorities at their new place of residence. There were 45 people in each carriage (for comparison, the Germans were allowed to take a ton of property during deportation, and there were 40 people in each carriage without personal belongings). The party nomenclature and the Muslim elite traveled in the last echelon, which consisted of normal carriages.

The obvious excess of Stalin's measures is obvious today. Thousands of Chechens and Ingush gave their lives at the front and were awarded orders and medals for their military exploits. Machine gunner Khanpasha Nuradilov was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. A Chechen-Ingush cavalry regiment under the command of Major Visaitov reached the Elbe. The title of Hero, to which he was nominated, was awarded to him only in 1989.

Sniper Abukhadzhi Idrisov destroyed 349 fascists, Sergeant Idrisov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Red Star, and was awarded the title Hero of the Soviet Union. Chechen sniper Akhmat Magomadov became famous in the battles near Leningrad, where he was called “the fighter of the German occupiers.” He has more than 90 Germans on his account.

Khanpasha Nuradilov destroyed 920 fascists at the fronts, captured 7 enemy machine guns and personally captured 12 fascists. For his military exploits, Nuradilov was awarded the Order of the Red Star and Red Banner. In April 1943, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union. During the war years, 10 Vainakhs became Heroes of the Soviet Union. 2,300 Chechens and Ingush died in the war. It should be noted: military personnel - Chechens and Ingush, representatives of other peoples repressed in 1944 - were recalled from the front to the labor armies, and at the end of the war they, the “victorious soldiers,” were sent into exile.

Deportation - the mass, forced eviction of individual communities selected according to a certain principle (ethnic, racial, religious, social, political, etc.) - is recognized in world practice as a war crime and a crime against humanity.

The eviction of Chechens and Ingush on ethnic grounds was carried out on February 231944 Later - on March 7, 1944, a Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR appeared, which read: “Due to the fact that during the Great Patriotic War, especially during the actions of the Nazi troops in the Caucasus, many Chechens and Ingush betrayed their Motherland , joined the ranks of saboteurs and intelligence officers thrown by the Germans into the rear of the Red Army, created armed gangs at the orders of the Germans to fight against Soviet power and for a long time, not being engaged in honest labor, carried out bandit raids on collective farms in neighboring regions, robbed and killed Soviet people, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR decides:

All Chechens and Ingush living on the territory of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, as well as in the areas adjacent to it, should be resettled to other regions of the USSR, and the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic liquidated..."

Absurd in its essence, this accusation, however, was completely in line with the logic of the Soviet leadership of the Stalin era, which pursued a policy of state terror, when entire social strata or individual peoples were declared “anti-Soviet.” If the destruction of “counter-revolutionary” social groups through the “red” and then the “great” terror was carried out from the first days of Soviet power, then repressions against “anti-Soviet” nations began in the late 1930s, on the eve of the USSR’s entry into World War II, and were, as it were, part of the preparation for a big war. Thus, the eviction of Koreans from the Far East was explained by their “unreliability” in the event of a military clash with Japan, the mass eviction of Poles from the western regions of Ukraine and Belarus, annexed in 1939, was explained by their commitment to preserving a united Poland, etc.

In itself, the eviction or deportation of entire peoples during the Stalin era was one of the main tools for strengthening the totalitarian regime and intimidating all citizens of the USSR. And what served as the trigger for the deportations was no longer so important.

The German attack on the USSR immediately caused the widespread forced eviction of Soviet Germans and Finns to the eastern regions of the country. Later, repressions will affect Kalmyks, Karachais, Chechens and Ingush, Balkars, Crimean Tatars and Greeks, Crimean Bulgarians, Meskhetian Turks and Kurds. Moreover, the officially announced motives for the eviction of entire peoples often clearly smacked of political schizophrenia. Thus, in the text of the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR dated August 28, 1941 on the eviction of the Germans of the Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans, written, apparently, by the hand of Stalin, it was said that in the Volga region supposedly “there are tens and thousands of saboteurs and spies who, on a signal , given from Germany, must carry out explosions...” Hence the conclusion was drawn that “the German population of the Volga region hides in its midst enemies of the Soviet people and Soviet power...” Similar formulations were heard in subsequent Decrees concerning the deportation of other peoples of the USSR.

The practical implementation of the decision on the mass eviction of Chechens and Ingush began when the threat of the capture of the Caucasus by German troops was completely eliminated, and the so-called “rebel movement” in the mountains of Checheno-Ingushetia, which was often provoked by the security officers themselves, even according to official data, was sharply on the decline . In addition, Checheno-Ingushetia was not under German occupation, and the transition “to the side of the Germans” was observed only on the part of the Cossacks of the Terek villages, which at that time were not part of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Thus, the official reasons for the eviction - “collaboration with the Germans” and a threat to the Soviet rear - do not stand up to criticism.

It seems that the Stalinist regime, by demonstratively exterminating small nations “for treason and betrayal,” wanted to teach a lesson to the rest of the large “socialist” nations, for which such accusations, for objective reasons, sounded much more relevant. After all, the terrible defeats of the armed forces of the USSR at the first stage of the war and the occupation of 7 union republics were explained by the betrayal, betrayal and cowardice of certain “traitors”, and not by the regime’s own miscalculations and mistakes.

The true reasons for the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, as well as some other peoples of the North Caucasus, lay not only in the peculiarities of the official ideology and misanthropic practices of the Stalinist state, but also in the selfish interests of the leaders of individual republics of the Caucasus, in particular Georgia. As you know, most of the regions of Karachay, Balkaria and the mountainous part of Chechnya went to Georgia, and almost all of Ingushetia went to North Ossetia.

The first sign of preparation for mass ethnic repressions can be considered the suspension in the spring of 1942 of the mobilization of Chechens and Ingush into the army. It is possible that the eviction of the highlanders was planned in the same 1942, but the unfavorable situation at the fronts forced Stalin to postpone his punitive action until better times.

The second signal was the eviction of Karachais and Kalmyks, accompanied by massacres, at the end of 1943.

In October 1943, in preparation for the eviction, Deputy People's Commissar of the NKVD B. Kobulov traveled to Checheno-Ingushetia to collect data on “anti-Soviet protests.” Following the trip, he drew up a memo that contained falsified figures about the allegedly massive number of active bandits and deserters. “Kobulov! A very good note,” Beria pointed out in the report and set in motion the preparations for Operation Lentil.

It should be noted that the eviction of entire peoples, the liquidation of their statehood, the forcible change of the boundaries of union and autonomous state formations was not only not provided for by the Constitution of the USSR, the RSFSR and the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, but also by no laws or by-laws. And according to Soviet laws, and even more so according to international law, what the Stalinist regime did to entire nations was a grave crime that had no statute of limitations.

It should be noted that its organizers spared no expense to carry out this crime. Up to 120 thousand combat-ready soldiers and officers of the internal troops (more than for other front-line operations), 15 thousand railway cars and hundreds of steam locomotives, and 6 thousand trucks were sent alone to carry out the action to deport Chechens and Ingush. The transportation of special settlers alone cost the country 150 million rubles. With this money it was possible to build 700 T-34 tanks. In addition, about 100 thousand peasant farms were completely ruined, which, according to the most minimal estimates, resulted in a loss exceeding several billion rubles.

Preparations for the deportation were carefully disguised. The NKVD troops introduced into Checheno-Ingushetia were dressed in combined arms uniforms. In order not to raise unnecessary questions among the local population, the administration explained the appearance of a large number of troops by conducting large-scale maneuvers in mountainous areas in anticipation of a major offensive by the Red Army in the Carpathian Mountains region. Punitive detachments were located in camps near villages and in the villages themselves, without giving away their true goals. Misled by skillful propaganda, local residents generally welcomed people dressed in Red Army uniforms...

Operation Lentil began on the night of February 23, 1944. Chechen and Ingush villages located on the plain were blocked by troops, and at dawn all the men were invited to village gatherings, where they immediately lingered. No gatherings were held in small mountain villages. Particular importance was attached to the speed of the operation, which was supposed to exclude the possibility of organized resistance. That is why the families of the deportees were given no more than one hour to get ready; the slightest disobedience was suppressed by the use of weapons.

Already on February 29, L. Beria reported on the successful completion of the deportation of Chechens and Ingush, the total number of deportees was more than 400 thousand people.

The eviction of Chechens was accompanied by many incidents and massacres of civilians. The largest mass execution was the murder of over 700 people in the village of Khaibakh, Galanchozho region, committed on February 27, 1944. “Untransportable” residents - the sick and elderly - were gathered here. The punishers locked them in the stable of the local collective farm, after which they covered the stable with hay and set it on fire...

This massacre was led by NKVD Colonel M. Gvishiani, who subsequently received gratitude from People's Commissar L. Beria, nomination for an award and promotion in rank.

In addition to Khaibakh, mass executions were noted in many other villages of Checheno-Ingushetia.

The evicted people were loaded into railway carriages and transported to Kazakhstan and the republics of Central Asia. At the same time, the settlers were practically not provided with normal food, fuel, or medical care. On the way to new places of residence, thousands of people, especially children and old people, died from cold, hunger and epidemic diseases.

The territory of the abolished Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was divided into parts. As a result of the division, the Grozny region (with all its oil production and oil refining infrastructure) was formed, which included most of the lowland regions of Checheno-Ingushetia. The mountainous part of Checheno-Ingushetia was divided between Georgia and Dagestan, and almost the entire territory of the Ingush Autonomous Region (within the borders of 1934) went to North Ossetia, with the exception of the mountainous part of the Prigorodny district, transferred to Georgia. The party and economic bodies of these republics had to organize the settlement of the areas transferred to them.

The eviction did not automatically end the activities of small rebel groups in the mountains of Checheno-Ingushetia. But all of them were practically unarmed and could not effectively counteract the NKVD troops, limiting themselves only to individual military forays, which were acts of “revenge for the resettlement of their relatives.” But even the hundred-thousand-strong group of Soviet troops in Chechnya could not detect and destroy them.

Officially, “Checheno-Ingush banditry,” and, in fact, heroic resistance to violence against the people, was “ended” only in 1953.

It should be noted that the situation with national resistance in a number of other regions of the Soviet Union in 1944-1945. was much more intense than in the mountains of Checheno-Ingushetia. Thus, the total number of rebels in Chechnya did not exceed several thousand people. At the same time, for example, in Ukraine after the departure of German troops, from 150 to 500 thousand opponents of the Soviet regime were active. By the way, to combat the Ukrainian nationalist underground, the NKVD proposed a previously tried method - the wholesale eviction of “... all Ukrainians living under the rule of the German occupiers.” Thus, we were talking about the deportation of many millions of people. But the Soviet government did not dare to undertake an action of this scale.

As already mentioned, the territory of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was divided between the Grozny region, Dagestan, Georgia and North Ossetia. Accordingly, the governing bodies of these republics had to ensure the settlement of the lands transferred to them with new residents. But there were few people willing to go to new places. The resettlement proceeded at an extremely slow pace. Only the authorities of Dagestan and North Ossetia were able to organize a more or less large-scale resettlement. However, even in 1956, when Chechens began to return to their homeland, many Chechen villages on the plain were still not fully populated.

As for the deported Chechens and Ingush, they were settled in small groups in various regions of Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Uzbekistan. They were required to live mainly in agricultural areas and engage in agricultural labor. They did not have the right to leave their settlements even for a short time without special permission from the local “special commandant’s offices” of the NKVD, which exercised political supervision over them. Special settlers assigned to various collective and state farms were often settled by the administration in dilapidated barracks, utility sheds, and stables. Many were forced to dig dugouts and build huts. All this was accompanied by a lack of food, clothing and other basic necessities.

The result of inhuman living conditions in the first years of eviction was a high mortality rate among special settlers, which can be characterized as mass death. Thus, according to the NKVD, until October 1948, about 150 thousand special settlers from the North Caucasus (Chechens, Ingush, Karachais and Balkars) died in exile.

The Chechens and Ingush quickly proved that they can work well and build their lives not only on their own land, but also where fate has thrown them. Already in 1945, special commandant's offices everywhere reported that the majority of special settlers had proven themselves well at work on collective and state farms. Thanks to their own work, they gradually strengthened their financial position. By the end of the 40s. more than half of the resettled Chechens lived in their own homes.

The deportation of 1944 dealt a heavy blow to the national culture of the Chechens and practically destroyed the national education system, which by the 40s. has not yet had time to fully form. In Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, teaching the native language even in primary school was completely excluded. Children of special settlers studied Russian, Kazakh or Kyrgyz languages ​​in schools. In addition, in the 1940s. in some regions of Kazakhstan, up to 70% of children of specially displaced persons did not attend school due to the lack of warm clothes and shoes. Obtaining higher education for special settlers was associated with significant difficulties. To enter a university, a school graduate had to obtain special permission from the internal affairs bodies.

With the death of I. Stalin in 1953 and the elimination of his closest assistant L. Beria, a period of “thaw” began in the USSR, including in the sphere of national politics. And the report of N.S. Khrushchev at the 20th Congress of the CPSU in March 1956, in which the cult of personality of I. Stalin was debunked and his crimes were admitted, had the effect of an exploding bomb.

In the summer of 1956, the status of special settlers was finally removed from the Chechens, Ingush, Balkars and Karachais. But the return of Chechens to their historical homeland was still considered undesirable, since the territory of Chechnya was densely populated by new settlers. Despite this, thousands of Chechens began to leave their places of exile without permission and return to Chechnya. Under the pressure of these circumstances, the top leadership of the USSR was forced to consider the issue of restoring the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. However, for several months it was not possible to come to any definite decision.

At 2 a.m. on February 23, 1944, the most famous ethnic deportation operation began - the resettlement of residents of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, formed ten years earlier by uniting the Chechen and Ingush Autonomous Regions.

There were deportations of “punished peoples” before this - Germans and Finns, Kalmyks and Karachais, and after - Balkars, Crimean Tatars and Greeks, Bulgarians and Armenians living in Crimea, as well as Meskhetian Turks from Georgia. But Operation Lentil to evict almost half a million Vainakhs - Chechens and Ingush - became the largest.

The Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR motivated the decision to deport Chechens and Ingush by the fact that “during the Great Patriotic War, especially during the actions of the Nazi troops in the Caucasus, many Chechens and Ingush betrayed their Motherland, went over to the side of the fascist occupiers, and joined the ranks of saboteurs and intelligence officers , thrown by the Germans into the rear of the Red Army, created armed gangs at the behest of the Germans to fight against Soviet power, and also taking into account that many Chechens and Ingush for a number of years participated in armed uprisings against Soviet power and for a long time, being not engaged in honest labor, carry out bandit raids on collective farms in neighboring regions, rob and kill Soviet people.”

These two peoples had difficult relations with the authorities even before the war. Until 1938, there was not even a systematic conscription of Chechens and Ingush into the Red Army - no more than 300-400 people were conscripted annually.

Then the conscription was significantly increased, and in 1940-1941 it was carried out in full accordance with the law on universal conscription.

“The attitude of the Chechens and Ingush towards Soviet power was clearly expressed in desertion and evasion of conscription into the Red Army. During the first mobilization in August 1941, out of 8,000 people subject to conscription, 719 people deserted. In October 1941, out of 4,733 people, 362 evaded conscription. In January 1942, during the formation of the national division, only 50 percent of the personnel were recruited. In March 1942, out of 14,576 people, 13,560 deserted and evaded service, went underground, went to the mountains and joined gangs. In 1943, out of 3,000 volunteers, the number of deserters was 1,870,” wrote L.P. in a memo. Beria's deputy people's commissar, state security commissioner of the 2nd rank B.Z. Kobulov.

According to him, there were 38 sects in the republic, numbering over 20 thousand people. These were mainly hierarchical organized Muslim religious brotherhoods of murids.

“They are conducting active anti-Soviet work, sheltering bandits and German paratroopers. When the front line approached in August-September 1942, 80 members of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) quit their jobs and fled, including 16 leaders of district committees of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks), 8 senior officials of district executive committees and 14 chairmen of collective farms,” wrote Bogdan Kobulov.

After the start of the war, the mobilization of the Chechens and Ingush was actually thwarted - “believing and hoping that the USSR would lose the war, many mullahs and teip authorities agitated for evasion of military service or desertion,” says the collection of documents “Stalin’s Deportations. 1928-1953".

Due to mass desertion and evasion from service, in the spring of 1942, by order of the USSR NGO, the conscription of Chechens and Ingush into the army was canceled.

In 1943, the conscription of approximately 3 thousand volunteers was authorized, but two-thirds of them deserted.

Because of this, it was not possible to form the 114th Chechen-Ingush Cavalry Division - it had to be reorganized into a regiment, however, even after this, desertion was widespread.

According to data as of November 20, 1942, in the Northern group of the Transcaucasian Front there were all 90 Chechens and Ingush - 0.04%.

Heroes of War

At the same time, many Vainakhs who went to the front showed their best side and contributed to the victory of the Soviet people in the Great Patriotic War in 1941-1945.

The names of three Chechens and one Ingush are immortalized in the Memorial Complex of the Defenders of the Brest Fortress. But, according to various sources, from 250 to 400 people from Checheno-Ingushetia took part in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress, which became a symbol of fortitude and courage. Together with other units of the Red Army, the 255th Chechen-Ingush Regiment and a separate cavalry division fought in Brest.

One of the last and staunch defenders of the Brest Fortress was Magomed Uzuev, but only in 1996, by Decree of the President of the Russian Federation, was he posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Russian Federation. Magomed’s brother Visa Uzuev also fought in Brest.

Two defenders of the Brest Fortress are still alive in Chechnya - Akhmed Khasiev and Adam Malaev

Sniper Abukhaji Idrisov destroyed 349 fascists - an entire battalion. Sergeant Idrisov was awarded the Order of the Red Banner and the Red Star, and was given the title Hero of the Soviet Union.

Chechen sniper Akhmat Magomadov became famous in the battles near Leningrad, where he was called “the fighter of the German occupiers.” There are more than 90 Germans on his side.

Khanpasha Nuradilov destroyed 920 fascists at the fronts, captured 7 enemy machine guns and personally captured 12 fascists. For his military exploits, Nuradilov was awarded the Order of the Red Star and Red Banner. In April 1943, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.

During the war years, 10 Vainakhs became Heroes of the Soviet Union. 2,300 Chechens and Ingush died in the war.

Anti-Soviet protests

With the beginning of the war, gangs in the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic became more active. In October 1941, two separate uprisings took place, covering the Shatoevsky, Itum-Kalinsky, Vedensky, Cheberloevsky and Galanchozhsky districts of the republic. At the beginning of 1942, the leaders of the uprisings, Khasan Israilov and Mairbek Sheripov, united, creating the “Provisional People's Revolutionary Government of Checheno-Ingushetia.” In its statements, this rebel "government" viewed Hitler as an ally in the fight against Stalin.

As the front line approached the border of the republic in 1942, anti-Soviet forces began to act more actively. In August-September 1942, collective farms were dissolved in almost all mountainous regions of Chechnya, and several thousand people, including dozens of Soviet functionaries, joined the uprising of Israilov and Sheripov.

After the appearance of German landing forces in Chechnya in the fall of 1942, the NKVD accused Israilov and Sheripov of creating pro-fascist parties, the National Socialist Party of the Caucasian Brothers and the Chechen-Mountain National Socialist Underground Organization.

In the eight teams of fascist paratroopers with a total number of 77 people dropped onto the territory of the republic, the majority were recruited Chechens and Ingush. But there was no widespread participation of Chechens and Ingush in anti-Soviet gangs. The NKVD registered 150-200 gangs of 2-3 thousand bandits on the territory of Checheno-Ingushetia. This is approximately 0.5% of the population of Chechnya. From the beginning of the war until January 1944, 55 gangs and 973 bandits were liquidated in the republic, 1901 bandits, fascists and their accomplices were arrested.

"Lentils"

Operation Lentil began preparations in October-November 1943. Initially, resettlement was planned in the Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, in the Altai and Krasnoyarsk territories. But then it was decided to resettle the Chechens and Ingush to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

On January 29, 1944, the head of the NKVD Lavrentiy Beria approved the “Instructions on the procedure for the eviction of Chechens and Ingush.” On February 1, the issue was discussed by the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks. Disagreements arose only over the timing of the start of the operation.

Beria personally led the operation. On February 17, 1944, he reported from Grozny that preparations were being completed and 459,486 people were to be evicted. The operation was designed to last eight days, and 19 thousand operatives of the NKVD, NKGB and SMERSH and about 100 thousand officers and soldiers of the NKVD troops were involved in it.

On February 22, Beria met with the republic’s top leadership and senior clergy and told them about the government’s decision and “the motives that formed the basis for this decision. After this message, Chairman of the Council of People’s Commissars Mollaev “teared up, but promised to pull himself together and promised to fulfill all the tasks that would be given to him in connection with the eviction,” Beria reported to Stalin.

Beria suggested that the highest clergy of Checheno-Ingushetia “carry out the necessary work among the population through the mullahs and other local “authorities” associated with them.”

The influence of the mullahs was enormous. Their preaching, wrote the USSR Minister of Internal Affairs N.P. Dundorov in the mid-1950s, could improve labor discipline and even double labor productivity.

“Both the party-Soviet and clergy we employ have been promised some resettlement benefits (the norm of things allowed for export will be slightly increased),” Beria said.

The operation, according to his assessment, began successfully - 333,739 people were removed from populated areas within 24 hours, of which 176,950 were loaded onto trains. A faster eviction was prevented by heavy snow that fell on the afternoon of February 23.

Nevertheless, by February 29 (1944 was a leap year), 478,479 people were evicted and loaded into wagons, including 91,250 Ingush and 387,229 Chechens.

“177 trains have been loaded, of which 159 trains have already been sent to the place of the new settlement,” Beria reported the results of the operation.

During the operation, 2,016 “people of anti-Soviet element” were arrested, and more than 20 thousand firearms were confiscated.

“The population bordering Checheno-Ingushetia reacted favorably to the eviction of Chechens and Ingush,” said the head of the NKVD.

Residents of the republic were allowed to take with them 500 kilograms of cargo per family. The special settlers had to hand over livestock and grain - in exchange they received livestock and grain from local authorities at their new place of residence.

There were 45 people in each carriage (for comparison, the Germans were allowed to take a ton of property during deportation, and there were 40 people in each carriage without personal belongings). The party nomenclature and the Muslim elite traveled in the last echelon, which consisted of normal carriages.

And just months later, in the summer of 1944, several spiritual leaders of the Chechens were summoned to the republic to help persuade the gangs and Chechens who had evaded deportation to stop resisting.

Incidents

The deportation did not take place without incidents - according to various sources, from 27 to 780 people were killed, and 6,544 residents of the republic managed to evade deportation. The People's Commissariat of State Security reported "a number of ugly facts of violation of revolutionary legality, arbitrary executions of old Chechen women who remained after the resettlement, the sick, the crippled, who could not follow."

According to a document published by the Democracy Foundation, in one of the villages three people were killed, including an eight-year-old boy, in another - “five old women”, in the third - “according to unspecified data” “arbitrary execution of the sick and crippled up to 60 people "

In recent years, there have been reports of the burning of from 200 to 600-700 people in the Galanchozhsky district. Two commissions were created to investigate the operation in this area - in 1956 and 1990, but the criminal case was never brought to an end. The official report of the 3rd rank State Security Commissioner M. Gvishiani, who led the operation in this area, spoke only of several dozen killed or died along the way.

As for the mortality of displaced persons, as the leadership of the NKVD convoy troops reported, 56 people were born on the way to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, “1,272 people died, which is 2.6 people per 1,000 transported. According to a certificate from the Statistical Directorate of the RSFSR, the mortality rate in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1943 was 13.2 people per 1,000 inhabitants.” The causes of mortality were “the advanced and early age of those resettled,” the presence of chronic diseases among those resettled,” and the presence of physically weak people.

Toponymic repressions

On March 7, 1944, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic itself was liquidated. In place of the areas inhabited by Chechens, the Grozny Okrug was created as part of the Stavropol Territory.

Part of the territory of the republic was divided between Georgia and North Ossetia. All Ingush place names were repressed - they were replaced with Russian and Ossetian names.

Opinion of historians

Despite a number of incidents, in general the eviction of the whole passed calmly and did not push the Chechens and Ingush into a terrorist war, although, according to historians, there were all the possibilities for this.

Some historians explain this by saying that the harsh punishment was at the same time gentle towards the people. According to the laws of war, desertion and evasion from military service deserved severe punishment. But the authorities did not shoot the men, “cut off the roots of the people,” but evicted everyone. At the same time, party and Komsomol organizations were not disbanded, and recruitment into the army was not stopped.

However, most historians consider it unacceptable to punish an entire people for the crime of some of its representatives. Deportations of peoples as repressions were extrajudicial in nature and were aimed not at a specific person, but at a whole group of people, and a very large one at that. Masses of people were torn out of their usual habitat, deprived of their homeland, and placed in a new environment, thousands of kilometers from the previous one. Representatives of these peoples were evicted not only from their historical homeland, but also from all other cities and regions, and demobilized from the army.

Rehabilitation and return

The ban on returning to their homeland for Chechens and Ingush was lifted on January 9, 1957 by decree of the Presidiums of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the RSFSR. These decrees restored Chechen-Ingush autonomy, and an Organizing Committee was created to organize repatriation.

Immediately after the decree, tens of thousands of Chechens and Ingush in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan quit their jobs, sold off their property and began to seek emigration to their previous place of residence. The authorities were forced in the summer of 1957 to temporarily suspend the return of Chechens and Ingush to their homeland.

One of the reasons was the tense situation developing in the North Caucasus - local authorities were not prepared for the massive return and conflicts between the Vainakhs and settlers from Central Russia and land-poor regions of the North Caucasus who occupied their homes and lands in 1944.

The restoration of autonomy provided for a new, complex redrawing of the administrative-territorial division of the region. Outside the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was the Prigorodny district, which remained part of the North Ossetian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and at the end of the 1980s turned into a hotbed of the Ossetian-Ingush conflict.

The authorities planned to return 17 thousand families to the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1957, but twice as many returned, and many sought to be placed in exactly the same villages and houses in which they lived before deportation. This led to ethnic confrontation. In particular, in August 1958, after a domestic murder, riots broke out, about a thousand people seized the regional party committee in Grozny and staged a pogrom there. 32 people were injured, including four employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, two civilians died and 10 were hospitalized, almost 60 people were arrested.

Most Chechens and Ingush returned to their homeland only in the spring of 1959.

The Chechens and Ingush were completely rehabilitated according to the RSFSR law of April 26, 1991 “On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples.” The law provided for “the recognition and implementation of their right to restore the territorial integrity that existed before the unconstitutional policy of forcibly redrawing borders, to restore national-state entities that existed before their abolition, as well as to compensate for damage caused by the state.”

At the same time, the law provided that the rehabilitation process should not infringe on the rights and legitimate interests of citizens currently living in these territories.

On March 1, 1944, the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L. Beria reported to Stalin on the results of the eviction of Chechens and Ingush: “The eviction began on February 23 in most areas, with the exception of high-mountain settlements. By February 29, 478,479 people were evicted and loaded onto railway trains, including 91,250 Ingush. 180 trains have been loaded, of which 159 have already been sent to the site of the new settlement. Today, trains with former executives and religious authorities of Checheno-Ingushetia, who were used in carrying out the operation, have been sent. From some points of the Galanchozhsky district, 6 thousand Chechens remained not evicted due to heavy snowfall and impassable roads, the removal and loading of which will be completed in 2 days. The operation took place in an organized manner and without serious cases of resistance or other incidents... The leaders of the party and Soviet bodies of North Ossetia, Dagestan and Georgia have already begun work on the development of new areas ceded to these republics... To ensure the preparation and successful implementation of the operation to evict the Balkars, measures were taken all necessary measures. The preparatory work will be completed by March 10 and the eviction of Balkars will take place from March 15. Today we finish our work here and leave for Kabardino-Balkaria and from there to Moscow.” (State Archive of the Russian Federation. F.R-9401. Op. 2. d. 64. l. 61).

It was an unprecedented crime that had no analogues in world history. An entire people, who made an outstanding contribution to the conquest, establishment and defense of Soviet power, as well as to the fight against Nazi Germany, on false charges of “treason” were forcibly deported from their historical homeland, in fact, to complete extinction in Central Asia and Siberia. As a result, almost half of the population died from hunger, cold and disease. What kind of treason and cooperation with the enemy could we talk about if our republic was not occupied by the Germans? In his book, the former secretary of the Chechen-Ingush regional committee for personnel during the war, and later a university teacher N.F. Filkin reports: “At the beginning of the war, there were at least 9 thousand Chechens and Ingush in its personnel units” (N.F. Filkin. Chechen-Ingush party organization during the war years. - Grozny, 1960, p. 43). In total, about 50 thousand Chechens and Ingush took part in the Great Patriotic War. Even if we take one episode from the war years - the defense of the Brest Fortress - according to the latest data, 600 Chechens and Ingush took part in its defense, and 164 of them were nominated for the high rank of Hero of the Soviet Union.

From other military units that fought on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War, 156 Chechens and Ingush were nominated for the title of Hero of the USSR. Why they didn't get these stars hardly needs explaining. The historical truth, however, is that the Vainakhs have always been famous for their warriors. In support of these words, I would like to cite the statement of Marshal of the Soviet Union Semyon Mikhailovich Budyonny from A. Avtorkhanov’s book “The Murder of the Chechen-Ingush People”: “...This was after the evacuation of Kerch by the Reds. The commander of the Southern Front, Marshal Budyonny, who was inspecting the disorderly retreating units from Kerch and Crimea, having placed two divisions against each other in Krasnodar, one that had just arrived at the Chechen-Ingush front, the other that had just fled here from Kerch, said, addressing the Russian division: “Look at them, the mountaineers, their fathers and grandfathers, under the leadership of the great Shamil, bravely fought for 25 years and defended their independence against the whole of Tsarist Russia. Take them as an example of how to defend the Motherland.” Apparently, fearing this mass heroism on the part of our soldiers who took part in the Great Patriotic War, I.V. In March 1942, Stalin issued secret order No. 6362 banning the awarding of Chechens and Ingush with high military awards for their heroic deeds (see S. Khamchiev, Return to Origins - Saratov, 2000).

Myths about Chechen-Ingush bandits were promoted by NKVD agents and the employees of these bodies themselves. If, for example, there were 20-30 people dissatisfied with the Stalinist regime and the provocations of the NKVD, then their number was inflated tens and even hundreds of times, which was reported to Moscow in order to curry favor and earn titles for allegedly discovering large gang groups and their destruction. Today it is impossible to calculate how many innocent Chechens and Ingush were killed. But there are always “historians and writers” like the Pykhalovs who are happy to label us with the Stalinist label “enemies of the people.” I would like to cite some documents on this matter: “There are 33 bandit groups (175 people), 18 lone bandits, registered in the Chechen-Ingush Republic, 10 more bandits (104 people) were active. Revealed during a trip to the regions: 11 bandit groups (80 people), thus, on August 15, 1943, there were 54 bandit groups operating in the republic - 359 participants.

The growth of banditry must be attributed to such reasons as insufficient party mass and explanatory work among the population, especially in high mountainous regions, where there are many auls and villages located far from regional centers, lack of agents, lack of work with legalized gang groups..., permissible excesses. in conducting security and military operations, expressed in mass arrests and murders of persons who were not previously on the operational register and do not have incriminating material. Thus, from January to June 1943, 213 people were killed, of which only 22 people were operationally registered...” (from the report of the deputy head of the department for combating banditry of the NKVD of the USSR, comrade Rudenko. State Archive of the Russian Federation. F.R. -9478 Op. 1. d. 41. l. 244). And one more document (from the report of the head of the NKVD department of Checheno-Ingushetia for the fight against banditry, Lieutenant Colonel G.B. Aliev, addressed to L. Beria, August 27, 1943) on the same occasion: “...Today in The Chechen-Ingush Republic has 54 registered gang groups with a total number of participants of 359 people, of which there are 23 gangs that existed before 1942, 27 that arose in 1942, and 4 gangs in 1943. Of the indicated gangs, there are 24 active gangs consisting of 168 people and 30 gangs that have not manifested themselves since 1942 with a total composition of 191 people. In 1943, 19 gang groups with 119 participants were liquidated, and during this time, 71 bandits were killed in total...” (Package of documents No. 2 “spy”, 1993 No. 2, pp. 64-65).

However, even these figures cannot be completely trusted, since the above archival document shows how “gangster” groups were created and destroyed. The murder of innocent Chechens reached such proportions that one of the high-ranking officials of the NKVD apparatus of the USSR was forced to admit this lawlessness in his report addressed to the leadership. This is what the great scientist, historian and political scientist Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov writes about the number of expelled Chechens and Ingush: “...According to the 1936 USSR Constitution, the North Caucasus region consisted of the autonomous regions of Circassia, Adygea, Karachay and the autonomous Soviet socialist republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia, Checheno-Ingushetia and Dagestan.

The Chechen-Ingush Soviet Republic itself occupied an area of ​​15,700 square kilometers (half the area of ​​Belgium) with a population of about 700 thousand people, and the number of all Chechens and Ingush living in the Caucasus, counting normal population growth, amounted to about one million people at the time of the eviction (a population of almost equal to the population of Albania)". (Murder in the USSR. Murder of the Chechen-Ingush people. - Moscow, 1991, p. 7).

The largest figure mentioned in officially declassified documents is 496,460 Chechens and Ingush, which executioner L.P. writes about in his report. Beria in July 1944 addressed to I.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov and G.M. Malenkova. But where did almost half of our people not listed in Beria’s documents disappear? What is their fate? There can only be one answer to all these questions: they were destroyed during the deportation. Apparently, I. Stalin could not even imagine that the time would come when top secret and not subject to publication archival documents telling about terrible crimes and the extermination of millions of Soviet citizens would become public knowledge. And that his actions will be condemned by the entire civilized world community. I will refer to one more fact from A. Avtorkhanov’s book “Murder in the USSR. Murder of the Chechen-Ingush people: “...The Soviet press, even in the era of glasnost, was not allowed to write about the number of North Caucasians who died during their deportation. Now for the first time in the Literary Gazette dated August 17, 1989, Doctor of Historical Sciences Hadji-Murat Ibragimbayli provides preliminary data on this matter: out of 600 thousand Chechens and Ingush, 200 thousand people died, Karachais 40 thousand (more than one third), Balkars - more 20 thousand (almost half).

If we add here about 200 thousand dead Crimean Tatars and 120 thousand dead Kalmyks, then the famous “Leninist-Stalinist national policy” cost these small nations about 600 thousand dead, mainly old people, women and children.” And also from the book “Lenin in the destinies of Russia. Reflections of a historian”: “All these calculations, of course, are approximate. The country will learn the whole truth about the victims of both Leninist and Stalinist terror when the secret funds of the archives of the KGB, the army and the apparatus of the CPSU Central Committee itself are opened. Probably, the contents of these archives are so monstrous and making them public will be so deadly for the existing totalitarian system that even the “new thinkers” of the Kremlin do not dare to do this. However, they are intelligent enough to understand that without a radical break with the past they will not get out of the current trouble...”

Doctor of Economic Sciences, famous Russian scientist Ruslan Imranovich Khasbulatov writes: “...Beria reported on March 3, 1944 to Stalin that 488 thousand Chechens and Ingush were deported (loaded into wagons). But the fact is that according to the statistical census of 1939, there were 697 thousand Chechens and Ingush people. Over five years, if the previous population growth rates were maintained, there should have been more than 800 thousand people, minus 50 thousand people who fought on the fronts of the active army and other units of the armed forces, that is, the population subject to deportation, there were at least 750-770 thousand people . The difference in numbers is explained by the physical extermination of a significant part of the population and the colossal mortality rate in this short period of time, which, in fact, is quite rightfully equated to murder. During the period of eviction, about 5 thousand people were in inpatient hospitals in Checheno-Ingushetia - none of them “recovered” or were reunited with their families. We also note that not all mountain villages had stationary roads - in winter, neither cars nor even carts could move along these roads. This applies to at least 33 high-mountain villages (Vedeno, Shatoy, Naman-Yurt, etc.), in which 20-22 thousand people lived. What their fate turned out to be is shown by the facts that became known in 1990, related to the tragic events, the death of the inhabitants of the village of Khaibakh. All its inhabitants, more than 700 people, were driven into a barn and burned.

The monstrous action was led by NKVD Colonel Gvishiani. This episode was carefully hidden by the party authorities and was made public only in 1990. In many cases, the elderly, the sick, the weak and small children were left in high-mountain villages - they were destroyed, and the rest were driven on foot along icy roads to lowland villages - to collection points (“septic tanks”). Thus, from the period of February 23 - early March 1944, there were at least 360 thousand dead Chechens and Ingush people. Researchers believe that more than 60 percent of the deported population died from cold, hunger, disease, melancholy and suffering...” (R.Kh. Khasbulatov. The Kremlin and the Russian-Chechen war. Aliens. - Moscow, 2003, p. 428 -429).

The Khaibakh tragedy became known thanks to the outstanding son and patriot of the Chechen people Dziyaudin Malsagov, former deputy. People's Commissar of Justice and a direct eyewitness to this terrible tragedy, who, being in exile, risking his life, conveyed a written appeal to the First Secretary of the CPSU Central Committee N.S. Khrushchev personally in his hands, in it he reported this greatest crime. And the world learned about this tragedy thanks to the outstanding statesman, President of the USSR M.S. Gorbachev and the glasnost he proclaimed, freedom of speech and perestroika. These examples of mass destruction of our people and other peoples of our former common homeland indicate that I.V. Stalin disposed of the lives and destinies of millions of citizens of the Soviet Union as his personal property. And confirmation of this is his very long, bloody political life - from 1922 to 1953. - during which he destroyed, according to Professor Kurganov’s calculations, 66 million citizens of the Soviet Union. I will give one more example on this topic: “From some settlements in the high-mountainous Galanchozh region, 6,000 Chechens remained unevacuated due to heavy snowfall and impassable roads, the removal and loading of which will be completed in 2 days. The operation is carried out in an organized manner and without serious cases of resistance...” (from the report of the People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR L.P. Beria addressed to I.V. Stalin, March 1, 1944).

Residents of some villages, as well as patients in hospitals, were exterminated... An NKVD regiment was brought to the Galanchozhsky district. His quick transfer was ensured by the then Minister of Internal Affairs of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Drozdov. And on the very eve of the denouement of the drama, Gvishiani arrived in the Galanchozhsky district. Residents from approximately 10-11 villages in the high mountain region were driven onto the ice of lakes and narrow coastal strips along gorges and paths. Beria accurately counted them - 6,000 people. Around them, the NKVD regiment gradually tightened the ring. At the right moment, machine guns and machine guns started working. The ice battle lasted three days. Then, for another three days, work continued to eliminate traces of the crime. Over a thousand corpses were driven under the ice, the remaining five thousand were thrown with stones and turf. Having won this “brilliant victory,” the regiment retreated in an organized manner, but the approaches to the lake were still blocked in order to prevent “extra” witnesses from getting to it. What happened next? The lake was poisoned in order to keep exotic residents away from it for a long time - for more than ten years they did not allow access to Galanchozh, the approaches to it were blown up. But you can’t hide your sewing in a bag. After the Chechens returned home, construction of a road to the lake began in this area, and that’s when the “ominous secret” was revealed (O. Dzhurgaev “Vesti Respubliki”, No. 169, 02.09.10). There are still many unsolved and undeclassified crimes related to the deportation of our people. How many eyewitnesses left this world without having time or daring to talk about all the mass executions and murders of the Chechen people. I would like to cite documents concerning the destruction of the village of Khaibakh: “Top secret to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Comrade. L.P. Beria.

For your eyes only, due to non-transportability and in order to strictly implement Operation Mountains on time, I was forced to eliminate more than 700 people in the town of Khaibakh. Colonel Gvishiani."

Chief executioner I.V. Stalin L.P. Beria responds with gratitude for the crime committed: “For decisive actions during the eviction of Chechens in the Khaibakh region, you have been nominated for a government award with a promotion in rank. People's Commissar of the NKVD of the USSR L. Beria.”

For the burning alive of more than 700 innocent residents of the village of Khaibakh, the state security commissioner of the 3rd rank was awarded one of the highest orders of the country - the Order of Suvorov, II degree, with the military rank of major general. And the country's chief inquisitor I.V. Stalin, in turn, thanks the dogs loyal to him:

“On behalf of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the USSR Defense Committee, I express gratitude to all units and units of the Workers’ and Peasants’ Red Army and the NKVD troops for the successful completion of the government assignment in the North Caucasus.”

The oldest of the “traitors to the motherland” burned in Khaibakh was 110 years old, the youngest “enemies of the people” were born the day before this terrible tragedy (Yu.A. Aidaev. Chechens. History. Modernity. - Moscow, 1996, p. 275) .

And to prove the genocide of our people in their places of “residence” in Central Asia and Kazakhstan, I will cite the following documents:

“People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L. Beria addressed to the Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR A. Mikoyan. Secret. November 27, 1944

The overwhelming majority of collective farms in the Kirghiz SSR and a significant part of the collective farms in the Kazakh SSR do not have the opportunity to pay specially resettled collective farmers for their workdays either in grain or other types of food. In this regard, 215 thousand special settlers from the North Caucasus settled on collective farms of the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSR remain without food. Taking this into account, I would consider it necessary to provide special purpose migrants from the North Caucasus who are especially in need of food, to allocate food funds at the disposal of the Council of People's Commissars of the Kyrgyz and Kazakh SSR for a specific purpose, at least in the minimum amount, based on the distribution per person per day: flour - 100 grams, cereals - 50 gr., salt - 15 gr. and sugar for children - 5 grams, - for the period from December 1, 1944 to July 1, 1945. This requires: flour 3870 tons, cereals - 1935 tons, salt - 582 tons, sugar - 78 tons. Draft resolution of the Council of People's Commissars I enclose. People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR L. Beria A.I. Mikoyan, secret. November 29, 1944 (TsGOR. F. 5446. Op. 48. D. 3214. L. 6. Deportation of peoples: nostalgia for totalitarianism. P. 146, 137, 138, 172, 173).

“Due to the state of resources, the People's Commissariat of Procurement does not consider it possible to allocate flour and cereals to supply special settlers and asks for a petition from Comrade. Reject Beria."

Deputy People's Commissar of Procurement of the USSR D. Fomin (GORF F.R.-5446.op.48.d.3214 L.2).

Thanks to this “national” policy, the Chechen population, which numbered 392.6 thousand people according to the 1926 census, and 408 thousand in 1939, reached 418.8 thousand in 1959, that is, it increased in 33 years by only 162 thousand people. Even if we believe these official statistical data, counting the annual natural population growth minus the deaths, then by 1959 there should have been one million Chechens. From 1959 to 1969, Chechens, according to the USSR State Statistics Service, numbered 614,400 people, and in the ten years after returning from this hellish exile, their number increased by 195,600 people!

What happened to him over the course of not even hundreds or thousands of years, but the last decades of our tragic and at the same time heroic history. Let justice and truth prevail. The memory of all the crimes and atrocities against our people that took place along its historical path of development, no matter how tragic and bleeding it may be, must always be preserved in the hearts of our people. And I would like to conclude this article with the words of Ilya Grigorievich Chavchavadze, the great Georgian poet, writer and public figure, spoken as if for us: “The fall of a nation begins from the moment when the memory of the past ends.” It is hardly possible to say anything better and more convincingly.

Salambek Gunashev.
(C) photo Yandex.