The history of the deportation of the Chechen people. Deportation. Why Stalin resettled Chechens, Ingush and Crimean Tatars

At 2 am 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 combining the Chechen and Ingush Autonomous Regions.

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

The decision to deport the Chechens and Ingush was motivated by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR 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 homeland, went over to the side of the Nazi invaders, joined the ranks of saboteurs and intelligence officers thrown by the Germans behind the Red Army, created armed gangs at the behest of the Germans to fight against Soviet power , and also considering that many Chechens and Ingush for a number of years participated in armed uprisings against the Soviet regime and for a long time, being not engaged in honest work, they make bandit raids on the collective farms of neighboring regions, rob and kill Soviet people.

Difficult relations between these two peoples with the authorities existed 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 called up annually.

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

“The attitude of the Chechens and Ingush towards the Soviet authorities was clearly expressed in desertion and draft evasion in the Red Army. During the first mobilization in August 1941, out of 8,000 people to be drafted, 719 deserted. In October 1941, out of 4,733 people, 362 evaded the draft. In January 1942, during the formation of the national division, only 50 percent of the personnel were called up. 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. Beria Deputy People's Commissar, Commissar of State Security of the 2nd rank B.Z. Kobulov.

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

“They are active in anti-Soviet work, sheltering bandits, German paratroopers. When the front line approached in August-September 1942, 80 members of the CPSU (b), including 16 heads of district committees of the CPSU (b), 8 executives of district executive committees and 14 chairmen of collective farms, quit their jobs and fled, ”wrote Bogdan Kobulov.

After the start of the war, the mobilization of the Chechens and Ingush turned out to be 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 prepared by the International Democracy Foundation "Stalin's deportations. 1928-1953".

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

Approximately 3,000 volunteers were allowed to be drafted in 1943, 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 that desertion was of a massive nature.

As of November 20, 1942, in the Northern Group of the Transcaucasian Front there were all 90 Chechens and Ingush - 0.04%.

war heroes

At the same time, many Vainakhs who got to the front showed themselves with better 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 memorial complex defenders Brest Fortress. But in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress, which has become a symbol of steadfastness and courage, according to various sources, from 250 to 400 people from Checheno-Ingushetia participated. 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, he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero Russian Federation. Magomed's brother Visa Uzuev also fought in Brest.

Until now, two defenders of the Brest Fortress, Akhmed Khasiev and Adam Malaev, live in Chechnya

Sniper Abukhadzhi Idrisov destroyed 349 Nazis - a whole battalion. Sergeant Idrisov was awarded the Orders of the Red Banner and the Red Star, he was awarded the title Hero Soviet Union.

Chechen sniper Akhmat Magomadov became famous in the battles near Leningrad, where he was called the "fighter of the German invaders." There are over 90 Germans on it.

Khanpasha Nuradilov destroyed 920 fascists on the fronts, captured 7 enemy machine guns and personally captured 12 fascists. For military exploits, Nuradilov was awarded the Orders of the Red Star and the 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 speeches

With the beginning of the war, bandit formations in the CHIASSR became more active. In October 1941, two separate uprisings took place, covering the Shatoevsky, Itum-Kalinsky, Vedensky, Cheberloevsky and Galanchozhsky regions of the republic. In early 1942, the leaders of the uprisings, Khasan Israilov and Mairbek Sheripov, united, creating the "Provisional People's Revolutionary Government of Checheno-Ingushetia." In their statements, this "government" of the rebels considered 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, in almost all mountainous areas In Chechnya, collective farms were disbanded, 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 autumn of 1942, the NKVD accused Israilov and Sheripov of creating the pro-fascist parties of the National Socialist Party of the Caucasian Brothers and the Chechen-Mountain National Socialist Underground Organization.

In the eight teams of fascist paratroopers dropped onto the territory of the republic, with a total number of 77 people, most of them were recruited Chechens and Ingush. But there was no total 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 to prepare in October-November 1943. Initially, it was planned to resettle in the Novosibirsk and Omsk regions, in the Altai and Krasnoyarsk Territory. But then it was decided to resettle the Chechens and Ingush to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

On January 29, 1944, the head of the NKVD, Lavrenty Beria, approved the "Instruction 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 on the timing of the start of the operation.

Beria personally supervised the operation. On February 17, 1944, he reported from Grozny that preparations were being completed, 459,486 people were to be evicted. The operation was designed for eight days, and 19,000 operatives of the NKVD, NKGB and SMERSH and about 100,000 officers and soldiers of the NKVD troops were involved in it.

On February 22, Beria met with the top leadership of the republic and the highest clergy and told them about the decision of the governments and “the motives that formed the basis of this decision. After this message, the Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars, Mollaev, "were in tears, 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 proposed to the highest clergy of Chechen-Ingushetia "to hold necessary work among the population through the mullahs associated with them and other local "authorities".

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

“Both party-Soviet and clergymen used by us are promised some benefits for resettlement (the rate of things allowed for export will be slightly increased),” Beria said.

The operation, according to him, began successfully - in a day from settlements 333,739 people were taken out, of which 176,950 were loaded into trains. Heavy snow that fell on the afternoon of February 23 prevented a faster eviction.

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

During the operation, 2016 “people of the anti-Soviet element” were arrested, more than 20 thousand firearms were seized.

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

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

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

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

Incidents

The deportation was not without excesses - according to various sources, from 27 to 780 people were killed, 6544 residents of the republic managed to evade deportation. The People's Commissariat of State Security reported on "a number of ugly facts of violation of revolutionary legality, unauthorized executions of Chechen old women left after the resettlement, sick, 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 sick and crippled up to 60 people ".

IN last years there were reports of burning from 200 to 600-700 people in the Galanchozh region. Two commissions were set up to investigate the operation in the area, in 1956 and 1990, but the criminal case was never completed. The official report of the commissioner of state security of the 3rd rank M. Gvishiani, who was in charge of the operation in this area, spoke of only a few dozen killed or died on the way.

As for the mortality of migrants, as reported by the leadership of the NKVD escort troops, 56 people were born on the way to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, “1272 people died, which is 2.6 people per 1000 transported. According to the certificate of the Statistical Administration of the RSFSR, the death rate in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic for 1943 was 13.2 people per 1,000 inhabitants. The causes of death were "advanced and early age resettled”, the presence of chronic diseases among the resettled”, the presence of the physically weak.

Toponymic repression

On March 7, 1944, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR itself was liquidated. In place of the areas inhabited by Chechens, the Grozny District was created as part of the Stavropol Territory.

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

Historians' opinion

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

Some historians explain this by the fact that severe punishment was at the same time gentle in relation to the people. Under the laws of wartime, desertion and evasion of military service deserved severe punishment. But the authorities did not shoot the men, “cut the root 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 the entire nation for the crime of a part of its representatives. The deportations of peoples as repressions were of an extrajudicial nature and were directed 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 habitual habitat, deprived of their homeland, and placed in a new environment, thousands of kilometers from the former. Representatives of these peoples were evicted not only from their historical homeland, but also from all other cities and regions, 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 a decree of the Presidiums of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the RSFSR. These decrees restored the 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 their property, and began to former place 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 - the local authorities were not ready for a mass return and conflicts between the Vainakhs and the settlers from Central Russia and land-poor areas North Caucasus.

The restoration of autonomy provided for a new complex redrawing of the administrative-territorial division of the region. The Prigorodny district turned out to be outside the CHIASSR, 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 17,000 families to the CHIASSR in 1957, but twice as many of them returned, and many sought placement in the very villages and houses in which they lived before the deportation. This led to ethnic confrontation. In particular, in August 1958, after the murder, riots broke out on domestic grounds, 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.

Fully Chechens and Ingush were rehabilitated under the law of the RSFSR of April 26, 1991 "On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples." The law provided for "the recognition and exercise of their right to restore the territorial integrity that existed before the unconstitutional policy of forcible redrawing of borders, to restore the national-state formations that had developed before their abolition, as well as to compensate for the 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.

February 23, 2016 marks the 72nd anniversary of the greatest crime committed against our people. At the dawn of a cold winter morning on February 23, 1944, on the Day of the Workers 'and Peasants' Red Army of the USSR, all our people, on the criminal order of the "father of the peoples" I.V. Stalin was exiled to Central Asia and Kazakhstan.

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: “Eviction began on February 23 in most areas, with the exception of high-mountain settlements. By February 29, 478,479 people, including 91,250 Ingush, were evicted and loaded into railway trains. 180 echelons have been loaded, of which 159 have already been sent to the place of the new settlement. Today, echelons with former Chechen-Ingush leaders and religious authorities, who were used in the operation, have been sent. From some points in the Galanchozhsky district, 6 thousand Chechens remained unexpelled due to heavy snowfall and impassability, 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 and other incidents ... The leaders of the party and Soviet organs North Ossetia, Dagestan and Georgia have already begun work on the development of new areas that have departed to these republics ... All necessary measures have been taken to ensure the preparation and successful implementation of the operation to evict the Balkars. Preparatory work will be completed by March 10 and from March 15 the Balkars will be evicted. Today we are finishing work here and leaving 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 nation that made an outstanding contribution to the conquest, formation and defense of Soviet power, as well as to the struggle against Nazi Germany, was forcibly deported from its historical homeland on a false accusation of "treason", in fact, to total extinction to Central Asia and Siberia. As a result, almost half of the population died from hunger, cold and disease. What kind of betrayal and cooperation with the enemy could there be 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 lecturer, N.F. Filkin reports: “At the beginning of the war, at least 9 thousand Chechens and Ingush were 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 participated 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 presented to the high rank of Hero of the Soviet Union.

Of the other military units that fought on the battlefields of the Great Patriotic War, 156 Chechens and Ingush were presented for the title of Hero of the USSR. Why they did not receive these stars hardly needs to be explained. The historical truth, however, is that the Vainakhs have always been famous for their warriors. In confirmation 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”: “... It was after the evacuation of Kerch by the Reds. The commander of the Southern Front, Marshal Budyonny, who was inspecting the randomly retreating units from Kerch and the Crimea, setting up two divisions in Krasnodar against each other, one that had just arrived at the Chechen-Ingush front, the other that had just fled here from Kerch, said, referring to the Russian division: “Look at them, the highlanders, their fathers and grandfathers, under the leadership of the great Shamil, fought bravely for 25 years and defended their independence against the whole of tsarist Russia. Take an example from them 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. Stalin in March 1942 issued a secret order No. 6362 on a ban on rewarding Chechens and Ingush with high military awards for accomplished feats (see S. Khamchiev. Return to Origins. - Saratov, 2000).

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

The growth of banditry must be attributed to such reasons as the insufficient conduct of party-mass and explanatory work among the population, especially in mountainous regions, where there are many auls and villages located far from regional centers, the lack of agents, the lack of work with legalized bandit groups .., allowed excesses in the conduct of Chekist-military operations, expressed in mass arrests and murders of persons who were not previously on operational records and who do not have compromising material. So, from January to June 1943, 213 people were killed, of which only 22 people were on operational records ... ”(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 Inventory 1, file 41, sheet 244). And one more document (from the report of the head of the NKVD department of the Chechen-Ingushetia for the fight against banditry, Lieutenant Colonel G.B. Aliev, addressed to L. Beria, August 27, 1943) on the same occasion: “... Today in Chechen- The Ingush Republic has 54 recorded bandit groups with a total of 359 members, of which there are 23 gangs that existed before 1942, 27 that emerged in 1942, and 4 gangs in 1943. Of these gangs, there are 24 actively operating, consisting of 168 people, and 30 gangs that have not shown themselves since 1942, with a total membership of 191 people. In 1943, 19 bandits were liquidated with the number of participants 119 people, and in total during this time bandits were killed - 71 people ... ”(Package of documents No. 2“ spy ”, 1993 No. 2, pp. 64-65).

However, even these figures cannot be fully trusted, since the above archival document shows how "bandit" groups were created and destroyed. The murder of innocent Chechens reached such proportions that one of the high-ranking officials of the apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR was forced to admit this lawlessness in his memorandum addressed to the leadership. Here is what the great scientist, historian and political scientist Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov writes about the number of deported Chechens and Ingush: “... According to the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, the North Caucasus Territory consisted of the autonomous regions of Circassia, Adygea, Karachay and the autonomous Soviet socialist republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia , Chechen-Ingushetia and Dagestan. Chechen-Ingush itself soviet republic 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, considering the normal population growth, amounted to about one million people by the time of the eviction (a population almost equal to the population of Albania). (People's murder in the USSR. The 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 the executioner L.P. writes about in his memorandum. Beria in July 1944 in the name of I.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov and G.M. Malenkov. But where did almost half of our people not mentioned in Beria's documents disappear to? What is their fate? There can be only 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 unpublishable archival documents telling about terrible crimes and the destruction of millions of Soviet citizens would become public. And that his deeds will be condemned by the entire civilized world community. I will refer to one more fact from A. Avtorkhanov's book “People's murder in the USSR. The murder of the Chechen-Ingush people: “... Even in the era of glasnost, the Soviet press was not allowed to write about the number of North Caucasians who died during their deportation. Now for the first time in Literary newspaper» dated 17.08.89 Dr. historical sciences Hadji-Murat Ibrahimbeyli cites preliminary data on this matter: out of 600,000 Chechens and Ingush, 200,000 people died, 40,000 Karachays (more than one-third), and more than 20,000 Balkars (almost half). If we add here about 200,000 dead Crimean Tatars and 120,000 dead Kalmyks, then the famous "Leninist-Stalinist national policy" cost these small peoples about 600,000 dead, mainly the elderly, women and children. And also from the book “Lenin in the fate of Russia. Reflections of a Historian”: “All these calculations are, of course, approximate. The country will know the whole truth about the victims of both Lenin's and Stalin's terror when the secret funds of the archives of the KGB, the army and the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU are opened. It is likely that the contents of these archives are so monstrous and making them public would be so deadly for the existing totalitarian system that even the "innovators" of the Kremlin do not dare to do so. However, they are intelligent enough to understand that without a radical break with the past, they cannot get out of the current trouble ... "

Doctor of Economic Sciences, a well-known Russian scientist Ruslan Imranovich Khasbulatov writes: “... Beria reported on March 3, 1944 to Stalin that 488 thousand people were deported Chechens and Ingush (loaded into wagons). But the fact is that according to the statistical census of 1939, there were 697,000 Chechens and Ingush people. For five years, while maintaining the previous population growth rate, there should have been more than 800 thousand people, minus 50 thousand people who fought on the fronts of the 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 in this short period of time, which, in fact, is quite legitimate to equate to murders. During the period of eviction, about 5 thousand people were in stationary hospitals in Checheno-Ingushetia - none of them "recovered", were not reunited with their families. It should also be noted that not all mountain villages had fixed roads - in winter, neither cars, nor even wagons-carts could move along these roads. This applies to at least 33 high mountain villages (Vedeno, Shatoi, Naman-Yurt, etc.), where 20-22 thousand people lived. What their fate turned out to be is shown by the facts that became known in 1990, connected with the tragic events, the death of the inhabitants of the village of Khaibakh. All its inhabitants, more than 700 people, were herded into a barn and burned.

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

The Khaibakh tragedy became known thanks to the outstanding son and patriot of the Chechen people Dziaudin Malsagov, a former deputy. People's Commissar of Justice and a direct eyewitness to this terrible tragedy, who, being in exile, risking his life, handed over a written appeal to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU N.S. Khrushchev personally into 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 proclaimed by him, freedom of speech and perestroika. These examples of mass destruction of our and other peoples of our former common homeland testify 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 what has been said is his very long bloody political life- from 1922 to 1953 - during which he destroyed, according to Professor Kurganov, 66 million citizens of the Soviet Union. Let me give you another example of this topic: “6,000 Chechens remained unexported from some settlements of the high-mountainous Galanchozh region due to heavy snowfall and impassability, 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 up to the Galanchozh region. The then Minister of the Interior of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Drozdov ensured his quick transfer. And on the very eve of the denouement of the drama, Gvishiani arrived in the Galanchozh district. People from about 10-11 villages were driven along the gorges and paths onto the ice of the lake and onto the narrow coastal strips. mountainous region. Beria accurately calculated them - 6,000 people. Around them, the NKVD regiment gradually tightened the ring. At the right moment, machine guns and machine guns fired. Lasted Battle on the Ice three days. Then another three days went on to eliminate the 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 reaching it. What happened next? The lake was poisoned in order to keep exotic residents away from it for a long time - for more than a dozen years they were not allowed to go to Galanchozh, the approaches to it were blown up. But you can’t hide the sewing in the bag. Upon the return of the Chechens home in this area, the laying of a road to the lake began, and that's when the "sinister secret" was revealed (O. Dzhurgaev, Vesti Respubliki, No. 169, 02.09.10). How many still remain unsolved and unclassified crimes related to the deportation of our people. How many eyewitnesses left this world without having time and not daring to tell about all the mass executions and murders of the Chechen people. I would like to cite documents relating to the destruction of the village of Khaibakh: “It was done secretly by Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Comrade. L.P. Beria.

Just for your eyes, due to non-transportability and in order to rigorously complete the operation "Mountains" on time, I had to liquidate more than 700 people in the town of Khaibach. Colonel Gvishiani.

Chief executioner I.V. Stalin L.P. Beria responds with gratitude for the crime committed: “For decisive actions in the course of the eviction of Chechens in the Khaibakh region, you are presented with a government award with an increase 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 commissioner of state security of the 3rd rank was awarded one of the highest orders of the country - the Order of Suvorov II degree, with the assignment military rank major general. And the country's chief inquisitor I.V. Stalin, in turn, thanks the dogs devoted to him:

"On behalf of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the USSR Defense Committee, I express gratitude to all units and subunits 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” burnt in Haibach 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 as proof of the genocide of our people in the places of "residence" in Central Asia and Kazakhstan, I will cite the following documents:

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

The vast majority of the collective farms of the Kirghiz SSR and a significant part of the collective farms of the Kazakh SSR are unable to pay the special settlers-collective farmers for their workdays worked either in grain or in other types of food. In this regard, 215 thousand special settlers from the North Caucasus, settled in the collective farms of the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSRs, remain without food. Given this, I would consider it necessary to provide special settlers from the North Caucasus who are in special need of food to allocate at the disposal of the Council of People's Commissars of the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSR designated purpose food funds at least in the minimum amount, based on the issuance per person per day: flour - 100 gr., cereals - 50 gr., salt - 15 gr. and sugar for children - 5 gr., - 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. 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. S. 146, 137, 138, 172, 173).

“The People's Commissariat of Procurement, due to the state of resources, does not consider it possible to allocate flour and cereals for supplying special settlers and asks for the petition of Comrade. Beria to reject.

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

Thanks to such a “national” policy, the Chechen population, which, according to the 1926 census, numbered 392.6 thousand people, and in 1939 - 408 thousand, in 1959 reached 418.8 thousand, that is, it increased by only 33 years 162 thousand people. Even if we believe these official statistics, considering the annual natural increase of the population 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, amounted to 614,400 people, and ten years after returning from this hellish exile, their number increased by 195,600 people!

An outstanding Kazakh poet, writer and public figure Olzhas Suleimenov writes: “Vainakhs! Brothers and sisters! I confess that today, more than ever, it is difficult for me to write. And not because there are no words. Because this book is not written on paper, it is scorched into the scorched souls of old people, men and women, written with the blood of children who could and should have themselves become fathers and mothers of children who were not born not by the will of providence, but by the will of cruel fate that brought tragedy for the entire multinational people of the Soviet empire, which violated the most important values of national and civic dignity. Everyone died and suffered. But the death and suffering of the repressed peoples, their grief and destruction many times exceeded all the tragedies that have ever happened to entire peoples in history, because there is no greater misfortune for a nation than losing their homeland ... I know that your memory bleeds. I also know that it is impossible to keep silent, to forget the tragedy that happened, because this would be a crime against memory, comparable to the misfortune that befell the Vainakh people. So let the truth be heard! Let the groans and tears of the innocent victims, breaking into your hearts and finding their echo in your souls and consciousness, cleanse them. They will clean it up in the name of the future, in which there should not be, there will be no repetition of the recent past!.. Whenever I visit the graves of the Kazakhs who have found eternal rest in their homeland, I also find the graves of the Vainakhs martyred in my land.

There are more than 300 thousand of them here - whole country, in which for the dead there is no distinction by nationality. I silently stand over these graves, and images of people who came to my homeland slandered and humiliated appear before my eyes. But not broken! With a high and invincible sense of honor and true human dignity… then there were years of growing up and comprehending a simple but carefully hidden truth from us: the Vainakhs were not enemies, but victims. The same victims as many men and women of my people, who were not afraid to speak the truth and live according to their conscience and their own mind in a country where evil and lies ruled. At that time, this was enough to deprive them of their freedom and life, to slander them in front of relatives and friends; erase the memory of them, as it seemed to the executioners forever. The Vainakhs, a people deprived of their freedom and homeland, also, it seemed to someone, forever. But not to the sons and daughters of this people, who could not imagine themselves without a homeland. And they returned to their historical homeland, finding another land that became, albeit by force, through blood and tears, but native to entire generations of Vainakhs ”( White paper. From the history of the eviction of Chechens and Ingush. Grozny - Alma-Ata, 1991. S. 3-4).

Years, decades pass, one after another all those who saw these terrible atrocities, who were direct eyewitnesses and experienced all these Stalinist crimes, leave this world. But real true story about all the crimes of Stalinism is still not written, which, of course, is a very big omission of our scientists, historians. This issue cannot be shelved. We are probably on present stage the only people in Russia, and indeed in the former Soviet Union, who have lost all their former written history and objects of national culture. In our republic, for the past two wars from 1994 to 1999. all archival sources burned down. We have lost all of our national wealth- the best local history museum in the North Caucasus, which had more than 230 thousand exhibits related to the history and culture of our people in its vaults. What happened on our soil is a national catastrophe, the consequences of which cannot be restored by any amount of billions. And our youth and the younger generation practically do not know the history of their 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. May justice and truth prevail. The memory of all the crimes and atrocities against our people that took place on 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 complete this article with the words of Ilya Grigoryevich Chavchavadze, the great Georgian poet, writer and public figure, uttered 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 something better and more convincing.

(c), Salambek Gunashev.

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: “Eviction began on February 23 in most areas, with the exception of high-mountain settlements. By February 29, 478,479 people, including 91,250 Ingush, were evicted and loaded into railway trains. 180 echelons have been loaded, of which 159 have already been sent to the place of the new settlement. Today, echelons with former Chechen-Ingush leaders and religious authorities, who were used in the operation, have been sent. From some points in the Galanchozhsky district, 6 thousand Chechens remained unexpelled due to heavy snowfall and impassability, 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 and 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 that have departed to these republics... All necessary measures have been taken to ensure the preparation and successful conduct of the operation to evict the Balkars. The preparatory work will be completed by March 10, and from March 15 the Balkars will be evicted. Today we are finishing work here and leaving 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 nation that made an outstanding contribution to the conquest, formation and defense of Soviet power, as well as to the fight against Nazi Germany, was forcibly deported from its 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 betrayal and cooperation with the enemy could there be 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 lecturer, N.F. Filkin reports: “At the beginning of the war, at least 9 thousand Chechens and Ingush were 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 participated 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 presented to the high rank of Hero of the Soviet Union.

However, even these figures cannot be fully trusted, since the above archival document shows how "bandit" groups were created and destroyed. The murder of innocent Chechens reached such proportions that one of the high-ranking officials of the apparatus of the NKVD of the USSR was forced to admit this lawlessness in his memorandum addressed to the leadership. Here is what the great scientist, historian and political scientist Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov writes about the number of deported Chechens and Ingush: “... According to the Constitution of the USSR of 1936, the North Caucasus Territory consisted of the autonomous regions of Circassia, Adygea, Karachay and the autonomous Soviet socialist republics of Kabardino-Balkaria, North Ossetia , Chechen-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, considering normal population growth, amounted to about one million people by the time of eviction (the population is almost equal to the population of Albania). (People's murder in the USSR. The 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 the executioner L.P. writes about in his memorandum. Beria in July 1944 in the name of I.V. Stalin, V.M. Molotov and G.M. Malenkov. But where did almost half of our people not mentioned in Beria's documents disappear to? What is their fate? There can be only 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 unpublishable archival documents telling about terrible crimes and the destruction of millions of Soviet citizens would become public. And that his deeds will be condemned by the entire civilized world community. I will refer to one more fact from A. Avtorkhanov's book “People's murder in the USSR. The murder of the Chechen-Ingush people: “... Even in the era of glasnost, the Soviet press was not allowed to write about the number of North Caucasians who died during their deportation. Now, for the first time in Literaturnaya Gazeta dated August 17, 1989, Doctor of Historical Sciences Khadzhi-Murat Ibrahimbeyli cites preliminary data on this matter: out of 600 thousand Chechens and Ingush, 200 thousand people died, 40 thousand Karachays (more than one third), Balkars - more 20 thousand (almost half). If we add here about 200,000 dead Crimean Tatars and 120,000 dead Kalmyks, then the famous "Leninist-Stalinist national policy" cost these small peoples about 600,000 dead, mainly the elderly, women and children. And also from the book “Lenin in the fate of Russia. Reflections of a Historian”: “All these calculations are, of course, approximate. The country will know the whole truth about the victims of both Lenin's and Stalin's terror when the secret funds of the archives of the KGB, the army and the apparatus of the Central Committee of the CPSU are opened. It is likely that the contents of these archives are so monstrous and making them public would be so deadly for the existing totalitarian system that even the "innovators" of the Kremlin do not dare to do so. However, they are intelligent enough to understand that without a radical break with the past, they cannot get out of the current trouble ... "

The Khaibakh tragedy became known thanks to the outstanding son and patriot of the Chechen people Dziaudin Malsagov, a former deputy. People's Commissar of Justice and a direct eyewitness to this terrible tragedy, who, being in exile, risking his life, handed over a written appeal to the First Secretary of the Central Committee of the CPSU N.S. Khrushchev personally into 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 proclaimed by him, freedom of speech and perestroika. These examples of mass destruction of our and other peoples of our former common homeland testify 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 what has been said is his very long bloody political life - from 1922 to 1953. - during which he destroyed, according to Professor Kurganov, 66 million citizens of the Soviet Union. I will give one more example on this topic: “6,000 Chechens remained unexported from some settlements of the high-mountainous Galanchozh region due to heavy snowfall and impassability, 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 up to the Galanchozh region. The then Minister of the Interior of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Drozdov ensured his quick transfer. And on the very eve of the denouement of the drama, Gvishiani arrived in the Galanchozh district. Along the gorges and paths, people from about 10-11 villages in the highland region were driven onto the ice of the lake and onto the narrow coastal strips. Beria accurately calculated them - 6,000 people. Around them, the NKVD regiment gradually tightened the ring. At the right moment, machine guns and machine guns fired. The battle on the ice lasted three days. Then another three days went on to eliminate the 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 reaching it. What happened next? The lake was poisoned in order to keep exotic residents away from it for a long time - for more than a dozen years they were not allowed to go to Galanchozh, the approaches to it were blown up. But you can’t hide the sewing in the bag. Upon the return of the Chechens home, the construction of a road to the lake began in this area, and then the “sinister secret” was revealed (O. Dzhurgaev "News of the Republic", No. 169, 02.09.10). How many still remain unsolved and unclassified crimes related to the deportation of our people. How many eyewitnesses left this world without having time and not daring to tell about all the mass executions and murders of the Chechen people. I would like to cite documents relating to the destruction of the village of Khaibakh: “It was done secretly by Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Comrade. L.P. Beria.

For burning alive more than 700 innocent residents of the village of Khaibakh, the commissioner of state security 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 devoted to him:

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 as proof of the genocide of our people in the places of "residence" in Central Asia and Kazakhstan, I will cite the following documents:

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

The vast majority of the collective farms of the Kirghiz SSR and a significant part of the collective farms of the Kazakh SSR are unable to pay the special settlers-collective farmers for their workdays worked either in grain or in other types of food. In this regard, 215 thousand special settlers from the North Caucasus, settled in the collective farms of the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSRs, remain without food. Taking this into account, I would consider it necessary to provide special settlers from the North Caucasus who are in special need of food to allocate food funds at the disposal of the Council of People's Commissars of the Kirghiz and Kazakh SSRs for special purposes, at least in the minimum amount, based on the issuance per person per day: flour - 100 gr., cereals - 50 gr., salt - 15 gr. and sugar for children - 5 gr., - 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. 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. S. 146, 137, 138, 172, 173).

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

There are more than 300 thousand of them here - a whole country in which there is no difference in nationality for the dead. I silently stand over these graves, and images of people who came to my homeland slandered and humiliated appear before my eyes. But not broken! With a high and invincible sense of honor and true human dignity… then there were years of growing up and comprehending a simple but carefully hidden truth from us: the Vainakhs were not enemies, but victims. The same victims as many men and women of my people, who were not afraid to speak the truth and live according to their conscience and their own mind in a country where evil and lies ruled. At that time, this was enough to deprive them of their freedom and life, to slander them in front of relatives and friends; erase the memory of them, as it seemed to the executioners forever. The Vainakhs, a people deprived of their freedom and homeland, also, it seemed to someone, forever. But not to the sons and daughters of this people, who could not imagine themselves without a homeland. And they returned to their historical homeland, finding another land that became, albeit by force, through blood and tears, but native to entire generations of Vainakhs ”(White Book. From the history of the eviction of Chechens and Ingush. Grozny - Alma-Ata, 1991. C .3-4).

Years, decades pass, one after another all those who saw these terrible atrocities, who were direct eyewitnesses and experienced all these Stalinist crimes, leave this world. But the real true story about all the crimes of Stalinism has not yet been written, which, of course, is a very big omission of our scientists and historians. This issue cannot be shelved. We are probably at the present stage the only people in Russia, and indeed in the former Soviet Union, who have lost all their former written history and objects of national culture. In our republic, for the past two wars from 1994 to 1999. all archival sources burned down. We have lost all of our national wealth - the best museum of local lore in the North Caucasus, which had more than 230,000 exhibits in its vaults related to the history and culture of our people. What happened on our soil is a national catastrophe, the consequences of which cannot be restored by any amount of billions. And our youth and the younger generation practically do not know the history of their 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. May justice and truth prevail. The memory of all the crimes and atrocities against our people that took place on 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 end this article with the words of Ilya Grigoryevich Chavchavadze, the great Georgian poet, writer and public figure, as if spoken for us: “The fall of a nation begins from the moment when the memory of the past ends.” It is hardly possible to say something better and more convincing.

(c), Salambek Gunashev.

But let's try to figure out why, not a Russian person himself, Caucasian Stalin in 1944 deported Chechens, Ingush (“the population bordering on Chechen-Ingushetia reacted favorably to the eviction of Chechens and Ingush”, Dagestanis and Ossetians were involved in the eviction) and Crimean Tatars ( “It is characteristic that the Crimean Slavs accepted this fact with understanding and approval”)? Why did more than 100 nations and nationalities live in the USSR, and only these were deported en masse?
In this regard, today a widely spread myth launched back in the time of Khrushchev and happily picked up by today's liberals, there were no objective reasons for eviction at all. Chechens, Yingushs and Kr.Tatars fought bravely at the front and worked hard in the rear, but as a result they became innocent victims of Stalin's arbitrariness: "Stalin expected to pull up small peoples in order to finally break their desire for independence and strengthen their empire"

For some reason, all these liberals are silent about such a fact as, for example, the deportation of the Japanese to the United States - the forcible transfer of about 120 thousand people to special camps. (of which 62% had US citizenship) with west coast USA during World War II. About 10 thousand were able to move to other parts of the country, the remaining 110 thousand were imprisoned in camps, officially called "military relocation centers". In many publications, these camps are called concentration camps.

NORTH CAUCASIAN LEGION
A few words should be said about the Chechens and Ingush evicted by the Soviet authorities in 1944. The highlanders greeted the German troops with joy, presented Hitler with a golden harness - "Allah is above us - Hitler is with us."
When the Germans approached the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, these peoples began to openly treacherously behave - mass desertion from the Red Army began, draft evasion - In total, during the three years of the war, 49,362 Chechens and Ingush deserted from the ranks of the Red Army, another 13,389 brave sons of the mountains evaded from conscription, which in total is 62,751 people.

And how many Chechens and Ingush fought at the front? Defenders of the "repressed peoples" compose various fables on this score. For example, Doctor of Historical Sciences Khadzhi-Murata Ibrahimbeyli states: “More than 30,000 Chechens and Ingush fought at the fronts. In the first weeks of the war, more than 12 thousand communists and Komsomol members - Chechens and Ingush, left for the army, most of whom died in battle.

The reality looks much more modest. While in the ranks of the Red Army, 2.3 thousand Chechens and Ingush died or went missing. Is it a lot or a little? The Buryat people, twice as small in number, which was not threatened by the German occupation, lost 13 thousand people at the front, one and a half times inferior to the Chechens and Ingush Ossetians - 10.7 thousand

In addition, the mentality of these highlanders manifested itself - deserters created gangs engaged in outright robbery, and local uprisings began, with traces of obvious German influence. Starting from July 1941 to 1944, only in the territory of the Chi ASSR, which was later transformed into the Grozny region, 197 gangs were destroyed by state security agencies. At the same time, the total irretrievable losses of the bandits amounted to 4532 people: 657 were killed, 2762 were captured, 1113 turned themselves in. Thus, in the ranks of the gangs that fought against the Red Army, almost twice as many Chechens and Ingush died and were captured than at the front. And this is not counting the losses of the Vainakhs who fought on the side of the Wehrmacht in the so-called "Eastern battalions"! And since banditry is impossible without the complicity of the local population in these conditions, many "peaceful Chechens" can also be clear conscience attributed to traitors.

By that time, the old "cadres" of abreks and local religious authorities, through the efforts of the OGPU, and then the NKVD, were basically knocked out. They were replaced by a young gangster growth - Komsomol members and communists, brought up by the Soviet government, who studied at Soviet universities, clearly showed the validity of the proverb "No matter how much you feed the wolf, he always looks into the forest"

The most unfavorable moment for the Soviet power was the period of the Battle for the Caucasus in 1942. The performances of the Chechen-Ingush in the region intensified due to the advance of the Germans. The highlanders even created the Chechen-Mountain National Socialist Party! During the year, 43 special operations were carried out by parts of the internal troops (excluding the operations of the Red Army), 2342 bandits were eliminated. One of the largest groups numbered about 600 rebels.
These losses in killed and captured against the Soviet regime were more losses suffered by Chechens and Ingush in the ranks of the Red Army against the Germans! 2300 people died fighting on the side of the Red Army, there were also 5 Heroes of the Soviet Union, for the sake of justice, here are their names: Khanpasha Nuradilov, Khansultan Dachiev, Abuhazhi Idrisov, Irbaikhan Beibulatov, Mavlid Visaitov.

Chechens and Ingush were especially warm towards German saboteurs. Captured with his group, the commander of the saboteurs, an emigrant Avar by nationality Osman (Saidnurov) Gube, during interrogation, said:
“Among the Chechens and Ingush, I easily found the right people ready to betray, go over to the side of the Germans and serve them. I was surprised: why are these people unhappy? Chechens and Ingush under Soviet rule lived prosperously, in abundance, much better than in pre-revolutionary times, which I personally became convinced of after four months more than being on the territory of Chechen-Ingushetia ... I could not find any other explanation, except that these people from Chechens and Ingush, with traitorous moods towards their homeland, were guided by selfish considerations, a desire under the Germans to preserve at least the remnants of their well-being, to provide a service, in compensation for which the occupiers left them at least part of the available livestock and food, land and dwellings.

Fortunately, the Germans did not occupy the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Otherwise, many anti-Soviet units could be created from Chechens and Ingush, who are brightly anti-Soviet and anti-Russian. Their small number in the "eastern" battalions is explained by the fact that they simply deserted from the Red Army to their native places and were waiting for the Germans. The Soviet troops had to repel the attacks of the Germans in the Caucasus and still understand in their rear against these mountaineers. The leadership of the country perceived such an attitude of the highlanders to the war as an unequivocal betrayal, a consumerist attitude towards the rest of the peoples of the USSR, and therefore the decision was made to deport. The eviction was forced and justified.

On February 23, the resettlement of the Caucasian peoples began. Operation Lentil was well prepared and a success. By its beginning, the motives for the eviction were brought to the attention of the entire population - betrayal. Leading officials, religious figures of Chechnya, Ingushetia and other nationalities took a personal part in explaining the reasons for the resettlement. The campaign achieved its goal. Of the 873,000 people evicted, only 842 people resisted and were arrested, and only 50 people were killed while resisting or trying to escape.
The "militant highlanders" did not show any real resistance. As soon as Moscow demonstrated its strength and firmness, the highlanders obediently went to the assembly points, they knew their guilt.

CRIMEAN TATARS IN THE SERVICE OF THE WEHRMACHT
They really served the enemy faithfully.
On the territory of the occupied multinational Crimea, the German leadership decided to rely on the Crimean Tatars, who were anti-Bolshevik and historically anti-Russian. Crimean Tatars, with the rapid approach of the front, began to desert en masse from the Red Army and partisan detachments, expressing anti-Russian sentiments. “... All those drafted into the Red Army amounted to 90 thousand people, including 20 thousand Crimean Tatars ... 20 thousand Crimean Tatars deserted in 1941 from the 51st Army during its retreat from the Crimea ...” Thus, the desertion of the Crimean Tatars from the Red Army was almost universal.

The Tatars sought to curry favor with the occupiers, show their loyalty, and quickly take money places in the new occupied Crimea. The Russians (49.6% of the population of Crimea) became the most disenfranchised on the peninsula, and the Crimean Tatars (19.8%) became the masters. The best houses, collective farm plots and inventory were given to the latter, special shops were opened for them, religious life was established, some self-government was allowed. It was constantly emphasized that they were the chosen ones. True, after the war, the Crimea was to be completely Germanized (the Fuhrer announced this already on July 16, 1941), but the Tatars were not informed about this.
But while the Crimea remained as a close rear area of the army, and after the war zone, the Germans temporarily needed order in this territory and reliance on part of the local population. With the resettlement decided to wait.

The Crimean Tatars easily made contact with the Germans, and already in October-November 1941, the Germans formed the first detachments of collaborators from the Crimean Tatars. And these were not only Tatars - Khivs from prisoners of war in the army, of which there were 9 thousand people. These were self-defense police units to protect villages from partisans, carry out German policy and maintain order in the field. Such detachments numbered 50 - 170 fighters and were led by German officers. The personnel were from Tatar deserters from the Red Army and from peasants. The fact that the Tatars enjoyed a special location is evidenced by the fact that 1/3 of the self-defense policemen wore German military uniforms (though without insignia) and even helmets. At the same time, the Belarusian self-defense police units (the status of the Slavs was the lowest) wore rags - civilian clothes of various colors or Soviet uniforms that had passed through the camps.
Crimean Tatars took an active part in the anti-Soviet struggle. According to German data, from 15 to 20 thousand Crimean Tatars served in the German armed forces and police, which is about 6-9% of the total number of Crimean Tatars (in 1939). At the same time, in the Red Army in 1941 there were only 10 thousand Tatars, many of whom deserted and later served the Germans. Also, about 1.2 thousand Crimean Tatars were red partisans and underground fighters (177 deserted from partisan detachments)

The zeal of the Tatars to serve the new masters was noted by the Fuhrer himself. The Tatars were provided with minor pleasant services - free meals in special canteens for families, monthly or lump-sum allowances, etc. It must be said that active national anti-Russian propaganda was carried out in the Tatar police units.
The Crimean Tatars, accomplices of the Germans, not only fought and served the Germans - for some reason they were especially cruel to their opponents. Perhaps the majority of Tatars have a bad attitude towards the enemy and extreme cruelty.
So, in the Sudak region in 1942, the Tatars destroyed the reconnaissance landing of the Red Army. They captured twelve of our paratroopers and burned them alive.

On February 4, 1943, Tatar volunteers from the villages of Beshui and Koush captured four partisans. All of them were brutally killed: stabbed with bayonets, and then, still alive, laid on fires and burned. Particularly disfigured was the corpse of the partisan Khasan Kiyamov, a Kazan Tatar, whom the punishers apparently mistook for their fellow countryman.
No less brutal was the attitude towards the civilian population. Throughout the occupation, on the territory of the Krasny state farm, where the Crimean Tatars lived, there was a concentration camp of death, in which at least eight thousand citizens of Crimea were brutally tortured and killed, suspected of sympathy for the partisans. The camp was guarded by Tatars from the 152nd Auxiliary Police Battalion. According to eyewitnesses, the head of the camp, SS Oberscharführer Shpekman, attracted guards to do the dirtiest work.
It got to the point that, fleeing the Tatar massacre, the local Russian and Ukrainian population was forced to seek protection ... from the German authorities! And often German soldiers and officers, shocked by the actions of their "allies", provided such assistance to the Russians ...

The pro-German leaders of the Bakhchisarai and Alushta Muslim committees, intoxicated by the authorities (the creation of such bodies is another German indulgence), as a personal initiative, suggested that the Germans simply destroy all Russians in Crimea (before the war, Russians were 49.6% of all inhabitants of Crimea). Such ethnic cleansing was carried out in two villages in the Bakhchisaray region by the Tatar self-defense forces. However, the Germans did not support the initiative - the war was not over yet, and there were too many Russians.

Because of their attitude to the Soviet regime, the Crimean Tatars were evicted from the Crimea. Of course, today it is easy to condemn Stalin, who, in a military way, radically resolved the issue with the Crimean Tatar traitors. But let's look at this story not from positions today but from the point of view of that time.
Many punishers did not have time to leave with the Nazis, hiding with numerous relatives who were not going to betray their relatives-executioners. In addition, it turned out that the "Muslim committees" created by the Germans in the Tatar villages did not disappear anywhere, but went underground.
In addition, the Tatar population had a lot of weapons in their hands. Only on May 7, 1944, as a result of a special raid by the NKVD troops, 5395 rifles, 337 machine guns, 250 machine guns, 31 mortars were seized. great amount grenades and ammo.
The country's leadership realized that in the face of the Crimean Tatars they were faced with a "fifth column", welded together by strong family ties... and very dangerous for the rear of the Red Army.

GENOCIDE?
You can find many stories about how front-line soldiers - Crimean Tatars and Caucasians, who have many Soviet awards, were repressed along with everyone else. Such was the retribution for some for the betrayal of others.

These peoples fully deserved the eviction. Nevertheless, despite the facts, the current guardians of the “repressed peoples” continue to repeat how inhuman it was to punish the entire nation for the crimes of its “individual representatives”. One of the favorite arguments of this public is the reference to the illegality of such collective punishment.

Strictly speaking, this is true: no Soviet laws provided for the mass eviction of Chechens, Ingush and Tatars. However, let's see what would happen if the authorities decided to act according to the law in 1944.

As we have already found out, the majority of Chechens, Ingush and kr. Tatars of military age evaded military service or deserted. What is due in wartime for desertion? Execution or penal company. Were these measures applied to deserters of other nationalities? Yes, they have been applied. Banditry, organization of uprisings, cooperation with the enemy during the war were also punished to the fullest extent. As well as less serious crimes, such as membership in an anti-Soviet underground organization or possession of weapons. Aiding in the commission of crimes, harboring criminals, and finally, failure to report, were also punished by the Criminal Code. And almost all adult Chechens, Ingush and Kr.Tatars were involved in this.

It turns out that the accusers of Stalin's arbitrariness, in fact, regret that several tens of thousands of men were not legally put up against the wall! However, most likely, they simply believe that the law is written only for Russians and other citizens of the “lower class”, and it does not apply to the proud inhabitants of the Caucasus and Crimea. Judging by the current amnesties for Chechen fighters, this is how it is.

So, from the point of view of formal legality, the punishment that befell the Chechens, Ingush and Crimean Tatars in 1944 was much softer than that which was due to them according to the Criminal Code. Since in this case, almost the entire adult population should have been shot or sent to camps.

Maybe it was worth "forgiving" the traitor peoples? But what would the millions of families of the dead soldiers think at the same time, looking at those who had sat out in the rear?

The years of the Great Patriotic War were harsh times in which many strange things happened. Devastation, chaos, starvation all around. The country will live in this rhythm of life for several more years. Various peoples participated in the war, ranging from the Armenians to the Ingush. But why did Stalin decide to deport the Chechens? Let's figure it out.

First, let's talk about Stalin's personality cult

Iosif Vissarionovich Stalin (Dzhugashvili) was born in mid-December 1878 into a Georgian family. Place of birth - the city of Gori, Tiflis province. From birth, there were some defects on Joseph's body: two fingers were fused on his left leg, and his face was pockmarked. At the age of seven, the boy was hit by a car. After the accident, a severe hand injury was received, which led to the fact that she did not unbend until the end of her life.

Joseph's father, Vissarion, was an ordinary shoemaker working for a penny. All his life he was very dependent on alcohol, using which in large quantities severely beat Catherine, who is the mother of Joseph. Of course, there were cases when the son interfered in family disassembly. This was not crowned with success, since Joseph often got hit on the hands and head. There was an opinion that the boy would be mentally retarded. But how it really happened - everyone knows.

Joseph's mother, Catherine, was born into the family of a serf who was engaged in gardening. All her life she was engaged in hard backbreaking work, while raising a child at the same time. According to some statements, Catherine was very upset to learn that Joseph did not become a priest.

So why did Stalin deport Chechens and Ingush

There are two opinions about this. If you believe the first, then there were no real reasons regarding the deportation. These two peoples, along with Soviet soldiers bravely led fighting at the front, defending our homeland. According to one of the historians, Joseph Stalin simply tried to evict minorities in order to “take away” their independence, thereby strengthening their own power.

The second opinion was publicized by Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov. He said that almost fifty thousand Chechens and Ingush deserted during the entire war. In addition, almost fifteen thousand people of the same nationalities simply evaded conscription for military service.

These two opinions are considered official. In addition to them, there are several other myths about why Stalin deported the Chechens in 1944. One of them says that banditry is to blame. During the first three years of the war in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the organs state security were able to eliminate about two hundred organized criminal groups. As a result of the liquidation, most of the bandits were destroyed, an even larger part was captured, and some simply surrendered. And if we also take into account complicity, without which there would be no banditry, many "mountain dwellers" automatically become traitors, and this, as you know, is punishable by death.
This begs the question - what were the Chechens and Ingush dissatisfied with? Why betrayed the country? The answer is simple. Coming over to the side of the Germans, the peoples were sure that they would leave at least part of the cattle and land. Of course, this was a big delusion, but all the same, the Chechens believed the Nazis more than the Soviet government.

The next myth is the uprising that began in 1941. As soon as the war began, Hassan Israilov began to rapidly advertise the future uprising. And the methods were as follows: trips to various villages and holding meetings, creating combat groups in some areas. The first act of the uprising was scheduled for autumn, in order to coincide with the approach of the Nazis. But this did not happen and the deadline was postponed to January. It was too late to postpone: low discipline between the rebels served as the culprit for the cancellation of the uprising. But still, some groups began fighting.

In October of the same year, the inhabitants of a small village completely plundered it, putting up a strong rebuff to the operatives. About forty people went to help. But the uprising could not be stopped at such a pace. Only large forces could completely put an end to it.

In 1942 there was another uprising. The ChGNSPO grouping was created. Head - Mayrbek Sheripov. In the autumn of 1941, he went over to the side of the Germans, forcing several other leaders of similar groups and other fugitives to work with him. The first act of the uprising took place in the village of Dzumskaya. Here Sheripov, together with his associates, plundered and burned the village council and administration. Then the whole gang headed for Himoy - the regional center. After a couple of days, the group managed to take control of this area, defeating Soviet institutions and plundering the administration. The next step is a trip to Itum-Kale. One and a half thousand people followed Sheripov. But, fortunately, it was not possible to win, as there was a strong rebuff. In November 1942, the Soviet government was able to put an end to the uprisings - Sheripov was killed.

If we rely on the laws, then the eviction of the Ingush and Chechens simply should not have happened. But it happened. And what could have happened then if the Soviet government in 1944, when it was deporting peoples, backed up its actions with the law?

As mentioned above, many Chechens and Ingush deserted from the front or simply shied away from service. Measures of punishment were, of course, applied to them, as well as to other participants in the hostilities. Banditry and rebellions were also punished. Everything was punishable by the criminal code, from hiding criminals to keeping weapons.

Most likely, the authorities believe that the laws are written only for Russian citizens and they simply do not apply to other nationalities. That is why the punishment for the crime was a little softer than it should be, if you follow the entire set of laws. But this was not done, since in this case almost the entire Republic of Ingushetia would be empty. Plus, there would be additional costs associated with the export of children and women outside of it.

Lentils

The operation to evict Chechens and Ingush received the code name "Lentil". Head - Ivan Serov. The whole process was personally controlled by L. Beria himself. The pretext for the introduction of troops was the statement that it was necessary to conduct urgent exercises in the mountains.