Today is 71st anniversary of Vainakhs' deportation

Today is 71 years after the date of the start of the operation known as "Chechevitsa" (Lentils), which took place during the Stalin's deportation of Chechens and Ingushes. Chechen authorities will not hold any official commemoration of deportation victims.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that the Day of Memory and Grief had been marked in Chechnya on the day of Stalin's deportation – on February 23. But in 2011, a special commission announced that the memorial day of the republic's nations would be marked annually on May 10. Then, the head of Chechnya Ramzan Kadyrov explained that the republic should mark Russian national holidays together with other regions.

A source from the office of the head and the government of Chechnya has confirmed that in 2015, like in previous years, no mourning or other large-scale events in connection with the anniversary of the Stalin's deportation will be held.

Let us note here that it was on February 23, 1944, that Stalin's authorities began the operation under the code name "Chechevitsa", during which a mass deportation of Chechens and Ingushes to Kazakhstan and Central Asia from the territory of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was undertaken. It continued until March 9, 1944. Soviet authorities explained these repressions by facts of mass desertions, evasions from recruitment in wartime and preparation of an armed uprising in the rear. According to the International Society "Memorial", during the deportation, 485,000 people were deported from Chechnya and Ingushetia.

Full text of the article is available on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’.