11:03, 2 November 2025

Residents of Karachay-Cherkessia commemorate the victims of deportation.

Today, Karachay-Cherkessia marks the 82nd anniversary of Stalin's deportation of the Karachay people.

As reported by the "Caucasian Knot," on November 2, 2023, the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Karachays, religious ceremonies were held in the central mosque of Karachayevsk in memory of the victims of those events. In 2024, a memorial rally was held on this day at the Memorial Complex to the Victims of the Deportation of the Karachay People.

The deportation of Karachays to Kazakhstan and Central Asia began on November 2, 1943, resulting in the deportation of 69,267 people (15,980 families). Most of the repressed (more than 43,000 people, including 22,000 children) died en route and in resettlement areas. The deported people were accused of collaborating with the Nazis and spent 14 years in exile, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Deportation of the Karachays."

The head of Karachay-Cherkessia Rashid Temrezov recalled today, in connection with the anniversary, that the day of remembrance for the victims of the deportation is "one of the most tragic dates" in the history of the Karachay people. "82 years ago, tens of thousands of innocent people were suddenly deprived of the right to live and raise their children on their native land," he wrote.

The Karachayevsky Urban District Administration announced a memorial rally for today to commemorate the 82nd anniversary of the deportation of the Karachay people. The rally will be held in Karachayevsk, according to a publication posted on the municipality's website on November 1.

The Soviet government justified the deportations of peoples with myths about mass betrayal and desertion. Under Stalin, mass arrests, deportations, and executions based on ethnicity were carried out, according to the Caucasian Knot report "10 Myths about Stalin's Role in the Great Patriotic War".

Deportation of the Karachay People. Video still

17:56 10.05.2025

Concealing Stalin's role in the deportation of the Karachays was an attempt to distort history

Key issues of the deportation of the Karachays, including Stalin's role, continue to be concealed, Karachay activists pointed out. They expressed concern about attempts to distort the memory of the deportation and the lack of real rehabilitation of the Karachays.

Most of the Karachays were being prepared for deportation to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The deportation plan was for 62,842 people, of whom only 37 429 adults, while taking into account additionally identified the plan was exceeded: a total of 69,267 people were deported, historian Pavel Polyan noted in his study "Not of Their Own Will... The History and Geography of Forced Migrations in the USSR."

Troop units totaling 53,327 people were deployed to deport the Karachays, the historian noted. "For every adult unarmed Karachay, including women, there were almost two armed security officers," Polyan wrote in his work.

The Law "On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples" was adopted on April 26, 1991, by the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR; specific peoples were not listed in it. The "Caucasian Knot" also prepared reports on deportations during the Great Patriotic War of the Chechens and Ingush, Balkars and Kalmyks.

The law "On the rehabilitation of repressed peoples", adopted in 1991, "still remains not fully implemented", said the head of the "Congress of the Karachay People" Kady Khalkechev, in a statement timed to coincide with the 75th anniversary of the deportation. Khalkechev noted that during the deportation of the Karachays, "17,186 fighters, or every fifth representative of the Karachay people, fought against fascism", and more than 2,000 Karachays: women and men, "were mobilized to build defensive borders."

23 Karachays were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, with 11 receiving the highest award. According to Khalkechev, the authorities' reluctance to award those Karachay Heroes of the Soviet Union who were not awarded due to deportation continues to be a source of resentment for the Karachays.

Natives of the Caucasus took an active part in the Great Patriotic War, and the myths about their mass desertion and collaboration are based on data intended to justify the repressions against the Caucasian peoples, historians Alexei Bezugolny, Nikolai Bugai, and Evgeny Krinko stated in 2015.

According to their research, in In 1941-1942, a number of secret decrees and orders were issued restricting the conscription and military service of a significant number of peoples of the USSR, including some of the peoples of the South Caucasus and all North Caucasian peoples.

There was no mass support for the German fascists in the North Caucasus, and the Soviet authorities' theory that collaborationism became the pretext for the deportation of these peoples is unfounded, historians Pavel Polyan and Pieter van Huis previously pointed out. The historians' arguments are supported by Wehrmacht archival documents analyzed by the "Caucasian Knot" and cited in the article "Operation Shamil: How the Abwehr's Failure Became the Pretext for the Deportation of the Vainakhs".

As a reminder, on May 3rd every year, is celebrated in Karachay-Cherkessia as the Day of Revival of the Karachay People. On this day in 1957, the first train carrying Karachays, who had been deported to Central Asia in November 1943, arrived in their historical homeland, according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "Day of Revival of the Karachay People: Difficulties of Rehabilitation".

Translated automatically via Google translate from https://www.kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/416878