The wounds of the 1944 deportation are still diving in Chechnya and beyond | Views

The day before Ukraine marks three years since the full-scale Russian invasion, Chechen and Ingush peoples celebrate the 81st anniversary of their forced expulsion from the communist regime in Moscow. The impact of this genocidal operation, which began on February 23, 1944. On the orders of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, he continues to reflect today throughout the North Caucasus and beyond.

After decades, efforts to suppress the memory of this violent expulsion and refusal of Moscow to admit and to apologize for ensuring that it remains an open wound for Chechen and Ingush people.

I perfectly remember that I was six or seven years old when I first heard the term “deportation”. He escaped from the lips of one of my parents, just to be followed by silence. In the early 1980s, the Soviet authorities were still involved in the country and decisively suppressed discussions on this topic, especially within the Chechen and Autonomous Republics.

Adults lived in an atmosphere of fear and distrust and were very cautious about discussing the topic even in front of their children. A child repeating the word to strangers or at school can attract the attention of the Soviet secret police, the KGB and lead to some punishment.

The era of perestroika, marked by increased openness and the possible dissolution of the Soviet Union, raised the veil of silence around taboo, including the various crimes that the Soviets committed. The younger generations of Chechen and Ingush peoples began to learn about what had happened to their parents and grandparents.

Finally, they heard the stories that during World War II elite NKVD divisions, the KGB's predecessor and the military were located to deport the entire population of Chechen and Ingush from their lands of ancestors. It was even more impressive the revelation that Soviet soldiers did not hesitate to kill the elderly and sick to execute a deportment schedule. Their bodies were ruthlessly located in the mountain lakes.

Entire communities were burned. In the case of the village of Haibach, NKVD burned alive 700 of its residents, including pregnant women, children and the elderly who could not be transported to work at stations on time to deport due to heavy snowfall.

The tired three -week trip to the railway vehicles intended for livestock, where people face hunger and unhygienic conditions have further contributed to the strikingly high mortality rate. Smaying in the steppe of Central Asia without food or shelter, the deportes had little chance of survival. Due to the deportation, Chechens and Ingush lost almost 25 percent of their population, according to the official assessment, before they were allowed to return to their homes in 1957, four years after Stalin's death.

In 1991, after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the first democratic elections in the Russian Federation, the state began to pay monetary compensation to those who were born or lived in exile. But the amount paid was scarce and offensive. However, Chechen people hoped that they would receive an official apology from the newly elected Russian President Boris Yeltsin.

In 1993, during a visit to Poland, he honored over 20,000 Polish officers executed by Katin's advice on a monument marking the slaughter. However, neither he nor any of his heirs made an official excuse for more than 100,000 deaths from Chechen and Ingush during deportation.

In 2004, during the stroke war in Chechnya, the European Parliament raised a question about recognizing this tragedy as a genocide. The initiative was not successful and the genocide was not officially recognized.

The violent and traumatic experience of deportation was a driving force for Chechnya's Independence Declaration in 1991. The Chechens did not want to be repeated in this experience and therefore demanded the protection of their statehood through international law.

However, Russia's aggression in 1994 against Chechnya broke these hopes. Even after winning Russia in 1996, Chechen found themselves abandoned by the world, which means that Moscow is to decide what is next.

Three years later, the second Russian aggression against Chechnya followed. During the war that lasted until 2009, the successor of Yeltsin, Vladimir Putin, installed an authoritarian regime, led by the Kadyrov family.

In order to demonstrate his loyalty to the Kremlin, in 2011, Ramzan Kadyrov, who inherited Chechnya presidency from his father Ahmat after his murder in 2004, banned the memory of the deportation on February 23. Instead, he forced people to celebrate the Russian holiday holiday holiday, the day of the defender of the homeland.

Just five years ago in 2020, on February 23, some commemorative events were resolved. Yet these ceremonies mainly served to legitimize Kadyrov's power in Chechnya and spread the cult of the person around his father Ahmat.

In 2023, Kadyrov took a step forward and forced the authors of a newly issued textbook on Russian history to review the section that justified the Stalinist deportations. Of course, this move does not signal a change in Kadyrov's relationship with the Kremlin. He will remain loyal to Putin as long as he maintains power.

But the fact that Chechen's leader, who possesses absolute power in Chechnya, feels forced to review his own deletion policies means that he understands that the memory of deportation will continue to serve as a Vic rally for years to come.

The memory of deportation continues to inspire support for Chechen's independence, despite the brutality and devastation of Chechen's two wars. He also motivated hundreds of Chechens to go to Ukraine and fight the invading Russian army in 2022.

It is important to remember what has happened to Chechen people today, as Ukrainians also face the danger of suppression and erasure. Ukraine risks being abandoned by the world just like Chechnya was in the 90s. The consequences can be detrimental, just as they were for Chechen people who continue to suffer under brutal authoritarianism.

The anger expressed in this article are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect Al Jazee's editorial position.