Anniversary of the deportation of Karachais: memories of victims of repression

In Karachay-Cherkessia on November 2 and 3, events were held to mark the 66th anniversary of the deportation of the Karachay people. With his memories of the mass resettlement of Karachays in Central Asia with a correspondent " caucasian knot"shared the inhabitants of the republic, who became victims of political repression in November 1943.

A resident of the city of Karachaevsk, Fatima Lepshokova, born in 1936, remembered the day of eviction for the rest of her life.

"It was frosty morning, my mother went to milk the cow, and I fed the bird in the yard, - the woman recalls. - Suddenly a man entered the gate soldier's overcoat. I called my mother, she sent me to the house, they did not talk for long, and my mother returned, her face was in tears. We got together quickly. Warm clothes and bread were wrapped in a large scarf - they were not allowed to take anything else with them. Cattle remained in the barn, in the yard - poultry and lambs. They didn’t explain anything to us, even where they were taking us and why.”

According to Fatima Lepshokova, there were eleven children in their family, only five returned from exile in 1959. Grandfather and grandmother were also buried in Kazakhstan. My father didn't come back from the war.

“I remember how two younger children died of typhus at once, typhus killed many then. Mom buried them wrapped in a blanket. Then another one - already from hunger, ”says a woman who survived the deportation.

Having learned that it was possible to return to their homeland, the Lepshokova family decided to return without hesitation. “We were driving home, although our houses were no longer ours, and we bought them out, because before we left Kazakhstan, we signed papers stating that we would not claim our former housing,” the woman said.

Mumiat Bostanov, who also survived the mass expulsion of Karachais to foreign lands in 1943, also told his story to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent. An elderly man recalls how during the famine years in Central Asia mother stretched a glass of cornmeal for a week, preparing soup-balanda from it for seven people.

“Now, when I see how stale bread is taken out to cattle, I swear at the children very much. We dreamed of bread. We were at the level of cattle transported in boxcars. Everyone was taken together - old people, children, and women. We wrapped the dead on the road in blankets and gave them to people at the stations, but not as many died on the road as there, in the steppe, from hunger. I remember how a Kazakh woman on the first night let us spend the night in a barn, but did not let us into the house. That night, her mother asked her for food, but she said there was no food. We fell asleep hungry and already in the morning we went with her to the field to collect the remaining beets, which my mother rubbed on a grater and added to the soup. Hunger at that time was the very first enemy, people were swollen from hunger, but they worked. Hundreds were dying from diseases - there were no medicines, there was no one to treat,” Mumiat Bostanov said.

According to his memoirs, the most difficult time was before 1946, and after the end of the war, life began to improve: work appeared in the fields, labor became needed. For work they gave bread, flour, sugar.

“We returned home already wealthy people,” the old man smiles. - Georgians who came from behind the pass lived in our houses then. They say that is why Stalin evicted our people - he needed land. And everything that is said about the betrayal of the people (accusations of the Karachais of collaborationism - note by the "Caucasian Knot") is only the official version, which has no justification for all the atrocities that have occurred, even if there were such a few. There was a war, there was a famine, anything could happen - after all, people are different, but “by the black sheep - the whole herd is not judged” and even more so they are not destroyed.

Meanwhile, the historian Murat Shebzukhov, an ethnic Circassian, believes that the eviction had a detrimental effect on the Karachay people only during the years of the eviction, and after that it only rallied the people.

“This nation has learned to survive, in any conditions. They learn unity. Most of them returned to their homeland, but after the Caucasian Won, thousands of Circassians could not return from Turkey. In different historical periods, the peoples of the Caucasus suffered the actual destruction in different ways. And it takes hundreds of years to be reborn,” the historian noted.

In turn, Abazin Shamil Tlisov noted that a person's grief has no nationality. “When you see human pain in the eyes - what certainly does not come to mind is to ask him about his nationality. The grief of one people is the grief of all. And the strings national pride often become the main instrument of political dirty games destroying warm neighborly relations,” he said.

In 1991, the Law "On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples" was adopted. However, the application of this document in practice turned out to be complicated by many factors, which so far does not allow us to consider the law fulfilled in all respects with respect to all peoples subjected to mass repressions in the USSR.

In 1943, the Karachays were illegally deported from their homes. Overnight, they lost everything - their home, native land and acquired property. The Karachay people were doomed to a long and painful 14-year exile. On October 12, 1943, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a secret Decree "On the liquidation of the Karachaevskaya autonomous region and administrative unit its territory." “All Karachays living in the territory of the region,” the Decree noted, “should be resettled to other regions of the USSR, and the Karachaev Autonomous Region should be liquidated.”

On October 14, the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR issued a decree on the eviction of Karachays from the Karachaev Autonomous Region to the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSR and the transfer of Karachai lands to Georgians (the appearance of the Klukhor district Georgian SSR). These documents explained the reasons for the eviction:

“Due to the fact that during the period of occupation, many Karachais behaved treacherously, joined the detachments organized by the Germans to fight the Soviet regime, betrayed the Germans honest Soviet citizens, accompanied and showed the way to the German troops advancing through the passes in the Transcaucasus, and after the expulsion of the invaders, they counteract the measures taken by the Soviet government, hide bandits and agents abandoned by the Germans from the authorities, providing them active assistance»

According to the 1939 census, 70,301 Karachays lived on the territory of the Karachay Autonomous District. From the beginning of August 1942 until the end of January 1943 it was under German occupation.

For the forceful support of the deportation of the Karachay population, military formations with a total number of 53,327 people were involved, and on November 2, the deportation of Karachays took place, as a result of which 69,267 Karachays were deported to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Of these, 653 people died on the way. About 50% of the deportees were children and adolescents under the age of 16, 30% were women and 15% were men. The Karachais drafted into the Red Army were demobilized and deported on March 3, 1944.

The deportation decree contradicted not only international law but also the Constitution of the USSR. The accusations of the Karachai people contained in this Decree, as well as in various documents The governments of the USSR, as shown by the inspection of the Prosecutor's Office and the State Security Committee in the late 80s and 90s of the twentieth century, are groundless and represent a gross falsification of the true state of affairs. Time has proved the absurdity of these accusations. This is confirmed by the data on the participation of Karachays in the Great Patriotic War. The total number of those mobilized in those years was about 16 thousand people, 2 thousand people worked in the labor army.

The unfamiliar climate, cold and hunger, the lack of normal living conditions turned out to be disastrous for the highlanders. According to official figures, in 1944 alone they lost 23.7 percent of their men. In general, more than 60 percent of the settlers died as a result of deportation.

According to the doctor historical sciences, Professor Murat Karaketov, if there were no deportation, the number of Karachays in Russia would now be 400-450 thousand people - twice as many as there are on given time(230-240 thousand).

On January 9, 1957, the Cherkess Autonomous District was transformed into the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous District. She was returned the territory that had ceded after the deportation to the Krasnodar Territory and the Georgian SSR, and Karachay toponyms were restored on the former Georgian territory.

On January 25, 1957, Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Tolstikov signed an order "On permitting residence and registration of Kalmyks, Balkars, Karachais, Chechens, Ingush and members of their families evicted during the Great Patriotic War".

On November 14, 1989, by the Declaration of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, all the repressed peoples were rehabilitated, repressive acts against them were recognized as illegal and criminal. state level in the form of a policy of slander, genocide, forced resettlement, the abolition of national-state formations, the establishment of a regime of terror and violence in places of special settlements.

In 1991, the law of the RSFSR "On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples" was adopted, which defines the rehabilitation of peoples subjected to mass repressions in the USSR as the recognition and exercise of their right to restore the territorial integrity that existed before the forced redrawing of borders.

From the memories of the deportation of Karachais

“Entire families were dying before our eyes. I remember the neighbors: their mother went to look for frozen beets under the snow in the field where all of our people used to go. There, a woman was knocked down by a flock of jackals, her breasts were gnawed. All her children soon died of starvation, they were all buried in the yard. In the spring, their father came from the front. I remember that in a striped mattress cover he carried their remains to the cemetery."
Nazifat Kagiyeva

“When we got into the carriage, I had a daughter with me - two years old and a son - three months old. On the way, the boy fell ill and died. Many children died on our train. Parents were not allowed to bury them. And I tried to hide that my baby was dead. A day passed, another, I was holding my son in my arms, but the convoy still found out that I had a dead child. They wanted to take it away and throw it out of the car. I did not give it, I said that I would bury it quickly at the nearest station.

I was dropped off at Saratov. Nearby stood a dilapidated house without a roof. The soldiers ordered: "Go there and leave the child there." I went. She went inside and was dumbfounded. There were corpses all around. They have snow on them. I went to the largest corpse, cleared the snow from the place next to it, and laid down my three-month-old son. And she said to herself: "Protect, soldier, my baby ..." There was no strength to cry ..."
Marziyat Dzhukkayeva

"I was in Kyrgyzstan, in the village of Voyennaya Antonovka, I buried one family - Kubanova Atchi and his wife Saniyat. They had six children. Another boy was born on the road. that the son will return to his homeland. long days hunger, they received rations - cornmeal. Mother cooked hominy and fed all the children to the full. And the parents themselves, for the first time in exile, ate their fill. The family fell asleep. But no one woke up in the morning. They didn’t know that after a famine, you can’t eat a lot.”
Husey Botashev

"I went to the front in the first days of the war. In 1943, I fought at Kursk Bulge, was seriously injured, was in the hospital. From there, in mid-November, he went on vacation home. I was driving and happily thought how my mother, relatives, my village would meet me. How could I imagine what awaits me?

I arrived in the village early in the morning. I walked and thought: "Now I'll wake everyone up!" He ran into the yard, opened the doors - and ... emptiness. Not a soul. Nowhere. Silence. I'm confused, I can't understand anything. Like crazy, I look into all corners - into the barn, basement, chicken coop ... Nobody.

The captain met me at the board. He showed the decree by which all Karachays were evicted from the Caucasus. I went out into the street, stunned, and our neighbor, Fedor Prudnikova, met me. She saw me, cried, invited me into the house. The military enlistment office allowed me to stay in the village until they found out the address of my relatives. For a month and a half I lived with the Prudnikovs. In these hard days they were my only support.

On the day of departure, we, front-line Karachays, gathered at the station about 80 people. They all put us on a train and sent us after our relatives.”
Ibragim Koichuev

“They say that you can’t get used to death, but I think that you can’t help but get used to death, when so many people died every day ...

It was the 45th year. Not far from us lived a Chechen family, which was dying before our eyes. First the children died, then the mother died. Only one father remained. One day he came to us. He had almost no clothes on. He showed a bag of corn and said that he changed clothes for a kilogram of grains. And we had potatoes. He said that he came to the smell, and asked for some water from under the potatoes. Mom gave him potatoes. But he died two hours later anyway. They buried him in what he was. And the corn, which he never had time to eat, was given to another family, where children were dying of hunger.
Khalimat Aibazova

"Our train stopped at the Belovodsk station in Kyrgyzstan. It was the end of November. Wind, rain, icy slush. We were ordered to unload. Farm managers selected people - they took labor. Mom with small children (there were three of us, I am the eldest, seven years old) stayed under open sky in the bare steppe - no farms needed it.

The next morning a Russian woman came with her two daughters and took our family away. We were warmed, fed, put to bed. But the night spent in the cold did not pass without a trace. The one-year-old brother Rashid rushed about in the heat and died three days later. On the seventh day my sister Tamara died. She was three years old."
Marat Kochkarov

"1944. Spring. We live in the Frunze region, in the village of Voyennaya Antonovka. We have five children - the eldest is seven years old, the youngest is a year and a half. I work wherever I have to, my wife disappears on sugar plantations. And then one day she fell ill. The doctor said: pneumonia, his life is in danger, he must be taken to the regional hospital.

But without the permission of the commandant's office, it is impossible to leave the village. For violation of the special regime, they give 20 years of hard labor. I went to ask - the commandant refused me. The next day he came again - again a refusal. Only on the third day, after humiliation and insults, did he finally give permission. I took this paper from him, I return home. Just got off the bus, I see our yard is filled with people. And I realized that my wife was dead."
Khasan Dzhubuev

“A young woman was exiled with small children. There are no relatives nearby. Her husband is at the front. Without food and shelter. There were seven children! Within a short time, like sick chickens, six died and she was left with the smallest. she lost her mind from grief: she did not give the dead child to people for burial. She came with him to the cemetery and here, in the middle of the graves, nameless hillocks of six children, she died, never letting go of her lifeless child from her numb hands ... "

“In the village where we lived, one woman (due to her young age I don’t remember her first and last name), seeing that children could die of hunger, began to go to the surrounding fields at night and collect ears there. Every night she brought at least some grains of wheat. And on one of these nights, two watchmen, noticing her, chased after her. She knew that if they caught, or beaten to death or sent to prison. When she realized that the pursuers would catch up, the woman, having reached the river, stopped and at the bridge she tore off her scarf from her head, ruffled her hair and sat down. The pursuers, seeing her, were numb with fear and, shouting "Witch!", ran back. And this "witch" more than once, frightened by her own shadow, and clutching a handful of grain to her chest , returned in the midnight haze to her children.

“Another mother, according to the recollections of eyewitnesses, at first, when the deportees in exile were dying of starvation in families, wanting to save the lives of her four children in any way, gave them to Kazakh families. A few years later, when the death of starvation passed, she went to ask her children back. But two of them were not found. And for the rest of her life, the face of this woman was stamped with a searching, waiting look."

"... Since the railway track was single-track, waiting for the passage of oncoming trains, the train stood idle for a long time. And yet, not at every stop, the doors of the cars were opened. Sometimes they let out of the crowded car to give people the opportunity to breathe fresh air. Sometimes submachine gunners standing at the doors and windows did not even give the opportunity to look outside. A resident of Kamennomost, Khasan Bashchievich Aidinov, a veteran of the war, who returned seriously wounded from the front, with a bad heart, was traveling in a neighboring car. At one of the stops, Hasan asked to get out - he didn’t have enough air. But the soldier did not agree to let him out, and then Hassan, in desperation, cut his own throat " O. Khubiev

"In the first months of resettlement, those who died outside the home were not allowed to be taken home by relatives, buried according to adat. Referring to the fact that he died at work - in the field - they demanded that, like the corpse of an animal, they buried everything somewhere" (P. Abazaliev ).

"Father was 96 years old, four of his sons fought at the front. When he died in 1944, my brother and I dug his grave from early morning until evening. We barely managed - we were so weak..."
M. Laipanov

BallaBaikulova, from the village of Important, died in 1989. Her husband died at the front, three children are buried in Bayaut. In her small sakla, three pairs of children's eyes and the eyes of a young horseman, her husband, looked at her from the walls. Balla, an old, sick woman among them, seemed to come from the last century. And who knows which of them was more fortunate: them, who were doomed to remain forever young and young, or her, who lived a long time, but lived "yesterday", and after 1946 she had neither present nor future. Even the term "yesterday" is not correct - she had no life at all after the death of her children. There, in 1946, having put her soul in the grave with her children, until 1989 she lived with one desire to leave this world.

“The mother of one woman died on the road. They didn’t let her be buried or taken further in the car. They threw the body just on the side of the road. Her daughter (the mother of three children, her husband was at the front), wanting to ease and cool the burning pain of the heart, sat down right on the snow, and when her body cooled down, it seemed to her that the pain in her heart subsided as well. Her grief burned so much ... And then her legs stopped walking.

On October 9, 1943, the leadership of Kazakhstan, referring to the instructions of the USSR State Defense Committee, ordered the leaders of a number of regions to prepare to receive immigrants from the North Caucasus. Three days later, on October 12, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No. 115-13 was issued on the deportation of the Karachay people to the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSR.

“All Karachays living in the region should be relocated to other regions of the USSR, and the Karachaev Autonomous Region should be liquidated,” the document said.

As the reason for the deportation of the Karachai people, their alleged massive complicity with the Nazis during German occupation territory of the Karachaev region, and after the liberation by the Soviet army - the unwillingness to extradite those who pandered to the Nazis.

The German army broke through Soviet defense July 15, 1942 and a wide front, covering almost 500 km in width, moved to the Caucasus. Already on August 21, the Germans hoisted a flag on the top of Elbrus (this flag remained there until February 17, 1943, when the Soviet troops threw it off). On October 25, the Germans captured Nalchik, fighting took place on the outskirts of Vladikavkaz and Malgobek.

The start date of the occupation allows us to understand that in time the German government did not really have time to establish itself in the region, the occupation lasted four months at most. And references to the fact that all the deported peoples managed to get so bogged down in cooperation with the Germans, to put it mildly, raise reasonable doubts: when did they manage to do all this?

It must also be taken into account that part former USSR were under occupation for two to three years. At the same time, the percentage of those who collaborated with the German authorities was much higher and more significant than is attributed to the North Caucasian peoples.

Immediately after the liberation of the territory of Karachay, punishing those who cooperated with the Germans, the Soviet government already in April 1943 planned to evict 573 families. However, due to the fact that 67 especially wanted by the authorities themselves surrendered, the number of settlers was reduced to 110 families, and they were evicted in August 1943.

But this seemed to Moscow an insufficient action - in October it was decided to evict all Karachais. Exactly 73 years ago, early in the morning of November 2, all Karachays without exception - men and women, children and the elderly - began to gather in the squares of villages and cities. Women were separated from men (this forced men to avoid escaping or any action against the military, there was a threat of shooting their wives, sisters and mothers). This practice, tested on the Karachays, one to one was later used in the eviction of other peoples of the North Caucasus - Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, as well as the Tatars of the Crimea.

In those days, from November 2 to 5, about 69 thousand Karachays were evicted for further residence in the northern steppes of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Enemies and accomplices of the Germans were declared newborn children, old people who, with weapons in their hands, defended this country during the period of the empire, and during Soviet power, elderly women. Everyone became enemies at the request of the all-powerful tyrant Joseph Stalin.

Greater mortality was on the way - cold and hunger killed children and the elderly first.

The deportation from Karachay lasted only three days. To execute the order, 53,347 military men removed from the front were involved. In relation to the population of Karachay itself at that time, it turns out one fully armed military man for 1.25 civilian Karachays. In total, 32 echelons were sent, each of them had 2000-2100 people. There were an average of 58 people in each carriage, and, given that the carriages were for the transport of livestock, and also smaller in size than ordinary passenger carriages of those years, there was practically nowhere to put children or the sick.

The first echelons began to arrive on 10 November. The last echelon, which left Karachaevsk on November 5, reached its destination only after November 20. Greater mortality was on the way - cold and hunger killed children and the elderly first.

Mortality in the first years (until 1949) in the places of deportation exceeded the birth rate. Total population in the first five years of deportation among Karachays, the number of deportations decreased by more than 13 thousand people by 1948. For the first months, the Karachays believed that they were brought to die, however, as other peoples arrived, the hope grew that everything would change and there would be an opportunity to return home.

Karachays remember the history of the deportation in detail.

Alexander Nekrich, one of those who studied the policy of the USSR towards deported peoples, noted that one of the main forms of protest of representatives of the repressed peoples against forced exile was the escape to their homeland. Because of this, the authorities of the USSR were forced on November 26, 1948 to toughen the penalties for escaping and adopt the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On criminal responsibility for escaping from places of compulsory and permanent settlement of persons evicted to remote areas of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War”. It stated that the resettlement of Chechens, Karachais, Ingush, Balkars and other repressed peoples "was carried out forever, without the right to return to their former places residence." For the escape, a severe punishment was introduced - 20 years of hard labor. But this did not stop those few daredevils who made their way to their homeland in different ways.

After a long 14 years, on May 3, 1957, the first echelon with Karachays arrived in their native lands. This was the beginning of the struggle for rehabilitation. For more than 70 years Karachays have been fighting for their rights. All they require is the purification of their name. This baton is already being taken over by the third generation of Karachays from the period of deportation.

Karachays remember the history of the deportation in detail; from the lips of the older generation, the young absorb the pain of their people.

Today's youth sing songs about this tragic period of history, write poems, novels, study documents of those long fourteen years.

Many Karachays from national auls went to the front. Those who remained in the rear worked on the construction of defensive structures, collected money and things for the front. During these war years, the inhabitants of the region collected and sent over 6 carriages of collective and individual gifts and 68,650 items - felt boots, sheepskin coats, cloaks, hats with earflaps, woolen socks. In mid-August 1942, German troops entered the territory of the region. In the battles for the passes of the Main Caucasian Range participated 17 partisan detachments, in which there were about 1200 people, including about a hundred women. “The brave partisans and partisans M. Romanchuk, 3. Erkenov, M. Isakov, 3. Erkenova, I. Akbaev, X. Kasaev, Ya. Chomaev and others gave their lives for the sake of victory.”

Already in the first period of occupation, the Karachay region suffered significant losses in human and material resources. Representatives of many peoples were shot: Russians, Karachays, Ossetians, Abazins. Destroyed 150 thousand heads of cattle, destroyed enterprises, turned into stables local schools.

On the territory of the Ordzhonikidzevsky Territory occupied in August, the Germans established a “new order”: a curfew from 7 pm to 4 am. Along with the ruble, the German Reichsmarks and Pfennigs began to be accepted, the names of settlements and institutions were written in German and Russian. Special attention the occupation authorities devoted themselves to the "reform" of agriculture. Leaflets were published addressed to the peasants, they said that in the liberated regions German government already eliminated the collective farms. This meant the transition of the peasants to individual land use, thanks to which. according to the promises of the Germans, the peasants had the opportunity to live many times better than under the collective farms. The occupation of the region lasted 5.5 months.

The situation during the war years was tense, accompanied by deterioration financial situation, tightening the regime, mobilization. Promotion German troops to the Caucasus caused new repressions. As a result, many people from wealthy strata who fought against the Bolsheviks during the Civil War, participants in anti-Soviet movements, dispossessed kulaks, as well as their families, ended up in the ranks of collaborators. Many of them counted on changing the existing order with the help of the Germans and deliberately agreed to cooperate.

Of the representatives of just such social environment in the majority, the "Karachay National Committee" was formed, headed by K. Bayramukov, the foreman of Karachay, and the "Circassian Council" headed by A. Yakubovsky.

With the beginning of the occupation of the region and regions, the opponents of Soviet power came out of the underground and began to act openly, forming pseudo-national organizations on behalf of their peoples, forming detachments to support the invaders and fight the partisans.

The main reason for the deportation of the Karachays was accusations of collaborationism and banditry of some part of the population. But if we take into account the scale of repressions, then Soviet leadership collective responsibility was assigned to the entire Karachay people, half of which were children and adolescents.

The text of the Decree of the PVS of the USSR No. 115/13 “On the liquidation of the Karachaev Autonomous Region and on the administrative structure of its territory” stated that “many Karachays behaved treacherously” and also “joined detachments organized by the Germans to fight the Soviet regime.” There were accusations of extraditing Soviet citizens to the Germans, serving the Germans as guides on the passes, and after the establishment of Soviet power, the Karachays "...oppose the measures taken by the Soviet government, hide bandits and agents abandoned by the Germans from the authorities, providing them with active assistance" .

As in other countries and regions they occupied, Hitler's command resorted to creating different kind organizations such as the "Karachay National Committee" to support local German occupation regime. This turned out to be enough to justify the decision to deport the entire Karachai people.

The purpose of the deportation, in more broad sense, there was a purge of society from current and potential enemies of Stalinism.

Some of its participants went underground, for example, the Dudov brothers Haji-Islam and Islam-Magomed, former princes and participants in the armed uprising, were hiding for 13 years, etc. Illegal operating "gangster-insurgent organizations" were created.

Despite the arrest at the end of 1941 and at the beginning of 1942 of many active members of the opened insurgent organization on the territory of Karachay and Kabardino-Balkaria, the operational-Chekist measures for the final elimination of the insurgent underground of the NKVD of the Ordzhonikidze Territory were not carried out decisively enough. Bayramukov Kady, Islam Dudov, Guliyev Tasha and others grouped around themselves a "bandit-deserter element" and carried out raids. In the first half of 1942 alone, the NKVD officers in the region "revealed 21 gangs with 135 members." Before the summer offensive in 1942 by German troops in the Caucasus, enemy intelligence began to drop their agents in Karachay.

Almost simultaneously with German offensive in the Caucasus, "anti-Soviet elements" in an organized manner began active operations in the region, as part of the detachments attacking individual units of the retreating Red Army. According to the historian N. Bugai, “the situation was best described by the Karachays themselves. According to them, several rebel groups were active in the region.” The rebels were led by people who graduated from German intelligence schools.

In the report of the head of the OBB of the NKVD of the USSR A. M. Leontiev addressed to the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR S. N. Kruglov, it was said that after the occupation, the German command in Karachay "established close connection with local nationalists, gang leaders, leaders of the Muslim clergy and Murid sects and their representatives, and created the so-called Karachay National Committee. Bayramukov Kady and Laipanov Muratbi were approved at the head of the committee, who later worked in the German intelligence school in Beshui (Crimea).

The committee received a promise from the occupying authorities for the right to dissolve collective farms in the future, Soviet state and public property, as well as management of the economy and culture (under German control) were transferred under its tutelage. The Karachay Committee was under the auspices of the former German military attache in Moscow, General E. Köstring.

According to German historian J. Hoffmann, administrative leaderships were formed under the control of the German authorities. The result of such a policy was "recognition, on the basis of non-intervention, of the independent republics of Karachays and Kabardino-Balkarians in the North Caucasus, who rose to fight against Soviet power even before the arrival of the Germans" .

In his telegram to I. Stalin, L. Beria argued that the agreement between the Balkars and Karachays on the unification of Balkaria with Karachay was "at the behest of the Germans and the emigrants Shokmanov and Kemmetov they brought with them."

The occupation authorities created a controlled "administrative apparatus", for example, city and district burgomasters were appointed. They, as heads of the local civil administration, were subordinate to the elders. The headman was obliged to bring orders to the attention of the population German command. Residents submitted requests and petitions only through the headman. The headman had the right to punish residents, impose a fine, send them to forced labor and put them under arrest. However, not all appointed elders were German supporters. Thus, A. Ebzeev, head of the village of Verkhnyaya Mara, hid intelligence agent M. Khutov and state security officer L. Uzdenov at his home. One of the main tasks in organizing administration in the occupied territory, the occupiers considered the creation of police from local residents. For every 100 residents, the state relied on 1 policeman.

Occupational German authorities they also attached importance to counterguerrilla warfare. The punitive detachment under the command of the former "fist" V. Ponomarev operated in the Pregradnensky, Zelenchuksky districts, the village of Kurdzhinovo, fought against the partisans of the Stavropol and Krasnodar territories. Punishers, among whom were Y. Mikhailov, deputy commander of Kurdzhinovsky punitive detachment, M. Sergeev - chief of police of the Krugly Pregradnensky district farm, I. Simakov, V. Glushko, I. Lakhin, S. Turetsky, I. Glushko and others, tortured and shot more than 170 patriots, burned the working village of Upper Beskes. They mocked Soviet people, robbed them, drove hundreds to Germany.

In January 1943, the Karachay region was liberated from German troops, which led to the resumption of the fight against anti-Soviet rebels. The rebels of the Chereksky district of the Design Bureau of the ASSR and the Uchkulansky district of the KAO organized in January open speech against the Soviet government for the preservation of the "New Order" established by the Germans. The insurgent organizations were partially eliminated by the operations carried out in the Cherek and Uchkulan regions.

The organizers of the performance in the Uchkulan region, according to the report of A. M. Leontiev, were "leaders of bandit rebel formations", "Muslim clergy and nationalists." It was attended by 400 people, after the liquidation of the speech, many participants in small groups went underground. They were greatly assisted by paratrooper agents thrown intelligence agencies Germans with the active participation of the "Karachay National Committee", who had fled from the region.

To raise the people during the speech, national slogans were used: “for a free Karachay”, “for the religion of Karachay”. The “administrative apparatus” (headmen, foremen of the district, police), in the district, managed, at the expense of the population of not only the Uchkulan district, but also the Malokarachaevsky, Zelenchuk, Mikoyanovsky districts, to organize a detachment, numbering up to 153 people in the Uchkulan district: Uchkulan - 17 people, Kart-Jurt - 30 people, Upper Uchkulan - 57 people, Khurzuk - 40 people, Jazlyk - 9 people.

During military operations during the period from February 10 to 25, 1943, 115 soldiers and officers of the Red Army and state security officers were killed by the rebels of the Uchkulan region who resisted.

About 2 thousand servicemen of the internal troops and police officers were involved in the liquidation of the uprising by the NKGB-NKVD.

The second operation in the Uchkulan region was carried out from February 21 to February 25 by units of the 284th, 273rd and 290th rifle regiments, the 18th cavalry regiment, the 177th separate rifle battalion, reconnaissance and destruction battalions of the Ordzhonikidze division of the NKVD. 60 rebels were killed, not counting those who surrendered and were captured. The NKVD troops lost 17 people killed, there were losses in the wounded and frostbite.

In April 1943, the NKVD troops undertook an expedition to the Balyk area (Kabardino-Balkaria), where, according to intelligence data, up to 400-500 people of armed Karachays and Balkars were hiding, who were armed with heavy and light machine guns, grenades, machine guns, rifles, revolvers and ammunition. The organizers and leaders of the headquarters of the rebels were M. Kochkarov, I. Dudov, and others. The NKVD KB ASSR was involved in the operation, Stavropol Territory, the task force of the Headquarters of the Grozny division of the NKVD, 170 and 284 joint ventures and the 18th command post.

The Chekist military operation was carried out from April 7 to 19 in the upper reaches of the Malka River to eliminate the so-called "Balyk Army", which, according to other sources, numbered more than 200 people. 59 rebels were killed, about seventy were captured. Losses Soviet side amounted to 18 fighters killed.

From January to October 10, 37 operations were carried out in the Karachaev region alone, 99 anti-Soviet rebels were killed and 14 were wounded, 380 were captured. In battles with them, 60 NKVD officers were killed, 55 were wounded.

On April 15, 1943, the directive of the NKVD of the USSR and the USSR Prosecutor's Office No. 52-6927 was issued, according to which “573 members of the families of rebel leaders” were determined to be evicted. However, due to the fact that "67 gang leaders turned themselves in to the Soviet authorities, the number of families subject to deportation was reduced to 110 (472 people)." On August 9, 1943, they were evicted from the Karachaev Autonomous Region. Subsequently, this measure was extended to the entire Karachay people.

According to the NKVD of the USSR, 62,842 Karachays, on the basis of the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No. 115-13 of October 12, 1943 and the decree of the Council of People's Commissars of the USSR No. 1118-342ss of October 14, 1943, were to be resettled in the Kazakh and Kirghiz SSR.

Decree of the PVS of the USSR No. 115/13 of October 12, 1943 on the liquidation of the Karachaev Autonomous Region and on the administrative structure of its territory, it was decided to relocate all Karachays living in the region to other regions of the USSR, and liquidate the Karachaev Autonomous Region. The Council of People's Commissars of the USSR was instructed to provide Karachays in new places of settlement with land and provide them with the necessary state aid on the economic device on the spot. Mikoyan-Shahar was renamed the city of Kluhori.

The territory of the former Karachay Autonomous Okrug was subsequently divided between neighboring subjects and was supposed to be populated by "verified categories of workers."

On the night of November 2, at two o'clock, the NKVD troops cordoned off the villages, blocked exit routes, and set up ambushes. Starting from 4 o'clock in the morning, the state security and militia officers also began arrests; in the first days of the eviction, more than 1,000 people were arrested. Were installed minimum terms(3-6 hours) for the eviction of each Karachay settlement. There were cases of resistance during the arrests.

The deportation was carried out on November 2-5, 1943. For the forceful provision of the deportation of the population, military formations numbering 53,327 people were involved.

A total of 34 echelons were sent, each with 2000-2100 people, there were about 58 wagons in each echelon, the last 3 trains left on November 5 and on November 19 were still on the way.

The first echelons arrived by November 10, and from November 11 to 22, special settlers were received. By December 1943, in the Dzhambul and South Kazakhstan regions of the Kazakh SSR and in the Frunze region of the Kirghiz SSR, 15,987 families were settled - 68,614 people from the former Karachay Autonomous District, including men - 12,500, women - 19,444 and children - 36,670 Previously, special commandant's offices of the NKVD were organized in the areas of resettlement to serve special settlers, employees of the NKVD and the NKGB were sent to the areas to identify empty premises and prepare apartments in collective and state farm houses, as well as to carry out activities related to the reception and resettlement of arriving special settlers. However, most of the special settlers remained without adequate shelter.

In 7 districts of the South Kazakhstan region of the Kazakh SSR, 6,689 families were settled - 25,142 people, including 3,689 men, 6,674 women and 14,679 children. Of these, in 9 state farms - 1491 families - 5713 people.

In addition to the deportation of the main part of the population, there were facts of “additional detection” of Karachays who had escaped deportation both in the region and in other regions of the Caucasus.

By the time the trains arrived at the unloading stations, auto-drawn transport was concentrated in a timely manner. The unloading of trains was organized and planned. There were no excesses and incidents both when receiving trains and when moving into collective farm and state farm houses, both from the arriving Karachays and local population did not have. The overwhelming majority of special settlers in the very first days after resettlement began to work on state farms and collective farms, harvesting cotton, beets, and cleaning the irrigation system.

According to the Decree of the Council of People's Commissars No. 1221-368ss "On the procedure for settling the regions of the former Karachaev Autonomous Region of the Stavropol Territory" dated November 6, 1943, the following territorial changes were prescribed:

After the eviction of the Karachais, on December 10, 1943, in the region, in addition to outbuildings, agricultural equipment, poultry, bees and vegetables, 156,239 heads of Karachai cattle and horses were taken into account and accepted by the Zagotskot system. Regional organizations squandered 4,361 heads of cattle and 26,446 heads of sheep and goats.

Cattle, poultry and grain received from the Karachai special settlers were supposed to be used primarily to cover state obligations of supplies in 1943 and arrears, the rest was subject to compensation in kind in new places of settlement until 1945 inclusive.

The department of special settlements of the NKVD of the USSR was created on March 17, 1944, the basis for the creation of an independent department was the significant resettlement during World War II of new contingents of special settlers from the North Caucasus, the former Kalmyk ASSR and other regions. In the Kazakh SSR, 488 special commandant's offices were created, in the Kirghiz - 96 special commandant's offices, each was given the appropriate military units consisting of 5-7 fighters of the internal troops of the NKVD, led by a sergeant and officers. In 1944 it was given great attention prevention of escapes of special settlers and detention of those who fled. For example, for Karachais, as of June 1, “anti-shooting work” was characterized by the following data: 77 people fled from settlements, 19 were detained, 19 escapes were prevented.

Families of Karachays, Balkars, Kalmyks, and Crimean Tatars, as of September 1944, mainly lived in housing due to the "compacting" of local collective farmers, workers and employees of enterprises, as well as state farms. In especially unsatisfactory living conditions were the special settlers transferred to industry and construction. Many managers of industrial enterprises and construction sites were unable to provide the migrants with the necessary living space, which is why their families were often placed in uninhabitable premises, club buildings, temporary barracks, dugouts, and dilapidated houses. As a result of the measures taken by the NKVD of the USSR, there was a "significant improvement in the household arrangements of the special settlers," but on the whole the situation remained still difficult.

Most of the special settlers resettled from the North Caucasus did not have shoes and warm clothes. There was a need to allocate the possible amount of cotton fabric to special settlers in need for sewing winter clothes and provide them with the simplest shoes. However, the measures taken by the Council of People's Commissars to meet full need there were not enough special settlers.

All able-bodied special settlers were obliged to engage in "socially useful work." For these purposes, the local "Soviets of Working People's Deputies" organized the placement of special settlers in agriculture, in industrial enterprises, at construction sites, economic and cooperative organizations and institutions.

Special settlers did not have the right, without the permission of the commandant of the special commandant's office of the NKVD, to leave the area of ​​the settlement served by this commandant's office. Unauthorized absence was considered as an escape and entailed criminal liability. Special settlers - heads of families or persons replacing them, were required to report to the special commandant's office about all changes in the composition of families (birth of a child, death of a family member, escape, etc.) within three days. For breaking the rules and public order in places of resettlement, special settlers were fined up to 100 rubles, or arrested for up to 5 days.

Among the repressed peoples, especially those resettled in 1944, there was a significant mortality, which amounted to total the initial number of immigrants and until 1953, among the Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachays - 23.7%.

In the first years of life in a special settlement, in the process of adaptation, the mortality rate significantly exceeded the birth rate. From the moment of the initial resettlement until October 1, 1948, 28,120 people were born and 146,892 people died from the evicted North Caucasians (Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, Balkars, etc.), since 1949, all of them had a birth rate that exceeded the death rate.

In order to “strengthen the settlement regime” for the evicted, Decree No. 123/12 of November 26, 1948 of the PVS established that the resettlement was carried out “forever” without the right to return them to their former places of residence. For unauthorized departure (escape) from places of compulsory settlement, the perpetrators were subject to criminal liability - up to 20 years hard labor.

At the end of 1948, 15,425 families of Karachays numbering 56,869 people were registered, of which 29,284 were special settlers.

The number of Karachai special settlers, as of January 1, 1953, was 62,842 people, in addition, there were 478 people under arrest, seven were on the wanted list.

In 1954, the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR was ordered to deregister children of special settlers of all categories born after December 31, 1937, and more children should not be registered in special settlements from the register of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Children over 16 for admission to educational establishments travel to any point in the country was allowed, and those enrolled in educational institutions were ordered to be deregistered.

According to the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of July 16, 1956 "On the removal of restrictions on special settlements from Chechens, Ingush, Karachais and members of their families evicted during the Great Patriotic War", restrictions were lifted from the Karachai people.

By the time this decree was adopted, the number of special settlers had been greatly reduced due to the deregistration of children under 16 years of age, teachers, students, the disabled, etc. For example, the number of Karachays released by the Decree of July 16, 1956, amounted to only 30,100 people.

Decrees on the abolition of the special regime in relation to the deported peoples and other groups of people were distinguished by their half-heartedness, the desire not to subject the policy of mass deportations pursued earlier to the slightest criticism. It was about the fact that people were evicted “due to the circumstances of wartime”, and now, they say, their stay in the special settlement “is not necessary”. From the last phrase it logically followed that earlier it was "caused by necessity." There was no question of any political rehabilitation of the deported peoples. As they were considered criminal peoples, they remained so, with the difference that they turned from punished peoples into pardoned ones.

The national autonomy was restored in a different form, the Circassian Autonomous Okrug was transformed by the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of January 9, 1957 into the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region as part of the Stavropol Territory of the RSFSR. Decree of the PVS of the USSR No. 115/13 of October 12, 1943 on “the liquidation of the Karachaev Autonomous Region and on the administrative structure of its territory” and Article 2 of the Decree of July 16, 1956, regarding the prohibition of Karachays from returning to their former place of residence, were canceled.

Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Okrug were also transferred Zelenchuksky, Karachaevsky (at that time Klukhorsky, by the Decree of the USSR PVS of March 14, 1955, it was transferred to the RSFSR and became part of the Stavropol Territory

The republic celebrates a special date ─ May 3, the Day of the Revival of the Karachai people. This holiday is established in memory of gaining freedom and the return to their homeland of thousands of deported residents of the North Caucasus, who became victims of the criminal Stalinist policy, which was later recognized as genocide. Testimony of those who have experienced tragic events those years are not only proof of its inhuman nature, but also a warning to future generations.

In mid-July 1942, the German motorized units managed to make a powerful breakthrough, and rush to the Caucasus on a wide front covering almost 500 kilometers. The offensive was so swift that on August 21 the flag Nazi Germany fluttered on top of Elbrus and remained there until the end of February 1943, until the invaders were driven out Soviet troops. At the same time, the Nazis occupied the entire territory of the Karachaev Autonomous Region.

The arrival of the Germans and the establishment of a new order by them gave impetus to the activation of the actions of that part of the population that was hostile to the Soviet regime and was waiting for an opportunity to overthrow it. Taking advantage favorable environment, these individuals began to unite in rebel groups and actively cooperate with the Germans. From their number formed the so-called Karachay national committees whose task was to maintain the occupation regime on the ground.

From total number of the inhabitants of the region, these people made up an extremely small percentage, especially since most of the male population was at the front, but the responsibility for the betrayal was placed on the entire nation. The result of the events was the deportation of the Karachay people, which forever entered shameful page in the history of the country.

A people affected by a handful of traitors

Forced deportation of Karachays was among the numerous crimes of the totalitarian regime established in the country by a bloody dictator. It is known that even among his inner circle such obvious arbitrariness caused mixed reactions. In particular, A. I. Mikoyan, who was a member of the Politburo in those years, recalled that it seemed absurd to him to be accused of betraying an entire people, among whom there were many communists, representatives of the Soviet intelligentsia and the working peasantry. In addition, almost all male part The population was mobilized into the army and fought the Nazis on an equal footing with everyone else. Only a small group of renegades stained themselves with betrayal. However, Stalin showed stubbornness and insisted on his own.

The deportation of the Karachay people was carried out in several stages. Its beginning was the directive of April 15, 1943, drawn up by the Prosecutor's Office of the USSR together with the NKVD. Appeared immediately after the liberation of Karachay by Soviet troops in January 1943, it contained an order for the forced relocation to Kazakhstan of 573 people who were family members of those who collaborated with the Germans. All their relatives were to be sent, including infants and decrepit old people.

The number of those deported soon dropped to 472, as 67 members of the insurgent groups turned themselves in local authorities authorities. However, as shown further developments, it was just a propaganda move that contained a lot of cunning, since in October of the same year a decree was issued by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, on the basis of which all Karachays, without exception, were subjected to forced migration (deportation), in the amount of 62,843 people.

To complete the picture, we note that, according to the available data, 53.7% of them were children; 28.3% are women and only 18% are men, most of whom were old people or war invalids, since the rest at that time fought at the front, defending the very power that displaced their homes and doomed their families to incredible suffering.

The same decree of October 12, 1943 ordered the liquidation of the Karachay Autonomous Okrug, and the entire territory belonging to it was divided between neighboring subjects of the federation and was subject to settlement by “verified categories of workers” ─ this is exactly what was said in this sadly memorable document.

The beginning of a sorrowful journey

The resettlement of the Karachay people, in other words, their expulsion of the inhabited lands for centuries, was carried out at an accelerated pace and was carried out in the period from November 2 to November 5, 1943. In order to drive defenseless old people, women and children into freight cars, a “forced support for the operation” was allocated with the involvement of an NKVD military unit of 53 thousand people (this is official data). At gunpoint, they expelled innocent residents from their homes and escorted them to the places of departure. Only a small supply of food and clothing was allowed to be taken with them. All other property acquired long years, the deportees were forced to leave to fend for themselves.

All residents of the abolished Karachaev Autonomous Region were sent to new places of residence in 34 echelons, each of which could accommodate up to 2 thousand people and consisted of an average of 40 wagons. As the participants in those events later recalled, about 50 migrants were placed in each car, who over the next 20 days were forced, suffocating from cramped conditions and unsanitary conditions, to freeze, starve and die from diseases. The hardships they endured are evidenced by the fact that during the journey, only according to official reports, 654 people died.

Upon arrival at the place, all Karachays were settled in small groups in 480 settlements spread over a vast territory that stretched up to the foothills of the Pamirs. This irrefutably indicates that the deportation of the Karachays to the USSR pursued the goal of their complete assimilation among other peoples and disappearance as an independent ethnic group.

In March 1944, the so-called Department of Special Settlements was created under the NKVD of the USSR ─ this is how official documents called the places of residence of those who, having become a victim of an inhuman regime, were expelled from their land and forcibly sent thousands of kilometers away. This structure was in charge of 489 special commandant's offices in Kazakhstan and 96 in Kyrgyzstan.

According to the order issued by the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs L.P. Beria, all deported persons were required to obey special rules. They were categorically forbidden to leave the settlement controlled by this commandant's office of the NKVD without a special pass signed by the commandant. Violation of this requirement was equated to escape from places of detention and was punishable by hard labor for a period of 20 years.

In addition, the settlers were ordered to inform the commandant's office staff about the death of their family members or the birth of children within three days. They were also obliged to report on the escapes, and not only committed, but also being prepared. Otherwise, the perpetrators were prosecuted as accomplices in the crime.

Despite the reports of the commandants of special settlements about the safe placement of migrant families in new places and their involvement in the social and labor life of the region, in fact, only an insignificant part of them received more or less tolerable living conditions. The bulk of the same for a long time was deprived of shelter and huddled in shacks, hastily knocked together from waste material, and even in dugouts.

The situation with the food of the new settlers was also catastrophic. Witnesses of those events recalled that, deprived of any well-established supply, they were constantly starving. It often happened that people brought to extreme exhaustion ate roots, oilcake, nettles, frozen potatoes, alfalfa, and even the skin of worn shoes. As a result, only according to official data published during the years of perestroika, mortality among internally displaced persons in initial period reached 23.6%.

The incredible suffering associated with the deportation of the Karachay people was partly alleviated only by the kind participation and help from the neighbors ─ Russians, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz, as well as representatives of other nationalities who retained their inherent humanity, despite all the military trials. Particularly active was the process of rapprochement between the settlers and the Kazakhs, in whose memory the horrors of the famine experienced by them in the early 1930s were still fresh.

Repressions against other peoples of the USSR

Karachays were not the only victims of Stalin's arbitrariness. No less tragic was the fate of other indigenous peoples of the North Caucasus, and with them ethnic groups living in other parts of the country. According to the majority of researchers, representatives of 10 nationalities were subjected to forcible deportation, which, in addition to Karachays, included Crimean Tatars, Ingush, Kalmyks, Ingrian Finns, Koreans, Meskhetian Turks, Balkars, Chechens and

Without exception, all deported peoples moved to areas that were at a considerable distance from their historical places of residence, and found themselves in an unusual, and sometimes life-threatening situation. common feature of the deportations carried out, which allows us to consider them part of the mass repressions of the Stalinist period, is their extrajudicial nature and contingency, expressed in the movement of huge masses belonging to one or another ethnic group. In passing, we note that the history of the USSR also included the deportations of a number of social and ethno-confessional groups of the population, such as Cossacks, kulaks, etc.

Executioners of their own people

Issues related to the deportation of certain peoples were considered at the level of the highest party and state leadership of the country. Despite the fact that they were initiated by the OGPU, and later the NKVD, their decision was outside the competence of the court. It is believed that during the war years, as well as in the subsequent period key role L.P. Beria, the head of the Commissariat of Internal Affairs, played in the implementation of the forced resettlement of entire ethnic groups. It was he who submitted reports to Stalin containing materials related to subsequent repressions.

According to available data, by the time of Stalin's death, which followed in 1953, there were almost 3 million deportees of all nationalities in the country who were held in special settlements. Under the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the USSR, 51 departments were created to control the settlers with the help of 2916 commandant's offices operating in their places of residence. suppression possible escapes and 31 operational-search units were engaged in the search for the fugitives.

long way home

The return of the Karachai people to their homeland, as well as their deportation, took place in several stages. The first sign of the coming changes was the decree of the Minister of Internal Affairs of the USSR, issued a year after Stalin's death, on deregistration by the commandant's offices of special settlements of children born in the families of deported persons after 1937. That is, from that moment on, the commandant regime did not apply to those whose age did not exceed 16 years.

In addition, on the basis of the same order, boys and girls older than the specified age received the right to travel to any city in the country to enter educational institutions. In the case of their enrollment, they were also deregistered by the Ministry of Internal Affairs.

The next step towards the return of many illegally deported peoples to their homeland was taken by the government of the USSR in 1956. The impetus for him was the speech of N. S. Khrushchev at the XX Congress of the CPSU, in which he criticized the personality cult of Stalin and the policy of mass repressions pursued during the years of his rule.

According to the decree of July 16, restrictions on the special settlement were lifted from the Ingush, Chechens and Karachays evicted during the war years, as well as all members of their families. Representatives of the rest of the repressed peoples did not fall under this decree and were able to return to the places of their former residence only after some time. Later, all repressive measures were canceled against ethnic people. Only in 1964, by a government decree, absolutely groundless accusations of complicity with the Nazis were removed from them and all restrictions on freedom were abolished.

Debunked "heroes"

In the same period, another document, very characteristic of that era, appeared. This was a government decree to terminate the Decree of March 8, 1944, signed by M.I. Kalinin, in which the “all-Union headman” presented 714 Chekists and army officers who distinguished themselves in the performance of “special tasks” for high government awards.

This vague wording implied their participation in the deportation of defenseless women and the elderly. The lists of "heroes" were compiled personally by Beria. In view of abrupt change the course of the party, caused by the revelations made from the rostrum, they were all deprived of their previous awards. The initiator of this action was, in his own words, a member of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the CPSU AI Mikoyan.

From the documents of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, declassified during the years of perestroika, it can be seen that by the time this decree was issued, the number of special settlers had significantly decreased as a result of the deregistration of children under 16 years of age, students, as well as certain group disabled people. Thus, in July 1956, 30,100 people received freedom.

Despite the fact that the decree on the release of the Karachais was issued in July 1956, the final return was preceded by a long period different kinds of wires. May 3rd only next year the first echelon with them arrived at home. It is this date that is considered the Day of the Revival of the Karachai people. Over the following months, all the rest of the repressed returned from special settlements. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs, their number was 81,405 people.

At the beginning of 1957, a government decree was issued to restore the national autonomy of the Karachays, but not as an independent subject of the federation, as it was before the deportation, but by joining the territory they occupied to the Circassian Autonomous Region and thus creating the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region. The same territorial-administrative structure additionally included the Klukhorsky, Ust-Dzhkgutinsky and Zelenchuksky districts, as well as a significant part of the Psebaysky district and suburban area Kislovodsk.

On the way to full recovery

Researchers note that this and all subsequent decrees that abolished the special regime for the detention of repressed peoples had a common feature ─ they did not contain even a remote hint of criticism of the policy of mass deportations. Without exception, all documents stated that the resettlement of entire peoples was caused by "wartime circumstances", and on this moment the need for people to stay in special settlements has disappeared.

The question of the rehabilitation of the Karachay people, like all other victims of mass deportations, was not even raised. All of them continued to be considered criminal peoples pardoned thanks to the humanity of the Soviet government.

Thus, the struggle for the complete rehabilitation of all the peoples who had become victims of Stalin's arbitrariness still lay ahead. The period of the so-called Khrushchev thaw, when many materials testifying to the lawlessness perpetrated by Stalin and his entourage, became public knowledge, passed, and the party leadership set a course to hush up previous sins. In this situation, it was impossible to seek justice. The situation changed only with the beginning of perestroika, which was not slow to take advantage of the representatives of the previously repressed peoples.

Restoring Justice

At their request, at the end of the 80s, a commission was created under the Central Committee of the CPSU, which developed a draft Declaration on the complete rehabilitation of all the peoples of the Soviet Union who were subjected to forcible deportation during the years of Stalinism. In 1989, this document was considered and adopted by the Supreme Soviet of the USSR. In it, the deportation of the Karachay people, as well as representatives of other ethnic groups, was strongly condemned and characterized as an illegal and criminal act.

Two years later, a decree of the Council of Ministers of the USSR was issued, canceling all previously adopted government decisions, on the basis of which they were subjected to repression numerous nations who inhabited our country and declared them forced resettlement an act of genocide. The same document ordered to consider any attempts of agitation directed against the rehabilitation of the repressed peoples as illegal actions and to bring the perpetrators to justice.

In 1997, by a special decree of the head of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic, a holiday was established on May 3 - the Day of the Revival of the Karachay people. This is a kind of tribute to the memory of all those who for 14 years were forced to endure all the hardships of exile, and those who did not live to see the day of liberation and return to their native lands. According to the established tradition, it is marked by various mass events such as theatrical performances, concerts, equestrian competitions and motor races.