Why were the Balkars deported in 1944? Balkar people in a special settlement. Life and work in exile. Causes and consequences

The deportation of Balkars is a form of repression to which ethnic Balkars, mainly living on the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, were subjected. The Balkars resettled to Kazakhstan and Central Asia were accused of banditry and collaboration. Part of their lands was transferred to the Georgian SSR. The local initiator is considered to be the first secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Kumekhov Zuber Dokshukovich (Adyghe by nationality). The main initiator was Joseph Dzhugashvili. The official basis for raising the issue of eviction of the Balkar people is a slanderous denunciation addressed to L.P. Beria, signed by the leadership of the KBASSR represented by Kumekhov, with a request to evict the Balkar people for alleged mass banditry. The issue of the eviction of the Balkar people was finally resolved in February 1944 in the city of Ordzhonikidze (now Vladikavkaz) during a meeting between L. Beria and Kumekhov. The only Balkar who accompanied Kumekhov on this trip, a young instructor of the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, K. Uyanaev, was not allowed to see L. Beria. And the highest official at that time from among the Balkars - the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the CB ASSR, 30-year-old I.L. Ulbashev, was sent on a business trip to Moscow in advance. 16.3 thousand representatives of the small (about 53 thousand people in 1941) Balkar people fought in the ranks of the Red Army. This is every fourth Balkar. Every second of them died. Many of the Balkars reached Berlin, taking part in the storming of the Reichstag. Balkar pilot Alim Baysultanov became the first Hero of the Soviet Union from the North Caucasus. In January 1944, the first preliminary discussion took place on the possibility of relocating the Balkars.

NKVD troops totaling more than 21 thousand people were allocated to carry out the operation. On March 5, military units dispersed in Balkar settlements. The population was informed that the troops had arrived to rest and replenish themselves before the upcoming battles. The deportation was carried out under the leadership of the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel General I. Serov and Colonel General B. Kobulov. The operation to evict the Balkars began on March 8, 1944. It lasted only two hours. Everyone without exception underwent transportation - active participants in the Civil and Patriotic Wars, war veterans, parents, wives and children of front-line soldiers, deputies of Soviets at all levels, leaders of party and Soviet bodies. The guilt of the deportee was determined solely by his Balkar origin. The deportees were loaded into pre-prepared Studebakers and taken to the Nalchik railway station. 37,713 Balkars were sent to places of settlement in Kazakhstan and Central Asia in 14 echelons. Of the total number of deportees, 52% were children, 30% were women, 18% were men (mostly old people and disabled people). Thus, the victims of deportation were children, women and the elderly. In addition, 478 people of “anti-Soviet element” were arrested. There was a case of shelling of an NKVD ambush by a group of three people. When carrying out the operation, it was proposed to follow the instructions of the NKVD of the USSR on the procedure for eviction. According to the instructions, each settler was allowed to take food and property weighing up to 500 kg per family. However, the organizers of the eviction gave twenty minutes to get ready. All movable and immovable property of the Balkars remained in the KBASSR. The sixth point of the instructions provided that livestock, agricultural products, houses and buildings were subject to transfer on the spot and compensation in kind at new places of settlement. However, this did not happen - the resettlement of the Balkars was carried out in small groups, and no land or funds were allocated to them locally. During the 18 days of travel, 562 people died in unequipped carriages. They were buried near the railroad tracks during short stops. When the trains passed without stopping, the bodies of those who died along the way were thrown into derailment by the guards. The search for Balkars also took place outside the republics. Thus, in May 1944, 20 families were deported from the liquidated Karachay Autonomous Okrug, 67 people were identified in other regions of the USSR. The deportation of Balkars continued until 1948 inclusive. On April 8, 1944, the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The southwestern regions of the republic - Elbrus and Elbrus - were transferred to the Georgian SSR with the formation of the Upper Vaneti region. Orders followed to rename settlements. The village of Yanika began to be called Novo-Kamenka, Kashkatau - Sovetsky, Khasanya - Prigorodny, Lashkuta - Zarechny, Bylym - Coal.

In places of exile, all special settlers were registered. Every month they were required to report to their place of residence in special commandant's offices and had no right to leave the area of resettlement without the knowledge and approval of the commandant. Unauthorized absence was considered an escape and entailed criminal liability. During the years of exile, the Balkars lost many elements of material culture. Traditional buildings and utensils were almost never reproduced in the new settlement areas. The reduction of traditional sectors of the economy led to the loss of national types of clothing, shoes, hats, jewelry, national cuisine, and modes of transport. For most Balkar children, it was difficult to obtain a school education: only one in six of them attended school. Obtaining higher and secondary specialized education was almost impossible. The first years of the Balkars’ stay in Central Asia were complicated by the negative attitude towards them from the local population, who were subjected to ideological indoctrination and saw them as enemies of Soviet power. Since the summer of 1945, demobilized Balkar front-line soldiers began to return from the army. They were ordered to go to the places of exile of their relatives. Having arrived there, the front-line soldiers were registered as special settlers. In November 1948, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On criminal liability for escapes from places of compulsory and permanent settlement of persons evicted to remote areas of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War” was issued, the essence of which was that repressed peoples were expelled forever, without the right to return to their ethnic homeland. The same decree tightened the special settlement regime even more. The document provided for 20 years of hard labor for unauthorized departure from places of settlement. In fact, special settlers could move freely only within a radius of 3 km from their place of residence. Supervised under a strict commandant regime, the exile lasted 13 long years, during which, according to official data, 26.5% of the deported Balkars died from hunger, typhus and hard labor. Restrictions on special settlements for Balkars were lifted on April 18, 1956, but the right to return to their homeland had not yet been granted. And on January 9, 1957, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR adopted a Decree on the complete lifting of restrictions on the Balkars, their return to their homeland and the renaming of the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In 1957 - 1958 people began to return to their homeland en masse in an organized manner, in echelons. On March 28, 1957, the Elbrus region was returned to the RSFSR, recreating Balkar autonomy. By April 1958, about 22 thousand people had returned. By 1959, about 81% had already returned, by 1970 - more than 86%, and by 1979 - about 90% of all Balkars.

The return of the Balkars to their historical homeland in 1957-59 was not accompanied by a complete restoration of rights. “Restoration of the statehood of the Balkar people” turned out to be a fiction. Of all the Balkar settlements, barely half were restored, and of the 6 settlements of the Khulam society, not a single one. Contrary to all the statements of the KBR leadership about “preserving and transferring their houses to the Balkars,” almost all Balkar villages were completely destroyed and were mostly empty. Moreover, it is well known that the destruction of Balkar villages (from the dismantling of buildings to the destruction of tombstones) was carried out on the direct orders of the Regional Party Committee and the Council of People's Commissars of the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, on the basis of their joint resolution of April 15, 1944, number 241, adopted immediately after the deportation of the Balkars. The people had to settle down anew. Today, 76 Balkar villages lie in ruins. As a result of manipulations with the administrative-territorial division of the republic, none of the four regions of Balkaria that existed at the time of the forced resettlement were restored to their previous borders. The federal center allocated significant funds for the settlement of the Balkar people who returned from exile. However, the regional committee and the Council of Ministers of the republic used them at their own discretion. As documents show, funds were purposefully dispersed and outright stolen. The materials of the commission of deputies of the Supreme Council of the KBASSR, organized in 1991, indicate that of all these funds, only 13% were used for their intended purpose, i.e. for the needs of the Balkar people. Huge funds were largely allocated to the construction of facilities in Kabardian settlements. Most of the administrative buildings, industries and schools in them were built precisely in the years when targeted funds were allocated from the federal budget for the restoration of the infrastructure of Balkar settlements and the construction of housing for returnees. The same thing happened again in the 1990s - not a single one of the planned 200 facilities was built in Balkaria, with the exception of the 2nd city hospital in the village. Hasanya. It is noteworthy that in December 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, and then the Supreme Council of the RSFSR, firmly condemned the repression by the state against the peoples forcibly evicted in 1942 - 1944 from their native places to Siberia and the republics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. On April 26, 1991, the Supreme Council of the RSFSR adopted the law “On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples,” according to which the rights of repressed peoples were to be restored in full, which, unfortunately, has not yet been implemented. In 1993, the government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution “On socio-economic support for the Balkar people.” In March 1994, on the eve of the 50th anniversary of the eviction of the Balkar people to Central Asia and Kazakhstan, President of the Russian Federation B.N. Yeltsin officially apologized on behalf of the state to the Balkar people for repression and genocide in the period from 1944 to 1957. Thus, the Russian state made it clear to everyone that denigrating the Balkar people and putting various labels on them is impermissible and criminal. In modern Kabardino-Balkaria, March 8 is the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the deportation of the Balkar people, and March 28 is celebrated as the Day of the Revival of the Balkar people. However, the application of these documents in practice turned out to be complicated by many factors. Thus, none of the four regions of Balkaria that existed at the time of the forced eviction of the Balkars from their territories in 1943 was restored to its former borders. After returning from exile, some Balkars were resettled in the Kabardian regions. As a result of the unification of Balkar villages with villages separated from the regions of Kabarda, a mixed Chegemsky district was formed with a predominance of the Kabardian population and, accordingly, administrative power belonged to the Kabardians, and the most populous Balkar villages of Khasanya and Belaya Rechka were transferred to the administrative subordination of Nalchik, along with those adjacent to with vast tracts of land.

The deportation of Balkars is a form of repression to which ethnic Balkars, who mainly lived on the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, were subjected to by the leadership of the USSR. The Balkars resettled to Kazakhstan and Central Asia were accused of banditry and collaboration. Their lands were transferred to the Georgian SSR.

The local initiator is considered to be the first secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, Kumekhov Zuber Dokshukovich (Adyghe by nationality). The main initiator was Joseph Dzhugashvili. The official basis for raising the issue of eviction of the Balkar people is a slanderous denunciation addressed to L.P. Beria, signed by the leadership of the KBASSR represented by Kumekhov, with a request to evict the Balkar people for alleged mass banditry. The issue of the eviction of the Balkar people was finally resolved in February 1944 in the city of Ordzhonikidze (now Vladikavkaz) during a meeting between L. Beria and Kumekhov. The only Balkar who accompanied Kumekhov on this trip, a young instructor of the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, K. Uyanaev, was not allowed to see L. Beria. And the highest official at that time from among the Balkars - the Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the CB ASSR, 30-year-old I.L. Ulbashev, was sent on a business trip to Moscow in advance.

16.3 thousand representatives of the small (about 53 thousand people in 1941) Balkar people fought in the ranks of the Red Army. This is every fourth Balkar. Every second of them died. Many of the Balkars reached Berlin, taking part in the storming of the Reichstag. Balkar pilot Alim Baysultanov became the first Hero of the Soviet Union from the North Caucasus.

In January 1944, the first preliminary discussion took place on the possibility of relocating the Balkars.

The operation to evict the Balkars began on March 8, 1944. It lasted only two hours. Everyone without exception underwent transportation - active participants in the Civil and Patriotic Wars, war veterans, parents, wives and children of front-line soldiers, deputies of Soviets at all levels, leaders of party and Soviet bodies. The guilt of the deportee was determined solely by his Balkar origin.

The deportees were loaded into pre-prepared Studebakers and taken to the Nalchik railway station. 37,713 Balkars were sent to places of settlement in Kazakhstan and Central Asia in 14 echelons. Of the total number of deportees, 52% were children, 30% were women, 18% were men (mostly old people and disabled people). Thus, the victims of deportation were children, women and the elderly. In addition, 478 people of “anti-Soviet element” were arrested. There was a case of shelling of an NKVD ambush by a group of three people. When carrying out the operation, it was proposed to follow the instructions of the NKVD of the USSR on the procedure for eviction. According to the instructions, each settler was allowed to take food and property weighing up to 500 kg per family. However, the organizers of the eviction gave twenty minutes to get ready. All movable and immovable property of the Balkars remained in the KBASSR. The sixth point of the instructions provided that livestock, agricultural products, houses and buildings were subject to transfer on the spot and compensation in kind at new places of settlement. However, this did not happen - the resettlement of the Balkars was carried out in small groups, and no land or funds were allocated to them locally.

During the 18 days of travel, 562 people died in unequipped carriages. They were buried near the railroad tracks during short stops. When the trains passed without stopping, the bodies of those who died along the way were thrown into derailment by the guards.

The search for Balkars also took place outside the republics. Thus, in May 1944, 20 families were deported from the liquidated Karachay Autonomous Okrug, 67 people were identified in other regions of the USSR. The deportation of Balkars continued until 1948 inclusive.

On April 8, 1944, the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The southwestern regions of the republic - Elbrus and Elbrus - were transferred to the Georgian SSR with the formation of the Upper Vaneti region. Orders followed to rename settlements. The village of Yanika began to be called Novo-Kamenka, Kashkatau - Sovetsky, Khasanya - Prigorodny, Lashkuta - Zarechny, Bylym - Coal.

For any violation or disobedience to the commandant, the settlers were subject to administrative penalties or criminal charges.

During the years of exile, the Balkars lost many elements of material culture. Traditional buildings and utensils were almost never reproduced in the new settlement areas. The reduction of traditional sectors of the economy led to the loss of national types of clothing, shoes, hats, jewelry, national cuisine, and modes of transport.

For most Balkar children, it was difficult to obtain a school education: only one in six of them attended school. Obtaining higher and secondary specialized education was almost impossible.

The first years of the Balkars’ stay in Central Asia were complicated by the negative attitude towards them from the local population, who were subjected to ideological indoctrination and saw them as enemies of Soviet power.

Since the summer of 1945, demobilized Balkar front-line soldiers began to return from the army. They were ordered to go to the places of exile of their relatives. Having arrived there, the front-line soldiers were registered as special settlers.

In November 1948, the Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On criminal liability for escapes from places of compulsory and permanent settlement of persons evicted to remote areas of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War” was issued, the essence of which was that repressed peoples were expelled forever, without the right to return to their ethnic homeland. The same decree tightened the special settlement regime even more. The document provided for 20 years of hard labor for unauthorized departure from places of settlement. In fact, special settlers could move freely only within a radius of 3 km from their place of residence.

Rehabilitation

Restrictions on special settlements for Balkars were lifted on April 18, 1956, but the right to return to their homeland was not granted.

On January 9, 1957, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a Decree “On the transformation of the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.” At the same time, the territories ceded to Georgia were returned, their former names were restored; The ban on returning to one’s previous place of residence was also lifted.

On March 28, 1957, the KBASSR Law “On the transformation of the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” was adopted.

The return of Balkars to their homeland was very intensive: by April 1958, about 22 thousand people returned. By 1959, about 81% had already returned, by 1970 - more than 86%, and by 1979 - about 90% of all Balkars.

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

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

In 1993, the government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution “On socio-economic support for the Balkar people.”

In 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree “On measures for the rehabilitation of the Balkar people and state support for their revival and development.”

In modern Kabardino-Balkaria, March 8 is the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the deportation of the Balkar people, and March 28 is celebrated as the Day of the Revival of the Balkar people.

However, the application of these documents in practice turned out to be complicated by many factors. Thus, none of the four regions of Balkaria that existed at the time of the forced eviction of the Balkars from their territories in 1943 was restored to their previous borders. After returning from exile, some Balkars were resettled in the Kabardian regions.

As a result of the unification of Balkar villages with villages separated from the regions of Kabarda, a mixed Chegemsky district was formed with a predominance of the Kabardian population and, accordingly, administrative power belonged to the Kabardians, and the most populous Balkar villages of Khasanya and Belaya Rechka were transferred to the administrative subordination of Nalchik, along with those adjacent to with vast tracts of land.

Sources: P. Polyan "Not of one's own free will...History and geography of forced migrations to the USSR." - O.G.I - Memorial, Moscow 2001; N. Bugay “Deportation of Peoples”, collection “War and Society, 1941-1945 book two”. - M.: Nauka, 2004; HM. Sabanchiev. Eviction of the Balkar people during the Great Patriotic War: causes and consequences. - Portal "Turkolog. Turkological publications".

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Ethnic Balkars, who mainly lived on the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, were accused by the leadership of the USSR in 1944 of “betrayal” and “failure to protect” the territory of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, in particular Elbrus and the Elbrus region, from the Nazi troops and were resettled to Central Asia.

Background of expulsion

In August 1942, five regions of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic were occupied by German troops. On October 24, 1942, they occupied Nalchik. A number of industrial enterprises along with their equipment were left to the occupiers. 314.9 thousand sheep were left behind (248 thousand were destroyed or taken away by the occupiers), 45.5 thousand heads of cattle (more than 23 thousand were destroyed or taken away), 25.5 thousand horses (about 6 thousand were destroyed or taken away). An attempt to organize a partisan movement in the republic failed. For operations in the rear, it was planned to create several partisan groups and detachments with a total number of up to a thousand people. These units disintegrated because the families of the partisans were not evacuated. Only one united partisan detachment of 125 people was created.

At the beginning of 1943, Soviet troops liberated the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. However, as of May 1943, 44 groups of anti-Soviet rebels (941 people) were operating on the territory of the republic, which, according to official data, included former party workers.

In January 1944, the first preliminary discussion took place on the possibility of relocating the Balkars. The State Defense Committee was recommended to “express an opinion on this issue.” On February 25, 1944, at a meeting between the leaders of the NKVD Lavrentiy Beria, Ivan Serov and Bogdan Kobulov with the secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian regional party committee Zuber Kumekhov, it was planned to visit the Elbrus region in early March. During the visit, the decision to evict Balkars from the republic was brought to the attention of Kumekhov.

Deportation

The operation to evict the Balkars began on the morning of March 8, 1944. Everyone without exception underwent transportation - active participants in the Civil and Patriotic Wars, war veterans, parents, wives and children of front-line soldiers, deputies of councils at all levels, leaders of party and Soviet bodies. The guilt of the deportee was determined solely by his Balkar origin.

The deportees were loaded into pre-prepared Studebakers and taken to the Nalchik railway station. 37,713 Balkars were sent to settlement sites in Central Asia in 14 echelons. Of the total number of deportees, 52% were children, 30% were women, 18% were men. In addition, 478 people of “anti-Soviet element” were arrested. There was a case of shelling of an NKVD ambush by a group of three people.

The sixth point of the instructions provided that livestock, agricultural products, houses and buildings were subject to transfer on the spot and compensation in kind at new places of settlement. However, this did not happen - the resettlement of the Balkars was carried out in small groups, and no land or funds were allocated to them locally.

On March 14, 1944, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, L. Beria reported on the successful operation. On August 22, 1944, 109 people from among the organizers of the deportation of Balkars were awarded orders and medals of the USSR.

The evicted Balkars were distributed in new areas of residence as follows:

Kazakh SSR - 16,684 people (4,660 families)
Kirghiz SSR - 15,743 people (9,320 adults)
Uzbek SSR - 419 people (250 adults)
Tajik SSR - 4 people
Irkutsk region - 20 people
regions of the Far North - 14 people

All special settlers were registered with a mandatory monthly check at the place of residence in the special commandant's offices. It was forbidden to leave the settlement area without the commandant's approval. Unauthorized absence was equated to escape and entailed criminal liability. For any violation, including disobedience to the commandant, the settlers were subject to administrative or criminal punishment.

Consequences of deportation

On April 8, 1944, the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was renamed the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The southwestern regions of the republic - Elbrus and Elbrus - were transferred to the Georgian SSR. Orders followed to rename settlements. The village of Yanika began to be called Novo-Kamenka, Kashkatau - Sovetsky, Khasanya - Prigorodny, Lashkuta - Zarechny, Bylym - Coal.

The evicted Balkars were distributed in new areas of residence as follows: in the Kazakh SSR - 4,660 families (16,684 people), in the Kirghiz SSR - 15,743 (9,320 adults), in the Uzbek SSR - 419 (250 adults). In the Tajik SSR - four people, in the Irkutsk region - 20, in the Far North - 14 people. The deportees were mainly employed in agriculture. Thus, under the jurisdiction of the Ministry of Agriculture and State Farms of the Kazakh SSR there were 11,373 Balkars.

For most Balkar children, it was difficult to obtain a school education: only one in six of them attended school. Obtaining higher and secondary specialized education was almost impossible.

In November 1948, a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR was issued “On criminal liability for escapes from places of compulsory and permanent settlement of persons evicted to remote areas of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War,” the essence of which was that the repressed peoples were expelled forever, without the right to return to their ethnic homeland. The same decree tightened the special settlement regime even more. The document provided for 20 years of hard labor for unauthorized departure from places of settlement. In fact, special settlers could move freely only within a radius of 3 km from their place of residence.

Rehabilitation

Restrictions on special settlements for Balkars were lifted on April 18, 1956, but the right to return to their homeland was not granted.

On January 9, 1957, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR issued a decree “On the transformation of the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic.” At the same time, the territories ceded to Georgia were returned, their former names were restored; The ban on returning to one’s previous place of residence was also lifted.

On March 28, 1957, the KBASSR Law “On the transformation of the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic” was adopted.

In 1993, the government of the Russian Federation adopted a resolution “On socio-economic support for the Balkar people.”

In 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin signed a decree “On measures for the rehabilitation of the Balkar people and state support for their revival and development.”

In modern Kabardino-Balkaria, March 8 is the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the deportation of the Balkar people, and March 28 is celebrated as the Day of the Revival of the Balkar people.

Memory of deportation

March 8 is the Day of Remembrance for the victims of the deportation of the Balkar people. March 28, the Day of the Revival of the Balkar People, is celebrated annually and declared a holiday in the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic. Dedicated to the return of the Balkar people from Central Asia to their homeland.

In March 2014, on the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the deportation of the Balkar people, the publishing house of Maria and Viktor Kotlyarov published their book “Balkaria: Deportation. Eyewitnesses Testify.” The book includes more than 100 private stories conveying the tragedy of a little man who fell into the millstones of Stalin's repressions. The appendix contains sections “Perform on the spot” and “The tragedy of repressed intelligence”, telling how the truth was restored about the events that took place in the Cherek Gorge in 1942, and what a tragedy of unrealized creative potential the deportation turned out to be for many young people from number of special settlers.

On July 3, 2015, a monument to the repressed residents of Kabardino-Balkaria was opened in the Nalchik city park. At its opening, the chairman of the council of the public organization of the Balkar people "Alan" Sufyan Beppaev said that 63 thousand 180 people were repressed in Kabardino-Balkaria and 60 thousand of them were rehabilitated.

On March 8, 2017, in Nalchik, at the memorial to the victims of deportation, a memorial meeting was organized by the Council of Elders of the Balkar people, dedicated to the 73rd anniversary of the forced eviction of the Balkars. Chairman of the Council of Elders of the Balkar People, Ismail Sabanchiev, who spoke at the rally, blamed the deportation on the “Stalin-Beria regime,” saying that now the Balkars “must unite and achieve complete rehabilitation, otherwise they will cease to exist as an ethnic group.”

Sources

* Bugai N. Deportation of peoples. Collection "War and Society, 1941-1945 book two." M.: Nauka, 2004.

* Polyan P. “Not of my own free will...History and geography of forced migrations in the USSR.” M.: O.G.I - Memorial, 2001.

* Sabanchiev Kh-M. Eviction of the Balkar people during the Great Patriotic War: causes and consequences // "Turkolog. Turkological publications".

* Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR No. 123/12 of November 26, 1948 “On criminal liability for escapes from places of compulsory and permanent settlement of persons evicted to remote areas of the Soviet Union during the Patriotic War.”

* Temukuev, Boris Biyazurkaevich. Special settlers [Text]: in 3 books. / Boris Temukuev. - 2nd ed., add. - Nalchik: Publishing house of M. and V. Kotlyarov, 2009.

Hadji-Murat Sabanchiev

Sabancheev Hadji-Murat. Born in 1953 in Kazakhstan, graduated from the Faculty of History of Rostov State University and postgraduate studies at the Moscow Institute of National History of the Russian Academy of Sciences. Cand. ist. Sci. Currently, he is an associate professor at the Department of History and Culture at KBSU.

In the spring of 1944, more than a year has passed since the liberation of Kabardino-Balkaria from the fascist invaders. The Republic healed its war wounds and continued to selflessly help the front defeat the enemy. The suffering people were waiting for the end of the war, a return to peaceful life. No one imagined that eviction was being prepared.

The Balkar people consider March 8 a day of national mourning. More than half a century ago on this day, according to a resolution of the State Defense Committee, all Balkars were forcibly evicted from their ancestral lands to remote areas of the country - Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Somewhat earlier, the same fate, with the same sweeping accusation of aiding the occupiers, befell other peoples of the North Caucasus - the Karachais, Kalmyks, Chechens and Ingush. The decisions to eliminate the autonomy of these and other repressed peoples were a continuation of the lawlessness prevailing in the totalitarian state and were the largest political crime of the twentieth century. Deprived of statehood, these peoples were turned into special settlers for decades, limited in civil rights and freedom of movement, and were banned from national self-determination, their native language and culture, and the very possibility of ethnic self-development.

The main reason for the deportation of peoples is associated with Stalinism and the system that developed under it, which opened wide scope for repression and terror against Soviet people from the late 20s. As a natural development of what existed, Stalinism became fertile ground for new crimes - the eviction of entire peoples. Thus, Stalinism elevated national repression to the rank of state policy.

Usually, deliberately false information was generated about the situation in various parts of the country, containing, for the sake of credibility, an insignificant amount of truth, flavored with a fair amount of slander against the disgraced people. In the flow of messages from Kabardino-Balkaria about the facts of opposition to Soviet power by part of the population of the republic during the German occupation, the Balkars did not particularly stand out. But since 1944, the main emphasis began to be placed on the Balkars. People's Commissars of Internal Affairs and State Security of the KBASSR K.P. Bziava and S.I. showed particular zeal in this. Filatov, who wrote the revelations above. On their basis, the party leadership of the republic also gave false information to the highest authorities. Reports from the republic with a falsified negative assessment of the behavior of the Balkar population played the role of legal justification for sentencing the entire people.

The party leadership of the republic and the leadership of the security forces of Kabardino-Balkaria needed deliberately false information in order to hide their helplessness and relieve themselves of responsibility for a number of gross miscalculations and failures in the fight against the occupiers. Here are a few highlights from the life of the republic during the occupation. A number of industrial enterprises with their rich equipment and other valuables were left intact to the enemy. On the occupied territory of the republic, 314,970 sheep were left to the enemy (248 thousand were destroyed or taken away by the Germans), 45,547 heads of cattle (more than 23 thousand were destroyed by the Nazis), 25,509 horses (about 6 thousand were appropriated by the Germans), 2,899 pigs (almost all exterminated fascists) 1.

The situation with the partisan movement in the republic did not work out as planned. To operate behind enemy lines, it was planned to create several partisan groups and detachments with a total number of up to one thousand people. These units disintegrated because the families of the partisans were not evacuated. Only one united partisan detachment of 125 people was created. 4

Instead of a sober analysis of why the republic found itself in this position, and to be honest about who is responsible for this, in 1944 the prevailing tendency was to shift everything to bandit groups from among the Balkar population, talk about national guilt and call for mass retribution.

But the nation, the people cannot be to blame. Therefore, all national wines are mythological. However, the collective guilt of state and party bodies is real, and most real is the personal guilt and responsibility of everyone who participated in the forced eviction of Balkars from their homes.

The deportation of the Balkar people also became possible because during the period of repression of the 20-30s, the main condition for the unification of Kabarda and Balkaria on the parity formation of government bodies was violated. In these decades, the best part of Kabardino-Balkaria, its personnel and intellectual potential, was subjected to physical and moral destruction. With a total pre-war population of the republic of 359,236 people, 17 thousand citizens were arrested for political reasons, of which 9,547 were prosecuted, incl. 2184 people were shot. The victims of repression, along with others, were such prominent party and Soviet workers from among the Balkars as Ako Gemuev, Makhmud Eneev, Kellet Ulbashev, Kanshau Chechenov, writers Said Otarov, Khamid Temmoev, Akhmadiya Ulbashev and others. This practice was continued in the pre-war and war years. A. Nastaev, chairman of the Elbrus district executive committee, deputy of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR, was arrested and convicted; Kh. Appaev - Chairman of the Chegem District Executive Committee, Deputy of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR; A. Mokaev - Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the KBASSR; S. Kumukov - head. department of the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, etc. The secretary of the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, I. Mirzoev, was expelled from the party and removed from his post, and was later shot by the Germans. All of them were completely rehabilitated in the 50s and 60s. But the artificial accusation created in relation to leading officials from among the Balkars was used in 1944 against the entire Balkar people.

Another consequence of such actions was that by the beginning of the Great Patriotic War, there were almost no leading Balkars in the Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the KBASSR. With the beginning of the war, the secretary of the regional committee of the CPSU (b) M. Selyaev was recalled from the VPSH, appointed head of the political department of the 115th cavalry division and died in the Salsky steppes. Deputy Chairman of the Council of People's Commissars M. Mamukoev, due to false slander, was removed from his post and sent to the front, where he also laid down his head. By the time of the eviction, the Balkar people were practically beheaded and there was no one to stand up for them. Contrary to common sense, the leadership of the republic did not take any measures to prevent the impending crime. In a situation of historical powerlessness, not a single responsible employee of the republic tried to protect the Balkar people when they found themselves outside the multinational family of peoples of Kabardino-Balkaria.

The noted moments left their mark on the fate of the Balkar people. As indicated in the literature, during the deportation of punished peoples, as a rule, the peoples who gave the name to their republic or region were subject to eviction. 5 This was the case with the Germans in the Autonomous Republic of the Volga Germans, with the Karachais in the Karachay Autonomous Okrug, the Kalmyks in the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, the Crimean Tatars in the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In Checheno-Ingushetia, this terrible fate befell the indigenous peoples who gave the name to the republic - the Chechens and Ingush. A special feature of Kabardino-Balkaria was that one component of the republic’s population, the Balkars, was among the punished peoples.

There is evidence of the events preceding the eviction of the Balkars from the then first secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian regional committee of the CPSU (b) Z.D. Kumekhova. In his unpublished memoirs, he writes: On February 25 at 9.00 Kobulov led me into a lounge car (like a Pullman). In the cabin were Beria, Serov, Bziava and Filatov (the latter headed the People's Commissariats of Internal Affairs and State Security of Kabardino-Balkaria. - Kh.-M.S.). Beria met me extremely unfriendly and burst out with vulgar abuse and obscene curses against Kabardino-Balkaria, which, according to him. did not hold the Elbrus area and handed it over to the Germans...After the entire possible stock of abusive words had been exhausted, he announced that the population of Kabardino-Balkaria was subject to eviction. 6 After Kumekhov’s brief report on the political situation in the republic, Beria repeated again: ... as punishment for the fact that Kabardino-Balkaria is engulfed in banditry, a decision has been made to evict. And further: on March 2, 1944, Beria arrived in Nalchik by a special train, accompanied by Kobulov and Mamulov... I, Bziava and Filatov met them at the station. From the station everyone headed to the Elbrus region. When we reached the foot of Elbrus, Beria told Kumekhov that there was a proposal to transfer the Elbrus area to Georgia. When asked by Kumekhov what caused the need for the transfer, Beria answered: the territory is being freed from the Balkars, and Kabarda will not develop it. Georgia must have a defensive line on the northern slopes of the Caucasus Range, because during the occupation, Kabardino-Balkaria lost this area to the Germans. None of Kumekhov's arguments were successful 7 .

As first-hand information, it would seem that they should claim exclusivity, objectivity and impeccability of information. However, upon careful examination of them, the impression is that the author of the memoirs always wants to hide something, and therefore did not avoid half-truths.

Z.D. Kumekhov was hampered by one important circumstance. Despite the desire for objectivity, he was an interested person. Years later, while working on his memories, he instinctively shunned anything that weighed on his conscience.

Therefore Z.D. Kumekhov reduces everything to the sinister mission of Beria. However, we should discard the primitive idea, writes the prominent military historian and expert on punished peoples A. Nekrich, that decisions made and are being made at the highest level pop up unexpectedly, only because Stalin or someone else wanted it that way. In a state like ours... the most important role is played by an established case, paper, information (in modern times) or denunciation.

Such an important decision as the forced eviction of peoples had to appear and in fact was like drawing a line under a large flow of reports about the situation in various regions. Messages came through parallel channels: party-state, military, state security... 8 Thus, a memorandum by the secretary of the Kalmyk regional party committee P.F. Kasatkina in the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks was the basis for the accusation brought by the USSR government against the Kalmyk people as a whole. Reports from the leadership of the partisan movement in Crimea A.N. Mokrousova and A.V. Martynov with an incorrect assessment of the behavior of the Tatar population played a fatal role in deciding their fate in Moscow. According to the apt remark of A. Nekrich, information based on the principle of credibility, containing only part of the truth and flavored with a fair amount of disinformation, legalized fraud were one of the most significant features of the phenomenon inaccurately called Stalinism 9 . This proven method, unfortunately, formed the basis of the case against the Balkar people.

How did everything really happen?

...February 20, 1944 People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, General Commissioner of State Security L.P. Beria, accompanied by his deputies, Colonel General I.A. Serov, Colonel General B.Z. Kobulov, head of the office of the NKVD of the USSR, Lieutenant General S.S. Mamulov and others arrived in Grozny on a special train to personally lead the operation to evict the Chechens and Ingush. At the same time, in neighboring Kabardino-Balkaria they began to compile a certificate addressed to Beria on the state of the Balkar regions of Kabardino-Balkaria. Conventionally, it consists of two parts. The first part provides data on the population and territory of the regions of Balkaria - Elbrus, Chegem, Khulamo-Bezengievsky and Cherek - carefully calculated the number and size of land plots in them. The information is summarized in tables that provide summarized data on general characteristics of economic viability: population, land use, number of livestock, areas of arable, mowing and pasture land in each of the four regions.

The second half of the certificate begins with the statement: Despite the great assistance to Balkaria provided by the Soviet government and the party, part of the population of the Balkar regions showed a hostile attitude towards Soviet power. In support, materials from undercover cases are provided, information about the arrest of members of a counter-revolutionary nationalist organization from among the leadership of the Balkar regions, as well as the activities of deserters who formed bandit groups.

General conclusion of the certificate: Based on the above, we consider it necessary to resolve the issue of the possibility of resettlement of Balkars outside the KBASSR. 10 The document was signed by the first secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian regional committee of the CPSU (b) Z.D. Kumekhov, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the KBASSR K.P. Bziava and People's Commissar of State Security of the Republic S.I. Filatov.

Bypassing the members of the bureau of the regional party committee and the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the Republic, the certificate reached L. Beria. After reviewing it, he signed and dated it: 24.02. 1944

This political fake marked the beginning of the most tragic pages in the history of the Balkar people. It was she who made the eviction of the Balkars inevitable; relying only on her, Beria launched, with all the might of his adventurous active nature, the implementation of a criminal action against an entire people. On the same day, Beria sent a detailed telegram to Stalin. In it, he reported that he had familiarized himself with materials on the behavior of the Balkars both during the offensive of the Nazi troops in the Caucasus and after their expulsion, and reflected, with some exaggeration, the contents of the negative part of the mentioned certificate. Beria ended his report with a statement of the strategic plan: In connection with the upcoming final eviction of the Chechens and Ingush, I would consider it advisable to use part of the liberated troops and security officers to organize the eviction of the Balkars from the North Caucasus, with the expectation of completing this operation on March 15–20 of this year before the forests are covered with leaves.

...If you agree, I would be able to organize on the spot the necessary measures related to the eviction of the Balkars before returning to Moscow. I ask for your guidance. 11

On February 24, the armored train Beria left for Ordzhonikidze station. The first secretary of the Kabardino-Balkarian regional committee of the CPSU (b) was also invited here. In Ordzhonikidze, together with Z.D. Kumekhov's deputy arrived. Secretary of the Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) for Trade Ch.B. Uyanaev. He replaced the absent Chairman of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the KBASSR I.L. Ulbashev, who was on a business trip in Moscow.

Stalin's positive response to Beria's report was received the next day. On February 25, a meeting between Beria and Kumekhov took place in Ordzhonikidze. He was informed that a decision had been made to evict the Balkars. The meeting took place without the participation of Ch.B. Uyanaev, who was not allowed to attend the meeting. 12

On February 26, 1944, L. Beria telegraphed Stalin via special communications: In connection with the eviction of the Chechens and Ingush... it was previously planned to include two regions in the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic - Psedakhsky and Malgobeksky. However, they found it expedient to transfer the Psedakh region to North Ossetia, especially since after the expected resettlement of the Balkars, who occupy a territory of about 500 thousand hectares, the Kabardians will receive the vacated lands 13. On the same day, February 26, the NKVD of the USSR, signed by L.P. Beria issued an order on measures to evict the Balkar population from the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. To prepare and conduct the operation to deport Balkars, it was proposed to carry out the following measures:

Organize five operational sectors: First - Elbrus, as part of the Elbrus region, location of the village. Nizhny Baksan. Head of the operational sector, Major General Petrov, his deputies: for operational work, Major GB Afanasenko, for troops - Colonel Drozhenko;

The second operational sector is Chegemsky, as part of the Chegemsky district, the location of the village. Nizhny Chegem. Head of the sector, Major General Proshin, his deputies; for operational work, Lieutenant Colonel GB Partskhaladze, for military work - Colonel Shevtsov;

The third operational sector is Khulamo-Bezengievsky as part of the Khulamo-Bezengievsky district, the location of the village. Kashkatau. Head of the sector, Lieutenant Colonel GB Shestakov, his deputies: for operational work, Lieutenant Colonel Krasnov, for troops - Lieutenant Colonel Kamenev;

The fourth operational sector is Chereksky as part of the Chereksky district, the location of the village. Cusparts. Head of the sector, Commissar GB Klepov, his deputies: for operational work, Lieutenant Colonel GB Khapov, for troops - Colonel Alekseev;

The fifth operational sector is Nalchik, within the city of Nalchik, village. Tashly-Tala, Leskensky district, ss. Khabaz and Kichmalka Nagorny region. Location: Nalchik. The head of the sector is Lieutenant Colonel GB Zolotov, his deputies are: for operational work, police colonel Egorov, for troops - Colonel Kharkov.

Responsibility for the preparation and conduct of the operation should be assigned to Major General Piyashev. To appoint as his deputies the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Colonel GB Bziavu, the People's Commissar of State Security of the KBASSR, Colonel GB Filatov, and Major General Sladkevich.

Select the following formations and units of the NKVD troops for the operation:

Moscow Rifle Division without the 10th Regiment; 23rd Rifle Brigade, 263rd, 266th, 136th, 170th Rifle Regiments, 3rd Motorized Rifle Regiment, Moscow Military Technical School, Saratov Military School, Ordzhonikidze Border School, School for Advanced Political Training, Separate Battalion industrial troops. The total number is 17.00 people.

In addition, to ensure the necessary operational measures, 4,000 operative workers of the NKVD-NKGB were allocated. The 244th Regiment of NKVD Convoy Troops was assigned to escort those evicted. The deadline for the concentration of the regiment in Nalchik was March 1, 1944; troops and operational personnel by sector - March 5, 1944.

Before the resettlement operation, the head of operational sectors proposed, on the basis of operational materials, to arrest anti-Soviet persons after cordoning off populated areas.

Coordination of all work on resettlement, transportation, convoy and protection of those evicted, as well as supplying troops and ensuring communication between the management of the operation and operative sectors was entrusted to a group consisting of: the head of the 3rd department of the NKGB of the USSR, the 3rd rank GB commissar Milshtein, the head of the armored service of the 1st of the 1st Moscow Rifle Division, Major Ilyinsky, Head of the Convoy Troops Directorate of the NKVD of the USSR, Major General Bochkov, Head of Communications of the 1st Moscow Rifle Division, Fedyunkin, Deputy Head of the Military Supply Department of the NKVD of the USSR, Lieutenant Colonel Brodsky.

The order set the start day of the operation as March 10, 1944, but then X-day became March 8, 14.

As you can see, 5 generals, 2 state security commissioners, military units and a large NKVD-NKGB operational group with a total number of more than 21 thousand people were involved in the punitive action. And this is for 38 thousand evicted people, i.e. 1 soldier for two children or women. A significant part of the troops participated in the operation to evict Chechens and Ingush and had experience in punitive and repressive actions.

On February 29, 1944, Beria from Grozny telegraphed to Stalin that all necessary measures were being taken to ensure the preparation and successful implementation of the operation to evict the Balkars. The preparatory work, the telegram noted, will be completed by March 10 and the eviction of the Balkars will take place on March 15. Today we finish our work here (in Checheno-Ingushetia - Kh.-M.S.) and leave for one day to Kabardino-Balkaria and from there to Moscow. 15.

As stated above, on the morning of March 2, 1944, Beria, accompanied by generals Kobulov and Mamulov, arrived in Nalchik by a special train. They were met at the station by Kumekhov, Bziava and Filatov. Passenger cars were lowered from the platform of Beria's train and everyone went to the Elbrus region. On the way we stopped at the Baksan hydroelectric station and the Tyrnyauz plant. As a member of the State Defense Committee, Beria was interested in the progress of the restoration of these largest enterprises of the republic. Then the cortege moved towards Elbrus. In the Elbrus region, Beria invited Kumekhov to enter into an oral agreement on the division of land belonging to the Balkars. This was yet another redrawing of borders in the North Caucasus. It began with the deportation of Karachais, Chechens and Ingush from their original habitats, which was accompanied by significant changes in the administrative and political division of the region. Now they verbally discussed the division of the regions of Balkaria, which was subsequently reflected in the Decree of the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet on the eviction of Balkars dated April 8, 1944 and recorded in the act of surrender and acceptance of land territory drawn up by representatives of the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the Georgian SSR dated April 28 of the same year. 16

All these acts were a gross violation of the then constitution of the RSFSR and Kabardino-Balkaria, according to which the territory of the republic could not be changed without its consent.

Returning to Moscow, L. Beria, in order to legitimize the already made decision to evict the Balkar people, raises the issue with the State Defense Committee. On March 5, the State Defense Committee, headed by Stalin, adopted a resolution on the eviction of the entire Balkar population of Kabardino-Balkaria to the Kazakh (25 thousand people) and Kyrgyz SSR (15 thousand people). The resolution was adopted as an addition to the GKO Decree on January 31, 1944, when the issue of eviction of Chechens and Ingush was decided. Therefore, some authors mistakenly believe that the fate of the Balkar people was predetermined back in January 1944.

An order issued by the NKVD of the USSR was transmitted to the republic in encryption. According to the order, on March 5, military units were dispersed in Balkar settlements. It was explained to the population that the troops had arrived to rest and replenish themselves before the upcoming battles. The soldiers and officers were received hospitably, the population brought out refreshments, and the elderly provided all possible assistance to the soldiers.

On March 7, the text of the order of the NKVD of the USSR dated February 26, 1944 was delivered to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Bziava. In the evening of the same day, the first secretaries of the party district committees were called to an emergency meeting at the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks: Chereksky - Zh. Zalikhanov, Khulamo-Bezengievsky - M. Attoev, Chegemsky - M. Babaev, Elbrussky - S. Nastaev. When they entered, Kumekhov was present with Bziava, Filatov, Deputy People's Commissar of the Internal Affairs of the KBASSR Barsokov and a group of military men led by Major General I.I. Piyashev. Kumekhov gave the floor to Piyashev. The general orally announced that he had been instructed to lead the implementation of a special task of the government to evict the Balkar population of the republic without any exceptions or exceptions. He appealed to the leadership of the republic to facilitate the organized and precise implementation of the decisions of the State Defense Committee, and invited the party secretaries to arrive at the sites, complete the act of submitting party documents by the morning and be ready for relocation. The operation begins at 6 a.m. on March 8.

At dawn the next day, rifle butts rattled in all five gorges of Balkaria, sharp shouts and menacing orders were heard. Soldiers with machine guns burst into houses, not giving time to get ready for the road, and drove people without things, without food. No one wanted to leave, but resisting was not only useless, but also deadly. The old men, women and children who had been roused from their beds were ordered to get ready in a matter of minutes. They were loaded into pre-prepared Studebakers and taken to the Nalchik railway station. The operation to evict the Balkars lasted only 2 hours. It was carried out under the leadership of the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR, Colonel General I.A. Serov and Colonel General B.Z. Kobulova. Everyone without exception underwent transportation - active participants in the Civil and Patriotic Wars, war veterans, parents, wives and children of front-line soldiers, deputies of Soviets at all levels, leaders of party and Soviet bodies. The guilt of the deportee was determined solely by his Balkar origin. The guilt for nationality was mechanically transferred to those born during deportation.

When carrying out the operation, it was proposed to follow the instructions of the NKVD of the USSR on the procedure for eviction. According to the instructions, each settler was allowed to take food and property weighing up to 500 kg per family. However, the organizers of the eviction gave twenty minutes to get ready. Old people, women and children were expelled from their home with nothing but clothes and shoes, no warm clothes, no food, and little luggage. On the way, over 18 days of travel in unequipped carriages, 562 people died from hunger, cold and disease. They were hastily buried near the railroad tracks during short stops. When we drove without stops, the guards simply threw those who died along the way into derailment. The entire route from the Caucasus to Central Asia, 5 thousand km long, is strewn with the bones of settlers. Money and jewelry were not subject to confiscation - however, those who committed the action did not get lost, pocketing gold, silver and other valuables. The sixth point of the instructions provided that livestock, agricultural products, houses and buildings were subject to transfer on the spot and compensation in kind at new places of settlement. Local commissions were required to carry out reception according to an act, which had to be drawn up in triplicate: one was to be sent through the NKVD to the places of resettlement of special settlers to make settlements with the owners on the spot. None of this was done. In fact, it was impossible. Where could the republics of Central Asia and Kazakhstan, where repressed peoples were evicted, get hundreds of thousands of apartments and residential buildings, millions of heads of livestock?

On March 11, 1944, Beria reported to Stalin: the operation to evict the Balkars from the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was completed on March 9. 37,103 Balkars were loaded onto trains and sent to places of new settlement in the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSR... 20

From the Nalchik railway station, resettlers were sent in 14 trains, and the total number of deported Balkars was 37,713 people, mostly children, women and old people. No one had any property, and 40–50 people were pushed into the carriages.

On March 14, 1944, at a meeting of the Politburo of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks, L. Beria reported on the successful operation. Stalin's reaction to this was as follows: On behalf of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) and the USSR Defense Committee, I express gratitude to all units and divisions of the Red Army and the NKVD troops for the successful completion of an important government task in the North Caucasus. I. Stalin 20. Not limited to this, for the exemplary and precise fulfillment of a special task of the government and the courage and bravery shown at the same time, by the decree of the USSR PVS of August 22, 1944, 109 people were awarded orders and medals of the USSR 21 . They became heroes for dooming entire nations to suffering and death.

The eviction took place at a time when every fourth Balkar was in the ranks of the warring Red Army. Every second of them died defending the Fatherland from the Nazi invaders. Balkar warriors were among the first to meet the enemy on the western border of the USSR, becoming participants in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress. The sons of Balkaria defended Moscow and Leningrad, took part in all major operations of the Great Patriotic War, participated in the partisan movement in Ukraine and Belarus, in the anti-fascist resistance in Europe, in the final liberation of the peoples of Europe from the Nazi yoke. Many of the Balkars reached Berlin, taking part in the storming of the lair of German fascism. The 115th Kabardino-Balkarian Cavalry Division fought as part of the active army. Official documents note the courage and bravery of the Balkars conscripted into the Red Army. The brave pilot Alim Baysultanov became the first Hero of the Soviet Union from the natives of Kabardino-Balkaria, thousands of Balkar soldiers were awarded government awards. Shoulder to shoulder with representatives of other peoples of the USSR, they bravely fought on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War and contributed to the defeat of the enemy.

When the overwhelming majority of the male population was at the front, the accusation of collaborating with the occupiers looks ridiculous and was nothing more than an anti-popular propaganda myth. The absurdity of this accusation is obvious: of the total number of deported Balkars, 52 percent were children, 30 percent were women, 18 percent were men. Men are disabled people who returned from the war, very old people, disabled people from childhood, Soviet and party workers left behind by reservation, employees of state security and internal affairs. Thus, the victims of deportation were children, women and the elderly, therefore, the accusations made in the decree were in the wrong place. As you can see, aiding the occupiers is not a reason, but a reason, and a far-fetched reason, obviously slanderous. After all, the whole monstrosity of Stalinism lies in the fact that millions of its victims suffered completely innocently.

To give the arbitrariness the appearance of legality, L. Beria on April 7 presented Stalin with a draft Decree of the USSR Supreme Council on the eviction of the Balkars and asked for the decision of the Father of Nations. The instructions followed immediately. On April 8, 1944, a criminal document was signed in the Kremlin: Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR On the resettlement of Balkars living in the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and on the renaming of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic into the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. 22

This Decree was completely contrary to the then existing laws and was a discriminatory act that had no precedent in the history of law. The people were expelled, and the Decree appeared retroactively, after the actual event. It is also known that the Decrees of the PVS of the USSR come into force after they are approved by a session of the Supreme Council. This happened years later, in June 1946, when the eviction had long since taken place. Although the Decree attempts to provide a legal basis for the repressive action of a state body against an entire people, the act itself and the mechanism for its implementation are unconstitutional, politically and morally untenable, and therefore criminal. The accusations made in the Decree did not contain any political, legal or moral grounds for ethnic deportation. Neither the USSR Constitution (basic law), nor the country's criminal code, nor any other by-laws contained legal norms giving any rights to government authorities to punish the entire Balkar people.

The Decree of the PVS of the USSR of April 8, 1944 legitimized the liquidation of the autonomy of the Balkar people and the division of their ethnic territory. Contrary to the constitutions of the RSFSR and the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, Elbrus and the Elbrus region went to Georgia, and the rest of the territory was transferred to the use of the Kabardian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The purpose of redrawing the borders was to make it impossible in the future to restore the statehood of the Balkar people. In order to eradicate the very memory of the Balkars, orders were followed to rename settlements. The village of Yanika became Novo-Kamenka, Kashkatau - Sovetsky, Khasanya - Prigorodny, Lashkuta - Zarechny, Byly - Ugolny, etc. Even Balkar history was ethnically cleansed. The so-called scientific works of L. Lavrov, G. Zardalishvili and P. Akritas appeared, which, trying to provide a scientific justification for the genocide, deliberately refuted the autochthony of the Balkar ethnic group, distorted questions of its origin and the right to ethnic territory. In 1957, by Decree of the PVS of the USSR, the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was restored and the people returned to their homeland. However, the measures taken then did not entail the actual restoration of the political rights of the Balkar people. Nowadays, in connection with the rehabilitation of repressed peoples, incl. political and territorial, some authors revive and exaggerate the thesis about the ethnic territory of the Balkar people.

The forcibly deported Balkars lost their property irrevocably and without compensation, and enormous material damage was caused to the people. Houses, land, tens of thousands of heads of livestock, household utensils, home furnishings, valuables, clothing and everything acquired and accumulated by several generations of ancestors were confiscated by the state, plundered and destroyed. The cattle left without supervision and care scattered in the mountains and some of them died. The surviving livestock was distributed among collective farms and agricultural enterprises of the republic. All collective farm property, obtained by everyone's sweat and blood, was also confiscated.

Having lost their autonomy, the Balkars turned into powerless special settlers, settled in small groups in the vast expanses of Central Asia and Kazakhstan. Those who survived the journey and hardships ended up in fenced and carefully guarded areas. Decree of the USSR PVS of November 26, 1948. The deportation was declared permanent. In places of exile, life did not proceed in accordance with ordinary norms and laws, but under the conditions of a special, special regime, determined by the strict rules and instructions of Beria’s department. According to them, all special settlers, starting with infants, were registered with special authorities. Every month, special settlers were required to report at their place of residence to the special commandant's offices and did not have the right to leave the resettlement area without the knowledge and approval of the commandant. Unauthorized absence was considered as an escape and entailed criminal liability without trial. Heads of families were required to report to the special commandant's office within three days about changes that occurred in the family composition (the birth of a child, the death of a family member, escape). The special settlers were obliged to unquestioningly obey the orders of the special commandant's office. For any violation or disobedience to the commandant, they were subject to administrative penalties, criminal charges and arrest.

The first years of the Balkars’ stay in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan were complicated by the negative attitude towards them from the local population, who were subjected to ideological indoctrination and saw them as unfortunate enemies of Soviet power. With the stigma of traitors, the authorities imposed on the repressed people a complex of guilt, responsibility for crimes not committed. In addition, by confiscating residential buildings, property, livestock, food supplies and giving nothing in return, the state artificially caused mass famine among the Balkar people. To survive, women, who traditionally performed various household chores, and children who had not reached physical maturity shared all the hard work with men. Weakened people could not withstand hunger, climate, hard labor, and everyday instability and died prematurely. In the first year of exile, thousands of children left without parents died. The great poet Kazim Mechiev died of exhaustion. In the Jalal-Abad region of Kyrgyzstan alone, from April 1944 to July 1946, 10,336 people died, or 69.5% of the total number of Balkars, Chechens and Meskhetian Turks who arrived here. Whole families of people died out, genealogical lines were broken, the gene pool of the nation and the health of the survivors were undermined. In other settlements, all the settlers died. There was no one to even bury them. Most of the displaced people died without receiving any medical care. This was a real genocide against the settlers. During 1942–1948, among the Balkars, the mortality rate exceeded the birth rate and there was practically a question of extinction and disappearance of the ethnic group. There is not a single Balkar family that did not bury their loved ones on the way to settlement in Central Asia and Kazakhstan. They were all heartbroken and destitute. The Balkars restored their pre-war numbers only in the second half of the 60s. The sharp decline in population is a direct consequence of the deportation of the people.

While Balkar women with children and old people tried to survive in inhuman conditions of exile, their fathers, husbands and older brothers were at the front far in the West. Since the spring of 1944, attitudes towards soldiers and officers of Balkar nationality have changed. They were no longer promoted in rank, as a rule, they were not rewarded, and if they received a reward, it was an underestimated one. Of the 8 Balkars nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union, not one received it. Decades later, in 1990, only Mukhazhir Ummaev was posthumously awarded this title.

The moral suffering of the soldiers and officers who honestly and courageously fulfilled their military duty was of a deeper and more vulnerable nature. Since the summer of 1945, demobilized front-line soldiers began to return to peaceful work. Balkar warriors returned from the war fields with military orders and medals on their chests, and did not have the right to live in their native land. They were ordered to go to the places of exile of their relatives. Not everyone found their families right away. Having arrived there, yesterday's victorious warriors were registered as special settlers with all restrictions and accusations of betraying the Motherland. Many front-line soldiers returned disabled and died soon after the war in difficult conditions of exile.

During the years of exile, the Balkars lost many elements of material culture. Traditional buildings and utensils were almost never reproduced in the new settlement areas. Local conditions and the reduction of traditional sectors of the economy led to the loss of national types of clothing, shoes, hats, jewelry, national cuisine, types and means of transport.

The injustice committed against the repressed peoples caused great damage to their national culture, the further development of which was artificially thrown back. For the vast majority of Balkar children, it was difficult to even obtain a school education. Of the Balkar children, only every sixth went to school. And obtaining higher and secondary specialized education was almost impossible. The consequences of the defective educational process are known: the people lost the existing intellectual contingent and did not receive a new one. The settlers did not have the right to study at universities, publish, or have their own centers of culture. The Caucasus ensemble, organized in 1945 in the Frunze region, was forced to cease its work the following year by order of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. Artists, poets, writers, teachers were forced to mind their own business. During the years of exile, the main cultural function of the Balkars was performed by folklore tradition.

The Balkar people suffered the most significant losses in the field of artistic culture. During the eviction, silver and gold-plated men's and women's belts, women's breastplates, rings, rings and bracelets with precious stones, skillfully decorated with silver and gold family daggers, checkers and sabers, carefully preserved by the people, were confiscated and plundered. Some of these highly artistic works of art are hidden in the storerooms of a prestigious museum and have been removed from the cultural fund of the people all these years.

The years of deportation marked the beginning of the secularization of the family and cultural and everyday traditions. The multi-generational family structure, common among Balkars, contributed to the transmission of traditions. During the eviction, many members of family structures found themselves isolated from each other. There was a generation gap, the tradition of passing on the experience of folk culture from parents to children was broken. Rituals associated with the traditional design of a wedding, the birth and death of a person have lost their expressiveness and stability, calendar customs and rituals, and traditional festive culture have lost their integrity.

After the eviction of the Balkars, the villages that had a unique national flavor were destroyed, the resources of Balkaria and its lands were poorly developed and in a short time fell into desolation and decay. By the time the Balkars returned, these territories in Kabardino-Balkaria were the most backward in economic and social development. Unfortunately, in subsequent decades, a policy was pursued to preserve economic and cultural backwardness here. The placement of capital investments in Balkar settlements and farms was much lower than the average for the republic. Many complex and unresolved problems have accumulated. The resolution on socio-economic support for the Balkar people, adopted in June 1993 by the Government of the Russian Federation, was the first practical step towards the complete rehabilitation of the Balkar people.

As can be seen, the elimination of the autonomy of the Balkar people entailed large-scale physical destruction of the ethnic group, the violent destruction of the entire structure of its socio-economic and cultural development. In general, deportation from the very beginning was and remains a monstrous crime and a grave atrocity against repressed peoples.

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Ibid., l. 115.
Ibid., f. 1, op. 5, d. 2, l. 324.
Ibid., l. 116.
Khutuev H.I. Problems of restoration and development of the national statehood of the Balkar people. - In the book: Repressed peoples: history and modernity. Abstracts of reports. Nalchik, 1994, p. 16.
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