Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush
The deportation of the Chechens and Ingush (Chechen: До́хадар, Махках дахар, Ingush: Мехках дахар), or Ardakhar Genocide (Chechen: Ардахар Махках), and also known as Operation Lentil (Russian: Чечевица, romanized: Chechevitsa; Chechen: нохчий а, гӀалгӀай а махкахбахар, romanized: noxçiy ə, ġalġay ə maxkaxbaxar), was the Soviet forced transfer of the whole of the Vainakh (Chechen and Ingush) populations of the North Caucasus to Central Asia on 23 February 1944, during World War II. The expulsion was ordered by NKVD chief Lavrentiy Beria after approval by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, as a part of a Soviet forced settlement program and population transfer that affected several million members of ethnic minorities in the Soviet Union between the 1930s and the 1950s.
| Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush | |
|---|---|
| Part of Population transfer in the Soviet Union, Chechen genocide, and World War II | |
Destinations of the resettled Chechens and Ingush inside the Soviet Union | |
| Location | North Caucasus |
| Date | 23 February – March 1944 |
| Target | Expulsion and resettlement of Vainakh populations |
Attack type | Genocide, population transfer, ethnic cleansing, massacre, starvation |
| Deaths | 123,000–200,000 Chechens and Ingush, or between 1/4 and 1/3 of their total population (Chechen sources claim 400,000 died) |
| Victims | 496,000 to 650,000 Chechens and Ingush deported to forced settlements in the Soviet Union |
| Perpetrators | NKVD, the Soviet secret police |
| Motive | Russification, cheap labor for forced settlements in the Soviet Union |
The deportation was prepared from at least October 1943 and 19,000 officers as well as 100,000 NKVD soldiers from all over the USSR participated in this operation. The deportation encompassed their entire nations, as well as the liquidation of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The demographic consequences of this eviction were catastrophic and far-reaching: of the 496,000 Chechens and Ingush who were deported (according to Soviet archives; Chechen sources put the deportees at 650,000), at least a quarter died. In total, the archive records show that over a hundred thousand people died or were killed during the round-ups and transportation, and during their early years in exile in the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSR as well as Russian SFSR where they were sent to the many forced settlements. Chechen sources claim that 400,000 died, while presuming a higher number of deportees. A higher percentage of Chechens were killed than any other ethnic group persecuted by population transfer in the Soviet Union. Chechens were under administrative supervision of the NKVD officials during that entire time.
The exile lasted for 13 years and the survivors would not return to their native lands until 1957, after the new Soviet authorities under Nikita Khrushchev reversed many of Stalin's policies, including the deportations of nations. A local report indicated that some 432,000 Vainakhs had resettled to the Chechen-Ingush ASSR by 1961, though they faced many obstacles while trying to settle back to the Caucasus, including unemployment, lack of accommodation and ethnic clashes with the local Russian population. Eventually, the Chechens and Ingush recovered and regained the majority of the population. This eviction left a permanent scar in the memory of the survivors and their descendants. February 23 is today remembered as a day of tragedy by most of Ingushs and Chechens. Many in Chechnya and Ingushetia classify it as an act of genocide, as did the European Parliament in 2004.