Deportations and Genocides of Chechen Nation

On May 12, 1997, the Chechen Republic Ichkeria and Russian Federation signed the peace Agreement. The preamble of the Agreement, signed by Presidents Aslan Maskhadov and Boris Yeltsin, reads, that "The high agreeing parties, seeking to put an end to the century-old opposition, striving for establishment of stable, equal, mutually beneficial relations, have agreed: 1. To renounce the use of force in settling of any vexed question for ever". With that Russia recognizes the fact of century-old opposition of the Chechen people to the colonial policy of Russia in Chechnya and, at the same time, the peace Agreement has become an obstacle to unleash a new, more severe war against Chechnya.

Studying the reasons of deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples, executed in 1944, an outstanding political researcher of the Soviet period Abdurahman Avtorhanov has cited the extract form one of his articles, published in 1939, ascertaining that the history of Chechen-Ingushetia is a decades of bloody struggle of the freedom-loving people against the colonizers; only applying this key one can establish and open the historical truth.

The truth lies in the fact that, like before, the present situation in Chechnya is a consequence of the purposeful policy of Russian State in all times of either enslavement or annihilation of the Chechen people, which has been pursued for many centuries.

The essence of Russia's policy in Chechnya is expressed by General Ermolov, Commander-in-Chief of the Russian forces in the Caucasus from 1816 to 1827, known for his bloody evil deeds against the Chechen nation: "I will never rest until one Chechen is left alive". This phrase has been stamped on a bronze monument to Ermolov erected in 1949 in Grozny, when the Chechen people had been in deportation for 5 years. To the tactics of Ermolov adhere the contemporary ideologists of the conquest of Chechnya.

In 1859 Chechnya ceased to be an independent State. The centenary Caucasian War resulting in annihilation of 90 per cent of the Chechen people, ended.

Since the 18th century the Chechen land has been shaking with fierce and inhumane wars, deportations and genocides.

The first deportation of the Chechens was in 1792 after destruction of the State of Sheikh Mansur.

The second deportation of the Chechens to Siberia in 1831-1832 and was carried out by the tsarist authority after suppressing of the Chechen people's struggle under the leadership of Taim Beibolt.

The third partial deportation of the Chechens to Siberia was carried out in 1836-1837 after the defeat of the Chechen forces headed by Imam Tashu-Haji in the struggle against tsarism.

The fourth mass deportation of the Chechens to the Ottoman Empire was carried out by the tsarist authority in 1850-1860 after the subjugation of Chechnya.

The fifth deportation of the Chechens to Siberia in 1864-1865 was a consequence of suppression of the Arghun rebel under the leadership of Imam Shamil Baisungur (Boiskhar), embracing whole Chechnya.

The sixth deportation of the Chechens to Siberia was carried out in 1878 after the severe suppression of the popular uprising in Chechnya by the tsarist authority.

For the seventh time the Chechens were deported to Siberia in 1913 after the suppression of the revolt of Chechens led by well-known Zelimhan Gushmazuko. The action was carried out by the tsarist administration of the Terek Region.

The eighth deportation is mass exiles of the Chechens to Siberia, carried out by the Stalin regime in the 1920s and 1930s.

Many papers of genocide of the Chechen people in the period of Stalin regime are omitted in the "black book of communism".

The ninth total deportation of the Chechen people to Central Asia and Siberia was carried out on February 23, 1944. This deportation is one of the most tragic papers of the history of Chechen people. The Soviet authority officially accused the Chechen people for mass desertion from the Red Army and collaboration with the German fascist command.

The Chechen-Ingush Republic was abolished and the divided territory was incorporated into the Stavropol Territory, Georgia, Dagestan and North Ossetia.

The plan for total deportation of the Chechens and Ingush had been worked out long before 1944 and was kept in strict secret. About 200 thousand soldiers and officers of the People's Committee of Internal Affairs and Red Army were involved in the military operation of moving people from their homes, which began on February 23 and lasted for three days. The operation was conducted under the leadership of the Chief of PCIA Lavrenti Beria. In the course of this monstrous operation 12 thousand people were killed only during one day. Almost in every house there were killed people. The people were shot, burnt, exploded, drawn in the lakes and reservoirs. They killed people everywhere, in schools and hospitals, as well as in the offices of village administration.

The horrors of the Chechen people's tragedy continued on their way to Siberia and Central Asia. People were carried in luggage vans, without food and water. The lack of food, any kind of medical aid, and the fact that the vans were overcrowded and the trip lasted for several weeks and even months, caused mass prevalence of diseases. In the way 50 per cent of the deported people died of typhus. In the places of deportation it was strictly forbidden to render any kind of help to the unfortunate people. The local inhabitants were afraid of being arrested if they showed their sympathy towards the dying women and children.

Deportation... The terrible sense of this word can be comprehended only by those people who have experienced it, those who suffered from cold, hunger, pain caused by the loss of relatives and family, slander, unfairness, humiliation and intolerable conditions of life.

Every Chechen keeps the bloody memory of Haibah. On February 27, 1944, more than 700 local inhabitants, mostly women children, old people and the disabled, were burnt in a stable in this ancient beautiful mountain village. According to the witnesses, one of the victims gave birth to the twin boys on that day, they were named Hasan and Husein. The poor brothers had to live only two hours. The chekists killed the people in Haibah for the sole reason that they did not want to take trouble with their transportation to the railway station.

The communist regime generously rewarded those who scoffed at the Chechen people. 711 butchers of the Chechen people were rewarded with government awards of the USSR. Among them was Lavrenti Beria.

50 years later, in 1994, a new pseudo-democratic regime of Russia continued the tradition of tsarist and communist Russia manifested in annihilation of the Chechen people. As a result of two Russian-Chechen Wars of 1994-1996 and 1999-2000 more than 200 thousand peace population of Chechnya has been lost. The cities and villages of Chechnya are destroyed, the economy and infrastructure of the country has been wrecked. Out of one and a half million of the population today only 200 thousand people live in Chechnya. The rest of the survived are the refugees. Thus, the insidious plan of the Kremlin concerning next deportation of the Chechen people, drawn up by the secret decree of Premier Minister Chernomirdin, and signed long before the beginning of military operations in 1994, envisaging the evacuation of the Chechen people to the Russian regions, has been fulfilled.

Time passes, the epochs change, the regimes change, but there is no alternative to the destructive policy of Russia with respect to the Chechen people historically rightfully and politically purposefully fighting for their independence and freedom.

By Aminat Saieva