The myth of the injustice of the eviction of Chechens and Ingush in 1944
23 February 1944 launched Operation “Lentils”: the deportation of Chechens and Ingushs “for aiding the fascist invaders” from the territory of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR (ChIASSR) to Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The Chechen-Ingush ASSR was abolished, 4 was transferred from its composition to the Dagestan ASSR, to the North-Ossetian ASSR - one district, the Grozny region was created on the rest of the territory.
Operation (Operation Lentil) was conducted under the leadership of the USSR People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrenti Beria The eviction of the Chechen-Ingush population was carried out without any particular problems. During the operation, 780 people were killed, 2016 of the “anti-Soviet element” was arrested, more than 20 thousand firearms were seized weapons. 180 echelons with the total number of 493 269 people relocated were sent to Central Asia. The operation was carried out very effectively and showed the high skill of the administrative apparatus of the Soviet Union.
Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Lavrenti Beria. He approved the “Instruction on the procedure for the eviction of Chechens and Ingushs”, arrived in Grozny and personally supervised the operation
Background and causes of punishment
It must be said that the situation in Chechnya was already difficult during the revolution and the Civil War. The Caucasus in this period was swept by real bloody unrest. The mountaineers were able to return to the usual "craft" - robbery and banditry. White and red, engaged in war with each other, could not restore order during this period.
It was a difficult situation in 1920-s. Thus, “A brief overview of banditry in the North Caucasus Military District, as of 1 September 1925” reports: “The Chechen Autonomous Region is a hotbed of criminal gangsterism ... For the most part, Chechens are prone to gangsterism, as the main source of easy money, which is promoted by a large availability of weapons. The upland Chechnya is a haven for the most inveterate enemies of Soviet power. Cases of banditry on the part of Chechen gangs are not amenable to accurate accounting ”(Pykhalov I. For what Stalin evicted the nations. M., 2013).
In other documents, you can find similar characteristics. "A brief overview and characteristics of the existing banditry on the territory of the IXth Infantry Corps" from 28 in May 1924: "The Ingush and Chechens are most inclined to gangsterism. They are less loyal to the Soviet regime; the national feeling is strongly developed, - brought up by religious teachings, especially hostile to the Russian - jyauram ”. Conclusions The authors of the review made correct. According to them, the main reasons for the development of banditry among the highlanders were: 1) cultural backwardness; 2) semi-wild manners of the mountaineers prone to easy money; 3) economic backwardness of the mountain economy; 4) lack of solid local authority and political education.
Information review of the headquarters of the 9th Infantry Corps on the development of banditry in the areas of the corps of the Kabardino-Balkar AO, Gorskaya SSR, Chechen AO, Grozny gubernia and Dagestan SSR in July-September 1924: “Chechnya is a bouquet of banditry. The number of ringleaders and non-permanent gangster gangs who commit robberies, mainly in the territories adjacent to the Chechen region, is not countable. ”
To fight the gangsters in 1923, a local military operation was conducted, but it was not enough. The situation in 1925 was particularly acute. At the same time, it should be noted that banditry in Chechnya during this period was purely criminal in nature; ideological opposition under the slogans of radical Islam was not observed. The victims of the robbers became the Russian population from the areas adjacent to Chechnya. Suffered from Chechen gangsters and Dagestanis. But, unlike the Russian Cossacks, the Soviet power did not take away their weapons, so the Dagestanis could repel predatory raids. According to the old tradition, Georgia was also subjected to predatory raids.
In August 1925, a new large-scale operation began to clean up Chechnya from gangs and seize weapons from the local population. Accustomed to the weakness and softness of the Soviet authorities, the Chechens initially prepared for stubborn resistance. However, this time the authorities acted harshly and decisively. The Chechens were shocked when numerous military columns, reinforced by artillery and aviation. The operation was carried out according to the standard scheme: hostile auls surrounded, transmitted the demand to give out bandits and weapons. Upon failure, machine-gun-shelling and even air strikes began. The sappers destroyed the homes of the leaders of the gangs. This caused a turning point in the mood of the local population. Resistance, even passive, was no longer thought of. Residents of the villages surrendered weapons. Therefore, casualties among the population were small. The operation was successful: they captured all the major gang leaders (309 bandits were arrested, 105 of them were shot), seized a large number of weapons, ammunition - more than 25 thousand rifles, more than 4 thousand revolvers, etc. (It should be noted that now all these bandits were rehabilitated as “innocent victims” of Stalinism.) For a while, Chechnya was reassured. Residents continued to surrender weapons after the operation. However, the success of the 1925 operation was not consolidated. Obvious Russophobes with ties to foreign countries continued to sit on key positions in the country: Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, etc. The policy of combating "Great Russian chauvinism" continued until the early 1930s. Suffice it to say that the Small Soviet Encyclopedia extolled the “exploits” of Shamil. Cossacks were deprived of their rights, the "rehabilitation" of the Cossacks only began in 1936, when Stalin was able to push the main groups of "Trotskyist internationalists" (the then "fifth column" in the USSR) from power.
In 1929, such purely Russian territories as the Sunzhensky District and the city of Grozny were included in Chechnya. According to the 1926 census, only about 2% of Chechens lived in Grozny, the rest of the city’s residents were Russians, Little Russians and Armenians. Even the Tatars in the city were more than Chechens, - 3,2%.
Therefore, it is not surprising that as soon as the USSR had hotbeds of instability associated with “excesses” during collectivization (the local apparatus that conducted collectivisation largely consisted of “Trotskyists” and deliberately incited unrest in the USSR), Chechnya flared up in 1929 in Chechnya major uprising. The report of the commander of the SKVO troops, Belov, and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Kozhevnikov District, emphasized that they had to deal not with individual gangster speeches, but “by direct insurrection of entire regions, in which almost the entire population took part in the armed uprising”. The uprising was crushed. However, its roots were not eliminated, so another military operation was carried out in 1930 year.
Chechnya did not calm down even in the 1930s. In the spring of 1932, a major new rebellion broke out. The gangs were able to block several garrisons, but were soon defeated and scattered by the approaching units of the Red Army. The next exacerbation of the situation occurred in 1937. From this it was necessary to intensify the fight against bandit and terrorist groups in the republic. In the period from October 1937 to February 1939, 80 groups with a total number of 400 people operated on the territory of the republic, and more than 1 thousand thugs were in an illegal situation. In the course of the measures taken, the gangster underground was cleared. More than 1 thousand people were arrested and convicted, 5 machine guns were seized, more than 8 thousand rifles and other weapons and ammunition were seized.
However, the lull was not long. In 1940, banditry in the republic became more active again. Most of the gangs were replenished by runaway criminals and deserters of the Red Army. So, from the autumn of 1939 to the beginning of February, 1941 of the Red Army deserted 797 Chechens and Ingushs.
During World War II, Chechens and Ingushs "distinguished themselves" by massive desertion and evasion from military service. Thus, in a memorandum addressed to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrenti Beria "On the situation in the areas of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic", compiled by Deputy State Commissar for State Security, State Security Commissioner of the 2 rank Bogdan Kobulov from November 9 of 1943 of the year reported in January XNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX of of the 14th July 2015 The national division managed to call only 1942% personnel. Due to the stubborn unwillingness of the indigenous people of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR to go to the front, the formation of the Chechen-Ingush cavalry division was never completed, those who managed to be summoned were sent to spare and training units.
In March, 1942 of the year from 14576 people deserted and evaded the service 13560 people. They went to the illegal position, went to the mountains, joined the gangs. In 1943, out of 3, thousands of volunteers deserted 1870 people. To understand the enormity of this figure, it is worth saying that while being in the ranks of the Red Army, 2,3 thousand Chechens and Ingushs died and went missing during the war years.
At the same time, banditry flourished during the war in the republic. From 22 June 1941 to 31 December 1944, 421 was marked by a gangster display on the territory of the republic: attacks and killings on soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, NKVD, Soviet and party workers, attacks and robbery of state and collective farm institutions and enterprises, murder and robbery of ordinary citizens. In the number of attacks and killings of the commanders and fighters of the Red Army, organs and troops of the NKVD CHIASSR during this period was only slightly inferior to Lithuania.
During the same period, 116 people were killed as a result of gangster manifestations, and 147 people died during operations against bandits. In this case, 197 gangs were eliminated, 657 gangsters were killed, 2762 was captured, 1113 came to surrender. Thus, in the ranks of the gangs who fought against the Soviet power, many more Chechens and Ingush were arrested and more arrested than those who died and went missing on the front. We should not forget about the fact that in the conditions of the North Caucasus, banditry was impossible without the support of the local population. Therefore, accomplices of bandits was a significant part of the population of the republic.
Interestingly, during this period, the Soviet government had to fight mainly with young gangster shoots - graduates of Soviet schools and universities, Komsomol members and communists. By this time, the OGPU-NKVD had already knocked out the old cadres of gangsters brought up in the Russian Empire. However, young people followed in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers. One of these "young wolves" was Hasan Israilov (Terloev). In 1929, he joined the VKP (b), entered Komvuz in Rostov-on-Don. In 1933, he was sent to Moscow to the Communist University of Working People of the East. Stalin. After the start of World War II, Israilov, together with his brother Hussein, moved to an illegal situation and began preparations for a general uprising. The beginning of the uprising was planned for 1941 year, but then it was moved to the beginning of 1942 year. However, due to the low level of discipline and the lack of good communication between the rebel cells, the situation went out of control. A coordinated, simultaneous uprising did not take place, resulting in the speeches of individual groups. Scattered performances suppressed.
Israilov did not give up and began work on party building. The main component of the organization was aulkom or troika-five, who carried out anti-Soviet and insurgent work in the field. 28 January 1942, Israilov held an illegal meeting in Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz), which established a “Special Party of Caucasian Brothers”. The program provided for the establishment of a “free fraternal Federal Republic of the states of the fraternal peoples of the Caucasus under the mandate of the German Empire”. The party had to fight "Bolshevik barbarism and Russian despotism." Later, in order to adapt to the Nazis, Israilov transformed the OPKB into the “National Socialist Party of Caucasian Brothers”. Its number reached 5 thousand people.
In addition, in November 1941, the Chechen-Gorsky National Socialist Underground Organization was established. Its leader was Mayrbek Sheripov. The son of the tsarist officer and younger brother of the hero of the Civil War Aslanbek Sheripov, Mayrbek joined the CPSU (b), and in 1938 was arrested for anti-Soviet propaganda, but in 1939, he was released for failure to prove his guilt. In the fall of 1941, the Chairman of the Leading Industrial Council of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR passed over to the illegal position and began to unite around him the leaders of bandit formations, deserters, fugitive criminals, and also established contacts with religious and teip leaders, inclining them to revolt. The main base of Sheripova was in the Shatoi district. After approaching the front to the borders of the republic, in August 1942, Sheripov raised a major uprising in the Itum-Kaly and Shatoi districts. 20 August rebels surrounded Itum-Kale, but could not take the village. A small garrison repulsed the attacks of the gangsters, and the reinforcements that came up turned the Chechens to flight. Sheripov tried to connect with Israilov, but was destroyed during the special operation.
In October 1942, a rebellion was raised by German non-commissioned officer Rekkert, abandoned in Chechnya in August at the head of the reconnaissance and sabotage group. He established contact with the Sakhabov gang and, with the assistance of religious authorities, recruited up to 400 people. The detachment was equipped with weapons dropped from German aircraft. The saboteurs were able to raise some auls of the Vedensky and Cheberloyevsky districts for the uprising. However, the authorities quickly suppressed this performance. Rekkert destroyed.
The mountaineers made a feasible contribution to the military power of the Third Reich. In September, the three first battalions of the North Caucasus Legion — the 1942, 800, and 801 — were formed in Poland in 802. At the same time, there was a Chechen company in the 800 battalion, and in 802 there were two companies. The number of Chechens in the German armed forces was small due to massive desertion and evasion from service, the number of Chechens and Ingush in the ranks of the Red Army was small. Therefore, the captive mountaineers were few. Already at the end of 1942, the 800 and 802 battalions were sent to the front.
Almost simultaneously, in the Mirgorod of the Poltava region, the 842, 843 and 844 battalions of the North Caucasus Legion begin to form. In February, 1943, they were sent to the Leningrad region to fight the partisans. At the same time in the town of Vesola form the battalion 836-A (the letter "A" means "Einsatz" - destruction). The battalion specialized in punitive operations and left a long bloody trail in Kirovograd and Kiev regions and in France. In May 1945, the remnants of the battalion were captured by the British in Denmark. The mountaineers asked for British citizenship, but were issued by the USSR. Of the 214 Chechens, the 1 Company 97 was prosecuted.
As the front approached the borders of the republic, the Germans began to send scouts and saboteurs onto the territory of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, who were to prepare the ground for a large-scale uprising, to commit sabotage and terrorist attacks. However, only Rekker’s group achieved the greatest success. The Chekists and the army acted swiftly and prevented an uprising. In particular, the failure befell the group of Chief Lieutenant Lange, abandoned August 25 1942. Pursued by Soviet units, the chief lieutenant with the remnants of his group, with the help of Chechen guides, was forced to cross the front line back to his own. Total Germans abandoned 77 saboteurs. Of these, 43 was rendered harmless.
The Germans even prepared the “governor of the North Caucasus - Osman Guba (Osman Saydnurov). Osman in the Civil War fought on the side of the whites, deserted, lived in Georgia, after its release by the Red Army, fled to Turkey. After the outbreak of the war, he completed a course of study at the German intelligence school and entered the disposal of naval intelligence. Guba-Saydnurova, in order to increase prestige among the local population, was even allowed to call themselves a colonel. However, plans to foment an uprising among the highlanders failed - the KGB seized Guba’s group. During the interrogation, the failed Caucasian Gauleiter made a very interesting admission: “Among the Chechens and Ingush, I easily found the right people ready to betray, go to the German side and serve them.”
An interesting fact is that the local leadership of the Interior actually sabotaged the fight against banditry and went over to the side of the bandits. The captain of the state security Sultan Albogachiev, an Ingush by nationality, who led the NKVD ChIASSR, sabotaged the activities of local security officers. Albogachiev acted in conjunction with Terloev (Israilov). Many other local security officers turned out to be traitors. So, the traitors were the heads of the NKVD district departments: Staro-Yurtovsky - Elmurzayev, Sharoyevsky - Pashayev, Itum-Kalinsky - Mezhiyev, Shatoevsky - Isaev, etc. Many traitors turned out to be among ordinary NKVD employees.
A similar picture was in the environment of the local party leadership. Thus, when the front approached, 16 executives of the district committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (in the republic there were 24 districts and the city of Grozny), 8 executives of district executive committees, 14 collective farm chairmen and other party members fled. Apparently, those who remained in their places were simply Russian or “Russian-speaking”. The Itum-Kalinsky district party organization was especially famous for it, where the entire leadership of the bandits joined the bandits.
As a result, during the years of the hardest war, an epidemic of mass betrayal swept the republic. Chechens and Ingush fully deserved their punishment. Moreover, it should be noted that under the laws of wartime, Moscow could punish many thousands of gangsters, traitors and their accomplices much tougher, up to the execution and long prison sentences. However, we once again see an example of the humanism and generosity of the Stalinist government. Chechens and Ingush evicted, sent for re-education.
Psychological problem
Many current citizens of the Western world, and Russia, are not able to understand how an entire nation can be punished for the crimes of its individual groups and “individual representatives”. They proceed from their ideas about the world around them, when they are surrounded in general by the world of individualists, atomized personalities.
After industrialization, the Western world, and then Russia, lost the structure of traditional society (essentially, peasant, agrarian), connected by communal ties, by mutual responsibility. The West and Russia have moved to a different level of civilization, when each person is responsible only for his crimes. However, at the same time, Europeans forget that there are still regions and regions on the planet where traditional, tribal-dominated relations prevail. This region is the Caucasus and Central Asia.
There, people are connected by family (including large patriarchal families), clan, tribal relations, and also fraternities. Accordingly, if a person commits a crime, his local community is responsible for and punishes him. In particular, this is why rape of local girls is rare in the North Caucasus, relatives with the support of the local community simply “bury” the criminal. The police will close their eyes to this, so it consists of "his people." However, this does not mean that "alien" girls, who do not stand behind a strong kin, community, are safe. "Horsemen" can behave freely in the "alien" territory.
Mutual responsibility is a bright distinctive feature of any society that is in the tribal development stage. In such a society there is no case about which the whole local population would not know. There is no hiding thug, a murderer, whose locals are not aware of their location. Responsibility for the offender is the entire race and generation. Such views are very strong and persist from century to century.
Such relationships were characteristic of the era of tribal relations. During the period of the Russian Empire, and even more strongly during the years of the Soviet Union, the Caucasus and Central Asia were subject to strong civilizational and cultural influence of the Russian people. Urban culture, industrialization, and a powerful system of upbringing and education had a strong influence on these regions; they began the transition from tribal relations to a more advanced urban industrial society. If the USSR had existed for a few more decades, the transition would have been completed. However, the USSR was destroyed.
Thus, it is necessary to clearly realize the fact that Stalin, who was well aware of the peculiarities of the ethnopsychology of mountain peoples, with its principles of mutual responsibility and collective responsibility of the whole race for the crime committed by its member, as he himself was from the Caucasus, quite correctly punished an entire people (several peoples). If the local society did not support Hitler's accomplices and bandits, then the first collaborators would be handed over by the local residents themselves (or they would be handed over to the authorities). However, the Chechens consciously went into conflict with the authorities, and Moscow punished them. Everything is reasonable and logical - it is necessary to answer for crimes. The decision was fair and even in some respects mild.
The highlanders themselves then knew why they were being punished. So, then the following rumors circulated among the local population: “The Soviet government will not forgive us. We do not serve in the army, do not work in collective farms, do not help the front, do not pay taxes, banditry is everywhere. Karachays were evicted for this — and they would evict us. ”
Operation (Operation Lentil) was conducted under the leadership of the USSR People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrenti Beria The eviction of the Chechen-Ingush population was carried out without any particular problems. During the operation, 780 people were killed, 2016 of the “anti-Soviet element” was arrested, more than 20 thousand firearms were seized weapons. 180 echelons with the total number of 493 269 people relocated were sent to Central Asia. The operation was carried out very effectively and showed the high skill of the administrative apparatus of the Soviet Union.
Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Lavrenti Beria. He approved the “Instruction on the procedure for the eviction of Chechens and Ingushs”, arrived in Grozny and personally supervised the operation
Background and causes of punishment
It must be said that the situation in Chechnya was already difficult during the revolution and the Civil War. The Caucasus in this period was swept by real bloody unrest. The mountaineers were able to return to the usual "craft" - robbery and banditry. White and red, engaged in war with each other, could not restore order during this period.
It was a difficult situation in 1920-s. Thus, “A brief overview of banditry in the North Caucasus Military District, as of 1 September 1925” reports: “The Chechen Autonomous Region is a hotbed of criminal gangsterism ... For the most part, Chechens are prone to gangsterism, as the main source of easy money, which is promoted by a large availability of weapons. The upland Chechnya is a haven for the most inveterate enemies of Soviet power. Cases of banditry on the part of Chechen gangs are not amenable to accurate accounting ”(Pykhalov I. For what Stalin evicted the nations. M., 2013).
In other documents, you can find similar characteristics. "A brief overview and characteristics of the existing banditry on the territory of the IXth Infantry Corps" from 28 in May 1924: "The Ingush and Chechens are most inclined to gangsterism. They are less loyal to the Soviet regime; the national feeling is strongly developed, - brought up by religious teachings, especially hostile to the Russian - jyauram ”. Conclusions The authors of the review made correct. According to them, the main reasons for the development of banditry among the highlanders were: 1) cultural backwardness; 2) semi-wild manners of the mountaineers prone to easy money; 3) economic backwardness of the mountain economy; 4) lack of solid local authority and political education.
Information review of the headquarters of the 9th Infantry Corps on the development of banditry in the areas of the corps of the Kabardino-Balkar AO, Gorskaya SSR, Chechen AO, Grozny gubernia and Dagestan SSR in July-September 1924: “Chechnya is a bouquet of banditry. The number of ringleaders and non-permanent gangster gangs who commit robberies, mainly in the territories adjacent to the Chechen region, is not countable. ”
To fight the gangsters in 1923, a local military operation was conducted, but it was not enough. The situation in 1925 was particularly acute. At the same time, it should be noted that banditry in Chechnya during this period was purely criminal in nature; ideological opposition under the slogans of radical Islam was not observed. The victims of the robbers became the Russian population from the areas adjacent to Chechnya. Suffered from Chechen gangsters and Dagestanis. But, unlike the Russian Cossacks, the Soviet power did not take away their weapons, so the Dagestanis could repel predatory raids. According to the old tradition, Georgia was also subjected to predatory raids.
In August 1925, a new large-scale operation began to clean up Chechnya from gangs and seize weapons from the local population. Accustomed to the weakness and softness of the Soviet authorities, the Chechens initially prepared for stubborn resistance. However, this time the authorities acted harshly and decisively. The Chechens were shocked when numerous military columns, reinforced by artillery and aviation. The operation was carried out according to the standard scheme: hostile auls surrounded, transmitted the demand to give out bandits and weapons. Upon failure, machine-gun-shelling and even air strikes began. The sappers destroyed the homes of the leaders of the gangs. This caused a turning point in the mood of the local population. Resistance, even passive, was no longer thought of. Residents of the villages surrendered weapons. Therefore, casualties among the population were small. The operation was successful: they captured all the major gang leaders (309 bandits were arrested, 105 of them were shot), seized a large number of weapons, ammunition - more than 25 thousand rifles, more than 4 thousand revolvers, etc. (It should be noted that now all these bandits were rehabilitated as “innocent victims” of Stalinism.) For a while, Chechnya was reassured. Residents continued to surrender weapons after the operation. However, the success of the 1925 operation was not consolidated. Obvious Russophobes with ties to foreign countries continued to sit on key positions in the country: Zinoviev, Kamenev, Bukharin, etc. The policy of combating "Great Russian chauvinism" continued until the early 1930s. Suffice it to say that the Small Soviet Encyclopedia extolled the “exploits” of Shamil. Cossacks were deprived of their rights, the "rehabilitation" of the Cossacks only began in 1936, when Stalin was able to push the main groups of "Trotskyist internationalists" (the then "fifth column" in the USSR) from power.
In 1929, such purely Russian territories as the Sunzhensky District and the city of Grozny were included in Chechnya. According to the 1926 census, only about 2% of Chechens lived in Grozny, the rest of the city’s residents were Russians, Little Russians and Armenians. Even the Tatars in the city were more than Chechens, - 3,2%.
Therefore, it is not surprising that as soon as the USSR had hotbeds of instability associated with “excesses” during collectivization (the local apparatus that conducted collectivisation largely consisted of “Trotskyists” and deliberately incited unrest in the USSR), Chechnya flared up in 1929 in Chechnya major uprising. The report of the commander of the SKVO troops, Belov, and a member of the Revolutionary Military Council of the Kozhevnikov District, emphasized that they had to deal not with individual gangster speeches, but “by direct insurrection of entire regions, in which almost the entire population took part in the armed uprising”. The uprising was crushed. However, its roots were not eliminated, so another military operation was carried out in 1930 year.
Chechnya did not calm down even in the 1930s. In the spring of 1932, a major new rebellion broke out. The gangs were able to block several garrisons, but were soon defeated and scattered by the approaching units of the Red Army. The next exacerbation of the situation occurred in 1937. From this it was necessary to intensify the fight against bandit and terrorist groups in the republic. In the period from October 1937 to February 1939, 80 groups with a total number of 400 people operated on the territory of the republic, and more than 1 thousand thugs were in an illegal situation. In the course of the measures taken, the gangster underground was cleared. More than 1 thousand people were arrested and convicted, 5 machine guns were seized, more than 8 thousand rifles and other weapons and ammunition were seized.
However, the lull was not long. In 1940, banditry in the republic became more active again. Most of the gangs were replenished by runaway criminals and deserters of the Red Army. So, from the autumn of 1939 to the beginning of February, 1941 of the Red Army deserted 797 Chechens and Ingushs.
During World War II, Chechens and Ingushs "distinguished themselves" by massive desertion and evasion from military service. Thus, in a memorandum addressed to the People's Commissar of Internal Affairs Lavrenti Beria "On the situation in the areas of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic", compiled by Deputy State Commissar for State Security, State Security Commissioner of the 2 rank Bogdan Kobulov from November 9 of 1943 of the year reported in January XNXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX of of the 14th July 2015 The national division managed to call only 1942% personnel. Due to the stubborn unwillingness of the indigenous people of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR to go to the front, the formation of the Chechen-Ingush cavalry division was never completed, those who managed to be summoned were sent to spare and training units.
In March, 1942 of the year from 14576 people deserted and evaded the service 13560 people. They went to the illegal position, went to the mountains, joined the gangs. In 1943, out of 3, thousands of volunteers deserted 1870 people. To understand the enormity of this figure, it is worth saying that while being in the ranks of the Red Army, 2,3 thousand Chechens and Ingushs died and went missing during the war years.
At the same time, banditry flourished during the war in the republic. From 22 June 1941 to 31 December 1944, 421 was marked by a gangster display on the territory of the republic: attacks and killings on soldiers and commanders of the Red Army, NKVD, Soviet and party workers, attacks and robbery of state and collective farm institutions and enterprises, murder and robbery of ordinary citizens. In the number of attacks and killings of the commanders and fighters of the Red Army, organs and troops of the NKVD CHIASSR during this period was only slightly inferior to Lithuania.
During the same period, 116 people were killed as a result of gangster manifestations, and 147 people died during operations against bandits. In this case, 197 gangs were eliminated, 657 gangsters were killed, 2762 was captured, 1113 came to surrender. Thus, in the ranks of the gangs who fought against the Soviet power, many more Chechens and Ingush were arrested and more arrested than those who died and went missing on the front. We should not forget about the fact that in the conditions of the North Caucasus, banditry was impossible without the support of the local population. Therefore, accomplices of bandits was a significant part of the population of the republic.
Interestingly, during this period, the Soviet government had to fight mainly with young gangster shoots - graduates of Soviet schools and universities, Komsomol members and communists. By this time, the OGPU-NKVD had already knocked out the old cadres of gangsters brought up in the Russian Empire. However, young people followed in the footsteps of their fathers and grandfathers. One of these "young wolves" was Hasan Israilov (Terloev). In 1929, he joined the VKP (b), entered Komvuz in Rostov-on-Don. In 1933, he was sent to Moscow to the Communist University of Working People of the East. Stalin. After the start of World War II, Israilov, together with his brother Hussein, moved to an illegal situation and began preparations for a general uprising. The beginning of the uprising was planned for 1941 year, but then it was moved to the beginning of 1942 year. However, due to the low level of discipline and the lack of good communication between the rebel cells, the situation went out of control. A coordinated, simultaneous uprising did not take place, resulting in the speeches of individual groups. Scattered performances suppressed.
Israilov did not give up and began work on party building. The main component of the organization was aulkom or troika-five, who carried out anti-Soviet and insurgent work in the field. 28 January 1942, Israilov held an illegal meeting in Ordzhonikidze (Vladikavkaz), which established a “Special Party of Caucasian Brothers”. The program provided for the establishment of a “free fraternal Federal Republic of the states of the fraternal peoples of the Caucasus under the mandate of the German Empire”. The party had to fight "Bolshevik barbarism and Russian despotism." Later, in order to adapt to the Nazis, Israilov transformed the OPKB into the “National Socialist Party of Caucasian Brothers”. Its number reached 5 thousand people.
In addition, in November 1941, the Chechen-Gorsky National Socialist Underground Organization was established. Its leader was Mayrbek Sheripov. The son of the tsarist officer and younger brother of the hero of the Civil War Aslanbek Sheripov, Mayrbek joined the CPSU (b), and in 1938 was arrested for anti-Soviet propaganda, but in 1939, he was released for failure to prove his guilt. In the fall of 1941, the Chairman of the Leading Industrial Council of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR passed over to the illegal position and began to unite around him the leaders of bandit formations, deserters, fugitive criminals, and also established contacts with religious and teip leaders, inclining them to revolt. The main base of Sheripova was in the Shatoi district. After approaching the front to the borders of the republic, in August 1942, Sheripov raised a major uprising in the Itum-Kaly and Shatoi districts. 20 August rebels surrounded Itum-Kale, but could not take the village. A small garrison repulsed the attacks of the gangsters, and the reinforcements that came up turned the Chechens to flight. Sheripov tried to connect with Israilov, but was destroyed during the special operation.
In October 1942, a rebellion was raised by German non-commissioned officer Rekkert, abandoned in Chechnya in August at the head of the reconnaissance and sabotage group. He established contact with the Sakhabov gang and, with the assistance of religious authorities, recruited up to 400 people. The detachment was equipped with weapons dropped from German aircraft. The saboteurs were able to raise some auls of the Vedensky and Cheberloyevsky districts for the uprising. However, the authorities quickly suppressed this performance. Rekkert destroyed.
The mountaineers made a feasible contribution to the military power of the Third Reich. In September, the three first battalions of the North Caucasus Legion — the 1942, 800, and 801 — were formed in Poland in 802. At the same time, there was a Chechen company in the 800 battalion, and in 802 there were two companies. The number of Chechens in the German armed forces was small due to massive desertion and evasion from service, the number of Chechens and Ingush in the ranks of the Red Army was small. Therefore, the captive mountaineers were few. Already at the end of 1942, the 800 and 802 battalions were sent to the front.
Almost simultaneously, in the Mirgorod of the Poltava region, the 842, 843 and 844 battalions of the North Caucasus Legion begin to form. In February, 1943, they were sent to the Leningrad region to fight the partisans. At the same time in the town of Vesola form the battalion 836-A (the letter "A" means "Einsatz" - destruction). The battalion specialized in punitive operations and left a long bloody trail in Kirovograd and Kiev regions and in France. In May 1945, the remnants of the battalion were captured by the British in Denmark. The mountaineers asked for British citizenship, but were issued by the USSR. Of the 214 Chechens, the 1 Company 97 was prosecuted.
As the front approached the borders of the republic, the Germans began to send scouts and saboteurs onto the territory of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, who were to prepare the ground for a large-scale uprising, to commit sabotage and terrorist attacks. However, only Rekker’s group achieved the greatest success. The Chekists and the army acted swiftly and prevented an uprising. In particular, the failure befell the group of Chief Lieutenant Lange, abandoned August 25 1942. Pursued by Soviet units, the chief lieutenant with the remnants of his group, with the help of Chechen guides, was forced to cross the front line back to his own. Total Germans abandoned 77 saboteurs. Of these, 43 was rendered harmless.
The Germans even prepared the “governor of the North Caucasus - Osman Guba (Osman Saydnurov). Osman in the Civil War fought on the side of the whites, deserted, lived in Georgia, after its release by the Red Army, fled to Turkey. After the outbreak of the war, he completed a course of study at the German intelligence school and entered the disposal of naval intelligence. Guba-Saydnurova, in order to increase prestige among the local population, was even allowed to call themselves a colonel. However, plans to foment an uprising among the highlanders failed - the KGB seized Guba’s group. During the interrogation, the failed Caucasian Gauleiter made a very interesting admission: “Among the Chechens and Ingush, I easily found the right people ready to betray, go to the German side and serve them.”
An interesting fact is that the local leadership of the Interior actually sabotaged the fight against banditry and went over to the side of the bandits. The captain of the state security Sultan Albogachiev, an Ingush by nationality, who led the NKVD ChIASSR, sabotaged the activities of local security officers. Albogachiev acted in conjunction with Terloev (Israilov). Many other local security officers turned out to be traitors. So, the traitors were the heads of the NKVD district departments: Staro-Yurtovsky - Elmurzayev, Sharoyevsky - Pashayev, Itum-Kalinsky - Mezhiyev, Shatoevsky - Isaev, etc. Many traitors turned out to be among ordinary NKVD employees.
A similar picture was in the environment of the local party leadership. Thus, when the front approached, 16 executives of the district committee of the All-Union Communist Party (Bolsheviks) (in the republic there were 24 districts and the city of Grozny), 8 executives of district executive committees, 14 collective farm chairmen and other party members fled. Apparently, those who remained in their places were simply Russian or “Russian-speaking”. The Itum-Kalinsky district party organization was especially famous for it, where the entire leadership of the bandits joined the bandits.
As a result, during the years of the hardest war, an epidemic of mass betrayal swept the republic. Chechens and Ingush fully deserved their punishment. Moreover, it should be noted that under the laws of wartime, Moscow could punish many thousands of gangsters, traitors and their accomplices much tougher, up to the execution and long prison sentences. However, we once again see an example of the humanism and generosity of the Stalinist government. Chechens and Ingush evicted, sent for re-education.
Psychological problem
Many current citizens of the Western world, and Russia, are not able to understand how an entire nation can be punished for the crimes of its individual groups and “individual representatives”. They proceed from their ideas about the world around them, when they are surrounded in general by the world of individualists, atomized personalities.
After industrialization, the Western world, and then Russia, lost the structure of traditional society (essentially, peasant, agrarian), connected by communal ties, by mutual responsibility. The West and Russia have moved to a different level of civilization, when each person is responsible only for his crimes. However, at the same time, Europeans forget that there are still regions and regions on the planet where traditional, tribal-dominated relations prevail. This region is the Caucasus and Central Asia.
There, people are connected by family (including large patriarchal families), clan, tribal relations, and also fraternities. Accordingly, if a person commits a crime, his local community is responsible for and punishes him. In particular, this is why rape of local girls is rare in the North Caucasus, relatives with the support of the local community simply “bury” the criminal. The police will close their eyes to this, so it consists of "his people." However, this does not mean that "alien" girls, who do not stand behind a strong kin, community, are safe. "Horsemen" can behave freely in the "alien" territory.
Mutual responsibility is a bright distinctive feature of any society that is in the tribal development stage. In such a society there is no case about which the whole local population would not know. There is no hiding thug, a murderer, whose locals are not aware of their location. Responsibility for the offender is the entire race and generation. Such views are very strong and persist from century to century.
Such relationships were characteristic of the era of tribal relations. During the period of the Russian Empire, and even more strongly during the years of the Soviet Union, the Caucasus and Central Asia were subject to strong civilizational and cultural influence of the Russian people. Urban culture, industrialization, and a powerful system of upbringing and education had a strong influence on these regions; they began the transition from tribal relations to a more advanced urban industrial society. If the USSR had existed for a few more decades, the transition would have been completed. However, the USSR was destroyed.
Thus, it is necessary to clearly realize the fact that Stalin, who was well aware of the peculiarities of the ethnopsychology of mountain peoples, with its principles of mutual responsibility and collective responsibility of the whole race for the crime committed by its member, as he himself was from the Caucasus, quite correctly punished an entire people (several peoples). If the local society did not support Hitler's accomplices and bandits, then the first collaborators would be handed over by the local residents themselves (or they would be handed over to the authorities). However, the Chechens consciously went into conflict with the authorities, and Moscow punished them. Everything is reasonable and logical - it is necessary to answer for crimes. The decision was fair and even in some respects mild.
The highlanders themselves then knew why they were being punished. So, then the following rumors circulated among the local population: “The Soviet government will not forgive us. We do not serve in the army, do not work in collective farms, do not help the front, do not pay taxes, banditry is everywhere. Karachays were evicted for this — and they would evict us. ”
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