09 March 2023, 12:22
KBR residents commemorate deportation victims
Actions in memory of the victims of the deportation of Balkar nationals conducted 79 years ago, have been held in the city of Nalchik and the village of Kenzhe.
The "Caucasian Knot" has reported that March 8, the Kabardino-Balkarian Republic (KBR) marks the anniversary of the Balkars' deportation. The deportation survivors receive scanty benefits; and the support provided by authorities is incommensurable with the hardships experienced during the years of repressions, participants in the commemorative action noted in 2020.
The operation to evict Balkars was conducted in the KBR on March 8, 1944. In just two hours, war invalids, families of front-line soldiers, and leaders of party bodies were sent to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Out of the total of 37,713 deportees, 52% were children and 30% were women.
In his Telegram channel, Kazbek Kokov, the KBR head, called the deportation "one of the most tragic dates in the KBR history."
Let us remind you that on March 28, the KBR marks the Revival Day of the Balkar nation. On this day in 1957, a decree was signed by the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the restoration of the Kabardino-Balkarian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR). This made it possible for the Balkar people to return from their 13-year-long exile.
The decision on which nations to repress depended directly on Stalin, Boris Sokolov, a historian and a member of the Association of Russian Society Researchers, has stated. "Stalin wanted to completely Slavicize the Caucasus and Crimea, because he was going to fight with Turkey. Therefore, he removed all non-Slavic and mostly Muslim peoples away from the region," the historian has explained.
This article was originally published on the Russian page of 24/7 Internet agency ‘Caucasian Knot’ on March 8, 2023 at 08:40 am MSK. To access the full text of the article, click here.
Source: Caucasian Knot
