75th anniversary of Checheno-Ingush exile

<p>BAKU (AA) – Thousands of Checheno-Ingush were expelled from Northern Caucasus to Middle Asia and Siberia by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on Feb. 23, 1944. </p> <p>The exile led to thousands of deaths 75 years ago and was recorded as one of the greatest massacres.</p> <p>German forces launched an attack at the Soviet Union’s oil reservoirs in Caucasus in the first months of World War II in 1942. </p> <p>The Germans aimed to occupy the Soviet Union’s second-biggest reservoirs in capital Grozny, Chechenia after Azerbaijan. </p> <p>They occupied some parts of the country but failed to enter Grozny. </p> <p>Soviet’s counter-attack forced the German forces in Stalingrad to surrender after being surrounded. Later, the German forces in the Caucasus were forced to retreat.</p> <p>Stalin blamed his people for the German attack, especially Checheno-Ingush, Kalmyks, Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Karachays, and Volga Germans. </p> <p>He gave the order to expel Checheno-Ingush and abolished Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, founding Grozny Oblast.</p> <p>The exile took place on Feb. 23, 1944, during the celebrations of the country’s Red Army Day. </p> <p>Nearly 500,000 Checheno-Ingush were expelled to mostly Siberia and Kazakhstan. It is estimated that 20 percent of the people died during the travel due to thirst and hunger. </p>The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic seized the territories and livestock left behind.<p>An observatory soldier was assigned to every 10 houses after they reached their new destinations. Checheno-Ingush couldn’t travel farther than 3 kilometers (1.8 miles) and they had to check in at security points.</p> <p>On Nov. 26, 1948, the Soviet administration announced that the expelled people were indefinitely forbidden to return to their home.</p> <p>Nikita Khrushchev, a Soviet leader who led the Union between 1953 and 1964 said: “It is hard to understand that women, children, elderly, communist, Komsomol (All-Union Leninist Young Communist League), the whole nation to be held responsible for an act done by a person or a group of people.”</p> <p>Historians say Stalin’s main aim was to punish Caucasus people due to their previous revolts and avoid their planned migration to Turkey.</p> <p><br>