Residents of Karachay-Cherkessia celebrate People's Revival Day

Today, Karachay-Cherkessia marks the 69th anniversary of the return of the Karachay people from the deportations carried out under Stalin.

As "Caucasian Knot" reported, May 3 is celebrated in Karachay-Cherkessia as the Day of the Revival of the Karachay People. Fewer and fewer public events are held on this day, but the holiday helps preserve the memory of the victims of deportation and foster a sense of national unity, residents of Karachay-Cherkessia reported in 2024.

21:17 05.11.2025

Karachays spoke about The impact of deportation on their families

The deportation destroyed families, and many Karachays died in exile due to the harsh conditions. Residents of Karachay-Cherkessia said the Day of Deportation of the Karachay People became an occasion to pray for the dead and remember them with their families.

Today, Karachay-Cherkessia celebrates the Day of Revival of the Karachay People, the head of the republic, Rashid Temrezov, announced on his Telegram channel. "A day of justice and a return home, awaited for 14 long years. This holiday reminds us of the strength of spirit of our ancestors," he wrote.

On May 2, equestrian competitions dedicated to the 69th anniversary of the return of the Karachay people took place in Ust-Dzheguta, the district administration reported on its Telegram channel.

The races consisted of seven runs over distances ranging from 1,000 to 3,600 meters. "More than one hundred horses from all regions of Karachay-Cherkessia and Stavropol Krai participated in the competition," the publication states.

The deportation of the Karachays became one episode in the repression of the peoples of the Caucasus

As a reminder, the deportation of the Karachays began on November 2, 1943. As a result, 69,267 people (15,980 families) were deported. In total, 79,000 people of Karachay nationality were deported during the pre-war and war periods. Most of the repressed (more than 43,000 people, including 22,000 children) died en route and in resettlement areas. Key data on the deportation of the Karachay people are collected in the "Caucasian Knot" report "Deportation of the Karachays".

The Soviet government justified the deportations of peoples with myths about mass betrayal and desertion of their representatives. Under Stalin, mass arrests, deportations, and executions based on nationality were carried out, and entire nations were declared "hostile," according to the "Caucasian Knot" report "10 Myths About Stalin's Role in the Great Patriotic War."

Natives In 2015, historians Alexei Bezugolny, Nikolai Bugai, and Evgeny Krinko stated that peoples of the Caucasus actively participated in the Great Patriotic War, and myths about their mass desertion and collaboration are based on data intended to justify the repressions against them.

According to their research, in 1941-1942, a number of secret decrees and orders were issued restricting the conscription and military service of a significant number of peoples of the USSR, including some peoples of the South Caucasus and all North Caucasian peoples.

17:56 10.05.2025

Concealing Stalin's role in the deportation of the Karachays was an attempt to distort history

Key issues of the deportation of the Karachays, including the role Stalin's deportation remains hushed up, Karachay activists pointed out. They expressed concern about attempts to distort the memory of the deportation and the lack of real rehabilitation of the Karachays.

There was no mass support for the German fascists in the North Caucasus, and the Soviet authorities' version of collaboration as the pretext for the deportation of peoples is unfounded, historians Pavel Polyan and Pieter van Huis previously pointed out. The historians' arguments are supported by Wehrmacht archival documents analyzed by the "Caucasian Knot" and cited in the article "Operation Shamil: How the Abwehr's Failure Became the Pretext for the Deportation of the Vainakhs".

The decision on which peoples to subject to repression depended directly on Stalin, Boris Sokolov, a historian and member of the Association of Russian Society Researchers, told the Caucasian Knot in 2022.

In February 2024, Oleg Kelemetov, a resident of Nalchik, filed a complaint with the Investigative Committee, demanding an investigation into the decisions of the USSR State Defense Committee (GKO) on the deportation of the peoples of the Caucasus. Kelemetov believes that the GKO's decisions on the deportation of peoples violated the Constitution and the Criminal Code of the USSR. In May of the same year, Kelemetov, on behalf of a group of residents of the North Caucasus, sent appeals to the parliaments of the republics of the North Caucasus calling for a ban on the glorification of Stalin and other perpetrators of mass deportations.

Such initiatives are important, but in today's Russian reality, they could result in repression against them authors, indicated historians interviewed by the "Caucasian Knot."