Balkars commemorate their Stalin-era deportation

On 8 March 2025, the Balkars commemorated the 81st anniversary of the deportation in the Kabarda–Balkaria Republic. On this day, a mourning meeting was held in Nalchik, the capital of the republic, at the Memorial to the Victims of Repression of the Balkar people.

Representatives of the authorities, public organisations, and residents of the republic took part in the mourning event. They laid flowers at the memorial and honoured the memory of the deportation victims with a moment of silence.

On social media, officials expressed their condolences and support for the Balkar people.

The Head of Kabarda–Balkaria, Kazbek Kokov, called the deportation ‘one of the most tragic pages in the history of our people’.

Kokov did not name those responsible for the deportation — the Soviet authorities — but at the same time, he used the anniversary for political purposes. According to Kokov, today the Balkars ‘are building their future in the united fraternal family of the multinational people of Kabarda-Balkaria and the whole of Russia’.

The Head of Karachay–Cherkessia, Rashid Temrezov, also published a post on the occasion of the anniversary of the deportation.

‘For the Karachays, who have experienced a similar tragedy, the pain of the brotherly Balkar people is especially close and understandable’, he wrote.

He also did not specify who was responsible for the expulsion.

The Head of Ingushetia, Mahmud-Ali Kalimatov, spoke in a similar vein. Without naming those responsible for the deportation or the number of those expelled, he wrote that it was ‘a tragic page of history common to Ingush and Balkars’.

The deportation of the Balkars began during World War II on 8 March 1944 at the order of the Soviet leadership. Under the pretext of the people’s alleged participation in collaborationist formations on the side of Nazi Germany, more than 37,000 people were forcibly evicted from their homes and sent to remote areas of Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. The operation was led by Lavrentiy Beria, Head of the NKVD (People’s Commissariat for Internal Affairs), and lasted only two hours, affecting the entire population without exception, including war veterans, invalids, and families of front-line soldiers.

According to official data, one in eight deportees died of hunger, cold, and disease in Central Asia. The survivors were allowed to return only after 13 years following Joseph Stalin’s death.

The Balkars were not the only Caucasian people deported by the Soviet Union during World War II. On 23 February 1944, the deportation of Chechens and Ingush, known as Operation Lentil, began, during which hundreds of thousands of people were resettled in Central Asia.

After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the deportations of the Caucasian peoples were recognised as illegal and criminal acts. In 1991, the law ‘On the Rehabilitation of Repressed Peoples’ was adopted, which recognised the right of the deported peoples to restoration of territorial integrity and compensation for the damage caused by the state.

No support and no understanding for victims of Stalin’s repressions in Kabardino-Balkaria

Inhabitants of Kabardino-Balkaria who were subjected to political repressions in 1930s and 1940s believe that Russia is returning to Stalin’s era. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Kabardino-Balkaria, there are currently 57,000 people in the republic who suffered from repressi…

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