Deportation of the Karachays (1943)

All the more monstrous are those acts whose initiator was Stalin and which were rude violations of the basic Leninist principles [behind our] Soviet state’s nationalities policies.

Thus, at the end of 1943, when there already had been a permanent change of fortune at the front in favor of the Soviet Union, a decision concerning the deportation of all the Karachai from the lands on which they lived was taken and executed.

This deportation was not dictated by any military considerations.

many of whom had previously participated in operations to resettle the Karachai and Kalmyks, and in addition will participate in the forthcoming operation to resettle Balkarians

On the night of 2 November 1943, arrests began at 02:00 in the morning.

Out of the initial 68,614 people who were deported to Central Asia, it is estimated that somewhere between 13,000 and 19,000 people died.

By 1948, five years after the deportation, the population of Karachays in exile was recorded by Soviet statisticians as 56,869.

Many died during the transport.

In total, 79,000 Karachay people were deported. Most of those repressed – more than 43,000 people – died on the road and in resettlement places.

101,036 Chechens, Ingush, Balkardians, and Karachaevtsy died in this period (23.3 percent of the deportees), 485 Kalmycks (20.7 percent), 443 Crimean Tatars (10.1 percent), and 19,501 Germans, representing 8.9 percent of the German exiles.