The Karachay-Cherkess Republic is another Caucasian autonomy, which is still trying in vain to overcome and forget the difficult legacy of eviction during the Great Patriotic War. However, as it turned out, it is no less difficult to forget the period that is commonly called the “first wave of return”. It fell on 1955-1965 and practically coincided with the dramatic redistribution of borders after the re-unification of Karachay with Cherkessia into a single autonomous region within the Stavropol Territory, which was promptly revoked at the behest of the Kremlin in February 1957.
In fact, the Kremlin actually followed the process only - the numerous Caucasian “governors” themselves, after the 20th Congress of the CPSU, were in a hurry to report to Moscow in “overcoming the consequences of the personality cult” of all sorts. On national issues as well. In numerous letters that then went to Moscow, but, as a rule, did not reach it, local residents, mainly from among those who were not deported, wrote that the Circassians were again “put under Karachay”. The consequences of such an international decision are still being felt today.
Quite recently, initiative groups of Circassians and Abazins announced their plans to create a separate dual autonomy within the Stavropol Territory in the north of the Karachay-Cherkess Republic. The reasons for such an initiative are known, although they are not very actively covered by the central media: socio-economic, linguistic and political discrimination on the part of the Karachais is growing in the republic.
These statements essentially became an attempt to continue the work begun by sending an open letter to President V. Putin to Moscow with practically the same content. As you know, it was signed by Abu-Yusuf Banov, representing the "Council of Elders of the Circassian People", Dzhanibek Kuzhev from the public organization "Abaza" (the self-name of the Abazins) and Rauf Daurov from the "Center of Circassian Culture".
It should be recalled that all this has already happened, and it was quite a long time ago. Representatives of the indigenous population of a number of regions of Karachay-Cherkessia made the same proposals four decades ago. Indicative is the assessment given to such initiatives by the chairman of the KGB of the USSR, Yuri Andropov, who sent a memorandum to the Politburo on December 9, 1980. It has an absolutely characteristic name for that era, probably not accidentally called the "era of stagnation", the name: "On negative processes in the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Okrug."
So, excerpts from the document.
“Among a certain part of the indigenous population of the autonomous region, negative processes are noted, characterized by nationalist, especially anti-Russian sentiments. On this basis, antisocial manifestations, as well as criminal offenses, take place. The nature of these processes is also influenced by hostile elements from among the older generation who previously took part in the armed struggle against the Soviet system, incl. in 1942-1943
Under the influence of the ideas of nationalism, some representatives of the creative intelligentsia in their works emphasize the national superiority of the Karachais, endowing the former traitors of the Motherland with positive qualities of the former traitors to the Motherland they portray. The Circassian population and other ethnic groups are dissatisfied with the fact that they are actually "distant" from most of the leading positions in the region in various spheres …"
As you can see, national problems, no matter how urgent they were, were not resolved in any way either during the debunking of the cult of the individual, or under developed socialism. There is a feeling that even now a lot in the federal center would just like to let the brakes go. Moreover, sometimes not the most successful experience from Soviet history is taken into service.
And the Soviet leadership (true Leninists, which means internationalists) was not initially a supporter of multiplying ethnic autonomies in the North Caucasus, acting on the principle “then we will be tortured to collect”, voiced by Sergo Ordzhonikidze.
Not too numerous ethnic groups simply united, not taking into account how close they are to each other ethnically and culturally. Religious preferences in the country of state atheism were generally ignored, the main thing is that everything should turn out decently geographically. However, it is usually because of the territories that conflicts flared up on national and religious grounds, as it has become increasingly happening now. On the basis of just this approach, not only Karachay-Cherkessia, but also Chechen-Ingushetia and Kabardino-Balkaria were formed. But Ossetia was divided into South and North, and even after August 2008 there is still very, very far from universal national happiness.
The very same Karachay-Cherkess autonomy, at first in the status of a region, was formed in 1922. It was based on the Karachay National District from the then Gorsk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. But in 1926, it was decided to divide the region into the Karachay Autonomous District and the Cherkess National District as part of the Stavropol Territory, then the North Caucasian Territory, which at the end of the 30s will receive the name of that very expert on the national issue - Ordzhonikidze. At the same time, a fairly large Circassian enclave will remain in Karachay, or rather, if you approach it formally, an exclave.
Excesses between the Circassians and the Karachais arose almost immediately, although they, in fact, did not stop almost never, just now there was a rather serious reason. At the same time, various anti-Soviet groups that began to form in the mountains easily united representatives of both ethnic groups. Both those and others actively tried to disrupt collectivization, fought against the liquidation of private property, by all possible means opposed the authorities' attack on Islam. In addition, the warring nationalities opposed the introduction of the Russian language and other Soviet measures, and most importantly, against the compulsory military conscription, although they did not refuse to serve under the tsar.
Moreover, up to half of these groups, mainly Karachai, managed to hold out in such a kind of underground until the German occupation of the North Caucasus in August 1942. And when the Nazi troops were expelled from the Caucasus in February-March 1943, the Karachais and Circassians immediately returned to partisan activities. With the support of German and Turkish intelligence, they managed to hold out for another three to four years. There is quite a lot of information about those sabotage groups that managed to get help and from the Western, primarily British special services, it took even more time to eliminate them.
The rapid advance of German troops to the Main Caucasian Range literally caused a flurry of new anti-Soviet excesses. The secret services responded with brutal repression, which was often clearly delayed. Almost immediately, sometimes even before the arrival of the Germans, the majority of immigrants from wealthy ethno-social strata, as well as from those who fought in the Civil War against both the Bolsheviks and the White Guards, emerging from the underground, ended up in the ranks of collaborators. The "victims" of atheistic events, victims of dispossession, as well as very numerous supporters of the independence of the so-called united Adyghe-Circassian-Balkarian republic also moved there.
From representatives of just such strata, the German authorities formed in the fall of 1942 the "Karachay National Committee" headed by K. Bayramukov and the "Circassian National Council" headed by A. Yakubovsky. In this regard, it is characteristic that in Berlin, in contrast to Moscow, they immediately took into account the complex relations between the Circassians and the Karachais, creating there, according to the ethnic principle, not one, but two puppet structures.
At the same time, the "Karachay National Committee" received specific powers of authority: "Soviet state, collective farm and public property was transferred to it, as well as the leadership of the economy, culture and propaganda (under German control)." According to the same data, he participated in the occupation repressions, financially helped the invaders, established ties with other collaborators in the region, with the national formations of the SS and the Wehrmacht. Local puppet newspapers and magazines also reported about this, without hesitation, during the occupation of the region.
The committee even managed to proclaim the unification of Karachay and Balkaria into a "single Karachay" with the capital wherever you think - in the Russian Kislovodsk!
In November 1943, in the report of the head of the Department for Combating Banditry of the NKVD of the USSR A. Leontyev addressed to the Deputy People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR S. Kruglov, it was noted: sects. And from their representatives created the so-called "Karachay National Committee". Kady Bayramukov and Muratbi Laipanov (deputy. - Auth.) Were approved at the head of the committee, later (from May 1943 to April 1944. - Auth.) Who worked in the German intelligence school in Beshui near Simferopol."
All this testifies only to one thing: the Soviet leadership had grounds, and considerable ones, for mass deportation. For the practice of that time, this was generally almost the norm. And in comparison with the deportation of the Circassians even during the tsarist regime - and even flowers. The eviction itself was done very quickly: from 2 to 22 November 1943, tens of thousands of people (it is believed that the total number of deported Karachais exceeds 65 thousand) "moved" to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. There are no reliable statistics on those killed and missing in the course of deportation transportation. Up to 85% of the territory of Karachay was transferred to Georgia (the rest - to the Cherkess Autonomous District and in the Stavropol Territory).
Nevertheless, indiscriminately accusing the Karachais of collaborating with the invaders is, to put it mildly, hyperbole. According to the Generalized Data Bank "Memorial" and a number of other sources, more than nine thousand people from Karachai were killed and disappeared on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War. More than 17 thousand Karachais went to the front. 11 of them were awarded the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
During the war years, the inhabitants of Karachay collected and sent to the front in 1941-1943. six wagons of collective, individual gifts and an additional 68,650 units of various woolen and leather products (as well as national cheese, lamb, goat's milk, kumis, mineral waters, medicinal herbs). In the battles for the passes of the Main Caucasian ridge, 17 partisan detachments took part, nine of them were almost exclusively Karachai. The partisans of the Karachai and Karachai-Abaza nationalities, R. Romanchuk, Z. Erkenov, M. Isakov, Z. Erkenova, I. Akbaev, Kh. Kasaev, Y. Chomayev, and many others died the death of the brave in these battles.
The very fact of the rehabilitation, and then the repatriation of the Karachais, as well as other Caucasian peoples, testifies only to the questionable principledness of the then Soviet justice and the complete lack of principle of the special services and the country's top leadership, which replaced the Stalinist one. The decision to return was made on the personal instructions of the first secretary of the CPSU Central Committee Nikita Khrushchev already in 1955.
And in February 1957, the Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Region was recreated as part of the Stavropol Territory. During all this time, the internal borders of the autonomy have changed at least five times, and the borders with Stavropol - even more. At the same time, Moscow also made decisions on maximally favoring the Karachais, as well as other "exiled" peoples. And this, in turn, provoked numerous conflict situations between them, on the one hand, and the Circassians, Russians, Abazins, on the other. These conflicts smolder to this day, increasingly flaring up to direct clashes with the use of weapons.
