# Deportation of the Karachays, Kalmyks, Chechens and Ingush, Balkars
The deportation of the Karachays, Kalmyks, Chechens and Ingush, and Balkars (Депортации карачаевцев, калмыков, чеченцев и ингушей, балкарцев) was the total removal of five entire peoples of the Soviet Union to Central Asia and Siberia between October 1943 and March 1944,[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) • [2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) carried out by the NKVD under Lavrenty Beria[3](https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations) • [4](https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/massive-deportation-chechen-people-how-and-why-chechens-were-deported.html) on the official grounds of collaboration with the German occupier.[2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) In a series of military-style operations, more than 600,000 people were loaded into railway convoys,[5](https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2019/02/22_a_12201853.shtml) • [7](https://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/almanah/inside/almanah-intro/1024310) their autonomous republics and regions were abolished,[2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) • [3](https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations) and they were placed under a regime of special settlement.[3](https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations)
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Peoples deported | Karachays, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, Balkars[2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) • [3](https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations) |
| Period | October 1943 to March 1944[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) • [2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) |
| Directed by | NKVD chief Lavrenty Beria, personally, reporting to Stalin[3](https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations) • [4](https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/massive-deportation-chechen-people-how-and-why-chechens-were-deported.html) |
| Destinations | Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan; for the Kalmyks also the Altai and Krasnoyarsk krais and the Omsk and Novosibirsk oblasts[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) • [6](https://www.hrono.ru/dokum/194_dok/19440103beri.php) |
| Operation Lentil | 23–29 February 1944: 478,479 Chechens and Ingush loaded into trains[2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) • [7](https://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/almanah/inside/almanah-intro/1024310) |
| Deaths en route (Chechens and Ingush) | 1,272[8](https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html) • [5](https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2019/02/22_a_12201853.shtml) |
## Background and causes
The official justification in every decree was "collaboration with the Nazi occupier."[2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) The Norwegian Helsinki Committee states that this argument has been debunked by serious historians, and that Stalin instead selected ethnic groups with a history of opposition to Russian and Soviet rule.[9](https://nhc.no/en/28-december-1943-mass-deportation-of-the-kalmyks/) Scholars Bugai and Westren argue that the collaboration charge against the Chechens and Ingush bears little criticism, and that the Soviet state considered them insufficiently Sovietized; deportation also opened the former Chechen-Ingush ASSR for resettlement with "reliable" Sovietized Russians.[10](https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02634937.2016.1202897) A related measure preceded the deportations: Stalin's directive No. 6362 ordered that Ingush and Chechens not be awarded high combat decorations for feats performed.[11](https://vestnik.krsu.kg/ky/article/download/6294)
## Course of events, in order
**Karachays, October–November 1943.** On 12 October 1943 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet decreed the collective deportation of the Karachays and the liquidation of the Karachay Autonomous Region.[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) • [2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) One chronology records 68,327 Karachays deported by railway convoy to [Kazakhstan](https://www.edgepedia.org/kazakhstan) and [Kyrgyzstan](https://www.edgepedia.org/kyrgyzstan) between 20 and 27 October 1943.[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) • [5](https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2019/02/22_a_12201853.shtml)
**Kalmyks, December 1943.** The Kalmyk ASSR was abolished by decree of 27 December 1943, and the next day an SNK decree ordered deportation to the Altai and [Krasnoyarsk](https://www.edgepedia.org/krasnoyarsk) krais and the Omsk and [Novosibirsk](https://www.edgepedia.org/novosibirsk) oblasts.[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) • [2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) • [6](https://www.hrono.ru/dokum/194_dok/19440103beri.php) Beria's report to Stalin and Molotov of 3 January 1944 records that 26,359 families, or 93,139 people, were loaded into 46 trains.[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) • [6](https://www.hrono.ru/dokum/194_dok/19440103beri.php) For the operation, codenamed "Ulusy,"[9](https://nhc.no/en/28-december-1943-mass-deportation-of-the-kalmyks/) • [12](https://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no14_ses/07_guchinova.pdf) the NKVD directed 2,975 officers to the Kalmyk ASSR and the operation was carried out by the third motorized rifle regiment.[12](https://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no14_ses/07_guchinova.pdf)
**Chechens and Ingush, February 1944.** Beria approved the eviction instruction for Operation Chechevitsa ("Lentil") on 29 January 1944.[8](https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html) • [13](https://communistcrimes.org/en/mass-deportation-ingush-people-crimes-soviet-communist-regime-against-ethnic-minorities-north) Beria arrived in Grozny on 17 February 1944 and reported regularly to Stalin during the operation.[4](https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/massive-deportation-chechen-people-how-and-why-chechens-were-deported.html) • [8](https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html) At dawn on 23 February 1944 NKVD troops began rounding up the population house by house; the operation involved 19,000 operatives of the NKVD, NKGB, and SMERSH and about 100,000 NKVD troops.[2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) • [8](https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html) By 29 February, 478,479 people, including 387,229 Chechens and 91,250 Ingush, had been evicted and loaded into wagons.[2](https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii) • [8](https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html) The deportees filled 180 trains and more than 15,000 cars; wagons intended for 40 people carried up to 150.[7](https://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/almanah/inside/almanah-intro/1024310) • [13](https://communistcrimes.org/en/mass-deportation-ingush-people-crimes-soviet-communist-regime-against-ethnic-minorities-north)
## Outcome and losses
During the transport of the Chechens and Ingush, 1,272 people died and 56 babies were born, a mortality of 2.6 per 1,000 transported.[8](https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html) • [5](https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2019/02/22_a_12201853.shtml) One account gives 780 killed, 2,016 arrested, and 6,544 escapes into the mountains.[13](https://communistcrimes.org/en/mass-deportation-ingush-people-crimes-soviet-communist-regime-against-ethnic-minorities-north) • [8](https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html)
## Consequences and political influence
The deportations were accompanied by the abolition of the deportees' autonomies: the Karachay Autonomous Region (October 1943), the Kalmyk ASSR (December 1943), and the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, abolished on 7 March 1944, on whose Chechen districts a Grozny okrug within [Stavropol](https://www.edgepedia.org/stavropol) krai was created.[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) • [8](https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html) The deported peoples lived as "special settlers" under NKVD special commandant's offices; even prisoners of these nationalities were, on release, to be sent to the regions where their families had been resettled.[14](https://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/fond/issues-doc/1022591) In 1948 the Supreme Soviet decreed that the special settlers were transferred "for ever."[3](https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations) A resolution of 10 March 1955 issued passports to special settlers, recognizing them as citizens, though they remained restricted in civil and political rights.[15](https://www.europeanproceedings.com/article/10.15405/epsbs.2021.05.345) In February 1956 Khrushchev's secret speech named the Karachays, Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush, and Balkars among Stalin's crimes, and in 1957 these five groups received the right to return; in most cases their autonomous regions and republics were reinstated, but none of the deported peoples received compensation.[3](https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations)
## Historians' assessment
Scholars assess the legislative acts of the 1940s and early 1950s concerning the deported peoples as illegal, contradicting both the [1936 Constitution of the USSR](https://www.edgepedia.org/1936-constitution-of-the-ussr) and the principles of national policy the Soviet state proclaimed.[15](https://www.europeanproceedings.com/article/10.15405/epsbs.2021.05.345) On the numbers, sources disagree: the Chechen and Ingush total is given as 521,247 by 194 convoys in one chronology[1](https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944) and as about 500,000 on 180 convoys by the UNHCR publication.[3](https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations)
## References
1. Wartime Deportation, 1941–1944, Russia's Necropolis of Terror and the Gulag: https://en.mapofmemory.org/wartime-deportation-1941-1944
2. Насильственное выселение народов Северного Кавказа в 1943–1944 гг. (к 70-летию депортации): https://cyberleninka.ru/article/n/nasilstvennoe-vyselenie-narodov-severnogo-kavkaza-v-1943-1944-gg-k-70-letiyu-deportatsii
3. Punished peoples: the mass deportations of the 1940s, UNHCR: https://www.unhcr.org/publications/unhcr-publication-cis-conference-displacement-cis-punished-peoples-mass-deportations
4. The Massive Deportation of the Chechen People: How and why Chechens were Deported, Sciences Po: https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/en/document/massive-deportation-chechen-people-how-and-why-chechens-were-deported.html
5. Операция «Чечевица»: как Берия депортировал чеченцев, Gazeta.ru: https://www.gazeta.ru/science/2019/02/22_a_12201853.shtml
6. Берия, Сталину и Молотову, доклад о переселении калмыков, 3 января 1944 г.: https://www.hrono.ru/dokum/194_dok/19440103beri.php
7. «В целях предупреждения самовольного выезда чеченцев и ингушей на Кавказ…»: https://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/almanah/inside/almanah-intro/1024310
8. Наказанный народ. Как депортировали чеченцев и ингушей, РИА Новости: https://ria.ru/20080222/99840311.html
9. 80 years since the mass deportation of the Kalmyks, Norwegian Helsinki Committee: https://nhc.no/en/28-december-1943-mass-deportation-of-the-kalmyks/
10. An unwanted dependence: Chechen and Ingush deportees and the development of state–citizen relations in late-Stalinist Kazakhstan, Central Asian Survey: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/02634937.2016.1202897
11. Прием и расселение в Киргизской ССР депортированных народов Северного Кавказа, Вестник КРСУ: https://vestnik.krsu.kg/ky/article/download/6294
12. Deportation of the Kalmyks (1943–1956): Stigmatized Ethnicity, Hokkaido University: https://src-h.slav.hokudai.ac.jp/coe21/publish/no14_ses/07_guchinova.pdf
13. The Mass Deportation of the Ingush People, Communist Crimes: https://communistcrimes.org/en/mass-deportation-ingush-people-crimes-soviet-communist-regime-against-ethnic-minorities-north
14. Указание заместителя наркома внутренних дел В.В. Чернышева: https://www.alexanderyakovlev.org/fond/issues-doc/1022591
15. Deported Peoples Amidst Special Resettlement: Legal Status, European Proceedings: https://www.europeanproceedings.com/article/10.15405/epsbs.2021.05.345
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*Topic: Encyclopedia › Society and history › History and archaeology › European history › Russia › Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin (1922 to 1953) › Repression and terror*
*Initially written Sep 24, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license