Direct Translation via Google Translate.
[KavkazUzel] The initiative of the residents of Chechen-Aul to open the gates on the anniversary of the deportation, as is done on days of mourning, has become a way for the people to remember the victims of deportation in the absence of the opportunity to organize mass events, noted human rights activists interviewed by the Caucasian Knot.
As the "Caucasian Knot" reported, in 2023, no official events were held in Chechnya to mark the 79th anniversary of the deportation of the Vainakhs; on that day, Kadyrov limited himself to curses against Stalin. In 2022, on the 78th anniversary of the deportation, no commemorative events were held in the republic; officials dedicated only posts on social networks to this date.
The Day of Memory and Sorrow on February 23 was celebrated in Chechnya until 2011, when the authorities of the republic decided to celebrate all Russian public holidays on an equal basis with other regions, including Defender of the Fatherland Day, which coincides in date with the anniversary of the deportation of the Vainakhs.
In April 2011, the special commission announced that the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow of the Peoples of the Republic would be celebrated annually on May 10 - the day of the funeral of the first president of Chechnya, Akhmat Kadyrov, who was killed in a terrorist attack on May 9, 2004.
However, in 2020, on Defender of the Fatherland Day, a rally was held in Grozny in memory of the victims of repression, in which Ramzan Kadyrov and other officials took part. Representatives of the leadership of Chechnya held a small rally in memory of the victims of deportation on February 23, 2021. Kadyrov was abroad and did not participate in it.
Eighty years ago, on February 23, 1944, Operation Lentil began, during which almost 500,000 Chechens and Ingush were massively evicted from the territory of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. You can read more about these events and their consequences in the Caucasian Knot reference material “ Deportation of Chechens and Ingush ”.
Information that in the village of Chechen-Aul, which is part of the Argun urban district, on February 23, “the gates will be open in all courtyards for the whole day” as a sign of memory and grief for the victims of deportation, was posted today on the Instagram* public “Chechen” -Aul - Nacha-Checha."
The initiative to hold an action in memory of the victims of deportation shows that no one has forgotten this tragedy, President of the Assembly of Caucasian Peoples Ruslan Kutaev is sure.
“As a rule, when someone has mourning events, someone has died, they open the gates of the house and keep them open for three days because they come to express their condolences. People who have good relations with this family, sympathize with their loss, also opened their gates". This is a fairly common phenomenon in Chechen society. Therefore, the fact that the decision has now been made to hold such an action in Chechen-Aul suggests that everyone remembers and does not forget what happened," he told the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent.
Kutaev does not believe that the initiative of the residents of Chechen-Aul is a manifestation of disagreement with the fact that the authorities do not hold public mass events on February 23 in memory of the victims of deportation. “I don’t think that one thing is connected with the other. I am sure that even if the authorities carried out some actions, the residents of the village would still open their gates. The wound of deportation runs very deep in families. The tradition is preserved in any case. This is the individual behavior of each families. And the fact that the action is being held for the second year in a row suggests that there is no pressure on the residents of the village in this regard,” he noted.
According to Kutaev, in 2014 the authorities tried to suppress all initiatives related to the anniversary of the deportation, but since 2016 they themselves began to hold similar events. “If in 2014 we had not held a conference dedicated to the deportation of the Vainakhs, then to this day no events would have been held at all. Our protest in 2014 actually opened the way for everyone, including Kadyrov and his entourage. Then there were terrible persecutions due to this initiative, and now there are some relaxations in this regard. The authorities themselves are talking about deportation, talking about Stalin, and so on. Now there are no prerequisites that there will be pressure and persecution because of the open gates," the interlocutor said.
The author of the “Chechnya Insid ” blog on the “Caucasian Knot” previously wrote about the 2014 conference and its consequences.
“Ruslan Kutaev and other representatives of the creative and scientific intelligentsia held a scientific conference in February dedicated to the genocide of the Vainakhs in 1944. The next day, all participants and organizers were gathered at Kadyrov’s residence, where they were reprimanded for disobeying the ban <...> There was a version that some representatives of the intelligentsia were then subjected to physical violence. Ruslan Kutaev refused to come and apologize. For this he was later kidnapped and tortured <...> At that conference, all concerned were, among other things, asked to open the gates of private houses on February 23.
Gates in Chechnya are usually left open during time of mourning. Then, due to the persecution of Kutaev, this initiative did not receive widespread support. However, in 2018, this initiative, which was revived by public figure Yuni Uspanov, was supported by many people, especially in Ingushetia," he wrote in the entry " Chechen-Aul was massively supported initiative to open the gates in memory of the victims of the Vainakh genocide."
Kutaev also added that not all villages disseminate information about such an action, but, he is sure, “in all villages people will open their gates.”
A human rights activist, an employee of the Memorial Human Rights Center, who wished to remain anonymous, considers this action a manifestation of the memory of the people. “This is a popular form of holding an action in conditions where it is dangerous to gather ourselves. How can this be interpreted differently if it happens on the anniversary of the deportation? I think this has nothing to do with the fact that the authorities do not hold events on this day. The authorities and the people in this country separated from each other a long time ago,” he told the “Caucasian Knot” correspondent.
The human rights activist also added that since the action is taking place for the second year, this means that the authorities are not against it and are not putting pressure on people for this. “I have no information whether such an action is carried out in other villages, but it would be good if it were carried out everywhere. Perhaps this is the case. If the authorities decide that such an action is inappropriate and ban it, then no one will open the gates.”, he is sure.
The Chechen-Aul initiative is a popular form of holding an action in conditions where it is dangerous to gather on your own, says the head of the Civic Assistance Committee Svetlana Gannushkina. “The people always remember what happened to them. This is a historical memory. And such actions speak of the wisdom of the people. A situation has arisen where it is dangerous to gather in one place and honor the memory of the victims of deportation. So they came up with such a general action, which is a shame to ban.”, she said.
At the same time, there is a certain message in this action, she believes. “Perhaps the residents, unwittingly, are showing that they do not entirely agree with the authorities’ policy of not holding public events. But under these conditions, they cannot afford any other kind of action than an open-gate initiative. And the fact that in this village last year they also held an action, it says the following: the authorities may not be very happy, but they see no point in interfering with the action in order to honor the memory of the Vainakhs,” the human rights activist noted.
Many do not know or do not want to know that under Stalin, mass arrests, deportations and executions were carried out on ethnic grounds, and entire nations were declared “hostile,” said Oleg Khlevnyuk, a historian and author of the biography “Stalin. The Life of a Leader.” You can read about these and other most famous myths and reliable information related to the role of Joseph Stalin in the events of the Great Patriotic War in the “Caucasian Knot” reference “ 10 myths about the role of Stalin in the Great Patriotic War.”
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