Paul
Goble
Staunton, May 4 – Remembering past
victimization by the Soviet and Russian state is a growing challenge for
non-Russian peoples in Putin’s Russia because Moscow doesn’t want to stress the
negative sides of history. But the
Karachays, one of the punished peoples in the North Caucasus whom Stalin deported
to Central Asia have found a way.
Yesterday, for the third year in a
row, they have marked the Day of the Rebirth of the Karachay People on the anniversary
of the day in which in 1957 they were allowed to return to their homeland, a
celebration of their survival but also as many of the 2,000 participants in
Cherkessk said one of sorrow as well as joy (riakchr.ru/v-den-vozrozhdeniya-karachaevskogo-naroda-poryadka-dvukh-tysyach-zhiteley-karachaevo-cherkesii-prinya/).
Marching to the memorial to the
deportation under the banner “We have Returned!” those taking part “considerd
its their duty to respect the memory of those who did not experience the joy of
return to their native land and to express admiration and gratitude to those
who did not surrender in alien lands, and despite all tests not only returned
but gave their all so that the unjustly exiled people could revive and
strengthen,” the local news agency said.
One participant, Zarema Chotchayeva,
said that “for each Karaachy, this day is at one and the same time a day of joy
and sorrow,” joy that the Karachay people has come home and sorrow that it was
deported, suffered so greatly for 14 long years and lost many of its members as
a result.
On November 2, 1043, the Karachays
became the first North Caucasian people to be exiled by Stalin. Of the 70,000
sent to Central Asia, more than 43,000, including 22,000 children, died. They along with the other punished people
were given the right to return by an act of the Soviet government on January 9,
1957. The Karachays began to return May 3rd.
Because the Karachays have promoted
this day as a celebration rather than as a memorial day, Russian officials have
been able to join in this event, even promoting it in various way (tass.ru/v-strane/6399149, riakchr.ru/vrio-glavy-kabardino-balkarii-kazbek-kokov-pozdravil-glavu-i-zhiteley-karachaevo-cherkesii-s-dnem-vo/, riakchr.ru/glava-minkavkaza-rossii-pozdravil-zhiteley-karachaevo-cherkesii-s-dnem-vozrozhdeniya-karachaevskogo-/ and 23rus.org/index.php?UID=27811).
But every Karachay certainly
recognizes that there would not have been the joy of return had there not been
the horrific deportation before it.
Consequently, a day Moscow wants only to be a joyful one is in fact the
occasion for deep sorrow, a model of how a non-Russian nation can remember its
tragedy even at a time when the Putin regime doesn’t want anyone to.
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