Sunday, May 5, 2019

Karachays Mark Day of Return from Exile with Joy and Sorrow


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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