Balkars Knew 1944 Deportation was Coming, Survivors Say on Anniversary

Paul Goble

            Staunton, Mar. 8 – Stalin deported more than 37,000 Balkars, a Turkic nation in the North Caucasus, on March 8, 1944, an anniversary that has long been overshadowed because International Women’s Day happens on the same date and more recently neglected because of the Putin regime’s whitewashing of Stalin’s crimes.

            But this year as every year, a small group of Balkars assembled in the capital of Kabarino-Balkaria, the mixed Circassian-Turkic republic, to remember; and their recollections help to explain one of the mysteries that has surrounded them, the far lower death rate they suffered compared to other punished peoples.

            Several of those who were born in Kazakhstan emigration recalled that their mothers knew from Soviet soldiers in advance that a deportation was coming. Their mothers collected food and warm clothing and thus were able to survive the 18-day ride in cattle cars and the first difficult weeks of deportation (kavkaz-uzel.eu/articles/373991/).

            Because of these warnings and because of the preparations the Balkar women took, only 562 Balkars died during the first weeks after deportation, less than three percent of the total and a figure far lower than was the case with other deported peoples. It is unclear whether the soldiers who gave advance warning were doing so on Moscow’s orders or out of a sense of humanity.