Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 8 – On this date in
1944, Stalin ordered the deportation of the Balkars from the soon to be
suppressed Kabardino-Balkar ASSR to the wilds of Central Asia. Of the 37,000
loaded into unheated cattle cars on that date, 5,000 died over the next two
years. Only in 1956 were they allowed to
return to their homeland.
The Balkars have never forgotten
that horrific action, one especially infuriating because they were accused of
treasonous links with the Germans even as many of their member were fighting in
the Soviet army and even being decorated for their heroism. And once public commemorations became
possible in the 1980s, they have had public memorials each year.
This year is no different, but one
of the most important aspects of the story of the deportation of this Turkic
nation is seldom told: the attitudes of other Turkic peoples of the Russian
Federation toward what happened to the Balkars, an indication of the strength
of Turkic solidarity within that country.
Journalist Ramazan Alpaut provides a
valuable contribution to the understanding of that relationship today by
publishing on the Idel Realities portal of Radio Svoboda of comments by Turkic and
other peoples in the Middle Volga region about whether they were marking this
anniversary and displaying solidarity with the Balkars (idelreal.org/a/29085069.html).
A Bashkir activist
of the Bashkort Organization says that Alpaut’s question is somehow “incorrect.”
“Naturally those crimes which the Soviet regime carried out against the peoples
of the USSR have no justification … Out organization also condemns such actions
… But at the same time, March 8 is International Women’s Day.” Naturally we give preference to that.
Galishan Nuriakhmet, the vice
president of the All-Tatar Social Center, in contrast says that Tatars must
show solidarity with the Balkars. “The Balkar people are a Turkic language
people. Kumyks, Nogays, Balkars, Karachays and Tatars are practically one
people. We support the Balkars.”
The repressive policies which led to
the deportation of the Balkars in 1944, he says, continue; and therefore it is
important to work together to oppose them.
Ilya Alekseyev, an activist for the
Chuvash Social Center, also says that International Women’s Day takes
precedence. (The Chuvash are Christians but speak a Turkic language.) “About the
tragic dates of the Turkic peoples almost no one knows anything in Chuvashia,” he
says. People are “integrated in the Russian culture of holidays.”
As for himself, he continues, he
would very much like that “Chuvash mark certain Turkic memorial days, but this
isn’t likely to take a mass form.” Activists like himself will do so as
possible, but not most Chuvash.
Alpaut also spoke with Vladimir
Kozlov, the vice president of the Mari organization Marii Ushem. (The Mari are
Finno-Ugric rather than Turkic but they live intermixed with Turkic groups.) Kozlov says that few Maris know much about the
deportation of the Balkars. Neither in the past nor in the present do the
schools talk about this.
But he says the fact that the
Balkars mark March 8 as a day of sorrow means that others should not be
celebrating another holiday as they have been doing. According to Kozlov, “the absence of
solidarity in such questions among the peoples of Russia has led to a situation
in which each has to deal with its problems on its own.”
It would be better if they worked
together and showed solidarity, Kozlov says.
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