Chechnya marks anniversary of Chechens' return from deportation

Today, on January 9, it is 52 years after passing decree on restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ChI ASSR), which was abolished in 1944 after deportation of Chechens and Ingushes to Kazakhstan and Middle Asia. Now, Chechnya marks this date as a national holiday.

On February 23, 1944, masses of Chechens and Ingushes were resettled to Kazakhstan and Middle Asia. In March of that year the ChI ASSR was liquidated. Part of the territory of the former autonomy was given to neighbouring regions; the remaining area was transformed into the Grozny Region. Chechens and Ingushes spent 13 years in deportation, actually - without any civil and other rights.

"I remember how our old people waited for homecoming. All these years they waited for a permit to go home and for the authorities would admit their blunder; however, many of them died earlier. It was terrible time," Ramzan Magomadov, a resident of the republic, recollects.

The Chechens and Ingushes, who have come back home, found themselves in the heaviest possible situation. In fact, local authorities were not ready to accept the returnees. Their houses were occupied by new owners, and residents of mountain villages were forbidden to settle in the places of their former residence. In late 1950s, it resulted in interethnic skirmishes in Grozny with casualties.