Kalmyk people still affected by Stalin deportation, Basan Zakharov asserts

Today, Kalmykia held mourning rallies dedicated to the victims of Stalin repressions. Bazan Zakharov, the head of the Centre for Development of modern Oirat culture "Tengrin Uydl", Kalmyks are still reaping the bitter fruits of the eviction of 1943.

The day of December 28 is a day of national mourning for the Kalmyk people: on that day, in 1943, in accordance with the decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the elimination of the Kalmyk Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (KASSR), the NKVD troops carried out the operation to evict Kalmyks to the regions of Siberia and the Far East. According to the information of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", 101,000 Kalmyks were deported.

"Thousands of people died from hunger, cold, and humiliations. Russian land from the Urals to Sakhalin is covered with nameless Kalmyk graves. Let us bow our heads in mournful silence and remember all of our relatives, all who remained in a foreign land forever. Let us pay tribute to their memory," a leader of the rally in Elista said.

"I have a big request to all persons: tell your children and grandchildren about the tragedy, not to sponge out the memory of those heavy thirteen years of exile in Siberia," said Ivan Badmaev, an Elista resident.