The Punished Peoples

“A valuable and absorbing account. . . .Impressive in scope, careful in documentation, rich in fact, the study incorporates previously unpublished Soviet materials on its subject and is salted with the author’s personal memories as a Red Army officer at the time. I hope we shall see the day when the Russian original can be published in Russia itself.” ―Robert C. Tucker

In late 1943 and early 1944, after the Nazi invasion of Russia had been turned back, Soviet troops descended upon the Caucasus, the Caspian steppes, and the Crimea without warning and brutally deported some one million of their people―Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachai, Kalmyks, and Tatars―to Central Asia, Kazakhstan, and Siberia. Hundreds were executed and thousands more were to die of malnutrition, exposure, and harsh treatment. Not until the late 1950s were some of them allowed to return to their homelands, but then, and even now, under a burden of lies and guilt for the treasonous acts of a few.