On 23 February 1944, the Soviet imperial regime began one of the most cynical and brutal operations of the Stalinist era—the forcible deportation of the Chechen and Ingush nations from their historical homeland. The NKVD operation, codenamed “Letchivitsa,” was an act of collective, unmotivated punishment that amounted to the crime of genocide in scale and brutality.
Within a few days, hundreds of thousands of people—old people, women, and children – were herded into freight cars. They were accused of “treason” and “collaboration with the Nazis,” even though thousands of Chechens and Ingush fought in the ranks of the Red Army. People were taken to Kazakhstan in inhumane conditions: cold, hunger, lack of water and medical care. Thousands died on the way. Bodies were often left right next to the tracks.
According to various estimates, during the deportation and the first years of exile, from a quarter to a third of the entire population died. The Chechen-Ingush ASSR was liquidated, toponymy was destroyed, village names were erased from the map, and cultural and religious monuments were destroyed. This was an attempt to erase the very memory of the people.
A separate black page was the tragedy of the village of Khaybakh in the mountainous region of Chechnya. According to testimonies, some of the inhabitants, mostly the elderly, the sick and children, who could not descend from the mountains on their own, were locked in outbuildings and burned alive. Khaybakh became a symbol of the inhuman cruelty of the punitive machine and a painful wound in the historical memory of the Chechen people.
Only after Stalin’s death were the Chechens and Ingush allowed to return to their homeland. In 1957, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was restored. But the trauma of the deportation remained for generations, such as the experience of losing home, relatives, and dignity.
In 1991, against the backdrop of the collapse of the USSR, Chechnya declared independence – the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was established. Its first president was Dzhokhar Dudayev, a Soviet aviation general who became a symbol of resistance to Moscow’s imperial policy. After he died in 1996, the struggle was led by Aslan Maskhadov, the elected president of Ichkeria, who tried to build statehood in extremely difficult conditions of war and isolation.
The Chechen wars of the 1990s and early 2000s were a continuation of the tragic history of relations with imperial Moscow — again, the bombing of cities, thousands of deaths, and attempts to suppress the desire for freedom.
For Ukrainians, this date has a special resonance. We also know what deportations, the Gulag, and attempts to destroy language and culture are. We also survived the attempt to erase us as a nation. And now we are going through these tests once again. Today, Ukraine is once again resisting Russian aggression, just like Chechnya once did. Hundreds of Chechens and Ingush have joined the ranks of the Defence Forces of Ukraine. They are fighting for our freedom and their own.
The memory of the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush is a reminder that imperial policy always brings suffering to nations. But it is also a reminder of indomitability. The people who survived the exile and returned home proved that they cannot be destroyed.
Today, we honour the memory of the innocent victims of 1944. We remember those who died in the train cars, in the steppes of Kazakhstan, and in the burned-out Khaibah. We remember those who fought for the independence of Ichkeria in the 1990s.
We know for sure that Ichkeria will be free again.
Ukraine stands in solidarity with the Chechen people in their right to dignity and freedom.
Freedom for nations! Freedom for the Individual!
