The Waynakh in World War Two

Wayne Noxchi Polatkan

Russian & Eastern European Studies

Maxim Matusevich, Ph.D.

May 2012

The Waynakh in World War Two

Of all the stories of the various peoples involved in the

Second World War, none is as little known and extraordinary as

that of the Waynakh. They are a people who sent the whole of

their able bodied male population to fight the Axis and who –

betrayed – were subjected to one of the worst genocides of the

20th century. On the front, Waynakh garrisons held out in Fort

Brest, surrounded, for four months while the Wehrmacht made it to

within 60 miles of Moscow. Years later, their officers would lead

the attacks into Rumania, and one would become the first Soviet

officer to meet the Americans on the River Elbe.1 Back home, an

entire people would be wiped out in the course of a day to be

resettled in Siberia and Kazakhstan in Operation Lentil, with not

even the tombstones of the dead being spared. There the

survivors, less than half of the original population, would live

on the Kazakh steppe for 13 years until being allowed to come

home. Even upon homecoming there would be bloodshed, as their

homes and lands would be occupied by Slavs. This paper is a brief

insight into the story of the Waynakh – the Chechens and Ingush –

before, during, and immediately after World War II.

History in Brief:

1 Khakiyev

The Waynakh are an ethnic group in the central North

Caucasus Mountains consisting of the Chechens and Ingush. They

presently make up the largest single ethnic group of the North

Caucasus, although their numbers are the same as they were in

1840.2 The Waynakh – specifically the Chechens – have resisted

foreign rule for the whole of their existence. Chechen resistance

to conquest has been recorded in the military accounts of the

Khazars, Arabs, Mongols, the Tatars of Tamerlane, and most

famously and well known: in Russian history.3 For the past 300

years the Chechens (and to an extent the Ingush) have been in

conflict with the Russians; a conflict that still continues to

this day.4

The history of the Waynakh goes back beyond that of the

Russians, the Germans, and most of the major actors of WWII.

There is no known point of origination for the Waynakh anywhere

besides the North Caucasus5, although it is accepted that their

history goes back for at least 6,000 years6. According to Amjad

Jaimoukha, the Waynakh were one of the founding tribes of the

Urartian civilization and the ancient Hurrians (contemporaries of

the Sumerians). Although it is commonly mistaken that the Chechen

and Ingush languages are Russian or at least Slavic in origin,

2 Jaimoukha,Amjad. The Chechens: a handbook. New York: RoutledgeCurzon, 2005. 50.3 Jamoukha, “Chechens” 30-37.4 Gammer,Moshe. The Lone Wolf and the Bear: Three Centuries of Chechen Defiance of Russian Rule. Pittsburgh: University of Pittsburgh Press, 2006.5 Jamoukha, “Chechens” 24.6 Naimark,Norman M. Fires of Hatred: Ethnic Cleansing in Twentieth-Century Europe. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 2001.

there is actually no linguistic connection. Unlike the Slavic,

Germanic, and Romantic languages of Europe which are all tied

together in the Indo-European language family, the languages of

the Waynakh are part of the Alarodian language family7, with the

only ties to Indo-Europeans being archeological evidence of a few

ruling groups within the Hurrian civilization who appear to have

been Indo-European.

The Waynakh are responsible for several states throughout

history: such as the ancient Empire of Mitanni in 1550 B.C., the

Kingdom of Sarir in 400 C.E., and the feudal principality and of

Simsim8 and the kingdom of Dzurdzuketia: 1100-1300 C.E.9 The last

two of these met their demise by way of the Mongol invasions.

After the local states were destroyed, a generations-long

insurgency against Mongol hegemony ensued, which the Mongols were

never able to quell until they finally left the region. The same

thing would happen years later when the famed Tamerlane would

arrive, leading a Tatar army larger than that of the Mongol

hordes. Organized Waynakh resistance was crushed under sheer

weight of numbers and an uneasy blood-stained peace would ensue.

This pattern would repeat itself with greatest effect

starting in 1722 with the first Russian forays into the North

Caucasus. This time, however, Islam would become the rallying cry

7 Jaimoukha, “Chechens” 27-28.8 Also known as “Simsir"9 Jaimoukha, “Chechens” 27-33.

of the nation and several brilliant commanders from Sheikh Mansur

in the 18th century, to Imam Shamil in the mid-19th century would

lead the war effort against the Tsar’s armies. The most

devastating conflict, known as the Caucasian War which lasted

from 1817 to 1864 and led by Imam Shamil against Tsar Nicholas I,

saw the destruction of Caucasian as well as Russian armies, and

the wholesale slaughter of the Waynakh people. Amjad Jaimoukha

states that by war’s end:

The Chechens suffered horrific losses in human life during the long war. From an

estimated population of over a million in the 1840s, there were only 140,000

Chechens left in the Caucasus in 1861 – a literal decimation. By 1867, the

number had gone even further down to a lowly 116,000 (N.G. Volkova 1973:

121). According to M. Vachagaev (1995: 35), the Chechens lost more than a half a

million people in the war.

The Waynakh also had a significant role to play in the First

World War. The Caucasian Native Mountain Division, known

colloquially as the ‘Wild Division’ or ‘Savage Division’ was

formed in 1914 among volunteers from across the North Caucasus,

primarily among the Ingush and Chechens. The unit was under the

command structure Grand Duke Mikhail Romanov, brother to the

Tsar. Notable commanders of the ‘Wild Divison’ include General

Iriskhan Aliev, veteran of the Russo-Japanese War, and General

Ortsu Chermoev, commander of the Chechen regiment. The unit

earned distinction in its defeat of the German “Iron Division” as

part of the Brusilov breakthrough of the Russo-German Front. 500

Ingush cavalrymen made the initial assault against a German

position armed with heavy artillery. The Ingush regiment was

quickly joined by a Chechen regiment, and the German defenders

eventually surrendered. In a telegram to Governor-General

Fleisher of the Terksy Region, Tsar Nicholas II praised the

unit’s actions:

“Russian history, including the history of our Preobrazhensky regiment, does not

know a single instance of horse cavalry attacking an enemy force armed with

heavy artillery: 4.5 thousand killed, 3.5 thousand taken prisoner, 2.5 thousand

wounded. Less than in an hour and a half the "Iron Division" ceased to exist, the

division that had aroused fear in the best armies of our allies. On behalf of me,

the royal court and the whole of the Russian army send our best regards to

fathers, mothers, sisters, wives and brides of those brave sons of the Caucasus

whose heroism paved the way for the destruction of German hordes. Russia bows

low to the heroes and will never forget them.” - Nicholas II, August 25,

1915

The unit would be disbanded in 1918. While it is unfortunately

impossible at this time to completely verify this story due to

the language barrier, and due to the rarified nature of archival

records pertaining to the Waynakh (this because of the political

reasons of various regimes since, but not limited to, 1900) this

anecdote can at worst, be taken as an example of Waynakh culture

and as a frame of reference for understanding their history.10

10 (Chechen Regiment "Wild Division" | Чеченский полк "Дикой дивизии" n.d.) (Grozny Inform n.d.) (Chechnya Free: History of Chechnya | История Чечни) (Я.З.Ахмадов n.d.)

The conflict of the Russian Civil War following the October

Revolution would also have its share of violence.

Prelude to WWII:

With the deterioration of Imperial control over the

Caucasus, dozens of factions began sprouting up and competing for

political control. Moshe Gammer writes:

“With no single strong authoritative government,” wrote a Daghestani Bolshevik,

“…the peoples of the Terek…bristled up like beasts ready to tear each other to

pieces. […] The main protagonists were the Ingush and Chechens versus the

Cossacks. The basis of it was, of course, the land problem between the

Mountaineers and the Cossacks. Each looked for allies among the other peoples

[of the oblast].11

According to Gammer, the Bolsheviks were slow to realize the

potential of the Waynakh as an ally. It was only when a defensive

effort by Chechens and Ingush saved Soviet power in the city of

Vladikavkaz, where the Cossacks had sacked that city, did the

Bolsheviks finally understand their potential. A contemporary

analysis by Efrem Alexeyevich Eshba shows the official Bolshevik

point of view:

The Terek oblast is a unique phenomenon. Here the national

and the class struggle are almost completely identical. The

Ingush fights the Cossack not because he is a Cossack, but

11 Gammer. “Lone Wolf” 120.

because the Ingush is landless and poor and the Cossack owns

the land. And the correct policy of the Soviet power is to

align itself with the Ingush and Chechens.12

In the power struggle for the Caucasus, an attempt at a Western-

styled democracy was formed: the Alliance of United Mountaineers

of the Northern Caucasus (AUMNC), or the Mountain Republic. This

group aligned itself with the Ottomans and sought to create a

pan-Caucasian democratic federation. The Bolsheviks supported the

Imams of Chechnya-Ingushetia and Daghestan who were in opposition

to the AUMNC’s secular democratic aims and wanted to establish

Arab-styled Sharia’ law. Most of the Waynakh and Daghestanis were

loyal to the Imams and Muftis, and without a strong base, the

Mountain Republic quickly dissolved after 3 years.

The Soviets next sought to depose the religious leaders.

This process occurred over several years culminating in the

“disarmament campaign” Deemed counterrevolutionary or in

opposition of stability, the ranks of Muslim clergy were

liquidated between 23 August and 11 September, 1925. The Soviet

disarmament process was highly resented by the Waynakh, as

weapons (usually of remarkable craftsmanship and handed down

through generations) were not only a necessity of life, but also

a mark of manhood and freedom. Gammer writes: “Of the 242

12 Eshba, Efren A. Aslanbek Sheripov: opyt kharakteristkiki lichnosti I deiatel’nosti A. Sheripov v sviazi s narodno-revoliutsionnym dvizheniem v Chechne. 2nd Edition, corrected and enlarged.Grozny: Serlo, 1929.

disarmed auls (fortified Waynakh villages), 101 ‘were subjected to

artillery fire’ and 16 ‘to bombardment from the air’.

Additionally ‘119 houses of bandits were blown up’. Of those who

were arrested, 105 were executed before their investigations were

over”. 13

This would mark the end of the open anti-Waynakh policies

until the beginning of the Second World War. From this point on,

the NKVD would take over much of the harassment policies,

eventually liquidating and estimated 14,000 Chechens in 1937

alone. These included official “heroes” of the USSR who helped

establish Soviet authority in the Caucasus. 14In 1921 an

agreement was signed in which conscription was waived for the

Waynakh. This would be so until 1937-39 when Soviet control was

ubiquitous and the threat of war on the horizon.15

Waynakh at War:

‘“The Waynakh are a ‘martial race’, to use the nineteenth-

century British term, raised and taught to be warriors.” Though

egalitarian and in favor of liberal democratic values, their

13 Gammer, “Lone Wolf” 145.14 Jaimoukha, “Chechens” 56.15 Khakiyev

violent history had forced upon them a fighting spirit vital to

their survival.’16 It is this fighting spirit and pride of

martial prowess which led 18,000 young Chechen and Ingush men to

join the Red Army of their own volition 1939. To answer the

obvious question of why over 3% of the population would join the

armed forces of an empire that they had sacrificed so much to

resist: they had decided that despite all that had happened, the

Nazis still represented the greater of two evils. Furthermore the

Russians were a familiar enemy, the Germans were unknown. As the

war progressed, virtually all able bodied men of fighting age

(over 50,000 men of a population of about 550,000) would join the

Red Army for the front lines, leaving behind a nation of women,

children, the elderly, and the infirm… and a Soviet garrison.

The Waynakh volunteers found themselves spread across the

Western frontier of the Soviet Union after the signing of the

Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Three notable units were the 500-strong

Waynakh garrison in Fort Brest, Belarus, a cavalry battalion led

by a Col. Movlid Vasaidov, and the 242nd Cavalry Division, a

purely Waynakh unit given obsolete (even by Soviet standards)

equipment. By war’s end a higher proportion of Waynakh fighters

would receive battlefield commendations (including ‘Order of

Lenin’ and ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’) than any other demographic

in the Soviet Union, although much of the awarding was done

16 Gammar, “Lone Wolf” 4.

either posthumously, or without the fanfare and recognition given

to others.

Fort Brest

In the opening days of Operation Barbarossa, Fort Brest – a

massive fortification built in 1845 to defend against the

Prussians17 was the headquarters for 10,000 Russian soldiers and

home to a garrison of 3,500 Russian and 500 Waynakh soldiers. The

fort, which sat atop the Bug and Mukhavets Rivers, had a 30

kilometer perimeter and consisted of numerous smaller

fortifications and forts. Now in modern-day Belarus, Fort Brest

stood right at the border between – then – East and West Occupied

Poland. The fort was subject to the opening Blitz of Operation

Barbarossa and was quickly surrounded by the Wehrmacht as Red

Army units in the area were forced to either surrender or

retreat. Due to the unpreparedness of the Red Army for the German

attack, the garrison was also unable at first, to form an

effective defense. The sheer size of the fort made coordination

of individual garrison units difficult and a German attack was

simply not expected at all. After heavy air and artillery

bombardment, the perimeter was breached by the German army. The

defense of the fort now fell down to a number of individual

isolated strongpoints – the most important being the central keep

17 Admin. MachineAgeChronicle. April 5, 2011. http://machineagechronicle.com/2011/04/the-hero-fortress-of-brest/ (accessed May 3, 2011).

– fighting off the German army. Civilians and children, who

accompanied the garrison, were initially used to collect

ammunition and supplies from outside the perimeter until the

German tightened their encirclement and the officers forbade it.

One by one the individual strongpoints fell to the German

advance, without any resupply or hope of rescue. The 500 Waynakh

defenders in the fort held out for a full 4 months, completely

encircled and with zero contact with friendly forces. By this

time, the Wehrmacht had cut through 5 million Soviet soldiers and

had advanced the front line to within striking distance of

Moscow. A breakout attempt by the Soviet defenders in the main

keep was pushed back by the Germans and the next day 540mm and

600mm artillery shells were used to pound the central

fortification. Although the main keep was taken within two weeks’

time, some smaller pockets of resistance held out for months.18-19

The 242nd

The 242nd Cavalry Division would be perhaps one of the most

unfortunate divisions of the war. Given the impossible task of

assaulting a Panzer Division on horseback, the demise of the

242nd gave rise to the often recounted myth of Polish Hussars

attacking German armor on horseback. During a battle near

Kaliningrad, the 6000 man 242nd was given the task of assaulting

German positions along a portion of the front. Their weapons

consisted of antiquated rifles and a few man-portable anti-armor

18 Khakiyev19 MachineAgeChronicle

pieces. Their equipment consisted of horses. They were a flesh

and blood cavalry division in time where in the West the phrase

had come to mean armored personnel carriers and motorized

infantry. Three things led to the destruction of the 242nd: the

first was that the intelligence given to the commanding officers

was dodgy at best. Not everyone knew they were to be assaulting

actual armor on horseback across open terrain, yet based on

accounts relayed from relatives of those involved, those that did

know displayed a brazen bravado characteristic of the Waynakh.

The second reason was, of course, equipment. The 242nd was given

the lowest logistical priority throughout the war and much of the

weapons used by the Chechen and Ingush were their own. Thirdly,

love for the Waynakh was scarce at best back in Moscow, though

they were respected on the battlefield. In the end the entire

division was annihilated in a full attack in the open against

German Panzers.20

Movlid Vasaidov

Movlid Vasaidov has a special place in Chechen history

although finding his mention in Russian accounts of WWII for the

purposes of this paper has proved unsuccessful. An officer of a

cavalry battalion in the Red Army – eventually taking command of

the battalion – Vasaidov became the first Soviet officer the meet

the Americans on the river Elbe at the closing of the war.

Earlier in the war he had led the Soviet advance into Rumania,

20 Khakiyev

credited with being the only officer in his unit who managed to

stop prevent his men from retreating and keep up the advance. In

an interview with a relative one generation removed from

Vasaidov: upon meeting the Americans an exchange of gifts was

made. A horse (traditionally one of the highest gifts in old

Chechen society) was given to the American commander. In return,

the American equivalent, a Jeep, was given to Vasaidov. Vasaidov

received the ‘Hero of the Soviet Union’ – placing him in the

exclusive club including Gen. Zhukov, Brezhnev, Gen. Chuikov, Azi

Aslanov, and ironically Joseph Stalin.21

Defense of the Homeland

The Waynakh were not always fighting far from home. In 1942

most of them were busy defending their own homeland from German

invasion. In the second half of 1942 the Wehrmacht briefly held

the western zones of the Caucasus. Grozny, the capital of

Chechnya was even partially destroyed by Luftwaffe bombing raids.

Chechen and Ingush soldiers put up a heroic fight against the

Germans in some of the fiercest fighting of the war helping to

bring Marshal von Bock to a halt in Mozdok and outside Grozny –

also putting up an air defense of the city. In 1943 when the

North Caucasus was finally ‘liberated’ by the Red Army, those

Waynakh and other Caucasians who were sympathetic or had fought

or aided the Germans left with the retreating Wehrmacht. By the

end of the war the NKVD began arresting Chechen and Ingush

soldiers in the Red Army (given that they had already completed

21 Khakiyev

the deportations in the Caucasus). Because of this, Chechens and

Ingush who were prisoners of war in Germany wisely chose not to

go home after the war, and instead resettle in Germany, Turkey,

or the United States.22 Several late friends of family of the

author are such people.

In the words of Amjad Jaimoukha: “It does not matter whether

you fight for or against Russia, for if you are a Chechen you are

doomed either way.”23

The Deportation:

On 13 October, 1943, 120,000 Soviet soldiers were sent to

the Checheno-Ingushetia Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic

(ASSR).24 The official reason for this was to repair bridges. On

23 February, 1944, roughly 550,000 Chechens and Ingush were given

15 minutes per household to collect belongings and begin boarding

cattle trains with unknown destination. Many of the elderly men -

insulted and full of pride - resisted and were shot dead, often

publically and without argument for purpose of demonstration.

Following 1945 and the end of the war, the remaining several tens

of thousands of Waynakh veterans were secretly arrested at the

front and sent to join their families in Kazakhstan and Siberia.

22 Jaimoukha, “Chechens” 57.23 Jaimoukha, “Chechens” 57.24 Wikipedia. May 1, 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_Chechnya#Operation_Lentil.2FAardakh (accessed May 3, 2011).

Half of the entire ethnic population would be dead in a year

following the deportation. The total would reach roughly 65%

before the end of the decade.25 The only nation to have

officially recognized this operation as genocide was the Chechen

Republic of Ichkeria in 1991. Put into perspective, the

population of Newark, NJ was reduced to the population of

Paterson, NJ and resettled to North Dakota via cattle train,

during the middle of the Russian winter.

Vadud Khakiyev, a Chechen born in Kazakhstan whose father was a kid during the

deportation and recalled the entire event was interviewed for the following account.

Sources including books by Naimark, Polian, Gammer, Seely, Jaimoukha, as well as

Wikipedia were used to corroborate the text.

While the whole of the population which was able to resist

an attempted genocide was off fighting the Germans, the NKVD

launched its Operation Lentil (Aardakh in Chechen, Chechevitsa in

Russian) under the command of State Secretary Ivan Serov. In the

course of 24 hours every family in every city and village was

ordered to come to that community’s central square. There they

were told that there were traitors of the Soviet People and they

were being removed and sent to Siberia. They were also told that

they had 15 minutes to collect whatever they wished to carry with

them. The ubiquitous presence of armed soldiers made this certain

to be real in everyone’s mind. There were a number of older men

25 Naimark, “Fires of Hatred” 97.

and some women who resisted. They were immediately shot in public

without even being verbally responded to. Many villagers

attempted to bring livestock with them. These were taken from

them. Pets such as dogs were simply shot. Anyone who resisted; be

they a man, a woman, or a child – whatever age or gender – was

beaten and shot, though sometimes just shot. The very elderly who

could not or had difficulty walking were shot either on the

street or where they lay in bed. The sick and injured were

likewise killed in their hospitals. A few hospitals were simply

sealed and burned to the ground.

The NKVD did not use Russian made trucks for the

deportations. Instead every truck used for transport to the

trains was an American made Studebaker. The weather conditions

made the execution of Operation Lentil difficult. Villages which

could not be extracted via truck were liquidated. In the village

of Khaybakh, all 710 members of the village were forced into a

barn and the barn was sealed. Recent snows had made it difficult

to run trucks up from the plains so the commander, General

Gveshiani thought of a more expedient solution. The barn was set

on fire and allowed to burn to the ground, killing all inside.

There were a handful (less than a dozen) of survivors who were

not in the village at the time and who managed to escape. The

oldest person in the barn that day was 124 years old. The

youngest was 3 hours old. In return for his action, Gveshiani was

publically commended by Beria and promised a medal for his

actions. Beria issued a verbal order that any Chechen or Ingush

who could not be transported was to be liquidated on the spot.

Half of the Waynakh who were force onto the trains were

children. Because of this the Russians were able to fit a lot

more people onto the trains than the Germans were able to with

the Jews. The train ride lasted for 3 months. They were unheated,

bare cargo trains. The trains periodically stopped in order to

refuel and to dump the bodies of the dead. Waynakh culture is

such that honor and personal dignity reserve a spot at the top of

all virtues. Because of this, a number of women – too embarrassed

to relieve waste while surrounded by others – died of septic

shock as their bladders or bowels burst within their bodies.

Upon arrival half of those who entered the trains were still

alive. The Waynakh were forced into camps (tents or unfinished

wood huts) and many died due to the lack of preparation by the

local garrison. The local Kazakhs, who knew nothing of the

Chechens, were initially told by the Soviets that the Chechens

were not only traitors on the side of the Nazis, but they were

also cannibals. This kept the Kazakhs well away from the Chechens

and Ingush. It was only until several Kazakh children witnessed a

community of Chechens giving Islamic funeral rights for a

recently deceased elder that word spread that the Waynakh were

Muslims just like the Kazakhstanis. Following this the local

populations began giving aid to the Waynakh since both peoples

had a similar culture and the same faith. According to Naimark,

100,000 Waynakh would die in the years after arriving in

Kazakhstan.26

Aftermath:

According to V. Khakiyev, “…the Russians loved the Caucasus.

They just loved it without the Chechens…”27 After the Checheno-

Ingushetia ASSR was cleared of all its inhabitants it was

disbanded and incorporated into North Ossetia, Daghestan, and the

remnants renamed the Grozny Oblast. The cities were repopulated

by ethnic Russians, Cossacks, and Ossetians. A number of

Georgians and Jews from the surrounding Soviet districts either

moved or were forcibly moved into villages which had until

recently been home to Chechens and Ingush.

The Soviets then began finishing their systematic

destruction of the Waynakh people. It was not enough that the

entire population, which had lived in the land as long as the

Chinese had been in China, had been removed, their memory had to

be removed as well. The names of Chechen and Ingush settlements,

be they cities or simple auls, were renamed to the ethnic names

of neighboring peoples who were moved in. Daghestani, Ossetian,

and Cossack names were used. Some settlements were given fully

Russian names such as Kirov-Aul, Pervomaysk, or Krasnoarmeysk. While

26 Naimark, “Fires of Hatred” 97.27 Khakiyev

Daghestanis made up a large portion of the new arrivals, most

were forcibly moved and did not come of their own volition.28 Not

even the dead were spared from genocide. NKVD members went to the

cemeteries of every settlement in Chechnya Ingushetia and effaced

the tombstones there to make sure the names, dates, and epitaphs

were no longer visible. In most cases, the tombstones were

entirely removed and either smashed, or simply left in a pile

away from the cemetery so no one would know which stone belonged

to which grave.

This was not the worst of it however. The entire history of

the Waynakh peoples had been written down in various forms,

books, parchment scrolls, but mostly family histories written on

rolled lambskin scrolls. These were burned wherever they were

found. Given that NKVD members checked to make sure no one

brought any written material with them (for this exact purpose)

the virtual entirety of Caucasian (not only Waynakh) history and

culture set to writing from the genesis of civilization up to

that time (including historical accounts of the Romans and Huns,

national epics such as the Nart Saga, family histories, etc.)

were sent up into smoke.29

In the end, the Waynakh: the Chechens and the Ingush,

roughly 300,000 of them,30 would live on the steppes of 28 Polian, Pavel. Against Their Will: the history and geography of forced migrations in the ussr. Budapest: Central European University Press, 2004. 161.29 Khakiyev30 Jaimoukha, “Chechens” 58.

Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Uzbekistan, and Siberia for 13 years

before being allowed to come home piece meal. While in Siberia

the penalty for a Chechen or Ingush caught travelling from one

village to another was graduated up to a maximum of 25 years

forced labor. Dogs were allowed to travel between communities but

the Waynakh were not.

In 1957 the actual resettlement began although it was a

long process. The Waynakh would come home to see their homes and

land being occupied by Russians, Cossacks, Ossetians, and others

who refused to return them to their rightful owners. The Russian

authorities did nothing to mediate the situation and so the

Waynakh took back what was theirs with force. No reliable

statistics are available for the amount of Waynakh and non-

Waynakh that died in the conflict following resettlement. A

number of Georgians, the Meskhetian Turks, and the Jews refused

to occupy Waynakh land/homes, or willingly returned them to their

former occupants. In one case a Jewish family held a medieval-era

sword and dozens of articles of gold jewelry for a Chechen family

and returned the possessions upon their return. Others, who left

willingly out of respect, left behind a unit of cattle.31 The

returning Chechens would always be reminded of the way the

Russian government viewed them. In the capital of Grozny, the

Soviets erected a statue of General Yermolov, the 19th century

General who openly advocated genocide of the Waynakh and was

31 Wikipedia

matched only by Stalin, Serov, and Beria for the blood on his

name. The inscription on the statue read, “There is no people

under the sun more vile and deceitful than this one”32

The story of the Waynakh in the Second World War is as epic

and tragic as that of any other peoples; however their voices

have been silenced or ignored throughout the years. A seemingly

endless cycle of genocide, war, and respite has persisted for

roughly 500 years with little tangible proof of end in sight.

Despite that, the Waynakh are still a fiercely proud and

shockingly resilient people. The Second World War was not the

last in the cycle of genesis and armageddon; the two wars for

independence in Chechnya during the 1990s were the latest

installment, and now Chechnya is rebuilt though Ingushetia is

plagued by violence. What is in store for the future one may ask?

There is an old Waynakh proverb unknown in its age. It reads:

“When shall bloodshed cease in the mountains?”

“When sugarcane grows in the snow.”33

32 Ferguson, Rob. "Chechnya: The Empire Strikes Back." International Socialism Journal(International Socialism), no. 86 (Spring 2000).33 Goltz, Thomas. Chechnya: Diary. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2003. 212.

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Author's note:

It is important to keep in mind that most of the war time writing in this paper comes from a first-hand source. The bulk of this information is based on direct verbal explanation rather than academic book or journal research. This is almost entirely due to the lack of surviving official records and to the political nature of the subject matter.

While it is possible that some of the information concerning wartime exploits may not be 100% accurate, the general ideas are irrefutable. It is important when considering the validity of some of the more extraordinary stories, to remember that they occurred in an exceptionally extraordinary time.

Additionally:

Some of the figures for population and deaths are not in accordance with one another. Depending on the source, the Waynakh population is as low as 500,000 while it is as high as 800,000 in other sources. Also the percentage of the population that has died is as low as 25% (using Russian sources) or as high as 65% (first/second hand accounts). I have attempted to use the figures which in my judgment are the most accurate. A perfect set of statistics is impossible to attain, however, because of the classified state of

the Soviet archives and the inconsistencies and contradictions within official Soviet statistics.