Country: Russia

Group: Karachay

Date finalized: 04/19/2023

Team: Khulan Davaasuren (lead), Ariana Jackson, Austyn Evans, Natasha Chandra, Kelsey Dwyer

Content Warnings: Forced Away

Approximate Time Period: mid 1800’s, 1920-1957

The Karachay are a Caucasian-Turkic Muslim ethnic group native to the Caucasus (Golden, 2010). There are an estimated 226,271 Karachays living in Russia. Due to political unrest and revolutions, there have been several cases of forced movements of the Karachay people. Between 1861-1880, many Karachay to fled to Turkey to escape the Russian army (Wikipedia, n.d.). Starting in 1943, Joseph Stalin ordered the deportation of Karachays to Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Kirghizia (Kyrgyzstan) and Uzbekistan, after an alleged collaboration with the Nazis (Sciencepo, 2007). The government deported nearly 70,000 Karachays (UN High Commissioner for Refugees, 2004). This operation was codenamed “Operation Seagull” and involved the deportation of only women and children, since most of the men were serving in the Red Army (Wikipedia, n.d.). In 1956, Soviet leader Nikita Khruschev started a de-Stalinization campaign, allowing the Karachay to go back to their land. The Karachays reestablished the “Karachay-Cherkess Autonomous Oblast” in 1957. Data quality score was rated a 2 out of 3 due to insufficient resources but reliable data.

Sources:

  1. Peter B. Golden (2010). Turks and Khazars: Origins, Institutions, and Interactions in Pre-Mongol Eurasia. p. 33.
  2. Sciencepo (2007). The Soviet Massive Deportations – A Chronology | Sciences Po Violence de masse et Résistance – Réseau de recherche. (2007, November 5). https://www.sciencespo.fr/mass-violence-war-massacre-resistance/fr/document/soviet-massive-deportations-chronology.html#:~:text=the%20men%20serving%20with%20the%20red%20army%20or%20fighting%20in%20partisan%20movements%20were%20demobilized%20and%20sent%20into%20exile%20or%20to%20labor%20camps
  3. United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees. (2004). Refworld | Chronology for Karachay in Russia. Refworld. https://www.refworld.org/docid/469f38d2c.html
  4. Wikipedia contributors. (2023). Deportation of the Karachays. Wikipedia. https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Deportation_of_the_Karachays&oldid=1144693216