On 23 February 1944 the Soviet authorities deported the Chechens and Ingush to Central Asia. The expulsion was ordered by NKVD chief Lavrenty Beria after approval by Joseph Stalin. According to Soviet archives about 500,000 Chechens and Ingush deported and at least a quarter died. Survivors were only allowed to return after 1957 when Nikita Khrushchev reversed many of Stalin’s policies. – based on Wikipedia [see below]
Sources:
RFE/RL: Residents of the North Caucasus region of Ingushetia are commemorating the victims of the wartime Soviet deportation of Ingush and Chechens from the North Caucasus to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Thousands of people, including the region’s leader, Makhmud-Ali Kalimatov, lawmakers, government members, and public organizations, gathered near the memorial called Nine Towers in Ingushetia’s largest city, Nazran, on February 23 to honor the victims of the deportation. Commemoration ceremonies and mass prayers were also held in Ingushetia’s mosques and cemeteries.
‘Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush,’ Wikipedia
