Deportation of the Caucasian peoples in Kazakhstan: history and problems of rehabilitation

Abstract

This article is one of the results of the author’s work as a member of the Republican Commission for the Rehabilitation of Non-rehabilitated Victims of Political Repression that took place in the Soviet Union in the first half of the twentieth century. Among the victims during the years of repression were not only individuals but also entire peoples of the former Soviet Union, including the peoples of the Caucasus. The article examines the history of the deportation of the peoples of the Caucasus to Kazakhstan in the 1940s, the rehabilitation process that covered the period 1950s–2000s. The numerical composition of the peoples deported from the territory of the Caucasus, their placement on the territory of Kazakhstan is traced. Among the problems of rehabilitation, attention is drawn to the difficulty of identifying the exact number of people repressed on a national basis. Special attention is paid to the value of archival materials, which contain also a number of problematic points concerning the processes of deportation of peoples to Kazakhstan and their subsequent rehabilitation. The main range of issues that need to be addressed during implementing the tasks assigned to the Republican Commission for the Rehabilitation of Victims of Political Repression is determined. Among them, the compilation of accurate lists of representatives of the peoples of the Caucasus forcibly resettled in Kazakhstan, their resettlement by  region, the identification of the rehabilitated by name today and the identification of persons who should be rehabilitated.