In new history textbooks, the chapter on the repressed peoples of the USSR will be rewritten at the request of the Chechen authorities

In the Chechen Republic, the entire circulation of an updated textbook on the history of Russia for grades 10–11 was confiscated. This was announced by the Speaker of the Republican Parliament Magomed Daudov. The order was given by the head of Chechnya, Ramzan Kadyrov. The authors of the textbook will have to rewrite the chapter on the repressed peoples of the USSR.

According to Magomed Daudov, the updated Russian history textbook for grades 10–11 “caused a wave of indignation among representatives of the peoples repressed in the USSR.” The new history textbooks do not contain any information about the repressed peoples.

“I would like to note that the entire circulation of the textbook I am talking about in our republic, on behalf of Ramzan Akhmatovich, was withdrawn from schools. Fortunately, in our country it is unacceptable to insult people. Especially the peoples whose representatives made an invaluable contribution to strengthening statehood and protecting the interests of the Motherland,” wrote Magomed Daudov in Telegram channel.

However, this paragraph was later removed from Magomed Daudov’s post. It is still available in the archived version of the post in the Tgstat.ru service. By data service, the message in its original form was also reposted by the Minister of Information of Chechnya Akhmed Dudayev, but later he also deleted this post.

Magomed Daudov reported the problem to the head of the presidential administration’s internal policy department, Andrei Yarin, as well as the author of the textbook, Vladimir Medinsky. Mr. Medinsky admitted that the chapter on the peoples of the USSR was transferred from the old version of the textbook, and promised to “put it in order.” Minister of Education Sergei Kravtsov approved the changes.

To rewrite the chapter of the textbook on the peoples of the USSR, the federal authorities created a special working group. It included heads of regions whose residents experienced deportation during the Second World War.

From February to March 1944, according to various estimates, 500–650 thousand Chechens and Ingush were deported from the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. They were deported to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan (partially to Uzbekistan and Tajikistan). According to one estimate, about 100 thousand Chechens and 23 thousand Ingush died during the eviction, that is, approximately one in four of both peoples.

The official reason for the deportations was accusations of Chechens of collaboration and banditry during the Second World War. NKVD Colonel Sultan Albogachiev, who was the People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1941–1943 (his words are cited in a textbook on the history of Chechnya edited by Akhmadov and Khasmagomadov), wrote that “there were no more bandits in the mountains of Chechnya than in other regions country” and that there were no reasons for the eviction of the Chechens and Ingush. According to Sultan Albogachiev, this was confirmed by Lavrentiy Beria during his trial in 1953.

Anastasia Larina