Restoration of Checheno-Ingush autonomy

Chechen residents of the village of Yurt-Aukh, awaiting return to their homes at a railway station in Bishkek, 1957

The restoration of the Checheno-Ingush autonomy was facilitated by decrees of the Presidiums of the Supreme Soviets of the USSR and the RSFSR on January 9, 1957, re-establishing the Checheno-Ingush ASSR amid the larger Khrushchev Thaw. ^{[1] [2]} The autonomous republic was restored with only slightly different boundaries than when abolished. Naursky and Shelkovsky districts with a predominantly Russian population transferred in 1944 from the Stavropol Krai to the Grozny Oblast remained in its composition, but the Prigorodny District, which remained in the North Ossetian ASSR, was not returned to it. ^[3] The area of the republic after the restoration was 19,300 km². At the same time, the Checheno-Ingush population was forbidden to live in the southern mountainous regions of the republic adjacent to the Georgian SSR. ^[4]

Background

On February 23, 1944, the Chechens and Ingush were deported. In 1948, by a special resolution of the Council of Ministers of the USSR, it was confirmed that the Chechens and Ingush were deported "forever." After the death of Stalin and the execution of Beria, the deported peoples had hope for rehabilitation and return to their homeland. Well-known representatives of the repressed peoples (writers, scientists, executives, retired officers) and ordinary citizens began to persistently apply to the authorities with their requests, the main of which was to immediately return the deported peoples and remove charges of collaborationism from them. ^[5]

Nikita Khrushchev officially condemned the deportation of nationalities in his "Secret Speech" at the 20th Party Congress in February 1956. ^[6] On June 9 of that year, Khrushchev's close ally, Anastas Mikoyan, met with a delegation of Checheno-Ingush representatives in the Kremlin, led by Ingush writer Idris Bazorkin and Chechen linguist Iunus Desheriev. At the meeting, Mikoyan promised the delegation that he would support them in their effort to restore the Checheno-Ingush ASSR. ^[7] Several other public figures also played an important role in the restoration, among them Abdurakhman Avtorkhanov, Muslim Gairbekov, and Magomed Shataev. ^{[8] [9] [10]}

On February 11, 1957, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR approved the decree of its Presidium of January 9 and returned the mention of autonomy to Article 22 of the USSR Constitution. ^[11] Due to the inconsistent implementation of the decree, as well as the resistance of part of the party-Soviet nomenklatura in the center and in the field, the restoration process dragged on, was fraught with many difficulties and created new problems. The restoration of the republic launched the process of the outflow of the Russian and Russian-speaking population from the region and led to a sharp aggravation of interethnic relations. ^[12]

See also

• History of Chechnya
• History of Ingushetia
• Deportation of the Chechens and Ingush

References

1. (in Russian) Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR of 09.01.1957
2. Decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Council of the RSFSR dated January 9, 1957 No. 721/4 on the restoration of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic and the abolition of the Grozny region
3. Tsutsiev, Arthur (2014). Atlas of the Ethno-Political History of the Caucasus (PDF). Translated by Nora Seligman Favorov. New Haven: Yale University Press. p. 103. ISBN   9780300153088.
4. "Restoration of the CHIASSR. Decree of January 9, 1957 Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR.
5. Akhmadov Ya.Z., Khasmagomadov E.Kh. History of Chechnya in the XIX—XX centuries.
6. Taubman, William (2003). Khrushchev: The Man and His Era . New York: W. W. Norton & Company. p. 272. ISBN   9780393324846.
7. Shakarian, Pietro A. (2025). Anastas Mikoyan: An Armenian Reformer in Khrushchev's Kremlin. Bloomington: Indiana University Press. pp. 182–183. ISBN   978-0253073556.
8. The activities of the Organizing Committee for the restoration of the Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1957—1958. (in the field of national economic construction and cultural education)
9. 54 years since the restoration of the Checheno-Ingush ASSR
10. A word about the glorious son of the Chechen people Magomed Shataev.
11. Law of the USSR of February 11, 1957 On the approval of the Decrees of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR on the restoration of the national autonomy of … peoples
12. Ахмадов Я. З., Хасмагомадов Э. Х. История Чечни в XIX—XX веках.

Further reading

• Абдурахманов Д. Б., Музаев М. Н., Бугаев А. М., Шепелев В. Н., Осмаев А. Д. (2013). Восстановление Чечено-Ингушской АССР (1000 экз ed.). Нальчик: Печатный двор. ISBN   978-5-905770-32-6.
• Ахмадов Я. З., Хасмагомадов Э. Х. (2005). История Чечни в XIX-XX веках (1200 экз ed.). М.: «Пульс». ISBN   5-93486-046-1.
• Бугаев А. М. (2016). "Политико-правовая реабилитация репрессированных народов Северного Кавказа". Архивный вестник (4): 140–153.
• Ермекбаев Ж. А. (2009). Чеченцы и ингуши в Казахстане. История и судьбы (1500 экз ed.). Алма-Ата: «Дайк-Пресс». ISBN   978-601-7170-028.
• Chenchieva M. Kh. Revival of the Motherland // Archival Bulletin: journal. — 2016. — No. 4. — S. 154—169.