User:Calthinus/Balkar and Karachai nationalism

Balkar and Karachai nationalism is the national sentiment among the Balkars and Karachai. It generally manifests itself in:


 * The movement for the recognition of the 1944 deportations (where the Balkars and Karachai, along with the Kalmyks, Chechens, Ingush and later Estonians, Latvians and Volga Germans were deported to Germany, with considerable portions of the nation massacred by Russian troops and historical documents burned in mass fires) as a genocide against the nation.


 * The movement to separate Kabardino-Balkaria into Kabardin and Balkar administrative units


 * Likewise, the movement to separate Karachai-Cherkessia into Karachai and Cherkess administrative units


 * The movement to unify Karachai and Balkar units into a single republic


 * The movement to unify the census categories of Karachai and Balkar into a single category


 * Turkic nationalist flavor, and a strong affinity to the state of Turkey


 * Mandate of Karachay-Balkar language as the official language


 * Defense of Balkar grazing lands against Kabardin influence


 * In some circles, Pan-Turkism


 * As is also the case with Circassian nationalism or Chechen nationalism (to a lesser extent), Balkar-Karachay nationalism is considered incompatible with Islam in government as the ethnic identity is considered most important and other allegiances are considered treacherous.

The 1944 Deportations and their effect on the modern movement
In 1943 and 1944, the Balkars and Karachais were deported en masse to Siberia, as were the Chechens, Ingush and Kalmyks. All groups were accused of "collaboration with the Nazis".

After the deportation, as happened to the other victims, the Balkars and Karachais were stripped of all political recognition of their territories. The Kabardino-Balkar Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic ASSR was made the Kabardian ASSR, while the Karachai Autonomous Oblast was completely wiped of the map and partitioned into territories given to the Stavropol' krai and Kradnodar krai.

The account of the NKVD (the organization guilty of the deportation), the following statistics were given :


 * In total, 724297 people were sent to Central Asia (Siberia and Kazakhstan) in the airless freight trains (others, such as the Chechen aul of Khaibakh, were massacred en masse instead )


 * Peoples deported were 39407 Balkars, 71869 Karachai, 412548 Chechens, 96327 Ingush, and 104146 Kalmyks


 * According to the NKVD, the average death rate of those deported was about 23.5% (144704 people)

Many historians have questioned the authenticity of the NKVD report, stating that it was probably a far understatement, noting also that the figure produced by Khruschev in 1956 contradicts Beria's figure by at least 96000 people (and stating that even Kruschev's could have been an understatement, considering his position).

Contrary to the Soviet view of the whole nations as treacherous Nazi-collaborators, according to the official statistics, 4428 of deported Chechens, 946 Ingush, 2543 Karachai, and 1045 Balkars were veterans of the Red Army.

As is the case with the other victims of this deportation, as well as many of the Soviet deportations as a whole, the Balkars and Karachais view it as a national tragedy, a central part of the nation's victimhood, and demand it be recognized as a genocide.