Operation Lentil (Caucasus)

Operation Lentil (, Chechevitsa; , Ardakh) was the Soviet expulsion of the whole of the native Chechen and Ingush populations of the North Caucasus to Siberia, Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan during World War II.

The expulsion, preceded by the 1940-1944 Chechnya insurgency, was ordered on 23 February 1944 by Lavrentiy Beria after approval by Joseph Stalin, as a part of Soviet forced settlement program during World War II (see also Population transfer in the Soviet Union). The deportation encompassed the entire nation, well over 500,000 people. A considerable amount of these having been killed during the trip and still more before it, the latter were not counted. They were not allowed to go back to Chechnya until 1957.

Background

During World War II, despite the fact that about 40,000 Chechens and Ingush fought in the Red Army (50 of them received the highest recognition of the Hero of the Soviet Union), the Soviet government accused them of cooperating with the Nazi invaders, who had controlled the western parts of Chechnya-Ingushetia for several months of the 1942/1943 winter. It was claimed that some Chechens were eager to show the Nazis mountain passes leading to Azerbaijan, whose oil reserves were the goal of Operation Blue.

However, that the Chechens actually were allied to the Germans is highly questionable and usually dismissed as false.Avtorkhanov. Chechens and Ingush. p183Wood, Tony.Chechnya: The Case for...
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