March 8 - the anniversary of the deportation of the Balkar people
Today, the Balkar people recall the 79-year-old Stalin deportation. On March 8, 1944, 37,000 people, mostly elderly people, women and children, were deported to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. In March 1, 1944, Kazakhstan and Central Asia were expelled. Almost 40 per cent of them did not return home after rehabilitation.
There is not a single Balkar family that has not buried on the way, on settlement in Central Asia and Kazakhstan of their relatives. Officially, the deportation was based on the alleged participation of representatives of the Balkar people in the collaborationist formations that sided with Nazi Germany during the Second World War.
The Balkarians were allowed to return to their land only on March 28, 1957. This day is celebrated in Kabardino-Balkaria as Renaissance Day. Thirty years later, a law on the rehabilitation of the repressed was adopted.
