in the campaign “"Exiled Forever": Life in Special Settlement and Return to an Occupied Homeland (1949-1965)”
By its decree of 11 March 1952 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR ordered that even those who had served out their sentences not be released into freedom: Chechens, Ingush and the other deported peoples "having served punishment for various crimes in corrective-labor camps, colonies and prisons" were, "upon expiry of the term of punishment, to be sent by convoy to special settlement, under the surveillance of the organs of the Ministry of State Security of the USSR, at the place of residence of their families"[1]. The nationwide amnesty of 27 March 1953 was a criminal-law amnesty and did not touch the exiles at all. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "the question of restoring the Checheno-Ingush ASSR was not raised even for discussion. To all the numerous letters and appeals of the highlanders to Moscow came the harsh, unambiguous answer that the Chechens and Ingush were to remain in their places of residence forever"[2]. The empire cut the exiles off from education as well. Children were formally subject to universal schooling, but in 1945 in some oblasts of Kazakhstan up to 70% of the special settlers' children did not go to school: the families, robbed at deportation, had nothing to dress their children in - in the documents this is recorded as "by reason of the absence of warm clothing and footwear"[2], and in 1946, of the 89 thousand special settlers' children from the North Caucasus obliged to study under the law on universal education, only 22 thousand actually studied[2]. By 1949 no less than 60% of the North Caucasus special settlers were completely illiterate; 2.1% had a complete secondary education, 0.2% - higher education[2]. The empire barred the road to university as well: a school graduate needed a special permit from the republican organs of internal affairs, study was allowed only in Kazakhstan, Kirghizia and Uzbekistan, and even after the diploma the Chechens and Ingush still could not leave the places of deportation - and, according to the data of the organs of internal affairs, a significant part of the special settlers with higher education - lawyers, writers, teachers - could not find work in their profession[2]. The educated grew fewer even in absolute numbers: in 1946 Kazakhstan counted 1,248 people with higher or specialized secondary education among those deported from the North Caucasus; by the beginning of 1948 there remained 1,127[2]. By its decree of 16 July 1956 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR removed the special-settlement registration - and by the same second article stripped the people of their property and of the right to their homeland[3]. Even the empire's own audits gave the segregation no justification. In February 1953 Ganenko and Alatortsev, inspectors of the Central Committee of the Bolshevik party, toured the special settlements of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, and the commission that examined their memorandum summarized it thus: "Many local party and soviet organs display a disdainful attitude toward work among the special settlers, pass over numerous instances of arbitrariness toward this part of the population, of infringement of the special settlers' lawful rights, of indiscriminate political distrust toward them, which artificially breeds moods of discontent among the special settlers"[4]. In 1954 the Ministry of Internal Affairs declared unfounded the complaints that Chechens and Ingush were allegedly terrorizing the local population: 506,043 people deported from the North Caucasus stood on the special-settlement rolls in 1954, and of them only 5,418 - about one percent - had been convicted and were in confinement[4]. The same ministry counted, as of 10 November 1955, among the Chechens deported "for treason" 2,280 war veterans, 4,455 holders of orders and medals and 2,553 families of men killed at the front; among the Ingush - another 1,085, 1,869 and 871[1]. The empire amnestied even genuine accomplices of the German occupiers: the decree of 17 September 1955 was so entitled - "On the Amnesty of Soviet Citizens Who Collaborated with the Occupiers in the Period of the Great Patriotic War of 1941-1945." But historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write that the highland peoples, repressed "allegedly for 'collaboration with the Germans,'" "were not touched by this decree"[2]. In August 1956 an inspection that had toured Kazakhstan and Kirghizia reported to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet after the fact: "From 1948 to 1953 the living conditions of the special settlers were burdened with restrictions of various kinds which were not warranted by serious causes from the point of view of the special settlers' own conduct. Many Chechens were dismissed from work, expelled from the party, arrested and then sentenced to long terms of imprisonment"[4]. By its decree of 9 January 1957 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognized "as necessary the restoration of the national autonomy of the Chechen and Ingush peoples," recommended the restoration itself to the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR and repealed only the ban on returning: "Article 2 of the Decree of 16 July 1956 in the part prohibiting the Chechens and Ingush from returning to their former place of residence"[5]. A decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the RSFSR restored the republic that same day[4], but neither of these acts ordered the return of the confiscated property.