Neutralization of the Opposition

In 1972-1981 the Chechens and the Ingush twice wrote to Moscow about discrimination and protested on the square; each time the coloniser expelled from the only permitted party and put on trial the protesters, not the region's occupation leadership. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write that in March 1972 26 Chechen and Ingush communists "wrote a collective letter addressed to the CC of the CPSU [the central authority in Moscow], in which they directly accused the party leadership of Chechen-Ingushetia not only of chauvinism but also of corruption. The result of the appeal, however, was not what the authors of the collective letter had counted on: it was not the leaders of the republic who were punished, but they themselves"; S. Bokaev, S. Pliev, N. Umarkhadzhaev, B. Kostoev and B. Lyanov were expelled from the party^[1]. On 16 January 1973 the Ingush gathered on the central square of Grozny, in front of the building of the region's occupation administration, and Chechens joined them; rally participant Salman Mamatiev recalls: "on the second day there were almost as many Chechens on the square as Ingush"^[2]. Eyewitness Aza Bazorkina recalls: "From a makeshift rostrum on Lenin Square, on 16, 17 and 18 January, day and night, the grievance of dispossessed, deceived people pours out", and on the night of 19 January the militia and the internal troops (predecessors of today's Rosgvardiya) cleared the square: "The doubting young people, who did not want to disperse without reliable information, were beaten with rubber truncheons and doused with icy water from fire hoses, herded into buses, driven out of the city and let out there, soaking wet, into a twenty-degree frost in an open field"^[3]. On 13 March 1973 Moscow adopted a resolution "On Anti-Social Nationalist Manifestations in the City of Grozny"; on 27 March the region's occupation administration resolved to accept it "for unswerving guidance and execution" and recorded: "For nationalist actions and active participation in anti-social manifestations the following have been expelled from the party: Pliev S. Kh., Gazdiev A. M., as well as Kushtov A. S. - physician at city hospital No. 2, Abadiev B. - director of the puppet theatre, Uzhakhova - teacher at boarding school No. 15, Egiev - former chairman of the construction committee of SMU-7 [trade-union committee of a construction directorate], Daurbekov - former head of department at the Nazran district newspaper"^[2]. Historian A. B. Kuznetsova gives the tally: "23 people were expelled from the CPSU, 18 from the VLKSM [the Komsomol, the youth organisation of Soviet power], 9 people were removed from leading positions and 14 people were prosecuted"^[4]. On 27 December 1973 KGB chairman Andropov (the KGB being the predecessor of today's FSB) reported to Moscow: "After the well-known events that took place in the city of Grozny in January 1973, in which about 400 Ingush from the Prigorodny district of the North Ossetian ASSR took an active part, as a result of measures taken by the state security organs new attempts to carry out socially dangerous acts, especially in February 1973 on the anniversary of the eviction of the Ingush and also on the eve of the holidays of 1 and 9 May, were prevented"^[5]. In June 1981 23 communists wrote to Brezhnev about the corruption of Vlasov, head of the region's occupation administration; historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "The CC of the CPSU this time too backed the republican leadership, accusing the authors of the letter of nationalism (although among its signatories were people of various nationalities, including Russians and Ukrainians). Two people were expelled from the party"^[1].