1940-1944 insurgency in Chechnya
| 1940–1944 Chechen-Ingush insurgency | |||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Part of World War II and the Chechen–Russian conflict | |||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||
| Provisional Popular Revolutionary Government of Chechnya-Ingushetia Supported by:  Germany (1942) |
 Soviet Union (58th Army, NKVD) |
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| Commanders and leaders | |||||||
|
Khasan Israilov † Mairbek Sheripov † |
General Vasily Khomenko (NKVD) | ||||||
| Strength | |||||||
| 5,000 (November 1941) 6,540–18,000 (February 1943) 50 German and German-trained saboteurs |
110,000 (Operation Lentil) | ||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||
| 657 killed and 3,875 captured according to the GARF – 4,368 killed according to other scholarly estimates | 269 (165 combatants, 104 non-combatants) according to the GARF – ~12,000 killed according to independent estimates | ||||||
Soviet victory
The 1940–44 insurgency in Chechnya was an autonomous revolt against the Soviet authorities in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Beginning as early as in June 1941 under Khasan Israilov, it peaked in 1942 during the German invasion of North Caucasus and ended in the beginning of 1944 with the wholesale concentration and deportation of the Vainakh peoples (Chechens and Ingushes) from their native lands as well as from the locations across the USSR, resulting in the death of at least 144,000 civilians. However, scattered resistance in the mountains continued for years.
In late 1939, encouraged by the Soviet failures in the Winter War against Finland, Chechen ex-communist intellectual Khasan Israilov and his brother Hussein had established a guerrilla base in the mountains of south-eastern Chechnya, where they worked to organize a unified guerrilla movement to prepare an armed insurrection against the Soviets. By early February 1940, Israilov's rebels took over several auls in Shatoysky District. The rebel government was established in Israilov's native village of Galanchozh. They then defeated the NKVD's punitive detachments sent against them, capturing modern weapons.
Israilov described his position on why they were fighting numerous times:
"I have decided to become the leader of a war of liberation of my own people. I understand all too well that not only in Checheno-Ingushetia, but in all nations of the Caucasus it will be difficult to win freedom from the heavy yoke of Red imperialism. But our fervent belief in justice and our faith in the support of the freedom-loving peoples of the Caucasus and of the entire world inspire me toward this deed, in your eyes impertinent and pointless, but in my conviction, the sole correct historical step. The valiant Finns are now proving that the Great Enslaver Empire is powerless against a small but freedom-loving people. In the Caucasus you will find your second Finland, and after us will follow other oppressed peoples."
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Wikipedia