The impact of Soviet resettlement policies on the peoples of the North Caucasus and Uzbekistan: a historical analysis

The article is dedicated to the study of the forced relocation policy of the peoples of the North Caucasus to Uzbekistan during the period from the 1930s to the 1950s, focusing on the fates of Chechens, Ingush, Karachays, and Balkars. Particular attention is given to the reasons for the deportation, including the Soviet authorities' suspicions of political unreliability of these ethnic groups, their resistance to the new communist regime, and their connection to military events during World War II. The article analyzes official documents from Soviet authorities, such as reports from OGPU and NKVD chiefs, letters from L. Beria, and other materials that demonstrate the scale of the relocation and its consequences for these peoples. Based on archival data, the living conditions of the relocated peoples are revealed, including high mortality rates, severe sanitary and food shortages, lack of medical care, as well as systematic failures in the organization of transportation and resettlement of special settlers. Special attention is paid to the issue of education for the children of special settlers, where the lack of national teachers led to the forced implementation of Russian-language education, which became part of a broader policy of Russification and cultural assimilation. The article also includes a detailed statistical analysis of the number of settlers, their geographical distribution across the regions of the USSR, particularly in the Uzbek SSR, where new living areas were organized. The data presented in the study indicate high mortality rates among the relocated people, especially among children, highlighting the devastating consequences of this policy. The long-term social and cultural impacts of the deportations are also examined, including the destruction of the ethnic and cultural identity of the relocated peoples. Thus, this work demonstrates how the forced deportation policy, supported by the ideology and pragmatic interests of the Soviet government, led to tragic consequences for the peoples of the North Caucasus, leaving a long-term mark on their future development and ethnic unity.