DEPORTATION?

An article entitled “The ‘Caucasus Eagles’ of the Third Reich,” appearing in the no. 10 (October 2001) issue of Spetsnaz Rossii, a publication of the veterans of the elite FSB special forces’ unit “Alpha,” maintained that the deportations of the Chechens and Ingush by Stalin in 1944–events which resulted in a genocide–were justified. “These peoples fully deserved deportation,” the author, Igor Pykhalov, concluded. The appearance of such an extraordinary article suggests that there may be at least some in the Russian power ministries who are seriously contemplating a new deportation of the Chechens, presumably to the Russian Far North or to Siberia.