NKVD units begin deporting Karachays

The order forbade unauthorized retreat and created penal units and blocking detachments. It reflected the desperate conditions of the war while subjecting Soviet soldiers to severe coercion...

Soviet forces struck the flanks of German armies around Stalingrad, beginning the encirclement that led to the surrender of the Sixth Army. The battle became a turning point, achieved through the...

The Comintern announced its dissolution during the war, formally recognizing the distinct conditions facing communist parties in different countries. The move also reassured the Allied powers that...

At Prokhorovka, Soviet and German forces fought one of the largest tank engagements of the war. The wider Kursk campaign ended in a strategic Soviet victory, shifting initiative on the Eastern...

A decree accused the Karachays collectively of collaboration and ordered their removal from the North Caucasus. Families were forced into exile in Central Asia and Siberia; the Karachay autonomous...

Stalin met with Franklin D. Roosevelt and Winston Churchill to coordinate Allied strategy, including the opening of a western front. The alliance was essential to defeating Nazi Germany but also...

A decree abolished the Kalmyk Autonomous Republic and ordered the expulsion of the Kalmyk population to Siberia and Central Asia. The state used collective accusations of collaboration to punish a...

NKVD forces began mass deportation of Chechens and Ingush to Central Asia under collective accusations of collaboration. People were forced from their homes in winter; many died during removal and...

The NKVD deported the Balkar population from the North Caucasus to Central Asia and Siberia and abolished the Kabardino-Balkar autonomous arrangement. The date coincided with International Women’s...

The Soviet government deported the Crimean Tatar population to Central Asia, citing collective collaboration. Families were removed at gunpoint, with many deaths during deportation and exile; the...