Lavrentii Beria, To the State Defense Committee. March 7, 1944
Translated by James von Geldern
Original Source: Ikh nado deportirovat’ (Moscow: Druzhba narodov, 1992), p. 106.
<…> 19 thousand special troops of the NKVD and SMERSH participated in the operation and up to 100 thousand NKVD officers and soldiers, drawn from a variety of regions, many of whom had previously participated in operations to resettle the Karachai and Kalmyks, and in addition will participate in the forthcoming operation to resettle Balkarians …
As a result of the three operations, 650 thousand Chechens, Ingush, Kalmyks and Karachai were relocated to the eastern regions of the USSR. In preparation for the operation to resettle the Chechens, Ingush, Karachay, Kalmyk and Balkars, operations were conducted to eliminate gangs, created and armed by the Nazi occupiers retreating from the North Caucasus. Removal of anti-Soviet elements and illegally stored weapons from the population was effect.
People’s Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR
Beria