NALCHIK [C]* Grave of Kyazim Mechiyev | Russia's Necropolis of Terror and the Gulag

NALCHIK [C]* Grave of Kyazim Mechiyev

Card

№07-01

Date of burial
1945 [1999]
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Address
Kabardino-Balkar Republic, Nalchik, Kanukoyev Street
Access in a populated area
Public transport
On foot
Visiting Hours or Restrictions
Unrestricted
Type of burial
Deportees’ graveyard
Individual grave
Reburial
Current use
Cultural and/or educational purposes
Ceremonial events
Presence of memorials, etc.
Yes
Protected status
Not protected
Фотография 2006 года. Источник: Архив НИЦ «Мемориал»
Фотография 2006 года. Источник: Архив НИЦ «Мемориал»
Background

The grave of the Balkar poet Kyazim Mechiyev is to be found in Nalckik, in  the grounds of the “Memorial to the Victims of Repression of the Balkar Nation, 1944 to 1957”.  Kyazim Mechiyev (Mechilany, 1859-1945) was the founder of Balkar poetry and of the nation’s literary language. A member of the Union of Soviet Writers after 1940, he was deported on 8 March 1944 and died in a special settlement in Kazakhstan on 25 March 1945.

In 1989 his resting place was discovered by a group of enthusiasts. The government of the Kabardino-Balkar ASSR ordered that his remains be reburied in Nalchik during the 140th anniversary of his birth. On 11 November 1999 Mechiyev’s remains were reburied in the capital of the Kabardino-Balkar republic and metal railings were added around the memorial, then under construction. The headstone was put up in 2000.

Books of Remembrance

A Book in Remembrance of the Victims of Political Repression: Kabardino-Balkaria, 1920-1941 (one volume, 2009, 552 pp) includes 5,100 biographical entries on those shot or sent to the camps. Four volumes (1997) on forced settlers were expanded and reissued as a single book. B.B. Temukuyev’s, Special [forced] settlers (3 vols), contains short biographical annotations on 42,500 people. It was reissued as a single book in 2009.

These books describe events (dekulakization, the Great Terror, etc) that preceded the wartime deportation of the Balkar nation. From 9 to 11 March 1944, 37,103 people were sent eastwards in 23 rail convoys.

Ceremonies
DateNature of ceremoniesOrganiser or responsible personParticipantsFrequency
8 March
Day in Commemoration of the Deportation of the Balkar Nation
members of the government and parliament, NGOs, delegations from neighbouring republics
nk
Annual Event
nk
Commemorative Services
nk
nk
From time to time
Nature of area requiring preservation
State of burialsAreaBoundaries
reburial is in good condition
3 sq m
marked off by the grave railings
Administrative responsibility and ownership, informal responsibility for the site
On land under the control of the Nalchik City Administration. Care and maintenance are provided by the Memorial Museum "To the Victims of Repression of the Balkar Nation, 1944-1957"
Sources and bibliography

[ original texts and hyperlinks ]

Archive of the Memorial Museum of the Balkar Nation’s Victims of Repression, 1944-1957 (Nalchik)

Zh. Appayeva, “Poet, Fighter and Thinker: On the 150th anniversary of the birth of K. Mechiyev”, Severny Kavkaz (newspaper), 22 September 2009

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