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.
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.
The Memorial online database (2025) lists 61,984 victims in Kabardino-Balkaria (BR 5,276).
2,063 were shot, 1,865 in 1937-8. Cases against 398 were closed without conviction (16 died in custody). More than 2,000 were sent to the camps and 468 were deported.
56,708 more victims are included from police records. Some were accused of being “kulaks” (2,622). The great majority (51,756) formed part of the wartime deportation by reason of their “nationality”: they were sent in almost every case either to Kazakhstan or Kirgizia, where more than 9,000 of them were later born. (Of the 42,000 deportees, more than 12,000 were then aged 1-10.)
| Date | Nature of ceremonies | Organiser or responsible person | Participants | Frequency |
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
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
|
| State of burials | Area | Boundaries |
|---|---|---|
|
reburial is in good condition
|
3 sq m
|
marked off by the grave railings
|
[ 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
