1940 – 44 insurgency in Chechnya The 1940 – 1944 Chechen insurgency was a Vainakh revolt against the Soviet authorities in the Chechen - Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . Beginning as early as in June 1941 under Khasan Israilov , it peaked in 1942 during the German invasion of North Caucasus and ended in the beginning of 1944 with the wholesale concentration and deportation of the Vainakh peoples ( Chechens and Ingushes ) from their native lands as well as from the locations across the USSR , resulting in the death of at least 144 , 000 civilians . However , a scattered resistance in the mountains continued for years . Beginning . In the late 1939 , encouraged by the Soviet failures in the Winter War against Finland , Chechen ex - communist - turned - nationalist intellectual Khasan Israilov and his brother Hussein had established a guerrilla base in the mountains of south - eastern Chechnya , where they worked to organize a unified guerrilla movement to prepare an armed insurrection against the Soviets . By early February 1940 , Israilov ' s rebels took over several " aul s " in Shatoysky District . The rebel government was established in Israilov ' s native village of Galanchozh . They then defeated the NKVD ' s punitive detachments sent against them , capturing modern weapons . Israilov described his position on why they were fighting numerous times : " I have decided to become the leader of a war of liberation of my own people . I understand all too well that not only in Checheno - Ingushetia , but in all nations of the Caucasus it will be difficult to win freedom from the heavy yoke of Red imperialism . But our fervent belief in justice and our faith in the support of the freedom - loving peoples of the Caucasus and of the entire world inspire me toward this deed , in your eyes impertinent and pointless , but in my conviction , the sole correct historical step . The valiant Finns are now proving that the Great Enslaver Empire is powerless against a small but freedom - loving people . In the Caucasus you will find your second Finland , and after us will follow other oppressed peoples . " " " For twenty years now , the Soviet authorities have been fighting my people , aiming to destroy them group by group : first the " kulak s " , then the mullah s and the ' bandits ' , then the bourgeois - nationalists . I am sure now that the real object of this war is the annihilation of our nation as a whole . That is why I have decided to assume the leadership of my people in their struggle for liberation . " After the German invasion in the USSR in June 1941 , the brothers convened 41 different meetings in summer 1941 to recruit local supporters under the name " Provisional Popular Revolutionary Government of Checheno - Ingushetia " , and by the end of midsummer of that year they had over 5 , 000 guerrillas and at least 25 , 000 sympathizers organized into five military districts encompassing Grozny , Gudermes and Malgobek . In some areas , up to 80 % of men were involved in the insurrection . It is known that the Soviet Union used carpet bombing tactics against the rebels , causing losses primarily to the civilian population . Massive Soviet bombing air raids twice targeted Chechen - Ingush mountain villages in the spring of 1942 , completely devastating several " auls " and killing most of their inhabitants , including large numbers of elderly and children . By January 28 , 1942 , Israilov had decided to extend the uprising from Chechens and Ingush to eleven of the dominant ethnic groups in the Caucasus by forming the Special Party of Caucasus Brothers ( OKPB ) , with the aim of an ' armed struggle with Bolshevik barbarism and Russian despotism ' . Khasan also developed a code among the guerrilla fighters to maintain order and discipline , which stated : In February 1942 , another Chechen ex - communist , Mairbek Sheripov , organized a rebellion in Shatoi and tried to take Itum - Kale . His forces united with Israilov ' s army relying on the expected arrival of the German Wehrmacht . In neighbouring Dagestan rebels also took the neighbourhoods of Novolakskaya and Dylym . The insurrection provoked many Chechen and Ingush soldiers of the Red Army to desert . Some sources claim that total number of deserted mountaineer soldiers reached 62 , 750 , exceeding the number of mountaineer fighters in the Red Army . German support . On August 25 , 1942 , nine German - trained saboteurs from Abwehr ' s " Nordkaukasisches Sonderkommando Schamil " landed near the village of Berzhki in the area of Galashki , where they recruited 13 local Chechens for their cause . Later in August in September , a total of 40 German agents were dropped in various locations . All of these groups received an active assistance from up to 100 Chechens . Their mission was to seize the Grozny petroleum refinery in order to prevent its destruction by the retreating Soviets , and to hold it until the German First Panzer Army arrived . However , the German offensive stalled after capturing only the ethnic - Russian town of Malgobek in Ingushetia . The Germans made concerted efforts to coordinate with Israilov , but his refusal to cede control of his revolutionary movement to the Germans , and his continued insistence on German recognition of Chechen independence , led many Germans to consider Israilov as unreliable , and his plans unrealistic . Although the Germans were able to undertake covert operations in Chechnyasuch as the sabotage of Grozny oil fieldsattempts at a German - Chechen alliance floundered . That the Chechens actually were allied to the Germans is highly questionable and usually dismissed as false . They did have contact with the Germans . However , there were profound ideological differences between the Chechens and the Nazis ( self - determination versus imperialism ) , neither trusted the other , and the German courting of the Cossacks angered the Chechens ( their traditional enemies with which they still had numerous land disputes and other conflicts ) . Mairbek Sheripov reportedly gave the Ostministerium a sharp warning that " if the liberation of the Caucasus meant only the exchange of one colonizer for another , the Caucasians would consider this [ a theoretical fight pitting Chechens and other Caucasians against Germans ] only a new stage in the national liberation war . " Deportation . By 1943 , as the Germans began to retreat in the Eastern Front , the mountain guerrillas saw their fortunes change as many former rebels defected to the Soviets in exchange of amnesty . On December 6 , 1943 , German involvement in Chechnya ended when Soviet counter - intelligence agents infiltrated and arrested the remaining German operatives in Chechnya . After the German retreat from the Caucasus , almost 500 , 000 of Chechen and Ingush people from Checheno - Ingushetia as well as other republics were forcibly resettled to Siberia and Central Asia ( mostly to Kazakhstan SSR ) " en masse " , resulting in a large number of deaths among the deportees . Many of those who were not deported were simply massacred on the spot . In mountainous regions of the country , mass atrocities such as the Khaibakh massacre took place . By the next summer , Checheno - Ingushetia was dissolved ; a number of Chechen and Ingush placenames were replaced with Russian ones ; mosques and graveyards were destroyed , and a massive campaign of burning numerous historical Chechen texts was near complete . Throughout the North Caucasus , about 700 , 000 ( according to Dalkhat Ediev , 724 , 297 , of which the majority , 479 , 478 , were Chechens , along with 96 , 327 Ingush , 104 , 146 Kalmyks , 39 , 407 Balkars and 71 , 869 Karachays ) were deported . Many died along the trip , and the extremely harsh environment of Siberia ( especially considering the amount of exposure ) killed many more . The NKVD , supplying the Russian perspective , gives the statistic of 144 , 704 people killed in 1944 - 1948 alone ( death rate of 23 . 5 % per all groups ) , though this is dismissed by many authors such as Tony Wood , John Dunlop , Moshe Gammer and others as a far understatement . Estimates for deaths of the Chechens alone ( excluding the NKVD figues ) , range from about 170 , 000 to 200 , 000 , thus ranging from over a third of the total Chechen population to nearly half being killed in those 4 years alone ( rates for other groups for those four years hover around 20 % ) . In 2004 , the European Parliament recognized it as a genocide . However , some rebel groups stayed in the mountains , continuing the resistance . Rebel groups were also formed in Kazakhstan . Israilov was betrayed and killed by two of his own men in December 1944 . Following his death , the resistance was led by Sheikh Qureish Belhorev , who was captured in 1947 . Several security divisions were sent to suppress the remnants of partisan movement , achieving this task only in the mid - 1950s .