You are asking me about the expulsion of Ingush people to Kazakhstan?
That is how it was.
February, 23 in 1944 was a very cold day.
All men, old and young, were invited to the gathering in Atahi
settlement (we now call it the Death Valley) to celebrate the day of
the Red Army.
The entire nation was assembled there, including women and children.
Then the soldiers put cordons all around the place of gathering. These
were the NKVD troops (Soviet secret police).
There were machineguns on the roofs.
Then they said that we were to be deported to Kazakhstan. There was no
use resisting. People thought they were summoned to celebrate the
holiday, so nobody had any arms with them.
The situation was awful: cordons, soldiers, machineguns... People felt
depressed, they were embarrassed and didn't know what to do. They
didn't even know much of Kazakhstan. The whole situation was a
difficult one.
But then one of the Ingushs stepped forward and said: "We are to leave
our place, we don't know what lies ahead of us and we don't know if we
stay alive or not. But still it's an Act of God and we should forget
our discords, feud and forgive each other. Many years ago one man
offended my father, but I forgive you", - he said to someone in the
crowd. One by one people came out of the crowd and said the words of
forgiveness to each other.
But soldiers couldn't understand what they were talking about and
thought they were going to rebel and put up a resistance and started
shooting at people. Many people were killed then, many were seriously
injured.
It was a terrible ordeal for my people.
And when the machineguns were shooting, my grandfather (later he died
in Kazakhstan) suddenly shouted: "Play your accordions (some people
had musical instruments with them for they thought they were invited
to celebrate a holiday"). No one will see us weakened; no one will see
us suppressed!"
He shouted to his sister Hava: "Dance!" - jumped out in front of the
soldiers that were shooting at the crowd and started dancing with wild
inspiration. Other people following his inspiration started dancing
and clapping. They seemed to go mad.
Soldiers were taken aback and stopped shooting. This dance put
inspiration into people. And they kept dancing while making their way
to the freight trains, and coming into those trains under the tight
control of the soldiers. That was how they were deported to
Kazakhstan.