Punished Peoples - Paperbackby Aleksandr Nekrich (Author) In late 1943 and early 1944, after the Nazi invasion of Russia had been turned back, Soviet troops descended upon the Caucasus, the Caspian steppes, and the Crimea without warning and brutally deported some one million of their people Chechens, Ingush, Balkars, Karachai, Kalmyks, and Tatars to Central Asia, Kazakhstan, and Siberia. Hundreds were executed and thousands more were to die of malnutrition, exposure, and harsh