Comparison of Nazism and Stalinism
Two ethnic groups that were specifically targeted for persecution by Stalin's Soviet Union were the Chechens and the Ingush. Unlike the other nationalities that could be suspected of connection to foreign states which shared their ethnic background, the Chechens and the Ingush were completely indigenous people of the Soviet Union. Rather than being accused of collaboration with foreign enemies, these two ethnic groups were considered to have cultures which did not fit in with Soviet culture – such as accusing Chechens of being associated with “banditism” – and the authorities claimed that the Soviet Union had to intervene in order to “remake” and “reform” these cultures. In practice this meant heavily armed punitive operations carried out against Chechen “bandits” that failed to achieve forced assimilation, culminating in an ethnic cleansing operation in 1944, which involved the arrests and deportation of over 500,000 Chechens and Ingush from the Caucasus to Central Asia and Kazakhstan. The deportations of the Chechens and Ingush also involved the outright massacre of thousands of people, and severe conditions placed upon the deportees – they were put in unsealed train cars, with little to no food for a four-week journey during which many died from hunger and exhaustion.
Čačak
Ethnically, the city is largely inhabited by Serbs (95.3%), followed by Roma, Montenegrins and other ethnic groups. The ethnic composition of the city:
From 1885, when Čačak had a population of only 3,000, a small groups of Armenians began settling in town. They mostly originated from the villages of Kemah and Nerkin Bagarij (or Pakarish), near Erzincan in Ottoman Empire, fleeing the forcible draft into the Ottoman army and the general oppression against the Armenians in the empire. The first Armenian in Čačak was Arut Nigosjan, who worked as "tahmiščija", a coffee roaster/grinder. He was followed by the families of Sarkisjan (later changed name to Sarkisović), Nikolić, Sukjasjan, Bricki, Berberjan and Lazarjan, with most of them working in the coffee business. Lazarjan family was the best known Armenian family in Čačak as they expanded their business from just coffee to the grocery stores and were among the founders of the local Red Cross organization. New Communist authorities after World War II, in the massive process of nationalization, confiscated the Armenian businesses in 1948 so some of them emigrated abroad. In time, the Armenians began naming their children with Serbian names and blended with the rest of the population. The book, "Jermeni u Čačku 1885-1950" ("Armenians in Čačak 1885-1950") was published by Marijana Matović in 2018.