The Chechen autonomous oblast (region) was created by the Bolsheviks in November 1920. In 1934 it was merged with the Ingush autonomous oblast to form a joint Chechen-Ingush autonomous region, which two years later was designated a republic. During World War II (1939–45) the Soviet leader Joseph Stalin accused the Chechens and Ingush of collaboration with the Germans; consequently, both groups were subjected to mass deportations to Central Asia, and the republic of Checheno-Ingushetia was dissolved. The exiles later were allowed to return to their homeland, and the republic was reestablished under the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1957.
