Yes the 23 Feb. 1944 Deportation of Chechens and their subsequent treatment was racist

While US scholars still militantly claim that there was not any racism involved in the deportation of nearly the entire Chechen nation to special settlement restrictions in Kazakshtan and Kyrgyzstan for 12 years, French scholar Nicholas Werth cites this very interesting document. It comes from the MGB from October 1952. "Specific genotype" certainly sounds to me like race was involved in the poor treatment of the Chechens by the Soviet government under Stalin. But, while French scholars understand this, almost no US scholars do. I can count the number that do on one hand.

They refuse to work, organize mass disturbances, get involved in fights with local inhabitants, and continue their bandit-like activities, robbing private property and stealing kolkhoz [collective farm]property . . . The most hostile elements are even engaged in clandestine anti-Soviet activities . . . It is particularly difficult to struggle against these people. Police infiltration is hopeless, because the Chechens and the Ingush have a specific genotype and are fanaticized by pan-Islamism.

Source: Nicolas Werth, "The 'Chechen Problem': Handling an Awkward Legacy, 1918-1958," Contemporary European History, 15, 3 (2006), p. 347.