Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society (California Series in Public Anthropology, 6)

305 Pages·2004·1.63 MB·English

by  Valery Tishkov

Chechnya
CALIFORNIA SERIES IN PUBLIC ANTHROPOLOGY
The California Series in Public Anthropology emphasizes the anthropologist’s role
as an engaged intellectual. It continues anthropology’s commitment to being an
ethnographic witness, to describing, in human terms, how life is lived beyond the
borders of many readers’ experiences. But it also adds a commitment, through
ethnography, to reframing the terms of public debate—transforming received,
accepted understandings of social issues with new insights, new framings.
Series Editor: Robert Borofsky (Hawaii PaciWc University)
Contributing Editors:
Philippe Bourgois (UC San Francisco),
Paul Farmer (Partners in Health),
Rayna Rapp (New York University),
and Nancy Scheper-Hughes (UC Berkeley)
University of California Press Editor: Naomi Schneider
1. Twice Dead: Organ Transplants and the Reinvention of Death,
by Margaret Lock
2. Birthing the Nation: Strategies of Palestinian Women in Israel,
by Rhoda Ann Kanaaneh (with a foreword by Hannan Ashrawi)
3. Annihilating Difference: The Anthropology of Genocide,edited by
Alexander Laban Hinton (with a foreword by Kenneth Roth)
4. Pathologies of Power: Structural Violence and the Assault on Health and
Human Rights,by Paul Farmer (with a foreword by Amartya Sen)
5. Buddha Is Hiding: Refugees, Citizenship, and the New America,
by Aihwa Ong
6. Chechnya: Life in a War-Torn Society,by Valery Tishkov
(with a foreword by Mikhail S. Gorbachev)
7. Total ConWnement: Madness and Reason in the Maximum Security Prison,
by Lorna A. Rhodes
8. Paradise in Ashes: A Guatemalan Journey of Courage, Terror, and Hope,
by Beatriz Manz (with a foreword by Aryeh Neier)
9. Laughter Out of Place: Race, Class, Violence, and Sexuality in a Rio
Shantytown,by Donna M. Goldstein
10. Shadows of War: Violence, Power, and International ProWteering
in the Twenty-First Century,by Carolyn Nordstrom
11. Why Did They Kill? Cambodia in the Shadow of Genocide,
by Alexander Laban Hinton
Chechnya
Life in a War-Torn Society
Valery Tishkov
With a foreword by Mikhail S. Gorbachev
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS
Berkeley Los Angeles London
University of California Press
Berkeley and Los Angeles, California
University of California Press, Ltd.
London, England
© 2004 by
The Regents of the University of California
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Tishkov, Valerii Aleksandrovich.
Chechnya : Life in a war-torn society / Valery Tishkov.
p. cm. —(California series in public anthropology ; 6)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
isbn0–520–23887–7 (cloth : alk. paper)—
isbn0–520–23888–5 (pbk. : alk. paper)
1. Chechnya (Russia)—History—Civil War, 1994–
—Social aspects. 2. Chechnya (Russia)—History—Civil War, 1994–
—Personal narratives, Chechen. I. Title. II. Series.
DK511.C37 T572 2004
947.5'2—dc22 2003017330
Manufactured in the United States of America
13 12 11 10 09 08 07 06 05 04
11 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally
chlorine-free (TCF). It meets the minimum requirements of
ansi/nisoZ39.48–1992 (R 1997) (Permanence of Paper). 8
CONTENTS
Foreword by mikhail s. gorbachev /
ix
Preface /
xv
1. Ethnography and Theory / 1
A Moral Dilemma / 1
War as an Ethnographic Field / 3
The Method of the Delegated Interview / 5
Explanatory Models and Theories of Research / 7
Self-Determination as a Political Project / 10
The Demodernization Phenomenon / 12
2. Indigenization, Deportation, and Return / 16
On the Use and Misuse of History and Ethnography / 16
The Soviet Policy of Indigenization / 21
The Trauma of Deportation / 25
The Daily Experience of Deportation / 28
Searching for Answers / 29
3. Contradictory Modernization / 32
The Return Home / 32
Political Status and Local Elites / 35
The Contradictions of Modernization and Chechen Disloyalty / 40
Education and the New Generation / 45
On Language and History / 47
4. Chechen Images / 49
The Changing Concept of the People / 50
Differentiating among Chechens / 54
vi contents
5. The Road to War / 57
“National Revolution” / 60
The Failures and Miscalculations of Chechen Secession / 63
The Response from the Center / 68
An Early Evaluation / 72
6. Dzhokhar: Hero and Devil / 75
The Media Image of Dudayev / 75
A Proud and Complicated Man / 77
Mass Perceptions / 80
Dudayev and War / 82
Postwar GloriWcation / 86
Post-Totalitarian Charismatic Leaders / 88
7. The Sons of War / 90
The Boyeviki / 90
Joining the Ranks / 92
Fear and Bravery / 95
The Kalashnikov Culture / 97
Why Fight? / 98
“Renegades, Idlers, and Parasites” / 100
A Wave of Greed / 103
The Veterans of War / 105
8. The Culture of Hostage-Taking / 107
The Political and Psychological Obstacles / 108
Why Abductions? / 114
Who Might Be Kidnapped—and How / 116
Organizers and Executors / 119
Domestic Prisons / 122
Abductions and Higher Politics / 124
9. Violence in Secessionist Warfare / 127
Imaging and Targeting the Enemy / 129
Disbelief and Shock at the Outset of the War / 132
The Cruelty of Both Sides / 135
Postwar Perceptions of the Violence / 140
A Conspiracy against the People / 142
War as Inferno / 145
DeWning the Violence / 146
10. The Impact on Family Life / 151
The Sociology of the Chechen Family / 151
Parents and War / 155
The Children of War / 158
The Loss of Family Members / 160
“Pure Islam” / 162
contents vii
11. Religion and the Chechen Conflict / 164
Propaganda against Religion / 166
The Retreat of Islam / 167
The “New Muslims” / 168
The Advent of the Wahhabites / 172
After the First Chechen War / 174
A New Split in a Torn Society / 176
12. The Myth and Reality of the “Great Victory” / 180
The DifWculty of Getting Back to Normal / 181
The Postwar Economy / 186
Social Life / 189
Group Rivalries and the Collapse of Governance / 191
Shari`a Law for Chechnya? / 194
13. An Ideology of Extremes / 196
A New Chechen Anthropology / 197
OfWcial and Eternal Enemies / 199
Liberating the Caucasus / 201
Modeling State and Nation on Islam / 203
Anti-Semitism and Witch Hunts / 207
14. Chechnya as a Stage and a Role / 210
The Truth and the Moral of the Conflict / 211
“Liberal Interventionism” / 216
Forging Chechens from Ethnographic References / 219
Conclusion / 224
Notes /
233
Main Characters /
239
Informants and Interviewers /
247
Select Bibliography /
251
Index /
269

FOREWORD
The war in Chechnya is a difWcult trial for the new Russian state and for all
its citizens, especially the Chechen people. The reasonable desire of the
population of this former autonomous region of the Soviet Union to enjoy
democratization and to correct the historical injustices done to the Chechen
and Ingush peoples—the Stalin-era deportation and subsequent discrimi-
nation—have been misused to fuel nationalist hysteria and anti-Russian
feeling.
In the prewar years, the socioeconomic and political situation in
Checheno-Ingushetia was difWcult. Many young men were without work,
especially in the hill country. The leadership of the republic suffered deep
corruption along clan lines. Murky ideas of creating an independent Islamic
state in Chechnya spread among part of the intelligentsia and the Islamic
religious leadership, although the religious issue was used from the very
start primarily as a political slogan in support of a break with Russia.
The collapse of the Soviet Union had a particularly negative effect on
Chechnya. Not content with the breakup of the Wfteen former Soviet
republics, which in and of itself was a huge historical shock, leaders and
activists in several autonomous regions undertook the much more danger-
ous project of further disintegration of the country. In response, leaders of
the Wfteen republics who were involved in dismantling the central authority
and the common state were setting a dangerous and often irresponsible
course in regard to their own internal autonomous regions. Some promised
the autonomous regions unlimited sovereignty, others tried to abolish
them. Both approaches led to armed conflicts that resulted in ethnic cleans-
ing and numerous casualties.
There was a chance to prevent violence and war in Chechnya. The thirst
for power among those at the center and the lack of attention to what was
ix