During my visit to Moscow this past May, Yuri Samodurov, executive director of the Andrei Sakharov Center, and Professor Dmitry Furman, a senior scholar at the Institute of Europe, introduced me to Apti Bisultanov and Zuleikhan Bagalova, president and exective director of LAM, a nongovernmental organization established in Grozny to: a) revive and preserve Chechen culture and crafts and b) develop in Chechnya the type of Islamic society and educational institutions compatible with democratic values.
I was impressed by Bisultanov and Bagalova’s commitment to Chechnya and to human rights and arranged for them to travel to the United States as guests of The Andrei Sakharov Foundation. From September 16 through October 4 they visited New York, Washington, Atlanta and Los Angeles in order to stimulate interest in the postwar plight of Chechnya and to meet with persons who might assist them in the revival of Chechen culture.
This brief update of my earlier paper is based on my conversations with Bisultanov and Bagalova; on recent news articles; and on three books published this year:
Chechnya currently is in dire straits. The war with Russia lasted from December 1994 until August 1996, when Russian General Alexander Lebed signed a peace agreement with Chechen Chief-of-Staff Aslan Maskhadov providing for a pull-out of Russian troops and deferring resolution of the issue of Chechen independence for five years. The conflict left more than 50,000 Chechens dead (out of a prewar population of 1,000,000), 40,000 homes destroyed, and 300,000 to 400,000 displaced persons. Grozny’s center remains a bombed-out wasteland overgrown with weeds. Large areas of agricultural land are not farmed because of uncharted landmines. Cattle are infected with tuberculosis, and children fall ill from drinking bad milk. Hospitals, schools, museums, libraries, state archives, public utilities, factories, lie in ruins. Almost all Russian technicians have emigrated.
Poverty, combined with the easy availability of firearms, has led to a wave of kidnapping and other crimes of violence. The targetting of foreigners has made Chechnya a no-go zone for European and American journalists, business men and humanitarian organizations and is blocking all foreign assistance (with the notable and courageous exception of a British demining team).
Many young Chechen veterans, displaced from their roots, without employment or prospects, but trained in the martial arts, have turned to crime or aspire to become mercenaries for Muslim causes abroad. A doctor in Grozny has described the effects of the war on children. "They have become more aggressive, nervous, cruel. They have no respect for elders. They’re dangerous to be around. They have psychological illnesses, terrible illnesses. Some can solve problems only with a gun."
One ray of hope is that the framework for a democratic government has been established. The Constitution of the Chechen Republic entered into force on March 12, 1992. It provides for a president and parliament, both elected by direct popular vote for five year terms. Freedom of expression, freedom of conscience, freedom of association, due process in criminal cases, and equality before the law irrespective of national or social origin, sex, language, religion, or political or other opinion, are guaranteed by the Constitution. Aslan Maskhadov was elected president of Chechnya by an absolute majority of the voters on January 27, 1997; he was inaugurated on February 12, 1997, and continues in office as of this date. Deputies of the Chechen parliament were elected on January 27 and February 15, 1997, and entered into office on March 13, 1997. Both secular and sharia (Islamic law) courts are now functioning in Chechnya. Reality is, of course, quite different from the facade, and the central government has had great difficulty in asserting its authority, but the aspiration of Chechens for the rule of law seems genuine.
Another ray of hope is a revival of interest in traditional Chechen culture. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, the Chechens were gradually converted to the Sunni branch of Islam. Most embraced its Sufi form, which emphasizes membership in brotherhoods (usually 10 to 40 disciples led by a master) and mystical union with God through the zikr, a ceremony that consists of recitation of prayers, often accompanied by energetic dancing and chanting to induce an ecstatic state. The adoption of Islam, which has played an important part in Chechen life since the 19th century, did not do away with, but rather was grafted onto the earlier customs and traditions of Chechnya, in particular loyalty to the taip, the clan or extended family. These traditions have preserved the identity of the Chechen nation through the millenia. They have colored the Islam of Chechnya and have continually taken precedence over Islamic orthodoxy. The Chechens have always fiercely resisted outside intervention, whether on the part of Russians, Turks, Persians or Arabs.
In part, the renewal of interest in Chechen traditions and the reexamination of their Islamic faith has occurred because of the weakening of those traditions through forced Sovietization, the trauma of their 1944 mass deportation to Central Asia, and the destruction of the country during the recent war. Foreign Muslims now come to Chechnya proselytizing for Wahhabism, the puritanical, jingoistic creed of Saudi Arabia. Although Wahhabism is incompatible with traditional Chechen beliefs and practices (in particular, its condemnation of any manifestation of Sufism), in time these Wahhabi preachers, who receive generous subventions from wealthy Arabs, may gain converts among dispirited young Chechens because of their ability to provide material assistance, education in local madrasas (Muslim schools) subsidized and supervised by Wahhabi mullahs, and scholarships for study in hardline Muslim universities abroad.
This brings me to LAM ["Mountain"], a nongovernmental organization founded in Grozny in 1995 by 12 leading members of the Chechen intelligentsia. LAM’s aim is to revive Chechen culture in the belief that culture is the soul of a nation and that respect for Chechnya’s unique heritage will permit Chechnya to develop a pluralistic, democratic society in a secular state while retaining Chechnya’s national character and its Islamic religion. It also works to acquaint Chechens with the art and culture of other nations and to open Chechnya to the world beyond Russia so that Chechnya can become an informed participant in the international community.
In Moscow on March 25, 1997, the Andrei Sakharov Center sponsored a round-table discussion with LAM members Lyoma Usmanov and Zuleikhan Bagalova on the impact of the 1994-96 war on Chechen culture. In September 1997 the Sakharov Center helped LAM register in Moscow as a noncommercial cultural association and receive modest grants from the Russian Ministry of Culture and the Soros Foundation. Members of LAM regularly produce TV and radio programs, write for the Grozny press, and organize lectures and discussions on cultural topics. They have produced documentary films on postwar Grozny, on the zikr performed by various Sufi brotherhoods, on folk music, and on the astounding residential and military towers high up in the Caucasus mountains built by Chechens during the middle ages. They are currently exhibiting in Moscow drawings made in wartime Chechnya by 10 to 12-year-olds - LAM wants to publish an album of these drawings with a commentary pointing out the terrible damage war causes to the minds of young people.
In a similar vein, LAM would like to produce a professional documentary film on the destruction caused by bombing and combat in Grozny. A number of manuscripts, including a Russian-language history of Chechnya, have been prepared for publication. LAM has arranged for five Chechens to study at Polish universities, and for two Chechens to attend a nine-month course in Moscow on management of cultural institutions. During their recent trip to the United States, Apti Bisultanov, LAM’s president, and Zuleikhan Bagalova, LAM’s executive director, investigated opportunities for Chechens to study abroad and to receive English language training in Chechnya. They, like others around the world, believe that knowledge of English is critical for access to the internet, to scientific and technical information, and generally to the world beyond their borders.
Two years after the war’s end, Chechnya has fallen off the agenda of both Russia and the West. That is wrong from the moral point of view – the death and destruction which Russia wrought in Chechnya with the tacit and sometimes overt acquiescence of the West gives Chechnya a strong claim to reparations. It is also wrong from the point of view of realpolitik - if the current armistice with Russia is not converted into a durable, mutually acceptable peace settlement accompanied by significant economic recovery, the Russian-Chechen conflict is likely to flare up again, destabilizing Dagestan, Ingushetia, and potentially other parts of the Caucasus region. Chechens displayed remarkable energy, commitment and courage in fighting off the Russian army for 20 months. If they can be persuaded that their survival as a nation depends on devoting equal vigor and resources to Chechnya’s reconstruction, and that they will receive assistance from Russia and the West if they adhere to that course, that will do much to promote stability in the Caucasus. Only states can supply the major aid required for reconstruction. But an important role will, in all likelihood, be played by those Chechens who have joined together in LAM to help their nation rebuild civil society. Their efforts deserve encouragement and support.
October 1998, by Edward Kline
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