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The tiny red portion is Chechnya
in the Russian Empire

Years ago I have spent quite a long time in Chechnya. I used to work there as the head of a humanitarian aid agency’s mission. It was war, it was amidst unbelievable circumstances for our Western standards, it was dangerous - and yet it was one of those periods in my life that I recall the most often. Because I loved it…

I loved the people, the Chechens. Most Westerners don’t know much about the Chechens. It’s a small nation on the Northern slopes of the Caucasian Mountains. You might remember news in the media about the Chechen-Russian wars in the nineties, you might recall some news referring to the “Chechen maffia”…

Yes, there are criminals over there, too - as in every country. Yes, the kidnapping for ransom is a “national sport”, especially in war times. That’s why I had to have four bodyguards day and night, and couldn’t go out from the house without at least two of them escoring me with their Kalashnikov. I used to call them “my sons” since their age was close to that of my real son. To the horror of many terrified Westerners I’ve trusted them as I’d my own son. And almost cried when years later I got the news that one of them was killed while working as a policeman.

During long winter evenings, sitting around the table with a kerosene lamp (no electricity for months) I was listening them as they told me stories and legends from two hundred years ago as well as from the latest war. Being a predominantly oral society these twenty-something years old boys were native story tellers. The late Ibrashka could tell me elaborate stories about the first deportation of his people by the Russians — in the 18th century! And I still have some torn books about the history of Chechnya; God knows where they found to bring them to the “boss”… They helped me to have a totally different image about the Chechens, not the one pictured by their arch-enemies. (Just to make you to understand: imagine that the world learns all about Canada from what is told by Goebbels, the Nazi propaganda minister…)

I remembered all this today because Transition Online — linked in the sidebar — published an excellent article about an excellent book that deals with Chechnya. It is worth to be read!

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