Chechnya

In recent years, the idea of ‘swarming’ – that is, simultaneous multidirectional attack or maneuver by large number of independent or semi-independent small units – became a subject of a heated debate. Some believe this is the future of warfare, while others see this belief as ridiculous and dangerous. In the Israel Defense Forces (IDF), specifically, swarming was heralded as the new way of war before the 2006 Second Lebanon War. But during and after the war, the word itself was turned into a derogatory term, symbolizing all that was wrong with the IDF’s performance: relying on new, untested and unrealistic concepts to pretend that the Army has a silver bullet which will solve its problems quickly and easily, ignoring reality in the process. This article draws on six historical case studies, from the American airborne operation in the Normandy Invasion to the Second Lebanon War, to examine the method of swarming, its relevance and its uses. Finally, the article concludes that Swarming is not a revolutionary method, and not ‘The future of conflict’. However it is a very useful method in certain situations, provided that commanders know and understand its possibilities and limitations.

The first act of Chechen suicide terrorism occurred on June 7, 2000 and was carried out by two young women. This inaugurated the migration of suicide terrorism from other conflict zones, into the Chechen conflict. How suicide terrorism as a tactic made it’s way into Chechnya is the topic of this paper, which provides an analysis of the events concerning the importation of militant ideologies and radical terrorist movements taking place since the Chechen declaration of independence as well as an empirical and theoretical analysis of Chechen suicide terrorism based on psycho-social interviews that were collected in Chechnya over a two-year time period from March 2003 to March 2005. We report data about suicide terrorism and the radicalization process from thirty-two interviews with family members and close associates of thirty-four Chechen suicide terrorists inquiring about the terrorists’ backgrounds, experiences, religious, and psychological reasons leading up to their suicidal acts.

The book discerns the rise and survival of Vladimir Putin as leader of Russia. The book will be relevant for those interested in Balkan and East European politics. To add, the book also reveals the secret relationship between the two super powers Russia and United States.

Tracing the political development of the Chechen Republic since its secessionist movement in the 1990s, this essay illustrates that the Islamic republic has been gradually pacified and stabilized by unpeaceful means: Authoritarian Conflict Management (ACM) and subcontracting authoritarian governance to the de facto autonomous ruler Ramzan Kadyrov. Building on concepts by Max Weber, Immanuel Kant, and Johan Galtung, this essay acknowledges that the notions of stability and peace concern two dimensions: 1. federal Moscow-Chechnya relations, 2. Chechnya’s internal balance. Though both dimensions evidently stabilized on a basis of coercion (especially by the use of regional networks and the blood feud system by pro-Kremlin Kadyrov), the emerging institutional framework exposes sources of instability, as it depends on individual relationships. Democratic innovations would even pose a threat to this established stability. Additionally, social integration of Chechnya into the Federation might be hampered by ethnic nationalism and xenophobia in Russian society. On the Chechen side, a ‘Russian’ identity is fragile. The collective memory still remembers Russian repressions vividly. Quantitative figures suggest pacification alongside the negative definition of peace. However, the case of Chechnya indicates that positive definitions (e.g. by Galtung) cannot be measured dichotomously; structural violence characterizes Chechen society, but, at the same time, a certain form of social integration took place.

Islamic State of Iraq and Levant (ISIL), also known as Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), or “Islamic States” (henceforth Daesh) is officially one of the most important and complex threats for the modern world, especially after June of 2014. In this essay we will try to understand what kind of ties lie between Daesh and Georgian small region - Pankisi valley. Also we have to look at government policy towards the dramatically risen threat from ISIS and its Chechen fighters.

This article examines recent developments in Chechnya with a
particular focus on its leader, Ramzan Kadyrov, whose influence
has long surpassed the borders of the republic and whose further
provocative behaviour and uncontrolled actions may face
repercussions at the federal level. The research consists of two
major parts explaining the psychological, political, social, security,
and economic dimensions of the Kadyrov regime and its potential
for collapse. It employs a cognitive approach to analyse the
Kadyrov–Putin relationship as well as a behavioural perspective
focusing on individual–psychological factors. In addition, the study
thoroughly analyses Kadyrov’s regime and the elements of his
personal clout that remain heavily dependent on Moscow’s
assistance. The article concludes that, despite frictions, the
Kadyrov regime has been advantageous to federal authorities, has
mostly operated within Moscow’s comfort zone, and has pushed
forward Moscow’s interests. As long as the strategic partnerships
between Grozny and Moscow and Kadyrov and Putin continue,
there will be no significant steps taken to replace the regional
leader.

Статья посвящена введению в научный оборот нового источника по истории Дагестана и Чечни XVII-XVIII вв., которое условно можно назвать продолжение «Тарих Аргвани». Вместе с тем, в данном источнике описываются и события, не имевшие прямого отношения к Аргвани, как-то возникновение антиколониального движения шейха Мансура (1785-1791). Основное внимание в источнике уделено земельному вопросу, а также выяснению принадлежности тех или иных спорных территорий, расположенных большей частью вдоль современной границы Дагестана и Чечни. Также источник позволяет уточнить некоторые спорные моменты социальной истории северного Дагестана, а именно выясняется, что в Аргвани правили представители фамилии Турурал (Турловых), т.е. боковой ветви аварских нуцалов, правивших в северной части горной Аварии и восточной части предгорной Чечни.

Today, it is hard to believe that some ten years ago Grozny lay in ruins. The broad avenues, the well-lit streets with carefully sculptured flower beds, the impressive contours of the shiny skyscrapers, dominating the city center, along with the grand mosque called “The Heart of Chechnya”  – everything in Grozny seems to be grand, luxurious and peaceful, with little reminiscences of the recent atrocities. This is by no means a miracle – but, rather, a result of Russia’s intense collaboration and financial support in rebuilding and re-creating Grozny as the symbol of unification and reconciliation. In other words, the project of Grozny’s reconstruction is an attempt to show that war is unequivocally over, and that violence has left Chechnya for good.
There is certainly no need to say that were this really the case, no grand architectural statements would be required to prove it. And while we, indeed, may not see violence in modern Chechnya, the new urban landscape of Grozny makes the case for asking what violence actually is – or, rather, what do we consider violence?

An abbreviated version of this review essay will be published in the peer-reviewed journal Iran and the Caucasus (Brill) in one of its issues this year; its editorial board has given permission for the current extended version to be published here in our own journal.
Ilyas Akhmadov’s book The Chechen Struggle: Independence Won and Lost—with co-author Miriam Lanskoy, Director for Russia and Eurasia at the National Endowment for Democracy—is an insightful, searing and moving account of the Chechen independence struggle in the Northern Caucasus against Russia. The same is true for Akhmadov’s more recent book Chechnya’s Secret Wartime Diplomacy: Aslan Maskhadov and the Quest for a Peaceful Resolution—with Nicholas Daniloff, a renowned journalist and former Director of the Northeastern University School of Journalism, as the co-author.
The latter book presents in separate chapters the transcripts of twenty-four secretly sent audiotapes by Chechen President Aslan Maskhadov between 1999 and 2003 to Akhmadov as Foreign Minister of the separatist government abroad from 1999 to 2005. The last chapter presents a letter by Maskhadov to the European Union of 25 February 2005 shortly before his

Abstract. The article examines the historical preconditions for the attainment of sovereignty by princedom Simsim at the background of internal fighting in the Golden Horde state.  As well, there are uncovered previously unknown aspects of the relationship between the Russian, Ossetian, Chechen and Golden Horde elites (the work points out the possible mention of the Chechen and Ossetian rulers as members of the embassy in Kostroma in 1360). The processes are analyzed through the prism of political and diplomatic activity of princedom Simsim governor, well known as Gayur-Khan, who due to military and diplomatic successes based suitable conditions that resulted the sovereignty of the princedom from Golden Horde in the middle of the XIV century. An analysis of the motives of confrontation between Gayur Khan and the governor of the Golden Horde of Mamai is conducted, leading to their clash and large-scale military activation of Chechens on the plane after nearly a hundred years of isolation in mountainous areas.

This article offers a comprehensive explanation of why Chechen and other North Caucasian jihadists join the Syrian civil war. It also details the ongoing split in the ranks of North Caucasian jihadists; their complex relationship with the leadership of the Caucasus Emirate; and the security implications of the jihadists' prospective return to their homeland.

Situación de Chechenia en la última década, marcada por un contexto histórico de gestación del conflicto. Este trabajo hace un análisis de los datos aportados principalmente dentro el campo de estudio del ámbito español en relación a los trágicos sucesos en la pequeña marca territorial del Cáucaso. En él pretendo hacer también referencia a otros autores a susodicha temática. Espero que esto ayude a otros a comprender como se mueven las fichas de un tablero de ajedrez, y que ejerce de gravedad en ellas para impulsar un movimiento o otro hacía la destrucción de ambos jugadores dentro del conflicto, gracias.

Статья посвящена теме зарождения и развития идеологии русскоязычного джихадизма, предшествовавшей той стадии джихадистского движения, которая связана с ближневосточными событиями последних нескольких лет. В статье развивается идея, что тему джихадизма в России необходимо рассматривать не столько в контексте исламской проблемы или как результат влияния из-за рубежа, сколько как пример постсоветского радикализма, который формировался на отечественной идейной и интеллектуальной базе. В работе утверждается, что зарождение и развитие этой содержательно довольно разнообразной идеологии происходило под большим влиянием советских и постсоветских интеллектуальных традиций, которые и сделала эту идеологию такой эффективной в российском контексте.

This article is devoted to the origin and development of the propagandist ideology of Russian-language Jihadism, which is linked with the events in the Middle East over the last few years. It develops the idea that the jihadism in Russia should be considered not so much in the context of the Islamic issue or as a result of the influence of foreign countries, but rather as an example of post-Soviet radicalism, formed on a native ideological and intellectual base. The article states that this meaningfully diverse ideology originated under the influence of Soviet and post-Soviet intellectual traditions, which made this ideology so effective in the Russian context.

Les opérations engagées contre la Tchétchénie en 1994 à la suite de la déclaration d’indépendance de la petite république, loin d’obtenir le résultat escompté au vu du déséquilibre des forces, ont ouvert un conflit d’une complexité et d’une cruauté rares : dévastation de Grozny, terreur (exactions de l’armée russe et des milices tchétchènes pro-russes) et contre-terreur (prises d’otages, radicalisation islamiste tchétchène, etc.).
Les solutions négociées à cette guerre instrumentalisée dans le cadre politique intérieur russe ont été au fur et à mesure balayées. C’est qu’il s’agit coûte que coûte de rétablir une « normalité » dont l’épuisement actuel des indépendantistes n’est qu’un gage très incertain.
Est-il concevable que la Russie parvienne enfin à surmonter les blocages politiques et idéologiques qui entravent toute solution durable et humaine de la question ? La recomposition définitive de l’État russe et le solde du passé soviétique ne se feront, en tout cas, qu’à ce prix.

Arguably, most traditional societies conform to a predominant religion, state, emperor, nation, ethnicity, or to a predominant collection of tribes and clans; multi-clan or other mixed groups with residential unity and self-identification in hamlets, villages, towns or other localities; and finally to extended families and nuclear families. In this research note I discuss some (preliminary) observations of mine, and those of Dettmering, Sokirianskaia and some other scholars, observers and others on the identified, claimed or actual (sub-)clans and other kinship or localised ethnic (sub-)groups however defined among the Chechens in distant and more recent history. Further research is required to determine with more confidence what roles any such surviving kinship and ethnic (sub-)groups may have played during particularly the First Russo-Chechen War (1994-1996) and the first high-intensity phase of the Second Russo-Chechen War (1999-2005), which since then has morphed into a collection of small-scale insurgencies across the North Caucasus.

This 2004 essay revisits the nearly three hundred year history of conflict between Chechnya and Russia, which has left little room for friendly relations. Yet examples of good neighbourly conduct, mutual understanding and a wish to live in peace can be traced back to the second half of the sixteenth century when both nations were aligned geographically. The following is an attempt at briefly analyzing the chronology of Russian-Chechen relations, trying to understand the dynamics of their history, and accentuating their positive attributes.

VOLUME I - FROM REVOLUTION TO WAR

"Freedom or Death!" With this slogan in 1991 Chechnya proclaimed independence. A people of a million souls, led by General Dzhokhar Dudaev, challenged the authority of the Soviet Union. This book traces the troubled history of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, never recognized by any government, yet capable of exercising its authority for a decade, and to continue to exist today, almost thirty years after its constitution, albeit in the form of government in exile. It is the story of a visionary political experiment, capable of inspiring a people to the point of challenging one of the greatest powers on the planet, convinced that it can win armed only with its faith. And, incredibly, capable of really winning, forcing Russia to bow its head. But it is also the story of an idea that did not stand up to reality: misery, religious fanaticism, military anarchy were the constants that dragged independent Chechnya into two devastating conflicts, from which the country came out totally destroyed, prey to the lords of war, fundamentalism and the brutality of an occupying army. A complete chronicle of the entire parable carried out by Chechen independence, from the Revolution of autumn 1991 to the present day.

The first volume of this series deals with the period between the so-called "Chechen Revolution" of autumn 1991 and the outbreak of the First Chechen War, with an in-depth introduction to the history of the Vaynakhs and the evolution of Russian-Chechen relations.

Исследование содержания материалов российских СМИ, анализ полученных результатов, круглый стол с участием ведущих российских журналистов, приложения.
Руководитель проекта - Питер Хлебников, редактор - Андрей Рихтер. Предисловие Дафни Скиллен. Исследовательская группа Российско-американского информационного Пресс-центра, 1995.

ВВЕДЕНИЕ:
Для реализации поставленной в предисловии цели мы использовали несколько методов исследования, особое место среди которых занял контент-анализ. Под контент-анализом обычно понимают технику исследования, направленную на объективное, систематическое и количественное описание содержания коммуникаций, соответствующее целям исследования. “Объективность” здесь означает такую разработку методики анализа, чтобы при рассмотрении одних и тех же текстов любой исследователь приходил к одинаковым фактическим результатам. “Систематичность” подразумевает упорядочение, унификацию и объединение всего имеющего отношение к цели исследования материала. “Количественное описание” выражается в таблицах, позволяющих сравнивать значимые элементы текста. (Подробные таблицы данных контент-анализа приводятся в досье, находящемся в Российско-американском информационном пресс-центре.) В ходе контент-анализа исследовалось все содержание материалов, имеющих полное или частичное отношение к событиям в Чечне и опубликованных в ежедневных общественно-политических газетах “Известия”, “Красная звезда”, “Московский комсомолец”, “Правда”, “Российская газета”, “Сегодня”, а также переданных в эфир в программах новостей “Вести” (20:00, РТВ), “Время” (21:00, “Останкино”) и “Сегодня” (22:00, НТВ) в период с 14 по 27 декабря 1994 года (I этап исследования) и - для сравнения - с 17 по 21 января 1995 года (II этап).

Эта часть исследования сопровождается обзором редакционных комментариев, наиболее ясно, аргументированно и эмоционально отражающих мнение изданий. Восприятие видеоряда телепрограмм ведущими критиками ТВ, их субъективный взгляд помогает дополнить сухие цифры анализа текста выпусков теленовостей.

Сокращенная стенограмма “круглого стола” с участием руководителей указанных выше органов массовой информации позволила обсудить редакционную политику СМИ. Условия работы и настроение журналистов, вернувшихся из зоны конфликта, их взгляд на работу коллег видны из результатов специально проведенного в рамках исследовательского проекта опроса. В этой же главе приводится наиболее полный из опубликованных на сегодняшний день мониторинг преследований журналистов, освещавших конфликт. Исследование позволило нам предложить некоторые практические советы прессе. Реакция общества на войну и то, какой она предстала перед ним посредством СМИ, анализируется в последней главе этой части.

Анализ полученных материалов позволил сопоставить общие моменты и различия в подходах средств массовой информации, синтезировать разрозненные данные и цифры.

В приложении опубликована хроника первых недель конфликта; документы министерства обороны США, имеющие отношение к порядку работы с журналистами, в том числе в ходе войны в Персидском заливе; вопросник, использованный при опросе журналистов.

Хотя в России еще не было серьезного изучения практики освещения в современных отечественных СМИ конфликтных ситуаций, в других странах такие исследования не редки. Мы использовали несколько книг о работе прессы во Вьетнаме, на Фолклендах и на Ближнем Востоке1. Особенно полезной оказалось исследование “Средства массовой информации на войне: пресса и конфликт в Персидском заливе”, написанная исследовательской группой Центра по изучению СМИ при Колумбийском университете в США во главе с Э. Деннисом.2

Российско-американский информационный пресс-центр (РАИПЦ) выражает особую благодарность Институту “Открытое общество” за финансовую поддержку исследовательского проекта и лично д-ру Дафни Скиллен за участие в работе группы. Без этой поддержки многие замыслы исследователей так и остались бы нереализованными.

Мы благодарны Ассоциации издателей и главных редакторов (и, прежде всего, И. Д. Лаптеву и В. В. Капелькину), чья благосклонная поддержка позволила нам привлечь руководителей ряда органов массовой информации к обсуждению политики освещения конфикта в СМИ. Мы признательны журналистам, откликнувшимся на приглашение участвовать в “круглом столе” и опросе.

Значительную помощь исследователям оказали сотрудники Российско-американского информационного пресс-центра В.Н. Орлов, А.В Фролов, Р. Харт, Н.А. Яковлева, И.В. Яцуненко.



Главы доклада были написаны следующими авторами: “Журналисты и кризис в Чечне (опрос и мониторинг)” - экспертом Фонда защиты гласности О.В. Панфиловым; “Советы военным репортерам” - со-директором Российско-американского информационного пресс-центра, бывшим редактором газеты “We/Мы” П. Хлебниковым; “Кому и зачем нужна война в Чечне? (обзор редакционных материалов газет)” - координатором информационной службы РАИПЦ А.И. Касьяненко; “Контент-анализ прессы” - сотрудником Фонда “Общественное мнение” С.Г. Мигдисовой; “Первая российская телевизионная война (пресса о телевидении)” - преподавателем кафедры телевидения факультета журналистики МГУ и членом редколлегии еженедельника “Семь дней” канд. филол. наук А.Г. Качкаевой; “Контент-анализ новостей телеканалов” и “Чеченский кризис в зеркале социологии” - кандидатом искусствоведения В.М. Вильчеком; часть третья - “Анализ полученных результатов” - канд. эк. наук Г.В. Винокуровым. Мнения, высказанные авторами доклада являются их собственными и не обязательно выражают точку зрения Российско-американского информационного пресс-центра и его учредителей, а также Института “Открытое общество”, Ассоциации издателей и главных редакторов и других организаций, принявших участие в этом проекте.

Руководителем исследования был Питер Хлебников, редактором доклада - координатор научных программ РАИПЦ, преподаватель факультета журналистики МГУ канд. филол. наук Андрей Рихтер.



Исследовательская группа Российско-американского информационного пресс-центра выражает надежду, что предоставляемый на суд читателя труд послужит стимулом для дальнейшего обсуждения и поможет общественности составить собственное мнение о том, как средства массовой информации освещали чеченский конфликт. Мы также надеемся, что наш доклад поможет общественности составить более четкое представление о работе “четвертой власти”, ее сильных сторонах и роли в российском обществе.



1Daniel C. Hallin The “Uncensored War”: The Media and Vietnam. Berkeley, 1989; Jacqueline Sharkey Under Fire: U.S. Military Restrictions on the Media from Grenada to the Persian Gulf. The Center for Public Integrity. Washington: 1991; War and Peace News. Glasgow University Media Group. Glasgow: 1985.
2Everette E. Dennis, et. al. The Media at War: The Press and the Persian Gulf Conflict. A Report of the Gannett Foundation. New York City: 1991.

This article seeks to reveal the specific features of the social environment in the North Caucasus that have generated insurgency across the region. It identifies a blend of Salafi-jihadism and ethno-nationalist separatism as the ideological sources of the local resistance movement(s). The papers further asserts that the holdover of archaic forms of social organization that emphasize the custom of blood feud as an effective means of social mobilization ensures a constant influx of new recruits to the expanding insurgency, a process that has persisted in spite of the enormous material advantages of the Russian state.

Islamic Architecture and Mosque Design as Articulations of Identity in Contemporary Chechnya

Mike Walker

ABSTRACT:

Part of the Soviet Union’s program of unifying its citizenry and replacing the divergent forces of religion with the all-encompassing banner of Communism was to mitigate if not eradicate Islam in the Caucasus. Nonetheless, even despite Stalin sending thousands of native Chechens, Dagestanis, and other Caucasian Muslims to Central Asia, their faith persisted. After the collapse of Communism, Russia under Vladimir Putin encountered considerable trouble with this region. The First Chechen War (1994-1996) and the Second Chechen War (1999-2009) became landmark tests of Putin’s administration and post-Soviet Russian unity but also tests for how a society with a majority that is both Muslim and also ethnically distinct could retain their own traditions and values and express them within the greater sphere of Russian stateship. Architecture and material culture—as immediate, visible, markers of society—help forge a Chechen, Muslim, identity in the midst of this incursion of Russian polity and culture.

The present paper explores the role of Islamic and indigenous Chechen and Dagestani architecture as mechanisms for establishing and re-enforcing identity and the formation of a congruent society with an Islamic ethos. Mosques play a central role in any Islamic culture, in no small part by providing immediate identification as an Islamic culture. In Chechnya, many mosques are new construction, post-Soviet, grand in scale and ornament, and direct responses to Soviet and Russian incursion by manifesting clear and powerful expression of Islam. This paper examines the central mosques of Grozny, Argun, and Shali as examples of “great mosques” whereas much smaller, localized, mosques in Starye Atagi and elsewhere are explored as rural examples. Primary themes queried include interpolation of indigenous Chechen aesthetics and linguistic modes, general concepts of what a mosque is and how one should appear—especially in the case of the grand mosques—and how mosque design and associated architecture have been adapted to the unique situation of contemporary Chechnya. In addition, the difficulties of working in this region—understandable suspicion of outsiders, lack of language proficiency in Chechen or even Russian on the part of many researchers of Islamic issues—are discussed.

День Победы — это не только официальные торжества, но и народный праздник. Точнее —набор разнообразных праздничных практик, ведь 9 мая отмечают от Берлина до тульской глубинки. В сборнике представлены результаты исследовательского проекта, в рамках которого впервые была предпринята попытка описать и осмыслить происходящее в этот день в разных точках постсоветского пространства, а также в Берлине, Вене и Софии.

Какую роль в праздновании играют советские и постсоветские памятники? Как в городском пространстве выражаются политические конфликты вокруг 9 мая? Какие новые формы празднования возникли после распада СССР и падения «железного занавеса»? Как разные сообщества — от «русских» в Литве до «одесситов» в Берлине — воспроизводятся через совместное празднование 9 мая и особое отношение к этому дню? Этот сборник дает ответы на эти и многие другие вопросы.

We start with an attempt at qualifying the identity link between the individual, the traditionnal clan structure and the territory in Chechnya, and insist on its existentialism : the chechen identity exists because it’s practised (customary prescriptions –adat, which is called « the fortress of teip ») and can’t bear determinism. While each clan was initially associated to a very territory, we ask ourselves : is the teip a geopolitical object ? We mention the social and geographical recompositions implied by the action of the center (Russia), which resulted in a de-territorialisation of teips, and the wonder if it really makes up a power structure. If it were the case then teip rivalry aimed at controlling the power could exist and somehow resemble regional conflicts, which is the point many sources make. Thus, we try to understand the different representations revolving around the teip’s political role and the conclude that it doesn’t really constitute a political detrminant but was perceived as such and then vainly used in this way, mainly by a badly-educated central power, in order to provoke internal dissensions during the chechen wars between « chechens from  lowland teips » (said to be loyalists) and « chechens from mountain teips » (said to be separatists). By asking the question of a prospective political role of the teip, we differenciate between « clan politics » (when politics differentiate between teips and uses them, cf supra) and « clan policies » (when politics use the traditionnal mechanisms revolving around the teip structure). We aim at showing here that tradition can be a political tool initself (social regulation), thus resembling some kind of a legal jurisdiction and so on, a strategy of territorial ruling. Finally, we question the relevance of the teip as a key to decode modern chechen society : is it even still useful as a customary-law-keeper structure ? More and more, clan policies seem to happen without even the clan intervening.

Nous commençons par tenter de qualifier le lien identitaire entre l’individu, la structure clanique traditionnelle et le territoire en Tchétchénie, et insistons sur le caractère existentiel de l’identité tchétchène : elle se pratique (prescriptions coutumières – adat, dont le teïp est « la forteresse ») et ne souffre aucun déterminisme. Alors que chaque clan est initialement associé à un territoire précis, nous nous posons la question : le teïp est-il un objet géopolitique ? Nous mentionnons les recompositions sociales et géographiques successive induites par l’action du centre russe sur la périphérie tchétchène qui ont résulté en la déterritorialisation des teïps, puis nous nous demandons s’il constitue réellement une structure de pouvoir. Si c’était le cas, alors des rivalités entre teïps pour le contrôle du pouvoir pourraient exister et s’apparenter à des conflits entre différentes régions, ce que certaines sources affirment. Nous tentons donc de comprendre les représentations afférentes au rôle politique du teïp et concluons qu’il ne constitue pas réellement un déterminant politique mais a été perçu comme tel puis vainement instrumentalisé en ce sens, principalement par un pouvoir central mal instruit, afin de provoquer des divisions internes durant les guerres de Tchétchénie entre « tchétchènes des clans de la plaine » soi-disant loyalistes et « tchétchènes des clans de la montagne », soi-disant séparatistes.
En se posant la question d’un éventuel rôle politique du teïp, nous opérons une différenciation entre les « clan politics » (quand la politique différencie les teïps et les utilise cf supra) des « clan policies » (quand la politique utilise  les mécanismes traditionnels afférents à la structure clanique). Il s’agit ici de montrer que la tradition peut être un outil politique à part entière (régulation sociale), s’apparentant ainsi à une forme de compétence juridique et donc à une stratégie de contrôle du territoire.
Enfin, nous interrogeons la pertinence du teïp comme clef de lecture de la société moderne tchétchène : est-il même encore utile en tant que structure gardienne du droit coutumier ? De plus en plus, les clan policies semblent se pratiquer sans même le concours du clan.

Anton Shekhovtsov’s essay examines reasons and agendas behind the attacks of the head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov on France and President Emmanuel Macron. The author argues that Kadyrov’s anti-French rhetoric, which included an element of apology towards Islamist terrorism in France, was shaped by political, personal, and tactical concerns. The Kremlin benefitted from Kadyrov’s attacks. By empowering Islamists in France, Kadyrov contributed to religious polarization in France. Moreover, Kadyrov helped Moscow covertly fight another political war, with Istanbul, consolidating its positions in the region and competing with Moscow in different areas.

Sounds of War is a book on the aesthetics of war experience in Chechnya. It includes theory on, and stories of, compassion, dance, children’s agency and love. It is not simply a book to be read, but to be listened to. The chapters begin with the author’s own songs expressing research findings and methodology in musical form. Susanna Hast is Academy of Finland postdoctoral researcher with a project “Bodies in War, Bodies in Dance” (2017–2020) at the Theatre Academy Helsinki, University of the Arts. She does artistic research on emotions, embodiment and war and teaches dance for immigrant and asylum-seeking women in Finland.

See also the album Man State War by Hast & Cast on Spotify, Google, Play, ITunes etc.

Additional material: https://www.susannahast.com/sounds-of-war

This book is about a region on the fringes of empire, which neither Tsarist Russia, nor the Soviet Union, nor in fact the Russian Federation, ever really managed to control. Starting with the nineteenth century, it analyses the state's various strategies to establish its rule over populations highly resilient to change imposed from outside, who frequently resorted to arms to resist interference in their religious practices and beliefs, traditional customs, and ways of life. This book offers a major contribution to our knowledge of the early Soviet era, a crucial yet overlooked period in this region's troubled history. During the 1920s and 1930s, the various peoples of this predominantly Muslim region came into contact for the first time with a modernising state, demanding not only unconditional loyalty but active participation in the project of 'socialist transformation'. Drawing on unpublished documents from Russian archives, Perovi? investigates the changes wrought by Russian policy and explains why, from Moscow's perspective, these modernization attempts failed, ultimately prompting the Stalinist leadership to forcefully exile the Chechens and other North Caucasians to Central Asia in 1943-4.

The present article analyses the evolution of Sufism in Chechnya. The study of the Sufi community, by one of its members, contributes to an understanding of the changes that took place in Chechen society in the second half of the twentieth century. Particular attention is paid to the integration of Sufi orders into the political system of the Republic. This essay investigates the isolation of Chechen Sufism from the rest of the Sufi world and its reasons, likewise its impact on the formation of a specifically Chechen Sufism. First among studies of North Caucasian Sufism, it raises the issue of the substitution of the political system by
Sufi orders. There is a growing tendency towards the politicisation of Sufism in Chechnya, reflecting the alliance of Sufi orders with government. It is also a result of the quest for a political system in Chechen society, where clan relations are still strong.

This dissertation investigates how violence against a given territory or group of people becomes acceptable to leaders and their publics. Some wars are launched only reluctantly, and support dwindles once the high human costs are revealaed. Others, however, are undertaken with a sense of urgency and righteousness. The brute violence employed appears not only acceptable, but even necessary. The second post-soviet war which was launched against Chechnya in 1999 was such a war. The thesis employs and develops a post-structuralist version of securitization theory. This approach emphasises securitization as an intersubjective and ongoing process of legitimation, not an instance or a moment. The social construction of Chechnya and Chechens as 'terrorist' is conceptualized as a collective endeavour. Not only statements by the Russian leadership, but also historical representations as well as those of the wider political elite, journalists and experts contributed to this rough categorization. In the final chapter the thesis investigates how this linguistic categorization materialized in the brutal practices employed during the Second Chechen War.

In 9067 BP (7117 BC, 8150 14C b.p.), a tsunami from the Gulf of Mexico flooded much of the Americas and Europe. In Ireland, it raced up the Irish Channel, destroyed the land bridge to Scotland and terminated the Early Mesolithic. In the Caribbean, sixty million died. The tsunami resulted from a turbidite off the continental shelf of Louisiana, which in turn was triggered by a strike in Alabama by a satellite of planet Nibiru. This was one of many catastrophes caused by Nibiru, which ended when Nibiru struck Jupiter, punched out its core to make Venus, and left the Great Red Spot.
Nibiru, a fiery sun-like planet, entered the Solar System about 25,000 years ago, a remnant from a supernova with ten times the mass of Earth. After encounters with other planets, it ended up with four moons, a cloud of satellites and a comet-like tail. It had a 20-year orbit opposite to that of Earth, but in the same plane, preceded by eight years with a Head, which had its own collection of satellites. Every 60 years Nibiru approached much closer, and every 1200 years initiated a major disaster. Previously, it had ended the Younger Dryas, sunk Atlantis, transferred Moon from Tiamat to Earth, and drowned the mammoths.
One of its many satellites struck Alabama and set southern forests afire. An earthquake from the shock liquified a layer of quartz in the continental shelf of Louisiana, which caused friction to drop to zero. Having lost all friction, an immense section of the continental shelf began to slide into the Gulf of Mexico, 4.2 km deep. As it fell, the turbidite gained speed and hurtled toward the Yucatan Peninsula. Behind it, oil, gas and naphtha erupted from the exposed shelf. Above it, the sea rose 1.9 km. Part way out, the turbidite regained friction and tore off a huge piece of shelf, which now lies against the Yucatan Peninsula. Raised high above the turbidite and filled with silt, the tsunami rushed away in all directions.
Going north, the tsunami faced a chasm 1.9 km below sea level, erupting with petroleum products.  It crossed the chasm and spread out across the south and central plains, where it drowned all inhabitants, whose principal tribe was called Wa-gas. The wave crossed over the Great Lakes, which had not fully rebounded from the ice sheet. It careened around the western edge of the Laurentide Ice Sheet and eroded a 75 km strip of ice along the edge. Hemmed in by mountains on one side and the ice sheet on the other, it lost little height, and was still about 150 m high at the edge of Alaska. Just offshore, a floating wall of ice stopped it, 2 km thick, the Barents Ice Sheet, which had crossed the Arctic as a turbidite three thousand years earlier. It left a deposit of muck, absent of mammoths. Sea level rose 1.17 m from erosion of the ice sheet.
Going west, it knocked off the tops of three islands in the Gulf of Mexico, one of which appeared on a map made by an exploration party of 400 Magdalenians from the Rhine.
Going south, the tsunami obliterated the Mayan civilization of Mu around the Caribbean, 60 million people. Those living in the mountains, in the Valley of Mexico, and on the Pacific Coast survived. It crossed Panama to the Pacific. Narrow passages between low hills prevented flooding of the interior of Brazil and Venezuela.
Going east, the tsunami washed over Florida and crossed the Atlantic. At Ireland, it rushed up the Irish Sea, crashed against the land bridge to Scotland, pushed the bridge out to sea and terminated the Early Neolithic. It rushed up the English Channel from the south, and flooded Doggerland from the north. Denmark, the Netherlands, northern Germany, most of Belgium, northern France were drowned. Habitation in Iberia ceased.
The returning outwash filled the flood channel at Natchez, 26 km wide and 300 feet high. It continued straight into the Gulf of Mexico, created giant ripple marks on the seafloor, and left no delta. Where it ponded, silt settled out and left a distinctive soil. A sea of mud cut North America in half, which lay vacant for 500 years. Dust storms harassed the northern hemisphere. During that time, the Mississippi wandered back and forth over the floodplain.
On the west coast, surviving Wa-gas returned to Europe across the Pacific, to Chechnya. On the east coast, surviving Wa-gas returned to Europe across the Atlantic, to the Isle of Man, and the Sahara. Cheyenne returned from Mexico. Iberian sailors replanted trees in Ireland, whose forests had vanished.

This 2006 essay is an attempt to provide for an unbiased account of some key features of the current debates, centering on imam Shamil and his perplexed relationships with the Chechens. The essay begins with a basic introduction into Shamil’s personality, Sufi Islam of the Naqshbandiya path, and the principles of the Imamate. The narrative is embedded into an overall context of the Great Caucasian War, regarding the issue in the widest light of the Russia’s colonization of both the Northern and Southern Caucasus.

A Turkish citizen of Chechen origin, Haji Yusuf played a valuable role in the formation of the administrative and military institutions of the Imamate, the construction of fortifi cations, and communication with offi cials of the Ottoman Empire; he is considered one of the important fi gures of the Shamil era, "the behind-the-scenes mind of the imam". Several studies of diff erent time periods have been devoted to Haji Yusuf, however, a lot of time has passed since their publication. New information has been revealed that make it possible to clarify the details about the life of this remarkable fi gure. His scientifi c biography contributes to raising the level of knowledge of the life of a particular individual, recreating human history in the context of historical and social realities, characterizing time against the background of a person. For this purpose, his autobiographical information has been used, as well as an array of identifi ed sources and materials, the analysis of which has been made as a comparison. The results obtained demonstrate the stages of the life of Haji Yusuf in chronological order: birth in the village of Aldy; the relocation of his family to the Ottoman Empire, where he received education and then served in the army of the Egyptian Pasha (until 1834); his return to the Caucasus, working as a home teacher for the Kabardian prince (1834-1839); the desire to return to Turkey and the departure to the Black Sea coast of Circassia (1839-1841); establishing contacts and moving to Imam Shamil (1841); the service in the Imamate-as a naib, adviser, engineer (until 1854); exile for attempting to discredit the imam (1854-1856); defection to the Russians (1856). In addition, the study publishes the legacy of Haji Yusuf-maps and diagrams drawn by him to inform the offi cials of the Ottoman Empire about the Imamate.

Even with Vladimir Putin having made, as it turned out retroactively, a strategic wager on the Kadyrov clan, it appears that Moscow has never (2006) abandoned its tried and true system of checks and balances. For instance, Bislan Gantamirov, perhaps the most noteworthy “opposition leader” in modern Chechen history, along with some pro-Russian political figures, was long kept in Chechnya as a trump card that could be played as needed if the former mufti, Ahmad Kadyrov, were to become unmanageable. They had been promised a brilliant future in politics, but were told that their time simply had not yet come.

This paper serves a looking glass into the geopolitics of the late-1700s and present-day. A special historical and foreign policy comparison of Empress Catherine the Great and President Vladimir Putin's Russification policies in the Balkans, Eastern Europe, Baltic, Ukraine, Central Asia, and Caucasus Mountains.

The review article analyses several key publications on the Chechen conflict in the light of the portraits of Maskhadov and other prominent figures of the post-1991 Chechen insur-gencies, with a view on the inner controversies between secularist and jihadist wings of this anti-Russian separatist movement.