LAST to KNOW Stories of a War
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THE CIVIC ASSISTANCE COMMITTEE LAST TO KNOW stories of a war The Civic Assistance Committee The Norwegian Helsinki Committee Moscow 2013 This book was published within the framework of the CONTENTS programme ‘Human Rights Education in North Caucasus’ in cooperation with the Norwegian Helsinki Committee. PEOPLE This program is supported by the Norwegian Ministry of Index of names . 4 Foreign Affairs FOREWORD . 5 PREFACE . 7 Last to know: stories of a war. – Moscow, The Civic Assistance Committee, 2013 – 240 p. INTRODUCTION . 9 WHY This book is based on the materials gathered from interviews, the personal Why is the topic of the war relevant to you? recollections of people who lived through the Chechen war. Various stories are (Interviewers’ Introductions) . 13 presented in the book: stories of the young and old, of Russians and of Chechens, of the military, of journalists, and of human rights defenders. Each interviewee LIFE BEFORE tells their own version of and attitude towards what happened, relating his or How did you live before the war? . 20 her own truth, enabling the reader to consider the same events from different THE FIRST SIGNS points of view. The publication is meant for a wide audience of readers interested What were the precursors, the first signs in these matters. However it is also primarily aimed at young people, those who of the beginning of war? . 29 are starting to show an interest in the Caucasus, in the problem of the war, in the issues of memory and peace-building. THE BEGINNING How did the war start? . 40 THE WAR The position of the Civic Assistance Committee and the Norwegian Helsinki What happened to you during the war? . 55 Committee may not coincide with the contents of the book. THE END Editors: How and when did the war end for you? . 174 Sabina Folnovic-Jaitner, Tatevik Gukasyan THE LIFE AFTER Consultants: What has become of you since the war? Svetlana Gannushkina, Varvara Pakhomenko, Ekaterina Sokiryanskaya What is your life like? How do you live? . 183 Collection of materials and transcribing: Anna Kadimskaya, Arisha Zolkina, Timur Voskresenskiy, Masha Romashkina, Daria Sokolova, Karina Kotova, MEMORY Alexandra Maleeva, Tatevik Gukasyan, Sabina Folnovic-Jaitner, Irina Mozhaikina Should we remember and talk about the war? . 200 Photos are provided by the WHY? archive of the Human Rights Center ‘Memorial’ www.memo.ru Why do we need to work with the past? Design of the cover: Igor Bulychev (The interviewers’ afterword) . 209 Translated into English by Ekaterina Kokorina Edited in English by Fiona Wood THANK YOU! . 214 For free distribution READERS’ CONTRIBUTION . 215 CHRONOLOGY Russia and Chechnya: a brief chronology of relations . 216 © The Civic Assistance Committee – 2013 RELATED INFORMATION . 223 – 3 – PEOPLE FOREWORD Index of names Many years ago, a friend came to visit me. She came from a country which had been heavily stricken by war, where neighbours Ali, Chechen man, 22 years old . 22, 37, 115, 176, 193, 206 killed neighbours, families were torn apart, her country remained Aminat, Chechen woman, 67 years old . 29, 49, 168, 181, 189, 200 divided and conflicts unresolved. Showing her my hometown Oslo, without really thinking about Arkadiy, Russian man, 35 years old . 22, 38, 44, 87, 174, 193, 201 it, I time and again came back to stories from the Second World Aslan, Chechen man, 24 years old . 36, 50, 82, 179, 194, 207 War; about the grave of the Norwegian traitor Vidkun Quisling Aza, Chechen woman, 23 years old . 26, 38, 47, 75, 176, 190, 205 where people still put flowers, the rooftop where the resistance Ella, Russian woman, 71 years old . 43, 102, 186, 201 movement escaped after a sabotage mission, the Karl Johan’s street Hussein, Chechen man, 57 years old . 23, 33, 51, 133, 179, 187, 205 where people were dancing and cheering upon the liberation in Lilya, Chechen woman, 51 years old . 20, 35, 49, 69, 179, 190, 204 1945. All of them stories told to me by my grandfather; taking me for a walk a quiet summer evening to make sure that I would not Madina, Chechen woman, 29 years old . 166, 176, 198 allow myself to forget what happened – suspecting that I found the Magomed, Chechen man, 27 years old . 48, 79, 181, 196, 207 history lessons at school boring. Marem, Chechen woman, 49 years old . 27, 32, 41, 145, 175, 184, 203 I told her about what I perceived as my war, she told me nothing Minat, Chechen woman, 26 years old . 27, 36, 63, 177 about hers. Finally she asked me to stop talking. She wanted to see Natalia, Russian woman, 72 years old . 28, 40, 152, 191 the sculpture park of Gustav Vigeland, the Viking Ships, the Munch Ramzan, Chechen man, 57 years old . 31, 46, 68, 190, 205 Museum and the castle. And she wanted to go to McDonald’s and later have a coffee at the waterfront. I was embarrassed, immediately Ruslan, Chechen man, 24 years old . 23, 37, 166, 178, 196, 208 realizing that I just assumed that war was a straight forward subject Satsita, Chechen woman, 48 years old . 21, 34, 53, 58, 175, 183, 203 to her; not listening to her telling me nothing. Veda, Chechen woman, 28 years old . 21, 162, 178, 191, 206 The year after, I came to visit her city. I was deeply shaken by Vyacheslav, Russian man, 58 years old . 28, 35, 42, 121 craters from years of shelling, remnants of homes and buildings, tombstones, and the knowledge that hundreds of bodies never retrieved from mass graves surrounded us. Walking around she told me bits and pieces, filling in the gaps from what I saw, but also showing me the playground from her childhood, the river where they used to swim, the old salt mines and the new artificial salt water lake, her friends and their music and what they did on weekends. The book you are about to read portrays exactly such vivid stories from Chechnya; another country than my friend’s. But also a country where the personal stories challenge what may look like – 4 – – 5 – LAST TO KNOW: STORIES OF A WAR the one and only Truth to an outsider, which is the Truth claimed by those with power. The book let people tell their stories, many of them for the first time. It is a deeply personal book about war, but PREFACE also about other aspects of living in Chechnya, and it is an important document of the past and present. It is a brave book: telling stories Dear Reader, about the war and human rights violations committed in Chechnya has proved to be dangerous for those telling. We are glad to present ‘Last to know: stories of a war’ – a The book has been developed within the framework of the collection of interviews taken by young members and interns at the programme Human rights education in the North Caucasus, in which Civic Assistance Committee during the ‘Personal Memories of the Civic Assistance Committee and The Norwegian Helsinki Committee Chechen War’ project. In these interviews people who lived through have been partners since 2009. Teaching young people about human the recent tragic years in the Chechen republic tell their personal rights we see that people’s memories, traumas and the feeling of stories. being forgotten by the world must be an integrated part of such At the end of 1994 when the war in Chechnya began, the world education programs. With this book the Civic Assistance Committee split into two halves for me. There was the world of those who has provided a collection which has done exactly that. were thinking about this war every minute and there was the world My friend wanted me to understand that while I could talk of those who lived as if nothing in particular was happening. And about war as easily as I could take her to see our new Opera there were many more of the latter than of the former. If their sons, house – nobody would object to my stories, attack me, estrange me husbands, or brothers had not been sent to Chechnya to kill or to be nor hurt me – she did not trust me to believe her story, because it killed, they never even noticed that there was a war going on. was only one. Yet the war continues to this day, it cannot end until society This book makes sure that even if you would be hesitant of just comprehends it, until its essence has been revealed, until it becomes one person’s recollection of memories, you may listen more closely evident that this was a war not between two peoples, but between after having read so many. Arisha, a student from Russia says it a criminal power and a nation. This war is a lesson to us all, not well: ‘We never talked about it all. Well, because it was in the news yet understood, still going on, but nevertheless a lesson which has every day. And when it’s every day, you stop noticing it, it becomes driven and has been driving our society into savagery, cruelty and routine. But people, they never showed people, only how the rebel crudity. fighters were done for, but never people. There were no people...’ And now the war has stung the young authors of this book. They Mina Skouen were astonished to see how people could live without noticing the Project Manager war, how they could keep silent about it. I do hope that this book The Norwegian Helsinki Committee will interest other people, primarily other young people, and that it will force them to confront and accept a reality in which war holds an important place.