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Life in a War-Torn Society, by Valery Tishkov (With a Foreword by Mikhail S

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Life in a War-Torn Society, by Valery Tishkov (With a Foreword by Mikhail S 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. isbn 0–520–23887–7 (cloth : alk. paper)— isbn 0–520–23888–5 (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 1110987654 321 The paper used in this publication is both acid-free and totally chlorine-free (TCF). It meets the minimum requirements of ansi/niso Z39.48–1992 (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 x Foreword happening at the periphery, as well as the ambitions of some Russian national leaders who came from the region, allowed a series of dangerous manipulations to unfold in Checheno-Ingushetia: the rise to power of General Dudayev, the destruction of the institutions of the state, the loss of control over arms stores, the appearance of armed groups among the civil- ian population, and the easy agreement to split the republic in two. The illegitimate regime pushed the republic toward chaos and danger- ous adventurism. The Wrst victims were the non-Chechen population, who were robbed, pushed out of the republic, and sometimes killed. The help- less reaction of the Russian authorities and the silence of international human-rights organizations remain on their consciences. The slogan of self- determination turned out to be more important than human rights and ele- mentary order in the country. This was the time when supporters of further disintegration in Russia appeared in the outside world. If it had not been for their sympathy, Wnancial subsidies, and secret instructions, events might have taken a dif- ferent turn. There might have been talks with a peaceful outcome, as hap- pened, for example, in Tatarstan. In the end, the ambitions, haughtiness, and arrogance of leaders—primarily Yeltsin and Dudayev—overpowered feelings of responsibility for the fates and lives of the citizens. Irresponsible improvisations led to war in 1994, which ended in August 1996 with a pseudo-peace, since no fundamental agreements were reached, except the proud but ahistorical claim to have brought about “the end of the 400-year conflict between Russia and Chechnya.” There were many guilty parties in this war, and history will put everything in its place. But the human lives lost cannot be brought back, and the destruction is difWcult to reverse. But what happened after August 1996 has a somewhat different meaning. For three years, the destruction of the state and society in Chechnya proceeded apace.
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