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| Irina Malenkov |
My first "Chechen" article was written in March 2000 and was published in Ireland in English. It was mainly aimed at Western audience – because of the questions that people started asking me about Chechnya, some of which were not easy to answer. I was trying to explain to them what exactly causes such unacceptability of the idea of Chechen independence for Russians – the feeling that "independent" Chechnya in reality will become a semi-colony of far from friendly towards our country states and will be used by them as a base for destroying our country completely (I am not just speaking about separation of the various national regions!)
It is very hard to write about Chechnya, especially for a Russian. It is all plain and simple only for such "journalists" as Anna Politkovskaya – depending on what was "ordered" by those overseas figures who do request such materials (even though Anna’s Chechen novel started from position that was quite far from her today’s stand but was quite close to the British imperialism link). By the way, since we mentioned the British: it is very important for the Russian left not to avoid the question of Chechnya, in order not to become like the British left who seem to be prepared to fight fiercely for any nation’s freedom, except when it comes close to home – you won’t hear a single word of support for the Irish full independence struggle from their big mouths! Irish question seems to cease to exist in their creative imagination.
And, speaking about Ireland; since total lack of knowledge of the current Irish situation didn’t stop the infamous Anna from writing about it, I would like to clarify that the Irish republicans have never been and are not supporting Islamic extremists in any of the world’s countries and the vast majority of them do not support the idea of the independent Chechnya – their position shares Russian fears that I have described here above. We should not forget that the Talibans of all nations are a creation of the imperialist West who had armed them in Soviet times to fight against our state, and the Irish have absolutely no illusions about that.
But at the same time, any normal, human concern about the awful plight of the Chechen civilians – victims of this war and unfortunately, far from occasional in the Russian army "Budanov syndrome" will inevitably cause in Russia either insulting (at least, for me personally, they would be!) comparisons with Anna who changes her opinion on "international terrorism" as gloves, depending on what’s more hot topic today, or absurd accusations of "supporting terrorism" – just as one of my ex-colleagues in Holland had accused me after I told him this innocent political joke:
"What is the difference between U.S.A. and Afghanistan?
One – is a savage terrorist state, governed by the illegitimate government--a group of gangsters who stay in power by violence--and populated by the bloodthirsty fanatics who are ready to kill men, women, old people and children in any part of the world only because their views on life are slightly different from those held by these savages at a given moment. Another – is a small country in Central Asia. Let’s confess that most of us, common Russians, do not want to think about what is going on in Chechnya today and was going on for many years already. It’s making us sick, we are disgusted, ashamed, and we feel pain for all the suffering innocent people, no matter what their ethnic group or religion might be. Especially we feel sick to think that this war had started as "a war for The Pipe" – for oil that both Russian and Chechen rulers want to control. Both ruling classes are appealing to our patriotism. But it is not their children who are dying daily in this slaughter…I remember how I met during a conference in the Netherlands that was held between the First and the Second Chechen wars, a friendly, gentle Chechen lady, head of the Chechen Mothers Committee – mothers of those who perished in the first war. At first I was shy to talk to her, thinking that she would see me, a Russian, as an enemy (if one is to believe our "democratic-patriotic" Russian media, all Chechens are some sort of wild animals, hating Russians since birth, but if one is to believe the pro-Western media, we are such savages ourselves!). But the lady was very friendly and kind, and when she saw that I was genuinely interested in the events in her country, her heart was soon melted, and she even started showing me some family photos. But there was one thing I was surprised about. I asked her about her children, expecting to hear something horrible, but instead I heard: "No, my own children are fine, thank you, they are all in Moscow; it’s just children of some of my friends and relatives who had died…" In the same delegation with her was Galina Starovoytova, and I was "honoured" to hear first-hand her appeals for Russia to be accepted into NATO.
The feeling of personal guilt, of personal responsibility for what is happening in Chechnya – but also for everything what is happening in Russia today!- does not leave me all these years. But there is nobody around to share this feeling with: usually you would meet either Russians who have never met any Chechens in their own lives, but are so totally convinced that they all "should be made cold in the toilets" (president’s expression!) or Western "well-wishers" of our country whose own countries are guilty of far worse, centuries-long crimes against nations of the whole continents and are continuing trying to submit other nations to themselves today, and whose own armies have by no means less bloody, often far more so, hands than the Russian one. Do I have to name these countries?
That is exactly why I do not feel like sharing my pain and bitterness with them. Because they are all "for the human rights", but not out of compassion for Chechens – just as their demands to tell them what gas was used for hostage-freeing in Moscow are being aired not out of compassion for the victims. The only thing that motivates them (not taking into account honest idealists, of course, but even those idealists for some reason prefer not to look at their own leaders’ actions!), is their absorbing hatred for our country and their desire to see it totally destroyed.
Unfortunately, many Chechens are absolutely sincerely thinking that, for example, Britain is such a wonderful, really democratic state (it would be no harm to bring them into Belfast’s interface areas today to cure them of their illusions!) And Western intelligence agencies, arming (together with the corrupt Russian officers) the Chechen "warriors", are trying to use the growing pain and anger of the whole Chechen nation, of those who have lost their children, mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, grandparents and grandchildren, as a tool against our country.
It is exactly those who put weapons into these hands, those who supply them with their new uniforms, those who not coincidentally matched to begin the Amnesty International’s Russian campaign to the days of ending the theatre siege in Moscow, - they are the real and the main enemy of Russia. The matter is not that our country does not violate human rights: it does, just as does any other "democratic" country. These enemies are not willing to pay attention to the continuing attempts of our capitalist leadership "to become friends" with the West and are continuing to follow their Russophobe geopolitical line, cause by economic and strategic interests of the Western imperialism that was blown a new life into by Gorby’s perestroika. Just as a dying dragon in a fairy tale that received a bit of living water sprayed over all his chopped-off heads…
That is the reason why it is so hard to write about Chechnya today. We really do have a common enemy: not some mythical "dragon on international terrorism" for us, the Russians, and the US, but the imperialists of all sorts and all nations for us, the Russians and the Chechens.
It seems to me that the understanding of it will not come soon and easy. And until then we will continue mutual accusations. I can be told that I am no expert on Chechen people, their history, their traditions, and that is why I cannot judge about many things. I do not pretend to be an expert on this. But, having experienced first-hand how imperialism operates, I can call myself more expert on this than many of my compatriots. I am not going to call the Chechens "savages"- because today we all are. I have often tried to imagine how could Islamic fundamentalists come from the same schools we all went to, with all the same programs (we all had the same TV, the same radio, the same newspapers when we grew up!). But if I look at my own people… How could be raised in the same schools, having read the same books and seen the same films as me, all those who are today so elementary brainwashed by the empty capitalist consumerism, those who betray so easily the ideals to which they swore to be faithful?
We both are equal in our savagery. And today our teenagers, after being bombarded by cheap American thrillers, kill people simply because they "wanted to see how they would be dying". While British "civilized" audience who is no longer excited enough by pedophilia, is now prepared to pay £12 in order to queue to see a "live" autopsy. And if one can still try to justify the Chechen violence by their "primitive archaic social structures", as some people do, then we simply have no excuse…
The journalists today are ecstatic about human suffering of Moscow’s hostages and their relatives. But not out of compassion, just out of curiosity: how does a human feel when he or she has to go through this? How do you feel when you are in deep shock?
But you can’t understand it until you have experienced it for yourself. And those of us who had, would not wish to ask others how does it feel. We just simply feel our hearts crimping with pain. Familiar pain.
And I do hope that the Muscovites today, those for whom this war was until this October far and distant, a sort of TV show, will start feeling other people’s pain too. It is only in cheap American thrillers people become terrorists because of their "bad blood" and evil personal qualities. In real life most of them are those who have nothing to lose. Those whose hearts are covered with dried blood from pain of losing the loved ones. Have you ever tried to imagine what they must feel? Or do you still care only about your own pain?
I have no easy recipes for ending this war. I do not appeal to anybody to attack or to surrender. But we have to look for a solution. Together. And without American "kultur-tragers" in our land, please!
I would so much like to believe that my people will be more decent than the American consumerist masses whose reaction at the first really experienced horror in their lives is largely turning them against the conveniently invented "enemy" (Iraq) – so that they would not search for the real causes of what has occurred. But would they be able to? Or would they slide easily into psychologically far easier way of searching for the scapegoats and alliances with those who does not want Russia to be its ally and who, in fact, is hiding behind the backs of those pointed to us as our enemies? Time will tell…
I dedicate this article to my friend Layla Asueva from Urus Martan and Zhanna Vladimirova from Grozny.
When back in 1983 Layla, then a schoolgirl, had written an article about our friendship in her local paper (it was called "We are Internationalists"), on the back side of the paper I saw a short story how a boy of 10 or 11 had brought a knife to school, and how his whole school was shocked by it. Some might use it as a reason to say today:
"You see, they were savages even then!" But for me it is a reason to look at where we are today and to ask myself and those around me loudly: "How did we come to this?"
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