The importance of Kadyrov in the modern history of the Chechen society is discussed in the republic today, even though some people believe that time should pass. A few years ago the chairman of the Writers Guild, a well-known person in Chechnya, Kanta Ibragimov, said that many times huge tragedies took place in Chechnya, because it had no strong leader. Today Chechen people remember Soviet official history, which assigned to a person a small role. “For many years it was thought that history is developed by the populace. I think in recent time many people have changed their view on this issue. By the end of the XX century Chechnya became trapped. A person, who could define and protect people’s interest, was needed. Kadyrov succeeded in it. Many people understood that direction of relations between Chechnya and Russia should be changed dramatically,” Ruslan Burchayev, a historian, says.
According to experts, it was the early 2000s when political situation in the republic indicated the necessity of radical reconsideration of the current approach to the problem of Chechen political development. In his PhD work Kadyrov emphasized that the Russian-Chechen conflict was caused by history of Russian-Chechen relations in general. According to him, the key factor of a new contradiction between Russia and Chechnya was lack of knowledge on development of the Chechen ethnic group, specificity of ethnic political development of Chechnya within the context of Russian-Chechen relations. “We don’t study our ethnic political traditions and development of our region. Russian society in general doesn’t know them too. And people, who don’t have such knowledge, try to solve national problems,” Kadyrov wrote. He hoped that answers to these questions will be given by scientific research, which will be an objective for Chechen educated people. Historians say that even today Chechen society doesn’t pay attention to these problems.
The course, chosen by Ahmat Kadyrov, is called in the republic peacemaking. Today some people urge to study his political steps and historic and philosophic heritage. The federal center is thought to play a great role in improving peaceful life in the post-war region. There were a lot of candidates for the position of the republic’s head in that period, but Moscow chose Kadyrov. “He had great target – protection of Russian statehood and making Chechnya a full-scale region of Russia. That’s how he saved his people, restored broken ties with Russia and resisted terrorism,” the head of the Chechen Centre of Humanitarian Studies of Chechnya, Nedorsolt Elsunkayev, noted.
Prime minister Vladimir Putin, who appointed Kadyrov to the position of the republic’s head in 2000, recently has expressed his opinion on this issue. As for reasons for such decision, Putin pointed out personal skills of Kadyrov: honesty, courage and experience. “Everything he did, he did according to his values and views. It is not a secret that in the mid 1990s he participated in the war on the side of the federation’s enemies. However, later he changed his views on Chechnya and Russia. He had enough courage to go over to Russia. He wasn’t afraid of any military actions, he knew no fear. First of all, he understood that it was vital to stop that bloody war and civil war in Russia. Secondly, he understood that Chechnya should be together with Russia. He told me about it many times. He felt it as a religious leader,” Putin stated.
Timur Utsoyev, Grozny. Exclusively to VK.
