By Vestnik Kavkaza
Two years ago, after the events on Manezhnaya Square, one of leaders of Russian nationalists, Alexander Belov, accepted an invitation to visit a platform of the Caucasus young people. A few months after this, Belov and the former leader of the Slavic Union, Dmitry Demushkin, arrived in Chechnya. The nationalists enjoyed the trip and stated that it changed their views on developments.
Dukuvakha Abdurakhmanov, the chairman of the Chechen parliament, told Vestnik Kavkaza about Chechnya’s path from nationalism to tolerance: “Understanding of our own mistakes. When in 1991 we began to say that we didn’t need our neighbors, that we would survive in the world alone, that we should separate from our brothers in the Caucasus, from Russia and build our own state, we saw where we got in the end – we got into a hole.
According Abdurakhmanov, the second moment was attention to development of our state: “We rose from the ashes, relying on other nations of Russia. These moments, responsibility to other generations led us to the conclusion that we have a strong republic.
When Ramzan Kadyrov came to office, the first document which he signed was the concept of ethnic policy in the Chechen Republic. Representatives of 44 ethnic groups live in our republic, and there have been no emergencies for all these years. It is not worth the effort. Ramzan Kadyrov has built a firm power vertical – the parliament, the government, the administration, districts, village MPs, all parties, Islamic councils, we all are working with one goal. When will we be strong? When we are united. Society understands this; plus, the authorities of the republic work on this day and night without vacations. That’s why we have such a situation. I am proud that there is such a situation in the Chechen Republic. I am a co-chair of the People’s Council of Chechnya, and I am involved in it as Kadyrov’s deputy.”
“We understood: when we live together – it is our wealth; when we live separately – it means cultural hunger, informational hunger, literary hunger, and so on. Thus, the unity of the peoples and regions of the Russian Federation should be supported. In this case we will live in peace and our streets will be calm; otherwise, NATO and others will bomb our streets. Isn’t it true? We have already learned the lesson of history,” Abdurakhmanov concluded.
The concept of ethnic politics in Chechnya
The collapse of basic values and priorities of the state and the society and stroke of the federal authorities, which were caused by dissolution of the USSR and further reforms, casted millions of people into economic, political, ideological chaos, damaged inter-ethnic relations very much. Centrifugal separatist processes caused by the reality in the country became especially dangerous in the Chechen Republic. Due to a complex of objective and subjective factors at the republican and federal level, in the end of 20th century the multinational peoples of the Chechen Republic was forced out of the economic, political legal and information field of Russia. It was a victim of wide-scale military activities which caused thousand losses, almost destroyed economy and social infrastructure of the republic, deprived hundred thousand citizens of houses and property, and made many people resettle to other regions of Russia and foreign countries.
It means acuteness of thoughtful ethnic policy in the Chechen Republic, paying attention to interests and necessities of socio-cultural development of all ethnic groups, including minorities.
