Between Taboo and Re-Escalation: the Explosive Role of Memory in the (Post-) Conflict Context of Chechn

The armed attempts of parts of society in post-Soviet Chechnya to gain independence, the Russian counterinsurgency operations and the purges that followed caused big losses in the local society (Lokshina and Cherkasov 2005; Zherebtsova 2014; Druey and Lindorfer 2009), but also among members of the Russian armed forces (Le Huérou and Sieca-Kozlowski 2012). However, regardless of these grievances, today’s official discourses about the two Chechnya wars (1994 – 1996 and 1999 – 2009) teach us something else: in Moscow, the state media tirelessly repeat the success story of the victorious "war on terrorism” (Koloshevskiy 2019; Magomedov 2019). And in Chechnya itself, the local ruler Ramzan Kadyrov, who since 2003 acts as Moscow’s proxy, sees his tasks of counterinsurgency not only in the repression of the armed rebellion, but also in purging the memory of the wars. Instead, he creates his own, revised version of history, which is one of socio-cultural harmony, prosperity, and friendship with Russia (Abdurakhmanov 2018). As a result of this repression and the marginalization of mnemonic actors, many North Caucasians try to build up new resources and alliances outside their traditional constituencies, for example by turning towards global terrorist networks (e.g. the Islamic State) or seeking their fortune in the local underground (Kavkazskiy Uzel 2019). This paper analyses the explosive role of historical grievances in today’s authoritarian context of Chechnya and Russia where civic criticism and grievances have no space. What does the collected data tell us about the “memory clashes” in today’s repressive context? Between whom and whom do they occur? What stands behind these “mnemonic actors” (individuals and interest groups)? Is there a risk of (re)escalation and large-scale conflict, and if yes, which circumstances could lead to it? Or, on the opposite, what could allow for a peaceful transformation of these “memory conflicts”? Based on relevant theoretical literature and on data collected from local media and interviews with civil society activists, the paper investigates the link between the repression of grievances and the re-escalation of conflict.