Podcast | Fighting Russia’s colonial legacy in the North Caucasus

6 September 2023

Since its conquest by Russia in the 19th century, the North Caucasus has been the scene of genocides, forced deportations, wars for independence, and insurgency. The dozens of nations indigenous to the region continue to be repressed socially and culturally by the Russian Federation.

However, Russia’s brutal invasion of Ukraine has once again raised the imperial nature of the Russian state and has shone a light on how this imperialism extends to the North Caucasus, as several organisations led by North Caucasian natives and diaspora members call for the independence of their nations.

On this week’s episode of the Caucasus Digest, OC Media co-director Dominik Cagara talks about the colonial legacy of the Caucasus conquest and its lingering effects on the region. Magomed Torijev, a journalist and representative of the Ingush Independence Committee, talks about the committee’s aim of securing independence for Ingushetia. Harold Chambers, a North Caucasus analyst, breaks down the current situation in the North Caucasus and talks about the challenges faced by these organisations.

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A new Russian history text book has spurred controversy for its depiction of victims of Stalinist deportations. Image via Dron.

Chechen and Ingush Deportations

Russia amends schoolbooks labelling victims of Stalinist deportations ‘Nazi collaborators’

Luiza Mchedlishvili

••3 min read

Russia’s Ministry of Education has made changes to a history textbook that referred to North Caucasian nations that were deported from their homes during World War II as ‘Nazi collaborators’. The textbook spurred controversy in the North Caucasus, where several nations were deported en masse to Siberia and Central Asia during World War II for allegedly collaborating with the invading Nazi Germany. These included the Karachays, the Balkars, the Ingush, and the Chechens in the North Caucasus,

Chechen and Ingush Deportations

Opinion | Russia’s death train rolls through Chechnya and Ingushetia

Magomed Torijev

••5 min read

On the anniversary of the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people, a Russian ‘victory train’ is visiting the two republics — a grotesque parody of the trains that took so many to exile and death. Today is the 78th anniversary of the deportation of the Vainakhs — the Chechen and Ingush people — to Siberia and Central Asia. Seventy-eight years since the entire population of Chechnya and Ingushetia were taken from their homes at gunpoint, in the dead of winter, and packed into cattle cars pu

Participants of a demonstration on 23 February in the Novolaksky District. Photo: r_otuzbiev/Instagram

Aukh District

The deported Chechens of Daghestan still unable to return to their homes

Zhalavdi Geriyev

••4 min read

Seventy-seven years after the deportation of the entire Chechen and Ingush nations to Central Asia, Chechen returnees from a small corner of Daghestan still dream of returning to their homes. Every year on 23 February, Chechens and Ingush people mark the tragic anniversary of the Soviet deportations of 1944 on the orders of Stalin — a genocidal event that cost the lives of up to one-third of their total population. In recent years, the largest events to commemorate the day have been held not

Akhmat Kadyrov

Chechnya marks ‘Day of Remembrance and Sorrow’

OC Media

••2 min read

This year was the seventh year that 10 May was celebrated in Chechnya as the Day of Remembrance and Sorrow. According to the authorities, one of the most terrible tragedies in modern Chechen history took place on this day — the death of Chechen President Akhmat Kadyrov. Kadyrov, who was the father of current Chechen Head Ramzan Kadyrov, died on 9 May 2004, and was buried a day later. On 10 May, large-scale commemorative events are held in Chechnya, the epicentre of which is always the an