Someday I will definitely travel around the world! My attitude towards Chechnya and the Chechens Learn about the Chechens.

Reading the works of the xenophobes Babenyshev and Pykhalov, unique in their chauvinist orientation and deeply offensive to the national feelings of the Chechens and Ingush, with flattering reviews of them by prominent academicians and scientists of Russia, you are convinced that this is custom-made material, written contrary to the warnings of Russian President V.V. Putin. After all, he more than once criticized and warned false democrats and scribblers to moderate their chauvinist ardor.

“...The traditional lack of hard work and the habit of obtaining food through robbery and robbery...” (Pykhalov); “...Loss of working skills by entire segments of the population, the emergence of habits and existence on benefits and handouts from international organizations and other unearned income...” (Babenyshev), etc.
In order to deeply disappoint the authors of these and similar statements, I consider it necessary to quote excerpts from the brochure “Chechnya and the Robber Zelimkhan,” published in Paris in 1932. Its author is the tsarist officer Sergei Berdyaev, a close relative of the great Russian philosopher Nikolai Berdyaev. Leaving aside the “robber Zelimkhan”, let us turn to the more valuable material for us by S. Berdyaev:

“In the minds of St. Petersburg residents and Russians in general, a Chechen was synonymous with robberies, robberies and reckless murders... The psychology of the Chechen people, their deep character and everyday side, as well as their historical past, I must admit, before my service among this people I knew superficially; why I couldn’t give an accurate description of this people, but now let’s talk about them here completely impartially... Having surveyed this powerful, indescribable beauty of the nature of the Vedeno district, and having visited the former strategic bases of Imam Shamil, located on rocky heights accessible to the cloud eagles, I stopped It’s surprising that Russia fought with a handful of Chechens and Dagestanis for 50 years.

I could not, however, agree that the majestic beauty of nature should be combined with barbarity. I wanted to believe that the widespread crime attributed to the Chechens was tendentious. Having taken up my duties, I began to intensively study the character and psychology of this people, their historical past and the reasons for the emergence of abrekism (robbery). And so, having isolated the Chechens from the linguistic classification of the peoples of the Caucasus, it turned out that the Chechens come from Arabs from the “Nokhchi” tribe. The Arabs considered this tribe to be warlike, and long before our era they formed a border line from Nokhchi during the war with the Persians and, mainly, with the Colchians (Georgians).

Over time, current events pushed Nokhchi to the Caucasian Isthmus, and then to the North Caucasus, that is, to the northern slopes of the Caucasus Range, so that the Caucasus is the true cradle of the Chechen people.

The Chechens came to the described mountain heights as a natural rocky defense of their freedoms from peoples who sought to enslave them.
The history of the Caucasian peoples testifies that back in the 5th century AD during the rule of the Sasanians (Persians), the Nokhchi fought with the Persians, and then, in the 13th century, they, in the unifying movement of the Caucasian tribes, courageously fought off the hordes of Genghis Khan, inflicting stunning defeat to the Mongols. That is why the Chechen people are “aboriginals of the Caucasian monolith” and a people with an interesting historical past...

The Chechens are a more freedom-loving, more heroically knightly tribe, democratized over centuries, than other tribes of the Caucasus.
This is partly explained by the fact that all the peoples of the Caucasus have a class division, based since ancient times on the principle of the right of the strong and the sycophancy of the weak. Chechens have no classes...

Delving into the history of the movement of the Caucasian peoples and the wars that took place, both before the birth of Christ and after, we see that the Chechens never, whether for the purpose of territorial conquests, or for the purpose of enslaving this or that nationality, in the name of their militarism, waged wars; they only courageously defended themselves, defending their sovereign rights.

And, indeed, during my three years of managing part of the Chechen people, I found that these people are very peaceful, patient and unpretentious...
Somehow, involuntarily, looking at this people, accustomed to poverty, not demanding human rights to anyone, one had to think that this people had been forgotten by both God and people...
No one thought about his fate - no one wanted to think. When he revealed his desires for the paths of general imperial honor, he, of course, received unfavorable answers. The Chechens, for example, repeatedly filed requests to recruit cavalry units from them on the general basis of the Charter on Military Obedience, following the example of the Ossetian regular cavalry division or the irregular regiment of the Dagestan people, while maintaining, of course, the national costume, and each time they were refused. The government naively interpreted this desire of the Chechen people as the desire of Chechnya to expel the Cossacks from the lands taken from them. However, these petitions did not reach the king.

The population of Chechnya reached 700 thousand souls of both sexes, so what? Oh God! Not a single school and not a single medical assistant in any village! The only star of education of the Chechen people was the primary mountain school in the city of Grozny for 30-40 boarding schools, opened through the efforts of General Ortsu Chermoev (a Chechen), and the same school was subsequently built in Ukraine. Conducted in 1908 - through the efforts of the head of the district Galaev...

More than once I asked myself the question: “So what, in the end, did the government give to this “conquered” people, at least to compensate for the arable, luxurious, hayfields, pastures and oil-bearing lands taken from them?” What rights, finally, are given to this people? The Chechens were, as it were, in a taxable state, on an equal basis with the peasants of Russia, but they did not use the rights of a peasant. In Russia, even the governor was not given the right to impose administrative punishment on the peasant, and in the Terek region even the head of the site exercised this right over the natives.
The complete absence of schools in the area and the pronounced desire of the Chechens to teach their children forced me for two years to ask the authorities to open at least one elementary school, but they either did not answer my “intrusive” reports, or they called me too energetic a boss, recommending curb your official zeal. Finally, taking advantage of the free premises (former barracks) available at my headquarters (Sayasan village), the availability of small economic resources, and most importantly, the long-term stay of my friend, a student at St. Petersburg University Evlenoev (currently in exile in Paris), as my guest. decided to open a primary school in 1909. Evlenoev kindly offered his work free of charge. He quickly renovated the premises, the population responded and equipped desks, teaching aids were purchased, and on the day announced for the reception of students, 120 people showed up for 40 places willing to study; just contrary to the highest reports of the heads of the Terek region about the reluctance of the Chechens to teach their children Russian literacy.

In the courtyard of my headquarters there almost came to a fight between the parents, since everyone wanted to take a place in the school. At Evlenoev’s request, I had to intervene, calm the parents and crying children left behind the walls of the school, and accept the children by lot, promising to open another school next year. Classes have started. Chechen children showed amazing abilities in understanding Russian literacy and language...

The old people told me that if 50 years ago the government had opened schools and gymnasiums in Chechnya, they would not have been savages and they would not have had Zelimkhanovs. I could not but agree with this truth from truths. But suddenly, unexpectedly for me, I received from the head of the Vedeno district, Colonel Makarov, an “urgent” order to immediately close this school as unauthorized by the director of public schools.

I did not close the school, but went to the head of the district for proper explanations with him. All my arguments pointing to the need for this and schools in general, as well as the data that there are no expenses from the treasury for our school and that it is a trial, as if probing, turned out to be unconvincing for Makarov. Armed with the same argument, I went to Vladikavkaz to see the director of public schools. After a long heated conversation, I still did not receive sanctions, “due to the difficulty of the director and district inspector traveling to mountainous Chechnya to inspect one school,” and when I said: “then open 50,” I received the answer that the Ministry was going to Chechnya funds are not released. Despite all sorts of threats from Makarov, I, nevertheless, did not close this school and brought classes until the holidays, but, of course, after my transfer from this site to the Cossack site, this school was not restored ... "
When the same Pykhalovs and Babenyshevs foam at the mouth and repeat that Chechens are genetically predisposed to crimes and are not capable of creative work, it is appropriate to listen to S. Berdyaev about crime among the Chechens.

“Now let's talk about crime and criminals. It would seem that due to the shyness of land, due to the difficult geographical conditions that created unbearable ways for the Chechens to obtain meager corn churek and whey (his everyday food), a Chechen should have developed into an inveterate criminal of various forms, and crime should have been massive and reached to the degree of highest tension, but, however, this did not happen. I was very interested in this side too. I compared it with statistical data on Russian criminal crime and found that crime in the Terek region by Chechens was 3.5%, of course, in proportion to the population. I had to visit prisons in the Terek region, and I found that only 4% of the total number of prisoners of different nationalities were Chechens.
According to statistics from 1911, in the Stavropol provincial prison there were 2,336 criminal prisoners at different times, of which 2,011 (96%) were purely Russian people, and the remaining 325 were of different nationalities. In the same year, the Terek regional prison contained 2940 prisoners, of which only 50 were Chechens...

Chechen crime is almost monotonous, based on purely national worldviews, nationality, I would say, everyday life. Precisely - on the basis of blood feud, on the basis of kidnapping a girl for the purpose of marriage, jealousy, defense of women's honor, personal insult by word or action (the latter is very small). Unauthorized felling of state-owned forests, cattle theft and horse theft...

Abreks were engaged in robberies. What does abreks mean? Abrek is a criminal who has committed a crime contrary to the laws of Russia, is hiding from justice, committing further atrocities, like a robber, and has been declared an outlaw by the authorities. Chechen abreks were all of the same category. Murderers motivated by the defense of insulted pride, the defense of women’s honor, and in most cases in a state of passion...
Investigative materials have established that Chechen abreks, not only by nature, but also by heredity, were not criminals; There was no bias towards crime in religious and civic education, and the first steps of crime did not occur for selfish purposes, but, I repeat, on the basis of defending one’s human rights...”

How paradoxical it seems when the tsarist officer, to whom the “fierce General Kolyubyakin” said: “Go, control the Chechens and eliminate Zelimkhan,” shows initiative and nobility uncharacteristic of that category of people.

And how honestly S. Berdyaev talks about the internal uncleanliness of the top military leadership and their true attitude towards the “natives” at that time.
I am deeply grateful to S. Berdyaev for his genuine truth about Chechnya and the Chechens. Blessed memory to him!

Dear friends and readers of this blog, with this note I begin a series of publications about our journey through Chechnya. I am sure that my words do not need to be applied to most of you, but, just in case, I want to warn especially those who came here by chance and found, in their opinion, an excellent platform for their own harsh and aggressive nationalist statements. I will delete any offensive comments addressed to people of any nationality and any religion, as well as those that are aimed at inciting ethnic hatred, immediately and without explanation, and ban their authors.
Hope for understanding.

Our Chechen adventures began on the train on the way to Grozny. In Mineralnye Vody, where we were supposed to board it, it arrived at eleven o’clock in the evening and stood for forty minutes. We were in no hurry to land. We calmly walked to the carriage, calmly showed the southern-looking conductor our tickets, purchased in Moscow a month before the trip.
- Oh, are you alone? - the conductor suddenly said, looking straight at me, then at Anton. - No, there are two of you! - she finished her wonderful phrase. And then she continued: How can this be? We only have one free seat in the carriage.

With these words, she took our tickets and told us to follow her.
“Here is your compartment,” she said when we arrived. - The bottom seat is free.
In the top place, also ours, a guy was reclining on a shelf covered with linen. He did not sleep, but lay confidently and firmly. The conductor glanced at him and turned to us.
- Guys, we had such strong disturbances here. Maybe you can stay until Mozdok? That's not for long. And in Mozdok passengers get off and seats become free.
- How long is it to Mozdok? - we asked.
- Not for long. Right now it will be Cool, and then Mozdok.
Out of curiosity, I went to look at the schedule. It wasn't long before Mozdok - only four hours, the train arrived there at three in the morning! That's normal! Tickets cost 1,570 rubles apiece for a compartment carriage and “sit four hours to Mozdok”! Nope!
When the conductor reappeared in the carriage with our tickets in her hands, we told her in a stern voice that we were definitely not going to sit, we wanted to sleep and let her quickly resolve the issue. As an option, I suggested that she pick up the guy from our place in her compartment. But to this she replied that everything was busy there too. In general, everything was clear with her. If in most Russian regions such additional training for conductors has already either disappeared or is becoming a thing of the past, then in the Caucasian train it was still in full bloom. Stowaway passengers give the conductor a “paw” and he puts them in free compartments or in his own compartment. And here, apparently, our conductor was given a lot of stowaway passengers at once. And this kind of overbooking happened. :)
However, I must say that the conductor was very scared, realizing that by not letting us into our seats, there was a chance that things might smell like kerosene. What if we go and complain to the train manager or some railway authorities in Moscow? She walked around the car for about half an hour with a worried look, and then knocked on the shelf where the guy in our place was lying, and said:
- Ruslan, come down.
In general, Ruslan sat before Mozdok, and we already calmly arrived all the way to Grozny.
...And here is the platform of Grozny. We were met by Mansur, Denis's friend. Denis, Anton's friend, asked Mansur to take care of us while we were traveling around Chechnya, and he got down to business with all his Caucasian hospitality. First, he took us to the hotel where we decided to stay, and since the First of May happened, the city center was closed to transport, and while Mansur drove around it, looking for loopholes, he gave us a short tour.
We decided to stay at the inexpensive hotel "Grozny" not far from the popular market "Berkat".
2.

It was a fairly decent five-story building with most of the rooms having recently undergone renovations. For 1800 rubles per day we got just one of these. The only drawback of this room was its small size, and everything else was quite consistent with an average hotel, including a shower with hot water in the room, a TV, several sockets and a good view from the window. Considering that we did not plan to stay at the hotel at all, but only thought of returning here for the night, all this completely satisfied us. However, to finish the topic of Grozny hotels, I will say that now quite a few of them have been rebuilt here. The most luxurious is, perhaps, a five-star hotel in the Grozny City skyscraper, located on the opposite bank of the Sunzha River from the Heart of Chechnya mosque. On this very last, thirty-second floor, there is a cafe with breathtaking views of the city, we went up there and took pictures (but more on that in the next post). Accommodation in such a hotel costs 5,000 rubles per day in a single room and 7,000 rubles in a double room.
In the photo it is the darkest of the skyscrapers, in the center.
3.

But there are also simpler hotels. So, you definitely won’t be left on the street.
By the way, as you understand, there is no particular influx of tourists to Chechnya today. Representatives of other regions here are also in no hurry to invest in business. However, hotels are being built, old ones are being restored, and I would not say that they are empty. For example, on the same May holidays, our hotel was filled to capacity. One morning we didn't even have enough seats to have breakfast in her very spacious restaurant. And the whole point is that a lot of different events have now begun to be held in Grozny. For example, we happened to be just in time for some local symposium and some interregional chess tournament, to which everyone came. As for tourism, there is only one company in Grozny that provides excursion services in Chechnya. The prices in this company are moderate. For example, renting a car with a driver-guide and going to the Argun Gorge for the whole day costs 4,000 rubles, while taxi drivers take you there for about 3,000-3,500 rubles. However, even if we compare the number of tourists now with the number that was just a couple of years ago, it has still increased by one and a half to two times. And although we did not meet a single tourist during our three days of travel, people, it seems to me, are slowly beginning to understand that Chechnya is now safe and are trying to explore this region.
And it's really safe here. At least we are convinced that it is much safer than in our own Moscow. Another thing is that the old stereotypes regarding Chechnya have not yet disappeared, and many still associate it with the most terrible region.
As I already said, we ended up in Grozny for the May Day holidays. As in any other city in our country, they were also celebrated here. I won’t say anything about the subbotniks, we didn’t find them, they took place the day before, but they say that by order of the Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov, almost the entire working population came to them.
4.

But now I want something else. It so happened that we explored Grozny just during the mass celebrations. So, there was not a single area of ​​these festivities that was not fenced for safety. There were law enforcement officers at the entrance, and even though there were no metal detectors here at all, everyone’s bags were checked. Moreover, what’s interesting is that men have men, and girls have girls. Everything is very polite, tactful, correct, but strictly and in such a way that not a single mouse will slip through!
5.

There were about ten such sites in Grozny on May 1st; we ourselves visited two. True, we did not immediately understand that the second site was also a site with festivities, because there were no more than three dozen people there. However, there was still a cordon there, and everyone’s bags, including ours, were also checked.
We encountered no less powerful control when we left Grozny to travel around the republic. We went to the Argun Gorge, to the village of Hadji-Evla (this is the road to Vedeno), to Urus-Martan and then to Nazran. So, on all these directions, and I’m sure on the others too, we regularly came across checkpoints. Moreover, the checkpoints are not just for show, but they work. At each of them, the car (if it was not a minibus) was stopped and the passengers’ passports were checked. We also. Regularly!
6.

In general, police work in Chechnya is considered very prestigious and one of the highest paid. For example, if a mid-level official here earns about 15-20 thousand, then police officers earn 50-60 thousand. And this, according to the local standard of living, is very good. True, work in government agencies in Chechnya is still different from the same work in other regions. No matter how you look at it, clean-ups in mountainous areas still happen. There is an additional charge for this.
While we were traveling around Chechnya, many people complained to us about unemployment. The percentage of unemployment was given in different names: from 40 to 80. Then, having already rummaged around on the Internet at home, I found that registered unemployment in Chechnya, that is, only those who are members of labor exchanges can be included here, is 25 percent. Need I say that very few people go to the labor exchange? By the way, this applies to both men and women. In Chechnya, there is no such rule that only men work and women do housework. As one of the women, Hedi, whom we met in Hadji Evla, told us, “the whole problem is the lack of jobs: if there were, then both men and women would go to work.”
In general, there is no work, since there is practically no production either. And in the opinion of many, it is very difficult to get a job from the street that exists. After all, according to Caucasian customs, everyone first pulls their friends, acquaintances, relatives there, including even the most distant ones. They prefer to hire not a good specialist, but their own. This is how it happened historically. So, it turns out that many people simply leave Chechnya: to Moscow, to St. Petersburg, to other rich Russian regions, and finally, even to Belgium. Now there is even a direct bus Brussels - Grozny, which runs twice a week. I came across online schedules of the same buses to other European cities: to Kyiv, Vienna, Bonn, Paris, Berlin...
A distant relative of Mansur, Zaur, took us to the Argun Gorge. A young guy, strong, smart, hard-working. Now he works part-time in Grozny as a taxi driver in his own car. Tax in the city is 100 rubles, regardless of where you need to go. At most, a couple of thousand come in per day. Zaur doesn’t like this kind of work, he is capable of more and knows it. He lived in Brussels for three years, building a railway. He told us that a lot of Chechens worked with him. But he not only worked, he also traveled, his salary there allowed him not only to send most of the money home, but also to travel around a whole bunch of European countries. And then my mother had a heart attack and Zaur, the youngest son in the family, had to return to take care of his mother.
Zaur and Anton in one of the ancestral towers in the Argun Gorge.
7.

That's it.
So, in general, Chechnya did not seem to us to be such a rich region, either from people’s stories or from what we saw ourselves. After all, probably, the wealth of the residents can be visually and at first glance judged at least by the cars that run along the streets of cities and villages. So, mostly our latest Ladas are running around Grozny, and the same Ladas, but older ones, are running around the villages and towns. There are few foreign cars, and those that exist are far from the most expensive and new ones.
Parking lot near the Berkat market in Grozny.
8.

Although, of course, in Grozny only on the most shabby outskirts there are still houses that have not been restored after two wars with marks on the facades from bullets riddling them. And so, all the buildings here are just like in a picture - new, beautiful, elegant... And you can’t say that there is unemployment, and that people are not rolling around like cheese in butter.
9.

10.

11.

12.

13.

14.

A simple five-story residential building in the Berkat market area.
15.

In general, as probably everywhere in our country, many here also talk about corruption. And although their president Ramzan Kadyrov is demonstrably treated more than favorably, there are different opinions about both him and our “dearly beloved” GDP. True, hearing them can sometimes be very difficult. People don't like to talk about politics, and are often simply afraid.
In Grozny, we have repeatedly seen inscriptions on the facades of buildings, on lawns and in various other places: “Ramzan, thank you for Grozny!”
16.

There are also a lot of posters on the facades: Akhmat Kadyrov, Ramzan Kadyrov and Vladimir Putin. Either three at once, or two in any combination, or just one.
17.

18.

19.

20.

The city has A. Kadyrov Avenue, A. Kadyrov Museum...
21.

A. Kadyrov Square, A. Kadyrov Library, etc. and so on.
22.

Akhmat Kadyrov - the first president of the Chechen Republic and the father of current president Ramzan Kadyrov - was killed on May 9, 2004 during a terrorist attack on a stadium in Grozny. Since then, his cult of personality has developed here. In general, probably largely thanks to Ramzan, who vowed to continue his father’s work. But on the other hand, both Akhmat and Ramzan have something to sincerely thank. Their policies and interaction with the Russian government (let's call it that) served to end the war. And this, you see, all other things being equal, is the most important thing! The people are tired of fighting, because literally every family during the two wars had its share of losses. Now everyone wants peace and tranquility. And the way in which this peace and tranquility will be achieved is no longer so important for the majority. Almost everyone we interacted with during our trip told us about this. And one of his counterparts even said this: “Let them at least build synagogues, at least let them build palaces for themselves, as long as they don’t shoot anymore!”...
However, we, who were not accustomed to seeing portraits of the country’s president on the facade of every building in our hometown, at first felt a little uneasy with so many of them in Grozny and other populated areas of Chechnya. Yes, and Avenue V.V. Putin in the very center of Grozny added to the bewilderment... Although, of course, it’s not for us to judge...
23.

24.

But, it seems to me, enough about politics and the current situation in Chechnya. Let me now tell you a little about the Chechens themselves and about those modern traditions and customs that we encountered during our journey. And I’ll start, perhaps, with their appearance. In the comments to my previous post-photo review from Chechnya, one of my friends wrote that he had heard that in Chechnya all girls must wear long skirts and headscarves, that there was a case when a girl without a headscarf was not allowed into the university, and in general, Ramzan Kadyrov introduced something like a dress code, non-compliance with which entails all sorts of persecution. Since the person who wrote this is literate and intelligent, I have no doubt that he read such information in some media and did not come up with it himself. In general, friends, here is another reason to send these very media to hell and not fall for the insanity published in them. Apparently, journalists confused the Kadyrov regime with the regime of the Akhmadov brothers, who introduced it between the first and second Chechen wars in the Urus-Martan region, which was then not under the control of the general government of Chechnya. It was there that they introduced Sharia law in 1997, and girls were forced to wear a hijab (scarf) on the street. Now there is no Sharia in Chechnya, and the president does not control what local women wear and what not to wear. Although, of course, most of them wear scarves to match long dresses or skirts. But we also met a lot of girls without headscarves and in short skirts (knee-length and slightly higher), especially those who were younger. Moreover, we met them both in Grozny and in other towns. Many women love high-heeled shoes and even stilettos, but they usually don’t wear them on bare feet, but rather wear them over tights, which for some reason are most often dark in color.
25.

26.

By the way, since we are talking about fashion, there is a very advanced fashion house “Firdaws” in Grozny.
27.

It is led by Ramzan Kadyrov's wife, Medni Kadyrova. A whole bunch of famous fashion designers came to Grozny for the opening of this Fashion House in 2009 - Vyacheslav Zaitsev, Roberto Covalli and many others, and now they sew such amazing women's dresses that when I saw them, I immediately wanted to try them on myself. But everything is exclusively in Chechen Islamic fashion. The dresses are long, bright, very elegant and stylish. In general, it is not surprising that several years ago “Firdaws” received the “Couturier of the Year” award. His clothes are worth it! True, we didn’t get into the Fashion House itself - it was closed on holidays, but we spied something through the window in the store.
28.

29.

So, no violence and control. One sheer beauty! :))
30.

31.

32.

Although, it should be noted that Chechen girls and women absolutely do not wear trousers, much less shorts. T-shirts with open shoulders are not worn either; usually they wear either light blouses with long sleeves, or three-quarter sleeves, or T-shirts. As for me, I immediately asked Mansur: should I wear a headscarf and something with long sleeves? - to which he immediately said that there was no need, they say, no one adheres to strict rules. And I always wore jeans and a T-shirt, although if I had known that it was possible, I would have taken a dress just above the knees. But before the trip I didn’t know about it.
However, there are places in Chechnya where a strict dress code for girls and women still exists. For example, mosques. In Grozny, Anton and I went to the largest mosque in the republic, “The Heart of Chechnya”. Already when we had just entered its territory and were walking through the park with fountains, a guard came up to us and said that I needed to put on a headscarf, since girls with bare heads were not supposed to be on the territory of the mosque, even in the park. For such occasions, for some time now I have begun to carry a special wardrobe with me: a headscarf, a shawl that easily turns into a long skirt, and a long-sleeved jacket. So, I complied with the security guard’s demands. When we found ourselves at the entrance to the mosque itself, a woman working there told me that I needed to change completely. I tried to get a shawl, but she stopped my attempt in the bud and pointed to a screen that stood right there: behind the screen you could take a long dress and a scarf and change clothes. The most interesting thing is that when we went to the Muslim shrine every other day - the Hedi ziyarat in Haji Evla, my outfit, on the contrary, suited perfectly, and there they even took me for a Muslim woman who had recently come to the faith. And then I had to put on an oversized dress and scarf. The mosque worker, however, helped me. It turned out that it is important not just to tie a scarf, but to tie it so that the neck is covered and the hair is not visible. Well, well, it’s necessary, it’s necessary!
33.

But, as for men, then, of course, everything is simpler with them. They walk along the streets in completely ordinary clothes, although they also have a “dress code” of sorts. For example, many people like to wear suits and snow-white shirts even in the heat, some, older ones, wear long shirts in the national style, but walking around in shorts or with a bare torso is not accepted in Chechnya, and we have not seen a single Chechen man like this dressed.
34.

35.

Many people wear round velvet hats of dark brown, dark blue, dark green or black, often with short tassels. By the way, we later saw them for sale at the most common market.
36.

But we also saw T-shirts and baseball caps with the inscription “Chechnya”, “95 region” or “Chechnya 95” there, but, apparently, only a few tourists buy them, and the Chechens themselves no longer wear them.
37.

38.

And beards are also in fashion here: both long and ones that are slightly longer than stubble. They are worn by both older men and even young guys.
39.

40.

Throughout our journey, we met Chechens of two visual types. Some were dark-haired with Turkic features, who could easily be confused with Turks or Azerbaijanis.
Raisap from Hadji-Evla.
41.

Others are light or brown-haired with light eyes, like the boy in the first photo, the girl in photo No. 31, or Hedy, Raisap’s wife.
42.

True, all of them, at least the men, also had one thing in common. This is a penetrating, eagle-like gaze. In general, it is believed that Chechens are not native Caucasians at all. It has been proven that many centuries ago they came here from Western Asia, and traces of the Hurrians (namely, they are called by scientists as the ancestors of the Vainakh peoples) are found in Mesopotamia, in Sumer, in Urartu, in Anatolia, in the Syrian and Armenian highlands, in Transcaucasia and on the shores of the Mediterranean Sea. But during the invasion of the Tatar-Mongol yoke, it so happened that the Vainakhs were finally forced out into the Caucasian highlands, and on the plains they were exterminated along with other peoples. Perhaps it was precisely this origin that was reflected in their appearance in this way?
In general, be that as it may, there is another interesting fact. We believe that Islam is their indigenous religion, but in fact, it is a religion brought over.
43.

And for a long time the Vainakhs professed Christianity, and in mountain villages many elderly women, they say, still have ancient metal Christian crosses among their jewelry. However, Christianity and Islam, which replaced it, coexisted for a long time with the most ancient religion here - paganism. And back in the mid-20th century, pagan holidays were celebrated in many towns and villages, pagan rituals and traditions were observed. For example, in the spring the Chechens celebrated a holiday in honor of the goddess of fertility and childbirth Tusholi, in May and June they especially revered the god of thunder and lightning Selo, on June 22 they celebrated the summer solstice and made sacrifices to the sun, they had holidays associated with the beginning of harvesting and haymaking, with bringing in sheep from high mountain pastures and many other things. Now, of course, they are hardly celebrated even somewhere in the most remote villages, but nevertheless, this was not so long ago.
In general, modern Chechens seemed to us to be very sociable and educated people. Maybe this happened by chance, but almost everyone we interacted with had a higher education, knew their history, literature, poetry very well, and often even quoted some lines from poems to us. They got to know us themselves. Mostly men, but sometimes girls too. They just came up and asked who we were and where we were from (and no one was enraged when we said that we were from Moscow, but in other regions people usually start to get nervous and, at times, accuse us of stealing all their money - travelers will understand me!), do we like Chechnya, what have we seen and what else do we want to see? They often told us some local stories, wished us good luck, and also left their phone numbers in case we suddenly needed anything. In general, they turned out to be very hospitable people. Everyone spoke to us in Russian. And, in principle, they knew two languages ​​perfectly - Russian and Chechen, which they spoke among themselves. During all this time we have not met a single Chechen who did not know Russian.
By the way, about hospitality. Chechens have it in their blood. This has been the case for a long time. After all, if a guest is not invited into the house and left to spend the night on the street, then in the mountains, which are almost everywhere here, he can freeze, fall into the abyss in the dark, and die. It's been going on ever since. Just like everywhere else, in Hadji Evla we met a middle-aged Chechen named Islam. He asked who we were and where we were from, told us a few local tales, and then invited us to his home - he took us there by car, introduced us to all our relatives, his brother’s wife fed us an unusually delicious dinner, gave us tea, then they took us to the fork in Grozny.
44.

Now imagine something similar with us? Well, perhaps in some remote villages and hamlets this remains a tradition. Another story happened to us in Urus-Martan. There is an amazingly interesting open-air ethnographic museum there. His collection was collected by museum curator Adam Satuev, and he began to do this during the war. It so happened that we ended up in this museum on the first of May, a holiday. We called Adam in advance, and he said that he would open a museum for us, and we could come. But just the day before he unexpectedly had to leave himself, and he entrusted us to his son Arslan. And so, Arslan came specially on a day off to open the museum for us, showed and told us everything, and then took us to the city center to the minibus stop, from where we were going to return to Grozny. It is a few kilometers from the museum. And he didn’t take money from us either for the museum or for the cab, no matter how much we shoved it at him.
Is it necessary to talk separately about the possibilities of hitchhiking in Chechnya? National hospitality extends to him as well. We hitchhiked more than once, literally every first car picked us up, we just had to stand on the side of the road and raise our hand.
In general, if we talk about driving on the roads, then, of course, like in any other republic or even country, there are unspoken rules here. Picking up a voting traveler is one of them. But there are others. For example, it is not customary to wear seat belts here. And when Anton, sitting in the front seat, out of habit, always reached for his belt, absolutely all the drivers began to giggle and said that it was not necessary to do this at all, driving without a belt was not considered a traffic violation, and traffic cops would not fine you for it. Another rule concerns the attitude of the local government and the president towards motorists. This will probably be most relevant for Muscovite motorists. Do you remember what happens on the Moscow Ring Road when our “popular favorite” is driving along Rublyovka or somewhere else? That's right, the Moscow Ring Road is closed. And they block not only the routes themselves along which he must rush, but also the bridges above them, out of danger that someone will throw something on his head. And sometimes you have to stand for 15-20 minutes, if not more, waiting for His Excellency.
On the way out of Grozny we saw Kadyrov’s motorcade. We and several other cars were stopped and ordered to stop at the side of the road. Just at this time the motorcade rushed past. Yes, yes, right past us! There were thirty cars in total, all black foreign cars. He was rushing at a speed of no less than 200 km per hour, but our waiting process lasted only about two minutes. It’s like standing at a traffic light, honestly! And Kadyrov is not afraid that someone will throw a grenade at his motorcade, and he respects motorists - he does not force them to close the highway for a long time. Fast and clear. All!
And there are no drunk people driving, no accidents because of this, and no drunk people on the streets. And all because there is no alcohol for free sale in stores and in most cafes and restaurants here either. And you know, no one really suffers from his absence. Many Chechens, especially young people, with whom we spoke told us: “We didn’t drink before, we don’t drink now! The introduction of Prohibition had no effect on us!”
...We were told that Chechens are supposed to remember their ancestors up to the seventh generation. However, until recently it was necessary to remember ancestors right up to the twelfth generation. This was the only way to prove that you belonged to a specific teip. Teip is something like a clan community, the members of which are related to each other by blood on the paternal side. Of course, there have always been certain rules of life within the teip. For example, despite its large size (and sometimes one teip owned several auls at once, and sometimes even more), it was impossible to get married within the teip in order to avoid incest, but you could always count on, if necessary, support from other teip members. Now teips still exist in Chechnya. Raisap from Hadji-Evla told us that members of his teip live in more than ten settlements in the surrounding area. However, due to the fact that many Chechens go abroad or to other cities in Russia, the teip character is lost. Those who have lived outside their homeland for a long time, their children and grandchildren, do not all remember their ancestors up to the seventh generation. “Well,” Zaur, who lived in Belgium for three years, told us. “Abroad changes a lot. Even my mother noticed that I had lost some local habits there and acquired new ones. But only three years have passed. Of course, with With time, many things are forgotten!"
But it still seems to me that Chechnya is one of the few regions of Russia where traditions and customs have been preserved much better than in all other places. For example, here, despite all the outward secularism, there are still a lot of differences in the upbringing of boys and girls. Yes, of course, Chechen women have the right to work, and not just to run a household and raise children. They do work. But still, the man is the head of the family, and the household and children remain with the woman. In Grozny we saw an advertisement for girls from the age of eleven to take culinary courses.

We also met small toddlers the age of our Daniil Antonovich (three or four years), so independent and having their own opinions that, at times, it shocked even me, the mother of a very independent little boy. In general, you can immediately sense men in Chechen boys!
46.

Well, and, of course, the difference in the upbringing of boys and girls is immediately visible in the relationships between men and women.
47.

No feminism for you, no masculinity in women and effeminacy in men. And, you can throw slippers at me, but I really like it! Although many of our modern society, it seems to me, some points might surprise and amaze. For example, this fact. If unfamiliar Chechen men and women meet who are not related, then men will address only men, and women will address women. No, of course, they can exchange a couple of insignificant phrases with each other, but any serious issues will be resolved only with their own gender. And the reason is not at all that men treat women with disdain - there is nothing like that here, not even close. They just have this in etiquette - increased respect for someone else's lady, to the point of not even speaking to her. By the way, this feature also applied to Anton and me. Chechen men decided all matters with him, and not with me, even including cases when I understood something better. Well, women, accordingly, were with me, but Anton was embarrassed. :)
By the way, another interesting local feature is dancing. I don’t know, maybe there are some nightclubs in Grozny that are not fundamentally different from our most ordinary ones. But I’m not talking about them now, but about traditional dances. How could it be possible earlier to show the young Chechen guy all his prowess in front of the girl, and for the girl to show her harmony and grace. That's right, in dance. The national local dance is Lezginka. Moreover, it is still alive, and almost all Chechen boys and girls, men and women, grandfathers and grandmothers can dance it. And they dance. But it’s not at all ostentatious, like ours, for example, “Kalinka-Malinka” or “Barynya”. This dance is alive among the Chechens, and we ourselves witnessed it.
48.

Friends, at this very point LiveJournal went crazy, said that my article was too long, and refused to publish it further. In principle, I agree with LJ about the size of the note, but dividing it into several parts, in my opinion, is also completely impossible. Therefore, for those who are interested in finding out the ending and looking at the photos (and there are not many of them left), welcome here - the lyrical blog turned out to be more loyal.

There were two military campaigns in Chechnya. That's not news. Grozny and the entire republic were almost completely destroyed. But what happened happened. We are such a people - we never give up. Accordingly, in just a few years the republic began to bloom again. Today it is impossible to find traces of war in the republic.

Good afternoon everyone, I Zaur terribleboy - Ambassador of LiveJournal in the Chechen Republic. Let's talk about myths and truth associated with Chechnya.

Thanks to Valentin for the photo wasin

Preface... Pushkin and Natalya Goncharova are walking along the snow-white embankment on a day off. They say goodbye to friends, have a nice conversation and enjoy the sun. Natalya Goncharova accidentally steps into a puddle and stains the hem of her dress. Pushkin takes out a snow-white handkerchief, falls on his knee and wipes Natalya’s shoes and the hem of her dress. Passers-by are touched and smile approvingly at the poet...

A witness to this tells his friend:
Yesterday I saw Pushkin and Goncharova - she stepped in a puddle - he took out a handkerchief and wiped her shoes! Cavalier!
A friend told his friend, who told the next one, and so on...
The 5th tells the 6th:
Yesterday Pushkin and Goncharova walked - they didn’t make out the roads, they were in a hurry - they just splashed through the puddles!
10th - 11th:
Yesterday I saw Pushkin - he was dragging Goncharova drunk - she was staggering, walking straight through puddles! All dirty!!!
20th - 21st:
Yesterday Pushkin and Goncharova walked home - drunk, dirty, screaming songs. They walk and almost fall! Ugh!
50th - 51st:
What have we come to? Yesterday I saw Pushkin on the embankment - he was kicking Goncharova, and she was lying drunk in a puddle! Dirty and yelling at him!
100th - 101st: Yesterday I was in the swamp, and there Gogol was sitting on a tree, all dirty and drunk...

After two military campaigns, stereotypes about Chechnya remained in people's minds... Here are some of them (sorted by level of unreliability):

1. There is still a war going on in Chechnya.
My answer: This year children who have not seen war went to schools in Chechnya.

2. People are kidnapped in Chechnya.
My answer: In Chechnya, kidnapping (kidnapping) of girls for marriage was practiced. This practice (in addition to the legal basis) was banned in 2010 at the Congress of the Chechen People.

3. Chechnya is the leader in subsidies in Russia.
When people ask me “how much money is being used to restore Chechnya,” I just want to answer “the same money that was used to bomb them.” However, I will answer differently. In 2013, the amount of subsidies to the regions of the Russian Federation from the state budget per person (average) was 8117 rubles 62 kopecks.

The leaders in this scheme were (the name of the subject and the amount of subsidies per resident are given):
1. Kamchatka Territory 99727.29
2. Republic of Sakha (Yakutia) 56050.65
3. Magadan region 55135.31
4. Republic of Tyva 37936.49
5. Altai Republic 35117.38
6. Chechen Republic 32126.49
7. Republic of Ingushetia 19014.02
8. Jewish Autonomous Region 16155.09
9. Republic of Dagestan 15299.14
10. Karachay-Cherkess Republic 14484.35
11. Republic of Buryatia 14333.46
12. Republic of North Ossetia - Alania 12561.41
13. Republic of Kalmykia 10781.15
14. Trans-Baikal Territory 10439.70
15. Kabardino-Balkarian Republic 10355.53

It should be noted that Chechnya is a post-war region where everything is done from scratch.

And we also thank Valentin Vasin for this photo.

4. Chechens are illiterate and uneducated.
I am a Chechen and I am not the most literate in Chechnya. My IQ is 156 points. I have two higher educations plus three additional educations. There are thousands like me in the republic.

5. Chechens are fighting in Ukraine.
This is no longer a myth. The question is: who do they represent? Definitely not the Russian military. And being a volunteer is a personal matter. We don’t blame the leadership of Ukraine for the fact that Muzychko and others fought as volunteers against federal forces in Chechnya!

Like that…

What do you know or would like to know about the Chechen Republic? Do you believe popular opinions? Have you seen Chechnya with your own eyes? Would you like to see it?

At the border with Ingushetia we are met by a gazelle with guys from the patriotic club "Ramzan". There are stickers on the doors with a portrait of Kadyrov and the words “Chechen”. We are going to Grozny.

Are there any houses destroyed after the war?
- No...
- What, there’s nothing left?
- Of course not! Everything has been restored a long time ago!
- Is there really not a single house that has not been restored?
- Well, we don’t know, maybe it’s still there somewhere...

After this dialogue we ottenki_serogo We understand that they won’t show or tell us everything, we decide to separate and work unaccompanied. The first thing that surprises Grozny is its security. We walked quietly at night through the courtyards and central streets. We took a taxi, walked through markets, went into a mosque and did not encounter a wary or hostile attitude anywhere. Grozny is an amazing city, after a few hours you forget that you are in Russia...

I’ll say right away that we were in Grozny for half a day, so we had very little time to see.

The famous Avenue named after V.V. Putin is the main thoroughfare of the city. Its length is 1.3 km. The opening of the avenue was timed to coincide with the 420-year anniversary of the establishment of good neighborly relations between Russia and Chechnya, and on October 5, 2008, Chechen President Ramzan Kadyrov signed a decree renaming the central street of Grozny, Pobeda Avenue, into Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin Avenue. Vladimir Putin said that he would prefer that this would not happen again. On Sunday evening the avenue is deserted.

There are no exchange offices in Grozny; there are money changers on the roadsides. The course is profitable.

Akhmat Kadyrov Square and the main mosque of Chechnya.

“Heart of Chechnya” is a mosque named after Akhmat Kadyrov in the center of Grozny. The largest mosque in Russia and Europe.

It was opened on October 17, 2008, during the forum “Islam - the religion of peace and creation.” Its construction began in 2006 with the help of Turkey. The minarets of the mosque are the highest in Russia, the height of the dome is 3 meters lower than the mosques of Kazan and St. Petersburg, and surpasses the Makhachkala mosque in capacity.

Construction of the mosque began in the late 1980s, but was frozen and resumed only in 1997. Akhmat Kadyrov, then still the mufti of Chechnya. In the fall of 1999, due to instability in the republic and the subsequent hostilities, construction was suspended. The next construction began in April 2006 and ended in October 2008.

The external and internal walls of the mosque are decorated with the rarest marble - travertine, and the interior of the temple is richly decorated with white marble, which is mined on the island of Marmara Adasi in the Sea of ​​Marmara.

By the way, there are a lot of FSB officers in Grozny. I was told that tinting is prohibited in the republic:
- Then why are half the cars tinted?
- So these are FSB officers, they are allowed.

Women pray on the second level.

At the entrance there is a notice that entry with weapons is prohibited.

The vault of the main dome of the mosque is crowned with Sura 112 “Ikhlas” (purification), which is translated as “He is Allah, the one, Allah the eternal. He neither begot nor was begotten, and there is none equal to Him.”

The mosque was painted by masters from Turkey. Synthetic and natural paints with special additives were used for patterned painting, thanks to which, according to experts, the mosque will retain its color scheme for the next 50 years. To write patterns and verses (texts) from the Koran, craftsmen used gold plating of the highest standard.

There are 36 chandeliers installed in the mosque. The creation of the collection took several tons of bronze, 2.5 kg of gold of the highest standard and more than 1 million parts. The chandeliers have a Chechen ornament, which was specially selected by the designers.

At the underground level, people study the Qur'an.

The usable area of ​​the mosque is 5000 sq m, the height of the minarets is 62 meters. The total area of ​​the Islamic center is 14 hectares.

Church of the Archangel Michael in Grozny.

The temple was founded at the end of the 19th century by Terek Cossacks. During the Chechen conflict, the temple was very damaged. Currently restored, opened in 2006, consecration took place in 2009. Every day there are fewer and fewer parishioners.

As parishioners said, 5 million rubles were allocated from the federal budget for the restoration of the temple, and a Moscow company was involved in its development. They mastered it well, but they built it poorly, and after a month the building began to fall apart. The leadership of Chechnya helped, the building was rebuilt and opened around the same time as the mosque.

This is the only temple in Chechnya, if you don’t count the chapel in one of the villages.
- How do the residents of Grozny feel about the temple? Were there any attacks? - we asked one of the employees
“Before, they would throw stones at me, I’d go out, and there would be little boys just standing there.” We talked to the parents, and now they don’t throw stones anymore. Sometimes they write on the walls, they can break lampshades, but these are more likely just hooligans. Yes, everything is calm.

Sunzha River.

A very popular slogan: “Ramzan, thank you for Grozny!” In general, in Chechnya special attention is paid to slogans and posters. The whole city is covered in quotes and portraits of presidents.

Grozny City. The first stage of the complex consists of 8 buildings. A total of 50 high-rise buildings are planned to be built.

An excellent view of the city opens from the City Towers. Photo macos

Alcohol is sold only 2 hours a day - from 8 to 10 am, and they will not sell it to a Chechen.
- How will they determine that you are a Chechen?
- By clothes.
- How do you buy alcohol?
- I am a believer, I can’t drink.

In total, 7,000 Russians now live in Chechnya. Every year there are fewer and fewer of them, there are no young people at all. The attitude is normal, I communicated with Russian residents of Grozny, no one complained about persecution. The worst complaint was about hooligans who broke the windows in the apartment of a Russian woman.

The most terrible Chechen curse is “so that the fire in the house goes out.”

According to Western tradition, the man will let the woman pass first as a sign of respect. According to Chechen, a man, respecting and protecting a woman, always walks ahead of her. The greatest shame was considered to be disrespect for the mother and her relatives. And for a son-in-law, honoring his wife’s relatives was considered a virtue for which God could send him to heaven without trial.

There are a lot of girls on the street, many walk without headscarves. Only Chechen women must wear headscarves.

“If a man goes bad, the family goes bad, if a woman goes bad, the whole people goes bad” - Chechen proverb. Chechens attach special importance to inheritance through the female line. A Chechen has the right to take a wife of any nationality, but a Chechen woman is not encouraged to marry a non-religious man.

Taxi ISLAM. Just a name, unlike our “Orthodox Taxi”, the drivers are calm about representatives of other religions. There is also a taxi network called IMAM.

Kadyrov's security guards wear green uniforms. Kadyrovtsy are the personal guard of Ramzan Kadyrov. Initially it was called the Security Service of the President of the Chechen Republic, then a regiment of the patrol service of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Chechnya. Most of Kadyrov's Security Service consisted of amnestied militants. The unit consists of 10 companies, with a total number of 700 to 4,000 soldiers. In addition to small arms, the Kadyrovites are armed with grenade launchers and armored personnel carriers.

They don't like to be photographed. As soon as I found a guy who agreed to be interviewed, a man in a gray suit quickly took him away.

A girl in one of the cafes shows me how to make something decent out of my hairstyle. He says he needs a mus.

In the evening there were very few people. We take cameras and go outside. We immediately meet armed men with beards in uniform, they check the documents of passers-by, we don’t have any documents with us.
- Hello, is it okay that we’re walking around without documents?
- How without documents?
- Well, we left them at the hotel, we don’t have to carry them with us?
- How is it not obligatory?!
- Well, we’re in Russia, aren’t we?
- Yes... - the policeman said somehow hesitantly...
- Well then, let's go for a walk)))
“Come on... Only you.. this... DON’T GET AWAY,” he remarked meaningfully.
- Well, if we don’t come back in 30 minutes, you start looking for us)
- Yeah! I'll call the program "Wait for me")))
That's how we talked. Everyone is very friendly. In general, the police and military are stationed at almost every intersection.

Good name for an LLC.

Another feature of Grozny is that cars with flashing lights are constantly rushing through the streets. I have never seen the police driving without a siren and a chandelier; they are constantly shouting something into a megaphone. In a 5-minute walk along the central avenue, a dozen cars of various services will rush by with sirens and screams, and this is normal.

Early in the morning we took a taxi and went to see the areas that had not been restored.

As you can see, it turns out there are still houses destroyed by the war. This is the Zavodskoy district.

Ukrainian Sasha works in the house. Traces of shrapnel are visible on the walls. There were battles here. There was a sniper point in the neighboring house; they were constantly being fired upon.

The house is being dismantled brick by brick. For cleaning one room, Sasha receives 1000 rubles. This takes several days. The room is cleared of construction debris, all building materials suitable for further use are carefully stacked. Sometimes he comes across shell casings, he sells them for scrap metal and has enough for cigarettes and food. Then a crane comes and removes the slabs. Then they are used to strengthen river banks and build roads.

The resident of this house is Beret Ismailova. Until recently, she and three other families lived in a destroyed building. But later they were evicted and began to dismantle the building. In Grozny, buildings unsuitable for restoration are usually dismantled for materials, and the rest are restored. The woman is very worried; she has lived in this house all her life. Now she has been moved to other houses that were abandoned during the war, but not destroyed, but she was not given any documents. And recently people appeared with documents for her new house... She doesn’t know what to do, Ramzan says he doesn’t know about this, he wouldn’t allow such a relationship.

Sasha has never left Grozny and has no plans to leave. He loves being proud. He also loves Ramzan, who restored the city.

About Ramzan: “The carrot and the stick are the best leadership; with the Chechens there is no other way.”

Pupils. The mother of children, if they were offended, should never complain to her husband. As a last resort, she can turn to any relative of her husband. Although it is considered a rule of good manners not to pay attention to children’s grievances, quarrels, and tears.

A man shows the foundation of his house. This is all that is left of him. The remains of the house were stolen for construction materials. They even pulled out a metal channel from the basement. He was given 350,000 rubles to restore the house. He has 3 sons, they study in other regions of Russia, the money went towards education. But he will definitely restore the house!

Chechens associate the number 8 with a woman, and the number 7 with a man. One of the Chechen fairy tales talks about the young man Sultan, who courted a girl for exactly 8 years. According to Chechen customs, an infant should not be shown a mirror until he is eight months old. Chechen tradition presupposes that a woman knows eight generations of her maternal and paternal ancestors. A man must know the seven ancestors.

People live in destroyed buildings.

New school. Depending on the class, girls have different headscarves. It's strange, but the school doesn't have security. Even in Moscow, schools are guarded, but in Grozny, where there are police at every intersection, a school without security looks strange.

Train Moscow-Grozny. On the platform the station manager comes up to us and asks what we are doing here:
- We are photographers, we came to photograph the station!
- Where from?
- From Moscow! Can I shoot?
- Take pictures, of course!
By the way, in all this time no one has banned filming anywhere. Station, market, mosque... There were no problems anywhere. Only once did a policeman ask not to film Kadyrov’s motorcade. In Moscow, every janitor considers it his duty to express his importance to TAKE OFF!

According to Chechen etiquette, the guest should not offer any payment for the reception. He can only give a gift to the children. A few proverbs: “Where a guest does not come, grace does not come”, “A guest in the house is a joy”, “The longer the guest’s path to your home, the more valuable this guest is”...

A taxi around the city costs 100 rubles. If you call by phone, then 50. A taxi driver in a company must hand over 650 rubles of revenue per day.

The first trip is sometimes free, a sign that the day will go well. The average salary of a taxi driver is 20,000 per month, there is a lot of competition!

Then we went to the Berkat market. Strange, but it starts working only at 9 o'clock...

We were walking through the market, when suddenly a tinted number nine braked in front of us, and people with machine guns jumped out.
- Who are you?
- We are tourists, walking...
- Where from?
- From Moscow.
- Is everything okay with you?
- Certainly!
- May I take a picture with you?
It was market security. Naturally, no one forbade filming.

You can buy a commemorative T-shirt at the market. T-shirts with the inscriptions: “Region 95”, “Chechnya decides”, portraits of Kadyrov, the names of sports clubs and types of wrestling are very popular.

“If you don’t act like a man, don’t wear a mustache!” For those who wear a mustache, there are three prohibitions: do not cry from grief, do not laugh from joy, do not run away under any threat. A Chechen man must be discreet. It is not customary to show feelings in public.

Women are waiting for the pavilion to open.

Someone didn’t pay the rent of 6,000 rubles a month and the entire pavilion was closed. The security guard explains that until one person pays, no one will work.

By the way, I noticed that the portrait of Medvedev usually hangs next to the portrait of Akhmat Kadyrov, and the portrait of Putin next to Ramzan. I wonder if this is an accident? The airline Grozny-Avia flies to Moscow. A great opportunity to ride an old Yak-42 costs 7,000 rubles one way.

They say that the leader of the rebel highlanders, Shamil, who was going to surrender, was called out several times by his faithful associate. But Shamil did not turn around. When he was later asked why he did not turn around, he replied that he would have been shot. “Chechens don’t shoot in the back,” Shamil explained.

Grozny left a very pleasant impression. People are very hospitable and open; they come up to meet people on the streets and offer help. Many people leave their phones so that “if anything happens, call.” I don’t know how it is in the rest of Chechnya, but in Grozny you feel much calmer than in Ingushetia, where we were not recommended to walk even 100 meters without security, and at night people do not go out into the street. The city center has been completely restored, all the houses have been restored, it’s very clean. There is still a lot to be done on the outskirts. They say that Moscow is not Russia, so Grozny is not Russia either, it has its own laws, its own language, special people.

Sergey wrote about how we worked -

We have known Mikhail relatively recently. Literally a couple of years. He came to Chechnya with his wife literally immediately after their wedding. Read his thoughts, maybe some of my readers will benefit from the opinion of a man who hated us, the Chechens and Chechnya with all his heart...
Michael, THANK YOU SO MUCH for your honesty!
Original taken from mkoinov in My attitude towards Chechnya and Chechens

I must admit that for most of my life I saw the Chechens exclusively as “sworn enemies.” I even remember how, already in my youth, I sat over a map of Russia and seriously thought about how to most effectively build military fortifications on the border with the Chechen Republic in order to forever separate it from the rest of our country. And I had only one doubt - to draw this border along the left or right bank of the Terek.

I was already seven years old when the First Chechen War began, and an endless stream of hellish chronicles of its events flowed from the TV screen. Footage from the Vremya program, in which Chechen militants cut off the fingers of a hostage, was forever imprinted in children’s consciousness. There are also monstrously realistic scenes from Nevzorov’s “Purgatory”. And then, after a short and “murky” truce, Putin came, and the chronicles of the Second Chechen War began to flow from the screen.

Emotions often take precedence over cold logic, so at that time I had difficulty recording precisely the political events and changes that were taking place in the situation with Chechnya. At the emotional level, there was already a clear reflex of a negative reaction to any mention of the name of this republic or simply to the word “Chechen”. Yes, I remember how on one of Victory Days they showed video footage of the explosion at the Chechen stadium where Akhmat Kadyrov died on TV. I remember a bearded guy in a tracksuit who spoke little Russian, standing next to Putin. Then I found out that his name is Ramzan Kadyrov. But against the backdrop of war newsreels imprinted in my consciousness, these events meant absolutely nothing to me.

Stop feeding the Caucasus

During my student years, when I discovered the Internet, I continued to be drawn to this topic. I read the horrific details of the “Russian genocide” in Chechnya, watched videos of Wahhabis cutting off the heads of Russian soldiers, and became even more saturated with hatred. Over time, another topic became popular on the Internet - about how billions of Russian money are being poured into Chechnya. I remember these demotivators, where they compared the skyscrapers in Grozny with the destroyed houses of some Ryazan, and the newly-minted hero of Russia Kadyrov, sitting in an expensive car, with a WWII veteran standing in the passage. And that’s why Navalny’s speech in October 2011 with the slogan “Stop feeding the Caucasus!” was met with complete admiration in my face.

I don’t know what made me pay such close attention to the Caucasian topic from year to year. But I always paid attention to new and new news feeds in which the word “Chechnya” sounded. And sometimes in the flow of information I came across good reviews about this region. The blogs contained reports from those who visited there and spoke well of the republic. And at some point, at the next blogger event, I saw the first Chechen in my life - the LiveJournal ambassador from this republic - and he didn’t really look like the reckless thug that my fantasy depicted.

Over the years, I have acquired a very valuable trait - if information about something is contradictory, then you need to personally verify it, form your own opinion, and find the original source. So, for example, in the spring of 2014, at the first opportunity I rushed to Crimea to see with my own eyes the events of the “Crimean spring”, to communicate with the local population (and, first of all, with the Crimean Tatars), because the media was filled with diametrically opposed opinions on the topic of the Crimean referendum and the annexation of the peninsula to Russia.

The same story happened with Chechnya. I decided that I definitely had to visit the republic myself, look with my own eyes at the Chechens, at how they live, in order to form my own personal opinion. Moreover, this was not supposed to be a “popular” press tour, during which guests are shown exclusively the best sides of life, but something closer to reality. Just get in the car and drive around Chechnya.

Unexpectedly, in this desire I found the support of Natasha, who also wanted to go there. To be honest, I didn’t even discuss what her motivation was (now I’m writing these lines and I understand that I’ve never asked her about it). At first, I doubted whether it was worth taking the girl into this “enemy camp.” But over time, we added a trip to Chechnya to our list of road trips, and when in September after the wedding we were choosing a route for a road rally (we wanted somewhere to the south), we chose not Crimea or Sochi, but Chechnya. To be honest, even our parents were not told the specific purpose of our trip until recently, resorting to the vague wording “to the Caucasus.”

First impressions

The first day in Chechnya was the most stressful for me. At noon we arrived in Grozny, parked our car in the center and just went to look for a place where we could have lunch. No city map, no navigation, nothing. As in any of our journeys, everything is purely on a whim. I didn’t let go of Natasha’s hand and was ready at any moment for some kind of provocation against us. Honestly, it’s funny to remember now, but I walked through Grozny with one thought - one more lane and I’ll have to protect my woman. We found some establishment similar in ambience and service to the Belgorod Potapych, and I kept turning my head around, tracking any glance in our direction and trying in vain to understand what the people around were talking about.

It didn’t “let me go” even at night, when we checked into some hotel on the outskirts of the city (all the others were booked for the next two days due to the Russian Judo Championship taking place in Grozny). I seriously thought that someone might break into our room. But the more time we spent in Chechnya, the more absurd my fantasies seemed to me.

I couldn't wrap my head around the awareness of the surrounding calm. "How did it happen!?"- my inner voice exclaimed - “ There was a war going on here for a decade, everything was in ruins, and Russians were getting their heads cut off! How is this even possible - a measured, quiet life, as if nothing had happened? Where does this goodwill towards us come from? Is this all sincere? Where's the catch?. I looked for this very “trick” in every look, in every intonation in the conversation with us. And I didn’t find it.

The more we discovered Chechnya, the more I was surprised that this was a normal region of our country. If you step aside from these elaborate skyscrapers of “Grozny City” and just look at the city and its surroundings, you will see an ordinary well-groomed corner of Russia. Clean, tidy. It is not true that “federal money is poured in for show.” A colossal amount of work has really been done here to restore the entire republic. I can’t imagine how it was possible to eliminate all the consequences of hostilities in such a short time. But the republic is nice to look at. Good roads, neat houses.

And at some point they let me go. I allowed myself to exhale. A beautiful, calm Chechnya opened before my eyes, with sympathetic people living their daily lives. But you can’t get out of your head everything that I read and watched before? After all, my fears are not groundless? After all, Lermontov's “An angry Chechen crawls ashore, sharpens his dagger” It was written a century and a half ago, and is there any justification for this century-old enmity?

A look from the other side

I began to ask myself more and more questions in search of understanding the situation. At night, when you stand and listen to the silence of the Caucasus mountains, you get to look at the situation from the side opposite to the one from which you have always looked at it. You know, I end up with a huge text that only a few will read, and only 0.01% of them will accept my point of view, but I will write it and let it be useful even for just one of you.

I looked at the history of Russian-Chechen relations from the Chechen side. Have you ever thought about what that looked like for them? The Chechens, or as they were originally called - Nokhchi - lived here for hundreds of years. The invasion of the Mongol horde drove them from the plains into the mountains, where they survived for centuries in difficult conditions. The Russians, meanwhile, having thrown off the burden of invaders, began to build an Empire. Having taken Kazan and Astrakhan, their gaze turned towards the Caucasus. When the Chechens began to return to their ancestral lands, they were faced with the fact that the Terek Cossacks had already settled there. The empire was growing, and now it had already set the goal of taking Georgia, lying beyond the Caucasian ridge, under its influence. And let’s admit, the annexation of “strategically important territories” did not always proceed peacefully. Yes, there was an imposition of one's will. And the Chechens had every right not to always agree with the rules that were established for them. The response to disobedience was often punitive measures on the part of the Russians.

At the beginning of the 19th century, the Caucasian War began, which lasted about 50 years. Half a century, just imagine! For entire generations of mountaineers, war became a way of life. You can read in detail about the prerequisites and chronology of the conquest of the North Caucasus, for example, on Wikipedia. Imagine that some people came to your home and said that you will now live by their rules, or they will fight with you. Will you resist if you disagree? The Chechens decided that they would. Such a character trait. Did they have the right to do this? Everyone will answer this question for themselves.

And even after the main resistance forces were broken and the region was annexed to the Russian Empire, riots broke out here every now and then. Yes, you just need to honestly admit to yourself that it was we, the Russians, who came to the region located one and a half thousand kilometers from Moscow and decided that this was also our land. It was not the Chechens who started this hostility. It's strange, but this simple thought had never occurred to me before. At first, the Russians needed control over the Caucasus, which was considered the Empire's sphere of influence. And at the end of the 19th century, oil reserves were found in the region, and this also predetermined Russia’s interest in it.

After the February revolution, the communists skillfully converted the mountaineers’ hatred of “imperialism”, using them in the fight against the same Cossacks who supported the whites. They did not disdain tricks like slogans “Long live Soviet power and Sharia!” and promises to return the original Caucasian lands to their peoples. And after the dirty deed was done, they began to tighten the screws in their own way. Yes, in November 1920, the creation of the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was proclaimed with its capital in Vladikavkaz, consisting of six administrative districts, one of which was the Chechen National District (two years later transformed into the Chechen Autonomous Region). It looked as if, after a century of the war for independence, the Chechens had finally achieved the emergence of their own territorial entity. But at the same time, the Soviet (and for the locals, the same “Russian”) government began to dictate its own living conditions.

Surplus appropriation. Collectivization. A gradual struggle against religious institutions that did not fit into the concept of “building communism.” Naturally, such interference in the local way of life met with resistance, which was harshly suppressed by the troops of the Soviet government. In total, from 1920 to 1941, 12 major armed uprisings and more than 50 less significant ones occurred on the territory of Chechnya and Ingushetia. Some particularly rebellious villages were deported outside the North Caucasus.

Naturally, during the Great Patriotic War, not all Chechens rushed to defend the Soviet Union (although many fought courageously for it). Some saw this war as an opportunity to gain long-awaited independence. As a result, everything developed into one of the dirtiest pages of Soviet history - the deportation of the Chechen-Ingush people.

On January 29, 1944, People's Commissar of Internal Affairs of the USSR Lavrentiy Beria approved the “Instructions on the procedure for the eviction of Chechens and Ingush,” and on January 31, a decree was issued on the deportation of Chechens and Ingush to the Kazakh and Kyrgyz SSR. On February 20, Beria arrived in Grozny and personally led the operation, where, under the guise of “exercises in mountainous areas,” an army of 100 thousand people was transferred. On February 21, he issued an order to the NKVD for the deportation of the Chechen-Ingush population.

493 thousand Chechens were loaded onto freight trains and taken to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Everyone - old people, children, women - was rounded up like cattle in the winter and taken a thousand kilometers away from their native land. According to official data, 780 people were killed during the operation - those who categorically resisted or were inactive. According to “unofficial” data, we will never know how many victims there were. About 1,200 more people died during transport. 44.5 thousand people from among the deportees died in the first year of exile (almost every tenth).

The restriction on the movement of Chechens and Ingush was strictly in force until the death of Stalin, and only after that they began to gradually return to the territory of the republic. However, they did not have any benefits to restore life in their homeland, and they were completely forbidden to settle in a number of mountain villages.

At the same time, Chechnya was inhabited by Russians. I, too, had never thought about this before, but imagine what happened - the Chechens fought for decades with the Russians for the right to live independently, in the end they were all deported from their native land, and when they began to return there, those same people live in their place Russians. Dubious ground for friendly relations... Nevertheless, the Soviet government managed to keep this tension under control, and even by the time of the collapse of the USSR, every fourth resident of Chechnya was Russian.

Naturally, when the USSR began to burst at the seams, and the Baltic states and Central Asia began to fall away from it, talk about independence again came to the fore in Chechnya. And the local population, who had not seen anything good in an alliance with the Russians for at least two hundred years, naturally supported this idea with enthusiasm. I admit that it would be worth doing this, but for some reason the leaders of the new Russia decided that the same 90% Russian Crimea or Donbass can easily exist outside our state, but Chechnya must once again be taken under control. Naturally, by force! And another meat grinder began.

When I now, through the prism of time and knowledge, begin to think about what this war was about on our part, I do not find a logical answer. Why did the Russian guys die? For a land that has always been foreign to us? Which they always wanted to have contrary to the wishes of the people who inhabited it? It was some kind of hell unleashed by the hands of politicians, and the truth in it was once again not on the side of the Russians.

No matter how much I love my country and its history, over time, looking from the outside, I had to admit to myself that in this whole story with the “evil Chechens”, we, the Russians, were the bad guys. And all the negativity that we received from century to century appeared because we wanted to possess what does not belong to us. Did the Chechens have the right to resist these ambitions? Yes, they did. And because of their character, they would resist until the last living person.

“But there was one nation that did not succumb to the psychology of submission at all - not loners, not rebels, but the entire nation. These are Chechens"- Solzhenitsyn wrote in his “Archipelago”. And you, being in Chechnya, see this pride in literally every person, which seems to be absorbed with mother’s milk. A pride that no weapon can knock out of them.

Current Chechnya

I can talk for a very long time about what happened and why everything happened this way and not otherwise. But the past cannot be undone, so I will move on to the present. Whatever they say, in today's realities we have a unique situation - it seems that for the first time in several centuries we live in peace with the Chechen people in the same state. In an incredibly short period of time, we managed to restore everything that was destroyed and create an infrastructure that allows the republic to live no worse than other regions of Russia. For the first time, the Russians gave the Chechens the opportunity to live the way they want - without aggressively imposing their will, taking into account their interests.

I understand why you can see portraits of Akhmat Kadyrov and Putin on every corner in Chechnya - because these two people were able to come to an agreement and bring peace to their land. “So that there is no war”, “a peaceful sky above”, “so that there is a home and work” - these are the key wishes of the residents of Chechnya. We can say that in our historical era there has been a new birth of the Chechens as a nation, and this will not be an exaggeration. They received the legal right to live on their land the way they want. And when we began to communicate with them as human beings, another side of the Chechen people opened up before us.

Yes, we are very different from them both in mentality and in the stage of development of society. But it is important to realize that attempts to impose our will, to reshape them to the standards we are accustomed to are doomed to failure. Chechens have a completely different way of life, character, religion, and system of relationships in society from ours. But this does not mean that they need to change their way of life by force. At the same time, their proud character contains those features that captivate with their sincerity and perseverance. By coming to them in peace, you receive peace in return.

Returning to the title of this post, I will summarize my conclusions. My attitude towards Chechens can be expressed in one word - respect. I admire both the resilience of their character, commitment to their values, and the strength to forgive past grievances and move on. And I am very often ashamed of my compatriots who continue to produce these hostile clichés towards the Chechens. In this regard, the residents of the republic have taken a much greater step forward, having learned to leave in the past all the troubles that Russian ambitions brought to their land.

Chechnya is beautiful. I sincerely hope that the good neighborly relations that we have with its people now will strengthen. We have no other options for peaceful life with these people in one state.