Grozny, and Chechen history, being reconstructed
This is the year, according to an order from a president whom few dare to disappoint, that the architectural scars of war in Grozny, Chechnya's capital, will be removed.
That the order has nearly been fulfilled is a feat.
Not long ago, Grozny (the name means "terrible" in Russian) offered a panorama of sagging husks of buildings and unmarked graves, scenes that eerily resembled the ruins left by the most destructive urban battles of World War II.
Grozny today is less a battlefield than the renovated seat of a new police state within Russia's borders, led by Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic's young and exceptionally violent president. And Kadyrov, a Chechen who has professed loyalty to the same Kremlin that many of his fellow Chechens fought for more than a decade, has decreed that by Dec. 31 his capital will bear no more of the marks of war that made Grozny worthy of its name.
As the makeover nears completion, and at a pace recalling the fear-driven public works of Stalin's time, Grozny's new look summons questions. The ruins are vanishing. How will the city remember the forces that destroyed it
The answer, in short, is very carefully. And partially. If the task of writing a war's history falls to the victors, then Kadyrov is busy with a selective first draft.
Read entire article at International Herald Tribune
That the order has nearly been fulfilled is a feat.
Not long ago, Grozny (the name means "terrible" in Russian) offered a panorama of sagging husks of buildings and unmarked graves, scenes that eerily resembled the ruins left by the most destructive urban battles of World War II.
Grozny today is less a battlefield than the renovated seat of a new police state within Russia's borders, led by Ramzan Kadyrov, the republic's young and exceptionally violent president. And Kadyrov, a Chechen who has professed loyalty to the same Kremlin that many of his fellow Chechens fought for more than a decade, has decreed that by Dec. 31 his capital will bear no more of the marks of war that made Grozny worthy of its name.
As the makeover nears completion, and at a pace recalling the fear-driven public works of Stalin's time, Grozny's new look summons questions. The ruins are vanishing. How will the city remember the forces that destroyed it
The answer, in short, is very carefully. And partially. If the task of writing a war's history falls to the victors, then Kadyrov is busy with a selective first draft.