Chechen culture
Traditional Folk Arts
Chechen home and utensils
THE HISTORY OF CHECHEN HANDICRAFTS
It was not until the late 19th century that the Chechens started using other than wooden, brass and earthen tableware. Village artisans had polished their skills to perfection in making household utensils. Glazed crockery featured geometric or floral designs. Bowls were usually big. And the shape of a bowl depended on what they would put into it. A pitcher with a narrow neck contained melted butter. A pitcher with a wide neck was meant for milk and sour milk. The neck of a water pitcher was so narrow that only a child's fist could fit in. Water pitchers had big handles and wide circle-shaped bottoms: they would be carried on the shoulder from the river that could flow far enough from home or in a canyon. A special kind of earthenware held grain. Demand was high for the well-made Chechen pottery.Wooden tableware was made with a lathe.
The hardest sorts of timber - oak and maple - went for tableware. Some household utensils were also made of wood: barrels, wheel spikes and other parts of wheelcarts. Cradles were made of wood in such a way as to enable a Chechen mother to strap it to her back and carry it out to the field. Its accommodating design and loyalty to the national tradition explain why some Chechen women still put their babies in such cradles. Other things made of wood: trays, mugs, spoons, churns - have also survived till nowadays.
19th century brass washbowls, mugs, tubs and pots are still used by the Chechens. The Chechen home looks traditionally simple, if not ascetic. There was an absolute minimum of furniture: portable wooden beds and small tables. But household utensils that do credit to the village artisans adorned the rooms. There were things made of wood and brass, crockery and, in addition to all that, things made of wool and felt. Felt was indispensable. Chechens used it for mattresses, blankets and wall rugs and as insulation lining. Multicolor Chechen rugs are usually decorated with red and blue fringework.
(more about Chechen home and utensils...)
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Famous Chechens
Scientists
Magomet Akhtakhanov (1893-1920)
In the beginning of the last century there was a man who had been destined to become the first Chechen doctor. Just how talented a young boy from a poor family in the village of Goyti must be, so that by the age of 7 hed be prepared to enter a school, which was then the equivalent of Western grammar schools!? Having successfully passed entrance examinations in the Stavropol male classical gymnasium Magomet Akhtakhanov was entitled to receive the so-called "grant for the residents of the mountain areas. On top of that, his father also lent a hand offering his son some of his soldiers wages, when in the same year he was enlisted in the Chechen Hundred, a special detachment of the imperial army, which was then at war with Japan.
In the gymnasium Magomet Akhtakhanov studied history, philosophy, geography, mathematics, physics, Latin, French and German. In 1912, having received some money raised by the people from his native village, he went to Moscow to join the medical faculty of the Moscow University. (in detail...)
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Chechen cuisine
Chicken a la Chechnya (one portion)
Chicken 208g., salt 3g., onions 5g. For the sauce: butter 20g., whole milk 50g., onions 60g., black ground pepper 0,05g., salt 2g.
For dumplings: flour (corn or wheat) 160g., water 90g., salt 2g. Broth 250g., boiled milk 50g.
Put cleaned and washed chicken into hot water (2-2.5 liters per 1 kilo), wait until the water boils, then turn down the heat. Remove the scum, add cut onions, salt and leave it to simmer in closed vessel until ready. Cut the boiled chicken into portions, put into a pan with sauted onions, add the whole milk, salt and pepper, cover with a lid and leave for 5 10 minutes. Make dumplings out of corn or wheat flour. (The recipe for dumplings see above under Zhizhig galnash). Boil the dumplings in broth or salted water for 20-25 minutes, put on a plate, top with chicken pieces. Serve the chicken broth with boiled whole milk separately.
(more about cuisine...)
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Issue 4
01.07.02
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Chechen diary
01 July 2002
Residents of the Chechen village of Mairtup are providing order and security themselves
Hostilities have ended in Chechnya and the life of the Chechen people is gradually normalizing. Yet, a real peace will come only after militants stop carrying out attacks and people become sure in their future. Meanwhile, many people have come to understanding that efforts by military and federal authorities are not enough, there must be cooperation between federal officials and local residents. This is seen possible in the Kurchalaevsky region after Colonel Nikolay Barsukov became the regions military governor local residents are trying to provide law and order themselves in the area in cooperation with his administration. Such way of organization is yielding good results.
The village of Mairtup of the Kurchalaevsky region is one of the Chechen oldest villages. Its inhabitants are providing order and security themselves coordinated by the public council Soglasie (Accord) which includes the villages most respectful figures elders, teachers, former officials of law enforcement bodies. The council is closely cooperating with the regions administration. They both are ready to put an end to tense relations between militants and civilians and restore law and order in all fields.
As a result, no special operation have been carried out in the village over the last nine months. The council elected by the village population and really protecting its interests could organize the people together with the head of the administration likewise the residents provide order themselves. The village is divided into several sectors, each of which is governed by a member of the council and patrolled at nights by local police and residents.
(more from Chechen diary)
30 June 2002
Prospects for social and economic development of the Sharoy region of Chechnya
The head of the Sharoy regional administration Muhadin Musalov is sure the region will soon become one of the leading ones in the republic. Yet it has to resolve many tasks.
The only state farm Alpiysky in the region has now just 50 jobs instead of two thousand which were involved into agricultural farming in late 1990. The regional authorities refuse to reconcile to this. 550 hectares of the land given in the Naursky region have been sawn to corn. Another state farm Sharoy is expected to be built. An agreement on buying grunting-oxen beginning from August has been signed.
40 per cent of living areas have been damaged or destroyed in the course of hostilities in the region. 70 per cent of houses (20) are to be restored this year. The total restoring is planned to be completes by the year 2004.
A hospital, a polyclinic, ambulance stations are functioning again. Unforturnally, there are not enough doctors. The Health Ministry has given to regional doctors two ambulance cars. Hospitals are regularly given medicines, equipment and food for patients.
Schools are also provided with considerable assistance. Two of them are included in the federal program on restoring. Others are given furniture, paints and clay-slates. Graduates of Sharoy schools will be allowed to enter Chechen institutes and professional colleges.
The Sharoy regional interior department has been formed. On the 9th of May a memorial for participants of the Great Patriotic War was unveiled. Electric power and communication lines are being restored in the region.
(more from Chechen diary)
30 June 2002
A new educational center for Chechen policemen
An affiliate of the educational center of the Head Interior headquarters of the Krasnodar region has opened in the village of Shelkovskaya. The first group of 89 policemen of the Shelkovskaya interior headquarters, will attend the center for two months. The educational programs are to raise professional level of Chechen policemen. They include such subjects as law, fire and special training, hand-to-hand fight, criminalistics, special technique, medical training, psychology and ethics. The former deputy head of the Shelkovskaya interior headquarters Lieutenant colonel Yamuddin Mahmudov has been appointed head of the educational center.
Krasnodar policemen will provide the center with methodical help and finance. Speaking at the centers opening ceremony, the deputy head of the interior administration of the Krasnodar region Nikolay Boiko said permanent interior bodies were being formed in Chechnya. A regional department of the interior administration was the first permanent one to be formed. Students of the educational center in the Shelkovskaya village are to become its officials.
(more from Chechen diary)
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Chechen ethnos
Nakhs in the North Caucasus
The people who lived in what is now Chechnya and Ingushetiya belong to what wereknown as Koban and Kayakent-Kharachoi archeological cultures. Learning the art of smelting and forging iron as early at the start of the first millennium B.C. this ethnic group, obviously related to the Nakh-speaking Trans-Caucasian tribes, played a determining role in the ethno-genetic processes and the very genesis of the Chechen and Ingush peoples as sharing one and the same material and spiritual heritage. It was a time when the Chechens and Ingushis finally shaped up anthropologically in the North Caucasus area as representatives of the Europeoid race. The Chechen and Ingush tribes living on the northern slopes of the Main Caucasus Range contacted with the Scythians of the steppes and later with the Sarmat and Alan nomadic tribes, and archeological finds all point to close trade, military and political
ties once existing between the Vainakhs and their neighbors, with the ancient Georgian, Armenian and Persian kingdoms. These contacts were not always peaceful though, and occasional clashes with the Scythians of the steppe lands and nomadic forays prevented the ancient Vainakhs from settling on the flatlands, forcing them to spend centuries in their highland villages which they turned into impregnable stone fortresses.
The Vainakhs occasionally ventured down into the plains as is proved by the villages and burial mounds which can still be found near Serzhen-Yurt, Alleroi, Mairtup, Zandak and Bamut where they widely engaged in metal smelting, pottery, farming and cattle grazing, and also all kinds of craft.
The dawning of the first millennium of the new era saw the Chechens and Ingushis fighting hard for control over the mountain passes. Together with other tribes and states, among them the Georgian kingdom, they fought back the Roman legions and the Persian armies. Between the 7th and 9th centuries A.D. the Vainakhs successfully repulsed the invading troops of the Arab Caliphate.
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Chechen history
From conflict to stability
Scientists sharing their views on ways to normalize the situation in Chechen republic
Prominent Russian and foreign scientists have published a collection of articles looking at the Chechen conflict and suggesting ways to resolve it. The collection, called Chechnya: From Conflict to Stability, bases on the materials of the international scientific conference Chechnya: From Conflict to Accord that took place in Moscow in November 2000. The book was published by the Russian Academy of Sciences, the N.Miklukho-Maklai Institute of Ethnology and Anthropology and the Foundation for Humanitarian Assistance to Chechen republic. Opinions on the problem, which has become the tragedy and pain of both Chechen and Russian people in the past 10 years, differ, - begins his article Economic and Social Consequences of Chechen Conflict: Ways out of the Crisis Malik Saidullaev, a prominent Chechen public leader and businessman. Dan Smith from the Institute of Peace in Oslo offers his
opinion in an article about armed conflicts. Research on economic and social issues encompasses an article by Candidate of Philosophy Vakhit Akaev about the state of modern Islamic trends in Chechnya, including the conflict between followers of traditional Islam and wahhabism. An article by Professor Igor Kosikov is devoted to the activity of federal center and local authorities to restore the economy and create the state apparatus of the Chechen republic. The head of the department in charge of the restoration of the education system of Chechen republic of the Russian Education Ministry Vasily Mizherikov examines the current state of education system in Chechnya.
(in detail...)
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