The Information Channel Felist.Com -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Issue 22 03.09.02 Chechen culture Music Chechen folklore and dance "Pondur" is the oldest, widest-spread and best loved musical instrument of the Chechens. It is as unsophisticated as the Russian balalaika: three chords and a wooden casing. The difference lies in the casing: the pondur one is rather long, it is made of one solid block of wood. The pondur has a soft, rustling voice. Story-tellers used to sing to the accompaniment of this musical instrument. There is a legend about the pondur: Tamerlane asked his generals after a devastating battle with the Chechens whether they had captured the Chechen pondur. On hearing a negative answer the famous military leader said:"If you failed to capture their pondur, we won the battle but failed to break their spirit..." The pipe, the tambourine, the drum, the horn, the whistle and the wedding flapper - ghema are as old as the pondur. The oldest bow instrument was made of bovine shoulder blade. It had two to four chords made of horse hair or well dried tendons. Fiddles were made of small pumpkins. The first accordeons were made of wood. The Russian accordeon is a much later acquisition and it took the men some time to get used to that musical instrument. Young girls and women were the first to develop a liking for it. Each musical instrument was assigned a role of its own. The reed-pipe was played on summer solstice which marks the day of Pkh'armat. Pkh'armat, just like Prometheus of the Hellenes, has brought people fire. A very old Chechen legend says that Pkh'armat carried burning embers in a reed stalk. The embers burnt small holes in the reed. The first reed-pipe was, as a result, a reed stalk with eight small holes in it. The "chiondarg" resembles the fiddle. It was played in the field because its voice made grain grow faster and yield better crops. Nusic occupied a very special place in the life of Chechnya. It helped people to say words of love and peace, give an oath, cure their ailing brethren. A tune has been recorded with the help of which folk doctors eased pain. The first recordings of Chechen music were made by an exiled member of the clandestine Decembrist society, in the middle of the 19th century. Composer A.A.Davidenko visited many villages of Chechnya in the 20's of the 20th century. He made recodings of a number of historical, ritual, love and dance tunes. Thirty arrangements of Chechen folk tunes were published, in one volume, in 1926 in Moscow. The Chechen musical lore knows several genres: songs, dancing tunes, and music "to listen to." One can hardly draw a line between these genres because song and dance usually make one whole. The words of a song hurry up one after another until the song turns into a fiery dance. Folk tunes - religious as much as secular - are often delivered in a declamatory manner (recitative.) Many of them are, in fact, delivered as dialogs. A male soloist is the first to sing, with more men joining him in a chorus. Then a female soloist joins in. More women join her in a chorus. It is, in fact, a recitative, singing and, finally, dancing competition between male and female artists. A Chechen dance is more than a simple succession of steps. It usually has a plotline, with the focus on an old legend or a custom. It may, for example, show how a woman throws her headerchief on the ground in a last-ditch effort to stop men from fighting. The Lezghinka is the most popular dance of the Northern Caucasus. It seems to be the only dance without a singing preamble. But every village has a Lezghinka of its own. Women dancers move softly and gracefully while men are responsible for the fiery part of the dance. No other dance but the Lezghinka demands that male dancers walk, every now and then, on the tips of their toes. Professional dancers - the well-known "Veinakh" and the children's company "Lovzar"- are very fond of the folklore dancing patterns of the remote past. (more about Chechen culture... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=cultureeng) Famous Chechens Military men Khanpasha Nuradilov "...Khanpasha Nuradilov embodies the best qualities of the valiant Chechen people - the heroism and devil-may-care bravery of a mountain eagle, courage, prowess and gallantry." (excerpted from a handbill of the Political Agency of the Stalingrad Front) Khanpasha was drafted to the Red Army at the age of 20, in 1940, and it was in the most difficult initial period of the Great Patriotic War, in October of 1941, that he distinguished himself in action: machine-gunner Nuradilov killed 120 Nazi soldiers and took 7 prisoner. His comrades-in-arms - ethnic Ukrainians, Russians, Chechens - had always loved the modest and hard-working youth whose parents died when he was quite a small boy. They came to see him as a hero who set them a good example. The follow-up developments proved that a lion's heart beat in the breast of the former oil worker. Nuradilov commaned a machine-gun platoon in the fighting near the city of Serafimovich. He was dressing his wounded leg when the enemy launched a counter-attack. He aimed his machine gun and mowed down 250 Nazi soldiers. In that combat he also destroyed two enemy machine guns. But the war was not over yet...Khanpasha was fatally wounded and died on his way to the first aid station. He had killed a total of 920 enemy troops, captured 7 machine-guns and took 12 Nazi soldiers prisoner. He had surely lived a hero's life! The Krasnaya Zvezda newspaper of the Stalingrad Front devoted a whole page to the description of his feats, on October 21, 1942. It described Khanpasha as a gallant warrior of his motherland, a son of the sun and an eagle among eagles. An army reporter said that hero of the Caucasus would live forever. One Boris Poleichuk dedicated a poem titled "The Soldier's Honor," to Khanpasha Nuradilov. Another poem about the fallen hero was written by Yevgeny Dolmatovsky. His Chant to Khanpasha Nuradilov was typed on the reverse side of a leaflet of the Political Agency of the Stalingrad Front. The leaflet said Nuradilov had "never lacked courage. He embodied the best qualities of the Chechen people - the heroism and devil-may-care of a mountain eagle, courage, prowess and gallantry. The glorious warrior followed in the footsteps of the Caucasian braves." The leaflet advised every soldier to remember machine-gunner Khanpasha Nuradilov and try to follow in his footsteps. Khanpasha Nuradilov was decorated with orders of the Red Star and Red Banner. In April, 1943, he was posthumously made a hero of the Soviet Union. He had not yet turned 23 when a Nazi bullet cut short his life near the Volga Valley city of Stalingrad. The memorial complex of that hero-city has a memorial plaque of Khanpasha Nuradilov. Bunches of flowers always lie there... His compatriots also remember him. The drama theater of Chechnya and a street of the Chechen capital of Grozny bear his name. His home village of Minai-Yugai of the Khasavyurt District of Chechnya will be the last to forget him. Stories about Khanpasha Nuradilov bring back the difficult years of the Great Patriotic War. The blood of those who defended this country sealed the brotherhood of the various ethnic communities of the Soviet Union. (more about famous chechens... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=famouseng) Chechen diary 03 September 2002 Returnees accommodated in Chechnya The return of Chechen refugees from Ingushetia is turning into nothing short of exodus. In less than a month, the number of applications from those wishing to return has grown from 10 000 to 15 000. According to the Federal Migration Service (FMS), there are now just over 80 000 refugees in Ingushetia on official books with a status of displaced persons. 30 000 of them, says head of the FMS Andrei Chernenko, have job and shelter, though they are not taken off the tab, so that they could enjoy financial aid and subsidies allocated for displaced persons. FMS has done a big chunk of work over the past 6 months to accommodate refugees both in Chechnya and Ingushetia, A. Chernenko emphasized. 120 tents have been thus far taken down in Ingushetia and FMS expects that there will be no people in makeshift settlements by winter. The problem of providing the returnees with housing stands very acute in Chechnya. There is lack of temporary premises even though 14 such premises have been set up in Grozny, Gudermes, Argun, and Sernovodsk. Federal Minister for Chechnya Vladimir Elagin said earlier that the emphasis of the federal aid had to be shifted to Chechnya without hurting those refugees who remained in Ingushetia. The UN humanitarian commissioner for Russia Frederic Lions says that the bulk of the international humanitarian aid is directed straightly to the Chechen republic. The returnees are now being accommodated in private houses. Construction of 10 more makeshift settlements will be started in the near future. Construction materials, that is what Chechnya needs most of all. They are needed both for building makeshift settlements and for building and restoration of houses battered by the recent flood. Therefore many Russian regions and non-profit organizations are providing Chechnya with construction materials. A convoy made up of a special train and 4 Kamaz trucks has lately delivered to Chechnya construction materials and medication raised by Russian human rights groups and refugee funds (more from Chechen diary http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=diaryeng) 02 September 2002 Consumer service network helps address unemployment That consumer service network has resumed its work in Chechnya is yet another proof that life in the republic is changing for the better. Each consumer service center gives jobs, thus helping to address one of the challenges of the day in the republic, says Chechnyas consumer service chief I.I. Gavrilov. 35 consumer service facilities have renewed operation in Grozny over the past two years, among which are Trikotazhbyt, furniture utility Remstroibyt, Chechenphoto, Grozparikhmakherskiye, Shveibyt, and Khudozhestvenye promisly. Dressmakers, dry-cleaning, a laundry, and a shoemaking factory are also up-and-running. Construction and repair facility producing breeze and foundation blocks, concrete, and cement mortar was commissioned in July. Knitted goods factory is soon to be put into action. A two-storeyed building on the Zhukovskaya street for the 15 bath-house was on tap back in March. A power substation has been recently purchased and now the red-hot bath-house has opened its doors to visitors. Consumer service development has been gathering pace virtually in all districts of Chechnya, says I.I. Gavrilov. Gudermes already has a service shop. There are 300 people employed in consumer service in Urus-Martan. Public attendance in Achkhoi-Martan district is also running smoothly. A full-fledged consumer service in the Naurskaya village is just around the corner. A ceramic production facility is rebounding in Duba-Yurt. Pottery and fancy handwork crafted by local masters once gained distinctions at international fairs, namely in Leipzig. A carpet-making facility engaging 200 employees has opened up in Nozhai-Yurt. (more from Chechen diary http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=diaryeng) 01 August 2002 Chechnyas Culture Ministry: two years behind All cultural and educational institutions have been put back on track in Chechnya. There are 664 such institutions with a total staff of 2 647 people up-and-running now in the republic. Chechnyas Minister of Culture Movla Osmaev unveiled these figures at a session of the Ministry board, which focused on the results of the two-year work of the ministry set up in August 2000. The state dance ensemble Vainakh is on its toes touring. The famous group returned from France on August 21 where it took part in forty-day International folk festival and was acclaimed as one of the best ones. Vainakh has been such a success that it got engagement for many-month tour around France and Belgium. The H. Nuradilov state theater has gained a new lease on life too. The best productions of the previous repertoire are back on display and now the company is rehearsing two new shows based on plays by the classic of the Chechen literature H. Oshaev Selasat and Dva arbuza. The republican puppet theater has also got back into business. With the financial help of the International Red Cross Committee, the theater has already staged more than 100 shows. Mens vocal group Illi, womens one Zhovkhar, instrumental group Daimohkk and pop ensemble Ekspansiya are working under the auspices of the Chechen state philharmonic society. Two mini vans, courtesy of the republican leadership, help the artists of the philharmonic society regularly tour across Chechnya. Unfortunately, their creative work is hampered by lack of premises for rehearsals and poor state funding. 3 republican libraries, national, childrens, and for blind men, have done a nearly 5 million rubles worth of facilities upgrade. Book stock is gradually being restored. The republican libraries will receive this year a more than 1 million rubles worth of books. Training cultural personnel is also on top of the agenda. The Moscow State University of Culture and Arts has been hosting for three years now the Nakhi studio where 25 young people from Chechnya are studying actor mastery. Scores of would-be cultural experts are studying in institutions of the Southern federal district enjoying budgeted vacancies reserved for them by the Russian Educational Ministry. An average of 15 Chechen young men annually are going for study to the Krasnoyarsk University of Culture and Arts. Two Chechen undergraduates have been enrolled to the Nalchik University of Culture and Arts. Cultural workers will be able to enhance expertise in the Academy of personnel retraining at the Russian Culture Ministry. The first group of 44 people made up of district cultural chiefs, art university rectors, and librarians will come to Moscow in the fall. (more from Chechen diary http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=§ion=diaryeng) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Religion in Chechnya Kunta-Khadzhi Kishiev the Chechen Mahatma Gandhi (continuation) For the tsarist regime people with Kunta-Khadzhis outlook were much more dangerous than Shamil. The tsarist authorities looked on Kunta-Khadzhi as a fanatic, criminal and trouble-maker inciting people to serving God, and not the ruling classes. Hence official tsarist documents classed him as a political criminal, a fanatic, for he was seeking a righteous society calling for justice and life according to the laws of conscience and suffered to the point of self-torture feeling so keenly about peoples sins. Followers of Kunta-Khadzhi have never acknowledged his death in a belief that he went into hiding and will make a come-back, thereby recognizing him as Mahdi (the last Messiah, successor of prophet Muhammad, God bless Him). Even in the most tragic times for Chechen people Sheikh Kunta-Khadzhi relentlessly called for mutual assistance and charity. In India he would undoubtedly have been given the name of Mahatma or Teacher, and in Chechnya he is known as Evliya, which means Saint. He is not just a saint, but a saint, who suffered for new philosophy, new outlook. One is tempted to throw a bridge across the spiritual world of Kunta-Khadzhi to that of Leo Tolstoi to Mahatma Gandhi .People of different religions Chechen Kunta-Khadzhi, Russian Leo Tolsoi, Hindu Mahatma Gandhi all urged the humanity to be kind, compassionate, modest and generous. As for Kunta-Khadzhi himself, a preacher, who called for renunciation of mundane life and non-resistance to evil with violence, he was sent to life exile to the town of Ustyuzhno in the Novgorod province. He died there on May 19th,1867. Significantly, in the early 20th century printing-houses in Daghestan published collections of sayings by the Chechen saint that had been put together by his followers. The teaching of Kunta-Khadzhi Kishiev (in detail... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion=religioneng&row=3) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Chechen history Chechens one the worlds most ancient people (continuation) The difficult process of the formation of the Chechen nation In the 13th 14th centuries Chechens were forced to retreat to the mountains by the Tatar-Mongols. In the late 14th century Tamerlanes troops defeated Semsim state that existed on the territory of Chechnya, after which Chechens suffered a long period of decline. The physical, material and cultural losses of the Vainakh people after the invasion of Tamerlane were so great that the historical link of times and cultures was once again broken. After the fall of the Golden Horde Chechens gradually descended from the mountains and colonized the Chechen plain anew. By that time Chechens knew only too well what the yoke of foreign conquerors and their own feudal lords was like and rejected serfdom as incompatible with the whole of their previous history. In most of Chechnya they revived their traditional lifestyle on a qualitatively new level setting up free communities, where personal freedom became a value in itself but was limited by democratic and strict common law known as Adat. Since then belonging to tribal or feudal aristocracy was not enough for power to become hereditary. Individualism, cult of freedom and democracy were developed so strongly among the Vainakhs that at a certain stage they turned against the people themselves and began to hamper the process of the formation of the Chechen people. It was not accidental , that Chechen communities were at war with one another, and for fear of the elevation of people in their own midst that would create a precedent of power being hereditary, they chose rulers from representatives of either Kumyk or Kabardin dynasties, which, if need be, were easy to get rid of (which they did). Tribal Chechnya was afraid of elevating representatives of any of the Chechen clans. Hence they invited an impartial foreign prince (and the consequences of the baneful tradition are still making themselves felt). Tribes and communities of highlanders all over the world live in big isolation and are notable for their independence and bellicosity. Slavery and serfdom are alien to mountain communities, where every man is a warrior. Feudal lords were able to spread their power on separate areas only and holding it was possible only when there was voluntary support from free and belligerent people. In the mountains family and tribal interests often prevailed over the national interests, so it was difficult to build a stable state structure there. The Chechen community has always been a sort of non-state ethocratic one (in Greek etos means customs). Chechens had a tradition of holding peoples meetings, at which temporary warlords and community chiefs were elected but Vainakhs never had a tsar. For them the problem of consolidation was always a pressing one. Officer of the Russian Imperial Army Umalat Laudaev, a Chechen by origin, wrote in 1872 that a Chechen tribe consisting of numerous families that had quarreled with one another from time immemorial unanimity was alien. Hence residents of Nazran were irreconcilable enemies of Chechens living on the lowlands and on the Terek River; they robbed and killed one another; residents of Shatoi attacked those of the right bank of the Terek River, who responded by kidnapping Shatoi people and selling them into slavery to west Caucasus. Aukhs are closer to Kumyks and Nazranites to Ossetians and Kabardins rather than to their Chechen fellow tribesmen. This absence of unanimity on the part of Chechen communities reduced to minimum the political importance of the country they live in. (in detail... http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng§ion=historyeng&row=2) Copyright CHECHNYA FREE.RU http://www.chechnyafree.ru/index.php?lng=eng -*-------------------------------------------------------------------------- Unsubscribe: http://felist.com/member/unsub?grp=news.media.chechnyafree http://felist.com/ mailto:ask@felist.com