"Chechen Radio | "Chechnya Free.ru" Radio station

You can listen to Free Chechnya Radio station from 6 AM to 12 PM Moscow time on a frequency of 594 kHz on the medium wave band and on a frequency of 171 kHz on the long wave band. The programme is created with the involvement of the Ministry for culture and mass communication of the Russian Federation.
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Chechen culture

The Etiquette of Chechen Marriage Customs

The traditional Chechen marriage ceremony, like their other folk customs has always been in its secretive cohesion. It included sing-songs, dance, music, pantomime and narration, which altogether produced a whole spectacle. The elements of the Chechen nuptial ceremony, including horse-riding, bridal introduction into the grooms home, acquaintance with the bride, her movement to a river, a visit of the future groom to the brides relatives and others represent the main features of the Chechen folk theatrics, which manifest a mass creativity, originality, multi-faceted national forms, breadth, and depth of popular fantasy. In general, the playful element spectacle and facial expressions are well developed in the images of a Chechen marriage. This is evident from the very notion of the Chechen marriage known as lovzar which means play. Nuptial ceremonies among Chechens and Ingushis have some differences. With Ingushis it is considered a calamity that s girl gets married without the parents blessing, while Chechens see nothing wrong in that. Sometimes, her relatives go this way in order to avoid extra expenses involved in marriage ceremonies. At the appointed time, a groom with friends would go to an appropriate place (the exit spot for the bride) and take away the girl and this is considered to be getting married (marie yakhar) or nuptials (zuda yalor). The bride is taken to the home of a friend, or brother-in-law or a grooms relative (zuda yossar the brides sojourn) to settle certain formalities. It is necessary to dispatch a man (stag vakhiitar) in order to inform her relatives about her voluntary decision to get married, reconciliation (tam bar), redemption payment (yoikhana or kyovlam) to the girls relatives, preparation of the bride for her nuptials (nuskal kechdar) when the parents send her clothing, sow or buy whatever she needs. This lasts for a week or sometimes longer. And all this time the marriage (lovzar)is being prepared. A retinue (zamuoi) is sent for the bride on the marriage day, including the grooms friends (nevzan nakyosk or best men). On the way to the bride and back the nuptial procession throw up a merry-making. They play harmonica, fire guns and previously Chechen equestrians displayed their shooting prowess, fencing and equestrian skills.
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Chechen history

The history of Russian-Chechen relations

The current conflict in Chechnya is largely rooted in the history of Russian-Chechen relations, which include six stages. The first stage The first stage, which started in the middle of the 16th century and lasted until the end of the 17th century, was marked by a peaceful colonization of the region. That period is characterized by vassal-allied forms of relations between Moscow tsars and elders of Chechen communities. Moscow was trying to expand its influence in the region by political and economic means mainly. The policy was a success and Chechen communities voluntarily (by signing agreements) announced recognition of the supreme power of the Moscow state. The second stage The second stage, which lasted almost throughout the 18th century, marks the beginning of Russia's open military expansion to the North Caucasus. Under Peter I and then Catherine II the doctrine of colonizing the mountain areas prevalent. (more...)

Issue 450
19.04.07

Chechnya: news | arguments | facts

19 April 2007 A schoolboy from the Nadterechny district wins childrens poster competition
A republican childrens poster competition has been held in Chechnya. It was timed to the World Tuberculosis Day. Said-Khamzat Elmurzayev, an 8th grade pupil of the comprehensive school 1 in the Nadterechny district of Chechnya, has become the winner of the contest. According to the schools head teacher, Said-Akhmed Khasimikov, children have always been taught basic sanitary requirements. Pupils are always glad to draw posters dedicated to tuberculosis and other dangerous diseases. A hospital is located not far from school, so doctors often meet with children and read different lectures. Senior pupils take these problems seriously and want to know more about AIDS and drugs to be able to protect themselves. Many pupils participated in childrens poster competition. The jury said a poster How to appreciate health was made professionally. And now the whole school is proud of Said-Khamzat Elmurzayev. Said is a great-grandson of Arbi Mamakayev, whose name was given to the first school in the Nadterechny district. The boys grandfather, Eduard Mamakayev now works as the chairman of the Union of Writers of Chechnya, and his grandmother is a deputy school manager. Said Khasimikov recollects that Eduard Mamakayev was his teacher and could draw very well. His daughter, the boys mother, also likes to draw and helps to decorate the school. So Said-Khamzat is successfully keeping his familys tradition.
(more News from Chechnya...)

19 April 2007  Six police from Karelia get injuries in attack in Grozny
According to specified data, six police from Karelia got injuries as result of a shooting at a block post in Grozny. As Itar-Tass learnt at the Chechen Prosecutors Office, the shooting occurred at about 21:00 on Wednesday. Unidentified people opened fire at police who were on duty in Industrialnaya Street in Groznys Zavadsky district from the territory of the former radio plant. Six police got injuries and were taken to the hospital Severny. At present an investigation team is working at the site of the incident, a representative of the Prosecutors Office said. Now the persons who made the attack are being established.
(more News from Chechnya...)

18 April 2007  Court cancels not-guilty verdict in house blast case
The Russian Supreme Court on Wednesday cancelled a verdict of Dagestans Supreme Court in the case of Magomed Salikhov, who was found not guilty of having blown up a residential house in the city of Buinaksk in September 1999. The case was returned for a new investigation. Dagestans Supreme Court acquitted Salikhov following a not-built verdict of the jury in January 2006. Itar-Tass
(more News from Chechnya...)

18 April 2007  Dagestan police lose 1 in killed, 2 injured in skirmish
One policeman was killed and two were wounded in an operation to destroy a group of gunmen in the Karabudakhkent district of Dagestan on Wednesday. The chief physician of the hospital in the settlement of Karabudakhkent told ITAR-TASS that the body of the policeman was in the hospital and the two injured men were taken to Makhachkala for treatment. The Dagestan Interior Ministry as yet has not issued any information about casualties. Police said earlier in the day that five-ten gunmen were hiding in the woodland near the village of Gubden. Some of the gunmen are on the wanted list for terrorist crimes. Security forces are continuing a comb-out of terrain. Itar-Tass
(more News from Chechnya...)

Russia - Chechnya

Chechen history

Chechens (self-assumed name " nokhchi" ) are the world" s most ancient people with unique anthropological type and culture. They are the largest ethnic group in the North Caucasus (more than 1 million people). The neighbouring Ingush people are very similar in genotype, culture and religion. Together they form the Vainakh people related by blood, common history, territorial, economic and cultural links and language. Vainakhs (Chechens, Ingushes) are aborigines of the Caucasus and speak Nakh, a language that belongs to the Iberian-Caucasian language family. The Vainakh (Chechen) ethnic and cultural complex was formed on the basis of various aboriginal people. Historically the Chechen community was formed as multi-ethnic and it kept absorbing ethnic elements of nomadic people and neighbouring high-landers, the evidence of which being the non-Vainakh origin of many Chechen clans. The history of Chechnya can be described as a continuing struggle for freedom and independence against outside enemies, in which periods of prosperity alternated with defeats and new attempts to revive the statehood. In the early Middle Ages (4th-12th centuries) Chechens had to take up arms to defend themselves against invaders from Rome, Sasanid Iran, Arab Caliphate and Khazar Kaganate. The centuries-long struggle forged a military union of highlanders and laid the foundation for their statehood.
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