ДЕПОРТАЦИЯ СЕВЕРОКАВКАЗСКИХ НАРОДОВ В ПУБЛИЧНОМ ПРОСТРАНСТВЕ: СЛУЧАИ РЕСПУБЛИКИ ЧЕЧНЯ И РЕСПУБЛИКИ ИНГУШЕТИЯ

Abstract

The memory of tragic events plays an important role in the formation of collective identity. Not all ethnic groups’ historical narratives coincide with the official state historical policy. The deportation of 1944 played a key role in determining ethnic identity for Chechen and Ingush groups. This article examines the process of construction and evolution of the local historical narrative about the deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples in Soviet and post-Soviet period. The analysis shows that the existing way of commemoration and interaction with the memory of the tragic events in the Republics are different. In the Chechen Republic a low level of institutionalization of memory of deportation can be observed, and in-family form of sharing remains the dominant approach. The authorities of the Republic actively displace the memory of the deportation from the memorial and public space, linking it with the political crisis in the 1990s. However, they continue to use the narrative to mobilize citizens. In the Republic of Ingushetia, on the contrary, the appeal to memorials, as well as the consolidation of the status of trauma as a key historical event, is institutionalized and generally shared, supported by both the authorities of the Republic and the public.