What does the City of Grozny Want to Remember and Forget? Changes in the Memorial Landscape 2000–2022

Abstract

The article describes changes in the urban space of the capital of the Chechen Republic in the period from 2000 to 2022. The period under review includes the active phase of military operations of the “second Chechen war,” or counter-terrorism operation in the North Caucasus (ended on April 16, 2009), which became a continuation of the first Chechen war of 1994–1996. However, the policy of renaming and de-Sovietization of the urban space of Grozny began long before 2009. These processes led to the gradual nationalization of urban memory, in which two parallel lines of commemoration became noticeable It has been revealed that there is a substitution of the tragic and “inconvenient” past associated with the period of the Great Patriotic War — the deportation of Chechens and Ingush in the form of Operation “Chechevitsa” (Lentil) in February 1944. The leadership of the Chechen Republic strives to construct and preserve in the memorial landscape of Grozny only those objects that which indicate the exclusively positive role of the Chechens in achieving Victory in 1945. Memory of the armed actions of 1994–1996 and 1999–2009. Almost completely leveled out by changes in urban toponymy. This is also confirmed by the authors’ tested hypothesis about the existence of memory “for our own” and “for visitors” during a tour over Grozny.