As we are slowly approaching the second anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, it is important to remember the other wars that the Russian Federation has led against its neighbors and within its own territory since the collapse of the Soviet Union. It has been almost twenty years since Anna Politskovskaya’s book describing Russia’s atrocities during the Second Chechen War, “A Dirty War,” was published. I recently read this book with great interest.
Anna Politkovskaya is a prominent Russian journalist and war correspondent known for her investigations of the Russian military operations in Chechnya between 1999 and 2001. She exposed numerous war crimes against Chechen civilians and maltreatment of Russia’s soldiers. Anna Politkovskaya built her career at Novaya Gazeta, an independent investigative magazine in Russia, banned in 2022 after the Russian invasion of Ukraine. This book chronologically aggregates her translated newspaper publications during the Second Chechen War between July 1999 and January 2001.
The Second Chechen War waged by the newly elected Vladimir Putin began in August 1999. Politkovskaya describes the atrocities committed by the Russian army and systemic xenophobia towards local ethnic groups. Unlike during the First Chechen War, the Russian government strictly controlled the international and domestic coverage of the operation in the media. Western journalists were denied accreditation and banned from the territory of Chechnya. The author is one of the few independent reporters in Russia who tried to cover the war as it was. These brave journalists had a high price to pay, as many were murdered for their investigations, including the author of this book.
In her publications, Ms. Politkovskaya is, on the one hand, calling the authorities for a change in their inhumane treatment of Chechens and, on the other hand, trying to get nascent Russian civil society to get involved and help people suffering from the war. For example, in Chapter 9 of her book, she writes about the retirement home with about a hundred people deserted by Russian authorities in the sieged Grozny. These people were left destitute, without food, electricity, or access to water, and the Russian army bombed their area for months. Many of them died of hunger, shelling, and lack of medical assistance resulting from the state’s policies. Eventually, Politkovskaya manages to get to this retirement home herself after the “liberation” of Grozny by Russian troops. She directly addresses the readers calling for donations and provides a pager number of the Novaya Gazeta newspaper that volunteers on the ground.
The author urges the audience to fight for the rights of ethnic minorities across Russia, particularly the Chechens, who suffer xenophobic treatment by the Russian population and state in the Chechnya region and other parts of the country. She describes how Moscow’s police arrested people on the streets based on the victims’ (typically males) facial features. If someone looks like “people from the North Caucasus,” they could be imprisoned for up to three months, a striking example of ethnic hate in Russia. When she compares this tiny nation to the Jews in Nazi Germany later in the book, she tries to strike a chord with the Russian audience, particularly sensitive to the memories of the Second World War.
A Dirty War was issued in the United Kingdom, addressing a Western, English-speaking audience. The book’s objective was to raise awareness of the war crimes and brutality of the Chechen war and, as a result, persuade the Western world’s leaders to pressure the Russian government to stop it. In the Introduction to the book, Thomas De Waal writes that Europe and North America remained silent: “… the international community has chosen mainly to ignore Chechnya – with the honorable exception of a few human rights groups…. A more engaged and serious response has been entirely absent”. Unfortunately, the publication of the Dirty War did not lead to considerable change in policy directed towards Russia.
Politkovskaya’s work on the ground had limited success in her home country, too. Even though Russian leaders ignored these publications, thanks to her, at times, emotional coverage, many Russian citizens sent humanitarian aid to the locals. Throughout the book, the author thanks the readers who sent money and essential goods to alleviate the suffering of the locals in Chechnya.
Various episodes of A Dirty War raise the question of the legitimacy of the Russian government in the Chechnya region. Max Weber famously argued that a state is “a human community that successfully claims the monopoly of the legitimate use of physical force within a given territory.” We know that the Russian state established a monopoly on the use of force in Chechnya, but it is questionable whether it is legitimate. In multiple chapters of the book, Chechen civilians, including school students, talk about Russia as an invader, as if Russia and Chechnya are different countries, and some express a desire for revenge. Politskovskaya herself questions how long the Russian government will be able to control the region given the latent aggression of the locals towards the Russian state.
Unfortunately, the book does not mention that many Chechens were not satisfied with their position within the USSR, often for purely political and economic reasons. These reasons are related to the “ethnic glass ceiling” during the Soviet period when Chechens were not allowed to take positions of authority at any level. It contributed to their desire to separate and form the Chechen state. After the Second War, the Russian government gave de-facto autonomy to the region, finally allowing ethnic Chechens to occupy positions of power, and there is evidence1 that it at least partially satisfied their economic aspirations, something being overlooked in Politkovskaya’s criticism.
In addition, some coverage was not entirely fair to the local Russian authorities. For example, Politkovskaya criticizes Akhmat Kadyrov, the new ruler of Chechnya who agreed to collaborate with Russia, for not residing in the newly “liberated” Grozny, the capital of the Chechen Republic. Instead, Kadyrov stayed 40 kilometers west of the capital for practical and security reasons. It was a sound decision at a time when partisan insurgent fighters were still present across the region, especially in places that had just recently gotten under Russian control.
A Dirty War will appeal to a popular audience interested in the contemporary Russia and North Caucasus political regime and history. In particular, for readers interested in the Second Chechen War. Only a few journalists like Anna Politkovskaya could openly and fearlessly write about the Russian regime, making this book a particularly worthwhile reading experience.
- E. Sokirianskaia, Bonds of Blood?: State-building and Clanship in Chechnya and Ingushetia, 2023 ↩︎
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