Chechen rebel site says Russia’s Krasnodar gripped by “Cossack-mania”
Chechenpress web site, Tbilisi
5 Apr 04
A rebel Chechen web site has accused Cossacks in Russia’s Krasnodar of
“tyranny” and “constant wars” against ethnic minorities. Chechenpress
said that to protect themselves “against the tyranny”, representatives
of ethnic minorities are “ingratiating themselves among the Cossacks
and joining their ranks”. It added that “the regeneration of the
Cossacks’ militant psychology” was also encouraged by local
officials. The following is the text of report by Chechenpress news
agency web site entitled A “Cossack shop”; subheadings have been
inserted editorially:
There is a “Cossack shop” on Suvorov Ulitsa Street in
Krasnodar. Anyone can enter wearing ordinary European clothes and come
out in a colourful Cossack costume. In the summer this could be a silk
Cherkess coat, a beshmet quilted coat or a hood, and in winter, into
the bargain, there would also be a burka felt coat , papakha fur cap
and boots. Here, you can adorn your outfit with a sabre, dagger and
lash, and also shoulder-boards with virtually all the Cossack military
decorations. And none of the assistants will ask if you are a Cossack
or a member of any sect. Here, the laws of the market economy hold
sway – money means trade.
Any weekend you will come across gentlemen who are fitted out in these
shops and who swan about with their lashes on Krasnaya Ulitsa Street ,
which is the main street in Krasnodar. The Cossacks of the Northwest
Caucasus (Krasnodar Territory and the Republic of Adygeya) call this
town their capital. They consider it their duty to impose order on all
the populated areas, using their own, special methods. “I was struck
three times with a lash because I left my passport at home,” said the
Krasnodar tradesman, Artur Z-yan. A 30-year old refugee from Abkhazia,
Georgiy Benia, told me this: “In Sochi, three Cossacks shouted at me,
calling me a ‘black'”. I told them it was they who were blacks. They
abused me and in broad daylight started beating me with lashes and
their feet. Only one passer-by – a woman – stopped and shouted at
them to stop. I ended up in hospital for three weeks and soon left
Sochi.” A history teacher from Maykop, Aslanbey Skhalakho, told me:
“Cossacks dressed in Cherkess coats are not looked upon with favour by
Adygeys, Cherkess, Kabardinos, Balkaris or other indigenous peoples of
the North West Caucasus. The Cossacks used to have their own form of
dress, which had nothing in common with the Cherkess.
In 1861, the Russian Emperor Alexander II ordered the Cossacks to wear
such coats as a military uniform, but we, the indigenous peoples, were
forbidden to wear them. Czarism not only subjugated, but “stripped”
the indigenous peoples. We still fill resentment over this even now.”
“But we are even more annoyed by the fact that the Cossacks here, in
the Caucasus, call all the Caucasus people “foreigners” Russian
“inorodtsy” , and consider only themselves to be the indigenous
population. This is a blatant incitement to inter-ethnic discord,” he
said.
Cossack-mania
In the opinion of the Krasnodar writer, Valeriy Kuznetsov, the Kuban
area has been gripped by Cossack-mania. Representatives of ethnic
minorities are ingratiating themselves among the Cossacks and joining
their ranks. This is their way of protecting themselves against the
tyranny of the Cossacks. A tale by this writer called “The faculty of
stupidity” creates the stereotypes of a “Jew turned Cossack” and an
“Armenian turned Cossack”, and so on. “In official documents,” says
the psychologist, Sergey Kiryanov, “the Cossacks are described as a
socio-ethnic community. They are distinguished from the Slav peoples
in precisely this respect – a way of life which is subordinate to
military demands, an ability to rapidly organize the defence of their
homes, a constant readiness to attack and persecute the enemy, and the
habits and skills of life on the move.” “It was precisely these
qualities of the Cossacks which Russian Empress Yekaterina II
Catherine the Great learnt when, in a Proclamation of 30 June 1792,
she bestowed upon them the Taman peninsula and the right bank of the
Kuban river.
Regeneration of Cossacks’ “militant” psychology
Having settled here, the Cossacks waged constant wars against the
Adygeys, the Cherkess and other aboriginal tribes of the North West
Caucasus. During the years of Soviet power, the Cossacks were
subjected to repression. Their aggressive war-like mentality suffered
considerably, but over the past 15 years it has been increasing in a
geometrical progression.”
Former Russian President Boris Yeltsin gave the Cossacks back their
rights. This served as a signal for the regeneration of the Cossacks’
militant psychology. It was no accident that the Cossacks took an
active part in all the inter-ethnic conflicts in the post-Soviet
space, and even in the Balkans. The Kuban Cossacks were particularly
active in neighbouring Abkhazia, fighting on the Abkhaz side. The
governor of Krasnodar Territory, Aleksandr Tkachenko, is still giving
all kinds of moral and material support to the Abkhazian. The Cossacks
are forming the opinion that Abkhazia is virtually already a part of
Krasnodar Territory, and not Georgia. I have frequently heard this
opinion among the Cossacks: “The empire will still exist while it
continues to fight and to develop.”
Cossack patrols
Highly disciplined militarised structures, built on a social basis and
headed by atamans, have been created in all the Cossack villages,
settlements and towns. The so-called Cossack patrols, ostensibly to
help the police, which are carried out in residential areas, are a
blatant form of interethnic confrontation. In the markets, railway
stations, telephone booths and other areas where people congregate,
the Cossacks detain and search mainly “people of Caucasus
nationality”. If there is the slightest resistance these documentation
checks end in a flogging. Whereas over the past 7-8 years these
so-called Cossack patrols have been largely a substitute for the
police, the tactics have now changed somewhat.
The ataman of Cossack troops, Gen Gromov, ordered his subordinates
“not to Cossackize”. Asked by a journalist of the Mayak Kubani Beacon
of the Kuban radio station what he meant by this, the general replied:
“This means not being distracted by petty things, not showing off, and
always being at combat readiness.” The writer of these lines explained
in a conversation with rank-and-file Cossacks that the day was not far
off when they will have to “drive the blacks – the so-called
foreigners -from the Kuban”.
Refugees
In the same interview, Gen Gromov said plainly, and without a trace of
diplomacy, that the “Cossacks have nowhere to tread on Kuban land”. As
a result of interethnic clashes in the Fergana valley of Uzbekistan,
Baku, Sumgait, Karabakh, Abkhazia, Tskhinvali and other places of
post-Soviet space, there has been a flood of refugees into Krasnodar
Territory, although this number is tiny compared with the territory’s
population of nearly six million. There are only 30,000 Armenians
registered here. There are the same number of Meskhetian Turks from
Fergana, as well as about 10,000 Georgian refugees, and even less
representatives of other ethnic groups.
It would be a gross exaggeration to claim that there was an abundance
of “foreigners” in the territory. “Armenian merchants appeared in the
Kuban long before the Cossacks,” Armenak S., a teacher, says, “but now
we are treated as aliens. One of my people wanted to buy a patch of
land in the Dubinok area of Krasnodar, but the local Cossacks held a
protest rally and forced the local authorities to abolish the act of
buying and selling. “We are outlawed,” says an activist of the
Meskhetian Turk community, Dursun Z. “We are not registered in the
towns or the villages, we have no rights and they can extradite us at
any time.” If one bears in mind that the Russian Federation is
considered to be the legal successor of the USSR, then the situation
cannot be considered normal. But Cossack Gen Gromov is proud of the
fact that the Kuban Cossacks have managed to “uphold their rights” not
to permit the registration of the Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar
Territory.
“The Don Cossacks in Rostov Region,” the general says, “made a mistake
when they allowed the authorities to register the Meskhetian Turks on
their territory, but we have managed to avoid this.” It might appear
that the general was overstepping his role, but that is the absolute
truth. The Kuban Cossack army in the territory virtually duplicates
the power-wielding bodies, and in the majority of cases, when it is a
matter of inter-ethnic relations and migration processes, it acts much
more brutally than them. It could be said that in these instances the
Cossacks run the law-enforcement and administrative bodies. “This
do-as-you-please attitude to the Cossacks was created when the
well-known nationalist and anti-Semitist Nikolay Kondratenko was
governor of the territory,” says the writer, Sergey S. “The Cossacks
still refer to him as “batka”, in other words, ataman.”
Governor Tkachev
The present governor of the Territory, Aleksandr Tkachev, is his
pupil. His convictions are the same as his predecessor. He also openly
helps the Abkhaz separatists and indulges in Cossack nationalistic
behaviour. I learnt from confidential sources that Tkachev allocated
from the budget a multi-million sum (in roubles) to the semi-legal
Cossack “Volchya sotnya” “Hundred wolves” unit. Its main task, as in
Czarist times, is to suppress the “foreigners”. The unit uses this
money for what amounts to a terrorist-saboteur training programme. “I
am often able to visit all the republics and territories of the
Caucasus,” said Alt T., a scientist from Maykop, “and I have never
seen such chauvinism and nationalism as in Krasnodar
Territory. Thinking about this, I came to the conclusion that this is
a syndrome of fear.
The Cossacks are evidently afraid of the retribution of the Caucasian
peoples whom they have been destroying for three centuries. I can find
no other explanation.” On Krasnaya Ulitsa, in the very centre of
Krasnodar, next to the “Zimnyy Sad” Winter Garden Cafe, hangs a sign
in indelible paint: “Churka, clear off home, today I am a snake!”
“‘Churka’, in the local street jargon, means ‘non-Russian’. One can
see the following signs on walls and fences, too: “Death to the
peasants!”, “Death to the foreigners!”.
On Kommunarov Ulitsa there is another sign on a concrete wall: “Rus,
arise! The enemy is in our land.” As to who the enemy is, there is no
need to explain, one feels. To complete the picture there are the
regular gatherings of members of the local branch of the all-Russian
chauvinistic party “Russian National Unity”. They gather at the
“Zimnyy Sad” Cafe and hand out leaflets and brochures with
anti-Semitic and nationalist content to the passers-by. The pet
subject of their discussions is substituting the republic and
autonomous regions with guberniyas provinces run by governors . It has
to be said that Putin is systematically implementing this task, having
already abolished two autonomies in Russia.
Eduard Sergiyenko, for Chechenpress. 05.04.04