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Непримиримые нарративы о "Другом": изучение памяти о вооруженном конфликте в Чечне
The internal armed conflict in Chechnya is still one of the most politicized and, therefore, sensitive issue for memory studies. The article is based on an analysis of 38 interviews with eyewitnesses and participants during two stages of the hostilities of 1994- 1996 and 1999-2009 collected by the author over the past three years of field research in the Rostov and Moscow regions, the Chechen Republic and neighboring regions of the Caucasus. For ethical reasons, the anonymity of all respondents is preserved, in agreement with respondents only small excerpts of the interview are published to characterize the key moments of the conflict memories as agreed. Also, the article is based on analysis of up to date English-language and Russian-language works dedicated to the connection of memory and conflict, as well as to the most significant works on the study of the Chechen conflict including. The author made initial assumption that the stories told were able to reconcile warring narratives, however her research demonstrates the opposite ― the preservation of mythologized interpretations of the past leading to a memory abuse, the construction of an “other”, even external image of the enemy in the war. Also, the author claims that memory of the Chechen conflict is closely intertwined with the memory of the Great Patriotic War that turned out to be sought after by the political elite in the early 2000s. In the recent decades, the victory policy became an instrument for the foreign policy course reshaping in Russia, which has also supported the transition from local conflicts to larger-scale wars outside the country.