IDENTITY
 

Who are the Chechen People?  How do these people create their own identity?
This page is dedicated to explaining the basic theory of national identity.

• The Basic Theory Behind Identity
• Relating Identity and Nations
• Table
• Where is Chechnya in Their Development of a National Identity?
• The Historical Development of a Chechen Identity
• The New Role of Islam in the Chechen Identity

     The idea of identity can be very difficult to grasp.  The idea of a national identity cannot be precisely explained, nor can concise definitions of identity, national identity, or nationalism be formulated.  When trying to understand the basics of the theory of identity in a national, political view, it is important to look at analytical writings that deal directly with this topic.  Authors Benedict Anderson and Eric Hobsbawn each present their own particular slant on how and why different identities exist.  Although there are slight differences with each author as to why identities exist and exactly how they are formed, they both stress similar points.  After careful reading, analysis, and discussion of works by both authors, we have formulated a basic overview of this theory.

    The first step in understanding how identities form is to think about your own life.  Who are YOU?  Are you a parent?  A teacher?  An alumni to a specific school or organization?  A member of a specific school or organization?  An American?  With each group that you use to identify yourself, you are creating in your mind an image of groups that you belong to.  You are one of many teachers, or one of many Americans.  You view yourself as being part of these groups because you believe you share commonalities with other people in this group.  There are people who consider themselves part of the same group as you, yet you have never met them, and probably never will.  So what causes this connection between strangers to exist?  The desire to belong to a community (one that  is essentially imagined) is the cause of this feeling of unity.  Additionally, when the defining elements of a group are examined, most cases show that groups form their identity by stressing what they are not.  For instance, when you ask a teacher to define what a teacher is, a response of "not a doctor, or politician, or lawyer, or carpenter" would not be out of line, because a teacher is not  any of those things.  Therefore, teachers are able to define themselves as a group by defining themselves against others.

    When discussing the conflict in Chechnya it is important to understand how all of the preceding about identity relates directly to this conflict.  Chechnya is not entirely unique in its people's developement of a collective identity, so we will discuss this with respect to how national identities are formed.  Although each of the aforementioned authors have developed a unique perception on the idea of identity, there is consistancy in that national identity is something that develops (it is not premordial).  Additionally, a pattern for this development seems to exist.  In order to best understand this progression, we will look at the development of a national identity within the United States compared to the development of a Chechen identity.

  As seen in the table above, Chechnya today has not yet gained complete independence from Russia.  As a result, their identity as an actual nation-state has not yet been developed.  However, because the nationalistic movement within Chechnya is so strong, the feeling that Chechnya does indeed have a separate identity from the surrounding areas is prominent.  It must be understood that having a national identity does not require being recognized immediately by the rest of the world as a nation.  Their identity is based on differences that have been created by the ruling power of Chechnya between Chechens (see glossary for a definition of Chechen) and surrounding peoples.  Originally, the Chechen identity was based on fundamental elements of identity formation such as language and a shared common history.  For example, when asked to identify themselves, as we asked you to identify who you are, the response of Chechen did not mean from Chechnya.  Instead, the significance of the word Chechen was that they spoke the Chechen language.  This shared commonality, much like the collective identity formed between teachers or Americans, is what brought the people together.  As political incentives have changed, identity has begun to be forced on the people from the top down.  The people are unaware that the Chechen Government's embracement of Islam is perpetuating the conflict and creating more identity boundries between the Chechens and their neighbors.

    As we discussed before, the initial identity of the Chechen people was shaped by language and common experiences.  However, when looking at identity the issue of religion always comes into view.  Although religion did not play a prominant role in the Chechen identity prior to the mid-1900's, it's existance within the culture cannot be ignored.  The main religion of the Chechen people, which has recently been utilized by the Chechen government as a basis for their action toward sovereignty, is Islam.  When Islam spread to Chechnya it mixed with traditional beliefs and created a movement of acceptance of the practice of Sufism.  During the late 1800’s and early 1900’s the identity of people within Chechnya was developed around specific events that brought people together or apart, especially war.  Despite the different identities that were formed based on clans, location, and religion, the image of the Chechen identity began to solidify into Chechen speaking  individuals.  In the 1920’s and 1930’s the Soviet Union began to persecute followers of Islam, including those living within Chechnya.  Due to Chechnya’s high rural population, the Soviet efforts were not highly successful, and a very liberal form of Islam continued to exist.  The Chechen identity strengthened directly following World War II as a result of a new identity formed AGAINST the Soviets associated with Stalin and the deportations.  As the Chechens began to view themselves as a separate entity from the Soviet Union, they continued to be oppressed and ruled by the Soviets.  Much of the fear the Soviets had of the Chechens was based on a false perception of the Chechen people; the Soviets believed that the Chechens were closely associated with Wahhabism, a fundamentalist sect of Islam.  In actuality only a small portion of Chechen society even supported this fundamentalist movement, but the Soviet Union failed to recognize this.  Finally, on November 26, 1990, Chechnya (along with a neighboring republic, Ingush) declared sovereignty.

*Many aspects of the historical development of the Chechen identity are closely related with the history of the Chechen nation.  For a more complete view of this visit our history page.

    As the war in Chechnya has developed,  numerous reasons for the occurrence of the conflict have been made, including the argument that these people have been warring for hundreds of years over religion.  While it is true that there have been tensions between the Chechens and the Soviets/Russians for many years, the presumption that the conflict is strictly one of religious beliefs is unfounded.  Religion did not begin to play a role in the Chechen conflict until Stalin made clear divisions between people of different religions.  The build up of the tension between Islam and non-Islam groups was intensified as Chechnya strove to gain independence.  Initially, when the constitution was created under the rule of Dzhokhar Dudaev, it promoted the government being independent of religious doctrine.  Chechen officials supported this because they hoped that the West would intervene on their behalf and aid in their fight for independence.  It was only after it became clear that the West would not help the Chechen government revolt against Russia that they tured to Islam and Islamic governments for support.  However, it can not be clearly stated that the people supported the change of agenda.  When Dudaev lost the election to Asland Maskadov, he lost as the more religious of the two; the people elected Maskadov hoping for a more liberal agenda.  As recent events have unfolded, however, the fact remains that Maskadov has changed in his views to support Islamic principles in an effort to be successful in gaining Chechnya's complete political independence.