An international conference named “Chechnya – Logic of Violence and Experience of War” will be organized in the city of Paris, France from October 22-23.

Since 1994, the Russian military occupation in the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria has been described many ways. The goal of this conference is first to renew and enrich existing work on the Russian-Chechen war, reporting on political and social developments in the region since the end of the Soviet period. Secondly, its goal is above all to reinstate the phenomena of violence that is at work in a comparative perspective, taking into account the revival of studies on contemporary conflicts and wars in the historiography of the twentieth century.

“Chechnya – Logic of Violence and Experience of War” (Tchétchénie – Logiques de violence et expérience de guerre) is a part of the “Understanding Violence in Russia: Wars, Political System, Social Trajectories” project which is funded by the city of Paris. The conference has been organized by the Center of Russian, Caucasian and Central European Worlds Studies (le Centre d’etude des mondes russe, caucasien et centre-européen – CERCEC, CNRS/EHESS), Human Sciences House Foundation in Paris (la Fondation Maison des Sciences de l’Homme), Free University in Brussels (l’Université Libre de Bruxelles) and French-Russian Studies Center in Moscow.

Here is the program:

Monday – October 22:

9h30-10h00: Introduction, Aude Merlin, Université Libre de Bruxelles & Anne Le Huérou, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense/CERCEC

10h00-13h00: “Fighting and its Legitimization”
Chairman: Françoise Daucé, Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand / CERCEC

• Radan Haluzík, Center for Theoretical Study, Charles University, Prague, “In the beginning it was like a game of soldiers, unfortunately with tragic results…” The Rationale of War Ecstasy, Aesthetics and Performativity

• Nataliya Danilova, University of Nottingham, The commemoration of Russian military casualties in Chechnya

• Jean-François Ratelle, University of Ottawa / George Washington University, Pathways and Processes toward Violent Participation Following the End of the Counter-Terrorist Operation in Chechnya

• Cerwyn Moore, University of Birmingham, Assessing the Caucasus Emirate: An Analysis of the Regional Insurgency

Discussion: Aglaya Snetkov, Senior Researcher, Center for Security Studies, ETH Zurich

13h00-14h30: Lunch

14h30-16h30: Logic of War and Post-War Violence
Chairman: Vanessa Voisin, historian, Deputy Director of CEFR, Moscow

• Mikhail Roshin, Institute of Oriental Studies from the Russian Science Academy, “The Problem of Hostage Taking Between 1997-1999”

• Emma Gilligan, Department of History, University of Connecticut (USA), “Origin, meaning and military practice of the ‘zachistka’ (cleaning)”

• Anne Le Huérou, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense /CERCEC, Violence “Post-Conflict” in Chechnya: The Legacy of War, Repressive Structures, Perpetuating Impunity

• John Russell, University of Bradford (UK), Ramzan Kadyrov’s ‘illiberal peace’ in Chechnya

Discussion: Katya Sokirianskaya, PhD in Political Science, Researcher for the International Crisis Group, Moscow

19h30-21h30: Public Conference: Chechnya: A Post War Without Peace?
(Maison des métallos (salle 2), 94 rue Jean-Pierre Timbaud, 75011 PARIS)

With the participation of Igor Kalyapine (Committee Against Torture, Joint Mobile Group in Chechnya), Tanya Lokshina (Human Rights Watch Russia), Jean Radvanyi (INALCO), Raissa Borshchigova (Magazine Dosh).

Conference will be hosted by Sasha Koulaeva (FIDH) with the participation of ACAT, Amnesty International, FIDH and Human Rights Watch France.

Tuesday – October 23:

9h-11h00: Analysing Violence in Chechnya: What Sources?
Chairman: Raphaelle Branche, Université Paris I/Centre d’Histoire sociale

• Ludmilla Polshikova, “Stichting Russian Justice Initiative”, Chechnya as the Place of Violence and its Parameters in the Oral Testimonities between 2001-2003

• Zadora Anna, Centre for the Protection of International Events (Strasbourg-Moscow), Chechens: Some Reflections Through the Demand of Victims in front of the ECHR

• Regamey Amandine, Centre d’Etudes Franco-Russes, Moscow, Chechnya 1999-2001 – The Place of Physical Violence

Discussion: Marielle Debos, Université Paris Ouest Nanterre la Défense/ISP

11h00-11h30: Coffee Break

11h30-13h30: Social Consequences of War
Chairman: Mairbek Vatchagaev, historian.

• Tanya Lokshina, Senior Russia Researcher, Human Rights Watch, Moscow, Women in Chechnya

• Alice Sczepanikova, Goethe University, Frankfurt am Main, Living with the consequences of war: Chechen refugee women in Europe and the transformation of society

• Ieva Raubisko, University of Latvia, Processes of loss and moral transformation in post-war Chechnya

Discussion: Nathalie Duclos, Université de Tours/ ISP

13h30-15h00: Lunch

15h00-17h00: Creating Identities Through the War
Chairman: Alain Blum, directeur of CERCEC (CNRS/EHESS)

• Aude Merlin, Université libre de Bruxelles/CEVIPOL, History’s Political Uses and Memory: the paradoxal challenges of making a collective identity selective in Ramzan Kadyrov’s Chechnya R. Kadyrov

• Walter Sperling, Ruhr University Bochum (Germany), Grozny as before the War: Remembrance and Reconciliation in ‘Virtual’ and ‘Real’ Post-Soviet Communities

• Pavel Polian, Institut de Géographie de l’Académie des Sciences, Moscow, The City of Grozny as a Victim of War: Life in Chechnya in the Post-Soviet Times

Discussion: Silvia Serrano, CERCEC (CNRS/EHESS)

17h00-17h30: Coffee Break

17h30-18h30: Final Discussion moderated by Jean Radvanyi, Professeur à l’INALCO.

The conference will be held at “Auditorium de la BULAC, 65 rue des Grands Moulins, Paris 13 (M° Bibliothèque François Mitterrand)”.

*Text was written by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco