Dudayev’s Prophecy: How Adat Influences Participation of Chechen Battalions in Ukraine 2014-2023.

Nicolè M. Ford, Ph.D.

University of Tampa

"Remember my words: Russia will disappear from the face of the Earth when the Ukrainian sun rises."

Dzhokhar Dudayev, the first president of

The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. 

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Introduction: Kadyrov’s “Death Squads” enter Ukraine Feb. 26th, 2022.

• “Shock & Awe” Reputation
• Terrorize Ukrainian population
• Kill Zelenskyy
• Kadyrov’s Chechens already there
• HOWEVER- so are dissident Chechens…
• Dudayev Battalion
• Sheikh Mansur Battalion
• Caucasus Legion (later late summer/fall 2023)

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Adam Osmayev: Commander, Dudayev Battalion. You Tube video Feb. 24, 2022.

• “real Chechens" are defending Ukraine since 2014
• Kadyrovsky= traitors
• Same as Russian military- will kill on site.

Muslim Cheberloyevsky: Commander, Sheikh Mansur Battalion. April 2022.

• Kadyrov is a traitor
• Kadyrov is different from the Chechen people who are charitable, freedom-loving, open-minded.
• No difference between Kadyrov & Russian military

Research Question: Why do foreign fighters take up arms in a war of aggression in a country

that is not theirs?

• Why are Chechens fighting in Ukraine for Ukraine?
• Other former Russian and current Russian republic groups present
• Example: Georgian Legion

Literature

• Malet (2010) foreign fighters typically shared identity communities engaged in civil conflict.
• Hegghammer (2010) no relation to one another, do not belong to formal military, unpaid, no kin/ diaspora & Pan-Islamism.
• Basedau, Deitch, Zellman (2022) jihadi & Sagramoso & Yarlykapov (2021) PI in Chechnya post-1998.
• Moore and Tumelty (2008) kinship important for recruitment
• Schafer (2011) gazavat to jihad. Miller (2015) gazavat in modern Chechnya not required to be issued by religious figures.
• Moore (2015) transnational activism Georgian battalions in Ukraine.
• Giuliano (2006), Souleimanov (2014; 2017) Chechen insurgents in North Caucasus space.
• Jaimoukha (2005), Giuliano (2006), Souleimanov (2014), Ford (2018) and other have noted Chechens view Russia as natural enemy= tied with notions of Chechenness/ identity/ nationalism.

Synthesis.

• I suggest Chechens in Ukraine are engaging in gazavat as an expression of grievance and nationalism.
• Chechen cultural norms known in the pan-Caucasian region as adat, or specifically in Chechnya as nokhchalla, are activated in Ukraine by both Chechen nationalism and fictive kinship.

Gap and Methodology

• Qualitative. Unique database media interviews, social media, and Chechen YouTube channels. Souleimanov and Ditrych’s (2008) nationalism as launching pad
• Chechen involvement in Ukraine as motivated not by transnational activism based on international jihadism but rather a form of Chechen nationalism for purposes of a new gazavat against Russia (and Kadyrov).
• gazavat (Jaimoukha, 2004; Melvin 2007; Schaefer, 2011)
• gazavat is more precise than previous attempts to describe/analyze Chechen fighter activity.
• Moore’s (2015) notion of fictive kinship = gazavat motivation and recruitment in Ukraine.
• supported through Chechen cultural norms known in the pan-Caucasian region as adat, or specifically in Chechnya as nokhchalla.
• adat activated in response to Chechen nationalism (Souleimanov, 2017; Ford, 2018) and;
• fictive kinship (Souleimanov, 2017).
• Ukraine -- new insurgency in Chechnya.

Chechen battalions engaging in gazavat.

• What is gazavat?
• Gazavat in the Chechen context.
• Chechens engaging in gazavat in Ukraine.
• Why?

Framework: adat

• Chechen cultural laws/norms aka nokhchalla
• Encompass all aspects of Chechen life from birth to death.
• Codes of Hospitality and Chivalry.
• Activated in response to both Chechen nationalism and fictive kinship.

Framework: nationalism

(Souleimanov & Ditrych, 2008 and Souleimanov 2017)

• Participation = nationalism through lens of culture
• Expression of the Chechen broader fight and shared grievances with Ukraine against Russian occupier.
• Battalions overcome differences to weaken Russia for the love of Ichkeria.

Framework: fictive kinship

(Moore 2015)

• sense of solidarity—connectedness, bonds—which are adaptive, and which change over time.
• differentiated from traditional ‘blood’ ties
• fictive kin does not mean fictional.
• how kinship ties are made or formed
• Ukraine and Chechnya share the same common history of Russian colonialism under the Soviet Union and as such,
• share a history and common trauma.
• Chechens and Ukrainians defending other under the “Russian Yoke.”

Making of the Battalions.

• Isa Munayev/ FCO/ Veteran both Chechen Wars/ Commander Battle of Grozny-- under order of Chechen government in exile raise Chechen Battalion in Ukraine.
• Dzhokhar Dudayev Battalion in 2014
• Sheikh Mansur Battalion — Commander Muslim Cheberloevsky, veteran
• 2014 UA military > voluntary militias.
• Chechen battalions in high demand: fought Russians before.

Adat: Self-sacrifice and bravery.

• Rooted in the notion of the family unit, or dooezal.
• Men and women absolutely equal.
• Men expected to protect the family at all costs.
• Masculinity is tied to pride, dignity, competitiveness, decency, valor, chivalry, charity, honor, moderation, and modesty.

Adat: Freedom and Liberty.

• fused with love of freedom and liberty as core values that must be protected; are enshrined as unalienable rights
• Chechens see the Russians as their natural enemy and;
• reject any efforts to subjugate them.
• National anthem Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was entitled “Death or Freedom”
• Obvious ties to nationalism and fictive kinship– support Ukraine’s right to be free from Russian colonialism and pursue their own freedom.

Silence.

• need of the individual in the clan to refrain from exposing information about the clan to outside others that would be potentially harmful.
• Results in shame
• non-interference in the affairs of others.
• The breaking of this code can have additional repercussions in the community/ nation at large
• warring clans may often keep silent and not provide information that could implicate the other clan during Russian federal investigations.

Adat: Ch’ir.

• Blood-libel
• “of avenging a grave insult by killing either the offender or his male relatives” (Souleimanov, 2018).
• today it is typically considered an offense in the form of rape, murder, or manslaughter.
• Retribution is critical; failure of an individual to act can bring dishonor to dooezal or teip
• Chi’ir has been an essential element in shaping mobilization in Chechnya
• individuals took up arms to avenge killed relatives or were humiliated at the hands of Russian troops or counterinsurgencies

Adat deployed: Self-sacrifice and bravery.

• “This is how we ended up in Ukraine. We want to help you not just with words but with our bodies. For 23 years, we have come to know the occupiers; we have experience, know who Putin is, and know what they represent themselves to be. They have nothing, no human dignity.”
• Isa Munayev 2014 press conference
• Nationalism and fictive kinship activated with Ukraine

Deployed: Freedom and Liberty.

• Munayev spoke of the oppression Ukraine and Chechnya shared under the Russian occupier, and they hoped to return as a free people to the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. In a separate interview on YouTube conducted at their field base of operations, when asked about the motivations he invoked, he spoke of a desire, among other things, to help liberate Ukraine as Ukrainians had done in both Chechen wars. This not only invokes a sense of freedom and duty, but also a notion of nationalism.
• Nationalism and fictive kinship activated with Ukraine

Deployed: Silence.

• This idea is repeated by Cheberloevsky, who also discusses how the Kadyrov regime instituted violence on the people.
• This expression violates the Chechen notions of silence as the Kadyrovs are seen as giving up the Chechen people to their enemy, this is more than just freedom it is a form of exposing the clans of Chechnya to outside others— the enemy, their internal affairs.
• Consistently turning them over to the Russian state for federal investigations.
• Can express empathy for those in Ukraine who have betrayed them— Nationalism and fictive kinship activated with Ukraine.

Deployed: Ch’ir

• Vengeance, blood libel towards the Russian state for 400 years of colonialism & genocide
• Specific deaths of loved ones
• Shared trauma with Ukrainians who shed blood with them during Chechen wars
• Shared history and trauma with Ukrainians under Russian Yoke
• Nationalism and fictive kinship activated
• (image: Still shot from movie/ documentary: “The Betrayed” 1995)

Gazavat in Ukraine and beyond.

• based in adat, including nationalism and fictive kinship.
• This research suggests this new gazavat will go beyond the war in Ukraine for the purpose of creating a pan-Caucasian resistance in order to free Chechnya and the rest of the Caucasus from Russian colonial power.

Future direction of this research?

• A unique dataset!!!
• Over 100+ and counting: telegram posts, YouTube interviews, and news interviews.
• visualization of each adat attribute = ?? most activated.
• religion vs nationalism or both? question of previous research.
• forward the debate of Chechen groups today re: jihadis or nationalists, foreign fighters.
• Finally, I suggest thinking of Chechens in Ukraine as mobilizing for a future ghazavat against Russia with the idea of freeing the pan-Caucasus region and as such, the Chechens in Ukraine ghazi. Previous research has envisioned Chechens post-1998 as engaged in largely international jihad, which implies a universal struggle or holy war in the literature. Fighters = gazi
• However, the North Caucasus' tradition of gazavat is instead as an instrument of social mobilization against the external enemy: specifically, Russia.

Dzhokhar Dudayev, from the book “Attack of the Ichkeria Wolf.”

• “The biggest mistake is neglecting Ukrainians, considering Ukrainians weak. Ukrainians are never as weak as you think. Almighty Allah will not let you touch them, Ukrainians will always return. Ukrainians will take back what is theirs…. Do not offend the Ukrainians. Otherwise, the Ukrainians will return to the land where their ancestors are buried, then those living on this land will envy the dead."