Ђ’ороший индеец Ц метрвый индеецї - говорили когда-то американские освоители ƒикого «апада. Ђ’ороший чеченец Ц мертвый чеченец?ї - текст об отношении общественного мнени¤ в –оссии к Ђлицам чеченской национальностиї. Ќаписан в рамках курса о стереотипах.

УA good Indian is a dead IndianФ, would have said American explorers of the Wild West. УA good Chechen is a dead Chechen?Ф is the text about the public attitude in Russia to the Уpersons of the Chechen nationalityФ. It was written for the Stereotypes course.

by Alexander Smotrov
aleksmot@yandex.ru



In the 19th century the Russian emperor Alexander II tried to make the mountain nation of Chechnya a part of Russian Empire. It took for him more than ten years to do it. In 1944 Joseph Stalin ordered to send millions of the Chechens to Siberia. In 1994 the Chechen leader Johar Dudaev began a war for independence with Russia.

This war was very hard for the Russian army. The Federal Forces lost thousands of soldiers who were killed or wounded. In August 1999 the Chechen rebels invaded in the neighbouring republic of Dagestan and in September three blocks of flats Ц two of them in Moscow Ц were exploded killing more than 200 people. These terrorist acts were alleged to be done also by the Chechens, and the Russian government was forced to resume its counter-terrorist operation against the Chechen rebels.

Two months after the blasts the public opinion poll, organized by the sociological research foundation УPublic OpinionФ, showed that almost every third Muscovite saw the Chechens as criminals or their accomplices. And about 37 per cent of the 1000 respondents would support the proposal about the deportation of all the Chechens from Moscow and other major cities of the country. Even those people who were reluctant to admit that all the Chechens are terrorists would support this initiative if it was put forward. So we can observe how the prejudice against the Chechens goes in controversy with the shame for such a prejudice.

According to the poll, only 31 per cent of the population thought that the media are objective to the Chechens while 43 per cent accused them of the biased angle.

But who are the Chechens in the minds of common peoples? Are they terrorists or victims of the Russian occupation who are fighting with arms for their independence? There are a number of stereotypes in both camps. LetТs look at what ordinary people say pro and contra the Chechens on the special web-site http://www.lovehate.ru. Despite the authorsТ personal opinions between the lines of their statements, these messages are numerous enough to create a whole picture of what are the Chechens in our mind.

Though the opinions of the opponents of the Chechens as a whole nation vary from describing them as "very militant nation" to the very derogatory label Уblack-assedФ, they have a lot of common characteristics. So, the Chechen nation is described as Уlittle, but spiteful nation, which canТt work properly and doesnТt want to do itФ. The person signed as УKuban kazakФ thinks that Уit is impossible to find common language with them, because they are stupid, greedy, envious, vindictiveФ. One of the УChechen-hatersФ explains that Уevery nation has its own peculiarity, for example the Russians are said to be lazy, the Germans are workaholics etc. So, the Chechens have the genetic propensity to robe and to kill people because they have always lived in the mountains and had to plunder their neighbours to feed themselvesФ. But some of the people, especially young, cross the borders of tolerance and state that the Chechens, like the major part of Moslems, are Уthe crowd of wild people, barbarians and monstersФ, who must be surrounded by a wall of barbed wire or bombarded until the last Chechen is dead.

As for attitude to the Russians, the common Russian people agree that Уall the Chechens hate the RussiansФ and Уkill our peaceful peopleФ.

But if try to observe the opposite statements, we can see that there are less slogans and ungrounded accusations in them. People want to find out the source of the Chechen terrorism, but they also are captured by stereotype way of thinking. They try to prove that Уthere is only lie on TVФ, especially Уwhen you are watching the Russian newsФ. Some persons try to justify terrorism by saying that the Chechen people Уhave never give up to fight their independence being a Russian colonyФ. According to them, Уit was Russia which cornered them and made them bad and maliciousФ.

One of the authors notes that the Chechens themselves donТt concern about what the Russians think about them. And many people come to the agreement that there is a lot of the Chechen men and women who donТt want to make evil to the Russians.

So, one of the ChechenТs defenders writes that all the Chechens canТt be judged as a whole because of deeds of some representatives of the nation. Nobody has the right to destroy the entire nation for the crimes committed by a group of rebels.

There is a phenomenon that people form opinions and stereotypes influenced by the media and the othersТ opinion without any own experience. They create a kind of myths about something or somebody they have never seen with their own eyes. But the public opinion and stereotypes are the things which being once formed are very difficult to change. The war did its best to make ordinary Russian people to hate the Chechens because it is normal to hate the enemy. And our impressions about the rebels shouldnТt interfere our attitude to ordinary Chechens. But they do and it is difficult to overcome this trend.