Alexander Cherkasov: authorities avoid addressing interethnic problems like they did during riots in Grozny 55 years ago

The dates of August 23-28 marked the 55th anniversary of the riots that took place in Grozny in 1958, soon after the restoration of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (ASSR) and the beginning of return of Chechen and Ingush people deported during the World War II. Historians who study those events say that the "Russian Revolt" in Grozny was provoked by the leaders of the Communist Party and social problems of local residents. Alexander Cherkasov, Chairman of the Board of the Human Rights Centre (HRC) "Memorial", believes that the authorities should learn from the lessons of the past, since the inter-ethnic conflicts in the Soviet Union and the post-Soviet Russia are of common origin.

A resident of Grozny, a Russian by nationality, who was murdered on August 23, 1958, provoked a conflict with another local resident, a Chechen by nationality, and those events were just a pretext for the subsequent political provocation that follow the conflict and that was not stopped by the authorities. This opinion was expressed by historian Sergey Pisarev.

There is another version to explain the events described above. Thus, in his book "Unknown USSR. Confrontation of People and Authorities, 1953-1985", historian Vladimir Kozlov, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences (RAS), presented the chronicle of the riots and mentions that the fight was started by Chechens and the subsequent events were spontaneous and accidental.

The events of August 1958 in Grozny were developed by the social problems faced by the local residents after the return of Chechens and Ingush people from deportation. This was noted by Anna Kuznetsova, Candidate of Historical Sciences, in her dissertation study "Ethno-Political Processes in Chechen-Ingush ASSR in 1957-1990: Consequences of Deportation and Main Aspects of Rehabilitation for Chechen and Ingush Peoples".

Alexander Cherkasov, Chairman of the board of the HRC "Memorial", compares the causes and consequences of inter-ethnic conflicts in the territory of the post-Soviet Russia and points to two points when domestic conflicts are rationalized and described as ethnic conflicts and when tough actions against migrants hide religious and ethnic specifics.

Cherkasov mentions economic relations among the causes of ethnic conflicts and indicates that the development of inter-ethnic relations in Russia cannot be predicted.