Looking and Looking Elsewhere in Chechnya

Today’s discussion of the televisual portray and construction of a Chechen national identity through the coverage and non-coverage of the Chechen Wars by various international and national news outlets reminded me of slain Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya’s book, "A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya." Politkovskaya’s expansive, on-the-ground reporting in Chechnya starkly portrays the unimaginable horrors of the wars and their human toll. Her chilling accounts offer glimpses into the suffering experienced by all sides in the multi-faceted conflict—accounts especially unique in the tightly Kremlin-controlled Russian news media environment. In the context of our conversation, the most striking facet of Politkovskaya’s reporting in the book is her description of how these distant wars are continually mis-portrayed and manipulated in the Russian news cycle and how such constructed, selective and government-approved accounts shape the general Russia public’s understanding of the conflict and, more broadly, the national psyche, especially in their disjointed application as images and concepts onto the lived experiences of civilians and combatants directly involved in the wars.

So, if you’re in need of a depressing read, I highly recommend it. Also, if you'd like more information on her life and work, a good, but rather morbid, place to start is her Economist obituary.