Anatomy of a Massacre

One episode in a long history of Chechen genocide

Memorial of the Chechen Deportation of 1944, later destroyed by Russian forces during the first Chechen War. Via Wikipedia. The inscription on the wall states: “We will not weep! We will not break! We will not forget!”

From Gaza to Sudan to Congo, genocide is being normalized everywhere. It has been estimated that there are currently eight genocides happening across the world, as of 2024. Worst of all, the international community has done little to stop them.

One genocide that has often been overlooked in the world history of human atrocity is the genocide of the Chechen people. Sometimes I think that this genocide is ignored because it is assumed that Russia is an evil empire and therefore whatever atrocities it commits are expected and there is nothing to be done about them. By contrast, when a “western” power like Israel perpetrates genocide against the Palestinian people with US support, people are shocked.

The lesson I take from the Chechen genocide is somewhat different. Massacres like the one that took place in the Chechen village of Novyi Aldy in 2000 show us that there is no appreciable difference between Russian, Israeli, or Sudanese ways of murdering civilians. One is not more “moral” than the other. The only difference with Israel is that it has benefitted from the international community’s hypocrisy.

My political coming of age occurred when I was in my last years as an undergraduate at the University of California, Berkeley, between 1996 and 1999. I…