ABSTRACT
On 8 March 2005 Russia was celebrating one of its most popular holidays – Women’s Day. Along with New Year, Women’s Day is an authentic people’s holiday, revelled by the Russian citizens regardless of ethnic, religious and political differences. It is popular also in Chechnya, the region where a significant section of the population has ambiguous feelings about being part of the Russian Federation. This makes the festival one of the few remaining public events shared by mutually alienated Chechens and Russians. ‘This year 8 March felt very special. There were so many people in the streets with flowers and gifts. Girls and men, all dressed up, laughing and cracking jokes’ said Ali, resident of Groznyi, aged 36. ‘The news stroke as thunder in the clear skies’.1 The news – that Aslan Maskhadov, the leader of Chechen separatists and combatants, the second president of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic Ichkeria had been assassinated by FSB servicemen during a special operation in the village of Tolstoy-Yurt – was broadcast late in the afternoon. This news shocked everyone: the minority of those who wholeheartedly supported Maskhadov, the minority of those who hated him and the majority of those who criticized Maskhadov for being a weak politician, but considered him the most fairly elected of all presidents of Chechnya. Interestingly, no one discussed the assassination on the buses, at the markets, in the streets. These days Chechens discuss politics only with people they trust most.
