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The memorial has survived through years of Russian bombardments during the 1990s. (Reuters)
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GROZNY — The decision of the Russian-backed authorities to relocate a memorial to victims of Soviet repression from the heart of the capital Grozny is salting the wounds of Chechens who see it as an attempt to rewrite their history.
"No one has the right to move those gravestones," Fatima Ibragimova, a 35-year-old housewife, told Agence France Presse (AFP) on Wednesday, June 4.
"A monument like that should be put right in the center of the city so that every Chechen knows his history."
The authorities have already dismantled the memorial -- a stone fist clutching a sword and surrounded by Chechen tombstones erected by Chechen leader Dzhokbar Dudayev who fought Russian occupation forces in the 1990s.
The Kremlin-installed leader Ramzan Kadyrov has ordered the memorial, which was just a 20 minute walk from the center of Grozny, be relocated to the outskirts.
But many Chechens are furious saying that rebuilding the memorial near the main Russian military base of Khankala, long linked to Russian torture, is an insult.
"Everyone here knows very well what Khankala stands for," Natalya Estemirova, who works with the Memorial human rights group in Grozny, fumed.
The memorial marks a milestone in Chechnya's history.
When Russians moved to Chechnya following Josef Stalin's 1944 deportation of Chechens, they unearthed the old gravestones dotting the capital and used it to erect buildings and pave roads.
Chechens were able to salvage some of the gravestones after returning from their forced exile in the late 1950s.
Almost four decades later, in 1991, Chechnya's first post-Soviet leader, Dudayev, ordered the gravestones to be gathered and placed in Grozny's city center.
The memorial has survived through years of Russian bombardments during the 1990s, when Chechnya was ravaged by two wars between the Russian army and Chechen fighters.
Its miraculous survival matched the message emblazoned on its brick backdrop: "We will not break, we will not weep, we will never forget."
Rewriting History
Kadyrov's government says the memorial will be better off far away from Grozny.
"The reason we're moving it is the lack of space between several roads, which is uncomfortable for citizens who want to visit this place on remembrance day," Grozny Mayor Muslim Khuchiyev told AFP.
But Chechens believe the reason behind dismantling the memorial is to wipe out memories of their long-suffering.
"It's really the only true monument to the people," insists Estemirova, the human rights activist.
"When it went up, Chechens could finally talk about the deportations.
"People wanted so much to commemorate all those that never came back. For years that had been forbidden and the pain was suppressed."
Musa Bagayev, dean of the history faculty at Chechen State University, also believes it was wrong to move the memorial.
"They put this together bit by bit," he said. "Now it's there, better to leave it."
Some see the relocation as an attempt to hide a symbol of defiance against Russia and to write off memories of Dudayev, who was killed in 1995 during the first war between Russian forces and Chechen fighters.
"It's a monument and doesn't belong to any one person," insists the history professor.
"You mustn't rewrite history."
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