Lone soldier defends Tolstoy in Chechnya
Judith Matloff Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
STAROGLADOVSKAYA, CHECHNYA
For 10 years, a man with a love of literature and a shotgun kept Chechnya's Leo Tolstoy Museum alive, defending it from looting, war, and neglect.
Hussein Zagibov, the director of the museum, put his life on the line, sleeping on the threshold and working without pay to protect this shrine to the author of such epics as "War and Peace" and "Anna Karenina."
He hid valuable items at his home to save them from burglars, was shot at by thieves, and argued with Chechen separatists opposed to what they saw as a symbol of Russian nationalism.
Now, Mr. Zagibov says, he can finally relax. Russian troops secured this part of Chechnya five months ago at the start of their military campaign against Muslim separatist rebels. And with the uneasy peace comes the promise of funds from Moscow: Some 1.2 million rubles ($40,000) this year for the museum.
For Zagibov, this is the happiest moment since he took charge in 1985. "It's been cold. It's been tough. My wife yells at me, why are you doing this without pay?" he says. "But the people trusted me to run this place, and so I did."
The museum, a yellow ramshackle building, has deteriorated into sorry neglect since 1997, when the then-Chechen government cut off funding, telling Zagibov the village didn't need a museum dedicated to the Russian writer.
The transformer blew out ages ago, so visitors must squint in the dark to look at exhibits. Guests are cautioned to walk with care, so their feet don't catch in the sunken floorboards. In the overgrown garden, a worn, worried-looking statue of Tolstoy - who wrote his first book, "Childhood, Boyhood, and Youth" during the two years he spent here - needs a deep cleaning.
Zagibov plans not only to do repairs, but to build a two-story hotel and cafe to get the town on the nation's cultural tourist map. His almost fanatical devotion is not surprising in a country where writers are venerated heroes. Flowers are left at the statues of great authors. The 200th anniversary of the birth of poet Pushkin last June was a national day of celebration for millions of Russians. Every school child reads him and Tolstoy.
Pilgrims besiege the museum every Sept. 9, Tolstoy's birthday, according to Israpil Salgiriyev, the Chechen deputy head of culture for the Starogladovsky region. "Even bombs don't keep the people away," he says.
Russia has six other museums devoted to the author. The deputy director of the main one in Moscow, Berta Shumova, was delighted to hear that the Starogladovskaya museum was reopening. "I thought that it had been burned, robbed, or destroyed. Oh, I'm so happy!" she bubbled.
The museum building, which once housed the first school in Russia named after Tolstoy, was officially converted into an exhibition space in 1980. It had a dozen calm years, but problems began in 1992 when lootings swept the town.
Zagibov mounted nighttime vigils to protect the artifacts within - photographs of Tolstoy, antique sabers, jewelry, and costumes of local Cossack people. "I said I'd shoot anyone who came near here," he recalls.
Insecurity intensified during Russia's military campaign to reassert control of the breakaway region in 1994-96, which ended with Chechnya's de facto independence. The situation worsened during the chaos that followed, and then this latest war.
Zagibov's bravura did not stop armed men from breaking in on several occasions. In January 1995, intruders made off with two swords and a 19th-century rifle worth $11,000 - a princely sum in these parts.
Zagibov took the remaining valuables - silver women's belts, sabers, a samovar, and several icons - and hid them in his house. He only brought them back when the Russian Army "liberated" the town in October.
Asked whether it is appropriate to maintain a museum celebrating a man whom many Chechens view as a Russian imperialist, Zagibov argues that the author should not be viewed in such a politically fractious light.
"Tolstoy is not just a Russian writer, he belongs to all of humanity." he says. "Tolstoy was a pacifist. He would have opposed this war too."
The URL for this page is: http://www.csmonitor.com/durable/2000/03/09/fp8s1-csm.shtml *****
***** Wednesday, 2 May, 2001, 01:11 GMT 02:11 UK Tolstoy museum survives Chechnya wars
Tolstoy first arrived in the Caucasus 150 years ago
A museum dedicated to the Russian writer Lev Tolstoy has miraculously survived the two wars in Chechnya.
It is to reopen in the summer in time to mark the 150th anniversary of the writer's arrival in Chechnya.
Tolstoy served in the Caucasus for three years in the 1850s living in the Cossack village of Starogladovskaya where the museum stands.
While serving in the Caucasus, Tolstoy came to know the frontier Cossacks well and took part himself in battles with the hill peoples.
Monument
Much of what he saw in the Caucasus was described in his novel The Cossacks.
Russian television said the villagers in Starogladovskaya, are convinced that the village he described in The Cossacks is their village....
Reconciliation
The TV said there were now only 26 Russians left in Starogladovskaya, the descendants of the Grebenskiye Cossacks, about whom Tolstoy wrote.
Tolstoy wrote about the Cossacks in his early works
Stran.ru said earlier this year that Tolstoy's great grandson, Vladimir Tolstoy, had sent a letter to President Vladimir Putin asking him to reverse the decision by the Russian Orthodox church to excommunicate the writer.
Vladimir Tolstoy hopes that the writer's name might become a symbol of reconciliation and agreement in Chechnya in this 150th anniversary of his arrival there.
Towards the end of his life, Tolstoy returned to the subject of the Caucasus with his powerful short novel Hadji Murat about a mountain chieftain's resistance to the conquering Russians.
Hajji Murat dies in a last stand against the Russians. Tolstoy writes that Hadji Murat's death reminds him of the image with which the story opens - a thistle in a ploughed field which, although crushed and broken, continues to grow.
<http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/monitoring/media_reports/1306744.stm> ***** -- Yoshie
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