Thanks to Stalin's mad policies of collective ethnic suspicion and guilt, however, the Chechens now have something the Russians no longer possess: a "grand narrative," a story that unites the people around a common goal and set of ideas. The Chechens are a proud and warlike people who have resisted Russian conquest for two centuries. Uprooted from their homes and driven thousands of kilometers away, they have overcome their clan- based squabbles to survive and return to their land as a unified nation more prepared than ever to assert its independence.
I think it would come as a surprise to many Chechens caught up in blood feuds that "they have overcome their clan-based squabbles to survive and return to their land as a unified nation." As to the thousands of Chechens who were captured, shot, tortured to death, forced into slavery or gang-raped by other Chechens over the past six years, or the numerous imams and officials who have gotten shot. I also doubt very seriously that the secular Chechens in the north feel a sense of "unity" with the Wahabbites, many of whom aren't even Chechen.
This "proud and warlike people" crap reads like some adolescent fantasy of Native Americans. You would swear he thinks the Chechens are the Klingons.
Chris Doss The Russia Journal