Rol’ istoricheskoy pamyati v obshchestvenno-politicheskikh protsessakh Chechni (1986-1994)

This article explores the causal links between historical memory, radicalisation and conflict. As a case study, it investsigates the memory of the deportation of the quasi-entire Chechen population under Stalin (1944–1957), and its impact on the socio-political processes in the late Soviet and early post-Soviet period. It argues, that the local, national and international context of national awakening, state-collapse and the end of the Cold War greatly impacted on the mobilisatory role of historical memory at that time. Drawing on data collected from local journals and newspapers, interviews and diaries, and de-parting from a relational approach to conflict analysis (della Porta 2018; Alimi, Bosi, and Deme-triou 2012; Tilly and Tarrow 2015; Hughes and Sasse 2016), the paper focuses on actions as a result of the larger socio-political context and of local and international interactions and alliances of the actors involved. Located at the intersection between conflict- and memory studies, the ar-ticle thus adds valuable insights to the study of the pre-war period in post-Soviet Chechnya, and in general to the conceptual discussion about the link between historical memory and conflict