A chilling account of the war in Chechnya by a Russian journalist takes readers into the heart of this troubled region of the Caucasus, surveying the centuries of animosity between Russian and the Chechnyans that exploded into full-scale war in the early 1990s and was re-ignited by a series of terrorist attacks in 1999. (Current Affairs Offers an insider's view of the Chechen War conflict. This work focuses her attention on those caught in the crossfire. It recounts the everyday horrors of living in the midst of war, examines how the Chechen war has damaged Russian society, and takes a look at the ways people on both sides profited from it. INTRODUCTION WHOSE TRUTH? BY GEORGI DERLUGUIAN 1 PROLOGUE 26 London, May 2002: The Beginning 27 ORDINARY CHECHEN LIFE IN WARTIME 32 It's Nice to Be Deaf 32 The Chiri-Yurt Settlement 38 Makhkety: A Concentration Camp with a Commercial Streak 47 A Zone within a Zone 54 The Hundredth Grozny Blockade 62 Viktoria and Aleksandr: Grozny Newlyweds 73 A Village That No Longer Exists 78 A Lawless Enclave 83 A Nameless Girl from Nowhere 89 The Burning Cross of Tsotsan-Yurt 91 Starye Atagi: The Twentieth Purge 96 V-Day 107 The Chechen Choice: From the Carpet to the Conveyer Belt 112 What Are the Rules of the Game? 115 MODERN RUSSIAN LIFE AGAINST THE BACKDROP OF THE WAR 118 Ruslan Aushev: Nobody Guarantees Life in Chechnya Today 118 A Pogrom 124 Five Hundred Rubles for Your Wife: The Chechnya Special Operation Ruins the Country 130 Chechnya's Unique Islam 136 Executions of Reporters 143 Russia's Secret Heroes 146 Killed by His Own 149 It's Hard to Get Cartridges in Mozhaisk 152 WHO WANTS THIS WAR? 161 An Oligarchy of Generals 161 Miracle Fields 166 Boys and Girls 173 Westernizers and Easternizers 177 Chechnya as the Price for the UN Secretary-General's Post 183 Special Operation Zyazikov 189 We Survived Again!: A Chronicle of Colonel Mironov's Luck 195 EPILOGUE LONDON, MAY 2002: AN ENDING WITHOUT CLOSURE 203 AFTERWORD YELLOW ON BLACK 215