A court in Chechnya has banned material about Chechnya and Chechen extremism published in the 58th volume of the Big Russian Encyclopedia for discriminating against Russia's North Caucasus republic.
The court case was initiated by Chechen human rights ombudsman Nurdi Nukhazhiyev. He said he sent a request to the Russian Justice ministry to include the volume of the encyclopedia in the federal list of extremist materials.
The Gazeta.ru news website quoted Nukhazhiyev as saying that the material on Chechnya describes "predatory attacks on neighbors," "mass betrayal and cooperation with the Germans," "genocide of the Russian speaking population," and a "genetic disposition to violence."
In an interview with RIA Novosti Nukhazhiyev described the article as a "time bomb."
"We know the history and can stand up to this slander, but future generations will open this page and see how the history of an entire people was misrepresented," he said.
The editorial staff of the Big Russian Encyclopedia has so far not commented on the decision of the Chechen court.
The Russian Empire fought wars in Chechnya for most of the 19th century in order to establish its influence in the Caucasus region. More recently, Russia has held two bloody military campaigns in Chechnya in 1994 and 1999 in attempts to establish constitutional order in the republic.
In 1944 some 450,000 Chechen and Ingush people were exiled in just eight days by Stalin to Siberia and the steppes of north Kazakhstan. They were ostensibly deported for having aided Hitler's troops during World War II although, as historians have pointed out, German forces did not advance as far as the Caucasus.
MOSCOW, April 6 (RIA Novosti)
