Article from the Great Encyclopedia recognized as extremist

On April 5, 2010, the Zavodskoy District Court of Grozny recognized the article "Chechen Republic" in the Great Encyclopedia published by the publishing house "Terra" as "extremist" material. The court also decided to confiscate the 58th volume of the encyclopedia, which contains this article.

The initiator of the trial was Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Commissioner for Human Rights in Chechnya, who turned to Russian Prosecutor General Yuri Chaika with a request to check the encyclopedia article about the Chechen Republic for signs of inciting ethnic hatred and slander. Earlier, he complained about the content of the article to the Chairman of the Federation Council Sergei Mironov, State Duma Speaker Boris Gryzlov, President of the Academy of Sciences of the Russian Federation Yuri Osipov and Minister of Culture Alexei Avdeev.

According to Nukhazhiev, the article "deliberately collected the entire set of negative stereotypes about Chechens" . In addition, the encyclopedia "permits a distortion of the facts of Russian-Chechen relations and, most importantly, the presentation of the Chechens as historically hostile to Russia and the Russian people."

"What kind of unity of the peoples of Russia can we talk about if in the so-called Russian Great Encyclopedia every word ... is spoken with such hatred and disdain?" , - says the commissioner for human rights in Chechnya.

In his address, he also demanded that the editorial board of the Great Encyclopedia make an official apology to the Chechen people, and that the editor-in-chief and editor-in-chief of the 58th volume be held accountable.

"We received expert opinions from the Academy of Sciences of Chechnya and other experts who stated that this material has nothing to do with academic thought, is idealized and politicized ," Nukhazhiev said.

Earlier this article was criticized by experts from the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences. According to their conclusion, the material contains "a gross falsification of the history of the Chechen people, as well as prejudiced opinions that can cause hatred and enmity towards Chechens" . The encyclopedia article, they note, contains frank fabrications and far-fetched facts that are "unknown to historical science."

"Obsessive repetitions of the topic of murders of Russians by Chechens incite national hatred ," says Vitaly Naumkin, director of the Institute, in an expert opinion.

The Great Encyclopedia was published by the Russian publishing and printing holding "Terra" in 2006 in 62 volumes. with a total circulation of 150 thousand copies. It includes 160 thousand articles.

The publishing house "Terra" announced its intention to challenge the decision of the Grozny court.

Note that it is not entirely clear how one volume, which includes many articles by different authors, will be removed from the 62-volume edition.

Sources

• Kotova Yu. The Chechen court edited the Big Encyclopedia secretly from the publisher // GZT.ru. 2010. April 6.