| ID | Name |
|---|---|
| T0045.001 | Destruction of Shrines and Necropolises |
| T0045.002 | Burning of Books and Archives |
As part of the destruction of historical memory, aggressors may physically destroy the written heritage of the indigenous people: burn libraries, books and manuscripts, seize and destroy literature in its language. The destruction of the written corpus cuts the people off from their own history and letters, leaving future generations only the texts written by the metropole. Books, manuscripts and archives are cultural property protected by the 1954 Hague Convention (Article 1(a)).
Having deported the Chechen people in February 1944, the colonizer burned its books and manuscripts. Historians Ya. Z. Akhmadov and E. Kh. Khasmagomadov write: "On the squares and streets of Grozny bonfires of books blazed up. All literature and textbooks in Arabic, Chechen and Ingush were burned"[1]. Historian D. A. Khozhaev writes about the clan chronicles - the tyaptars: "For three days and three nights a bonfire burned in the center of Grozny, in whose flames were destroyed nearly all the Chechen tyaptars, as well as all the manuscript and printed literature devoted to the history and culture of the Chechens"[2]. From the auls, writes D. A. Khozhaev, open trucks carried "ancient manuscripts, religious-philosophical treatises, Arabic-language books on mathematics, astronomy, medicine, historical hadiths, ancient legends of the Chechens and Ingush in Arabic and in Chechen (in Arabic script), secular belles-lettres. All these books and manuscripts were dumped in Grozny straight onto the snow by the public toilet in the square adjoining the Palace of Pioneers"[3].