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Little Chechnya on the SteppesLittle Chechnya on the Steppes

Photos by Oliver Bullough and Cicely Fell

  • A weak sun does nothing to warm the frozen steppes of the Akmola region of Kazakhstan, February 2014.
  • Spindrift hisses across the road to the Chechen village of Krasnaya Polyana…
  • “They loaded us all onto a cattle train. Many people died along the way…”
  • The houses in Krasnaya Polyana are single-storey and their gardens shade into the steppes.
  • Most Chechens in Krasnaya Polyana earn a living from agriculture
  • “We’re weaker than the Chechens of the old days, you can’t compare us to them, but a bit of the old blood remains”
  • “Our home is here now. Our graveyard is here. We’ve put down roots here.”
  • “We are pacifists.We’re against war. And the customs by which we live have grown up around that principle.”
  • On the 70th anniversary of Stalin’s deportation of the Chechens, the deportees’ descendants butcher a cow.
  • Yusup Askhabov wears the traditional white hat of the Chechens of Kazakhstan - a symbol of salvation
  • Zora and Aina cutting dough into strips, which they will then boil to make the dish called Jijig Galnish.
  • Unlike in most Chechen communities, women here take part in the ceremony.
  • Chechen men sit on the floor as they wait for the ritual to begin.
  • Chechen boys sit on the edge of the circle. They are too young to take part in the ritual…
  • After the ritual is over, the men put on their white hats, to go home.
  • White is also a symbol of purity in Islam.
  • A village elder stands outside in temperatures in the low minus thirties.

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