German Sadulaev: Я — чеченец! (I am a Chechen!)

The latest addition to my website is German Sadulaev‘s Я — чеченец! (I am a Chechen!). As the title tells us, this book is written by a Chechen. A lot of the book focusses on the Chechen wars with Russia, though our hero did not participate too much in them, not least because he was in Russia where his Caucasian features enable him to pass for Russian. We learn a lot about the wars and their horrors – the Chechens had no planes and no air defence so were subjected to frequent air attacks, often with illegal cluster bombs, and Sadulaev does not spare us the details. This book sorely lacked an editor as he jumps all over the place, back in history, telling us about the war from his perspective or from the perspective of others, telling us about his life, including his not very successful love life and, of course, extolling the Chechens and their culture (though he prefers Russian women as as they do not expect a man to marry them just because he kisses them. It is worth reading to get a glimpse of Chechen life and culture as well as to learn of the Chechen wars.

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