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Yulia SUGUEVA, Karamakhi, Dagestan, especially for “Kashin”

Fifteen years ago, the “Independent Islamic Republic” ceased to exist in the Kadar zone in the center of Dagestan. In the late 90s, the Kadar zone was the name given to the territory of the villages of Karamakhi, Chabanmakhi, Vanashi and Kadar in the Buinaksk region of the republic, which announced their separation from the Russian Federation and the formation of a Sharia state. During a special operation by federal forces from August 29 to September 15, 1999, the unrecognized autonomous enclave was liquidated, and the fighting stopped completely by mid-October. I visited the village of Karamakhi to find out what the residents of the failed Sharia state think about the events of fifteen years ago.

“They live well here, but they are penny-pinchers.” “Brother and brother don’t live next to each other because they steal from each other’s gardens,” the blond driver driving me to the village says disdainfully about the Karamakh residents.

Karamakhi is a truly prosperous, large village, whose population already at the end of the 90s numbered about 5,000 people. However, the Dargins - and this is the main population of Karamakhi - throughout Dagestan are generally considered rich, (as well as tight-fisted), and the residents of the Kadar zone were engaged in carting even under the USSR: they transported fruits from Azerbaijan and Georgia to other regions.

Karamakhi was considered the center of the Kadar zone. It is located 26 km from the city of Buynaksk: you drive along a serpentine road, then a winding road leads into a gorge, and finally a view of Karamakhi opens up, spread out in a small mountain valley. At the entrance to the village there is a small group of security forces in camouflage and with weapons. One of them stops the car and asks where we are coming from. Having learned that he is from Buinaksk, he lets him in without questioning.

The entire village is built up with large houses, which are surrounded by well-kept vegetable gardens, mainly with cabbage and potatoes. But the center of the village - the square where the administration, police station, school, large store, and a little further away the hospital are located - looks neglected and dirty.

Oddly enough, traces of the war were preserved in Karamakhi even 15 years later: right there, in the center, there are the ruins of a large building, which a hard worker, apparently mute, is either slowly dismantling or simply rummaging through: in response to my questions responded with an indistinct grunt. The ruins, as they explained to me later, are the building of a former club, and after the administration of the village. The old mosque, located closer to the outskirts, has not yet been restored - traces of shells are visible on the walls, and only the base remains of the minaret. They say that the residents themselves did not want to repair it, considering it “Wahhabi,” but now it is the only functioning mosque in the village. The new one, which was also built not far from the central square, was set on fire by unknown people two years ago, first killing the imam and one parishioner. It just stands there – burnt out, with broken glass.

Arson and double murder are the latest serious incidents in the village. Since then, Karamakhi has outwardly lived a peaceful life, but local residents do not want to communicate, and especially about the events of August-September 1999 - they are afraid. And in general, strangers in Karamakhi are treated with suspicion and some kind of hidden fear. The friendliness and friendly curiosity with which visitors are usually greeted in Dagestan villages is not here.

The emergence of “Wahhabism”

In the village you won’t see girls without hats. Some women aged 40-60 wear casually draped scarves that often slip over their shoulders, but those who are younger cover themselves more carefully. This is not uncommon for the villages of Dagestan, but in Karamakhi, students of the only school in the village, including first-graders, wear headscarves and, more often, hijabs.

I head to school first thing. After much hesitation and a meeting with the head teacher, one of the teachers, a woman about 45 years old, agrees to talk. She takes me into a separate office and closes the door tightly. She asks not to mention her name, she is afraid that problems may start. Seven years ago, her father, also a teacher, was killed for being too active.

— He was killed by those same “Wahhabists” (locals call the militants “Wahhabists” and not “Wahhabis”). Right at home. They killed him for the truth, because back then, in 1997-98, he spoke out against them,” she explains.

The so-called “Wahhabism” (those who are considered adherents of this movement more often call themselves “Salafi,” that is, followers of “pure, undistorted Islam”) began to appear in Karamakhi back in the early 90s. Dzharullah Gadzhibagomedov (Dzharulla) stood at the head of the “Wahhabis” of the village. According to the teacher, their first victim was the head of the Karamakh administration, Akhmet Ataev, who was shot dead in the summer of 1996. The killers were never found, several members of the Salafi community were arrested, but they were acquitted due to lack of evidence.

Soon the Karamakh “Wahhabis” began to establish their own order in the village.

“They said that they professed true Islam, and considered others to be kafirs. It was not allowed to sell alcohol or tobacco. Those caught violating them were punished according to Sharia law. It was forbidden to celebrate secular holidays and graduations. Then students in hijabs began to appear, although the daughters of the “Wahhabists” did not attend school. Of course, in our country women didn’t go naked before, it’s not customary, but little girls didn’t wear headscarves. Well, now it’s somehow caught on,” says the teacher.

In 1997, the first clashes began between “Wahhabis” and Sufis, as a result of which the radicals killed several of their opponents. According to the teacher, locals already began to complain to the authorities about the dominance of militants, but they were not listened to. Also in 1997, Khattab, an Islamist military leader originally from Saudi Arabia, came to Karamakhi. A native of the village, Darginka Fatima Bidagova, was one of his wives. According to official information, Khattab then began to prepare the Karamakh residents for an armed struggle with Russia.

In 1998, the Salafists completely took power in the village: they expelled the local administration, closed the police station and set up armed checkpoints with green Islamic flags and inscriptions in Russian and Arabic: “You are entering a territory where Sharia law applies.”

“In fact, there were few armed militants, no more than a hundred in sight, but almost half of the population supported them: some were relatives, and the majority were simply afraid,” explains the teacher.

The republican authorities preferred not to pay attention to the Kadar zone, and the head of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation, Sergei Stepashin, who arrived in Karamakhi in the fall of 1998, said: “I would warn everyone against labeling them “Wahhabis” and “extremists.” We have freedom of religion. We will help you all peacefully, I give you my word of honor: no one will fight with the civilian population.” In response, the Salafi community had to hand over their existing weapons. Although this was not done, they did not suppress the enclave. And the community lived closed from the outside world.

Until August 1999, when the invasion of “Wahhabis” from Chechnya into the territory of Dagestan began. More than two thousand militants quickly captured several villages in the Botlikh and Tsumadinsky regions. The group was led by Chechen field commander Shamil Basayev and Khattab. On August 10, the Islamic Shura of Dagestan distributed an “Address to the Chechen state and people”, “An appeal to the parliaments of Muslims of Ichkeria and Dagestan”, “Declaration on the restoration of the Islamic state of Dagestan” and “Resolution in connection with the occupation of the state of Dagestan”. The documents spoke about the formation of an Islamic state on the territory of the republic. An experimental version of such a state, from the point of view of the “Wahhabis,” was a separate Islamic territory in the Kadar zone.

And at the end of August 1999, after the end of the fighting, a military operation began to liquidate the “Wahhabi” enclave, although the community of the Kadar zone did not support Basayev in the war that had begun - (about a dozen people from Karamakhi participated in the fighting on the border on their own initiative).

“The attack was sudden, no one warned us to go somewhere, to run away. Nobody said anything, they just started bombing. August 29 at approximately three in the morning. We didn't understand anything. My father said: pack up the children and leave. There were huge traffic jams at the exit. People crowded into the backs of Kamaz trucks to leave, and our leader took people out in his Niva under fire. And no one told us that there would be a war. We realized this only when we saw troops in a neighboring village. Then we started calling home, because husbands and fathers stayed here,” the teacher recalls.

According to the official version, the defenders had built powerful underground fortifications in advance, and the mountain heights and approaches to villages were mined, so the area had to be cleared with the help of rocket artillery and combat aircraft of the federal forces. Rocket and bomb attacks were carried out throughout the village of Karamakhi and its environs. In the meantime, Russian troops stormed the Kadar zone, Basayev and Khattab re-entered Dagestan, now in the Novolaksky district.

The final taking of Chabanmakhi and Karamakhi under control was announced on the evening of September 12, and the Russian flag was again hoisted over the village. The “cleansing” of both villages continued for several more days, and a week later a law “On the prohibition of Wahhabi and other extremist activities on the territory of the Republic of Dagestan” was adopted in Dagestan. Similar laws were adopted in Ingushetia, Karachay-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria and Chechnya, but they did not provide a specific definition of what constitutes “Wahhabism”.

Consequences of the war

According to official data, the Qadar zone was defended by more than 500 militants under the command of Amir Jarullah, 150 managed to escape, the rest were killed or captured. According to militant sources, only 130 armed “Wahhabis” opposed the federal troops, 32 of whom died. Local residents share approximately the same opinion. A tall, strong, loud woman, the head teacher, with whom the teacher had conferred before the conversation, looked into the office and first of all stated that there were very few militants.

— Just like the Nazis did to us, they started bombing us without warning. No one was taken out. The entire population got out on their own. When we reached Karabudakhkent, they were even afraid to give us bread. I then approached the people from the ministry who were there and asked: is this how refugees should be greeted? Only after that they gave us food,” the woman breaks into a cry: “They started a war in order to catch a few people.” Moreover, the soldiers killed three old men, tied them to a tank and dragged them around the village because their sons were “Wahhabists.”

The teacher also explains that local residents hoped that the armed militants would simply be caught and not bomb the villages.

“Our village and Chabanmakhi were completely destroyed. And Kadar – a little,” says the teacher. – The compensation was small. They did not give anything for the dead civilians - about 15 people. As it was, we were owed about 50,000 rubles for the loss of property and 100,000 for the house. Of course, this money was not enough for anyone. We were left with nothing. We had to gradually restore everything ourselves,” she says.

In Karamakhi, 95% of buildings were destroyed - that's 1,850 houses along with all their property. According to eyewitnesses, during the “cleansing” the troops looted the houses that were still standing, and then set them on fire, without knowing whether they belonged to the “Wahhabis” or to the militia.

I met one of the militiamen - a strong old man of about 70 years old - already at the administration, but he did not want to tell anything, saying that he only helped to evacuate refugees.

“He participated, he participated, the police gave them carbines so that they could restore order. He’s just afraid to speak because he was threatened by militants and his son was almost killed,” explains a young guy named Alimirza, who is a member of the people’s squad under the Administration.

According to Alimirza, the squad only makes sure that they do not throw garbage and do not walk around the village drunk, although local stores do not sell either alcohol or tobacco anyway - the ban on their sale imposed by the “Wahhabis” was not lifted.

“Everything is calm in the village now,” the guy says confidently.

But the old militiaman admits that the “Wahhabi” threat remains. And the head teacher of the school said that even now it is life-threatening to openly oppose them.

- And why was all this necessary then? There is a department nearby – 200 people. What are they doing? - a man of about 50 with an injured eye, either working in the administration, or who came on some business, intervenes in the conversation.

“There aren’t two hundred there, maybe 50-60 people,” Alimirza interrupts him irritably.

“But there are two hundred,” the one-eyed man does not give up. - What are they doing? They just get paid. Apparently we have a heightened regime here. And during the war, many soldiers came. They say almost 27 thousand. If you couldn’t catch a few people, why so many police, why this state at all?

— Were you here during the fighting? - I’ll clarify.

- Was. When they started bombing in the morning, I took the children and women to the city. I went back and they took me too. They kept me for ten days, considered me a “Wahhabi,” and then released me. Then they grabbed everyone. And the entire village was destroyed. And now it’s the same: in Makhachkala, one militant will sit in a five-story building, and the whole house will be demolished. “It’s money that makes money – both then and now,” the man confidently declares and looks at Alimirza defiantly. He doesn't argue anymore.

Then the one-eyed man calmly adds: Now Russia is condemning Ukraine, which bombed its own citizens. And in Chechnya, but they didn’t bomb here? Russia did the same.

On August 28, 1999, at 3:30 am, shelling of the village by rocket artillery and aircraft began. Federal forces began to seize the city, which was defended, according to official data from the federal forces, by more than 500 militants under the command of Emir Jarullah.

The first to enter the village of Karamakhi were soldiers of the Dagestan riot police and internal troops. The bandits allowed them to be drawn into the village.

There's not a soul on the streets. Silence. The group of captain Sarazhutdin Aliyev almost reached the mosque (this is the center of the village), when the bandits opened fire on it.

The police took the fight. OMON sergeant Abbas Shikhsaidov shot back to the last bullet, after which he blew himself up and two bandits with a grenade.

Another fighter, Radzhab Zumanov, did the same. A total of thirteen people died in Karamakhi. Only two policemen managed to escape. The captured riot police were cut into pieces.

Murad Shikhragimov was wounded in both legs. Despite the pain, this courageous man crawled to his people for two days.

And he didn’t just crawl, but dragged his seriously wounded comrade. Soon after this tragic incident, a reconnaissance group of the special forces of the internal troops was ambushed by militants.

The result of the battle: four fighters were killed, sixteen were injured.

General Gennady Troshev recalled those events: The operation began on August 28, 1999, and was prepared and carried out mainly by the forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs. However, from the very first steps, miscalculations at various levels of management became obvious.

The operation plan was simplified, the real strength of the gangs was clearly underestimated, the methods of action of the republican police and internal troops units were inadequate.

For example, Dagestani police went to restore order in Karamakhi in UAZ cars, with pistols and handcuffs, believing that such equipment was enough to disarm the Wahhabi detachments.

They were met with organized machine-gun fire, and such frivolity resulted in heavy losses - wounded and killed employees.

The Wahhabis acted according to all the rules of military science, and the police came to arrest them like some small gang of crooks. Surprisingly, even after the “lesson” taught by the bandits, the management of the operation did not make fewer mistakes.

Firstly, the control point was located in Upper Dzhengutai - one and a half dozen kilometers from the Kadar zone. At such a distance, many generals of the Ministry of Internal Affairs led the operation virtually blindly.

Secondly, the radio networks of the police and internal troops were under the complete control of the gangs of the Kadar zone. The Wahhabis not only listened to everything, but also launched “disinformation” and organized radio interference. There is complete chaos on the air. As we can see, no serious conclusions were made in this regard after.

Thirdly, clear interaction was not established between the units of the internal troops and the police, as a result, poorly thought-out attacks were easily repelled by bandits...

In the interpretation of the thoroughly deceitful and biased local officialdom, what led to this outcome was that until the summer and autumn of last year, the residents of these settlements were clearly held hostage by a small group of well-armed fellow villagers, either related to the evil “Wahhabis” (an assessment typical before the period armed intervention), or to ardent drug addicts and criminals (an assessment inherent in the post-war period).

From the perspective of the relatively liberal central press, everything that happened looked somewhat different. To illustrate, here are the most common opinions of three Moscow analysts and journalists:

“The peculiar order in the villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi arose as a measure of social protection and protest against the existing regime, when about two hundred families in Dagestan own 85% of the national wealth...”

(excerpt from an August interview with the Vesti television program, head of the Caucasus department of the Institute of Ethnology S. Arutyunov).

“There are no threats to the outside world for the residents of the village. Karamakhi was not represented and hostages were never taken. True, the rules that they established (women walked around with their faces covered, and men were punished with sticks for drinking alcohol) were not liked by all their fellow villagers. The authorities thought this was enough reason. Following the lead of the leadership of Dagestan (the Karamakh leaders spoke sharply against the current order in the republic), the military began to storm the villages...”

(A. Ryklin. “Neighbors in War.” Magazine “Itogi” No. 15 from 10/8 - 00).

“The capture of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi would allow Moscow to show who is the “master” of the house: this region of Dagestan traditionally belongs to the patrimony of the chairman of the state council of the republic, Magomedali Magomedov, loyal to Moscow, but passive and weak-willed. It is not without reason that he is considered one of the culprits of the current crisis: the poverty of a significant part of the population of the republic, responsibility for which to a large extent lies with the ruling clans, has become one of the prerequisites for the spread of Wahhabi ideas...”

(Mikhail Vinogradov. Center for Political Conjuncture of Russia. Weekly "Russian Thought". No. 4283 (9-15 September 1999).

In our opinion, the phenomenon of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi are still awaiting their impartial researchers - dozens of volumes will still be written on these topics, hundreds of articles and journalistic materials dedicated to the Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi people will still be published. Now I would like to draw the reader’s attention to one fact: for the first time in the entire post-Soviet space, they managed to create a semblance of an Islamic mini-state. Naturally, the vicissitudes of its creation, formation and destruction are best known to those who created and are creating the modern history of these villages. By the will of Allah and circumstances, we were given a unique opportunity to meet such people. So, the floor to our interlocutors. Magomed and Murad, residents of the village, tell the story. Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi (for a number of well-known reasons, the names have been changed):

Bismillagyi rrah1mani rrah1im.

Assalamu g1alaikum varah1matullagyi tag1ala vabarakatugyu.

Our conversation will be more productive if we start it not from today, but from the thirties of our century, and then from the history of the village of Kadar, for all Karamakhians and Chabanmakhians come from it. The Kadar people have always been relatively wealthy people. Everyone had their own house, livestock and pastures. At the height of Stalin's collectivization, its trends reached the village of Kadar. The overwhelming majority of residents were against the socialization of their economy, but due to the fact that on the side of individual loafers and idlers, active supporters of building a collective farm, stood the power of a huge state, many had to say goodbye to livestock, pastures and join the ranks of collective farmers. Those who disagreed - in fact, more freedom-loving and independent - under various plausible pretexts, moved to the territory of the modern location of the villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi (the distance between them is about a kilometer in a straight line) and began to arrange their own life anew. For the sake of fairness, we note that at the beginning of 1938, the communists forcibly drove them into the collective farm.

Residents of these settlements were characterized by high religiosity, and as the region became Sovietized and specific bearers of the values ​​of true Islam were physically eliminated, it was reduced to one five-fold prayer. To accelerate the destruction of this “relic of the dark past,” in the early 70s, a recreation center of republican significance began to be built near the villages. Fortunately, the facility was never put into operation.

Despite these and similar tricks and repressions, in Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi there were still real ulama such as Bagavkadi, Elmurzakadi, Buragan Muhammad, Jan-Arslan, in deep secret, who taught us all the first invaluable lessons in religion. A few of us learned the basics of Islam, while the rest of the male population gradually became accustomed to alcoholic beverages with all the ensuing bitter consequences: the first alcoholics appeared, the first broken families, the first deformed children, the first killed and wounded due to heavy drinking.

This is how we lived, amazingly combining Muslim and ever-memorable “Soviet values,” halal and haram. It seemed that there would be no end to all this, but by the will of the Almighty, Gorbachev came to power in the Kremlin, who set about radically breaking down the entire rotten system. The wind of beneficial changes, although with difficulty, reached Dagestan. The “eternally living teaching” began to show crack after crack, and the resulting ideological vacuum was slowly filled with Islamic priorities. At the end of the 80s, the jamaat decided to build on its own in the village. Karamakhi central mosque, because not all old and elderly people made it to Friday and other holiday prayers held in the Kadar mosque, 3-4 kilometers away from us, due to their weakness.

Knowing full well that local officials, direct enemies of Muslims (and the same people still sit in the same offices today) would never give permission for its construction, we first received the go-ahead from Moscow and only then went to Makhachkala. At the Ministry of Religious Affairs we were received by some dignitary who immediately stated that “the leadership of Dagestan with all its might wants to make its contribution to reviving the religion of Allah, but the vile Kremlin is opposing this.” You should have seen his face when he saw the official permission! The official's resistance was broken, but suddenly an obstacle appeared from where it was never expected. Imam S. categorically opposed the construction of the mosque. Kadar Zainuddin. Motivation: they say that one Kadar mosque is enough for everyone. An analysis of his past life allowed us to quickly understand why exactly he speaks from such a position. At one time, Zainuddin was a murid of the so-called Sheikh Amaya sect. In 1962, one of its members was arrested by the authorities for the rape of a woman and the murder of her brother, and was awaiting trial in a pre-trial detention center. Amai gathered his students, whispered some spells over them and an ordinary stick, and promised that “from now on, even a direct hit from an artillery shell cannot kill you, and the stick, at the request of the owner, will extend hundreds of meters to defeat any enemy.” , sent the latter to free the arrested person. The murids, including Zainuddin, went to the building where the trial was taking place. After the stick refused to show its “magical” properties, a fight broke out right in the building, in which one of the murids managed to snatch a pistol from the “law enforcement officer.” In the ensuing firefight there were killed and wounded on both sides.

The case had an unprecedented public outcry. Zainuddin then managed to escape, but was sentenced to death in absentia. After some time, he was caught and given only... 6 years in prison for such a serious crime. He served no more than 4 years behind bars. Then there were rumors that such a short sentence and his imminent release were due to the fact that he, like his father Shuaya (a former NKVD employee), had become a KGB agent. The rumors intensified even more and began to acquire real ground when, in the early 80s, Zainuddin unexpectedly performed... Hajj!

Only Allah knows how much harm and grief he brought to Muslims. The construction of the mosque was also opposed by the chairman of the collective farm, Ataev Akhmad, his relatives and all those who had at least some connection with the budgetary funds of the villages and district (in simple terms, they had the opportunity to steal from the state) or held at least some party administrative position . Their unsightly moral character was most clearly manifested in the person of Ataev. He was a typical boss of Soviet times - poorly educated, stupid with the habits of a slave (when it came to his superiors) and a tyrant (when it came to his subordinates). In particular, he repeatedly publicly and behind the scenes asserted that “Ataev rode and will ride on the backs of his fellow villagers as long as there is an opportunity.” It was for this behavior that he was removed from the post of collective farm chairman in 1991. But, despite all their objections, by the end of 1989, the construction of the mosque was completed in record time. From that period until 1993, Muhammad ibn Umar, the most honest and principled Muslim, was unanimously elected as the imam of the mosque.

The problems of the mosque were successfully resolved, but there remained the problems of the Hajj and the so-called spiritual administration of Muslims of the North Caucasus, which was led by Gekiev Makhmud (KGB lieutenant colonel, now works as the mufti of Kabardino-Balkaria and is one of the most irreconcilable and fierce fighters in the republic against “Wahhabism”). In the early 90s, the Karamakhians and Chabanmakhians, along with other Dagestanis, took an active part in the dispersal of the structures of the spiritual administration, a subsidiary organization of the KGB. In the same year, a rally of many thousands took place in the central square of Makhachkala with demands for permission to freely travel for Hajj in accordance with the limit of pilgrims allocated to the republic by the authorities of Saudi Arabia. In the crowd of protesters there were several dozen disguised security service workers, who provoked the storming of some government buildings. The policemen guarding the buildings opened fire in the air, and one captain, a munafik, without any warning shots from a pistol, shot two protesters at point-blank range on the spot. Only the deaths of these devout Muslims and multi-day rallies opened a free path to Hajj for everyone.

The year 1991 is also significant in the sense that it was then that the followers of “traditional” Islam and representatives of the atheistic authorities first put into use a unique word-label: “Wahhabi.” The year 1992 passed without any special incidents, except for the almost unanimous decision of fellow villagers to disband the collective farm. Everyone received plots of land as their own, equipment and property were put under the hammer, and the money received was spent on gasification of villages. In private hands, the land worked with full efficiency and return. The life of fellow villagers gradually began to change for the better.

In 1993, Muhammad ibn Elmurza was elected imam of the mosque. At the time of his assumption of office, some very dangerous trends began to appear in the lives of young fellow countrymen. Some began to plant opium poppies in their household plots and other plots for sale and for their own use, and some, having entered the highway of republican significance, took up extortion and robbery. All these outrages were happening in full view of the local “police officers” who turned a blind eye to any lawlessness in exchange for bribes. Something had to be done urgently. After one of the Friday prayers, some religious activists suggested declaring a p. Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi are a zone completely free from alcoholism, drug addiction, theft and other vices that are widespread in the everyday life of fellow countrymen, and also be guided in everyday actions by individual elements of Sharia rule. The proposals passed unanimously. The next day, along the perimeter of the villages and within them, about 6 tons (!) of opium poppy were collected and destroyed by the Karamakhians and Chabanmakhians themselves.

Certain measures were also taken to eradicate extortion on the road. One day in the village. Karamakhi, out of breath, a young man, a resident of the Tsuntinsky district named Khabib, came running and asked for help: it turns out that four people just wanted to rob him on the highway. We managed to catch the robbers using fresh tracks. They turned out to be two Kadar residents and two Karamakh residents. The detainees spent the night behind a lock in one of the sheds, and in the morning the members of the jamaat decided to put them in the central square for public viewing and ridicule until lunch... Gradually, the moral climate in the villages began to improve. A madras was built and interpersonal relationships became more respectful and kind. What we did was completely consistent with the wishes and aspirations of the vast majority of our fellow countrymen. And the few opponents - in the person of the former chairman of the collective farm, his relatives and minions, as well as persons who suffered a well-deserved punishment from fellow villagers for certain antisocial acts, united with the authorities of “traditional” Islam Abdullah-Khaji (former mufti of the “Dargin” spiritual administration , the grandson of the notorious Alikhadzhi Akushinsky, who made a significant contribution to the establishment of Soviet power in the North Caucasus region) and Mirza Hadji from Ulla-aya - began to openly oppose our new way of life. In close connection with them, the Budun of the mosque also spoke. Kadar Magomedov Akhmed, who at one time even worked as the imam of the central mosque in Makhachkala. It is interesting to note that he is also a full-time KGB agent, and that he, long before Zainuddin, was allowed by the state to perform Hajj.

Their actions harmoniously flowed into the mainstream of the actions of the Dagestan criminally corrupt officials, who could not help but notice the obvious fact that where their representatives and henchmen were not present; that where their “secular” absolutely non-working law does not exist, ideal order and prosperity appear there. The example of the villages could become contagious and have far-reaching, and, moreover, very unfavorable consequences for those in power. It is not without reason that at numerous gatherings and meetings, the head of the administration of the Buinaksky district, Alkhalaev M., has repeatedly asserted that “the villages set a bad example for the Dagestanis.” That is why the war began against the Karamakhians and Chabanmakhians: first “cold”, then “hot”.

In 1995, when fellow villagers were preparing to celebrate the day of Kurban Bayram with dignity and joy in the village. Karamakhi unexpectedly burst in, heavily armed with 120 Dagestan riot police. The “guardians of order” detained 7 religious activists of the village, brazenly planted cartridges on them, and under this far-fetched pretext, some of them were arrested. One even had to serve in a Makhachkala isolation ward for about a month. Later we learned that this provocation for a bribe of 5 thousand dollars was organized by the same Ataev Akhmed, together with his sons Tagir and Kadyr-aga and the current deputy mayor of Makhachkala Aliyev Akhmed. This was the first test of strength and the first provocation in an endless series of subsequent ones.

In the same year, Stepashin (then he worked as chairman of the Federal Grid Company of the Russian Federation) and the permanent leader of the communists Zyuganov visited Dagestan. Before their arrival, our opponents, together with the authorities of Dagestan, organized a series of rallies in the cities of Makhachkala and Buynaksk with demands to close the madras in the village, remove Imam Muhammad Elmurza from his post, reassign the mosque to the DUMD and reinstate Ataev. The protesters were promised that all their demands would be met. But the only thing they succeeded in was the employment of the former collective farm chairman as the head of the village administration. In 1996, he was killed under very mysterious circumstances. Naturally, his death was also attributed to us. Without any reason, 6 people were arrested and thrown into the Makhachkala detention center. Here two had to serve a year and 10 months, three - about 3 months, and one, transferred to the Khasavyurt detention center, disappeared without a trace. They were all released due to a complete lack of evidence.

Well, we, as true Muslims, have never been supporters of forceful resolution (especially murder) of controversial issues. The correct and righteous word is our weapon, this is our most powerful argument in any situation. But apparently the price of our voice was so high that they tried to deprive us of even that. In 1996, 6 Karamakh residents were stopped near the outskirts of the village. The shepherds are 8 shepherds led by Akayev Rizvan - people very far from Islam and its values, but very close to certain Dagestani mafiosi and officials. They rather rudely demanded that the Karamakh residents return back. They were politely explained that the preachers were going to visit their own brothers - the Chabanmakhians, who were expecting them from hour to hour. The arguments of the Karamakh residents were not taken into account, the conversation went on in increasingly higher tones, and it all ended in a banal fight. In Dagestan, dozens and hundreds of fights happen every day, no one particularly focuses on these facts: just think, the men have rubbed each other’s sides. We thought so too, in our naivety and purity. But what happened turned out to be another provocation, on top of everything else, which took our relationship with the ruling “elite” to a completely new level.

The next day, the beaten Rizvan went to his cousin, deputy of the People's Assembly Akaev Abakar, and asked him for help. After performing the afternoon prayer, we had just left the mosque when we were surprised to see an armada of luxury foreign cars with 400 armed supporters of the deputy and two armored personnel carriers with Dagestan riot police approaching the village. They completely blocked the village. Chabanmakhi, then they used endless and senseless threats and abuse against us. No one entered the village directly: it was simply a demonstration by the mafia structures and authorities of their own strength and power. Seeing our unity and desire to repel any alien, even unarmed, by the evening Akaev’s supporters and riot police were forced to retreat home. It was after their departure that at an urgently assembled gathering of fellow villagers the question of purchasing weapons arose for the first time. It was then that we realized that our way of life needed armed protection, that it was impossible to resist a machine gun and a machine gun with a simple and kind word. We swear by Allah - it was not our choice, external circumstances pushed us towards it! But then the matter on the scale of villages never progressed beyond talk. Some people purchased a pistol on a private initiative, some bought a machine gun, some bought grenades, some had smooth-bore guns at home with official permits from the relevant services.

At the gathering, an amir was also elected - he became Mukhtar, and elections to the Shura were also held, which included 18 of the most authoritative and God-fearing Muslims. Meanwhile, our efforts on the basis of preaching began to yield real and first results: followers and sympathizers appeared both in the surrounding areas and throughout Dagestan. In May 1997, during the elections to the local legislative and executive bodies of the republic, the turn of a new military confrontation began. Campaign in favor of the current head of the administration of the Buinaksky district Alkhalaev M. in the village. The same Abakar Akaev came to Karamakhi. There was nothing extraordinary in the fact of his arrival, but the whole point was that he again came with his armed gang, and they blocked all the exits from the village. On this basis, spontaneous clashes arose here and there. It’s good that it all ended with only assault and bruises. Something urgently needed to be done. The Jamaat decided to send the most respected people of the villages to one of the Akayev brothers - Hussein. They earnestly asked him to reason with Abakar, because his irresponsible actions could lead to the most unpredictable consequences. He listened to our delegates and promised to influence his brother.

A week later, their younger brother Hasun started a small altercation with one of our brothers right in the parking lot of Buinaksk. Loitering and curious people gathered around, so it was decided to finish the conversation that had begun in the village. Chabanmakhi. Here a meeting was held with the participation of representatives of both sides. Knowing the nature of the opposing side, we placed people with weapons around the perimeter of the village, just in case, who were ordered to open fire, and then in the air, only under extreme circumstances. The discussion went on as usual, although in a nervous, but quite friendly atmosphere. We were about to go home when we saw Abakar approaching with numerous armed guards. Jumping out of the cars, they started shooting in the air. The atmosphere was heating up. Threats and abuse were addressed to us again. In order to avoid unnecessary conflict, we told Abakar that the conversation was already over, that people were in an excited state, that the actions of his guards could even lead to human casualties. He, cutting us off mid-sentence, immediately ordered his guards to detain those gathered. At that moment, our people fired bursts into the air. Confused by such a rebuff, Akaev’s guards opened indiscriminate fire in all directions. In a shootout, shot from behind, i.e. On the part of Akayev’s guards, to deep regret, his cousin Mukai was killed - a God-fearing and normal guy, unlike Abakar’s inner circle, who always strived for compromise and dialogue. The first wounded appeared on both sides. The shooting lasted about 30 minutes, then it stopped. We immediately took one of our seriously wounded unconscious brothers to the Buinaksk district hospital. That same evening, right in the intensive care unit where he was lying, Akaev’s supporters fired 4 more bullets into him. Already in critical condition, taking all precautions, we took him to Makhachkala and admitted him to the surgical department of one of the hospitals.

The night passed in anxious anticipation. From early morning, his supporters began to come to Akaev’s aid. The first to arrive were the Minister of Social Security Musaev Sh., the head of the administration of the city of Kaspiysk Gadzhibekov R., the head of the administration of the Buinaksky district Alkhalaev M., the Deputy Minister of Internal Affairs Omarov M. and the head of the 6th department Gitinov M. with a small group of riot police. This was an amazing phenomenon, which, unfortunately, soon became an everyday reality in the life of the republic - mafia, security and power structures acted as a united front against the Truth of Allah and his values. And they were provided with moral support by the “ulamas of traditional” Islam. The uninvited guests did not come empty-handed: they were armed with up to 1,800 firearms, including heavy machine guns and grenade launchers. In the form of an ultimatum, they again demanded that we resubordinate the mosque to the Spiritual Administration, remove Imam Muhammad ibn Elmurza from his post, and close the madrasah. New completely original requirements also appeared: men had to shave their beards, and women had to walk with their heads uncovered!

Naturally, not a single condition could be fulfilled due to their humiliation for us, especially since we knew very well that one retreat would lead to an endless series of others. They wanted us to become just like them, i.e. they also stole, debauched and raped the people, but we wanted to serve not them and their criminal concepts, but the Almighty. Negotiations went on for 3 days, but seeing our inflexibility, Amirov arrived in the evening and took everyone to Makhachkala. After this incident, the process of militarization of villages took on even greater proportions: people were ready to sell their villages to purchase weapons.

By July, the leadership of Dagestan opened in the village. Karamakhi police department with 13 staff units. The overwhelming majority of fellow villagers perceived what happened with hostility, but we did not want to complicate the already difficult relationship with the ruling “elite,” so the discontent did not take open forms. And the “police officers” sent to us, in order to provoke retaliatory actions, did everything to create discord in our established way of life: they constantly drank, brought girls of easy virtue into the department, and when they went out onto the highway they engaged in extortion. We had to endure all this.

On the same days, an airplane flew over the villages at low altitude. It was strange and unusual: flights on local routes had long been canceled, and no flight routes had ever passed over us. Many people watched the plane with understandable curiosity, and suddenly they saw that it was spraying some kind of yellowish liquid, iridescent with all the colors of the rainbow. The plane took off, an hour later the talk about it died down, but by the morning of the next day almost all Karamakhians and Chabanmakhians had diarrhea. Then young people in full bloom of strength and health began to suffer from malignant tumors of various organs. That year, about 20 people died of cancer, and the next - 23. In April 1998, out of the blue, a representative commission of the Dagestan Ministry of Health, consisting of 7 professors and 4 doctors, came to us. They placed special emphasis on examining and examining fellow countrymen for the presence of cancer and goiter. The commission did not provide any recommendations or conclusions upon completion of the inspections, but even today we are confident that we have become guinea pigs for the state.

Meanwhile, the situation in the republic was heating up by leaps and bounds. On May 21, supporters of the Khachilayev brothers seized government buildings in Makhachkala. Not a single person from our villages took part in these seizures. We had enough of our own problems: from reliable sources it became known that both in our department and in the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Dagestan there are lists with the names of “unreliable” Karamakhin and Chabanmakhin residents, compiled mainly based on denunciations of “law enforcement officers.” This overwhelmed the patience of fellow villagers: it was decided to immediately expel the policemen from the village. After they were escorted out, we opened the safe and found the ill-fated list. It - the list - began with a six-month-old child, and ended with very old men and women! It is still not clear to us what kind of threat these individuals posed to the dignitaries of Dagestan.

May 23 to the outskirts of the village. A convoy of cars with 46 policemen arrived in Karamakhi. Their task, as we later learned from the lips of a captured policeman, was to provoke local clashes directly in the villages. Then, in accordance with the plan, other representatives of “law enforcement” agencies were supposed to join them. If the outcome was successful, they, acting together with local renegades, had to forcibly impose in our homes an order that suited the leadership of the republic. But, with the help of Allah, we got ahead of them. The “guards of order” and their assistants only managed to block the village, but we occupied all the dominant heights and roads leading to the mountains. It was precisely those who occupied the highway that the police opened fire on. Two policemen were killed by return fire, and one was captured. Subsequently, he was exchanged for our two captured brothers. And this ended another epic of our confrontation with the authorities.

Several more relatively calm months passed, but there was a vague anxiety in the air all the time, so round-the-clock watches were established in the villages. To provide all possible assistance to drivers of passing cars in distress, the area along the highway was also on duty. One day we were visited by 18 Dargin “ulamas” sent by the Chairman of the State Council, headed by Abdullah-Khaji. Home-grown “luminaries of science,” serving the selfish interests of their owners, wanted the Karamakhins and Chabanmakhins to live not even like all Dagestanis, but like all Dargins! They explained the conflicts in the Kadar zone by the fact that we do not have “ulamas of traditional” Islam. When one of us asked how we could explain the fact that in Akushi, where almost every second “Alim of traditional Islam on a global scale” had already killed 9 people in 2 years due to criminal squabbles, our guests preferred to pass over this question in silence. At the end of the meeting, they were directly asked: “If we assume that in the future we manage to introduce Sharia law, then how will you behave?” An equally direct answer was received that they personally would go against us and our order!

Meanwhile, our opponents openly said everywhere that big changes were coming soon. In particular, the same Zainuddin repeatedly declared to his supporters at all gatherings and mawlidahs: “Wait a little bit. “A new blow is about to come, which will bring us final victory, and it will be delivered by our valiant police, the FSB and the 6th department.” In July 1998, the villages were again completely blocked by police forces. Posts were also posted on all roads. We immediately contacted the head of the Buinaksky district administration, Alkhalaev, by telephone and demanded an explanation from him. With a threat, saying that “the blockade is the first stage of the operation, and the second stage is not a topic for a telephone conversation,” he hung up. On our side, armed posts were also set up, but closer to the villages. In the evening, from a nearby hill, the police opened machine-gun fire on residential buildings. Fortunately, there were no casualties. But the window panes were broken in some of the houses of the Chabanmakh residents. And again, seeing our readiness to fight back, the police, on the seventh day of the blockade, removed the posted posts and moved to the place of their permanent duty.

On 11/8 - 98, a gathering of residents was held, where it was decided to declare the villages of Karamakhi and Chabanmakhi a zone of full Sharia rule. One person spoke out against it - the former director of a secondary school in the village. Vanashimahi Mirzakhanov Magomed! The time has come for an almost ideal Islamic order. A treasury was created, where everyone contributed 5 percent of the total income and the zakat due to a Muslim. The money collected went to help the poor, orphans, the sick, the lonely and other needs of Muslims. A television station with a broadcast radius of 10 kilometers was also purchased. It seemed that nature itself welcomed our endeavors: we had never seen such a potato harvest before. On top of that, fellow villagers didn’t even have to go to the market to sell it: potatoes were bought directly at home for a reasonable price.

The first people punished under Sharia appeared: mainly for drunkenness. Having received their 40 sticks, hugging the “executioners”, the punished left without holding a grudge against them. Moreover, many began to understand that human judgment and human censure cannot be compared with divine judgment and censure: for example, people who secretly committed sins on the side and demanded (!) that they too be punished repeatedly came to the Sharia court. Islamic canons. The court itself acted in strict accordance with the laws of Allah. At one time, the republic was agitated by rumors that our punishments differed according to the degree of relationship of certain persons to our circle: they say that they fined “their” murderer only a bull. In reality, the situation was like this: with a random shot, one of our brothers wounded the other. The bullet hit the area of ​​a large blood vessel and the wounded man died on the way to the hospital. Having become familiar with the circumstances of the injury and death, with the full consent of the injured party, such a fine was imposed.

Theft, adultery and other ungodly vices disappeared into oblivion. The head of the Buinaksky District Department of Internal Affairs has repeatedly asserted that it is only thanks to our villages that crime rates in the Buinaksky district remain within fairly acceptable figures. At the time of prayer, almost all shops and stalls remained open and unattended. Journalists from all over the world frequented the villages. Amazed by everything she saw and heard, one West German journalist even asked whether she could move here for permanent residence. Both the first settlers and the first Muslim converts appeared from all over Russia. Our needs, our troubles, our achievements became their needs, troubles and achievements. They lived as equals with equals.