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The Dondi-Yurt private museum

By Ruslan Isayev

While culture officials complain about the absence of state support for the recovery and restoration of the lost historical and archaeological exhibits in Grozny’s museums, there are enthusiasts who are opening other museums at their own expense.

In the town of Urus-Martan, Chechnya’s first private historical museum is now functioning. It was opened by a local resident, Adam Satuyev, formerly well-known in Chechnya as an athlete-wrestler. Adam has given his museum the name “Dondi-Yurt”, which derives from his nickname “Donda”. It is located on the western outskirts of Urus-Martan, on a small site of 20-30 centihectares.

Adam likes to talk about the exhibits, which he has been collecting for several years. He says that for him the main thing was to show the real circumstances in which our ancestors lived at different periods of the Chechen people’s development.

In the museum grounds Adam has built a three-storey tower in which he himself sometimes lives when he wants to be alone. Facing it is a dug-out covered by planking to protect it from bad weather in winter and from the scorching sun in summer. The walls and floor of the dug-out are lined with felt and sheepskin. In the centre there is a small table with meagre utensils, round which the members of the family used to gather. On the floor lies a half-extended Chechen accordion. The interior’s creator has exerted every effort to make it all look real.

Beside the dug-out stands an old tarantass, or springless carriage, which before the deportation of the Chechens was used by the head of Urus-Martan himself. Nearby, as though the blacksmiths had just finished using it to work on, stands an anvil. It bears a date: 1737.

On the other side of the museum are some small wicker towers the height of about two or three human beings, in which the Chechens’ ancestors kept their corn on the cob. In some mountain villages this practice still exists.

Alongside is an immensely deep storehouse made by hollowing out a large tree-stump, leaving only a thin wall. In those days corn was considered a basic food, and much effort went into making sure that it did not get spoiled. "It must have taken enormous patience and skill to find such a large tree, transport it, and hollow out such a large cavity in it," says Adam.

In one corner of the village of Dondi-Yurt there is a watchtower. At the foot of it there is a simple wooden takhta, or bed, covered with felt. (It is worth noting that even today many elderly Chechens do not like to sleep on soft couches and beds, preferring a hard takhta instead). Nearby lie a burka and a flint rifle. There is a clay jug on the table. In very far-off days, 150-200 years ago, life in most Chechen villages looked like this.

On the edge of the settlement there are also guard posts, each manned by two lookouts. One man stood on watch at the top, while the other rested below. "If there was trouble, a signal was given to the men of the village to take up arms," Adam comments.

Several kibitki (nomad tents) and other small adobe houses have been built in Dondi-Yurt. Opposite one of them Adam has created a small pond into which pure spring water flows. Through the ice, which has now begun to thaw, there is a visible movement of large and swiftly darting fish. "Anyone can come here, and just sit and calm his nerves – we Chechens have had our nerves badly shattered. We don’t have enough of the calm and wisdom which our wonderful forefathers showed in their every action," Adam says with regret, and leads me on through his village. "Here I’ve built a two-storey house made of mountain stone. It has a lot of rooms, and some aren’t finished yet. They will house our historical exhibits. "

Adam keeps the most ancient – therefore the most precious – objects which have ever been found in Chechnya, and they form part of the collection, in a room which is entered through a metal door with an enormous lock. The room is warm, and contains an abundance of valuable and fascinating archaeological specimens. A completely rusted sword, daggers, women's jewellery, some of which is several hundred years old. There are clay jugs, large and small, which are even older. On some of them Christian crosses are clearly visible, which means that they are at least 400 years old.

In Chechnya, which has no sea, seashells are an unfamiliar sight, yet Adam says that the shells here were all found in different parts of the country. The ones in the jar were found in the Itum-Kalinsky district by a local elderly man. After an ancient tree was uprooted following a mountain landslide, a stratum of soil opened up beneath it, and it was there that the seashells were found. Another jar contains the shells that were found in Naursky district, when a bulldozer was digging a trench more than a metre deep.

"All these finds confirm the theory held by some scientists that there was once a sea in the place where Chechnya is now, and because of certain natural phenomena it became divided into three parts: the Black Sea, the Caspian and the Sea of Azov," Adam says, and a gleam comes to his eyes as he studies these shells attentively over and over again.

Just before the entrance to the village, one encounters a large collection of bizarre-looking stones and rocks of varying shapes and sizes. To find even one stone with a natural hole in it is thought to be a stroke of luck, but Adam has many such stones in his village. My attention was caught by the stones in which one can discern the fossilized outlines of large, fat worms or larvae. “They’re at least 700 or 800 years old," says Adam, citing the opinions of archaeological specialists.

The Dondi-Yurt museum is almost always open and receives its visitors free of charge, which is something of no little significance in today’s Chechnya. At present the museum has no state support, but Adam does not seek it.

From the outskirts of Urus-Martan on a good clear day it is possible to see the slopes of the mountains and the grey tops of the glaciers. "It was looking at them that made me want to get to know my region better, and to make sure that our descendants remember the history of the Chechens," Adam says, studying the mountains, which are still often blurred on the horizon because of the smog and powder gases from artillery fire.

The Dondi-Yurt museum:

View all photos from the album "Dondi-Yurt".

(Translation by DM)

(T)

  RELATED ARTICLES:
 · Private museum to obstain government status (Chechnya.gov.ru, 29.11.2007)
 · Chechen homes - silent reminders (PW, 18.7.2007)
 · Museum-preserve in Chechnya under threat of complete destruction (PW, 20.9.2005)