BONDS OF BLOOD, STATE-BUILDING AND CLANSHIP IN CHECHNYA AND INGUSHETIA, By Ayse Dietrich^*, Published by: Bloomsbury Academic, Written by Ekaterina Sokirianskaia, Year of Publishing: 2023. Subject Area: Nation-building, Russian Federation, Chechnya and Ingushetia, Book Type: History of Chechnya and Ingushetia and Politics. Total Number of Pages: 263. ISBN: 9781350271692, hardback, $115,00.

This book is about the role of teips (clans) and kinship in contemporary subnational state-building in Chechen and Ingush societies. The author based her work on 300 interviews, five years of participant observation and 20 years of work on the region.   She examines informal institutions and identities link to teips and kinship in Ingushetia and Chechnya, discusses how the state and informal organizations have cooperated and controlled each other and their effects on state-building and political unification.

In Chapter 1, the author introduces her approaches to state and society, and discusses the earlier concepts and hypothesis. She uses combined historical, anthropological, sociological and political science approaches to clarify the macro- and micro-level social dynamics of teips and kinship in Chechen and Ingush politics.

In Chapter 2, the author talks about the relationship between state and society, the traditional political, legal and social institutional structures of Chechens and Ingush and the process of their transformation during and after the Caucasian War, and points out that the Chechen and Ingush teips were disunited and weakened already by the end of the 19^th century, and indigenous supra-teip political structures had been pushed outside the political system by the state and reshaped under the strong influence of Sufi Islam.

In the Chapter 3, the author examines the social changes introduced by the Soviet modernization programs, which sped up the erosion of the traditional structures, deportations under Stalin and consequences of post-deportation restrictions on settlement, employment and religion. She also talks about three types of memories related to their past that Chechens and Ingush share within the Russian state between 1991and 2001.

In the Chapter 4, the author analyzes the main patterns of social integration in Ingushetia and Chechnya today. This analysis is based on five years of participant observation in the region and over a hundred interviews between 2003 and 2008, and additional fieldwork in 2008–2009 and 2017–2020. She states that her analysis has shown that teip and kinship structures are important, but they are not a prominent feature in shaping the social processes in Ingushetia and Chechnya today.

Chapter 5 discusses the state-building project in Chechnya under Dzhokhar Dudaev, his economic policies, laws, military and justice, the role of Mekhk-Khel and elders in politics, kinship, religion, loyalty. The author argues that clan politics literature misses an understanding of what teip really was and there is an erroneous interpretation of the nature of the political process in Chechnya between 1991–1994; and that many authors underestimated the role of ideology, political and economic interests, and regional identities that were critical to political outcomes; and kinship, clan and religion had very low importance, even negligible, in the Chechen elite under the rule of Dzhokhar Dudaev and the special positions of the various regions were determined historically and sociologically and not by teip.

In Chapter 6, the author analyzes  the state-building policies in Chechnya under Aslan Maskhadov, rivals to his regime, the issues of the economy, industry, agriculture, education, healthcare, military, laws, judicial system, the rise of paramilitary groups, and religion.  She states that under Maskhadov the government’s ability to deliver social services was extremely limited.

Chapter 7 deals with the state-building in Ingushetia under Ruslan Aushev, the creation and consolidation of institutions, the issues of the economy, agriculture, law enforcement, education and healthcare, kinship and elites. The author states that Ruslan Aushev was able to consolidate post-conflict Ingush society through his ability to defend the interests of the Ingush people.

Chapter 8 examines the authoritarian state structure in Ingushetia under Murat Zyazikov, corruption and clanship. The author claims that the government of Murat Zyazikov, probably the most corrupt and inefficient in the history of Ingushetia, was a trust group, linked by common economic interests and high risks.

Chapter 9 provides information on Ingushetia under Yunus-Bek Yevkurov, the issue of intra-confessional schism, his effort to liberalize government, the attitudes towards Salafi mosques which resulted in a sharp public clash with the Sufi Mufti of the Republic, economic measures and his attempt to fight against corruption.

In the Chapter 10, the author talks about Chechnya under the Kadyrovs, its elites that are highly autonomous from society and protected by Moscow. She states that they rule through coercion and money, intimidate their opponents and buy supporters.

In the Conclusion, the author claims her study proved that “Pre-existing patterns of social integration (teips, tariqas, virds) no longer play a role in the state-building and political process in Chechen and Ingush societies, and the political process is shaped by agency, integrated based on ideology, program, religion, economic and security interest, personal loyalty or patronage. Chechens and Ingush politics are not clan-based”.

In the course of her research, the author of the book interviewed different sectors of Chechen society. It is an excellent source for academicians and researchers who are interested in State-building and clanship in Chechen and Ingush society.