Inspectors still choose among versions of historian Pykhalov's beating

The militia of St Petersburg is searching the unidentified assailants who attacked on November 11 the local historian and publicist Igor Pykhalov, who wrote about deportation of Caucasian nations.

The "Caucasian Knot" has reported with reference to the words of the historian himself, that he was beaten by "two young men of about thirty of non-Slavic appearance." They did not try to rob him, and ran away after the noise attracted attention of passers-by. The victim was hospitalized, and doctors diagnosed his broken nose. The attack was preceded by a telephone call to his father: he was asked when his son would be at home.

The city GUVD says that the reasons for the attack will be clear only after solution of the crime. So far, no criminal case was opened. This issue will be decided after the militia receives materials of the victim's medical examination, the "Echo Moskvy" Radio reports.

Mr Pykhalov himself asserts that he was beaten by natives from Northern Caucasus, because his work, in which he wrote about Stalin's deportation of Chechens and Ingushes, had repeatedly evoked sharp resentment in the Caucasus; in particular, his work "What Stalin Resettled Nations For" was highly disapproved in Chechnya and Ingushetia. The Fund "Historical Memory" is also confident that the historian suffered for his civil position.

The Caucasian Diaspora denies its involvement in beating Pykhalov. "Members of the Chechen-Ingush Diaspora have nothing to do with violent actions in St Petersburg and Leningrad Region, including the attack on Igor Pykhalov," said Galina Agafonova, spokesperson of the "Vainakh Congress", as quoted by the RBC.

Nurdi Nukhazhiev, Ombudsman in Chechnya, said in his turn that the attack on the historian and publicist was staged as a sort of a PR action. He treated Pykhalov's scientific publications as "justification of Stalin's crimes and anti-Caucasian policy," the press service of Nurdi Nukhazhiev reports.

Igor Pykhalov is the author of several books on Stalin's epoch and history of the NKVD (Interior Ministry in those days), founder of the Internet project "For Stalin!" and author of the book "The Great War Slandered", in which he treats many facts about Stalin's repressions as myths.

The article "Historian Igor Pykhalov Claims to Know the Truth about Deportation of Chechens and Ingushes", which was published on November 8, 2007, on the portal "Ingushetiya.ru", was put by the decision of the Magas District Court of the Republic of Ingushetia of 19.11.2009 on the Federal List of Extremist Materials.