International jury holds contest of literary works about war in Chechnya

A number of public figures around the world have united to hold a literary contest on the topic of the Chechen War, where the contesters are not only residents of Chechnya and other Russian regions, but also foreigners. Out of the presented works, four have been selected for the final.

As reported by the organizers of the contest, the deadline for submitting works is September 6, 2011 - the 20th anniversary of declaration of independence of the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, when the war started. At the moment, the following works have been selected for the final of the contest: "Russian Federation - Russia - a Russian" by Makhmud Bagalov (USA-Chechnya), "Confession of a Failed Female-Shahid" by Djabrail Aslanov (Chechnya), "My Revenge for Murder of My President" by Kazbich Chechenskiy (Chechnya) and "The Tale of Hodja Nasreddin" by Mokhammyat Minachev (Tatarstan, Russia).

As explained by the organizers, those eligible are earlier unpublished literary works of different genres (articles, essays, short stories) that reflect the topics of the Russian-Chechen War. According to the regulations of the contest, any author from the world can take part in it. The works should be presented in Russian; however, translations from foreign languages are welcomed. They plan to publish a collection of best works. The winners will receive monetary prizes: 500 euros for the first place, and 300 and 200 euros - for the second and the third ones.

The international jury of the contest includes Nadezhda Banchik (USA); Dzhambulat Bolatoykha (France), Adam Viskhanov (Belgium), David Kudykov (UK), Oleg Panfilov (Georgia-Russia) and Victoria Pupko (USA). The chairman of the jury is Mairbek Taramov from Sweden.

It became known to the "Caucasian Knot" correspondent that two former fighters in Chechnya for the federal forces had also expressed their intention to take part in the competition. Besides, those who during the Chechen war fought for the Chechen Republic are going to participate in the literary contest.