Lenin-Aul and neighbouring Kalinin-Aul, two villages near Dagestan’s border with Chechnya, 2006. Photo CC BY-SA 3.0: Umar Dagirov / Wikimedia Commons. Some rights reserved.
Lenin-Aul is a town of some 10,000 in the Republic of Dagestan, in Russia’s North Caucasus. Chechnya is not far from here, and in recent weeks its presence has been very keenly felt. A land dispute in Lenin-Aul has almost transformed into an interethnic confrontation between the local Avar population and Akkins (a subethnos of Chechens). While peace was easily restored to the village after unrest in late July, the roots of this conflict lie deeper — mistrust still lingers.
The bone of contention is the historic ownership of these lands, for which both side has its own justification.
