Russia's Chechnya to honor neglected Soviet leader

By James Kilner

GROZNY, Russia (Reuters) - Former Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev is little loved in Russia, but in one corner of the Caucasus mountains he holds the status of a national hero.

The mainly Muslim southern republic of Chechnya plans to build a statue in its capital to honor Khrushchev, 37 years after he died in obscurity after being ousted and shunned by the Communist Party leadership.

Khrushchev, known in the West for his eccentric behavior and blunt style, has a special place in Chechen consciousness -- they were among the beneficiaries of his rehabilitation of those purged by his predecessor, Josef Stalin.

In 1956, he invited back those Chechens Stalin had banished to the steppes of Central Asia as punishment for an armed uprising against Soviet rule during World War Two. About 500,000 people -- almost the entire population -- were exiled.

Today, Chechnya is best known for two vicious wars since 1994 between Moscow's forces and separatist rebels. The fighting has subsided and the region is rebuilding, allowing people space to reflect on Khrushchev's role in their turbulent history.

"He's the main reason we're in Chechnya today," said Said-Ali Dovtayev, an economics professor at the Chechen state university in Grozny. "Our parents thanked him for returning us to our homeland."

Dovtayev grew up in Almaty, the biggest city in Kazakhstan, after his family was exiled by Stalin in 1944.

Chechnya has a long history of rebelling against Moscow. As German forces advanced towards the Caucasus region, the Chechens fought skirmishes with Soviet troops and some collaborated with the German military.

But the idea of erecting a statue to Khrushchev came from Chechen president Ramzan Kadyrov, a former rebel fighter who now professes loyalty to the Kremlin.

"For Chechens he is a hero," Kadyrov said last year after announcing the tributes to Khrushchev.

Kadyrov has also renamed a scruffy square on the outskirts of Chechnya's newly rebuilt capital, Grozny, in Khrushchev's honor.

"Without him nobody knows where we would be," Dovtayev, the economics professor, said of Khrushchev.

ECCENTRIC

Born into a family of peasants, Khrushchev's combination of natural intelligence and apparently zealous devotion to Stalin propelled him through the ranks of the Communist Party. When Stalin died in 1953, Khrushchev emerged as leader.

Three years later he denounced the 'cult of personality' that had surrounded Stalin. But he was to make his own mark, in a way that sometimes alarmed his own countrymen.