When Chechen rebels took Moscow theatergoers hostage in October 2002, it
tragically highlighted the ongoing conflict between Russia and its breakaway
republic, Chechnya—a war that has claimed an estimated 200,000 Chechen lives in
the past decade. Yet the true nature of the debacle lies behind the headlines.
In The Oath, a heroic Chechen doctor relates his harrowing experiences in the
line of fire to bear witness to this international calamity, and illuminates his
remarkable people and their culture.
In 1994, when fighting threatened to break out in Chechnya, Baiev left his
promising career in Russia to aid his countrymen. First, he worked in a Grozny
hospital until it was destroyed by Russian shelling. Returning to his hometown
of Alkhan Kala, he and his fellow villagers restored a clinic with his own
funds, and he soon found himself the only doctor for 80,000 residents in six
villages and 5,000 refugees. During the next six years, he worked without gas,
electricity, or running water, with only local anesthetics, and at one point
dressed wounds with sour cream or egg yolks when supplies ran out. He often
donated his own blood for surgeries, and on one occasion performed sixty-seven
amputations in forty-eight hours.
Although he mainly treated civilians,
Baiev also cared for Russian soldiers and Chechen fighters alike, never allowing
politics to interfere with his commitment to the Hippocratic oath. He harbored
Russian deserters and Chechen rebels at great personal risk and single-handedly
rescued a Russian doctor who was scheduled to be executed. For this, Baiev was
nearly killed by both the Russian special forces and Chechen extremists. Only
when the Russian Army ordered him arrested for treating a wounded rebel warlord
did Baiev finally flee Chechnya.
Echoing through his memoir is the
history of Chechnya, a Muslim nation the size of Connecticut with a population
of one million. Baiev explains the roots of the Chechen- Russian conflict,
dating back 400 years, and he brings to life his once-beautiful ancestral home
of Makazhoi where his family clan goes back generations, steeped in ancient
traditions that are an intriguing blend of mountain folklore—including blood
vendettas, arranged marriages, the authority of village elders—and Muslim
religious rituals. And he writes frankly about the challenges of assimilating
into western culture and about the post-traumatic stress disorder that has
debilitated him since the war began.
The Oath is an important
eyewitness account of the reality of the Chechen-Russian conflict, in which
countless atrocities have been committed against average Chechens in stark
contrast to the Kremlin’s portrayal of the conflict. It is also a searing,
unforgettable memoir that is certain to become a classic in the literature of
war.
