Miraculous growth in Chechnya's population

 
Chechnya’s pro-Moscow authorities have said that on the basis of the census conducted in Russia’s volatile southern province the approximate number of Chechens killed in the years of bloody warfare has been determined. In the opinion of Stanislav Ilyasov, the head of the Chechen government, the number is not that high: ''10,000 people at most.''

The premier hopes that the survivors (preliminary figures from the census show that the republic’s population stands at about 1 million – which is twice as high as the pre-war estimates) will receive double the money from Moscow as had initially been planned.

On Tuesday evening Stanislav Ilyasov shared his conclusions concerning the census results with the press.

''Talks of huge losses are unfounded,'' he reassured reporters. ''A maximum of 10,000 people died.''

Last week the republic’s headquarters in charge of conducting the census in Chechnya, headed by Ilyasov personally, submitted to the State Statistics Committee the sensational results of the census. In the course of two days the census workers filled in 1,088,816 questionnaires. This figure substantially exceeds the Chechen population of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Socialist Republic of Soviet times.

According to the previous census held in Chechnya in 1989, Chechnya and Ingushetia combined had 1.27 million residents. Thus, it seems that resulting from two bloody wars and years of displacement, the population of Chechnya has not decreased, but, on the contrary, has expanded.

According to human rights activists, upon Dzhokhar Dudayev’s coming to power, the population of the republic decreased by at least 100,000. They were Chechens who either died in fighting or fled the volatile province. In spring of this year, in Ingushetia alone, around 150,000 refugees from Chechnya were registered.

Incidentally, before the latest census the population of Chechnya was estimated at approximately 600,000. Ilyasov explains the unexpected difference between the latest headcount results and the previous estimates as follows: Chechen families, he says, are now having more children than before.

''On the one hand, in those years the Soviet Union disintegrated, and global migration processes have taken place: many left and many came to Chechnya. Demographic changes, too, have influenced the census results: increased birth rates and the preservation of polygamous marriages.''

It is easy to predict what hopes the Grozny authorities are now pinning on the census results. According to the figures the population of Chechnya has doubled and obviously Ilyasov now hopes that funds earmarked from the federal budget for the restoration of the war-torn province will be doubled, too.

The Chechen prime minister made it clear that the census results are final and would not be verified. ''All the census documents have already been forwarded by us to the State Statistics Committee and their figures verified,'' he assured reporters.