The Imagined Chechen Economy Author: Robert Schaefer

Abstract: The drive for more sovereignty in the Russian republic of Chechnya was not based entirely on ethnic or other traditionally nationalistic claims, but also upon economic concerns that were not necessarily based on objective fact. There were multiple interpretations of Chechen economic conditions and these different socially constructed understandings affected the decisions of actors to push for Chechen independence. These socially constructed understandings were not consistent with the available published economic facts – essentially rendering the entire Chechen economy as “imagined.”

Because economic arguments played a significant role in the sovereignty movement in Chechnya , and because these economic arguments were based on an almost entirely imagined economy, had there been a different social understanding of the economy, the conflict in Chechnya may have turned out differently.