The digital shadows of words
My visit to the North Caucasus residence coincided with the start of work on the project of the Chechen poet Arbi Mamakayev. The first thing that was done was look up information about him online. The biography of Arbi tells the tale of a man who experienced a challenging period of transition. In the Chechen-Ingush ASSR, in the village of Nadterechnoye, he was born in 1918. Following his father’s passing, he was placed in an orphanage, then joined the workers’ faculty, and subsequently found employment at a newspaper. 1934 saw the publication of Arbi’s first collection of poems, which was published in 1941. He got his start in radio thanks to his triumphant performance in an announcer competition.
His life was going well until 1941; other people referred to him as “the Chechen Yesenin” and “the darling of fate”. However, Arbi was detained in 1941 after being accused of a crime and banished to Magadan, where he remained until 1956. Not a single line was written by the poet throughout these fifteen years. He was rehabilitated and went back home in 1957. And he passed away in 1958, barely surviving to be 40 years old.
We were able to gather further information about the poet by making a second journey to the village of Nadterechnoye (Chechen Republic), home of Arbi’s son Eduard’s local history museum. So, the poet’s Magadan album, which he filled with pictures while living in exile in Kolyma, is kept in the museum. Or letters to his second wife, Maya, and son, or papers and items he carried with him during these dreadful fifteen years.
Manuscripts of poems and verses composed by Arbi both before and after the camp are kept in the museum. As a result, the memorial museum housed all of the material on Arbi and served to both preserve and reproduce the poet’s legacy. Arbi left behind tangible remnants, and it is because of these that his identity is gradually revealed. These remnants are the focus of memorial culture, and the story will be reproduced in accordance with its traditional canons. As a representative of the post-memory generation, I will be recognized more through the media. I represent a different era than Arbi Mamakayev. But eventually, the paths of our stories crossed.
This research is an analysis of how both traditional and contemporary memorial rituals handle the remembrance, preservation, and replication of historical events.
About our recollections of the past and our legacy. What digital footprints do we leave behind that will help future generations remember us? In this work, I also engage Arbi Mamakayev in a discourse by giving him a voice in the present and integrating him into the contemporary digital realm. And I too become sucked into his historical tale.
