It is peculiar how little changes over time. In XIX century when Russian were advancing on the Caucasus, they used the same tactics of collective responsibility. It worked to certain extent. What amazes me is that they are still used in XXI century.

The article is good, except, I would have started it with this passage:

“If you do not come back I will never forgive you,” one father, Ruslan Bachalov, said to his son on a recent broadcast. “I will forgive the man who will kill you.”

To me the story sounds very much like one from Stalin’s times, only without corresponding entourage – Beria, Stalin, war, etc. People have such a fear of the state (or they are taken in by propaganda), that fathers denounce their sons. Well, one might notice that this time it is not the Russians who are doing this, but Chechens themselves, but who is ultimately behind of all this reincarnation of 1937? I have no doubt -Russia.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/09/29/world/europe/29chechnya.html?partner=permalink&exprod=permalink