Pyotr Sevryuk is a correspondent for the Caucasus.Realities desk of RFE/RL’s North Caucasus Service.
The authorities in Chechnya have included a biography of strongman leader Ramzan Kadyrov's assassinated father, A Path Bathed In Light, as required reading in the North Caucasus region's schools. It's part of what critics call an elaborate personality cult that lionizes Kadyrov and his family.
A hastily assembled world "congress" of Chechens has met to unanimously "demand" that Ramzan Kadyrov, who has ruled the region since 2007 despite numerous allegations of gross human rights violations, run for a fourth term as head of the Russian North Caucasus republic in September.
