Peace-loving Chechens
Just a wild guess
muslims aren’t at the bottom of every destruction of historical artifacts, but that is the way to bet...
Could be.
I heard a historian talking recently about doing research at the main Kremlin archive, looking at documents going back to Ivan the Terrible, and she described just how badly everything was maintained. She said the librarians were great and dedicated, but they were severely neglected by the authorities. That a fire would break out at another archive and do great damage doesn’t surprise me at all.