[24] In playing for the troops at the front during the Great Patriotic War, Dimayev was continuing the tradition of Chechen troubadors, who “accompanied armies on their expeditions to raise morale and instill courage”,[25] while his presence at both the military hospitals of the war years and the Chechen hospitals after the deportation saw him play the role of folk-doctors, who “hymned by the bed of the sick as invocations to ward off evil spirits”.