In 1997, Chechens elected military leader Aslan Maskhadov as president and changed Grozny’s name to “Jokhar” in honor of slain Chechen leader Jokhar Dudayev. To impose order, Islamic Sharia law was introduced. But true peace did not come. Kidnappings and armed skirmishes between rival Chechen warlords occurred frequently. Islamic fundamentalists, backing an independence movement in neighboring Daghestan, exercised increasing influence over the Maskhadov government.
On August 7, 1999, two Chechnya-based warlords, Shamil Basayev and Omar Ibn al Khattab, believed to be a Jordanian associate of Osama bin Laden and a mujahaddin who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan, invaded Daghestan. Weeks later, when a string of bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk killed some 217 people, blame was put on Chechen terrorists. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, riding a wave of anti-Chechen sentiment among voters, ordered an attack on the warlords.
On October 29, 1999, Russian armies invaded Chechnya after ten days of heavy aerial bombardment. In February 2000, Russian soldiers reclaimed Grozny, forcing Maskhadov and the rebel forces to flee to the mountains. Moscow installed Chechen mufti (Muslim religious leader) Ahmad-Hadjii Kadyrov, a participant in the 1994-1996 conflict against Russia, in Mashkhadov’s place. But the rebel attacks continued. In an attempt to weed out rebel fighters, Russian forces instituted a campaign of zachistki – “clean-up operations” – among the civilian population, resulting in the disappearance or death of hundreds of Chechen civilians. In response to the ensuing chaos, tens of thousands of Chechens have fled to the neighboring republic of Ingushetia or to Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge. Russian attempts to convince Chechen refugees that they can safely return to their homeland are ongoing, but, set against a backdrop of ruined cities, mined fields and an ever-changing security situation, have not met with
Timeline: Explore Chechnya’s Turbulent Past
1300s to 1600s: Outsiders Invade
Attempts to control the Caucasus, Europe’s highest mountain range, set between the Black and Caspian Seas, date back to the 13th century when Mongols first invaded the region. By the 1400s, the Ottoman Empire had spread over the western half of the Caucasus, while the Persian Empire extended over the eastern half. Russian interest in the region can be traced to 1559 when Ivan the Terrible annexed the Caucasian city of Astrakhan, former site of the Tatar khanate. Forts were built in or near Chechnya’s neighbor Daghestan and an alliance was made with the Christian kingdom of Kakhetia in Georgia in an attempt to offset Muslim influence in the area, but further inroads were repulsed by Daghestani and other mountain warriors.
Russia’s first full-scale military operation in the North Caucasus came in 1604 when Tsar Boris Gudonov invaded to gain control of valuable military and trade routes to Persia. Though supported by local Christian Cossack troops, Russia’s invasion failed a year later in the face of stiff resistance from Chechen and Ottoman Turk forces. Russia would not return to the region for another 120 years.
Did You Know?
The Chechens, who call themselves Nokhchi, are an indigenous people of the North Caucasus mountains. Russians coined the name “Chechen” based on the village Chechen-aul in which they first encountered the Nokhchi. Chechens are Sunni Muslims with a strong tradition of Sufi mysticism and speak an Ibero-Caucasian language influenced by Georgian, Turkish, Russian, Arabic, Ossetian, Daghestani and Persian.
1700s: Holy War
In 1722, Peter the Great, ever eager for trade and military routes to Persia, invaded Chechnya’s neighbor Daghestan. Repulsed by the Daghestanis and Chechen mountain warriors, Russia fell back again, but would press on for the next 50 years with sporadic raids on Chechen and Daghestani territory. In 1783, Russia finally gained a strategic toehold in the Caucasus with the recognition of Georgia, Chechnya’s Christian neighbor to the south, as a Russian protectorate.
In 1784, Imam Sheik Mansur, a Chechen warrior and Muslim mystic, led a coalition of Muslims from throughout the Caucasus in a ghazavat, or holy war, against the Russian invaders. Calling for Islamic unity, Mansur also tried to introduce Sharia law to Chechnya. In 1785, Mansur (his name means “Victor”) delivered a crushing defeat to Russian forces in the Battle of Sunja River and moved on into Russian territory, where he suffered a string of defeats. Captured by the Russians six years later in the northwestern Caucasus, Mansur was imprisoned in St. Petersburg until his death in 1794. Mansur’s campaigns against the Russians were legendary throughout Europe at the time and he remains to this day a popular folk hero for Chechens.
Did You Know?
The zikr — or “remembrance of God” — is a Sufi ritual common throughout Chechnya. Participants are believed to establish direct contact with God by chanting special prayers while dancing in a circle around an imam, who claps out a rhythm. Introduced to the Caucasus from Daghestan by adherents of the Quadir Sufi sect, the zikr would be frequently performed in Chechen town squares during the 1994-1996 war against Russia.
1817-1864: The Caucasian Wars
In 1818, Russian General Alexander Yermolov built a series of forts along the Sunja River, including Fort Grozny, later the site for the capital of Chechnya. (“Grozny” in Russian means “threatening” or “terrible.”) Describing the Chechens to Tsar Alexander I as “savages,” Yermolov sent expeditions from Fort Grozny to destroy Chechen villages, burn crops and kill all who came in their way. Sufi warriors, led by the guerilla commander and religious leader Imam Shamil, avenged their kin and led revolts against Russian occupation of Chechnya and Daghestan in a campaign that would last for more than 25 years. A legendary military strategist, Shamil created a strict imamate that enforced Islamic laws and customs in the North Caucausus and managed to support a reserve army of 40,000 men. Resistance came at a cost, however. Historians estimate that between 1840 and 1859, Chechnya lost half of its population and its entire economy to the war with Russia. Shamil was finally forced to surrender to Russian troops in 1859.
Upon defeat by Russia, Chechnya was incorporated into the Russian Empire. Thousands of Chechens were deported to Siberia. Nearly 105,000 sought haven in Turkey and other parts of the Ottoman Empire.
Did You Know?
Contemporary Russian impressions of Chechens remain shaped by the writings of such 19th century Russian poets as Mikhail Lermontov, who described them as a lawless people with a strong addiction to the kinzhal (traditional Chechen dagger) and blood vengeance. “Their god is freedom; their law is war,” Lermontov wrote.
1910s-1930s: Soviet Chechnya
In May 1918, while Russia was busy building a new Bolshevik state, Daghestanis and Chechens formed a North Caucasian Republic and declared their independence. Vladimir Lenin’s initial declaration to the Chechens and other non-Russian groups within the Russian Empire to “organize your national life freely and without hindrance” was taken as a sign of support for the North Caucasian Republic.
For the next three years, as civil war raged in Russia, Bolshevik “Red” and anti-Bolshevik “White” forces vied for control of the Caucasus. In 1919, White commander General Anton Denikin invaded Chechnya with the goal of returning it to the Russian fold. Joining forces with the Daghestani imam Sheik Uzun-Haji, the Bolsheviks succeeded in pushing the Whites out of Chechnya in 1920.
After Haji’s death, fighting broke out with the Bolshevik Reds who once had supported the Sheik and now installed a harsh military occupation of their own. A rebellion broke out in eastern Chechnya led by Said Bek, a great-grandson of the legendary leader Imam Shamil. Promised amnesty for the rebellion by Nationalities Commissar Joseph Stalin in return for their support for Lenin’s regime, Chechnya became an autonomous republic within the Soviet Union in 1922. In 1936, Chechnya and neighboring Ingushetia were merged and became the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. But the region’s travails were not over. While literacy rates soared under Soviet rule, Stalin unleashed a brutal cycle of political repression in the region that culminated in the 1937 mass execution of some 14,000 Chechens and Ingush.
Did You Know?
In 1938, as part of its Russification policy, the Kremlin decreed that Chechen must be written using the Cyrillic alphabet. The Chechens had switched over to the Latin alphabet from Arabic in 1925. Under the leadership of separatist leader Jokhar Dudayev, Chechnya returned to the Latin alphabet in 1992.
1944: Deportation
On February 23, 1944, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin ordered the Chechens and their Ingush neighbors — some 400,000 people — to be deported to Central Asia and Siberia for “mass collaboration” with invading Nazis. It is estimated that 30 percent of the Chechen exiles died on their way to resettlement or within their first year of exile.
Evidence to support Stalin’s charges remains limited. German forces in the Caucasus had pushed toward the valuable Grozny oil fields, but had been stopped outside of Chechnya at Vladikavkaz in 1942. After years of crushing Chechen anti-collectivization revolts and other flare-ups against Soviet rule, Stalin appears to have decided that having a rebellious Muslim population in the North Caucasus was too risky.
In 1957, after 13 years in exile, Nikita Khrushchev permitted surviving exiles to return and Chechnya and Ingushetia were re-established as an autonomous republic. But when the Chechens returned home, they were often unable to reclaim their property, now occupied by Russians and other neighboring ethnic groups.
Did You Know?
Separatist leader Jokhar Dudayev, who led Chechnya in its bid for independence in the early 1990s, was a child of the Chechen deportations. Born just weeks before their start in 1944, Dudayev and his family were transported from their mountain village to the Central Asian republic of Kazakhstan and forced to work on a collective farm. Dudayev returned to Grozny in 1957.
1990s: Independence
In the late 1980s, as national rights movements slowly began to take shape under the policy of glasnost, a campaign for Chechen self-determination emerged. In November 23, 1990, with separatist fervor at fever pitch throughout the Soviet Union, a Chechen National Congress convened and called for parliamentary and presidential elections. At the helm of the separatist movement stood Soviet Air Force General Jokhar Dudayev.
Using army troops, Duayev oversaw the seizure of the KGB headquarters and radio and television installations in Grozny in October 1991. Faced with a growing crisis, Moscow offered elections. When they were held, Dudayev was elected as president of Chechnya and promptly declared Chechnya’s independence from the Soviet Union.
As Russian President Boris Yeltsin struggled to build a new regime in Moscow, tensions with the tiny breakaway republic continued to mount. Chechnya did not participate in the December 1993 elections for a new Russian parliament. A Moscow-backed, anti-Dudayev coup broke out a year later in November against the newly named “Chechen Republic of Ichkeria,” but ultimately failed. Among the Chechen gains: the capture of 70 Russian soldiers who had been recruited by Russia’s Federal Counter-Intelligence Service to lead the attack. It was time for Moscow to act.
Did You Known?
The Chechen flag: The color green and the wolf represent Islam and the Chechen people. The nine stars represent the tukums, or tribes of Chechnya. The tukums originate from nine brothers, who, according to legend, are the ancestors of all Chechens.
1994-1996: War with Russia I
On December 11, 1994, declaring the need to “disarm illegal armed formations,” President Yeltsin directed Russian troops to invade Chechnya. Aerial bombings and fierce fighting broke out across the breakaway republic.
Russian troops made slow progress in advancing on Grozny, held up by unarmed civilian protesters as well as by Chechen fighters and their own lack of supplies and seasoned soldiers. On January 19, 1995, after a cease-fire collapsed, Russian forces seized Dudayev’s presidential palace and flew the Russian flag. But despite this and other Russian strategic gains, the rebel attacks continued. Morale hit a new low in June, when rebel leader Shamil Basayev crossed into Russian territory and took 1,000 hostages at a hospital in Budyonnovsk. Months later, a copycat attack led by Salman Raduyev, a Dudayev relative, succeeded in surrounding the Russian-held Chechen town of Gudermes. As Russian forces maintained a six-day bombardment, the rebel fighters simply slipped away. Just weeks later, Raduyev would strike again in the Russian town of Kizlyar, this time taking 3,000 hostages.
Russia appeared to gain an upper hand in April 1996, when Russian forces, using a signal from Dudayev’s mobile phone, killed the Chechen president in a missile attack. At a joint press conference with U.S. President Bill Clinton, Yeltsin declared that “there are no military operations in Chechnya.” Events would soon prove him wrong.
Regaining control of Grozny in August, Chechen fighters forced Russian troops to talks and signature of a peace agreement on August 31, 1996. The settlement, which postponed consideration of Chechnya’s political status until 2001, was a de facto recognition of Chechen independence.
Did You Know?
An estimated 40,000 people – both military and civilians – died in Chechnya’s 1994-1996 war with Russia. More than 300,000 residents of Chechnya left the republic as refugees.
1997-Present: War with Russia II
In 1997, Chechens elected military leader Aslan Maskhadov as president and changed Grozny’s name to “Jokhar” in honor of slain Chechen leader Jokhar Dudayev. To impose order, Islamic Sharia law was introduced. But true peace did not come. Kidnappings and armed skirmishes between rival Chechen warlords occurred frequently. Islamic fundamentalists, backing an independence movement in neighboring Daghestan, exercised increasing influence over the Maskhadov government.
On August 7, 1999, two Chechnya-based warlords, Shamil Basayev and Omar Ibn al Khattab, believed to be a Jordanian associate of Osama bin Laden and a mujahaddin who fought against the Soviets in Afghanistan, invaded Daghestan. Weeks later, when a string of bombings in Moscow and Volgodonsk killed some 217 people, blame was put on Chechen terrorists. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, riding a wave of anti-Chechen sentiment among voters, ordered an attack on the warlords.
On October 29, 1999, Russian armies invaded Chechnya after ten days of heavy aerial bombardment. In February 2000, Russian soldiers reclaimed Grozny, forcing Maskhadov and the rebel forces to flee to the mountains. Moscow installed Chechen mufti (Muslim religious leader) Ahmad-Hadjii Kadyrov, a participant in the 1994-1996 conflict against Russia, in Mashkhadov’s place. But the rebel attacks continued. In an attempt to weed out rebel fighters, Russian forces instituted a campaign of zachistki – “clean-up operations” – among the civilian population, resulting in the disappearance or death of hundreds of Chechen civilians. In response to the ensuing chaos, tens of thousands of Chechens have fled to the neighboring republic of Ingushetia or to Georgia’s Pankisi Gorge. Russian attempts to convince Chechen refugees that they can safely return to their homeland are ongoing, but, set against a backdrop of ruined cities, mined fields and an ever-changing security situation, have not met with success.
Did You Know?
More than 150,000 Chechen refugees – or roughly 15 percent of Chechnya’s pre-war population – are now located in the neighboring Russian republic of Ingushetia. Hard-pressed economically, the Ingush, the Chechens’ ethnic cousins, have periodically pressured their unwelcome guests to return home. Camps are often threatened with the cut-off of bread, electricity and gas, while Russian troops regularly raid refugee dwellings in search of rebel collaborators.
