Chechnya

Chechnya or Chechen Republic , republic (1990 est. pop. 1,300,000, with neighboring Ingushetia), c.6,100 sq mi (15,800 sq km), SE European Russia, in the N Caucasus. Grozny is the capital. Prior to 1992 Chechnya and Ingushetia comprised the Checheno-Ingush Republic.

The mountainous region has important oil deposits, as well as natural gas, limestone, gypsum, sulfur, and other minerals. Its mineral waters have made it a spa center. Agriculture is concentrated in the Terek and Sunzha river valleys. Oil, petrochemicals, oil-field equipment, foods, wines, and fruit are produced. The population, which is concentrated in the foothills, is predominantly Chechen, or Nokhchi. The Chechen, like the neighboring Ingush, are Sunni Muslim, and speak a Caucasian language.

History

Recognized as a distinct people since the 17th cent., the Chechens were the most active opponents of Russia's conquest (1818-1917) of the Caucasus. They fought bitterly during an unsuccessful 1850s rebellion led by Imam Shamyl. The Bolsheviks seized the region in 1918 but were dislodged in 1919 by counterrevolutionary forces under Gen. A. I. Denikin .

After Soviet rule was reestablished, the area was included in 1921 in the Mountain People's Republic. The Chechen Autonomous Region was created in 1922, and in 1934 it became part of the Chechen-Ingush Region, made a republic in 1936. After Chechen and Ingush units collaborated with the invading Germans during World War II, many residents were deported (1944) to Central Asia. Deportees were repatriated in 1956, and the republic was reestablished in 1957.

In 1991, as the Soviet Union disintegrated, the Chechen-dominated parliament of the republic declared independence as the Republic of Ichkeria, soon better known as Chechnya. In June, 1992, Russia granted Ingush inhabitants their own republic (Ingushetia) in the western fifth of the territory.

Tensions between the Russian government and that of Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev escalated into warfare in late 1994, as Russian troops arrived to crush the separatist movement. Grozny was devastated in the fighting, and tens of thousands died. Russian forces regained control of many areas in 1995, but separatist guerrillas controlled much of the mountainous south and committed spectacular terrorist actions in other parts of Russia. Fighting continued through 1996, when Dudayev was killed and succeeded by Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev. The Russians withdrew, essentially admitting defeat, following a cease-fire that left Chechnya with de facto autonomy.

Aslan Maskhadov, chief of staff of the Chechen forces, was elected president early in 1997 but appeared to have little control over the republic. In 1999, Islamic law was established. Terrorism, including a series of bombings in Moscow, erupted again, and after Islamic militants invaded neighboring Dagestan from Chechnya, Russian forces bombed and invaded Chechnya, capturing Grozny and forcing the rebels into mountain strongholds. The rebels have continued to mount guerrilla attacks on Russian forces, as well as terror attacks in Moscow and other Russian cities outside Chechnya. Both sides have been accused of brutality and terrorizing noncombatants. In 2003 voters approved a new constitution for Chechnya, and Akhmad Kadyrov was subsequently elected president, but the election was generally regarded as neither free nor fair. Both the constitution and the president were backed by Russian government. Kadyrov was assassinated in 2004; Alu Alkhanov was elected to succeed him. Russian forces killed Maskhadov, who was considered a moderate Chechen rebel leader, in 2005 and Shamil Baseyev, a notorious and significant rebel commander, in 2006. Alkhanov resigned as president in 2007 after a power struggle with Prime Minister Ramzan Kadyrov, son of the former president. Ramzan Kadyrov was then appointed president by Russian president Putin.

Chechnya A Caucasian territory whose inhabitants have resisted Russian rule almost since its beginnings in the late eighteenth century. It was eventually pacified by the Russians only in 1859, though sporadic uprisings continued until the collapse of Tsarist Russia in 1917. Together with Ingushnya, it formed part of the Soviet Union as an Autonomous Soviet Republic within Russia from 1936. Continuing uprisings against Russian/Soviet rule, the last of which was in 1934, caused the anger of Stalin. In retaliation, he dissolved Chechnyan autonomy in 1944, and ordered the deportation of the ethnic Chechnyan population to Central Asia, in which half of the population died. They were not allowed to return to their homeland until 1957, when Khrushchev restored an autonomous status for Chechnya. Thereafter, the striving for independence among the devout Muslim population, nurtured by the collective memory of repression, continued.

After the August coup of 1991, which the Chechnyan leadership failed to condemn, popular support swung behind Mussayev Dudayev (b. 1944, d. 1996), a Soviet air force commander turned national activist. Elected President in October 1991, he declared independence from the Soviet Union as well as Russia on 1 November 1991. Thereafter, the Russian government attempted to influence events in Chechnya indirectly, through the military and financial assistance of groups opposed to the Chechnyan government. A civil war between supporters and opponents of Dudayev developed, until the Russian President Yeltsin ordered his troops to invade the territory on 11 December 1994. Despite the much better equipment of the Russian troops, the ensuing war turned into a military disaster, whereby Russian elite troops failed to gain complete control over a country the size of Connecticut. In 1996, the Russian government agreed a peace deal which gave the Chechens almost complete autonomy. The twenty-month-long civil war cost the lives of 80,000 people, with 240,000 injured.

In 1997, Alan Mashadov was elected President, and in that year Islam was declared the state religion. With Russian forces having completely withdrawn, crime was rampant, and officials from Russia and other parts of the world were increasingly in danger of obduction or murder. Mashadov introduced Islamic Law in early 1999, while at the same time losing control over Chechen bandits who started to attack Russian targets outside Chechnya. On 30 Sept 1999, Russian forces began a merciless war against Chechnya to reassert Russian authority. Over a five-month long campaign, Chechnya was brought under Russian control, at the cost of tens of thousands of lives, the displacement of over 200,000 Chechnyan refugees, and numerous human rights violations committed by both parties. Thereafter, the territory was governed by a Russian administration, which was supported by a heavy military presence. The army continued to be subject to continued attacks committed by Chechen guerrilla fighters. In turn, the Chechen population was subject to Russian raids for evidence of rebel activity. Both sides continued to operate through methods of torture and other human rights abuses.