Chechnya and the 500 Year War with Russia

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Conflict between Chechnya and Russia, in the Caucuses region of Eurasia, appears at first to be a recent phenomenon, brought on by a desire of the USSR to dominate and subjugate the continent.  The history of this particular feud is not quite that simple though.  Recent battles between the people of Chechnya and the headstrong Russian state did explode violently in the 1990s, following the collapse of the Soviet Union.  However, instability in the region is a direct result of attitudes of the people and their treatment at the hands of pre-Soviet Russia.  Quests by the Tsarist governments to obtain warm-water ports, and a permanent link to the trading capital of the world at that time, Constantinople added fuel to already smoldering fire.  Further attempts by post-Soviet governments to control the area have had the effect of pouring gasoline on an already out of control blaze.

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Historically, Chechnya has been populated by isolated tribes living in the densely forested valleys between ranges of the northern edge of the Caucus Mountains.  While not a particularly formidable range like the Himalayas or Andes, it continues to be a sufficient barrier to modern military units attempting to subjugate the region.  Geography is not the only barrier to attempts to dominate the area.  As with most tribal cultures, even before Russia attempted to close the gap between itself and the prized Constantinople, the mountain people of this region fought bitter battles between themselves, which trained them well in the type of guerilla warfare that would be necessary to maintain a consistent rebel movement spanning centuries.  (1)

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Geography coupled with guerilla warfare would not typically be a sufficient obstacle for most invaders, without a strong determination on the part of those invaded.  The determination of these peoples has been handed down for generations, through a splinter branch of the Muslim faith, Muridism.  This particular splinter came to the Caucuses in the third century, teaching equality among people, among other things, and ultimately forged a commonality among the people of this region that has endured nearly two millennia as a rally point.  Over this time, Chechens have repelled every global power of the time, including the Golden Horde, which dominated Russia for centuries, but could never take control the Caucuses.  Indeed, as their power faded in the late 15th century, the Ottoman Empire must have taken note, because even though the controlled most of the area, they never bothered with the Caucuses, though they did not shy away from attempting to terrorize them. 

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Russia first attempted to subdue the Caucuses in the mid-1500s, sending Christian Cossacks to inhabit the region.  Later, Tsar Ivan the Terrible married a Karbardine princess from the north Caucuses, and brought many of her people into the government, in an attempt to increase control of the area. (3)  This did not go unnoticed by the Ottoman Empire, and by the 1600s, the region became a source of contention between the two powers for nearly 100 years.  Neither side could claim sole control of the area, as they constantly had to deal with the rebellious people of Caucuses, in addition to the difficulties of waging war against one another in the region.

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In the 1700s, departing from the feud with the Ottoman Empire, Tsar Peter the Great began to focus his attention on controlling the region through direct confrontation with the people of the Caucuses.  Throughout much of the early 1700s, the Chechens repeatedly repelled Russian troops.  When Catherine II took power, she attempted to establish the Caucuses as the line delineating the extent of the Russian empire, with a series of fortresses and Cossack settlements, which was termed “The Greek Project.”  Shortly after that, succumbing to years of war and oppression at the hands of the Turks and the Ottoman Empire, the king of Georgia appealed to Russia and was made a protectorate, through the Treaty of Georgievsk.  This established relatively solid control of the area, but one group still stood in the way, the Chechens. (3)

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About this time, Muridism became a singular rally point, when a religious leader appeared and organized the mountain peoples to continue their fight as a holy war against Russia.  Raids in to neighboring Georgia became commonplace and Russia responded in 1816, by sending General Yermolov, the Russian hero of the Napoleonic wars to control the region.  His tactics only served to infuriate the Chechens against Russia.  His methods were nothing short of terrorism; admittedly, he stated that we would not rest until all Chechens had been eliminated.  He began with a series of forts, the most of infamous of which is the current capital of Chechnya, Grozny, meaning “terrible.”  (2)  From these forts he set about murdering civilian women and children, claiming that they were all “savages and criminals;” he cut down the forests, and destroyed farms and livestock to an extent that only his troops were capable of survival.  Apparently, unaware of the atrocities, the Tsar in Russia continued business as usual until informed of what was going on.  By then it was too late.  The Chechens had unified like never before and had entrenched themselves against the Russians.  Even Yermolov’s dismal by the Tsar in 1827, could not erase the effect these atrocities had on the people, though it did mark the beginning of a time of peace for the people of the region, as they were mostly left alone. (3)

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Again, the damage was already done; the terrorism and violence at the hands of the Russians had driven the Chechens in to the arms of the Imam, spearheaded by Ghazi Mohammed ibn Ismail of Dagestan.  Ghazzi’s ambition was to form a unified Islamic state within the Caucuses and was relatively successful among the people of the region.  Growing support of this movement led the Chechens into further conflict with Russia that would continue for another 100 years.  During that time, peace was offered several times, but always rejected by the Russians, due to the stipulation of acceptance of Sharia Law, and the terror campaigns continued. (3)   Despite these campaigns against the people, broken treaties with tribal clans, the Caucuses War, the Crimean War, near decimation of the Chechen population, deportation by brutal and murderous means, and surrender by their leader in 1859, the Chechens could not be subdued.

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Chechen resistance continued in the form of raids into Russia; Russian persistence continued in the form of murder and mass exile, and attempting to repopulate the region with Cossacks, as a reward for their help against the Chechens.  Religious tolerance seeped in during the late 1800s though, many exiled Chechens began to return, and a period of relative calm ensued as Tsarist Russia seemingly became tolerant of not only religious choice, but also tradition and education.  This lasted until the Bolshevik revolution, likely because more important matters were at hand for the Tsar.  Oil had been discovered in the region and French, Dutch, and English companies began to extract 1600 tons of crude annually.  Pipelines, railways, and workers were needed and thousands of workers began to move in, including previously exiled Chechens.  Attempts to reclaim their stolen lands were successfully thwarted by continuing deportation of rebels, and land grants to the Cossacks until Bolshevik revolution. (2)

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Seizing the opportunity provided by the onset of the Bolshevik revolution, the Chechens quickly met and formed the Chechen Congress to act provisionally over an independent Caucus region.  After a short feud with the Bolsheviks attempting to aid the Cossacks, in which neither side could really claim victory, the Bolsheviks finally agreed to guarantee the people of the area the right to govern themselves.  Unfortunately, civil war followed in Russia, and much of this was forgotten, as the “Reds” and the “Whites” struggled for power, through control of the Caucuses.  While not supportive of their cause, the Reds quietly backed the Chechens after their declaration of independence, as they continued to fight attempts of the “Whites” to dominate the area.  (4)

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After the Chechens forced the Whites from the region, the Reds quickly sought to bring the Chechens into their struggle, having already won the support of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia.  The Chechens continued to view themselves as separate though, because of negative campaigns and violence against their culture, by the Reds.  Rebellion was sparked again in 1920 and the fighting between Chechnya and Russia lasted about a year before Stalin agreed to offer amnesty to the rebels, and the status of a Mountain Republic, in exchange for recognition of the Bolshevik government in Moscow.  The Chechens agreed again on the condition that Sharia Law be officially accepted as the constitutional law of the new autonomous region.  Both sides agreed and the peace lasted for another year; lands taken by the Cossacks was returned to the Chechens, Arabic was allowed to be the official language, Sharia Law dominated, and life was relatively calm.

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A year later, Stalin went back on his word and sent troops in to break up the Mountain Republic.  His goal was to create a Chechen Autonomous Oblast to remove Chechnya from the Mountain Republic, where he perceived them to be gaining undue support.  The Soviets attempted disarmament of the people, attempted to rid them of the Arabic language, and began to eliminate Islamic practices.  The goal to divide and destroy the Mountain Republic might have worked, had it not been for yet another crackpot scheme that was nothing more than a return to serfdom.

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Soviet collectivization reignited the Chechen cause again and they rose up to force the Soviet hand by 1930.  The Chechens again demanded their rights, and the Soviets begrudgingly agreed, knowing they could not stand against the rebels.  Behind the scenes though, the Soviets were sending in detachments to arrest leaders of the movement.  As most of the villages in the North Caucuses continued to rebel against collectivization, along with the Chechens, the Soviets were forced to withdraw their forces, give up on the strategy of collective farms in the region, and grant amnesty to political leaders of the movement.  2   Future attempts to control the region found the Soviets playing a reverse role, by trying to combine the areas of Chechnya, Armenia, Georgia, Ingush, and Dagestan, in the hopes of diluting the resistance.  Chechen resistance continued though, and raids into Russia began with a new ferocity, in an attempt to move the war out of their home into the homes of the Russians.  The Soviets responded by continuing political oppression and forcing nonsensical and trivial cultural matters on the people; insisting on the use of the Cyrillic alphabet, requiring the use of the Russian language, and expulsion of mountain people to lowland regions to the north.  This continued through the 1930s and 1940s. (2)

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During World War II, the Chechens seized the opportunity to antagonize Russia, by working with the Nazi regime in Germany against Russia.  Stalin responded after the war, by executing one of the largest deportations witnessed, sending millions of Chechens to Siberia, and imposing brutal constraints on the region.  Chechen resistance persisted, and the region was constantly in turmoil.  Perhaps realizing the futility of the situation, following Stalin’s death in 1953, most deportees were repatriated.  Strict authoritarianism maintained a semblance of order, but combat continued.  By this time, the region had a certain reputation and to the Russian military, it was nothing more than a military playground for officials seeking higher office. (4)

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With the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, other regions began to breakaway.  Ingushetia, who had been forced together with Chechnya, separated and became an autonomous republic within the new Russian Federation in 1992.  Meanwhile, Chechen separatists under General Dzhokar Dudayev seized power and declared their independence, which was denounced by Russia.  President Boris Yestin immediately responded with troops, only to withdraw them as quickly, discovering that the Chechens were well-armed, well-trained, and had not lost any of their determination through all of the years of subjugation and brutality at the hands of the Soviets. (5)

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Chechnya persisted in independence and was relatively well organized and on its way to becoming a stable republic, with full support of native Chechens.  The Russian Federation had other designs though.  They were concerned that if they permitted these regions to spin off to form their own governments, all of the Russia would suffer the same fate; additionally, oil reserves in the region were too valuable to abandon.  Indeed, one the most preeminent oil refineries, handling crude from fields in the Caspian Sea and Chechnya, linking Moscow, Ukraine, and points south was situated in the heart of Chechnya, Grozny.  The mentality of Russia was that “As long as Chechnya is part of Russia, Moscow would have a say in the oil flowing through it.”  (3)

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While Chechnya continued to ignore Moscow, and vice versa, life stabilized in the region (as much as it could).  Diplomatic tensions continued though, and in 1994 Russia invaded Chechnya it what is now termed “The First Chechen War,” though it is obvious at this point, it is not first, nor will it likely be the last.  Russia poured all of its military might in to subduing Chechnya, killing nearly 100,000 civilians, and destroying Grozny, but ultimately was forced to withdraw in humiliation.  The Chechens were too organized, too ready, and too determined.  It was not a complete loss for the Russians though.

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After the withdrawal of Russian troops, the provisional government could no longer control the militia, and local warlords gained strength.  Having been terrorized by the Russians with genocidal tendencies, with nothing left of their homeland, its economy, or a stable government, unemployed and armed Chechens were easily “radicalized” by Islamic fundamentalist entering the region, emboldened by the lack of a Russian military to secure the region.  Anarchy continued to rule the region until 1999, and the outbreak of “The Second Chechen War.”

War broke out again between Russia and Chechnya, after Moscow accused the leadership of harboring and supporting Islamic militants.  While this was true, it completely failed to capture the essence of what had been going on, and what was really going on.  The former somewhat stable Chechen legislature that Moscow had fought to remove in the first war was moved to Moscow in an attempt to establish itself as the sole legitimate authority, refusing to negotiate with those holding power within Chechnya.

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Russia continued to brutalize the civilian population of Chechnya, and the Chechen movement responded with renewed exports of terrorism to Russian cities, provinces, and surrounding breakaway regions.  The most famous of these assaults was a hostage situation at a school in Beslan, in North Ossetia.  On the first day of school, 1200 parents and their children were held hostage for three days, before Russian troops stormed the building in response to unexpected explosions.  The ensuing chaos left only 200 or so survivors.  These tactics have repeated on several occasions, by various Islamic factions seeking to push Russia out, and establish an Islamic state.  This is not without cause and not without its own internal strife. (5)

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Currently, Islamic fundamentalists are at war with those attempting to establish Islamic democracy; meanwhile Russia continues to pursue every military and political means to prevent secession of the war-torn state.  Currently, approximately one-half of the Chechen populations are refugees in neighboring regions, some refusing to return because of accusations of Russian torture and executions.  The mood is such that they are not so much concerned about Islamic intervention, as they are liberating themselves from a thousand years of Russian oppression. (6)

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Former rebel leader Akhmad Kadyrov was elected in 2003, despite characterization by the Organization for the Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) as nothing more than ballot-stuffing, as well as voter and candidate intimidation by Russian troops.  He was assassinated in 2004; his son took the reins shortly after and has been working closely with Moscow to aid former President Vladimir Putin’s personal war on Chechen terror.  This leaves a very bitter taste with most Chechens, who view this as nothing more than continued Russian dominance, through traditional Russian means.  The younger Kadyrov is currently accused of masterminding coordinated efforts to eliminate all opposition to Russian influence by terrorizing the general population.  According to Human Rights Watch, his methods are no different than those used by previous illegitimate rulers and would-be invaders, including murder, rape, torture, kidnappings, and burning people out of their homes.7  Indeed, these methods are no different the those tried by the Ottoman Empire, Tsarist Russia, Soviet Russia.  What the current regime fails to recognize, is that these methods have never been successful.  Consequently, the wars in Chechnya, for Chechnya, will continue as long as Russia perceives a need to interfere in the politics and culture of the region.

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Russian withdrawal may not be the end of the nightmare for Chechnya though.  Chechen Prime Minister Ramzan Kardyrov faces strong opposition by native Chechens, Islamic fundamentalists, and those who wish to see an Islamic democracy.  Indeed, it may very well be that Russia is the only thing that stands between Chechnya and an even more brutal internal struggle.  Evidenced by tensions that often erupt in and around neighboring provinces, there is no clear solution to the difficulties faced by the Chechen people.  One thing is certain however, further intervention by another group could be disastrous for all involved.

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References:

1. Tolstoy, Leo.  Hadji Murad.  New York:  Dodd, Mead and Company; 1912.  9-20, 159, 234 p.
2. A Brief History of Chechnya.  Amina.com.[article online] 2004. Available from http://amina.com/article/br_hist.html. Accessed 2009 Apr 10
3. King, Charles.  Crisis in the Caucasus:  A New Look at Russia’s Chechen Impasse.  Foreign Affairs Vol. 82 No. 2.
4. Shah, Anup.  Crisis in Chechnya.  Global Issues.  [article online] 2004.  Available from http://www.globalissues.org/article/100/crisis-in-chechnya Accessed 2009 Apr 23  Accessed 2009 Apr 25.
5. Peuch, Jean-Christophe.  Chechnya:  Ten Year After – The Logic Behind the First Chechen War. Radio Free Europe.  [article online] 2004.  Available from http://www.rferl.org/content/article/1056335.html  Accessed 2009 Apr 27.
6. deWaal, Thomas.  Chechnya’s endless war.  BBC News. [article online] 2001.  Available from http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/1292799.stm.  Accessed 2009 Apr 26.
7. Lokshina, Tanya.  Another Year of Ramzan Kadyrov.  Human Rights Watch.  [article online] 2009.  Available from http://www.hrw.org/en/news/2009/03/31/another-year-ramzan-kadyrov Accessed 2009 Apr 27

GGH305 - Geography of Russia