Chechnya

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Chechnya
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• Chechens have lived since ancient times in the
  foothills and mountain valleys they inhabit
  today, growing crops and herding livestock.
• Almost all Chechens are Muslims
• Sheikh Mansur elected sheikh
• 1780s Muslim Chechens had retaken the area
• 200 years after his death, Sheikh Mansur
  continues to inspire Chechens resisting the
  Russian army's assault on their land

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Chechnya and Russia, to 1936

• Though repeatedly forced to submit to Russian
  domination for two or three decades at a time,
  Chechens never fully accepted incorporation by
  Russia.
• They periodically rebelled, as during the
  Russo-Turkish Wars in 1877 and 1878.
• After the imperial Russian government was
  overthrown in 1917, the Chechens joined other
  North Caucasians in setting up a Mountaineer
  Republic.
• The Soviets responded by first taking it over and
  then spent several years breaking it up, giving
  ethnic groups separate territories.
• This enabled the Russians to play one group
  against another, making it easier to control the
  ethnic populations.
• In 1936 the Chechens and the Ingush were joined
  in a newly created Chechen-Ingush ASSR, a
  component of the giant Russian Soviet Federated
  Socialist Republic.

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During Soviet Control

• One of 21 Russian republics
• Part of the joint Chechen-Ingush autonomous
  republic of Soviet Russia from 1936 until 1991,
  when it declared itself independent
• The Russian government refused to recognize
  Chechnyas independence
• Why do you think there is little record of
  Chechen rebellions during Soviet rule?

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Since 1991

• December 1994 Russian troops invaded the republic
• Fighting between Russian and Chechen forces
  continued until August 1996
• Resulted in more than 40,000 deaths
• In August 1999 hundreds of Islamic guerrillas
  crossed into Dagestan from Chechnya and occupied
  several villages, claiming the formation of a
  separate Islamic territory
• In late September Russian warplanes began a
  campaign of air strikes against targets in
  Chechnya. In October Russian ground forces
  entered Chechnya with the goal of capturing the
  region.
• This renewed fighting between Russian and Chechen
  forces in 1999 left thousands more dead and the
  republic in ruins under Russian military
  occupation.

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• In May 2000 Russian president Vladimir Putin
  declared that Chechnya would be ruled federally.
• Akhmad Kadyrov was appointed by the Kremlin to
  replace Chechen president Maskhadov. Maskhadov
  ignored the federal governments demand for his
  unconditional surrender and became one of the
  principal leaders of the Chechen insurgency.
• In 2003 a new constitution affirmed Chechnyas
  status as a republic within the Russian
  Federation.

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BETTMANN/Viktor Korotayev/REUTERS
Russians Shell Chechnya
Russian soldiers shell a Chechen town east of
Groznyy in February 1995. Analysts estimate that
the war in Chechnya has taken at least 20,000
lives, including civilians.
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An anguished Chechen woman wiped away tears as
she stood in front of the wreckage of her home in
Groznyy, the capital of Chechnya. Groznyy was
almost completely destroyed after Russian forces
invaded Chechnya in late 1994 to suppress the
republics moves toward independence.
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AP/Wide World Photos/Huynh Cong
Halted Peace March in Chechnya
Russian troops occupied the republic of Chechnya
to suppress a separatist movement there in late
1994. The Russian governments decision to use
force against the Chechen separatists, which
produced thousands of casualties, was criticized
both domestically and internationally. Here,
women on a peace march to Samashki in western
Chechnya are turned back by Russian troops on
April 15, 1995.
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Recent events

• In October 2002 a band of 41 Chechen guerrillas
  seized a theater in Moscow, taking about 800
  civilians hostage and rigging the theater with
  explosives. They demanded the complete withdrawal
  of Russian troops from Chechnya.
• Russian special forces stormed the theater after
  pumping an opiate-based gas into the building to
  disable the rebels, all of whom were killed. Most
  of the 129 hostage deaths were due to the effects
  of the powerful gas.
• Shortly after the hostage crisis, Putin announced
  a referendum would be held in Chechnya on a
  proposed new constitution that affirmed
  Chechnyas status as a republic within the
  Russian Federation.

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• The vote was held in Chechnya in March 2003.
  Official results showed extremely high voter
  turnout and an overwhelming majority vote in
  favor of the new constitution.
• Under the constitution, Chechnya is allowed an
  unspecified level of autonomy and an elected
  government but is subordinate to federal law.
• Chechen rebels claimed that the vote, which they
  had boycotted, was a political farce and stated
  their intent to continue their secessionist
  struggle
• Do you think the Chechens are right? Was the vote
  legit?

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Why Chechnya? Is it oil?

• Groznyy oil was valuable to Russia.
• In the 1960s, however, new fields in central Asia
  and Siberia eclipsed those in the Caucasus. The
  wells in Chechnya and Azerbaijan continued to
  produce, but Moscow invested little in them
• Oil specialists who examined the Chechen wells
  and refineries judged the costs of rehabilitation
  too high to justify the risk of investment in the
  face of legal and political uncertainties.
• Russian President Boris Yeltsin has never
  mentioned oil in trying to justify the invasion.
• The real reasons for the invasion seem to be
  Russian nationalists' resentment of the Chechens'
  desire for independence, and fear that if the
  Chechens succeeded, other ethnic groups would
  follow their example.

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Chechnya as a symbol

• How does Chechnya represent Russias problems
  with federalism?
• How does Chechnya represent the ethnic tensions
  in Russia?
• What do you predict Russia will do in Chechnya?
• Why do you think Russia continues to pursue
  Chechnya?

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Other Russian quarrels

• Legislative vs Executive
• Social Welfare?
• Regional power vs Central government
• Separatist question- Chechnya?
• Role of individuals in political system
• Fraud, corruption, secret police
• Terrorism
• Ethic or religious differences
• Inflation
• Free rides vs pay as you go
• Tsar era vs Soviet era vs modern
• Western cultural influence
• Treatment of women
• Relationship to former Soviet states

• Reform vs Stability
• Slow transition or quick
• Political process or rule by decree
• Oligarchs and monopoly
• Loans and debt
• Capital flight
• Control of media
• US/Russia Relationship
• Expansion of NATO
• Poverty
• Alcoholism
• Russia vs minorities
• Westerizers vs Slavophiles
• United Nations, Security Council