The original community of these two peoples was somewhat divided by the course of the Caucasian war of the nineteenth century and the policy of the tsarist authorities. Now that part of the population, which is called the common people, is more committed to unity, believing that it is a single people - Chechens and Ingush. The difference is emphasized only by the creative intelligentsia, which does not see a single ethnic group here.
Tongue
The Chechens have the language of the Nakh-Dagestan part, and it is closest to the Ingush. However, there is dialect division, which is much more complicated. For example, some Chechen mountain dialects are much closer to Ingush than even to their native Chechen. Moreover, in the linguistic relations with which Chechens and Ingush are connected, the difference is much smaller than between Russians and Ukrainians. Everyone will speak their native dialect, but they will understand each other without the slightest difficulty.
And other cultural manifestations demonstrate the same community. Speakers of the Ingush and Chechen language from the intellectual stratum are sure that understanding is achieved by no more than 80%, and everyday speech is even less understood. Nevertheless, ethnographic experts see these two peoples so close that in many sources they appear under the same name - Vainakhs (Veinakhs) - both Chechens and Ingush. The difference, therefore, is practically not visible from the side.
The literary language of the Vainakhs did not form immediately. Previously, he was generally normalized and came from the Illanchi storytellers. Family chronicles were also conducted - teppari - in Chechen, but in Arabic graphics. They are preserved, although in very small quantities. The Chechen people found the basis of the language among the plain dialects - Urus-Martan and Shali. They were owned by the majority. The Gudermes and subteretic dialects, which were also widespread, are also very close to them. The basis of the Ingush was the Nazran dialect, native to almost eighty percent of the population, that is, the whole Republic of Ingushetia spoke it.
Customs
Ethnographers claim that the Chechen culture has significantly lost the meaning of ethnic rituals than the Ingush. Chechens no longer avoid their mother-in-law, as in the good old days, they can feed the guest with soup, which violates the originality of the custom. The Ingush, like the old one, feed the guests with a special meat dish - lamb, chicken or turkey are supposed to, and they try not to encounter mother-in-law in everyday life at all. Weddings also take place much more freely among the Chechens, and among the Ingush the bride, according to ancient custom, ritually stays in the corner all the time.
However, both Chechens and Ingush, the difference between which has nevertheless formed over time, are clearly aware of their ethnic affinity, and the ethnonym Vainakh is not an empty phrase for them. It seems strange to many of them that this term was recently introduced and was created by one person who in no way relates to any people or to another. For the most part, they believe that this ethnonym has a thousand-year history.
Small nations
In the east, Chechens are adjoined by Dagestanis - Avars, Kumyks, and many peoples of even smaller numbers. The Kumyks culture is highly Arabized, it was they who became the lawmakers of etiquette for the Chechens of the nineteenth century, and almost all the preachers came from among them. Avars, however, were able to rise only in Soviet times, when their numbers grew rapidly. Previously, they were landless and were hired by the Chechens as shepherds.
This story of the Chechens and their neighbors is confirmed by the fact that almost all villages of Chechnya have entire neighborhoods where Avars settled. Wage labor is almost slave, because for proud Chechens it was considered extremely prestigious, and they still do not respect the Avars enough for their unseemly past. But it has not yet been forgotten that there were times when Chechnya for centuries subordinated to the Avar feudal lords. Only by the eighteenth century did Chechen traditions begin to acquire independence, and that was only because the country was able to throw off this yoke.
Vainakhs: resettlement
Political antagonism was quickly blocked by a religious factor. Neighboring Dagestan constantly and strongly sent its impulse of Islam to the West, through which Chechens and Ingush were more and more ethnically identified. The composition of Chechens as an ethnic component includes a fairly large number of Dagestanis, even Dagestan teips are formed.
And in the plain Khasavyurt district of Dagestan, in turn, Akkintsy-Chechens settled, there are about one hundred thousand of them, whose homeland was the Republic of Ingushetia and Chechnya. These are the highlanders, almost the oldest of the Vainakh divisions that migrated from the border between the two republics. After the invasion of Tamerlane, the Akkines descended from the mountains and went east, absorbing various teips of Chechens. In any case, they position themselves as a Chechen community.
The ancestors of the Vainakhs also inhabited the North Caucasian steppes, which adjoin the present territory of Chechnya. In the first millennium, the Khazar Khaganate ruled here with the state religion, far from Islam, - Judaism. Chechen ethnography still retains some connection with this neighborhood, which left tangible marks in the history of the formation of the Vainakhs, since their participation in the political life of the Khazar Khaganate was very active. Some teips directly raise their kind to one of the Jewish ancestors, that is, the history of the Chechens and Ingushs more than explicitly keeps the Khazar past.
Demarcation
More recently, Chechens and Ingush, the difference between which is even smaller than between Russians and Belarusians, argued about administrative borders. These fraternal peoples, or rather, the united Vainakh people, divided into two entities, decided to separate themselves. Naturally, the decision of the Chechen authorities did not receive any legal consequences. But the situation is explosive. Change the borders between the republics - open the Pandora's box, conflicts will certainly begin, and not only the Chechen-Ingush, but also the Ossetian-Ingush, whose roots are even deeper.
The history of the Ingush and Ossetians of the foothills and plains of Ingushetia and North Ossetia has been going on since the end of the seventeenth century, since they lived here heaped and mixed to such an extent that they themselves can not figure out who they are: whether the Ossetian community or the Vainakhs. In any case, over the centuries, these lands have been inhabited by one or the other, occasionally mixing and serving as a kind of frontier buffer between the main nationalities living inside the territories. The lands considered to be Ossetian adjoined at different times, then to Ingushetia, then to Ossetia, and these peoples gradually replaced the Kabardins living here. And it happened back in the seventeenth century.
Now, if everything is done “correctly” in Chechen way, then several respected nationalities will be offended. There are many options for justice, each one has his own. The delimitation will give rise to completely unnecessary disputes and, possibly, contribute to the brewing of conflicts. Territorial claims, and even with such a limitation period, are now more than inappropriate. When this call for wisdom was made, an answer appeared to the question of why the Chechens do not like the Ingush. This is unpleasant and offensive, especially when it is recalled that it was Ingushetia that received refugees during both Chechen wars - hundreds of thousands of people found shelter there.
Why did this happen
Of course, the demarcation of the early 90s was de facto. Chechnya fought, and Ingushetia remained in the legal field of the Russian Federation, participating in referenda and numerous elections. With the beginning of the first war, the border between Ingushetia and Chechnya ceased to be conditional, it was guarded by federal troops and other power structures. All this consolidated the division - both economic and administrative.
Of course, these two peoples, Chechens and Ingush, the difference between which is more than ephemeral, are very close to each other. They are connected by centuries-old relationships, customs, language. But the Ingush, whose religion also does not allow them to be soft-bodied, will not allow them to impose someone else's will. Not even a stranger will not be allowed. The sluggish conflict and its armed underground, significantly extinguished, will flare up again. And when you consider the amount of all kinds of weapons that are now in this region, it becomes truly scary.
Background
When Russia came to the Caucasus, the Ingush lost many of their lands, where Cossacks were settled for border calm. That is why the layout of the Civil War turned out like this: Ossetians were neutral, the Cossacks stood up for the Whites, and the Ingushs stood up for the Reds, because they were promised the return of the territories inhabited by Cossacks.
After the victory, the Terek Cossacks had to leave their homes, as the Soviet government always kept its word. The Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was one - Gorskaya - until 1924, then there was a division into the North Ossetian and Ingush autonomies plus the Sunzhensky district. The capital was common - Vladikavkaz. And in the early 30s, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Region appeared in order to become the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic in 1937.
War
The deportation of Chechens and Ingush in 1944 led to the fact that the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was abolished. The Grozny region appeared, and the rest of the territory was given to the Georgian, Dagestan and North Ossetian ASSR. The reasons were more than compelling: the disruption of the mobilization and desertion of the vast majority of Vainakhs, the creation of gangs, betrayal, harboring of German paratroopers, the service to the Nazis - the list is long. The main words here are the vast majority.
In order not to get stabs in the back (which happened repeatedly), the Vainakhs were evicted to Central Asia. And in this case, it is not at all clear how the Chechens differ from the Ingush. In 1956, the Vainakhs began a massive return to their homes. The Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was restored, but the territory for the most part (except given to the Georgians) was already densely populated. The same Ossetians. Despite this, almost all the taken land was returned to the Chechens and Ingush. However, local wars began over populated territories .
Eighties
The very beginning of the eighties was marked by a sharp upsurge in tension in good neighborly relations: a struggle began for the Prigorodny district (Chermen, Kambileevskoye, Oktyabrskoye), during which the Ossetians demanded that all the Ingush be evicted from the republic. Riots began, accompanied by the introduction of army units to establish a world order. The Ingush were restricted from registering, which they rightly considered discrimination. Clashes with killings and beatings continued.
All this continued into the 90s, and the Ingush were constantly reminded of their activities during the Second World War, of the connections of numerous gangs with the Wehrmacht, of the brutal reprisals with the Red Army. In 1991, the Ingush conflicted with the Ossetian police to such an extent that a state of emergency was introduced, and the Supreme Council even decided to make concessions to the people who were offended by deportation. But fate decreed otherwise.
The Soviet Union ceased to exist, Chechnya declared independence, and Ingushetia decided to remain part of the Russian Federation. In 1992, Ingushetia again became a republic within Russia. Then, in the Prigorodny district, a whole series of killings of the Ingush took place, after which the borders were drawn between Ingushetia and North Ossetia, and the latter lost the ill-fated region. Ossetians are also a hot people: traffic police began to shoot at the Ingush, after which the latter were allowed to not only carry, but also use firearms. The war did not want to stop. The Ingush blocked the post of internal troops and demanded the withdrawal of the Russian armed forces from their territory. The fighting continued.
If the Russians leave the Caucasus
What then? There will be bloody chaos, according to locals, taught by bitter experience. They remember what happened in Chechnya after the entire Russian population was squeezed out: there was criminal lawlessness, people were abducted not only in Chechnya, but throughout the country, after which the Wahhabis with their unifying ideology appeared, and almost immediately a civil war broke out.
There has never been order and silence in the Caucasus, it simply cannot exist there at all, since there is traditionally no strong statehood and there is nowhere to come from. The neighbors here always more or less actively killed each other. And besides, they drove cattle, robbed, stole women, and then brutally avenged all this. That's when there was a strong external manager - a certain, though not complete order, was nevertheless observed. For example, under the rule of the Russian Empire or the USSR.
Without a strong hand, the Ingush and Chechens will again start territorial disputes with each other and with all their neighbors. Unification is hardly possible. Sharia and adat (custom) usually help temporarily reconcile the warring. But in the Caucasus, only very close “svoi” - fellow villagers, relatives, or in extreme cases, representatives of one ethnic group can decide according to Sharia or Adat. Since there are so many nationalities in this region, a solution is unlikely to come.
The main arbiter in the Caucasus is the benefit. And the power. Chechens can simply buy the Ingush: help, for example, in the pogrom of Ossetians. Or promise to participate in the affairs of the "Chechen Empire." Only in this case, the Ingush recognize the power of the Chechens and maybe even bow. Without bonuses, all these disputes are resolved only by force. It has always been so, and it is unlikely that something has changed in recent decades.