For many centuries, the history of Russia has been associated with the struggle that the peoples of the Caucasus have undertaken at different stages of history for their sovereignty and independence from the Moscow government. Sometimes they united under religious slogans and advocated the creation of a sovereign Islamic state in their region. Examples are also known of how political and economic reasons prompted them to take up arms. But in all cases, the armed confrontation between the inhabitants of the Caucasus and the Russians turned into innumerable sufferings for both peoples.
What is Ichkeria?
In 1991, the collapse of the Soviet Union ended. One of its consequences was the formation in the territory of the former Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of the self-proclaimed Chechen Republic of Ichkeria (CRI). In July 1991, after the unilateral declaration of the sovereignty of this unrecognized state formation, its first president was the leader of the supporters of the separation of Chechnya from Russia, the major general of aviation of the former USSR - Dzhokhar Dudaev. His portrait is placed at the beginning of the article.
The actions of the separatists caused a sharp aggravation of relations between the CRI and the Russian government, which included this territory. The contradictions that arose and gradually deepened led to a military conflict, which caused the numerous victims suffered by both sides, and the escalation of tension throughout the North Caucasus.
Two Chechen military fires
The fighting aimed at establishing a constitutional order in Chechnya took place in two stages and went down in history under the name “Chechen Campaigns”, the first of which covered the period from December 1994 to August 1996, and the second, starting in August 1999, with varying intensity lasted almost a decade.
It would seem that Ichkeria is compared to Russia, which for its open spaces is usually called one sixth of the Earth? However, despite the numerical superiority, during the First Chechen War, government forces failed to fulfill the tasks assigned to them. Putting aside a more favorable time to resolve the problem and withdrawing them from the war zone, Moscow thereby virtually recognized the existence of the Chechen Ichkeria and the legitimacy of its separatist government.
Subsequent events that unfolded three years later became a continuation of the armed conflict, which had taken on an even larger scale by that time. Despite the fact that its active phase lasted no more than a year, over the next 10 years, clashes between government forces and the forces of Chechen self-government did not stop on the territory of this region.
An attempt to abolish Ichkeria
In 2007, the then separatist Islamist Doku Umarov, who became president of the republic (a portrait is given below), announced its abolition and transformation into a vilayat - an administrative-territorial unit adopted in a number of Muslim countries in the Near and Middle East, as well as North Africa. This new state formation was to become the core of the Caucasus Emirate proclaimed and headed by the same Doku Umarov. Having received the name Nokhchichy (CRN), the newly formed Vilayat replaced the previously proclaimed Ichkeria.
What is the Caucasus Emirate, it is not difficult to understand from the goals set by its supporters. Their plans included the creation in the North Caucasus of an independent Muslim state based on the ideology of Islamism, Salafism and Wahhabism. As methods of its construction, it was supposed to conduct both an open and an underground terrorist struggle. It is no coincidence that such trends provoked active opposition from the Russian government.
Leader of the Chechen diaspora
Despite all the efforts made by Doku Umarov, his initiative to abolish the republic and give it a different political form met with sharp criticism from representatives of the Chechen diaspora abroad, who were supporters of the first president of Ichkeria, Dzhokhar Dudayev, who died in 1996.
One of these emigrant groups was led by a former brigadier general of the CRI, Akhmed Zakaev. It was he who in 2009 called on the residents of Chechnya to recognize the legitimacy of the pro-Russian government led by Ramzan Kadyrov and to stop military resistance. In addition, Zakayev headed the cabinet of ministers of the republic and became the head of the government formed at that time.
Conclusion
An even more complete picture of what Ichkeria and the Nilchiychoy vilayat who replaced it can be obtained from the fact that in Russia their authorities were included in the list of terrorist organizations banned in the country, and membership in them is still punishable by law.
The subsequent history of Chechnya was full of many dramatic events, the memory of which has not been erased to this day. However, thanks to the joint actions of the current leadership of the republic and the government of the Russian Federation, its withdrawal from Russia has been removed from the agenda. Nevertheless, many problems that have become the legacy of the collapse of the USSR are still awaiting resolution.