The first Chechen states appeared in the Middle Ages. In the XIX century, after a long Caucasian war, the country became part of the Russian Empire. But in the future, the history of Chechnya was full of conflicting and tragic pages.
Ethnogenesis
The Chechen people have been forming for a long time. The Caucasus has always been distinguished by ethnic diversity, therefore, even in the scientific community, there is still no unified theory of the origin of this nation. The Chechen language belongs to the Nakh branch of the Nakh-Dagestan language family. It is also called the East Caucasus, according to the resettlement of ancient tribes that became the first carriers of these dialects.
The history of Chechnya began with the appearance of the Vainakhs (today this term means the ancestors of the Ingush and Chechens). A variety of nomadic peoples took part in its ethnogenesis: Scythians, Indo-Iranians, Sarmatians, etc. Archaeologists attribute to the ancestors of Chechens carriers of Colchis and Koban cultures. Their tracks are scattered throughout the Caucasus.
Ancient history
Due to the fact that the history of ancient Chechnya passed in the absence of a centralized state, it is extremely difficult to judge events until the Middle Ages. It is only known for certain that in the 9th century the Vainakhs were subordinate to their neighbors, who created the Kingdom of Alans, as well as the mountain Avars. The latter in the VI-XI centuries lived in the state of Sarira with its capital in Tanusi. It is noteworthy that both Islam and Christianity were prevalent there. However, the history of Chechnya has developed so that the Chechens became Muslims (unlike, for example, their neighbors Georgians).
In the XIII century, the Mongol invasions began. Since then, Chechens have not left the mountains, fearing numerous hordes. According to one hypothesis (it also has opponents), the first early feudal Vainakh state was created at the same time. This formation did not last long and was destroyed during the Tamerlane invasion at the end of the 14th century.
Teips
For a long time, the plains at the foot of the Caucasus Mountains were controlled by Turkic-speaking tribes. Therefore, the history of Chechnya has always been connected with the mountains. The lifestyle of its inhabitants was also formed in accordance with the conditions of the landscape. In isolated villages, where sometimes only one pass led, teips arose. These were territorial formations created according to tribal affiliation.
Arisen back in the Middle Ages, teips still exist and remain an important phenomenon for the entire Chechen society. These alliances were created to protect against aggressive neighbors. The history of Chechnya is replete with wars and conflicts. In teips, the custom of blood feud was born. This tradition has brought its own characteristics to the relationship between teips. If a conflict broke out between several people, he would necessarily develop into a tribal war until the complete destruction of the enemy. This has been the history of Chechnya since ancient times. Blood feud has existed for a very long time, since the teip system has largely replaced the state in the usual sense of the word.
Religion
Information about what was the most ancient history of Chechnya has not survived to this day. Some archaeological finds suggest that the Vainakhs until the 11th century were pagans. They worshiped the local pantheon of deities. The Chechens had a cult of nature with all its characteristic features: sacred groves, mountains, trees, etc. Healers, magic and other esoteric practices were widespread.
In the XI-XII centuries. in this region of the Caucasus began the spread of Christianity, which came from Georgia and Byzantium. However, the Constantinople empire soon collapsed. In place of Christianity came Sunni Islam. Chechens adopted it from the Kumyk neighbors and the Golden Horde. Ingush became Muslims in the 16th century, and residents of remote mountain villages in the 17th century. But for a long time, Islam could not influence public customs, which were much more based on national traditions. And only at the end of the 18th century did Sunnism in Chechnya take about the same positions as in Arab countries. This was due to the fact that religion has become an important tool in the fight against Russian Orthodox intervention. Hatred of strangers was inflamed not only on national, but also on confessional soil.
16th century
In the XVI century, the Chechens began to occupy the empty plains in the valley of the Terek River. At the same time, most of this people remained to live in the mountains, adapting to their natural conditions. Those leaving to the north were looking for a better share there. The population naturally grew, and scarce resources became scarce. Crowding and hunger forced many teips to settle in new lands. The colonists built small villages, which they named after a kind. Part of this toponymy has survived to the present day.
The history of Chechnya since ancient times has been associated with danger from the nomads. But in the sixteenth century they became much less powerful. The Golden Horde has broken up. Numerous uluses constantly fought with each other, which is why they could not establish control over their neighbors. In addition, it was then that the expansion of the Russian kingdom began. In 1560 Kazan and Astrakhan Khanates were conquered. Ivan the Terrible began to control the entire course of the Volga, thus gaining access to the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. Russia in the mountains had faithful allies in the person of the Kabardian princes (Ivan the Terrible even married Maria Temryukovna - the daughter of the Kabardian ruler Temryuk).
First contacts with Russia
In 1567, the Russians founded the Terek prison. Temryuk asked Ivan the Terrible about this, who hoped for help from the tsar in the conflict with the Crimean khan, a vassal of the Ottoman sultan. The place of construction of the fortress was the mouth of the Sunzha River - a tributary of the Terek. This was the first Russian settlement that arose in the immediate vicinity of the lands of the Chechens. For a long time, it was Tersky Ostrog that was the bridgehead of Moscow expansion in the Caucasus.
The Colonists were the Greben Cossacks, who were not afraid of life in a distant foreign land and defended the interests of the sovereign with their service. It was they who made direct contact with the local natives. The history of the people of Chechnya interested Grozny, and he received the first Chechen embassy, which was sent by the influential prince Shikh-Murza Okotsky. He asked for patronage from Moscow. Consent to this has already been given by the son of Ivan the Terrible Fedor Ivanovich. However, this union did not last long. In 1610, Shikh-murza was killed, his heir was overthrown, and the principality was captured by a neighboring Kumyk tribe.
Chechens and Terek Cossacks
As early as 1577, the Terek Cossacks were formed , the basis of which was the Cossacks who resettled from the Don, Khopr and Volga, as well as the Orthodox Circassians, Ossetians, Georgians and Armenians. The latter fled from Persian and Turkish expansion. Many of them are Russified. The growth of the Cossack mass was significant. This could not have been overlooked by Chechnya. The history of the origin of the first conflicts between the highlanders and the Cossacks was not fixed, but over time, skirmishes became more and more frequent and commonplace.
Chechens and other indigenous inhabitants of the Caucasus raided to capture livestock and other useful prey. Often, civilians were taken prisoner and later returned for ransom or made them slaves. In response to this, the Cossacks also raided the mountains and robbed auls. Nevertheless, such cases were the exception rather than the rule. Often long periods of peace came when neighbors traded among themselves and acquired family ties. Over time, the Chechens even adopted some features of farming from the Cossacks, and the Cossacks, in turn, began to wear clothes very similar to the highlands.
XVIII century
The second half of the 18th century in the North Caucasus was marked by the construction of a new Russian fortified line. It consisted of several fortresses, where new colonists came. In 1763 Mozdok was founded, then Ekaterinograd, Pavlovskaya, Maryinskaya, Georgievskaya.
These forts replaced the Terek prison, which the Chechens once even managed to plunder. Meanwhile, in the 80s the Sharia movement began to spread in Chechnya. Slogans about ghazavat - the war for the Islamic faith - became popular.
Caucasian war
In 1829, the North Caucasian Imamat was created - an Islamic theocratic state on the territory of Chechnya. At the same time, the country had its own national hero, Shamil. In 1834, he became an imam. Dagestan and Chechnya obeyed him. The history of the emergence and spread of his power is associated with the struggle against Russian expansion in the North Caucasus.
The fight against the Chechens lasted several decades. At a certain stage, the Caucasian war intertwined with the war against Persia, as well as the Crimean War, when Western countries of Europe opposed Russia. Whose help could Chechnya count on? The history of the Nokhchi state in the 19th century would not be so long if it were not for the support of the Ottoman Empire. Nevertheless, despite the fact that the Sultan helped the highlanders, Chechnya was finally conquered in 1859. Shamil was first captured, and then lived in an honorable exile in Kaluga.
The establishment of Soviet power
After the February Revolution, Chechen gangs began to attack the surroundings of Grozny and the Vladikavkaz railway. In the fall of 1917, the so-called “native division” returned from the front of the First World War. It consisted of Chechens. The division staged a real battle with the Terek Cossacks.
Soon in Petrograd, the Bolsheviks came to power. Their Red Guard entered Grozny in January 1918. Some Chechens supported the Soviet regime, others went to the mountains, and others helped the whites. Since February 1919, Grozny was under the control of the troops of Peter Wrangel and his British allies. And only in March 1920 the Red Army finally established itself in the capital of Chechnya.
Deportation
In 1936, the new Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed. Meanwhile, partisans remained in the mountains who opposed the Bolsheviks. The last such gangs were destroyed in 1938. However, separate moods remained in some of the republic's residents.
Soon the Great Patriotic War began, from which both Chechnya and Russia suffered. The history of the struggle against the German offensive in the Caucasus, as on all other fronts, was difficult for the Soviet troops. Large losses were exacerbated by the emergence of Chechen forces that acted against the Red Army or even entered into a conspiracy with the Nazis.
This gave rise to the Soviet leadership to begin repression against the whole people. On February 23, 1944, all Chechens and neighboring Ingush, regardless of their attitude to the USSR, were deported to Central Asia.
Ichkeria
Chechens were able to return to their homeland only in 1957. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, separate feelings aroused again in the republic. In 1991, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was proclaimed in Grozny. For some time, its conflict with the federal center was in a frozen state. In 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin decided to send troops to Chechnya to restore Moscow’s power there. Officially, the operation was called "measures to maintain the constitutional order."
The first Chechen war ended on August 31, 1996, when the Khasavyurt agreements were signed. In fact, this agreement meant the withdrawal of federal troops from Ichkeria. The parties agreed to determine the status of Chechnya by December 31, 2001. With the advent of peace, Ichkeria became independent, although it was not legally recognized by Moscow.
Modernity
Even after the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements, the situation on the border with Chechnya remained extremely turbulent. The republic has become a shelter for extremists, Islamists, mercenaries and just criminals. On August 7, a brigade of militants Shamil Basayev and Khattab invaded neighboring Dagestan. Extremists wanted to create an independent Islamic state on its territory.
The history of Chechnya and Dagestan is very similar, and not only because of its geographical proximity, but also in connection with the similarity of ethnic and confessional composition of the population. Federal troops launched a counter-terrorist operation. At first, the militants were thrown from the territory of Dagestan. Then the Russian army again entered Chechnya. The active combat phase of the campaign ended in the summer of 2000, when Grozny was cleared. After this, the counterterrorism operation regime was officially maintained for 9 years. Today Chechnya is one of the full subjects of the Russian Federation.