Can you tell me about Chechnya and Russia?

Well, Chechny gave us the Boston Bombers. But Trump hasn’t banned flights from there.

@Dutchess_III I don’t think that they were from Chechnya, they were of Chechen descent.

I’m an American. I don’t know the difference!

Chechnya is a province of Russia. It’s located in the North Caucasus region. After the breakup of the Soviet Union, Chechnya sought independence from Russia, wishing to become its own sovereign Islamic nation called Ichkeria. The First Chechen War (1994–1996), was fought between Chechnya and Russian forces and Chechnya gained de facto independence. Later, the Second Chechen War (1999–2000) restored Chechnya to Russia, installed a pro-Russian government in Chechnya, and led to continuing insurgency.

The Beslan School Siege occurred in the neighboring Russian province of North Ossetia-Alania; Chechen militants (most of them Islamists, as Chechnya is majority Muslim and home to many Islamist groups who seek independence) were again demanding Russian recognition of Chechnya’s independence.

Although the situation is more peaceful now, fighting continues in the region between Russia and the Caucasus Emirate, an Islamist separatist group that wishes to expel the Russians from the North Caucasus and create an Islamic nation there. ISIS has only bolstered groups like the Emirate.

…..Did you use “Chechny” and “Chechen” kind of interchangeably @DominicY? What is “Chechnya”?

Excellent post BTW.

Before the history @DominicY described, Chechnya had a long history of being messed with and/or involved in territorial struggles with/between Russia, the Ottoman Empire (Turkey), Iran and Persia. Major changes included:

’‘Chechnya was a nation in the Northern Caucasus that fought against foreign rule continually since the 15th century.’’

Circa 1864–1867: Ethnic cleansing by Russia, much of it by exodus towards the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey), involving others too, but Chechnyans in Chechnya reduced by perhaps 80%.

1917: Russia collapsed under attack by Germany and the Russian Revolution. Chechnya, Ingushetia and Dagestan declared independence from Russia and formed an independent Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus, which was internationally recognized but then…

1912: The Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus was invaded by the Soviet Union and absorbed into it.

1930s: Many starving Ukranians moved into the now-called “Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic”. The “Autonomous” part smacks of Russian overlord humor to me.

1940–1944: Trying to take advantage of wars between the USSR and Finland and Germany, there were peaks in insurgent uprisings aimed at regaining independence.

1944–1948: The USSR under Josef Stalin declared the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic disbanded, and tried to deport (or in some cases, kill) as many Chechnyans out of Chechnya as they can. Looks like about 500,000 Chechnyans were deported and maybe (hard to get reliable or even consistent numbers from USSR archives) 200,000 Chechnyans killed, and hundreds of thousands of other ethnicities were also removed from Chechnya.

1957: Nice-guy Nikita Khrushchev restored the Republic.

1990: The republic declared its sovereignty.

1991: An independent Chechen-Ingush Republic declared itself.

My opinions are:

* That the Chechen people deserved to be left well alone for the last 500 years or more.

* They’ve suffered from their location between major imperialistic powers, and for the presence of oil resources that attract extra invasions.

* They’ve been fighting for independence for most of those 500 years, and before then. They’ve earned a break.

* No one deserves to be targeted by so much attempted genocide & ethnic cleansing.

* Unfortunately, the Russians clearly still consider them within their “sphere of influence” and would feel extremely threatened by anyone suggesting they not be allowed to continue abusing the Chechens.

* Despite being a former resistance fighter and son of the assassinated former president, the current president Ramzan Kadyrov seems to clearly be a Russian puppet, a self-avowed “iron fist” ruler responsible for human rights violations, and a deserved butt of many jokes by John Oliver. However he’s not the worst dictator in the world, and may be about as good as Chechnya can expect Russia to allow it to have for a while, and above par for the very atrocious course outlined in my historical highlights in my previous post.

SPOILER ALERT The following contains some details of the movie, but I won’t give away parts of the ending that wouldn’t be parts of the history books, but more personal stories.

Why does Russia want to keep the area so badly? Is it simply to prevent another Muslim state? Or, they feel the Russia will be weaker if they lose that territory?

In the movie the siege on the school is said to be retaliation. Some of the terrorists had their own children and families killed by the Russians. They say they will leave if the Russians will pull their troops out of the country. Two of the terrorists are women, and it’s thought that they didn’t know it would be a school as their target, and they are disturbed by it. It’s also thought one of the other terrorists helps some of the kids in the end to get away.

It’s obvious why some of these terrorists are suicidal, they have lost their children and family members. It’s a very normal reaction to be suicidal with such horrible loss. In the movie one of the narrators talks about how the parents of the schoolchildren just want to go in the school and be with their kids who are being held hostage, they don’t care if they die.