Chechnya ( CHETCH-nee-ə), officially the Chechen Republic, is a republic of Russia. It is situated in the North Caucasus of Eastern Europe, between the Caspian Sea and Black Sea. The republic forms a part of the North Caucasian Federal District, and shares land borders with Georgia to its south; with the Russian republics of Dagestan, Ingushetia, and North Ossetia–Alania to its east, north, and west; and with Stavropol Krai to its northwest.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Checheno-Ingush ASSR split into two parts: the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic. The latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which declared independence, while the former sided with Russia. Following the First Chechen War of 1994–1996 with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, although de jure it remained a part of Russia. Russian federal control was restored in the Second Chechen War of 1999–2009, with Chechen politics being dominated by the former Ichkerian mufti Akhmad Kadyrov, and later his son Ramzan Kadyrov.
The republic covers an area of 16,500 square kilometres (6,400 square miles), with a population of over 1.5 million residents as of 2021. Its population largely consists of the indigenous Chechen ethnic group, who are part of the Nakh peoples and adhere primarily to the Islamic faith. Grozny is the capital and largest city.
Origin of Chechnya's population
According to Leonti Mroveli, the 11th-century Georgian chronicler, the word "Caucasus" is derived from the Nakh ancestor Kavkas.
According to George Anchabadze of Ilia State University:
The Vainakhs are the ancient natives of the Caucasus. It is noteworthy, that according to the genealogical table drawn up by Leonti Mroveli, the legendary forefather of the Vainakhs was "Kavkas", hence the name Kavkasians, one of the ethnicons met in the ancient Georgian written sources, signifying the ancestors of the Chechens and Ingush. As appears from the above, the Vainakhs, at least by name, are presented as the most "Caucasian" people of all the Caucasians (Caucasus – Kavkas – Kavkasians) in the Georgian historical tradition.
American linguist Johanna Nichols "has used language to connect the modern people of the Caucasus region to the ancient farmers of the Fertile Crescent" and her research suggests that "farmers of the region were proto-Nakh-Daghestanians". Nichols stated: "The Nakh–Dagestanian languages are the closest thing we have to a direct continuation of the cultural and linguistic community that gave rise to Western civilisation."
Traces of human settlement dating back to 40,000 BC were found near Lake Kezenoyam. Cave paintings, artifacts, and other archaeological evidence indicate continuous habitation for some 8,000 years. People living in these settlements used tools, fire, and clothing made of animal skins.
The Caucasian Epipaleolithic and early Caucasian Neolithic era saw the introduction of agriculture, irrigation, and the domestication of animals in the region. Settlements near Ali-Yurt and Magas, discovered in modern times, revealed tools made out of stone: stone axes, polished stones, stone knives, stones with holes drilled in them, clay dishes, etc. Settlements made out of clay bricks were discovered in the plains. In the mountains there were settlements made from stone and surrounded by walls; some of them dated back to 8000 BC. This period also saw the appearance of the wheel (3000 BC), horseback riding, metal works (copper, gold, silver, iron), dishes, armor, daggers, knives and arrow tips in the region. The artifacts were found near Nasare-Cort, Muzhichi, Ja-E-Bortz (alternatively known as Surkha-khi), Abbey-Gove (also known as Nazran or Nasare).
In the 14th and 15th centuries, there was frequent warfare between the Chechens, Tamerlane and Tokhtamysh, culminating in the Battle of the Terek River. The Chechen tribes built fortresses, castles, and defensive walls, protecting the mountains from the invaders (see Chechen tower architecture). Part of the lowland tribes were occupied by Mongols. However, during the mid-14th century a strong Chechen Princedom called Simsim emerged under Khour II, a Chechen king that led the Chechen politics and wars. He was in charge of an army of Chechens against the rogue warlord Mamai and defeated him in the Battle of Tatar-tup in 1362. The kingdom of Simsim was almost destroyed during the Timurid invasion of the Caucasus, when Khour II allied himself with the Golden Horde Khan Tokhtamysh in the Battle of the Terek River. Timur sought to punish the highlanders for their allegiance to Tokhtamysh and as a consequence invaded Simsim in 1395.
The 16th century saw the first Russian involvement in the Caucasus. In 1558, Temryuk of Kabarda sent his emissaries to Moscow requesting help from Ivan the Terrible against the Vainakh tribes. Ivan the Terrible married Temryuk's daughter Maria Temryukovna. An alliance was formed to gain the ground in the central Caucasus for the expanding Tsardom of Russia against Vainakh defenders.
In 1667 Mehk-Da Aldaman Gheza defended the borders of Chechnya from invasions of Kabardinians and Avars during the Battle of Khachara. The Chechens converted over the next few centuries to Sunni Islam, as Islam was associated with resistance to Russian encroachment.
Russian Emperor Peter the Great first sought to increase Russia's political influence in the Caucasus and the Caspian Sea at the expense of Safavid Persia when he launched the Russo-Persian War of 1722–1723. Russian forces succeeded in taking much of the Caucasian territories from Persia for several years.
As the Imperial Russian Army took control of the Caspian corridor and moved into Persian-ruled Dagestan, Peter's forces ran into mountain tribes. Peter sent a cavalry force to subdue them, but the Chechens routed them. In 1732, after Russia had already ceded back most of the Caucasus to Persia, now led by Nader Shah, following the Treaty of Resht, Russian troops clashed again with Chechens in a village called Chechen-Aul along the Argun River. The Russians were defeated again and withdrew, but this battle is responsible for the apocryphal story about how the Nokhchiy came to be known as "Chechens" – the people ostensibly named for the place the battle had taken place. However, the name "Chechen" had already been used as early as 1692.
Under intermittent Persian rule since 1555, in 1783, the eastern Georgians of Kartl-Kakheti, led by Erekle II, and the Russians signed the Treaty of Georgievsk. According to this treaty, Kartl-Kakheti received protection from Russia, and Georgia abjured any dependence on Iran. To increase its influence in the Caucasus and secure communication with Kartli and other Christian-inhabited regions of Transcaucasia, which it considered useful in its wars against Persia and the Ottoman Empire, the Russian Empire began conquering the Northern Caucasus mountains. The Russian Empire used Christianity to justify its conquests. This allowed Islam to spread widely among the Chechens, as it positioned itself as the religion of liberation from the Tsardom of Russia, which viewed Nakh tribes as "bandits". The rebellion was led by Mansur Ushurma, a Chechen sheikh belonging to the Naqshbandi Sufi order—with wavering military support from other North Caucasian tribes. Mansur hoped to establish an Islamic state based in the Transcaucasus under Sharia law. He was unable to fully achieve this because, in the course of the war, he was betrayed by the Ottoman Turks, handed over to the Russians, and executed in 1794.
After Persia was forced to cede the current territories of Dagestan, most of Azerbaijan, and Georgia to Russia following the Russo-Persian War of 1804–1813 and its resultant Treaty of Gulistan, Russia significantly widened its foothold in the Caucasus at Persia's expense. Another successful Caucasus war against Persia several years later, starting in 1826 and ending in 1828 with the Treaty of Turkmenchay, and a successful war against the Ottoman Empire in 1828–1829, enabled Russia to use a much larger portion of its army in subduing the natives of the North Caucasus.