The first Chechen states appeared in the Middlecentury. 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 controversial and tragic pages.
Ethnogenesis
The Chechen people were formed throughouta long time. The Caucasus has always been distinguished by its ethnic diversity, therefore, even in the scientific community, there is still no uniform theory about the origin of this nation. The Chechen language belongs to the Nakh branch of the Nakhsko-Dagestan language family. It is also called the Eastern Caucasus, according to the settlement of the ancient tribes, which became the first bearers of these adverbs.
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: the Scythian, Indo-Iranians, Sarmatians, etc. Archaeologists attribute to the ancestors of the Chechens carriers of Kolkhi and Koban cultures. Their tracks are scattered throughout the Caucasus.
Ancient history
Due to the fact that the history of ancient Chechnya was held inthe absence of a centralized state, the events before the Middle Ages are extremely difficult to judge. It is known for certain that in the 9th century the Vainakhs were subordinated to their neighbors who created the Alanian kingdom, as well as to the mountain Avars. The latter, in the sixth and eleventh centuries, lived in the state of Sarire with the capital Tanusi. It is noteworthy that both Islam and Christianity were common there. However, the history of Chechnya was such that Chechens became Muslims (unlike, for example, their neighbors Georgians).
In the XIII century began the Mongol invasions.Since then, the Chechens did not leave the mountains, fearing numerous hordes. According to one hypothesis (she has opponents), then the first early feudal state of the Vainakhs was created. This formation did not last long and was destroyed during the invasion of Tamerlane at the end of the XIV century.
Tapes
For a long time, flat areas havethe foothills of the Caucasus Mountains were controlled by the Turkic-speaking tribes. Therefore, the history of Chechnya has always been associated 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, tapes appeared. These were territorial entities created according to tribal affiliation.
Emerged back in the Middle Ages, tapes exist beforeso far and remain an important phenomenon for the whole Chechen society. These alliances were created to protect against aggressive neighbors. The history of Chechnya is replete with wars and conflicts. In the tapes originated the custom of blood feud. This tradition has brought its own characteristics to the relationship between the tapes. If a conflict broke out between several people, it necessarily developed into a patrimonial war until the complete annihilation of the enemy. Such was the history of Chechnya from ancient times. Blood revenge 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 ancient historyChechnya, to this day almost did not survive. Some archaeological finds suggest that the Vainakhs were pagans until the eleventh century. They worshiped the local pantheon of deities. The Chechens had a cult of nature with all its characteristic features: sacred groves, mountains, trees, etc. It was common knowledge of sorcery, magic and other esoteric practices.
In the XI-XII centuries.In this region of the Caucasus, the spread of Christianity began, which came from Georgia and Byzantium. However, soon the Constantinople empire collapsed. Sunni Islam has come to the place of Christianity. Chechens adopted it from their neighbors Kumyks and the Golden Horde. The Ingush became Muslim in the 16th century, and the inhabitants of remote mountain villages - in the 17th century. But for a long time Islam could not influence social customs, which were based much more on national traditions. And only at the end of the XVIII century, Sunni Islam in Chechnya took about the same positions as in the 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 kindled not only on national, but also on confessional soil.
XVI century
In the XVI century, the Chechens began to occupy the emptyplains in the valley of the river Terek. At the same time, most of this people remained to live in the mountains, having adapted to their natural conditions. Those who went to the north were looking for a better lot there. The population naturally grew, and scarce resources began to be missed. Tightness and hunger forced many tapes to settle in new lands. The colonists built small villages that were called by the name of their own kind. Part of this toponymy has survived to the present day.
The history of Chechnya from ancient times was associated withdanger from nomads. But in the XVI century, they became much less powerful. The Golden Horde fell apart. 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 the 1560s. 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 had loyal allies in the mountains in the face of the Kabardian princes (Ivan the Terrible even married Maria Temryukovna, daughter of the Kabardian ruler Temryuk).
First contacts with Russia
В 1567 году русские основали Терский острог.About this Ivan the Terrible asked Temryuk, who was hoping for the help of the king in the conflict with the Crimean Khan - a vassal of the Ottoman sultan. The construction site of the fortress was the mouth of the Sunzha River, a tributary of the Terek. It was the first Russian settlement, which arose in close proximity to the lands of the Chechens. For a long time, it was Terek Ostrog that was the springboard of the Moscow expansion in the Caucasus.
Колонистами выступали гребенские казаки, которые they were not afraid of living in a distant foreign land, and with their service they protected the interests of the sovereign. It was they who established direct contact with local natives. The history of the people of Chechnya interested Grozny, and he accepted the first Chechen embassy, which was sent by the influential prince Shikh-murza Okotsky. He asked patronage from Moscow. The consent to this was given by the son of Ivan the Terrible, Fyodor Ivanovich. However, this union did not last long. In 1610, Shih-Murza was killed, his heir was overthrown, and the principality captured by the neighboring Kumyk tribe.
Chechens and Terek Cossacks
Back in 1577 Terek was formedCossacks, the basis of which were Cossacks resettled from the Don, Khopra and Volga, as well as Orthodox Circassians, Ossetians, Georgians and Armenians The latter fled from the Persian and Turkish expansion. Many of them have become Russified. The growth of the Cossack mass was significant. Chechnya could not help but notice. The history of the origin of the first conflicts between the mountaineers and the Cossacks is not fixed, but over time, clashes became more frequent and commonplace.
Chechens and other indigenous people of the Caucasusraids were organized to seize livestock and other useful prey. Often, civilians were taken captive and later returned for ransom or made them slaves. In response to this, the Cossacks also organized raids into the mountains and plundered the auls. Nevertheless, such cases were the exception rather than the rule. Often there were long periods of peace, when neighbors traded among themselves and acquired kinship ties. Over time, the Chechens even took over from the Cossacks some peculiarities of farming, and the Cossacks, in turn, began to wear clothes that are very similar to the mountains.
XVIII century
The second half of the XVIII century in the NorthThe Caucasus was marked by the construction of a new Russian fortified line. It consisted of several fortresses, where all the new colonists came. In 1763 Mozdok was founded, then Ekaterinogradskaya, Pavlovskaya, Marinskaya, Georgievskaya.
These forts replaced the Terek jail, whichChechens once even managed to plunder. Meanwhile, in the 1980s, the Sharia movement began to spread in Chechnya. Slogans about Gazavat - the war for the Islamic faith became popular.
The Caucasian War
In 1829, the North Caucasus Imamat was created -Islamic theocratic state on the territory of Chechnya. At the same time, the country had its own national hero Shamil. In 1834, he became Imam. Dagestan and Chechnya submitted to him. The history of the emergence and spread of his power is connected with the struggle against Russian expansion in the North Caucasus.
The struggle with the Chechens continued for severaldecades. At a certain stage, the Caucasian War intertwined with the war against Persia, as well as the Crimean War, when the Western countries of Europe came out against Russia. Whose help could Chechnya count on? The history of the state of Nokhchi in the 19th century would not have been so long if it had not been for the support of the Ottoman Empire. And yet, despite the fact that the sultan helped the highlanders, Chechnya was finally conquered in 1859. Shamil was first captured, and then he lived in an honorable exile in Kaluga.
The establishment of Soviet power
After the February Revolution, Chechen gangsbegan to attack the outskirts of Grozny and the Vladikavkaz railway. In the autumn of 1917, the so-called “native division” returned from the front of the First World War. She consisted of Chechens. The division arranged a real battle with the Terek Cossacks.
Soon the Bolsheviks came to power in Petrograd.Their Red Guard entered Grozny as early as January 1918. Some of the Chechens supported the Soviet government, 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 of 1920 the Red Army finally established itself in the capital of Chechnya.
Deportation
In 1936 a new one was formedChechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. Meanwhile, partisans remained in the mountains who opposed the Bolsheviks. The last such gangs were destroyed in 1938. However, the separate moods of some residents of the republic remained.
Soon the Great Patriotic War, fromwhich has affected both Chechnya and Russia. The history of the struggle against the German offensive in the Caucasus, as on all other fronts, was distinguished by complexity for the Soviet troops. The great losses were aggravated by the appearance of Chechen formations that acted against the Red Army or even colluded with the Nazis.
This gave rise to the Soviet leadership to start repressions against the whole nation. On February 23, 1944, all Chechens and neighboring Ingushs, regardless of their attitude towards the USSR, were deported to Central Asia.
Ichkeria
Chechens were able to return home only in 1957year After the collapse of the Soviet Union, separate sentiments reawakened in the republic. In 1991, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was proclaimed in Grozny. For some time her conflict with the federal center was in a frozen state. In 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin decided to bring troops into Chechnya in order to restore Moscow’s power there. Officially, the operation was called "measures to maintain constitutional order."
The first Chechen war ended on August 311996, when the Khasavyurt agreements were signed. In fact, this treaty meant the withdrawal of federal troops from Ichkeria. The parties agreed to determine the status of Chechnya until 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 agreementsthe situation on the border with Chechnya remained extremely restless. 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. The extremists wanted to create an independent Islamist state on its territory.
The history of Chechnya and Dagestan is very similar, and notnot only because of geographic proximity, but also due to the similarity of the ethnic and confessional composition of the population. Federal troops launched a counter-terrorism operation. First, the militants were thrown from the territory of Dagestan. Then the Russian army re-entered Chechnya. The active combat phase of the campaign ended in the summer of 2000, when Grozny was cleared. After that, officially, for over 9 years, the counterterrorist operation regime was maintained. Today, Chechnya is one of the full constituent entities of the Russian Federation.
