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The First Chechen War (Russian: ''первая чеченская война'') was fought between Russia and Chechnya from 1994 to 1996 and resulted in Chechnya's De Facto Independence from Russia. After the initial campaign of 1994–1995, culminating in the devastating Battle Of Grozny , Russian federal forces attempted to control the mountainous area of Chechnya but were set back by Chechen Guerrilla Warfare and raids on the flatlands (including mass Hostage Taking s beyond Chechnya) in spite of Russia's overwhelming manpower, weaponry, and Air Support . The resulting widespread Demoralization of federal forces, and the almost universal opposition of the Russian public to the brutal conflict, led Boris Yeltsin 's government to declare a Ceasefire in 1996 and sign a Peace Treaty a year later. TIME Magazine commented: {Link without Title}
By one conservative estimate there were 7,500 Russian . ORIGINS OF THE WAR IN CHECHNYA See Also: History of Chechnya Imperial Russia and the Soviet Union region]] Russian Cossacks had lived in lowland Chechnya (Terek) since the 16th Century . Russia first invaded the Chechen highlands during the reign of Peter The Great , in the early 18th Century , as a countermeasure to Chechen raids on Russian settlements. After a series of fierce battles, Russia defeated Chechnya and annexed it in the 1870s . Chechnya's subsequent attempts at gaining independence after the fall of the Russian Empire failed. In 1922 Chechnya was incorporated into Bolshevist Russia and later into the Soviet Union (USSR). In 1936, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin created the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic . In 1944, on the orders of NKVD chief Lavrenti Beria , more than 1 million Chechens, Ingushes , and other North Caucasian Peoples were deported to Siberia and Central Asia, officially as punishment for alleged collaboration with the invading Nazi Germany . Stalin's policy made the state of Chechnya a non-entity. Eventually, Soviet first secretary Nikita Khrushchev granted the Chechen and Ingush peoples permission to return to their homeland and restored the republic in 1957. The collapse of the Soviet Union Russia became an independent nation after the Collapse Of The Soviet Union in December 1991. While Russia was widely accepted as the successor state to the USSR, it lost most of its military and Economic Power . While Ethnic Russians made up more than 70% of the population of the Russian Soviet Federated Socialist Republic , significant ethnic and religious differences posed a threat of political Disintegration in some regions. In the Soviet period, some of Russia's approximately 100 Nationalities were granted ethnic Enclaves that had various formal federal rights attached. Relations of these entities with the Federal Government and demands for Autonomy erupted into a major political issue in the early 1990s . President Yeltsin incorporated these demands into his 1990 election campaign by claiming that their resolution was a high priority. There was an urgent need for a law to clearly define the powers of each federal subject. Such a law was passed on March 31 , 1992 , when Yeltsin and Ruslan Khasbulatov , then chairman of the Russian Supreme Soviet and an ethnic Chechen himself, signed the Federation Treaty bilaterally with 86 out of 88 federal subjects. In almost all cases, demands for greater autonomy or independence were satisfied by concessions of regional autonomy and tax privileges. The treaty outlined three basic types of federal subjects and the powers that were reserved for local and federal government. The only federal subjects which did not sign the treaty were Chechnya and Tatarstan . Eventually, in the spring of 1994, President Yeltsin signed a special political accord with Mintimer Şäymiev , the president of Tatarstan, granting many of its demands for greater autonomy for the republic within Russia. Thus, Chechnya remained the only federal subject which did not sign the treaty. Neither Yeltsin nor the Chechen government attempted any serious negotiations and the situation would deteriorate into a full-scale conflict. Chechen declaration of independence Meanwhile, on September 6 , 1991 , Militants of the All-National Congress Of The Chechen People (NCChP), party led by former Soviet general Dzhokhar Dudayev , stormed a session of the Chechen-Ingush ASSR Supreme Soviet with the aim of asserting independence. They killed the Communist Party Of The Soviet Union chief for Grozny , Vitali Kutsenko , brutalized several other party members, and effectively dissolved the government of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic Of The Soviet Union . In the following month Dudayev won overwhelming popular support to oust the interim central government-supported administration. He was made president and declared independence from the USSR. In November 1991, President Yeltsin dispatched troops to Grozny, but they were forced to withdraw when Dudayev's forces prevented them from leaving the airport. After Chechnya had made its initial declaration of Sovereignty , the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic split in two in June 1992 amidst the Ingush armed conflict with the other Russian republic of North Ossetia . Republic of Ingushetia then joined the Russian Federation , while Chechnya declared full independence in 1993 as the Chechen Republic Of Ichkeria . INTERNAL CONFLICT IN CHECHNYA See Also: Battle of Grozny (November 1994) From 1991 to 1994, tens of thousands of people of non-Chechen ethnicity, mostly Russians, left the Republic amidst reports of violence against the non-Chechen population. Chechen industry began to fail as a result of many Russian engineers and workers leaving or being expelled from the republic. During the undeclared Chechen Civil War , factions both sympathetic and opposed to Dudayev fought for power, sometimes in pitched battles with the use of heavy weapons. In March 1992, the opposition attempted a Coup D'état , but their attempt was crushed by force. A month later, Dudayev introduced direct presidential rule, and in June 1993, dissolved the Parliament to avoid a Referendum on a Vote Of Non-confidence . Federal forces dispatched to the Ossetian-Ingush Conflict were ordered to move to the Chechen border in late October 1992, and Dudayev, who perceiving this as "an act of aggression against the Chechen Republic," declared a State Of Emergency and threatened general Mobilization if the Russian troops did not withdraw from the Chechen border. After staging another coup attempt in December 1993, the opposition organized a Provisional Council as a potential alternative government for Chechnya, calling on Moscow for assistance. in Grozny, 1994. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev ]] In August 1994, when the coalition of the opposition factions, based in the north of Chechnya, launched an armed campaign to remove Dudayev's government, Moscow clandestinely supplied Rebel forces with financial support, military equipment, and Mercenaries . Russia suspended all civilian flights to Grozny while the Air Defense aviation and border troops set up a military Blockade of the republic. On October 30 , 1994 , unmarked Russian aircraft began Bombing the capital Grozny. The opposition forces, who were joined by Russian troops, launched a clandestine but badly organized assault on Grozny in mid-October 1994. It was followed by a Second, Larger Attack on November 26 – 27 , 1994 . Dudayev's National Guard forces repulsed the attacks. In a major embarrassment for the Kremlin , they also succeeded in capturing some 20 Russian Army Regulars and about 50 other Russian citizens secretly hired by the Russian FSK state security organization. {Link without Title} On November 29 , President Boris Yeltsin issued an ultimatum to all warring factions in Chechnya ordering them to disarm and Surrender . When the government in Grozny refused, President Yeltsin ordered an attack to restore " Constitutional order." By December 1 , Russian forces were carrying out heavy Aerial Bombardment s of Chechnya, targeting both military sites and the capital Grozny. On December 11 , 1994 , five days after Dudayev and Minister Of Defense Pavel Grachev of Russia had agreed to avoid the further use of force, Russian forces entered Chechnya in order to "establish constitutional order in Chechnya and to preserve the territorial integrity of Russia." Grachev boasted he could topple Dudayev in a couple of hours with a single airborne regiment, and proclaimed that it will be "a bloodless Blitzkrieg , that would not last any longer than December 20." THE RUSSIAN WAR IN CHECHNYA Initial stages On December 11 , 1994 Russian forces launched a three-pronged ground attack towards Grozny. The main attack was temporarily halted by deputy commander of the Russian Ground Forces , Colonel-General Eduard Vorobyov , who then resigned in protest, stating that it is "criminal" to use the military against "ones' own people". Many in the Russian military and government opposed the war as well. Yeltsin's adviser on nationality affairs, Emil Pain , and Russia's Deputy Minister of Defense, Colonel-General Boris Gromov (esteemed commander of the Soviet-Afghan War ), also resigned in protest of the invasion ("''It will be a bloodbath, another Afghanistan ,''" Gromov said on television), as did Major-General Borys Poliakov . More than 800 professional soldiers and officers refused to take part in the operation; of these, 83 were convicted by Military Court s, and the rest were discharged. Later, Lieutenant-General Lev Rokhlin refused to be decorated as the Hero of Russia for his part in the war. helicopter downed by the Chechens near Grozny, December 1994. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev]] The Chechen Air Force was destroyed in the first few hours of the war, while around 500 people took advantage of the mid-December Amnesty declared by Yeltsin for members of Dzhokhar Dudayev's armed groups. Nevertheless, Boris Yeltsin cabinet's expectations of a quick Surgical Strike , quickly followed by Chechen Capitulation , were horribly misguided, and Russia soon found itself in a Quagmire . The Morale of the troops was low from the beginning, for they were poorly prepared and did not understand why they were sent into battle. Some Russian units resisted the order to advance, and in some cases the troops Sabotage d their own equipment. In Ingushetia, civilian protesters stopped the western column and set 30 military vehicles on fire, while about 70 conscripts Deserted their units. Advance of the western column was halted by the Unexcepted Chechen Resistance at Dolinskoye . A group of 50 Russian Paratroopers surrendered to the local Militia , after being deployed by helicopters behind enemy lines and then abandoned. Yeltsin ordered the former Soviet Army , known for its callous regard toward human life, to show restraint, but it was neither prepared nor trained for this. In effect civilians losses quickly mounted, alienating the Chechen population and rising hostility to the federal forces even among those who intiatially supported the attempts to unseat Dudayev. Other problems occurred as Yeltsin sent in freshly trained conscripts from neighboring regions rather than regular soldiers. Highly mobile units of Chechen fighters caused severe losses to Russia's ill-prepared, demoralized troops. The federal military command then resorted to the Carpet Bombing tactics and indiscriminate Rocket Artillery barrages, causing enormous casualties among the Chechen and Russian civilian population. With the Russians closing in on the capital, Chechens started to prepare Bunker s and set up Fighting Position s in Grozny. On December 29 , in a rare instance of a Russian outright victory, the Russian airborne forces seized the military airfield next to Grozny and repelled a Chechen armored counterattack in the Battle Of Khankala . The next objective was the city itself. Battle for Grozny See Also: Battle of Grozny (1994-1995) , January 1995. Photo by Mikhail Evstafiev]] When Russians attacked the Chechen capital of Grozny from December 1994 to January 1995, thousands of civilians died from a week-long series of '' 8.1. After armored assaults failed, the Russian military set out to pulverize the city into submission. Russian aircraft bombarded Grozny while armored forces and artillery hammered the city from the ground. The Russian assault fell mainly on Grozny's civilians, mostly ethnic Russians, as separatist forces operated from buildings filled with Russian civilians as Human Shields . |
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