There are many wars written into the history of Russia. Most of them were liberation, some began on our territory and ended far beyond its borders. But there is nothing worse than such wars, which were started as a result of the illiterate actions of the country’s leadership and led to terrifying results because the authorities solved their own problems without paying attention to the people.

One of such sad pages of Russian history is the Chechen war. This was not a confrontation between two different peoples. There were no absolute rights in this war. And the most surprising thing is that this war still cannot be considered over.

Prerequisites for the start of the war in Chechnya

It is hardly possible to talk about these military campaigns briefly. The era of perestroika, so pompously announced by Mikhail Gorbachev, marked the collapse of a huge country consisting of 15 republics. However, the main difficulty for Russia was that, left without satellites, it was faced with internal unrest that had a nationalistic character. The Caucasus turned out to be especially problematic in this regard.

Back in 1990, the National Congress was created. This organization was headed by Dzhokhar Dudayev, a former major general of aviation in the Soviet Army. The Congress set its main goal to secede from the USSR; in the future, it was planned to create a Chechen Republic, independent of any state.

In the summer of 1991, a situation of dual power arose in Chechnya, since both the leadership of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic itself and the leadership of the so-called Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, proclaimed by Dudayev, acted.

This state of affairs could not exist for long, and in September the same Dzhokhar and his supporters seized the republican television center, the Supreme Council and the Radio House. This was the beginning of the revolution. The situation was extremely precarious, and its development was facilitated by the official collapse of the country carried out by Yeltsin. Following the news that the Soviet Union no longer existed, Dudayev's supporters announced that Chechnya was seceding from Russia.

The separatists seized power - under their influence, parliamentary and presidential elections were held in the republic on October 27, as a result of which power was completely in the hands of ex-General Dudayev. And a few days later, on November 7, Boris Yeltsin signed a decree stating that a state of emergency was being introduced in the Chechen-Ingush Republic. In fact, this document became one of the reasons for the start of the bloody Chechen wars.

At that time, there was quite a lot of ammunition and weapons in the republic. Some of these reserves had already been captured by the separatists. Instead of blocking the situation, the Russian leadership allowed it to get even more out of control - in 1992, the head of the Ministry of Defense Grachev transferred half of all these reserves to the militants. The authorities explained this decision by saying that it was no longer possible to remove weapons from the republic at that time.

However, during this period there was still an opportunity to stop the conflict. An opposition was created that opposed Dudayev's power. However, after it became clear that these small detachments could not resist the militant formations, the war was practically already underway.

Yeltsin and his political supporters could no longer do anything, and from 1991 to 1994 it was actually a republic independent of Russia. It had its own government bodies and had its own state symbols. In 1994, when Russian troops were brought into the territory of the republic, a full-scale war began. Even after the resistance of Dudayev’s militants was suppressed, the problem was never completely resolved.

Speaking about the war in Chechnya, it is worth considering that the fault for its outbreak, first of all, was the illiterate leadership of first the USSR and then Russia. It was the weakening of the internal political situation in the country that led to the weakening of the outskirts and the strengthening of nationalist elements.

As for the essence of the Chechen war, there is a conflict of interests and an inability to govern a vast territory on the part of first Gorbachev and then Yeltsin. Subsequently, it was up to the people who came to power at the very end of the twentieth century to untie this tangled knot.

First Chechen war 1994-1996

Historians, writers and filmmakers are still trying to assess the scale of the horrors of the Chechen war. No one denies that it caused enormous damage not only to the republic itself, but to all of Russia. However, it is worth considering that the nature of the two campaigns was quite different.

During the Yeltsin era, when the first Chechen campaign of 1994-1996 was launched, Russian troops could not act coherently and freely enough. The country's leadership solved its problems, moreover, according to some information, many people profited from this war - weapons were supplied to the territory of the republic from the Russian Federation, and militants often made money by demanding large ransoms for hostages.

At the same time, the main task of the Second Chechen War of 1999-2009 was the suppression of gangs and the establishment of constitutional order. It is clear that if the goals of both campaigns were different, then the course of action was significantly different.

On December 1, 1994, airstrikes were carried out on airfields located in Khankala and Kalinovskaya. And already on December 11, Russian units were introduced into the territory of the republic. This fact marked the beginning of the First Campaign. Entry was carried out from three directions at once - through Mozdok, through Ingushetia and through Dagestan.

By the way, at that time the Ground Forces were led by Eduard Vorobiev, but he immediately resigned, considering it unwise to lead the operation, since the troops were completely unprepared for conducting full-scale combat operations.

At first, Russian troops advanced quite successfully. The entire northern territory was occupied by them quickly and without much loss. From December 1994 to March 1995, the Russian Armed Forces stormed Grozny. The city was built up quite densely, and Russian units were simply stuck in skirmishes and attempts to take the capital.

Russian Defense Minister Grachev expected to take the city very quickly and therefore did not spare human and technical resources. According to researchers, more than 1,500 Russian soldiers and many civilians of the republic died or went missing near Grozny. The armored vehicles also suffered serious damage - almost 150 units were damaged.

However, after two months of fierce fighting, federal troops finally took Grozny. Participants in the hostilities subsequently recalled that the city was destroyed almost to the ground, and this is confirmed by numerous photographs and video documents.

During the assault, not only armored vehicles were used, but also aviation and artillery. There were bloody battles on almost every street. The militants lost more than 7,000 people during the operation in Grozny and, under the leadership of Shamil Basayev, on March 6 they were forced to finally leave the city, which came under the control of the Russian Armed Forces.

However, the war, which brought death to thousands of not only armed but also civilians, did not end there. The fighting continued first on the plains (from March to April), and then in the mountainous regions of the republic (from May to June 1995). Argun, Shali, and Gudermes were taken successively.

The militants responded with terrorist attacks carried out in Budennovsk and Kizlyar. After varying successes on both sides, a decision was made to negotiate. And as a result, on August 31, 1996, agreements were concluded. According to them, federal troops were leaving Chechnya, the republic's infrastructure was to be restored, and the question of independent status was postponed.

Second Chechen campaign 1999–2009

If the country's authorities hoped that by reaching an agreement with the militants, they would solve the problem and the battles of the Chechen war would become a thing of the past, then everything turned out to be wrong. Over several years of a dubious truce, the gangs have only accumulated strength. In addition, more and more Islamists from Arab countries entered the territory of the republic.

As a result, on August 7, 1999, the militants of Khattab and Basayev invaded Dagestan. Their calculation was based on the fact that the Russian government at that time looked very weak. Yeltsin practically did not lead the country, the Russian economy was in deep decline. The militants hoped that they would take their side, but they put up serious resistance to the bandit groups.

The reluctance to allow Islamists into their territory and the help of federal troops forced the Islamists to retreat. True, this took a month - the militants were driven out only in September 1999. At that time, Chechnya was led by Aslan Maskhadov, and, unfortunately, he was not able to exercise full control over the republic.

It was at this time, angry that they failed to break Dagestan, that Islamist groups began carrying out terrorist attacks on Russian territory. Horrible terrorist attacks were committed in Volgodonsk, Moscow and Buinaksk, which claimed dozens of lives. Therefore, the number of those killed in the Chechen war must include those civilians who never thought that it would come to their families.

In September 1999, a decree “On measures to increase the effectiveness of counter-terrorism operations in the North Caucasus region of the Russian Federation” was issued, signed by Yeltsin. And on December 31, he announced his resignation from the presidency.

As a result of the presidential elections, power in the country passed to a new leader, Vladimir Putin, whose tactical abilities the militants did not take into account. But at that time, Russian troops were already on the territory of Chechnya, again bombed Grozny and acted much more competently. The experience of the previous campaign was taken into account.

December 1999 is another painful and terrible chapter of the war. The Argun Gorge was otherwise called “Wolf Gate” - one of the largest Caucasian gorges. Here, the landing and border troops carried out the special operation "Argun", the purpose of which was to recapture a section of the Russian-Georgian border from Khattab's troops, and also to deprive the militants of the weapons supply route from the Pankisi Gorge. The operation was completed in February 2000.

Many people also remember the feat of the 6th company of the 104th parachute regiment of the Pskov Airborne Division. These fighters became real heroes of the Chechen war. They withstood a terrible battle on the 776th height, when they, numbering only 90 people, managed to hold back over 2,000 militants for 24 hours. Most of the paratroopers died, and the militants themselves lost almost a quarter of their strength.

Despite such cases, the second war, unlike the first, can be called sluggish. Perhaps that is why it lasted longer - a lot happened over the years of these battles. The new Russian authorities decided to act differently. They refused to conduct active combat operations carried out by federal troops. It was decided to exploit the internal split in Chechnya itself. Thus, Mufti Akhmat Kadyrov went over to the side of the federals, and situations were increasingly observed when ordinary militants laid down their arms.

Putin, realizing that such a war could last indefinitely, decided to take advantage of internal political fluctuations and persuade the authorities to cooperate. Now we can say that he succeeded. It also played a role that on May 9, 2004, Islamists carried out a terrorist attack in Grozny, aimed at intimidating the population. An explosion occurred at the Dynamo stadium during a concert dedicated to Victory Day. More than 50 people were injured, and Akhmat Kadyrov died from his injuries.

This odious terrorist attack brought completely different results. The population of the republic was finally disappointed in the militants and rallied around the legitimate government. A young man was appointed to replace his father, who understood the futility of the Islamist resistance. Thus, the situation began to change for the better. If the militants relied on attracting foreign mercenaries from abroad, the Kremlin decided to use national interests. The residents of Chechnya were very tired of the war, so they already voluntarily went over to the side of the pro-Russian forces.

The counterterrorism operation regime, introduced by Yeltsin on September 23, 1999, was abolished by President Dmitry Medvedev in 2009. Thus, the campaign was officially over, since it was not called a war, but a CTO. However, can we assume that veterans of the Chechen war can sleep peacefully if local battles are still taking place and terrorist acts are carried out from time to time?

Results and consequences for the history of Russia

It is unlikely that anyone today can specifically answer the question of how many died in the Chechen war. The problem is that any calculations will only be approximate. During the period of intensification of the conflict before the First Campaign, many people of Slavic origin were repressed or forced to leave the republic. During the years of the First Campaign, many fighters from both sides died, and these losses also cannot be accurately calculated.

While military losses can still be more or less calculated, no one has been involved in ascertaining losses among the civilian population, except perhaps human rights activists. Thus, according to the current official data, the 1st war claimed the following number of lives:

• Russian soldiers - 14,000 people;
• militants - 3,800 people;
• civilian population - from 30,000 to 40,000 people.

If we talk about the Second Campaign, the results of the death toll are as follows:

• federal troops - about 3,000 people;
• militants - from 13,000 to 15,000 people;
• civilian population - 1000 people.

It should be borne in mind that these figures vary greatly depending on which organizations provide them. For example, when discussing the results of the second Chechen war, official Russian sources talk about a thousand civilian deaths. At the same time, Amnesty International (an international non-governmental organization) gives completely different figures - about 25,000 people. The difference in these data, as you can see, is huge.

The result of the war is not only the impressive numbers of casualties among killed, wounded, and missing people. This is also a destroyed republic - after all, many cities, primarily Grozny, were subjected to artillery shelling and bombing. Their entire infrastructure was practically destroyed, so Russia had to rebuild the capital of the republic from scratch.

As a result, today Grozny is one of the most beautiful and modern cities. Other settlements of the republic were also rebuilt.

Anyone interested in this information can find out what happened in the territory from 1994 to 2009. There are many films about the Chechen war, books and various materials on the Internet.

However, those who were forced to leave the republic, lost their relatives, their health - these people hardly want to immerse themselves again in what they have already experienced. The country was able to withstand this most difficult period of its history, and once again proved that dubious calls for independence or unity with Russia are more important for them.

The history of the Chechen war has not yet been fully studied. Researchers will spend a long time looking for documents about losses among military and civilians and rechecking statistical data. But today we can say: the weakening of the top and the desire for disunity always lead to dire consequences. Only the strengthening of state power and the unity of people can end any confrontation so that the country can live in peace again.

Chechnya is one of the most media-rich and at the same time mysterious regions. The republic is regularly mentioned in the media, but at the same time it is shrouded in an aura of myths. Powerless women and aggressive men, prohibition and untold wealth. The correspondent spent the weekend in Grozny to understand some of them.

In the eyes of the public, the Chechen Republic is still associated with zinc coffins, terrorism, human rights violations and medieval mores. Russians are ready to happily travel to Egypt and Turkey, despite terrorist attacks on tourists in these countries, but they are openly afraid to travel to Chechnya. Meanwhile, the republic's leadership does not hide the fact that it dreams of turning Grozny into a kind of Caucasian Dubai - a center of tourism and trade.

The emirate has long found a successful balance between Islamic traditions and oriental flavor, on the one hand, and European freedoms and a high level of service, on the other. Chechnya is only at the beginning of its journey. By and large, Grozny is not yet an independent tourist center - you can see all the sights in two days, and the greatest interest is in the exotic everyday life of local life.

Father, son and holy spirit

Since Grozny, destroyed by the war, was virtually rebuilt in the 21st century, the Soviet legacy is almost not felt here. There are practically no ugly concrete boxes from the era of stagnation, bas-reliefs glorifying the shock workers of socialist labor and monuments to Lenin. New idols took the place of the leader of the world proletariat. All over the city, Akhmat-Khadzhi Kadyrov is looking thoughtfully at you from posters, with whom he sometimes keeps company both together and separately. It’s interesting that while photographs of the Kadyrov father and son are different everywhere, Putin’s is almost always the same. The young and no longer quite similar to his current president in a suit looks at the traveler with a kind look.

Photos of Kadyrov the father are almost always accompanied by quotes. From the facades of schools, Akhmat-Hadzhi recommends studying well, on the territory of hospitals and clinics - to take care of your health, and from billboards of streets and squares - to protect your hometown, history and honor of the people. For those who never saw the USSR, all this smacks of Asia, but those nostalgic for the Soviet system will feel at home. Only instead of Lenin, Kadyrov became the nation’s kind grandfather. If in the Land of Soviets everything that moves and does not move was named after Ilyich, from an icebreaker to a state farm, then in modern Chechnya the universal name for the most important objects is Akhmat.

Why the program for restoring the Russian-speaking population of Chechnya is not working.

The program for the return of the Russian-speaking population is slowing down, activists lament. One of them, Saiputdin Guchigov, brings Russian residents who once fled from it to the capital of the republic. Shows new luxurious houses, palaces, fountains. Takes people to the graves of loved ones. “Very few people have returned. But many will come very soon,” says the volunteer.

Last year, the deputy head of the administration of the head and government of the Chechen Republic, Oleg Petukhov, spoke about the need for the return of the Russian population: “... This is one of the priority areas of the national policy of the republic, aimed at creating conditions for the return of those people who were forced to leave in the 1990s region due to various circumstances... Ramzan Akhmatovich welcomes the arrival of the Russian-speaking population, regardless of whether they lived in Chechnya or not.

March 1995. GROZNY. RUSSIAN CEMETERY. REBURIAL OF CITIZENS GATHERED IN THE CITY AFTER WINTER.

It's safe, beautiful, comfortable here. There is no drunkenness, rudeness, or hooliganism here, and you can walk freely at night without fearing for your life.”

However, former residents of the region doubt the need to return.

Yes, I really miss Chechnya. We lived in Grozny on Proletarskaya Street. It’s a wonderful place - there’s a park nearby,” says resettled Olga Rostovtseva, who now lives in the city of Engels, Saratov region. - Relations with neighbors were good.

The problems began in 1990. Russian residents found anonymous letters in their mailboxes demanding that they leave. About a year later, Russian girls began to disappear on the streets, and young men were beaten and killed. My 14-year-old son once came completely bloodied, with torn clothes. I almost lost consciousness.

Then they started kicking Russian Grozny residents out of their apartments. Inscriptions appeared on the walls of the houses: “Don’t buy apartments from Masha and Dasha, they will still be ours!” No one bought even for symbolic sums.

Later the slogans became popular: “Russians, don’t leave: we need slaves.” It was so scary - I can’t describe it!
The family of the head teacher of school No. 10 was killed right in the apartment. Four people: her, her husband and two daughters.
My neighbor was deprived of her life on the street - her head was pierced, her ribs were broken and she was raped.
We ran away in the fall of 1993. We were left without housing, without work. Thank you, my relatives gave me shelter.

But still, would you like to go back?

It seems like I want to, but when I remember how frantically they beat, robbed and killed Russians, the desire disappears completely. Although, it must be said, there were those in Grozny who sympathized with us, but were afraid to openly help.

Cardiologist Vera Sotnikova, who lives in Volokolamsk near Moscow, also misses Chechnya: “We lived in the small town of Neftemaisk. My son has been robbed many times. There was violence all around! Some were killed, others were turned into slaves...

The bandits who burst in with machine guns took away my documents for housing and ordered me and my neighbors to evict.

I know that the situation in this region is now quite calm. The Russians are being called back.

There really are a lot of good people in the republic. And our local acquaintances tried to provide support in difficult times, hidden, of course.

By the way, I visited my hometown a year and a half ago. Neighbor Aishat recognized me and was happy. I started asking how things were going, how were the children? Good woman. And the city is good. But we will not return to it."

Chechnya urgently needs scientific and technical personnel, doctors, and teachers. Therefore, the Russian-speaking population is encouraged to return, hoping that they will awaken nostalgia for the times of their youth, says Rais Suleymanov, head of the Volga Center for Regional and Ethno-Religious Studies of the Russian Institute for Strategic Studies. - Those who were young in the late 1980s and early 1990s are welcome in Chechnya. That is, not very old.

The second reason for the attempt to return the Russians is political. The events that took place in Chechnya in the 1990s can rightfully be called genocide. The presence of Russians and their comfortable living will be evidence of stability in the republic. For Ramzan Kadyrov, who positions himself not only as the head of the region, but also as the leader of the people, this is very important.

It is possible, although unlikely, that Kadyrov has a desire to justify himself for the terrible events of the 90s. He, being very young, probably observed the process of ousting the Russian-speaking residents of Chechnya. Now he strives to show: Chechens are hospitable and get along with people of other nationalities. The idea of ​​us as getting fatter and getting richer at the expense of the rest of the country is fundamentally wrong.

Three Cossack villages survived in the republic; they managed to survive the hard times.

How many Russians are left in the region?

What is the current Russian population of Chechnya like? The majority are law enforcement officers who go there on business trips every year. Old people who managed to survive in Grozny after two wars. The pages I mentioned earlier. Permanent residents - approximately 10,000 people.

: - How many of them left the republic?

The figure given is 300,000. However, it is unknown how many fled the region, how many were killed and taken into slavery.

: - A version is being expressed: a large number of the Russian-speaking population died from shells and bombs of the Russian army.

Of course, they died for this reason too. Not only Russians. However, most of the dead Russian-speaking people were exterminated during the “cleansing” period.

Will Russians go to Chechnya?

There is no place to work there. Perhaps, for purely propaganda reasons, they will create several enterprises for Russians, but there will be no work for the rest.

If newcomers get more jobs, the indigenous population will become embittered and indignant.

There will be work for qualified specialists who are not available in Chechnya. But which of them will go there?

In addition, they do not say anything specific about the provision of housing.

Candidate of Political Sciences, senior researcher at the Department of Russian Politics at Moscow State University named after M.V. Lomonosov Artur Ataev agrees with Rais Suleymanov: “The program to attract the Russian-speaking population operates in three regions: Dagestan, Chechnya and Ingushetia. The latter received an impressive amount of money for the implementation of the plan. However, according to the head of the republic, Yunus-bek Yevkurov, not a single Russian family returned.

It happened that residents of the Stavropol Territory married men from Ingushetia, received subsidies and left. Not a single case has been brought to court.

Regarding Chechnya. Currently, there is no exact data on the number of Russian immigrants living in other regions. There is no data on the number of people wishing to return.

Now let's analyze the political elite of the Chechen Republic. At the end of the 1990s and the first half of the 2000s, it consisted of 60% Russians, now it is only one or two people.

What situation will Russians who wish to move to Chechnya find themselves in?

Currently, for example, in Grozny, there is a feeling of stability. But how long will it last?

Radical bandit groups were pushed out into the territory of Ingushetia. But who can guarantee that they won’t return in the near future?”

Vera Sotnikova says that while in her homeland she felt: Chechen teenagers and young people consider Russians their worst enemies.

They shouldn't be blamed for this. They were born either before the war or during it. Many are unhealthy because they grew up in difficult situations.

And a large number of Chechen elders already regret the exodus of the Russians. They say: “It’s bad without you.”

However, it is not only Chechens who are to blame for the tragedy of the Russian-speaking population of Chechnya. We were betrayed by the Russian government, which brought Dzhokhar Dudayev to power, by the military, who said: “If you are still here, that means you are Chechens too,” and by human rights activists, who did not notice that we were being killed. We turned out to be second-class Russians.”