Historical Events

After the Cold War (mid 1940s-1990s) between the United States and Russia, Eastern Europe was completely redrawn. The US victory had extremely weakened Russia’s economy, and they were no longer strong enough to stay united as the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. The fall of the Berlin wall signaled this end of the USSR. It was clear that Russia was no longer strong enough to keep its followers. Eastern Europe was divided into over twelve new countries.

Most were made into Euro-Atlantic defense structures. Others were adopted into the European Union. However, Chechnya was very different. Western rulers sought to please Russian president Vladimir Putin by allowing Russian occupation of Chechnya. The Russian brutal military response was to a second war of Moscow in the Caucasus, which has been going on for 6 years.

A national independence movement came out during the restructuring of the Soviet economy and bureacracy in the 1980s. There had been strong feelings in Chechnya in favor of seperation from Russia. They even ratified a national consensus for succession in 1991. A similar situation was in the larger countries of Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. With them though, the USSR’s Supreme Soviet quickly approved of the vote. As a result, these countries became a part of the UN without barely any problems. The disadvantage of Chechnya though, was it’s size of 15,000 square kilometers and smaller population of 1 million.

Currently, the Russian government claims to base their operations in Chechnya off of the 1998 Law on the Suppression of Terrorism and the 1996 Law on Defense. However, the focus should not be on Russia being the victim of terrorism here. They are causing this resistance by being inflexible. They want to keep Chechnya as a republic instead of letting them be independent like all the other states. Russia is making the Chechens severe victims.

Russia’s suspicion of Chechnya dates back to the 1940s. In 1944, Stalin deported thousands of Chechens to Siberia and Kazakhstan. Stalin was suspicious that the Chechens were collaborating with Germany. Then in 1957 the Chechen-Ingush republic was reestablished, and Chechens could return home. In 1991 elected Chechen president Dzhokhar Dudayev declared Chechnya independent. However, Russian president Boris Yeltsin would not recognize Chechnya as independent, and even sent troops, who withdrew after facing armed Chechens. Then in 1995, Dudayev was killed by Russian rockets, and in response, Chechens took Russians hostage. One of the most important events since the start of this in the 1990s, was Chechens counteroffensive to Russian occupation of Grozny in 1996. 5,000 Chechen troops invaded Grozny, and the Russians agreed to ceasefire, and withdrew. This was a major event, with mass killing of a total of 70,000 people. The case of Chechnya is still a current event today, with continued killing, detaining, and Chechen rebellion.

Christina, Kate, Caleigh