Below I include the third and last instalment of my chronology on
Russian-Chechen relations. But first some remarks on the discussion.
Chris Doss demands I deal with the question of the attacks by some Chechens and
other Islamic elements on Dagestan, saying "Dammit, answer my question. What
should Russia's reaction have been [to] armed incursions by jihadi gunmen? Sit
there and take it? Write them letters? `Dear Mr. Khattab, we think you are a big
meany. Cut it out.' "
Actually, I answered this question. Chris just didn't like my answer. Of
course, I was referring to how to deal with a series of problems in the
Caucasus, not just the Dagestani events used by Putin as a pretext to renounce
the peace accords with Chechnya, to declare that a Russian puppet government set
up in 1996 is now the real government in Chechnya, and to massively invade
Chechnya.
I raised that several things had to be done.
I pointed out that, first of all, so long as the right to self-determination of
Chechnya isn't recognized, and until Chechnya has conditions allowing it to
reestablish a viable economy and its own political institutions, things "will
fester on and on, poisoning the situation in the Caucasus" and elsewhere in
Russia too, for that matter. And I pointed out that, since the genocidal
Stalinist policy of complete deportation of the Chechens hadn't ended the
Chechen struggle, it was ridiculous to think that Putin's war would.
I also pointed to the havoc created by the Yeltsin-Putin policy of regarding
the entire Caucasus as their sphere of influence, and of cynically playing off
one people against another in (former Soviet) Georgia, Azerbaijan and Armenia.
But, since Putin and the Russian bourgeoisie are not going to give up Russian
imperialism, I emphasized that it was up to the Russian working masses to oppose
Putin's policies. However, to do so, the Russian working masses would have to
organize themselves in a class movement for their own interests.
I pointed out that the right to self-determination, while a necessary part of a
solution, wasn't a panacea. In my view, not just the Russian working people, but
the working people of all the nationalities of the Caucasus will have to get
organized in new class movements. Clearly the Chechens will have an especially
hard time opposing bourgeois nationalism and Islamic fundamentalism, given the
massive deproletarianization caused by their economy having been devastated for
a decade.
The final part of my chronology is relevant to these points.
Take the question of Russian imperialist policy towards the Caucasus. My
chronology refers not just to Chechnya, but to a few of the events elsewhere in
the Caucasus. For example,
* The Russian government aided the coup against Georgian president Gamsakhurdia
in Jan. 1992. To avoid misunderstanding, let me say that I am not a supporter of
Gamsakhurdia. But the point is that the Russian state intervened strongly in
Georgia at this time.
* The Russian government, that fierce enemy of Islamic secessionism, gave
military aid to the separatist movement in Abkhazia in Georgia and encouraged
Islamic secessionism. In other words, it did to Georgia the same thing certain
Chechens did to Dagestan. There is a certain difference. The Russian government
didn't necessarily want the Abkhazians to win. It simply wanted to create
disorder in Georgia. Through this and other intervention in Georgia, it got the
Georgia government to agree to the stationing of Russian troops there to help
pacify the situation, and it got Georiga to join the CIS.
To a small extent, the Chechen situation is "blowback" for what Russia did to
Georgia, since various Chechens got their military experience and training in
Abkhazia.
* The Russian goevrnment backed the coup in June 93 in Azerbaijan. Again, I am
not backing Elchibey, who the Russians were able to unseat, but simply
condemning Russia's interference.
And so on. The Russian government has fished in troubled waters for its own
advantage. So long as this continues, the waters will indeed continue to be
troubled.
Moreover, the Russian destabilization of Chechnya began several years before
the first Chechen war, that broke out in 1994. The Russian government couldn't
conceive of the right to self-determination for Chechnya, wouldn't accept the
idea that Chechnya could be independent but associated with Russia (in the CIS,
for example), and sought to install its own puppets instead. Military action
against Chechnya began already in 1991. For example,
* In December 1991, the Russian government sought to bring troops to
Grozny, but was turned back.
* On March 31, 1992, the Russian government backed an attempt at an armed coup
in Grozny.
* On September 6-7, 1992, the Russian government -- that supposed defender of
the security of the Dagestan/Chechen border -- attempted to use Dagestan as a
springboard to invade Chechnya.
Etc.
Now, of course, there were also other comments about my chronology. One such
comment was that who cared if the Tsarist government waged decades of warfare to
smash the Caucasus, or if Stalin deported all the Chechens, because history is
always bloody, genocidal and criminal. This is a viewpoint that might be
acceptable to Dr. Kissinger, but is not acceptable to people who have risen in
revolution in anger at the crimes of the exploiting classes against them.
Someone else commented that a socialist country really could deport entire
nationalities, killing large numbers of them in the process, because it isn't
perfect. This is cynical defense of the indefensible. It is closing one's eyes
to the real world.
Then it is advocated that no one elsewhere should sympathize with the deported
nationalities or denounce the genocidal crimes against them. So apparently, it
isn't just that supposed socialist governments might commit the most vicious
oppression of entire nationalities, but the rest of the socialist movement is
simply supposed to shrug it off.
And then it is suggested that Tsarist oppression wasn't that bad. Mind you, the
revolutionaries who rose up against Tsardom called it a "prisonhouse of
nations". But then again, those were revolutionaries determined to change the
world, not apologize for oppressors.
Finally, it is suggested that only anti-Russians would denounce Russian
imperialist violation of the right to self-determination. On the contrary, just
as it is important for supporters of the American working class to denounce US
imperialism, it is important for supporters of the Russian working class to
denounce Russian imperialism. The struggle against the bourgeoisie is a world
movement, and proletarian internationalism requires a consistent struggle
against all imperialism. Only this will help create the conditions for the
development of a new revolutionary working class movement based on
Marxism-Leninism. Not Trotskyism, not Stalinism, not socialist-deportationalism,
but Marxism.
So with those introductory words, I give you the concluding section of my
chronology.
-----------------------------------------------------------
IMPORTANT DATES IN RUSSIAN-CHECHEN RELATIONS
Part III, from the late 1980s to early 2000
------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------
The period leading to the first Chechen war:
late 1980s to 1994
----------------------------------------------
.
Late 1980s:
. There are protests in Chechnya with regard to cultural, religious and language
issues and, on environmental grounds, against the plan to build a biochemical
plant in the Chechen city of Gudermes. A Popular Front is formed, dominated by
old-line party officials who want, however, to replace the Russian First
Secretary of the local CP with a Chechen.
June 1989:
. Doku Zavgayev becomes the first Chechen since the exile to become First
Secretary of the "Communist" (actually, state-capitalist) Party of the
Chechen-Ingush Republic. Zavgayev wants to maintain the old state-capitalist
system, albeit with top posts staffed with more Chechens, and his supporters
sweep the seats from Chechnya in elections to the Supreme Soviet of the USSR
that year, except for the election of a Chechen, Ruslan Khasbulatov, who is then
a supporter of Boris Yeltsin.
1990:
. Protests sweep Chechnya; many ethnic Russians and other unpopular officials
resign.
1990-1:
. In the bitter fight between Russian leader Yeltsin and Soviet leader
Gorbachev, both sides appeal to the various regions in Russia, or even to Russia
as a whole, with the promise of more national rights. On April 26, 1990 a Soviet
decree from the Gorbachev government declares that all the autonomous republics
inside Russia were "subjects of the USSR" (as opposed to simply being "subjects
of Russia"), thus bypassing Russia's control. For his part, Yeltsin declares the
"sovereignty" of the Russian Federation on June 12, 1990. Moreover, Yeltsin
tours various regions of Russia in 1990-91 declaring "take as much sovereignty
as you can swallow". And in April 1991 the Russian Federation decrees "The Law
on the Rehabilitation of All Repressed Peoples". Meanwhile a draft treaty
redefining the basis of the Soviet Union is circulated by the Soviet leadership
in November 1990, and it places the autonomous republics in Russia more on a par
with the union republics of the Soviet Union. Later, in 1991, Gorbachev would
invite such figures as the Chechen Doku Zavgayev to take part in the negotiation
of a new treaty defining the basis of the Soviet Union.
November 23-25, 1990:
. The National Congress of the Chechen People is formed at a meeting in Grozny
with over 1,000 delegates. Only Chechens, not Ingush, are invited. Various
political forces are involved, both supporters of Zavgayev and more
nationalistic elements. Jokhar Dudayev, the first Chechen general in the Soviet
armed forces since the exile and the commander of an air force division of
long-range nuclear bombers, is elected the chairman of the Executive Committee
set up by the Congress. This may well be due to the desire to find a figurehead
leader who is above the factions; after all, Major-General Dudayev is stationed
in Estonia, quite far from Chechnya, and hence might be expected to play little
role in Chechen politics. But Dudayev leaves the Soviet air force in March 1991
and assumes an active role as head of the Executive Committee in Grozny.He
becomes the head of the independence movement in Chechnya until his death in
1996.
November 1990 - July 1991:
. The day after the Chechen Congress closes, the official government body, the
local Supreme Soviet, imitating the sovereignty declaration of the Russian
Federation, declares the Chechen-Ingush Republic a "sovereign state". The
declaration doesn't mean that the Soviet is actually seeking to leave Russia or
the Soviet Union, but it is trying to coopt the nationalist mass movement.
Meanwhile, in 1991, after Dudayev moves to Grozny, he reshapes the Chechen
National Congress into a militant independence movement. In June it declares the
formation of an Chechen state independent of Russia or the Soviet Union, and a
number of the founders of the Chechen National Congress abandon it. The
Executive Committee of the Chechen National Congress calls for dissolving the
local Supreme Soviet, while the official party and state leadership seek to
suppress public opposition from the independence movement.
August 1991:
. The old-guard in the CP leadership stages a coup against Gorbachev, seeking to
seize power throughout the Soviet Union. This reactionary attempt to restore the
old regime by force accelerates secessionist tendencies everywhere in the USSR
and sparks "the Chechen revolution". The official party and state officials in
Chechnya are irrevocably discredited by their actions. Although some denounce
the coup, others support it and try to suppress opposition with military force,
while key leaders like Zavgayev wait to see which way the wind is blowing before
taking a public stand. Dudayev and the Chechen National Congress denounce the
coup immediately, organize demonstrations and a general strike against it, and
call again for the dissolution of the official government apparatus, exposed by
its stand towards the coup. More and more areas in Chechnya back the Chechen
National Congress and send people to Grozny to overthrow the old apparatus.
. Yeltsin holds back the armed forces loyal to [him]it from restraining the
Chechens. He now opposes Zavgayev due to his stand on the coup, and temporarily
backs the Chechen militants, who have been supporting him. Khasbulatov as well,
at this point allied closely to Yeltsin, welcomes the pressure on Zavgayev.
Later Zavgayev will be back in favor with Yeltsin, and even a Yeltsin advisor,
as a Chechen who backs Russian measures against Chechnya.
September 1991:
. The struggle between the Chechen National Congress and the official apparatus
intensifies and results in the successful storming of the parliament in Grozny.
Eventually there is the forced dissolution of the Supreme Soviet, all this to
the applause of Khasbulatov, who visits Chechnya and chairs the last meeting of
its Supreme Soviet, when it hands over power to a Provisional Supreme Council.
But later in September and October, when it appears that Dudayev is pressing for
full independence, going beyond what Yeltsin and Khasbulatov want, refusing to
recognize the Provisional Supreme Council, and setting up an apparatus
independent of Moscow, Moscow begins to turn against Dudayev and the Chechen
movement. At the same time, Dudayev always claims--right up to his death--that
Chechnya should be independent of Russia, but associated. He holds that Russia
and Chechnya should be equal as separate republics inside the Soviet Union, or
later, the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS).
September 15, 1991:
. An Ingush Congress declares that Ingushetia is separate from Chechnya, and is
its own autonomous republic within the Russian Federation.
October 1991:
. The Chechen independence movement consolidates its power, despite hostile
resolutions of the Russian Duma and harsh threats from Russian President
Yeltsin, Vice-president Rutskoi, and Khasbulatov, the latter two later being
prominent leaders of the parliamentary opposition to Yeltsin. (Rutskoi, notably,
is particularly virulent in his demands for simply suppressing the Chechens by
force.) Despite this, parliamentary and presidential elections are held on
October 27 in Chechnya, with Dudayev elected as president.
October 19, 1991:
. Yeltsin denounces and threatens the Chechen movement in his first televised
statement on Chechnya.
November 2, 1991:
. Khasbulatov is confirmed as speaker of the Russian Duma and sponsors a
resolution denouncing the Chechen elections. This is the formal resolution
accompanying the beginning of protracted Russian efforts to forcibly resubjugate
Chechnya.
November 7, 1991:
. Yeltsin declares a state of emergency in Chechnya, orders Dudayev's arrest,
and prepares to subdue Chechnya by force.
November 9, 1991:
. Russian troops from the Interior Ministry fly into Khankala Airport outside
Grozny. They are immediately blockaded by a new Chechen national guard, while a
huge mass meeting in Freedom Square in Grozny rallies around the Dudayev
government. Meanwhile, with the rivalry between Yeltsin and Gorbachev still
proceeding, Gorbachev issues orders that Russian and Soviet troops should stay
neutral. By evening, the Russian troops surrender their troops to the Chechens
and are bused out of the airport and back to Russian positions. Thus ends the
first Russian attempt to retake Grozny.
. Russian military base are, however, still all over Chechnya. Over the coming
months, Chechens surround them, seeking to force the troops out but have them
leave their weapons behind. Russia in fact loses most of these weapons, and all
Russian troops are forced out by Chechnya by June 8, 1992.
December 1991:
. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) dissolves. Russia, the Ukraine
and Belarus join together in a loose Commonwealth of Independent States, which
quickly grows to include a number of other republics of the former USSR.
January 1992:
. The bourgeois nationalist Zviad Gamsakhurdia becomes president of Georgia in
May 1991.Russia provides strong backing for a coup, which finally overthrows him
seven months later, at the beginning of 1992. The result is several years of
warfare. As a result of the unstable situation arising from this coup, and from
a Russian-backed insurgency in Abhazia, Georgian president Shevardnadze has to
welcome Russian troop presence. Also notable is that both Gamsakhurdia and then,
for a time, Shevardnadze had rejected Georgian membership in the Commonwealth of
Independent States, but as part of the price for Russian assistance Shevardnadze
takes Georgia into the CIS in December 1993.
. The overthrow of Gamsakhurdia helps Russia isolate Chechnya, while
Gamsakhurdia is given refuge in 1992-3 by Chechen President Dudayev.
March 31, 1992:
. Chechen opposition forces, backed and armed by Russia, attempt an armed coup
in Grozny, but are driven out by the evening.
June 1992:
. The former Soviet republic of Moldova, located between Ukraine and Romania,
isn't part of the Caucasus, but is closer to the Balkans. However, the events
here illustrate Russia's manipulation of national conflicts outside its borders
in order to preserve its influence. The Russian 14th Army, still present despite
Moldovan independence in 1991, helps arm a separatist movement in the small
Transdniester region of Moldova, a movement particularly worried by the prospect
that Moldova might join Romania. Then, under a new commander, General Alexander
Lebed, the 14th Army intervenes in June 1992 to prevent Moldova from defeating
the secessionists, but without removing Transdniester from Moldova, and Lebed
also stops further Russian arming of the secessionists. (It can be noted that
the secessionists are mainly led by old-guard forces from the old CP, friendly
to the opposition to Yeltsin, and besides, union with Russia is unlikely as
Transdniester doesn't border Russia, and ethnic Russians in Transdniester are
outnumbered both by ethnic Ukrainians and ethnic Moldovans.) Since then, the
dispute has calmed down, in part because nationalists committed to uniting
Moldova to Romania have lost much ground and also because Moldova grants
Transdniestria a certain autonomy. But Russian military forces remain, acting
for the time being somewhat like UN peacekeeping forces in the former
Yugoslavia, and Moldova's fate is tied with the policy of the Russian commander.
. Such Russian influence, combined with the pressure of a Russian agricultural
tariff imposed to punish Moldova for its parliament refusing to ratify Moldova's
membership in the CIS, results in ratification of CIS membership in April 1994.
1992:
. This year marks the beginning of the secessionist revolt of Abkhazia against
Georgia. Many fighters come from other Islamic mountaineer peoples of the
Caucasus to join the fight against mainly Christian Georgia. The Abkhaz
nationality suffers greatly from Georgian chauvinism, and perhaps so does some
of the non-Abkhaz nationalities in the area. At the same time, large numbers of
ethnic non-Abkhaz people, who are a substantial majority in the area, eventually
flee Abkhazia. Russia provides strong military backing for the revolt, with the
ironic result that it helps supply the war in which many Chechen militants, such
as Shamil Basayev, get their military training. Russia's interest is in
destabilizing Georgia enough that it will turn to Russia for troops and support,
as Georgian President Shevardnadze in fact does.
September 6-7, 1992:
. Russian special forces and other armed units enter a Dagestan village
bordering Chechnya, preparing to enter Chechnya. They are blocked by the local
population, and are forced to retreat.
November 1992:
. There is a bloody clash between the Ingush Republic and Ossetia over the
Prigorodny district, which had originally belonged to the Chechen-Ingush
autonomous republic but had been handed over by the Stalin government of the
Soviet Union to North Ossetia after the mass deportations of 1944. Russia
basically sides with Ossetia, but the Ingush Republic continues to cherish hopes
that Yeltsin may make good on his promises and that Russia may aid it in getting
the region back. This is one of the reasons that Ingushetia did not join
Chechnya in demanding full independence from Russia.
. In connection with these events, Russian troops in Ingushetia move toward a
still unsettled border with Chechnya, and Russian and Chechen armored forces
confront each other. But an agreement is reached between Russia and Chechnya to
end the crisis.
December 1992:
. The Yeltsin administration decides to step up its support of forces in
Chechnya opposed to the Dudayev government.
April 17, 1993:
. Dudayev's one-time friendly relations with the Chechen parliament have
vanished. He declares presidential rule and the dissolution of the Chechen
parliament and the Town Council of Grozny.On April 18 Parliament, defying
Dudayev's order of dissolution, begins impeachment proceedings against Dudayev,
and on the 19th the Constitutional Court invalidates the dissolution of
Parliament. Grozny becomes the scene of two daily streams of demonstrations,
those for and against Dudayev. Dudayev dissolves the Constitutional Court on
June 3.
June 4, 1993:
. Dudayev suppresses the opposition with armed force, thus consolidating control
in Grozny (but not all over Chechnya) and fending off an opposition-organized
referendum scheduled for June 5.
June 1993:
. The bourgeois nationalist Azerbaijani president Abulfaz Elchibey is overthrown
by an armed coup with substantial Russian help. This too helps isolate Chechnya.
It also clears the way for Azerbaijan to rejoin the CIS (it had joined in 1991
but left after the Azerbaijani parliament wouldn't ratify CIS membership).
October 1993:
. The sad results of the free-market reforms in Russia had led to increasingly
conflict between Yeltsin and the Russian parliament ("Duma") led by Khasbulatov.
This reaches a climax, and President Yeltsin, backed by the armed forces,
defeats the rebellion of the Russian parliament and has the parliament building
shelled and occupied. He replaces the Russian constitution by a new one which
gives the president sweeping powers (this is later ratified in a referendum).
There is an eerie parallel between the struggles between the President and
Parliament in Russia and Chechnya.
May 27, 1994:
. There is an attempt to assassinate Dudayev with a remote-controlled car bomb.
The second car in a procession of official cars--the spot usually used by
Dudayev--is blown up, murdering two high Chechen officials, but this time
Dudayev was in the third car. The high-tech nature of the attack leads to the
belief that it was organized by the Russian secret services.
Summer 1994:
. Russia puts more emphasis on the "half-force" option (something like American
"low-intensity conflict", which gained notoriety in Central America) to
overthrow the Chechen government. This means overthrowing Dudayev through a
covert operation with Chechen front-men and Russian personnel disguised as
Chechens. The Yeltsin government steps up the military and financial support to
the Russian-backed "Provisional Council of the Chechen Republic" which had been
founded in December 1993.
August 1, 1994:
. The Russian-backed "Provisional Council" declares that it has taken power in
Chechnya. This indicates its intention, not the reality, and serves as a request
for more Russian aid. On August 25, a secret resolution of the Yeltsin
government recognizes the "Provisional Council". On August 30, fighting
intensifies between the Russian-backed forced "Provisional Council" and the
Dudayev-government of Chechnya.
October 15, 1994:
. Armed forces under the command of some elements of the Russian-backed
opposition stage a surprise attack on Grozny and, without much fighting, occupy
some administrative buildings.They leave Grozny on the same day, apparently due
in large part to contradictions among the different factions of the opposition
and between the Yeltsin government and Khasbulatov. Khasbulatov, the former
leader of the Russian parliament who was a Chechen, had been jailed after
Yeltsin's suppression of the parliamentary revolt in 1993. He is released from
jail in 1994 and goes to Chechnya, where he has some popularity (no doubt
enhanced by his imprisonment by Yeltsin), and intrigues to replace the Dudayev
government with his own rule of a Chechnya restored to Russia. The Yeltsin
government may well fear that any success on October 15 would rebound of the
advantage of their current bitter rival, Khasbulatov, and prefer to overthrow
Dudayev on their own. In any case, the fiasco on October 15 shows that the
"half-force" option isn't working.
November 24, 1994:
. The Russian-backed "Provisional Council" of Chechnya creates a Government of
National Rebirth.
November 26, 1994:
. A substantial Russian armored force, in the guise of Chechen oppositionists,
attempts to install a "Government of National Rebirth" in Grozny. Russian
television announces that the Dudayev government has fled the Presidential
Palace, but the attack is, in fact, another fiasco. It is not only beaten back,
but 21 Russian soldiers are taken prisoner, exposing the real force behind the
attack.So much for the "half-force" option.
The first Chechen war:
November 1994 - November 1996
.
December 11, 1994:
. A large Russian force, vastly outnumbering the forces at the disposal of the
Dudayev government, invades Chechnya from three directions.
December 31, 1994:
. The Russian forces bombard Grozny, and push into the city with a strong
armored force. The city suffers massive destruction, but the invading forces
suffer a bloody defeat. Large numbers of Russian armored vehicles are destroyed;
some units face virtual annihilation; and the Russian forces are pushed out of
the city center. In the following days, the Russian army begins a systematic
destruction of Grozny and resumes a more systematic attack on the city.
March 7, 1995:
. Russian forces finally occupy all of Grozny.
April 21, 1996:
. Chechen President Dudayev is killed by a Russian rocket, which homes in on the
signal from a satellite telephone that Dudayev is using while seeking to arrange
negotiations with Russia. In March, Yeltsin had ordered his assassination.
Vice-president Zelimkhan Yandarbiyev becomes president.
May 28, 1996:
. Yeltsin visits Chechnya and declares that Russia had destroyed all the "bandit
groups" and won the war.
August 6, 1996:
. The Chechens begin their successful attempt to retake Grozny from the Russian
armed forces.
August 12, 1996:
. On behalf of the Yeltsin government, General Lebed begins serious negotiations
with the Chechens at the border town of Khasavyurt in Dagestan.
August 31, 1996:
. All Russian troops have left Grozny, and an agreement is signed by Lebed and
Chechen Chief of Staff Maskhadov at Khasavyurt. A final settlement concerning
the political independence of Chechnya, however, is left for future
determination in five years, by December 31, 2001. A joint Russian-Chechen
commission is to run the economy of Chechnya, but in practice it does little and
quickly meets its demise. Chechnya continues to insist it is independent, but
Russia continues to make economic difficulties for it.
October 17, 1996:
. Lebed is fired from the Yeltsin government.
November 23, 1996:
. Russian Prime Minister Chernomyrdin and Maskhadov reach agreement on the
withdrawal of Russian troops prior to Chechen presidential elections at the end
of January 1997. In fact, the troops leave in six weeks. The first Chechen war
is over.
>From the first Chechen war to the second:
December 1996 to the present
.
1997-1999:
. Chechnya, in desperate straits before the war, is left devastated by the war.
Cities and villages were ravaged; there are few resources for rebuilding; there
is little employment; and there is no stable state authority. As well, Russia
continues to harass Chechnya economically. The Chechen government and economy is
in a state of disarray. A large number of kidnappings of foreigners, including
aid workers, engineers and others, eventually contributes to isolating Chechnya
January 27, 1997:
. One of the two main military leaders of the fight against Russia, Chief of
Staff Aslan Maskhadov, is elected president of Chechnya, his main opponent being
the other key military leader, Shamil Basayev. Maskhadov is supposed to be the
guy who Russia is able to make deals with.
Autumn 1998:
. President Maskhadov had brought Basayev into his government, but Basayev
eventually leaves, takes part in oppositional groupings, and demands the removal
of Maskhadov. There are several other commanders from the Chechen war in the
same grouping as Basayev, the most prominent being Salman Raduyev, who was a
rival to Basayev during the war, and "Khattab", a Jordanian who had been with
the Mujahedin in Afghanistan. The opposition presses Maskhadov to abolish the
secular state established by the Chechen constitution and instead establish
Islamic law in Chechnya, which Maskhadov concedes to in early 1999.
December 1998:
. Four telecom engineers from Britain and New Zealand are kidnapped. This is
just one of many kidnappings taking place. In this case, Maskhadov's government
tries and fails to free them, and they are beheaded. This is alleged to be the
act of the Islamic extremist "Wahabi" group. Such groups are spreading in
Chechnya and Dagestan.
July-August 1999:
. Chechen rebels associated with Shamil Basayev are the main force in raids by
Islamic militants on Russian forces in Dagestan in the name of Dagestani
independence and creating a greater Islamic state in the North Caucasus.
Dagestan is a North Caucasian region which is still part of the Russian
federation. There are many different nationalities in Dagestan, and it seems
that the Islamic fundamentalist and independence forces do not have much support
in Dagestan at this time.
September 1999:
. The struggle in Dagestan heats up further. Russian forces retaliate against
the rebels, who suffer defeat in Dagestan, but Russian forces go on to stage
attacks on Chechnya in the name of attacking rebel bases. By now, there are tens
of thousands of Dagestani refugees. Several mysterious terrorist bomb attacks
occur in Moscow, killing and injuring hundreds of ordinary Russians. It is not
clear who set these bombs; no one takes any credit for them; and the fact that
they are politically advantageous to the Yeltsin government does not go without
notice. Without any evidence, the Yeltsin government blames them on Chechens,
and steps up its attacks on Chechnya. There is also hysteria organized against
Chechens and other darker-skinner peoples living in Moscow and elsewhere in
Russia.
October 2, 1999:
. After over a week of bombing Chechnya, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin
withdraws recognition of the Chechen government and declares that a puppet
Chechen parliament set up under Russian occupation of Chechnya in 1996 is the
real government (this parliament is now based in Moscow). The Russian government
has thus renounced the Khasavyurt accords that ended the first Chechen war.
October 1999 to January 2000:
. Russia invades Chechnya with large forces, taking the plains, but suffering
repeated setbacks and heavy casualties in its attempt to take Grozny, and also
facing heavy fighting in the Chechen highlands. More than 200,000 Chechen
refugees flee to neighboring Ingushetia. Russia demands that all civilians leave
Grozny, so that it can bomb the city to hell, which it is doing
anyway.Meanwhile, in order to resist Russia, the Chechen government led by Aslan
Maskhadov and the Islamic rebels led by Shamil Basayev join together.
December 1999:
. Russian looting throughout Chechnya is so bad that even Malik Saidullayev, a
businessmen who is head of a pro-Russian puppet committee, the so-called "State
Council of Chechnya", denounces the Russian looting of his home village,
Alkan-Yurt, and the murder of 41 civilians there. He produces videotape to back
his claim. Meanwhile Russian forces suffer repeated setbacks in their attempt to
take Grozny.
December 19, 1999:
. The Yeltsin government rides a wave of chauvinism over the Chechen war into
Russian parliamentary elections. The newly-formed political bloc "Unity", backed
by Russian Prime Minister Putin, does extremely well, finishing just behind the
largest party, Zyuganov's so-called "Communist Party of the Russian Federation
(which is actually a state-capitalist and Stalinist party), which falls to
merely a fifth of the parliament. This cuts down the parliamentary opposition to
the Yeltsin government, an opposition which had plagued it for years.
January 1, 2000:
. Boris Yeltsin having resigned, Vladimir Putin becomes the acting president of
Russia, and Russian presidential elections have to be pushed forward to March
26, 2000. Putin is associated with the hard-line policy of military suppression
of the Chechens. Yeltsin's hope is that Putin may win the next election for the
Russian presidency on the basis of a wave of chauvinism over fighting Chechnya.
Early January, 2000:
. Chechen forces attack behind Russian lines, and temporarily occupy several
cities and villages supposedly securely under Russian control. The Russian army
announces that it will not regard any fleeing Chechen male between 10 and 60 as
a refugee, but will intern all of them in "filtration camps" to see if they are
rebels. The savagery of the "filtration camps" became known in the first Chechen
war. Under criticism, the Russian army claims to modify this order, perhaps by
exempting males under the age of 15.
January 18, 2000:
. A massive new Russian offensive in Grozny begins. There is heavy Chechen
resistance, and over the next days the Russians end up fighting repeatedly over
territory they say they have already captured. Originally the Russian command
claims that Grozny will fall in three of four days, but at the end of that time,
fighting still continues. There are heavy casualties on both sides.Major General
Mikhail Malofeyev, deputy commander of the Northern Group of Russian forces in
Chechnya and a key commander of the Russian assault on Grozny, is killed on the
first day of the new offensive. Meanwhile, while officially only about 800
Russian soldiers have died in the second Chechen war, a Russian group, the Union
of Committees of Soldiers' Mothers, claims the real figure is about 3,000. This
would mean that the Russian military is well on the way to losing as many
soldiers as in the first Chechen war. And the devastation of Chechnya is also
just as heavy this time as last time.
March 26, 2000:
. Russian presidential elections are scheduled for this day. Acting President
Putin wants to ensure that Chechnya is subjugated by then, in order to ensure
his election as President. <>
