1. The Bolsheviks considered the Chechens to have the right to secede. In fact, they disarmed the entire Chechen population in 1925.
By 1925, Stalin had pretty much consolidated his power. The more interesting date for me is December 1922, when Lenin described Stalin as a Great Russian chauvinist for bullying the peoples of the Caucuses. Things got much worse in the intervening 3 years.
2. Russia sent troops to Chechnys without provocation. In fact, they were sent there after mujaheedin invaded Dagestan from Chechnya, twice.
The provocation was mostly from the Russian side after Putin decided to retain his grip on Chechnya. If the Kremlin had kept its promise to grant independence to the Chechnyans, it would have gone a long way to deescalate the situation.
3. Terrorist bombings began in Russia after troops entered Chechnya, not before. Again, this is factually incorrect.
In terms of before and after, I would look for a broader historical context--starting with the colonization of the Caucuses in the 1830s. In the USA we are told by people such as Rush Limbaugh that we can't give land back to the Indians that was stolen from them such a "long time" ago. I guess there is a similar logic in Russia.
4. The Chechen slave trade was not connected to the Chechen government. In fact, the Chechen government permitted a slave market on Grozny's main square.
I understand that it also encouraged cannibalism and devil worship.
5. Stalin was not popular. In fact, Stalin was adored as a near-God, as any competent biography of the man says, and has been written about many times.
Stalin was adored as a near-god? If that's the case, why was it necessary to build one of the biggest secret police forces outside of Hitler's Germany? Were they necessary to suppress all the Trotskyite spies secretly being funded by the Mikado and Berlin?
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