Info from Wikipedia:
Early history
In classical times the northern slopes of the Caucasus mountains were inhabited by the Circassians on the west and the Avars on the east. In between them, the Zygians occupied Zyx, approximately the area covered by north Ossetia, the Balkar, the Ingush and the Chechen republics today. Chechnya is a region in the Northern Caucasus which has constantly fought against foreign rule beginning with the Ottoman Turks in the 15th century. Eventually the Chechens converted to Islam and tensions began to die down with the Turks; however, conflicts with their Christian neighbours such as Georgians and Cossacks, as well as with the Buddhist Kalmyks intensified. The Russian Terek Cossack Host was established in lowland Chechnya in 1577 by free Cossacks resettled from the Volga to the Terek River.
Caucasian Wars
Main article: Caucasian War
In 1783, Russia and the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti (which was devastated by Turkish and Persian invasions) signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, according to which Kartl-Kakheti received protection by Russia. In order to secure communications with Georgia and other regions of the Transcaucasia, the Russian Empire began spreading its influence into the Caucasus mountains. The current resistance to Russian rule has its roots in the late 18th century (1785–1791), a period when Russia expanded into territories formerly under the dominion of Turkey and Persia (see also the Russo-Turkish Wars and Russo-Persian War, 1804-13), under Mansur Ushurma—a Chechen Naqshbandi (Sufi) Sheikh—with wavering support from other North Caucasian tribes. Mansur hoped to establish a Transcaucasus Islamic state under shari'a law, but was ultimately unable to do so because of both Russian resistance and opposition from many Chechens (many of whom had not been converted to Islam at the time). Its banner was again picked up by the Avar Imam Shamil, who fought against the Russians from 1834 until 1859.
Soviet rule
Chechen rebellion would characteristically flame up whenever the Russian state faced a period of internal uncertainty. Rebellions occurred during the Russo-Turkish War, the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Russian Revolution of 1917, Russian Civil War (see Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus), and Collectivization. Under Soviet rule, Chechnya was combined with Ingushetia to form the autonomous republic of Chechen-Ingushetia in the late 1930s.
The Chechens, though, again rose up against Soviet rule during the 1940s (see 1940-1944 Chechnya insurgency), resulting in the deportation of the entire ethnic Chechen and Ingush populations to the Kazakh SSR (later Kazakhstan) and Siberia in 1944 near the end of the World War II (see Population transfer in the Soviet Union).[4][5] Stalin and others argued this was punishment to the Chechens for providing assistance to the German forces; although the German front never made it to the border of Chechnya, an active guerrilla movement threatened to undermine the Soviet defenses of the Caucasus (noted writer Valentin Pikul claims that while the city of Grozny was being prepared for a siege in 1942, all of the air bombers stationed on the Caucasian front had to be re-directed towards quelling the Chechen insurrection instead of fighting Germans at the siege of Stalingrad). Chechen-Ingushetia was abolished and the Chechens were allowed to return to their homeland after 1956 during de-Stalinization, which occurred under Nikita Khrushchev.
The Russification policies towards Chechens continued after 1956, with Russian language proficiency required in many aspects of life and for advancement in the Soviet system.
Recent events
With the impending collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an independence movement, initially known as the Chechen National Congress was formed. This movement was ultimately opposed by Boris Yeltsin's Russian Federation, which argued, first, that Chechnya had not been an independent entity within the Soviet Union—as the Baltic, Central Asian, and other Caucasian States had—but was a part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and hence did not have a right under the Soviet constitution to secede; second, that other republics of Russia, such as Tatarstan, would consider seceding from the Russian Federation if Chechnya were granted that right; and third, that Chechnya was a major hub in the oil infrastructure of the Federation and hence its secession would hurt the country's economy and control of oil resources.
In the ensuing decade, the territory was locked in an ongoing struggle between various factions, usually fighting unconventionally and forgoing the position held by the several successive Russian governments through the current administration. Various demographic factors including religious ones have continued to keep the area in a near constant state of war.
First Chechen War
Main article: First Chechen War
The First Chechen War occurred in a two year period lasting from 1994 to 1996, when Russian forces attempted to stop Chechnya from seceding. Despite overwhelming manpower, weaponry and air support, the Russian forces were unable to establish effective control over the mountainous area due to many successful Chechen guerrilla raids. Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in 1995 shocked the Russian public, and discredited Chechen guerrillas. Widespread demoralization of the Russian forces in the area prompted Russian President Boris Yeltsin to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later.
The war was disastrous for both sides. Conservative casualty estimates give figures of 7,500 Russian military dead, 4,000 Chechen combatants dead, and no fewer than 35,000 civilian deaths—a minimum total of 46,500 dead. Others have cited figures in the range 80,000 to 100,000.[6]
Inter-war period
The 1997 election brought to power the separatist president Aslan Maskhadov. Following the war, the separatist government's grip on the chaotic republic was weak, especially outside the ruined capital Grozny, and the country became increasingly lawless.[7] The authority of the government in Grozny was opposed by the unruly warlords like Arbi Barayev and Salman Raduyev. Abductions and raids into other parts of the Northern Caucasus by various Chechen warlords had been steadily increasing.[7] In lieu of the devastated economic structure, kidnapping emerged as the principal source of income countrywide, procuring over $200 million during the three year independence of the chaotic fledgling state.[8] During these three years no kidnappers were ever convicted.[9] Political violence and religious extremism, blamed on "Wahhabism", was rife as well. In 1998, a state of emergency was declared by the authorities in Grozny. Tensions led to the open clashes like the July 1998 confrontation in Gudermes in which some 50 people died in the fight between Chechen National Guard and Islamist militants.
Second Chechen War
Main article: Second Chechen War
In August 1999, Shamil Basayev began an unsuccessful incursion into the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan (see Dagestan War). In September, a series of apartment bombings took place in several Russian cities, including Moscow. In response, after a prolonged air campaign of retaliatory strikes against the Ichkerian regime (who was officially seen as the culprit of both the bombings and the incursion) a ground offensive began in October 1999. Much better organised and planned than the first Chechen War, the military actions by the Russian Federal forces enabled them to quickly re-establish control over most regions and after the re-capture of Grozny in February 2000, the Ichkerian regime fell apart, although a prolonged guerrilla activity in the southern mountainous regions continues, despite becoming increasingly sporadic. Nonetheless Russia was successful in installing a pro-Moscow Chechen regime, and eliminating the most prominent separatist leaders including former President Aslan Maskhadov and militant leader Shamil Basayev.
