Individual Democratic Institutions Research Fellowships 1994-1996

Administrative and Cadre Reform in Russia: Opportunities And Perils For Democracy Leonid Rodin [Back to Index] Chapter I. War In Chechnya: A Factor Of Multiple Instability I.1. Background for Chechen Secession With a territory of 15 671 sq. km.,smaller than those of neighboring Daghestan and Northern Osetia,not to mention the Stavropol and Krasnodar regions,Chechnya enjoys unique strategic advantages of the 'bridgehead' to the entire Near Caucasian and even TransCaucasian regions. The strategically lucrative territory was the object of rivalries and competitions by different powers historically.Significantly it became an important target of Russian Empire's drive at expansion towards the South;during the Bolshevik period ideas of Chechen independence were on many occasions brutally repressed. Under Mikhail Gorbachev,known for his liberalism,but also irresoluteness,local nationalists had obviously decided it was their time to 'get even' with Moscow and particularly to achieve a much greater level of political autonomy. Significant progress towards attaining these goals was registered under Gorbachev- appointed First Secretary of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic Doku Zavgaev. Zavgaev was the first individual of Chechen origin to rule his own nation eversince its inclusion into the Russian empire.Working without unnecessary publicity and masterfully manipulating Moscow Docu Zavgaev created important prerequisits for the restoration of 'Vainakh' statehood the notion that at that time included both the Chechen and the Ingush population. Meticulously the majority of Russians were removed from positions of prominence in the Republic, special economic benefits were wresttled away from the 'Center'. On November 27,1990 the Republican Supreme Soviet adopted the 'Declaration on the State Sovereignity of the Chechen -Ingush Republic' that could allow it to sign the forthcoming Union and Federative Treaties preempted by the August 1991 coup attempt and the ensuing 'Belovezhskaya Pusha' agreement as one of the 'independent subjects'. Once in power, B.Yeltsin and his entourage lashed out against Zavgaev and his alleged separatism, though most probably as a devoted Communist Zavgaev would never have dreamed of destroying the Soviet empire entirely, and effectively contributed to his removal and replacement by Jokhar Dudaev, who as a military person stationed for a long time outside the Chechen Republic and supposedly unassociated with local power structures could be counted upon as a 'neutral' figure by the victorious anti-Gorbachev 'democrats'. Under Jokhar Dudaev,who in effect continued what had been to a large measure begun by his predecessor, Chechen autonomization aquired the form of patent separatism,which had awesome implications for Russian unity and the ability of 'Central' authorities to rule the country. Naturally,under these circumstances the government in Moscow and the Dudaev regime entered a bitterly confrontational course of relations.However a huge question remains:why these relations acquired such a violent and destructive form and,additionally,why the head-on clash between Moscow and Groznyi happened almost three years after all the political, ideological, economic, personal and other differences and animosities became self-evident and had grown out of every proportion.