History UsefulNotes / TheChechnyaWars

* In ''Series/TheSopranos'' episode ''[[Recap/TheSopranosS3E11PineBarrens Pine Barrens]]'' it is mentioned that Russian Mobsters Slava and Valery both served in the Chechen War with the Russian Army.

* In ''Series/TheSopranos" episode "[[Recap/TheSopranosS3E11PineBarrens Pine Barrens]]" it is mentioned that Russian Mobsters Slava and Valery both served in the Chechen War with the Russian Army.

One infamous incident being the Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis where separatists led by Shamil Basayev invaded a Russian town and [[AdultFear took over a maternity hospital hostage and demanded a ceasefire]]. As Basayev's terrorists began to randomly gun down the victims, the Russian forces tried to hastily storm the hospital which ended in failure. With 140 dead (105 being civilians), the Russians agreed to a ceasefire. This incident dealt a large blow to the Russian's morale and by 1996 and Yeltsin was pressured to show any results of the federal forces' efforts. This would eventually come in Dudayev's assassination by means of two guided missiles. Unfortunately for them, this victory was short-lived: soon after Dudayev's death, the separatists would manage to retake the capital of Grozny, effectively [[AllForNothing sending the Russians back to square one]]. At this point, they were already tired of fighting and [[KnowWhenToFoldEm knew it was time to call it quits]]. Yeltsin met with Aslan Maskhadov, the new President of Chechnya to sign the Khasav-Yurt Accord which granted ''de facto'' independence to the republic, but it was still nominally part of Russia.

The Chechnya Wars were a series of conflicts between the [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Russian Federation]] and the rebellious province of Chechnya styled as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 1994 to 2009. They are split into two parts - the first war raging from 1994 to 1996 and the second one from 2000 to 2009. Though these wars were mostly fought on regional scale, their origins traced from far longer way back to the 18th century and had far reaching consequences beyond just being nationalistic and sectarian in nature, as they served as a prelude to UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror due to second war dealing with Islamic terrorists before 9/11 and it also helped shape Russia as we know today with UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin's rise.

Chechnya is located into the Northern Caucasus, a mountainous region bordered between Europe and Asia whose peoples are predominantly Muslim, having adopted UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} as their religion in contrast to their {{UsefulNotes/Orthodox Christian|ity}} neighbors in UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Europe}}, UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}} and more importantly, the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Tsardom of Russia]]. In the late 18th century, the Russians would begin an expansion into the region under UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, though the campaign would be very long going through three Tsars before being concluded in 1864 when they defeated the [[TheTheocracy Caucasian Imamate]] governed by Imam Shamil. By the early 20th Century as the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Revolution]] was underway, the Chechens found an opportunity to break away with a good portion of other Caucasian nations like Dagestan and Ingushetia to form their independent states.

[caption-width-right:274:''Don't tell mom I'm in Chechnya.'']]

When the USSR emerged as the victors with UsefulNotes/JosefStalin in charge, they were brought into heel as satellite Communist republics. The Chechens would prove their stubbornness is not easily curbed and when the Nazis invaded the Soviet Union during UsefulNotes/WorldWarII, they [[EnemyMine threw their lot with them]] against the "Red Imperialists", seeing the Nazis as their "liberators". Unfortunately for them, the Nazis were routed and when the Russians regained control of the Northern Caucasus region, Stalin ordered the entire Chechen and Ingusheti populations to be displaced by the [[SecretPolice NKVD]] on grounds of being [[TheQuisling collaborators to the Nazis]]. This was known as [[ThePurge Operation Lentil]], which saw hundreds of thousands being relocated to UsefulNotes/{{Kazakhstan}} with up to a third of their population dying off in death marches due to exposure to the inhospitable Kazakh areas, and in return Russians would resettle the abandoned region as per Soviet policy.

Chechnya is located into the Northern Caucasus, a mountainous region bordered between Europe and Asia whose peoples are predominantly Muslim, having adopted UsefulNotes/{{Islam}} as their religion in contrast to their {{UsefulNotes/Orthodox Christian|ity}} neighbors in UsefulNotes/{{Georgia|Europe}}, UsefulNotes/{{Armenia}} and more importantly, the [[UsefulNotes/TsaristRussia Tsardom of Russia]]. In the late 18th Century, the Russians would begin an expansion into the region under UsefulNotes/CatherineTheGreat, though the campaign would be very long going through three Tsars before being concluded in 1864 when they defeated the [[TheTheocracy Caucasian Imamate]] governed by Imam Shamil. By the early 20th Century as the [[UsefulNotes/RedOctober Russian Revolution]] was underway, the Chechens found an opportunity to break away with a good portion of other Caucasian nations like Dagestan and Ingushetia to form their independent states.

The Chechnya Wars were a series of conflicts between the [[UsefulNotes/{{Russia}} Russian Federation]] and the rebellious province of Chechnya styled as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria from 1994 to 2009. They are split into two parts - the first war raging from 1994 to 1996 and the second one from 2000 to 2009. Though these wars were mostly fought on regional scale, their origins traced from far longer way back to the 18th Century and had far reaching consequences beyond just being nationalistic and sectarian in nature, as they served as a prelude to UsefulNotes/TheWarOnTerror due to second war dealing with Islamic terrorists before 9/11 and it also helped shape Russia as we know today with UsefulNotes/VladimirPutin's rise.

These atrocities shocked the International community, specially in the aftermath of 9/11 which Putin used to highlight his own fight against Islamic terrorism and gain more support from the West. Though Basayev was the mastermind of these terrorist attacks, he was just [[DividedWeFall one of the several Ichkeria militant leaders that were highly disorganized and had their different agendas]], while the pro-Moscow Kadyrov was able to pacify and centralize Chechen into an autonomous republic for the Russian Federation. As such in 2004 saw the apogee of terrorist attacks, when alongside the aforementioned Beslan school siege, a stadium bombing claimed Kadyrov's life alongside 29 people, leaving his son Ranzam as the next President of Chechnya. The next years after 2004 would see the insurgency die down following the deaths of Basayev and Maskhadov putting an end to the dreams of an secular Ichkeria republic, which was reorganized into the jihadist faction Caucasian Emirate by his successors. Very slowly, the responsibility of fighting separatists would be slowly transferred from federal forces to Kadyrov's militia, and billions were spent in order to reconstruct Grozny. The anti-terrorist operations would officially end in 2009.

Furthermore, the region is still considered very dangerous to visit and live not only because of the low-level insurgency and the repressive regime of President Ramzan Kadyrov (though nowhere near as much as it was under Ichkeria obviously- no open-air slave markets), who is accused of widespread human right violations such as kidnappings, forced disappearances, torture, extrajudicial killings and the most infamous one of all: an concentration camp for LGBT individuals. This resulted in backlash from Western entities and the USA imposing sanctions on Kadyrov himself, who denied these allegations though he hasn't made himself look better by fiercely antagonizing his critics and stating gays don't exist in Chechnya, "weren't human" and "their families should kill them", as well as voicing support for {{domestic abuse}}, honor killings, polygamy (even though it's illegal in Russia) with any Muslim who speaks out against the practice being [[NoTrueScotsman no true adherent of their faith]], among many controversies.

The war proved to be integral in solidifying Putin's leadership and popularity for the Russian people. By rallying under a common threat, they were reunited after Yeltsin's disastrous mishandling of the conflict. However, the conflict contributed to deep changes in Russia's politics and society with a some Western commentators lamenting that the wars killed Russia's fledging democracy in its cradle by handing it over to a strong-handed ruler. Former KGB agent Alexander Litvinenko was notorious for accusing Putin of among many things, [[FalseFlagOperation orchestrating the apartment bombings as an excuse to justify a war against the Chechens]] and transform Russia into an mafia state. The fact that none of the Chechen separatists ever took credit for these bombings [[note]]Specially Basayev who lead the invasion into Dagestan that also served as lynchpin for the second conflict and took credit for several terrorist attacks consistently denied having ordered those specific bombings [[/note]] and Litvinenko's death by poisoning in 2006 under mysterious circumstances led to several theories about Russia's involvement in provoking the war. [[note]] It should be noted that while he was one of the most important political dissidents at the time he lived, many claims made by Livtnenko were considered absurd for being provided with no evidence and essentially blaming Russia for ''every little thing'' that went wrong. So while his death is still considered very sketchy, his allegations were taken with a grain of salt [[/note]].

It wouldn't be until the 50s when UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev took power that [[PetTheDog he permitted them to return to their homeland]]. Decades passed and as the Soviet Union weakened, the Chechens were clamoring to gain their independence from it, with General Dzhokhar Dudayev [[DestinationDefenestration literally throwing out]] the Soviet administrators in 1991 and being elected the first President of Chechnya - curiously, it was one of the first republics to declare independence before the USSR disintegrated. However, by the time the Union fell and it was split into several different countries, Chechnya wasn't recognized and instead was officially part of the Russian Federation. The Chechens still considered themselves independent, and due to the persecution[[note]]Aka [[ANaziByAnyOtherName ethnic cleansing]][[/note]] of non-Chechen minorities within the region and the oil fields being integral for Russia's infrastructure, the Russian President UsefulNotes/BorisYeltsin began to prioritize the Chechen problem. At first, he began arming Chechens sympathetic to Moscow using the criminal network that took hold of the urban areas, but then he sent Russian conscripts disguised as Chechens to stage a coup. The attempt failed miserably with Yeltsin being humiliated when the conscripts were exposed in national television by Dudayev. As such, he mobilized the federal troops and formally declared an invasion of Chechenya.

It wouldn't be until the 50s when UsefulNotes/NikitaKhrushchev took power that [[PetTheDog he permitted them to return to their homeland]]. Decades passed and as the Soviet Union weakened, the Chechens were clamoring to gain their independence from it, with General Dzhokhar Dudayev [[DestinationDefenestration literally throwing out]] the Soviet administrators in 1991 and being elected the first President of Chechnya - curiously, it was one of the first republics to declare independence before the USSR disintegrated. However, by the time the Union fell and it was split into several different countries, Chechnya wasn't recognized and instead was officially part of the Russian Federation. The Chechens still considered themselves independent, and due to the persecution[[note]]Aka [[ANaziByAnyOtherName ethnic cleansing]][[/note]] of non-Chechen minorities within the region and the oil fields being integral for Russia's infrastructure, the Russian President UsefulNotes/BorisYeltsin began to prioritize the Chechen problem. At firs, he began arming Chechens sympathetic to Moscow using the criminal network that took hold of the urban areas, but then he sent Russian conscripts disguised as Chechens to stage a coup. The attempt failed miserably with Yeltsin being humiliated when the conscripts were exposed in national television by Dudayev. As such, he mobilized the federal troops and formally declared an invasion of Chechenya.