In the late twentieth century, seemingly out of the blue, they were suddenly brought to international notice: one million Chechens with their small country in the northeastern Caucasus mountains, less than half the size of the Netherlands. Does Chechnya have a right to independence, and is there any chance of recognition of this status? Or is it rather a part of Russia? Two wars have been fought over this issue since then, killing tens of thousands of people. A little study of history could have taught the Russians that these were formidable opponents indeed.

Thousands of years ago, the Chechens’ ancestors settled in this mountainous and woody territory, managing to hold their own against other mountain peoples as well as against foreign invaders. Relatively late, they converted to Islam (Sufism), preserving some animist left-overs. Belief was at the centre of their resistance to foreign rule. Strongly egalitarian, Chechen society is based on clans (‘teips’); loyalty to the clan comes first, blood feud being practiced. Far into the twentieth century, national consciousness was lacking, until it was encouraged by a deportation in 1944 and the struggle for independence after 1991.

During the second half of the eighteenth century, under empress Catherine the Great, the Russian army started establishing permanent stations in the North Caucasus, then an Ottoman protectorate, as a first step in the subjection of the mountain peoples. Then and there, Chechen opposition to Russian rule began. It was ‘unparalleled among other colonial nations’, according to Marie Bennigsen, who deems the resistance led by the Chechens and the Dagestanis ‘the longest of any Muslim nations against a western colonizer’. Moshe Gammer, however, makes some distinctions with respect to the idea of resistance as a distinguishing feature of Chechen culture, pointing out that it always originated with a minority, whereas the majority was prepared to compromise.

From 1785 to 1791, Sheik Mansur led the first major revolt. Meanwhile, helped by Christian nations like the Georgians and the Armenians, the Russians moved down south along the coast of the Black Sea, cutting off the North Caucasians from the Ottoman Empire. In subjecting the mountain peoples, the Russian commander in the Caucasus, General Alexei Yermolov, used cruel methods.