In Chechnya, Russian troops fought under the tsars, when the Caucasus region was only part of the Russian Empire. But in the nineties of the last century, a real massacre began there, the echoes of which have not subsided to this day. The Chechen war in 1994-1996 and in 1999-2000 - two disasters for the Russian army.
Background to the Chechen wars
The Caucasus has always been a very difficult region for Russia. Issues of nationality, religion, culture have always been raised very sharply and were resolved by far from peaceful means.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the influence of the separatists increased in the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic on the basis of national and religious hostility, as a result of which the Republic of Ichkeria was self-proclaimed. She entered into a confrontation with Russia.
In November 1991, Boris Yeltsin, then President of Russia, issued a decree "On the introduction of a state of emergency on the territory of the Chechen-Ingush Republic." But this decree was not supported in the Supreme Council of Russia, due to the fact that most of the seats there were occupied by opponents of Yeltsin.
In 1992, the thirdMarch, Dzhokhar Dudayev said that he would start negotiations only when Chechnya gained full independence. A few days later, on the twelfth, the Chechen parliament adopted a new constitution, self-proclaiming the country a secular independent state.
Almost immediately, all government buildings, all military bases, all strategically important objects were captured. The territory of Chechnya completely came under the control of the separatists. From that moment on, legitimate centralized power ceased to exist. The situation got out of control: the trade in weapons and people flourished, drug trafficking passed through the territory, bandits robbed the population (especially Slavic).
In June 1993, soldiers from Dudayev's bodyguard seized the parliament building in Grozny, and Dudayev himself proclaimed the emergence of "sovereign Ichkeria" - a state that he completely controlled.
A year later, the First Chechen War (1994-1996) will begin, which will mark the beginning of a series of wars and conflicts that have become, perhaps, the most bloody and cruel in the entire territory of the former Soviet Union.
The first Chechen: the beginning
In 1994, on the eleventh of December, Russian troops entered the territory of Chechnya in three groups. One entered from the west, through North Ossetia, another - through Mozdok, and the third group - from the territory of Dagestan. Initially, the command was entrusted to Eduard Vorobyov, but he refused and resigned, citing the complete unpreparedness of this operation. Later, the operation in Chechnya will be headed by Anatoly Kvashnin.
Of the three groups, only the "Mozdok" was able to successfully reach Grozny on December 12 - the other two were blocked in different parts of Chechnya by local residents and partisan detachments of militants. A few days later, the remaining two groups of Russian troops approached Grozny and blocked it from all sides, with the exception of the southern direction. Until the beginning of the assault from this side, access to the city will be free for militants, this later influenced the siege of Grozny by federal waxes.
Assault on Grozny
On December 31, 1994, the assault began, which claimed many lives of Russian soldiers and remained one of the most tragic episodes in Russian history. About two hundred units of armored vehicles entered Grozny from three sides, which were almost powerless in the conditions of street fighting. Communication between the companies was poorly established, which made it difficult to coordinate joint actions.
Russian troops are stuck on the streets of the city, constantly getting under the crossfire of militants. The battalion of the Maykop brigade, which advanced the farthest towards the city center, was surrounded and was almost completely destroyed along with the commander, Colonel Savin. The battalion of the Petrakuvsky Motorized Rifle Regiment, which went to the rescue of the "Maikopians", after two days of fighting, consisted of about thirty percent of the original composition.
By the beginning of February, the number of stormers was increased to seventy thousand people, but the assault on the city continued. Only on February 3, Grozny was blocked from the south side and encircled.
March sixth part of the lastdetachments of Chechen separatists were killed, another left the city. Grozny remained under the control of Russian troops. In fact, little was left of the city - both sides actively used both artillery and armored vehicles, so Grozny was practically in ruins.
In the rest of the territory of Chechnya, there were continuous local battles between Russian troops and militant groups. In addition, the militants prepared and carried out a number of terrorist attacks: in Budyonnovsk (June 1995), in Kizlyar (January 1996). In March 1996, the militants made an attempt to recapture Grozny, but the assault was repelled by Russian soldiers. And on April 21, Dudayev was liquidated.
In August, the militants repeated their attempt to take Grozny, this time it was a success. Many important objects in the city were blocked by the separatists, Russian troops suffered very heavy losses. Together with Grozny, the militants took Gudermes and Argun. On August 31, 1996, the Khasavyurt Agreement was signed - the First Chechen War ended with huge losses for Russia.
Casual losses in the First Chechen War
Data varies depending on which side is counting. Actually, this is not surprising and it has always been so. Therefore, all options are provided below.
Losses in the Chechen war (table No. 1 according to the headquarters of the Russian troops):
| Russian side | Chechen separatists | |
| Killed | 4103 or 5042 | 17391 |
| Injured | 19794 or 16098 | |
| Disappeared | 1231 or 510 |
Two numbers in each column, where the losses of Russian troops are indicated, these are two headquarters investigations that were carried out with a difference of a year.
According to the Committee of Soldiers' Mothers, the consequences of the Chechen war are completely different. Some of those killed there are called about fourteen thousand people.
Losses in the Chechen war (table No. 2) of militants according to Ichkeria and a human rights organization:
| According to the headquarters of the Chechen units | Memorial human rights organization |
| 3800 or 2870 | no more than 2700 militants |
Among the civilian population, "Memorial" put forward a figure of 30-40 thousand people, and the Secretary of the Security Council of the Russian Federation A. I. Lebed - 80,000.
Second Chechen: main events
Even after the signing of the peace agreements, Chechnya did not become calmer. The militants ran everything, there was a brisk trade in drugs and weapons, people were kidnapped and killed. There was anxiety on the border between Dagestan and Chechnya.
After a series of kidnappings of major businessmen, officers, journalists, it became clear that the continuation of the conflict in a more acute phase is simply inevitable. Moreover, since April 1999, small groups of militants began to probe the weak points of the defense of the Russian troops, preparing an invasion of Dagestan. The invasion operation was led by Basayev and Khattab. The place where the militants planned to strike was in the mountainous zone of Dagestan. It combined the small number of Russian troops with an inconvenient locationroads on which you can’t transfer reinforcements very quickly. On August 7, 1999, the militants crossed the border.
The main strike force of the bandits were mercenaries and Islamists from Al-Qaeda. For almost a month there were battles with varying success, but, finally, the militants were driven back to Chechnya. Along with this, the bandits carried out a series of terrorist attacks in various cities of Russia, including Moscow.
As a response, on September 23, a heavy shelling of Grozny began, and a week later, Russian troops entered Chechnya.
Casual losses in the Second Chechen war among Russian servicemen
The situation has changed, and the Russian troops now played a dominant role. But many mothers never waited for their sons.
Losses in the Chechen war (table No. 3):
| Official data for September 2008 (for the Second Chechen War) | New investigation of the Headquarters of the RF Armed Forces and data for April 2010 (for the Second Chechen War) | |
| Killed | 4572 | more than 6000 |
| Wounded | 15549 |
In June 2010, the Commander-in-Chief of the Ministry of Internal Affairs Nikolai Rogozhkin gave the following figures: 2,984 killed and about 9,000 wounded.
Losses of militants
Losses in the Chechen war (table No. 4):
| According to Russia | According to militants | |
| Killed | 13517 or more 15000 | 3600 |
| Wounded | about 7000 | 1500 (as of April 2000) |
Civilian casu alties
According to the data officially confirmed, as of February 2001, more than a thousand civilians were killed. In the book by S. V. Ryazantsev "Demographic and migration portrait of the North Caucasus", the losses of the parties in the Chechen war are five thousand people, although we are talking about 2003
Judging by the assessment of Amnesty International, which calls itself non-governmental and objective, there were about twenty-five thousand dead among the civilian population. They can count for a long time and diligently, only to the question: "How many actually died in the Chechen war?" - hardly anyone will give an intelligible answer.
Results of the war: peace conditions, restoration of Chechnya
While the Chechen war was going on, the loss of equipment, enterprises, land, any resources and everything else was not even considered, because people always remain the main ones. But now the war ended, Chechnya remained part of Russia, and the need arose to restore the republic from practically ruins.
Huge money was allocated to the capital of the republic - Grozny. After several assaults, there were almost no entire buildings left, and at the moment it is a large and beautiful city.
The economy of the republic was also raised artificially - it was necessary to give time for the population to get used to the new realities, so that new factories and farms were rebuilt. Roads, communication lines, electricity were needed. Today we can say that the republicalmost completely out of the crisis.
Chechen wars: reflected in films, books
Dozens of films were made on the events that took place in Chechnya. Many books have been released. Now it is no longer possible to understand where the fiction is, and where the real horrors of war are. The Chechen war (as well as the war in Afghanistan) claimed too many lives and went through the whole generation, so it simply could not remain unnoticed. Russia's losses in the Chechen wars are colossal, and, according to some researchers, the losses are even greater than in ten years of war in Afghanistan. Below is a list of films that most profoundly show us the tragic events of the Chechen campaigns.
- documentary film of five episodes "Chechen trap";
- "Purgatory";
- "Cursed and forgotten";
- "Prisoner of the Caucasus".
Many fiction and journalistic books describe the events in Chechnya. For example, the now famous writer Zakhar Prilepin, who wrote the novel "Pathology" about this war, fought as part of the Russian troops. Writer and publicist Konstantin Semyonov published a series of stories "Grozny Tales" (about the storming of the city) and the novel "The Motherland Betrayed Us". The storming of Grozny is dedicated to Vyacheslav Mironov's novel "I was in this war".
Video recordings made in Chechnya by rock musician Yuri Shevchuk are widely known. He and his group "DDT" repeatedly performed in Chechnya in front of Russian soldiers in Grozny and at military bases.
Conclusion
The State Council of Chechnya has published data from which it follows that in the period from 1991 to 2005 almost one hundred and sixty thousand people died - this figure includes militants, civilians, and Russian soldiers. One hundred and sixty thousand.
Even if the numbers are too high (which is quite likely), the amount of losses is still enormous. Russia's losses in the Chechen wars are a terrible memory of the nineties. The old wound will hurt and itch in every family that lost a man there in the Chechen war.
