The history of military operations in Chechnya. Chechen War
The worst war in history Russian Federation started in 1994. On December 1, 1994, Russian troops entered the territory of the Chechen Republic. It was after these actions that the war in Chechnya began. The first Chechen war lasted 3 years, from 1994 to 1996.
Despite the fact that the war in Chechnya has not left the newspapers and television screens for 3 years, many Russians still do not understand what led to this bloody conflict. Although many books have been written about the war in Chechnya, the reasons for the start of the conflict in Chechnya remain rather vague. After the hostilities in Chechnya ended, the Russians gradually ceased to be interested in this problem.
The beginning of the war in Chechnya, the causes of the conflict
After the collapse of the USSR, a presidential decree was issued, according to which Chechnya received state sovereignty, which could allow it to secede from the Russian Federation. Despite the desire of the people, Chechnya failed to secede from the Russian Federation, since already in 1992 Dudayev seized power, who was very popular among the Chechen people.
Dudayev's popularity was due to his politics. The goals of the Chechen leader were quite simple and appealed to the common people:
- Unite the entire Caucasus under the flag of the Mountain Republic;
- Achieve full independence for Chechnya.
Since after the collapse of the USSR, various ethnic groups living in Chechnya began to openly conflict with each other, the people joyfully welcomed their new leader, whose political program promised to stop all these troubles.
During the 3 years of Dudayev's rule, the republic rolled back decades in development. If 3 years ago there was a relative order in Chechnya, then since 1994, such bodies as the police, courts and the prosecutor's office have completely disappeared in the republic. All this provoked the growth of organized crime. After 3 years of Dudayev's rule, almost every second criminal in Russia was a resident of the Chechen Republic.
Since, after the collapse of the USSR, many republics decided to break with Russia and follow their own path of development, the Chechen Republic also declared its desire to secede from Russia. Under pressure from the Kremlin elite, Russian President Boris Yeltsin decided to overthrow Dudayev's regime, which was recognized as criminal and openly gangster. On December 11, 1994, Russian soldiers entered the territory of the Chechen Republic, marking the beginning of the Chechen war.
According to the forecasts of the Russian Minister for Nationalities, the entry Russian troops to the Chechen territory had to pass with the support of 70 percent of the local population. The fierce resistance of the Chechen people came as a complete surprise to Russian government. Dudayev and his supporters managed to convince the Chechen people that the invasion of Russian troops would only bring enslavement to the republic.
Most likely, the negative attitude of the Chechen people towards the Russian military was formed back in 1944, when the Chechen people were subjected to mass repression and deportations. Practically in every Chechen family there were dead. People died of cold and hunger, and most never returned to their homeland. The old people still remembered the executions that the Stalinist regime was famous for, and set up the youth to resist to the last drop of blood.
Based on all of the above, one can understand what the essence of the war in Chechnya was:
- The criminal regime of Dudayev was not satisfied with restoring order in the republic, since the bandits would inevitably have to curtail their activities;
- Chechnya's decision to secede from the Russian Federation did not suit the Kremlin elite;
- The desire of the Chechen "top" to create an Islamic state;
- The protest of Chechens against the entry of Russian troops.
Naturally, oil interests were not in last place.
First Chechen War, chronicles
The first Chechen war began with the fact that Dudayev's militants received reinforcements from those from whom Russia expected help for itself. All Chechen groups that were in opposition to the Dudayev regime suddenly united in the fight against the Russian military. Thus, the operation, which was planned as a short-term one, turned into the first Chechen war, which ended only in 1996.
Chechen fighters were able to offer the Russian army a very worthy resistance. Since after the output Soviet troops a lot of weapons remained on the territory of the republic, almost all residents of Chechnya were armed. In addition, the militants had well-established channels for the delivery of weapons from abroad. History remembers many cases when the Russian military sold weapons to the Chechens, which they used against them.
The Russian military command had information that Dudayev's Chechen army consisted of only a few hundred militants, but they did not take into account that more than one participant would act from the Chechen side. Dudayev's army was constantly replenished with opposition members and volunteers from the local population. Modern history came to the conclusion that about 13 thousand militants fought on the side of Dudayev, not counting the mercenaries who constantly replenished the ranks of their troops.
The first Chechen war began extremely unsuccessfully for Russia. In particular, an operation was undertaken to storm Grozny, as a result of which the war in Chechnya was supposed to end. This attack was undertaken extremely unprofessionally, the Russian command simply threw all its forces into the assault. As a result of this operation, the Russian troops lost almost all available armored vehicles (the total number of which was 250 units). Although Russian troops captured Grozny after three months of intense fighting, the operation showed that Chechen fighters are a serious force to be reckoned with.
First Chechen war after the capture of Grozny
After Grozny was captured by Russian troops, the war in Chechnya in 1995-1996 moved to the mountains, gorges and villages. The information that the Russian special forces are massacring entire villages is hardly true. Civilians fled to the mountains, and abandoned cities and villages turned into fortifications of militants, who often disguised themselves as civilians. Often, women and children were used to deceive the special forces, who were released towards the Russian troops.
The summer of 1995 was marked by relative calm, as Russian forces took control of the mountainous and lowland regions of Chechnya. In the winter of 1996, the militants made an attempt to recapture the city of Grozny. The war resumed with renewed vigor.
In April, Russian forces were able to locate the militant leader, Dudayev, along with his motorcade. Aviation immediately responded to this information, and the cortege was destroyed. The inhabitants of Chechnya did not believe for a long time that Dudayev had been destroyed, but the remnants of the separatists agreed to sit down at the negotiating table, as a result of which the Khasavyurt agreements were reached.
On August 1, 1996, a document was signed that marked the end of the first Chechen war. The end of the military conflict left devastation and poverty in its wake. Chechnya after the war was a republic in which it was almost impossible to make money by peaceful means. Legally, the Chechen Republic gained independence, although the new state was not officially recognized by any world power, including Russia.
After the Russian troops were withdrawn, Chechnya was covered by the post-war crisis:
- No one restored the destroyed cities and villages;
- Regular purges were carried out, as a result of which all representatives of non-Chechen nationality were destroyed or expelled;
- The economy in the republic was completely destroyed;
- Gang formations gained actual power in Chechnya.
This state of affairs lasted until 1999, when Chechen fighters decided to invade Dagestan to help the Wahhabis set up an Islamic republic there. This invasion provoked the beginning of the second Chechen campaign, since the creation of an independent Islamic state posed a great danger to Russia.
Second Chechen War
The counterterrorist operation in the North Caucasus, which lasted for 10 years, is unofficially called the second Chechen war. The impetus for the start of this war was the introduction of Russian armed forces on the territory of the Chechen Republic. Although large-scale fighting lasted only about a year, fighting continued until 2009.
Although the Khasavyurt agreements at the time of signing suited both sides, peace did not come in the Chechen Republic. As before, Chechnya was ruled by bandits who did business in kidnapping people. Moreover, these kidnappings were massive. The media of those years regularly reported that Chechen gangs had taken hostages for ransom. The bandits did not understand who to capture. The hostages were both Russians and foreigners who worked or covered events in Chechnya. The bandits grabbed everyone:
- Journalists who were lured with promises to give sensational reports;
- Red Cross employees who came to help the Chechen people;
- Religious figures and even those who came to Chechnya for the funeral of their relatives.
In 1998, a French citizen was abducted, who spent 11 months in captivity. In the same year, bandits kidnapped four employees of the company from the UK, who were brutally murdered three months later.
Bandits earned in all areas:
- Sale of oil stolen from wells and overpasses;
- Sale, production and transportation of drugs;
- Making counterfeit banknotes;
- Act of terrorism;
- Predatory attacks on neighboring regions.
The main reason for the outbreak of the second Chechen war was the huge number of training camps that trained militants and terrorists. The core of these schools were Arab volunteers who learned military science from professional instructors in Pakistan.
These schools tried to "infect" with the ideas of separatism not only the Chechen people, but also the regions neighboring Chechnya.
The last straw for the Russian government was the kidnapping of the plenipotentiary representative of the Russian Interior Ministry in Chechnya, Gennady Shpigun. This fact became a signal that the Chechen authorities are not able to fight terrorism and banditry, which have spread throughout the republic.
The situation in Chechnya on the eve of the second Chechen war
Before starting hostilities, and not wanting a second Chechen war to break out, the Russian government took a number of measures that were supposed to cut off the flow of money for Chechen bandits and militants:
- Throughout the territory of the Chechen Republic, self-defense units were created, which received weapons;
- All militia units were reinforced;
- Operational officers of the department for combating ethnic crimes were sent to the Caucasus;
- Several firing points were set up, equipped with rocket launchers designed to deliver pinpoint strikes against a concentration of militants;
- Severe economic sanctions were adopted against Chechnya, which led to problems with the conduct of criminal business;
- Border control was strengthened, which affected drug trafficking;
- Gasoline made from stolen oil has become impossible to sell outside of Chechnya.
In addition, a serious struggle was launched against the criminal groups that financed the militants.
The invasion of Chechen fighters into the territory of Dagestan
Deprived of their main sources of funding, Chechen fighters, under the leadership of Khattab and Basayev, were preparing to seize Dagestan. Beginning in August 1999, they carried out several dozen military operations of a reconnaissance nature, although dozens of military and civilians were killed during these operations. Reconnaissance in force showed that the militants did not have enough strength to break the resistance of the federal troops. Realizing this, the militants decided to strike at the mountainous part of Dagestan, where there were no troops.
On August 7, 1999, Chechen fighters, reinforced by Khattab's Arab mercenaries, invaded the territory of Dagestan. Shamil Basayev, who led the operation along with field commander Khattab, was confident that Chechen fighters, assisted by professional mercenaries associated with al-Qaeda, would easily manage to carry out this invasion. However, the local population did not support the militants, but, on the contrary, resisted them.
While the federal troops of Ichkeria were holding back the Chechen fighters, the Russian leadership offered to conduct a joint military operation against the Islamists. In addition, the Russian side offered to take on the problem of destroying all the bases and warehouses of militants that were located on the territory of Chechnya. President of the Chechen Republic Aslan Maskhadov assured Russian authorities that he knows nothing about such underground bases on the territory of his country.
Although the confrontation between the federal troops of Dagestan and Chechen fighters lasted a whole month, in the end, the bandits had to retreat to the territory of Chechnya. Suspecting the Russian authorities of military aid Dagestan, the militants decided to take revenge.
In the period from 4 to 16 September in several Russian cities, including Moscow, there were explosions of residential buildings. Taking these actions as a challenge, and realizing that Aslan Maskhadov is not able to control the situation in the Chechen Republic, Russia decides to conduct a military operation, the purpose of which was the complete destruction of illegal gangs.
On September 18, Russian troops completely blocked the Chechen borders, and on September 23, the President of Russia signed a decree on the creation of a joint group of troops to conduct a large-scale anti-terrorist operation. On the same day, Russian troops began the bombardment of Grozny, and on September 30 they invaded the territory of the republic.
Features of the second Chechen war
During the second Chechen war, the Russian command took into account the mistakes made in 1994-1996 and no longer relied on brute force. The military made bets on military tricks, luring militants into various traps (including minefields), introducing agents into the militants' environment, and so on.
After the main pockets of resistance were broken, the Kremlin began to lure the elite of Chechen society and former authoritative field commanders to its side. The militants relied on gangs of non-Chechen origin. These actions set the Chechen people against them, and when the leaders of the militants were destroyed (closer to 2005), the organized resistance of the militants ceased. In the period from 2005 to 2008, not a single significant terrorist act took place, although after the end of the second Chechen war (in 2010), the militants committed several major terrorist acts.
Heroes and veterans of the Chechen war
The first and second Chechen campaigns were the bloodiest military conflicts in history new Russia. Most of all in this war, reminiscent of the war in Afghanistan, the Russian special forces distinguished themselves. Many, giving their soldier's duty, did not return home. Those military personnel who participated in the hostilities of 1994-1996 were given the status of a veteran.
The first Chechen war officially began with the introduction of federal troops in December 1994, and ended with their withdrawal from the region in August 1996. This conflict has become the largest internal Russian armed confrontation since the Great Patriotic War and caused a significant resonance in the domestic and world community.
The First Chechen War: Causes
Region North Caucasus has always been" powder keg"as part of Russia. Conquest
of these territories in the first half of the 19th century took place through bloody battles and thorough cleansings of fanatical paramilitary units of the highlanders. Weakening Soviet power at the turn of the eighties and nineties logically led to a weakening of control over local separatist elements. However, before perestroika, they were not so strong, but on the eve of the collapse of the Union, Chechnya was flooded with radical Wahhabi preachers from Arab countries, who incited secession and forcible cleansing of the Chechen territories from the non-Muslim population. The teaching confessors did their job, removing the influence of the previous Sunni clergy and setting the youth up accordingly. As a result, by the autumn of 1991, a significant military group was formed here, headed by Dzhokhar Dudayev. In September 1991, his guards captured the building Supreme Council ministers of the republic and other strategic objects of Grozny, and later other cities. In October, the previous government was dissolved, which was in fact a coup d'état. Dzhokhar Dudayev announced the creation of sovereign Ichkeria, which for more than three years actually enjoyed independence. However, officially it remained part of the Russian Federation, and was not recognized by any country in the world. Three years of separatist rule have turned Chechnya into the most impoverished region of Russia. The number of murders was several times higher than in 1990. The state infrastructure was completely destroyed. The unemployment rate has peaked. All this was supplemented by large-scale ethnic cleansing of the Slavic population, the slave trade, and the seizure of trains. The atrocities took place not only with the consent, but also with the support new government. In 1994, the state of affairs in the region provoked the formation of an anti-Dudaev opposition, which resulted in a civil war between the local population. This was the last straw that forced the government in Moscow to take concrete action.
The main episodes of the conflict
Federal troops entered the republic on December 11, 1995. However, a significant underestimation of the forces of the enemy led to the fact that the first Chechen war became an unexpectedly long confrontation. According to Moscow's preliminary estimates, Dudayev had only a couple of hundred armed fighters. In practice, there were about 13 thousand of them, in addition, the Chechen forces were generously sponsored from abroad and were able to invite a large number of mercenaries. The assault on Grozny lasted from December 1994 until early March 1995. By the summer of the same year, control was established over the plains and mountainous regions of Chechnya. Negotiations began, as a result of which a truce was concluded and an agreement to hold elections. Such elections were held in December 1996, but they did not suit the militants, who continued the war with a terrorist act in Kizlyar in January 1996, as well as an attempt to recapture Grozny in March. The first Chechen war continued. However, already in April, it was possible to track down the motorcade of Dzhokhar Dudayev by radio signal, which was immediately destroyed by aircraft. Negotiations with the remnants of the separatists continued until August and ended with the Khasavyurt
agreements.
The first Chechen war: the losses of the parties and the consequences
Under the agreement, Russia withdrew its troops from the republic, but the decision on the status of Chechnya was postponed for five years. The agreements demonstrated Moscow's desire to avoid further escalation and resolve problems peacefully. However, they also returned the Chechen Republic again to lack of control, the growth of crime and Wahhabi sentiments. This situation was corrected only as a result of the next entry of troops. According to the Russian military, the number of those killed on their part amounted to more than 4 thousand, missing - more than 1 thousand, and there were almost 20 thousand wounded. The number of militants' losses - according to Russian data - is about 17,000, while the Chechens give a figure of 3,000. But the first Chechen war brought about 50 thousand dead to the civilian population.
The history of Chechnya as an independent state began quite unexpectedly. In the summer of 1991, the whole world suddenly learned that some part of Checheno-Ingushetia decided to secede from the RSFSR and the USSR, and declared itself a new independent state under the name of the Chechen Republic. A step towards this was the decision taken at the National Congress of the Chechen people, which also determined the governing body of the new state - the executive committee headed by Dzhokhar Dudayev.
The decision began to immediately turn into reality. In September 1991, Dudayev's armed guards seized the buildings of the Council of Ministers, the radio and television center. On September 6, the building of the Supreme Council of Chechnya was stormed. Thus, a coup d'état actually took place there, the Supreme Council was dissolved, and on October 27 elections were held for the first president of the Chechen Republic.
By 1993, while Dudayev's government was in power, the republic had become the most criminal zone on the territory. former Union. The complete collapse of the police, the prosecutor's office and the courts contributed to the endless growth of crime. So, in 1992-1993, about 600 murders were committed annually on the territory of Chechnya, which was 7 times higher than in 1990. In 1993, there were 559 attacks on trains traveling through the territory of Chechnya, more than 4,000 wagons were looted. The losses from these crimes amounted to tens of billions of rubles.
Gradually, the center of crime began to grow. As of December 1, 1994, 1,900 people from Chechnya were put on the federal wanted list for committing crimes of varying severity. In addition, the scam with fake Chechen advice letters caused irreparable damage to the Russian economy. Its essence was that the criminals received cash on counterfeit payment orders from Chechen banks. Before the criminal network was uncovered, damage to the state was inflicted in the amount of 5 trillion rubles.
The production of counterfeit money also flourished here. The absence of militia and the rampant banditry that followed led to the violation of almost all human rights. There were no jobs and salaries, pensions and benefits were not paid. During the three years that Dudayev was in power, more than 200 thousand people fled the republic, which is 20 percent of the total population. At the same time, the number of Russians who left Chechnya at that time reached half.
At the same time, Dudayev actually kept the situation under control only in Grozny itself and its outskirts. The rest of the territory of the republic was ruled by clans who did whatever they wanted with regard to the Russian population. After the declaration of independence on October 15, massacres began. And after November 26 - real repressions, pogroms, mass deportations, robberies and murders. The situation began to threaten Russia, which remained after the collapse of the USSR. Taking advantage of the chaos that reigned in the country in connection with the collapse Soviet Union, Dudayev declared independence and began to carry out the secession of Chechnya from Russia.
The federal authorities tried to resolve the situation amicably. However, in general, the steps were indecisive, and the legislative acts adopted on this occasion were more persuasive than binding.
As a result, a military-police operation was announced to eliminate the Dudayev regime, disarm numerous armed formations and restore constitutional order in the region. However, it quickly escalated into a war. At the same time, it was a big surprise for the Russian leadership that Dudayev had a well-trained and armed army. So, according to the FSK, there were no more than 250 armed bandits in Chechnya at that time.
However, there was a big miscalculation. The Chechen armed forces, including the army, the Ministry of Internal Affairs, state security detachments, the militia, self-defense detachments, had about 13 thousand people by the beginning of hostilities. There were also about 2,500 mercenaries and volunteers from various regions of Russia and the CIS countries. Due to the fault of military officials, a large number of serviceable weapons, small arms, and armored vehicles were left in the republic.
Another big surprise was that the inhabitants of Chechnya began to oppose the introduction of Russian troops into the republic. Most of them perceived this move as an invasion of hostile forces seeking to subdue the freedom-loving people. As a result of this, all those who fought against him all this time as part of the opposition also went over to the side of Dudayev.
The first and second Chechen wars, otherwise called the "First Chechen conflict" and the "counter-terrorist operation in the North Caucasus" became, perhaps, the bloodiest pages recent history Russia. These military conflicts are striking in their cruelty. They brought terror and explosions of houses with sleeping people to the territory of Russia. But, in the history of these wars, there were people who, perhaps, can be considered criminals no less terrible than terrorists. These are traitors.
Sergei Orel
He fought in the North Caucasus under a contract. In December 1995, he was taken prisoner by militants. They released him a year later and sent the rescued "prisoner of the Caucasus" to Grozny. And then the unbelievable happened: a Russian soldier, languishing in cruel captivity and happily freed, stole a Kalashnikov assault rifle, uniforms and personal belongings from the military prosecutor's office, stole a Ural truck and sped off towards the militants. Here, in fact, it became clear that in captivity Orel was by no means in poverty, but allowed himself to be recruited without much trouble. He converted to Islam, studied sapper business in one of the Khattab camps, and took part in the hostilities. In 1998, with a fake passport in the name of Alexander Kozlov, he showed up in Moscow, where he controlled construction markets. He transferred the proceeds through special contacts to the Caucasus, to support his “brothers in arms”. This business stopped only when the special services came on the trail of Orel-Kozlov. The defector was tried, and he received a serious sentence.
Limonov and Klochkov
Privates Konstantin Limonov and Ruslan Klochkov in the fall of 1995 decided to somehow go for vodka. They left their checkpoint and went to the village of Katyr-Yurt, where the militants tied them up without any problems. Once in captivity, Limonov and Klochkov did not think for a long time and almost immediately agreed to become guards in the federal prisoner of war camp. Limonov even took the name Kazbek. They performed their duties very diligently, surpassing even the Chechens themselves in cruelty. One of the captives, for example, was smashed in the head with a rifle butt. Another was thrown onto a red-hot furnace. The third was beaten to death. Both participated in the execution of sixteen Russian soldiers condemned to death by the Islamists. One of the militants personally showed them an example by cutting the throat of the first convict, and then handed the knife to the traitors as well. Those carried out the order, and then finished off the agonizing soldiers from the machine gun. All this was recorded on video. When in 1997 the federal troops cleared the area where their gang operated, Limonov and Klochkov tried to impersonate the released hostages and hoped that the most serious thing that threatened them was a term for desertion. However, the investigation made their "exploits" known to Russian justice.
Alexander Ardyshev - Seraji Dudayev
In 1995, the unit in which Ardyshev served was transferred to Chechnya. Alexander had very little to serve, just a few weeks. However, he decided to drastically change his life and deserted from the unit. It was in the village of Vedeno. By the way, it cannot be said about Ardyshev that he betrayed his comrades, since he had no comrades. During his service, he was distinguished by the fact that he periodically stole things and money from his fellow soldiers, and there was not a single one among the soldiers of his unit who would treat Ardyshev as a friend. First, he fell into the detachment of the field commander Mavladi Khusain, then fought under the command of Isa Madaev, then in the detachment of Khamzat Musaev. Ardyshev converted to Islam and became Seraji Dudayev. Seraji's new job was to guard captives. Stories about how the yesterday's Russian soldier Alexander, and now the warrior of Islam Seraji, subjected his former colleagues to bullying and torture, are simply terrible to read. He beat the prisoners, shot the unwanted on the orders of his superiors. One soldier, wounded and exhausted by captivity, was forced to memorize the Koran, and when he made a mistake, he was beaten. Once, for the amusement of the militants, he set fire to gunpowder on the back of the unfortunate. He was so sure of his impunity that he did not even hesitate to show up to the Russian side in his new guise. Once he arrived in Vedeno with his commander Mavladi to settle the conflict between local residents and federal troops. Among the feds was his former boss Colonel Kukharchuk. Ardyshev approached him to show off his new status and threatened him with reprisals.
When the military conflict ended, Seraji acquired in Chechnya own house and began to serve in the border and customs service. And then one of the Chechen bandits Sadulaev was convicted in Moscow. His comrades and associates in Chechnya decided that a respected person should be exchanged. And they exchanged for ... Alexander-Seradzhi. The deserter and traitor was completely uninteresting to the new owners. To avoid unnecessary trouble, Seraji was drugged with tea with sleeping pills, and when he passed out, he was handed over to the authorities of the Russian Federation. Surprisingly, once outside of Chechnya, Seraji immediately remembered that he was Alexander and began to ask to return to the Russians and Orthodox. He was sentenced to 9 years of strict regime.
Yuri Rybakov
This man, too, was by no means wounded and unconscious in the captivity of the militants. He defected to them voluntarily in September 1999. Having undergone special training, he became a sniper. I must say that Rybakov was a good sniper. In just one month, he made 26 notches on the butt of his rifle - one for each “removed” fighter. Rybakov was taken in the village of Ulus-Kert, where federal troops surrounded the militants.
Vasily Kalinkin - Wahid
This man served as an ensign in one of the parts of Nizhny Tagil, and he was stealing big. And when it smelled of fried food, he ran away and joined the army of "free Ichkeria". Here he was sent to study at an intelligence school in one of the Arab countries. Kalinkin converted to Islam, became known as Wahid. They took him in Volgograd, where the newly-minted spy appeared for reconnaissance and preparation of acts of sabotage.
The wars of the Russian Federation with one of its subjects - the Chechen Republic, which declared its state independence at the end of 1991.
Actually the Russian-Chechen war began on December 11, 1994 with the invasion of federal troops into Chechnya. This was preceded by a three-year process of distancing the Chechen authorities from Moscow, which began in the fall of 1991 under the leadership of a former general Soviet army General Dzhokhar Dudayev, elected first President of Chechnya After the collapse of the USSR, Dudayev announced the independence of Chechnya from Russia, although he did not break all ties with Moscow, especially in the financial and economic sphere. After the liquidation of dual power in October 1993, the Russian authorities tried to restore their control over Chechen territory. Dudayev's power, opposition groups armed with Russian weapons were created with Russian money. On November 26, 1994, with the support of tanks with Russian crews, the opposition tried to capture the capital of Chechnya, Grozny, but were almost completely destroyed and captured by troops loyal to Dudayev. More than 70 Russian servicemen were captured. They were released even before the start of a full-scale Russian-Chechen war. Among the dead and captured tankers were officers of the Kantemirovskaya division hired by the Russian special services, who in October 1993 fired at the Moscow White House.
After the failure of attempts to overthrow Dudayev with the help of the Chechen opposition, a full-scale military operation was launched by several divisions of the army and internal troops. The number of the group reached 60 thousand soldiers and officers, including the elite airborne troops and the Moscow division of internal troops ( former name Dzerzhinsky). They were opposed by the regular Chechen army created by Dudayev, called the militia and numbering up to 15 thousand people. It was armed with tanks, armored personnel carriers, infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs), artillery, machine guns and small arms left in army depots after the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya in 1992. Some of the weapons and ammunition Dudayev later managed to illegally purchase in Russia. The Chechens did not have combat aviation, and all the training transport aircraft located at the airfield near Grozny were destroyed before the invasion as a result of bombing by Russian aircraft.
Officially in Russia, the war was called "measures to restore constitutional order in the Chechen Republic" and pursued the goal of "disarmament of illegal armed formations." Russian politicians and the military expected that the hostilities would not last more than two weeks. Defense Minister General Pavel Grachev said on the eve of the invasion of Chechnya that Grozny could have been taken in two hours by one Russian airborne regiment. However, the federal troops met fierce resistance and immediately suffered heavy losses.
The Chechens did not have aviation, they were many times inferior to the enemy in artillery and tanks, but over the three years of independence they managed to turn into professional fighters, and in terms of combat training and command they significantly surpassed Russian soldiers, many of whom had recently been drafted into the troops. Chief of the General Staff General Aslan Maskhadov, former Colonel of the Soviet Army. Chechen troops successfully combined positional defense with mobile defense, managing to get away in time from the massive attacks of Russian aviation.
Only on December 21 did the federal units reach Grozny and, on New Year's Eve 1995, launched an ill-prepared assault on Grozny. The Chechens almost unhindered let the attackers into the center of Grozny, and then began to shoot armored vehicles and infantry from fortified positions on the streets of the city that had been shot in advance. The fighters of the federal troops did not have plans for the city and almost did not orient themselves in it, they acted inconsistently and, in fact, without a single command. Some of them were destroyed, some were blocked in occupied buildings, and only a few managed to break through back. Up to 500 people were captured. Almost all Russian tanks brought into Grozny were burned or taken by the Chechens. Protracted street fighting began as Russian soldiers slowly occupied the city, house by house, block by block. In these battles, the Chechens fought more skillfully, operating in small mobile groups, whose commanders could independently make decisions in a rapidly changing environment without a solid front line. Only a few of the Russian commanders possessed these qualities. Aviation bombed Grozny and other cities and villages of Chechnya aimlessly, in squares. The bombings affected almost exclusively the civilian population. The death of relatives and friends only increased the hatred of Chechen soldiers and officers for the federals. In Grozny, by an evil irony of fate, Russian residents became the victims of bombs and shells in the first place. The peaceful Chechen population mostly managed to leave the besieged city and take refuge with relatives in the mountains, while the Russians had nowhere to go. and May Russian army broke into the foothills and mountainous regions in the south of Chechnya, having mastered all the cities of the republic. To buy time to move regular army to guerrilla warfare from hard-to-reach bases in the mountains, in mid-June, a detachment of 200 people under the command of one of the most famous Chechen field commanders, Shamil Basayev, former student, and now a general, raided the Stavropol city of Budennovsk. Here, Basayev's soldiers took up to a thousand civilians hostage, drove them to the city hospital and threatened to destroy them unless a ceasefire was announced and the beginning of Russian-Chechen negotiations (the day before, almost the entire Basayev family died under Russian bombs). Federal troops launched an unsuccessful assault on the hospital, during which several dozen hostages died. After that, Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin agreed to comply with the terrorists' demands, and also provided the terrorists with buses so that they could get to the Chechen mountains with some of the hostages to guarantee security. In Chechnya, Basayev freed the remaining hostages and found himself out of reach of Russian troops. In total, about 120 civilians died on the streets of Budyonnovsk and in the hospital. Basayev undertook his raid without the sanction of the Chechen command, but subsequently Dudayev and Maskhadov approved of his actions.
Basayev's inhuman action, however, brought a temporary halt to the bloodshed in Chechnya while negotiations continued. In October, they were interrupted after the head of the Russian delegation, the commander of the internal troops, General Anatoly Romanov, was seriously wounded in an assassination attempt (he is still in an unconscious state). The circumstances of this assassination attempt, carried out with the help of a radio-controlled landmine, are not clear even today.
After the breakdown of negotiations, federal troops resumed their offensive in the mountainous regions of Chechnya. They captured cities and villages there more than once, but to keep their positions long time it turned out to be impossible, since the Chechens blocked the supply routes. The Russian units are tired of the war. Their combat effectiveness, already low, fell to a critical limit. The federal troops never managed to defeat the main Chechen forces. Maskhadov and Dudayev were able to maintain control over their main detachments. In December, Chechen forces occupied the republic's second largest city, Gudermes, for several days, demonstrating their strength to Russia and the world.
At the end of December 1996, a detachment of about 200 people under the command of Dudayev's son-in-law Salman Raduev, later promoted to general, raided a helicopter base in the Dagestan city of Kizlyar. The raid ended in failure, and the detachment was threatened with encirclement by federal troops. Then Raduev, following the example of Basayev, took hostages in the city hospital. First, he demanded an end to the war and the withdrawal of Russian troops from Chechnya, then, under pressure from the authorities of Dagestan, he was satisfied with the promise of a free pass to Chechnya under the cover of a human shield from the hostages. In January 1996, near the border of Dagestan and Chechnya, a convoy of buses with terrorists was fired upon by Russian helicopters. Raduev and his people captured a militia post from the fighters of the Novosibirsk Special Purpose Police Detachment (OMON) and took up defense in the nearby Dagestan village of Pervomayskoye. Raduev's detachment was besieged by internal troops and special forces of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and the security service, numbering 2.5 thousand people. A few days later, the troops launched an assault, broke into Pervomaiskoye, but were driven back to their original positions. Police special forces, trained to fight armed criminals, were ill-equipped to conduct conventional street combat with an enemy unit. Under the cover of night, most of the Radyevites with some of the hostages managed to break out of the encirclement. The battle near Pervomaisky once again proved to the Chechens the weakness of the Russian troops.
All attempts by Moscow to create a viable Chechen administration ended in failure. IN last period at the head of the pro-Russian government was Doku Zavgaev, the former leader of the Communist Party and chairman of the Supreme Soviet of Checheno-Ingushetia, dispersed at the initiative of Dudayev by demonstrators in the fall of 1991. Trillions of rubles allocated for the restoration of the ruined economy of Chechnya were embezzled by bankers and officials of various levels. Zavgaev's administration, having no real power, was unable to prevent shelling and bombardment of Chechen villages by Russian artillery and aircraft. As a result, Zavgaev lost popularity in his native Nadterechny district, whose inhabitants had previously been in opposition to Dudayev.
In March 1996, Basayev entered Grozny for several days. "Terrorist No. 1" this time put his fighters on cars. At high speed, they moved through the streets, attacking federal checkpoints and commandant's offices, remaining practically invulnerable themselves. The Russian army was unable to do anything with the Basayevites, passively waiting for them to leave the city. As it became clear later, Basayev's March raid was just a rehearsal for a larger operation.
In mid-April, near the village of Yarysh-Mardan, a convoy of federal troops was ambushed, losing about 100 people dead. The Chechens suffered practically no losses in this battle.
On April 21, 1996, Dudayev was killed as a result of an explosion of an aircraft missile aimed at his signal. cell phone. The post of President of Chechnya was taken by Vice-President Zelimkhan Yandarbiev, a famous Chechen poet, but as a politician inferior in popularity to Dudayev, Maskhadov and Basaev. At the end of May, during Yandarbiev's visit to Moscow, a ceasefire agreement was concluded with him. On the eve of the presidential elections, the Russian leadership was interested in achieving at least temporary peace in Chechnya. It hoped that after the death of Dudayev, the resistance of the Chechens would weaken and it would be possible to establish the government of Zavgaev in the country.
After the victory of Boris Yeltsin in the elections, the federal troops resumed their offensive in Chechnya and the bombardment of mountain villages. On August 6, the Chechen army entered Grozny. This operation was developed by Maskhadov in the spring. However, the Chechen leadership postponed it for a while after the presidential elections in Russia, believing that Yeltsin's victory for Chechnya would be the lesser evil. A few days before the start of the operation, residents of Grozny were warned in special leaflets that fighting would begin in the city in the very near future and they needed to stock up on water and food and not go out into the street. However, the command of the federal troops did not attach any importance to these leaflets and was taken by surprise. In the city and its environs there were up to 15 thousand soldiers and officers of the army and internal troops and riot police.
Initially, about 2 thousand Chechen militias entered Grozny under the personal leadership of Maskhadov and Basayev (the latter directly commanded the Grozny group). By that time, the Chechens no longer had armored vehicles and almost no artillery left. However, according to combat experience They far surpassed the soldiers of the federal troops in their ability to fight and morale, who did not show any desire to die in the name of "restoring constitutional order in Chechnya." Many Russian units actually took up a position of armed neutrality, not firing at the enemy, if he, in turn, did not encroach on the positions they occupied.
In a week of fighting, the Chechens captured most of Grozny, blocking Russian troops in the main administrative buildings and premises of checkpoints and commandant's offices. By that time, the number of the Chechen group in Grozny had increased to 6-7 thousand people, thanks to the transfer of part of the city police subordinate to Zavgaev to its side and the transfer of reinforcements from other regions of Chechnya. Counterattacks by federal troops from Khankala located in the Grozny suburbs and Severny airport were repulsed. The Russian units suffered heavy losses. Separate units of the federal troops, in order to break out of the encirclement and get medicine for the wounded, resorted to the shameful practice of taking hostages among the civilian population. According to some estimates, up to 200 armored vehicles were burned, and the Chechens managed to capture several tanks and infantry fighting vehicles (IFVs) unharmed. As the Russian press wrote in those days: "Under the onslaught of disparate bandit formations, our troops left the city of Grozny." Chechen troops also liberated the cities of Gudermes and Argun and delivered a series of strikes against federal units in the foothills.
The commander of the Russian troops in Chechnya, General Konstantin Pulikovsky, demanded that the residents of Grozny leave the city in two days, intending to subject it to massive bombing and shelling. In this case, the death of not only about 2,000 federal servicemen blocked in besieged buildings and left without food, water and ammunition, but also tens of thousands of citizens who could not leave the city in such a short time would have been inevitable. The Secretary of the Russian Security Council, General Alexander Lebed, who urgently arrived in Chechnya, succeeded in canceling Pulikovsky's order to storm Grozny again. Lebed became convinced of the complete incompetence of the Russian troops in Chechnya, which he declared publicly.
At the end of August, in the Dagestan city of Khasavyurt, he signed with Chechen leadership agreements that established a ceasefire, with the exception of two brigades, the federal troops were withdrawn from Chechnya (supporters of independence call the country Ichkeria), and the determination of the political status of the republic was postponed until the end of 2001. The Chechens, however, insisted on the withdrawal of all federal troops and refused to guarantee the safety of the military personnel of the brigades remaining in the vicinity of Grozny.
On November 23, 1996, President Yeltsin signed a decree on the withdrawal of the last two brigades from Chechnya by the end of the year. When the federal troops left the republic, presidential elections were held there. Maskhadov won them. His power extended to the whole republic. Returning to the Nadterechny district, local militias forced Zavgaev's supporters to give up power. In May 1997, Presidents Yeltsin and Maskhadov signed a peace treaty between Russia and Chechnya, in which the parties pledged never to use or threaten to use force against each other. This means that Russia recognizes Chechnya as de facto independent. However, to recognize Chechen independence de jure, i.e. officially agree that the Republic of Ichkeria is no longer part of the territory of Russia and establish diplomatic relations with it as with a foreign state, the Russian leadership is not yet ready. History knows examples when decades passed between the real gaining of independence and its recognition as a former metropolis. So, the Netherlands actually separated from Spain by 1572, but the Spanish monarchy recognized the new state after a series of wars only in 1607.
According to official figures, about 6,000 Russian servicemen, border guards, police officers and security service personnel have died or gone missing in Chechnya during the entire conflict. Today we do not have any summary data on the irretrievable losses of the Chechen army. One can only assume that due to the smaller number and more high level combat training of the Chechen troops suffered significantly less losses than the federal troops.
Total number the number of dead residents of Chechnya is most often estimated at 70-80 thousand people, the vast majority - civilians. They became victims of shelling and bombing by the federal troops, as well as the so-called “cleansing operations” - inspection by Russian soldiers and employees of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of cities and villages left by Chechen formations, when civilians often died from bullets and grenades of the federals. The bloodiest "mopping-up operations" were carried out in the village of Samashki near the border with Ingushetia.
The second Chechen war began after the invasion in August 1999 of the Chechen detachments of Shamil Basayev and Khattab into Dagestan, counting on the assistance of local Wahhabis, the explosions of residential buildings in Moscow and Buynaksk, and the invasion of federal troops in September. The plan for this invasion, according to some reports, was developed in the spring of 1999. By the beginning of February 2000, the Russian army captured Grozny, which was practically wiped off the face of the earth. In February - March, federal troops penetrated into the southern mountainous regions of Chechnya, but failed to establish effective control over them. A large-scale guerrilla war is currently going on throughout Chechnya. By the end of 2000 Russian losses, according to official, probably significantly underestimated data, amounted to about 3 thousand dead and missing. There are no reliable data on the losses of Chechen armed formations and civilians. It can only be assumed that several times more civilians died than the military. Time will tell how events in Chechnya will develop in the future.
