Stalin deported an entire Muslim nation in a single night and killed most of them doing it.
A people Russia has never stopped trying to subdue
On 23 February 1944, on Stalin’s direct order, the entire Chechen and Ingush population, roughly half a million people, was deported overnight to Central Asia and Siberia. An estimated 60 percent of those deported died from the conditions of the deportation and exile. Survivors weren’t permitted to return until 1957.
1991 to 1994: independence declared, then crushed
Chechnya declared independence as the Soviet Union collapsed. In December 1994, Boris Yeltsin sent troops to reassert control, beginning the First Chechen War. Russian forces carpet-bombed Grozny so intensely that estimates of civilian deaths in the opening weeks alone run as high as 27,000 to 35,000. Chechen fighters forced a humiliating Russian withdrawal by 1996.
1999: the second war, and a leader made in it
Vladimir Putin, newly appointed prime minister, launched the Second Chechen War in August 1999. Grozny was leveled a second time. Estimates of the total civilian dead across both wars run as high as 100,000 to 300,000 by various accountings. The war effectively launched Putin’s political career.
What "resolution" looked like
Russia installed a pro-Moscow administration under Ramzan Kadyrov, whose rule has been characterized by rights groups as one of the most repressive in the Russian Federation.
Timeline
- 1944 — Mass deportation
- 1957 — Return permitted
- 1994 — First Chechen War begins
- 1999 — Second Chechen War begins
- 2004 — Kadyrov assassinated, son installed
Key Locations
Grozny