Explain the chief causes of the conflict in Chechnya

Résumé du document

The conflict in Chechnya constitutes one of the most burning issues of the post Cold War Russian federation politics. Actually, the two wars, that took place under Yeltsine's and Putin's presidencies, from 1994 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2001, and even to nowadays, have been the most important domestic political question in Russia.
The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is one of the twenty Russian Federation republics and is located in the North Caucasus. This republic has always been the most separatist one, refusing to officially enter the Federation. The history of its conflicts with the Russian states goes back to the eighteen century and the Chechen people is well known for its violent nationalist character and its hatred toward Russia, many things separating it from the Russian people, such as the fact that it is a Muslim people.
The question is here to understand the causes of the conflict and to know how and why the situation has never improved. It is here important to underline that the two Chechen wars are parts of the same process. Actually, the second Chechen war is the consequence of the failure of the Russian military against the Chechen guerrilla and of the deterioration of the situation in the region. Consequently, we can argue that the main causes of the first conflict are almost the same than the one of the second one and we are going to insist on it.
In a first part, we will see that the history of the relations of Russia and Chechnya is one of the main causes of the existence of the Chechen nationalism, which has led to the secession and has deeply conditioned the escalation to the conflict.

Extraits

[...] Indeed, accused by Stalin to have helped the Nazis, the Chechen population was deported. This constitutes the twentieth century key event in shaping Chechen identity one year old Chechen, Dudayev, was one of the deportees Actually, the years in exile had profound social repercussions: anti-russian sentiment, suspicion and disdain towards authority, educational neglect Even after 1957, when Krouchtchev authorised the return of the deportees, the tension between Chechens and Russian populations was tangible. But it is during the perestroika, a period which brought many of the non Russian communities to question the official history of the Soviet Union, that the Chechen nationalism exploded. [...]

[...] Consequently, we can say that Russian nationalism itself constitutes one on the chief causes of the conflict in Chechnya. Actually Russian nationalism is based on the image of an idealised community which achieves harmony through its national and religious symbols and aspirations. This implies a great fear of fundamentalist Islam, of a disintegration of the community, that is to say the Federation, and consequently a focus on Chechnya. In order to respect this new and popular “ideology” and to consolidate the Russian civil society, the conflict with Chechnya was inevitable. [...]

[...] After 10 weeks of troubles, he took the power in Grozny. On the 27th of October, presidential and parliamentary elections were held and Dudayev won with 85% of the votes. Shortly after, on the 2nd of November, he declared unilaterally the independence of the “Chechen Republic Ichkeria”. From 1991 to 1994, when Russian troops finally attacked his regime, he governed Chechnya in an authoritarian way, with the Charia as supreme law, hostility towards Russia and he allowed it to become a “gangster paradise” run by clans and mafia. [...]

[...] Chechen nationalism, mixed with other circumstances, can consequently be seen as one of the chief causes of the conflict. Indeed, from the very beginning of their contacts, in the early sixteenth century, the relations between Russian and North Caucasians have been characterised by violence. First of all, violence between the Chechens and the Cossacks during two centuries and then, violence with the Russian army itself, sent in the later eighteen century by Catherine the Great to establish a permanent military presence in the North Caucasus and to bring the mountain people under Russian imperial rule. [...]

[...] Explain the chief causes of the conflict in Chechnya The conflict in Chechnya constitutes one of the most burning issues of the post Cold War Russian federation politics. Actually, the two wars, that took place under Yeltsine's and Putin's presidencies, from 1994 to 1996 and from 1999 to 2001, and even to nowadays, have been the most important domestic political question in Russia. The Chechen Republic of Ichkeria is one of the twenty Russian Federation republics and is located in the North Caucasus. [...]