Noĥči Rīpùblik

Template:Infobox Russian federal subject2

The Chechen Republic (pronounced /ˈtʃɛtʃɨn/; Чече́нская Респу́блика, Chechenskaya Respublika; Нохчийн Республика, Noxçiyn Respublika), or, informally, Chechnya (/ˈtʃɛtʃniə/; Чечня́; Нохчийчоь, Noxçiyçö), sometimes referred to as Ichkeria, Chechnia, Chechenia or Noxçiyn, is a federal subject of Russia. It is located in Southeastern part of Europe, in the Northern Caucasus mountains, in the North Caucasian Federal District. As of 2010-01-01, the population was 1,267,740 (according to Russian State statistics).

Noĥči Rīpùblik wa, Čečen-ddo, Rossiya-ni dè rīpùblik da. Iran-orijineiten Noĥči pīpol wa liviŋ in Kaukasùs mauntènreinj.

车臣共和国（俄语：Чече́нская Респу́блика；车臣语：Нохчийн Республика）是俄罗斯联邦的北高加索联邦管区的其中一个共和国，地處於北高加索山區，西接印古什共和国和北奥塞梯共和国，西北與斯塔夫羅波爾邊疆區接壤，东连达吉斯坦共和国，南部与格鲁吉亚分享一条很长的边界。

After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the Chechen-Ingush ASSR was split into two—the Republic of Ingushetia and Republic of Chechnya. The latter proclaimed the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria, which sought independence. Following the First Chechen War with Russia, Chechnya gained de facto independence as the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria. Russian federal control was restored during the Second Chechen War. Since then there has been a systematic reconstruction and rebuilding process, though sporadic fighting continues in the mountains and southern regions of the republic.

See "Chechen people" for etymology of the name. In 2006 the former president, Alu Alkhanov, proposed changing the official name of the republic to Noxçiyn (or Nokhchiin) which is a transcription of the name in the Chechen language.

History / Històri / 歷史

由于在二战中，部分车臣人试图与德国军队合作谋求独立，1944年，在斯大林领导下的苏联政府撤消了车臣的自治共和国地位，将几乎整个车臣民族强行迁往哈萨克境内。直到1957年赫鲁晓夫执政时期，车臣－印古什苏维埃社会主义自治共和国方才得以恢复。

1989年后，苏联局势急剧动荡，民族分离势力在车臣、印古什和北奥塞梯等高加索地区严重膨胀，车臣和北奥塞梯等自治共和国均有流血冲突发生。

自从苏联解体以后，俄罗斯联邦的不少成员，特别是外高加索地区的共和国，都希望像邻近的亚美尼亚或格鲁吉亚一样享有独立的地位。加上过去在前苏联年代里，一直受到压迫，造成车臣人争取民族解放、要求民族独立和反俄罗斯的旺盛心态。

1991年，时任车臣共和国总统的焦哈尔·杜达耶夫发表了独立宣言，可是得不到俄罗斯的承认。1992年12月10日印古什共和国与车臣共和国分开。1994年，俄罗斯总统叶利钦指派俄军大举攻打车臣，造成一场十万人死亡的屠杀惨剧。之后，双方的冲突不但一直没有平息，还让车臣的伊斯兰原教旨主义分子得势。结果莫斯科的恐怖襲击不断发生。

1999年，7月4日，沙米利·巴萨耶夫指挥5000人的武装部队偷袭了俄内务部队哨所。导致了第二次车臣战争。俄罗斯第二任总统普京以较强硬的态度反驳了国内的分离主义思潮，指挥部队从两路进入车臣。以绝对优势的实力，军事压制了车臣分离主义势力。之后，双方冲突依然如前。

车臣问题是俄罗斯国内民族宗教矛盾，國際社會过问较少，有证据表明許多車臣婦女的丈夫或兒子無故失蹤，她們搜集並紀錄數百卷恐怖罪行的錄影帶，並將之偷渡入歐洲，向國際人權法庭控訴。影響所及，亦有部分車臣婦女選擇加入炸彈自殺的恐怖事件。

2004年5月9日，車臣发生炸弹爆炸，总统艾哈迈德·卡德罗夫被当场炸死。2006年3月4日，艾哈迈德·卡德罗夫之子拉姆赞·卡德罗夫被任命为车臣共和国总理。2007年4月5日，拉姆赞·卡德罗夫宣誓就任车臣总统。

2009年4月16日，俄国当局宣布车臣战争正式结束。 2010年3月30日，车臣战争的阵亡者遗孀（或称“黑寡妇”），在俄罗斯首都莫斯科进行了自杀式炸弹袭击，以期谋求车臣的独立自主。

Prehistory

The oldest settlement found in the region goes back to 125,000 BC. In these mountain cave settlements, people lived who used tools, mastered fire, and used animal skin for warmth and other purposes. Traces of human settlement that date back to 40,000 BC were found near Lake Kezanoi. Cave paintings, artifacts and other archaeological evidence indicate that there has been continuous habitation for some 8,000 years.

Early history

File:Chechenya gorge2.jpg

View of a gorge in the Caucasus Mountains in Chechnya, photographed at some point between 1905 and 1915

In classical times, the northern slopes of the Caucasus mountains were inhabited by the Circassians on the west and the Avars on the east. In between them, the Zygians occupied Zyx, the areas of north Ossetia, the Balkar, the Ingush and the Chechen republics today. Chechnya is a region in the Northern Caucasus which has been in almost constant battle against foreign rule since the 15th century. Eventually the Chechens converted to Sunni Islam, largely encouraged by the motive of receiving help from the Ottoman Empire against Russian encroachment. The Russian Terek Cossack Host was secretly established in Chechnya in 1577 by free Cossacks resettled from the Volga to the Terek River.

自15世紀奥斯曼帝国入侵開始，車臣人在高加索山區不斷抵抗外來入侵。自從投向穆斯林的陣營，便緩和了與奥斯曼帝国的緊張關係，但卻與信奉基督教的格鲁吉亚人及哥薩克人及信奉佛教的卡爾梅克人之間的衝突不斷升級。 车臣在18世纪被沙俄征服，之后一直都属于俄国。十月革命之后，车臣继续留在俄罗斯联邦里。苏联成立后的1922年11月30日，成立车臣自治州，隶属于俄罗斯苏维埃联邦社会主义共和国，1934年1月15日和同属俄罗斯联邦的印古什自治州合并为车臣－印古什自治州，1936年12月5日改名为车臣－印古什苏维埃社会主义自治共和国。

Caucasian Wars

File:Karte des Kaukasischen Isthmus - Entworfen und gezeichnet von J-Grassl - 1856.jpg

Karte des Kaukasischen Isthmus. Entworfen und gezeichnet von J. Grassl, 1856.

In 1783, Russia and the eastern Georgian kingdom of Kartl-Kakheti (which was devastated by Turkish and Persian invasions) signed the Treaty of Georgievsk, according to which Kartl-Kakheti received protection by Russia. In order to secure communications with Georgia and other regions of the Transcaucasia, the Russian Empire began spreading its influence into the Caucasus mountains. The current resistance to Russian rule has its roots in the late 18th century (1785–1791), a period when Russia expanded into territories formerly under the dominion of Turkey and Persia (see also the Russo-Turkish Wars and Russo-Persian War (1804–1813)), under Mansur Ushurma—a Chechen Naqshbandi (Sufi) Sheikh—with wavering support from other North Caucasian tribes. Mansur hoped to establish a Transcaucasus Islamic state under shari'a law, but was unable to do so because of Russian resistance and opposition from many Chechens (many of whom had not been converted to Islam at the time). Its banner was again picked up by the Avar Imam Shamil, who fought against the Russians from 1834 until 1859.

Soviet rule

File:Map of Mountain ASSR.png

The Mountain ASSR and the districts established after the Russian Civil War (Chechnya is located on the far right)

Chechen rebellion would characteristically flare up whenever the Russian state faced a period of internal uncertainty. Rebellions occurred during the Russo-Turkish War, the Russian Revolution of 1905, the Russian Revolution of 1917, the Russian Civil War (see Mountainous Republic of the Northern Caucasus), and Collectivization. Under Soviet rule, Chechnya was combined with Ingushetia to form the autonomous republic of Chechen-Ingushetia in the late 1930s.

The Chechens again rose up against Soviet rule during the 1940s, resulting in the deportation of the entire ethnic Chechen and Ingush populations to the Kazakh SSR (later Kazakhstan) and Siberia in 1944 near the end of World War II. Joseph Stalin and others argued this was punishment to the Chechens for providing assistance to the German forces. Although the German front never made it to the border of Chechnya, an active guerrilla movement threatened to undermine the Soviet defenses of the Caucasus (noted writer Valentin Pikul claims that while the city of Grozny was preparing for a siege in 1942, all of the air bombers stationed on the Caucasian front had to be re-directed towards quelling the Chechen insurrection instead of fighting Germans at the siege of Stalingrad). Chechen-Ingushetia was abolished and the Chechens were allowed to return to their "own ethnic land" after 1956 during de-Stalinization under Nikita Khrushchev.

The Russification policies towards Chechens continued after 1956, with Russian language proficiency required in many aspects of life and for advancement in the Soviet system.

Recent events

With the impending collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, an independence movement, initially known as the Chechen National Congress, was formed and led by ex-Soviet Air Force general and new Chechen President Dzhokhar Dudayev that rallied for the recognition of Chechnya as a separate nation. This movement was ultimately opposed by Boris Yeltsin's Russian Federation, which first argued that Chechnya had not been an independent entity within the Soviet Union—as the Baltic, Central Asian, and other Caucasian States had—but was part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic and hence did not have a right under the Soviet constitution to secede; second, that other republics of Russia, such as Tatarstan, would consider seceding from the Russian Federation if Chechnya were granted that right; and third, that Chechnya was a major hub in the oil infrastructure of the Federation and hence its secession would hurt the country's economy and energy access.

In the ensuing decade, the territory was locked in an ongoing struggle between various factions, usually fighting unconventionally and forgoing the position held by the several successive Russian governments through the current administration. Various demographic factors including religious ones have continued to keep the area in a near constant state of war.

First Chechen War

The First Chechen War occurred in a two year period lasting from 1994 to 1996, when Russian forces attempted to regain control over Chechnya, which had already established independence since November 1991 (generally falling in line with other entities seceding from the USSR, except that Checheno-Ingushetia had previously been a division within Russia). Despite overwhelming manpower, weaponry and air support, the Russian forces were unable to establish effective permanent control over the mountainous area due to many successful Chechen guerrilla raids. The Budyonnovsk hospital hostage crisis in 1995 shocked the Russian public and discredited Chechen guerrillas. Widespread demoralization of the Russian forces in the area and a successful offensive on Grozny by Chechen resistance forces lead by Aslan Maskhadov prompted Russian President Boris Yeltsin to declare a ceasefire in 1996 and sign a peace treaty a year later.

Inter-war period

After the war, parliamentary and presidential elections took place in January 1997 in Chechnya and brought to power new President Aslan Maskhadov, chief of staff and prime minister in the Chechen coalition government, for a five-year term. Maskhadov sought to maintain Chechen sovereignty while pressing Moscow to help rebuild the republic, whose formal economy and infrastructure were virtually destroyed. Russia continued to send money for the rehabilitation of the republic; it also provided pensions and funds for schools and hospitals. Most of these funds were taken by Chechen authorities and divided between favoured warlords. Nearly half a million people (40% of Chechnya's prewar population) had been internally displaced and lived in refugee camps or overcrowded villages. The economy was destroyed. Two Russian brigades were permanently stationed in Chechnya.

In lieu of the devastated economic structure, kidnapping emerged as the principal source of income countrywide, procuring over $200 million during the three year independence of the chaotic fledgling state, although victims were rarely killed. In 1998, 176 people were kidnapped, 90 of whom were released, according to official accounts. President Maskhadov started a major campaign against hostage-takers, and on October 25, 1998, Shadid Bargishev, Chechnya's top anti-kidnapping official, was killed in a remote-controlled car bombing. Bargishev's colleagues then insisted they would not be intimidated by the attack and would go ahead with their offensive. Political violence and religious extremism, blamed on "Wahhabism", was rife. In 1998, Grozny authorities declared a state of emergency. Tensions led to open clashes between the Chechen National Guard and Islamist militants, such as the July 1998 confrontation in Gudermes.

Second Chechen War

In August 1999, the Islamic International Brigade (IIPB) began an unsuccessful incursion into the neighbouring Russian republic of Dagestan in favor of the Shura of Dagestan who sought independence from Russia. (see Dagestan War). In September, a series of apartment bombings that killed three hundred Russian civilians took place in several Russian cities, including Moscow, which were blamed on the Chechen separatists. However, many journalists as well as a famous Russian dissident Litvinenko, later poisoned by using a highly radioactive material in London, point a finger at the Russian Secret Service for blowing up the houses to initiate a new military campaign against Chechnya. A famous Russian journalist Anna Politkovskaya and Head of the Defense Council of Russian Duma (Parliament) also claimed and was killed for making similar claims. In response, after a prolonged air campaign of retaliatory strikes against the Ichkerian regime, a ground offensive began in October 1999 which marked the beginning of the Second Chechen War. Much better organized and planned than the first Chechen War, the military actions by the Russian Federal forces enabled them to re-establish control over most regions. The Russian forces used brutal force, killing sixty Chechen civilians during a mop-up operation in Aldy, Chechnya on February 5, 2000. However, Chechen rebel forces continued to conduct terrorist attacks, seizing a theater in Moscow in October 2002. Russian forces refused to negotiate and gassed the entire building, incidentally killing one hundred and thirty of the Russian hostages as well as all of the terrorists. After the re-capture of Grozny in February 2000, the Ichkerian regime fell apart. Russia has severely disabled the Chechen rebel movement, although violence still occurs throughout the North Caucasus. Russia was also successful in installing a pro-Moscow Chechen regime, and the most prominent separatist leaders were killed, including former president Aslan Maskhadov and Shamil Basayev. In April 2009, Russia ended its counter-terrorism operation and pulled out the bulk of its army. Three months later, leader of the separatist government, Akhmed Zakayev, called for a halt to armed resistance against the Chechen police force starting on August 1, 2009.

Geography

File:Кезеной Ам (Kezenoy Am).jpeg

Lake Kazenoi

Situated in the eastern part of the North Caucasus, partially in Eastern Europe, Chechnya is surrounded on nearly all sides by Russian Federal territory. In the west, it borders North Ossetia and Ingushetia, in the north, Stavropol Krai, in the east, Dagestan, and to the south, Georgia. Its capital is Grozny.

• Area:
• Borders:
  • Internal:
    • Republic of Dagestan (NE)
    • Republic of Ingushetia (W)
    • Republic of North Ossetia-Alania (W)
    • Stavropol Krai (NW)
  • Foreign:
    • Georgia (S)

Rivers:

• Terek
• Sunzha
• Argun

Cities and towns with over 20,000 people

• Grozny (capital)
• Shali
• Urus-Martan
• Gudermes
• Argun

Politics

Since 1990, the Chechen Republic has had many legal, military, and civil conflicts involving separatist movements and pro-Russian authorities. Today, Chechnya is a relatively stable federal republic, although there is still some separatist movement activity. Its regional constitution entered into effect on April 2, 2003 after an all-Chechen referendum was held on March 23, 2003. The independent observers alleged that the officially reported voter turnout seemed to be much higher than the reality. Some Chechens were controlled by regional teips, or clans, despite the existence of pro- and anti-Russian political structures.

File:Chechnya and Caucasus.png

Chechnya and Caucasus map

Regional government

The former separatist religious leader (mufti) Akhmad Kadyrov, looked upon as a traitor by many separatists, was elected president with 83% of the vote in an internationally monitored election on October 5, 2003. Incidents of ballot stuffing and voter intimidation by Russian soldiers and the exclusion of separatist parties from the polls were subsequently reported by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) monitors. On May 9, 2004, Kadyrov was assassinated in Grozny football stadium by a landmine explosion that was planted beneath a VIP stage and detonated during a parade, and Sergey Abramov was appointed to the position of acting prime minister after the incident. However, since 2005 Ramzan Kadyrov (son of Akhmad Kadyrov) has been caretaker prime minister, and in 2007 was appointed a new president. Many allege he is the wealthiest and most powerful man in the republic, with control over a large private militia referred to as the Kadyrovtsy. The militia, which began as his father's security force, has been accused of killings and kidnappings by human rights organizations such as Human Rights Watch.

In 2009, the American organization Freedom House included Chechnya in the "Worst of the Worst" list of most repressive societies in the world, together with Burma, North Korea, China's Tibet and others.

Separatist government

In addition to the Russian regional government, there was a separatist Ichkeria government that was not recognized by any state (although members have been given political asylum in European and Arab countries, as well as the United States).

Ichkeria is/was a member of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization. Former president of Georgia, Zviad Gamsakhurdia, deposed in a military coup of 1991 and a participant of the Georgian Civil War, recognised the independence of Chechen Republic of Ichkeria in 1993. This recognition is no longer in effect. Diplomatic relations with Ichkeria were also established by the partially recognized Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan under the Taliban government on January 16, 2000. This recognition ceased with the fall of the Taliban in 2001. However, despite Taliban recognition, there were no friendly relations between the Taliban and Ichkeria- Maskhadov rejected their recognition, stating that the Taliban were illegitimate. Ichkeria also received vocal support from the Baltic countries, a group of Ukrainian nationalists and Poland; Estonia once voted to recognize, but the act never was followed through due to pressure applied by both Russia and the EU.

The president of this government was Aslan Maskhadov, the Foreign Minister was Ilyas Akhmadov, who was the spokesman for Maskhadov. Aslan Maskhadov had been elected in an internationally monitored election in 1997 for 4 years, which took place after signing a peace agreement with Russia. In 2001 he issued a decree prolonging his office for one additional year; he was unable to participate in the 2003 presidential election, since separatist parties were barred by the Russian government, and Maskhadov faced accusations of terrorist offences in Russia. Maskhadov left Grozny and moved to the separatist-controlled areas of the south at the onset of the Second Chechen War. Maskhadov was unable to influence a number of warlords who retain effective control over Chechen territory, and his power was diminished as a result. Russian forces killed Maskhadov on March 8, 2005, and the assassination of Maskhadov was widely criticized since it left no legitimate Chechen separatist leader to conduct peace talks with. Akhmed Zakayev, Deputy Prime Minister and a Foreign Minister under Maskhadov, was appointed shortly after the 1997 election and is currently living under asylum in England. He and others chose Abdul Khalim Saidullayev, a relatively unknown Islamic judge who was previously the host of an Islamic program on Chechen television, to replace Maskhadov following his death. On June 17, 2006, it was reported that Russian special forces killed Abdul Khalim Saidullayev in a raid in a Chechen town Argun. The successor of Saidullayev became Doku Umarov. On October 31, 2007 Umarov abolished the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria and its presidency and in its place proclaimed the Caucasian Emirate with himself as its Emir. This change of status has been rejected by many Chechen politicians and military leaders who continue to support the existence of the republic.

Human rights

In 2006 Human Rights Watch reported that pro-Moscow Chechen forces under the command, in effect, of President Ramzan Kadyrov, as well as federal police personnel, used torture to get information about separatist forces. "If you are detained in Chechnya, you face a real and immediate risk of torture. And there is little chance that your torturer will be held accountable," said Holly Cartner, Director Europe and Central Asia division of HRW.

Human rights groups criticized the conduct of the 2005 parliamentary elections as unfairly influenced by the central Russian government and military.

The Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre reports that after hundreds of thousands fled their homes following inter-ethnic and separatist conflicts in Chechnya in 1994 and 1999, more than 150,000 people still remain displaced in Russia today.

On 1 September 1997, Criminal Code reportedly being implemented in the Chechen Republic-Ichkeriya, Article 148 punishes "anal sexual intercourse between a man and a woman or a man and a man"). For first- and second-time offenders, the punishment is caning. A third conviction leads to the death penalty, which can be carried out in a number of ways including stoning or beheading.

On February 1, 2009, the New York Times released extensive evidence to support allegations of consistent torture and executions under the Kadyrov government. The accusations were sparked by the assassination in Austria of a former Chechen rebel who had gained access to Kadyrov's inner circle, 27-year old Umar Israilov.

On July 1, 2009, Amnesty International released a detailed report covering the human rights violations committed by the Russian Federation against Chechnyan citizens. Among the most prominent features was that those abused had no method of redress against assaults, ranging from kidnapping to torture, while those responsible were never held accountable. This led to the conclusion that Chechnya was being ruled without law, being run into further devastating destabilization.

Demographics

According to the Russian official estimates, the population of Chechnya as at 1 January 2010 is 1,267,740. As per 2002 Census, Chechens at 1,031,647 make up 93.5% of the republic's population. Other groups include Russians (40,645, or 3.7%), Kumyks (8,883, or 0.8%), Ingush (2,914 or 0.3%) and a host of smaller groups, each accounting for less than 0.5% of the total population. Birth rate was 25.41 in 2004. (25.7 in Achkhoi Martan, 19.8 in Groznyy, 17.5 in Kurchaloi, 28.3 in Urus Martan and 11.1 in Vedeno). According to the Chechen State Statistical Committee, Chechnya's population had grown to 1.205 million in January 2006.

At the end of the Soviet era, ethnic Russians (including Cossacks) comprised about 23% of the population (269,000 in 1989). According to Russia, from 1991 to 1994 tens of thousands of people of non-Chechen ethnicity left the republic amidst reports of violence and discrimination against the non-Chechen population (mostly Russians, Ukrainians and Armenians), which some Russian sources will call "ethnic cleansing". Russia and pro-Russian sources claim that due to widespread lawlessness and ethnic cleansing under the government of Dzhokhar Dudayev most non-Chechens fled the country during the 1990s or were killed.

However, regarding this exodus, there are opposing views. The mass depopulation of Russians in ethnic republics occurred throughout virtually the whole Soviet Union (and prior to the two wars, the phenomenon in Chechnya was not uniquely high), and is not distinct for Chechnya/Ichkeria in any way. In general, the view that the Chechens were especially prone to racism against Russians and other Christian groups is often rejected, even by academic Russians. As noted by ethnic Russian economists Boris Lvin and Andrei Iliaronov,

The Chechen authorities are regularly accused of crimes against the population, especially the Russian-speaking people. However, before the current war the emigration of the Russian-speaking population from Chechnya was no more intense than that from Kalmykia, Tuva and Sakha-Yakutia. In Grozny itself there remained a 200,000 strong Russian-speaking population which did not hasten to leave it.

According to this view of the ethnic situation in Ichkeria, provided by notably even Russian sources, the real end of the presence of Russians occurred during the First Chechen War, where Grozny (where 4 out of 5 Russians in the Republic of Chechnya lived, mainly as oil workers) was bombed extensively by the state run by their ethnic kin (i.e., the Russian Federation). Other reasons for leaving may have been economic: the economy of Chechnya was always horrible, and was plummeting even further starting in the Gorbachev era and continuing through the two wars.

In neighboring Ingushetia, where Russians once were over 30% of the population during the 1930s, the Russian population has fallen even lower- 1.2% in 2002 according to the Russian census itself. Yet there is no doubt that there was certainly no persecution of Russians in Ingushetia.

The languages used in the Republic are Chechen and Russian. Chechen belongs to the Vaynakh or North-central Caucasian linguistic family, which also includes Ingush and Batsb. Some scholars place it in a wider Iberian-Caucasian super-family.

Chechnya has one of the youngest populations in the generally ageing Russian Federation; in the early 1990s, it was among the few regions experiencing natural population growth.

• Population: 1,103,686 (2002) - numbers are disputed;
• (by 1 January 2010 the number has risen to 1,267,740 according to Russian official statistics)
  • Urban: 373,177 (33.8%)
  • Rural: 730,509 (66.2%)
  • Male: 532,724 (48.3%)
  • Female: 570,962 (51.7%)
• Average age: 22.7 years
  • Urban: 22.8 years
  • Rural: 22.7 years
  • Male: 21.6 years
  • Female: 23.9 years
• Number of households: 195,304 (with 1,069,600 people)
  • Urban: 65,741 (with 365,577 people)
  • Rural: 129,563 (with 704,023 people)
• Vital statistics

Source: Russian Federal State Statistics Service

	Births	Deaths	Birth rate	Death rate
2003	27,774	7,194	24.9	6.5
2004	28,496	6,347	25.2	5.6
2005	28,652	5,857	24.9	5.1
2006	27,989	5,889	23.9	5.0
2007	32,449	5,630	27.1	4.7
2008	35,897	5,447	29.3	4.5

• Ethnic groups

	1926 census	1939 census	2002 census
Chechens	293,190 (72.0%)	360,598 (64.4%)	1,031,647 (93.5%)
Russians	77,274 (19.0%)	157,621 (28.1%)	40,645 (3.7%)
Kumyks	2,217 (0.5%)	3,305 (0.6%)	8,883 (0.8%)
Ingushes	154 (0.0%)	4,336 (0.8%)	2,914 (0.3%)
Others	34,112 (8.4%)	34,088 (6.1%)	19,597 (1.8%)

Most Chechens are Sunni Muslim, the country having converted to Islam between the 16th and the 19th centuries. Most of the population follows either the Shafi'i, Hanafi, or Maliki schools of jurisprudence, fiqh. The Shafi'i school of jurisprudence has a long tradition among the Chechens, and thus it remains the most practiced.

The once-strong Russian minority in Chechnya, mostly Terek Cossacks, are predominately Russian Orthodox, although presently only one church exists in Grozny. The Armenian community, which used to number around 20,000 in Grozny alone, has dwindled to a couple of families.

Economy

During the war, the Chechen economy fell apart. Gross domestic product, if reliably calculable, would be only a fraction of the prewar level. Problems with the Chechen economy had an effect on the federal Russian economy—a number of financial crimes during the 1990s were committed using Chechen financial organizations. Chechnya has the highest ratio within Russian Federation of financial operations made in U.S. dollar to operations in Russian rubles. There are many counterfeit U.S. dollars printed there. In 1994, the separatists planned to introduce a new currency, but that did not happen due to Russian troops re-taking Chechnya in the Second Chechen War. As an effect of the war, approximately 80% of the economic potential of Chechnya was destroyed. Much of the money spent by the Russian federal government to rebuild Chechnya has been wasted. According to the Russian government, over $2 billion was spent on the reconstruction of the Chechen economy since 2000. However, according to the Russian central economic control agency (Schyotnaya Palata), not more than $350 million was spent as intended. That being said, the economic situation in Chechnya has improved considerably since 2000. According to the New York Times, major efforts to rebuild Grozny have been made, and improvements in the political situation have led some officials to consider setting up a tourism industry, though there are claims that construction workers are being irregularly paid and that poor people have been displaced. See the main article Grozny.

See also

Chechnya portal

• History of Chechnya
• List of active autonomist and secessionist movements
• List of revolutions and rebellions
• List of clashes in the North Caucasus
• Peoples of the Caucasus
• Nakh peoples
• Music of Chechnya
• Anna Politkovskaya
• Chechen mythology
• Alarodian languages
• Chechen Insurgency
• 阿瓦爾人

Sources

• Template:Cite Russian law

Further reading

• Khassan Baiev. The Oath: A Surgeon Under Fire. ISBN 0-8027-1404-8
• Vyacheslav Mironov. Ya byl na etoy voyne. (I was in this war) Biblion – Russkaya Kniga, 2001. Partial translation available online
• Vyacheslav Mironov. Assault on Grozny Downtown
• Matthew Evangelista, The Chechen Wars: Will Russia Go the Way of the Soviet Union?. ISBN 0-8157-2499-3.
• Roy Conrad. Grozny. A few days...
• Olga Oliker, Russia's Chechen Wars 1994–2000: Lessons from Urban Combat. ISBN 0-8330-2998-3. (A strategic and tactical analysis of the Chechen Wars.)
• Charlotta Gall & Thomas de Waal. Chechnya: A Small Victorious War. ISBN 0-330-35075-7
• Paul J., Ph. D. Murphy. The Wolves of Islam: Russia and the Faces of Chechen Terror. ISBN 1-57488-830-7
• Anatol Lieven. Chechnya : Tombstone of Russian Power ISBN 0-300-07881-1
• John B Dunlop. Russia Confronts Chechnya: Roots of a Separatist Conflict ISBN 0-521-63619-1
• Paul Khlebnikov. Razgovor s varvarom (Interview with a barbarian). ISBN 5-89935-057-1.
• Marie Benningsen-Broxup. The North Caucasus Barrier: The Russian Advance Towards the Muslim World. ISBN 1-85065-069-1
• Anna Politkovskaya. A Small Corner of Hell: Dispatches from Chechnya ISBN 0-226-67432-0
• Chris Bird. "To Catch a Tartar: Notes from the Caucasus" [ISBN 0-7195-6506-5]
• Carlotta Gall, Thomas de Waal, Chechnya: Calamity in the Caucasus [ISBN 0-8147-3132-5]
• Yvonne Bornstein and Mark Ribowsky, "Eleven Days of Hell: My True Story Of Kidnapping, Terror, Torture And Historic FBI & KGB Rescue" AuthorHouse, 2004. ISBN 1-4184-9302-3.
• Ali Khan, The Chechen Terror: The Play within the Play
• Hunter Hammer and Heaven, Journeys to Three World's Gone Mad, by Robert Young Pelton (ISBN 1-58574-416-6)
• Arkady Babchenko "One Soldier's War In Chechnya" Portobello, London ISBN 978 1 84627 039 0
• Asne Seirstad. The Angel of Grozny. ISBN 1-84408-395-4
• Scott Anderson. The Man Who Tried to Save the World. ISBN 0-385-48666-9
• Chechnya: The Case For Independence by Tony Wood Book review in The Independent, 2007

External links ／ Ikstörnol liŋks ／ 外部連結

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Chechnya

• Template:Dmoz
• 车臣首府“胜利日”发生爆炸 酿血腥悲剧中新社2004年5月9日
• 新闻资料：车臣战争爆发以来大事记中新社2006年7月11日
• Map of Grozny (interactive) at the Yellow Pages of the Chechen Republic
• Lev Tolstoy. A PRISONER IN THE CAUCASUS

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