Russia Chechnya Conflict

The first bloody battle of Russia:
Right from history there have been crisis going on between Russia and Chechnya. Russia wants Chechnya to be its integral part, but people of Chechnya oppose it. The conflict over the region now known as Chechnya is since the mid-18th century.

The earliest record of fight between czarist Russian forces and Muslim tribes in the region is in the year 1722. Russian troops conquered much of the area by mid century. During the same period, Sheikh Mansur, a Muslim cleric, gathered the Chechen tribes and started revolt against the czar and his army, gave a shock to Russian forces in 1785 by defeating them. Mansur is considered as an idol even today and an inspiration to all the Chechnya’s people to maintain on their stand.

Russia attack:
The rising tension between the two eventually resulted in war in 1994, which was proved to be the badly organized mission by Russian troops. Chechnya's president Dzhokhar Dudayev during that period refused to compromise on the Kremlin line. This made Russian troops; felt that the part of their land was invaded which made them more furious.

Initially Moscow tried the tactics of getting the support of local people by providing them funds to invoke people of Chechnya against their President Dudayev. They also gathered the support of some of the forces, which helped Russian to set a secret attack on Grozny on 26 November 1994. Lack of proper planning for the attack made Russians to pay badly for it. The Chechen forces managed to face the sudden attack with courage and forced the Russian forces to retreat the attack. The Chechens captured around 20 Russian troops.

On 29 November, President Boris Yeltsin gave warning to Chechnya to disarm and surrender. The victory of the Chechens over Russian forces boosted them to oppose Russia’s ultimatum and denied to accept it. Russian forces then attacked on December first with massive aerial bombardments. The civilians were also targeted. This hardly proved any harm to Chechens who took the underground shelter.

On 11 December 1994, President Yeltsin increased the intensity of campaign and sent in the thousands of troops. Mean while President Dudayev declared war and forecasted that Russia would meet fierce resistance. Chechen Foreign Minister Shamsedin Yusef made a bold statement that they cannot kill every Chechen, there are one million of us and every one of us will fight.

Just after two days Russian forces entered Chechnya there was a battle with explosions all over the places. Chechens had limited supply of artillery and weapons so they decided to make the attack that would prove more effective. Armed with rocket-propelled grenade launchers they operated in small guerrilla units. They made for their lack in power and training by improvisation. They moved entire villages to prevent the passage of tanks.

Both the sides were exhausted and situation aroused such that both felt they should opt for peace talks. But none came forward with the peace proposal. The Russian military made heavy bombardments and hundreds of tanks entered the capital Gronzy. This massive onslaught against the capital began on New Year's Eve 1994.

Guerilla technique: This did not deter Chechen. They again used their tactic, which went quite successfully for them. Small groups were formed and they attacked the leading tanks, which passed through narrow passages with grenades. This caused obstruction for the following tanks, which made those Russian soldiers easy victims of Chechen forces.

In another incident were Russian soldiers tried to take control of the railway station resulted in slaughter of hundreds of Russian soldiers. At least 2,000 Russian soldiers were killed in the first days of the battle. Angered Russian army bombarded the places at their will. They were heavily criticized for that in media. By day three the Chechen leaders declared that they won the battle. By 3 January Russian forces began to withdraw.

Russia’s Victory :
Russian army thought deeply over the techniques of war. They planned to rectify all the previous mistakes and decided to launch a fresh attack. With the prior knowledge that they will face big resistance they launched yet more bombing raids of staggering ferocity and started taking control of small city areas at a time. As expected Chechens provided strong resistance never accepted defeat. They got morale victory when they successfully targeted Russia's Major-General Viktor Vorobyov by a mortar shell. Signs of revolt against the battle erupted throughout the world. By the middle of the month Russia's Prime Minister announced ceasefire to allow the dead to be buried but transport planes continued to land reinforcements at the nearby Mozdok and Besian air bases. This caused another hurdle in step towards ceasefire.

Finally on 19 January Russian forces seized the palace. Russian flag was hoisted aloft and gave a sigh of relief for the army. Russian for were not yet given comfort of major victory they were continuously attacked by Chechens using their guerilla technique. They were totally demoralized seeing the opposition even from the civilians. International monitors from the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe described the scenes as nothing short of an "unimaginable catastrophe" and they demanded a ceasefire.

By May 1995 Russian troops occupied two-thirds of the Republic's territory. The Chechen rebels then used mountain region shelter and switched from their guerilla tactic to terror tactics. This was the worst decision taken by them for the mankind. Unable to either crush or contain the rebels, Russia was forced into a humiliating peace deal, which finally emerged in August 1996. The troops who had entered the territory to keep it as part of the Russian Federation withdrew leaving behind thousands of dead bodies and buildings laying flat on the ground.

The conflict continues till date and really we can hope there will be a new beginning of peace between the two countries. The two countries must first stop their aggressive moves against each other and for the benefit of their own citizens who are ready to forget the past to see the new horizons of peace.