Chechen Nationalism and Global Implications

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Chechen Nationalism and Global Implications

Chechnya is a small nation in the Southern region along the Caucus Mountains of Russia. The official religion is Sunni Islam. The region has a relatively low population; it is approximately 1.3 million. The official language of the region is Chechen (some argue that is Russian). The capital of the nation is Grozny and the Republic of Chechnya was “officially” established in 1991 (BBC).  Throughout the years Chechnya has gone through dynamic changes. The dynamic changes that have created and are creating self-determination in Chechnya have followed the nationalist paradigm for state development, and through this several global themes have been incorporated: the rise of the global economic system, the rise of Islam, the fall of Communism, and the world has seen the methods of 21st century imperialism.

Chechnya followed the J-Brown paradigm for national development. The revolution model does not fit the series of events as well. The revolution model discounts the unification process, and the revolution model discounts the importance of the identifiable people group. A revolution occurs when the people overthrow the government and they create a new government. Nationalism occurs when the identifiable people group revolts and breaks away from a parent country or nation. Nationalism is the creation of immense national pride, and through this creates political change. A revolution is simply political change that occurs because of a lack of solid rule, and an infuriated middle class. The motives can be similar, and so can the product, however the methods and the means are generally very different.

The identifiable people group is the Chechen people. These people live in the northern Caucasus Mountains of the southern part of Russia. They have resided in this region for the past 300 years (Infoplease).  The region is about 7,720 square miles and is about the size of New York (Infoplease) The Chechens are primarily Islamic with a strong religious background. They have a very conservative belief system. The nation is very oil rich (BBC News).

The Chechens faced several challenges and were victims of several atrocities.  In 1944 Stalin deported the majority of the Chechens to Siberia, and other parts of central Asia, because he thought that they were collaborating with the Nazis in Germany. This journey resulted in the death of thousands of Chechens; this was one of first major atrocities that the Chechens had to face (BBC). Eventually the Chechens were allowed to return home from their long period of exile, yet they were still not allowed to occupy upper end jobs, and they were not allowed to have management positions (Gewertz). This discrimination was not good for the Russians or the Soviet Union in the long run, because this was the starting point that allowed the Chechens to start having nationalistic ideals, this prolonged stimulus was part of the breaking point. In 1957 Nikita Khruschev forced the Chechens be a part of the Soviet Union. This was an extremely undemocratic move, and this took away from the Chechen autonomy. It also took away their right to self-determination. In 1991 The USSR broke down, and the Chechens declared themselves independent, however the people of Russia did not take this seriously and they sent troops to Chechnya to make sure that Chechens were still under the rule of the Russians (Grau, Lester, Jacob). The Russians continued the oppression of the Chechen natives, until the late 1990s. In 1996 the first president of Chechnya, Dudayev, was killed, because of a Russian military attack (Heidi). The Chechens were even oppressed by international forced in the 1980s and the 1990s, because the Chechen government was blamed for numerous terrorist attacks, and they were blamed for adopting a radical Islamic ideology (BBC). In 1998, Vlasov, Russia’s presidential representative was visiting the people of Chechnya, and he was kidnapped. Later that year citizens from Britain and New Zealand were kidnapped, and the Chechen government was blamed for all of the kidnappings because the kidnappings had a fundamentalist Islamic nature (BBC). A year later General Gennadiay Shpigun, a Russian official, was kidnapped and his corpse was found in Chechnya. The Chechen government was also blamed for the incident (BBC). In 1999 the authorities and officials in Russia still did not recognize the independence of Chechnya. The authorities in Russia seemed that the sole authority of Chechnya was the Moscow based State Council of the Republic of Chechnya (Radio Free Europe). In 2001 Human rights organizations around the world expressed their concerns about the human rights violations that were occurring in Chechnya. This occurred after the discovery of mass graves filled with human bodies; the Chechen authorities said that they were unaware of the incident (Shah). Between the 1990s and early 2000s the Russians were in control of the oil pipelines that were in Chechnya- this allowed the Russian conglomerates to prosper while the Chechens could not build a global economic infrastructure, and thus they did not prosper. This was unjust and it was allowed to occur even though it was the resources of the Chechens that were being exploited (The Guardian). In 2003 Russian forces killed numerous fighters at a border crossing and they took several important hostages. In 2004 the Russians killed Zelimkhan the president of Chechnya. In 2004 President Putin (the “president” of Russia) blamed the Chechen government for the attacks of hundreds even though the rebels claimed responsibility (BBC). This blame-game was very important at first the people and the government of Chechnya ignored and avoided it. However, it eventually got to the leaders; they got fed up. The negative stimulus has been a continual factor in the Chechens republic. The government and the civilians have constantly been blamed, and they have not been allowed to adopt the ideologies that they feel fit their people best. The international and Russian fears have become a self-fullfilling prophecy, at first the government of Chechnya and the rebels were independent; the actions of one did not influence the actions of the other. However as the government of Chechnya was continually blamed for the events that occurred that were the responsibility of the Fundamental Islamic organizations, they adapted strategies that were somewhat fundamentalist. This created a link between Islam and the state that has become continually stronger, and now it can often times be hard to distinguish between the two. This has led to more blame, and more negative stimulus. The process and cycle has yet to broken, several days ago the government of Chechnya was blamed for an attempted assassination of certain prolific Russian officials (Zaks). The people of Russia, and the people of the world need to stop being fearful of Chechnya. The people of the world need to let Chechnya take care of the Chechen problems without international or foreign aid.

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Cultural nationalism has been one of the most important factors in Chechnya. The people of Chechnya have not been very united in the past. The people needed a common culture to unite them. This resulted in Islam being very important to the Chechen case for independence. Islam unified the people; this allowed them to fight the Russians effectively, and this new unity made internal conflict between the Chechens harder and more unlikely. The 1990s was a period of time where the identification of Chechnya with Islam become increasing important, and the growing link between the two philosophies was becoming more ...

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