Chechnya and Russia since 1994, Russia
has severely disabled the Chechen rebel
movement and large-scale fighting has
ended. As many as 250,000 people may
have been killed and Chechnya now exists
as a mostly totalitarian state. Though Russia has officially ceased its counter-terrorism operation in Chechnya, human rights
groups say Russian strong-arm methods
Neal Lineback
including kidnapping, torture and execution are still being used.
and Mandy Lineback Gritzner
In 2010, Russia’s biggest problem in the
Caucasus is not in Chechnya. An Islamist
insurgency is spreading across the region,
targeting ethnic Russians and pro-Moscow
authorities. Terrorist acts were up more
than 30 percent in 2009 and the number of
casualties is on the rise.
The seven republics along Russia’s
It is unknown whether the rebellion is
southern flank are known collectively as
being supported by international terrorist
the North Caucasus. One of those republics,
organizations or is just a local phenomeChechnya, fought two wars with Russia in
non. According to a Christian Science Monithe 1990s, with Russia finally restraining the
tor article (Feb. 7, 2010), many independent
republic. Fresh unrest, however, is brewing
experts argue the insurgency is fueled by
in the Caucasus. While Chechnya’s rebelcorruption, poverty and unemployment
lion was nationalist,
in the region, not parthe new threat appears
ticularly by Islamic exRussia’s North Caucasus Challenge
increasingly jihadist in
tremism.
0
75 mi ©2010
nature.
Furthermore,
the
Kalmykia
0
75 km
Beginning in the
Russian
crackdown
early 1500s, Russia’s
following the attacks is
RUSSIA
geographic
expanfeeding the rebellion.
sions under tsars Ivan
Many people in the
Caspian
Sea
the Terrible and Peter
region are angry that
the Great and Tsarina
Russian
authorities
Karachay Catherine the Great
have targeted whole
Cherkessia
Kabardino are legendary. Russian
villages and families
Grozny
Ingushetia
Balkaria
armies overwhelmed
of suspected terrorists
North Beslan Chechnya
weaker Asian and Euinstead of the rebels
Ossetia
ropean cultures until
themselves.
C a u c a
further expansion was
Russia’s problems
Dagestan
s u s
thwarted by stronger
in
the north Caucasus
Black
GEORGIA
cultures, such as the
likely won’t end any
Sea
T’bilisi
Chinese, Japanese, Iratime soon. The minornians, Turks and Gerity cultures are quite
TURKEY
mans.
solidified in the region
Where Russians conand have not forgotten
ARMENIA
AZERBAIJAN P. Larkins
Geography in the News 3/26/10
fronted small isolated
Russia’s past brutaliand divided cultures,
ties.
Sources: GITN #483, “Danger in the Caucasus,” Aug. 24, 1999; and
they absorbed the
Moscow was able
Weir, Fred. “Jihadist attacks rise on Russia’s flank,” The Christian Science Monitor,
weaker cultures’ territo stop Chechnya’s
Vol. 102, Issue 11, Feb. 7, 2010.
tories into the Russian
secession from Russia,
Empire, later becoming
but this new situation
and russification solidified many of the
the Soviet Union. But many of these culis different. If the rebels are truly fightminority cultures, particularly when the
tures remained distinct and intact, surviving for Allah instead of country, Moscow
czarists and Communists were extremely
ing both the Russian Empire’s and the Somay find that clamping down will prove
brutal toward the ethnic groups. As an exviet Union’s powerful domination.
increasingly difficult.
ample, in 1944 Josef Stalin had hundreds
Today many minority cultures exist
And that is Geography in the News™.
of Chechens, Ingush, Karachais, Balkars
within the Russian fold, but some of the
March 26, 2010. #1034.
and Kalmyks hanged or shot and deported
most militant are located in the republics
Co-authors are Neal Lineback, Appalachian
over half a million to Kazakhstan.
of the north Caucasus.
State University Professor Emeritus of
Following the fall of the Soviet Union in
The Caucasus is a mountain chain exGeography, and Geographer Mandy Lineback
1991, Chechnya declared its independence
tending between the Black Sea and the
Gritzner. University News Director Jane
from Russia. After two wars between
Caspian Sea. High, rough and rugged,
Nicholson serves as technical editor.
Geography
In The
News™
NEW UNREST
IN NORTH
CAUCASUS
these mountains historically isolated numerous cultures from outside influences.
When the Soviet Union fell in 1991,
two Muslim republics and one Christian
republic located in the Caucasus received
their independence. Georgia, Azerbaijan
and Armenia, respectively, were three of
the original 15 Soviet Socialist Republics.
Other small autonomous Muslim republics lying along the north flank of the
Caucasus, however, did not achieve independence because they were part of
the greater Russian Republic during the
Soviet period. These are Adygea, Karachayevo-Cherkessia, Kabardino-Balkaria,
North Ossetia, Ingushetia, Chechnya, and
Dagestan. All are predominantly Muslim,
though small groups of Christian Russians
and Cossacks also reside there.
Throughout the 20th century, the Communist party sent thousands of Russian
soldiers and government officials to collectivize private lands and to maintain
order over the rebellious Caucasus cultures. The processes of collectivization
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