The Chechen Wars Part II: The Wolf Feast

By the late 80s, the winding down of Soviet repressions breathed new life into Chechen separatism. They remained in the shadows, hiding behind clubs and movements, and timed their strike exceedingly well – by allying with the Yeltsin coup in 1991, they bought themselves time & goodwill.

What followed was not just a nightmare, but a national humiliation: hundreds of thousands of Russians ethnically cleansed from their homes; tens of thousands murdered, raped or enslaved. Government officials making deals with terrorists, dozens of Soviet weapon depots surrendered to separatists without a fight. Chechnya turned into a vicious tumor of crime & violence, threatening the entire Russian South.

Dudayev ruled Chechnya at gunpoint, but even the alpha wolf, a former Soviet General, could not reign in the myriad of gangs and warlords that were seizing their piece of the pie. The Russian government was indulging in crippling apathy – the oil kept flowing, shady deals made at the highest levels prevented anything from being done, all while thousands upon thousands of refugees fled Chechnya with nothing but the clothes on their back.

Part 2 of our Chechen Wars series tells the story of the blackest depths of modern Russia, our national disgrace, our forgotten martyrs. The Yeltsin regime tolerated Dudayev’s reign of terror until it couldn’t anymore – not because of any humanitarian or patriotic feeling, but because they “loved Russia” as a resource to exploit, and the pie shouldn’t get any smaller.

By the end of 1994, the Russian Army, collapsing of rot and bled dry by budget cuts, embarked on their desperate mission, never knowing whether there were more enemies at the front or in the rear…

00:00:00 - Chechen history recap
00:04:00 - 1989 and the Chechen opposition movements
00:17:10 - Dzhokhar Dudaev
00:26:00 - 1991 August coup. Galkovsky analysis
00:43:23 - Dudaev's Ichkeria. Fake avizzo scheme
00:52:00 - A quest for weapons
00:59:30 - Slavery and genocide
01:17:40 - Internal opposition to Dudaev
01:28:00 - Russian military preparations for the offensive

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