Chechen anarcho-separatism: liberation struggle or revolt?
This is the first article to examine the “Chechen crisis” in the context of three fundamentally different conflicts of 1990-1991. The first, ethnopolitical, conflict came about due to the alternative elections for people’s deputies of the RSFSR and the Supreme Council of Chechenya-Ingushetia, and the latter’s Declaration of sovereignty. The legal and legitimate separatism of the Chechen-Ingush republic now came into conflict with the sovereignty of the RSFSR. The second conflict concerned internal politics and can be characterized as a clash of interests between Chechen national-democratic forces and the communist leadership of the republic. The resulting Chechen democratic revolution led to the dissolution of the Supreme Council and the setting up of new elections for national deputies. The third conflict was caused by a counter-revolutionary anarcho-separatist revolt: the violent toppling of state power in Checheno-Ingushetia, the arbitrary proclamation of the Chechen Republic, and the formation of a state apparatus without any consideration for the legislation of Checheno-Ingushetia, the RSFSR or the USSR. Consequently, a conflict internal to the republic was transformed into a unique ethno-political conflict between Russia and the self-proclaimed Chechnya. The main conclusion of the article is as follows: the internal Chechen crisis caused by the anarcho-separatist revolt had nothing whatsoever to do with the national liberation struggle. On the contrary, this revolt destroyed the achievements of the Chechen people’s national-democratic struggle - the first real, legal, legitimate and sovereign statehood it had had in it's history - and instead launched the people into an unprecedented state of civil war.