Chechens nationality. All-Russian media project "Russian Nation" - all ethnic groups of Russia as inseparable parts of a single Russian nation

Chechens(self-name Nokhchiy, in units number - Nokhcho) - North Caucasian people living in the North Caucasus, the main population of Chechnya. Historically, they also live in the Khasavyurt, Novolak, Kazbekovsky, Babayurt, Kizilyurt, Kizlyar districts of Dagestan, the Sunzhensky and Malgobek districts, Ingushetia, and the Akhmeta region of Georgia. The total number of Chechens around the world is 1,550,000.

Anthropologically they belong to the Caucasian type of the Caucasian race.

Settlement

At the moment, the absolute majority of Chechens live on the territory of the Russian Federation, namely in the Chechen Republic. In the history of the Chechen people there have been several settlements.

After the Caucasian War in 1865, about 5,000 Chechen families moved to the Ottoman Empire, a movement that took the name Muhajirism. Today, the descendants of those settlers make up the bulk of the Chechen diasporas in Turkey, Syria and Jordan.

In February 1944, more than half a million Chechens were completely deported from their places of origin. permanent residence to Central Asia. On January 9, 1957, the Chechens were allowed to return to their previous place of residence, while a number of Chechens remained in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

After the first and second Chechen wars, a significant number of Chechens left for the countries Western Europe, Turkey and Arab countries. The Chechen diaspora in the regions of the Russian Federation has also increased significantly.

Ethnic history

History of the ethnonym

The ethnonym “Chechens” is of North Caucasian origin. There are several versions of the origin of the ethnonym, one of them: from the name of the village of Chechen-aul. However, the ethnonym “Chechen” existed among the Chechens long before the founding of Chechen-Aul, so “Chechan” was one of the large Chechen societies. There are similar ethnonyms, for example, Sesan or Sasan, the name of one of the Chechen societies. Kabardians call them Mychgyscher, Shashen, Avars - Burtiyal, Georgians - Cysts, Dzurdzuki, Tsanary, Russians - Chechens, Armenians - Nokhchmatyan, Arabs - Shishani, the British - Chechens. .

Theories of the origin of the Chechens

The problem of the origin and earliest stage of the history of the Chechens remains completely unclear and debatable, although their deep autochthony in the North-Eastern Caucasus and a wider area of ​​settlement in ancient times seem quite obvious. A massive movement of proto-Vainakh tribes from Transcaucasia to the north of the Caucasus is not excluded, but the time, reasons and circumstances of this migration, recognized by a number of scientists, remain at the level of assumptions and hypotheses. There are several versions:

• Descendants of the Hurrian tribes (cf. division into teips) who went north (Georgia, North Caucasus). This is confirmed both by the similarity of the Chechen and Hurrian languages, and by similar legends, and an almost completely identical pantheon of gods.
• Descendants of the Tigrid population, an autochthonous people who lived in the Sumer region (Tigris River). Chechen teptars call Shemaar (Shemara) the point of departure of the Chechen tribes, then Nakhchuvan, Kagyzman, North and North-East Georgia and finally the North Caucasus. However, most likely, this applies only to part of the Chechen Tukkhums, since the settlement route of other tribes is somewhat different, for example, Sharoi cultural figures point to the Leninakan (Sharoi) region, the same can be said about some Cheberloy clans, such as Khoy (“kho” - guard, patrol) (Khoy city in Iran).

All attempts to study the origin of the Chechens lead to the Hurrians, Sumerians, and autochthons of Western Asia. Which is again similar to the Chechen legend about the exodus from Shemar.

Chechens in Russian history

The name “Chechens” itself was a Russian transliteration of the Kabardian name “shashan” and came from the name of the village of Bolshoi Chechen. Since the beginning of the 18th century, Russian and Georgian sources began to use the term “Chechens” in relation to the ancestors of modern Chechens.

Even before the Caucasian War, at the beginning of the 18th century, after the Greben Cossacks left the Terek right bank, many Chechens who agreed to voluntarily accept Russian citizenship were given the opportunity to move there in 1735 and then in 1765.

The document on the basis of which mountainous Chechnya became part of Russia was signed on January 21, 1781 and confirmed in the fall of the same year. WITH Chechen side it was signed by the most honorable elders of the villages of Bolshie and Malye Atagi, Gekhi and twelve other villages, that is, the entire southern half The Chechen Republic in the current understanding. This document was sealed with signatures in Russian and Arabic and an oath in the Koran. But, in many ways, this document remained a formality, although the Russian Empire received the official “right” to involve Chechnya into Russia; not all Chechens, especially the influential Sheikh Mansur, came to terms with the new order, and so began the almost century-long Caucasian War.

During the Caucasian War, under the leadership of General Alexei Ermolov, the Sunzha line of fortifications was built in 1817-1822 on the site of some Chechen and Ingush villages. After the capture of Shamil, the destruction of a number of rebel imams, as well as the transition under Field Marshal Ivan Paskevich to the “scorched earth” tactic, when the rebel villages were completely destroyed and the population was completely destroyed, the organized resistance of the mountaineers was suppressed in 1860.

But the end of the Caucasian War did not mean complete peace. A particular controversy was caused by the land issue, which was far from in favor of the Chechens. Even by the end of the 19th century, when oil was discovered, almost no income went to the Chechens. The tsarist government managed to maintain relative calm in Chechnya due to virtual non-interference in the internal life of the highlanders, bribing the tribal nobility, and freely issuing flour, fabrics, leather, and clothing to the poor highlanders; appointment officials local authoritative elders, leaders of teips and tribes.

It is not surprising that the Chechens often rebelled, as happened during the Russian-Turkish War of 1877-1878 and then during the 1905 revolution. But at the same time, the Chechens were valued by the tsarist authorities for their military courage. From them the Chechen regiment of the elite Wild Division was formed, which distinguished itself in the First World War. They were even taken into the royal convoy, which also consisted of Cossacks and other highlanders.

encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron in 1905 wrote about them: Chechens are considered cheerful, witty people (“the French of the Caucasus”), impressionable, but enjoy less sympathy than Circassians, due to their suspicion, tendency to treachery and severity, probably developed during centuries of struggle. Indomitability, courage, agility, endurance, calmness in the fight - traits of Ch., long recognized by everyone, even their enemies.

A.I. Solzhenitsyn, “The Gulag Archipelago”: But there was one nation that did not succumb to the psychology of submission at all - not loners, not rebels, but the entire nation. These are Chechens.

USSR

During Civil War Chechnya turned into a battlefield, and the territory of Chechnya changed several times. After the February Revolution, in March 1917, under the leadership of a former member of His Imperial Majesty's convoy, and later the Wild Division, Tapa Chermoev, the Union of Peoples of the North Caucasus was formed, which proclaimed the Mountain Republic in November 1917 (and from May 1918 - the Republic of the Mountain People of the North Caucasus). But the offensive of the Red Army and Denikin quickly ended the republic. Anarchy reigned in Chechnya itself. The Chechens, like other peoples of the Caucasus, played into the hands of the Bolsheviks, and as a result, after their victory, the Chechens were rewarded with autonomy and a huge amount of land, including almost all the villages of the Sunzhenskaya line, from where the Cossacks were evicted.

In the 1920s, under the policy of indigenization, a huge contribution was made to the development of the Chechens. A new Chechen writing system was developed (based first on the Latin and then on the Cyrillic alphabet; before that, Arabic script was used), a national theater, musical ensembles and much more appeared. But further integration of the Chechens into the Soviet people was cut short during collectivization, especially when trying to create collective farms in the mountainous regions. Unrest and uprisings continued, especially when the autonomous status of Chechnya again became formal as a result of the fact that in 1934 the Chechen Autonomous Okrug was united with the Ingush Autonomous Okrug, and in 1936 with the Sunzhensky Cossack District and the city of Grozny into the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, whose leadership was actually led by the Russian population.

According to the TSB, in 1920, 0.8% of Chechens were literate, and by 1940, literacy among Chechens was 85%.

Deportation of Chechens and Ingush

Main article: Deportation of Chechens and Ingush

In February 1944, everything Chechen population(about half a million) were deported from their places of permanent residence to Central Asia. On January 9, 1957, the Chechens were allowed to return to their previous place of residence. A certain number of Chechens remained in Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.

1990s and aftermath

After the First and Second Chechen Wars, a significant number of Chechens left for Western European countries, Turkey and Arab countries. The Chechen diaspora in the regions of the Russian Federation has also increased significantly

Anthropological type

Anthropologically, Chechens belong to the Caucasian type of the Caucasian race. The encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron, published at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, gives the following description of the Chechens:

Chechens are tall and well built. Women are beautiful. Anthropologically, Chechens are a mixed type. Eye color, for example, varies (in equal proportions) from black to more or less dark brown and from blue to more or less light green. In hair color, transitions from black to more or less dark brown are also noticeable. The nose is often turned up and concave. The facial index is 76.72 (Ingush) and 75.26 (Chechens). In comparison with other Caucasian peoples, the Chechen group is distinguished by the greatest dolichocephaly. Among the Chechens themselves, however, there are not only many subrachycephals, but also many pure brachycephals with a cephalic index from 84 and even up to 87.62.

Genetic genealogy

Most men in the Republic of Chechnya belong to the Y-DNA haplogroup J2, which originated approximately 18 thousand years ago in the Middle East. The second most common haplogroup in the Republic of Chechnya is J1 (about 21%).

Language

The Chechen language belongs to the Nakh branch of the Nakh-Dagestan languages, included in the hypothetical Sino-Caucasian macrofamily. Distributed mainly in the Chechen Republic and in the Khasavyurt, Novolak, Kazbekovsky, Babayurt and Kizilyurt regions of Dagestan, as well as in Ingushetia and other regions of the Russian Federation and in Georgia, partially in Syria, Jordan and Turkey. Number of speakers before the war 1994-2001 - approx. 1 million people (according to other sources, about 950 thousand).

There are Planar, Shatoi, Akkinsky (Aukhovsky), Cheberloevsky, Sharoevsky, Melkhinsky, Itumkalinsky, Galanchozhsky and Kistinsky dialects. In phonetics, the Chechen language is characterized by complex vocalism (the contrast between simple and umlauted, long and short vowels, the presence of weak nasalized vowels, big number diphthongs and triphthongs), initial combinations of consonants, an abundance of morphonological alternations, primarily changes in stem vowels in various grammatical forms (ablaut); in grammar - six nominal classes, multi-case declension; the composition of verbal categories and ways of expressing them are common for East Caucasian languages. The syntax is characterized by a wide use of participial and participial constructions.

The literary Chechen language developed in the 20th century on the basis of a flat dialect. Writing in Chechen language until 1925 it existed on an Arabic basis, in 1925-1938 - on Latin, from 1938 - on the basis of Russian graphics using one additional sign I (after different letters it has a different meaning), as well as some digraphs (кх, аь, ти and т . n.) and trigraphs (ugh). The composition of digraphs in the Chechen alphabet is similar to the alphabets of the Dagestan languages, but their meanings are often different. Since 1991, attempts have been made to return to the Latin script. The first monographic description of Chechen was created in the 1860s by P.K. Uslar; Subsequently, significant contributions to the study of the Chechen language were made by N. F. Yakovlev, Z. K. Malsagov, A. G. Matsiev, T. I. Desherieva and other researchers.

It is the state language of the Chechen Republic.

Religion

Most Chechens belong to the Shafi'i madhhab of Sunni Islam.

Sufi Islam among the Chechens is represented by two tariqats: Naqshbandiyya and Qadiriyya, which in turn are divided into small religious groups - vird brotherhoods, total which among Chechens reaches thirty-two. The largest Sufi brotherhood in Chechnya are the followers of the Chechen Qadiri sheikh Kunta-Hadzhi Kishiev (“zikrists”) and the small virds that spun off from him - Bammat-Girey-Hadzhi, Chimmmirza, Mani-sheikh.

Chechen tukhums and teips

Chechen tukhum- this is a union of a certain group of teips that are not related to each other by blood, but have united into a higher association to jointly solve common problems - protection from enemy attacks and economic exchange. Tukkhum occupied a certain territory, which consisted of the area actually inhabited by it, as well as the surrounding area, where the taipas included in Tukkhum were engaged in hunting, cattle breeding and agriculture. Each Tukkhum spoke a certain dialect of the Chechen language.

Chechen tape is a community of people related to each other by blood on the paternal side. Each of them had their own communal lands and a teip mountain (from which the name of the teip often came). Tapes are internally divided into “gars” (branches) and “nekyi” - surnames. Chechen teips are united into nine tukhums, a kind of territorial unions. Consanguinity among the Chechens served the purposes of economic and military unity.

In the middle of the 19th century, Chechen society consisted of 135 teips. Currently, they are divided into mountain (about 100 teips) and plain (about 70 teips).

Currently, representatives of one teip live dispersedly. Large teips are distributed throughout Chechnya.

Wikipedia materials used

The first Chechen states appeared in the Middle Ages. In the 19th century, after the long Caucasian War, the country became part of the Russian Empire. But even in the future, the history of Chechnya was full of contradictory and tragic pages.

Ethnogenesis

The Chechen people were formed over a long period of time. The Caucasus has always been distinguished by ethnic diversity, so even in the scientific community it has not yet developed unified theory about the origin of this nation. The Chechen language belongs to the Nakh branch of the Nakh-Dagestan language family. It is also called East Caucasian, according to the settlement of ancient tribes who became the first speakers of these dialects.

The history of Chechnya began with the appearance of the Vainakhs (today this term refers to the ancestors of the Ingush and Chechens). A variety of nomadic peoples took part in its ethnogenesis: Scythians, Indo-Iranians, Sarmatians, etc. Archaeologists attribute the carriers of the Colchis and Koban cultures to the ancestors of the Chechens. Their traces are scattered throughout the Caucasus.

Ancient history

Due to the fact that the history of ancient Chechnya passed in the absence centralized state, it is extremely difficult to judge events before the Middle Ages. What is known for certain is that in the 9th century the Vainakhs were subjugated by their neighbors, who created the Alanian kingdom, as well as by the mountain Avars. The latter, in the 6th-11th centuries, lived in the state of Sarire with its capital in Tanusi. It is noteworthy that both Islam and Christianity were widespread there. However, the history of Chechnya developed in such a way that the Chechens became Muslims (unlike, for example, their Georgian neighbors).

In the 13th century, the Mongol invasions began. Since then, the Chechens have not left the mountains, fearing numerous hordes. According to one hypothesis (it also has opponents), the first early feudal state of the Vainakhs was created at the same time. This formation did not last long and was destroyed during the invasion of Tamerlane at the end of the 14th century.

Tapes

For a long time, the flat areas at the foot of Caucasus Mountains controlled by Turkic-speaking tribes. Therefore, the history of Chechnya has always been connected with mountains. The lifestyle of its inhabitants was also shaped in accordance with the conditions of the landscape. In isolated villages, where sometimes only one pass led, teips arose. These were territorial entities created according to tribal affiliation.

Originating in the Middle Ages, teips still exist and remain an important phenomenon for the entire Chechen society. These unions were created to protect against aggressive neighbors. The history of Chechnya is replete with wars and conflicts. The custom of blood feud arose in teips. This tradition brought its own characteristics to the relations between teips. If a conflict flared up between several people, it would certainly escalate into a tribal war until the complete destruction of the enemy. This has been the history of Chechnya since ancient times. existed very for a long time, since the teip system has largely replaced the state in the usual sense of the word.

Religion

Information about what it was ancient history Chechnya has practically not survived to this day. Some archaeological finds suggest that the Vainakhs were pagans until the 11th century. They worshiped a local pantheon of deities. The Chechens had a cult of nature with all its characteristic features: sacred groves, mountains, trees, etc. Witchcraft, magic and other esoteric practices were widespread.

In the XI-XII centuries. In this region of the Caucasus, the spread of Christianity began, which came from Georgia and Byzantium. However, the Constantinople empire soon collapsed. Sunni Islam replaced Christianity. The Chechens adopted it from their Kumyk neighbors and the Golden Horde. The Ingush became Muslims in the 16th century, and the inhabitants of remote mountain villages - in the 17th century. But for a long time Islam could not influence social customs, which were much more based on national traditions. And only in late XVII In the 1st century, Sunnism in Chechnya occupied approximately the same positions as in Arab countries. This was due to the fact that religion became important tool struggle against Russian Orthodox intervention. Hatred towards strangers was kindled not only on national, but also on religious grounds.

XVI century

In the 16th century, Chechens began to occupy the deserted plains in the Terek River valley. At the same time, most of these people remained to live in the mountains, adapting to their natural conditions. Those who went north were looking for a better life there. The population grew naturally, and scarce resources became scarce. Crowding and hunger forced many teips to settle in new lands. The colonists built small villages, which they named after their clan. Some of this toponymy has survived to this day.

The history of Chechnya since ancient times has been associated with danger from nomads. But in the 16th century they became much less powerful. The Golden Horde collapsed. Numerous uluses constantly fought with each other, which is why they could not establish control over their neighbors. In addition, it was then that the expansion of the Russian kingdom began. In 1560 The Kazan and Astrakhan khanates were conquered. Ivan the Terrible began to control the entire course of the Volga, thus gaining access to the Caspian Sea and the Caucasus. Russia had loyal allies in the mountains in the form of the Kabardian princes (Ivan the Terrible even married the daughter of the Kabardian ruler Temryuk).

First contacts with Russia

In 1567, the Russians founded the Terek fort. Temryuk asked Ivan the Terrible about this, who hoped for the tsar’s help in the conflict with the Crimean Khan, a vassal of the Ottoman Sultan. The construction site of the fortress was the mouth of the Sunzha River, a tributary of the Terek. This was the first Russian settlement that arose in close proximity to the lands of the Chechens. For a long time, it was the Terek fort that was the springboard for Moscow expansion in the Caucasus.

The colonists were the Greben Cossacks, who were not afraid of life in a distant foreign land and defended the interests of the sovereign with their service. It was they who established direct contact with the local natives. The history of the people of Chechnya interested Grozny, and he accepted the first Chechen embassy, ​​which was sent by the influential Prince Shikh-Murza Okotsky. He asked for protection from Moscow. The son of Ivan the Terrible already gave consent to this. However, this union did not last long. In 1610, Shikh-Murza was killed, his heir was overthrown, and the principality was captured by the neighboring Kumyk tribe.

Chechens and Terek Cossacks

Back in 1577, the basis of which was formed by the Cossacks who moved from the Don, Khopr and Volga, as well as Orthodox Circassians, Ossetians, Georgians and Armenians. The latter fled from Persian and Turkish expansion. Many of them became Russified. The growth of the Cossack masses was significant. Chechnya could not help but notice this. The history of the origin of the first conflicts between the highlanders and the Cossacks is not recorded, but over time, clashes became more and more frequent and commonplace.

Chechens and other indigenous people of the Caucasus staged raids to seize livestock and other useful loot. Often, civilians were taken captive and later returned for ransom or made slaves. In response to this, the Cossacks also launched raids into the mountains and plundered villages. Nevertheless, such cases were the exception rather than the rule. Often attacked long periods world, when neighbors traded among themselves and acquired family ties. Over time, the Chechens even adopted some farming features from the Cossacks, and the Cossacks, in turn, began to wear clothes very similar to mountain clothes.

XVIII century

The second half of the 18th century in the North Caucasus was marked by the construction of a new Russian fortified line. It consisted of several fortresses, where more and more new colonists came. In 1763, Mozdok was founded, then Ekaterinogradskaya, Pavlovskaya, Maryinskaya, Georgievskaya.

These forts replaced the Terek fort, which the Chechens once even managed to plunder. Meanwhile, in the 80s, the Sharia movement began to spread in Chechnya. Slogans about gazavat - the war for the Islamic faith - became popular.

Caucasian War

In 1829, the North Caucasus Imamate was created - an Islamic theocratic state on the territory of Chechnya. At the same time, the country had its own national hero, Shamil. In 1834 he became an imam. Dagestan and Chechnya were subordinate to him. The history of the emergence and spread of his power is connected with the struggle against Russian expansion in the North Caucasus.

The fight against the Chechens continued for several decades. At a certain stage, the Caucasian War became intertwined with the war against Persia, as well as Crimean War, when Western European countries came out against Russia. Whose help could Chechnya count on? The history of the Nokhchi state in the 19th century would not have been so long if not for the support Ottoman Empire. And yet, despite the fact that the Sultan helped the mountaineers, Chechnya was finally conquered in 1859. Shamil was first captured and then lived in honorable exile in Kaluga.

After the February Revolution, Chechen gangs began to attack the outskirts of Grozny and the Vladikavkaz railway. In the fall of 1917, the so-called “native division” returned to its homeland from the front of the First World War. It consisted of Chechens. The division staged a real battle with the Terek Cossacks.

Soon the Bolsheviks came to power in Petrograd. Their Red Guard entered Grozny already in January 1918. Some Chechens supported the Soviet regime, others went to the mountains, and others helped the whites. Since February 1919, Grozny was under the control of the troops of Peter Wrangel and his British allies. And only in March 1920 the Red Army finally established itself in

Deportation

In 1936, the new Checheno-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed. Meanwhile, partisans remained in the mountains and opposed the Bolsheviks. The last such gangs were destroyed in 1938. However, some residents of the republic still have separate sentiments.

The Great Patriotic War soon began, from which both Chechnya and Russia suffered. The history of the fight against the German offensive in the Caucasus, as on all other fronts, was difficult for Soviet troops. Large losses were aggravated by the appearance of Chechen formations that acted against the Red Army or even colluded with the Nazis.

This gave the Soviet leadership a reason to begin repression against the entire people. On February 23, 1944, all Chechens and neighboring Ingush, regardless of their relationship to the USSR, were deported to Central Asia.

Ichkeria

The Chechens were able to return to their homeland only in 1957. After the breakup Soviet Union Separate sentiments arose again in the republic. In 1991, the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria was proclaimed in Grozny. For some time her conflict with federal center was in a frozen state. In 1994, Russian President Boris Yeltsin decided to send troops into Chechnya to restore Moscow's power there. Officially, the operation was called “measures to maintain constitutional order.”

The First Chechen War ended on August 31, 1996, when the Khasavyurt Agreements were signed. In fact, this agreement meant the withdrawal of federal troops from Ichkeria. The parties agreed to determine the status of Chechnya by December 31, 2001. With the advent of peace, Ichkeria became independent, although this was not legally recognized by Moscow.

Modernity

Even after the signing of the Khasavyurt agreements, the situation on the border with Chechnya remained extremely turbulent. The republic has become a shelter for extremists, Islamists, mercenaries and simply criminals. On August 7, a brigade of militants Shamil Basayev and Khattab invaded neighboring Dagestan. The extremists wanted to create an independent Islamist state on its territory.

The history of Chechnya and Dagestan is very similar, and not only due to geographical proximity, but also due to the similarity of the ethnic and religious composition of the population. Federal troops launched a counter-terrorist operation. First, the militants were thrown out of the territory of Dagestan. Then Russian army re-entered Chechnya. The active combat phase of the campaign ended in the summer of 2000, when Grozny was cleared. After this, the counter-terrorist operation regime was officially maintained for another 9 years. Today Chechnya is one of the full-fledged subjects of the Russian Federation.

The question of the origin of the Chechen people still causes debate. According to one version, the Chechens are an autochthonous people of the Caucasus; a more exotic version connects the appearance of the Chechen ethnic group with the Khazars.

Difficulties of etymology

The emergence of the ethnonym “Chechens” has many explanations. Some scholars suggest that this word is a transliteration of the name of the Chechen people among the Kabardians - “Shashan”, which may have come from the name of the village of Bolshoi Chechen. Presumably, it was there that the Russians first met the Chechens in the 17th century. According to another hypothesis, the word “Chechen” has Nogai roots and is translated as “robber, dashing, thieving person.”

The Chechens themselves call themselves “Nokhchi”. This word has an equally complex etymological nature. Caucasus scholar of the late 19th – early 20th centuries Bashir Dalgat wrote that the name “Nokhchi” can be used as a common tribal name among both the Ingush and the Chechens. However, in modern Caucasian studies, it is customary to use the term “Vainakhs” (“our people”) to refer to the Ingush and Chechens.

Recently, scientists have been paying attention to another version of the ethnonym “Nokhchi” - “Nakhchmatyan”. The term first appears in the “Armenian Geography” of the 7th century. According to the Armenian orientalist Kerope Patkanov, the ethnonym “Nakhchmatyan” is compared with the medieval ancestors of the Chechens.

Ethnic diversity

The oral traditions of the Vainakhs say that their ancestors came from beyond the mountains. Many scientists agree that the ancestors of the Caucasian peoples formed in Western Asia approximately 5 thousand years BC and over the next several thousand years actively migrated towards the Caucasian Isthmus, settling on the shores of the Black and Caspian Seas. Some of the settlers penetrated beyond the Caucasus Range along the Argun Gorge and settled in the mountainous part of modern Chechnya.

According to most modern Caucasian scholars, all subsequent time a complex process of ethnic consolidation of the Vainakh ethnos took place, in which neighboring peoples periodically intervened. Doctor of Philology Katy Chokaev notes that discussions about the ethnic “purity” of Chechens and Ingush are erroneous. According to the scientist, in their development, both peoples have come a long way, as a result of which they both absorbed the features of other ethnic groups and lost some of their features.

Among modern Chechens and Ingush, ethnographers find a significant proportion of representatives of the Turkic, Dagestan, Ossetian, Georgian, Mongolian, and Russian peoples. This is evidenced, in particular, by the Chechen and Ingush languages, in which there is a noticeable percentage of borrowed words and grammatical forms. But we can also safely talk about the influence of the Vainakh ethnic group on neighboring peoples. For example, the orientalist Nikolai Marr wrote: “I will not hide that in the highlanders of Georgia, along with them in the Khevsurs and Pshavas, I see Georgianized Chechen tribes.”

The most ancient Caucasians

Doctor of Historical Sciences, Professor Georgy Anchabadze is confident that the Chechens are the oldest of the indigenous peoples of the Caucasus. He adheres to the Georgian historiographical tradition, according to which the brothers Kavkaz and Lek laid the foundation for two peoples: the first - Chechen-Ingush, the second - Dagestan. The descendants of the brothers subsequently settled the uninhabited territories of the North Caucasus from the mountains to the mouth of the Volga. This opinion is largely consistent with the statement of the German scientist Friedrich Blubenbach, who wrote that the Chechens have a Caucasian anthropological type, reflecting the appearance of the very first Caucasian Cro-Magnons. Archaeological data also indicate that ancient tribes lived in the mountains of the North Caucasus back in the Bronze Age.

British historian Charles Rekherton in one of his works moves away from the autochthony of the Chechens and makes a bold statement that the origins of Chechen culture include the Hurrian and Urartian civilizations. In particular, the Russian linguist Sergei Starostin points out related, albeit distant, connections between the Hurrian and modern Vainakh languages.

Ethnographer Konstantin Tumanov in his book “On the Prehistoric Language of Transcaucasia” suggested that the famous “Van inscriptions” - Urartian cuneiform texts - were made by the ancestors of the Vainakhs. To prove the antiquity of the Chechen people, Tumanov cited a huge number of toponyms. In particular, the ethnographer noticed that in the language of Urartu, a protected fortified area or fortress was called “khoy”. In the same meaning, this word is found in Chechen-Ingush toponymy: Khoy is a village in Cheberloy, which really had strategic importance, blocking the path to the Cheberloy basin from Dagestan.

Noah's people

Let’s return to the self-name of the Chechens “Nokhchi”. Some researchers see in it a direct reference to the name of the Old Testament patriarch Noah (in the Koran - Nuh, in the Bible - Noah). They divide the word “nokhchi” into two parts: if the first - “nokh” - means Noah, then the second - “chi” - should be translated as “people” or “people”. This was, in particular, pointed out by the German linguist Adolf Dirr, who said that the element “chi” in any word means “person”. You don't need to look far for examples. In order to denote the inhabitants of a city in Russian, in many cases it is enough for us to add the ending “chi” - Muscovites, Omsk.

Are Chechens descendants of the Khazars?

The version that Chechens are descendants of the biblical Noah continues. A number of researchers claim that the Jews of the Khazar Kaganate, whom many call the 13th tribe of Israel, did not disappear without a trace. Destroyed prince of Kyiv Svyatoslav Igorevich in 964, they went to the Caucasus mountains and there laid the foundations of the Chechen ethnic group. In particular, some of the refugees after Svyatoslav’s victorious campaign were met in Georgia by the Arab traveler Ibn Haukal.

A copy of an interesting NKVD instruction from 1936 has been preserved in the Soviet archives. The document explained that up to 30% of Chechens secretly profess the religion of their ancestors, Judaism, and consider the rest of the Chechens to be low-born strangers.

It is noteworthy that Khazaria has a translation in the Chechen language - “Beautiful Country”. Head of the Archives Department under the President and Government Chechen Republic Magomed Muzaev notes in this regard: “It is quite possible that the capital of Khazaria was located on our territory. We must know that Khazaria, which existed on the map for 600 years, was the most powerful state in eastern Europe.”

“Many ancient sources indicate that the Terek valley was inhabited by the Khazars. In the V-VI centuries. this country was called Barsilia, and, according to the Byzantine chroniclers Theophanes and Nikephoros, the homeland of the Khazars was located here,” wrote the famous orientalist Lev Gumilyov.

Some Chechens are still convinced that they are descendants of Khazar Jews. Thus, eyewitnesses say that during the Chechen war, one of the militant leaders Shamil Basayev said: “This war is revenge for the defeat of the Khazars.”

The modern Russian writer - Chechen by nationality - German Sadulayev also believes that some Chechen teips are descendants of the Khazars.

Another curious fact: in the oldest image of a Chechen warrior that has survived to this day, two six-pointed stars of the Israeli king David are clearly visible.

CHECHENS, Nokhchi (self-name), people in the Russian Federation (899 thousand people), the main population of Chechnya. The number in Chechnya and Ingushetia is 734 thousand people. They also live in Dagestan (about 58 thousand people), Stavropol Territory (15 thousand people), Volgograd Region (11.1 thousand people), Kalmykia (8.3 thousand people), Astrakhan (7.9 thousand people) ), Saratov (6 thousand people), Tyumen (4.6 thousand people) region, North Ossetia (2.6 thousand people), Moscow (2.1 thousand people), as well as in Kazakhstan (49.5 thousand people), Kyrgyzstan (2.6 thousand people), Ukraine (1.8 thousand people), etc. The total number is 957 thousand people.

Believers Chechens are Sunni Muslims. There are two widespread Sufi teachings - Naqshbandi and Nadiri. They speak the Chechen language of the Nakh-Dagestan group. Dialects: flat, Akkinsky, Cheberloevsky, Melkhinsky, Itumkalinsky, Galanchozhsky, Kistinsky. The Russian language is also widespread (74% are fluent). Writing after 1917 was first based on Arabic, then on Latin script, and from 1938 on the Russian alphabet.

Strabo's "Geography" mentions the ethnonym Gargarei, the etymology of which is close to the Nakh "gergara" - "native", "close". The ethnonyms Isadiks, Dvals, etc. are also considered Nakh. In Armenian sources of the 7th century, the Chechens are mentioned under the name Nakhcha Matyan (i.e. “speaking the Nokhchi language”). In the chronicles of the 14th century, the “people of Nokhchi” are mentioned. Persian sources of the 13th century give the name sasana, which was later included in Russian documents. In documents from the 16th and 17th centuries, the tribal names of the Chechens are found (Ichkerins - Nokhchmakhkhoy, Okoks - A'kkhii, Shubuts - Shatoi, Charbili - Cheberloy, Melki - Malkhii, Chantins - ChIantiy, Sharoyts - Sharoy, Terloyts - TIerloy).

The anthropological type of Pranakhs can be considered formed in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages. The ancient Chechens, who mastered not only the northern slopes of the Caucasus, but also the steppes of the Ciscaucasia, early came into contact with the Scythian, and then with the Sarmatian and Alan nomadic world. In the flat zone of Chechnya and nearby regions of the North Caucasus in the 8th-12th centuries, the multi-ethnic Alan kingdom was formed, in the mountainous zone of Chechnya and Dagestan - the state formation of Sarir. After the Mongol-Tatar invasion (1222 and 1238-1240), the steppe beyond the border and partly the Chechen plain became part of the Golden Horde. By the end of the 14th century, the population of Chechnya united into the state of Simsism. In the 16th and 17th centuries, the Caucasian Isthmus was the object of constant claims by the Ottoman Empire (with its vassal, the Crimean Khanate), Iran and Russia. In the course of the struggle between these states, the first Russian fortresses and Cossack towns were erected on Chechen lands, and diplomatic ties between Chechen rulers and aul societies were established with Russia. At the same time, the modern borders of Chechen settlement were finally formed. Since the Persian campaign of Peter I (1722), Russia's policy towards Chechnya has acquired a colonial character. IN last years During the reign of Catherine II, Russian troops occupied the left bank of the Terek, building a section of the Caucasian military line here, and founded military fortresses from Mozdok to Vladikavkaz along the Chechen-Kabardian border. This led to an increase liberation movement Chechens at the end of the 18th-1st half of the 19th century. By 1840, a theocratic state was emerging on the territory of Chechnya and Dagestan - the Imamate of Shamil, which initially waged a successful war with Russia, but by 1859 defeated, after which Chechnya was annexed to Russia and included, together with the Khasavyurt district, inhabited by Aukhov Chechens and Kumyks, in the Terek region. In 1922, the Chechen Autonomous Region was formed as part of the RSFSR. Even earlier, part of the lands taken from it during the Caucasian War was returned to Chechnya. Office work and teaching in the native language were introduced, and other cultural and socio-economic changes were carried out. At the same time, collectivization that began in the 1920s, accompanied by repressions, caused great damage to the Chechens. In 1934, Chechnya was united with the Ingush Autonomous Okrug into the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Okrug, and since 1936 - the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. In February 1944, about 500 thousand Chechens and Ingush were forcibly deported to Kazakhstan. Of these, a significant number died in the first year of exile. In January 1957, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, abolished in 1944, was restored. But at the same time, several mountainous regions were closed to the Chechens, and the former residents of these regions began to be settled in lowland villages and Cossack villages. Chechen Aukhovites returned to Dagestan.

In 1992, the Congress of People's Deputies of the Russian Federation decided to transform the Chechen-Ingush Republic into the Ingush Republic and the Chechen Republic.

Traditional agricultural crops are barley, wheat, millet, oats, rye, flax, beans, etc. Later they began to grow corn and watermelons. Gardening and horticulture were developed. Arable tools - plow (gota), skid implement (nokh). The three-field system was widespread. Transhumance sheep breeding was developed in the mountainous regions. Cattle were raised on the plains, which were also used as labor. They also bred thoroughbred horses for riding. There was economic specialization between the mountainous and lowland regions of Chechnya: receiving grain from the plains, mountain Chechens sold their surplus livestock in return.

Handicrafts played an important role. Chechen cloth, produced in the Grozny, Vedensky, Khasavyurt, and Argun districts, was very popular. Leather processing and the production of felt carpets, buroks and other felt products were widespread. The centers of weapons production were the villages of Starye Atagi, Vedeno, Dargo, Shatoi, Dzhugurty, etc., and the centers of pottery production were the villages of Shali, Duba-Yurt, Stary-Yurt, Novy-Yurt, etc. Jewelry and blacksmithing, mining, and production were also developed silk, processing of bone and horn.

Mountain villages had a disorderly, crowded layout. Two-story ones were common stone houses with a flat roof. IN ground floor The cattle were housed, and the upper room, which consisted of two rooms, was housing. Many villages had housing and defense towers of 3-5 floors. Settlements on the plain were large (500-600 and even up to 4000 households), stretched along roads and rivers. Traditional home- turluchnoye, consisted of several rooms, stretched in a row, with separate exits to the terrace that ran along the house. The main room belonged to the head of the family. Here was the hearth and the whole life of the family took place. The rooms of married sons were attached to it. One of the rooms served as a kunat room, or a special building was erected for it in the courtyard. The yard with outbuildings was usually surrounded by a fence. Distinctive feature The interior of the Chechen home had an almost complete absence of furniture: a chest, a low table on three legs, several benches. The walls were hung with skins and carpets, weapons were hung on them, and the floor was covered with mats. The hearth, the chain of fire, the ash were considered sacred, disrespect for them entailed blood feud and, conversely, even if the murderer grabbed the chain of fire, he received the rights of a relative. They swore and cursed with the chain above them. The eldest woman was considered the keeper of the hearth. The fireplace divided the room into male and female halves.

Woolen fabrics were of several types. Highest quality the fabric "iskhar" was considered to be made from the wool of lambs, the lower - from the wool of dairy sheep. No later than the 16th century, the Chechens knew the production of silk and linen. Traditional clothing had much in common with the general Caucasian costume. Men's clothing - shirt, trousers, beshmet, Circassian coat. The shirt was tunic-shaped, the collar with a slit in the front was fastened with buttons. A beshmet was worn over the shirt, belted with a belt with a dagger. The Circassian coat was considered festive clothing. Circassian shorts were sewn cut off at the waist, flared downwards, fastened to the waist with metal fasteners, and gazyrnitsa were sewn onto the chest. Pants, tapered downwards, were tucked into leggings made of cloth, morocco or sheepskin. Winter clothing - sheepskin coat, burka (verta). Men's hats were tall, flaring hats made of valuable fur. Shepherds wore fur hats. There were also felt hats. The hat was considered the personification of masculine dignity; knocking it down would entail blood feud.

Main elements women's clothing there was a shirt and pants. The shirt had a tunic-like cut, sometimes below the knees, sometimes to the ground. The collar with a slit on the chest was fastened with one or three buttons. The outerwear was a beshmet. Festive clothing was “gIables” made of silk, velvet and brocade, sewn to fit the figure, with beveled sides and fasteners to the waist, of which only the lower ones were fastened. Hanging blades (tIemash) were sewn on top of the sleeves. Giables were worn with a breastplate and a belt. Women wore high-heeled shoes with a flat toe without a back as formal footwear.

Women's headdresses - large and small scarves, shawls (cortals), one end of which went down to the chest, the other was thrown back. Women (mostly elderly) wore a chukhta under a headscarf - a hat with bags that went down the back, into which the braids were placed. The color of clothing was determined by the woman's status: married, unmarried or widow.

Food in spring is predominantly plant-based, in summer - fruits and dairy dishes, in winter - mainly meat. Everyday food is siskal-beram (churek with cheese), soups, porridges, pancakes (shuri chIepalI-ash), for the wealthier - kald-dyattiy (cottage cheese with butter), zhizha-galnash (meat with dumplings), meat broth, flatbreads with cheese, meat, pumpkin, etc.

The dominant form of community was the neighborhood one, consisting of families of both Chechen and sometimes other ethnic origins. It united residents of one large or several small settlements. The life of the community was regulated by a gathering (khel - “council”, “court”) of representatives of clan divisions (taip). He decided judicial and other cases of community members. The gathering of the entire community (“community khel”) regulated the use of community lands, determined the timing of plowing and haymaking, acted as a mediator in the reconciliation of bloodlines, etc. In the mountains, tribal settlements were also preserved, subdivided into smaller kin groups (gar), as well as large associations of types (tukhums), differing in the peculiarities of their dialects. There were slaves from unredeemed prisoners of war who for long service could receive land from the owner and the right to start a family, but even after that they remained incomplete members of the community. Great importance preserved the customs of hospitality, kunakism, twinning, tribal and neighborly mutual assistance (belkh - from “bolkh”, “work”), blood feud. The most serious crimes were considered to be the murder of a guest, a forgiven blood relative, rape, etc. The issue of declaring blood feud was decided by the elders of the community, the possibility and conditions of reconciliation were decided at general gatherings. Revenge, punishment, and murder could not take place in the presence of a woman; moreover, by throwing a scarf from her head into the middle of the fighters, a woman could stop the bloodshed. The customs of avoidance persisted in the relationships between husband and wife, son-in-law and in-laws, daughter-in-law and in-laws, parents and children. In some places, polygamy and levirate were preserved. Clan associations were not exogamous, marriages were prohibited between relatives up to the third generation.

There are various forms of folklore: traditions, legends, fairy tales, songs, epic tales (Nart-Ortskhoi epic, Illi epic, etc.), dances. Musical instruments - harmonica, zurna, tambourine, drum, etc. The veneration of mountains, trees, groves, etc. has been preserved. The main deities of the pre-Muslim pantheon were the god of the sun and sky Del, the god of thunder and lightning Sela, the patron saint of cattle breeding Gal-Erdy, hunting - Elta, the goddess of fertility Tusholi, the god of the underworld Eshtr, etc. Islam penetrated into Chechnya from the 13th century through Golden Horde and Dagestan. The Chechens were completely converted to Islam by the 18th century. In the 20th century, the Chechen intelligentsia was formed.

Ya.Z. Akhmadov, A.I. Khasbulatov, Z.I. Khasbulatova, S.A. Khasiev, Kh.A. Khizriev, D.Yu. Chakhkiev

According to the 2002 Population Census, the number of Chechens living in Russia is 1 million 361 thousand people.

The Chechens themselves call themselves Nokhchi. Some translate this as Noah's people. Representatives of this people live not only in Chechnya, but also in some regions of Dagestan, Ingushetia and Georgia. In total, there are more than one and a half million Chechens in the world.

The name “Chechen” appeared long before the revolution. But in the pre-revolutionary era and in the first decades of Soviet power, some other small towns were often called Chechens. Caucasian peoples- for example, Ingush, Batsbi, Georgian Kists. There is an opinion that these are essentially the same people, individual groups of which, due to historical circumstances, were isolated from each other.

How was the word “Chechen” born?

There are several versions of the origin of the word “Chechen”. According to one of them, it is a Russian transliteration of the word “shashan”, which was used to designate this people by their Kabardian neighbors. For the first time it is mentioned as the “people of the Sasan” in the Persian chronicle of the 13th-14th centuries by Rashid ad-Din, which talks about the war with the Tatar-Mongols.

According to another version, this designation comes from the name of the village of Bolshoy Chechen, where at the end of the 17th century the Russians first encountered the Chechens. As for the name of the village, it goes back to XIII century when the bet was here Mongol Khan Sechena.

Since the 18th century, the ethnonym “Chechens” appeared in official sources in Russian and Georgian, and subsequently other peoples borrowed it. Chechnya became part of Russia on January 21, 1781.

Meanwhile, a number of researchers, in particular A. Vagapov, believe that this ethnonym was used by the neighbors of the Chechens long before the Russians appeared in the Caucasus.

Where did the Chechen people come from?

The early stage of the history of the formation of the Chechen people remains hidden from us by the darkness of history. It is possible that the ancestors of the Vainakhs (the so-called speakers of Nakh languages, for example, Chechens and Ingush) migrated from Transcaucasia to the north of the Caucasus, but this is only a hypothesis.

This is the version put forward by Doctor of Historical Sciences Georgiy Anchabadze:

“The Chechens are the oldest indigenous people of the Caucasus, their ruler bore the name “Caucasus,” from which the name of the area came. In the Georgian historiographical tradition, it is also believed that the Caucasus and his brother Lek, the ancestor of the Dagestanis, settled the then uninhabited territories of the North Caucasus from the mountains to the mouth of the Volga River.”

There are also alternative versions. One of them says that the Vainakhs are the descendants of the Hurrian tribes that went north and settled Georgia and the North Caucasus. This is confirmed by the similarity of languages ​​and culture.

It is also possible that the ancestors of the Vainakhs were the Tigrids, a people who lived in Mesopotamia (in the area of ​​the Tigris River). If you believe the ancient Chechen chronicles - teptars, the point of departure of the Vainakh tribes was in Shemaar (Shemar), from where they settled to the North and North-East of Georgia and the North Caucasus. But, most likely, this applies only to part of the Tukhkums (Chechen communities), since there is evidence of settlement along other routes.

Most modern Caucasus scholars are inclined to believe that the Chechen nation was formed in the 16th-18th centuries as a result of the unification of the Vainakh peoples who were developing the foothills of the Caucasus. The most important unifying factor for them was Islamization, which occurred in parallel with the settlement of the Caucasian lands. One way or another, it cannot be denied that the core of the Chechen ethnic group is the Eastern Vainakh ethnic groups.

From the Caspian Sea to Western Europe

Chechens did not always live in one place. Thus, their earliest tribes lived in an area stretching from the mountains near Enderi to the Caspian Sea. But, since they often stole cattle and horses from the Greben and Don Cossacks, in 1718 they attacked them, chopped up many, and drove the rest away.

After the end of the Caucasian War in 1865, about 5,000 Chechen families moved to the territory of the Ottoman Empire. They began to be called muhajirs. Today their descendants represent the bulk of the Chechen diasporas in Turkey, Syria and Jordan.

In February 1944, more than half a million Chechens were deported by order of Stalin to areas of Central Asia. On January 9, 1957, they received permission to return to their previous place of residence, but a number of migrants remained in their new homeland - in Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan.

First and second Chechen wars led to the fact that a significant number of Chechens moved to Western European countries, Turkey and Arab countries. The Chechen diaspora in Russia has also increased.