Difference between Chechen and Ingush languages. Chechens and Ingush - the difference. Culture, traditions and history of peoples

It is known that the Ingush and Chechens are one people, divided due to historical and socio-political reasons. Nevertheless, during the short period of their demarcation, the Chechens and Ingush managed to accumulate many differences.

In modern ethnology, it is customary to unite Chechens and Ingush general term– “Vainakh peoples” (Chech. “Vainakh”, Ingush. “Vainakh” - “our people”). This is exactly how representatives of the two Caucasian ethnic groups identify themselves.

The Chechens and Ingush did not create their own written language, and therefore their history was studied from the chronicles of neighboring peoples. Often this information was fragmentary and not always objective.

However, today scientists can say with full confidence that the Chechens and Ingush are among the oldest inhabitants of the Caucasus, belonging to the Vainakh language group of the Nakh-Dagestan family.

Historians find the ancestors of the Ingush (self-name Galgai) among the tribal union of Alans, which took part in the Great Migration of Peoples. Anthropologist Viktor Bunak is confident that among the Ingush the ancient Caucasian (or Caucasian) type has been preserved “more than among any of the other northern Caucasian peoples».

This is how he describes the Ingush encyclopedic Dictionary Brockhaus and Efron: “In appearance, the Ingush is lean, slender, of average height, with sharp features and quick eyes on a pale, dark face; the hair color is predominantly black, the nose is aquiline, the movements are hasty and impetuous.”

The Chechens (self-name Nokhchi), according to one hypothesis, appeared on the historical stage before the Ingush. Some researchers, including anthropologist Valery Alekseev, consider the Chechens to be descendants of the Hurrians, who lived in northern Mesopotamia in the 2nd millennium BC.

In Armenian sources of the 7th century, the Chechens are referred to as “nakhcha matyan” (“speaking the Nokhchi language”). In documents of the 16th-17th centuries one can find the tribal names of the Chechens - Ichkerins, Okoks, Shubuts.

In the Russian language, the word “Chechen” became a transliteration of terms that existed among neighboring peoples - “Tsatsans”, “Shashens”, “Chachans”. Appearance Chechens, according to the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary, are: “tall and well built.

Women are beautiful. Anthropologically, Chechens are a mixed type. Eye color varies 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 noticeable. The nose is often turned up and concave."

Genetic studies have shown that modern Chechens and Ingush, although they belong to the same haplogroup, are ethnically heterogeneous. Geneticist Khusein Chokaev, based on the latest research data, writes that the common ancestor of a significant part of the Chechen-Ingush ethnic group is a representative of the J2a4b (M67) subgroup, which originated in the territory of modern Turkey approximately 11.8 thousand years ago.

The carriers of this haplotype were, among others, the Carians, Minoans and Pelasgians. But if the Ingush correspond to the J2a4b (M67) group by 87%, then the Chechens correspond to only 58%.

Disengagement

Over time, the Chechens mostly settled along the right tributaries of the Sunzha and Terek. Equally, their places of residence were mountains, foothills and plains. The Ingush concentrated to the west of the Chechen settlements, mainly in the upper reaches of the Sunzha.

The first signs of the division of the single Vainakh ethnic group, according to researchers, emerged after 1770, when the Ingush accepted Russian citizenship. Joining the empire brought its own characteristics to the way of life of this people.

The division between the Ingush and Chechens intensified even more during the Caucasian War, which lasted intermittently from 1817 to 1864. During the war years, it was Chechnya that became the main stronghold of resistance and the center of the military-religious movement of muridism.

According to this teaching, the moral and political revival of Islam was possible only after the overthrow of the heterodox Russian yoke. The Muridist propaganda of Kazi-Mulla, Gamzat and Shamil bore fruit on Chechen soil, while the Ingush remained aloof from the “war for faith.”

After the end of the Caucasian War, the places inhabited by the Ingush for border tranquility were inhabited by Cossacks, who remained there until the arrival of Soviet power in the Caucasus.

In 1921, the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic arose on the territory of the former Terek and part of the former Kuban regions of the Russian Empire, and in 1936 the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic appeared on the map.

After the breakup Soviet Union Chechens and Ingush again took different paths: radical movements calling for independence intensified in Chechnya, and Ingushetia decided to remain part of Russia. In the new situation, the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia ceased to be conditional and over time divided two subjects of the federation - the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic.

The dominant religion of the Ingush and Chechens is Sunni Islam. However, the degree of its influence on both peoples is different. Even though Islam is North Caucasus began to penetrate since the invasion of Genghis Khan; most residents of Chechnya accepted it only in the 18th century.

During the period of the Caucasian Wars, through the Muridist movement, Islam became so strong in Chechnya that it gave rise to real religious fanaticism there. In Ingushetia, Islam adapted only in the middle of the 19th century, but did not take deep roots there.

Until recently, many Ingush were still in the grip of ancient pre-Muslim beliefs, an integral part of which was the cult of family and ancestors. This cult obliged people to honor their shrines, such as the hearth and the hearth chain.

They were preparing food near the fireplace and discussing important questions, performed rituals. The suprachain chain has also retained its connection with traditions. When a stranger entered an Ingush house and grabbed the chain, he fell under the protection of the owner, and if a bloodline touched it, he was freed from revenge.

Modern Ingushetia largely lives in line with political and religious freedom, which also affects religion. If in Chechnya only Sufi Islam is officially recognized, then in Ingushetia there are a large number of supporters of Salafism, which is perceived by many as a radical movement of Islam.

Unlike the Ingush religious consciousness Chechens were influenced by the tense socio-political situation last decades, which is why Salafism did not take root in public space Republic.

In turn, especially among young people, there is a growing interest and desire for true Islam, in strict observance of all the prescriptions of the Koran and religious rituals.

Traditions

According to ethnographers, Chechen culture, to a greater extent than Ingush, has lost touch with the traditional rituals characteristic of the Vainakhs. Thus, the Ingush are outraged by the Chechen custom of giving a guest soup, rather than a special meat dish of lamb, chicken or turkey, which has been practiced for centuries.

The same can be said about family relationships. An Ingush man usually does not meet his mother-in-law, they do not see each other at matchmaking, and do not meet at family celebrations and other events.

The Ingush are very proud of this fact and believe that their families are much stronger than the Chechen ones. There are differences in wedding rituals. For example, if the Chechens, after showing the guests, the bride stays in a separate room all day, then the Ingush people have a custom for the bride to stand in the corner of the main hall until the evening and accept gifts.

Ingush women often prefer national dresses to wedding dresses; Chechens are more modern in this regard. The way of life of the Chechens and Ingush is largely determined by the teip (clan) structure. Ingush teips are also usually called “surnames”.

If a Chechen teip can number hundreds of surnames, then the Ingush teip is most often limited to a few dozen, while Ingush surnames most often have pre-Islamic roots, while Chechen ones are predominantly Muslim. Ingush teip usually exogamous.

Marriages within the teip certainly occur, but are not encouraged. Chechens, on the contrary, prefer to create marriages within their teip in order to more firmly maintain family ties. In Chechnya, teips are subordinate to large military-political associations - tukhums. There are nine of them in total. The Ingush have no such division.

In the Vainakh environment, the Ingush are traditionally called the “tenth Tukkhum,” thereby emphasizing the closeness of the two neighboring peoples. On this moment There are about 1 million 700 thousand Chechens in the world.

In addition to Chechnya, they live in Ingushetia, Dagestan, Stavropol Territory, Volgograd Region, Kalmykia, Astrakhan, Saratov, Tyumen region, North Ossetia, abroad there are most of them in Turkey, Kazakhstan, France, Austria, Belgium.

The total number of Ingush people is about 700 thousand people. In addition to Russia, they also live in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

The initial community of these two peoples was somewhat separated by the course of the Caucasian War of the nineteenth century and the policies of the tsarist authorities. Now that part of the population, which is called the common people, is more committed to unity, believing that they are one people - Chechens and Ingush. The difference is emphasized only by the creative intelligentsia, which does not see a single ethnic group here.

Eighties

The very beginning of the eighties was marked by a sharp increase in tension in good neighborly relations: a struggle broke out for the Prigorodny district (Chermen, Kambileevskoye, Oktyabrskoye), during which the Ossetians demanded that all Ingush be evicted from the republic. Mass riots began, accompanied by the deployment of army units to restore world order. The Ingush had their registration restricted, which they rightly considered discrimination. Clashes with killings and beatings continued.

All this continued in the 90s, and the Ingush were constantly reminded of their activities during World War II, the connections of numerous gangs with the Wehrmacht, and the brutal reprisals against Red Army soldiers. In 1991, the Ingush came into conflict with the Ossetian police to such an extent that it was introduced state of emergency, and the Supreme Council even decided to make concessions to the people offended by the deportation. But fate decreed otherwise.

The Soviet Union ceased to exist, Chechnya declared independence, and Ingushetia decided to remain part of the Russian Federation. In 1992, Ingushetia again became a republic within Russia. At the same time, a whole series of murders of Ingush took place in the Prigorodny district, after which borders were drawn between Ingushetia and North Ossetia, and the latter lost the ill-fated region. Ossetians are also a hot-blooded people: traffic police officers started shooting at the Ingush, after which the latter were allowed not only to wear, but also to use firearms. The war did not want to stop. Ingush blocked the post internal troops and demanded withdrawal armed forces Russian Federation from its territory. Fighting continued.

If the Russians leave the Caucasus

What then? There will be bloody chaos, according to local residents, taught by bitter experience. They remember what happened in Chechnya after the complete expulsion of the entire Russian population: there was criminal chaos, people were kidnapped not only in Chechnya, but throughout the country, after which Wahhabis appeared with their unifying ideology, and almost immediately a civil war began.

There has never been order and silence in the Caucasus; it simply cannot exist there at all, since there is traditionally no strong statehood and there is nowhere for it to come from. Neighbors here always more or less actively killed each other. And besides, they stole cattle, robbed, stole women, and then took cruel revenge for all this. That's when there was a strong external manager - definite, even if not full order was still observed. For example, under the rule of the Russian Empire or under the USSR.

Without strong hand the Ingush and Chechens will again start territorial disputes with each other and with all their neighbors. Unification is hardly possible. Sharia and adat (custom) usually help to temporarily reconcile the warring parties. But in the Caucasus, only very close “friends” - fellow villagers, relatives, or, in extreme cases, representatives of the same nationality - can decide on Sharia or adat. Since there are a huge number of nationalities in this region, a solution is unlikely to come.

The main arbiter in the Caucasus is profit. And strength. Chechens can simply buy Ingush: with help in the pogrom of Ossetians, for example. Or promise participation in the affairs of the “Chechen empire”. Only in this case will the Ingush recognize the power of the Chechens and perhaps even bow down. Without bonuses, all these disputes are resolved only by force. This has always been the case, and hardly anything has changed over the past decades.

According to scientists, the Chechens and Ingush were originally representatives of a single people - the Vainakhs. Historians suggest that the ancestors of the Vainakhs lived in the North Caucasus steppes adjacent to the territory of modern Chechnya. In the first millennium AD, the Khazar Khaganate ruled here. Afterwards, the ancestors of the Vainakhs settled throughout the Caucasus, becoming the ancestors of not only the Chechens and Ingush, but also some other small nations.

Appearance and language

Representatives of these two nationalities are very similar to each other, but still have a number of differences not only in traditions and language, but also in appearance. The Ingush are usually described as black-haired, aquiline-nosed, lean, pale-faced, and so on. Ingush speak quickly and are abrupt in their movements. The Chechens represent mixed type. So, representatives of this people can have both black and light brown hair, both dark brown and blue eyes. Chechens speak more slowly and gesture less.

Chechens and Ingush are very similar to each other, but still have a number of differences not only in traditions and language, but also in appearance // Photo: cyrillitsa.ru

The Chechen and Ingush languages ​​are 80% similar to each other. Even if representatives of these two nationalities do not know the language of the other, they will still be able to talk and understand the interlocutor.

Traditions and religion

On modern stage Most Chechens, like the Ingush, are followers of Sunni Islam. If in Chechnya various currents of Islam, including radical ones, are simultaneously gaining popularity, then among the Ingush you can often meet people who have not forgotten the traditions and religion that prevailed before the Muslim faith came to the region. Thus, the Ingush honor their ancestors, the hearth and the chain above the hearth. The hearth is the center of the home. All important decisions are made and events take place around him. important events. If a guest touches the chain, he will be under the protection of the owner of the house. And if the enemy does this, then everything will be forgiven.

The Ingush have preserved many of the traditions of their ancestors // Photo: myshared.ru

The Ingush feed the guest a special meat dish. Chechens are allowed to treat him to soup. Chechens get to know their mother-in-law during matchmaking, and at a wedding the bride does not stand in the corner, but is in a special room. The Ingush avoid the mother-in-law and leave the bride in the corner.

Like the Chechens, the way of life of the Ingush is determined by teips - a clan structure. The Chechens have more numerous teips. But at the same time, representatives of this nationality try to marry within their clan so as not to lose blood ties. The Ingush teips number not hundreds, but dozens of families. In addition, marriage within the teip is not at all encouraged. Ethnographers note that the Ingush have preserved much more traditions characteristic of the Vainakhs than the Chechens.

Separation

Researchers believe that the division of the single Vainakh people occurred in the 18th century. At that time, the Ingush, who settled mostly in the upper reaches of the Sunzha River, decided to become subjects of the Russian Empire. During the Caucasian Wars, which lasted almost half a century in total, the division between the Chechens and the Ingush only intensified. If the Ingush remained aloof from the war for faith, then in Chechnya the doctrine took deep root, according to which the country's prosperity was possible only after the expulsion of the infidel conquerors, whose role was played by the Russians. Then, to resolve the situation, the government of the Russian Empire decided to populate the lands that previously belonged to the Ingush with Cossacks. During times civil war The Ingush supported the Bolsheviks because they were promised to return the territories.

In the early thirties of the last century, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was formed on the map of the Soviet Union, which existed until 1944. Among the Chechens and Ingush there were many who wanted to cooperate with the fascists, for which they paid with the deportation and liquidation of the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic. The Grozny region appeared, and part of the territories was distributed between the Ossetian, Georgian and Dagestan Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republics. In the nineties, Chechnya declared independence, while the Ingush decided to remain part of Russia.

Ingush Cavalry Regiment

How do Chechens differ from Ingush?

It is known that the Ingush and Chechens are one people, divided due to historical and socio-political reasons. Nevertheless, during the short period of their demarcation, the Chechens and Ingush managed to accumulate many differences.

Origins

In modern ethnology, it is customary to unite the Chechens and Ingush under a common term - “Vainakh peoples” (Chech. “Vainakh”, Ingush. “Vainakh” - “our people”). This is exactly how representatives of the two Caucasian ethnic groups identify themselves.
The Chechens and Ingush did not create their own written language, and therefore their history was studied from the chronicles of neighboring peoples. Often this information was fragmentary and not always objective. However, today scientists can say with full confidence that the Chechens and Ingush are among the oldest inhabitants of the Caucasus, belonging to the Vainakh language group of the Nakh-Dagestan family.
Historians find the ancestors of the Ingush (self-name Galgai) among the tribal union of Alans, which took part in the Great Migration of Peoples.

Anthropologist Viktor Bunak is confident that among the Ingush the ancient Caucasian (or Caucasian) type has been preserved “more than among any of the other North Caucasian peoples.”
This is how the Brockhaus and Efron Encyclopedic Dictionary describes the Ingush: “In appearance, the Ingush are lean, slender, of average height, with sharp features and quick eyes on a pale, dark face; the hair color is predominantly black, the nose is aquiline, the movements are hasty and impetuous.”
The Chechens (self-name Nokhchi), according to one hypothesis, appeared on the historical stage before the Ingush. Some researchers, including anthropologist Valery Alekseev, consider the Chechens to be descendants of the Hurrians, who lived in northern Mesopotamia in the 2nd millennium BC.
In Armenian sources of the 7th century, the Chechens are referred to as “nakhcha matyan” (“speaking the Nokhchi language”). In documents of the 16th-17th centuries one can find the tribal names of the Chechens - Ichkerins, Okoks, Shubuts. In the Russian language, the word “Chechen” became a transliteration of terms that existed among neighboring peoples - “Tsatsans”, “Shashens”, “Chachans”.
The appearance of Chechens, according to the Brockhaus and Efron dictionary, is as follows: “tall and well built. Women are beautiful. Anthropologically, Chechens are a mixed type. Eye color varies 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 noticeable. The nose is often turned up and concave."
Genetic studies have shown that modern Chechens and Ingush, although they belong to the same haplogroup, are ethnically heterogeneous. Geneticist Khusein Chokaev, based on the latest research data, writes that the common ancestor of a significant part of the Chechen-Ingush ethnic group is a representative of the J2a4b (M67) subgroup, which originated in the territory of modern Turkey approximately 11.8 thousand years ago. The carriers of this haplotype were, among others, the Carians, Minoans and Pelasgians. But if the Ingush correspond to the J2a4b (M67) group by 87%, then the Chechens correspond to only 58%.

Disengagement

Over time, the Chechens mostly settled along the right tributaries of the Sunzha and Terek. Equally, their places of residence were mountains, foothills and plains. The Ingush concentrated to the west of the Chechen settlements, mainly in the upper reaches of the Sunzha.
The first signs of the division of the single Vainakh ethnic group, according to researchers, emerged after 1770, when the Ingush accepted Russian citizenship. Joining the empire brought its own characteristics to the way of life of this people. The division between the Ingush and Chechens intensified even more during the Caucasian War, which lasted intermittently from 1817 to 1864.
During the war years, it was Chechnya that became the main stronghold of resistance and the center of the military-religious movement of muridism. According to this teaching, the moral and political revival of Islam was possible only after the overthrow of the heterodox Russian yoke. The Muridist propaganda of Kazi-Mulla, Gamzat and Shamil bore fruit on Chechen soil, while the Ingush remained aloof from the “war for faith.”
After the end of the Caucasian War, the places inhabited by the Ingush for border tranquility were inhabited by Cossacks, who remained there until the arrival of Soviet power in the Caucasus. In 1921, the Mountain Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic arose on the territory of the former Terek and part of the former Kuban regions of the Russian Empire, and in 1936 the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic appeared on the map.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Chechens and Ingush again took different paths: radical movements calling for independence intensified in Chechnya, and Ingushetia decided to remain part of Russia. In the new situation, the border between Chechnya and Ingushetia ceased to be conditional and over time divided two subjects of the federation - the Republic of Ingushetia and the Chechen Republic.

Religion

The dominant religion of the Ingush and Chechens is Sunni Islam. However, the degree of its influence on both peoples is different. Despite the fact that Islam began to penetrate into the North Caucasus since the invasion of Genghis Khan, the majority of residents of Chechnya accepted it only in the 18th century. During the period of the Caucasian Wars, through the Muridist movement, Islam became so strong in Chechnya that it gave rise to real religious fanaticism there.
In Ingushetia, Islam adapted only in the middle of the 19th century, but did not take deep roots there. Until recently, many Ingush were still in the grip of ancient pre-Muslim beliefs, an integral part of which was the cult of family and ancestors. This cult obliged people to honor their shrines, such as the hearth and the hearth chain. Near the hearth they prepared food, discussed important issues, and performed rituals. The suprachain chain has also retained its connection with traditions. When a stranger entered an Ingush house and grabbed the chain, he fell under the protection of the owner, and if a bloodline touched it, he was freed from revenge.
Modern Ingushetia largely lives in line with political and religious freedom, which also affects religion. If in Chechnya only Sufi Islam is officially recognized, then in Ingushetia there are a large number of supporters of Salafism, which is perceived by many as a radical movement of Islam.
Unlike the Ingush, the religious consciousness of the Chechens was influenced by the tense socio-political situation of recent decades, which is why Salafism did not take root in the public space of the Republic. In turn, especially among young people, there is a growing interest and desire for true Islam, in strict observance of all the prescriptions of the Koran and religious rituals.
Traditions
According to ethnographers, Chechen culture, to a greater extent than Ingush, has lost touch with traditional rituals characteristic of the Vainakhs. Thus, the Ingush are outraged by the Chechen custom of giving a guest soup, rather than a special meat dish of lamb, chicken or turkey, which has been practiced for centuries.
The same can be said about family relationships. An Ingush man usually does not meet his mother-in-law, they do not see each other at matchmaking, and do not meet at family celebrations and other events. The Ingush are very proud of this fact and believe that their families are much stronger than the Chechen ones.
There are differences in wedding rituals. For example, if the Chechens, after showing the guests, the bride stays in a separate room all day, then the Ingush people have a custom for the bride to stand in the corner of the main hall until the evening and accept gifts. Ingush women often wedding dress They prefer national clothes; Chechens are more modern in this regard.
The way of life of the Chechens and Ingush is largely determined by the teip (clan) structure. Ingush teips are also usually called “surnames”. If a Chechen teip can number hundreds of surnames, then the Ingush teip is most often limited to a few dozen, while Ingush surnames most often have pre-Islamic roots, while Chechen ones are predominantly Muslim.
The Ingush teip is usually exogamous. Marriages within the teip certainly occur, but are not encouraged. Chechens, on the contrary, prefer to create marriages within their teip in order to more firmly maintain family ties.
In Chechnya, teips are subordinate to large military-political associations - tukhums. There are nine of them in total. The Ingush have no such division. In the Vainakh environment, the Ingush are traditionally called the “tenth Tukkhum,” thereby emphasizing the closeness of the two neighboring peoples.
At the moment there are about 1 million 700 thousand Chechens in the world. In addition to Chechnya, they live in Ingushetia, Dagestan, Stavropol Territory, Volgograd Region, Kalmykia, Astrakhan, Saratov, Tyumen Regions, North Ossetia, and abroad they are most numerous in Turkey, Kazakhstan, France, Austria, and Belgium.
The total number of Ingush people is about 700 thousand people. In addition to Russia, they also live in Kyrgyzstan, Ukraine, Belarus, Latvia, Turkey, Syria, Jordan, and Lebanon.

In the Soviet Union, Chechens and Ingush lived in one national-territorial entity - the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Republic. Its division into the Chechen and Ingush Republics occurred after 1991, when the USSR collapsed. How do Chechens differ from Ingush, what do they have in common and what was the reason for the separation? More on all this below.

Chechens and Ingush in ancient times

The lack of writing in ancient times among the Chechens and Ingush became the reason that we know about their ancient history only from the chronicles of their neighboring peoples. And even then, this information is fragmentary and often biased, so it is ancient history mostly a set of hypotheses. Today it has been precisely established that both Chechens and Ingush are the oldest inhabitants Caucasus. Both of these peoples belong to the Vainakh language group of the Nakh-Dagestan family. The ancestors of the Ingush, according to one version, as part of the Alan tribal union participated in the Great Migration of Peoples, which crushed the Roman Empire.

At the beginning of our era, part of the Ingush, judging by the reports of ancient authors and the ruins of Christian religious buildings, adopted Orthodoxy, which was later supplanted by Islam. At the same time, they have for a long time Paganism remained, and Islam was finally established only in the middle of the 19th century, and the main factor in its adoption was the Caucasian War. The fact that Islam does not have deep roots among the North Caucasian mountaineers was written by A. S. Pushkin (“Travel to Arzrum”), who passed through these regions in 1829 during the Russian-Persian War. Despite the fact that the majority of the Ingush accepted Russian citizenship back in 1770, some teips participated in the war on the side of Shamil.

The difference between the Chechens and the Ingush is that they appeared on the historical stage before the Ingush. At least there is a hypothesis that it was the ancestors of the Chechens who are known in the ancient Middle Eastern annals as the Hurrians, who lived in the 2nd millennium BC. True, here it would be more historically correct to say that the Hurrians are the distant ancestors of both the Chechens and the Ingush (and possibly some Dagestan peoples), and participated in the ethnogenesis of several more modern Caucasian peoples, in particular the Armenians. Later, the Hurrians were assimilated by their neighbors, and some of them went to the North Caucasus.

Contacts between Chechens and Russians began in the 18th century, when Russian empire began to colonize the Caucasus. They were almost exclusively armed clashes. During the Caucasian War, Islam in the form of Sunnism was finally established among the Chechens, just like the Ingush. The degree of linguistic proximity is so great that their languages ​​differ less than Russian and Ukrainian, that is, mutual understanding is achieved without difficulty.

Comparison

The Chechen ethnic group is divided into nine so-called tukhums - military-political associations, which consist of teips (clans). The Ingush have no division into tukhums; in the Vainakh environment they are sometimes called the “tenth tukhum,” emphasizing the closeness of the Chechens and the Ingush. Why did the situation arise that two closely related peoples living next door separated? There are several hypotheses on this matter.

According to the most likely reason, the Ingush adopted Russian citizenship in the 18th century. In conditions when the formation of both the Ingush and Chechens as nations was not completed, the difference in political history led to the formation first of the Ingush subethnic group as part of other Vainakhs, which later became an independent people. However, they still have more in common than differences: both peoples profess Islam in the form of Sunnism and live in adjacent regions of the Russian Federation. Both peoples have diasporas outside the Russian Federation and the CIS, although the Chechens have a larger and more influential community due to larger numbers people, and also because after the Caucasian War, some Chechens left the North Caucasus and moved to Saudi Arabia. There, even now, many positions in the armed forces are occupied by ethnic Chechens.

Table

The difference between Chechens and Ingush is shown in the table below. As we see, the differences are mainly in the self-awareness of peoples (acceptance of the fact of their otherness in relation to each other) and in numbers. In other respects, Chechens and Ingush are very similar.