""The Chechens, excellent horsemen, can overcome 120, 130 or even 150 versts in one night. Their horses, without slowing down, always at a gallop, storm such slopes where it would seem impossible to pass even on foot.... If there is a crevice ahead, which his horse does not dare to overcome immediately, the Chechen wraps the head of the horse with a burka and, trusting himself to the Almighty , causes the pacer to jump over a chasm up to 20 feet deep""
A. Dumas Caucasus (Paris, 1859)
""The Chechens have always been a formidable enemy. They fought us tooth and nail."
V.A. Potto. Historical sketch of the Caucasian wars.. (Tiflis, 1899)
""... The abilities of this tribe are beyond doubt. Among the Caucasian intellectuals, there are already many Chechens in schools and gymnasiums. Where they study, they are not praised enough. Those who arrogantly humiliate the incomprehensible mountaineer must agree that when talking with a simple Chechen, you feel that you are dealing with a person sensitive to such phenomena of social life, which are almost inaccessible to our peasants of the middle provinces."
Nemirovich-Danchenko. Along Chechnya.
But there was one nation that did not succumb to the psychology of submission at all - not individuals, not rebels, but the entire nation. These are Chechens.
We have already seen how they treated the camp escapees. As one, they tried to support the Kengir uprising from the entire Dzhezkazgan exile.
I would say that of all the special settlers, the only Chechens showed themselves to be prisoners in spirit. After they were once treacherously pulled from their place, they no longer believed in anything. They built themselves huts - low, dark, pitiful, such that even a kick would seem to destroy them.
And their entire exile economy was the same - for this one day, this month, this year, without any reserve, reserve, or distant intention. They ate, drank, and the young people also dressed.
Years passed - and they had nothing as much as at the beginning. No Chechens have ever tried to please or please their superiors - but they are always proud of them and even openly hostile. Despising the laws of universal education and those school state sciences, they did not allow their girls to go to school, so as not to spoil them there, and not all the boys either. They did not send their women to the collective farm. And they themselves did not hump the collective farm fields. Most of all, they tried to get a job as drivers: taking care of the engine was not humiliating, in the constant movement of the car they found the saturation of their horseman passion, and in the chauffeur's capabilities - their passion for thieves. However, they satisfied this last passion directly. They brought the concept of “stolen”, “robbed” to peaceful, honest, dormant Kazakhstan. They could steal livestock, rob a house, and sometimes simply take it away by force. They regarded the local residents and those exiles who so easily submitted to their superiors as almost the same breed. They respected only rebels.
And what a miracle - everyone was afraid of them. No one could stop them from living like this. And the government, which had ruled this country for thirty years, could not force them
respect your laws.
A.I. Solzhenitsyn "Gulag Archepilago"
“The Chechens are the most courageous and rebellious tribes in the Caucasus. They are even more warlike than the Lezgins; our troops could never conquer this people, despite the numerous expeditions undertaken against them and the devastation to which their lands were repeatedly subjected.” Gen. Ermolov.
"Such a man has not yet been born,
To fill the mountains with coffins,
To move Kazbek with a daring hand,
To make CHECHENs slaves!" M.Yu. Lermontov
"...If there were no reasons for discord among them, the Chechens would become very dangerous neighbors, and one can, not without reason, apply to them what Thucydides said about the ancient Scythians: “There is no people in Europe or Asia who could resist them if the latter united their forces"
Johann Blaramberg, "Caucasian Manuscript".
But there is education: respect for elders, respect for a friend, respect for a woman, obedience to the law. Respect for religion, and not feigned, not far-fetched, but real. I love and respect the Vainakhs very much. And they show me the kindest attitude, if only for the simple reason that in my entire long life I have never betrayed this people in word or deed. Chechens are a courageous, invincible, morally pure people. What about the bandits? So there are enough of them among Russians, bandits and Jews...
...And when my son or daughter starts to contradict me, I say: “You should have been sent to Chechnya to be raised, you would have learned to respect your parents... I like this culture.
Joseph Kobzon
“I have seen many peoples, but such rebellious and unyielding people as the Chechens do not exist on earth, and the path to the conquest of the Caucasus lies through the conquest of the Chechens, or rather, through their complete destruction.”
“Sovereign!.. The mountain peoples, by example of their independence, give rise to a rebellious spirit and a love of independence in the very subjects of your Imperial Majesty.”
From the report of A. Ermolov to Emperor Alexander I on February 12, 1819.
“It is just as impossible to conquer the Chechens as it is to smooth out the Caucasus. Who, besides us, can boast that they have seen the Eternal War?
General Mikhail Orlov, 1826.
“Besides Russians and Jews, Chechens are the most educated people in the Russian Federation. Due to national characteristics, due to their closed nature and conservatism, the Chechens were able to turn their exile in Kazakhstan into an opportunity for an innovative breakthrough. While many peoples of the Caucasus and Trans-Caucasus, having fallen into exile, practically died, the minimally Russified Chechens managed to intensify their lives and sharply, abruptly, increase their level of education many times over. The Chechens came to the situation of the 90s organically belonging to the high-tech part of the Soviet elite. Let me remind you that many ministers in the primary industries, oil and gas, gas production, were Chechens and Ingush."
Maxim Shevchenko.
“Someone rightly noted that in the type of Chechen, in his moral character, there is something reminiscent of the Wolf. Lion and Eagle portray strength, they go after the weak, and the Wolf goes after someone stronger than himself, in the latter case replacing everything with boundless audacity, courage and dexterity. And once he gets into hopeless trouble, he dies silently, expressing neither fear, nor pain, nor groan.”
(V. Potto, XIX century).
“As for the Chechens, they, in my opinion, for the most part have an increased potential for courage, energy and love of freedom. At the end of the first Chechen war, I wrote in the then Nezavisimaya Gazeta what the Chechens represent in terms of their qualities, including intellectual data, a certain fluctuation of positive qualities. I am familiar with many Chechens of different positions and ages, and I am always amazed at their intelligence, wisdom, concentration, perseverance. One of the components of the above-mentioned fluctuation seems to me to be the fact that the Chechens, alone among the peoples of the Russian Empire, do not. had an aristocracy, never knew serfdom, and have been living without feudal princes for about three hundred years.”
(Vadim Belotserkovsky, 02.22.08)
“We tried to destroy the Chechens, as our enemies, by all means and even turn their advantages into disadvantages. We considered them to be an extremely fickle, gullible, treacherous and treacherous people because they did not want to fulfill our demands, which were incompatible with their concepts, morals, customs and way of life. We denigrated them so much only because they did not want to dance to our tune, the sounds of which were too harsh and deafening for them..."
General M.Ya. Olshevsky
The Government Commission of Russia, having studied the issue of recruiting them to serve in the Russian army, reported in 1875: “The Chechens... are the most warlike and dangerous mountaineers of the North Caucasus, they are... ready warriors, which military service is hardly anything in the sense of dashing driving and the ability to wield weapons... Chechens literally from childhood get used to communicating with weapons... Shooting at night at a glance: at sound, at light shows a clear advantage of the highlanders in this over trained Cossacks and especially soldiers.”
Abstracts of reports and communications of the All-Union Scientific Conference on June 20-22, 1989. Makhachkala, 1989, p. 23.
“Chechens, both men and women, are extremely beautiful in appearance. They are tall, very slender, their faces, especially their eyes, are expressive; Chechens are agile and dexterous in their movements; By character, they are all very impressionable, cheerful and witty, for which they are called “the French of the Caucasus,” but at the same time they are suspicious, quick-tempered, treacherous, insidious, and vindictive. When they strive for their goal, all means are good for them. At the same time, the Chechens are indomitable, unusually resilient, brave in attack, defense and pursuit. These are predators, of which there are few among the proud knights of the Caucasus; and they themselves do not hide this, choosing the wolf as their ideal among the animal kingdom.”
“The conquered Caucasus. Essays on the historical past and modern Caucasus of St. Petersburg. 1904 Caspary.)
“The Chechens are very poor, but they never go for alms, they don’t like to beg, and this is their moral superiority over the mountaineers. Chechens never give orders to their own people, but say, “I would need this, I would like to eat, I’ll do it, I’ll go, I’ll find out, if God willing.” There are almost no swear words in the local language...”
S. Belyaev, diary of a Russian soldier who was held captive by the Chechens for ten months.
“...The Chechens did not burn houses, did not deliberately trample fields, and did not destroy vineyards. “Why destroy the gift of God and the work of man,” they said... And this rule of the mountain “robber” is a valor that the most educated nations could be proud of, if they had it...”
A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky in “Letter to Doctor Erman”.
“Chechens! You are flint! You are steel, you are diamond! They tried to grind you into powder more than once. You are a steadfast tribe of good seed, and the Caucasus has been proud of you for centuries!”
A brother without a brother is like a falcon without a wing, a sister without a brother is like a naked twig.
Bravery at home is cowardice among people.
Those who fought against the village were left without a home, those who fought against the king were left without a head.
If there are worms in the meat, it is salted, and if there are worms in the salt, what should you do?
The son got married - the mother's back bent, the daughter got married - she straightened up.
What you like is great.
The donkey carries the load himself and eats it himself.
A real thief speaks laughing, a cunning and flirtatious woman speaks with tears.
A goat's horn will not make a handle; a sister's son will not replace his own son.
Whoever loses one day in the summer will lose ten in the winter.
The owner knows the capabilities of his cart.
A mother does not have a bad daughter, and a mother-in-law does not have a good daughter-in-law.
An unfriendly family is an unequal war.
“A guest asking for water means he is not hungry; if he doesn’t ask, it means he is fasting,” said the stingy hostess.
Listening to gossip is a disease, not listening is a cure.
Retreating in the face of inevitable defeat is not cowardice.
Wealth cannot buy intelligence.
Whoever gave a penny played the zurna.
Rather than live without humanity, it is better to die.
Don't be sweet like a fruit - whoever comes will eat it.
When the crown of the head was exposed, thunder roared.
It is not difficult to survive poverty, it is difficult to survive wealth.
For the first time, someone who became rich lit a candle during the day.
If you let someone down, you will suffer yourself.
The stone remains - the water is gone.
In which village night comes, spend the night there.
Where the sun shines, sow seeds; where you sow seeds, shadow will appear.
Eating hot porridge is also not easy.
Just because the croup is smooth does not mean that the horse is good.
If you get old, you won’t get younger; if you die, you won’t be resurrected.
The one who gave the bull for slaughter did not beg for the liver for roast.
One year and the hare dudes survived.
They don't stand on their toes if they're not in time.
You don't throw a stick at a barren tree.
The madman gave way to the drunken man.
I don’t know - one word, I know, I saw - a thousand words.
When the head dies, the body also dies.
Even the rooster is brave at his gates.
One summer day feeds the winter month.
A good father has a bad son, a bad father has a good son.
The one who grabbed the original tail drowned, the one who grabbed the horse's tail survived.
Sometimes a cart is loaded onto a boat, sometimes a boat is loaded onto a cart.
If the top bar breaks, go to the bottom bar.
A mother feeds her child like the earth does a man.
Anyone who became pious from a young age has been led astray by the devil.
The sky is light - the grave is dark.
Don’t receive someone who comes for a long time, and don’t be unfriendly with someone who comes for a short time.
He who lives by the river knows the ford.
A friend from a distant land is like a built fortress.
They let the donkey onto the grass - it climbed into a burdock.
The mullah, who chased two alms, was left with nothing.
Movement is the happiness of a young man, peace is the happiness of a girl.
The cockerel bred in the fall did not become a rooster.
The whole world is home to the smart.
A stupid man, having become rich, takes a second wife.
A blacksmith works with tongs so as not to burn his hand.
A kind word moved a mountain.
If you get to where they work, work, if you get to where they eat, eat.
Talking a lot is silver, and being silent is gold.
A good son is a father's heart, a bad son is a father's grief.
He who knows what will happen tomorrow will succeed.
A wolf cannot exist without teeth, and winter cannot exist without cold.
The water does not decrease with the flow.
It's easy to be bad, it's hard to be good.
When you're hungry, it seems like you'll never get enough; when you're full, it feels like you'll never get hungry.
The one who had lain for the summer was running through the winter.
The howling wolf did not catch the deer.
He who was too lazy to reap his own wheat had to get stone for others.
The calculation is correct not before leaving, but after returning.
The donkey, who called another donkey, fell into the abyss.
The one who has been to the mill argues with the one who has been to the war.
If I had known that my mother would die, I would have sold her for a bag of salt.
Only a thief will help a thief.
A blind person will notice a thorn in someone else's eye.
The one who fought thoughtlessly without luck died.
A mother's anger is like snow - it falls a lot, but melts quickly.
If you treat someone with something rich - generosity, if you hit them with anything - courage.
The food prepared for three was enough for four.
A worthy person cannot exist without friends.
A quarrel is not porridge with buttermilk.
There is nothing sweeter, there is nothing faster than the eye.
Work like you'll never die, be kind to people like you'll die tomorrow.
He who did not dare to hit the horse hit the saddle.
An obese donkey fell off a cliff.
What's on your mind pops out on your tongue.
For a while, lies are better, but forever - the truth.
He who eats salt also drinks water.
A good son makes a father's heart happy.
The wound from the saber has healed, but the wound from the tongue has not.
The early rising shepherd's ewe gave birth to twins.
Where the needle goes, so does the thread.
Fleeing from the water, he fell under a mill.
If there is no honor at home, there will be none outside the walls of the house.
Better a neighbor nearby than relatives far away.
Rapid water does not reach the sea.
After stealing a cow, the bolt is not closed.
Praise the gelding and get on the horse.
What was said at the plowing was found at the harvest.
A good man has a bad wife, a bad man has a good wife.
The tooth that was gnashing against his daughter-in-law bit his son.
Better a quail in your hands than a deer in the fall.
The cattle, standing next to the donkey, neighed like a donkey.
Whoever asked for the mill first did the grinding.
What you eat is strength, what you put on your back is a burden.
Politeness made a prince out of a slave, bad character made a slave out of a prince.
Summer has put a damper on it.
The brave one drinks vodka, and the goose drinks water.
The healthy person does not know the condition of the patient.
She's a beautiful girl and looks good in an old dress.
The girl, praised by her mother, did not rise in price.
Words have no effect on the incorrigible.
A kind word lured the snake out of its hole.
Today he stole a chicken, tomorrow he will want to steal a horse.
You can't build a city on a lie, but you can make trouble.
Two enemies under one roof do not get along.
He's a quitter and takes a long time to wash his face.
He who has a thousand friends is saved; he who has a thousand head of cattle perishes.
The thorn grows sharp from the very beginning.
A coward's speech can be beautiful, but his soul can be dirty.
The potter attaches the handle of the jug wherever he wants.
Misfortune beyond the threshold is not misfortune.
Whoever says unnecessary things, let him live so that he can say unnecessary things.
What is done lightly does not end easily.
He who does not respect people is not respected by people.
Stretch your feet along the carpet.
The death of a wife is a change of bed.
Whoever resisted temptation will not have to blush.
Disrespect for people is disrespect for yourself.
Don't trust the quiet one, don't be afraid of the fast one.
Happiness. Tore, failure. Misfortune
The guest does not like the guest, but the owner does not like both.
A woman's intelligence is in her eyes, but not in her heart.
If you eat a lot, the honey becomes bitter.
If you don't demand that shore, you won't get it.
Relocation is ruinous.
If there is no son, there will be no shelter.
If a crash was not heard when the plane tree fell, it will not be heard after.
Wealth cannot buy intelligence.
When the partner is good, and the gelding overtakes the horse.
The nasty crow croaks and croaks badly.
Only war repels war.
A bad word, like a good horse, has pace.
When you feel sleepy, you don’t choose pillows; when you fall in love, you don’t choose beauty.
The dog, barking in vain, was dragged away by the wolf.
Where the guest does not look, good will not look there.
Once you stumble, you stumble seven times.
If what is said is silver, then what is not said is gold.
When the mullah gave alms, the devil began to play the zurna.
If trouble comes to you, raise your head, if it comes to people, lower it.
Don't take a chatterbox fishing.
The cautious boar did not eat the corn.
Where the goat went, the kid jumped.
What is not earned through one’s own labor seems frivolous.
The mind of a stupid person is silence.
Beauty - until evening, kindness - until death.
No one will expose a cunning woman.
Fire and water do not get along.
When the head is empty, the legs suffer.
If the center of the sky has cleared, prepare a cape (there will be bad weather), if the circumference has cleared, prepare bread (get ready for work, the weather will be good).
Food is the food of the body, sleep is the food of vigor.
White hands love other people's work.
From flint a spark is born, from a worthy person a worthy son is born.
Without burning the skewer, you cannot fry the kebab.
If the ox is not thin, the family will not be fat.
If you want to know a person, look at his friends.
Impatience took the soul, patience took the mountain.
Those who tinkered with wood also tinkered with ash.
Anyone who doesn't take a penny into account is not worth a penny.
On the road and a stick, comrade.
Whoever wanted to overcome the world was overcome by the world.
You don’t know who threw the stone and who threw the pear.
Tell your daughter so that your daughter-in-law can hear.
Everyone scratches their own baldness.
Don't be afraid of winter, followed by spring - be afraid of autumn, followed by winter.
Where the sun does not shine, the earth will not warm.
And one led the army to defeat, and one led to victory.
He who has two wives does not need a dog.
Running away from the rain, he fell under a waterfall.
The latecomer's share was eaten by the cat.
There is nothing more valuable than trust.
What is received from father and mother is eaten without gratitude.
If a bad person comes to visit, feed him well, but it is enough to treat a good person with whatever you can.
Because one day you have to fight, don’t be forever angry.
Don't grab your father's beard, but if you grab it, don't let go.
The wolf, having grown old, hunts for grasshoppers.
The one in an elegant dress will not marry me, and the one in a simple dress will not marry me.
Whoever ate someone else's goat gets his head on fire.
If you don't do what you have to do in a day, you'll be stuck around for a whole year.
He who thinks about the consequences cannot be brave.
A cart breaks - firewood, an ox falls - meat.
Where there was a swamp, there remains dampness.
A stormy day will give way to a clear one, but a bad person will not become good.
The women washed the wool, and the fox washed its tail.
Even if you take it to Mecca, the pungency of garlic will not go away.
The enraged horse stumbled upon a stake.
Appreciate what you have and your wealth will increase.
And during matchmaking, a dog feeder is passed off as a copper one.
You yourself will fall into a hole dug for others.
If it's not to your taste, then let it be as possible.
He who does not know how to live always talks about the past.
Incorrigible for his own - grief, for strangers - laughter.
You can't fry eggs from eggs laid on the tongue.
Better than a bad son is a good son-in-law.
Porridge is better than chatter.
When asked what was good, the hare replied: “To see the dog before it sees you.”
If trouble is destined in the house, let the daughter-in-law die, but if trouble is destined outside the house, then let the son-in-law die.
An unfamiliar matter leads you down the wrong path.
Before the palace had time to say anything, they called him a rag.
Don't make friends with an untested person.
There is no good without subsequent evil, there is no evil without subsequent good.
You can't feed your guests with conversations.
An old cart ruined the road, a bad wife ruined the house.
Without looking forward, do not take a step; without looking back, do not say a word.
“Ask” is a slave, “give” is a prince.
Don’t always try for yourself like a hoe, don’t always try for others like a hoe, be with people this way and that like a saw.
An early death is better than a shameful life.
A horse praised by its owner will not overtake.
What was said twice was heard at the mill.
The donkey only found out that he was a donkey when they pulled his ear.
A thief knows a thief.
The dog starts swimming when water gets under its tail.
Gold is more expensive where it is mined.
Friendly cats defeated unfriendly wolves.
Take an apple for food, a pear for taste, and bite off a plum and throw it away.
He who is not afraid of other people's evil does not rejoice in his own good.
A bottomless tub will not fill with water.
If the head is thoughtless, the eyes cry.
“Let the bear and the wolf fight, and I’ll eat the jug of butter,” said the fox.
Those who went to sell wild garlic returned after buying onions.
Until the word comes out, it is your slave; until the word comes out, you are its slave.
Without a cloud in the sky, the rain will not fall, without grief in the heart the eye will not cry.
There is no river without a source.
He who has a barren heart has a fruitful tongue.
The smart one was neither carried away by water nor burned by fire.
The eye is fearful, the hand is brave.
What you need tomorrow, you need to know today.
An apple that is picked does not grow back.
A woman's mind is shorter than a frog's tail.
If you are a coal outside, be a coal at home.
A rival comes to the loser and from her father's house.
A good son is strength, a bad son is grief.
If you don't keep your word, you won't keep your oath.
A strong boar's tail tore out the burdock root.
If your head doesn't hurt, don't bandage it.
The river does not always flow along the same channel.
Those who did not love cows always dreamed of milk.
The husband of a good wife will not be poorly dressed.
Those who did not listen to the elder fell into a large hole.
The father is good and made of wood, the mother is good and made of felt.
The sounds of distant zurna are more pleasant.
He is not a man if he does not have three secrets even from his own brother.
The condition of a person who has broken his leg will be understood by the one whose leg was broken.
The shepherd, who was afraid of the wolf, did not increase his flock.
The cat, not reaching the fat, said that she was fasting.
If you want to break off a friendship, ask for a saddle bow.
Laziness in summer - torment in winter.
The lake will not freeze if the bottom is not cold.
The bad heritage of good ancestors is praised.
The dead man was not left without a shroud, and the bride was not left without a ransom.
An old friend is better, but a new fur coat is better.
And about the most beautiful man they said that he had a long neck.
You cackle to me, but you carry eggs to your neighbors.
The slotted spoon knows what is at the bottom of the boiler.
There is no good in an unfriendly family.
The more you listen, the more noise there is.
When the bull drank the water, the bull was glad that he licked the ice.
The one who came uninvited left unfed.
The water is clean at the source.
Where the wind does not blow, do not place a winnowing fan there.
The sheikh loves milk, and the murid loves the sheikh.
Patience is the camp of victory.
A tall plane tree always receives wind, a young man always receives reproaches.
Because the father eats, the son will not be satisfied.
Treat your husband tenderly, but secretly prepare a shroud.
Having burned himself on the soup, he blows on the water.
A donkey is not wealth, straw is not feed, whey is not alms.
You can’t overcome a mountain, you can’t gain a foothold on level ground.
The unity of the people is an indestructible fortress.
Revenge grows old, but is not forgotten.
Mulla was given a bribe and allowed to bury the shepherd dog in the cemetery.
The thief was robbed - and God laughed.
If you bleat, the wolf will drag you away, if you don’t bleat, the shepherd will kill you.
The gun, aimed at the people, fired back.
You can't work in the summer, the boiler won't boil in the winter.
It is more honorable to become a shepherd than to ask.
It is not the sun's fault that the owl cannot see during the day.
The prowling fox defeated the lying wolf (who loved to lie, lazy).
In a bad family, a smart person gets a lot of worries.
The gun killed one, but the tongue killed a thousand.
When a beautiful daughter grows up, the father's name becomes known.
And don’t set off on a well-fed journey without food, and on a clear day - without a cloak.
An overturned dish will spill only what is in it.
A low person is always proud.
The dignity of people is their number.
The pear does not fall far from the pear tree.
The wife seems better than someone else's, the horse - your own.
With a good friend you can go to the ends of the world.
Because you have a big head, you can’t have too much intelligence.
A stray dog will not be left without a blow from a stick.
If you don’t give out of pity, or to show off, you shouldn’t give.
If you want a lot, you will get little.
If you get dirty, don't spare water.
One spark burned an entire village.
He who does not want to graze cattle will not want to work with a shovel.
The apple tree will only give birth to an apple.
You can't wash away something dirty with water, and you can't burn through something clean with fire.
The hound did not catch the hare from other places.
When they offered to bring the most beautiful thing, the crow brought her fledgling chick.
If there are no possibilities and the father’s corpse is left.
You can’t bend a rim from a pole, you can’t grow a horse from a donkey.
If you are a fox, then I am a fox's tail.
The old man tried to act childish, but died from the effort.
He who saw a snake in the summer was afraid of the rope in the winter.
A dagger drawn by a fool is more dangerous than a brave man's.
You will become a proud sheep, and the wolves will be right there.
Don't joke with fire, don't trust water.
Once you hit a good horse with a whip, it will last for a year.
A good word was considered alms, a bad word was considered a sin.
A purebred chick in the nest begins to sing.
The one with the horse stayed, the one with the saddle left.
The unfortunate man's mattress was torn at the edge.
The word “I don’t know” is more valuable than gold.
The hill you are standing on seems high.
The grave will correct the hunchback.
A good frog lives in his swamp.
The eagle is born only in the mountains.
Eating without leftovers means not getting enough food.
The hen, who tried to crow like a rooster, burst.
An understanding friend is considered a brother.
The seeker of evil will not get rid of the bad.
The jug got into the habit of walking on water and stayed by the river.
Fun for the cat, death for the mouse.
The cattle that did not return home disappeared, leaving no skin behind.
Don't look for livestock - look for grass.
Don't look a friend's gift horse in the mouth.
A hoop that is not bent from a twig cannot be bent from a pole.
Evil will leave the house, good will not come from outside.
Where there is agreement, there is grace; where there is no agreement, there is evil.
Those who put things off until tomorrow lived with a thirst for what they wanted.
Those who can walk go down the slope; those who can’t walk go up the hill.
It is useless to be on the list if you don’t have a house in the meadow.
A bad horse is a hindrance to a good rider.
Without thinking it over, don’t speak, and if you’ve already said it, don’t back down.
Fire can only be kindled by fire.
When you're not in the mood, your feet don't dance.
When death threatens, the mouse bites.
“I have seen many peoples, but such rebellious and unyielding people as the Chechens do not exist on earth, and the path to the conquest of the Caucasus lies through the conquest of the Chechens, or rather, through their complete destruction.”
“Sovereign!.. The mountain peoples, by example of their independence, give rise to a rebellious spirit and a love of independence in the very subjects of your imperial majesty.”
N.F. Dubrovin, “History of war and Russian rule in the Caucasus”:
“The Chechens are undoubtedly the bravest people in the Eastern Mountains. Campaigns into their lands always cost us enormous bloody sacrifices. But this tribe was never completely imbued with Muridism. Of all the mountaineers, they alone forced Shamil, who ruled despotically in Dagestan, to make a thousand concessions to them in the form of government, national duties and the ritual strictness of the faith.”
A. Dumas. Caucasus. (Paris, 1859):
Chechens- excellent horsemen - they can overcome one hundred twenty, one hundred thirty or even one hundred fifty miles in just one night. Their horses, without slowing down - always at a gallop - storm such slopes where, it would seem, it would be impossible to pass even on foot. A mountaineer riding on horseback never looks at the road in front of him: if there is a crevice on the way that his horse does not dare to overcome immediately, the Chechen wraps the horse’s head in a cloak and, trusting himself to the Almighty, forces the pacer to jump over a chasm up to twenty feet deep.
The unenviable state of affairs in the foothills of the Caucasus was outlined by Professor S.N. Rukavishnikov in his report read on October 11, 1912 at a meeting of the Society of History Admirers:
“Although the Caucasus was conquered by Russia, it is not completely pacified. The Muslim peoples inhabiting it, in the wilderness of their villages, breathe implacable hatred of Russia and are waiting only for an opportunity to stand up for Islam... The entire history of the Caucasus shows that the center of all unrest in the Caucasus... is Dagestan and, in particular, Chechnya, which, due to its geographical situation, to this day it is a completely isolated, inaccessible, wild country...” According to Rukavishnikov, the authorities (then St. Petersburg) and the local Caucasian administration were to blame for everything, which does not even try to introduce Chechnya to the benefits of modern culture, to connect it with the outside world. the world at least on some roads. “Under the influence of all these circumstances, as well as thanks to the natural ardent and ardent character of the Chechens, the latter developed into a militant, freedom-loving and fanatical tribe, easily susceptible to the propaganda of Muslim hatred of the “infidels,” the professor concluded.
General Mikhail Orlov, 1826:
“It is just as impossible to conquer the Chechens as it is to smooth out the Caucasus. Who, besides us, can boast that they have seen the Eternal War?
Maxim Shevchenko:
“Chechens are the most educated people in the Russian Federation. Due to national characteristics, due to their closed nature and conservatism, the Chechens were able to turn their exile in Kazakhstan into an opportunity for an innovative breakthrough. While many peoples of the Caucasus and Trans-Caucasus, having fallen into exile, practically died, the minimally Russified Chechens managed to intensify their lives and sharply, abruptly, increase their level of education many times over. The Chechens came to the situation of the 90s organically belonging to the high-tech part of the Soviet elite. Let me remind you that many ministers in the primary industries, oil and gas, gas production, were Chechens and Ingush.”
V. Potto, XIX century:
“Someone rightly noted that in the type of Chechen, in his moral character, there is something reminiscent of the Wolf. Lion and Eagle portray strength, they go after the weak, and the Wolf goes after someone stronger than himself, in the latter case replacing everything with boundless audacity, courage and dexterity. And once he gets into hopeless trouble, he dies silently, expressing neither fear, nor pain, nor groan.”
Vadim Belotserkovsky, 02.22.08:
“As for the Chechens, in my opinion, for the most part they have an increased potential for courage, energy and love of freedom. At the end of the first Chechen war, I wrote in the then Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the Chechens, in their qualities, including intellectual data, represent a certain fluctuation of positive properties. I know many Chechens of different positions and ages, and I am always amazed at their intelligence, wisdom, concentration, and perseverance. One of the components of the fluctuation mentioned above seems to me to be the fact that the Chechens, alone among the peoples of the Russian Empire, did not have an aristocracy, never knew serfdom, and have been living for about three hundred years without feudal princes.”
Ian Chesnov:
Chechens are a small people, their country does not occupy much space on the geographical map. But on the ethnic map, on the map of peoples and cultures, Chechnya represents a civilization comparable in status to, say, Russia. This sounds extremely unexpected, but it is true.
Prediction from an ancient manuscript from the 18th century:
“...Like a whip falling from the hands of a horseman caught on the way by a sandstorm, the Chechens will disappear... However, the same wind, blowing in the opposite direction, will carry away the sand and the whip will reappear. So the Chechens will go into oblivion for a while, rise again for goodness and justice and live until the Day of Judgment.”
General M.Ya. Olshevsky:
“We tried to destroy the Chechens as our enemies by all means and even turn their advantages into disadvantages. We considered them an extremely fickle, gullible, treacherous and treacherous people because they did not want to fulfill our demands, which were incompatible with their concepts, morals, customs and way of life. We denigrated them so much only because they did not want to dance to our tune, the sounds of which were too harsh and deafening for them ... "
Johann Blaramberg, “Caucasian Manuscript”:
“...If there were no reasons for discord among them, the Chechens would become very dangerous neighbors, and it is not without reason to apply to them what Thucydides said about the ancient Scythians: “There is no people in Europe or Asia who could resist them if the latter united their forces"
Joseph Kobzon:
...But there is education: respect for elders, respect for a friend, respect for a woman, obedience to the law. Respect for religion, and not feigned, not far-fetched, but real. I love and respect the Vainakhs very much. And they show me the kindest attitude, if only for the simple reason that in my entire long life I have never betrayed this people in word or deed. Chechens are a courageous, invincible, morally pure people. What about the bandits? So there are enough of them among Russians, bandits and Jews...
...And when my son or daughter starts to contradict me, I say: “You should have been sent to Chechnya to be raised, you would have learned to respect your parents... I like this culture.
Dmitry Panin , a descendant of an ancient noble family, a Russian scientist and religious philosopher who spent 16 years in Stalin’s camps. In the 70s, his book “Lubyanka - Ekibastuz” was published in the West, which literary critics call “a phenomenon of Russian literature, equal to “Notes from the House of the Dead” by F.M. Dostoevsky." This is what he writes in this book about the Chechens:
“The most successful and witty escape was the escape (from the Special Camp in Kazakhstan - V.M.) of two prisoners during a strong snowstorm. Over the course of the day, piles of compacted snow had piled up, the barbed wire was up, and the prisoners walked across it like a bridge. The wind blew at their backs: they unbuttoned their peacoats and pulled them with their hands like sails. Wet snow forms a solid road: during the snowstorm they managed to travel more than two hundred kilometers and reach the village. There they ripped off rags with numbers and mixed with the local population. They were lucky: they were Chechens; they showed them hospitality. Chechens and Ingush are closely related Caucasian peoples of the Muslim religion.
The vast majority of their representatives are determined and courageous people. They saw Hitler as a liberator from the shackles of Stalinism, and when the Germans were driven out of the Caucasus, Stalin carried out the eviction of these and other minorities to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Children, elderly and weak people died, but great tenacity and vitality allowed the Chechens to resist during the barbaric resettlement. The main strength of the Chechens was loyalty to their religion. They tried to settle in groups, and in each village the most educated of them took on the responsibility of mullah. They tried to resolve disputes and quarrels among themselves, without bringing them to the Soviet court; Girls were not allowed to go to school, boys went to school for a year or two to learn only to write and read, and after that no fines helped. The simplest business protest helped the Chechens win the battle for their people. Children were brought up in religious ideas, albeit extremely simplified, in respect for their parents, for their people, for their customs, and in hatred for the godless Soviet cauldron, in which they did not want to boil for any reason. At the same time, clashes invariably arose and protests were expressed. Petty Soviet satraps did a dirty job, and many Chechens ended up behind barbed wire. We also had reliable, brave, determined Chechens with us. There were no informers among them, and if any appeared, they turned out to be short-lived. I have had the opportunity to verify the loyalty of Muslims more than once. When I was a brigadier, I chose the Ingush Idris as my assistant, and I was always calm, knowing that the rear was reliably protected and every order would be carried out by the brigade. I was in exile in Kazakhstan at the height of the development of virgin lands, when I received five hundred rubles in allowance. Representatives of the criminal world poured there. The party organizer of the state farm, fearing for his life, hired three Chechens as his bodyguards for a lot of money. All the Chechens there were disgusted by his actions, but once they promised, they kept their word, and, thanks to their protection, the party organizer remained safe and sound. Later, when I was free, I many times set Chechens as an example to my acquaintances and offered to learn from them the art of defending their children, protecting them from the corrupting influence of godless, unprincipled authorities. What happened so simply and naturally for illiterate Muslims was shattered by the desire of educated and semi-educated Soviet Russians to necessarily give a higher education to their, as a rule, only child. It was impossible for ordinary people, with the inculcated atheism and the bloodless, crushed, closed Church almost everywhere, to defend their children alone.”
*****
“The control of the head of the Left flank of the Caucasian line includes the space limited by the main ridge of the mountains, the river. Andean Koisu, Sulak, Caspian Sea and rivers. Terek, Assa and Daut-Martan. The main population of this space is the Chechen tribe, the strongest, most violent and warlike of all the Caucasian peoples..."
“The movement of the highlanders of the North-Eastern Caucasus in the 20-50s. 19th century." Makhachkala 1959, Dagestan branch of the USSR Academy of Sciences, p. 280, document No. 154. General Pullo’s memorandum on the situation on the left flank of the Caucasian line from 1834 to 1840. and measures necessary to strengthen the power of the tsarist government over the mountaineers. 1840"
Speaking about the settlement of these lands by Chechens, Professor P. I. Kovalevsky wrote that they “... little by little began to descend from the mountains and gradually occupy the Kumyk area for their villages. This is how a whole series of villages were formed from the Kachkalykovsky ridge and almost to Kizlyar along the Terek, forming the Kachkalykovsky Chechnya” (23). Their influence in Aukha and throughout the Terek-Sulak interfluve was so great that, as General V. Potto wrote, “... none of the Kumyk princes... dared to travel without being accompanied by a Chechen.”
The flatness, or, more correctly, the sloping northern slopes of the Caucasian ridge, covered with forests and fruitful valleys and inhabited in the eastern part by the Chechen tribe, the most warlike of the mountain tribes, has always constituted the heart, granary and most powerful hire of the coalition of mountains hostile to us.
E. Selderetsky. Conversations about the Caucasus. Part 1, Berlin, 1870:
Shamil, knowing well the value of these foothills and choosing his residence first Dargo, and then Vedeno, apparently tried to stay closer to Chechnya than to all his other possessions. The significance of these foothills was also understood by the Commander-in-Chief, Prince Baryatinsky, who concentrated all our attacks on the Chechen lands, with the fall of which in April 1859, densely populated Dagestan could not withstand even six months, although it had rested from our offensive actions, which had ceased on the part of Dagestan since 1849 .
Abstracts of reports and communications of the All-Union Scientific Conference on June 20-22, 1989. Makhachkala, 1989, p. 23:
The Government Commission of Russia, having studied the issue of recruiting them to serve in the Russian army, reported in 1875: “The Chechens... the most warlike and dangerous mountaineers of the North Caucasus, are... ready warriors, which military service is hardly anything in the sense of a dashing ride and the ability to wield weapons... Chechens literally from childhood get used to communicating with weapons... Shooting at night at a glance: at sound, at light shows a clear advantage of the highlanders in this over trained Cossacks and especially soldiers.”
.“The conquered Caucasus. Essays on the historical past and modern Caucasus of St. Petersburg. 1904 Caspary):
“Chechens, both men and women, are extremely beautiful in appearance. They are tall, very slender, their faces, especially their eyes, are expressive; Chechens are agile and dexterous in their movements; By character, they are all very impressionable, cheerful and witty, for which they are called “the French of the Caucasus,” but at the same time they are suspicious, quick-tempered, treacherous, insidious, and vindictive. When they strive for their goal, all means are good for them. At the same time, the Chechens are indomitable, unusually resilient, brave in attack, defense and pursuit. These are predators, of which there are few among the proud knights of the Caucasus; and they themselves do not hide this, choosing the wolf as their ideal among the animal kingdom.”
Nemirovich-Danchenko V. Along Chechnya:
“The nice sides of the Chechens are reflected in their epics and songs. Poor in the number of words, but extremely figurative, the language of this tribe seems to have been created, according to knowledgeable researchers of the Andean ridge, for a legend and a fairy tale - naive and instructive at the same time. Humiliated braggarts, punished envious people and predators, the triumph of the magnanimous, although sometimes weak, respect for a woman who is her husband’s assistant and comrade - these are the roots of folk art in Chechnya. Add to this the wit of the mountaineer, his ability to joke and understand a joke, gaiety, which even the difficult current situation of this tribe has not overcome, and you, of course, with all due respect to the uniformed moralists, will agree with me that the Chechens are a people as a people, nothing worse, and perhaps even better, than any other who singles out such virtuous and merciless judges from among them. The abilities of this tribe are beyond doubt. Among the Caucasian intellectuals, there are already many Chechens in schools and gymnasiums. Where they study, they cannot be praised enough. Those who arrogantly humiliate the incomprehensible mountaineer must at the same time agree (...) that when talking with a simple Chechen, you feel that you are dealing with a person sensitive to such phenomena of social life that are almost inaccessible to our peasants of the middle provinces.”
V.A. Potto. Historical sketch of the Caucasian wars... (Tiflis, 1899):
The Chechens have always been a formidable enemy. They fought us tooth and nail.
S. Belyaev, diary of a Russian soldier who was held captive by the Chechens for ten months:
“The Chechens are very poor, but they never go for alms, they don’t like to beg, and this is their moral superiority over the mountaineers. Chechens never give orders to their own people, but say, “I would like this, I would like to eat, I’ll do it, I’ll go, I’ll find out, if God willing.” There are almost no swear words in the local language..."
A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky in “Letter to Doctor Erman”:
“...The Chechens did not burn houses, did not deliberately trample fields, and did not destroy vineyards. “Why destroy the gift of God and the work of man,” they said... And this rule of the mountain “robber” is a valor that the most educated nations could be proud of, if they had it...”
A little about the characteristic properties of the Chechen ethnic group
Downstream of the Terek live the Chechens, the worst of the bandits who attack the line. Their society is very sparsely populated, but has increased enormously in the last few years, for the villains of all other nations who leave their land due to some kind of crime were received in a friendly manner. Here they found accomplices, immediately ready either to avenge them or to participate in robberies, and they served as their faithful guides in lands unknown to them. Chechnya can rightly be called the nest of all robbers.
Its management is divided from clan to clan between several families, which are revered by elders. Those with the strongest connections and rich people are more respected.
In public affairs, but more in cases of an acceptable attack or theft, they gather together for advice; but since they all consider themselves equal, a few opposing voices destroy enterprises, even if they could be useful to society, especially if these voices were cast by one of the strong people.
The population in Chechnya, with the addition of the Kachkalyk society, is estimated to be more than 6,000 families. The land does not correspond in space to the number of inhabitants, or is overgrown with impenetrable forests and is insufficient for arable farming, which is why there are many people who do not engage in any labor and earn their livelihood by mere robbery...
It is absolutely clear why the current Chechens, who are on errands for the Moscow Jews, disliked General A.P. Ermolov so much. The general historically noticed and emphasized the inability of this ethno-people to create. And then even the roads there were built by Russians and Cossacks... not especially for them, of course...
the war with Persia began...
During the appointment of General Yermolov as governor of the Caucasus, an incident occurred that shook the Chechens’ confidence in the benefits of the hostage trade. On the road from Khaziyurt to Kizlyar, Major Shvetsov was kidnapped. The Chechens, not understanding officer distinctions, mistook the major for a person of special national importance. And to celebrate, they demanded a ransom from his relatives - ten arb of silver coins. The Russian government simply did not know how to react to such an exorbitant price! And there was nowhere to get this amount from. Then Shvetsov’s colleagues announced a collection of donations throughout the country to ransom him from captivity.
While the Russians were collecting money, Ermolov appeared in the North Caucasus. And the first thing he did was to forbid paying a ransom for Shvetsov.
And instead of paying, he ordered all the Kumyk princes and owners through whose lands the Russian officer was transported to be imprisoned in the fortress, and announced that if they did not find a way to free him, he would hang them all.
The arrested princes immediately agreed to reduce the ransom to 10 thousand rubles.
But Ermolov again refused to pay.
Then, very opportunely, the Avar Khan appeared (at the general’s secret request) and ransomed the prisoner.
The general grasped the peculiarities of the national mentality instantly. If you pay money to the local population, it means you are afraid, you are paying off. And therefore Ermolov called for following the logic of the enemy: “I want my name to guard our borders with fear stronger than chains and fortifications, so that my word will be a law for Asians, or rather, inevitable death.
Condescension in the eyes of an Asian is a sign of weakness, and out of love for humanity I am strict and inexorable. One execution will save hundreds of Russians from death and thousands of Muslims from treason." The general used to back up his words with deeds. So the kidnapping of high-ranking officials and wealthy merchants was temporarily erased from the list of "profitables."
By the spring of 1818, the headquarters of General Ermolov, proconsul of the Caucasus (then Khloponin) was inundated with reports of bloody atrocities committed by Chechens on Cossack lands. The scale of the raids became more and more threatening; Ermolov’s deputy even ordered the removal of all posts along the Terek, due to their uselessness and the danger of being cut out themselves. The situation was deplorable, the residents of the villages were afraid to leave the gates, they moved between the villages accompanied by a military patrol, once a day, and then only after a preliminary inspection of the road. The Chechens attacked suddenly from wolf ambushes, carried out massacres, stole livestock, grabbed women and children, destroyed and burned villages. This state of affairs required certain decisions and actions, and they did not take long to arrive. Ermolov decided to act tough; he understood that the so-called “peaceful Chechens” living in the nearest villages near Terek were the main suppliers of information about the movements of Russian troops. It was in these “peaceful” villages that the robbers set up their bases, prepared for raids, and brought loot and prisoners here. Having reported to the top about the state of affairs and the bloody attacks being carried out, having approved his plan of “pacification” with Emperor Alexander I, the proconsul began to act. Strict demands were made on the residents of the villages; in particular, in the appeals to the Chechens it was said: “In case of theft, the villages are obliged to hand over the thief. If the thief escapes, hand over his family. If the village residents give the criminal’s family the opportunity to escape, then they are obliged to hand over his closest relatives. If your relatives are not handed over, your villages will be destroyed and burned, your families will be sold to the mountains, your prisoners will be hanged.” The proconsul also summoned the elders of the villages and announced to them that if even one detachment of bandit animals was allowed through their lands, the entire population of their villages would be driven into the mountains, where they would be destroyed by pestilence and famine, all those taken prisoner would be hanged: “Better from the Terek to the Sunzha I will leave the scorched, deserted steppes, rather than suffer robberies and robberies in the rear of Russian fortifications. Choose either - submission or terrible extermination,” the general told them in conclusion. Then, following the planned plan, the troops were transported across the Terek and on June 10, 1818, a six-bastion citadel was solemnly founded, which received the telling name Grozny. The next goal of the Yermolov pacification plan was to clear the territory adjacent to the Terek from hostile population. Knowing the mentality of the locals, the proconsul understood that peaceful evacuation would not work; this could only be achieved by force “by example of horror.” To carry out a demonstrative punitive action, the village of Dady-Yurt, a gangster den of all the surrounding abreks, was chosen. On September 15, 1819, at dawn, Russian troops under the command of the marching ataman General Sysoev settled down near Dada-yurt. The ataman's detachment consisted of 5 companies of Kabardian infantrymen, a company of the Trinity Regiment, 700 Cossacks and five guns. The residents of the village were presented with an ultimatum; they were asked to voluntarily leave the village and go after Sunzha. But the residents, considering the ultimatum an empty threat, rejected it and prepared to defend the village. A desperate, bloody battle began, one of the first brutal battles of Russian troops in the Caucasus. Each yard in the village was surrounded by a stone fence, which had to be shot from cannons, dragging the guns by hand to each house under hurricane fire from the Chechens, who were shooting almost point-blank. Soldiers rushed into the gaps made by the cannons and a brutal and bloody hand-to-hand fight began. The soldiers had nowhere to retreat; the Chechens fought for their families. Desperate bitterness grew with every second of the bloody battle, but the pressure of the Russian army could not be stopped. The Chechens, realizing that they could not defend the village, stabbed their wives and children to death in front of the attackers and rushed into battle. Losses on both sides quickly grew, and dismounted Cossacks entered the battle. The assault on the village lasted several hours and ended only after the complete extermination of all the defenders of the village. Of the living residents of Dada-Yurt, only 140 women and children and several seriously wounded men remained. The village was burned and completely destroyed by artillery fire. The total losses of the Russian troops amounted to a quarter of their original strength, and General Sysoev himself was wounded. The destruction of Dada-yurt forced the residents of the remaining villages to send their families to the mountains. And the next village, Isti-Su, was taken by Russian troops in just thirty minutes, without much resistance in a bayonet attack. Only in the village mosque did a fierce battle take place with a group of religious fanatics who refused to surrender; all of them were killed in a bayonet fight. Then the villages of Nain-Berdy and Allayar-aul were taken without any problems, but the next village of Khosh-Geldy greeted Yermolov with bread and salt and was forgiven. The remaining villages were abandoned by locals. Robberies and robberies temporarily stopped. Such a cruel attitude of the Russian proconsul towards the Chechen villages led to an explosion of rage and the spread of muridism throughout the North Caucasus. But we must understand that such actions by Ermolov were based not on a barbaric attitude towards the Chechens, but on the bitter experience of negotiation processes, placating the mountaineers, which never led to constructive results. Although this practice of bloody cleansing did not produce significant results in establishing good neighborly relations. After the resignation of Proconsul Ermolov, his successors tried many more techniques, methods and means to establish peace in the Caucasus. But even non-supporters of Yermolov’s methods had to turn to them again and again, using the general’s legacy to pacify the wild mountaineers.
STATEMENTS ABOUT CHECHENS
Ermolov:
“It is they, the Chechens, who outrage the entire Caucasus. Damn tribe!
Their society is not so populous, but has increased enormously in the last few years, because it accepts friendly villains from all other peoples who leave their land after committing any crimes. And not only.
Even our soldiers are fleeing to Chechnya. They are attracted there by the complete equality and equality of the Chechens, who do not recognize any power among themselves.
These robbers welcome our soldiers with open arms! So Chechnya can be called the nest of all robbers and the den of our fugitive soldiers.
I presented these swindlers with an ultimatum: hand over the fugitive soldiers or the revenge will be terrible. No, not a single soldier was extradited! It was necessary to exterminate their villages.
This people, of course, is neither more vile nor more insidious under the sun. They don't even have the plague! I will not rest until I see with my own eyes the skeleton of the last Chechen...”
“Downstream the Terek live the Chechens, the worst of the robbers who attack the line.
Their society is very sparsely populated, but has increased enormously in the last few years, for the villains of all other nations who leave their land due to some kind of crime were received in a friendly manner.
Here they found accomplices, immediately ready either to avenge them or to participate in robberies, and they served as their faithful guides in lands unknown to them. Chechnya can rightly be called the nest of all robbers."
Notes from 1816–1826, when Ermolov was commander of the Caucasian Corps and commander-in-chief in Georgia during the Caucasian War.
“I have seen many peoples, but such rebellious and unyielding people as the Chechens do not exist on earth, and the path to the conquest of the Caucasus lies through the conquest of the Chechens, or rather, through their complete destruction.”
“Sovereign!.. The mountain peoples, by example of their independence, give rise to a rebellious spirit and love of independence in the very subjects of your imperial majesty.”
(from A. Ermolov’s report to Emperor Alexander I on February 12, 1819)
“The Chechens are the strongest people and the most dangerous...” Ermolov.
“It is just as impossible to conquer the Chechens as it is to smooth out the Caucasus. Who besides us can boast that they saw the Eternal War?
(General Mikhail Orlov, 1826).
Faced with many Caucasian peoples N.S. By the time Semenov created his collection of articles, he clearly singled out the Chechens with his attention:
“a tribe which I have studied more than other tribes, and which, in its integrity and vitality, deserves greater interest”
“Chechens, both men and women, are extremely beautiful people.
They are tall, very slender, their physiognomy, especially their eyes, is expressive.
In their movements, the Chechens are agile, dexterous, in character they are all very impressionable, cheerful and witty, for which they are called the French of the Caucasus.
But at the same time they are suspicious, hot-tempered, treacherous, insidious, vindictive.
When they strive for a goal, all means are good for them. At the same time, the Chechens are indomitable. unusually resilient, brave in attack, dexterous in defense” Berger.
“...The Chechens did not burn houses, did not deliberately trample fields, and did not destroy vineyards. “Why destroy the gift of God and the work of man,” they said...
And this rule of the mountain “robber” is a valor that the most educated nations could be proud of, if they had it...”
A.A. Bestuzhev-Marlinsky in “Letter to Doctor Erman”
“We tried to destroy the Chechens as our enemies by all means and even turn their advantages into disadvantages.
We considered them an extremely fickle people, gullible, treacherous and treacherous because they did not want to fulfill our demands, which were incompatible with their concepts, morals, customs and way of life.
We denigrated them so much only because they did not want to dance to our tune, the sounds of which were too harsh and deafening for them...”
General M. Ya. Olshevsky.
“Someone rightly noted that in the Chechen type, in his moral character, there is something reminiscent of the Wolf.
Lion and Eagle portray strength, they go after the weak, and the Wolf goes after someone stronger than himself, in the latter case replacing everything with boundless audacity, courage and dexterity.
And once he gets into hopeless trouble, he dies silently, expressing neither fear, nor pain, nor groan.”
(V. Potto, XIX century).
“Manic hatred of Chechens is explained by the subconscious envy of people deprived of the genes of courage, morality, and intelligence”
("General Newspaper", 04/17-23/1997)
– One nuance. Skinheads beat the “blacks” - but are afraid of the Chechens. Why?
– And you read Solzhenitsyn. Even our classes and the Gulag administration did not touch the Chechens in the zones.
Chechens are people of amazing personal courage.
The film “My Friend Ivan Lapshin” starred a former prisoner convicted of murder.
He played the guy who, in the story, stabbed the hero Andrei Mironov. Andrey was afraid of him even outside the frame, in life. After 11 years of imprisonment, the criminal world released him...
This prisoner told me a story from the life of the zone.
One day one of the thieves stabbed a Chechen. And there are swamps around, you can’t escape.
So, the Chechens, who had served their sentence and were already living in the settlement, made an adaptation and jumped into the zone through the barbed wire. And they cut many people - and, as you understand, they remained in the zone for a very long time.
With all the love for our people, our people wouldn’t jump...
Skinheads know: if you stab a Chechen, they will kill everyone.
And they even set them on other foreigners, like a dog on a leash...
Elena 01/26/2008, 00:11
“It’s hard to be Chechen.
If you are a Chechen, you must feed and shelter your enemy, who knocks on your door as a guest.
You must, without hesitation, die for the girl’s honor. You must kill a bloodline by plunging a dagger into his chest, because you can never shoot in the back.
You must give your last piece of bread to a friend. You must get up and get out of the car to greet the old man walking past.
You should never run, even if there are a thousand of your enemies and you have no chance of winning, you still have to take the fight.
And you can't cry no matter what happens. Let your beloved women leave, let poverty ruin your home, let your comrades bleed on your hands, you cannot cry if you are a Chechen, if you are a Man.
Only once, only once in your life can you cry: when Mother dies.”
NO_COMMENT 01/26/2008, 04:37
Chechens - there is so much in this word! No matter how the enemies like it! But I have nothing against other nationalities!
Mouravi 01/30/2008, 15:48
Salaam Alaikum. To begin with, I’ll just tell you a story from my life.
I was talking to one guy once. He is Kazakh, his name is Arman. He lives in the city of Stepnogorsk, Kazakhstan.
There has been a gold mine there since Soviet times, which stopped with the collapse of the Union. But local residents began to climb there at their own peril and risk (it is far from safe).
It is a whole underground labyrinth. To better visualize it, I can say that it has the shape of a Christmas tree turned upside down.
During operation, it was electrified and all power supply systems were working, but after stopping, everything stopped by itself, and it took on the appearance of a dark abyss.
But having no other way of food in the 90s, people climbed there in the hope of catching luck. Many people actually died there, lost in the tunnels and branches of the mine.
Arman also dealt with this for a long time. He told how people lived in tunnels for several days, seeing only the light of a flashlight, and looking for gold ore.
He said that over time, people began to feel depressed in eternal darkness, and the experienced ones said: “So it’s time to go up.”
In those difficult conditions, all conventions were erased and all decency was forgotten. Darkness, lack of clean air, fear weighed on the human psyche. But there was an exception.
He said that even in these conditions, local Chechens who also went down into the mine observed all the rules of national behavior and ethics. Even little things.
He watched with great surprise as the younger ones did not sit down to eat before the older ones.
As if the earth began to fall from above (they worked without equipment, by hand), then everyone, driven by the instinct of self-preservation, tried to be the first to jump out of the face into the tunnel.
And only the Vainakhs tried to push each other out first (the younger ones, the older ones, and the older ones).
What can I say, I was very pleased to hear that my brothers, even in the most extreme and life-threatening conditions, remained CHECHENs, who, according to Yakh, first of all think about their friend and brother, and then only about themselves.
Girl E
It just so happened that in the course of my life I came across many Chechens.
1) Handsome men.
2) Smart.
3) They know how to force themselves to be respected both by words and actions.
4) Amazing sense of humor.
5) When you walk with a Chechen along a dark street, you can be calm for yourself, they won’t give you offense.
Also, in the company where I work there are several Chechens and if they are not loved, they are respected by everyone (the team is more than 100 people).
One of them, by the way, does a lot for the staff and everyone always comes to him for help, and he does everything to help them without asking for anything in return.
In short, I really like them, it’s a pity that such an areola is created for them. It is clear that a weak country needs the image of an enemy.
In short, I hope our country will become stronger, and the Chechens will be able to show the world what they really are.
12/26/01, Major Payne
In my opinion, Chechens are the bravest people in the world! I will only quote an old Chechen song, which the Ichkerians made the anthem of Ichkeria!
We were born on the night the she-wolf whelped,
In the morning, amid the roar of the lion, we were given names.
Mothers fed us in eagle nests,
Our fathers taught us to tame horses on clouds.
Our mothers gave birth to us for the people and the fatherland,
And at their call we bravely stood up.
With the mountain eagles we grew up freely,
Difficulties and obstacles were proudly overcome.
Rather, granite rocks, like lead, will melt,
Than the hordes of enemies will make us bow down!
Rather, the earth will burst into flames,
How will we appear to the grave, having sold our honor!
We will never submit to anyone
Death or Freedom - we will achieve one of the two.
05/23/02, SVETA
I love Chechens for everything!
1. They are honest, freedom-loving, they have self-esteem.
2. Since I communicate very closely with Chechens, I can say that they are: cheerful, cheerful, temperamental and most importantly - brave!
They believe in their ideals and maintain their traditions!
01/27/03, Elina 2002
You know, I used to know very little about Chechen customs and morals, but I fell in love with a Chechen and now we are going to get married.
I respect Chechens for holding tightly to their roots and supporting each other.
They are a very proud people who honor their customs and traditions.
As for the fact that they are all bandits, this is not true. In every nation there are good people and bad.
01/28/03, Arthur
This people is worthy of respect firstly because:
1. A Chechen will never leave his fellow countryman in trouble.
2. Chechens are very brave people.
I myself am an Armenian by nationality, and anyone who says that Chechens and Armenians cannot be friends is blatantly lying.
06/05/03, LENA
How can you not love Chechens; they will never pass by when their fellow countryman is in trouble. And if we see that ours is being beaten, we will run away from there.
05/21/03, UKY
Chechens are the same people as Russians, Ukrainians, Dagestanis, Jews, Americans.
My grandmother often visited Chechnya and spoke only good things about Chechnya. Grandmother cried when the war began.
My uncle worked in Chechnya about 20 years ago, he also speaks well of Chechnya and Chechens..
05/31/0, Gulcha
I love one and only Chechen! I respect the rest. For their patience, friendship, responsibility for their people and for their family.
If they love, then for life!!!
Never confuse Chechens with the concept of terrorists. These concepts are not compatible.
17/07/03, LILIANA
Radio operator Kat! How I understand you!
I, too, lived in the Caucasus in a Chechen village and fell in love with this part of the planet as much as I probably didn’t even love my native Libya, where I was born and spent my earliest childhood years!
And even here, in St. Petersburg, I have many friends - Chechens and I love them all very much! They call me "sister" and respect me very much.
I often come across those who are of the same faith as me - Zoroastrians. We get together with them in the evenings and read the Avesta.
And never in my life have I seen anything bad from any Chechen, but from others - as much as you like!
03/06/04, Anime
I simply adore it, perhaps one of the few Muslim nations that I respect!!!
The Chechens are an ancient people, they are also Urartians, and besides, I have a lot of Chechen friends and girlfriends.
Their girls are incredibly beautiful, and in general the people are cheerful!!!
The Jews are called the people of the book; they are undoubtedly the most educated people on earth.
But Chechens are people from the book!
Valeria Novodvorskaya.
Georgian
You have no idea how much my family and I respect Nokhchi.
I will not repeat that this is a very brave, moral, proud, truly believing nation. I have been communicating with them since childhood. And I don’t regret it one bit.
And who hates them....have the courage to approach one Chechen and say it to his face..
Communicating with Chechens, I came to the conclusion that it is difficult to become a friend of a Chechen, but if you become one, then the Chechen will be ready to die for you, but if you betray the Chechen, then you will not be happy.
I'll put forward a hypothesis.
I already read from someone that Chechnya is a bundle of energy, and it is very important what it will be directed towards.
They noticed and came close: “A clot of energy.”
But that's probably not enough. Apparently, we are dealing with a clot, a fluctuation of the gene pool. A subject worthy of serious scientific study!
Let me remind you that fluctuation (condensation) is a spontaneous, low-probability, anti-entropic process. The fluctuation of matter has provided us with the miracle of life.
And the fluctuation of the gene pool must be protected, even if it happened in a foreign people! In the long run, everyone will be better off.
As long as peoples like the Chechens exist, humanity has hope.
Alexander Minkin wrote in Novaya Gazeta (19.25.08.)
After a trip with Lebed to Khasavyurt:
“The first thing that catches your eye:
We have a mess, the Chechens have order.
We are showing off, they are not making a single unnecessary movement.
The feds’ schedule shifts by hours, the Chechens didn’t have to wait a minute anywhere...
The militants are energetic, confident, and all absolutely sober.
Horrible detail:
Ours - from the soldier to the prime minister - have absolute difficulty explaining themselves in Russian, can rarely finish a sentence they have started, and resort to gesturing and endless “uh”;
Chechens, in a foreign language, Russian, explain themselves clearly and form thoughts without difficulty.”
Statements about Chechens at different times - part 3
Chechens: who are they? 13:46 02/12/2005
RIA Novosti columnist Tatyana Sinitsyna.
Chechens are confident that their deepest roots historically stretch back to the Sumerian kingdom (30th century BC).
They also consider themselves descendants of the ancient Urartians (9-6 centuries BC).
In any case, the deciphered cuneiform of these two civilizations indicates that many authentic words have been preserved in the Chechen language. (in fact, in modern language, these were the so-called Chechen Diasporas. Author's note.)
“The Chechens are undoubtedly the bravest people in the Eastern Mountains. Campaigns into their land always cost us bloody sacrifices. But this tribe was never completely imbued with muridism.
Of all the eastern highlanders, the Chechens retained personal and social independence the most and forced Shamil, who ruled despotically in Dagestan, to make a thousand concessions to them in the form of government, in national duties, in the ritual strictness of the faith.
Ghazavat (war against infidels) was only an excuse for them to defend their tribal independence."
(R.A. Fadeev, “Sixty Years of the Caucasian War”, Tiflis, 1860).
""... The abilities of this tribe are beyond doubt. Of the Caucasian intellectuals, there are already many Chechens in schools and gymnasiums. Where they study, they are not praised enough.
Those who arrogantly humiliate the incomprehensible mountaineer must agree that when talking with a simple Chechen, you feel that you are dealing with a person sensitive to such phenomena of social life that are almost inaccessible to our peasants of the middle provinces."
Nemirovich-Danchenko. Along Chechnya.
""The Chechens, excellent horsemen, can overcome 120, 130 or even 150 versts in one night. Their horses, without slowing down, always gallop, storm such slopes where it would seem impossible to pass even on foot....
If there is a crevice ahead that his horse does not dare to overcome right away, the Chechen wraps the horse’s head in a cloak and, trusting himself to the Almighty, forces the pacer to jump over a chasm up to 20 feet deep.
A. Dumas Caucasus (Paris, 1859)
Appeal of the Political Directorate of the Don Front to the soldiers of the Soviet Army, issued on the eve of the Battle of Stalingrad (1943)
Based on materials from the book by Kh. D. Oshaev “The Tale of the Chechen-Ingush Regiment.” Nalchik. "Elfa" 2004.
According to the testimonies of the surviving participants in the heroic defense of the Brest Fortress, according to the scarce documentary data of the headquarters archives, according to the materials of the Museum of the Defense of the Hero Fortress, it is known that during all the days of fighting in the citadel and the three fortified areas adjacent to it, over two thousand Soviet soldiers and officers died.
And among them are more than 300 soldiers of Checheno-Ingushetia
From the book of the secretary of the Chechen-Ingush regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks during the war years, V.I. Filkin, “The Party Organization of Checheno-Ingushetia during the Great Patriotic War of the Soviet Union.”
“In March 1942, at the insistence of Beria, the conscription of Chechens and Ingush liable for military service into the Red Army was stopped.
This was a serious mistake, because the deserters and their accomplices did not at all reflect the real mood of the Chechen-Ingush people.
In August 1942, when Nazi troops invaded the North Caucasus, the regional committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the Chechen Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic turned to the Government of the USSR Union and the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks with a request for permission to carry out the voluntary mobilization of Chechens and Ingush into the Red Army.
The request was granted."
Voluntary mobilizations were carried out three times after that and they produced thousands of volunteers.
In the spring of 1942, mobilized voluntarily, fully equipped with cavalry, well equipped, staffed with experienced combat command and political personnel, and having already received the army number 114th Chechen-Ingush Cavalry Division, at the insistence of Beria, was disbanded.
At the persistent request of the Chechen-Ingush Regional Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks and the Council of People's Commissars of the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic, only minor units were retained from the division - the 255th Separate Checheno-Ingush Regiment and the Checheno-Ingush Separate Division.
Until the end of 1942, the 255th Regiment fought well on the southern approaches to Stalingrad. In the battles of Kotelnikovo, Chilekovo, Sadovaya, Lake Tsatsa and in a number of other places he suffered heavy losses.
In May 1943, the regional committee of the CPSU (b) summed up the results of the voluntary mobilization. The decision states the following: “Conducted with the permission of the Central Committee of the All-Union Communist Party of Bolsheviks in the period February - March 1943, the third conscription of Chechen and Ingush volunteers into the Red Army is accompanied by a manifestation of genuine Soviet patriotism.
“According to incomplete data, during the war more than 18,500 of the best sons of the Chechen-Ingush people were drafted and mobilized into the active army.” (Filkin V.I.).
Two thirds of them were volunteers.
According to the latest data from researchers (in particular, those who worked on the creation of the “Book of Memory”), the number of Chechen and Ingush Red Army soldiers who fought against the Nazis on the fronts of the Great Patriotic War was more than 40 thousand people.
Through the machinations of Beria, in February 1944, the Chechen-Ingush Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was abolished, and the people were resettled in Central Asia and Kazakhstan.
Motive: for weak participation in the war against the Nazis...
This was blatantly untrue. The deportation of Chechens and Ingush (and, possibly, other peoples), apparently, was prepared long before it began.
In line with these plans, one should also consider the secret order of the beginning of 1942 on the retention of awards for the Chechens and Ingush (possibly other, subsequently “punished” peoples), especially the highest and military awards, and on the failure to nominate Chechens and Ingush for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union.
Vainakh had to do something out of the ordinary to be nominated for the title of Hero.
In a battle near the village of Zakharovka, X. Nuradilov alone stopped the advance of the German chains, destroyed 120 Nazis and captured seven more. And he didn't receive any reward.
And only after Nuradilov was mortally wounded in his last battle, bringing by this time the Nazi losses to 932 people (920 killed, 12 captured and another 7 captured enemy machine guns), he was posthumously awarded the title of Hero
Today, the media and printed works mention many dozens of Chechens and Ingush who were nominated for the title of Hero of the Soviet Union and were not approved for this title.
In 1996, from among the Chechens nominated for this title, Russian President B. Yeltsin approved four participants in the Patriotic War to the title of Heroes of Russia.
The fate of Mavlid Visaitov The first Soviet officer to shake hands with the commander of the advanced American units, General Bolling, during the historic meeting on the Elbe was Lieutenant Colonel Mavlid Visaitov, a Chechen by nationality.
The Parliamentary Gazette tells about his fate in the next issue. This fate is like a fairy tale.
As the commander of a cavalry regiment, in the first months of the war he did not retreat, but advanced.
With dashing attacks, under the fire of machine guns and tanks, he knocked down patrols and crushed the advanced units of the enemy on the march.
For this, already in July 1941 he was nominated for the Order of the Red Banner.
In those days and in that environment, such a high award was not just rare - it was a unique case.
Then M. Visaitov received a horse as a gift.
The best horse that could then be found in Russia. Mikhail Sholokhov purchased it at his own expense and sent it to the front with parting instructions - to give it to the best cavalryman of the Soviet Army. It turned out to be Chechen M. Visaitov.
Then came the deportation of February 1944. The command was given to slowly “remove” all Chechen officers from combat units, bring them to Moscow, and already here they were informed that they, along with all the people, were subject to deportation to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan.
Then one hundred military order-bearing officers came to the snow-covered Red Square early in the morning and stood in formation in the hope that someone from the top leadership would be interested in this unusual parade and would listen to them.
They stood all day, were surrounded by a company of the NKVD and, already being taken away, stumbled upon Marshal K. Rokossovsky coming out of the Kremlin.
Thanks to his intervention, these Chechens were returned to their units with all awards and titles retained. And then there was Elba.
In honor of the meeting, M. Visaitov gave General Bolling the most precious thing he had - his horse. The general gave away the jeep.
On the same days, US President Truman signed a presentation for the Order of the Legion of Honor for M. Visaitov - an extremely rare award.
Suffice it to say that in the USA, if a holder of this order enters the room, all men stand up, including the president of the country.
1944 Chechens were awarded only in words - their award documents were shelved and never received.
Elba's hero did not live to see his Day of Restoration of Justice for only a few months.
Based on materials from www.chechen.org, from research by Kh.D. Oshaeva The remains of 850 people are buried in the Brest Fortress, of which the names of 222 heroes are known and are listed on the memorial slabs.
Among them are three natives of Checheno-Ingushetia
Lalaev A.A.,
Uzuev M.Ya.,
Abdrakhmanov S.I.
The scientific and methodological council of the memorial complex "Brest Hero Fortress" recognizes and approves soldiers as participants in the defense and battles in the Brest region only if they have certain documents: information from military registration and enlistment offices or a military ID (Red Army book) of the serviceman himself or two witness statements of participants in the defense of the fortress, etc. d.
From the name of the Chechen writer involved in the search for the defenders of the fortress, Kh.D. Oshaev, the number of people in the museum contains material on the following comrades who are recognized as participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress and battles in the Brest area:
Abdrakhmanov S.I. Baibekov A.S. Beytemirov S-A.M. Betrizov Kh.G.
Gaitukaev A.D. Lalaev A.A. Malaev A. Masaev (Zaindi Askhabov)
Tikhomirov N.I. Uzuev M.Ya. Khasiev A. Khutsuruev A. Tsechoev Kh.D.
Shabuev A.K. Edelkhanov D. Edisultanov A.E. Elmurzaev A.A.
Elmurzaev E.A. Esbulatov M. Yusaev M.
Many wartime archives have disappeared, and the personal documents of the few surviving Red Army soldiers of Chechen nationality, expelled from their homeland, have not been preserved, because in new places they were replaced with “certificates of special settlers.”
List of participants in the defense of the Brest Fortress and the surrounding area, called up from Checheno-Ingushetia
Abaev Saipuddi, a Chechen from the village of Novye Atagi, Shalinsky district. Worked as a teacher. He was drafted into the army in October 1939. He served in the Brest fortress.
Abdulkadyrov Ali, a Chechen from the village of Starye Atagi, Grozny region. He was a participant in the Finnish campaign. Then he served in Brest.
Abdulmusliev Ayub, Chechen from the village of Beno-Yurt, Nadterechny district. He was drafted into the army in February 1940. He served in the 125th Infantry Regiment as a private.
Abdurakhmanov Kosum, a Chechen from the village of Znamenskoye, Nadterechny district. He was drafted into the army in February 1939. The regiment is unknown.
Abdurakhmanov Shamsu, a Chechen from the village of Alleroy, Nozhai-Yurtovsky district. He was drafted into the army in 1939. He served in the 125th Infantry Regiment as a private.
Abdulkhadzhiev Dzhunayg, a Chechen from the village of Dachu-Barzoy, Grozny district. He was drafted into the army in the fall of 1940. He served in the 44th Infantry Regiment as a private.
Ablushev Khumand, Chechen from the village of Nadterechnoye, Nadterechny district. Served in the Brest fortress. The regiment is unknown.
Aduev Eldarkhan, a Chechen from the village of Gukhoy, Sovetsky district. He was drafted into the army in February 1940. He served in the 333rd Infantry Regiment as a private.
Azamov Khalid, Chechen from the village of Nadterechnoye, Nadterechny district. Drafted into the army in February 1940.
Aleroev Salman Timaevich, Chechen from the village of Psedakh, Malgobek region. Drafted into the army in February 1940.
Alibulatov Shakhabutdin, a Chechen from the village of Kenkhi, Sovetsky district. He served as a private in the 333rd Infantry Regiment.
Aliev Makhmud, a Chechen from the village of Chishki, Grozny region.
Alisultanov Salambek, a Chechen from the village of Starye Atagi, Grozny district. He served in the 125th Infantry Regiment as a private.
Ampukaev Akhmad, a Chechen from the village of Duba-Yurt, Shalinsky district. He served in the 125th Infantry Regiment as a private.
Anzorov Zaina, a Chechen from the village of Starye Atagi, Grozny district. He served in the 125th Infantry Regiment as a private.
Arbiev Israil, a Chechen from the village of Znamenskoye in the Nadterechny district. He was drafted into the army in October 1940. First he served in the 222nd Infantry Regiment, stationed at the Cheremkha station in the Brest region. According to some reports, he served in the 125th Infantry Regiment.
Arsagireev Khozhakhmet, a Chechen from the village of Novye Atagi, Shalinsky district. Served in the 131st Artillery Regiment.
Arsemikov (Ibragimov) Abdul-Mutalib, a Chechen from the village of Starye Atagi, Grozny region. Served in the 131st Artillery Regiment.
It spins and spins, hits the machine gun,
Spins and turns, sings a song.
Nuradilov lay down with his “maxim”,
The Germans are mercilessly mowed down by the Maxim.
How much courage and how much fire
Chechnya breathed into the heart of the hero!
We are fighting for the Terek on the blue Don,
We will defend our dear country!
Shahin Bey, 1877-1920 Real name is Muhammad Sa1id.
Sahin Bey, folk hero of Turkey.
He was born in 1877 in the city of Antep, into a Chechen family.
Today the city is called Gazi Antep. This means: City hero.
The city was given this honorary title in honor of Muhammad Salid, a Chechen.
Everyone in Turkey knows Muhammad Said as the man who defended Antep to the last drop of blood.
Today in Turkish schools, students are told about the heroic exploits of the Chechen Muhammad Sa1id as the defender of the city of Antep.
He was nicknamed Shahin, which means “falcon” in Turkish.
Muhammad first enlisted in the army in 1899, he served in Yemen. Because of his exemplary conduct and heroic deeds in Yemen, he was promoted to the rank of sergeant major.
Muhammad Sa'id took part in military operations in Trablus. Because of his courage in this war, he was decorated and promoted to the rank of lieutenant.
Muhammad Sa'id also took part in the war in the Balkans. He was sent to the Galich war of the 15th Ottoman Army, and in 1917 took command of the Sina front.
In 1918, after fierce battles, Muhammad Sa'id was left without rear and ammunition. Muhammad Sa'id was captured by the British. Until December 1919 he remained a prisoner of the British.
After the truce he was released and returned to Turkey.
On December 13, 1919, Muhammad Salid, freed from captivity, returned to Istanbul and immediately assumed a new position as military commandant in the city of Urfa.
Mukhmmad Sa1id sees the occupation of the city of Antep and demands from the command that he be sent to this city. Then he is assigned to control the strategic road between the cities of Kilis and Antep.
Having served for decades in the Ottoman army and having been captured by the British, Muhammad Sa'id finally returns to his native, but already occupied by the enemy, city of Antep.
But Muhammad Sa1id, who has not seen his relatives and his family for so many years, remains at home for only one day and immediately returns to work.
In 1920, Muhammad Sa1id visited many villages close to the city of Antep and made tablig1, i.e. explains that we need to go out for jihad.
He explains to people what jihad is and its significance in Islam, and gathers 200 volunteers who are ready to give their souls for the sake of the Almighty, defending their city from the French occupiers.
Muhammad Sa'id is thinking about how to liberate the city from the occupiers. He himself draws up a plan for the liberation of the city. Residents of the city believe Muhammad Sa1id and obey his every word.
The French, who took control of the city, do not believe that the Muslims will be able to do anything again.
Muhammad Sa'id prepares the people for the fight, realizing that if the French do not receive reinforcements from the city of Kilis, they will not be able to defend the city from them. And the fight begins.
The French, as Muhammad Sa'id expected, are defeated and ask for help from Kilis, but our hero, who himself chose the bravest Mujahideen, stood in the way of the French army.
Not a single Frenchman was able to come to the aid of the besieged in the city.
Muhammad Sa'id fought like a lion on the strategic road.
Muhammad Sa'id sent a messenger with a message to the city of Antep, this message said: “Be calm, my brothers, as long as my heart beats, not a single Frenchman will cross the bridge.”
The French were unable to take control of the city. And they didn’t receive the long-awaited help either.
Muhammad Sa'id and a handful of Mujahideen did not allow the French to break through the only bridge leading to the city.
On February 18, 1920, Muhammad Salid and his fighters repulsed an army of thousands of French. In this battle they destroyed about a thousand French.
When the city of Antep was taken by the Muslims, Muhammad Sa'id sent an appeal to the French: “Every inch of this land that you trample with your dirty feet is sprinkled with the blood of martyrs. It is sweeter for us to die for religion, for honor, for our homeland, for freedom than to drink cold water from a stream on hot August days. Leave our lands. Or we will destroy you."
The French did not want to admit defeat and prepared a new plan and new troops to take Antep. They were shocked by Muhammad Sa'id, who defended the city with several Mujahideen.
The French deployed 8,000 infantry, 200 cavalry, 4 tanks, 16 guns to capture Antep. Muhammad Sa'id sent 100 Mujahideen against the French, who were ready to give their souls along the way.
On March 25, early in the morning, the French begin their attack. Until late, Muhammad Sa'id prevents the enemy from crossing the bridge. The soldiers of Allah1a destroy the French by thousands.
On March 28, after 3 days of continuous fighting, Muhammad Sa'id's forces are running out and some suggest he retreat.
Muhammad Sa'id answers them: “If the enemy crosses the bridge, with what face will I return to Antep? The enemy can only cross the bridge over my corpse.”
The battle continued for the fourth day and only 18 people remained with Muhammad Sa1id, the rest all became martyrs.
In the afternoon, Mukhamad Sa'id was left alone against the French.
He fought until the last bullet. When the bullets ran out, he stood up and rushed with a dagger at the French. Muhammad Sa'id became a martyr, his whole body was riddled with bullets.
Then the French waited for a long time, afraid to approach his body. When enough time had passed, they approached and used bayonets to shred the body of the dead hero.
Turks still remember Shahin today. Poets write poems about him. Mothers name their children after him.
The Chechen who gave his life in jihad and for freedom will always be remembered by the Turkish people. The poet in his poems spoke about him like this:
Ask Shahin, he was alone
On the bridge they tore him to pieces with bayonets,
The bandits gathered at that place.
Wake up, Shahin, look...
Antep was filled with Frenchmen,
They are waiting for you, Shahin, come again...
Muhammad Sa'id, with his heroism, instilled in the hearts of the Turks a love of freedom, filled them with courage, and soon the liberation struggle began throughout Turkey.
His 11-year-old son also enlisted in the army and participated in all the battles in the liberation struggle of the Turkish people.
""The Chechens have always been a formidable enemy. They fought us tooth and nail."
V.A. Potto.
K.M. Tumanov in 1913 in his remarkable work “On the prehistoric language of Transcaucasia”:
“The ancestors of modern Chechens are the offspring of the Aryan Medes, the Matians, who, by the way, lived in the same satrapy with the Urartians. Having outlived the latter, they finally disappeared from the Transcaucasus by the beginning of the 8th century AD.”
"During their independence, the Chechens lived in separate communities, governed" through the people's assembly. Today they live as a people who do not know class distinctions.
It is clear that they differ significantly from the Circassians, among whom the nobility occupied such a high place. This is the significant difference between the aristocratic form of the Circassian republic and the completely democratic constitution of the Chechens and tribes of Dagestan.
This determined the special nature of their struggle... The inhabitants of the Eastern Caucasus are dominated by formal equality, and everyone has the same rights and the same social status.
The authority they entrusted to the tribal elders of the elected council was limited in time and scope... Chechens are cheerful and witty. Russian officers call them the French of the Caucasus." (author's note - True, the Chechens themselves - if they were called French - would consider it an insult)
(Chantre Ernest. Recherches ant-hropologiques dans le Caucase. Paris, - 1887. 4. 4. P. 104, no Sanders A. Kaukasien
Kunachism and hospitality among this people are observed more strictly than among other mountaineers. Kunak will not allow his friend to be insulted throughout the entire time that he is under his protection, and if he lives with him, he protects him from impending danger even at the cost of his own life.
Chechens are good shooters and have good weapons. They fight on foot. Their courage reaches the point of frenzy.
They never surrender, even if one of them remains against twenty, and the one who is captured by surprise by accident or oversight is covered in shame, as is his family.
No Chechen girl will marry a young man who did not take part in the raids or who showed himself to be a coward in any battle.
The upbringing, lifestyle and internal management of the Chechens are what they should be for desperate people.
But the Caucasian peoples, with all the diversity of their historical destinies and origins, have one more common feature, especially pronounced among the Chechens: a deep inner awareness of the immediacy of what is happening.
Living among the embodiment of eternity - the mountains, they experience time not as fleeting moments, but as the infinity of existence. Perhaps this is the secret of the incredible courage to confront tiny Chechnya.
“We had to fight the most difficult war in Chechnya, covered with centuries-old forests. The Chechens chose Germenchuk as a rallying point, the imam personally brought 6 thousand Lezgins to their aid.
The Chechens were asked to surrender.
They answered: “We don’t want mercy, we ask for one favor from the Russians - let them let our families know that we died as we lived - without submitting to someone else’s power.”
Then it was ordered to attack the village from all sides. Frantic gunfire opened up, and the outermost saklyas burst into flames. The first incendiary shells exploded, then they stopped exploding. Later, our people learned that the Chechens, lying on them, extinguished the pipes before the fire communicated with gunpowder.
Little by little the fire engulfed all the houses. The Chechens sang a death song.
Suddenly a human figure jumped out of the burning saklya and a Chechen with a dagger rushed at our people. The Mozdok Cossack Atarshchikov thrust a bayonet into his chest. This picture was repeated several times.
6 Lezgins crawled out of the burning ruins, miraculously surviving. They were immediately taken to be bandaged. Not a single Chechen surrendered alive"
(Chichakova, “Shamil in Russia and the Caucasus”).
Khankala... This name has been attached to the gorge since ancient times. In the Chechen language it means guard fortress. Quite a few pages of history are connected with it.
Here was the large village of Chechen-Aul, which gave its name to the largest of the mountain peoples of the North Caucasus.
At the mouth of the Khankala Gorge, the Vainakhs met the hordes of the Crimean Khan in the 17th century, intent on putting peaceful mountain villages to fire and sword. They met and utterly defeated 80,000 troops across the ridges of centuries.
During the battle on the Sunzha River on July 4, 1785, the Georgian prince P. Bagration, who fought as part of the Russian troops, was wounded and captured.
During the battle, he showed courage and did not give up when all the nearby soldiers threw down their weapons and raised their hands. The crossing of the Russian landing force through the Sunzha failed and ended in the defeat of the Russian troops.
The wounded Bagration had his saber knocked out of his hands, knocked down and tied up. After the battle, there was traditionally an equivalent exchange of prisoners, or a ransom if one of the sides did not have anyone to exchange.
After the exchange, the Russian command offered a large sum of money for Bagration. A boat with mountaineers sailed from the opposite Chechen shore of the Sunzha.
When the boat moored to the shore where the royal battalions were located, the Chechens carefully carried Bagration out of the boat and laid him on the ground, already bandaged by the Chechen doctors. And without uttering a word, without looking at anyone, they climbed back into the boat and began to push away from the shore.
"What about the money?" - surprised Russian officers rushed towards them, holding out the bag. None of the murids turned around. Only one Chechen looked at them with an impassive gaze, said something in Chechen and turned away.
The mountaineers silently crossed the river and disappeared into the thickets of the forest.
“What did he say,” the officers asked the Kumyk translator?
The translator replied: “We neither sell nor buy brave men.”
"The history of war and Russian rule in the Caucasus" N.F. Dubrovin. 1888
The nice sides of the Chechens are reflected in their epics and songs. Poor in the number of words, but extremely figurative, the language of this tribe seems to have been created, according to knowledgeable researchers of the Andean ridge, for a legend and a fairy tale - naive and instructive at the same time.
Humiliated braggarts, punished envious people and predators, the triumph of the generous, albeit weak, respect for a woman who is an outstanding helper to her husband and comrades - these are the roots of folk art in Chechnya.
Add to this the wit of the mountaineer, his ability to joke and understand a joke, gaiety, which even the difficult situation of this tribe could not overcome, and you, of course, with all your respect for uniform moralists, will agree with me that the Chechens are a people as a people, no worse, and perhaps even better, than any other who singles out such virtuous and merciless judges from among them.
Vasily Nemirovich-Danchenko
“As for the Chechens, in my opinion, for the most part they have an increased potential for courage, energy and love of freedom.
At the end of the first Chechen war, I wrote in the then Nezavisimaya Gazeta that the Chechens represent, in their qualities, including intellectual data, a certain fluctuation of positive properties.
I know many Chechens of different positions and ages, and I am always amazed at their intelligence, wisdom, concentration, and perseverance.
One of the components of the fluctuation mentioned above seems to me to be the fact that the Chechens, alone among the peoples of the Russian Empire, did not have an aristocracy, never knew serfdom, and have been living for about three hundred years without feudal princes.”
(Vadim Belotserkovsky, 02.22.08)
After the crushing of France in 1812-1814. Having defeated the also powerful Ottoman Empire in 1829, Russia set about the Caucasians.
Among them, the Chechens put up the most fierce resistance. They were ready to die, but not to part with freedom. This sacred feeling is the basis of the Chechen ethnic character to this day.
We now know that their ancestors were involved in the formation of human civilization in its primary center in the Middle East. Hurrians, Mittani and Urartu - that's who are listed in the sources of Chechen culture.
The ancient peoples of the Eurasian steppes apparently also included their ancestors, because traces of the relationship of these languages remained. For example, with the Etruscans, as well as with the Slavs.
The traditional worldview of the Chechens reveals primordial monotheism, the idea of one God.
The system of united self-governing teips centuries ago developed a single body, the Council of the Country. He performed the functions of a unified military command, formed public relations, and carried out state functions.
The only thing it lacked for the rank of state was a penal system, including prisons.
So, the Chechen people lived for centuries with their own state. By the time Russia appeared in the Caucasus, the Chechens completed their anti-feudal movement. But they abandoned the functions of the state as a way of human coexistence and self-defense.
It was this nation that in the past managed to carry out a unique world experiment to achieve a democratic society." (author's note The Vainakh Society did not achieve a democratic society - from time immemorial they lived in a democratic society)
Charles William Recherton
Official Russian historiography carefully conceals the real scale of losses incurred during aggressive wars of conquest.
Of course, if the Russian people knew what it cost them, they would not get involved in all sorts of adventures.
For example, look at Prince Vorontsov’s campaign against the Chechens in the 19th century. Out of 10 thousand Russians, 7 were destroyed.
On the way back to Russia, the officers carefully ensured that Vorontsov did not shoot himself. Otherwise, one of them would have to answer to the king.
Vorontsov had nothing to lose, and he wrote to the Tsar in his report about the colossal victory of the Russians, and the crushing defeat of the Chechens, for which he was awarded a promotion.
Most likely, the king and his officials were not so stupid as to believe the absurd report. But victories and the basis for further expansion into the Caucasus were needed like air.
After Vorontsov's punishment, it would be more difficult for the tsar to send new recruits to the slaughter.
They know how to value the virtues in a person dearly, but in the excitement, even the greatest person can die for nothing.
From the diary of a Russian soldier who was held captive by the Chechens for ten months during the Caucasian War of the 19th century.
When you look at the Chechen and our brother Vakhlak at the same time, ours gives the impression of a clumsy herbivore next to a stately and brave predator.
The Chechen has the colorful outfit of some panther or leopard, the grace and flexibility of her movements, her terrible strength, embodied in graceful steel forms...
This is truly a beast, perfectly equipped with all sorts of military weapons, sharp claws, powerful teeth, jumping like rubber, evasive like rubber, rushing away with the speed of lightning, overtaking and striking with the speed of lightning, instantly lighting up with such malice and anger that a herbivore can never be animated. ox"
(E.M. Markov, "Essays on the Caucasus", St. Petersburg, 1875).
The flatness, or, more correctly, the sloping northern slopes of the Caucasian ridge, covered with forests and fruitful valleys and inhabited in the eastern part by the Chechen tribe, the most warlike of the mountain tribes, has always constituted the heart, granary and most powerful hire of the coalition of mountains hostile to us.
Shamil, knowing well the value of these foothills and choosing his residence first Dargo, and then Vedeno, apparently tried to stay closer to Chechnya than to all his other possessions.
The significance of these foothills was also understood by the Commander-in-Chief, Prince Baryatinsky, who concentrated all our attacks on the Chechen lands, with the fall of which in April 1859, densely populated Dagestan could not withstand even six months, although it had rested from our offensive actions, which had been stopped on the part of Dagestan since 1849 .
(E. Selderetsky. Conversations about the Caucasus. Part 1, Berlin, 1870)
Meanwhile, Major General Grekov, taking advantage of the temporary lull, made several expeditions to Chechnya during the winter (1825) to punish the villages that had received fugitive Kabardians.
It was impossible to wish for more disastrous weather for the Chechens.
From the day he left Grozny until his return, the cold continued to be quite severe. In addition to the deep snow in Chechnya, frosts constantly remained from 8 to 12 degrees, and finally, black ice, which lasted 4 days, covered trees and all plants with ice, depriving livestock of their last means of food, while hay remained either in the villages or in the steppe.
These two extremes are strong enough to enslave any other people, but they barely swayed a few Chechens. Their tenacity is incredible. That is, they did not extradite the Kabardians.""
(Dubrovin N.F. “History of War and Dominion”, vol. VI, book 1, St. Petersburg, 1888, p. 527) 1919.
The Turkish officer, Huseyn Efendi, who by the will of fate found himself among the Chechens, did not hide his amazement and admiration.
““The Highlanders, fighting with the Russians, are constantly in battle,” he wrote. - Without receiving any money, no food, literally nothing.
I am afraid of Allah not to tell the truth that the mountaineers, especially the Shatoevites, are worth a lot.
They are not afraid of the enemy, nor the frost, nor poverty; at my first click they set out on a campaign. If we don’t thank them, Allah will thank them.
I am a Turk, but they are Chechens, and they stand for their faith. I can boldly say that I have never seen anything like it. I will never tear myself away from the mountaineers."
According to legend, Shamil was asked who fought the best among the peoples in the Imamate? He said "Chechens".
“And who was the worst of all,” and he answered “Chechens,” and when his interlocutor was amazed, the imam explained, “the best of the Chechens were the best of all the rest, and the worst of them were the worst of all the rest.”
1918 The Russians, who expelled the Chechens from Grozny, were besieged there by highlanders and fired cannons at nearby villages.
Soon the Chechens managed to disarm the Vedeno garrison of the Russians and take away 19 guns from them. Having transported these guns to the besiegers of Grozny, the Chechens used them solely to force the Russians not to destroy their villages.
S. M. Kirov writes: "" If the Chechens decide to end Grozny, they will be able to do it in a few minutes. All they have to do is fire a few shells at oil and gasoline tanks and all that will be left of Grozny is ashes."
“The social life of the Chechens is distinguished in its structure by the patriarchalism and simplicity that we find in primitive societies, which modernity has not yet touched on any of its various aspects of civil life.
The Chechens do not have those class divisions that constitute the character of European-organized societies.
Chechens in their closed circle form a class - free people, and we do not find any feudal privileges among them."
(A.P. Berger, “Chechnya and Chechens”, Tiflis, 1859).
At the time of agnatic unions, the image of a male warrior, warrior, defender of the union, rises to the level of a comprehensive folk ideal, leaving its mark on life in all its manifestations.
How this image should have been drawn before the mental gaze of the Ancient Caucasian highlander - we can judge this from the views of the Chechens - a people very weakly susceptible to the influence of time and circumstances.
A true warrior, according to these views, must first of all possess all the properties and qualities of a warrior of the heroic era of mankind;
He must be very indifferent to life,
to love not peace and tranquility, but all kinds of dangers and abusive anxieties,
must be brave
unshakably firm, patient and enduring"
(N. Semenov, “Natives of the North-Eastern Caucasus”, St. Petersburg, 1895).
Thus, in one Chechen song it is sung:
Belt on a thin waist
Replace it with a sash - the royal authority orders you.
Well-tailored cloth Circassian
Change to rags - the royal power tells you.
Your hat from astrakhan fur
Change it to a cap - the royal power tells you.
Ancestral Steel Weapons
Replace it with a twig - the royal authority tells you.
Get off your horse, who grew up with you,
Be on foot - the royal authority commands you.
To the killers of your brothers, who do not recognize God,
Become a slave and be quiet - the royal power commands you.
Go to bed next to them in a common parking lot,
Eat from one bowl - the royal power commands you...
"The Chechen woman is freer than all women and therefore more honest than all."
If there were no reasons for discord among them, the Chechens would become very dangerous neighbors, and it is not without reason to apply to them what Thucydides said about the ancient Scythians:
“There is no people in Europe or Asia that could resist them if the latter united their forces.”
(Johan Blaramberg, "Caucasian Manuscript")
Chechen crafts. According to Marggraf (O.V. Marggraf.
Essay on handicrafts of the North. Caucasus, 1882), Terek Cossacks bought from the Chechens in Mozdok, Grozny, Kizlyar (Bukhne, founded by the Sharoyts) and Khasav-Yurt (Khase Evla, founded by the Chechens) about 1,700 “Circassians” (Russian name) per year and the same number of hoods only for the amount of 10,000 rubles.
Chechen grain fed not only neighboring regions, but was exported to Turkey and Iran.
“According to official data, the population of Chechnya from 1847 to 1850 decreased by more than half, and from 1860 to the time of the revolution (i.e. 1917) - almost quadrupled,” states the Encyclopedic Dictionary “Granat”
(vol. 58, ed. 7, Moscow, OGIZ, 1940, p. 183).
A. Rogov also says that the pre-war number of Chechens was one and a half million people
(magazine "Revolution and Highlander", No. 6-7, p. 94).
By the end of the war in 1861, only 140 thousand people remained, and by 1867 - 116 thousand.
(Volkova N.G. “Ethnic composition of the population of the North Caucasus in the 19th century.” Moscow, 1973, pp. 120 - 121.)
The scale of military operations is also illustrated by the number of tsarist troops concentrated in the Caucasus: from 250,000 in the mid-40s to 300,000 by the end of the 50s
(Pokrovsky M.N. “Diplomacy and wars of Tsarist Russia in the 19th century.” M., 1923, pp. 217 - 218).
These troops in the Caucasus, as Field Marshal Baryatinsky noted in his report to Alexander II, constituted “undoubtedly the best half of the Russian forces”
(report of Field Marshal A.I. Baryatinsky for 1857 - 1859. Acts collected by the Caucasian archaeological expedition, vol. XII, Tiflis, 1904).
Dmitry Panin, a descendant of an ancient noble family, a Russian scientist and religious philosopher who spent 16 years in Stalin's camps.
In the 70s, his book “Lubyanka - Ekibastuz” was published in the West, which literary critics call “a phenomenon of Russian literature, equal to F. M. Dostoevsky’s “Notes from the House of the Dead.”
This is what he writes in this book about the Chechens:
“The most successful and witty escape was the escape (from the Special Camp in Kazakhstan - V.M.) of two prisoners during a strong snowstorm.
During the day, piles of compacted snow had piled up, the barbed wire was covered, and the prisoners walked across it like a bridge. The wind blew at their backs: they unbuttoned their peacoats and pulled them with their hands like sails.
Wet snow forms a solid road: during the snowstorm they managed to travel more than two hundred kilometers and reach the village. There they ripped off rags with numbers and mixed with the local population.
They were lucky: they were Chechens; they showed them hospitality. Chechens and Ingush are closely related Caucasian peoples of the Muslim religion.
The vast majority of their representatives are determined and courageous people.
When the Germans were driven out of the Caucasus, Stalin expelled these and other minorities to Kazakhstan and Central Asia. Children, elderly and weak people died, but great tenacity and vitality allowed the Chechens to resist during the barbaric resettlement.
The strength of the Chechens was loyalty to their religion. They tried to settle in groups, and in each village the most educated of them took on the responsibility of mullah.
They tried to resolve disputes and quarrels among themselves, without bringing them to the Soviet court; Girls were not allowed to go to school, boys went to school for a year or two to learn only to write and read, and after that no fines helped.
The simplest business protest helped the Chechens win the battle for their people. Children were brought up in religious ideas, albeit extremely simplified ones, in respect for their parents, for their people, for their customs, and in hatred for the godless Soviet cauldron, in which they did not want to boil for any reason.
At the same time, clashes invariably arose and protests were expressed. Small Soviet satraps did a dirty job, and many Chechens ended up behind barbed wire.
We also had reliable, brave, determined Chechens with us. There were no informers among them, and if any appeared, they turned out to be short-lived.
I have had the opportunity to verify more than once the loyalty of the Vainakh Muslims. When I was a brigadier, I chose the Ingush Idris as my assistant and was always calm, knowing that the rear was reliably protected and every order would be carried out by the brigade.
I was in exile in Kazakhstan at the height of the development of virgin lands, when, having received five hundred rubles in allowance, representatives of the criminal world poured there.
The party organizer of the state farm, fearing for his life, hired three Chechens as his bodyguards for a lot of money. His actions were disgusting to all the Chechens there, but once they promised, they kept their word, and, thanks to their protection, the party organizer remained safe and sound.
Later, when I was free, I many times set the Chechens as an example to my acquaintances and offered to learn from them the art of defending their children, protecting them from the corrupting influence of godless, unprincipled authorities.
What happened so simply and naturally for the illiterate Vainakhs - Muslims - was shattered by the desire of educated and semi-educated Soviet Russians to necessarily give a higher education to their, as a rule, only child.
It was impossible for ordinary people, with the inculcated atheism and the bloodless, crushed, closed Church almost everywhere, to defend their children alone.”
In the encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron published in 1903 about the Chechens it is said:
“Chechens are tall and well built. Women are beautiful. ... Indomitability, courage, agility, endurance, calmness in the fight - these are the traits of the Chechen, long recognized by everyone, even their enemies.”
(Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron. 1903)
Speaking about the Chechens, Brockhaus also says that the Chechens think about theft:
"The biggest insult a girl can give a guy is to say, 'You can't even steal a ram.'
It must be emphasized that Brockhaus did not deign to explain, or did not understand, the specific root of this theft, and thereby simply labels the Chechens, accusing them of theft.
Meanwhile, the theft that Brockhaus speaks of applies exclusively and only to the enemy at war with them.
The meaning of the insult in question is that the Chechen girl insults the Chechen guy, who cannot do evil against the enemy of the Chechen people, even by stealing a ram, while the Chechen must in any way harm his hated enemies - those who are fighting with the Chechens, even robbery.
This is what “theft” is all about. In fact, what he calls theft was the robbery of exclusively military and military fortifications.
Well, if we talk about theft among the Chechens in general as such, then from time immemorial the Chechens expelled anyone caught in theft from their midst, and the culprit could only settle where they did not know him, since the shame from this was passed on to his relatives.
In confirmation of what has been said, we cite the words of the captain of the tsarist army of the 19th century, I. I. Nordenstam, who certainly cannot be suspected of sympathizing with the Chechens:
“Theft from one’s enemy, especially from an infidel, is considered daring; theft among one’s own is almost unheard of and is considered shameful...”
(I.I. Nordenstamm. “Description of Chechnya with ethnographic and economic information.” Materials on the history of Dagestan and Chechnya. 1940, p. 322.).
The Russian intelligentsia pays great attention to the peoples of the North Caucasus in their work - M.Yu. Lermontov, A.S. Pushkin, L.N. Tolstoy and others.
The best works they wrote about the Caucasus are dedicated to the Chechens. They describe the life and customs of the Chechens with deep sympathy and respect. They described the love of freedom, courage, devotion and friendship of the Chechens.
They didn’t need to invent or embellish anything, they simply stated the facts, and they endowed the heroes of their works with such qualities.
The nobility that Chechens are distinguished by even in difficult moments of their lives is clearly expressed in Pushkin’s “Tazit”, when Tazit, raised among the Chechens, leaves, leaving his enemy, the fratricide, alive, due to the fact that he was unarmed and wounded.
“The killer was alone, wounded, unarmed”
(A.S. Pushkin. Complete collection of works. M., 1948. vol. 5. p. 69. “Tazit.”)
The custom of hospitality is especially revered by the Chechens. A guest (khasha) among the Chechens is considered not only a specially invited person, but also any acquaintance or complete stranger who has asked to come to the house for rest, for an overnight stay, with a request for protection or assistance in something.
People of any race and religion can take advantage of the hospitality of the Chechens. The further the relationship with the guest, the more responsibility lies with the host regarding the security of the guest.
And in the Russian-Chechen War of 1994-96, the fighters of the Chechen Resistance themselves contacted the parents of the Russian soldiers they captured, who came to kill the Chechens, and gave them their sons alive.
The Chechens welcomed the parents of Russian soldiers who came in search of prisoners and missing sons into their homes, provided them with lodging and food, and no one ever had the thought of taking any payment for this.
According to Chechen custom, the right to one’s home is considered sacred and inviolable. For an insult to an owner in his own home, the offender bears more responsibility than for a similar insult inflicted elsewhere.
Anyone entering someone else's house must ask the owner's permission to do so. Permission follows immediately.
Among the Chechens, it is considered a great disgrace for the home if a stranger, familiar or unfamiliar, leaves the threshold of the house without meeting with a warm welcome. Only people who have blood scores with someone are careful about inviting an unfamiliar guest into the house, because they are afraid that he may turn out to be their blood enemy.
A person who has visited the house of a Chechen, even just once, is considered by custom to be a friend and well-wisher of this house.
If, according to custom, any visitor or guest is, to some extent, accepted as a faithful friend, kunak, one of his own, and even as a relative, then custom requires from the visitor his affection and loyalty to the owner, to whom he visited at least once and “bread” salt,” which he tasted.
“...to touch a guest in the house would be the greatest crime; therefore, as a sign of his trust in the owner, the guest, getting off his horse, always gives away his weapon, which he received upon his departure.”
Writes I.I. Nordenstamm, who in 1832, during a military campaign in the eastern region of Chechnya, collected some ethnographic information about the Chechens.
“Chechens are exquisitely polite hosts and guests. ...the Chechens are distinguished by the most cordial hospitality. Everyone tries to surround the guest with that material contentment that he himself does not have either on annual holidays or at solemn moments for his family.”
(Dubrovin. “The History of War and Russian Dominion in the Caucasus.” 1871. t.
If someone offends a guest, he will thereby offend the host, and such an insult is perceived by Chechens as stronger than a personal insult.
V. Miller, A.P. Berger and other researchers note that violation of the custom of hospitality is considered a great crime among the Chechens. The whole society turned away from the offender, he was despised, cursed, and under particularly difficult circumstances, he was completely kicked out of his midst.
“The feeling of hospitality has been absorbed into the blood and flesh of every Chechen. Everything for the guest, no matter who he is. With his last savings, the Chechen buys a pound of sugar and an ounce of tea and does not use them at all, but keeps them especially for the guest.
A Chechen, when he has nothing to treat a guest, feels extremely embarrassed and almost disgraced. During the guest's stay, the host renounces personal comfort and places him in his own personal bed.
He sees off the guest, and if he is killed on the way (from him), then, together with the relatives of the murdered person, he declares revenge on the killer.”
(D. Sheripov. Essay on Chechnya. (Brief ethnographic information). Grozny. 1926, p. 28.)
There are numerous materials that can be found, in particular in the Acts collected by the Caucasian Archaeographic Commission, proving, for example, how Russian soldiers fled to Chechnya during the long period of the Caucasian War.
The fugitive soldiers, despite the fact that they came to their land with war, were received by the Chechens with respect, according to the Chechen custom of hospitality, and the fact that they were received this way clearly shows how it was very difficult for the tsarist authorities to force the Chechens to hand over the fugitives for reprisals.
They offered a lot of money for them, and otherwise they threatened to destroy an entire Chechen village, which was sometimes carried out.
Details about kunak connections during the Caucasian War can also be found in the reports of contemporaries.
So, for example, N. Semenov gives vivid examples of how Russian serfs, soldiers, and Cossacks fled to the mountains. They always “found shelter and hospitality” among the Chechens and lived “pretty well” in the villages of Chechnya.
(N. Semenov. “Natives of the North-Eastern Caucasus.” St. Petersburg, 1895, p. 120.)
“Every house has a special compartment for guests, which is called a kunatsky, it consists of one or several rooms, depending on the condition of the owner, which is kept very clean,”
The same Nordenstamm writes (Materials on the history of Dagestan and Chechnya. 1940, p. 317.).
“The glorious Beybulat, the thunderstorm of the Caucasus, came to Arzrum with two elders of the Circassian villages, who were indignant during the last wars. ...
His arrival in Arzrum made me very happy: he was already my guarantee of a safe passage through the mountains to Kabarda.”
(A.S. Pushkin. op. vol. 5. M., 1960, p. 457.).
These words of Pushkin show us that the poet was familiar with the customs of the Chechens. He knew that even if he happened to be a casual companion of the Chechen Taimi-Bibolt (Beibulat Taimiev), he was guaranteed safety on such a dangerous path from Arzrum along the Georgian military road, which shows the joy of the poet’s meeting with Beibulat.
L.N. Tolstoy, while in Chechnya, became friends with the Chechens Balta Isaev and Sado Misirbiev from Stary-Yurt, later renamed Tolstoy-Yurt. The writer spoke about his friendship with Sado:
“Many times he has proven his devotion to me by putting his life in danger because of me, but this does not mean anything to him, this is a custom and pleasure for him.”
(Collection. “The Caucasus and Tolstoy”, edited by Semenov. L.P.).
As you know, it was his acquaintance with the Chechen way of life that pushed the great writer to embrace Islam. And Lev Nikolaevich met his end of life on the way to Chechnya, where he was going and where he was going to live his last days.
Many Chechens consider them humanists, and some even consider them the first human rights activists of the Chechens. The reason for this is the description by Russian writers in their works of the national qualities of the Chechens - courage, bravery, bravery, nobility.
But the fact is that these writers did not invent anything, but simply wrote the truth.
One of the factors determining the characteristics of the national character of the Chechens is Chechen folk social and everyday lyrics. Social and everyday lyrics include traditional songs of the Chechens, which served in the popular consciousness to express the inner world of the Chechens.
The Chechen song expresses the richness of feelings of the people's soul with its sorrows and joys caused by certain historical events, the difficult life of the people, the Chechens' love for freedom and hatred of the tsarist colonialists, who brought slavery and oppression to the Chechens.
The Chechens do not and never have been divided into classes or any social groups: “The Chechens do not and never have had their own princes, beks or any other rulers; everything is equal..."
(Materials on the history of Dagestan and Chechnya. 1940, p. 323.)
Famous Caucasus expert A.P. Berger, published in 1859 in his book “Chechnya and Chechens” writes:
“There is almost no difference in the way of life between wealthy and poor Chechens: the advantage of one over the other is expressed partly in clothing, but most of all in weapons and horses... Chechens in their closed circle form one class with themselves - free people, and we do not find any feudal privileges between them."
(A.P. Berger. “Chechnya and the Chechens.” Tiflis. 1859. pp. 98-99.).
Slavery, in any manifestation, and Chechen psychology are not compatible. Unlike others, the Chechen, without hesitation, will go to certain death rather than agree to be a slave, no matter how strong and countless the enemy is.
Chechens treat slaves, as well as cowards, as despicable creatures. In the Chechen lexicon, slave barking is the greatest insult.
This is also demonstrated in the works of M.Yu. Lermontov, when in “The Fugitive”, the mother abandons her son, who “could not die with glory”:
"By your shame, fugitive of freedom,
I will not darken my old years,
You are a slave and a coward - and not my son!..."
(M.Yu. Lermontov. collected works in 4 volumes. vol. 2. M., “Fiction”. 1964, p. 49.).
In his article Friedrich Bodenstedt (Frankfurt, 1855) wrote:
“From century to century, the powerful Russian state has subjected the Chechen people, their historical and cultural heritage to physical destruction - Russia has waged war against the Chechens for many centuries, but has never been able to completely defeat them.”
Benckendorff recounts an amazing episode:
“Once, on one market day, a quarrel arose between the Chechens and the Absheronians (soldiers of the Absheronsky regiment - Ya.G.), the Kurins (soldiers of the Kurinsky regiment - Ya.G.) did not fail to take a serious part in it.
But who did they come to help? Of course, not the Absheronians!
“How can we not protect the Chechens,” said the Kura soldiers, “they are our brothers, we’ve been fighting with them for 20 years now!”
The Chechens were rightly considered the most active and powerful opponents of the tsarist government during the conquest of the North Caucasus.
The onslaught of the tsarist troops on the highlanders caused their unification to fight for their independence, and in this struggle of the highlanders, the Chechens played an outstanding role, supplying the main fighting forces and food for the gazavat (holy war) "Chechnya was the breadbasket of gazavat."
(TSB, Moscow, 1934, p. 531)
The government commission, having studied the issue of recruiting them to serve in the Russian army, in 1875. reported:
""Chechens, the most warlike and dangerous mountaineers of the North. Caucasus, they are ready-made warriors.... Chechens literally get used to communicating with weapons from childhood. Shooting at night, offhand, by sound, by light, shows the clear advantage of the highlanders in this over trained Cossacks and especially soldiers."
Abstracts of reports.... Makhachkala, 1989 page 23
""The Chechens are very poor, but they never go for alms, they don’t like to beg, and this is their moral superiority over the mountaineers. Chechens never give orders to their own people, but say
""I would need this, I would like to eat, I will do it, I will go, I will find out, if God willing.""
There are almost no swear words in the local language....""
S. Belyaev, diary of a Russian soldier who was held captive by the Chechens for ten months.
""During their independence, the Chechens, in contrast to the Circassians, did not know the feudal structure and class divisions. In their independent communities, governed by popular assemblies, everyone was absolutely equal. We are all uzdeni (i.e. free, equal), the Chechens now say.""
(Encyclopedic Dictionary of F. A. Brockhaus, I. A. Efron. vol. XXXVIII A, St. Petersburg, 1903)
Characterizing the situation in the field of education, contrary to the imperial myths about the “dark mountaineers,” the famous Caucasian expert, Tsarist General P.K. Uslar wrote:
“If education is judged by the proportionality of the number of schools with the mass of the population, then the Caucasian highlanders in this regard are ahead of many European nations.”
The Chechens are undoubtedly the bravest people in the Eastern Mountains. Campaigns into their lands always cost us enormous bloody sacrifices.
(N.F. Dubrovin, “History of war and Russian rule in the Caucasus”)
In his apology for the Russian colonization of the Caucasus, Alexander Kaspari gives the following description of the Chechens:
“The upbringing of a Chechen is based on obedience, on the ability to restrain his feelings within proper boundaries, on the other hand, he is given complete freedom to develop individual abilities as he pleases.
The consequence of this was that the Chechens are very smart, dexterous and resourceful.
Despite the respect for their titled persons and elders, Chechens never reach the point of servility and sycophancy, and if some authors accuse them of this, then this shows their little knowledge of the Chechen character.
This is not a repetition of the above statement. The above statement is from Berger, and this is from Caspary, although they are half similar.
“The Chechens, both men and women, are extremely beautiful people in appearance. They are tall, very slender, their physiognomies, especially their eyes, are expressive; in their movements, the Chechens are agile, dexterous; in character they are all very impressionable, cheerful and very witty, for which they are called the “French” of the Caucasus, but at the same time they are suspicious and vindictive. At the same time, the Chechens are indomitable, unusually resilient, brave in attack, defense and pursuit.”
(Kaspari A.A. “The Conquered Caucasus.” book-1. pp. 100-101.120. supplement to the magazine “Motherland” M. 1904).
Unfortunately, questions of the ethnogenesis of the Vainakhs have not been the subject of special research by historians. Historians, linguists, and archaeologists only incidentally touch upon in their works the questions of the origin of the Vainakhs as an ethnic group, and perhaps they were forbidden to write Pravda about the Chechens, since this would instill a love of exploited peoples for freedom and equality.
The original features inherent in the Chechens, their way of life, and culture were only to a small extent the subject of publicity.
It is impossible to ignore the piety and courage of Chechen women without mentioning this from many examples.
In 1944, on February 23, during the eviction of the Chechens, on this tragic day, when everyone, young and old, was declared enemies of the homeland, loaded onto Studebakers, and taken away from their native villages, not even allowed to take food and clothing.
People were shot not only for the slightest disobedience, but even for an angry look at the genocide being committed. On this terrible day, it would seem impossible to think about anything else.
A Chechen woman, whose stomach was ripped open by a Red Army soldier with a bayonet, trying to hold back her spilling insides with her hands, shouted to her brother-in-law, who wanted to help her: “Don’t go into the house, my private parts are visible!”
This is what it is, the moral character of Chechen women.
The famous historian and linguist Joseph Karst states that the Chechens, sharply separated from other mountain peoples of the Caucasus by their origin and language, are the remnant of a certain great ancient people, whose traces can be found in many regions of the Middle East, right up to the borders of Egypt.
I. Karst in another of his works called the Chechen language the northern offspring of the proto-language, considering the language of the Chechens, like the Chechens themselves, to be a remnant of the most ancient primitive people.
The Chechen village of Dadi-Yurt, located on the right bank of the Terek, was wiped off the face of the earth in 1818 by order of the Tsar’s governor in the Caucasus, General Ermolov.
Before the start of the battle, the parliamentarians appealed to the command of the tsarist troops to release women, children and old people from the village. But the royal officers said that the proconsul Ermolov ordered the entire village to be punished.
“Then look how Chechens can die in battle,” they received an answer from Chechen parliamentarians.
The whole village fought - the men were helped by women, children and old people. Some helped in any way they could, some loaded the guns, some bandaged the wounds, and some stood next to the men.
When the Chechens ran out of gunpowder and bullets, and the tsarist troops, having previously razed the village to the ground by bombardment, entered it, the Chechens emerged from under cover, drawing daggers, and rushed into a furious hand-to-hand attack.
Russian soldiers, veterans of the Caucasian War, testified that they had never seen such a fierce battle.
After the battle ended, more than ten Chechen women were captured. When they were transported to the left bank of the Terek, the Chechen women, telling each other “we won’t let these infidels trample the Honor of our men,” and taking one Cossack guard each, rushed into the stormy river.
I heard from the old people that they witnessed how the Cossacks, passing the wasteland where the village of Dadi-Yurt was once located, got off their horses and took off their hats.
“But there was one nation that did not succumb to the psychology of submission at all - not loners, not rebels, but the whole nation as a whole. These are the Chechens.
A. Solzhenitsyn.
(http://cis-development.ru/knigi/chast1.html)
