THE ONSET OF ARMED CONFLICT IN CHECHNYA IN 1994

Abstract

For more than two years (1994-1996), the Chechen crisis remained the central theme and affected the domestic and foreign policy of the Russian Federation. The leadership of Chechnya and Russia could not resolve the situation through negotiations. An attempt to solve the Chechen problem quickly resulted in a large-scale military campaign inflicting a huge number of human casualties, as well as a humanitarian catastrophe. In this article, the author covers the internal struggle in the Chechen Republic (up to December 1994) by analysing various Russian mass media sources. The author aims to cover the events that occurred in Chechnya, as well as the influence of the federal centre on the opposition forces within the republic. The author gives a general description of the military operation against the regime of Dzhokhar Dudayev conducted by the opposition forces with the support of the federal centre. The article is intended as a contribution to the course on Russian modern history.